HomeMy WebLinkAboutMINUTES - 06222010 - C.55RECOMMENDATION(S):
AUTHORIZE the Conservation and Development Director, or her designee, to complete,
execute and submit all documentation necessary to secure U.S. Department of Energy
(DOE) approval for modifications to the description of proposed activities or the amounts
allocated to proposed activities to be funded with the County’s $3.57 million Energy
Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant (EECBG), where such changes are determined as
either necessary or a more efficient/effective means of successfully implementing the grant
to achieve the desired outcomes in full compliance with applicable grant requirements.
FISCAL IMPACT:
The $3.57 million EECBG Program funding, made available through the American
Recovery and Reinvestment Act 2009 (ARRA), allocated to the County is expected to
reduce our municipal building and lighting energy costs, help create/retain jobs and
facilitate cost savings in the private sector through various new or expanded energy
efficiency and conservation services and programs.
APPROVE OTHER
RECOMMENDATION OF CNTY ADMINISTRATOR RECOMMENDATION OF BOARD COMMITTEE
Action of Board On: 06/22/2010 APPROVED AS RECOMMENDED OTHER
Clerks Notes:
VOTE OF SUPERVISORS
AYE:John Gioia, District I
Supervisor
Gayle B. Uilkema, District II
Supervisor
Mary N. Piepho, District III
Supervisor
Federal D. Glover, District V
Supervisor
ABSENT:Susan A. Bonilla, District IV
Supervisor
Contact: Deidra Dingman,
925-335-1224
I hereby certify that this is a true and correct copy of an action taken and entered on the minutes of the
Board of Supervisors on the date shown.
ATTESTED: June 22, 2010
David J. Twa, County Administrator and Clerk of the Board of Supervisors
By: KATHERINE SINCLAIR, Deputy
cc: Deidra Dingman, Terry Mann
C. 55
To:Board of Supervisors
From:Catherine Kutsuris, Conservation & Development Director
Date:June 22, 2010
Contra
Costa
County
Subject:Contra Costa County's Energy Efficiency & Conservation Block Grant
BACKGROUND:
At the Board of Supervisors meeting on June 16, 2009, the Board authorized the Director
of Conservation and Development to secure the County’s $3.57 million Energy
Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant (EECBG) Program formula grant. On October
26, 2009, the County was awarded its EECBG funding by the U.S. Department of Energy
(DOE) for fourteen activities proposed by staff when this matter was presented to the
Board in June 2009.
Since the EECBG award, the DOE has provided specific grant procurement processes
and reporting requirements that were not specified or known at the time the County’s
EECBG Application was submitted. To better ensure funding is fully expended during
the grant term and in full compliance with all applicable federal requirements, staff has
identified the need for modifications to the descriptions of some of the fourteen activities
approved by the DOE. Staff anticipates other modifications will likely be identified as
necessary or desirable in the future to ensure cost-effective and successful
implementation of grant activities. In addition to new or expanded federal
guidance/requirements, there are a number of other factors that may make additional
activity description or funding allocation changes either necessary or desirable. A
couple of examples of such factors would be that we find that actual implementation of
an activity is resulting in less private-sector participation than anticipated or that the cost
to complete an activity is less than was estimated in the approved budget.
The DOE and other federal agencies routinely stress how important it is that the County
expend funding authorized under ARRA as quickly as possible, while still ensuring
unprecedented transparency and accountability. Considering the need for timely action
and our anticipated need to propose further activity description or funding allocation
changes, staff is recommending that the Board provide authorization to the Department of
Conservation and Development to submit documentation to the DOE, as determined
appropriate through the remainder of the grant term ending on October 25, 2012, in order
to modify activity descriptions or funding allocations.
Currently, the EECBG activity-specific modifications needed primarily involve changes
that would solely impact how funding already allocated to certain activities could be used
with one exception. Modifications to the EECBG activity descriptions and allocation
amounts that staff would to officially propose to the DOE within a month, if above
recommendation is approved by the Board, are summarized below. Exhibit A
summarizes the descriptions and funding allocations for all fourteen activities, including
proposed modifications to be proposed to the DOE.
• Most significant proposed modification involves substantive activity description
changes, including the title and program type, for the originally proposed “Revolving
Loan Program” (#8). This activity description would be re-titled as the “Property
Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) Financing Program” (#8) and rewritten to allow funding
to be used for one-time financing district start-up costs. The County would have to incur
some costs in order to join and begin participating in the statewide PACE financing
district, known as CaliforniaFIRST (sometimes called an AB811-type program). The
County has to join CaliforniaFIRST so that this new opportunity to finance certain
building improvements can be made available to eligible owners of residences located in
the unincorporated area, which they could then pay back as a line item on their property
tax bill.
• The only proposed shift of funding from one activity to another would be moving about
$254,682 from the “PACE Financing Program” (#8) to “County Buildings” (#3) to fund
additional energy efficient building improvements.
• Increase the amount of funding allocated to each activity for grant administration to
cover the cost of applicable staff time would be increased by 5%, as appropriate for some
or all of the activities, raising potential maximum grant administration allocation for all
activities to 10%.
• To facilitate accelerated expenditure of allocated funding, minor changes to the
descriptions for three activities would be proposed which expand the services offered to
help reduce home energy use, as described below.
