Huntingburg considers preferred vendor partnership for utility repair warranties
- Huntingburg’s council is seeking input from the public before it agrees to endorse a company to provide a warranty program to pay for utility work at resident’s homes.
Tuesday, Rob Meston of Utility Service Partners presented the company’s offerings regarding the warranty program. During the presentation, Meston asked the council for permission to use the council’s endorsement in marketing to Huntingburg customers.
Meston explained the company will assist customers to perform repairs on the portions of their utilities that are not covered by the city. These include water, electric, sewer and gas lines that tap into the city’s main lines as well as those lines inside a resident’s house.
The company offers six different programs of coverage for varying monthly costs. Those monthly costs are $6.75 for a waterline, $7.75 for a sewer line, $9.99 for interior plumbing, $4.99 for a gas line, $5.99 for an interior electric line, and $5.49 for an exterior electric line.
The company offers to pay for repairs to those items at varying amounts but according to Metson, those amounts are based on the average repair costs for that utility work. As an example, he explained the company would pay up to $8,500 per repair of a waterline on the exterior of a home but the average repair cost was closer to $4,000 per occurrence.
When repairs occur, the company pays the contractor directly. It maintains a list of preferred contractors but if a customer has a preference of their own, they can contact the company for approval to use that contractor.
Metson also explained that the company’s warranty coverage was not capped annually, only per repair. The one caveat being that they would not cover any repairs that were needed in the first 30 days of the contract with the customer.
The company is endorsed by the National League of Cities as well as the Indiana Association of Cities and Towns. They offer their services in more than 500 cities and towns across the U.S. and have an A+ rating with the Better Business Bureau.
Mayor Denny Spinner heard about the company while attending a National League of Cities conference in Charlottesville, Va. recently. He also learned that Evansville works with the company to offer the service to city residents. “I’ve contacted the mayor and they have had some success with it,” he told the council. “There infrastructure issues are no different than our’s.”
The mayor also recommended the council have the city attorney review the contract before moving forward.
If the council endorses the company, Metson told them the city will receive 50 cents of the monthly payment for per each service a resident decides to utilize for their home. This is payable annually to the city and if the city declines the money, it reverts to the customer.
Councilman Tim Wehr expressed some concern with the city council endorsing a private company and allowing them to become a preferred supplier to residents. “We are endorsing a private business, I assume, so we’re going to open the door to everybody who wants to come over and say, ‘Hey, we want your endorsement,'” he said. “How are you going to say no to them?”
The other council members agreed to table the discussion until they could hear from the public on the issue.
Councilman Glen Kissling wondered if other local insurance companies could offer similar services.
The council also took the following actions.
- Approved two change orders for the Market Street Park project for issues that have come up as construction has progressed. The first approval was to pay $27,844 to remedy a basement and two cisterns that were found underground this past fall. The council originally set aside $84,000 for the work. The second change order was to pay for the addition of a legacy wall recognizing Farbest Foods’ contribution to the park. The other contributors to the park, German American and the Menke Family, have legacy walls for the areas they contributed to already in the plans while this was an oversight in the planning. The council acknowledged that essentially Farbest is paying for the addition of the legacy wall as part of their contribution.
- Approved purchasing a Bobcat mini excavator from Hopf Equipment for $59,864. The cost will be shared between the gas, electric and wastewater departments.
- Heard from the water department that Huntingburg Lake is expected to roll over soon.
What the? What brought this on? Can’t believe it was by popular demand. Why doesn’t the city simply grant them a business license to market/solicit their services to residents like anybody else, whether door-to-door, via mailers, letters, the newspaper, etc? I’m with Councilman Wehr (sounds like) that we’d be better to stay clear of this “endorsement” or whatever public-private affiliation you want to call it. Something seems suspicious about the money arrangement, esp the city getting a portion of the payments and whether or not they decline it, to be returned to the customer (maybe selectively to some customers but maybe not to all customers?). Hogwash.