Jan 24, 2025 Sustainability Framework Advisory Committee on 2025-01-24 1:00 PM

Okay, welcome to the January 24, 2025 meeting of the Sustainability Framework Advisory Committee. The first thing on our agenda today is to receive nominations and elect a chair and vice chair. And I know it seems like we just did this, but we need to do it for the first of the year. And that was due to vacancy. So does anyone have any nominations they would like to make? I nominate Ed for chair. I have a nomination for Ed. I'll second that nomination. Second for Mr. Richter. All in favor? Aye. So, Ed is chair. Thank you. We also need a nomination for vice chair. Do we have any nominations? I nominate Brand. All right, we have a nomination for Brand Richter from Dr. Briggle. Do we have a second? I'll second it. All in favor? Aye. Congratulations, Mr. Richter. So, Brand Richter will be the vice chair. All right, our next item is to consider approval of the following meeting minutes, the first two of which, April 23rd and October 11th, are cancellation notices. And December 13th we had some actual minutes. Any comments? This might be a question to you, I don't know. Is it regular to have such a deferred approval of minutes? I understand that both of these were due to failure to meet quorum. But I guess was there a reason it didn't appear? That's a housekeeping error on our part. We are required to do the minutes even when we do not have quorum. I see. That's just some housekeeping from us. Is there a motion to suggest? I'll move to approve the minutes. I will second it. Okay, motion to approve, Dr. Brittle, second from Mr. Richter. All in favor? Minutes are approved. All right, our third item is to consider adoption of sustainability framework advisory committee meeting schedule for 2025. And you have the meeting schedule in your backup? The only change is we went ahead and chose a date for the December meeting, canceling November 28th and December 26th with a meeting on December 12th. I think it's the same day or close to the same Friday we did it this year. So the way it would be published is we would go ahead and just delete that November 28th and December 26th so that we don't have to post a cancellation. We would just put it on the adopted calendar. Any comments? Any conflicts? Yeah. I'll be in Europe for two months, so it's either May or June or June or July that I'm going to miss. We often have not held a meeting at the end of June, beginning of July, around that July 4th holiday. If the committee wanted to recommend taking a summer break, we could have that on the schedule as well. Would there be a deadline for determining that summer break? Would we have to do that now or would that come later? We could do it later. It'll just require cancellations because we're going to adopt a meeting schedule. Or if we adopt this meeting schedule today, it would require change. Any discussion about this? Yeah. I think the Briggles might be away on a great road trip in the summer sometime, so if two of us already kind of know we won't be here, we're not going to hit quorum. Do we know the date specific we'll just hit? I also have a lot of work-related travel that I have to do over the summer, so maybe whenever we have a little more information about when we're anticipating being out, we might look at that cancellation. Why don't we just adopt as is now, and then we can revisit that in March/April? I'm not going to put it on a meeting notice for that. Is that cool with everybody? Yeah. All right. Let's see. What's next here is to receive a report and hold a discussion and give staff direction regarding inclusion of a -- Sorry. We need a motion. Oh, you do? You need to formally adopt the schedule. I move to adopt the schedule. I second. All in favor? All opposed? Pass. Thank you. Okay. We will now receive a report, hold discussion, and give staff direction regarding inclusion of a standing agenda item for Sustainability Framework Advisory Committee meetings for citizen comment in alignment with City Council rules of procedure. Hello again. Catherine Barnett, Sustainability Manager. This is following up on a request from last summer to consider adding speakers to our meetings. We had speakers at a few meetings in a row then, so we did a little bit of research into the standing agenda items, standing items for citizen content that are around for different committee meetings, and then just give you a couple of options on that if you're interested in adding a standing item to have speakers and then just a few decision points about how we want to handle that. So two different ways that they're typically addressed at other committee meetings is it can be a comment about any individual consideration item on the agenda or any public business on items not listed on the agenda. So if we were to add it, would you want to have it open to any topic, any business not listed on the agenda, or would you want to tie it back to an item on the agenda? Yes. First off, I'd like to hear on anything related to what we do because it may help us to craft future agendas that address citizen interests and needs, but that's just kind of an initial thought there may be. I guess we could be inviting people to come in and ramble, but there's a