Questions About Water Meter Replacements
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Greg:
It has been almost three years since the widespread failures of water meters was brought public. Meter read failures had most probably been occurring for many years previous to that. Meter read failures are truly a two sided sword. They cut revenues while demanding additional revenues to fund meter replacement.
Approximately two years ago efforts were undertaken to address meter failures, a consultant was hired, the meter supplier provided financial and technical assistance, new towers/technology was added, and approximately 6500 meter replaced. The City of Port Orange ratepayers invested considerable resources in this effort.
About a month ago, after council inquiry it was reported that there was still a backlog of non-functioning meters, estimated at about 1,000. More telling was the finding that there had been no discernable increase in revenues that could be related to replacement of no-read meters. This may suggest that in- ground meters are failing at a rate similar to our replacement rate. This situation raises a series of important questions (most of which have been asked recently by Mr. Woodman in a very thoughtful piece on Port-Orange.us).
At what rate are meters continuing to fail? It has been suggested that it may be in the range of 50-100 a week. If that is not accurate, what would be the number?
How many meters have been replaced? (6500?). How many meters do we have in total (how many water meters, how many reuse meters?)
Which meters are failing (sensus or nautilus)? How old are the meters that are failing? Are any recently installed meters failing? Are meters under warranty failing?
What is failing on the meters – the base unit or the sending unit or both?
Can public utilities provide council a detailed analysis of the age, installation dates, make of base and or sending units and warranty status (warranty or non- warranty)?
This email is to give some advanced notice, that I will be asking these questions at the next council meeting. The answers to these questions could suggest some strategies to successfully address no-read meters. With decisions about water/sewer rate rates looming, it is important that council be able to make an informed decision. As you well noted, successful actions against no read meters could enhance revenues between 8% and 12%. A successful metering program could reduce significantly potential utility rate increases. I do appreciate your insights and staff assistance in answering these questions.
Best, Bob Ford
Reply:
Bob: The focus over the past 18 to 24 months on the water metering issues have been on the Sensus warranty and non -warranty meters. That was completed at the end of 2013. We are now focusing on the zero reads or stopped meters. We are seeing some light at the end of the tunnel both from a meter reading efficiency as well as a slight decrease in our unaccounted for water. The meters that are “dieing” are the older Sensus meters (15 years and beyond). We have been installing Neptune brand meters since 2010 and these meters have performed. I have been repeatedly told the Sensus flex units have performed.As Vice-Mayor Burnette said on Saturday this budget has a lot of moving parts. This is especially true as it relates to the water and sewer fund. I am going to recommend we workshop the water and sewer budget so we can develop a comprehensive strategic plan. As you know the capital budget drives in part the operating budget. We have open issues on several items. These include the status of the reclaim water system, nutrient loading challenges for the disposing of the wastewater during wet periods, impact on the rates if the Shores disconnects and last but not least is what level of investment do we need to make on the below ground distribution and collection systems. You are correct that if an aggressive water meter change-out program is accomplished this should result in increased revenues. This could mitigate some of the rate increase but we will need to spend considerable capital to accomplish the meter change-out program.
Greg Kisela
City Manager
Thank you Mr. Ford for your conservative aggressive approach. It would only seem that meter replacement of non working meters would equate to cost neutral as revenues would increase. It is not fair to request a rate increase if you do not truly know what your revenue increases will plateau at. It appears we are failing by trying to replace personnel with technology. The technology is far more costly than keeping personnel. We have increased personnel and technology at the same time and have been whipped by technology. We obviously have failed at technology. It seems this changes and that something is out of date and we continue to throw money at it. It is a battle we have proven that we cannot overcome. Admitting that we are not ready for technology is not a failure. It is a Victory.
A meter reader walking with a wand is not a bad thing. Feet on the ground can be trained to be more useful and spot illegal connections, hazards, leaks, dangerous sidewalks, blocked drains, dead trees, and on and on. Perhaps moving some water bill items to ad valorem and changing the billing cycle to every two months would allow staff to catch up without contractors on the payroll or overworking or increasing personnel..
This would double their time available in finance and meter reading alike. The new approach is failing us and I am afraid it will plague us going forward. Admitting failure and taking a step back is often better than costly excuses.
Thank you once again for your concerns of the taxpayers.
Just ask this guy at next Tuesday’s council meeting. With all his accomplishments, especially the ones he has recently achieved since coming to work for Port Orange, he should have all the answers to all your questions. LOL!
Jason Yarborough
Public Utilities Director, Utilities
Hi, I’m Jason Yarborough. Welcome to my profile!
