Dear Friends,
Not sure how long it takes locally, but in Santa Clara County where they have tested 11,782 patients, it takes 2.27 days on average.
On their dashboard, they call this "Average Days Turnaround Time".
Their dashboard is available at:
Regards,
John Troidl
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| Subject: | Please Rescind the Solar Lease Approval |
|---|---|
| Date: | Tue, 7 Apr 2020 17:27:16 -0700 |
| From: | Alan Pryor |
| To: | City Council <CityCouncilMembers@cityofdavis.org> |
To: Davis City Council
From: Alan Pryor
Date: April 6, 2020
Re: Failure of City to Perform Due Diligence on Bright Night Energy
Last Tuesday the Council approved an ill-advised no-bid, sole-sourced land lease option and contract to Bright Night Energy. There are many deficiencies in both the process and the underlying agreement accepted by the City. This communication, however, focuses on the experience and qualifications of the leasee, BrightNight Energy.
As part of the resolution authoring such a contract award, Council stated
Whereas, BrightNight is an energy company that focuses on delivering safe, reliable, high-value, low-cost renewable energy. BrightNight has developed, financed, constructed and operated more than 3,000 megawatts of renewable energy since 2009.
This information is completely false and Staff either knew this or should have known it. In fact, BrightNight is NOT a leading solar company as Staff otherwise represented to Council. They are actually a start-up company formed only a little over a year ago in January, 2019 as a Limited Liability Corporation in Delaware. It was only registered in California as a Foreign Limited Liability Corporation on February 11, 2020 which, perhaps not coincidentally, was the very same day that the Council reported out from Closed Session that they had directed staff to move forward to secure a preliminary agreement with BrightNight. BrightNight's website also only lists a residential home in El Dorado Hills as its sole US office and has no phone number listed.
Further, NONE of the projects listed on BrightNight's website (at https://brightnightenergy.com/markets-projects/) as evidence of their experience were projects in which BrightNight Energy had actually even participated as a developer or subcontractor. Nor could they have done so because BrightNight was not even in existence at the time the projects were completed!
For instance, under "Historic Project Successes" under the subheading of "One of the Largest Battery Storage Systems Providing Resource Adequacy", a massive battery storage project at Aliso Canyon in Southern California is listed. The write-up on BrightNight's website describes the system and implies it was done under the auspices of BrightNight but then only notes in a small footnote at the end of the description, "This project was developed by a BrightNight team member.". But they do not state the team member involved or the role they played in the project or which company that actually did developed the project.
Under "One of the World’s Largest Solar Power Plants", the 800 MW Mount Signal Solar Farm was discussed of which the first phase was operational in 2014. Mount Signal solar farm was developed by AES Solar and 8minute Renewables LLC not BrightNight as implied in their website. The nexus to BrightNight apparently is only listed as a footnote to this project description on the BrightNight's website stating that "This project was developed during Martin’s time as CEO and Founder of 8minutenergy Renewables, LLC". Martin Hermann is currently the CEO of BrightNight Energy.
Similarly, other solar projects touted on BrightNight's website as BrightNight projects were apparently otherwise also developed by 8minute Renewables LLC and NOT BrightNight Energy itself. There were no projects listed by BrightNight on their website that were actually developed by BrightNight Energy. In other word, it appears that BrightNight has never actually completed a single solar PV project which information Staff either erroneously or intentionally withheld from Council.
BrightNight also lists the logos of 40 large energy providers and utilities on its website under the banner heading "Our Experience Helping Major Players in the Energy Market" but does not disclose any actual services they provided to these entities or projects in which they participated. It would be useful to know exactly what goods or services, if any, were actually provided by BrightNight to any of these corporate entities or whether they are similarly claiming corporate experience where none actually exists.
These are not the makings of the experienced solar energy development company which is in direct conflict with the resolution passed by Council authorizing the execution of the land lease option agreement.
Further, one independent source, Strategic Solar Group, has one page on its website entitled "What are the Best Solar Farm Companies?" that list the following companies. Note that BrightNight is not listed:
BrightNight is clearly claiming experience and credit for projects for which they were not even involved. The deception by BrightNight in misrepresenting their corporate experience and capabilities is perhaps the most telling shortcoming of their application. The failure by Staff to report these shortcomings make it obvious that Staff has not even done the minimum requisite due diligence necessary to ascertain if BrightNight can even perform under the provisions of the solar land lease agreement.
Another discrepancy in the BrightNight due diligence performed by Staff is that under the Agenda for the February 11 Closed Session for the City Council meeting, the following parties are listed:
"Feb 11 Agenda
Closed Session pursuant to Government Code §54954.5:
Conference with Real Property Negotiators:
Property: APN 042-140-13 & APN 042-140-009
Agency Negotiators: City Manager Mike Webb; Assistant City Manager Ashley Feeney; Assistant City Manager Kelly Stachowicz; Public Works Utilities & Operations Director Stan Gryczko; City Attorney Inder Khalsa; Property Management Coordinator Tracie Reynolds
Negotiating Parties: Davis Energy Technology Center, LLC. or an Affiliate, in Either Case a Subsidiary of BrightNight, LLC (“BrightNight”)
Under Negotiation: Price and terms of payments" (Emphasis added)
However, Davis Energy Technology Center LLC is NOT listed on the California Secretary of States' website as a properly registered LLC in the State of California and execution of any agreement with such an entity by any municipality would therefore be a violation of California law and the contract itself would be null and void.