time limit. We also have a decision about time limits. Just an idea. I agree with Adam on that. It could deal with both unlisted and listed issues or topics. Anybody else want to chime in? I agree with that, too. So I think I just heard a hybrid. Items on the agenda and items not on the agenda. Leaning toward option B, because it sounds like we're preferring more open citizen comment. That would also allow comment on agenda items posted, correct? Yeah, I read it as a bigger umbrella that comes with it or as an interest. Every B, is any public not listed on the agenda? Then I want C. I think I was hearing C. Yeah. Okay. All right, we can look into item C. Sorry, just to clarify, because I saw in the agenda information that this goes through the city secretary's office just to make sure we're to board. Yes, it will go through the city secretary and legal. So we're adding a number C letter. A yes hand. Okay. And then the next question is how many speakers would we like to allow at each meeting? Some meetings don't have a standing item for speakers, and then the ones that do, it ranges from two to seven. Most of them were three or four speakers per meeting. I think out of respect for everyone's time, particularly staff that has to go to listen to their schedule, if we're leaning toward more people, I prefer shorter speaking times. But if we prefer to hear a more in-depth comment, maybe we say fewer people but longer speaking times. Yeah, I would go with your second proposal. And historically we have very few. It happens sometimes, but we have very few people who show up to attend meetings without a comment, and so perhaps less speakers but with a longer window to provide their comment might be appropriate. We can look at the next item, which is how long they should speak, and kind of talk about these in tandem. Having been on the other side where I've wanted to speak at council meetings, for example, and not being able to, I would feel most comfortable, since we're serving the public, is to have a maximum number of seven and have a speaking limit of I think three minutes would be appropriate. But I definitely want to open the door because people get really bent out of shape when they fill out the blue cards and all that, and they're told, "Oh no, you can't speak to such-and-such-and-such." So I would like to play it safe and have a maximum of seven speakers at three minutes in public. That's fine, that may be fine. Anybody else? Any other comments? Any other disagreements, agreement? Yeah, it'd be great if we got seven people to speak. So everybody's good with up to seven in three minutes? So we will take that feedback and work with the city secretary's office to draft a standing item for our meetings and run that through legal, and we can work on getting that added for the next, for the February or the March, just depending on the lead time frame. Great, thanks. You might have said this, sorry, but when on the agenda we would show up, right away or after? I will have to talk to you about it. It's usually first on the agenda. Right, okay. Thank you. Next item are staff reports. Sorry, we just had a lot of housekeeping today. So you have your staff report and you have the education update, and we can answer any questions if you have any questions on that one. That was just for quarter one. We also have a list of our upcoming classes. We had to reschedule our beginner composting during the weekend with snow, so it will be Saturday at South Branch Library. We have quite a few other classes and events coming up. Any comments? Next we have the Bird City certification. We were awarded the Bird City Texas by Texas Parks and Wildlife, and I believe that press release came out earlier this week and last week. It also got delayed by the snow, so we have any questions about that? Is Karen here? Yes, Karen is back there. I didn't see her. She was behind camp. It's a heavy lift. It's a very big jump. Yes. Thank you. Lots of partners, great team effort. Karen led that charge and we appreciate that. There's going to be a bird celebration. Yes. And then we'll recertify in three years. The update, this was a matrix item update. Had the city received any IRA grants, any individual grants, and at that time the city had not. We do have the option to apply for grants through some of the funding that HUD has received, and then we also got notification this week, sorry, how many have told Michael this, but they approved our voucher program for the energy efficiency conservation block grant allocation for them, so then we can move on forward with it. Who is saying? Department of Energy. Okay. Yes. I had one question that you said here that the city had directly applied for two grants and that were not awarded. Can you tell us what those two grants were for? They were through DME. I'll have to get more information from our grant administration. That would be great if you could find out what it was. Yes. I had a question about that. Do the NCT cog ones, are those submitted or have they been awarded? They've been awarded. They have been awarded. Any other comments, questions on this? Nope. Next we have the incentive update. The applications are going to process for GreenSense and then the applications that we have