Iolans will likely pay a lower late fee for past-due utility bills, and may get one free pass per year to get their services turned back on if they’re disconnected.
In a wide-ranging discussion Monday, City Council members debated the cost of compassion versus what it takes to ensure the city continues to operate its utilities as one would a business.
In the end, the Council directed city staffers to devise a new ordinance that would reduce the penalty for past-due utility bills from 5% to 2.5%; and forgive customers a fee associated with reconnecting their utilities if they’re shut off due to lack of payment. The reconnection fee would be forgiven once per year, Councilwoman Nancy Ford suggested, with subsequent reconnections costing $35. (The current fee is $25; $75 for after-hours reconnections.)
Council members are expected to vote on the ordinance at their March 23 meeting.
CITY administrator Sid Fleming kicked off the discussion by answering questions posed to the Council at its Feb. 10 meeting, including whether the city could adopt other new policies, such as allowing customers to choose which day of the month their utilities were due. The proposals came from a request from Humanity House, a local organization that works with financially distressed families.
Changing a customer’s due date would be difficult, Fleming explained, because of the financial software the city uses to process its utility bills.
To make it work, the city would likely have to devise an ancillary spreadsheet for those customers, “which would probably become burdensome,” Fleming said.
COUNCIL members debated the merits of the other discussions, before hearing from several residents in favor of a more lax policy.
Steve Carnahan spoke about working as a caregiver for his ailing mother, and the complications that arose when he submitted payment for a utility bill to his mother’s landlord, only to learn later the landlord did not submit the payment in time because of an oversight. Carnahan and his mother scrambled to come up with the money to pay the bill the day her utilities were shut off, plus the added $25 fee.
Carnahan said he was dismayed because of the city’s callous attitude toward the incident. “They didn’t want to hear it,” he said, later asking why Iola cannot take partial utility payments.
The city does accept partial payments up until the day the bill is due, City Clerk Roxanne Hutton answered.
Sofie Alexander approached the Council as a business owner, resident and Humanity House supporter. She requested the city lower its late fees for past-due bills. “Many of us, whether we’re donating to Humanity House fundraisers, or we’re part of a church community, we do take care of one another,” Alexander said. “We are helping our neighbors. Reducing those fees would be a benefit to everybody.”
Cindy Lucas and daughter Jessica Qualls, owners of Around the Corner Coffee Shop, argued the city could show more compassion and still run the utilities as a business. “Being a business owner, I understand the business,” Lucas said. “If you’re nothing but compassionate, you’re going to go under.”
Conversely, businesses that show no compassion also are at risk, she continued. “They have one priority; the dollar. That’s what’s wrong with our country; that’s what’s wrong with our government.”
Jackie Evans spoke about taking care of her ailing mother while also taking care of three children of her own.
