TITLE: Title
A RESOLUTION BY TROTWOOD CITY COUNCIL TO CERTIFY DELINQUENT WATER, SEWER, TRASH AND STORM DRAINAGE BILLS TO THE AUDITOR OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY, STATE OF OHIO, FOR PLACEMENT ON THE MONTGOMERY COUNTY TAX DUPLICATE
Body
PURPOSE: To collect the outstanding balances on utility accounts
DEPARTMENT: Finance Department / Utility Billing Division
CONTACT INFORMATION: Chris Peeples, Finance Director, cpeeples@trotwood.org
INFORMATION: A brief history on how the assessments are determined. After the June quarterly billing period, shut off notices are sent to any/all that have an outstanding balance on their utility bill. Property owners are contacted by mail alerting them of the past due balance/s on their property. Shut offs are also started for those who are billed for water and sewer. During August, an aged report of all delinquent utility accounts is generated. This aged report identifies any unpaid balance between August 21, 2018 (last year’s cutoff date) and August 21, 2019. We prepare the listing to be submitted to the Montgomery County Auditor’s office for certification on the tax the first of September each year. This listing is for the total delinquent amounts due for water, sewer, trash, and storm water. The city adds a 10% administration fee to the total of each service and the county adds a 5% administration/collection fee to each service. We are currently in our shut off process and will remove any and all payments received prior to September 6, 2019 from the assessment roll. The updated assessment roster will be sent to the Montgomery County Auditor on or before September 9, 2019 to be placed on the tax duplicate for collection in 2020. This mechanism is available only to government-operated utilities, and it is the most cost-efficient legal collection tool available to any enterprise. The combined delinquent charges and the administrative fees total $610,508.69. We will continue our collection efforts to reduce this amount prior to certifying the roster to the County Auditor.
FISCAL & STAFF IMPACT: The fiscal impact is these monies are needed to pay for services, debt and employees of the City of Trotwood.
RECOMMENDATION: It is staff’s recommendation that Council adopt this resolution to certify the City’s delinquent utility accounts to the Montgomery County Auditor for placement on the 2019 property tax duplicate.