ENCINITAS -- The City Council voted 5-0 Thursday to form an advisory panel on environmental matters.

As soon as next week, Encinitas will begin advertising for residents to volunteer for a seven-member committee to guide the City Council on policies related to energy and water conservation, waste reduction, public education and land development practices.

Determined to move quickly, the council agreed to form a so-called "standing committee," with the understanding that the panel would evolve into a permanent commission. A timeline issued Wednesday shows the council would make appointments in 15 to 18 weeks.

Council members also agreed to hire the equivalent of 1.5 full-time employees to support the committee. The so-called "contract employees" would not receive health, vacation or retirement benefits from the city.

But just as the committee would evolve into a permanent commission, the contract staffers eventually would become part of the city's vested work force, officials said.

Employing those workers, plus providing materials and other support costs for the environmental program, would total $134,700, according to a city report.

An audience of about 30 applauded when the council voted to approve establishing the panel.

Earlier, some speakers reminded the council that five years ago, a now-disbanded panel published the Blue Ribbon Environmental Committee Report, which contained 112 actions the city could take to improve air and water quality, consume less energy and water, and reduce waste.

The 11-member panel included scientists, lawyers and landscape architects, all of them Encinitas residents.

"When we met five years ago and turned in our report, there was a lot that could have happened but hasn't happened yet," John Eldon, the former committee's chairman, told the council.

Earlier this year, a citizens group, GreEncinitas, formed to pressure the city to heed the advice of the report.

"We think the city should create a permanent environmental commission," Alek Cannan told the council on behalf of the group.

Forming the panel and hiring staffers to support it are important steps, he said, "because of the enormity of the environmental problems today."

Another speaker told the council he has been concerned about the environmental movement his entire adult life but demanded accountability for any city-sponsored environmental program.

"I would like to ask the council that whatever this group does, that it considers the economics of what it does and it sets up some kind of measuring system," said Al Tschaeche, who identified himself as an Encinitas taxpayer. "That if it spends $200,000 of my tax money, that it can show $200,000 of benefit to the environment."

Some council members responded that by capturing income from grants, the environmental program could pay for itself.

Contact staff writer Adam Kaye at (760) 901-4074 or akaye@nctimes.com.