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HomeMy WebLinkAboutApproved Minutes - 2010-01-25 City of Lake Oswego Sustainability Advisory Board Minutes January 25, 2010 CALL TO ORDER AND ROLL CALL Co-Chair Craig Diamond called the January 25, 2010 meeting of the Sustainability Advisory Board to order at approximately 6:30 p.m. in the Santiam Room of the West End Building, 4101 Kruse Way, Lake Oswego, Oregon. Members present: Co-Chair Diamond, Co-Chair Grant Watkinson, Dorothy Atwood, Matt Briggs, Bruce Brown, Ron Gronowski, Gregory Monahan and Amin Wahab. Marshall Kosloff and Paul Lyons were not present. Guest: Barry Woods. Staff: Jonna Papaefthimious, Staff Liaison/Natural Resource Planner; David Donaldson, Assistant City Manager: Susan Millhauser, Sustainability Coordinator; Justin Bates, AmeriCorps/Sustainability Outreach Specialist. MINUTES (None) ANNOUNCEMENTS Diamond was to receive the Distinguished Service Award at the next City Council meeting. Gronowski was now chair of the Fellows Committee of The Portland American Institute of Architects Chapter. Watkinson reported he had attended the Centennial Kickoff event. Watkinson, Monahan and Wahab had attended a City economic strategy session. Atwood offered to email links to a February 4th webinar about the Copenhagen conference. Briggs had finished his movie and it had been accepted at two film festivals so far. PUBLIC COMMENT (None) REGULAR BUSINESS Board Membership Changes If Lisa Murphy accepted becoming a regular member after Diamond resigned, the SAB would no longer have any alternate members as Wahab had become a regular member. Diamond reported he was moving and planned to resign at the end of February. Gronowski’s term will be up the end of June. The youth member position needed to be filled, too. Watkinson encouraged members to consider volunteering to serve as Co-Chair. Update: Sustainability Action Month / Centennial Celebration Atwood reported that Sustainability Action Month events were being hosted by partner organizations including Fiends of Tryon Creek, the Library, the Chamber of Commerce, and Rotary. Bates had written to all 100 restaurants in Lake Oswego to ask them so participate in Sustainable Suppers. Four of them had responded so far. Atwood hoped to involve the organizers of the Lake Run and faith based organizations. She thought it would be fun to have a “green sanctuaries” presentation. The Historic Homes Tour was in May. The Farmers Market started in May. City of Lake Oswego Sustainability Advisory Board Minutes of January 25, 2010 Page 2 of 4 Millhauser suggested Sustainability Action Month could promote the School District v. City energy management pilot competition. Planner Laura Weigel had volunteered to organize a bike event. Brown suggested they plan the route around Century Trees. Brown was arranging to show electric cars at the antique car show. Millhauser was looking into arranging for an energy or solar readiness workshop. Atwood invited members to serve on a new team to plan how to publicize events. She anticipated that energy grant funding would be used to create a “Sustainability” brand the City could use. The group liked the idea of a green homes tour. They would look for a theater to show Brigg’s movie. Atwood and Millhauser were scheduled to meet with the Centennial Celebration event planner. Atwood asked the group to send her their ideas for kids events and activities. She thanked the group for their ideas and planned to continue to work on the schedule. SAB Liaisons Watkinson and the other Board members reviewed and revised SAB liaison assignments and planned to discuss what the leads were supposed to do at their next meeting. 2010 SAB Liaisons and other volunteer assignments SAB Liaisons to City Boards and Commissions Lead 2 Back up 1 Planning Commission Grant Dorothy 2 Development Review Commission Paul Ron 3 Parks & Rec Advisory Board Lisa (if she rejoins) 4 Transportation Advisory Board Bruce Amin Matt 5 Historic Resources Advisory Board Gregory 6 Library Advisory Board Marshall Lisa (if she rejoins) Bruce 7 Natural Resources Advisory Board Amin Grant 8 50+ Advisory Board Grant Gregory Ron SAB volunteers for SAB Initiatives (Goal #5) Lead 2 3 4 1 Community Sustainability Plan (link w/ Comp Plan Update) Dorothy Matt Ron Grant 2 Sustainability Action Month Dorothy Grant Matt 3 Building practices, zoning, codes (link w/Planning Commission) Bruce Ron Paul Areas of City Council concern: Lead 2 3 1 City buildings - e.g., what to do with the WEB, City Hall, etc. Gregory Ron 2 Growth Management - e.g., infill, annexation, town centers, development plans, neighborhood plans Bruce - neighborho od plans 3 Sensitive lands Amin Paul 4 Water Management - e.g., storm water, clean streams, bioswales Grant Bruce Other Lead 2 3 1 Clackamas County Natural Step Peer