Nine accounts receivable were recorded as bad debts at council’s Sept. 14 meeting, including the cost of damage to a prison cell at the Salmon Arm RCMP Detachment caused by a local citizen.
City documents say the courts gave the man until June 2014 to reimburse the city the $259.90 owing, but no funds have been forthcoming.
Also heading to bad debts was $650 from a tenant for the January 2015 rent for a city-owned house at 541 Third St. SW. The tenant was asked to leave so the house could become the headquarters for the Salmon Arm Folk Music Society.
Another outstanding receivable of $4,513.22, related to a 1994 issue regarding offsite servicing for phases one and two of Pheasant Heights subdivision, was turned over to bad debts. The city document states the company no longer exists in the corporate registry and has no property listed under its name.
Two accounts receivable related to Clare’s Cove Marina Ltd., one for $35,098.86 and another, which includes other debtors, was for $210,297.66. The two will be forwarded to a collection agency.
Seven of the bad debts totalling $5,807.49 will be funded out of the city’s ‘reserve for doubtful accounts’ and the final two, at $251,204.38, from the ‘special reserve for doubtful accounts.’
“I would like to point out by recording these receivables as bad debts, it in no way makes them less payable, and staff will do anything possible to collect the debt,” chief financial officer Monica Dalziel told council.
Mayor Nancy Cooper commented: “This is just the dollar value, but not the amount of staff time – it would be more than double this.”
Agreed Dalziel: “There would be hundreds of hours.”