Wall Township Restructures Water Department Following Widespread Billing Problem

The way that the town reads residents’ water meters is being revamped following a series of Wall Patch stories highlighting exorbitant water bills received by numerous Wall residents.

The entire process used to read water meters is being restructured after numerous residents complained of extremely high water bills for the last quarter, and those who received high bills will have their bills adjusted, Jeffrey Bertrand, township administrator, said Monday.

Residents who received unusually high water bills should call the water department to dispute the charges. Each case will be handled individually and be adjusted accordingly, Bertrand said.

The process that the township used to read meters was antiquated and riddled with problems including a lack of organization, lack of focus and lack of quality control, Bertrand said.

“The system wasn’t broken,” Bertrand said. “But the process wasn’t tweaked to adjust to fewer people in the department and more customers.”

* * * * *
Bills can be disputed by calling (732) 449-8444 ext. 221. And any complaints can always be taken to Jeffry Bertrand, township administrator, who oversees all township departments: (732) 449-8444 ext. 216.
* * * * *

Three part-time water department employees will now call town hall home, instead of reporting to the Public Works building. Those people will be tasked exclusively with meter reading, instead of having their duties spilt between meter reading and maintenance of the water and sewer system, Bertrand said.

There will be one Public Works employee, pulled from road crew duties, who will be put into a new position overseeing the process of meter reading and making adjustments to the computer system tracking the process, Bertrand said.

That will leave five full-time water department employees working on the care and maintenence of the water and sewer system. Prior to the changes, those people were also responsible for part-time meter reading. Those duties have been removed from their jobs, Bertrand said.

The computer system that tracks meter reading will be upgraded to include formerly absent quality control measures such as which meter reader is reading what meters in which section of town on which days, Bertrand said.

“We’re trying to eliminate the peaks and valleys in the billing system,” Bertrand said.

Those ‘peaks’ were amplified in the recent quarter’s water and sewer bills sent last month to Wall residents. Many residents complained of bills that were two, three and as much as five times the amount they normally pay.

Wall Patch ran a series of popular and exclusive stories on the water bills, following a deluge of complaints posted to our Facebook page. The series included a primer on the water billing system, a how-to on reading your own water meter and tips on how to save money on the quarterly bills.

Moves to put the new system in place started Monday, Bertrand said. It will be monitored for efficiency and more part-time meter readers will be added to smooth the process, if necessary, he said.

What happened?

Bertrand said it was Hurricane Sandy that exposed weaknesses in the meter reading process – weaknesses that might have otherwise continued unnoticed.

There are three part-time and five full-time employees of the Water Department, down from a high of 12 full-time employees some years ago, Bertrand said.

While the numbers have dwindled through attrition, the number of homes in the town have increased. But no adjustments to the meter reading process were ever made, Bertrand said.

This, combined with a complete lack of a tracking system on the meter readers or the equipment they used, resulted in a high number of estimated water and sewer bills.

Previously, computer generated reports would go to the water department, alerting employees that it was time to read the meters in one of 55 routes in town. Everyone in the department would drop what they were doing and read meters, Bertrand said.

Following Hurricane Sandy, however, employees were tied up with myriad other responsibilities, resulting in a larger than usual number of estimated bills, he said.

“Sandy completely blew holes in the process,’’ Bertrand said.

Bertrand said the routes walked by meter readers also will be simplified to put billing – which has sometimes been more than three months – on a more exact quarterly schedule.

The process followed by meter readers will be adjusted and more data will be collected and analyzed to track and find additional efficencies, he said.

“I’m not trying to blame anyone,’’ Bertrand said. “I’m trying to fix the problem.’’

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Stay in touch. Stay informed. Like Wall Patch on Facebook and get updates throughout the day right to your newsfeed. Or follow us on Twitter @WallPatch. Don’t miss a thing.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------