Sustainable BC Committee

City of Battle Creek Environmental Policy Study Committee 10 N. Division St. Conference Room 302A Wednesday, December 1 2010 4:00 p.m. Members Present: Susan Anderson, Kathy Antaya, Randall Champlin, Tiffany Eichorst, Ken Kohs, Vice Mayor Christopher Simmons, Christine Kosmowski, and Michael Myszka Absent: Commissioner William Morris, and Commissioner David Walters. Others: Michelle Reen, Mary Bourgeois Call to Order: Vice Mayor Simmons called the meeting to order at 4:08 P.M. noting that Comms. Morris and Walters have excused absences due to conflicts. Public Comment: There was none. Approval of Minutes: Vice Mayor Simmons noted that the minutes of October 2010 should show Christine Kosmowski as absent and include that he announced the resignation of Mary Lindow. A motion was made by Mike Myszka and seconded by Randall Champlin to approve the minutes with the noted corrections. All yes. Motion carried. Additions or Deletions to the Agenda: Vice Mayor Simmons asked for any corrections or deletions to the agenda. There were none. New Business: 1. Goals Committee Report Sue Anderson provided a hand out Sub-committee Suggestions 12/1/10. Discussion about increasing awareness of city efforts was held. Kathy Antaya said she, Sue and Mike had brainstormed the list of potential subcommittees and the suggestion was today to prioritize two to act on. Mike Myszka said there are so many things to do that the concern is nothing will be done well if all are undertaken. Vice Mayor Simmons said he would like to see additional committee members added, especially if there are some with expertise in a target area. Mike Myszka said there should be discussion about metrics and how success of programs will be measured. Kathy Antaya said she would add to the list a specific metrics committee. She said the Honeywell project must have included metrics and that could be a good place to start. Ken Kohs said his understanding is that the City Commission’s job is to create policy and that City Manager’s job is to implement. He said a lot of the suggestions appear to focus in implementation. 1 He said this committee is a part of the City Commission and therefore the consideration should be of broad policy goals for Commission action, rather than actual implementation ideas. Vice Mayor Simmons said any recommendations made to the Commission will be broad policy. Michelle Reen offered a suggestion that a policy driven recommendation could be to ask the Commission to adopt an action plan that incorporates specific goals as identified by the committee. 2. Recycling Awareness Vice Mayor Simmons said he has a personal passion for increasing recycling and he is very happy to see increased service from Waste Management. He said raising awareness is an important activity and one that he personally is going to undertake. He invited members of the committee to join him on an AccessVision program to assist with public education. Susan Anderson said there are policies that have been around since 2006 when the Mayor’s Climate Protection Agreement was adopted. Vice Mayor Simmons said he hates to admit it but that the Commission does sometimes adopt resolutions that sound great but aren’t followed up on. He said staff is stretched extremely thin. He said it probably is important to ask where the City stands on existing policies. Mike said there are a lot of ordinances, resolutions and plans out there and that the first thing should be to assess what has already been committed to and what has been done already. He said one suggestion could be to have an annual report on the 15 by 15 goal. He said this committee still needs to get its hands around where it wants to go. Christine Kosmowski mentioned that the ordinances in place are non-binding. She noted that there is no effort to coordinate efforts city-wide and that commission and staff support would be needed. Ken Kohs mentioned that his responsibilities are generated by state regulatory requirements and that the appearance of promoting the environment is a result of addressing permitting requirements. Randy Champlin said he doesn’t think it is good for the city to have the committee get too specific in telling the City what specific actions to take. Christine Kosmowski said there are policies related to water, but there are not similar overarching activities around energy usage. Sue Anderson said a good place to start would be projects that are revenue neutral. Mike Myszka mentioned that a policy recommendation could be to determine a return on investment requirement for energy saving related projects. Randy Champlin asked if it was part of a city manager’s evaluation to look at reducing energy usage. Vice Mayor Simmons said no. Kathy Antaya said she could see a recommendation that all managers responsible for facility maintenance be asked to review specifics strategies. Christine Kosmowski suggested the creation of an energy efficiency team to facilitate internal communication. She said there is no mandate to reduce, reuse or recycle for City departments. Tiffany Eichorst said the Federal Center has an individual charged with facility maintenance and that it makes sense to have one person coordinate this. Michelle Reen said Ann Arbor and East Lansing have models for positions that were created to identify energy savings that in turn were used to cover 2 salary costs related to the position. Vice Mayor Simmons said this could be a policy recommendation. Mike Myszka said he thinks the committee needs to focus on policy, not projects, and to consider energy conservation as a priority. He then asked if there should be more discussion on community focused strategies as well as those focused on city operations. He said a public education component would be useful. Vice Mayor Simmons said that is his purpose for sharing recycling information and that the Honeywell project was well publicized. Tiffany Eichorst said it is important to focus on internal operations because it gives credibility when asking community members to participate. Ken Kohs said very little has been done in terms of monitoring activity or accountability for policies that are already in place. He said this could be a recommendation that the Commission consider asking for reports. Kathy Antaya said two subcommittees could review these documents and talk with staff then come back to next meetings prepared to discuss specific recommendations. Vice Mayor Simmons said it would be ultimately up to the Commission to determine that an action plan is a good idea and he wants to talk to the Commission before a lot of work is done on drafting. Vice Mayor Simmons asked Sue, Mike and Kathy if they wanted to pursue the organizing of subcommittees. He said these wouldn’t have to be formally organized. He encouraged any other committee members to contact Kathy if they are interested in serving on a committee. Sue asked if the two priorities are committees for energy use and codes and policies. There was general consensus that yes, these were the priorities. Vice Mayor Simmons encouraged all to recruit new members and raise awareness of environmental issues. Kathy Antaya said if committee members do this then it should get shared at meetings so other committee members are aware. 3. Recognition of Achievement Vice Mayor Chris Simmons congratulated Denso Manufacturing on its receipt of a recent Michigan Clean Citizenship Award. He sought a motion from the committee recommending formal recognition by the City Commission. Kathy Antaya seconded. All aye. Motion carried. Old Business: 1. Environmental Survey/Ordinance Research Ken Kohs said he emailed City staff asking for thoughts on environmental policy. He said response was limited but some were thorough. He said he will continue to evaluate responses as they come in. He said he looked online for other community policies. He said he would send out the information electronically to committee members. Member Comments/Announcements: Christine Kosmowski said a calendar will be in next week’s Shopper News on water quality issues using photos from the annual photo contest. Ken Kohs mentioned that Waste Management has 3 implemented single stream recycling as of October 1. He said volume has increased and more materials may be recycled now, such as cardboard. Mary Bourgeois said she is working with a volunteer group collecting Styrofoam, however there are still issues to resolve regarding disposal. Christine Kosmowski said the Battle Creek Community Foundation is surveying downtown businesses regarding coordinating recycling in the downtown area. She said BCCF has adopted a green policy for its own operations. Christine Kosmowski said the state’s current permitting system has been temporarily suspended due to litigation and it is in the process of being re-written. She said the City is operating under the old permit until the new one is done. Susan Anderson mentioned that recycling of CFL bulbs could be mentioned during the Vice Mayor’s show on recycling. She said Menards and Lowes will take used CFL bulbs. Next meeting: The next meeting will be Wednesday, February 2, 2011 at 4 p.m. in conference room 302A in City Hall. Adjournment: The meeting was adjourned at 5:20 p.m. mar 4