Council asks mayor to consider rebate for city’s electric utility customers

By JIM BROOKS
Nelson County Gazette

Councilman Bobby Simpson discusses how construction projects are budgeted Tuesday night at the council’s work session.

Tuesday, June 4, 2013 — Members of the Bardstown City Council asked Mayor Bill Sheckles to consider issuing rebates to the city’s electric utility customers in much the same manner that non-profit utility Salt River Electric returns money to its members.

Councilman Tommy Reed brought the topic to the floor at the end of the council’s monthly work session Tuesday. Councilman Joe Buckman was absent from the meeting.

Councilman Tommy Reed listens to Mike Abell answer a question during the council’s work session Tuesday night.

Reed noted that the additional revenue brought in by the occupational tax changes in 2011 reduced the need for the city to use its utility profits to pay for general fund items like street repairs, recreation, police and fire protection.

“Last week I raised the question of electric rebates back to our customers since we are in pretty good shape,” Reed said. He noted that the council’s 2011 occupational tax changes increased revenue that helps fund the general fund.

“If there’s concensus on the council, have mike figure up what $25 per electric customer at Christmas time would cost as a rebate.”

Councilman John Royalty looks over budget documents during a discussion of the funding for a line item.

Councilman John Royalty said he believed any rebate should be offered to those who have been customers long enough to qualify for the rebate.

“What would you do about those customer who isn’t here anymore?” Mike Abell asked. “What do you do about the customer who pays $8,000 a month versus the one who pays $50?”

Sheckles suggested that Abell do some research on the rebate idea in order to see what might be possible.

COUNCIL REVIEWS PROPOSED BUDGET. The council spent nearly two hours Tuesday night going over the individual line items in the city’s proposed 2013-14 $42.5 million budget, and questioning a number of proposed expenditures.

Councilmen Francis Lydian and John Royalty talk about a budget issue during the council’s Tuesday’s work session.

Councilman Francis Lydian challenged the funding for the Historic Review Board director’s position and suggested the funding be reduced to reflect the fact the director’s job is part-time.

While the council voted to hire a part-time person, Sheckles said he felt it was important to have funding available for a full-time position. Sheckles said reducing the funding would be “short-sighted” because it would send a message that might not be as committed to historic preservation as it once was.

“We are who we are, we do what we do, we’ve gotten what we’ve gotten because we’ve done what we’ve done,” Sheckles said of the city’s funding for the director’s position. “It would be short-sighted to go backward, and we would be shooting ourselves in the foot.”

While no action was taken, the council voiced support for lowering the city’s contribution to $30,000, which would be combined with additional grant money.

WHERE DOES THE MONEY GO IF YOU DON’T SPEND IT? Several members of the council questioned what happens to money that is budgeted if it goes unspent? Mike Abell, the city’s chief financial officer, explained that budgeted funds that are unspent at the end of the budget year — June 30 — go back into fund reserves.

“The money doesn’t carry over,’ he explained, and is available for allocations for the next year’s budget.

Mayor Bill Sheckles defending greater funding for the HRB administrator position during Tuesday’s workng session of the Bardstown City Council

Councilman Bobby Simpson questioned why some utility projects kept showing up in the yearly budget process. Larry Hamilton, the city’s director of public works and engineering, explained that projects are often budgeted with knowledge that they may not be completed within a single budget year. “We hardly ever spend 100 percent of our budget,” he said of the utility funds.

Hamilton cited projects that require the engineering and planning services of outside companies, who may have other commitments before they can start to work on the city’s project. Money that goes unspent is reallocated the following budget cycle.

Funds are never taken from one budgeted item and spent on something else without council approval, Hamilton explained. “To do that would be dishonest,” he said.

The council also discussed the budget for the city’s transition to digital, and the purchase of the unused digital boxes from the City of Frankfort. Selected “nodes” on the cable TV system are undergoing the conversion, Hamilton said, and only those users who have analog TVs will need converter boxes.

During an appearance on WBRT’s “Brooks & Company” program Tuesday, Sheckles said the plan is to complete the transition to all digital channels by the end of this year.

UP NEXT. The Bardstown City Council will meet in regular session 7 p.m. Tuesday, June 11 in the Council Chambers in the City Hall annex.

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