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University Park council approves ordinance to boost water and sewer capital funding
Summary
The City Council approved Ordinance No. 205-568 to transfer funds into the water and sewer capital project fund to sustain the city's "mile-per-year" sewer and water replacement program. Finance staff said the program was underfunded by about $2 million annually and outlined a phased approach using transfers and short-term reserves.
University Park ' The City Council on April 1 approved Ordinance No. 205-568 authorizing transfers to the water and sewer capital project fund to shore up the city's ongoing "mile-per-year" sewer and water replacement program.
Tom Tabarczyk, the city's director of finance, told the council the city currently transfers about $4 million a year from operating funds into the utility capital fund but the mile-per-year program costs roughly $6.5 million a year. "We were about $2,000,000 chronically short," Tabarczyk said.
Tabarczyk said the ordinance authorizes a $1 million transfer from both the general fund and the water and sewer operating fund into the water and sewer capital project fund, for a combined increase of $2 million this year. To avoid a large one-time hit to operating funds, staff proposed a four-year phase-in that uses a mix of incremental transfers and planned fund-balance transfers. Tabarczyk described the short-term reserve drawdown this way: "On a long term basis, no. But it will require a transfer of reserves for about 3 years. Dollars 750,000 in fund balance or reserves the first year, dollars 500 the second year, dollars 250 the third year, for a total of a million and a half coming out of both the general fund and the water and sewer fund." (Tom Tabarczyk, director of finance.)
Councilmember Philip Philbin moved approval of the ordinance; Councilmember Bob Myers seconded. The motion passed on a unanimous vote: Melissa Grama, Philip Philbin, Mark Aldridge, Bob Myers and Mayor Tommy Stewart voted aye.
Council members and staff emphasized that the increased transfers keep the mile-per-year replacement program financially viable but do not provide funding for additional projects in the same fund. Tabarczyk told the council that any projects beyond the mile-per-year program would require separate financing or additional transfers.
The ordinance was presented after review by the City's Finance Advisory Committee and the Capital Projects Review Committee, which staff said had identified the capital projects and the funding shortfall earlier this year. No public comment was made on the item during the meeting.
The council did not specify an exact schedule for the phased increases beyond the three-year reserve draw described by Tabarczyk; staff said the phase-in would be implemented over four years and would limit the immediate impact on operating budgets.
