by Tracy McCue, Sumner Newscow — The new Wellington City Council won’t be ushered in until next Tuesday. But judging from this Tuesday’s work session meeting it could be a lively two years.

The utility reserve fund and the consumer rates were the subjects for the meeting, but the two-hour plus meeting often veered into philosophical discussions about the city’s future. And at one point it got downright nasty.

Very late into the two hour meeting, Wellington City Councilmen Vince Wetta and Jim Valentine got into a shouting match. In a nutshell, Wetta was upset about how confrontational Valentine is at city meetings. Valentine was upset that the other city council member’s aren’t listening to him.

Work sessions are unlike regular city meetings. Council members sit at a round table and discuss issues without any formal proceedings. No action can be taken, and talk is most generally done informally. People of the general public are usually not allowed to address the council unless addressed by a council member first. Basically, it’s a company business meeting with reporters lurking in the background. 

This work session was one for the ages. It included newly elected council member Kip Etter and mayor Shelley Hansel, who was not physically there but was participating via teleconference from another location. Outgoing mayor Roger Stallbaumer was present, but outgoing council member John Brand was not in attendance.

The meeting also included City Clerk Shane Shields, City Manager Roy Eckert, and Electric Department Interim Director Roger Estes.

Utility rate comparisons —

At issue was the utility reserve fund that has depleted over the past five years (see story here). This was the first time the council as a group sat down to discuss possible solutions after City Finance Advisor John Haas informed them of the situation in work session a month ago.

Many ideas were tossed around, but no concrete solutions were made Tuesday. If there was one thing the council was in agreement, the solution of replenishing the reserve fund and getting the city of Wellington back to financial health may take years to resolve.

Estes provided some cost comparisons of Wellington’s utility rates compared to 13 other cities including Chetopa, Marion, Beloit, Fredonia, Lindsborg, Herington, Hoisington, Eudora, Wellington, Osawatomie, Johnson City and Hugoton. The comparison figures involved an average consumer using 1,000 kWh of electricity, 5,000 gallons of water, and 5,000 gallons of sewer.

He picked 14 cities that were comparable or lower in population to Wellington. Estes did not include bigger towns like Winfield or Wichita.

The 14 towns were then ranked based on electric, water, wastewater and sanitation.

Estes then added two more tables that included what the utility rates had to be to help replenish the utility fund to a financially healthy level.

Currently, Wellington has agreed on an electrical project that includes a substation, switching station and sub transmission circuit that will coincide with upgrades made by Westar Energy, the city’s utility provider. That project once completed is estimated at $5.2 million. The bond for that project has yet to be issued, but the design work for the project at $234,000 was approved in Oct. 15, 2013.

In his cost analysis, Estes provided two tables of “possible” future increases. If Wellington was to go through with the electrical project and raise rates to replenish the utility reserve fund at an acceptable level, the average Wellington consumer would pay $146.78 a month compared to $128.28 a month it currently is using. That would make Wellington the most expensive of the 14 towns compared with. It would be $1 above a town like Chetopa, who currently has the highest electrical rates of the 14 compared cities.

If Wellington was not to go through with the project but still replenish the utility fund it would be at $226.50 which would put it at third amongst the 14 cities.

Wellington City Council member B.J. Tracy said it is all a matter of perspective. For example, if say Chetopa has high utility rates, what would be its property tax rates?

“I would love it if someday someone would do a college thesis on all utilities, all taxes, all rates to determine what a city’s overall cost of living is compared to others,” Tracy said. “That would be quite a project, but it might put everything in perspective.”

What to do next —

The utility rate discussion soon gave way to what measure the city council should take next. Etter, in his first meeting in a city council capacity, said the city has to figure out a way to cut costs but continue to make itself attractive to outsiders.

Valentine said he would vote against any kind of rate increase especially with the number of people who were at poverty level.

Etter warned though that rates have to be raised or the city would be out of cash reserves shortly and have a negative balance which would only make the situation worse.

Council member Jan Korte offered several specifics including a departmental employment analysis to determine whether there needs to be cuts in personnel.

“Wages and benefits are our biggest expenses, so naturally if we are going to make cuts, let’s start there,” she said.

Valentine questioned Eckert on whether or not the city is best using its equipment and if some of it needed to be sold.

Shields outlined the dire need to start making decisions soon because the upcoming budget process is right around the corner and the demands for funding for various projects aren’t going away.

He said just for capital utility projects, $2.5 million is estimated, and that does not include lesser capital outlay projects. Ultimately, the Sumner Regional Medical Center utility fund abatements will affect the 2016 budget. The hospital has yet to pay for utilities in 2015, Shields said.

“You have to factor in all these things when looking at the big picture,” Shields said. “We are really going to have to look at specifics soon.”

And to top it all off, Larry Mangan, once a city employee and now a school board member, asked the board to study ways to help the USD 353 school district out with its utilities. He said the school district pays $750,000 a year. He compared the rates of two similar elementary schools: Eisenhower in Wellington and Pleasantville in Derby. USD 353 is paying $3,280 a month in utilities at Eisenhower while Derby is paying $2,192 a month at Pleasantville.
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