Atlanta’s water-bill proposal leaves relief decisions to officials and operating rules

Atlanta’s proposal to give watershed officials broader power over disputed water bills leaves an important question for customers: how would officials decide which balances to adjust? The City Utilities Committee is scheduled to review the measure Oct. 13 at 10 a.m., but the ordinance does not spell out the customer evidence or approval steps that would govern those decisions.⁠[1][2]

Ordinance 26-O-1564, sponsored by Councilmembers Dustin Hillis and Liliana Bakhtiari, would let the watershed commissioner or a designee adjust single-family residential accounts “for any period of time, in any amount,” at their discretion and under established operating procedures. The authority would last from Nov. 1, 2026, through Jan. 31, 2027. That limits when officials could act—not how far back an adjustment could reach.⁠[1][2]

The legislation ties that flexibility to the F.L.O.A.T. initiative, which it describes as helping customers bring accounts current, obtain resources for financial challenges and address meter or billing errors. Its stated goal is to resolve concerns in one interaction. That is a proposed service improvement, not a promise that every overdue balance would be reduced.⁠[2]

The department’s ordinary posted adjustment instructions are more specific. Requests must arrive within 12 months of the relevant bill’s payment-due date. Leak claims require satisfactory evidence that the leak existed and was repaired; an unpaid repair invoice is not accepted. Customers also must pay a department-determined temporary amount within 20 days of receiving an acknowledgment letter or the request will not be processed.⁠[3]

The pending ordinance would operate notwithstanding city-code provisions and waive conflicts, while still requiring established operating procedures. It does not explain how those procedures would treat the ordinary deadlines, proof requirements or payment conditions. The posted instructions therefore provide context—not verified application rules for the proposed FLOAT phase.⁠[2][3]

An Aug. 6 city audit illustrates the scale of the broader collections problem. Auditors counted $236 million in delinquent water and sewer balances across 60,168 accounts as of April 2026, up 19% since the earlier audit despite nearly $62 million in write-offs. Those are not October totals or a measure of balances eligible for FLOAT: the calculation included all account statuses and property classes, including disputed accounts. Auditors also found some government and business properties classified as residential.⁠[4]

The audit also shows why bringing accounts current involves more than changing a balance. Of 2,721 payment plans established from July 2023 through March 2026, 31% were satisfied, 55% were broken and 14% remained in progress. Auditors credited more frequent write-offs but called for earlier, stronger collection efforts.⁠[4]

Decision safeguards matter alongside that flexibility. The audit reiterated an earlier recommendation to establish supervisory-review thresholds for a billing-adjustment category called “A-bill” and restrict access to designated teams. Watershed Management told auditors it was addressing earlier recommendations; the report said implementation progress had not yet been reported. The proposed ordinance invokes operating procedures but does not reproduce them, so its text alone cannot show which review checks would govern larger or older adjustments.⁠[2][4]

Council referred the measure without objection Oct. 5, and the packet lists committee consideration as pending. The upcoming review is not evidence of enactment. For customers, the distinction remains essential: the proposal would give officials discretion to resolve disputed balances, not create an automatic entitlement to debt forgiveness.⁠[2]