MINUTES
NOVEMBER 14, 2005 MEETING OF THE
CITY OF SANTA MONICA
SUSTAINABLE CITY TASK FORCE
The meeting was convened at 7:15
p.m. SCTF members in attendance: Dennis
Woods, Sandy Grant, Genevieve Bertone,
Jim Ries, Leonard Mitchell, and Christina Erickson. City staff: City Attorney Marsha Moutrie and Dean Kubani.
Others: Louisa Fish, Barbara Filet, Alan Freeman, Dion Jackson, and 10
students from USC.
Public Input on Agenda Items
Barbara Filet discussed
the Draft EIR for the Santa Monica Downtown Public Parking program, expressed
her reservations about the need to add parking in the downtown area, and
recommended that the SCTF endorse alternative 3B in that plan, which adds
parking spaces downtown but doesn’t include construction of new parking
structures. She asked the SCTF to
agendize a discussion of this at a future meeting and make a recommendation to
City Council. The SCTF agreed to agendize a discussion on this topic at their
January 2006 meeting.
Alan Freeman also
discussed the Draft EIR for the Downtown Parking Plan and recommended that the
SCTF review the EIR to see if it is in line with Sustainable City Plan goals
and make a recommendation to City Council regarding the Plan.
Louisa Fish
discussed the need to promote alternatives to single passenger car trips in Santa Monica.
Presentation and Discussion Regarding Conflict-of-Interest
City Attorney
Marsha Moutrie provided an overview of conflict-of-interest law in California. She described the two state statutes and
common law that address conflict-of-interest in different situations as they
apply to public officials, including the members of the SCTF. She recommended that if any SCTF member
believes they may have a conflict, or an appearance of a conflict, on a
particular issue being discussed before the group that they should recuse
themselves from discussion and voting on the issue and leave the room before
discussion and voting on the item begins.
Following the presentation there was a discussion regarding potential
conflicts with respect to the SCTF and possible recommendations it may make to
City Council. Marsha advised that as
long as the SCTF doesn’t recommend that City Council hire a specific person or
group, but instead recommends a model for a program, they would not likely be
in a conflict-of-interest situation.
Minutes
The draft minutes
of the October 10, 2005 meeting were revised as follows:
The
following underlined text was inserted after the last full sentence on page one
of the draft minutes: Dennis Woods noted that he abstained from voting due
to potential conflict of interest questions raised by Leonard Mitchell and felt
it best to await clarification on these issues by the City Attorney. Genevieve Bertone
noted that she abstained to avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest
because the organization that she works for (Sustainable
Works) could potentially apply to the city for grant funding
for the Community Sustainability Liaison if Council implements the
recommendation. Leonard Mitchell
requested that the City Attorney be invited to the November 14, 2005 meeting to
provide the SCTF with information and advice on conflict of interest law and
how it applies to the SCTF.
The following changes were made to the
second paragraph on page two of the draft minutes: Leonard agreed to provide a detailed
proposal for an expanded Sustainable Economic Development strategy for Santa Monica for
discussion at the November 14th meeting. He agreed to work with Jennifer Wolch in
structuring the proposal. This
deleted text was replaced with: The SCTF asked Leonard to meet with Jennifer
Wolch to discuss modifying the language for the Economic Development
recommendation of the Implementation Plan and report back at the November 14,
2005 meeting. Sandy Grant agreed to
contact Jennifer Wolch and to help facilitate the meeting between Leonard and
Jennifer.
The revised minutes were unanimously
approved.
Discussion and Recommendations
Regarding Draft Sustainable City Plan Implementation Plan
Ten students from Leonard Mitchell’s
Economic Development Lab Class at USC presented a summary of the work that they
are doing to develop a sustainable economic development strategy for Santa Monica. Their work includes: reviewing the history of
the sustainability movement and the economic history of Santa Monica; looking
into strategies for reinvestment and identifying case studies from other
cities; and identifying possible market incentives to promote the ‘greening’ of
existing businesses.
Following the presentation, the SCTF
discussed the draft recommendation regarding Expert Forums in the SCP
Implementation Plan. Following
discussion the SCTF unanimously approved the following wording for that section
of the plan:
2.
Expert Forums
– operational funding to the above organization to bring in outside experts to
provide technical assistance to the city and community stakeholders to help
overcome barriers to achieving the goals of the SCP. The role of the outside experts could
include:
·
Participation
in charettes, symposia and roundtable discussions
·
Identifying
best practices and innovative ideas for achieving sustainability goals at both
the City and stakeholder levels
·
Identifying
solutions to barriers encountered to better achieve the goals of the SCP
·
Evaluation
of existing SCP indicators to determine if they are meeting their intended
purpose and make recommendations for improvements
·
Evaluate
tracking and record keeping mechanisms for implementation activities and make
recommendations to improve effectiveness
·
Prepare
technical papers and provide consultation
Estimated annual funding = $10,000 - $20,000
Following this discussion, Leonard Mitchell
recommended that the SCTF develop a timeline for its activities that extends
through the end of its Council authorized term.
Subcommittee
Reports
This item was not discussed due to time
constraints.
Public
Input on Non-Agendized Items
Louisa Fish recommended that the City
include information in its Seascape newsletter on how residents can have their
names removed from direct marketing mailing lists.
The meeting was adjourned at 10:10pm
