What does ICLEI (pronounced ICK-LY) stand for? International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives. It was created as a non-governmental spin-off by the United Nations to implement Agenda 21 locally. It is a lobbying and policy group that is designed to influence and change local governmental policies related to all aspects of human life.
SEE THE BOTTOM OF THIS PAGE FOR DETAILS ON ICLEI DIRECTOR'S ALLEGED CONFLICT OF INTEREST IN AWARDING AN $83,000 CONTRACT TO ICLEI WHILE SHE WAS A SONOMA COUNTY SUPERVISOR.
Why don't you hear about this at your city council or county supervisor meetings? Is it possible that only a core group in each locale know about it? Don't be fooled. You can check the membership list to see if your municipality is a member, but it's likely that ICLEI has tentacles into your town even if you don't see it on the list. ICLEI funds trainings, issues guidelines, consults with communities, sets goals, and measures progress. ICLEI is the implementation arm of UN Agenda 21/Sustainable Development. ICLEI fragments into and influences so-called local groups that pressure your government for more regulations. ICLEI blurs the lines between public and private, between governmental and non-governmental.
Greenhouse gas emissions are being tracked, measured, and logged by ICLEI. Carbon offset trading, greenhouse gas emission goals, and legal statutes are designed and regulated by ICLEI.
There is a growing movement to KICK ICLEI OUT of towns across the US. Spokane, Washington has a ballot initiative in the works that will change their city charter to remove ICLEI and prohibit the city from UN-affiliated group membership if it passes.
PRINT OUR FLYERS TO KICK ICLEI OUT (pdf)
Use this one if your CITY is a member
Use this one if your COUNTY is a member
There is such a sense of nervous panic in ICLEI's description of its mission, as if it's almost too late to implement their plans. But they are being implemented, at an alarming rate.
The following is from ICLEI's website:
ICLEI: Connecting Leaders Connect. Innovate. Accelerate. Solve. The pace of global environmental change, the degradation of ecosystem services globally and the overshoot of the human footprint on Earth require an acceleration of local efforts. Even if all 1,100+ local governments forming ICLEI's membership performed in the most advanced manner, and if we were to extrapolate these efforts into the future, those valiant efforts alone would not reach a sustainable level of resource consumption and pollution in communities - better known as the ecological footprint of cities.
Experts confirm what all of us feel: We must act more rapidly and collaboratively and strive for more radical solutions
To accelerate action, ICLEI invites to the table leaders from a wide array of sectors who all have a stake in urban sustainability: Local governments, regional and national governments, international agencies, financing institutions, non-profits, academia and the business community.
They are mayors and entrepreneurs, scientists and agency heads, ministers and CEOs, strategists and organizational leaders. They are innovators, decision makers, agenda setters and agents of change.
Unlocking the Secret to Solutions: The Power of a Networking Platform
To establish the relationships, partnerships and synergies that will unleash the creativity and innovation needed to meet local and global sustainability goals, ICLEI implements a range of strategies. A snapshot of the ways in which ICLEI connects leaders:
- Connect cities and local governments to the United Nations and other international bodies. ICLEI represents local governments at the United Nations (UN) Commission on Sustainable Development, the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, and the Conventions on Biodiversity and Combating Desertification and co-operates with the UN Environment Programme and UN-HABITAT.
- Mobilize local governments to help their countries implement multilateral environmental agreements such as the Rio conventions through Cities for Climate Protection, Local Action for Biodiversity and other initiatives.
- Forge multi-stakeholder partnerships such as Resilient Cities, a global framework on urban resilience and climate adaptation where local governments, international agencies, development banks, ministries, institutes, and others, collaborate.
- Form strategic alliances like the Global Alliance for EcoMobility which brings leading global actors from the business, governmental, user and expert sectors together to promote walking, cycling and use of public transport.
- Join forces with the business sector, including engagement in the World Economic Forum's SlimCity initiative and participation at the Forum's Global Agenda Council on the Future of Cities.
- Unite cities and foster solutions through pilot projects. Fourteen cities pioneered ICLEI's climate action planning methods in the early 1990s, and a group of local governments formed the Local Agenda 21 Model Communities Project in the mid-1990s. Following their lead, ICLEI convened leading local governments to lay the groundwork for the Sustainable Procurement program, cultivated a group of Local Renewables Model Communities, and formed networks of pilot cities for Local Action for Biodiversity, Climate Resilientsustainability planning and many more ground-breaking endeavours. Communities,
- Convene World Congresses that bring the members of our network together for an exchange on solutions and successes, including 2000 in Dessau (Germany), 2003 in Athens (Greece), 2006 in Cape TownEdmonton (Canada) and 2010 in Incheon (South Korea). (South Africa), 2009 in
- Connect political leaders to advance advocacy, as with the World Mayors Council on Climate Change. This alliance of committed municipal leaders advocates for governments and international bodies to enhance their recognition of local governments as key actors in addressing climate change.
DID YOU MAKE IT ALL THE WAY DOWN TO THE BOTTOM OF THIS PAGE? CONGRATULATIONS. But that's not all ICLEI does. There are many other programs in place right now, in your town. Have you seen the new Water Agreement? Here it is:
What we have copied here for you is the new ICLEI Water Campaign. It started in South East Asia (including Australia) and is headed your way. Of course it sounds so nice. Water is a common good. This is a way to inventory and control all water in the world. To identify all water sources, all wells, water courses, streams, creeks, rivers, lakes etc. and monitor them. Control. Here's the document designed to be signed by your City Council or Board of Supervisors. Will they tell you about it?
