Sustainability Committee

Minutes of the regular meeting of the Natural Resources and Sustainability Stewardship Advisory Committee held Thursday, August 27, 2020 at 4:00 p.m. via electronic web conferencing in accordance with Utah Code 52-4-202. Pursuant to a written determination by the Committee Chair finding that conducting the meeting with an anchor location presents a substantial risk to the health and safety of those who may be present due to the infectious and potentially dangerous nature of COVID-19 virus. Members Present: Heather Root Adam Tobey Bonnie Christiansen Bill Hackett Joe Linford Pearl Marden Rachel Ballard Stephen St. Peter David Stevenson Members Excused: Chase Wilson Ex-Officio: Jay Lowder Amy Mabey Leesa Brinkerhoff Guest: Mara Brown – Ogden City Attorney CALL TO ORDER / WELCOME / ROLL CALL • Heather welcomed the committee members and called the meeting to order. • Leesa called the roll. APPROVAL OF JULY 23rd MEETING MINUTES • Heather asked if there were any recommended changes to the July 23rd meeting minutes. There were none. She asked if someone would like to motion to approve. Bill moved to approve, and Joe seconded the motion. The meeting minutes were approved unanimously. OGDEN CITY SUSTAINABILITY NEWS – JAY LOWDER • Jay told the committee that Heather did an outstanding job representing the committee in the sunset presentation to the city council. • We presented our current recycling status at the council work session on Tuesday. We are still recommending to administration that the city continue to move forward with Recycled Earth, but they do have to be in compliance. We will move forward and try to negotiate and work this situation out, but if we reach in impasse, we’re working on plan B, which is Integrated Waste Management in Layton. Once we receive actual numbers for this new operation, Jay will bring them to the committee for consideration and endorsement. The only reason we would go to plan B, is if Recycled Earth doesn’t comply with the conditional use permit. If they would comply today, we would be hauling to them tomorrow. • We’re continuing to finish up our ESCO Project. We had some issues with some of the streetlight LEDs, but that’s been corrected. We will see a big energy savings from this project. RECAP OF SUNSET REPORT PRESENTATION TO COUNCIL – HEATHER ROOT • Heather presented what the committee has been working on during the past year and told them that we’ll continue in our missions. They asked several questions. Council Chair Choberka asked how we can better handle communication and outreach, such as the recent situation with recycling. Heather asked the Community Outreach and Education Subcommittee to think about ways we can handle it differently in the future. • Heather asked the committee if they had any questions. Stephen asked if it could be accessed to watch. Amy said yes, and she will send out the link. 1|Page  • Four of the council members specifically thanked the committee for the work they have been doing. REPORT ON UTAH 100 COMMUNITIES MEETING – AMY MABEY • We had our 3rd all communities meeting on August 14th. We had more representatives than any other community. Overall, it was a good discussion. They’re trying to work through a path that all communities can agree upon. • Amy is on a governance agreement subcommittee that meets every other week to discuss how we can formulate a plan and organizational structure to move this forward. The intent is to get moving toward a consideration of an agreement in December. From there, they are going to be encouraging communities to find funding for their fiscal years, with counties on calendar years. • They are looking at a cost model that would reflect population and electric utility usage. Ogden is anticipated to be in the higher cost tier due to the amount of industrial we have compared to other communities. Our electricity usage is currently a spilt of industrial, residential, and commercial. They are looking at the cost to be divided over multiple years, so that it doesn’t have as big of an impact on communities during the pandemic. Jay and Amy indicated that the cost estimates at this time are rough and not yet ready for public distribution. Noticing costs will be the city’s responsibility. Amy said the costs are dependent on participation of the other communities. With it being based on electricity usage and the population, we’re probably going to be one of the higher payors. • Bill asked if the study will be conducted through a 3rd party or in house. Amy said they are looking at some in house, but are looking at bringing in some legal representation and some contractors to help with the process. • Heather asked how we will know if our industrial power users are interested in participating in this. Amy said they have had some discussion about it on the governance agreement. She feels as this process moves along there will be some connecting with people. It may be prior to a city decision, or it may be connecting with the users to see what level of interest they