An appeal process Baltimore created to challenge water bills has a backlog of hundreds of applicants, a list so long the city could not possibly catch up at current staffing levels, officials said Monday.

The admission came during the inaugural meeting of an ad hoc committee designed to oversee the Office of Water Advocacy and Customer Appeals. The office, which oversees the city’s water affordability programs and fields challenges to water bills, was created by the City Council in 2019.

R. Anthony Mills, the unit’s chief since 2023, outlined the work of the small office, housed in the Department of Public Works, to members of the committee. Since the office began hearing appeals in September 2023, 371 disputes have been processed. Of those, 72 are currently active, while 51 have been closed, Mills said. An additional 248 are in a queue.

Disputes are organized into tiers, depending on the likely length of time an investigation will take, Mills explained. Tier one disputes are simpler and can be settled in under three weeks. Tier two investigations take three or four months. The longest probe could last eight or nine months, he said.

All those investigations are handled by a staff of four, including Mills. About 15 new complaints arrive each week, he said.

Members of the committee, which includes members of the Baltimore City Council and unelected officials including Inspector General Isabel Mercedes Cumming, were troubled by the backlog.

“You will never catch up, ever. It’s impossible,” said Cumming. “If this is something the city wanted, and it’s impossible for you to catch up, what are we doing?”

Mills said he has been working to make the process of investigating more efficient, but ultimately the small staff will not be able to eliminate the backlog.

“Until something changes, the only way to get it down is staffing capacity,” he said.

Mills said he would need another four to six staff members to make headway. The budget for the office, passed as part of Mayor Brandon Scott’s $4.6 billion spending plan in June, does not include additional positions.

Committee members questioned whether that would be enough. Cumming, who manages her own team of investigators probing waste, fraud and abuse within city government, asked Mills about current caseloads. The 72 active cases are spread evenly among the staff members, giving each about 18 cases of varying tiers, he said.

“With the workload that you have and what the public should expect realistically … I don’t see how it’s possible,” Cumming said.

The water appeal backlog is one of several delayed processes that have bedeviled Baltimore this year.

The city’s massive permitting backlog, created by the problematic rollout of a new online permitting platform, prompted public outcry and the recent reassignment of several top city employees. Months after the system was rolled out, Baltimore is still issuing a fraction of the number of permits it has in previous years.

Baltimore’s water billing system has historically been racked by problems, inspiring the legislation passed in 2019. Upgrades to the city’s water meter technology and an overhaul of the customer service operation have improved the situation, but issues remain.

Committee members questioned Monday what city residents can do as they await an investigation in the lengthy queue. Mills said residents in the process are advised to pay current bills, but bills that are in dispute are put on hold.

As committee members lamented the backlog, they also questioned what the office was doing to spread the word to city residents that the appeal process is available. Mills conceded that there was no money in the budget for marketing, but said it will be requested for the next budget year.

Councilman Jermaine Jones, a member of the committee, cautioned that the office would need to be beefed up before it could handle an increase in complaints.

“If the plan is to promote, we’re just going to explode it even more,” he said. “I think there is an expectation from residents that once they go through the process, they’ll hear an answer in a reasonable amount of time.”