October 9, 2024 — Environmental Advisory Board Regular Meeting

Transcript

Captions from City of Boulder YouTube recording.

[0:03] Great welcome everybody to the Environmental Advisory Board meeting. My name is Heather Sandin, and I'm we'll pass it off to and let you call the meeting to order before I do the Yeah. So with your with that I will call our main door, saying that we have a quorum and heather if you could take it away with our meeting procedures. Alright. So again, my name is Heather Sandeep, and I'm serving her the techno as the technical host for tonight's meeting. Thank you for your grace and patience as we deal with clunky technology. At times we go. The city has engaged with community members to co-create a vision for productive, meaningful, and inclusive civic conversations. This vision supports physical and emotional safety for community members, staff and board of Commission members as well as democracy. For people of all ages, identities lived experiences and political perspectives.

[1:10] For more information about this vision and the community engagement process. Please visit that boulder, colorado.gov. Forward slash services forward, slash, productive hyphen atmospheres. The following are examples of rules of decorum found in the Boulder revised code, and other guidelines that support this vision. These will be upheld. During this meeting all remarks and testimony shall be limited to matters related to city business. No participant shall make threats, or use other forms of intimidation against any person, obscenity, racial epithets, and other speech and behavior that disrupts or otherwise impedes the ability to conduct the meeting are prohibited. participants are required to sign up to speak, using the name they are commonly known by, and individuals must display their whole name before being allowed to speak online. Currently, only audio testimony is permitted online

[2:03] because we do not have registration for open and public comment. Tonight, you can indicate. You would like to participate by using the raise hand function. The raise hand button is in the participant box which can be found in the menu by hovering over the top or the bottom of your screen, and then clicking on the participant icon. When the box opens you will see the raise hand button at the bottom. By clicking that button you can indicate, you would like to participate in open or public comment. If you have joined us by phone, you can press Star 9 to raise your hand. Thank you so much. Any raised hands. Sorry I'm having trouble seeing the bottom today. Let's do a little bit of shifting over here. We do not have any raised hands, saying, No, I will move on so, and let's do the approval of minutes before we jump into, so I'll make a motion to approve the minutes from our

[3:06] meeting last month. Great! Thank you. A quick raise of hand vote all in favor. That is unanimous. All right, moving on. If you want to take it away, Carl or Jonathan, how are we who's leading on this one? I will kick it off. Chair Brackett. So for the right here Jonathan Cohen, Director of Climate initiatives. Good to see you all board members. So your main discussion item tonight is on the city's policy agenda. You all remember, Carl? He's been here before. and the last time we had a conversation Carl was really talking about how he and the city really develops his policy agenda, and prepares that for council to adopt and and move forward, and how that policy agenda really guides a lot of the work of city staff, and so really delighted that Carl can come back and share with you the updated policy agenda. And I thought it would be particularly relevant for the Board for Carl to go through some of the policy agenda items related to climate sustainability and the things that you all care so deeply about.

[4:16] So with that Carl, anything else you want me to? You want me to talk about you. I can. I can touch about chief policy, Advisor, City manager's office. And thank you all for today. Good to see you all again. So yeah, just for for benefit of those who may be listening in real quickly. The policy statement which I do have extra copies of that were that was approved well last year, for this year. Is this document right here it is used to allow us to advocate for changes in law throughout the region, throughout the State, throughout the Federal Government. We do have lobbyists that we hire at the State and Federal government.

[5:00] and we do engage in both the regulatory as well as the legislative process. So that could be something like a staff member drafting the bill like, I'll talk about yeah happy. In fact, anyone else would like to copy. Thank you. or it could be our. You know, our mayor. it could be it could be working with a coalition like our CC, 4. Ca, climate coalition. So in terms of this year's revisions, we just met with our Council Intergovernmental Affairs Committee on Monday we met with them a month before as well. So the next steps for this is approved is, it goes to the full council. On October 24, th for input at a study session. and then it'll go for ultimate approval on consent. Hopefully, that's what it's been in the past on November 7, th and then we hope to present it to our legislators at breakfast that we have. It's an annual legislative breakfast on December 3, rd

[6:05] and Andy, I'll I'll mention that when you if you look at that document. There's 3 big groupings that are of interest, this group. Probably it's the climate and resilience. It is the regional air, regional environmental quality. And then there's 1 on transportation. You could correct me, but there may be. Those are the ones that came to mind, as like the natural ones that fit into your your scope of interest. So in terms of anticipated legislation. I will mention that there's a bill that we're working with representative Julie Joseph on that would create an On Bill repayment program for accessible energy upgrades. That's the tentative title. You probably have all heard about this kind of program in one shape or another. It's the idea that as a a rate payer, you occasionally want to make some enhancements and improvements to your appliances. But oftentimes, even though it's going to save you money. The upfront cost. It could be significant, and having that financed by the utility and allowing you to pay it back over time, can be really helpful and open up the opportunities for a lot of people and move us as a state to our greenhouse gas goals quicker.

