Gallup writes off $219,000 in utility bills

A City of Gallup Collection Field Representative hops a fence to access the electric meter at a residence on Stagecoach Road on Thursday afternoon. Recently the city has been collecting past due amounts on utility bills at a rate higher than the national average. — © 2008 Gallup Independent / Brian Leddy

Copyright © 2008
Gallup Independent
By Independent staff

GALLUP — The city of Gallup cuts off about 70 overdue utility customers weekly and recently wrote off $219,492.24 in delinquent accounts. The write off of the 845 accounts, including defunct businesses such as Kmart and Kentucky Fried Chicken, represented 0.81 percent of the city’s utility sales income, which is well under the industry average, according to the American Public Power Association.

The city has to follow state regulations that don’t allow the city to cut off customers with certain medical conditions.

City Clerk Alfred Abeita said during an interview in August he couldn’t comment on specific accounts, but he said there have been cases where a family with an energy inefficient lifestyle or water leak has run up enormously high bills. But because they have a medical note from a doctor, the city cannot cut off their power.

“We try to do what we can do to collect on those accounts,” Abeita said.

In some cases, the city makes an error. Abeita said there are various causes for this, but it’s not common.

“The errors for overcharging ... have come down quite a bit,” he said.

Still, many people move away or businesses close, leaving taxpayers to foot the bill. A complete list of utility customer write offs can be found on pages 8 and 9 inside today.