TO: HONORABLE MAYOR FROM: Kerrie Romanow
AND CITY COUNCIL Jim Shannon
SUBJECT: SEE BELOW DATE: May 30, 2023
Approved Date
6/9/23
SUBJECT: ACTIONS RELATED TO ACCEPTANCE, DISBURSEMENT, AND USE
OF GRANT FUNDS AWARDED TO THE CITY BY THE UNITED
STATES ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY FOR THE
ENVIRONMENTAL STEWARDSHIP PROGRAM
RECOMMENDATION
(a) Adopt a resolution authorizing the City Manager to:
(1) Negotiate and execute a grant agreement or award documentation and take all other actions necessary to accept, disburse, and utilize the United States Environmental Protection Agency grant for the Environmental Stewardship Program for the term of July 1, 2023, through June 30, 2027, in any amount awarded, but anticipated to be $419,002.
(2) Negotiate and execute agreements upon award of the grant with those entities involved in the grant application process, or other similar grantees, in a total amount not to exceed the grant award, subject to the appropriation of funds:
i. Children’s Discovery Museum, a non-profit 501(c)(3) corporation, for the term July 1, 2023, through June 30, 2027, to conduct environmental outreach, education, and engagement;
ii. International Children Assistance Network, a non-profit 501(c)(3) corporation, for the term July 1, 2023, through June 30, 2027, to conduct Vietnamese-language outreach;
iii. Mujeres Empresarias Tomando Acción, a woman-owned small business, for the term July 1, 2023, through June 30, 2027, to conduct Spanish- language outreach and engagement;
iv. Keep Coyote Creek Beautiful, a non-profit 501(c)(3) corporation, for the term July 1, 2023, through June 30, 2027, to conduct volunteer trash cleanups and community outreach and education;
v. East Side Union High School District, high school(s), and feeder elementary schools within areas targeted by the Grant, for the term July 1, COUNCIL AGENDA: 6/20/23
FILE: 23-905
ITEM: 2.16
HONORABLE MAYOR AND CITY COUNCIL
May 30, 2023
Subject: Actions Related to Acceptance, Disbursement, and Use of Grant Funds Awarded to the City by the United States Environmental Protection Agency for the Environmental Stewardship Program
2023, through June 30, 2027, to coordinate environmental coordination and outreach.
(b) Adopt the following 2023-2024 Appropriation Ordinance and Funding Sources Resolution amendments in the General Fund:
(1) Increase the estimate for Revenue from Federal Government by $104,750; and (2) Establish an Environmental Stewardship Program appropriation to the Environmental Services Department in the amount of $104,750.
SUMMARY AND OUTCOME
Approval of this recommendation will allow the City to accept grant funds to implement the Environmental Stewardship Program (Program). Through this project, the City and its partners will provide environmental education and outreach to K-12 students and community members with a focus on underserved communities identified in the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) grant in Council Districts 3, 4, 5, and 6. This program will help the City of San José increase residents’ knowledge of their local waterway, which will empower them to protect and restore the City’s watershed through collective action and community engagement. As a key partner to this program, Santa Clara Valley Water District (Valley Water) will also provide education on emergency preparedness to build resiliency in underserved communities near the waterway, which will ultimately protect communities from natural disasters such as flooding.
Valley Water will support outreach and education for this Program through in-kind contributions.
The Environmental Stewardship Program will bring together multiple community organizations to provide high school students with a hands-on environmental science education experience that covers topics such as water quality, trash load reduction, and climate resilience through emergency preparedness. By engaging with students and community members in a meaningful and culturally relevant way, the City and our community partners can increase environmental knowledge and engagement in this historically underserved part of San José.
BACKGROUND
Environmental education and community engagement have become increasingly important with the rising frequency of climate change-related natural disasters such as floods and drought. The City previously facilitated a Biologist in the Classroom program at a local high school. However, in 2021-2022, the City discontinued that program and now relies on regional efforts through the Santa Clara Valley Urban Pollution Prevention Program to fulfill the Municipal Regional Stormwater Permit’s School-Age Children Outreach requirements. While Santa Clara Valley Urban Pollution Prevention Program has a highly successful watershed education program, which recently completed its twentieth year of implementation, it targets elementary schoolers,
HONORABLE MAYOR AND CITY COUNCIL
May 30, 2023
Subject: Actions Related to Acceptance, Disbursement, and Use of Grant Funds Awarded to the City by the United States Environmental Protection Agency for the Environmental Stewardship Program
leaving high schoolers with limited options. Also, this is a county-wide program, and given the size and need of underserved schools within San José, there are limited opportunities to provide this level of programming details. The City applied for this grant to build upon earlier environmental education efforts, targeting high schools to fill the gap hoping to instill resiliency and environmental stewardship in the next generation of young adults.
