The Morongo Unified School District Board of Education met in a special study/workshop session Tuesday evening, to review the three proposals for solar energy electricity generation that were presented to it last week. Most of the audience were members of the solar advisory committee. Reporter Dan Stork reviews how discussions went…
Questions from the Board of Education about the solar proposals were few, and were mostly limited to asking whether the comparisons done by the independent financial analyst were fair. Assistant Superintendent Sharon Flores and ad hoc solar committee member Marina West said they were. An audience member criticized all proposals on two financial grounds, saying that bond financing would be cheaper than a lease agreement, and that ground-mounted panels would be cheaper than shade structure mounting. The rejoinders to these suggestions were, respectively, that schools that buy systems can’t take the tax credits, and that ground-based systems would take away play space from schools. Board member Chris Proudfoot would like District staff to make a vendor recommendation, while member Karalee Hargrove felt strongly that the Board itself should generate a recommendation, based upon reading the vendor proposals. Interim Superintendent Tom Baumgarten was asked whether the vendors had been invited to the workshop—a single representative from one vendor was present. Baumgarten said that the meeting was noticed according to Brown Act provisions, and no direct notice was given to the vendors. The decision timeline calls for the Board to give staff direction on a favored vendor at its October 21 meeting, followed by contract negotiations, and with a target of November 18 for a public hearing and vendor selection.
The single vendor representative present, Alex Smith, from PSOmas FMG, whose firm placed last in the financial analyst’s projected savings ranking, told us that he disputed the analyst’s methodology, and was unhappy that he was not allowed to present his objections at the workshop. (He knew about the meeting from monitoring the District’s web site.)
SCHOOL BOARD SOLAR WORKSHOP GETS SOMEWHAT HEATED
