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Davis staff outline climate-action progress and pilots; commissioners press for clearer metrics
Summary
City staff presented a 2025 implementation update to Davis’s Climate Action and Adaptation Plan, citing high demand for a home energy score pilot, LED and fleet electrification projects, and a planned public dashboard; commissioners urged clearer impact metrics and faster progress.
At a meeting of the City of Davis Climate and Environmental Justice Commission, staff summarized 2025 work under the Climate Action and Adaptation Plan (CAP) and outlined near-term opportunities for 2026, including a public CAP dashboard and regional pilot projects.
Sam Blacklock, the city’s climate action resilience program manager, told the commission that the CAP (adopted April 18, 2023) organizes 28 prioritized actions across five goal areas and that last year’s work included pilots, facility retrofits and regional partnerships. "We had over 100 applications for 50 slots" in a home-energy-score pilot run with Yolo County and Cool Davis, Blacklock said, calling the community response "very strong." He said staff will keep a contact list to support outreach once a statewide program launches.
The presentation listed several implemented and planned measures: LED lighting retrofits at the civic center, police department, Manor Pool and parks (staff cited substantial kilowatt-hour savings but reported two different figures in the presentation); tracking of gas-to-electric conversions through building-permit records (staff cited a 2025 target of roughly 150 permits and reported about 86 conversions in 2024); procurement of seven light-duty electric trucks for city operations with up to three additional vehicles anticipated; an RFP-in‑development for publicly accessible charging through the Electrify YOLO program; and a community virtual power plant pilot with UC Davis to test smart-thermostat coordination.
Blacklock also highlighted outreach and programs: roughly 9,800 AquaHawk water-account registrations that allow for automated leak‑detection notices; Greener Davis outreach (the staff newsletter reaching about 16,000 addresses); and partnership activity through the Yolo County Regional Resilience Collaborative and other regional forums. He said a public-facing CAP dashboard (vendor: CloudSite) is targeted for spring 2026 to provide ongoing status updates and allow users to drill into projects.
Commissioners used the public Q&A to press for clearer performance measures and more detailed data about outcomes. "I’m a little frustrated that we haven’t done more," Commissioner Jim (speaker 7) said, asking how much of the slow pace is the result of budget constraints or staff turnover. Assistant City Manager (speaker 6) acknowledged earlier staffing gaps and said the city has added capacity by placing sustainability within that office, but cautioned that many larger actions depend on council funding decisions. "Since Sam joined in September, movement has sped up on some actions," the assistant city manager said.
Public commenters reiterated implementation concerns. Richard McCann, a longtime local volunteer and county consultant, urged council and staff to move from voluntary electrification measures to mandatory requirements if progress remains insufficient and asked for formal adoption of the parking-lot shade ordinance into the CAP. Chris Granger, executive director of Cool Davis, praised staff engagement and recommended that the dashboard include readily available state and utility data so the city can report EV adoption and electricity use at neighborhood or ZIP-code levels.
Commissioners recommended turning CAP actions into SMART targets and using the dashboard to report measurable outcomes (for example, percent of total housing units covered by electrification permits rather than absolute permit counts). The commission also discussed coordinating with the Transportation Commission on shared transportation-related CAP goals and forming a subcommittee to prepare a council request for a joint meeting.
What happens next: staff set a spring 2026 target for the CAP dashboard and said they will continue to pursue regional grants and partnerships. Commissioners asked staff to return with more impact-focused reports (for example, the home-energy score pilot outcomes and clearer permit-based metrics) so the commission can evaluate actual progress toward CAP goals.
Sources: presentation and Q&A at the City of Davis Climate and Environmental Justice Commission meeting; public comments from Richard McCann and Chris Granger.
