Council approves interlocal agreement with Green Valley SUD to consolidate billing for shared customers

The Cibolo City Council approved an interlocal agreement with Green Valley Special Utility District (GVSUD) to consolidate billing and collections for customers in overlapping water and wastewater service areas. The motion carried 5-1.

City staff said Texas Water Code sections 13.147 and 13.25 provide for consolidated billing and for certain discontinuance-of-service processes. The agreement, developed jointly by city and GVSUD staff, would have GVSUD perform consolidated billing and collections for shared accounts at no cost to the city; GVSUD would process disconnection notices, retain penalties and remittances, remit wastewater collections to the city and provide monthly reporting. Staff recommended making the agreement effective Oct. 1 if council approved it.

"It's also a challenge to manually calculate winter average wastewater charges for these same customers," the presenter said, noting shared-customer account growth from roughly 2,400 accounts in 2014 to about 5,000 now. Council members asked whether backflow-notification responsibilities could be consolidated as well; staff recommended treating backflow notices as a related but separate item and bringing that issue back to council with the new assistant public works director, targeted for late October.

Councilwoman Cunningham moved to approve the interlocal agreement; Councilwoman Roberts seconded. The motion carried 5-1. Staff said implementation would proceed with GVSUD processing disconnections and winter-average calculations, and that the first bills under the arrangement could occur for the billing cycle after an Oct. 1 effective date.