FRANKFORT, Ky. — Southern Water and Sewer District’s board members and manager have responded to the Kentucky Public Service Commission’s investigation into the utility charging an unauthorized disconnect fee.

Last month, the PSC announced it would investigate Southern’s use of the fee, after it was discovered during the utility’s most recent rate case.

In separate letters to the PSC, board members Bob Shepherd, Donnie Daniels, Rick Roberts, Steve Dawson and Leslie Byron Scott all say they were unaware of the fee and never approved it.

“After being served with this action and making a cursory investigation, it appears as though this entire case is based upon a misunderstanding of the semantics regarding the fee associated with disconnecting water services,” board member Leslie Byron Scott said in a letter to the PSC. “As you are aware, UMG is responsible for the daily operations of Southern and may have more detailed information regarding the case. I do not have any direct personal knowledge regarding the institution and/or collection of a ‘disconnect’ charge, as I was not informed of this fee until this case was filed.”

Southern Manager Randy Conley took responsibility for implementing the disconnect charge, but said he thought it was covered under other tariffs that had been approved by the PSC.

“I … was operating under the impression that a ‘disconnect’ and ‘reconnect’ to a delinquent customer was considered the same as a ‘service call’ and was charging as such, which is allowable per the tariff in effect,” Conley said in his response. “The action of sending personnel to perform this process incurs time, vehicle usage and materials which should be accounted for. If not, it would place an undue burden on rate-paying customers, as our personnel are scheduled to perform system operations and ‘disconnects’ and ‘reconnects’ to delinquent customers hamper daily operations.”

No timeline has been established for what the PSC will do now that the responses have been filed. If the PSC determines Southern willfully violated the law, Conley and the board members could be removed from their posts and fined up to $2,500 each.

Copies of all of the responses follow: