Commission approves water‑meter purchase order, asks staff to draft an opt‑out plan after public health concerns

The Livingston City Commission voted to approve purchase order (PO) 2172 with Ferguson Water Works for advanced water meters and authorized the city manager to sign, after hearing multiple public comments raising health, privacy and billing concerns and a city staff presentation on technical and regulatory safeguards.

City Manager Grant Gager summarized staff materials on advanced metering technology, including FCC maximum permissible exposure guidance and manufacturer data. He said the manufacturer’s testing indicates endpoint devices ‘‘broadcast on average 1.2 seconds at a time’’ and that typical daily transmissions are infrequent (often once every several hours outside commissioning). Gager also noted that the city’s current mobile‑read meters use similar radio technology and that the principal change is a fixed network base station instead of a vehicle‑mounted reader.

Why it matters: Residents expressed two main worries — potential health effects of radio‑frequency emissions and billing or privacy problems tied to automated readings. Speakers included a licensed naturopathic physician who said she had concerns about biological effects and asked the commission to “take a precautionary approach,” and an RF engineer who urged the city to permit individual opt‑outs and suggested requiring meter replacement when property ownership changes.

Commission action and direction: A motion by Commissioner Willich to approve PO 2172 and authorize the city manager to sign passed on roll call. The motion also included direction for staff to develop an opt‑out program; commissioners discussed possible opt‑out designs such as a homeowner opt‑out with mandatory replacement at the time of property sale. Staff said meters are being purchased as replacement stock and that deployments commonly occur when a meter fails or when staff are already working at a property.

Background and next steps: Staff noted that Sensus (the manufacturer referenced in staff material) and other vendors certify compliance with FCC exposure limits and that the meters’ highest broadcast during commissioning remains below FCC maximums according to vendor data. Still, commissioners acknowledged public concern and instructed staff to draft an opt‑out policy for commission consideration and to propose implementation details and cost estimates.