Jourdanton City Council votes to forgive back-billing for old water meters

JOURDANTON, Texas – It was a citizen victory for the city of Jourdanton after the city council voted Monday to forgive the bills from old water meters and start from zero with new water meters.

The vote comes after some water customers received huge water bills as the city works to replace outdated meters for its utility customers.

“The city of Jourdanton began the replacement of 14-year-old radio read meters with SMART tower read meters on November 14, of 2022,” said Vanessa Alvarado, finance director for the city.

According to city manager Bobby Martinez, the old meters provided inaccurate water consumption readings, and customers were not charged for their correct usage.

This weekend’s audit showed the city lost $226,000 in underbilled and no longer collectible revenue.

“Respectfully, had the SMART meters been installed two years ago to remedy the underbilling as addressed by the auditor in 2020 and 2021, the city would not have lost $226,000,” Alvarado said.

In an interview last week, Martinez said, “According to Texas Constitution, a city has a fiduciary responsibility to collect the money that it’s due. And we need it to keep our financial books in order because we have a lot of infrastructure need, whether it’s water and wastewater and or streets.”

During public comment, people said this was not their debt to pay, and if the city council were to vote against waiving back billing, they’d feel the effects come election time.

“We’re not asking for you to forgive our debt because we don’t owe this money. We’re not asking you to forgive anything. We’re asking you to right a wrong that the city has made,” said Katrina Waitrek, a concerned citizen.

“Compromising is not an option. Money is the name of the game. And to the audience, I say, use your votes wisely. Election is in November,” Leslie Gaither said during public comment.

The city council’s decision to forgive back bills goes against the advice of the interim city attorney Tom Cate who issued a letter ahead of the meeting. He wrote that any water customer could file a lawsuit against individual council members or the city per the Texas Constitution government code if the city waived the old water meter bills.