https://otter.ai/s/0PzBmoXmQFeMT_04YPXDNQ
0:01
I would now like to call the September 16 2020 Longmont sustainability advisory board. Meeting to order. Can we start with a roll roll call and then we’ll welcome the new members. Sure.
0:20
Andy Noble.
0:22
I’m here francy Jaffe
0:28
here, I’m Tim Ellis.
0:35
adtran meseret Yeah. Charles Kevin EDIS. Here, Heather McIntyre is here as well. And for the board members, we have Kate collared sin. I’m here.
0:50
Mary Lynn. Here.
0:54
Adam Reed
0:55
here
0:57
vielleicht manoukian. Here,
1:03
Charles Musgrave
1:06
here,
1:07
and Jim Metcalf here. And Councilmember Christiansen
1:16
Thank you.
1:19
And we have a quorum. Chair, we do have a quorum. Okay.
1:26
First off, I’d like to welcome the new board members, Adam and Charles, would you please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourselves? Adam, we’ll start with you.
1:39
Sure. My name is Adam, and I’m a physicist. I started out working in renewable energy. And now I work on quantum science and technology, which is what I focused on at graduate school at sea at the University of Colorado in Boulder. Outside the lab, I enjoy working on science policy. And I’m also interested in issues related to sustainable development. Great,
2:04
welcome. Thank you, Charles.
2:07
So I’m Charles Musgrave. I am a resident of Longmont for the last 12 years. We moved here from California in 2007. And I used to be on the faculty at Stanford University and moved here to be on the faculty at CU. I’m also Associate Dean of Graduate Studies of engineering at the College of Engineering at CU Boulder, so I appreciated James’s letter as well. And I work in renewable energy. I’m actually a quantum chemist. So I use quantum mechanical methods for studying chemical reactivity and chemical processes related to renewable energy and energy storage.
2:51
Very cool.
2:52
Charles, I did my PhD at Stanford. So we’re moving around the country.
2:58
Yes. I have to talk about that some time. Awesome.
3:04
Okay, um,
3:07
thanks for that. And welcome to the board. Thanks for being here. I add this now it’s time to approve the minutes from the last meeting. I was not present at the last meeting. So um, can somebody else
3:25
make a motion?
3:28
I will move to approve the meeting minutes from the last meeting.
3:32
I’ll second that.
3:34
Great. All in favor.
3:38
say aye. Aye. Aye.
3:41
Any opposed?
3:45
Okay, the
3:48
minutes are approved. I
3:52
I would now like to open it up for the public to be heard. Each person wishing to speak will be unmuted to speak one at a time when it is your turn to speak. Please state your name and address for the record. You will have three minutes for comment. And I will tiny.
4:13
We do have Ginni black with us today, but I don’t believe that she had any comments that she wanted to make. I do have a couple that I received the email that I would like to read into the record. The first is from Joe Kelly. It was a follow up from last month’s meeting. She was just actually letting us know that the
4:36
website for the
4:40
Colorado for safe technology address has changed. And it’s now HTTPS, colon forward slash forward slash SEO, the number for safe tech.com and then the Other comments that we had is from Jessica Davis at 2221. Long’s peak Avenue. She said, I was wondering if you could share some thoughts. With the advisory board. There are thousands and thousands of studies showing dangers of smart meters and the radiation associated with them. Every individual in Longmont should have the right to choose whether they want to be near something with such fast negative health effects. It is my hope that members of the board will take the time to educate themselves on the numerous studies that are available that detail its negative health impacts. Thank you for listening to my concerns. Sincerely, Jessica Davis.
5:40
That’s all we have. Thank you.
5:45
Are there any revisions to the agenda or documents to be submitted?
5:57
I, I don’t know if it’s possible to make this revision at this time. still learning the rules here. But we discussed in the last meeting, scheduling a conversation regarding making this board a commission. And yet we didn’t schedule that. So could we add that to the agenda that we talked about scheduling a time to have that conversation?
6:23
Yes, Annie, I see you.
6:25
And so I just wanted to let you guys know that that is on the agenda later to discuss I’ve followed up on. Okay, question. And so there will be an opportunity. I’m going to present some information. And thank you any Yeah.
6:41
I’d read the agenda that I did. I didn’t see that. For some reason. I don’t know. What’s wrong with my brain today. Thank you. Well, I’m eight.
6:54
Yeah, Hey, thank you. Okay.
6:57
Perfect. Okay.
7:02
Then we can move on to general business.
7:06
I please, board members, and we ask that you hold your comments and questions until the end of each presentation. Please wait until after each person has presented for any comments or questions. And so first up, we have an update on the Climate Action Task Force and next steps from Annie.
7:31
Thank you, Heather, can you start the presentation?
7:37
Can everybody hear me? Yes, yes.
7:41
Never know if you’re muted or not muted.
7:45
Okay, so I’m going to give a brief update on the climate action recommendations. Next slide, please.
7:56
So as a reminder, the Climate Action Task Force has identified 27 recommendations that fell into six topic areas. And there was also a joint just transition plan committee that identified equity as part of that both as did the Climate Action Task Force, and the just transition plan committee came up with an assessment and identified recommendations to be developed into a checklist for each of these. These recommendations were taken the council in June, on June 30, and July 7, and council directed staff to get feedback from advisory boards. Next slide, please. So all of the climate action recommendations were presented to the transportation advisory board, the sustainability board, the parks board, water board, and the Longmont downtown Development Authority. But boards had only provided feedback on the areas that fell within their purview. And so as you remember, the sustainability board voted on all 27 recommendations. And that was at the July 15 meeting. So all of this feedback was presented to Council on August 25. And Stafford requested direction from Council on whether to move forward which which recommendations to move forward. And on the proposed next steps. Next slide, please. So Council approved moving forward with all 27 recommendations. And to complete a an evaluation of all 27. So staff is currently working on that evaluation. We’re looking at six areas I think we came came up with but those areas include cost, greenhouse gas reduction potential resources that are needed for each of these and the timelines and then community and equity impacts. And then we’re going to bring that information back after we do that evaluation and basically make a recommendation on how to proceed Retired those 27 recommendations into near term, midterm and long term improvements or projects. So we’re going to bring that back to Council for approval. And we will be providing an update to the sustainability board on those on that assessment. So that’s likely going to come back to you in October and then we’re not exactly sure when we’ll take it back to Council. It’s a pretty lengthy process. So there’s, you know, given there’s 27 recommendations, but we will be providing an update to council during the budget process. And we’re hoping to bring it back to the sustainability board in October. So that’s, that’s basically it. I just wanted you guys to know what was happening with that. So you will get a chance to see it again. And we appreciate your comments and we pass this along. I think in your packet. There might be a copy of all the board recommendations and of the council packet that went in August.
11:04
anyone have any questions?
11:08
Okay, thank you. Thanks. Thank you, Annie.
11:13
Okay, so next we have the sustainable bility tax discussion. And the person presenting is a terra nostra.
11:27
Yes, after one hour after sorry.
11:33
You have the floor.
11:35
Okay. Um, Heather, I realized that I put animations in my slides. So you’re going to have to be pressing that forward button quite a lot, I’m afraid. Okay.
11:46
If we can,
11:47
yeah, we can be one second here.
11:59
Great, thank you.
12:06
Okay, so I think all of the board members were present at the last meeting representatives. Just to review, I’ll just be giving the same presentation but slightly expanded with a little bit more background, about the sustainability tax and a little bit more detail about the different options that they want you to discuss and prioritize. So if we go to the next slide. So we’re looking at Boulder County sustainability tax. Next slide. So this is the background so you will have received information in your packet, I believe any sent the city communication from last year and we included that in your packet gives you background to how the sustainability tax came into being. In November 2016. Vote voters from Boulder County approved a countywide sustainability tax. And the aim is to fund sustainability infrastructure and programs. A portion of the tax revenue provides funding to Boulder County cities and towns through an annual application which requires 25% match. So that’s the process that we’re involved in, and that we’re seeking your input for. The environmental sustainability matching grant program is the mechanism mechanism through which the sustainability tax is distributed. So sometimes you will hear those two terms, they’re essentially synonymous. The amount allocated to each community is based on population. And the sustainability tax took effect in 2020 expires in 2035. I think it’s one more bullet point Heather Yep. And Longmont share last year was 125,800. And the city offered the cash cash match of 20 $32,000. So last year was the first year of the sustainability tax coming into effect. The next slide these are the parameters that the sustainability tax covers. They want categories to fall within climate, ecological health, energy and buildings, Local Food and Agriculture, Transportation, water conservation, zero waste sustainability planning and commercial sector sustainability. So projects need to meet at least one of those criteria. And these are the parameters of the projects that need to comply with the grant funding, so you need to have spent all of the funds within the same calendar year. The fund does support some ongoing sustainability services including staff for up to three years. Partial funds can be used in years four and five to ramp down the reliance on the sustainability tax. And ideally after that the funds would be shifted over to city budgets or the position would be It also supports capital projects to a limited degree. And the last bullet point, it should be one more here. And there’s one restriction, the fund won’t support electric vehicles if they can qualify for funding from the regional air quality Council.
