Burlington City Council members indicated Monday they will wait until next year to decide whether to move forward with the installation of solar panels on city property.

Earlier this month, Assistant City Manager for Public Works Nick MacGregor presented the council with a solar panel installation package that he intended to be tied up and passed at the next regular council meeting. This week, however, council members said they want to wait until after the Fiscal Year 2023 budget season to address the solar project.

“We have learned a lot during this process, and I'm willing to look at this again next year,” mayor Jon Billups said. “There's no mandate saying that we have to do this. If we're looking at it, it needs to be a good thing.”

The city received nine responses to its request for proposals to install solar panels on some city buildings and winnowed them down to two: Fort Madison-based Mohrfield Electric and West Burlington-based Precision Energy Services.

In their proposals, the two companies laid out differing approaches to solar energy, though there were a few key similarities.

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Per the proposals, both companies would be backed by the same equipment financier, Red Lion. Councilman Bill Maupin, however, noted that Red Lion made clear it would not support Precision's proposal as it preferred for the city to work with Mohrfield. 

“This whole thing with one financial backer just doesn’t sit well with me,” Maupin said.

Billups pointed out in earlier discussions that evaluating the two companies was difficult. Usually, the city puts together a bid package for an already defined project, making for an apples-to-apples comparison. 

However, as part of the RFP process the city used for this project, interested companies were asked to lay out varying proposal ideas accompanied by price points. The council then had the task of sorting through the two to make the best decision. 

The biggest difference between Mohrfield and Precision lies with their approaches to the project.

Mohrfield's proposal focused on decreasing the city's utility bills, while Precision's proposal sought to increase the amount of energy that could be provided.

Mohrfield also took into account proposed upgrades to the Public Works building to make it more energy efficient, including changing to LED lightbulbs, while Precision tailored its proposal to reflect the energy the building is using now. 

Councilman Robert Critser said he does not feel the city clearly communicated what it wants from the project.

Mohrfield, for example, included carports, which carry a significant cost, in its proposal as the city wanted. Given the high cost of the carports, Precision chose use other mounting systems as well, including ground and roof mountings, in an effort to save the city money. 

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The variances in proposals created by lack of clarity about the city's priorities — lower cost or carports — make it difficult to compare the two. 

The difficulty in making the decision was perhaps best expressed by how the Renewable Energy Commission voted on the matter.

Billups said city commissions usually come to unanimous decisions, signaling to the council at there is a clearly correct answer.

In this case, however, the Renewable Energy Commission voted 6-2 twice on the matter — once in favor of recommending Mohrfield and once in favor of recommending Precision, suggesting to Billups that additional work to refine the project is needed.

The second of the commission's votes occurred last week after its members had been provided with additional information about the project and proposals.

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Councilwoman Lynda Graham Murray, the council's representative on the Renewable Energy Commission, said some members felt the city should go with Mohrfield because it would be less expensive. Those who voted to stick with Precision felt there would be cost savings in the long run since more power would be generated and the company employs local unionized workers.

Maupin said he was not in favor of the idea of issuing an RFP for the project to begin with and instead would prefer that the city lay out the project details before putting it out for bid. This would put the onus of what the city will do regarding solar energy on the city council, not the energy companies. 

Critser stated he did not believe the matter has been handled fairly. The city interviewed Precision and Mohrfield live and on camera, giving the second presenter the opportunity to alter their presentation based on council feedback of the first presentation, a concern that had been expressed by one of the presenters during that meeting.

“We need to do it in a way that does not put one at an advantage or a disadvantage,” Critser said.

Billups said he takes responsibility for the proposal not being to the council's likings, explaining Public Works has been busy sorting out the details of the Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery grant, which was being dealt with about the same time the city put together the RFP. 

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Billups said pushing back the solar discussion to the beginning of the year would allow the council to better determine what it wants out of the solar project. He also pointed out both the city's trash can and sidewalk programs took months of discussion before decisions were made. 

"We need to go back to the drawing board and configure what we want and where," Billups told The Hawk Eye.