Jeff Pelline's Sierra Foothills Report

The county District Attorney’s letter to former Grass Valley City Council Member Steve Enos on alleged Brown Act Violations of the city council is here: DAletter

Steve’s response is here: Enosresponse

Both documents, which I urge you to read, provide a more accurate account of the outcome that what appeared in The Union. The newspaper, supposedly pursuing a “web-centric” strategy, should have linked to them too.

But it didn’t, so you can read them here. As I’ve written before, newspapers normally are champions of the Brown Act and take the same steps that Steve did to ensure transparency and accountability in government.

Why didn’t The Union take those steps, why was it late in reporting the story, and why did the most recent story that appeared downplay the significance of the issue? You have to wonder.

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Businesses and local governments in 14 Sierra Nevada counties, including ours, will have new access to energy efficient technology through a new collaboration between the Sierra Business Council and PG&E.

Through 2010, the Truckee-based Sierra Business Council will be offering free energy audits and low-cost retrofits to commercial PG&E customers.

The program, called Sierra Nevada Energy Watch, will help local governments conduct greenhouse gas inventories and develop plans to help meet the state’s AB 32 emission reduction goals.

“During this tough economic downturn, we are excited to be able to support our local businesses and governments by offering cost-cutting energy efficient services,” said Sierra Business Council President Steve Frisch. “This project embodies our long-standing mission of demonstrating that environmental quality and economic prosperity are complete goals.”

The counties are Lassen, Plumas, Sierra, Nevada, Placer, El Dorado, Amador, Calaveras, Mariposa, Tuolumne, Alpine, Butte, Sutter and Yuba.

The program is funded by California utility ratepayers under the watch of the California Public Utilities Commission.

More information is offered here or by calling the Sierra Business Council at 530-582-4800.

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A new sign just went up at the smoke shop across the street from City Hall in downtown Grass Valley that reads “going out of business,” according to my reliable sources back home.

The Millennium Smoke Shop in downtown Grass Valley, which opened later down the street, is staying open.

The smoke shops, as I’ve written before, also included bongs and other goodies.

There’s a lot of vacant businesses on that stretch of East Main now.

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Area merchants already are coming up with products to commemorate this May’s AMGEN bike race and the Nevada City Classic’s 50th anniversary in June.

From 1982 to the early 1990s, the Nevada City Winery produced unique wine labels depicting various bicycle themes. This year, there will be two bottle labels: Bicycle Blanc, produced from locally grown Sauvignon Blanc grapes and Red Racer, a Merlot and Syrah blend.

In Nevada City, Treats – the upscale ice cream shop – is planning to name some of its ice creams after the bicycle race and racers.

Expect myriad others to follow suit.

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Not a peep in the local media yet (The Union, KNCO or Advocate), but Nevada City Mayor Reinette Senum has a post on her Facebook page that shows the Council unanimously approved a “citywide sustainability vision.”

The decision at this week’s council meeting is the latest example of Nevada City’s leadership role in the county (and Sierra Foothills) when it comes to sustainability, something that I’ve written about many times before.

“Be proud of your council members: They are being visionary, proactive and setting this little town up for funding, job creation, economic stimulation, resilience and healthy living – the list goes on,” Reinette wrote.

(I’m glad Reinette mentioned the funding issue, because as I’ve said before, it disturbs me that our community idealogues try to get in the way of what is a pragmatic plan. Speaking of that I hope you got to read the Sacramento Bee article earlier this week pointing out that Tom McClintock’s refusal to consider budget earmarks hurts his district, according to critics. I’ve talked about this “sand pounding” before.)

In upcoming months, two half-day workshops will be held consisting of Nevada City businesses and residents and work with Darin Dinsmore and Associates to create measureable goals for Nevada City that, ultimately, will be fundable in the areas of energy/water conservations, energy/food production and reduction of waste, according to Reinette.

The Council approved this plan instead of a 250-home concept of “ecodistricts” that Reinette had supported.

Portland has become a leader in the idea known as “ecodistricts.”

“EcoDISTRICTS is a bold visioning and investment strategy to manage growth and development in major redevelopment areas,” according to a write-up of the program. “The objective is to test,accelerate and eventually codify the next generation of best practices in green development and civic infrastructure that can be scaled to create neighborhoods with the lowest environmental impact and highest economic and social resiliency in the United States.”

More background of the Portland plan is here.

By the way, this post is a good example of how the Internet is reshaping the way news is disseminated in our community – on a Facebook page and in a blog.

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