P E T I T I O N

On 8/27/2020, the City of Richardson flooded our home at 305 High Brook Richardson, Texas 75080 with raw sewage and refuses to take responsibility for the actions of their service crews.  

Between the dates of on or about 8/24/2020 and 9/4/2020, the City of Richardson sent its crews operating high-pressure trucks to clean the sewer lines in the Canyon Creek neighborhood (which numerous neighbors witnessed) but the city now denies this fact.  The house needed to be totally gutted as a result of raw sewage flying out of every drain pipe, toilet, bath, and shower causing most of the items in our home to be a complete loss. There was nothing we could do to stop it.  The raw sewage finally reached a depth of about 9 inches.  We have been forced to pay large sums of money to remove the sewage from our home, make repairs, and find lodging (since we have been out of the house now for 26 months). We have lost all of our savings and fear not being able to rebuild if the city does not accept responsibility for its actions and compensate us for our identifiable losses approaching $200,000.00 at this time.  

We notified the city within days, but it failed to file a claim on its insurance policy for 14 months (even though I have an email dated 9/9/21 from Brad Due, Richardson Utility Systems Superintendent, to Todd Gastorf, Richardson Purchasing and Franchise Manager acknowledging that the city was called out to investigate on 9/2/2020 regarding the flooding).  Nothing was done.  Thereafter, the claim was denied by the city’s insurance company (Travelers) because they claim the city failed to file the claim within the required 6 months of the occurrence, due to no fault of our own.  We were in continuous communication with the city up until the time of their insurance company’s denial of the claim, and then the city stopped all communication.  Richardson has turned a blind eye to our predicament and continues to delay any acceptance of its actions, the damage to our home, and to our lives.  

The city claims to have conducted an investigation of the lines,and it found that the water flow through the lines was fine.  This was never about the sewage lines flowing freely (which may be correct if all of the sewage was blown into our home).  Instead,it is about the high-pressure trucks being operated in such a manner as to cause extensive damage to our home from the high-pressure techniques used to clean the sewage lines and the city’s negligence in failing to properly notify its insurance company about our claim within the required time limits.  The City of Richardson has harmed us by failing to acknowledge its complicity in this matter and failing to follow its own policies and procedures for filing insurance claims of damage from tax-paying citizens which was caused by city personnel.  

My wife, Haideh, and I, along with our young son Brooks, are asking our fellow citizens to sign this petition demanding that the City of Richardson reopen its alleged investigation into this incident by conducting a thorough review of all high-pressure trucks and city personnel in the area on the above-mentioned dates, provide reasons for its failure to file a claim with its insurance company, and to publish their findings in an open and transparent manner.