Iola will not change its policy regarding past-due utility bills.
Council members voted, 5-2, to stick with the status quo, eschewing a request from a local agency to allow for a “promise to pay” provision to prevent late fees or potential service disruptions.
Tori Bland is an anti-poverty advocate for Humanity House in Iola, an organization that assists financially distressed families. Bland requested the city enact a new policy dealing with past-due bills by allowing customers to enter into a contract pledging to pay off the past-due amount, if the customers cannot pay their bills on time.
A short-term contract would require the past-due balance to be paid within two weeks. Long-term contracts, for larger amounts, would be paid off in monthly increments, Bland suggested.
“Our community is struggling,” Bland said, pointing to the city’s poverty rate at 26.7%, which is more than twice the overall poverty rate for the state, with 1 in 5 elderly residents living below the poverty line, and more than 60% of Iola’s schoolchildren qualifying for free or reduced-price lunches.
“The city’s utility policy helps no one,” Bland said. “The current policy is outdated, out of touch and targets citizens who are already struggling.”
THE proposal drew resistance from several Council members, who noted customers already have 42 days from when a bill is issued to get it paid before utilities face disconnection.
The Council previously tackled the subject in 2020, then reducing the late fee penalty from 5% to 2.5%, and allowing customers one free pass per year to get their utilities reconnected once the bill is paid, and $35 per reconnection after that.
With that in mind, Councilman Nickolas Kinder said extending the payment period extends the burden further down the road for customers already in arrears.
“I empathize,” Kinder said. “But I don’t see a solution with extending the payment. We need to have a discussion that’s broader than just a repayment plan. There needs to be a wide-scape discussion on how we address these problems.”
Councilman Nich Lohman was a bit more receptive to the Humanity House request, noting a promise-to-pay contract would cost the city nothing, aside from additional paperwork in the billing office.
Lohman compared utility bills to health care costs.
“You go in with no idea of what they’re gonna charge you until you’re done,” Lohman said, “when it’s far too late to do anything about it.”
Councilman Carl Slaugh, conversely, said Iola’s policies are significantly more lenient than those offered by the Kansas Corporation Commission.
“The quandary we’re in is that the more time we allow people to pay, it seems like they’re only digging a deeper hole for themselves, and it’s harder to get out of the hole they’re in.
“At the end of the day, the policies are clear,” he continued. “We give people adequate time to make payments. By the time this cutoff comes, if they don’t pay on time, they already have a second bill due. It’s to their advantage to pay it earlier, and not later.
