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BRIGHAM CITY — Jeni Brockbank was stunned when she saw her family’s July utility bill.
She estimated the town had charged her $100 more than what she and her husband had anticipated for the month.
It came at an inopportune time for her and her family, she said, because her husband has faced recent health problems and the family was receiving help from another family member to pay the bills.
“It was upsetting,” Brockbank said, noting she felt personally accountable to the family member helping with the bills.
Then she found out she wasn’t alone. A hitch in the city’s utilities has many residents fuming as they received July utility bills much larger than expected.
The city posted on its website the billing cycle for July jumped from 31 to 34 days.
Jason Roberts, Brigham City’s administrator, said the reason for the extra three days came because the day the pay period would have ended, Aug. 5, fell on a Saturday and meter readers don’t work on weekends. This pushed the final date on the bills to Aug. 8, a Tuesday.
A flexible schedule instead of a strict 30- or 31-day schedule isn’t uncommon, he said, pointing that the city’s June bill was based on 29 days and August is slated for 28 days.
The extra days, the city said in a statement, could have resulted in placing homes into a different tier to be charged for a higher rate. However, it explained hot July temperatures were most likely to explain for the higher bills.
Roberts calculated the average resident paid about $139 in July utilities — roughly 76 percent, or $60 more — than the average June bill. He said the extra days cost the average resident about $8 in total, but 35 percent more power used in July caused nearly half of the $60 increase.
That increase in power used, Roberts said, could be from a hot July. He points to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration statistics that show the average July low was 4 degrees warmer than 2016. In addition, Roberts said the city averaged 12.2 hours per day of temperatures over 72 degrees in June and 17.7 hours in July.
Brockbank — and others for that matter — aren’t buying the city’s explanation for their high utility bills. Many flooded to Facebook to vent their frustrations with their utility bills, including a few calls for auditing the city’s accounting department. Much like Brockbank, some claimed they were paying $100 or more than previous bills.
“I'm waiting to hear the correlation of how the weather affected the meter reader to take a vacation and charge me 7 extra days at the highest tier??? So that's the weather's fault????,” one resident posted.
“My sister rents and doesn't even pay for water and her bill increased. By 180 dollars not bying [sic] it. I about died when I seen my bill I guess I won't eat this month,” said another post.
Some sided with the city, stating the numbers matched up with numbers from a 2016 bill period around the same time period.
"My hope would be that they would be more strict with the billing cycle. I would also hope for those residents that this would affect because they did go up into that third tier that they would get some reimbursement with those costs." — Jeni Brockbank
For Brockbank, she said she found the town billing for 34 days without any warning was concerning and hoped the billing cycle could be fixed.
“My hope would be that they would be more strict with the billing cycle. I would also hope for those residents that this would affect because they did go up into that third tier that they would get some reimbursement with those costs,” she said. “I think that would be the moral thing. The hard thing is they don’t exactly have the exact reading for those three days.”
Roberts said the city has worked with some residents and is willing to work with residents regarding deferred payments, though adding no reimbursements will be offered for the extra payment days.
“If it has caused an undue hardship with an individual and they want to call in, we would be willing to offer some sort of deferral agreements to people,” he said. “We’ve had a lot of calls and offered some so far.”
Brigham City residents with questions about their utility bills are encouraged to call 435-734-6625.