[7:21] So this particular bill would would essentially require. Our investor owned utilities to offer such a on Bill financing program and it would attach to the meter. So if you were to borrow $50,000, or whatever $5,000 case may be. and you decide to move out a year later the obligation continues with the meter. So whoever moves in would then assume that liability. So it's it's different than a property tax lien. Officially, it's it's it's treated differently. But that's the functional

[8:02] difference. It frees you to be able to move and make sure that the the beneficiary of this this appliance or this improvement, continues to pay for it. So we're working with a variety of stakeholders on this. We just got Boulder County is our main one. But we just got the approval of the Larimer County Commissioners yesterday. So we were thrilled to hear about that. Cc. 4 Ca. Coart communities for climate action just supported them as well. And we're very hopeful that we will get the support of the Western resource advocates. It's sweep Southwest energy efficiency program. And we are working closely with 2 of the state entities that are going to be essential to both. Implement this as well as just to get their support politically. And that's the Colorado Energy Office and the Public Utilities Commission. So that's an important one

[9:00] that we're working on. Then there is a clean energy planning bill. So you likely remember that I think it's over the last 2 years there's been an attempt to establish clean a hundred- 100% fossil fuel free requirement for energy utilities by 2040 hasn't gone forward, partly because the way it's been introduced, it has included some elements that the environmental community hasn't supported. So it basically hasn't had enough enforcement or enough of a hammer to ensure that the utilities follow through. We believe this is the year it's gonna go forward. We know the governor is very motivated to ask that, because it is, in fact, one of the things he campaigned on was 100% by 2040, and you know he still has a couple more years. But I'm pretty sure he wants to get this done now. So the version that we're hearing about would include sequestration. I think there's some controversy about that.

[10:02] another group of bills that we're hearing about. It's a little more of this. But it's basically providing local government authority to do a few things. One of them would be to create a fee bait program. This is something that's in our policy statement has been there for years. It essentially would allow us to charge a fee for a for the purchase and registration. One time initial, after the initial purchase of an inefficient vehicle, and to provide rebate for an efficient vehicle. Obviously it's an encouraged one. Discourage the other. It has components that. Well, 1st of all, it's just the concept of this idea, but the concept would recognize the equity concerns by making sure that it would not apply to the vehicles that lower income people would tend to buy. So, for example, it might say, if you buy an inefficient vehicle, that's over $50,000. Then we're gonna ding you with this fee.

[11:01] and regardless of what your income is, you'd get a rebate. So that's an idea that I that's been presented to us that I think we would easily support. I don't know how much we'd get it, you know whether we'd be. I think the energy office which is actually suggested. This would perhaps like to see us late on this these cities in general, so I'm not sure if we're there yet, but definitely something that we can support, because that's where all the local option. And another idea more on the climate. Resilience realm is wildfire mitigation measures so increasingly. We are moving to a place where the city and all cities and counties will have standards. Here's the mitigation measures we expect you to take in your property. You know the landscaping the middle way around it, and this bill would require disclosure of the steps that you've taken upon the sale of your home. So the person purchasing it would be aware of those mitigation measures.

[12:06] And also, again, it's a concept could require you to disclose measures that you haven't taken that were actually either required for required by an ordinance, or maybe by an assessment. So one is more of a carrot, more of a stick. But I think that that, too, is an interesting idea that I know our Council in our Governmental Affairs Committee. That could be an interesting way to make sure that we move the needle on making sure people are making the improvements they need to to make, not just themselves safer, but of course, their entire neighborhood and then the last one is creation of an error, emission standards for appliances. So this is an interesting concept. So the whole. as you know. Frankly, I don't even know exactly how it, how it's written out, but I believe the city has a goal for appliances must be carbon free for new- new homes.

[13:02] Is that correct? Yeah, okay, this is all part of the energy code that goes into effect. December, December first.st And there is a concern that we? I consider this the Denver certainly either has, I think they already have. and the the argument would be that they have been preempted by Federal law to engage in any ordinances that that dictate what the efficiency of appliances are. The Federal Government says. here's the efficiencies that appliances must be and state and local government. You can't go any further. So there's a chance that Denver raises that case, and if so, we would get caught up in that in terms of the implication of it, the longer we binding on us, and we would have to like repeal that part of our law. So one thing that the energy office is thinking about again. Looking to work with local governments on is saying, Okay, well, we can't regulate efficiency, but we can regulate emissions. So if you have X or Y parameters coming from the appliance.

[14:05] Then you can prohibit. It sounds a little too cute, perhaps, but it there is reason to believe it by other States and other cities that adopted this approach. I have not been sued, but this is not in conflict with the Federal law that has to do with Federal clients efficiency standards. So it could be an interesting approach, and so it will allow. It would allow a city like Boulder to say, Well, fine, we're not gonna look at the the efficiency. We're just gonna look at the error emissions account. And with that we could make sure that we have the same result which is moving towards electrification. Would it be possible to also, like offer incentives towards like? If if that doesn't work, offer incentives towards commission free appliances like I. I know that the budget, or in the legislature and local levels is

[15:00] touchy at best, but you know, is is that another possible pathway worth exploring? Absolutely. And I and I know there are. There are some incentives now and then creating an awareness of it, making sure people are trained or coming to our homes and offering those options is is a big part of it. As well. Can can I add one thing? Sorry. It's a really good question. The reason that we wanted to address this in the construction phase is that we're investing in that that gas infrastructure in new development. And so we're trying to get ahead of that. So we don't end up stranding that investment. And then it makes it that much harder to do the conversion later. So with the existing homes and the way we're thinking about it with building code, absolutely. We're trying to develop the right, the right incentive package to make those conversions. But at the same time we have, we wield that that really powerful tool of code with new development and new construction that makes sense. So anyway, interesting opportunity. On the transportation front.

[16:01] there is a bill that will be introduced because it's been referred by the Transportation Legislative Review Committee. It's it's 1 of these committees that meets during the off session by the General Assembly composed by some members, and they passed what would be a requirement for cdot to create, mode, share targets. So how much of the transportation and the infrastructure that has been put in place? Is for single occupancy vehicles. How much of it is for transit, how much space to bike. something that I I didn't know that it was something we we didn't have, or that can be created. But apparently this bill would set those standards and then require cdot to work with. In the case of our front range. Dr. Cod, the Regional Council of Governments, Rtd. And cities and counties, to make sure that those mode shared targets are actually implemented. So that's an interesting idea. There's also an ongoing discussion

[17:01] by some legislators on Rtd governance reform, which is really important. As you know, we we did get a lot of new money for Rtd. Or I should say for Statewide transit last year. because in the form of a funding for front range passenger rail extension of the train that goes to park. and also some other strategic corridors, as well as just a lot of money for for Rtd. But there is immediately conversation about how that still is not enough for what we really need, especially now that we've had these land use measures in the past that rely on the assumption that there are transit right? The corridors that people can live more, you know, densely, and that don't need as much parking because there's a lot of transit so cannot transfer into development without back to transit. So part of getting there is making sure that people can vote for something that would give money to Rtd. Which means building trust. especially for a region that has not been, you know.

