Project Align - Utility Organizational Readiness, Billing and Data Integrity, Water and Sewer Rate Study, and System Development Fee Study

The City of Lexington invites proposals from experienced consulting firms or multidisciplinary teams to support Project ALIGN, a forward-looking utility organizational readiness and financial strategy initiative. The selected consultant will help the City strengthen the systems, processes, policies, organizational structure, financial practices, data controls, and management tools needed to remain responsive as service demands, infrastructure needs, customer expectations, technology, and regulatory requirements evolve. The engagement includes utility operational and organizational assessment, end-to-end process mapping, policy and SOP development, centralized utility billing and data integrity, water meter reading and billing controls, a focused sanitation billing review for trash and recycling, third-party billing and data exchange controls, a comprehensive water and sewer rate study, a system development fee study, stormwater billing and financial analysis, and implementation support. For Stormwater, the City is particularly interested in a billing and fee framework that is equitable, administratively workable, legally supportable, understandable to customers, and sustainable over time. The City seeks a team that can connect financial analysis with the day-to-day processes that create customer accounts, deliver utility service, generate bills, exchange data, allocate costs, and support management decisions. The City expects an implementation-oriented engagement. Recommendations should be translated, where appropriate, into usable reports, queries, reconciliations, process maps, policy drafts, SOPs, financial models, data cleanup assistance, training, and transition steps rather than a report-only product. Project ALIGN is intended to prepare the City’s utility and support functions for the next stage of organizational and financial maturity. The City is seeking an independent, practical review of how work is organized, how information moves, how financial decisions are supported, and how customer and development activity becomes utility service and billing.