Agenda Packets - 2007/08/06 - Laserfiche WebLink

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·Year 1996 216 MIU related repairs ·Year 1997 199 MIU related repairs ·Year 1998 118 MIU related repairs ·Year 1999 67 MIU related repairs ·Year 2000 146 MIU related repairs ·Year 2001 92 MIU related repairs ·Year 2002 29 MIU related repairs (started MXU battery changeover) ·Year 2003 106 MIU related repairs ·Year 2004 184 MIU related repairs ·Year 2005 Misplaced in move (approx. 150) ·Year 2006 103 MIU related repairs There have been approximately 1400 MIU related repairs in 11 years. These repairs are typically related to broken wires, (phone and meter wires) disconnected phone lines, (residents going to a cell phone only), and shorted out phone connections and bad MIU units themselves. In the past, Staff has been able to repair enough malfunctioning MIU accounts to keep the “malfunctioning repair list” from growing at an accelerated rate. However, in the last four quarters, the list has gone from 200 malfunctioning accounts to over 1000 out of 2300 total MIU accounts. Since the City’s sewer rates are dependant on water usage, the Utility Billing Department is spending an extra 20 hours a week working on the adjustable sewer rate. This has started with the end of the first quarter of 2007 reads. Staff has been in contact with Invensys Metering Systems, the manufacturer of the MIU system, to find out if there was something that they know of which would be causing these problems. At this time, Invensys Metering Systems has not been able to offer any solutions. Meanwhile Staff has performed several investigations to determine the source of the failures. Staff has had the City phone lines check by Qwest and Popp Communication to see if it is possible that it is a phone line or modem related problem - no problems were found. Staff checked and re-checked all of the settings on the modem and in the MIU software for proper settings - no problems or inconsistencies have been found. This leads Staff to believe that it is a wholesale failure of the MIU system in some capacity. Compounding the MIU failure issue is the trend for residential homes to eliminate the land-line telephone. According to the Star Tribune March 3rd 2007 issue, About one in eight homes did not have a land-line telephone in the first half of 2006. This compares to one in 20 based on a national government survey that was conducted three years earlier.