Let's go ahead and get started.

So I'm going to call to order the water quality committee for Friday, February 13th, 2026.

Clerk, please call the roll.

Martinez.

Present.

Morris.

Colmives.

Kramer.

Williams.

Two present.

And President Williams did let me know that she would not be here.

And I do have some questions to read on the record on her behalf.

With that being said, Director, I will oh.

Mr.

Ronma, I will you have the floor.

All right.

Good afternoon.

Cindy Geronimo.

Commissioner of Utilities Administration from DPU.

And I have with me today, the director of DPU and Mike Chambers, who is he is the National Director for Business Solutions for NLC service line warranty program by Home Serve.

So he's prepared an executive summary, which he can review with you and answer any questions you may have.

So with that, I'll turn it over to Mike.

Really want to thank everyone for having me here today.

Appreciate having the opportunity to come and speak to you a little bit more about the home service service line program and how it can benefit your residents.

A little bit of a background on the programs.

We work with about 1,500 communities across the country.

But the reason these communities have gotten involved with this type of program is they understand you know infrastructure is getting older and order, especially when it comes to water and sewer lines.

And one of the big issues is while the cities are doing their part to maintain their main water and sewer lines in the street.

You have these miles and miles of lines that connect to your system that a lot of times they don't get any attention until there's an issue.

And that's those residents' lateral water and sewer lines.

And pretty much everywhere we go, we hear the same story.

Resident of a frozen water line, it breaks, or their sewer line collapses, or even you know, it just gets clogged with tree roots.

First thing they do is call the city.

You have to send out someone to take a look, make sure the main line is working properly.

And typically it is because you're doing the maintenance and the upkeep on it.

And that's when it puts you or your employees, you know, in the bad situation to where they have to be the bearer of bad news to the resident.

You know, Mr.

and Mrs.

Resident, we found the problem, it's your sewer line that's causing the issue.

And a lot of times residents become upset because they don't even realize they're responsible for these buried lines that run from their home to the main until you're there telling them that.

And then even the residents that do realize they're responsible, they don't have the five, six, seven thousand dollars it can cost to dig it up and replace it.

So that's kind of where our program comes in.

Uh first off, it's an educational program.

We'll do a free public awareness campaign to all the homeowners here in the community, just letting them know these lines are their responsibility, give them tips on what they can do to keep things working properly, don't put grease down your drains, that sort of thing.

And then also give them the opportunity to purchase a warranty that would cover them should something happen to their line.

Um the nice part for the city, it's a fully turnkey program.

We handle all the marketing, all the billing, all the customer service, all the claims.

Um there's no cost or anything to the city to participate, and then we will share a portion of all the revenue that's generated from the program back with the city.

Uh some of our partners will take that those re that funds that come back and set them aside, and maybe there's a low-income family that has a high water bill that can't afford to pay it, there's money for that.

Maybe they have a break and don't have our coverage, you know, there's money for that, or you can you know put it to a program that you're working on.

It's really up to the city, you know, how you want to use it.

Uh now the nice part for your residents is if the city does decide to participate, it's nothing that's forced on them.

It's just something that becomes available that should they want to cover themselves, then they can.

Uh, we always keep it completely optional because we understand that you know you might have newer sections of the community where it's not gonna benefit as much, but you know, the older ones are are the ones that are really gonna, you know, use use the program more.

Um we will make three products available to all your residents here.

Uh the first is the external water line coverage.

It's gonna cover their whole water line from where it enters the home all the way to the city's responsibility, whether that's the curb stop or the main.

Uh that'll cover leaking lines, broken lines, slow running lines, basically any disruption in their water service.

Um there's no deductible for your residents on that program, and there's also no service fees.

So residents can call out and we can come out and look at their line at any time.

Second product is the external sewer line coverage.

Uh that's gonna cover their whole sewer line from where it enters the home all the way to the main.

Uh nice part about that is not only will that cover a full replacement of their sewer line, including any kind of concrete, so the problems at the tap and the street needs to be disturbed, that's covered as well.

But it's also gonna cover the the simpler things.

They get something you know flush down there that causes you know causes a backup or their sewer uh tree roots in there.

Um all that's covered for the residents.

Uh once again, no deductible or any service fees.

And then the final product is the in-home plumbing and drainage, and that just kind of completes the coverage that's gonna cover in everything inside the home, as well as sync backups, toilet backups, any of that sort of thing.

Um now when the resident does have an issue, they don't need to call the city or anything like that.

We have a 24-hour day, seven-day a week uh call center, always answers with a live person.

Uh so they'll call there, speak with one of our agents, uh, let them know what's going on, and then file the claim.

And then we dispatch the job to a local licensed plumber.

That's another huge benefit of the program as well.

Is we only use contractors from here in Toledo to do the work.

