Lawrence water department seeks billing analyst to catch lost revenue

The Lawrence City Ordinance & Government Relations Committee voted April 28 to send to the full City Council a proposal to create a billing-analyst position in the Water & Sewer Department.

"We have 12,500 accounts in the city of Lawrence," said William Hail, director of the Water & Sewer Department. He told the committee the city's remote meter-reading network produces large volumes of hourly data, and the analyst would flag anomalies, identify lost revenue and reduce delayed recoveries.

Hail said the department had identified roughly $400,000 in one-time recovered revenue over the past two years and about $100,000 per year in recurring revenue after adding accounts to the monitoring system. "So there's so much data that we get from our towers," he said, "...it's very easy to overlook an account if it's not giving you an alarm." The proposed classification carries a salary range of $54,600 to $87,360, Hail said, and the hiring is proposed to be effective with the new fiscal year beginning July 1.

The position would require a high-school diploma (or an approved substitute) and one to three years of related experience, Hail said. He described the role as largely analytic work with the FlexNet remote meter-reading system rather than field meter reading: the city still has meter technicians who respond to customer complaints and on-site leak checks.

Committee members thanked Hail for revising position language to reflect minimum qualifications. A motion to refer the ordinance to the full council with a favorable recommendation carried with no further discussion.

What happens next: The ordinance will proceed to the full City Council for consideration during the council's agenda and budget review process.