Utility customers may have online option

CELINA - City officials plan to offer utility customers the ability to view and pay their bills online.

The proposal, which councilman Fred LeJeune calls progress in the digital age, could also save the city thousands of dollars in credit card fees that would have been paid to the company providing the service.

City council members on Monday night unanimously approved first reading of an ordinance authorizing city auditor Betty Strawn to enter into a three-year agreement with Payment Service Network to provide electronic payment and billing services for utilities, engineering fees and park and recreation fees.

Under the agreement, the city would pay PSN about $1,100 annually. Once the process is set up, customers could access the third-party site through the city's website and view their bills for free or make a payment - for a slight fee.

Utility customers choosing the online method would be charged a fee of 2.75 percent for bills of $100 and more. For bills less than $100, users would be charged 2.75 percent, plus 50 cents, according to Strawn.

"Again, it's an option. Not everybody has to do it," mayor Jeff Hazel said about the online payment method.

The convenience fees would go to PSN, not the city, Strawn stressed.

"The city of Celina receives no fee benefit from this. That's important, I think, for your citizens to understand," Strawn said.

Hazel and some council members believe the fee won't be prohibitive, noting that many people, especially those in the younger generation, are accustomed to paying fees for online transactions.

"You go to an ATM machine, they get you there. It's kind of no different to me," councilman Jeff Larmore said. "It will be more convenient for the customer, for the ones that do pay in the middle of the night or want to pay their bills online."

"All the (billing) options will remain in place," Hazel said. "People are going to have different ways to pay their bills. We're trying to make it such a way that no one has an excuse of saying, 'I didn't know.' "

Customers using this method won't have to worry about the vagaries of the U.S. Postal Service delivery services, which can result in delayed delivery of bills, Hazel said.

"Our hope is that sometime in the future that customers like this service that maybe we can even start to go paperless with sending out utility bills," Strawn said.

Contracting with PSN could also save the city thousands of dollars in credit card processing fees.

Strawn said the city pays between $1,500 and $1,800 a month in those fees.

Once customers begin paying their utility bills online, those fees would start to go away.

"And honestly, the people that are paying the convenience fee then will be the people that are having the convenience," Strawn said. "Today when you have $1,500 a month (in credit card fees), all of us are paying for that."

"I think this is extremely efficient," councilman June Scott said about the proposal. "I think it's cost-efficient as well for the city, and I have no objections to any of this."