AgdaPkt 2010-01-11 - Laserfiche WebLink

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REPORT 8A age 1 To the Honorable Mayor and City Council From the Cit Mana er January 11, 2010 SUBJECT CaliforniaFIRST - property assessed clean energy financing program RECOMMENDATION Adopt a resolution authorizing the City Manager to execute documents authorizing the City of Redwood City's participation in the CaliforniaFIRST Program, a property assessed clean energy financing program sponsored by the California Statewide Communities Development Authority ("California CommunitieslJ) BACKGROUND In July of 2009, the San Mateo County Manager's Office identified the opportunity to develop a residential energy assistance program (REAP) for San Mateo County that would leverage resources coming to the county and cities through Federal Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block grants. In response, the County Manager's Office convened a city/county workgroup to research program options and develop consensus on the design and implementation of a countywide residential energy efficiency program. Beth Ross, Redwood City's Environmental Initiatives Manager, has been participating on the workgroup. The workgroup's first action was to research successful program models. The group learned that residential energy assistance programs are most likely to succeed if they include financing as well as program implementation components. Specifically, the workgroup learned of a model that the City of Berkeley and the County of Sonoma use to offer homeowners loans for energy efficiency and renewable energy projects that are repaid via property taxes and stay with the property until paid in full. These programs have been the most successful in increasing residential energy efficiency and stimulating job growth in the energy efficiency sector. The workgroup also learned that the California State Association of Counties and the League of Cities, are supporting the development of a statewide energy financing district pilot project called CaliforniaFIRST. After a number of informational sessions, the workgroup recommended that the county and the cities participate in the CaliforniaFIRST pilot project for the financing component of the residential energy efficiency program. The workgroup felt a statewide financing district would share both the risk and the costs of developing a financing component for the program and also provide the benefits of statewide collaboration. The CaliforniaFIRST pilot project includes 14 counties and will be operated under contract by Renewable Funding. Renewable Funding is the firm that assisted Berkeley and Boulder, Colorado with their energy financing districts. In the Bay Area, Alameda, San Mateo, Santa Clara and Solano counties have indicated interest in participating in CaliforniaFIRST. Twenty cities within San Mateo County have expressed interest in participating to date including; San Carlos, San Mateo, Daly City and Belmont. The San Mateo County Board of Supervisors passed a resolution on December 15, 2009 authoring the County's participation in CaliforniaFIRST.