Hi, everyone. Welcome to the first Sustainability Framework Advisory Committee meeting. The first
item on our agenda today is to receive a nominations and elect a chair and a vice chair. Since
this is our first meeting, I thought we could do some quick introductions so that everyone
knows everyone on the screen. And if you'd like, I can just kind of go by the order that
I see everyone here. Call folks out. Ed, do you want to go first?
Yeah. Hi, everybody. My name is Ed Sof. I've lived in Denton about 34 years. I'm a retired
music teacher from UNT, and I've been an environmental activist for the past 23 years.
Adam? Yeah, hey, my name is Adam Brighill. I've lived
in Denton for 12 years now, and I'm a professor in the philosophy department at UNT. And I
was on the 2030 plan committee and done some other service for the city. And I'm really
looking forward to this. Thanks. Keely?
Hi, everyone. It's good to see you. My name is Keely Briggs, and I have lived in Denton
for, I think, 26 years now. I served on city council for almost six years, and on the environmental
committee about five years, and served with National League of Cities, Energy, Environment,
and Natural Resource Committee for about five years.
Thank you. Matthew?
Thanks. Hi, morning, everyone, or afternoon, everyone. It's really exciting to be here
today. I'm an associate professor in geography at UNT. I've lived in Denton for 11 years.
I live in the Deena neighborhood. Do some research on energy, do some research on municipal
policymaking. And this is the first committee that I'll serve on for the city. So I'm looking
forward to it. Thank you. Brand?
Hi, there. I'm Brand Richter. I'm also a student at UNT. I've lived in Denton for about 20
years now, for most of my life. Probably lived in every council district at this point, too.
Worked on, studied, and advocated for a lot of open space management and conservation
issues with the city. So really looking forward to getting some action going on these issues.
Mr. Bishop? My name is Frederick Bishop. I'm born and
raised here from Denton. Went to high school here. Retired from the Dallas Police Department
as a detective in violent crimes. Just looking forward to doing some work for the city. Just
getting back into things. Moved back probably about 10 years ago. So I was here on and off
while my parents were still living here to come check on me. But I'm back full time now.
Great. Thank you. And Jordan? Hello, I'm Jordan Vangel. I'm the sustainability
manager for the U.S. and Canada for Tetra Pak, which has its U.S. headquarters right
here in Denton. I'm also the director of government affairs for the Carton Council, which is a
carton trade industry organization made up of the four carton manufacturers in America.
I've lived in Denton for about four months. I think I got here right before the snow apocalypse,
which was exciting. And first city committee and background in material management and circular
economy systems. So pleasure to be here. Great. And I'm Katherine Barnett. I'm the sustainability
manager for the city of Denton. I've been with the city for 27 years and I've lived
here for about 32, I guess. Long time, double UNT grad. So happy to see all the UNT folks
on here. And if you don't mind, I'd like to ask two of the team from the sustainability
department to go ahead and jump on and introduce themselves very quickly. JT?
Yeah, sure. Hi, everyone. I'm James Douglas. I go by JT. I'm the conservation programs
coordinator. And so I focus on mostly water, energy, air quality and greenhouse gas management
for the sustainability team. And Julissa. Hi, everyone. My name is Julissa Amador and
I'm the waste reductions programs coordinator. And I do multifamily recycling outreach as
well as residential. So I'm really excited. And just to let you know, we do have one vacant
position that we hope to have filled in the next month. Interviews hopefully in the next
week. So we're missing Sarah Luxton. But we're working to fill that position. So that would
be the fourth team member that you would see sometimes. So with that, if we are ready to
jump into receiving nominations for the chair and the vice chair. I'd like to nominate Keely
for chair. Okay. And do you want a nomination for vice chair as well? I think we would do
that after we select the chair. Thanks. Any other nominations for chair? I would second
Ed's nomination of Keely for chair. Thank you, Brand. And then I think we can all just vote
by show of hands. Didn't ask Keely if she would accept that. But looks like it's unanimous.
So Keely, thank you very much. And I will turn the meeting over to you now to take the
nominations for the vice chair. All right, let's see if I can remember how to do this.
It's been a while. So we will move on to nominations for vice chair. Does anyone have a nomination?
Ed? I'd like to nominate Matt Fry. All right. Matt Fry has been nominated. Does anyone have
any other nominations? All right. A second. Do we have a second for Matt Fry to be vice
chair? Adam? Yeah, I'll second. Okay. So all in favor? Everyone is okay with that? So are
we still doing hands? Raise your hand. All right. Welcome, Matt. All right. So and again,
I didn't ask you if that was okay. I just assumed that your first committee will just
put you right in everything. All right. So we will move on to item B. That is Receive
a Report, Hold a Discussion, and Adopt an Annual Meeting Schedule. So I will take that one.
In your backup, there is a proposed meeting schedule. That meeting schedule was done based
on availability for the work session room for virtual meetings, which we, beginning
in June, June 14th, we will have to move to in-person meetings. So that gives us more
flexibility about day and time. We have the option to even have those meetings at the
sustainability offices. We have a large meeting room at 1001 May Hill. These will not be televised
meetings, so we could have them there and still be able to have people come in to make
comment. We have room for that and then able to have some socially distanced setup in that
room. So I just wanted to throw that out as an option. With summer camps going on, meeting
space is a little bit tight. We lose a lot of the Civic Center time, so I wanted to throw
that one out. Let me pull up the schedule here that we have proposed. Let's see. Try
that one more time. Share screen. The address on May Hill? 1001 South May Hill. And it would
be just one driveway towards McKinney from Spencer Road on the landfill side of the road.
