Bluff City authorizes contract with American Municipal Services to pursue delinquent accounts

The Bluff City board voted to contract with American Municipal Services (AMS) to pursue delinquent court fines and outstanding utility accounts.

Town Manager Krista Morris and an AMS representative described the vendor’s approach: AMS will perform skip‑tracing and collections and will charge the debtor a collection fee rather than retaining a portion of recovered funds from the town. As AMS explained, "So say we collect on a $100 outstanding bill, we would only get $75 of that and they would keep the 25. With AMS they charge that to the person that they are collecting from...so that person for $100 outstanding bill will pay a $135 and we recoup the full 100." The manager said AMS already provides services to other Tennessee municipalities and that staff will receive an online dashboard report on recoveries and activity.

During the briefing staff said a quick report showed approximately $100,000 in delinquent court fees and roughly $27,000 in unpaid utilities. Board members agreed to include AMS reporting in monthly staff reports and approved the contract by motion and vote.

The contract excludes property taxes (state law prevents collection agencies from collecting local property taxes). Town staff said they will monitor AMS recoveries and present monthly updates to the board.