Differing recollections emerge over Mandeville utility rate changes
Council revisits origins of Mandeville water, sewer rate overhaul
MANDEVILLE — A consultant’s testimony at the April 9 City Council meeting directly contradicted a council member’s assertion that officials were unaware of longstanding wastewater billing problems prior to adopting the city’s new utility rates last year.
Grady Reed of HDR Engineering, a subcontractor for Manchac Consulting Group, told the council that concerns about the city’s wastewater billing practices had been clearly communicated during a September 2024 presentation. His remarks came after Councilman-at-Large Scott Discon stated during the meeting that the council had not been informed that the city was not billing wastewater in accordance with its ordinance predating the approval of the revised rate structure in January 2025.
Discon said the wastewater rate system that Reed proposed and the council adopted wasn’t fair to high-volume users, like the ones who appeared in initial news reports which revealed extreme spikes in their water bills during the initial 6-week transition period last July.
Learn More…
In the days leading up to the April 9 meeting, a citywide anonymous bulk mailer was circulated among Mandeville residents, sharply criticizing the city’s water and sewer rate changes and urging public attention ahead of the scheduled presentation.
“Half the residents are complaining because you’ve shifted everything. You’ve taken and you’re not really creating a whole bunch of wastewater revenue, but you shifted it to the people that are using more water … We [on the City Council] weren’t privy to that before and it is very complicated,” Discon told Reed.
But Reed said the council was fully briefed in 2024: “The primary driver for changing the wastewater billing structure was that the city was not following its own ordinance. It was not billing wastewater in a way that it was supposed to, according to how the city had decided to do that [in a 2016 ordinance].”
Discon insisted the council didn’t know about the wastewater billing problem before they adopted the new rates.
“Excuse me, we didn’t know about that as council members until after we approved the ordinance. If I’m not mistaken, that wasn’t made known to us that we were not collecting the ordinances [rates] that we had in place,” Discon told Reed.
Reed reiterated that the council was fully briefed at the September 2024 meeting: “It was discussed as part of the 2024 presentation, because that was the driver for changing the rates, the rate structure for wastewater.”
Reviewing September 2024 statements
A review of council discussions held on Sept. 26, 2024, and Jan. 9, 2025, indicates that the rationale behind Mandeville’s water and wastewater rate overhaul has remained largely unchanged since 2024. However, the exchange during the April 9 meeting revealed a differing recollection by Discon, raising questions about how the policy was understood when it was adopted and contributing to ongoing debate about its impact on residents.
Download the transcripts here:
– Sept. 26, 2024 – Water Rates Presentation
– Jan. 9, 2025 – Water Rates Adoption and Discussion
– April 9, 2026 – Water Rates Update Presentation
Discon was present at the Sept. 26, 2024, meeting and presided as the council chairman, but asked no questions of Reed at that meeting.
At that 2024 meeting, Reed told Discon and the council that the proposed rate structure was designed to redistribute costs based on system demand, stating, “We’re just trying to shift a larger cost burden to those customers that are placing a larger burden on the utility system.”
Reed’s remarks during that same presentation also directly contradict Discon’s April 9 assertion that the council had not been informed the previous ordinance was not being followed. Addressing the city’s wastewater billing practices in 2024, Reed stated, “That in practice does not appear to be occurring, at least on a consistent basis amongst your customers.”
Consistency in consultant’s message
Reed’s April 2026 presentation largely reaffirmed the findings he previously shared with the council, according to video and transcripts from his previous appearances before the council.
He reiterated that the restructuring of wastewater rates was intended to correct billing practices that likely deviated from the city’s ordinance, rather than to generate significant new revenue. The updated rate model also sought to ensure that the utility enterprise fund remained financially sustainable and compliant with state requirements tied to federally supported infrastructure funding.
The consultant explained that while water revenues were designed to increase to meet operational needs, the wastewater component of the new structure was intended to be largely revenue neutral, redistributing costs more equitably among customers rather than substantially increasing total collections.
The new system, approved by the City Council in January 2025, increased costs for some high-volume users, prompting public concern and ongoing scrutiny of the policy’s development and implementation.
State-commissioned 2023 study provided foundation
Reed also addressed the 2023 water and sewer rate study commissioned through the State of Louisiana’s Water Sector Program. He explained that the analysis was primarily intended to evaluate the city’s financial sustainability and assumed that the existing rate ordinance was being implemented as written.
Based on those assumptions, the study recommended gradual increases in water-rate revenues of roughly 7% annually while indicating that no immediate changes to sewer rates were necessary. Reed said the study’s limited scope did not authorize a comprehensive restructuring of the rate system.
A subsequent city-commissioned analysis in 2024 expanded the review and identified inconsistencies in how wastewater charges were being applied. That broader evaluation led to the adoption of a tiered water rate structure and revised sewer billing methodology aimed at ensuring compliance and distributing costs more equitably among customers.
Wastewater options explored
During the April 9 discussion, council members explored potential modifications to the city’s sewer billing methodology, focusing on options such as implementing usage caps or adopting a winter water averaging model. Zuckerman and Vogeltanz both asked Reed to evaluate the feasibility and policy implications of these approaches.
Reed indicated that while a cap on sewer charges could provide relief to high-volume users, it would function as an intermediate solution rather than a comprehensive fix. He explained that limiting charges for large consumers would likely require some degree of rate increases for lower-volume users to maintain overall revenue stability within the utility enterprise fund. Such a shift, he noted, would redistribute costs rather than eliminate them.
The consultant also addressed the concept of winter water averaging, a billing method commonly used by utilities to estimate wastewater volumes based on water consumption during months when outdoor irrigation is minimal. Reed described the approach as an industry standard that can more accurately reflect actual sewer usage. However, when asked whether the city’s current billing software could automatically calculate winter averages for each household, Reed indicated that it could not.
According to Reed, the lack of automated capability in the city’s billing system likely contributed to the inconsistent application of the methodology in prior administrations, as manual calculations would have placed a significant administrative burden on city staff. This operational limitation, he suggested, was one of the reasons the city historically relied on alternative billing practices, including the one adopted in January 2025 and rolled out last July.
Council members weigh in
Council members used the April 9 meeting to seek clarification on the financial and policy implications of the rate changes.
Councilman-at-Large Jason Zuckerman focused on potential policy options moving forward, including whether alternative billing methodologies—such as a winter water average or caps on sewer charges—might better balance revenue stability with affordability for residents.
District II Councilman Kevin Vogeltanz questioned revenue projections associated with the new structure and emphasized the importance of ensuring the city’s continued eligibility for state infrastructure funding. He too raised the possibility of implementing wastewater billing caps to ease pain among high-volume users.
District I Councilwoman Cynthia Strong-Thompson expressed concern about the equity of sewer billing, particularly in cases where sewer charges may exceed water costs for residents with significant outdoor water use.
District III Councilwoman Jill Lane sought clarification on how different billing approaches would affect customers across varying usage levels and emphasized the need for continued monitoring of actual revenues compared with projections.
Looking ahead
No immediate policy changes were proposed following Reed’s presentation. Instead, council members indicated that the city should continue monitoring revenue trends over the coming fiscal year before considering potential adjustments to the rate structure.
The discussion reflects the city’s ongoing effort to balance financial sustainability, regulatory compliance and affordability for residents. As additional data becomes available, the council is expected to revisit the issue to determine whether refinements to the current system are warranted.
-30-
© 2026 Mandeville Daily. All rights reserved. Republishing permitted with attribution and link to the original article.