Jason Yarborough’s Bio:
Jason Yarborough is a Credential Manager through the International City/County Management Association with over 18 years of local government management experience in various positions including 7 years as a city manager and 6 years as a utilities director for a city of over 100,000 population. Under his leadership, the organizations he has served have won numerous state and national awards for performance excellence and innovation. He obtained a Certified Government Finance Officer designation from the Florida Government Finance Officers Association in 1997. Jason has local government experience in strategic planning, consensus building, budgeting, revenue enhancement, debt and financial management, performance optimization, environmental management systems, and utilities operations.
He received a Bachelor’s degree from Loyola University, New Orleans, LA and a Masters of Public Administration degree from the University of West Florida. In addition, He has completed the Harvard University Program for Senior Executives in State and Local Government.
Jason Yarborough’s Experience:
Public Utilities Director at City of Port Orange
September 2013
Community Manager at Barefoot Bay Recreation District
September 2011 – September 2013
Special District Services, Inc. (SDS) creates and manages special taxing districts throughout the State of Florida. SDS was organized to meet the growing demand for urban services and provide a public financing vehicle to serve community infrastructure and service needs in a timely and cost-effective manner. Currently, SDS has the community management contract for the Barefoot Bay Recreation District (BBRD) which provides community services for over 9,000 residents through its 84 employees. Accomplishments: o Obtained the first successful grant awared for the District. o Created a grant acquisition program that funded approximately 50% of the District’s capital improvement program. o Instituted an employee recognition program that significantly improved morale.
Utilities Director at City of Palm Bay
August 2005 – August 2011
Accomplishments: o Awarded the Association of Metropolitan Water Agencies 2010 Gold Award for Exceptional Utility Performance. The award recognizes outstanding achievement in implementing the nationally recognized Attributes of Effectively Managed Water Sector Utilities. o Awarded Florida Department of Environmental Protection’s 2009 Water Plant Excellence Award (Large Plant Category) in recognition for regulatory compliance, high level of maintenance, and continuous improvement. o Started the department’s environmental management system, which resulted in the department becoming the first utility in the nation to have all divisions and sections simultaneously ISO 14001 registered on the initial audit. This management system institutionalized the cultural value of continuous improvement within the department. o Orchestrated application with the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund resulting in No. 1 ranking over all other Florida water utilities for American Reinvestment and Recovery Act funds. o Oversaw the installation of 497,212 linear feet of water line resulting in an additional 6,220 new water accounts. o Initiated an optimization committee comprised of internal staff that made operational changes resulting in an overall reduction of electrical consumption for total water treatment by over 31%. o Reduced operational budget by $1.1M without diminishing level of service to customers. o Negotiated with state regulatory agency to obtain a 20-year permit for water withdrawal and an increase of 22% of water withdrawal over the previous permit.
City Manager at City of Groveland, FL
1998 – 2005
Accomplishments: o Formed utility district to protect future growth areas for the city. o Executed eminent domain taking of two water systems and a wastewater system (valued at $3.0 million) in the Groveland Utility District. o Improved internal controls in finance department resulting in a decrease in the number of negative audit comments by 50%. o Secured USDA funding for new wastewater treatment plant. o Resolved dispute with adjacent city over utility service districts, resulting in improved relationship with neighboring city. o Initiated community and city council visioning and goal setting sessions.
Assistant City Manager/ City Clerk at City of Mary Esther, FL
1996 – 1998
Accomplishment: o Created an aggressive grant acquisition program resulting in funding of $2,665,000.
Public Utilities Director at City of Port Orange
September 2013
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WOW!
Accomplishments: o (Awarded the Florida Department of Environmental Protection 2013 Operations Excellence Award for Large Water Treatment Plant o Awarded the Most Improved Class A Water Treatment Plant Award by the American Water Works Association- Florida Section)
Community Manager at Barefoot Bay Recreation District
September 2011 – September 2013
Special District Services, Inc. (SDS) creates and manages special taxing districts throughout the State of Florida. SDS was organized to meet the growing demand for urban services and provide a public financing vehicle to serve community infrastructure and service needs in a timely and cost-effective manner. Currently, SDS has the community management contract for the Barefoot Bay Recreation District (BBRD) which provides community services for over 9,000 residents through its 84 employees. Accomplishments: o Obtained the first successful grant award for the District. o Created a grant acquisition program that funded approximately 50% of the District’s capital improvement program. o Instituted an employee recognition program that significantly improved morale.
