Fathom is out of here on Friday the 13th. We have a plan!

Fathom is out of here on Friday the 13th. We have a plan!

The Council:
Mayor Diaz-Present
Joann Courtland-Present
Fred Chavez-Absent (Prior Commitment)
Dan Yancey-Present
Jay Manning-Present
Dianne Campbell-Present

Marc Payne-Present
Jack Smith-Present

Meeting Agenda

Council Video

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

The slides that explain it all!

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.

City Council Regular Meeting and Workshop - 19 Mar 2019

City Council meeting and workshop for March 19, 2019

The Council:
Joann Courtland-Present
Fred Chavez-Absent (Sickness)
Dan Yancey-Present
Jay Manning-Present
Kirby Lack-Present
Marc Payne-Present
Charlie Youngs-Present

Mayoral Candidates:
Bradi Dewald Diaz-Present
Ron Nelson II-Present
Joey Acfalle-Absent
Brandi Weiand-Absent

Hello again Copperas Cove! As always, we appreciate you checking in - here's the recap from the latest City Council Meeting.

Announcements:
Ryan Haverlah (our Interim City Manger) started the night off with a few announcements.
-The city of Copperas Cove will be celebrating it's 140th birthday! March 25th at 5:30 pm at the City Library, there will be a proclamation, showing of historical photos, story telling, cake, cookies, punch, and other activities. Everyone is encouraged to show up!
-Copperas Cove recently was given an award from the United Way for showing the biggest improvements during the past year

Citizens Forum:
-Terri stepped up first and kicked things off with her continued disappointment in the Fathom mess. They are still conducting improper services with 30-45 min phone calls to fix an issue and there have been a lot of hard times in trying to get answers. She would really like to see these issues her tenants are having be resolved. Moving on from that, she is a volunteer with a local emergency response team and on May 7th, they will be holding a major  mass casualty exercise around Fort Hood. They are needing a lot of volunteer actors to help out with this and can use everyone from children to the elderly.
-Mari (hopefully I spelled that correct) Cruz is an 18 year citizen with Copperas Cove. She's recently had an issue with Fathom where they pulled a scheduled auto draft of her bill and disconnected it on the same day! Then, to add insult to injury, they wanted an additional $55 up front to reconnect it, wouldn't let her authorize it to be turned back on since she wasn't the account holder (although her husband tried to have her added as having permission twice in the past), and then told her that because it was after 3 pm, they wouldn't be able to reconnect her water that day. She added that she has Lupus, her husband is a disabled vet, and they need water for medical reasons. As a final touch, she also noticed added fees on her following bill that resulted from the water shutoff.
-Debbie spoke out about payment issues she's had with Fathom. They have a small family who have been taking measures to cut back on water usage in the past months, yet she see's her bill continuing to go up. This past one, it was over 5,000 gallons. She's noticed that there's two different water and sewage fees instead of one of each like normal and doesn't believe Fathom should be double dipping like that. Editors Note: I've sat in on discussions about this by the council. It's my personal belief that there is a misunderstanding in this case. The city applies a discounted rate for everyone if they use UNDER 5,000 gallons. Once you reach the 5,000 gallon mark, your rate goes up to the "normal" rate. Most of us don't use over 5,000 gallons so we will never see the difference. It is MY personal belief that what is happening with the two line items of water and two line items of sewer is one line item is the discount rate up to 5,000 gallons, and the second line item is the standard rate applied after the 5,000 gallons. If I have this wrong, feel free to let us know in the comments - Jeremy
-Linda with the Five Hills Art Guild is inviting the public to next weekends (May 30-31)Five Hills Art Festival - "Bridge the Gap!". It will have free parking and entry, dancers, art from all across the state as well as one artist coming in from New Mexico, and dance off competitions. It will be Saturday from 10 to 7 and Sunday from 11 to 4.

The Agenda

Action Items:

H1 - The Heart of Texas Defense Alliance came out and gave its quarterly report on activities and requested payments for professional services provided. Keith Sledd was not near the microphone and the A/C was kind of loud, so we missed some of what he was saying, but I did pick up a few things.  

The Department of the Army has approved a Recycling Inter-Governmental Support Agreement (IGSA) allowing Copperas Cove to use their recycling program. The lawyers looked into policy and it doesn't prohibit this type of relationship. To make things more secure, they are now moving to include language specifically authorizing a relationship like this, and then Fort Hood and Copperas Cove will work to put this in effect. 

