2012-12-06 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, Rebecca Wolfe, Valerie Stewart
City Staff: Mayor Dave Earling, Rob Chave, Stephen Clifton, Steve Fisher, Carolyn
LaFave, Jen Machuga, Strom Peterson, Jim Stevens, Phil Williams
Meeting Agenda
December 6, 2012 @a 9 am
1. Approval of November 8, 2012 meeting minutes
2. The Story of Community Works, 20/2o Refit Challenge and
Energy Retrofit Programs around the State
Val Stewart
3. Subcommittee common themes & next steps reports
4. Earth Day 2013
Bob Freeman
5. Next meeting date — January 10, 2013 (note date change) @
g am in the Fourtner Room. PUD Presentation
Meeting Minutes November 8, 2012
Attendees: Janice Freeman, Bob Freeman, Carolyn Chapel, Jen Machuga, Hank Landau, Rob Chave, Howard
Chermak, Jim Stevens, Cynthia Pruitt, and Carolyn LaFave
Approval of Meeting Minutes
1. Minutes approved by consensus
CPC Student Representative
1. Carolyn LaFave discussed student rep. application process. She and Steve Fisher are working on
the application and overview letter. Once done they will be sent to the committee for review.
After review process Carolyn will upload application to web, send press release, and disseminate
the application to appropriate schools. Carolyn Chapel recommended that we target the science
teachers at the schools for dissemination of this information.
PUD / PSE Presentation
1. Carolyn LaFave discussed where we are at with having PUD and PSE presentations to the group.
At this time only PUD has responded and they are on board for the January or February meeting.
Group decided January meeting would be best. Cynthia Pruitt asked if we would consider change
the meeting from January 3rd to January 10th. Carolyn LaFave will poll the group, check with PUD,
and check to see if Brackett Room is available and will get back to committee with results. It was
asked if we would need to have the Clerk's Office post a meeting change notice. Carolyn L. will
CPC-MeetingAgenda120612.doc I Revised 12/04/2012
check with Sandy Chase to see if this is necessary. Since Carolyn had not heard back from PSE Jim
Stevens said he would provide the name of his business rep. at PSE if needed.
Common Themes & Next Steps Report
1. Jen reported for the group on the summary graphic that they had developed, which was intended
to summarize some common projects and priorities that the Climate Committee could focus on.
They decided that coming up with a brand or overarching theme should be at the top with web
content at the bottom because a theme was an over -arching need and every task involves some
sort of web content. In the middle is a compilation of tasks from the subgroups. Each task was
provided a number which represents the relative ease of the task, with 1 representing the easiest
and 5 being the most difficult or time consuming. Rob explained that the idea is to start with the
very easy tasks and gradually start working on the harder stuff. Cynthia Pruitt asked if this is a
recommended consensus of what all the subcommittees are working on, i.e., this is the plan
moving forward? Rob said that is how he sees it. If the committee agrees on this plan and which
tasks to work on then subcommittees can be separated out into task groups to start working on
the tasks. Rob said he thinks the existing subcommittees could be superseded by these new
working groups. Jim Stevens emphasized that tasks can be tackled in any order but they
recommend starting with easiest and progressing to harder tasks. Carolyn Chapel complimented
the group for their work. She said she felt all of the original tasks seemed overwhelming so this
process seems more doable. Hank questioned why "success stories" was placed in the right-hand
column instead of in the left-hand column. Jen said it could really go in either. Rob said their
thinking was that the right-hand column includes people and not just businesses, but agreed that
it could be a very important component of the green business task. Hank also asked what the
magnitude of "managing the revolving energy fund" is. Rob said that Snohomish County already
has something set-up but it is lacking a local component. There needs to be a push at local level.
Bob Freeman said there are a lot of different approaches across the nation that have been
successful and it might be a good idea for us to do a survey about what's been successful. Rob
said we need to encourage local non -profits to get involved. He went on to say that there is
already a revolving energy fund set-up with a local bank but the public just needs to be educated.
