Oxnard City staff asks council to authorize $2.75 million appropriation to close out AMI water meter project

Oxnard City staff on Monday asked the City Council to approve and authorize a $2,750,000 appropriation in fiscal year 2025-26 from the Water Operating Fund (Fund 601) and a corresponding transfer to the Water Capital Fund (Fund 602) to complete the automated meter infrastructure replacement project PW 1732.

The appropriation request was presented by Tim Beaman, assistant public works director. Beaman said the project is essentially complete and staff is in the closeout phase, and that the additional funds are required to fully fund remaining costs.

Beaman told the council, “The recommendation is that City Council approve and authorize an appropriation in the amount of $2,750,000 for the fiscal year 2025-26 from the available fund balance in the Water Operating Fund 601 and the corresponding transfers to the Water Capital Fund 602 for the automated meter infrastructure replacement project PW 1732.”

Why it matters: Oxnard previously authorized a total project allocation of $30,481,628.12 on Oct. 19, 2021. The AMI project replaced roughly 43,000 water meters, installed cellular read endpoints, replaced meter box lids, and included 12 months of read service after installation. According to Beaman, total project cost is expected to be about $3 million less than the approved allocation, but additional appropriations are required to close out outstanding costs.

Beaman said the city has spent “just under $25,000,000” to date on the project and reported an estimated total project cost of approximately $27,500,000, which includes the construction contract with Badger Meter, construction management services with Corolla Engineers, project contingency, additional engineering inspection services and project management, and additional work by the water distribution team.

“This project’s scope of work included a field survey of all existing infrastructure, the replacement of approximately 43,000 water meters, the installation of the cellular read endpoints with those meters, and that’s the device that allows us to read the meters monthly without visiting the meter,” Beaman said. He added, “At the time of this presentation, the project is essentially complete. We’re just going through the closeout process.”

Beaman identified prior council action on Oct. 19, 2021, when the council approved the total project allocation and related agreements. He named Badger Meter as the construction contractor and Corolla Engineers as the construction management services provider.

The presentation did not include a recorded motion, mover, second, or council vote in the provided transcript excerpt. The staff recommendation as presented requests council approval to appropriate the $2,750,000; the transcript does not show whether the council acted on that recommendation during this meeting segment.

Next steps: staff requested the appropriation and transfer to finalize project closeout; any formal council action or vote was not recorded in the provided excerpt.