Hello, everybody. Welcome to committee on the environment. Glad we could be here today.
It is Tuesday, September 8. And the time is 102. We do have a quorum. So we will go ahead
and get started rather quickly. Our first item for individual consideration is consider
approval of the June 25, 2020 minutes. Councilmember Metzler. So moved. Okay. Second. All right.
All in favor, say aye. Aye. Aye. All right. We'll move right now to the next one. Item
B, receive a report, hold a discussion on the regional air quality update and collaboration
summary. Is that you, James? That is. Good afternoon, council members. James Douglas
conservation programs coordinator. Let me pull up the screen here. Okay. And can everybody
see that? Yes. I think we're good. Okay. Perfect. So like you said, we're here to give an update
on the regional collaboration efforts on the topic of air quality between the sustainability
office and the north central Texas council of governments. And so you'll hear me refer
to it as the cog, probably from here on out. And so the cog has some great efforts going
and the city of Dutton participates in those as one of many cities in the region. And so
we are here to give you an update on some of the things going on there. So for today's
presentation, we're going to discuss three of the different partnerships that are going
on with the cog right now. And the results of some of those partnerships are some information
related to the impacts of COVID-19 on both transportation and regional air quality. And
so we're going to touch on that a little bit. And towards the end of the presentation, we
will give a 2020 update on the regional analysis of air quality, both in Dutton and the DFW
as a whole. So just a little bit of background. Today, you're going to hear me reference some
numbers related to ozone. What that is, is the air quality index, and that's an EPA index
for measuring major air pollutants that are a part of the Clean Air Act. Like I said,
today we're going to focus mainly on ozone. That's the main one that we see when we get
an air quality alert here in DFW, typically it's ozone. So the, I mentioned three partnerships
before that are led by the cog and the sustainability office participates in. And so just briefly,
the three of those, the first one is Air North Texas, which acts as the outreach and education
wing of the air quality and transportation division for the cog. And so basically what
the cog does there is they help us to standardize our outreach information with our neighboring
cities and other public entities. And so you may be familiar with one of those standardizations,
which is Arlo the Air Modillo, and he's their mascot for that. And in 2018, Denton actually
got an award for best utilization of that character throughout 2018 marketing. The second
that I have listed here is a new initiative that we're really excited to be a part of,
and that's the Air Quality Public Health Task Force. And in terms of some of the collaboration
regionally, this is probably the most horizontal of the efforts crossing many different sectors.
And so this brings together education, atmospheric science, nonprofit, public health, and of
course the local governments. And so basically this is in the early stages, but the goal
is to bring these organizations together and to share data sets, which is what we're doing
right now. And so really we're learning from each other what everybody has to offer. And
from that, we're going to pose some actionable questions that at the regional level we can
use this data to improve air quality. And so, like I said, really excited for the new
initiative and we'll have more updates on that in the future. And then briefly, the
last one is the Local Government Energy Reporting Group. This was previously at the state level
but the COG took this over for a regional effort to increase energy reporting amongst
public entities. And so this is for a state effort to improve air quality by lowering
energy consumption in the region. And so Denton has been participating in that reporting since
about 2001. And so the sustainability staff has had a pretty big role in terms of getting
other cities reporting. And I think between the year before and the year after the COG
took this over, there was about a 90% increase in regional reporting in the area. So it's
really good to see. And like I said, Denton has had a role in that. And so the COG kindly
provided some slides and this is for the effects of COVID-19 on regional transportation and
air quality. And so we've got a lot of good information here. And so we're going to dive
right into that. So we're going to start with the transportation side of things and then
we'll talk about the impacts to air quality after that. So we're going to get started
just pretty generic here. We're going to compare the freeway volumes from 2019 to 2020. And
this is a comparison of each individual month. And so you can see that this kind of peaks,
the decrease peaks in April, we see about a 30% decrease in freeway volumes. And this
follows, it was the, I believe the second or third week of March when the stay at home
started coming about. And so we can expect to see that peak in April. To give you a little
bit of reference here, a 10% decrease is what we would typically see between weekday and
weekend volumes. And so, you know, we get at least that March through July, and then
we see about a 30% there in April. Another way of thinking about that data, we can think
about freeway speed. And so this is average weekday speeds weighted by traffic volume.
