A. Utility service charges are due upon presentation of the bill for services. Charges unpaid twenty (20) days after presentation of the bill for services become past due (delinquent).
B. Charges that remain unpaid fifteen (15) days following the past due date shall be assessed a basic penalty of ten (10) percent of the delinquent charges. Beginning forty-five (45) days following the past due date, an additional penalty of one-half percent per month shall be added for any portion of the delinquent charges and basic penalty that remains unpaid. If any federal or state law restricts the city's ability to apply these penalties to a specified category of owners, the penalty amounts shall be reduced as required to comply with the law.
C. For any portion of the delinquent charges and penalties that remains unpaid sixty (60) days following the past due date, the director may cause a written notice to be mailed to the owner at the owner's address, advising the owner that the delinquent charges and penalties remaining unpaid seventy-five (75) days following the past due date will become a lien on the parcel of real property to which the utility services were rendered. The notice also shall notify the owner that the owner may request an informal hearing on the delinquent charges.
D. If the owner desires a hearing, the owner shall provide the director with a written request for a hearing within ten (10) days after the date of the director's notice. Upon receipt of a timely request for hearing from the owner, the director shall provide owner written notice of the date, time, and location of the informal hearing, which shall be scheduled not less than ten (10) days after the date of the director's notice of the hearing to the owner. The hearing shall be held before a department employee designated by the director to conduct the hearing, who shall mail a written notice of his or her decision to the owner at
the owner's address as soon as practicable after the hearing. The decision is the city's final administrative determination of the matter.
E. During a local emergency declared by the city council, the city council may, by resolution, temporarily suspend the assessment of penalties described in subsection B. (Ord. 2020-0020 § 2; Ord. 2013-0014 § 31; Ord. 2011-051 § 2)