Minutes 11/23/1982 - Laserfiche WebLink

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TUESDAY NOVEMBER 23, 1982 To assist you in review, you will find below a repetition of Sell's comments followed by our response: UTILITY AND OTHER ACCOUNTS RECEIVABLE Procedures shou I d be es t ab I i shed to commence co I I ec t ion procedures soon af te, an account becomes de Ii nquent. Presently, I ittle collection efforts are used to collect past-due accounts beyond the time that uti I ity service is discontinued. - Uti I ity accounts should be reviewed periodically, and a regular procedure of writing off uncollectable utility accounts should be adopted. Accounts receivable collection and recording procedures should be revised to provide for the balancing of accounts receivable detai I bi II ings with the accounts receivable control accounts on a regular basis. Experience has shown that there is in reality little that can be done administratively as to uncollected utility bills after the Electric/Water service is terminated. Normally speaking, if termination of service does not bring a response it means that the individual has moved on or has vacated the premises. In either case, in the opinion of the City Attorney, the individual(s) would most likely be "judgment proof" and the cost of pursuing a judgment would be "throwing good money after bad". He also advises that it could be risky to report non-payment of utilities to the credit bureau since it could result in a libel suit. APCO turns delin- quent accounts over to a private collection agency after 90 days at a fee of 30%. We will investigate this approach. At the present, the Billing Division runs a check on "new" customers to see if they have a delinquent account with the City. In those cases where a delinquency exists services are refused until the account is settled. However, sometimes individuals get third parties to obtain service for them, thereby effectively stymieing this effort. We can legally go back three years using the search technique and we have now had the computerized billing system changed to provide a program to do the name search and to expand the history file for delinquent accounts to three years. As to establishing a procedure to write off uncollectable utility accounts we would be pleased to work out the mechanics with Sells by which to transfer all delinquencies over 90 days old to an account for bad debts. This would not prevent us from collecting the delinquency within the following 33-36 months if we were able to do so. Procedures have already been established to balance the accounts receivable detail billings with the accounts receivable control accounts on a quarterly basis. Previously this was not accomplished with any regularity and pro- gramming difficulties with the utility services "budget plan" in the computer resulted in a minor error which could not be reconciled. A regular quarterly