Green Team

Minutes Morgantown Municipal Green Team June 5, 2017 Attending: Joey James (Chair), Mark Brazaitis, Abigail Cayton (WVU Mechanical Engineering), Janis Gunel (visitor), Lisa Jones (WVU Small Farmers Center), Karen Kalafat, Jim Kotcon (Energy Committee), Joseph Kanosky (NETL), Dr. Ken Means (WVU Mechanical Engineering), Daniel Pan (visitor), Jenny Selin (City Council), Christine Wallace (visitor), Jing Zhang (Long-Term Planning Committee), and Pam Cubberly (Secretary). I. Pre-Meeting: LED / City Sustainable Building Internship Dr. Ken Means and Abigail Cayton came to a half hour pre-meeting to discuss next steps on Abigail’s City internship on potential for the City installing LED street lights for those it owns/manages. The internship would start immediately, from June 5 to August 25. The team would consider whether it could round up a stipend for Abigail but noted it didn’t seem fair to Alex Davis, the current City intern producing energy audits of seven City buildings since summer 2016, unless she received the same stipend for her work. It was agreed that Abigail would tackle the LED lighting issue first. Work on a second stage of the internship— upgrading one of the City buildings audited by Alex Davis and the IAC—should take place after the LED study, probably in the fall. Dr. Means asked if the internship needed City approval. The team had already passed the idea by City Manager Paul Brake at its first meeting with him. The team generally has the ability to move ahead after reviewing such proposals with Paul. That said, it may be a good idea to inform Paul as Abigail should receive City recognition once the project is successfully completed. Dr. Means left when the regular meeting started at 5:30pm, while Abigail stayed on. Action: Joe and Jing will draft a statement of work, complete with objectives and expected outcomes, as soon as possible. Action: Joe and Jing agreed to serve as team contacts for Abigail Cayton and Dr. Means. Janis Gunel and Mark Brazaitis offered their support if needed. Action: Joey noted that he would discuss any approval needed by the City, although the team can act on its own without City approval. II. New Business  A. Paris Accords: Response by City It was proposed that the Green Team draft a resolution for passage by the City Council as a response to U.S. withdrawal from the Paris Climate Accords, by adding Morgantown to hundreds of cities pledging to continue working toward the goals of the Accords through the Mayors Climate Council. Later this summer, the team and Council would work out specific actions/goals to which the City would commit, although the climate council signature is not binding. It was noted that several of the team’s initiatives to reduce energy use, increase renewable energy use, and reduce waste provide immediate concrete actions to be implemented by Council in coming months, contributing to whatever goals the City sets. Action: The team decided to draft a resolution for Council approval at its first meeting, coordinating with the City Human Rights Commission, effectively signing the Mayors National Climate Action Agenda resolution. Action: Jim, Joey, Jenny, and Christine agreed to work on the resolution before submitting to council. B. Scheduling of Meetings Summer and Beyond The team’s City Liaison Luis Caceres had noted a conflict with attending team meetings on First Mondays at 5:30pm, due to a weekly family obligation. It was agreed that the team should find a way to work with his schedule. The challenge would be finding another time that is not a problem for other team members. Action: Joey will discuss the issue of scheduling of meetings with City Manager Paul Brake. C. Report on Eastwood Elementary School Green Efforts Jenny Selin reported on a recent report to City Council by Eastwood staff on its schoolwide efforts to integrate hands-on learning on living sustainability, for example, avoiding creating waste as well as finding green ways to handle waste (e.g., feeding leftover lunch food to a local pig farm). D. Membership Recruitment Visitor (and now applicant for team membership) Daniel Pan proposed that the team develop a Google Form to simplify getting input from citizens on team efforts and applying for membership. The team agreed that Dan should pursue this, while assisting Pam on interim forms in print or fillable PDFs for immediate use in citizen feedback and member recruitment. Pam has taken on sending key information to recent visitors at both the May and June meetings, creating a Google folder accessible to all regular members and a spreadsheet summarizing information submitted by applicants for membership. Action: Dan Pan will send regular team members a link to an “online function that records email with each response so that it’s easy to contact interested individuals” about joining the Green Team and receiving their input on interests and ideas for team work. III. Old Business A. Long-Term Planning Jing reported on recent work by the Long-Term Planning Committee, most recently his development of a spreadsheet of potential projects that fit both recently approved team goals and objectives and the current City Comprehensive Plan. He was ready to obtain input this summer from key City staff and possibly Council members into the team’s long-term planning process based on the several documents (vision, mission, goals and objectives, procedures and guidelines, and project vetting process) developed by the committee. Joe Kanosky noted that this working project spreadsheet is an ongoing, evolving vehicle that is open to input from current team members at any time as a way to vet and prioritize a range of projects that could be undertaken by any interested current or future team members with team supervision. The spreadsheet is meant to evolve as team and City priorities change. The team should review/revise this list at least yearly. Pam noted that the current spreadsheet is an amalgam of ideas from the current Comprehensive Plan that had not yet been implemented, current team projects/efforts, and a range of ideas collected during the 2017 team planning process. Team members are welcome to review all; some may not be relevant now and others may need tweaking to make them actionable. The spreadsheet or a link to it would be part of any new member information packet, emphasizing that membership means participating in projects currently ongoing or at least already vetted. New members may also propose projects for the team to review against team and City goals and priorities. This effort further serves to correct the public impression that citizens must lobby the team to take on projects even though the citizens themselves and current members have no time. Jing proposed that he pursue individual meetings this summer with key City officials to introduce them to the Green Team’s effort to better integrate its planning process with City priorities and needs; he would also invite these key people to attend team meetings at least once or twice a year to keep the team informed and vice versa. Action: Jing will send the link to the Google Docs “Projects” table to all who attended the June MMGT meeting. Action: Jing will prepare a package to share with key City staff and City Council members, sending the package to the team in advance for review. Action: Jing will contact City staff to arrange a one-on-one interview with key City officials, inviting them to also briefly presenting on their role and current priorities at a Green Team monthly meeting this year and on a regular basis as decided by the official. B. IAC Update/Decisions IAC/City Intern Alex Davis (in an email to Joey) stated that she will finish the energy audit report before the end of July so that the IAC and the Green Team can present it to City Council at its first meeting in July. She said she is just getting to it now. She has all she needs to complete the report. Anyone with questions or concerns should contact her directly by email: axdavis@mix.wvu.edu. Action: Alex Davis will complete the report so that those involved on the team may present it at the best time to the City and City Council as appropriate. C. Recycling As part of the discussion on possible team projects, Jenny noted that the team could play an ongoing role monitoring whichever trash/recycling hauler that the City decides on this summer in terms of its communications to the public. It was further noted in the course of the meeting that the team had given Holly Purpura and FODC the go- ahead on an FODC summer internship focused entirely on a City application for state funding of public recycling education. Action: Pam will add Jenny’s idea, integrating with its current efforts to assure accuracy of City flyers on recycling to citizens. D. Meeting Adjournment / July Meeting The team agreed to set the July monthly meeting on Monday, July 10, at the Morgantown Public Library, as Joey could not attend on July 3 and it is close to Fourth of July celebrations. The meeting adjourned at 7:00pm.