City Council Accepts and Approves PWP’s 2023 Wildfire Mitigation Plan on Monday’s Consent Calendar

As part of Monday’s consent calendar, the Pasadena City Council accepted Pasadena Water and Power’s 2023 Wildfire Mitigation plan to mitigate the utility’s risk of responsibility for a catastrophic wildfire.

The City Council annually approves the plan which is implemented by the General Manager of PWP.

The plan comprises a range of activities to mitigate the threat and minimize the risk of catastrophic wildfire posed by electrical lines and equipment.

The plan’s key objectives are to minimize the sources of ignition of a fire, improve the resiliency of the PWP electric grid, identify unnecessary and ineffective actions of specific wildfire mitigation strategies and assess potential modifications and assess new industry practices and technologies that will reduce the likelihood of an interruption in service and improve the restoration of service.

The plan was first approved by the City Council in 2019. The plan complied with the requirements of the California Public Utilities Commission for publicly owned electric utilities to prepare a wildfire mitigation plan before the end of calendar year 2019.

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

• A contract with Raftelis for project management and quality assurance for computerized maintenance management system for the Water and Power Division in an amount not to exceed $325,000. The City Manager would also be authorized to approve change orders related to the optimal implementation support services not to exceed $975,000. The new CMMS will be the core system for managing PWP’s assets, materials inventory, and work orders. The new CMMS will streamline PWP’s current processes and allow for the integration of related systems and functions. _It will also replace several custom-built applications and legacy systems

• A contract with Mariposa Tree Management Inc. for hardwood tree trimming and maintenance for an amount not-to-exceed $3.5 million for up to five years. The City of Pasadena has a rich tradition of maintaining mature city trees, having been awarded a Tree City USA designation for 32 years and Tree City Growth Award for 22 years. To maintain the City’s urban forest, the Department of Public Works created a scheduled pruning cycle for more than 57,000 hardwood trees and 7,200 palm trees to improve the health of the urban forest and provide safe conditions within the City of Pasadena. the proposed contract is for the pruning of hardwood trees located in the public right-of-way, parks, medians, libraries, and other landscaped areas.

• A contract with A. Y. Nursery, Inc. for purchase of trees and amount not to exceed $411,250 for up to five years. The City of Pasadena’s tree replacement and planting operation consists of purchasing, planting, and watering street trees in the City’s urban forest. In an effort to replenish the City’s street tree vacancies, trees are planted annually from October through May. This proposed contract is for the purchase of tr~es only. Staff expects to purchase up to 400 trees annually within the available budget through this contract.

• A contract with CT&T Concrete Paving, Inc. for annual ADA sidewalk improvement program for an amount not-to-exceed $447,235. Since Fiscal Year (FY) 2016, City Council has appropriated a total of $12.6 million to the Annual ADA Sidewalk Improvement Program and approximately 700,000 square feet of sidewalk has been replaced. , This contract will replace 30,000 square feet of sidewalk panels with a vertical displacement of two inches and above at approximately 350 locations citywide. The contract also includes concrete grinding of 1,500 linear feet of sidewalk panels with a vertical displacement of under two inches at an additional 180 locations. Grinding down of raised concrete panels where feasible, mitigates trip hazards at one-third the cost of full replacement of sidewalk panels, allowing us to make repairs at a greater number of locations given the project budget.

