Environment & Sustainability, Senior Issues, Community Services, Communication & Transparency

By Nirmala I Bandrapalli

I am proud to note that I am one of only two candidates in the Burlingame City Council race--and the only challenger--to have received the endorsement of the Sierra Club. Protecting our environment and pursuing green initiatives are essential issues for Burlingame. I support full implementation of the Climate Action Plan that was approved by the City Council--with input from staff, consultants and residents--in 2009. I also applaud the work of the volunteers in our Citizens Environmental Council--our Burlingame neighbors who are helping to educate residents and promote environmentally sound practices. I will be a voice on the City Council for intensifying our efforts in pursuit of sustainable goals and for finding new, creative ways to conserve, recycle and reduce Burlingame's carbon footprint. We owe this to our community, ourselves, and our children and grandchildren.

There are many specific ideas that the City Council should be exploring as steps toward making Burlingame a greener community. Among them:

• Placing three-part combination waste receptacles (trash/garbage/recyclables) in public areas

• Ensuring that Burlingame city offices and buildings are models of environmental consciousness (reducing paper use, eco-friendly facility design, etc.)

• Enhancing the environmental education of our children (an initiative with which I have had much experience in my Girl Scouts leadership role)

• Increasing bike lanes in our city

• Implementing traffic, transportation and housing initiatives that can significantly reduce pollution in our area (as outlined in other areas of this issues section of my web site

CLIMATE ACTION PLAN

Burlingame's Climate Action Plan has five major components:

• Energy efficiency and green building
• Transportation and land use
• Waste reduction and recycling
• Education and promotion
• Municipal operations

THINKING GREEN

While the city has created a useful information resource for residents through the sustainability content on its web site, I believe we need to be more assertive in our education and promotion of all things green. The Burlingame Citizens Environmental Council (CEC) has done a great job, but the city itself needs to take more responsibility for fostering a green perspective--green thinking and green actions--on the part of residents. This could entail cooperative efforts with our schools, playful but instructive signage that keeps sustainability top of mind, helping to expand and ramp up the good work of CEC, etc. We need to use all the creativity we can muster to meet the sustainability challenges we face.

I have been active in environmental education for the Girl Scouts for several years, and will bring the insights, perspectives and lessons learned from that experience to the City Council. Increasing our children's awareness and knowledge is a critical part of addressing this issue--both in terms of making them responsible citizens and stewards of our environment, and enabling them to influence their families, their peers and others

SENIOR ISSUES

Senior-focused initiatives will gain prominence as the percentage of residents over age 65 increases in Burlingame. As the Baby Boomer demographic group reaches retirement age, the percentage of residents in our county and city over age 65 will grow significantly. As of the 2010 census, the Bay Area's 65-and-over population represented 12 percent of the total. But by 2040, the share will increase to 22 percent. Put another way, the number of Bay Area seniors will more than double from under 900,000 today to nearly 2.1 million by 2040.

How can we provide a senior-friendly environment and appropriate services that we can afford, as well as tap into the incredible talent resource pool that our older residents represent? I have addressed housing and transportation issues under those headings elsewhere in this section of my web site, but let me bring these and other senior-related issues together here to present a more integrated look at how Burlingame can better serve its senior residents and vice versa.

Mobility, affordability and easy access to services are key considerations in formulating our city's senior-targeted policies and initiatives. These issues ripple through many of the topics that are always a part of the political discussion in Burlingame--transportation, housing, development, etc.

SHUTTLE AND OTHER RIDE SERVICES FOR SENIORS

I will seek ways to enhance the transportation services we provide to our senior residents. Can we add pick-up/drop-off spots, hours of service, etc.? I will, of course, review usage-level and cost metrics, and get a data-based sense of seniors' needs (perhaps through an online and paper-based survey) before proposing specific changes. Financial considerations will, of course, always define what we can and cannot do. But combining private funds, reasonable fees for service and volunteer help can make creative solutions realistic.

Among the other options we should explore are:

• A "Last Mile Connection" shuttle from transit hubs to key locations in our city

• A privately funded, volunteer-manned, rides-by-appointment "taxi" service that could take seniors who are unable to drive to doctor's other health-related visits. This approach builds on the concept currently implemented, to a very limited degree, by FISH (Friends In Service Here), a group that is doing wonderful work driving seniors here in Burlingame.

• Facilitating communication links between caregivers in ways that might enable them to help each other in terms of driving, running errands and other collaborations that benefit all involved

Is Burlingame ready for its part in developing housing solutions appropriate for an aging population? Older residents typically want to be close to services, shopping and transportation; to drive less; and often to downsize their housing because they need less space and want to be free of the cost and work of home maintenance. We will have a growing population of empty nesters and retiring Baby Boomers seeking housing alternatives that keep them in the city they love.

This reality further supports the need for Burlingame to develop appropriate, affordable, high-quality, mixed-use and multi-unit housing in carefully designated areas (for example, around Burlingame Avenue and in the north end of town around the BART station). Any such development must, as I have often stated, meet very demanding criteria. My operating principles guiding any development are clear: apply the utmost care in approving projects, ensure that structures integrate attractively and smoothly with their surroundings, use scrupulous design standards, make adequate provisions for parking, and require high-quality construction. With this planning perspective, we can develop housing units that are attractive, within walking distance to shopping, blend organically into the city, and provide green space. Such housing will meet the needs of seniors who want to, or have to, drive less--and will increase business and add to the vitality of our city.

