If you're among the 77 delinquent refuse bill payers in Hermosa Beach, you might want to pay up before the amount due shows up on your property tax with $49 added to it.
Tuesday night, City Council will hold a public hearing, one of the final steps in a collection process that began at the end of March, said Robin Maynard, secretary to the city manager.
Of the $20,266.73 in uncollected refuse bills, Zeppy's Pizza owes the largest amount at $2,885.74, according to city records. The lowest amount due is $29.92 from a residential customer.
Maynard told Patch some people just prefer to pay the bill when they pay their Los Angeles County property taxes, adding that many of the names on the list are habitually there. She's been handling the city's once-a-year effort to collect for some 15 years.
Residential and commercial customers still on the Tuesday list that's been updated for City Council [the most recent list on the council agenda was prepared June 17] will have a few days to remedy the situation before the county takes over, said Maynard.
The city bills residential customers quarterly and commercial customers monthly, she said. Any account with a delinquent balance as of March 31 appears on a list and letters of notification are mailed to those customers typically in early May. The letter informs its recipients of a public hearing date to appeal the bill and the date the list appears before council.
This year, as in years past, Maynard sat by herself during the public hearing for appeals; no one came in. She did, however, field up to 15 calls, resolving any issues.
The delinquent list usually starts with about 150 customers and eventually goes down, as customers pay, to around 75 when the list is presented on city council's agenda.
She said there can be "good explanations" for why a bill has an outstanding balance; sometimes, a tenant might be receiving the bill and either not paying it or not forwarding it to the property owner for payment.
When the amount due shows up on a property tax bill, it's a line item that must be paid to the county, which then pays the city, which then disperses what's owed to the city's refuse provider, she said.
"Every property [in the city] has to have trash service," she said. "You can't turn it off."
City Council meets Tuesday night beginning at 7 p.m. at 1315 Valley Drive. The agenda is posted online here. The public hearing on delinquent refuse bills is set to be heard at 7:30 p.m.
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