More held water bills in DeKalb going out

DeKalb County CEO Michael Thurmond announced that an additional 3,500 held water bills are being released, bringing the total to 8,500 mailed to customers this week.  Initially, Thurmond had announced 5,000 bills would be sent out the week of Aug. 14, but he said an Independent Verification Process has helped speed up the process.

So far, 16,500 of the 37,000 water bills that were “held” in October 2016 will have been released since the Thurmond administration’s New Day Project was initiated in March 2017 to address DeKalb’s water billing crisis. DeKalb, which has 194,000 water customers, held the bills until it could verify how much customers actually owed.

“We have made significant progress,” Thurmond said. “The development and utilization of an Independent Verification Process (IVP) has expedited our review of customer accounts, water consumption and billing data.”

With support from the DeKalb Board of Commissioners, the New Day Project was created to identify problems in the water billing process that led to inaccurate billing and meter readings, and a systemic failure of leadership, management and oversight. The ultimate goal of the New Day Project is to restore customer trust in DeKalb’s water billing system.

With support from the DeKalb Board of Commissioners, the New Day Project was created to identify problems in the water billing process that led to inaccurate billing and meter readings, and a systemic failure of leadership, management and oversight. The ultimate goal of the New Day Project is to restore customer trust in DeKalb’s water billing system.