ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (WFLA) — For months, many St. Pete residents say their sky-high water bills have been draining their bank accounts.

But a new measure could help stop the flood.

On Thursday, the St. Pete City Council approved a resolution that will allow Stantec Consulting Services to take a look at these abnormal water bills and give an analysis to the city council.

You can read that resolution below.

Council members also passed an ordinance that will allow for more flexibility when providing relief to residents with unexplainably high water bills.

City Administrator Rob Gerdes asked the city council for more flexibility in handling abnormal situations. He said the current way city code is written left city representatives with their hands tied on whether a resolution could be made or not.

The ordinance passed Thursday is expected to solve that problem.

It is set to go into effect on May 27.

You can read that ordinance below.

Noreen McClure spoke to St. Pete City Council Thursday demanding answers.

“After my mother’s bank informed me of insufficient funds to cover this $11,000 bill, I made several attempts to resolve the issue through customer service,” she told council members.

Months later, McClure said, not only does she not have answers, but the bill was also sent to collections.

Now McClure worries she may even have a lien put on her house because of it.

“I want an apology, and I want the bill to go away. That’s what I want and I’m not going to stop until it’s done,” she said.

As the search for those answers continues, Mayor Ken Welch is calling it “the perfect storm.”

“It’s certainly something we’re concerned about, and it’s another example of something that this storm revealed that is a problem,” he said.

Welch ensured 8 On Your Side city leaders won’t stop until they have this issue resolved.

“We understand there are problems in the system that have been long existent but just have been exacerbated because of the storms: a combination of the limits in our code with what we can do, our metering and our system for estimating,” he said. “All of those systems work together. “

You can see the PowerPoint presented to city council Thursday regarding high utility bills below.

But what is the root of the problem?

“That’s ongoing,” Welch said. “We still don’t have a silver bullet as to why this happened.”

“The combination of the flooding, the legacy system we have for estimating, the metering issue is another one,” he continued. “I think there are a lot of culprits, and I think it was the perfect storm.”

News Channel 8 reporter Nicole Rogers asked the mayor, “To the person who either had their autopay on or they were scared they were going to get their water shut off so they just paid it, and they want their money back, what would you say to that person?”

“I would say to them, ‘We’re working on it’,” Welch responded. “If you haven’t had that resolved, give my office a call and we’ll work on it.”

“That, to me, is one of the most important issues that we can deal with, to kinda hold folks harmless and not do additional harm,” he concluded.