Mayor Dwight C. Jones’ administration has killed a plan to use energy savings to finance critical improvements to more than 30 aging city buildings, the Free Press has learned.

The city’s chief administrative officer, Selena Cuffee-Glenn, quietly made the decision in the past few weeks.

She did so after Siemens, the company the city hired to provide a detailed proposal, offered to undertake $13 million in improvements to city buildings that would be repaid over time from savings the city achieved from cutbacks in electricity and natural gas use.

Her decision snuffs a potentially significant source of funding to replace inefficient, outdated and poorly functioning boilers, air conditioners, windows and light fixtures in City Hall, the John Marshall Courts Building, city fire stations, recreation centers and other municipal buildings.

It also appears to undercut Mayor Dwight C. Jones’ efforts to reduce the city’s carbon footprint.

City spokeswoman Tammy D. Hawley, in response to a Free Press query, confirmed that that the chief administrative officer decided not to proceed with financing the work as proposed.

“We don’t have the debt capacity to dedicate to this effort,” Ms. Hawley stated, adding that the city’s ability to borrow was not properly investigated by former staff members who pushed the plan. She said that other funding ideas, including a state loan, also have been reviewed and rejected as not in the city’s best interest.

However, she stated, some of the work is going to get done.

“At this time,” she stated, “many of the smaller projects are being undertaken by city employees, such as insulation in City Hall and lighting upgrades. The city also is seeking to expand the kind and type of projects that can be successfully handled internally.”

However, Ms. Cuffee-Glenn’s decision has attracted the attention of Richmond City Council members, who are just now learning that the city will have to pay $300,000 to Siemens for conducting the detailed energy audit and crafting the proposal that is being shelved.

City Councilman Parker C. Agelasto, 5th District, who has been a staunch advocate for the energy savings program, said he is “disappointed that the administration made this decision without any consultation” with the nine council members.
   

Mr. Agelasto said the city’s plan was fairly limited because it did not include streetlights or school buildings, many of which have failing heating and cooling systems that need replacement.

“Given the limited debt capacity facing the city for the next several years, City Council needs creative financing solutions to pay for upgrades to our city and school facilities. Performance contracting is one of these options,” he said. 

He noted that sources told him that Richmond could have received a $10 million loan through the state’s VirginiaSAVES Green Community Program, with an anticipated interest rate below 2 percent, to help the city move forward on this effort.

This is lower than the 3.16 percent interest rate the city recently received on its sale of general obligation bonds and would result in additional savings to taxpayers, he said.

Mr. Agelasto called it “unfortunate” that the city is putting the effort on hold at the same time that Richmond is considering setting up a loan program that would enable private property owners to upgrade the energy efficiency of their office, apartment and industrial buildings.
 

He is working to develop the local ordinances for such a program, called PACE, or Property Assessed Clean Energy, which the Virginia General Assembly authorized during its last session.

Under the state-approved program, PACE allows owners of outdated buildings to use the assessed value of their property to finance energy upgrades and to repay the borrowing through special assessments on their real estate tax bills.


The city has long needed to invest more into its buildings to keep them operational. When Mayor Jones first came into office in 2009, City Hall and the John Marshall Courts Building were operating on emergency energy systems because of failed boilers that needed to be replaced. Only part of the work was done at the time to get the buildings back on line.

Support for using energy savings had won significant administration support after Mayor Jones won re-election in 2012. However, support waned after its main advocate, James A. Jackson, abruptly resigned as the city’s director of Public Works last May after a dispute with Ms. Cuffee-Glenn, who had just been appointed CAO.