The Comptroller’s Office has submitted a letter to Alexandria’s Mayor and Board of Aldermen expressing concerns about the town’s budget and utilities.
Comptroller Director of Communications John Dunn said Alexandria’s Board of Aldermen did not submit the town’s fiscal year budget before the August 31 deadline. Dunn said since the budget was submitted past the deadline, the comptroller’s office notified the town that it would not approve their fiscal year budget.
“What that means is that the town won’t be able to issue debt, financing obligations, essentially borrow money until next fiscal year’s budget is submitted to our office and is approved,” Dunn said.
Dunn said Alexandria would be allowed to borrow money throughout the remainder of the fiscal year, only if the comptroller’s office approves a request. Dunn said the town is still allowed to operate its budget for the fiscal year, but a small consequence, such as not being able to issue debt, will hopefully prompt a quicker response in the future, so that a late budget submission does not happen again.
“This is just a way to hopefully improve financial management within their town,” Dunn said. “So that they meet deadlines, that they submit things as they are required to, that they get their audits performed, that they get their budgets filed on time. These are all very important things for a financial operation.”
Dunn said the Tennessee Board of Utility Regulation (TBOUR) has ordered Alexandria to perform a water rate study and a feasibility study. Dunn said the studies were ordered due to the high turnover in the utility department, and Alexandria has not performed a water rate study in the past four years.
“That feasibility study would explore the possibility of any possible mergers of that Alexandria utility system with surrounding utilities,” Dunn said. “Right now, Alexandria has about 1,000 customers and purchases all of its water from Carthage. They don’t actually produce their own water. So that feasibility study will look at mergers, a rate study will make sure that they have enough revenue coming in to meet their obligations, and all of that is due by the end of the year.”
Dunn said in most instances, a utility merger could produce an opportunity to not double up on expenses. Dunn said a merger could remove the markup cost for water that is imposed on customers when a utility department has to purchase water.
The town has dealt with a mayor resigning and the current mayor facing a no-confidence vote.
