BENICIA MAYOR ELIZABETH PATTERSON

Budget Salaries and Benefits

noreply@blogger.com (Elizabeth Patterson) — Sat, 4 Jun 2011 20:41:00 -0700

Questions and Answers - Budget, Salaries and Benefits

A reader wrote recently that she supports my re-election (yea!) and had some questions that she thought might be asked and answered on the campaign trail and in forums. Most of her concerns are about the budget, employee salaries and benefits.

Since 2008 the City has been engaged in remarkable events: the collapse of the financial industry due to reckless and perhaps corrupt behavior which has caused the greatest decline in home values since the Great Depression, high unemployment and a failure of the federal government to address the mortgage meltdown. These national events drive much of the discussion about events in Benicia and it is understandable that people seek answers and solutions.

Regardless of numerous articles and emails I have sent in the last year, questions and assumptions about the same issues continue to come to me. This is positive because it shows the passion and commitment our residents have about Benicia and that is to be embraced and celebrated. For reference, please see several previous articles I have sent on my email newsletter, as well as posted some of them on this blog and on my website.

5/4/2011 - Council seeks to avoid layoffs
5/3/2011 - Expect budget action by City Council on Tuesday
4/15/2011 - What's a city to do when the State doesn't?
3/27/2011 - Update of City Employee Compensation web page
1/3/2011 - A steady helm in a stormy economy

UPDATE - Recent developments

At the May 3, 2011 council meeting as reported in the Benicia Herald: "Hoping to avoid further layoffs and departmental reorganization, Benicia City Council asked its staff Tuesday to look at further cuts in employees’ base pay to address the city’s likely $1.7 million budget shortfall.

The Council unanimously agreed to ask staff to reopen the city’s memoranda of understanding with its unions, opening the door to negotiations for a desired 6.9 percent reduction in base wages in hopes of eliminating $1.3 million of that deficit.

The panel decided on a 75-25 percent split, with employees bearing the larger brunt (75%) of the budget cuts. The Council would look to other expenditure cuts — from services to grants — to make up the rest of the reductions.

That percentage split was suggested by City Manager Brad Kilger, who said employee pay takes up about 75 percent of General Fund spending.

During last fall’s cuts to balance the budget, the Council addressed the deficit by making cuts 50-50 between employees and services. At that time, most of the unions agreed to 3.16 percent reduction in pay, but those negotiations included provisions that would let the Council renegotiate employees’ compensation if city revenues continued to drop".

If new negotiations were successful, it would mean employees would have accepted combined cuts of about 10 percent — which may become even steeper for higher-paid staff members.

The Council has been in negotiations with the city labor groups including the city manager, city attorney and senior managers since the May 3rd meeting. In order to avoid unintended messages, council members are not commenting on these negotiations since time is of the essence for addressing the city's budget gap. The next step for council action on the proposed city manager and city attorney salary and benefit reduction of 6.86 per cent is scheduled for next Tuesday, June 7th.

Questions and Answers

The reader who wrote recently would like a few persistent and key questions answered and these will be posted to my website: http://www.elizabethformayor.com/ .

1. What is the status of the present level of contribution of city employees to health care?

The City Council approved contract changes in December of 2010 for all bargaining groups except one (their contract was not open for negotiations last year and they are currently negotiating a succession contract). Under these contracts health care payments by the city are capped and future increases in health care costs are paid for by the employee.

This May 3rd, the Council majority voted to seek $1.3 million dollars in salary and benefit reductions in the contracts subject to reopening (7 of the 8 contracts the city has with labor groups - see above for the exception). With the approximately 6.86% in additional reductions added to last year’s 3.16% reductions, the employees in one year will have taken approximately 10% reductions.

2. What is the status of the present level of contribution of city employees to CalPERS?

The Council approved a two-tier PERS pension program last year for public safety - police and fire. The existing program adopted in 1997 (?) is at 3.0 at age 50 and the new tier that can only (by current law) apply to new hires is 3.0 at 55. Public safety pays the employee share and all other groups pay 1%. The City Manager and City Attorney will adjust the contracts with Council approval on June 7th to pay 4% of the employee portion (the current employee share is 8% which the city pays).

2. Are the city manager and the city attorney salaries and benefits too high?

We are paying less now than paid to the previous city manager and there have been no increases for the city attorney for several years. As noted above, effective next Tuesday (June 7, 2010), we will have reduced the two executive salaries by more than 10% (it is actually more, and details are in the staff report noted earlier). The starting salary for the new city manager was less than the previous and so the added salary and benefits reductions are greater than 10% (effectively nearly 20%).

Our employees are our greatest asset and it is important to recognize that. It is equally important to stay within our budget and maintain city services. That is why we continue to reset salaries and reform benefits. We are very fortunate to have highly experienced and qualified city manager and city attorney which is critical in these difficult economic times. The city manager’s experience in revenue losses and necessary budget changes and salary reductions is invaluable at this time.

The benefit package and provisions for the city manager and city attorney are the same as the last two decades. Changes are underway - see June 7th - and reductions are being made.

Below is a summary of the agenda item for June 7th.

Not unlike most jurisdictions in California, the City of Benicia has identified a structural deficit due to the unprecedented downturn of the economy. The City has identified a structural deficit that is anticipated to continue for the next ten years, with a projected shortfall of approximately $1.7 million for 2011-12. Since the adoption of the budget for FY 2010-11 the City’s General Fund revenues have declined $2.1 million, primarily due to reductions in property taxes, sales taxes, utility users taxes and franchise fees. The salary and benefit reductions for the City Manager and City Attorney recommended in this City Council agenda item are consistent with salary and benefit concessions that are being sought through negotiations with the employee associations representing other City employees. This action will assist the City’s efforts to make ongoing structural reductions in order to address the City’s structural deficit.

RECOMMENDATION: Adopt the resolution approving the following reductions to the City Manager and City Attorney compensation packages: 1) a decrease in the Employer Paid Member Contribution (EPMC) of 4%, 2) a monthly pre-tax deduction toward health care costs, 3) a 2.5% reduction in the City’s contribution to deferred compensation and 4) a 2.27% reduction in salary for the City Attorney and a 2.02% for the City Manager. This achieves a total savings of approximately $37,288 per year, and is the equivalent of a 6.86% reduction in base pay plus associated payroll costs. The average annual reduction per employee is approximately $18,644.

Data points on a graph can be misleading if there is only one criteria. For instance, if I were to use the last two years for water usage in Benicia and compare to the last ten years, I could demonstrate that Benicians are conserving water. In fact, the last three years have been cooler than normal and without that other piece of data, it would look like we are doing a good job of water conservation. Therefore, when plotting data points one needs to weigh the criteria and other factors. In the last several months, there have been public discussions on Benicia salaries, especially for the city manager and city attorney. The city manager salary is not just based on population. The point is that the range of salaries is based on the size of the budget that is managed, how many services are done by city versus contracted out, the age of the city, whether or not there is a redevelopment agency, physical issues, level of service, community income (for instance Benicia is pretty high compared to all other cities in Solano) and so on. Graphs don't tell the whole story. In the end, the city manager is paid what is competitive for expectations, experience, competency, proven record, and ultimately what the community is able and willing to pay.

3. Are there further adjustments in overall salaries for the 2011-12 budget year?

This May 3rd, the Council majority voted in a public hearing to seek approximately 6.86 percent reduction in salary and benefit reductions in the contracts subject to reopening (7 of the 8 contracts the city has with labor groups - see above for the exception). With the 6.8 reductions added to last year’s 3.16% reductions, the employees in one year have taken approximately 10% reductions.

This Tuesday the Council will act on the recommendation to adjust the Senior Management salaries and benefits in line with the executive adjustments.

RECOMMENDATION: Adopt the resolution approving an the following reductions to the Senior Managers compensation packages: 1) a decrease in the Employer Paid Member Contribution (EPMC) of 3% for miscellaneous senior management employees and a 4.5% for public safety senior management employees, 2) a monthly pre-tax deduction toward health care costs of $2,535 for the entire group 3) a 3% reduction in the City’s contribution to deferred compensation for miscellaneous senior management employees and a 1.5% reduction for public safety senior management employees and 4) a 2.615% reduction in salary. This achieves a total savings of approximately $99,843 per year, and is the equivalent of a 6.86% reduction in base pay plus associated payroll costs. The average annual reduction per employee is approximately $14,300.

4. Does the City have a second-tier CalPERS retirement plan for new hires?

Yes. The City Council adopted the two-tier retirement for public safety - police and fire - in December 2010 at a public hearing. The existing rate is 3.0 at 50 years and the new hires' rate is 3.0 at 55. Current labor negotiations are on going for other labor groups.

5. Is the City considering an alternative to defined benefits or a supplemental program for defined benefits?

The city currently participates in defined benefits through PERS and does not participate in Social Security which is another kind of defined benefit. Thus the only pension earned by city employees is through PERS. The executives and senior managers as well as public safety have a deferred compensation-type program that functions something like an IRA or 401k (for public employees it is either a 457 or Vantage care program). These programs are separate from PERS and are known as defined contribution programs.

6. How does overtime work and is it necessary?

The Council has been vigilant about unnecessary overtime costs. Beginning in 2004, the Council caped overtime for public safety departments. The city operates a fairly sophisticated staffing and employee shift program maximizing small staff and capping overtime. In other words, if overtime costs exceed a budgeted amount that is determined in yearly budgets, then new hires will be used instead of overtime. Overtime is part of the functions of the police and fire departments and represent efficient and effective staffing and costs. Overtime in other departments vary depending on the operation, especially for the 24/7 operations in water treatment and wastewater. Recent changes have effectively reduced costs in some overtime (as reported at Council meetings) for a savings of over $500,000. Other savings have been realized such as shift reclassification and other managerial decisions. The city manager under direction by the Council is reviewing the overtime programs, changes have been made and further changes are expected. However, recent public comments about excessive overtime have been found to be incorrect - see Dennis Lowry testimony at April City Council meeting. Mr. Lowry publicly committed to retracting his written statements about police and fire overtime, but has yet to do so.

7. What are solutions for the 2011-12 budget that has a $1.7 million shortfall?

At the May 3rd meeting the Council majority voted to reduce the budget gap projected for 2011-2012 through salary and benefits reductions totaling 75% of the $1.7 millon and the remaining 25% - $400k - through city operations. The Council has directed staff to avoid service and program reduction. This will mean approximately $800 thousand must be found (remember the $420 thousand carry over from 2010-2011). While some of the low hanging fruit in savings has been identified, there are other more efficient and effective operation changes available. But it will not be easy and ultimately services will be affected. The planning and budgeting for these reductions are underway and several public study sessions and workshops are planned to help find these solutions. High on the Council's list is the consideration of reorganizing for efficiency and other effective measures. A more robust citizens volunteer program will be considered.

Traffic Calming or Dangerous by Design

noreply@blogger.com (Elizabeth Patterson) — Wed, 1 Jun 2011 22:11:00 -0700

A great "aha" moment in the late 90s during the General Plan update came when a member of the task force (GPOC) advocated for "traffic calming". This term was being introduced by planners to conjure the image of slower traffic, friendlier streets and ultimately sharing the streets and sidewalks for biking, walking as well as driving. The 1999 General Plan adopted the goal of traffic calming, but not until 2003 did the program begin in earnest. Through a negotiation effort with the last large housing project in Benicia, over a quarter of a million dollars was dedicated to traffic calming (it took 20 minutes of negotiations and the story is pretty amazing). The city staff has worked to implement several projects including safety measures near Robert Semple, West K and East 5th in combination with our Safe Routes to School programs.

Remember the three Es of traffic calming: enforcement, education and engineering. Knowing that our streets are designed to speed cars along, we need to focus on the effective and affordable programs to slow the traffic and make streets safer. This is a collaborative process involving the Police Department, Public Works, the public and neighborhoods and the schools.

Dangerous by Design 2011
This report explores the numbers, the causes and the solutions for solving this epidemic of preventable deaths.
Download the full report

Solving the Epidemic of Preventable Pedestrian Deaths

The decades-long neglect of pedestrian safety in the design and use of American streets is exacting a heavy toll on our lives. In the last decade, from 2000 through 2009, more than 47,700 pedestrians were killed in the United States, the equivalent of a jumbo jet full of passengers crashing roughly every month. On top of that, more than 688,000 pedestrians were injured over the decade, a number equivalent to a pedestrian being struck by a car or truck every 7 minutes.

Despite the magnitude of these avoidable tragedies, little public attention â€“ and even less in public resources â€“ has been committed to reducing pedestrian deaths and injuries in the United States. On the contrary, transportation agencies typically prioritize speeding traffic over the safety of people on foot or other vulnerable road users.

Nationwide, pedestrians account for nearly 12 percent of total traffic deaths. But state departments of transportation have largely ignored pedestrian safety from a budgetary perspective, allocating only about 1.5 percent of available federal funds to projects that retrofit dangerous roads or create safe alternatives.

The roads have gotten somewhat safer, but pedestrian fatalities have fallen at only half the rate of motorist fatalities, dropping by just over 14 percent during the period, compared to 27 percent for motor vehicle fatalities. In many places, including 15 of the countryâ€™s largest metro areas, pedestrian fatalities have actually increased, even as overall traffic deaths fell.

Children, older adults, and racial and ethnic minorities are disproportionately represented in this figure, but people of all ages and all walks of life have been struck down in the simple act of walking. These deaths typically are labeled â€œaccidents,â€ and attributed to error on the part of motorist or pedestrian. In fact, however, the majority of these deaths share a common thread: they occurred along â€œarterialâ€ roadways that were dangerous by design, streets engineered for speeding traffic with little or no provision for people on foot, in wheelchairs or on bicycles.

There is a growing recognition that Americans must increase physical activity, including walking or bicycling, if we are to nudge the needle on ballooning health care costs, reducing obesity and overweight, cardiovascular and other chronic illnesses linked to a lack of exercise. Over the last decade, a growing number of communities have gotten the message, and begun to retrofit their more dangerous roadways to be safer for people on foot, on bicycles and in cars.

Still, most Americans continue to live in places where walking is risky business for their health and safety, where roads are designed solely to move speeding traffic and where pedestrians are viewed as an obstacle.

This has left us with a dilemma: Public health officials encourage Americans of all ages to walk and bike more to stem the costly and deadly obesity epidemic â€“ yet many of our streets are simply not safe. Americans get to pick their poison: less exercise and poor health, or walking on roads where more than 47,000 people have died in the last ten years.

Why pedestrian safety is in the federal interest

For decades, federal dollars have been invested in thousands of miles of state and local highways. Pedestrian safety is often perceived as a strictly local issue, but 67 percent of all 47,000+ pedestrian fatalities from 2000 to 2009 occurred on federal-aid roadways â€” major roads eligible to receive federal funding for construction and improvements with federal guidelines or oversight for design.

Taxpayer money that goes to the federal government and is distributed to the states for transportation should be used to build streets, roads and highways that are safe for all users. With millions of Americans walking along and crossing these federally funded roads each day, the billions in federal dollars spent on them each year must result in safer conditions for pedestrians.

Fortunately, improving the pedestrian environment requires a relatively small public investment, one greatly outweighed by the cost savings that would result from reducing traffic-related fatalities and improving health. Congress has an opportunity to help communities fix past mistakes and make our streets safer â€“ not just for people on foot, but for everyone who uses them.

We recommend that the next federal transportation spending bill include the following provisions:

Retain dedicated federal funding for the safety of people on foot or on bicycle. Congress is currently contemplating elimination of dedicated funding for Transportation Enhancements and the Safe Routes to School program, the two largest funding sources for bike and pedestrian facilities. Without these committed funding streams, states will likely reduce spending for safety features like sidewalks, crosswalks and trails.

Adopt a national complete streets policy. Ensure that all federally funded road projects take into account the needs of all users of the transportation system, including pedestrians, bicyclists and public transportation users, as well as children, older adults, and individuals with disabilities.

Fill in the gaps. Beyond making new and refurbished roads safer for pedestrians, we need to create complete networks of sidewalks, bicycle paths and trails so that residents can travel safely throughout an area. To this end, the Rails-to-Trails Conservancy has gathered testimony from 53 communities outlining how they could fill in strategic gaps to make walking and bicyling to routine destinations more safe and convenient with small targeted federal grants.

Commit a fair share for safety. In 2008, only two states spent any of their Highway Safety funding to improve infrastructure for bicycling and walking. Yet, pedestrians and bicyclists make up 14 percent of all traffic-related fatalities. Federal, state and local governments should set safety goals that not only reduce fatalities overall, but also reduce fatalities for individual modes, with separate safety goals for pedestrians, bicyclists, motorcyclists and motorists.

