During the Danville City Council Public Services Committee Meeting Tuesday evening, Comptroller Ashlyn Massey announced that in May penalties for late payments on utility bills will return. As Massey mentioned, the penalties were suspended during the transition from handling by the Danville Sanitary District to handling by the City of Danville Finance Department.
AUDIO: The city waved penalities from when we took on billing, which was the service period of October, through what will be the service period of April. And so we feel we’ve given it enough time for everyone to get adjusted to the change, including us; and so yes, we feel we’re ready to go back to normal.
Later on, a vote was taken on public comment during City Council meetings. Mayor Rickey Williams, Jr explained that it was no major change to the usual three minute limit, but more of a confirmation, with some other plans for the near future.
AUDIO: Essentially it’s clarifying the rules. It will remain three minutes; we are hoping to put a, kind of little system, like a timer, in place. (This will be) so that people can physically see how much time they have left. And hopefully that will help give everyone an opportunity to have their say before the Council.
The mayor also talked about the change in Danville’s Small Claims Court, which takes place in the City Council Chambers Thursday afternoons. As of May 1st, they’ll be handling Danville cases only; a change that’s been planned for several months.
AUDIO: We had intergovernmental agreements with 19 other municipalities, that we were handling their code violations in our code court. That was about 20 percent of our code enforcement officer, and our legal people spending time on that, that we weren’t addressing issues in the City of Danville. While we always want to help our neighbors, our first and foremost goal is to serve the people of Danville.
It was mentioned that Danville’s Small Claims Court will probably be busy enough on its own, especially when fines concerning the new garbage toter rules start piling up. The toters now need to be moved away from the curb once garbage is collected.
