Discontinue Waiving Late Fee Penalties on Quarterly Utility Bills

The city's standard process is to charge a 10% penalty on utility accounts (water, sewer, street lights, recycling and storm drainage) that are delinquent.  This penalty is applied on current billings only and does not reassess a penalty on a penalty.

With the onset of the COVID pandemic in 2020, the City Council elected to waive the penalty starting with the 2nd quarter utility bill sent out in July 2020.  The penalty has been waived for 4 billings to date:  July 2020, October 2020, January 2021 and April 2021.

With Covid restrictions having been removed, it is recommended that the 10% penalty be reinstated for the July 2021 utility billing.  Neighboring City of Andover had also been waiving their late fees.  Due to the removal of restrictions, they are reinstating their late fee charges with their next utility billing which is also handled by the city's provider, OPUS 21.

With the second quarter billing for 2021 to go out on July 25, 2021, staff would like to direct the provider to reinstate the 10% late fee penalty.
 

Staff's recommendation is to reinstate the 10% late fee penalty on past-due utility bills.  This would go into effect with the billing of July 25, 2021.

Direction for staff to have the 10% late fee penalty reinstated on the city's municipal utility bill beginning with the July 25, 2021 billing.