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Billing glitch costs Niles more than $167,000
By Jordan Cohen
NILES
The city is launching an internal audit after discovery of an error in utility billing software that eliminated a $25 flat monthly fee for sewer services for 100 homes in Weathersfield Township for more than five years.
The lost revenue to Niles: $167,500.
“This was going on for 67 months,” said Ed Stredney, service director. “It was discovered by our [utility billing] employees more than a year ago who reported it to the previous administration, but nobody did anything about it.”
The city had been using software provided by the Canadian-based Cogsdale Systems of Canada. The software, however, had been plagued with problems since its installation in 2011, under the administration of then-Mayor Ralph Infante.
In November 2013, then-Auditor Charles Nader reported the city had spent $225,000 on what he described as “hit-and-miss software” and that he had stopped paying the $7,500 monthly fee for its use.
Stredney said the billing system previous to Cogsdale contained the $25 flat fee, which disappeared when the city switched providers.
The city subsequently terminated its relationship with Cogsdale and signed on with Continental Utility Solutions of Arkansas in 2014 at a cost of nearly $300,000.
He said a team of eight city employees will go through all 22,000 utility accounts in their internal audit, and that the process could take as long as two months.
“Where were the state auditors while all of this was going on?” Stredney asked.
An answer came from Ben Marrison, communications director for Auditor of State Dave Yost, who said everything tested properly when billing accounts were audited.
Marrison provided a copy of the tests to The Vindicator, which showed the city had a flat fee for sewer services outside Niles, but far less than the $25-per-homeowner fee – a “$5 flat fee on all [sewer] accounts.” That apparently was never collected.
“We are aware of the issue and are digging deeper,” Marrison said.
Stredney said the administration plans to ask council at its meeting next week to re-impose the $25 flat fee for sewer accounts outside the city. The service director, however, indicated the city has no plans to try to recover the lost revenue from the 100 Weathersfield homeowners, each of whom will have saved nearly $1,700.
“I don’t see us seeking [recovery], because it wasn’t the customers’ fault,” he said. “It was the city’s.”