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Commissioner Brown urges using $37.6 million utility reserve to ease burden on low‑income ratepayers
Summary
At the April 9 Albany Utility Board meeting, Commissioner Diana Brown (speaking as a resident) urged the board to use sizable utility reserves to fund a $5 million, three‑year program and to stop charging or absorb fees that she said penalize vulnerable households; city staff said reserve figures will be confirmed and explained current merchant fee costs.
At the April 9 Albany Utility Board meeting, Commissioner Diana Brown — who spoke as a resident though identified earlier as a commissioner — criticized customer fees and urged the board to use utility reserves to support low‑income and senior households.
Brown said the utility is "facing a poverty" while holding what she described as "over $37,600,000" in reserves and cited what she called "actual revenue" figures in the transcript. She said those funds make it possible to create a "three‑year $5,000,000 investment" and proposed measures including a modest 3% credit‑card upcharge on transactions, a roughly $1,000,000 community initiative, and…
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