February 3, 2021 — Environmental Advisory Board Regular Meeting

Transcript

Captions from City of Boulder YouTube recording.

[0:00] plan. which really gets at you know how the the city facilities infrastructure plays into supporting the Community through hubs and other things, and so. You know this topic very much aligns with thinking about healthy buildings and where the sheltering sites are, and I know it's on the mind of our folks who are leading that. But so as you think about intersection points where these recommendations can land, I would like that one is as well, because you know as we think about you mentioned libraries REC centers are you know site at the. Alpine balsam and how those can play in supporting the Community during fire events and air quality concerns, I think, would be a great place for the ab that provide some recommendations on as well that's great. So a question here from Marion I guess you know i'm on the site on different computer right now and i'm looking at the purple air. And one of the sites that sometimes it appears in the in the traces you know you click on a site you'll get a time series of the last five days or so you can choose longer I suppose.

[1:10] And the David skaggs research Center, which is where I work, it is always plotted on there, I guess, because they have a. We have in that lab a an advanced instrumentation and monitoring capability. But i'm just looking here, for instance, at the last four days i'm looking at the time series of three different stations i've chosen and there's a huge disparity. yeah between these timeshares and I don't know what to make of this and I wonder, you know there's this, I guess, even a technical person like me I look at this puzzle overwhelmed what is this telling me about the air quality. So again, are you looking at the purple area site. yeah i'm i'm under purple hair so. they're very they're very subject to where. The monitors are cited, and some are not cited well the another thing that came up was that you can set your purple air monitor for either indoor or outdoor use and people set them up.

[2:05] incorrectly like they'll set up an outdoor one as an indoor went use monitor and said, your data is skewed because of that so there's a there is definitely room for error. And yeah. I mean i'm looking at a couple of times, just for the last five days i'm scratching my head, because some of them say we had you know your 200 parts, you know. On the PM scale for the. Oh, maybe somebody had a fire going in their backyard for for. An outdoor bbq. yeah. This is one of these important questions right yeah how to educate people to how they look at this data and make sense of it, so they can make a well informed decisions off of what they see. So so good is the ERA now website and look at those same three monitors and see what you see yeah. what's The thing is, is probably where would we send them I don't think we would send them to the purple air site, we would probably want to send it there now sorry.

[3:07] yeah so. That was something that county had flagged, I think, is making sure you have the right filter set on that because of the, especially the pm. measurements. It over estimates, the concentration of fire component of the larger particulate. that's a big false positive huh yes. That makes sense when i'm looking at Thank you. So let's keep moving now because I just want to make sure we can have enough time for the rest of the evenings conversations, but I think what Heidi if we could just you know capturing the notes that we're going to definitely set up another. Another time in the maybe in March, maybe in April to. Talk about the Air Quality pieces and develop some recommendations. So this goes into that I can think justin I can take the next two topics kind of together.

[4:04] So, as I think these. Are the. Best Thank you so much yeah thank. You carolyn I. will see you next month yeah. No, I appreciate it, thank you. Thank you. So the. As we've said before we have a date with Council a study session to talk about the new climate action goals and plan. And that's going to be I can't remember the date in May, but it's in May, so we always have to work backwards from that with document production and public input and so on. In I think a previous meeting this board suggested, maybe with Susan or others that it would be great to meet with other boards about this and it's very much in keeping with what he has done in the past. Based on where we are with the production of this document, we wouldn't be ready for sort of multi board meeting around this until.

[5:04] April, essentially, so one of the things we need to determine is if we call for a joint board meeting. Whether this board wants to meet twice in April, or whether it simply wants to meet as a part of that joint board meeting. We will probably have to find a date that is not well, we certainly will have to find a date that's not when you regularly meet because planning board also meets at the same time, and so it wouldn't be able to. attend a joint board meeting and they're one of the boards usually meet jointly with so. Any board meets on Thursdays at nine. Oh i'm sorry it's landmarks that meets the same time that you do yeah that's right. So, in any event. Assuming that we are moving towards a sort of joint board meeting then next month's meeting will be the first meeting that we actually do with any of the advisory boards about. The climate action plan that we're working on so we'll get some kind of a draft out to you, it will be an early stage draft which is great that's we want to bring that to you as early as possible in the process.

