ALERT: Apex Utility Billing Changes

You'll want to read this one

Picking up where I left off in my last newsletter, I still have a few more topics to cover from the Town Council Retreat. First I want to acknowledge that I appreciate that most people seemed to understand and agree with the difficult choices the Town Council had to make on our various downtown projects to deal with current realities. I hope to keep that going as we talk about more heavy topics and tough decisions. These have not been fun to write, and the impacts of these topics have been weighing on me.

Let me start by again adding the links to the presentations on YouTube and CM Zegerman’s description of the same events.

Apex Returns to Normal Utility Billing Operations

Key Takeaways: The Town is moving to return to normal billing operations; reinstating late fees and disconnections beginning July 1st

The Context

In July 2024, Apex experienced a cybersecurity incident that required us to rebuild key systems, including billing. During the rebuild, billing was temporarily disrupted, and customers later received combined two- or three-month bills. Many assumed (or were told) the bills were wrong. A third party review later found that most customers had actually been underbilled. The confusion stemmed from inconsistent billing periods.

To rebuild trust, we suspended late fees and disconnections. Billing cycle length inconsistencies led to fluctuating bills, which added to the confusion and reinforced our need to migrate to a modern billing and metering platform.

In July 2025, we transitioned to a new, modern billing platform. This migration had been planned before the cyber incident, though it had been delayed by it. As with most major IT conversions, there were some issues during rollout. Late fees and disconnections continued to be suspended.

We also began replacing outdated, manually read electric and water meters with modern systems town-wide. That process brought its own challenges, including integrating various solar configurations. That process is approaching completion.

Throughout this period, misinformation further eroded confidence and increased customer service demands, decreasing our capacity to address actual issues. As a result, some residents stopped paying their bills and have not resumed.

As of right now, due to non-payment, Apex is owed approximately $6m in utility balances older than 30 days (15% of accounts), approximately $4m of which is older than 90 days (8% of accounts). This compares to carrying around $400k during normal operations.

Back To Normal

A couple of hard truths we need to get out of the gate:

• We have a statutory obligation to collect for utility services. We cannot do a global write discount, or wipe the books clean, or start over

• The outstanding balance has gotten to the point where it is threatening the financial stability of the utilities (electric more than water), and eventually, our credit rating

• As we work on the budget, the lack of consistent payments from around 15% of our customers are putting further upward pressure on utility rates, at a time when we are already in an environment where rates are being driven higher

• There is a concern that if we don’t soon make it clear we do intend to collect on unpaid balances, one could argue we would be in violation of the covenants on some utility bonds we’ve borrowed - meaning the bondholders could demand immediate payment in full. Which would be ruinous.

The situation is no longer sustainable.

On the operations side, cycle lengths have normalized, meter read errors are gone, customer service volumes have returned to normal levels, the software transition is complete, the meter transition is almost complete, and the only remaining major issue is configuration challenges with the multitude of solar systems out there each needing to be individually re-integrated with the new systems.

It’s time to move on.

Town Council Direction

Mahaffey: “I encourage everyone … to make immediate plans to get current on their utility bills.”

After getting this presentation, Town Council directed staff to start the return to normal billing operations on July 1st (start of the new fiscal year). Late fees and utility disconnections will resume at that time.

A communication push will begin soon to all customers with outstanding balances, especially those with longer-term balances.

I encourage everyone in this situation (approximately 8% of our customers, compared to 3% during normal operations) to make immediate plans to get current on their utility bills.

Apex offers interest-free utility payment plans to everyone upon request and utility payment assistance to those who qualify. No one will be charged a late fee or be disconnected while current on a payment plan. I urge everyone with a need to take advantage of these programs.

To Be Continued

I still have a big Yard Waste Discussion to cover, as well as this past Tuesday’s Town Council meeting. But I’ll stop here for now.

-terry