South Coast Air Quality Management District
South Coast Air Quality Management District
BOARD MEETING DATE: October 20, 2000 AGENDA NO. 19
Execute Contracts with Local Museums to Implement Children’s Air Quality Agenda Initiative #8
SYNOPSIS:
In implementing the Children's Air Quality Agenda Initiative No. 8, District staff has worked with various museums to develop proposed education programs to teach children about air pollution and air quality issues. Based upon the unique character of the participating museums, the six recommended proposals cover a wide range of educational techniques and are designed to integrate into the existing museum activities. These projects will also address the appropriate student learning standards established by state and local educational agencies. AQMD cost for these contracts will not exceed $150,000.
COMMITTEE:
Technology, July 28, 2000, Recommended for Approval
RECOMMENDED ACTION:
- The Advanced Technology Fund (Fund 17) has satisfied all specific contractual obligations for the use of funds therein such that the fund is now a fund subject to the Board’s discretion concerning the uses of the fund; and
- It is in the public interest to expand the purposes of the fund to include research, development, public outreach and education related to advanced technology and to air pollution and its impacts, and to rename the fund the Advanced Technology, Outreach and Education Fund.
- A contract with the Riverside Municipal Museum for the "Partners Against Pollution" Program not to exceed $20,000, from the Advanced Technology, Outreach and Education Fund.
- A contract with the Discovery Science Center for the "Fossil Fuels, Alternative Energy and Air Pollution" Project not to exceed $45,000, from the Advanced Technology, Outreach and Education Fund.
- A contract with the Los Angeles Municipal Art Museum for the "Smog Catcher" Project not to exceed $4,000, from the Advanced Technology, Outreach and Education Fund.
- A contract with the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County for the "Air Pollution through the Ages" Project not to exceed $20,000, from the Advanced Technology, Outreach and Education Fund.
- A contract with the Children’s Museum of Los Angeles for the "Storytelling in Theater Format" Project not to exceed $20,000, from the Advanced Technology, Outreach and Education Fund.
- A contract with the San Bernardino County Museum for the "Weather/Air Monitoring Station" Project not to exceed $41,000, from the Advanced Technology, Outreach and Education Fund.
Barry R. Wallerstein, D.Env.
Executive Officer
Background
On January 8, 1999 the Governing Board adopted the Children’s Air Quality Agenda. Initiative No. 8 of the Children's Air Quality Agenda directs the AQMD to partner in cooperative education programs about air quality and children's and young adults' health, to be carried out at local museums throughout the District. As part of Initiative #8, a strategic planning session was initially held on May 5, 1999 with representatives of museums and AQMD staff to discuss the viability and format of education programs designed to teach children about air pollution and air quality issues. Museum committee participants were invited from a wide-ranging variety of museums found in the District and to ensure that all areas within the South Coast District were included. Subsequently, an ad hoc committee was established to explore education programs that could be implemented to address air quality issues and retain compatibility with existing museum programs and policies. Committee members include: Sara Cannon, Barnsdall Art Park; Audrey Walker, Petersen Automotive Museum; James Bryant, Riverside Municipal Museum; Curt Abdouch, Page Museum at La Brea Tar Pits; De Ann Garrison, Discovery Science Center; Barbara Arvi, Southwest Museum; Karen Riley, Student Creative Recycling Art Program (SCRAP) Gallery; Claire Colley, Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County; Candace Barrett, Children’s Museum of Los Angeles; Kevin Thomas, San Bernardino County Museum; Tracy Liegler, Palm Springs Desert Museum; Carrie Daw, Lake Arrowhead Children’s Museum; Kitty Connolly, Huntington Library; Judy Miller, Children’s Discovery Museum of the Desert; Jason Sciortino, Kidspace Museum; Jerry Turney, Los Angeles County & State Arboretum; Genevieve Southgate, Kidseum; Debbie Edgar, Tree People; Ellen Kwan Lewis, California Science Center; and April Morales, Children’s Museum of La Habra.
Through a combination of committee and individual meetings between museum representatives and AQMD staff, a process was constructed to elicit ideas from museum leaders and staff experts, and to develop these into proposals. The proposals integrate the existing educational programs of the corresponding museums with the air pollution education goals established by the Children’s Air Quality Agenda. Although each of the proposals is associated with specific museums, upon successful demonstration of the viability of the proposals, they could be expanded to include additional museums and locations.
