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Council hears staff recommendation to end BayREN water-efficiency contract for multifamily work
Summary
Staff recommended cancelling the city's BayREN contract and declining to expand the program to multifamily units, citing low participation and administrative costs; council discussed alternatives including chambers of commerce or grants to support direct toilet exchanges.
City staff told the council the city's existing BayREN water-efficiency contract has produced limited uptake and substantial administrative burden and recommended cancelling the agreement and not extending it to multifamily properties.
Staff reported 10 homeowners participated over the last two years; total project costs were about $2,144 and homeowners paid roughly $560 in fees. Staff said the program’s administrative return to the city was small — citing an administrative fee figure of about $4.63 — and that the per-customer water-savings repayment schedule produced payments ranging from $0.17 to $7.85 per month over ten years on individual invoices.
“The program is just a lot of paperwork for what we’re getting,” a staff presenter said when summarizing why the city should not expand to multifamily units. Staff said the loan-like charge currently runs with the property for two years when a property is sold and that was a concern when council originally approved the program.
Council members discussed alternatives, including seeking grant funds to support direct toilet exchanges, partnering with the chamber of commerce, or putting a plumber on an incentive program rather than the city administering the paperwork. No formal vote to cancel the contract was recorded in the transcript; staff said they would place a cancellation request on a future agenda if the council wanted to proceed.