[18:02] that has not had much reason to trust because of the lack of deliverance Northwest Rail that was promised for a while ago. So part of these conversations are okay. What are the reforms to the governance system that we have to make at Rtd to build that trust, to make it more effective. What kind of transparency measures, what kind of partnerships, maybe? What kind of like changes in what the scope of responsibilities are for Rtd. Versus what counties and cities should do, and what money they should get, so kind of re envisioning. How Rtd. The gigantic footprint that it has, and gigantic responsibility, how it could function better. And last year it also included board governance reform, basically saying they should be appointed, they should be that they shouldn't be elected. They should be appointed to have more expertise instead of smaller board instead of have to pay that way you'll have more professionalization of the elected officials. But that didn't. That that was that did not go over well at all, because, as you would expect most people would say, wait a minute.

[19:06] You want to take my elected office, and you want to have that appointed by the Governor. That's kind of sounds like disenfranchisement. I didn't say that word correctly, but you know what I mean. It's basically disenfranchising people who have come become used to like them as board members. So I don't think they're gonna go there. They may or may not. But there's a lot of Rtd reform that's being considered, which I think ultimately is an environmental environmental concern and benefit. If we do get the build that trust, build that functionality and build funding mechanisms. there's also a bill that will be introduced that would provide authority for local governments to impose a vulnerable road user fee. So this is the the concept that heavier, bigger vehicles are more likely to hurt you. Basic physics.

[20:01] higher grills, big heart, heavier vehicles. You're not going to slow down as quickly. And so rather the State tried to do this last year, but the government says I'm not gonna do that. I don't wanna impose these taxes statewide. So this year we're trying to do it on a local level. Give local governments the authority, for example, city boulder might say, we want to impose these fees, not to like punish anybody who has a big vehicle. But to use these revenues to fund infrastructure improvements and traffic safety and just basically vision 0 safety programs. And so with this bill, if it was to pass, we would be able to then go to the county and say as the the property motor vehicle, Can you make sure that you implement this fee. and just like we did with their rank choice building, where they actually operate our our elections. They also be operating the collection of the of the revenue in this case.

[21:02] So if it it could go as much as up to a hundred dollars, if it's a truck. I think it's as as much as like $40 if it's a vehicle, and it's staggered by tiers. So right now, the way this bill is drafted is, it's basically depending on the weight of the vehicle. And you have, like a bunch of different tiers. and it basically says, local governments, you could charge as much as, but not anymore. These. So cities could always go lower than that. It also says that because electric vehicles way, more local governments may decide to waive that fee in the case of an electric vehicle, because. even though it's maybe maybe not just as unsafe. It is a something we want to encourage, of course. So it basically lets local governments decide that. I think that might be it. For

[22:05] yeah, that's that's that's it for the actual bills that I expect terms of changes that are being proposed to the policy statement for 2025 that will be taken to council. We have A, we have a position under climate, resilience, position B, which has to do with wild safety operations and ensuring utility investments that reduce wildfire risks and prioritize service, reliability. And of course, there we mentioned our concern with making sure that public safety power shutoffs are communicated and are done so in a collaborative manner with local governments. We have a position to E. That's kind of a revision to what used to be about urban canopies. But we we we were looking at urban canopies as well. It serves a lot of values. It's clusters. Carbon outside provides cooling. It provides jobs.

[23:02] When I would say, Yeah, the amount of carbon dioxide sequesters is is very minimal in terms of the true biggest argument is is the heat mitigation, extreme heat mitigation. So we look at this position and structure to say, there's ecological ways to address extreme heat mitigation like urban canopies. And then there's built environment approaches like urban cooling centers. communications. But the risk factors, and council member focus just brought up yesterday, which we're adding the inclusion of of grain building and zoning codes that require heat, producing strategies such as cool floors and wall and walls and cool, permeable pavement. So this position is basically saying, State help us out to achieve these these goals. I don't know whether Council's goal is to say cities do the every city should do this. but that's not yet what where we're at. We're at this point, we're just saying, stay and help support these efforts.

[24:05] And lastly, on the climate resilience front at Councilmember Adams of request, we did have a position in support of climate literacy. Which, of course, is hugely important. And there's a lot out there already. There was a bill last year that created a certification for climate literacy at the State level. But there's obviously a need for a lot more and a lot more integration, and more bringing it into so many more environments, and and consistency and uniformity. So I think that's an important one to add there in terms of restoring clean air position 51. We're adding a position to encourage more investment in understanding the long term impact of sustained exposure to air pollution on public health, particularly vulnerable populations. Certainly something I'm worried about whenever we've had extreme smog or smoke fires is like, what exactly are we subjecting ourselves to? And

[25:05] now, how do we take that information and make appropriate decisions? So when you're saying investing in that, are you talking financially or a knowledge base growth investment or invest with money to get knowledge. Yeah, so that we know. So so we have whatever Federal agency would be to that would be tasked to do that is, you know. on days of this level of ozone, these particular matters are this high. This is the kind of risk that you can impose on your on yourself, I mean. This came from Council Member Spear, so I don't know what the current level of knowledge that has been shared by the Federal Government on this, but I think it's fair to say that we probably could use more information. I know. For example, we just went out myself, and my wife bought a air filter kind of an expensive one indoor, and it was motivated by this these very smoky days that we that we occasionally gotten.

