Weekend Quick Hits: Public Hearing on Water Rate Hikes, Latest CORE Report on Unhoused, Sturgeon Medallion, Status of Intermodal Pedestrian Bridge, Marina Contractor Woes, Finance Dept. Progress
What to know about happenings at City Hall and beyond
A weekend rundown of City Hall and other news worth your time and attention:
Public hearing set for Wednesday on water rate hikes
The City Council will hold a public hearing at Wednesday’s City Council meeting to determine whether it should hike city water rates 6% annually over the next five years. A city staff report says the hikes are needed to pay for “critical capital improvement projects,” without which the city faces “deterioration of water system assets, increasing risks to public health and property.”
Martinez’s water system utility, whose customers would be affected by the hikes, serves most, but not all, of properties within city limits. Exceptions are an area to the northeast served by the Contra Costa Water District and an area to the southeast served by the East Bay Municipal Utility District. Martinez’s system also serves some customers outside city limits in the northeast (county), southeast (city of Pleasant Hill) and southwest (county).
The city anticipates spending $34.8 million on capital improvement projects over the next six fiscal years, to be funded with cash from water rates and the use of its enterprise balance fund.
A majority of utility customers would need to file written protests to the proposed rate increases to automatically scuttle them, but as of last week, only 16 written protests had been received by the City Clerk’s Office. Notices about the proposed increases and Wednesday’s public hearing were mailed to all affected utility customers.
More information can be found in the following staff report: https://legistarweb-production.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/attachment/pdf/2561328/Staff_Report_-_Water_Rates_Public_Hearing.pdf
Latest CORE report on unhoused
The county’s Coordinated Outreach Referral and Engagement (CORE) team will provide its regular quarterly report to the City Council on Wednesday on the services it is providing to Martinez’s unhoused population.
Here is an overview of the services it provided during the first three months of the year, according to a city staff report:
The Martinez CORE team provided services to 96 unique (unduplicated) individuals and made 555 contacts during the third quarter. Of those served, 38 individuals reported they lost their housing in Martinez and 77 reported they have roots in Martinez (grew up in Martinez, have family, friends, etc.). The top three self-reported causes of homelessness of those contacted by the CORE Martinez team are: (1) low income 49 percent (47 individuals), (2) thrown out 42 percent (40 individuals), and (3) loss of job 38 percent (37 individuals). Notably, 95 percent (91 individuals) reported having a disabling condition, 67 percent (64 individuals) reported having a mental health disability and 42 percent (40 individuals) reported chronic health conditions. Of all respondents, 85 percent (82 individuals) reported this instance of homelessness was not their first time. The Martinez CORE team provided 1,280 services that ranged from healthcare coordination to warming center placements. During this reporting period, the Martinez CORE team provided 609 housing coordination services to 90 individuals. Housing coordination includes support with shelter placement, housing applications, and finding units to rent, as well as providing support with obtaining ID/live documents. Additionally, the Martinez team made 41 placements into warming centers. On average, two individuals transitioned from the streets into permanent or temporary housing each month during this reporting period, a decrease from seven per month the prior quarter.
A positive trend in the report continues to be the number of police calls successfully diverted to CORE staff. There were 244 such diverted calls during the period. “These diversions allowed the Martinez Police Department to take more pressing calls while CORE addresses issues specific to unhoused needs,” the report reads.
A negative trend, however, was an uptick in families experiencing homelessness. “On numerous occasions, CORE was able to stay in touch with these families and provide emergency supplies while identifying beds at family shelters,” the report reads.
The full report can be found at the following link: https://legistarweb-production.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/attachment/pdf/2561291/Staff_Report_-_CORE_3rd_Qtr_Update.pdf
Sturgeon set to get a city medallion
Martinez’s professional baseball team, the Sturgeon, is poised to get its own medallion installed on city gateway signs located on the east side of Alhambra Avenue directly north and adjacent to the freeway exit from westbound Highway 4 and within the landscaped median between Marina Vista and Escobar streets.
