City of Newcastle, WA -- Council Meeting of April 16th, 2013 (Part 1 of 3)
Update: N.P.R. is doing the report on yesterday's Council meeting in three parts, and the second part will be published sometime later today (on a separate posting). Now, likely to be posted later than earlier thought, probably tonight, between 8 P.M. and 12 A.M. The third part is scheduled to be published on April 18th.
Newcastle City Council Candidate, Mark Greene, made a speech at the mid-April Council meeting urging Council to appoint a 3-person volunteer Global Warming Committee which would make suggestions to the Council about green energy ideas and how they could be implemented by the city government. Greene had previously made this suggestion at a prior meeting some weeks ago, but the Council had not acted or commented on the proposal as far as N.P.R. knows. In the prior meeting, Greene stressed the importance of combined incrementalism or the "power of incrementalism," in other words, the more communities around the world that take concrete steps to counteract global warming, the more impact it would have in reducing the "greenhouse" gases that cause it. This does not replace the needed strong federal or centralized government action on global warming by all countries, but would greatly complement it and may even inspire it in some cases. At yesterday's meeting, Greene cited examples of international community or local government involvement in making green energy/environmental strides, such as a geothermal plant in Lund, Sweden and a solar power project on a former landfill in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Greene, also, mentioned the Twin Cities Enviromental Justice Project which seeks to point out environmental hazards or infrastructure threats in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area, and to find solutions in solving those problems. Whether the Council listened to Greene with more interest this time than last is not yet clear, but Mayor Rich Crispo later commented on volunteerism, generally, and said there was not even interest in Newcastle about being a volunteer commissioner on the newly named Community Activities Commission (previously, called the Parks Commission). So anybody who wants to be a Community Activities Commissioner should just submit an application with the City, and your chances of being appointed would seem to be better than 50/50. Mark Greene thinks the City should at least give stipends to volunteer Planning and Community Activities Commissioners, perhaps, using the money they will save from the reduction of some Councilmembers' salaries (positions 5, 6 and 7) in the next term. Councilman Bill Erxleben implied that the City needs better marketing tools to attract volunteers, and he's probably right about that.
[The update to this essay was revised on 4/18/2013.]
Newcastle City Council Candidate, Mark Greene, made a speech at the mid-April Council meeting urging Council to appoint a 3-person volunteer Global Warming Committee which would make suggestions to the Council about green energy ideas and how they could be implemented by the city government. Greene had previously made this suggestion at a prior meeting some weeks ago, but the Council had not acted or commented on the proposal as far as N.P.R. knows. In the prior meeting, Greene stressed the importance of combined incrementalism or the "power of incrementalism," in other words, the more communities around the world that take concrete steps to counteract global warming, the more impact it would have in reducing the "greenhouse" gases that cause it. This does not replace the needed strong federal or centralized government action on global warming by all countries, but would greatly complement it and may even inspire it in some cases. At yesterday's meeting, Greene cited examples of international community or local government involvement in making green energy/environmental strides, such as a geothermal plant in Lund, Sweden and a solar power project on a former landfill in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Greene, also, mentioned the Twin Cities Enviromental Justice Project which seeks to point out environmental hazards or infrastructure threats in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area, and to find solutions in solving those problems. Whether the Council listened to Greene with more interest this time than last is not yet clear, but Mayor Rich Crispo later commented on volunteerism, generally, and said there was not even interest in Newcastle about being a volunteer commissioner on the newly named Community Activities Commission (previously, called the Parks Commission). So anybody who wants to be a Community Activities Commissioner should just submit an application with the City, and your chances of being appointed would seem to be better than 50/50. Mark Greene thinks the City should at least give stipends to volunteer Planning and Community Activities Commissioners, perhaps, using the money they will save from the reduction of some Councilmembers' salaries (positions 5, 6 and 7) in the next term. Councilman Bill Erxleben implied that the City needs better marketing tools to attract volunteers, and he's probably right about that.
[The update to this essay was revised on 4/18/2013.]
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