I go by landmark. I never get east and west right. So right now we're looking at June
21st at 3 p.m. Now we could change that to an earlier time frame. That was just what
was available for the room. I believe that was a Monday. That was a Monday at 3. We could
even do it in the morning if there was a preference for that. But really any day other than Tuesday
or Wednesday are fairly wide open as far as our room. Does anybody have any suggestions
or preferences? Do you want to pull that down so we can have some discussion? Sure. There
we go. Thank you. As far as myself, all of the dates listed except for the next one look
okay will be at parent orientation in Austin. But I could do online if we were still doing
online. Everything else looked okay with me. Times I'm pretty flexible. So those who have
9 to 5 jobs and I'm going to let you go ahead and say what time you prefer and what day
you prefer except for what days are off limits? Tuesday and Wednesday are just a little bit
harder. Okay. Does anybody have any other preference for day of the week besides Tuesday and Wednesday?
Are Mondays good? No Mondays for me I frequently do Meals on Wheels on Monday mornings. And
so that's why I've sort of opted for the afternoon. Okay. The afternoon as well. Afternoon works
well. On Mondays? For me the Mondays are fine until the semester begins. I have an afternoon
class from 3.30 to 5 on Mondays. So once the semester begins, so the September meeting
on that list is problematic for me. So if we could do it at 1 p.m. during the semester
on Mondays I could handle that but 3 is too difficult. Is 1 p.m. okay for the people who
prefer 3 p.m. or will that not work? So I feel like it might be better if we just pick
one time now and kind of stick with it instead of change. One o'clock is good with me. Monday
and one o'clock is also good. Same with Matt. Once semester starts I would also have a class
that extends until 3.30 on Mondays. So say for that September date all the rest of them
are good for me. So Brand your class goes until 3.30? Yes. Okay. So Monday at 1 wouldn't
work for you, Brand? Not if our meeting lasts consistently 2 hours. The class would go from
2 to 3.30. I'm back. Sorry about that. I lost connection for a minute. So did we decide
anything on time? Well it sounds like one won't work for everyone consistently. What
about Thursday? Thursday is at 3? Hold on. Let me check my schedule on that because that's
the day I teach. Oh okay. I just forget what time. You said 3 o'clock on Thursday? Or 1.
I guess afternoons are best. We've decided for everyone. I teach until 3.20 on Tuesday-Thursday
this semester. Okay. So I'm going to go to our next day really fast just to see on Friday
to see how everybody's schedule is on Friday and if there's anybody teaching or afternoons.
And then we could go back to a different time. Friday's open for me. I apologize. I stopped
on the Thursday discussion and then everything dropped. I'll catch up. Adam teaches on Tuesday
and Thursday and so we have moved to Friday just to see if everybody's Fridays are open.
Fridays get tricky for me because we'll all have faculty meetings on Friday afternoons
and those are usually and usually the afternoons are really crazy with other types of meetings
for me and they happen. So I mean if I booked this in that would be fine. If you had it
as a standing date just consistently. Yeah. Like at 3 p.m. on Fridays I think I could
manage that consistently. Anybody else would like to weigh in? I mean if not we could go
back to Monday and work with Matthew on teaching your teaching schedule. I want to make sure
this is really important. I want to make sure that everybody has the you know the the greatest
chance to be here for the meeting so that we can all weigh in on the discussion and
topic and that's why I'm taking so long. I want to make sure that we we work with everyone's
schedule. Well and I think if we are not in this building we might be able to do Wednesday
morning. I don't know how that would fall out for anyone. What time is the morning?
We can be flexible with that. Okay. What about Adam said he finishes classes on Thursday
it sounded like most people had Thursday and it was he finishes at 3 20. What about 4 p.m.
on Thursday and then we would go until 6. I mean if that's not too late if it's a two
hour meeting. Well my Thursday full but I can try to adjust it because I know it's six
I have to leave to get somewhere on time to be there by 630 and I don't want to have to
be put you know so I mean but I can see can I flex mine if it's Thursday if y'all want
to try Thursday. So I think we can go back to the Wednesday discussion or Friday. Wednesdays
or Fridays discussion on time for everyone. Ed, Brand do you have anything to weigh in
on? Yeah any time after 3 30 would be great for me on Wednesdays and then Fridays are
completely open for me. Okay. Yeah anything other than Monday morning is is fine with
me. Wednesday morning before 11 is fine with me I have a class at 11. Wednesday is fine
with me. Yeah I can do Wednesday morning as well afternoon is would be tight because I
have evening classes. Adam? I'm free all day Wednesday Friday. Okay so Catherine Wednesday
so we're at Wednesday morning or what I guess we want to take Friday off. Or Friday morning
Friday morning works for me fine. Yeah okay. I thought didn't Brand have a class on Wednesday
morning is that what it was? Yes sorry. Okay yeah so maybe Friday mornings are better.
