CHARLOTTE WATER
ADVISORY COMMITTEE
MINUTES OF MEETING
May 21, 2015
Charlotte Water Advisory Committee met Thursday, May 21, 2015, 2:30 pm at 4222 Westmont
Drive, Charlotte, North Carolina.
Members Present:
Jim Duke, Jim Merrifield, Leslie Jones, Ralph Messera, Frank McMahan,
Ron Charbonneau
Members Absent:
Pride Patton
Staff Present:
Chad Howell
Carl Wilson
Regina Cousar
Steve Miller
Karen Weatherly
Guest:
Peter McChesney, Michael Gosey
Business Manager
Chief Engineer
Utilities Continuous Improvement Officer
Customer Service Manager
City Attorney
Safety Minute
Alarm Safety
Minutes
A motion was made by Ron Charbonneau, and seconded by Leslie Jones, to approve the April
2015 Minutes. Motion was approved.
Water Replacement Project
Charlotte Water is a nationally recognized award winning utility which serves the City of
Charlotte, surrounding towns and Mecklenburg County. The Utility currently treats and delivers
an average of 100,000,000 gallons/day of drinking water, while collecting and recycling
80,000,000 gallons/day of wastewater. Charlotte Water maintains over 270,000 metered accounts
which serve over 1,000,000 people within a 550 square mile radius. These 270,000 smart meters
are read by drive-by throughout the City of Charlotte and its surrounding municipalities.
Collection of smart meter data requires a mobile reader unit that will gather our residential,
commercial and irrigation customer’s information which it is then stored and processed
internally for review and billing. The Water Meter Upgrade Project was begun to look for new
and innovative ideas about collecting system data and optimizing our meter reading into the
future. Contributing factors that instigated this project include decline in consumption (largely
due to efficient plumbing and change in habits) along with the increasing number of people
moving into our region. Our current metering system was also projected to reach its full useful
life in the next ten years. Charlotte Water recognizes and understands the need to be plan and
prepare with these changing trends. Likewise, the Utility recognized the need to begin to apply
more discrete distribution system data in the future as well as continuing to be technologically
savvy with the current use of existing equipment. There is a large amount of information that the
Utility can use to refine operations with the ability to exceed customer expectations when
possible. In 2010 and 2011, the Utility explored new technologies with visits, research and pilot
tests with existing vendors and existing meters. In 2012, a RFI (Request for Information) was
used as a tool to develop a knowledge base and we carefully used 2 years to digest needs and
possibilities while completing more study. In 2014, a long term strategy was developed by
Charlotte Water and a RFP (Request for Proposal) to support these efforts was released.
Currently, an independent review of responses by an external subject matter expert along with
separate internal reviews has been completed. In July 2015 there will be an invitation to the
selected candidates Charlotte Water would like to continue with. These candidates will be asked
to participate in demonstration days for further clarification as the evaluation process proceeds.
After demonstration days, two of the potential vendors will be asked to engage in contract
negotiations. Later in 2015, a selection of the best contract from the two will be reviewed with
Charlotte Water Advisory Committee and City Manager. Sometime in 2016 a recommendation
will be made to City Council.
Financial Update
Expenditures and revenues are trending on track as planned for this fiscal year
Meeting Adjourned 3:05 p.m.
TGN