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-- Anonymous, June 09, 2001

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OR: Portland billing glitch flows downhill

OR :Water Bureau's new computer over budgetand past due

-- Anonymous, June 12, 2001

OR - Future computer systems deals go to mayor

Vera Katz praises Erik Sten for taking responsibility but asserts a key role for her and Tim Grewe's offices Vera Katz praises Erik Sten for taking responsibility but asserts a key role for her and Tim Grewe's offices

Thursday, July 12, 2001

By Courtenay Thompson of The Oregonian staff

Portland Mayor Vera Katz praised City Commissioner Erik Sten Wednesday for taking responsibility for the Water Bureau's troubled computer billing system, which could cost the city $15 million in permanent losses.

At the same time, Katz announced that all future purchases of computer systems no longer will be handled by individual city bureaus, but will come through her office and the city's chief administrative officer, Tim Grewe.

Her comments came at a City Council meeting Wednesday as Sten and the Water Bureau, which he oversees, brought to City Council the latest report on what Sten called the "utterly flawed" Open Vision computer software, developed by Severn Trent Systems of Houston.

Seventeen months since the system was turned on in February 2000, it still wasn't billing 11,569 water and sewer customers as of June 30. That has led to a $35.5 million revenue shortfall, most of it unbilled and past-due accounts.

OR - Problem accounts underestimated In recent weeks, a political maelstrom erupted after The Oregonian reported that some Water Bureau officials knew of the potential problems but decided to fire up the system anyhow. In addition, the bureau reported that it had far underestimated the number of problem accounts in its last report to council in February -- nearly 40,000 accounts rather than 8,500.

In the aftermath, the Water Bureau's administrator, Michael Rosenberger, resigned, and Sten asked Katz and Grewe to step in. Water rates have gone up an extra 1.1 percentage points and sewer rates 1.4 percentage points because of the problems.

Sten told the council Wednesday that bad judgment, rather than dishonesty or malfeasance, led to starting the system despite warnings it wouldn't work as planned.

"I think our flow of information was not as good as it could have been," Sten said, "and I personally feel responsible for having a situation in which concerns were raised that were not heard by everybody involved, including (me)."

Katz also sent out a warning to city employees that it's unacceptable to keep information from the mayor or the commissioner in charge of a bureau.

"Lesson to be learned," Katz said. "Never do that again."

Sten said that although mistakes were made in the past, the city must focus on bringing the system under control. The bureau now has about 10,000 problem accounts, down from the 40,000 in February.

"We've cleaned up about 75 percent of the problem, but the problem was twice as big as I thought," Sten said.

He said all the accounts should be working by sometime this fall.

"We're not going to declare victory until that happens," Sten said.

Many bills are unpaid The Water Bureau and the Bureau of Environmental Services, which oversees sewers, still face a mountain of unpaid or late bills, in part because Sten and Water Bureau officials decided to suspend debt collection until the problems were resolved. It would have been unfair to go after people who had not even been billed, Sten said.

Now the city is stepping up its debt collection. The city expects to recover only 70 percent to 80 percent of the $32.2 million owed by customers beyond the current billing cycle. The automatic debt recovery function of the software isn't expected to be on line until Oct. 1 or even Dec. 1.

Jim Abrahamson, chairman of the Portland Utilities Review Board, a public watchdog, called for a full accounting of the damage to ratepayers and urged the City Council to put sufficient staff and resources to solving the problem.

Grewe said Wednesday he has tapped Ron Bergman, director of the Bureau of General Services, to lead the team charged with assessing whether to scrap the computer system. Grewe, Bergman and finance director Ken Rust are all working on the issue.

Full system report next week Grewe will come before council next Wednesday with a full report on the team's plan for determining whether to stick with the system. Other weekly reports will follow.

Bergman promised to look at financial issues, including whether the shortfalls might damage the city's bond rating. A technical team will assess the computer system, while another team will examine the city's old billing system to see whether it could serve as a backup or be used in part. Another technical group will look at alternatives to Open Vision, should the city decide to jettison it.

"Our focus is on where we are now and where do we go next," Bergman said, "not a retrospective."

Grewe said they will undertake that task after the system has been stabilized.

"I can assure you we'll get a stable system," Grewe said. "I just don't know what it will look like."

http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/oregonian/index.ssf?/portland/orego nian/p5_water12.frame

-- Anonymous, July 18, 2001

Costly Billing Computer May Be Trashed Commissioner Says He Didn’t See Warning Memos Posted: 7:24 a.m. PDT August 16, 2001

PORTLAND -- A new computer system may be trashed to solve a billing problem with the Portland Water Bureau.

The city, which has already spent $6.5 million on the system, is considering pulling the plug on its new water billing computer system.

The fiasco threatens taxpayers and 10,000 water customers whose bills are inaccurate.

After a year of looking for a fix, some wonder if the system will ever be repaired.

City auditors reportedly sent warnings before the new computers were implemented. Portland Commissioner Eric Sten, who is in charge of the water bureau, says that he never saw the warning memos.

http://www.koin.com/c6k/news/stories/news-92128720010816-090843.html

-- Anonymous, August 17, 2001