Hold states accountable for creating communities that are safe for walking. Congress must hold states accountable to ensure that transportation funds are spent wisely, by ensuring that:

New streets are built to be safe for pedestrians, bicyclists, public transportation users, and motorists alike;
The most dangerous roads are retrofitted for safety; and,
Federal safety dollars result in lives saved and a more active population.

Sustainability means smart investment in jobs and economy

noreply@blogger.com (Elizabeth Patterson) — Sun, 22 May 2011 21:38:00 -0700

Are we in this together?

Last year I called for all to work together as "we are in this boat together" and by working together we can move forward together. Perhaps the specter of an election in November has spooked some people and I see many potential fractures of this idea that we are in this economic challenge together. For instance, recently I got a couple of emails that said, "forget history" we need to watch our pennies and not be "historical perfect", or another set of emails that the Community Sustainability Commission is "out of control and too powerful" and then my favorite is "run government like a business" as if government has a profit center (essential to business). These are confusing statements if, indeed, we are working together.

The following helps sew together the ideas that investment in our historic districts is part of growing jobs and sustainable growth and how we can grow new jobs and keep our existing jobs and finally government (and I am glad to say) is not to be run like a business but is "business plus". We need to be lean, efficient, effective for the good of all. Let me know if you know of a business model that has this as a mission statement. Government is not the panacea but it sure can advance the investment for jobs that the private sector has been shy about for more than two years.

Below are ways to think about about how "sustainability" means investment in jobs and a growing economy. We are fortunate to have a creative class of highly educated workers, an industrial base that can be agile and adapt to changing circumstances and amenities in our fair city that cannot be found anywhere else.

One way that cities can pursue sustainability and a strong local economy is by attracting the right kinds of investments that will help them develop and revitalize commercial and residential neighborhoods.

Some of the characteristics of sustainable community development include:

Places with a healthy mix of jobs, housing and retail options and a diverse tax base;
Neighborhoods that are stable, attractive, safe and convenient for pedestrians and bicyclists;
Communities that offer residents and workers transportation choices, such as retail and employment centers that capitalize on transit investments and services; and
Access to parks, open space and a clean natural environment for all their residents.

Throughout California, communities are implementing a variety of strategies to help strengthen their local economies. While these strategies are tailored to fit the unique needs of each community, one common approach is to revitalize historic town centers as economic hubs and focal points of community life.

The following examples illustrate how two very different cities are working to strengthen the local economy in ways that support sustainability. Riverbank (pop. 22,201) is small and rural, with a median family income of $79,940 and per capita income of $20,342. Pleasanton (pop. 70,711) is suburban and more affluent, with a median family income of $139,282 and per capita income of $50,515.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Using Economic Development to Support Sustainability
by Steve Sanders

Steve Sanders is program director of the Institute for Local Government's Land Use and Healthy Neighborhoods programs and can be reached at ssanders@ca-ilg.org . For more about the programs, visit www.ca-ilg.org/sustainability .

Riverbank Capitalizes on Historic Downtown

Like many other small cities in the San Joaquin Valley and elsewhere in California, Riverbank is working to address the challenge of preserving its small-town character in an era of shrinking financial resources and mounting pressure to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Riverbank's updated General Plan features several specific strategies for supporting pedestrian, bicycle and other non-automobile modes of travel as well as increasing street "connectivity" - the frequency with which streets or roads intersect. Other strategies include requiring bike racks and pedestrian improvements in commercial development projects; siting buildings toward the front of lots, with parking on the side or in back; and planting street trees to improve the comfort and appearance of sidewalks and streets. The city used these strategies in its extensive efforts to revitalize Riverbank's aging central district.

Riverbank completed a major beautification of its historic downtown area in late 2009, investing about $9 million in redevelopment funds to make improvements to the district. The project covered an area four blocks by three blocks, centered on the main downtown intersection of Santa Fe Avenue and Third Street. Underground improvements included new water, sewage and drainage infrastructure. Overhead power and phone lines were moved underground to improve the area's aesthetic appeal.

Riverbank also implemented a number of streetscaping measures to improve safety, slow traffic and facilitate pedestrian and bicycle travel. These included:

Widening sidewalks to nearly twice the original width;
Adding new curbs and gutters;
Installing a new landscaped median along several blocks of Third Street to slow traffic and improve the look of the street; and
Providing angled parking along several streets in the project area to better serve downtown businesses.

In addition, the city installed bike racks on every corner and added benches throughout the area. Colorful murals and brick accents in street and sidewalk paving add visual interest, and extensive new landscaping increases shade throughout downtown - an especially welcome amenity in the hot Central Valley summers.

A new plaza at the main intersection added the final touch to the beautification project, providing an attractive gathering place for residents and visitors. Since the project was completed, five new businesses have opened downtown, creating about 30 jobs and generating new sales tax revenues for the city.

Riverbank launched a second project that used about $200,000 in redevelopment funds to engineer and design the architecture for a waterfall entryway to the downtown area and install landscaping on the Highway 108 overcrossing above a rail line.

In conjunction with these efforts, Riverbank anticipates establishing a business improvement district. This public-private partnership would comprise local business owners, who assess themselves a fee to pay for ongoing improvements, promotions and marketing to draw visitors to the downtown area.

As part of its downtown improvements, Riverbank also completed a third project in March 2011: a teen center two blocks from the main downtown intersection and adjacent to the community center. The teen center used $220,000 in redevelopment funds for initial funding, which represented about 20 percent of the total project cost. Other funding sources included Proposition 98 grant funds and about $100,000 raised by local teens. The center offers teens access to computers and study space, pingpong tables, video games, a small gym and some open space.

Riverbank's downtown revitalization efforts won an award from the San Joaquin Valley Blueprint Awards Program in 2010.

Pleasanton Plans for Economic Health

The City of Pleasanton, located in the east San Francisco Bay Area, adopted an updated General Plan in 2005 that for the first time included an economic and fiscal element to help guide the city's development. This element helped focus city leaders' attention on economic trends, opportunities to foster job growth and business development, and the potential impact of planning decisions on the city's revenues and expenditures.

The city followed up with an Economic Development Strategic Plan in 2007. The strategic plan outlined the city's economic strengths, challenges and opportunities and established six economic development goals:

Maintain and expand Pleasanton's economy;
Maintain and enhance Pleasanton's fiscal revenues;
Promote tourism, cultural and recreational activities;
Strengthen Pleasanton's retail and entertainment sector;
Increase housing opportunities for Pleasanton's work force and residents; and
Integrate economic development, land use, and transportation decisions to create a sustainable city.

The plan noted that "while Pleasanton has a full complement of retail facilities, much of it is in an auto-oriented configuration that is becoming increasingly obsolete on a national scale. Many national retailers are now seeking a more pedestrian-oriented lifestyle setting for their stores, with outdoor cafes, unobtrusive parking solutions and a mix of uses either within the retail center or nearby to encourage longer shopping trips." In other words, Pleasanton has found that planning for sustainability can also make the city more competitive in attracting retail investors.

Pleasanton has worked to create a thriving retail, cultural and entertainment hub downtown through a mix of public and private investments. One recent project, the Firehouse Arts Center, illustrates Pleasanton's economic development strategies and efforts to create a sustainable city.

The Firehouse Arts Center, which the city owns and manages, is a cultural arts center in a rehabbed, formerly vacant firehouse located one block off Main Street. This $13 million capital improvement project was completed in fall of 2010. The center has a 240-seat "black box" theatre with a movable stage and seats, an art gallery and classroom space upstairs. Pleasanton also built a parking lot for the center that serves as additional downtown parking.

The Firehouse Arts Center project's goals were to:

Create a cultural arts center for the city;
Provide an economic driver by creating more entertainment to draw people downtown and serving as an anchor for new businesses; and
Increase opportunities for downtown revitalization in an area that was underutilized before the center was built.

The Pleasanton Downtown Business Association works with city staff who manage the center to cross-promote local businesses and events. For example, tickets to shows have coupons on the back offering specials and discounts at local restaurants and businesses. The Firehouse Arts Center is used for theatre productions, concerts, an annual poetry and prose festival, movies (in partnership with the city library) and the city's annual Shakespeare camp.

Sustainability and the Economic Bottom Line

Riverbank and Pleasanton are very different types of small cities, but both demonstrate that innovation and a healthy dose of entrepreneurial determination can maximize a community's strong points and create economic development efforts that also support sustainability.

By attracting new investment to their downtowns, Pleasanton and Riverbank have made their communities better places to live, work and visit. Town centers offer transportation choices - walking, cycling and transit - that reduce traffic and air pollution. Concentrating economic activity downtown relieves pressure to build on the outskirts, thus protecting open space and farmland. And local agencies can benefit from the new revenues that economic activity brings, as well as the lower cost of providing services and facilities in existing neighborhoods.

These are challenging times for cities and their residents. While individual cities can do little about the overall vitality of the national economy, they can do many things locally to set the stage for economic growth. Sustainable community development offers cities a path to a better future - one that brings a wealth of benefits, including greater prosperity and opportunity for all residents, a healthier environment and a more stable and secure fiscal outlook.

-----------------------------------------------------------------

Additional Resources
Riverbank's downtown revitalization won an award from the San Joaquin Valley Blueprint Awards Program in 2010. To see a complete set of before and after photos of the project, visit http://www.valleyblueprint.org/city-riverbank-downtown-revitalization.html . To view Riverbank's Economic Development Strategic Plan, visit the city's economic development page.

More information on Pleasanton's Economic Development Strategic Plan is available at http://www.ci.pleasanton.ca.us/business/development/ .

For additional examples and resources on sustainable economic development, visit the Institute for Local Government website at www.ca-ilg/SustainableEconomy .

Delta Suisun Marsh Recreation Plan

noreply@blogger.com (Elizabeth Patterson) — Thu, 19 May 2011 20:46:00 -0700

Growing Benicia's Tourism - Plan Proposes Expanded Recreation in Delta, Bringing Boost to Local Economy

This past Tuesday, May 17, the State Parks, in cooperation with the Water Education Foundation, hosted a day-long tour of sites highlighted in the draft Delta-Suisun Marsh recreation plan, which State Parks is preparing as its bit of the overall Delta planning. I participated in the tour as part of the Parks' key step in State Parks interagency coordination process for the plan.

The plan highlights Benicia as a community with extensive recreation and tourism opportunities that can be a gateway for visitors to Suisun Marsh and the Delta. I was invited to talk about Benicia's community's visitor attractions for a few minutes as the tour bus traveled between East Bay Regional Park's Big Break shoreline and Suisun Marsh. Dan Ray, Chief of Parks Planning said, "There are so many wonderful things happening in Benicia and other Carquinez Straight communities - they deserve more recognition."

As I described the Carquinez Strait and the natural resources and industry, the tour participants could follow the bike trail from Martinez to Benicia and the Clock Tower and historic Arsenal in the distance. The tour participants included key people from the Coastal Conservancy, Delta Conservancy, Delta Protection Commission, East Bay Regional Parks, Solano Parks, CalTrans, Department of Water Resources, the Nature Conservancy, Trust for Public Lands, and others as well as the State Parks.

The report, Recreation Proposal for the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and Suisun Marsh, makes recommendations which are designed to meet the growing demand for recreation, which in turn will draw added visitors and lead to a more sustainable economy throughout the Delta. It points out that travel and recreation spending in Delta counties in 2006 was $4.8 billion, but that it could be much more in the future.

The five Delta counties’ population (Sacramento, San Joaquin, Contra Costa, Solano and Yolo Counties) is projected to almost double, approaching 7 million by 2050. Almost 10 million people will live in the San Francisco Bay Area, while the Central Valley population will swell to 13 million. As populations grow, so too will the demand for recreation; therefore, as the report concludes, the time to plan for the Delta’s future is today.

“We may not have the money in a tight economy to invest today,” said Ruth Coleman, director of California State Parks, “but we must prepare for the future. This plan sets the stage for future investments that will expand recreation, draw added visitors and improve the area’s economic vitality.”

The report points out that the Delta and Suisun Marsh waterways are already inviting to boaters, with about 7.4 million visitor boating days every year. However, marinas and boater equipment rentals will be in even greater demand in coming years, as will other types of recreation that could be expanded and improved, such as: camping and picnicking, participating in historic site and nature tours, exploring water trails, wildlife viewing and bird watching, fishing and waterfowl hunting, attending local festivals, visiting farmer’s markets with local Delta farmers, and more. With increases in those types of recreational opportunities, the private sector will expand with Delta visitors needing more hotels, motels, restaurants, camping and boating supplies, and recreational equipment rental businesses to serve their increased demand.

The key to the report is how all of this gets started and gets done. The report says no one agency or private entity can do it alone. This is a long-term vision to be implemented over many years. It calls for partnerships and collaborations between local, State and Federal agencies, private businesses, Delta farmers, non-profit organizations and other stakeholders.

The draft plan provides the following:

Benicia Capitol SHP and Benicia SRA:

• Partner with Solano County stakeholders and DBW to develop water trail interpretation of the heritage, recreation and environmental resources of the Delta, Carquinez Strait, and San Francisco Bay.

• Provide information and interpretation on regional history and heritage tourism.

The plan is available for public review through Tuesday, May 31. The report can be downloaded from www.parks.ca.gov/deltarecreation starting on Tuesday, May 3. The plan was prepared in response to the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta Reform Act of 2009, with funds provided by the Delta Stewardship Council. It will be submitted to the Delta Stewardship Council and the Delta Protection Commission for review and possible inclusion in their respective strategic management plans for the five counties and 1,300 square miles within the region. Benicia city staff will review and comment during the public comment time.

Council seeks to avoid layoffs

noreply@blogger.com (Elizabeth Patterson) — Thu, 5 May 2011 22:48:00 -0700

Tuesday night the Council heard testimony from city employees and citizens about the proposed layoffs and potential service cuts in order to balance the budget for the fiscal year 2011-2012.

The unanimous vote came after compelling testimony about the value of the literacy program which will be severly cut due to the state budget cuts and elimiinated if the city council initiated staff proposed cuts for next fiscal year. Ellen Kolowich eloquently testifid that the literacy program is mostly for people, the majority of whom were born in the US, but did not learn English or how to read in school. She testified how English as a Second Language literacy program opens the doors to life for them by removing the barriers of not speaking English or reading. It was compelling.

Because many of the proposed staff cuts targeted publish safety, there was discussion looking to other deparments for additional layoffs to spare public safety. The city manager pointed out that last year, that is actually what happened - positions have not been filled and layoffs occurred in many of these deparments. There are not too many more places to look for employee salary savings.

Hence, the direction to staff by the unanimous vote by Council is to seek to negotiate with the bargaining units (unions) for salary and benefit savings to avoid the layoffs and service cuts. As a city fire employee stated, "we [the public employee] didn't cause this economic recession" and yet he lamented that the public makes negative statements about them as if they are responsible for the hard times.

Our greatest asset is the public employee because just as they represent seventy-five percent of the city's general fund, they also reprsent the bulk of the services the city provides - they are the people who keep the city safe, library serving the community, the parks maintained, clean water and ensure that building permits are issued based on state law. There are many tasks and challenges which makes public work varied and interesting and most of all rewarding.

We can achieve our budget goals without blaming public workers, challenging their right to collective bargaining or questioning their public service.

[See the following Benicia Herald article for additional details...]

$1.7M in hole, city looks to cut pay to save jobs
Council eyes 6.9 percent employee wage reduction to cover 75 percent of shortfall

By Donna Beth Weilenman, Staff Reporter
The Benicia Herald, May 4, 2011

Hoping to avoid further layoffs and departmental reorganization, Benicia City Council asked its staff Tuesday to look at further cuts in employees’ base pay to address the city’s likely $1.7 million budget shortfall.

The Council unanimously agreed to ask staff to reopen the city’s memoranda of understanding with its unions, opening the door to negotiations for a desired 6.9 percent reduction in base wages in hopes of eliminating $1.3 million of that deficit.

The panel decided on a 75-25 percent split, with employees bearing the larger brunt of the budget cuts. The Council would look to other expenditure cuts — from services to grants — to make up the rest of the reductions.
READ MORE...

Hard Budget Decisions

noreply@blogger.com (Elizabeth Patterson) — Mon, 2 May 2011 21:59:00 -0700

The City Council makes hard decisions, but laying off employees is the hardest. At its regular meeting Tuesday night, May 3, the Council may decide to reopen city employee contract agreements to avoid potential layoffs as we address the $1.7 million deficit for the 2011-12 budget.

