City seeks to sustain `green' manager's future.

Byline: Edward Russo The Register-Guard

When Felicity Fahy, Eugene's first sustainability manager, left her job last summer, environmentalists thought the city would quickly find a replacement to lead the city's quest for a greener future.

But an internal recruitment effort failed to find a replacement for Fahy, so City Manager Jon Ruiz filled the position on a temporary basis with Kevin Finney, the city's park maintenance manager.

For the next six months, Finney - like Fahy had done - will work with the Sustainability Commission, a new 13-member advisory group that encourages green initiatives.

At the end of his tenure, Finney will recommend whether to seek a permanent replacement or if the job should be handled in another way, perhaps by another city employee or combination of employees who already are working on sustainability elsewhere in city government, Ruiz said.

In spite of the uncertainty about the position, Ruiz said his administration will support the Sustainability Commission.

"I and the rest of this organization remain committed to sustainability in all its facets," Ruiz said. "I don't want people to perceive that we are backing off on that commitment because we aren't."

The sustainability manager and the commission came about from the recommendations of Mayor Kitty Piercy's Sustainable Business Initiative, a 16-member citizen's committee that studied ways for Eugene to nurture environmentally friendly, profitable businesses that treat employees well.

David Funk, a co-chair of the committee and present Sustainability Commission member, said he's unconcerned about Ruiz's appointment of an interim sustainability manager.

"I'm thoroughly convinced that Jon Ruiz is serious about sustainability," Funk said.

During her two years with the city, Fahy helped get the commission up and running and shepherded some of the Sustainable Business Initiative's recommendations to the City Council, where they were adopted as policy.

In September, Fahy left her $69,638 city job to work for the Eugene Water & Electric Board.

The publicly owned utility had just created it's first sustainability coordinator job and hired Fahy for $85,000 annually.

Fahy said she enjoyed her time with the city, but couldn't pass up a "great opportunity" to get in on the "ground floor" of the EWEB job.

Sustainability Commission Chair Will Shaver said a sustainability manager supports the commission and keeps city government focused on green initiatives.

"Historically, the way to do that is to have one person be the sustainability manager," he said. "At some point, if individual department managers can keep an eye on that (environmental emphasis), we might not need one. But I don't know that we are there yet. The goal is to get where we are all thinking along the same lines of how do we conserve resources? How do we make the most with what we have?"