Finance and Administrative Services annually, and as part of the fiscal year closeout, compiles a list of bad debt accounts to be presented to the City Commission as the write-off of bad debt requires Commission approval.
The bad debt write off list amounts to a total of $75,780.52 for Fiscal Year 2021-2022. This list consists, mostly, of utility accounts for which staff has tried to collect through a series of collection letters. This amount equates to less than one third of one percent of the budgeted gross revenue for electric, water, waste water, solid waste, and mosquito services. The last entity on this list finalized bankruptcy proceedings in September of 2021.
Last fiscal year, the City wrote off $20,125.66. Upon approval of this write off amount, these accounts will be listed in our bad debt listing. Staff continuously checks the bad debt listing prior to rendering new utility services in an effort to recover previously written off amounts.