Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Sanitation Subsidy topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Committee debates whether to apply missed $500,000 sanitation subsidy from general fund
Summary
Staff said the sanitation fund has not received a $500,000 subsidy required by Resolution 22-189. Public Works staff flagged aging trucks and suggested using transfers for capital needs; committee directed staff to prepare a capital-needs list for the utilities budget work session.
Miss Holdren told the Budget and Finance Committee that the sanitation policy (Resolution 22-189) includes a subsidy transfer provision requiring the general fund to transfer $500,000 to the sanitation fund, but that none of those transfers have been completed.
“In that policy, there is a section called subsidy transfer... and it is half a million dollars,” Miss Holdren said. She told the committee the sanitation fund could survive without the transfers but staff were seeking guidance about whether to make the transfers retroactively in the current fiscal year or amend the policy.
Mister Scroggins, a city operations official, told the committee the sanitation division is beginning to experience equipment strain. He said knuckle-boom trucks are aging — “they're all 5 and 6, 7 years old” — and that replacement needs could include one truck costing approximately $260,000 and possibly two replacements over the next few years. He said additional revenues from planned rate adjustments would help fund operations but that capital purchases might be supported by the subsidy transfers.
Committee members debated whether the subsidy policy is a matter for BFAC or for BOMA and sought more detailed capital-need information. Alderman Pomeroy suggested transferring funds “on an as-needed basis based on what public works is requesting,” which staff said would require amending the resolution. Alderman Linville asked for detailed capital estimates before supporting a retroactive transfer.
The committee directed staff to produce a clear list of sanitation capital needs and to include the sanitation fund health and proposed uses of the $500,000 in the utilities budget work session; the item will then be brought to BOMA for a policy decision on whether to amend Resolution 22-189 or to execute transfers.
No formal vote was taken at the BFAC meeting.
