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Council agrees to absorb higher online-payment fees while staff presses vendor
Summary
After staff said a vendor fee change would raise the city’s absorbed online-payment costs from about $12,000 to nearly $30,000, the council instructed staff to push back with the vendor and voted to continue absorbing the fees for now while exploring alternatives.
City staff alerted the Lennox City Council that the utility-billing vendor (G Works) updated its online-payment fees, and that continuing to absorb the new structure could raise the city’s annual absorbed costs from roughly $12,000–$13,000 to nearly $30,000.
Staff described the vendor’s new structure as scaled fees for ACH/e-checks and a percentage plus minimum for credit-card transactions; examples cited during the discussion included a 3.5% charge on some ACH/credit-card payments and an updated e-check minimum. Staff said the city has been absorbing the fees in prior years and asked whether the council wanted to continue that practice or pass the cost to residents.
Council members described the hike as substantial and asked staff to press the vendor for a phased approach or concessions, while recognizing that moving billing platforms would be a major project. Several members said they preferred not to add a conspicuous per-transaction fee line on bills and supported rolling the cost into rates if absorption was no longer feasible.
After discussion, the council voted to continue absorbing online-payment fees for now and directed staff to attempt to negotiate with the vendor and explore alternatives; staff reported about 60–65% of customers now pay online, so increased vendor fees would be material to the utility fund if sustained.
