Correspondences — Burbank City Council, May 17, 2022

Meredith, Alyssa
From: Paul Abrahamian
Sent: Monday, April 04, 2022 10:48 AM
To: City Council DL
Subject: Proposed BWP rate increases
CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organization. Do not click links or open attachments unless you recognize the sender and know the content is safe.

We are against any rate increases for BWP.

What bothers me the most is the large construction going on in Burbank. You are asking me to cut back on water and at the same time increasing water usage with the large apartment construction projects. We are just two people over age 80, lived in Burbank over 60 years.

The amount of water we use must be minuscule compared to the rest of the community.

Paul & Natalie Abrahamian
Burbank, CA 91504
Sent from my iPad
Meredith, Alyssa
From: Rosalie Salvato -
Sent: Tuesday, April 05, 2022 9:32 PM
To: City Council DL
Subject: Burbank Water And Power
CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organization. Do not click links or open attachments unless you recognize the sender and know the content is safe.

To City Council Members,
I recently received a notice from the BWP regarding a proposed 9% increase for infrastructure repairs etc.

A bi-partisan "Infrastructure Bill" was passed and I believe the funds have been distributed to the States. Money for these improvements etc. should be provided under the Infrastructure Bill.

NO increase in rates.

Rosalie Salvtato
Burbank, CA 91506
1 Meredith, Alyssa
From: Kevin Meagher
Sent: Tuesday, April 05, 2022 9:21 AM
To: City Council DL
Subject: BWP Rate Hikes
CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organization. Do not click links or open attachments unless you recognize the sender and know the content is safe.

Council Members
We are in receipt of notice of an outrageously high rate hike proposal by BWP of $8.00 a month for electric and $6.50 for water. This untimely huge hike is fuel for the inflation bandwagon. It iss unaffordable. And the financial assistance programs have too low a threshold. There is no helo for the general senior citizen population that has made Burbank home and contributed to its well being for a lifetime.

People like us who have lived and run a business in this city.

I urge each one of you not to just rubber stamp this.

Kevin Meagher
Meredith, Alyssa
From: Thomas Saito
Sent: Saturday, April 09, 2022 11:43 AM
To: City Council DL
Subject: Proposed BWP rate increases
CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organization. Do not click links or open attachments unless you recognize the sender and know the content is safe.

I would like to protest the proposed BWP rate increases and express my disdain for the lack of transparency provided by BWP in its latest attempts to justify the necessity for the excessive increases.

BWP now says that the challenges of climate change must be addressed after ignoring the looming catastrophe for more than 40 years. It has opposed widespread implementation of rooftop solar and aggressive conservation campaigns. Why should we trust BWP's stated objectives to be sincere or well planned? It has not disclosed how it plans to cut reliance on fossil fuels even though it opposes rooftop solar. BWP has not addressed important improvements such as installing underground power lines in areas where palm fronds contribute to power outages and increase fire risk.

Regarding water conservation, BWP's tepid response is a complete failure. When the city moved to Stage Il of the Sustainable Water Use Ordinance, it was barely publicized and no enforcement was implemented. Many residents use their lawn sprinklers daily or simply at their convenience. WHY AREN'T THERE ANY CONSEQUENCES FOR WATER WASTERS? BWP's lack of involvement in water conservation has clearly contributed to water waste.

BWP has addressed the water infrastructure issue somewhat but has not mentioned saving or utilizing water runoff, particularly in the foothills.

As BWP has done many times in past years, it has tried to justify rate increases by invoking the "rising operational costs" argument. What, specifically, are those "rising operational costs"? Is the phrase merely a euphemism for salary increases or other employee benefits. We would like to know the truth. Please tell us what will really happen to the money, preferably before the rate increases are blindly adopted, Thomas Saito
Burbank
1 Meredith, Alyssa
From: Tunnicliff, Daniel
Sent: Monday, April 11, 2022 9:09 PM
To: [email protected]
Cc:

Seanier Sharon; Hes, lustin, Wilk, udie, Lindell. Dawn; Seman, Riadi; Edvards, Subject: RE: Burbank Water And Power
Ms. Salvato,
I apologize, but I needed to make a correction to the grant calculations below, which 1 highlighted in red below.

The total for the seismic upgrades of the pipelines was incorrect and should be • $4M grant with a match requirement of about $12M for seismic upgrades of the pipelines near an earthquake fault from California Office of Emergency Services (CalOES)/Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) (pending)
In total, the grants, if approved, will provide substantial funding for the city ($12.2M); however, we will also need to provide a significant capital outlay, as well ($17.5M).

I apologize for any confusion.

Dan
BOURBANY DANIEL E. TUNNICLIFF, P.E.

Assistant General Manager
Customer Service Operations
WATER AND (818) 238-3711 office | (562) 833-9904 mobile POWER
BurbankWaterAndPower.com
Powering the flow of life today and tomorrow
From: Tunnicliff, Daniel
Sent: Monday, April 11, 2022 7:02 PM
To: [email protected]
Cc: Springer, Sharon <[email protected]>; Hess, Justin <[email protected]>; Wilke, Judie <[email protected]>; Lindell, Dawn <[email protected]>; Sleiman, Riad <[email protected]>; Edwards, Jeannine <[email protected]>
Subject: FW: Burbank Water And Power
Importance: High
Ms. Salvtato,
Thank you very much for your email.

You are absolutely correct that the bipartisan infrastructure bill was passed recently, and funding will be available and distributed by various federal agencies, including the Department of Energy, the Department of Interior, and the Bureau of Reclamation - to name a few. BWP is actively engaged in applying for grant funding that will help fund infrastructure 1 projects; however, there is no guarantee we will receive the funding, or if the available grants lineup with our operational and future needs for the electric and water infrastructure necessary to continue to provide excellent service to our community. Additionally, most grants require matching funding from the organization. For example, the grant may fund 25-50% of the project with the remaining funding required from the utility rate payers.

As much as possible, BWP works hard to bring in external funding to help offset some of the infrastructure costs. The following are several grants that we have recently applied for and/or are in the process of applying for:
• $50,000 grant to study a tool (H2Know) to help monitor individual water consumption in multi-family dwellings to help conserve water (received)
• $175,000 grant with a local match of $175,000 from the Bureau of Reclamation to develop a drought contingency plan (received)
• $125,000 grant from the American Public Power Agency's Demonstration of Energy & Efficiency Developments with a local match of $583,000 to pilot energy storage technology which will help study the integration of renewable energy into our system (received)
• $136,000 grant with a local match of $34,000 from the US Department of Commerce, Economic Development Administration for a Broadband Feasibility Plan to expand the city's broadband program (pending) • $5M grant with a local match of $3.8M from the U.S. Economic Development Administration DA grant towards the Willow substation and associated lines to serve the new developments in the Media District area (pending) • $12M grant with a match requirement of about $4M for seismic upgrades of the pipelines near an earthquake fault from California Office of Emergency Services (CalOES)/Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) (pending)
• $2.7M grant with a local match of about $890,000 from the CalOES/FEMA to update/fortify our system in wildfire arears (pending)
In total, the grants, if approved, will provide substantial funding for the city ($20.2M); however, we will also need to provide a significant capital outlay, as well ($9.5M).

As much as possible, BWP brings in external dollars and this potential funding from the infrastructure bill and other sources will help the city in many areas; however, the funding isn't guaranteed and does not help meet our state requirement to be at 60% renewables by 2030. In addition, the funding is not guaranteed and will not allow us to keep up with inflation and obtain renewable energy on the electric side or help modernize our infrastructure on the water side.

Thank you again for your email and please let me know if you need additional information.

Thanks,
Dan
BURBANK DANIEL E. TUNNICLIFF, P.E.

Assistant General Manager
Customer Service Operations
WATER AND (818) 238-3711 office | (562) 833-9904 mobile POWER
BurbankWaterAndPower.com
Powering the flow of life today and tomorrow
From: Kramer, Bob <[email protected]>
Sent: Monday, April 11, 2022 4:43 AM
To: Rosalie Salvato •
Cc: Springer, Sharon <[email protected]>; Lindell, Dawn <[email protected]>; Hess, Justin [email protected]>; Wilke, Judie <[email protected]>; Tunnicliff, Daniel <[email protected]>; Edwards, Jeannine <[email protected]>; Sleiman, Riad <[email protected]> Subject: RE: Burbank Water And Power
Rosalie
Thank you for your email. I believe you will get an answer soon.

Sincerely
BobK
From: Rosalie Salvato
Sent: Sunday, April 10, 2022 1:58 PM
To: Kramer, Bob <[email protected]>
Cc: Springer, Sharon <[email protected]>; Lindell, Dawn <[email protected]>; Hess, Justin <[email protected]>; Wilke, Judie </[email protected]>; Tunnicliff, Daniel <[email protected]>; Edwards, Jeannine <[email protected]>; Sleiman, Riad <[email protected]> Subject: Re: Burbank Water And Power
CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organization. Do not click links or open attachments unless you recognize the sender and know the content is safe
To All.

Thank you for taking the time to make a comment on my message, however, NONE of you addressed or answered my question. Again, Congress passed a bi-partisan INFRASTRUCTURE BILL, that would provide money ($$$$$) to each STATE for their infrastructure issues.

My Question: WHY isn't the BWP receiving money from the Infrastructure Bill for the improvements that are needed.

NO INCREASE SHOULD BE PASSED TO THE TAXPAYERS!!!!! Please address my question. I am contacting you before I contact Congressman Adam Schiff and Governor Newsome.

Thank you,
Rosalie Salvato
On Sun, Apr 10, 2022 at 4:57 AM Kramer, Bob < [email protected]> wrote:

Council Member Springer
3 Thank you for your email. Let me check with members of staff.

Sincerely
BobK
From: Springer, Sharon <[email protected]>
Sent: Saturday, April 9, 2022 6:19 AM
To: Rosalie Salvato <[email protected]>; Kramer, Bob <[email protected]>; Lindell, Dawn <[email protected]>; Hess, Justin <|[email protected]>; Wilke, Judie <[email protected]> Subject: Re: Burbank Water And Power
Good morning, Rosalie. Thank you for your email and I hope you are doing well. I know we are doing everything we can to keep rates as low as possible. Staff is copied here to address the "Infrastructure Bill'' and what it means for Burbank and utility rates.

Sharon Springer
Council Member
City of Burbank
275 East Olive Ave., Burbank, CA 91502
818.238.5751 [email protected]
From: Rosalie Salvato < [email protected]>
Sent: Friday, April 8, 2022 9:29 PM
To: City Council DL <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: Burbank Water And Power
CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organization. Do not click links or open attachments unless you recognize the sender and know the content is safe.

Would appreciate a reply to my message.
4 On Tue, Apr 5, 2022 at 9:31 PM Rosalie Salvato wrote:

To City Council Members,
I recently received a notice from the BWP regarding a proposed 9% increase for infrastructure repairs etc.

A bi-partisan "Infrastructure Bill" was passed and I believe the funds have been distributed to the States. Money for these
improvements etc. should be provided under the Infrastructure Bill.

NO increase in rates.

Rosalie Salvtato
Burbank, CA 91506
Meredith, Alyssa
From: Layla Terzian
Sent: Monday, April 11, 2022 2:53 PM
To: City Council DL
Subject: Reject 2nd Proposed Service Rate Hike
CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organization. Do not click links or open attachments unless you recognize the sender and know the content is safe.

