City of Alexandria, Virginia
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MEMORANDUM
DATE: NOVEMBER 5, 2014
TO: THE HONORABLE MAYOR AND MEMBERS OF CITY COUNCIL
FROM: RASHAD M. YOUNG, CITY MANAGER/s/
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Consideration of a Request to Authorize the Release of Contingent Reserve Funds for Citywide Street Light Assessments.
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ISSUE: Release of $7,956 in FY 2015 Contingent Reserve funding for street light outage assessments.
RECOMMENDATION: That City Council:
1. Authorize the release of $7,956 from the FY 2015 Contingent Reserves to fund two street light outage assessments which will be performed by City staff.
BACKGROUND: City Council in the FY 2015 Add/Delete budget deliberation process added $7,956 to Contingent Reserves and requested that staff perform a Citywide lighting outage assessment. Dominion Virginia Power currently reports approximately 100 street light outages in the City, out of a total of 9,961 lights. In the previous 12 months, Dominion reported approximately 1,000 streetlight outages. The majority of street light outages are the result of bulb failure. Other causes include storm damage to power lines and circuit problems.
Per the City's franchise agreement, Dominion performs necessary repairs and maintenance to the street lights once the outage is reported. However, Dominion does not actively assign staff to search for street light outages. Citizens currently report outages and other problems directly to Dominion by phone or via the new Report and Check Outages page on Dominion's website. Citizens report outages to the City through its Call.Click.Connect. system. Call.Click.Connect. staff are currently scheduled to receive training from Dominion staff in November 2014 on how to research outages in the Dominion database to determine if the outages have previously been reported. The City then provides street light outage information for those lights not previously reported to Dominion for resolution.
DISCUSSION: The two proposed street light outage assessments will be performed by City staff, after sunset and before sunrise, in fall 2014 and spring 2015. Staff estimates it will take up to three weeks to complete each assessment. The assessments will capture those lights not functioning and not previously reported to Dominion. Those lights not functioning and not previously reported to Dominion will be reported to Dominion for repairs. The goal of the assessment is to reduce street light outages and improve public safety Citywide.
FISCAL IMPACT: The $7,956 requested would be utilized for the overtime costs for City staff to perform the two proposed street light assessments. It will take approximately 100 hours of staff field personnel time for each assessment.
ATTACHMENTS: None.
STAFF:
Mark Jinks, Deputy City Manager
Yon Lambert, Acting Director, Department of Transportation & Environmental Services (T&ES)
Nelsie L. Birch, Director, Office of Management and Budget (OMB)
Bill Skrabak, Deputy Director, Infrastructure and Environmental Quality, T&ES
Maurice Daly, P.E., Division Chief, Infrastructure and Right of Way, T&ES
Antonio Baxter, Division Chief, Strategic Management Services, T&ES
Joann Maldonado, Division Chief, Office of Community Engagement