The St. James City Council on May 26 approved utility board appointments and a resolution to adopt the city’s mid-year budget adjustments.

The council approved for Josh Hitch to replace Justin Hughes and voted for Carl Redburn to attain his seat. 

The council voted 4-0 to replace current Utility Chair Greg Edwards with Secretary Stephanie Hayes because Edwards is moving out of town. 

Mayor Rick Krawiecki introduced a resolution to adopt the city’s mid-year budget for the 2025-26 fiscal year. Mid-year budget adjustments are made to keep the city’s budget attainable for the rest of the fiscal year. A fiscal year is a 12-month period that a municipal government uses for budgeting and financial reporting.

City Administrator Leeann DeMouche made requests to the council for budget modifications.

She suggested adding $151,000 to the city’s general revenue fund because of Amazon coming in to build an 80,000-square-foot last-mile delivery station. Additional budget adjustments were requested for increases in the general revenue fund for business license, sales tax and municipal court fees.

DeMouche also suggested adding $55,000 to salaries and benefits and to increase general fund expenditures by $86,000 because the city recently hired a new police officer. DeMouche asked for a total revenue decrease in commercial and industrial electricity in the amount of $1.87 million because electric consumption was down in those areas.

“What I budgeted was (for) $2.5 million. Right now in eight months all we have brought in is about $916,000 (in revenue),” said DeMouche.

DeMouche said 64 million megawatts were used in 2024 and that only 47 million megawatts were used last year.

“Now if you ask me why we are down (in consumption)? I don’t know, but I need to find the answer to that,” said DeMouche.

DeMouche said Toth and Associates, an electrical company based out of Springfield, is conducting a study on the rates for electricity. She expects for the rate study to be finished in June or July.

“Even though the consumption has gone down, the amount of power that was purchased has not gone down,” said DeMouche. “I have a puzzle and I’m working on this puzzle.”

She said that the city is in the process of hiring an electric meter auditor to check three-phase meters that track electric consumption.

“We are asking the auditor to look at 360-plus meters,” said DeMouche. “We’re noticing (that) the cost of electricity varies every single month.”

Councilman Ward 2 Bill Dunkus asked DeMouche if the city was overspending on electricity.

“What you’re saying is we’re paying as much for (electric) energy even though we’re using less of it? Is it because energy costs have risen?” asked Dunkus.

“Yes,” said DeMouche.

Dunkus asked if there were more issues besides the three-phase meters.

“So this error is not just a three-phase meter?” asked Dunkus.

DeMouche said that she was unsure of what the underlying problems were and said it could be multiple issues. She said she hopes that Totes and Associates finish their study so the city can further investigate the issue.

The council approved with a 4-0 vote to pass the resolution.

The next meeting will be at 6 p.m. on June 8 at the Council Chambers located at 1420 Nelson Hart Drive St. James.