The City of Newton is in the process of swapping out old meters for new ones.  The old meters are still recording water usage however they have not transmitted the water readings to the city since 2019. As the City gets access to the old meters, they are sending residents a bill for any overage incurred since 2020. The State leaves it up to cities as to whether they should charge in arrears for the cities inability to collect accurate water readings. 

The City should not penalize residents for their inability to collect accurate meter reads for the past four years and residents should have more than 30 days to reconcile with the city to determine how the overage was incurred and applied and whether it is due to a leak or inaccurate reporting. The City should not charge residents’ interest during this due diligence process.

It is also unfair to charge for four years of back usage without any warning because residents had no ability to reconcile the overage through less consumption, addressing water leaks, applying a second meter for outdoor irrigation, etc. This petition is to serve as a platform to share Newtonians concerns about the city's approach to estimating bills, the short timeline for reconciliation, and the transparency of the process. 

Key considerations

·        Why are residents bearing the burden of the city's inability to accurately collect and bill for water and sewer usage and given less than 30 days to pay for these overage charges, which are in the thousands for many residents? 

·        How are they collecting these 'overage' readings? 

·        Why are they charging the current ‘peak' market rates for the 'overage' when the usage extends back to 2020? 

·        Why are our water and sewer rates more expensive than neighboring towns? 

These 'reconciliation' bills are costly. The city charged one resident $67,000 and my bill was over $15,000. For my household, this translates to 366,750 gallons of ‘excess’ water usage for a period of less than four years. How is this possible? 

The City is charging most residents the total overage amount incurred over the previous four years at the highest rate bracket - $12.63 per Hundred Cubic Feet (HCF) for water and $17.11 per HCF for sewage. When questioned, the City is applying a 'smoothing analysis' to reflect the actual rates and consumption for each period during the overage period on a case-by-case basis. At minimum, this ‘smoothing analysis’ should apply to all residents.

The bills also don't explain how the difference in ‘estimated’ and ‘actual’ usage was calculated other than to say "usage on meter removed" nor do Newtonians have any confidence that the recorded numbers or reconciliation process is fair and equitable. 

The other question is why are Newton's water rates so much higher than neighboring towns?

This petition demands five things: 

1.      The city applies a forbearance for the overage charges.

2.      If a forbearance is not awarded, the City applies a 'smoothing analysis' to ALL residents and charges rates reflective of the periods and volume when the overages were incurred or ideally applies a lesser negotiated rate.

3.      As a part of the reconciliation process, the city takes a picture showing the actual water meter identification number and the water meter usage from the 'removed' water meter and compares it to the previous water meter read in 2019/2020 (before the meters stopped working). 

4.      Provide interest-free payment plans for those residents that are unable to pay the overages. 

5.      Request the City lower water and sewer rates similar to the rates of our surrounding communities. If the demand is so much greater than the actual collection, then rates should be lowered to reflect the increased demand.