Action is necessary to achieve a budget with balanced expenditures and revenue projections for fiscal year 2011-12. Our employees stepped up in 2010 when agreeing to salary and benefits reductions requested by the Council. Revenues on which the city depends are lower because of depressed property values, lower Benicia Industrial Park sales taxes and lower franchise fees, so we continue to make expenditure adjustments. The choice between layoffs and salary and benefits reductions is not a welcome one, but the situation speaks for itself.

These decisions are grounded in the Council’s policy to maintain a balanced budget, to avoid service cuts and to maintain fair and competitive salaries. To quote our 26th president, Theodore Roosevelt, “Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.” Our city employees have been inventive, creative and frugal in finding ways to reduce costs and maintain our parks as the jewels of Benicia; our police deparment’s vigilant effectiveness; our fire department’s dependable and responsible emergency response; our water quality for drinking; our wastewater treatment to avoid polluting the Carquinez Strait; and other everyday public safety and administrative needs.

Their efforts are commendable. But it is not enough in the face of such a severe revenue shortfall. That is why we have the decision Tuesday night about further layoffs and potential salary and benefits reductions.

After this decision is made, the Council will continue its regularly scheduled study sessions to decide what it will take to have a sustainable budget. The genesis for considering a sustainable budget is common sense.

From a business perspective, sustainable development is accomplished by understanding comprehensive system dynamics, building resilient and adaptive systems, anticipating and managing changing economies and other variables and risks, and earning a profit. This is good for business, good for the city and good for our environment.

Sustainable development reflects not a trade-off between business and the environment, but the synergy between them. For these common sense and practical reasons, community development and sustainability are at the heart of the goals developed in the 1999 Benicia General Plan.

The Council will need to develop guiding principles for a sustainable budget. Here are some to consider.

[Suggestions and ideas are welcome; please click on the "comments" link at the bottom of this post and share them.]

Sustainable Budget Guiding Principles

• Maintain a budget that buffers the city from state and county fluctuations.

• Sustain a minimum 20 percent reserve. (We currently have city policy to keep a 20 percent reserve and the Council has directed staff to develop more defined criteria for use of the reserves.)

• Cultivate a diversified economy, workforce and tax base to avoid dependency on one industry or firm.

• Pursue partnerships and potential consolidation with other jurisdictions.

• Seek increased cost efficiency in service delivery while maintaining high-quality city services.

• Ensure that fee structures are legally sound and related to policy goals.

• Develop a long-term financial plan and a budget process to fund city needs and services.

In addition to these principles, we need to:

1. Consider methods to reduce and/or eliminate unfunded liabilities.

2. Define unmet needs and identify funding mechanisms for them.

3. Work with other agencies/jurisdictions to consolidate common services where it is mutually beneficial and where resources can be maximized.

4. Review city organization structure; consider the matrix team system for projects and ongoing operations.

5. Ensure labor contracts are fair and support delivery of services.

6. Use performance management and metrics (where applicable) for analysis framework for budgeting.

7. Continue monthly budgeting review until one-year budget stability is achieved; then use quarterly reviews.

The Council, staff and the public are working together to maintain our quality of services and programs and the overall quality of life within our budget, with a sustainable future in mind. On behalf of the Council, I thank the public attending our meetings for the constructive ideas, suggestions and appreciation for our task at hand.

CSC Lecture-Workshop Series

noreply@blogger.com (Elizabeth Patterson) — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 15:45:00 -0700

The Community Sustainability Commission has worked hard to make this lecture-workshop series possible and would love to have your full participation in this FREE series.
This is a working collaboration with Solano Community College. Here's the series at one glance.

Stewards of our Children's Future: 2011

for Ecologic and Economic health
+ Community Resilience

Free Public lecture-workshop series

April 12, Tuesday, 7-9PM,
Dona Benicia Room, Benicia Public Library150 E. L St
Local, Regional, National, Global Sustainability, Multiple SCC Faculty
What does Sustainability really mean? This term is used in many different ways and its meaning varies depending on context and culture. We will discuss this concept and its social, political, economic and environmental implications

April 26, Tuesday, 7-9PM,
Heritage Presbyterian Church, 1400 E 2nd St
Understanding Climate Change: An Overview, Dr Betsy Julian, Dean, Math and Sciences, SCC:
We will examine how greenhouse gases are warming the Earth’s atmosphere and explore some of the possible consequences of this change in global temperature. Alterations in precipitation, wind, and temperature patterns, as well as changes in sea level will be discussed.

May 10, Tuesday, 7-9PM,
Dona Benicia Room, Benicia Public Library,150 E. L St
Climate Action Plan and Benicia, Community Sustainability Commissioners, Paul Fair, SCC
*An overview of Climate Action Planning; What greenhouse gases (GHG) are measured; The Emission Reduction Focus Areas and the objectives and strategies to reduce GHG.

May 24, Tuesday, 7-9PM,
Heritage Presbyterian Church, 1400 E 2nd St
You don't have to suffer to be green: Conservation of energy, water and waste, Pam Muick, the Environmental Science:
Our Conservation topic will address the top free and low-cost actions to reduce PG&E and water bills and minimize landfill space. Making specific small changes in your daily or weekly routine can reduce your carbon footprint and increase your environmental sustainability within weeks! This evening’s presentation will include case histories from the SCC Environmental Science class.

June 7, Tuesday, 7-9PM,
Heritage Presbyterian Church, 1400 E 2nd St.
Where are the Green Jobs? Paul Fair, SCC
Overview of the current opportunities that exist across a wide range of industries and the expected future or growth of the various careers. In addition, we will discuss the educational, and experiential requirements of the differing career fields along with the job responsibilities that are expected.
The final major topic will be to investigate the educational opportunities that exist for educating and training our future Sustainable or Green professionals for participation in a rapidly evolving and transitioning "Green" economy.

Smart Growth Conference

noreply@blogger.com (Elizabeth Patterson) — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 23:44:00 -0800

I attended the 10th Annual New Partners for Smart Growth Conference sponsored by the Local Government Commission in Charlotte, North Carolina, from Wednesday through Sunday, Feb. 3-5, 2011. There were about 1,300 attendees from all over the United States, a mix of elected officials, local, state and federal officials, planners, public health professionals, developers and others concerned with healthy and livable communities. Vallejo City Council member Marti Brown attended as well but no other Solano officials or staff. This is too bad because many concurrent sessions were on topics of considerable interest including investment strategies for infrastructure, winning bond elections for transportation (light rail, bicycle routes and "complete streets"), locally grown food, and sea level rise.

The conference is co-sponsored by 170 organizations with wide ranging interests, and the major funder this year was the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Environmental Justice. Speakers and presenters included high ranking government officials, including former cabinet secretaries and governors as well as people simply doing great work.

I went on two tours: a bus tour of three communities who collectively adopted form base zoning (similar code adopted for Benicia Downtown Master Plan and Zoning Code - CA Neighborhood). The first stop was the Town of Davidson, located 20 miles north of Charlotte. Davidson is home of Davidson College - an historic small college campus. Davidson is built for pedestrians and bike riders, not for the car. No drive thrus are allowed here. We believe in connectivity and walkable streets.

As we toured the narrow streets, we saw mixed use (both within buildings and neighborhoods). In Davidson, all commercial property must front a public street - the unexpected benefit of this requirement is that the public safety is better and done by the city rather than private security patrols typical of shopping areas with public streets. Below is a grocery store on a public street. When you drive off the interstate into Davidson, you see offices, restaurants and hotels but you also see green space, homes, schools and shops all accessible by pedestrians. Davidson is the 2004 Smart Growth Award winner for Overall Excellence in town planning and design. (Read More...)

Although much of the retail and residential areas in Huntersville are new, the town also has 18 historic sites within a five-mile drive of Beatties Ford Road. Hopewell Presbyterian Church, for instance, dates to the 1740s and features 200 year-old stone walls around its cemetery. The Hugh Torance House and Store, started in the 1770s, is the oldest surviving store in Mecklenburg County. Latta Plantation Nature Preserve is the county's largest green space with hiking trails, a nature center, an equestrian center, boating and fishing on Mountain Island Lake, and a unique raptor center that rehabilitates and releases injured birds of prey.

The town also boasts of world-class retail stores. Birkdale Village on Sam Furr Road includes apartments and offices above boutiques, restaurants and national retailers such as Williams Sonoma, Gap and Ann Taylor Loft. Live bands play on warm-weather weekend evenings, and parents from around the lake bring children to splash and play in the village square fountain. Below is a Banana Republic Store.

Aside from mixed neighborhoods, Huntersville also provides access to Lake Norman. This 32,500-acre human-made lake with 520 miles of shoreline provides scenic vistas, recreation and wildlife. Huntersville is also just 10 minutes from Charlotte and will be served by rail in a few months.

In addition to two tours, I also attended concurrent sessions ranging from regional transportation planning and vehicle mile travel reduction, greenhouse gas reduction, infrastructure investment strategies and community job growth, public health (obesity) with land use planning, walking and "wheeling" planning (found a potential solution for Military West and 1st Street!) and hurricane prone coasts with sea level rise (and you thought California had problems). You can click on Local Government Commission for the pdf files or power points (or even MP3) for these sessions (these are not quite ready but will be posted soon).

The second tour I went on was Sunday morning after days of rain and very cold temperatures. I was worried that I would be warm enough for the bicycle tour, but the sun came out without a cloud in the sky and I was able to peel off one of my four layers as it got warmer.

We started out across from the NASCAR Museum. We rode along several miles of paths along the light rail. Then we rode through the residential areas where traffic speed had been a major problem.

The City of Charlotte uses "street diets" and neighborhood round abouts - the car in this picture is navigating one.

The bike lane was picked up again along a completely restored surface creek (it had been straightened and was mostly a "sewer").

While the ride was fun and beautiful, the message was clear that to slow traffic down, many strategies have been used including reducing the car lanes, eliminating dedicated right hand turn lanes (too many bicycle and pedestrian accidents), small landscaped roundabouts with measurable difference in bicycle and pedestrian accidents (not to mention auto accident rates) and what may seem counter intuitive, more cars moving better along routes (less noise, easier ingress and egress and other benefits).

This bicycle ride prepared me for my flight home to our wonderful city. I was happy to be back.

Steady Helm in a Storm

noreply@blogger.com (Elizabeth Patterson) — Mon, 3 Jan 2011 17:46:00 -0800

(This post also appeared in the Benicia Herald Opinion column, 1/4/2011)

“The city sure has been taking a beating,” a merchant told me last week in front of his shop. I couldn’t agree more. His comment was referring to the letters, columns and blogs with constructive — and some not so constructive — opinions about how to run the city.

This column is about where we — the city of Benicia, its staff, commissioners and Council members — have been and where we are going. Readers are welcome to respond on my blog (www.elizabethpatterson.blogspot.com), in the Benicia Herald, or during my open office hours.

They may also attend the workshops, study sessions and Council meetings we will conduct in 2011. Last year we held more than 30, posted surveys, and ran community open houses. This coming year I invite those who write letters, columns and blogs, as well as residents who read them or not, to participate in the extensive city outreach effort to: a) access and vet information; b) explore volunteer opportunities; and c) consider more new and untried budget solutions. Your participation is vital for the important decisions that will be made for our city in 2011.

Earlier this year, I affirmed at Council meetings that “we are all in this boat together” as we enter the third year of the Great Recession. The country’s financial meltdown is the result of many factors, but especially the reckless risk-taking by financial institutions, the ripple effect of which affected our neighborhoods, jobs, available funds for small businesses — and public anger.

The city of Benicia has done better than any other city in Solano County in terms of home values, loss of property tax revenue, declining sales tax and maintaining public services. And while we have had fewer losses, we also benefited from strong preemptive measures to avoid budget deficits while maintaining a 20 percent reserve.

Our assets in the city? First and foremost, the city employees who, as Greg Gartrell so succinctly wrote in a recent letter to the editor, keep drinking water safe, make sure toilets and wastewater are treated, respond to emergency calls, protect our property and businesses, maintain streets (with less and less money), provide recreational opportunities that larger cities envy, and do so many of the little-noted, day-to-day services at which this small city excels.

Our other assets are independently owned businesses, locally managed franchises, an internationally based refinery, a port and the multitude of businesses that serve them. These businesses provide sales tax that is more stable than big-box retail stores and malls.

But the biggest revenue source for the city of Benicia is from property taxes. In the past, Benicia has weathered economic recessions better than most cities because our property tax base was stable. Unfortunately, the decline in housing values throughout the country, and especially in California, means a property tax revenue reduction that may take at least 10 years to “recover” through property sales.

Sales taxes, property tax revenues, franchise fees (pipelines, natural gas, telecommunications, solid waste) and utility taxes make up the revenue for the city’s General Fund of approximately $31 million as of fiscal year 2010-11. All of these are down, and a slow crawl out of this Great Recession means stagnant or declining city revenues for more years to come. Indeed, in 2010 the city declared an annual structural deficit of $1.2 million; and a structural deficit needs structural fixes.

To meet a loss of $1.2 million and not rely on our 20 percent reserve for operations and services, we had to do three things immediately:

1) City departments reduced operation costs across the board.

2) We reduced some of our services, but we protected the Human Services Fund that supports many essential safety net programs.

3) We had layoffs of city staff that mostly affected part-time positions. These layoffs, plus our hiring freeze, put extra workload on the city staff.

We have reduced salary compensation of all executive, management, supervisors and line staff in all bargaining units except one (because of contract open dates, this will be addressed in 2011). There is no cost-of-living increase and there is no automatic step increase. This was employees’ “share” of the immediate budget needs. (In 2010, the Council unanimously agreed to seek $600,000 in reductions in employee compensation and $600,000 in city service and program reduction). We also restructured contracts to establish a health care benefit cap and a two-tier retirement rate structure thus securing future structural changes to our budget.

The new year will mean more of the same.

Without argument, 2010 has been a profound challenge. We — the Council, city staff and residents — have met the challenge and the city is in a stable position for 2011.

Benicia is better off than most cities that suffered greater losses. Because we rely on property tax more than other cities, we weather recessions better than most. However, in an unprecedented residential and commercial property value decline not seen since the Great Depression, property assessed valuation revenue to the city declined by $1.4 million, a loss that cannot be made up quickly with rising values because of Proposition 13. Thus we have a structural budget deficit for at least 10, and possibly more, years.

Although it has been tough going in 2010 and 2011 will be a challenge, we have opportunities to seize by investing in our assets: The largest industrial park in the county, which includes a port and diverse businesses; a vibrant and historic downtown with award-winning stores; full-service shopping centers; a professional, experienced and dedicated city; our schools, which are the best and to which the city remains committed; service organizations without which Benicia would not be Benicia; and my favorite — the public, which serves on our boards, commissions and committees and comments at our public meetings, bringing energy, knowledge, experience and dedication that money can’t buy. Many Benicians volunteer their time to boost city functions and programs and enhance the community and our quality of life.

What can we do now to grow jobs and the economy — to maintain the Benicia quality of life? Steps the city can and should take:

• Creatively invest in fiber optic infrastructure for the Benicia Industrial Park.

• Ensure a timely, efficient and effective Arsenal solution so that the Army pollution and ordnance are not a barrier to private investment.

• Continue collaborating with our Benicia Unified School District to ensure first-rate schools.

• Enhance and restore our services to continue the quality of life that makes Benicia a great place.

• Maintain our high public safety standards for police and fire.

• Working with our new city manager, find efficiencies and management solutions to continue to deliver services — even with a workforce reduction.

• Work together to move forward together. As part of this I believe there is a need for continued public participation to explore, vet information, educate and recommend ideas to the Council.

• Take pride in our city and have a city neighborhood improvement program, including a zero-litter goal. Who knows — perhaps there could be a contest for the most improved.

• Utilize our commissions, boards and committees to implement sustainability, the arts and culture programs, smart planning, historic preservation, open government, community needs and recreation.

In summary, I compliment this Council for its steady, firm and undivided actions to address employee compensation, recruit a new city manager, stand firm on negotiations over franchisees and fees, and seek solutions to protect our city services and programs. Being “in the same boat” means we all pull our share, rowing in the same direction for the same destination — a safe harbor for our special city of Benicia.

Here’s to a better New Year!

