Despite the warning the city is darn near close to violating state law, Iola city council members refused to ask Iola residents to pay a proposed additional $20 a month on their electric bills or to rob the city’s utility funds to keep the city/county’s ambulance service afloat.
The state’s cash basis law states a municipality may not spend more than it has either budgeted or in cash in a specific fund.
“We can go maybe another month before we are in violation,” said City Clerk Roxanne Hutton after Monday night’s council meeting.
City Administrator Carl Slaugh put the two funding mechanisms before the council. In addition to the utility surcharge he suggested transferring $35,000 from each of the water and gas departments.
Estimates are the EMS budget is $600,000 short. The utility surcharge on 3,727 customers would generate about $370,000, Slaugh said.
But city officials balked. Instead, they want Allen County commissioners to fork over the more than $362,000 it has in its budget for a now-defunct county ambulance service for fiscal year 2014. In the agreement the county also is obligated to purchase new ambulances, which cost well over $100,000 each. In January, Iola took over the ambulance services of both entities.
County commissioners have maintained they will keep those funds in case the combined service module doesn’t work.
According to City Council member Beverly Franklin, that may just happen.
“Carl, perhaps you should let them know they may get it back,” she said.
Council members went down that road, but soon came round to their initial belief that the combined service saves taxpayers money, makes better use of resources and provides a better overall service.
The combined service costs about $2.5 million to operate, better than when Iola and Allen County each ran their own ambulance and fire fighting services.
Before the merger, Allen County budgeted almost $1.4 million for ambulance service. Iola ran its ambulance service for just shy of $350,000, with a fire department budget of $950, 324. Because Iola Fire Department employees now serve on the EMS, it’s difficult to separate out the charges, Hutton said.
Also, efficiences of the merged service are expected, pushing the savings to $425,000, up from the current $250,000.
In realizing the possibility that county commissioners won’t budge, Council member Jonathan Wells wondered if a small increase in the city’s sales tax would be a better way to raise funds. The sales tax would be spread among a wider base than a utility rate hike, Wells said. Out-of-towners frequently shop in Iola and dine at its many restaurants.
Slaugh shot the idea down, saying it would have to be approved by voters and could not take effect until the first of the year.
Council members Steve French, Nancy Ford, Eugene Myrick and Don Becker were vociferously against the utility rate hike and the transference of funds from other departments. Mayor Joel Wicoff and council member Bob Shaughnessy were absent.
