HomeMy WebLinkAbout2000-05-22 City Council (21)City of Palo Alto
City Manager’s Report
TO:HONORABLE CITY COUNCIL 7
FROM:CITY MANAGER DEPARTMENT: UTILITIES
DATE:May 22, 2000 CMR:248:00
SUBJECT:RESOLUTION TO REVISE ELECTRIC RATE SCHEDULE E-16 TO
ESTABLISH POLE ATTACHMENT FEES
RECOMMENDATION .
Staff recommends that the City Council adopt the attached resolution revising Unmetered
Electric Service Rate Schedule E-16, effective May 22, 2000.
BACKGROUND
The changes to Utilities Rate Schedule E- 16 are being recommended to establish permit fees
for third party use of Electric Utility poles and to update the fees for the use of Electric
Utility conduits.
The City jointly owns approximately 6000 utility poles in Palo Alto through Joint Pole
Agreements signed in the early part of the 20th Century. These agreements set forth the
conditions for the joint use of poles in Palo Alto by the City, Pacific Bell, and Pacific Gas
and Electric Company. The majority of the poles are jointly owned by the City and Pacific
Bell. The amount of space on the pole that each party owns is established at the time the pole
is set. In most cases, Pacific Bell owns the porti6n of pole between approximately 18’ and
21’ above ground. The remainder of the pole is owned by the City or is considered unusable
space.
Under the current Joint Pole Agreement, the owner of the pole space may lease space to third
parties. Currently Pacific Bell leases space it owns to Cable Co-op and to other
telecommunications carriers.
CMR:248:00 , Page 1 of 4
DISCUSSION
Recent telecommunications deregulation has increased competition between companies who
wish to provide telecommunications services. This has increased the demand for pole space.
As a result, Pacific Bell is running out of pole space for leasing cables. To obtain additional
space on the existing poles, telecommunications companies are now approaching electric
utilities for space.
In the last six months the City has received requests to attach telecommunications facilities
to the City’s portion of the poles from RCN Corporation, Sprint, and Adelphia
Communications. In response to these requests, staff has developed a Pole Attachment
Permit. Currently the City does not have a fee structure for the third party use of utility poles.
The attached resolution establishes fees for the attachment of facilities to the City’s portion
of the pole, for application processing, and for inspection of facilities after installation.
In addition to establishing fees for pole attachments, the fees for the use of City owned
electric conduit have been updated. When the City establishes and constructs Underground
Utility Districts, the Electric Utility installs additional conduits to deliver future electric
service and to facilitate telecommunications within the City. When there are no established
plans for the City’s future use of the facilities, the City makes the conduits available.for use
by third parties. Currently, Cable Co-op leases City-owned conduits for the delivery of cable
television service.
The current fee was established in the early 1990’s and needs to be updated based on today’s
costs. The attached resolution proposes to increase the fee to reflect current costs and to
establish a fee methodology for recovering application processing and field inspection costs.
In developing both the pole attachment and conduit permit fees, a cost recovery methodology
based on replacement costs has been used. The pole attachment permit fee is based on the
following factors! cost to replace the pole, percentage of pole space used, prorated share of
the maintenance costs, and annual administrative costs. The proposed rate of $16.33 for the
use of one foot of pole space is comParable to fees that have been established by other
municipalities in the state, although it is significantly higher than the prices that the
California Public Utility Commission has set for cable Television attachments. Staff also
compared the proposed fee to the updated Federal Communications Commission (FCC)
method and found that the proposed fee was less than-the fee calculated using the FCC
CMR:248:00 Page 2 of 4
method. The following table shows a comparison of annual fees for attachments using one
foot of pole space.
Palo Alto FCC Modesto City of Silicon CPUC
Proposed Formula Irrigation Riverside Valley for Cable TV
District Power
Fee $16.33 $20.66 $43.80 $24.86 $16.00 $2.50
Difference 27%168%52%-2%-85%
The updated underground fee is based on the replacement cost of the facilities and whether
the use of the conduit is exclusive or non-exclusive to the third party user. Exclusive use of
the conduits assumes that the permittee will use 100 percent of the usable space in the
conduit. Non-exclusive use of the conduits assumes that there will be two users, each using
one-half of the usable space. This resulted in a fee of$1.00 per foot for exclusive use and
$0.50 per foot for non-exclusive use, which represent an increase of 67 percent for either one.
If the existing fees of $0.60 for exclusive use and $0.30 for non-exclusive use per foot were
escalated to today’s cost the fees would be $0.54 and $1.04 per foot respectively. The
proposed fees are also comparable to the fees charged by Pacific Bell for the use of their
conduits.
The change in conduit fees will impact Cable Co-op by increasing its annual fees paid to the
City from $38,426 to $64,043. Cable Co-op is the only third party using or requesting the
use of City-owned conduits.
In addition to the conduit permit fees, a fee was established to recover the costs for
application processing and inspection of facilities after installation. Because of the
variability of costs associated with this work, staff is recommending a fee that is based on
actual costs.
RESOURCE IMPACT
The proposed changes to Utilities Rate Schedule E-16 will increase revenues to the Electric
Fund. In the case of the pole attachment permit fee, the increased revenue will be between
$16 and $22 per pole attachment. Total revenue will be determined by the number of
attachments made in future years. It is expected that the increase in revenues, in the short
term, will be less than $10,000 per year.
For the conduit leasing, revenues will increase by approximately $26,000 due to increased
CMR:248:00 Page 3 of 4
fees charged to Cable Co-op. Additional revenues will occur when additional conduits are
leased.
POLICY IMPLICATIONS
Approval of this proposed rate increase does not represent a change to existing policies.
ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW
Adoption of the resolution to revise Utilities Rate Schedule E-16 does not constitute a
project under the California Environmental Quality Act.
