5.4 EMRUSR 11-12-2024��i
Elk River
Municipal Utilities UTILITIES COMMISSION MEETING
TO:
FROM:
ERMU Commission
Melissa Karpinski — Finance Manager
MEETING DATE:
AGENDA ITEM NUMBER:
November 12, 2024
5.04
SUBJECT:
2024 Third Quarter Delinquent Items
ACTION REQUESTED:
Approve the 2024 third quarter delinquent items submitted.
BACKGROUND:
Third quarter delinquent items are presented for your review. We have previously reported on
four different categories of delinquents as follows:
• Assessments are delays in collecting the money owed and are assessed to the
property taxes in the fall. Please note this number will only be presented in the fourth
quarter.
• Collections amounts are those we send to the collection agency to try and collect
after we have exhausted all our internal collection efforts. We receive 70% of
amounts collected after the agency receives their split.
• Revenue Recapture (RR) is the program through the state where funds are collected
from individuals' tax refunds and remitted to us, with the balance (if any) remitted
to the individual. It presents an opportunity to collect funds rather than splitting
with a collection agency or having to write them off completely. There is a six -year
limit for keeping items on RR and if uncollected at this time, amounts are removed
and written off.
• Write Offs are amounts removed from the books with no further collection efforts
being extended.
DISCUSSION:
I have for review recap comparisons with last year, identifying the categories and amounts for
each quarter and the running totals. Regarding the third quarter totals:
• The amounts listed for assessments culminate in the fourth quarter and include items
previously submitted to other collection services, and if not collected, are removed and
assessed. The assessment amount for 2024 is $0.00 as there has been no activity yet for
this year.
The amounts submitted only to Collection Agencies for 2024 is $0.00. (Please note that
amounts submitted to Revenue Recapture were also submitted to Collection Agencies.)
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The amounts submitted to Revenue Recapture were more than the prior year. The Q3
2024 RR amount is $8,444.30. We have collected a total of $1,322.98 from RR in Q3
2024.
Write Offs for Q3 2024 of $6,495.34 which is more than the prior year. The biggest
impact to Write Offs is from the removal of old account balances due to a six -year limit
mandated by the state. We have had to remove, and write off, a total of $6,300.89 in Q3
2024 due to the statute of limitations. The remaining write-offs were due to a deceased
customer balance of $99.20 and small balances of $95.25.
The attached report listing shows those dollars submitted to both the Collection Agency and RR.
The third quarter totals are $8,444.30. To break these totals down by provider, it is $7,828.08
for Electric, $614.82 for Franchise Fees, and $1.40 for Storm Water.
Our allowance for doubtful accounts (a reserve for bad debt/write-offs) is $25,605 or .05%
uncollectible accounts per revenue dollar. According to the American Public Power
Association's most recent published standard ratios (2021) the industry standard is between
.15% and 1.49%. Interestingly, the Northern/Central Plains average is .15%. Our totals for the
year are below the national average, at .04%.
ATTACHMENTS:
• 2024 Third Quarter Delinquent Items Comparison
• 2024 Third Quarter Delinquent Items Submitted
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