Recommendation to authorize City Manager, or designee, to take all actions necessary to create and administer a pilot program of workshops to promote Energy Efficient Mortgages among home buyers in Long Beach during calendar year 2018; Increase appropriations in the Gas Fund (EF 301) in the Long Beach Gas and Oil Department (GO) by $40,000, offset by funds available; and Increase appropriations in the Development Services Fund (EF 337) in the Development Services Department (DV) by $40,000, offset by a transfer of funds from the Long Beach Gas and Oil Department (GO). (Citywide)
You have a good. So that concludes public comment. Well, we'll go ahead and move forward with I believe we have item number 16. Item 16 is a report from City Manager Recommendation to create and administer a pilot program of workshops to promote energy efficiency efficient mortgages among home buyers in Long Beach during calendar year 2018 citywide. Thank you, Mr. West. Mr. Vice Mayor, council members. This is an item that was brought to us to the city council a couple of months ago. We took it under our wing and worked with the the people who brought it to us. And Larry Rich is going to talk about how it can be implemented Larry. Thank you, Mr. West. Good evening, Mayor Richardson and members of the city council here to give you a quick overview of our proposed residential greenhouse gas reduction pilot program. You brought this to us back in May. And tonight, we're proposing a pilot program to educate homebuyers on their energy efficiency financing options during the 2018 calendar year. So what is an energy efficient mortgage or an ETM? Homebuyers or refinancing homeowners automatically qualify for 5 to 15% of their home value added to their mortgage loan to finance energy efficiency improvements. This 5 to 15% can also be used to purchase a home that is already energy efficient. This program has existed since 1980, but a lack of awareness and education has led OEM's to be vastly underutilized. The potential benefits of energy efficiency. Long Beach has an aging housing stock with 80% of owner occupied units built before 1970. Older buildings have large potential energy savings through upgrades. Upgrades provide an average of 25% savings on energy bills. Upgrades also create healthier indoor environments with cleaner air and better climate control. Upgrades can create economic dividends through job creation. And finally, greenhouse gases or goods are also reduced, helping to meet state and local greenhouse gas reduction goals. So the residential greenhouse gas reduction pilot program. So in partnership with local nonprofit Green Education Inc, we plan to provide a series of five workshops during the 2018 calendar year in locations spread throughout Long Beach. Workshops will cover energy efficient mortgages, other energy efficiency financing options, and rebates and grants that can be paired with financing. We will market workshops to local homebuyers and conduct in-person outreach to Long Beach. Employers will utilize prizes and giveaways to encourage attendance at the workshops, and we will follow up with workshop participants to evaluate program performance and energy savings. The financial impact. The budget for the pilot program is $40,000 and would be funded through the Gas and Oil Department's Cap and Trade GHG Reduction Fund. This budget will provide for a one year pilot program, including marketing campaigns and materials that are reproduced by city staff. Green Education Inc's services and conducting in-person outreach and teaching the five workshops. And finally, monitoring and evaluation of the pilot program. That concludes my presentation. I am happy to answer any questions. Thank you, as always. Yes. I want to thank you, Larry, for this work. I'm glad to see that we're moving in this direction. And I just have a couple of questions for you. How long do we expect the pilot program to be scheduled for? So we plan on rolling it out over the course the entire course of 2018. Right now, we're planning on doing a workshop every other month with a target start date in February and having the last one in October. Wonderful. And do we know when where those meetings will take place yet or have we gathered that information? We do have five potential venues spread across the city. The first one is potentially at the gas and Oil Department auditorium. But then we want to go to places like Chavez Community Center, something in West Palm Beach. We're also looking at Michelle Obama Library or as other park community center. And maybe I'm missing one, but that's the idea. Great. Well, thank you so much for the work. What you and your team do and sustainability is fantastic. And I appreciate you partnering with us and with green education. I'd really also like to thank them both, Marcia and Stella, because if it was for them, they, you know, this item would not be here. And you all have a vision for this type of program. This is exactly what I envisioned in this program. And I want to thank you for your work. You've been doing this for many, many years, and I appreciate that. And so we're a coastal city. We have to strive for even more initiatives in the sustainability. And I think this is definitely a step in the right direction. So thank you so much. I look forward to seeing the benefits from this after the workshops are done. Thank you, Councilmember Ganga. Thank you, Mayor. I also want to extend my congratulations on on the Green Inc. for putting this forward for us for the city. Just one question. Is there a benchmark in regards to how many households you want to reach within this pilot period? Well, we've estimated that there are 3000 home transactions in the city. Through our five workshops, we're hoping to get at least at least 30 participants each, which is over the course of the year, 150 direct participants in the workshops, ideally more. But hopefully through this process will reach a lot more home buyers that don't necessarily come to the workshops, but that the program will create a buzz. That sounds great. And I really would encourage people out there who are might be interested in and participate in this program to go ahead and reach out to the city and hopefully get their homes so more energy efficient. Thank you and thank you for your work. Thank you. Any public comment on item number 16? Seeing nonmembers, please cast your vote. Councilman Andrews. Yeah. Weisman. Richardson. Motion carries. Thank you. Congratulations, Stella and everybody involved. Next, we'll have 17 items.