For City Council Meeting [September 14, 2021]
TO: Honorable Mayor and City Council
APPROVAL: Marcus Fuller, City Manager
FROM: Sean Grayson, Fire Chief
Steve Erlandson, Director of Finance
Thomas Crowley, Utilities Manager
Title
Request City Council / Rialto Utility Authority Board to 1) Receive an Update on and Confirm the Continued Existence of the Local Emergency Throughout the City of Rialto in Response to the COVID-19 Outbreak; 2) Receive an Update on and Approve Adjustments to the CDBG-CV Assistance Programs; 3) Approve the Phased Return to the Normal Billing and Interest Accrual Process for Water and Wastewater Services in Conjunction with Support of the Expanded use of the COVID-19 Utility Program; and 4) Provide any Further Recommendations in Relation to the Local Emergency Throughout the City of Rialto in Response to the COVID-19 Outbreak.
(ACTION)
Body
BACKGROUND
On March 12, 2020, the City Council adopted Resolution 7600 declaring a local emergency in response to the COVID-19 outbreak. In the action staff indicated that the item would be brought back to the City Council for updates at each City Council meeting for the duration of the local emergency. The City Council received an update on and approved continuation of the local emergency at each City Council meeting since the adoption of the resolution. Since the City’s declaration of a local emergency and actions on March 16, 2020, there have been significant directives from the State of California and the San Bernardino County Department of Public Health. All of those orders were resolved on June 15, 2021 as the State of California began a process to roll back all Emergency Orders and effectively reopened the state to all sectors without COVID-19 restrictions for those persons that are fully vaccinated. There have been significant changes in the impact of COVID-19 on the community since State’s rollback of specific COVID-19 protections. The “Delta Variant” surge continues and requires continued action by the City in support of the community.
ANALYSIS/DISCUSSION
Metrics
Since the City Council meeting on August 10, 2021 case rates, positivity rates, positivity rates in healthy places, and hospitalizations have all remained high in association with the “Delta Variant” surge. Using the previous tier metrics the City of Rialto would be in the worst or Purple tier.
Masks
California mask law has remained unchanged since August 10, 2021. Masks remain required for all individuals in certain indoor settings like healthcare, transit, and schools. Outside of the specified locations masks are not required under the state mandate for fully vaccinated persons. The City of Rialto continues to require masks for all persons, regardless of vaccination status, while indoors at City facilities.
Vaccinations
Vaccination rates in the City of Rialto have increased from approximately 45% on June 15, 2021 to approximately 55% fully vaccinated as of August 31, 2021. The FDA gave full approval of the Pfizer vaccine on August 23, 2021 having previously been used under and emergency authorization. Third doses and boosters have been approved for various populations and are available at County vaccination sites.
At the prior August 10, 2021 City Council meeting, direction was given to proceed with various forms of incentives and efforts to obtain greater rates of vaccinations in the community. Staff requests further direction on the specific form of any incentives that might be offered as an inducement to increase vaccination rates among Rialto residents.
CDBG-CV COVID-19 Grant Programs
On June 23, 2020 the City Council allocated its initial funding of $714,324 of CDBG-CV funds to providing financial assistance to the community as follows:
• Rental/Mortgage Assistance: $300,000
• Utilities Assistance: $300,000
• Workforce Development/Job Preparation: $114,324
On November 10, 2020 the City Council re-allocated funding with the additional allocation to Rialto of CDBG-CV funds to provide financial assistance to the community as follows:
• Rental/Mortgage Assistance: $600,000
• Utilities Assistance: $300,000
• Workforce Development/Job Preparation: $114,324
• Small Business Assistance: $200,000
• COVID-19 Testing: $100,000
• PPE: $25,260
On April 13, 2021 the City Council re-allocated the financial assistance into its final form as follows:
• Rental/Mortgage Assistance: $600,000
• Utilities Assistance: $160,000
• Workforce Development/Job Preparation: $57,162
• Small Business Assistance: $200,000
• COVID-19 Testing: $100,000
• PPE: $25,260
• SWAG: $197,162
Currently, the balance remaining in these financial assistance programs has been reduced as a result of Staff’s implementation of the programs:
• Rental/Mortgage Assistance: $88,874
• Utilities Assistance: $140,890
• Workforce Development/Job Preparation: $0
• Small Business Assistance: $132,000
• COVID-19 Testing: $21,367
• PPE: $25,260
• SWAG: $0
Based upon current applications submitted Staff anticipates the remaining balance for Rental/Mortgage Assistance will be exhausted by September 30, 2021.
