Bullhead City Council Work Session: Energy Efficiency Audit Follow-Up – April 21, 2026
Bullhead City Council Work Session: Energy Efficiency Audit Follow-Up
On Tuesday, April 21, 2026 at 3:30 p.m., the Bullhead City Council held a work session in City Council Chambers to review the energy efficiency audit follow-up from the May 7, 2024 regular council meeting. No legal action was taken. Assistant City Manager Eddie Kajera and Brandon Woodward of Schneider Electric presented revised findings, savings projections, and possible phasing and funding options.
Background and Audit Timeline
- The agenda described the item as an energy efficiency audit follow-up from the May 7, 2024 regular council meeting. Eddie Kajera said the city issued an RFQ from September through December 2023, visited other cities, and returned to council in March 2024 to seek approval to contract with Schneider Electric.
- The transcript contains conflicting dates: Kajera described the RFQ and council approval as occurring in late 2023 and March 2024, while Brandon Woodward said council approved Schneider Electric in March 2023. The minutes were not available for comparison.
- Staff attributed the two-year delay to competing budget priorities, timing, and a deeper review of solar viability.
- Solar was removed from the proposal. City officials said solar did not "pencil out" over a 20-year period for city facilities, including wastewater treatment plants, without federal/state subsidies or general fund support. They invited companies to prove a solar system could pay for itself without a city subsidy.
Presentation Findings
- Schneider Electric identified close to $24 million in potential lifecycle savings over roughly 20 years and trimmed the proposed scope from about $24 million of needs to approximately $12 million, with an estimated project cost of $11–12 million.
- The proposed work focused on three areas: LED interior and exterior lighting, LED streetlights on Highway 95 and revitalization zones, sports field lighting, and a building automation system for the city's nine largest buildings. Schneider also proposed grant, rebate, and revenue-generation services.
- Brandon Woodward estimated annual savings in the $500,000–$661,000 range from utility and maintenance/operation savings. He noted the figures were based on two-year-old data and would need updating.
- The city was described as operating nearly 500,000 square feet of facilities without a comprehensive building automation system. Woodward said Highway 95 averaged more than one serious accident a day last year and cited safety as a benefit of LED streetlight upgrades.
- Woodward stated the savings are guaranteed by statute: if savings shortfalls occur, Schneider Electric writes a check to make the city whole. He said Schneider had written 81 such checks historically.
- Funding options discussed included a revenue bond paid from utility savings, with an estimated 4.25% interest rate over 20 years. Kajera estimated about $3 million in grants could be secured, including a $1.76 million Safe Streets for All demonstration grant already allocated toward street lighting.
Council Discussion and Positions
- Council member Gene O'Neill asked whether the city or Schneider Electric would perform the work. Woodward said Schneider completes some work in-house and competitively bids subcontractor work, with the city selecting final designs and aesthetics.
- Councilmember Dahlman asked whether the $661,000 annual savings estimate assumed the entire project was done at once. Woodward clarified that the full savings would only be realized after all recommended scope is completed, and that a single phase would produce a smaller annual savings amount.
- Councilmember Newland asked whether city staff could do the LED conversions in-house. Staff responded that city crews could perform some work, but capacity and timing constraints made contracting more practical for a project of this scale.
- Councilmember Smith stated she was "a definite no on any bonds" and preferred pay-as-you-go options.
- Several council members favored phased implementation and requested phase-by-phase savings and payback estimates before deciding.
- Council members asked for updated figures based on current prices rather than the two-year-old data, and for clarification on how grants would affect project phasing.
Key Outcomes
- No formal action was taken; this was a work session only.
- Staff and Schneider Electric were directed to return in approximately 30–60 days with updated project costs, refined savings figures, and a recommended phasing structure.
- The updated presentation is expected to include breakdowns of annual savings and payback by phase, plus funding options such as all-at-once, three-phase, five-phase, and pay-as-you-go approaches.
