Recommendation to request City Attorney to draft the following resolutions: 1. Resolution consenting to Inclusion of Properties within the City's Incorporated Area in California Home Finance Authority (CHF) Community Facilities District No. 2014-1 (Clean Energy) to Finance Renewable Energy Generation, Energy Efficiency, Water Conservation and Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure Improvements and approving associate membership in CHF; and 2. Resolution consenting to Inclusion of Properties within the City's Incorporated Area in the CHF Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) Program to Finance Renewable Energy Generation, Energy and Water Efficiency Improvements and Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure and approving associate membership in CHF.
Motion carries. Item 11. Communication from Councilman Andrew's recommendation to request the city attorney to draft resolutions consenting to inclusion of City of Long Beach properties in the California Home Finance Authority, PACE programs and Associate membership in California Home Finance Authority. May I have a second, please? On item 11. Members. Oh, it wasn't working. Thank you. Councilmember Andrews. I swear. I have to recuse myself. I have a conflict of interest. Thank you. Councilman Andrews. Thank you, Vice Mayor. Okay, before I start this, I'd like to make a motion to amend my agenda item to include only commercial and industrial properties at this time. Properties Assessment Clean energy financing programs for commercial, industrial and agricultural properties to address high upfront costs of property owners who wish to improve their properties through installation of measures that will generate renewable energy or reduce their energy and water use by offering low cost financing. The base program allows constitution of these projects to proceed and I and process stimulate building activities and overall local economy. Reduce peak energy demands. Install electric curb plug ins, increase property value, and generate savings on utility bills for property owners. There are currently two state legislative items that have passed in the favor of PACE programs. That's SB 555 page community facility district and AB 811 PACE Construction, Construction Asset Assessment Program. I support these items. I'm asking the city attorney to create two resolutions that will approve the following actions. One, The first resolution authorizes the city to join the JPA as associate members and permit commercial property owners within the incorporated areas of the city to participate in this CHF SB 555 Community Facility District. Second. Resolution authorize the city to join in the JPA as an associate member and promote commercial properties and owner within incorporated areas of the city to participate in the CHF AB F-111 authorized purpose program. Not like the Modal Amendment. Does a secondary accept? Thank you. So there's been a motion and a second. Is there any member of the public that wish to address council on this item? Councilman Austin. Yes. I'm just just I'd like to give a little bit of clarification regarding the program and specifically the JPA associate member. What would role and responsibilities and who represents the city on the JPA? And then I have a follow up question after that. Yes, Madam Vice Mayor. Members of the City Council, the PACE program is something that we're very familiar with. The way that it's set up and state law is a city has to, by resolution, opt in. And that really is the extent of the city's involvement. So once the city opts in, the city council is allowing this agency to operate on our behalf. We are very familiar again with this process from commercial and industrial. We have a number of firms that the council has already opted in and allowed them to participate, and this would be adding another one for commercial and residential. So if that helps answer the question in terms of the JPA, I don't believe we sit on the JPA, but I am. Yes, we don't believe we have a seat on the JPA. And I guess the just the obvious question is how does this benefit this program benefit the city of Long Beach? So the goals and objectives of the space program is essentially to provide another financing mechanism for certain types of improvements for greenhouse gas emissions. So, for example, if a business or industry wants to replace all their lights with LED lights, they could have a financing mechanism through your property tax. Same thing for solar. So we've we've looked at. This property or this process. It's very good in terms of the underwriting standards for commercial and industrial. We as staff do have some concerns about residential because there are some cases where you're not really using a FICO score, you're not testing whether or not there's means to repay. And it's fairly high interest rates. There are other things available. So that's why we're fully comfortable with Councilmember Andrews motion to move forward with commercial industrial. Thank you very much. Councilwoman Mongo. Did we opt. In as a city for residential? So many years ago. We opted in, yes. As a residential program, and that was before residential programs really existed. So we opted into the county program. We had been working very closely with the L.A. County of L.A. on their program and were very comfortable with the way. That they were structuring their program. There were a couple of other. Programs we were being offered that we didn't feel had quite the consumer protections that that we would want. In the end, two of those firms, the L.A. County, changed their own program and actually adopted two of those firms. So they are operating right now in our city as residential. We continue to have some of the same concerns that we did before. We'd really like to study it for about a year to see what's going on with those residential properties. And at that point, if the council is comfortable moving forward, we can look at some others. But we we do have some concerns about whether or not those firms could lead people who don't aren't quite financially literate to enter into some financing agreements they may not be able to afford. So I second your concern as a resident of the city of Long Beach and a county employee. I received a letter with a seal of the county on it and a quote from our Environmental Protection or environmental director from the Internal Services Department. And I think it was a surprise to many in the county that such a thing existed and the Department of Consumer Affairs was contacted and reviewed the documentation. And I think that it really speaks to is it good for us as a city for neighbors to upgrade? Yes, but not at the risk of the interest rates, fines and fees that are in the place. So I think the city staff are doing excellent work in determining the the the new additions to the team. I know there are really good operators in this program, really great contractor, some of which are Long Beach contractors who should be able to get this work just as well as any other contractor. But I had some of the same reservations, so I really appreciate and I support this commercial and industrial version of this program. