Item 3AAGENDA ITEM # 3A
MAY 26, 2009
May 18, 2009
MEMORANDUM
TO: The Honorable Mayor
and Members of the City Commission
FROM: Jim Hansot
Ci anager
SUBJECT: Follow-up Report
JAG Grant Funding Changes; At the last meeting on May 11, 2009 the City Commission
approved submitting an application for funds under the Justice Assistance Grant Program in the
amount of $225,000 that would be used to retain three positions in the city's budget in the next
fiscal year including two Community Oriented Police Officers and the Redevelopment Director
(Dale Hatfield). Since that time, the City has received notice that the grant application has been
approved and that an additional $38,580 has been added to the grant allocation. This will bring
the Atlantic Beach allocation to $263,580. There is no local match requirement in this program
and the use of the funds will be reviewed with the City Commission during the budget
workshops that are being scheduled in August of this year.
Comulaint About Mail Service; For the past 4 %2 years, the City has contracted with an outside
service provider to perform the utility bill statement printing and mailing functions. The
company used a "Return Service Requested" mailing process that resulted in the actual bills
being returned to the City with a yellow sticker notating the reason, on each item of mail, as to
why the item was undeliverable.
Even if a forwazding address was provided to the post office by a customer, the bill would be
returned to notify the City that the customer was not accepting mail at the delivery address on the
bill. In addition, it appeazed that the postal cazriers were selectively deciding whether to deliver
the mail, based on their knowledge of the intended recipient. In some of our more transient
neighborhoods, lazge volumes of returned mail were being collected each month. Unnecessary
time was expended by staff to enter this information into our computer system, bills were being
paid late, and cutoffs were occumng. New customer bills were being returned, since the carriers
were unfamiliaz with the change in tenant(s).
The following corrective actions were taken, effective the beginning of May 2009, to minimize
the number of actual bills being returned by the post office:
AGENDA ITEM # 3A
MAY 26, 2009
1. The bills are now processed with an "Address Service Requested" indicator. Mail with a
temporary forwarding address will be delivered as requested. Mail with a change of address
will be delivered, and a separate postcard with the forwazding address information will be
provided to the City to update their customer records at a cost of $0.50/ item.
2. Similaz to JEA, the City has requested that the Atlantic Beach Post Office mandate the postal
carriers to deliver the bills to the address specified on the bill. The occupant will be given an
opportunity to write any changes to tenancy on the bill, and If the mail has not been picked
up in ten (10) days, the cazrier will then return the bill to the City.