Raftelis Financial Consultants presented its review on the city of Pearland’s utility billing department at the City Council meeting Jan. 25. The report recommended continued changes to workplace culture, process improvements and technology improvements, including implementing its Advanced Meter Infrastructure, or AMI.
“Changing this culture is going to take time,” Raftelis Project Manager Seth Garrison said.
The consulting company did not find any proof of systemic billing issues, it said in the report, as its analysis determined that 98.5% of billing accounts were correct. However, the company worked under the assumption the meter reads were all correct, Garrison said.
Raftelis started its process in September. Garrison referred to the city’s billing issue as “unique,” as the lag in collecting money goes on for months at a time. However, he stated that the city has a high likelihood of collecting the money in arrears with the 32/30 plan, or the city's plan to collect the money owed due to the lag in billing. However, Raftelis’ report also states the city may want to change the 32/30 plan to “avoid further required readjustments and additional customer confusion.” According to the Garrison, the city still needs to collect around 65 days of bills, or roughly $5 million.