INFORMATION SENIORS NEED

Burlingame has the opportunity to play an important role in ensuring that its senior residents are able to find the information they need to access services, to volunteer, and to engage with their community in a variety of ways. Much information is out there, but often not easily found. The city could, at very minimal cost, provide a hub or virtual clearinghouse that leads seniors to the answers to key questions. This could be added to the city's web site, printed in a new handbook (last one done in 2006-2007), and/or communicated through a variety of channels.

TAPPING THE TALENT OF OUR SENIORS

Our over-65 residents have much to offer: experience, knowledge, skills and expertise that are seldom sufficiently leveraged by this or any other community. Today's Boomers+ are more highly educated, more skilled and more numerous than any older generation in our country's history.

While they have played key volunteer roles in schools and charitable organizations for years, we have barely scratched the full potential of the impact they could have. Organizations like the Retired and Senior Volunteer Program RSVP (http://www.mills-peninsula.org/locations/rsvp.html#does) do wonderful work connecting seniors to volunteer opportunities, but there is more that we could do right here in our town.

CONNECTING THE GENERATIONS

I am particularly interested in the win-win created by intergenerational programs. Older volunteers can teach our children about life, specific subject areas, work and civic-mindedness. In turn, the children can be a vital part of older residents' continued involvement in the community. We need to develop more opportunities and scenarios where community-benefiting cross-generational interaction can happen. The mechanism for best doing this is a perfect opportunity for more systematic collaboration between the City Council and our schools.

I would like Burlingame to set a goal of winning the MetLife Foundation/Generations United "Best Intergenerational Communities Award." The award is intended to heighten awareness of the important role that intergenerational solidarity plays in building strong, vibrant communities.

COMMUNITY SERVICES

GENERAL SERVICES

We enjoy high-quality services in Burlingame. But we can do even better, increasing the efficiency and speed with which we respond to residents' needs. Currently, communications and systems within our city departments are fragmented, making it difficult to share information. I support streamlining, integrating and centralizing our city government's computer systems. This approach will reduce redundancies and duplication of effort by departments, increase productivity, improve work-life quality for our employees and lead to better service for residents. A true win-win-win! For more detail on this topic, please go to the "Within City Government" section of the "Communication and Transparency" page.

FOR CHILDREN

Burlingame offers an array of services dedicated to our children, including classes, camp, sports and recreation, scholarships, aquatic activities, after-school programs, parks, playgrounds, and dances. As a volunteer and leader in many school- and education-related organizations, as well as the Girl Scouts, children's issues have been my focus for years. I support more robust interaction and cooperation between city government and our schools. There are many opportunities to provide Burlingame students a richer learning experience, a better understanding of their city government and the ability to put that understanding to work. Here are a few possibilities: "Student Government Day" (a chance to see the inner workings of the city government and its various departments)

• City involvement in school career days

• Initiatives to encourage merchants to work with schools in the spring to set up summer internship programs

• Programs to involve more of our senior residents in school-related activities (mentoring, tutoring, presenting to classes based on their life experiences, etc.)

• Use of schools for public meeting spaces I'm open to new ideas, and welcome your suggestions.

Central themes of my work on the City Council will be open communication and transparency. How do we ensure that residents are well informed and that they have an opportunity to weigh in with their views and concerns? How do we leverage technology to improve communication between the City Council and the public? Similarly, how do we enhance our city government's internal communications and systems to better serve you? With my background in IT and as a certified project manager, I am well prepared to help Burlingame move forward on these fronts.

CITY COUNCIL AND THE PUBLIC

Burlingame's web site is a solid information platform, but it could be made significantly more robust. What is needed is a truly interactive site, where residents can post questions, make comments, get responses, etc. Currently, we can contact individual council members by way of email addresses or phone numbers provided on the site, but that opportunity is buried deep in the structure. The site needs to invite broad input, not simply permit it on a one-to-one basis.

Residents could access documents, forms, and records 24/7. Council members could blog on the site, forums could be hosted and residents could even weigh in during council meetings. Events and points of immediate interest could be highlighted and pushed out to residents according to their preferences.

In short, Burlingame should encourage, and leverage technology to foster, better two-way communication and cooperation between city government and its residents. My purpose would be to create an environment where residents can be more engaged and involved, and where city government can be more responsive. While it is ideal for residents to interact at City Council and various commission meetings of interest, they should also be able to use today's technology to feel and have a closer connection with their government.

WITHIN CITY GOVERNMENT

As briefly described in the page on "Community Services", I see a great opportunity to enhance the internal communication and systems within city government. This is not a narrow interdepartmental or IT issue, it's central to how well you are served by your city government.

If steps to respond to any situation or resident need are duplicated across departments, if information is not shared, if one department isn't clear on what another department is doing/has done with respect to a given matter, if the systems don't talk to each other, we all pay a price--in efficiency, cost and timeliness of services. Enhancing the systems we use will also improve the work life of our employees as their skills are further developed and their frustration reduced. This does not diminish their job security.

You may ask: What would it cost to enhance systems in this way? The answer: the initiative would more than pay for itself through efficiency and avoidance of duplication. Responsiveness to your needs could be greatly improved by streamlining the city's communication systems.