Council to be told of hidden strengths in 3rd quarter ’13, outlook for this year

Benicia City Council will learn Tuesday how well the city’s business sector is doing when Manager Mario Giuliani presents the quarterly Office of Economic Development report.

In a summary sent to City Manager Brad Kilger, Giuliani said the report will focus on facets of the city’s economic development program, including tourism, sales tax numbers, business retention efforts and the services the program offers to local companies.

Giuliani’s report will cover activity during the first three months of 2014, and also will review the 2013 third quarter sales tax information from the city’s downtown merchants, its commercial centers and the Benicia Industrial Park.

Giuliani gave a report on sales tax revenue from the third quarter of 2013 to the Economic Development Board in February (beniciaheraldonline.com/at-edb-emphasis-on-the-positive/), in which he emphasized a long-term upward trend in downtown business.

In fact, he said, projections for the fourth quarter, if accurate, would “make 2013 the highest-ever grossing year for downtown.”

Also Tuesday, Giuliani will ask the Council to endorse the 2014-18 Travis Community Consortium (TCC) Strategy that ams to protect the largest employer in Solano County, which has been experiencing challenges because of federal cutbacks and the proposed retirement of the U.S. Air Force’s entire fleet of KC-10 transport and aerial refueling planes.

“Travis AFB is home to one-half of the KC-10 aircraft in the Air Force,” Giuliani wrote. “There are a combined 625 military, DOD (Department of Defense) civilian employees and contractors associated with the KC-10 in the active duty and reserve wings.”

Gen. Paul Selva, commander of Air Mobility Command, the Air Force’s tanker and airlift operations, promised Solano County officials last December that there would be no reduction in staff and employees at the base, even if the KC-10 tankers are in the proposed phased-out program.

Instead, he said, the base would get another assignment that he said would be essential to Air Mobility Command and the American presence in the Pacific area and beyond.

Meanwhile, the Air Force has been introducing its next air tanker, the KC-46, though where all of the planes in that new fleet would be stationed hasn’t been announced.

The TCC, of which Benicia is a member, is made up of those in Solano County who advocate for the continued operation of Travis Air Force Base, and it lobbies in support of the base and for its continued operation in the county.

Benicia’s annual membership of $1,000 is paid through the Economic Development membership and subscriptions account, Giuliani wrote.

“The support of the Travis AFB mission is essential to the health of the local economy, as Travis AFB is the major employer in Solano County,” Giuliani wrote.

However, the base experienced “a particularly challenging and unpredictable year” in 2013, he noted.

Those challenges included the ongoing federal budget sequestration and the Department of Defense cost-saving measures that includes the retirement of the KC-10 fleet.

He wrote that the TCC has communicated with federal representatives to express concerns about the decision to retire the airplane fleet.

Working on a proposal that incorporates the base’s history and the new federal budget issues into account, the consortium has been involved in more extensive lobbying, sending delegates to Washington and to Scott Air Force Base in Illinois, Giuliani wrote.

“Because of the sudden and unexpected U.S. Air Force leadership proposal to retire the KC-10, the TCC will focus on preserving existing missions and actively seek bridge missions,” he wrote. Those would include technology upgrades, ongoing maintenance projects and keeping its air refueling missions, assignments that would backfill the retirement of the KC-10, he wrote.

The TCC has been speaking with key leaders at Travis, the Pentagon, in Washington and at Air Mobility Command.

In addition, it is recommending the strengthening of existing partnerships and joint ventures and securing new cooperative efforts that would result in reduced base overhead costs.

Other efforts would be to assure that regional development won’t interfere with the base’s operation, and to ensure that unrestricted air space and other base operations won’t suffer from encroachment.

“It is now more important than ever for the TCC to protect the base from a restructuring that would result in further relocation of vital operations and the loss of additional civilian jobs,” Giuliani wrote.

Other matters also are on the Council’s consent calendar. Those items are considered so routine that they can be decided at the same time, along with the TCC endorsement, by a single vote.

However, if any member of the Council or the public asks, an item may be pulled from the consent calendar for discussion and a separate vote.

Also on the consent calendar is the resolution of a dispute with WEST Corporation, the company hired to install improvements to the city’s water treatment plant security surveillance system.

The proposal would authorize a $3,000 change order instead of the $6,000 in liquid damages previously accepted by the Council on Feb. 4, and would revise the total construction cost to $224,674.61, City Manager Kilger wrote the Council.

The contractor, based in Cayucas, required two extensions of its original deadline and ran 24 days behind the later due dates. But the project came under the $336,273 budgeted for the work.

Project manager Michael Wright, president of California Technical Concepts, told the Council during the project’s construction that WEST failed to provide materials submittals for review and some of its electrical work didn’t meet industrial codes.

At one point, city employees nearly dismissed WEST to let another bidder finish the work. Instead, to avoid additional costs, the city gave WEST new deadlines to finish the work. When those extensions weren’t enough, the city chose to assess the company $6,000 in damages for failure to meet its deadline.

However, WEST challenged the assessment, Kilger wrote, and a conference between company representatives and city employees resolved the dispute with the proposal the Council will see Tuesday night.

Also under consideration Tuesday is the extension of Benicia’s contract with Management Partners for the services of Steve Salomon, the interim Public Works Department director, while the city conducts a search for a permanent employee.

The position became vacant in January when the previous director, Melissa Morton, resigned to accepted a job in Vallejo.

In the meantime, Benicia has been unable to find a permanent replacement.

If the Council agrees, the contract amendment would not exceed $85,000.

Another item on the consent calendar is whether the city should continue its support of the East Bay Broadband Consortium (EBBC).

The consortium is a regional initiative organized by the Contra Costa Council, the East Bay Economic Development Alliance and the Solano Economic Development Corporation to improve broadband deployment and access. It has received a three-year grant from the California Public Utilities Commission to meet those goals.

It is asking its 41 participating members to sign a pledge to endorse continuing the momentum for improving broadband capacity in the East Bay, Giuliani wrote.

“Because of the recognized need to improve broadband capabilities in the BIP (Benicia Industrial Park) and the obvious grant opportunities provided by this consortium, staff enthusiastically recommends the city’s continued support of the EBBC,” he wrote.

The Council also will vote on the second reading of an ordinance amendment that would change the meeting time and place of the Board of Library Trustees to 6:30 p.m. the second Tuesday of the month at Benicia Public Library.

The Council will meet at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday in a closed session to confer with attorneys on legal matters and with property negotiators about water rights contracts. The regular meeting starts at 7 p.m. Tuesday in the Council Chamber of City Hall, 250 East L St.