Albany city commissioners give FY ‘18 budget cold reception

ALBANY — City Manager Sharon Subadan found her proposed Fiscal Year 2018 budget a tough sell Tuesday morning, primarily because of the furor that has arisen around her Albany Utility Board-recommended across-the-board utility rate increases that would be used to supplement the spending plan.

Commissioners Jon Howard and Roger Marietta openly opposed it after they got their first look at the proposed $272,529,609 spending plan, and their colleague Bobby Coleman suggested Subadan and city Finance Director Derrick Brown “take another look at the budget.”

Howard made it clear where he stood with the budget after Subadan and Brown explained why the document included the proposed utility cost increases.

“It is inconceivable, as the commissioner who represents this city’s poorest ward, (that the utility increases would be proposed now),” Howard said. “I’m appalled and disappointed. I know we could do better. I cannot, as it now stands, look at this budget proposal and come back and vote for it.”

Marietta said he, too, would oppose a budget that included the utility increases.

“You talk about declining revenues, but if you raise the rate for electricity, people are just going to turn their thermostats up and open windows,” the Ward IV commissioner said. “People will turn their air conditioning off, and I believe we’ll end up losing money. That’s the mindset that’s out there now.”

Ward III’s B.J. Fletcher challenged her colleagues for opposing the rate increases out of political fear, saying she would make up her mind after hearing all of the facts surrounding the proposal.

“The fact that some of us would say that they plan to do something without all of the facts, and they’re policymakers in this community?” Fletcher said. “It disturbs me that you would make a decision this important based on a few threatening tweets. I’m not saying I’m for or against the rate increases, but I will say that I’m not going to make a decision until I hear all of the facts. That’s what we were elected to do.”

Mayor Dorothy Hubbard later had to gavel Fletcher and Marietta down after the two got into a heated exchange, leading Ward VI Commissioner Tommie Postell to apologize to the Rev. Lorenzo heard for “being kept standing there through this politicking.”

“I’m not campaigning for anything,” Postell said.

Both Fletcher and Marietta have been mentioned as possible mayoral candidates, and Fletcher’s Ward III seat is up for re-election this year.

Heard asked commissioners to “remember the considerable number of poor people who make up a great percentage of our community” when making a decision on the proposed rate increases.

Brown, meanwhile, offered snapshots of the proposed budget, which comes with a $62,426,660 general fund spending plan. Proposed utility budgets were part of the snapshots, and Brown pointed out that four of the city’s six utility departments will lose money in the current fiscal year, which runs through June 30.

“With the proposed increases, only one of the six departments (stormwater) would be budgeted to lose money (in FY 2017-18), and the utilities department would operate in the black,” the finance director said. “Budgeting to lose money year after year is not a sustainable fiscal plan.”

Marietta countered that “the only way we’re losing money is that we’re transferring more and more money (from utilities) to the general fund.”

Brown said the cost of goods sold is the primary reason for utility losses, noting that 76 percent of those costs are fixed through the city’s ties to the Municipal Electric Authority of Georgia collective, which is taking a large financial hit on Georgia Power’s multibillion-dollar cost overrun on construction of nuclear power plant reactors near Savannah.

“If no one turned a light on in the city all year, we would still owe MEAG $63 million,” Brown said.

Brown gave commissioners a breakdown of dollars that would be spent under the proposed budget, noting “29 cents of each dollar goes to police protection, 22 cents to fire protection, 21 cents to general government, 17 cents to Planning and Engineering, and 11 cents to recreation and community needs.”

Ward II’s Coleman, taking a much milder approach than Howard and Marietta, asked Subadan and Brown to “have another go at the budget.”

“The general mindset of the public is ‘we don’t want a (utility) rate increase, we cannot afford it,’” Coleman said. “I recommend you go back and take another shot at this. I believe you can do better.”

Howard was a bit more blunt.

“This budget needs to go back,” he said. “And I’ve been doing this long enough to know that old political trick about cutting people’s jobs to cut costs. The cuts can come from somewhere else. If there is a utility rate increase or a layoff attached to this budget, I will not vote for it.”

Subadan noted that new programs and infrastructure improvements were drawn into the proposed budget, which came in 0.6 percent lower than last year’s spending plan, and she outlined those for the commission. Among them were adding 10 utility line workers, adding bus routes between the two Albany State University campuses, improvements at the Southwest Georgia Regional Airport, a summer youth work program, and an “Albany Works” program that will help inmates charged with misdemeanors find meaningful employment.

“We hear you,” Subadan after discussion of the proposed budget concluded. “I understand that for you, as policymakers, this can become a political issue. But it is my job as an administrator to give you my best professional advice.

“Derrick and I will start meeting with each of you individually to talk about your concerns.”

The commission must pass a budget by June 30. FY 2018 begins July 1.