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Agendas and Minutes

ad hoc Climate and Energy Action Plan Implementation Committee (View All)

ad hoc CEAP Implementation Meeting

Agenda
Thursday, July 19, 2018

Click on "Attachments" to see the full agenda packet.

MINUTES FOR THE ad hoc CLIMATE & ENERGY ACTION PLAN
IMPLEMENTATION COMMITTEE

Thursday, July 19, 2018
Siskiyou Room, 51 Winburn Way

1. Call to Order
Councilor Stef Seffinger called the meeting to order at 5:02 p.m.

Committee members Ben Scott, Chris Brown, James McGinnis, Jordan Ely, Les Stone, Pat Acklin, Rick Barth, and Shannon Downey were present. Staff member Stu Green was also present. Committee member Cindy Bernard was absent. Seffinger asked for two committee members to serve as timekeeper and action item keeper. McGinnis offered to be the timekeeper and Acklin volunteered to be the action item keeper.

2. Check In
Each committee member responded with their thoughts on the five articles presented in the agenda. There were two points made by the committee members:

• the articles that provided a positive narrative were appealing and could also be beneficial as a way to communicate to the community.
• technical articles served as a call to action directed at the community.

McGinnis and Seffinger noted that the discussion is important for how the committee will decide to promote the Climate and Energy Action Plan to the public; whether to go for a more technical approach or a positive reinforcement one.

3. Public Forum Input
Huelz Gutchen/2253 Highway 99 – emphasized the need for City to staff a department devoted to CEAP. He also suggested that there needs to be more communication between departments and committees within the City to help address climate change and carbon reduction.

Ray Mallette/314 Luna Vista Street – discussed the Empower Ashland plan draft that was listed on the agenda. He inquired if there was an action plan in place to be implemented. If so, he wondered when this implementation would take place. Ray pointed that the previous ad hoc Climate and Energy Action Plan Implementation Committee had public input, but no action on implementation. He recommended making a plan or list widely available to the public.

4. Consent Agenda Approval and Next Meeting
Acklin made a motion to approve the consent agenda. McGinnis seconded the motion. A vote to approve the consent agenda was called by Seffinger and passed unanimously. Minutes for the previous meeting held on June 21, 2018 were approved after Seffinger asked for objections against approving them and there were none. Seffinger announced that next meeting would take place on Thursday, August 16th, 2018.

5. Council Liaison Updates
Seffinger gave an overview of changes to the Administration department and City Council and the affect it might have on the budget planning process.

McGinnis brought up that Diana Shiplet, former Executive Assistant for the Administration, had previously presented on the structures of commissions within the City. McGinnis wanted to have that reviewed as a way forward to collaborate with the commissions for better communication. Acklin also highlighted the importance of CEAP’s role in the committee’s future and offered to do some of this background work for the committee. Green offered to send out Shiplet’s presentation to the committee for reference on better communications between committees.
Downey presented that the Forest Lands Commission finalized and adopted a community outreach plan that helped them recognize certain achievable tasks and encouraged that the CEAP Implementation Committee do the same.

McGinnis discussed the Conservation Commission’s previous meeting which included a composting demonstration, standard updates for Recology, and the monthly Sneak Preview article series that CEAP Committee will have an article run in. McGinnis also stated that the Conservation Committee is interested on how it can interact with CEAP Committee in helping it achieve its goal and play a role.

Acklin gave an update on the water group. Currently the group isn’t meeting, but the City is using water from Talent and subtle messages have been put out into the community about saving water. This led to the discussion of the CEAP Committee’s role in water conservation issues.

Green asked if these updates should be outlined in the CEAP committee packet to save time during the meeting. Consensus was that it would be difficult to prepare this information beforehand as many committees meet closely together. Green might ask various committee members for updates for the meeting packet, but no motion was created.

6. Consent Agenda Discussion

a. GIVE INPUT and APPROVE on current Empower Ashland plan

Green discussed the current Empower Ashland plan draft. The goals of meeting were to:

• Confirm target groups and outreach actions
• Decide on Request for Proposal for help marketing the Empower Ashland plan
• Decide on which committee members have time or interest in the continued development of the plan

The committee discussed outreach actions outlined by Green which included:

• A separate CEAP website to be more oriented to public action
• Social Media accounts assisting the website in plan implementation
• Measurement goals of both to determine progress of campaign
• Use of physical mailings and highlighted stories
• CEAP presentations to the public and interested groups

McGinnis offered to research interested groups and volunteers who could help spread the word about CEAP. Stone would like to be a part of presenting to different groups and the public on what CEAP is. Stone and Scott also offered to team with Green to help with editing the Empower Ashland plan and getting content out to the public.

McGinnis moved to approve plan with an amendment to Strategy 3 to include an Action 3.3. Engage existing groups and organizations to outreach to community. Downey seconded this motion. Barth stated that he would like to see a revision stating he likes the direction the plan is in, but would like to see more before formalizing it. McGinnis rescinded his motion.
Green wants to continue forward with the RFP process. Brown moves to proceed with the RFP process with a second from Stone. Barth suggests that a revision of the plan should be completed first before the RFP process. Ely proposes that Green can draft the RFP and have the committee vote on it during the next meeting. After a vote, the motion on the table does not pass. Instead the committee agrees that Green should draft a preliminary RFP for review and approval by next meeting.

b. GIVE INPUT and APPROVE draft CEAP newspaper article

McGinnis wrote an article draft for the Sneak Preview to go along with the Conservation Commissions series of articles. Suggested updates for the articles included:

• Focus more on CEAP Committee’s goals and progress
• Remove first two paragraphs and focus on factual body of article

Green will be the main person revising the article with Ely and Brown assisting him. Ely also suggested about focusing on a call to action and what tone the committee wants to convey in future messages to the community. Seffinger asked if this can be on to the next meeting’s agenda.

7. Adjournment
Meeting adjourned by Seffinger at 7:08 p.m.

Action Items

• Green will send out the presentation on commission structures to committee members.
• McGinnis will research interested groups and volunteers in community who might want to help spread the word about the current Climate and Energy Action Plan.
• Acklin will help with background work on the committee structure and organization
• Stone would like to present CEAP to different allied groups and the public.
• Stone and Scott will assist Green in revising the Empower Ashland Plan draft.

Respectfully submitted,
Elizabeth Taylor, Executive Assistant