ICLEI WATER CAMPAIGN
LOCAL GOVERNMENT RESOLUTION
OUR LOCAL GOVERNMENT, _______________________, hereby express our interest to be an ICLEI Member and join its programs and campaigns.
We RECOGNIZE that water is a common good, a finite resource, a shared common asset and that access to this resource is a basic right.
We ENDORSE the aims and objectives of the Water Campaign, a international ICLEI campaign to mobilize local government action to protect and properly manage freshwater resources by establishing partnerships with other concerned sectors and institutions in coming up with integrated plans and programs to manage this resource.
We COMMIT to achieve tangible improvements in the sustainable use of freshwater resources.
WE THEREFORE PLEDGE to accomplish the following 5 milestones:
Milestone 1: Inventory and Forecast direct and indirect impacts on water resources
Milestone 2: Establish targets for efficient water access and consumption and improved water quality
Milestone 3: Develop and obtain official approval for a local water agenda
Milestone 4: Implement policies and measures
Milestone 5: Monitor and Report results
We THEREFORE PLEDGE to consider the cost arrangements to undertake the Water Campaign.
______________________ ________________________
Signature Name of Local Government
______________________ _________________________
Name and Title Date
(please print)
Contact Person: Phone:
E-mail Address: Fax:
Pls. Mail/Fax Original Copy to:
ICLEI-Local Governments for Sustainability
Southeast Asia Secretariat
The Manila Observatory Bldg., Ateneo de Manila University,
Loyola Heights, Quezon City 1101 Philippines
Tel. No.(+63 2) 426-5921 to 23
Fax No. (+63 2) 426-0851
Website: www.iclei.org
ICLEI - Local Governments for Sustainability is a membership organization dedicated to building and serving a worldwide
movement of local governments to achieve tangible improvements in global sustainability with special focus on
environmental conditions through cumulative local actions.
ICLEI DIRECTOR REPORTED TO CALIFORNIA FAIR POLITICAL PRACTICES COMMISSION
On June 6, 2011, Rosa Koire, Executive Director of The Post Sustainability Institute, reported Sonoma County Supervisor Valerie Brown to the California Fair Political Practices Commission for an alleged conflict of interest. Supervisor Brown, who also serves on the national board of ICLEI-USA, voted to grant an $83,000 no-bid contract to ICLEI for greenhouse gas emissions protocols in Sonoma County. Supervisor Brown did not recuse herself from voting and made no mention of her connection to ICLEI when she voted to enter an $83,000 contract on behalf of her county. The Fair Political Practices Commission, a government ethics agency, has 14 days from the filing date to determine whether or not to launch an investigation (detail of filing on the left and below). UPDATE: The FPPC has notified us that they do not have enough information to open an investigation. We will obtain more information and continue to pursue this.
Provision or Provisions of the Political Reform Act Allegedly Violated:
Valerie Brown, Sonoma County Supervisor, voted to pay ICLEI-Local Governments for Sustainability, a private non-profit organization, $83,000 for Community Scale Greenhouse Gas Emissions Reduction Protocol while she was sitting on the National Board for ICLEI-USA. On November 17, 2009, at a meeting of the Board of Directors of the Sonoma County Water Agency on which she was a Director, Valerie Brown voted to approve the Agreement between SCWA and ICLEI. The vote was 3-0 with two Directors (Kerns and Carrillo) absent. If Brown had recused herself the vote could not have gone forward with only two Directors present, and the contract would not have had enough votes to be approved. ICLEI-USA has national and international conferences and trainings which Ms. Brown has attended. There is a likelihood of compensation in the form of lodging, meals, honorariums, transportation, etc. Even if Ms. Brown did not receive a direct payment from ICLEI-USA she would have had an interest in seeing ICLEI-USA receive a contract for $83,000. It appears to be a conflict of interest to represent a private non-profit nationally and internationally and then award that same organization a contract from the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors. Sonoma County is a dues-paying member to ICLEI-USA.
Provision or Provisions of the Political Reform Act Allegedly Violated:
Valerie Brown, Sonoma County Supervisor, voted to pay ICLEI-Local Governments for Sustainability, a private non-profit organization, $83,000 for Community Scale Greenhouse Gas Emissions Reduction Protocol while she was sitting on the National Board for ICLEI-USA. On November 17, 2009, at a meeting of the Board of Directors of the Sonoma County Water Agency on which she was a Director, Valerie Brown voted to approve the Agreement between SCWA and ICLEI. The vote was 3-0 with two Directors (Kerns and Carrillo) absent. If Brown had recused herself the vote could not have gone forward with only two Directors present, and the contract would not have had enough votes to be approved. ICLEI-USA has national and international conferences and trainings which Ms. Brown has attended. There is a likelihood of compensation in the form of lodging, meals, honorariums, transportation, etc. Even if Ms. Brown did not receive a direct payment from ICLEI-USA she would have had an interest in seeing ICLEI-USA receive a contract for $83,000. It appears to be a conflict of interest to represent a private non-profit nationally and internationally and then award that same organization a contract from the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors. Sonoma County is a dues-paying member to ICLEI-USA.
