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Lily Presson

Sean Holstege

JMC 301 - 70926

1 Oct. 2021

Story 3: Local Government: Deadline

A lack of funding sources stood in the way of Tempe’s plans for green infrastructure and

sustainability at the Sustainable and Livable Communities Council Committee meeting on

Thursday.

The committee met to discuss green infrastructure, urban forestry and solar permitting policies.

Tempe citizens showed increasing interest in sustainability, but underfunding may have stopped

the city’s momentum dead in its tracks.

The discussions in the meeting all circled back to two topics: sustainability and a lack of funding.

Julian Dresang, an engineer for the city of Tempe, worked to create green infrastructure

throughout the city in order to support urban cooling and water supply preservation.

Dresang said: “We don't have a dedicated funding source for these projects, so we have capital

improvement projects where we might try to incorporate these components. It usually becomes a

pooling of resources from different departments at the city and sometimes other partners like

ASU.”

With other projects and departments having had to adjust their budgets to share the funds, the

sustainability department’s misallocation of capital could introduce more problems.

Councilmember Jennifer Adams suggested the city require employees to be certified in certain

occupational aspects, in order to eliminate the need for consultants and their fees. Then with
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money reallocated, there would hopefully be sufficient funds left for sustainability-focused

projects to utilize.

Lauren Kuby, SLCC Councilmember, said she “remembered renovating a project and having to

go back five years later to finish the job due to lack of funding” and that the City Manager's

office found some funds to complete the project since she was in the midst of it.

Dino Accardo, Plan Review Manager for City of Tempe Building Safety, had similar financial

issues in his green building endeavors.

“For the fiscal year, 2021-2022, Community Development and Building Safety received a

supplemental budget approval for a green building program specialist. That is very good news,

because we are moving forward. But, the position provided limited funds at $63,683. That

provides some constraints. So staff had a team discussion and we talked about how to maximize

the effectiveness of those limited funds considering we are early in our program development, in

order to maximize the effectiveness of limited funds,” Accardo said.

Tempe had the potential to become even more energy efficient and sustainable, but without

ample financial backing the city did not have much room for action.

A green building program specialist could have made great contributions to the city, but with a

salary, bonus, and benefits all totaling to less than 65,000, not much talent would be attracted.

Besides funding, there was also a concern for the lack of education surrounding green

infrastructure.

People were familiar with the word ‘sustainability,’ but some may not have fully understood

what it takes to live sustainably. Taking the time to further self-educate could have been the

solution.
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If residents were more aware of the advantages of green infrastructure and the consequences of

an unsustainable lifestyle, funding might not have been so low.

“We cannot maintain our quality of life or Earth’s ecosystems unless we acknowledge and reduce

the damage we do to the planet each day. If we don’t learn to live sustainably, some of the effects

will be: more animal extinction, rising sea levels, an increase in respiratory diseases, harsher

weather and worsening living conditions for lower-income communities,” said Inspire Clean

Energy, a California energy supplier.

The three main pillars of sustainability are “economic development, social development, and

environmental protection,” (Inspire Clean Energy).

Every city in the world should strive for a more developed economy and society, along with a

protected environment.

With proper funding, Tempe’s Sustainable and Livable Communities Council Committee could

be the catalyst for a greener future and a happier Mother Earth.

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Sources-

https://www.inspirecleanenergy.com/blog/sustainable-living/what-is-sustainability