Climate Action Committee recommends shrinking panel to seven, prioritizes climate expertise

At a public meeting, the Sebastopol Climate Action Committee voted to recommend that the city council reduce the advisory panel’s size from the currently framed 11–13 seats to seven and to prioritize appointees with climate backgrounds.

Planning staff explained the immediate need for clarity. John, a planning department staff member, said the city clerk’s current reading of the adopted composition means “we need to appoint 1 member for each role until the city council has formally approved a change to the group composition,” and asked the committee to tell staff which positions it wants to recruit for now. That interpretation, staff warned, limits how flexible recruitment can be without a council vote.

The committee spent more than two hours weighing two approaches: keep a longer list of named seats to…