Dearborn Heights council creates Water Billing, Grants and Communications departments to centralize services

Dearborn Heights — On Dec. 9 the City Council approved ordinances to establish three new departments: Water Billing, Grants and Communications.

Chief of staff and administration officials told the council the water-billing department is needed because billing inquiries and disputes have consumed substantial staff time and require a dedicated supervisor. The grants department is intended to bring in a professional grant writer to pursue external funding, including for water and sewer projects; administration noted the position could pay for itself by securing grant revenue. The communications department, adopted on an emergency basis, is meant to centralize messaging, manage social media and provide a public-facing communications director who can coordinate press releases and emergency statements.

Council members and the mayor cited recent public complaints—high water bills, a compromised notification vendor, and social-media attacks targeted at city leaders—to justify the changes. The mayor said communications capacity will help the city “control its own narrative” and provide quicker, multilingual alerts.

What happens next: The administration will move forward with hiring lines and job descriptions as budgeted; the grants and communications positions were described as priorities in forthcoming hiring and budget actions.