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Leon Valley council hears AMI water‑meter financing proposal; no vote taken
Summary
Vendors outlined an energy‑savings, budget‑neutral plan to replace and retrofit water meters with AMI technology. Council members asked for more cost detail and deferred committing funds while capital‑budget discussions continue.
Performance Services representatives on March 1 told the Leon Valley City Council they could finance an advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) project for the city with no upfront cost and payback by recovered revenue from improved meter accuracy and reduced truck rolls.
The company said an AMI program could recover conservatively about 4–4.5% of currently unbilled water and that, combined with operational savings, could fund a meter‑replacement project. Chip Woods of Performance Services said an investment‑grade audit and meter testing would be required before the city signed any contract and estimated a conservative project payback just under 11 years based on current assumptions.
Council members pressed presenters and city water staff for specifics. Councilor Campos and others asked whether the $1.2 million figure cited in presentation slides was the total project cost; presenters replied that number reflected a theoretical funding envelope based on projected recoverable revenue, not a vendor quote for a full system. Presenters said an AMI rollout that replaced all meters and included lead/copper survey completion and distribution leak detection work could reach roughly $2.3–2.4 million depending on meter brand, communications choices and plumbing work.
City staff confirmed the utility has budgeted roughly $70,000 annually for meters and that many recently purchased meters are encoded registers that could be retrofit with radio modules. Melinda Mortz, interim utilities staff, said some recently purchased meters are solid‑state and adaptable to AMI, but other older mechanical meters would likely be replaced rather than retrofitted.
No formal motion or vote was taken. Several council members, including Councilors Bradshaw and Roscoe, said they wanted the council to model the impact on customer bills, confirm which meters could be upgraded instead of replaced, and see firm pricing before authorizing an investment‑grade audit. The city manager and utility staff said they would include a $36,000 breakaway fee for an investment‑grade audit in the draft FY2026 capital budget only if council directs them to do so.
The presentations and the company’s proposal will be revisited as part of upcoming capital‑budget deliberations.
