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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2003-01-27 City Council (2)TO:HONORABLE CITY COUNCIL FROM:CITY MANAGER DEPARTMENT: PUBLIC WORKS DATE:JANUARY 27, 2003 CMR:130:03 SUBJECT: UPDATE ON STORM DRAIN FUNDING This is an information report and no Council action is required. BACKGROUND At a November 12, 2002 study session, staff presented the recommendations of the City Manager-appointed Storm Drain Blue Ribbon Committee to Council. The Committee formulated recommendations addressing future storm drain program elements and funding. The recommended storm drain program included augmented maintenance practices, a specific set of pfiofitized capital improvements, and expanded storm water quality protection activities. The Committee recommended funding the storm drain program on a pay-as-you-go basis through an increased storm drainage fee on monthly utility bills. The Committee also addressed fee sunset provisions, the creation of an oversight committee, and other policy issues related to the City’s storm drain program. The Committee also identified public education and outreach as a critical factor in determining the success of any future storm drain ballot measure and recommended that staff retain an experienced consultant to assist with public outreach activities. DISCUSSION This report provides: 1) a summary of the issues raised by Council and the public during the November 12 study session; 2) an update on the outreach consultant selection process; and 3) a description of staff’s efforts to quantify the costs of existing storm drain system deficiencies. November 12 study session The following is a summary of the issues and concerns raised by Council, the two Committee members who submitted minority reports, and members of the public during the study session: []The storm drain program and funding proposal should be subject to review by the Utilities Advisory Commission. []The City should consider raising the storm drainage fee incrementally over several years instead of all at once. CMR:130:03 Page 1 of 4 Storm drains are basic urban infrastructure that should be funded through the General Ftmd. The City should treat the storm drainage fee as an assessment, and the City is risking a lawsuit challenge if it continues to consider it a property-related fee. The proposed storm drain improvements are not justified because there has been no evidence presented that there would be property damage attributable to deficient storm drains in the event of a 10-year storm event. Staff should document storm drain related damage from past 10-year storm events. The fee sunset provision recommended by the Storm Drain Committee (15 years for the capital element, 30 years for the operational elements) is too long. Existing drainage problems throughout the City should be solved by taking steps to reduce storm runoff rather than increasing the capacity of the storm drain system. The City should be able to fund storm drain improvements through existing revenue sources by eliminating what is perceived as wasteful spending. Street infrastructure improvements (e.g. sidewalks, curb ramps, curb and gutter, street resurfacing, etc.) are not currently coordinated to solve drainage problems. The Storm Drain Conmaittee’s recommendations were developed without an adequate amount of engineering perspective. The City should consider structuring the storm drainage fee so that individual capital improvement projects are paid for by those within the drainage area served. The property owner storm drainage fee election should be held during inclement weather, while there is a high level of awareness of drainage problems. The size of the proposed storm drainage fee increase will be critical in determining the outcome of the property owner election. There is a need to clarify that street ponding impacts pedestrians and bicyclists in addition to motorists. Staff should clarify the performance goals of the proposed storm drain system improvements. []A cost/benefit analysis should be performed in order to quantitatively justify the merit of the proposed storm drain system improvements. The community will be more supportive of environmentally friendly solutions to drainage problems. [] Staff must do more to explain and justify the process for pfiofitizing and ranking the recommended capital improvement projects. [] Staff should address the concerns expressed in the two minority reports submitted by Storm Drain Blue Ribbon Committee members. Staff will take the above issues into account during its development of a final recommendation to Council on storm drain program elements and funding. CMR: 130:03 Page 2 of 4 Status of Public Outreach Consultant Staff issued a Request for Proposals (RFP) to consulting firms in early September 2002 seeking assistance in presenting a StOl~a drain program and funding proposal to the public. Three proposals were submitted by qualified consultants for consideration. Staff from the Public Works Department and the City Manager’s Office and Larry Klein and Walt Hays (members of the former Storm Drain Blue Ribbon Committee) reviewed the written proposals and interviewed the consultants in late November. Catherine Lew of the Lew-Edwards Group was selected as the best qualified consultant based upon her experience, strategic approach to conducting storm drain public outreach and education, insights into the key issues to be addressed during the outreach campaign, and her enthusiasm for the job. Staff is in the process of negotiating the final scope of services with Ms. Lew. The scope will encompass three basic elements: Use of focus groups, opinion polling, direct mailings with return post cards, and other techniques to inform property owners of the Blue Ribbon Committee’s recommendations and assess the level of support for these recommendations within the community. The process will also identify potential storm drain improvement program elements and funding mechanisms that the community will support. Assistance to staff in developing and implementing an effective public education and ¯ outreach campaign for a proposed storm drain program and funding mechanism. The campaign will be multi-faceted, using multiple media outlets and will employ a strategy of focusing outreach efforts towards existing neighborhood, service, and community groups. Development of a recommended timetable that will provide adequate time for public outreach and education and that strategically schedules the property owner election at a time which will create the greatest chance for success. The scope of services will also include periodic meetings with staff and a subgroup of the former Storm Drain Blue Ribbon Committee to discuss the status of the work, review work products, debate and reach agreement on strategic issues, and plan next steps. After gathering input from the community, staff expects to return to Council in Summer 2003 with a recommended storm drain program and funding package, a detailed campaign plan, and a timetable for a storm drain election process. Staff Efforts to Quantify the Cost of Existing Storm Drain System Deficiencies Both the Storm Drain Blue Ribbon Committee and individual Council members have identified the need for better documentation and quantification of the benefits of the recommended storm drain improvements. Comparison of these prospective benefits to the costs of the recommended capital and operational improvements will allow Council CMR:130:03 Page 3 of 4 and the public to conduct a more objective analysis of the merits of the recommended storm drain progam. Following the November 12 study session, staff met to discuss ways to document and quantify costs currently incurred by the City during storm events due to inadequate storm drains in many neighborhoods throughout the community. Documentation of these costs will provide the basis for calculating the benefit (through cost avoidance) of the storm drain capital improvements endorsed by staff and the former Storm Drain Blue Ribbon Committee. During the current winter season, staff is using a special code on time cards to document the cost of storm response. Costs include response by Public Works crews (often supplemented by Utilities and Parks crews) to reports of backed-up storm drains and blocked inlets, traffic control to direct traffic around flooded streets and intersections, additional wastewater treatment costs due to surface flow into sanitary sewer manholes, and dispatching of field crews to reported problem locations. During the current winter, staff is also increasing efforts to document existing drainage problems throughout the City. Staff is tabulating and tracking the number and location of flooding calls received from Public Works and Police dispatchers. Staff is also using video and still cameras to document drainage problems during storm events (particularly those problems to be corrected by proposed storm drain improvements). Staff wq~ solicit assistance from the Fire Department’s Palo Alto Neighborhood Disaster Activity (PANDA) volunteers to supplement staff’s photo documentation of storm drain-related problems. Taken together, these efforts wil! provide a more defm)_tive assessment of current drainage system deficiencies and their related costs. PREPARED BY: DEPARTMENT HEAD: JOE T RESI Senior Eng~eer .--a, /! GLENN S. ROBERTS Director of Public Works CITY MANAGER APPROVAL: E~vIILY HARRISON Assistant City Manager cc: Storm Drain Blue Ribbon Committee members CMR: 130:03 Page 4 of 4