Utilities Director at City of Palm Bay
August 2005 – August 2011
Accomplishments: o Awarded the Association of Metropolitan Water Agencies 2010 Gold Award for Exceptional Utility Performance. The award recognizes outstanding achievement in implementing the nationally recognized Attributes of Effectively Managed Water Sector Utilities. o Awarded Florida Department of Environmental Protection’s 2009 Water Plant Excellence Award (Large Plant Category) in recognition for regulatory compliance, high level of maintenance, and continuous improvement. o Started the department’s environmental management system, which resulted in the department becoming the first utility in the nation to have all divisions and sections simultaneously ISO 14001 registered on the initial audit. This management system institutionalized the cultural value of continuous improvement within the department. o Orchestrated application with the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund resulting in No. 1 ranking over all other Florida water utilities for American Reinvestment and Recovery Act funds. o Oversaw the installation of 497,212 linear feet of water line resulting in an additional 6,220 new water accounts. o Initiated an optimization committee comprised of internal staff that made operational changes resulting in an overall reduction of electrical consumption for total water treatment by over 31%. o Reduced operational budget by $1.1M without diminishing level of service to customers. o Negotiated with state regulatory agency to obtain a 20-year permit for water withdrawal and an increase of 22% of water withdrawal over the previous permit.
City Manager at City of Groveland, FL
1998 – 2005
Accomplishments: o Formed utility district to protect future growth areas for the city. o Executed eminent domain taking of two water systems and a wastewater system (valued at $3.0 million) in the Groveland Utility District. o Improved internal controls in finance department resulting in a decrease in the number of negative audit comments by 50%. o Secured USDA funding for new wastewater treatment plant. o Resolved dispute with adjacent city over utility service districts, resulting in improved relationship with neighboring city. o Initiated community and city council visioning and goal setting sessions.
Assistant City Manager/ City Clerk at City of Mary Esther, FL
1996 – 1998
Accomplishment: o Created an aggressive grant acquisition program resulting in funding of $2,665,000.
Jason Yarborough’s Education:
Harvard University Kennedy School of Government
2007 – 2007
University of West Florida
1992 – 1994
Masters
Concentration: Public Administration
Loyola University New Orleans
1988 – 1992
Bachelor of Arts
Harvard University Kennedy School of Government
2007 – 2007
University of West Florida
1992 – 1994
Masters
Concentration: Public Administration
Loyola University New Orleans
1988 – 1992
Bachelor of Arts
Jason Yarborough’s Interests & Activities:
Water and Wastewater Utilities, parenting, cooking, reading, mobile devices
http://jasonyarborough.brandyourself.com/Links
Public Utilities Director at City of Port Orange
September 2013
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WOW!
Accomplishments: o (Awarded the Florida Department of Environmental Protection 2013 Operations Excellence Award for Large Water Treatment Plant o Awarded the Most Improved Class A Water Treatment Plant Award by the American Water Works Association- Florida Section)
You mean to tell me this new director is actually taking credit for all the past hard work and initiative the public utilities senior staff in water production and maintenance has put forth in accomplishing these achievements for the citizens? To place this on his social media profile is truly shameful and shameless. It makes you wonder if anything on his resume or any of his past self alleged accomplishments are truly of his own doing. Is it possible for his staff to have one iota of respect for him after this revelation?
Is this one of the Lifesaver’s new Managers In Transition?
Is Jason Yarborough padding his Bio so that when he starts looking for another job his resume looks fantastic???
I can’t say whether or not the information contained is truth or fiction but one out-and -out blatant lie is that he states he won two prestigious awards since coming to the City of Port Orange.
He had absolutely nothing, nada, zilch to do with winning these awards. This was due to the efforts of the wonderful team at the Water Plant who the city is blessed to have. SHAME ON YOU JASON.
There have been recent posts on here with a very different spin to this resume. Now he’s taking credit for the hard work done by water plant operations and utilities maintenance before his arrival in Port Orange. What a morale booster. This is BS.
I want to talk about maintenance of city equipment, facilities and infrastructure. This was my area of expertise at the city for 36 years. I have addressed this in some of my posts on this site in the recent past. You have to know installation dates of EVERYTHING and assign useful life to EVERYTHING and all of their components. This means EVERYTHING. Buildings and facilities along with all of their equipment, components, roofs, windows, doors plumbing, lights, etc. The same goes for underground infrastructure. This is a tool for budgeting and scheduling maintenance, repairs and replacement. Meters are an example.
I stated on a post the different programs that need to be in place in water distribution and the sewer systems. Many of these programs have not been in place or not to the extent that they should be. Now we have a huge meter problem. As meters are installed the installation dates need to be recorded and a useful life assigned. Using this information you set up a replacement schedule. Each year as you develop and update the capital budget money needs to be put in to purchase the replacement meters. This has not been done in the past. Now you see where that got us. I have advocated this program for most of the 36 years that I was with the city. No one wanted to hear about it.
