Taxpayers shoulder unpaid utility debts

By Kevin Killough
Staff writer

GALLUP — In the past four years, Gallup Joint Utilities failed to collect on $684,596 in bills, according to delinquent account list provided by the city. After four years, the city writes off the accounts they have been unable to collect on. Ultimately, taxpayers are shouldered with those bills.

Currently, there are 5,245 delinquent accounts on the list.
“We try to stay active on the delinquencies,” Alfred Abeita, Gallup city clerk said.

The city does cut off many of its nonpaying customers. Only about half of the delinquent accounts remain active and are currently receiving services from the city. But it can be a long road from the time an account becomes overdue until service is finally terminated. Even though the city can be generous in how long it allows an account to go unpaid, Abeita says has heard complaints from more than one customer who has lost service after failing to pay their bill.

“The customers still get angry with us,” he says.

Officially, the city’s policy is to send a notice of termination after 61 days of nonpayment and cut service four days later. This is after two notices. But that will only happen if the customer makes no attempt whatsoever to contact the city or pay any amount of their bill.

“We try to work with them,” Abeita said. “We understand that there are different circumstances and try to fairly assess what they can pay.”

Abeita says the city will usually try to get the customer to pay half the delinquent bill and then commit to a payment plan in which they keep up with their current amount while paying off the delinquent amount. If the customer and city agree on a payment plan and the customer later defaults on the agreement, the entire 65-day process must start over again. This results in accounts going unpaid for months.

Part of the problem may be that there is no hard, fast rule as to exactly how much the city requires the customer to pay to maintain service.

“We try to get them to pay something,” Abeita said.

That may be the most accurate way to describe the city’s current collection policy. In some cases, the city is bound by federal and state laws, which prevent service from being terminated in situations that might result in serious health problems or death. The city also has its own regulations for such cases.

“We have to be compassionate, but we also have to be firm,” Brenda Romero, deputy city clerk of Gallup said.

In the past week, because of the cold weather, the city is not taking action on accounts that are in termination status.

“Right now, we wouldn’t proceed with our cut offs,” Abeita said.

While the city would reasonably avoid taking action against someone who could be greatly harmed by a shut-off, the worst offenders are nonresidential customers. Half of the top 25 delinquent accounts that are still active are nonmedical businesses and government entities.

Among those are the King Dragon Restaurant, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and the Red Rock Laundromat, which owe a combined $52,115 as of Dec. 28. That figure does not include their current bills. All of them have account delinquencies ranging from 90 to 120 days or more.

None of the three returned calls seeking comment.

The city is aware of the problem, and according to city attorney Dave Pederson, it is currently looking for ways to deal with it.

“That is an issue that we’ve discussed. We want to have a policy that will address the problem but be fair about it,” Pederson said.

He says he is currently looking into the delinquencies and talking with the city’s utility employees to determine the best way to proceed, especially when it comes to government and businesses that are not paying their utility bills.

“We need to look into these non-residential customers who continually do not pay on time and look at what can be done,” he said.

He said that the city might have to look at cutting off service to those business and government offices that frequently pass on paying their utility bill.

“I don’t think we want to do that willy-nilly, but this is just not a good way to run a utility business,” he said.