Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Municipal Finance Utility Billing topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Shorewood staff propose formal Utility Billing Policy after internal audit
Summary
After an internal audit found a few inaccurate utility bills, Finance Director Schmuck proposed a Utility Billing Policy to consolidate city code, fee schedules, state statute, and past practices; staff will revise wording and bring the policy forward on the consent agenda.
Finance Director Schmuck told the council an internal audit of the City’s utility billing identified several accounts with inaccurate billings and that the City should adopt a formal Utility Billing Policy to consolidate City Code, the fee schedule, the relevant state statute, and historical practices.
"Some of the past practices that the City had used to handle correction for these billings were not documented," Schmuck said, and recommended a single policy to capture those practices. Schmuck told the council the draft is largely intended to codify existing practices rather than make substantive changes.
Councilmember Sanschagrin suggested the draft’s first sentence used the term "regulations" where "policy" might be clearer and recommended tightening language and using direct hyperlinks to the pages on the City website. Schmuck said the document’s links were active and that she could make the recommended editorial tweaks. Councilmember Maddy said he relied on staff’s recommendations but was open to limited wording changes to improve clarity. Mayor Labadie reminded colleagues that the goal was to resolve any issues before the item is placed on the consent agenda.
Schmuck said staff will revise the draft per the council’s minor edits and bring the policy to a future council meeting as a consent agenda item.
