CUC, CHCC MOU underway to settle over $68.75M balance

The Commonwealth Utilities Corp. says it is in the process of establishing a new memorandum of agreement between CUC and the Commonwealth Healthcare Corp. to tackle the institutions over $68-million arrears.

Last Monday, CUC held a regular board meeting to discuss updates on a number of things, to include updates on CHCC’s outstanding balance of over $68 million.

Specifically, CHCC’s arrears now total $68.75 million, including penalties, as of November 2024.

According to CUC executive director Kevin Watson, he and his team have been meeting with CHCC to discuss how they can catch up with their arrears.

“CUC chief financial officer Betty Terlaje is now preparing various options to submit to them for the [new] MOA. It is my goal to get them to enter into an agreement, not just for one year, but for a duration to bring the arrears to zero balance,” he said.

According to CUC CFO Betty Terlaje, she and Watson has even brought up the possibility of waiving the penalties CHCC owes if CHCC agrees with certain terms and conditions.

“We are giving them options and offered if they were to pay a certain amount [initially] we would waive the penalties. Of course, if they default [on the MOU] then the penalties will be reinstated. These are options to give CHCC incentives to pay the arrears sooner rather than later,” she said.

Of course, Terlaje said this is all subject to an agreement between both parties.

“A new MOU is something we all have to agree to. We will present options to them before we sit down to discuss an MOU. We will send them those options this week and whatever position they take, and we agree to, we will put them in an MOU so we can start collecting payments,” she said.

Terlaje notes that the pending MOU won’t encompass CHCC’s current bills moving forward as Public Law 23-30 has tremendously decreased the amount CHCC would have to pay in utilities each month.

“Since the public law was passed, [CHCC] will start to pay based commercial rates. Currently, based on commercial rate, they are using about $290,000. Their previous average usage was around $600,000 so that’s about half. They should be able to pay at least their current bill moving forward until we come to an agreement with the arrears,” she said.

“We want to establish an MOU that allows them to pay their previous balance as well as their current balance. At least that way we help CHCC and CUC. We want to meet with them soon. We plan to get a letter out to them this week,” she said.

In 2023, CUC signed an MOU with CHCC in which CHCC agreed to pay $525,000 a month to address over $53 million in utility arrears.

In a previous interview with Terlaje, she shared that CHCC’s MOU with CUC expired last May.

Terlaje, during the interview, said in order to address arrears reflective of utility usage increase, a new memorandum of understanding with CHCC needs to be executed.