City to refund some utility deposits

The City of Sisters will refund utility deposits to people with a consistent record of timely payment.

It's a move designed to help people in difficult economic times.

The City of Sisters Municipal Code requires a customer to establish credit upon connection to city utility services. Currently the city holds residential and commercial deposits for approximately 1,200 customers in an amount totaling $141,000. The deposits range from $5 to $200 depending on the start-service date.

The current code requires that these deposits are held until the customer chooses to discontinue service, at which time the deposit is applied towards their final utility bill. Any funds remaining are returned to the customer.

Given the current economic conditions, city staff has reviewed the concept of refunding customer deposits and believes it would be advantageous to citizens to refund deposits to those who have a consistent record of timely payments for a period of 24 consecutive months.

The city council approved the amendment to refund utility deposits under specific guidelines. For the first implementation of the deposit refunds, city staff has reviewed all accounts with a start-service date on or before December 31, 2007.

Approximately 37 percent of the city's utility customers have met the refund requirements, totaling $53,184. The deposit refund will be applied as a credit to the customer's balance, effective March 2010.

City staff will start to inform future customers of the new refund deposit policy, stating: "Your deposit will be refunded as long as you maintain an excellent credit rating for 24 consecutive months after your start-service date. An excellent credit rating means making payments by the 10th of each month. The deposit refunding review process will be completed twice a year; June 1 and December 1 in which your refund will be processed as a credit to be applied to your utility account."

In order to minimize the city's risk of nonpayment, the amendment includes the following: "Those customers who received a refund or submitted a letter of credit in lieu of a deposit may be required to reestablish a deposit if timely payments are not maintained and/or their credit rating falls below excellent."

For more information about the deposit refund policy, e-mail the utility billing staff: Liz Majury at

[email protected] or

Julie Pieper at [email protected]