[6:11] But just to think i'm thinking out loud here a little bit, so we will need probably a significant amount of time for that in the March meeting and then, if we want to bring in electrification into that I think that's probably going to be as much time as we have in that march agenda. So. on things like those to wake up to well assuming electrification is likely, a big part of the city's kind of focus yeah. yeah so that, but it also means that we'll need to do a little bit of planning together about how to manage the joint board meeting in April so. Heidi as we're thinking about the notes for tonight we'll have those two topical discussions, plus the the discussion about planning for that joint board meeting.

[7:00] I think I wanted to double check to make sure that you all are interested in in game to try to do a joint board meeting in April, because i'll need to start moving on that immediately is that something you're all good for. You know I am okay. So what the i'll tell you who that we typically meet with when we have joint board meetings around this stuff I mean this case, it might be even more, because it is the sort of Climate Action Plan in general but. parks and REC water resources advisory board planning board landmarks board. opens space in mountain parks. army oh tab. Transportation Advisory Board. Any I think that's the ones we most often cover. yeah. yeah. So i'll start reaching out to the staff liaisons and all those boards and try to get something on the calendar for probably mid ish April.

[8:02] Right. Are you all, how do you feel like we. If we had our I mean the advantage to having the April meeting and then having a joint board meeting in mid April would be that we would be able to actually do some planning together and think about how we're going to facilitate and manage that board meeting. Are you all game to do two meetings in April, so that we can have a little bit of planning time. Yes. Okay. The other good thing about that is that we will have the new board member joining in April two and so it'd be very nice to give them a little bit of an orientation before they get thrown into a joint board meeting. So okay very good so Heidi will go ahead and plan on having a regular board meeting in April, as well as the joint board meeting good. Is it a given that we're going to have a new board member or it's just i'm. retiring. You retiring they're too young. I wish I wasn't. Your hair's not wide enough.

[9:03] Well, and to that point we won't. We don't necessarily need to. determine this tonight, but we will have to determine this by next meeting with justin stepping down our our succession plans have been a bit. turned upside down because of all the ways the the the positions have been truncated people filling spots, so the person with the. least remaining period of time is usually the person who steps into the Chair role, so that when they sort of transition out as chair, they all sort of transitioning off the board and that would then land with Mr hurling as our next potential chair. hurling like throwing a baseball. Early i'm sorry. So Marty, are you are you open to serving as chair. Of course i'm not. But it sounds like you need to have a chair. I thought matt Mike was.

[10:01] intending to do it. Well, I mean he was he was supposed to do it, and then I took it from him, so I feel like I mean I agree it sort of marty's the next in line but. Well, Michael habits. fan very disappointed. See Mike will then be back into the sequence, to be the Chair following Monday. Okay. So just if it goes as it's sort of sequence to go, it would be Marty than Mike, then you Miriam and then Susan okay. Well you're just let me know what you want me to do. Okay, good well i'm delighted that you aren't completely resisting because we would love to have you play play in that role. nicely done. So Marty what we will do is the chair and I always have a sort of agenda meeting the week before the actual word meeting so. we'll we'll set up something to make sure it's okay with you Marty to join justin and I for the March meeting.

[11:02] That. We have to have. possibility is for temporary. Then. We have to have a send off for Brett justin to. Oh yes, we will. Yes, I. Will i'm. Heidi and I will figure out some appropriate. No pies in the face, I promise. it's got to be a coven style send off a. Little hire somebody to come to my house and. we'll give you a good shot in the arm. Right yeah maybe the best. Miss my opportunity to jump the coven vaccination Landa the end point number my God city government. Right worker here. so well, I think, actually, that was the majority of what I wanted to cover. On the so what so there will be something set out to you in a packet form in this upcoming board meeting for March, so a week ahead watch for something that will be some very draft version.

