Sustainability Commission

SUSTAINABILITY COMMISSION City Hall—Shared Vision Room, 3989 Central Ave NE Tuesday, July 09, 2024 6:00 PM APPROVED MINUTES Members Present: Commissioners Ahmadvand, Evenson, Finkelson, Groseth, Jensen Christen, Connie council member came late. Mayor’s assistant- Fabricio was present. Members Absent: Johnson, Kurek, LaPlante, Leoni-Helbacka CALL TO ORDER Ahmadvand called to the meeting to order at 6:02pm 1. Roll Call 2. Review of Minutes – Delayed minutes for approval for June until next month OLD BUSINESS 3. Sustainable Purchasing Policy Update Environmental Preferable Purchasing agreement- needs to be reviewed by city staff. Asking for Finance to have a Point person. Sulmaan said he would help draft the first round of wording of the document based on comments received from City Division Heads. Using Amazon to filter items that are Environmentally preferable is available. Discussion about how we recycle used technology. Advertise on website how we use our solar panels for Energy. Sulmaan will provide revised policy document a week before August meeting. Trying to nail down current city practices for sustainability. Green Corp- help with efforts – Andrew volunteered 4. Complete Streets Policy Update Sulmaan, Andrew and Jared met with MNDOT. – Received resources from them to help update our policy. Feedback on INPUT map for SS4A. Will talk more about having something similar as an ongoing software. Posted on our website. Safety action Plan.- project has started and is currently in the phase of community feedback and identifying problem area’s in the city. City of Columbia Heights AGENDA July 09, 2024 Sustainability Commission Page 2 Working on final draft. Talked about bringing it to the Council work session for approval. Jared Finkelson will attend the August Council work session to discuss plan. 5. Partners in Energy Update Andrew sent spreadsheet in teams which captures potentials members to be a part of the team working on partners in energy plan. Need 15-20 people. To have on the board. Discussed people who are interested. Andrew will send out letters to seek out interested parties. 6. Sustainable Collaborations Sub-Committee Update Mayor wanted us to attend Monarch pollinator habitat festival. – Maybe set up a table. Information Located on city website. Contact Heights Next at news@heightsnext.org. Interactive map to see where pollinator habitats within the city are located on the Heights Next website. Want to have their own GIS map which shows the varies effort the city is involved with related to sustainability. NEW BUSINESS 7. Round Robin Conflict on August 13th meeting. Will send out a poll to see what dates work. Talked about August 14TH? Conflict on November 12th. Will send out a poll closer to the date. Andrew brought up about Ratio – talked about drive throughs ADJOURNMENT Motion by Kurek. Second by Jensen Christen.