The Council:
Mayor Diaz-Present
Joann Courtland-Present
Fred Chavez-Absent (Prior Commitment)
Dan Yancey-Present
Jay Manning-Present
Dianne Campbell-Present
Jack Smith-Present
Hello again Copperas Cove!!!
The City Manager brought the City Council in for a special meeting regarding the current state of our utilities department and the transfer from Fathom. Ryan Haverlah put on a presentation for the council with some input from Scott Osburn (Public Works Director).
Here is a timeline of the discussion:
November 19, 2019 City Council authorized additional positions in preparation for possible in-house utility administration services
November 21, 2019 City Council provided direction to transition to in-house utility administration services.
City Council directed staff to expand the current office to Suite A & B and City Hall and to begin the long-term action to renovate 305 S Main St to permanently move Utility Administration Department.
City Council directed staff to proceed with contracts with Core and Main for software and maintenance of the meter reading system.
City Council directed staff to not consider venders' Vertexone or Advanced Utility Systems as an utility customer information and billing system.
November 22, 2019 Public Forum held at the Civic Center
November 26, 2019 FATHOM notified the City of continued operations until December 9, 2019
December 2, 2019 Additional staff began training in Utility Administration Department
December 5, 2019 FATHOM notified the City of a final end of operations date, December 17, 2019
Fathom has been with Copperas Cove from 3 Apr 2017 - 17 Dec 2019. December 13th will be the last day of service from Fathom to the citizens of Copperas Cove, and December 17th will be the last day of data extraction from Fathom to the City of Copperas Cove. The City has been working on bringing in staff for in house utilities customer service with them hiring 2 more employees recently and in the middle of the interview process for a 3rd. They also have an extra position open for the billing dept. Suite "B" of their current location has been opened up to as part of the utilities office to allow for the extra employees and workload. It was originally thought to cost about 10k for this expansion, but one factor that wasn't thought of was the purchase of the extra computers needed. The final cost of the expansion wound up being $13,080. They also identified an alternate parking solution for employees in nearby parking lots to clear up the City Hall parking. Judge Price offered some of his parking nearby, as did PenFed Credit Union.
The old Utility Administration location (305 Main Street) still has many improvements needed before it's ready for move-in. An architect is needed because the city needs to have a wall added in the building for the safety of the CSRs and cash being handled. Ryan recalled having times in the past where so many people would be in there waiting that he would have people wrapping around to where the CSRs were seated while they were handling money so he would be having to move people back to the correct side of the counter. They would like to have a wall installed to increase security and safety. The building also still needs interior upgrades like abatement, ceiling work, flooring, etc to the estimated cost of $93,600, but that number is expected to increase. The exterior needs repairs in the estimated sum of $39,000, and they are wanting to install an automated payment kiosk in the drive-thru which will run $28,327 +S&H.
Once Fathom suspends service, there will be approximately 6 weeks of no bills. A physical letter will be mailed out to every house covering this and what to expect very shortly. Then, another letter will be mailed out preparing customers for the billing to start back up again. The next bill could essentially be a 2 month bill. Customers needing payment arrangements can request that with the city and arrangements will be made for everyone who needs it. Online payments will stay available via WaterSmart. The city is expecting a seamless transition from the Fathom customer portal to the WaterSmart customer portal. Auto Pay, however, will stop until the transition is complete. Joann Courtland asked if WaterSmart will offer ACH payments or if they will all be credit card payments, but Ryan wasn't sure of the answer so he said he will follow up to that and make sure it is included on the letters being mailed out.
Ryan went on to cover how the billing system works from the Neptune meter to the money being sent to the bank. From there he started covering the software that we will need to be self serving. The information collection software will run $27,844 for 36 months, and the meter reading software will cost $38,000 a year. He also covered a comparison of InScope vs the WaterSmart customer portals along with the staff recommendation. InCode will cost $21,600 per year of operation, and WaterSmart will cost $7,500 for the impliment, $28,297 for the first year of operation (the first two months will be free), and then settle out at $33,068 per year of operation after that. The city staff recommend WaterSmart due to transition consistency.
When it comes to the bill printing and mailing, Ryan went over DataProse vs USPS. DataProse will cost $46,350 annually, and USPS will cost $66,642 annually. Not only are DataProse cheaper, but they have a sizable list of things they offer over USPS that can help the city, so they are the recommendation from city staff.
With the Utility Dept report complete, the council moved on to the 3 agenda items needing vote: Consideration and action on authorizing the City Manager to execute a production agreement with (1) WaterSmart Software Inc, (2) Tyler Technologies/parent company of Incode, and (3) DataProse LLC. The City Attorney has reviewed the WaterSmart agreement and submitted changes. Those changes were approved by WaterSmart so the city is ready to move forward. Dianne Campbell is concerned about verbiage differences between two different sheets from WaterSmart. Scott Osburn agrees that we could get a more detailed list of services offered. Dianne agreed that we need a very specific list and noted just one of many discrepancies. Marc Payne asked if alert signups will be automatic, to which Ryan stated they would not be. There are certain ones the city could have as automatic, but not all customers want the same alerts so the city prefers to let people get on and set their own alerts. The city can implement some procedures with known leakers such as getting out and knocking on doors or leaving notes on doors when people don't answer. Before moving forward with the vote on WaterSmart, Joanne wanted an amendment requiring clarification of services offered. The amendment and the vote for WaterSmart both were a 6-0 PASS. The following agenda items for Tyler Technologies and DataProse LLC were also both a 6-0 PASS, and with that the city utility administration has vendors in place to move forward with bringing the water billing services back in town. We still have some work ahead, but the basics are in place.
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