Jim Wood receives high marks from Sonoma County Conservation Action annual environmental report card.
Sonoma County Conservation Action
540 Pacific Ave, Santa Rosa 95404
Phone: 707‐571‐8566 Fax: 707‐571‐1678
www.conservationaction.org
[email protected]
To: Sonoma County Press
From: Sonoma County Conservation Action,
Dennis Rosatti Direct Contact (707) 495‐9735
Re: SCCA Report Card 2013_2014
Sonoma County Conservation Action announced its Annual Environmental Report Card for 2013‐2014, which looks at the time period between the Summer of 2012 and the Fall of 2013. The Environmental Report Card assigns grades to Sonoma County elected officials in two main categories: 1) On their environmental voting on policy matters and projects that come before their Boards/Councils; and 2) On their availability to the public and on their willingness to listen to citizen input on environmental issues.
Scores are formulated from each individual elected official’s record over the previous year, as reported by a host of citizen council and board watchers who are attentive to decisions being made in each city and at the County of Sonoma. SCCA Staff and Board then take this grassroots feedback and summarize it in order to prepare the information for the public.
In its 22nd year, the SCCA Annual Environmental Report Card is a dependable tool that voters can use to gauge how their elected officials are performing while serving their respective constituents. This watchdog function is designed to hold elected officials accountable for their actions regarding their voting and their general attitude towards the local environment.
“Assessment of the responsiveness and voting behavior of our elected officials between elections is a better gauge for the voting public to consider than a campaign flyer.” said Bill Kortum, SCCA Board President Emeritus and Founder.
“The public wants a watchdog to boil it down for them,” said Dennis Rosatti, executive director of SCCA. “Through our field poll to council watchers in each municipality, we have a real sense of how these elected leaders are behaving, both when it comes to voting and when it comes to listening to their constituents.”
This year Conservation Action took the opportunity of a non‐election year to perform extra outreach and research into the assigned grades. SCCA experienced a robust response to the report card poll in 2013, including Board members and Advisory Board members that lent their experience and opinions in interacting with Sonoma County’s elected officials. The 2014 Report Card process will start in July of 2014, with an anticipated public release date of early October.
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Sonoma County Conservation Action is the nonprofit, nonpartisan political arm of Sonoma County's environmental movement. Conservation Action provides political activism for Sonoma County residents concerned about the county's environment and quality of life. Conservation Action's full‐time organizing staff knocks on roughly 70,000 doors in the county every year, identifying environmentally concerned residents, distributing information and election endorsements and mobilizing residents to write decision‐makers and to volunteer for electoral campaigns. Started in 1991, Conservation Action is Sonoma County’s largest environmental organization.