■ Panel explores ways to keep Climate Action Plan coordinator on staff

The Community Sustainability Commission “messed up,” Chair Kathy Kerridge acknowledged Monday night.
Both City Attorney Heather McLaughlin and Sue Fisher Jones, Valero Benicia Refinery’s public affairs manager, concurred.

“You summed it up,” McLaughlin said.

She said new criteria for CSC sustainability grants was in conflict with the Valero-Good Neighbor Steering Committee Settlement Agreement signed by representatives of the city, the refinery and the Good Neighbor Steering Committee, and specifically, “This is contrary to Paragraph 8.”

Provisions of the 2008 agreement, which was amended in 2010, can’t be changed unless all parties endorse the modification. But the CSC — which has complained in past when the City Council voted to give grants to commercial companies rather than to nonprofit organizations — had sought to exclude profit-making entities from qualifying for grants if their projects would pay for themselves “within a reasonable time.”

At its June 14, 2014, meeting, the Council went against the commission’s recommendations to award a $829,000 grant to Valero Benicia Refinery for an $852,000 boiler water conservation project in exchange for the refinery supplying a letter withdrawing its expectation of receiving $1.6 million in settlement agreement funds for the Condensate Recovery Project II.

The commission chose not to recommend the refinery’s application for funding, though it was projected to save 116 acre-feet of water annually.

At the same meeting, the Council increased the amount granted to the city’s award-winning Business Resource Incentives Program that helps Industrial Park businesses decrease their consumption of water and energy.

Fisher Jones wrote March 12 that the new provision “is in direct conflict with the Future Projects section of the 2010 Amendment of the Agreement.”

That section, she wrote, states that the commission “shall review and recommend to the City Council for approval additional projects for funding which provide verifiable water reductions by the city, community residents, Valero and businesses in Benicia.”

That section specifies that any proposed Valero water conservation project “must be discretionary and not regulatorily mandated,” and that priority should go to water reduction projects.

However, projects that would reduce greenhouse gases or prove to be sustainable or energy efficient in support of the Climate Action Plan could be considered, too, if they’re considered to be of greater value, the section states.

Fisher Jones’s letter said Joe Muehlbauer, another ex-officio CSC member, pointed out his concerns about the new grant requirement at the panel’s Jan. 26 meeting.

“Valero views the new criteria for evaluation as a blatant attempt to block future VIP (Valero Improvement Fund) allocations to Valero and to all Benicia businesses who submit grant applications for verifiable water reduction, greenhouse gas reduction or energy efficiency projects,” she wrote.

“Clearly this addition to the criteria list is not in line with the spirit of the agreement signed by the city, Valero and the Good Neighbor Steering Committee in 2010,” she wrote.

After hearing from McLaughlin that its nonprofits-only limitation would violate the terms of the Valero-Good Neighbor Steering Committee Settlement Agreement, the panel backed away Monday from that condition.

“This is enlightening for those of us not familiar with the agreement,” said CSC Vice Chairperson Susan Maher, who asked McLaughlin for copies of the pact.

However, among the questions the CSC added to the grant application are whether and how much money a prospective project would save the applicant and, if it applies, how long before the project would pay for itself.

The answers would be used for information only, and would not be part of the criteria on which a project would be judged.

Projects that have a provision for payback that also support what the commission has called the three spheres of influence on sustainability — economic, environmental and social — “are the ones that should be funded,” Muehlbauer said.

“We want to give the Council a clear picture,” Maher said, explaining that the questions would tell the city when a project would save a certain amount of money and do so quickly.

The panel has requested current recipients of grants provide additional information on their semi-annual reports and heard updates on multiple projects from its Climate Action Plan (CAP) coordinator, Alex Porteshawver.

Porteshawver was the focus of another item of business before the CSC on Monday — specifically, the panel explored ways to keep her on the job.

Members have said they are willing to fund Porteshawver’s new and larger salary for a year using Valero-Good Neighbor Steering Committee agreement settlement money. And at Monday’s meeting, the panel also decided it wanted the position funded for two years, to coincide with the upcoming adoption of Benicia’s biannual budget.

The commission said the city government should shoulder some of that expense. Porteshawver’s contract ends June 30. A two-year contract would let her work in Benicia through June 30, 2017.

Interim Community Development Director Dan Marks said the Council will start its 2015-17 budget process March 24, when it will list priority programs and other projects that would be considered for inclusion.

Porteshawver originally represented the initial contract CAP coordinator, a team from Sonoma State University, when its contract was approved in December 2011.

Last year, the contract was modified when she was hired by a private environmental firm, PMC. Most of her services have been covered by the Valero-Good Neighbor Steering Committee Settlement Agreement.

PMC has submitted a $155,000 proposal and work plan that would keep Porteshawver in Benicia for one year, with supplemental technical services and other support from her company. That is about twice the 2014-15 CAP coordinator cost, which was $80,000.

Marks reminded the CSC that the city also provides staff who develop its agendas, minutes and other documents, help with the commission’s grant awards program and supervise Porteshawver and her activities, including projects that are funded by outside grants.

