Agency Name

Merced County Community Action Agency

Contact Person

Mike Polinko

Title

Program Director

Phone Number

(209) 723-1225 x 1330

Email

mpolinko@mercedcaa.org

Signature

Name

Brenda Callahan-Johnson

Title

Executive Director

Phone Number

(209) 723-4565

Email

Brenda@mercedcaa.org

Date

8/31/09

Approved by

Approval Date

Describe your current progress towards your local plan goals and ramp-up to increase capacity and outreach in anticipation of receiving the DOE ARRA Production contract.

The initial thing we needed to do was to move our operation. Our previous location simply could have never accommodated the additional staff and storage needs that the ARRA contract demands. Our spacious new warehouse, which gives us over 6X the storage capacity, will allow us to keep just about everything on hand and also allow us to make more purchases in bulk, saving money and also time in trips to the hardware store. We will even be able store our large appliances, such as water heaters, stoves and swamp coolers. To this end, we have negotiated and secured bulk purchase prices on all of these items with several of our vendors. Our IT department also spent a considerable amount of time getting the new office up and running to meet the electronic reporting needs of the contract, everything had to be outfitted and installed from scratch.

With the hiring of 8 new Crewmembers and one new Assessor, we have doubled the size of our Weatherization crew. All these new Crewmembers will attend the 8/24-8/28 Basic Weatherization class at the PG&E Training Center in Stockton.

We have also been working with our existing staff and expanding our knowledge and training. We sent two crewmembers to the Combustion Appliance Safety training the week of 7/20 and this pair also attended the Duct Blaster/Blower Door class the week of 8/17. This means that we have 8 members of the crew fully trained and certified in CAS testing and DB/BD diagnostics.

We have also secured the necessary bids and submitted our CSD 558's for the vehicles we are going to need in order to meet the ARRA production schedule. And we have already ordered and received some of the diagnostic equipment we'll need--3 new Blower Doors, 3 Duct Blasters and 2 more monoxors.

And, perhaps most importantly, we have made good progress with all our other contracts. We are poised and ready for the receipt of the ARRA funds.

In reviewing the amount of your allocation, will you be able to build capacity enough to accept and spend the total amount for your entire service area?

Yes

If not, what % of the allocation can you accept?

n/a

For multi-county agencies, will you have the capacity to spend funds proportionate to each county's allocation and meet the 50% threshold in each county by the required deadline?

Yes

Describe how you will increase your outreach efforts to reach the necessary number of low-income clients needed to meet your ARRA production goals. If you are a multi-county agency, describe how this will be accomplished in each county.

We have been preparing for the receipt of the ARRA funds since April. As of this writing, our outreach efforts have already netted us 634 homes on our Merced Weatherization waiting list and 522 in Madera . This should be more than enough to meet the production demand of the DOE/ARRA contract. And the applications will, obviously, continue to come in over the next two years. Perhaps we are lucky. Our LIHEAP program has always provided us will a more than ample supply of homes. To date, we have never out-stripped our available housing stock in either county. But we will continue to maintain, and amplify, our outreach efforts in both counties, efforts which will include sending home flyers with every student enrolled in the school system, canvassing neighborhoods and apartment complexes, appearances at senior clubs and nutrition sites and at all Housing Authority locations.

Our friends at the Community Action Partnership of Madera County have also pledged their help in this effort.

Identify the main Action Steps required to achieve the goals above utilizing specifics such as timelines, potential partners, marketing plans, etc.

1.     Follow through with current applicants.

2.     Continued advertisement with yard signs, PSA's and through other Agency programs.

3.     Printing and distribution of flyers by 1/10/10.

4.     Continuing community presentations.

Detail progress made in this arena with respect to actual, tangible achievements. Be specific with regards to dates, details, and participants.

1.     634 eligible homes are on the waiting list for Merced County.

2.     522 eligible homes are on the waiting list for Madera County.

3.     Yard signs advertising the program have been produced and are ready to use with the very first home we weatherize with these ARRA funds.

