Houston City Council approves vote on high water bill plan

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- After ongoing problems and a week's delay, relief for high water bills should be on the way following Houston City Council members' vote Wednesday to approve a new plan.

The proposal included nine changes to help residents who have been stuck with unusually high water bills.

"It takes effect now. Immediately," Mayor Sylvester Turner announced after the unanimous vote.

Prior to the plan's approval, officials said that current city ordinances wouldn't allow them to help with the bills.

"If it ain't broke, don't fix it. If it's broke, why hasn't it been fixed already?" homeowner Dan Krueger asked in a public comment after he got a high water bill.

The city is working to replace broken meters, which have contributed to the issue, but officials said it will take time. Changing the ordinances is expected to be a faster way to bring relief.

The video above is from our previous reporting.

"We do not want to assess people for what they are not using; people should only pay for the water they use at home or business. By making the changes, we also are improving the appeal process for customers and giving employees more flexibility. The changes are meaningful, and we are taking a holistic approach to address concerns raised by our water customers," Turner said.

Still, residents think this isn't enough.

"I would encourage you to take greater action. I suggest you not accept any more excuses," resident Joseph Ballard said.

Mayor Pro Tem Dave Martin even pressed the 10 city council members who won reelection to continue pushing public works to do more.

"This does nothing to address the problem. We have 10 council members sitting around this body. Come Jan. 1, I would love to see public works come up with a master plan with cost initiatives as to how we fix the problem," Martin said.

SEE ALSO: Lowering of high-water bills in Houston could be resolved after new plans announced by officials

Two new plans were announced to combat the ongoing battle of high water bills in Houston: one by Mayor Turner and the other by city council members.

The following changes will go into effect immediately:

1. Current: A customer can apply for a maximum of two leak adjustments per year. New: Remove the two times per year allowance and allow customers additional relief should multiple leaks occur in one year more than twice.
2. Current: Allows customers adjustment to their water bills at a 50% rate once proven leak repair. New: Incentivize Citizens - 100% for customers repairing 30 days after the leak began, 75% for repairing within 60 days after the leak began, and standard 50% after 60 days.
3. Current: Customers get 50% credit on excess water usage on both water and wastewater charges. New: 100% credit on excess wastewater charges. This is based on the idea that a customer water leak usually doesn't go back through the sewage system.
4. Current: Leak Balance Remaining must be greater than $2,000 and $250 for elderly customers who meet eligibility criteria. New: Reduce the leak balance remaining amount from $2,000 to $1,000 and $250 to $100 for eligibility qualifiers.
5. Current: Qualified accounts for unusually large bill adjustments can only be adjusted down to 150% of average water use. New: Lower the customer responsibility percentage from 150% to 125% of the monthly average water usage.
6. Current: Exceptional Circumstances Adjustment (ECA): Any billed amount in excess of five times the average monthly bill; Account may be reduced by up to $4,000 for one occurrence; Does not exceed a two-month timeframe. New: Changes to this section are as follows: Any billed amount in excess of two times the average monthly bill; Account may be reduced by up to $10,000 for one occurrence; Does not exceed two billing cycles.
7. Current: Customers are charged a minimum monthly base fee where a water meter is present because the city must reserve that capacity for the customer. The base charge includes water and wastewater. To avoid charges, a customer is required to pay for a private plumber to remove the meter, cap the line, and then cancel the account (costs approximately $1,500). New: Offer a customer an option to have the meter locked for a one-time fee estimated to be $150, and once the customer's account is charged for lock, all base charges will be removed from the account. Provides a less expensive option for customers to remove monthly base charges.
8. New: Benefits to sign up for e-bill: Provide and promote a $0.50 discount for each bill for paperless customers.
9. Current: Long-term estimations have resulted in high catch-up bills of up to 24-months. New: Codify Public Works' current practice by not back billing greater than three months for residential customers.

The vote on the new water bill plan was delayed a week after Councilmember Michael Kubosh told ABC13's Nick Natario that there was not enough time to review the nine proposals.

"All we had was a hearing, and a hearing wasn't enough," Kubosh explained. "You have to have the documents to see them. We didn't get them not even 24 hours before council."

Kubosh also raised concerns about limiting the time customers can change wrong bills. Kubosh claimed the change lowered the amount of time customers who were overcharged from two years to three months.

However, the ordinance change only applies to customers who are undercharged. Now that the plan has passed, public works can't go back more than three months to collect the extra money.

"What I read is if it's in the customer's favor, we can go back the two years," Councilmember Amy Peck said.

"The combined impact of these ordinance changes is that our customer account services team will be equipped with the tools and the resources necessary to resolve the overwhelming majority of disputes on the first call," Turner said last week.

ABC13 has heard from many Houstonians who have said their monthly water bill is several times higher than normal. Officials say it's due to aged meters that are not accurately reading usage.

City officials said they get 99% of the bills right, but that still leaves 5,000 people a month with problems. They admitted they are guessing on about 40,000 water bills a month.

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