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Council to consider ordinance reducing citizen's utility bill after reporting and policy dispute
Summary
A resident testified about an underground leak and disputed Gallatin Public Utilities' handling and timing of AMI notifications. GPU adjusted the account repeatedly; the council moved to place a further reduction to $400 on the next council agenda for ordinance consideration.
Brad Hambrick told the committee he discovered an underground water leak that began Dec. 19 and ultimately produced an initial bill of $5,886.95. Hambrick said he had expected an AMI system to alert him sooner; because the city’s weekly continuous‑usage reports fell on holiday Thursdays the notification did not occur until Jan. 8. He asked the committee to authorize an adjustment to $400.79, calling the handling “negligence.”
David Kellogg, superintendent of Gallatin Public Utilities, explained the AMI meters record and transmit flow but do not independently interpret uses. GPU runs a weekly continuous‑usage report and notifies customers that exceed configured thresholds or exhibit continual usage; holidays delayed the report the weeks of Christmas and New Year’s. Kellogg said GPU’s leak‑adjustment policy returns the account to average usage and the utility takes half the excess, but staff corrected an initial double adjustment error and later extended additional courtesy credits to the customer.
After hearing both sides and noting the utility’s policy and the atypical holiday timing, the committee voted to place an ordinance on the next council meeting agenda to reduce the citizen’s bill to $400. The vote was a committee referral; a council ordinance would be required to finalize any additional adjustment.