Hello,
My name is Layla Terzian and I have been a resident of Burbank since August 2019. Recently, I received the notice regarding the public hearing where a second rate hike will be considered for water and other city services in May 2022.

If I remember correctly, there was a 6% water rate hike approved within the past year. Incorporating an additional 9% water rate hike would bring the total increase to 15.54% within a single year.

I am writing to you to express my sincerest request to hold off on any such increases to service rates. As I am sure most of you understand, we are all suffering immensely due to the recent substantial increases to the costs of living in California. My husband and I are both well-educated professionals with steady careers-but, even we are struggling to put any money aside at all anymore. Not only was I rejected a raise at work to counteract inflation (because my own boss is also struggling), but my husband took a pay cut this year just to remain at his company.

I completely understand the details of the notice and how the costs would help meet the City's needs, but I urge you all to come together and make strides toward working with your current budget-just as we're all forced to do at home during these unprecedented times.

We are all struggling-some of us more than others. Five dollars here, ten dollars there adds up to quite a lot at the end of the month when all things are considered. Additionally, my husband and | are expecting our first child this year.

Please take into consideration situations like ours in your decision-making process. We approved a significant rate hike not too long ago. There are plenty of funds to work with if enough representatives are willing make the necessary changes.

I will be present at the meeting on on May 17, 2022 at 6PM and will submit a formal written protest as outlined in the notice. However, can you confirm whether or not this meeting will be available live via Zoom? Many Burbank residents are barely able to leave work by 6PM. It would be most fair if the community is invited to join in on the conversation via Web as well as be given the option to attend in person.

Respectfully,
Layla Terzian
Meredith, Alyssa
From: Thomas Saito
Sent: Tuesday, April 12, 2022 9:25 PM
To: Schultz, Nick
Subject: Response to my message regarding rate hikes
CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organization. Do not click links or open attachments unless you recognize the sender and know the content is safe.

Thank you for your response. Mr. Schultz, you have added some much-needed vitality to the Council.

Some of us in the community are informed and concerned citizens. BWP has a long history or poorly presented requests for rate increases. It is shameful if BWP can achieve its goals through incomplete information and/or lack of financial disclosure to the public.
he city, in general, needs to do a much better job of communicating with the public. I have received a response fron aniel and I will respond to him. Thanks agait
Thomas Saito
Sent from AT&T Yahoo Mail on Android
Meredith, Alyssa
From: Kevin Meagher
Sent: Tuesday, April 12, 2022 6:18 PM
To: Schultz, Nick
Cc: Kramer, Bob
Subject: Re: BWP Rate Hikes
CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organization. Do not click links or open attachments unless you recognize the sender and know the content is safe.

Thank you Nick. I appreciate you taking the time.

Bob, I know the BWP rationale. Little to dialouge about there. The fact is there could not be a worse time for this sort of huge increase.

Simple: Don't do it. Not now.

On Apr 12, 2022, at 7:59 PM, Schultz, Nick <[email protected]> wrote:

Good afternoon Mr. Meagher,
Thank you very much for the message. I appreciated reading your concerns about the proposed . water and electric rate increased by Burbank Water & Power (BWP). Please note that I have copied our community assistance coordinator, Bob Kramer, to this message. He will put you in touch with BWP staff who can further explain the rationale for the proposed increases and the timeline for consideration by the City Council. In the meantime, please know that I have read and will take into consideration your comments moving forward. Thank you again for taking the time to reach out. Have a good day!
Sincerely,
Nick Schultz
Burbank City Councilmember
Burbank City Hall
275 E Olive Avenue
Burbank, CA 91502
(818) 238-5750
[email protected]
From: Kevin Meagher
Sent: Tuesday, April 5, 2022 9:21 AM
To: City Council DL <[email protected]>
Subject: BWP Rate Hikes
CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organization. Do not click links or open attachments unless you recognize the sender and know the content is safe.

People like us who have lived and run a business in this city.

I urge each one of you not to just rubber stamp this.

Kevin Meagher
2 Meredith, Alyssa
From: Hess, Justin
Sent: Tuesday, April 12, 2022 9:17 AM
To: Anthony, Konstantine; Frutos, Bob; Schultz, Nick; Springer, Sharon; Talamantes, Jess CC: Wilke, Judie; Lindell, Dawn; Becker, Jennifer; Berkman, Ken Subject: FW: Burbank Water And Power
Importance: High
Council, fyi below...I wanted to be sure to share with all of you BWP's response...thanks, Justin From: Tunnicliff, Daniel <[email protected]>
Sent: Monday, April 11, 2022 7:02 PM
To: [email protected]
Cc: Springer, Sharon <[email protected]>; Hess, Justin <[email protected]>; Wilke, Judie </[email protected]>; Lindell, Dawn <[email protected]>; Sleiman, Riad <[email protected]>; Edwards, Jeannine <[email protected]>
Subject: FW: Burbank Water And Power
Importance: High
Ms. Salvtato,
Thank you very much for your email.

You are absolutely correct that the bipartisan infrastructure bill was passed recently, and funding will be available and distributed by various federal agencies, including the Department of Energy, the Department of Interior, and the Bureau of Reclamation - to name a few. BWP is actively engaged in applying for grant funding that will help fund infrastructure projects; however, there is no guarantee we will receive the funding, or if the available grants lineup with our operational and future needs for the electric and water infrastructure necessary to continue to provide excellent service to our community. Additionally, most grants require matching funding from the organization. For example, the grant may fund 25-50% of the project with the remaining funding required from the utility rate payers.

As much as possible, BWP works hard to bring in external funding to help offset some of the infrastructure costs. The following are several grants that we have recently applied for and/or are in the process of applying for:
• $50,000 grant to study a tool (H2Know) to help monitor individual water consumption in multi-family dwellings to help conserve water (received)
• $175,000 grant with a local match of $175,000 from the Bureau of Reclamation to develop a drought contingency plan (received)
• $125,000 grant from the American Public Power Agency's Demonstration of Energy & Efficiency Developments with a local match of $583,000 to pilot energy storage technology which will help study the integration of renewable energy into our system (received)
• $136,000 grant with a local match of $34,000 from the US Department of Commerce, Economic Development Administration for a Broadband Feasibility Plan to expand the city's broadband program (pending) • $5M grant with a local match of $3.8M from the U.S. Economic Development Administration DA grant towards the Willow substation and associated lines to serve the new developments in the Media District area (pending) • $12M grant with a match requirement of about $4M for seismic upgrades of the pipelines near an earthquake fault from California Office of Emergency Services (CalOES)/Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) (pending)
1 • $2.7M grant with a local match of about $890,000 from the CalOES/FEMA to update/fortify our system in wildfire arears (pending)
In total, the grants, if approved, will provide substantial funding for the city ($20.2M); however, we will also need to provide a significant capital outlay, as well ($9.5M).

Thank you again for your email and please let me know if you need additional information.

Thanks,
Dan
BURBANG DANIEL E. TUNNICLIFF, P.E.

Assistant General Manager
Customer Service Operations
WATER AND (818) 238-3711 office | (562) 833-9904 mobile POWER
BurbankWaterAndPower.com
Powering the flow of life today and tomorrow
From: Kramer, Bob <[email protected]>
Sent: Monday, April 11, 2022 4:43 AM
To: Rosalie Salvato <[email protected]>
Cc: Springer, Sharon <[email protected]>; Lindell, Dawn <[email protected]>; Hess, Justin <[email protected]>; Wilke, Judie <|[email protected]>; Tunnicliff, Daniel <[email protected]>; Edwards, Jeannine <[email protected]>; Sleiman, Riad <[email protected]> Subject: RE: Burbank Water And Power
Rosalie
Thank you for your email. I believe you will get an answer soon.

Sincerely
BobK
From: Rosalie Salvato <
Sent: Sunday, April 10, 2022 1:58 PM
To: Kramer, Bob < [email protected]>
Cc: Springer, Sharon <[email protected]>; Lindell, Dawn < [email protected]>; Hess, Justin [email protected]>; Wilke, Judie <[email protected]>; Tunnicliff, Daniel <[email protected]>; Edwards, Jeannine <[email protected]>; Sleiman, Riad <[email protected]> Subject: Re: Burbank Water And Power
CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organization. Do not click links or open attachments unless you recognize the sender and know the content is safe.

To All.

My Question: WHY isn't the BWP receiving money from the Infrastructure Bill for the improvements that are needed.

NO INCREASE SHOULD BE PASSED TO THE TAXPAYERS!!!!! Please address my question. I am contacting you before I contact Congressman Adam Schiff and Governor Newsome.

Thank you,
Rosalie Salvato
On Sun, Apr 10, 2022 at 4:57 AM Kramer, Bob <[email protected]> wrote:

Council Member Springer
Thank you for your email. Let me check with members of staff.

Sincerely
Bobk
From: Springer, Sharon <[email protected]>
Sent: Saturday, April 9, 2022 6:19 AM
To: Rosalie Salvato <[email protected]>; Kramer, Bob <[email protected]>; Lindell, Dawn <[email protected]>; Hess, Justin <[email protected]>; Wilke, Judie </[email protected]> Subject: Re: Burbank Water And Power
Good morning, Rosalie. Thank you for your email and I hope you are doing well. I know we are doing everything we can to keep rates as low as possible. Staff is copied here to address the "Infrastructure Bill" and what it means for Burbank and utility rates.
3 Sharon Springer
Council Member
City of Burbank
275 East Olive Ave., Burbank, CA 91502
818.238.5751 [email protected]
From: Rosalie Salvato <
Sent: Friday, April 8, 2022 9:29 PM
To: City Council DL <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: Burbank Water And Power
CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organization. Do not click links or open attachments unless you recognize the sender and know the content is safe.

Would appreciate a reply to my message.

On Tue, Apr 5, 2022 at 9:31 PM Rosalie Salvato < wrote:

To City Council Members,
I recently received a notice from the BWP regarding a proposed 9% increase for infrastructure repairs etc.

A bi-partisan "Infrastructure Bill" was passed and I believe the funds have been distributed to the States. Money for these
improvements etc. should be provided under the Infrastructure Bill.

NO increase in rates.
4 Rosalie Salvtato
Burbank, CA 91506
Meredith, Alyssa
From: Rosalie Salvato <
Sent: Wednesday, April 13, 2022 1:40 PM
To: Kramer, Bob
Cc: Springer, Sharon; Lindell, Dawn; Hess, Justin; Wilke, Judie; Tunnicliff, Daniel; Edwards, Jeannine; Sleiman, Riad
Subject: Re: Burbank Water And Power
CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organization. Do not click links or open attachments unless you recognize the sender and know the content is safe.

To All,
Just to inform you that I have contacted Congressman Schiff's office regarding the bi-partisan Infrastructure Bill, asking how it works and expressing my concerns.

The Infrastructure Bill is financed by the taxpayers. It seems to me that imposing a 9%increase for infrastructure work is double taxation on the taxpayers.. In addition, the BWP is proposing a 6% increase in water rates because of inflation - 6 + 9 = a 15% increase which, in my estimation, is exorbitant. Would BWP reduce the water rates when inflation goes down? Rosalie Salvato
On Sun, Apr 10, 2022 at 4:57 AM Kramer, Bob <[email protected]> wrote:

Council Member Springer
Thank you for your email. Let me check with members of staff.

