2PM City Council (Special Meeting)
Meeting Time: 12-06-22 14:00
eComments Report
Meetings Meeting
Time
Agenda
Items
Comments Support Oppose Neutral
2PM City Council (Special Meeting) 12-06-22
14:00
38 4 1 3 0
Sentiments for All Meetings
The following graphs display sentiments for comments that have location data. Only locations of users who have commented will be shown.
Overall Sentiment
2PM City Council (Special Meeting)
12-06-22 14:00
Agenda Name Comments Support Oppose Neutral
14. Upper Westside Water Supply Assessment File ID: 2022-02041 1 0 1 0
23. Proposed Y outh Advisory Liaison to the Sacramento City Council File ID: 2022-02102
3 1 2 0
Sentiments for All Agenda Items
The following graphs display sentiments for comments that have location data. Only locations of users who have commented will be shown.
Overall Sentiment
Agenda Item: eComments for 14. Upper Westside Water Supply Assessment File ID: 2022-02041 Overall Sentiment
Susan Herre, President of ECOS
Location:
Submitted At: 8:45am 12-06-22
Dear Mr. Mayor and Council Members,
ECOS understands that if you’re required by law to prepare this Water Supply Assessment, you must comply.
But while you are considering this resolution, we would like to raise some serious concerns about the proposed Upper Westside project. We strongly oppose this project for many reasons including:
1) It is outside the City Limits in conflict with the approved Natomas Joint Vision, which identifies the role of urbanization to be the City’s, and not the County’s.
2) It is outside the approved County Urban Services Boundary and is inconsistent with both the City and County General Plans.
3) It will harm and possibly destroy the Natomas Basin Conservancy (NBC), a long-standing planning structure in the region. The NBC plan is predicated on this area remaining in agriculture to support habitat. It is also within the one-mile strip along the Sacramento River, which is prime foraging area for the endangered Swainson’s Hawk. It will mean a loss of accessible nearby open space for residents of Sacramento. 4) It sets a precedent for future loss of farmland to suburbanization; it will hurt the City’s ability to address climate change by reducing demand for infill development elsewhere, leaving many city parcels empty and blighted.
This list doesn’t list the transportation, air quality, water and flood impacts to the region from the proposed development. Suffice it to say, this project does NOT benefit the City of Sacramento.
Heather Fargo, Land Use Natomas Lead, ECOS
Susan Herre, President of the Board, ECOS
Agenda Item: eComments for 23. Proposed Youth Advisory Liaison to the Sacramento City Council File ID: 2022-02102 Overall Sentiment
Jim Keddy
Location:
Submitted At: 6:57pm 12-05-22
Please see attached letter from Y outh Forward.
Heather Fargo
Location:
Submitted At: 5:45pm 12-05-22
Please remove this item from the agenda. In one week, 3 young women are being sworn in to join the council.
They should have input on a decision like this that affects the daily workings of the city council that they are about to join. Why are you choosing to leave them out of this? It seems very disrespectful of them and the voters who elected them. This is also the last city council meeting for 3 outgoing members, who deserve some recognition for their efforts and their successes. Many public members are going to want to speak and give thanks. A discussion like this should be postponed to a more appropriate time with the new council. Till then, the city has created many opportunities for youth to become engaged with city business including being interns in city council offices.
Sam Rice
Location:
Submitted At: 2:00pm 12-05-22
I write in opposition to the creation of the Y outh Advisory Liaison position to the Sacramento City Council. The City of Sacramento has a well documented emphasis on youth spending and youth focused programming. With the recent passage of Measure L, the City Charter will be amended to include an additional guaranteed budget carve-out for youth related spending. There is a current commission focused entirely on youth (SYC) and a department dedicated to Y outh, Parks, & Community Enrichment.
The inclusion of an unelected liaison to the council is not in the interest of the citizens of Sacramento and serves no specific function that could not be incorporated into the existing entities listed above. The City has numerous important priorities including housing, homelessness, and transit which are in greater need of specialized attention. An individual who is 18-24 is an adult and is eligible to be employed by the City of Sacramento or serve as a member of the Sacramento City Council should they be elected. An unelected liaison to the council reduces the council's accountability to the public and usurps the rights of citizens to democratically select their leaders. I ask that in lieu of adding a liaison to the council, the City consider creating a similar position on either the SYC or in the YPCE department.