And what you can see there in yellow for February is what we would typically see on any given
weekday where you see a decrease in speed with rush hour traffic. If you take a look
at April and May there in green and light blue, we see a much flatter curve. Due to
those decreased volumes, we see a more consistent speed and we see, you know, less congestion
there on the freeways. And this is for the DFW region as a whole. With those, with less
cars on the road and increased speed, we see the following results in terms of motor vehicle
accidents. And so we see a decrease in the number of accidents due to lower car volumes
on the road. But with that increased speed, we do see an increase in fatalities. And so
those are, you know, inversely proportional there. And we can see that data March through
July once again comparing those months, 2019 versus 2020.
Moving to a different side of transportation. So this is public transportation here. Once
again, we see the highest decrease starting up in April. Unlike the previous slides, though,
you'll notice that this has not started to return to 2019 levels. And so this is something
that we're definitely going to be keeping an eye on. And they are keeping an eye on
at the regional level. And so we see a pretty consistent decrease there between April and
July.
Another one that has a large impact on air quality is the impact of airports. And so
a similar trend here. We do see this one starting to return to the sort of 2019 trend. But once
again, peaking there in the decrease in April and, and slowly returning. And I would like
to point out that this is airport passengers. And so another good metric that we will more
than likely have data for is the number of flights and fuel consumption as well may be
better ways to track this. But this is good data to start with.
The flip side of that coin. So if we're driving and using transportation less, we see bicycle
and pedestrian impacts here on trail counts. And so a 50% increase starting in March, and
then we get into April and May, and we start to see increases in the 70% range as compared
to those months in 2019. Once again, we're seeing that slowly return to 2019 values as
well. I would like to point out that this is not normalized for weather impacts. So,
you know, January, February, maybe it was a little bit warmer. And people were out using
the trails, you know, during that timeframe, but still a large, a large impact. And we
can attribute that to, you know, less, less transportation by other means.
So with all of that in mind, those are the impacts to transportation. And we know, of
course, that transportation has an impact on air quality. And so this is something that
is probably going to be studied for five, 10 years to come. But it is a good case study
to take a look at, okay, we had in April, you know, a 30% decrease in freeway volumes.
What was our impact to air quality? And so before we get into some of the graphics, just
a brief summary of impacts here from the COG. And so, like I said, emissions from vehicles
was reduced. Up until August 3, this was the lowest frequency of high-level unhealthy exposure
days to ozone that we've seen. And I would like to point out that ozone levels are influenced
by meteorological conditions, and that includes high temperature, low winds, high UV, limited
rain, and limited cloud cover. The transportation emissions that impact ozone are the ozone
precursor pollutants, and those are nitrogen oxides and VOCs, volatile organic compounds.
And so those are what are going to impact ozone levels in terms of the emissions side
of things. In terms of visibility and just bluer skies and, you know, clearer skylines
as you drive in and out of DFW, something that is currently under review by that Clean
Air Task Force in public health that I was speaking to earlier is the leading to a healthier
populace. Obviously, COVID-19 causes some variability, to say the least, in terms of
the public health data. And so it's going to be a bit of a challenge to take that variability
out to try and analyze the impact that the air quality had on public health, but that
is something that's under review. Like I said, this is, you know, one of the first times
that we can get a real-world analysis in terms of a regional reduction in transportation.
And one of the COGS conclusions here is that state implementation plans on air quality
are more than likely going to be necessary in the future to reduce background. And so
the transportation, the decrease in transportation, did have an impact, but it did not account
for all of the variability. And so there is some variability due to background concentration
of air pollutants. And so in order to address those, you know, we talk a lot about air quality
being a regional issue. You know, it does go beyond that to state by state. And one
of the things that the COG is focusing on is how can we sustain the impacts of this
reduced transportation? And one of them is limited emission vehicles, electric and fuel
cell and also travel demand management. And so things like telecommuting, how can we implement
these to, you know, keep those transportation numbers a little bit lower? So with that,
we will move into a little bit of the 2020 analysis for air quality. And so what you
see here is a regional map of all of the air monitors that monitor for ozone. You can see
there towards the top in the center of Denton County is the one located at the Denton Airport.
