Everett council proposes changes to utility billing

Published 1:30 am Tuesday, December 16, 2025

EVERETT — The Everett City Council is set to vote on an ordinance Wednesday that could give utility customers more time to pay their bills before the city charges them late fees.

Currently, Everett law gives individuals 20 days to pay sewage disposal bills and 15 days to pay water bills, although current practice is to allow 21 days for both water and sewer bills, according to a city memo. A few days after the due date, utility customers who still need to pay bills are sent a reminder from the city, along with a $5 fee to recoup the costs of sending it.

Seventeen days after the due date, a person who has yet to make the payment would receive a door hanger notifying them of a potential shutoff of service, along with a $52 fee. The earliest an individual could see their service cut off is 40 days after receiving a bill, although it often takes longer, Everett Public Works Director Ryan Sass said Wednesday.

The proposed ordinance, put forth by council member Mary Fosse, would give customers 28 days to pay both water and sewer bills. It also puts protections in place for delinquent customers — individuals who have not yet paid their bill after the due date passes — requiring them to remain delinquent for 30 days before the city can shut off water and sewer services.

In an interview, Fosse said a goal of the ordinance is to give more grace to consumers who are facing an affordability crisis, stating she generally gets 30 days to pay other utility bills. She also said the ordinance would make billing more clear, giving the same timeline for water and sewer bills, and that instead of sending a notice with a $5 late fee, the city could simply add the unpaid charges onto the customer’s next bill.

“I think it would make it more efficient for the city,” she said in a Dec. 8 interview. “We’d have to send out less notices to folks, and people would still get the point — and a little bit more grace and time.”

Fosse said she had heard a number of complaints from residents regarding utility billing, particularly in regard to the $5 late fee that arrives with a past due notice.

“It definitely has the shortest length of time on the counter. We see that water bill, we get scared, we open it right up,” Everett resident Michelle Pendergrass said during public comment at Wednesday’s council meeting. “… That $5 late fee, I’ve been hit with it so many times.”

Some city staff have concerns over parts of the proposed ordinance, however. Sass said Wednesday that the purpose of the 21-day timeline is to give staff enough time to receive payments and process the next month’s billing.

“Our concern with shortening that too much past 20 [days] is that we’ll be sending a lot of bills every month for people who paid right at the end or just after the end, and their next bill will show that month’s worth despite the fact they just paid,” Sass said. “The result of that will likely be a lot more work for staff, a lot more complaints.”

Sass said the city has no objection to the clause in the ordinance requiring at least 30 days delinquency before shutting off services.

In decades past, most utility bills would be issued on a bimonthly basis, Sass said Wednesday. Some municipalities still do bill bimonthly, but as utility costs grew, Sass said it was easier for people to pay smaller, monthly bills similar to other household costs rather than larger bimonthly bills.

The amount of time people get to pay their utility bills varies throughout the state. Sass said most utilities on a monthly billing cycle give about 15 to 20 days for customers to make their payments. Customers on a bimonthly cycle get about 18 to 30 days, he said.

Payments to Tacoma Public Utilities, for example, are due 15 days after the bill is mailed. In Seattle and Kent, payments are due within 21 days of the billing date. The Snohomish County Public Utilities District also gives 21 days to make payments. Port Angeles gives 25 days. The Municipal Research and Services Center of Washington, a nonprofit that provides legal advice to local governments in the state, writes that the average time cities give before a customer is considered delinquent is 30 days.

Sass said the initial late notice that comes with the $5 fee is an effective way of notifying customers that they’re behind on their bill, and adding both month’s charges on the next bill would lead to more complaints.

“It gets us talking to them before they’re way behind and before they have a door hanger and a threatening notice to shut off water,” Sass said.

He also said the $5 late fee and the $52 shut off notice fee are put in place to recoup the costs of sending those notices.

“We don’t want to collect late fees,” Sass said. “… It is not a way to build revenue, it’s just the cost of issuing those notices.”

About 10% to 15% of utility bills in Everett go to a $5 late notice every month, Sass said Wednesday. On a typical day, about 30 customers receive a door hanger with a $52 fee, and approximately five people get their water shut off, staff said.

Fosse’s proposed ordinance was a “common sense, minor change to make things a little easier on all of our neighbors,” she said.

“I think you need to be a minimum 30 days late on your bill before you can be threatening to shut off things and put these kinds of charges on there,” she said in an interview. “That’s kind of a minimum, I think, of allowing folks grace to get caught up and contact for payment arrangements, because those are pretty significant charges, especially when you’re trying to live paycheck to paycheck.”

The council is expected to vote on the proposed ordinance at Wednesday’s meeting, the last of 2025.

Residents can pay utility bills online and set up automatic payments at utilitybilling.everettwa.gov. Payments can also be made by mail, over the phone or in person. The city of Everett also has bill assistance programs for individuals with low incomes, senior citizens or people with disabilities. More info: everettwa.gov/2784/Bill-assistance.

Will Geschke: 425-339-3443; william.geschke@heraldnet.com; X: @willgeschke.