Host: City of Healdsburg
Region: Northern California
Openings: 1
Project Focus: Climate Adaptation, Climate Mitigation, Energy Efficiency, Renewable Energy
Skills Needed: Research, Technical Writing, Self-Motivated

Service Needs & Plans

Healdsburg, a city of 11,000 residents in northern Sonoma County, has been aggressive in pursuing strategies and projects that support sustainability and resiliency. Because Healdsburg operates its own electric, water, and wastewater utilities, we have a rare opportunity to manage our impact and lead through innovation. Thus far, our accomplishments include implementation of a Reach Code for new construction, construction of the country’s largest floating solar installation, ongoing electrification of the City vehicle fleet, extensive expansion of our bike/pedestrian network, and partnerships to implement electric buses and garbage trucks in town, to name a few.

While we are proud of our progress to date, we have identified a need to organize our climate efforts into a Climate Mobilization Strategy so that we can more effectively track our progress, prioritize the most impactful actions, and engage the community in this work. We are looking to build a document that reaches across departmental boundaries and provides a comprehensive roadmap for our climate and sustainability initiatives. Our goal is to create a strategy that is action-oriented and specific, while earning strong buy-in from the community, the City Council, and our staff.

Project Description

As noted, the City is now looking to create, adopt, and implement a Climate Mobilization Strategy to guide future efforts and support a more structured and strategic approach to prioritizing future work. We believe this Strategy can build upon existing regional efforts, most specifically the planning work completed by the Sonoma County Regional Climate Protection Agency (RCPA), of which the City is a participating member. That work includes a greenhouse gas emissions inventory (with an update actively in progress) and development of regional strategies and toolkits. Because we can benefit from the work already completed by RCPA and use them as a resource, we now intend to create a strategy that avoids excessive focus on analysis and consultants and instead focuses on developing tangible action steps coupled with measurable results. Specifically, we hope to create a menu of projects and programs based on existing plans, best practices, regional guidance, and community input. We anticipate the work plan being organized around the main categories of transportation, clean energy generation, the built environment, energy efficiency, carbon sequestration, and resilience.

After identifying potential projects and programs, we would like the Fellow to analyze those options in terms of GHG reductions and related benefits, costs, and regulatory challenges so that we can craft an implementation strategy that maximizes our effectiveness and creates a shared understanding of our work plan. Although this effort will require strong coordination with our utilities department, it will be cross-departmental in nature, covering topics like transportations infrastructure, management of City lands and open space, and general municipal administration practices. Therefore, the City Manager and the City Manager’s Office will maintain oversight over the process to ensure that all facets of the organization are involved and included. Community outreach will be a critical part of this process and the CivicSpark fellow will be expected to assist with community meetings and in the creation of outreach strategies to achieve broad participation. Like many communities, the most active residents in Healdsburg tend to be older, whiter, and wealthier than the overall population. We will therefore be looking for opportunities to solicit feedback from members of our community that have been traditionally overlooked. A fellow that is bilingual in Spanish is not required but would be a strong benefit.

The ultimate result of the work will be a Climate Mobilization Strategy report brought forward for City Council review and adoption. The Fellow will be the lead in preparing this report, with support from City leadership and regional partners.

Desired Skills

The Fellow should have a basic understanding of a broad range of climate issues and policy options. The selected candidate should also have strong research skills to avoid re-inventing the wheel and will look to leverage work and analysis already performed by others.

The Fellow will receive supervision and support, but will ideally be a self-starter capable of keeping the project moving without constant supervision. This will require organization and project management skills. Finally, the candidate will need to be an excellent communicator, both verbally and in writing.

The Fellow will play a lead role in community outreach and will need to diplomatically receive, process, and respond to feedback and ideas from the community without losing sight of the overall project goals.

Organization & Community Highlights

Healdsburg is a small town with big goals. Our community and City Council are progressive and ambitious, and our staff aims to meet those demands will innovation and high quality service. Our team is not a large one, meaning that staff needs to be nimble, creative, and collaborative in order to get things done. Our leadership team is comprised of working managers who are willing to roll up their sleeves and participate in the day to day work. We are also committed to reaching across socioeconomic and language barriers to reach the entirety of the community we serve. We have more work to do in that regard, but inclusiveness is a core value that our team takes seriously.

This fellowship will provide an opportunity to get involved in nearly every aspect of municipal operations and interact with subject matter experts in numerous fields.

Remote or On-Site Placement

City operations have mostly return to on-site presence. Barring an unexpected change in pandemic condition, the Fellow will be primarily on-site. A limited amount of telework may be permitted and would be worked out once the Fellow is on board.