Sustainability Committee

Minutes of the regular meeting of the Natural Resources and Sustainability Stewardship Advisory Committee held Thursday, April 22, 2021 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 Members Excused: Rachel Ballard Pearl Marden David Stevenson Stephen St. Peter Ex-Officio: Jay Lowder Leesa Brinkerhoff Guests: Jeremy Shinoda Jenn Bodine CALL TO ORDER / WELCOME / ROLL CALL • Heather welcomed the committee members and called the meeting to order. • Leesa called the roll. APPROVAL OF MARCH 25th MEETING MINUTES • Heather asked if there were any recommended changes to the March 25th meeting minutes. There were none. Heather asked if someone would like to motion to approve them. Joe motioned to approve and Bill seconded the motion. The meeting minutes were approved unanimously. UPDATES – JAY LOWDER, PUBLIC SERVICES DIRECTOR New member recommendations update • There were 3 recommendations made, one of which was for our business partner. Leesa put together the required documentation and Jay forwarded them to the CAO. They are under review with Mara Brown, our new Management Services Director, to ensure they meet the criterion in the recently amended committee ordinance. Once approved, they will be forwarded to the council. • Today, David Stephenson resigned his position on the committee, leaving another vacancy. • Heather asked if we have an open call out for applicants right now, or do we have an applicant pool, or do we need to advertise for more applicants. • Leesa said that there is an applicant interest form on the council website, but we’ve only received 3 inquires since posting it a while back. She said it needs to be moved to a new location on the city’s website where it’s easier to find. She will work to get that moved. • Jay said we want to make sure we have diversity in members representing all districts in the city. • Heather asked if Adam could put out a media post. Jay said yes, and he will work with Adam on it. • Bonnie asked if the districts needing representation have been identified. Leesa said she will find out and email it to the committee. • Leesa said Rachel and Pearl’s memberships on the committee expire in April. Adam said he has spoken with a few high school students who may be interested. Air Quality Recommendations status 1|Page  • Jay said the recommendations were forwarded to the CAO, who forwarded them to council. The council will put it on their calendar at their discretion. Administration has no control over that. When a date is set, the chair will present it to council in a work session. Jay will be there to assist. After which, council will schedule it for an open session to vote on it with public input. • Bonnie said that she noticed that HB 411 is on the agenda for next Tuesday’s work session. She is concerned that the council hasn’t heard from this committee. She would like to request she be a part of it to give input and answer questions. • Bill asked if the work sessions are open to the committee. Jay said yes, but there is no public comment in the work sessions, only in the open general sessions. Dominion Energy Joint Agreement status • Gary Williams, our city attorney, is reviewing the draft of the agreement. He is also working on a franchise agreement with Dominion Energy which takes priority over the joint agreement. • Heather asked Jay if there is anything the committee can help with to progress it. Jay said no, not at this point. • Bonnie said her understanding is, after Dominion reviewed the draft, most everything was redlined except for the fact that they would be willing to work with us to reach out to underserved communities. She asked Jay if that’s how he read it. Jay said yes. ENERGY WISE OGDEN PROJECT UPDATE – JENN BODINE, WEBER STATE UNIVERSITY • Jenn told the committee that she was attending the meeting to talk about the Energy Wise strategic implementation plan that was approved last July. They are setting up implementation committees headed by various chairs. • The plan is divided in three sections and has goals and strategies listed for each. The three sections are: 1. Municipal sector Goals: Cost effective decrease in average energy intensity of municipal facilities by 5% by 2025 as compared to the baseline of 2018. 2. Commercial and Business sector Goals: Increase commercial, industrial facilities total annual participation in efficiency program by 5% by 2025 compared to the baseline of 2018. 3. Residential sector Goals: Increase energy efficiency upgrades to residential properties by 25% and increase participation in low-income efficiency program by 50% There will also be community-wide goals to reduce consumption in electricity and natural gas. • Monica Kapp is heading up the municipal sector. Council member Marcia White is heading up the commercial and business sector. The gentleman they hoped would lead the residential sector is unable to do it, so for now, Jenn, Ian, and Natalie will head up that group. Ian and Natalie are also with the weatherization and HEAT programs. • Within the implementation plan, it explicitly calls out for members of this committee to serve and help with the implementation of the strategies in the plan. Jenn said it would be ideal to have at least one committee member to serve on each of the three sectors and asked if anyone from the committee would be willing and able to serve. The commercial, industrial, and residential groups are primarily focused on a lot of marketing and coordinating to get the word out about existing utility, weatherization, and HEAT programs. • Bonnie said she is willing to serve on the residential housing, as she has experience working in residential housing programs before. 