https://otter.ai/s/jvQe6kzERQyX0N7wMTaF1g
0:06
I would like to now call the June 17 2020 Longmont sustainability Advisory Board Meeting to order Can we please start with a roll call.
0:23
Thank you so much, Kate. So I will start with all of the board members. Once I read your name if you’ll just raise your hand and say here, then I’ll call out our staff members. Kate colored son chair here.
0:38
Cody flag board member
0:43
Violetta I know I’m gonna rip up your last name if you could pronounce that for me, please.
0:51
You’re you’re on mute
0:55
you later manoogian
0:57
thank you so much as our Vice Chair. Cable Meyer here. Thank you Kay and Jim Metcalf their wonderful Thank you. Staff members to here today Lisa Knobloch. Annie noble here. Fancy Jackie. Here are nice tell us here.
1:27
Tim Ellis.
1:30
Susan Bartlett. You’re a porn backer
1:35
here. Perfect. And our city council liaison today is Polly Christiansen
1:44
I’ll call on you.
1:48
Thank you.
1:53
Thank you, Tammy.
1:56
So do we have a quorum
2:03
I think we have a quorum. All right.
2:06
Anyone wishing to speak during the public invited to be heard section will need to watch the livestream of the meeting. instructions for how to call in to provide comment will be given during the meeting and displayed on the screen at the appropriate time. Comments are limited to three minutes per person and each speaker will be asked to state their name and address for the record prior to proceeding with their comments.
2:36
Chair, I just want to advise you that
2:38
although I it says live on custom live streaming, I am not seeing it live on our YouTube channel. So
2:46
I’m going to go ahead and stop that.
2:50
It’s not going to work for me today.
2:54
Okay, so you can continue without the public invited to be heard except For
3:01
the one comment from the public that I believe Lisa wants to read into the record.
3:08
Great. Thank you, Susan.
3:11
Okay, so this is that sustainability Program Manager Lisa Knobloch I received an email
3:18
306.
3:21
Can you hear me?
3:22
Yes, but we’re, we still need to approve the minutes from.
3:27
Sorry, go ahead.
3:31
Could I have a motion to approve the minutes from February 19. meeting?
3:36
I moved to approve the minutes from February 19 2020.
3:41
Thank you, Jessica. That motion.
3:43
Thank you, Cody. All in favor, raise your hand and say
3:46
aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye.
3:56
Thank you.
3:59
The minutes are approved. was unanimous voting Okay. Now on to Lisa for public invited to be heard.
4:11
Okay, great. So I received an email at 3:06pm this afternoon from Joe Kelly at 622 Barbary drive, and this person wanted me to read the following statement for the sustainability advisory board. That Longmont needs to study the problems with EMF specifically regarding the possible implementation of ami smart rendering in this city, mentioned in last January is long month newsletter in parentheses, the one that goes out with utility bills. Additionally, we have an internationally recognized expert in wire communications in the area. Tim Shoko, who I’m sure would be more than willing to come and give a presentation to this group asked you love One month next light and fiber and the fiber optic system is in an amazing innovator in his field. I’d be happy to give you his contact info, although you may already have it from some of his books that were left with some committee members or not. And that’s it. Thank you.
5:26
Okay.
5:30
Moving on to the next item on the agenda.
5:35
Are there any revisions or submissions of document
5:41
staff
5:43
have anything? Okay.
5:47
We will move on to item seven general business. Looks like we have an update from the Climate Action Task Force.
5:57
Yep. So I just wanted to provide you update with where things are at with the Climate Action Task Force. And also say it’s really nice to see all of your faces, it’s been quite a while. So I hope everybody is doing well or as well as people can be doing, given everything going on these days. So we, as everything else, postponed a lot of the work of the Climate Action Task Force, if you recall, their initial recommendations report was due to City Council on April 8, so we were fast and furious getting those recommendations done and then COVID happened and everything got put on hold. And we kind of had to rework everything to organize that group by email to continue their work remotely. So we have, we did take a bit of a break but we have been able to do that and they resumed meetings in early June and they have been finalizing the recommendations and pulling together the final report and that is set to go To city council over two different city council’s sessions, because it’s a pretty substantive report. So there are six primary topic areas that they’ve developed recommendations and in some supporting information as well. So that will be the first presentation will be on June 30. And they will discuss the recommendations in the building energy use renewable energy and transportation topic areas. And then they’ll do a second presentation on July 7, and they will cover the recommendations in the adaptation and resilience, land use and waste management and education and outreach topic areas. And then, in addition to the work that that group has been doing, the just transition plan committee that has been meeting concurrently that’s been focusing specifically on developing recommendations for integrating equity into climate action. Also has their recommendations that have been integrated into the climate action report recommendation. Record. And they will also present the recommendations on July 7, as well. And then we will take all of those recommendations and bring them to this board as well as the Transportation Board and the water board in July. So you will have an opportunity to review all of those recommendations in depth and provide comments and feedback to city council after the July meeting, so I just wanted to let you all know that that’s what’s happening with that group. And then one of the recommendations is regarding governance and how oversight and accountability is done moving forward to make sure that these recommendations don’t just sit on a shelf somewhere. And what they’re proposing to council though will ultimately be up to council to really determine how we move forward after the report is presented, is that that responsibility get integrated into the scope of the Sustainability advisory board, in that we look together at doing quarterly reporting, which we do already with regards to the sustainability plan strategies. But adding the climate action recommendations specifically, so that they’re that’ll be built into probably at what I imagine assuming that city council approves, this is on a quarterly basis, that’ll be a standing agenda item for this group, to really look at how those recommendations are progressing, and draft a progress report that goes to city council with regards to those recommendations. So I just wanted to give you all a heads up that that’s what they determined makes the most sense from an oversight and accountability standpoint. Again, it’ll be up to City Council for that final determination of what what that looks like moving forward. So I’ll update you all in July at the next meeting as well, but we wanted that to be on your radar. Does anyone have any questions on that before I go to the next agenda item
10:00
Yeah, okay.
10:03
When did you say that that taskforce report was gonna go to
10:06
council that’s gonna be after we review it
10:09
or before? No some before. So June 30 and July 7 of the two presentation dates. I’ll bring the full report to you all in to your July meeting, which I think is the
10:23
fourth or something like that. I can’t remember off the top of my head.
10:29
So, any other questions or comments on that piece? Oh, can’t be
10:37
soda. Lisa, the quarterly report, you know, to sort of ongoing monitoring is, is that going to be different? Or it’s going to fall under the umbrella of your monitoring of the sustainability plan?
10:55
That hasn’t been quite determined yet. I imagine that’ll be part of the conversation with Council. But what do they want to see in terms of that quarterly report? What level of depth and detail and all of that sort of stuff right now, as you know, that quarterly report is just a big spreadsheet. I’ve logged up to be in a different format and just have not had the time or capacity to sit down with that. So, but I, I do imagine that it’ll be an opportunity for us to figure out how to do that reporting process differently, but it’ll really be up to Council in terms of what they want to see. So we’ll have to wait and see what their feedback on that is.
