Agenda - 12-07-2020; 4-a - OWASA Update on Unpaid Bills

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3 Customer Assistance for OWASA Bills November 17, 2020 Page 2 monitoring our finances, as well as the County's declaration of a State of Emergency, to inform our decision making on when to resume standard collection practices. Under OWASA's standard collection practices, customers are eligible for disconnection after the due date of the second, concurrent missed payment. When OWASA resumes standard collection practices, the calendar will re-start for customer payments. In other words, the earliest that a service would be disconnected for non-payment would be two months after resuming standard collection practices. Moreover, we will provide at least 30 days' notice from our decision to resume standard collection practices to the time at which they will begin. This pacing will provide customers time to establish a payment plan and/or identify outside funding for bill assistance if needed. Extent of Past Due Accounts and Customer Communication As of the date of this memo, there are 927 accounts that are past due on their OWASA bill. This is more than twice as many than were past due on March 12, 2020. Collectively, the total past due to OWASA is over$280,000. There currently are 526 households that are more than 60 days past due. The average amount past due for these households is $259. Under standard collection practices, these households would be eligible for service disconnection. Throughout the year, OWASA has maintained regular communications with our past-due customers via email, mail, and phone calls. We have let them know the amount of their past due bills, where to find utility bill assistance, and what to expect in terms of OWASA's resumption of standard collection practices. OWASA's Available Means to Assist OWASA is utilizing all means available to assist our customers. In acknowledgement of the significant financial impact of the COVID-19 crisis on our community, the OWASA Board of Directors approved a budget for Fiscal Year 2021 that did not increase rates for the services we provide. Prior to the crisis, OWASA staff projected that a 5% increase would be needed to continue to support OWASA's employee compensation program and to support our long-term program to renew and replace aging infrastructure. Eliminating compensation adjustments for our employees and deferring investments in our community's utility infrastructure is not a sustainable solution, but it was important to the Board and our community to mitigate any additional financial stress on our customers. The decision to postpone any rate increase presents significant financial challenges for OWASA. With the dramatic decrease of activity at UNC-Chapel Hill, which typically makes up about one- third of our water demands, OWASA's revenues have been about 12%below normal since April 2020. When budgeting for the year, we planned for reduced demand in the first six months of the