A new law being pushed by the Mississippi Municipal League did not sit well with some city leaders when they heard the details this week.
A motion at Monday’s city board meeting to adopt a resolution in support of the Local Debt Collection Act in the 2018 legislative session failed for lack of a second after a lengthy and vigorous discussion.
Alderman Gary Fratesi made the motion but no second was heard.
Acceptance of the resolution would signal state lawmakers that the city is aligning with other municipalities across the state to urge the Mississippi Legislature to allow city governments to submit debts owed to them, as a result of delinquent traffic fines and or utility fees, to the Mississippi Department of Revenue for collection through a setoff against customer’s state income tax refunds.
Based on wording in the resolution the city would include the estimated amount owed in unpaid and outstanding fines and fees and the state would be entitled to approximately 50 percent of any recouped monies.
Alderman Larry Brown said that he was opposed to the legislation, citing that private businesses weren’t offered the same privilege as the municipalities.
“Businesses have to do their own collections, so cities and counties—they need to do theirs,” he said.
Brown asked, if the legislation was approved, would the city have to make the request on a customer each year in the event the debt wasn’t satisfied the first year or would the setoff be perpetual until all fines are paid?
Alderman Dana Myrick said he wasn’t in favor of the resolution because, “I think it’s another way to extort money out of people.”
He argued that people would have already paid a deposit and likely just fallen on hard times.
Mayor Steve Rosenthal, who was recently elected to his fifth term on the board of directors for MML, said that any deposit paid by a customer would have to be used to pay a portion of the amount owed.
Myrick then questioned why the citizens are charged for up to two months even though a lock has been placed on their water meter.
“By law we can’t close the account right away,” Rosenthal said, adding that the water department does lock the customer out, but the account is still open until after the third billing without customer payment, and then the account is closed out.
Rosenthal said that if a customer goes beyond the third month and still hasn’t paid the past due bill, he or she must go back through the whole startup process again if they want to have water service.
That includes an inspection and paying a new deposit but he said they generally try to avoid that. He invited the aldermen to develop an alternate plan, which prompted a discussion on water bill collection practices.
Alderman Carver Randle Jr. asked if the accounts could be closed out sooner than waiting the three months.
“Are you being trigger happy if you do that,” Randle asked.
Rosenthal responded that if the city did that, it would greatly increase the workload on the city inspector and citizens would have to wait much longer to get their service restored.
Alderman Ruben Wood asked why the citizens are having to pay for water when it is not going through their lines for them to use,
“When the power company turns your lights off, they don’t charge you anything for services not rendered,” Wood said. “We continue to charge you even though you’re not getting any water.”
Rosenthal said that all customers are required to pay a monthly minimum fee whether they use any water and sewage or not, plus a $14.95 garbage fee that the city must pay to the garbage company.
Fratesi pointed out that the board set the policies in place and the city cannot let someone slide on paying their water bills.
“And the minimum bill is the minimum bill,” Rosenthal injected.
Myrick said he thinks the city should do a better job of contacting the citizens to let them know their accounts are in danger of being closed. He called the current process “unfair practices.”
Municipal Clerk Teresa Nolden said she was for the change because it would keep her from having to garnish wages, which she prefers not to do. She said the city has over $16 million in overdue fines and the amount is continually increasing.
Rosenthal said the city has never pursued legal action against a water account customer for not paying their past due amounts,
“But there’s plenty of them that justifiably we should,” he said.
Rosenthal said pursuing a lawsuit against the customer could cost that person more than trying to satisfy the debt through the setoff procedure.
Finally Rosenthal stressed that the issue at hand was how the city can collect on pass due bills and if they wanted to make it so the citizens wouldn’t have any past due bills, then their discussion was a waste of time.
“Y’all were elected to work,” he said.
Myrick retorted that Rosenthal too was elected to work.
Rosenthal said he was the one who brought this proposal to them.
“We’re pointing out the flaws in that, why are you throwing out why we were elected, I am ready to cast my vote then,” Myrick said.
Rosenthal said afterwards that he was not pushing for the procedure to be implemented, but he simply wanted to sign the resolution that would allow those cities that wanted to pursue the measure an opportunity to do so.
“Some cities such as Greenwood and Leland pay the utilizes for the customers and then have to wait and see if the citizens will pay their bills, let’s give the municipalities all of the options available,” he said.
In other business,
The aldermen voted 4-1 to adopt the agenda.
Myrick voted no after asking why two items placed on the agenda by Chief Eugene Snipes, regarding the purchase of a truck and the subsequent sale of another pick-up truck for the fire department, were removed. Rosenthal explained that the information on the items was not ready to be presented yet.
Snipes was not present at the meeting.
They voted 4-1 to allow the Roosevelt Community Association to take up donations and toys at the corner of Roosevelt and Garrard.
Brown voted no citing safety concerns.
They voted 3-2 to allow a citizen and her family to collect donations, Tuesday through Friday, to bury a family member at the corner of Garrard and Roosevelt.
Once again, Brown and Fratesi cited safety concerns and Fratesi said it appears they are getting more such requests.
He believes the city needs to establish a process like with parades and street closures whereby the police chief, public works and fire department have to sign off on it.
They agreed to renew TLJ Partners as the city’s risk management and business insurance consultants.
The aldermen heard and voted to accept the departmental reports that were presented, which included parks and recreation, public works, cemetery and fire departments.
They also agreed to change the December regular meeting dates to Dec. 4 and Dec. 18 because of the general election and Christmas.
