Stevenson, Garrett
Subject:FW: Municipal Services Committee 9.13.22 Item #1 Proposed contract with ACES From: Genette Foster
Sent: Monday, September 12, 2022 9:06 PM
To: Stevenson, Garrett <[email protected]>
Cc: Wilson, Andy <[email protected]>; Hampton, Tyron <[email protected]>,· Williams, Felicia <[email protected]>; Rivas, Jessica <[email protected]> Subject: Municipal Services Committee 9.13.22 Item #1 Proposed contract with ACES The Integrated Resources Plan (IRP) serves as a blueprint for PWP to deliver reliable, environmentally responsible electricity services at competitive rates over a 25-year planning period. The 2023 IRP is of vital importance to the future of the City of Pasadena and cannot be just another boilerplate plan that gathers dust. Despite the special importance of the 2023 IRP, staff recommends a contract with an out-of-state company which seems to lack relevant experience.
The current climate crisis requires a consultant for the IRP with well documented experience planning and modeling for a California publicly owned utility. Among the firms not mentioned as a candidate is the National Renewable Energy Laboratory which has experience with many cities and helped the City of Los Angeles Department of Water and Power develop its IRP committing to 100% carbon free energy by 2035. It would seem that the request for proposals and consultant selection process for the IRP was seriously flawed.
Please do not authorize the City Manager to enter into a contract with ACES.
VOTE NO on Item #1.
Genette Foster
Council District 2
1 Stevenson, Garrett
Subject:FW: MSC meeting: Agenda Items #1+2
From: Progressive Bodyworks < >
Sent: Tuesday, September 13, 2022 6:46 AM
To: Stevenson, Garrett <[email protected]>
Subject: MSC meeting: Agenda Items #1+2
Given the horrendous heat wave of the past few weeks, the city needs to make responsible choices with regard to climate change. Climate change is here, now.
Agenda Item #1:
Making responsible choices means that the city needs to transition from fossil fuels to clean energy. The city needs to make certain that the consultants share the city's commitment to climate change.
Does this consultant plan to steer away from fossil fuels and make a commitment to clean energy? We are all breathing filthy pollution from dirty vehicles. This affects EVERYONE, including children, the elderly and infirm.
It looks like this consultant is NOT headed in the right direction.
Agenda Item #2:
The mission statement for Pasadena's DOT states:
"The Department of Transportation is committed to achieving the safe, efficient and convenient movement of people and goods within Pasadena, while concurrently ensuring a balance between land use and transportation to maintain a livable community in which cars are not necessary to travel within the city." httDS://www.citvofpasadena.net/transDOrtation/
Cities around the country / world have created protected mobility lanes for non- vehicle transportation.
It is appalling that Pasadena has ZERO protected mobility lanes. 1 Given the horrendous heat wave, climate change, and the city's commitment to build housing, the city is putting its residents in a transportation chokepoint without providing its residents any alternative to DECREASE traffic, DECREASE pollution, and create a more liveable, walkable, breathable environment.
The Greenways are a tiny step in that direction.
The city needs a transportation network to link people who choose not to use single-passenger vehicles and choose not to contribute to heavy traffic.
With all due respect, will you, at the very least, view your own DOT website and act accordingly?
Our lives, our quality of life, our air quality depend on it.
I am a longtime homeowner in Pasadena.
I am a longtime business owner in Pasadena. Without protected mobility lanes - like in MANY other cities nationally and globally - I feel unsafe using anything other than a vehicle to travel 1.5 miles from my home to my business.
Kathy Braidhill
2 Stevenson, Garrett
Subject:FW: MSC Agenda Item #1-IRP Consulting firm
From: Rick Cole <>
Sent: Tuesday, September 13, 2022 10:52 AM
To: Cynthia Cannady < >
Cc: Kightlinger, Jeffrey <[email protected]>; Hormozi, John <[email protected]>; Marquez, Miguel <[email protected]>; Mellem, Araceli <[email protected]>; AndyWilson <[email protected]>; Tyrone Hampton <[email protected]>; Rivas, Jessica <[email protected]>; Williams, Felicia <[email protected]>; Stevenson, Garrett <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: MSC Agenda Item #1-IRP Consulting firm
Honorable Chair and Members of the Municipal Service Committee:
I write in support of the letter from Cynthia Cannady on behalf of Pasadena 100, a coalition of non-profit, non-partisan and faith-based congregations concerned about climate change.
The United Nations has declared climate change a "planetary red alert." However, the report on the hiring of a consultant for Pasadena Water and Power's Integrated Resource Plan feels more like "business as usual." The letter from Pasadena 100 represents a more detailed and substantive analysis of the selection process than the one offered in the report recommending selection of ACES. I hope the concerns raised by Pasadena 100 will be given careful attention by Councilmembers. I believe they warrant serious consideration of the rejection of all bids.
In fairness, the RFP should be revised and reissued with an emphasis on ensuring that Pasadena focuses on the legal and moral requirement to shift to renewables. Moreover, as this transition involves every resident and business customer of our public utility, the RFP should emphasize robust community participation in the preparation of this important plan.
In my 33 year career as an elected official and municipal staff executive, I had extensive experience with the practice of engaging consultants for projects like this. Ideally, they should bring unique knowledge and skills in both the arena under study as well as relevant experience with the particular planning process being undertaken. No case is made in the staff report that ACES possesses either.
We are in the midst of a profound, generational shift. California is leading the nation in moving away from carbon-based fuel sources. The ink is not even dry on ambitious new state mandates passed by the Legislature. This poses striking dangers and opportunities for our public utility. We can be trapped with stranded assets and an obsolete business model or we can lead the way to a more sustainable future. With a new City Manager who wilt be selecting a new utility director, it is prudent to pause rather than proceed with a plan that fails to address the gravity of the climate crisis, fails to engage the public in a transparent way and fails to provide a bold blueprint for the next generation of public power.
Sometimes when a crisis looms, the moment calls for urgent action. Sometimes, however, it calls for clear thinking. This case calls for clear thinking. Let's plan for 2050, not 1950. Let's plan for a carbon-free, pollution-free, renewable energy future. And let's take the time to engage the right help to accomplish that goal.
Rick Cole
1