diff --git a/src/java/com/twitter/search/feature_update_service/FeatureUpdateController.java b/src/java/com/twitter/search/feature_update_service/FeatureUpdateController.java
index 1613bee3c..25424fe7e 100644
--- a/src/java/com/twitter/search/feature_update_service/FeatureUpdateController.java
+++ b/src/java/com/twitter/search/feature_update_service/FeatureUpdateController.java
@@ -106,8 +106,6 @@ public class FeatureUpdateController implements FeatureUpdateService.ServiceIfac
 
   @Override
   public Future<FeatureUpdateResponse> process(FeatureUpdateRequest featureUpdate) {
-    long requestStartTimeMillis = clock.nowMillis();
-
     // Export overall and per-client request rate stats
     final String requestClientId;
     if (featureUpdate.getRequestClientId() != null
@@ -130,7 +128,7 @@ public class FeatureUpdateController implements FeatureUpdateService.ServiceIfac
     }
 
     ThriftIndexingEvent event = featureUpdate.getEvent();
-    return writeToKafka(event, requestStartTimeMillis)
+    return writeToKafka(event)
         .map(responsesList -> {
           stats.clientResponse(requestClientId, FeatureUpdateResponseCode.SUCCESS);
           // only when both Realtime & RealtimeCG succeed, then it will return a success flag
@@ -162,8 +160,7 @@ public class FeatureUpdateController implements FeatureUpdateService.ServiceIfac
    * The FeatureUpdateResponse is more like an ACK message, and the upstream (feature update ingester)
    * will not be affected much even if it failed (as long as the kafka message is written)
    */
-  private Future<List<BoxedUnit>> writeToKafka(ThriftIndexingEvent event,
-                                               long requestStartTimeMillis) {
+  private Future<List<BoxedUnit>> writeToKafka(ThriftIndexingEvent event) {
     return Futures.collect(Lists.newArrayList(
         writeToKafkaInternal(event, WRITE_TO_KAFKA_DECIDER_KEY, droppedKafkaUpdateEvents,
             kafkaUpdateEventsTopicName, -1, kafkaProducer),