[Posted by Moderator]
On Mar 12, 2012, at 5:58 PM, Theresa DellaSanta wrote:
Hi Valerie
I will have a staff report for City Council at the March 21 meeting and I will be recommending reinstatement of the Committee. I am happy to allow you to review the staff report before it goes out.
As I have discusses with other EPC members, the City Manager does not have authority to overrule Council in their decision to suspend the EPC. City Council must vote to reinstate the EPC and once that is done I am happy to move forward on anything I can assist the Committee with to meet these compressed timelines.
I did include Acterra’s HEH program in our March edition of the Athertonian which goes out during the same week as the Council meeting. I believe sign-ups for that program go until April 21 so I hope that generates positive press and helps produce more awareness.
Please let me know if there is anything I can do in the meantime.
Thank you,
Theresa
From: Valerie Gardner [mailto:valerie@tiemann.net]
Sent: Monday, March 12, 2012 3:01 PM
To: Bill Widmer; Jerry.Carlson.External; Theresa DellaSanta
Subject: What are we doing?
Importance: High
Dear Mayor Widmer, Councilmember Carlson, and Interim Town Manager DellaSanta,
I am forwarding the below two messages to just give you an idea of how well some of our neighboring towns are doing on efforts to support California's mandatory AB32 goals. The first attached message is from Menlo Park and the second is from Portola Valley. As a predominantly residential community, Atherton has only to deal with residential energy usage to achieve its GHG reduction targets. As Chair of the EPC, Councilmember Lewis knows but you, Mayor Widmer and Councilmember Carlson, may not know that I have spent the better portion of two years of my volunteer time along with that of a team of 12 to 15 volunteers, who I have recruited and organized, many of whom are not even Atherton residents, along with a sizable portion of the EPC's budgets in those two years developing Atherton 2020, whose whole purpose is to help Atherton residents reduce residential energy use by as much as 60% by 2020. This program, which also benefits from a $165,000 federal stimulus grant made to Atherton and four other towns, via Acterra, could make Atherton a model of energy efficiency for the entire state.
Instead,
Atherton 2020 is at a big risk of being completely lost! As you well know, the EPC was irresponsibly suspended by the Council in December (no explanation as to how that item got on the agenda!) after inaccurate, illegal and retaliatory accusations were directed at the EPC by Councilmember McKeithen in November, acting in defense of f her Library ALBSC committee. In my personal view and that of many other residents, Councilmember McKeithen actions violated Atherton's Code of Conduct (individually threatening town staff to personally investigate, persecute and attack the EPC (which responses took far more than the 30 minutes permitted—without the knowledge or approval of the full council), the Brown Act (the EPC was not on the agenda when she attacked it with a long vitriolic, unsubstantiated statement at a council meeting) and Conflict of Interest rules (as a member of the EPC herself, she was clearly in conflict with the EPC's best interests and well as those of residents of the town, who benefit from having the EPC provide an "environmental viewpoint" on local issues—whom she is charged with representing) in her partisan attack against the EPC for the purpose of shielding the Library Committee from having legitimate criticism for its actual improper, fraudulent and partisan processes. Mayor Widmer told me he felt embarrassed to be on the dias during that attack and I appreciated that comment—but fear of McKeithen has gone on too long. Had Atherton any functional staff or professionals working in the town (which we know it does not), Councilmember McKeithen would more likely have been censored for her rude, improper and highly unethical behavior; instead, the Council suspended the EPC without any factual basis or so much as having offered us a chance to defend ourselves against specific accusations (so much for due process in this town).
As of February, the investigation of the EPC by the Assistant City Attorney (at a cost of $100/per hour and as much as $2,000) has been done. City Attorney Conners met with Councilmember Lewis and myself in February and told us what we already knew: that nothing improper by the EPC or myself was found. Mr. Conners was working on his report to council at the time he explained this to us, and I have to assume that you have gotten his report. Yet, just a week ago but well after our meeting with Mr. Conners, Ms. DellaSanta denied us permission to allow a local public radio reporter to talk with us about Atherton 2020, which was seen as a group that was organizing residents to make a difference. That was painful. I am now writing because the time has come for a decision by you to correct the status of the EPC.
