City of Fernie screw-up

[cs86]

So the City of Fernie underestimated the sewer/water/garbage bill for some 250 residents whom pay their utilities for the whole year up-front, by ONE CENT each. So, being the wise ones they are, they sent out a bill for ONE CENT for all 250 residents by MAIL (at 54 cents for postage each), not to mention the paper and envelope costs and the labor to handle all of this, in order to obtain $2.50. And to top it all off, when people go to pay it, they tell them the reciept is in the mail!! ANOTHER cost. I estimate this total cost for supplies, labor, postage etc. to be over $500 in order to obtain $2.50. I also heard that someone went to City Hall with $2.50 to pay for everyone’s bill and the City refused it, saying he couldn’t pay everyone’s bills. I think the city should be held accountable for this. Any thoughts?

[greg]

Ridiculous.

I think it may be worse than that even, as I received two seperate invoices for my 4th quarter utility bill telling me I owe nothing as I pay yearly. One bill to tell me I owe nothing is bad enough, but a duplicate as well?

I wonder how many people received these?

[cs86]

It’s great to know that our tax money is going toward needless postage, labour and stationary – hundreds maybe thousands of dollars.

[cs86]

This issue was brought up at city council Nov 9. You can watch at the link http://fernietv.com/channel1/council.09.11.09.html and from 3:15 to 13min Mr. Smith talks about this issue. The city seemed to beat around the bush, not admit that money was wasted, and not make any suggestion for resolution.

[rudy-admin]

City of Fernie provides explanation for 1 cent utility bills.

In October 2009, the City of Fernie mailed out the fourth quarter utility statements to all property owners in the City. Due to a computer software error the 190 property owners that had prepaid their annual utility bills by the end of February in order to receive the 5% discount were mailed a statement that indicated that they had 1 cent owing.

The City of Fernie sends out 2,666 utility statements in January of each year to all property owners. Those that pay their accounts for the full year by the end of February receive the 5% discount and are then not sent second and third quarter statements but are sent a fourth quarter statement that usually shows the account paid in full for their records. The mailing of 1 cent bills did not in any way increase the cost to the City as a statement would have been mailed if the balance was $0.00 in any event.

On October 23 City staff became aware of this error and adjustments were made to those 190 utility accounts to bring their balances to $0.00. This problem was discussed with the City’s financial software provider and it was determined to be caused by a rounding error when calculating the discount in the program. That program will be repaired and to save money in the future the City will discontinue mailing fourth quarter statements that show a $0.00 balance.

The City of Fernie apologizes for this error and any inconvenience it may have caused.

[Author]

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