Forgive $5.8 Million in Library Book Late Fees Dating Back to 1995

By Daniel Borsuk

The Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors flashed the green light for Contra Costa County Development and Conservation Department (DCD) officials to conduct additional studies on how solar power can be expanded, especially in the Far East environmentally sensitive Delta areas of Bethel Island and Jersey Island.

Supervisors also allowed county planners to study the feasibility of identifying underutilized parking lots countywide that could be used as solar farms in partnership with MCE, the main electricity provider for unincorporated Contra Costa County and the cities of Concord, Danville, Martinez, Oakley, Pinole, Pittsburg, and San Ramon.

Freeway cloverleafs are also on the DCD’s list of potential new sites for renewable energy.

“Fifty to eighty percent of the county could be used for renewable energy,” Jody London, a DCD official, told supervisors.  London said solar energy represents 85 percent of the renewable energy that could be developed on rural land.  The remaining 15 percent would be energy generated from wind power or biomass.

London said the county could also expand solar energy by issuing more permits to homeowners to install solar panels on roofs.

The house rooftop option drew the support of District 3 Supervisor Dianne Burgis of Brentwood, whose district also covers Bethel Island and Jersey Island.  “I’d be open to option one,” she said.  “We have so many rooftops in Contra Costa County.  I’d like to work with MCE.”

Board chair Karen Mitchoff of Pleasant Hill cautioned DCD staff that she was uncertain the DCD recommendation concerning 450-acre Jersey Island as a potential solar power farm might run into opposition from the island’s owner, the Ironhouse Sanitary District.

London said she would look into that issue.

“We support development of solar energy on brownfield sites, parking lots and infill areas such as freeway cloverleafs,” Bill Chilson of the Mount Diablo Audubon Society wrote in a letter to the supervisors.  The environmental organization opposes wind and solar development in the Delta agricultural and wildlife areas, Chilson wrote.

Juan Pablo Galwan, Save Mt. Diablo Land Use Manager, criticized the plan, writing:

“Advances in solar technology may increase the frequency of collocation or allow an area of land to concurrently be farmed and produce solar energy without negatively impacting or perhaps even increasing crop productivity.  However, currently the most likely scenario is that solar development removes land from most or all ties of agricultural production for the duration of lease which may last several decades.  Therefore, the county renewable energy policies should not encourage solar development on viable agricultural land.”

A $47,000 grant from the California Strategic Growth Council developed the energy study for the County.

Supervisors Approve $362,505 State Grant for 2020 Census

The county is getting ready for the 2020 census and took its first step when supervisors unanimously accepted a $362,505 County-Option Outreach Agreement grant from the state.

The grant will aid the county in developing communications and outreach strategies that will target both geographic and demographic populations who are least likely to respond to the 2020 census.

Barbara Rivera of the Contra Costa County Administrators Office said the upcoming census will be the first one where Californians can respond by going online, but this raised cyber security issues from Julia Marks of the Asian Law Caucus.  “There is a lot fear over confidentiality,” said Marks.

Choice in Aging’s Debbie Toth Honored as Board Chair Recipient

Debbie Toth, the Chief Executive Officer of Choice in Aging, was honored by the Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors Chair Karen Mitchoff, as Board Chair Recipient for 2018.

Mitchoff, of Pleasant Hill, selected Toth, who was named CEO of Choice in Aging in 2012 that serves 600 senior citizens in residential facilities at the Bedford Center in Antioch and the Mt. Diablo Center in Pleasant Hill, for being an advocate for senior access to housing, health and transit.

Mitchoff, who was re-elected to the District 3 supervisorial seat in June, cited her personal experience with her mother as a key factor in nominating the CIA’s Chief Executive Officer for the award.

After Tuesday’s meeting, it is expected District 1 Supervisor John Gioia of Richmond will be elected as Chair of the Board   when supervisors reconvene at their next regular meeting slated for January 15, 2019.

Supervisors Forgive $5.8 Million in Library Book Late Fees

A week after the Board of Supervisors made the historic move to eliminate the practice of collecting overdue book and material fees, they approved on a 5-0 vote to discharge about $5,800,100 from public library patron accounts.

The agenda consent item did not attract public comment.

The bookkeeping item covers uncollected fees dating back to 1995 to the present, County Librarian Melinda Cervantes wrote in a report to the Board.  “Of this amount, 73 percent is the value of materials, not cash outstanding.”  There is no financial impact on the county general fund.

