Houstonians hoping to get some relief with their water bill will have a wait a little bit longer. City Council delayed a vote on nine water bill issues, which Mayor Sylvester Turner said would have brought instant relief to Houstonians struggling with immensely high water bills.
After discussing the ordinances for more than an hour, and just before the vote, councilmember Michael Kubosh asked for the delay because he had not been able not to properly review all of the nine ordinances as they were not received until the day before.
“Any customer that receives a bill higher than they deserve that customer needs to get relief from the city, we are in the customer service business. With these changes, I feel confident that the overwhelming percentage of complaints that we receive will be addressed.”
mayor sylvester turner
Turner, who was determined to push the ordinances through in the final weeks of his term, questioned Kubosh’s motives.
“Councilmember, you mean to tell me that people are looking for help like yesterday and you are going to deny them from getting help like tomorrow?” Turner asked before officially tagging the item until the next council meeting.
The nine ordinances could relieve the stress that’s been burdening customers for almost a year now. Residents complained about bills that for some, cost thousands of dollars. City officials said under the current ordinance, Houston Public Works is restricted from how much help they can provide to customers.
“I’ve heard the community and their frustrations with high water bills and I know that getting an unexpectedly high water bill is frustrating,” said Turner.
Some changes include doing away with the number of times residents can seek help for multiple water leaks, which is currently capped at two times per year, giving customers a bigger incentive if they repair their private leaks, increasing the amount of credit customers get back from excess wastewater charges, and a 50 cent discount for anyone who enrolls in electronic billing.
“Any customer that receives a bill higher than they deserve that customer needs to get relief from the city, we are in the customer service business,” said Turner. “With these changes, I feel confident that the overwhelming percentage of complaints that we receive will be addressed.”
Houston Public Works said one issue that’s contributing to the inflation of water bills is the failed water meters. Houston sends out more than 500,000 water bills a month. Since 2019, officials said HPW has been manually reading 40,000 water meters. That number has since increased to more than 125,000 failed meters, and an estimate of about 40,000 water bills a month.
The City Council will take the issue up next week. If the changes pass, they will go into effect immediately.
Here is the full list of the proposed changes
- Remove the twice-a-year allowance to fix water leaks and allow customers to seek relief if there are additional leaks.
- Incentivize citizens to fix their water leaks and get a 100% adjustment on their water bills if a leak is repaired within 30 days, 75% for a repair within 60 days and 50% after 60 days.
- Customers can get 100% credit back on excess wastewater charges.
- To expand eligibility, the leak balance will be reduced from $2,000 to $1,000 and from $250 to $100 for elderly customers.
- The customer’s responsibility for an unusually large bill will be lowered from 150% to 125% of the monthly average water usage.
- Economic Change Adjustments will be brought to any billed amount in excuse of two times an average monthly bill; an amount may be reduced by up to $10,000 for one occurrence and will not exceed two billing cycles.
- Customers can have their meter locked at a one-time fee of $150, once the account is locked all base charges will be removed from the account.
- Customers will get a 50-cent discount for an electronic bill.
- Codify Public Works’ practice of not charging customers for more than three months of back pay.
Houston Public Media contributed to this report.
