Travis County Commissioners Court
November 17, 2009,
Item 21
>> then let's call back to order the voting session of the Travis County Commissioners court.
ms.
flemming you are here on 21, you and your staff?
you all are mighty happy this afternoon.
let's hurriedly call up 21.
21.
receive briefing from health and human services on the american reinvestment and recovery act weatherization assistance program, and take appropriate action.
you all got me in a better mood.
>> good afternoon, judge, Commissioners, sherri flemming, health and human services.
speaking of challenging opportunities, we are here to give you a briefing on the american reinvestment and recovery act weatherization assistance program.
we've had much conversation about this program, but we are moving swiftly toward program implementation, so we thought it was appropriate today to give you a little bit of a briefing on where we are, more importantly where we're headed with this program.
with that I will turn it over to your community services division director, deborah britain, who will carry the presentation.
>> good afternoon.
>> good afternoon.
>> we're going to begin with just an overview of what we hope to cover this afternoon and that would include the purpose and status of the -- of what we call the ara, which is the american revitalization and -- I can't even say it.
american reinvestment and recovery act.
arra.
but I will be calling it arra all afternoon.
that's delivered through the tdhca, the Texas department of health and community affairs.
then a road map of how we got there and where we are at this point.
some common definitions, tdhca is the Texas department of housing and community air force base.
our programs are liheap low income housing energy assistance program, which is also a weatherization assistance program.
doe, which is the department of energy.
ceap, the comprehensive energy assistance program.
ceap is a little different in that it provides utility assistance and consumer education about energy conservation.
the purpose of this funding is essentially to provide assistance to low income households who have high energy burdens and also to reduce their residential energy costs.
this is done in a variety of ways, but the overall priority is really in focusing on the home and health safety of the elderly, persons with disabilities and families with young children.
our weatherization services are actually performed by our housing services staff.
this is done in -- in providing like attic insulation, air infiltrations services, which air infiltration simply means air leakage.
you are just looking at air, relating to air that's leaking in and out of the home through door frames, door windows, the floors, ceilings, and is the primary component of energy loss and is measured -- measured in -- in air changes per hour.
which essentially is the total total volume of air in a home that is turned over in one hour.
this can account for up to 30% or more of a home's heating and cooling costs.
blower doors are used to test the tightness of a home and it's part of the energy audit process, which is equipment that our staff utilizes currently in our weatherization program.
we also install energy efficient windows and solar shading.
the replacement of qualifying appliances such as heating and cooling systems.
window air conditioners and refrigerators.
we also perform minor energy related repairs, such as caulking, window stripping, replacing doors.
and this can be applied to single as well as multi-family units.
our performance in 2008 through doe, we -- we implemented weatherization services to about 52 units.
and units when we use that term is units or homes or dwellings.
and liheap, 58 units which brought us to a total of about 110 units being impacted.
we included ceap here because again ceap in conjunction with weatherization programs brings the full complement of services to residents in our community so that we can also help them with their utility bills, but also create some long-lasting impacts by putting in retrofits in their homes.
in 2009, we -- we serviced 60 units through d.o.e., 202 through liheap, we anticipate 435 units through the arra weatherization program, which would bring us in 2009 to 697 units being serviced.
and ceap 173.
this just indicates the total funding of the programs from -- from contract year '07, '08 and '09.
as you can see funding has increased dramatically with the totals going from contract year '07, $587,000 up to 1,089,706.
so that's a substantial increase.
actually about 284% increase over funding from contract year '08 to '09.
and then the next is just a chart that just kind of visually gives you a picture of what that funding increase has looked like.
liheap in particular, which is the yellow bar.
so there's been a substantial increase.
so the good news is we're getting more money.
the bad news is that we're getting more money.
the status of the arra funding.
