HOUSTON – After nearly two years of KPRC 2 Investigates DRAINED series exposing failures at the Houston Water Department, Mayor John Whitmire is making major changes.
Customers who’ve been in the system for more than three years will be billed now on a “set usage” plan that’s based on averaging your three lowest bills. Those changes should show up in your May water bill.
“We’re going to prevent the horrendous water bills from being sent out,” the mayor told KPRC 2. “We’re going to have fair and accurate water rates and bills. And we’re gonna fix the reason the water lines and billing are broken. We have about 125-thousand broken sensors. That’s the little computer that sits on your water meter. We’re going to fix those and our goal is to have those all working next January,” the mayor said.
The mayor’s also promising an overhaul of customer service so customers can get face-to-face help when they need it. He says an the water department will have “in-face, personal consumer service” inside public works to help customers.
“We actually changed an ordinance last week that you can get fired if you adjust someone’s bill to make it fair and reasonable. We’ve taken that off the books,” Whitmire said.
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