Benton Harbor City Commissioners are being asked to temporarily waive late fees on city water bills while a review is conducted on issues in the system.
At a meeting of the city Public Safety and Public Works Committee this week, Mayor Pro Tem Shaquille Turner read a resolution saying that given the volume of complaints the city has received from customers about bills arriving late, inconsistent cycles, delays in customer service response, and shutoff notices being issued shortly after bills are received, the extra fees should be suspended. He said the city shouldn’t delay giving residents relief.
“I think we need to move this to the full body and let the residents know within 30 days we will have a solution as to why their water bills are high,” Turner said. “There’s no more keeping on kicking the can down the road, playing with people, people on a fixed income.”
Commissioner Ethel Clark Griffin agreed, saying residents shouldn’t be held responsible for late fees when they’re not even getting their bills on time.
“People is not getting their water bills,” Griffin said. “Then they get it extremely high. Then you got some people getting cut off for just a little amount. Then you got some people owe big amount and still got water. Then on top of that, you got these late fees.”
City Manager Alex Little said the U.S. Postal Service is to blame for late bills. He also warned that waiving late fees would be tantamount to teaching people they don’t have to pay their bills.
“ We went through several years where bills weren’t paid and reinstituted shutoffs last year and the beginning of the year. We don’t need to go back there. You just got a loan approved by the Treasury that’s dependent upon us meeting certain provisions in this budget.”
Committee members disagreed. They then agreed to advance the late fee question to the full city commission.
