Columbia’s city council to hear from CPOA tonight; council to vote on bilingual utility bills

By Zimmer Communications
columbia city hall
de'carlon 02 2023 horiz web (002)
Columbia city manager De’Carlon Seewood (2023 file photo courtesy of city spokeswoman Sydney Olsen)

Columbia’s city council will hear testimony Monday evening from the Columbia Police Officers Association (CPOA) regarding police pensions.

CPOA general counsel Donald Weaver will call on the council to commit to a five-year plan aimed at what he calls rescuing the police pension fund. Mr. Weaver will address the council at the start of tonight’s meeting. It’s not an action item, so there will be no council votes on the issue tonight.

The council is set to vote tonight on a bill to integrate bilingual utility bill prints into the utility billing software. The Utility department would like to provide customers with the option of having their utility bills available in Spanish, rather than English, upon request. The city says it’s worked with a language interpretation service to translate all utility bills and notices.

City manager De’Carlon Seewood has written a two-page report to the council, recommending that they approve an agreement that would authorize N. Harris Computer Corporation to integrate the bilingual utility bill prints and notices into the utility billing software. Columbia’s strategic plan has included an objective to improve community engagement to include all identities, languages and needs. Mr. Seewood’s report says the cost will not exceed $25,500 and will take two months to finish. Funding will come from the electric utility operating budget.

Tonight’s meeting  begins at 7 at city hall.