Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Utilities Billing topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Council introduces ordinance to eliminate 2,000-gallon minimum as residents report sudden, large water bills
Summary
Officials introduced an ordinance to remove a 2,000-gallon minimum sewer charge after residents described bills jumping to hundreds of dollars; staff said meter-read and wireless meter software issues are driving many anomalous bills and promised meter replacements and process changes.
The Hammond City Council on Jan. 27 introduced an ordinance to eliminate a 2,000-gallon minimum usage charge in the city’s water and sewer billing structure, a step staff said will lower bills for low-usage households if adopted. The ordinance was introduced for a future public hearing; it is not retroactive and would take effect with the March billing cycle if passed.
Administration said the change is intended to make charges proportional to actual usage and to benefit fixed-income and low-usage residents. “If you use 1,000 gallons of water every month and you're paying a minimum of 2,000, you're paying twice what you should be paying,” the administration said when introducing the item.
The ordinance drew extensive public comment from residents who described steep, recent increases in billed amounts (examples given to the council included $270, $130 and $375 bills), sometimes after months of much lower bills. Megan Frady Bordelon told the council, “My most recent water bill was $270,” and described learning that a $40 sewer cap had been removed and that securing an irrigation meter to avoid sewer charges would cost more than the meter alone because of installation expenses.
Staff acknowledged billing pain points and identified multiple causes. They reported a combination of misreads from handheld meter collection, problems in wireless-meter software interfacing with the billing system, and occasional physical meter-read errors. The city said it has been in contact with a meter vendor (UMS) and secured grant funds to replace aging wireless meters with newer units; staff also said they are doing more courtesy rereads and will work with utility billing supervisors on investigations.
Council debate focused on whether the ordinance should move forward immediately to provide relief or whether the administration must first fix meter-reading and billing-management problems. Several council members urged a more proactive, system-level approach to detect anomalous readings (for example, software reports that flag unusually large jumps) and to improve meter-reading training and supervision. Staff said they will explore report-generation and anomaly-detection options in the billing system and continue replacing the oldest meters under a grant program.
What’s next: The ordinance was introduced and will receive a public hearing at a future council meeting. Staff said the proposal would take effect early March if adopted and emphasized the measure is not retroactive to correct past overcharges; residents experiencing suspected misreads were advised to contact utility billing for a reread and investigation.