[26:05] It's with more information. We can make that calculation whether that makes sense there are gonna be more medical bills. Otherwise. So seems like a. it's a reasonable investment. in terms of furthering city's vision. 0 action plan position 68. we're adding support and measures to increase penalties for traffic violations that result in death or serious injury developed for road users. We're indicating support for that vulnerable road user protection fee and a local option to adopt it. this is interesting. Requiring all new motor vehicles. So in Colorado to be equipped with passive intelligence, speed, assistance technology requiring an installation of active Isa technology for repeat speeding offenders. So this is basically and it's been tried elsewhere. In fact, Gavin Newsom just vetoed it in California.

[27:06] where your car has a technology that will basically let you know whether you're speeding and I don't know how it works with your phone or car or what. But you know, somehow, it'd be a requirement that you register your car to stay or or yeah, I think that's basically what it is. Then you would basically be getting notice, so that potentially you could save a life and then the active would be, if you are a speeding offender, it would really slow you down. So you know. Question about that. Yeah. as probably I assume many drivers know. commuting time. Speed limits are wildly different than actual speed on the road. and at some point, if you go the speed limit, you become a danger on the road. It's getting accounted for with the like, you know, protecting and saving the license because you're going to speed on it. It's it's probably one of many very, very important questions, right? I mean, I mentioned it almost provocatively because it was brought up by our transportation department, who's charged

[28:11] with with making safer roads, knowing that this is gonna be a a long haul effort. But I I think that's just one of those practical challenges that have to work out. You're right. I mean, we've all been there where the right thing to do is to go is the speed because you're gonna create, you know, a backup or or worse. So the technology is not there for it either. Right now, reliable, safe technology. Yeah, I mean, I all I know is that California just passed it. And then the governor vetoed it. So whether they were gonna pass it and then wait for the industry to develop the technology. I'm not sure. Was it part of that Adi Bill that he retoed, or was it a separate bill that he was the bill that was specifically on this topic.

[29:00] Yeah. and it was. It was the passive intelligence, speed, assistance, but the kind that would just nudge and basically let you know you're not limited. Huh? And then this one, I think, is probably a little bit more. this is my last one, too. Establishing the national motor vehicle testing and performance requirements that minimize the risk pedestrian and bicycle test and injury particularly attributed to the weight, design, and large Suvs. So my understanding is, as you know, there's long been a certification of how safe a car is for you as a passenger. So if you're driving a Humvee, you're going to 100%, you're good. But if you're looking at what your impact is on people outside, we don't really do those kind of ratings. Nor have we had a, I guess, a national effort to try to encourage those vehicles that could be safer for the vulnerable road users which could actually work really well in tandem with local authority to charge a global road user fee.

[30:01] If so, rather than weight. It could be certification. You know where you rank on pick lists. Alright, I think I've taken up enough time. I'll conclude with that, and if there's any questions feedback as well. I guess I'm just curious in your opinion. Which do you have? A sense of which are most likely to be successful, or to watch progress. you know not maybe not the fastest, but actually make make legitimate progress as opposed to those who are just gonna get kicked aside pretty quickly. Yeah, with, these are all like in the in the like moderate level of confidence that they'll they'll pass. But the problem with the vulnerable road user fee. Even the local government option is, the Governor still doesn't. On the other hand, it's been. It's been passed by the by Transportation Licensing Review Committee, which is

[31:03] just significant. So. and there's even a chance that the Democrats get a super majority in both the Senate and the House, which case they could override our governor veto. So some unknowns, I I would say the 100% by 2040 has a good chance. I would say that. I think the feedback program has a good chance. by 25. Yeah. And I know that's gonna be pushing hard on that one in behind the scenes. Yeah. because he's been trying to get that done for a while. Yeah, yeah. And I don't think there's any environmentalist that would oppose him on that ultimate goal. It's what's included in how it's done.

[32:00] Yeah. Yeah. So it's gonna it's gonna be a a whole new legislation that we're dealing with for all of these things. So do you. We're seeing any major problems with that, or do you think it's gonna continue to be fairly smooth sailing? You know I'd actually set to speak to our lobbyist. Get a better sense of, you know the personalities and the in some ways. I think some people who have term limited or step down have been some of the more have have have led to some of the more divisive atmosphere that we've had. So we could see some more cooperation. Yeah. And it won't be an election year, because it was helpful. That doesn't mean you can't. Well, yeah. Okay. Carl, can you share the summary notes that you have. So you can like, know where to look in this big document? So basically, what? I just write myself, yeah, I can share that. Sure perfect.

[33:05] What's go ahead trying to follow the rules. Thank you. And maybe this question for Earl. If if the Board members have questions. It was helpful for you to walk through the anticipated bills, but of course that's not. We know that that's not all. The bills that we were what 300, and will say that Anita sites from CC. 4. Ca, did give me a list with about 2025 bills. So these are the ones that I thought were more likely, or or more interest or loop. Yeah. But just connecting that a little bit to the policy agenda that that Carl talked about at the beginning of his his remarks again, just as a reminder. It's that it's that document that helps give that kind of architecture. For when we take positions on particular bills and just really want to commend Carl because he does such a fantastic job job coordinating across the city when a bill is introduced, knowing who to go to how to, how to kind of check that against the policy statement, the policy agenda, and then determine whether or not we want to take an active position on that bill. We want to pursue any type of modification or edit to that bill