Staff also initiated a coordinated effort to contact all Rialto small businesses to ensure the balance available to small business assistance is utilized. Based on these efforts Staff anticipates to award applications for assistance to 33 additional businesses by September 30, 2021 depleting the balance available.
The remaining balance of assistance available is limited to utilities assistance. Based on the City’s prior establishment of the program limiting assistance to only one form (rental assistance vs. utilities assistance), this internal policy has prevented residents pursuing both forms of assistance. In light of the fact that the rental assistance was significantly more ($4,800) vs. utilities assistance ($210), and the assistance is income based, there has been less activity with the utilities assistance program.
On August 24, 2021 the City Council CDBG Ad-Hoc Committee held a public meeting to consider further changes to the CDBG-CV assistance programs. At that time, Staff presented the status of the program, and suggested that the City policy preventing dual applications for both rental assistance and utilities assistance be lifted (allowing for those that have received rental assistance to also apply for utilities assistance). Staff further recommended that the maximum amount available for utilities assistance be increased from $210 to $500. The CDBG Ad-Hoc Committee agreed with Staff’s suggestions and has recommended the City Council approve these changes to the CDBG-CV assistance programs.
In order to increase the amount of utilities assistance available from $210 to $500 will require consideration of a Substantial Amendment to the CDBG Program, to be considered at a Public Hearing. The noticing period pursuant to CDBG-CV regulations allows for 5 day noticing, however, based on prior City Council direction, a minimum 15-day notice has been required which will postpone the public hearing to October 12 (there are only 14 days between this meeting and the next City Council meeting on September 28). Alternatively, for this purpose only, City Council may direct that Staff notice a public hearing for the September 28 meeting (a notice of less than 15 days), to allow for implementation of the revised CDBG-CV program rules sooner.
Eviction and Utility Moratoria
On March 24, 2020 the Rialto City Council adopted Ordinances 1637 and 1638 issuing a moratorium on eviction of commercial and residential tenants respectively. These moratoria are permissive under the California Governor’s Executive Order N-28-20 and subsequent revisions that suspend the state law the preempts the City’s abilities to enact such moratoria under normal conditions. On August 2, 2021 the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued an order through October 3, 2021 prohibiting evictions of “covered persons in Counties that are experiencing “substantial” or “high” COVID-19 infection rates. The moratorium was blocked by action of the United States Supreme Court on August 26, 2021. Even if the State or County were to adopt the same order, San Bernardino County would not fit under the metrics as defined in the order by the CDC. Unless there is a county, state, or federal change, all eviction moratoria in Rialto will end concurrent with the rollback of the Governor’s Executive order on September 30, 2021 unless rescinded earlier by the City Council.
In April of 2020 the Rialto Utility Authority (RUA) along with Rialto Water Services (RWS), instituted a moratorium on water shut-offs for non-payment for customers who have water/sewer accounts. In addition, the RUA/RWS is currently waiving all late fees associated with these accounts. The RUA/RWS is experiencing an increase in the past due accounts and amounts and encourages customers to take advantage of the CARES Act funds for utility and rental assistance. To provide adequate notice a process to transition to the regular billing and shut-off procedures could be used to align the end of the water shut-off and late fees moratorium with the end of the eviction moratoria.
Actions for Consideration
There are still significant impacts on our community, our businesses and to our City services. As such, a local emergency still exists in Rialto in response to COVID-19. The recommended action will continue the local emergency until the next regular Council meeting action on the subject.