Sincerely
Bobk
1 From: Springer, Sharon <[email protected]>
Sent: Saturday, April 9, 2022 6:19 AM
To: Rosalie Salvato < [email protected]>; Kramer, Bob <[email protected]>; Lindell, Dawn <[email protected]>; Hess, Justin <[email protected]>; Wilke, Judie <[email protected]> Subject: Re: Burbank Water And Power
Good morning, Rosalie. Thank you for your email and I hope you are doing well. I know we are doing everything we can to keep rates as low as possible. Staff is copied here to address the "Infrastructure Bill" and what it means for Burbank and utility rates.

Sharon Springer
Council Member
City of Burbank
275 East Olive Ave., Burbank, CA 91502
818.238.5751 [email protected]
From: Rosalie Salvato <
Sent: Friday, April 8, 2022 9:29 PM
To: City Council DL < [email protected]>
Subject: Re: Burbank Water And Power
CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organization. Do not click links or open attachments unless you recognize the sender and know the content is safe. S
Would appreciate a reply to my message.

On Tue, Apr 5, 2022 at 9:31 PM Rosalie Salvato • wrote:

To City Council Members,
2 I recently received a notice from the BWP regarding a proposed 9% increase for infrastructure repairs etc.

A bi-partisan "Infrastructure Bill" was passed and I believe the funds have been distributed to the States. Money for these
improvements etc. should be provided under the Infrastructure Bill.

NO increase in rates.

Rosalie Salvtato
Burbank, CA 91506
Meredith, Alyssa
From: Chris Weber
Sent: Sunday, April 17, 2022 4:59 PM
To: City Council DL
Subject: In support of Burbank Water and Power's proposed budget and rate increases CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organization. Do not click links or open attachments unless you recognize the sender and know the content is safe.

Dear Mayor Talamantes, Vice Mayor Anthony, Councilmember Frutos, Councilmember Springer, and Councilmember Schultz,
My name is Chris Weber, and I support both the Burbank Water and Power (BWP) proposed budget and rate increases. The proposed investments identified in the budget and the rate increases will allow BWP to properly meet its three-fold policy objectives of affordability, reliability, and sustainability now, in the immediate future, and in preparation to being greenhouse gas (GHG) neutral by 2040.

Affordability: Over the past several years, BWP leaned too heavily into the affordability plank of its three- pronged approach. By keeping rates significantly below the average rates in the local market, the utility did not have resources to invest in additional sustainable energy sources or update its aging infrastructure. A 6% increase in electric residential rates and a 9% increase in water rates would provide BWP with the necessary funds to meet future renewable energy state mandates, create investment funds for local renewable energy projects, maintain the existing infrastructure, and put BWP's residential rates closer to parity with other local markets. Coupled with these rate increases must come additional income qualified assistance programs for Burbank residents, and I'm encouraged to hear that BWP is working on those programs as well.

Reliability: BWP recently received the American Public Power Association's highest honor in recognition of the outstanding reliable electric service provided to the Burbank community, a mark of pride for our city and the utility. However, to maintain this reliability, BWP must invest in its aging infrastructure urgently, as it is more cost-effective to conduct maintenance and planned upgrades rather than endure large-scale service interruptions such as water main breaks and failures in the electric distribution infrastructure. For example, Burbank has 30 miles of pipeline that are over 100 years old, which creates additional risk for water main breaks and service interruptions. In order to avoid costly service interruptions and maintain its current outstanding reliability record, BWP needs to increase the pipe replacement rate and complete needed maintenance on the utility's aging assets. Additionally, the utility will pilot and potentially expand new solar battery technologies to create local support for energy resilience; these infrastructure investments and key staff hires will be possible through these essential rate increases.

Sustainability: It is my opinion that previous BWP leadership paid lip service to sustainability, climate change, and BWP's role in mitigating climate impacts locally. Under the exceptional leadership of General Manager Dawn Roth Lindell, BWP publicly committed to "take meaningful strides in addressing this generation's greatest challenge - climate change and implemented changes to move us towards achieving this aim (such as increasing the amount of renewable energy in Burbank's energy portfolio and posting a role for a long- needed sustainability officer). To meet the state's requirement of having 60% of its power portfolio from renewable sources by 2030 and address the climate crisis, BWP will not be able to make meaningful strides toward this goal without significant investments to both support these aims and avoid costly annual noncompliance fines. For example, the existing Power Systems and Facilities staffing levels are inadequate for negotiating 6-8 new renewable contracts in order to meet the state requirements before 2030. If BWP is unable to complete those contracts in this time frame, the utility and our city are at risk for $147M in penalties annually starting in 2030 and will still be required to increase its renewable portfolio in accordance with state law.

Additionally, BWP must take a leading role in providing information to the community on how they can conserve natural resources and help the city combat climate change. This will require investments in both data infrastructure as well as personnel dedicated to implementing sustainable programs. For example, without investments in its customer data and advanced water metering infrastructure and its customer sustainability programs, BWP will not be able to meet its goals of effectively reducing consumer demand by 2.7% over the budget period.

Finally, fostering local energy resilience through investments in renewable power sources is one way of mitigating the impacts of climate change and reducing dependence on other entities for Burbank's power. With investments such as the Regional Intermodal Transportation Center (RITC) Solar and Battery project, the EcoCampus Solar and Storage project, and the Citywide Solar and Storage project, BWP will be able to both build local, renewable energy sources and make a little more progress towards the state's mandated 2030 goals.

With the impacts of climate change intensifying each year and wildfires becoming increasingly more commonplace in our region, the city of Burbank and BWP must take meaningful steps to mitigate our climate risks, and that begins with investing in BWP and approving these rate increases. We cannot afford to provide residential rates significantly below market any longer, as this will only cause our future investment costs to be both more expensive and under emergency conditions. I strongly support these rate increases and the BWP proposed budget, and look forward to seeing your support as well.

Thank you for your time and consideration. I look forward to your discussion on this topic in the coming weeks.

Best,
Chris Weber
Meredith, Alyssa
From: Sheryl Meline
Sent: Monday, April 18, 2022 8:31 AM
To: City Council DL
Subject: Burbank Water, Sewer, Refuse Service
CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organization. Do not click links or open attachments unless you recognize the sender and know the content is safe.

Hello,
I received a notice for a proposed rate increase for the Burbank Water, Sewer, Refuse Service.

As a resident we are supposed to conserve water, now the water we use is going to cost more.

The houses in Burbank are at least 1.2 million for a 3 bedroom and 2 bath home. I was born and raised in Burbank.

The prices are going up astronomically. Families like mine are being priced out of our own neighborhood. Now we can't afford to move to a place that my family of four would be able to live comfortably and the water, sewer and refuse fees are being increased.

How are the long time citizens supposed to be able to afford all these price hikes? Please keep our water, sewer and refuse fees down.

Sincerely,
Ms. Sheryl Meline
Burbank Citizen
Sent from my iPhone
Meredith, Alyssa
From: Lindell, Dawn
Sent: Tuesday, April 19, 2022 10:37 AM
To: Lindell, Dawn
Cc: Hess, Justin; Wilke, Judie; Becker, Jennifer; BWP Senior Leaders Subject: Budget discussion points from BWP Power Supply Good morning, Honorable Mayor, Vice Mayor and fine City Councilmembers! Below please find an update from Mandip Samra on why we are where we are with respect to our power supply budget needs. Again, these are complex issues that occurred over quite some time. We face a daunting challenge in meeting our mandated renewable goals. If we fail to reach 60% by 2030, we face up to $147,000,000 in fines. I would much rather invest that money in the hiring of necessary staff and the projects needed to reach those mandates. These mandates have teeth and will still need to be met whether or not we meet them on time to avoid the fines.

Mandip's update is long but is worth the read. As always, please reach out to me if you have any thoughts, ideas, concerns or questions. I will always do my best for you and this community. I have bbc'd City Council and the BWP Board.

Warm regards,
Dawn
From Mandip:

I would like to summarize some of the Power Supply Division's concerns, as related to the fiscal year (FY) 22/23 budget.

The Power Supply Division is made up of power resources (which includes resource planning, greenhouse gas and renewable compliance and day ahead trading), the Energy Control Center (which includes real time trading, switching and dispatching), Facilities (maintenance of the Eco-Campus) and Power Production (which includes the operation of the Magnolia Power Plant, Lake One Unit, Tieton and our four small landfill gas facilities). The Power Supply Division is the largest portion of the BWP budget.

A summary of issues impacting the budget for the Power Supply Division, is provided below:

Supply Chain issues
Since October 2021, our largest resource, the Intermountain Power Project (IPP), has faced supply chain issues on coal.

As a result, our allocation of power from the facility reduced from 89 megawatts (MW) to just 11 MW. This left us with a significant gap to meet the city of Burbank's energy needs. In order to provide the energy needed by the people in Burbank, we had to buy more energy from the market and we ran our Magnolia Power Project (MPP) and Lake One unit more.

Unfortunately, energy prices soared in the last fiscal year. Our budgeted natural gas prices were considerably below the actual market price. We budgeted an average of $3.96/mmbtu for FY21/22 and our FY 22/23 budget for natural gas is $5.46, which is about 40% higher than the FY 21/22 budget. The increase in natural gas prices is a result of higher demand overseas and supply and demand issues in the US. The IPP issues led our partner utilities (Glendale, Pasadena, Riverside and LADWP) to run their gas units more as well. The Operating Agent of IPP, the Intermountain Power Agency (IPA), is expecting these supply chain issues at IPP to continue into FY 22/23. Based on current forecasts, we have taken the prudent step to budget for the expected higher gas and energy prices.

Intermountain Power Project Renewal
1 The cost to convert IPP from coal to natural gas/green hydrogen is coming in significantly above the forecast provided in 2019. In fact, the price has already doubled for the natural gas component. We do not have an estimate for the conversion to hydrogen. In 2019, BWP became an official participant in the IPP Renewal. The primary reason for participating in the project was to maintain rights on the Southern Transmission System (STS), which allows us to contract with renewable partners, to deliver renewables to Burbank's load. Supply chain issues have also impacted the engineering, procurement and construction costs of the IPP Renewal - causing current cost estimates to be twice the 2019 estimates. For context, the original cost estimates were less than $2 billion total (in 2019) and now the costs are nearly $4 billion. BWP's share of generation projects is 28MW or 3.33%. This means that BWP is accountable for 3.33% of the total costs as well. The costs for decommissioning the coal plant, additional cost for the hydrogen betterment (the engineering and design work necessary to get the natural gas turbine ready to run on 30% hydrogen) and transmission costs, continue to increase. These costs are reflected in the FY 22/23 budget. We are contractually obligated to pay these costs.

We are doing our best to keep up with all of the IPP issues with our limited staff. We currently have weekly, bi-weekly and monthly meetings on IPP with IPA, LADWP and the other IPP Renewal participants to understand the costs and our obligations. Our staffing requests (more details below), are required to cover all of the IPP meetings to ensure that we understand our rights and provide push back on any cost related items.

Compliance with regulatory and legislative mandates:

Every year, BWP must comply with regulatory mandates and respond to additional proposed and passed legislation and regulations. Power Supply prepares over 30 compliance reports annually- which take considerable staff time. The changes to the California Air Resources Board Scoping Plan (that sets greenhouse gas targets for public utilities) requires in-depth understanding and development of comments, in order to protect BWP. BWP must embark on the development of its 2024 integrated resource plan (IRP) - a two year effort, currently underway. BWP will be working on a transmission study to identify transmission paths required to move from 60% renewables to 100% renewables. Time is now critical to ensure that we can partner to get the necessary transmission built in time to meet our renewable requirements.