Seeno Attacks Mayor (remember 2007 election?)

noreply@blogger.com (Elizabeth Patterson) — Fri, 2 Jul 2010 10:22:00 -0700

It is unfortunate that the Seeno Corporation has withdrawn its application for a vesting tentative map rather than live up to its verbal commitment to the City Council. Here's what hapened: After the Council voted to deny the project, Seeno approached the council to have the denial reconsidered and the Council adopted a resolution with stipulations for a specific plan, development agreement and new EIR. Seeno agreed verbally and by a general letter in order to have Council "stay" the denial. That was and is their agreement. When the council asked for detailed written assurances from Seeno that they would live up to that verbal and general letter agreement, Seeno withdrew their application.

Why now? Because next year is an election year. It apears that they don't want a strong Mayor who stands up to Seeno. They don't want a Mayor who insists on protecting the hills, air and water, and avoid big-time traffic increases. And they don't want a Mayor who asks for assurances in writing. As your Mayor, I believe that requiring Seeno to stick to their word is what is best for the City. We negotiated in good faith and they have chosen to withdraw.

Seeno says that my reciting newspaper accounts detailing the Seeno Corporation's violation of grading ordinances, Endangered Species Act, Clean Water Act and numerous air pollution violations is slanderous. Really? Read their letter and stay tuned for more attacks and campaign fodder.

Inconvenient Truths Come in Many Packages

noreply@blogger.com (Elizabeth Patterson) — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 14:19:00 -0700

Inconvenient truths come in many packages. I remember as a child the "debate" about the source of smog in Los Angeles. While I would get sick and my eyes would sting, I listened to adults argue about where smog came from. (Later on when I was working at Cal-Tech-JPL which is in the foothills of the San Gabriel mountains north of Pasadena, I would have morning coffee outside and watched the grey stuff literally form like a vapor trail along the valley's freeways). For years the public read and listened to industry, oil and auto companies protest loudly that cars were not the source of smog. Technically, this is true. Smog is formed from the action of sun and warm temperatures on the chemicals emitted by refineries, power-plants and cars. Today it is universally accepted that cars pollute and contribute to smog. A similar so-called debate about tobacco raged on for years about whether tobacco did it or did not cause cancer. Lies and more lies by the tobacco industry came to light after a whistleblower and other heros produced documents about the deliberate scientific-speak obfuscation by the tobacco industry.

As Ronald Reagan famously said, and I paraphrase, "here we go again" with the so-called global warming, climate change debate. This is not a debate but a calculated effort by a few to cast doubt in the public's mind about whether or not we should be changing our fossil fuel habits.
On the one hand the oil spill in the gulf may take care of this conundrum by the sheer tragedy of killed sea mammals, birds, fish and biota due to the spill as well as the tens of hundreds of thousands whose way of life and livelihood are gone or derailed. The public may well ask the industry as Sarah Palin likes to say "how you do'in with that oil spill".

At a recent city council meeting (June 15th) a resolution was considered as requested by the American Lung Association to support the California Air Resources Board implementing strategies to reduce air pollution including greenhouse gases. A couple of people spoke against this resolution citing three main reasons the council should favor an upcoming proposition, if it qualifies, to suspends AB 32 the California Global Warming Solution Act of 2006: Loss of jobs, serious questions about whether or not there is global warming and California's oppressive business climate forcing businesses to flee the state taking jobs with them. There were citations and facts given by the speakers which I knew to be untrue, wrong and misleading. I do not fault the speakers as it was clear they were reading from "talking points" from the Chamber of Commerce (state and federal level) and the oil companies and their allies who are sponsoring the initiative to effectively overturn AB 32.

Okay, lets take a look at a each of these reasons:

1. AB 32. Two Texas oil companies are spending millions on a ballot proposition that effectively stalls and may kill California clean energy and air pollution reduction standards. Four years ago, California passed a clean air law – AB 32 – that holds polluters accountable and requires them to reduce air pollution that threatens human health and contributes to global climate change. This law has launched California to the forefront of the clean technology industry – sparking innovation and clean energy businesses that are creating hundreds of thousands of new California jobs.
The primary funders of the ballot proposition are the Valero and Tesoro Texas oil companies. They are among the nation’s biggest polluters, and their California oil refineries are among the top ten polluters in our state. Valero and Tesoro claim their proposition will only "suspend" AB 32's air pollution and clean energy standards until California's economy gets better.

Air pollution is a major threat to public health in California, with alarming rates of asthma and lung disease, especially among children. Each year, California’s air pollution crisis contributes to 19,000 premature deaths, hundreds of thousands of asthma attacks, and thousands of trips to the hospital for California families. The proposed proposition will let the Texas oil companies and other polluters off the hook – drastically increasing air pollution and public health risks. That’s why the proposition is strongly opposed by the American Lung Assn. in California and AARP (American Association of Retired Persons).

2. Jobs. According to California’s nonpartisan State Legislative Analyst’s Office, rolling back AB 32 could “dampen additional investments in clean energy technologies or in so-called „green jobs‟ by private firms, thereby resulting in less economic activity.” Clean energy businesses and technologies are exceptional bright spots in our economy. AB 32 has put California in a unique position to lead the clean energy and technology market, both in the United States and abroad.

o 500,000 employees work in clean technology or green jobs in California. ii

o Since 2005, California green jobs have grown 10 times faster than the statewide average. iii

o California’s clean technology sector received $9 billion cumulative venture capital investment from 2005-09, including $2.1 billion in investment capital in 2009 – more than five times the investment in our nearest competitor, Massachusetts. iv

o There are more than 12,000 clean tech companies in California. iii

The proposition would suspend AB 32 until unemployment levels of 5.5% are reached - a level that California has not seen since 2007. California has one of the nation's highest unemployment rates: 12.4%.

Two problems are obvious with this "stall": the first problem is that the above economic activity will wither [this would be the repeat of what happened after the 1974 Energy Conservation and Development Act that established the energy commission and state policy for 10% energy conservation and constrained demand management rather than all the energy the utilities could sell. While Governor Reagan signed the California law, when he became President he gutted the alternative energy programs and the 80s and 90s the state of California shrank the support for the newly emerging technologies. Not to oversimplify, but without consistent state and federal policy, business entrepreneurs can't compete with the subsidized fossil fuel and coal markets. Without federal and state investments in technology development, alternative energy development stalled. And now we in California are playing catch up with China and even midwest states to get back in the market that we created] The "suspend AB 32 proposition" will not only hurt competition from California clean energy businesses, it will also reduce consumer choices by making alternatives to fossil fuels much more expensive for consumers. This initiative will also increase household electricity costs in California by 33%. These added costs will reduce economic output in California by more than $80 billion and cost over a half million jobs by 2020.v

i California Air Resources Board(CARB), December 2008, AB 32 Scoping Plan
ii Employment Development Department – Labor Market Information Division, California‟s Green Economy, April, 2010.
iii“ Many Shades of Green,” Collaborative Economics and Next 10, Dec. 2009.
iv http://cleantech.com
v David Roland-Holst, UC Berkeley, “Energy Prices and California’s Economic Security,” Next 10, Oct. 2009.

Hostile California Business Climate" and "California Policies Job Killer" Don't Match Reality of Economic Data
The Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC) released a blockbuster 165 page report that carefully goes through all the economic numbers and debunks the idea that businesses have been leaving the state because of a hostile business climate. This is an in depth report based on a comprehensive database of virtually every business that employed California workers at any point from 1992 to 2004.

In the words of the study: "[T]he small number of California jobs moving to other states due to business relocation is relatively inconsequential—about 11,000 jobs per year out of more than 18 million (.06 percent). Business births, deaths, contractions, and expansions have a much greater effect on employment."

The PPIC released a study in 2005 showing that businesses were not relocating due to a poor business climate. Just take a look at what the San Diego Union-Tribune had to say then in "Study: Not many jobs leaving state," :

"The study debunks what has been gospel in economic development circles for years – that California's high costs and unwieldy regulations are driving businesses away. The issue reached a crescendo in the 2003 gubernatorial recall election. At the time, Schwarzenegger called the state's business climate the "worst in the nation" and pledged to make it better. …

The Washington Post took note of the PPIC study and had this to say:

"The findings stand in contrast to claims by various industry groups, including the California Chamber of Commerce, that California, the country's most populous state, is gripped by a hostile business climate.

"The claim is a constant one for business interests in the state, and Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has routinely echoed it to propose policies backed by business groups, including resisting calls for tax increases to help balance a state budget that routinely suffers shortfalls."

In releasing the report, this is what the PPIC had to say about the in state migration of businesses:

"However, as the new study shows, some regions lost more than others to out-of-state relocation. The San Francisco Bay Area lost the largest share, followed by Los Angeles, while regions such as San Diego and the Inland Empire registered barely any net loss. Even within regions, there were county variations. For example, within the San Francisco Bay Area, the counties of Marin and San Francisco lost many more jobs to other states (4% each between 1992-2004) than other counties in the region. At the same time, some Bay Area counties—Contra Costa and Santa Cruz—actually gained jobs from other parts of the country.

"A look at business relocation within California shows similar variation. For example, the Inland Empire's employment grew five percent due to jobs moving in from other California regions, while employment in the greater Los Angeles area shrank (0.7%). With the exception of Los Angeles and the Bay Area, all of California's regions gained jobs from other parts of the state, with most relocation occurring from expensive coastal areas to less expensive inland regions.

"Of particular note, more relocations also occurred over short distances, with businesses moving to neighboring regions or counties rather than across the state. "These patterns suggest that businesses are moving in search of cheaper real estate, rather than for differently skilled or cheaper labor," says PPIC research fellow Jed Kolko who co-authored the report with PPIC senior fellow and UC Irvine professor David Neumark."

The two authors of the report are economists--with Ph.D's from Harvard. They write in the restrained tones of what has been called the "dismal science." But there are a few colorful passages, among them this one:

"Over the past 15 years, it has been argued that California’s hostile business environment has caused businesses to leave the state, taking valuable jobs with them. Critics of various policies affecting the state’s businesses have pointed to these claims in their arguments for more business-friendly policies and legislation. In the economic downturn that followed the dotcom bust early in this decade, these claims about California’s poor business climate flared again and did so also during the 2003 gubernatorial recall election". After his election, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger embraced AB 32 based in large measure on the economic studies showing job growth and economic opportunities were superior to business as usual. He remains committed to AB 32 and one hopes he does not waffle on his legacy.

"The evidence indicates that job loss from interstate relocation is small across virtually all industries although more prevalent in finance and insurance. Some industries, such as manufacturing and information, are more footloose in the sense that relocation occurs more frequently. However, relocation in these footloose industries is often more common not only out of California but also into California, resulting in a small net effect."

"The data reveal some trend toward more dispersion of firms’ activities across states, with California firms employing more workers and opening more establishments out of state. However, this is offset by non-California firms doing the same within the state. Thus, the changes in firm behavior seem more likely to be a subnational reflection of some of the same forces spurring increased globalization—such as reductions in communications costs from improvements in information technology—than a reflection of the lack of attraction of California as a place to do business. This conclusion is reinforced by the timing of the changes in the geographic dispersion of the operations of California-headquartered companies. In particular, the large outward shift was concentrated during the height of the boom of the late 1990s, a period for which it would be simply implausible to argue that California was suffering from a bad business climate."

As Frank Russo has written, "old myths die hard. For the sake of better public policy and not being deluded into thinking that progress made for the "little guy" and gals of this state, the words of this report should be remembered. We don't have to forsake the environment and taking care of Californians to remain competitive. Just the opposite is true." And as Council member Mike Ioakimedes said at our city council meeting, "we don't have to make that false choice."

3. Scientist "Debate". One of the speakers in opposition to the American Lung Association Resolution began to read something from the London Times (he referred to the New York Time which was quoting from the London TImes) about the Royal Society of Science "is being forced to review its statements on climate change after a rebellion by members who question mankind's contribution to rising temperatures.

The London Times and other news media’s provided intensive coverage of a series of climate science controversies unearthed and highlighted by skeptics since November. These include the unauthorized release of e-mail messages from prominent British climate scientists at the University of East Anglia that skeptics cited as evidence that researchers were overstating the evidence for global warming and the discovery of errors in a United Nations climate report.
Two independent reviews later found no evidence that the East Anglia researchers had actively distorted climate data, but heavy press coverage had already left an impression that the scientists had schemed to repress data. Then there was the unusually cold winter in Northern Europe and the United States, which may have reinforced a perception that the Earth was not warming. (Data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, a United States agency, show that globally, this winter was the fifth warmest in history.)

Royal Society of the United Kingdom
The Royal Society of the United Kingdom has not changed its concurring stance. According to the Telegraph, "The most prestigious group of scientists in the country was forced to act after fellows complained that doubts over man made global warming were not being communicated to the public." In May 2010, it announced that it "is presently drafting a new public facing document on climate change, to provide an updated status report on the science in an easily accessible form, also addressing the levels of certainty of key components." The society says that it is three years since the last such document was published and that, after an extensive process of debate and review, it hopes to publish the new document in the summer. The review had been planned for some time but "was given 'added impetus by concerns raised by a small group of fellows'" who "complained that so far the message has not reflected the uncertainty in the debate." The society has stated that "this is not the same as saying that the climate science itself is in error – no Fellows have expressed such a view to the RS".

Accuracy and Truth matter. When I said at the council meeting that "there was not a scintilla of truth" about the job killing AB 32, jobs loss out of the state because of environmental regulation and the global warming debate - the above is why.

WANT TO RECEIVE ELIZABETH PATTERSON [ELOPATO@ELIZABETHPATTERSON.COM]] AND OTHER ACTION ALERTS ON BENICIA POLITICAL AND COMMUNITY ISSUES DELIVERED TO YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS? EMAIL YOUR NAME AND EMAIL ADDRESS AND/OR THE NAMES AND EMAIL ADDRESSES OF OTHERS WHO WOULD LIKE TO BE PLACED ON THE MAILING LIST AND THE MESSAGE "SUBSCRIBE" TO elopato@elizabethpatterson.com COMMENTS, ARGUMENTS AND CORRECTIONS ARE WELCOME. The BeniciaAlert issues are archived on my web page at www.elizabethpatterson.com. Many of the BeniciaAlert issues are archived on my blog at www.elizabethpatterson.blogspot.comYOU CAN ALSO CONTACT ME AT MY CITY HALL EMAIL: epatterson@ci.benicia.ca.us OR CALL: 707.746.5668.

Survey - we want your opinion

noreply@blogger.com (Elizabeth Patterson) — Wed, 9 Jun 2010 12:17:00 -0700

We want your opinion about city budget solutions. Take a survey! The following introduction explains the survey available by clicking on the link below. After you take the survey of which services you think are important and which services could be cut, you may want to make other recommendations. Unfortunately the survey does not provide for comments. Please feel free to click on the "comments" link at the bottom of this post and make your comments.

The City of Benicia wants to know what your priorities are for City services. While the City has fared well during the first two years of the economic recession, City revenues dropped sharply this year and are not expected to return to previous levels soon. This revenue decline impacts the City’s ability to support the current level of services.

This survey of community priorities will help ensure that we know what the community values most and enable us to tailor our spending in ways that match community priorities.

Thank you for taking the time to answer the questions in the survey. Working together, we will make the best decisions possible.

Your answers to the questions below will tell us about the importance of a list of services provided by the City of Benicia. Please note that only services, programs and facilities funded from the General Fund are listed.

Click on the following link to take the survey:
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/3DJ72MP

American obsession with bottled water

noreply@blogger.com (Elizabeth Patterson) — Tue, 18 May 2010 14:29:00 -0700

At their May 17 meeting, the Benicia Community Sustainability Commission discussed prioritizing 120 Climate Action Plan strategies. One of the recommended 2010 priorites was Strategy SW-1.1. -Limit City Spending on Bottled Water: Limiting City spending on bottled water to necessary fire safety operations will reduce the City’s solid waste consumption and will demonstrate community-wide leadership, while reducing overhead.

National Public Radio (NPR) yesterday featured an interview with Peter Gleick who is with the Pacific Institute in Berkeley and a 2003 McArthur Fellow (genius award) discussing his new book: Bottled and Sold: The Story Behind Our Obsession with Bottled Water. More than 85 million bottles of water are sold every day in the United States. Freshwater expert Peter Gleick explains what's in them -- and why we drink them -- in his book.

Read a fascinating excerpt from Peter Gleick's book, Bottled and Sold: The Story Behind Our Obsession with Bottled Water at this link:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=126833795

Below is the transcript of the NPR interview with Peter Gleick on May 17:
War On Tap: America's Obsession With Bottled Water

Heard on Fresh Air from WHYY

War On Tap: America's Obsession with Bottled Water
May 17, 2010 - TERRY GROSS, host:

This is FRESH AIR. I'm Terry Gross.

