PWSA seeks to outsource billing

members chastised the agency over bills that failed to arrive, thousands of dollars in incorrect charges and other woes.

As recently as a few months ago, constituents called Theresa Kail-Smith’s office daily with PWSA billing complaints, the councilwoman said. She said the complaints are now monthly.

Council confirms appointments to the PWSA board.

“I think it’s concerning that the response to address issues in the City of Pittsburgh is constantly to outsource or contract out,” Mrs. Kail-Smith said.

She called it “difficult to believe it’s that challenging” to improve billing.

If outsourcing is necessary, she said Sunday, she would prefer to see it go to a Pittsburgh-based company without political ties. She also would like to see PWSA revisit the arrangement by a predetermined date so that it doesn’t become indefinite, Mrs. Kail-Smith said.

While billing accuracy has mostly recovered, Mr. Weimar said, problems remain with remote metering. Commercial businesses in some areas still rely on manual meter readings — one among many manual practices that PWSA wants to eliminate, he said.

PWSA board members retained him in June for a yearlong appointment as top administrator. He started at PWSA about three years earlier.

“The people we have — they work hard. They don’t have the tools they need,” Mr. Weimar said. “In order to make this a clean break and to restore confidence of the public in the systems we have, we feel that by going to a third party [for billing], it’ll be the quickest and cost-effective way for us to get immediate improvement.”

PWSA remains under review for a possible reorganization as it copes with crumbling infrastructure and a nine-figure debt load.

Among other developments last week at the authority:

The board on Thursday approved at least a couple delayed payments to PWSA vendors. Internally, Mr. Weimar said, PWSA discovered around two dozen unpaid invoices dating from September 2016 to June. He said the total amount of money owed to vendors probably amounted to less than $100,000. Two people responsible for the payment issues are no longer PWSA employees, according to the authority. Mr. Weimar declined to say whether anyone had been fired, but he said PWSA is now paying most of its bills within 30 to 45 days of receipt.

Workers have completed draining the Lanpher Reservoir in Shaler -— which holds 133 million gallons — after a boil-water advisory last month that affected some 18,000 homes, said Barry King, the interim engineering director. The discovery of possible tears in a reservoir cover — and the potential for contamination — triggered the advisory, which was lifted after three days. The reservoir is undergoing repairs and should return to partial service within several weeks, according to PWSA.