15:20
Okay.
15:24
So this is what we had funded last year. So the hundred and 25,800 with the 25% match covered the first two items, which was a sustainability grant coordinator position and residential program coordinator. Those two part time positions were combined into one be funded the carbon free transportation roadmap, which has been currently has actually been delivered, or it’s still in draft. And it’s being reviewed by the city staff, the neighborhood impact granting program, I’ll speak a little bit more about this shortly, you’ll have to bear with me, I’ve got a bit of a cold, so my voice might give out a little bit. And then the women infant and children’s Farmers Market program. So we funded that as well. And we provided the $32,000 match across these different programs. So what we want to do now is look at the context of prioritizing projects for 2021. As Annie mentioned, we have the Climate Action Task Force. And just transmission can just transition committee recommendation context that we’re operating in. So we want to make sure that any priorities that we select now are in line with those recommendations. And we also want them to align with the sustainability plan and envision long term, there is a possibility that we’ll have reduced funding this year, a Boulder County has advised us to anticipate a potential 20% reduction in funds. So the total amount could be anywhere between 100,120 $5,000. Our existing commitment is the two year position for the grant and program coordinator. So that already accounts for over $50,000 of that potential 125. And the neighborhood impact granting program which we also funded in 2020. That would be a top priority, going forward into 2021 to establish long term sustainability for that program. So that leaves us with potentially 25 to $50,000 of grant funding available, the match funding would also be on top of that, depending on how that’s allocated across the projects. So that could be anywhere between if I’ve got my math right somewhere between $33,000 and $66,000, if all of the match funding is applied to new projects. So in terms of trying to identify gaps and needs for 2021, we’re looking at the current framing context. To complement the Climate Action Task Force recommendations. We want to ensure that projects strengthen equity, improve accessibility, support, immediate needs, and alleviate impacts from COVID. So the way this translates concretely is projects that fall within adaptation, resilience, community engagement, and expansion of existing sustainability programs. So you just saw this moments ago with Annie, what I’ve done here, these 27 recommendations from the Climate Action taskforce report. And I’ve highlighted the areas that overlap with the projects that we’re prioritizing, and that we want you to review. So you can see we have overlapping adaptation, resilience, education and outreach, and building energy using renewable energy for expanding existing programs. Going forward, so I’m just going to go through some of the items that we prioritize, and these are detailed in the memo that was sent with your packet. So this is our preferred priority for funding, community engagement, climate equity and engagement specialist. And the sustainability team has limited capacity for additional outreach. And we feel that to support some of the recommendations coming out of the taskforce report, we do need support in this area. So this would be to support sustainability and climate action implementation. This could be either for a part or full time position. And as you saw, the sustainability tax can fund up to three years of a position. We feel it’s particularly timely with COVID-19 where outreach has proven to be more difficult, so additional funding and support would be very beneficial. The next one,
19:47
in terms of adaptation, resilience, we’re looking at some software options and francy might be able to speak to this as well, but doing some research around climate vulnerability and risk mapping software The idea is to understand community vulnerability to impact of climate such as he islands pervious services, an overlay census demographics so you can kind of see what which populations and communities are most impacted across long run, and identify and prioritize a community based needs, such as access to open spaces, tree canopy, etc. And then together with that information, identify potential recommendations to address those vulnerabilities. And the last bullet point is in relationship to a program that was identified last year. And I believe Lisa Knobloch, the sustainability coordinator, identified a need with the fall forestry services department, where they have a low income tree program, which will also address adaptation, resilience. I’ll speak about this a little bit more. So you saw this slide last time, as an example of some software at the state level, where you have overlays of climate hazard climate scenarios and population demographics. So our idea is to take this kind of software, but drill down further into the city level and potentially even smaller, more granular level, potentially at the neighborhood level. So if there is a we we would like that to help implementation and planning projects going forward. And this is a little bit of detail about the low income tree program with forestry services. They have some budget for this, but they don’t currently have capacity. And if we were able to provide further funding that would assist them. The goal is to assist residents with less means to obtain low cost trees for private property planting and to help to build tree canopy in low income areas and long run. So they would use the funding to treat and prune private ash trees for canopy preservation. So that’s another project that we could potentially support. And then the last category is expanding existing programs. So there’s the sole program which was launched this year, sustainable opportunities, lifestyle and leadership, the sustainable neighborhood solutions program, which is synonymous with neighborhood impact granting program. I’ll speak a bit more about that that essentially grants funding at this point to neighborhoods to carry out local sustainability projects. And the last two bullet points work and care. Since I submitted my packet to you last week, I spoke with LPC and the care program which is in relationship to low income housing energy efficiency upgrades is is funded sufficiently so we wouldn’t need to support that. And likewise with the with the women’s, an infant children’s farmers program, they have sufficient funding also through the sustainability tax through a different avenue. So last bullet point with our existing programs, we will need to confirm staff capacity
22:59
going forward.
23:02
This is just a little bit more detail about the Sol program it was launched this year, it’s based on the Longmont sustainability plan. The idea is to work very much alongside residents so that they can learn about best practice, and residents receive free home eco improvements and have the opportunity to collect to qualifying city services. It’s volunteer LED, we’ve trained local Longmont residents to actually perform the Eco upgrade upgrades and share best practice and sustainable neighborhood solutions or neighborhood impact granting program, again, that was launched this year, providing funding opportunities to neighborhood groups to implement sustainability projects. I think we’ve made one award so far. And James, are you a part of that? Yep. And additional resources in 2021 would allow community group training and further tools to increase group capacity. And the long term vision for this program would to continue to build group capacity, also in project management skills, and to help conduct community assessments provide tools to help conduct community assessments that help identify community project opportunities. So this has got a long term vision to it, which could be very, very beneficial for long term communities. And we just did a quick cross check against our different plans. And they all they all check across the sustainability plan envision long run and the climate action, just transition recommendations. And the climate vulnerability and risk mapping also addresses the Boulder County hazard mitigation plan. So what we’re asking for really is if you were to just review these prioritize these items that I’ve listed and prioritize them in order of preference given the limited funds that are available. We’ll take that your input to city leadership, and then report back to you To the 21st, and seek your approval, and then once notified or funding, we take the idea to the council for approval. So that’s just a summary of the different programs. And then I’m handing it back to the board for discussion. Great.
25:20
Thank you. for that. I, I have one clarifying question. And I, I think that if we are to if we need to prioritize your list, could could that remain up on the screen for everyone to see? So we can
25:40
have our second to last screen should work over Perfect. Okay.
25:44
Perfect. Thank you. Now, my question is about the the low income tree program. Did I understand you correctly that those are that were that ash trees are being offered? And that’s all? Or did I misunderstand that
26:00
I’ve taken information that I’ve been given. So that’s as far as I’m aware, if anybody else knows more, it looks like Polly does know more about this particular program.
26:15
I think if you go back to that screen, I also thought the same thing I think what we’re adding Ashley’s, I think it is to prune
26:23
the Pro,
26:24
prune the ash trees that are already diseased in an attempt to and treat them and preserve them. So that’s not adding new ashtrays, which we don’t need. It’s it’s a separate thing. But I’m a lot of the low income people live in traditional neighborhoods, like me, and we already have the tree. what’s called the tree lawn, the rest of us referred to as the hill strip is planted already by the city. So I’m not sure that I think that would have kind of a minimal impact, although, okay, trees are what we love about one of the many things we love about
27:10
it. I’m also curious whether or not this I mean,
27:16
I, I’m sure there are low income people who own their own property and would want help with trees. But I also feel that probably a lot of people that we might want to target might be renting. And whether or not this, this program is going to be kind of targeted at trying to find places we need trees and finding ways to put the trees in there or whether it’s going to be for, like people like me, who can probably afford to buy trees. But if there’s a program that could help me buy a tree, I might go for it. And that might not be the most efficient use of of city tax money.
27:52
Right? I mean, we listed this almost as a subset of the adaptation resilience program. So I think if we were to remain in the risk mapping area, that will probably be sufficient.
