Ark Valley News - Park City OKs new utility procedures

Park City OKs new utility procedures
By Taylor Messick
Last Updated: April 27, 2017

On April 25, the Park City council made some changes to the city's policies for dealing with utility disconnection and reconnection charges.

Starting in July, customers will no longer receive a paper notice in the mail if they are in danger of having their service shut off. This comes in the midst of a push from administration to reduce paper costs and usage while giving employees more efficient methods of performing their duties.

"Our financial software will send out disconnect notice phone calls for us," said finance director Daniela Rivas. "Right now, we mail paper notices and (the phone calls) will be at about a third of the cost. For the last four months we've been asking customers to update their contact information with us."

Rivas said that under the new system, the city will be notified of customers in jeopardy of disconnection who did not receive a phone call. She says the city will use other methods to contact those customers, but will continue to encourage them to provide current information.

After doing some research about the city's customers, Rivas said she believes the majority of the city's disconnections occur due to a lack of communication rather than inability to pay. Now, the city will also double the fee for disconnection and reconnection from $35 to $70.

"This was my recommendation that we bump up this disconnect charge because we have so many late payments," said Mayor Ray Mann. "The city spends so much time tied up going out and shutting people off and turning people back on. I really feel like the $35 was apparently not big enough for people to be concerned with making sure they pay their water bill on time. We average 70 or sometimes 90 disconnects every month. For the most part, we're looking at 90 percent of people that come in and pay that day or the next day."

Rivas also mentioned that the city offers each customer up to four 15-day late payments per year without an additional charge; all the customer has to do is call the city and ask for an extension. She noted that those customers who frequently get disconnected do not take advantage of this offer. Mann said he looked at what fees other cities are charging and chose $70 because it's slightly above the average amount and he hopes it will encourage customers to avoid disconnection.

Council member John Lehnherr also proposed a final addition to the ordinance that will simultaneously encourage customers to sign up for automated payments and give them a chance to get back some of their disconnection fee. When a customer's service is disconnected, they will now have the opportunity to sign up for the city's automatic payments. If a disconnected customer links their account with the city, payments will automatically be deducted each month and they will be reimbursed for half of the $70 fee.

"I don't want to just fix it today," said Lehnherr. "I want to eliminate it later."