[34:23] and so he really manages a whole ecosystem of of work that is just fast and furious during the legislative session. So is it? Is it okay, maybe to post the question to the board. If you have any specific questions about anything was in the policy agenda. How that's organized any of the specific positions that the city is taking, and then how that relates to the positions we take on bills just wanted to give the opportunity to remark on on anything that's in front of you. I guess I'm just curious more what the interfacing with Council looks like. You know, you have certain council members, maybe spearheading or host spearheading

[35:03] different thrusts. Maybe some just are providing feedback into the policy statement or into the actual advocacy work. So in terms of the actual policy statement. We get the entire council. In fact, I've all but Mark Wallach have given me tons of comments over the last month and a half to to get us to where we're at right now in these revisions. And sure, I'll hear tomorrow. So I'm not concerned about that in terms of the actual advocacy work. There certainly are those that are more engaged, interested, and I certainly turn to them. If I know, for example, the council members. Shroushard is the the safety bicycle champion that he is, and there's a bill on vulnerable because they're just gonna have a passion and commitment to go out and testify and attend meetings. And what have you?

[36:00] But I will routinely update council on what's going on. I update our our 4 Council Member Committee what's going on? They meet 2 or 3 times during a session. I will give, both in person and and electronic Updates for Council, because what's really important is council is basically charging me with. Like, All right, Carl, we told you what we want. but it's obviously hard to read, connect this the bills. So so please come back to us and let us know when you connect a policy position to a bill. Report back so that we know, and if we disagree, we then say. No, we disagree. That's not the right position, you know. Bring that back to us at an actual committee meeting, or just withdraw the position. So obviously, I try to avoid that. In the 1st place, by getting a good sense of what Council wants. So there's a pretty good communication, and one of the questions I'll ask this council when I meet with them later this month. Is Is there anything we can do to improve that communication, make sure that everybody feels engaged and

[37:01] plugged in so when was last time you came to us September last year. So what? What has changed since then? Like what bills passed, or what positions we supported? How was this last yeah, little session like, what? How effective. Was it like. I would like to know? Like cause I feel like I'm getting the jaboo with some of these like, if you always talk about this on bill repayment program before. So you just wanna know, like. yeah, well, the 2 trend some of the biggest ones were we got a bill that that we've been working on for years. That would make it illegal for adults to drive with a phone in their hand, distracted driving. So that was a vision 0 bill that we passed. the bill that increases the amount of oil and gas revenues. Basically the production fee that's gonna go for transit

[38:02] that that's huge. It's gonna be over a hundred 1 million, maybe more than like 150 million a year, starting next year for transit. The bill that gives I think it's gonna be about 50 million dollars towards front range, faster rail and other statewide strategic transit generation projects. That's basically a vehicle rental fee surcharge that's been added. So those are 3 that I can think of. They're not directly related to climate. you know there is. Last year was more of a transportation year than it was like a climate year at capital. and I could certainly there were more specific ones. I've just well, I was just gonna offer carl puts out kind of a a wrap up a legislative session wrap up of all the bills that we took positions. We, meaning. The city took positions on

[39:01] those that passed, organized kind of by sector or whatever area. And I'd be happy to if you're okay. With that I'd be happy to forward that to. I'll go back to my office right now, and so you'll be able to see exactly which bills get positions on that pass and which we dealt with the environment because there are definitely more than I just and what I just mentioned. And it it's an excellent summary tracks. It really? Well, so cool. I think that'd be the thing for you. Any any other? Follow up questions, or are we feeling pretty pretty satisfied on this topic. I guess I have a question. Okay, I know, like the I think the Boulder Valley comprehensive plan is gonna start. It's process in a few weeks. Right? So what's the overlap between like this policy positions? The Boulder Valley plan, I know, like there's a climate action plan, memo, like, what is the overlap between all this stuff.

[40:01] It's actually a good question. I've talked to the planning team of the Comp. Comp. Plan folks about how we can start aligning the organization of this with the way the Comp plan is gonna be. And Jonathan's gonna talk about our serve framework. I think that's gonna be the organization for the Comp plan. sustainability, equity and resilience framework. Just give me a second. I'm gonna forget a layer if you okay. So just I thought this might be helpful to show you the layers of how this is organized, and the reason for this is that the city's been going through some reorientation around this. So the Boulder Valley Comp plan really sets that high level visions. The 20 Year Plan that sits up here again. That's a

[41:00] a document that is mostly a land use document, and it requires 4 body review. So that means it's the City Council, the Boulder County Board of Commissioners, and then the planning so our our planning board, and then this the county's planning board. So the Comp plan sits up here, and then underneath that for the city we have what's called the Sarah, or sustainability, equity and resilience framework, so that nests underneath the Boulder Valley Comp plan. though it's really a set of principles. And then there are strategies that exist within the same framework. What are we trying to accomplish in that area underneath? That is this new document that was just created this year. This is our citywide or city strategic plan. So this is a 3 to 5 year plan that starts to kind of layer up in to say in order to achieve what we want here, the actions in the sare, and then the long term vision of the Valley Comp plan. Here's what needs to happen over the next 3 to 5 years. And that's a very new document organized by sector. So we have specific things that we're trying to accomplish. The other thing that kind of resides in here is the council priorities. So they have 2 year priorities that that creates a rhythm of work there too.

[42:15] And then Dsp is just our department strategic plans. That's what we call our master plans. Each department has a set of master plans, utilities as an example has multiple. They have, I think, 15 or even more master plans. And then, under department strategic plans. You have kind of department work plans, individual work plans so hopefully. That kind of gives you a sense of how those things layer up to the comp plan. But I think what it suggests is the importance of getting it right here. because ultimately all of this nests and sits underneath it, and should kind of represent what the Boulder Valley Comp plan is intended to do is a climate action plan. Is that like different here? Yeah. So the climate action plan is a little bit different. So we have 2 plans that kind of sit a little bit tangential, right? They. Up to this point. The climate action plan has almost functioned as a department strategic plan.

