The Santa Barbara City Council on Tuesday will receive a presentation on the city’s new prosecution and enforcement team.
The City Attorney’s Office will update the council on the capabilities of the team. Along with the enforcement overview, the council will be asked to provide direction on enforcement priorities, according to a staff report.
Also Tuesday, the council will be asked to authorize an agreement with the Santa Barbara County Air Pollution Control District for the award of $60,000 in grant funds to help with the cost of installing electric vehicle charging stations at the Granada Theatre garage.
On Aug. 13, the council approved the installation of 15 dual-port electric vehicle charging stations on the roof of the garage at 1221 Anacapa St. The APCD’s grant program offers up to $10,000 per port, though only $60,000 remains to be disbursed. The grant agreement is a three-year term, during which time the city will need to ensure that the stations are active and publically accessible. Signs will be installed once the project is complete, according to a staff report.
The city is also participating in Southern California Edison’s Charge Ready Program, which will pay for the majority of the infrastructure costs for the project. The city is responsible for the purchase and installation of the stations.
The overall cost for the project is $488,000. The Edison program will pay for $400,000 and the APCD grant will cover $60,000. The city is also eligible for $18,000 in energy incentive from Edison. The remaining $10,000 had previously been appropriated from the Downtown Parking Fund reserves.
In other business, the council will be asked to adopt a resolution to authorize public works staff to apply for grant funding from the Federal Bureau of Reclamation for an advanced water-metering infrastructure project. AMI is the technology of automatically collecting water usage data from water meters and transferring that data to a central database. The data is used to identify leaks, analyze trends, troubleshoot problems, bill customers and provide customers with updated information about their consumption rates and patterns, according to a staff report.
The city’s 27,000 water meters are currently read by four water distribution operators. The new meters will reduce the need for meter readers in the field and create more accurate and timely readings while reducing vehicle costs and fuel consumption related to meter reading. The operator positions can be assigned new duties supporting system testing and maintenance and customer service, according to a staff report.
Staff is seeking funding from the WaterSMART Water and Energy Efficiency Grant Program, which can award a maximum of $1.5 million for certain projects. The capital investment for the new meters is $6 million, according to a staff report.
Both the resolution and agreement are included in Tuesday’s consent calendar. The meeting is scheduled for 2 p.m. at City Hall, 735 Anacapa St.