[12:11] Of what we're working on as a as a as a document I do want to emphasize that the way we're thinking about this. document that we're producing is as a kind of more like update than a sort of three year plan, partly because we can't do the kind of community engagement, we would normally want to do to do a kind of plan and partly because I think the the. The the sense that we're starting to have in terms of climate action planning is that it's almost more a continuous process, things are changing so quickly now it's really. almost ridiculous to think that we're going to develop a three year plan, because everything is going to change so much, even within the context of a year so. Just to kind of prepare you for that what you're going to get is going to look probably a little bit more like an update with a really strong emphasis on how we need to be shifting our goals based on the new knowledge of where things are at so.

[13:06] Good. Heidi am I forgetting anything that we want to make sure we covered tonight. um nothing else picks up import good I guess. As we're thinking about the discussion. from March to develop recommendations on the air quality piece if there's any process that we can lay out in advance that will help. You that's a session I don't know if there's any pre work, we need to do, but. Just thinking about the best way to have to develop the recommendations that next what's. Your what I was just thinking, though, is that we may We may want to be able, since since the board's willing to meet in April twice and we're going to have a regular April meeting. let's do this Miriam why don't you and I just make sure we get something on the calendar for after next week.

[14:04] You kind of step back from everything you're seeing and decide kind of what we think the next best steps are, and then we can decide whether we want to try to bring that forward in March or April. Of It may be that we just want to make sure we have plenty of plenty of time to really have a good long discussion before we developed that recommendations piece. Okay. It just out of curiosity is carolyn also participating in the original. discussion. Yes, I was planning to be there, at least for the majority of the conversation I have one conflict, I have to step away for but. Okay, thank you. it's great. Alright well anything else, that the board, would like to bring forward and i'd stay a little time Susan. yeah I had two issues actually the first one is um. You know, we are in a transition with our city manager and it was recently brought to my attention that when, at least the last set of criteria that were shared with that was shared with the public.

[15:06] With regard to the city manager requirements didn't really have anything about environment or climate change or selecting a candidate who has any kind of environmental ethic or background or action and um. I actually think as an Environmental Advisory Board, we should be making a recommendation to. I don't know if it's Council or human resources or whomever that says hey we want to make sure you bring bring somebody in who has some kind of track record. In climate action in whatever city they've likely to come from because there's nothing in the job description right now that addresses that. And I wondered how other board members thought about that.

[16:01] I would fully support that if there's some way to relay that to I don't know who would we relay that to. Well, one of the ways, just for the Boards information, one of the ways the board can communicate with Council is to draft something from the board to counsel and then. One of the ways in the past, any way that boards would share, that is, that they would have a representative go to a city council meeting. And during the open comment period say i'm X representing the so and so bored and wanted to make sure that you saw this recommendation that we have for you, so you can both send something into them. But then also you could have a board member make sure that that was heard through a public process. it's funny i'm just looking at a. Particular list of qualifications being called for for a city manager vacancy it's not in our Community, but it has. It has six items on there five five years of prior experience and local government, a bachelor's degree in political science and Business Administration public administration or related field must possess good character and integrity.

[17:16] hard to come by nowadays right strong planning skills now here, you might say, well that's pretty broad umbrella i'm planning skills could involve you know environmental recognition of what you plan around for resilience. customer oriented and experience and Community development there's another one, so no no we're just broad list here that a person could easily fit in be qualified and without calling out climate explicitly, I guess, a little my point. yeah but for this specific Community it seems to me that somebody with a strong environmental ethics. For this specific Community at this specific time, as you say Brett things are changing so quickly, right now, having somebody who has that you know. In the in the front of their mind, and we did have qualifications, like you know we want somebody who has experience in equity and social justice also an important issue, but I think we need to like.

[18:12] make them think K, we need somebody who's really in tune with this community's desire to be leaders in rebuilding our climate situation. where you have the. requirements to share I guess i'm a little hesitant to vote on something I know I mean I trust susan's characterization of it, but I haven't read any of the her followed me of this. yeah but what I was just gonna say I haven't seen the requirements, since the first draft came out and then they asked for Community input and I know I my Community input that's one of the things that I said was that I wanted to see more. requirements that somebody had taken climate action in the past. But I haven't seen it since then and I got on the website today and tried to find the requirements and couldn't, so I would suggest the first step would be Brett if you could either.

