Burbank City Council Postpones Decision on Monthly Utility Bills

The Burbank City Council has decided to take more time before deciding on proposed changes in the way monthly utility bills are calculated for 45,000 residential electric and water customers.

As Tuesday night’s council meeting stretched past midnight, council members agreed to consider the proposal, as well as four other alternatives, again next week.

“It’s 10 after 12 and I have a hunch some of us aren’t following this as well as we should,” Councilman Robert Bowne told Ron Stassi, general manager of the Burbank Public Service Department.

The department has been the target of numerous complaints since it switched to a new billing process in June to save $164,606 in salary costs.

Until last summer, a team of meter readers visited homes every month. Customers were then billed according to the amount of water and electricity they used.

Meters are now read only every other month and a computer estimates bills the alternate months, giving some customers bills that are either too high or too low.

In response to consumer complaints, Stassi said he wants to eliminate the estimates and bill customers every month based on bimonthly meter readings.

Stassi tried Tuesday to explain how his proposal would work, but was cut short by Mayor Bill Wiggins, who acknowledged he still had a difficult time understanding it.