It is time that the EPC was reinstated and allowed to conduct its work on behalf of Atherton and especially the Atherton 2020 program. We have tried to be patient with the council in light of its severe ethical challenges, but if the EPC is not reinstated this month, Atherton 2020 organizers feel obligated to take steps to account for lack of activity by the program. This must start with sending messages to each of Atherton 2020's twenty-two "2020 Visionaries" who include Steve Westly, Wendy Schmidt, Guy Kawasaki, Bruce Pasternack, and other supporters to inform them that the program has been cut short by council action. At that point, I will resign from the EPC and be done with it, and that will mean that not only will the EPC's acclaimed five-year old virtually free website have been decimated by Councilmember McKeithen's improper attacks and our $9,600 in sponsorship funds compromised, the entire Atherton 2020 program and its expensive website will go away, the EPC estimated $35,000 expended 2010 and 2011 budget investments will be lost, the $40,000 worth of CEC-funded energy audits Atherton residents are entitled to will be lost, and hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of potential energy savings to residents over the next ten years will be lost.
Steve Schmidt recently reported that just 20 Atherton residents' participation resulted in 60,000 kwh savings, the most of any community. That's 3,000 kwh per household energy saved! The value of that is several thousands of dollars to the homeowner. Atherton 2020 needs to get going to get more residents participating. That's our remaining challenge. The environment needs this program, our community needs this program and our residents—who average over 20,000 kwh of energy use per year—need this program. If the council allows the EPC to continue to be unfairly victimized by the unethical partisan attacks of McKeithen and keeps the committee suspended, all this value due to residents will soon be lost.
I'd appreciate a response very soon as to whether or not reinstating the EPC will be on the agenda in March.
Thanks very much!
—Valerie
Begin forwarded message:
From: Mitch Slomiak
Date: March 11, 2012 9:58:28 PM PDT
To: Menlo GRCC
Subject: [MenloGRCC] Heads-up: Tuesday City Council study session on GHG Reduction Target
Reply-To: MenloGRCC@yahoogroups.com
GRCC Friends,
Nearly 4-1/2 years after the GRCC presented our "Climate Action Report and Recommendations" to City Council, the current Council is ready to consider whether to establish a community-wide greenhouse gas reduction target, and what it should be.
Numerous individuals within the GRCC, as well as Environmental Quality Commissioners (EQC), have contributed to this effort.
The City Council Study Session takes place from 6pm until approx. 7pm this Tuesday March 13 at City Council Chambers. Please attend this Study Session if you are able and consider speaking in support of the EQC recommendation of adopting the following target for Menlo Park: 27% reduction by 2020 / 80% by 2050. (If unable to attend in person, please send an email to Council at your earliest opportunity.)
Here is the URL to the Staff Report. I recommend that you familiarize yourself with the 4-page EQC Report on pages 17-20 (Attachment A).
http://service.govdelivery.com/docs/CAMENLO/CAMENLO_101/CAMENLO_101_20120313_060000_en.pdf
Staff is asking City Council to determine whether to adopt a GHG reduction target and the specific target to be recommended.
At this point 24 Bay Area municipalities and 4 counties have adopted GHG reduction targets. Menlo Park is not one of them.
Staff suggest that City Council consider 3 targets:
10% reduction in GHG by 2020 / 30% by 2050
17% reduction in GHG by 2020 / 50% by 2050
27% red uction in GHG by 2020 / 80% by 2050
Of these targets, the Staff Report points out that only the 27% by 2020 target meets the AB32 goal of 80% b 2050 (which is also the minimum reduction recommended by the world scientific community in order to avert the most severe consequences of global warming).
5 Bay Area municipalities (Berkeley, Los Altos Hills, San Jose, Santa Cruz, Union City) have adopted more aggressive GHG reduction targets. 4 other municipalities (Alameda, Foster City, Fremont, San Leandro) have adopted comparable targets (25% by 2050). For Menlo Park to join the leaders in addressing GHG reduction, 27% seems like a reasonable target.
The EQC has strongly recommended the 27% reduction by 2020 / 80% by 2050 target.
Thank you to everyone who is willing and able to participate.
Mitch
Mitchel J. Slomiak
Co-Chair
Menlo Park Green Ribbon Citizens' Committee
mslomiak@comcast.net
650-322-6349
"Nothing short of Everything will really do."
--Aldous Huxley, Island
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Begin forwarded message:
From:
Date: March 12, 2012 11:18:58 AM PDT
To:
Subject: Portola Valley, CA: Tuesday Night - Elton Sherwin Author of Addicted to Energy
Tuesday Night - Elton Sherwin Author of Addicted to Energy
How to Be Energy Efficient in Your Sleep
Posted Date: Monday, March 12, 2012 10:00 AM
Click here for more details.
