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A Look to the Future
The Tracy Press
February 19, 2008
The City Council set out its policy priorities Tuesday, and a balanced budget and healthy reserve fund are at the top of the list. Tracy will try to have a balanced budget within five years with no layoffs and maintain a reserve of 15 percent of its operating budget. Those seemed the key targets the City Council set during a Tuesday afternoon discussion of its goals for this year and next.
But Councilwoman Evelyn Tolbert also convinced her colleagues to hire someone to study how the city impacts the environment and to suggest ways to promote green policies to lessen damage and promote sustainability. The council, at her prodding, also decided to hire on a contract basis a grant writer to bring in more money for the city.
Council members told administrators they would like to see a balanced budget and 15 percent of the city's roughly $70 million operating budget going to reserves in five years, and it would like to get there without layoffs.
Local Group Thinking Green
The Tracy Press
February 5, 2008
High school activists, developers, educators and local politicians have started to meet to think up ways to make Tracy green. Councilwoman Evelyn Tolbert spearheaded the group that calls itself the Sustainability Committee, which met for the first time last year and presented its case to the City Council in December.
The group talked about a variety of future actions, including pushing the city to adopt incentives to encourage green builders and compiling ways for local teens to educate their younger peers about how to recycle and save energy. The committee's first meeting late last year drew more than 30 participants, mostly from local school districts, the city and nearby colleges. There were also four or five developers.
Tolbert recruited people from various walks of life to join the team, because it would be less effective, she said, to single out one group to come up with everything. "We're all in this together, and we all have something to contribute, whether it's carpooling or constructing solar panels," she said. "We have all got to do something, because we are all causing a problem."
Making the shift to a green city makes economic sense, too, Tolbert said. "Someday, these energy-saving technologies, recycling and other things included in green development, it pays for itself," she said. "It just makes sense to think about heading in that direction." Other ideas Tolbert suggested the committee think about are placing recycling bins in more businesses and schools and pushing for more solar panels on homes.
Because the group is all-volunteer, there should be no change in the city's budget, unless the City Council approves a city employee to act as adviser or liaison.
