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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes_062420 Jefferson County/City of Port Townsend Climate Action Committee Meeting Minutes Wednesday, June 24, 2020, 3:30 - 5:30 PM ONLINE due to COVID Hosted by Jefferson County Public Health Members Present: Pamela Adams (City Council), John Bender (Jefferson Transit), Cindy Jayne, Laura Tucker (Jefferson County Public Health), Cara Loriz, Shelley Jaye, David Seabrook, Diane McDade, Dave Wilkinson, Kate Dean (BoCC), Jeff Randall (PUD No. 1), Chris O’Higgins (JGH); Kate Chadwick Absent: Eric Toews (Port of PT), Sam Jones (Port Townsend Paper Corporation) Staff: Judy Surber (City of PT), Laura Tucker (Jefferson County) Guests: None. Scribe: Judy Surber Topic Recommendation/Action Follow Up Items Call to order Chair Cindy Jayne called the meeting to order at 3:32. A quorum was present. Approval of Agenda & Minutes Cindy shared the agenda on her screen. Motion to approve agenda by Chris Higgins, second by Shelley Jaye. Agenda passed with no one opposed. Motion to approve minutes of 2/26/2020 by Pam Adams; second by Shelly Jaye. Passed with no one opposed. Laura to post minutes to County website. Public Comment No public comment. Final Approval of Greenhouse Gas Inventory Report Cindy asked for any comments and noted she had not received any comments via email. Motion to approve Inventory by Kate Chadwick, seconded by Pam Adams. Motion passed with no one opposed. Laura will post on County website. Final Approval of Cindy noted drafts emailed previously. Pam thanked those who worked on it and noted Council had positive comments. Jeff will forward link to State’s overview. CAC Messaging - Cindy noted two minor edits to brochure she received by email – clarify stationary energy sector. Motion to approve PowerPoint and brochure with the 2 edits by Pam Adams; seconded Jeff Randall. Passed with no one opposed. Cindy noted some of the feedback received – good feedback on change of electricity to BPA power; questions about how regionally the footprint of power was impacted by the change. She asked for some talking points from PUD. Jeff: basically, the concern is that the “dirty power” just shifted. However, State’s new clean energy transformation act (CETA) will require transition to clean power; so, will no longer be an issue. Addresses 17% of the State’s GHG emissions. 2022 first milestone – clean energy plans from utilities 2025: eliminate coal fired power plants; 2030 GHG neutral (can use limited from natural gas fired plants if offset by other actions); by 2045 100% clean energy (with no offsets). Jefferson County’s reporting is straightforward given PUD is 100% Bonneville Power Administration from hydroelectric power. So the switch to BPA power has set up Jefferson County well to meet those new requirements, and BPA will be looking into what else is needed. Discussion ensued. (Tacoma plans for a plant, Clark County has a gas-powered plant, under CERTA: existing dams and nuclear power are considered green; while new dams may not be.) Jeff noted importance of educating the public on CERTA and definition of clean energy. Cindy Jayne did KPTZ interview – focus was on Local 20/20 but also responded to question re: CAC inventory. Cindy noted other questions from the public on the draft inventory report: Number of electric vehicles. Burning of wood- international protocols viewed as carbon neutral. The report (inventory) addresses both wood burning as both carbon neutral and discloses the number if it were not considered carbon neutral. Jeff/Cindy and Diane will coordinate on key talking points and responses. Update on Roll out to City and County Councils 4/13 Cindy and Diane presented inventory report to BOCC and Council. Both were positive. Strong support for charrette as next step. Pam and Laura noted: Council and BOCC were interested in next steps and how public would be engaged in the roll out. Discuss Inventory Roll out Options Diane: Acknowledged odd timing of roll out concurrent with pandemic. This cancelled our plans for the public roll out on Earth Day. It will be a long time before we can have a large public gathering. She shared Outreach Ideas for public outreach in the interim. Slides outlining the strategy were shared. Ideas include: - Encourage people to download the report - KPTZ interviews - Press releases/articles by members. - Zoom meetings- gather feedback, report back to the CAC. Get on agenda of existing community organizations. Are there other suggestions? - Laura suggested presentations (Zoom) to Chamber and service clubs. Cara noted facts from report is part of it, discussing post-COVID scenarios also good discussion. Kate C: schools could be targeted. SeaTac Airport could serve as model – they had snapshots about emissions saved by various methods (e.g. public transit) - educating captive audience. Perhaps portable billboards at Farmers Market/Libraries/etc. Laura: She could help with making information grade level appropriate for students. She noted nature of transportation emissions being worldwide. Could present to School board/all staff meetings Kate C: provide schools with ready-made materials; Cautions against any potential to tie emission reductions to recessions. Dave S: New task forces under Intergovernmental Coordination Committee (ICC) (City/County/Port/PUD); How do we get public engaged in meetings during COVID other than relying on websites for meeting? Jeff: ICC – creating a resiliency response plan. Six task groups being formed. One of conversations about restarting economy while reducing carbon emissions. For example – online meetings. All 4 entities passed Resolution agreeing to participate. One elected plus Executives will begin drafting resilience plans; target to adopt by end of 