These proposals have been presented to the Children’s Air Quality Advisory Board (CAQAB) on March 10, 2000 and September 8, 2000. The CAQAB expressed an active interest in the proposals, requesting details and some follow-up actions. Information packets were prepared and additional museum representatives were added to further expand the coverage of the committee. In addition to the development of new proposals, the ad hoc Museum Committee has supported the development of the interactive fuel cell exhibit being planned at the California Science Center, the placement of the "Our Urban Environment" exhibits in other local museums and the possible placement of the AV Propulsion electric vehicle in a local museum. There is general agreement that the ad hoc Museum Committee is an excellent forum to establish cooperative air pollution educational programs between the District, the museums, local schools and the communities.
Expanding Scope of Advanced Technology Fund to Advanced Technology, Outreach and Education Fund
In 1989 the District Controller directed that a separate restricted fund be created (Fund 17), which was originally called the Clean Fuels Fund,1 to account for certain moneys received pursuant to settlement agreements with the District Prosecutor’s Office. Some of these settlements specified that the moneys must be used for specific particular purposes, such as to carry out locomotive-related projects. These specific projects have now been fully carried out. In subsequent years, it appears that the only restrictions placed on money added to the fund were that the money be placed in the Clean Fuels Fund or, as the purpose of the fund was broadened over time, the Clean Fuels and Advanced Technology Fund. The District retains the ability to broaden the purpose of the fund unless its purposes are restricted by statute, trust, or contract. No statute limits the purpose of the fund. Nor does it appear that any activity took place which would create a trust obligation. While a settlement agreement is a contract, it does not appear that sufficient limitations were placed upon the later settlement agreements to constitute a contract prohibiting the expansion of the purposes of the fund. Therefore, the Board may legitimately find that the fund is subject to the Board’s discretion, inasmuch as the specific settlement agreements have been fully carried out. The Board may also legitimately find that it is in the public interest to expand the purposes of the fund to include public outreach and education related to advanced technology and to air pollution and its impacts. This Board letter makes these findings.
1 This is not to be confused with moneys received from the Department of Motor Vehicles for the Technology Advancement Office Clean Fuels Fund Program, which were placed into a special fund this past year.
Funding Proposals
The committee has developed several proposals consistent with the mandate created by the Children’s Air Quality Agenda Initiative #8. Staff recommends that six of those proposals be included in this letter for funding approval. Listed below is a brief summary of each proposal.
Proposal 1 - Partners Against Air Pollution
Riverside Municipal Museum (James Bryant, Curator)
National Children’s Forest - San Bernardino National Forest - Running Springs
Palm Springs Desert Museum (Tracy Liegler, Head, Natural Science Education)
This program to be implemented with the help of the USDA Forest Service and a group of other partners examined the regional effects of air pollution on an urbanized Inland Empire site (Riverside), a forest area (National Children’s Forest, Running Springs) and a Coachella Valley desert area (Palm Springs) in collaboration with local area schools. The program will operate through the use of interactive computer programs, allowing the students to compare the air quality aspects of their local region with those of the other regions.
Proposal 2 – Fossil Fuels, Alternative Energy and Air Pollution
Discovery Science Center – Santa Ana (De Ann Garrison, Project Manager)
This program would dedicate one or more of the exhibits from the developing ten-exhibit Energy Gallery to air pollution. This "gallery" will deal with alternative energy and fossil fuels and will mesh well with an air quality related exhibit. The exhibit will be an interactive learning exhibit located in the outdoor patio area below the museum’s distinctive solar cube.
Proposal 3 – "Smog Catcher" Particulates Project
Barnsdall Art Park – Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery (Sara Cannon, Director)
This project is based upon a concept created by Kim Abeles in which students allow fallout from the air to collect on glass or plastic plates with previously attached stencils occluding part of the collection surface. After an exposure of about one month, the stencils are removed and the resulting art can be used to illustrate the impacts of air pollution. To further enhance the project the students will then analyze the deposited particulates under a microscope and, using materials prepared with the technical assistance of AQMD experts; they will identify the various particles found on their art.
