HOUSTON — Before Houston Mayor John Whitmire unveiled his plan for high water bill relief on Thursday, he spoke to KHOU 11’s Grace White about a big part of the problem.
This is something the mayor has been talking about since he took office and KHOU 11 has been asking him for details since January because so many residents shared their frustration with us over high bills.
The mayor announced an overhaul of how Houston Public Works responds to customers.
The mayor told White Wednesday that at the heart of the problem with high and inaccurate bills is something KHOU 11 has been reporting on. It's a tiny part inside of the meter box that's failing, called the remote read device.
"It's the broken sensors because you would normally have a staffer go read the meter, adjust the sensor, 125,000 - it's been that way for years," the mayor said. "The city kicked the can down the road, obviously I'm trying to stop the horrendous billing. So we want to stop it, fix the cause, and be user-friendly."
The number the mayor referred to, 125,000, is how many failed devices he says there are in the city of Houston right now, out of the total 500,000 customers.
The mayor said his goal is to have all those parts replaced by next January. Originally, Houston Public Works told us it was expected to take until 2030.
They are also overhauling the city's website. The mayor's team tells KHOU 11 it's going to have a dashboard for people to put in their address and the system will tell them if their meter parts are on the list to be replaced. Click here for that dashboard.