Richmond council approves AMI meter program and $1.43 million lease financing

Richmond’s City Council voted unanimously on Dec. 10 to approve contracts with Utility Service Co. (SUEZ) for well and tank maintenance and a master services agreement for an advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) program, and to authorize a lease-purchase financing agreement with U.S. Bancorp to fund the project.

The package of SUEZ documents covered routine maintenance agreements for the Hill Street standpipe and the Valley Drive tower, full-maintenance contracts for three wells, a master AMI services agreement, and a scope-of-work for meter maintenance. Tom Stechmann, the SUEZ representative, described the contracts as the operational framework the city will use to deploy and maintain the new meters and related hardware. City Administrator Tonya Willim said the meter rollout is scheduled to begin in spring 2020 and that staff will coordinate on staging and field logistics with Public Works.

Council also approved a tax-exempt lease-purchase with U.S. Bancorp Government Leasing and Financing, authorizing borrowing of $1,428,624 to buy and install AMI meters and associated infrastructure. Haden R. Crumpton, legal counsel from Gilmore Bell, said the funds will be available at closing and that repayment begins in January 2020. The city intends to allocate payments equally between the Water and Wastewater funds, consistent with the utility billing benefits expected from the AMI deployment.

The motion to adopt the financing ordinance (Bill 19-28) passed on roll call 7–0 (AYES: Bond, Powell, Guy, Hardwick, Peterson, Meier, Kinnard). Councilors cited improved leak detection, automated reads, meter-read efficiency and better customer service as primary benefits of AMI. The ordinance authorizes the mayor to execute financing documents in forms approved by the city attorney.

Next steps: The contracts and lease close upon execution of final documents; the city will begin procurement and scheduling with SUEZ and its subcontractors in early 2020.

This action centralizes the meter replacement budget into a single capital financing plan and creates a maintenance contracting relationship intended to ensure the city can operate the AMI network over its warranty period and beyond.