Friday mornings. Brand can you do Friday morning? I see Gordon is saying no he can't. I'm sorry
my schedule is Fridays are like lobbying and legislative calls basically until like 11 in
the morning for me from starting at like 7. Okay so anybody can you guys do Friday at
1? Yes. After lunch Friday at 1? Okay. Like 1 to 2 1 to 3 hopefully no later than 3 we'll
make it a little bit more efficient we'll have it all. Yep. Yes. That sounds good. Does
that sound good? Yeah. Friday 1 to 3. Okay. Okay. Does that work for you and staff Catherine?
We will make it work. I'm seeing thumbs up across the room. All right and location would
that be at the sustainability building? I think just for ease of scheduling let's just
plan on it there. There okay all right and just one last thing because I heard you say
that these will not be recorded in the future and I think this is on right now right? Yes.
On TV. So for those watching the minutes will be available for anyone that wants to know
what we're talking about correct? Correct. They can go online and find those? Yes. Even
if they can't watch us. Okay. Correct. Thank you. So I will send out a revised schedule
and updated appointments to everyone. Okay thank you thank you guys for going in that
discussion a little bit longer. We will go ahead and move on to item C. Receive a report.
Hold a discussion on the history and background of sustainability in the city of Denton. Review
the charge of the sustainability framework advisory committee and review sustainability
staff ongoing projects and identify priority areas for implementation. Is that you Catherine
or? That is going to be a team effort. I will kick it off and let me share my screen. We
were thinking rather than wait till the end maybe as we go through chapters or history
if anyone has a question we can pull it down and answer those kind of as we go through.
It's a lot to cover. Just for program sake so if you want you can raise your little hand
on the screen and I will see that you have a question and then we can that's how we can
do that. All right. I hope y'all can see that now. Okay great. So we're just going to start
off just as described with our background our goals and then a priority discussion.
So just a brief history timeline. Review the 2020 framework. Current projects where we
are today and then moving the framework forward which is what we're all here to do. So what's
on the horizon and then talk about committee goals and committee priorities. So the first
council committee on the environment started in 2004. Our first sustainability plan began
being developed in 2011 adopted in February of 2012. We started our greenhouse gas management
in 2011 and established a 2006 baseline year for all of our greenhouse gas inventory work.
The sustainability plan update began in 2018-2019 and was a five-year update running a little
bit behind. It was adopted in 2020 and included the establishment of this committee to advise
on the implementation of the framework. So some of the projects that we have ongoing
now we have our greenhouse gas management. We have our internal sustainability where
we are tracking our energy consumption, our purchasing, the recycling education, tracking
all of our efforts there. Our air quality regional partnerships and the improvements
over the last 20 years, partnerships with COG on that. Recycling and contamination is
a big focus for Jaleesa. So she's working on the residential and multifamily outreach
and education and then we also have the school recycling program which we're still redefining
what that looks like after COVID. Community resilience. We had the NLC resilience cities
grant. NLC came in and facilitated a workshop for us back in November of '19. And we have
the groundwork to start on community and municipal resilience based on that. And then of course
community engagement. We're able to start ramping that back up again now. The 2020 framework
has 8 focus areas. There are 33 goals and 52 strategies within the document. It expands
the scope of sustainability for the city of Jinton. And then we'll just kind of look through
some of the focus area highlights. And I'm going to let JT jump in here. And if you have
any questions please raise your hand and we can stop and talk about them as we go through
the focus areas. Yeah, absolutely. And so I'm excited to talk about the first three focus
areas here with everybody. So for the water chapter, just some of the highlights that
were pulled out of the sustainability framework. Obviously there are a couple more than this
in the document itself. But basically to protect and restore Denton's water bodies and maintain
a high drinking water quality. And also reduce per capita water consumption. That will be
done through water conservation efforts. Some examples of that. We actually have a couple
of upcoming classes for sprinkler spruce up as summer gets started and everybody starts
turning on their irrigation systems again. Oftentimes there will be leaks that were occurring
over the winter timeframe. And so we have a class for that. And also for DIY rain barrel
construction which will be really great. And then also keeping in line with all of our
TCEQ municipal storm water permit requirements. Just maintaining that high level of water
quality again. We can go on to the next one there. Thanks. For our air quality and greenhouse
gas management chapter, some of the goals there are to improve our non-attainment air
quality status. And we're going to continue to work with our regional partners to finalize
some work with that. Especially with the next year coming up. Reduce air pollution and greenhouse
gas emissions. And also assess community hazards and vulnerabilities related to a changing
climate. And set greenhouse gas reduction targets. That target setting is something
that we are right in the middle of right now. And so we'll actually have an extended discussion
about just the greenhouse gas management program in general at the next meeting. And so that's
already something that's sort of on the future agenda there. We have a question, Adam. Sure.
Oh, thank you. When you do this greenhouse gas management, can you just tell us what
is being accounted for? Like what sources? Definitely. So I can kind of give you a brief
highlight. So we basically have three steps to that process. We have the greenhouse gas
inventory, which is basically what you're describing, where we take an inventory of
municipal operations, but also the community as a whole. And so there's a formal set of
protocols with that that include scope one, two, and three emissions. And so scope one
are sort of your direct emissions related to energy production or transportation or
things like that. Things that are directly emitted. Scope two is things like energy consumption
is really the main one that falls into scope three, or scope two. And then scope three
are your indirect emissions. And so those are things that are sort of outside the geographic
boundary but have influence here. Something, an activity that we do here that may have
influence elsewhere. And so, like I said, that's really high level, but we can definitely
do a deeper dive at the next meeting with all of that.
