Good evening, 

Apex Town Manager Randy Vosburg shared some information with me today (Feb 19) after I reached out regarding the variation in billing cycle days and large fluctuations in bills. Recently, a town council member posted a response to a question about the timing of bill cycles vaguely citing weather as a reason for the variation. December had an average temperature of 52 degrees, so I asked Randy to be more specific. Here is his response: 

"Some of our meter reading requires field staff to be in close proximity to the meters to get the readings.  This presents a challenge with snow closures.  After all the upgrades, this will not be the case.  Additionally, when offices close for bad weather this adds delays on the processing side.  This can be blamed for a few of the days – the other is a combination of software integration and upgrades, staff having other assigned tasks, staff out on leave, higher volume of rechecks – which diverts staff from our core processing."

While we can all appreciate an occasional variation, receiving an unexpectedly large bill from month-to-month is untenable for many customers and is unfair, in my opinion. As a point of information, the Town is replacing meters with more efficient ones that can be read remotely. 

The third-party audit results will be delayed too. Apparently, once the audit began, the auditors expanded the scope after finding other irregularities. The Town expects to have results in late March.

I am continuing to monitor the situation by communicating with town leaders and attending town council meetings on your behalf. I do encourage you to also attend meetings and speak during the public forum portion. Everyone has three minutes to address the council. I hope to see you there. Please feel free to share our petition and to reach out to me with any questions. Thank you for signing!