Sustainability Committee

Minutes of the regular meeting of the Natural Resources and Sustainability Stewardship Advisory Committee held Thursday, May 28, 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 Bonnie Christiansen Heather Root Adam Tobey Chase Wilson Stephen St. Peter David Stevenson Members Excused: Kenna Hill Bill Hackett Rachel Ballard Pearl Marden Jay Lowder Ex-Officio: Amy Mabey Leesa Brinkerhoff Guests: Shelby Stultz – Utah Clean Energy Kevin Emerson – Utah Clean Energy Alair Emory – Governor’s Office of Energy Dev CALL TO ORDER / WELCOME / ROLL CALL • Joe welcomed the committee members and called the meeting to order. • Leesa called the role. APPROVAL OF APRIL 23RD MEETING MINUTES • Joe asked if there were any changes to the April 23rd meeting minutes. There were no changes. He motioned to approve. Heather seconded the motion. The meeting minutes were approved unanimously. UTAH ENERGY WISE COMMUNITIES OGDEN CITY PROJECT UPDATE • Joe turned the time over to Shelby Stultz and Kevin Emerson from Utah Clean Energy (UCE) to present on the Utah Energy Wise Communities Ogden City Project (UEWCOCP). • Shelby opened by stating that their interest in joining the meeting was to update the committee on the project status of the UEWCOCP and to engage in discussion regarding the stage of the project. • The next stage is one of the final deliverables, which is the creation of a robust implementation plan. It will lay out our suggestions for strategically implementing the designated goals for each sector, i.e. municipal business, residential, and community wide. We expect this document to be completed next week and will be presenting it to the city council at the June 9th work session. • After that, we’ll be adjusting the timeline and promoting the plan with the community with the goal being to connect with some of the support groups/organizations identified in the plan. • Thanked the committee members who responded to her recent questionnaire. • Some of the feedback was suggesting timeline adjustments to the original strategic plan because of the COVID- 19 social distancing guidelines and probable impacts to municipal budgets. Other suggestions included partnering with other entities not identified in the original plan, increasing the established goals, and concretely identify the main implementor and supporting organizations for each of the strategies. • Shelby opened it up to discussion. • David said he’s glad to hear they are going to incorporate the chamber of commerce and asked if they have spoken to the local chamber. Shelby said she has tried to reach out to the chamber a couple of times, but 1|Page  hasn’t been successful. David said he knows the person who runs that chamber and will be glad to reach out to him and encourage him to speak with her. Shelby supported the idea. Kevin said it would be very helpful to have a personal connection, especially in moving to the next phase of this plan. • Bonnie asked if all energy programs count toward these goals, i.e. Weber State’s lightbulb exchange program, smart thermostat discount program, and if so, who will be measuring these? Shelby said these count specifically toward the goals and they are currently looking at how these will be measured and monitored. It was initially considered to have a staff member do this, but it may not be feasible. • Kevin added that, at the most recent steering committee meetings, when we spoke about implementation, this committee was specifically mentioned by a number of individuals. UCE will be stepping back after finalizing the plan, so the steering committee needs to decide how the plan will be monitored. • Stephen asked what the outreach will look like and how the committee will be involved, particularly now, with COVID-19. Additionally, he asked if there is information posted on their website that can go out to the community. • Shelby said they are working with implementors that have been identified in this plan to make sure some of these resources are available on their websites. The information will be included on the business development website and in newsletters. • Stephen asked if this would include referring people to websites such as Rocky Mountain Power (RMP) and Weber State University (WSU) to provide information about their plans. Shelby said yes, and all programs will be listed on provider handouts when working with people who qualify for programs. • Heather asked about strategy #2 in the business sector and how city budget constraints will affect hiring staff to do outreach. Shelby said they have been working with Janene Eller-Smith and Jen Bodine to talk about potential options for grant funding, funding for a short-term position, and working with stakeholders to identify funding opportunities to support a position. • David asked if the business development division include these sort of things. Shelby said she has worked with Sara Mees in business development. Sara is going educate their employees to assist in outreach of these programs as well as producing printed information that can be distributed. • David suggested that there may be professors at WSU who have students who focus on this. They may be working on master’s degrees or a thesis and would be interested in working with the city to form a foundation for the outreach effort. He added that there are other schools that have sections of their programs focused on this. It means that we’d need to find temporary funding to pay for an intern. • Joe asked if there were any other question or comments. There were none, so he thanked Shelby and Kevin for their participation, great information, and efforts in support of this project. • Shelby closed with saying the next steps of this project is to develop it, present it, and disseminate it in the community. We’ll also be working on a case study that highlights the process of the project. It will be presented to other cities who may be interested in replicating a similar process. They welcome feedback in any form the committee would like to provide. UCE is willing to provide a draft to the committee for their review. Joe said the committee would be interested in that. • Shelby and Kevin were excused from the