City Council Meeting October 16, 2012

0:00:09thanks for coming tonight appreciate it this is the regular city council meeting of uh Tuesday October the 16th 2012.

0:00:18like the record to show that uh all members of the city council are here with the exception of council member Chang who's out of town on business I'd like to ask council member Abelson to lead us in the pledge I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the

0:00:40Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you I'd like to ask if there is any communication from staff tonight council members I just wanted to mention one item I attended the meeting of El Cerritos Toastmasters it was their

0:01:0630th anniversary and um on September 16th and um I had never been to a Toastmasters meeting before but it was very interesting the format and um the way each person in the room uh said something on a on a topic and so it was a very interesting group and a very Lively group and I was very happy to be

0:01:34there and presenting a commendation on behalf of our El Cerrito mayor thank you yeah I'll uh briefly report on something that the mayor and I both witnessed this last Saturday we were requested to witness an attempt at a Guinness world record for the largest meatloaf

0:01:57preparation this event started at about 9 15 in the morning and didn't conclude until after 10 o'clock at night and included the preparation of over 262 pounds of ingredients including the weighing of each separate ingredient that was placed in the meatloaf I didn't attend the event

0:02:20itself because my my duties were witness for the kitchen portion of the event um and mayor Jones was the witness for some of the later weighing um but it it was a an attempted Guinness Book World Record and we won't know for several months if they have achieved

0:02:39this record so right thanks yes thank you um I wanted to say thank you to staff and to all the folks who participated in the citywide garage sale it's always such a fun event I got some fantastic deals and you inevitably end up running into so many neighbors and I think it's a really

0:02:58great community building exercise you get to know your neighbors by what they put out on their garage and I also wanted to just make another announcement I announced it at the last meeting the arts and culture commission will be holding their celebration of Arts month

0:03:11on the 26th on Friday right here in City Hall outside of City Hall from 5 PM to 7 pm and they'll be unveiling the first San Pablo Avenue street icon piece of public art so it's City's first piece of public art that will be installed on the light post outside of City Hall so I

0:03:29invite anybody who'd like to attend okay and then the only thing I have and I'm mentioning it now rather than at the last part of our meetings because it involves rates but the uh I attended meeting on behalf a council member Lyman ought the Integrated Waste Management

0:03:48Authority and they took up the issue information only presentation on rates for next year and there will be a final vote on that in November so if you're interested take a look at the website um I'll wait till next meeting and let Greg explain exactly what the rate is it gets

0:04:12a little complicated because we in El Cerrito we have our own recycling center and so we we kind of have our own rate but um I'll wait till it's finalized and then Greg could give a formal report on it thank you next item please the next item is oral Communications

0:04:31from the public for which we have no speaker slips no speaker slips anybody in the public want to address okay that being said we'll go on to the next item please um number four there are no presentations and five is adoption of the consent calendar items number 5A

0:04:48through 5e move adoption of the consent calendar second I moved in second to approve the consent calendar item number five all those in favor aye opposed motion carries next item please item number seven a is design build agreement for construction of solar voltaic systems at six City facilities

0:05:12you have a staff presentation thank you is it um the council's at the council's uh pleasure is it possible to have both these items be read 7A and 7B at the same time uh well I'll ask I think we have to take them one at a time correct um if you wanted to to have both reports

0:05:34at the same time yeah both reports and and any comments from the public address both items at once um so that and our comments would address both items but it would be two separate resolutions I recognized that would be fine great so so if we could have both presentations

0:05:49to start the evening right yeah they're related obviously great thank you can you pull it up all right good evening mayor Jones and members of the council my name is Maria Sanders and I'm an analyst in the Environmental Services Division tonight for your consideration is a

0:06:16resolution authorizing the city manager to execute a contract in the form in a form approved by the City attorney with RGS Energy Incorporated in an amount not to exceed one million five hundred and eighty seven thousand dollars to design and construct solar photovoltaic systems to offset energy

0:06:35use in six at six Municipal sites um and also here on this item are Jerry Bradshaw the Public Works director who can talk a little bit about um about our answer questions about public contract process uh Jonathan Whelan from optimy Inc who was the um who's which is the

0:06:58independent solar consulting firm that has helped us with these projects there and John hubenthal and Kevin okay there is that better John hubenthal and Kevin Johnston who are representatives of our RGS or Energy Systems which is the commercial division of real good solar and also Mary Dodge

0:07:26our finance director will be following me to present the financing for this project as the next agenda item thank you thank you the sites that we're recommending as part of this solar contract are the community center The Swim Center the public safety building fire station

0:07:4872 see first I have to turn this on sorry about that okay um and the um the recycling center in the Corp yard next as background in February of 2011 the city council adopted ghg emissions reduction targets of 15 percent below 2005 Levels by 2020 and 30 percent by

0:08:242035 from both Municipal and Community sources by offsetting the utility provided electricity which where every kilowatt hour produces about a half a pound of carbon dioxide the clean energy of solar is a powerful tool in helping any institution achieve these goals

0:08:44and right now the economics of solar are very favorable many solar projects can be cast cash positive meaning that paying for the system can be equal or better than the annual energy costs and indeed positive cash flows over the life of the system was a key criteria

0:09:03for moving forward on the project the project is an offshoot of analysis that we did in conjunction with the cities of Albany Piedmont and San Pablo as a part of our climate showcase communities Grant with the EPA in August of last year we reported to cancel on the results of a municipal

0:09:24solar feasibility study conducted by Optimum as of all the municipal buildings in each City and at that time Council approved issuing a joint solicitation with the other communities for proposals from solar contractors the following month Council approved using the design build solicitation

0:09:46process for installing solar at 24 sites 12 of which were in El Cerrito next we issued the RFQ RFP in December of 2011 and received qualifications from five firms in January of 2012.

