A. The Colleton County solid waste director shall deny any customer, who is thirty-days in arrears in their account balance with the county, access to the facilities at the Colleton County transfer station and landfill for the purposes of depositing waste, except as provided for elsewhere in this ordinance or by court order.

B. Access to the landfill/transfer station facilities will be reinstated to customers when all outstanding charges and late fees are paid in full.

C. The solid waste director may approve payment schedules for customers after seeking formal written approval from the county administrator and/or county finance director.

D. The solid waste division of the county is instructed to charge late fees to the total account balance outstanding for thirty-days or longer at the time of the monthly billing cycle to all residential and commercial customers. County council must approve any exceptions to this policy in writing via resolution.

E. All adjustments to customer accounts must be documented in detail and approved in writing by the solid waste director; all documentation must be maintained in the customer files.

F. Use of the services of private collection agencies is authorized as necessary for the collection of past due customer accounts.

G. Civil action is authorized against a delinquent customer to recover all amounts due. If it is necessary for Colleton County to employ legal counsel for the purpose of instituting such civil action, the costs, which may arise in enforcing its rights of collection under this chapter, including reasonable attorney’s fees, may be recovered by the county. The fee must be determined by the court in which the action is brought.

H. The Colleton County solid waste director is responsible for reporting past due customer accounts, balances, and action taken to collect outstanding customer balances to the county administrator by the 15th of every month.

I. The Colleton County solid waste director is responsible for making annual recommendations to the county administrator and county finance director by June 15th each fiscal year regarding possible write-off of past due customer accounts deemed to be uncollectible.

J. The county administrator will provide annually to county council for approval a listing of the solid waste director’s recommended customer account write-offs for the solid waste enterprise fund. (Ord. 02-O-26 § 2, 2003)