Sustainability Committee

Minutes of the regular meeting of the Natural Resources and Sustainability Stewardship Advisory Committee held Thursday, April 23, 2020 at 4:00 p.m. via electronic web conferencing in accordance with the Executive Order 2020-5 Suspending the Enforcement of Provisions of Utah Code 52-4-202 and 52-4-207 due to Infectious Disease COVID-19 Novel Coronavirus issued by Governor Herbert on March 18, 2020 Members Present: Joe Linford Bill Hackett Bonnie Christiansen Heather Root Rachel Ballard Jay Lowder Pearl Marden Adam Tobey Chase Wilson Members Excused: Stephen St. Peter David Stevenson Kenna Hill Ex-Officio: Amy Mabey Leesa Brinkerhoff CALL TO ORDER / WELCOME / ROLL CALL • Joe welcomed the committee members and called the meeting to order. • Leesa called the role. • Joe asked the committee to vote on approval of the consideration of adoption of temporary rules for remote electronic meetings. Bill motioned to approve, Chase seconded it, and it was voted unanimously to adopt. APPROVAL OF FEBRUARY 27TH MEETING MINUTES • Joe asked if there were any changes to the February 27th meeting minutes. There were no changes. He asked the committee if someone motioned to approve. Chase motioned to approve, Joe seconded it, and it was voted unanimously to adopt. COUNCIL MEETING VOLUNTEER SIGN-UP SHEET UPDATE • Kenna was going to update the committee on this, however, she was excused from the meeting. Joe asked if anyone else had updates on it. Bonnie said she had discussed it with Kenna with the intent being to give committee members an opportunity to volunteer to attend council meetings, but a signup sheet hasn’t been put together. COMMITTEE SHARED CALENDAR UPDATE • Leesa said that she and Amy investigated the city calendar suggested for use at the previous meeting. They found that it wouldn’t work for the committee to post on it, because all members can’t populate it without the assistance of someone at the city. IT approved the use of a Google calendar for the committee, which will allow live posting of events, signup for council meetings, etc. • Bonnie asked Joe how long in advance the agenda could be released so the public could know what they want to comment on. Joe asked to remind them of the rules on releasing the agenda. Leesa said they’re required to release the agenda 24 hours prior to the meeting. They prefer to keep it in that timeline, because once it’s released, that’s the agenda for the meeting. Releasing it further in advance wouldn’t allow for any changes closer to the meeting. • Joe said that, unless anybody rejects, he would like to move ahead with the Google calendar and move it forward to the next meeting so that Kenna can comment, if she has any additional information. He asked if that was okay with everyone. All committee members concurred. 1|Page SUBCOMMITTEE UPDATES Education and Community Outreach • Chase said there hasn’t been a lot of movement. We’re not meeting in-person at this time, but have been emailing some. As long as the Ogden farmer’s market still takes place this coming summer, we want to get involved in having a table at the events. This is something we’ll have to continually revisit as we go forward due to COVID-19. • There was also some discussion that, if we’re doing tables at public events that we have committee branded t- shirts. • Quarterly or biannual open house meetings have been discussed. • There has been some discussion about formalizing relationships with HEAL Utah or other local groups to move forward with outreach and education programs with the public. Going forward we need to obtain the names and contact information of key people in those organizations. • We’re continuing talk about a business sustainability pledge. We need to draft some language for this. • We’ve discussed looking up grants for proposing the idea to Ogden City officials to create a position for a sustainability or energy manager. • Adam said he reached out to Jennifer Bodine to find out more about putting together a proposal for a sustainability plan for the city and how we should start. In the three conversations he had with her, she strongly suggested getting a sustainability manager position. Adam wanted to bring this to the committee because it’s been so strongly recommended by her. He asked the committee if they would be interested in perusing the idea. Adam said he has researched a couple of grant opportunities. • Chase said he is currently serving an AmeriCorps term with WSU and thought the city may want to look into it because it’s kind of like a federal bond program and the cost is pretty low for the amount of work received. It may be the first step in getting a position like that. • Joe said we should bounce the idea off of Jay. Joe said we could talk about it in the next meeting