ONTARIO – Monthly water bills are coming to Ontario later this year.
Mayor Randy Hutchinson and city council members first discussed switching from quarterly to monthly billing cycle at a utilities committee meeting Wednesday, Jan. 3., after hearing requests from residents to move to a more frequent billing cycle.
At the Wednesday, Jan. 17 council meeting, service safety director Jeff Wilson recommended moving ahead by outsourcing the billing portion of water and sewer clerk Connie Gleisinger to a New Washington company.
No council members spoke against the suggestion and many voiced their support for it. Law director Andrew Medwid was asked to look into whether or not legislation was needed to make the change.
Wilson expects the change to take place with April’s billing, which is sent out in May.
“The average water sewer bill being $220 per quarter, breaking that down to $75 per month, that’s going to be a lot easier for homeowners to manage the cost,” Wilson said.
He called the effect of quarterly billing “sticker shock.”
With monthly bills, residents would ultimately pay the same amount on an annual basis with the addition of a $1.25 monthly administration fee, which would cover the extra expense associated with monthly billing. The quarterly $10 capital improvements fee would be split into 12 instead of four bills, at $3.34 per month.
According to Wilson, the city pays $11,200 annually for a quarterly billing cycle. Using this cost analysis, Ontario would pay $33,600 by switching to a monthly cycle. The total cost per invoice is currently about $1, making the cost per billing cycle $2,800. This includes 47 cents for postage, 12 cents for labor, 10 cents for toner, 8 cents for the envelopes, 3 cents for invoice paper and an estimated 20 cents for other expenses like the postage permit.
But based on an estimate presented at the Jan. 3 meeting, that cost could come down to $22,869.60 for the year. This costs 68 cents per invoice, making the monthly cost $1,905.80. This is the estimate Wilson recommended to council.
He also presented another estimate that would have made the annual cost $31,319.40 on Jan. 3, and he had got a third estimate before the most recent meeting. These were both described as “noncompetitive.”
Wilson said outsourcing the billing through the New Washington business would be a three-year agreement where the only increases are related to stationary and postage on an annual basis.
“They buy everything in the beginning of the year in massive bulk, so the price is good for the entire year,” Wilson said.
Some council members initially expressed concern about a decrease in Gleisinger’s workload during the Jan. 3 meeting, while others argued that the change to a monthly cycle would instead increase the clerk’s responsibilities, such as accepting payments three times as often. Hutchinson said, it’d be impossible to make this change without outsourcing the billing portion. Read about the Jan. 3 meeting here.
“Ideally, we’d like to see the shut offs go down, but there’s a potential since we’re billing three times as often, that they could go up,” councilman Dan Zeiter said at the most recent meeting.
He asked if there were people available to help for this. Wilson said there are service people who serve as floaters and are familiar with shut offs.
At large councilman Ken Earhart mentioned that people will likely have questions as the change takes place.
Hutchinson said in order for Gleisinger to be more accessible, she is soon to be moved closer to the window where people can pay their water bills in person. Previously, she was not immediately present and would be summoned to the window as needed.
