City staff to audit solar-credit contracts after consultant recommends periodic checks

City Manager (speaker identified in the transcript as the meeting’s lead speaker) told the Finance Committee that staff will pull reports from the city’s solar-credit providers and compare contracted projections with actual credits, following advice from a consultant identified in discussion as “Woody.”

"He actually said he recommends doing that about every five years anyway," the City Manager said, describing Woody as a lead consultant who handled the RFP process and has worked with other municipalities. The manager added that initial documents suggest the city may have been getting a better rate than market increases and noted an estimated potential savings of about $180,000 per year versus market prices.

The city plans to request yearly-credit reports from providers and perform spot checks of utility bills to confirm that credits recorded by providers match credits applied on Versant utility invoices. A finance office staff member said Versant invoices that show $0 have been retained online but paper copies were discarded, and matching provider invoices to Versant bills would be labor intensive.

The manager said the consultant’s work will be paid from professional services and quoted a consultant hourly rate of $340. The manager also said staff will send an initial request letter for contract records and — only if providers fail to produce required reports — may follow with legal demand letters.

Why it matters: solar-credit accounting affects the city’s utility expenses and the accuracy of budget projections. Staff said the review is intended to reconcile projected credits in contracts with actual credits received and to ensure the city is not under- or over-credited in its accounts.

What’s next: staff will gather provider reports, run spot checks against utility bills, and present findings to the committee; no formal vote or ordinance change was recorded in the transcript.