28:10
Yeah, Violetta.
28:12
Thank you. And thank you for hearing that. That was my pronouncing your name. Right.
28:17
That’s fine. Thank you.
28:20
I have a couple of questions. And one of the slides of existing programs. That was a cash match. And there was the way the women infant and children. What is what’s the cashmatch?
28:35
It’s the amount of money that the city provides. So the grant provides so much amount of money, and Oh, you mean that? percent?
28:45
Yes. Oh, okay. Yeah. And what’s the women infant and children program?
28:51
That was a farmers market program. So I believe they provided curbside food to families of low income. So I don’t have a sufficient background on that at the moment. But this is a program funded last year.
29:07
This is a food distribution to I
29:11
yeah, I think I believe it’s because this year it was a food distribution due to COVID. As a normal yours, it’s addition to the similar to the double up food bucks where you can go and use your snap dollars. It’s additional funding that quick. Those who participant participate in the women and children program to federal program can then use that money at the farmers market. This year. It was everything was remote. I believe that’s why it was more remote program this year.
29:49
Thank you.
29:53
Yeah, Mary.
29:54
Thank you. I’m interested to know if there is some kind of an option For arching planning strategy or philosophy for for choosing trees that are included in the tree canopy, along the lines of sort of an urban
30:12
Urban Ecology program,
30:15
it seems that there tends to usually in cities being a presumption that we’re, we’re just going to be on sort of alien species Island, and that we don’t really need to consider the environment surrounding a city and that residents should be able to sort of have free choice in terms of what they bring in. But I’m wondering if there are any guiding principles to bring us more in alignment with the surrounding environment? And, you know, to make sure that we’re not introducing invasives, and so forth.
30:52
Polly, did you have?
30:56
Yeah, I can answer that. Mary, because I had a tree that had to be taken down years ago, because it was dead, and it was an Elm, but and it was in the tree line. So it’s up to the city, but they do definitely have principles upon which they guide it, they don’t want to. And I also had a choice of, say, five or six trees, and I suggested one that wasn’t on the list to Kentucky coffee tree, for various reasons that had to having to do with my research, but my research wasn’t particularly good, because the city forester said, that doesn’t really, that is that native here, and it won’t do very well, and we’re not going to put it in. And so they they do try to introduce trees that will do well, and that are hearty, that do not use a lot of water, things like that, you know, and it’s changed over time. But, um, anyway, I had two questions. So two, four autora. This is, and forgive me if that’s not the right pronunciation?
32:06
Well, okay.
32:09
Always mispronounce my name, too. But people say in lots of different ways.
32:13
super pretty mean, thank you. This is a really good presentation. Are those sLl positions paid? Are they all volunteer?
32:22
They have volunteer at this point.
32:25
So they go through training, but then it’s still a volunteer position. And the neighborhood impact program? I’m not too clear on what, what happens there.
32:38
So can we go to that slide, please, Hannah? And Jim is probably gonna be able to chime in to that one as well. Um, so from what I understand it’s a next slide, I believe, or maybe it’s even further after? So.
32:52
Is this offered through our
32:56
neighborhood group Association?
33:00
I don’t think it’s offered through that. Okay. Go ahead. James, you wanted to speak a different thing?
33:05
Well, it so that the idea is that the neighborhood group associations can apply to it. So um, we’ve had, we’ve had two meetings now for these, the idea was that we have something around $35,000 that we are able to give out in grants. And we were going to do three cycles of grants.
33:29
And
33:31
it’s, it’s been interesting. We’ve only awarded one we haven’t had a lot of submissions yet. And I don’t know if perhaps expanding this means that advertising it better is would be important. But also, I think, perhaps developing some guidelines and some tools for people who want to apply for these funds to be able to make more robust requests could be helpful. So far, it seems like it’s a I like the idea in theory, I just, I don’t see it being totally taken advantage of yet. But yeah, so it’s,
34:14
yeah. Yeah, I don’t think people I don’t think we’ve publicized very well. I mean, I don’t even really understand it. And I’m on City Council. That doesn’t mean anything. But um, I think it’s a good idea. But I would say that one thing we really need to make a priority is keeping people in their housing. And there are a lot of low income people living in houses that were built in 1900, and they can’t afford to fix them. They can’t afford to make them better and they’re paying a fortune in utilities.
34:59
And it’s Problem.
35:03
areas. Sorry, that’s one of the areas that Seoul can help identify and address as well. So what we’re doing, we’re going into people’s homes. One, we’re providing free eco upgrades. But we’re also assessing different areas. There were other 10 topic, the sustainability topics and the sustainability plan. We’re going through each of those areas and trying to see are there behavior changes that we can support people? And so there is one section about building an infrastructure. So we can point people in the direction of different city services that they where they can find additional support. So it addresses a lot of different areas, that particular point in the meeting.
35:46
Okay, thanks, Paulie. Did we get your did you get your question? Okay. Yes, thank you. Okay, I’ve seen Adam had his hand up and Mary. I did see Violetta with her hand up, and I see Charles as well. So Adam, can you
36:05
marry us the question that I was thinking of, I’ll just echo the point that I do think native trees are important, not only for providing shade, and surviving and drought like conditions, but also because they can foster biodiversity. So just underscore that point. But I do have another question. And that is, I’m wondering if any of these programs address mental health services? I think that can be quite important in the wake of natural disasters, and it’s especially relevant, given the current pandemic.
36:40
Can I respond to that? Yeah, I think the one that has the most potential is the risk mapping project. I think that ties to public health. So ideally, would be identifying where the climate risks are, what the what impacts actually happened in different parts of the community, seeing what they actually need. And if it’s determined that mental health support is, you know, one of the solutions, then we can actually back that up with the evidence from the list. Nothing. I think there would be a tie there with public health.
37:11
Okay, thank you.
37:13
Great, thank you. Okay. Mary. Um,
37:18
thanks for following up on that question. Adam, I want to follow up with a little bit further.
37:24
It seems to me that, in this, that there’s a number of different agendas that could be sort of tied together with some comprehensive and thoughtful research and planning, related to bringing in using these funds to bring in various kinds of plants, including food for food security, I’m getting folks gardening gardening is a great help with mental health issues. In this time of COVID, when we saw some potential significant threats to our supply chains, everyone I don’t but seeds, you know, the the organic seeds companies are sold out three years in advance some of them two and three years in advance. Is there a way to bring in some community gardens, expand community gardens, and help people with mental health issues? And then I want to ask another question, which is about the urban food forest, which city officials usually tend to not like them, because they can create a lot of past waste with on harvested fruit in parks and so forth. And also a lot of these plants that are food plants aren’t necessarily native plants. And I’m wondering if we can use the money to sort of up our sophistication understanding of how to meet these multiple agendas of food security and mental health, tree canopy and the local environment, maybe using some of that money to develop a more coordinated and sophisticated sort of plan integrating some of these different ideas. I’m sorry, that was so many different points, but they all presented themselves in my mind at the same time. Yes,
39:07
I’m actually gonna call them francy. To help out in responding to that question about community gardens.
39:13
Um, yes, orphan food, forest and forest.
39:17
Yeah, I’m married. That’s a great point. And I think something worth thinking about. And I’m kind of the answer to the previous question is that’s where that climate vulnerability mapping and what’s not included here, but something we already have funding for with our partnership with community neighborhood resources, is they have funding to start doing community based asset mapping. So identifying where there are community gardens or there’s access to local food or access to different resources. So we’re just starting to think through the process if we can combine asset mapping with climate vulnerability, mapping or access to different resources. versus through kind of access to opportunities mapping, and combine these all into different kind of this combo map with these two different things, we have the opportunity to highlight, okay, this neighborhood, we can really benefit this neighborhood here with adding programs. So that’s probably the one that we have that we’re kind of thinking through of figuring out all those different things. And starting that plan of addressing different things would be that acid map, sorry, would be the climate vulnerability mapping that we would combine with another project that we are that we already have funding to do.
40:41
Okay, but there’s no crossover, per se, with funding that’s available to community. So it sounds like you you’re trying to do a higher level stirs retreat strategy within the city, and then that will turn into funds of this type at a later point. Yeah.
41:02
Yes, gosh, I was least excited about the mapping part of the equation, but now it sounds the most exciting.
41:11
Yeah, I’m excited to see that happening.
41:14
Yeah. Okay. If I’m correct on the order, we got Violetta, Charles, and then James, hey, you’re up for that. Right.
41:26
Thank you. Hi, I’m back up this this in his neighborhood impact program.
