10-18-21-WS - Laserfiche WebLink

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Page 1 of 2 AGENDA ITEM – 1C MEMORANDUM DATE: October 18, 2021 TO: Honorable Mayor and City Councilmembers Dave Perrault, City Administrator FROM: Gayle Bauman, Finance Director SUBJECT: Water Meters Discussion RTR vs HRE Encoders Budgeted Amount: Actual Amount: Funding Source: N/A N/A Water and Sewer Funds Council Should Consider Council should consider discussion of water meter readings billed between 2018 and 2020. Background The City utilizes many different models and sizes of meters throughout the City. The standard or local encoder supplied to the City for many years was the Recordall Transmitter Register (RTR), which consists of a straight-reading odometer-type display. Sometime in 2018, the encoders starting changing to a High Resolution Encoder (HRE). Depending on the meter model, size and unit of measure, a multiplier may need to be applied with these HRE’s to come up with the actual consumption figures. With the standard residential meter (M25 ¾”), a multiplier of 10 is needed to calculate the usage. I am not sure if it was brought to anyone’s attention that these new encoders required a different setup process in Springbrook when they were introduced. I found an email from April 2019, where finance staff asked questions about the encoders and what was required to obtain accurate consumption figures. It appears most of the devices setup after that time were entered correctly. Discussion I have been reviewing and auditing utility billing accounts and with the implementation of Beacon (new meter software), I have been able to perform analytics on information entered on our system. I have found paperwork on 10 properties where encoders were replaced since 2018 that state the old RTR encoder was replaced with an HRE encoder (4 were replaced in 2018 and 6 were replaced in 2019). This information was not reflected on those 10 customer accounts. What this means is that those customers were paying for usage that was 10 times less than what they used. Their bill would have said 500 gallons when they were actually using 5,000 gallons because the multiplier of 10 was not being applied.