Dear Mayor Combs and City Council Members,
In reviewing the Staff Report I continue to be impressed with the scope, variety, and depth of work addressed you and the Menlo Park staff, particularly with the unprecedented challenges related to the pandemic.
It is clear in reviewing the 2020-21 project lists and the anticipated Council Agenda items through June that climate action continues to be a significant priority for Menlo Park. I applaud you for adopting the 2020 Climate Action Plan with a “climate neutrality by 2030” goal, as this positions Menlo Park as a leading city in addressing climate change during a time when leadership is imperative. Our actions are inspiring many other cities in the Bay Area and beyond to take more aggressive climate change mitigation actions than they were previously contemplating.
When you next address the Top 5 priorities for City Council (whether on March 9 or during an upcoming meeting) I recommend a change to the framing of one of the Top 5 priorities. In the most recent updated staff report the current set of Climate Action Plan mitigation measures were replaced as a Top 5 priority by the Bayfront adaptation measure, which entails participating in a multi-jurisdictional grant application.
While I very much support Menlo Park’s participation in this measure, I was chagrined to see that the mitigation measures were removed from the Top 5 priority list. Based on my understanding of our climate emergency, I am aware that we must adapt, mitigation, and soon adopt feasible carbon removal measures simultaneously in order to avert the most disastrous consequences and keep alive the ability to restore a healthy climate for our children and grandchildren.
Rather than recommend that you swap out the new Bayfront adaptation measure for the mitigation measures on your Top 5 Priorities list, I have a solution that I hope will be to your liking. ****I recommend that you reframe this Top 5 Priority as “Climate Mitigation and Adaptation” and then define this as encompassing the Bayfront Adaptation project along with the current set of Climate Action Plan mitigation measures that continue to be slated for 2021 action. ****
This will maintain Menlo Park’s strong signal as a climate leader by asserting that both adaptation and mitigation are a top priority for the City. The risk in focusing only on adaptation as a Top 5 priority is that our city may inadvertently provide a confusing signal to the other communities we are inspiring that mitigation is NOT a top priority, even though we are committed to a goal of climate neutrality by 2030.
Thank you very much for considering this solution,
Mitch Slomiak
Menlo Park Resident
former Menlo Park Environmental Quality Commissioner
Menlo Spark Co-Founder