Proposal 4 – Air Pollution Through the Ages
Page Museum at the La Brea Tar Pits (Curt Abdouch, Administrator)
This project will combine a museum exhibit with an on-site work/study experience for students. Two 4x8 foot display panels will be developed to demonstrate the relationship of air quality to the actual microfossils extracted from the La Brea Tar Pits. This will further be related to a timeline that will show the variation of that air quality over the last 40,000 years. Students will be allowed to collect microfossils from an active site (Pit 91) for characterization in the Page laboratory. Air quality (methane and carbon monoxide) will be monitored by the students in the pit and other locations on the museum grounds.
Proposal 5 – Storytelling in Theater Format
Children’s Museum of Los Angeles (Candace Barrett, Executive Director)
The Reader’s Theatre Project was established six years ago to help enhance the literacy of inner city school children. A suitable children’s story in book format is adapted to a presentation theater format and is performed in the Los Angeles Children’s Museum Theater as well as special performances at local area schools. This project would select air quality-related stories (such as, Larue and the Brown Sky), adapt, prepare and perform them. Production learning kits will be provided to the students to allow them to develop their own presentations on smoking diesel buses, electrification of cars and buses and other air pollution topics.
Proposal 6 – Weather/Air Monitoring Station
San Bernardino County Museum – Redlands (Kevin Thomas, Director)
This program will develop a modular weather/air monitoring station as an adjunct to the San Bernardino County Museum in which students may actively access current weather and air quality data from their area and other areas throughout the AQMD and the United States. The program may also include air pollution test kit packages to be given to participating schools to allow students to actually collect data as part of their classroom science curriculum to be tabulated and entered into a database created as part of the weather/air monitoring station module.
Upon approval by the Governing Board, the ad hoc Museum Committee will monitor the implementation of the projects to ensure that they conform to established goals and desired objectives. The target participants will include students from the 4th through 12th grades. Parents and interested adults can also benefit from the learning experiences offered by implementing these proposals. Working within the guidelines established under the Frameworks for California Public Schools, the proposals will provide a variety of educational options at local museums and outreach locations to teach children about air pollution and air quality issues. Staff recommends moving forward with Initiative #8 by executing contracts with the museums and their contractors to implement the proposals.
Benefits to AQMD
The six proposed projects directly address the objectives of Initiative #8, of the Children’s Air Quality Agenda. Educating children (and their parents) about air pollution and air quality issues is crucial to maintain support for the many AQMD programs and activities needed to stabilize and improve air quality. The Air Quality Management Plan is based in part on the expedited implementation of advanced technologies and clean-burning fuels to replace existing high-polluting vehicles and other pollution sources in the AQMD to achieve air quality standards. While no direct air pollutant reductions are expected to result from these proposals, they will increase student and public awareness and familiarization with air quality issues and how these issues are affected by industry, transportation, topography and population.
Sole Source Justification
Section VIII.B.2 of the Procurement Policy and Procedure identifies four major provisions under which a sole source award may be justified. This request for sole source awards is made under provision B.2.d.: Other circumstances exist which in the determination of the Executive Officer require such waiver in the best interest of the AQMD.
Specifically, as part of the Children’s Air Quality Agenda Initiative #8 the Governing Board directed staff to partner with local museums throughout the AQMD to provide a cooperative education program about air quality and children’s & young adults’ health. To achieve this directive, staff conducted extensive outreach activities to enlist participation from museum representatives utilizing the ad hoc committee established for this purpose as well as many focused meetings with representatives of individual museums. This process resulted in six unique proposals. The experience and expertise of museum staff and the use of the available facilities were major factors in the design of the proposals.
Resource Impacts
The total amount of AQMD funding for these contracts will not exceed $150,000. Sufficient funds are available from the Advanced Technology, Outreach and Education Fund. This fund was established as a special revenue fund for revenues received as a result of fines, penalties, and settlements from air pollution violations. These settlement payments by the violators are to be used by the AQMD to support the development and demonstration of advanced technologies, and the assessment of resulting emissions benefits. Supplemental funding for these proposals has been requested and is pending from USDA Forest Service, Edison International, Kaiser Permanente, Los Angeles Children’s Hospital, Los Angeles Unified School District, Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, The Press Enterprise and KFRG Radio Station.
/ / /