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CITY OF GLENDALE, CALIFORNIA
REPORT TO THE CITY COUNCIL
AGENDA ITEM
Report: Amendment to Professional Services Agreement with Rincon Consulting, Inc.
1. Motion authorizing the City Manager or his designee to enter into an amendment of the existing Professional Services Agreement (PSA) with Rincon Consultants, Inc. (Contract No. 8001931) to extend the PSA until March 2025 in order to complete the preparation of the Climate Action and Adaptation Plan (CAAP) and to add $86,448 to the PSA for a revised total not to exceed contact amount of $542,034.
2. Resolution of appropriation in the amount of $86,448.
COUNCIL ACTION
Item Type: Consent Calendar
Approved for October 22, 2024 calendar
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Staff requests the Council authorize an amendment to the Professional Services Agreement (PSA) with Rincon Consultants, Inc. (Rincon) to add funds ($86,448) and extend the time schedule until March 2025 so that Rincon can complete the CAAP. The original scope of work anticipated an 18-month timeline, commencing January 2023, with an anticipated August 2024 completion date. The CAAP is comprehensive and has many recommended measures and actions requiring extensive community engagement during the draft document’s development process. Rincon was asked to provide a greater level of coordination and support in responding to comments and revisions to the proposed measures and actions, including attending additional in-person meetings, and Sustainability Commission meetings. Hence the overall project schedule has been extended from August 2024 to March 2025 so that Rincon can complete the remaining tasks listed below:
1.Development of a Nexus amongst related projects: The CAAP will function within a larger ecosystem of plans, policies, and programs within Glendale and adjacent cities, Los Angeles County and the state. Rincon will conduct a stakeholder mapping exercise to identify relevant actors and initiatives at the state, regional, and local scales. The mapping exercise will identify actors by sector (i.e., transportation, power, waste, water) and adaptation category (green infrastructure, energy, health, disaster preparedness, ecosystem services, etc.). {{section.number}}{{item.number}}2
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2.Development of tools for monitoring, tracking, and activation: Rincon will deliver a web-based implementation monitoring tool and automated report template and provide staff training for the tool.
3.Development of the final CAAP proposal: Once a complete list of measures is reviewed and approved and community and stakeholder feedback has been incorporated, the Rincon Team will begin work on the final draft CAAP.
4.Completion of CEQA Compliance: Rincon is preparing an initial study based on which appropriate environmental review will be completed to qualify the CAAP for use in future project streamlined review of greenhouse gas impacts. {{section.number}}{{item.number}}3
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RECOMMENDATION
That the City Council adopt a motion authorizing the City Manager to amend the PSA with Rincon to add funds and extend the PSA until March 2025 in order to complete the preparation of the CAAP; and approve a resolution of appropriation.
ANALYSIS
On September 27, 2022, the City Council approved the PSA with Rincon for a not-to- exceed contract amount of $320,000 to develop a CAAP for the City of Glendale. Primarily, Rincon’s scope of work included:
➢Develop a "Qualified" CAAP for the City of Glendale that meets the requirements to streamline environmental review for future development projects. ➢Conduct a robust outreach program tailored to the City of Glendale's demographics.
➢Provide a detailed financing plan.
➢Ensure that the CAAP aligns with the state's goals, specifically SB 32 and AB 1279, to achieve and maintain carbon neutrality by 2045.
In preparing this document, Rincon was also tasked with completing the following deliverables:
➢Develop a current GHG inventory based on the latest available data to measure the City's progress in reducing GHG emissions.
➢Incorporate innovative strategies and solutions for both climate action and adaptation.
➢Develop a pathway to deliver an emissions-neutral city by 2050 or sooner. Set out methodologies for prioritizing transformational actions. ➢Outline the current climate challenges in Glendale's communities and the opportunities for climate and greenhouse gas reduction goals. ➢Connect the City's existing and developing sustainability initiatives, strategies, and plans with the community's goals.
➢Establish cohesive sustainability strategies, implementation plans, and metrics for measuring progress and improving Glendale's sustainability and its contribution to regional and state initiatives.
➢Prepare a qualified CAAP that may be used for future tiering and project streamlining.