41:35
I’m wondering if
41:39
it could be combined with something like these community assessments could be done in conjunction in a partnership with like the Front Range Community College, if students could get credit, you know, for a lot of them living online. And they could do community assessment. And then eventually get, you know, once they engage the community into designing some kind of project based on the needs of the assessment, then they could be trained for basic project management skills. So it would be a partnership between this program and the community from Front Range college, I once participated in an excellent program like that. You know, that kind of partnership having students in that case, it was training newly formed cooperatives in Peru, and students would get credit to do that. So I think this would lend itself. And I was wondering why nobody had contacted me because I volunteer to be on the selection committee of this program in I think it was in the June meeting. But it’s only allocated to one grant. So no wonder nobody contacted me to attend the selection committee. Because it, it does look like people don’t know about it. And I’m wondering, also, if the material that advertises it is bilingual, if it’s in Spanish in English. So um, yeah, those are my thoughts.
43:52
Thank you, Violetta. What I can do is take those back those comments back to Wayne tomac, who’s the lead on this? He’s based in community services. There is information in quite a bit of detail on the website and in relationship to the procedures for application, I will need to double check that’s also in Spanish. I know we are making significant efforts to do bilingual translation on the website. So I’ll double check that.
44:19
Yeah, get volunteers if you offer students, but no, they would volunteer, I’m pretty sure. And it goes very nicely in CVS when they graduate. Yeah,
44:35
I think I mean, that would be part of the full rollout of the program. You’re looking at the third bullet point there in terms of the community. Yes. assessments.
44:42
Well, it doesn’t seem to be taking off. Right. So what this would be
44:49
I think we just launched it. I think that’s I think it’s literally just been it’s a soft launch in terms of just getting it started.
44:55
So yeah, very tough.
45:00
To give it a bit of a, you
45:02
know, I would definitely pass it back to wait.
45:06
Now, something could happen, you know,
45:10
next year in the next semester, it’s late now for the fall semester, but something could happen. Thank you.
45:21
Thank you for figuring it.
45:25
Okay, Charles? fancy. Oh, sorry.
45:30
Oh, yeah. Do you mind if I add a response?
45:34
I want not related to this grant proposal, but to the first one, which is the community engagement specialist.
45:43
I think
45:44
both otra. And I completely agree that involving more volunteers doing more community engagement, making sure everything’s bilingual is very important for not only that program, but a lot of programs. But I think
45:59
that
46:00
we have limited staff capacity to because even though we’re it’s mostly volunteer run, you still need a staff member to train all the volunteers. So that’s why we have this request for climate FB, an engagement specialist.
46:21
Can I ask them another question, I’m trying to get a grasp of what kinds of projects
46:29
the city was thinking of when it created this grant program, the scale and the in the engagement of citizens, I’m trying to sort of get an overall feel for what the unmet need was considered to be at that time.
46:45
I think if we go back,
46:49
and Marilyn, please excuse me, but I’m picking up a little bit from where Lisa Knobloch left off before she went on maternity leave? sure I understand. So these are the priorities that she identified together with the team in terms of what we think are the main gaps and needs going forward into 2021, based on where we’ve gotten to so far, and based on the current context of the climate action recommendations, just transition committee recommendations and the likely direction that the city council is going to take going forward. So we want to make sure that our framing context for projects that we select complement, supplement and support the city direction, and also meet our outreach needs to support climate equity. And then in terms of making sure that we have sustainability for our programs that we’ve already launched. So that’s kind of how we’re framing it. So when you give
47:46
an example of what kind of a neighborhood and I wanted a sample grant, like for, for how much money for what specific kind of project you were thinking that would be used for.
47:59
So mean, like
48:00
it would be to create a community garden, or would it be to put recycling bins in a park that had a lot of stuff that could be recycled as trash? just wonder, you know, just an example or two.
48:12
I’m just hungry in this presentation. One is the climate risk mapping vulnerability projects. Yes. Go ahead, Francine. You want to say Yeah,
48:22
um, if I met Mary, you’re asking specifically about the neighborhood impact
48:29
grants. And
48:30
yes, I’m asking about the neighborhood.
48:33
Those are specifically Yeah,
48:34
yeah. So there’s different levels for that grant, it can aim from funding something smaller, maybe bringing up a first speaker to come in and educate folks. Okay, the grant that was being or two all the way to a waterwise landscape transition. So there’s different levels. And so it has kind of, and the idea of the grant is that maybe it can build so maybe the first comes in and has a, a lecture about waterwise landscaping, and then the next year they apply for actually doing the waterwise. landscaping. Thank you.
49:14
Sorry, Mary. I misunderstood. So
49:16
it’s hard to hear on this technology.
49:19
Yes. So so for example, the actual project that we funded this year, was a webinar for water barrel for rainfall water barrel collection. So they ran a webinar, and that ideally, on the back of that they will actually be able to support people installing rain barrels.
49:38
Got it. So it goes beyond in that case, for example, the one that you just mentioned, it goes beyond that particular neighborhood, like that webinar. Participants were from right.
49:54
Yes. So I think one of the criteria is is it reproducible so that in terms of scoring projects, I do any projects also reproducible across different neighborhoods.
50:06
I know, I know, Charles, just when we’ve been discussing these criteria on a few people have requested funds for, for to bring speakers and on some topics, the rain barrel one was the one that we recently funded in the last go round. And I think that, for us, the it being considered a neighborhood event changed a lot when everything had to go virtual. And now that everything can be virtual, there’s no reason that you have to keep it to the number of people that can fit in the Elks Lodge or something like that. Right. So that’s, I think that’s one of the criteria that’s changed a little bit. Because everything is now virtual.
50:43
That’s helpful, James. Thank you.
50:47
So, me next.
50:50
So, so.
50:52
So it looks like there’s been this consolidation for the sustainability staff from a three quarter time and a half time position into one full time position, if I if I read that, right. And I wondered if this grant coordinator program coordinator position, that’s the bulk of the spending from this grant, does it include in the job responsibilities grant writing, or grant writing? It does, because I would, I would suggest that, you know, with this grant is somewhere in the range of $1 per Longmont resident per year, which is not a lot of money. But if we thought of it in terms of seed money, and had a significant fraction of this coordinator, position, be aimed at going after federal state and foundation funds, that we could greatly expand the reach and impact of the of the different programs that we could fund. And so it’s, and it just, I don’t know what the current and when you go from three quarters and one half, I don’t know what the I don’t know what the job responsibilities are, what fraction and how much bandwidth they have. But thinking longer term in terms of raising additional funds, I think could be something that when we have these discussions in the future, we might be discussing how to spend a million dollars that year instead of 100 225,000.
52:23
Literally, that’s that’s my role, basically split 5050. So 50% of my time is spent supporting departments within public works and natural resources and related departments, which have a sustainability component to them to secure funds. And also establishing better funding mechanism support within the city. So we want to improve our ability to go for funding and actually improve our chances of securing funding by giving staff more time to go off to the actual application. So I support different teams in putting applications together. So we recently were just awarded $25,000, from Cedar for the main street revitalization project. So that’s, that’s just come into being and then we’re working with goko as well. And we’re putting an application in with Dola. So we were working at the state level as well. So we have quite a few different irons in the fire
53:21
at That’s fantastic. Because the way we spend these funds, in some ways we can use as basically to give ourselves the credibility, but we call it the grant business, you know, preliminary results. And we go off and use to make us more competitive for additional
53:41
applications. Absolutely. So we want to use this wisely, as you say, because it’s not a huge amount of money. So we can use this to explore areas that we wouldn’t necessarily be able to do with more strictly ring fence phones within the city. So that’s true. And then it’s leverage for applying for larger grants as well.
54:04
Great, thanks. Thank you,
54:11
James.
54:13
Yeah, actually, I want to build on a few things that everybody has said I, I think like Kate, last time when this was presented, I was like least excited I think about the mapping. And then what kind of determining of our problems, in part because I kind of thought that maybe it was getting a too small of a level like that. We’re thinking about things on city level. And we’re actually much larger than that. But I’ve been thinking a lot about the proposals that we’ve gotten in this neighborhood grant program. And one of the missing pieces consistently is whether or not you can actually show that it’s going to be a useful project. So we’ve we’ve had one group that the largest one that we’ve had so far was to do some, some, basically try to slow down traffic and encourage pedestrian use and that I love that those are great ideas. But whether or not that particular project is the most useful one, we don’t know that it is a great place to go for money. For instance, if you’d want to start a community garden somewhere, or if you’d want to increase tree canopy and neighborhood or something like that, I think that those are all things that could be part of it. But kind of making a determination about what is the best use of our money as a community, I think is a little bit difficult. And for a lot of the ones that I’ve seen, what would have been really great is if people could have gotten like a feasibility study or some sort of a survey ahead of time to demonstrate why this was like a very good way to attack the problem. And it seems to me that at least, where I’m leaning right now, that I think this gets to what Charles just said, as well, if we actually want to be kind of, we want to use our funds efficiently and use our person power efficiently. We need to be able to really think about this in a in a, in a planned way. And I think that the idea of making sure that we’re actually thinking about what neighborhoods need, what and what different parts of the cities need, and being able to demonstrate that as those are actual needs. And these are actual tractable goals, to me seems like a really important, important place to go.
