Tracy mayoral candidate unveils green plan

Mayoral candidate Celeste Garamendi on Thursday called for Tracy to become a leader in solar and renewable energy.

At a press conference she organized in the parking lot of Sarvey's Shoes, Garamendi and a half-dozen people who work in the solar industry touted the benefits that come when a business or home harnesses the energy of the sun.

Garamendi's plan follows an idea pitched earlier this month by Galt Mayor Andrew Meredith to put his city at the forefront of the energy sustainability movement.

Garamendi chose the shoe store as the backdrop for her announcement because its owner, Bob Sarvey, installed solar panels on the building's roof in 2002 and cut his electric bills from $7,200 a year to $400. It cost him about $115,000 to install the panels, but he said he got about $64,000 back in tax breaks and rebates. He estimated that with rate hikes since, he'd be paying more than $10,000 a year today to Pacific Gas and Electric Co. had he not made the switch.

Sarvey also supports Garamendi politically.

"There are proven projects here we can use in this region to promote the use of solar here," Garamendi said.

The candidate also pointed to a $7 million solar farm built this year by the South San Joaquin Irrigation District, which delivers power to its plant that treats water from the Stanislaus River that the district has rights to use. Most of the cost of the plant was offset by tax breaks and grant money, and the district expects to cut more than $300,000 a year from its $439,000 annual PG&E bill.

Garamendi, a longtime critic of the City Council and activist who helped usher the 2000 passage of Measure A, the city's slow-growth law, wants to turn the city-owned 150-acre former antenna farm on Schulte Road into a solar farm.

She wants to slice red tape by waiving fees for people and businesses that install solar energy, and she proposes eliminating business license fees for alternative energy companies that make Tracy their home, with the hope it will grow a budding green industry and create good jobs in the city.

Sarvey called getting the necessary permits for his solar panels "a nightmare," and the candidate said that needs to change.

Garamendi also proposes a requirement that all future city buildings include solar power and other energy-saving facets. She also said the city should put solar panels on buildings it has now, such as City Hall, a building that opened a year ago.

"We need to go back and retrofit buildings," she said.

Joseph Silveira, owner of Renewable Integrator Inc., a renewable energy company in Tracy, acknowledged, as others in the industry did, that solar power is expensive to install.

But, particularly for businesses, he said, "it's not a cost, it's an investment" that pays for itself after several years and allows merchants to reap financial rewards for many years thereafter.

"It can happen, and we need to make it happen in Tracy," Garamendi said.

Galt's Meredith is proposing a bond-financed assesment district to pay for solar panel installation. Home owners could opt-in to the district and then pay an annual charge of $100 to $1,000 to pay for the panels and avoid the large investment in the installation.

Meredith fashioned his plan on one drafted in the city of Berkeley.