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Lacey proposes two‑year push to replace failing water meters, recommends limited‑term hires
Summary
Public works staff proposed hiring limited‑term technicians to replace an estimated 10,000 aging meters and 3,000 failing MTUs, at a personnel cost about $1.2 million (excluding meter hardware). Council gave general support and asked staff for funding detail and a timeline for a budget amendment early in 2026.
LACEY, Wash. — City public‑works staff told the council they plan an accelerated, focused replacement program for aging water meters and meter transmission units (MTUs) after years of rising failure rates and repeated manual reads.
Scott Devlin, public works operations manager, told the council the city has approximately 10,000 meters nearing end of life and about 3,000 MTUs that are not transmitting. "We had at one time about 3,800 that needed replacement; currently we're right around 1,900 failures," he said, outlining a three‑option analysis (external sole‑source contractor, contractor with city management, or in‑house limited‑term hires).
Recommendation and cost: Staff recommended hiring two to three limited‑term AMI technicians plus an administrative LTE for data entry to run a concentrated replacement program. Devlin presented a person‑day model (conservative estimate of eight meter installs per technician per day) and projected roughly one year and three quarters to complete the backlog with the proposed staffing. The personnel cost for that in‑house option was estimated at about $1.2 million (not including meters and MTUs).
Funding sources: Troy Wu said the city had previously assumed about $7.4 million in the capital plan for a full system replacement; staff has already spent roughly $3.5 million on meter and MTU inventory and expects to have additional inventory on hand.
Operational changes and risk: Staff emphasized the need for a back‑office data‑entry position so new meter/MTU pairings are entered correctly into billing systems, and for a long‑term asset‑management cycle to avoid future mass failures. Council members supported the faster, less expensive in‑house option but raised a common concern: limited‑term positions frequently convert to permanent roles. Staff said the proposed LTEs would be project‑tied and funded through the budget amendment process in early 2026.
Next steps: Council signaled broad support for the recommended approach and asked staff to return promptly with a budget amendment and more detailed cash‑flow and savings projections.
