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Audit follow-up: wastewater agreements require renegotiation and ordinance changes, auditors say
Summary
Follow-up audit on municipal wastewater treatment agreements shows many prior recommendations addressed (meters installed for Richardson, late-payment exemption removed), but several technical issues — BOD/TSS surcharges, calibration access, meter calculation methodology and industrial pretreatment documentation — will require renegotiation and ordinance amendments.
Assistant City Manager Crystal Owens briefed the committee on the municipal wastewater treatment-agreement follow-up, reporting that staff have completed some items but that several findings require contract renegotiation and ordinance amendments.
"On the original audit scope ... there were 12 opportunities for improvement identified," Crystal Owens said. She summarized corrective steps: installation of a meter for Richardson in August 2025, deactivation of a late-payment exemption for municipal customers, and moves to document and change the calculation method for inoperable meters (from an average to actual use over the last 12 months). Several remaining items — including BOD/TSS surcharge language, inconsistent liability verbiage across agreements, sampling access for certain points of entry, and more formal industrial-pretreatment oversight — will require negotiation with customer entities and ordinance amendments.
Crystal said a consultant is drafting recommended contract language and that negotiations will be prioritized as contracts come up for renewal in 2026–27. Committee members pressed on whether the issues were costing the city money; staff said the contracts in question are not Garland's largest customers so fiscal exposure was not judged to be material, but the items are important to document and resolve ahead of renewals.
