Belleville City Council scolded for no ‘real’ water bills in a year

Belleville resident Michael Renaud scolded the Belleville City Council at Monday’s regular meeting, noting the council has hired all kinds of new people, put new infrastructure in city hall, and the residents haven’t had a basic water bill for almost a year.
He said the residents keep getting estimates which are not “real” bills.
City manager Jason Smith said they are working at getting new water meters installed and hope to be completed by the end of February.
“You’re going to come up with a bill for a year of water?” Renaud asked, noting all the estimates need to be changed to real use. Renaud said he has a new meter and keeps getting estimates.
He said he has kept track of all the estimates for a year, but most people don’t have that information.
City manager Smith said when the new meter is replaced, the installer notes the reading on the old meter and cost will be adjusted.
Smith said recently a resident had a bill for $111,000 and it was adjusted.
Smith said he went through the same problem when he was in Litchfield and it took 13 months. He said just 13 people had significant changes to their bills in Litchfield.
Council member Julie Kissel said she is paying an exact water bill with her new meter and there are no estimates.
Renaud suggested that may be because she has inside information.
Smith said some people call in their meter readings to city hall, but Renaud said that’s not the resident’s job.
“We have all these people and can’t provide a basic service?” Renaud asked.
Smith said the old meters were from the 1970s and the only people who knew how to fix them live in Isreal.
“That’s why we decided to replace them,” said Mayor Ken Voigt, cutting off the public comment.
Later, Smith said 35.7% of the new meters have been installed and the city is working at getting them all in place as the residents allow entry into their homes. He said if residents can get a neighbor to oversee an installation, that would work.
In other business at Monday’s meeting, the council:
• Held a moment of silence in memory of former Mayor Pro Tem Rick Dawson, who Mayor Voigt call a “pillar of our society,” noting, “It’s truly a loss to not have him around”;
• Heard Kelly Howey of Plante Moran give a six-month budget overview in preparation for next month’s audit report on the previous year’s budget. She said there is $272,000 excess in the general fund over what was budgeted and $2.9 million general fund balance, which is 103% of expenditures for the year – “a very, very healthy fund balance.” She said generally municipalities seek a fund balance of 25% or about three months of operation costs. Investing funds in My Class for higher interest rates was a good idea, she said. It was pointed out the fund had a 4.5% interest rate in December, earning $17,000 in interest for the city. She said the city added a lot of employees and they need to be expensed from their actual departments. How to get funds to maintain the cemetery was discussed. The process for the new budget will be in May;
• Heard Smith ask the council if it wanted him to do legwork on codifying short-term rentals or air bnbs? He said if they do nothing, any resident could do short-term rentals. He said the state allows a tax on short-term rentals that the community shares half of with the state. The council took no action;
• Heard Smith ask if the council wanted to set the L-4029 millage rate request for the summer taxes at the next meeting and Mayor Voigt said that would be good, since the city told the residents they would change that rate. Also, the council’s annual goal-setting session will be set at the next meeting;
• Learned a candidate for the front office position had first accepted and then turned down the job. Another person has accepted and a background check will be needed, Smith said, adding they hope to have her in place soon; and
• Heard councilman Jeremiah Beebe say he would talk to people about getting their water meters installed.