Host: City of Goleta
Region: Central California
Openings: 1
Project Focus: Transportation / Mobility, Climate Adaptation, Climate Mitigation, Energy Efficiency, Renewable Energy
Skills Needed: Project Management, Technical Writing, Flexibility/Adaptability

Service Needs & Plans

The Sustainability Program within the Planning & Environmental Review Department creates and implements a long-term sustainability vision for the City of Goleta and supports efforts to incorporate sustainability into core City processes and decision-making. Given that the City faces significant threats to reliability and resiliency of the electrical grid due to its geographic location at the end of Southern California Edison’s high-voltage transmission lines, a CivicSpark Fellow would help build capacity in a variety of projects to help the City address climate action and community resilience challenges related to energy and transportation in an equitable manner. The City’s Old Town area specifically is impacted by a higher pollution burden than the rest of the City and will likely be identified as a Disadvantaged Community under the EPA’s CalEnviroScreen 4.0. Specific projects will be prioritized based on City Council direction following review of the Department’s Annual Work Program and time available but address the following overarching goals: 1). Support the City’s 100% Renewable Energy goals; 2). Integrate equitable public outreach in all projects; 3). Strengthen regional coordination with other jurisdictional staff and CivicSpark fellows; 4) Advance a shared micro-mobility pilot program, and 5) Conduct research in preparation of a Sustainability Plan.

Project Description

The Planning & Environmental Review Department’s Sustainability Program will be the primary department served for all projects listed. Along with the Sustainability Manager and the Management Assistant, the Fellow will have the opportunity to substantially contribute to a number of projects:

1) Strategic Energy Plan Implementation (SEP) – The SEP was developed as a roadmap to identify how the City could reach its 100% Renewable Energy goals by 2030. The SEP identifies barriers to renewable energy development and recommends strategies to overcome the barriers. Related equity considerations and outreach to the City’s Spanish speaking population is a focus of the Plan. The fellow will have the opportunity to participate in numerous activities. For example, the City is a member agency in Central Coast Community Energy (CCCE), a community choice energy aggregator. CCCE provides many local programs that the Fellow could help support to advance building and transportation electrification, including facilitating permitting for battery energy storage to increase resilience in the community. Additionally, the Fellow could support Reach Code Development that would establish energy standards that are more stringent than the California Building Energy Efficiency Standards for newly constructed buildings and modifications to existing buildings. The Fellow may also support Energy Assurance Planning, identified as a strategy in the SEP to protect critical municipal facilities so that they continue to operate in the event of an electricity outage in our vulnerable region. Such support would include coordination with other departments and agencies, including Santa Barbara County which has an Energy Assurance Assessment Services program available to local governments and the private sector to assess energy infrastructure. The outcome would be to provide detailed audit(s) to inform potential future resiliency upgrades.

2) Integrate Equitable Public Outreach – the Fellow would utilize various tools for public outreach and engagement, including to the City’s Spanish speaking population. This may include the opportunity to write articles for the community online newsletter, create social media posts, create of flyers or other graphics, support in-person workshops or presentations, and continued virtual engagement, particularly if the COVID pandemic continues. The outcome would be identification of best practices for increasing awareness about sustainability issues and increasing participation from a broad cross section of the community.

3) Regional Coordination – Regional Climate Collaborative – The Fellow could build capacity by supporting the City’s participation in the Santa Barbara County Regional Climate Collaborative. Specifically, the Clean Energy Assurance Subcommittee and related projects such as Energy Assurance Assessment, as well as new Subcommittees related to equity and transportation electrification.

4) Shared Micro-mobility Pilot Program – The City began an effort to evaluate implementation of a bikeshare program and there is regional coordination to implement a system using one vendor. The Fellow could build capacity by coordinating with the City’s Public Works Department to determining appropriate locations in the City’s right-of-way for bike kiosks with an outcome being the production of a GIS or other map illustrating the locations and improvements needed to locate the kiosks. This may involve analyzing the policies and approaches utilized by our neighboring jurisdictions for adoption and operation of bikeshare programs, as well as assisting with development of a potential Request For Proposals for vendor selection.

5) LEED for Cities Tracking – The City is a designated LEED City by the USGBC. LEED helps cities and communities benchmark current sustainability performance, track performance metrics, communicate continuous improvement, educate residents, visitors and business owners, and demonstrate commitment to sustainability, human health and economic prosperity. The Fellow could help build capacity by utilizing the LEED Arc platform tool to track metrics to support the future development of a Sustainability Plan.

Desired Skills

The ideal Fellow will have excellent interpersonal skills and be open to interacting and collaborating with staff from different City departments, as well as members of the public and other agency staff. Curiosity, flexibility and adaptability, as well as strong written communication and analytical skills are key. The Fellow should be comfortable asking for assistance when needed, but also be able to take initiative, work independently, and conduct self-directed research with some direction. Being comfortable conducting outreach and community engagement, a high attention to detail when performing data collection, and project management skills are all beneficial.

Organization & Community Highlights

The City of Goleta, California is located on the south coast of Santa Barbara County, approximately 100 miles northwest of Los Angeles; adjacent to the University of California, Santa Barbara, and ten miles west of the City of Santa Barbara. Home to 30,000 residents, the City of Goleta stretches approximately eight square miles along a narrow coastal plain between the Santa Ynez Mountains and the Pacific Ocean. Beaches, a mild coastal climate and well-maintained parks and open spaces add to its attraction. The City of Goleta is a great place to work, with close to 100 employees. Our diverse group of staff members are dedicated to serving our citizens and enhancing the functions of public administration through innovation and partnerships in the community. Serving as a Fellow with the City of Goleta Sustainability Program provides the opportunity to get involved in many different aspects of local government sustainability planning and implementation. Fellows get a variety of tasks and exposure to different types of work and have a good deal of autonomy in pursuing what interests them with the support of staff from the Sustainability team and other members across departments. Additionally, there are many opportunities to collaborate regionally with other jurisdictional staff and other CivicSpark Fellows to positively address complex issues that cross jurisdictional boundaries.

Remote or On-Site Placement

In-person work will resume at City Hall with more flexibility for remote work than prior to COVID. A Fellow would be expected to be onsite for at least two days per week once the City fully re-opens, similar to City staff.