Ventura committee backs heat pump for City Hall boilers and recommends $2.2M reallocation

A Ventura City Council committee recommended advancing an electric heat‑pump replacement for the City Hall East boilers and asked the full council to consider reallocating $2.2 million from police and fire capital improvement projects to fund it.

The committee, meeting as a council subcommittee, voted 2–1 to forward the heat‑pump recommendation to the City Council for its July 14 meeting. Council member McReynolds moved to proceed with the heat‑pump option and to suspend the police and fire CIP projects to free up $2,200,000; the motion was seconded by Council member Campos and carried with Council member Schumacher opposed.

Why it matters: staff and independent analysts presented a life‑cycle and emissions comparison showing the heat‑pump option has significantly larger greenhouse‑gas reductions but higher upfront costs. City staff said the boilers in the East building were installed in 1995 and have exceeded a commonly used 25‑year service life, creating a near‑term need for replacement.

What staff and SoCalREN told the committee: Barbara McCormack, the city’s fleet and facilities manager, said the boilers have exceeded their useful life and are scheduled for replacement; she described a like‑for‑like gas boiler option estimated by staff at roughly $564,000 (with incentives around $22,823 and 20‑year projected utility savings of about $278,000) and a heat‑pump option with an estimated total project cost in staff presentation of about $2,500,000 (staff‑reported incentives ~ $81,000, and a projected 20‑year utility savings of roughly $498,000). Staff also noted potential eligibility for a 0% revolving loan up to $1,100,000 subject to availability.

Jillian Hall, project manager with the Southern California Regional Energy Network (SoCalREN), said SoCalREN prepared two analyses (heat pump and like‑for‑like) and described available incentives and financing tools, including a revolving savings fund. "We prepared 2 different analyses," she said, and described both the estimated utility savings and the program’s loan and incentive processes. She also summarized SoCalREN’s run of avoided emissions and the social cost of carbon assumptions used in the analysis.

Public comment: more than a half‑dozen residents and advocates urged the committee to pick the heat‑pump option. "Choosing between a new gas boiler and an electric heat pump is a choice between locking Ventura into the past or anchoring it firmly in the future," said Kathleen Wheeler. Abra Stewart of Climate 1st (SeaFrog) and youth leaders from CFrog emphasized public‑health and intergenerational impacts and urged alignment with the city’s Climate Action and Resiliency Plan.

Technical disagreements and clarifications: some commenters and one environmental‑engineer speaker questioned specific numeric assumptions in SoCalREN’s estimates. Don Price said, "The first thing I wanted to say is that the emission reduction estimates in the plan by SoCalREN are all wrong," while also urging the city to move forward with decarbonization. TRC Companies engineer Ethan Lee explained the utility‑savings figures were based on current city rates, existing equipment specs and statewide deemed savings work papers and that heat pumps typically operate with a coefficient of performance greater than 1.

Cost and timing tradeoffs: staff described the heat‑pump project delivery as approximately 24 months (including design, bidding and construction) versus roughly six months for a like‑for‑like gas boiler replacement. Staff said the heat‑pump estimate included about $200,000 for structural roof modifications; staff also cautioned that preliminary engineer estimates can change once final designs and bids are obtained. SoCalREN noted some analyses did not yet fully factor in projected long‑term natural‑gas price escalation, which could narrow the long‑term cost difference.

Committee action and next steps: Council member McReynolds moved to recommend the heat‑pump option and to reallocate $2.2 million from police and fire CIP projects to finance it; Council member Campos seconded the motion and Council member Schumacher voted no, producing a 2–1 committee vote to forward the recommendation to the full council. The committee’s recommendation will appear on the City Council agenda for discussion and final action on July 14.

The committee adjourned after the vote. Staff and SoCalREN representatives will provide further details and refined cost estimates as the project proceeds through design and potential grant and loan applications.