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Contractor Minaal presents citywide sewer and trash billing plan; council asks about service records
Summary
Minaal delivered an informational presentation on outsourcing Hopewell's sewer and trash billing, describing its implementation process, call-center model and reporting. Council members pressed the company on customer-service records, collection rates and technical details; no contract decision was made.
Minaal representatives on Tuesday gave the Hopewell City Council an informational briefing on how the company would handle the city’s sewer and trash billing, customer service and payment processing if the city moves forward with a contract.
The presentation laid out Minaal’s implementation steps, sources of meter reads, call-center operations and reporting cadence, and stressed a long-term partnership with city staff. Council members asked specific questions about the vendor’s customer-service record, collection performance and payment options.
Kevin (Minaal representative) opened the presentation by describing the company’s scope and experience and said Minaal would “handle the whole thing” — billing, call center, print-and-mail, collections and reporting — and that “everything we collect goes back to you guys.” Jason Brown, who the presenters identified as head of implementation, described the vendor’s onboarding steps including account audits, parallel bill runs to reconcile with the city’s prior biller and working with Virginia American Water for meter reads.
Council members questioned Minaal’s track record. A council member asked about Better Business Bureau and employee-review ratings; Kevin said he did not have those ratings on hand but offered to provide them and emphasized that Minaal will “track metrics” and share call volumes, handle times and other performance data with the city. When asked how many municipalities Minaal serves, the presenters said Minaal works with six municipalities, and that its longest municipal engagement dates to 2016 in Torrance, California.
On technical operations, Brown said Minaal performs pre-launch audits, parallel billing to confirm accuracy against the city’s existing bills, and imports meter reads provided by Virginia American Water. The presenters described multiple payment options including in-person payments posted instantly by city staff, ACH, credit card, electronic check and an interactive-voice-response system for balance checks and automated payments. Minaal representatives also noted bilingual call-center staff and a client-relations manager assigned to the city.
The presentation was informational only; council did not vote on a contract during the session. Councilors and Minaal representatives agreed to follow up with written references, call-center metrics and other due‑diligence materials before any contract decision.
For more information, the city’s finance staff and Minaal agreed to exchange reference data and performance metrics and to schedule follow-up technical meetings with city staff.
