Commission asks staff to clarify costs and billing for proposed on‑site fuel card system

A proposal to install an on‑site card‑reader fueling system at county fuel tanks prompted a detailed discussion about cost, billing and operational benefits. A commissioner said the system could save fuel costs by registering individual vehicles and reducing offsite purchases, but raised concerns about the quoted service fee and the administrative burden of billing and reconciliation.

Commission discussion covered expected savings, a reported service fee figure of about $1,700 per year for cloud storage/service (speakers varied in how they read the number), and the need to know full installation and annual costs. Commissioners also discussed whether departments (sheriff, EMS, rural fire) would each have separate printouts for billing and how fiscal staff would integrate those records into the county billing package.

No purchase decision was made. Commissioners asked staff to get a full price breakdown for the system (installation, hardware, cloud/service fees, anticipated savings and sample billing reports) and to report back with detail to decide whether to proceed and how to allocate departmental billing.