CEDAR CITY — If you were overcharged on your water bill in October, Cedar City is looking to make it right.
Robbie Mitchell, the Cedar City Water Division’s superintendent, told the City Council on Jan. 4 that some residents were overcharged on their October water bill after the Neptune water reading software glitched in September.
The readings were for usage that occurred in August, he added.
While the system “picked up the usage readings,” it did not relay the information to the division’s billing department, according to this letter submitted to the council.
The Neptune water meters are read at the first of the month, but once the glitch was discovered, they were reread approximately 2 1/2 weeks later, Mitchell said.
Because the meters were read later in the month, those extra weeks were added to October’s billing cycle, and some customers were moved up on the city’s tiered billing system and charged more, the letter reads.
The glitch impacted approximately 5,100 accounts that are read electronically, and 2,063 of those were bumped up to tiers three or four for billing, Mitchell said. For this latter group, the division proposed adding a credit to their account equaling 30% of their October bill.
The credit amount ranges widely, from as low as 20 cents to as high as $1,300, depending on what each account was charged, Mitchell said. Most credits will be about $20-$30.
The division pulled 30 random accounts and “crunched some numbers” before determining that a 30% credit would be fair, Mitchell said.
Accounts that remained in billing tiers one or two will not receive a credit as they did not receive the extra fees associated with the two higher tiers, Mitchell said.
To avoid similar problems in the future, the division will check the readings shortly after they are taken to ensure they can be downloaded correctly and that new readings do not need to be taken, Mitchell said.
On Wednesday, the council voted in favor of the credit, with council members Terri Hartley and Craig Isom recusing themselves from voting as their bills were also affected by the glitch.
Additionally, the city requested citizens remove snow and ice from their water meters to help the Water Division get “the most accurate readings” and do their jobs “quickly and efficiently,” in a recent Facebook post.
“Please spread the word and consider helping any elderly friends or neighbors,” the post reads. “Thank you.”
To learn more about Cedar City’s water billing system, click here. Those interested in viewing the entire discussion concerning water bill credits from Jan. 4 can visit the Cedar City Council’s YouTube channel.
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