CAIRO — A group of Cairo residents say the city may have incorrectly assessed late fees on municipal utilities bills for decades and should consider recompensating individuals who were incorrectly charged.

Cindy Williams, president of the Grady County branch of the NAACP, told the city council Monday a complaint was brought to the group’s attention that said Cairo had been incorrectly applying a 10 percent late fee 10 days after the bill date instead of the due date for many years prior to late 2018, which was in conflict with the city code of ordinances.

A cutoff date 20 days following the bill date instead of the due date was also in conflict with city code.

In both cases, the amount of days allowed before the penalty and cutoff agreed with the code of ordinances but was incorrectly applied to the bill date instead of the due date.

Williams said she believes individuals who were incorrectly charged should be somehow recompensated, possibly through credits on residents’ bills.

“Because people were unjustly charged I do think some kind of monetary compensation is required whether it’s a bill credit or being able to see how many fees a person has incurred that they shouldn’t have incurred, but of course that would involve a lot of manpower,” Williams said. “Right now, we’re just waiting to see how the council wants to proceed and we’ll work with them to come up with a fair solution.”

Williams said planned to take the issue to the next Grady NAACP meeting Feb. 21 to ask the group as a whole what they thought was a viable solution before returning to the council with suggestions.

“I think (a solution) needs to come from people who have actually incurred the costs,” Williams said. “I want to take it to them and see how they feel and see if we can come up with something fair that they can agree on and at the same time the council can agree on.”

City Manager Chris Addleton met with Williams and Grady NAACP vice president John Monds on Jan. 24 to discuss the issue.

Addleton conducted an investigation into the discrepancies in June 2018 and discovered that when the city’s ordinances were codified by the Municipal Code Corporation in 1984 they may have incorporated a 1975 water and sewer ordinance as a part of the utilities ordinance and confused the language regarding billing and due dates.

An ordinance adopted September 2018 corrected the issue by clarifying the language in the city code.

“From our understanding the old ordinance was in effect from 1975 until September 2018,” Williams said. “Mr. Addleton did state that the ordinance was due to change in 1991 but never became a part of the record.”

Addleton said Mayor Booker Gainor originally brought the issue to his attention in early 2018 and the September ordinance was adopted as a result.

The city currently assesses late fees at 5 p.m. the day after the due date.

The bills municipal utilities customers currently receive state the correct cutoff date of 10 days after the due date.

Municipal utilities customers must pay their bills by the due date or incur a 10 percent late fee. If the bill is not paid in full within 10 days of the due date utilities services may be disconnected.

Addleton said it was unclear if the city could reimburse residents for bills paid decades ago.

“There’s no way we can go back 30 or 50 years,” Addleton said. “We don’t even have records of who paid a 10 percent penalty (that far back).”

The earliest utility bill the city still has is dated July 1990 and shows the late fee and cutoff date incorrectly applied after the bill date, though the back of the bill correctly states the 10 percent penalty will be applied 10 days after the due date.

Council member Jerry Cox encouraged Addleton and city government employees to work on the issue to determine what direction should be taken next.

Williams said the county NAACP was willing to work with the city government to determine a solution and was hopeful a community-wide consensus could be made.

“It is my hope that the council will consider ways to address this issue in fairness,” Williams told the council members. “Whatever the intent, we must operate within the confines of the law. When we don’t, we must be willing to take responsibility and do what is right on behalf of those we serve.”