ATTACHMENTS
Resolution
Rate Schedule E- 16
PREPARED BY:Tomm Mar.shall, Manager, Electrical Engineering
Lucie Hirmina, Manager, Utilities Rates
JOHN ULRICH
Director of Utilities
CITY MANAGER APPROVAL:
EMIL~ HARRISON
Assistant City Manager
CMR:248:00 Page 4 of 4
RESOLUTION NO.
RESOLUTION OF THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PALO ALTO
AMENDING UTILITY RATE SCHEDULE E-16 OF THE CITY OF
PALO ALTO UTILITIES RATES AND CHARGES
PERTAINING TO UNMETERED ELECTRIC SERVICE
The Council of the City of Palo Alto does hereby RESOLVE
as follows:
SECTION i. Pursuant to Section 12.20.010 of the Palo Alto
Municipal Code, Schedules E-16 (Unmetered Electric Service) of the
Palo Alto Utilities Rates and Charges are hereby amended to read in
accordance with Sheets E-16-1, E-16-2, and E-16-3, respectively,
attached hereto and incorporated herein by reference. The
foregoing Utility Rate Schedules, as amended, shali become
effective on May 22, 2000.
sEcTION 2. The Council finds that the revenue derived from
the authorized adjustments of the unmetered electric service rates
shall be used only for the purposes set forth in Article VII,
Section 2, of the Charter of the City of Palo Alto.
SECTION 3. The ~Council finds that the adoption of this
resolution does not constitute a project under the California
Environmental Quality Act, California Public Resources Code section
21080, subdivision (b) (8).
INTRODUCED AND PASSED:
AYES:
NOES:
ABSENT:
ABSTENTIONS:
ATTEST:APPROVED:
City Clerk
APPROVED AS TO FORM:
Senior Asst. City Attorney
Mayor
City Manager
Director of Utilities
Director of Administrative
Services
000516 syn 0071845
UNMETERED ELECTRIC SERVICE
UTILITY RATE SCHEDULE E-16
A. APPLICABILITY:
This schedule applies to unmetered electric service and other miscellaneous Electric
Utility fees to various public agencies and private entities.
B. TERRITORY:
Within the incorporated limits of the City of Palo Alto and land owned or leased by the
City.
C. RATES:
Service Description Customer Rate *
1. Automatic Irrigation System
at Hwy 101 & Embarcadero
State of
California
$ 4.40
2. Highway Lighting &Sign
Illumination
State of
California
(A)Highway Lighting
Electrolier (20,000 L)
Electrolier (4000 L) & (7000 L)
(B)Sign Lighting
Sign (1,910 W)
Signs (1,572 W)
Signs (786 W)
3. Page Mill Expressway and
El Camino Park & Ride Lot
Lighting and Signal
Santa Clara
County
5.30 ea
@ 7.70 ea
@ 51.10 ea
@ 42.00 ea
@ 21.00 ea
47.80
4. Automatic sprinklers at Oregon
& Page Mill Expressway
Public Works 23.30
*Rates are monthly unless otherwise indicated.
Issued by the City Council
Supersedes Sheet No. E-6-1 dated 7-1-97 CITY OF PALO ALTO
UTILITIES
Effective 5-22-00
Sheet No. E-16-3.
Service Description
UNMETERED ELECTRIC SERVICE~UTILITY RATE SCHEDULE E-16
(Continued)
Customer Rate *
5. Traffic Signal
o
(A)Controller
(B)8" Lamp
(C)12"& PVH Lamp
(D)Pedestrian Head
(E)Vehicle, System and
Bike Sensor Loop
Electric Service for Cathodic
Protection Station
Public Works
PG&E
3~11.00 ea
3.64 ea
4.67 ea
6.22 ea
12.46 ea
8.90
7. Cable TV Power Supply/Service Cable Co-op
o Permit Fee for Electric Conduit Usage
(A) Exclusive use
(B) Non-Exclusive use
Permittee
Permittee
9. Processing Fee for Electric Conduit Usage Permittee
10. Permit Fee for Utility Pole Attachments Permittee
(A) 1 ft. of usable space
(B) 2 ft. of usable space
(C) 3 ft. of usable space
(D) 4 ft. of usable space
11. Processing Fee for Utility Pole Attachments
27.80
1.00/ft/yr
0.50/ft/yr
Actual Cost
$16.33/pole/yr
$18.87/pole/yr
$20.59/pole/yr
$22.31/pole/yr
$40.00/pole
12.Utilities Broadband. Local Area Network
(A) Bandwidth Assignment
(B) Carrier Usage
City Departments
City Departments
200.00/MHZ
50.00/carrier
Issued by the City Council
Supersedes Sheet No. E-6-2 dated 7-1-97 CITY OF PALO ALTO
UTILITIES
Effective 5-22-00
Sheet No. E-16-2
D=
UNMETERED ELECTRIC SERVICE
UTILITY RATE SCHEDULE E-16
13. Data Communication Radio Transceiver
Attachment to Street Light Poles Metricom Inc.
(Continued)
$5,00/radio
SPECIAL PROVISIONS:
In the event a customer requests electric service which the Utility determines will be an
unmetered service, or miscellaneous fee, the Utility will charge an interim rate reflecting the
Utility’s estimated costs associated with the specific service. The Utility may charge an
existing rate contained on this Rate Schedule for an identical or similar type service, or
prepare a new rate. This interim rate will serve as the effective rate for billing purposes until
the service type is added to Rate Schedule E-16.
{End}
Issued by the City Council
Supersedes Sheet No. E-6-3 dated 7-1-97 CITY OF PALO ALTO
UTILITIES
Effective 5-22-00
Sheet No. E-16-3