11:35
Okay. Thank you.
11:43
Anything else on that piece?
11:50
Okay, so, item seven B. And Susan, I think you have, you should have a slide for this one.
12:00
Great. Can everybody see that? Okay.
12:05
Okay, so if you all remember, I believe it was our last meeting or a second last meeting. I think it was our last meeting, that we had a pretty in depth conversation around what the sustainability advisory board wanted to prioritize for 2020. And we have kind of that that ranking process that we went through to determine our topic areas to really dig into. And then obviously COVID happened. So I did go back to all of those topic areas and put together this revised proposed plan. I think there’s nothing that gets left out, but there are things that have to kind of double up in meetings, which I think is okay. But it might make some of these meetings a little needy. Um, so, but there are some opportunities as well and I just wanted to run through this and make sure that this is Good to go with everybody. Or if I’m missing anything or if you think this is too much, if we need to push something to 2021, we’ll probably have to reserve that conversation for later because we have a lot to get through today. But so climate action, as I mentioned in July, the update to the sustainability plan, and I’ll provide you a little bit more of an update to this later in the meeting has been postponed due to budget constraints from COVID. So as you recall, that was supposed to launch later this year in conjunction with an update to the Envision Longmont comprehensive plan. And all of those expenditures are on hold right now. So that process is on hold probably at at least until 2021. But that also remains to be seen with the current budget situation. There was a focus on education and outreach. And so I figured in September there’s, as I mentioned, you guys before the climate action test Force has a topic areas specifically focused on education and outreach. And they have, I think, five or six recommendations in that area that we can go over in July. But I have the in August or September, we can work with this group to really determine what role this group wants to play specifically in that education and outreach piece, I think there are some opportunities for you all there, digging into recycling and composting around waste diversion. So Charlie cominius, who’s our sanitation manager has a presentation that he’ll be taking to Council in August, and looking for some additional direction. So we want to make sure that he also comes to this group and gives an update on where things are at and get some feedback from this group in terms of some of those priorities as well to take to city council. And then we have the citizens climate lobby group that wanted to do a more in depth presentation on what their proposal is for city council. So I think that those Things between August and September can go in October. We can do an update on water efficiency. And I know folks had really wanted to dig into that piece of what, what are we currently seeing around projections of water supply due to climate change, and there’s been some new information and reports coming out. So I thought that would be a good time for francy to provide you all an update on water efficiency, and pesticides and pollinators. I think those things can can go together in October, and then electrification and renewables. We are currently Tim, who’s on this group here has been leading the development of an electrification plan with LPC that’s just getting going. But I think November and Tim you and I can check in about this if this timing doesn’t work, but at least we could provide you an update on where where that process is that and that’s also a recommendation that is coming of the claimant Test forces around electrification as well. And then we always cancel our December meeting because it’s usually around the 20th or 21st. And nobody shows up. So does that sound good to everybody folks can just kind of, either give me a thumbs up or if you have any concerns or objections, free to jump in.
16:25
Thumbs up.
16:27
Thank you for figuring that out where we can still get everything in. I really do appreciate that. That looks good.
16:33
Great. Okay. Any major objections with that? Okay, and I will, I’m gonna give you all a heads up. Now, I also tried to plan this in a way that um, I will be going on parental leave sometime in August and we’ll be out for August, September and most likely October as well. And so I tried to set it up where these things could happen without me being present as well so that you guys have a solid agenda for those months that that I’ll be out.
17:08
Congratulations.
17:09
Thank you.
17:10
Yeah, adulation.
17:11
And it’s funny, too. I was gonna mention it to you all before and it was early. And now I’m like, if you saw me, it would be very obvious. But
17:21
Greg, yeah.
17:22
Thank you.
17:24
Alright, with that, I think we can move on to the next agenda item which is the sustainability plan overview. So came up recently, because we’ve had a lot of new folks step on to the advisory board. And then I think I also I think we mentioned this in an email, but in case anybody didn’t see it, Kai belkis has been on the sustainability advisory board for a while got a new job in Boston, if I’m remembering correctly, and he and his family moved out there recently, so he had to step down from the advisory board. So I believe we have one vacancy, currently. So we’ll have some new folks coming on as well. But that it would probably be good for us to just do a brief overview of the sustainability plan just so that everybody, in case you’re not familiar with it understands what the sustainability plan is, and especially because it’s the primary charge of this group, and what the, the breadth of that plan covers. So, Susan, I’d sent you that PDF. Yep, there we go. So what I’ll do is just I’m not gonna read through all of this, but Susan, if you want to scroll to the page, it says starts with air quality. This is a summary you all would have received this via email. And the document itself is, you know, over 100 pages, it’s pretty substantive, but this is a great summary. The 10 topic areas that the sustainability plan covers and kind of our primary objective and the recommendations that are found in each our strategies that are found in each There you go. This is not a great setup I apologize with, with the way that we did the logistics of this meaning I didn’t have time to actually put a slide presentation together so. So air quality is the first one are focused on that is obviously improving air quality and that’s around boiling and gas monitoring and leak detection, improving monitoring and access to air quality information for residents. So that’s feedback that we’ve gotten a lot from folks particularly around things like ozone and wildfire days of increasing the information that people have access to, especially when we have poor air quality days. People can take measures to protect themselves and their families, especially for folks that have respiratory conditions and things like that. And then looking at developing an ozone reductions, incentive and enforcement program. So as you all probably know, the entire Front Range area is out of attainment with regards to ozone. That’s a huge focus of the state right now, as well. And obviously, their ties to climate change and things like transportation and oil and gas development. So that’s the main focus Eric on air quality. Like I said, I’m going to run through all these if you guys have any questions or clarifying questions or anything. In the meantime, just holler up. Susan, will you go back one second, sorry, to the previous page. Thanks. So the buildings and infrastructure that’s focused on increasing code that really helps support sustainable practices of looking at. We’ve been developing as an internal Sustainability evaluation system that helps, again support sustainable practices for city plants and projects. And then we have a focus on indoor air quality and then tying, particularly Resource Conservation to affordable housing. So that part of that is the program that the housing rehabilitation program and the low energy, low income Energy Efficiency Program, are working together on on that piece to help reduce utility bills for low income households. Alright, Susan, you can scroll to the next page.
21:38
community cohesion and resilience. The bulk of the work that we’re doing around that is developing neighborhood based sustainability programs. That’s our partnership with community services. So we have a program right now called the that we’re in the process of developing called the sustainable neighborhoods solutions program. And that’s really developing a whole framework that’s focused on capacity building through sustainability, and education and outreach to neighborhoods. And so we’ll definitely keep you posted as that program develops. Part of that is also tied to the neighborhood impact granting program, which we got funds for through the Boulder County sustainability tax, which is getting ready to launch in the next couple of weeks here, where we’ll actually provide small grants to neighborhood based groups to do neighborhood based sustainability projects. So we’re pretty excited about that work. We would like to work more with the st. Green Valley School District around community resilience. We haven’t made much headway in that area yet. And then continuous focus on community education or community engagement. And that’s a big component of equity that we’ve been focusing on. And then the next one is economic. Lisa.
