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Home My WebLink About2014-08-27 CAC MinutesJefferson County/City of Port Townsend Climate Action Committee Meeting Minutes August 27, 2014 Cotton Building Port Townsend, WA Members Present: John Austin, Stanley Willard, Laura Tucker, Jack Pokorny, Cindy Jayne, Deborah Stinson, Barney Burke, Brian Goldstein, Scott Walker, Eric Toews, Kevin Scott, Leesa Monroe (for Tammi Rupert) Absent: Michael Tweiten, Valerie Johnstone, Tammi Rupert Staff: Judy Surber, City of Port Townsend Guests: Judy Alexander, Julia Cochrane, Rick Jahnke, David Timmons, Tony DeLeo, Dan Toepper Scribe: Brian Goldstein Topic Recommendation/Action Call to order 3:35 p.m. Approval of Agenda & Minutes CAC Chair, Cindy Jayne, facilitated the meeting. Brian Goldstein agreed to take minutes. One change was made to the agenda; the 4:10 CAC Project Review item was combined with the 4:50 Facilitated Discussion. John moved to approve the agenda. Barney seconded. The agenda was approved unanimously. Barney moved to approve the 5-28-2014 minutes. Deborah seconded. The minutes were approved unanimously. Public Comment The public was greeted and given the opportunity to comment. There were no public comments at this time. Membership Update Cindy welcomed the two new members: 1. Kevin Scott, Environmental Manager at the Port Townsend Paper Company 2. Jack Pokorny, Student Representative, chair of Students for Sustainability (SFS) at PTHS Alternates count in the quorum, and are allowed to vote if the member is not present. Samantha Thomas is the alternate for non-motorized transportation Larry Crockett was formerly the primary for Port of PT but became alternate when Eric Toews became the Port’s primary member. Transit would like to appoint Leesa Monroe as an alternate Leesa will be approved by the City and County the next time a CAC membership request is put before them. Judy Surber presented the resolution that was passed by City of PT and Jefferson County that extended the term of the CAC until either entity voted to terminate the committee. We have one CAC member openingSeveral suggestions were made:  Teresa Verraes of Chamber of Commerce  Main Street  Circle & Square owner  Pinky is interested in reinstating as a member  Ann Raab is interested as a ‘green building’ representative. General consensus was the group needed a business representative to round out the committee. If you know of someone who is interested in being a member, have them fill out an application form and send it in for consideration. (Application: http://cityofpt.us/boardscommissions.htm#CAC ) Action item: Brian will update the CAC member list and send corrections to City and County for posting. Cindy to contact Chamber and Main Street. Barney to contact Circle & Square Transportation Follow up from Last Meeting – Cindy Jayne Cindy presented a summary and follow up from the Transportation meeting including proposed ideas (summary below). Transportation is 39% of County GHG emissions and therefore good to focus on. There was a slight drop of Jefferson County VMT in 2008 (showed WSDOT chart) due to the recession. There was a slight increase in VMT from 2012 to 2013. Proposal discussed: Local 2020 would partner with the CAC/City/County to first define some specific goals related to active transportation through a facilitated community meeting. The goals could potentially feed into the comprehensive plan updates. Local 2020 would then work with the city, county and community to work toward reaching the goals. Judy Surber made the following comments: 1. City and County have different approaches to transportation, since the County has to address more rural constituency 2. Likely different starting points for City vs. County since 3. 15 years ago the City adopted Smart streets, so this idea has already been incorporated into City Comp Plan and codes, and was based on a prior public process. The barriers to adoption have been funding and social norms. 4. The Climate Action Plan has a number of ideas for addressing transportation that should be reviewed. 5. Removing physical barriers and setting measureable goals such as increasing transit ridership are better addressed in CAC goals or functional plans vs. Comprehensive Plan. Deborah suggested that it may be most helpful to conduct Walking Audits (e.g., identify physical barriers). Group could review the City plan to identify gaps John reviewed the County status: 1. County Transportation Implementation Plan (TIP) is online and lists 50 projects; 15 are funded 2. The County just prepared a Transit “wish list” 3. Urban growth areas include Complete Streets Scott Walker commented that recent County projects still demonstrate “car-centric thinking” and don’t go far enough to change the paradigm. Cindy will add a Transportation review topic for next meeting. CAC Action Outreach/Branding – Laura Tucker Laura showed a poster that identified CAC, L2020 climate group, and jeffersoncan.org as a partnership of groups working on climate action projects. The Jefferson Climate Action Now tagline and logo have been selected for the branding of this outreach effort. The L2020 climate action group meets the 2nd Thursday of each month at the Pizza Factory break room (in hallway near restrooms). Next meeting is September 11th. CAC members are welcome to attend. A couple of outreach events were summarized by Laura:  A climate action booth was present at the Jefferson County Picnic on August 17th.  