That's not something they can wait a day, two days to have somebody out there.

So by having the contractors here locally, we're able to get them out there as soon as possible, fix everything to all city codes, permits pulled, all that sort of thing.

All aspects of the program are done through a direct mail educational letter.

I actually brought a couple examples I think you might have there.

One is our uh standard template.

Um that's what we start with, but we really allow the city to kind of customize that.

You know, yeah, exactly.

That's it.

Uh and kind of give us your feedback because we'll never send anything to your residents unless it's approved by the city.

So basically you'll get to review it, customize it, you'll give us approval, and then we'll set a mail date.

I also included the city of Columbus's letter as well, so you can kind of see you know where it started and then what you know what they did with it as well.

Um so yeah, as I said, I've been doing this program for over 20 years.

Uh about 1,500 communities across the country.

We have about five million uh customers that are enrolled in our programs.

Um it is A plus rated with a better business bureau.

And then we do a customer satisfaction survey to every resident that files a claim.

It's out of five stars.

And that's really what we use to kind of grade our contractors.

We want to make sure that you know the people that we're sending to your residents' home are the best.

So those we use those ratings, and then the ones with the higher ratings are the ones that get the jobs first.

Uh but currently across the country we have a 4.8 out of five-star rating.

So uh, but that's kind of the overview, like to get into the questions for you, because I'm sure you I know you guys have some, so for sure.

Sure.

Uh before we do that, I'd like to recognize Councilman Sarantu and Councilwoman Um Kramer for their attendance.

Um before I read uh President Williams' questions, is there any questions here so far?

Um thank you, Chair.

Um and thank you for the presentation.

I appreciate it.

So I just want to make sure I understand.

So there are three products that are offered.

So residents can choose one or all of them.

Correct.

They can pick and choose, it's all a lot of cards, they can take none or all three if they want to.

So then um in terms of the letter that does go out, the city will have final approval on what that looks like.

Correct, yes, we will never mail anything to your residents.

That's in the agreement as well.

Nothing would ever get mailed until we get written approval from the cities.

Okay.

Thank you.

Uh Consumer Comives.

Thank you so much.

I really appreciate you taking time to come and not just explain to us what is gonna happen, but I think this is a great opportunity for the public to hear.

Well, there may not be many here.

Hopefully they're watching, and I hope media picks up on it as well, of course.

Um I I was the one who initiated some questions initially, uh uh, admittedly, but uh did so and then did some homework and talked talked to some folks um at NLC, but also um I did a video and I actually had the first comment that I had when I asked if anybody have it has any experience with this.

The first person that commented said, I had an issue, I called them, it happened quickly, it wasn't a problem, just raved.

So I really appreciated seeing that and and getting to hear it.

Um I think you know, from our perspective, anytime we put our name on something, we just want to make sure it's a good quality product, of course, and and make sure that we're providing a good service to our customer or to our residents.

Um so really appreciate that.

Um I think uh the only thing I will say about this is I would love to maybe see these.

Uh maybe it's on your website, but I think there's like uh regular text in here on these uh questions.

Um but I'm uh only saying that because I actually want to know the answers to those questions too.

Uh I was curious about um can people cancel any time?

You know, uh I don't want to think that it would be common, but I'm sure sometimes people might take out a thing and then get something repaired and maybe vacate, right?

Like so it's just what's the cancellation look like for that.

Um I hope that's not the case.

Um and then also the ways that people can pay for their uh I don't know if we covered that, but I'm curious just how people would pay you for the coverage.

Um I think that's about it.

I'm I'm really excited, I'm really grateful.

So and I know that I initiated it for you to come here, but I think it's really important for us to get this out and to talk about the benefits of it.

So uh again, I just want to thank you for your time.

Yeah, no, thank you very much, Councilmember.

And just answer your questions.

Um we have several options for billing for your residents.

Uh they can pay by the month, some will put on a credit or debit card, and we'll do an automatic withdrawal.

Um they can also pay by the year or quarterly, all that sort of thing.

Um, the other nice thing for your residents is there's no contract for them to sign, so they can't cancel at any time.

So and then if say a resident does pay us a year in advance and they cancel six months in, we'll refund them any dollars that they spent that that wasn't wasn't used.

So appreciate that.

Yeah.

No, and thank you to the chair for for having this.

Um, hopefully maybe we can do some type of uh I'm grateful to hear the that you send the letters out.

Uh you know, I hope that the city also can participate maybe on social media to kind of promote this as well.

And uh maybe you can try to get a hit on some like General 1113 situations.

But thank you, Chair.

Uh Councilman Sorantoo.

Thank you, Chair.

Um could you give us an idea of what the cost would be?

Yeah.

Please.

Yes, for sure.

So uh for the water service line program, it runs $4.99 per month.

Uh the external sewer line coverage runs $8.99 per month.

