San Joaquin Valley Energy Leader Partnership (VIEW)
PARTNERS MEETING SUMMARY NOTES August 5, 2010 Attendees: Barbara Marty, City of Hanford Bryan Styles, City of Porterville Lew Nelson, City of Tulare Kim Loeb, City of Visalia Rhonda Mann, County of Kings Gail Henry, County of Tulare
Maureen Hoff, SJVCEO Jesse Langley, SCE Ashley Sauer, SCE, CARE Program Frank Lauro, So Cal Gas
Location: County of Tulare RMA, RMA Main Conference Room, 5961 South Mooney Boulevard, Visalia, CA 93277 Time: 10:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. Next Meeting: Thursday, September 2, 2010 Location: County of Tulare RMA, RMA Main Conference Room, 5961 South Mooney Boulevard, Visalia, CA 93277
Agenda Topics on August 5, 2010 1. Welcome and Introductions 2. Administrative Business a. Needs assessment follow up meetings to date report b. Follow up items from July meeting: VIEW website pending additions; Tulare County Cool Center application 3. Energy Savings Goals for 2010 4. Marketing and Outreach a. Recap of Visalia Rawhide ‘Christmas in July’ / Light Exchange, July 25th b. Upcoming Events i. Hanford Farmers Market | City Employee Appreciation Night, Aug. 12th ii. Visalia Home Expo, September 25th – 26th iii. 2010 LED Light Exchange 5. California Alternate Rates for Energy (CARE) Program 6. VIEW the Success 7. Round Table Discussion: Strategic Plan Solicitation Opportunity 1
San Joaquin Valley Energy Leader Partnership (VIEW) 8. Next Steps a. Action Items b. Topics of interest for next meeting – jurisdiction partner requests c. Facilitator for next meeting 9. Adjourn VIEW Partnership Meeting
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In Valerie Williams’ absence, Lew Nelson called the meeting to order at 10:05am and we went around the table for introductions. In administrative business, Maureen Hoff noted there are still two needs assessment follow-up meetings that need to take place with the City of Woodlake and County of Kings. Courtney Kalashian and Maureen will work with Jesse Langley and the two jurisdictions to secure meeting dates in September. Also in administrative follow-up business, we discussed cool center applications. Gail Henry explained that there has been a lack of communication across the board and is still unsure whether or not Tulare County’s application was received or even sent in. The most important take away from the discussion was that the opportunity to submit an application for this year still exists. SCE guest Ashley Sauer explained that the goal was to bring 18 centers on this summer and they are only at 13 so far. Gail said she would communicate to Tulare County staff that there is still time. Maureen will email all partners to inform them of this opportunity and get details from Ashley regarding current cool center locations. Lew Nelson noted that the City of Tulare followed up on their cool center application after last month’s meeting and they are moving forward with their center. Maureen explained, in Chris Coronel’s absence, that there have been no changes to the Energy Savings Goals spreadsheet. If Partners have questions about projects, they are to contact Chris directly; furthermore, since Chris is in the middle of a job assignment transition, Jesse is more than happy to help with any issues. Kim Loeb made clear that the City of Visalia has yet to hear more on their airport runway project and Jesse said he would look into this. Marketing and Outreach o Maureen discussed the July 25th holiday light exchange that took place at the Visalia Rawhide ‘Christmas in July’ promotional game. Overall, the event was a great success as 10 strands were exchanged that night and Rawhide staff exchanged 7 more with our Visalia partners the next day. Although there was interest in exchanging more than one strand, Jesse clarified that it is only one per SCE customer; however, this event will be considered separate from later exchanges so people will have the opportunity to exchange a second strand if they attend another exchange later in the year. Lew Nelson said he will continue to ask the new library in the City of Tulare if the facility can be used for an exchange. The library staff was concerned they would be overwhelmed. We discussed possibly having an intern or volunteers to help with the exchange. 2
San Joaquin Valley Energy Leader Partnership (VIEW)
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o The Hanford Farmers Market / City Employee Appreciation Night will take place on August 12th. In addition to MEU staff, Hanford Partner, Barbara McCurdy Marty plans to attend. o In other upcoming events, Maureen explained that we have reserved the MEU for the Visalia Home Expo in September but she still needs to contact event staff to secure a booth at the expo. o Returning to talk of the Holiday Light exchange, we discussed the possibility of using Christmas tree lots. Partners agreed it could be a good idea, but Kim noted it might be difficult to choose a specific lot because we wouldn’t want to distract from the sale of trees at other lots. The partnership doesn’t want to look like we favor one over another. Lew Nelson said it would be great if we could do an exchange in coordination with Walmart since they sell the same strands we pass out. It could be farfetched, but if Walmart could give us coupons to pass out at our exchange, we could bypass the issue of the one strand rule while encouraging the use of LED lights. Jesse also noted that there is the opportunity to order more lights than last year so Partners should think about how many strands they would like and be prepared to discuss at next month’s meeting. Partners were also reminded that we will have a Marketing meeting next month and attendance would be greatly appreciated! o In keeping on topic of LEDs, Lew Nelson wanted to make his pitch on the record for LED street light retrofits. He stressed that it has to be worth it and approved for rebates and/or incentives, but it is a huge