Thank you. Absolutely.
And so with energy, we still have the goal of 100% renewable energy target for DME. And
so reaching and maintaining that. We have energy efficiency in new and existing buildings,
and energy efficiency in government facilities as well, which is something that in 2020,
we really took a deep dive and kind of updated that data set to make sure that all of our
reporting was in order there. Require exceptional building standards for new construction. And
so some of these strategies here, I'm sure you'll notice in the sustainability framework
that all of these have sort of overlapping improvements. So when we're talking about
expanding energy efficiency programming, that's going to have improvements to air quality
or greenhouse gas reduction, things like that. And so you'll probably find strategies that
kind of meet many of the different focus areas that are in there. And I think we have another
hand raised there. If you want to pull down the slides.
Adam, your hand is still up. Did you have another question? Sorry, when I run class,
the teacher puts it down. So I'll put my own hand down.
Oh, okay. Not a problem. And so Katherine, I think I will turn it back to you for the
next one if memory serves.
Okay, so on the land use and open space, of course, we're working to preserve open space
and natural areas, sustainability and parks have really started partnering together more
over the past few years, trying to work to minimize water use. The wildflower planning
program is one example of that partnership, where they're leaving areas more natural,
reducing mowing, reducing water use, increasing habitat. Really working across city departments
to try and achieve some of these goals. And then working with planning, encouraging redevelopment
of infill areas. The urban forest master plan was adopted in 2020, I believe the end of
2020. And then some of the strategies would be infill incentives and implementing the
urban forest master plan. And of course, promoting mixed use and compact development.
The next one is transportation. Obviously, expanding infrastructure for nonvehicle modes
of transportation is always a key. Increasing public transportation ridership, and you know,
we're closely watching what's going on with DCTA and how that might play out. Reducing
the environmental impacts from impervious parking surfaces, and then increasing the
amount of on nonroad trail systems. So that's another partnership where we work closely
with parks and trying to look at those connections and where we can benefit and have longer trail
systems that are connected. Some of the strategies are promoting pedestrian opportunities and
of course, implementing the mobility plan. So education, communication and community
involvement. Julissa and I are going to tag team a little bit on this one, I think. Sustainability
has worked really hard over the years to expand our education and make sure that we're trying
to meet as many members of the community and and create programs that don't have barriers
to participation. We want to encourage folks to understand the basic principles of sustainability.
And that that's going to include many areas of the sustainability framework. We try to
work across all of the focus areas and then increase sustainable education awareness and
personal responsibility. We're always looking for, you know, ad hoc committees to help us
implement new programs, the green business program update and implementation, which JT
is working on. And then equity and empowerment is one of the newer strategies in the framework.
Julissa, I don't know if you want to talk just on the materials management slide maybe
about what you're doing. Okay. So some of our goals for material resource management
include reducing waste generation and diverting waste from the landfill through increased recycling
and reuse options through our home chemical collection and yard waste programs. That's
a great way that residents can divert more waste from the landfill. Also by leveraging
city purchasing power to procure goods and services that cause less harm to humans and
the environment. Some of those strategies include environmentally preferred purchasing
program and our comprehensive solid waste management strategy as well. Yes. I think
the episode has a question. I lost my place here. Okay. I'm just curious
as under the goals there with reduced waste generation and waste diversion through increased
recycling and reuse options. Um, can one assume that, that composting will be considered in
this situation as well? Yes, it will be. Okay. And both residential and city Y and, and municipally
too, I would hope. Yes. Okay. Thanks. Thank you, Ed. And I would be remiss if I didn't
share that if you have the yard waste collection, you can use that program for any post-consumer,
no, pre-consumer, sorry, pre-consumer vegetative waste. So any of your apple peels cores, vegetables,
any type of material can go in with your yard waste. And is that, is that put into a, is
that composted at the landfill? It goes into the dino dirt program. Okay. Thank you. Resiliency
and public health is the last chapter focus area. And that was revised from local food,
which does roll up underneath this heading. So we do want to ensure that no one geographic
area or socioeconomic group in the city is unfairly impacted by environmental hazards.
And we want to incorporate resiliency into all of our planning efforts. Some of our strategies
are the city and monarch city program. We also have, um, joined the national wildlife
federation registration program for community and for, um, people's yards. Um, they can
register their yards. Yes. So what are the B city? The programs you said they were programs?
Yes. So B city and monarch city, um, they're nationwide efforts to promote pollinator awareness.
Um, we at the city are increasing our plantings to support monarch butterflies and to create
habitat for bees. Um, whether it's planting milkweed or planting nectar producing, um,
plants, native plants so that we are offering great way stations within the community as
our pollinators come through or, um, just, you know, in people's backyards, you can create
a habitat. So we're doing it on the personal level and at the community level. And can
I add with those programs, um, an increase of our no mo policy has happened. So we have
reduced our municipal mowing as we increase these programs to allow for the, um, the plants
to grow. Yep. We identified 241 acres that we could reduce mowing and leave natural.
