SAN Rafa the City with a November 17, 2020 The Honorable Andrew E. Sweet Presiding Judge, Marin County Superior Court*

R1

The board of supervisors, in collaboration with the municipalities and other agencies affected by climate change, should convene a multi-jurisdictional task force (referred to in this report as the Marin Climate Adaptation Task Force) charged with developing a single, comprehensive, multi- jurisdictional adaptation strategy for all of Marin. Response: This recommendation requires further analysis. As noted above, much coordination has already been done around the county with regard to climate change. It is unclear whether a single, comprehensive, multi-jurisdictional adaptation strategy for all of Marin is the best way to approach the various impacts of climate change. There is already a county-wide Local Hazard Mitigation Plan, which all Marin jurisdictions are party to, which includes climate impacts as well as threats from other non-climate specific hazards. It may be that an approach like this is better suited to developing a coordinated strategy or approach. It may also be that the best way to address climate threats is through sector or threat-specific coordination efforts such as the Marin Wildfire Prevention Authority and the BayWAVE sea level rise program since each of these threats is specific, complex and requires significant stakeholder involvement, regulatory approaches, expertise and solutions. The City's Draft General Plan 2040 Policy S-3.6: Resilience to Tidal Flooding contains a program specific to countywide coordination regarding sea level rise and flooding. Program S-3.6C: Countywide Agency/Joint Powers Authority states "Work with the County of Marin to facilitate the formation of a centralized countywide agency or joint powers authority to oversee adaptation planning, financing, and implementation." In addition, DRAWDOWN: Marin is in the process of formalization and may be a venue for further coordination or exploration around climate adaptation planning. This is a broad-based and inclusive effort that the City applauds and has been part of. Importantly this effort includes community leaders, nonprofits, business leaders and others. It will be essential to conduct robust community engagement from all sectors to put in place any countywide effort to address adaptation. A climate adaptation task force or exploration could fit within or without either of these current efforts depending on the outcomes of DRAWDOWN: Marin. Finally, there is a significant amount of work being done around the Bay Area region through the San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission's (BCDC) Bay Adapt program and the Bay Area Climate Adaptation Network, which both City and County staff participate in. These two efforts are looking at the challenges and solutions to county-wide and regional adaptation planning, specifically with regard to decision-making, permitting, and governance. There is widespread agreement that there is no clear best way to address cross-jurisdictional organization or governance at this time, but the two are conducting research and analyses to help local governments understand and make good choices in these regards. The City of San Rafael looks forward to working with the County and Board of Supervisors to explore the best approaches to coordinate around the myriad of threats and vulnerabilities due to climate change and other potential natural and human-caused disasters. Currently the City is embarking on adaptation planning and has begun to explore and apply for grants in partnership with the County to proceed from assessment mode to adaptation planning in a coordinated fashion. The City will review the Grand Jury's recommendation through this collaboration with the County. In addition, the City will review the recommendation in the process of adopting San Rafael's new General Plan 2040 and will consider any pertinent outcomes of our analysis in the Implementing Programs sometime in the spring of 2021.

R4

Each member of the Marin Climate & Energy Partnership, should declare its support for broadening the partnership's mission and increasing its funding as necessary to enable it to support overall climate change planning efforts, including both mitigation and adaptation in cities, towns, and other member agencies throughout the county. Recommendation numbered R4 requires further analysis. The Marin Climate and Energy Partnership (MCEP) has been a very successful collaboration specific to its current purview and activities. Through MCEP, all of the cities and the County have benefitted from consistent and coordinated climate action plans, annual greenhouse gas inventories, and implementation of priority mitigation projects from the climate action plans. These include actions and projects such as electric vehicle charging, permit streamlining, and Resilient Neighborhoods funding and promotion. Each local jurisdiction contributes a small annual financial amount, which results in significant benefits. Additional contributions could translate into additional coordinated mitigation projects. MCEP has conducted some minimal efforts around adaptation planning. It could also be that there would be some benefit to additional funding for adaptation-related projects, but it would require further analysis because one of the things that makes MCEP work so well is having a small, dedicated team of staff from the various agencies, including our local public utilities. Expansion of MCEP's purview would also require expansion of staff involved and there is also the risk of duplication with efforts already in the works such as the Marin Planning Directors Working Group, BayWAVE, DRAWDOWN: Marin, and the countywide Local Hazard Mitigation Plan. The City will work with the other member agencies of MCEP and the Marin General Services Agency to determine the appropriate role of MCEP in relation to adaptation planning and will report back to the City Manager in the spring of 2021.