Livermore Council Meeting February 10, 2025
Good evening and welcome to this, the February 10 meeting of Livermore City Council. I call the meeting to order. Roll call, please. Council member, Barry Antos. Right. Council member Dunbar. Here. Council member Wong. Here. Vice Mayor Branning. Here. Mayor Marchand. Here. To join me in the Pledge of Allegiance. Thank you. Okay, I’m going to reorder the agenda. We’re going to move 4, which is the open forum to, after 7.1, and they will now move on to the consent calendar. Do we have any public comments for consent? Yes, mayor. We do. The first speaker is David McQuiggan. Johnny the ****** martial arts. Excuse me. Excuse me. You or miss David Nougogin, you have to speak to the minutes. You are not speaking to the minutes. You are forfeiting your time. You can be going back back to the end. I gave you I’m sorry. I’m sorry. No. No. I’m sorry. You’re done. You you are done. You have forfeited your time. We will move you to the end, and you can complete your comments. We will move you to the end. Next speaker, please. The next speaker is Greg Scott. Good evening. Greg Scott. I’m speaking on the water rates. The water rate for our household is we have a service fee of $37, I think, and 1 billing. Wait. Excuse me. We’re speaking on 0.25 0.2. Okay. Yes. Thank you. Excuse me. On water rates. We and our our household, we pay. We have a service fee of $37 a month that’s with consuming no water. A unit of water is about $4. The unit of water is a hundred cubic feet. That’s about, 748 gallons. So we used in a billing cycle 1,500 gallons or less, and we paid $48 in there, $47. It’s a lot of money for that kind of water. In a month, that would be about 50 gallons a day. That isn’t that much water usage. I don’t know how people are paying their water bills, but this is getting outrageous, especially if you do any kind of landscaping. But we really shouldn’t be watering lawns. We’re wasting water greatly. And, you know, we’re gonna have to rethink water and water rates. What’s come out especially by president Trump and and the shipping. We ship 5,000,000 acre feet water south to Southern California in this in this water deal too. You know, it’s a gallon of almond for mister Resnick and the Resnick family. You know, it’s it’s the people on fixed incomes and people on lower incomes, this isn’t fair. The whole water thing isn’t fair. For the public, you know, 5,000,000 acre feet is about 12 something trillion gallons of water. We’re supposed to ship even more, and then president Trump comes out about the Delta smelt, smelt. You know, in the in the recovery program for Delta smelt in the last sampling period, they didn’t find any of that fish. We’re collapsing the delta. So we have to rethink our water, our water rates, and thank you. Mayor, that was the last speaker. Would you like to invite mister McWiggan back in? If you can if you can stay on the topic, perhaps. Otherwise, he’ll forward for this time again. You will speak to the minutes. I will, Johnny the Repus Marchant. Okay. Thank you very much. That is your salutation. Thank you very much. You are done. That’s your salutation. Please really keep both of them. No. We are moving on to the next. Agenda to be We are moving on to the next item. We’re moving on to the consent. Person is going to be placed at the end. You will relinquish the podium. Act targeting a specific individual that is contrary to your stated policies. I do do believe mister Ocala will tell you that you are not an optimum position for minimizing your legal exposure by doing that. But you’re deliberately good to act Cut the mic. Part of the official record. Thank you, Johnny, the ring to start. This. We are done. Next speaker. That concludes public comment for the consent. Consent calendar. Okay. Do we have anyone that wishes to pull an item for consent? Okay. Seeing none, I’ll entertain a motion. I’ll move consent. Is there a second? I’ll second. Okay. Motion made by Vice Mayor, Branning, seconded by, Councilman Dunbar. Any discussion on the motion? All in favor? Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Attentions? Pass unanimously. Thank you. Moving on to 6.1. This is a public hearing on renewable energy. This is an ADA community energy contract. Honorable mayor Marchand and members of the city council. This is your city manager, Mariana Monishma. And item 6.1 is going to be presented by the city’s sustainability program manager, Tricia Mento. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. All right. Good evening, Mayor and City Council. The item before you tonight is consideration of a 25 year power purchase agreement with Ava Community Energy. The project involves installing solar and battery storage system at 5 city facilities. That includes city hall, civic center meeting hall, maintenance service center, the police department, and the water reclamation plant. The systems will provide several benefits to the city, including improving energy resilience by providing back backup power during emergencies consistent with our climate action plan and emergency operations goals. We’ll reduce energy cost by allowing us to use energy from the batteries during times when grid electricity is more expensive. It lowers our reliance on diesel generators, and several of the sites will also include solar carports that provide additional shade in our parking lots. There will be approximately 36 spaces at City Hall, 20 spaces at the police department, and 4 at the Civic Center Meeting Hall that will be covered with solar canopies. The financial terms outlined in the contract include no upfront capital cost to the city. Ava Community Energy has selected 2 companies, Greenbridge and Gridscape, as a project financer and developer, and this team will install, own, operate, and maintain the systems. The city will make monthly payments to AVA for the electricity generated by the the panels and a flat rate for the storage capacity, and these payments will be less than what the city would otherwise pay for grid electricity without the project. And a crucial crucial reason we’re able to achieve these savings is because we’ve been able to grandfather the facilities under the state’s previous net energy metering laws, which provide higher compensation rates for excess solar energy that is sold back to the grid. And we’re able to maintain the status if we have assistance install installed by about April of 20 26. And despite that being over a year away, there are some concerns from the project development partners about supply chains and the potential for tariffs to negatively impact product pricing. But if approved tonight, the city manager will have authorization to approve the final agreement providing the project pricing and feasibility issues are resolved and the agreement remains in substantially the same form as the item being reviewed by council this evening. Staff is recommending that the city council adopt 2 resolutions tonight. The first is finding that the project is exempt from the California Environmental Quality Act, and the second is authorizing the city manager to execute an agreement in substantially the same form as the 1 included in the agenda tonight and determining that doing so is in the best interest for the city. So that concludes staff’s presentation, and we’re available for questions. We also have JP Ross from Ava Community Energy here tonight who will help answer questions as well. Okay....
