Slowly but surely Jackson is whittling down its backlog of 21,000 stranded water bills.
In April, the city brought Siemens USA and three of its consultants to help sort out problems in its water and sewer billing department.
Among duties, Siemens has to help Jackson get bills out to some 21,000 customers, some of whom have not received a bill in more than a year.
“They started April 30 and have been sending (bills) out since then,” said Public Works Director Robert Miller. “Four-hundred twelve bills have gone out so far.”
Miller said the firm is expected to address some 4,200 bills a month, meaning contractors will have to pick up the pace.
He said the backlog should be addressed by September 30. Collections on backlogged water bills should be caught up by September 2019.
Customers who haven’t received statements will see two amounts on their bills. One number will be for the current month’s charges. The other will be for charges accumulated during the periods they weren’t billed.
Customers won’t have to pay off past due amounts immediately. Rather, they’ll have an amount of time equal to the time they weren’t receiving statements.
“If you haven’t gotten a bill for six months, you’ll have six months to pay it,” Miller said. “If you haven’t gotten a bill for eight months, you’ll have eight months to repay.”
In 2012, the city awarded Siemens a $91 million energy performance contract to help overhaul its aging water system.
The work included replacing some 65,000 residential and 5,000 water meters and updating the city’s water billing system.
Since the upgrades were completed, the city has struggled with billing challenges.
Some customers have not received bills in months, while others have not received one in over a year.
Problems stem from numerous sources, among them city employees not receiving the proper training to use the new billing software.
Goals in the next few months include bringing employees up to speed to use the system, and making sure there are no problems with the meters and other equipment installed as part of the upgrades.
Miller updated the commission in the Siemens work last week.
He said there were three major technological components associated with the Siemens work: the new meters, the equipment used to capture and send meter readings, and the new billing software.
Contractors will be working to ensure that all three components are working well together.
The work will cost the city approximately $1.12 million.
The funds came from an escrow account set aside to cover Siemens related expenses.
Jackson issued $89.9 million in bonds to help pay for the contract. The funds were put in a special account and paid out to Siemens as work was completed.
The 21,000 customers account for between $18 million and $20 million in lost revenues for the city.
The funds go into a special enterprise fund and are used specifically for water and sewer expenses.
Recently, Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba’s administration had to ask the city’s one-percent oversight commission to help prop up the account, warning that it was about to go bankrupt.
The commission awarded the city nearly $7 million, which was used to reimburse the water/sewer fund for emergency projects dating back to September 2016.
With those funds, the water/sewer fund is expected to stay afloat until the summer.
