Officials split over fee

In about three months, Portales residents will be able pay their utility bills online, but the decision to attach a $2 convenience fee with that service left Portales City councilors in deadlock, twice.

City councilors stuck to their guns Tuesday night at their bi-monthly city council meeting, with three voting for and three voting against a suggested $2 convenience fee for credit card users to pay their bills online.

City Manager Tom Howell said offering this service to customers would cause an expense to the city's utility funds but the city would be able to offset the cost by establishing this fee.

"We're offering this service but it's not a convenience," said City Councilor Oscar Robinson, one of the councilors who opposed the suggested fee.

Robinson moved to not approve a $2 fee, which then resulted in a split vote with councilors Matt Hunton and Keith Thomas joining him in his opposition.

The council introduced a second motion to approve the $2 fee, still leaving the council split and ultimately causing Mayor Sharon King to vote in favor of the fee and breaking the tie.

Councilor Leo Lovett said he would be for creating a public awareness campaign to educate customers how to avoid incurring a fee, such as setting up an automatic service that would draft the amount of the bill from their bank account.

Councilors who voted in favor of the $2 fee — Lovett, Ronald Jackson and Dianne Parker — said if the fee were to not be instated, all utility customers, regardless of method of payment, would have to foot the bill to offset that cost.

"If it's a service for our community, I don't think they should have to pay for the service," Thomas said.

But Jackson said paying bills online is the way of the future.

"It is absolutely a convenience for them to pay that online," Jackson said.

Howell added that providing this service can help the parents of college students who may not live in this area to pay their utility bills.

"The idea is to help people use the system to keep them from walking in the door," Lovett said. "If we do not approve the fee, we are allowing people to subsidize other people to use this convenience."

Howell said they will start testing the service in about a month. According to Howell, about 500 to 600 people currently use credit cards to pay their utility bills.