We will continue to research opportunities to develop energy storage options on the eco-campus and will be working on analyzing the Open Access Transmission Tariff with LADWP (our Balancing Authority for transmission). This comes at a cost in excess of $2 million. The IRP alone will cost $500,000, due to the in-depth modeling of resources and transmission options. If we do not meet our goal of 60% renewables by 2030, we face fines of $147 million and we must still spend the money required to meet the goals. We simply must make the investments in staff, research, pilots and modeling now.

Staffing
Over the last two decades, Power Supply did not add headcount to the resource planning team, even as regulations increased. As a result, we are significantly behind our renewable mandates (moving our RPS% by only 1.5% from 2015- 2021). In addition, BWP was not at the table during negotiations for many power resource projects (namely the IPP Renewal, the Eland Solar Project and BWP did not develop partnerships with vendors to enhance rooftop solar efforts).

Currently, the AGM and acting Power Resources Manager have been working in excess of 70+ hours a week, to maintain the projects we have, while trying to negotiate new contracts. This is not sustainable.

New renewable contracts take 18 months to 2 years to finalize, and many do not make it to the finish line. In order to meet the 60% renewable mandate by 2030, set by Senate Bill 100, we will need to negotiate anywhere from 6-8 renewable contracts, from now until 2030 (this means that we may start negotiating 12-14 renewable contracts, with the hope that half make it to the finish line). Recently, one of the renewable contracts we were negotiating since 2020, doubled in price, making the project too expensive to invest in. Issues like this come up all the time. These contract negotiations require hundreds of meetings and thousands of hours of negotiations on terms and conditions that are satisfactory for both parties. In Power Resources, we do not have "Power Resource Planners" and we are developing a new series to address the skillset needed for the division; however, our neighboring utilities have these titles and are able to recruit for the staff and skillset they need. There are about 6500 hours of additional work required to meet 2 compliance requirements, identify and develop power contracts, represent BWP on committees, assist with the IRP, assist with and lead pilot projects - all required to avoid the $147 million in penalties if BWP does not meet its renewable mandates. It makes sense to invest in staff to allow us to move toward our sustainability mandates.

Below is a chart of why we are requesting two new Power Resource Planners and what their role will be.

Requirement Description Yearly Labor
hours
Renewable Portfolio In 2018, SB 100 was signed into law which increased the RPS to 60% by ~1,100 hours Standard (RPS) 2030 and sets a goal for all the state's electricity to come from carbon- free resources by 2045. BWP does have enough staff to start and finish the negotiations for renewable contracts, research appropriate contracts and work on developing internal renewable resources.

Regulatory Mandates Every year, new bills are proposed at the state and local level, which ~ 1000 hours impact Power Supply. Staff needs to read, analyze and comment on these bills. In addition, regulations are constantly adjusted and staff needs to follow that. For 2022 and 2023, there are major revisions to the California Air Resources Board Scoping Plan (for greenhouse gas target setting), changes to the Power Content Label, changes to the RPS mandates, among many others.

Integrated Resource Plan On January 1, 2024, an update IRP is due. We are developing a new plan ~1,700 hours and will have a robust stakeholder engagement process to encourage input from the community. In addition, BWP constantly updates the IRP in intermittent years. Nearly 30 distinct items (like energy storage, demand response, renewable %, transmission, etc.) needs to be covered, as required under SB 100.

Pilot Projects, Grants and BWP will test various technologies, apply for grants and work on the ~ 2000 hours In-City Renewable permitting and RPS compliance of internal renewable resources. Staff Projects will also need to develop contracts for the pilot project and in city renewable projects. Registering internal renewable resources with the California Energy Commission requires hundreds of hours per project.

Energy Storage As mandated by law, BWP needs to study optionality for energy storage ~100 hours every 3 years and as part of the IRP. Staff will also assist on installing an energy storage project on the Eco-Campus.

Committee Staff is needed to represent BWP on various committees, meetings and ~600 hours Representation working groups. Meeting on our transmission projects, resources (like IPP, Hoover and renewable projects) occur monthly, and Burbank has not had representation at the table. Staff is needed to attend these meetings and stay up to date on contract modification, costs increases, etc. By attending meetings- staff can push back on cost increases and look for other avenues to save money.

TOTAL ~ 6,500 hours
The table below shows power resource staffing, as benchmarked with other southern California public utilities.

Compared to other local public utilities, BWP is severely understaffed. Please note that all of these utilities have the same mandates. Due to additional staffing, cities like Riverside and Anaheim are able to reach renewable goals faster than the others. Glendale is also struggling to meet the meeting commitments for IPP, regulatory review groups and continue on its renewable journey. They are ahead of Burbank on renewable planning. Adding just one resource is not 3 enough for where Burbank is currently in comparison to Glendale. We actually believe we need four new staff members but we are only asking for two in order to check our assumptions and see if we can get on track with fewer staff.
25 20
20 15
13 10
5 5
3 2
Burbank Glendale Pasadena Anaheim Riverside
Thank you, to all of you for taking the time to do this long read. The water update is shorter and I will send that one along later this week.

BOURBANK Dawn Roth Lindell
General Manager
(818) 238-3554 office | (818) 391-8729 mobile
[email protected]
WATER AND BurbankWaterAndPower.com
Always There for You!
Meredith, Alyssa
From: Kramer, Bob
Sent: Wednesday, April 20, 2022 4:52 AM
To: Tunnicliff, Daniel; [email protected]
Cc: Hess, Justin; Wilke, Judie; Lindell, Dawn; City Council DL Subject: RE: Burbank Water, Sewer, Refuse Service
Daniel
Thank you..bk
From: Tunnicliff, Daniel <[email protected]>
Sent: Tuesday, April 19, 2022 10:04 PM
To:

Cc: Hess, Justin <[email protected]>; Wilke, Judie <[email protected]>; Lindell, Dawn <[email protected]>; Kramer, Bob <[email protected]> Subject: RE: Burbank Water, Sewer, Refuse Service
Ms. Meline,
Thank you very much for your email.

BWP staff has aggressively looked for opportunities to cut or reduce costs, which has saved approximately $25 million in the last 12 months. In addition, BWP brings in external dollars and potential funding from the recently passed bipartisan infrastructure bill and other sources that will help the city in many areas; however, the funding isn't guaranteed. Primary drivers for the rate increases are attempting to keep up with inflation, obtaining renewable energy, and modernizing our infrastructure on the water side.

To help mitigate some of the costs of the increases, BWP offers a broad range of conservation programs that may help reduce your electricity and water consumption, ultimately providing bill savings, which may help offset some of the increases. For more information, please visit https://www.burbankwaterandpower.com/, contact the BWP Conservation line at (818) 238-3730, or email [email protected].

Please let me know if you have any questions or require additional information.

Dan
DANIEL E. TUNNICLIFF, P.E.

Assistant General Manager
Customer Service Operations
WATER AND (818) 238-3711 office | (562) 833-9904 mobile POWER
BurbankWaterAndPower.com
Powering the flow of life today and tomorrow
Begin forwarded message:
1 From: Sheryl Meline s
Date: April 18, 2022 at 8:31:38 AM PDT
To: City Council DL <[email protected]>
Subject: Burbank Water, Sewer, Refuse Service
CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organization. Do not click links or open attachments unless you recognize the sender and know the content is safe.

Hello,
I received a notice for a proposed rate increase for the Burbank Water, Sewer, Refuse Service.

As a resident we are supposed to conserve water, now the water we use is going to cost more.

The houses in Burbank are at least 1.2 million for a 3 bedroom and 2 bath home. I was born and raised in Burbank.

How are the long time citizens supposed to be able to afford all these price hikes? Please keep our water, sewer and refuse fees down.

Sincerely,
Ms. Sheryl Meline
Burbank Citizen
Sent from my iPhone
2 Meredith, Alyssa
From: Lindell, Dawn
Sent: Saturday, April 23, 2022 10:22 AM
To: BWP Senior Leaders
Cc: Hess, Justin; Wilke, Judie; McFarland, Simone
Subject: Update on water budget drivers.

Good morning fine City Councilmembers!
This morning I send you the budget update drivers for the water division. This division manages the liquid gold for the city - keeping it clean, clear, safe and drinkable while also recycling for outdoor water uses. I have bec'd the City Councilmembers and the BWP Board members. I hope you are enjoying your weekend.

Challenges Impacting Rates
Since we have no water rights, a substantial cost to the water division is the purchase of both treated and untreated water from the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California (MWD). MWD is seeing declining sales due to conservation being a way of life, which is accelerated by the current (and exceptional) drought conditions. MWD's capital needs and operations and maintenance spending continues to rise as they work to develop new local supplies and maintain the reliability of their system. Their proposed rate increase of 16 percent (eight percent over two years) was reduced to 10 percent (5% this year and 5% next year) over a two-year period. The reduction helps, but the 5% rate increase still contributes to our overall water supply cost increase of $890,000. MWD raised rates 3% in calendar year 2021 and 4% in calendar year 2022 - a 7% increase we are already facing now. BWP's rate increase was only 6% for this year and 0% the prior year. This is an example of why we continue to fall behind in our revenue collection.

We replenish our water stored in the San Fernando Ground Water Basin with water from the State Water Project (SWP).

This year, there is too little water available from the SWP to meet the region's demand and instead we will use some of the water that we have stored along with water that we purchased from Los Angeles (which is more expensive than SWP water). We will be able to meet our customer's demand for water, but it will cost more to do so because of conditions on the SWP.

Often, we talk of sustainability, usually in the context of energy or water. Financial sustainability is also an issue. Our revenue requirements needed to pay our costs have not been met for at least the last six years and in fact our revenue shortfall has tripled since 2016. We have been using cash reserves to make up the difference - an unsustainable financial practice that leaves us ill-equipped to respond to a sudden and catastrophic disaster such as an earthquake, fire or flood. The January 9, 2018 Montecito mud slide killed 23 and was caused by soil saturation from heavy rains and deforestation due to a wildfire that preceded it. Climate change - another new normal that we are experiencing - brings extreme variations in temperature and precipitation. We must adapt to changing conditions by setting aside sufficient reserves to prepare for emergencies, lessen our dependence on reserves to make up for insufficient revenue collection, and enable opportunistic/ strategic purchases during excess water years. This is especially critical since we have 34 aging pipes that cross the Verdugo fault line and connect our water storage to our city. We must have reserves on hand to address issues caused by even a medium sized earthquake. Replacing just one segment of pipe costs $400,000.

Equipment and supplies have far outpaced inflation:
• Copper coils that are used for 1-inch service lines have increased from $6.09 per foot to $9.98 per foot, a 64 percent increase. The year before, they increased 38 percent. That is a doubling in price over two years. The delivery time has gone from 4 weeks to 8 weeks
• The current price of 8-inch ductile iron pipe is $20.79 per foot and the new pricing will be $29.59 per foot - a 42% increase.
• 6-inch gate valves have increased 14% over last year and delivery time has gone from 2 weeks to 4 weeks • 1-inch meter boxes and covers have increased 25% over the last year and delivery time has gone from 8 weeks to 24 weeks
• Chlorine gas - the chemical we use to disinfect water - has increased 98% since last year and supply chain disruptions continue to add uncertainty to the timing of deliveries Challenges Impacting Reliable Delivery
The city was incorporated in 1911 and much of our infrastructure that we use today - about 30 miles of pipes - was installed shortly thereafter. These 100+ year old pipes are made from brittle cast iron and are found throughout the city.

