San Joaquin Valley Energy Leader Partnership (VIEW)
PARTNERS MEETING SUMMARY NOTES March 19, 2015 | 9:30 – 11:30 a.m. Attendees: Muareen Boese, Guest Joseph Carlini, City of Tulare Dave Christensen, PG&E Bob Decker, SCG Bill Delain, SCE Michael DeSousa, SCE Samantha Dodero, SJVCEO Kimberly Fleming, KEW Jose Gonzales, City of Fresno
Gail Henry, County of Tulare Courtney Kalashian, SJVCEO Mario Kristic, City of Farmersville Joseph Oldham, LGC Barbara Spoonhour, WRCOG Justin Witte, PG&E
Location: Tulare County Government Plaza, RMA Conference Room Time: 9:30 a.m. – 11:30 a.m. Next Meeting: April 16th, 2015 at 9:30am SUMMARY OF DISCUSSION Welcome & Introductions Courtney welcomed the group and introductions were made. Partnership Business Courtney had none to report. H.E.R.O Barbara Spoonhour from the Western Riverside Council of Governments, WRCOG, introduced what the HERO program was and the background of the program. Barbara stated that HERO is made possible by the PACE financing tool that came out of AB 811. The program allows homeowners and businesses to do building and landscaping upgrades and have the financing go onto their mortgage bill. She stated that the HERO program has a lot of added benefits outside of building and landscape upgrades. She stated that property taxes go up, there is job creation within the contracting realm and there is also an economic and environmental benefit in the long run.
Barbara continued on to show the statistics of projects to date, funding and the success of the program. She stated that 70% of the projects being completed are for energy efficiency while water projects are growing with the concern over the drought. She continued on to cover the fees associated with administering the project as well as the interest rate that is currently being offered. The group was impressed when she threw out that HERO has over 3,000 contractors participating in the program. These contractors have to be registered and trained with the HERO program to be able to work on the qualifying projects. Barbara stated that this process is stressed heavily. They stress it so heavily since HERO is big on consumer protection rights. They do not want any issues with homeowners and business owners since that can leave a sour taste in others mouths about how the program is ran. Barbara went over how many cities and counties are currently participating in the HERO program. She stated that do date they have 214 participants and that number is changing on a daily basis. HERO also has around 6 million plus in participating households with 2 billion in approved applications. Barbara covered the number of participants for those that were at the meeting. Lemoore has 141,000, Visalia has 251,000, Kern County has 7.4 million and Fresno has 9.4 million. The program has a goal of seeing every City or County participating in HERO. As she wrapped up her presentation she stated that the HERO program has homeowners and business owners complete a survey after the work has been completed. She shared that 99.3% of participants have no complaints about the work, .24% and .45% have minor and or major issues after the work is completed. Most of the minor and or major issues have to do with the understanding of the financing items. Presenter Question and Answer Gail from Tulare County asked what Cities and or Counties are interested in adopting the program. Barbara stated that Porterville will be adopting the program at the end of May and Farmersville is very interested and are looking at passing an amendment in the near future. Gail also then stated that the County of Tulare should revisit adding an amendment and adopting the program. Courtney stated that Gail and she should setup an informational meeting on the program so that the County Suprervisors are more informed on what HERO actually is. Bob from SoCal Gas asked Barbara when someone declined the program on the City or County level do you try to find out why they declined. Barbara stated that they do try and ask what the holdup was when trying to pass the amendment. Most of the responses are that FHSA was a big hurdle as well as mortgage issues. Bill Delain from SCE asked Barbara if they were doing about $50,000 per project based on the numbers that were given. Barbara stated that was incorrect the average project done through HERO is about $19,000, since it all depends on the size of the property doing the project. For the final question Bob from SCG asked Barbara what are they basin their energy efficiency measures and savings on. Barbara stated that they base their EE savings on Energy Star, Title 24 and Water Sense. HERO bases their energy savings on the items that were taken out and upgraded.
H.E.R.O Homeowners Point of View Maureen Boese was invited to speak to give the VIEW partners a sense of what the process was like for a homeowner. She was able to give a good report back after completing a few home projects at the end of last year. She stated that the process and application was very easy, quick and came with low fees. The low fees were the biggest draw for Maureen and her husband, since they shopped around and local banks were above and beyond what the HERO program was offering. Maureen stated that how the HERO program works with their contractors was the best part. She thought that being provided with a list of registered contractors made it a lot easier to start. She also stated that by having the contractor not being paid until the work has been completed was a big motivating factor as well. When the contractor has to wait to be reimbursed for their work they are more willing to work faster and more accurately. As she continued with her presentation Maureen stated that by going through HERO she felt good that she was supporting the economy in the community she lived in. By keeping things local and still making improvements Maureen felt good about going through the HERO program and would recommend it to anyone. Other Business Next Regular Meeting will be held on April 16th. Adjourn Meeting ACTION ITEMS (Back from 2/19/15) 1. Kim Loeb to see about 911 dispatch facility with the Savings by Design personnel 2. Michael to have aggregate data to partners 3. Michael to follow up on Kings County fire Direct Install and see if the one can be completed 4. Courtney to look for and send Methane study to Gail (regarding solid waste facility) 5. Gail to talk with PG&E regarding the Juvenile Detention Facility 6. Courtney will send out the new LED offerings slideshow to partners 7. Courtney to follow up with Lou on streetlights 8. VIEW Partnership to work on needed tier items for Farmersville 9. Mark to schedule a meeting with Joe Carlini to go over wells and well projects 10. Michael to send a list of projects to Kimball for clean up 11. Courtney will send out more information on what’s going on in Three Rivers