BILLINGS — As Billings resident Michelle Foss runs her kitchen sink, there's a new thought in the back of her mind that wasn't there just a few months ago: her water bill.
“There's just no feasible way that we're going through this much water,” Foss said.
Foss said before the City of Billings Public Works Department changed their billings system, she never had a water bill over $250.
“Now, I have an $1,150 water bill,” Foss said. “4,000 gallons of water a day. Like, if we're still doing that, I need to know now. Because it's $40 a day for that much water and I can't afford $40 a day for water.”
Her two month combined bill came to $529.09, which she recieved on August 25. Her next bill in October amounted to $1,122.78.
"So, what I've decided I'm going to do until this is resolved is I'm going to pay last year's water bill, the amount that we paid for the last year period, and I'm going to add 20%," Foss said. "I figure that's the fairest thing to do. I don't want to not pay my bill because obviously I use water and I use those services, but I'm not paying a $1,200 bill."
Her October bill said her family had used 125,000 gallons of water in one month, but when she reaches out to public works, they tell her she had high usage from 1 to 5 a.m. during a one month stretch.
An employee with public works also told Foss that her bill was estimated based off of last years usage.
According to Victoria Hill, a spokesperson for the City of Billings, there was an issue uploading meter readings for cycle two customers. So, the 60-day bills that had "consumption estimated were automatically adjusted on the next 30-day bill, resulting in the correct consumption being billed for the 3 months of service."
Hill said roughly 8,500 customers are classified as cycle two customers. Those customers have a bill date of August 25.
"What we use in one day is what we normally use in a month," Foss said. "People can't afford this. I can't. This is my kid's Christmas, like we would have to use our kid's Christmas fund to pay our water bill. And we have the luxury of having a kids, you know, Christmas account. Most people don't. You know, most people are living paycheck to paycheck right now."
Foss is a lawyer and said she would be willing to pursue legal action if she needs to.
“The only thing I can even think of right now is a lawsuit. And if I have to initiate a lawsuit on behalf of the citizens, I will figure that out. And I will do so. And I will happily pursue the City of Billings Public Works Department,” Foss said. “It's the fact that I used to trust our city government and what our city government did for us. And I don't trust the Public Works Department.”
But the city is hoping to gain that trust back with an independent audit. The city announced on Saturday that they have signed a contract with SL-serco Inc. to conduct an audit on the utility billing software system and water meters starting on Wednesday, Nov. 6. The firm has randomly selected residential customers to conduct a review of the water meter in that home.
Billings City Council member Jennifer Owen was involved in selecting which firm would be chosen, and she said the Minneapolis, Minnesota-based company checked all the right boxes.
“It's not designed to be a witch hunt. It's designed to be a learning opportunity. There are clearly things that have gone wrong. At a minimum, communication with the public has not been what we would hope for it to be,” Owen said. “I think a one and done analysis that really looks at everything and how it connects together is better. SL-serco was a company that could do that at a high level of quality and do it quickly.”
The audit will cost the city a total of $75,500, with the audit service costing $33,000 and additional meter testing estimated to cost $42,500. The contract, which was signed on Oct. 31, is set to conclude on Jan. 31, but Owen believes they will have findings before then.
“Their audit preliminary findings will be delivered to council members and city leadership first, rather than the public works department,” Owen said. "What we really want to do is earn the public's trust back. So it was important to me and a number of other Council members that we push for an external audit so that we can really start from the beginning of the process and analyze all the way through. Are the meters working and connecting to the software in the way we want them to? Is the software converting into billing accurately? What was the decision making and project management process like and how did we do communicating with the public?"
