HOUSTON — On Wednesday, Houston Mayor John Whitmire addressed why he postponed announcing a new plan to tackle high water bills.
Whitmire was originally supposed to unveil details during the weekly City Council meeting but after the meeting, he told KHOU 11 News that city officials want to spend a little more time making sure they get the details right from the start.
“It’s not a retreat,” Whitmire said. “It’s, if anything, a more aggressive way of doing it right the first time.”
KHOU 11 News has reported for months about sky-high water bills, with some thousands or even tens of thousands of dollars above normal, blamed partly on aging infrastructure and failed meters.
In December, the then-City Council approved a plan by then-Mayor Sylvester Turner to tackle the issue. Now, a month into the new job, Whitmire said he’s creating his own plan. While he didn’t want to compare specifics to his predecessor’s plan, he promised a more proactive, transparent way of addressing customers’ issues.
“The previous month's effort created some confusion,” Whitmire said. “There won’t be fees in my proposal. So, it’s gonna really get Public Works to be very responsive to the public.”
And, he said, more proactive in spotting bad bills.
“One of the plans, we’re gonna have an in-service availability,” Whitmire said. “We’re really gonna try to make it user-friendly. The outrageous bills will be proactively dismissed.”
Whitmire defended the delay in sharing the full plan.
“We really want to be transparent about it, scrub it, make certain that we don’t start down a path that we have to adjust,” he said. “It’s too important.”
The mayor said he’ll check with his team Thursday to see if the plan is ready to release.