In its May issue of Neighborhood News, the city of Bellevue announced it had achieved certification as a four-Star city. Star is a national framework and certification program for evaluating the livability and sustainability of cities. Only four cities in our state have gone through the certification process: all are to be congratulated.

There are eight star goal areas.

Bellevue received a total score of 549 points out of a possible 750. Bellevue’s top scores were 100 percent for Innovation and Process and 83 percent for both Economy and Jobs and Education and the Arts. The lowest performing goal, which only received 48 percent of the possible points, was Climate and Energy. Mostly that was due to low scores in the subcategories of Climate Adaptation and Greenhouse Gas Mitigation.

To become a five-Star city, Bellevue needs to have a total of 650 points. One strategy would be to adopt a climate action plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. A city earns Star points in two ways: accomplishing outcomes or implementing actions to support outcome achievement. So just adopting a plan would count and then count more when Greenhouse gas emissions are lowered.

A citizens’ group called People for Climate Action (peopleforclimateaction.org) recently testified to city council about the need to fund a climate action plan, which would provide a measured and efficient way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Because the city of Bellevue is now preparing its two-year operating budget, members of the Bellevue People for Climate Action suggest that concerned citizens should write to City Council and ask them to include funds to develop a comprehensive Climate Action Plan.

Kristi Weir,

Bellevue