The Governor is working on some actions to be more supportive of military spouses and families. In the second slide (GCSM Findings and Recommendations), check marks are next to items that are already in place, and the unchecked items are being worked on to be put in place. I also heard some talk about Fort Hood resources being used towards construction of a wall on our southern border, but I think it was something being worked on. PASS

H2 - The Five Hills Art Guild made a presentation discussing the expenses put into the "Bridge the Gap" going on this weekend, and they requested a reimbursement for $8,760 out of the $12,000 already allocated in the city budget. PASS

H3 - The council assigned three members to the sign committee. Two are locally recognized business owners and one is a commercial sign contractor licensed by the State of Texas. Douglas Aldrich (All American Signs), Teresa Lange (Lamar Advertising), and Jennifer Snelling (Quine and Associates) were selected. PASS

H4 - The Copperas Cove Police Dept is looking to get rid of a number of firearms that no longer serve a purpose in the Police Department. Since they legally can't sell them to the public, they are looking to trade them in towards new firearms through a certified dealer (85 used weapons for 15 new weapons) with no financial liability to the city. PASS

H5 - Weaver (the same company that conducted the FATHOM Audit) presented an FY2018 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report. When conducting this audit, they look at cash disbursements, payroll, utility revenue, tax revenue, and capitol projects. In all the areas they reported on, there were no problems found. Jay Manning asks why is this late again? The auditor stated no blame on the city, all the city staff were very helpful and prompt. Weaver took extra time in making the report presentable. Charlie Youngs motioned to approve the report. Jay Manning stated he was just given this report, and it is quite heavy. He can't vote to approve acceptance of this report with so many pages and so little time to review it. He would like extra time to review it.  The rest of the council concurred with his thoughts. FAILED 5-1 with Charlie Youngs being the only one to approve. They will revisit during a special meeting at 5:00, next Monday (March 25th).

H6 - Joe Brown with Parks and Rec gave a presentation on the current fees being charged at the Civic Center. He reminded the Council that it used to be $800 a day and $400 for half a day with a $400 refundable deposit, $100 Kitchen use fee, $100 Audio equipment use fee, $100 Stage use fee, and $40 restoration fee applied to everyone. They were getting a LOT of requests for fee reductions, so  last year the council voted to drop the rental fee and get rid of the half day fee to make it fair for everyone and stop entertaining requests for reduced fees. Now, here we are again with the council requesting a report of the daily operating expenses for the Civic Center to see how much more we can reduce the cost and still cover operating expenses. He took the overall expenses of the Civic Center for the past 5 years, and for each year he divided the amount of expenses for that year by amount of rentals for that year. Then he took all 5 years expense costs and averaged them out. Expense costs are everything from toilet paper being used to the grounds employees being paid to set things up in the civic center, to the floor wax being applied and time to do it. He did not factor in electricity used for the lights and HVAC or administrative staff time which is used towards each rental as well. The number he came up with was $560 a day or $70 an hour to run the civic center. Marc Payne started asking a bunch of questions about how many A/C units the building has, and he noticed that as prices went up over the years, rentals went down. He then factored in the city and school district using the civic center and said that means that hardly any citizens are actually renting the building. Marc further stated that we should not be so tough on tax payers already paying for these buildings or Charities trying to help the community.

From there the council started making form adjustments to specify who can receive up to a 50% discount when seemingly out of nowhere, Charlie Youngs pulled out of thin air that he wants the rental fee to be a flat $250 for anyone and everyone, no discounts applied. Take it or leave it. Joann and Marc immediately agreed. Jay Manning said he would hate to see the city losing money on renting this building and thinks we should stay at cost. Charlie Youngs then said that he thinks the people that are going to rent it are mostly citizens who are already paying for it in their taxes, and he would rather drop the price now with the hopes that rentals go up, and if they don't go up then go back and raise the fee to make up for lost costs. With that, the council voted on the new fee of $250 a day, Sound/Kitchen/Stage usage are $100 each, $400 refundable deposit, and a $40 restoration fee applied to everyone.Editors Note: Why are we as a city renting OUR Civic Center to a customer for half of what it cost to operate it- James  PASS A future agenda item will cover applying the new fees to the schedule, so the fee isn't being applied just yet.

Reports from Staff:

Ryan had some reports for the council tonight. 

-With the ongoing Texas Legislative Session going on, several bills have been presented. SB1 and HB1 both are similar bills (SB- Senate Bill, HB- House Bill) They have to do with relief payments the state gives out to help offset veterans who don't have to pay property tax. With these bills, Copperas Coves budgeted relief would more than double from prior years. Attached to those are some bills - one would expand this to Central Texas College and municipalities that lie in counties that share a border with military installations. 

