“I Got No Idea, Brian”

Back on May 9, 2018 as the County Mayor was doing the community meetings on his budget, I open requested about the $12.5 million expenditure for “more than 5 megawatts (MW) of solar photovoltaic systems on the rooftops of 11 schools plus the Knox County Central Building, and ground-mount solar arrays at the Detention and Juvenile Justice Facilities.”  It was stated that the project would  “provide more than $29 million in energy savings to the County, as well as generating an aggregate approximately $14 million in positive bottom-line cash flow for the County over the next 30 years.” When I open requested the information to date, the Mayor’s response was “I got no idea, Brian” You can read my post from May 9, 2018, here.

Knox County Finance Director Chris Caldwell said he would have the numbers in a couple days and then he said it would be later, finally after 9 days, on May 18, 2018 the explanation was delivered and here it is.

You asked about cash flow from the Ameresco Solar contract. Below is the cash flow analysis to-date:

TVA Purchase of excess kilo-watts  $67,381.53 

 Realized utility savings to date – $798,806.03 

Less: Capital Lease Payments –   $818,699.00

Total Positive Cash Flow –            $47,488.56

It seems to me that they have lumped all energy savings in together. One thing Caldwell said (which I have on video is that all projects stand on their own) So after the new Mayoral regime takes over, I will open Records Request all projects, individually then we will see. It is odd to me that the Knox County Mayor and his Finance team are unaware of $47,488.56 in the county’s cash flow and that it took 9 days to discover it. What other finance dollars are they missing?

The full video of Caldwell saying all projects stand on their own