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North Augusta suspends late fees and cutoffs after utility-billing errors
Summary
City administrators halted late fees and service cutoffs and set up a dedicated hotline after two incorrect billing cycles following a new GovSense utility billing launch.
The city of North Augusta has suspended all utility late fees and service cutoffs while staff audit billing following errors in two recent billing cycles tied to a new GovSense billing system.
City Administrator Jim Clifford told the council the city “suspended all late fees and all cutoffs” and has halted billing cycles until an internal audit and vendor review verify account accuracy. Clifford said the city prefers to be late rather than “inaccurate.”
Clifford said the errors occurred after the utility billing production was moved from the legacy CSI system into GovSense, and that some December payments and credits did not carry forward correctly. The administration paused billing after the March 10 cycle and said March 25 and April cycles will be delayed but should be accurate when mailed.
Finance Director Rona Williamson and other staff have been reassigned to work full time on resolving billing mismatches, Clifford said. He said personnel were pulled from other departments to staff a centralized “one-stop” phone line modeled on the city’s hurricane recovery call center; the number will be published on the city website and social media.
Clifford said the city has directed staff to manually reconcile about 1,100 accounts and to carry credits from the prior year into current balances. He said automatic bank drafts have been re-enabled for affected accounts. Residents with immediate payment needs were advised to pay by check or use the finance office drop box; staff will post payments to accounts the next business day.
Clifford told the council the city will not assess late fees or perform shutoffs while reconciliation continues. He said callers who reach voicemail will receive a response within three business days.
The administration said it will continue to report progress to council in upcoming meetings until the billing system is fully auditable and accurate.
Questions raised by council and staff included how customers will access online accounts (a name-formatting issue remains under vendor review) and how the phone voicemail message should explicitly reassure callers that no cutoffs will occur while accounts are under review.
