Personally, I think Sandra and Phill should have recused themselves from voting as Phill is on the CAC and Sandra is the council liaison and Neysa should have as well, as she is on the county's. And, yes, legally they could vote however, there is a view that the appearance of a conflict of interest might sway the person to prudently recuse.
I wonder if the citizens of Sebastopol know that we, taxpayers, spend $5,052.00 per year on Annual Brown Act training for the Climate Action Committee? At the December 3rd meeting, someone from the CAC commented that he didn't even know they were bound by the Brown Act! WOW! The last thing this city needs is another lawsuit.
I appreciated our Vice-Mayor bringing up that the people of Sebastopol wanting safety as their first priority. For most people here, climate is way down their list, after safety, roads, fire department, police, water and sewer bills, property taxes, etc. The CAC is a great idea and it should be continued as a committee with no funding from the City. That way each of us taxpayers won't have to pay a portion of our taxes for a committee that can function better on it's own and our city staff can actually do the work we pay them to do.
I was on the Zoom meeting the entire time and not once did I think Vice-Mayor McLewis was on a "on a one-woman crusade to demote the city-sponsored Climate Action Committee (CAC)". Wow, Laura, you might want to apply for a position at Fox News! That comment seems almost slanderous. It seems as if our vice-mayor is one of the most experienced in the real world and knows that a committee that is bound by the Brown Act is much less effective and helpful that one that isn't.
I don’t see how you could see it any other way than a “one-woman crusade.” She was relentlessly on their case in two council meetings. I didn’t mean it as a criticism. I don’t see anything negative about being on a crusade and I thought she made some good points.
Regarding the fire captain position, I wasn’t at the meeting, and I’m pretty sure what Chief Bray was saying is that we needed some paid fire captain positions to provide leadership when he isn’t able to be there.
From what I know, since we are consolidating with Gold Ridge, there is no need or desire to hire a fire chief for Sebastopol as the gold ridge chief will stay as fire chief and Sebastopol will have a battalion chief like the other gold ridge stations.
Hmm, don't know about that. They had the usual Zoom screen up and people made comments via Zoom. I did notice, however, that there were fewer comments than usual. There were also fewer people in the room itself, however. I figured it was just the holidays.
It was on Zoom. There were many people on Zoom who had written in public comments urging the council to vote against the CAC for intelligent and functional reasons.
Personally, I think Sandra and Phill should have recused themselves from voting as Phill is on the CAC and Sandra is the council liaison and Neysa should have as well, as she is on the county's. And, yes, legally they could vote however, there is a view that the appearance of a conflict of interest might sway the person to prudently recuse.
I wonder if the citizens of Sebastopol know that we, taxpayers, spend $5,052.00 per year on Annual Brown Act training for the Climate Action Committee? At the December 3rd meeting, someone from the CAC commented that he didn't even know they were bound by the Brown Act! WOW! The last thing this city needs is another lawsuit.
I appreciated our Vice-Mayor bringing up that the people of Sebastopol wanting safety as their first priority. For most people here, climate is way down their list, after safety, roads, fire department, police, water and sewer bills, property taxes, etc. The CAC is a great idea and it should be continued as a committee with no funding from the City. That way each of us taxpayers won't have to pay a portion of our taxes for a committee that can function better on it's own and our city staff can actually do the work we pay them to do.
I was on the Zoom meeting the entire time and not once did I think Vice-Mayor McLewis was on a "on a one-woman crusade to demote the city-sponsored Climate Action Committee (CAC)". Wow, Laura, you might want to apply for a position at Fox News! That comment seems almost slanderous. It seems as if our vice-mayor is one of the most experienced in the real world and knows that a committee that is bound by the Brown Act is much less effective and helpful that one that isn't.
I don’t see how you could see it any other way than a “one-woman crusade.” She was relentlessly on their case in two council meetings. I didn’t mean it as a criticism. I don’t see anything negative about being on a crusade and I thought she made some good points.
Here are the public comments from the city website:
https://www.cityofsebastopol.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/CAC-PublicComment.pdfhttps://www.cityofsebastopol.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Climate-Action-Committee-Can-do-More-Good-for-the-Planet-if-They-are-Independent.pdf
https://www.cityofsebastopol.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Save-50K-and-Save-the-Planet-CAC-Go-Independent.pdf
Regarding the fire captain position, I wasn’t at the meeting, and I’m pretty sure what Chief Bray was saying is that we needed some paid fire captain positions to provide leadership when he isn’t able to be there.
From what I know, since we are consolidating with Gold Ridge, there is no need or desire to hire a fire chief for Sebastopol as the gold ridge chief will stay as fire chief and Sebastopol will have a battalion chief like the other gold ridge stations.
You are absolutely right! I'll fix that online and run a correction about that in Sunday's RoundUp.
For some reason the meeting was not on Zoom.
Hmm, don't know about that. They had the usual Zoom screen up and people made comments via Zoom. I did notice, however, that there were fewer comments than usual. There were also fewer people in the room itself, however. I figured it was just the holidays.
It was on Zoom. There were many people on Zoom who had written in public comments urging the council to vote against the CAC for intelligent and functional reasons.