Dear Council Members and City Staff,
I urge you to make the Climate Action Committee a No Brown Act, Stand Alone Committee and I urge the CAC members to support this position as well.
First and foremost, any tax money that is generated and captured by the City of Sebastopol has carbon impact, waste impact and negative environmental impact. If the CAC wants the City to move toward net zero carbon, the first responsible step would be to disband and eliminate all the carbon emissions and waste associated with $50,000 worth of tax money.
For each $1 of sales tax, $50 of goods and services must be sold within City Limits. That means $50 of good produced, shipped, stocked and sold for $1 of sales tax revenue. In addition, the goods might have packaging and trash associated with them, which is also part of the carbon footprint of consumption.
If the product comes from Los Angeles, New York, China or anywhere outside of our 50 miles radius, there is a significant carbon footprint associated with shipping alone not to mention the manufacturing of the item.
Given the fact that we all know that consumption is a key driver of climate change, it seems obvious that the CAC would want to lead by example and bring their carbon footprint to net zero by not using tax money in their work.
Many local leadership groups do not use tax money and have meaningful impact in Sebastopol and West County. This includes the Library Group, the Rotary Clubs, and many more.
In addition, there is no reason why the CAC needs City support to meet, hold discussions and do community outreach. Why would the CAC want to burden the environment by using tax money if its work can be done in a carbon neutral manner?
If members of the CAC are serious about Climate Change, the first step would be to make their own organization carbon neutral and to transition to a stand-alone group which does not depend on consumption of goods and services.
The CAC needs to take a stand for net zero and for carbon neutrality and not take any tax money which has a large carbon footprint.
Thank you,
Kate Haug