Water and sewer board start digging

During their regularly scheduled April 8 meeting, the Saratoga-Carbon County Impact Joint Powers Board (SCCIJPB) discussed financials and agreements as it related to ongoing developments with the financial state of the Town of Saratoga. Within that discussion were questions from Councilmember Jon Nelson about whether board members considered water and sewer funds restricted and if the joint powers board would be willing to review and update the joint powers board agreement.

Restricted Funds

As was previously reported (see “Taxation without representation?” on page 2 of the April 15 Saratoga Sun), Nelson spoke with the Board of Carbon County Commissioners (BOCCC) to inform them about concerns over the funds owned by the SCCIJPB and maintained by the Town of Saratoga. One of the concerns expressed by Nelson was the belief by the Town of Saratoga legal counsel, Tom Thompson, and accountant, James Childress, that such funds were unrestricted and could be borrowed from.

“As some of you may be aware, I met with the Carbon County Commissioners yesterday morning and I did want to bring … the same question and the same topic to the joint powers board. I want to ask what you all have, as far as an opinion, in terms of whether or not the water and sewer funds are restricted or unrestricted,” said Nelson. “That is to say, is it the opinion of this joint powers board that the water and sewer fees that are collected by the users on the system are for the specific purpose of water and sewer expenses—depreciation, deferred maintenance, operation maintenance, source development—as they relate to water and sewer?”

Chairman Richard Raymer, who served as a member of the Saratoga Town Council from 2015 to 2019, stated that in the 10 years he had sat on the SCCIJPB he had been under the impression that all excess funds from water and sewer fees were to be deposited into a WYO-STAR account and could only be used for purposes related to water and sewer.

Similarly, Treasurer Russ Waldner stated that in his time on the board he had been under the same impression. Waldner added that it was his understanding that the Town of Saratoga could borrow from the water and sewer funds if needed on the condition that a plan was made to pay that money back into the water and sewer funds. When Nelson asked if Waldner believed any borrowing from the funds should be listed under a due to/due from line item, Waldner stated he believed it should.

The SCCIJPB treasurer added that the joint powers board should be seeing a monthly accounting of revenues from water and sewer fees to be able to determine if cash flow was harming the water and sewer funds.

“If we saw that that cash flow usage was harming the water and sewer then we would be responsible for saying, ‘Hey, this needs to go to WYO-STAR’ because we’re killing our users and causing their rates to go up,’” said Waldner.

Assessing The Agreement

The SCCIJPB also discussed the joint powers board agreement held between the Town of Saratoga and the BOCCC that had originally formed the water and sewer board. The agreement was originally created in 1976 and had two amendments; one in 1979 and another in 1981. Since then, no amendments have been made to the agreement.

Nelson stated that, while the agreement still had a good foundation, he believed that it was in the best interest of the joint powers board to engage an attorney to review the agreement and propose changes that would bring the agreement in line with current Wyoming State Statutes concerning such agreements.

“I feel like there’s some things that could be improved that might provide for, us as a board, to have a little more transparency in terms of what’s happening both from a financial standpoint and also from an operation standpoint. I think it might be appropriate for us to consider engaging an attorney or somebody that can help us write … some changes to the agreement, some improvements to the agreement,” Nelson said.

Waldner agreed.

“I think the way things are today and how there’s, basically, three different entities even though we’re created by the other two entities, to me it just makes sense to do this review if it’s not too expensive,” said Waldner.

Raymer also agreed, adding that it was his belief that it would need to be an independent attorney as any input from either Town of Saratoga legal counsel or the Carbon County Attorney could constitute a conflict. SCCIJPB member Roger Cox, however, believed that the board should review the agreement before requesting proposals for legal counsel.

“I think we should review it … at the next meeting and let’s see what we feel, as board members, are the deficiencies of what should be changed,” said Cox.

As discussion continued, Raymer stated that the joint powers board could advertise for legal counsel while also taking time to review the document individually.

“I see no reason why we can’t advertise for an RFP (request for proposal) while everybody’s reviewing the current joints powers board agreement because, before we would ever take any action even if we get an RFP—or maybe we would get 10 of them—by the time we would even get to that point everybody should have sufficient time to review said agreement then make recommendations if we ever even select an attorney,” said Raymer.

Cox replied that he was not opposed to advertising for an RFP as long as the board had time to review the agreement. The motion to begin advertising for RFP from legal counsel passed unanimously.

Financial Questions

In relation to the other two topics, Nelson asked the members of the joint powers board if they were in favor of requesting statements from the WYO-STAR account for water and sewer funds that was managed by the Town of Saratoga. Nelson’s request was that the statements go back to Fiscal Year 2013/2014 and forward.

“Just so we can see what the balance in those WYO-STAR investment accounts have been and how they’ve changed for those fiscal years. I believe the board can make the request through the Town of Saratoga as Saratoga’s the fiscal agent and the ones who would receive all those statements on a regular basis,” said Nelson. “I think it would be good information to have as we all are trying to understand what the dollars are.” 

Waldner added that just looking at the statements wouldn’t reveal anything for the SCCIJPB unless they also had access to the vouchers paid by the joint powers board. Raymer stated that the joint powers board would also need to see how much revenue was generated through water and sewer fees over those years. Nelson agreed, stating that it was his belief that by looking at the WYO-STAR statements and comparing them to the excess revenue, it could be determined how much the WYO-STAR accounts should have grown by.

“How do we move forward without knowing where our money’s going?” asked Raymer.

A motion was made to request from the Town of Saratoga statements from all external accounts utilized for water and sewer funds. Before a vote was held, SCCIJPB member Joe Parsons asked why a vote was being held when the documents were public record.

“Shouldn’t any public person be able to get that information?” asked Parsons.

Under Title 16-4-202 of the Wyoming State Statute, it reads that all public records are to be available for inspection by members of the public during regular business hours and as long as they do not interfere with the regular duties of the custodian of those records. Raymer informed Parsons that while the public could access that information, the vote was a formality for the record.

The vote passed with Cox abstaining due to conflict.

The next meeting of the Saratoga-Carbon County Impact Joint Powers Board will be at 6 p.m. on May 13 at Saratoga Town Hall.