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• <br /> September 29, 2021 <br /> In the Pacific Northwest, we are fortunate to have such incredible natural <br /> surroundings. As local government, it's important we do what we can to minimize <br /> our negative impacts on our environment, as well as find proactive ways to make <br /> it even better. <br /> This is especially critical given the climate change impacts we continue to <br /> experience year after year. This summer's heat wave broke records and made <br /> national headlines. We're also seeing more intense storms, longer and more <br /> dangerous wildfires, and other extreme weather events—all of which threaten the <br /> vitality, livability and prosperity of our city. <br /> Last year our Council adopted a Climate Action Plan to provide strategies for the <br /> City to be more green and reduce our carbon footprint. To help ensure we <br /> continue to make progress toward these sustainability goals, I am redirecting a <br /> portion of an existing full-time employee to lead the coordination of this work, <br /> which spans many City departments. <br /> I'm proud of the fact that our Everett Transit remains a regional leader in • <br /> electrification, with plans for half of our fleet to be all-electric by next year. Right <br /> now our electric buses are reducing greenhouse gas pollution by almost 2 million <br /> pounds per year, and that will only increase as we take delivery of additional zero- <br /> emission buses. Our Climate Action Plan also includes land use strategies to <br /> support more compact, high-density communities, well-served by public transit, <br /> as well as improving overall walkability throughout the city. These strategies will <br /> be folded into our planning department's periodic update process. <br /> We look forward to reporting progress on our Climate Action Plan and overall <br /> sustainability work in the coming months. <br /> CONCLUSION <br /> Those are just some of the highlights of our budget I wanted to share with you <br /> tonight, which support our quality-of-life priorities and investments. <br /> I'm very pleased we didn't have to make cuts to important services to balance the <br /> budget, as we've sadly needed to do in previous years. <br /> S <br /> 14 <br />