City distributes more than $276,000 in utility account refunds

By LYNETTE SOWELL
Cove Leader-Press 

Some city utility account customers have been receiving checks in the mail from the City of Copperas Cove for utility account charges which were made in error, totaling $276,073.
The ones who were issued refund checks are customers with accounts opened prior to Aug. 1, 2004. 
Last December, the Copperas Cove city council had approved the addition of temporary base rate increases for the calendar year of 2017. 
At the Dec. 6, 2016 city council meeting, Ryan Haverlah, the city’s budget director/deputy city manager explained that for some unknown reason, the city began billing customers two months in arrears for accounts opened on or after Aug. 1, 2004. This means when those customers disconnected their accounts, they had a large final bill consisting of two months’ worth of base charges. The practice began when the city installed its financial management software, Tyler Technologies Incode, around that time. 
This also made it so that when a customer began utility services, the customer wouldn’t receive a utility bill for two months and was billed the base rates for the first month of service, yet was billed consumption for a two-month period. 
To rectify that, city staff proposed “catching up” on those two months of unpaid base and fixed charges and spread those charges out over the year 2017. The charges were base water and sewer rates, along with solid waste collection charge and the drainage fee. The council approved a resolution that amended the city’s fee schedule for those additional charges for 2017.
All refund checks have been mailed out, according to Kevin Keller, the city’s public information officer. 
Along with a check, residents received a letter signed by Haverlah that stated: 
“The City of Copperas Cove recently reviewed the charges of the temporary base rates approved for 2017. You were charged the temporary base rates in error. In order to correct these charges, the City Manager has authorized the enclosed refund of the temporary base rates charged to you in 2017. 
“The temporary rates only applied to utility accounts started after August 1, 2004. Your utility account started prior to that date.” 
The action is one of the most recent by the city’s Utility Department as FATHOM, the company which manages the city’s utility accounts and billing, works to rectify customer service issues. 
Jason Bethke, company president, visited Copperas Cove on November 28 for a town hall meeting in which customers brought concerns and issues, seeking answers for billing, customer service response, email issues, and other concerns.
Since September, the Utilities Department has been providing information updates to the city council several times per month. 
As of the most recent information item dated December 4, all seven of the account billing cycles had zero meters awaiting a manual read by city staff, and all cycles but one (cycle seven) had more than 99 percent of their bills released on time. For cycle seven, that number was 97 percent. 
The issue of multiple bills should be rectified and “this issue should end within the next two weeks as all cycles will have been billed and approximately 99 percent of customers are receiving monthly bills moving forward.”
According to the report, as of December 1 there were approximately 290 meters remaining to be exchanged and “Water Distribution will continue to exchange meters until all are complete.”