Travis County submitted a grant application for about $4.5 million on June 24th, 2009.
we received contract award and notification I believe around September 3rd of 2009.
and doe and tdhca were released $2.3 million of that funding in the first year.
we anticipate receiving that hopefully in January once the contracts are actually executed.
the balance of the funds will be released upon demonstration of performance.
so it's extremely important that we're able to spend the dollars down as quickly and efficiently as possible, because they will be taking a look at that on a quarterly basis to see how well we're spending.
tdhca guidelines require that house holds at or below 200% of fpig or the federal poverty income guidelines are eligible to participate and that we can spend up to $6,500 per home.
that would include labor, materials, health and safety and program support.
health and safety is limited to 20% of total grant expenditures.
and administrative costs are limited to 5% of the total grant expenditures.
not the total amount of the grant but the expenditures.
and the grant cycle, when it will end on August 31st, 2011.
doe requires that an energy audit be performed, but they provide us with the software to do that and that is typically called a neat audit.
neat simply stands no national energy audit tool.
which is a computer ma'am that helps determine the most cost effective energy efficient measures to implement.
neat produces a prioritized list of measures customized for each unit assessed and includes it is estimated dollar value for projected energy savings and gives your savings to investment ratio and a list of materials needed for retrofitting.
there is also a separate program for manufactured homes, which is the mhea.
very much like neat, just specifically for manufactured homes.
some key dates, there was a briefing to the city council on November 5th by Austin energy.
we, health and human services, are providing a briefing to the court today.
and we anticipate an interlocal agreement between Travis County and Austin energy to -- to be approved by the city council on this Thursday, November 19th.
the interlocal agreement, the purpose is for our agencies to be able to to work together -- to be able to work together to share resources, to have a shared application.
austin energy is also in the process of issuing bids for the weatherization services.
and through that interlocal if we opt to, we can also take advantage of that contractor list and they will be issuing bids for the assessment, the weatherization work, as well as the inspection work.
>> in that interlocal, is there a possibility to get Austin energy to help us gauge the amount of energy/dollars savings to the client?
through the course of the program?
>> yes.
i mean, some of that we'll have to do as well.
we'll have to collect that data, so initially, we'll have information on the baseline information that each client's home is producing, like their energy consumption, so we will have a history on that.
>> can we also -- would it also include the actual hiring.
>> can I complete this first.
>> I'm sorry, go ahead.
>> let me complete this one portion.
so the federal guidelines require us to report out how much energy consumption improvements that we're seeing through the implementation of the program?
>> yes, yes.
>> that's great.
and then we will be able to prove that up, irrespective of weather Austin energy is the utility provider or if it's some other provider.
>> that's correct.
>> that's great, thank you.
>> I didn't mean to cut you off.
>> no problem, I just wanted to finish that out.
>> real good points.
along with this one
>> [laughter] it would be good to know, since we are in employment, tough times, we hear folks about employment opportunities, we heard some this morning, citizens communication, but we hear a lot, Commissioner Gomez brings it up several times, as far as employment opportunities for the folks that reside here in Travis County to give them work to do.
will this interlocal between the city and the county,
>> [indiscernible] Austin energy, who's all involved in this thing, will they be able to provide us with -- with the persons that have been hired, in other words, the number of people, the new jobs -- because this is a big deal and of course we want to make sure that folks have opportunities to work, so is that also some of these things will be tracked?
i know you said that you are going out for a bid, dah-dah-dah, all of these other things, it would be good, also, to know are these local folks that are looking for employment opportunities in -- of course weatherization is another opportunity I think.
so is that something that is going to be tracked?
that's my question.
>> Commissioner, we will be able to provide for your information on the number of contractors that are employed and we anticipate those contractors employing subcontractors.
>> contractors, right.
>> exactly.
>> that's -- that's the point that I'm trying to get it.
those numbers, subs, contracts, whatever's all involved.
>> but it expands our opportunity.
that's one of the reasons that we are really excited about being able to partner with Austin energy as well.
because this expands the opportunity from possibly only working with one contractor, not to say that one contractor couldn't hire quite a few people.
but this expands the opportunity tremendously to maybe 24 contractors who those -- those contractors would be general contractors, which means that then they would hire other people to work for them.
so a lot of other subcontractors, especially our m.b.e./w.b.e., smaller agencies that couldn't be prime contractors are ideal for being subcontractors under -- under the prime contractors.
so this is a great opportunity and also increases the green collar jobs that will be developed as well.
>> that is a big deal, also.
>> uh-huh.
>> along with all of that.
>> you know, that's just an outgrowth of this, you know.
our primary focus obviously is in making sure that we're account target as many eligible households as we can.
and also determine as many eligible homes.
we have to make sure that the structure itself is eligible.
but our focus is really making sure that we can spend down the money and effect and impact as many homes as possible.
one of the great side effects is that we're going to be increasing employment in the private sector as well as the public sector.
>> uh-huh.
>> okay.
