City hires ombudsman to work with electric customers

Reprinted with permission from the Claremore Progress. This article originally appeared on Jun 21, 2016. Support local journalism with a subscription or a day pass for $1.99 :)

The City of Claremore has hired a third party, John McComb, to function as a utility ombudsman to help residents audit their electric consumption.

“Our goal is to continually educate and engage with citizens giving them the necessary information and tools to take control of their individual utility usage,” the Claremore city manager’s office reported in a press release.

“McComb contacted the city after seeing Claremore in the news, and we were already looking to contact a third party,” said Larry Hughes, Claremore deputy director of public works.

Claremore has been in the news of late as some city utility customers have complained about increases in their electric bills. Some customers have voiced concern that new smart meters installed this year are not providing accurate readings.

McComb recently retired from Florida Power & Light Company (FPL) as the lead customer service power quality engineer, and moved to Claremore.

“I enjoy assisting customers and helping someone who has a problem and fixing it and making them happy,” McComb said. “If they have a problem we will try to help them by giving them information on how to correct it, or if it is a usage problem, helping them get to a level they are comfortable with.”

As an FPL power quality engineer, McComb has assisted customers by analyzing electrical problems within their facilities and recommending solutions. He is a registered professional engineer and a licensed electrical contractor. McComb has over 39 years of experience with electric utilities in engineering, marketing, rates and customer service.

“The majority of my career I spent a lot of time in customer services. I was an engineer on the customer side of the meter. I help evaluate what piece of equipment is using more electricity than it should or is not operating the way it should. There are various reasons something might use more power than you would expect,” McComb said.

McComb said he hopes to work with the customers who have seen higher bills to resolve the issue.

“We have the knowledge, experience and equipment to try and track down a problem,” McComb said.

In addition to offering home auditing services, the city will be hosting a town hall meeting on Monday, Oct. 12 from 7 p.m. until 9 p.m. at the Holiday Inn Conference Center located at 1400 W. Country Club Drive in Claremore.

Over the past two weeks the city has used a recorder to check 34 smart meters, which included 13 accounts presented at a recent city council meeting, and officials report they have not found any meters reading incorrectly.

The city used a separate recorder, attached to the meter, to determine if there are discrepancies between what the meter is reading versus what the recorder is reading.

Customers with questions about their electric consumption are asked to contact the city via phone or email.

Contact city manager Jim Thomas at jthomas@claremorecity.com or call 918-341-2365, ext. 113.

Contact Hughes at lhughes@claremorecity.com or call 918-341-2365, ext. 251.

Contact Felicia Burnett, utility billing supervisor, at fburnett@claremorecity. com or call 918-341-2365, ext. 150.