0:10:06here we pre-qualified at this point we pre-qualified four out of five firms based on a review of their financials relevant experience safety record and a variety of other criteria to make sure that they could comply with the elements of public Contracting and in this pre-qualification process

0:10:25RGS received the highest score of all the applicants they have over 30 years of experience in California's solar industry sound financials and a long list of government customers in California and elsewhere throughout the United States next slide thanks in February we

0:10:46received proposals from two of the four pre-qualified firms the review battle panel consisted of staff from each firm our Public Works director environmental services staff and optimy in our review we were looking for realistic solar production numbers and high quality

0:11:04solar equipment for the lowest price and the and the best performance warranties both firms provided good energy production numbers and high quality Equipment however rgs's proposals scored higher than the other firm mostly on the basis of price that came in 23 percent

0:11:21lower for the same sites they also had some very competitive performance guarantees and warranties which I'll go into in a second because of this whole industry has pioneered financing products to eliminate the first costs the RFP also asked proposers to include a financing

0:11:42mechanism such as a power purchase agreement or an equipment lease while both proposals provided options neither neither were compelling the financing options neither were compelling which made us realize that the city could get better financing terms on its own

0:12:00based on these results we sent RGS a non-binding letter of intent as approved by the City attorney to enter into exclusive negotiations to so that we could hammer out the details this is where each City began their own work with RGS next press slide thanks because um the

0:12:22pool of proposals was small we did additional research to verify the competitiveness of rgs's pricing and this data here is from the solar the California solar initiatives website which tracks all projects receiving soil rebates in California and as you can see

0:12:40the RGS pricing of 447 per watt is um is well below the average for government projects and uh these oh if you can go forward again these right here the the Orange is um basically more comparable to their host owned as opposed to something where a third party is doing a

0:13:00very large project like a PPA our power purchase agreement so we're more comparable to the orange another important element of the RGS proposal is their competitive warranty and guarantee package the contract mechanism we will be using is the city standards Public Works contract

0:13:23including the performance and payment bonds but in addition RGS offers these warranties some of which are off are required by in order for us to qualify for rebates but um but many are above and beyond what's required and they also provided an energy production guarantee that they called

0:13:46the power pledge guarantee which covers a 10-year period and here um in in this situation in this guarantee if our power production goes below a guaranteed amount RGS will reimburse us for the cost of that loss production so during the exclusive negotiation period we worked with RGS to develop the

0:14:12most cost effective combination of projects in El Cerrito which is the portfolio that we're recommending today we did this by modeling the expected expenses versus Revenue over a projected 30-year life of the systems this worksheet is a compilation of all the sites the top bar here is our the

0:14:35summary of the sites and this over here are assumptions which we outlined in the um in the agenda bill um the expenses included expected o m and Debt Service and a depreciation in the annual energy production which is um standard for the industry was also figured in on the

0:14:57negative side and on the positive side are the utility cost savings and the California solar initiative rebates which would be paid to us on a monthly basis in monthly installments over five years these rebates which have been reserved would be essential to creating

0:15:18a positive cash flow for the first five years um here um I think um you may have noticed um at the kilowatt hours produced over here these are the PV the kilowatt hour produced is about 67 percent of the annual usage of the buildings but the offset in the cost is 84 percent

0:15:48of our utility bill next slide and this is because in commercial buildings when a facility switches to solar we would change our electricity rate for that for those facilities to a time of use rate so you can qualify for net metering during and then this is basically kind

0:16:08of a how time of use rate works during the height of the business day in the summer months PG e charges close to 45 cents a kilowatt hour and this green shaded areas um how the um how PG e steps up pricing throughout the day but then when you're solar which is the blue curve right here is

0:16:31producing more Kaw more kwh than your building consumes with which is the red curve so PG e will basically credit the account um at the high rate when you're producing the most energy and uh when your solar system is not producing and you need energy from the grid you're

0:16:52buying at a much lower rate which is down here in the 10 cents range instead of the 45 cents range so basically you're buying electricity at a low rate and selling it back to PG e at a high rate so in conclusion we are recommending that the solar be installed at these sites because they

0:17:13have the right combination of energy use solar potential and installation pricing to be cash positive and in the long run provides a tremendous cost savings to the city over the 30-year life of those of the of the um of the project are the equipment so why um why is this

0:17:35a good time for us to be doing this there's a convergence of two things that are making this cost positive at this point and one is the historic low interest rates which Mary will be discussing and then the rebates that we qualify for under the California solar

0:17:53initiative are um are in a process of being phased out by uh or being phased out by the state and um so we've reserved rebates for these projects it's the last and final step before they do get phased out so I'm not record sure what the what you know you know what the history not the

0:18:16history about what the future may be for Solar without the rebates but now is the time if you want to qualify for the rebates um by being cash positive we believe this that this project is financially responsible is a financially responsible way to meet our climate action goals and

0:18:34provide a pot and it provides a powerful demonstration of the city's leadership and and environmental stewardship the project will dramatically increase the amount of solar that we have throughout the entire community of El Cerrito and it provides clean energy for 28 percent

0:18:50of of the city's electricity or Municipal electricity use and it reduces our greenhouse gas emissions by five percent so um I Mary Dodge will come up and speak about the financing at this point welcome good evening mayor Jones a member of the council I'm Mary Dodge the

0:19:19administrative Services director and uh you know this is obviously a a very productive and the type of project that El Cerrito likes to do and so the next component is to determine what kind of financing we can do for it so once they've determined the amount to finance

0:19:36after quite a bit of time on which projects were going to be the most penciled out the best we um we went out and we contracted with Brandis Tallman who's the firm that we just recently used for our Tans and is a very reputable firm and they sent out seven bids and of those seven we only

0:19:54received one but that was from a company called Green campus Partners who specialize in this type of financing and I think understood the project a little bit better than some of the others they gave us an excellent bid and we had a choice of 2.6 for 10 years or 275 for 15

0:20:11years and in order to maximize our positive cash flow I would recommend that we go for the 15 years and spread it out as far as we could included in the financing amount was also the uh costs of issuance of eighty three hundred dollars and if you look at the cash flow we use the

