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Mounds View City Council January 23, 2006 <br />Regular Meeting Page 18 <br /> <br />Councilmember Stigney asked for an example of the letter that was mailed out. 1 <br /> 2 <br />Finance Director Beer stated that many of the items are four to five years old and are quite stale. 3 <br />He added that some of the individuals no longer live in the City. 4 <br /> 5 <br />Councilmember Stigney stated that the insufficient checks regarding alarm violations is 6 <br />concerning. 7 <br /> 8 <br />Councilmember Stigney referenced the Tom Thumb insufficient check and noted that the 9 <br />building was there but it is no longer called Tom Thumb. Finance Director Beer stated that staff 10 <br />cannot certify those checks against a building as it has to be an individual. He stated that the City 11 <br />can certify against a building for instances such as tree removal and delinquent utility bills, but in 12 <br />these cases the City cannot certify against the property. 13 <br /> 14 <br />Mayor Marty questioned the stop payment regarding the utility billing. Finance Director Beer 15 <br />stated it was prior to the policy instituted at the City around utilities billing and the individual no 16 <br />longer lives in the City. 17 <br /> 18 <br />Councilmember Thomas stated she thinks the City would spend a lot of money going after the 19 <br />delinquent accounts. She stated it is not that it is not a considerable amount of money, and it is 20 <br />unfair that the City is paying for these insufficient checks; however, she cannot justify spending 21 <br />more staff time and tax dollars to chase dead ends. 22 <br /> 23 <br />Councilmember Stigney stated his agreement with the collection agencies. He asked if there is 24 <br />something that can be done in the future to alleviate this problem. 25 <br /> 26 <br />Finance Director Beer stated that steps were taken in 2003 to improve the process, and it has 27 <br />gotten better especially with the golf course items that were a significant source of NSF checks. 28 <br /> 29 <br />Mayor Marty stated the total was $1,150 and he was concerned about the amount of staff time 30 <br />and postage to go after these delinquent accounts receivable. 31 <br /> 32 <br />MOTION/SECOND: Gunn/Thomas. To waive the reading and adopt Resolution 6719 Writing 33 <br />Off Uncollectible Accounts 34 <br /> 35 <br />Councilmember Stigney stated he wanted to have a reading of the delinquent bills. He read the 36 <br />names and amounts of the insufficient and NSF checks. He also commented that he wanted the 37 <br />names to be added to website. 38 <br /> 39 <br />Finance Director Beer stated that there were two individuals that had checks lost or stolen in a 40 <br />forgery situation. He stressed that even though their name was listed, they were not the ones 41 <br />writing the bad checks and are not responsible for amounts. 42 <br /> 43 <br />Councilmember Thomas stated she disagreed with putting the information on the website, as it is 44 <br />clutter and there is too much information on the website for residents to get through to the 45