If a Clarksdale Public Utilities customer believes something is wrong with their meter reader and an employee has to go out and examine it in person, $25 will be added to their bill if no issues are found.
Former city of Clarksdale commissioner Buster Moton discovered that when he thought his bill for the building on 347 Issaquena Avenue may be too high. The building is the location of Family and Youth Opportunities Division Inc., where Moton’s wife, Dr. Mary Frances Dear-Moton, is the CEO.
Moton had issues with his bill for two months and, at his request, CPU employees checked the meter reader, found no issues and charged him $25. He expressed concerns about the charge during Tuesday’s CPU meeting.
“I decided to get the meter checked,” Moton said. “I come down to Clarksdale Public Utilities to get the meter checked and they said, well, ‘Commissioner, what we’re going to have to do is charge you an extra $25 just to read the meter.’ With me, no problem, because I’m thinking something is wrong and they do what they had to do and they get back with me. They said nothing is wrong with the meter, ‘We did what we had to do and nothing is wrong with it.’ I’m telling myself if nothing’s wrong with it and I still have to pay the $25 just to hit a few buttons. We’re on the smart meters now. All they have to do is sit behind a desk and hit a few buttons.”
Moton acknowledged there was a time when CPU employees had to physically check the meter, but now, he said, they can sit behind a desk and read the meter. He expressed concern for low-income people who receive in the neighborhood of $500 per month and could not afford the $25 if there was an issue with their meter.
“Do you have a problem with that fee, when they had to go out and look at it?” said CPU general manager Curtis Boschert to Moton.
“No, I didn’t have a problem with that, but I’ve got a problem when you’re sitting behind a desk and punching buttons and saying, ‘You owe me $25,’ especially the people who can’t afford to go out here and can’t afford to pay that kind of money,” replied Moton.
Moton said the board had the power to change the policy.
“If they’re just checking it at the desk to see what the readings were, which they can do, that isn’t a charge,” Boschert said. “But what they did was went out and pulled that meter. They had to go out and pull that meter, take it out to the plant and then run the diagnostics on it. Is that what you requested them to do?”
“My thing is, whether they pull it, run it on a diagnostic or whatever, we shouldn’t be charged $25,” replied Moton. “There are people who can’t afford to have it. That’s my point. Whatever you do, we shouldn’t be paying any money to have it done. This belongs to the citizens of Clarksdale, this town. You shouldn’t be milking us like this.”
“That’s why I asked about going out because they had to go out and read it,” Boschert explained.
CPU commissioner Donald Mitchell said, if CPU found a problem with the meter after checking it, the customer would not be charged the $25.
“Everybody is not charged, Mr. Moton, when you go out for a meter reading,” Mitchell said. “If they made a mistake, there are not any charges. They don’t just charge everybody. If they had found a problem with your reading, you wouldn’t have been charged.”
After the meeting, Boschert explained the reason for charging $25 when meter readers are checked on site.
“We do have to go out to physically pull the meter,” he said. “Even when we do that, that does not even cover the cost of doing it.”
Boschert said it costs money to take a meter out and put another one in, while employees in customer service have to change the meter out and employees in billing have to change readings so they will be adjusted correctly for next bill.
“If we do discover that it is a problem with the meter, the customer does not have to pay,” Boschert said.
Moton said he would be back at another meeting if a policy change was not implemented.
“We’re going to check and see what other utilities are charging in the meantime,” Boschert said.