2|Page  • With most of his experience being in government, Joe said the municipal one would be a good fit, but he would take the commercial and business one as well. • Heather said there may be a committee member, who is absent from the meeting, that may be interested in the commercial and business one. She thanked Jenn for her time in joining the meeting and she was excused. STRATEGIC PLAN UPDATE – BILL HACKETT • Bill told the committee that he wanted to review the results of the survey at this meeting and develop an initial set of strategic goals. At next month’s meeting and the following month’s meetings, he wants to revisit the strategic goals and address a plan to achieve them and put them into action. • Bill asked the committee the homework question, “What are your key takeaways of the survey results?” • Bonnie said she saw a wealth of knowledge and interest in the committee to serve. She also saw that some people are able to engage more frequently than others, and others haven’t been able to attend meetings as much. • Adam said he saw some of the same as Bonnie did with commitment issues. He also saw retention and workload issues, as well as a lack of feeling like we’re really a consultative committee. He questions if this is something that the mayor and council is committed to, because of the lack of response and action on what the committee has done so far. • Heather said her takeaways were captured in Adam’s comments, but a key one was the need to know what would be most beneficial to the city and not mess around with other things. Having too much of a workload, yet not knowing what will make the biggest difference. • Joe said he concurs with what’s been mentioned so far. • Jay said he was purposely trying to stay quiet because he feels it isn’t his position to direct the strategic plan for the committee. Rather, he feels that once it’s decided, it’s his position to make sure it’s carried out. However, he did have some strong takeaways from the survey. He may need to rethink of how to time the committee’s involvement so that is seems like it’s more in sync to where the committee feels their recommendations have a heavier weight. • Jay is concerned that a lot of members feel there is limited resources, but so far we’ve tried to accommodate what the committee has requested, whether financial or removing roadblocks to get messages out. The committee is first and foremost an educational committee. • Leesa said her main takeaway was the committee desires more direct communication with the council and administration. • Jay asked the committee what they really want, such as a clear definition from the council and administration in what to work on. • Heather said she feels the committee won’t have an answer until the strategic planning is finished. • Adam said the committee can’t know how Jay can best support it until they know what they need and can ask. • Bonnie said she wants to know that we have open lines of communication when needed. When the committee sends recommendations, they would like an acknowledgement and whether or not the recommendation will be considered, etc.. An easier flow of communication between the advisory committee, administration, and council is desired. • Heather said she’s been thinking about another piece of that in how, without a relationship, it’s hard to know where the recommendation is coming from; is it politically motivated or how do the city council or mayor know if they can trust us? Without a relationship, how do we know what to advise?. On the other hand, Heather has a sense that she’s not supposed to develop a relationship with them because she’s supposed to be a separate 3|Page  entity. She feels a lot of tension about wanting to have relationships with people she’s advising and wanted to be independent, so she can be the most useful advisor. • Jay said he feels that Bill’s process will help to develop that. • Bill said we tend to talk about the direction of communications as either/or. He added that any successful relationships he’s had with clients have been a 2-way street. There hasn’t been a feeling of conflict with either party. The purpose of having a consultant, whether it’s a committee or an individual is to have some independent input. The client has to guide that input in some fashion. No client, city or otherwise, asks a client to come in and just give random advice on random things. He wants to know that his advice is valued and considered. Bill doesn’t see these two thing as conflicting at all. • Joe said he agreed with everything that’s been said. It would be good to have some general guidance from the city council, which would allow the committee to work on things relatively independently toward some broader things to address. Then, as needed, some things very specific they may use to address us. He very much agrees that we need more 2-way communication. • Bonnie said that when Council Member Angela Choberka joined a meeting a couple of months ago, she mentioned that she wanted to attend more meetings because it would be more helpful. Bonnie thinks this would be helpful to foster the communication back and forth. She understands the council members are very busy, but would like them to join on occasion. Bonnie asked if this is allowable and if it’s something they’d want to engage in? • Heather said the one thing we know for sure is we are allowed to go to their meetings, because they are public. She feels this is a way we can get to know them better and is step one for her. • Bill said he needs to up his game in terms of the 2-way street idea. He will try to come to more work sessions and council meetings, especially if he knows our items are going to be on the agenda. • Heather said Jay can help by what topics are coming up on the agenda. Jay said that’s not a problem. • Bill said this was a good discussion. The next thing for us to do is to draft an initial set of strategic goals by reviewing the survey results and determine what’s good and what can be strengthened. • Bill gave an example of his 4 strategic goals that he has written down. These are subject to change based on ideas from the committee in order of priority: 1. Don’t too quickly give up on HB 411. If the city does decide to leave, we should have an alternative plan or, at least, a commitment to develop one. 2. Continue to encourage the hiring of an internal sustainability person to manage sustainability initiatives as recommend in our air quality and climate subcommittee report. 