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crisis. He expects that the City can receive support from many groups within and outside our borders to support the decision to become a Cool City. Jane Taylor, involved resident since 1992, represented Cool Families. She expressed appreciation of the efforts the City is embarking on in addressing the climate change issues. Cool Families is a recently formed grassroots group of parents based out of Redwood City with the mission of raising awareness about global warming and climate change. The goal is to inspire people to action to reduce energy consumption, recycle, and live in a more sustainable lifestyle doing all possible to ensure our children inherit a livable earth. Adjusting the climate change crisis will take involvement on every level from individuals, local organizations, local, State and Federal Government and collaboration on a global level. Cool Families plans to partner with organizations such as the City, the Sierra Club, City Trees and other groups looking for support on this issue. Marianna Raymond, 11 year Redwood City resident, urged the Council to pursue this topic as soon and vigorously as possible. Expertise can be pulled from various sources and she mentioned an article in the newspaper citing the meeting of five East Bay Mayors with an expert from London, England. Starting with a small town in the outskirts of London, they succeeded in cutting greenhouse emissions by 77 %. They went on to implement a variety of measures in London itself and she is hoping that the City will network with these other Mayors and experts. Cynthia Denny stated that she would address the issue of green building and that the green building resolution that is part of the sustainable land use development criteria for anywhere in the Loma Prieta Chapter area. She explained that green building is widely accepted to mean designed, constructed, and operated to be very energy efficient. Green building merges sound, responsible practices into one discipline that looks at the environmental, economic, and social affects of a building or built projects as a whole. She encouraged Council to consider that as a large part of the effort in the climate change issues and she commended the City on its tree planting program. Mayor Pierce stated that she had the opportunity to serve on an energy task force through the Congestion Management and Air Quality Committee (CMAQ) to develop an energy strategy for the County of San Mateo. During that research the link between climate protection and energy use became apparent. As a result, the committee will be going back to CMAQ and present to the City and County Association of Governments (C /CAG), not only a plan for an energy strategy for the County but also with ideas that can facilitate policies and programs for all of the cities. She stated her pride in the City staff taking the initiative and forming a subcommittee resulting in Redwood City being one of three San Mateo County cities in the ABAG Energy Watch group. This involvement has also resulted in the City being recognized within the task force and ABAG as a community that is taking the issue seriously and is headed in the right direction. The Priority Setting Session REGULAR CITY COUNCIL MEETING JANUARY 22, 2007 MINUTES PAGE 5 MINUTE BOOK NO. 61 Page No. 320