When you're drinking bottled water, do you ever wonder where it comes from? Is it really from the spring that it's named after? Is it really just purified tap water from the municipal system? Is it worth lugging home gallons of bottled water when you can turn on the tap in your kitchen sink?

My guest, Peter Gleick, has written a new book called "Bottled and Sold" that answers a lot of questions about bottled water and also describes some of the problems it's causing. Gleick says every second of every day in the U.S., 1,000 people buy and open a plastic bottle of commercially produced water and, every second of every day, 1,000 plastic bottles are thrown away.

Bottled water may taste good, but Gleick says it's producing billions of tons of carbon dioxide and other pollutants. He says Americans should be insisting that their municipal water systems are maintained and upgraded so that they can provide public tap water that is safe and tastes good.

Gleick is a water expert who was named a MacArthur fellow in 2003. He's the co-founder and president of the Pacific Institute for Studies in Development, Environment and Security, based in Oakland.

Peter Gleick, welcome back to FRESH AIR. Most bottled water has such healthy-sounding names, like, with springs and glaciers in the title. But the water isn't often often isn't from a spring, or at least it isn't from the spring you'd think it was from. You give a few examples in your book, like Arctic Spring Water is actually from Lakeland, Florida. Glacier Mountain Natural Spring Water is actually from New Jersey. Are they from springs?

Mr. PETER GLEICK (Author, "Bottled and Sold: The Story Behind Our Obsession with Bottled Water"): Well, we get most of our bottled water in the United States from two kinds of places. We get them from springs, and if you actually see the words spring water on the bottle, it's required to come from either a spring or, more likely, from a groundwater well that's drilled into where that spring comes from.

Or about 40 or 45 percent of our bottled water actually comes from reprocessed municipal water. And that I mean, that's a story all by itself. But there are a bunch of strange names for bottled water. We get Arctic water from Tennessee or from Florida, certainly not from the Arctic.

Yosemite water comes from Los Angeles. Everest water comes from Texas, and there are plenty of big things in Texas, but Mount Everest isn't one of them. And so, part of the challenge is thinking about what's on the bottle and what they're really trying to tell us versus what's actually likely to be in that bottle.

GROSS: Now, you mention that a lot of bottled water actually comes from municipal water and is then purified and reprocessed. So examples of that kind of water, bottled water that's actually from municipal water supplies includes Dasani, which is produced by Coke; Aquafina, which is produced by PepsiCo; and Pure Life which is produced by Nestle.

So, when bottled water actually comes from the municipal water supply, how is it transformed into bottled water? What do they do with the tap water to you know, to the municipal water to make it bottled water?

Mr. GLEICK: Many bottlers, and some of the big ones like Coca-Cola and Pepsi that produce Dasani and Aquafina, they take municipal water, they often run it through additional processes, other filters, some kinds of purification systems.

For Dasani, for example, for the Coca-Cola product, they actually strip out all of the minerals and then they put minerals back so that Dasani that's bottled in New York or Dasani that's bottled in Detroit or Dasani that's bottled in the San Francisco Bay Area actually all tastes the same. They call it pixie dust or magic dust to make all of these bottled waters taste the same, but it originates...

GROSS: The pixie dust is the packet of minerals that they put in to reinstitute the taste that they took out when they took out the minerals during the purification process?

Mr. GLEICK: Yes, that's right, but you have to understand, this stuff originates as potable tap water in the first place.

GROSS: When you buy bottled water that's actually purified tap water, as opposed to spring water, does it tell you that on the bottle? Does it say this water is actually from, like, the Philadelphia water supply or the New Jersey municipal water plant?

Mr. GLEICK: There is no requirement at the federal level that water bottlers put the source of the water on their bottle. There has been some pressure in recent years to make them do that, and some of the big bottlers are beginning to list their sources, but there's no requirement.

But if it doesn't say spring water, you can be pretty sure it's probably coming from some purified municipal water system. And interestingly, Poland Spring, which I think you mentioned earlier...

GROSS: I didn't, but go ahead.

(Soundbite of laughter)

Mr. GLEICK: Oh, I'm sorry is a Nestle brand. It's pretty well-known on the East Coast. It's one of Nestle's many brands. But in the old days, Poland Spring came from Poland Spring, a spring in Maine that was known for its high-quality water.

But the demand for bottled water from Nestle's and from Poland Spring has gotten so large that in fact there's almost no water coming out of Poland Spring anymore. They've over-pumped it and now, Poland Spring water is no longer a source of water, it's a brand name. And the stuff that's in a Poland Spring water bottle may come from any one of half a dozen or more springs somewhere in the Northeast.

GROSS: But it's still spring water, but you're saying that you think the name is misleading, that most people think it's actually the Poland Spring that they're getting the water from, not just a brand name now?

Mr. GLEICK: I would think that if I didn't know better. I would think that Poland Spring water would come from that famous Poland Spring.

GROSS: Actually, there was a class-action suit that you write about in your book in 2003 that accused the company of false advertising. What was the outcome?

Mr. GLEICK: Well, that's right. Yeah, when the news sort of started to filter out that, in fact, Poland Spring water no longer came from Poland Spring, I think some consumer groups in Connecticut and Massachusetts sued the company, sued Nestle. And now, if you look carefully at the fine print on a Poland Spring bottle, you'll see it says this water comes and I don't have one in front of me but this water comes from, and it lists six or seven or eight different springs. They do list Poland Spring as one of the many springs without specifying actually where it comes from.

GROSS: As you point out in your book, when you buy bottled water, you're unlikely to find out exactly where the water has come from, but you are going to learn that the water has zero calories, zero carbs, zero protein, which you kind of already knew. So why don't you explain those that labeling issue that you don't have to tell where it's bottled, but you do have to say that it's got zero calories.

Mr. GLEICK: I think bottle water labels are remarkable for how little information they really provide the consumer. They have a name. They have a company. They have often a beautiful logo of a mountain or a, you know, some pristine natural scene.

GROSS: A nice bird flying by.

Mr. GLEICK: And sometimes they have the FDA nutrition label that we're all familiar with from the back our food products that tell us calories, fat, cholesterol, carbohydrates, protein, that kind of thing. And for bottled water especially, that label is just ridiculous. There is no fat. There's no cholesterol. There's no carbohydrates. There's no protein. There are no calories in bottled water. And so you look at a nutrition label for bottled water, and it's zero, zero, zero, zero, zero.

But there are things in water. There are always natural minerals in water. And, in fact, you don't want to drink water that doesn't have natural minerals in it. There's calcium and iron and magnesium and potassium and sodium and zinc, and you know, there are all sorts of natural things that are perfectly healthy for us. But our labels in the United States don't tell us what is in our what really is in our bottled water.

GROSS: So who decides what needs to be on the label? What agency is regulating that?

Mr. GLEICK: Bottled water in the United States is regulated by the Food and Drug Administration. They determine the rules for labels. They determine the rules for water quality testing and monitoring. They determine inspection routines.

It's odd that in the United States, where our tap water is regulated by the Environmental Protection Agency under the rules set by our law called the Safe Drinking Water Act, that bottled water is actually considered a food product. It's different and, hence, regulated by the FDA.

GROSS: So that's interesting. So if you have two glasses, and you pour bottled water into one glass and tap water into the other glass, both glasses are regulated by different agencies.

Mr. GLEICK: And the rules are different and the monitoring what they measure is different and who does the measuring is different and how often it's measured is different and the rules for notifying the public about problems are different.

I think this is one of the big problems with bottled water. I can't come up with a good argument why they shouldn't be identical, why the rules for tap water and bottled water shouldn't be the same, but they aren't.

GROSS: So what are some of differences in how tap water and bottled water are regulated?

Mr. GLEICK: Well, there are lots of differences. One of the big ones is that, first of all, the EPA regulates all of our tap water under federal law. The FDA regulates bottled water but only bottled water that is in what we call interstate commerce, that crosses state lines.

And so, if somebody bottles water and sells it within the same state, the FDA doesn't have any regulatory authority over that to begin with. And so, right off the bat, 60 to 70 percent of our bottled water actually isn't regulated by the federal government because it doesn't enter interstate commerce.

But then the kinds of things that we measure are sometimes a little different. The rules are supposed to be the same. They're supposed to be no less protective than federal rules for tap water. But we often monitor tap water dozens of times a day.

A big city will do water quality tests dozens of times a day. Bottled water might be tested once a week and once a month or once a year or even less often for certain kinds of constituents.

It's often measured by laboratories that aren't independent. The companies often do their own bottled water testing, and they're supposed to report to the FDA, but they rarely do. There are a lot of differences.

GROSS: If you're just joining us, my guest is Peter Gleick. He's the author of the new book "Bottled and Sold: The Story Behind Our Obsession with Bottled Water." Let's take a short break here, and then we'll talk some more. This is FRESH AIR.

(Soundbite of music)

GROSS: If you're just joining us, my guest is Peter Gleick. He is the author of the new book "Bottled and Sold: The Story Behind Our Obsession with Bottled Water." He edits the biennial report The World's Water. He's a former MacArthur fellow and is the founder and president of the think-tank The Pacific Institute, which is located in Oakland.

One of the things you did as research for this book is you filed a Freedom of Information Act. What were you looking for? What did you ask for?

Mr. GLEICK: There is this question about how good our bottled water quality really is, and I believe mostly it's fine, but I also believe that we don't test and measure and report bottled water quality as much as we ought to.

And one of the things that I wanted to try and find out was the extent to which the FDA, the Food and Drug Administration, is really keeping track of problems with bottled water.

One day, I heard about a recall of a brand of bottled water and that made me think, all right, have there been other recalls of other bottled water? And when I went to the FDA website, where in theory they're supposed to list food recalls, and I looked around for bottled water recalls, I found a few but I didn't find the one that I knew about.

And so I wrote to the FDA and said, look, I'd like to know all of the bottled water recalls that you've had. And it took months of back and forth before they finally released all of that information, but it turns out we do have problems with bottled water.

There have been more than 100 official recalls of bottled water, many of which have never been that aren't publicly available. There's been contamination with mold and with kerosene and with algae, and bottled water's been found with yeast and fecal coliforms and other bacteria and glass particles, and probably and my favorite example, with crickets.

There was an instance in the mid-1990s with a bottler in Nacogdoches, Texas, where they produced bottled water with crickets, and they ended up recalling the water very late, months after the contamination was found and probably months after those crickets were sold.

GROSS: Were the crickets actually in the bottles?

Mr. GLEICK: Apparently. I didn't buy one but there were crickets or not to be too graphic maybe cricket parts in some of the bottled water that they bottled and sold.

GROSS: So what's your conclusion based on the FOIA information that you got?

Mr. GLEICK: Well, there are a couple things that I think are worrisome. One is when we really do look at the quality of bottled water, we find problems. Now, that's bad. It suggests we need to be much more aggressive about regulating and protecting bottled water quality and all water quality. Another one is that the rules aren't working right. I think the public ought to know more regularly, more frequently, more openly, about what's in our bottled water.

With these recalls, often the recalls themselves were not issued until literally months after the contamination was found and months after the product hit the shelves and probably was bought and consumed.

When we have a contamination problem with our tap water, the rules say the public needs to be notified the same day, but with bottled water, the rules are much less strict.

GROSS: So, one of the problems that you have and that many people have with bottled water is that it wastes it creates and wastes all this plastic. You have, you know, a gazillion water bottles that are thrown out every day, and many of them are not recycled. So what happens to the not-recycled plastic bottles?

Mr. GLEICK: In the United States, probably 70 or 75 percent of the plastic water bottles that we buy and consume are never recycled. The industry likes to tell us that PET plastic is completely recyclable. And that's true, but there's a big difference between recyclable and recycled, and the truth is we're bad at recycling. We don't recycle most of the materials that we use that could be recycled. And the stuff that isn't recycled, it goes to landfills. And when it goes to landfills, it's buried, and it lasts forever, effectively forever.

PET, because it's, you know, it's a wonderful food it's a wonderful packaging for food, but it's wonderful because it's incredibly stable, and that characteristic makes it a bad thing for our landfills.

GROSS: So what is PET plastic?

Mr. GLEICK: The vast majority of the bottled water that's sold in the United States is sold in something called PET, polyethylene terephthalate. It's the plastic with the little symbol number one, for those people who look at the bottom of their plastic containers. And it was invented in the very early 1940s, in 1941, by two British chemists, and it's a wonderful plastic for food. It's resistant to heat. It's impermeable to carbonation, so we can put bubbly things in it. It's strong. It's light. It's impact-resistant. It's transparent, and it's recyclable. It's a pretty good plastic for food products. But it's not so great for the environment.

GROSS: So when you do recycle your bottles from bottled water, what happens to them then?

Mr. GLEICK: Well, it would be nice if we recycled our PET and we collected it, and it was transported to someplace where they turned it back into bottles and closed the loop so that we didn't have to use raw petroleum, a very expensive material to make new, virgin PET. But that's not what happens.

When we recycle or plastic, it typically goes, ironically enough, to China, where it's turned into fabric, it's turned into rugs, it's turned into strapping material, it's turned into polyester clothing. It's what we call down-cycled rather than recycled, really.

GROSS: What's wrong with the recycling because isn't it preventing yeah.

Mr. GLEICK: No, recycling's great. I'm a big fan of recycling. I think 100 percent of our PET ought to be recycled, but I believe that the bottles that we make ought to be made from recycled material rather than from virgin petroleum, from raw resources.

If we could close the loop, if we could recycle all our plastic bottles and turn them back into plastic bottles, first of all, we wouldn't have the environmental impact dealing we wouldn't have to deal with huge quantities of plastic in landfill, and then we wouldn't have to take tremendous amounts of raw energy, petroleum, and turn it into stuff that we throw away.

GROSS: So I'm still trying to wrap my mind around the fact that a lot of America's recycled plastic water bottles go to China for the recycling.

Mr. GLEICK: Yeah, it's sort of amazing, in part because there's not much demand for recycled material here in the United States. Coca-Cola's actually just opened a new plant in South Carolina that is going to turn recycled plastic bottles back into plastic bottles, or they're going to use some of that material for plastic bottles.

But it's one of the weird things about the world economy today that it's economic to collect recycled plastic in the United States and then ship it across the Pacific, which is a really big ocean, to China, where they turn it into toys and carpets and other things that they then ship back to us. It's a strange we live in a strange world, economically, when that sort of thing is practical.

GROSS: You know, I think one of the concerns with tap water is that long after the water system, the municipal water systems were built, new chemicals were dumped into, you know, into lakes and rivers and so on, and so that there's all kinds of pollutants in the water that our system was never designed to filter out and that the EPA doesn't necessarily even test for. So in that sense, you don't know what you're drinking.

Mr. GLEICK: There's no doubt that our tap water system, which is good, could be better and should be better. The federal government should reassess the Safe Drinking Water Act, the law that determines the kinds of things that we measure and the kinds of things we monitor and protect in our tap water system precisely because there are new things in the environment.

There are new chemicals. There are better testing methods that let us detect smaller and smaller quantities of things. There are more and more things in our tap water system that might be bad for human health, and we ought to know whether they're bad, and we ought to remove them. And that requires, I think, supporting and expanding state of the art tap water systems.

Our tap water's not as good as it could be. It's good, but it ought to be better, and one of the reasons people move to bottled water is because they either are afraid that our tap water system isn't good enough, or it isn't. And it ought to be fixed.

The answer to problems with our tap water isn't bottled water, though. We can't afford bottled water for everybody, and I think it would be a big mistake to let our tap water systems decay.

GROSS: Well, Peter Gleick, thank you so much for talking with us.

Mr. GLEICK: Sure, happy to be here.

GROSS: Peter Gleick is the author of the new book "Bottled and Sold: The Story Behind Our Obsession with Bottled Water." He's the co-founder and president of the Pacific Institute.

I'm Terry Gross, and this is FRESH AIR.

City and Seeno - drivers seat or back seat

noreply@blogger.com (Elizabeth Patterson) — Wed, 12 May 2010 14:40:00 -0700

Last month I requested that the city council review the open 2002 application of Seeno for the Benicia Business Park in light of the recent 32-federal agent raid on Seeno's corporate headquarters. For a host of reasons, it seemed prudent to make sure the city was not exposed or in a compromised position.

