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PUD 3 tackles delinquent accounts

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In trying economic times, it can be easy to fall behind on car or credit card payment, and some people simply walk away from their power bill, said Annette Creekpaum, finance manager for PUD 3.

"We try to explain to people ... there are lots of low income programs, and we try to work with all that... but they'll also say: 'Well I have to pay my cable bill because I want to watch my TV,'" she said.

Mason County PUD 3 commission members voted to send $70,283 of delinquent accounts to a debt collection agency at their regular meeting on Tuesday, July 28.

"Technically they are never written off; they are still always a debt," Creekpaum said.

PUD customer service representatives often work to help ratepayers make their monthly payments, Creekpaum said. However, in some cases, people move out of the district, leaving large', unpaid bills behind.

In these cases, customer service reps call former customers to organize a repayment schedule or to move old balances to their new public utility account. However, some customers still refuse to pay off their delinquent accounts.

"These are all people who didn't make payment arrangements who just pretty well ignored the situation," Creekpaum said.

During the PUD 3 commission meeting, Commissioner Bruce Jorgenson asked if this was an unusually high number.

In the meeting, Creekpaum said that the amount of delinquent accounts this year is higher than last year.

In 2008, PUD 3 sent $115,000 of delinquent accounts to collection agencies, but in 2009, only sent accounts amounting to $53,000 to collections.

That difference, however, is actually fairly artificial, Creekpaum said.

"We were really trying to use the year of 2009 to get our customers caught up, because it was a tough year," she said.

During 2009, PUD 3 purposefully sent fewer delinquent accounts to collection agencies, and spent more time trying to work with customers to clear old accounts. They also worked out very flexible payment plans, in some cases allowing monthly payments on delinquent accounts as low as $5 per month.

This batch of accounts that are "written off' or sent to collections includes many of those accounts from 2009.

"When they quit making payments, we really don't have any more choices," Creekpaum said.

While PUD 3 may be recouping their losses on those 2009 accounts a little later than they planned, Creekpaum said that very few delinquent accounts are ever truly written off.

"We don't even approach one percent," she said.

PUD 3 will not likely have collection practices as lenient as those in 2009 again, Creekpaum said.

"I think we always try to balance what works out for our whole region and what's good for the PUD financially, so it's a really fine line," she said.

"At some point you have to get it cleaned up."

Sending delinquent accounts to debt collection agencies also helps save PUD 3 and its rate-payers money, Creekpaum said.

"It has saved us an FTE (Full Time Employee), I think normally you'd have an FTE do this," she said.



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© 2010 Shelton-Mason County Journal Shelton, Washington. All Rights Reserved. This content, including derivations, may not be stored or distributed in any manner, disseminated, published, broadcast, rewritten or reproduced without express, written consent from DAS.

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