3. Strengthen and clarify relationship with the mayor and council as internal stakeholders. 4. Do the same thing with external stakeholders in the community, notably WSU and the Ogden business community. • Bill suggested that everyone write down their own goals for the next meeting. We will then review everyone’s goals and come to a consensus. Once a consensus is met, we’ll talk about implementation, prioritization, and how to achieve them. • Heather assigned each member to write down their goals and email them to her before the next meeting. She will compile them for review. SUBCOMMITTEE PROGRESS REPORTS Air Quality and Climate 4|Page  • Still waiting for the response from council on the recommendations. Government and Private Partnership • Adam asked what the process would be for an organization to partner with the city to educate youth concerning sustainability and natural resource protection. Jay said to utilize the city’s internal resources, including its media group. Adam thanked Jay and said he will follow-up with him. • Heather said this subcommittee isn’t functional right now. Depending on if something would fall under it with our strategic plan, we’ll need to revitalize it. Water Quality, Supply, and Conservation • Bill said he has nothing to report at this time, as he has been putting his efforts into the strategic planning survey. Solid and Hazardess Waste Reduction and Recycling • Leesa shared her screen to show the committee a picture of one of the city’s recycling drivers and his son, with a display they put together for Earth Day at the Ogden Nature Center. • Adam said that due to his efforts in the strategic plan survey, there is nothing new to update. He added that this subcommittee is thinning out rather rapidly. Two of the members are our high school members whose terms have ended as of this month. • Adam met with a Gina McCracken, a graduate student from USU in their master’s program in environmental sociology. Adam introduced her to members of the subcommittee. She is interested in our education and outreach efforts, particularly in relation to connecting with the Diversity Commission with regard to equity diversity, inclusion, and sustainability. • Adam said he understands that, when he moves into the committee chair position, he will no longer chair this subcommittee, but will be happy to serve on it. Sustainable Energy • Heather said that she, Adam, and Bonnie have a meeting this Friday with some of the folks from the Diversity Commission and WSU sustainability to share ideas and brainstorm about potential collaboration. She will update the committee at the next meeting. We’re hoping this is a relationship that will move forward. • Bonnie reported that her and Jenn Bodine met with Jay and Monica Kapp to come up with some ideas of how they can support the city in developing an EV charging station plan. We’re hoping to work with some students at WSU that can help. • Jay said he was very thankful to Bonnie and Jenn for their willingness to help us take first steps because he knows it’s priority for a couple of council members. Open Space • Heather said this subcommittee is defunct right now. She is interested in working on this when she steps down as chair, depending on the strategic goals. Education and Community Outreach • Nothing new to report other than what has been discussed earlier in the meeting. COMMITTEE OPEN DISCUSSION • Adam asked Leesa if, in her next communication, she would send out the link to the committee interest form. • Bonnie said she would love to know when the committee can meet in person again. Jay said it will follow fairly close to when the council opens to general sessions. 5|Page PUBLIC COMMENT Jenn Bodine • The professor at WSU over the Real Projects class is excited about the EV charging stations project. He knows that the students will be excited as well and he’s going to start marketing it very soon to secure the students with the skill sets that we need in order to implement it. Jenn told Jay that her next step is to put together a list of questions from the meeting with him and Monica that the students can start to research when they begin classes in the fall. • Jay said they will present the findings to the committee so they can go to administration and council. Jenn said it would be a fantastic experience for the students to present. It should be the last part of November or the first part of December. Heather said we’ll put them on the agenda when the time comes. DELIVERABLES FOR MAY 27TH MEETING • Write down each individual’s strategic goals and email them to Heather before the next meeting. She will compile them for review at the meeting. • Subcommittees that are working on projects will report status updates. ADJOURNMENT • With no further business, Heather adjourned the meeting at 5:10 p.m. NEXT MEETING Thursday, May 27, 2021 at 4:00 p.m. __________________________________________________ ________________________________________________ Jay M. Lowder Heather Root, Chair Ogden City Public Services Director Date Approved: ________________________________ 6|Page