Photo credit: YouTube: Gilbert Town Council
Water bill increases drew dozens of residents to the Oct. 14 Gilbert Town Council meeting.
But before last Tuesday, residents voiced their frustrations and growing concern over dramatic increases in their monthly water bill in April 2024. At that time, a 75% total increase in price was rolled out, to reach 100% early 2026 with an additional increase of 25%, which made residents upset. Public outcry can be heard consistently in recent town council meetings, with residents lining up to speak about their struggles.
A local resident living in Gilbert is a retiree who addressed the issue during Tuesday’s meeting, citing her concern over potentially returning to work to cover the costs of the new water increase. Her comments included a recent phone interaction with Gilbert Utilities that resulted in an investigation of her meter, where a malfunction was found to have caused a spike in a previous bill.
Another resident who spoke at the meeting shared her recent frustrations with the new billing portal rollout, stating that she was given only four days’ notice before her previous data would become unavailable. Her concern included the inability to access past bills, making it difficult to perform any comparative analyses following the installation of new meters.
The public’s distress during the meeting was palpable, highlighting the urgency of these matters and the rising tension between the town council and Gilbert residents due to water price increases.
A Town Council Outreach Coordinator did not respond to requests for comment following the city council meeting.
Public Works Director Jessica Marlow presented a slideshow outlining the steps Gilbert is allegedly taking to mitigate crises stemming from the new payment system rollout with the caveat statement, “Only a small percentage of meters have actual malfunctions."
Photo credit: YouTube: Gilbert Town Council
The plan details several steps Gilbert Public Works Department is planning to take, namely that it would be using a third-party agency to audit its AMI (Advanced Metering Infrastructure) radio and meter systems as a means of transparency to the public regarding mistrust surrounding the installation of new meters. Further measures intended to assist residents with costs include a grace period for unpaid balances until the new billing portal transition has been completed, a date which has been carefully omitted from any Public Works resources.
Marlow also stated that the Utility Department has a customer service team dedicated to customer concerns. She offered a tutorial available on mobile phones intended to help customers detect whether they have leaks that might be contributing to rising utility bills.
The presentation included a message discouraging the use of social media as a platform for complaints, assuring that the only way to address issues and concerns is to call the office for customer support.
Photo credit: YouTube: Gilbert Town Council
An announcement was made during the presentation for new listening sessions with Gilbert Council and Town officials to supersede the limitations on two-way dialogue during regular Town Council meetings.
It is unclear whether these new measures will help residents directly or rather bypass resident concerns with continuously unclear answers from Gilbert Utilities customer service.
For any resident concerned with this issue, please reach out to me at tracy.t@lead4earth.org.
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