At Tuesday's County Commission Meeting, Commissioners heard a request for action on public building commission project funds.
Request for Action On September 29th, 2020 the Commission established a Public Building Commission after entering into a contract with Motorola Solutions Inc. to upgrade the County’s public safety communications system and authorized the Public Building Commission to issue up to $6.5 mission in bonds. The County then in turn entered into a lease with the Public Building Commission to provide for repayment of those bonds. Bonds were sold at a premium netting a total of $6,654,134.75 in proceeds.
The project construction, engineering, and equipment have all been paid using the bond proceeds. Final acceptance of the project occurred on May 31st, 2023 and final payment for the project was made. After the final payment, $710,308 remained in the project fund due to a combination of the project coming in under budget as well as the County using Capital Improvement Plan funds to make the initial down payment on the project when the contract was signed with Motorola.
Staff is requesting Commission authorization to re-allocate the remaining project funds to make the upcoming 2023 bond payment and transfer funds back into CIP to reimburse the County for the initial expense.
080 PBC Project Fund
Balance after last payment $710,308
Bond Payment 9/1/2023 - $413,675
Transfer back into CIP - $296,633
Bond Counsel has been consulted and has advised that funds can be re-allocated as outlined.
Budget Impact Re-allocation of the project funds creates additional advantages. The bond payment was already budgeted for in the 2023 budget. Paying the bond payment with the project funds will free up funds to make a payment for an ambulance to the City of Salina in 2023 that we were not anticipating in the 2023 budget. This will also allow the County to make an additional transfer to CIP. Making the ambulance payment and an additional transfer to CIP with 2023 budgeted funds will decrease preliminary budgeted amounts in the 2024 budget for these items.
010-026 Appropriations
Bond Payment line item $472,434
Ambulance Payment - $190,000
Transfer into CIP - $282,434
The total amount that would be transferred into CIP with the re-allocation of project funds and the additional transfer from Appropriations would be $579,067.
The motion carried 5-0.