So instead of having, um, more than two dozen mowing cycles a year, they may be mowed twice
a year now. And the savings from that can help fund the plantings for those sites. Thank
you. Good question. Are the, the mowing savings being accounted for as the greenhouse gas
reduction? They'll be captured in the greenhouse gas reduction as well. So some of our current
projects, um, the greenhouse gas management, Catherine, I'm sorry, I think Brandon, do
you have a question? Yeah, sorry. Shortly. Um, question. Uh, I saw that this was under
the resiliency and public health section. So far as strategies and implementations goes,
when we talk about these down the road, especially for like the B city, monarch city, and potentially
other programs like bird city, or you said the wildlife federation program, will that
still be considered under the resiliency and public health section of this plan or would
it fit under, let's say like the, the land management section of the sustainability framework?
So that's the beauty and the difficulty of the sustainability framework is so many programs
can fit under multiple focus areas. Um, one of the initiatives that we are working on
right now is as we are putting it together, agenda items, we're listing how it relates
to the sustainability framework. So I would say that, you know, if you're talking about
wildflower planning, that's under land use and that is under, um, resiliency and public
health. So just because it resides in the resiliency and public health, doesn't mean
that it's not land use as well. Okay, thank you. I was just curious how much crossover
we could have in discussions down the road with this. Oh, yes. It's all intermingled.
Okay. So, um, as JT said, we're working on the greenhouse mitigation target setting and
we'll bring that back to you at the next meeting. Um, the comprehensive solid waste management
strategy is well underway. Um, we have a follow up meeting tonight to wrap up our series of
public meetings, um, the climate hazards and vulnerability assessment, uh, air quality.
We participate with the air quality public health task force, air more Texas, and then
the rise coalition, which is the regional integration of sustainability efforts. Um,
it's a regional group that's housed at cog now. Um, so we are all very involved throughout
the region and trying air quality initiatives. So Catherine, we have a question from, uh,
ed. Yes. Yeah, I'm sure. Uh, I had a question about the climate hazards and vulnerability
assessment is, would that be done in house or would that be done through a consultancy?
I'll let JT answer that. Yeah, I think where we're at with that is mostly, um, wrapping
up with a lot of the data gathering stage, um, which was pretty extensive, um, in terms
of forecasting and things like that. Um, and I think we're at the point where, um, you
know, presenting some of that materials and then having that discussion, um, is, is basically
right where we're at with that. Okay. The reason I ask is, as I'm sure, you know, uh,
back in 2014, Austin, um, had a climate change projections for their city, which was done
by a Catherine Hayhoe. And I didn't know if, when I look back and I see, recall that the
dent and renewable plan was done in conjunction with, uh, enterprise or I think it was called
enterprise risk. Yeah. I didn't know that if something is, would carry more weight,
not to say that staff doesn't carry weight, but an outside assessment, such as what was
done at Austin might give us a little more, uh, heavy artillery when we go before council
with requests for certain issues that will help mitigate climate change. If we, uh, basically
that's what I'm asking. And I think that that's something that we can definitely add to the
discussion list. Um, I know some of those data sets have become more easily accessible
and more readily available, um, since 2014. Um, but in terms of, um, in terms of accessing
and pulling that data together, we can definitely have that, um, that discussion and, and add
it to the list. Great. Thank you. Yeah. And I, we're have, we're going to have a discussion
later about the matrix and how we get items onto the agenda for this committee and a study
like that may be something that this committee wants to hear more about. Okay. Great.
So now onto the committee purpose, um, to discuss and monitor the implementation of
the sustainability framework and priorities and projects discussions. Um, and then we
went ahead and listed, um, one of the topics for the next meeting, which would be the greenhouse
gas management overview. And then that goes into questions. So if we want to talk about
the implementation, um, and priorities and projects discussion now, we can jump into
that. I have a question, Catherine, and I see Adam does too. So Adam, I'll go ahead
and let you, um, ask your question. Okay. Thank you. Yeah. Uh, thank you for the presentation.
I think it makes obvious sense to start with the goals and the strategies for those goals.
Um, but if our mission is to discuss and advise on implementation, it would be super helpful
if we had information on trends with respect to those goals, like how are we doing when
it comes to all of these things? And maybe this is going to be part of our discussions
as we move forward, but I'm looking forward to all of this stuff and trying to help the
city think about how to do better. Um, but I don't, I mean, I, I think I'll, to do that,
we'll need to know where are we strong and where are we weak, you know, and how do we
prioritize, where's the lowest hanging fruit and in that. So, I mean, it's probably, this
is a procedural question about how we're going to move forward. Like how do we get the, the
info we need so that we can feel like we can make smart, um, you know, advice about how
we're doing implementing this stuff, you know, does that make any sense? And your gap analysis
basically, there's something to analyze what, what is and what's in place and what the standards
are and where's the gaps. Okay. That's a nice term for it. Yeah. I guess that's, that's
what we're working corporate world. Yeah. And that kind of leads into my question too.
So we do have, I think it's a 33 goals and 52 strategies. Uh, that's, that's a lot. Um,
and do we, I'm assuming, and what I would hope for this group is that we come up with
specific numbers for those goals so that it sets a better target. Like Adam mentioned,
you know, where, where are we, where have we been? What kind of success have we had
without anything defined really, it's going to be hard to come up with that gap analysis.
