Resident urges refund and policy change after sewer charges based on assumed volume

Michael Grubentrejo, a Plano resident, used the council’s public comment period to raise an issue with the city’s practice of assigning an assumed sewer volume to new accounts. Grubentrejo said his household was charged $538.32 more than it should have been in the first year after moving in because the account was billed at the city average rather than the household’s actual lower usage. “In my first year as a resident, my household was overcharged by $538.32 based on assumed usage rather than our actual much lower sewer usage,” Grubentrejo told the council.

Grubentrejo asked the council for two remedies: a refund for the overcharges and a policy change to reconcile accounts once the account’s first winter quarter average (WQA) is established. He proposed that the first WQA be applied retrospectively to the period during which an account was charged the city-average sewer volume—crediting accounts whose WQA is below average and debiting accounts whose WQA is above average—to ensure each household pays its fair share while retaining the practical aspects of the WQA method staff currently uses.

Public comment items are not subject to immediate council action unless council chooses to place them on a future agenda. The transcript did not show a council response or an immediate direction to staff on this item; Grubentrejo said he would be willing to discuss the issue further with staff.