ANAHEIM : City’s Bad Debts Total $2 Million

The city says it cannot collect the $2 million it is owed for utility bills, traffic tickets, paramedic assistance and other city services.

Various city administrators said that every effort has been made to collect the debts, including taking some debtors to court, to no avail. The city wrote off $2.2 million in bad debts last year and $1.7 million in 1991.

The amounts owed range from $1.3 million that electric and water users have not paid to the Public Utility Department to the $122 that a couple owe Anaheim Stadium for damage done to a ticket booth.

City Atty. Jack L. White said that despite the write-off, which was approved by the City Council this week, some of the money may still be collected because real estate liens against the debtors’ properties have been filed.

“So maybe six months or 10 years from now when these people go to buy or sell a piece of property, this lien will appear,” blocking the transaction, White said. “We get many calls from people who are frantically trying to buy or sell some property and they need to clear up a debt with Anaheim before they can do it.”

Darrell L. Ament, the utility department’s assistant general manager, said that because new residential users are required to make deposits when they begin receiving service, he expects the amount the department loses in unpaid bills to drop dramatically this year.

A department report shows that 8,949 customers had their service disconnected in 1992 for non-payment, compared to 3,700 in 1991. It attributed the increase to the city’s rising unemployment rate.

A Fire Department report shows that 2,654 people who used paramedic services in 1992 did not pay their bills, which totaled $506,666. The city charges a fee for paramedic services to anyone who does not pay a $3 monthly paramedic insurance charge. Most of the unpaid paramedic bills are run up by transients who cannot be located and people without health insurance.

A Police Department report shows that 191 people are delinquent in paying tickets totaling $44,920.