Marietta Council considers cutting two utility billing positions

Photo by Michelle Dillon
Marietta Utility Administrator Kimberly Nohe, right, speaks Monday night during an Employee Relations Committee meeting, about the impact a council proposal to cut two positions would have on the utility billing department, while City Safety Service Director Steven Wetz, left, listens.

Marietta City Council discussed possibly cutting two positions from its utility billing department Monday night.

During an Employee Relations Committee meeting, Employee Relations Committee Chair and At-Large Councilwoman Cassidi Shoaf spearheaded a discussion about abolishing a utility billing clerk position and a meter setter position in the city’s utility billing department.

According to Marietta Utility Administrator Kimberly Nohe, there are three utility billing clerk positions and two meter setter positions and the person in the utility billing clerk position is currently on vacation so the position is effectively empty, but it will be officially empty as of the end of this month.

The discussion started with Nohe explaining to council why the utility billing department needs the two positions and what effect getting rid of them would have.

According to Nohe, meter setters change meters, update meters, fix problems, create data logs, shut off and turn on water for customers, and perform other duties and utility billing clerks help customers with payment agreements, take payments, start service for customers, answer questions, perform billing and other duties.

She pointed out the large workload of the city’s meter setters, saying that right now they don’t have time to get everything done because they spend 40 hours a week between the two of them on water meter shutoffs.

“If you take a meter setter out of that position, we won’t have a backup and if somebody’s off on vacation there’s no backup,” Nohe said.

She said that having two people do meter shutoffs, one who talks to the customer and one who performs the shutoff, helps with safety and saves time.

“It would take us twice the amount of time to get the work done,” Nohe said about cutting one meter setter. “If we don’t get the shutoffs done people know we’re not going to come and shut them off for nonpayment, they’re not going to pay. Which means there’s no revenue.”

She also said then they won’t be able to do same-day and next-day service and make service appointments if one meter setter is cut.

Nohe also explained to council the workload of the utility billing clerks and the importance of having enough of them in the office.

“First of all, having less than one person or two people in the main office, if you don’t have two people in the office right where the money’s coming in, we can’t be open to the public because it’s not safe,” she said.

Nohe also said that segregation of duties to prevent fraud is an issue with fewer employees and that the city got written up by the state auditor years ago because of staffing levels.

“It’s a nightmare for the state auditors,” she said about having less clerks.

After describing some of the effects of possible cuts, Ward 1 Councilman Michael Scales and Nohe got into a somewhat heated exchange.

“So basically you’re saying you need more employees for you,” Scales said to Nohe and she countered that she had not said that.

Scales responded by pointing out that Nohe keeps talking about her department having the same number of employees as it had 15 years ago and they have shifted to some automation, but he sees the department still doing the same things.

At that point Nohe started to respond to Scales, saying he was incorrect and then Scales interrupted her. Nohe responded by saying “Let me talk.”

Scales did not let Nohe continue.

“You’ve been talking, I’ve listened to what you had to say,” Scales said.

Scales then brought up the possibility of having a neutral company conduct a review of the utility billing department, which the city had done for its water and sewer departments five or so years ago.

Nohe told council even with automation her department is offering more services and doing more work than it did 15 years ago. She said if her department loses both positions customers are going to suffer because if they don’t have enough people in the office for reasons such as someone is on vacation then they will have to close the office and they will have to handle issues when they can if a customer needs help.

City Safety Service Director Steven Wetz offered his thoughts on the cuts during the meeting, too. He said he liked the idea of a neutral party study of the utility billing department more than he does the idea of believing the performance audit claims. The performance audit claims the department is overstaffed and suggested cutting the clerk position.

Wetz asked Nohe what fund the city was asked to cut money from and what fund pays for the two positions council is considering cutting.

Nohe said that the $1.2 million is to be cut from the general fund and both positions are not paid for by the general fund.

“We actually subsidize the general fund.,” Nohe said.

Shoaf responded to this exchange, saying to Wetz, “So Mr. Wetz, you’re saying if it could save rate payers money it’s not worth looking at because it’s not the general fund.”

“That was the concern of everybody was the general fund,” he said.

Shoaf agreed saying, if the general fund goes “belly up” then many people would be without a job but he should still be concerned about ratepayers and how much they are being charged.

Nohe encouraged council to come visit her department before making the cuts.

Then the discussion finished and council went into executive session to consider the appointment, employment, dismissal, discipline, promotion, demotion or compensation of a public employee or official. They returned from executive session after about 30 minutes and Shoaf said there was no action taken during the executive session.

Shoaf spoke with The Times Tuesday and confirmed that she is going to request legislation to get rid of the utility billing clerk position effective once the person in the position leaves and that no action is going to be taken on the meter setter position yet.

She also said that if the position is cut, no one would lose their job because there is a union position open and the meter setter could move into that position or another position depending on the union rules.

The next council meeting is June 6 at 6 p.m. in Room 10 of the Marietta Armory.

Michelle Dillon can be reached at mdillon@newsandsentinel.com