0:20:38cash flow and the report I gave to you that was prepared by real good solar and included the actual debt amounts and you see that we do have a few negative years out there and six through eight at the end of the rebates but the cumulative totals overall are always

0:20:56positive and we do end up with a 3.8 million dollar positive amount over 30 years yeah so uh the timeliness of this project to get it to here today made it so the Fab received their materials at their December 9th meeting and there are some discussion points they had discussed in

0:21:14your report but they came to the consensus that the assumptions appeared valid and that the project should go forward as proposed so um if the council approves this resolution The Next Step would be for Myers Navi to prepare the documents for us to enter into the financing agreement

0:21:31we'll be happy to answer any questions questions just one I want to set the record straight the meeting that the financial Advisory Board held was October 9th not December 9th October 9th thank you Jeff um yes I am curious um I just want to verify I did ask the

0:21:55question but I just want to verify it and I'm I think a different staff member may be the right one to answer it and that has to do with the um use of solar panels on any particular building that might later go undergo renovation in the roof area or replacement altogether and and how

0:22:17that would impact um this project and the um you know the financial particularly it seems like it would impact the um would it impact the finances I would think it might in some way if you could address that yeah um we did as a part of our our feasibility study

0:22:41um check for whether roofs needed repair over the next you know um amount of time um and so from that perspective if there was a roof issue that was one of the reasons that we didn't move with maybe a a facility um the one facility maybe the public safety building if we ever get

0:23:07um uh a way to get that completely rebuilt and we did take that into consideration and the way that we handled that was a good portion of the solars on carports off of the site um if you anytime that you do interrupt um you know energy production like you have to pull off the off the equipment

0:23:32in order to rebuild a site um you would interrupt the the cash flow or the cash the savings that you're getting from that site but theoretically you also aren't really using the energy on that side too so um so it's um it it is something that can happen but we did take that into consideration

0:23:55when we were putting together the the uh the portfolio the other somewhat related question I have is did you ever uh think about the possibility of instead of putting these panels on roofs putting them on a structure that could be built that would in fact be a um I guess what you

0:24:16maybe you're calling now a carport so that it would be covered it would create covered um surface level parking in some area of the city yeah and that's actually um we have to do it associated with the site um so and that's just the way that the um that this um

0:24:39solar and California is structured or in PG e territory is structured we can't with what they call Wheel energy from one site that's unconnected to the service to another site but we did a good portion of especially at the public safety building and at the community center and the recycling

0:25:04center is on the shed so we're just continuing the um the solar on the sheds at the recycling center so all those are there's most the majority of the solar at those sites are on carports that will be covered on par in the parking lots so in those cases it won't be on the roof

0:25:22even in this project um there will be uh some that will be on the roofs but the majority of all the solars on the carports thank you Rebecca yes thank you Maria just a couple questions just for my own edification when you were going through the 12 site selection can you tell us

0:25:42other factors that would disqualify a site uh you mentioned um the roof not being in great condition might be one of the factors what are the other things that made a site inappropriate uh yeah actually um we have about 22 buildings in the city 23 built somewhere in that range and

0:26:01um and only 12 made it onto the onto the list that went to into the RFP and during the feasibility portion that's when we eliminated some from consideration and um it was you know you know issues with the roof that was um that just wasn't the right rate structure or the energy use profile

0:26:23wasn't um right for being economically feasible there was maybe there's like too much shading with really really nice tree trees that we were never gonna consider getting rid of those kinds of things okay that's what I was thinking um I know the O M costs are so

0:26:43incredibly low um are these sort of standard for the industry and are they has Jerry Bradshaw thought about them or is this something I just want to make sure that that assumption has been vetted really carefully yeah and um the the O M costs could triple in our and

0:27:00our cash flow would still be fine um so from that perspective um but good the O M are basically um mainly cleaning on an annual basis so it's just basically washing down the um getting the particulate matter off of the panels um as a part of the of the power pledge

0:27:20guarantee there is um uh there is kind of some remote monitoring that has to happen and so that remote monitoring does alert and will have monitoring of our own so we'll actually have kind of a an energy management system that's attached to the buildings to make to them to know

0:27:38whether the the system's producing right and even if we're not watching it then with the RGS gets an alert you know because obviously it's in their financial stress interest for it not to um to slide so um so uh from that perspective it is mainly about washing the panel

0:27:58just kind of a quick accounting question so the cumulative cash flow that we're showing will and given that we're entering to a lease purchase agreement will will this be in sort of a segregated account um from Mary's perspective will we be kind of monitoring the payments we're

0:28:13making under the lease purchase agreement and the savings we have under utilities how will just I'm kind of curious how will this all how can we look back in 10 years and kind of take a look at how this program is gone um the way we would be accounting for this is we would have the debt be in a

0:28:30regular debt payment and the way that we would make sure that we had the right utility savings would be the analysis that Maria does already on the bills we would have to be looking at the the cost reductions and Maria already keeps some pretty detailed schedules of what our

0:28:47usage is it would be captured it would be able to be presented but we're not going to have any Contra Revenue recording that shows the savings it will have to be done by analysis of the expenditures okay so I think so so just so that kind of means that to the extent that our staff

0:29:07members have the time to kind of keep track of this that they will do so but it will not be you we won't have a special account set up it will not be a requirement of the resolutions we're passing tonight it is not structured to be that way and I'm not exactly sure how we would do

0:29:23that other than maintaining a separate schedule if we have a uh a PG e bill that comes in at 200 instead of 500 we still have to pay it at two hundred dollars right and we can note that it used to be 500 but we can't put that into the accounting system exactly are

0:29:40you yeah we our responsibility to make sure that we maintain that data so that we can analyze it and present it again okay thank you thank you uh maybe I missed it but I didn't see in the report is there any provision of updating uh the equipment to Future technology and if so is that an

0:30:08expense for us or is an expense for uh RGS no there wouldn't be any provision for that so the equipment that we have is the equipment that we will continue even if okay so even if in the future which I'm fully expecting they're going to come up with [Music] um with equipment that would be far more