And so a lot of information here, but you can see the ones with ozone design values
between 71 and 85 are in orange, and then the lower ones between 56 and 70 are in yellow.
And we're going to be talking a little bit about design values. And so it is a little
bit of a complicated value. And it's basically the three year average of all of these monitors.
And you take the annual fourth highest daily maximum eight hour average ozone concentration,
and that's the design value for any given three year period. And so those are what you're
taking a look at here.
Another way of taking a look at this data, you can see 2020 on the far right side. So
this is, we talked about the air quality index. And so these are days in moderate and yellow,
orange and then higher risk in red. And so in 2020, we have each month as it compares
to 2017. And then you have your three year design value period there, 2018, 2019, and
2020. And so if you take a look at March and April, things were going really well with
those. We did have one red day there in May. And then I think the next slide will kind
of give a better comparison there. So this is just a comparison with 2019. And so once
again, you can take a look at March and April, where we have lower values there in 2020.
And then moving forward, we see comparisons in May, June, July, and August. And so I think
I mentioned August 3 earlier. So we did have some very hot weather there in the first two
weeks of August. And so you see those two red days there. That's when those took place.
So here we're taking a look at the cumulative ozone exceedances. And so this is any time
that that air quality index ventured into yellow territory or higher. And so if you
take a look at the June and July timeframe, especially, we were kind of on pace there
to have the best year that we were going to have in five years. Like I said, those days
in August did tip the scales a bit for us. And now we're kind of on an average pace here
for the five year period for 2020. So the previous slide showed the number of exceedances.
So the number of times that we ventured into yellow territory or higher. This is a comparison
of the design values for 2016 through 2020. And blue is the current 2020 track. Once again,
we can see there in July, we were on pace to meet the 2008 EPA standard of 75 there.
And once again, those exceedances in early August did tip the scales. And so we are on
pace to be about in line with 2018. And then a little bit simpler way of taking a look
at this here. So this is nothing to do with design values or anything like that. This
is just the average regional ozone in months in 2019 versus 2020. And once again, a lot
of variability based on meteorologic conditions. But we do see about a 30% decrease in average
in March and 9, 10% there in April. And we move sort of into a little bit more variability
there May through August. And so the presentation today is really to
give you a sense of the efforts that are going on at the cog. They do have a full team of
air quality planners there in their transportation division. And so the availability of information
over the last two years has definitely increased. And they are definitely taking a full new
view of this topic. And so they, like I said, they kindly provided these slides to us and
they wanted to also provide their contact information. So if you have any follow up
questions, you can feel free to reach out to any of them. Also, feel free to reach out
to the sustainability office if you have anything. And we've been working together for a few
years now and we would be happy to pass those along for you. So I will open it up to any
questions that you might have. If we can take the slides down so we can see
everyone's smiling faces, we will take questions. Yes, Councilmember Meltzer.
Yeah, I've kind of a minor-ish question and a major one. I don't think I understand page
16, slide 16. I think I heard what you said, but maybe just the facts are peculiar because
everything's about how, you know, there was less activity, therefore basically less pollution.
But then slide 16 shows several months of higher ozone in 2020 than in 2019. So correct.
So that's something that is currently under review. So two main things that it could be.
One of them is variability in meteorology. So the difference in, you know, high ozone
conditions, you know, the high UV index and low winds and high temperatures. The other
thing and was kind of referenced in the COGS analysis was the need for more state-level
action and state implementation plans to address background. And so potentially less was attributed
to transportation than was previously thought. And so that's another possible explanation.
But like I said, currently under review with that.
That could be one of those little anomalies that isn't so little and that leads to like
a major different way of viewing the world, right? Even if it's with so much less activity,
you know, what else are the candidates for higher ozone?
Correct.
