PLAQUEMINE - Mayor Ed Reeves is retiring at the end of the year, but before he does he has some work to do with the city's utility department. Some of it, he tells 2 On Your Side's Brittany Weiss, is staff error.

One of the issues could be that staff has left and Reeves says the people who are still working are inexperienced.

"I learned yesterday from my utility director that no one trains the meter readers," said Reeves.

There are four meter readers in the City of Plaquemine. One of them left recently after it was determined several incorrect bills were traced to that person. Reeves says he is having problems with all of his meter readers.

Several people living in Plaquemine have reported their outrageous bills to 2 On Your Side. Earlier this month they met to talk about their bills. Over the past few weeks Reeves says he has organized a group of people to dig into the billing issues. So far, the mayor's office has determined 39 customers out of 4,522 have called for help.

Pat Huesmann is one of them. Huesmann has received several bills over a thousand dollars. One of them was about $11,000.

Reeves says that bill should have never been mailed.

"That's the problem I'm having with inexperienced staff down there," said Reeves.

The mayor is trying to hire more people and get the erroneous charges addressed. Reeves also plans to draft an ordinance that requires access to meters to ensure that the city's staff can get an accurate reading.

While customer complaints are piling up, Reeves says he's also feeling the heat from some council members who want to lower rates and have a set sewer fee. However, Reeves tells 2 On Your Side that sewer lost money in 2023. As for the utilities that made money, it wasn't enough to run city departments like fire, police, or public works.

"And it's going to be worse this year," said Reeves.

Reeves hopes to have a Customer Service Director hired in the utility department in the next two weeks. Until that person is hired, Reeves says billing issues can't be addressed.