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Exh 8DAGENDA ITEM #8D NOVEMBER 26, 2001 CITY OF ATLANTIC BEACH CITY COMMISSION MEETING STAFF REPORT AGENDA ITEM: Policy on Utility Due Date SUBMITTED BY: Jim DATE: November 15, 2001 BACKGROUND: Some of you have recently received a complaint from a City water/sewer customer that the City had "changed" his due date, that he was on a limited disability income, and that he wanted the City to change his due date to better coincide with the receipt of his monthly check. This customer's situation azises from a request by the owner of a mobile home park who had a master water meter. That owner asked the City to bill the residents directly. Where this customer had previously been paying his water bills with his monthly. rent to the mobile home park owner, he now is required to pay the bills directly to the City. The City's due date for that cycle falls within the third week of each month. No authorization exists either in the City Code or in Commission approved policy allowing .for the extension of due dates or waiving late fees. The only reason that staff has waived fees in the past has been if some mistake was made on the part of the City. Several other municipal utilities. have. policies allowing for extended due dates for fixed income customers with some particular hazdship (limited income) keeping them from being'able to pay the bills on time. If the Atlantic Beach City Commission would like to have such a policy, it should be put in ordinance form with some criteria listed for eligibility. Being on either social security or disability income and having a hazdship (from having a limited income and having uWity bill dates that fall late in the month) should be a part of any policy. The criteria could also be more specific to include maximum income limits and require applicants to sign an affidavit certifying their income. These may not be an absolute necessity provided that staff has the ability to differentiate customers with legitimate hazdships versus others that can't manage their money or have other payment problems. If put on this program, the City should hold any deposits on hand at the time of application rather than refunding them after two yeazs. AGENDA ITEM #8D NOVEMBER 26, 200I The City's utility billing software can accommodate the limitation of late penalties so that any approved customer on this program would not be delinquent providing that the: bill was paid before the next bill came out (approximately one month). We do not have the ability to set due dates for individual customers. The experience from other Cities who have adopted similar policies is that only a small number of people request to be on such a program Consequently, the estimated cost to the City in administrative time would be relatively low. Assuming that there would be no change in cut-off dates from the City's present policy, there should be no effect on bad debts written off. Obviously the City would lose some late fee revenue. The City Commission may also want to consider adoption of a policy allowing for the waiving of late fees in certain other conditions. These could include times. when the cusiorner has made a reasonable effort to deliver the payment in a timely manner, that the payment was late due to circumstances'beyond the control of the customer, and thabthe customer has established a good payment hi tory with the City. A late fee should not be waived more than once per year under. this program This would allow for the City to waive late fees in certain Legitimate circumstances such as delay due to late mail delivery. BUDGET: The cost to the City to manage. such a program would be relatively small, probably under $2,000 per year. The City could also expect some small loss in late fee revenues, although no specific estimates are available. REC©MIV~ENIDATION: Authorize the City staff to prepare an ordinance which would set forth a policy on extending late fees for customers omfixed income with hardships and allowing for waiving ofthe lafie fees under certain other circumstar3ces as described above. ATTACf#MENT: None