The majority of the council voted to require Seeno to provide the city a progress update in six months, and asked Seeno to respond promptly to the city’s request for their participation in seeking a grant to underwrite the development of a specific plan for the property. The Seeno Company was to be informed that the city retains the option of changing its fee structure for the business park application. The city council moved to request a signed letter from Seeno that they would comply the adopted 2009 resolution.

"It’s not quite time to say ‘I told you so,’” Councilmember Mike Ioakimedes told Campbell during discussion of Hughes’s motion. “If we send them a letter, and they don’t sign it, that’s an indication of their sincerity. If they do sign, that changes the ballgame in the short term."

The council was to have an answer and consider action for May 18th. Yesterday, the city received the Seeno response.

The response is "qualified" by not agreeing to a specific plan nor to paying the fees in effect at the time of project approval (in other words the current fees, not the 2002 fees). The "guts" of the action taken in February in 2009 was the required specific plan and that the project would pay its way. There was no response in yesterday's letter about Seeno's position on the sustainability grant for which the city was applying.

As required by the council, this consideration of the 2002 application will be on the agenda for June 1, 2009. You may want to attend or email your thoughts to the city council members: mioakimedes@ci.benicia.ca.us.ca , aschwartzman@ci.benicia.ca.us , tcampbell@ci.benicia.ca.us , mhughes@ci.benicia.ca.us , and city manager, jerickson@ci.benicia.ca.us

[You may also email me, epatterson@ci.benicia.ca.us or just leave a comment here on this blog by clicking the Comments link at the bottom of this post.]

During the sometimes rancorous 2-year (one election, tons of campaign money) process that included public groups developing strategies and a specific plan vision and staff "interpreting" the council's "no" vote, it became clear that the city needed to be in the driver's seat to ensure the planning process. Without this control and authority, every single issue near and dear to Benicia was a struggle and a battle hard fought: grading, traffic, air pollution, school impacts, water use and storm runoff, energy efficiency, alternative energy, jobs matching demographics and developer fees.

Based on this experience, the qualified assurance in yesterday's Seeno letter is just that - qualified. In other words, plan on fighting for the elements agreed to in the city resolution and embracing the community meeting vision - a specific plan now that provides assurances that future development meets the community's vision.

Additionally, experience has shown that Seeno questions and negotiates to pay lower fees and that will be another fight. To put off tomorrow what could be done today - close the 2002 application - is a choice that either puts the city in the driver's seat or in the back seat. The downside of closing the application, according to others, is that the Seeno company may not do anything with the property for many years and the city would not realize economic benefits from development.

It is good to remember the events from 2002 to now: an incomplete application accepted in 2002 that took about two years to get all the information submitted for the EIR assessment. After two years of public hearings, workshops, and a facilitated public discussion on the planning for and of the so-called Seeno property at Lake Herman Road and East Second, the council passed a resolution providing for the requirements of a specific plan to, among other things, design a "walkable" sustainable business park, reduce traffic impacts, avoid net increase in air pollution, ensure no net increase in stormwater runoff and a project that does not impact city services. One key elements of the future specific plan is to design and develop for jobs that match the people who live and work in Benicia - there is a higher educational level that should be a great work force for innovative and entrepreneurial businesses to meet the challenges of an emerging green economy.

The corner stone to getting a project that reflects the General Plan and the public's vision as chronicled in the January 2009 facilitated "community meeting" is the process:

PROCESS:
A specific plan (paid for by the developer) should be a requirement.
Require substantial community involvement early in the
process—this is the key to success.
Need a new, not just a revised, project.
Promote the vision of a green gateway.
A development agreement would be good.
Need an oversight committee that reports regularly to the community.
Need someone from the City on site during construction.
Provide residents with information and confidence.
Require an outside manager for the project who would be paid by the developer and would report weekly to the City.
Include significant penalties or performance bonds for infractions.
Require a comprehensive economic analysis.
Develop a community-based process.
Make sure PLA applies to everything, including future tenant improvements.
Include form-based code.
Ensure that the City enforces rules.

Biggest Decision Council Will Ever Make

noreply@blogger.com (Elizabeth Patterson) — Sun, 18 Apr 2010 21:41:00 -0700

In case you missed the news, here is an excerpt from the Benicia Herald story about the City Manager's announcement of his retirement. Following this story is an article by another city manager, Rick Cole, who titles it, "The biggest decision the council will ever make". And indeed it is.

I am interested in your thoughts for what you would like in a city manager. Please share your ideas and suggestions in the Comments link below this post. I will compile them and share them with the council. The council will be discussing how to select a city manager, what are the qualities of the next city manager, and should we have an interim city manager while the search is on, among other issues.
___________________________________________________
BENICIA HERALD ARTICLE:

Benicia city manager to retire in July
Top staffer was hired in 2003; replacement talk under way
By Donna Beth Weilenman
Staff Reporter, The Benicia Herald, April 9, 2010

Jim Erickson, Benicia’s city manager since 2003, has announced his retirement. When he leaves the job July 15, Erickson, who turns 65 next month, will be ending a public service career that began 39 years ago when he became assistant city manager of Vacaville.

Read More...
__________________________________________

RICK COLE ARTICLE:

The Biggest Decision a Council Will Make
By Rick Cole
City Manager, Ventura

It’s been decades since there have been so many city manager opportunities – the sea change that our profession has been predicting is now coming to pass as baby boomer managers retirements add to the usual rate of turn-over. Many of California’s most distinguished managers have called it quits in the last couple of years, seemingly at an increasing rate. Recently a half dozen major cities were in the hunt – and some national searches have come up short, with cities turning instead to keeping their interim managers from inside.

Choosing a city manager is the biggest decision a Council will make, but few are prepared for the challenge. While responsible recruiters certainly help, our profession also has an obligation to assist Councils in working together for successful results. Obviously, good succession planning by city managers is important so that cities have viable inside choices. But if a wider search is expected or desired, our profession has a large stake in promoting successful outcomes.

As one of the few people who has been on both sides of the city manager hiring process in California, I’ve talked to Council members and Mayors from many cities about the City Manager hiring challenge. Almost invariably, they are naively unprepared for the obstacles they face.

Many simply assume that by hiring a recruiter, conducting interviews and picking the “best” choice, they have fulfilled their responsibilities. They almost never realize how difficult it is to successfully recruit in today’s fiercely competitive environment.

Here’s a quick checklist of the key elements of a successful search:

Thinking through the process. Most cities hire a reputable recruiter,although some go it alone. But most elected officials erroneously assume that the recruiter can and will do it all. They neglect the other vital places they can and should participate.

Achieving consensus on what they are looking for before beginning the search. Most elected officials lack experience in hiring a chief executive. They figure that they will interview the candidates and pick “the most qualified.” Not only do they fail to come to agreement as a group, they often individually fail to identify what the organization and the community really need in a new chief executive. Too often they simply react to the last manager – seeking to replace the qualities in a person they liked or find the opposite qualities from a person they didn’t. Even if views aren’t that subjective, they are often too narrow – “we need someone who can help revitalize downtown” or “I want someone who can stand up to our Police Chief” etc. Over the four years the average manager spends in a city (and much longer in many cases) the issues will change, so the leadership approach and the character of the person selected will count much more than specific expertise,viewpoints or experience.

Actively participating in the recruitment: Once a Council has achieved consensus, they can play an important role convincing well-suited candidates to apply. This can’t be a “free for all,” of course – it is best handled by the Mayor or a Council appointed search committee working closely with the recruiter. But with the most sought-after candidates having had their pick of opportunities in recent years, an elected official can carry great weight in persuading potential candidates to apply. Happy in my last job, I would never have become a candidate in Ventura if the Mayor had not personally talked to me at length to convince me that I might be a great fit.

Prepare for the interviews: Even experienced professional
managers often overestimate their interviewing skills. A group of
elected officials seldom are prepared to get the most out of the
highly artificial process of assessing a candidate in 45-60 minutes.
Without a thorough preparation on what to be looking for, what
pitfalls to avoid and how to ask fruitful questions, at the end of a
long day, each councilmember will have their own subjective
reactions (“I thought he came across as arrogant,” “I really liked his answer on what he’d do to reduce gang crime,” “she seemed nervous” etc.) These impressions are not an accurate measure of future performance potential.

See for themselves: Recruiters usually do a good job on checking references, but there is no substitute for some or all the Council members going to the local community to check on their final choice before signing on the dotted line. More councils are taking this step and it often not only helps solidify the choice, but also gives insight into the strengths and weaknesses of the person they are hiring. We all have them – and the vital relationship between council and manager starts with understanding them.

Getting off on the right foot: It’s not enough to finalize salary and relocation details. What are the expectations for the first six months? What kind of evaluation framework will be put in place right from the start? How will the new person be introduced to the organization and the community? These are questions that are too often taken for granted or answered only superficially. But as the cliché goes, there is only one chance to make a first impression. Working together on that (especially if the manager is hired on a split vote) is vital to minimize predictable problems down the road.

We all know that relatively trivial matters can sometimes keep a Council up to the wee hours, whether it’s a stop sign in one jurisdiction or a land use appeal in another. Outgoing managers are not always in a position to help their Councils prepare to choose their successors – and might feel like they are intruding on the Council’s business. But as a profession, we can work with the recruiting professionals to help Councils do a better job of making their most important decision – and the better job they do, the stronger it will make our profession.

--Rick Cole, Ventura City Manager
_________________________________________________

As I mentioned at the beginning of this post, this is indeed a big decision for the Benicia City Council, and we need to hear your thoughts on what you would like in a city manager. I encourage you to share your ideas and suggestions by clicking the COMMENTS link directly below this post (and read the comments of others). I will compile them and share them with the council.

Thank you for your input.
--Elizabeth

P.S. To get you started, here are some comments I've already received:
________________________________________________

Hi Elizabeth,

Since I'm not quite sure what a City Manager does, but assume it has much to do with ensuring the city's budget is sound, I would think you need an individual who is strong in knowledge and in practical experience in maintaining balanced governmental budgets. I would also hope the person is a team player and is easy to work with and for, is capable of bringing new and creative ideas to the table (thinking outside the box) and is able to find practical solutions to difficult problems in a timely manner. I like someone who doesn't need to be told what to do, but can think one or two steps ahead and be prepared with practical options to present to our city's decision makers. I don't know whether any existing staff fits the bill but I would certainly encourage any current staff to apply if they think they're capable.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

ELizabeth,

I want a city manager who isn't afraid of big industry and will advocare for the city/citizens. I also want someone educated to be a city manager. I want someone who looks out and understand all segments of our community and especially the needs of the poor and the folks on the other side of the freeway. I also want someone who will be able to complete projects. We have way too many uncompleted projects around this community. S/he needs to be able to work with all the members of the city council and especially the mayor.

I think the city council needs to be very clear as to what they want in a city manager and they can do this by having clearly stated goals and objectives. You are going to say that we already have that but what should happen now is that we should review them to make sure they are still accurate.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
ok elizabeth--here is a good starter --
1) nonpartisan --show examples
2) highest integrity--ask candidates to give five best examples in writing of how they showed it--most crucial trait
3) vision--ask what is over the horizon--listen to how they connect trends and ideas together
4) benicia needs a planner-manager---since the road ahead is always full of hairpin turns, ask candidates how they do their strategic planning and what they can teach the city's elected officials that they don't know about it.
If they do not use scenario planning routinely drop them from consideration because all they know is forecasting and in uncertain times that always fails
5) track record --must have been a ceo before--being in a top job is like no other--being required to take full responsibility for every decision and not pass the buck.
KNOW THYSELF ask them to describe in detail their three biggest failures and what they learned from each--we all make errors, some can't learn from them.
---ask what were your top 5 achievements in each of the last three jobs--how did you decide to do each one? who else was involved and why? who took the credit and why?
How long did they stay in each job? why did they leave each job? how do they win friends and influence people?
6) benicia needs a manager who understands the environmental sensitiveness of the sf bay area--ask candidates how they achieved in prior jobs to improve the environmental ambience of their areas in which they worked
7) ask them how they manage conflict--manage gossip--manage anger among others--manage their own anger--
What they believe about how groups with competing agendas should be handled (ensure all the competing leaders hear out the others until they can work together toward common good in the future is best model)
Do they prepare one budget or a best case, worse case and most probable budget each year? (latter shows more sophisticated experience )
8) ask them how they would handle wayward public opinion vs an alternative obvious right path--e.g; if 750 voting citizens and 100 high school students walked in to city hall with a surprise petition to raze the post office and build a huge statue in its place dedicated entirely to the back end of a giraffe, how would they, step by step, handle it? ( did the candidate laugh, take it seriously, offer help, try to dissuade them?)
9) ask them what their own personal goals are--what do they want to achieve in life--how is what they did before part of that plan? how is the new position part of that plan?
10) what is important to Benicia and why? --have they done their homework? can they describe each neighborhood?
what do they think of each shopping center/ what should be the economic engine of benicia? how should Benicia attract visitors?, tourists?, new residents? what should benicia look like in 25 years--how many people?, how diverse an employment base? , relationship to the university of California(if any)? what would make the best collection(& why)of future small businesses in the area from Safeway to the waterfront? in Southampton? etc

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Please click the COMMENT link below to leave more comments!

Honoring Eleanor Roosevelt

noreply@blogger.com (Elizabeth Patterson) — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 14:18:00 -0700

First lady recalled as 125th birthday nears
By Patti Ahern, October 9, 2009
Chicago Tribune

Powerful women today -- Hillary Clinton, Michelle Obama, Nancy Pelosi -- don't hold a candle to Eleanor Roosevelt in terms of how they'll be remembered by historians, a number of experts say on the eve of what would have been the former first lady's 125th birthday.

"I can't think of anybody equivalent to Eleanor Roosevelt," said Jessica Michna, who will portray the social justice advocate at a fundraising party in Huntley for the American Association of University Women. "She was such a star on the horizon -- a comet coming through, and comets don't come through that often. I cannot think of another person in the world to have left such a footprint."

Roosevelt's legacy is powerful enough to have inspired a new organization, the Eleanor Roosevelt Society, at Roosevelt University in Chicago. Founded by student Mallory Umar, the group provides the opportunity to follow Roosevelt's path of serving the community."Roosevelt University is a social justice institution, and I'm inspired by Eleanor Roosevelt," said Umar, a senior psychology and sociology major. "The society will allow for students to be out in the community, and work in unique organizations from a wide range of backgrounds." The organizations have "green" initiatives, help animals, or work with the mentally disabled, to name a few, she said.

Sarah Manzeske, director of the Center for Student Involvement at Roosevelt, said the former first lady, who died almost 47 years ago, sought to raise awareness of social issues and applauded the university's goal to provide education to both sexes, without regard to race.

"Eleanor was ahead of her time and cared deeply about people. She realized that not everyone is born into a privileged life. Our students see themselves as part of a huge, connected world and that's what being a part of this [Roosevelt] society is," Manzeske said.

That Roosevelt still inspires people today comes as no surprise to Robin Gerber, who wrote "Leadership the Eleanor Roosevelt Way." Gerber said Roosevelt's relevance to the present is "growing every day" because the United States is experiencing some of the same issues that were faced in the country when her husband, Franklin, was president.

Finding someone in public life today who might have the same passions and convictions as Roosevelt was not easy for Gerber to do.

"Hillary Clinton talks about Eleanor being a role model, and they are both women of great conviction. Nancy Pelosi, speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives -- we may look back on her and see incredible leadership. Michelle Obama cares deeply about public service and could make millions of bucks in a law firm, but shows a commitment to public service," Gerber said.

She suggests that probably thousands of people are quietly following in Roosevelt's footsteps every day, making changes with the same convictions or the same persistence to social reform. They're anonymous and getting little or no attention, Gerber said.

The AAUW in Huntley as well as nationally is using Roosevelt's 125th birthday on Sunday to raise money to help support education, research and legislative work on behalf of women, areas of great interest to Roosevelt.

"She was a champion for social justice in the area of discrimination and racism -- issues that plague us today," said Diane Ayers, president of Huntley's AAUW.

Michna and R.J. Lindsey will appear at a birthday party as the Roosevelts, while guests will sample Roosevelt-era food and dress in period clothing.

Michna has given historical performances for about 10 years, starting out as Mary Todd Lincoln. Along the way, she said, people began asking her to consider giving Roosevelt performances.

"Her message is so relevant today and I can think of several things that are just as important today as in Eleanor's time.

"She was a patriot in that she served the country and fellow citizens. She saw struggle, but she did not have false compassion," Michna said.

Erik Gellman, an assistant professor in the Department of History and Philosophy at Roosevelt University, is a specialist in the study of civil rights during the New Deal era. Gellman said Roosevelt was an essential advocate of civil rights in her husband's administration.

