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art OF Agenda Section: 11.B Inif REQUEST FOR COUNCIL CONSIDERATION Report Number: 94-1412C LEW MHOS Report Date: 12-15-94 STAFF REPORT Council Action: 0 Special Order of Business CITY COUNCIL MEETING DATE December 19, 1994 0 Public Hearings 0 Consent Agenda Xl Council Business Item Description: Consideration of Adoption of Resolution No. 4692 Resolution Outlining Collection Policy for Delinquent Utility Bills Administrator's Review/Recommendation: ��,,,,�,�,� ` - No comments to supplement this report -4� ✓.f'�"'-''J - Comments attached. Explanation/Summary (attach supplement sh necessary.) SUMMARY; Pursuant to Council direction, given at the December 5 Work Session, Staff has been reviewing the City's utility collection policies. In light of our experience the past several years with taking owners of rental property to court, Staff believes that policy should be abandoned. A considerable amount of money has been spent in attorney's fees with negligible results. A number of cities rely exclusively on certifying delinquent accounts for collection with property taxes. Those cities do not send reminder notices, nor do they have a shut off policy. While this policy is certainly easier for Staff to administer, those cities certify many more accounts than we do. I believe that the City should have an aggressive collection policy to minimize the number of delinquent accounts, particularly with the number of apartments and rental properties that we have within the City. For those reasons I believe that the City should not rely exclusively on certifying delinquent accounts to the County for collection with property taxes. Finance Staff would like to streamline our collection procedures. Resolution No. 4692, A Resolution Outlining Collection Policy For Delinquent Utility Bills, is attached for your review. Under this new policy a bill would be sent to the customer which would be due within 30 days. If unpaid, a notice would be sent to the customer by first class mail advising that they would have 10 business days to pay the past due amount or service would be discontinued. All types of customers (residential, apartments, commercial, and rental) would be treated alike under this policy. This new procedure eliminates sending two additional notices which were previously sent to customers. Under present procedures a reminder notice is sent(255 were sent after the third quarter billing was due), followed by a notice of intent to discontinue service (48 of these were sent after the third quarter billing was due), followed by a shut off notice (15 of these were sent after the third quarter billing was due). Service was discontinued for 5 customers due to non payment. The notice of intent has been sent by certified mail return receipt requested. Staff would like to eliminate sending the certified letters due to cost and ineffectiveness. After the third quarter billing 48 certified letters were sent to customers at a cost of$2.29 each, or a total cost of$109.92. In addition to the cost of postage, 8 hours of staff time was involved in preparing those letters to be mailed. Of the 48 sent, 17 were refused by customers. Ri,ECOMMENDATION;