Last week supervisors adopted the library commission’s recommendation to cease the collection of overdue book fines beginning Jan. 1, 2019 based on the recommendations in a policy titled Project Equitable Access with the goal of ensuring everyone has access to library materials.

To view the entire meeting agenda, click here.

By Daniel Borsuk

The Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors went on record on Tuesday supporting the establishment of a national fee and dividend on carbon emissions.  Supervisors voted 4-1 to approve the proposal.

Supervisor Candace Andersen of Danville cast the dissenting vote on the grounds she opposed the dividend feature of the proposal that was acted on and endorsed by the Contra Costa Sustainability Commission at its June 25 meeting and was finally presented to the full Board of Supervisors Tuesday, more than three months later.

“I do support cleaner air, but I don’t see how this will produce the desired result,” said Andersen.  “This isn’t the plan for me.”

Contra Costa County can now be counted as one of a number of California counties backing the proposal lobbied by Citizens Climate Lobby for a federal revenue-neutral carbon-based fuel fee and dividend proposal to reduce catastrophic climate change from global warming.

Other counties already signing on in support of the Citizens Climate Lobby carbon emissions initiative are San Francisco, San Mateo, Sonoma, Santa Cruz, and Marin.  Bay Area cities that back the initiative include Alameda, Albany, Berkeley, El Cerrito, Los Altos, Oakland, Petaluma, Richmond, and San Carlos.

“We have 12 years to avoid the worst effects of climate change,” Citizens Climate Lobby member Doug Merrill, a resident of Lafayette, told supervisors in encouraging them to endorse the initiative.

“We need to pay for our air pollution problems,” said Betty Lobos, also a Citizens Climate Lobby supporter.

At the national level, the carbon fee and dividend concept is gaining traction, especially within the energy industry where ExxonMobil this month announced it will donate $1 million to Americans for Carbon Dividend founded by former United States Senators John Breaux and Trent Lott.

Ordinance Banning Polystyrene Food/Beverage Containers in the Works

Supervisors, most likely next year, will act on an ordinance that will ban polystyrene food and beverage containers to be used in stores located in unincorporated Contra Costa County.

The County Department of Public Works will draft the ordinance at a cost of $75,000 after completing a recent Regional Water Quality Control Board stormwater permit review in which it was found that in order for the county to improve stormwater quality it needs to reduce different types of trash, especially the most prevalent, polystyrene containers.

The Public Works Department request was unanimously approved as a consent item.  The department estimates it will cost about $25,000 a year to enforce the ordinance.

In late August, the Department of Public Works mailed letters to about 200 stores, markets and other businesses that would be affected by the proposed ordinance to inform them about why the county is proposing to adopt a ban on polystyrene food and beverage containers and what would be included in the proposed ban.

Increased Payment for Citizen Document Access Solution

Supervisors voted 5-0 to approve a contract amendment with Granicus, Inc. to increase the payment limit by $175,000 to a new payment limit of $825,816 for the continued hosting of the Citizen Document Access Solution.  The contract was also extended from Oct. 9, 2018 to Oct. 8, 2021.

“The increase of the payment limit includes annual maintenance, support charges, software charges and web hosting fees, “County Administrator David Twa explained a memo to supervisors.  “The new annual charges for October 9, 2018 to October 8, 2021 reflect a lower annual price of $9,708.  This is due to the new and more efficient hardware and decommissioning of old hardware and the subtraction of a module called Meeting Efficiency.”

Contracting with Granicus for a Citizen Document Access Solution supports the county in meeting the goals of the Better Government Ordinance, complying with new website posting provisions of the Brown Act and using improved technology to deliver to citizens.

Supervisors Add One Meeting in 2019

Supervisors approved a 2019 meeting schedule that will call for 31 meetings instead of 30 meetings as initially planned.  Supervisors scratched the meeting slated for February 19, figuring January would be a busy month with three meetings.  A March 19 meeting will be needed, even though supervisors are scheduled to meet on Cesar Chavez Day, March 26, where business might be light.  A meeting was added for December 17 because there was only one meeting originally scheduled that month, December 10.

Vice Chair John Gioia of Richmond is slated to become chair next year.  It is yet to be decided who will become vice chair in 2019, either District 2 Supervisor Andersen, who has served on the board since 2012, or District 3 Supervisor Diane Burgis, who has been on the board for two years.