HomeMy WebLinkAbout2001 08 13 Informational A Utility Billing Computer Conversion
COMMISSION AGENDA
ITEM A
CONSENT
INFORMATIONAL X
PUBLIC HEARING
REGULAR
August 13,2001 MGR ~T ~
Meeting A1Ithorization
REQUEST: The Finance Department is requesting the City Commission review
information regarding the status of the utility billing computer conversion.
PURPOSE: To update the City Commission on the status of the utility billing computer
converSIOn.
RECOMMENDATION:
N/A - for recommendation only.
ATTACHMENTS:
Memo to Commission regarding status of resolution of issues related to the utility billing
computer conversion.
COMMISSION ACTION:
- City of Winter Springs
Memo
To: City Commission
From: Louise Frangoul
cc: Ron McLemore
Date: 08/09/01
Re: Memo to Agenda Item A - Informational for August 13, 2001 Meeting .
Please refer to August 2, 2001 Regular Agenda item C regarding the issues we have encountered with
the Utility Billing Computer Conversion. Below represents the status of those issues:
. Deposit retum feature - Staff had been in contact with Munis Technical Support regarding this
issue. Since then, our Munis project manager suggested that we prepare a "program
enhancement requesf' to basically program the feature to do what we thought it was going to do to
begin with. That "request" has been prepared by staff and sent to the appropriate individuals at
Munis. We are awaiting an estimated complete date and an estimate of cost from them.
. Credits showing up in payment field - Per our project manager at Munis, a Munis update will be
rolled out on September 9 that will correct this issue. Only the customer's true payment will show
up in the payment field. As far as other credits are concerned, staff is working with both Munis and
GBF (our forms company) to see about showing itemization detail in progressive order on the bill
(starting with previous balance, payments, current charges, credits and ending balance).
. Utility tax description not showing up on the bill - Staff is working with both Munis and GBF to get
this to show up. We think this is easy to correct and should be fixed shortly.
. Telephone capacity - Three additional mailboxes were added for voice mail messages. The first
call rolls to the first mail box, the second to the second and so on until it hits the fourth and then it'll
start back with the first. We now have a capacity of about 250 messages. Since we have added
this, they have not overflowed. In addition, we still have our two full-time temporary workers
assisting with telephone calls. They are busy on Monday's and Tuesday's due to timing of bills,
and we keep them busy with other computer conversion projects during the downtime. We will
continue to evaluate the need for these temporary workers.
. Never received a bilVreceived final notice - Please refer to the attached memo regarding the lost
bills.
. Customers payment not credited to the bill - MIS has assured me that they now know what to do
when importing/exporting data and this will not happen again. We researched the day's
transactions (the day we lost our computer data) and found 97 customers payments that we
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received and entered into the system but had been "Iosf' during the error. These 97 customers
have since had their payments reentered into the system.
. Credits for 40 day read cycle - We met with Rob Ori from Public Resources Management Group.
Rob assisted staff with a credit methodology. We have since written the methodology up and
forwarded it to Munis so that they can review, come up with an estimated date to complete and an
estimate on cost.
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MEMORANDUM
DATE: August9,2001
(jJJ
TO: Ron McLemore, City Manager
FROM: Gene DeMarie, Director of General.Services
SUBJECT: Lost Water Bills
At a recent special meeting of the City Commission, I understand there
was some expressed doubt about staff's contention that the recent loss of
some water bills occurred at the post office level.
As you know, every possible step in our procedures for sending out
water bills were re-traced, and our system verified they had been prepared
and processed as they should have been.
I subsequently checked with the Postmaster at the Winter Springs Post
Office, Lawrence Putchinski, to see where the breakdown might have
occurred. He strongly supported his internal procedures as failsafe, but
did point to the central mail facility in Lake Mary as a possible cause of the
problem. He indicated that he hears frequently about similar problems that
are traced to that location.
What was most interesting, however, is that even Mr. Putchinski did not
doubt that water bills had been lost because even he received a final notice
without ever havinq received an oriqinal bill for water and sewer use at the
Post Office.
With verification-that'our 'internal procedures worked properly, I-am ....-
convinced - and even the Postmaster concedes - that those water bills
were most likely lost when they were in the postal system.
cc: Louise Frangoul, Finance Director