MANSFIELD — The one constant over the last few years about water bills in Mansfield?
Complaints.
The most recent water rate increase, coupled with a new “readiness to serve” charge that went into effect Feb. 7, has again raised consumers’ ire to a boiling point.
The most recent resident complaints have reached the ears — and email inboxes — of Mansfield City Council members.
Those members had questions on Wednesday evening for Public Works Director David Remy and Stephanie Samuel, the city’s utility collections operations manager.
A significant segment of the concerns deal with water bills being sent to residents that do not break down all of the costs — which include totals for water consumption, sewer consumption, meter service charge, readiness to serve charge and sewer administrative charges.
In a sample bill provided to council, a resident was billed $48.54 in a month for water and sewer. It was broken down this way:
— $4.37 meter service charge.
— $10.93 readiness to serve charge.
— $8.85 water consumption charge.
— $4.86 for sewer administration charge.
— $19.53 for sewer consumption.
Remy said the city has tried since February to get these cost breakdowns printed on water bills.
He said Tyler Technologies, a Texas-based company that handles the billing, has told the city it would require a “separate surcharge or upcharge” to do that.
Remy said the city has also consulted with the company that actually prints the bills and have been told it can likely “capture this information” and accomplish that task cheaper than Tyler.
He said the city will continue to pursue that effort.
“We have had infinite problems with Tyler Tech ever since we started the utility collection reboot,” Remy said. He said city IT director James Weiner “can attest … to the headaches that (Tyler) has brought forth.”
“We do know and are fully aware of the issue, the bills going up and there’s really no breakdown or explanation of that breakdown,” Remy said.
He added city utility collection workers have access to the cost breakdowns and can answer residents’ questions when they call. Residents can also ask the cost breakdowns be emailed to them.
Another issue discussed was the water meter conversion program and its impact on the bills.
Mansfield is four years into a citywide water meter conversion effort, which is still not complete. When it is finally done, the city plans to convert water measurements into gallons, rather than cubic feet as it is now.
Of more than 19,000 water meters in the city, 658 have still not been changed out.
2nd Ward Councilwoman Cheryl Meier asked when the conversion will be done.
Samuel said the effort is ongoing, including locating properties that are not habitable and crossing them off the list for new meters.
“I cannot give an ETA simply because we make appointments and we get out there and (residents) are not there. So we end up shutting off the water because it’s non-compliance. But then they call and complain (to council members) and then we’re forced to go turn him back on,” Samuel said.
At-large Councilwoman Stephanie Zader wondered who on council is instructing city workers to turn the water back on.
“We need to finish this project so that we can move forward. This is doing a disservice to every citizen that does pay their bill, that has followed the rules,” Zader said.
A few minutes later, as conversations continued, 5th Ward Councilman Aurelio Diaz said he was the council member who had requested water be turned back on for a constituent.
1st Ward Councilwoman Laura Burns, chair of the public utilities committee, asked Samuel to explain how bills can change so much from month to month.
Samuel said, “If you do not use a full unit … 748 gallons is one CCF. If you use 350 (gallons), you will be billed for zero usages (that) month.
“But that 350 will go onto your next month’s bill. So if you use 350 next month, then you will be billed for a whole unit because the 350 the prior month, you did not get charged for,” she said.
Burns said, “So then that could lend to people thinking that their water bill has doubled and that it only periodically doubles and it’s not consistent. Does that make sense?
“So if one month they’re not being billed for any usage, but within the next month … we’ve got a whole number. So now they’re being billed, they’re looking at it and thinking, ‘Oh, I got double billed this month,’ but it’s still billing for the carryover from the previous month,” Burns said.
Bob Bianchi, the city engineer, suggested a different approach to getting unconverted residents to have their meters switched out to the new ones.
“Perhaps let’s put a $75 fee on the bill for every meter that’s hasn’t been replaced, per month. Maybe that would encourage the residents to move forward with replacing it.
“That would have to be done through legislation. And I’m only saying that because that was part of the rate legislation and it’s something that would go into that portion,” he said.