22:57
Would you like to take questions as At the end of all the sections or I have one about community cohesion.
23:05
And if you have a clarifying question yet, you can go ahead and ask the question now. I think that’s a
23:12
I seem to remember the sustainable opportunities, lifestyles and leadership program. Yep. What is happening there?
23:21
Yeah. So there our program is actually launching right now. So we’re in the process of looking for what we’re calling community technicians. So that program that Violetta is referring to is part of this process. I apologize for not mentioning it. It’s an adaptation of a program that came out of cu and their work with older housing partners, where they do in home direct installs of energy efficient lighting and water efficiency measures like errors and faucets and things like that. But we’ve really expanded it to be again more of a capacity building program and we have Two neighborhoods that we’re piloting that in the kitely neighborhood in the in between housing facility. And so we are in the process of hiring what we call technician. So those are folks that will be trained on sustainable practices. In particular, you know how to go into folks home and kind of do a very high level assessment and then helps people swap out light bulbs and water fixtures and things like that. And then connect them with additional resources, whether that be, you know, signing up for the care program, which is the low income Energy Efficiency Program connecting them to transportation or food access resources. So there’s a lot of different components that we’re working to build out with that and eventually we’d like to have a workforce development component of that. But we’re just in the pilot phase now. And like I said, looking to hire those technicians and get that program off the ground this summer.
25:02
It’s not being affected.
25:06
No, it was postponed of it. And we have had to really wait rework how we’re doing the outreach in that process. And as those technicians on board and train them, part of that process is going to have to be if people if they are going into people’s homes, they need to have peepee, and all of that sort of stuff. And if people don’t feel comfortable bringing people into their homes at this time, how we can support them virtually and provide them probably with some sort of kit that they can install things themselves rather than have a technician walk through their home. So those are all things that we’re actually trying to figure out right now. But yeah, that’s it has been impacted because,
25:51
yeah. Oh, really quick. What was the name of that group? Again?
25:57
It’s the soul program. It’s sustainable. opportunities, lifestyle and leadership. So l,
26:04
lifestyle and leadership.
26:09
Thank you.
26:10
Yeah. Thank you, Lisa. Yeah.
26:14
All right. So moving on to economic vitality. This is really all of the incredible work that Bernice does have through the Sustainable Business program, and her support for underrepresented businesses. Her work has been really important, especially in this period of time with hope and all of the impact that is happening to businesses locally, connecting them with resources, making sure that people have timely information and can access grant opportunities and other funding opportunities that are coming down. And then she will also be focusing more on the workforce development piece as well. Bernie, did you want to add anything to that since you’re on the call?
26:57
I think you you covered everything. I just want to mention that we What are you doing? Well, I was still working hard during this pandemic support the minority owned businesses,
27:08
effects, other type of challenges. So we really is the equity work that in our foundation of our sustainability. Oh, yeah, I just wanted to mention that but you covered everything. Thank you, Lisa. Thank you.
27:23
Okay, so then you can scroll to the next page.
27:28
So energy that one we’ve talked quite a bit about. The focus areas are really energy efficiency, renewable energy, working with low income households, increasing participation in both our commercial and residential energy efficiency programs through efficiency works, and then looking at opportunities for municipal facilities as well. We just went through an assessment to look at energy, energy efficiency opportunities for some of our municipal facilities. And the next phase of that is looking at opportunities for electrification for those facilities. And then the greenhouse gas emissions monitoring work falls under that category as well. We are wrapping up right now our 2019 greenhouse gas inventory. And we’ll be bringing the findings of that report to you in the next couple months, as well. And then you can scroll up to the food systems on there. So the food systems I would say is an area where we do have strategies focused on supporting local food production, local food, retail and food access. I would say this is an area where where we really haven’t gotten a lot of traction, I guess is probably the way to put it. Um, since we develop the sustainability plan. We’re always looking for opportunities in that. But there is a lot of work that happens locally through local groups. So I think that the city so far has been more supporting some of the work that’s been happening locally. One of the projects that we are funding through the sustainability tax. For those of you that were part of those conversations last year when we were prioritizing those projects, is to supply funds to the Boulder County Farmers Market WIC program. It’s their double up food bucks program where it provides additional funding to WIC families, which is with the women infants and children’s program where they give vouchers for the farmers market where they can buy fresh produce, and it actually they get so every $10 that we put in they get $20 worth of produce so and they are also due to COVID working on pivoting how they can do pick up like food pickups like basket pickups and stuff like that. So folks aren’t having to be there in person.
30:01
Yeah, Polly
30:05
you’re on mute.
30:10
So
30:11
the
30:14
people in charge of
30:17
envision Longmont
30:20
are trying to get rid of every farm in town and even the ones that Jason so how does that work with our attempt to connect people to local food resources? What are we doing to encourage studying this at our community college studying food production and setting farming and agricultural studies in our high schools or at our Community College. We have Olin farms and the other farmer down the road are trying very hard to get carbon sequestration studies doing are we is Boulder County Resource Conservation Board actually doing anything in Longmont?
31:11
Yeah, oh me
31:12
something about the gardens to cafeteria program. I don’t know anything about that. So that’s that sounds very interesting. And we opened any community, what do they call kitchens where you can actually produce food where they’re certified and all that?
31:31
Yeah. So those are all great questions. And as I mentioned before, like I said, this is an area where I feel like we haven’t really done very much, and that that updating the sustainability plan and envision I think there will when we’re able to do that, again, there’s a lot of opportunity for us to focus more in depth on this area in particular, because I know those are issues that have come up. So with regards To the Boulder County Resource Conservation Board, and the county and the city of Laredo put in funds to do a carbon sequestration study was about a year and a half or two years ago. And they then subsequently identified five boulder sites that they are doing research on around carbon sequestration, right? Those
32:25
are any of them in Longmont, or near Longmont.
32:28
And I know they’re all Boulder County owned open space sites. I don’t remember off the top of my head where they’re all located. We did express to them that we were interested in working with them on that project and that we would be happy to identify city owned land, and they decided to go with their own properties. So what we’ve been doing is essentially just tracking and monitoring that study to see what the outcomes of that are. So yeah, we didn’t have funds to put on To that, so that their focus mostly has been, like I said, with the city of Boulder on that project. And so we are I mean, I think they’re definitely open to working with us. But, you know, right now we’re just seeing what the what those sites come up with, it’s going to be a couple years that they’re going to check the data to see what the outcomes of those each, essentially each site, they’re testing a different methodology and seeing what the carbon sequestration potential is for each of those methodologies. So it’s gonna be a while before they have information that’s really applicable for this region that comes out of that. And then some of the other things that you mentioned just there, we haven’t really gotten very far on those things. Okay. Yeah.
