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HomeMy WebLinkAboutApproved Minutes - 2009-05-18City of Lake Oswego Sustainability Advisory Board Minutes of May 18, 2009 Page 1 of 5 City of Lake Oswego Sustainability Advisory Board Minutes May 18, 2009 I. CALL TO ORDER AND ROLL CALL Chair Jean Baumann called the Sustainability Advisory Board meeting of May 18, 2009 to order at 6:30 p.m. in the Santiam Room of the West End Building, 4101 Kruse Way, Lake Oswego, Oregon. Members present: Chair Baumann, Vice Chair Dorothy Atwood, Matt Briggs, Bruce Brown (alternate), Ron Gronowski, Patrick Rowe, Amin Wahab and Grant Watkinson. Craig Diamond, Lisa Murphy and Jacob Shimkus were not present. Jeff DeWitt had resigned. Staff present: Jonna Papaefthimious, Staff Liaison/Natural Resource Planner; and Susan Millhauser, Sustainability Planner. II. APPROVAL OF MINUTES Watkinson moved to approve the Minutes of March 16, 2009 . Briggs seconded the motion and it passed by unanimous vote. III. ANNOUNCEMENTS Atwood reported that she had attended the Citizens Budget Committee meeting and explained to them why the $48,000 in funding the SAB had requested was important. She said she understood that if the Committee did not recommend budgeting those funds, the City Council could put them back in the budget anyway, or there might be some discretionary money the City Manager could use for SAB activities. Millhauser clarified that the draft budget did change her position from .5 to .7 Full Time Equivalent (FTE). The City Council had invited boards and commissions to attend their study session the following day to hear a presentation about what makes neighborhoods. The annual neighborhood cleanup day was scheduled for June 7th. The second annual Community Shredding Day was scheduled for May 30th. Mr. Watkinson asked Millhauser to find out where that waste ended up. IV. PUBLIC COMMENT (None) V. REGULAR BUSINESS Sustainability Action Month & Follow-up It was halfway through Sustainability Action Month. Atwood reported that just over 100 persons had attended the Bradbury speech/kickoff event. The audience had enjoyed hearing the children sing. Bradbury wanted to incorporate that into his future presentations as a video clip and the City Council had asked the children to sing at a Council meeting. Shimkus’s mother had brought a three-foot diameter “earth” cake. City of Lake Oswego Sustainability Advisory Board Minutes of May 18, 2009 Page 2 of 5 One person had attended the first Thursday forum to hear the “Water Conservation and Energy Efficiency” presentation and five persons had attended the next one. Five persons had attended the first Movie Night and over 20 persons had attended the next one. An estimated 15 to 20 persons had attended Story Time at the Library. No one had volunteered to be at the Lake Run. Atwood concluded that the big lesson so far was that teaming with other organizations’ existing events generated more participants than when the SAB put on their own separate event. Briggs reported that he had signed up over 70 people for energy reviews at the Farmers Market and could have signed up more if it had not been so crowded. He had convinced 7 or 8 people to install solar photovoltaic systems in their houses. Booth visitors who already had geothermal heat pump systems had explained to others how to do that. Someone had asked that the SAB tell people how to “green” historic buildings in order to save them. He suggested the Board would do well to have a presence at every Farmers Market. Handouts needed to be updated and there should be a larger variety of reference materials to give people. He saw a need to have a water conservation expert in the booth to answer questions. The staff reported that Kevin McCaleb, the City’s water conservation specialist, had a full schedule of responding to calls, the toilet rebate program, putting on workshops, and making presentations. He did periodic landscaping irrigation workshops. Atwood had asked, but found that other water districts did not have staff to loan. The Energy Trust did do a cursory review of inside water use when they did residential energy reviews, but they did not review irrigation systems, which accounted for the largest percentage of water use. Ms. Papaefthimiou related that someone from the water treatment plant would join SAB volunteers at the next Farmers Market. Briggs distributed copies of a document that he described as “the best green guide ever.” Atwood thanked Brown for helping the SAB get ready for the upcoming expo. Millhauser suggested the board hand out a brochure that described and mapped the City’s green streets projects. Baumann planned to talk to the local newspaper about doing a