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Computer Glitches Foul Sewer Bills

Source: The Providence Journal

Publication date: 2000-08-10

* In addition, some customers have unexpectedly discovered that their annual payments have been increased because the original assessment calculations are incorrect. * * *

NORTH SMITHFIELD - A mishandled upgrading of the computer software that processes the town's sewer bills has led to jumbled bills and confused ratepayers, town officials said.

Sewer customers with questions about their sewer bills should call the town at 767-2202, ext. 307, to find out what they owe, Town Finance Director Richard Erickson said.

About half the 1,200 bills that went out last week are fine, Erickson estimated, but the rest have information missing from one or more places such as breakdowns of principal and interest on assessments.

The bills have the correct amount due on them, he said, but it may not be clearly labeled.

The correct information for each account is in the system, he said, but the bills aren't being printed out correctly.

I don't know what happened, Erickson said. The accuracy of the bills has never been in question.

The errors don't appear to follow a discernible pattern, Erickson said. They occur in some bills prepared for all six of the town's sewer districts.

John Dean, vice president for marketing at R. Walsh Associates, of Southington, Conn., said the computer consulting company was likewise puzzled, but would try to figure out why the problems occurred.

The conversion from the old computer software to the new started in early June and wasn't finished until two weeks ago. It took longer than we anticipated, Dean said.

Erickson said the conversion to the new software was a complicated one. The town's old software was more than 20 years old, he said, and the original authors of it can't be found.

The upgrade wasn't simply a case of inserting a computer disk and clicking some on-screen buttons, he said. In many cases data had to be reentered. For instance, the old system used a 12-digit account numbering system, the new one uses an eight-character system. Erickson said that meant each account had to be renumbered.

Another problem is that some of the town's sewer assessments, the 20- or 30-year debts that each user has to pay to cover their share of a sewer installation project, changed in some cases.

Usually, sewer assessments, which can range from about $3,000 to more than $9,000, are set at the time a project is completed. The property owner gets an amortization schedule that spreads the debt payments over a set period of time sort of like a small mortgage and pays off the debt in equal installments.

But when the new software reviewed the assessment payments, Erickson said that in some cases, payments were found to be too low to pay off the debt in the allotted time, and the payments had to be increased. Most were changes of only a few dollars, he said, but some went up $50 or more.

The changes had to be made, Erickson said, or the assessments would not have been paid off in time. That would mean either making up the difference with a single, large payment at the end of the payback period or make customers keep paying beyond the scheduled termination date.

Town Administrator Daniel J. Andrews said he has told the Town Hall staff that he was concerned that they made that choice without consulting him and the Town Council.

They did not run that by me or the council, he said. I would have preferred to have a little input on that.

Andrews said the errors were apparently made when the projects were first assessed, in some cases decades ago.

He said one sewer user said he'd done his own calculations and thought his payments were low, but assumed he was mistaken. The new payment is in line with his original estimate, Andrews said.

that spreads the debt payments over a set period of time sort of like a small mortgage and pays off the debt in equal installments.

But when the new software reviewed the assessment payments, Erickson said that in some cases, payments were found to be too low to pay off the debt in the allotted time, and the payments had to be increased. Most were changes of only a few dollars, he said, but some went up $50 or more.

The changes had to be made, Erickson said, or the assessments would not have been paid off in time. That would mean either making up the difference with a single, large payment at the end of the payback period or make customers keep paying beyond the scheduled termination date.

Town Administrator Daniel J. Andrews said he has told the Town Hall staff that he was concerned that they made that choice without consulting him and the Town Council.

They did not run that by me or the council, he said. I would have preferred to have a little input on that.

Andrews said the errors were apparently made when the projects were first assessed, in some cases decades ago.

He said one sewer user said he'd done his own calculations and thought his payments were low, but assumed he was mistaken. The new payment is in line with his original estimate, Andrews said.

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-- (Dee360degree@aol.com), August 11, 2000