have. Heather asked if it’s something our Government and Private Partnership Subcommittee could be working on, or should we put it off until we know more. Amy said there needs to be some internal discussion on it to determine that. She added that we don’t want to get too ahead of the process if things change. In working with the other communities, we’ll have the same materials using the same approach. • Bill asked if the Ogden industrial community has an organization or spokesperson, or do they deal with this individually. Jay said some do, some don’t. BDO has a group that talks about their operations, but the Ogden Industrial Park does not. • David said he and a representative from Clean Energy Utah met with the Ogden Weber Chamber of Commerce and asked this very question. They wanted to find out if there is a specific group or several organizations that represent either the industrial or commercial component. It sounds like the chamber is one group that could help, possibly with the governance agreement. Amy agreed and said she liked Heather’s suggestion as well. • Bonnie said there are groups that are coordinated by a large energy users’ groups. Weber State is one of those. She doesn’t know who else is, but offered to do a little digging. Amy said that would be useful information to have. • Stephen asked what the timelines would be. Amy said she will set up a meeting with their subgroup and will try to have this information to the committee for the next meeting. 2|Page SUBCOMMITTEE PROGRESS REPORTS – COMMITTEE MEMBERS Heather asked if there were any subcommittees that would like to report. Government and Private Partnership • Nothing at this time. Air Quality and Climate • Bonnie said she was happy to represent the subcommittee’s work in response to the council’s request on air quality and climate. She said the group considered it on a broad level and how they could recommend and move the city forward to make sure our citizens can breathe fresh and clean air, and pursue healthier lives. • She shared the draft proposal for review with the committee. • With all the technological changes that are coming, the emissions from vehicles are going to be reduced. However, with a growing population, as well as buildings, we still won’t have what’s considered healthy clean air here along the Wasatch Front in 30 years. The group looked for some impactful things that could be done with local leadership and came up with six broad recommendations: 1. Address Air Quality and Climate Challenges Together  Both air quality and climate overlap and many of them are things our citizens are concerned about.  Air quality continues to be a top concern to Utahns and the reason why many people don’t want to move to Utah.  More and more people are concerned about climate. Over half the population in Weber County are interested in local governments taking a role in this. 2. Make an Ambitious Goal  Some cities have made ambitious goals and exceeded those goals. Bill concurred that having an ambitious goal as opposed to an easy goal is a key point. He said it’s encouraging to see a list of other municipalities that have set these goals with them being right on track or ahead of schedule. 3. Hire Dedicated Sustainability Staff  To help move the goals forward, we are recommending 2 different staff positions; one is an Energy Manager, and the other would be a Sustainability or Environmental Manager. Bill said the subcommittee feels that for the Energy Manager, someone with an engineering background and understanding of the technical aspects to putting a plan together would be preferred. This includes cost estimates, creating an infrastructure and the human resources necessary for the plan to move forward. The other position would be more of a coordinator role to roll out the implementation and carry out the terms of the climate action plan for the municipality. David asked if there was any input from Jay, Amy or Leesa regarding budgets, staffing, and priorities for this recommendation. Jay said, as discussed before, right now is a very difficult time as the city is trying to take care of its employees. We have a limited budget right now, and before we add other employees, we need to make sure to take care of our existing employees. David asked if there are any suggestions of how the committee can make this recommendation. 