
Humanity House, an organization that assists financially struggling families in Allen County, is appealing to the Iola City Council to change its utility payment policies for past-due bills.
Representatives will be on hand at Monday’s Council meeting to discuss specifics, including:
— Accepting payment plans to recover from exceptionally large bills or personal crises.
— Allowing customers to set up a deferred payment place up to twice a year if unforeseen events, such as illness, personal crisis or job loss occurs. In those cases, a customer would be given up to two additional weeks to make a utility payment before late fees and delinquent notices are sent.
— Reducing late and reconnect fees, and eliminating “disconnect fees” from utilities that were never disconnected.
— Allowing customers to change the dates their bills are due.
Tracy Keagle, director of Humanity House, gathered with a small group of supporters this week to detail her rationale.
The payment plan is the key component of the policy change, Keagle noted, and would allow customers to pay off their past-due bills over the course of three to 12 months depending on the amount owed.
Thus, if a customer owes up to $500, their past-due amount would be made up over three months; six months would be allotted for those who owe between $501 and $1,000; 12 months for those who owe over $1,000.
Special considerations and additional payoff time would be implemented for low-income, disabled or elderly customers, Keagle proposed.
“This would increase the likelihood of customers remaining in good standing and the city being paid in full without the city needing to resort to garnishment of wages or enlisting a collections agency,” she wrote.
Under Keagle’s proposal, those who then miss a payment would be subject to the regular disconnection schedule, and prohibited from requesting a payment plan for up to a year afterward.
THE CITY considers utility bills past due if they’re not paid within 28 days, at which point a 5% late fee is added.
If the bill is not paid within 12 days after that, the customer’s electric service is disconnected, and a $25 fee added to the bill. Then, if the customer remains in arrears after another week has passed, the remaining services — water and gas — are disconnected.
An additional delinquent fee of $25 is added to the bill, unless service is reconnected after hours, when the fee is increased to $75.
That means a customer who has not paid a $200 utility bill would need to pay $235 to have his utilities reconnected if they’ve been disconnected (or $310 if they’re reconnected after hours.)