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Ms. Ayala commended Mayor Pico for speaking to other cities to see how we can work together to get more clout at the state level. She felt Pleasanton has an excellent city manager and staff and she preferred, instead of the Planning Commission doing the job, to ask staff to come up with a conservation plan. She asked for the city manager to indicate areas to address to get more immediate results This is not to minimize the Planning Commission's efforts. Most have full time jobs as well as their Planning Commission duties and she wanted see what staff could propose in the areas of conservation and supply. Ms. McKeehan said whenever there are issues like this, whether a drought or energy crisis, staff does not wait for Council direction to work on the problems. Issues sometimes take on a life of their own. She was happy there are citizens who want to take on issues like this and pursue various avenue. She reminded Council that several years ago the City entered into a consortium for purchase of electricity and gas with the Association of Bay Area Governments. The City gets power at much lower rates and those rates are guaranteed for the next year. Street lights were purchased from PG&E to improve maintenance and provide energy efficiency. Staff is working on governmental conservation plans and discussing what information can be referred to the public for its participation, just as was done for the Y2K concems. She pointed out that what is done in Pleasanton will have a relatively small impact in relation to what is done to the City from the State level. Even if there was a 25% conservation of energy locally, it would not prevent rolling brown-outs. As with any major issue, all of the proposed alternatives will have to be done in order to be effective. It makes sense to have the Planning Commission involved. She had concerns about how big this project can become. She agreed short term conservation measures need to be identified and it is good to get input from the Planning Commission to add to what staff proposes, but she felt it was unrealistic to believe that will not involve a huge amount of staff work. Council needs to consider how big this project will become and how soon it wants to do it, or some of the other pending projects will be derailed in the short term. Ms. Michelotti appreciated the comments of the City Manager and felt they point out why it is necessary to have the priorities workshop. She urged the Planning Commissioners to get their ideas to the City Manager before the workshop. She was also concerned about the possible need of additional Planning Commission meetings and extra staff time if it takes on this assignment. All this needs to be addressed in the total picture at the priorities workshop. Council must decide how staff will spend its time. It was moved by Ms. Michelotti, seconded by Mr. Campbell, to address these two issues at the priorities workshop. The roll call vote was as follows: AYES: Councilmembers - Ayala, Campbell, Dennis, Michelotti, and Mayor Pico NOES: None ABSENT: None ABSTAiN: None Pleasanton City Council 21 02/20/01 Minutes