Apex residents are seeking answers after receiving their utility bills this month.
The city's financial systems are back online following a ransomware attack in July. Residents are now being charged two or three months worth of utility usage in one bill, with some paying over $1,000.
Randy Vosburg, Apex’s town manager, had to pay around that sum himself. The delay wasn’t the only factor that added to his payment.
“Timing is everything,” Vosburg said. “This hit us right at the beginning of a new fiscal year. There were rate increases that went into place with that new fiscal year, so people would have seen a higher bill anyway, related to a rate increase on utilities, because of all the inflationary pressures. Also during summer months, we were a little warmer, if people will think back to June, July, August. It was kind of this perfect storm as to what our residents are experiencing now.”
An ongoing challenge for the town is communicating with its thousands of customers. Residents have been flocking to the Apex Town Hall and the town's customer service line since the end of August. While the town’s population has increased, Vosburg said its resources and staff are struggling to catch up.
"Because it's a multi-month event that we've been through, the prolonged nature, when we have a customer come in and we talk to them, it's not a simple two minute discussion that we have with them,” he said. “These discussions are anywhere from 20 to 40 minutes with each customer ... and we have thousands and thousands of customers.”
Among the complaints the town is receiving, some are questioning the accuracy of their bills. Apex is in the process of hiring a third party auditor to address those concerns.
"We're not an organization that is going to cover up mistakes, to pretend like something didn't happen,” Vosburg said. “This happened, and we welcome someone to come and look at our books, and let's be transparent with our residents and tell them what's going on and fix anything that we need to fix.”
Vosburg hopes to have a contract signed by mid-November. However, with the holidays coming up, residents may have to continue waiting for an answer.
Meanwhile, Apex is making plans to increase cybersecurity against external threats.