Any taxpayers wondering about the impact on the city’s increasingly strapped budget need not worry. The team will cover the costs of the medallion.
The Sturgeon open the season at Waterfront Park at 6 p.m. May 22 against the San Rafael Pacifics.
When will intermodal pedestrian bridge finally open?
The long-awaited opening of the pedestrian bridge at the Martinez Intermodal Facility, which was completed over three years ago, is still not on the horizon, according to a city staff report for a discussion the City Council is scheduled to hold on the topic Wednesday.
The holdup continues to be needed repairs to elevators serving both sides of the bridge, which, according to the report, have been “complicated by vandalism, trespassing and other related activity.” The bridge is supposed to connect approximately 300 parking spaces that were created in the lot on the north side of the railroad tracks.
Beyond the broken elevators, several other improvements are needed to achieve “best practices in transit user safety,” according to the report, such as an expanded camera system and barrier improvements. The total estimated price tag for the needed work is from $265,000 to $390,000. There currently is no money in the city budget for the project, but the council will discuss options on Wednesday.
City to consider cash infusion for struggling marina operator
The final item of note on Wednesday’s City Council agenda is a $50,000 cash infusion to help prop up the struggling operator of the marina, Almar Marinas.
The contractor’s financial situation continues to deteriorate, with an annual operating deficit that has grown to $48,164 and left its fund balance “almost exhausted,” according to a staff report. The council is being asked to authorize a payment of $50,000 from its Marina Enterprise Fund to help Almar meet its general expenses and continue operations.
The city has been working with Almar to try to stimulate business at the struggling bait shop, which reduced operations to Friday, Saturday and Sunday to cut costs, and save money by vacating and relocating boats from Docks D and E. In March, the council approved $59,500 for repairs to the entrance to Dock B.
More information on the situation can be found in the following staff report: https://legistarweb-production.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/attachment/pdf/2561304/Staff_Report_Almar_Marina_Supplemental_Funding.pdf
The complete agenda, reports and attachments for Wednesday’s meeting can be found at the following link: https://granicus_production_attachments.s3.amazonaws.com/martinez/39a759881387ed2e1e57d6925058de180.pdf
Finance Department update
When the city announced a search for a new finance director late last year, Assistant City Manager Lauren Sugayan described a dysfunctional situation plagued by multiple unfilled positions, outdated processes, significant backlogs in all accounting functions, including behind-schedule monthly bank reconciliations, and a general lack of trust, communication and cohesion within the division.
New finance chief June Du arrived this month to a much improved situation, according to Sugayan, who had served as interim director of the department since August. In an email to Martinez News and Views, Sugayan said that in the months since her November update to the council, the city hired several qualified finance professionals — from account technicians to accountants — that eliminated its reliance on outside temps and “brought us up to pace with many of the areas we were initially backlogged.”
City Hall is now fully caught up on bank reconciliations and accounting processes, Sugayan said, thanks to the effort of finance employees who in some cases worked shifts until 9 p.m., and has worked to streamline and modernize its accounts payable and payroll procedures.
Refinery investigation meeting
Contra Costa Health hosted a public meeting Thursday to discuss the findings of the independent investigation into the November 2022 spent catalyst release at PBF Energy’s Martinez Refining Co. Look for a detailed post about the meeting in the near future, but in the meantime, the video of the meeting for those interested can be found at the following link:
Great coverage, as usual. I found the video on the incident at MRC really interesting. What I take away from it is that running a refinery operation is quite a complex process, with lots of potential domino effects when just one thing goes wrong. I'm actually a bit wary of the conclusion that the Stripper Side Valve should have been left in automatic mode. Automated processes fail too (and increasingly are targets for cyberattack.) Shouldn't refinery operators be knowledgable enough to SAFELY run the plant, or at least shut it down, in full manual mode? Too much reliance on automation makes operators lazy and stupid.