33:52
Lisa, if I heard Polly correctly, how come and vision Longmont is trying To get rid of farms, if we’re supposed to be working together with them, the sustainability plan and envision Longmont we were led to believe were in sync. So what how did that
34:16
happen? If you look at the Envision Longmont their discussion of agriculture it’s about two sentences long. And planning and zoning has in mind to get rid of to zone out every bit of agricultural land within the city so that we can have more greater density of housing. But then part of the reason that people move here is to have little areas where they can have some chickens or a llama or something like on Rogers road, but
34:49
that is not what we have in mind.
34:52
So we have a lot to get through today. And that’s a that’s a much bigger thing you can get on to thank you. Yeah. Bring Aaron in to talk about that more specifically.
35:03
Okay, thank you. Hmm.
35:07
Okay, so then you can scroll to the next area. So natural environment that’s very much focused on the protection and restoration of open space. We did complete the open space master plan in the wildlife management plan. Both of those came to this group when they were underway. The we’re we are hoping to update the tree canopy plan this year, although that might be on hold because of budget constraints with covert again. And then part of the button rock plan I guess is under the water section. But we’ll have somebody that from the Natural Resources Group come and talk to you guys in August about the update to the button rock management plan. Transportation that areas focus on access to transit alternative Transportation, so biking and walking and then increasing electric vehicles through both our own fleet and then encouraging that within the public sphere as well. We’re in the process of doing a equitable carbon free transportation roadmap right now, which is a big mouthful. But that’s what Sarah, Sarah and Abby are on today to talk to you guys about that plan. There.
36:26
Okay, you can move on.
36:30
So in our last two, our waste, as you would imagine, this one’s pretty straightforward. It’s focused on increasing waste diversion in both the commercial and residential sector. So that’s recycling and composting, but also eventually looking more at things like construction and demolition waste, and putting some standards and ordinances in place around that. Really focusing on the commercial sector, which as we’ve talked to this group about before we currently don’t provide services to the commercial sector. And we’re just now in the last year have some data to work from on what our baseline is around waste hauling and waste diversion in the commercial sector. And part of the greenhouse gas inventory that we’re doing is a lifecycle cost analysis around waist. So we’ll bring that information to you guys as well, when that’s completed. And then the water section is focused primarily on water efficiency and water quality. francy. Do you want to add anything to that? No. Okay. And as I said, in October, I’ll have franzi provide you guys a more in depth update on the water efficiency master plan and the strategies and progress in that. So that’s, in a nutshell, the sustainability plan. Obviously, there’s a lot of strategies in here and we can’t do them all at once. So That quarterly report that we talked about is really the best place to go for information in terms of where what the status of each of those strategies are, and any notable sort of pieces that are associated with any of those strategies. So and then now we’ll be adding both climate action recommendations to that as well. Some of those recommendations that are coming out of the task force are just reaffirming a lot of the work that we’re already doing and looking for opportunities to accelerate or expand that work and really prioritizing some of those pieces that are
38:38
there any other questions or
38:42
comments on that piece? Okay.
38:48
All right. So with that, I’m going to hand it over to Sarah and Abby, who have been the consultants that have been working with us on the carbon free transportation roadmap. Again, that was a project that was funded from the Boulder County sustainability tax. And it was an opportunity for us to really dig more into that section of our greenhouse gas emissions that come from transportation, which is about 30%, which is a pretty big chunk. And it’s also a really tough nut to crack. So we hired these folks to really help us dig into that and figure out what some, some feasible strategies are for us to be looking at locally. with the caveat that we started this process before COVID and COVID is substantially impacting transportation in particular. So we we don’t really know how we get I think what the long term impact on transit and transportation are due to COVID. But hopefully, we’ll at least get some information through this process and some actionable items that we can continue to move forward kind of despite that situation. So with that, I will hand it over to those
40:03
Thank you, Lisa.
40:07
Well, thank you all for for allowing us to come before you today we’re really excited to talk about the equitable carbon free transportation roadmap that is currently underway, and wait for the presentation to load but basically the as, as Lisa articulated The purpose of this roadmap is really to promote and ensure equitable access to forms of carbon free transportation. And carbon free really relates to walking, rolling, biking, as well as electric vehicle adoption. And so in order to ensure that this carbon free transportation roadmap is equitable, we are specifically targeting and engaging the lot next disability and senior communities in particular. Next slide. This effort is being funded by the Boulder County Sustainability tax and is led by city of Longmont staff. I’m joined today by Abby Bo Han from a big consulting, but we’re also supported by our partners at Brendel group who are being led by Lynn coppedge. So my name is Sarah Davis, and I’m the founder and CEO of SRT consulting. We’re a Denver based land use planning company that focuses specifically on electrifying and engaging renewable energy resources that support our transportation and energy systems. building off of my own personal experience working in both the solar industry and at Tesla for a number of years, building out their charging infrastructure network. And I’m excited to have Abby introduce herself and then I’ll do a little quick introduction about friend group as well. Abby.
41:52
Hey, everyone, I’m Abby from a mbg Consulting ABG consulting sort of pairs, public health and and the built environment. Bringing community voice into, into really shaping the decisions that are being made. And in the built environment. We have done several projects where we were using a community organizing framework to really engage members from from the ground up in order to kind of like help help help people kind of have a hand in shaping their their communities, especially those who are most often left out of the planning process. We’re really excited about this this project because as the world moves forward, and we work towards a more sustainable future, we want to make sure that that all members of Longmont and all members of most communities are are part of that that plan and nobody’s really left out. So thanks for letting a stranger thing.
42:45
savvy, and just a few notes on Brendel group’s contribution to this effort. They’re really taking the lead on the the data collection and analytic side and so they have been incorporating both the 2018 and 2019 greenhouse gas and Tori’s, as well as collecting data from various transit agencies that supply transit support for Longmont citizens, as well as Dr. cog and others who collect transportation related data as it relates to the city and the region. Next slide, please. So we were charged with a number of goals. And so this is building off of the Envision Longmont process as well as the sustainability plan and the October 2019, climate emergency declaration by city council. We’ve really are focusing on this being an implementation based roadmap where we’re going from today in 2020, and trying to achieve a 33% reduction in transportation related emissions by 2050. So within that timeframe, our overarching goals are to reduce emissions increase a level ification reduce single occupancy vehicle miles traveled, whether that’s to thru or from Longmont with the overall goal to increase air quality.
44:13
Next slide, please.
44:15
So here’s a just a high level overview of our schedule. As Lisa mentioned, we did kick off the project right as COVID was starting to become an apparent impactor of not only transportation systems, but our ability to engage the public. Our goal is still to wrap up later this summer with an adoptable version of the roadmap for city council. And right now, we are relatively on track and meeting that we want to give ourselves enough time that we’re engaging all of the members of the community who want to have their voice heard, and want to share their perspective on transportation experience experiences in the city.
44:57
So that
45:00
that I mentioned before reducing 33% of emissions by 2050 really is coupled with Longmont power and communications and Platte River Power authorities goal of reaching 100% renewable energy. As we increase electrification, we have to be mindful of where we are sourcing the energy that’s being generated for those zero emission vehicles.
45:25
Next slide.
