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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2017/10/04 - ADMIN - Minutes - Environment & Sustainability Commission - RegularMINUTES ENVIRONMENT AND SUSTAINABILITY COMMISSION: SUSTAINABLE SLP ST. LOUIS PARK, MINNESOTA October 4, 2017 Westwood Room – 3rd Floor, City Hall MEMBERS PRESENT: Chair Ryan Griffin, Stefan Collinet, Bridget Rathsack, Terry Gips, Nicole Ciulla, and Julie Rappaport EXCUSED ABSENCE: Susan Bloyer, Claire Lukens, and Keir Stiegler STAFF PRESENT: Shannon Pinc, ESC Coordinator and Ms. Allenson (Recording Secretary) GUESTS: Larry Kraft 1. The meeting was called to order at 6:40 p.m. by Chair Griffin 2. Roll Call and Check-in by Chair Griffin and the commissioners introduced themselves. 3. Business a. Approve September Minutes The September Minutes were presented via overhead with highlighted changes/additions. The proposed changes by Shannon were discussed and reviewed by the Commission. Terry Gips made a motion to approve the September 2017 Minutes with modifications by Shannon. Commissioner Rappaport seconded the motion, which passed unanimously. Chair Ryan requested to record the action for Terry and Julie to have a discussion with Meg to provide an update for the next meeting. A motion for such is further noted in Item 3.c.ii. Shannon suggested creating a spreadsheet to track and record the progress of outstanding actions plans. Chair Griffin suggested using the work plan and cascading items into three-to-four buckets. Bridget offered to produce this document and she will draft via Google docs and send to Ryan and Shannon to review before sharing out more broadly for feedback to the commission. Chair Griffin suggested attaching a copy of this report to the Minutes within two weeks of the ESC meetings, to allow changes/updates to the agenda. b. Update – Communications Work Group Commissioner Ciulla made a motion to remove the sustainable SLP social media pages and include all future content to the SLP social media account. Commissioner Rathsack seconded the motion which passed unanimously. Nicole reported the action taken from the last meeting was to focus on increasing social media presence with the agreement to go forward with the development of Environment and Sustainability -2- October 4, 2017 Commission Meeting content. She reported each member of the work group was willing to provide input and invited the commission to participate. Chair Griffin was curious about the process for posting. Shannon suggested proposed items be approved by the ESC to allow a more clear and transparent process. Larry stated his concern with regard to the time this bureaucratic process would involve, as social media requires quick response. Chair Griffin stated if an item needs to be urgently communicated to provide this to Shannon directly. Terry reported the work group is concerned about this timeline as well and would like to see this process be less tricky. He felt there was enough checks and balances in place to allow timely posts to occur without a lengthy approval process and if any concerns arose, they could be discussed at the following month’s meeting. Stefan requested proposed postings be submitted to Shannon and distributed for awareness only, not so much for approval. Chair Griffin agreed voting on approvals would slow down the process. He requested posts be sent to Shannon for the purpose of awareness only. The group decided to have the Communications Work Group draft posts and peer review as a workgroup. They will then send to Shannon and she will share out with the ESC and send to the City staff. It was agreed that all posts would tie into the City Council’s priorities for the workgroup. Nicole shared possible posting ideas to launch for mid-October: The home energy squad, with regard to Halloween and holiday waste; incentives for AC- furnace updates; composting/leaves; and the importance of raking leaves. Nicole will send the ideas notes to Shannon to share with the rest of the ESC. Larry stated this was awesome. Terry then referred to the Comprehensive Plan, noting that Green Step Cities was omitted. Shannon responded it was omitted as Step Three had been achieved. It was decided to further discuss during the retreat. Terry stated the vision component needs to be added and requested to hear the City C ouncil’s point of view. He asked when the discussion would take place to clarify direction and move forward, as there is a large amount of sustainability needing to be addressed before the retreat. He also requested adding Green Step Cities to the discussion. Chair Griffin reported that Green Step Cities is still a part of the 2017 Work Plan between now and November. Julie reported she and Nancy Rose discussed what Green Step Cities could accomplish over the next 10 years in order to identify next-step practices and develop a list through the funneling of visioning. She stated this would be a way for the commission to further ourselves as a leader. Shannon stated deeper conversation would be necessary at the retreat as to what that would look like, in order to gain further understanding as well as to enable the group to dive deeper. Chair Griffin clarified this item be added to the agenda for the retreat, in order to identify relevance for visioning. Terry suggested that Chair Griffin and Shannon have a conversation with City Manager Harmening and Mayor Spano by next week. c. Climate Action Environment and Sustainability -3- October 4, 2017 Commission Meeting i. Review Comments Shannon received Bridget and Larry’s comments which had already been captured by Abby. She reported many did not have a lot to say. In June, Terry drafted a very thorough list of comments on the initial draft of the St. Louis Park Climate Action Plan from the ESC, and believed the introduction should specifically include calling out, injecting, and clarifying the narrow scope of sustainability. Stefan asked if this was from the August 2017 version and Shannon confirmed. Chair Griffin stated Larry began the process of drafting the introduction and presented a copy for discussion and review via overhead. Terry stated he received good feedback on this and his overall guidance was to be more forceful about the urgent need to take action now, with improvements occurring at a later date. Chair Griffin stated that GM and Ford are going all-in with electric cars and autonomous vehicles, and that many countries have also incorporated this change. He advised of the need to evolve and become a living document, especially with the need for an established method of measuring quantitatively. He stated for future, this should be added and noted in the introduction. He clarified his proposal to first recommend that the ESC endorse the Climate Action Plan and put forward an introductory statement that captures content around a holistic sustainability action plan. He requested feedback. Julie asked about the living document. Terry answered that in June, he did an in- depth preliminary analysis of all the issues in order to provide the City C ouncil with a clear view about potential future issues. He stated that renewable energy versus renewable electricity needs to be made clear, as well as acknowledging what is missing in the Climate Action Plan with regard to future changes, as there are progressive people that may question why this was not noted. He added the need to inform them of Palo Alto as well. Shannon asked if Chair Griffin could include these points to be shared with the group prior. Julie thought this to be appropriate, as it is submitted by the Commission. Chair Griffin will provide a revised letter to Shannon to send out to the commission for review. Julie suggested adding the living document to the introductory letter, and then craft a separate document for a personal commentary. Larry suggested that the students write a statement. He reported that he received feedback with the wording and will provide this to Chair Griffin to be included in the draft. Larry suggested changing the statement, “a single element of sustainability,” stating this narrows the broad spectrum of sustainability, as there are massive amounts of other choices to address the amount of all aspects. Commissioner Gips made a motion to approve the draft CAP plan with the introduction statement from the ESC imbedded in the plan. Commissioner Rathsack seconded the motion, which passed unanimously. Commissioner Rappaport made a motion to approve an additional letter to City Council regarding feedback with our perspective on the plan. Commissioner Gips seconded the motion, which passed unanimously. Environment and Sustainability -4- October 4, 2017 Commission Meeting A special thank you was extended to Larry, Chair Griffin, and Shannon for all their extra work on the plan. ii. Review Summary of Support Commissioner Gips made a motion that he and Commissioner Rappaport will speak to Meg regarding the status of the vision and input from the Commission to explore the possibility of keeping the climate section as is and to add a sustainability section. Commissioner Julie Rappaport seconded the motion, which passed unanimously. Chair Griffin requested that Terry inform him when the meeting with Meg is scheduled. d. Additional updates - none 4. Adjournment The meeting was adjourned at 8:48 p.m.