DPW RESPONDS TO WATER AUDIT, CITES FORWARD MOVEMENT

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Appearing before the Board of Estimates today, the Head of the City’s Bureau of Water and Wastewater, Mr. Rudolph Chow, outlined extensive progress made in improving Baltimore’s meter reading, billing and customer service operations. The presentation was in response to six issues brought up in a City Auditor’s report in February of this year.

Among the items mentioned in the audit were concerns about estimated bills, billing errors for some customers, new accounts not being billed and standardized procedures not being in place for some operations.

Mr. Chow stated that since the February report that the badly understaffed metering and billing operations have been brought up to industry standards to address the needs of 410,000 accounts.

DPW has increased the staff of meter readers from 27 to 38, added 19 meter inspectors, and fine-tuned the responsibilities of both positions.

DPW hired temporary employees to assist with analysis and adjustments of 70,000 accounts.

DPW has modified its tracking and monitoring processes to ensure that all documents are user-friendly and easily retrievable.

DPW has increased the trigger amount for a water and sewer charge-only lien to tax sale from $250 to $350 and also reduced the water turnoff amount from $500 to $250 in order to intervene before a tax sale occurs.

DPW now receives a daily report for all new accounts and they are added to a routing book as they become available.

DPW has moved to standardized routes for meter readers, leading to greater accuracy and few skipped reads.

DPW has opened a one-stop Customer Care Center on the 4th floor of the Abel Wolman Building, increased the number of customer service representatives from seven to 11, added 15 telephone lines, 10 account clerks and a new correspondence unit to expedite customer service.

“Customer service, accuracy and timeliness are priorities for us,” said Public Works Director Alfred H. Foxx. “We are keeping our promise to provide the best customer service possible. Whereas several months ago when you called you would be on hold for 20 minutes, now that time is reduced to three minutes or less."

The Baltimore City Department of Public Works also noted that it is moving forward with an automated metering and billing system which is expected to be in place within 3-5 years.  Charts detailing the results of the audit are available here.

For more information, contact:

Kurt Kocher or Kia McLeod
410-545-6541
Kurt.Kocher@baltimorecity.gov
Malkia.McLeod@baltimorecity.gov
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