Software 'Glitch' Causes Huge Trash Bill Spike In Manhattan Beach

MANHATTAN BEACH, CA — A glitch during a financial software update resulted in some 200 Manhattan Beach residents being billed $224.04 instead of $11.04 for their 35-gallon [the smallest size] refuse bin, according to Steve Charelian, the city's finance director.

"Staff worked with our financial software provider to perform an 'update' to have the fee become inactive on July 1, 2020, which is the day that Waste Management became the billing agency for City refuse charges. During the update, there were approximately 200 accounts which were billed $224.04 for a single 35-gallon bin instead of the prorated amount of $11.04. Why only these 200 accounts were impacted is unknown – it was an anomaly-‘glitch’. The others with the same fee were billed appropriately," he told Manhattan Beach Patch.

Staff discovered the error on Friday, July 31, just two days after the bills were mailed on Wednesday, July 29, he said. Once staff discovered the mistake, they "immediately corrected these accounts," said Charelian. "There is no need to perform another update of this kind, so the likelihood of a similar error occurring is zero. The City bills over 13,000 residents on a bi-monthly basis."

He said all accounts have been corrected and adjusted and that staff has reached out by phone or email to each of the impacted customers. If you've been impacted and would like confirmation of the correction and have online access through the City’s bill payment portal www.onlinebiller.com, you can login and see the corrected balance, he noted. "Alternatively, they can send an email to revenue@citymb.info or call (310) 802-5558, option 1 and we can email them with their new balance," said Charelian.