-SB1152 States that local governments can't use any public funding to lobby at the state level. The problem with this is most cities are part of the Texas Municipal League which goes and does lobbying for the different cities around the state. They play a big part in staying in tune with the Texas Government and fighting for the cities. If this bill passes, the Mayor would have to be the one who goes to lobby for their city, taking some of their attention away from events going on in their city or needs of the city. 

-The Business 190 project is now in its 60% review phase which is expected to be complete by May 1st. The report from the TxDOT public meeting should be ready by the end of April, and will be made available to the public when the city gets it. 

- City employees have recently gone to South Park and cleaned out all the cat shelters (over 70) that had been placed around the park. They then reached out to the local concerned citizens and assured them that this was not a preliminary step to removing cats, but rather a measure to clean up the park. The city would like to remind residents that personal property is not permitted to be left on city property. 

Copperas Cove Workshop Notes

The workshop consisted of a discussion of the Downtown Transportation Feasability Study and the Downtown Masterplan of 2008. Neither plan dealt with traffic flow cor Copperas Cove.

The next 12 million dollar project from KTMPO road project will be the FM 116 railroad underpass project. They plan to start it in 2022 and will need two years of planning with BNSF before that due to coordination of the project. It doesn't address the traffic flow issue or the continued growth on the north side of town. Here are the options the council discussed:

1. FM 116 Railroad Underpass

2. Shift Main St to FM 116

3. FM 116 Realignment

4. FM 1113 Realignment

5. FM 116 and FM 1113 Realignment

The council agreed to have the Interim City Manager plan for the study and bring it back to them. 

With that, the meeting was a wrap! We appreciate your stopping by - be sure to subscribe, comment, and share this blog with other Copperas Cove residents! 

Fathom Audit

Copperas Cove Utilities Billing Audit - By Weaver and Tidwell 
5 Feb 2019


The Copperas Cove City Council received its requested Utilities Billing Audit, conducted by Weaver and Tidwell LLP. The audit covered a period from 1 April 2017 - 1 Sept 2018. Weaver and Tidwell identified approximately 14,000 individual accounts and approximately 242,000 meter reads during this period.

The procedures performed are as follows:

-Selected 150 individual accounts, allocated across seniors, residential, and commercial groups for testing.

-Compared the amount billed to the preceding and subsequent months and identified any accounts that have a variance greater than 5%.

-Recalculated the amount billed according to the fee schedule.

-Obtained the total volume amount billed and identified any variance greater than 10%.


To match the 1% requested by the City Council, they selected 141 accounts across the city to audit.
Of those 141 accounts:
-123 were residential accounts
-13 were residential-senior accounts
-5 were business accounts


None of the accounts audited showed any mis-calculations of consumption. Of the 141 accounts, 64 had variances of more than 10% from one month to another - which isn't out of the ordinary. 134 of the accounts were recalculated within .01. Of the remaining 7 that weren't, 6 were due to either a shorter/longer billing period depending on what cycle they were on or they were due to Council approved rate changes. 1 account was shown to be an error with their senior citizen discount not being fully applied. That wound up being a recurring error, and one that the auditor will be working with the city to correct for that customer. May - June showed the biggest billing variance across all the accounts due to the billing dates for that period falling on 1 June and 29 June.

In addition to the audit, Weaver and Tidwell presented some extra information that they thought could be useful to the city.

Disconnect Notices:
-None issued between April - June 2017. They believe this may have inadvertently caused problems by letting people get used to not paying their bill and not have anything to worry about. This may have started a domino effect for some customers who now struggle to get their bill paid on time.

-Issued 1-2 days past the bill due date. These notify that the disconnect will be 10 days after the notice is mailed out. (Editors note: Keep in mind - that 10 days includes any weekends if it's mailed out on a Thursday/Friday as well as holidays if the mail is down. It IS possible for you to get a disconnect notice in the mail on a Monday afternoon and have it tell you you're due for disconnect the following Tuesday.)

-No disconnects during Thanksgiving week, Christmas week, or New Years day.

High Consumption Notices:
-Received via email and phone call
-Approximately 40% of our accounts are active online. No online accounts will not receive an email disconnect notice. This presents a problem because phone calls are automated, and a lot of people instinctively do not answer automatic phone calls that come across as spam on caller ID, or they hang up as soon as they hear the automated voice.

