Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAbout2013-05-22 CAC Approved MinutesJefferson County/City of Port Townsend Climate Action Committee Meeting Minutes May 22, 2013 Pope Marine Conference Room Port Townsend, WA Members Present: John Austin, Stanley Willard, Laura Tucker, Ewan Shortess, Cindy Jayne, Valerie Johnstone, Barney Burke, Brian Goldstein, Scott Walker, Pinky Feria-Mingo Absent: Deborah Stinson, Steve Tucker, Michael Tweiten, Richard Dandridge, Tami Rubert Staff: Judy Surber, City of Port Townsend Guests: Eric Toews (Port of Port Townsend) Scribe: Brian Goldstein Topic Recommendation/Action Call to order 3:30 p.m. Approval of Agenda & Minutes Laura Tucker led the meeting. Laura Tucker moved to approve the February 27, 2013 minutes with 2 minor changes. Stan Willard seconded. The minutes were approved unanimously. Cindy Jayne was introduced as the newest member of CAC. Eric Toews was present as proxy for Steve Tucker, Port of Port Townsend. Brian Goldstein agreed to take minutes for the meeting. Cindy Jayne offered to take minutes for the August meeting. What is a “Community Engagement Campaign”? And GHG Reduction in Jefferson County Judy Surber reminded the committee that the adopted Climate Action Work Plan 2011-2014, Phase 1, included a statement that the CAC “shall launch a community engagement campaign”. Campaign meaning an organized series of actions. At a minimum, the CAC is supposed to partner with local media, engage and inspire other public institutions, partner with local agencies to provide classes, etc. Discussion ensued around the best way to achieve that. While CAC members are doing a number of projects, the general public would not recognize these efforts as a collective, coordinated effort. Judy encouraged a sub-group to work on how to message to the community on our activities in this manner it is clear that each individual action is a step towards our adopted goal. For example, Whatcom County did a Living Green, Living Well campaign. Cindy pointed out that transportation may be a good place to start (39% of our footprint), JeffersonCAN or L2020 websites could be a good place to publish helpful information on reducing our carbon footprint. Working with local businesses was mentioned. For example, partnering with Les Schwab, gas stations, other garages to promote car maintenance to help with better fuel efficiency. Pinky suggested developing a rewards system (“Passport”) for getting an energy audit or getting their tires and air filter done, etc. John Austin mentioned that one of the CAC goals is to change behavior; one of our barriers is to ensure people realize the magnitude of the issue. It is important that community leaders have information on the issues, to make informed decisions. How can the committee assist in making this information readily available to decision makers? Laura pitched idea of posting a document with pointers with groups to join, good online sites, etc. She will send a prototype document that she did to promote “Chasing Ice” that can be reviewed by the CAC members. She has a slide show on evidence of climate change, and could show to larger community groups. Judy clarified that direction to the CAC has always been to focus on actions to reduce GHG rather than to convince climate deniers that the issue is real. Suggestion was made to do a quarterly information campaign around the seasons, link it to different activities (e.g. Spring focus on gardens, Summer travel, Winter holidays and heat), publish articles or have a community event to push this. Could include a quarterly stuffer in PUD bills (Barney Burke suggested this has to be helpful, local action). It was agreed that it takes time to develop a Communication and outreach (including publishing articles) campaign and that research and brainstorming was needed Cindy has agreed to be project owner for this action group. Valerie, Laura, Pinky and Barney agreed to help. Cindy brought up the need to find grant opportunities to fund CAC action groups. Eric Toews agreed to help Cindy produce a list of funding sources, including private foundations. Members suggested Ken Horvath may be a good contact as he use to research grants for the City. Judy reminded us that Appendix D of the Climate Action Plan has funding resources listed. Action Items: Laura to send CAC members information summary document Cindy to organize community engagement action group, report to CAC on ideas in August meeting Cindy to organize grant opportunity research group Action Plan Review A revised spreadsheet was prepared by Brian Goldstein and sent to CAC members, summarizing the fourteen CAC action plans. Brian will continue to maintain the spreadsheet, and urges all project owners to send him updates on a regular basis. The new projects (communication outreach, grant search) will be added by the next meeting. It was suggested that the spreadsheet should be hosted online; location to be determined. Judy Surber gave an update on the Adaptation Plan. At the February CAC meeting, Geoff Hughes was approved by the CAC to move forward to draft an adaptation plan. However, Geoff discovered that there was insufficient City and County staff time to assist in the plan development; he also wanted to have a student curriculum piece, which didn’t fit with the school plans. Therefore, Geoff chose to do a blog in the Leader newspaper instead. (See http://ptleader.com/main.asp?SectionID=218&SubSectionID=820 Action Items: Cindy to send new project information to Brian. Brian will solicit updates from project owners before next meeting. Public Comment Eric Toews questioned taking little steps to solve an enormous climate issue. How can we be honest with citizens without discouraging them? Laura suggested that if you get people started on the small things that can be a path to the big things. Action Item: Brian to send Eric link to Bill Moyers show on communicating climate change to different audiences. Next Steps & Agenda Planning Suggested agenda items for August meeting:  Continue with GHG emission reduction discussions  Report from communication outreach campaign Action Item: Other suggested topics for next meeting should be emailed to Laura Tucker. Adjourn The meeting was adjourned at 5:30 p.m. Next Meeting Next meeting is scheduled for August 28, 2013 3:30 p.m. – 5:30 p.m. (in the Cotton Building).