City of Houston proposes nine ordinance changes to end high water bills
HOUSTON - Mayor Sylvester Turner and Houston Public Works announced multiple changes to the city’s current ordinances on Monday. The city has created nine ordinance proposals to address the various problems with Houston’s high water bills. Mayor Turner said those changes will combat the increased water bills many people are receiving.
"Today, we have potential solutions to share with you, and it starts with changes to specific ordinances," said Mayor Turner.
Public Works and the city’s legal department created nine amendments to the city’s current ordinances to attempt to fix the water bill problem.
"Current city ordinances restrict our ability to respond to the public's concerns," said Turner. "When many of the ordinances were first enacted, they were created with the assumption that all the equipment worked properly and that we received accurate readings of customers' water usage," said Turner.
The city blames aging devices as part of the high water bill problem.
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"Today, we are faced with a high number of failing meter reading devices due to the aged infrastructure, and the city must rely on a much higher number of estimated readings," said Carol Haddock, the director of Houston Public Works.
The director of Houston Public Works said the need for manual meter reading has increased.
"Today, we have over 125,000 of remote read devices that have failed, and we’re required to estimate nearly 40,000 bills a month," said Carol Haddock.
This follows an investigation of wrongdoing into Houston Public Works when at least two employees were relieved of their jobs.
"I will just say the employee has been relieved from duty. The contract has been terminated and about $406,000 was paid out to that particular contract until it was found," said Turner.
The proposed ordinance changes will be presented at a city council meeting on Wednesday.
Here's a look at the new changes:
1. 47-74- Ordinance a customer can apply for maximum two leak adjustments per year
NEW CHANGE: Remove the two times per year allowance and allows customers additional relief should multiple leaks occur in one year more than twice.
2. 47-74- Allows customers adjustment to their water bill at 50% rate once proven to leak repair.
NEW CHANGE: Incentivize Citizens- 100% for customers repairing 30 days after leak began, 75% for repairing within 60 days after leak began, and standard 50% after 60 days.
3. 47-74- Customers get 50% credit on excess water usage on both water and wastewater charges.
NEW CHANGE: 100% credit on excess wastewater charges. This is based on the idea that a customer water leak usually doesn't go back through the sewage system.
4. 47-74-1- Leak balance remaining must be greater than $2,000.00. And $250 for elderly customers who meet the eligibility criteria in section 36-62(1) of this code.
NEW CHANGE: Reduce the leak balance remaining amount from $2,000.00 to $1,000.00 for eligibility qualifiers and $250.00 to $100.00 for eligibility qualifiers.
Tap water flows from a faucet. Photo: Karl-Josef Hildenbrand/dpa (Photo by Karl-Josef Hildenbrand/picture alliance via Getty Images)
5. 47-75 Qualified account for Unusual Large Bill adjustment can be adjusted down to 150% of average water use.
NEW CHANGE: Lower the customer responsibility percentage from 150% to 125% of the monthly average water usage.
6. 47-75-1 an ECA adjustment, a. any monthly billed amount in excess of five times the average monthly bill.
b. Account may be reduced by up to $4,000.00 for one occurrence
c. Does not exceed a two-month timeframe
NEW CHANGE: a. any billed amount in excess of two time (2x) the average monthly bill
b. Account may be reduced by up to $10,000.00 for one occurrence.
c. Does not exceed a two billing cycles.
7. 47-61, 47-63- Customers are charged minimum monthly base fee where a water meter is present because the City must reserve that capacity for the customer. Base charge includes water and wastewater. To avoid charges, a customer is required to pay for a private plumber to remove the meter, cap the line, and then cancel the account (cost approximately $1,500).
NEW CHANGE: Offer a customer an option to have the meter locked for a one-time fee estimated to be $150 and once customer account is charged for lock, all base charges will be removed from the account. See ordinance for detail. Provide less expensive option for customer to remove monthly base-charges.
8. Benefits to sign-up for e-bill
NEW CHANGE: Provide and promote $.50 discount for each bill for paperless customers.
9. Long term estimations have resulted in high catch-up bills of up to 24-months
NEW CHANGE: Codify Public Works current practice by not back billing greater than 3 months for residential customers.