Sometimes you have to avoid throwing good money after bad, and that’s what Stettler town council did regarding bad debts during their Dec. 5 regular council meeting. Councilor Cheryl Barros was the lone absentee from the meeting.
Councilors read a memo from assistant CAO Steven Gerletz about how the town writes off bad debts. He said write-offs over $300 have to be approved by councilors directly; write-offs under $300 can be approved by staff but council has to be notified.
“For 2017, $12,852.51 should be expensed as bad debts in excess of $300.00, which represents twenty (20) accounts,” stated Gerletz in his memo. Of those accounts, 19 of them were utility-bill related.
“As well, I have expensed seventeen (17) accounts under $300.00 totaling $2,736.82 and expensed thirteen (13) inactive accounts with credit balances totaling -$273.06. Based on local 2017 utility revenues of approximately $3,578,188.00 the Utility write-offs totaling $12,245.92 represents 0.34% of revenues (2016 = 0.47%).”
He noted that in 2017 there was one tax account to be written off, an unsightly property totaling $3,044.22.
During discussion, several councilors asked about efforts to collect on the debts. Both Gerletz and CAO Greg Switenky said the town tries to recover the debt. But since the utility bills were related to renters, some of the people have proven very difficult to track down.
It was also noted in the agenda item that even though the bills are written off, collection efforts continue regardless.
Councilor Malcolm Fischer said he was peeved by the thought of certain people expecting their neighbors to pay their bills for them.
Gerletz noted very few debts are repeat offenders, and about 15 or 16 per cent are recovered by collection agencies.
Councilors unanimously wrote off the bad debt over $300.