January 13, 2010 SAB Meeting Minutes
| MEMBERS PRESENT: |
Eileen Horn, Beth Johnson, |
| MEMBERS ABSENT: |
Sarah Hill-Nelson |
| STAFF PRESENT: |
|
| GUESTS PRESENT: |
Commissioner Lance Johnson |
| PUBLIC PRESENT: |
Eileen Smith, Dave Yates |
Call Meeting to Order (Matt Lehrman, Chairperson)
Take Roll Call to Determine Quorum of Members
ANY PRESSING ITEMS
None.
APPROVAL OF MEETING MINUTES
Motion and second to approve the December 9, 2009 minutes (Poull/Poindexter). Motion was passed unanimously.
Q&A with City Commissioner Lance Johnson
Matt Lehrman introduced City Commissioner Lance Johnson. The board discussed the following topics with Commissioner Johnson: top soils concerns, Farmland update, downtown attractions (outdoor restaurants, closing main street to pedestrians ideas), solid waste issues (recycling and PAYT), and Sustainability Coordinator update. When asked about the role of the Sustainability Advisory Board, Commissioner Johnson stated that the City Commissioners rely on the advisory boards and the expertise of their members. He commented on the a few items for SAB to think about for their goal setting session: recycling, solid waste issues and energy use in buildings.
Local Foods Policy Council Update
Daniel Poull is the SAB member representative on the Douglas County Local Foods Policy Council. Meeting minutes and agendas are posted on County's website: http://www.douglas-county.com/depts/ad/ad_localfoodpolicycouncil.aspx. Daniel announced that the council meets every other Monday at the Fire Station #5 located at 1911 Stewart Avenue at 6:30 pm. The council is working with Lawrence LiveWell and Simran Sethi's KU class. Also the Sustainability Coordinator once hired will attend these council meetings.
Staff Recycling Report and Summary
Tammy Bennett emailed SAB a document which outlines reports, efforts and discussions regarding increasing recycling in Lawrence since 2007 (see attached). This serves as an overview for the new board members. Tammy also handed out a new cover memo which will be submitted to the City Commissioners along with the matrix of recycling options (see attached). The new cover memo emphasizes that staff recommends the SAB option described on the matrix. This information will be presented at a City Commission meeting soon. Staff will notify SAB once this item gets placed on the City Commission Agenda. Tammy added that the City Auditor will present information from the solid waste performance audit at the same meeting as the recycling discussion. In addition, Tammy announced that Bob Yoos, the City's Solid Waste Manager, is retiring. His last work day will be this Friday.
Andrea Repinsky commented on the SAB option described on the matrix. She stated that she would like to see some oversight of the recycling centers and added that as a neighbor of the 12th and Haskell Bargain Center, she has noted that there are some serious problems at this site (i.e. fires, trash nuisance).
Daniel Poull reminded SAB that Laura Routh emailed the link, 10 Steps for a Recycling Campaign: (http://www.mswmanagement.com/january-february-2010/recycling-outreach-ca...).
Finalize Details for the Goal Setting Meeting
At the last board meeting, SAB agreed to schedule a goal setting session in March 2010 and to have a facilitator at this meeting. Staff suggested Lisa Patterson, the City of Lawrence former Communications Manager, as a good candidate to provide the service as facilitator.
Motion and second to approve Lisa Patterson as the facilitator of the goal setting session in March 2010 (Sethi/Poindexter). Motion was passed unanimously.
There was discussion of next steps:
1. Choose a date, time and location.
The board decided either March 3rd or March 10th at 5:00 pm would work. Action: Kathy will contact all board members and choose the date in which the majority of the board members can be present.
The board decided that the meeting rooms in the Lawrence Public Library, the Douglas County Health Department or the Fire Station #5 would work well. Action: Kathy will contact all three locations and ask about availability for the dates listed above.
2. Notify the facilitator and agree on a scope of services.
Action: Kathy will contact Lisa Patterson and discuss the scope of services which will include the facilitator meeting with the outgoing and incoming chair of SAB and also separately meeting with staff prior to the goal setting session.
3. Request feedback on sustainability topics.
The Board will request feedback from the public via a news release, a posting on the City's website, and direct email sent to stakeholders. Action: Kathy will update the previous year's new release and the email to the stakeholders and send these out.
4. Complete board member surveys.
The Board asked staff to check with the facilitator in development of the survey questions. Action: Kathy will work with Lisa Patterson on the survey questions and present these to SAB at their next board meeting. Each board member will be asked to submit their answers prior to the goal setting session.
Motion and second to send out a news release and an email to stakeholders soliciting feedback on sustainability topics prior to the goal setting session (Poull/Sethi). Motion was passed unanimously.
Brainstorm List of Potential Future Meeting Guests
Board members suggested the following potential future meeting guests: City Commissioner Mike Amyx, County Commissioner Nancy Thellman, Steven Apfelbaum with Applied Ecological Services, someone from the State Energy Office, KU Environs, KU Center for Sustainability or Provost or Chancellor, someone to speak about the new Engineering Building, Black & Veatch.
Motion and second to invite City Commissioner Mike Amyx to the next board meeting (Poindexter/Sethi). Motion was passed unanimously.
WRR Update
Kathy Richardson emailed SAB and briefly discussed the WRR December report (see attached).
Miscellaneous Announcements and/or Public Comment
Matt Lehrman announced that there is a 5 County Transportation Study Session (video meeting) on January 21, 2010 at 3:00 pm if anyone is interested in viewing this and reporting back to the board at the next meeting. He also announced that the sand mining plant proposal is no longer on the agenda of the January 25th Planning Commission meeting.
The Board received an email from a Les Blevins recently. Daniel Poull mentioned that Les has contacted SAB several times in the past regarding his project of burning biosolids in a way that does not emit carbon and generates energy. Matt Lehrman proposed that if any board member is interested in meeting with Les that they report back to the board.
There was follow up discussion on creating SAB signage to use at outreach events. Megan Poindexter said she spoke to a student graphic designer who is interested in helping design this signage at no fee. There was discussion on what size the sign(s) should be and what content/images to put on the sign(s). Staff informed SAB that one item they should include in their signage is the City's logo which is posted at http://www.lawrenceks.org/identity.
Motion and second to bring ideas about the content of the SAB signage to the next board meeting and continue the discussion of creating this signage (Sethi/Poindexter). Motion was passed unanimously.
Eileen Smith founder of the Kansas Solar Electric Cooperative commented that the Kansas Corporation Commission is using the acronym S.O.L.A.R. which she said is misleading because it has nothing to do with solar energy instead it stands for "Simplified On-Line Automated Reporting". She finds this behavior fraudulent and requests that SAB discuss and make a public comment about this behavior. Eileen also passed around a sun and wind energy magazine from Germany which she recommends board members to read. In addition, Eileen mentioned that she would be happy to present information about the Kansas Solar Electric Cooperative at a future SAB meeting if invited as a guest speaker. And Eileen mentioned that she would like SAB to consider proposing a committee or task force which would monitor the coal plants and emissions.
Chad Luce commented that the coal plant in Lawrence was built in the 1920s and Westar is investing 300 million dollars in the next 3 years to further reduce mercury emissions in order to stay ahead of the EPA regulations. When questioned about sequestering carbon, Chad stated that there is no commercially viable technology to sequester carbon in coal plants. Once the technology is available and proven effective, utilities across the country will be signing up for it.
Meeting adjourned 7:50 p.m.
Next meeting: February 10th, 2010 at 5:30 pm.