And also I would like to ask, does this body or will this body recommend new strategies
and policies to council to, um, achieve or implement the goals that we're learning about?
I would say, yes, this is an advisory body to council. So you can make recommendations
to council. Okay. Just confirming. Yes. Thank you. And one way we could walk through where
we are is maybe go by focus area and try to work through one or two focus areas each meeting,
maybe pick two that have some good synergies and talk about what we're doing currently,
um, what's on the horizon, what's been done, where we are, where we could go. Um, that
might be one way that we, we start attacking this large project. Thumbs up from Adam. Does
anyone else have any questions or comments about the implementation, about what you want
to see from this committee? Yeah. Well, I'm just very, very glad to know that, that recommendations
that we come up with will be put before council. Um, because I see that as the only way that
progress row will be made because council obviously makes the final decisions. So personally
I would like to, to sort of going, tagging on with what Adam said, I would really like
to know which areas are our least, uh, successful at this point. Um, that where, where we can,
can really focus on what needs to make the plan better. And so I would with ask Catherine
that, I mean, she and JT obviously know the plans better than anyone. And for them to
assess what they feel we could be most useful in helping strengthen and, and getting the
data necessary to do that as well, just in order to have some sort of structure for our
meetings. Like Catherine said, having a definite, definite, uh, agenda for what we were going
to talk about and obviously having backup for it as well. That make any sense? Basically
I'm most concerned where we're, where we need, where we can do the most improvement at this
point because things are, everything's speeding up around us and, uh, growth everything. It's
just crazy. It's all coming down on us at once. So the more we can strengthen our weaknesses,
I think, uh, better shape we might be in. So I have an idea. Oh, I just saw a hand,
but it went away. Oh, there's Adam. Sorry, Keely. Yeah, I just want a second on Ed. That's
another thing I was thinking too is, and this is like, like Catherine said, it's so complex.
There's so many things that are interacting. Another thing for us to grapple with is like
Ed mentioned, the development trends and projections as we look at this, cause I think all of this
is happening within a context of massive and rapid growth in our city. So if there's a
way to, to wrap our heads around that systematically, I think that would also help us say, well,
these are the real vulnerabilities or these are the real opportunities, or this is like
really urgent because this is, I'm just thinking about open space, for example. I don't really
know, but boy, that sure seems like that's disappearing quickly. If I just look around
my neighborhood. So, you know, some of that info, I don't know how that fits into this
picture either, but that's just something we're going to have to wrestle with too.
I was going to suggest that we go through the frameworks that we just went through and
maybe prioritize them individually for ourselves and then kind of go from there in discussion,
like which ones we want to tackle. You know, we want to go over first, just one for our
own sake and then two, so other members of the group can know what we feel and as individually
is important as well. Matt.
You know, so something that I think would be really helpful too is maybe just a bit
of background on some of the projected development in the city. So I went to a neighborhood meeting
way before COVID and there was a random speaker and it surprised me to learn about a lot of
the new developments going on on the Western part of the city. And it was like eye-opening
because of the plan that was laid out. Now I don't need every little detail, but I think
it would be useful to have kind of a clear idea of where we're going so that we could
contextualize what we're talking about here as well too. So there's things that are already
agreed upon in terms of large-scale developments that are going to be in place that, you know,
there's not much we can recommend towards those things. In my mind, it's pretty much
a done deal. So I would like to know, like, I think just getting a trajectory of kind
of where the city is going and what the, what things are expected in terms of development,
at least in the near term would be helpful to me to kind of wrap my head around some
of this stuff too. And we could bring planning in to give us
an update on that. Yeah, that's what I was thinking, Catherine.
Planning's going to be really helpful there and the growth and the amount of people. If
we have an idea of, you know, how many people are coming into our city, it's going to help,
you know, with the policies, especially, you know, when we're talking about trash and recycling.
So Brand has a question. Go ahead. Yeah, off of what you just mentioned earlier
on prioritizing some of these focus areas, I think it might be helpful too to consider
not just our own, maybe how we would personally rank these areas, but also considering the
primary interest survey, it's in the sustainability framework plan that is in our backup and where
the respondents to that survey ranked their primary interest in these topics. So for instance,
conservation of resources and access to natural spaces, much of what we've just been discussing
in terms of development, overwhelmingly make up more than 50% of that interest. And then
of course, health and safety comes shortly after that. So maybe if, as you suggested,
we rank our personal focus areas, it might be helpful to just keep in context of what
a lot of residents have also vocalized they want to prioritize.
Good comment. Yes, I agree. Ed?
One more thing, just to throw an idea out. There is a website called climateemergencydeclaration.org,
which lists all the municipalities in the states that have issued a climate declaration
of climate emergency. And this seems to be something that is done as a way to, first
of all, have an anchor for what we're going to do. And I know that this came before council
a couple of years ago and was voted down. But I think it should be reconsidered because
I think it's very important that the city make that sort of statement and use that as
a foundational document for whatever is done to address that emergency through a sustainability
plan, et cetera. So I would just throw that out that at some point I would like to discuss
that, have a discussion about approaching council about, again, trying to have a declaration
of climate emergency. And if you want to see a good example of one, Austin has a very precise
document regarding this, which is very good. Thank you.
>> All right. Does anyone else have any questions or comments? Yeah, Jordan?
