Customer service needs overhaul too, residents say

By D.L. Bennett

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Rebuilding the water/sewer system and paying for it are enormous challenges, but they aren’t the only ones the Watershed Management Department faces.

City Council members say they get a constant stream of complaints about inaccurate bills, malfunctioning meters and poor customer service.

The city was inundated with similar concerns when the water system was in the hands of a private contractor.

Those complaints, officials say, undermine customer confidence and make it harder to win support for the rate increases needed to keep the work moving.

Earlier this year, an audit found the department sitting on $3.9 million it should have refunded to thousands of customers. Auditors also reported delinquent accounts at more than $50 million and said the department fails to collect millions more every year. Bills are based on estimates, rather than meter readings, for 10,000 accounts every month, the auditors noted.

Customer complaints are even shaping the mayor’s race. Lynn Irvin of Buckhead got so irate when the city cut off her water earlier this year that she pledged to get involved in city politics.

She gathered civic leaders and put together the Campaign for Atlanta, a program that has grilled mayoral candidates for more than two hours apiece and posted results on the Internet.

“It was frustrating,” Irvin said. “In the end, what I wanted to do was not just complain but to do something that would produce positive results.

“I just didn’t think I ought to have to call the media to get my water turned back on. Citizens of Atlanta ought not have to take such measures.”