The Johnson Utilities settlement was a $10.35 million class action resolution, approved by the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona on November 19, 2021, that compensated water and wastewater customers of the Pinal County utility for rate increases that plaintiffs said were obtained through bribery of a state regulator. Anyone who paid Johnson Utilities for water or wastewater service between October 1, 2011, and December 14, 2021, was part of the class, whether they still lived in the San Tan Valley area or had since moved away.1SanTanValley.com. Answers to Your Questions: Johnson Utilities Settlement and Next Steps2SanTanValley.com. Johnson Utilities Class Action
What the Lawsuit Claimed
The case, Castillo, et al. v. Johnson, et al. (No. 2:17-cv-04688-DLR), was filed in December 2017 by three customers: Tisha Castillo, Karen Christian, and Steve Pratt. They alleged that George Johnson and Johnson Utilities bribed the chairman of the Arizona Corporation Commission to push through water and wastewater rate increases the commission had previously rejected. A second amended complaint filed in May 2020 added claims that funds were fraudulently transferred from Johnson Utilities to family members and other parties.3SanTanValley.com. Utility Customers May See Reduced Bills
The civil complaint drew on facts from a May 2017 federal indictment charging George Johnson, former ACC Commissioner Gary Pierce, Pierce’s wife Sherry, and lobbyist Jim Norton with bribery, fraud, and conspiracy. Prosecutors said Johnson funneled about $31,000 in bribes to Pierce through Norton in exchange for votes on rate increases and a measure letting Johnson use ratepayer funds for personal income tax payments.4AZCentral. George Johnson, Arizona Utility Owner, Indicted on Bribery and Fraud
The criminal case never produced a conviction. A federal jury deadlocked in July 2018 and the judge declared a mistrial.5Arizona Capitol Times. Bribery Trial Ends in Mistrial, Deadlocked Jury6KNAU. Feds Drop Bribery Case Against Ex-AZ Corporation Commissioner7Spectrum News 13. US Drops Bribery Case Against Ex-Arizona Utility Regulator The civil class action, which uses a lower standard of proof, moved forward and produced the 2021 settlement.
Who Was in the Class and How Much They Received
The class covered every Johnson Utilities customer, residential or commercial, who paid for water or wastewater service between October 1, 2011, and December 14, 2021.2SanTanValley.com. Johnson Utilities Class Action Johnson Utilities served roughly 29,000 water customers and 40,000 wastewater customers in Florence, Queen Creek, and the unincorporated San Tan Valley.8EPCOR. EPCOR USA Completes Johnson Utilities Acquisition
From the $10.35 million fund, the court authorized deductions for administrative expenses, attorneys’ fees of up to one-third, out-of-pocket litigation costs, and $5,000 incentive awards to each of the three named plaintiffs. What remained went to class members.2SanTanValley.com. Johnson Utilities Class Action
Individual payouts worked out to about $1.28 for each month a customer received service during the class period. A customer served for the full ten years received roughly $169.9Top Class Actions. Johnson Utilities Rate Increases Class Action Settlement Actual amounts varied by whether the account was residential or commercial, which services the customer used, the number of units, and total months of service.10SanTanValley.com. Johnson Utilities Settlement Distribution Underway By staying in the class, members released their right to sue the defendants over the same legal claims.2SanTanValley.com. Johnson Utilities Class Action
How Payments Were Distributed
Distribution began in April 2023, roughly a year and a half after final approval. The method depended on whether the customer was still on the system.
Current EPCOR customers, meaning people still receiving service at the same address, got their share as an automatic credit on the April 2023 bill. Nothing needed to be filed.10SanTanValley.com. Johnson Utilities Settlement Distribution Underway
Former customers who had moved away from the service area had to file a claim with KCC, the court-appointed claims processor, to receive a check. Some former customers who had not filed claims were later restored to the claims list, and where addresses could not be located, a published notice directed people to contact KCC directly.10SanTanValley.com. Johnson Utilities Settlement Distribution Underway
Other Johnson Utilities Settlements Not to Confuse With This One
The $10.35 million class action is the settlement that put money directly in customers’ hands, but two other resolutions from the same collapse sometimes get mixed up with it. Neither produced payments to individual customers.
The first is the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality case. In May 2019, ADEQ sued Johnson Utilities in state court on 57 counts seeking more than $100 million in damages tied to nitrate contamination, E. coli incidents, sewage overflows, and other violations.11ABC15. Johnson Utilities Being Sued for More Than $100 Million by ADEQ12SanTanValley.com. ACC, ADEQ Announce Settlement Agreements to Address Johnson Utilities Violations13Regional Associations. Arizona Reaches Conditional Settlements of Johnson Utilities Cases
The second is the EPCOR acquisition itself. The ACC approved EPCOR’s roughly $63 million purchase of Johnson Utilities on December 22, 2020, and the deal closed January 29, 2021.14AZCentral. Arizona Corporation Commission OKs Sale of Johnson Utilities to EPCOR8EPCOR. EPCOR USA Completes Johnson Utilities Acquisition As part of that approval, the ACC authorized EPCOR to recover up to $45 million through a “deferred debit” surcharge on customer bills, collected over 15 years. That surcharge began appearing in August 2025 at $3.02 per month on water bills and $3.32 per month on wastewater bills, after the ACC approved EPCOR’s first San Tan district rate case on July 9, 2025. That rate case also raised the average water bill for a household using about 6,000 gallons per month from $26.93 to $31.22 and the average wastewater bill from $46.30 to $62.96.15EPCOR. San Tan Customer Updates, August 2025 ACC Vice Chair Nick Myers said the increases were “largely due to the mismanagement under Johnson Utilities.”16Arizona Corporation Commission. Vice Chair Myers: End of an Era With EPCOR San Tan Rate Case
So the class action settlement returned money to customers for past rate increases. The ADEQ settlement funded environmental cleanup and infrastructure without customer payments. The EPCOR acquisition, though tied to the same collapse, has actually raised bills going forward rather than lowered them.