Marin Municipal Water District weighs monthly billing

The Marin Municipal Water District is considering switching from bimonthly to monthly billing as a way to allow its ratepayers to better monitor their use during the drought.

However, the change would cost an additional $1.4 million each year, mostly from adding new staff. The proposal generated mixed opinions during the district board’s initial discussion on Thursday.

“I still don’t see much benefit from the program to justify the expense,” said board member Larry Bragman.

“Seems to me something we should have done quite a long time ago,” said Jack Gibson, another board member.

The idea to switch to monthly billing was raised in recent weeks after the board required residents to collectively cut back water use by 40% compared to the three-year average use in 2018-2020. But most of the district’s 60,800 accounts do not have wireless meters that can track water use instantly. Therefore, most residents only learn their water use later when they receive their bimonthly bills.

So far, the district’s ratepayers have only achieved 19% conservation as of last week. The board will consider tightening restrictions in July after forecasts showed the district running out of water by next summer in its seven reservoirs.

Only 5,000 of the district’s accounts have wireless meters that can transmit usage data. The rest have to be read by district staff.

Switching to monthly billing would require four new meter readers as well as two customer service staffers, said Chuck McBride, the district finance director. That would come with an annual cost of more than $938,000, in addition to $250,000 for more invoices and $180,000 for postage, McBride said.

About $420,000 in one-time costs would be needed to purchase trucks for the new meter readers and for upgrades to the district’s billing software, he said.

The switch to monthly billing would also take about six months to implement and therefore wouldn’t be ready until December or January. By then, according to forecasts, the district will have less than 30,000 acre-feet of water in its reservoirs, or about a third of its supply. That would automatically trigger a 50% conservation mandate as of Dec. 1.

Board member Monty Schmitt questioned whether the $1.4 million could be put to better use in other areas, such as a potential districtwide switch to wireless meters.

“Maybe that is a better investment over time,” Schmitt said.

District staffers said they plan to prepare a broad overview of the potential timeline and costs for such a program.

Gibson said the monthly billing would both get information to customers more quickly while also bringing in revenue more frequently.

“A dollar today is worth more than a dollar a month from now,” Gibson said.

The district previously looked at switching to monthly billing in 2017. However, the proposal at the time did not include increasing the frequency of meter reading but rather just splitting the bimonthly bills in half. The board abandoned the idea that year.

The board’s next regular meeting is set to take place at 7:30 p.m. July 6, when it is set to consider additional water use restrictions.