Dear Valued Customers,
Billing and Customer Service remain a top priority for our utility. Today, the City Council announced $3.4 million in dedicated funding to help us sort through billing data. With this funding, SWBNO will send out a request for proposals in the next 60 days to hire an accounting firm to support our billing team and assist in gathering data and independently analyzing customer accounts, which will be used in clearing up billing discrepancies.
This is a welcomed, collaborative effort with one goal in mind: improving our customers' experience. This much-needed funding for accounting resources, coupled with our new Smart Metering Program, will transform our utility's billing practices.
We want these older, lingering issues cleared up as we go into the next chapter with our Smart Metering Program.
Our Smart Metering Program remains on track to have half the city’s smart meters in the ground by the end of the year. At that point, our meter reading team can concentrate on getting actual reads from only 70,000 meters — a much more manageable number. We thank all the staff who are working hard to make this program a success.
We thank the City Council and Mayor Cantrell for securing this critical funding. SWBNO appreciates the continued alignment among our utility, partners, and stakeholders. Our team looks forward to swiftly implementing these improvements for our customers.
Yours in service,
Ghassan Korban
Executive Director
Sewerage and Water Board of New Orleans