Audit discussion by City Manager and City Council members:
-Ryan Haverlah started the conversation off by bringing up that the city did not retain a proper amount of staff to know what would be needed to work with Fathom - which was cause of a lot of the problems with accounts. This put the city in a reactive mode. Once we get our utility staffing back up, that will help us regain footing in a proactive role. However, during the issues the city has had, Fathom has been very responsive in helping city staff.
-Joann Courtland stated that this "is not enough data". Citizens are still coming forth with issues and we need to do everything we can to help them. With this audit, "we hit the bread, but we want to get to the meat" of the problem.
-Charlie Youngs would like to see the city keep the auditor on hand until the city staff gets better and can start doing in house audits. To that, the auditor replied that they could certainly do more work if needed.
-Marc Payne asked if Fathom can do any tracking of the types of problems coming in - even if it's just a paper next to each phone with general types of problems in columns, and the operator quickly puts a check in a column as it is called in.
-Dan Yancey stated the call centers don't have the time to track problem types so we need to find a different way. Jay Manning stepped in and said that 1% isn't a bad number, and that there aren't any real problems being highlighted in the audit. With the old system, a lot of times the meter reads were averaged out. Those problems that were ignored because the reading was being averaged out are now having a spotlight put on them, grabbing peoples attention via their wallets. More audits won't do any good - we should focus on our known problems for now. It is in our and Fathoms best interest to work together. For Fathom, this is even a PR issue as it won't look good for them if a city backs out due to poor service. He believes we can work together and fix all the issues going on.
-Ryan Haverlah will start categorizing and focusing on complaints, however a lot of the initial problems have been worked out.
-Fred Chavez agrees with Jay Manning's comments. He wants to compare our numbers to Fathoms as well as look at what they consider appropriate standards of customer service vs our standards.

The audit was not open for public comment, however you may comment on it at the citizens forum. With that, the discussion ended and moved on to the next agenda item.

City Council meeting on 5 Feb 19 and Fathom audit results

Copperas Cove City Council Meeting for 5 Feb 19


The Council:
Mayor-Vacant
Joann Courtland- Present
Fred Chavez- Present
Mayor Pro Tem Dan Yancey- Present
Jay Manning- Present
Kirby Lack- Present
Marc Payne- Present
Charlie Youngs- Present


The Agenda

Bradi Dewald Diaz

 Tonight's council meeting lasted over 2 hours and dealt with a variety of subjects. For agenda item H1, Star Group brought a big family of concerned citizens including Bill French and Dr Burns, which led the chambers to have standing room only. There were 20 people left standing in the room, with more out in the lobby. The subject of Fathom was part of three agenda items and took most of the time. We will write about most of it BUT there will be a SEPARATE blog dealing with the audit.

As of now, the only filed candidate for Mayor, Bradi Dewald Diaz, was at the council meeting. We asked her why she was running for office and she told us that she felt it was time to get involved again. She also said that Mayor Seffrood set the bar extremely high for all future mayors for Copperas Cove but she can do it and wants to do it.

Citizens Forum:
-Ms Keegan about water bill. She is a 40 year resident who lives alone and is being told she went through 20,000 gallons of water last month. Some of her high water usage was happening when she wasn't home or from midnight to 8 am when she was in bed.
-Terri Deans about need for open forum about Fathom. We still have double billings, erroneous billings, and wrongful disconnects happening. She doesn't mind fighting for the citizens, but needs other citizens to support her and get up there with her. She also spoke about some disaster training provided locally provided by G317. It will be a 24 hour course and is open to the public. You can get ahold of her directly for more info, or if you need help getting in contact - we can get you in contact with her.
-Mr Oliver about road conditions on Pecan Cove Drive. They have caused at least 4 accidents in recent years due to the amount and size of the pot holes. A Fire Truck and Police Car have been involved in accidents related to these pot holes as well as at least two cars that he's seen run off the road to try avoiding the pot holes and on coming traffic simultaneously. There has been discussion since at least 2014 to repair this road with no action taken.
-Siggi Loe about Business 190 and the need of sidewalks on both sides of the street in subdivisions. She encouraged the council to start enforcing a stipulation to builders that if they are going to build a new neighborhood, they are required to install sidewalks on both sides of the street. She also agrees with Mr Oliver. She sees that we're fixing up the golf course, but leaving our roads in disrepair. She urged the council that while the Golf Course and Parks DO need attention - put our roads first.

