Today, Dironna Moore Belton, Acting City Manager announced the end to a two week “Boots on the Ground” campaign to manually check almost 12,500 residential and commercial water meters throughout the City, one step of many in the overhaul of the City’s Utility Billing. The entire process will last approximately 60 days
“We are eliminating the possibility of technological errors and determining true baseline data for estimated bills. This accomplishment is just one foot in the right direction to get our Utilities Department back on track,” said Belton
Belton has laid out a three step process to address the overall utility billing issue. The first step entails the production of fair and justifiable estimated bills. Staff will analyze past data and ensure usage reported is not extreme. Customers are expected to receive estimated bills for the next two to three monthly billing cycles, if necessary; and this process will occur over the next 30-45 days.
The second step entails manually ensuring water bills are based on a customer’s actual meter reading. This involves determining baseline data, while also performing quality control for previous meter installation. The “Boots on the Ground” campaign will begin again in approximately 30 more days.
The third and final step is automation, which entails utilizing the meter system, as it was intended to be, based on the ability of the system data to be read through radio communication and to be accurate. This process will occur over the next 45-90 days.
“Together these steps will begin to address many of the issues our customers/citizens have had over the past year,” said Belton