You may remember that one of the Natural Resources main goals for the last few years was to have the City of Gainesville hire a Climate Officer. We wanted this position to report directly to the City Manager so as to have influence across all departments of the city. We were excited when, in January of this year, the city hired, Dr. Dan Zhu for this position.

However, under extreme budget duress, the city is now considering moving the Climate Officer position out of the City Manager’s purview and placing it in the Department of Sustainable Development. We are concerned that this will weaken the position considerably and slow progress on the development of a comprehensive climate action plan. Additionally, it is unlikely that this change will have any positive impact on the budget.

Please contact the Citycomm [at] cityofgainesville.org (city commissioners) and citymgr [at] gainesvillefl.gov (City Manager, Cynthia Curry) and ask them to please retain the Chief Climate Officer position under the City Manager.

Also, please let the City know that climate change action is important to you by completing this survey on the development of a City Climate Action Plan.

QR Code to Gainesville Survey