Late fees for late-arriving bills is simply wrong

To the Editor,

 

This month, many Mountain View residents were charged late fees on their utility bills — not because we paid late, but because the bills did not reach us until the day before they were due.

 

According to our local post office (65548), the city’s February billing was routed to Kansas City instead of Springfield, which caused a significant delay as the mail made its way back to Mountain View.

Residents did not receive their bills until March 16th, with a due date of March 17th. That left exactly one day to receive, open, and pay the bill.

 

I receive my mail at 6–7pm, one of the last stops on the route. Like many others, I paid my bill the very next day — as I have done faithfully for more than 20 years — and was still charged a late fee.

When I questioned this, the city did not acknowledge any error on their part.

 

Instead, I was told that because the bills were “sent,” the responsibility was mine. I was even told it was my fault for not noticing that my bill hadn’t arrived and that I should have taken “proactive steps” on my own. This, despite the fact that the city has communicated with me exclusively by U.S. Mail for more than two decades.

 

Meanwhile, city employees — who also received their bills on the 16th —were able to pay immediately and avoid penalties. They knew the bills were delayed because residents had already begun calling to ask where their bills were. That inside knowledge allowed them to protect themselves from late fees that the rest of us could not avoid.

 

The city posted on Facebook that bills would be late and encouraged people to come in and pay without a bill. But many residents — including seniors, veterans, and long‑time citizens like myself — do not use Facebook. For many of us, the US. Mail is our only means of communication with the city. A simple postcard explaining the issue and granting a reasonable grace period would have solved the problem.

Instead, residents were penalized for a delay we did not cause, could not have known about, and had no way to prevent.

 

A late fee charged under these circumstances is not a fee for late payment.

 

It is a fee created by a breakdown in communication and a refusal to acknowledge the impact on residents. It penalizes the very people who rely on the city to communicate clearly and fairly.

 

Mountain View deserves better. We deserve a city government that treats all residents equally, communicates responsibly, and takes ownership when something goes wrong. Leaving these late fees in place is not responsible governance — it is simply wrong.

 

I encourage every resident who was affected by this situation to contact their elected representatives — your East and West Ward council members, the Mayor Charry McCann, the interim city manager Trish Kruse, both of which can be contacted by calling MV City Hall at 417.934.2601 and the full city council — and make your concerns known.

 

When a policy harms the community, silence only guarantees that it will happen again.

 

And finally, please remember that Election Day is Tuesday, April 7th. Your vote is your voice, and it is one of the most direct ways to shape how our city is run. (Please confirm election dates and polling information with an official local source.)

 

Sincerely,

Tom Leftwich, Very Disappointed with MV

Mountain View, MO

 

Publisher's note: please see this page (click here) for polling locations and sample ballots.