Authority reviews finance-system migration and plans commercial water-use audit that could trigger backbilling

Franklin Township Sewage Authority staff told the board April 7 that the authority is in the final month of its fiscal year and has completed migration of an inventory/depreciation module into the new Edmonds finance system.

"At this time, we are in our last month of the fiscal year, so we are, wrapping up things to close that out," Dr. Roach (speaker S2) said. She said the finance vendor Evans is working on items related to annual billing and penalties and that staff will report back at the next meeting.

Executive Director (S5) described a separate review of commercial and industrial accounts after a councilmember flagged a business that appeared to use 1,000,000 gallons a year. S5 said staff obtained a spreadsheet from the water department, cross-checked accounts and identified a small number of accounts with large usage changes that appear underbilled. S5 said the authority will "do our homework" and, if warranted, pursue recovery: "we're gonna load a hammer on these businesses. And not only are we gonna charge them based upon the gallonage... I'm gonna do all I can to go backwards and backfill them," S5 said.

Commissioners questioned whether backbilling is allowable. S4 said if the authority erred it may be difficult to back charge and recommended consulting the authority attorney; S5 agreed that legal review is necessary and said staff will pull emails and documents to determine whether accounts were mischaracterized or if use has changed.

S5 also described a recent customer-service issue with the new billing platform: several customers were charged small late fees in error; staff had to remove those charges individually because the system could not remove them in bulk. S5 said the work has been completed and the problem is behind the authority.

Board members will receive an update on the commercial-audit findings and any legal advice before any retrospective billing is pursued.