and he is in favor of the idea. • Jay said there are some grants, but he doesn’t know if they’re one-time or ongoing. He went on to say that we have a lack of revenue with the city right now and are having to put budget restrictions into place. He doesn’t see the city approving additional positions at this time, but said it won’t hurt to look into the grants. Adam thanked Jay for bringing that perspective up and said he agrees 100% that this may not be the best time, suggesting a hold be put on it while looking at more funding opportunities. • Bonnie said she thinks the grants are ongoing, but she’s not sure. WSU has been getting money from Rocky Mountain Power (RMP) for many years. Jenn is on the facilities side, not academic, and is the best point person. • Jay said the city-wide ESCO project is finishing up. We’ve taken the low hanging fruit in reducing our energy costs with this project. • Bonnie asked if the ESCO project recaptures the savings, or if the city recaptures the savings. Jay said, at first, ESCO captures the savings for their payment, but then the city gets the ongoing savings. Bonnie asked how long the savings go to ESCO vs. the city. Jay said for 10 years. • Heather said WSU started their sustainability in the middle of our last recession because that was the time to save money, so this may be a great time to figure out a way to save the city more money. 2|Page  • Bonnie asked if there are next steps to this in terms of looking at grants to be prepared when the time comes to move forward. Adam said yes, we could be looking at funding mechanisms. He said his grant writing skills are minimal and asked if anyone has experience in this, or knows someone who does. Chase said we can put it on his plate. • Bill said he wants to second the initial consideration of what Adam has proposed. He feels that despite the current situation, the idea should at least be introduced. He agrees that the path forward would be to talk more with Jenn Bodine to find out more detail with WSU’s experience. Jenn probably knows of avenues worth pursuing, which could save us a lot of legwork. • Bonnie said this may fit more in the Sustainable Energy Subcommittee and she will be happy to talk to Kenna and touch base with Jenn and bring some information to the next meeting. • Bill said, early on in talking with Bonnie, Jenn, and Heather, in many ways WSU has gone through what we may be looking to do and we should adopt them as a resource as a first step and utilize them to the extent possible. • Joe said let’s look at sources of funding. We should create a path forward and keep working at it for a while. When we feel the time is right and have our ducks in a row, we should see what we can do to pull the trigger. Joe agrees that WSU is a great resource to use. Government and Private Partnership • Joe feels we can work with the Education and Community Outreach Subcommittee. He will try to work with Stephen and have something to report next time. Air Quality and Climate • Bonnie said, since the COVID-19, she hasn’t been in touch with the Air Quality and Climate Subcommittee. She’ll be looking to do it this next week. • Amy said we got some good feedback from the committee and the City Council has responded with a request to the committee regarding Air Quality. They want to leave some flexibility for the committee to determine a comprehensive approach with some valid options the city may pursue regarding air quality. The letter has a lot of context in it and asks for guidance in items such as public education campaigns, possible ordinance amendments, city budget items, and different local partnerships. Considerations can include transportation and encourage use of electric vehicles or charging stations, bicycle lanes, sidewalks, different types of public transportation, including ways to reduce driving and idling. They’re interested in improving use of public space and open space to help people utilize those resources more freely, and engaging local champions for clean air and coordinate efforts with local non-profits and businesses. The council members have indicated that, if there is a recommendation, especially if there’s funding attached, to advise them on how to move forward. They encourage open lines of communication. Amy is happy to help filter the questions and work with council members. • Bonnie said there’s a lot of information there, but it helps in narrowing expectations for our focus and encourages communication. • Joe said he would like to ask the Air Quality and Climate Subcommittee to review the request in detail and come up with recommendations and proposals ready for our next meeting. He suggested partnering with the Sustainable Energy Subcommittee because it tends to overlap quite a bit. And, because there’s a lot in there, priorities should be identified. • Amy said it’s intended not to overwhelm, but rather to lend a lot of flexibility to the committee in ways to approach it. • Bonnie said they are still working on putting together a climate action planning workshop. It may have to be via a Zoom meeting format and are looking at a fall timeframe. 