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Mendon staff urges council to modernize water billing; council forms working group to study electronic payments
Summary
City staff presented two options—expanding services with the current billing vendor (Cassell) or migrating to an end-to-end provider (Valiflow)—and the council agreed to form a working committee to evaluate costs, data access and implementation steps for online billing, ACH and card payments.
City staff told Mendon City Council they have been exploring steps to modernize the city—s water-billing process, including improved online notification and payment options and a potential replacement of the town—s legacy processes.
Jim (city staff) said the town currently uses a payment portal called Doxo and the billing platform Cassell for meter readings and invoicing, and that a full-service vendor (referred to in the discussion as Valiflow) would offer an end-to-end option that could include remote meter reads and collections. Jim provided a preliminary cost estimate for Cassell of roughly $9,000 per year plus a one-time implementation fee in the low thousands and noted there are nonfinancial benefits to giving customers online account access and push notifications when bills are available.
Why it matters: Electronic billing and online payments can reduce returned checks, allow customers to see usage earlier (helping prevent unexpected overage charges) and create new online payment portals for licenses, donations and special fees. The council directed staff to form a working committee to examine options before the city signs any new multi-year contracts.
Council action: Council agreed to assemble a multi-stakeholder working committee to review Cassell, Valiflow and combinations of services and return recommendations to council. During the meeting a council member suggested a committee that would include the city recorder, the treasurer, the public works representative, the council—s water liaison and—lightheartedly—the city dog catcher; council accepted the proposed committee formation for initial study and tasked staff to convene it.
Details presented: Jim said Cassell27s ongoing cost likely would be in the roughly $9,000-a-year range with a $1,200 implementation fee reported as a promotional number if the town signed early; Valiflow was described as a potentially higher-cost, full-service option that could replace Cassell if council chose a full migration. Jim also noted electronic billing could be opt-in for customers and that the default could remain hard-copy bills for those who prefer them.
Next steps: The council asked staff to assemble the working committee to evaluate costs, implementation timeline, opt-out provisions for senior or non-digital customers, and potential additional services (donation portals, business license payments) and to bring back a recommendation for council consideration.
