APPROACH YOUR CITY COUNCIL
One of the best things that you can do to affect change is to start at the local level by approaching your city council.  How?  3 easy ways:
1) Locate your city's City Council meeting schedule.  In Orinda, City Council meetings are held the first and third Tuesday of every month (Here is their website which lists the City Council, explains what the City Council does and here is the meeting schedule for the entire city.)  Familiarize yourself with the City Council Policy & Procedures (here). itizens may speak to any issue that is not already on the agenda in the public forum held towards the beginning of every meeting.  Expect to be allotted a 2 to 3 minutes to speak about your topic (Orinda is 3 minutes).  To ensure your comments are direct and to the point, it is recommended that you write them out, time yourself to ensure you fit within the time limit, and read them out at the meeting.  The most effective comments have a specific request of the city council at the end, ask poignant questions, or provide educational research that our elected officials might use for their decision-making process.

2) Write a letter or request and email the request to all 5 members of city council, and, where appropriate, the city manager, city planner, city clerk, etc.  Here is a list of the Orinda City Council members.  Click on each name to obtain their email address.  For ease, here are the email addresses of Amy Worth, Darlene Gee, Eve Phillips, Dean Orr, and Victoria Smith.  Copy and paste them into your email: aworth@cityoforinda.org, dgee@cityoforinda.org, ephillips@cityoforinda.org, dorr@cityoforinda.org, and vsmith@cityof orinda.org.

  Also, Janet Keeter (City Manager), Emmanuel Ursu (City Planner), and Michele Olsen (City Clerk):  jkeeter@cityoforinda.org, eursu@cityoforinda.org, molsen@cityoforinda.org.

3) Call any City Council member and discuss your concerns over the phone or set-up an appointment to meet with them in person.