The staff and council of the City of Hayward raised several issues during the meeting held on 18 February 2014. The staff and council raised a report. The report presented the Program Design Document. The design served as a manual for the Pay as You Save (PAYS) initiative of Green Hayward. The initiative is a pilot program, which makes it the first initiative of levying the revenue at source. The initiative aims at raising revenue for the state administration although its primary objective is to provide social amenities to the people. The staff and council noted that the property owners in most of the families would be able to participate in water conservation and energy conservation by the use of measures that are energy efficient. The measures and installations are advantageous, in a way, that there is no start up cost. The customer’s water bill mitigates the cost of setting up the measures and mechanisms used to bring about the improvement.
In addition, the staff and council raised an issue concerning Regional Climate Protection Authority (RCPA). RCPA received funding from BayREN, which selected Hayward to benefit from the technical assistance offered in designing a program of PAYS. RCPA is an agency that operates with the aim of the provision of assistance rather than profit. The staff and council insisted that the cost incurred by the administration is recoverable through a surcharge on the bills paid by the consumers whenever they use water. The staff clarified that the new circulation pumps maybe used to improve the distribution of hot water.
Issues Raised by SEIU 1021
The SEIU 1021 raised issues concerning the impact that the new program design may have in the region. The impact occurs in several sectors of the region’s social and economic divide. The first impact would be in economic terms. The program design enables owners of property to save on the costs that they incur whenever they use the water and energy amenities (Karen 2). In addition, there will be no increase in the utility bill. The amount surcharged on the bill caters for the expected incremental cost of the bill. The local contractors will also have a share of their benefit since there is a higher workload because of the increased number of installations within the locality. The increased number of installations results from installations made to ensure that there are safety measures.
The next issue raised by the SEIU 1021 is the fiscal benefit aspect of the design. The grant from BayREN covers nearly all the costs associated with coming up with the PAYS model. The design will not be an initiative of the available general fund. The staff’s remunerations comes from administration fees that are levied on the participants in the program. On the contrary, the staff opposed the suggested move on remuneration. They wanted a loan borrowed New Resource Bank for funding the installation of efficiency measures and their remuneration. Their move is uncalled for since all expenses payable are within the BayREN grant.
Decision based on the Report
Based on the report, the program design has approval. The structure of payment requires 0.80 dollars in the starting bill charges. In addition, customers save up to 1 dollar per unit of consumption, which is a significant amount. The staff and council nod in approval as they hear this hence the report should go through to implementation.
Works Cited
Karen, M. O. "Can Watershed Management Unite Town and Country?" Society & Natural Resources (2014): n. pag. Print.