In response to a Request for Applications from July 2022, the City applied for the United States EPA, San Francisco Bay Water Quality Improvement Fund grant. In December 2022, the EPA notified the City that the Program was selected out of $4.4 million grant applications and the City was one of seven recipients to receive funding. For the EPA, this is the first type of funding of its kind to focus on climate resiliency in underserved communities.
ANALYSIS
The Program will bring together a collaboration of community groups, community members, non-profits, high school and elementary school students, the Environmental Services Department, and Valley Water to bring watershed education and emergency preparedness resources to underserved San José communities as identified in the EPA grant in Council Districts 3, 4, 5, and 6. The Program builds upon the success of the City’s previous Biologist in the Classroom program and leverages the framework of Children’s Discovery Museum’s BioSITE program. This will allow the City and partner organizations to revive and expand watershed and climate resilience education to high school students.
The Program is envisioned to provide environmental education through inquiry-based science, student-to-student mentorship, field trips, hands-on learning, community engagement, and career development skills. If successful, it can help transform the environmental education programs in a historically underserved community within the east San José area and engage residents in a meaningful and relevant way.
The project area for this grant is in San José. Local creeks in this area are at risk of increased flooding due to extreme weather events caused by climate change. Students will be planning, promoting, and participating in creek cleanups and community presentations within their neighborhood. Also, the City will leverage this program to encourage the high school students to continue their effort in emergency preparedness through the City’s Community Emergency Response Team - CERT training.
Through strategic partnerships and coordination with local organizations supported by this grant, the City envisions:
• Facilitating and conducting environmental education and outreach to high school students, who will then provide environmental/local watershed education to elementary school students and members of the surrounding community; • Conduct outreach on emergency preparedness plans;
HONORABLE MAYOR AND CITY COUNCIL
May 30, 2023
Subject: Actions Related to Acceptance, Disbursement, and Use of Grant Funds Awarded to the City by the United States Environmental Protection Agency for the Environmental Stewardship Program
• Provide resources in English, Spanish, and Vietnamese to residents of east San José, which has historically been underserved; and
• Promote and facilitate creek cleanups in the proposed project area.
The total estimated cost to implement the Program over four years is $419,002 and the grant will cover the entire program cost.
A main component of the Program will be to fund agreements with Children’s Discovery
Museum, International Children Assistance Network, Mujeres Empresarias Tomando Acción, and Keep Coyote Creek Beautiful, East Side Union High School District, High School(s) and feeder elementary schools or other similar organizations serving communities targeted by the Grant. Grant funds will be used to expand environmental outreach and emergency preparedness education to K-12 students and community members while ensuring that all of these resources are accessible to east San José residents whose primary language is Spanish and Vietnamese.
These resources will highlight the watershed’s wildlife, ecosystem, history, and impacts of trash pollution.
This collaborative project has been developed in coordination with several partners. Major roles of the Program partners are currently envisioned to include:
Project Partner Role
Environmental Services
Department
Project management, grant and partnership coordination, field trip and community presentation coordination and Program reporting
Children’s Discovery
Museum
Conduct environmental outreach and education through
BioSITE (Students Investigating Their Environment) program International Children
Assistance Network
Support outreach efforts through Vietnamese translation and interpretation; promote outreach events through own networks Mujeres Empresarias
Tomando Acción
Support outreach efforts through Spanish translation and interpretation; promote outreach events through own networks Keep Coyote Creek
Beautiful
Support healthy waterways through volunteer cleanups and outreach events
Valley Water/City of San
Jose’s Office of
Emergency Management
Conduct emergency preparedness outreach and education
East Side Union High
School District, High
School(s) and feeder
elementary schools
Recipient of Environmental Stewardship Program
City staff will work with the EPA to ensure that the final grant recipients meet all eligibility requirements and serve the targeted communities.
HONORABLE MAYOR AND CITY COUNCIL
May 30, 2023
Subject: Actions Related to Acceptance, Disbursement, and Use of Grant Funds Awarded to the City by the United States Environmental Protection Agency for the Environmental Stewardship Program
Policy Alternatives
Alternative 1: Do not accept the grant funding
Pros: none
Cons: Underserved communities are most vulnerable to environmental impacts and not providing this level of education and engagement will not help prepare these communities for emergency response and climate change.
Reason for not recommending: It is important to ensure most vulnerable communities understand the benefits of the City’s watershed and ecosystem and emergency preparedness with the onset of climate change.
Racial Equity Impact Analysis
The Program will be held in east San José, bringing environmental and emergency preparedness education to a historically underserved community with high levels of linguistic isolation and low equity scores.
According to a 2022 survey conducted by City contractor EMC Research, survey participants from East San José had the lowest percentage of fully informed and highest percentage of fully misinformed residents for storm drain water treatment awareness. Between 55% - 66% of residents in Central, North, South, and West San José scored as “Fully Informed”, while only 39% of East San José residents achieved the same score. Residents that identified as Hispanic/Latinx or Asian had the lowest percentages of “Fully informed” survey participants.
