As we close out March of 2026, I would like to take this column to thank all the men and women who helped to achieve our lofty water meter goals. We started out with 31% estimated and no-read meters, and I tasked City Administrator Radley Williams to change the way we were running that division and put an emphasis on changing our direction.  

We started in August of 2025 with the goal to reduce the estimated read meters and ultimately reduce the cost of water, wastewater and reclaimed water. If we could reduce the estimated and no-read meters, we could reduce the rate increases for 2026 and 2027.  

We also needed to update our tap fees, credit card fees, reduce overtime, add meter reading towers and codify our tampering fees. The all-the-above approach of increasing non-water rates, reducing fraud and decreasing the estimated/no-read meters would drive down the cost of water, wastewater and reclaimed water.  

Radley accepted the challenge, and we agreed to reduce the estimated and no-read meters down to 8% by March 31, which is well within the norm of public utilities. As we began to see the trend going in the right direction, our rate study consultant was able to adjust our rates downward by 5.5% this year and another 3% next year.  

Without these decreases in expenses and estimated meters, our consultant Raftelis, “a collaborative partner to local governments,” could not have recommended that we reduce the rate increase due to jeopardizing our pristine credit rating. This collaborative effort was spearheaded by Radley with the help from utility billing, IT and public services.  

As we close out the month of March, I am proud to announce that we met our number of 8% estimated reads. We could not have done it without our dedicated staff. With almost 30,000 water and reclaimed water meters across Apopka, we still have to be diligent to replace the non-functioning meters, as well, making sure our new buildings are properly set up.   

A part of the water, wastewater and reclaimed water rate increases are due to $15 million in unnecessary spending by the prior administration on an expensive fertilizer plant that isn’t cost-effective and a wastewater plant that was built a decade before it was needed. Both of these expenditures will cost water customers $600,000/year or almost 2% per year for the next 15 years to pay off the loan.