TO: Honorable Mayor & Members of the North Port Commission
FROM: Jonathan R. Lewis, ICMA-CM, City Manager
TITLE: Termination of Memorandum of Understanding Between Charlotte County Utilities and City of North Port for Utilities Payment Check Processing.
Recommended Action
Approval for Mayor to sign letter notifying Board of Charlotte County Commissioners of termination of Memorandum of Understanding Between Charlotte County Utilities and City of North Port for Utilities Payment Check Processing.
Background Information
On September 13, 2010, the Memorandum of Understanding between Charlotte County Utilities (CCU) and City of North Port for Utilities Payment Check Processing was entered into and CCU began processing the City's utilities lockbox payments. Prior to this time, the City's payments were being mailed to SunTrust's lock box in North Carolina, which was extremely unpopular with the North Port Utilities (NPU) customers. At that time, the City was not prepared to process these payments onsite and since the economy had not yet recovered, CCU also benefitted from the relationship as it helped offset their processing costs. While complaints have decreased from NPU customers, mailing payments to anywhere except the City of North Port remains unpopular with NPU customers who continue to mail their payments. NPU has coordinated a plan with the IT Department and are now prepared to have an in-house lockbox processing system ready to begin processing payments on October 1, 2017. CCU is also amenable to terminating this temporary contract. The Memorandum of Understanding requires at least a 180-day notice to CCU to cancel the contract.
The budgeted amount for CCU to process our payments is $14,300 for FY16/17, which is an ongoing annual cost, with built-in escalation of 5% per year. The quote received to purchase our own equipment indicates a one-time cost of approximately $15,500 and annual maintenance of approximately $3,000. Strictly looking at ...
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