The City of Brea has been sweeping City streets for over 50 years. In early 2016, City Council directed staff to explore the possibility of contracting these services and compare contract costs to in-house costs and assess if long term ongoing savings could be achieved.
From mid-2016 to late 2018, staff provided a number of updates to City Council either at Study Session or General Session. These discussions resulted with the implementation of a street sweeping pilot program that reduced the street sweeping frequency from weekly to twice per month and suspended street sweeping enforcement. The pilot program would be for one year from March 2019 through March 2020 and the street sweeping would continue to be performed by City staff. Given the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic, the City Council extended the pilot program on May 5, 2020 for an additional six months.
The following provides a summary of data collection and findings coming from the pilot program. This information is broken down by the following categories: Parked Cars, Complaint Log, Street Sweeping Enforcement, Options, Cost Summary/Comparisons, Conclusions/Findings and Recommendation.
Parked Cars
Since the implementation of the pilot program, our Street Sweeping Operator was asked to count the number of parked cars during street sweeping days. To allow a little time for adjustment and to fine tune our counting method, the counting didn't effectively begin until middle of April 2019. The following is a summary of the parking data for the original pilot program from March 2019 to March 2020 and the extended period from March 2020 to present:
Original Pilot Term Period (Pre-Covid): Attachment A1:
• Average of 265 parked cars on any given street sweeping day and a monthly average of 4,017 parked cars.
• Number of parked cars has increased since implementation of the pilot program, but had stabilized at the average until the later part of March 2020 when the parking numbers started to increase due to the Covid stay-at-home order.
• Highest concentration of parked cars include the areas northeast of Brea Boulevard/Lambert Road, southeast of Brea Boulevard/Imperial Highway and northeast of Lambert/Valencia. All parking concentrations are depicted in red on Attachment A2.
For each parked car, approximately 40 linear feet of street does not get swept due to space needed to drive around parked cars. On average, there would be approximately 10,600 curb feet (2 curb miles) not swept per day or approximately 30 curb miles not swept per month on a worst case. This is approximately 4% of the total 806 curb miles to be swept each month.
Extended Pilot Term Period (Covid): Attachment B:
• Number of parked cars has significantly increased since implementation of the Covid restrictions when more people are at home or are working from home.
• Average of 504 parked cars on any given street sweeping day and a monthly average of 8,059 parked cars.
Although these numbers are significantly higher than the original pilot program period (Pre-Covid), staff recommends that any City Council direction be based on data from the original pilot term since parking patterns are expected to restore to Pre-Covid conditions in the future.
Complaint Log: Attachment C:
Since the beginning of the pilot program, staff has been tracking complaints using a worksheet that tracks the following categories, which overlapped in many cases:
• Enforcement
• Frequency
• Inquiry
• General Complaint
In all, staff has received 88 complaints since the initiation of this pilot program. Staff provided clarification or responses to the person making the complaint at the time it was received. 85% of the complaints received to date came Pre-Covid and the rest came in after April 2020. Also, 40.9% of the complaints were regarding Enforcement Only, 27.3% of complaints were regarding the Frequency Only, 13.6% of complaints were regarding both Enforcement and Frequency. The remaining 18.2% were either general inquiries or request for clarifications.
Street Sweeping Parking Enforcement
As previously noted, street sweeping enforcement was suspended during the pilot term. At the time, Police Department (PD) had two Parking Control Officers assigned to follow the street sweepers and issue citations for parking during street sweeping days. After enforcement was suspended, PD through attrition did not fill these positions and they’re both currently vacant. In addition, one of the parking control vehicles has reached is useful life and is no longer in service.
Also, in reviewing citation revenues and cost to enforce, we found that revenues from citations is slightly higher than the cost. Therefore, for the purposes of this report, the cost analysis will focus on the cost of street sweeping only.
Alternative Options
Staff identified the following three street sweeping options for City Council consideration. Since City Council had previously decided that street sweeping would continue to be performed in-house, all the options reflect internal costs to perform the service. For reference, Brea currently collects approximately $297,000 in street sweeping fees to pay for the service. See Attachment D for cost backup.