savings. California Alternate Rates for Energy (CARE) Program, Ashley Sauer o SCE representative, Ashley Sauer, presented on SCE’s Income-Qualified Programs. Income-qualified customers can receive a 20 percent discount off each month’s bill. The program criteria include the total number of individuals in the household and the total combined annual household income. Customers are required to re-certify their eligibility every two years. o Based on demographic data, it is estimated that 93 percent of all eligible customers are enrolled in the program. Gail Henry was curious if there were statistics available for our area. Maureen will email Ashley to get the details on Tulare and Kings Counties and pass that along to all Partners. o The Energy Management Assistance Program (EMA) provides energy-saving appliances and services such as refrigerators, air conditioners, home weatherization and light bulbs to income-qualified customers. The income guidelines match CARE and SCE will pay all costs of purchasing and installing the appliances and services, which are free to qualified customers. o SCE’s Capitation Program provides up to $15 to partners (capitation agencies) for each new CARE enrollment. The capitation fee reimburses an organization for the incremental work associated with assisting customers in completing a CARE/FERA program application. Special source codes are assigned to organizations to help track enrollments. Jesse asked all Partners if they recognized any organizations in the area that would make a good capitation agency. It was explained that cool centers can be capitation agencies but not at the same time. Cool Centers already pass out information on income-qualified 3
San Joaquin Valley Energy Leader Partnership (VIEW)
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programs. Maureen will download the Capitation agency application and send it to all Partners. Ashley noted that the most successful organizations are those who already do something similar. o Several partners were interested in obtaining income qualified program brochures and other brochures to hand out at events where we do not have the MEU. Gail said that the Tulare County personnel department is interested in creating packets for new employees that include some of these brochures. Gail will figure out what they are looking for and be in touch with Maureen to coordinate getting the brochures. Jesse and SoCalGas representative, Frank Lauro, suggested residential brochures from their respective companies as well as the CARE resource guide. Maureen reminded all Partners to fill out and return a previously distributed Q&A form so that we can publish more VIEW the Success stories to the website. Round Table Discussion: Strategic Plan Solicitation Opportunity – Jesse reminded everyone that an RFP was sent via email to all Partners on August 3rd. This will be the last opportunity to do strategic plan solicitation. There is roughly $6.5 million associated with this and October 5th is the scheduled due date for proposals. There will also be a webinar to clarify and explain what falls in scope. Jesse explained that Strategic Planning funds go toward programs for long-term sustainability including, but not limited to, policies, energy efficiency revolving loan program, developing a Climate Action Plan, and updating a conservation element. The key thing to remember is that it is geared towards the local government and education tied towards the local government, not the community. Another thing to keep in mind is that this funds software, not infrastructure pieces. In response to what topics Partners might be interested in for future meetings, Frank Lauro suggested Title 24 training. He recently attended a training session where people learned about changes and what to look for. Lew Neslon said it would be of benefit and we haven’t had anything like that yet. Frank and Jesse decided they could get together to figure out if we can bring someone to a meeting. Gail asked about Direct Install and was hopeful to get them back into the smaller communities. Jesse will try to get the program back in the area next year and feels that since we now have the avenue of communication through the Partnership, we can make it a great success. There is usually about 20 percent capture rate; however, with partnership involvement, this jumps up to 40 percent. In another attempt, the facilitator for next meeting will be Valerie Williams.
ACTION ITEMS o Courtney Kalashian and Maureen Hoff will coordinate with Utility Partners and the County of Kings and City of Woodlake to set dates for Needs Assessment follow up meetings in September. o Maureen will send a reminder to all Partners letting them know there is still a chance to submit Cool Center applications. o Jesse Langley will look into the City of Visalia’s airport lighting project. o Maureen will secure a booth at the Visalia Home Expo. 4
San Joaquin Valley Energy Leader Partnership (VIEW) o Maureen will send a reminder to All Partners to be prepared to announce how many lights they would like for this year’s exchange at the September meeting. o Maureen will contact Ashley Sauer to get income-qualified program statistics for Tulare and Kings County. o Maureen will download a Capitation program agency application and pass it along to All Partners. o Gail Henry will find out what the Tulare County Personnel department is looking for in terms of materials for new employee packets. Gail will be in touch with Maureen so she can coordinate with Ashley Sauer and the Utilities to get what she needs. o Frank Lauro and Jesse Langley will get together to figure out if we can bring someone to a Partners meeting to discuss Title 24.
PARTNERSHIP 2010 MEETING SCHEDULE: Thursday, September 2, 2010 Thursday, October 7, 2010 Thursday, November 4, 2010 Thursday, December 2, 2010 Thursday, January 6, 2011 Thursday, February 3, 2011 Thursday, March 3, 2011
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