■ Commission had sought city funds to keep Climate Action Plan contractor for 2 years

Benicia City Council agreed Tuesday with a Community Sustainability Commission recommendation to extend Alex Porteshawver’s time as the city’s contract Climate Action Plan coordinator.

But the Council opted only to extend Porteshawver’s contract by a year, not the two requested by the Community Sustainability Commission, balking at spending more money with her new employers even if the bulk of the cost were to be covered by the Valero-Good Neighbor Steering Committee Settlement Agreement fund.

When Porteshawver started as the CAP coordinator in 2012, she was at Sonoma State University, which won the city’s contract for those services. The arrangement and her work in Benicia were eventually expanded, costing Benicia $80,000 for the contract that ends June 30.

Last year, Porteshawver left Sonoma State for a position with PMC, an environmental services firm with an office in Oakland.

That company agreed Porteshawver could keep her position in Benicia for its original price, but offered the city a new one-year contract at $150,000 that would reduce her time at City Hall from four days a week to one, with a second day spent in Oakland on Benicia projects.

In addition, the company offered some of its technical expertise that would help in logging the city’s progress on greenhouse gas emissions reduction and other tasks.

The Community Sustainability Commission felt so strongly that Porteshawver should keep her position that it offered to spend some of its share of the Valero-Good Neighbor Steering Committee money on her contract, and asked PMC to submit a two-year contract, rather than a pact for a single year.

The Valero-Good Neighbor Steering Committee Settlement Agreement account was established for Benicia and Benicia Unified School District use through the Valero-Good Neighbor Steering Committee Settlement Agreement. All parties have agreed to the settlement, which is like a contract for the money’s disbursement. Money in that account can be used only for specific projects or expenditures.

In 2008, the refinery and the steering committee agreed that of the $14 million settlement account, $200,000 should be spent on air quality monitoring; $50,000 for hybrid cars; $700,000 for trees; $1 million each for a refinery buffer and watershed acquisition; $400,000 for reducing greenhouse gas emissions by Benicia Unified School District; $10 million for water conservation; and $600,000 for Climate Action Plan projects.

The agreement was modified in 2010 so $2.85 million could be spent on the Benicia Community Center and other projects, and in lieu of attorney fees another $150,000 was earmarked for community gardens, a renewable energy manager, energy conservation, a school horticultural program and bicycle racks.

The sustainability commission recommends expenditures of undesignated money in the account.

PMC responded to the commission’s request with a list of projects on which Porteshawver could work, at $150,000 for the first year and $100,000 the second. In addition to sustainability duties, Porteshawver would participate in transferring her duties to city employees, the company offered.

At a special meeting May 21, the commission recommended using settlement agreement money to pay $150,000 for the first year of that contract and $75,000 of the second. It asked the Council to take $25,000 from the General Fund to pay for the balance.

But the Council, which would have had to take the $25,000 from city reserves, looked at the $449,000 remainder of that fund that has been the commission’s responsibility, then looked at applications for a combined $399,264 in grants for sustainability projects, and realized there wasn’t enough to go around.

“The work she’s done for the city is significant,” Vice Mayor Mark Hughes said. “But the contract is pricey — $150,000 for 16 hours a week.” He added that when he saw those numbers, “It surprised me.”

Hughes said, “As you see, the Valero-Good Neighbor Steering Committee money is dwindling, and its primary purpose was for water conservation.”

However, the sustainability commission has voted that reducing greenhouse gas emissions is a higher priority for the money, he noted.

He suggested that Porteshawver’s work schedule and the transition be compacted into a single year. “I’m open to one year, not two.”

Mayor Elizabeth Patterson worried that too much focus was being paid on the transition and too little attention was being paid to the environmental projects on Porteshawver’s work plan. She worried that those projects could be sent “into a black hole.”

She disagreed about the purpose of the funds in the commission’s care, reminding the Council that she was a founding member of the Good Neighbor Steering Committee, a grassroots organization of residents who have embraced environmental concerns.

The mayor praised the flexible approach the commission has taken.

Assistant City Manager Anne Cardwell suggested, in order to get the city’s two-year budget decided Tuesday night, that the Council approve a one-year project if it wasn’t comfortable spending additional money from its reserves during Fiscal Year 2016-17.

That would give the Council the opportunity to revisit the subject before the second half of the budget starts, Cardwell told the panel.

However, when Councilmember Alan Schwartzman asked whether Porteshawver’s projects and the transition could be completed in a year, Cardwell replied, “That will be challenging.”

In addition, she said, “A lot of programs are in progress, and without Alex, they’d be halted.”

Community Development Director Christina Ratcliffe agreed, saying the transition alone involved educating multiple employees, providing a redundancy that would preserve that knowledge among the majority should an employee leave.

Hughes agreed, saying that some of the projects may not be completed before Porteshawver would leave. He said the Council then would handle those projects the way it does any other budgetary matter.

Patterson, agreeing the transition “is a worthy goal,” said the one-year contract meant that Valero-Good Neighbor Steering Committee money would be spent on employee training rather than on projects to reduce greenhouse gases, save water or make other environmental progress.

She received support from Sharon Maher, the CSC’s vice-chairperson, and Constance Beutel, its founding chairperson.

“What Alex has brought to the city is intelligence and background,” Maher said. “She has brought us grants.” Compared to her benefits, Maher said, Porteshawver “is not expensive. … She’s more than paid for herself.

Those improvements have made Benicia a more desirable city to businesses and residents, she said.

Beutel told the panel Benicia has a hefty task if it is to meet 2020 greenhouse gas reduction goals. Each year, she said, the city must cut out 200,000 metric tons of those emissions.

A step toward that goal is the selection of Marin Clean Energy as the city’s primary supplier of power, she said, and one reason that has occurred is Porteshawver.

Reminding the Council of California’s severe drought and Texas’s devastating floods, Beutel blamed them on climate change that, if not addressed, will continue to cause problems.

Schwartzman failed to get Council approval of a two-year contract while directing the commission to approve applicants whose projects would save water.

Councilmember Tom Campbell said he couldn’t endorse the contract at all, because the salary approached that of department heads who spend far more than 16 hours in their offices or on city assignments. “She is not a senior manager,” he said, nor has she accomplished past projects alone.

“We’re dealing with PMC, not Alex,” Campbell said.

He chided the commission itself for failing to set up projects that were themselves sustainable. Instead, he said, some of the projects will ask for General Fund money when the Valero-Good Neighbor Steering Committee account is empty.

But the panel unanimously endorsed a motion Hughes initiated and several members modified.

By unanimous vote, the Council agree to spend $150,000 in Valero-Good Neighbor Steering Committee money for one year of PMC services, with the understanding that Porteshawver’s work plan likely would be revised and that the transition of her tasks to city employees should be finished in a year.

The wording meant PMC would need to resubmit a contract, but city staff assured the Council there are provisions for Porteshawver to stay on duty in Benicia.

“We want to preserve the projects we have in progress,” Campbell said.