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8A Page 4 Focus.) That decision held PERB has exclusive jurisdiction over a labor dispute even where the city charter allowed either party to refer the dispute to binding arbitration. A decision has not been issued in the third case involving PERB jurisdiction. This remaining case concerns Contra Costa County and concerns to a fact pattern similar to the one in the San Jose case. It [s currentry before the 1 st DIstrict Court of Appeal. Two cases for which decisions have been issued are: City of San Jose v. Operating Engineers Local No.3, 2008 WL 56820 and City and County of San Francisco v. Int'l Union of Operatihg Engineers, Local 39, 151 Cat App. 4st 938. The remaining case is County of Contra Costa v. Public Employees Union Local No.1, Case No. A115095. Sustainable Cities Feature: Ventura's Green TV "Lights, camera, action," might not be words you'd expect to hear from a city environmental servIces superIntendent. But that's exactly what Ventura's Ray Olson says in his spare time to the volunteer actors, camera operators and. editors who help him create a series of funny videos with an envrronmentat theme for the city. Olson, who- heads up Ventura's environmentaJ services unit, started making the videos in 1998. His 22 minute programs, which air on Ventura's public access channel, publicize the city's message about conservation in an amusing way. The shows cover everything from recycling to energy effICiency. Olson makes them entertaining by using campy parodies of genres to tell the message. He's done everything from reality TV to westerns, science fiction, 1940s detective dramas, horror monster movies and even silent movies. In a western parody, the hero arrives in town witll his own recycling bin. The sheriff, who owns the town dump, tells the hero to clear out of town by high-noon. Meanwhile, the hero has convinced the town folk that they need recycling. In the fmal showdown, the hero runs the sheriff out of town and sets up a recycling program. Olson now has a reusable archive of 60 different shows. Each is done with an evergreen message so it can be rebroadcast again and again. Annually, these programs get about 2000 hours of airtime. Olson"s Inspiration For years, Ventura used traditkm'* means to communicate its environmental message to residents. Olson had an epiphany about 10 years ago when paying for an ad about composting in the local paper. He realized that he could reach more people more efficiently by making TV programs with environmental themes than running an ad in the paper. Penciling it out, Olson determined that by using volunteers, the production cost for each show would run about the same as placing an ad, $800 when he began, $1,300 today. When Orson started, he had no video production experience and has teamed the craft over many years of trial and error. He writes the scripts and a couple of young technologically savvy city staffers help shoot and edit the programs. Volunteers serve 8$ the actors, which has been a great way to engage residents with the city and its programs. City Wide Focus on Conservation Ventura's green TV programming is just one part of the city's environmental commitment. In the last two years, the city has reduced electricity use at city fac~ities by 25 percent. Ventura's fleet of hybrid vehicles helps save 1,500 gallons of gas annually. With a diversion rate of 67 percent of alt waste, one of the highest in the state, Ventura's efforts are making a sizable impact on the environment. Residents can even recycle their old tennis shoes. 4