[43:12] though. It really starts to reference in this next update will reference a lot of what other departments own and achieving what we're trying to accomplish. And and I say it's 1 of a couple. So we also have a racial equity plan. The racial equity plan is intended to kind of sit and hover above a lot of this, too. So it works to inform how we make decisions in these different areas. Correct. So ultimately, we're trying to think about the Climate Action plan as something similar to the racial equity plan, which is like it is the how we do our work. Not necessarily exactly the what, because we have a strategic plan as a department. That's our work plan, what we do as a department. And each department should have a work plan that represents

[44:01] the values goals and objectives in a climate action plan and a racial equity plan. So we're we're still trying to work with this whole new. I guess, like I call it an ecosystem of different plans. But the one thing I say I call it the department strategic plans, because we are trying to move away from the use of master plans. That term. It just has some connotation that we're recognizing now. So so there was like a post online that social media from the boulder housing network they mentioned. Do you see it? They mentioned, like, you know, the Boulder Valley comprehensive plan didn't have much of a climate action plan. But I was like, I wasn't sure. How details should it be there? Exactly. Should it be there? Yeah, that's what I was asking. You know part of this conversation. Well, no, I think it's a really excellent point, because, you know, I'm happy to forward that article around, but it really referenced the fact that the last update of the Boulder Valley Comp plan. It signals our intention around climate and really references climate. But it doesn't list the specific strategies.

[45:07] But that's not really what the Boulder Valley Comp plan is intended to do. It's not a set of strategies. Necessarily it's it's by nature is formed by. But it is not defining correct. So the question, then, what should live in the Comp plan? And we're using this update as as a way to really think differently about the use. How do? How do you think about the Comp plan? What does go in there? What shouldn't go in there? What should reside in these other layers to. Really, though these are the actions that support the vision that's represented in the Comp plan. It was an interesting article, and I. I wasn't disagreeing with the assertion that it it could be a little bit more specific about how we intend to address climate issues and resilience issues and equity issues quite frankly. And that's why this update, I think, is really critical. Because it's a long term plan. Yeah.

[46:00] And and bottom line policy statement will be revised to better align or framework. Not this year, the next year, probably because the Comp plan process this just kicking off, as you know, and how they begin to to organize these topics. does he have to be determined? So the folder value, like king basically of display, informs everything else of the Comp plan. It it's supposed to. It's supposed to connect. You should see the work represented in the Comp plan. Yeah. So if I do an update next year. I think that that would be. The the hope is that there is that alignment. Our management team would be very impressed. We had this conversation. Thank you. Apologies that I just went all proposorial on you. All right.

[47:00] feeling good feeling ready to okay. Well, seeing enough of the questions. Earl. Thank you so much, guys, and thanks for everything you do for us. Pick one of those and please feel free. I know there's a lot to digest here tonight was intended to be an update, but also an opportunity and an invitation. If there are questions or thoughts that you have about what's written in this document and love to maybe connect him to say, if you want more frequent updates on kind of the legislative and regulatory actions that are taking place, we can, we can figure out how to do that when the session is no ripping and roaring. So yep. Carl, thank you. Alright, guys, thank you. Thank you so much. Okay, so. But I think we're ready to move on. And before we do move on, I'm going to, since Are- are here.

[48:00] Brain Hannah. Yes, isn't here at the moment. But as she sent me an email, she's planning on being here in the next 10 or so minutes. If we could just real order our next items. And if we could do the regional board gathering before we talk about the plant based thing just to give them a chance to show up great, and if the board would build, I just realized I should have done this earlier. But I wanted to invite. Who is working with our department to introduce herself. I'm so glad that you showed up. That's awesome. It's like, what am I doing here? But yeah, my name is Jazzy Sekora. I'm the Civic Spark Civic Spark Slash Americorps, fellow with the City of Boulder. For 11 months. I'm working with the Nature based Conversations. Team. It's my 3rd week. So I'm still like learning a lot. But I'll be working with the cool Boulder campaign. Nice to meet you. Yeah, just sitting. This is the cool weather campaign

[49:05] softball across the table. Okay? Well, it's a city sponsored climate initiative campaign that connects partner organizations. We have, like over 40 partner organizations and we just like connect them and try to get action on the ground through like a action alerts which talk about like volunteer opportunities and events happening in the city through our partner organizations. And we have programs like the pollinator advocate program and tree centers program which are through our partners. And so educational stuff like that as well. And so that's kind of a rough overview. There are like 3 main action areas. So the pollinator, what is it called yeah. And then connected canopies, which is like increasing the urban tree canopy and then absorbent landscapes which focuses on soil. Health.

[50:00] So those are 3 main action areas that we focus around and try to get actions and the community along those lines. Yeah. so yeah, that's kind of a basic overview with what I know so far. there's a lot of event calendar you can sign up for action alerts, community once a month. possibly kind of be conversational like in terms of like, I'm so aware of the Google Builder project. And like, yeah. yeah. And and so I love the question. And it seems to me that it might be time to have our nature based solutions team in to talk about the advancement of the work where we've come. It's the newest area of my department. And it's really exciting to see how that's grown. The Cool Boulder campaign was really built out of this notion that we don't have a sandbox to plan, meaning our department. We don't own land, we don't

[51:00] so so how do we work? Then, with other departments that do open space parks and recreation, and then, in terms of getting the community involved again. Oftentimes the city is not the trusted voice, and we have lots of organizations out there doing amazing work. So it was an intention to bring and facilitate. Bring all of those organizations together, understand what connects them, how we can lean on one another, how we avoid duplicating efforts. Create a a kind of this really cool platform to work from. And so it was launched about 2 years ago. And it's been really, really effective. And it really is kind of the cornerstone of that body of work. Our nature based solutions team to your question about the tree canopy work. There's a lot involved in that question. and again, another opportunity for us to give you an update. Have Brett back to talk about some of that, but correct but again, when we talk about tree canopy, there are a lot of pieces to it. There's data collection. We've now done that mapping. If you remember, Brett did showcase kind of looking at our heat mapping, how that heat mapping evolved into. How do we think about our tree canopy all the way down to the parcel level?

