2012-07-05 Mayor's Climate Protection Committee AgenCitizens Committee on U.S. Mayors Climate Protection Agreement
Mission:
1. Encourage citizens to be a part of the solution
2. Encourage City staff and citizens to conserve current resources
3. Work with the City Council to implement ideas
4. Effectively address the future impacts of climate change
Committee Members:
Members: Richard Bisbee, Jeannie Blair, Carolyn Chapel, Howard Chermak, Bob,
Freeman, Wes Gallaugher, Hank Landau, Todd Cloutier, Linda Lyshall,
Cynthia Pruitt, Laura Spehar, Rebecca Wolfe
City Staff: Mayor Dave Earling, Rob Chave, Stephen Clifton, Steve Fisher, Carolyn
LaFave, Jen Machuga, Strom Peterson, Jim Stevens, Phil Williams
Meeting Agenda
July 5, 2012 @ 9 am
1. Approval of June 7, 2012 meeting minutes
2. Coal Train Media Event
Mayor Earling
3. City of Edmonds Preliminary ECM List Overview
Jim Stevens
4. Committee Reports
a. Promoting Energy Efficiency
b. Outreach & Reporting
c. Development of Incentives
Jim Stevens
Cynthia Pruitt & Rebecca Wolfe
Jen Machuga
5. Next meeting date — August 2, 2012 @ 9 am
Meeting Minutes June 7, 2012
Attendees: Carolyn Chapel, Janice & Bob Freeman, Wes Gallagher, Howard Chermak, Jen Machuga, Jim
Stevens, Mayor Earling, Cynthia Pruitt, Rebecca Wolfe, Carolyn LaFave
Mayor Earling opened the meeting by thanking Carolyn Chapel for her Sound Transit letter re: the
parking situation. Carolyn said that she received a personal letter in return, ST is sympathetic but
there are no funds available. Mayor informed her that her letter was read at the ST Board
meeting. Mayor also let the committee know that the City is pressing hard for commuter parking.
He also stated that originally there was money set aside for this project but with the economic
crunch the board had to scale back. At that time they sent out a questionnaire to the City
providing them with an opportunity to defend their project but unfortunately they got no
response from Edmonds so the Edmonds project was taken out.
Mayor Earling informed the committee that the City won the AWC Going Green Municipal Award
for the application "Sustaining Edmonds" that Jen & Rob presented at the April 5 meeting. Mayor
Earling, Rob Chave, Jen Machuga, Jim Stevens, and Stephen Clifton will be at the awards
ceremony this month for the presentation.
CPC- MeetingAgenda070512.doc
3. Mayor discussed coal trains. City has been very quiet about what they are doing, but have been
very active in a quiet way. Brief overview:
a. While many efforts regarding coal trains have been focused on just STOPPING the trains,
the reality is the trains are already going through our city and there will be more if the
Cherry Point station gets built. Regardless of this, the issue is, we will continue to have
increased train traffic going through our city and we need to find ways to mitigate the
impact this will have on Edmonds. We are in a unique situation because we are the only
City on North route that has a conflict between ferry and railroad. Our most pressing
problem is SAFETY — more trains cutting off the waterfront, with no way of getting to the
waterfront for an emergency if there is a train coming through. How do we make our
SAFETY issue the leading issue so we can get it addressed? The Mayor has met w/Maria
Cantwell and with Patty Murray's staff and they are willing to draft and sign a letter
raising the safety issue, and its uniqueness to Edmonds. Mayor has also met w/head of
ferry system, Paula Hammond, DOT director, and is moving to state level. He met w/Rep.
Liias so he now has the issue on his radar, and he has scheduled meetings w/Rep. Cyndi
Ryu and Senator Paull Shinn, as well Judy Clibborn, Chair of the House Transportation
Committee. We've had good response with all we've met with so far and now we are
reaching out to the community. We have police, fire, and the Port, on -board, and are
meeting w/senior center and environmental community tomorrow. We're pointing
towards scheduling a large event at the end of month. Scoping project will be starting up
soon and will last for 60 days. The biggest issue for Edmonds is the number of trains we
will have even if the coal trains don't come through — we have somewhere around 30
trains daily now and it will jump to 105 trains daily by 2030, sans coal trains —they add
another 18 to the total. This is a great opportunity to use coal trains as a spark to get
people interested in the SAFETY issue we have in our city, working on a potential answer.