underway for the EV and EVITE. The applications, we're working on processing that through the framework fund and then the GreenSense. It's been a little bit slow to start. We didn't have as many applicants trying to get older projects in. Last year we had a big rush at that. We had folks who were within the 180-day window, so they were submitting whenever they found out. So again, those are coming through, looking good. I had one question. Yes. Are the rebates for incentives for EVs that are being leased, are they available now? Has that been finalized? We are finalizing the application and the guide to go online and go live with that, but yes, we would accept a lease at this time. Okay, but can one apply for it now? Yes. Okay, thank you. Did you have a count ready or on hand for the EV/EVITE applications received to date? We're a rough estimate. Eight. Only eight, because we have-- Oh, I just mean, I'm sorry, between the two EVITE and EV rebates, do we know the breakdown of those two? Oh, no, I do not. I'm sorry. Misunderstood. I can get that for you. The next item is regarding a matrix item, and it was the request to have a joint meeting. Unlike many of our matrix items, it wasn't an information item. It's an action item. So we had some discussions about how best to handle action items for the committee. So the process that we're looking at, we do work with committee members to place action items on a future agenda. So the pending item, the requester would provide information about what they would like to have on an agenda as an action item. And then when we put it on the agenda and we have that meeting, then you can present the item and while you're asking for the item, you could submit any backup that you would like to have provided to the committee in advance so that they could read more about what we're talking about that day, and then the committee would take action on it. So to clarify, that would be what I need to do? Yes. Any committee member could request something to be put on the agenda for discussion, deliberation, and vote. Okay. For action items. Matrix, right? Or sorry, not the separate for matrix update, but for completing items or items for -- sorry. Where within our agenda would someone making that type of action need to request it? I'm going to look at Chris on this one. Would it be concluding items? You could also reach out via email to ask them to be put on. For example, would someone requesting that type of action need to do it at the same time we make additions to our matrix, for example? I don't see it as a matrix item. You wouldn't be required to do it then. What you were saying was they just have to make the request to staff, correct? Yes. So the request just has to be made to staff. So I'll be in touch with you. Yes, we'll follow up on that. And then that way we have a process that's open for other -- Yeah, definitely. Yeah. Good, thanks. Thank you. And then we have matrix. Anybody have any matrix items that they want to add, comments, et cetera? I do. Okay. I was looking at the state legislative program at the city. I think this was in one of the Friday staff reports. I would be curious to know what -- they have in here that environmental sustainability is part of the community focus and will be part of the lobbying, whatever lobbying efforts are going on. If at some point we could be told, we being committee, be told what sort of environmental initiatives the city lobbyists have taken to Austin, what they're working on, if there's any legislative priorities that the city has in regards to sustainability issues. I think it would be good if we knew about them. Then I would also like to -- if there is such a document or plans now in -- already set, I would like to know if the city's risk department has made any assessment of potential risks to city infrastructure posed by climate change. And then one more, and this is again something that I would just like to think about at some point and discuss more fully, is that on January 10th, there was a staff report on the fiscal impact study of the Hunter Coal Ranch development. And if you had the chance, go to the January 10th, Friday staff report and take a look at the figures of what's coming. It's amazing, it's amazing development, very large, incredibly large. And what got me to thinking is, if a fiscal impact study is done, would it be wise to consider, talk about an environmental impact study based upon our declared goal of being net zero by 2050? And if possible, to bring in other city departments to discuss this, such as primarily development. So the build out of this development is in 2064, which is 14 years beyond our 2050 goal. So I'd like to at some point initiate a discussion with interested parties about the environmental impact of this on our plans to be net zero carbon by 2050. Thank you. Sorry I'm so late. Sorry to be so wordy. Brian, I'll probably email you on the green space enhancements, a little bit more detail. Any other comments for the matrix or anything? Okay, then our next concluding items, I don't think there are any, so do I have a motion for adjournment? Motion for adjournment. All right, anybody want to second that? I'll second it. All right, so will you vote to adjourn? So that's it.