Panel also mulls new 1-year pact for CAP coordinator

Benicia City Council on Tuesday will consider approving Community Sustainability Commission-recommended grants for environmental projects, then decide whether to accept a new contract for the city’s Climate Action Plan coordinator, Alex Porteshawver.

Earlier this year the CSC received seven grant applications for a combined $401,264. At its special meeting July 13, the group heard applicants’ presentations about their requests.

The panel then met July 20 to apply its six evaluation criteria to the requests — water and energy conservation, quantifiable goals, collaboration with other organizations and community groups, outreach to other segments of Benicia, whether the applicant is combining its request with other funding sources, and documented experiences.

The commission recommended spending $294,400 in Valero-Good Neighbor Steering Committee settlement agreement funds on six of the seven projects.

The largest portion, $99,400, the CSC recommended be spent on Benicia’s continuing Home Efficiency Program, submitted by the established contractor, WattzOn. The program, which analyzes water and power use in homes and recommends changes the homeowner could make, is expected to save 1.038 million gallons of water and 70,000 kilowatt hours of electricity as well as reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 46,820 pounds.

The CSC also recommended awarding $60,000 to Benicia Public Works, which had asked for $100,000 for its residential turf replacement rebates that supplement Solano County’s reimbursements. That project is expected to save 3.2 million gallons of water — based on consumption rates of 32 gallons a year per square foot of lawn — and 2.38 metric tons of carbon dioxide.

The city’s Community Development Department would receive its entire $50,000 request for its residential solar project that would save anywhere from 521,362 to 58,327,405 gallons of water and between 0.63 to 70 metric tons of carbon dioxide through incentives that help residents put solar panels on their homes.

Another $45,000 has been recommended for the Public Works Water Smart project that monitors individual homes’ water consumption and makes comparisons with other consumers, including a control group, for which $69,889 had been asked. The project would save 65 acre-feet of water at the end of its first year, and 87 acre-feet by the end of its second year.

Arts Benicia has been recommended to get $30,000 of the $48,300 it requested. Though neither water nor greenhouse gas emissions would be saved in the art projects for which the money would be used, the panel said it recognized the importance of art’s ability to reach and educate the public that other methods can’t accomplish.

The CSC also recommended doubling its own request of $5,000 for celebration of Drive Electric Week, and is asking the Council to authorize spending $10,000 on the event.

However, the panel didn’t recommend funding the Benicia Tree Foundation, which had asked for $28,675 to plant and maintain trees in the city, including adding some to the Community Park and Lake Herman areas.

The CSC acknowledged that while trees sequester greenhouse gases, they also require water at a time the state is in a severe drought. In addition, commission members said the foundation hasn’t used money from previous grants, and some members expressed concern that some of the trees the foundation planted may not be receiving the care necessary for them to thrive.
Community Development Director Christina Ratcliffe wrote that the grants would be funded in their entirety by the Valero-Good Neighbor Steering Committee money.

The CSC also recommended last March that the Council use the same funding source to underwrite Climate Action Plan implementation and monitoring through contract services with Alex Porteshawver.

Porteshawver initially became the Climate Action Plan coordinator under the city’s contract with Sonoma State University, which won the bid for work starting in 2012. She eventually was spending four days a week at City Hall.

However, Porteshawver has changed employers and now works for Michael Baker International, which bought PMC, a firm with offices in Oakland.

When Porteshawver was hired by PMC before its purchase, the firm allowed her to complete her existing contract with the city, and the university had no objection.

As that contract approached its June 30 expiration, PMC and then Michael Baker submitted a revised contract that would allow Porteshawver to work in Benicia one day, work on Benicia issues at its office for a second day and supply other technical support for local climate change endeavors.

City Manager Brad Kilger has recommended the Council approve a contract with Michael Baker International for a revised one-year work plan for Climate Action Plan services at up to $150,000.

In a report, Kilger reminded the Council that it reviewed the earlier PMC proposal June 2, during which the panel advised city employees that $150,000 in Community Sustainability Commission grant money could be used to underwrite a one-year scope of work, and to include a separate line item for capacity building— training city employees to take over Climate Action Plan implementation and monitoring duties in the inevitable event of Porteshawver’s departure.

The CSC has been reviewing these changes and has recommended approval of the scope of work, with suggestions that some Business Resource Incentive Program (BRIP) tasks become duties of other employees.

The CSC also urged the Council, if it approved the contract, to recognize that after that pact ends outside technical help will be needed for BRIP and other programs designed to reduce water and power use and the production of greenhouse gases.

The Council will meet in a closed session at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday to discuss legal matters. The regular meeting will start at 7 p.m. Tuesday at Council Chambers of City Hall, 250 East L St.