City Council

City of Salem, Massachusetts ,i{RL ,/ \_R? Y ;t i*Lrrt !i ai.E=3.t7-:- ?N--:-'7d.', 1&YlR:- "Know Your Rights Under the Open Meeting l*aw, M.G.t. c. 30A ss. 18-25 and City Ordinance Sections 2-2028 through 2-2033." The City Council Committee on Ordinances. License.s and Legal Affairs co-posted with the Committee of the Whole met in the Council Chamber on Thursdav. April 25. 2024 at 6:00 P.M. for the purpose of discussing the matters(s) listed below. Notice of this meeting was posted on Aoril 18.2O24 at 10:05 A,M. (This meeting is being recorded) ATTENDANCE ABSENT WERE : None, Councilor Watson-Felt (remote) Also from the COW: Councilols Prosniewskl, Jerrylo, Varela, and Council President Hapworth ln attendance from the City of Salem: Sam Mustafa, Engineering Business Manager and Water Registrar SUBJECT(S} Granting certain licenses - (Secondhand Clothing & Secondhand Valuable) (OLLA Only) fi166 - Ordinance amending an Ordinance relative to Water and Sewers Ch. 45 Sec. 35 - Meter (Co-posted) Councilor Morsillo begins with the licenses: Secondhand Clothing and Second Hand Valuable for To Do Ta Done, which are good to go. Councilor Cohen states that this is a terrific compan% and moves that we refer this to the Council with a positive recommendation for approval. Councilor Morsillo does a roll callvote: Councilor Harvey - Y Councilor Davis - Y Councllor Cohen -Y Councilor Watson-Felt - Y Councilor Morsillo - Y The motion passes 5-0. Councilor Morsillo moves on to the second item, and ordinance amending an ordinance relative to Water and Sewers Ch. 46 Sec. 35 - Meter. This is about how we will be estimating water meter usage when the meter cannot be read. The language is in front of the Councilors. Mr. Mustafa describes how they began their work, with a report from residents of Newton who received outrageous bills. The reason is that meters will eventually stop working due to part malfunction. The problematic area is the radio transponders on the side of the house and has a 2O-year warranty, prorated after 10 years. We are now beyond the lO-year period and are seeing failure. The water tech is doing 12-15 appointments each week, about L0% of accounts need to be estimated. The most recent billing cycle had 3,390 quarterly bills and 970 monthly bills. Of those, 316 quarterly bills and 135 monthly bills needed to be estimated. They either manually go in and determine the estimate, or Munis will estimate. The current ordinance states that when a meter is not readable, the estimate is based on 200 gallons per day per inhabitant. lt is impossible for the department to know how many individuals are living at each address, and sometimes the estimates can go 4,5, ot 6 billing cycles. They try not to over- or underestimate the bill. Once the water tech gets into the building, they do a reading, and the resulting bill may be quite large. Or there may be a credit, and either way, the resident is unhappy. The new method will look at the last 12 reads, which if the bill is quarterly, it covers three years. This gives a pretty good estimate. Councilor Morsillo asks about the failure rate of the meters and what we are doing proactively to address this. Mr. Mustafa states that about tOYo of the meters fail. Every bill indicates wither the reading is actual or an estimate. They also send out a separate letter explaining the failure of the meter, so that residents can contact the department and get their meter fixed. lf the transponder is within warranty, they are getting back whatever they can. The department is also looking into a pilot for new meters, and are considering 4 different companies. A decision will be made soon. The new meter will allow residents to view their usage and get a text message about water leaks. Councilor Varela asks about the cost of the meter. Mr. Mustafa states that the cost of the meter, meter head, and MlU, all of which is about 5500 depending on the size of the meter. Councilor Varela asks about the estimation formula. Mr. Mustafa states that in every case they will use historical averages. Even for a new resident, they can determine the usage based on the past few months and the number of residents. For commercial, usage may be seasonal, so they will use severalfactors including historical averages and current season. For deduct meters, they can utilize the deduct meter history as well, knowing the historical percentage of water through the deduct meter. Councilor Varela asks about using the deduct meter to determine the estimate, and whether it is an average of the year. Mr. Mustafa says they can use the deduct specifically for a billing period, knowing he historical usage. Councilor Varela feels that this is a good way to estimate and can see his personal usage with a deduct meter which is seasonal and feels it will be covered. Councilor Cohen asks if he has thought of using a l3-month estimate instead of a l2-month. Mr. Mustafa says they did consider it. They use 12 quarters for quarterly billing if they can and look for outliers that will throw off the true average. Councilor Prosniewski asks about the average single family home meter price of 5500. He clarifies that this cost is covered by the city, not the homeowner. He asks how the new meters will roll out given the cost. Mr. Mustafa states that the new meters will make a huge difference in the cost of maintenance right now. The existing meters will need to be replaced soon anyway. But we will get better reads and the customer will be happier and will be able to interact with the meter usage. Councilor Prosniewski asks about the interface between the meter and the customer. Mr. Mustafa says they will see historical usage, current meter usage, will get warnings about possible leaks. Residents on vacation can monitor their water usage from afar. Councilor Watson-Felt asks if the historical data is reflective of actual usage or if it could be based on previous estimates. Mr. Mustafa states that previous estimates will not be used and will be taken out of the data. She asks about the quarterly historical data and if the basic minimum will be as far back as they can go for the people in that building. Mr. Mustafa states that they can use as many periods as possible, but 12 periods gives a good data point. lt is really important for customers to respond to letters stating that their meter is malfunctioning, so the estimates are important to calculate. The meter usage data is very accurate, so the estimates should be valid. He says that customers commonly question the validity of the meters, and they have them tested, and they are always correct. Councilor Harvey asks about the cost difference between the current meters and the new ones being looked at. Mr. Mustafa says they are close to the same price, so why not use the money for replacing meters to upgrade to newer meters. Councilor Harvey agrees that it makes sense to begin rolling out new meters with better capabilities when meters need to be replaced. Councilor Morsillo clarifies that when a gasket fails and the meter leaks, the gasket is replaced, the meter is not replaced. Mr. Mustafa confirms. Councilor Cohen asks about the warranty for the new meters, and if it will have the same type of warranty. Mr. Mustafa states that they have not confirmed which meter we will use, but once the decision is made, they will get about 4 proposals. Warranties usually are great for the first years, then are reduced as the years pass. Councilor Cohen comments that previously our water bills were impossible to read, but that has changed. Having an app linked to the meter will be very useful. And he wants the department to hurry up with the decision because the new meters will be very helpful and cost effective. Councilor Varela would like to see the incentivization of deduct meters for all homes, especially when used for irigation, and people save money as well. He says that he has had issues with his meter estimates and would like to see annual precipitation taken into account when doing estimates, and to make it part of the ordinance. Councilor Morsillo responds that there are a lot of factors that could go into the estimates, it isn't meant to be a long-term solution to billing. But she will let the committee decide how to move forward with the possible amendment. Councilor Cohen replies that looking back at precipitation totals is an estimate in itself. He would like to move ahead with what is in front of us and once we have the new meters, we will see how valid the calculations are. Councilor Cohen moves to refer the amendment to the futl council with a positive recommendation for first passage. Councilor Harvey - Y Councilor Davis - Y Councilor Cohen -Y Councilor Watson-Felt - Y Councilor Morsillo - Y The motion passes 5-0. On the motion of C. Davis the meeting adjourned (after a unanimous roll call vote) at 6:43 P'M. (Chairperson)