The Sonoma City Council has engaged a Berkeley consulting firm, Natural Logic, to help staff to develop a city sustainability plan.
City Manager Linda Kelly said the council had chosen the company because of their “action-oriented” track record of having developed sustainable practices for other cities. “Their first bid came in a little under our budget of $50,000,” said Kelly, “and I negotiated them down from that amount to a more streamlined approach.”
This was possible because after Sonoma’s Green Building Subcommittee interviewed the two lowest bids, they didn’t see a need for a heavy community buy-in component, Kelly said.
“The community is already highly committed to sustainability,” she said. “It’s up to us to set our example. We need to be responsible to the citizens and taxpayers to make sure we are using the resources in a wise and responsible way.”
The consultants will function as an extension of staff. “We need help getting the green building process kick started,” said Kelly. “We just don’t have the staff that can research the model policies and analyze those against our current policies and see what’s best for our city. In all businesses and agencies, everyone’s having to re-examine the way we operate, in terms of increasing fuel costs, global warming, and the greater awareness now to preserve the environment. So this will help us move along further and more quickly in that area.”