And they break. Often. One of our biggest reservoirs was constructed in the early 1920's and it leaks when it is half full.

The city's main pumping plant was built just after the second world war. These facilities can no longer be counted on to provide reliable service and must be replaced.

Our pipe replacement rate is approximately one mile per year, which means that our system is replaced every 286 years.

It would take us 30 years to replace the oldest pipes that we have now, but by the time we have replaced those pipes, there will be 203 miles of pipe that will have turned 90 years old or older.

It is a challenging prospect to raise rates when we ask customers to conserve and our revenue is declining. The decision on rates is a decision on reliability. We have three choices:

1. Maintain the water system with cash reserves until the cash runs out to maintain the same reliability and level of service, which is unsustainable, especially in light of the ever-increasing amount of pipe that will need to be replaced and our already depleted cash reserves;

2. Accept reduced liability and reduced service so that customers face periods without water and with flooding due to broken mains;

3. Raise rates to build a path towards revenue recovery.

The Good News
• We are actively looking for grant money. We recently received a $175,000 grant to develop a Drought Contingency Plan from the United States Bureau of Reclamation (BOR). Completing this plan will provide us with additional opportunities to qualify for more BOR grant programs. We submitted a $12 million grant application to replace 34 pipeline segments (at an average cost of $400,000) that cross the Verdugo earthquake fault. Our match is $4 million and we are applying for another grant to cover that $4M. • Staff is using new satellite and acoustic technologies to determine the relative risk of failure for our pipelines so that we can proactively, appropriately target dollars to where they are needed most. • The cost to treat our ground water is paid by Lockheed Corporation and represents $7 million that Burbank customers do not have to pay. Upgrades that will extend the life of our treatment plant and make it more resistant to earthquakes are also paid by Lockheed Corporation. • We are using salary savings to add a new water service planner to assist with the increase in development plan reviews that will occur over the next decade. This will relieve the burden that has been placed on engineers who had to delay engineering assignments to complete these reviews. • We are modernizing our workforce to include a Utility Project Manager who will manage the delivery of technology related projects beginning with the three-year replacement of the water advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) system and then transition to upgrading the electric system AMI. The Utility Project Manager will also deliver other technology-driven projects that support the city's development of renewable and sustainable goals.

I hope you have found these updates informative and helpful as you answer the questions that come your way.

Warm regards,
2 Dawn
Dawn Roth Lindell
General Manager
(818) 238-3554 office | (818) 391-8729 mobile
[email protected]
WATER AND BurbankWaterAndPower.com
Always There for You!
Meredith, Alyssa
From: Michael Day
Sent: Monday, April 25, 2022 8:17 AM
To: City Council DL
Subject: Proposed water and electric increases
CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organization. Do not click links or open attachments unless you recognize the sender and know the content is safe.

Dear City council,
I would like to state l am against any rate increases. The city of Burbank needs to realize that seniors living on
a fixed income cannot afford a rate increase every year. The city seems to think we all have unlimited resources
to pay our bills. In fact we do not.

Your letter states that "Burbank Water and Power is a not for profit utility" which we know is not true.

Burbank Water and Power
makes a huge profit which the City uses to add to the general fund.

I think it is in everyone's best interest to revisit the proposed rate increases and not ever raise rates for anyone living the city over
65 years old. That would be a tremendous help to all seniors.

I also would like to point out your lifeline program has ridiculously low income thresholds. Any one who owns a home in Burbank would have
to make significantly more.

The average home price in Burbank is $1,161,584 according to Zillow. How could someone making $47,300 afford a $1.1 million home? When you
do the math the average home would cost about $6300 a month for the payment taxes and insurance, which equates to $75,600 just for the home. In order to buy the average home in Burbank one would have to make well over $200,000 a year, or about $16,700 a month.

So I ask again why the low threshold for Life line program? I think low income in Burbank is about $120,000 a year now!
Burbank has raised the sales tax rate, added assessments for schools to our property bills, increased our water, trash, sewer and electric rates.

As a long time resident I say enough is enough!
Please find it in your hearts to give us seniors a break.

No more increases.

Thank you for your time,
Michael Day
Burbank, Ca. 91501
1 Meredith, Alyssa
From: Rosalie Salvato
Sent: Thursday, April 28, 2022 8:38 PM
To: City Council DL; Lindell, Dawn; Hess, Justin; Wilke, Judie; Edwards, Jeannine; Sleiman, Riad; Kramer, Bob; Tunnicliff, Daniel
Subject: BWP - New Continuing Email
CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organization. Do not click links or open attachments unless you recognize the sender and know the content is safe.

To All.

The message below is the last message I received from Mr Tunnicliff. My new comment will continue below his message.
'Ms. Salvato,
Thank you for your follow-up email. Even with our current rate increases and inflation, we are forecasting an under collection for the 2022-23 fiscal year of what is required to meet our 60% renewable energy requirement by 2030 and modernize our infrastructure on both the electric and water side. At this time, we cannot forecast the total impact that a decrease of inflation would have on rates.

Please let me know if you have any questions or require additional information.

Dan"
Dan, I don't quite understand your comment. The proposed 6% for inflation is exorbitant - I can see 1,2 or 3% but 6% is exorbitant. Inflation will come down at some point in the near future and the taxpayers must be assured that the inflation rate will be decreased accordingly.

Regarding the proposed 9% infrastructure increase, this also is too high. Where is the analysis supporting this? We taxpayers need to have an accounting such as: 1. Exactly what infrastructure repairs are proposed to be done?

2. What is the estimated cost for these repairs?

3. How many dollars will the City receive from the Bi-Partisan Bill that was passed by Congress. Perhaps the 9% increase is too much.

4. How long will it take to complete this project?

5. An assurance to the taxpayers that the increase will be removed once the project is completed.
1 Please don't tell me that this can't be done. Because my next question will be, who is profiting from this.

Respectfully,
Rosalie Salvato
Taxpayer on a fixed income
2 Meredith, Alyssa
From: Rosalie Salvato <
Sent: Thursday, April 28, 2022 8:38 PM
To: City Council DL; Lindell, Dawn; Hess, Justin; Wilke, Judie; Edwards, Jeannine; Sleiman, Riad; Kramer, Bob; Tunnicliff, Daniel
Subject: BWP - New Continuing Email
CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organization. Do not click links or open attachments unless you recognize the sender and know the content is safe.

To All.

The message below is the last message I received from Mr Tunnicliff. My new comment will continue below his message.
"Ms. Salvato,
Thank you for your follow-up email. Even with our current rate increases and inflation, we are forecasting an under collection for the 2022-23 fiscal year of what is required to meet our 60% renewable energy requirement by 2030 and modernize our infrastructure on both the electric and water side. At this time, we cannot forecast the total impact that a decrease of inflation would have on rates.

Please let me know if you have any questions or require additional information.

Dan"
Dan, I don't quite understand your comment. The proposed 6% for inflation is exorbitant - 1 can see 1,2 or 3% but 6% is exorbitant. Inflation will come down at some point in the near future and the taxpayers must be assured that the inflation rate will be decreased accordingly.

2. What is the estimated cost for these repairs?

3. How many dollars will the City receive from the Bi-Partisan Bill that was passed by Congress. Perhaps the 9% increase is too much.

4. How long will it take to complete this project?

Respectfully,
Rosalie Salvato
Taxpayer on a fixed income
2 Meredith, Alyssa
From: Meredith, Alyssa
Sent: Nednesday, May 11, 2022 9:09 A
To: City Council Di
Cc: Hess, Justin; Wilke, Judie; McDougall, Joseph H.; Castro, Amy; Lindell, Dawn; Jimenez, Desiree; Mullins, Zizette
Subject: CC Meeting 5-17-2022 - Rate Increase Public Hearing Attachments: Rate Increase 5-10-2022.pdf
Good Morning Honorable Mayor and City Council Members,
Please see the attached correspondence for the upcoming May 17, 2022 Public Hearing regarding Rate Increases.

Thank you,

ALYSSA MEREDITH, CMC
Administrative Analyst l
(818) 238-5851
275 E. Olive Avenue
Burbank, CA 91502
CITY CLERK'S [email protected]
OFFICE BurbankCA.gov

RECEIVEN
April 6, 2022
2022 MAY 10 PM 4:04

CITY OF BURBANK
Burbank City Hall GITX CLERK'S DEFICE
275 E. Olive Ave.

Burbank, CA 91502
To Whom It May Concern:

I am writing to oppose the rate increase for water, sewer and refuse services.

Too many things at one time are being increased! And, not just a little increase. I mean a huge increase.

It is insane:

We are still not out of the woods with Covid and many of us lost our jobs because the virus shut down businesses permanently.

It's very sad that Burbank has made it so difficult to survive. Rents are through the roof. Landlords are raising rents at an alarming rate. I'm sure many of them lost monies due to the moratorium on rent collection and so they are sticking it to those of us who did pay.

Please do not add yet another increase to our wallets! Many of us are barely making it.

Thank you,
Dathan Walters
Meredith, Alyssa
From: McFarland, Simone
Sent: Thursday, May 12, 2022 8:23 AM
To: City Council DL
Cc: Edwards, Jeannine; Neiswonger, Tracie; Collins, Myles; Movsesyan, Mary; Wilke, Judie; Hess, Justin; Jones, Jonathan; Albanese, Mike; Albano, Amy; Becker, Jennifer; Berkman, Ken; Garcia, Eric; Garcia, Marisa; Goldman, Elizabeth; McDougall, Joseph H.; Gray, Kevin; Lindell, Dawn; McClinton, Betsy; Mullins, Zizette; Palmer, Krystle; Prescott, Patrick Subject: Water and Electric Op Eds
Attachments: Burbank Water Rate Increase 5.12.22 Final.docx; Burbank Electric Rate Increase Final

5.4.22.docx
City Council,
Attached is the water op ed regarding the proposed rate increases. I've also attached the electric op ed that went out last week, so you have both in one email. These should provide good talking points if you get questions.

Have a terrific day,
Simone
1 Op Ed
Ensuring Burbank's Residents Continue to Have Access to Safe, Clean Water Increasing rates
Dawn Lindell
General Manager, Burbank Water and Power
Burbank, CA (May 12, 2022) - In the midst of a severe drought, water in California is truly liquid gold.

Residents and businesses expect our city to provide safe and reliable water at the touch of a faucet, and for more than 100 years, Burbank Water and Power (BWP) has been doing just that. Our water quality is exceptional, with 99.999% water availability. This doesn't just happen; significant work and investment behind the scenes ensures we meet our residents' and businesses' expectations. BWP will have to raise our rates in the upcoming fiscal year to ensure that our water infrastructure is in place to safeguard our reliability now and for future generations. Two main factors affect how much we need to increase rates.

One is the price we pay for water; the second is the cost of replacing our deteriorating infrastructure.

Since Burbank has no water rights, we must import all our water, purchasing treated and untreated water from Metropolitan Water District (MWD). Treated water flows through our city-owned system directly to your homes and businesses. Untreated water, which is less expensive, is purchased and "spread" onto the ground, where it seeps into the aquifer. The water is stored there like a bank account, and when we need it, we pump it out of the ground and treat it before delivery. This stored water accounts for 75% of the water BWP delivers to our customers. Like most consumer items, the cost of water increases regularly. This year and next, MWD will raise the wholesale price of water it sells to Burbank by 5% each year.