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. There's been a motion and a second. Is there any public comment? Please come forward. Good evening. Honorable Council members and staff. I'm Krystal Crawford. I'm State Director for Y Green Energy Fund. And so I'm here this evening to, first of all, thank Mr. Andrews and his team for bringing this forward. We've also had an opportunity to work with your staff and have some discussions with staff about the Why Green program, and we very much appreciate the opportunity to at least initially offer our program to commercial and industrial properties, although we would certainly like to continue working with your staff and with the council members to explain how our program protects residential property owners and actually provides an excellent an option for people. And again, pace is an option. There are other financing tools available, but there are differences of course. And so I believe this council and your staff, as has been mentioned, is very familiar with Pace. But I'd just like to mention a couple of things about why. Green We are one of the oldest and largest pace administrators in California. We were one of the original companies coming forward after the legislature created Pace. We are the only company that is operating under the second legislation, SB 55, as Mr. Andrews mentioned, which does offer some advantages to your property owners. And so we think that offering an additional choice to properties property owners in the community of Long Beach is a plus. Choice is always an option, of course. Today why Green is is has funded and approved over 20,000 projects for a value of over $1,000,000,000. We've completed over $300 million in projects and we're operating in seven of ten of the largest cities in the state and in I believe it's four of six of the largest counties. So, of course, the city of Los Angeles has endorsed our program, along with San Diego, San Jose, Fresno, Sacramento, Oakland and Santa Ana. Just to mention a few, we make it our priority to protect property owners by providing detailed disclosures and information and also having processes, consumer protection processes in place. So again, we would welcome the opportunity to begin operating in your community with the limitations that Mr. Andrews has proposed. We are in favor of that and would ask that the Council bring our item back, work with we would work with the City Attorney to bring this item back with the resolutions at your next council meeting. And we do have property owners and contractors who are very interested in taking advantage of our financing options. So thank you again for the opportunity to be considered and for the thoughtful presentation and comments this evening. And I'm available certainly to answer any other questions that you might have. Councilwoman Mongeau, I want to thank you for coming, and I want to thank you for the work that you do training contractors. And I think that, especially in our senior community, sometimes the additional fees are the best way to go for them, because I'm financing through the property tax with a short term goal of eventually selling. I see all of those benefits and I appreciate you as a contractor and I also appreciate that you understand that we have to be weary of some of the others. So thank you very much for that. Yes. And so, again, thank you for the comments. And we look forward to meeting with you and talking more about the why green program and what we can do to protect your residential property owners and address your concerns. Thank you. Thank you. Members, please cast your vote. I'm. Please come forward. I already called for public comment. Is there anyone else that would like to make a comment on animal 11? Thank you. Larry. Good to clear. Because these guys were full disclosure. I didn't hear all of the staff report. But one of the things that did capture my attention in the subsequent comments of people was that there. Some financial services companies available to help entities that are I think they used a very tactful word, financially not literate or financially illiterate. I'm wondering whether or not that might be worthwhile for this city to consider entering into a contract with some company like that. Given the very sage comments offered earlier today relative to the replacement of this facility and that which is published for you to read on the Long Beach report relative to the very credible Teri Jensen of how unwise your financial. Path that you focus on is and I think that would certainly classify being financially illiterate. So if there are programs and I believe there are be worthwhile for this council to consider entering into. And I think one of the one of the recommendations they would make is the same one. Either they is to. Fire the city. Certainly fire the city manager replaced the manager, the mayor, with a federal master. Til until we get back on a financial track that allow us to slow the projection and the path we're on to becoming a a something akin to what one would find in a fourth rate city, which is within the next 60 years, where we will be unless there's a marked reversal. In the trajectory that we are now on. Thank you. Kate. Members, cast your vote. Motion carries. Thank you. Item 12 Communication from Councilman Andrew's Recommendation to approve the use of six Council District Fiscal Year 2015. One time infrastructure funds in the amount of $20,000 to fund community improvements in the Sixth Council District.