There is no-one telling people the money is available and we can help you access it. A good start
might be to find out who's doing what. Cynthia felt the group did a great synthesis of all the
information. There are a couple of things the outreach subcommittee thought were good to do
and she is happy to go forward with those items in the this new plan and we can dissolve the
original subcommittee. Janice feels there is flexibility with the plan and if no-one wants to work
on certain items in the plan than maybe it's probably not a priority. Rob said he feels it's
important to complete the easier tasks, claim success, and build on it. Jen said that if people are
happy with plan then groups could start working on specific tasks. Rob said he would work on fast
track permits and will try to get Val Stewart to work on it as well. Carolyn Chapel said she is
especially interested in codes for multiple dwellings. She would like to see the "fast track
permitting" group focus on integrating a few easy items into this process so we can try to get
more buildings on -board. Cynthia said she has a system that builds on itself for collecting success
stories and she is meeting with Steve and Richard tomorrow to discuss. Jim and Hank volunteered
to help with this process. Howard will work on fast -track permitting. The Freemans are interested
in changing and updating the codes which is not in the plan but they would like to see it kept on
the back burner. Hank suggested that maybe they could bring it to the forefront in the spring. Rob
emphasized that we are not discarding all the stuff the subcommittees have already worked on.
Howard said that compiling success stories will tell us how it worked in the real world, what they
did and how did it work out. Once we know this we can look at streamlining and simplifying the
process, possibly without code changes, which would be an easier task. Hank said the discussion
brings to mind all the stuff that city, planning board, everyone else is doing. Rob agreed and said
CPC-MeetingAgenda120612.doc I Revised 12/04/2012 2
it's important to have periodic updates about what else is going on throughout the city. It would
be good to get reports from the different groups, i.e., fleet management on propane conversion
and payback; these accomplishments should factor into our success stories.
Committee Member Comments
1. Hank said he has been reflecting on the East coast storm and thinking it should be a catalyst for
local government to get involved because municipalities along the east coast will have to make
concessions to their infrastructures and they will be looking to get funds for this and he feels it
should come from a carbon tax. Hank would like to see Mayor Earling and other Mayors follow-up
on what's going on back east and look at the west coast promoting a carbon tax. He would like to
discuss this idea at the next meeting the Mayor is able to attend. Janice agreed and thinks we
need to eventually start working on long-term issues like not building on the waterfront and
changing the building codes regarding this. Cynthia said she would love to talk about this strategy,
and would like to keep the thread going.
2. Cynthia asked if we want to officially say that our subcommittees are sun setting out and
morphing into the new plan. Rob said yes but also said if your subcommittee has a particular task
they are working on by all means continue working on it.
3. Jim reported that the "promoting energy efficiency" subcommittee hasn't met again because they
were waiting to see what came out of the "common themes and next steps" subcommittee. He
also updated the group on the ESCO investment grade audit project. We should have information
back by December so we can take to Council and move forward. January 15, 2013 by is cutoff for
submitting for grant.
4. Cynthia requested that a large visual be made of the action plan graph for display at meetings.
5. Bob recommended we follow-up and support any group that is planning to have an Earth Day
event. We should start meeting in January.
6. Carolyn Chapel said flooding is going to come and she would like to see some money or energy
put into limiting carbon output.
7. Hank reported on the bicycle program. He said is has been integrated into a program managed by
school district called Creating Community Connections which promotes children's health and has
been funded by Verdant Health Commission and the Hazel Miller Foundation. Howard followed
this up by saying if we can find a connection between health and energy savings VERDANT has a
tremendous amount of money to promote health. If we find a way to connect in with their
mission there is a good possibility of getting some fund. Hank said he sees a definite health
connection related to older citizens and energy efficiency. Cynthia said she would like to
nominate herself to look into this. Janice said she sees a real health connection to growing your
own vegetables as well. Hank said that Cynthia should contact Steve Kaiser at Swedish as he is the
liaison.
CPC-MeetingAgenda120612.doc I Revised 12/04/2012