A large group of concerned citizens were in attendance at the Spruce Grove City Council meeting last night Monday October 26th. They were there to support a delegation headed by Jacquie Victoor and Barry Twynam regarding utility billing. They would like to see Council repeal the Municipal Utility Services Bylaw Amendment(C-702-09) and implement measures to reduce collection costs and eliminate bad debt.

It seems that there are a lot of tenants renting property in Spruce Grove who do not pay their City water, sewer, and garbage bills and then skip town. The City claims that the amount totals $10,000 plus 600 man hours to deal with collecting and shutting water off totalling around $22,000.00.

The City wanting to improve and streamline business practices not to mention cut their losses came up with Bylaw C-702-09 which was passed back in March. This bylaw puts the utility account in the name of the property owner rather than the tenant’s making the property owner responsible for collecting and paying the tenants utility bill. This way if the utility bill comes in to arrears the City will add it to the property tax.

To get the full and far more in depth understanding of this issue please watch the video below which is a good representation of the delegations report to council last night. But to summarize, the delegation is disappointed by the lack of research by the City Administration regarding alternative options even though council had previously been directed by council to do so. The delegation presented council with 5 possible options.

• Require a substantial deposit for all new tenants.
• Implement a one time, non-refundable administrative fee for new tenant accounts
• Require tenants to sign a Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy release form allowing the city to disclose information to the property owner if the tenant goes into arrears
• Complete a feasibility study for updating software to include an additional monthly fee on a tenant’s bill as a long term solution
• Failing the recommendation of this report, amend the bylaw implementation date to allow time for a committee to be formed of concerned stakeholders.

The delegation spoke first at the meeting and the information they brought forward was accepted as information by council. (Please watch the video below)

Under the Business Items portion of the meeting Utility Billing was addressed first by administration and then council. The City Administration stated last night during the business items portion of the meeting that their stand on the issue has not changed.

When it came time for the Council to speak to the issue the three Aldermen who voted against the bylaw back in March spoke first. Alderman Randy Palivoda spoke first giving us some background on the issue but was concerned that any one segment of the population be forced to bare the burden of bad debt.

Alderman Wayne Rothe was second to speak stating essentially that the city is in the utility business and should collect it’s own bills. (Please note that I say essentially, since I have no recording of the proceedings to verify exactly what was said).

Alderman Glenn Jensen spoke next agreeing with both Palivoda and Rothe.

The remaining three Aldermen and Mayor Houston who voted for the bylaw back in March all spoke to the topic by essentially back peddling from their initial vote saying that they have received so much information that they would like more time to consider the issue before making a decision.

Rothe was also concerned that January 1st was coming up fast and that Council should consider acting soon.

Alderman Acker wanted to propose a motion at the meeting that would suspend the bylaw but was redirected by Mayor Houston’s thinking that they had plenty of time to do so.

Houston reiterated that all this was an effort by the city to streamline the business process and that they were trying to do the right thing.

I have to agree with Alderman Rothe. If you are in business doing anything you need to collect your own bills. Don’t pass it on just because you can.

This will result in landlords just passing the buck on to renters, increasing rents by whatever they see fit having no choice but to cover their costs. Some landlords may even see it as an opportunity to add more to their bottom line. In the end, the renter is ultimately responsible for paying the bill but the City has eliminated their cost of bill collecting. The City calls that streamlining the business process.

After listening to all sides on this I have to say that the fault mostly lies with the City Administration and not the Council so much, as it appears Administration did not do their due diligence and research but took the easy way out and passed the buck to the property owners, just because the Alberta Municipal Government Act allows them to do so.

Again the MGA raises it outdated head. So maybe we should be taking this issue to the Provincial government as well and open up the MGA and bring it up to date for our times and give our local governments a more consistent direction.

Even though I am disappointed in how the City administration handled this issue I am encouraged by the fact that citizens can make a difference if they pay attention and then participate. The meeting last night is an example where local citizens paid attention then took some action and now City Council is reconsidering their actions. Whether or not the City will rescind the bylaw is another matter, but seeing citizens participating in democracy is encouraging indeed.

I have created a forum for further discussion on this topic here.