At the meeting Riddle said she had contacted Black Mountain Software, who collate the billing, to ask why the billing was off and discovered there was a zero rate code in the system.
This has now been fixed she explained and set for $45 for 2,000 gallons and should be correct from now on.
Riddle said that since she had posted on Facebook “a bunch of people have brought up the concerns of them paying the $50 for a long time.”
Council member Tammy Taylor also suggested putting out a letter to residents outlining the issue and to contact the city. She said the city need to begin working on the backlog.
Taylor acknowledged this was the city’s problem and added “we can’t screw people out of their money.”
During this discussion, Fromberg resident Cyrill Hergenrider questioned if the city had a policy and procedure book regarding issues like this and had anyone looked at it?
Hergenrider knew of a resident whose water bill was $10,000 over three different accounts that were not even her address and how she had brought this up to the council, Mayor Tim Nottingham and the clerk with no response.
“Where’s the accountability? When are you going to start following policy and procedures?” she asked.
Hergenrider added that any company that has people coming in with billing issues is an “indiction that you need to be on the phone to somebody and in this case to Harlie’s supervisor, Mr. Nottingham. She can’t do her job if she doesn’t have the tools to do it right but at the same point we have got to be accountable for it.”