Denton staff recommends changes to utility billing: deposits, payment plans, leak adjustments and AMI rollout

City staff presented a package of recommended changes Sept. 30 to Denton’s utility-billing programs, including commercial-deposit retention, payment-plan administration, leak-adjustment rules and provisions for upcoming automated metering infrastructure (AMI).

Krista Foster, the city’s customer service manager, told the council a benchmarking study of 22 Texas utilities and more than 100 U.S. utilities showed Denton’s collections and bad-debt performance “is significantly better than the industry,” but staff identified ordinance and process provisions that slow administration and limit flexibility. The recommended changes are intended to reduce manual work, align practices with peers, and give staff limited discretion to respond to exceptional circumstances.

On commercial deposits, staff recommended keeping residential refunds at 12 months of good payment history but extending commercial deposit refunds to 24 months. Foster said the recommended commercial criteria would include: an internal A credit rating, no disconnections, no meter tampering, and a current account at the time of review. Staff noted the current process requires manual screening of every deposit refund and estimated that streamlining refund rules would save 15–18 staff hours per month on residential screening alone.

Foster also proposed simplifying pay agreements: set installment due dates to match the printed bill due date, remove a rigid limit on the number of arrangements a customer may hold, and instead restrict future arrangements for customers who fail to complete two agreements within a 12‑month period. “Instead of saying you can have two arrangements a year, we’re saying you can have an arrangement every month if that’s necessary for you to meet your pay date. But you have to keep them,” Foster said.

On leak adjustments, staff recommended several changes: raise the deadline to submit an adjustment to 60 days after leak repair (the current ordinance allows 30 days to file), ensure that renters are eligible by clarifying permit/inspection pathways, cap leak adjustments at 100,000 gallons for both commercial and residential accounts and add provisions to cover sprinkler and pool leaks under the same cap. Foster noted the ordinance currently unintentionally excludes renters because a plumbing permit is often pulled by an owner or a plumber.

Council members asked for more detail on renter protections and fraud prevention; staff said they will validate repair receipts and may contact owners or plumbers for verification when documentation appears inconsistent. In response to a question about AMI timing, Stephen Gay, general manager of water utilities and street operations, said the city expects to have a vendor contract in place before the end of the year and to begin a three‑year rollout in 2026 to cover roughly 48,000 service connections. “Before the end of the year, we’ll have a contract in place with the vendor, and we should start rolling out that solution in 2026,” Gay said.

Councilmembers generally supported the recommendations; several asked staff to return with written ordinance language and to clarify specific scenarios such as applying deposit history when a business opens a second location. Staff committed to providing follow-up information, including a Friday report on edge cases, and to document discretionary decisions for audit and accountability.

No ordinance change was adopted at the meeting; staff will bring ordinance revisions and implementation details back to council for formal action.