A. Electrical service may be shut off and discontinued to any premises that has an unpaid account, in whole or in part, 30 days after the due date. The mayor or his or her designee shall give notice to the customer and an opportunity to be heard no less than five days prior to discontinuance of the service.
B. In lieu of discontinuing electrical service to a customer with a past due account, the mayor or his or her designee may require the installation of a meter that requires prepayment for any electricity used. When a prepayment meter is required, the customer may also be required to make payments toward the past due utility account(s) as a condition to continuing electrical service to the customer.
C. The mayor shall establish a written policy for determining the priority in which customers with past due accounts shall be required to use prepayment meters. In establishing the policy, the mayor may consider all relevant factors, which should include, but are not limited to, the following:
1. past due amount;
2. length of time the account has been past due;
3. whether the customer has entered into a payment plan to bring the account current;
4. extent to which the customer has made payments in an effort to reduce the past due amount of the account;
5. amount of electricity the customer is likely to use in the foreseeable future; and
6. customer's creditworthiness.
D. Any delinquent customer priority list developed pursuant to the policy established under subsection C. and the names on any such list shall be confidential and not open to public inspection.
E. Payment for utility bills of prepayment meter customers will be credited first to water, sewer and refuse service with the remainder of the payment reserved for electrical service and distributed as outlined in city policy.
(Ord. 95-11 § 2, 1995; Ord. 97-5 § 1 and § 2, 1997)