45:28
So how we’re we’re approaching this project is multifold. We recognize that not only are there physical aspects to transportation, road quality, whether bike lanes are protected or not, trail availability, and everything down to even signage that’s at a pedestrian scale so that people know you know how to get to certain areas of the city if they’re on foot or wheeling. We’re also looking at the cultural aspects that come with transportation. How can we help Employers either incentivize or at least raise awareness among their employees at the benefits of carpooling, and other transportation demand management systems. We’re also looking at ways that we can support overall community education and awareness not only about electric vehicles, but also with the growing electric scooter and electric bike industries. And just getting out and walking around your neighborhood, or trying to connect you from where you live to where you need to go, whether that’s a doctor’s appointment or grocery shopping. And then of course, we recognize that the city themselves plays a key role in the success of this type of program. So we will not only be looking at regulatory barriers and how we can make suggestions on new code language, but also ways that the city can look at their own fleet and their own ability to provide public or available charging Infrastructure throughout the city to support the overall goals of this roadmap.
47:05
Next slide.
47:08
So this is just a graphical representation, just kind of hitting on that high point of we’re here in 2020. We’re trying to get to 2050. There’s a lot of ways that we can get there. And these just kind of highlight a few things that I maybe didn’t include earlier. You know, we recognize that in the in the near term due to the effects of COVID. capital investments are probably going to be limited. So how can we work to build partnerships with private entities or other public institutions in order to help further these goals? What incentives will there be on the horizon to help sit at citizens and residents? Make sure that these are available and affordable to them? And then what can we do just to raise the overall awareness of these emerging technologies, how they work? What are You know the cost to entry? And then how can the city kind of further support the growing Evie? adoption because you guys are really starting to expand in terms of how many Evie owners are within the city. And we recognize that not everybody has the ability to charge at home, whether that’s because of electrical limitations, or because maybe they live in a multi family dwelling, where having charging infrastructure and a shared parking environment may be challenging. So this is where I’m going to turn it over to Abby, because there’s a lots of ways that we have digitally for you to get involved. Share your thoughts and feedback. We want to hear everything and so far we’ve gotten a really great response rate. So next slide, and I’ll turn it over to Abby.
48:53
So, as Sarah said, we’ve we’ve had to sort of sort of pivot our approach with COVID. And so our current Our current focus is really in conducting a series of key informant interviews, as well as providing an online questionnaire for folks to fill out. We do conduct the interviews in Spanish or English, and the questionnaire is also available in Spanish or English. So those are sort of the primary ways that we’re asking folks to get involved with the plan. I don’t think that I have the ability to drop something in a chat box. Because the because of the way the zoom is set up, but perhaps I can email out the link to the group afterwards, or I’m not sure how to how to get that up and click Well,
49:31
maybe you can send all that to me and I can pass it on to the group.
49:35
Okay, sounds great.
49:37
Yes, so as, as Sarah mentioned, we’re especially hoping to hear from people in the Latin x community, people with disability or mobility impairments, impairments, and older adults to help kind of shape this roadmap. So if you would like to be interviewed, or if you know of anybody who would like to be interviewed, please feel free to send me an email. We’re setting up interviews over the next couple weeks. So We’d love to Yeah, we’d love to, we’d love to hear from you. And if you have any other questions about about the roadmap as a whole, you can either contact myself or you can contact Sara, as well. So, with that, are there are there any questions that anybody has kind of off the bat? Polly?
50:27
It seems to me that a lot of your strategy has to do with
50:32
everyone having electrical vehicles, and actually a good portion of Longmont can’t afford cars period, much less electric vehicles. I don’t see anything in here about public transportation, which is the way most of the world gets around and has for a long time and continues to do so. So what are you doing about public transportation especially for people who, who are disabled and the People who are getting older who are not going to really be able to drive a car?
51:05
That’s a great question Polly. And what we’re finding in the data is really where we’re getting at emphasizing electric vehicles. based on the data points that we’re pulling from the greenhouse gas emissions, electric vehicles are key to long not being able to achieve their 33% reduction goal by 2050. Actually, what our model shows is that in the near term, even if we if Longmont had electric electrified transit, that it would actually be more demanding of the system and therefore require more non renewable energy to power that. So there is a little bit of a balance and this is a long timeline. And so we are trying to come up with ways that we can take a step approach. We recognize that especially CO in light of COVID people’s pocketbooks are being hit hard. And so, you know, we’re not, for example, taking the adoption rate that we saw last year. And assuming that this year, next year or even the year after that is going to mimic that at any way. We do also recognize that electric vehicle types, models and costs are continuing to evolve, and we’re keeping a close eye on that so that when this report is finalized, it is as accurate to date as possible. But there’s likely going to need to be a revisitation of this out once COVID impacts or have kind of mellowed out a little bit. And as the technology continues to evolve, but the report, you know, is carbon free transportation, and so we’re definitely looking at things like how do we encourage people to do mode shifting in the short term, whether that is, you know, looking at transit, even though it’s not carbon free, it does have have an impact on reduced emissions, and looking at ways to even consolidate trips. So that in the short term, if you do have a gas powered vehicle, like many of us do, that you’re limiting how many missions are really expelling from your vehicle just by trying to do everything at once and not making multiple trips throughout the day or week. We have a couple questions in the questionnaire that get at you know, people’s abilities to work from home. And we recognize that as there are some people who that is very likely that they would be able to work from home in light of COVID or otherwise, whereas there is a population within Longmont that because of their job function, or the requirements of their job, that that’s just not possible. And so we have to come up with solutions and we are coming up with solutions that head on each one of those cases. So while some of the imagery in our presence Really stresses that EBS are the one of the major solutions and getting to long month’s goals. There’s a lot of other things that are going to be needed in the short term.
54:16
Violeta
54:18
I was wondering if you were considering since, you know, a lot of a lot of low income people work in service industries and don’t own a car. And if there could be some kind of partnership between the private sector and let’s say restaurant owners or you know, that could give equal passes to their waders, dishwashers, you know, but get it tax credit for it. So you have a party NYSHIP between the city and the private sector that induces people to ride the bus. But the bus costs to these people, it’s a large percentage of their income, the passes to go on public transit. So, if that could be helped.
55:27
We are definitely exploring different types of incentives and also looking out employers that we could suggest the city to partner with in the future. And one of the survey is, is is getting at exactly your point, which employers are already offering some form of an incentive or you know, a monetary benefit to people to incentivize one or more types of transportation. But yes, I’ve written down your your point and I will Thank you. Thank you.
56:03
Violetta. So this is Bernice
56:06
city of Longmont.
56:07
Yeah, with our sustainable business program. We offer businesses to earn points to get a more higher level of certification if they provide equal passes to the employees.
56:21
That’s good. But you have very few businesses in that program, I’m assuming but it’s a good beginning. Thank you better news. Good point.
56:33
Gee, Polly, you will be cranky. You really want to say you’re on mute them.
56:37
I just want to make a quick comment. The city of Long mine has been buying the fare box for everybody for the last five years that I’ve been on council or six years. So we already do provide free transportation around Long Island City provides that right now.
