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Granbury hires Water Company of America to audit utility billing; firm paid only from recovered revenue
Summary
The city approved an agreement with Water Company of America to perform a billing and metering audit designed to identify unbilled or misbilled accounts; WCA works on a contingency/performance basis and will invoice the city only after recovered revenue has been collected, city staff said.
The Granbury City Council approved an agreement on Oct. 21 authorizing the city manager to execute a contract with Water Company of America (WCA) to audit the city's utility metering, billing and collections for potential errors and unbilled services.
Ava Gregory, the city's finance director, said staff has already identified issues internally and wants a third party to perform a complementary review. The city invited Shane Sangeli of Water Company of America to describe the firm's process. Sangeli told the council WCA has performed more than 140 similar contracts since 1989 and typically works on a performance basis: the firm does not charge the municipality up front and invoices only after the city has recovered additional revenue stemming from the firm's findings. “We do not collect a dollar from you until we until you have collected a dollar in increased revenue from a new account,” Sangeli said.
Sangeli described the range of issues WCA finds in other municipalities — unlisted or unbilled services, rate-code errors, meter-size data entry mistakes, missed wastewater billing and accounts set in the field that were never created in the billing system. He said typical results vary: many accounts are correct but a small number of missed or incorrect accounts can represent significant revenue.
Council members asked how the city would handle back‑billing customers in instances where an error is found; Sangeli said back‑billing policies are the city's decision and that staff commonly limits back billing (for example) to a 12‑month look-back and may set payment plans. Sangeli and staff cautioned it was possible the audit would find little or nothing — the company has had clients where few errors were found — and that any identified adjustments would be reviewed with the city before WCA seeks payment.
The motion to approve the agreement passed by unanimous vote; the staff presentation and WCA representatives said the firm would work with city staff to present findings and recommended corrective actions before any recovered revenue is collected and any payment to WCA is invoiced.