mid- month article on SAM. The board had been sending them regular press releases. Thor Hinkley, PGE Renewables “Challenge” Thor Hinkley, who managed the PGE Renewables Program, explained PGE offered two different programs: Clean Wind and Green Source. The Clean Wind program offered the consumer a larger wind source component in the energy they purchased. The Green Source program offered the consumer power derived from 100% renewable energy. Hinkley reported that about 13% of Lake Oswego electric customers had signed up for renewable power. That was a relatively high level of penetration compared to other green power communities. Some considered 4% penetration a success. PGE was asking the City to participate in the EPA’s Green Power Community Challenge and raise it to 15% (by adding 300 more renewable energy customers). The City Council would issue a proclamation and challenge city residents to sign up. The City was already buying renewable energy for the water treatment plant and some local grocery stores were buying renewable power. Other Oregon Green Power Communities were Corvallis, Salem and Gresham. Hinkley reported that PGE had just begun to install smart (two-way) meters. They planned to have all their customers on smart meters by the end of 2011. They had found that people who paid attention to the amount of energy they were using also tended to City of Lake Oswego Sustainability Advisory Board Minutes of May 18, 2009 Page 3 of 5 sign up for renewable energy. He said PGE wanted to expand the Oregon Solar Highway (currently near the I-5/-205 intersection). During the questioning period, Hinkley indicated that it might be a challenge to close the Boardman plant soon because PGE still got some energy from coal. When asked he clarified that PGE had supported a federal cap and trade system since 2004. It would level the playing field - since everyone who used coal would be equally disadvantaged - and there would not be huge swings in energy prices. He related PGE had also supported some state legislation that they thought would benefit their customers. Briggs recalled PGE had lobbied against Oregon Senate Bill 80, which was more stringent cap and trade legislation than the proposed federal legislation. Hinkley explained that wind power was currently about 4% of the “standard mix” of energy provided to customers. By the end of 2010, wind would be 11% of the mix. People who bought Clean Wind were actually buying a mix in which 20% was wind power. The extra cost they paid was for the wind component. PGE had reduced the price for it from $5.00 to $3.50 over a few years and doubled the amount of wind power available. It was an effort to get people to start to feel comfortable about getting all their power from renewable sources. Hinkley was asked if hydroelectric power was considered “renewable” power. He said Oregon law did not allow it to be called “renewable” unless it was “low-impact hydro.” PGE was working hard to get its two large hydroelectric facilities re-licensed as low-impact hydro. When asked to define “low- impact hydro” he said environmental groups defined it as hydropower that had no or little impact on riparian health. Some storage dams could be certified low-impact hydro facilities if all the stakeholders agreed it met that definition. The non-profit Low-Impact Hydro Institute was located in Portland, Maine. California produced the highest percentage of renewable energy in the west because their total energy needs were so great. Millhauser had learned that most power produced at Bonneville went to either industrial customers or public utility districts. Hinkley related that PGE employed people who were each personally dedicated to selling renewable energy to go door to door. He suggested that if Lake Oswego prohibited door-to-door solicitation, they might consider making an exception for the renewable energy signup effort. Gresham had gotten 150 people to sign up in 90 days. Otherwise, his experience was that Farmers Markets were en excellent venue for such signups. He said people who wanted to have their own solar system and/or sell power back to the utility from their own system could get involved with the Oregon Net Metering Group. He anticipated the state legislature would pass legislation that allowed someone to sell the electricity that they put back into the grid at a profit. PGE supported that concept. They estimated that 30% to 40% of customers had a new, south-facing, roof to use for a solar installation. PGE could help them get in touch with vendors. Millhauser added that Energy Trust of Oregon administered the tax incentives program. Hinkley anticipated that over time enough people would become aware of the benefits of