>> so again just completing that, we would anticipate that interlocal agreement then coming back to the court sometime after it's approved by the city council.
we will also work jointly with Austin energy in a press announcement announcing the weatherization program and also the city of Austin expects that their contract solicitations would be released December 10th.
county project management, we're projecting between 425 to 500 homes receiving weatherization services in over a two year period that would represent 850 to a thousand homes.
our potential customers will come from -- from our partnering social service agencies, since there's a -- there's a first point of contact with a lot of the -- of the clients that would be eligible for these services.
and also interested residents can contact any of the seven Travis County community centers and make applications there.
and again we can impact single and multi-family units with a particular focus on -- on housing that supports the elderly and disabled residents.
>> uh-huh.
>> marketing and outreach will be -- performed through interdepartmental cooperation.
we have already been working with a number of other departments in the county.
to make this possible.
which -- which I guess for the last six to eight months we have all been meeting and working together to prepare for this funding.
part of that was making sure we are working for eligible clients and make sure that we had a coordinated and efficient delivery of services.
our key stakeholders are Travis County, Austin energy, the Texas department of housing and community affairs.
and again those subcommittees are really just working groups that -- that we all formed in order to -- to prepare.
for the -- for the weatherization funding.
the eligibility process, our family support services division, which I don't think that I -- sandra
>> [indiscernible] to my right is the director of family support services, that's essentially where the client eligibility process will occur.
and -- and Travis County residents again are welcome to -- to contact any of the seven community centers and they can call 854-4100 for information on a center that's nearest them.
and -- and just to remind everyone, that they will need to -- their income will be based on 200% of the federal property income guidelines.
>> when you bring that down, how is that -- the guidelines, what do that really mean to the person that's listening to us today?
>> [one moment please for change in captioners]
>> now, the eligibility for the home or unit, it must be located in Travis County.
and the homeowner would have to agree to an assessment which will be conducted by our housing services staff, and that's just to determine if the property is suitable for weatherization services.
and then an actual energy audit and priority link would be developed once we determined those two things, if the client is eligible and the property is as well.
and contract solicitations, as I said before, would be done by city of Austin and there is a commitment to under and local utilized agencies and workforce that we expect a tremendous increase in the number of contractors that would be participating in this process.
and that a mandatory pre-bid conference will be held because that will greatly assist those small agencies and contractors participating in this effort.
and again, the mention of third party test-ins, that's referring to the assessment process and the test out is the inspection and the weatherization work.
all of which we can either elect to contract all three phases of the work out or do one or three or a combination of those.
and that ends our presentation.
>> what workforce component is there?
>> I think that Austin energy as well as hhs has been exploring how a workforce development component could be incorporated with this.
hhs staff is actually exploring now with some of the entities that have indicated interest to us whether or not they would be able to meet some of the program guidelines in order to provide this as a training opportunity.
unfortunately this grant itself by its sheer nature doesn't lend itself very well to a workforce training opportunity because we are sort of constrained by the Davis bacon requirements in terms of salaries for the construction workers and having to verify fair market wages are being paid when in fact a lot of the programs that do training, there is a stipend or some -- a wage paid that might not be considered fair market so we're trying to talk with agencies who have expressed interest sort of one on one to talk about the documentation that would be required, whether they have the capacity to meet those requirements so that they would be -- be read for the solicitation process.
>> I have heard, and I forget from whom, that is state has set aside quite a few million dollars for the state to do workforce development training.
anna miller may be a good source for that information.
my question is why can't we direct Travis County residents who need such training to whatever state entity is doing that?
if we do, we have to proactively do it, I think.
second, work source and acc received weatherization dollars, I believe.
or green bill, and they have a job training component.
so I think we need to know what that is, and if we cannot incorporate it into ours and city of Austin's, so be it.
but if there are training opportunities there, then we ought to do what we can to refer such people to them.
and then maybe when you finish those training programs, you can go to the city of Austin or Travis County and get -- become part of ours.
it's just that our job training, job training, job training has been mentioned by the federal government and then as part of this stimulus initiative, and it makes sense to me to try to do that.
so I'm not suggesting we jeopardize our $4.5 million, but I am suggesting if there are other programs available, then we ought to do that.
because I know ms.
moran and I have received a whole lot of questions about work.
and if we cannot assist detectively, then there are two positive -- directly, there are two possibilities.
if the state is funding job training, we can do a much better job of helping them identify Travis County residents who ought to qualify -- I hate to say much better than they, but at least the same as they, and we have a vested interest in identifying these individuals and sending them over there, I think.
