VIRGINIA BEACH – The city has created a new committee to scrutinize how it charges residents for utilities and make the bills easier to pay.
The city currently charges for water, trash and sewer services at once, every other month. The bills average $200, and some low-income residents have trouble paying them, city staff have said. Each day, between 750 and 1,000 customers fall behind on their bill, which can result in snowballing fees and ultimately a termination of service.
The City Council discussed the longtime problem in January when a staff policy report was released. This week it created the City Services Bill Affordability Ad Hoc Committee to explore solutions.
“The committee will identify public and private-sector resources, as well as potential changes to the billing process and the calculation of certain fees,” the resolution creating the committee said.
The group will include a chairperson, a financial expert who lives in the city, a person experienced in low-income financial planning, a deputy city manager, as many as three additional residents, and representatives from the city’s Human Rights Commission, the Mayor’s Commission on Aging and a nonprofit.
The creation of the committee comes about five months after the Public Utilities Department suggested in a policy report to the City Council that they switch to a monthly bill.
Each day, between 750 and 1,000 residents become late on the bill, largely because of its irregular size and arrival schedule, according to the staff report. About 225,000 utility customers do not pay their bill within a month of the due date, the report said.
