City Council to Consider Contract for Homelessness Prevention

As part of Monday’s consent calendar, the City Manager will enter into a $765,467 contract with Los Angeles County to execute one related $800,000 amendment to provide homelessness prevention, rapid rehousing, coordinated entry, and emergency shelter services.

On October 15, 2018, the City Council authorized a contract with the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA) for Measure H funds for homeless services.

The Measure H allocations, for certain homeless strategies, are calculated based on the city’s percentage of the county’s homeless population, which is approximately 1%.

On June 21, 2021, the City Council authorized a contract with LAHSA for additional Measure H funding for homelessness prevention for individuals, partnering with cities to expand rapid rehousing, strengthening the coordinated entry system enhancing the emergency shelter system.

The city’s Measure H allocation has been used to fund six (6) previously approved subrecipient contracts with Union Station Homeless Services for rapid rehousing, CES and emergency shelter programs, Friends In Deed for homelessness prevention and emergency shelter programs, and Sycamores for a youth specific rapid rehousing program.

Since the programs began operating in 2019, 616 people have been served across the four strategies: 38 people in homelessness prevention, 28 people in rapid rehousing, 21 people in CES housing navigation, 94 people in non-congregate emergency shelter (motel vouchers) and 435 people in the city’s bad weather shelter.

Here are the other items on Monday’s consent calendar.

• The City Council will consider approval of a housing acquisition loan agreement with Heritage Housing Partners (HHP) to provide $450,000 in purchase financing to implement a purchase option on affordable homeownership unit at 411 N. Raymond Ave., unit #1. Recently, a deed-restricted homeownership unit has come up for resale in the Herkimer Garden condominium project that was developed by HHP in 2012. The property is a four-bedroom unit, deed-restricted at the low income level. On December 27, HHP submitted to the city a loan request in the amount of $450,000 to acquire the property. Staff has evaluated the request and in the interest of preserving the affordability of the property. Since 2012, 13 deed restricted affordable units have been acquired by HHP. Twelve have been resold to qualified low and moderate income first-time homebuyers, and one unit is in the marketing phase for resale to a qualified homebuyer.

• Authorization to enter into a contract with Dell Marketing for Microsoft software licenses and services. The city has maintained a multi-year contract for Microsoft licenses and services since 2005. On February 4, 2019, City Council approved the latest three-year contract for the purchase of Microsoft licenses and services. The contract covers the annual costs for Microsoft licenses and services. Year over year demand for technology use across city departments has increased and the Department of Information Technology (DolT) has responded to this demand by leveraging the city’s investments in Microsoft products and services to accelerate the pace at which it can deliver solutions to departments.

• A $200,000 contract with California Professional Engineering for concrete traffic signal street lighting pole replacements. The project will replace the concrete street light poles at the intersection of Foothill Boulevard/ Altadena Drive with Caltrans-standard steel traffic signal poles to improve ability to withstand seismic and wind forces, improve reliability of the traffic signal system and maintain public safety. The city was slammed by heavy winds this past weekend. The work includes furnishing and installing traffic signal poles, mast arms, traffic signal heads, countdown pedestrian heads, conduit, conductors and pull boxes. It also includes removing and relocating traffic signal equipment, signage, and miscellaneous appurtenant work.

• A contract with the Old Pasadena Management District (OPMD) for assistance with the oversight of the Schoolhouse, De Lacey, and Marriott parking garages for a period of three years, for an amount not to exceed $1.59 million for three years, with the option for two additional one-year terms at the discretion of the City Manager. The city has contracted with since 2003. At the November 1, City Council meeting, the council directed staff to enter into an agreement with Parking Concepts, Inc. to operate the city’s nine garages for a period of three years, with two one-year extension terms. While the city transitions from three separate contracted garage operators to a single operator, it necessitates a new agreement with OPMD. Both the city and OPMD desire to continue the partnership.