56:34
That’s fantastic, James, look.
56:38
I’m because Francis and I worked on this and the idea would be felt, if we’re able to get this off the ground, then we may also be able to apply for larger grant with goko in February around. So that kind of speaks to what you’re saying, like if we can, you know, get the seed funding in place, show some results, and then go for larger funding. And I think this would also support the works in parks and natural resources, in terms of their planning and implementation terms of projects. So it would serve the city as a whole, because as he said, we would be providing baseline data that people can use for further applications.
57:17
And I mean,
57:18
I’m sorry, I was just because I also think it would make the neighborhood applications really competitive as well, even in the subprogram. Like if, let’s say, Mary wants to make a community garden, if she had a data set that she could go to, if she could go to to help boost up the case as to why this would be a really powerful thing, I think it would make her application pop a lot better, right? Or, you know, or if we if we wanted to recruit a bunch of Front Range students to do help us with data collection and research projects, or do use students to help work on these things, right? If we actually had, like, good arguments that these were positive things, I think it would make everybody’s
58:03
projects a little bit easier.
58:04
James, also, please consider participatory needs assessments. I have trained people to do that. And they inhabitants of a particular paid place are the ones that know their needs the most, there’s not enough, oftentimes, you don’t need to bring experts in to assess that. So if these students were trained in participatory methodologies, you could do a needs assessment very easily, very easily by the neighborhood themselves. And then from the once they know, their needs, it’s very easy, you know, to lead the conversation towards solution. So those needs, and it is very empowering, as well, if it’s done by them from you know, inception, design to implementation.
59:07
Okay, I see you there any before I, I see Mary and any I do, I’m keeping an eye on the time. We that’s my concern. I just wanted to check in and do a time check because I’m afraid we’re not going to get to some other things on the agenda just yet. So I just want to add a quick thing to to Villette, it. And again, this ties into some other concerns other folks have brought up at an others. Um, when we go to the low income, and not necessarily English first language speaking communities and neighbors throughout our city. Um, how are we going to reach them in a way where we’re actually meeting their needs, frankly, if we had a, a survey that went to people that said, Would having a garden or a community garden help you to meet your food security needs? You would get much more investment in this from people who aren’t necessarily interested in the environment as sort of a secondary concern. And I am concerned that this, that we might have people who are, you know, are almost more than the middle class, upper middle class, we’re concerned about the environment outside of their immediate security needs, who are going to be most invested in this. And this goes to what Violetta has often reminding us about communicating about the real needs and to people actually in their languages.
1:00:37
All right, can I respond to that? And sure, or SAS fancy potentially to join in? I think this is why Mary Lou, we completely agree. And why we would like to prioritize the climate equity and engagement specialists specifically for that, how do you how do you reach these communities where English is not their first language? And to actually identify their needs and work with them as like most? Yeah.
1:00:59
I’m glad we’re all in agreement on that. So I’m, I’ve more questions, because
1:01:04
everyone else wants to.
1:01:10
You have another question is that we said, No, I’m done. Okay. Okay. So, after we now owe you a list of priorities, is that correct?
1:01:22
Ideally, if you able to, to make it easy for you, what I was hoping is that you would rank the priorities that I presented in your order of preference?
1:01:32
Um, okay. I, I don’t know the most efficient way to do this as a group. But Heather, do you mind putting those back up? I think it’s the next to last slide, if I’m remembering correctly.
1:01:56
Is that that next next one? Well, that was that will do as well as the same thing. It’s the same list. Yeah, you can use that grid.
1:02:04
Okay. So it’s the climate equity, and engagement specialist, the mapping the tree program, that’s our soul and the
1:02:17
soul and s&s that I had combined those, those are expanding existing programs. Okay. And bear in mind, we have, you know, we’ve already prioritized the neighborhood impact granting program. So that was taken out of the available 25 to 50,000, that we were assuming would go towards new priorities.
1:02:36
Okay, make sense? So basically, it’s our we have three choices, expanding existing programs, the mapping and the specialist.
1:02:45
Yes, you could also include the low income tree program, but I have a feeling that’s kind of fallen.
1:02:51
Okay. Okay. I thought that was okay. All right. So there we go. Those are four choices. Um, so
1:03:02
can we just, um, see if we agree that the risk mapping is the most important, it seems like we’ve sort of settled on that as a group or am I miss hearing what we’re saying?
1:03:13
I could vote on that.
1:03:16
Yeah, I was thinking the same thing, Mary, that that seemed to be very high priority, because it provides the data and can inform us, it can make all other programs more successful.
1:03:28
Anyone disagree with that? You do. Okay. No. Does anyone disagree with that? That was a question. Okay. All right. All right. So we’re in agreement, that’s our number one. Then we have
1:03:43
the
1:03:45
specialist, the Fannie existing programs, going to do it by memory and then the lowing country?
1:03:54
specialist, the person who’s going to be doing the risk mapping, I mean, isn’t that really kind of number two? are doing this understand that
1:04:00
the two different programs
1:04:04
okay.
1:04:06
I think it had the right might be more useful to go to the second to last slide because I think they spend a little bit confusing. Okay, got one use that one.
1:04:15
Okay. Um, okay, so the specialist low income tree or expanding existing programs. I’m good. I would vote for these specialist is the next priority.
1:04:31
If we can be informal,
1:04:33
that was gonna be my my suggestion as well. Yeah.
1:04:38
Okay, okay. That’s number two. Gosh, this is going well guys. Um, number two, expanding existing programs or low income tree
1:04:50
programs.
1:04:51
I would say maybe with Violetta,
1:04:52
I agree with Violetta as well. I agree.
1:04:56
We’ve done it. Congratulations.
1:05:01
Nope, movements are seconds.
1:05:02
Apparently we all hate trees.
1:05:07
We like
1:05:09
we like poor people.
1:05:11
Yeah.
1:05:13
Okay, very much appreciate you so much.
1:05:16
Thank you.
1:05:18
Thank you.
1:05:20
Just briefly, if you didn’t know about these sustainable neighborhood grants, there is still time to get an application. And if you do have an idea, and there is still money to give away, so if you do have ideas for your neighborhood, but I think that having this data is going to make all of those projects a lot more powerful.
1:05:38
Just the money roll over if we don’t use it this year, so that next year, we can make more informed Oh, darn, so we have to use it for you to use it. Okay. Thanks, James. That’s good to know.
1:05:48
I just have one last question about the position. Is it going to be a bilingual profit? Your position? That’s a good question. Climate
1:05:58
equity specialist? Yeah, I believe that would be a priority.
1:06:03
Thank you. Nancy is nodding. Right. Talking, you know, a good question. Thanks for your letter. Okay. Um, with that, I’m going to pass the floor over to Charles,
1:06:19
for a waste diversion. Please
1:06:29
let me know what I’m good to go.
1:06:32
From my end, you’re good to go. Heather, can you pull up the presentation?
1:06:36
Yes. Give me one second here. Thank you.
