Times Observer photo by Josh Cotton Warren City Councilwoman Wendy McCain attacks the city’s sewer collection provider during Monday’s council meeting.

A discussion about an increase to the fee for delinquent sewer accounts spurred a broader discussion about billing practice during this week’s Warren City Council meeting.

City Manager Mike Holtz said that the Pennsylvania Municipal Service Company handled the collection of sewer and recycling fees for the city and is asking for the increase, which would only hit the bill of customers who are delinquent.

He said the last increase here was in January 2020.

“We’ve been very successful with the solicitor and the city doing payment plans and litigation,” PAMS President Richard Lear told council.

He said that 80 to 85 percent of sewer bills across the municipalities they serve are paid on time.

“With respect to the City of Warren, it changes from time to time,” he said, but is “in that category.”

Lear told the council that PAMS has collected $21 million for the city in the last 13 years.

What portion of that is delinquency collections wasn’t clear. Holtz speculated that the total is “a couple hundreds thousand per year.”

“The reason this is important,” Councilwoman Wendy McCain said, is that the city “can take somebody’s home” for failure to pay. “So this is a big deal.”

She then went after how long it takes for her own payment to clear, explaining that her payment is late every month.

“It takes eight days to clear the bank,” she alleged. “I looked at every one of my other bills, they pay the next day. I’m really concerned with that causing people to be late…. I just know we have people, we have people struggling and if I can’t even pay my bill on time…. I have to pay it a month in advance so I don’t get a late charge.”

There was discussion regarding whether the issue was with PAMS or McCain’s bank.

McCain was also critical of all of the fees that can wrack up when someone’s account becomes delinquent.

“We process the mail that comes in each and every day,” Lear said, adding that electronic deposits clear in one day. “In addition, customers have the opportunity to go paperless and get accounts online” and pay online or through their bank.

“We give additional time for postmarked mail to come in so those payments are marked on time.”

Holtz said that sewer payment used to be an in-house operation for the city before it was shifted to the water company and then PAMS.

“Before PAMS got involved, there were hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars” in arrears, City Solicitor Andrea Stapleford said, which was a “detriment to people who do pay on time. That all changed when PAMS got involved. If this process is circumvented or replaced, the concern would be we would go back to that. All that’s going to do is create more of a hardship for the masses, not for the few who have trouble paying their bills.”

“I have several apartment buildings in town and get eight sewer bills a month,” Kevin Sheldon told council members. “Anytime I get a new tenant, they change the number. It’s a predatory company that’s trying to drive up the fees, drive up the costs.”

He asked that the collection process return to the city.

Council ultimately approved the proposal from PAMS in a 4-1 vote with McCain in opposition.