[19:06] find the requirements for us or point me to the person who has those requirements and let's at least first validate that you maybe that was added maybe they read my feedback. And added it. But if it wasn't, then I would be happy to. Draft the letter that I could. circulate season. it's it's on the website I just look it's listed as a open job for the city of boulder and there's a whole brochure attached to it. I look today and did not see that that's interesting. Do you see in that. Miriam any mention of this or is that something we just need more time to spend. it's pretty big is. city manager position. Miriam could you just send the link out. Can I can do that and zoom can I.

[20:03] Can we can all just click on it. You just need to do a Google search on city of boulder city manager comes right up. i'm reading it. well. here's their price. I will take the action to read that tomorrow. My. Number one how did you. candace manager deal coven the Community. yeah. A higher. response, do you see anything about the environment on it. yeah climate change initiatives that the fully address our climate change initiatives to ensure quality of life, it says explicitly yeah. awesome good it's there. yeah. Well, and hopefully i'm not the only one who brought that up. So it. looks like it's there. looks like there's. A link to the climate change. And they. Should all think Jonathan because he also heard you.

[21:04] raise that to the recruiter so. Thank you carolyn it looks like the person who hires that have to get a walk on water consistently both 300. hey. second suggestion I have since that first one happened so quickly was you know we came up with these five suggestions for city council. But maybe it's the business person in me i'm like Okay, are we going to take that the next step to setting some objectives in each of those areas. Because i'm so impressed with the progress that miriam's made on air quality, and you know we've kind of got some action going there, but I know I raised my hand and said that I, you know, I was interested in the excel partnership and I applied for that. advisory panel today I won't know until the end of the month, whether I gone, but it seems like in each of those five areas, we should have some objectives as a board so that we aren't just waiting for City Council to ask us a question but rather are.

[22:07] You know, trying to move some initiatives forward and I, you know I don't I don't know that we can establish the objectives tonight, but I wondered how people felt about that. My only comment really Susan on that I entirely agree about liking, this sort of see how we're going to move forward something. You have sort of a very, very big topic, one of the most important to EA be coming forward starting next month, and then essentially the follow up to that in April, so I think that you. will have a big piece of your core work to do in the next couple months, so it might be something to look at post, the main meeting with Council when whatever happens with the climate action plan will have been done. All right, yeah I think I believe in the last meeting we each sort of chosen area that we were going to be a part of, and you know we can each just select some objectives and put them forth to the board and see if if people like them.

[23:13] Like to not lose that topic. The other thing that you had suggested in our last meeting with that we each try to make a tie, with one of the other boards. and i've only volunteered for planning board. Right um and as as Lynn siegel pointed out, I haven't gone to one of their meetings, yes I. put them all on my calendar three times a month, so i'm going to start being the liaison to planning board unless somebody else wants to do that because I do think that's a super important one. Right and I indicated that I would try to attend some of the. Transportation board meetings um. But I don't know if Marty or or Mike had made it well Mike was part of the greenway planning.

[24:02] yeah. I think we should assign Mike to like three or four boards, since you. meet the most often. You get volunteered. So I don't know, I think. Might you can think about if there's another board that Piques your interest and. You want to participate i'm open for a suggestion I really haven't delved into that so I appreciate you bringing this up, and if you guys have some board in mind. I think the Boards there's two that we have strong strong intersections with O s amp P and parks. And right yeah. I think it would be important for us to be involved with open space certainly. and protect rapid also fit well into your expertise, meaning, you know. Which ones which the other one. wrap the water resources Advisory Board.

[25:05] yeah well let's revisit that particular piece next month, well, we have both our new board member. We have a new program no such as April. April yeah. You can, at least in signed them work before this started next. Do you think, for instance i'm just going to start going to the planning board meetings should I make planning board. The Chair aware that you know i'm interested in issues as they relate to EA be and then i'm going to be there just. Go there's Miriam reach out to tab. I think it's useful for the other boards to to know that there is a desire to be connected we don't have formal liaison relationships and I don't anticipate that that's going to be sanctioned or or encouraged.