So we don't know. Okay. Well, that's going to be very important to find out. Well, that
kind of, you know, sets the stage for my bigger question, which is what's actionable about
this? But I think we have to get the analysis first before we can even tell. There's something
very actionable that's very different than what anyone thought.
Correct. And I think the question of actionability is really one of the things that's going to
be addressed in that air quality, regional air quality task force. And so when we take
a look at the different data sets that are available and what we can learn from those,
you know, we'll be posing those questions for sure.
Yeah, that's pretty shocking. You know, everybody stays home and it still gets worse. Weird.
Okay. Thank you.
Did you have another question or was that?
No, that, that.
I have to extend to that.
That's it.
Okay.
Until we understand that, you know.
Councilmember Davis, do you have any questions?
No, I don't have any questions. I thank you, Paul, for asking that one though, because
that's, that's perplexing. That'll be interesting to find out what we can find out about that.
Yeah, that was one of my observations and questions as well. I mean, because we hear
the reason where our air quality is so bad is because of the traffic and transportation
and everything in our area. And we have unfortunate situation that has lend itself to allow us
to get some data. And so now we can explore that. And I am equally as interested to figure
out, you know, what's happening there. And one of the things that I thought was interesting
as well as now we can directly tie. I mean, we knew high speeds caused fatalities, but
now there's data that shows that those high speeds cause more fatalities, which is unfortunate.
But it's there in the data. The only other question I have is as far as the non-attainment
area, when you looked around, I mean, we're all orange. Every one of those that surround
Denton is orange. I guess just for clarification, are they supposed to be yellow or is it just
an orange monitor and we're within the data that's allowed?
So the design value for that monitor determined whether it was orange or yellow. And so the
ones that fell into the higher category, I believe it was, we'll check on the numbers
there. Yeah, anything, yeah, between 71 and 85 was in the orange and then between 56 and
70 was there in the yellow. And so that would be the design values for the individual monitors,
not the region as a whole. Okay. And so there is a percentage that we're
supposed to be at and I'm trying, I'm going way back and I know that we had gone over
that limit. Are we still over the limit that's allowed for our area? And are there any penalties?
I remember a couple of years back, there was discussion of a penalty or something that
was attributed to those monitors. So I believe it's the, so the design value
for the region is the main value that we take a look at in terms of comparing it to the
EPA design value. And so the 2008 design value is what we are currently as a region trying
to achieve. And then there's the 2015 one, which is beyond that still. And so it's at
a regional level. And so, you know, whichever monitor is the highest in the region will
sort of drive that design value for the region. And it is not the Denton monitor at this time
that is driving that design value. Okay. If that makes sense.
Okay. And I see Dr. Banks is here with us. Is there any chance, I know that we had talked
about maybe trying to get another monitor since there was just one in Dent County. Is
that still any, is that still a conversation or not a possibility at all?
Another monitor in our area. If you can unmute.
There we go. Sorry about that. I haven't heard of any recent conversations. I'm looking
over at Catherine just to see if there's been some here lately. All right. She's bringing
a note. All right. So they're looking at one in Pilot Point right now. Okay. So they've
added one in Pilot Point since we talked last. Okay. Thank you. Thank you for that. All right.
Dr. Meltzer? Yeah. You know, I'm just really, I've really taken cause over this oddity of
less traffic, less flights and higher ozone. And I'm wondering, do we know, is this just
a regional phenomenon or is this nationally true, globally true? You know, traffic down
and ozone up. So from what I've heard from some of the
conversations, it's relatively consistent, at least in some of the Texas area. And I
think that they're putting more of that information together. Obviously with the cog, they have,
you know, this North Central Texas data more readily available. And as more people do these
analyses, and I think that there will certainly be more coming, you know, as this does act
as a case study. And so as we get those in, we'll be able to compare more readily.
Yeah. Okay. That'll be interesting to know. Thank you. I mean, maybe the planet's just
cooking and once fissures open up on the earth, you're done. I don't know.
Well on that comment, we will move on to the next item. Item C, Receive a Report, Hold
a Discussion, and Give Staff Direction Regarding an Update on the Recent and Upcoming Projects
in the Solid Waste and Recycling Department. Dr. Oh, there you are, Brian. Welcome. If
you could unmute and then you can start whenever you're ready.
