City manager: Jackson City will not shut off water for nonpayment in December
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Summary
The City manager announced Dec. 2 that Jackson City will not complete any nonpayment water shutoffs in December due to double charges from the payment vendor, data migration issues and a compromised Code Red alert system; the city plans new communication and payment systems in January.
At the Dec. 2 meeting, the City manager informed council and the public that "the city will not be completing any nonpayment shutoffs in December." The manager said three operational problems created a "perfect storm" that led to the decision: customers were double-charged by the payment vendor Point & Pay, legacy account data carried into the city's cloud migration caused incorrect bills for some addresses, and the Code Red emergency/notification system was compromised, limiting the city's ability to send shutoff notices.
"We've had an issue with our payment system, Point and Pay, and they've had issues with double charging people," the City manager said, and added the city is "working with them so that they work hard to return people's money." The manager described data issues from moving the back-office system to the cloud that resulted in some people receiving bills for addresses where they no longer lived.
The City manager also said the city's Code Red alert capability was not usable after the system was compromised and that without it the city could not reliably notify customers about impending shutoffs. For that reason, and because of unresolved billing and payment-processing concerns, the manager said the city will not proceed with nonpayment shutoffs in December.
The manager said the city is migrating to a new communications platform (a replacement for Code Red) and is pursuing a new payment-receipt program to replace Point & Pay. The city will publicize the temporary halt to shutoffs and the planned system changes via social media, the city website and local media. The manager said staff will continue to work with affected customers to make payments right and expects to promote the new systems in January.
The announcement was framed as a consumer-protection measure during a period of technical and communications failures. Council members acknowledged the update and said they would share the information with constituents.
No formal vote or ordinance was recorded on the shutoff policy at this meeting; the manager presented it as an operational decision while the city works through vendor and system changes.
