City of Madison: Municipal Utility Bill Audit

After the retirement of a 33-year tenured City Manager, Mayor Perriman, Mayor Pro Tempore Blanton, and the entire City Council unanimously appointed John Klimm to lead the City of Madison.

Upon his hiring, Mr. Klimm immediately set forth to oversee the renovation of Madison’s historic City Hall, a major accomplishment completed within his first year. With that project behind him, the next priority was finding ways to increase funding for the city.

After hearing about the possibility of identifying savings through a contingency-based utility bill review, Mr. Klimm and Finance Director Karen Stapp sat down with Ron Hoffman of Utility Management Services (UMS) to learn about what this type of analysis could uncover. Both decision-makers quickly realized there was nothing to lose: no out-of-pocket costs, no resources required, and no obligation unless savings were found.

That same afternoon, Ms. Stapp supplied one month’s power bill for each account, along with a signed power provider authorization form and UMS Service Agreement. From there, UMS analysts performed an in-depth review of the city’s usage data across all accounts.

A few weeks later, the results were in. Several accounts were identified as candidates for rate changes, resulting in approximately $8,200 in annual savings. UMS implemented all changes directly with the power provider on the City of Madison’s behalf and continues to document the savings on a quarterly basis.