Jackson officials clash with Siemens over water bill issues

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) – Jackson City Council members and representatives from engineering company Siemens debated about the city’s problematic water billing system during a budget committee meeting.

The Clarion-Ledger (http://on.thec-l.com/1Y5uwoG ) reports that city officials on Monday demanded explanations from Siemens about problems with the city’s meters, which have led to bills with inaccurate readings.

The issue stems from an automated water billing system called Advanced Metering Infrastructure that Siemens installed with the promise of saving Jackson money.

Public Works Director Kishia Powell said that people are still receiving bills with estimated meter readings, instead of more accurate readings. About 6,000 accounts on meters with AMI data are still receiving estimated bills because of a backlog in the system that can only be cleared manually.

Siemens representative Frank Gagliardi says the company is working to clear a very large backlog.