Describe how you will increase your outreach efforts to educate, and possibly partner with, your local elected officials. If you are a multi-county agency, describe how this will be accomplished in each county.

On the Merced County Community Action Agency Board of Directors we have 5 elected officials. This fact, in and of itself, creates a partnership. These elected officials are informed of our program's progress on a monthly basis. These officials also visit project sites to learn first-hand about the program's progress and have invited the Agency to council meetings to present programmatic information on a routine basis.

In addition, we plan on conducting independent presentations at various city council meetings and to local service organizations.

In Madera county, we plan on using the Community Action Partnership's contacts to conduct this type of outreach.

Identify the main Action Steps required to achieve the goals above utilizing specifics such as timelines, contact people, etc.

1.     Continuing education of Board members.

2.     Scheduling City Council presentations by 1/10/10.

3.     Coordinate press releases with elected officials.

Detail progress made in this arena with respect to actual, tangible achievements. Be specific with regards to dates, details, and participants.

1.     Elected Board members have been educated about the WX program's expansion since April of this year.

2.     Elected officials have invited have invited us to speak at public meetings. Staff has conducted several of these.

3.     Individual meetings and tours of homes under weatherization have taken place with Atwater and Merced City Council members and the Board of Supervisors.

Describe how you will increase your outreach efforts to educate and inform the community at large and create an environment that fosters partnerships in your local community. If you are a multi-county agency, describe how this will be accomplished in each county.

Our marketing/outreach plan includes the inclusion of local employment-based agencies in the hiring of our additional Weatherization workers, adding ARRA information to our recently updated webpage, local advertising in the form of PSA's, presentations to local service organizations, and signage in each yard of the houses we are working on.

Identify the main Action Steps required to achieve the goals above utilizing specifics such as timelines, contact people, etc.

1.     In partnership with the WIB, HSA, EDD and the Merced County Office of Education, we have hired unemployed workers.

2.     Our webmaster has been contacted to update our webpage.

3.     PSA's on the program have been sent and announcements have started.

Detail progress made in this arena with respect to actual, tangible achievements. Be specific with regards to dates, details, and participants.

1.     Yard signs have been produced.

2.     We have had some positive press coverage.

3.     Formed new partnerships with agencies (MCOE and EDD) through our WX workers employment program.

Only eligible households are served and that priority will be given to vulnerable populations and those with high energy burden per DOE regulations.

Income and household size verification will remain stringent, we have always insisted on more documentation than some of our sister agencies and that required by CSD. We have always insisted, for example, that an applicant prove somehow their household size (social security cards or driver licenses for all adults in the household; social security cards, shot records or school IDs for all children).

We have also always prided ourselves on the high percentage of vulnerable populations and high energy burden households that we serve. Our priority point system works well: applications will continue to be ordered so that those groups are served first.

Only feasible measures are installed, all measures billed to CSD were installed, and workmanship meets CSD standards.

Our main Assessor/Field Supervisor has 16 years in the business and we have brought back another who has just about the same level of experience. Several of our Crewleaders also have considerable experience. Our staff is veteran, seasoned. We will continue to maintain the same Quality Assurance routine that has earned us glowing reviews from RHA during the last few years of field inspections. The Program Director will continue to spot check homes and we will also conduct post-inspections on every single home that we weatherize,100% of production.

All records meet CSD standards, billing is accurate and truthful, and reports are submitted on time.

Our file system also got high marks from the last few CSD Monitoring visits. We will be doing time studies and have in place before we receive any ARRA monies a methodology to bill our support costs that is in compliance with OMB regulations.

Our reports have always been submitted in a timely fashion. They will continue to be so.

Describe in detail the applicable Action Items that will need to be addressed in order to achieve compliance in the above three areas. Specify how these action items will be achieved through the concepts of who is responsible, how and when the actions will occur, and why the action is important.