An SFS event is planned for November featuring Bob Binschadler (former NASA scientist) as speaker.  Jeffersoncan.org is the web portal for climate action, with links to other web sites (L2020, etc).  During Wooden Boat Festival, the City’s NonMotorized Transportation group is doing a “parklette” in front of Cotton building, demonstrating other (more sustainable) things that can be done with parking spaces.  Bumper stickers or buttons were suggested to help spread the word. Adaptation Planning Update – Cindy Jayne Cindy reviewed the NOPRCD climate adaptation grant, and gave some examples of areas that will have local impact (shellfish industry, underground electrical equipment, seawalls, etc). http://l2020.org/climate-action/climate-change-plans-and-impacts/ web site contains links to relevant documents. A discussion followed with ideas of engaging the public  Photo expose posted in Cotton building  Timeline stickers on light poles Public Comment Julia Cochrane commented on how she can walk to town in 20 minutes, but taking the bus can take up to an hour. She would like to see bus service increased. [Scott replied that transit is the key to getting people out of cars] Rick Jahnke noted that any public official can be on the transit board; currently it consists of the 3 county commissioners and 2 city council members. David Timmons commented that in 2008 (ferries stopped) and 2009 (Hood Canal bridge closed for repairs) thus causing dips in vehicle miles traveled in the county. Expanding the Hastings shoulder to add a bike lane would cost the City $1M. The City tax revenue is limited; 50% of the city land is tax exempt. Judy Alexander urged the committee to use the neighborhood network to communicate information on climate change and ways to curb it. Tony DeLeo suggested we talk to citizens and find out why they are in their cars, and what would get them to bike/walk/ride transit CAC Project Review & Facilitated Discussion - Judy Surber & Brian Goldstein Brian noted that the Climate Action Plan included 61 suggested projects to reduce GHG emissions. Approximately 50% of these required City and County actions. The other approach taken by the CAC has been to ask the CAC members which projects they were passionate about; 18 of these were documented, with 7 of these active. Judy led a brainstorm session, asking for ideas for actions that the CAC could take. The following ideas were proposed: Existing ideas:  Green Business Program o Through JeffCo Health o Reduce/recycle  Enviro Stars Program o Through JeffCo Health o Less toxins  PUD energy conservation rebates o Incentives for upgrading to Energy Star appliances o Energy rebates for homes and businesses  Weatherization, heat pumps, water heaters, lighting upgrades New project ideas:  Create our own green business type system for restaurants  Promote NWEI discussion classes o Contact Brian Goldstein for information on starting up a discussion course  Approach large businesses (Safeway/QFC) – energy audits  Encourage use of Transit o Offer public/private incentives for riding the bus o Fliers with messages such as “2 hour parking limit not working for you? Try Transit!” o Speak to Hospital about continuing bus passes o Work with schools to encourage ridership  Treasure hunt, artwork at HS, convince parents to stop driving kids  Encourage PUD and ORCAA to provide incentives for woodstove replacement o Air quality issue as well as GHG reduction  CAC members take a sustainability pledge o NWEI EcoChallenge would be good way to coordinate  High School projects o Build compost/worm bin/greenhouse o Host energy IQ sessions at Energy Lunch  Host Low Carbon Diet session  Promote local gardening classes Next Steps & Agenda Planning The next regularly scheduled CAC meeting falls on the day before Thanksgiving. There was general consensus to move the meeting to the week prior (November 19). Next meeting agenda items:  Transportation proposal review  Discuss Strait ERN meeting held on 9/19  Eric present on broader context of economic and energy issues Action Item:  Other suggested topics for next meeting should be emailed to Cindy. Adjourn The meeting was adjourned at 5:30 p.m. Next Meeting Next meeting is scheduled for November 19th, 2014, 3:30-5:30 pm to avoid the Thanksgiving Holiday.