Very good. Sorry about that. Good afternoon, Madam Chair, members of the committee, Brian
Berner, Solid Waste Director with the City of Denton. We can all concede that the year
2020 has been an interesting year and with COVID, it has pushed a lot of things back.
And we've been before council here on several occasions over the past six months saying
this thing is coming and that thing is coming. And we wanted to get before the COE today
as we get closer to some of these things coming to fruition, lay out some of the projects
and give you a little better idea of what is coming down the pike. So with that, let
me share the screen real quick. There we go. So project updates. So the purpose of this
is really to provide the Committee on the Environment an update on some outstanding
projects, some things that have recently been implemented, as well as some projects that
have been in the pipeline for a while. We want to talk a little bit about why they're
important and really set some expectations as we're moving down the implementation and
set a timeline. A couple of these projects, we're still in the contracting phase. You
will see them very, very shortly. But we are still under the Purchasing Non-Disclosure
Agreement. So we'll be talking generalities about the project. We will not be able to
give the name of successful suppliers until that contracting is complete, but we'll try
to answer as many questions as you can. There are several projects that we have here before
you today. What we'd like to do is go through the entire presentation and then come back
and answer specific questions about the specific projects. With that, I do have a couple of
people here to help me today, a couple of staff members, really key to help implement
some of these actions that we're going to be doing today. First off, we'll be introducing
Ms. Tina Eck. She is our Senior Business Analyst with the department. And following her, Ms.
Alison Wing will be talking. She is our Solid Waste Applications Coordinator, and she'll
be talking about a project that we have. So I'm going to switch places with Tina right
now and we'll talk a little bit about our IVR system. Good afternoon. So our interactive
voice response system has been developed in a partnership with our customer service department,
and it provides our residents self-service options in making their solid waste requests
specifically related to our yard waste program. So we do have a separate number there that
you can dial in. It is live and up to date right now. You can make requests in English
and Spanish 24/7. And it allows you to do things like opt in and out of the yard waste
program, either craft bag or cart, and schedule a brush collection if you are not currently
opted into the program. If you are opted in, you can already have your brush collected
automatically weekly. And additionally, you can also schedule a brush bulk collection
of bagged leaves two times per year. Some of the benefits are specifically with the
Monday collection day, we do have customers there that can go ahead and call in over the
weekend. Formerly, they were having to wait essentially an additional week if they were
to do yard waste kind of tasks over the weekend. So now that they can go ahead and call that
in and have it scheduled for Monday collection next day, and also it enables you to be able
to have the reservation without having customer service. I'm pretty proud of that. And up
next, I'll be introducing Allison Lee, our applications coordinator.
Hello. Hey, as Tina said, I'm Allison wing, the solid waste applications coordinator here
to talk to you about the smart routing system. We are nearing the end of our RFP for smart
for procuring smart routing software. This will replace existing software for managing
work orders, container inventory, rolling stock inventory, and will support audit tracking
and reporting, but will but will come with added enhancements that are new to the city.
Each collections vehicle will be outfitted with an iPhone or iPad that will give turn
by turn directions for the day's route and work orders, and will be a communication portal
for the supervisors, dispatch and the collections technicians.
Each vehicle will be tracked by GPS in real time. At all times, we will have the ability
to log into a portal and see where all vehicles are and easily be able to send the best vehicle
to an emergency situation, or quickly get to a vehicle in distress or whatever situation
may arise. This also means that we will be able to see what percentage of each route
has been completed at any point during the day, and exactly where each vehicle is on
their route. If someone calls customer service asking why their cart hasn't been emptied
yet, customer service will be able to answer that question. They will be able to tell the
customer that their street hasn't been serviced yet, or that their particular home wasn't
serviced because the cart wasn't out when the truck serviced their street. There will
be a note and a photo indicating the reason with evidence for any missed service for both
residential and commercial collections immediately clearing up confusion for the customer. This
photo evidence feature of the software will also back up any collections that require
fees, such as large piles of brush or bulky items in excess of two. We're really excited
about this project and excited to get it rolling and expecting that we will see much more efficient
service for the residents of Denton with implementation of this software. And now we will go back.
