Geary City Council was greeted with a full agenda when it met August 14 for its regular meeting.
Working first as the public works authority, the council hammered out an outline for investing the cash held in various accounts that are currently yielding only .25% interest.
The discussion hinged on whether the best vehicles for the cash were certificates of deposit, which have better interest rates but are time and access limited, or a cash sweep account, which offers better interest rates than the current account, but lower than a CD. However, the city could access the money in those accounts, whereas it would have to wait for a CD to mature or suffer the early withdrawal penalty.
Another side of the question was whether the money could be deposited in banks outside the City of Geary. City attorney Bryce Kennedy said the policy did not allow deposits elsewhere, but the interest rates for the banks in Geary seemed competitive, so there was really no need.
“I would rather keep it in our city,” said council member Sandra Cleveland. The policy was realigned to allow investment in other banks. The policy was ratified, but there was no change in the deposit schedule for city funds until information could be gathered from both banks in Geary and a decision made on what accounts would be invested at either institution.
Another weighty matter was the addition of a power cost adjustment to power bills.
Ryan Piersol, with Oklahoma Municipal Power Authority, spoke to the council on the PCA. A rate study had found that the rates in the city are appropriate and do not need to be raised appreciably.
The power cost adjustment compares the historic wholesale rate of power to the city and actual costs. The adjustment allows the city to react to cost swings that are outside the city’s control, such as prolonged heat waves or even winter storms.
Piersol said the adjustment he created was essentially revenue neutral, meaning that it could cause power bills to increase a small amount in hotter months, but would allow them to drop basically the same amount in times of lower demand. “It’s a wash over time,” he said.
“That’s good because I don’t want to freak the citizens out,” Cleveland said. “I want them to know we aren’t’ changing their rates, that we’re not making money.”
The change will eliminate a flat $10 cost adjustment that is currently applied to utility bills. The basic usage will remain the same at $35 with a 10-dekatherm allowance and a 75 cent KWH rate before the power cost adjustment is applied. That adjustment is applied to the amount of power consumed.
Approximately half the citizens will pay lower utility bills because they don’t consume more than the 10 dekatherms allowed.
“If it breaks down to who is using is who is paying, to me that’s fair,” said council member Darla Golden.
Kennedy noted the power cost adjustment protected the city from situations it could not control. “It’s important for a public utility to break even,” he said, adding that the utility department lost some $25,000 last fiscal year.