5.2 EMRUSR 02-11-2025��i
Elk River
Municipal Utilities UTILITIES COMMISSION MEETING
TO:
FROM:
ERMU Commission
Melissa Karpinski — Finance Manager
MEETING DATE:
AGENDA ITEM NUMBER:
February 11, 2025
5.2
SUBJECT:
2024 Fourth Quarter Delinquent Items
ACTION REQUESTED:
Approve the 2024 Fourth quarter delinquent items submitted.
BACKGROUND:
Fourth 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 is 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:
Presented for review are comparisons with last year, identifying the categories and amounts for
each quarter and the running totals. Regarding the year end 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 $15,379.59. This is higher than average
compared to the last few years.
• The amounts submitted only to Collection Agencies for 2024 is $0. (Please note that
amounts submitted to Revenue Recapture were also submitted to Collection Agencies.)
• The amounts submitted to Revenue Recapture were less than the prior year. The 2024
RR amount is $26,110.42. We have collected a total of $13,703.58 from RR in 2024.
Page 1 of 2
m
Write -Offs for 2024 of $16,058.50 which is less than the prior year. The biggest impact
to the Write -Offs is due to the removal of items from the RR program due to a six -year
limit mandated by the state. We have had to remove, and write off, a total of
$15,199.60 due to six -year statute of limitation in 2024.
The attached report listing shows those dollars submitted to both the Collection Agency and RR.
The fourth quarter totals are $9,691.36. To break these totals down by provider, it is $8,696.54
for Electric, $595.44 for Franchise Fees, $207.92 for Sewer, $85.09 for Trash, $77.02 for Water,
and $29.35 for Storm Water.
The amount for fourth quarter Write -Offs is $2,498.27 which includes: amounts removed from
RR meeting the six -year limit with the state program of $1,958.69, other of $228.58, bankruptcy
of $204.68, deceased of $57.83, and small balances of $48.49.
Our allowance for doubtful accounts (a reserve for bad debt/write-offs) is $25,605 or 0.05%
uncollectible accounts per revenue dollar. According to the American Public Power
Association's most recent published standard ratios (2021), the industry standard is between
0.15% and 1.49%. Interestingly, the Northern/Central Plains average is 0.15%. Our totals for the
year are below the national average, at 0.03%.
ATTACHMENTS:
• 2024 Fourth Quarter Delinquent Items Comparison
• 2024 Fourth Quarter Delinquent Items Submitted
Page 2 of 2