"She gave African-Americans hope during the Depression that major civil rights legislation was on the way," Gellman said. "And her early stand against segregation and racial violence would, by the end of the war, help transform civil rights into human rights with the formation of the United Nations.

"That isn't to say she supported all of the goals of American civil rights activists, but she was ahead of her time and understood the limitations of both Democratic and Cold War politics," Gellman said.

"It's hard to think of first ladies who have had an impact on politics and culture the way Eleanor Roosevelt did. No one immediately comes to mind.

"She was one of a kind."

Global warming impacts to public health in California

noreply@blogger.com (Elizabeth Patterson) — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 17:44:00 -0700

Following are some excerpts from an article from American Lung Assoc. in California :

Global warming not only poses a serious threat to the health of our planet, it also puts our own health at risk...

With rising temperatures, there will be many more smoggy days. While ozone - the main ingredient in smog - high up in the atmosphere actually protects us from the sun's ultraviolet rays, ozone down near the ground is very dangerous to lung health and can lead to wheezing and coughing, increased risk of asthma attacks, and more visits to the hospital for breathing problems...

Californians experience the worst air quality in the nation, with more than 90 percent of residents living in areas with unhealthy levels of ozone or particulate pollution, according to the California Air Resources Board (CARB). Air pollution exposure can lead to asthma attacks, chronic bronchitis, reduced lung function, worsening of lung illnesses such as emphysema, heart attacks, strokes, lung cancer, premature deaths and abnormal lung development in children. The increased frequency and intensity of heat episodes in California from global warming will create additional challenges to protecting residents from poor air quality.
(Read full article here)

(Download these authoritative reports describing the impacts Californians can expect from global warming, and recommended mitigation measures.)

Global Warming: Impacts to Public Health and Air Quality

Global Warming: Public Health Impacts and Key Mitigation Strategies

Governor signs budget-balancing bills

noreply@blogger.com (Elizabeth Patterson) — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 17:20:00 -0700

Published in Sacramento Bee, http://www.sacbee.com/1095/story/2062713.html
by By Steve Wiegand, Tuesday, Jul. 28, 2009

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a 27-bill "good, bad and ugly" budget-balancing package today that imposes deeper cuts in programs that range from operating state parks to preventing AIDS and puts aside a relatively paltry $500 million reserve.

"This has been a very tough budget, probably the toughest since I have been here in Sacramento," the governor said as he signed the bills before a horde of reporters and aides packed into a Capitol conference room. "I'm the only one responsible for these cuts ... but we dealt with it because I think it's important to have a reserve."

Schwarzenegger characterized what amounted to re-balancing the budget adopted last February for the fiscal year that started July 1 as "good, bad and ugly:"

• Good because it contains no tax increases, "lives within our means" and includes reforms of some programs.
• Bad because of severe cuts in virtually every state program that serves California's most needy populations. "That's why you don't see us celebrating."
• Ugly because the package legislators sent Schwarzenegger on Friday lacked a reserve and was $156 million short of balanced, forcing the governor to make even deeper cuts. "That's ugly, when already we've cut so much," he said.

The governor also warned that more cuts might be in the offing if the state's economy continues to deteriorate.

"We are not out of the troubled waters yet," he said. "We are ready if our revenues drop further to make the necessary cuts to again live within our means."

At least one legislative leader took immediate umbrage to the cuts, challenging whether the governor had the legal authority to make further reductions in a budget adopted in February.

"We will fight to restore every dollar of additional cuts to health and human services," Senate President Darrell Steinberg said in a prepared statement. "We question whether the majority of these vetoes are legal.

"The Governor has the right to blue pencil an appropriation. The funding levels identified in the budget revision in many cases are not new appropriations. This is not the last word."

To eliminate the $156 million deficit and create the $500 million reserve, Schwarzenegger made $489 million in additional cuts, borrowed $50 million from one of the state's special funds and found about $117 million in savings from money not spent in the last fiscal year.

The biggest single cut was $80 million in funds allocated to counties to finance programs that investigate and remediate cases of child abuse and neglect. Administration officials said the program had been spared in earlier rounds of budget cuts.

"The situation has just gotten to the point we can't exempt them anymore," said Mike Genest, Schwarzenegger's finance director.

Other cuts include:
• $60.6 million from funds used to pay for Medi-Cal eligibility workers at the county level. Aid to recipients was not cut, but they will likely have to wait longer for service.
• $50 million from the Healthy Families Program, a 12-year-old program that provides low-cost medical insurance to low-income families that don't qualify for Medi-Cal. New enrollments were frozen two weeks ago due to budget cuts; officials say that unless other funding is found, some families now on the program will be disenrolled.
• $52.1 million from the Office of AIDS Prevention and Treatment. Officials said the cut means the elimination of all services except providing drug assistance and monitoring the number of cases.
• $27.8 million from the Williamson Act program, which provides money to counties that give tax breaks to landowners who keep their land as open space. Because the governor couldn't unilaterally abolish the program, he cut the budget to a token $1,000.
• $6.2 million from state parks. Coupled with earlier cuts, the added reduction could mean as many as 100 of the state's 279 parks could close in October. But officials cautioned that local governments with nearby parks, or public-private partnerships, might save some parks.

Officials are banking on the package being enough to convince Wall Street lenders to provide the state with $8 billion to $10 billion in loans to help with California's cash-flow needs, and allow state Controller John Chiang to stop paying many of the state's bills with IOUs.

"It's not going to be as easy as it has in the past," Genest said of the prospects of securing the loans.

Genest said administration officials would be huddling with Chiang and state Treasurer Bill Lockyer to figure out exactly how much in loans the state should seek, and when Chiang can turn off the IOUs.

But he acknowledged that even if all of the lawmakers' and governor's machinations work, the state has no unforeseen emergencies and no one successfully sues the state to thwart some budget-balancing effort, California's books might still be from $7 billion to $8 billion out of whack by the end of this fiscal year.
"No one can predict with certainty what's going to happen," he said.

ACTION this Tuesday - Sustainability and Arts and Cultural Commission Ordinance‏

noreply@blogger.com (Elizabeth Patterson) — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 00:21:00 -0700

Your participation in civic affairs is important and vital to ensuring our quality of life in Benicia. This Tuesday's Council meeting agenda includes two ordinances that will establish major commissions: Benicia Arts and Cultural Commission and Benicia Community Sustainability Commission. Your interest, support and future membership are welcomed.

The ordinances will be discussed and a few minor suggestions are anticipated. For instance the ordinance for the BACC should include the power and the duty to review projects for consistency with the Public Arts Ordinance. The ordinance should also clarify that membership is art and cultural demonstrated interest-based and not organization-centric (in other words, not a club for the community organizations, but a commission of broad public membership).

Please read the staff reports here:
Benicia Community Sustainability Commission
Benicia Arts and Cultural Commission

CalWORKS: Is it costing too much?

noreply@blogger.com (Elizabeth Patterson) — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 20:34:00 -0700

This story is taken from Sacbee / Capitol and California

swiegand@sacbee.com

Published Sunday, Jul. 19, 2009

It's the kind of statistic that makes radio talk show hosts drool:

California is home to about 12 percent of all Americans – and more than 30 percent of all Americans on welfare.

Critics of the state's welfare program, called CalWORKs, say it's clear proof that the system is flabby and overly beneficent, particularly as compared to other states.

"We are more lenient here; we are more generous in the state of California," Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said last week, "and also we are giving greater benefits for longer periods of time, and there are really no consequences if someone doesn't fulfill the work requirements."

But program officials and advocates for welfare recipients say the statistic masks the fact that California's welfare system is one of those government rarities: a program that actually works.

"That (statistic) is an apples-and-oranges thing," said Frank Mecca, executive director of the County Welfare Directors of California. CalWORKs has been "one of the most successful programs the state has had in the past decade."

There's little argument over the numbers themselves. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, about 1.2 million Californians (950,000 of them children) participated during the 2008 fiscal year in the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families program.

In California, TANF is called CalWORKs and is fueled by about $5.5 billion in federal and state funds.

The 1.2 million Californians receiving cash assistance represent 31.3 percent of all TANF recipients – or more welfare patrons than the next nine most populous states combined.

According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank, California's $694-a-month grant for a single-parent family of three was surpassed only by those in Alaska and New York.

But a commonly held theory that California's relatively high benefit level attracts large numbers of welfare recipients from other states is disputed by system officials and program analysts.

"We've never seen any evidence of that," said Mecca, whose experience dates back over two decades. "The fact is, low-income people just can't pack up and move that easily."

Instead, officials and analysts point to a covey of other factors that have helped swell the ranks of welfare recipients in California, including:

The Safety Net. The federal TANF program, a product of compromise in the mid-1990s between Democratic President Bill Clinton and a Republican-controlled Congress, required that recipients be weaned off the program within five years.

California, however, is one of 11 states that have a "safety net" under its welfare program. The net allows children under the age of 18 to continue to receive cash assistance even after the five-year clock has run out on their parents.

Lack of "Full Family" Sanctions. Under the TANF program, adult recipients who fail to comply with rules on working, seeking work or undergoing job training (130 hours a month is required in California) can be sanctioned by a state, and their benefits withheld.

But California is one of six states that penalize only the adult portion of the benefit – which is currently $139.

Moreover, the five-year clock is suspended while a sanction is in place. That means children can continue to receive benefits until they turn 18, even if their parent or parents have been sanctioned for years.

"Technically, you could be on (welfare) aid for 18 years," said John Wagner, director of the state's Department of Social Services. "With our current system, an adult could either work 130 hours or face $139 in sanctions. That's very little incentive to participate in activities, including work, that lead to a family's self-sufficiency."

Undocumented Immigrants. About 48,000 of the state's 526,000 CalWORKs households are headed by illegal immigrants.

While the adults are not eligible for welfare, any of their children born on U.S. soil – about 95,000 – are American citizens, and thus entitled to all government services.

"We're trying to get numbers of similar cases in other states, but my sense is this is higher in California than in other states," Wagner said, increasing the state's welfare workload.

"Umbrella Benefits." California includes some programs under its welfare system, such as some foster care services, that other states do not, thus increasing the overall TANF-related numbers.

Eligibility Rules. Because of its higher cost of living, California allows CalWORKs participants to hold more resources than other states' welfare programs. That broadens the eligibility pool here.

But while most of those involved agree the state's large number of welfare recipients is due to a multiplicity of factors, there is sharp disagreement as to what kind of a problem it poses – and how to fix it.

The governor, has proposed a sheaf of changes to CalWORKs, including:

• Reducing total eligibility from five years to two.

• Limiting support services such as job training and child care to the 22 percent of CalWORKs families that currently meet strict federal work guidelines.

• Imposing "full family" sanctions that would end aid to children as well as adults for repeated violations of program rules.

• Requiring recipients to meet with caseworkers every six months.

"We will give you the bootstrap," Schwarzenegger said, "but you have to pull yourself up."

The administration has estimated the proposed changes could save the state $753 million in the current fiscal year and $1.5 billion by 2012.

But critics of the governor's proposals contend they are based on false assumptions and faulty logic – and would demolish a program that directly aids those who need it most.

They point out that 65 percent of CalWORKs adults who can work already participate in work or education activities; that about 500,000 people have moved from the program to jobs since 1998; that the governor's cost-cutting estimates are wildly speculative; and that slicing services such as child care during tough economic times will only exacerbate the program's problems, not solve them.

"We want to look at sensible policies," said Mecca, "but the governor hasn't increased funding for (the program) since he's been in office, and now he wants to make $800 million in cuts ... and expects that to result in a more efficient system?

"That's not sensible; it's nonsensical."

Call Steve Wiegand, Bee Capitol Bureau, (916) 321-1076.

WHAT IS FAMILY ECONOMIC SUCCESS?

noreply@blogger.com (Elizabeth Patterson) — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 10:36:00 -0700

Simply put, family economic success (FES) seeks to help families overcome the economic, social, and policy barriers to achieving financial stability. Women In Government’s Family Economic Success Policy Resource Center is dedicated to connecting state legislators to
policy resources that support financial stability for lowincome, working families.

Our current Family Economic Success portfolio includes:

· Asset Building and Financial Literacy
· Earned Income Tax Credit
· Home Mortgages and Foreclosures
· Pay Disparity
· Predatory and Payday Lending
· Workforce Development

WHY FOCUS ON FAMILIES?

Families with children that are below the poverty level are at the heart of Women In Government’s FES efforts. The FES Policy Resource Center shares in the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s approach to strengthening lowincome families and isolated communities through assetbuilding, family economic support programs, and workforce development. As noted by the Casey Foundation, children in the greatest trouble in America are those growing up in poor households and in economically disconnected communities. By linking state legislators with resources on FES issues, we hope to stimulate legislative interest in family economic
success issues and encourage policymakers to sponsor and cosponsor FES legislation in their own states.

For more information on Women In Government’s
Family Economic Success Policy Resource Center, visit:

http://www.womeningovernment.org/familysuccess
Telephone (202) 333-0825 Fax (202) 333-0875
1319 F Street NW, Suite 710 Washington, DC 20004
www.womeningovernment.org

QUICK FACTS

· The 2009 federal poverty
level for a family of four is a
gross yearly income of
$22,050 or a gross monthly
income of $1,838. (U.S.
Department of Health &
Human Services)

· In 2007, the family poverty
rate and the number of
families in poverty were 9.8%
and 7.6 million, respectively,
both statistically unchanged
from 2006. (U.S. Census
Bureau)

· In 2007, marriedcouple
families had a poverty rate of
4.9% (2.8 million), compared
with 28.3 % (4.1 million) for
femalehouseholder,
nohusbandpresent
families and
13.6 % (696,000) for those
with a male householder and
no wife present. (U.S. Census
Bureau)

· In 2007, more than 37 million
people lived below the
official poverty level, which
was just over $20,000 for a
family of four. (U.S. Census
Bureau)

· In 2006, the median
household income for white,
nonHispanic
families was
$50,673, over 1.5 times the
amount for black families
$31,969. (U.S. Census
Bureau)

FAMILY ECONOMIC SUCCESS
POLICY RESOURCE CENTER

Sacramento area is Delta's top pesticide source, study finds

noreply@blogger.com (Elizabeth Patterson) — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 10:10:00 -0700

Urban Sacramento is the leading source of pesticide contamination disrupting the Delta aquatic environment, according to new research on pollution in the estuary.

The study, led by UC Berkeley toxicologist Donald Weston, found enough pyrethroid pesticides in the American River to kill tiny shrimp – among the first links in the aquatic food chain.

Those pesticides likely reached the river from urban storm drains, which collect runoff from the Sacramento area's 1.4 million residents.

For five years, biologists have hunted for the cause of a collapse in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta ecosystem, a water supply for 23 million Californians. Nine fish species are declining, from tiny Delta smelt to giant green sturgeon.

Weston's research supports the theory that no single villain is to blame. The problem probably lies at the complex interface between people and water.

"We were just amazed by this data," said Weston. "The American River is not supposed to be toxic. I think it reflects the fact that the river's going through 30 miles of heavy urbanization."

The study also found that among the water sources tested, Sacramento's regional wastewater treatment plant is the single largest source of pyrethroid pollution in the Delta. The plant discharges treated sewage into the Sacramento River near Freeport.

The reason for this contamination is less clear. It may be caused by people dumping unused pesticides into sink drains. It could also come from consumer products, such as shampoos made to kill lice and fleas.

There is no evidence pyrethroids are harmful to people at typical consumer exposure levels. But they are proving harmful to aquatic life at very low concentrations.

"It might be that a public education program could go a long way," said Stan Dean, chief of policy and planning at the Sacramento Regional County Sanitation District, which operates the regional wastewater treatment system. "Ultimately, you might need to have more controls on consumer products that have pyrethroids in them."

Pyrethroids are manufactured versions of pyrethrins, natural insecticides produced by certain species of chrysanthemum. These stronger synthetic versions began to dominate the retail market in 2000.

That followed the phasing out of pesticides known to be more dangerous to humans and other mammals – mainly the organophosphates diazinon and chlorpyrifos.

Pyrethroids were considered safer, partly because they don't easily dissolve in water. But biologists learned later that pyrethroids are actually more harmful to aquatic life.

The chemicals attach easily to soil. They can remain toxic in creek beds or landscaping for months, then hitch a ride downstream when overwatering or a storm washes topsoil into storm drains.