Another significant cost consideration is deteriorating infrastructure. There are 278 miles of underground pipe in Burbank's water distribution system; that is about the distance from Burbank to Las Vegas - it is a lot of line within our 17 square miles. The piping is reaching the end of its useful life and must be replaced. Additionally, our water-storage reservoirs are getting old. Reservoir Two leaks above the centerline, which means it can only be filled halfway and makes it impossible to store as much water as we used to.

These two contributors to escalating costs make it necessary for BWP to increase our prices if we want to continue to provide reliable water services to our residents and businesses. As a result, BWP is proposing a 9% increase in water rates for the 2022-23 fiscal year. This means that a single-family home would pay an average of $4.24 to $6.45 more per month on their water bill, depending on the amount used. The city of Burbank and BWP understand that this proposed increase will be difficult for some community members. It is never our desire to charge more; however, to ensure we meet the expectations of our community to provide clean, reliable water, we must raise the rates.

Rising Wholesale Metropolitan Water Department (MWD) Costs Metropolitan Water Department MWD's capital needs and operations and maintenance spending continue to rise as they work to develop new local supplies and maintain the reliability of their system.

BWP has not entirely passed along MWD's rate increases to our customers because we were sensitive to the impacts of the pandemic and committed to finding a way to balance supporting our community and providing reliable water. In fiscal year 2020-21 BWP did not increase water rates. MWD's rates increased by 3% per year during that same time.

In fact, for the last six years, BWP has not collected enough revenue to cover our costs, and our revenue shortfall has tripled since 2016. In 2016 BWP was short $1.1 million; this year, we will be short $3.8 million.

Even with a 9% rate increase in FY 2022-23, we will still not collect enough to cover our costs. That would require a 20% rate increase, which we are unwilling to implement. But, if we do not increase rates by some amount and address our revenue shortfall, we will fall below recommended reserve funds next year, which would increase our cost of future borrowing.

Burbank's Infrastructure
Burbank was incorporated in 1911, and during the next thirty years, cast-iron pipes were laid in place to establish our water infrastructure. Burbank's water infrastructure is very old and must be replaced.

Today, Burbank has 30 miles of water pipelines more than 100 years old. More than 60% of our water pipe infrastructure is over 80 years old. These pipes are now getting brittle and leaking, creating additional risk for water main breaks and service interruptions.

The 9% rate increase will help BWP increase the pipe replacement rate, complete needed maintenance on our aging assets, and replace a local reservoir made of wood that is no longer compliant with today's seismic regulations and American Water Works codes. The responsible thing to do is fix these issues before they become unusable and result in even more expensive fixes. This is not an investment we can afford to defer.

What have we been doing to control costs and bring in new revenue? • Staff is using new satellite and acoustic technologies to determine the risk of failure for our pipelines to proactively and appropriately target dollars where they are needed most. • The cost to treat our groundwater is paid by Lockheed Corporation and represents $7 million that Burbank customers do not have to pay. Upgrades that will extend the life of our treatment plant and make it more resistant to earthquakes are also paid for by Lockheed Corporation.

BWP Water Division is requesting one new position, a Utility Project Manager, who will deliver technology-driven projects to assess the condition of our infrastructure and help prevent unplanned infrastructure repair and replacement.
• Staff actively looks for opportunities to offset costs for our community. In the last year, $400,000 in cost savings was found by improving processes and using alternative methods to prolong our infrastructure's useful life, for example, lining instead of replacing a pipe. • Grant money that will help improve our water infrastructure is always top of mind for BWP. We recently received a $175,000 grant to develop a Drought Contingency Plan from the United States Bureau of Reclamation (BOR), a $50,000 grant to test multi-family dwelling usage, and we continue to apply for more.

Knowing that our community was strained by Covid last year, the City Council elected to use reserve funding to make up the difference. This is unsustainable. Reserve funding needs to be in place to assist with sudden and catastrophic disasters such as earthquakes, fires, or floods.

A rate increase is never desirable, but the time has come for our generation to invest in the water infrastructure for today to provide for the future, similar to what our forefathers did 100 years ago. And, as a city, we have a duty to ensure that we provide excellent services while continuing to be fiscally responsible.

To help those who cannot afford to pay their bill, BWP has financial assistance available and will be launching a new program in July with expanded income requirements to assist even more families and individuals struggling with the cost of living in Burbank.

Burbank residents and businesses are encouraged to attend the Public Hearing for the proposed rate increases on May 17, 2022, by:
• Attending in person at Burbank City Hall, 275 E. Olive Ave, Burbank, CA 91502 • Leave an e-comment on the City webpage at www.burbankca.gov/ecomments • Email the City Council directly at [email protected] Op Ed
Moving Toward Greenhouse Gas Compliance and Ensuring Burbank's Residents Continue to Have Reliable Electricity
Increasing rates
Dawn Lindell
General Manager, Burbank Water and Power
Burbank, CA (May 4, 2022) - The City of Burbank and Burbank Water and Power (BWP) has prided itself on the utilities ability to provide low-cost, reliable electric service to our community. We remain committed to that goal. At the same time, there are cost pressures caused by short supplies, rising construction prices, current inflation, and required socially responsible environmental changes that will change the way we do business. These factors significantly affect our ability to provide Burbank residents and businesses with the quality electrical service they expect and deserve. Additionally, these factors will require BWP to raise our rates to legally comply with greenhouse gas directives and ensure that our infrastructure is in place to safeguard our reliability.

While proposed increases can be difficult for some community members, it is never our desire to charge more than we need to; however, to ensure that we meet the expectations of our community and avoid the potential for enormous fines, we have no choice. For these reasons, Burbank Water and Power (BWP) is proposing a 6% increase in electric rates for the 2022-23 fiscal year. This means that an average apartment owner in Burbank would pay between $3.58 to $5.40 more per month, and an average homeowner would pay between $7.91 and $12.29 more per month.

Rising Costs of Electricity Generation
Frankly put, the cost of maintaining our electric infrastructure and securing renewable energy is increasing significantly. We are experiencing some of the most dramatic increases we have ever seen.

For example, replacing a substation in 2017 was $15 million. During a recent public bid for the Willow Substation similar in size and scale, will cost $24 million, a more than 60% increase.

The Magnolia Power Plant uses natural gas to generate consistent electricity for Burbank and four other communities. Natural gas prices have increased 50% since 2020. No substitute can be used to produce energy at this plant; we must absorb this increase.

Additionally, Burbank relies on our part ownership at the Intermountain Power Plant for our electricity.

This plant is required to convert from coal to natural gas and green hydrogen for its energy generation to meet the state renewable mandates. The price to complete just the conversion to natural gas is significantly above the forecast provided in 2019. In fact, it has already doubled. The original cost estimates in 2019 were less than $2 billion and have risen to nearly $4 billion. BWP's share of generation is 3.33%. This means that we are contractually obligated to pay for our portion of the total costs.

Deferred Infrastructure Needs
While our reliability has been stellar, the deferred maintenance has impacted our reliability numbers during the last five years. In 2015, the average outage experienced per Burbank customer was one outage every five years, and now that number has risen to one outage every 2.5 years. Deferred maintenance items include vaults, manholes, transformers, and poles.

To fix this, BWP proposes issuing $60M in bond financing. Issuing bonds is similar to taking out a loan that uses the proceeds to improve and protect deteriorating infrastructure. The debt is paid over time, which makes the improvements affordable. The proposed bond issuance would finance projects such as converting existing lines to allow more electricity to flow through them, rebuilding the Golden State Substation, and providing for solar generation and solar electricity storage.

Compliance with Regulatory and Legislative Unfunded Mandates BWP must procure 20% more renewable energy in less than eight years to meet the 60% 2030 renewable energy mandate set by the state of California. If we do not meet this target, the city faces $147 million in possible penalties, plus we would still be required to procure renewable energy to avoid additional fines in future mandated targets. This work will occur while the cost of renewable energy contracts have increased 35% to 60%, driven by supply chain issues and growing demand from more utilities moving towards clean energy.

Burbank must also be socially responsible and do our part to reduce greenhouse gases by using more solar energy, investing in new technology to store electricity, and developing and implementing plans that will lead us towards greener electricity generation.

To ensure that Burbank remains competitive and meets our mandates, additional staffing will be required. BWP is proposing hiring two new staff members. These positions will be responsible for negotiating contracts that could ultimately reduce the amount we are required to pay as well as implementing our regulatory compliance strategies to avoid future fines.

Reducing Costs
To help offset the increases, BWP staff has aggressively looked for opportunities to cut or reduce costs, which has saved approximately $27 million in the last 12 months. This includes $19 million in contract renegotiation, energy sales and loan prepayments, almost $6 million in process improvements, and $2.7 million in State funding offsets. To help the city, BWP hopes to bring in funding through grants from the recently passed bipartisan infrastructure bill and continue looking for additional opportunities to leverage our funds.

Deferring Rate Increases
BWP has deferred and reduced needed rate increases in the past. By not increasing our rates during three of the four years between 2017 to 2021, and a 1% increase in the other, BWP supported the community during a difficult time. Unfortunately, this also meant delaying our investment in renewable energy, and we now have to play catch up. For the past six years, the electric fund has not collected enough in rates to cover annual costs, which has resulted in BWP utilizing its reserve account.

These reserves are not intended to be a fund we can draw from to offset costs; these savings are meant to help cover natural disasters and emergency costs. The more we take from reserves, the less prepared we are for future emergencies.

In FY 2016/17, the electric fund was short $1.1 million; in 21/22, we expect to be short $7.1 million which will be covered by reserves. Without attaining bond funding and raising rates, our reserves will fall below minimum requirements. This would impact our bond rating and cause us to borrow money at a higher interest rate. Without a sufficient rate increase, this number will only grow, putting us at risk of more outages, not meeting our sustainability mandates, and not adequately responding in an emergency.

A rate increase is never desirable, but the time has come for our generation to invest in green sustainable energy and provide for the future, similar to our forefathers 100 years ago when they set up Burbank's electrical company. As a city, we have a duty to ensure that we provide excellent services while being fiscally responsible.