>> I just want to say one thing. In sustainability and all that we're working on, I really think
it needs to be very -- a prominent focus that this is an apolitical discussion and really
-- when we get into things of talking -- and I come from California, from Santa Cruz, very
left-leaning cities and such and so on, but it can really throw people off, I think, when
you start naming Austin or climate emergencies. And so I would just -- I would say that I
think we'll have more of an appetite for suggestions or policy measures if we keep this in line
with it's a responsible thing to do, being stewards of land, air, water, resources as
a city versus what has now become very politicized. And again, I'm not trying to -- your comments
are spot on. I believe commitments and signing onto accords is very important. But I would
just caution where this focus goes on some of those topics. That's all.
>> And I will just jump in here and say that this sounds like a good conversation for an
item on the matrix where we could have full conversation about it in the future where
everyone can weigh in. So if -- does anyone else have any discussion -- oh, I'm sorry,
Mr. Bishop? >> You're fine. I'm trying to make sure -- and
I guess this is for Katherine -- what's pending now that's been submitted to the city? And
I think this is the same thing. Matthew's asking what's on hold right now that they're
working on or that we need to go to first instead of starting something brand new, one
of these 33 items, what's being held in the, I guess, holding box now for the city to look
at or go from there? >> I would say that the target setting for
our emissions reductions is something that's been pending. And air quality action plan
is another item that's pending. Most of them would revolve around air quality right now
because it is very important locally, regionally, statewide, nationally. So it would rise to
the top. >> Katherine, has council set a carbon reduction
percentage? Has that something? >> Not yet.
>> No? Okay. >> I think that they were looking for feedback
from this committee. >> Okay.
>> So that was why we had that on the next agenda.
>> Awesome. Thank you. All right. Well, if anybody else doesn't have any questions, we'll
move on to the next item. This is really great discussion. Thank you, everyone. So we will
move on to item D, receive a report, hold the discussion, and adopt the project matrix
format for the future, which we have learned is going to be very important.
>> So if any of you follow along on our Friday reports or any of our committees, you've probably
seen a similar matrix. What our plan for right now is is that we will complete this matrix
for every meeting. We will add the requester, the members that supported it, the item, the
department that will lead it, and then we'll have an estimate of staff time, and then we'll
report back to you the current status of the project, and then we'll be probably starting
off with this going to council in the Friday report so that they see pretty quickly after
our meetings what was discussed and what was included with the matrix, and then we'll go
from there to determine if it's going to go back to council, you know, as an informal
staff report or a work session, or, you know, are we going to flesh it out a little bit
more before we want to go take that to council? But this is just a sample of the matrix and
what that will look like, and so now is the time to start throwing things out to put on
the matrix. >> I have a clarification question, and I
may have misunderstood you. I just want to make sure. So at what point does it go to
council before the item is even heard here, or are you saying that we hear the item, do
all the discussion, everything we need to do, but then that item goes to council? I'm
just trying to get a better idea of the process that you're talking about here.
>> And I think that could depend on the type of item. I mean, if the recommendation on
the matrix is to hire a consultant to do a project, then that might need to go a little
more quickly to council to see if we could have the funding to hire the consultant.
>> Okay. So you're saying it doesn't have to go to council just for us to hear the presentation?
We can hear the presentation by it being on the matrix, but if there's a recommendation,
then at that point, right? I just want to make sure that we're not going to have to
-- we're waiting on council before we can have a discussion.
And I think most items we can probably come back with a discussion.
>> Okay. All right. Thank you. Anybody else have any comments or questions about the process?
This is how you get an item on the agenda. >> Okay. So could you just give us an example?
The next meeting is already scheduled for the greenhouse gas management. So could you
just give us a scenario where this works in this matrix? Maybe it will help me kind of
understand better. >> So it might say that oh, map fry requested
an update on the greenhouse gas inventory. And brand and Mr. Bishop also wanted to see
that. And so staff is going to bring that back. And then to work along with that, say
maybe you wanted an update of regional air quality initiatives. And everybody on the
committee supported hearing about that. So we're going to bring that back.
And then we might have one that is -- oh, gosh. We want to know about how the valet
trash program is working on the square and on fry street. And that might not fit on the
next agenda. But we all know that that was a request and it will come in the future.
We're having planning come and talk about future development.
>> And Catherine, do those requests, if they come up during a discussion, during a presentation,
do they need to be reiterated during concluding items? Or is it how -- at what point does
somebody -- or would they -- they would e-mail staff if they had something or the chair?
Is that another way? I'm asking so that the members know if they have an idea or a question,
what ways can they get their item on this matrix?
>> I think we will try to capture them during discussion. If in concluding items, if somebody
wants to reiterate and make sure that we got it, that would be great, too. And then whenever
-- of course, when you see the minutes, if you say, oh, my gosh, I'll totally miss that,
you can e-mail us. >> Okay. All right. Is everybody okay with
that? Do you have any questions about the process? No? Okay. All right. Well, it looks
like it's settled, then. We will move on to our last item, which is concluding items.
Does anyone have any concluding items? Ed? >> Can we put things on the matrix now?
Yes. >> Okay. I have -- I would like to investigate
-- I would like to see somehow a climate change projection done for Denton, either by an outside
consultant or in-house. I made some remarks about that earlier. And I would also like
to see a projection of development within the next 10, 20 years.
