On June 16, the city of Leander voted to enter into a contract with a consulting firm to perform an audit of billing and collection services in the utility billing office.

The company, Revenue Enhancement Services, approached the city of Leander to offer billing review services, and the two entered into an 18-month contract.

Finance Director Robert Powers told city council members that the city has more than 14,000 water and sewer accounts and has added 6,000 water accounts in the past six years. Because of the large number of new accounts, Powers said the audit would be beneficial to perform.

The company will evaluate meters to see if any are underperforming, search to see whether any connections are unmetered and identify any misclassifications in the billing table. Powers said the city would only pay Revenue Enhancement Services if the company finds a mistake, so he described it as a "no-lose scenario."

“It’s kind of like going to the doctor [for] a physical—you know you have to do it, but you hope you don’t find anything,” Powers told the council.

If Revenue Enhancement Services discovers that a customer underpaid due to an error, the customer will receive a bill and the company will be compensated 75 percent of the revenue, Powers said. If the company discovers that the city has been overbilling the customer, the company would not be penalized and the customer would receive a refund.

Powers said the company could administer tests throughout the next six months. The city will then follow up to review any mistakes that could be identified.