CITY COUNCIL AGENDA ITEM
ACTION REQUESTED:
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Receive the Water Utilities Automated Metering Infrastructure (AMI) business case report
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DEPARTMENT: Water Utilities
SUBMITTED BY: Darrell Blenniss, Director
BOARD/COMMISSION REVIEW:
The Public Utilities Advisory Board considered the Water Utilities AMI business case at their meetings of March 15 and May 3, 2019. PUAB recommended approval of the business case assumptions with inclusion of a communications plan (5-0), implementation of an AMI meter reading scenario (4-1), issuance of an RFP (5-0) and a funding scenario with the lowest impact to rate payers (5-0).
The Financial Advisory Board considered the financing alternatives of the Water AMI project at their April 29, 2019 meeting and recommended funding options in the following order: using cash on hand within the Utility, cash on hand within the City, and borrowing from the outside.
BACKGROUND:
On Dec. 4, 2018, Council awarded a contract to West Monroe Partners, LLC to complete a Water Utility Automated Metering Infrastructure (AMI) Business Case analysis to examine options and feasibility of implementing alternatives to manual water meter reading.
The Water Utility has approximately 45,000 water meters, which requires monthly reads for billing. For numerous reasons, manual water meter reading is no longer viewed as a sustainable method to obtain water meter reads. This manual process currently generates a large percentage of estimated reads (approximately 25% of the time). In addition, high employee turnover rates and environmental and man-made conditions such as poor weather, animals and locked fences affect the reliability and cost of the process.
The City's current manual meter reading vendor, Alexander, does not want to continue contracting with the City for manual read services beyond the current contract requirements, which expire in August 2021. (Alexander had requested terminating their contract in 2018.) With the continued dec...
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