1. Restore sweeping weekly (with or without enforcement):
Sweeping: The annual cost for sweeping once per week is approximately $497,000. Should weekly street sweeping be restored, there are no net savings and the General Fund would continue to substantially subsidize the street sweeping program. In addition, the vacant Street Sweeper Operator position would need to be filled and a new street sweeping machine would need to be purchased since our 18 year-old street sweeping machine was sent to surplus in 2019. Vehicle replacement funds are available to replace the sweeper. However, the FY20-21 budget does not include the second Street Sweeper Operator that would need to be filled with this option.
Enforcement:
• With enforcement, PD would need to fill both vacant Parking Control Officer positions and the second parking control vehicle would need to be replaced.
• Without enforcement, both Parking Control Officer positions would be eliminated and both assigned vehicles would also be eliminated.
2. Continue sweeping twice per month (with or without enforcement):
Sweeping: The proposed cost for this option is approximately $368,000 per year, which results in annual savings of approximately $129,100 as compared to original budget to sweep weekly. This option requires additional funding for additional weed control since sweeping twice per month allows additional time for weeds to grow in between the gutter and the pavement.
Enforcement:
• With enforcement, PD would need to fill one of the vacant Parking Control Officer position.
• Without enforcement, both Parking Control Officer positions would be eliminated and both assigned vehicles would also be eliminated.
3. Continue sweeping twice per month and sweep on alternate sides in identified problem areas (with enforcement):
Sweeping: The proposed cost for this option is approximately $380,000 per year, which results in annual savings of approximately $117,000 as compared to original budget to sweep weekly. Similar to Option 2, this option also requires additional funds for additional weed control. This option also includes sweeping on alternate sides of the street on alternate days on selected streets. Streets selected for street sweeping on alternate days/sides include neighborhoods where the existing private driveways are short and a car parked in the driveway would overhang onto the street. Selected streets also include streets that serve areas with high density multi-family housing. The proposed areas to be swept on alternate days are depicted in Attachment E and include the neighborhood of Canyon Country, small portion of Blackstone, neighborhood in Olinda Ranch near Lambert/Valencia, Walnut from Juniper Street to just south of Elm Street, Acacia just east of Brea Boulevard, and Site Drive from Central to northerly terminus. There is an additional 12 hours of overtime per month that would be needed in order to sweep these additional areas on Fridays.
Enforcement: In order for this option to work, enforcement will be needed for the alternate day sweeping. Per PD, this option does not lend itself to partial enforcement since that will require adding a second Parking Control Officer for very limited hours, which is not practical or feasible.
Cost Summary/Comparison:
Original Weekly Sweeping Budget to Proposed Sweeping Frequency
| Item |
Savings |
| Option 1: Weekly w or w/o Enforcement |
$0 |
| Option 2: 2X Month w or w/o Enforcement |
$129,092 |
| Option 3: 2X Month Alternate Sides w/ Enforcement* |
$116,992 |
* Adding the option of sweeping on alternate sides would require modifying or adding approximately 350 signs at an approximate one-time cost of $13,000.
Conclusions/Findings:
Based on the data collected and observations from staff:
• Sweeping twice per month produces the highest cost savings.
• Lack of street sweeping enforcement was mentioned in 54.5% of the complaints received to date highlighting a significant concern from residents.
• Lack of enforcement seems to be the key in achieving cleaner streets regardless of weekly or twice per month sweeping.
• NPDES regulations requires that all City streets be swept at least once per month. Any of the sweeping options with or without enforcement currently meet this minimum threshold.
• Weeds are more prevalent in between the gutter and the pavement when sweeping twice per month, requiring additional spraying to control the weeds.
• Unsightly trash and debris on some streets due to sweeping less frequently or lack of sweeping due to parked cars.
• Concentration of parked cars in problem areas prevents significant portions of the certain neighborhood streets from being swept and upsetting neighbors.
• Sweeping on alternate sides/dates at certain areas would address concerns raised at previous City Council discussions.
Recommendations for Council Consideration
1. Continue with Option 2 with no enforcement until December 2020 to provide some relief to residents working from home due to Covid.
2. Switch to Option 3 effective January 1, 2021 with enforcement to achieve improved compliance, resulting in cleaner streets while providing maximum cost savings.
3. Authorize installation of signs for Option 3 at a one-time cost of approximately $13,000. Final cost and appropriation to be addressed as part of a future quarterly budget adjustment.
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