➢Demonstrate how Glendale will adapt and improve its resilience to climate change that impacts the City now and respond to future climate change scenarios and
➢Engage with the community to communicate the climate challenges and identify opportunities for change in response to these challenges. {{section.number}}{{item.number}}4
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To date, Rincon have completed the following tasks:
➢Stakeholder & Community Engagement
▪Working with City staff, Rincon undertook a robust stakeholder and community engagement program. This program focused on communication and engagement with internal (between departments) and external stakeholders. The program consisted of completing the following engagement programs :
❖Online Engagement Methods: Project Website, Branding, Logo, Social Media
❖Online Engagement Methods: ArcGIS Story Map
❖Interdepartmental and Agency Engagement: City Staff Sustainability Working Group
❖Community and CBO Partners, Interdepartmental and Agency Engagement:
(i) Focus Groups with Key Interested Parties by Topic Group:
a. Adapting to a Changing Climate
b. Transportation
c. Building Electrification and Environmental Justice
d. Impacts on Glendale Power Plant
❖Community and CBO Partners, General Public: Mini-Grants- Incorporating Feedback from Hard-to-Reach Communities
❖General Public: Community Workshops
❖General Public: Mobile Workshop Series/Pop-Up Events
➢Climate Change Community Assessment
▪Rincon prepared a climate change vulnerability analysis detailing the anticipated climate impacts in Glendale. These findings support developing ways to reduce these impacts in the CAAP. The vulnerability analysis is also being used to complete the Safety Element update of the General Plan. In November 2023, City Council approved an amendment to the CAAP contract to update the Safety Element of the General Plan. Because the CAAP and Safety Element have related focus, this allowed for efforts to be coordinated, consistent, and presented to the community together resulting in effectiveness and efficiency in staff resources.
➢GHG Emissions Inventories
▪Rincon delivered a GHG inventory document that presents the data, methods, and results for the 2021 greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions inventory and forecast for the City of Glendale. Included is an analysis of findings and trends in the city's GHG emissions, which were developed to support the {{section.number}}{{item.number}}5
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city's GHG emissions reduction targets and, ultimately, the city's CAAP. ➢Preparation of Proposed List of GHG Reduction Targets & List of Methods and Adaptation Strategies
▪Rincon has drafted key strategies to establish the basis for the City of Glendale's CAAP based on the existing conditions analyses, current trends, and technologies in GHG emission reduction, feedback received from City staff, focus groups, the Sustainability Commission, and the community, and the climate change vulnerability assessment. The strategies included in this internal document detail achievable and implementable emissions reduction measures and supporting actions that help the City reduce its emissions to meet the established target in line with the State of California's goals. ➢Develop Near and Long-Term Funding & Municipal Communication & Implementation Plan
▪Complete an implementation plan to be used by the City to track progress over time, establish approximate implementation costs, and identify potential funding sources for four primary measures.
Over the course of the City’s engagement with Rincon, both parties have been required to engage in a greater level of review than originally anticipated requiring Rincon to provide more support for the project. Since Rincon’s original presentation of the initial draft of actions and measures to the City’s team, staff has required a greater number of in-person meetings with both City staff and the Sustainability Commission, allowing stakeholders to engage in constructive discussions which led to a series of in-depth comments on the measures and actions. Due to the complexity of the measures and actions, the Sustainability Office staff continued to solicit feedback from staff and the community, eventually resulting in a series of refinements to the actions and measures by Rincon.
The finalized measures and actions were delivered in May 2024 and circulated amongst the larger City team for further comment. In June 2024, the Sustainability Office facilitated a second in-person departmental meeting, resulting in additional comments and requests for clarification on the refined actions and measures. This in turn resulted in the City requesting additional modifications performed by Rincon prior to the finalization of the draft CAAP.
Staff and Rincon provided a informational presentation to City Council at the August 22, 2024, Council meeting. The presentation outlined the work completed on the draft measures and work to be completed to finalize the project. Specifically, finalizing the project will include the following:
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1.Development of a nexus amongst related projects: Climate action and adaptation must happen at a regional scale to succeed. The City's CAAP will exist within a larger ecosystem of plans, policies, and programs. Rincon will conduct a stakeholder mapping exercise to identify relevant actors and initiatives at state, regional, and local scales. The mapping exercise will identify actors by sector (i.e., transportation, power, waste, water) and adaptation category (green infrastructure, energy, health, disaster preparedness, ecosystem services, etc.).
2.Development of tools for monitoring, tracking, and activation: Rincon will deliver a web-based implementation monitoring tool and automated report template and provide staff training for the tool.