Through the Program, the City aims to achieve the following outcomes, which will be measured through pre- and post-Program evaluations:
• Increased number of families in east San José that have an emergency preparedness plan, especially in relation to flooding;
• Increased climate resilience for residents near Coyote Creek; • Decreased linguistic isolation for Spanish- and Vietnamese-speaking residents; and • Increased environmental stewardship and watershed knowledge
Throughout the four-year grant period for the Program, the City will support non-profits, and a small business to facilitate environmental and emergency preparedness education. Small business Mujeres Empresarias Tomando Acción and non-profit International Children Assistance Network will provide translation and interpretation services in both Spanish and Vietnamese for the emergency preparedness community center presentations and the creek cleanups. Through these efforts to support local organizations and provide resources to those who have been historically linguistically isolated, the City hopes to increase environmental stewardship, watershed knowledge, and climate resilience for all San José residents.
HONORABLE MAYOR AND CITY COUNCIL
May 30, 2023
Subject: Actions Related to Acceptance, Disbursement, and Use of Grant Funds Awarded to the City by the United States Environmental Protection Agency for the Environmental Stewardship Program
EVALUATION AND FOLLOW-UP
Staff will update City Council or the Transportation and Environment Committee on the progress of the grant and awards. In addition, metrics will be developed for Program partners to track progress over the term of the grant. Potential metrics include tracking the number of student participants in the BioSITE program, the number of attendees in the community creek cleanups, the amount of trash removed from volunteer creak cleanups, and the number of community outreach events conducted and number of participants who are from Spanish and Vietnamese speaking communities. A summary of work conducted, including outputs and outcomes achieved, along with invoices, will be submitted to the EPA in quarterly reports.
COST SUMMARY/IMPLICATIONS
Total cost to implement the Program over four years is $419,002, with the allocation divided equally each year. The EPA will provide funding to cover the entirety of the Program on a reimbursement basis, as projects are completed during the multi-year grant period. This grant will run from July 1, 2023, through June 30, 2027 and the recommended contracts are subject to the annual appropriation of funds by City Council. This grant award does not require any local fund match.
BUDGET REFERENCE
The table below identifies the funds and appropriations to support the actions recommended as part of the memorandum.
Fund # Appn # Appn. Name
Total
Appn
Rec. Budget
Action
2023-2024
Proposed
Operating
Budget
Page*
Last Budget
Action (Date,
Ord. No.)
001 R110 Revenue from Federal
Government
$403,000 $104,750 212 N/A
001 NEW Environmental
Stewardship Program
Grant
$0 $104,750 N/A N/A
* The 2023-2024 Proposed Operating Budget is scheduled to be approved on June 13, 2023, and adopted on June 20, 2023.
HONORABLE MAYOR AND CITY COUNCIL
May 30, 2023
Subject: Actions Related to Acceptance, Disbursement, and Use of Grant Funds Awarded to the City by the United States Environmental Protection Agency for the Environmental Stewardship Program
COORDINATION
This memorandum was coordinated with the City Attorney’s Office, Office of Emergency Management, and Planning, Building, and Code Enforcement and Parks Recreation and Neighborhood Services departments.
The City coordinated with stakeholders throughout the grant application process. Each of the grant partners reviewed the Project proposal before it was submitted to the EPA. External partners are supportive and enthusiastic of this opportunity. The Project proposal was coordinated with Children’s Discovery Museum, International Children Assistance Network, Mujeres Empresarias Tomando Acción, Keep Coyote Creek Beautiful, Valley Water, and East Side Union High School District.
PUBLIC OUTREACH
This memorandum will be posted on the City’s Council Agenda website for the June 20, 2023 City Council meeting.
COMMISSION RECOMMENDATION AND INPUT
No commission recommendation or input is associated with this action.
CEQA
Not a Project, File No. PP17-004, Government Funding Mechanism or Fiscal Activity with no commitment to a specific project which may result in a potentially significant impact on the environment. Any subsequent actions will require additional environmental review.
PUBLIC SUBSIDY REPORTING
This item does not include a public subsidy as defined in section 53083 or 53083.1 of the California Government Code or the City’s Open Government Resolution.
HONORABLE MAYOR AND CITY COUNCIL
May 30, 2023
Subject: Actions Related to Acceptance, Disbursement, and Use of Grant Funds Awarded to the City by the United States Environmental Protection Agency for the Environmental Stewardship Program
/s/
KERRIE ROMANOW JIM SHANNON
Director, Environmental Services Budget Director
I hereby certify that there will be available for appropriation in the General Fund in the Fiscal Year 2023-2024 moneys in excess of those heretofore appropriated there from, said excess being at least $104,750.
JIM SHANNON
Budget Director
For questions, please contact Rajani Nair, Deputy Director, Watershed Protection Division, at 408-799-7462.