Learning Group Gregory City of Lake Oswego Sustainability Advisory Board Minutes of January 25, 2010 Page 3 of 4 Update: City Council strategy planning session / City budgeting process Donaldson reported the City Council had held their first goal setting session and would hold the next one February 2nd. The goals they set would guide the budget process. Almost every advisory board had offered input. But the Council had not yet discussed those recommendations because they initially focused on addressing issues related to the affect of the economy on local government. They were faced with replacement of aging buildings; maintenance of aging infrastructure; the need to find money to maintain City-owned open space; and the question of effective use of the West End Building, which was currently financed by a two-year, interest-only loan. In two fiscal years the City would have to contribute 6% more (about $2 million more) to the Public Employees Retirement System (PERS) unless there was improvement in the stock market. Funds would be needed for the Streetcar project and there were many people pressing for new library and tennis facilities. Donaldson confirmed the City Council and the staff had received sustainability training. The staff was talking about how to integrate sustainability into the Comprehensive Plan during the update process next year. Peak Democracy was a place on the City website for citizens to submit their comments. He confirmed the administration wanted to continue to have a Sustainability staff position and an AmeriCorps member. He had read a magazine article that recommended approaching problem solving by looking for models that worked. He sugg ested incorporating that into Sustainability Action Month. He discussed the budgeting process. All department heads had submitted their requested budgets. What they asked to spend was $2 million more than City revenue. The Budget Committee would hold three meetings this year to fashion a proposed budget. The City was now on an annual budget cycle. The City had hired a new Finance Director and was about to hire a new Assistant Finance Director. During the questioning period Donaldson clarified the $2 million budget shortfall did not include the additional $2 million the City would have to find to contribute to PERS the fiscal year after next. He advised there was still time for the SAB to help guide and adjust the next budget. He recalled the SAB memorandum to the City Council had been well written and included a call to action. He was not sure the Council was ready yet to initiate a climate change action plan initiative. Diamond reported that he had met with Papaefthimiou, Millhauser, Donaldson, Denise Frisbee and Dennis Egner a few weeks ago. Watkinson had not been able to attend. They had discussed each of the five items in the SAB recommendation memo and talked about the budget implications. At least three of the items had budget implications because they required a fraction of an FTE or funds to hire a consultant. SAB members observed the City could think “out of the box” and take a different, synergistic, approach. For example, instead of trying to site and plan each facility individually, new facilities could be grouped together in an eco-district that would be sustainable and transit- oriented. They could share energy, water and other systems. That would save money. The Board discussed whether each member should send an individual memo to the Council, but they finally agreed it would be best to send a short second memo from the SAB that supported their original memorandum and added their suggestion regarding synergy. Briggs volunteered to draft it that evening and circulate it the next morning. City of Lake Oswego Sustainability Advisory Board Minutes of January 25, 2010 Page 4 of 4 Diamond moved to empower Briggs to draft a short memorandum to the Council that would suggest how the City could integrate projects instead of addressing each of them individually. Briggs was to circulate the draft to the other SAB members for comment, then finalize the draft and send it to the Co-Chairs to forward to the City Council. If there were negative comments from more than two members about the draft memorandum it would be abandoned, and not sent. Watkinson seconded the motion and it passed by unanimous consent. Millhauser planned to email members copies of the final January 4th SAB and January 13th staff memorandums to the City Council regarding the original SAB recommendation and related budget implications. ADJOURNMENT The next meeting was scheduled on February 22, 2010. There being no other business Co- Chair Diamond adjourned the meeting at 8:37 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Jonna Papaefthimiou Natural Resource Planner L:\Boards & Commissions\SAB\Minutes\2010\LO SAB2010 01-25 APPROVED.doc