* Offer “Permit Fee Rebates” (#11) for energy efficient building improvement projects in
addition to solar panels,
* Include targeted outreach efforts and quality control inspections to support approved
EECBG-funded home energy programs under the “Energy Efficiency Assessments &
Outreach” (#10) activity, and
* Offer home energy retrofit service incentives to more households in place of rating
service incentives as a part of the “Home Energy Incentive & Training Program” (#12).
CONSEQUENCE OF NEGATIVE ACTION:
CHILDREN'S IMPACT STATEMENT:
ATTACHMENTS
Exhibit A - EECBG Activities with Proposed Modifications (June 2010)
Exhibit A - EECBG Activities with Modifications Proposed in June 2010
#Title Description
Budget
(Approx)
Reduce energy use and cost for County Facilities 54%
1 Lighting
Improvements
Energy efficient lighting improvements to
County facilities (including high efficiency
lighting/lighting controls and stairwell
lighting in buildings).
368,421$ 10.3%
2 Streetlights Energy efficient lighting improvements to
County Streetlights 60,887$ 1.7%
3 Building Retrofits
Energy efficiency improvements or retrofits
for County buildings (e.g. improvements to
heating, air conditioning, ventilation,
controls and building envelope).
1,413,170$ 39.5%
4 Renewable Power
Expand use of renewable solar power to
serve additional County facilities (using
potential Power Purchase Agreement).
105,263$ 2.9%
Assist in reducing energy use and cost for Non-Profit Facilities 11%
7 Grants to Non-
Profits
Conduct energy audits and/or fund selected
energy efficiency improvements to non-
profit facilities.
376,272$ 10.5%11%
Assist in reducing energy cost and use for Low Income Households #REF!
9 Home Retrofit
Program
Expand services provided to assist low
and/or fixed income residents in making
their homes more energy efficient (to
supplement existing Weatherization
Program).
282,182$ 7.9%8%
Provide incentives to assist in reducing energy use within the private sector 11%
8
Property Assessed
Clean Energy
(PACE) Financing
Program
Pay start-up fee for certain legal and
technology costs to establish the
CaliforniaFIRST Program in Contra Costa
County to allow local property owners to
finance the installation of eligible building
improvements and pay the amount back as
a line item on their property tax bill.
27,500$ 0.8%
10
Energy Efficiency
Assessments &
Outreach
Conduct energy assessments and post-
improvement inspections for homes
participating in any of the County's EECBG-
funded home retrofit programs. Fund
outreach and promotion for the County's
EECBG-funded home energy retrofit and
permit fee rebate programs, including
participating in community activities and
production/distribution of materials.
218,347$ 6.1%11%
The proposed modifications that staff expects to propose to the DOE in June 2010 are incorporated
below, the NOTES section following this table summarizes these changes. The below amounts include
rounding and should only be considered approximate totals. All below activities targeting private sector
buildings will only be offered for properties that are located within the unincorporated area. Non-profit
facilities may be located in incorporated areas but actually serve those living or working in the
unincorporated area.
%
54%
G:\Conservation\Deidra\Climate\EECBG\Board Orders and Reports\Board 6-22-2010\ActivityTable-BoS_6-22-2010.xls
Exhibit A - EECBG Activities with Modifications Proposed in June 2010
#Title Description
Budget
(Approx)%
11 Permit Fee Rebates
Provide building permit fee rebates for
specified energy efficient building
improvements or installation of solar
panels on commercial and residential
buildings.
157,895$ 4.4%
Provide programs and resources to increase energy efficiency & conservation 10%
12
Home Energy
Retrofit Incentives
& Training
Launch program offering home energy
retrofit services similar to those offered
through the County's existing
weatherization program to households not
eligible for the above-noted Home Retrofit
Program that services only low-income
residents. Provide appropriate staff with
training related to performing home energy
assessments and retrofit projects.
316,825$ 8.9%
13
Energy Efficiency &
Conservation
Toolkit
Develop and promote user-friendly toolkit
(website & printed materials) with
information about existing Energy
Efficiency & Conservation incentives, tips
and other resources available to the private
sector from a variety of entities (including
local utilities, State & Federal government
agencies, etc.) to encourage maximum
participation/utilization.
26,316$ 0.7%
6
Employee Energy
Conservation
Campaign
Educational campaign to encourage County
employees to conserve energy, reduce
waste and reduce vehicle miles traveled.
10,526$ 0.3%
Streamline regulatory process to reduce energy use in the built environment 4%
14 Update Zoning
Code & Standards
Amend General Plan & Zoning Code to
update requirements related to parking and
home occupations as well as allow for some
additional mixed-use development.
158,064$ 4.4%4%
Reduce overall vehicular miles traveled by County employees 1%
5 Employee
Commute
Reduce commute miles traveled by County
employees by increasing participation in
existing commute programs (e.g.
telecommuting, compressed work weeks
and van pool programs).
52,632$ 1.5%1%
3,574,300$
NOTES:
Dollar amounts include allocations for Grant Administration of up to 10%, but no less than 5%, to cover the cost
of staff time spent coordinating the grant, including compilling and reporting expenditures.
Changes in the amount of funding proposed to be allocated per activity are shaded (see Activities 3 and 8)
Descriptions above summarize more detailed explanations provided to the US DOE, where applicable these have
been revised to reflect substantive changes to be proposed officially in June 2010 (see Activities 8, 10, 11 and 12)
10%
100%
G:\Conservation\Deidra\Climate\EECBG\Board Orders and Reports\Board 6-22-2010\ActivityTable-BoS_6-22-2010.xls