Date: 12/6/2022
NORTHAMPTON – Key city officials, local activists and other municipal leaders in Northampton have spent the past couple of months considering the possibility of adding a climate crisis director position to the city across different municipal meetings.
Background
During a meeting on Sept. 13, members of the Northampton Climate Emergency Coalition provided an outline of what a climate crisis director position could look like.
“We need to rise to the moment that we’re living in right now,” said Susan Theberge, a representative of the coalition. “This means looking at everything we’re doing through the lens of the climate emergency.”
Joyce Rosenfeld, another representative of the coalition, said the climate director would be one person in the city government who would consider the implications of the climate crisis on all policies and practices and work with city departments to identify and implement urgent and necessary measures. The person in the position would also directly report to the mayor.
The coalition also found that the position would participate in department director meetings and coordinate relevant municipal efforts and develop metrics to regularly assess progress on climate goals, as well as establish measurable goals for Northampton’s Climate Resilience and Regeneration Plan.
According to Rosenfeld, there are a couple of key challenges the city could face when establishing this position, like obtaining grants and other resources beyond the city government and using federal and state funds to establish a foundation for the position, which is not always the most timely direction to go in.
Theberge said the coalition has met with multiple people at the city level and also gave a presentation to Climate Action NOW, a Western Massachusetts grassroots group of volunteers dedicated to the climate justice movement.
In an October meeting, Carolyn Misch, the director of Planning & Sustainability for the city, said that there are pluses and minuses to having a broad sustainability position. “There’s some benefit that that person then might have more stature to direct other department heads in certain ways or encourage movement in one direction or another,” said Misch. “At the same time, there’s no guarantee that that position stays when there’s a mayoral change.”
Misch stated that it would not make sense to have a separate office for the position since that would most likely be a large expenditure.
“I think the position needs to be broader than energy,” she added. “I think the person, whoever it is, needs to have a broad sense of a lot of sustainability components.”
Finance Committee meeting
During the Finance Committee meeting on Nov. 30, Ward 7 City Councilor Rachel Maiore, who is also part of the city’s Energy & Sustainability Commission, said that a roundtable organized by the city’s Climate Coalition was conducted earlier this year so that officials could learn more about how other municipalities throughout the state were utilizing a similar role. “Other cities in the commonwealth have already gotten this going and see the need,” said Maiore.
According to Maiore, the position in the city that resembled a director’s position was the energy & sustainability officer, which was held by Chris Mason, until he recently took another job elsewhere. Now, the city is in a transition period.
“We’re dreaming bigger,” said Maiore. “It’s really time to expand [the role] and be leaders here in Northampton with this kind of role.”
With Mason gone, Rosenfeld said during the Finance Committee meeting that the coalition does not want to squeeze the energy & sustainability officer and climate crisis director positions into one condensed job, as that would cause a “disaster” in the eyes of the coalition.
“We would see that a person in Chris’s position would work with a climate crisis director, but we don’t want them to be the same person,” said Franks.
Theberge said that cities and municipalities are key in addressing the climate emergency because that is where change can happen. “There’s a sense of urgency that we need to really act on in Northampton,” said Theberge. “This position we’re talking about is a systems approach to this situation….how do we work together in collaboration across all of these different departments to really amp up what we’re doing?”
“Someone in this position would know where sources of money are, know what the help is, and how to educate people,” she continued. “We’re talking about someone who has their finger on the pulse.”
Ward 1 Councilor Stanley Moulton agreed with the sentiment that a climate crisis director must have executive powers and needs to be someone who reports to the mayor and other department heads in the city.
“That climate crisis coordinator is a very complex coordinator position,” said Moulton. “It’s a position that will require a lot of knowledge to help leverage money and to help educate people…it’s something that is definitely needed.”
Maiore said that Mayor Gina-Louise Sciarra understood the need for the position but funding for the position was not fully fleshed out. Sciarra and the city have a goal of net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.
Rosenfeld expressed interest in moving as fast as possible to establish this position.
“We don’t have time to go through a whole grant cycle," she said. “I think the money has to be found [for the position] …I want my government to be fearless and bold and think creatively…as if this was the most important position in the world.”