SS Numbers Track Those Who Owe

•October 21, 2015•

By Mike Brothers

For years the city of Sullivan’s collections for unpaid utilities were an iffy process; so the city council is trying Local Debt Recovery through the Illinois Comptroller’s office.

The intergovernmental agreement was approved unanimously by city council at the Monday, October 12 meeting.

“As a municipality we can send past utility bills, ordinance violations and even past due parking tickets to Local Debt Recovery, and they take care of collections,” city treasurer Sarah Golden said of the new program.

In the past the city and collection agencies had difficulty locating people after they left Sullivan with no forwarding address. This made the ability to collect past utility bills limited to those folks who wanted to live in Sullivan again.

Golden explained that the returning customer would have to pay the past due utility bill to get service again. With 20 or more utility shut offs per month it didn’t take long for a back log to exist in collections.

A collection agency also charged the city 33% of the due bill, reducing the amount again. Golden said Local Debt Recovery charges a fee, but it is to the person who owes the delinquent bill.     Login or Subscribe to read the rest of this story.