Marinwood Soled Deal - Marinwood CSD Ignore problems, construction delays and impact to the Pool summer season and Approves any way.

There has been many red flags with SolEd.

Here are just a few reasons why we should never have approved a deal with SolEd:

1.)  An EXCLUSIVE consulting contract was issued to a sitting CSD Board Member, Cyane Dandridge without a competitive bid process.  When questions about the ethics of contracting with a sitting board member were raised, she immediately resigned her CSD director seat.  Then  the "no compete" contract was approved OUTSIDE A PUBLIC MEETING in total violation of the Brown Act.

2.) SolEd was the least experienced and qualified vendor on the SEED contract with San Rafael.  It formed just a few months prior to winning the contract with ZERO experience in successful municipal installations.  Contract bidding rules required five successful municipal installations.  SolEd beat well funded and successful companies with far reaching experience and references. Why?  Marinwood never vetted SolEd for experience, reliability or financial strength but instead relied 100% on San Rafael's bid process.

3.) SolEd promised much but delivers little.  Of the fifteen original municipalities in the contract,  half have dropped out.  On November 10, 2015,  the City of St Helena dropped SolEd due to NON PERFORMANCE and wrote about it in this scathing staff report.

4.) SolEd could not secure financing and this caused many delays. Finally SolEd partnered with a young 29 year old entrepreneur from New York who formed a Delaware corporation in May 2015 to "handle" the transaction.  This deal will likely be sold to another entity and Marinwood has NO IDEA who we have contracted with for TWENTY YEARS!  SolEd assigned the rights!

5.) SolEd is building an expensive custom carport structure for the pool area that will be financed over twenty years.  The Marinwood CSD will pay an eye popping $.30 per kilowatt hour or MORE with escalators while competitive solar deals offer rates as low as $.06 cents per kilowatt hour.

6.) The carport construction will impact the Swimming Pool and Summer Camp Season where hundreds of children play.  It will be dangerous and disruptive.

7.) The CSD has ignored outside legal and financial advice and relied almost exclusively on the vendor and his representatives.

8.) The CSD did not follow legal advice give to Schools Districts on the "Ten Mistakes School Districts Make with a Solar PPA"   We have made eight of these errors. Why was the CSD in a rush to implement this delayed project?

The board voted unanimously to approve on March 8, 2016.

Ignoring dangers  will get you burnt.