He said having Porteshawver on board has helped the city obtain electric vehicle charging stations, underwrite art projects and education programs, provide rebates for residential solar arrays and other purchases that save water, reduce energy consumption and lower the emission of greenhouse gases.

As a result, Benicia has been recognized for leadership in addressing climate change, he said.

Even without a CAP coordinator, Marks said, the commission needs half or three-quarters of the hours of a full-time employee, which is more staff time than most advisory panels get.

The proposed PMC contract would reduce Porteshawver’s presence in Benicia from three days a week to one day on-site, though she would spend 16 hours a week working on Benicia projects, he said.

While acknowledging Porteshawver’s contributions to Benicia, Marks also told the commission that the Council is worried about the city’s structural deficit, which would be even worse had residents not approved a local 1-cent sales tax increase last November.

To that end, he asked the CSC to decide whether the CAP coordinator program should be continued, whether the commission likes PMC’s proposed work plan or would suggest hiring a different coordinator and whether the commission would urge using settlement funds to underwrite the job.

Only three voting members of the panel attended Monday’s meeting — Chairperson Kerridge, Vice Chairperson Maher and Commissioner Bruce Barrow. Ershely Raj and student Commissioner Anavi Subramanyam were absent, and the panel currently has two vacancies.

Barrow questioned whether the Council wants to keep the CSC active, but said if it keeps the commission it must keep the CAP coordinator.

He urged keeping Porteshawver’s position funded for two years, with the Council funding at least part of the second year. “But I don’t see that happening,” he said.

Ex-officio member Marilyn Bardet said, “It puts the whole case on the table for the commission.” Otherwise, she said, “All of this is smoke.”

She told the commission it was formed as a result of the settlement agreement, and that its concerns were more than “bucks on a table.”

Its job, Bardet said, is to take Benicia’s Climate Action Plan, adopted in 2009, and guide the city in using its strategies to lower greenhouse gas emissions, energy use and water consumption. “We have CAP strategies. If we do not follow through, we should get up and go.”

But the panel decided it wanted some flexibility in the coordinator’s scope of work, which covered CAP strategy implementation and working with a senior planner on long-range projects; management of multiple presentations and climate change-related projects; developing additional greenhouse gas inventories that would be compared with past reports and state goals; and monitoring of the progress the city makes in complying with its Climate Action Plan.

At its March 24 meeting, the Council will start listing programs and projects they’ll want funded in the next two years, Marks said — a list that will be modified based on anticipated revenues and staffing expenses before the Council uses it to develop its next two-year budget, which should be adopted and in place by July 1.

In other matters Monday, Marin Clean Energy (MCE) account manager Allison Kirk described the current state of the agency’s community information program prior to May 1, when MCE becomes Benicia’s primary purchaser of electricity.

Unless power customers notify MCE that they want to stay with Pacific Gas and Electric, their accounts will be transferred to MCE for their first billing date in May.

MCE has begun sending notices about the upcoming change and customer options — including whether they want the default 50-percent renewable energy purchase, the “Deep Green” 100-percent renewable purchase or the “opt out,” to remain with PG&E.

Regardless, PG&E will continue to maintain lines, provide distribution and handle billing for all customers.

So far, 933 customers have decided to keep PG&E as their provider, Kirk said.

She said that number, 7.20 percent of Benicia customers, is a higher percentage than other communities that have joined the community choice aggregation agency.

“But it’s within range,” she said.

However, 44 have said they want the “Deep Green” option, which she called “a great start.”

“It’s a good time to choose. It’s the easiest way to reduce your carbon footprint,” she said.

Barrow concurred, saying it’s a way customers can use renewable energy — including, in the future, solar-produced energy — without having to invest in solar panels or other “green” generators themselves.

“It’s hard to overcome ignorance,” he said, asking Kirk how she planned to market MCE to those “vehemently against” leaving PG&E.

Maher said she saw the change as a way for both the city and Benicia Unified School District to save money, though Kirk and Porteshawver said the exact savings would not be known for a year, and the agency couldn’t share that information publicly without permission.

Kirk said MCE’s outreach would focus on combatting misinformation, encouraging positive public comments and continuing to meet with groups willing to let her speak about the transition.

The CSC also heard Erin Tator, operations director of Plug In America, which promotes the use of electric vehicles. She described the fifth annual National Drive Electric Week, Sept. 12-20.

The three logical reasons to drive an electric car are environmental, economic and the encouragement of national security, Tator said, but that’s not why people shift to electric cars.

“It’s the ride and drive,” she said. So each year, the event encourages celebrants to include the opportunity for people to drive a plug-in car.

“We emphasize they are fun to drive, less expensive and more convenient,” she said.

Porteshawver said Benicia marked the week in 2013 with the unveiling of a new, faster car charger.

Tator said she hoped Benicia would organize another event, and told the commission that a celebration in Cupertino included the largest electric vehicle parade, with 507 entries.