>> I think she froze up or something. >> I think she did. Adam, go ahead.
>> Catherine, you mentioned it. I'm glad Mack asked for examples. I'm really concerned about
air quality, and I know that's a priority for a lot of folks. If you could -- and it
sounds like this fits the next meeting. If there's a way you could bring us up to speed
on who's doing what, where we've been, where we think we're going, projections and trends,
and so that we can think about what are smart things that we can do to make that better.
>> Absolutely. >> Yeah. Thank you.
>> Brian? >> Yeah, just a future item for the matrix.
Really interested under focus topic for energy, community solar, and where the city's efforts
on residential solar projects stand, and how those are funded, and some possible considerations
we could take to improve that. >> Matt?
>> Could I add to the next meeting, too, on what Adam just said, could we get some background
on some of the monitoring on the air quality, so just the sources of the data that the city
is relying on regionally, and it's just included in that discussion. I'd like to.
>> Is there an environmental director? >> Good question.
>> Has that position not been filled? >> It has not.
>> Okay. All right. Anyone else have any? >> I don't know if this is public information,
but Catherine, is there a search on now for that position?
>> Yes. >> Great. Okay. Thanks.
>> I would like to have an update on education and the classes. I know that there was a question
mark out by that, and education is really important in our city and the classes, so
at some point, and we talked about in that same line, equity, how we make sure the education
gets out across the city and how we make sure it reaches everyone, and everyone has a fair
shot at that education. >> Absolutely.
>> Okay. Brand, do you have another question? >> Just a procedural question. When we're
requesting items to go on the project matrix, is that to be directly set off to the next
meeting, say for just the one that I just mentioned about the community solar projects?
I don't know timeline on it necessarily. I think it would just go well synergistically
to talk about it whenever we bring up the energy focus area. So if I were to put something
on the project matrix, does that necessarily mean that it's going to be on the next meeting?
>> No. Generally, it doesn't. So it depends on the time of research involved and when
staff can get to it. But generally, it's not too far out because we don't want our agenda
really full. So when staff sets the agenda, it's within reasonable items list. So it might
go in order or if it fits into the framework that we're talking about, that item might
be put in there as a discussion item. Catherine, you can add to it if that's how I understand
it to be. But you can go ahead and add more if you'd like.
>> That is how it works usually. We're looking at the agenda and trying not to be here all
evening or for four hours. But if we feel like we can plug in like a small presentation
from DME about solar that goes along with that, then we could do that. But it may be
that it has to come back, just depending on folks' schedules, too. It may be that has
to be pushed out to two meetings away. >> And, Brand, every meeting, we'll look
at the matrix and go through and see what items have come and what items have not. And
so we can ask about that, you know, where is that? When are we going to hear it? And,
you know, update ourselves on it, on where it is in the process.
>> And we usually try to assign a date that that will come back if it's not the next meeting.
>> Thank you, guys, for that explainer. >> Matt?
>> Just to clarify, so for the next meeting, we've got the topics set. We've already suggested
a couple things to focus on. In the timeline of things, this is about a month away when
we'll meet again. When will we get an agenda? Will we get some background material to read?
Or, like, is there a time scale between now and then in terms of items coming our way?
Or is it just we show up at the meeting in the day before, you know, like this meeting,
we got the agenda and stuff? >> It will be -- so that will be a Monday
meeting, I believe, so you'll get it on the Friday before. So, yeah, we had some challenges
with the first meeting, but we'll try to get that to you about three days ahead in the
future. >> So the suggestion would be then to look
at the framework document on that topic on -- in my mind, as I'm trying to prepare my
mind for this, because there's a lot of things in that, you know, it's time consuming to
go through the whole thing, but I think focusing on certain topics is the best way to go. So
focusing on the document and then being prepared for that Friday before to have some more direction
on what specifically we're going to talk about. >> Yes, and since we're going to be talking
about greenhouse gas, probably go ahead and -- our greenhouse gas inventories are online,
so if you want to look on the City of Denton website, you can see -- I believe there's
at least three years of history online right now. So J.T. is waving at me. I may have misstated
something. >> No, you didn't. I was just going to also
recommend that there are a couple of COE meetings posted as public record as well that will
have some of the background, of course, that we'll cover at the next meeting, but if you're
incredibly interested in a primer, that would be a good place to start.
>> Ed? >> Just a clarification. The next meeting
is going to be on the Friday of May 27th, correct? When the meeting is moved to Friday?
From 1 to 3? >> It will be in June. The next meeting will
be in June, right? >> But it won't be a Monday, it will be the
Friday. >> Sorry. It's in my notes. It's not concrete
in my head yet. >> All right. Thanks.
>> I'll clean that up. >> All right, everybody. Well, I think we
should draw this. If everybody is okay and good to go, no more questions or any more
questions? I don't want to limit conversation if there is one.
>> I'll just say if anything comes up in the interim, feel free to email me.
>> Yes. Yeah, do that. And thank you, everyone. It was a great first meeting. I'm really excited
about what we can do and learn and recommend. I think we can make really great progress
here in our city as a committee. So thank you for your time today and thank you, staff.
And we will adjourn at 312. Thank you. >> Thank you all so much.
>> Thank you, everybody. Nice meeting you.