56:54
Yeah, but, but a lot of people were in Boulder County. Further. So that’s what I’m referring to. Thank you.
57:07
Yes, James.
57:09
Hi. Thank you for that. A couple of questions. First, I wanted to thank Paulie and Violetta for bringing up the public transportation aspect because I think a lot of the impacts of people driving single person cars are a hit on so many different aspects of our sustainability plan. livability, you know, how much space in our town is used for parking lots, you know, as we’re into this housing crunch and things like that. It’s it. There’s so many different impacts that go beyond. Obviously, the carbon production is a big part of that. But it goes well beyond that, that I think trying to reduce the number of single person cars, regardless of what they’re doing is a is going to help us meet a lot of our goals anyways, but I actually just had a very kind of basic question is that 33% goal, total or per capita can Considering how much one one is going to be growing in population in the next 2030 years.
58:08
That’s a good question, but one for Lisa and her team.
58:13
Yeah, that’s a total number. Jim, not a per capita number. Okay. Yeah. And the inventory does well, in our modeling information, do try to take into account what we’re projecting from due to population growth.
58:31
Great, thank you very much.
58:39
Well, thank you all for your comments and questions, really appreciate it. And if you have any further information or thoughts that you’d like to relay, please reach out to Lisa and she can contact us and thank you again for your time.
58:52
Thank you very much.
58:54
Thank you
58:55
so much.
59:01
Okay,
59:03
the next item on our agenda is a budget update. Is that you, Lisa?
59:10
Yeah, that’s me. And there’s not a whole lot to say, other than
59:16
a BIG thumbs down. As you all can imagine, we, you know, the city along with everybody else has been getting pretty hit pretty hard. From a revenue standpoint, and due to COVID. And a, we’ve been providing those are our finance manager has been providing those updates to the city manager and city council on a pretty regular basis. So where we’re at, particularly with sustainability, we’re kind of in we’re in an OK spot right now, in part because we’re funded through so many different sources. So we’re not reliant on just one fund or one revenue source. So we have a little bit more of a buffer than I would say maybe other folks in other areas do. And that said, as I mentioned before, pretty much all of our expenditures for 2020 are currently on hold. So anything that really wasn’t underway before COVID happened. We’re just putting a stop on for right now, that might change later on in the year if, if and when we have a better projection of what this recession that we’re now in is going to look like moving forward. But there’s just a lot of questions on that right now. So pretty much anything that’s not you know, an absolute essential service is kind of frozen for the moment we are in a selective hiring freeze, as well. So we’re not bringing on any new staff unless it does help with those essential services, and then looking forward to 2021 as well. At least the current request has been that we don’t add any additional requests as far as sustainability goes. We have, at least for the time being, you know, gotten the okay to keep our operating budget flat. However, the final budget isn’t approved until October and a lot can happen between now and then. So there’s not really any guarantees with any of that right now. And the commitment from our leadership and from city council very much is to first and foremost, maintain our staff. So that’s really our priority for us to be able to do that. And it’s really unfortunate for you know, so many reasons, but climate change in particular, and the Climate Action Task Force recommendations, where we’re really hoping to set us up for expanding that work in 2021 and beyond. It’s a pretty critical time from a climate change standpoint in the next decade. And so that’s going to be a real challenge. I think, you know, especially for those Have you who’ve been kind of with us for a while know that we’re, you know, we’re pretty used to being, you know, scrappy, and resourceful, and sustainability. We’ll continue to do that we have an amazing team who’s super talented, they do great work. You know, we haven’t had a ton of resources to begin with. So you know, we’re just going to keep on doing that we continue to look for opportunities for partnerships and collaborations and things like that. We’re, we work a lot, you know, with a lot of other departments, as you all know. And there are some opportunities as we look to COVID recovery in particular, to really, I think build back in a more resilient way and to be looking at how does the opportunity for recovery, where we are going to need new job opportunities, skills, development, workforce development, all of those sorts of things, to get people back to work to get people into jobs that have opportunities for advancement and living wages and all those sorts of things, and those things can very much be incorporated into the transition to clean energy economy. A lot of the transportation issues that we’ve been discussing, so those conversations are definitely happening not only within Longmont but on the state and national level as well. And there are likely to be some stimulus funds that might be coming down from the federal government. And we’re watching those pretty closely and looking for opportunities to be able to jump on those and make sure that if we are going after the bat funding that we are looking at the resilience and equity and sustainability components of that as well and opportunities to move this work forward as we transition from kind of response mode to recovery mode. So I just wanted to let you all know that that that’s kind of where, where that’s at and if anybody has No bags of gold hiding anywhere that they want to share, please feel free to do that.
1:04:07
So that’s, that’s where we’re at with budget stuff. And then the next item on the agenda here is the neighborhood impact granting program. So talk to you all about that. But the granting program that we’re launching in partnership with our community services department, and the Longmont Community Foundation. It’s funded through the Boulder County sustainability tax, and then the city has put in some funds as well. And then the community foundation will be seeking additional donations from the business community. And that’s a granting program for we’re rolling it out first for registered neighborhood groups through the neighborhood group leaders Association. And then we’ll plan to eventually expand that to other community based organizations and other community groups as well. But we were kind of keeping it small to roll out. And then that’s specific for folks that want to neighborhood based sustainability projects. And we have a whole framework and guidelines and things that are associated with that. And we as part of that, we have a selection committee that we’re pulling together, that will review grant applications and help determine the groups that are going to be awarded those grants and the amounts that those those groups will be awarded. Right now we’re looking at probably two to three granting cycles. So one in July, given this year, because things have been postponed, we’re probably going to try to do three so one in July, one in August and one in September. It’s going to be kind of a work in progress as we not only roll out this program, but do it admits COVID and there’s going to be a lot of details in logistics that I’m sure are gonna cause some kinks in that but we would like a representative from the sustainability advisory board to sit on that selection committee and I wanted to bring that to you all, it’s probably we’re estimating about six to eight hours of work per granting cycle. So that’ll be reviewing grant applications. And then one meeting where the entire selection committee will sit down and discuss the applications and come up with their, the the grantee is that they want to award. So I wanted to put it out there to you all to see if you if there’s anybody that’s particularly interested in that or if you want to nominate somebody or vote on somebody from this group to participate in that selection committee.
1:06:34
Jim, I review grants all the time for my job. So I’d be I’d love to be involved
1:06:41
and nominate Jim
1:06:44
be elected.
1:06:45
I’ve reviewed grant for the boulder Community Foundation for a couple of years. I was a volunteer there. So I could do one of these cycles if James does another and we could What what’s the total amount for dispersal?
1:07:04
We this year we have $35,000 available to disperse.
1:07:09
And they’re thinking of how many, you know, Grant, would that turn into?
