Minneapolis City Council — Transcript
Monday, November 2, 2026
Consent Agenda Approval
2026 Property Tax Special Assessment of Delinquent Utility Charges
Votes (2)
Consent and Receive and File Items
Moved by Len Palmisano [0:01:50]
Comprised of four items: authorizing master contracts for workplace investigation services, a contract amendment with DRRI consulting for management assessment services, a legal settlement for a workers' comp claim, and referring the police department vehicle purchases ordinance to staff. Approved without discussion.
2026 Property Tax Special Assessment of Delinquent Utility Charges
Moved by Len Palmisano [0:30:17]
The discussion centered on the significant increase in delinquent utility charges, totaling $12 million, compared to $3 million in 2022. Speakers explored the financial impact on city cash flow and enterprise funds, the city's current communication methods (emails, calls, letters), and options for adding administrative fees. Council members expressed concern about residents not receiving notifications and suggested exploring more aggressive communication campaigns or policy changes regarding late fees and payment arrangements.
Notable Quotes (6)
So, what you have in before you is the annual property tax um assessment um action to move delinquent utility billing um statements over to Henipin County for collections as part of the property tax um bill.
I would say it's primarily a cash flow impact. So, we are collecting these dollars, but on about a year lag.
Our annual delinquency was around $3 million per year of uncollected as recently as 2022. So, um, that's a huge increase in a short amount of time.
I can assure you that 99.9% of these customers that you see on the list, they've never contacted our office to deal with their water bill.
almost every person I called their uh credit card had expired and so like it was just like a thing where they don't really pay attention to Minneapolis utility billing because they've had a card on file for years.
perhaps something we can look at as a department is whether we can do some sort of comm's push annually to get people to look for that email address if it's going to their spam folder.
Ordinances & Resolutions (4)
An ordinance referred to staff for review, approved as part of the consent agenda.
The annual list of properties with delinquent utility charges to be assessed for property tax collection.
A document packet Council Member Vita received, likely containing information about delinquent accounts.
Refers to the city's standing rules regarding late fees (5%), admin fees, and who is responsible for utility bills in rented single-family homes vs. multi-unit dwellings.