Council presses WAKA and DPW on long delays, asks for legal and operational reports

Council President Cohen convened the Committee on Oversight for the Office of Water Advocacy and Consumer Appeals (WAKA) on April 27 to review the office’s caseload, performance and its relationship with the Department of Public Works.

Chief Mills, who leads WAKA, told the committee that since WAKA began receiving cases in September 2023 the office has onboarded 569 matters through the end of March, with 141 active and 137 closed. Mills said WAKA has determined roughly $1.3 million in relief for customers to date but that five outlier cases above $10,000 account for a large share of that total.

Committee members focused on case-processing times. Mills reported WAKA’s average time to completion is 265 days, with the fastest 25% of cases closing in 131 days or less. He attributed delays to a combination of complex outlier investigations, limited staff capacity and largely manual workflows. "We are tracking both the time from registration to completion and the time from investigation start to completion," Mills said.

Multiple council members urged clearer, faster post-determination steps so customers see adjustments applied promptly. Deputy Director Alan Robinson (DPW) said the department is discussing internal protocols to reduce contradictory communications and recommended an internal pre-release coordination step. Robinson also said some interpret current practice as leaving the director of DPW with final authority on adjustments; WAKA leaders and the committee said they want that question clarified in writing.

The committee recorded several requests: a legal analysis on whether WAKA and the Water for All program apply to Baltimore County account holders; a joint WAKA/DPW plan to reduce denied Water for All applications due to nonresponse; and a status update on 92 recommendations in WAKA’s April report. DPW and the city law department agreed to deliver a legal/operational analysis by August 17 and a separate plan to expedite applications and reduce the 'no response' denial rate by the same date. The committee scheduled a follow-up oversight meeting in September to review those deliverables.

Council members repeatedly pressed for technology and staffing resources. Mills said WAKA currently uses large spreadsheets to track cases, is evaluating vendor platforms that would support phone filing and automated notifications, and has requested additional staff. Several council members and the public urged the mayor and council to consider budget augmentation to add full-time customer advocates and to fund a dispute-resolution module or vendor solution.

The committee emphasized the goal of WAKA as an independent, neutral arbiter for customers and asked that forthcoming analyses clarify the office’s final-authority role and the timeline for applying adjustments once WAKA issues a determination. The committee recorded the requests and left the record open for progress reports ahead of the August 17 deliverables.