CITY OF SAN JOSÉ PAGE 1 NOVEMBER 8, 2021
City Council Special Meeting
MINUTES
Climate Smart San José
Monday, November 8, 2021
1:30 PM
Hybrid Meeting - Council Chambers and Virtually
https://sanjoseca.zoom.us/j/93052835954
SAM LICCARDO, MAYOR
CHAPPIE JONES, VICE MAYOR, DISTRICT 1
SERGIO JIMENEZ, DISTRICT 2
RAUL PERALEZ, DISTRICT 3
DAVID COHEN, DISTRICT 4
MAGDALENA CARRASCO, DISTRICT 5
DEV DAVIS, DISTRICT 6
MAYA ESPARZA, DISTRICT 7
SYLVIA ARENAS, DISTRICT 8
PAM FOLEY, DISTRICT 9
MATT MAHAN, DISTRICT 10
CITY OF SAN JOSÉ PAGE 2 NOVEMBER 8, 2021
• Call to Order and Roll Call
1:32 p.m. – Special Meeting Session
Councilmembers Absent: Carrasco, Arenas.
Councilmembers Present at Council Chambers: Liccardo, Cohen, Davis.
Councilmembers Present Virtually: Jones, Esparza, Foley, Jimenez, Mahan, Peralez.
• Orders of the Day
The Orders of the Day were approved.
• Closed Session Report
None provided.
1. CEREMONIAL ITEMS
2. CONSENT CALENDAR
3. STRATEGIC SUPPORT
4. PUBLIC SAFETY SERVICES
5. TRANSPORTATION & AVIATION SERVICES
CITY OF SAN JOSÉ PAGE 3 NOVEMBER 8, 2021
6. ENVIRONMENTAL & UTILITY SERVICES
6.1 21-2415 Climate Smart San José and Carbon Neutral Resolution.
Adopt a resolution approving the Carbon Neutral San José by 2030 to set a goal of carbon neutrality for San José by 2030. CEQA: Determination of Consistency with the Envision San José 2040 General Plan EIR, Supplemental EIR, and Addenda thereto, File No. PP18-009.
City Manager, Jennifer Maguire offered the introduction of today’s special meeting.
Climate Scientist, Stanford Woods, Chief Advisor for the California Energy Commission, Michael Mastrandrea offered the first presentation and responded to questions.
Director, Environmental Services Department, Kerrie Romanow; and Deputy Director, Climate Smart San José, Julie Benabente offered the second presentation and responded to questions.
Conservation Geographic Information System (GIS) Coordinator, Santa Clara Valley Open Space Authority, Jake Smith offered the Climate Smart San José Project Highlight on the Natural and Working Lands (NWL) Element.
Mayor Sam Liccardo opened the floor for public comment.
Public Comments: (1) A speaker spoke to the item’s urgency being necessary and not aggressive regarding the current climate crisis and spoke to the actions he listed in his public letter. (2) Tessa Woodmansee spoke to carbon cycling, growing agriculture locally, sustainable living, fossil fuels, and having bikeable communities. (3) Blair Beekman spoke to the presentations, staff informational reports, and local renewable procurement ideas. (4) Joshua, from Save the Bay spoke to sustainability, the current air quality, and requested the resolution be amended to include climate adaptation and resilience infrastructures. (5) Sarah, from Natural Resource Council (NRC) spoke to the consequences low-income homes face regarding the climate change and stated her support for the resolution. (6) Bruce N. stated his support for the resolution. (7) Brian spoke to the land purchase at Coyote Valley and stated his support of the resolution and recommendation. (8) Bruce C., Chair of Carbon Free Mountain View spoke to San José’s leadership. (9) An Troung spoke to the climate crisis, the importance of educating the public, health and safety measures, and showed her support for the item. (10) Carol W. spoke to her support for the resolution, thanked the Climate Smart team, and addressed tree planting. (11) Linda H., Founder of Mothers Out Front, spoke to the public letter she submitted, the lack of tree canopies, the increase of funding needed for the Climate Smart Teams, greenhouse emissions, and urged the staff to vote yes. (12) Jenny stated her support of the resolution. (13) Caller ‘User1’ spoke to the goals being proposed by 2030. (14) A speaker spoke to available funding opportunities related to climate goals and spoke to recommendation 1D in the joint memorandum. (15) Caller ‘6648’ spoke to his support of the resolution and addressed fossil fuels. (16) Amanda B. urged the City to continue leading in sustainability, placing equity at the forefront of these issues, and stated her support.
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6.1 (Cont’d.)
(17) Justin W. spoke to the current air quality, protecting natural and working lands, incorporating a natural working lens element, Coyote Valley, and his support of the resolution. (18) Susan B., volunteer for Mothers Out front urged council to adopt the resolution, putting in the work to actually meet the goals proposed, and securing funds. (19) Andrew B. spoke in support of the resolution and greenhouse gas emissions. (20) A speaker spoke to greenhouse costs, animal agriculture, and food production being connected to greenhouse gases and costs. (21) Diane B. spoke to her support of the resolution, the importance of equity, appropriate staffing levels, air quality, wildfires, and city leadership. (22) Virginia H. urged council to adopt the resolution, CO2 emissions, and documenting health benefits of becoming a low carbon fueled City.
Extensive discussion followed, and staff responded to questions from Council.
Motion: Councilmember David Cohen moved approval of his memorandum dated November 8, 2021. The motion was failed for lack of a second.