1:07:15
We don’t know, it depends on what people apply for. So we’re putting those guidelines together now and have some kind of recommendations on granting amounts based on the types of projects that people want to do. But we’re also not we’re not capping the amount that people can request. So project has come through because we want to be open from anything from somebody who wants to hold you know, a workshop on you know, community gardening to you know, somebody that wants to
1:07:46
up yeah, that’s very flexible, right. Okay. Thank you. Um,
1:07:52
okay, so do we want to Violetta When can we have maybe Jim as the first person in you as an alternate or Otherwise, we want to we can do a vote to see because we I think we want to have that kind of one person be the main person.
1:08:09
So we have some consistency there.
1:08:13
Oh, you want one person for the entire three cycles? Yeah. And then an alternate.
1:08:21
Yeah, and you guys can make your case and we can vote or or you don’t
1:08:26
know James. James wants to do this. I can be the alternate. But I’m questioning the approach though, in my mind, because
1:08:38
it’s okay. I’m not questioning anything. Let’s just go with that.
1:08:43
Yeah, I mean, I’d love to I’m actually I’m on Executive Committee of a geoscience grant program as well. So even the structure of it, I’d love to see and see if there’s anything that I could add. That’d be fantastic.
1:08:56
Okay, and I’m happy to you know, take that feedback back to that, you know, Like I said, it’s going to be a work in progress. So if there’s feedback on how we can do the selection committee or the selection process better, I’m definitely I’m all ears
1:09:09
for the fantastic. I’d love to.
1:09:11
Okay. Well, I can follow up with you guys on that then thank you so much.
1:09:15
Thank you.
1:09:16
And then the sustainability coalition update. That’s pretty brief. And we have partners and energy that we want to get to. So we had our, we had to postpone the main meeting, again, because of COVID. We had a virtual meeting a couple weeks ago that went really well, we had a great turnout. And our next meeting will be in August. And we will also go through the Climate Action Task Force recommends at that meeting, so we’ll make sure that you guys have that information. And then with that, I want to hand it over to Susan Bartlett from LPC to talk about the partners and energy program and their request from you all for support.
1:09:56
Thanks, Lisa. I appreciate it. And as Lisa said, I’m Susan Bartlet. I’m a key account manager with LPC relatively new and started in mid January, right before the universe shifted with COVID COVID It seems like So, thanks for taking a little time to catch up on this topic with me, given all the other things you have to cover and then you want to put there it is okay. Um, we can sit on this slide for a minute. This afternoon. I want to give you an update on where we are with partners in energy work. And that’s what the Excel energy we introduced it. Last fall, Robert loved it. I was here in a different capacity. But Robert presented the opportunity to Xcel Energy provides natural gas to much of the online community and I do understand that many in our community are keen to move away from natural gas. And so our aim with this collaboration is simply to make existing buildings as energy efficient as possible. Right now. And to do this by leveraging the resources that we have available, go to the next slides.
1:11:10
So I’m
1:11:12
just with the backdrop,
1:11:14
I’ll say that and you all know this climate, the climate challenge and working toward the city’s goals of 100%. Renewable electric energy by 2030 is going to take a concerted effort on all of these integrated initiatives. And the partners and energy work online specifically with the built environment efforts. And then it focuses on commercial building energy efficiency, as well as energy efficiency in low income communities. And it also supports those sustainability plan targets that Lisa talked about earlier, up to two buildings, and that energy topic. And incidentally, we believe that the things that are in this effort, a woman really well with what’s coming out in the Climate Action Task Of course, things look considerably different now than they did when we talk to you in the fall. But our aim with this effort is to be nimble and to be flexible and to make progress where we can until sort of emerge later on. Next slide. So here’s where we are in the process. Of course, it included a pause at the end of March until now because of Bowman and other priorities. So as I said, back in the fall, we introduced the collaboration to this group into Council. And then we worked with Excel to develop the work plan. We wrapped that up in March, we intended to come back to you in March and also to come back to city council and be given cancellations. We’re just kind of getting back on track. And what we want to achieve is a green light to start working with Xcel Energy and some of the identified activities in our work plan as soon as possible. And, you know, we’re especially looking at benchmarking since That’s, that’s getting underway. So overall, our efforts will take us through 2021. And that’ll give us a little time to evaluate our progress and results and then back to this board as well as city council by the end of the year 2020. Next slide, please. Just as a recap, partners and energy is this opportunity for us to have greater access to community wide natural gas data that we get from our energy and also to have access to some resources through its own energy to support bro energy efficiency in our buildings. Um, just as a side note, we’re part of a growing cadre of Colorado communities that are participating and partners in energy. You know, some of those communities include Fort Collins. Yeah, Erie superior Lewisville, so several in Boulder County, as well as Springfield and North Northland, really Westminster and each of our Communities are looking to make progress on climate and sustainability goals. And so I consider this an opportunity also to be involved in a really strong network of other communities through sharing best practices. And so I think it’s a great opportunity for us. So the first phase of partners in energy again started last fall and included Xcel Energy sharing this natural gas data with us over the past four years. We’ll continue to get updates on this data every year. It also included a facilitated planning process to help us develop work plan that was specific to long run breweries. And we completed that work plan in March and that’s really where we are today. We’re ready to get started on the activities and the word plan. We’ve built in some flexibility, given the impacts of COVID-19. And just knowing that not everything we’ve planned that’s in the plan from March is going to happen at the same time. case that it might have happened otherwise. And so that’s really where we are today, we’re ready to implement the work plan. And it’s built on three strategies that are really already underway at the city and that align well with the Climate Action Task Force recommendations that you’re going to learn about. And in our work plan, we identify specific opportunities for us to collaborate with Xcel Energy so that we have a little bit bigger impact as we move forward with these initiatives. And that also involves some continued data support and taking advantage of some of their expertise with benchmarking, branding, marketing and outreach and that sort of
1:15:40
Next slide.
1:15:43
These are just a couple of examples of some co branding that partners and energy has done with a couple of other communities. The one on the left is with Fort Collins utilities and it was an effort to drum up participation in the home energy assessment. programmed before, before COVID. And people actually wanted other people to come into their house and do some assessments. The one on the right, was with Broomfield and they really focused on commercial energy efficiency and they wanted to promote energy efficiency in their business. So these are just some examples, things might be together to do some outreach on our efforts. Next slide. So as I mentioned there, there are three strategies that are detailed in the work plan. The first one is commercial building, benchmarking, and LPC has been working on a benchmarking demonstration project already this year. that hopefully will inform a broad, broader program for the coming years. And we’re using this time to determine kind of the benefits for businesses as well as the overall benefits for our community for having this kind of program. So the work plan maps out how we can can take advantage of Xcel energy’s experience working with other communities that have done benchmarking like Denver and Fort Collins. They have similar programs and we want to use that kind of framework to inform our development for our program. We like it to be as navigable and successful as participants. And so we want to be able to leverage some of that experience. That collaboration is going to allow us to draw on Excel energies, engagement and outreach know how it’ll also give us some access benchmarking staff they have available, they understand Portfolio Manager, which is the free benchmarking platform that we are using, and kind of leverage their experience helping participants to access and upload their utility data, which is really important. And then finally, we just want to mobilize their energy benchmarking training expertise, so that things go as smoothly as possible. For our bins and there will be a learning curve for our building owners in this community. And we would like to be able to make that process as smooth as possible for them. Some of the targets that we have for this year are to benchmark a handful of municipal buildings over the summer and then also about 10 additional commercial buildings in the community to help us kind of walk through the process, work out some of the kinks, get some feedback from participants, and then ultimately to roll out a broader program that would address all commercial buildings online that are greater than one square. And so we’re wanting to raise awareness about energy use in buildings and we’re hoping for overall improved commercial.