From a timing standpoint, we anticipate that the smart routing system will be presented
to the PUB next Monday, the 14th, and then will come before council for final approval
on the 22nd. So that one is just right at the finish line. You should see that one within
the next week, two weeks for approval. We'd like to talk a little bit about the comprehensive
solid waste management strategy. We had re-upped that procurement, and we're in the process
of finalizing contracts with our successful proposer at this point in time. As a reminder,
the comprehensive solid waste management strategy is really a forward-looking document that
helps the city strategize and identify what its solid waste procurement or operations
will look like over the next 5, 10, 15 years. It allows us to set long and short-term goals,
look at policies and actions, really help manage the generation diversion disposal waste
in the 21st century. Now, this is not a solid waste management plan. The plan flows from
the strategy. We've all seen those war movies where, you know, the sergeant goes, take that
hill and everybody, you know, gets ready and they move towards that hill. But how did they
select that hill? Why did they select that hill? Is that the right hill that they should
be focusing on? So that's what the strategy is to do, is to look at everything in a large,
from a 30,000-foot view and help us really narrow down which pieces need to be implemented
at the city level and how that will look. From the standpoint, you know, we're going
to be talking with, we're going to start out doing residential and commercial waste audits.
We are somewhat unique in the city of Denton in that we do provide commercial service.
So while there have been residential waste audits that have been completed throughout
the country and throughout the region, we have not seen really anything substantial
in the commercial waste sector. So we'll be kicking the strategy off by completing commercial
waste audits. While we're doing that, we're also going to be completing listening and
feedback sessions so that we can focus on the people that we'll be servicing. So again,
sitting down with council members, boards and commission members, community members,
staff to really identify what's important, what needs to move forward, looking at different
rules and regulations internal to the city as we operate, as well as federal, state and
local regulations, defining not only what we can do with recycles, but looking at how
products are manufactured, supporting how material is managed throughout the process.
We don't want the tail wagging the dog. We want it to flow the process from the start
where materials are sourced to the end of life. And again, looking at these, at growth
from a regional, looking at regional growth and generation trends as we move forward.
Denton is growing extremely rapidly. So how do we work to get ahead of this curve as opposed
to trying just to play catch up all the time? And again, this project will be data driven.
So again, it's important that the data that we're getting from our smart routing system
as well as other implementation programs that we're looking forward to, we'll define the
feedback on that. Again, the results of this project will help us, you know, use to vision
the expectations of this program over the next 10, 15 years, answering those questions.
What should we be recycling? How should we be managing it? You know, looking at our long
term garbage management goals, helping define what future legislative agendas might look
like. And then again, as we're going through this, trying to identify, you know, third
party or grant funding opportunities that will help us support us. So really, I'd like
to refer to this as a solid waste 3.0, you know, solid waste 1.0 was when we went from,
you know, at the turn of the 19th century, from burning trash in the backyard or whatever
to actually being collected. And then solid waste 2.0 when we started separating it out
and recycling. And this is really 3.0, taking that step back, looking at what's happening
here in the 21st century and designing for the future as we're moving forward. As I said
earlier, we're in the process of contracting, working through the contract with the successful
proposer at this point in time. We anticipate bringing this to the PUB at the first meeting
in October and then the council meeting following that for council approval.
The last project I'd like to identify and talk about today is our City of Denton landfill
scale software system replacement. We have a system in place right now that's about 16
years old. It's at the end of life. There was an audit completed three years ago. And
as a result, there were several issues that are identified. First and foremost, there
are no institutional controls available in this software system. Due to security issues,
it allowed different people to access different parts of the program. So keeping track of
where the accounts were being managed was somewhat difficult. We have put some security
in place to help us alleviate a lot of those issues. But again, we still have issues that
require a lot of maintenance as we're moving forward. It's a very old piece of software.
