The City of Lodi will resume its normal collections process in an effort to stem the tide of utility bill delinquencies that piled up during the pandemic.
The city council voted unanimously during Wednesday’s meeting to reinstate collections and directed staff to apply for state relief funds to assist utility customers who have delinquencies that were accrued in calendar year 2021, and who qualify.
As a condition of accepting state relief funds, the city will not be able to shut off delinquent customers receiving state funds from November 2022 through January 2023, according to a staff report.
City Manager Steve Schwabauer noted that even though customers may qualify for relief funds for 2021 balances, they must contact the city to work out how other past due amounts are to be paid. Those who don’t could face service interruptions within the next two months, he said.
There are currently 1,222 accounts with delinquent balances totaling $3,220,940 that qualify for the relief program. The city estimates there could be $734,484 in state assistance available, if fully funded.
Much of the $2,486,456 remaining balance, after state relief funds are applied, might have to be written off, say city officials.
Customers who do not qualify for state assistance, including non-residential accounts and residential customers with no outstanding charges accrued in 2021, will be subject to normal collection efforts, effective immediately.
The city primarily relies on suspension actions as a means of collection for customers who do not pay their utility bills in a timely fashion.
The collection process starts with an initial billing date. All sums must be paid no later than 26 days later in order to avoid late fees and collection actions. On day 27 a $10 late fee is applied to the account. A second late fee of $15 and a 10-day shutoff notice is assessed on day 36.
On day 44 a 48-hour shutoff notice is issued. Services are suspended on day 46.
The city stopped its normal collections process during the pandemic in order to support citizen efforts to slow the spread of the COVID-19 virus, and to facilitate access to essential utilities while lockdowns were in place.
Customers were allowed to become delinquent with virtually no consequences. Late fees were not assessed and service shutoffs were not done.
As a result, the delinquent amount the city was carrying doubled across all three utilities. The current delinquent balance for electric, water, and wastewater accounts is $19,207,317. Over $12 million of it is for electric services. The “normal” delinquent balance is about $9 million across all utilities.
The council also decided last night not to increase its pay, on a 3-2 vote. Council Members Shakir Khan and Doug Kuehne voted in favor of Khan’s proposal to increase council salaries to as much as $1,460 per month. Mayor Mark Chandler was joined by Members Alan Nakanishi and Mikey Hothi in shooting down the idea.
It was also decided at last night’s meeting to begin a campaign to educate residents about street sweeping schedules and the value of moving vehicles out of the way when street sweeping is scheduled.
The city’s website also now has a feature that will allow residents to key in an address and find out when sweeping will be done at that location. Previously, residents had almost no way to know when the street sweeper would be coming by, except for a seldom-published map in the paper.
In addition, there will be a greater effort to identify and remove abandoned vehicles from city streets, says Schwabauer. He said the Police Partners will used in this endeavor. Staff will report back in a few months to see how effective these measures have been, the city manager said.
The city council also directed staff to begin a phased-in transition to proactive code enforcement. There are few details at the moment about how it will be done. However, Schwabauer said he and the council will see “how it plays out.”
The city currently handles code enforcement on a complaint basis. Up until now the city has not done any patrols to identify code violations, but that could be changing following last night’s council decision.
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