Gilbert officials said they are moving forward with a full audit of the town’s utility meters as residents continue to question high water bills.
Assistant Town Manager Leah Rhineheimer told Gilbert Town Council at its Oct. 28 meeting the town is in the final stages of hiring a vendor to conduct the audit, which was prompted by reports of unexpected spikes in utility charges.
“We are selecting a vendor this week after an interview process to begin conducting that audit,” Rhineheimer said. “Once we have the interviews completed, we'll be able to provide a more thorough timeline, and we will be providing consistent report outs on the progress of the audit.”
She said the town has also increased staffing to assist residents with questions.
“We've been able to augment our customer service team as well as we're working on augmenting our water resources and conservation team,” Rhineheimer said. “They were able to complete almost double or more than double the amount of audits in the last two weeks. And so kudos to the water conservation team for the checkups they've been able to squeeze in addition to the already planned audits.”
Rhineheimer added that the town will soon host three public listening sessions to allow residents to meet directly with staff and council members about billing concerns.
“This will be an opportunity for community members who have questions or concerns to be able to dialogue directly with the mayor and council, as well as with key staff who can help troubleshoot any issues that they may have or any data that they're requesting,” she said.
During public comment, several speakers thanked police for maintaining order at meetings and urged calm discussion of the ongoing billing issues. The result was a calmer meeting than the Oct. 14 meeting’s angry tone.
One resident, former Councilmember Bill Spence, commended the town for acknowledging problems but pressed officials to roll back current utility rates.
“Public communication is vital in helping to solve the problem and to quickly alleviate the incredible financial hardships that our residents are experiencing,” Spence said.
He argued that “the actual rates being charged may not reflect what was noticed to the public,” and asked that rates “be restored at a minimum to the 2023 rates until such time that proper corrective actions can be put into place.”
Another resident, Amy Bejarano, shared her detailed review of her own water statements, saying the town’s billing system appeared to have misread her water meter.
“It almost looks like the town essentially had a communication issue with my meter,” she said. “So I was not charged for water consumption, which I'll happily pay at the 2023 and the 2024 rates based on that 19,000 (gallons usage), but instead they went and top loaded it starting in January of 2025 and hence why my bills were so outrageous.”
Longtime resident Sara Barker said she discovered her bill had grown unexpectedly after months of being unable to access her statements online.
“I was shocked to see how much it was,” she told the council. “There was no way I used that much water... I really hope you guys really revisit your decision and roll back that rate because this is not, it's just not affordable.”
Council members again reminded the public that under state law they cannot respond to comments during the meeting but encouraged residents to continue reporting billing problems to the town’s utility department.
Please submit comments at yourvalley.net/letters or email them to AzOpinions@iniusa.org. We are committed to publishing a wide variety of reader opinions, as long as they meet our Civility Guidelines. Tom Blodgett can be reached by email at tblodgett@iniusa.org or follow him @sp_blodgett on X.
Meet Tom Tom Blodgett joined Independent Newsmedia, Inc., USA, in 2022, when the company acquired Community Impact Newspaper's Phoenix-area properties. Raised in Arizona, he has spent more than 35 years in journalism in the state.
Community: He has served as an instructional professional in the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication since 2005, and is editorial adviser to The State Press, the university's independent student media outlet. He also is director of operations for an 18U girls fastpitch softball team from Gilbert.
Education: Arizona State University with a BS in Journalism.
Random Fact: He lived in Belgium during his freshman year of high school.
Hobbies: Tweeting enthusiastically about ASU softball (season-ticket holder) and grumpily about other local sports (pessimistic fan).
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