Hi Judi, The link in the agenda to submit comments for tonight’s meeting didn’t work for me and so I’m wondering if you could read the letter below out loud as my comment for agenda item H tonight? My phone in case you need to reach me: 510-393-5193. Thanks, Josie Dear Council Members, Tonight Council will be considering the City’s Capital Improvement Projects for 2020-21 and we, members of the EQC’s Climate Action Plan (CAP) subcommittee, would like to bring to your attention a potential funding gap between the CIP and the CAP. Due to the COVID crisis, a draft Climate Action Plan completed in March has not been presented to Council as planned. However, in that plan, staff and subcommittee members identified approximately $800,000 of critical actions required to be implemented in 2020, in order for the City to pursue reaching carbon neutrality by 2030 in a way that motivates other cities. Staff has fleshed out the specific staffing resources, by department, that may be required to implement the plan. Most of the $800,000 deployed in the first year, would go toward drafting ordinances and launching time-sensitive programs. A detailed list of the proposed actions is included in the draft CAP, available upon your request. While we understand that Council has not yet officially reviewed the CAP, due to COVID-related delays, the CAP’s funding for 2020 could be adversely impacted by your decisions on the CIP, since the proposed CAP funding is not currently captured there, which is the impetus for this letter. Given the City’s declared Climate Emergency and the City’s stated climate goals, we the members of the Climate Action Subcommittee, respectfully request that $800,000 be kept available for the CAP, form sources including possible re-appropriation from various items in the CIP. We are not asking that any currently proposed CIP project be cancelled or delayed, but rather that the current allocations for approximately nine projects be reduced slightly, in order to gather the $800,000 necessary to fund the CAP. This approach can be justified by the fact that savings on 2020 construction projects in the CIP will be possible, due to the current economic downturn and a reduced demand for construction services. The time to act on our Climate Emergency is now. Sadly, the pending climate crisis has not taken a pause because of COVID-19, and therefore we must not pause in our efforts, either. Just as with COVID, every day counts and the longer we wait, the greater this next crisis will be. Sincerely, Josie Gaillard Tom Kabat James Payne (Menlo Park residents and members of the EQC’s Climate Action Plan subcommittee) Received on Tue Apr 28 2020 - 16:50:02 PDT
