City Council received the report and presentation from the Independent Review Committee (IRC) at the Council’s scheduled June 13 meeting. The IRC was seated to review the water outage experienced by some City of Asheville water customers in late December 2022 and early January 2023.
“We thank the IRC members for their diligent work and volunteer service to this effort. The city staff and Council are always looking for opportunities to enhance our service to the community,” said City Manager Debra Campbell before the Council meeting. As part of our own internal review of this incident, we have taken steps to address issues identified in the report with the following new positions requested in this year’s budget that include:
- Crew to support distribution system maintenance and repairs
- Staffing to enhance night coverage at water treatment plants
- Staff to improve critical communication and customer engagement
- Customer service staff to support meter project transition
City staff is also in the process of updating our Emergency Operations Plan and Continuity of Operations Plan. We look forward to learning more as city staff and Council members are able to review and discuss the report in greater detail.
The full report and presentation are available to the public via the City of Asheville website on the Water Department homepage.
A full recording of the June 13, 2023 City Council meeting can be found on the City of Asheville youtube channel.