 When the order of business brought the 10 city aldermen to those two
items, the first motion was removed from the agenda and the second
motion voted upon. That motion was to make a change in the sewer
billing cycle from once every four months to once every three
months, or quarterly.Effective May 1, the fee for sewer services
in the city will increase $1 per month. With a four-month billing
cycle this would have meant residents would be billed $88 at one
time for their sewer service. With the change to quarterly billing,
the total bill will be only $66.
When the motion passed with a unanimous 10-0 vote, Marty Neitzel
who chairs the sewer committee, commented that this was something
the city had done in order to help its residents.
"I hope the people of Lincoln realize the reason the city council
is going forward with this is to help them with their budgeting
process in paying their sewer bill more effectively. We hope it will
help them," Neitzel said.
While this completes one phase of changes the city is hoping to
initiate in the sewer department, there are still items that will
more than likely be discussed in the future.
Several weeks ago, Melody Anderson shared her feelings with the
council that those who are delinquent in paying their bills are
accruing enormous charges before the city actually gets to the water
shut-off portion of the collection process.
She reviewed how a 10 percent charge is added at the first missed
due date; then $25 charges are added after the bill reaches its 30th
day, 60th day and so on.
In an effort to figure out how to remain effective in the
collections and at the same time possibly ease some of the burden to
residents who have fallen way behind in their payments, the council
discussed shortening the days to cutoff.
At the first workshop meeting in March, the council looked at
suggestions from the city clerk and the sewer billing clerk on how
to cut out one 30-day increment and shorten the time for the
disconnection of water. At the end of that discussion, it appeared
that the solution being offered would trim 30 days off the
collection process.
Some of the pitfalls to the proposed solution were that it would
still be time for another billing cycle before a customer would
actually have water service shut off, plus there was the matter of
continuing with the monthly $25 fee even after the water was turned
off.
Anderson and others discussed how continuing to add to the bill
was a hindrance to customers trying to rectify the situation. Some
were of the opinion that the fees were warranted, as they were being
applied to service already provided by the city; while others wanted
to figure out how to stop the fees so as to make it easier for
customers to come up with the money.
At last week's committee of the whole meeting, the topic was
again addressed. Anderson offered a proposal that would move the
shut-off date up and also reduce the number of $25 charges assessed
to the account.
Sewer billing clerk Dawn Crowell was on hand to participate in
the discussion and expressed a few concerns about the new plan
Anderson was putting out there.
Anderson had proposed that the 10 percent late fee at the 21st
day remain. The $25 fee at the 30th day would remain. At that time
the disconnect notice would be mailed, and the customer would have
another 30 days to pay the bill. If they didn't, Illinois American
Water would be notified for the water shut-off. That company would
send out a final notice giving the customer 10 days to make amends
on their account before physically turning off their water.
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Crowell talked about what that would mean in extra work for the
clerk's office. She explained that there are many customers who come
in right before the shut-off and pay the past-due portion of their
bill. She said moving up the date for the letter would more than
likely double the number of letters the department had to send out
each time.
The discussion then evolved from how long it takes to produce a
letter today versus how long it will take with the new sewer
software the city is working on getting. Crowell said that now the
department has to type the letter, but with the new software, the
staff will be able to put a code on the bill, and the letter will
generate in a matter of seconds.
The group then talked about how soon the new software will be in
place. David Wilmert is working with the city's software provider on
the project and said he really couldn't guarantee that the software
would be ready by May 1, the target date for implementing the new
shut-off policy.
Talking about some of the benefits of the new software, City
Clerk Susan Gehlbach said that with the new software, the city will
be able to go to a paper bill, mailed in an envelope, which is
something the council has wanted for a long time.
City administrator Sue McLaughlin also brought up the idea of
doing the sewer billing according to water consumption. She told the
council they were losing ridiculous amounts of money with their
current billing structure. She said most communities bill according
to consumption, and she was quite surprised to learn that Lincoln
did not.
Gehlbach and Crowell were asked if the new software could be
converted to consumption billing, and they said it could be.
Consumption billing is not a unique suggestion to the city. This
has been discussed in the past, but with the limitation of
antiquated software, the city was going to have to turn that billing
over to Illinois American -- something they did not want to do.
Crowell said that with the new software, Illinois American could
provide the clerk's office with consumption information, and it
could be input by staff of the clerk's office to generate the sewer
bills. However Gehlbach expressed some concern over the time it
would take to do that. She said it would be a large effort for a
small staff.
The talk then turned to establishing a change in the billing
cycle. Currently the city is divided into four sections for sewer
billing: northeast, northwest, southeast and southwest. One section
of the city is billed each month. Gehlbach said the plan would be to
make three sections by combining the southeast and southwest
sections of the city.
In the end the aldermen decided that they wanted to drop the
changes in the shut-offs for now and move on only with changing the
billing cycle from every four months to every three months.
Once the new billing software is in place, the council may
revisit what to do with the shut-offs.
[By NILA SMITH]
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