Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

City's Utility Dept. Writes off $322,630 Over 10-Year Period

From 1990-1999 a total of 909 utility accounts were written off by the city of Prescott for a total of $322,630.

This averages out to just over 90 customers and an average of $32,263 annually being written off.

Larry Stockton, office manager at city hall, said these accounts are never actually taken off the city's books. But, he added, three times a year the inactive accounts are transferred from the city's accounts receivable to another file where the balance is kept.

Carl Dalrymple, the city's accountant, said he has no idea what the city's criteria is for writing accounts off, but the auditors write accounts off based on time between payments made.

These accounts, he said, are written off at the end of the year after the city has finished its budget.

According to Dalrymple, much of the $73,117 written off in 1998 was done by the auditors and was the hospital account. According to figures released two weeks ago, the defunct Nevada County Hospital owes over $147,000.

"The auditors have written off the hospital," Dalrymple said, "but we don't take it off our books nor does the city."

The auditors look at the length of time the accounts have been on the books with no payment being made when they do their write offs, he said.

Dalrymple said his office has no specific information about the accounts and is not furnished with a list of which accounts have been written off. This, he said, is the council's job.

Looking at the annual amounts written off shows $14,939 from 1990. This jumped to $32,012 in 1991, but dropped to $14,530 in 1992.

There were $24,203 written off in 1993 and $18,500 taken off in 1994. The 1995 figure was $22,495, with this jumping to $35,766 in 1996

The numbers for 1997 showed write offs of $40,412, with 1998 having the biggest write off at $73,117. This dropped to $46,656 in 1999. The city council approved a change in the budget at its regular meeting in December to change the write-offs to $30,000.

City officials provided part of the information requested by the Nevada County Picayune last week.

Records which indicate the dollar amounts against the account number were not released, nor were the names associated with those accounts.

City attorney Glenn Vasser has sought an attorney general's opinion on behalf of the city. This opinion is believed to ask whether the names can be released and, if they can, will the city be free from any potential lawsuit filed by those accounts which might have the names published.

It could take up to three months for an opinion to be released by Attorney General Mark Pryor's office, depending on the current work load.