0:30:32efficient than what is now there's still no provision to go to that we we're stuck with this for 30 years um yeah and um I mean the one thing is to remember is that we are getting a production guarantee so um from that perspective it's like it's still going to be chugging out the Energy savings

0:30:52that we are um are predicting um the but I mean it's the same kind of thing with any other um any other kind of equipment costs that you buy I mean any kind of equipment that you buy it's like when we buy a computer they don't replace the computer for free after you buy the

0:31:12computer because the Technologies change right but we well they do with copiers but I mean uh if you're leasing The copier yeah go ahead but I think what I'd add to that because we've talked about the that would have affected size of the system right so when you buy it now you're

0:31:33buying a certain amount of production capacity if the technology becomes more efficient in the future which it might in five years ten years two years that would just affect what you were buying but you would so it might be on a smaller portion of our buildings for

0:31:48example but we would still be buying the same production so so there's no loss in the fact that you do it now based on what Maria said because we're doing it on production so if technology got better maybe it could get cheaper but maybe other forces would make it more

0:32:00expensive ideally it would get better and it would become cheaper the capital okay so what you're saying is is if we want an upgraded system we have to buy it okay that's fine and I think then the other point that Maria brought up though is that it wouldn't change the cash flow

0:32:14analysis okay right you'd have a whole new capital cost no I understand that I was looking for even better cash flow but that's okay um you mentioned the other cities that were in the and then we got into just El Cerrito but as RGS also serving the other cities in the agreement yeah they

0:32:34not in the agreement that we're um you know everybody every city is negotiating their own agreement um at this point in time um but yes every city is moving forward with a project um with uh RGS okay so part of the reason why we got into this was to maybe um with four cities it would help the

0:32:56overall purchasing power did we realize that um I believe so just from the competitiveness of the of the um of the pricing and uh from if every I also know that um some of the other cities have a slightly smaller sites um that they're pricing uh probably would have been higher there is an

0:33:21economies of scale here that that RGS is expect Dean okay so you you think it was better to go on our own rather than to join in a in a city procurement of All City procurement program we did do that we went out and we did um issue the RFP as a joint and yeah the

0:33:42reason that we didn't if I understand your question correctly the reason that we didn't actually negotiate one great big huge contract is um because uh it gets really complicated if you start thinking we'd have to kind of form a jpa and all this kind of stuff it gets very complicated very quickly to

0:34:00try to think about how you would how you would go about doing who would be responsible for you know payments on behalf of another city or any of those kinds of things sure if I understood your question correctly that's yes okay okay I think one of the benefits realized

0:34:19from joining the four cities together is that this actually happened I think without the impetus of having the four cities joining together and having the the whole Pro program that we're involved in to help fund the background I don't know that any of the Cities would have been able to get

0:34:35through this process because none of the cities have in-house the the expertise to understand this or the resources to go out and bring the consultants in to to develop this especially for fairly small sites like we had so I think the real benefit of combining together was

0:34:51was actually make this happen which is part of the whole showcase Grant was to say how can small cities take advantage of this technology and by Banning together is that a way that helps we're hoping that this demonstration project we're involved in can help educate you

0:35:06know other cities in that process okay thank you and um I was just wondering did we come up with how much we're actually saving an energy source the actual energy itself The Source like uh I know the emissions were saving but the energy source itself yeah the um the

0:35:30kilowatt hours is about almost a half a million kilowatt hours a year half a million yeah okay what's that equate to something that um a house or something up with something that's about the same as uh for 70 homes 70 homes yes and and we're doing that by just putting these on public buildings

0:35:56yes great that sounds very good thank you very much thank you all right your question one of your questions triggered a question for me um that I I don't think it's a um I'm gonna ask the question um at the end of the service life of this equipment is there any uh tricky

0:36:17disposal requirements uh to properly recycle or dismantle and we'll have to use cranes I assume to dismantle it so there is a disassembly cost is that factored in and and do we have some sense of um is there uh for example Mercury I know Mercury is probably not used in

0:36:36solar panels but is there some sort of heavy metal or some other chemical that's used in the production that's going to cause the disposal at the end of the service life to be a cost that we have not accounted for um I'm gonna um punt the lar the questions about

0:36:53waste to real good solar um uh but um we did not factor that into the the cost the one the one ongoing kind of um cap uh kind of expense is replacing the inverter at year 15.

0:37:10that's in the cash flow as well so the other other negatives great thank you you want to answer yeah for is is clean technology really clean John from RGS energy to answer your question the solar manufacturers have in place a very rigorous recycling program each manufacturer does the warranty on

0:37:32these panels are 25 years so at the end of 25 years the technology costs we assume will be very cheap to come in and take those modules off recycle them and put in new technology you'll still have racking in place you'll have the carports in place so the infrastructure will still be

0:37:47there um so to kind of answer your question they can be recycled and it should be cost effective in 25 years we expect great that is the answer I was looking for thank you any other could I ask oh I was gonna say um the other this this is sort of just a comment and this

0:38:04is having to do with uh where we started in this whole project with which was with the small cities uh climate action plan and working together and it was um not particularly to save money but rather to um have a positive impact on environmental issues so if we've actually in this case

0:38:29added on us the criteria of the finances of the things so that we would have to um I think we're saying when I don't know that I specifically saw this but that we want to you know not have it cost us money to do this so if we um had a different criteria in that in

0:38:51regards to the money or that if we for example which we like to do to do things um got a grant to do some more of this which is what I'm wondering about really is then it would would it would be possible I would assume to um feel better about the finances of doing

0:39:14additional build public buildings in our city and I'm just wondering if by doing that project separately from this project it would be um the whole cost of doing that new project would sort of start all over again or would it be able to take advantage of some of the work that was

0:39:37done in getting ready for this project yeah actually um that's a good point uh the the feasibility study analyzed all of our buildings so um to a certain extent we have a municipal solar feasibility study for for our entire Municipal facility and um the reason that of the 12 that we put

