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 and Sup. Marcelia Nicholson, Co-Chairs Pam Fendt, Linda Frank, Julie Kerksick, Ted Kraig, Janet Meissner Pritchard, Supreme Moore Omokunde, Pamela Ritger, Erick Shambarger, Rafael Smith, and Freida Webb Staff Assistant: Linda Elmer, lelmer@milwaukee.gov, 414-286-2231 Legislative Liason: Luke Knapp, luke.knapp@milwaukee.gov, 414-286-8637 Google documents for this body can be found at : http://bit.ly/CCTFCEE Wednesday, December 1, 2021 2:30 PM Virtual Please join this meeting from your computer, tablet or smartphone. https://global.gotomeeting.com/join/884898357 You can also dial in using your phone. (For supported devices, tap a one-touch number below to join instantly.) United States: +1 (571) 317-3122 - One-touch: tel:+15713173122,,884898357# Access Code: 884-898-357 1. Roll call. Meeting convened: 2:35 P.M. Members present: Ald. Kovac, Linda Frank, Erick Shambarger, Ted Kraig, Freida Webb, Janet Pritchard, Pam Ritger, Julie Kerksick (arrived at 3:18 P.M.), Pam Fendt (arrived after 3 p.m.) Members excused: Sup. Marciela Nicholson, Rafael Smith, Supreme Moore Omokunde 2. Review and approval of the minutes of October 27th. Mr. Wiggins moved to correct "four main goal" on page 5 to "four main goals" and insert the word "county" before ARPA (allocating funds) and note the Common Council approved a final budget with Ald. Kovac's reporting (it may not have been final at that time change the minutes. Ald. Kovac has no objections to the current language. and add "to" to fill gaps. Item #3 - five lines from the end on "Nature in the city" -- the person added is JESS Haven. Ms. Frank moved to approve the minutes as amended. There were no objections. City of Milwaukee Page 1 CITY-COUNTY TASK FORCE ON Meeting Minutes December 1, 2021 CLIMATE AND ECONOMIC EQUITY 3. Update from work groups and add/remove members. Jobs and Equity - Mr. Shambarger said the work group did meet and settled on its recommendation and it has 7 components to it. Education and Outreach - Ms. Evans moved to add Jessica Haven to the work group. There were no objections. Ms. Evans said it had its final meeting of the year and the survey results were compiled and sent to each work group chairs. They had 648 survey respondents, with 80% from white respondents and 87% from non-Hispanic respondents. For tabled events, they had more diverse responses (only 65% from white respondents). They approved a marketing and public participation proposal to include in the plan. She looks forward to working with the Finance Committee to see how these all will be funded. There was also created a 5-minute video on the public's concern with climate issues. Green Buildings - Ms. Ritger said she is in the process of writing up the recommendations and they have a big idea for commercial buildings, residential retrofits and new buildings. It is hoped the recommendations will be drafted by the end of this week for members to review to be approved on Dec. 8th. Residential retrofit focuses generally on Green and Healthy Homes Finance Work Group - Ms. Prichard said the work group is focusing on ARPA funds as well as potential grant sources. The county has taken a different approach than the city with 63% of its funds to off-set revenue loss and about 20% are reserved for community-serving funding. Tree canopy work might fall under this category, as well as transportation-related projects. They will be researching this more in the future. For the state, there are some grant opportunities that have already closed. Some non-profits have submitted proposals, but there was no coordinated, city proposals submitted. The ECO office will be applying for a federal grant. Ms. Pritchard thinks the CCTFCEE should request, with the second tranche of ARPA funds, that the position of grant writer should be created. Mr. Kraig also supported creating a position of grant writer. Mr. Shambarger noted that specific departments do have folks who do grant writing, but with the increased grants, he is in favor of hiring someone to write grants. He believes there is interest in either hiring someone short-term or as a contractor. Ald. Kovac will talk to the budget office and the new mayor's team to see what they are thinking. Mr. Wiggins thinks the CCTFCEE should go on record in supporting this. Transporation and Mobility - Mr. Kraig said the four sub-groups are compiling two chapters and putting together the many proposals, with the help of Ms. Evans. It should be completed