Fresno City Council claimed $441,187 meant for utility customers who never cashed refund checks
The Fresno City Council voted in November 2020 to claim $441,187.01 that had been sitting in a city account — money that originally belonged to utility customers who overpaid or left deposits uncashed, some as far back as December 2000.
The checks were issued to customers between December 28, 2000, and December 30, 2016. The customers never cashed them. After three years, state law allowed the city to claim the money as its own and move it into operating budgets for water, solid waste, sanitation, and wastewater services.
The resolution, adopted on November 5, 2020, transferred the funds from a holding account into the Department of Public Utilities’ operating funds. Finance Director Michael Lima recommended the move in an October 15, 2020 staff report, citing state law and a city policy adopted in December 2019 that allows the city to claim unclaimed money in the city treasury.
The staff report states the city followed notification procedures outlined in state law before claiming the funds. It does not specify what those notification procedures were or how the city attempted to reach the customers who were owed the money.
The Breakdown
- $441,187.01 in uncashed utility customer refund checks, dated December 28, 2000, through December 30, 2016, were claimed by the city.
- The money was transferred from Utility Sales Clearing Fund 52502 into four Department of Public Utilities operating funds: Water Enterprise Fund 40101, Solid Waste Operating Fund 41001, Community Sanitation Operating Fund 41501, and Wastewater Operating Fund 40501.
- State law allows the city to claim checks older than three years if notification procedures are followed.
- A city policy adopted December 5, 2019, set the framework for claiming unclaimed money in the city treasury.
What This Means for You
If you or a family member overpaid a utility bill or left a deposit uncashed during that 16-year period, that money is now city property — it went into operating budgets for city services, not back to the customers it was owed to. The City Council you elect controls these decisions about what happens to unclaimed funds.
This also means the city has a financial incentive not to work too hard to return money customers are owed. The more customers who don’t cash checks, the more money flows back into city accounts.
What to Watch
The staff report says the city followed state notification procedures, but it doesn’t say what those procedures actually were. Did the city send letters? Make phone calls? Publish notices in a newspaper customers might not read? The quality of that outreach effort determines whether this was a good-faith attempt to return money or a bureaucratic box-checking exercise that let the city keep funds it should have worked harder to return.
Who were these customers, and why didn’t they cash the checks? Nearly half a million dollars across 16 years suggests either a large number of small refunds or a smaller number of significant ones. Were these mostly small amounts customers didn’t bother to deposit, or were there larger checks that got lost, sent to outdated addresses, or issued to customers who had moved or died? The material gives no breakdown.
The resolution was subject to the mayor’s veto. The material doesn’t say whether the mayor exercised that authority. If the mayor signed off without question, that’s worth noting — the decision-maker also vouched for the decision.
If you think you’re owed a utility refund from that period and never received it, or if you did receive a check you never cashed, there’s no indication in this material that the city is still holding that money for you. It’s already been claimed and spent.