meeting. NOMINATE AND VOTE FOR NEW VICE-CHAIRPERSON • Joe announced that Heather will be the new committee chair and that the committee needs to elect a new vice chair to fill her vacancy. • The committee thanked Joe for his service as committee chair. Joe responded that it has been an honor to serve. He asked the committee members for their nominations for the new vice chair: 2|Page   Adam nominated Kenna  Stephen nominated Adam, Chase seconded the nomination • Heather said she feels the committee should find out if Kenna accepts her nomination, adding that she seconds the nomination. • There were no other nominations, so Joe put it out to vote:  Rachel - absent  Bonnie - voted for Adam  Bill - absent  Kenna - absent  Heather - voted for Adam  Pearl - absent  Stephen - voted for Adam  David - voted for Adam  Adam - voted for Kenna  Chase - voted for Adam  Joe - voted for Kenna The result was 5 votes for Adam and 2 votes for Kenna. Adam said he graciously accepts the nomination and is honored. He thanked the committee. NOMINATE AND VOTE FOR NEW HIGH SCHOOL MEMBER • Joe reminded the committee that they may consider applicants from the first posting when forming the committee. • Leesa said she checked the applicants and found that only 3 applied and all 3 were selected. • Amy said recommendations for a committee member go to the mayor’s office and then to the council. • Stephen asked what the process is to post, adding that he knows the DaVinci Academy has a team of environmental students, and asked if we can reach out to them. • Amy said it would be up to the committee as to how they want to reach out to potential candidates. When we formed the committee, we put out an application form from the council office, because it was a council initiative to form the committee in partnership with administration. She said they can reuse the form and push it out to the schools if they’d like to, or they can simply make recommendations. Amy likes the form because it helps both the committee to better identify an ideal candidate and the applicant with a better understanding of the expectations of the role. • Stephen asked if they have to live in Ogden. Amy said she believes that is the requirement. • Leesa suggested that the application may be the best way to identify qualified candidates and offered to forward the form to the committee members. • David agreed, adding that it may be helpful to post it on social media to get the word out. • Amy suggested the committee consider having a subcommittee or ad hoc subcommittee handle the process of making the recommendation to the council. • Joe said he feels that we should see how many applicants we have before we decide on an ad hoc or subcommittee. • Adam said he feels that social media would be a good avenue because there are a lot of youth groups such as YMCA and Youth Impact that may see it and we could tag them in it. 3|Page  • Stephen asked if there is any messing language that we can push out that’s geared toward students. Amy said that she and Leesa will put some wording together. • Joe said, if the committee members know anyone who may be interested, they can reach out to them, and he feels posting on social media will be useful. • Adam said high school students are very interested in social change. He feels promoting the opportunity to affect change on a local government level will entice their interest. • Leesa and Amy will work together to post this and update the application. Leesa will send both to the committee members. SUBCOMMITTEE UPDATES Adam asked if chairs and vice chairs are rotating in/out with the appointment of a new committee chair and vice chair. Joe said that the committee decided, if someone is a chair or vice chair of the committee, they would not normally be a chair of a subcommittee. This is not formally written in the rules, rather Joe and Heather decided some time ago, that if a member is the chair or vice chair of the committee, it may be too much to have them chair or vice chair a subcommittee. Joe asked Heather if she still feels this way. Heather said she doesn’t feel it’s a heavy load for the committee vice chair, adding that it’s okay if they want to back down, but it doesn’t need to be policy. Adam is the chair of the Education and Community Outreach subcommittee and Chase is the vice chair. Adam suggested they discuss this as a subcommittee and decide how they would like to move forward. Education and Community Outreach • Adam said Kenna told him that she’s been doing some research on avenues for funding a city energy manager position and has talked with a number of people to get some resources and ideas. Joe said it would be nice to have an update on this the next time we meet. • Adam said he saw that the farmer’s market is going to happen. He would like to explore this, but is concerned that the risk isn’t something people will be willing to take with it being a public event. • Stephen asked if the city has any guidelines for social gathering. Leesa said that the city is following the governors risk phases. Amy said we will constantly be updated on it and feels we can play it by ear and see how things go and keep a good pulse on it. She thinks it will be a good opportunity to get the committee involved in the farmer’s market. Government and Private Partnership • Stephen asked if we have a list of non-profit businesses to get a good start for places to target. Bonnie suggested to take a look at the Blue Sky list on Rocky Mountain Power’s website. It would be a good way to see what Ogden businesses are participating and it may be a good starting point. She invited Stephen to reach out to her because she knows of a couple of business owners in Ogden that may be interested. • Leesa said she will check to see what the city has. Air Quality and Climate • Bonnie said they have discussed what may be good solution options that may be good for Ogden and how we want to research those options. One of the things we’ve done is identified some of the options and determined if they are actionable now, have they been done before in other cities, are they impactful, and if they’re relevant for our area. We looked at the Carbon Cities handbook out of Rocky Mountain Institute, which