Please research then consider joining me in supporting the CRC proposals, especially Proposition 3 which creates a “Climate and Environment Commission.” This body would be made up of 11 of our neighbors each appointed by County Council but from these crucially important and currently unrelated groups:

• Solid Waste Advisory Committee

• Agricultural Resources Committee

• Marine Resources Committee

• Salmon Recovery Committee

• A rep from an SJC environmental non-profit

• A contractor with experience in residential building

• A youth active in environmental protection and/or climate change

• A member of a Coast Salish nation or tribe, and

• 2 members at large.

By passing Prop 3 we ensure these currently unrelated groups pool their understanding of climate change threats and then contribute oversight to the newly created Department of Environmental Stewardship. The commission is also able to recommend legislative measures to the Council itself and our hard-working county staff.

The Council has issued two climate-related resolutions — one in 2008 and another in 2020 (13 years later). Resolutions are only a beginning and their ideas are not enforceable.

County Council is busy each meeting with our day-to-day cares: vacation rentals, indoor tennis facilities, requests to redraw land-use maps in county resource zones, etc. While some of the debate on such topics is in regard to their individual impacts on the natural environment, we have yet to have a group that looks at the crisis of the planet’s warming climate and the general degradation of our natural environment as their first concern and across all endeavors in our county.

Please support CRC Prop #3. Thank you very much!

Sue Bauer

Olga