The Buckeye community isn’t backing down on their water woes after months of complaints overabnormally high water bills. Now, a group has an effort underway to recall Mayor Jackie Meck, who they say has known about issues over high water bills for far too long.
Saturday, dozens of frustrated community members met at the Buckeye Aquatic Center with more complaints and unanswered questions over their water bills.
"This is not a new problem. It's been going on for 12 years, but they were letting us believe that this is a brand new problem,” said Jeff Hancock, who is leading the recall effort.
Last week, Hancock and a group confronted the city council about an article published by the West Valley View nearly 12 years ago where then-council member Meck was pictured holding up a water bill and quoted regarding a high water bill and needing answers.
Hancock says the problem starts at the top with the mayor.
His group is now collecting signatures to get the recall process started.
"I want something done,” said Buckeye resident Robert Aceves. “ I'm just tired of getting the runaround. Every time we call them with a (water bill) complaint, we just get a, 'We’ll get back to you,’ and nothing ever gets done."
He’s refusing to pay his water bill because he says his family isn't even living in the home to use the water.
"I shut the house down to do repairs. No one's actually living there right now, and the bill is still climbing,” Aceves said.
It's mysteries like these and abnormally high bills that residents want answers to. In the meantime, they're fed up and want a change in leadership.
"We want to clean up the Buckeye issues here so people want to come out here and buy out here,” Hancock said.
Just this past week, Buckeye Water Resource Director Dave Nigh submitted his resignation.
The City of Buckeye has told ABC15 that they've been working one-on-one with customers to resolve issues.
So far, the group has collected about 1,500 signatures of the approximately 1,800 signatures needed to warrant a recall election. They hope to submit the needed signatures within a month.