3|Page Water Quality, Supply and Conservation • Bill said, back in March, he, Bonnie, and Kenna met as the Air Quality and Climate Subcommittee. Bonnie and Bill are on the Water Quality, Supply and Conservation Subcommittee and came up with the following items: 1. Incorporate the “First Glass” paradigm into water related policies for Ogden City. The First Glass paradigm is to look to meet basic human needs regarding water consumption at low cost or no cost. 2. Encourage water wise consumption, i.e. waterwise plants, front yard gardening, etc. 3. Use of rain barrel collection. 4. Policy and potentially an infrastructure directive to collect storm water and direct it to wetlands and aquafers to put it to good use. • Bill said they will prioritize these. • Joe said he thinks they are all great ideas. Solid and Hazardous Waste Reduction and Recycling • David, who is the committee chair is absent. Joe asked if there were any members in attendance that know any updates. No one else had updates. Sustainable Energy • Kenna, who is the committee chair is absent. Joe asked if there were any members in attendance that know any updates. Bonnie said she is on the committee, but has nothing to report. Open Space • Chase said he has nothing to report at this time. Heather said she has nothing to report either, but she feels the advantages of having the subcommittees on the agenda is to keep members active. She feels it’s not the top priority to be working on right now, because the other subcommittees she is on need her attention more. Joe agreed. • Bonnie said she has been out hiking and found that some trails run through private property. She suggested that there may be a need for signage indicating that it’s a public right of way, so that we legally maintain our public right of ways. • Leesa will give Chase trails contact information for the city and Weber Pathways so he can research. COMMITTEE OPEN DISCUSSION City Council Request Regarding Air Quality • See “Air Quality and Climate” above. Vote to replace high school student member • Joe asked the committee their thoughts about replacing the high school student who resigned. • Rachel asked if we can pull applicants from those who initially applied to be on the committee. Leesa said she liked the idea and will check on it and what the process is, then will let the committee know what she finds. • Joe said he strongly supports it and we need to keep those positions filled. • Chase said he feels it’s incredibility important. • Bill said he strongly supports this position and wants to move forward to replace it as early as possible. 4|Page  • Adam said he feels it incredibly important that we fill that position with another high school student. • Bill said he was prepared to propose a motion that the committee recommend a replacement be found and made available to a high school student. Chase seconded the motion. All were in favor. Committee Chair • Joe reminded the committee that his term as chairperson expires after our next meeting in May. He will become the past chairperson. He is looking forward to Heather’s great leadership as the new chairperson beginning in June. During the May meeting we’ll need to elect a new vice chair. Joe told the committee to be thinking about who they’d like to nominate as vice-chairperson to replace Heather. He said members can nominate themselves and it doesn’t have to be just one person. Joe commended Heather for her role in being such a great vice-chairperson and thanked her for all the help she has given him. Leesa will make it an agenda item for the May meeting. Miscellaneous • Joe noted that the March 26th meeting was cancelled due to COVID-19. DELIVERABLES FOR MAY 28TH MEETING • Nominate and vote for new committee vice-chairperson • Air Quality and Climate Subcommittee to review the City Council Request Regarding Air Quality in detail and come up with recommendations and proposals to present. • Review nominations for high school student member • Subcommittees to report ADJOURNMENT • Joe thanked the committee members and told them he appreciates them, and the meeting was adjourned at 5:09 p.m. NEXT MEETING Thursday, May 28, 2020 at 4:00 p.m. __________________________________________________ ________________________________________________ Jay M. Lowder Joseph Linford, Chair Ogden City Public Services Director Date Approved: ________________________________ Date Approved: _____________________________ 5|Page