Council Passes Items Aimed at Battling Homelessness

As part of Monday’s consent calendar, the City Council approved two items aimed at combatting homelessness.

The council authorized City Manager Cynthia Kurtz to submit an application to the state for $644,211 in grant funding to Family Homelessness Challenge in conjunction with Door of Hope to serve families with minor children who are experiencing or at imminent risk of homelessness.

The City Council also authorized the City Manager to enter into a contract with Door of Hope to administer the proposed project, should it be selected for funding for up to three years.

In the second item, the City Manager was authorized to enter into a contract with CityWise for consulting services to develop a homelessness plan as required to receive $99,995 in state HHAP grant funding.

Here are the other items that passed on Monday’s consent calendar:

• An $89,700 revenue-generating contract with Ken Porter Auctions to provide auctioneer services not to exceed $89,700. The city’s municipal code directs staff to use public auctions as one of the three disposition methods for surplus City property that has lost its functional use but has financial value. The Salvage Ordinance is administered by the Purchasing Division of the Finance Department. The City has traditionally contracted with an outside auctioneer contractor capable of carrying out an array of services in support of and leading up to facilitating public auctions for City surplus property.

•  A five-year contract $165,000 contract with Anderson Business Technology for Copier Lease and Maintenance Services for the Finance Department.  Currently, divisions in the Finance Department have older printer models that were acquired in 2013, these older machines require constant maintenance and repairs. Vendors have advised that parts are becoming obsolete, and hard to find in the market place making the repairs costly. Additionally, costs for replacing high-priced ink cartridges have increased since the models are more than five-years-old.

• An amendment to the Master Service Agreement with Oracle America, Inc. to $3.9 million to extend the capacity of the Oracle Cloud Infrastructure environment; add 20 additional Oracle Field Services Cloud user licenses. The Water and Power Department provides billing services for electricity, water, sewer, and refuse utilities, and several key utility-related taxes. Collectively, the Customer Information System produces customer bills that generate approximately $280 million of annual revenues. PWP recently completed a multi-year, multi-million dollar project to replace its aging CIS system. The new CIS system is the foundation for the city’s commitment to modernizing technology and automating processes to provide excellent customer service. The CIS software is installed on the Oracle Cloud Infrastructure platform. Additional CIS environments will be necessary to support future PWP automation project initiatives. PWP will also migrate systems traditionally hosted on local, on-site computers to the OCI cloud platform which will result in cost savings over time and improved cybersecurity. Additional OFSC user licenses are necessary to improve business processes by redeploying work previously performed on paper to smart tablets.

• Contract award to Cora Constructors Inc. to furnish and deliver Ross Booster Station Upgrades for the Water and Power Department. The Pasadena Water and Power department owns and operates the Ross Booster Station that pumps water delivered from the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California to PWP’s Eagle Rock Reservoir. The booster station was constructed in 1958. Much of the original equipment, including the pumps, the station piping, and the electrical equipment, has served continuously since 1958 and has exceeded the typical life expectancy for this equipment. The 2020 Water System and Resources Plan, which was adopted by the City Council on October 4, recommended upgrades to the Ross Booster. The WSRP is a 25-year strategic roadmap for PWP’s capital and water resource planning. The purpose of this project is to replace the two existing pumps with pumps that provide demand capacity and reliability, add a third pump for redundancy purposes, replace j piping, and upgrade the electrical infrastructure.

• A $233,662 contract award to Williams Scotsman for leader of modular trailers for Fire Station 31. Since the construction of Fire Station 31 in 1960, significant state and local building code revisions and updates have been adopted. As a result, a structural retrofit of the fire station and its garage, also known as the WickerCraft Building, is required. To perform the retrofit work at Fire Station 31, Fire Department staff will need to be relocated off-site during construction. A relocation site for continuing station operations was identified at 95 Alessandro Place.

