A 60/40 Split

Monday May 11, 2009

The wisdom of Buffalo’s Town Trustees shone brightly on the center stage at the Library in Buffalo Oklahoma tonight.

A "special meeting" was called to discuss a few things regarding the hospital/clinic lease, lifeguards and municipal pool business and a thing or two about other things which nobody seems to care about.

Here's where the acumen - the light - got even brighter in Buffalo!

The Town Board of Trustees chose to re-word, negotiate, or umm, attempt to finalize an agreement regarding the electricity utility situation at City Hall.

Inside Buffalo reported many months ago about the circumstances regarding leasing and remodeling vacant space in the rear of City Hall to the Hospital in this article:
BAILOUT?

Not more than two or so years ago, the Town of Buffalo spent money to merge the two separate electric meters for the City Hall building onto one electrical meter – at a pricey cost, of course, to the taxpayers of Buffalo.
Now that the Town, excuse me, the TAXPAYERS, have remodeled the space for use by the Harper County Hospital at a cost of - comparable pennies - for their new clinic, there is a necessity to once again separate the electricity usage in the building into two separate bills.
A dilemma occurs when the financial inquires start.
How much will this cost the Town? How much will this cost the hospital? How much for this – How much for that?

Then there’s the problem of a couple of the Town trustees with a conflict of interest having the hospital as their employer either directly or indirectly thereby causing one or more to recuse themselves when it comes to the state of affairs regarding the hospital’s clinical space. But, we’ll save that for another day and another discussion.

In their boundless wisdom, the Town Board of Trustees, decided on an electric bill split of 60/40 – or thereabouts. There will be an evaluation made as to the percentage of space the hospital will be leasing and the space utilized by the Town - then a percentage is to be applied to each tenant with that tenant paying their share of the utility bill based on that percentage.

Let’s think this through.

We wish Northwestern Electric billed us on our square footage and not usage! Inside Buffalo would find a closet to relocate into and be happy as a pig in poop!

Which tenant will be the premium user of electricity?

Will it be the Town with its miniscule lighting, a few computers, a printer or two, a copier, and some additional energy draining devices of great proportion?
Or will it be the hospital’s clinic with their numerous electrical & electronic machines, devices, instruments, lighting and more lighting, computers, main-frames and similar power saving - or could that be - power draining devices?

Step into the future – don’t worry – we’ll be back to reality very soon…
Using the newest technology offered by PowerLogic® and Johnson Controls' Metasys® building automation and control systems the Town can track energy performance. The Town of Buffalo is currently in the process of installing energy management software to control air conditioning and other electricity using apparatus based upon outdoor air and humidity. The Town is so technologically advanced that they can measure utility usage by room & square footage and are able to pinpoint the largest energy drains.
After benchmarking the clinic against other clinics within the Health Alliance of Oklahoma, the Town decided to take advantage of the tools and programs offered by ENERGY STAR to see how well they performed against other clinical facilities nationwide. Bison Consulting Engineers confirmed that the clinic's energy efficiency measures had earned the Town an ENERGY STAR!
None of the above paragraph is true. It’s all a fantasy. Back to reality…

It makes no sense to agree to pay utilities based on square footage or percentage of space used by a tenant. None! It is only feasible if electricity usage is based on exactly that – USAGE – nothing else is sensible.

The deal for the hospital keeps getting better and better.

Then there is the issue of reimbursement.
The Town can’t pay the bill for electrical usage for the entire building then await reimbursement from the hospital because it would have an adverse effect on the budget of the Town – drastically. Therefore, the agreement tonight was to reword the agreement/contract between the hospital and the Town - for each tenant. The Town respectively and the hospital’s clinic, respectively, will each pay their portion of the monthly invoice/bill to the utility provider themselves.

An astute man in attendance at the Town Board Meeting tonight, who is, it appears from the diatribe tossed his way by the administrator of the hospital, nary a kindly fellow, described the PERFECT SCENARIO wherein the hospital and City Hall could co-exist on the same plane as each other, financially speaking, by utilizing the not-yet-used trust of the Town of Buffalo. The idea being that the monies necessary for payment of the utility invoices could be placed into trust, thereby alleviating the horrible problem of budget deforestation.

But, alas, his idea was nixed. Poor fellow. Not only is he loathed by the Harper County Hospital administrator - he's nixed by the Trustees - how pitiful!
Me thinks Inside Buffalo should claim him as kin since we too are abhorred by the Hospital powers that be!
We shall continue to lose sleep over this 'being disliked' catastrophe. (tee-hee)

What did you expect?


Rocket Science?