0:40:02into the RFP that six went forward and six did not is that the six were the the smallest sites out there and and are the small sites in that portfolio so that was like Fairmont child care and and uh you know Madera child care and the reason is is just simply that

0:40:25smaller sites are still kind of coming in a little bit expensive so um so they were not cash positive uh we you know um had that not been a criteria it would have been very easy for us to roll them in um but it did drag the entire portfolio down to kind of place where we where it

0:40:44was getting to be cash negative um for a very small you know for a smaller Energy savings but that's not to say that as the so as solar gains more penetration and and um the you know in as a as a form of getting our electricity and prices come down um that that those could become

0:41:09financially viable um soon so we have that information and and I do plan to be watching for those kinds of opportunities in the future so thank you I think and I think that my question is a little bit related to that so looking at this cash flow you know this is a

0:41:28prediction for the future and that's why I was asking about are we gonna how are we gonna be able to keep track of this in year 10 we're up 80 000 if all these assumptions are correct and we won't know until the future happens whether or not our predictions are are right but

0:41:41I'd like to know whether or not the staff internally or through your contacts with the other cities we've been working with if some thought has been given about if we realize this cash flow is there a good way to leverage this type of positive cash flow to achieve some of the other goals we have

0:41:59which councilmember Abelson was talking about with regard to you know working on climate action and all of the other obviously there's lots we can do municipally but of course we're we're a city and many of our emissions don't don't come directly from the city so it

0:42:13has there been any thought about this cash flow and how it might be used to leverage action on the part of residents or businesses or others in our city um no we haven't specifically um had an internal conversation about that um but that's not to say that we don't we couldn't

0:42:33savings um for our Energy Efficiency Melanie just pointed out that um for our Energy Efficiency projects um we do have um our Energy Efficiency our energy and water efficiency program we call it ewap and and the um it's basically kind of a revolving energy um of savings fund

0:43:00which usually gets a small amount of energy of of kind of savings from Energy Efficiency projects that we've done we transfer those kinds of savings if there's real you know budget savings at the end of the year we would transfer that to um to that um with in a specified formula to enter

0:43:21the eweb program and basically what that does is that helps us kind of fund Future Energy Efficiency projects for the city right okay thank you that's helpful thank you appreciate it I think before we take final comment we're going to have uh if ask if there's any public input on this

0:43:43we have one speaker slip Al Miller foreign ER [address removed] here in El Cerrito I'm here to encourage your support of the project the Merit both from an energy point of view and uh Financial low Financial cost is I think Apparent from the presentation that staff has made

0:44:13but I wanted to acknowledge another aspect of it that I think is probably even more important or just as important to the city all of you either in your own campaigns or in the years you've served as City Council Members have continually expressed support for environmental

0:44:32issues in response to the high expectations of most of the residents of El Cerrito that we favor uh doing whatever we can to improve our quality of life in the environment that we live in and support that I think through the consistency of your efforts in that effort in that uh

0:44:54Program in those programs from the generation of the environmental equality committee and responding to their initiatives from the consistent policy you've provided through the city manager and therefore into the staff this becomes another great example of elected

0:45:15officials working together in response to requests and demands from their citizens to do something good for the city good for our environment and therefore good for our quality of life so I want to acknowledge that and thank you for that thank you thank you very

0:45:33much next uh item was or uh speaker no other speaker slips okay great we'll bring them back to the council um final comments on this before we take action I'd like to make a comment and I'm fully indulging myself at this moment I've been thinking about this a lot

0:45:55um because now I have a child you all know who's won and the year I always am looking at climate predictions out in the future and there's a favorite one which is out there about the year 2100 and when you hear that that sounds really far away but once I had a child I

0:46:11realized wow she'll be 90 years old and that is not an unattainable age for her to get to so when we hear predictions from all of our climate scientists about sea level rise by 2100 and the type of changes that are fully expected to have occurred by then I want to take a moment

0:46:29to at least think to myself what can I tell her we were talking about we were doing during these times and I imagine that right now during the presidential debate there's probably not been one question having to do with climate change and I am happy that I am not

0:46:44sitting there saying I could have talked about this I could have done something about it and I didn't so I'm so happy to have this program this is not the be-all end-all but at least we can sit here and say we were talking about this issue and we were concerned with it and where we

0:46:58were where we could take action we were taking action and by the way we're also helping to demonstrate to other cities that you can take this action without it being a huge dent in your pocketbook so I appreciate what the staff has done and um they all of the items in the staff

0:47:14report were the things I was looking for that the cash flow um the low interest rate it seems to me that this deal has been put together with a lot of Consciousness and I appreciate um the work that we've done with our design building because I know it must be difficult to work with four cities so

0:47:29we do appreciate you coming to the um you know being present at all these things and answering questions we might have so I'm happy to support these wanna um like I said um and I also want to particularly thank our staff that has worked on this I remember when we received we got word

0:47:52that we had received the small cities climate action plan Grant and how exciting it was you know to be doing something Innovative and out there and I want to really thank our staff uh in particular Maria who I can't quite figure out where she is right now there

0:48:10she is I see a hand um who actually is I think been the main person on our staff if not the main person in the four cities um working on this program and I I am very pleased with its outcome but I know that she hasn't been there alone that there are other staff Melanie Mary you

0:48:30know and I don't know who I'm missing so I always hate to name names you're missing Jerry um and um I I really do appreciate the way this has been pulled together um and the way it has um fulfilled um the direction of the small cities climate action plan Grant but yet it's

0:48:55been financially frugal which is the thing we also do like to see in our cities and how it's something that we can all just simply be proud of so thank you very much and also to senior staff Scott Hannon and I'll bet Karen pinkos had something to do with it a little bit maybe yeah

0:49:17so I'd like to really thank everybody for um making our vision a reality thank you yeah I'd like to add my thanks as well to everyone who participated in the project um to think that this is a cost-effective way to change how 28 28 it's almost a third of our City's power

