As the coronavirus pandemic begins to wind down, assuming current trends hold, Pasadena will be reinstating late fees and shutoffs for Pasadena Water and Power customers who are delinquent on their electric bills. Officials say they are unlikely to turn off the lights for residential customers, but are looking at more stringent enforcement around the city’s commercial businesses.
The city will start enforcing late fees on July 1, and the earliest shutoffs may start on Sept. 7 for medium and large commercial businesses. It’ll be one month later for small businesses and residential customers.
Collection and shutoff activities will still be suspended between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day, as has been the city’s practice for decades now.
With a unanimous City Council decision on Monday, the utility will be allowed to resume late fee collection and shutoffs while simultaneously offering customers some assistance by refunding their initial deposits.
Whether the customer is current or late with their payments is irrelevant; everyone with 13 months of good payment records will receive a credit to their account.
After more than 30 years working in Pasadena, City Manager Steve Mermell has never seen so much money owed by delinquent customers. Normally, the city plans for about $300,000 to $400,000 in late or missing payments each year, he told the council on Monday, April 12.
Right now, customers owe more than $7 million in delinquent payments. Mermell believed it was largely due to the coronavirus-related recession. The city has not been penalizing customers for failing to pay their bills since last March.
“I’ve seen some partial lists (of delinquent accounts) with business accounts on there that are still in operation,” Mermell said. “I daresay some people are taking advantage of the situation to improve their cashflow circumstances.”
He urged that it wouldn’t be a “one-size-fits-all approach” to fee collection and shutoffs. He said the city will focus on commercial businesses and other accounts that haven’t made an effort to reach out to the city to work out a payment schedule.
Single family homes represent “the last person we want to shutoff,” Mermell said. “Obviously we will work to make payment arrangements with them. I will be shocked if we have many of those people getting turned off.”
According to a staff presentation, over half of the delinquent accounts owe $500 or less. And eight out of 10 customers owe less than $1,000.
Some of the largest amounts owed are from commercial properties, residences with a home owners association, as well as medium and large businesses.
“This is a matter of equity,” Mayor Victor Gordo said. “The utility is owned by residents of Pasadena. To hear that low income residents are paying their fair share, but large users are not — it is troubling.”
