April 8, 2009 SAB Meeting Minutes

Call Meeting to Order (Daniel Poull, Chairperson)
Take Roll Call to Determine Quorum of Members

APPROVAL OF MEETING MINUTES

Motion and second to approve the February 11, 2009 minutes (Sethi/Hill-Nelson).
Vote: Motion was passed unanimously.

Any Pressing Matters?

None.

Update Transit Fuel Task Force Report

Daniel Poull informed the Board that he is a member of the Transit Fuel Task Force as a representative of SAB. The Task Force has one month to research and review data to develop recommendations on how to incorporate alternative fuel technology into the City's transit fleet. Recommendations to the City Commission will include replacement of some of the existing fixed route vehicles with biodiesel and hybrid electric/biodiesel vehicles. Daniel Poull stated that the City has about 5 million federal and local dollars available for the purchase of transit vehicles (i.e. stimulus funds, federal appropriations, and transit's equipment reserve funds). In addition, the Task Force will recommend that the City purchase B20 fuel (20% bio-fuel). Tammy Bennett added that if the City will begin fueling half of the Transit vehicle fleet with B20, then the City may switch all its diesel vehicles (i.e. trash trucks, snow plows) to B20 fuel.

Discussion on SAB Recommendation for Open Board Seat

Paul Dietz resigned from the SAB last month and SAB discussed submitting a recommendation to the City Mayor for this vacancy. Various names of interested citizens were brought up including Chad Luce from Westar Energy, Hank Booth from the Chamber of Commerce, Beth Johnson from the Chamber of Commerce and Ian Spomer. SAB agreed that all the above would be great candidates for the SAB position. There was discussion on whether the board should recommend several candidates or just one. The majority of SAB members would like to recommend only one candidate, Beth Johnson. SAB members believe it is vital to have Beth Johnson join the Board in order to reach out to a part of the population which SAB has been missing.

Motion and second to recommend Beth Johnson for the SAB vacant position (Hill-Nelson/Sethi).
Vote: Motion was passed by majority vote (four out of six votes in favor; one abstained).

Motion and second to have Daniel Poull write an email to Mayor Mike Dever, Commissioner Rob Chestnut and City Manager Dave Corliss stating that Beth Johnson is SAB's recommendation for the open SAB position (Poull/Sethi).
Vote: Motion was passed by majority vote (four out of six votes in favor; one abstained).

Earth Day Celebration

Kathy Richardson informed SAB that Cassandra Ford, WRR Specialist, will send an email to all the board members who volunteered to work at the Earth Day Celebration on Saturday, April 18th. The email will describe each person's tasks as well as any details about the event.

There was a discussion on what to have at the SAB table at the Earth Day Celebration. Laura Routh suggested having a bucket for feedback, suggestions and ideas on sustainability. She will arrange to have the all supplies needed for this bucket. Another item for the table is the SAB brochure. The brochure was designed by Dickie Heckler's wife. Two mock-ups of the brochure were passed around for the Board to review. Laura Routh stated that she would edit the brochure per board member's comments at today's meeting and she will pay for the printing costs of the brochure.

Motion and second to approve the brochure as amended and to print in time for the Earth Day Celebration (Heckler/Sethi).
Vote: Motion was passed unanimously.

Lawrence Energy Conservation Fair (LECF)

The LECF sub-committee did not meet last month as planned. There were no plans to hold any further meetings at this time. Daniel Poull commented that LECF will occur as usual in the Fall.

Kathy Richardson informed the Board that staff secured the Lawrence Community Building on Saturday, September 12, 2009 for the LECF.

There was discussion regarding the DOE energy block grant ($858,600 for Lawrence). Tammy Bennett informed SAB that Cynthia Boecker, Assistant City Manager, is leading a staff team which is working on the energy block grants for the City of Lawrence. SAB asked if there is anything the Board can do to influence how the City will spend the money (i.e. Library energy upgrades). It was suggested that the Board invite Cynthia Boecker to the June SAB meeting in order to discuss this topic further. There was also a suggestion to invite Rob Chestnut to the May SAB meeting.

Report on Submission of Climate Protection Task Force (CPTF) Final Draft to the City Commission

SAB congratulated both David Dunfield and Brian Sifton for their great presentation of the CPTF Plan to the City Commissioners on March 31st.

The Board discussed the possibility of a Sustainability Coordinator and funding this position. SAB also discussed the possibility that the City and County may share this position.

Daniel Poull suggested crafting a memo to the City Commissioners to congratulate the CPTF for their accomplishments and to remind the Commissioners of CPTF for their future decisions. SAB agreed to defer until the next meeting the decision to create this memo and its content.

Laura Routh commented that she is currently enrolled in a Sustainability for City Managers class and has been thinking that this community lacks a larger sustainability plan with broader agreed upon goals and vision. She may work on this for her Masters thesis.

Conversation in a Box?

Sarah Hill-Nelson announced that Hillary Noonan from Kansas City was going to attend this meeting to discuss the "conversation in a box" project, but she is not here tonight. In summary, the project is promoting a community dialogue about sustainability. Sarah Hill-Nelson emailed SAB the information. Matt Lehrman will forward the email to contacts at the University of Kansas.

Waste Reduction & Recycling Report

Kathy Richardson emailed SAB the WRR report yesterday (see attached). The highlights are:
- Recycled more fibers (higher tonnage) but revenue way down
- HHW/Reuse participants almost doubled in March
- First Compost Sale was a success - brought in $11,990
- New Compost Facility Gate operational beginning in March - 50 landscapers signed up so far
- Yard Waste Collection began on March 2nd for the 2009 season
- Earth Day, Saturday, April 18 - food and entertainment confirmed - 49 exhibitors registered
- Electronic Recycling Event, Saturday, April 25

Daniel Poull asked if there was an update on the staff report regarding increasing recycling rates. Tammy Bennett informed the Board that Public Works staff met with the City Manager last week to review the staff report. After the edits are completed, staff will send the report to SAB.

Guest Comments and Miscellaneous

Laura Routh announced that she is writing a term paper on the Environmental Chapter of the Horizon 2020 and plans to bring parts of it to the SAB meetings this summer for discussion.

Simran Sethi announced that she is teaching a class this summer titled Communicating Social and Environmental Messages. She asked the Board if there was a 6-week project SAB could assign to her students. It was suggested that this be an agenda item for next month.

Kathy Richardson mentioned that the Board may want to consider finding out if they can have a SAB member sit on the Peak Oil Task Force now that Paul Dietz has resigned from SAB.

Matt Lehrman announced that the KU School of Business is hosting a lecture series event "Sustainable Business: Innovation Inspired by Nature" on April 20th at 7:00 pm at the Spahr Engineering Classroom. He will email SAB the event fliers and background information.

Meeting adjourned 7:20 p.m.

Next meeting: May 13th, 2009 at 5:30 pm

Attachments:

• Waste Reduction and Recycling Division Report (PDF, 200K)