By Dean Kubani Manager, City of Santa Monica Environmental Programs Division
I am writing to clear up some misinformation that was presented in your recent article and editorial on the Sustainable City Report Card. Kevin Herrera’s otherwise excellent article (SMDP, Sept. 25,page 1) noted that the report card measures “City Hall’s progress”in meeting the Sustainable City Plan goals. This is incorrect — the report card measures the entire community’s progress toward meeting the Sustainable City Plan goals,which were developed by the community during a 15 month process in 2001-2002 and adopted by City Council in 2003.
A second piece of misinformation appeared in your editorial in Friday’s paper (SMDP, Sept. 29, page 4) which asserts that the report card is “an internal audit with city staffers grading themselves.” As noted above,it is the entire community that is being graded,not city staff or “City Hall.”And while it is true that city staff developed a first draft of the grades (with the assistance of an outside consultant),the final grades presented in the report card received outside review and approval by experts in the various Sustainable City Plan goal areas. The grades were developed based on a detailed analysis of indicator data (which can be found at http://santa-monica.org/epd/scpr/index.htm) conducted by city staff,outside consultants and outside experts,including representatives of the city’s task force on the environment and Sustainable City Task Force, and were independently reviewed and approved by the Sustainable City Task Force (a City Council-appointed group of non-city staff experts in the eight sustainable city goal areas) on Sept. 11, 2006.
The purpose of the report card is to present a large amount of complex indicator data,as objectively as possible, in a format that is easy to understand by key decision-makers and residents alike. It was designed to help all community members celebrate our successes and, more importantly, to see where the challenges remain so that we can focus our resources on addressing them.
I urge readers to take the time to look at the Sustainable City Plan, the indicator data and the report card at www.smepd.org and decide for themselves what the grades should be. And more importantly, take a look at those areas where we are not doing well and take some positive steps to help turn the grade around. Help to bring up that “C+” grade in Resource Conservation by installing compact fluorescent light bulbs in your home or office,or put a solar panel on your roof! The only way we will be able to get straight As is if all of us — businesses, residents, schools and institutions (like City Hall) — get involved in helping the community realize its vision of becoming a sustainable city.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on October 2, 2006. Read the original PDF.