An underpass is our first choice. Consider coming to the event at the end of month for
kick-off of Edmonds concerns.
i. Cynthia Pruitt — last year this time we created a logo and we should bring it out
and use it to show we've been working on these issues.
ii. Janice Freeman — attended coal train meeting last night. Richard Bisbee is taking
the lead. Very enthusiastic crowd last night. They have a large mailing list that
could be used for the end -of -the month event. Group has applied for a permit for
4th of July parade. Maralyn Chase has attended one of their meetings.
iii. Mayor made the point that we need to understand STOPPING the trains can't be
the first point, they are already going through, and this won't solve our long-term
problem.
iv. Bob Freeman raised the issue we are a coastal town and what will happen to
buildings on the waterfront with rising sea levels due to climate change if we
allow buildings to be built there? How will the city take hold of that land so
proper development is done and we won't have swamped building in 50 years?
v. Mayor said the real focus for him, and one of the ways to create the cash flow we
need for the City, is to wisely develop the property we have. Supportive for issues
but looking at budget problem by 2013 on an annual basis.
4. Carolyn Chapel brought some books to loan to committee members
5. Jim Stevens reported on Electric Vehicle Charging Stations — attachment provided. Graph shows
usage is steadily growing, along with the greenhouse gas savings. Reported stations can be
relocated if they are not getting good usage.
a. Cynthia Pruitt would like to see us produce a graph like this for city retrofits. It would be a
great visual graphic. We could look into getting data from SustainableWorks on the
retrofits they've done.
CPC- MeetingAgenda070512.doc
b. Jim Stevens — we should encourage businesses to go energy star and then provide
incentives and do a promotions campaign about those businesses.
i. Cynthia Pruitt — made a note for the outreach committee to possibly do this
ii. It was asked if we could make contact w/others who have charging stations in
Edmonds and then report on what ALL OF EDMONDS is doing
6. Wes Gallagher asked if anyone was tracking our progress for the original criteria for starting the
group?
a. It was mentioned that Steve Fisher has tracked a lot of information pertaining to this and
we should ask him to present the information next month
7. Committee members not present at previous meeting where we set our priority groups were
given an opportunity to sign-up for one of the 3 groups. Rebecca Wolfe signed -up for the
Outreach & Reporting group; Howard Chermak signed -up for the Development of Incentives
group; Wes Gallagher opted to not sign-up for a group. Carolyn contacted all committee members
after last month's meeting asking them to sign-up for a group but got no response other than
from Sally Lider who said that she would not be continuing with the committee but would like to
stay informed.
8. Each group decided on a chair who will be responsible for organizing group meetings and
reporting:
a. Outreach & reporting — co-chairs will be Cynthia Pruitt & Rebecca Wolfe
b. Promoting energy efficiency— chair will be Jim Stevens
c. Development of incentives— chair will be Jen Machuga
9. It was determined that each of the groups would do a quick 3-minute report at each meeting
10. Bob Freeman questioned if the work that the 3 groups are doing would ultimately contribute to
the revision of the climate action plan? The committee agreed that we would evaluate the
progress each group has made by October with this likely culminating in a revision of the City's
Climate Change Action Plan.
Committee Members Reports
1. Rebecca Wolfe would like to see leaf blower and outdoor heater ordinances put into place to
address the carbon & methane output of these devises.
a. Cynthia Pruitt not sure how much of a problem this is. Feels we have bigger issues that we
should be addressing, like retrofitting houses.
2. Cynthia Pruitt — as part of outreach do we want to do something in the 4th of July parade?
Possibly pass out info on the AWC award the city just won. Join in w/sustainable Edmonds.
Does City have a problem w/the brand joining with sustainable Edmonds? Carolyn to check
w/guidelines for group participating in 4th of July parade.
3. Jim Stevens reported that he got 52.1 miles per gallon on his last tank of gas.
4. Bob Freeman reported that the Seattle Times had an op-ed piece in the 6/7/12 paper. Also the
New York Times had a piece on the City of Los Angeles banning plastic bags.
a. Jen Machuga said that Edmonds was mentioned in the California news reports regarding
the Los Angeles ban.
Next meeting:
July 5, 2012
9-10am
Brackett Room — 3rd Floor Edmonds City Hall
CPC- MeetingAgenda070512.doc