0:49:38is generated and we get to reduce our Peak power Demand on the grid which is always a good thing but for me to buy cheap power from PG e and sell it back to them at a higher rate how can how can you not support this project so um yeah thank you I I do have one act of

0:50:00business that I would like to to discuss when we bring up resolution 7A there's some wording changes I'd like to propose but uh I I in all support yeah my comments I agree uh with my colleagues here on those comments I uh not all this is not a list of all the features I like but some of

0:50:22them is um I'm not an expert but I read quite a bit and talk to people and I know in the residential area and the small business area people that I've talked to that use solar they found that actually the estimates of conservation is is um is conservative basically that they

0:50:40are getting more results out of their systems than what was thought and of course when you have companies that are guaranteeing things they have to be conservatives so to me using solar I think your expectations even exceed the the estimates that you go in thinking about

0:51:02when you when you start in uh I appreciate Fab the finance Advisory Board taking a look at it always like their comments um they do point out that just about everything we do there's a risk no matter how low there's a risk involved but that shouldn't keep us from

0:51:24pursuing a direction that has been well thought out many if not all the angles have been looked at and this is something going forward in the future and we should all be proud of I think um and lastly and the thing I like about the financing of it the most is I

0:51:43consider this having dedicated funding and what I mean by that is utility costs we have whether we use solar whether we use PG e whatever whether we use generators to to power our things there are costs involved and so we're taking some of those costs and and balancing out paying this off and as

0:52:08we've seen the cash flow is good my only suggestion is that we put a note in there so that the future people that really come along either on the council or on the staff in future years knows that this is offsetting utility money and that shouldn't be lost that thought shouldn't be lost because

0:52:30if we didn't use it for the solar program we'd be paying it out in in some other way so in that regard I I really like it I considered it a dedicated funding and I hope that we put a note in to make sure that future people understand that this is an offset and so it isn't get lost and and becomes

0:52:50a burden on the operation budget yeah I'd like to make the motion um but before I make the motion I want to um this is motion for agenda item 7A um I do want to point out that the title says six Municipal sites the tenth whereas clause which is the last whereas

0:53:09Clause um on the first page which runs onto the second page only lists five sites um so technically it's six buildings or six structures at five sites but so we don't have to change the title what I would like to do is name both the community center offices and the

0:53:32community center pool in the tenth whereas Clause such that there is six sites named in the tenth whereas Clause to match the title and resolution so the six the tenth whereas Clause would read the whereas the RGS energies final proposal includes solar foot photo

0:53:53voltaic systems that will provide enough energy savings at the public safety building the community center offices the community center pool Fire Station 72 the recycling center and the incorporation yard to support the annual cost of debt service on the equipment

0:54:11and with that I'd be delighted to remove a resolution on the city council of the city of El Cerrito authorizing the city manager to execute a contract in a form approved by the City attorney with RGS energy Inc in an amount not to exceed one million five hundred and

0:54:30eighty seven thousand dollars to design and construct solar photovoltaic systems at six Municipal sites I'm willing to Second it but I do have a question about the language that was being proposed because what I thought I heard said is that some of the panels will in fact be

0:54:50installed not on the buildings but in the um yeah no the um it's still uh there are two service electrical services at the swim center and the community center offices so so used was office um and I'm wondering if that adequately covers anything installed in the

0:55:18parking lot yeah it would because it's servicing the offices in the Swim Center so it's servicing the all the electricity at both those sites that's consistent I'm just using language that's consistent with the agenda bill yeah it is you're your language is consistent with

0:55:38and and if you look at figure two which lists the six sites that were brought forward um it does list the it commingles the offices and the pools as both roof and carport and I find it hard to believe that the pool has a roof so I I assume that's the community center it's

0:55:59actually the um the lockers there's some a small amount is going on the Lockers in the in the equipment room and then the rest of us in the in the parking lot that I guess that's why I'm wondering about the word office because to me office means this like business it's a

0:56:15it's a room where we do our business operations it's not a room where the program is so for example the garden center I would not call an office the um we could um actually quite learn about and it might maybe that my concern should really be addressed not just with

0:56:36the change that was proposed but to the original use of it too well why don't we just make it simple in my opinion uh why don't we just say the community center and the swim center and then that way it's designated and we don't get into whether we meet office or

0:56:56not just sites I I think those are identifiable sites in the city that have been used many times that would work yes that works for me as well so the the 10th Warehouse Clause would be Community Center and Swim Center The Swim Center identifying the sixth location

0:57:20okay and councilmember Lyman you accept that as a friendly Amendment to the motion I do friendly moment to the motion to modify the language of whereas Clause number 10.

0:57:31the title that I've read is Remains the Same great appreciate it I'm looking for a second I did do I need to say I want you to Second it again it moves in second in on the on the resolution proposed resolution all those in favor aye aye opposed motion carries thank you

0:57:54very much thank you for our hard work and when do we when do we start saving money and get the solar power rolling we got to pay for it first I was going to say first you need to have a resolution to actually Finance it well no it's just a small detail thank you very much I'd like to move a

0:58:13resolution of the city council the city of El Cerrito authorizing the execution of a lease purchase agreement by and between the city of El Cerrito and green Campus Partners LLC for the purpose of purchasing solar equipment to provide for energy cost savings for the city

0:58:28second the motion it's been moved in second discussion seen on all those in favor aye oppose motion carries thank you very much next item please 7c Potrero Avenue intersection safety improvements between 55th and 56th streets city project number we have a staff report 3045

0:58:53thank you mayor and Council I'm Jerry Bradshaw your Public Works director that last item is a hard act to follow I have a little more challenging item for you this time over the past several years I've brought many different construction projects up to council for approval for award

0:59:12and particularly in the last three or four years we've enjoyed some very favorable bid Market that helped us move projects forward and actually get a lot more work done than we thought particularly in the area of Street improvements the pendulum is swinging back now

0:59:27however and prices are rising in some cases significantly particularly in the case of concrete work this project we had before us is a highway safety Improvement project at Potrero Avenue and Interstate 80 and the joining intersect local intersections on either side

