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Council greenlights switch in utility-billing software; council defers decision on passing card convenience fees to customers
Summary
Council approved a purchase to switch utility-billing software, with the vendor transition expected to cost $28,592 in year one and produce future annual savings; councilors asked staff to return with a policy recommendation on whether to pass card-processing fees to customers.
The Danville Town Council voted to authorize staff to proceed with switching the town's utility-billing software, while postponing a final decision about whether to pass customer card-processing fees through to residents.
Miss Loftton told the council the first-year cost for the new software would be $28,592 and that future years could save roughly $20,000 to $25,000. She also said the vendor would move debit and credit-card-processing fees to customers rather than the town and estimated that change "could save us approximately around $70,000."
Councilors pressed staff for more detail on the convenience-fee question. One councilor cited a sample report covering May 22 through Dec. 11, 2025, showing $60,749 in card fees for that period and asked whether the town should continue to absorb those costs or require customers to pay.
Miss Loftton and other staff said the software change is a roughly 120-day implementation and recommended approving the vendor now while returning to the council later with a specific convenience-fee policy; one councilor suggested options, such as absorbing the first failed transaction fee and passing repeat fees through to customers, but staff said they could not reliably detect repeated tries until after monthly reconciliation.
On a motion to approve the request to spend funds for the utility-billing software, the council voted to proceed as presented; the council separately approved an update to the billing-collection policy (requiring deposits for all customers and reducing ID requirements from two forms to one) in a subsequent vote.
Council directed staff to return with additional analysis and recommendations about the convenience fee and implementation details before the town begins charging customers.
