BY BRADEN CARTWRIGHT
Daily Post Staff Writer
Palo Alto Mayor Vicki Veenker, who is running for re-election, will go to Turkey in November for a climate change conference, but not without her colleague on the board of the Bay Area Air District questioning the $93,200 the agency is spending on the trip.
“It just bothers me, when I don’t have enough money to feed my constituents, that we’re going and spending this much money,” Solano County Supervisor Monica Brown said at a meeting on Oct. 6.
Veenker will go to the conference with Sonoma County Supervisor Lynda Hopkins, Hopkins’ chief of staff and four Bay Area Air District employees.
Veenker said the conference, which she attended last year in Brazil, has been helpful for making connections with other mayors.
“We can share best practices literally around the world,” she said on Tuesday.
The United Nations conference is from Nov. 9 to 20 in Antalya, Turkey, a seaside city on the Mediterranean.
Costs include:
• $15,000 for Veenker and Hopkins to travel
• $32,000 for four Bay Area Air Quality Management District employees to travel
• $1,200 for Hopkins’ chief of staff to fly
• $10,000 sponsorship with the Climate Registry
• $35,000 contract for logistics services with a network organization known as ICLEI
ICLEI is arranging meetings, panels, credentials and events, said Deputy Executive Officer of Public Affairs Viet Tran, who is going on the trip.
Bay Area Air District Executive Director Philip Fine said it’s important for local agencies to attend the conference because the federal government isn’t addressing climate change. He said the agency is spending less money on accommodations and sponsorships than the last two years.
“We’re being very frugal about it, but international travel does cost money,” Fine said.
This will be Fine’s third time attending the conference. Only Brown, the Solano County Supervisor, voted against the trip. She said local governments are feeling the strain of federal bud get cuts, and elected officials should pull back from optional expenses.
“I just think it’s a bad look at this stage in the game,” she said.
The Bay Area Air District is funded by property taxes, grants and a $6 fee on all cars registered in the Bay Area. The agency’s goal is to improve air quality and public health, and the board is working to ban the sale of natural gas water heaters.
“It just bothers me, when I don’t have enough money to feed my constituents, that we’re going and spending this much money,” Solano County Supervisor Monica Brown said at a meeting on Oct. 6.”
Well it bothers me, too.
“Veenker said the conference, which she attended last year in Brazil, has been helpful for making connections with other mayors.”
So glad Ms Sustainability is jet-setting around the world networking with potential donors instead of addressing Palo Alto’s real problems she was elected to address — like our constant utility rate hikes that drastically outpace inflation.
Remember she’s also jetting off to Data Center conferences where she sits on panels with executives from rich companies like Facebook and Tesla — which doesn’t give me much hope she’ll do anything meaningful to limit the problems with data centers — including how they’re forcing up global utility rates and ours.
Why?
Nothing to embrace in Turkey except hair transplant clinics and Midnight Express.
Enormous waste of taxpayers money
such a waste. This is irresponsible. she and those voting for this boondoggle should be voted out.
Veenker is wasting taxpayers’ money on a $93,200 overseas boondoggle while the OSV problem in Palo Alto is getting out of hand. Instead of addressing the problems that actually affect residents, she’s off playing house as Secretary of State at a climate conference in Turkey. Meanwhile, Shikada is probably throwing a taxpayer-funded “nothing to do” party while the boss is away on her junket. City Hall seems more interested in political theater than addressing the issues residents actually care about. At this rate, even Hamachek, the newcomer, could find himself with significant support as residents grow increasingly frustrated with the status quo. Taxpayers deserve accountability, sensible priorities, and leadership focused on local problems rather than expensive overseas trips.
What a nauseating statement from a county supervisor: “It just bothers me, when I don’t have enough money to feed my constituents, that we’re going and spending this much money,” Solano County Supervisor Monica Brown said at a meeting on Oct. 6.”
Notice the staggering arrogance packed into those few words – ‘My constituents’, like the feudal lord talking about her serfs, and ‘Feed them’, as if human beings didn’t manage to feed themselves for hundreds of thousands of years without the benefit of a local county board resolution. It’s only when the government gets involved with regulations, taxes, and inflation that people start finding the grocery store (and other goods and services) unaffordable.
She views the people of Solano County not as free, productive, independent human beings, but as a collective herd of cattle waiting to be hand-fed by their
masters. She’s an arrogant political parasite suffering from savior complex using other people’s money. Resign.
Excellent comment regarding these politicians whose livelihood has largely been paid for by the taxpayers. I agreed that they are nothing more than parasites a.k.a high class welfare recipients
What are they going to talk about at this conference? How the polar ice caps didn’t melt away? How Manhattan isn’t under two feet of water? How the Earth didn’t burn up? I can’t believe they told us all these lies and we’re still taking this Climate Change voodoo seriously. Look, folks, this was a hoax to raise our utility bills and taxes. The sooner we shut this down, the sooner we can lower our utilities and taxes — and send the Green New Deal hucksters packing.
Best ways to get your constituents to buy induction stoves? Best techniques for convincing taxpayers to ignore inflation and other pressures and spend thousands or tens of thousands of dollars to upgrade appliances, furnaces, water heaters? How to convince residents, commuters and visitors to replace vehicles with bicycles? Replace parking with bike lanes without notifying retailers and restaurants while bemoaning drop in sales tax revenues and hiring more retail consultants to develop artistic streetscape motifs? Revenue growth opportunities through increased parking fees…
Evidently Vernker believes the Climate Change myths … or she knows the science on this is fake but is going along on this to score points with the far left wing of the Dems.