Community Sustainability Commission to meet in special session to determine whether to spend up to $30K on independent analysis

Benicia Community Sustainability Commission will meet Tuesday to decide whether to recommend using up to $30,000 in funds at its disposal for an independent analysis of whether joining Marin Clean Energy is a good idea for this city.

The special meeting was called after Vice Mayor Tom Campbell and City Councilmember Alan Schwartzman expressed reservations Tuesday about spending General Fund money for the analysis.

MRW and Associates and Davis Wright Tremaine LLP performed similar assessments for Richmond and Mill Valley while those cities were candidates for membership in Marin Clean Energy (MCE), a community choice aggregation power supply agency.

In one of the preparatory steps in Benicia’s request to join MCE, City Manager Brad Kilger recommended the two analysts update their reports to look at regulatory and policy changes that have taken place since the documents were prepared and to answer questions specific to Benicia.

MCE has conducted one analysis, paid for with a $18,000 award from Valero-Good Neighbor Steering Committee settlement agreement money, and determined the agency could provide service to Benicia and rates comparable to or more affordable than Pacific Gas and Electric without any negative impact to its own customers.

At its Sept. 9 study session, the City Council asked city employees to determine whether an outside review of the pending membership in MCE was warranted. However, Benicia has a deadline for those reports and other actions needed before it could sign a Joint Powers Agreement with MCE.

The city must commit to membership, including passing an ordinance to that effect, by Dec. 2 to meet MCE’s power purchase cycle. MCE’s board has indicated that it may put off adding members except those — Benicia and El Cerrito — whose applications are in the process of being completed.

Kilger had recommended funding the independent analyses, estimated at between $25,000 and $30,000, with General Fund money from the City Attorney’s Office and Community Development Department budgets. In an earlier report, he explained that seeking CSC recommendation to use Valero-GNSC money normally would take three months to accomplish because of the commission’s meeting schedule.

But when Campbell and Schwartzman aired their worries at Tuesday’s Council meeting, CSC member Kathy Kerridge suggested the Council authorize Kilger to act subject to the commission’s recommendation, and CSC Chairperson Constance Beutel said the panel could meet as early as Tuesday to act on the matter.

In a report to the CSC, Management Analyst Gina Eleccion noted that community choice aggregation is a Climate Action Plan strategy and a CSC priority.

She added that some money was left over from the $18,000 allocated for Benicia’s MCE application and study.

“It is recommended that the balance of the $18,000 be applied to the independent analysis,” she wrote, adding that “there is currently $479,000 available from the Valero-Good Neighbor Steering Committee settlement agreement funds.”

Eleccion will ask the CSC Tuesday to make a recommendation to the Council about allocating no more than $30,000 from Valero-GNSC funds for the analysis, and to determine whether the use of that money would provide a greater value than any existing plans for water reduction projects — a formality since no such projects currently are proposed.

If the cost of the analysis is less than $30,000, the remaining funds “will be returned to the Valero-Good Neighbor Steering Committee Settlement Agreement account for future projects,” she wrote.

The CSC’s special meeting will start at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday in the Commission Room of City Hall, 250 East L St.

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