To: Board of Supervisors
From: John Kopchik, Director, Conservation and Development
Report Title: Amendment to the Interagency Agreement between City of Richmond and County for Joint Administration of North Richmond Mitigation Fee Funding
RECOMMENDATIONS:
APPROVE and AUTHORIZE the Conservation and Development Director, or designee, to execute an amendment to the Interagency Agreement with the City of Richmond (City), effective September 19, 2023, to increase the payment limit by $360,000 to a new payment limit of $835,000 and extend the term from September 30, 2023, to September 30, 2026, to facilitate City's continued use of jointly-administered North Richmond Waste & Recovery Mitigation Fee (NRMF) funding to co-staff the NRMF Committee and implement services and programs authorized in the City/County-approved expenditure plans.
FISCAL IMPACT:
There is no impact to the General Fund. Interagency Agreement costs will be funded with NRMF revenue, which is solely received by the County but jointly administered by the City and County in accordance with the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the City and County.
BACKGROUND:
The NRMF was established by the City and County in 2004. This fee was originally identified as a mitigation measure in an Environmental Impact Report for the Bulk Material Processing Center (BMPC) in North Richmond as a means of addressing the impacts of illegal dumping as a result of the expansion of the BMPC. The requirement to collect this Mitigation Fee is a condition of approval in the use permits issued by the City and County, which allowed Republic Services to expand their waste processing operations at the BMPC, located at the closed West Contra Costa Sanitary Landfill site in North Richmond. Since 2006, this Mitigation Fee has been collected on a per ton basis and paid monthly, directly, to the County.
The City and County entered into an MOU in 2004 agreeing to establish a City/County Committee, known as the North Richmond Waste and Recovery Mitigation Fee Joint Expenditure Planning Committee (NRMF Committee), to prepare recommended spending plans subject to final City/County approvals for the purpose of jointly administering this funding. These recommended spending plans are known as Expenditure Plans, which must be approved by both the Richmond City Council and County Board of Supervisors. Each Expenditure Plan authorizes expenditures for a single fiscal year period. The Expenditure Plan for the 2023/2024 fiscal year was approved by the County and City on June 27, 2023.
The first Interagency Agreement between the City and County went into effect on January 16, 2007, and was amended four times. A new Interagency Agreement took effect on June 30, 2015, with a contract limit that was estimated to be adequate to allow the County to share the proportion of NRMF revenue needed to cover the City's costs associated with the City's share of Expenditure Plan implementation and Committee co-staffing for the period through June 30, 2017. Since entering into the second Interagency Agreement in 2015, the amount of NRMF funded reimbursement requested by the City has been steadily decreasing each Expenditure Plan cycle. The remaining contract limit was sufficient to allow for three subsequent amendments which together extended the contract term through September 30, 2018. A new Interagency Agreement was approved September 25, 2018, with a term ending on September 30, 2020. On August 11, 2020, the Interagency Agreement was amended to increase the payment limit and extend the term until September 30, 2023. The current amendment to the Interagency Agreement is intended to increase the payment limit by $360,000 and extend the term until September 30, 2026, to provide for continued issuance of NRMF funded payments to the City to facilitate on-going joint administration of funding and reimburse the City for costs incurred to implement Expenditure Plan strategies.
CONSEQUENCE OF NEGATIVE ACTION:
If the recommended Agreement is not approved and executed, County staff will not have the authority needed to issue NRMF funded payments to the City, which would make it impossible to jointly administer this funding as agreed upon in the MOU between the City and the County. This would also make it impossible for the County to reimburse the City for the costs the City incurs to implement the strategies assigned to the City in the City/County-approved Expenditure Plan or the costs the City incurs for co-staffing the NRMF Committee.
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I hereby certify that this is a true and correct copy of an action taken and entered on the minutes of the Board of Supervisors on the date shown. |
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ATTESTED: |
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Monica Nino, County Administrator and Clerk of the Board of Supervisors |
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By: |