About 13% of Apex’s 30,883 utilities customers owe money to the town, Apex leaders heard in a work session this week, and on average, residential customers owe about $1,100 apiece.
The work session took place seven weeks after the town’s July 1 deadline for resuming collection of late fees and disconnection of services for nonpayment, after a 2024 cyberattack impacted the town’s billing system, resulting in higher-than-normal bills for thousands of customers.
The town must legally pursue all outstanding payments, but it is committed to treating utilities customers fairly and consistently and balancing service continuity with collections, Deputy Town Manager Shawn Purvis explained to the council members at Tuesday’s meeting.
“This really is what we’re focused on. … It’s about making sure that we’re understanding our customers’ needs, working with them best we can, and still fulfilling our responsibility to the town,” Purvis said.
To help customers get current on their bills, the town is offering payment plans to all residents and businesses who owe money on their accounts; 498 residential accounts and 10 commercial accounts are already using payment plans, according to Apex Finance Director Jon Griffin, accounting for a balance of $1,263,755.
Of the 3,670 residential and 375 commercial accounts with past due balances which are not on payment plans, the total owed comes to $4,717,600.
Griffin said the town foresees a number of challenges in collecting the money owed, and staff acknowledged that the town is unlikely to recoup all of it, though they didn’t provide an estimate of how much could be lost.
Some accounts have accumulated large past due balances—the largest sums owed are $19,647 for a residential account and $38,169 for a commercial account—and some accounts have not been paid since July 2024, when the cyberattack occurred. Customers on payment plans could struggle to put monthly payments toward their debt while concurrently paying monthly utilities bills. If customers don’t pay for current usage, they are at risk of disconnection, a prospect that worries some council members as extreme temperatures make cooling during the summer months a necessity.
“I spoke with the town manager about the story in Rocky Mount,” said Councilmember Shane Reese. “Correlation doesn’t equal causation, but it’s a tragic story of three people who passed away because they had been disconnected by the town.”
Residents who can’t make payments on a monthly payment plan could qualify for the town’s Utility Customer Assistance Program based on their income. The nonprofit NeighborUp partners with the town to provide financial assistance to residents, and other state, county, and nonprofit programs are available to help customers pay.
Finally, the town is looking at ways to update its 1995 customer service policy to improve efficiency in its service delivery, responsiveness, and collections operations. Some staff-recommended changes include allowing payment plans to continue for longer than 12 months, updating a policy that restricts disconnections during extreme weather, and adding flexibility to review customers’ compliance before assessing fees or disconnecting services.
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