Public Hearing:
There was an initial public hearing about the renewal of the youth curfew. Deputy Chief Stoddard gave the brief. Cheryl Davis asked who makes the determination of reasoning of a minor in possible violation of the curfew. The officer makes the decision based on the information and location from the minor and parent. Parents are allowed to send their children out on errands for the parents (grocery store, medication run, etc) but they are not allowed to give their children permission just to go hang out after curfew. The ordinance has to be reauthorized every three years due to state law. It applies to children 16 and below. The next public hearing and vote will be February 19.

Jonathan Haywood Star Group

The Star Group requested that their lease for $1 a year be extended for another year and also explained the they had invested $125,000 (minus labor) in renovations on their building. Additionally, they have invested heavily in the public. Ryan Haverlah agrees tremendous work has been put in by the Star Group. Dan Yancey stated he is "grateful for them being here" and they are "one of the best things in Central Texas". Fred Chavez stated their "main value isn't in what you've put into the building, but the work you do".  The lease can be extended three times. It passed 7-0 and included a future debate on doing a two year extension.


Next the council approved a 50% discount for the Refuge Corporation (CHOP). Joe Brown briefed the council that the Refuge Corporation has never been charged. Dan Yancey and Jay Manning reminded the council that the Civic Center fee schedule last year was voted on by the City Council and lowered from $800 (with half days and discounts ) to $500 (with no half days or discounts). This was done to encourage more entities to rent the Civic Center, and bring an end to requests for discounts coming to the City Council. Even with that change income for the Civic Center didn't go up. Joann Courtland stated we should be trying to help them since they've been a 24 year partner with Copperas Cove and now we're bringing on a fee out of nowhere. Marc Payne stated this is supposed to be the City of Family Living and we need to provide a discount. Also, the Cove House was denied their discount. Passed 7-0

The Noon Exchange came to the council asking that a $3,875 check be issued to the for Copperas Cove partnership in the "Feast of Sharing". There were 750 people fed at no charge in November. November 21, 2019 will be the next scheduled dinner. Ryan Haverlah noted that this has already been budgeted. Passed 7-0

Agenda H4. The Fathom Audit
Here is a summary (look for the other blog soon):
The Audit covered April through September 2017
123 accounts were part of the audit (1% of accounts) and randomly selected
There are 7  billing cycles in Copperas Cove
There were no inconsistent meter reads and only one error.
64 accounts had a +/-10% change in bill during the audit period but we are told it is normal.
There were no disconnects from April through June 2017.
The disconnects problem was fixed by ordinance.
Councilmen Chavez, Yancey, and Manning said there was not a need further audit but need to still get answers to existing problems.

The 1st quarterly Fathom brief from Brad Dreir and Karen Garrison. The Interim City Manager

Brad Dreier, Fathom

started by saying the lobby space in the Utility Department has been expanded for more people, the supervisors office has been improved for privacy during account discussions with citizens, hiring in progress for utility department personnel, they are looking at costs for renovating the old utilities building, and Ryan Haverlah went to Haltom City to view their Fathom operations. Haltom City operates similar to us, started out with similar problems that have now pretty much all been resolved, and city staff were impressed with how they do things. They are the first city that Fathom has put an office in to directly interact with the customers. Ryan also stated that while he can not go into specifics - Ms Keegans bill is accurate, and the meter has not been acting up. He and his staff have been in contact with her and he has a meeting with her again later this week. Brad stated to the council that Copperas Cove now has their own dedicated billing, customer service, and ticket escalation areas. Copperas Cove now has it's own point of contact/representative with Fathom, which is Brad Dreir. Anytime we have any questions, we may contact him directly and he will do everything he can to help us, or the city staff. The Customer Service training time has been doubled. For property managers, blanket accounts have been working well since November 2018. Copperas Cove customers have a 43% portal registration rate compared to 25% nationally. The answered call rate has gone from 17 minutes to 1 minute 6 seconds. They will also be implementing a mobile meter reading vehicle for drive bys.

Brad said he is always available to Copperas Cove. They brief as often as needed. It was a much needed briefing. We still need an open forum.

The next item on the agenda dealt with Capital Outlay Plan for 2019. Main subject was the purchasing of two vehicles for the Utility department. Passed 7-0

The last two items passed 7-0 and were for training for council place 1 and 2, and for legislative policy. The executive session was cancelled.

Citizens attending the Copperas Cove City Council meeting

The Workshop at 5PM was about debt policy and Copperas Cove. Copperas Cove debt is $34 million carried by taxes and we add about $30 million more. Copperas Cove has a goal of issuing $10 million annually. Gary Kimble said that we pay off our debt faster than most other cities. Our bond rating is AA.

Future Agenda Items:

Joann Courtland would like to review the fees for all city owned facilities. - Approved

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