ZELIENOPLE — Major concerns from landlords have the borough council looking for alternatives to a proposed ordinance that would have put the responsibility of renters’ delinquent electric and water bills on the shoulders of the property owners and managers.

A crowd of property owners and managers filled the council chambers Monday night to voice their displeasures over the proposal that would have eliminated deposits for water and electric service to individual renters in exchange for a co-signed utility agreement from the landlord and their renters to be both responsible for delinquents water and electric bills.

The proposed ordinance is patterned after a similar one in Grove City.

Council president Charles Underwood said that the borough looked at Grove City and thought “man this looks nice, let’s pass this on to the landlords.”

Underwood said the borough staff and council will look at the issue again and hopefully come back with a solution that will make them happy.

Councilman Russ Robertson was ready to table the ordinance rather than to rush to put something in place. He added that if there was indeed a problem with collecting delinquencies, he wanted it better defined with facts and figures.

Councilman Allen Bayer said the loss of less than .5 percent in revenues per year to delinquencies on a $6 million to $7 million budget was negligible, and he was concerned about where the proposed ordinance was heading for property owners.

The other council members also agreed they need to look at the issue again.

Borough manager Don Pepe explained the council told the staff to come up with a solution to losing revenues to renters who skipped on their delinquent utility bills.

The proposed ordinance was a potential solution, and increasing deposits for electric and water service is another.

Pepe believes the utility service security deposits for renters must be adjusted. But, he added, the council needs to do something to solve the problem of lost revenues.

“We feel the whole ordinance is a bad idea. It is creating problems for us,” Tom Murray, owner of the Murray Agency, one of the borough’s largest apartment renters, told council Monday night.

“You’re in the business of water and electric. It’s more your responsibility to collect bills than us.”

Murray said in addition to paperwork issues, he believed the ordinance would lead to more delinquencies because renters would know that the landlords would be responsible for their late bills.

And, landlords, he said, wouldn’t even know until after 90 days that their renter’s utility bills had become delinquent.

Sandy Cox of Brennan Rentals, which manages the Timberbrook community, said she would like to see the security deposits by the borough rise from $20 to maybe $75 to $100.

Shane Bagby, who manages the Woodland apartments, said the proposed ordinance would have been “a financial hardship” on the business.

“You left us landlords hanging out to dry,” said landlord Tony Cooper, who added that the notice of 90 days delinquent was too long of a time of notice to run up on utility bills.

Pat Murray of the Murray Agency said the proposed ordinance would give future renters the green light to skip out on their utility bills.

“We don’t want to see you lose money, but we don’t want to lose money. You need to work with us,” he said.

Rather than adopting a new ordinance, Murray suggested the borough look at its collection and shut-off policies. He suggested possibly reducing delinquencies from 90 to 30 days and setting a 10-day shut-off period.

He also suggested raising security deposits for service from the current $20 to deposits comparable to other communities. Cranberry Township charges $200 deposit for water service, $75 in Slippery Rock and $100 in Ellwood City, according to Murray.