0:59:49we applied for the grant in 2009 I believe and we had estimated the construction costs at that time to be about 460 thousand dollars as we went through the design process and we had to work with Caltrans closely on this since it's in there right away for the most part it took a while to get

1:00:07through the design approval process we kept revising the estimates upward and as just as we went out to bid or we had revised the estimates up to 534 thousand as you see in the agenda Bill the bid results we actually had a little bitter that came in and beat that Engineers

1:00:25estimate Unfortunately they were found to be non-responsive and I can answer questions on that later if you'd like um so we are defaulting to the second low bidder who came in just a little over our Engineers estimate at 560 000 but that's a full hundred thousand more

1:00:45than what we estimated when we put the the uh the grant proposal in for the safety Grant three years ago so what that leaves us with is a shortfall in the funding for this project um of approximately a hundred and sixteen thousand if you add in the attendant soft costs that would also rise with the

1:01:08construction costs so as I point out in the agenda Bill we have three options before us one is to reject all bids which is fully within our right to do that um and then redesign the project and go back out and bid it again in some cases this is what I would recommend I have

1:01:26actually done that in the past but in a rising bid Market I am reluctant to recommend going back to the drawing board and coming back out in three or four or five months another option would be to go get more money for the project we have actually been working with the different funding

1:01:45agencies and we have not had much luck to date but that still is an option before us and the third option is to go ahead and award the contract as is and rely on in the field of deductive change orders to to bring this cost down and there is some attendant risk with that so what

1:02:03we've come up with is a bit of a hybrid approach and it's a little unconventional which is one of the reasons we're making a particular policy presentation about this tonight the recommendation is that we blend the second and third elements of the options which is to continue looking for

1:02:20additional funding and also negotiate with the contractor for reductions but in order to open negotiations we have to actually designate them a little better and authorize and award to them so we have to leave the competitive bid process before we can negotiate anything

1:02:36with them so the wording and the recommendation stems from that situation we are confident after looking at the elements of the project that we have some value engineering that can be done first of all we had a bid alternate that was twenty eight thousand dollars by the

1:02:53lowest bidder and there are some parts of the base contract that if we eliminated the the seal coat some of the payment repairs would go with it so we could save 30 to 40 000 there if we had to just eliminate that part of the work we could also try and find some money to

1:03:09perform that Paving work other than the grant money so those are options we're looking at for the paving portion there's also a raised median element that really is not substantial to the safety goals of the project that we think we can eliminate and then there's

1:03:23some other efficiencies we think the contractor would be willing to discuss uh for for trimming the cost down all in all we're confident we can bring this project in with um with the structure that we presented here tonight to authorize the city managers to award

1:03:39this project to graduate construction and contingent upon either finding funding or value or negotiating the cost down or some blend of the two before I wrap up I would like to recommend one wording change in the resolution in the therefore be it resolved portion

1:04:01the second half where you authorize the city manager toward a contract contention on successfully securing additional grant funding I'd like to strike the word Grant and just allow us to open it up for any additional funding that we are able to find and that gives us a little more

1:04:18flexibility that way any problems um we just a word about the process we have we if we eliminate the raised median and some of the other elements we may have to go back through Caltrans and get a revision to our permit we've already gotten a permit from Caltrans to do the work so that uh

1:04:37we'll have to work with the contractor quickly establish the the conceptual scope that we're changing and get through Caltrans that could be a four-week process there they're aware that we're looking at this and hopefully they'll be ready for us but they will move at their own pace

1:04:52okay Jack um what I'm remembering in that area uh having traveled through that area as a pedestrian is that there are some accessibility issues yes and I'm wondering if this project includes um taking care of those issues I think they involve reaching the signal push buttons

1:05:14and it also maybe some curb reps like between the um carols and the pet food store are those included in this project yeah they certainly are particularly the ramp that's was never there and uh right we're rebuilding new um Corners we're reconfiguring the shape of the roadway

1:05:33there in some respects so that'll be all new none of that would be compromised in this um um cutting down of the scope of the project no no it would still be compliant and we've also considered not just accessibilities but all pedestrian issues and bicycle issues are still

1:05:51going to be incorporated here thank you um are you expecting a protest from Gonzalez gonzal Lev Gonzalez Gonzalez I'll say it for you thank you and Sons are you expecting a protest from them um not at this point we actually had a formal protest from redwick they wanted

1:06:12to make sure that we considered that the low bidder was non-responsive and we have responded to redwick saying that we are are recommending a disqualification or a a non-responsive finding for uh for gonsalves we copied gonsalves on that correspondence we did have some

1:06:34telephone conversations they were disappointed to say the least I'll be honest after look at their price I was a little disappointed too but my hands are somewhat tied in this case so we just couldn't couldn't go forward so I think we're done with that issue this

1:06:47intersection is in the I-80 congestion program and I'm assuming that all of the improvements you're proposing will accommodate the signalization that they're proposing later correct they're they're um the impact of the integrated Corridor Management program on local streets is primarily

1:07:10signal timing and this they're aware that we're changing the signal phasing here slightly and if they have to interconnect these intersections with the San Pablo Corridor for instance that will all be taken care of Without Really any effect on this yeah I think if I

1:07:25remember correctly they were going to put a controller box in this area so I just want to make sure that you've carved out a spot for that to land and maybe even provide electrical stub outs in your concrete works that they're not damaging the concrete work when they

1:07:36come through um I will double check on that I'm not that specific with the intimate details there but we will double check on that yeah it just strikes me that we're going to put in all those grand brand new concrete and if they come along and have to trench through it to put in

1:07:51electrical conduits for theirs that wouldn't be fun no no thank you if I might not do that that project is is actually having the um groundbreaking Thursday I'm actually going to be one of the speakers the groundbreaking itself will be held in Emeryville because the

