Category Archives: Climate Emergency Declaration

Benicia City Council, Climate action, Climate Emergency Declaration, Uncategorized

Benicia City Council to consider Climate Emergency Resolution Tuesday, Feb 4, 4pm

Quarterly Study Session to discuss five requests made by Council members

From the Benicia Independent

You may want to attend!  Benicia’s City Council will meet with staff and the public on Wednesday, to consider five action items requested previously, in context of overall Council priorities.  See complete list with links more below.

Of particular interest will be item 4, “Two-Step Request from Mayor Patterson on adopting a Climate Emergency Resolution“.  Mayor Patterson submitted this request last summer, with a requested Initial Council Meeting date of July 16, 2019.  The “Emergency” request was not brought for Council’s First Step consideration until September 3, 2019.  At that meeting, after hearing support from residents Constance Beutel, Marilyn Bardet, Gretchen Burgess, Steve Goetz, Pat Toth-Smith and Kathy Kerridge, Council discussed the request and recommended that it be brought forward for further study “at a future workshop”.  (see item 14.B in the 9/3/19 minutes).  So that next step is this Tuesday.

(Editor’s note: I am not sure, but my review of the Staff Report and Rules of Procedure seem to suggest that Tuesday’s Study Workshop is NOT to be considered the Second Step in our Two-Step procedure.  A Council member’s request for DISCUSSION and action on a City “policy matter” requires two yes votes at Council.)

For more on Climate Emergency, including background on Benicia’s consideration, see Benicia Independent on climate emergency.   Also see Mayor Patterson’s highly informative E-Alert from September 4, 2019.

From the 1/4/2020 agenda on the City website:

10.A – QUARTERLY POLICY ISSUES STUDY SESSION (City Manager) 

The City Council has agreed to discuss various “Two-Step” requests made by individual members of the City Council at the Quarterly Policy Issues Study Session described in the City Council Rules of Procedure (Attachment 1).

To assist with Council deliberations, staff has included an updated copy of the Council’s priorities for the current fiscal year as summarized in the Work Plan 2019-20 (Attachment 2).

Five topics have been approved by the Council for further discussion and are presented in this report (Attachments 3-7); they follow:

    1. Penalties for Excessive Residential Water Use;
    2. Adoption of a Climate Emergency Resolution;
    3. Preparation of an Advisory Measure related to Cannabis Dispensaries for the November 2020 ballot;
    4. Installation of Rainbow Crosswalks; and
    5. A request to Repurpose and Update the Traffic, Bicycle & Pedestrian Safety Committee. 

Recommendation: Review the two-step process and the updated Work Plan 2019-20, and then discuss each of the five topics described (Attachments 3-7) and provide direction to staff. 

Staff Report – Quarterly Policy Issues Study Session 

  1. City Council Rules of Procedure 
  2. Updated Council Work Plan 2019-20 
  3. Two-Step Request from Councilmember Campbell on Penalties for Excessive Residential Water Use 
  4. Two-Step Request from Mayor Patterson on adopting a Climate Emergency Resolution 
  5. Two-Step Request from Councilmember Campbell on drafting an advisory measure related to cannabis dispensaries for the November 2020 ballot 
  6. Two-Step Request from Councilmember Campbell to install Rainbow Crosswalks 
  7. Two-Step Request from Mayor Patterson to repurpose and update the Traffic, Bicycle & Pedestrian Safety Committee
350 Bay Area, California Legislature, Climate Emergency Declaration, Legislative Action, September 20 Climate Strike, Youth vs Apocalypse

URGENT! Call our representatives today!!

CALL TO IMMEDIATE ACTION! – and a brief  report on our September meeting

Kathy 350 Bay Area Action’s Legislative Action Team.  Download the powerpoint presentation of Kathy’s excellent talk.

The Tuesday, September 10th, Progressive Democrats of  Benicia met and heard featured speaker, Kathy Dervin, Co-Chair of 350 Bay Area Legislative Committee and a consulting professional with a Master of Public Health (MPH) focused in Health Education/Environmental Health.

Kathy presented a compelling overview of pending legislation relating to Climate Change (see bold text below).  She also coveredhe Sept. 20 Climate Strike and 350 Bay Area’s work through Youth vs Apocalypse, the youth‐led environmental justice program

URGENT CALL TO ACTION!
> With only three days to the close of the California Legislature’s  session (now until Sept 13th), everyone is asked to call Assembly member Grayson and Senator Dodd’s office TODAY to advocate for the following bills: (download this list)
BILLS NOW IN ASSEMBLY Call Tim Grayson 925-521-1511
SB 1 (Atkins) SUPPORT Protect Califs Environmental, Health and Worker Safety Laws from Trump Administration roll backs of federal laws that California already administers in state programs under federal authority. (At risk are parts of the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, Endangered Species Act, OSHA and others).
SB 54 (Allen) SUPPORT (Companion bill to AB 1080-see below) This bill (with its companion AB 1080) requires manufacturers and retailers in California to reduce single-use plastic packaging and products by 75 percent by 2030. After 2030, all single-use plastics sold in the state would need to be compostable or recyclable, making plastic resale value sufficient enough to be economically worth recycling.
SB 210 (Leyva) SUPPORT Requires the state Air Resources Board to develop a smog check program for heavy trucks similar to the program that has existed for decades for cars and light trucks. This is a critical air pollution control bill, climate bill (reduces emissions and black carbon) and an important environmental justice bill to protect communities with disproportionate exposure to truck emissions.
Also (lower priority – NOTE – THIS BILL PASSED!) SB 127 (Wiener) SUPPORT  Requires Cal Trans to implement its “complete streets” program to support walking and biking infrastructure and protections on “state highways” (like Ashby Ave and San Pablo Ave in Berkeley or Lincoln Ave in SF).
SB 520 (Hertzberg) OPPOSE Would create new obstacles for our CCAs/local clean energy programs in comparison to investor owned utilities.
BILLS NOW IN SENATE Call Bill Dodd 707-551-2389
AB 1080 (Gonzalez) SUPPORT (see companion bill SB 54 above) Reducing single use plastic by 75% by 2030.
Also (lower priority) AB 936 (Rivas) SUPPORT Requires additional state response planning and prevention for oil spills involving non-j/oating oil (tar sands or other heavy oils) which is a particular concern in the Bay Area as area refineries, such as Phillips 66, tries to expand their capacity to take tar sands.

AB 857 (Chiu) SUPPORT Allows local governments to charter local public banks in partnership with “existing local financial institutions” such as credit unions and local community banks so as to increase the lending capacity of the local banking system.

THANKS – CALL NOW! OR SET YOUR ALARM TO CALL TODAY OR TOMORROW!!