No Splitting Hairs Over Splitting Electricity

Last month, San Diego Gas & Electric Co. shut off the power in the Rancho Penasquitos apartment Adele Mahaley shares with her daughter. Indignantly, Mahaley points out that her account was paid up. It was her sister’s bill, from another apartment, that SDG&E; was after.

“It may be legal blackmail,� Mahaley complains, “but it’s blackmail.�

Mahaley and her sister, Jean Lett, had shared a place in El Cajon. In August, after Lett lost her job, they agreed to split up. The SDG&E; bill, in Lett’s name, had risen to over $250. Lett left Mahaley’s new home as a forwarding address.

After a month or two, Mahaley began receiving warnings from SDG&E;: If she didn’t pay the El Cajon tab, her power would be cut off. Then SDG&E; tacked a warning to her door. Shortly before Thanksgiving, the company pulled the switch.

To get the power back, Mahaley had to sign an agreement promising to pay off the bill at $35 a month. If one payment is late, she’ll be shut off again. She accuses the utility of an injustice: It contracted with her sister, she says, so it should go after her sister.

SDG&E; counters that the practice is perfectly kosher.

“Electricity is so intangible,� said Maureen Boll in customer service. No matter who’s named on the household bill, all residents benefit. SDG&E; can’t be expected to figure out who owes what portion of a bill, when six people are using the fridge.

So when a customer skips on a bill, SDG&E; turns to the other tenants, sometimes even asking landlords for names. “We would have to feel that it was a fair evaluation,� Boll said. “If you spent the weekend, then you’re certainly not responsible.�

In Mahaley’s case, the utility receives no flak from the Utility Consumers’ Action Network. Mahaley should take up the problem with her sister, UCAN director Michael Shames said. SDG&E; is just shifting the burden of collecting onto a roommate.

Shames said he differs with SDG&E; on more borderline cases. For example, he said he receives calls from people being dunned for bills accumulated by estranged spouses. The central issue, he said, must always be who benefited from the heat and light.

How Fair Are Cab Fares?

San Diego’s much-maligned cab corps surfaced recently in a New York City survey comparing taxi fares in 10 large U.S. cities. Topping the list in the category of “estimated cost of traveling two miles� were the 900 cabs that ply San Diego’s mean streets.

The reason, said Alfred Legasse of the International Taxicab Assn., is the city’s attempt to fuel competition by doubling the cab force a few years back. The idea backfired, he said, and now there are too many cabs. To make a living, many drivers charge the maximum.

But Gerard Mildner of the Manhattan Institute for Public Research, who did the study, attributed the higher fares to higher overhead. In sprawling Sun Belt cities, cabbies might cruise long distances for a single fare. In thickly populated Eastern cities, there’s a fare on every block.

According to the study, San Diego’s starting fare averages $1.17--less than those in many cities, including Los Angeles and Houston. But the average two-mile trip in San Diego costs $4.37, the study found, compared to $2.80 in New York and $4.30 in Los Angeles.

Legasse said the figure may be misleading because fares are designed around the typical trip. In a city of big spaces, like San Diego, the relative price may drop as the drive extends toward the length of a typical ride.

Bill Hilton, vice president of Yellow Cab in San Diego, contends San Diego’s rates are the lowest of any large city in California. For example, he said a four-mile trip would cost $6.60 in San Diego, compared to $7.18 in San Francisco and $7.98 in Los Angeles.

Sure, California rates are higher than Eastern rates, Hilton said. He blamed the difference on insurance premiums, worker’s compensation rates and court settlements--all of which, he suggested, trickle down into your fare.

Garbage for the Gulls

After lunch on a good day, Bill Christopher figures he sees three dozen sea gulls circling and diving for trash in the quad at Mount Carmel High School.

“I don’t know if we get a lot of them heading down to Acapulco for the winter,� said Christopher, student activities director for the Rancho Penasquitos school. “But I’m sure that I’ve been out there when there were 30 to 50 large sea gulls flying around.�

So the student government developed a program called Save Our School/Starve Our Sea Gulls. The aim is to condition the 3,000 students, through positive reinforcement, not to litter. Rewards for the industrious include homecoming tickets, dinners and a corsage.

Unfortunately, the enlightened system has not really worked, so some students recommend a return to an old system of penalties. It’s like the Hitchcock flick, “The Birds,� Christopher told the Rancho Bernardo Journal: “You go out there and you take your life in your hands.