3|Page  Jay said the fact that the committee is recommending the positions be partially funded from grants, but they need to be funded ongoing, otherwise they end up coming out of the general fund. If it’s a sustainable grant to fund the positions, it’s solid ground and savings can come out of it. Our ESCO Project took a lot of low hanging fruit off the table and the savings we’re going to get from the project have to actually pay for the improvements that it did. Bonnie asked Jay if the subcommittee can set up some time to talk to him about the project in terms of how much is going back to pay for it and possibly to recoup things going forward. Jay said yes and to know that we’ve structured the ESCO Project to pay back in 10 years. Amy said she concurs with Jay in that they included other funding sources. We’ve had some discussion in the past when working with Utah Clean Energy and we’ve struggled to come up with sustainable funding. Recommending the position be part-time to begin with may be a good way to lead. A well thought out and prepared proposal, as the committee is doing, will help in consideration. David said, number one is we can point to specific savings that are likely to happen because the person’s on board and can pay for itself. Number two is, if we can point to the fact that we’ve got outside funding that pays for the positions and the outside funding won’t stop in a year, it might be an additional reason the council may approve. David went on to say that a concern discussed by the subcommittee, is if we are able to bring someone on as a Sustainability and Environment Manager, would they only focus on the air issues and climate, or would they really be a sustainability and environmental manager and able to do other things. They concluded that the position would be involved in pollution prevention projects generally through the city. What the subcommittee is proposing, is the position is not just focused on air quality, but could coordinate pollution prevention and reduction efforts across all the communities. Jay said the environmental concern isn’t just for Ogden City. It’s also for Weber County, so these positions could also be looked at as a coalition. If Ogden makes these changes and no one else does, we haven’t solved all of the problems. The cost can be spread in doing it this way. Heather suggested that the city could select any of these goals and the committee can perform a more in- depth analysis, adding that focusing on fewer things may yield better results. 4. Provide Sustainability Training for City Staff  The city has some work going on with this, but it’s felt more can be done with additional training provided.  It helps to have an internal champion, such as a Sustainability Manager. Heather added that this is what cities, who are making a lot of progress, are doing and it’s well-established, so there’s some good templates to follow. 5. Include Air Quality and Climate on All Operational and Citywide Planning  Engage city employees and ONRSSC members to educate, create awareness, and seek opportunities to incorporate things such as: o Transportation planning and fleet purchases o Building design and construction, operations, and maintenance o Purchasing (office, electronics, and other city supplies) o Landscaping equipment o Sold and hazardous waste minimization and diversion o Water waste o Water quality 6. Electrify Ogden  Prioritize electrifying vehicles, as they are the main source of air quality issues 4|Page   Start to electrify buildings, which is a much longer process • Heather asked if there were any questions or comments. • Stephen asked if the document is considered public. Jay said it has to be approved by council first for it to be a public document. For now, it’s considered a draft and should not be shared with anyone outside of the committee. As a final draft it can be voted on as a committee recommendation. Then administration will put together a council transmittal with the recommendation and present it to council for consideration and adoption. Once it’s adopted, it’s public document. • Mara said it can be discussed among committee members and determine a timeline for completion. She told Heather that she appreciates her noting that there are a number of options and a number of ways to move forward without having to be implemented all at once. Mara thought the training option was a good one to train existing employees. • Heather invited the committee members to provide their comments. She asked that revisions suggestions from the full committee be sent by September 10th and the subcommittee will work to incorporate those suggestions for the next full committee meeting. • Bonnie asked who the comments should be sent to. Heather said both her and Bonnie. Water Quality, Supply and Conservation • Nothing at this time. Solid and Hazardous Waste Reduction and Recycling • David said he met earlier this year with Chuck Leonhardt, President and CEO of the Ogden Weber Chamber of Commerce and talked with him about doing a pollution prevention award, where the mayor would issue an award to industrial and commercial folks within our city. They are continuing to work on this. • David expressed his concern regarding the current situation with our recycling program. He acknowledged that committee members and most of the public advocate recycling, noting that Ogden has an excellent recycling program. He also acknowledged the compliance issues with Recycled Earth. He asked if there is anything the committee can do to advocate or recommend that might help the gridlock stop, or perhaps a survey to find out if city residents would be willing to pay more for the process to work. • Jay said he doesn’t believe there’s a need for a survey