Sebastopol City Council Candidate Jonathan Greenberg Public Comment on the General Plan Not Mentioning Electric Vehicles for our City Fleet:
When it comes to responding to a widely shared belief that local government should reflect the climate change-consciousness of its citizens, who have purchased more electric and hybrid vehicles per capita than any other our city in Sonoma County, Sebastopol’s new General plan might as well have been written 40 years ago.
The city’s 20 year General Plan update, which will receive public comments this evening at the 6 p.m. City Council meeting in the teen annex at 425 Morris Avenue, could not even muster the courage to specifically state that an electric vehicle might EVER be purchased for the 50-plus vehicle city fleet. On page 5-12, Action COS-7i notes,
“During preparation of the City’s long-range capital expenditure plans, explore the feasibility of replacing and improving the efficiency of the City’s existing vehicle fleet.”
Compare this language to the State of California’s new legislation that sets a specific target that 30% of all vehicles in the state must be electric by 2030, and one can see how far from the mark our city has fallen.
Even under the Bush Administration, the federal government mandated specific fuel efficiency requirements (which Obama has strengthened enormously). But the best Sebastopol’s future planners can do is suggest that the City “explore the feasibility.”
In a world whose very existence is threatened by environmental catastrophe, you’d have to be a flat out climate change denier to find weaker language than that.
As reported last year in the Sonoma Independent here, for all its talk of a green future, Sebastopol’s City Council has been unable to convince the City’s department heads to purchase a single electric vehicle. Two years ago, the city’s public works departments, which oversees the parks of our tiny 1.8 square mile community, was given approval to purchase two diesel replacement trucks to a fleet that does not have a single electric or even hybrid vehicle. Below is a photo I took of seven diesel vehicles, each carrying one person, arriving separately for some tree work in Brookhaven Park. This does not model responsive government in the 21st century.
As a parent, and a candidate for City Council this year, I would our children to see an electric vehicle appear in our city parks, to see that our local government supports its talk of taking action for a green future.
In 2002, Sebastopol’s City Council passed the first of two resolutions, noting that “cities have a responsibility to serve the public interest; Cities can and should lead by example… and give preference in its vehicle procurement to the lowest emission vehicles available.” In 2009, the Council passed a “Resolution Supporting the Zero Emission Dedicated Electric Fleet Vehicles Program.”
The unwillingness of the planners responsible for the General Plan to stipulate a specific goal for the city’s purchase of vehicles for its own fleet, even after two Council resolutions, is a sad reflection on the powerlessness of the taxpayers, citizens, and elected representatives of our community to walk the walk of a green Sebastopol.
(photo by Jonathan Greenberg for the SonomaIndependent.org)