Finance director warns of irregular sewer delinquency certification, council told 805 delinquent accounts recorded

Wickliffe's finance director reported to council on Sept. 22 that Lake County Department of Utilities did not certify sewer delinquencies for 2024 after a systems change, which temporarily lowered the city's reported delinquency amount and complicated the city's cash-position planning.

The finance director said the lack of county certification is the cause of a recent apparent drop in delinquency totals and that city staff had just received prior-year data to review. He told council there are currently 805 delinquent sewer accounts, compared with about 400-some in earlier reports.

The finance director also said that, separately, he had signed a 2026 delinquency list that will be placed on the tax duplicate totaling $465,000 for collection. He told council that in prior years the county-certified delinquency amounts had been in the $160,0002$175,000 range, and that the recent reporting changes affected many municipalities in Lake County.

Councilman Jaworski asked for clarification about future certification and collections; the finance director said the county collects and certifies delinquencies on the city's behalf and that he would circulate the detailed account list to council members.

Why it matters: A sudden change in reported delinquencies affects the city's projected sewer-fund cash flow and could require intra-fund transfers from the general fund later in the year if collections fall short.

Next steps: The finance director said he would email detailed delinquency lists to council and continue coordinating with county utilities. He indicated he expects the city may need the budgeted cash transfers from the general fund to the sewer fund in the later part of the year if collections do not improve.