(A) Village utility billing personnel shall be available during regular business hours to receive and consider disputes of any customer relative to an account for utility service. Customers having a dispute which cannot by resolved by utility billing personnel may request a hearing, in writing, directed to the Village Clerk.
(B) Requests for a hearing shall be made in writing and contain the name, address, and telephone number of the person requesting the hearing, the address at which utility service is received and which is the subject of the dispute, the specific grounds or reasons for which the hearing is requested, and the specific relief requested.
(C) Upon filing a request for a hearing, a hearing shall be scheduled with the customer. If the customer has been sent a notice of delinquency/termination notice, the hearing shall be scheduled on or before the disconnection date specified in the notice of delinquency/termination notice.
(D) The Village Clerk, or his or her designee, shall serve as hearing officer for any hearings which may be held under this section. The decision of the hearing officer with respect to the dispute shall be final.
(E) The village shall not disconnect the utility service of any person for nonpayment during the pendency of the dispute if the following occurs.
(1) Written notice is given to the Village Clerk as herein provided.
(2) Payment of all undisputed portions of the bill is made.
(3) All charges made during the pendency are paid as they become due.
(4) The person making the complaint or dispute enters into a bona fide effort to resolve the disputed matter with all dispatch.
(F) If the findings reached at the aforesaid hearing are adverse to the customer, said decision shall be reduced to writing, with a copy thereof to be forwarded to said customer by first class mail. Said decision shall also contain the date on which utility service to the customer in question will be discontinued.
(Ord. 487, passed 10-1-2007)