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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes_102820 Jefferson County/City of Port Townsend Climate Action Committee Meeting Minutes Wednesday, October 28, 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, Diane McDade, Dave Wilkinson, Kate Dean (BoCC) Absent: Eric Toews (Port of PT), Chris O’Higgins (JHC), Jeff Randall (PUD No. 1), David Seabrook, Sam Jones (Port Townsend Paper Corporation), Kate Chadwick Staff: Judy Surber (City of PT), Laura Tucker (Jefferson County) Guests: David Wayne Johnson (County DCD), Cyndy Bratz, Dave Thielk Scribe: Judy Surber Topic Recommendation/Action Follow Up Items Call to order Chair Cindy Jayne called the meeting to order at 3:32PM. A quorum was present. Approval of Agenda & Minutes Chair Cindy Jayne requested moving Public Comment to the end of agenda. Pam Adams moved to approve agenda as amended. Second by Kate Dean. Motion passed. Motion: Pam Adams moved to approve August 26 minutes; Diane McDade seconded. Motion passed. Laura to finalize August minutes and post to County website. Public Comment No public comment. Inventory Roll out Planning and Materials– Diane McDade: Shared the slides and agenda for the upcoming outreach meetings scheduled for 11/12 and 11/17th. Slide deck is very similar to one previously approved by CAC in April. Added a few slides, will be additional slides coming from City Manager. Outreach meetings will be held as an open public meeting, online, with no action by the CAC. Members provided input and asked questions. Pam agreed to do the wrap up. Agreed to move John Mauro’s slides to before the “What’s Next” slide. Kate noted it would be great to make it more interactive, perhaps with a poll. Motion: Pam Adams moved to approve slides for outreach meetings including changes congruent with what was discussed and incorporation of City Managers slides. Shelley Jaye seconded. Motion passed. Diane shared the draft prospective piece for publication in the 11/4 PT Leader ahead of the two outreach meetings; PDN will be notified. A draft was distributed to members. Originally drafted in April, slightly modified. Any edits? Minor typos. Kate Dean: edit to acknowledge NODC coordinated with local tribes. Motion: Kate Dean moved to approve the article as edited. Second by Pam Adams. Motion passed. CAC members were asked to plan on attending the two outreach meetings. Diane and Cindy to finalize the slide deck. Kate will investigate interactive options. Diane to finalize and distribute the article. Cindy/Diane to do a poll of members who plan to attend. ICLEI Training Update Updates given on two trainings from ICLEI on the modeling software. Emissions reduction completed in Sept. and Forestry modeling in process. Emissions Reduction Modeling Results (Slides) – Cindy gave a brief overview including assumptions. Cyndy Bratz and Dave Thielk volunteered to be part of the modeling team and invested many hours. The team is finalizing a draft report. Dave Thielk noted limitations: each strategy modeled in isolation from the others; due to model limitation required making very coarse assumptions; cultural shifts may occur faster or more slowly in Jefferson County. Cynthia Bratz added, they used emissions from 2018 GHG inventory. Percent reductions are from total emissions not by sector. Some measures may have co-benefits: e.g., increased commercial solar has low CO2 reduction but positive resiliency. Dave T discussed commuter transit and commute reduction strategies. Cindy provided Steve King’s brief status on City progress. Q&A. Many thanks to great team - Cyndy Bratz, Dave Thielk, Steve King and Cindy Jayne. Forestry Modeling (Slides) – Cindy noted there is another great team of volunteers working on forestry modeling. She reviewed slides. Goal is to determine net effect of changes in carbon sequestration from land conversions; tree loss due to fire/pests/harvest. She described baselines, data sets, boundaries, etc. Kate noted it will be beneficial for County’s sustainable forests program. Shoreline Master Program Updates City of Port Townsend – Judy Surber Judy provided overview of Shoreline Master Programs (SMP) in general and the scope and process for the City’s Periodic Review. Local 20/20 provided suggested revisions to address climate change (i.e., sea level rise (SLR) and ocean acidification). Judy noted key concerns: 1) Policy vs. regulation 2) If city adopted regulation, it would likely necessitate adoption of an SLR model which may be beyond the capacity of the current effort. 3) Updated Ecology guidance has been placed on hold. 4) Some items require city resources we do not currently have and thus result in budget implications. Judy asked CAC how they wished to engage in the SMP process. Dave W suggested if the City decides to adopt an SLR model, CAC could be tasked to make a recommendation. Kate cautioned that it may be a lot of work for a local jurisdiction and it may be moot if the State adopts new standards. However, it may not pass. David Wayne and Judy agreed, given limited local resources, staff prefers to wait for direction from the state/ECY updated guidance and any state mandate. Kate: we can expect State legislature to take action on new standards for SMPs and net ecological gain in the next couple of years. General consensus from group, if City decides to adopt SLR projection, CAC is a resource – otherwise no additional action by CAC on this matter. Jefferson County – David Wayne Johnson – City ahead of County. County is working on checklist and draft, due end of November. Created a task force to review SMP under lens of regulatory reform – goal to streamline permits. Dave Wilkinson is on the committee. BERK consulting. Meeting with Tribes. Local 20/20 comments to City SMP were also considered by County SMP task force. Upcoming Organizational Plans & Documents for Climate Review? None. Consider CAC Endorsement of Taming Big Foot 2021 Bob Bindschadler – Local 20/20 Climate Action Group is planning on launching another Taming Big Foot event in 2021. He gave a recap of previous event from 2016. Bob created a customized carbon foot- print calculator for Jefferson County. Great fun, educational, and uplifting. Other communities have emulated it. In 2021 planning a three-month event, Feb-April 2021. Now with a Smartphone App. Encouraged members to participate! Question – Kate asked if any issue with CAC endorsing it before? Cindy noted both City Council and BOCC endorsed it last time. Motion: Diane moved: CAC recommends BoCC and Council endorse Big Foot 2021, Shelley seconded. Motion passed. Public Comment None. Other Updates 1) Engage PT. Local 20/20 participated in Water Supply / Mill Contract initiative by hosting an Engage PT zoom discussion on it. 2) State energy plan – Diane invited Eileen Quigley as guest speaker. Eileen is available for Dec. meeting. 3) American Legion’s solar project has been funded and approved by Historic review committee. 4) NODC grant status? Working on RFPs for consultants. Next Steps and Agenda Planning Next Meeting of December 23; rescheduled to December 9, 2020 3:30-5:30PM. Jeff Randall has continuing conflict; Cindy suggested another representative. PTPC has not yet assigned a new representative. Agenda: 1) Update on ICLEI trainings. 2) Recommendations on legislative agendas for City. Climate Solutions holds an annual call to provide information on legislative agenda. Shelley offered to attend, Cindy to investigate timing.. 3) Recap of Outreach Meetings. Cindy and Diane to contact mill about upcoming outreach meetings. Adjourn The meeting was adjourned at 5:28 p.m.