Gas prices cause problems for city
Rising gas prices will mean tough budget choices for Madison soon.
Madison Comptroller Dean Brasser said many city agencies like Madison Metro and city fleet services are already over budget this year because of fuel prices. This means that sometime before the end of the year, they will have to go back in front of the City Council to either request more money or to shift funds within the budget to cover for high fuel prices.
The city has developed the deficit even with the benefit of paying lower prices than individuals do at the pump.
On average, Brasser said city employees were spending $3.78 per gallon on gasoline in May compared to $2.47 per gallon in May 2007. Gasoline is usually cheaper for the city to buy than the average Madison driver because it uses a competitive bidding process and buys gasoline in bulk.
"We are retail customers like anyone else, except we buy in large quantities, and we have underground storage tanks ourselves in a number of locations around town. So in a way we're buying truckloads like a gas station would, but the purchase relationship is very different," he said.
The gas price squeeze will extend into next year, too. With fuel prices not predicted to drop anytime soon, Brasser projected that fuel costs would raise the city budget by $1.5 million if budget cuts were not made. That's about two-thirds of a percent of Madison's budget for 2008, which was $224.5 million.
For 2009, Brasser said agencies will likely have to make an "educated guess" on fuel prices for the next year.
"No one has a crystal ball and is able to forecast particularly in this kind of a market," he said.
City officials also say they have limited options when it comes to decreasing gas consumption.
The City Council passed a vehicle idling policy in 2007 that asks city employees driving city vehicles to turn off the car if they would need to idle for more than three minutes in a 60-minute period, but fleet service Superintendent Bill Vandenbrook said the policy contains numerous exceptions for things like heating and cooling drivers in weather conditions below 32 or above 80 degrees, and for emergency vehicles.
"It's difficult for police, it's difficult for fire because of the nature of their work," Vandenbrook said. "Our expectation, or at least mine as a citizen, is when you dial 911, you want to see them at your door before you hang the phone up. Really and truly, you're calling them because you need them. It's unfortunate that it takes fuel to do that."
Madison Metro officials say they've done some work to limit the time when buses idle, but that it will be hard to cut much more.
"Our ability to limit idling of buses in service is not as easy to do, because our buses need to be powered up for air-conditioning purposes, communications, GPS, farebox, camera and other electronic equipment onboard," said Metro spokesman Mick Rusch. He added, however, that Metro does limit idling of buses being serviced or sitting in the garage, and that increased fuel efficiency has been one benefit of using a global positioning system to streamline bus schedules, which are updated four times per year to adjust when buses are delayed or have extra time.
Madison Metro has also improved fuel economy with the addition of five hybrid buses to the 200-plus fleet last September. Hybrids get about 5.6 miles per gallon compared to 3.8 to 4.4 miles per gallon for regular diesel buses, an increase of 32 to 47 percent.
As for the "general pool" of vehicles, Vandenbrook said he has noticed an increase in teleconference or e-mail exchanges rather than meetings. The general pool is used by city agencies like Planning and Development or the Assessor's Office when they need to meet with developers.
In addition, city vehicles have gotten more fuel-efficient when possible, Vandenbrook said. When he began working for the city in 1979, he said the fleet -- excluding Madison Metro -- was about 700 vehicles and used about one million gallons of gasoline per year. Now, he said the non-Metro fleet is about 1,100 vehicles, but still uses about one million gallons of gas each year.
Some of the bigger changes include buying smaller vehicles and hybrids, such as two Honda Civic hybrids purchased three weeks ago, and switching bigger-ticket items like snow plows and garbage trucks from regular gas to diesel, which improves fuel economy.
In 1979, buying a smaller car "would have been almost unheard of," Vandenbrook said. "Even a car as small as a Honda Civic wouldn't be considered."
Sometimes, though, fuel efficiency isn't a priority, such as with the Ford Crown Victorias driven by many police officers throughout the country, including Madison. The Crown Victoria only gets about 17 miles per gallon in the city, but it has been designed particularly for police use, with a large interior to accommodate passengers and various police equipment like radar, cameras and mobile computers.
Most importantly, the structure of the Crown Victoria has a full frame with the exterior added on -- making the vehicle more sound than smaller "unibody" cars -- which helps keep officers safe. Vandenbrook meets at least once per year with the Police Department to discuss vehicle usage, but he said switching to a more fuel-efficient car has not been discussed.
"Basically every vehicle we purchase, and we purchase a number of vehicles every year as replacements, we look at what the mission is of that vehicle; it's got to fit the job," he said. "It really is a balancing act to match the size of equipment to the specific task."
Mike DeVries/The Capital Times
It may not sound like much, but the 5.6 miles per gallon that Madison Metro's new hybrid buses get is about one-third better than regular buses.
