DEFINANCE LEGISLATION COULD HELP THOSE WITH OVERDUE UTILITY BILLS

Defi­ance City Coun­cil is con­sid­er­ing leg­is­la­tion that would assist finan­cially dis­tressed per­sons aided by local char­i­ties to pay their util­ity bills.

An ordi­nance con­cern­ing deferred pay­ment plans on util­ity bills is sched­uled for a first read­ing by coun­cil tonight.

The pro­posed ordi­nance would give the util­i­ties billing office direc­tor lim­ited author­ity to waive late pay­ment penal­ties and re-connection charges and to estab­lish interest-free deferred pay­ment plans.

In such cases, char­i­ties such as RAVENS and the Soci­ety of St. Vin­cent DePaul would pay the delin­quent customer’s util­ity bill. The city would then waive the 10 per­cent late fee as well as the $20 recon­nec­tion fee.