• A resolution authorizing the City Manager to execute the Certifications and Assurances and Authorized Agent Forms required to receive LCTOP grant funds from the City of Norwalk; and Increase revenue by $120,615.40 in the LCTOP Project within Fund 209 – Prop C to receive LCTOP funds from the City of Norwalk; and ii. Appropriate $120,615.40 to the LCTOP Project within Fund 209- Prop C for expenses related to bus stop improvements. The City of Pasadena was allocated $130,001 in FY22 LCTOP grant funds. The City must submit annually to Caltrans a qualifying project proposal to receive the funds. Caltrans informed City staff that in lieu of submitting a project proposal the City could become a contributing sponsor to another agency’s approved LCTOP project. In March 2022, Metro notified Pasadena that Metro had an approved LCTOP project that could benefit from additional LCTOP funding and would exchange equivalent LCTOP funding for other local transit funding. The local funding proposed by Metro is Proposition A Growth Over Inflation Funds that provides operating and capital funding for Tier 2 transit operators. The City of Pasadena is a Tier 2 operator and unlike LCTOP funding, Tier 2 funding has greater flexibility and is not project specific. Funds exchanged with Metro will be used to support local transit operations.

•  A budget amendment appropriating $1,600,000 from the Inclusionary Housing Trust Fund’s unappropriated fund balance to the Housing Department’s FY 2022 Operating Budget to fund the proposed city loan for the Heritage Housing Partners Transition Age Youth Housing Project. The subject property is located at 2322 E. Foothill Boulevard, Pasadena. The Property is a 4,189 square foot lot that currently contains two buildings, including a front one that was constructed in 1924, along with a rear building that was reconstructed with a second floor circa 1973. The total square footage for both buildings is 2,360 sq ft. The Property is currently vacant, although it was previously used as a five-(5) unit non-permitted residential rental property. HHP proposes renovating the existing structures and reconfiguring the five (5) existing floor plans to provide six (6) units of interim housing for homeless and at-risk youth (generally from the ages of eighteen to twenty-four). The proposed Project (the “Project”) will help address an unmet need for housing among this population. ln order to comply with SRO development standards, all six of the units will be no more than 375 square feet. New drywall, flooring, and bath and kitchen fixtures will be installed, along with microwaves, ranges, garbage disposals, and refrigerators.

• A reciprocal agreement for mutual assistance for public transportation services known as the California Transit Mutual Assistance Compact. The California Statewide Transit Mutual Assistance Compact (TransMAC) is an emergency mutual assistance agreement for public transit providers modeled on the same type of mutual aid agreement used by law enforcement, fire and utilities. Recognizing that emergencies and other events may overwhelm the resources and capabilities of transit agencies, and that transit agencies may require assistance in the form of personnel, services, and equipment to continue to deliver critical services, this mutual aid agreement effort was initiated in 2010 via a coordinated effort between the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro), the Orange County Transportation Authority (OCTA), and the California Emergency Management Agency, among others. To date 22 transit agencies are members of TransMAC.

• A 400,000 through Fiscal Year  2025 with Pastilla to create and execute a water awareness campaign, and provide marketing and outreach support to advance the goals of the Water System Resources Plan (WSRP.) The future of Pasadena water is detailed in the 2020 WSRP, which was adopted by City Council on October 4, and outlines water planning for Pasadena for the next 25 years. With increasing global awareness of both the impacts of climate change on water, and the carbon footprint of water use, the WSRP plan prioritizes conservation, increasing local water supply, restoring and protecting a resilient watershed, and sustainable groundwater basin. Pasadena Water and Power (“PWP”) seeks to engage the 170,000 customers in its service territory and the Pasadena business community through a comprehensive water awareness campaign and related marketing and outreach services. The campaign will advance the goals of the WSRP, present water stewardship as a key sustainability action, and promote a resilient watershed and local water supply as a critical climate change mitigation strategy. The marketing and outreach services will build community support for water infrastructure projects, engage the community to help Pasadena reach new mandated conservation goals, accelerate drought messaging during a declared water shortage, and educate the community about Pasadena’s water supply and the value of local groundwater.

• A $2 million contract with TMG Utility Advisory Services Inc. to provide support and enhancement services for the customer service information system. The Water and Power Department (“PWP”) provides billing services for electricity, water, sewer, and refuse utilities, and several key utility-related taxes. Collectively, the customer information system produces customer bills that generate approximately $280 million of annual revenues. PWP recently completed a multi-year, multi-million dollar project to replace its aging CIS system. The new CIS system is the foundation for the City of Pasadena’s commitment to modernizing technology and automating processes to provide excellent customer service. The City will require specialized resources to keep the new CIS system operating at maximum performance and perform ongoing upgrades and enhancements. It is expected that some tasks will always be performed by consultants and procuring professional services to support a complex CIS system is a common industry practice that has been deployed by many neighboring utilities.