Meeting Transcript
And amputee support. There are just so many opportunities for making new friends by attending our parties, ice cream socials, line dancing, karaoke, monthly birthday celebration, and happy hour. Most importantly, we make sure you're educated through monthly lunch and learns and our free mini clinic. You owe it to yourself to come in and check us out. Perhaps during our Monday through Friday nutritious congregate lunch. Lunches are served at 11 30, and last lunch is at noon, with a suggested donation of three dollars from those age 60 and above or disabled individuals. And $4 to those who are under 60. All this said, the senior campus also extends our reach with the Meals on Wheels program delivering lunches and a wellness check to many area seniors who are homebound. Plus, we are home to the Angels Essential Area, where individuals can shop freely for durable medical equipment donated by our local community. If you have any questions, please call 928 763 0193, or stop and see us at 2275 train road here in Bullhead City. We are located off Highway 95 between Marina Boulevard and Hancock Road, right next to City Hall. We've had many, many problems. You've heard me talking about the wipes and the fleshable wipes that are really not flushable. We've had to replace two or three uh pumps at the beginning of that plant to a cost of about 40,000 apiece uh just about every year. Bullhead City was incorporated in August of 1984. The police department took over in 1985. We are in the Northwest area of Arizona, and we sit right on the Colorado River, right across the river from Laughlin, Nevada. Our mission here is to make sure that uh we provide the service that the citizens want and deserve by getting out into the community and listening to them, carrying what they want out of their police department, and then changing our our practices accordingly. The way the system of government is set up in America, the the citizens give us our power and authority. And so it's really important that we get out and we listen to them. So getting out in the community gives them a chance to come up and tell us what they want and and ask us questions and get to know us. My focus on constitutional policing is keeping it at the forefront. Uh the Constitution is such an important document in our society and our way of life that uh you understand that our authority to police comes from the consent of the governor. So if you understand that principle, it gives that document a different dimension. Uh so constitutional policing for me is keeping it at the front, making sure my decisions are in line with the principles of the constitution. And you also have to evaluate how has the constitution been interpreted by the courts. The the community oriented policing unit is the uh the cops unit. They handle boats in the summer, the waterway patrols, they do a lot of OHV, which is a good question. Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Today we're having our work session. Today is Tuesday, April 21st, 3:30 p.m. And the uh agenda is the energy efficiency audit follow-up from May 7th, 2024, our regular council meeting. Good afternoon, council members. Uh, this afternoon's workshop will be led by our assistant city manager, Eddie Kajera. So I'll ask Eddie to come up and lead us through today's workshop. Thank you, Mr. Carter. Uh Vice Mayor and Council, as you rightfully stated, uh, this item came before you a while back. Uh the uh sort of late spring Ali Samu of 2024. Um you gave us direction from from there. We went back and uh since then we've been working with uh Schneider Electric, and uh what we're gonna be presenting to you today is sort of the legwalk and all the backhand stuff that we've been working on since then. But just a quick overview of sort of where we find ourselves today. Uh we went out for an RFQ process in uh September through December of 2023, really trying to um audit our energy sort of efficiency, uh trying to find some energy efficiency areas throughout the organization. Uh we looked at uh City Hall, all the city facilities, and we said I think it's about time we we dive deeper and try to see if there are any benefits that we can uh leverage. At that point in time, obviously there was a lot of grant grant money that was still out there, um, especially in the solar world. Um as you know, right now at City Hall, we do have some solar parking spots and different areas like that. Uh we also went and visited City of Mesa and did a site visit and uh sort of tried to analyze how they penciled it out and and how they made it work. Coming back to uh the city, uh we did some more research and just realized that doing solar wouldn't pencil out in our area and based on uh the trajectory of the grants that were available at that point in time. Um and then through that RFQ, we came back to uh council on March of 2024, and uh we sought your approval at that point in time to go into contract with Schneider Electric. And they're here today to give us um a quick update and sort of let you know what we have done and where we find ourselves today.
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