On Aug. 23, the Signal Hill City Council voted to update its Hazard Mitigation Plan service contract with Emergency Planning Consultants Inc. The plan is a response to the Federal Disaster Management Act of 2000, which requires all local, county and state governments to have a system in place.
Having a Hazard Mitigation Plan in effect also allows the City to receive potential federal funding for natural-disaster relief.
Signal Hill Police Chief Michael Langston presented the agenda item to the city council and explained that the plan calls for emergency staff training and coordination with federal agencies, public education and public outreach.
“It’s the ’21 Weeks to Prepare,’ but on steroids and on a larger scale,” Langston said, making a comparison to the Red Cross’s weekly emergency preparation program.
Emergency Planning Consultants Inc. has advised at least 25 city governments on emergency planning, including Signal Hill, according to Langston. The San Diego-based consulting company landed a $25,000 contract with the City.
The plan considers earthquakes and floods, such as the recent flooding in Louisiana, as natural disasters. However, Councilmember Edward Wilson questioned if wildfires were viewed as natural hazards under the mitigation plan, stating that the City’s oil fields can be a potential fire hazard.
City Manager Charlie Honeycutt reassured the councilmember that the plan recognizes the oil production and operations that are ongoing in the city.
Automatic meter
The council agreed to negotiate a $33,780 contract with UtiliWorks, a boutique consulting firm that specializes in providing clients with water, electric and gas utilities.
The utility company will help the City plan and set up an automatic metering infrastructure (AMI), an integrated system of smart meters, communication networks and date-management systems. AMI allows for two-way communication between utility services and consumers, according to UtiliWorks representatives.
The electronic meters make reading, servicing and replacements efficient and cost effective, the company said, stating that AMI has a 99.9-percent accurate reading rate.
Signal Hill Director of Public Works Steve Myrter said he was supportive of the company, adding that cooperation with UtiliWorks would be best for the City, and it would speed up pilot programs for the meters citywide.
Myrter explained that the real-time data collected by the new water meters could help the City conserve water.
“Say you might want to try different approaches to watering your garden,” he said. “You put new equipment in, and you want to test it out. You can actually get real-time data from it.”
Myrter said that the old meter system would inform clients 30 to 45 days later about watering habits. The new system would inform clients the same evening.
Construction
Despite the council unanimously voting to solicit a request for construction project proposals, it was agreed that the wording in the request could be misleading to contractors applying for the new library construction project.
A committee of City officials rate potential contractors for a building project through the use of a point-based system. For example, 15 points are given to a contractor if its building resources are stable; however, 10 points may be deducted if the workforce size is not up to the standards of the City.
The contractor company with the most points out of 100 gets selected for the project.
The debate over the phrasing of the proposal stemmed from a particular sentence in the rating scale. The sentence claims that a reference background check will be done for top-rated applicants. Councilmember Wilson felt as though that section would confuse applicants into thinking they would all, regardless of status, receive points for reference checks.
For clarity’s sake, the council voted to remove that specific sentence from the rating scale.
“It was too ambiguous,” Mayor Lori Woods said. “We eliminated that wording altogether and put in the bid-rating points.”
The council also voted to add a column in the proposal that would rate the bidding price of the applying contractors. Myrter added the column and made it worth 15 points, ultimately increasing the highest contractor rating of 100 to 115.
The next Signal Hill City Council meeting will take place Tuesday, Sept. 8 at 7pm in council chamber, 2175 Cherry Ave.