1:08:08project goes from the Bay Bridge to to the carquinas bridge so um it's it's looming it could work looming in a good way yes yes um just so can you tell us about um the disqualification and the addendum one and the bid not being described not being provided in the prescribed form

1:08:30yeah we um as is often the case as we go through a bid process we get a lot of questions and where questions are bring up valid issues we issue addendum to the to the bid documents and those are distributed to all plan holders of record and when they turn in their bids

1:08:44they need to acknowledge that they got all the addenda in this case I think we just had the one addendum gonzalvis did not acknowledge in their bid documents that they received it we confirmed later that they did not include the information denim went into their bid

1:09:00there are some cases where that might be a minor irregularity if it doesn't affect the competitive nature you could maybe waive that if it's a process addendum or something that doesn't affect the cost or affect the approach that the contractor would take in bidding it you could consider waiving

1:09:17that I've done that in the past but in this case we actually added an entirely additional bid item that was approximately fifteen to sixteen thousand dollars in cost it was the cost of the of their permit to get from Caltrans we changed it from being a City cost to a contractor cost

1:09:33and uh and all the other bidders included that in their bid and as a result since there's a whole new bid item we gave them a new bid form so that there was a line to fill in the price so Gonzales used the original bid form they didn't even have a price for that I

1:09:47would entirely upset the competitive nature yeah thank you okay uh just had a couple questions here Jerry um a little disappointed in hearing that we may be scaling down you seem confident that we will keep the core reasons why this project was was going forward and the raised was it the raised

1:10:13island or the raised it's a raised Median on the East Shore leg Yeah and I'm a little disappointed that's coming out but you feel confident that we will meet the basics needed down there to improve because it this work is needed down there that's for sure yes we are in fact there's two branches

1:10:32of Caltrans we have to deal with the permit section obviously is writing the permits for the work we're doing but more importantly the local assistance branch is the funding arm they actually are agents of the Federal Highway Administration to watch the federal

1:10:46funding and we cleared with them first of all to make sure that the what we're talking about scaling back wouldn't affect our grant obviously if we're not going to do what we promise to do in the grant then then we would jeopardize the whole thing so we've cleared that with

1:10:59them and they said no it doesn't doesn't affect the safety issues that raised meeting is off to the side there actually is a small median now we elected to just make it a little larger but to have that just come out altogether does not affect the overall impact of the safety elements in the

1:11:13project okay our sales tax road money is it possible to use some of that at this project or are we already are planning to do that no we had not planned to do that prior but that is an option for us the the paving elements in this project do qualify for our annual Paving program

1:11:34money so that is an option that we could look at to help fund some of the paving elements if we choose to keep those in the project something that staff has a authority to do it at our level if we uh just allocate it that way okay good thank you all right that's all for our questions

1:11:54do we have public comment on this item I have no speaker slips okay we'll bring it back final comments please starting with uh Janet you want to start um I don't have any um final comments I'd be happy to make a motion later yeah I've got a comment you know it getting more money is going to be very

1:12:14difficult in these times uh money doesn't come on a tree so I'm going to encourage the I support this Motion in contingent with uh trying to negotiate uh do value engineering but I'm actually going to press staff to not just look at the contractors contribution to this

1:12:34although they may have the largest share there is a CM firm so I'm expecting the CM firm to also tighten their pencil and and accordingly have a reduction as well so let both the contractor and the CM firm here tonight that funding is tough and and we need everybody to sharpen their pencils we're

1:12:55not out of this recession yet so they they need to keep that lead Sharp um this intersection I agree with the mayor this intersection desperately needs to be improved so I certainly would um support moving forward this project and and continuing to pressure both the

1:13:13CM firm and the contractor to consider what they can to help us get this project moving forward yeah I would concur with that and also you're saying I'm surprised at how much uh pedestrian traffic goes uh down there and so I'm sure the the residents down there that use that thoroughfare to go

1:13:38from one place to another will be happy with the improvements it doesn't surprise me that staff came and indicated that the lowest bid was actually over the engineer's estimate um we're finding that especially the last six weeks that just about every project we're looking at comes in over budget

1:14:02and what's happening is the engineers estimate they estimate by what what happens backwards a certain period of time and I think they've hit the lowest level they're still operating at the lowest level and as these costs come up it hasn't caught up yet with with the S

1:14:18estimating mechanisms so we're seeing that we bid my company bid two today both were over the engineers estimate by a good 10 to 15 percent so unfortunately it's too bad especially when we're using 2009 figures that were over but um I would like this to go forward and

1:14:40see what we can do because it's needed and so long as the basics are in there then I think uh we should move forward on it so with that I understand somebody wants to make a motion before you proceed just I want to make sure you're removing the word Grant that's also in the title thank you thank

1:14:56you okay it's not just in the tent where it's not just in the now therefore be result okay thank you um so I move resolution to the city council the city of El Cerrito adopting a resolution approving plans rejecting the bid from uh Jay egg and as always and Sun Construction Incorporated as

1:15:16non-responsive and accepting all other bids and authorizing the city manager to award a contract contingent on successfully securing additional funding and or successful negotiations with redwood red Ridge Wick Construction Company the lowest responsive bidder for the project in an

1:15:39amount to be determined after undergoing a value Engineering Process which is not inconsistent with the approved budget for the Potrero Avenue intersection safety Improvement between 55th and 56th Street project contract number c-3045 foreign that's good um any last comments discussions all those

1:16:07in favor aye aye proposed motion carries thank you I just want to know what the title that long did we even need the warehouses in this okay thank you next item please Council assignments and liaison reports I have nothing to report this week no no no it's been a quiet month

1:16:30with that I'm looking to adjourn seeing no objection thank you for coming we adjourn tonight's meeting I'm sorry Mr Mayor can you also announced the closed session that's following the meeting oh geez I'm sorry about that we do have a closed session um a conference in labor negotiations uh

1:16:50pertinent to government code section 54957.6 [Applause] and as uh as stated it is a labor negotiation is there any uh oral communication from the public on this no speaker slips okay then we will recess the closed session thank you