Why Mountain View Needs Senior Sustainability Leadership

[Marianna Grossman]

Dear Esteemed Members of the City Council:

The Environmental Sustainability Task Force 2, of which I am a member, has proposed that the upcoming City Budget include funding for a Chief Sustainability Officer and additional funds for staff and projects. We are proposing this ahead of our final recommendations in order not to miss a budget cycle.

While the proposal does include a more detailed job description, I wanted to highlight some key reasons that this approach to staffing would yield significant benefits to the City.

1) Sustainability and Climate Preparedness activities need to be coordinated system wide, across departmental boundaries. Other cities have cabinet level positions that can convene department heads to ensure that sustainability and resilience goals are integrated into each department's activities and that capital expenditures help to advance multiple goals.

2) There are many funding sources, such as grants from the State of California's Strategic Growth Council that the current staff does not have time to compete for. 

3) Collaboration with other cities, agencies and entities requires staff time to plan, coordinate and implement. Examples would be working with multiple agencies and neighboring cities and the County to design and implement an coordinated sea level rise strategy that includes wetland improvements and sea walls. Funding from the SF Bay Restoration Authority could help, but the CSO office would require some level of staffing to pursue funding and manage funded projects.

4) Greenhouse gas reduction is important but preparing to reduce harms from changing weather, sea level and other hazards of climate change are not being addressed at all. More integrated solutions, such as increasing the tree canopy, adding green and other cool roofs and better streetscaping, including storm water management and capture all provide opportunities for investing now to improve the quality of life and reduction of harm to Mountain View residents and workers as global temperatures rise and normal weather patterns are disrupted.

5) The City can make investments such as improving bike infrastructure and providing ubiquitous EV charging stations to make attractive alternatives to driving solo gas vehicles. This might require additional staffing in the transportation department to make sure that engineering plans and projects are expedited. 

What if the City Council took fighting climate change as seriously as you take prudent fiscal management? You would invest in action to protect the community's quality of life and health, as well as measurement to determine if the actions the City takes are producing the results we need. You would hold yourselves and City staff accountable for protecting our long term well-being and resilience. And you would provide staffing and funding to be able to move beyond business as usual.

Respectfully yours,

Marianna Grossman

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Marianna Grossman

Member, ESTF-2

Founder and Managing Partner

Minerva Silicon Valley

Mountain View, CA

+1-650-520-7003 

mgro...@minervaventures.com 

www.minervaventures.com

Twitter: @mgrossmanSV; @MinervaVentures