• A contract with GRBCON Inc. for dry well installation at Pasadena Community Health Center parking lot for an amount not-to-exceed $119,732. This project consists of the installation of two dry wells in the parking lot at the Pasadena Community Health Center (PCHC) located at 1845 North Fair Oaks Avenue. The parking lot at PCHC has experienced flooding during heavy rain events in past rainy seasons. The existing storm drain system in the parking lot is under-sized and inadequate for capturing the volume of stormwater from heavy rainstorms. Dry wells are sustainably friendly stormwater devices that capture run-off and infiltrate the stormwater into the groundwater table. Dry wells are cost-effective to install and have minimal space requirements. The proposed dry wells are 48 inches in diameter with a precast concrete liner embedded 42-feet below the surface. They will mitigate flooding by creating holding tanks with a capacity of approximately 7,000 gallons, allowing the parking lot to dry out after heavy rains and infiltrating the excess runoff into the groundwater table. The dry wells are installed below ground with a grate cover flush with the existing parking lot pavement. Therefore, they will not impact the existing parking lot layout or operation. The wells require minimal maintenance, involving the removal of captured sediment by City crews using a City-owned vactor (vacuum) truck every two years.

• A contract with Evan Brooks Associations for Grant Exploration and Writing Services for an amount not-to-exceed $150,000 for a period of one year, whichever occurs first. The United States government implemented the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law which increased the amount of federal funding available for capital projects in the state and municipal jurisdictions. To maximize the City’s applications, the Departments of Public Works, Transportation, and Parks, Recreation, and Community Services sought to obtain grant writing and research services.

• A resolution to approve final tract map no. 07 4256 for the creation of twenty-one (21) air parcels for residential condominium purposes; and authorize the City Clerk to execute the Certificate on the Tract Map showing the City’s approval of said Map. Final Tract Map No. 074256, for the creation of 21 air parcels for residential condominium purposes, was reviewed and approved in tentative form by the Subdivision Hearing Officer on January 20, 2021. The exercise of the right granted must be commenced within three years or by January 20, 2024.

• Scheduled rate increases effective February 1, 2023, for the Grandstand Permit Application, the Rose Bowl Admission Tax, and for the New Year’s Day-related business grandstand seat surcharge. The Rose Bowl admission tax, the grandstand seat surcharge, and the grandstand permit application fee are to be presented to City Council no later than December 15th and adjusted on February 1st of each year. PMC also states that these taxes and fees are adjusted by an amount equal to the change in the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for the Los Angeles Long Beach-Anaheim metropolitan area for the preceding 12-month period ending October 1st. The change in CPI for all urban consumers in the Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim metropolitan area increased by?.8108 percent between October 1, 2021, and October 1, 2022; accordingly, it is proposed that the Rose Bowl Admission Tax, the Grandstand Seat Surcharge, and the Grandstand Permit Application Fee be increased by a like amount on the Fiscal Year (FY) 2023 Revised Schedule of Taxes, Fees, and Charges.

• A purchase order contract with Technology International, Inc. to furnish and deliver water valve service boxes and covers for an amount not to exceed $104,995 per year for the water and power department. The Pasadena Water and Power Department regularly completes water distribution projects as identified in the adopted Capital Improvement Program (CIP), Water System and Resources Plan, and other water operations-related work. Specification WD-22-10 provides for a contract to furnish and deliver water valve service boxes and covers to PWP as needed to provide access for PWP’s Water Division construction crews to underground water system gate valves for operation.

• A Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the City and the International Union of Operating Engineers (IUOE) for the term of January 1 through June 30, 2027. The International Union of Operating Engineers (IUOE) represents the power plant operator and mechanic classifications of the Water & Power Department. The existing Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the City and IUOE expires on January 1, 2023. Negotiations for a successor MOU began on October 24, 2022 and the parties reached a tentative agreement on November 14, 2022. The proposed agreement with IUOE provides for cumulative base pay increases of 15. 75% over the term of the four-and-one-half-year contract. The increases included in this agreement are intended to ensure that compensation for the classifications represented by IUOE remains competitive in an increasingly competitive labor market and supports the retention of trained and experienced power plant personnel.

• A contract extension with Cogent Communications, inc. for data center colocation and network services. The Department of Information Technology (DolT) is responsible for citywide information technology operations and support services critical to maintaining the business operations of the City. At the core of DolT’s operations are the physical systems and equipment which must be securely housed, operated, and maintained in a highly available and resilient data center facility from which these critical technology services are delivered.