Albany Council accepts federal grant to add four EV charging sites, directs private-match preference

The Albany City Council on Jan. 8 adopted a resolution accepting a $1,848,960 Charging and Fueling Infrastructure (CFI) grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation to install electric vehicle charging stations at four locations, and directed staff to favor proposals where a private partner provides the required 20% match.

The action matters because the grant covers 80% of construction costs but requires the city — as the grant recipient — to ensure a 20% local match. Public Works Engineering Manager Carl Berg told the council the grant “is a community grant, which allows us the option of contracting with a private entity, such as a charging company,” and staff “will seek for the contracted entity to cover the 20% match,” while noting “ultimately, the city, as the grant recipient, is ultimately responsible for ensuring the 20% matching amount is met.”

Council members and several members of the public debated whether the city should use transportation/street fund dollars for the roughly $460,000 local match. Public commenters and Councilor Michael Thompson said the city should avoid drawing from the street fund. Thompson said, “I don't think we should be expending any money... I don't wanna spend any money out of the transportation repair fund really for any reason other than transportation road repair.” Councilor Marilyn Smith asked that staff make the match part of the bid criteria so private vendors would be evaluated on whether they cover the match.

Carl Berg described the four proposed locations as: North Albany Park; the 2 Rivers Mall parking lot downtown; the Albany multimodal station (the train station); and a commercial-partnership site near the North I‑5 interchange at Knox Butte Road. He said the installation would include both level 2 chargers and DC fast chargers and that the grant is reimbursement-based, meaning the city would pay costs during construction and seek reimbursement for 80% of eligible expenses from the federal government.

Council members pressed staff about reliability and maintenance after several public comments that existing chargers “are almost always all broken.” Berg said the CFI program requires a high level of reliability and that agreements with providers typically include uptime and maintenance provisions; staff told the council the grant’s national standards require high uptime and that vendor agreements can include financial penalties if uptime obligations are not met.

Councilor Smith moved adoption of the resolution and the motion was seconded. The council adopted the resolution by voice vote. The motion included direction to staff to include, as proposal evaluation criteria, whether a private entity will cover the 20% match so the street fund would be protected where possible.

Staff said they will pursue procurement through a competitive process and try to structure agreements so a provider handles operations and upkeep; staff also noted further legal and rate-setting work would be required if the city sought to recover matching costs through user rates or reserves.