And then the in-home plumbing and drainage runs nine eleven dollars and ninety-nine cents per month.

And then your residents, if they take both the water and sewer line coverage, they get a bundle discount, so it's 10% off if they take the two products.

So the water line would be 499.

Correct.

And then the the sewer line.

Is 899.

899, okay.

So um, for example, if a resident has a um sewer line that's plugged and they have a sink in the basement, for example, that's overflowed because of a blockage, that would be covered.

Yeah, they would call us, so we would send out the contractor, have the contractor camera the line, he would find the you know the blockage, and then he would just clear that out for the and then the eleven ninety-nine that would that would cover that's gonna cover the in-home plumbing.

So that's gonna be say they had a pipe burst in their wall, or they have sink.

I actually just used it last year, uh, my sink backed up in my kitchen.

So somebody came out and snaked the sink for me, toilets would back up any of that sort of things.

Okay.

All right.

What what is the most common uh occurrences that happen?

Most common concurrence is definitely tree roots infiltrating sewer lines.

Yeah.

That's we see that more than anything.

Um also the usually in the spring, once we start to get thaws, that's when we see um the water line start to break.

So that's why we we typically will do our mailings in the spring so that they're you know ready to go so that we see those claims after the ground thaws.

Okay.

So the 499 per month would be for the water line.

Correct, yes, sir.

Okay.

And and typically that would be tree roots, that would be the same.

Uh so water line would be more the uh the stuff the breaking, like the freeze and thaw that sort of thing.

The tree roots are gonna cover the eight the 899, the sewer line getting infiltrated with the tree roots, yeah.

All right, great.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Councilman Comires?

Thank you.

Just real uh you also mentioned uh concrete, I believe.

Does that include sidewalks if that is disrupted?

Correct.

Sidewalks, anything like that would be covered under the program for them.

That's amazing.

Okay.

Um and also I just feel like I have to ask, and admittedly this is coming from somebody else, but um do you happen to cover 60-inch water mains that for a city?

It'd be really lovely.

See if we could take that policy out.

Would you try to see that so a couple of follow-up questions?

Um in terms of billing, is it possible to add it to the water bill?

Or are we are we keeping these completely separate?

It's separate.

That's actually why it was stalled previously.

Oh it was stopped previously because it was required to go on our bill, and that was back when we had our old billing system.

And so we had to table this.

And so now they've changed their model to bill people directly, so we don't have to worry about that.

Could someone opt to pay it on their water bill?

It's not something we've looked at.

It's not I don't if you want to address it.

Yeah.

Um we we do have the capabilities to add it to the water bill.

What we've learned in the past is we like to keep it separate.

That way when a resident has an issue, they're not calling the city and thinking it's the city that's gonna fix it.

So yeah, when they get a separate water bill from us, they're like, okay, that's who's that's who's handling it.

Okay, perfect.

Thank you for that.

Uh before you go on to Councilman Sorranti, uh so the other question was from Council President Williams.

Uh will TLIDO's data ever be sold off to third-party marketers?

No, no, sir.

We do not say, and we have a secure site if you guys do share data.

You don't have to.

You don't I mean if that had helps us out, but if you don't want to, we can purchase a list.

Uh we use a secure share share file where you send it through that, we upload it, and then it never goes anywhere from that.

Okay.

And then what company underwrites the policies?

Uh we're underwritten by home serve, yeah.

Oh, so you are self-underwriting.

So it's not a separate No, correct.

Okay.

Uh local contractors, you answered that question.

Customer service, uh international or AI or stateside.

And I think you alluded to as going to be state side.

State, yeah, correct.

Okay.

Where is your call centers?

It's in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

In Tennessee.

Okay.

Um I think that's all she had.

Uh Councilman Soronti.

Thank you, Mr.

Church.

Uh just want to follow up.

How long uh have you has Home Serve been working with Cleveland and Columbus and Acharon and Dayton?

Yeah.

So uh Dayton is our oldest oldest partner there since 2012.

Columbus is our newest partner.

Uh they just sort of signed on, I think in uh October of last year.

Uh Cleveland's in the middle, maybe about 10 years.

Akron was 20 uh 15.

So about 11 years for Akron.

I'm sorry, Cleveland was Cleveland, I think was like 2014, so about 11 years, yeah.

All right, great.

And so that's worked out well.

Yeah, there you go.

Yeah, it's done.

We paid a lot of claims, especially in in those communities, the larger ones for sure.

So thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Okay.

So seeing no more questions from the DS, I will open it up to the public to see if there's any questions regarding the uh home serve uh product line or any other questions that may uh be necessary that we haven't asked.

Going once, going twice, seeing none.

Okay.

In that case, if there aren't any other questions, meeting adjourned.

Thank you.

Thank you, thank you.