Motion: Councilmember Raul Peralez moved approval of the joint memorandum dated November 5, 2021, including Councilmember David Cohen’s memorandum, excluding recommendation 2, dated November 8, 2021. The motion was seconded by Councilmember Dev Davis.
Councilmember David Cohen requested a friendly amendment to the motion on the floor to add recommendation 4e to his memorandum. The extra statement, “develop design standards for construction to reduce carbon costs of construction”, to develop construction ideas to reduce the carbon footprint. The friendly amendment was approved by the maker of the substitute motion and the seconder.
Action: On a call for the question, the substitute motion carried unanimously, as amended, with staff’s recommendations accepted, and Resolution No. 80284 approving the Carbon Neutral San José by 2030 to set a goal of carbon neutrality for San José by 2030 was adopted.
Including the joint memorandum from Mayor Sam Liccardo, Councilmember Sergio Jimenez, Councilmember Raul Peralez, and Councilmember Dev Davis dated November 5, 2021 recommending:
To adopt the Carbon Neutral San José by 2030 resolution, establishing San José as America’s first major city to establish a 2030 carbon neutrality standard, with the following direction: (1) Return to the Transportation and Environment Committee by June of 2022 with a specific strategy for acceleration of work in Climate Smart San José needed to put the City firmly on a path to achieve our carbon-neutral goal by 2030. (a) Work in collaboration with the Mayor’s Office to secure philanthropic funding to update the Climate Smart San José Plan to address near-term actions to reduce emissions.
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CITY OF SAN JOSÉ PAGE 5 NOVEMBER 8, 2021
6.1 (Cont’d.)
(b) Focus should be placed on transportation, which accounts for the majority of our emissions profile. Estimates of cost or quantity of needed infrastructure—such as for electric vehicle- charging—should be included in the analysis.
(c) Any plan update should ensure inclusion of
those very high-impact adaptation and resilience efforts—such as tree-planting in barren, “heat island” neighborhoods—that traditionally take a lower priority in emissions-focused plans. Staff should focus on the substantial planning funding for climate adaptation and resilience available through the Governor’s Office of Planning and Research (OPR) today. (d) Clarify that implementation of a carbon-neutrality goal will act neither as a policy nor legal barrier to any one development or project—when viewed in isolation-- that might potentially add emissions.
Failing to do so could effectively prohibit any future housing construction within the City, for example, and result in a host of other unintended consequences. (2) Aggressively pursue regional, state, federal, and philanthropic funding to advance climate action in San José – especially given the budgetary priorities and historic levels of investment aligned with our work. (a) Ensure the City will formally apply in the current cycle to the MTC for existing funding for electric car-sharing pilots, for which a first cycle of funding has already been distributed without any application from the City of San José. (3) As Council directed in November of 2020, prior to the pandemic: (a) return to Council in the budget process with a three-year staffing plan and budget recommendations to ensure this critically important work persists beyond the American Cities Climate Challenge funding horizon, and which embeds sustainability, resilience, and adaptation across all of the work that we do. (b) Pursue agency funding (BAAQMD, MTC, and CARB among others), and/or other revenue, to support a Transportation Demand Management coordinator to manage the City employee transportation benefits program, and make campaigns to reduce single-occupancy commute trips within the City of San José’s employee population, and that of other San José based large employers.
Also including the memorandum Councilmember David Cohen dated November 8, 2021, excluding recommendation 2, and adding recommendation 4e. Recommending: (1) Adopt the Carbon Neutral San José by 2030 resolution recommended by Staff’s Memorandum. (2) Adopt all recommendations from the memo from Mayor Liccardo and Councilmembers Jimenez, Peralez, and Davis except 1d. (3) As part of the budget recommendations from 3a of the memo from Mayor Liccardo and Councilmembers Jimenez, Peralez, and Davis, ensure that the climate positions in ESD currently funded by the Bloomberg Philanthropies become full time equivalent positions as part of the 2022-23 budget, regardless of whether new grant funding for these positions is secured. (4) Direct staff to evaluate the following initiatives and return to the Transportation and Environment committee with recommendations for implementation as part of the acceleration of our carbon-neutral goals to 2030: (a) Establish a program that incentivizes and works towards converting gas fueled water heaters to electric across the City. (b) Develop design standards for all future development within the City to utilize roof space (i.e. solar panels, green roofs) to minimize carbon footprint. (c) Develop a plan to fund the retrofit of existing buildings for energy efficiency and accelerate the electrification of existing homes and buildings. (d) Develop a plan to accelerate the electric transition of the City vehicle fleet, for all departments.
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CITY OF SAN JOSÉ PAGE 6 NOVEMBER 8, 2021
6.1 (Cont’d.)
(e) Develop design standards for construction to reduce carbon costs of construction. (5) Direct staff to work with Federal, State, non-profit advocates, and academic leadership to complete a full analysis of risks and required adaptions that considers sea level rise, saltwater intrusion, wildfires, prolonged drought, and extreme weather events as detailed in the IPCC report. (6) Reinforce the need for intradepartmental implementation of a more complete Climate Smart analysis on staff memos. (9-0-2. Absent: Carrasco, Arenas)
7. NEIGHBORHOOD SERVICES
8. COMMUNITY & ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
9. REDEVELOPMENT – SUCCESSOR AGENCY
10. LAND USE
• Adjournment
The Council of the City of San José adjourned at 3:52 p.m.