because the city has already committed to cover the additional cost of recycling. However, he feels it’s important for the community to be proactive and get the word out to reduce the contamination rates. Since COVID, our tonnage numbers have gone up 1,900 tons increasing our contamination rates as much as 30% or more. He said the committee can come up with a proposal and recommendation to help with outreach to educate the residents on what’s recyclable and what’s not, to include the state of recycling and the market. • Bonnie said we may want to do something broader and include how to reduce waste overall. • Mara suggested that we can remind the Ogden citizens that they can take their recycling directly to Bloom Recyclers as an interim option. They have a host friendly website with kids’ information. • Stephen asked if there is a way to measure actual waste vs. recyclables for individual residents to use as a way to promote changing behavior. Jay said we don’t have the individual metrics, but it’s possible to break it out by routes. • David said that the timing may not be right to do this. It’s a political issue and one of the few things that the public are really attuned to. He feels the outreach that Jay suggested would be best at this time until the recycling situation is straightened out. 5|Page  • Adam said his perception from the small circle he is in, is that it would fall on deaf ears because people wouldn’t care about sorting until the recycling issue is worked out. This may be something that should wait too, but he does like the idea of getting out some information on reduction of waste, reusable containers, or sorting aluminum cans and taking them to a scrap metal place. Sustainable Energy • Nothing at this time. Open Space • Nothing at this time. Education and Community Outreach • Adam said he’s not aware of the posts he and Chase asked to be sent out. Leesa said one was posted on the city website and the other was posted on Facebook. She suggested looking at a process to confirm when posts are completed. Adam agreed and said they will discuss it in their next subcommittee meeting. COMMITTEE OPEN DISCUSSION • Stephen said he has a Green Drinks network on September 10th that he’s going to do on Zoom. He held a few of these last year, one of which had representation from the city teaching on recycling. He invited the committee to join and present their individual areas of experience and/or expertise. It’s already on Facebook. • Heather said she is going to start reaching out to the subcommittee chairs to see how things are going. Her intent is to do a better job of coordinating with the subcommittees to find out if they will need any time at the meetings and if they’re hitting roadblocks. If they are hitting roadblocks, she will find out who, within the city staff can help them • Heather met with Jay, Mara, Amy, and Leesa to sort out the functions of the committee. They presented an idea of, in the next few months, having dedicated strategic planning sessions instead of the monthly meetings. Heather supports this and asked the committee for their input. • Bonnie said it would be nice to have the new members there. Heather agreed and said the committee member recommendation forms are on the mayor’s desk. • Bill said he is in strong favor of looking at the big picture and putting together a strategic plan. He feels it’s a worthwhile activity that should be done periodically. • Joe asked if this is something we would hold once per quarter. Heather said she is thinking of doing it in October or November with the intention of cooperatively deciding on some top priorities committee wide. This may result in some subcommittees knowing that they don’t have to act really quickly and may help other subcommittees have some sense of what to be focusing on. The intention would be to identify goals for the year, and it should be done once per year. • Bill said it makes sense to him to do it once per year. • Heather said it would not be a public meeting, but rather a brainstorming session. • David offered his company’s large conference room for the meeting. It seats about 24 people. He’d be glad to host the meeting and provide refreshments. They are located on Harrison at 46th South, right across from the Ogden Clinic. PUBLIC COMMENT • No public comment 6|Page DELIVERABLES FOR SEPTEMBER 24TH MEETING • Heather will touch base with the subcommittee chairs before the next meeting. • Committee members were asked to review the air quality proposal and submit any comments to Heather and Bonnie by September 10th. The subcommittee will incorporate comments into the draft document. The committee will review the final document at the next committee meeting and will consider voting on it. ADJOURNMENT • Heather asked if anyone was willing to motion to adjourn the meeting. Bonnie motioned to move, and Bill seconded it. • With no further business, Heather adjourned the meeting at 5:40 p.m. NEXT MEETING Thursday, September 24, 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: 10-22-2020 7|Page