Published: June 27, 2009 09:21 pm      

City of Jeffersonville calls in sewer tabs

With deadline gone, city says property liens to be filed and certified

Friday was the last day for Jeffersonville residents who received notices about late sewer bills to respond.

Those who didn’t will have certified tax liens filed against them, said Bill Mattingly, Jeffersonville’s sewer billing office chief. It’s the city’s latest effort to collect past-due sewer bills from residents that have ignored them to this point.

Though the liens don’t guarantee the city instant money, it will be collected from those who owe whenever they try to sell their property or when the county holds a tax sale — whichever comes first.

Mattingly said letters — warning of the looming liens — were sent out to about 1,900 residents last month. They were given 30 days to pay the bills or set up a payment plan with the city.

Mattingly estimates about 80 percent of those receiving letters have responded, mostly by paying the bills.

“Collections have been phenomenal in the last few weeks,” Mattingly said.

Delinquent bill collection has been something the city has struggled with because of what Mattingly describes as years of neglect. After taking office in 2008, Mayor Tom Galligan has tried to renew efforts to collect the bills.

Mattingly estimates that about 50 percent of the total dollars owed to the city for sewer bills are at least 90 days past due.

Around $665,000 worth of bills were more than 90 days past due at the end of 2008, according to the city. Mattingly and Galligan were unable to provide an update to that number during interviews Friday. However, Mattingly noted that the delinquent percentage had not changed much since then.

“It’s terrible,” he said.

Bill collection is very important, Galligan said, noting plans to expand the sewer system.

“With all the work we’re doing, we need people to pay their sewer bills,” he said.



BILL COLLECTING TOOLS

In January, Jeffersonville’s Sanitary Sewer Board considered a plan that would allow the city to turn off water service for those not paying their sewer bills.

That idea is on hold for now, after attorneys for the city and Indiana American Water Co. could not come to an agreement about what was legal.

Under Indiana law, Jeffersonville will have to wait until it’s classified as a second-class city, which requires a certain population, before it can have residents’ water turned off, Mattingly said. He believes it will reach that population threshold next year, when the annexation of the Oak Park area is expected to be complete.

On another front, the sewer billing office has implemented a new software system that allows it to find homes not receiving a sewer bill, by comparing it to a county database of properties that are on the tax rolls.