Public Power for the Public Good 

1. We can do a full scale evaluation of all infrastructure facilities and produce a list of capital improvements with an anticipated cost-recovery of under twenty years, then identify a means of funding them as soon as possible. Heating the Harvey West pool with solar energy and renewables is only one example of where we can invest to obtain a quick payback.
2. We can pass a solar energy bond (similar to Proposition H, which San Francisco recently passed) to dramatically increase the city's renewable power infrastructure, and concurrently, work with the Santa Cruz Community Credit Union to finance and set up a solar energy mortgage program - solar is cost-competitive with on the grid power when financed via a thirty year mortgage; we should maximize the likelihood that new construction and substantial remodels takes advantage of this fact, at a point when interest rates are the lowest they've been in thirty years.
3. We can immediately make Santa Cruz a Community Choice city (via the mechanisms created with the recent passage of California's AB 117), begin collectively purchasing our power as a united community from a party other than PG&E, and opt to maximize the percentage of "Green" power we purchase as a community, working towards an ultimate goal of 100% low impact renewable energy. This is a means for us to set up a public power entity (aka a MUD, or Municipal Utility District) without having to build extensive power generation facilities.
4. We can set up an energy efficiency improvements program, aimed specifically at providing low costs financing to owners of rental housing (where minimal incentive to make capital improvements exists, as the costs of an inefficient home are borne by the renter, and usually not visible when the property is available for rent) and low-income homeowners, to reduce energy consumption by financing improvements with a high and quick return on investment (double pane windows, insulation, weather-stripping, furnace improvements, shade trees, replacement of outdated appliances and air conditioning units, etc.).

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