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How dreadful. WE do not even get a choice. This also makes our electric system vulnerable to hacking, something that is not so much of a problem now. Same for the water system. Rogue nations have been using hacking against utility systems both in America and in Europe, as the UK found out last week. Mechanical systems like our current meters are not vulnerable, but computer based systems like "smart meters" are.
In another consumer ripoff, they are using Tyler Tech for billing. Many customers pay with credit cards, something the city does not charge a fee for using. Tyler Tech pops consumers for a substantial fee for using a credit card. This is terrible for Washington consumers. Why does the current council not drive a stake through the heart of this Frankenstein monster?
Commented: Wednesday, August 26th, 2026 @ 11:10 am
By: Concerned Taxpayer
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Thank you for the link.
Page 79 Replace all electric meters - 14,000 meters Billing system they will be using mentioned on pate 82 www.tylertech.com Says pay as you go since this will be updated hourly, I have to wonder what the pay to go actually means.
Commented: Wednesday, August 26th, 2026 @ 6:17 am
By: Countrygirl1411
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Here's the link for the funding for the smart meter (AMI) project, page 95
cms8.revize.com
Commented: Tuesday, August 25th, 2026 @ 10:57 pm
By: PK
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Here's the link from 2023 for the smart meters page 75
cms8.revize.com
Commented: Tuesday, August 25th, 2026 @ 10:45 pm
By: PK
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Has the money been spent? Was that part of the big tax increase? Can it be stopped? PK, you are right that citizens should be able to just say NO to these things. Will one of our new council members please bring the issue up?
Commented: Tuesday, August 25th, 2026 @ 8:29 pm
By: John Steed
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From the looks of this going back in the Council Agendas, this was put forth in 2023. This is going to be costing the City millions! I wonder if you can opt out of putting one of these smart meters on your house for electric & water? I definitely don't think it's a good idea at all. How is this going to be payed for? Is this going to cause our bill to go up even more to help pay for these smart meters that we don't want or need?!?
Commented: Tuesday, August 25th, 2026 @ 8:21 pm
By: PK
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Washingtonian: County Commissioners have very little leverage to affect the governing of cities, other than cut off the money, where county taxpayers might subsidize certain programs that The City might offer.
This I have voted to do in the last number of years, when I noticed that the corruption within the City of Washington government was far too pervasive.
Commented: Tuesday, August 25th, 2026 @ 3:56 pm
By: Stan Deatherage
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So what's new RH? The elected people betrayed the citizens a very long time ago. They wont even respond to emails. To them, we are just bothersome humans interrupting their devinity. The Dept heads runs this town, as we saw recently when the police dept got the city manager fired with one single public comment. "The city is not safe."
Have you ever made a serious call to a dispatcher? I find them mean. They think they are judge and jury, making legal decisions about your call on the spot, as if they are protecting the police from actually having to respond to a citizen. WHY? I've seen it many times over the years. Behavior like this comes from a bad culture within. On another note, what responsibility does the County Commissioners have to protect the citizens of a town within? Everyone passes the buck. We become like rats in an unsolvable maze.
Commented: Tuesday, August 25th, 2026 @ 11:58 am
By: Washingtonian
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Was there a council vote on this authoritarian boondoggle? If so, who voted how? Any elected official who voted for this attack on our citizens' pocketbook and privacy needs to be voted out of office. They have betrayed the public trust.
Commented: Tuesday, August 25th, 2026 @ 10:37 am
By: Rino Hunter
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This doesn't sound either good or fair for consumers. No one should be forced to get one if they already have working electric and water meters. Any customer who has working meters and wants one of these new ones should have to pay for the meter and installation, not have the cost shoved onto other customers who don't want them.
Commented: Monday, August 24th, 2026 @ 5:01 pm
By: Bubba
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Traditional mechanical electric and water meters are very robust. They usually last decades, and very rarely have to be replaced. They are also proven to be safe. The computer assisted smart meters are not as robust. They break easier and sooner, but they cost more. Some of them have also been shown to be bigger fire risks.
Why should utility customers be gouged to pay for replacing meters that have no need to be replaced, which will not last as long and may be fire hazards? This is insanity and a financial boondoggle. It has been said that a previous regime bought these meters and has had them in a warehouse. If so, it is far better to just sell them to someone else to put the money in the budget. Instead they want to spend money to take out perfectly good meters and replace them with these new meters. That is VERY VERY wasteful spending. These meters should also never be crammed down the throat of any utility customer. If the customer has a working meter and does not want one of these things, they should be able to just say NO.
Commented: Sunday, August 23rd, 2026 @ 3:09 pm
By: John Steed
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These systems are euphemistically called "smart meters" but they are a dumb idea for the average citizen. They represent intrusive government data collection and power over consumers. If you thought Orwell's "1984" OR Huxley's: Brave New World" reflects the ideal perfect government of the future, then you will probably like these intrusive machines. Consumers should tell our Big Brother city government to stick their "smart meters" up their rear ends.
Commented: Sunday, August 23rd, 2026 @ 12:24 pm
By: The Shadow
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If it ain't broke, don't fix it!. This is more wasteful spending by a spendthrift city council, and an invasion of privacy on top of that. When we already have working electric meters why replace them? There are lots of genuine deficiencies in our electric system that need fixing. Why waste money on "Big Brother" Orwellian electric meters?
Commented: Saturday, August 22nd, 2026 @ 2:36 pm
By: Concerned Taxpayer
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