The City of Hoquiam is looking for a way to keep department funds balanced through a change to the equipment rental and reserve funds ordinance. The city council on Monday decided it needed more time to research the proposed changes.
The ordinance, if passed, would allow the city to transfer money from the equipment rental fund (which pays the city mechanic as per state mandate) or reserve fund (where departments set money aside for future vehicle purchases) back to the department fund from where the money originated.
“The idea was that if you’re losing money in operations, but you’re saving for a new vehicle, that maybe the more appropriate use of those funds are in operations,” Finance Director Mike Folkers said. While the change wasn’t contested in theory or practice, what the fund pays for and the timeline of the ordinance were issues for the council.
“Do we really need a mechanic anymore … with everything going to computerized engines and everything else, it might be smarter for us to look in a different direction,” Councilman Paul McMillan said.
The city could transfer its mechanic into another city department and then take vehicles to professional mechanics throughout Hoquiam and Aberdeen, Folkers said on Tuesday. Due to the variety of vehicles and needs between departments, the city is unlikely to establish a contract with a particular business.
McMillan moved to postpone the ordinance until the Dec. 22 meeting.
“Then we’ll have some more time to think about what direction we really want to go,” he said. “As Mike explained it to us we’re just learning about this. It’s a very important move because it is a very big fund.”
The motion to postpone was unanimously approved.
Currently, if a department uses the equipment rental or reserve funds to set aside money for future repairs or purchases, the money remains in the fund until it’s spent for the designated purpose.
With the changes, money set aside from a department fund can remain in the equipment rental fund until repairs or purchases are made, or until it’s transferred back into the department fund where it originated, if the council deems necessary. No other department funds could receive the reserved money.
An example of necessity would be if the ambulance fund is operating at a loss. The fund technically is not, because the money set aside for repairs or a vehicle purchase never was used. The city would like to balance that fund with its own money.
“We wanted the ability to go back to an operating department that had transferred the money with the council’s approval,” Folkers said. “Only back to the department the money came from and only with the council’s approval.”
Folkers said it wouldn’t be common practice if the ordinance is changed.
“We don’t anticipate this coming up ever,” he said. “It may come up at the end of the year in our ambulance fund.”
Most of the changes to the ordinance were updates to outdated information. “We’ve been trying to research ways to fix our equipment rental fund for a quite a while,” Folkers said. “It’s operated at or near a loss for a couple of years, so we went back and looked at what was in the code and it’s extremely outdated.
“It’s from 1984 — these changes essentially update it to what we do today.”
Other business
• A final public hearing for the completion of construction of the East Side Fire Station received no public comments.
The Fire Department plans to move into the new building by Jan. 1, Fire Chief Paul Dean said.
• The Quigg Building (1508 Riverside) was added to the Hoquiam Register of Historic Places.
• The consent agenda, including approval of the completion of the culvert project built by Schermer Construction, unanimously was approved. “We have seen salmon in these culverts beyond where they have been seen in the past, so they have been successful,” City Administrator Brian Shay said. Additional culvert projects are planned.
• Three University of Washington students presented a “rails to trails” proposal to the council. The trail, either a pedestrian recreational trail or mixed-use pedestrian and bicycle trail, would begin at the old rail trestle and allow for foot or bike traffic along the river where the rail tracks used to run.
• Mayor Jack Durney advised the council that the Dec. 22 meeting potentially could be canceled if nothing pertinent and timely is on the agenda.
Council members were told to assume the meeting will take place as scheduled.
If the meeting is canceled, the city will notify the public via its website, on Facebook and through the media, including The Daily World.
No comments:
Post a Comment