Nickels says City Light billing disputes will be resolved quickly, in customer's favor
The city made some headway in trying to turn around what has become a public-relations disaster. But after promising Friday to come up with a definitive explanation on the inflated bills for the mayor by Monday, it came up a bit short.
Based on research by a team of City Light experts, Superintendent Gary Zarker yesterday said at a news conference with Nickels he believed there were fewer than 100 or so bad bills, some of which were thousands of dollars high. The vast majority slipped through when a filter meant to trap wacky bills was not working over a two-day period (Jan. 31-Feb. 1). As a result, an automatic-auditing process never occurred, he said.
Zarker said that some bloated bills, such as the $2,238.69 bill received by Darleen Harrington of Magnolia in February, stemmed from earlier undercharging, magnified by the misapplication of a pricing structure designed to discourage high consumption.
But Zarker still could not explain why such accounts were repeatedly underreported in the first place. "The billing system does depend on human beings to input data," he said. "I have a great deal of confidence in the people who read our meters and validate the data, but it is a huge task."
"What mystifies me," Joe McGee, executive director of Local 17, the union representing the utility's 44 meter readers, said later, "is why all of a sudden (are these billing problems emerging)? This is producing a lot more questions than answers for me."
Zarker stressed that errors represent less than one half of 1 percent of the 2 million bills the utility processes each year. Pressed later on how he arrived at that figure — a statistic the utility was unable to produce last week — Zarker said it was based on analysis of the 22,000 bills that went through unfiltered.
The "due dates" on bills produced during that 48-hour period were Feb. 26 and Feb. 27, utility officials said later. The utility admits, however, that not all high bills can be explained by the missing filter. One utility official placed the number of high bills outside the window at about two dozen.
Only three of the dozen or so whopper bills seen by The Seattle Times had such due dates, and some customers reported billing problems dating back many months.
For example, Jerry O'Leary, who lives in a First Hill condominium, appeared before a City Light hearing examiner last February to contest a bill he received last September that was 10 times higher than he usually received. He pursued all the steps requested by utility personnel, up to and including a hearing.
The hearing examiner "indicated that all my bills were from direct meter reads, so the bill in question was not a makeup bill," O'Leary said. "He also said the bill on its face was wrong. His conclusion was, however, that the meter never lies, and I must prove I did not use the power. How does one prove a negative?"
Harrington, whom Nickels telephoned yesterday to extend his personal apology, has noted that it was not until she complained to news media that her case — and those of scores of other customers — received attention. She also reported that the utility told her there was no problem with either her meter or the readings. She ended up paying $422 or 19 percent of the original $2,238.69 bill.
Zarker emphasized that the billing problem does not lie with the city's new $40 million computer. "It works," he declared.
Still, Zarker said it was "clear we could have done better" with the way the utility dealt with customers — some of whom complained of getting lectured about the need to save energy.
Zarker announced four steps the utility is taking to address billing problems:
• More aggressive auditing of all data entered into the billing system.
• Additional staff to manually check more bills more thoroughly.
• Complaints about high bills will be resolved within two weeks. Customers with billing questions should call 206-684-3000. Power will never be shut off while customers are working with the utility.
• IBM will do a quality-assurance audit of the billing system.
Questions about how the utility has handled the high bills, and why the utility is asking for an additional $1 million for its computerized-billing system, will be addressed 9:30 a.m. Thursday before Seattle City Council member Heidi Wills' Energy and Environmental Policy Committee.
Peter Lewis can be reached at 206-464-2217 or plewis@seattletimes.com.