Title
Electric Vehicle (EV) Charging Stations Discussion & Possible Action
Recommended Action
I move that the Board of Public Utilities recommend transferring County purchased EV Charging Stations from the General Fund to the Joint Utilities Fund and forward to Council for approval.
Utilities Manager's Recommendation
The Utilities Manager recommends that the Board approve the motion as presented.
Body
In the FY2025 budget, Council included funding for fourteen (14) EV charging stations in the Sustainability Division of the County Manager's Office within the General Fund. The presentation tonight is an overview of the two (2) EV charging stations installed and operated by DPU and a proposal for how to account for the fourteen stations approved by Council.
The County Manager's office, County Finance, Public Works and DPU met to determine the best way to manage and record activity for both DPU and County owned EV charging stations. The issues for consideration include where to record the assets, how to account for revenue, how to record expenses and where to accumulate excess of revenue over expenses for future charging station replacement. Based on DPU already having an established process for EV charging station accounting and current accounting principles, staff recommends the following:
1. County Council approve the transfer of the fourteen EV charging stations to the Joint Utilities Fund (assets).
2. DPU will account for revenue and expenses in a segregated ORG Code for tracking purposes.
3. Excess of revenue over expenses will be retained in a restricted cash account for future replacement purposes.
4. Fees for using County-owned charging stations will be included in DPU's Fee Schedule.
Alternatives
The County would need to establish a separate enterprise fund to account for the revenue collection and expenses associated with the new EV charging stations.
Fiscal and Staff Impact
The impact to staff is minimal because DPU already has the capacity for tracking and accounting for this activity within policy and procedures. However, the impact would be much greater if the alternative was selected to account for it in a new County Enterprise fund.
Attachments
A - EV_Update_Proposal