From what I’m seeing it looks like all the metering needs to go to the Neptune system. Scrap all the old system. This should have, could have, would have been phased in but no one stayed on top of the meter situation for years. One of the major contributors to this was putting finance in charge of metering. It’s not their area of expertise. They should process and collect the bills. Another contributor was management for not establishing these programs. There are sources and publications for running utilities systems available all over the internet and from different associations related to the industry such as the AWWA.
Maybe management should educate themselves. I also suggest that the city consult with the FRWA (Florida rural water association) They are a non profit group made up of dedicated utilities professionals, engineers and environmental specialists that can be of great help to the city for a donation not a large consulting fee. Us dummies that actually do utility work have worked with them for years.
Mr. Ford asked several VERY specific questions of the City Manager. The reply answered absolutely NONE of them. This is very disrespectful. A non answer would be more suitable.
This is the same non specific nursery rhyme we have been hearing over the past couple of years without specificity. The words should and could do not offer any comfort to my dollars. That is a nice way of saying I have no clue. We cannot raise rates on could and should. This is not acceptable to the ratepayers. We have gotten no solid answers or solutions thus far and again we are ready to spend spend spend.
I don’t trust their judgement with what they have displayed to us thus far. Perhaps it’s time to find some new administrators that can answer the questions solidly. The new Fire Chief has been questioned on various items and his replies are clear and FACT supported. This is comforting. That is the type of leadership we need going forward. Perhaps the rest should pay attention and they may learn something. But hopefully somewhere else and not on my dime.
Response to CM reply to Bob Ford
Read between the lines
Why were we focusing on Sensus warranty and non warranty meters? Because they weren’t reading?
We are now focusing on meters that aren’t reading? So we are still doing the same thing?
Aren’t the failing meters older Sensus (non warranty) and Sensus warranty meters?
The Sensus flex sending units are fairly dependable but they do fail don’t they?
Don’t the Neptune meters have to be integrated with the Sensus flex sending units if they are not being replaced?
If you continue to use Neptune with Sensus flex units the Sensus flex units will need to be replaced at some time in the future?
Are we going to operate a mismatched metering system?
Are we going to do this right and replace our complete metering system with Neptune?
We do need an aggressive program that completely replaces the existing metering program with Neptune and it will be expensive.
We should have never been in this position due to neglect and if done right it should never happen again.
Hi Richard Woodman! You remember a couple of years ago when the core senior technical staff in public utilities discussed the Port Orange zero read metering problem with Sterling Carol from the FRWA. Mr. Carol indicated that the sooner you could get away from Sensus meters and flex-net sending units and convert to a Neptune system the better. In order to do that you would have to set up a compartmentalized dual server system and boost the signals on the Neptune sending units. When replacing Sensus meters with Neptune units you would also begin to utilize the Neptune sending units. Over a period of several years, you would rotate out of Sensus equipment entirely and then be able to go back to a one server system and no longer be tied to Sensus equipment.
Mr. Carol indicated that the FRWA would perform a comprehensive consultation on how to accomplish this utilizing their professional engineers and decades of professional grass roots experience. These services would be provided to Port Orange as an FRWA member utility for a mere donation of $5,000 under a scope of services agreement.
Don’t you remember that at that time their was an expressed consensus from public utilities staff that was communicated to interim administrative management that the public utilities department should engage the FRWA in this study in order for them to demonstrate that there is a holistic viable alternative to the perpetual zero read meter debacle which has yet to be solved?
This was passed on to the current city manager by interim public utilities administrative management at that time. When asked what the city manager’s response to this recommendation from the experts in the department was, the interim manager said that the city manager was not interested in going down that road, but has his own plan and his own private consultants that he would be engaging.
There was no reason given as to why the FRWA for a mere $5,000 would not be engaged for a professional objective consultation. Senior public utilities staff were totally disenfranchised and discouraged from being involved in providing any technical advice or to even have an opinion thereafter.
I remember and this was also the same thing that happened with the reclaimed water system evaluation study. How long have we been waiting for that?
Wait just one moment, there is a very simple solution for all of these problems and I have handled similar ones back where I came from. Oh shucks, this is not that easy to deal with. this is a very complex problem we have here. We need to send this out to a private consultant I have used before and I will get back with you in 60 days with some answers. In the meantime do not send any questions to my read file, especially if your name is Ted Noftall or Vince Champion, because they may never be placed on there for the public to see. LOL!