>> is it possible through the r.f.p.
process, much as we were talking about in our economic development policy, is it possible to identify a slate of our best workforce development programs, work source project gateway, several of the others a that are targeted to individuals who are coming in either at low income or reentering and saying in the r.f.p.
process, you show that you've hired x number of individuals through this program any time in the last three years.
so assuming if somebody came in by workforce, by this time they may have become a master carpenter at this point.
but just to provide incentives for the future to rely on these programs as a -- as a -- a source of employees?
might that -- might that be a way to get at it?
i know it's not proactive and that it doesn't rely -- it doesn't require this program to hire individuals straight out of project gateway, for instance, and pay a wage that is required by the feds, but perhaps they've hired somebody two years ago and are currently paying them a wage that is commensurate with the federal regulations.
>> I think all of those are possibilities.
there's a couple ways, and I think the judge has mentioned sort of one way that folks can receive training is through additional opportunities that are blossoming up through the work source -- workforce solutions -- I'm trying to make sure I say the right name -- and through acc and whatnot.
but also the Texas department of housing and community affairs retains $17 million to provide training for contractors who will be doing the weatherization with the arra funds.
so once those contractors are identified through the solicitation process, there will be mandatory training that they will have to attend and it will be provided to them as a part of the arra program.
and so persons who -- and that's --
>> training and pencil pushing being counted so they can satisfy regulation along with us?
>> right.
also so another way that persons who want to get into this field of study could also, you know, seek out employment with these contractors, both the larger contractors and the smaller contractors, will be able to receive that training through that process.
and there was a whole different solicitation and a different -- a different organization that will be providing that training.
but it will be made available to anybody who is -- who submits -- who responds to the r.f.p.
and comes in to do the work.
>> let me just throw this idea out.
let's say Travis County's weatherization budget is $300,000.
i don't know what the figure is.
and we do our weatherization.
for the ones who would be eligible for this program, why wouldn't we take care of their needs from the federal -- with the federal money and have our people train people to do weatherization work?
with the $300,000?
the world wouldn't have to know.
>> [laughter] the fed would want -- the fed would want to know.
>> having a heart attack over here.
>> the fed would want to know that however their money was spent was on eligible residences and homes, right?
>> yes, sir.
>> and after that don't we use county dollars as we see fit?
don't give me an answer now, but I was just brainstorming.
that's a third idea.
>> all right.
>> the other thing is --
>> thank you for not making me answer that question.
>> the other, and this is my final thought is, for the areas where we have done water and/or wastewater projects, we have done so because most of the residents there probably meet this income guideline, right?
so why wouldn't we make it a point whoever is to determine eligibility to proactively seek them out, see if they are qualified and whether they have weatherization needs -- see what I'm saying?
so?
my view there are some areas that are like little pockets that are greatly in need, and I just think we ought to be a bit more proactive in seeking them out to assist.
>> and Austin energy is actually targeting certain neighborhoods, and one of the -- the rationales for Austin energy along with hhs using the same application because of the ease of passing clients back and forth between programs.
so we hope to capitalize off the neighborhoods that they are targeting.
and when I say targeting, they are looking at consumption histories and those areas where, you know, from a few feet up you could basically assume that there were some -- some weatherization needs in those -- in those neighborhoods.
>> in the Austin energy service area.
>> and for nonaustin energy we could target --
>> yes.
>> because what I have in mind I think are in unincorporated areas, and Austin energy is not there.
right?
>> yes.
but for those areas that we know will be on their list, it allows us to focus our attention on areas such as you recommended.
>> you're with us.
>> I'm with you.
>> let us see your list as soon as you put it together.
us being the five of us.
we'll work as a team on this, y'all.
>> we appreciate that very much.
>> thank you.
>> anything further?
>> no, thank you very much.
>> any special recommendations or challenges?
thank you all very much for putting news a weatherization frame of mind.
The Closed Caption log for this Commissioners Court agenda item is provided by Travis County Internet Services. Since this file is derived from the Closed Captions created during live cablecasts, there are occasional spelling and grammatical errors. This Closed Caption log is not an official record the Commissioners Court Meeting and cannot be relied on for official purposes. For official records please contact the County Clerk at (512) 854-4722.
Last Modified:
Tuesday, November 17, 2009 1:40 PM
