Howard Hall questioned Dowagiac City Council Monday night about software that enables citizens on the city Web site to click on utility records and, for $1, “I can see when you made your payments, if you’ve ever been late, if you got a disconnect notice or a warning letter. All of that.”

“It’s absolutely absurd to put that kind of information out there for anyone to look at,” Hall said. “Let’s say you’re a woman and your ex-husband wants to find you. I looked at 50 municipalities today that use this software and just one other city in Michigan offers the utility look-up, and all they show is usage — how many kilowatt hours you use. Not your payment history. I agree it’s a good thing for landlords to have to protect their investment to see if tenants paid bills.”

“I called Niles and said I was going to drive down and get the usage of one of their customers. They said, ‘Who?’ And I said, ‘I’ll look one up in the phone book when I get there.’

“The City of Niles won’t let you have it unless the customer signs a release form to give that information out,” Hall said.

“What public service are you providing the residents of Dowagiac by allowing them to look up their neighbors, their friends and enemies, their pastors and by giving out that information?

“All the city is doing is allowing people to do little credit checks for a dollar. No other city I talked to allows that to happen unless the customer gives written consent. I understand the city may need money, but there’s better ways to get it than by giving up people’s personal information a dollar at a time.”

City Attorney Mark Westrate was absent.

City Manager Kevin Anderson, noting that Dowagiac does not receive the $1 charges, said, “When we looked at this program, it has been used prevalently throughout the state. There are 88 communities besides our own that have the utility history out there online. We looked at Novi, Birmingham and Howell. We spoke to people in each of those communities and they have been very happy and satisfied with the system, though there may be some adjustments we want to make.

“The records, according to our attorney, are public records. I contacted the software company today after speaking with Mr. Hall about his concerns, but I don’t have any answers yet of what could be done.

“The goals we were trying to establish was giving utility customers the opportunity to access their accounts and to pay 24/7, 365 days a year. This accomplishes that goal.

“The other thing that we were looking at when we were putting this in place was the very serious discussions we were in with landlords and hearing some of their concerns about access to tenants’ accounts, but we’re taking a look at concerns.”

“I’m not in support of customers’ records being readily available to arbitrary people,” First Ward Councilwoman Lori Hunt said. “Kevin’s got a call in to the company. Give us a chance to fix it.”

Hunt said the software was obtained because it allows for online bill paying.

“There’s obviously a glitch,” she said. “It’s gonna be taken care of.”

Hall also asked how to apply for the housing incentive program.

Anderson said $10,000 is allocated annually which is awarded based on the type of work to be done to your residence.

“The full $10,000 has been spent each and every year this has been in existence,” the city manager said. “I analyzed it and found that it is pretty evenly distributed between the three wards.” Applications are reviewed quarterly.

Building Official James Bradford apprises citizens of the program who come to his office for building permits and Anderson reports on it in his weekly letter to the council which the Daily News publishes.