LAFCO votes to hire Local Power for Navigant peer review, delays oversight award amid debate

The Local Agency Formation Commission voted Friday to retain Local Power to perform a peer review of Navigant Consulting's risk-assessment work for the Clean Power SF program, after public advocates and several commissioners raised concerns about the independence of consulting work on community-choice aggregation.

The decision followed extensive discussion and public comment from environmental and grassroots advocates who alleged that in some jurisdictions Navigant had under-emphasized local renewables and energy-efficiency measures. Eric Brooks of the San Francisco Green Party said he had submitted documents to counsel and LAFCO members alleging that a prior draft RFP for Marin omitted local renewables and efficiency; he asked commissioners to ensure the program preserved local-resource opportunities.

Dawn Weiss, representing the Marin Energy Authority during an earlier presentation, disputed the characterization that Navigant was solely responsible for a 200-megawatt local-renewables estimate or for removing local resources from Marin's process. Weiss said the 200-megawatt study was produced by Jody London Consulting and was intentionally theoretical; she said Marin and Navigant worked to include local renewables to the extent economics allowed and that Marin added RFP provisions inviting bidders to propose energy-efficiency approaches.

Nancy Miller, LAFCO's interim executive officer, presented two items for consideration: a peer review of Navigant's risk-assessment report (Local Power bid: $24,000) and a separate oversight/"overview" contract that would make a contractor available on-call to assist LAFCO (Local Power proposed a not-to-exceed $28,000 per month). Commissioners debated whether Local Power, a losing bidder on the risk-assessment procurement, should perform the peer review and whether the oversight role should be sole-sourced or solicited more broadly.

In a roll-call vote on the peer-review award, the clerk recorded Commissioner Dufty, aye; Commissioner Marr, aye; Commissioner Schmeltzer, no; and Chair Mercurini, aye. The motion to award the peer review to Local Power passed. The commission also directed staff to solicit additional potential respondents for the oversight role and to return with proposals at the next LAFCO meeting.

Supporters of the peer review said independent scrutiny would strengthen program credibility and reassure advocates; opponents warned a narrow procurement approach could create perceptions of favoritism and urged LAFCO to cast a wider net for oversight/PMO services or consider internal staffing options. Several commissioners suggested using a short solicitation or phone-bid process and asked staff to provide options at the next meeting.

Public speakers also asked Navigant to clarify past contractual work for investor-owned utilities. John Lehi of Navigant said to his knowledge Navigant was not currently working for PG&E on the matters raised and that Navigant has often been adversarial to investor-owned utilities when supporting CCAs. LAFCO did not take further action on that point but noted advocates had asked for additional vetting.

The peer-review award is limited in scope to review of Navigant's risk assessment; the commission postponed a decision on the broader oversight contract to allow staff to solicit additional bids and report back at the next meeting.

Votes at a glance: part (a) peer-review award to Local Power: Dufty ' aye; Marr ' aye; Schmeltzer ' no; Chair Mercurini ' aye. Part (b) oversight/overview: decision deferred for one month to solicit further proposals.