next week to share with the entire Task Force. Mr. Shambarger noted that one community was offering locally funded rebates for used electric vehicles since EVs are still very expensive. Waste and Sustainability - Mr. Wiggins said they are finishing their text; the chapter should be approved this week. They have made good progress. He believes some of their ideas will be eligible for grants and they are proposing city/county partnership with private entities. Nature in the City - Ms. Frank moved to add Lamont Smith. There were no objections. They are in the process of combing several ideas that were worked up separately into one proposal and that will be discussed at the meeting of Dec. 6th. Greening the Grid - Mr. Shambarger said they met and approved the preliminary draft of its report, which includes advocacy, renewable hiring projects with more local hiring, working with WE Energies and Milwaukee Shines. He will add it to the Google drive. Adaptation and Climate Resilience - Ms. Ritger said they are also working on draft recommendations. City of Milwaukee Page 2 CITY-COUNTY TASK FORCE ON Meeting Minutes December 1, 2021 CLIMATE AND ECONOMIC EQUITY 4. Update on ARPA funding opportunities. A recommendation coming from the work groups seems to be hiring dedicated staff for writing grants. Mr. Shambarger moved that the task force supports using current funds or future ARPA funds to hire a city grant writer or consultant to pursue grant opportunities with the federal government. There were no objections. 5. Deadline for Working Groups to complete their proposal. Mr. Shambarger said that he would like the core working groups to wrap up their recommendations by Christmas, if possible with the intention of having a meeting in January to review/accept the recommendations so they can then move onto the city and county. A professional writer will be working on this so members don't need to wordsmith every word. There is a folder in the Google drive to add the final recommendations to. Most work groups should be dissolving after submitting their recommendations. Next meeting will be Jan. 19th at 2:30 P.M. 6. Request for Proposals for firm(s) to draft and lay out the final report. Mr. Shambarger asked if there are individuals who want to participate on putting the draft report together, which will then be bid out as soon as practical after January 1st. It will need to be bid out as a Request for Proposal (RFP) as the categories weren't a great fit. The budget is $50,000-$80,000 although a budget isn't typically listed as part of the RFP. Education and Outreach Work Group (WG) does have 4 people who are willing to work on this and have ideas on what they wish to include on the RFP. The WG talked about having both a public document (more visual and easily digestable) and an internal document, as well as a document that can be broken down into pieces. Mr. Wiggins would also like to have the contract include community involvement and marketing as well as social media aspects to it. Ms. Evans and Mr. Wiggins would like to be involved as well as Linda Frank and Jessica Haven. No-one who wasn't on the Education and Communications Work Group wanted to be involved in the draft document so Mr. Shambarger will just work with that work group. Mr. Gordie Bennett said the county is pursuing everything and anything and will not leave any grant money on the table. He thinks the new grant office would like to support the work of this group; they have a staff of three people, all of whom are new. He will ask the grants office on behalf of the Task Force. Mr. Bennett said the county does still have ARPA funds to the public, only $30 million of the $183 million has been allocated. The ARPA task force just recently issued a call for proposals and the first round will be reviewed in January and a new call for proposals will be issued every-other month after that. The city was approached about partnering with other cities for funds. Mr. Shambarger said the city would be open to that as long as any proposals focused on local workers. Ms. Fendt supported doing this as long as the partners are equally committed to the equity component. Meeting adjourned: 3:49 P.M. Linda M. Elmer Staff Assistant 191923 Communication relating to the final report and activities of the City of Milwaukee Page 3 CITY-COUNTY TASK FORCE ON Meeting Minutes December 1, 2021 CLIMATE AND ECONOMIC EQUITY City-County Task Force on Climate and Economic Equity. Sponsors: THE CHAIR City of Milwaukee Page 4