1:18:50
Excellent.
1:18:56
So the second strategy Lisa talked about earlier It’s an ongoing program the low income residential energy efficiency program that helps income qualified residents that have high energy burdens, make some improvements to their home for comfort to lower their bills, and just generally to create a healthier environment. Last year, the city supported 32 homes with services. And we want to increase this level of support to more than 80 households over the next 16 to 24 months. And this support is pending additional funding that we hope to receive from Boulder County or other sources. But we also want to leverage Oh, I just get notification from VSA. I’ll go fast.
1:19:45
Okay, I’ll go faster. Thanks. Um,
1:19:49
so so we want to be able to take advantage of some of excellent energies, channels and marketing capabilities to get our news out our information out to Participants that would be eligible for this program. Next slide. So this last strategy you’ve also heard on, heard about already that builds on the success of the long run sustainable business program that began last year. And Berenice has made a lot of headway with this program. We had 21 businesses that were certified last year. The Work Plan targets are to really increase that we’d like to have 15 new businesses certified over the next, you know, 16 to 24 months, and we definitely want to have some equity and minority businesses. Again, in this instance, we’re looking to leverage some resources from Excel to quantify results of business activities to do sector specific education and continue to prepare
1:20:49
and the next slide.
1:20:52
So what I need this afternoon or what I’m asking is for this board to provide a letter of recommendation that we can take the Council on July 7, they’re going to have a full agenda. We’d like that letter to indicate your support for the activities and the collaboration in the work plan. If we get a green light from Council, Dave Hornbacher who’s the Director of LPC will sign, another non binding memorandum of understanding that simply states our intentions and those of Xcel Energy to work together toward the work plan targets. And there was a draft letter that was provided in your packet along with the draft memorandum. So I’m happy to answer any questions and
1:21:37
let me know what you’d like to know.
1:21:45
Does anybody have questions for Susan about? No.
1:21:53
With no questions, yes, sorry, Paulie. But
1:21:58
um, I don’t really have a great Question, I just wanted to say that I really appreciate what you’re doing. Because there are so many savings you can get from huge buildings that waste a lot of energy. I mean, a lot of them were built a long time ago when it wasn’t, you know, in the 70s. No one thought about this stuff in a wall, and they built some incredibly wasteful things. And we’re gonna have to, you know, fix them up because it’s impossible to heat them. But I wish we had also, I mean, I know this is what you’re doing is the large buildings. That’s terrific. I’m all for that. But I hope we can get more going on with people being able to mitigate their homes. There are a lot of buildings here that were built in the late 1800s. And they really don’t have any any insulation and people can’t afford to insulate them. So things like that are something I hope we can do in the future.
1:23:00
Look so too and I think that probably will be included in some of the Climate Action Task Force recommendation, terms of, you know, resin residential building updates and maintenance and just recommissioning retro commissioning in general of buildings. So while it may not be included specifically in, in our work plan, it’s it’s out there and we want to be able to support it, because you’re right. There’s a lot of work that we can do a lot of energy to be saved there.
1:23:32
Other comments or questions?
1:23:39
Okay, can you again for your time?
1:23:42
Yeah. Thank you. Thank you, Susan. for that presentation. We do need a motion on the request for a letter.
1:23:53
Russia approval letter,
1:23:55
a second book.
1:23:56
Okay. So Kay made the most
1:24:02
I have a question.
1:24:04
Yes,
1:24:07
you’re muted.
1:24:10
Can you please repeat what the motion is about? I didn’t get it
1:24:16
to endorse the letter in the packet.
1:24:20
Okay, so the endorsement is after this presentation, the letter, we endorse that they present this to counsel that we agree with what they’re presenting. Is that correct? What I’m?
1:24:36
Yes. Essentially the letter is just something that says that you agree that we should, we should go ahead and carry out the activities that we’ve identified.
1:24:45
Okay, thank you. Thank you.
1:24:50
Okay.
1:24:51
All in favor, raise your hand and say aye.
1:24:54
Aye. Aye.
1:24:56
Okay.
1:24:59
That is unanimous. So the Motion passes. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. So the next item on the agenda will kind of speed through things. Any anything from the board? Does anybody have anything they want to bring up? Okay.
1:25:23
counsel, Holly, do you have anything for us?
1:25:27
Um, well, counsel isn’t getting a lot done. It seems like mostly we’re screaming at each other but, and everybody’s calling us up to yell at us about COVID because they don’t like wearing masks and Mark Mackintosh lake is being destroyed and Dickinson Park is being destroyed. Everybody’s mad about everything. However, I didn’t want to bring it. So, anyway, if you want to yell at me go feel free. I did want to bring up something that Lisa was talking about because We’re working on we’ll be working on the budget through the summer but we’re getting financial reports. And as Lisa said, It is not good. I’m my hope is that maybe a miracle will happen, as the President has said and everything will be just small. Right now we’re going to we’re predicted to be about 14 or million 14 or $15 million short on our budget, so
1:26:36
it’s gonna be a painful year and
1:26:41
I think it’s great if the estimate is that we can keep this budget for this group to be flat for this sustainability board. That’s, that’s really good. But it’s it’s just it’s a real shame because there’s so many things that this Sport could do and that we could do with a sustainability plan and the various organizations if we have the money, you know, coordinating these things like with low income, installation and retrofitting, that saves a huge amount of stuff and makes the town better and enables people to live in their homes, but
1:27:23
we’re not going to be able to expand anything for the next year. And
1:27:28
so I just want to let you know that happy news, I’m always so full of happy news. But you know, we’ll get through this and things will be better in a year. And hopefully, things will be better in the fall, but we just have to keep vigilant about not letting infection rate go back up. Again, that would be disastrous. But if we can keep it under control, and we have been doing a very good job of that.
1:27:59
Things will get better faster. So let’s hope we can do that. Thanks. Anyway.
1:28:07
Thanks for that update, Polly and thanks for the work that you do.
1:28:11
Yeah, really appreciate it. And before we adjourn, I do want to recognize every all the staff on the call this is this is an difficult time for everybody. And I really appreciate everyone coming together and working through this.
1:28:28
All of the the teamwork.
1:28:30
Thank you.
1:28:32
Okay.
1:28:34
That gets us through our agenda. Can I get a motion to adjourn?
1:28:40
move to adjourn.
1:28:42
Thank you, john kennedy. Thank you, Cody. All right. All in favor.
1:28:47
Hi.
1:28:48
All right. Move for we’re joining me,
1:28:52
Stacy. Take care,
1:28:54
everyone.
1:28:57
Thanks again. Bye. Thank you.
1:29:01
Thanks my
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