Post Office Box 1526 | Sacramento, CA 95812-1526
December 6, 2022
Mayor and Council Members City of Sacramento
915 I Street, Sacramento, CA 95814
Sent via email
SUBJECT: City of Sacramento City Council Special Meeting, Dec. 6, 2022, 2 pm Agenda Item 14 – Upper Westside Water Supply Assessment, File ID:
2022-02041
Recommendation: Pass a Motion to ratify a Water Supply Assessment (WSA) prepared for the Upper Westside project and direct that it be submitted to the County of Sacramento in accordance with Senate Bill 610 (Stats. 2001 chapter 643), referred to as SB610 or Cal. Water Code § 10910.
Dear Mr. Mayor and Council Members,
ECOS understands that if you’re required by law to prepare this Water Supply Assessment, you must comply. But while you are considering this resolution, we would like to raise some serious concerns about the proposed Upper Westside project. We strongly oppose this project for many reasons including:
1) It is outside the City Limits in conflict with the approved Natomas Joint Vision, which identifies the role of urbanization to be the City’s, and not the County’s.
2) It is outside the approved County Urban Services Boundary and is inconsistent with both the City and County General Plans.
3) It will harm and possibly destroy the Natomas Basin Conservancy (NBC), a long-standing planning structure in the region. The NBC plan is predicated on this area remaining in agriculture to support habitat. It is also within the one-mile strip along the Sacramento River, which is prime foraging area for the endangered Swainson’s Hawk. It will mean a loss of accessible nearby open space for residents of Sacramento.
4) It sets a precedent for future loss of farmland to suburbanization; it will hurt the City’s ability to address climate change by reducing demand for infill development elsewhere, leaving many city parcels empty and blighted.
This list doesn’t list the transportation, air quality, water and flood impacts to the region from the proposed development. Suffice it to say, this project does NOT benefit the City of Sacramento.
Sincerely,
Heather Fargo Susan Herre
Land Use Natomas Team Lead President of the Board
cc:
Mayor, Darrell Steinberg, [email protected] Mary Lynne Vellinga, [email protected]
Jay Schenirer, District 5, [email protected] Angelique Ashby, District 1, [email protected] Sean Loloee, District 2, [email protected]
Jeff Harris, District 3, [email protected]
Katie Valenzuela, District 4, [email protected] Eric Guerra, District 6, [email protected]
Rick Jennings II, District 7, [email protected] Mai Vang, District 8, [email protected]
City Manager - Howard Chan, [email protected]
Assist City Mgr Public Works - Hector Barron, [email protected] Jennifer Venema, [email protected]
Jennifer Donlon Wyant, [email protected] Mindy Cuppy, City Clerk, [email protected]
Brett Ewart, Supervising Engineer, [email protected] Sherill Huun, Engineering & Water Resources Division Manager, [email protected]
December 5, 2022,
Dear Mayor Steinberg and Members of the City Council,
On behalf of Youth Forward, I’m writing to express our strong support for the addition of a Youth Liaison position to the City Council.
Young people in Sacramento are directly affected by the issues debated at Council meetings, including gun violence, homelessness, and neighborhood development. The addition of a young adult to the City Council will bring a much-needed and consistent youth voice and perspective to these policy debates. In Sacramento, we are at our best when we take a multi-generational approach to problem-solving and to civic leadership.
As you debate this issue at Council, I anticipate that there will be some opposition based on the belief that young people are not ready or mature enough to participate on a regular basis in council debates.
Like other “isms,” ageism is a widespread bias in our society that limits our ability to tap the leadership of all contributing members of society. As we have seen with the leadership of the young people from Parkland Florida who are the forefront of the debate over gun violence and the campaigns led by young people around the world on climate change, young people bring a vital perspective to issues and can play an essential role in public policy debate. The UN refers to this as moving from “ageism” to “intergenerational solidarity.” i
The American Psychological Association has taken the position that adolescents develop the capacity to do critical reasoning the same as adults by age 16.ii In congruence with this finding, a growing number of communities in the United States and around the world are seeking to lower the voting age to 16 for local elections.iii
The addition of a Youth Liaison position to Council is a meaningful step in the right direction.
Thank you for your consideration,
Jim Keddy
Executive Directr
[email protected]
i https://www.un.org/development/desa/dspd/2022/02/ageism/ ii See https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19824745/ and for a more in-depth review, Age of Opportunity: New Lessons from the Science of Adolescence by Laurence Steinberg. iii https://vote16usa.org/tag/culver-city/