Plainfield utility director flags billing data errors; board backs fast consultant approach

Utility Director Jeremy Hunsicker told the Plainfield Utility Board on July 27 that the town is seeing inconsistent billing data between field meters, the FlexNet/Census Analytics export process and the Munis billing system, resulting in multiple customer credits on this month—s consent agenda.

"What we're seeing is this past month, we found several where between census analytics and the export portion of it, the numbers, they're jumbling the numbers, or they're adding zeros to them," Hunsicker said, describing errors that sometimes appear without any account changes at the meter or customer end. He told the board that staff ran a filter that flagged hundreds of accounts for manual review; "they ran a filter, and they had 600 accounts they had to review. So, two-thirds of those 400, they had to make adjustments to," he said (transcript contains inconsistent counts).

Hunsicker outlined two options: hire a consultant to audit workflows and recommend phased, manual corrections (slower, lower immediate risk), or hire an outside implementer to make bulk changes more quickly but with a greater risk of affecting many accounts. Board members expressed support for the faster implementation approach: "Option two, yes," said Mr. Brandgard, and Mr. Angle said he also supported that path. Hunsicker recommended possibly engaging two consultants—one to review process workflow and another with Munis expertise—or a single firm with both capabilities.

The board did not take formal action at the meeting beyond discussion. Hunsicker said staff is continuing interim filters to catch obvious errors while the town evaluates consultant options and noted ongoing conversations with software vendors. He also said he would reach out to other jurisdictions to learn whether similar problems have occurred elsewhere.

The discussion is likely to lead to a request for proposals or a council-level approval for consultant contracting in a future meeting; no contracting decision was made July 27.