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Flagstaff launches pilot municipal bill-assistance program with donation option
Summary
Council heard a presentation on a pilot Municipal Customer Assistance Program that offers a $10 monthly bill credit for qualifying residential utility customers and enables community donations; staff seeded the pilot with $10,000 and will monitor enrollment and donations.
City staff presented a pilot Municipal Customer Assistance Program to help low-income customers manage municipal utility bills.
Customer Service Director Jessica Kittleson described a program offering a $10 monthly bill credit for one year with annual recertification. Eligibility is limited to residential customers whose names appear on municipal accounts and who are enrolled in qualifying assistance programs (e.g., SNAP, LIHEAP, Medicaid) or at or below 130% of the federal poverty level. Donations from the community can be made as one-time gifts through the city payment page or as recurring monthly contributions added to municipal bills; staff said recurring donations require the donor to be a city billing customer.
Staff launched the online portal (flagstaff.az.gov/billpay) and said seven customers had signed up as of the meeting. Water Services committed $10,000 to seed the pilot for the first year; Kittleson said that amount could support roughly 83 customers at $10/month for a year and that the program would be scaled or limited on a first-come, first-served basis depending on donations and demand. Staff plan bill inserts and bilingual outreach in February.
What to watch: the program is a pilot and city staff will monitor donations and enrollment to determine scale and continuity; council members praised staff and nonprofit partners who helped shape the effort.
