FIN 2019-06-10 Item 2A - Discussion - Transfer of Surface Water Billing to King County

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City of Tukwila Allan Ekberg, Mayor INFORMATIONAL MEMORANDUM TO: Finance Committee FROM: Vicky Carlsen, Finance Director BY: Richard Takechi, Fiscal Coordinator CC: Mayor Ekberg DATE: June 10, 2019 SUBJECT: Update to the Storm and Surface Water Billings Transfer to King County ISSUE Update on the transition of the Storm and Surface Water billing and collection processes from the City to King County effective January 1, 2019. BACKGROUND The City and King County entered into an Interagency Agreement "For Surface Water Management Fee Collection and Remittance Related Services" which was signed by the Mayor on December 13, 2018. Prior to the transition to the County, the City had over 5,000 surface water accounts which were billed in January and July. Past due notices were also processed and sent twice a year to the customers and/or their paying agent. A monthly late charge was assessed to delinquent accounts, and if still unpaid, a lien was filed against the property. Finance would process all the surface water payments, which would have been made via mail, online, over the phone, drop box, or over the counter. Finance would also receive contact from the customers or interested third parties. The customers would call to discuss what the bill was for, status of the account, updates to their account, or complaints about the bill itself. Escrow companies would contact the City for final payoff amounts. The transition to King County was intended to alleviate time and cost to the Finance Department by reducing the number of cashiering transactions and phone calls. Other departments would benefit as well by a reduction in inquiries and complaints related to surface water. DISCUSSION King County was provided with the customer/billing rate file from the City and used that data to include the surface water charges on annual property tax statements. Before the file was given to the County, a thorough review of accounts was done to ensure that the parcel data matched the County data and that only accounts the County would assume billing responsibilities for were included. The final file was sent to King County and it was successfully integrated into their billing system. The file excluded City owned properties, condominium complexes, and State-owned highways. These were billed directly by the City. Notification was sent via postcard to all the customers explaining the transition. Despite the mailings, the City still received numerous phone calls from customers inquiring about when they would receive their bill. There were more of these types of calls in the first quarter than expected, but they have since significantly tapered off. Overall, questions and complaints about surface water have been negligible. As the year progresses, we will have the ability to assess any reduction in workloads due to the transition.