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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2025/06/04 - ADMIN - Minutes - Environment & Sustainability Commission - Regular Official minutes Environment & sustainability commission St. Louis Park, Minnesota 6/4/2025 1. Call to order – 6:30 p.m. 1a. Roll call and introduction of new commissioners Members present: Vice Chair Abigail Oppegaard, Shaina Ashare, Marisa Bayer, Tatiana Giraldo, Kati Helseth, Jessie Hendrix, Ethan Kehrberg, Avery Kuehl, Bennett Myhran, Adam Oien, Sasha Shahidi, Natalie Wagner Absent: Ryan Griffin Guests: Nancy Rose, resident Staff present: Emily Ziring, sustainability manager; Marcus Paul, elections specialist The commissioners introduced themselves. Resident Nancy Rose mentioned city history regarding soil contamination issues in St. Louis Park. 2. Approval of minutes – May 7, 2025 – The minutes were approved unanimously as presented with 5 abstentions. 3. Business a. Presentation – Marcus Paul, elections specialist Mr. Paul presented an overview of the process of becoming a candidate for city council and for school board in St. Louis Park. He stated July 29 – Aug. 12 are the dates for filing. He presented the election guide to each commissioner, noting that additional information is available on the city website. b. New business  Elect a new commission chair Ms. Ziring explained the duties of the commission chair, including meeting with Ms. Ziring before each meeting, reviewing the draft agenda, and running the ESC meetings and business. The chair also helps plan the ESC retreat and presents information to the city council on behalf of the ESC. Commissioner Bayer moved to nominate Jessie Hendrix as Chair of the ESC, and Vice Chair Oppegaard seconded. The motion passed unanimously. Mid-year advisory commission reminders - Purpose and duties of the commission Ms. Ziring reviewed the purpose and duties of the ESC as written in city code. Ms. Ziring stated the chair has a one-year term, and added she is the liaison between the commission and the city council. All meetings are held publicly, and all emails and Environmental & Sustainability Commission June 4, 2025 communication should be one-way as much as possible, from Ms. Ziring to the commission. Commissioners are not allowed to communicate with one another about commission business over email. There is no chain communication allowed. - Communicating with the council Ms. Ziring stated if commissioners would like to communicate with council members about a personal item as a resident, that is allowed. However, ESC members may not contact council members as commissioners to speak on behalf of the ESC. The ESC typically votes on items to communicate with council, and those are passed on to Ms. Ziring to communicate to the city leadership team, who then bring it to the city council. She added that the new form, “Advisory Communication to Council,” is now available to commissioners to bring up a topic to the council, by way of Ms. Ziring. - Attendance and compensation Ms. Ziring stated regular attendance at the ESC meetings is required in order to continue to serve as a commissioner. Planned absences are allowed and preferred to be communicated to Ms. Ziring in advance. Ms. Ziring stated that for all commissioners who attend meetings, they will now start to receive $49 per month, with no more than $600 allowed within a year. She stated this is another reason for taking attendance. She added if commissioners want to decline this compensation, which is allowed, the funds will stay in the city. Commissioner Shahidi noted the assistance that resident Nancy Rose provided by forwarding items of interest to the ESC and added the many forms of information gathering assisting the commission. c. Unfinished business  July 2 meeting availability poll do-over Vice Chair Oppegaard asked the commissioners if any would not be able to attend the July 2 meeting. Ms. Ziring stated that the meeting can still be held, but if there is no business to be handled, the meeting can also be cancelled. She added if it is cancelled due to a lack of business, she will send an email to the commissioners. Three commissioners indicated that would be unavailable on July 2. 4. Staff updates Ms. Ziring updated the commission on the following items: - Working on environmental stewardship reports for council - ESC workplan presented to the city council, which was very successful, with no action items or additional workplan items received from council - Report on Climate Action Plan costs over the next 5 years, for city council - Brian Hoffman, Building and Energy Director for the city, has announced his retirement effective July 9. Karen Barton, Community Development Director, will be the interim department director. - Responding to 20 emails and calls from residents since heat pumps were mentioned in the Park Perspective Environmental & Sustainability Commission June 4, 2025 - Preparing for the Lenox Resource Fair - Preparing for Ecotacular on June 14 at Wolfe Park - Electrify Everything MN and working on a calculator for home electrification - MV Tree contest is rolling out. So far four nominations have been received, and a committee will need to be formed to review nominations. - Assisting Parks and Recreation on the shade structure grant with Aquila Park - Cart Art in the Park organic recycling cart art submissions are being accepted until mid-June 5. Work plan update 5a. Expand our outreach – events work group update Ms. Ziring stated that the Climate Action Plan update workgroup has not met recently, as she was waiting to set up the meeting until the new commissioners were on board. She added that the tree promotion work group is meeting next week, and the organics work group has met three times with city staff and covered the history of the program and the university research study conducted. Ideas were discussed about how to create more interest in the program. Commissioner Shahidi asked if they discussed multi-family housing organics recycling programs. Chair Hendrix stated they are only focused on the curbside organics collection program. Vice Chair Oppegaard stated that she and Commissioner Kuehl attended the Imagination Fair at Susan Lindgren Elementary School. Commissioner Kuehl stated that most parents there were focused on their children and not very much engagement occurred. Vice Chair Oppegaard stated this was probably not a good event to attend, but it was worth trying. Commissioner Wagner asked to be removed from the events workgroup and moved to the curbside organics workgroup. Commissioner Helseth asked to join the Climate Action Plan update workgroup. Commissioner Oien stated he would like to join the organics recycling work group. Commissioner Wagner moved to approve the shifting of commissioners to various workgroups as noted above. Commissioner Kuehl seconded. The motion passed unanimously. 6. Sustainability issues Commissioner Shahidi asked what staff members were doing in Wolfe Park today. Ms. Ziring stated it was Beautify the Park Day. Commissioner Shahidi asked if this could be moved to spring, when trash can be picked up. Ms. Ziring stated it was scheduled for earlier in the spring, but due to weather issues was moved to June 4. Commissioner Myhran noted the Natural Resources Partnership Coalition group, and stated there was a workshop conducted last week with the Met Council and U of M where they discussed pooling resources for funding and recognizing natural systems. He stated the workshop was helpful, and a toolkit was developed by the U of M, including a funding finder for natural resources issues, a cost calculator, legal support from pro bono attorneys, and a Environmental & Sustainability Commission June 4, 2025 database. He added Met Council noted new requirements for cities on climate action items and natural resource mapping within their comprehensive plans. Community engagement coordinator Pat Coleman stopped by the meeting briefly. Ms. Ziring asked Mr. Coleman about the form needed for compensation. Mr. Coleman stated that it will be sent to the commissioners by the end of this week. 7. Items to discuss at a future meeting Commissioner Shahidi stated she would like to discuss more communication and collaboration between boards and commissions, particularly the Human Rights Commission, to see if they have an interest in the Climate Action Plan and health data. Commissioner Shahidi noted an article in Floodlight about how redlining affects the power grid, and underrepresented communities are dealing with this more directly. She also stated her work on Climate Trace is around health data and emissions. She stated she would like future discussions around this topic. Commissioner Wagner asked about discussing AI and using city resources and infrastructure for data centers, and to proactively discourage investment in these. Ms. Ziring stated she will discuss these topic ideas with the new commission chair. 8. Upcoming/proposed events -June 10, 2025: Fire Station open house – volunteers needed, sign up on Sign-up Genius -June 14, 2025: Ecotacular 9. Adjournment – 7:50 p.m. ______________________________________ ______________________________________ Emily Ziring, liaison Jessie Hendrix, chair member