During her monthly departmental report at the Marion City Council meeting Monday, July 20, City Clerk Laura Williams Hinton announced the city’s intent to terminate service to non-paying municipal water customers.
“People who haven’t paid their water bills are going to get cut off,” Hinton said, adding that an announcement would be made on the city’s Facebook page in the following days. “It’s time-out for all this kind of craziness.” She said continued nonpayment is stalling updates and maintenance to the city’s water infrastructure.
Councilwoman Ann Lecroy asked when the city intends to start terminating service. “Probably by Thursday or Friday they’re going to be cut off,” Hinton replied, adding that the city tries not to terminate service on Fridays so customers can pay during City Hall’s business hours. Hinton said the notice would include information on installment payment options for those with outstanding balances.
City Attorney Ainka Sanders Jackson asked Hinton to clarify whether the city was sending termination notices to individual customers or simply announcing that nonpaying customers would be cut off this week.
“If they are being cut off, does the bill say, like, ‘Disconnect Notice if not paid by this time?'” Jackson asked.
Hinton said the bills state that payments must be made by the 15th of each month and show the amount due after that deadline. “What I’m going to do is put a notice out on social media,” she said. “That’s just a courtesy. People know their bills are due. I know my bills are due by the 15th, the bill says that.”
Councilman Stanley Kennie asked about the grace period for delinquent accounts. Hinton said the city allows 60 days between the last payment and the current billing cycle.
“As long as you’ve paid us something within a period of 60 days, we do not cut you off.”
Customers past that period are due to have service terminated, she said. Responding to a further question from Lecroy, Hinton said reconnection requires a fee plus payment of roughly 60 to 70 percent of the outstanding balance.
Some balances run high, she said: “We’ve seen them as high as two to three thousand dollars. We’ve seen them as high as six thousand dollars.”
The standard bill from the Marion Water and Sewer System states in bold letters, “AFTER 15TH $10 Late Charge.” It contains no disconnect notice, termination warning, or any mention of the 60-day grace period Hinton described.
Neither Hinton nor the council discussed how termination notice would reach customers who are not on social media or who do not see the city’s Facebook page, and no individual written notice was discussed beyond the standard bill language.
The adequacy of that notice is not merely a courtesy question. In Memphis Light, Gas & Water Division v. Craft, the U.S. Supreme Court held in 1978 that customers of a municipally owned utility have a constitutionally protected interest in continued service, and that due process requires individual notice of a pending termination and an opportunity to dispute the bill before the water is shut off.
By comparison, investor-owned water utilities regulated by the Alabama Public Service Commission are required to give customers at least five days’ written notice headed “Disconnect Notice” or similar, delivered to the customer, the premises, or by mail. Marion’s city-operated system is not subject to the commission’s rules, leaving the city’s own procedures, and the Constitution’s baseline, as the governing standards.
As of press time, the most recent post on the City of Marion’s Facebook page announced Monday’s council meeting, with photographs of the agenda items.