3.Development of the final CAAP proposal: Once a complete list of measures is reviewed and approved and community and stakeholder feedback has been incorporated, the Rincon Team will begin work on the final draft CAAP.
4.Completion of CEQA Compliance: Rincon has started preparation of an Initial Study to determine the proper level of CEQA review in order for the CAAP CEQA analysis to qualify for CEQA streamlining of GHG emissions impact analysis in future projects that are consistent with the CAAP.
As a result of the additional project support, and remaining scope of services required to finalize this project, staff seeks to amend the PSA with Rincon Consultants, Inc., in the amount of $86,448.
Change Orders
Company name: Rincon Consultants
Original Approved
Contract Amount:
$319,903
Approved Contingency:
Change Order History: Amendment 1, Amend Contract with Rincon Consultants, Inc. to include an update of the General
Plan Safety Element as part of the Climate Action and
Adaptation Plan preparation for an additional cost of
$135,683 for a revised total not to exceed contact
amount of $455,586
This Change Order
(Increase):
$86,448
New Contract Total (If
Approved):
$542,034
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STAKEHOLDERS/OUTREACH
The success of the CAAP implementation hinges on the community's active involvement and support for any climate action programming. Due to the scope and complexity of this overall effort, staff and Rincon hosted numerous Community Focus Group Meetings/Workshops/Pop-Up-Events/Climate Cafes in excess of the originally envisioned scope, offering the community additional time to reflect and provide comments on the draft measures and actions. All comments provided by the community were evaluated and incorporated in Rincon’s final development of the measures and actions.
An Outreach, Education, and Engagement Plan (OEE Plan) was developed that described the engagement strategies that the City and consultant team deployed to meaningfully and equitably engage the Glendale community in the planning process for the development of the City of Glendale's first CAAP. Strategies in this OEE Plan include—and elevate—voices traditionally under-represented in the local decision- making process, including linguistically isolated, digitally isolated, foreign-born, Black, Indigenous, people of color, low-income, people with disabilities, youth, and seniors.
Table 5: Engagement Strategies
Engagement Type Outreach Type Lead Equity Approach
Online Engagement
Methods: Project Website,
Branding, Logo, Social
Media
Website, Branding
Logo
Written/Designed
Materials, City
Social Media
Channels
Rincon Branding and logo reflecting
Glendale’s diverse community.
Google plugin to allow for
language auto-translation.
Survey to allow for consistent
feedback from the public.
Online Engagement
Methods: ArcGIS Story
Map
Web-based spatial
tool
Rincon Incorporates community feedback
for highlighting of vision, issues,
priorities via the lens of culturally
appropriate outreach in Glendale
(for example, highlighting areas of
environmental justice concern
identified by the community).
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Interdepartmental and
Agency Engagement: City
Staff Sustainability
Working Group
3 workshops, 10
department specific
calls (virtual)
PowerPoints and
notes from
meetings
Rincon, City
to schedule
and send
invites
Capturing feedback from internal
interested parties in plans,
prioritizing transparency of
feedback incorporation.
Community and CBO
Partners,
Interdepartmental and
Agency Engagement:
Focus Groups with Key
Interested Parties by Topic
Group:*
1: Adapting to a Changing
Climate
2: Transportation
3: Building Electrification
and Environmental Justice
4: Impacts on Glendale
Power Plant
4 focus groups Rincon, City
to identify
interested
parties
Incorporation of diverse voices
during City selection of key
interested parties, public facing
language, transparent feedback
incorporation and
documentation
Community and CBO
Partners, General Public:
Mini-Grants- Incorporating
Feedback from Hard-to-
Reach Communities
Financial assistance
($4,000) via Visa gift
card, summary of
use of fund
disbursement +
outcomes
Rincon, City Multilingual and targeted
outreach to publicize use of mini-
grants, transparency of outcome
of grants without additional
reporting burden placed on
community members.
General Public:
Community Workshops
2 workshops
(virtual)
PowerPoints, mural
boards, summaries
of meetings
Rincon Use of inclusive, public facing
language, transparent
incorporation of public feedback,
workshop timing to incorporate
best-time-of attendance for all
community members, significant
workshop lead time and outreach
via community-based
organizations to make sure
underrepresented communities
are aware of workshops.
Community workshop feedback
will be distilled into 4-5 equity
guardrails to be included in the
Final CAAP.