2020. Next meeting tomorrow. Dave and Jeff noted food security impact on emissions and resiliency. Dave noted, could be easier to find CAC meeting info. *Pam and Judy noted City has not been posting - Pam will follow up with John – about including it on the City’s page/calendar (date and time, for more info see County site- link). Laura can send info when she posts/notices on County. Laura noted Zoom meeting methods for OPMA compliance. Newsletters: Cindy asked about using City newsletter. Pam to follow up with City Manager and Emily Coler. Jeff noted PUD newsletter contact: Will O’Donnell, Communications manager. Cindy noted Hospital may be good place to display posters— Chris happy to check on this if desired. Laura suggested Message boards: Chamber downtown/Carl’s Lumber/ Chimacum Farmstore/Schools/Chimacum Grange. Diane asked group for thoughts on messaging – starting with main call to action is simply awareness of the inventory. Any new messaging would need further CAC approval. Judy: may want to follow with our next steps – watch for meetings or email comment. Laura will check with County if they can have central email for inventory comments. Cindy supportive. Diane says a web form is another option. Laura mentioned Survey Monkey. Judy noted, general send comments to “x” is fine but if developing survey questions, CAC should vet. Diane - It’s a timing question. Pam to follow up with John M. and Emily Coler about including information about the inventory in the Mayor’s letter Laura will check with County about a central Laura- we can call a special meeting if needed. location for email on inventory comments ICLEI Opportunity for Inventory Next Steps – Cohort Training 2 new opportunities for training. First in July for emissions modeling. Second is forestry (Sept- February). Steve King from City will participate in emissions modeling. Has not heard from County. Cindy recruiting volunteers – got 3 for the community wide component. Are there other CAC organizations interested in participating? Laura suggested Tami Pokorny for forestry component. *Kate Dean joined the meeting (4:49pm). Possible county staff participants: Mark McCauley, Tami Pokorny, Mallory Weinheimer, Kevin Holcomb. Cindy will follow up. ICLEI software is purchased by City and County. Volunteers’ names would be provided to Pam/Kate and Judy/Laura. Cindy will follow up on participants for the ICLEI training sessions Laura/Judy will approve for County/City Potential NODC Grant on Climate Cindy gave overview of NODC and explained the Planning for Climate Change grant that resulted in the Climate Prep Plan. A follow up grant that included adaptation and mitigation looks likely to receive funding (grant application is referred to as a “Near Term Action”, NTA). It includes regional (Clallam and Jefferson Counties) climate mitigation planning, and working with up to 4 municipalities on developing local plans integrating both mitigation and adaptation. Jefferson County/City of PT CAC could potentially be 2 of those municipalities. There’s a lot of overlap with our charrette idea, and perhaps that charrette could be part of that grant process. How should the CAC be involved? How does this mesh with our charrette idea? Any questions? Judy: noted benefits of regional approach and how last NODC grant turned out extremely well. Charrette Planning Diane: Given COVID charrette postponed indefinitely, the grant could create momentum. Benefits of regional approach and funding. She recommends that we invest our energy into the NODC grant process vs. charrette planning. Cindy: $170,000, requires Puget Sound Partnership approval. Kate: it will take a while for it to take shape, but she sees benefit of regional effort but doesn’t want it to supplant local effort. We are further along than Clallam County and don’t want it to slow us down. Will need to balance. Cindy: Grant could potentially include convening Climate Action Committees to discuss inventory and actionable steps. Kate Chadwick: If we were to do this - interested in not losing next steps for the inventory. Wants to be sure the grant would allow for local groups to individualize next steps. Overall she is supportive. Shares Kate Dean’s concern that we are further along. With the inventory, we know where we are at, but we need a local strategy. Kate Dean: doesn’t rule out the possibility of this grant supporting development of local strategies. Cindy suggests moving ahead concurrently. Asked for motion: Cindy/Diane approved as CAC liaisons for the NODC grant discussions. It was noted that both City and County have representatives on the NODC, as do other CAC organizations, and this CAC liaison would be in addition to the CAC organizations being directly involved. Moved by: Pam. Second by Jeff. Motion pPassed. Upcoming Organizational Plans and Documents for Climate Review? Shoreline Master Plan – Local 20/20 Climate Prep group is involved in providing input to City SMP. County SMP will have task force – it was noted Dave Wilkinson would be a good participant. Kate Dean supports having CAC member on that committee. Climate change lens important for this SMP update. Motion to approve Dave Wilkinson as CAC rep on County SMP task force: by Kate Chadwick; seconded by Dave Seabrook. Kate asked if the County email specifically asked for a CAC representative. Cindy noted she was invited, but it wasn’t clear in what capacity. Friendly amendment by Kate: CAC recommends as possible representative to the task force. Motion passed. Public Comment None. Other Updates None. Next Steps and Agenda Planning Next meeting: 8/26. Agenda items: Updates on NODC grant process; outreach. Vision work (Kate C). City and County SMP progress. Cindy will forward Local 20/20 SMP comments to the CAC. Adjourn The meeting was adjourned at 5:31 p.m.