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HomeMy WebLinkAbout112818 CAC Draft Minutes rev A Jefferson County/City of Port Townsend Climate Action Committee Meeting Minutes Wednesday, November 28, 2018, 3:30 - 5:30 PM Pope Marine Building, 607 Water St, Port Townsend, WA Members Present: Sonja Hammer, Cindy Jayne, Deb Stinson, Kate Dean, David Wilkinson, John Bender (Jefferson Transit), Kate Chadwick, Darren Wilson (PTPC Environmental Manager), Laura Tucker Absent: Eric Toews, Scott Walker, Tammi Rubert, Jeff Randall, Ashley Rosser Staff: Laura Tucker, Jefferson County Guests: Teresa Michelsen, Debbie Weinmann, Mike Doherty Scribes: Laura Tucker and Cindy Jayne Topic Recommendation/Action Call to order 3:32PM. Approval of Agenda & Minutes Agenda approved. August 22, 2018 minutes approved. Public Comment No comments. Old Business  CAC Presentations to Organizations o City Council Update – Cindy presented to City Council on 9/10/18, went well. The requests were: $300 for ICLEI membership, which has been approved; support for changing the meetings to 6x/year (is being considered).  ICLEI Membership Fees: City has allocated. Kate will check on county status. Need to decide which organization will join ICLEI.  Base Flood Elevation (BFE) Question –Judy noted in an email before the meeting that she had sent the question on to Jeffery Stewart in WA Ecology.  Olympia Sea Level Rise: Cindy noted she spoke with Andy Haub who leads the sea level rise response effort for Olympia’s Public Works department. He noted that the Olympia code is at BFE + 1-2’ depending on area (the FEMA minimum, which is the existing PT and Jeff CO code, is BFE+1’.) Note that King County is now BFE + 3’ so 2’ above FEMA minimum. Olympia code also covers area that FEMA does not. Also, in discussion, Andy said he would be happy to come to Jefferson County to share what Olympia is doing, meet w/ city/county, etc. Discussed if there is in scheduling a meeting with Andy. Agreed that Cindy will send out a follow up email to the City and County, Port, PUD, etc. and ask if there is interest. New IPCC Report Summary Dave Wilkinson presented a summary of the new IPCC 1.5’C report as well as the 4th National Assessment report. Note: we discovered one error in the presentation after the meeting: the cost of 100% fossil fuel free electricity as described in the Climate Solutions recent “Within Reach – The Path to 100% Fossil- Free Electricity in the Pacific Northwest” report was incorrectly listed as 6 cents/kilowatt hour. It should have been 0.6 cents/kilowatt hour, and was correctly listed in the powerpoint sent out on 12/13/18. Discussion: Deborah noted that the city will adopt its legislative agenda shortly. Kate Chadwick noted that perhaps the Climate Action Plan (CAP) could be updated to consider a shorter timeframe goal. It was also noted that the land sector is an opportunity in Jefferson County. Perhaps evaluate that when doing inventory update. Agreed that the inventory effort would include investigating if it is possible to include assessing forestry and agriculture aspects. Motion made and unanimously approved that “The Climate Action Committee recommends to local government agency members of the CAC to include climate related legislation, including both mitigation and adaptation, when working on their legislative agendas or otherwise preparing for opportunities to influence policy at the state or federal level, including as examples, the call for carbon pricing noted in the recent IPCC report, and a goal for 100% fossil fuel free electricity.” (Laura made motion, Kate Chadwick 2nd.) Time to Act is Now Recent reports make it clear that we have no time to waste. How do we best increase local efforts on mitigation and adaptation? Discussion: Doing the inventory in 2019 will be a good base for rolling out the results and doing community outreach. Show where we were in 2005 when the inventory started; show where we need to make inroads; launch a campaign in conjunction with the rollout. Use the new baseline to consider setting new goals for 2030 to align with recent reports. In parallel with that effort, review existing CAP and new approaches for reducing greenhouse gas emissions at next meeting, and identify key short term items this group can commit to. CAC Public Meeting in 2019? Discussed best timing of this and decided that this could be done when we roll out the new inventory numbers. Possible CAC Logo Discussed some draft CAC logos that a local graphic artist, Kathleen Ney, kindly volunteered to draw up for us. Comments were provided on the different logos. Outreach Discussion  The CAP noted that we would partner with other groups for outreach. Local 20/20 has been doing that with things like the Taming Bigfoot contest, booths at events, etc.  Perhaps create a directory of outreach pieces that the organizations can pull from. Could potentially leverage PUD newsletter, etc.  Once the inventory is done, could identify what top three things can be done, and build a campaign around that  Perhaps a Poster campaign with factoids all over town; maybe 6 signs; top 5 things you can do. Also leverage social media, etc.  Perhaps a public event where the campaign is launched; moderated panel with CAC members sharing their roles and actions; booths of community groups doing work on CO2 reductions  Maybe art installations from community members; one gallery walk could be devoted to climate change and solutions  Perhaps do another Taming Bigfoot contest, and/or offer a community awareness activity such as C-ROADS Monitoring Key Carbon Footprint Parameters  Results.  What are the barriers? Cindy presented the results from the organizational data received. She noted that the Vehicle Miles Traveled for Jefferson County in 2017 (based on WSDOT data) was identified, and has increased 11% from 2005, which is essentially the same as the increase in population in the county during that time. Waiting on data from additional organizations, which is in progress, and plan is to present the fuller set of data at the February meeting. Decision Support Tool Proposal Kate Chadwick gave a presentation on a tool she has created that provides a simple visual matrix or checklist that could be applied by project developers for evaluating climate impacts on a given project/investment  Interest in a matrix of this sort has been high, especially by the City and the Port  The goal is to help achieve climate smart capital infrastructure projects/investments in the city and county Discussion:  A suggestion was made to make the tool flexible for large scale projects as well as small scale projects such as those used by homeowners  Also have it so it can apply to planning documents as well  Teresa Michelsen said she worked with ECY on a similar tool; developed a GIS tool; did a risk matrix that involved in-depth work with engineers who looked a failure models; developed fact sheets  Proposal is that CAC review updated tool, and recommend it for use in Jefferson County. Next steps: Cindy will send the tool out to the CAC members asking them to review it with the right people in their organization, and to send any feedback to Kate. Kate will update it, and we will review the updated tool at the next CAC meeting. Upcoming Organizational Plans and Documents for Climate Review? Not discussed due to shortage of time. Other Updates Not discussed due to shortage of time. Next Steps and Agenda Planning Next meeting is scheduled for February 27, 2019, 3:30-5:30 pm, at the Pope Marine Building, 607 Water St. Possible agenda items include updates on monitoring data, inventory status, logo, decision support tool, possible meeting with Andy Haub, and review existing CAP and new approaches for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and identify key short term items this group can commit to. Will also elect chair and vice-chair. Adjourn The meeting was adjourned at 5:45 p.m.