Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAbout2013-11-20 CAC Approved MinutesJefferson County/City of Port Townsend Climate Action Committee November 20, 2013 Cotton Building Port Townsend, WA Members Present: Cindy Jayne, Stanley Willard, Laura Tucker, Ewan Shortess, Valerie Johnstone, Barney Burke, Deborah Stinson, Richard Dandridge, Brian Goldstein, Pinky Feria- Mingo, Michael Tweiten Absent: Scott Walker, Tammi Rubert, Steve Tucker, John Austin Staff: Judy Surber Guests: Eric Toews (representing Port of PT), Nadine Feldman Scribe: Brian Goldstein Topic Recommendation/Action Call to order 3:30 p.m. Approval of Agenda & Minutes Cindy Jayne, CAC Chair, led the meeting. Two changes were suggested for the September 25 minutes. 1. Change date on the agenda from May 22, 2013 to September 25, 2013 2. Note that PSA stands for Public Service Announcement Deborah motioned approval of minutes with these 2 changes, Ewan second. Motion was approved. Public Comment Based on input from the last meeting, we added a public comment period at the beginning of each meeting, for those who want to comment on items on the agenda, as well as time at end. We’ll limit public comments to those 2 sections to manage meeting timing, and the general rule is 3 minutes for comments, or as needed to manage, 10 minute total. Public comment was solicited; no public comment. Review of CAC Update to City and County Councils Brian and Cindy plan to update the County Commissioners and PT City Council in December, as to the status of the CAC and requests for resources to be more effective. Brian presented a Powerpoint draft deck to the Committee for comment. The following comments were made and will be incorporated into the presentation: 1. Simplify and clarify the biomass carbon accounting issue 2. Be clear on the staff resource asks (e.g., City staff has been great advisor on policy). 3. Extend the CAC termination date beyond the current Dec 31, 2014 date. 4. Assuming more staff resources are approved, increase meeting frequency from quarterly to monthly or bi-monthly. Action item: Brian to update deck, Cindy and Judy to review. CAC and Comprehensive Plan Reviews The City is working on their work program for the Comprehensive plan update now, with plans to have focus groups and public input in 2014. The County plan review is happening now. CAC (Brian and Cindy) will present to both planning groups, to encourage incorporation of climate change impacts and the proposed land use and transportation recommendations from the Climate Action Plan into the comp plans. Action item: Cindy to prepare presentation for Dec 4 County planning commission presentation, based on CC/BOCC update deck Climate Action Outreach Update CAC members continue to team with Local 2020 on outreach efforts. Laura Tucker has agreed to spearhead the Local 2020 outreach sub- committee. Among the ongoing outreach plans:  Draft article and Public Service Announcement on CAC planned for PT Leader o Action item: Judy to check if author can be “CAC” (after CAC approves it) o Action item: Barney to take picture for article o Should focus on solutions – have mounting impacts, need to craft responses => working on intelligent responses. o Heading - if we can’t beat it – it won’t be easy – defeatist attitude – maybe change title to – climate change – time to think about adaptation. Will be a challenge.  Have added Facebook page for JefferonCAN.org o Action item: All CAC members go to Jeffersoncan.org page and click on Facebook link, then “Like it”  JeffersonCan.org site has online calendar, comment section. o Nadine Fledman, member of L2020 climate action committee, is web master. Motion to authorize L2020 Climate Action Outreach group to make changes to PT Leader article per above suggestions and submit. Ewan first, Laura seconded. Unanimously approved. Adaptation Planning Cindy spoke about a potential grant for climate adaptation, based on an EPA watershed grant administered by the WA Department of Ecology. Next step is to get interested groups together (sister counties/cities) to discuss. A new L2020 Adaptation sub-group has been formed and is looking for volunteers. Cindy provided outline of the work product from the group. Cindy noted that the group is looking for volunteers, and for CAC members to have anyone interested contact Cindy. Action item: Cindy to send out outline to the group. Update on CC Mission and Action Plans Judy presented a chart showing “Areas of Work” that CAC members could get involved in. Brian is the keeper of the CAC action project spreadsheet. He urged all members to get engaged in one or more of these projects. This is how we will take action to mitigate GHG emissions. Deborah suggested everyone on the committee think about a new cross- organization project for the CAC to champion: e.g. Can we capture paper mill steam and use it for greenhouses or other things? Hold an event that brings businesses together and see how we can use waste steam. Pinky noted that this is referred to as industrial ecology, may be able to find resources for that. What other projects can we envision? Action item: Members bring ideas forward Summary of Peninsula Regional Transportation Planning Organization Report was published July 2013, Richard Dandridge summarized.  L2020 Transportation Lab group will host public forum on the Regional Transportation Plan for the Olympic Peninsula– if adopted it can be revolutionary on how to move people and goods around. Dec 5th 7-8:30 pm, at Colab space.  He has list of what City and County can do to help move transportation forward. Public Comment No public comment. Next Steps & Agenda Planning Suggested topics for next meeting should be emailed to Cindy Jayne. Ideas include updates on above presentations, adaptation, and assignments, action projects. Adjourn Ewan moved to adjourn the meeting. Barney seconded the motion. The meeting was adjourned at 5:30 p.m. Next Meeting Next meeting is scheduled for February 26, 2014 3:30 p.m. – 5:30 p.m. location TBD. Note that this may change depending on the presentations to councils regarding meeting frequency.