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Finance committee reviews March finances, vehicle funding options and fee changes; approves transfers and vehicle purchases
Summary
The finance committee reviewed the March financial report, discussed scenarios for leasing versus purchasing fleet vehicles and fire trucks, considered several fee changes, and approved multiple motions including a $342,000 transfer to Berkeley County, two vehicle purchase orders and several vehicle surplus requests.
Finance Director Rhonda presented the March financial report and outlined capital and fee proposals during the finance committee meeting.
Rhonda said the town had completed about 75% of the fiscal year: "For the month, we collected $2.7 million in revenue; year to date revenue was $31,000,000," and she reported year-to-date expenses of $37,000,000. She told the committee that year-to-date expenses exceeded revenues by just over $3,000,000 and that business-license receipts and other seasonal revenues were expected to boost the remaining months.
The committee spent substantial time on fleet funding options. Rhonda presented scenarios using a $2 million transfer from fund balance plus expected surpluses and vehicle-sale proceeds to seed a capital fund. Under one lease scenario, leasing 20 police cars in the first year would cost about $524,000; under a purchase scenario the first-year outlay for 20 cars would be about $1.8 million. Rhonda noted a municipal lease interest rate estimate around 4.5% compared with higher commercial rates. Chief Wright cautioned that a seven-year replacement cycle for police vehicles may be optimistic given recent losses and crashes and urged consideration of shorter replacement intervals.
Committee members also discussed fee changes proposed with the budget. Parks and recreation fee proposals included in-house adult-league fees of $50 for residents and $70 for nonresidents, third-party adult-league team fees of $300, a weekend full-facility rental rate of $2,000 for the Rollins Edwards Community Center with a 50% weekday discount, tournament and court reservation fees (including a $15 per hour per court charge), barricade rental at $30 each and Park Impact Day at $200. Building-permitting staff proposed increasing the reinspection fee from $50 to $150 for the second visit, citing comparators in Dorchester, Berkeley and Goose Creek. Finance staff recommended pursuing a lower-cost credit-card processor and noted the town processed roughly $260,000'$270,000 last year in card payments.
The committee also received operational updates: staff and the mayor will conduct construction manager at-risk interviews for the public safety complex; staff reiterated the schedule for the April 22 budget workshop and said the goal remains to reach first reading in May and a public hearing in June.
Votes at a glance
- Transfer to Berkeley County: Motion to transfer $342,000 in town road funds to Berkeley County for engineering, right-of-way acquisition and permitting on the Cedar Street extension project ' Approved by voice vote.
- Wade Ford purchase order: Approve purchase order $67,918.04 to Wade Ford for one 2023 Ford Expedition with emergency equipment and upfitting (funded from 2024 vehicle insurance disbursements) ' Approved by voice vote.
- Cooper Motor Company purchase order: Approve purchase order $227,456 to Cooper Motor Company for five 2023 Dodge Chargers with emergency equipment and upfitting (funded from 2024 vehicle insurance disbursements) ' Approved by voice vote.
- Police surplus vehicles: Approve surplus of multiple police vehicles (list provided in packet) ' Approved by voice vote.
- Parks and recreation surplus vehicle: Approve surplus of a 2008 Dodge Durango (114,023 miles) ' Approved by voice vote.
Committee members emphasized that several of these purchases are funded from vehicle-insurance disbursements rather than the general fund and that fleet decisions will be part of budget discussions at the retreat.