Burbank residents and businesses are encouraged to attend the Public Hearing for the proposed rate increases on May 17, 2022, by:
• Attending in person at Burbank City Hall, 275 E. Olive Ave, Burbank, CA 91502 • Leave an e-comment on the Burbank webpage at www.burbankca.gov/ecomments Email the City Council directly at [email protected] Meredith, Alyssa
From: Danielle Peretz
Sent: Friday, May 13, 2022 1:56 PM
To: Talamantes, Jess; Frutos, Bob; Anthony, Konstantine; Schultz, Nick; Springer, Sharon; Mullins, Zizette
Cc: Daniel Yukelson
Subject: May 17th Burbank City Council Meeting - Rate Increases Attachments: AAGLA_Letter_ Burbank_City_Council_City_Fees51322.pdf CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organization. Do not click links or apen attachments unless you recognize the sender and know the content is safe. A
Good Afternoon Mayor Talamantes and Members of the Burbank City Council, Attached for your review is a letter submitted by the Apartment Association of Greater Los Angeles (AAGLA) regarding the City's proposed fee increases for water, refuse, sewer, and electric services, agenda item N10, scheduled for discussion at the May 17th City Council Meeting.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

МИРЕАНОТ S Danielle Leidner-Peretz
Director, Government Affairs & External Relations
Apartment Association of Greater Los Angeles
5313351
AAGLA
Los Angeles, California 90005
Twitter
Facebook
The Voice of Multifamily Housing Since 1917 C

APARTMENT ASSOCIATION OF GREATER LOS ANGELES
AAGLA
"Great Apartments Start
Here!"
Danielle Leidner-Peretz
Director, Government Affairs
& External Relations
May 13, 2022
Via Electronic Mail
Hon. Mayor Jess Talamantes and
Members of the Burbank City Council
Burbank City Hall
275 East Olive Avenue
Burbank, California 91502
Re: Adoption of a Resolution Approving Increases to City Fees and Charges for Water, Refuse, Sewer, and Electric Services (Agenda Item N10)
Dear Mayor Talamantes and Members of the City Council;
At the May 17'h City Council meeting, the Council will be conducting a public hearing and consider adoption of a resolution to approve increases to the City's water, refuse, sewer, and electric service fees for Fiscal Year (FY) 2022 / 2023. As the Council discusses these rate increases, the Apartment Association of Greater Los Angeles (AAGLA or Association) requests that the Council considers the issues and recommendations set forth herein.

The proposed rate increases for FY 2022 / 2023 would result in a 9% increase in water service fees and charges, a 2% increase in sewer service fees, a 4% increase in refuse service fees and charges, and a 6% increase to electric services fees and charges, the totality of which would be a significant increase to the City's residents and property owners.

For more than the past two years due to COVID-19 related government mandates, many of our members, most of whom are small business rental housing providers, have endured dire financial challenges, collecting little, if any, rental income, and consequently having depleted retirement and other savings or having financed critical expenditures with credit cards in order to maintain essential building operations, with many now contemplating or being forced into leaving the business entirely. This severe financial situation has been further compounded by tremendous increases in building operational and related costs which now include runaway inflationary pressures effecting our economy as costs for all types of goods and services rapidly escalate, with the current inflation rate at 8% or more. These proposed increases along with overall inflationary pressures will likely exacerbate this LOS ANGELES, CA 90005

APARTMENT ASSOCIATION OF GREATER LOS ANGELES
AAGLA
"Great Apartments Start
Here!"
already challenging situation.

We urge the City Council to recognize the current fiscal challenges and seek ways to assist City residents and property owners including through reductions in the proposed fee increases, establishing incremental phasing in of the proposed increases, and affording City residents and rental housing providers financially impacted by the pandemic rate increase deferments or other financial assistance.

Thank you for your time and consideration of these important issues. If you have any questions, please call me at or contact me via electronic mail at Very truly yours,
Danielle Leidner-Peretz tEA.

Danielle Leidner-Peretz
, LOS ANGELES, CA 90005 |
Meredith, Alyssa
From: George, Sandra
Sent: Monday, May 16, 2022 2:29 PM
To: Anthony, Konstantine; Frutos, Bob; Schultz, Nick; Springer, Sharon; Talamantes, Jess Subject: Comment re: BWP rate increase on 5/17 agenda.

Good afternoon, Council Members,
Burbank Resident Kennia Escobar called wanting to express to you that she is against any rate increase for BWP - between inflation and COVID, many people have been struggling to pay their bills.

She'd love a call back at
Thank you!
BURBANt
Sandy George
Executive Assistant | Burbank City Council Office
275 East Olive Ave Burbank CA 91502
P: 818.238.5751 | F: 818.238.5757 | [email protected] Meredith, Alyssa
From: Hess, Justin
Sent: Monday, May 16, 2022 3:15 PM
To: Anthony, Konstantine; Frutos, Bob; Schultz, Nick; Springer, Sharon; Talamantes, Jess Cc: Wilke, Judie; Lindell, Dawn; Becker, Jennifer
Subject: FW: Another Question
Council, just fyi below. Council Member Springer had a few questions regarding BWP's proposed rates and budget. I wanted to share them with all of you along with BWP's responses. Thanks, Justin From: Lindell, Dawn <[email protected]>
Sent: Monday, May 16, 2022 12:44 PM
To: Springer, Sharon <[email protected]>; Hess, Justin <[email protected]>; Wilke, Judie <[email protected]>; Becker, Jennifer <[email protected]> Cc: BWP Senior Leaders < [email protected]> Subject: FW: Another Question
Sharon - thank you so much for reaching out with your questions. Please see responses in blue below. I am happy to discuss any of these further with you!
Warm regards,
Dawn
BOURBANY Dawn Roth Lindell
General Manager
(818) 238-3554 office | (818) 391-8729 mobile
WATER AND [email protected]
POWER BurbankWaterAndPower.com
Always There for You!
From: Springer, Sharon <[email protected]>
Sent: Monday, May 16, 2022 7:18 AM
To: Lindell, Dawn <[email protected]>; Hess, Justin <|[email protected]>; Wilke, Judie <[email protected]>; Wilson, Richard <[email protected]>; Becker, Jennifer </[email protected]> Subject: Another Question
What's our rate increase to the cities that buy MPP energy from us? BWP does not sell MPP Participants energy as part of the project agreements. MPP Participants utilize their entitlement share of MPP to generate their own energy at MPP. MPP Participants are also responsible to bring their own gas to the project and each of their gas cost can vary. BWP does invoice the MPP Participants operations and maintenance costs which is going up 3.79% for FY 22/23. Bottom line - this is the increase for running the plant only. This does NOT include the price of natural gas which is up approximately 50% from one year ago. Each member utility is responsible for buying their own natural gas to bring to the MPP. That is why this is less than our residents pay. Our residents do not supply their own natural gas. We supply that on their behalf.

Thank you.

Sharon Springer
Council Member
City of Burbank
275 East Olive Ave., Burbank, CA 91502
818.238.5751 [email protected]
From: Springer, Sharon
Sent: Monday, May 16, 2022 5:45 AM
To: Lindell, Dawn <[email protected]>; Hess, Justin </[email protected]>; Wilke, Judie </[email protected]>; Wilson, Richard <[email protected]>; Becker, Jennifer <[email protected]> Subject: Questions
Good morning! Can you please send me the link to the BWP PowerPoint dated April 26, 2022? I don't see it anywhere on line and it does a nice job of setting out justification for rate increases. Wouldn't it be helpful to have it accessible to rate payers on-line?
So far I have the following questions. I apologize if you have already answered them.

On page 5 are $27,907,348 in last 12 months of cost savings. Is any portion of this recurring? Approximately $3.58M of savings are reoccurring.

On page 7 - Pension Funding Plan - How is this achieved? do we divided by 20 to get annual? The savings would be greater in the later years, but for a simple average, dividing by 20 would provide the average annual savings.

Page 9 ends

under-collection includes the 6% rate increase.

Is this the # for 2022 - 2023 that would be a continuation of the chart - a final column - on page 10? Yes, that is correct.

Page 14 ends

policy that was established by staff and a financial consultant, recommended by the BWP board and then approved by council. BWP will update the financial reserves policy in fy 2022-23 and expects the minimum and recommended reserve levels to increase.

While we use the $60 million, will reserves go down? Does a portion of the rate increase go into reserves? The $60M bond issuance in conjunction with the projected 6% rate increases in the future will help BWP to maintain financial reserves at above minimum levels and work toward moving us to recommended levels. We really must get to the recommended levels as these are designed to sustain BWP operations through a 2 medium natural disaster. Any year that revenues (including rate increases) exceed costs, it will increase the amount of reserves. When costs exceeds the revenues the reserves will be drawn down and decrease.

On page 25 FY 22-23 Capital Improvements - How long will these projects take. A time range is ok.

Projects are projected to begin in fy 2022-23. The top 3 listed projects are expected to be complete within the next 3 years and the remaining projects within the next FY.

Will the rate increases cover the Customer Debts or are we expecting more State aid? We are expecting more aid from the State. In the Governor's "May Revise," $1.4 Billion ($1.2 Billion for electricity bills and $200 million for water bills) was requested to help with outstanding arrears from June 16, 2021, to December 31, 2021. BWP submitted $1.6 million for outstanding electricity bills and $478,000 for outstanding water bills for this period. We will know the disposition as part of the approved State budget on June 15, 2022. Customers will still need to cover much more of their arrearages which are in the $5 million range. We will be enabling customers to make payment arrangements that last up to 2 years to make these payments as we re-institute shut offs for non payment. Unfortunately, we do have customers who simply stopped paying once the state made the first payment which is frustrating. We want to be sure to be fair and supportive to those customers who were truly impacted by the pandemic anyway.

Projected - under-collection - What exactly makes up under-collection? BWP has a revenue under-collection when the proposed rates do not cover the cost of providing service to Burbank.

These are customers just not paying?
The under-collection is not referring to customers not paying their bills. That is arrearages. We may have to write off some of the customer debt and that would contribute to us not having the cash we need to pay our bills. However, under collection occurs when the costs to run the utility exceeds the revenue we are bringing in from the rates we charge. So bad debt (customers not paying us) is a portion of that. However we have really big inflationary costs to deal with - like the cost of renewable contracts increasing 35-60%, the cost of natural gas prices up 50%, the cost of substation materials up 67%. These are the big drivers for us in seeing our expenses climb.

Are the proposed rate increases partially to cover the expense of those not paying? Rate increases cover all costs of BWP and that includes customers not paying their bills.

How do we handle the under-collection? The under-collection is managed by BWP controlling costs and rate increases. BWP has worked extremely hard to find savings. Slide 5 of the budget presentation shows a 12 month savings of $27,90,348.

Do you think the State will help more? The state will not help directly, but BWP will seek grants at the State and Federal levels to fund projects when available. It does appear that the latest budget from the governor includes funding to help these customers meet a portion of their expenses.

Q: Is there benefit to automatically moving our residents who are on PASS to rate payer assistance? A: Streamlining the qualification process across City programs is a benefit to customers and an efficient use of city resources. We reached out to Park & Rec to initiate work on a process to streamline this for residents and to share the enrollees across departments.

Q: How do we qualify those who use PASS?
A: PASS participants are qualified by verifying prior tax returns and prior check stubs.

Q: How do we qualify those who need rate payer assistance without making it so very onerous for our working poor, seniors, disabled, single parents, but isn't a subsidy for those who don't need it? A: We are working closely with Parks and Recreation to align the programs and will collaborate on outreach to customers to ensure an easy enrollment process.

That's all for now. Please remember to send me the link to the BWP PowerPoint.

Thank you.

Sharon Springer
Council Member
City of Burbank
275 East Olive Ave., Burbank, CA 91502
818.238.5751 [email protected]
Meredith, Alyssa
From: Meredith, Alyssa
Sent: Monday, May 16, 2022 8:43 AM
To: City Council DL
Cc: Hess, Justin; Wilke, Judie; McDougall, Joseph H.; Castro, Amy; Lindell, Dawn; Jimenez, Desiree; Mullins, Zizette
Subject: CC Meeting 5-17-2022 - Rate Increase Public Hearing Attachments: Rate Increase 5-13-2022.pdf
Good Morning Honorable Mayor and City Council Members,
Please see the attached correspondence for the upcoming May 17, 2022 Public Hearing regarding Rate Increases.