1:06:39
Well, Heather’s putting that presentation up. I want to thank you guys for letting me come and talk trash with you all. I love this. I love starting off that way. The presentation is kind of a little bit I’m joining the front end of Francis’s presentation that’s going to talk about our life cycle analysis on waste. But I was asked to do a little presentation too, just because we have a couple of new members to just talk a little bit about what our current programs are in solid waste. And then also, I want to talk about an upcoming council presentation up in October, October the 20th. The next slide, please, don’t that’s what that is. So all I wanted to do is talk about this slide here. So our current program for the new for everyone to know, Longmont is unique in the state of Colorado and really across the nation is one. It’s a municipality that runs and owns its own solid waste program, which is a good thing. And what we do here is we we break our services apart, as you see here in core services and opt in services. And our core services that we do are curbside trash, curbside recycle, and of course our recycling center that we call the waste diversion center. So hopefully, you’ve all been out there. And hopefully you all use our services. And then we have an opt in service, right, we initiated curbside compost, so food waste and yard waste, we initiated that in spring of 2017. So that’s another service and then we have elecard services. So we try to provide other services available to our community when they have wastes or things that don’t fit in the curbside bins. So we have large item pickup services, or you can rent a dumpster because every once in a while you have a lot more stuff. But in addition to that we have what we call supplemental services, and they really lean towards recycling. So we have paper shredding event. So that’s really for your documents. So we do a monthly document shredding at the recycling center. And we do have landfill drop off days, it’s a service that’s included with our contract with the landfill. So sometimes people just have big things that aren’t recyclable, it gives an opportunity. So we don’t have a dirty community. And there’s illegal dumping everywhere. Spring branch collection, fall lead collection, we offer some holiday recycling. So and then the other piece really that’s huge is the hazardous. We call it the Household Hazardous Waste program, where it helps our residents to be able to not throw in the landfill, but to best manage paints and chemicals and oils and so
1:09:25
on.
1:09:27
That’s really the current programs that we have and what I want to share because I’m kind of short for time today is we will be speaking with our counsel Polly on October 20. We’re coming up to council to talk about our solid waste program. And we’re going to talk about our solid waste program and and talk about what we currently do and maybe what how and how should we revision, our solid waste program as we move forward because there’s a number of other communities that offer a variety of different things like hard to recycle, TV recycling, things that we’re not currently doing. So our intent to meet with Council is to talk about, you know, again, what we do what other communities do, and what are the options that we could potentially do in the future. And I, in our, I have a little cheat sheet on the site here. So I don’t want to miss up here. But some of the items, we’re going to make suggestions to counsel, but we want to hear our counsel. We’re going to want to hear from our counsel as to what they would like to see sanitation do. But we’re going to make some not recommendations but suggestions that could include changing how we do our compost program. So should our compost program be mandatory for everybody? Should it be embedded in our trash rates? Should we offer smaller compost bins, because that’s a feedback we get from our customers, you know, the big bins great, and everybody understands why we started that way. But it’d be nice to have a smaller one or even talk about recycling, should recycling should we offer additional recycle bins to our community? Should it be free should be you know, those are pretty basic. We want to talk about our recycling center. Let me let me I’m getting called here a bunch of times here, hold on one second, I apologize for that. But our recycling center is a great resource that our community has in many communities wish they had one. But but there is um it’s time for it to grow and to become you know, its next phase because it was built back when we were about 40 or 50,000 people and you know, we’re hitting that hundred thousand mark. But other concepts will be universal recycling ordinance ordinance, right. So other communities have said, all entities in a city must have trash recycling and compost. Um, we’ll talk about cnd recycling, which is important piece of construction and demolition. Should we require Zero Waste for all city sponsored events. So there’s just a number of items that we’re going to put as a discussion topic for our council to talk about. And it’s really I’m, I’m happy to share that with you all. But the biggest thing I’d like from you all is, if you have suggestions, or if you I encourage you to attend this council meeting on October the 20th. Or if you can’t attend if you want to submit your thoughts or ideas to your council, or a Polly’s listening here to make sure that we’re all on the same plane. Many of those items I bullet point I highlighted right now really are items that are kind of already in our sustainability plan. But it’s really the opportunity to say, City of Longmont, do we want to go that route? And there might be some costs associated with it, and how do we best spread that equity or that cost across our our community meant to be very mindful of that. So that’s really what I was going to share today. And I know that part of Francis presentation really touches based on the data and the fact so there may be questions for me towards the end as well.
1:13:19
Thanks, Charlie.
1:13:21
Great if we can do we want to do Sorry, I didn’t know if we wanted
1:13:25
to
1:13:26
do question, Charlie now or later, Kate? Yeah,
1:13:29
good. Can we hold off on questions until after Francis presentation. Thanks.
1:13:37
So I’m going to talk about this will actually factor into the kind of, we’ll be presenting this something similar to the city council presentation. And we’ll factor into the decision making process of how we go forward with our way Services Program. But what I’m going to present is, we did a greenhouse gas lifecycle analysis for waste services. So for those who are at our last meeting, I gave an update on our 2019 greenhouse gas inventory. But one thing we did new for 2019 is do a specific lifecycle analysis. And the reason we did this for our waste services is because the GPC protocol, which we use it, which is a very good inventory, but for waste services, doesn’t factor in all components, it really only looks at methane emissions that are produced from our waste services. It doesn’t factor in potential offsets that occur from recycling or composting. So, basically, by recycling, we don’t get emissions from using new materials or emissions before the materials even created to the manufacturing raw material process. So there are processes throughout the entire lifecycle of a piece of waste that can either generate emissions or create a void in there. So you may even have some negative emissions because you’re recycling or you’re storing carbon in, in instead of releasing it back into the atmosphere.
1:15:12
Next slide.
1:15:14
So I know there’s a kind of a big confusing diagram here. And I’m more just wanted to pull this up to show how complicated the EPA war model is. So you don’t need to figure out all different components of it. But the EPA war model is the kind of the best industry standard for doing a lifecycle analysis for waste. So you can see kind of highlighted from this diagram, that just looking at aluminum cam, you’re factoring in raw materials using recycled materials through the life cycle, and how it’s recycled. Or if it’s put in the trash is a lot of different things that go into this model and make it a more comprehensive model of looking at our greenhouse gas emissions. Excellent.
1:15:56
I’m sorry.
1:15:59
That’s okay. I was just a little confused there. Before I go into what our emissions actually are, I just wanted to give an overview of our current waste stream. So the city of Longmont is only is one of many haulers, we actually only have about 33% of our waste services mostly read a single family and some multifamily. We have other commercial haulers and construction demolition make about 67%. Out of this two or three haulers about 17% of recycled and 6% composted. I do want to make a note even though our city of one live data is very accurate. Other commercial haulers and construction demolition is being tracked through retrack, which is a Boulder County tracking system that only recently got launched. So it requires the folks to self report so we may have different haulers who aren’t used to using that program. So there may be some data inaccuracies. But this will give us a kind of a good starting point for understanding our waste and emissions.
1:17:01
Next slide.
1:17:03
So if you look based on the different haulers on city, long ones doing the best with recycling about 21% and composting 12% think other commercial haulers is about 18% recycling and 3% composting and construction and demolition is doing the worst but only 5% recycling composting. So if we take all these different waste streams and calculate the emissions using the EPA war model, on the next slide, we can actually look at our emissions. So the reason I wanted to highlight avoided emissions when I was giving the summary is because our current emissions from our entire waste stream is actually negative, which is a little bit counterintuitive. And the main reason is because recycling has such a huge impact on avoided emissions from creating if we were weren’t recycling at all, and that’s where most of our avoided emissions are coming from. You do see even though we don’t compost a lot, you do see composting has an impact and even our landfills have negative instead of positive emissions, which I know is a bit kind of a to a lot of people when they think of landfills they think of methane being released. But because of how our landfills are designed when a waste item has been broken down, it actually doesn’t fully if it was just in the like, in kind of sitting on the ground, it would fully break down and release all emissions into the atmosphere because it’s in a landfill, it actually stores some of that carbon. So we’re having more carbon been stored than actually being relieved. That’s why we still see a negative. But you can see our most of our waste is being landfilled, and it’s only a small negative why only I think it was like 16% of being recycled and that has a huge impact. So if we can increase our recycling and composting that can have even more avoided emissions.
1:18:56
So, what units are those fancy Sorry, just the units
1:19:01
oh sorry metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent. Okay. Thank you.
1:19:09
Next slide.
1:19:10
Um, so,
1:19:14
we looked at different scenarios if we can do business as usual, we expect our waste to increased by 36% and our avoided emissions to increase about the same amount of percentage. So first scenario if we start increasing residential and commercial waste diversion, we see we can see up to 152% increase by 2050 in avoided emission so this is usually increases are bad but increase in avoided emissions is really good. And our second scenario if we go even more ambitious, and to specifically focus on construction demolition, we can actually see up to 179% increase in avoided emissions and I want to highlight that 202,912 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent been avoided, is about equal to the is just under the amount that our single our sorry, our residential on emissions from electricity in 2019. If for those who are at our last meeting, electricity usage is one of our greatest emitted emitters for the city. So you can see that actually having this great increase in waste diversion can actually really help our overall emissions in decreasing our emissions as a city.
1:20:35
Next slide.
