Hidden Valley Sportscourts Project, Featuring 8 Pickleball Courts, Nears Completion

Also, PBF Energy begins "turnaround" project involving catalytic cracking unit; City Council to discuss expired Project Labor Agreement on Wednesday; school board to discuss budget cuts on Monday

The much-anticipated sportscourts project at Hidden Valley Park, which will feature the city’s first dedicated pickleball courts, is on track to be completed within the next few weeks, the city announced last week.

The project includes resurfacing two existing tennis courts to create eight pickleball courts and construction of one new tennis court at Hidden Valley. Other features include new court lighting; sound blankets to minimize noise; new benches, bike racks and trash cans; and planting (including a bioretention basin). The City Council awarded a $1.47 million contract to Saboo, Inc. in May to complete the project.

As the sport of pickleball has surged in popularity across the nation in recent years, community support has steadily grown in Martinez for the creation of dedicated courts, with a group of avid players lobbying for them at City Council meetings.

“We are so excited to finally be able to provide dedicated courts to our enthusiastic and rapidly growing community of pickleball players,” Mayor Brianne Zorn said in an email to Martinez News and Views. “The push for pickleball courts in Martinez started a decade ago, and although it was a long time coming, I’m confident it will prove to be another fantastic amenity we can now celebrate in our extensive parks and recreation system.”

As has been the case with a number of park-related projects in recent years, the city was able to grant the request thanks in large part to funds from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), a federal bill signed by President Joe Biden early in 2021 that funneled one-time money to local governments to help them weather the economic ravages of the COVID-19 pandemic. Martinez received a total of $9.16 million in ARPA funds and was required under terms of the law to “obligate” all of that money to contracts for specific projects by the end of 2024. The City Council allocated the final $236,000 in ARPA funds in December.

The sportscourts project was funded with $887,000 in ARPA funds, with the remainder coming from various city funds and other sources.

Another recently completed city project funded by ARPA was the resurfacing of the crack-laden basketball court at Mountain View Park (see before and after photos below), which cost $50,000. According to a Dec. 11 staff report updating the City Council on the city’s ARPA spending, several major park and infrastructure improvements that were completed with ARPA money would have otherwise taken years to complete.

The Mountain View Park basketball court, above, after the recent resurfacing project. Below is how the court looked before the resurfacing was completed late last year.

“These truly are generational investments because without this funding, a lot of these projects not only would not be under construction right now, or actually done … they might not even be off the ground,” City Manager Michael Chandler told the council on Dec. 11.

In total, the city spent roughly $3.2 million of its ARPA funds on infrastructure upgrades, including $1 million to replace water mains, and $2.3 million on parks and recreation projects, including $1.3 million toward the creation of the city’s first new park in 25 years, at Pine Meadow.

A breakdown of the various city projects and services funded by ARPA can be found at the following link: https://legistarweb-production.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/attachment/pdf/3029571/Attachment_A_-_ARPA_Update_December_2024.pdf

The city plans to announce a time and date for a ribbon cutting of the Hidden Valley sports courts in the near future.

Turnaround project begins at PBF refinery

PBF Energy’s Martinez refinery has begun a major “turnaround” project, including work on its fluidized catalytic cracking (FCC) unit, which was responsible for the November 2022 spent catalyst release that showered at least 20 tons of toxic dust on the surrounding community and led to widespread community outrage and months of investigations.

Turnaround projects are regularly undertaken at petroleum refineries to perform maintenance and upgrades on specific operating units. The turnaround typically lasts several months and involves taking the unit offline while the work is carried out.

Refinery Manager Daniel Ingram told the City Council last April that the FCC turnaround would be "one of the largest, if not the largest, turnaround … under PBF for sure, maybe the history of the site, in terms of total scope, manpower and activities that will be going on."

This particular turnaround project is expected to last until early April. The refinery has alerted nearby residents in mailers and through its internet and social media platforms that a temporary increase in its contract work force will result in more vehicles in the mornings and evenings on Marina Vista Avenue between Interstate 680 and Shell Avenue; and Pacheco Boulevard between I-680 and Howe Road. The refinery also said the work may result in “periodic noise, minimal flaring, and additional lighting.” Residents who have questions or concerns can call the refinery’s weekday phone number at 1-925-313-3777 or its after-hours number 1-925-313-3601.

Residents can also follow updates at the Martinez Refining Co. website at https://martinezrefiningcompany.com or on its Facebook page.

PLA, Climate Action Plan on agenda for Wednesday’s council meeting

The City Council will discuss whether to adopt a new Project Labor Agreement (PLA) with local trade unions covering major city construction projects at Wednesday’s meeting, following the expiration of the previous PLA that was passed in 2019.

For those not familiar with a PLA, a staff report accompanying Wednesday’s agenda item described it as “a pre-hire collective bargaining agreement between one or more labor organizations, often negotiated by the local Building Trades Council (BTC) and the owner of a project, which establishes the terms and conditions of employment on the project work. The purpose of a PLA is to facilitate the delivery of the project with minimal labor-related disruptions which would adversely impact the public and/or delay the project. A PLA can be restricted to an individual project or apply on a City-wide basis.”

Project Labor Agreements have grown politically popular in Contra Costa County and other liberal areas in recent years as a way to support trade union workers, a key constituency of the Democratic Party. Trade unions have also spent considerable sums of money in local elections, including Martinez City Council and School Board races, to back candidates deemed amenable toward PLAs. In addition to the city’s PLA, the Martinez Unified School District Board of Trustees approved one in 2018 covering its 2016 construction bond project, which funded the rebuilding and modernization of several school sites, and recently expressed support for negotiating a new one that would cover the new construction bond approved by voters in November.

The city’s previous PLA expired in December, despite attempts to negotiate an amendment to extend the termination date with all unions doing business in Martinez, including the local carpenters union, which is no longer affiliated with the BTC. Such an amendment was included on the Dec. 18 City Council agenda but was abruptly pulled from discussion during the meeting after city staff “was advised that there was not a meeting of the minds on the terms of the amendment,” according to the staff report for Wednesday’s meeting.

“Those negotiations have not been successful, and the City Attorney has determined that the PLA has expired on its own terms,” the staff report says.

The staff report presents three options for the council to discuss on Wednesday:

1) No PLA. Given the expiration of the 2019 PLA with the BTC and its remaining affiliates, the current status is that no PLA is in effect, but all provisions of the Public Contracts Code regarding competitive bidding and prevailing wage requirements still apply to public works construction projects.

2) Consider a new negotiated PLA, which includes all labor organizations doing business in Martinez. An inclusive PLA would include the Carpenters and all BTC affiliates signatory to the 2019 PLA, which would then be brought to the City staff for review, potential negotiation and recommendation to Council, once a “meeting of the minds” was achieved.

3) Consider an enhanced prequalification procedure focusing on prevailing wages for onsite labor, bidding procedures, labor compliance auditing and enforcement, in lieu of a PLA.

PLAs have become a political hot potato, with supporters arguing that they ensure highly skilled labor, and therefore quality work on publicly financed projects, and that they are structured to prioritize the use of local workers and minimize the possibility of labor disruptions, increasing the chances that projects come in on time and on budget. Cynics claim they amount to a handout to politically influential trade unions and may limit the number of bidders on taxpayer-funded projects by deterring contractors who choose not to employ union labor, as well as exclude nonunion laborers from working on such projects. Prevailing wage laws in California largely dictate the wages paid to workers on public projects, regardless of whether a PLA is in place.

As required under the terms of the 2019 PLA, city staff provided details on bids for city projects both before and after the 2019 PLA took effect, in terms of both numbers of bidders and how many bids came in below or above the engineer’s estimate for the projects, along with data on local hires. They can be found at the following link: https://legistarweb-production.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/attachment/pdf/3081252/Attachment_C_-_Bid_Results_Martinez_Major_CIP_Projects_2018-2024.pdf

Also on Wednesday, the council will receive a presentation and hold a discussion on its Climate Action Plan and sustainability programs carried out during 2024. The staff report can be found at the following link: https://legistarweb-production.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/attachment/pdf/3078268/Staff_Report_-_CAP_and_Sustainability_Update__2024.pdf

The City Council meeting begins at 7 p.m. The full agenda can be found at the following link: https://granicus_production_attachments.s3.amazonaws.com/martinez/82ba897d71e0bd4e1f9622db12bdd1d70.pdf

School board to discuss budget cuts on Monday

The Martinez Unified School District Board of Trustees is scheduled to discuss potential budget cuts on Monday as it continues to grapple with a structural deficit that shows no signs of ending.

According to a staff report prepared but Chief Budget Official Andy Cannon, the district is proposing $1.05 million in staff cuts for the 2025-26 fiscal year, with an additional $750,000 in non-staffing cuts that would include such expenses as textbooks and supplemental curriculum and special education contracted services. The district is currently anticipating potential cuts for the 2026-27 fiscal year of between $1 million and $1.5 million.

The bad news, according to Cannon’s report, is that although the proposed cuts would allow the district to remain fiscally solvent, they won’t balance the budget, meaning the district is expected to continue spending more than it takes in for the foreseeable future.

The root of the district’s budget woes boils down to the following factors:

• Declining enrollment (9% since the 2019-20 school year) and attendance-based revenues

• The expiration of one-time pandemic-related funds

• increasing special education costs, the majority of which (65%) are being paid from the district’s general fund

• rising staff salaries and health care costs (district employees have received cumulative salary increases of 31% since the 2018-19 school year).

According to the timeline outlined in Cannon’s report, the board will discuss and finalize budget cuts at its Jan. 27, Feb. 10 and Feb. 24 meetings. The report can be viewed at the following link: https://simbli.eboardsolutions.com/Meetings/Attachment.aspx?S=36030321&AID=992322&MID=35561

Monday’s school board meeting starts at 6:30 p.m. The full agenda can be found at the following link: https://simbli.eboardsolutions.com/SB_Meetings/ViewMeeting.aspx?S=36030321&MID=35561