1.     Eligibility: Our Office Technician is responsible for screening all files and maintaining them in Energy Burden and Priority Point order, so that household with higher EBs and those with vulnerable members are helped first. Our Assessors do a double-check of this as they pull files to work. The Program Director also spot checks this during his review of them prior to billing.

2.     Quality Assurance: Our Crewleaders do this on every single measure that was installed in a home. Everything is checked again during the Post-Inspection and during random field checks by our Field Supervisor and the Program Director.

3.     Billing/reports: Office technician invoices all the files and this work is checked by Program Director who reviews every single file prior to the monthly billing.

Position

Total

Admin / Fiscal

8

Program Management

2

Program Support

5

Intake

3

Outreach

0

Other -

0

Position

Total

Admin / Fiscal

1

Program Management

0

Program Support

0

Intake

0

Outreach

0

Other -

0

Describe your plans for building up your in-house workforce to meet the capacity needed to perform the ARRA program.

The department has already grown during the last few months, and we still plan on hiring at least one more Intake Worker and an Administrative Assistant for the Program Director. We may also need another data entry clerk and our fiscal staff may also have to expand even further (we have already added a part-time clerk) to handle the Davis-Bacon accounting requirements. This situation will be monitored closely and we will add staff as needed.

Describe how you will develop partnerships with local workforce investment advocates in order to achieve the objectives outlined above.

We used local employment-based agencies in the hiring of our eight additional Weatherization crewmembers. We will use these same contacts to fill the remaining positions mentioned above. Our Executive Director sits on the local WIB.

Provide a timeline that corresponds to the above workforce development plan.

We held a Job Fair on 6/24 during which we interviewed 26 people. Prior to that, presentations were given to the following groups:

Merced County Workforce Development, WorkNet

Merced County Office of Education, FAST program

State of California Department of Rehabilitation

Merced College, Workplace Learning Resource Center

Employment Development Department, Workforce Services

Employment Development Department, Job Service Office

Merced County Human Services Agency, CalWORKS

Merced Adult School

Merced County Human Services Agency, All Dads Matter

The eight WX crewmembers we hired from that Job Fair fulfilled our major workforce need. We will use these partnerships that we have created, and some general classified advertising, to fill the positions that remain open.

Describe your plans for building up your workforce by outsourcing to meet the capacity needed to perform the ARRA program.

We will not be outsourcing or subcontracting the work, other than major HVAC repair and replacement and the delivery and removal of our refrigerators.

Describe your action plan for outsourcing, including a description of the RFQ/bidding process, how interested parties will be informed of this opportunity, and provide a timeline for aligning subcontractors to provide timely delivery of services. Also describe your action plan for oversight of subcontractors.

We will be informing all the HVAC contractors in our service area of the opportunity to bid on our subcontracted work. This will most likely be done via an ad in our local newspapers.

Our Action Plan to oversee their work will be the same as always, we will conduct a post-inspection to make sure that the work was done properly, safely, and up to CSD Weatherization standards.

If you are not outsourcing any of your workforces, explain why.

n/a

Item

Quantity

Est. Cost

16' Box Trucks

4

$143,000

Small pickup truck

1

$17,469

Insulation hopper

1

$16,000

Identify any barriers that you feel you may face in meeting the requirements of ARRA (subcontracting, workforce development, outreach & marking, quality assurance and oversight, compliance with DOE requirements, fiscal requirements and reporting, performance).

So far, we do not foresee any significant "barriers."

Describe what assistance you will need from CSD.

CSD has always been a valued partner. Keep up the good work!

Document

Attached?

Ramp Up Schedule

Yes

Field Staff Training Logs for Agency Staff & Subcontractors

Yes

Diagnostic Equipment Log

Yes

Disclosure of Findings

Yes

Disclosure of Legal Proceedings

Yes

Enter any comments you wish to make relative to the Local Plan and ARRA.

Thank you for the opportunity to participate in this effort to get our economy moving again. It's great having a President who believes in what you do. Weatherization works!