Dozens of community members gathered to voice their concerns surrounding LP&L meter readings at a town hall meeting at City Hall on Monday.

Residents filed into the meeting, each taking a card as they took their seats to write in their comments and concerns with LP&L, who say they will be going through the cards and addressing them individually. 

The gathering was actually a follow-up to a private meeting held by a group of community members out of Lake Ridge last month who felt as though their bills had been increasing at an unsual rate.Councilwoman Karen Gibson had attended that previous meeting and helped to organize the one scheduled for Monday so that community members would have the opportunity to meet with some city council and LP&L representatives. 

Andy Burcham, chief financial officer and assistant director of LP&L, began the meeting with how the meters are manually read each day. Burcham reported than in Lubbock, 346 electric and 283 water meters are ready on a daily basis. 

Matt Rose, spokesperson for LP&L stated that because they are checked manually each day, that it leaves room for human error when it comes to reading the meters. To help combat this, Rose said a potential solution the utilities service is installing an advanced metering system.

“Right now, when we read meters its a manual process its going to be subject to human error, theres no way that it cant be. but we have outdated technology you’re going to take that possibility of error and shoot it through the roof,” said Rose.

Rose also acknowledged that one of the main issues LP&L wants to work better on is customer service. Over the past four months, they have hired a new customer service manager.

“We have to work with customers,” said Rose. “It used to be ‘they’re calling into LP&L. They’re calling in because they’re angry and therefore must be angry.’ And that’s not the case. Many times you’re calling in because you have a legitimate issue with your bill.” 

Following the meter presentation, homeowners and representatives from the South Plains Area Residents Taxpayers Action Network (SPARTAN) got up to share their concerns.

Doug Karr, who was designated the spokesperson on behalf of the home owner group, said while there are still several issues he would have liked seen addressed as well, that he is remaining hopeful more will be done help residents out with their LP&L concerns following Monday night’s meeting. 

“I’m feeling positive that we had an opportunity to voice our concerns and be heard by at least three council members and by the utility company,” said Karr who also shared that he felt as though the meeting would have been more proactive if attendees would not have had to only write in their issues to LP&L. 
 
“I would have liked to have seen more people have the opportunity to voice their concerns, we were limited to the number of people who could speak. I think a little more participation, public input would have been welcomed tonight.”
 
After the meeting, those who wanted to discuss issues one-on-one with both LP&L and city council representatives were given the chance to. In a response to how the meeting went overall, Matt Rose shared with EverythingLubbock.com this statement:
 
“Meetings like the one tonight are incredibly important because it allows the opportunity to speak one one one with our customers let them know about our policies, procedures and reasoning behind it and further educate them on what issues falls underneath lp&l and what issues fall underneath the responsibility of the city of Lubbock so that if they have issues they know where to go to fix the problem.”  
 
Rose also stated that the project to replace the billing system is underway for the new meters. Infrastructure will be approved by the next budget cycle and that LP&L hopes to have a deployment of meters completed by 2019.