Frustrated by the angry calls from customers citing late, missing or inaccurate water bills, the Santa Fe City Council voted to put off a contract for an annual ad campaign targeted at encouraging water conservation in the summer months.
“The timing and the optics are terrible,” said Councilor Joseph Maestas, who led the charge objecting to the request for a professional services agreement to contract with PK Public Relations, a firm that has worked with the city water division for four years on campaigns. “I don’t want to make your life any worse, but I’m getting pounded. We’re getting killed,” Maestas told Nick Schiavo, Public Utilities Department and Water Division Director. “I guess I’m not opposed to the concept of seeking outside help, but I think it would be better for us to establish some stability after we’ve entered all the meters and retrofits, then look at mechanisms and maybe come up with some innovative ideas on how to augment and get your message out.”In other words: One thing at a time.Once the angry calls stop following the new Badger meters around the city, councilors will be more willing to talk about approving any additional money. Although, in this case, the source of money isn’t the city’s general fund, it’s from the water utility’s enterprise fund. Councilors voted 4-3 on a motion to postpone the contract vote to February, after they've had a chance to hear additional reports on what exactly has gone wrong with the installation of the new Badger water meters, what corrective actions have been taken and a more clear plan from the public relations company on how they’ll spend the $75,000 contract. Maestas was joined by Councilors Signe Lindell, Ron Trujillo and Carmichael Dominguez in voting yes, while Councilors Chris Rivera and Peter Ives voted no, as did Mayor Javier Gonzales.Schiavo reports their contractors have installed 23,000 of 32,000 residential meters, but in the meantime a system that required manually entering meter numbers became so backlogged that residents’ bills have been delayed. Meters were swapped out faster than the customers records could be manually updated with new meter numbers. The department has since caught up and is now able to keep up as new meters are installed, he said, and expects to be back on track by the end of February with billing. “What I could use is some help with marketing and some help with messaging for how we’re doing things, because we have been saving money … and the average call time is now just about 6 minutes,” Schiavo said. He’s heard plenty about it as well, he added, telling councilors, “The beauty of being and living in Santa Fe is that no one holds back, and I read every email and listen to every voicemail.”All residential meters should be installed by May, and then the work begins on commercial accounts, which Schiavo estimated would take three months to install. So Maestas proposed waiting to approve the contract for this public relations campaign until after the residential installations are complete at the end of May. City Manager Bryan Snyder, who spent years in the utilities department, jumped in, “What we’re talking about is water conservation messaging for this upcoming season, and there’s a motion on the table to postpone until beginning of June, and that’s when our peak daily demands are. By that time, it’s too late.”They can’t wait until May to start crafting and delivering the message that yes, we’ve had some wet seasons, but that doesn’t mean the city’s residents should let up on conservation, he argued—and Councilor Peter Ives, who also served on the water commission, echoed that sentiment. Messaging helped drive water consumption down from an average of 170 to 95 gallons used daily, but, as Maestas pointed out, the increased water rates likely played a large part in that, too. Mayor Javier Gonzales asked what’s changed since the finance committee meeting in which everyone in attendance, including Maestas, voted in favor of this, and Maestas pointed to an overtime request for the water division, the complaints and the general blowback. “I’m not trying to be detrimental to our water conservation efforts, but the optics are terrible and we have a lot going on,” Maestas said. “You have to be careful governing on optics,” Gonzales cautioned. But he added that whatever messaging comes out of a public relations campaign should target the lower income water users. Those customers might be most vulnerable to spikes in their water bills and have the least access to information and tools to decrease consumption—including those that accompany the new water meters and rely on online water use information to figure out when they’re about to cross that nasty 10,000 gallons threshold and see their rate per 1,000 gallons spike.The end result was a vote to postpone contract approval until February and ask the public relations firm to come forward with a more concrete plan on how they’re going to spend the money. Planned conversations about the department’s recent request for $105,000 for overtime were also deferred to next Wednesday’s Public Utilities Committee meeting.“I hear what you’re saying with respect to some guarantees and some outcomes,” Schiavo said. “As long as it’s adjusted for weather, I see no reason why we can’t look for and see a decrease in consumption.”
Santa Fe Reporter