1:20:37
So opportunities to help you this is expand what can be recycled and composted. And the different ways of doing that focus on construction, demolition, improve landfill management practices, our landfills are well designed, but they can be even better to design to reduce emissions even more. And then importantly, source reduction, we always say reuse, reduce, recycle and start with reuse. If we don’t need more materials, we don’t need more raw materials, that will have a huge impact on reducing our emissions.
1:21:10
So next slide.
1:21:12
So tying it back to kind of Charlie’s presentation,
1:21:16
we will be going with the greenhouse gas inventory and highlighting this lifecycle analysis to City Council on October 20, as well. So this gives city council another factor to think about, along with involving cost and resources on where we can go with our waste services program. And then once we get direction from City Council, we can decide what scenario we would like to pursue and add that to our sustainability plan. So thank you, and thank you, I’m feel free to ask either Charlie or I questions. Very nice
1:21:50
presentation. Just have one year. Wait real quick, before we go to questions, any how much time are you gonna need for that mission update?
1:22:01
Well, I could be pretty brief, but you guys might want to discuss it. Like I could present real briefly and you guys could ponder and discuss it next meeting. Okay. Okay. So the other piece of what I wanted to bring up in my discussion is the agendas for upcoming meeting. So
1:22:21
okay, well, we have six minutes. So I’d like to rush through questions and and the rest of the agenda if we can. So Charles, I cite your hand at Mary. Adam,
1:22:35
can I just suggest that we continue the conversation with Francey at the next meeting? I think this model is highly problematic, and we’re not going to be able to get through it in this meeting.
1:22:45
Um, I like that idea. How do how does that work from a staff? level? Can we do that?
1:22:58
So we have a lot of things on the upcoming agendas. And I’m making some recommendations about what should be on the agenda is based on what’s coming up before Council. So I guess if you want to see what I’m proposing, you could see how it’s going to fit in. I feel like all our meetings are going to be tight. Okay, maybe maybe you could look at the agendas and decide what you want to take off. Okay.
1:23:28
Um, but let’s go ahead and have a couple of questions for France and Charlie and and let’s try to keep it
1:23:41
positive.
1:23:43
So I actually have a lot of questions about recycling and but I won’t ask them off just a brief one. But some communities have multiple bins for recycling, we have a single bin, which means we shift the cost of sorting to the city rather than having some of that sorting burden being carried by the residents. Have we thought about going to multi bin recycling?
1:24:08
That’s a great question. And before I get into that, if we’re going to be running short on time, I’m happy to receive emails and I could respond to you guys back. So Charles came in, he said, and he will get my information. But the county went to a single stream collection program. So it’s not just like Longmont wants to do next. So we have to work as a group as a consortium in our state. So really, the plan was to go to single stream recycling for the purpose of making it easier for the consumer and to increase the amount of recycling because a lot of people opposite of what you’re saying, Charles, I don’t want to put each bottle and have six different containers out front. So for convenience, the industry has moved into that single stream,
1:24:55
although at some level.
1:24:58
sorting it out ahead of time. Makes a lot more sense to but it’s really a consortium from the whole community or the state and our county driving.
1:25:08
And one that other quick question. The as we go to electrification, and we have, for example, electrify transportation, you know, batteries are becoming a big and important electronics in general, that big resource stream for valuable materials do we have? Do we have a battery is this part is battery part of our recycling program.
1:25:30
But rechargeable batteries are part of our recycling program at the recycling center. But your point is well taken, though, when it comes to car batteries are those large things? And I think that’s part of some bigger thinking and conversation with our council, do we want to expand and have some real hard to recycle programs? And then I can come back and provide some analytics about what’s it going to cost? But absolutely, we do have the rechargeable battery recycling available at our recycle center, though.
1:26:02
My comment is fairly quick as well, I think we really need to look at these models. I think I feel like I say this every meeting, when you’re only looking at carbon, you end up conflating issues that are highly concerning. And you end up creating, avoiding looking at other waste issues and other pollution issues. For example, the idea that a formaldehyde Laden, toxic chemical laden piece of plywood, buried in a landfill is considered a net plus because the carbon is being stored. And we’re not looking at the fact that that is contributing to downstream waste, desolation of groundwater and so forth. I think we need to go to a multivariate analysis. And I and the city, which is a pioneer in so many ways, including all of these great waste diversion methods could be a pioneer and taking a multivariate analysis to waste i i, that it just really bothers me to see that as an as a as a net plus.
1:27:08
Thanks for that.
1:27:11
Did. Adam I know you had your hand up? Do you want to quickly? Yeah, I’ll
1:27:15
be really quick. Thanks a lot, Charlie, and Branson for the presentation. I’ll just touch upon an expand question from Charles. And that is, does the city have plans for considering electronic waste in general, like cell phones, for example, or computer parts and not just batteries? I’m thinking particularly electronics that have heavy metals like lead or cadmium, and so on?
1:27:40
The short answer is that’s on the table for our conversation. With with, with cutting edge recycling, so to speak, I’m from California to so we do a lot, a lot more back in California, and other states. But here in Colorado, it’s relatively new, especially with some of the bands of electronics, the price of recycling Electronics is fairly high. So that has to be discussed and balanced with our community to make sure because I hear a lot through our sustainability and equity talks here that it’s important that we don’t overcharge our residents. But the point, simple answer would be yes, there are programs we could initiate. But there’s a cost to it. And how would we want to pay for that? Did I address that? Adam?
1:28:22
Yeah, yeah, I appreciate it.
1:28:24
Yeah. Thank you. Thank you.
1:28:30
Anyone else before we pass it over to Annie?
1:28:34
All right. Um, any?
1:28:38
Okay, so I have four slides. And if Heather can bring them up, I’ll try to be brief.
1:28:55
Okay, so I wanted to talk about the role of the sustainability board in the context of the conversation last month about quasi judicial authority, and also in the context of upcoming agendas. So I had reached out to the city attorney’s office to find out more about what is a quasi judicial board. And I also looked at the city code to see how the sustainability board role is articulated. And it’s described in chapter 2.96. So, as it’s highlighted here, the sustainability board role is to advise counsel on plans, policies and actions related to environmental quality and sustainability. So I want you to think about that in context of our upcoming agendas and what we schedule and in the context of quasi judicial versus an advisory board. Um, so if you could go to the next slide, Heather, please. Um, so what I learned from the city attorney’s office and from looking at the city’s web page is that quasi judicial boards are created by an ordinance. And they’re given power by state statues. And essentially, they involve council delegating authority that council would normally have to these boards. So next slide, please. So, in Longmont, the term board commission authority is all synonymous. And there are currently 22 boards and commissions. And only two of those are quasi judicial, and they deal with requests to exceptions to building codes. So they’re very specific. So essentially, for the sustainability advisory board to be quasi Judicial Council would need to delegate that authority to the sustainability advisory board and delegate authority on very specific items that council would otherwise make decisions on. So that’s what I learned about quasi judicial. And so with that in mind, I, I don’t know what the process would be. But,
1:31:14
you know, basically, council would have to
1:31:19
turn over the authority that they currently have to the sustainability board. So I’m the current role of council or sorry, the current role of the sustainability board. And if you could go to the next slide, sorry, Heather, is to advise Council on environmental and sustainability things. So given that role, I wanted to talk about the agenda. And so we’ve made some changes, we moved what was on the September agenda, which was the transportation roadmap. We’ve moved that to October. And so a lot of things are going to Council in October and November. And so this is an opportunity for the sustainability advisory board to weigh in and either be informed on on things that are going to counsel or to advise counsel on decisions related to these things. So I wanted to check in with you, the board gets to essentially decide what topics are on the agenda.