Thank you,

BRURBANG ALYSSA MEREDITH, CMC
Administrative Analyst I
(818) 238-5851
275 E. Olive Avenue
Burbank, CA 91502
CITY CLERK'S [email protected]
OFFICE BurbankCA.gov
1 RE: Public Heaving May 10, 2022
Proposed rate increases water sever, retive fee
To: Bartenk City Conveil SITY CLERK'S CITY OF BURBAN 2022 MAY 13 PM 3: 1! RECEIVED Please acet this sutritin our witer protest
squint the propsed rate ves for water, ever,
and refuse fervies.

Thinkyo,
Mrand Mrs. Joe Guzaido
Burbank, CA 91501
Meredith, Alyssa
From: Kennia Escobar.

Sent: Tuesday, May 17, 2022 9:48 AM
To: City Council DL
Subject: Oppose increase to rates and charges for water, sewer, and refuse services CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organization. Do not click links or open attachments unless you recognize the sender and know the content is safe.

Good morning,
I strongly oppose the increase to rates and charges for water, sewer, and refuse services.

As you know we have all faced challenging times these past two years.

Covia is still here and we are still trying to get our lives back to normal. Now that we are trying to get back to some normalcy we get hit with inflation. Groceries are up 4-7% and gas is at an all time high. The cost of living has gone up. Basic necessities now seem like luxuries.

Now is not the time to increase rates and charges for water, sewer and refuse services.

A lot of families are struggling, senior citizens on a fixed income are now digging into their savings to survive. I believe those in charge of the city of Burbank will choose their community over money.

Thank you for your time,
Kennia Escobar
Meredith, Alyssa
From: Lindell, Dawn
Sent: Monday, April 11, 2022 5:55 PM
To: Lindell, Dawn
Subject: FW: The state of BWP's Electric Distribution
Good evening, fine Burbank City Council Members -
The date for a City Council review and approval of our FY22/23 is fast approaching. Bob Liu and I had the opportunity to meet with each of you in preparation for that meeting. Over the next couple of weeks, I will be sending each of you some more detailed reminders of the information that Bob and I shared. We provide this because there is a lot of information to cover and, unfortunately, we need to ask for some investments in resources and assets to meet the mandated changes required by the state for sustainability as well as the city goals of 12,500 housing units plus additional business development over the next 15 years.

Below is a summary of the needs in electric services from Riad Sleiman. This includes the information on inflation and his staffing. You can expect a summary on our power planning needs from Mandip Samra and an update on our water needs from Richard Wilson. It is my goal that you have a clear, transparent picture of the challenges we face and our planned direction to help you frame your questions, ideas and concerns for our upcoming discussion.

If you have questions or thoughts you would like to share, please send them to me.

Warm regards,
Dawn
BURBANK Dawn Roth Lindell
General Manager
(818) 238-3554 office | (818) 391-8729 mobile
[email protected]
WATER AND BurbankWaterAndPower.com
POWER
Always There for You!
From: Sleiman, Riad <[email protected]>
Sent: Monday, April 11, 2022 2:42 PM
To: Lindell, Dawn <[email protected]>
Subject: The state of BWP's Electric Distribution
Hi Dawn,
I would like to summarize some of Electric Service Division's struggles with keeping our rates low, providing reliable power and maintaining great customer service the citizens of Burbank have enjoyed.

Price and lead time increases
First 'il address price increases, as most everyone has seen recently all equipment is not only much more expensive but also takes a lot longer to get. In 2017, we went out to bid to build a substation and the winning bidder was able to complete the project for $15M. in 2022, we went out to bid for the same substation and the bids came in between $21.5M to $25M. A 43% to 67% increase over 2017 prices. Due to the Golden State substation fire we went out to bid 1 for a rebuild of that station, while our engineers had estimated that the rebuild would cost about $9M the bid prices came in at $15M. Just from these two projects alone, the increase is more than $10M to our current projected budget.

As far as lead times, most of the heavily used utility materials has had its lead time increased. The average on most parts are a little under a year, however, some parts (even though under contract) such as some padmounted transformers are coming in at 2.5 years lead times and the vendors have even stopped taking orders. Staff is taking every measure to manage this issue such as seeking refurbished transformers, repairing our older transformers and reaching out to vendors with lower quality equipment than typically accepted by BWP engineering.

Staffing
Over the last decade, there have been additional rules enacted upon all electric utilities to address the maintenance deficiencies of the bigger POUs (PG&E /SCE etc). We have also seen an increase in developments from an influx of Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs) to major developments, these combined with the progress of EV charging and Solar + Battery technology over the last decade have had a devastating impact on labor resources. The below table summarizes the state requirements and its labor impact followed by a graph showing the service planning work load just from residential and small commercial service requests over the last decade. The uptick in major developments are not shown below and account for an additional ~2,000 hours of labor hours needed.

Requirement Description Yearly Labor
hours
Renewable Portfolio In 2018, SB 100 was signed into law which again increases the RPS to ~1,500 hours Standard (RPS) 60% by 2030 and sets a goal for all the state's electricity to come from carbon-free resources by 2045. BWP does not currently have enough transmission to bring in all these renewables, some of them will need to be built within Burbank's territory.

Wildfire Mitigation Plan In 2018, following the devastating wildfires in 2016 and 2017, the ~ 600 hours California Legislature passed several bills increasing oversight of the electrical corporations' efforts to reduce utility-related wildfires. One such requirement is the creation and yearly update of a Wildfire Mitigation Plan.

Electric Vehicle (EV) Executive orders from previous CA Governor Brown and current CA ~1,300 hours Chargers Governor Newsom have set the stage for EV charging in California. By 2035, all new cars and passenger trucks sold in California must be Zero Emission Vehicles (ZEVS). A goal of 1.2 million EV chargers is needed to stay on course, Burbank has committed to having 500 in the coming years.

Solar & Battery plan In 2014, California passed AB2188 which streamlined the permit ~1,600 hours check/permitting approval process. The new simple and streamlined process along with many state and local subsidies attracted many homeowners and solar companies to build solar & storage.

Accessory Dwelling Units In 2019, California passed several bills removing local requirements for ~ 800 hours (ADU) law change ADUs which spurred an influx of ADU permits and their related plan checks and permitting.

Wireless Telecom In 2018, the FCC made a declaratory ruling as part of their national ~ 1,900 hours Attachments strategy to promote the timely buildout of new communication infrastructure (Smallcell/5G) across the country by elimination regulatory impediments (aka local requirements). This ruling limited the money charged and timing on permits to 60-90 days placing further pressure on staffing.
2 | Pole Loading Calculations | In early 2010s, the CPUC added language to General Order 95 requiring | ~ 700 hours utilities to do pole loading studies on any addition or modification to any utility pole they manage. While BWP is not required to follow GO 95, it is considered utility best practice for safety.

TOTAL ~8,400 hours
Site Visits and Confirmations
2,500 • SITE VISITS
# CONFIRMATIONS ISSUED 2,082
2,000 1,995 1,985 1,985 1,919
1,793
1,500 1,475 1,434
Number of Site Visits & Confirmations Issued 1,186 1,185 1,232 976 936 1979 938
1,000 928 905
777
620 616 611 626
500
2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019
Year
We have been utilizing engineering labor resources to make up for the shortage in service planning, this has led us to deferred maintenance and longer than usual turnaround time for residents. While our reliability has been stellar, the deterred maintenance over the last five years has been impacting our reliability numbers. In 2015, our average outage experienced per customer was 1 outage every 5 years and now that number has risen to 1 outage every 2.5 years. While this number is still outstanding, the number of outages will keep increasing (lowering our reliability) placing a greater risk on our residents and employees. Examples of deferred maintenance items include vault, manholes, transformers, poles and streetlight poles.

We have not added resources to address the mandated additional work listed above (~ 5 full time employees worth) or the additional major developments going through permitting now (~ 1+ full time employee worth). We've been spreading our existing resources thin and working a great amount of overtime. We will be requesting only two new full time employees this FY and we will evaluate our needs after that.

Riad Sleiman
Assistant General Manager - Electric Services
(818) 238-3559 office | (818) 319-9531 mobile
WATER AND [email protected]
POWER BurbankWaterAndPower.com
3 Meredith, Alyssa
From: Erich Whiteside
Sent: Tuesday, May 17, 2022 1:53 PM
To: City Council DL
Subject: Oppose Utility Increase
CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organization. Do not click links or open attachments unless you recognize the sender and know the content is safe.

To Whom This May Concern,
My name is Erich Whiteside. I am a resident of the city of Burbank, and have been for several years now, and I believe we must reframe from increasing the rate of Water/Sewage.

Due to the increase in gas prices, tood, and housing, and lack of increase in wages, I believe we must ensure the integrity of our community by keeping other expenses as a fair/manageable expense. Therefore, I insist we object this proposal.

I humbly hope you'll consider my letter, and reflect on this decision, as I feel it would strongly affect our community, and reflect poorly on those who permitted this increase.

Thank you for listening,
Erich
Meredith, Alyssa
From:

Sent: Tuesday, May 17, 2022 2:39 PM
To: City Council DL
Subject: CC agenda Tonight- BWP rate Increase
CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organization. Do not click links or open attachments unless you recognize the sender and know the content is safe.

Dear Members of Council
Please consider a lower increase in across the board utility fees, than the proposal tonight. Also please inquire if the City is involved in researching (and at what cost) or implementing a new water metering system. If I recall correctly, I thought I had seen that BWP was exploring a new metering methodology to be able to further control and restrict residents' indoor and outdoor water usage.

This seems draconian and wasteful in and of itself in that, although not perfect, we have a water metering system and we have a methodology for people to report water waste. It would be irresponsible to "double" spend on something we already have at anytime, but especially now.

Please find out if this is correct. If it is, do you think people will accept elected officials choosing to essentially fund lowering the quality of life by further restricting water use instead of funding expansion of available sources like recycled water?
And of course, there is the fact just about every sort of increase contributes to the burden caused by inflation, a hidden tax on every resident.

Thank you for your consideration.

Best regards,
Simon Hammel
Received:
275 €. OLIVE AVE.

APR 0 6 2022.

BURBANK, CA 91502 : Burbank City
Council Office
RE: WATER, SEWER, REFUSE FEES INCREASES

DEAR BURBANA CITY COUNCIL,

I AM WRITING TO PRUTEST THE RATE INCREASES

FOR WATER, SEWER, REFUSE FEES, BEFORE THE PUBLIC
HEARING ON 5/17/2023. I AM A RESIDENT OF BURBANK,
A FATHER OF TWO BABIES.

I AM STRUGGLING TO PAY
My BiLLs DUE TO INFLITION 1. PLEASE DO NOT RAISE
MiRE RATES ON ME & BURBANK RESIDENTS. WORST TiME
TO DO THIS PURING INFLATION.

PAVID CHO
BURBANK, CA 91505
May. 4, 2022
Received:

Burbank City Hall MAY 1 0 2022
275 E. Olive Ave. Council Office Burbank City
Burbank, CA 91502
To Whom It May Concern:

I am writing to OPPOSE the rate increase for water, sewer and refuse services.

The reason why I am opposing this increase is because my landlord went nuts with an increase in my rent. He pays for the water and every time an increase is made with the utilities, he raises the rent. It's going to get to a point that we will no longer be able to pay for a place to live.

As you are aware, "everything" has gone up. The inflation is the worse I have ever seen. Please have mercy.

Thank van
Cathy N. Walters
Burbank, CA 91501

Burbank City CouncilMay 17, 2022

Burbank City Council
May 17, 2022