Customers express frustration with lag in notification and tone of communications; HWU accepts blame
Henderson residents learned Wednesday night that Henderson Water Utility won’t cover the costs of customer bills containing months of back charges or try to recoup the money from the vendor who supplied water meters that hadn’t been programmed to transmit correct usage numbers.
Both HWU and city of Henderson officials met Wednesday evening to hold an executive session to discuss the possibility of litigation that could occur because of the “catch-up bills,” which include a lump sum amount of fees incurred after the utility undercharged for months. HWU officials say affected customers can set up 12-month or—in some cases longer—payment plans.
During the open discussion part of the special called meeting, legal counsel for both HWU and the city of Henderson said that covenants placed on a $15.1 million revenue bond that the city and HWU enacted through an ordinance in 2023 require the utility to collect all the charges of its service.
For HWU to keep the bonding in place, it must maintain rates at a certain level and collect rates as it said it would, said HWU attorney Eric Shappell. If those covenants are not kept, the bonding company could pull the bond, he said.
About 35 Henderson residents filled the third-floor assembly room of the Municipal Building Wednesday evening to voice concerns about the catch-up bills sent out to many HWU water customers late last week.
Their ire was directed at the hardship that the lump sum would cause, the amount of time it took for HWU to notify them of the problem and the manner in which the notification occurred.
Melissa Roberts, a Henderson resident who penned a letter to the editor that was posted on the Hendersonian’s website, told HWU officials that the way affected customers were notified “lacked any sort of empathy for the people in Henderson.” She noted a letter sent out, social media posts and statements made in a Hendersonian article.
She said a recent report compiled by Audubon Area Community Services shows that there is a 17.9% poverty rate in Henderson. She said to be included in the poverty rate, a household of four makes only $27,750 per year.
“Imagine what an extra charge on their bill is going to be and then imagine them reading what was written in the statements made by the leaders of HWU in those letters, in those articles in the newspaper,” she said. “I saw someone who was out of touch with the typical everyday resident of Henderson, Kentucky.”
She also asked about checks and balances and quality control so errors like this don’t occur in the future.
“Where’s the accountability going to be?” Roberts said.
Recently appointed Henderson Water and Sewer Commission board member Brenna Caudill responded to Roberts, saying that HWU will need to have discussions going forward regarding the possibility of adding manpower or reevaluating procedures so something like this doesn’t happen again.
Roberts also asked about improving communication with residents, especially in light of the time it took HWU to notify the public of problems.
“Six months, guys, six months that went on and you all knew something was going on and our (Henderson city) commission did not know about that,” Roberts said.
Communication was also a complaint of another resident, Christina Gary, who asked why when errors were first discovered in bills affected customers weren’t notified as the mistakes were found. Instead, letters to all affected customers were first sent out in late January.
HWU General Manager Bart Boles said HWU began looking into the problem in August and September, and after months-long investigations, the utility compiled a full list of those affected on Dec. 27.
“We wanted to get everybody who was affected before we sent it out,” Boles said.
Installation of new water meters began in 2023 and has been occurring in phases. Boles said the water meters for the first three phases were supplied by vendor United Systems. At some point, HWU was notified that a new vendor, Core & Main, would be serving HWU’s area.
Boles said that United Systems had been programming the water meters for use before they delivered them to HWU. So, those water meters have been working correctly.
When Core & Main became the vendor, the new company did not program the water meters before delivering them and that led to the incorrect readings, Boles said.
He told the Hendersonian that United Systems, the initial vendor, programmed the water meters but didn’t tell HWU it had been done. When the new vendor, Core & Main, took over, HWU didn’t know that the previous vendor had programmed the meters and wouldn’t know to ask about it.
The errors aren’t seen on the water meters at residents’ homes. In fact, HWU officials asserted the water usage shown at homes is correct.
The errors occurred in the electronic transmission of the gallons used to the billing department, a number that left off the final digit, they said. For example, if a meter reading at a residence showed 4,500 gallons used, the billing department saw 450 gallons used. From this, water bills were created for 10% of what they should have, officials said. The catch-up bills include a lump sum of the months-worth accumulation of what wasn’t on the bills—the 90%.
Resident Harold Wolf asked whether Core & Main could be made to pay for the error. HWU officials said they couldn’t.
“They sent us exactly what we ordered,” said Water and Sewer Commission Board chair Paul Bird.
At different times in the meeting, both Boles and Bird said the mistake was HWU’s.
Another resident, Joseph Hortin, lodged numerous complaints in his questioning. He said that meters should be in working order before installation, and asked why there was the lag in notifying affected customers. Hortin also asked why meters with faulty transmission were left in place during the length of the investigation.
He also requested that HWU send detailed letters stating the error, how the error occurred and how it will be corrected.
During the meeting, Hortin and Gary called for Boles to be dismissed. No discussion of this followed in either instance.
Both Henderson Mayor Brad Staton and Commissioner Robert Pruitt said they were disappointed that it took months before customers were notified of the error. Staton said he will ensure that changes are made so that a system can be in place to make alerts more quickly when discrepancies in bills are found.
Pruitt expressed disappointment that City Manager Buzzy Newman wasn’t notified early in the investigation.
“I do have a concern with that,” Pruitt said.
Both Staton and Pruitt said they looked at finding a way for the city to cover the costs of the catch-up bills. But, Pruitt said, there are “certain things the city can’t do because it’s not legal.”
HWU officials said Wednesday there are 2,234 affected residents and 208 catch-up bills have been sent so far.
