Changes coming to city utility fees
The City of Whitefish is updating the regulations and fees surrounding its water, sewer and garbage services.
City Council last week approved the changes that are expected to take up to five months to implement.
City Manager Dana Smith said the regulations are intended to provide clear policies for the city’s utility department and protects the city and customers. The regulations were last updated in 2014, and since 2018 city staff has been reviewing the regulations with the intent to address some reoccurring challenges.
“Staff tracks challenges that could be more effectively handled or issues that may be placing the city at increased risk of litigation,” she said.
There are five major areas for the changes that will impact current and future customers.
First, all accounts must remain in the name of the owner or property management company. A renter may be added as a resident at the property upon request of the owner or property manager. Property managers will be responsible for prorating monthly utility bills between renters.
Related to that, owners or property managers will receive the monthly bill, and a bill may be sent to the mailing address of the property to the renter. Late notices will be sent to both owners or property managers and the property’s mailing address.
Third, a deposit will no longer be required for service, and current deposits held by the city will be applied to customers accounts or refunded for all accounts set up in a renter’s name. The city previously charged a $150 deposit for service.
The city has had several owner and renter conflicts including owners requesting shutoff of service to evict the renter, renters not signing up for service in a timely manner, providing different move-out dates by the renter and the owner/property manger, and the cost of water usage paid for by the renter regardless of the owner’s timeliness to fix a leak.
Additionally, the large number of account changes that come as a result of high turnover in rentals is taxing city staff, Smith noted, adding that some properties go through multiple turnovers within one month. The city is managing an average of 182 account transfers per month.
“We’ve seen a significant increase in turnovers and that increases staff time,” Smith said.
The fourth major change involves how late and unpaid bills will be handled. Utility bills not paid by the 20th of the month are considered delinquent. Late notices will be mailed on the 25th with not late fee, and under the previous regulations a late fee was mailed on the 21st and was charged a $10 fee.
For accounts that haven’t paid beyond that, a door tag will be hung on about the 29th of the month with a fee of $25, which is a $15 increase from the current fee.
Water service will be turned off five days after the tag with a $50 fee, which is a $10 increase from the current fee. The turn off fee also includes the cost to turn water service back on after the account is paid.
“We’re allowing a longer window before the late fee is assessed to give customers the chance to address the issue,” Smith said.
The final area of the changes is in regards to the garbage service billing.
In 2016, the city adjusted the contract with its garbage provider, now Republic Services, for the company to provide billing, but complains about billing through the company prompted the city to bring that back in house.
The change would mean utility customers would receive one monthly bill for water, sewer and garbage. Currently, garbage is billed on a quarterly basis.
Smith said the city is currently negotiating its contract with Republic Services and once completed that will place garbage billing back with the city.