North Richland Hills outlines fixes after billing system, bank and meter conversions left customers with double bills and long waits

City officials told the council that a cluster of simultaneous changes — a new billing system, a lockbox/bank conversion and citywide meter replacements — produced a months‑long period of billing instability and heavy customer service demand.

Staff said the legacy system had been in place for 27 years; a new system launched in March after a year of configuration, with communication campaigns to more than 30,000 water customers. A lockbox vendor change (from Frost Bank to JPMorgan Chase) and the roll‑out of new meters beginning in March 2024 compounded the conversion work. The city reported a surge to “well over 6,000 calls per month” into utility billing during the transition and said it added temporary staff and a call center to respond.

“The software worked. I’ll tell you that,” Trudy Lewis (speaker 2) said, describing the system functionality while also acknowledging extensive conversion and data‑mapping challenges. Problems included account numbers that did not migrate correctly when old landline phone numbers or addresses were out of date, and an April billing run that produced two months’ bills in a single cycle (effectively a 40‑day pay window). Staff said they extended due dates, paused disconnections for several months, and have been working case‑by‑case with affected customers.

Staff gave a series of implementation details that explain why problems occurred in combination: the vendor‑bank overlap delayed some checks and electronic payments during the lockbox transition; manual meter‑change entries and occasional transcription errors have created high bills for some customers; and the city’s meter replacement project is about 85% complete. Utility billing currently employs seven people; the city requested an eighth position in the adopted FY‑26 budget to provide ongoing reconciliation and customer‑service capacity.

Council members asked whether the city will do an after‑action review of vendor selection and rollout sequencing; staff said an efficiency audit and vendor review are part of the FY‑26 scope. Staff also plans to add online payment options for hotel/occupancy tax and expand web tools (chatbot, voice AI) to reduce call volume.

Ending: Staff said billing cycles should normalize by October and asked residents who still have issues to contact utility billing directly for case‑by‑case help. Council did not take formal corrective action beyond approving the FY‑26 position request and efficiency audit described by staff.