[52:14] If you look at interventions to say if you plant, because it's it's not planting trees, it's growing trees. You can plant a bunch of trees, but we need mature canopy, which means we need to think about how do we maintain them? In a world where we have a warming climate, it means that you have to water them more. Where is it? The best site for certain trees. How do you pair that with kind of the technology solutions? So as we think about looking at heat and vulnerable neighborhoods and populations. do we want to think about air conditioning. You want to think about tree canopy, some combination of both. How does it work, then, with our forestry department in terms of public trees versus private trees. What is the policy? Do we want to look at our landscaping code to include an element which is some kind of prohibition or regulation around trees on private property.

[53:05] Valuing treats in a different way as an example. So a lot of our work right now is with our forestry department, which sits in our parks and recreation department. But to answer your question, it's go, you said, is it going? Well, it's going really well, because we're building this collective literacy across all of the departments to understand the value that our tree canopy plays. but also thinking about it in context of if we're planting trees, what does that mean for increased water use? What does it mean for kind of maintaining the differential of heat? How do we think about it in the are we introducing more, more fuels for wildfires? So having some of those very interesting conversations has been really really great, that's what we aim to do. I recently read a paper, and I cannot believe that I didn't save it. because I've I've been looking for it for the last 10 min. But I cannot find it anymore. It was like about like using reflective white paint on.

[54:01] for example. And that helps a lot, you know. Like, if you're just scheduling areas that don't have a canopy yet. Or you know, the the trees are growing, using like reflective white paint on the roof helps a lot. And yeah, so I would like to know, you know, like, what what's up there looking at beyond kind of is, I think it was great. But it's like a, you know, 10 year investment, probably, too. except that you know, as we think about our our natural systems. There are other ways to kind of get to that heat management which means shrubs thinking about how we're rehydrating. That's why the soils piece is so important to how we are, I mean, the reality is, is carbon follows water. Since we think about the water cycle and how water exists in our system. Now, how we are protecting that. And when I use that term rehydrating soils, really thinking about it from the term of can we grow more shrubs? And looking at some of those kind of opportunities to kind of move away from rock scaping move away from. Because I think the general theory is.

[55:06] oh, well, let's take out non functional turf and put in like pea gravel. Well, from a heat management perspective. That's not that I'm sorry for totally off topic. I'm looking at you and stays interesting. You're good. So so part of what we're doing now, is thinking about the landscape code as an opportunity to look at how do we address the the climate and resilience dimensions of how we think about landscape? So yeah, when I say, we put in pea gravel. that's like 0 scaping. But the problem is that just increases heat. Okay, so you have to change the paradigm a little bit. Exactly. Okay. The other thing it does what we realized in some pilots that we've done. Both of our school district is when you do a lot of rock scaping. You end up with weeds where you don't want weeds, and then you have operations spraying more pesticides and herbicides to address the weeds.

[56:03] counterintuitive, counterproductive like that is not what we want so how do we think about what is the new paradigm? Turn on? What? What do we want to see? And then how do we use our landscape code to address water issues, wildfire issues, climate and resilience issues. And there are some solutions there that are interesting. Yeah, like, it's good for water cultivation. But sure, but it has a little. You ask a gardener like you ask anyone that owns a house and has put in pea gravel. They'll tell you right. There will be weeds the next year when they're hard to get out. They are very hard to get out. So yeah, I would love to see where the landscape code looks like that is an item for later on your agenda. We're not going to cover it. But if you'll note on the very back page as we do that Council. Look ahead. There is a big discussion taking place about the landscape code and what it means to open up that code. And what is policy and what's in the code?

[57:03] So as we think about council has a strong desire to look at using the landscape code to really connect in with the state statute around removal of non functional turf? It's an opportunity, then. To kind of align around this idea of how do we think about the code in terms of water and wildfire? you know. Is it just ripping out Juniper's what do you want to replace it with, what? What do we want to require with with new development? So it's a really great opportunity. And it's a very powerful code that we don't normally think about it's like a landscaping. Yeah, but it's but it actually is quite a powerful code. So that is an item that I'd like to bring back to the board to discuss, as we understand, what it's gonna look like, and opening that up, you notice it was originally scheduled for December. There had to be a shift in that which actually I find good, because it gives me an opportunity to bring something to the board

[58:03] forward to hearing about that. Alright sorry you are all good. It was very interesting. But board do do we have updates on the board meeting? Do you want me to kick this off, and then you're gonna correct everything that I in in our last meeting you might recall I talked just a little bit about and you've heard an update a few times from from here on, and both myself about this multi board. Kind of I don't really want to call it a collaboration. Yeah, giant board. So bringing all of the jurisdictions or a number of jurisdictions, the front range together that have environmental type boards, remembering that they differ a little bit. Some are appointed by council, some are just volunteers, they they differ. And that's okay. And there have been 2 meetings you might recall. The 1st meeting here on both went to. It was in

[59:00] Westminster, Westminster, hosted by the city of Westminster, and then the second was hosted by Broomfield. And at our last Hi Hannah. At our last meeting I I think I reported that there was a request that boulder host the next meeting. and I really wanna appreciate Hernan and kind of his his thinking around, how do we design an agenda that is meaningful? And how do we design an agenda that doesn't result in just like the sharing out of like Westminster. What are you doing in Brookville? What are you doing this, and and that's nice. We'll see you in in 3 months and do it again. And so really wanted to appreciate her. Non, if you recall. He worked very hard to put out a survey to all of the boards, to say, What are the kind of topics? What do you want this thing to look like? And in the topics there was an opportunity to hear from all of the members like, What are the what are the big things that we need to be thinking about together