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General Public: Mobile
Workshop Series
Two in-person
popup events,
(materials): two
flyer designs, up to
three social media
blurbs, sign in
sheets, comment
cards, nametags,
activities for
Touchpoints
Here LA,
City of
Glendale
Translation of all materials into
Spanish and Armenian as needed
and directed by City, timing of
touchpoints to maximize
community engagement and
availability
HereLA staff provided language
translation during mobile
workshops
General
Public: Engagement
Toolkit
Two poster
designs
One informational
PowerPoint
template
Template for a sign-
up sheet and
comment cards
One postcard
design and flyer
design
Rincon Multi-lingual translations (English,
Spanish, Armenian); culturally
appropriate branding and writing
of materials
Boards and Commissions 4 Sustainability
Commission
Meetings
City of
Glendale
The outreach and engagement program took place over two phases. Phase one focused on defining equity guardrails and informing participants of the results of the GHG inventory and vulnerability assessment. The objective of phase one was to understand the community priorities and receive early input on how to shape the strategies of the CAAP.
Engagement approached included:
Phase 1
1.Community Meetings and Presentations:
oTotal Meetings: 14
oTotal Attendees: 120
2. Community Events:
1. Total Meetings: 12
2. Total Attendees: 451
3.CAAP Comment Cards Received: 223
4.CAAP Voting Boards: 234
5.CAAP Information Booklets: 100 booklets distributed.
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6. Internal Meeting Review: 20 staff members
7. Greener Glendale Comment Cards: 437
Total people engaged in phase 1 for CAAP Outreach: 591 individuals spoken to, 994 feedback points received.
Phase two focused providing the community information on the key draft CAAP actions, gather input on what barriers the community faces in implementing key draft CAAP actions and to share upcoming engagement and next steps. Phase two strategies emphasized meeting the community where they are rather than formal workshops to engage community leaders and groups through in-person and virtual meetings to provide an early look at the CAAP.
Key Metrics:
1.Focus Groups:
1. Total Meetings: 3
2. Total Attendees: 15
2.Community Meetings and Presentation:
1. Total Meetings: 16
2. Total Attendees: 145
3.Open Houses (Climate Cafes):
1. Total Open Houses: 2
2. Total Attendees: 120
4.Pop-Up Events:
1. Total Events: 17
2. Total Attendees: 917
5.Internal Departmental Review:
1. Total Meetings: 6
2. Total Attendees: 39
6.Sustainability Commission Meeting: 8 present, 2 callers on the line
7.Pop-up feedback: 524
Total people engaged in phase 2 for CAAP Outreach: 1246 individuals spoken to, 534 feedback points received.
Total CAAP engagement: 1837 individuals spoken to, 1528 feedback points received.
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Finally, staff requested that Rincon staff attend a greater number of City Council and Sustainability Commission meetings in person to better respond to questions and comments on the CAAP.
FISCAL IMPACT
The Rincon Consultants PSA amendment will cost $86,448, which was not included as a part of the FY 2024-25 budget. Therefore, staff is asking for an appropriation of $86,488 from the General Fund undesignated fund balance. The appropriation request is outlined below:
Requesting Appropriation
Amount From (Account
String)
To (Account String) Funding Source
$86,448 25300-1010-0000- GL: 43110-1010-
MSD-0020-P0000
PL: MSD01311AN
General Fund
ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW (CEQA/NEPA)
This item is considered a ministerial activity and therefore, not subject to CEQA review.
CAMPAIGN DISCLOSURE
The names and business addresses of the members of the board of directors, the chairperson, CEO, COO, CFO, Subcontractors and any person or entity with more than 10% interest in the company proposed for contract in this Agenda Item Report are attached in Exhibit 2, in accordance with the City Campaign Finance Ordinance No. 5744.
ALTERNATIVES TO STAFF RECOMMENDATION
Alternate 1: City Council may choose not to authorize the motion.
Alternate 2: The City Council may consider any other alternative not proposed by staff
ADMINISTRATIVE ACTION
Submitted by:
John Takhtalian, Assistant City Manager
Prepared by:
David Jones, Sustainability Officer
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Approved by:
Roubik R. Golanian, P.E., City Manager
EXHIBITS/ATTACHMENTS
Exhibit 1: Rincon Consultants, Inc. Request to Amend City of Glendale Climate Action and Adaptation Plan Scope of Work and Cost Estimate to Provide Additional Outreach, Revisions to the Measures and Actions Based on City Staff Feedback, and Additional Project Management Time
Exhibit 2: Disclosure – Campaign Finance Ordinance