SAN ANTONIO — Recently obtained documents revealed new details about the San Antonio Water System’s controversial decision to shut off water to apartment complexes across the city in June.

This move sparked swift reactions from council members, who are now questioning the public utility’s handling of overdue bills.

Hundreds of people, including Rosemary Garcia, a tenant at Roselawn Apartments, had already been without water for hours when SAWS CEO Robert Puente informed the board on June 18 of the utility’s decision to shut off water service to at least four apartment complexes.

Tenants of these four properties pay rent and utilities to their landlord, but SAWS did not appear to receive any of these payments.

“The vast majority of our customers pay on time and take care of their debt,” said SAWS spokeswoman Anne Hayden. “In this situation, these commercial customers accumulated hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt – and unfortunately, that’s not fair to the rest of our customers.”

One of the landlords who fell behind on payments owed more than $240,000 on 350 units.

According to records, tenants were notified less than 24 hours before their water would be turned off, giving them hours to fill their tubs and stock up on drinking water.

“We’ve talked a lot about fairness,” I-Team reporter Mariah Medina told Hayden. “Do you think it’s fair to blame innocent tenants for their landlords’ failure to pay?”

Hayden replied, “I think any business that does business, whether it’s an apartment complex or a hair salon, has to pay its bills to do business.”

On the morning of the scheduled power shutoffs, city staff attempted to prevent the power shutoffs by writing to SAWS authorities, pointing out the predicted 8 inches of rain that affected tenants might have to contend with while looking for alternative housing.

However, SAWS remained unfazed when a SAWS management analyst told a San Antonio city building code enforcement manager, “After consulting with my leadership team, SAWS is confident in maintaining its current position.”

City Manager Erik Walsh forwarded the correspondence to Puente, adding that he had several requests to discuss with the utility’s CEO later that day.

In response to the email to the board, a member asked Puente if SAWS provided cases of water to the affected tenants. Puente replied, “COSA did that.”

We asked to speak to Puente for this article, but Hayden answered our questions instead.

“The responsibility for media communication and public relations lies with me,” explained Hayden.

However, Puente’s position is made quite clear in emails to Second District Councilman Jalen McKee Rodriguez.

In an email, Puente said that while the tenants were innocent, SAWS’ procedures worked. Puente noted that after shutting off water to residents in hundreds of apartments across the city, the unit landlords made the payments or made payment arrangements.

The city council was not impressed by this logic and responded in a message that said, in part, “It sounds like you believe the means (of terrifying my constituents) were justified because you achieved the goals you sought.”

More power shutoffs could happen. Hayden was unable to commit to stopping power shutoffs during the heat wave with triple-digit temperatures. In contrast, CPS Energy has a policy against power shutoffs for nonpayment during extreme weather warnings from the National Weather Service.

McKee Rodriguez and Councilwoman Marina Alderete-Gavito are supporting an initiative that could change the way SAWS handles lockouts in multifamily buildings when the landlord doesn’t pay the bill, but it will take months to reach a final resolution, if ever.