1:32:27
But
1:32:29
I thought it would be a good idea for you to understand what’s going to Council. So in October, we had originally had a presentation scheduled on water efficiency and education and outreach. And I’m proposing that we move those from October to November. In order to add an update on the solar V’s feasibility study, which we are bringing to Council in October, as well as an IGA that’s on the N rail effort. We’re just looking at the Habitat for Humanity project that Longmont power and Communications is entering into an agreement with n rail on an IGA and that’s going to Council. And so I’d like to have the opportunity for LPC to present that information to the sustainability board in October, as well as this transportation roadmap, which is an equitable carbon free transportation roadmap, looking at how we could reduce our greenhouse gas emissions in the transportation sector, and that’s going to Council in November. So we’d like that to go to the sustainability board. And we are also have scheduled in October the final projects, you know getting your review and final project decision on this sustainability tax which you review tonight. So that’s on the October schedule, or I’m proposing adding those items and moving water efficiency and education and outreach to November. In November. We had scheduled a presentation by CCL from Jenny black. And there was going to be a presentation on lectric electrification but we really don’t have a presentation prepared. We’re really focusing on some of these other efforts that relate to electrification, like this n rail IGA, so I’m proposing to remove that from the agenda. We also have these other things pesticides and pollinators, we’ll give an update on the climate action evaluation. And then the two items that are removed from October, water efficiency and education and outreach. So the point I’m trying to make is that there’s opportunity for the sustainability board to weigh in on things that are going to Council in October and November and we’d like to kind of move on Around the schedule to accommodate that. And as you can see, it seems like we’re always short on time. So I have provided some information on why as a judicial, or commission role. And you’re welcome to have a conversation about that. And perhaps you want to put it on a future agenda. Here. Here’s what I’m proposing for the next two months, given what’s going to Council. So with that, I’d be happy to answer any questions. I am sorry, this is so quick and brief. But
1:35:37
so if we always seem to be short on time,
1:35:41
Charles, you had your hand up person and Violetta?
1:35:44
Yeah, I wonder if maybe Paulie might comment on whether the council delegating authority is a non starter, or whether it’s something that would be considered as I just wonder about the general context in terms of how they how they would feel about something like this? It’s probably can read their minds?
1:36:05
No, I can’t read their minds, obviously. But um, I also thought that the planning and zoning board was quasi judicial. No,
1:36:16
I don’t know, if the I this is what was on the webpage. Now, maybe it is? I don’t know.
1:36:21
I think it is. Um, I don’t think it’s necessarily a non starter, I don’t, you would have to make a case for it, you would have to make a case for why
1:36:34
this board
1:36:37
is in a position to
1:36:41
make quasi judicial decisions about sustainability issues. And I mean, I’ve been advocating this for to be more for since it was restarted. But anyway, um, I don’t think it’s a non starter, I’m not sure that this is the year to do that. Because
1:37:06
right now we’re
1:37:09
there things are in so much flux, I mean, for everybody, but what we’re talking about right now is budgetary issues. And we’re $11 million short. That’s not as bad as a few months ago, when we thought we were going to be $18 million short. So I would say that maybe this is not I don’t, I would say not to bring this up until maybe then, after January when we have a better idea of when things are less in flux. And then we can make more decisions that are maybe have a lower level than just to keep keep this town afloat. So.
1:37:50
So that makes a lot of
1:37:53
I what I really wanted, when I brought back the sustainability plan was to have the sustainability advisor be a cross departmental thing answering only to the city manager, like other department heads, I think that would be a way that she’s truly coordinating all the departments, which is what kind of needed for an overall view of sustainability of the whole city. So moving in that direction, thinking about moving in that direction of having the sustainability advisor position, and this board being advisor, an advisor to her or to him or whoever. Um, I think it’s something to think about in the future, because I
1:38:44
it’s important, it’s the you know,
1:38:48
but I do think it might be useful to wait a while.
1:38:54
So I start makes a lot of sense, Polly, thank you. And part of the reason I’m asking that is partly to figure out whether we should do it or not based on what the council would allow, but also, you know, we need time to prepare, if we need to make a case, if we need to justify why we why we think we should do this. I don’t think we want to be on the next council meeting agenda. You won’t have time to make a good case.
1:39:17
Yeah, yeah, I think we should discuss it over the next six months and try to make a plan for that. If that’s something that everybody wants to do. I don’t know that it’s necessary. But I do think that we should make a plan, I mean, that we should be definitely overseeing some of the implementation of the Climate Action
1:39:42
Plan.
1:39:43
So I am sorry.
1:39:50
I guess that last sentence, Paul, that you said because my question I did read the minutes of that discussion. Wasn’t a last month’s meeting over whether to become a commission or not. But then after the presentation today, it seemed like the use of the word the term board commission committee was interchangeable in Longmont.
1:40:21
And according to the website, yes. Okay.
1:40:25
So thank you for clarifying that. And I mean, if it’s not obviously Polly’s definitely shaking her head. So what is it just succinctly, what is it that becoming a commission will allow us to do that we cannot do now. That’s my question.
1:40:50
The Housing Preservation Commission has an historic precedent. extort preservation is a commission and they have the ability to demolish buildings, they have the ability to rule whether something they have the ability to make legal decisions, and they can be questioned or appealed. But they basically make those decisions likewise with planning and zoning, likewise with Master Board of Appeals.
1:41:21
Council, but
1:41:22
but a advisory board only advises Council on what they would suggest the council chooses to do on an intelligent decision for counsel to make which frequently Counsel of course does not choose to do but you know. So that’s the difference. One has the ability to actually rule on a decision. And it doesn’t go before counsel again, unless it’s appealed.
1:41:48
So what would we what kind of decisions are we seeking to rule upon? It’s what? What
1:41:55
so we need to talk about whether we want to do that. Yeah.
1:42:00
Yeah, I’m married. I know, you had something to say and jump, James, Seo? Perhaps ahead.
1:42:10
Thank you, Violetta. That was my primary question. My second question is, when I observed the process of things like the Climate Action Plan, which it was created by a group of volunteers, and it went through a bunch of different groups with overlapping commissions, if you have overlapping missions, and then it went to us, and then it went to Council and council threw it back to the staff, it seems to me like we have a lot of sort of cumbersome processes. And I would like to understand, in addition to a judicial, or quasi judicial authority, if there are ways in which we could work to simplify some of these input processes. That’s how if we as a commission could be considered take that seriously and think of some ways to simplify some of these different ways to focus in on decisions and get them to counsel. I think that’s a very, very appealing reason to become a board. Maybe Paulie could have a commission, he probably could, could speak to them.
1:43:27
Um, de bureaucratize. bureaucracy, in other words, make government efficient. That’s what we’d all Yeah, good luck. But I mean, you know, it is always worth looking at process and trying to make it more efficient. And as you pointed out, it This was a it Also, before it came to Council, it also went to the transportation advisory board and cumbersome input as well. It’s the way to get democratic input on right. You know,
1:43:59
one way
1:44:00
Yeah. So. So, you know, it’s worth thinking about and discussing. I would certainly like to have things be less complicated. And anyway.
1:44:18
Yeah, I’ll just be very brief. I think that’s going to be our central challenge and making a case for us to have quasi judicial powers. Is that because we are can, and we’ve all made this point can and should comment on almost everything that the city is doing, because everything involves sustainability. It seems that, like, our scope, if we just say that we should have some powers over sustainability, that means we have powers over everything. I don’t think that’s going to be go very far. So I think we have to be very specific about what actual aspects of the process we think that we should have. A and like that. Beyond advisory say,
1:44:59
I think that’s gonna be a It’s
1:45:01
a good discussion that we were gonna have to have
1:45:06
at some point, but I think that’s gonna be a big challenge. It’s very different than Historic Preservation or something like that. That is much more focused.
1:45:14
Yeah, that’s true.
1:45:20
Are we going to 530?
1:45:22
No, we were 20 minutes over at this point.
1:45:26
I’d like us to if if there are further comments, can we push them on to maybe a January agenda?
1:45:33
So that we can we can have some time to fully discuss this.
1:45:39
I move that we adjourn.
1:45:42
Wait, wait. Yes, Annie.
1:45:44
Can we go back and look at the agendas for next month in the following month and at least agree on those before you adjourn.
1:45:53
Works for me. Thank you.
1:46:00
Yep, sorry, give me one minute, or worse.
1:46:18
One more time.
1:46:24
There you go.
1:46:30
Just real quick, I want to clarify that that electric electrification plan, it shouldn’t say move from November to October, it should be just stricken completely.
1:46:40
Well, the point being that there are certain things that we added the solar feasibility, the end rail and the habitat project that are related to electrification.
1:46:49
Gotcha. Okay. Thanks for clarifying. All right, Jim. I think you’re Yeah, I
1:46:56
was just gonna say that it makes sense to me. Anyway,
1:47:02
we missed a lot of meetings, and I think we’re doing our best and this makes sense to me.
1:47:08
Any dissenting opinion, sir.
1:47:10
All right. Let’s roll with it. Okay.
1:47:15
Just to run through the rest of the agenda. Any board items or council items? I’m going to merge those into two or one. Okay. Um, Violetta, would you like to make your motion again? Glad
1:47:34
that we adjourn this meeting, which is very fruitful, but should end at some point.
1:47:42
Second, that motion.
1:47:45
All right. All in favor,
1:47:47
aye.
1:47:49
We’re good night. Thank you. Thank you
1:47:51
guys. Have a good night. Thanks.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai