Energy Efficiency and Saving Money - Police Cars & City Buildings.

Councilman Nurse has proposed during the capital budget workshops to speed the implementation of making our city’s buildings more efficient. It appears that about 2 Million dollars of investment will save about $500,000 annually in energy costs at today’s electricity prices. We could take funds from reserves to do this quickly and use some of the savings to repay the reserves. Another area with significant savings is the shift to more efficient vehicles. Karl is advocating the purchase of much more efficient vehicles for the non-911 (chase cars) for the police department. The city currently purchases about 2 million gallons of gas and diesel per year. The opportunities to save your tax dollars, reduce our energy use and reduce air pollution are considerable.

UPDATE - 7/12/08
Please encourage the City Council to fund these energy efficiency efforts NOW
so we can begin saving money and energy immediately.

UPDATE 8/5/08 - Police Cars currently get 10 MPG because the Ford Crown Victoria is the LEAST efficient police cruiser available. I pulled the proposal to purchase 9 more of these from the consent agenda on Thursday. The police department has agreed to form a committee with the Fleet Management
staff to review choices for chase and non-chase police vehicles. A modest change to the Chevy Impalas that the Sheriff's department uses, could save
up to $1.5 Million in gas EACH year. My goal is to be sure that each department orders the most fuel and money efficient vehicles that will work for their job.

UPDATE 9/5/08 - I have found that Jacksonville and Atlanta have converted to
more efficient police cruisers and significantly more efficient vehicles for
non-chase cars. The saving are huge.

Save 30% of home utitities - City Council voted 8-0 yesterday to support my
resolution in support of the proposal to require new homes to be built a minimum of 30% more efficient. The national building codes organization will vote later this month on this proposal. More efficient homes will cost $200
more per year while SAVING $700 in utility bills!

UPDATE - Efficient City Buildings - I reviewed the plans for the three city
buildings in the works. All will be at least 50% more efficient in electricity, water and yard maintenance than traditional construction. All will save us money - after considering the construction costs - from the first
month. The buildings are a new water adminstration building, a rehab of the
Jordon School and a replacement fire Station # 8 on MLK St. South.

UPDATE - 7/20/09 - The City Council approved the first wave of new more efficient police cruisers as a result of the work above. The 47 cars will
save about $350,000 over the first five years of use. This is good for our pocketbook and our air.