And it's at its end of life. And it's no longer being supported by the provider. So
we're at a point that necessitates us replacing this software piece. What we are hoping to
do is within this next week actually have it hit the street. It will be open for about
a month, six weeks. We'll go through a review process. And hopefully by the end of the year
actually have a successful vendor selected, bring that forward to council and early in
FY or early in calendar year 21, actually start moving towards the implementation of
a new scale house system for the landfill. And that will help us again capture appropriate
data that we need to make some of these long-term decisions. With that, I'd be willing to answer
questions that you might have regarding the system.
Okay. Take the slides down and see who has a question first. There we go. Anyone? Lots
of information. No. Councilor Meltzer? Yeah, just to comment, you know, a lot of great
new stuff on the systems front. And I wasn't sure I caught, I think you said next couple
of weeks, but just what is your expected timing now on the next step of the big strategy process?
As I stated, we're in the final stages of contracting. So that will still have to go
through the city attorney's office. But once we get into the system, we're anticipating
the first part of October, it will go to the PUB and then the next meeting that we would
set the agenda date on. So probably middle of October, the council, the full council
would see it for approval. To hire the? To hire the consultant. Correct. Okay. Thank
you. All right. Well, thank you. I have just a kind of clarification question myself. So
on this slide, we saw it was strategy that it wasn't the plan. And so to get from the
strategy to the plan, we're going to hold a lot of meetings and discussions. And is
that correct? Correct. To get to the end result of the strategy, we'll have visioning sessions.
We'll create task force. We'll put this strategy together. And then moving from the strategy
to the plan, again, we'll do significant outreach and we'll create those short term
plans, those short term goals to move us forward into the implementation of the project. Okay.
And that is where recycling and food diversion and all of those things that have been mentioned
to us from the public will come in, those conversations. Correct. Yeah, the strategy
may say what? Yeah, we're going to do food diversion. Food diversion is important because
of X, Y, and Z. And these are the things to consider. And then as we put the plan into
place, you know, we may go with something curbside. Or as a result of what the strategy
is telling us, it may say, no, that's not cost effective, nor is it physically appropriate.
We may do some sort of centralized collection or an augmentation of an existing program.
So that strategy will help us define what the plan looks like. Okay. And just a couple
of comments. Very good on the voice response system. That's really great to see positive
feedback. And also the smart routing. I'm really excited to see that. I can't wait
for that to be implemented. That's going to be pretty beneficial, I think, to everyone.
On that, if a bin, recycling bin, trash bin gets eaten, will that also register on that
system, smart routing system? Like, whoops, we just. Yes. If a bin falls in the hopper,
I mean, obviously we don't want our driver crawling in and trying to recover it. Oh,
no, no. But again, what that would add, what we would manage that as an exception, the
driver would just basically punch a button on his tablet. It would automatically print
a work order and we could dispatch our cart delivery team out to deliver another without
the customer having to make a phone call or having to get back and manually tagging this
through a manual paper process. That's fantastic. That's really great. Thank you. You're welcome.
Okay, so I think if we don't have any more questions on that item, we will move down
to D, management updates. I think we have three here. Dr. Banks, are you going to go
through those with us? Yes, just real briefly. So the first one is an update of the RISE
coalition that stands for regional integration of sustainability efforts. Basically, this
is an outgrowth of a name y'all may be more familiar with, the North Central Texas Stewardship
Forum. That was an EPA grant and it was facilitated through the COG. And once the grant was over,
this group saw benefit in continuing to share information, kind of work as a group, serve
as a clearinghouse. And so they've created this next iteration of the group. A little
bit of information available for you, as well as the web link. And then a little brief note
in there just to acknowledge that Denton's own Catherine Barnett has been elected vice
chair of this group. And so we congratulate her for that and interested to see where this
group is going to go. The next item is just a very brief update on the sustainability
advisory committee. That is item two of your matrix. And so we wanted to give you just
a brief update on kind of where that's at. So the intention is to bring back, staff is
still doing research. We're going to come back in front of the committee on the environment
at the meeting in October. And right now we are targeting the October 13th meeting with
the full council to have a discussion about options and hopefully get some guidance from
the council on how they would like to put this together. Last item is basically just
the actions matrix. And basically the only pending item that we have after the sustainable
implementation committee is SoulSmart design. And we've spoken with the EME peers at the
intentions to bring this back at the next meeting that we're going to have in October.
