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City council suspends November utility late fees and halts disconnects for residential customers
Summary
At a special meeting the city council unanimously approved a short‑term resolution to waive the 10% late fee, waive the $45 nonpayment fee, and not process utility disconnects for residential accounts during November 2025, while urging customers to make partial payments and contact billing to arrange payments.
At a special meeting, the City Council voted unanimously to temporarily suspend its 10% late fee, waive the $45 nonpayment (disconnect) fee and not process residential utility cutoffs for November 2025. Councilor Woodley made the motion, Councilor Beatty seconded and a roll call vote was recorded as yes by Woodley, Beatty, Gilmore, Stone, Roden and the mayor.
The measure is intended as short‑term relief during the holiday period. The mayor said the proposal stemmed from conversations with staff and community members about ways the city could "ease some of the pain on a lot of our families" as Thanksgiving and Christmas approach. Councilors and staff agreed the suspension would last for one month only.
Utility billing staff explained how the cutoff and fee process works and urged the council to continue customer reminders. A staff member said the city sends "48‑hour" cutoff calls two days before service would be disconnected and that staff had sent 299 reminder calls on the most recent Monday, slightly above the typical 250–275 calls. The staff member also clarified that the 10% late fee is applied to the current bill only, not the total outstanding balance.
Staff described account arrangements that extend due dates and prevent cutoffs and noted a $45 nonpayment fee is charged as part of the cutoff process unless an arrangement is in place. The staff member cautioned that when cutoffs and penalties were suspended during the COVID period "we had a lot of accounts that snowballed," and recommended the city continue reminder calls and encourage partial payments to avoid compounding debt into December.
Council and staff clarified the suspension applies only to residential accounts; staff said the utility serves about 8,000 accounts overall, of which roughly 1,300 are commercial. Cutoffs are performed twice a month in zone runs (north/south), and staff estimated a typical zone cutoff run affects about 500 accounts.
The resolution approved by the council directs the mayor to sign a temporary suspension of the city's 10‑day past‑due cutoff policy for utilities and waives the 10% late fee and the nonpayment fee for residential customers for November 2025. After the unanimous vote the mayor declared the meeting adjourned.