Pyrethroid-based pesticides dominate the shelves at grocery and hardware stores. They are common in powders and sprays used by homeowners and pest control companies to kill a variety of insects, from flies to cockroaches.

Weston presented his findings last week to the Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board in Rancho Cordova.

The board funded the study and plans to list several area waterways as "impaired" because of pyrethroids, including Strong Ranch and Chicken Ranch sloughs, and Arcade, Morrison and Elder creeks.

In 2006, the state Department of Pesticide Regulation began a process to regulate pyrethroids. This could bring new usage rules and even a ban on some products. It has found pyrethroids in waterways throughout the state.

Pyrethroids found most often in Weston's sampling were bifenthrin and cyfluthrin, common on ingredient labels of many consumer pesticides.

He and a team of researchers sampled water in the American, Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers, as well as creeks in Vacaville, on several occasions in 2008 and 2009. They also sampled agricultural runoff on several Delta islands, and sewage treatment outfalls in Sacramento, Vacaville and Stockton.

They found the Delta islands are a small source of pyrethroids. Urban areas appear to be a much bigger source, with Sacramento by far the largest among the areas sampled.

Researchers used a species of shrimp as a test subject. Toxic effects were revealed by exposing the quarter-inch shrimp to water samples for four days and counting how many were killed or paralyzed.

Almost no pyrethroids were found in Stockton's treated wastewater. Unlike Sacramento, Stockton holds wastewater in giant ponds as long as 30 days before discharging to the Delta. The ponds may allow pyrethroids to settle out or degrade before discharge.

Paul Towers, state director of Sacramento-based Pesticide Watch, noted many other areas also likely are adding pyrethroids to the Delta, such as Redding, Chico and Contra Costa County.

"Ultimately, if we took better steps to keep pests from entering our homes, or redefined what our landscapes should look like, we wouldn't have to use these chemicals," he said.

Call The Bee's Matt Weiser, (916) 321-1264. To read more about Delta issues, visit www.sacbee.com/delta.

Benicia debates smog, noise from motorcycles

noreply@blogger.com (Elizabeth Patterson) — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 10:05:00 -0700

.................................

Here is a link to an interesting LA Times article about the pollution from motorcycles.

Motorcycles and emissions: The surprising facts

.................................

By Tony Burchyns/Times-Herald staff writer

Posted: 07/09/2009 01:00:48 AM PDT

BENICIA -- A discussion about loud motorcycles dominated Tuesday's Benica City Council meeting, with a downtown resident and a merchant complaining about "rolling thunder" on weekends.

"We know it is a beautiful day ... because before our alarm goes off we are jarred (out of bed) by the sound of motorcycles" rolling past her East Second Street home, resident Robin Stanton told the council members. "Sometimes it shakes the house."

The discussion arose while the council considered its position on a pending state law requiring smog checks for motorcycles. The council ultimately voted to support the legislation if it is amended to focus only on smog rather than after-market systems that make bikes louder.

The legislation, which addresses air pollution, also would require checks for after-market exhaust systems that may make bikes louder than regulated factory standards.

Benicia Mayor Elizabeth Patterson said she raised the issue because the bill would address smog. But later Patterson said she wanted to give residents a chance to speak out about "noise pollution" on quiet Benicia streets.

Tony Shannon, a First Street business owner, told council members that packs of loud motorcycles disrupt his Web design business -- even when his doors and windows are shut to block out the noise and exhaust.

Shannon questioned the argument raised in the motorcycle community that louder bikes save lives by alerting motorists of their presence.

"It is not OK to annoy everyone just to be a little safer," Shannon said.

A representative of the American Motorcycle Association, Wayne Phillips, testified that his group supports making motorcycles cleaner and quieter. But Phillips, an Orinda resident, said that the proposed state law would create an "uneven playing field" because it would require muffler checks for motorcycles but not for cars.

"The (association) is against the bill because it should go after (engine) performance, not mufflers," Phillips said.

Patterson suggested that the Benicia Police Department could crack down on excessively loud bikes by enforcing noise laws. The noise limit for most motorcycles in California is 80 decibels.

Police Chief Sandra Spagnoli, however, said that the state's law is vaguely written and lacks specific direction on how to measure noise. Noise citations that officers hand out could therefore be overturned in court, Spagnoli said.

About two noise citations a month are issued, police said.

Police identified the Military corridor and E. Second Street as especially prone to loud traffic because both roads are connected to freeway entrances.

Patterson said that some California cities have outlawed motorcycle traffic on certain roads -- a measure that Phillips said his group strongly opposes.

The legislation -- SB 435 by state Sen. Fran Pavely, D-Agoura Hills, narrowly passed the Senate last month. It is now in the Assembly.

Contact staff writer Tony Burchyns at tburchyns@thnewsnet.com or call 553-6831.

Knowing the price of everything and the value of nothingx

noreply@blogger.com (Elizabeth Patterson) — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 09:18:00 -0700

By Elizabeth Patterson

To paraphrase Oscar Wilde, there are some state legislators who, along with the governor, know the price of everything and the value of nothing.

Duncan McDuffie, an early 20th century developer in San Francisco and Berkeley, once said: “Next to our fertile soil, California’s greatest single asset is the opportunity it offers for outdoor life. It would seem to be sound business for the state to see that its major opportunities for recreation and enjoyment of the out-of-doors are left open for the use and enjoyment of both its citizens and its visitors.”

California’s magnificent state parks — from the sublime to the spectacular — are facing the most severe budget cutbacks in state history. Having governed his way along with the Legislature to a $24.3 billion deficit, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has set forth a shortsighted proposal to eliminate all funding for state parks. Only parks that make money, such as off-road vehicle parks, will remain open.

This means that about 80 percent of the parks will be shut down, starting as early as September. To put this in perspective, the public will soon be losing access to about 1.3 million acres of parkland — a vast expanse larger in area than all Native American-owned forest in the United States, the Grand Canyon and the entire state of Delaware.

Californians have fewer acres of state park system land available to them per capita today than at anytime since 1930. Today we are coping with the most severe economic recession since that time, but even in those Depression days, parks were maintained and expanded. One compelling reason why parks were kept open was because most people in the cities and towns did not have the means to access large rural open spaces; they depended on urban and regional parks, small and large.

Parks are important to our quality of life. Proximity to parks is one of the most important factors people consider when locating or purchasing a home or business, because parks increase property values while providing recreation and restorative benefits.

The governor and legislators clearly believe that eliminating park system funding makes economic sense. Let’s ask them to think again:

First, think about the effects of park closure on our downtown businesses. The Benicia State Capitol building contributes about $230,000 per year in economic activity in the city. And think about the effect of closure on our property values.

Second, California’s General Fund budget for parks amounts to less than one-tenth of 1 percent of the state budget. Our state parks serve as an enormous economic engine, attracting 80 million visitors a year and generating revenues of $2.1 billion in direct expenditures and $4 billion more in indirect spending. In exchange for comparatively small savings, the state would lose these tremendous sources of revenue, as well as thousands of jobs statewide.

A survey commissioned and funded by the California Parks and Recreation Department found that park visitors spend an average of $57.63 per visit, including $24.63 inside state parks and nearby communities, and $33 in communities more than 25 miles from the park being visited.
So what’s the alternative to zeroing out the California state park system?

As the Sacramento Bee reported this week, some have suggested raising fees. But the parks have done that four times in this decade, and attendance has declined. Others have suggested that state parks should use volunteers. But the parks already have 17,000 volunteers — and only 3,000 paid staff.

The parks have also partnered with the private sector to provide services and have raised millions from private sources to supplement public dollars. But none of this can fully replace the $140 million from the General Fund.

The California State Parks Foundation supports a proposal by former Assemblyman John Laird of Santa Cruz to increase the vehicle license fee by $15. In return, any car with California license plates would get free entrance to all state parks. This fee revenue would be more than enough to cover the $143 million in the General Fund, plus begin the backlog of maintenance and repair (about $1 billion). It may be enough to begin to reach the same level of park land per capita that we had in the 1930s.

It takes a two-thirds vote of the Legislature to pass this fee increase equal to one movie and popcorn once a year, so don’t hold your breath. But urge your friends who live in Republican districts to write their representatives to support this fee. See these Web sites for district maps and names:

• http://www.sen.ca.gov/ftp/SEN/senplan/senate.htp

• http://www.assembly.ca.gov/defaulttext.asp

California should not be so entirely void of vision that its state parks become playgrounds only for those who can pay large fees — or closed off entirely to the public. As the Sacramento Bee editorial said, “The Schwarzenegger administration seems to believe that you can simply shut the gates and reopen them ‘when the budget improves.’ They’re in la-la land. Closed parks will go feral — expect graffiti, fires, illegal camping, dumping and crime.”

There are only two state parks in Solano County. They are both here in Benicia: one small historic site downtown and one small coastal park between Benicia and Vallejo. Closing these parks is not an option.

Today, June 21, a Save Our Solano Parks Day of Action — a march/bike ride and rally — will be held to oppose the proposed closure of the Benicia State Recreation Area and the Benicia State Capitol Historic Park. The rally gets under way in the Benicia SRA at 9:30 a.m. (see front-page story for details on the issue).

The Day of Action is being conducted in conjunction with similar actions in state parks across California. The California State Parks Foundation, the Benicia State Parks Association and the California Native Plant Society Willis Linn Jepson Chapter are leading the efforts in Benicia. The city of Benicia will provide a city bus to take people who need a ride from the State Recreation Area to the State Capitol in downtown Benicia. Join us.

Elizabeth Patterson is mayor of Benicia.

Confessions of an Environmentalist for Earth Day

noreply@blogger.com (Elizabeth Patterson) — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 15:04:00 -0700

While in college I, as a student representative, had lunch with David Brower – an environmental hero. Over nearly 25 years we would take time at various conferences and events to talk. His resolve toward sustainability was resolute. He was fond of quoting Adlai Stevenson, who said in 1965:

"We travel together, passengers on a little space ship, dependent upon its vulnerable reserves of air and soil, all committed for our safety to its security and place, preserved from annihilation only by the care, the work and, I will say, the love we give our fragile craft. We cannot maintain it half fortunate, half miserable, half confident, half despairing, half slave to the ancient enemies of humankind, and half free in a liberation of resources undreamed of until this day. No craft, no crew, can travel safely with such vast contradictions. On their resolution depends the security of us all."

During my college days, I heard Senator Gaylord Nelson’s (D-Wisconsin) call for a nationwide "Environmental Teach-in," on college campuses. Working my way through college kept me too busy to be very active in things, but this one-day “environmental teach-in” event seemed perfect for me. And that was my first experience of the energy of a grassroots explosion. More than 20 million people from all parts of the country participated in the first Earth Day. Events were held in 10,000 schools, 2,000 colleges, and over 1,000 communities. I learned the lessons of the power of grassroots organizing and successfully influencing governmental and private change.

On the 25th Anniversary of Earth Day, Senator Nelson said, "It worked because of the spontaneous, enthusiastic response at the grassroots. Nothing like it had ever happened before. While our organizing on college campuses was very well done, the thousands of events in our schools and our communities were self-generated at the local level . . . They simply organized themselves. That was the remarkable thing that became Earth Day."

That grassroots legacy can be seen this Tuesday at our Council meeting where there will be a timely presentation on the status of the closure of the former IT Corporation Panoche Facility Class I Landfill. The facility occupied 248 acres and at one time contained 45 surface impoundments, two landfills, four waste piles, and five drum burial areas. Wastes managed at the Facility included caustic and acidic liquids and solids, petroleum refining sludges, catalyst, hydrogen sulfide abatement sludges, oily slurries, truck-washout debris, inorganic precipitates, contaminated soils, organic sludges, shredded currency, and paint pigment sludges. Waste management practices used at the facility included biological treatment, neutralization, evaporation in ponds, and burial of waste in landfills and trenches. The facility received between 80,000 and 220,000 tons of waste material per year from 1968 through 1986.

Local Benicia residents including Mayor Marilyn O’Rourke, Bob Berman, Marilyn Bardet, Mary Francis Kelly Po among a few others fought for the closure of the landfill because it leaked and was a public health threat. For this Earth Day we can celebrate their success. It was not easy. There were the skeptics that things could be so bad, government regulators who minimized the cleanup, and the responsible corporation who declared bankruptcy.

For years, environmental contamination was seen as the inevitable (and accepted) consequence of economic progress. As cities grew and industries flourished, toxic emissions polluted the air and wastes were dumped into waterways or buried in the ground. Benicia was no different.

In the 1960s, Rachel Carson wrote Silent Spring, exposing the health effects of pesticides and other chemicals on our birds, mammals and us. Others wrote passionately about squandering what once seemed like the country's limitless resources. The 60s word "environment" meant more than simply preserving wilderness areas or regulating the most obvious forms of pollution. Media coverage of disasters like the Santa Barbara oil spill focused popular concern on the environment threatened by human activities and the need for protection.

At times it seemed that every day there were newly discovered threats followed by new protections. Being able to have confidence in law makers and government to address air and water pollution, we saw their efforts to protect us from ourselves as the highest calling of responsible governance. My own path to becoming a public servant owes, in part, from the examples set by Congress and the California legislature’s bold environmental protection actions.

Environmental protection was not a Republican or Democratic issue and the best of both parties coalesced around the needed action. Of course, it could have been better, stronger and quicker, but it was done. A perfect example of this bipartisan and shared sense of responsibility is the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) established by President Nixon, followed by Congress's passing of a series of laws that regulated the introduction of pollutants into the nation's air and waterways, controlled the production of pesticides and other toxic substances, and required "cradle-to-grave" tracking of hazardous waste.

The 1970s have been called the "golden age" of environmentalism in the United States, but it was also a time when the nation first became aware of a serious threat to human health and the environment.

And that brings me back to Benicia. For it is due to those myriad laws passed, and the power of the EPA, that set the stage for those Benicia citizens’ efforts demanding state regulators investigate the Class I landfill at Lake Herman Road and close it – shut it down. Without all the public awareness, regulations, and grassroots efforts, this closure would not have happened as quickly, nor been as thorough. Neither would the cleanup of Rose Drive have been possible, without Cal-EPA, the city's toxics consultant Jodi Sparks, and the hard work of neighborhood activists, especially Dick Lubin, Larry Fullington and Tom Busfield, who rallied successfully to have landfill wastes left from the Braito dump cleaned out of backyards and Blake Court.

This Tuesday, when you listen to the report about the on-going monitoring of the plumes of toxic brew that almost polluted Paddy Creek and has polluted the city’s watershed, take a moment and reflect on the drama of getting the right legislation at the right time to protect our water and air and public health. (Although we do not use the ground water now, we may want to in the future, but it will need to be cleaned up).

What Earth Day awareness did for Benicia in the 1980s for public safety, Benicia citizens working on the new General Plan in the '90s, and activists such as Gene Doherty, Kathy Kerridge, Jim Stevenson and the usual suspects have carried forward, to promote economic and environmental health. These citizens advocate for sustainability as a city priority. Staff has made exceptional effort in developing the greenhouse gas emission reduction goals and the draft Climate Action Plan. This is a new green generation of environmental protection. Next year we will celebrate the 40th Anniversary of Earth Day in 2010 by highlighting our progress at reducing greenhouse gases, increasing water conservation, providing alternative energy, transit and walkable streets – all the interconnected actions necessary to protect our planet and grow our economy.

Some say we live in dark times: we are destroying Mother Earth and many people have lost hope. But I am energized by all the efforts ongoing at our schools, in our community, our state and – at long last – our nation, again.

I am deeply touched by what Benicians are doing - we are realizing that we as individuals truly make a difference and are thinking more carefully about the effect of our actions. My greatest source of hope for the future is the energy, commitment and often the courage of our young people who are engaged in solving the peril of the warming earth.

But we cannot put off tomorrow for our youth to solve the problems of today. We must take the responsibility to ensure that their environment is not wrecked. A compassionate and successful society will invest its assets in the good health of its children – all of its children. It is up to us to weigh our responsibilities and to invest our limited resources from government, industry, and our residents, without delay addressing environmental needs including local and regional transit, clean air and water and safe community public places.

“The test of the morality of a society is what it does for their children.”
- German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer

As Mayor, my pledge for this Earth Day is to seek:

Policies and action, without compromise, for air and water protection and cleanup.

Policies and actions toward a carbon-free future based on renewable energy.

Policies and actions toward responsible, sustainable consumption.

Policies and actions toward expanding our cleantech and greentech businesses and local jobs for our residents.

Collaboration with Benicia Unified School District to support entrepreneurial environmental programs and prepare students for vocational green job training and careers.