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Gilbert releases final water‑meter audit; staff find no system‑wide failures, plan credits of roughly $44,000
Summary
Town staff and auditors delivered a finalized 350‑page Kimley Horn audit finding no systemic metering failures, identifying 381 residential accounts as potentially overbilled and estimating about $44,000 in credits to be confirmed and issued in coming weeks; staff outlined remediation and communication steps.
The Town of Gilbert released its final water‑meter audit on June 23 and told the council that auditors found no system‑wide or systemic failures, while identifying limited anomalies staff will remediate.
Audit and staff summary: the independent Kimley Horn review, described by staff as about 350 pages, examined six years of consumption data, tested hundreds of physical meters and reviewed office and field operations. "No systemic issues" was a central finding, but the audit identified a small number of multiplier‑setting issues and differences among older meters that merit attention. Staff said Mueller meters (recent installations) are performing well.
Impacted accounts and credits: the audit flagged 381 residential accounts as potentially overbilled; staff are now validating those accounts, and some confirmed overbilled customers already received credits. Gilbert staff estimated approximately $44,000 in credits for the audit period and set a target to have validated credits applied in the July–August timeframe, subject to account verification and physical inspections where needed.
Nonresidential accounts: staff reported zero confirmed commercial overbilling and said underbilled nonresidential accounts are under manual review and may require field inspection before any corrective action.
Next steps and communications: staff outlined a three‑phase plan — (1) publish the report and explain findings to customers, (2) validate affected accounts and apply credits as warranted, and (3) transition back to normal billing operations with added process and monitoring improvements (asset management, anomaly detection, meter alarms and enhanced coordination between field and office teams). Communications director Candace Quan said affected customers will receive direct outreach and that the town will use FAQs, email, billing‑portal notifications and press releases to reach residents.
Scale and context: staff said the audit reduced the number of potentially affected residential transactions from earlier estimates (from about 2,700 to ~2,200 abnormal transactions in the April data set) and emphasized the affected percentage is very small relative to total water revenue over the review period.
Attribution: Reporting is based on presentations by Kimley Horn staff (presenter referenced as Hawken/Hawkins in the transcript) and Gilbert staff (Hawken/Hawkins and Candace Quan) during the June 23 council meeting.