renewable energy that less would have to be spent to market the concept. When asked Hinkley confirmed that PGE would do most of the work after the City Council made the proclamation. The utility would be willing to customize the effort in Lake Oswego so it involved selling the program at the Farmer’s Market and contacting businesses. There would also be door-to-door solicitation. City of Lake Oswego Sustainability Advisory Board Minutes of May 18, 2009 Page 4 of 5 Mr. Briggs moved to recommend that the City Council proclaim that the City was participating in the Green Power Challenge during August and September . All the administrative details were to be worked out in the next 30 days. Watkinson seconded the motion and it passed by unanimous vote. Griggs and Rowe volunteered to flesh out the program. SAB Liaisons – Meeting Updates SAB liaisons reported they planned to present to TAB and the HRAB in June. SAB and the HRAB had already collaborated in fashioning a May display in City Hall titled, “Sustain the Future.” SAB liaisons had found the Planning Commissioners generally ready to listen to the SAB. That Commission had responded by appointing their own liaison to the SAB. After the SAB presentation, a citizen had asked the PC for code that would allow her to configure her new house and site to take advantage of passive solar energy. Rowe reported he had presented to a joint meeting of two Rotary clubs and would present to his own Rotary club in the future. Comprehensive Plan Update Baumann circulated a memorandum she had drafted asking the City Council to plan to conduct a visioning process. She planned to read it into the record it during the public comment period at the next City Council meeting, when the City Council was scheduled to consider the staff report regarding the scope of periodic review. One alternative the City Council was considering was to wait to do visioning until fall 2010. Members agreed visioning should be done early in the periodic review process so the City Council understood what their “customers” wanted first. They thought a “baseline” visioning effort might not cost as much as the $150,000 to $250,000 the staff had estimated. They made a small correction in the memorandum and generally agreed that Baumann should present it. City Sustainability Plan Millhauser asked the Board what role they wanted to play; how they thought their expertise could best be used by the City; and what they expected from the City Sustainability Plan. Briggs wanted a community sustainability plan that phased in less water, chemical and energy use by 2030 in incremental steps, using mandates, codes and taxes. He sensed from talking with people at the Farmers Market that they were ready to take steps to use less water and more solar power. He said the City plan could help drive the community plan. Both plans could be on a parallel path with incremental, five-year, targets. He said it was not such a big jump because other cities were doing that. The state and federal governments were adopting much more challenging goals and requirements with more “teeth” than those in the City operational plan. The SAB could help update it/ They members liked the fact that the Public Works Department ran all CIP projects through a sustainability screening conducted by Papaefthimiou and Millhauser. That was a good first step. The Plan’s Steering Committee was not meeting regularly, but Millhauser had suggested that the management team take ownership of the plan and update it as part of their normal activities. City of Lake Oswego Sustainability Advisory Board Minutes of May 18, 2009 Page 5 of 5 The SAB asked to hear the staff presentation of the status of the City Sustainability Plan, goals and mile markers at their July meeting. They anticipated it would also help educate the new board members. They also wanted it to address leading indicators, such as how many of the staff received training. Community Sustainability Plan – Phase I A Committee consisting of Baumann, Atwood, Rowe, Gronowski, Diamond and Briggs was to meet before the SAB regular June meeting to frame a proposal about how to go about fashioning the Community Sustainability Plan. They would present it for discussion at the regular meeting. VI. NEW BUSINESS Brown stressed that the SAB should track streetcar planning. It seemed to be in line for federal funding after the Eastside Loop. He anticipated the City would begin a building program that replaced many city buildings in the next five years. The SAB should advocate building them to LEED platinum standards. VII. ADJOURNMENT There being no other business Chair Baumann adjourned the meeting at approximately 8:07 p.m. L\sab\minutes\May 18, 2009.doc