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The Tuesday, December 10 meeting of the Sudbury Energy and Sustainability Committee previewed a potential tug-of-war for control of the Solar Revolving Fund.
Historically, any use of the money in the fund has been decided by a vote of the Energy and Sustainability Committee. Chair Rami Alwan raised concerns that the Town of Sudbury has, according to his report, transferred $330,000 out of the Solar Revolving Fund and into the Facilities Department budget to pay for electricity bills. Alwan alleged that this money would free up an equivalent amount of money for other purposes unrelated to sustainability initiatives.
Alwan stated that the Town believes it has the authority to tap the Solar Revolving Fund to pay such bills without approval from the committee, but questioned the legality of that action. “I’m not sure it’s legal.”
However, Alwan also cited a lack of clarity in the language of the original article passed at a prior Town Meeting.
“It doesn’t say on the article specifically that the money expended out of that has to be by vote of the Energy and Sustainability Committee. It said that in the description, and I can show you the wording, but it has been standing practice for the past 8 years and that has been supported by legal precedent to-date. So I am very concerned about this sudden move.” (46:44)
Discussion expanded beyond electricity bills to include criticism of other requests Town staff have made of the committee to fund components of various projects. One recent example is the Sudbury Public Schools HVAC project, which the committee declined to fund.
After Alwan commented about a private discussion about a $170,000 request to use the Solar Revolving Fund for pool repairs at the Atkinson Pool, Combined Facility Director Sandra Duran joined the discussion briefly and asserted that Alwan misunderstood the facts and implored him to accurately represent them.
“Actually Rami, that was to go towards the solar-ready roof. That was not for pool repairs. Just so we’re clear. It was to offset the roof, which was $300,000 worth of roof. But we can talk about that separately. I would like you to stick to the actual facts, and if you need clarification, I am available.” (55:43)
Alwan suggested that a Town Meeting article could be developed to clarify that the committee has control over any expenditure of the money in the Solar Revolving Fund. He also noted that he was communicating with the Town’s legal counsel to get further guidance.
In recent discussions, the Energy and Sustainability Committee has taken umbrage with funding requests that they don’t feel align with their mission – going so far as to suggest that some are seeking to use the fund to fill funding shortfalls on Town projects.
That theme loomed large in this discussion, for which a local nonprofit, Sustainable Sudbury, was present. Alwan voiced a desire to get Sustainable Sudbury’s support “to preserve the Solar Revolving Fund so that it can be used to continue energy projects that we’ve been working on.” Member Olga Faktorovich added: “Instead of closing budget shortfalls over and over again.” (1:01:40)