The recommended action would remove the administrative restriction that limits resident participation to only one program. Effectively this would allow existing rental/mortgage program participants to apply for utility assistance and vice versa. The City would allow for expedited processing if application information on file is current.
The recommended action would lift the water shut-off and interest moratorium aligned with the end of eviction moratoria and staff would implement the following notification process:
1. Early October, disconnection notices will be sent out in compliance with SB998. For the noted disconnection date, both "notice of at least 10-days or earlier" and "past due balances are at least 85-days from bill date/ 60-days from due date" will be met. These 10-day notices will NOT be followed by final notifications. There will not be any physical disconnections until 85 days after the bill date showing amounts in arrears (October billing cycle).
2. For the 4 billing cycles in October, the following message will be included in the bills: "Disconnections & penalties will start again on September 30, 2021. Please make full payment or contact us at 909-280-2546 to avoid late penalties and disconnection by paying the outstanding amount or entering into a payment plan (conditions apply)”
3. On November 1, the late payment penalty function will be enabled in the billing software. It will trigger a 10% penalty for October invoices not paid and a 1.5% penalty for amounts overdue as of October 1.
4. For the 4 billing cycles in November, the following message will be included in the bills: “This invoice may show late penalties not included in previous invoices. Late penalties shown apply only to amounts late after September 30, 2021.”
5. Any subsequent 10-day notices will be prepared according to the schedule and rules promulgated through SB998. These notices will be followed by final notifications and door hangers prior to physical disconnection.
If the recommended changes to the City’s COVID-19 Utility Program are approved staff would work with RWS to ensure all delinquent RUA accounts are offered participation in the program even if the household already participates in the rental/mortgage assistance program. The goal is to ensure utility customers provide reasonable efforts to make payments to their delinquent utility accounts, and to continue providing assistance through extended payment plans on the delinquent amounts owed.
ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT
The requested City Council action is not a “Project” as defined by the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). Pursuant to Section 15378(a), a “Project” means the whole of an action, which has a potential for resulting in either a direct physical change in the environment, or a reasonably foreseeable indirect physical change in the environment. According to Section 15378(b), a Project does not include: (5) Organizational or administrative activities of governments that will not result in direct or indirect physical changes in the environment.
GENERAL PLAN CONSISTENCY
The requested action is consistent with General Plan goals 5.7 “Maintain a high level of emergency response capability” and 5.8 “Provide effective and comprehensive policing services that meet the safety needs of Rialto.”
LEGAL REVIEW
The City Attorney has reviewed and supports this staff report.
FINANCIAL IMPACT
The financial impact of the local emergency remains unknown at this time. Expenditures related to the event to date have been accomplished within existing purchase orders and the City Manager’s authority and have been attributed as an event expenditure.
Any additional expenditures using the Director of Emergency Services authority under the local emergency will be presented in subsequent reports to the City Council for the duration of the local emergency.
Operating Budget Impact
This report does not impact the Operating Budget.
Capital Improvement Budget Impact
This report does not impact the Capital Improvement Budget.
Licensing
This action does not trigger a requirement for a business license.
RECOMMENDATION
Staff recommends that the City Council:
• Receive an update on and confirm the continued existence of the Local Emergency throughout the City of Rialto in response to the COVID-19 outbreak;
• Provide direction on the form of any incentives that might be provided to increase the rate of vaccinations among Rialto residents;
• Receive an update on and approve adjustments to the administrative processes for the CDBG-CV assistance programs by 1) allowing applicants to apply for both the rental/mortgage assistance and utilities assistance programs, and 2) increase the utilities assistance program benefit from $210 to $500 requiring the scheduling of a Public Hearing for September 28 (with reduced notice period), or October 12 (with minimum 15-day notice period) to consider a Substantial Amendment to the CDBG Program;
• Approve the return to the normal billing and interest accrual process for water and wastewater services in conjunction with support of the expanded use of the COVID-19 Utility Program; and
• Provide any further recommendations in relation to the Local Emergency throughout the City of Rialto in response to the COVID-19 outbreak.