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Nothing should sidetrack the Altoona Water Authority from entering into a contract with a King of Prussia law firm involving collection of large unpaid bills in arrears for more than 90 days.
Based on information in reporter William Kibler's Dec. 26 front-page Mirror article, the law firm being considered for the pact is an expert in producing good results for its client agencies.
According to the Altoona Area School District, the law firm -- Portnoff Law Associates -- has provided satisfactory service to the district regarding delinquent taxes.
The water authority would prefer not having to resort to such a collection option. It generally has good rapport with residential, business and landlord customers.
However, it is reasonable to conclude that the water agency's delinquency total for the accounts in question -- currently about $250,000 -- would increase if nothing were done to gain control over this troubling situation.
Perhaps having someone like Portnoff working on its behalf will not only help the authority recoup overdue money more quickly, but also help prevent future arrears covering extended time periods.
Actually, the authority is being generous and sympathetic toward its customers with overdue bills by its plan for a 90-day period of understanding. But the authority cannot be sympathetic and generous indefinitely. Good faith must enter the picture, by delinquent customers agreeing to a reasonable repayment plan and meeting their obligations to such plans faithfully -- without fail.
That is what they will have to do when they are resolving their overdue bills if Portnoff is overseeing the collection.
The difference is that when Portnoff is involved there will be additional fees that an overdue customer could have avoided if that customer would have exhibited responsibility by dealing directly and reasonably with the authority.
No one should expect fair and correct bills to "go away" because of one's outright refusal or temporary inability to keep up to date with payments.
According to the Dec. 26 Mirror article, the authority says there currently are 66 customers delinquent by $1,000 or more, adding up to the approximately $250,000 mentioned above. Authority records indicate that most of those customers are landlords with multiple tenants.
The largest delinquency is nearly $100,000, according to Mark Perry, authority general manager.
Regarding multiple-tenant landlords, the authority is handcuffed in terms of forcing payment by way of service shut-offs, because of the innocent tenants who would be unjustly affected.
If the authority had no options for pursuing overdue bills, customers who pay their bills faithfully and on time would have to foot the bill eventually for a larger share of authority operations by way of higher water rates.
Portnoff is a reasonable alternative to that unacceptable option.
Quoting from the Dec. 26 article, Portnoff "uses an eight-step progression" to obtain payment.
The authority plans to decide next month or in February whether to hire Portnoff.
If there is not a quick, major influx by the delinquent customers to pay up, or at least to reduce the scope of their arrears significantly, the authority should not hesitate to implement what can be referred to as the "Portnoff Option."