CITY-COUNTY ADVISORY BOARD ON CLIMATE AND ECONOMIC EQUITY

200 E. Wells Street City of Milwaukee Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53202 Meeting Minutes CITY-COUNTY TASK FORCE ON CLIMATE AND ECONOMIC EQUITY Ald. Nik Kovac, Chair August Ball, Pam Fendt, Linda Frank, Julie Kerksick, Ted Kraig, George Martin, Janet Meissner Pritchard, Pamela Ritger, Erick Shambarger, and Rafael Smith Staff Assistant: Linda Elmer, lelmer@milwaukee.gov, 414-286-2231 Legislative Liason: Luke Knapp, luke.knapp@milwaukee.gov, 414-286-8637 Wednesday, January 20, 2021 2:30 PM Virtual Amended 1/12/21 -- Item #4 was amended to add/remove members from work groups as needed. Please join the meeting from your computer, tablet or smartphone: https://global.gotomeeting.com/join/819276045 Join by phone: (571) 317-3122 Access Code: 819-276-045 1. Roll Call. Meeting convened: 2:33 P.M. Members present: George Martin, Janet Meissner Pritchard, Linda Frank, Erick Shambarger, Pam Fendt, Julie Kerksick, Ted Kraig, Rafael Smith and Pam Ritger (arrived at 3:00 P.M.) Member excused: August Ball 2. Review and approval of the minutes of the January 6th meeting. Ms. Frank said that under item 3 there is a reference to M-Work should be M-WERC and item 4 should add that taxes are not allowed WITHOUT STATE APPROVAL. Ms. Frank moved to approve as amended. There were no objections. 3. Discussion relating to a possible WE Energies Memorandum of Understanding (MOU). Mr. Shambarger said he's had two short conversations with WE Energies with Dan Krueger and the talks focused on renewable energy, retirement of coal plants, affordability, reliability and micro-grid development, on-bill financing and green jobs. He was seeking common ground. WE Energies is having a lot of controversy right now with non-payment of bills and so they're not so sure about supporting on-bill financing. They are concerned about their options if customers don't pay on-bill financing. WE Energies does realize that energy costs are a burden to low-income users and he City of Milwaukee Page 1 CITY-COUNTY TASK FORCE ON Meeting Minutes January 20, 2021 CLIMATE AND ECONOMIC EQUITY wants to work with the city on this to find common ground. WE Energies re-iterated they would rather be partners than adversaries. Ald. Kovac thinks this might be more of an excuse than logic in regards to on-bill financing. Mr. Shambarger would like to know what the priorities are for this group to push WE Energies on. Mr. Kraig doesn't think WE Energies wants third-party energy generators and the city of Madison and Alliant Energies have a MOU. Mr. Shambarger has looked at other cities that have MOUs with energy providers. His recommendation is jobs creation and electrification might be two avenues to pursue with WE Energies as well as hear from the working groups and what actions the new Congress takes in the next three months. There are a number of work groups that could work with and could impact WE Energies. Ms. Kerksick said it appears that WE Energies' enthusiasm has dimmed and she encouraged Mr. Shambarger to have someone else on the phone as well. Mr. Krueger isn't in a position to work on policy and also did refer Mr. Shambarger to their Intergovernmental Relations Division. On-bill financing really isn't under the domain of Mr. Krueger so a referral to Intergovernmental Relations is appropriate. Ms. Meissner Pritchard would argue against having WE Energies as members of any work groups, but bring them as consultants or to get their position on an item. She asked if Mr. Shambarger is able to create a list of WE Energies employees who could attend work group meetings as needed and 1-2 additional CCTFCEE members also participate in these meetings with WE Energies; she would suggest a maximum of 2 CCTFCEE members to participate. Ms. Kerksick supported having additional folks be involved in the negotiations rather than solely Mr. Shambarger. Mr. Shambarger is fine with having more folks participate. 4. Approval of a template, open meetings law and membership of the work groups. Assistant City Attorney Peter Block said that the work groups need to follow open meetings law only under specific circumstances . If the work group reports back to the parent body, but has no collective power or makes recommendations (vs. just reporting back to the main body), then a work group may not be a governmental body. Ms. Frank thinks the work groups are subject to open meetings laws and we should accept that responsibility, as does Ms. Ritger, who prefers to air on the side of caution. There is no requirement that the public be able to speak at a meeting, just that reasonable access be provided. Mr. Martin said that the public should be last and limited in terms of discussion. ACA Block said if public comment is permitted, the chair is able to set time limits, but must treat all speakers equally. Mr. Shambarger would encourage work group chairs to use the template as minutes for meetings. He also encouraged chairs to share