Austin residents who experience an unexplained spike in their water bills may be eligible for a partial refund if City Council passes a proposed ordinance April 7.
District 8 Council Member Ellen Troxclair said the ordinance, which would offer a partial refund to Austin Water customers billed for an unexplained spike in water usage amounting to more than three times their average usage, is a response to recent resident complaints many city and council offices received.
“[We wanted] to try to figure out if there was some sort of [...] customer protection for those customers who have an unprecedented and unexplained spike in their water bill,” Troxclair said. “We talked about a variety of different options and came up with what I think is a good policy, which mirrors our leak adjustment policy.”
Under the proposed policy customers would only be allowed to apply for a refund once every two years, Troxclair said.
City staff estimated the maximum number of Austin residents who would qualify for the refund program would be 14,000, based on water bill numbers from last summer, and about 8,000 of those refunds could fall between $80 and several hundred dollars.
On April 7, Austin City Council is also scheduled to discuss and vote on:
- A proposal to examine bond funding options for affordable homeownership programs that target the "missing middle"—or middle class residents whose income is not low enough to qualify for many housing affordability programs but is not high enough to affordably finance a home.
- A proposal for ground transportation companies that would require a nationwide fingerprint background check to obtain a chauffeur’s permit and specify which criminal offenses would disqualify a driver from obtaining a chauffeur’s permit. The proposal is a continuation of an ordinance City Council passed in December related to transportation network companies. A May election will determine whether drivers for TNCs, such as Uber and Lyft, will be required to obtain fingerprint background checks.
- A proposal to amend a historic covenant placed on the Dabney-Horne House—a city landmark—so that the structure can be moved to make way for an apartment complex.
