HomeMy WebLinkAboutConstituent Letter - Read Before Packet - 12/10/2019 - Information From Ross Cunniff Re: Email From Amanda Shores Re: Inclusion On The Energy Board (Agenda Item 2)From: Dawn Kennedy
To: City Council; Darin Atteberry
Cc: Sarah Kane
Subject: FW: Letter regarding inclusion on the Energy Board
Date: Friday, December 6, 2019 9:34:21 AM
Attachments: 12_5_19_LetterCityCouncil_Shores.pdf
Please see email below and attached letter per Councilmember Cunniff’s request.
Thank you,
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Dawn Kennedy
Executive Administrative Assistant
City of Fort Collins
300 LaPorte Ave.
PO Box 580
970-221-6509 office
dkennedy@fcgov.com\
From: Ross Cunniff <rcunniff@fcgov.com>
Sent: Friday, December 06, 2019 6:53 AM
To: Darin Atteberry <DATTEBERRY@fcgov.com>
Subject: Fw: Letter regarding inclusion on the Energy Board
Darin,
Can you please forward this to Council before Tuesday's work session?
Thanks,
Ross
With limited exceptions, emails and any files transmitted with them are subject to public
disclosure under the Colorado Open Records Act (CORA). To promote transparency, emails
will be visible in an online archive, unless the sender puts #PRIVATE in the subject line of the
email. However, the City of Fort Collins can’t guarantee that any email to or from Council
will remain private under CORA.
From: Amanda Shores <arshores.csu@gmail.com>
Sent: Thursday, December 5, 2019 10:10 PM
To: Ross Cunniff <rcunniff@fcgov.com>; Tim McCollough <tmccollough@fcgov.com>; John Phelan
<JPHELAN@fcgov.com>
Subject: Letter regarding inclusion on the Energy Board
Hi Ross,
Please find the attached letter outlining issues that we are currently experiencing on the Energy
Board. I would appreciate if you can share this letter with the other City Council Members and
determine how to take swift action on this matter.
Kind Regards,
Amanda R. Shores, PhD
Project Manager and Post Doctoral Scholar
Secondary Cities
Colorado State University
___________________________________________
Light the fire of imagination and seek the realization of a better tomorrow for all.
December 5, 2019
Fort Collins City Council
Dear Council Members,
I am the Vice Chair of the Fort Collins Energy Board. I am writing this letter to bring attention to
a matter vital to increasing Board inclusion and to creating a safe working environment for
volunteers. As you may be aware, I am the only female on the Energy Board. While many Board
Members and City Staff have been most welcoming and supportive of my more than 2 years of
service on the Board, I have recently been on the receiving end of some alarmingly inappropriate
behavior. This type of behavior has been recently discussed in the Respectful Workplace Policy,
for which I am thankful. Appropriate action has been taking by the Energy Board Liaison and
Staff in regards to this incident in a manner that I find reassuring. However, the problem goes
deeper.
Why are there no other women on the Energy Board? When will action be taken to
reduce the gender gap so experiences such as mine do not happen in the first place?
I understand that Boards are being reenvisioned and I hope that the gender gap is at the heart of
this discussion. The Energy Board has requested that more females be considered for Board
appointments many times to City Council to no avail. Please tell me this is not falling on deaf
ears. In the meantime, the Energy Board has only six members. If two people are unable to
attend then we no longer have a quorum to meet. I respectfully ask for at least a short-term
appointment of a female Board Member to be made and for there to be the implementation of
minimum female representation statute for Boards in the future. I will no longer feel safe serving
on the Energy Board unless at least one female is appointed to the Board immediately. This is an
excellent Board to be a part of in almost all respects and the work we do is vital to the clean
energy future that our community envisions; Continuing this work is of the upmost importance to
me. As a short-term replacement, I suggest that Marge Moore be considered as she has served on
the Board in the past and will be an excellent addition. Please help to find an accelerated solution
to this systemic gender issue that has long marred Fort Collins Boards and Commissions so that
people like me can feel assured in our safety volunteering for the City.
Sincerely,
Dr. Amanda Shores
Natural Resource Ecology Laboratory
Fort Collins, CO 80523-1499
Phone: (970) 491-5571