No Decision Means no Charge for an Electric Vehicle Charge

To pay, or not to pay. That is the question that’s been hounding Council with the electric vehicle charging station about to be installed.

On Monday night, for the second consecutive meeting, council members took up the issue of how electric vehicle owners should pay for charging vehicles in a station to be installed in the parking lot behind Murphy’s Crossing.

And for the second consecutive meeting, a motion wound up deadlocked in a 3-3 vote.

This time, after hearing a report from Director Jeff Fordice, the council considered a motion to accept an offer from anonymous citizens who offered to reimburse the city for electrical usage costs associated with the electric vehicle charging station during the next two years.

Mayor Gretchen Driskell and Councilors Dean Girbach and David Rhoads voted in favor of the motion. Councilors Brian Marl, Glenn Law and Pat Ivey were opposed. Councilor Linda TerHaar, the owner of an electric vehicle, abstained, citing conflict of interest.

The mayor was frustrated by the council’s inability to resolve the matter, which has been a source of debate since January, when the council first agreed allow DTE to install a charger in a city-owned lot.

“We’ve spent more time on this issue when it costs 71 cents to charge a car for one hour. It’s ridiculous,” said Driskell, when she realized the motion was destined to fail. “This is an economic development issue. Other communities are not charging users. They’re looking at the long-term plan and bringing customers to a community.”

The station is being installed by DTE, free of charge. The one caveat is that the city cannot charge customers by the kilowatt-hour. The city is free to charge whatever it wishes as a user fee, however.

But determining a rate and method of payment is difficult.

In a report to the council, Fordice said that since there are so few charging stations and electric vehicles, there is very little data about usage. The city has the option to include hardware in the charging station that would allow customers to pay by swiping their credit cards. The hardware costs $490. On top of that, there would be annual charges of $119 in monthly fees and $82 in transaction fees.

Fordice estimated that, at two hours of charging per day, the city would need to charge $1 an hour for two years to cover the hardware and associated charges. On top of that, the electricity would cost about 71 cents per hour.

Another option is a refurbished coin-operated parking meter that would cost approximately $200. However, since do not regularly enforce parking, this method would ultimately rely on the honor system.

Marl said he was opposed to the city paying for the service, even if the costs were reimbursed by donors.

“It’s a well-accepted fact and premise that if one uses a special and unique service, they should be expected to pay for it,” Marl said, adding that he thought it wouldn’t be too much to ask to have police check on a parking meter installed at the station once or twice a shift.

Ivey and Law have been opposed to the project from the get-go, saying it should have been done by private enterprise. Ivey, however, did vote to move the station closer to downtown. He said he was opposed to having donors reimburse the city.

“As generous and kind as the offers are, we’re a financially solvent city, and I am not comfortable accepting reimbursements for these costs. I do not want to set the precedent of accepting reimbursements and will not support the motion,” Ivey said.

Girbach said the city has asked the Celtic Festival and Summer Festival to come up with donations.

“I don’t want to look a gift horse in the mouth. I am frustrated and struck by this. We’ve spent so much time on this, it doesn’t make any sense. It was my goal not to charge taxpayers for (this project),” Girbach said.

Once installed, users will be able to plug in at no cost. If Fordice is right and the charging station is used two hours a day, taxpayers would be on the hook for $518.30 a year, at an hourly electricity rate of 71 cents.