City reports meter-network problems and provides monthly finance update; meter vendor engagement ongoing

City finance staff presented the February financial report and city staff and engineers updated council on the city's smart meter replacement project, reporting that roughly 500 new meters were not yet communicating and that the city is working with the vendor and the project's engineer to complete service.

Finance staff reported general fund revenues at about 67.8% of budget and expenses at about 65% through February; capital improvement and other fund balances were outlined and the city's total indebtedness was presented. The finance presentation noted sales tax receipts were down about 5.38% in February compared with the prior year but that overall collections were near budget projections.

On the meters project, staff said the program began in October with a small number of misreads and had grown to about 500 meters still not reading remotely. The city's engineering firm (Lowell Engineering and the meter vendor) had been engaged and staff said the vendor was expected to come to the city the week after the meeting to finish work. Staff noted the principal operational impact is manual reads and loss of live usage data for customers; the meters that are reporting allow customers to see near-real-time usage, while the nonreporting meters do not.

Council asked about customer impacts and staffing; staff said billing remains online but that manual reading will increase staff workload until the network is restored. Staff said they are prepared to pursue contract remedies if necessary, and the engineer is actively coordinating with the vendor to complete the install and restore network connectivity.