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BACKGROUND The Landscaping and Lighting Act of 1972 ("the Act") authorizes local agencies to impose an annual assessment on real property benefiting from improvements in order to pay for the construction and maintenance of lighting and landscaping improvements. The assessments are collected by Alameda County as part of the annual property tax bill. For each lighting and landscape district, City staff follows a statutory imposed process for yearly administration. City staff performs regular field inspections to ensure satisfactory performance by the maintenance contractor, reviews complaints or concerns of property owners, and processes progress payments to the contractor. City administration also includes the following steps: 1. Prepare maintenance specifications for competitive bidding and advertise the maintenance projects for bids. 2. Hold bid opening. 3. Review bids, recommend acceptance of the lowest responsible bid; review maintenance costs, estimate annual costs (water, power, etc.) and prepare a budget to be included in the annual Engineer's Report. 4. Prepare a staff report entitled "Review and Approval of Engineer's Report and Budget, and Set Public Hearing for Annual Assessments for Lighting and Landscape District (number)." 5. Prepare a legal notice and advertise the public hearing for annual assessments. 6. Prepare City Council staff report for public hearing. 7. Hold public hearing to confirm the Engineer's Report and levy the annual assessment after closure of the public hearing. 8. Award maintenance contract to landscape maintenance company (either through a City Manager's contract or a City Council approved contract depending upon the contract amount). 9. Coordinate with the City Finance Department to send the annual assessment information to the County for inclusion on the property tax bill (Alameda County must receive annual assessment totals prior to August 1 each year). 10. Transfer City administration costs from the Assessment District Account to the City's General Fund. 11. Transfer assessments on City owned parcels from the General Fund to Assessment District accounts. Page 2 of 6