These misrepresentations by BrightNight are only the tip of the iceberg in terms of the other legal and financial shortcomings Staff has obviously taken in their evaluation of this project's merits for the City compared to what should have otherwise been investigated and disclosed had proper due diligence and/or disclosure to Council been performed.
Other glaring shortcomings in Staff's analysis of the contract include 1) failure to obtain competitive bids for the land lease in violation of state law and 2) failure to investigate other solar financing opportunities (such as was done Yolo Co) which is in violation of just plain common sense.
These failures will potentially cost the City or its utility-using Customers up to tens of millions of dollars and possibly deprive Valley Clean Energy of the economical utilization of a local source of renewable energy for the use of their customers in Yolo Co.
Neither Staff nor any of the Council members have ever had any significant experience in negotiating a large solar leases of this type and their inexperience and the obvious potential harm to the City's financial returns are now apparent. All of these problems could have been avoided had Staff's and Council's hubris otherwise been tabled and the incredible specific solar and industry expertise of the City's Utility Commission and Natural Resources Commission been called upon to weigh in on the project's merits.
I just read that a number of members of the Utilities Commission and/or the Natural Resources Commission have similarly weighed in asking you to rescind the lease and reopen the process of evaluation. Given the obvious errors committed by Staff in reporting all the facts and circumstances to you, I believe this is the least you can do to try to rectify the problem.
Respectfully submitted,
Alan Pryor
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The following letter was sent to members of the Davis City Council today.
We respectfully request that the Mayor and Council place an item on tonight’s or a future council meeting agenda to reconsider its approval of Item 9 of the March 24, 2020 Solar Lease decision. In its reconsideration we believe Council should (1) direct staff to research the fiscal, legal and business issues identified in this letter, and (2) pending the results of that research, rescind Council’s approval of the Item 9 resolution to allow the City Manager to execute the Lease Option Agreement and Term Sheet (collectively, the “Agreement”) with BrightNight that will “give the solar energy company an Option to Lease up to 235 acres of city-owned land near the City’s Wastewater Treatment Plant on County Road 28H for a Commercial Solar Farm and Solar Energy Testing Facility.”
Our review of the Agreement to date has uncovered serious concerns which we believe have not been fully considered by the City, and that the resolution and lease, as written, establish a legal arrangement that is harmful and disadvantageous to the City and residents in several respects. We, individually and collectively, stand ready to work with staff to facilitate their research of these issues. We are preparing a detailed document fleshing out each issue, which will be available shortly on request.
In summary, the issues are as follows:
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https://images.app.goo.gl/ggpTgjQXgs5D9SQ9A
Dear Friends,
In science we have "stronger evidence" and "weaker evidence" as we rarely have proof. But stronger evidence is a whole lot better than weaker evidence. And it is more "actionable"…. that is, it is something that is solid enough for us to act on.
We want our government to use the most current and robust science to make decisions. Particularly big decisions like "sheltering in place" and closing or restricting access to parks and other amenities that have well known health promotion effects.
So, in this ongoing discussion of the corona virus/covid-19, the flu, etc, let's pay attention to the level of evidence that "experts" are using to make decisions for our society.
And let's consider whether or not we properly fund our Federal, State, and Local public health agencies which are supposed to track illnesses (who is sick from or dying from what?) enough to actually do their jobs.
Respectfully,
John
PS Please check out the link to Evidence Pyramid.
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Dear Yolo County folks… the numbers for CV/Covid in Yolo County as so small it is hard to make statistical inferences from them.
But not so for Santa Clara County, Northern Caifornia's worst zone for the corona virus. Here is the link to the Santa Clara County Public Health Department Corona Virus Dashboard:
https://www.sccgov.org/sites/phd/DiseaseInformation/novelcoronavirus/Pages/dashboard.aspx
Please note the large sample size from this pool of symptomatic patients who were referred by their provider for the CV test: 11607 tests. Results: 10.55% were positive and 89.45% were negative. The average turnaround time for the test was 2.88 days.
Please note: Santa Clara folks tell me that those positive results are "tight". Their testing standards are such that they avoided false positives as much as possible.
As you can imagine these results raise a lot of questions:
This is National Public Health Week folks…. let's appreciate what public health people do including their unusual skills in analyzing data. This is not a clinical skill, this is a PUBLIC HEALTH skill.
Enjoy the dashboard viewing!
John J. Troidl, MBA, PhD
(I have a PhD in public health and have also taught various courses in public health for a number of years).
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Unprecedented Push for Development in Uncertain Times
City of Davis Commissions directed to focus on huge development project as top USA officials describe this week as "the hardest and saddest", "Pearl Harbor… our 9/11 moment" and "shocking to some".
"This is going to be the hardest and saddest week of most Americans' lives, quite frankly," U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams told "Fox News Sunday." "This is going to be our Pearl Harbor moment, our 9/11 moment, only it's not going to be localized. It's going to be happening all over the country."
Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said bluntly on CBS's "Face the Nation" show, "This is going to be a bad week. It's going to be shocking to some." – Globalsecurity.org, April 5, 2020.
***
SO then why is the City of Davis continuing the process to review the huge, far-reaching Aggie Research Campus proposal this week? The Bicycling, Transportation and Street Safety (BTSSC) and Open Space and Habitat (OSHC) Commissions – all volunteers – are being tasked to review and thoughtfully comment on hundreds of pages of documentation for meeting this week – the OSHC meeting is at 6:30pm today – while they are essentially being asked to "stay in their cellars", "evacuate the children to the countryside or England" (WWII references) and monitor the email/social media of family and loved ones to see who is dying. And then no one can attend funerals.
The City Council clearly recognizes the urgency of COVID-19 as it has declared an emergency and created protections for renters, mortgage holders and others. Its meeting tomorrow will focus on COVID-19. I am happy to continue proposing ideas and so on to the City (and County) and focus on that. (I’ve gotten some helpful responses, too, from Rental Resources and Supervisor Provenza.) It's not only difficult to focus on anything else, to be asked to do so is cruel.
Davis City Council: Please immediately postpone the process for ARC. It's an abuse of community process, and it's an abuse of Commissioners, their families and loved ones… some of whom will not be with us in one week.
Please also see Roberta Millstein's March 17 letter to the City Council., "Need to focus on essentials for City's COVID-19 Emergency"
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By Eileen M. Samitz
This Tuesday, at 7pm the City Council meeting will include a presentation by Dr. Ron Chapman the Yolo County Public Health Officer. The meeting will be televised and public comment will be allowed via voice-mail in and email since public attendance cannot be allowed due to COVID-19 precautions (details below).
What needs to be addressed at this meeting is the need for UCD to help with the control of the COVID-19 outbreak like UCLA is doing by planning now, ahead of a surge in the disease spread. This needs to include utilizing campus facilities including UCD vacant dorm and student apartment spaces. Several weeks ago, Governor Newsom stated that he was communicating with UC and the State Universities to plan ahead for use of their student housing and other campus facilities to help with space needed for quarantine and hospital overspill.
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A book review by Nathan Hendrix
In 2012, truck driver Kristopher “KC” Clarke disappeared from the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation in North Dakota. Yellow Bird: Oil, Murder, and a Woman’s Search for Justice in Indian Country by Sierra Crane Murdoch is the story of his disappearance, the reservation he disappeared from, and the woman that spent years searching for him. Lissa Yellow Bird has led a colorful life; she has struggled with addiction, worked as a stripper, and spent time incarcerated.
When she heard about KC’s disappearance, she decided it was up to her to find him. This search became an obsession that damaged her relationship with her children and put her in conflict with the powers that be in the reservation. Clarke worked as a truck driver for a company that hauled water to and waste water from drilling sites. He had told people he was going to visit family, turned in his company credit card, and then disappeared. He didn’t take any of his belongings and his truck wasn’t found for months.
Beyond the disappearance of KC Clarke, the history of the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation is also covered in this book, including how their original homesteads were flooded when the government dammed the river that passed through the reservation. Crane describes the poverty that was rampant in the reservation prior to the oil boom that brought in millions of dollars. The oil money meant financial security to some, but it also brought drug addiction and tragedy to others. The reservation is shown as a kind of Wild West, where reservation police have no jurisdiction over non-Indians on the reservation and local police have no jurisdiction on reservation land.
Yellow Bird is a glimpse into a culture that not many have experienced and clearly shows the danger that lax regulations pose to people and the environment. The history of the reservation is fascinating and the damage done by oil companies is horrifying, but the book drags when the author delves too deeply into Lissa’s family life. I enjoyed Yellow Bird and I look forward to Ms. Murdoch’s next book.
Nathan Hendrix is an avid reader and paramedic who grew up in Davis, but now lives in Rocklin with his wife and daughter.
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(From press release) During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Davis Farmers Market remains open as an essential grocery provider.
A few community members have expressed concern, but Executive Director Randii MacNear reminds patrons that “this is not Picnic in the Park.” County and state health officials are clear that Certified Farmers Markets are vital to community food security. The market – open from 3 to 6 p.m. Wednesdays and 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturdays in Central Park – is a place to grab fresh food straight from the producer.
“We are grateful for the many customers who have commented by email, phone or social media posts, thanking us for keeping the market open, and for providing a safe marketplace,” MacNear said.
The market has reorganized vendor booth setups and added spacing between sellers. There are lots of signs requesting social distancing, and extra hand-washing stations. MacNear encourages shoppers to come alone to ease crowds.
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Davis School Children Demand Schools Reopen.
Kids claim parents are terrible roommates and explain they are tired of trying to teach them how to do Common Core math.
“My dad is an idiot. I can’t imagine what they taught in school back then. He can’t do even the really basic stuff I learned like last year,” said one third grader. “He kept muttering something about ‘carrying’? What does ‘carrying’ have to do with math?”
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Davisite 