key documents prior to the meeting. He went through the template he designed, which is a fill-in form. He thinks this lays out the questions of what members should be thinking about to work towards over a 3-month period. Work groups would start filling this out at the first meeting and then continue working on it over the meetings as they occur. Mr. Kraig recommended creating benchmarks to measure progress against. Ms. Meissner Pritchard thanked Mr. Shambarger for all his work on this; he noted that not all work groups will be able to use all aspects of the template and the chair can have some latitude in how to use these templates. ICLEI is on stand-by to provide modeling once a work group creates recommendations. Chairs are free to do their own research about other cities' climate action plans. Ms. Frank would like a rating chart as to what a work group's priorities are. Ms. Frank will work on creating a rating chart with the aid of Mr.Shambarger and Ms. Meissner Pritchard. Mr. Shambarger moved to accept this template for work groups to get work groups going. There were no objections. Mr. Kraig moved to add the following members to the Transportation and Mobility Work Group and there were no objections: City of Milwaukee Page 2 CITY-COUNTY TASK FORCE ON Meeting Minutes January 20, 2021 CLIMATE AND ECONOMIC EQUITY Dontrell Shorter, Susannah Cain, Tania Fonseca, Marissa Meyer, Kevin Muhs and Jennifer Evans Jennifer Evans - activist - Education and Outreach, as well as Buildings and Transportation as a 3rd work group will also be added to the 2 additional work groups. Jacob Walton - WRTP - he signed up for all 10, while Mr. Shambarger would suggest Jobs and Equity. Someone will talk to Mr. Walton. Mr. Kraig moved to add Kimberly Kujoth and Scott Baron to the Land Use and Reforestation Committee. DPW (forestry) staff. There were no objections. Ms. Frank moved to add Sam Leichtling, Tracy Stedetter and Ben Mckay. There were no objections. Mr. Shambarger moved to add Rob Zimmerman - Green Buildings and Waste and Sustainable Consumption Work Groups. There were no objections. Mr. Wiggins moved to add Samantha Longshore Waste and Sustainable Consumption Work Group. There were no objections. Mr. Shambarger moved to add Nikki Purvis added to Jobs and Equity Work Group and Kate Passawrt - to the Reporting and Accountability Work Group. Mr. Shambarger did remove the online form since there needs to be an end point in terms of adding members. Mr. Moore Omokunde nominated Fred Royal to serve on the Jobs and Equity Work Group. Moved by Mr. Smith to add him and there were no objections. Ms. Frank would like to retain the Signup form so that the public can still be involved without having to be full members. Mr. Shambarger would like to close work group membership at some point and he sees that point rapidly approaching. 5. Discussion of the Governor's Task Force on Climate Change Report. Ms. Frank did review it, but does thinks this should be deferred to our next meeting, but should also be referenced in the template if a recommendation lines up with the state. Ms. Fendt recommends each work group go with the report and see if there are some they wish to support. 6. Discussion of the federal stimulus bill funding. Mr. Kraig said there is still a lot of money available to back loans and the other question is what funds are available that this task force may be able to access? Ald. Kovac will provide information to Ms. Elmer for distribution to members. Mr. Kraig noted that some funds did pass and are now available. This item will be on the next agenda. Mr. Bennett will see if he can find a good summary of resources available. 7. Discusson of possible media release to invite the public and its involvement or summarize where the Task Force is at. Mr. Wiggins supports this and sees this as an important part of both education and support of the recommendations. He would like a speaker or two, which could be broadcast. Mr. Martin said the Outreach Committe has discussed this and would like to make a recommendation about this item at the next meeting. 8. Next meeting agenda items? Items 6 and 7. Potential conflict of interest if work group work results in contracts - CA opinion. This City of Milwaukee Page 3 CITY-COUNTY TASK FORCE ON Meeting Minutes January 20, 2021 CLIMATE AND ECONOMIC EQUITY might be a question for the member to ask the Ethics Board in advance. What metric the Task Force should be using the measure equity impact? There is a city equity impact form used by the city. Ms. Frank doesn't think this form is adequate and the Task Force needs to go beyond that. The Equity Impact work group will work on this and then it will be on the Task Force agenda. Mr. Martin volunteered to chair the Feb. 17th meeting. 191923 Communication relating to the final report and activities of the City-County Task Force on Climate and Economic Equity. Sponsors: THE CHAIR Meeting adjourned: 4:33 P.M. Linda M. Elmer Staff Assistant City of Milwaukee Page 4