The City reads more than 25,000 water meters to generate bills. It takes five staff members approximately 20 8-hour days to read all those meters. If we billed every month, our five staff members would only read meters. Instead, we bill bimonthly (every two months) and use our meter-reading staff to perform essential work like meter repair, meter replacement, maintenance, and service calls during the days they are not reading meters. If we did bill monthly, we would need to add five more staff members to complete the same amount of work, thereby increasing our operating costs. Our ongoing Automated Meter Reading (AMR) program is slowly replacing manual read meters with electronic devices that can be read from a vehicle driving through the neighborhood. As this program progresses, we may eventually be able to convert to monthly reads without adding staff or compromising the time staff spend on other essential maintenance activities.