• Authorize the Interim City Manager to execute a sponsor agreement between the City of Pasadena and the California Conservation Corps (CCC) to assist with non-native vegetation removal in the Arroyo Seco. The work includes general roadside clearing to reduce fire intensity and firebrand impact to the Arroyo Seco, removal of annual grasses and undesirable non-native plants, trimming non-native grasses to three inches in length or less and leave in place, dispersing large branches in place when chipping is not possible. The CCC is a state development program that provides young adults, ages 18 to 25, and military veterans through the age of 29 educational opportunities and job skills training through working on environmental projects and responding to natural and man-made disasters. These young adults, also known as Corpsmembers, are thoroughly vetted before joining the program. Corps members must be state residents, pass the screening process and initial training to be part of the program. In July, the Los Angeles and Pomona CCC satellite locations were allocated approximately $416,000 from the greenhouse gas reduction fund to work on greenhouse gas reduction projects. Such projects include removing dead and dying trees, brush and vegetation to reduce wildfire intensity and spread. As a sponsoring agency, the City will not be financially responsible for any labor costs associated with the project as Corpsmembers, will be compensated directly by CCC.

• A purchase order contract with Vigilant Solutions for 11 fixed license plate reader camera systems in an amount not to exceed $165,528. In April 2020, the City Council approved the Capital Improvement Program for fiscal year 2021-2025. The program includes a pilot program to install fixed automated license plate readers on street lights and traffic poles around the Rose Bowl. On August 9, the city approved the receipt of an Urban Area Security Initiatives Grant to fund the purchase and installation of fixed automated license plate readers. Fixed ALPR systems direct cameras towards lanes of traffic and are equipped with software to manage the information and network connectivity designed to upload the information to secured cloud storage technology. The system is designed to take a photograph of a vehicle’s license plate and compare each plate against the national stolen vehicle database. Additionally, the system stores the photo of the license plate along with date, time and location data for retrieval during criminal investigations. The Vigilant ALPR solution allows easy sharing capability to neighboring county sheriff’s agencies such as Orange, San Bernardino, Riverside and San Diego counties as well as numerous other police agencies across the region. The fixed ALPRs will be installed at three major intersections utilized for ingress/egress of traffic during major events around the Rose Bowl stadium. These intersections are located in the area of Rosemont Avenue and Orange Grove Boulevard., Holly Street and Linda Vista Ave. and Lida Street and Linda Vista Avenue.

• Approve amending the Fiscal Year 2022 (FY 2022) adopted operating budget as detailed in the following report by a net amount of $1,227,872 and increasing the citywide total Full-time Equivalents (FTE) by 1.0 FTE.

• An amendment to the Pasadena Municipal Code chapter solid waste collection ordinance for organics collection per SB 1383. The bill was signed into law in 2016 to reduce the amount of organic waste entering the landfills in an effort to reduce greenhouse gases. This law requires cities in the state to establish an organic recycling program that allows for residents and businesses to dispose of their food waste, arrange for edible food recovery, conduct education and outreach, purchase recycled products, monitor for compliance and establish an enforcement program. This year, the, city’s residential refuse program began collecting organic waste from residential customers and has made significant progress towards all other S81383 requirements. If approved, this item will direct the City Attorney to draft an ordinance, which will be presented for City Council consideration in February/March.

• Adoption of resolutions related to the calling and giving notice of the city of Pasadena June 7 primary municipal election for members of the city council in districts 3, 5, and 7; and if necessary, the calling and giving notice of the November 8 general municipal election; and the consolidation of Pasadena’s primary and general municipal elections with the statewide primary and general elections; ano other related matters. Primary Municipal Election will be held on Tuesday, June 7 for the purpose of electing representatives to City Council districts 3, 5, and 7 for full four year terms for each office. A runoff election will be held for any of the races where one candidate does not receive more than 50% of the vote in the primary election. The nomination period for June 7 primary municipal election will open on Monday, February 14 at 7:30 a.m., and will close on Friday, March 11, at 5 p.m. In the event the incumbent council member does not file nomination papers, or fails to qualify as a candidate by the March 11th deadline, the period to nominate any qualified person other than the incumbent is extended to Wednesday, March 16.