The San Mateo Board of Supervisors has taken steps to reduce both the carbon footprint of County operations and encourage residents to reduce their personal carbon footprints. In October of 2007, the County adopted the Cool Counties Declaration and committed to reduce CO2 emissions from County operations. Under the sponsorship of Supervisor Mark Church, the Board initiated the Solar San Mateo program in 2008. And at the request of the Environmental Quality Committee, staff are developing a residential energy action program (REAP) modeled on the Sonoma County and BerkeleyFIRST programs.
The REAP program has two components, energy efficiency and financing. The Board has adopted two resolutions in support of the REAP program, one addressing each program component. The first resolution, adopted on October 20, 2009, authorized County participation in the Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG) grant proposal for State Energy Program (SEP) funds. The SEP program has $93 million for energy related programs and proposals are due December 21, 2009. Grant awards will be announced in February 2010. If awarded, the ABAG SEP grant will establish a regional REAP program focused on residential energy efficiency retrofits. The San Mateo County share of the ABAG SEP grant will be about $700,000 and will be used for local program staff and outreach and education activities. The ABAG funds will supplement the $500,000 the County has set aside in Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant (EECBG) funds to support the energy efficiency component of REAP. The second Board action related to REAP dealt with financing and will support both the residential retrofit and the Solar San Mateo effort. On November 10, 2009, the Board approved County participation in CaliforniaFIRST, a statewide financing district sponsored by California Communities, a joint powers authority sponsored by the League of California Cities and the California State Association of Counties. Additional Board action, including noticing and holding a public hearing and adopting a resolution to join CaliforniaFIRST is now required from all jurisdictions participating in the program.
The CaliforniaFIRST Program will create a statewide AB 811 financing district. The statewide district will provide a financing option for individual property owners undertaking renewable energy, energy efficiency and water efficiency projects on their property. The AB 811 loans are repaid through property tax assessments. The assessments are only levied on properties where the owner has voluntarily chosen to participate in the CaliforniaFIRST program. Participating residents must execute a contract with California Communities, which has contracted with Renewable Funding LLC and RBC Capital Markets to provide administration and financing for the program.
Fourteen counties have submitted letters of intent to participate in the CaliforniaFIRST pilot program along with a number of cities in those counties. In addition to San Mateo, the participating counties are Alameda, Fresno, Kern, Monterey, Sacramento, San Diego, San Luis Obispo, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, San Diego, Solano, Ventura and Yolo. For their residents to be eligible to participate in the program, a local jurisdiction (city or county) must submit a letter of intent and then adopt the required resolutions by January 18, 2010. San Mateo County submitted a letter of intent in November. The required resolutions are the recommended action associated with this report.
For the past six months, County staff have been working collaboratively with representatives from most of the cities in the County to develop a countywide REAP program. The large workgroup has established a REAP design team that includes representatives from the cities of San Mateo, Daly City and Redwood City and the County Planning and Building Department, the Green Building Program and the Green Team. Through the city/county workgroup, cities have been informed of the CaliforniaFIRST participation requirements. To date, 18 of the 20 cities have submitted letters of intent to participate in CaliforniaFIRST and staff are working with the other two cities, which are considering participating.
|
By participating in the CaliforniaFIRST pilot program, the County will provide residents of the unincorporated area with access to a financing option for environmental improvements to their properties. The key aspects of the program for property owner include:
• The program is voluntary. Only property owners who choose to participate in the program will have assessments imposed on their property.
• Assessments will stay with the property, as the balance of the loan is not due upon the sale of the property.
• The property owner has the option of paying off the loan at any time, subject to prepayment penalties.
• As a statewide program, CaliforniaFIRST will aggregate many small projects into a single municipal bond, which may result in lower borrowing costs. .
The key aspects of the program from the County perspective include:
• The County has no financial obligation related to the assessments. The County is not obligated to repay the bonds issued by California Communities or to pay the assessments levied on the participating properties.
• California Communities handles all assessment administration, bond issuance and bond administration functions. The administration fees will be included in the loan interest rates. The interest rates will also include sufficient funds to cover the County costs of assessing and processing the payments through the property tax collection process.
• Little to no County staff time will be needed to administer the program.
By adopting the proposed resolution, the Board will authorize California Communities to accept applications from owners of property in unincorporated San Mateo County for municipal financing of renewable energy, energy efficiency and water efficiency improvements through the CaliforniaFIRST Program. The resolution also authorizes California Communities to conduct assessment proceedings and levy assessments against the property of participating owners within the unincorporated area. Included in the resolution are related actions and certain findings and determinations that are required by law. California Communities will undertake a judicial validation proceeding in San Mateo County as part of its initiation of the CaliforniaFIRST Program.
The resolution also authorizes payment of a set-up fee to cover legal, procedural, and technology costs associated with the CaliforniaFIRST Program. The set-up fee for San Mateo County is $12,500. All 14 of the pilot counties in the California FIRST program, including San Mateo County, are submitting a CaliforniaFIRST SEP grant proposal. The grant proposal includes funding requests to cover all CaliforniaFIRST set-up costs, which if all San Mateo cities and the County participate is estimated to be $170,000. The grant also includes funds to buy-down the interest rate on the first 2,600 CaliforniaFIRST loans. If fully funded, the CaliforniaFIRST SEP grant will also provide specific funding for San Mateo County. That amount is not known at this time, but if awarded, will be used for an incentive program to be developed by the city/county project team. CaliforniaFIRST participants will know if the SEP grant is awarded in February of 2010. If the CaliforniaFIRST SEP grant is not funded, then the set-up fees for the unincorporated area will be covered by EECBG funds, but interest rates will not be bought down and there will not be an incentive program.
If at any point the County chooses to withdraw from the CaliforniaFIRST program, the Board can either choose to not pay the set-up fee and/or pass a resolution rescinding the authorization to participate.
This memo and the associated resolution have been reviewed and approved as to form by County Counsel.
Participation in the CaliforniaFIRST program promotes the County 2025 Vision of an Environmentally Conscious Community by offering residents of the unincorporated area a property tax assessment financing option for renewable energy, energy efficiency and water conservation improvements to their properties.
The key performance measure for the program will be tons of CO2 emissions reduced through the projects financed by the CaliforniaFIRST program. In addition, customer satisfaction with the program will be tracked along with the number and value of the loans and the type of work that was financed. After the SEP grant awards are made, staff will prepare a final budget for the CaliforniaFIRST program and develop associated performance measures.
|
There is no direct net county cost for participating in the CaliforniaFIRST program. Either SEP grant funds or County EECBG funds will pay for the initial County buy-in fees of $12,500. If either of the ABAG or CaliforniaFIRST SEP grants are funded, the estimated $170,000 buy-in fees for all 20 cities plus the County will also be covered. If neither of the grants are awarded, the cities can pay their own fees or the County could use EECBG funds to offset some of the city costs.
The indirect costs associated with participating in the CaliforniaFIRST program include staff time spent reviewing and processing the participation documents and participating in the program development meetings.
|