looks at things in terms of climate goals, but we’re looking to see if we can modify it to make air quality goals. It includes looking into recommendations in terms of how it works in the city. And, there are different types of recommendations such as lead by example, making infrastructure changes on a wider city scale, and actions that may be able to enable action. Bonnie, Heather, and Bill are researching some options for the city. There are other options 4|Page  pending research by other subcommittee members. One we’re looking at is EV fleet conversion or EV charging. We’ve had notably cleaner air recently with telecommuting, so we’re looking into that. We’re also looking into biking infrastructure, as well as something called Complete Streets, which interlink with each other. Anti-idling ordinances and urban forestry are others. Bill has volunteered to start looking at some of Ogden’s point source emissions and where they come from. • Stephen told Joe that there’s a group up on Hill Air Force Base that put together a list of factories for a point source and suggested he try to locate it because he works on base. Joe said he will check with the Air Quality Program Manager to see if there’s anything like that. • Heather said they found an EPA database that includes organizations which have permits. • David said that he knows the managers for permitting for the major source division and the minor source division at DEQ and the Department of Air Quality. He offered to reach out to them if it would help to find out if there’s any data tools to tell us what sort of emissions are coming off of just our city. Heather said that would be great and as he finds things he can send them to the subcommittee. Bill will be the one who works mostly on this. Water Quality, Supply and Conservation • No updates as this time. Solid and Hazardous Waste Reduction and Recycling • David asked for feedback from the committee. He asked if they had any thoughts from the presentation on recycling. Joe said it was interesting and a good presentation. • David has been working on the pollution prevention award. He’s done a lot of research around the country on what comparable size cities have done. He has started forming the packet to be considered and will try to have it ready to present in the next meeting. It’s initially going to focus on the commercial business within the city, not residential. It will include ways on which businesses and commercial entities can reduce solid and hazardess waste. • Bonnie asked David if he’s looking at some of the zero waste initiatives happening around the country. David said there’s probably many groups out there that he hasn’t looked at and invited Bonnie to share some of these with him. He said he’s been focusing on city and state programs to provide incentive for reporting and reduction. Sustainable Energy • Nothing to report at this time. Open Space • Chase said he got some leads from Leesa. He reached out to Monte Stewart, who just got back with him. They are planning to have more conversation next week about open space and trails, and where things exist now for the city. From there, Chase expects to make some attainable goals. • Heather mentioned that the council initiative mentioned whether we could use open space or forestry in the air emissions. She said Monte is awesome and used to be the city’s urban forester and suggested it may be a good idea to bridge the 2 goals. • Bonnie told Chase that it’s important to ensure trails connect, so people taking active transportation can actually move to one place from another without hitting a dead end and restarting. • Chase said he will bring up to Monte how we can play air quality into that conversation. He will follow-up with Heather and Bonnie. 5|Page COMMITTEE OPEN DISCUSSION • Joe asked if there was anything the committee members would like to discuss. • Stephen asked if anyone had anything for the people over at HEAL, particularly with partnerships. He speaks to one of the policy advocates over there now and again. Heather said she sees HEAL around all the time doing things, but she doesn’t understand what their main mission is, so it makes it hard for her to answer his question. Stephen said their mission is like an all-encompassing healthy environment. They started their focus in radioactive waste, but they’re now touching on clean air and other environmental issues. He was considering asking them to attend a meeting to tell us what they do. He asked the committee if this is something they’re interested in. This generated a lot of discussion among the committee members regarding various organizations and scheduling them to attend meetings to learn more about what they do. • David said Physicians for Clean Air and other groups like them be allowed 15 – 20 minutes, which may be appropriate to engage in valuable discussion. On the other hand, it might make sense to see if we could schedule whatever meeting with them in the room at city hall, so it will lend some credibility to what we’re trying to do. He suggested Tom Carter, the director of Utah Clean Air, may be another good one to speak with. Bonnie said they have monthly public meetings with a lot of good information and highly suggests them. • Heather said it may be most efficient to hold meetings with relative subcommittees and invite all committee members to attend, due to the time constraints and the number of items needing to be accomplished in each committee meeting. • Bonnie said it may be easier for the groups to attend a Zoom meeting as opposed to asking them to drive long distances. DELIVERABLES FOR JUNE 25th MEETING • All subcommittees to report on their progress. ADJOURNMENT • Joe unexpectedly left the meeting, so Heather checked the agenda to make sure everything had been covered. It had been, so she moved to adjourn the meeting. David seconded it, and the meeting was adjourned at 5:37 p.m. NEXT MEETING Thursday, June 25, 2020 at 4:00 p.m. HEather Root __________________________________________________ ________________________________________________ HEather Root (Oct 28, 2020 11:21 MDT) Jay M. Lowder Heather Root, Chair Ogden City Public Services Director Date Approved: 06/25/20 6|Page