[26:01] But I do think that it's important to try to keep you know awareness between them, especially as big issues come through the system. All right, and maybe i'll just send an email to planning board and introduce myself and i'll copy you all, and just say just fyi i'm going to be attending your meetings and. Maybe raising issues as they relate to be. Thanks for taking on on. So I think that's it from the stuff that staff wanted to bring forward tonight justin. Great um was there anything else folks want to. Talk about before we adjourn. I guess i'm just do you want us to report, I mean does the board want me and Brett and carolyn to report back on this meeting that that happens tomorrow, I mean I can.

[27:01] I can put together a really great um. yeah I don't know if it's easier to just. send an email right after it happens to stay up on it, or if we. yeah if there's important stuff and it's worth talking about it, the next meeting could probably talk cover some time but yeah definitely interested in. getting an email and just understanding what was said in where things are going okay. Maybe we can go from there about that agenda and it sounds like. You might have a pretty packed agenda for March already. But I mean it seems like if we move, you know i'm not going to you guys to listen to me anymore, but if. you're moving forward with spending the work to lead us to all these boards or other groups that you know we get to carve out a standing agenda item to report back at each meeting so. and discuss what's going on, just so can not lose that are you know that the board can understand you know that we're reporting out and getting some value as a whole board from that was fairly significant effort on.

[28:10] I just wanted to raise one thing. Now, in looking at the rate of progress in dealing with energy from renewable and replacing coal and diesel and dirty fuels that are especially. Heavy hitters I think the pace at which this is occurring is catching quite a few people by surprise. You know, you probably heard the GM announcement very you know very proactive that they want to replace their gas engine cars with all electric in 15 years that's aspirational but they're pretty much dedicated to doing it. And I wouldn't be surprised if they get closer, especially policy helps them along the economics of all of this is what's driving a lot of. The the actions, I think the cost points are making this increasingly more effective to to electrify the grid with renewable energy as a source or certainly remove coal increasingly rapidly from the grid, the thing I don't want to forget, though, is.

[29:12] Is that as an Environmental Advisory Board we're not just about a climate change Environmental Advisory Board, so you know this was really refreshing today to talk about internal home. Air quality having. Electric replace gas burning stove tops, for instance, but then you're also there are these events that occur naturally occur, they will continue to apprentice back resilience. And not letting our guard down being prepared for the flood or the which may affect water treatment, especially as communities keep growing, and we have less buffers. So a lot is as populations naturally grow we become more exposed to the natural very abilities of the environment, not necessarily to climate change alone. And, and so it's just an awareness of keeping the eye on the ball that natural hazards happen, naturally.

[30:04] And sometimes the gaps between the significant hazard, maybe decades, but the Community has moved itself into a vulnerable position I didn't realize. existed, because they haven't experienced that hazard, and so I think any ab also needs to be aware of that and keep that in the crosshairs of things we speak about. yeah Marty, thank you for that, and one of the things that you'll see in the new climate action draft that we're developing is that we're saying climate action now. is not just about emissions management it's about preparing for climate change and climate disruption and I know Marty what you're also calling out, which is irrespective of climate change there's. Natural variation and disruption that will endanger our county so this issue of how are we resilient to change is a really important one and it's it's one that.

[31:00] we've struggled a little bit in the city to know kind of where it lives. or where you know broadly it lives and and also that there isn't necessarily citizens advisory board watching over the resilience of the Community, so I think that you're right to say that this is a unique. role for the EA be to play. Well, I do think that a unique feature of justin brands leadership is that we've more frequently than able to it, and both on time, or even a little bit early so. I think I provided presided over the only gap meeting that went well beyond it so. that's that's the. black mark on my time as chair. i've also only provided against presided over virtual meetings which are.

[32:01] that's interesting. Different role um but yeah I guess if there's nothing else we can. see everyone in a month. Okay, by raising your hands. that's by. A nice evening yep yep. hi everybody. hi.