And that's all I have. I have a question about number one, my commercial
food diversion programs. I know that was in 2018 and we've been kind of waiting for the
conversation that's coming up. But I have a question because I'm not real sure and this
could be brought back to us in an update next time or a work session if anyone wants to
hear about what's allowed and what's not as far as for private businesses to do food scraps
for commercials or residential. I know that council had someone come speak that had a
company who did that for certain businesses. But since then I heard that it wasn't allowed.
And so if I may have heard mistakenly or, you know, if that's something we need to discuss
as a policy in the community, that may be something we need to do to allow private businesses
to do that. I think Brian may have a comment on this.
And it may be in our strategy. I don't know. Councilmember Briggs, that is true. It is
an important element we are going to be examining in our strategy. And the name slips my mind
of the person that came and did the presentation. But again, they are not the only person on
the block doing this. There are several companies out there that, you know, will collect material
and compost it. So there's nothing wrong with a private resident taking material to a third
party, you know, just like sorting out aluminum cans and taking them to a metal processor.
There's nothing against the law for doing that. But the city is the sole by our ordinance
is the sole provider of solid waste services in the city of Denton. So we cannot set up
a program where, you know, allowing a third party to come in and provide part of that
service. So as part of the strategy, we'll be looking at how that's implemented moving
forward and determining what sort of ordinance we may have to change or how it may affect
us in the way that we deliver that service.
>> Okay. Well, I would like to keep that on the matrix just as we're going through to
make sure that it stays on there as the conversation comes forward to us, if that's okay. And other
than that, does anyone have anything to add to the matrix for our concluding items?
We'll move to concluding items.
>> You know, I think it's sort of always the same things that I think there's a consensus
for taking action on. Like maybe I'm wrong about this, but I think this consensus, at
least on the part of our committee, taking action on collecting compost for attacking
commercial and multifamily. And it just seems like it's always planning for another conversation
about a conversation about a conversation. And I'm just kind of watching the years tick
by. I'm a little curious how it ever comes to like, when are we actually going to look
at options and to really do it. But maybe that's a concluding item, just an expression
of frustration.
>> Did we have a date for the strategy to come to -- I mean, I know that we saw a timeline,
but is there a date that we can lock that down where this will be a discussion for us?
>> Again, we're working, you know, trying to contract the contractor. And once we get
that underway, then, you know, as part of a council presentation, or excuse me, as part
of the approval by the council, we can take an opportunity there to discuss it as well
as when we start implementing the process, we'll be having specific and direct and intimate
conversations with each of the council members as we move forward.
>> Okay. So I assume that will come to us as a body here as well.
>> Correct.
>> Okay. So thank you, Councilmember Metzler, for your note. Councilmember Davis, do you
have anything you'd like to add?
>> No, not today.
>> Okay. The only -- I'm curious about our conversation on carbon reduction, if that's
going to come back to us in the future. I know we were waiting on some more data there.
And also the last thing is if we want to consider changing notification status, I think in our
ordinance for spraying, it's 24 hours. If we wanted to up that to 48 or 72 hours, I
know that our city has done well beyond the 24-hour notification that's in our ordinance.
They've done really, really great on this one. But if we wanted to make those changes
in an ordinance, if that's something we wanted to consider in the future for the matrix.
Or an update on it, maybe, even.
>> We can definitely add that to the matrix. We can discuss it in more detail. Part of
the challenge is if you have multiple cases that are in close proximity in time, with
a single applicator and a single machine to apply, sometimes you can't do that within
a 48-hour time period. But we haven't seen a year like that since 2012. So we'd be glad
to bring back some information to kind of discuss the pros and cons.
>> Okay. That'd be great. So we'll just add that. Thank you. So I guess we are at our
conclusion of the meeting. And I appreciate everyone joining in today. And we will adjourn
at 1.53. Thank you, everybody.
>> Thank you.