[60:01] for transformational action. And one of them, of course, is water resilience. And I think it's a it's a great one to think about, because there's a lot of dimensions to that. And so I think tonight, and unless or not has a different opinion or approach. I think what I wanted to just share out is the plan is to host the next meeting. I believe the second week in November. in some conversations that we have had, kind of come to the idea that we would have a speaker who is kind of the the subject matter expert on water resilience from the State. We actually have someone who is the section chief for water supply planning for the State of Colorado. He actually used to work for the city. His name is Russ Sands, and he's a great thought leader. To have him talk about what's going on with the State level, and he can speak intelligently to you know what's have happening on, you know, on the western slope with regard to Colorado River. How do we think about policy?

[61:01] How do we think you know? Not just today, but forecasting? And how does climate and resilience kind of play into this conversation with respect to water. and then what I thought would be useful then is to have a second speaker from our Water Utilities department, who's been doing some really pioneering work on? How do we model differently around? If you start to think about climate in different ways, forecasting forward. what does that mean in terms of water supply and the policies and the plans that we have now terms of water efficiency, our drought management. So using that data to really forecast and make different policy decisions. When you say water efficiency, are you talking about water use efficiency, or literally, the efficiency of the water plit? I'm talking about the water efficiency plan that the city has really specifies how we think about water use in the community. So because we own and operate the water utility, the stormwater utility and the wastewater utility. It really is that idea about, do we want to think about policy that would require limitations on water use?

[62:09] Non watering days. So it's water efficiency community wide. Yeah. Great question. So here. And I don't want to give you an opportunity to to talk. But I think what I wanted to share with all of you and put on your mental radar is that we will host that meeting, and I'm hoping that all of you can attend would love to. If you all, in my opinion, will would be the host versus the city, necessarily being the host. and so love to think about how we can support you all in preparing for that meeting. My guess is we'll probably have 30 to 40 people. Oh, hope so. Yeah, that will be a good size. Yeah. What did you say was the planned date? We don't have a plan date right now. I believe it's scheduled tentatively scheduled for around the second week in November. Maybe a Thursday.

[63:02] Thursday, 14.th No, it will be like at 6. Yeah, like just like our meetings right now. So, 6 to 8, we will have 2 speakers in the first, st you know, hour, hour, and 20 min, and then we're thinking of doing like a socialization part, like a speed dating where we can like, go around, and everybody can speak to each other and exchange cards and see whether you know, exchange what they're working on. and just try to find some synergy between the the different people, the volunteers. Hopefully. Some stuff comes as well for the 1st meeting and the second meeting as well. There were some staff from city from the cities. I think this older hosting, I'm guessing there will be more interest to be honest. So hopefully, you know, we have, like a a nice group. have no strong preference for day. I'm gonna have to be calling out of work, anyways. Can I throw out the 12th as an option.

[64:01] Yeah, well, we can do that. Try that. Okay. If that works, for. Can we do a 13th instead of the 12? th Bye. You should not play around with schedule. I could not make it the 13th or 14, th but I will. Happy to help support. Get ready if. If the 12th works for everyone we can 12 bucks just as perfect for me as any other day, so I can attend any day I can. Just. I'll just need to leave and go to work after being there for a brief amount of time. What what time do you have to go to work every day, usually at like 3 PM. But I can be like I work evenings. I I work from like late afternoon to midnight. so my schedule is irrelevant. I can make it. I will just not be able to stay for long and have to go to work any day will work just as poorly as any other Wednesdays work

[65:06] just as poorly as any other. Okay, let's do Tuesday. Nicole, then is that okay with. I'm not gonna plan around my schedule. I'm gonna see how I'm doing. I ideally would be able to come. But see, I don't think I'm gonna commit to anything early November. Just one additional thing to flag monday, November 11th is veterans day so I'm not sure if long weekend would impact attendance, but just wanted to highlight that. How is that setting out? Is our schools closed on the 11, th or I would assume so I guess he closes for Bank Holidays. I don't think there's any magic with the date. Generally targeted mid November ish, so if we need to look to the next week, Tuesday, the 12th sounds like a great target, and we can

[66:01] finalize it later. It also gives us the ability to go seek the location where we can host it. Yeah. okay, let's shoot for 2, 2012. I'll send Say, the dates, either Friday or Monday. So people just are aware. Otherwise overhead, maybe we can look at junkyard, social club, or something. Would you send me also? Send me some? Write up of the Speaker and and the water Utility City person as well. Just so I can introduce them and and save the day. And get people excited for sure. Okay, I think that's about it's for that. Throw out Hernan, if you need help with any event planning. I'm happy to help with just whatever logistics and things like that. I've done a lot of

[67:03] events. Okay, sounds good. Thank you. But yeah, I think that's it. For now picking the date speakers phone. And now the next thing would just be to send the set, the dates. And yeah, from that we can choose the room or where to do it. Yeah, yeah. Okay, sounds good. Thank you so much for the update, and with that we can heather heather Jesus, Hannah, welcome! My brain is dysfunctional this time of day. And we can jump into our, the, the hopefully final. I let's let's let's try and get this across the finish line. The the plant based challenge. I ordered things around so you could be here for this. So welcome. Let's do it. Jonathan. Sure, Hannah, do you want me to to kick it off?

[68:00] Whatever's easiest. Yeah, I think that would be great. So I make sure I'm on the same page as you. Okay, hopefully, you you all saw the note from last week, and I just wanted to put a little little context to the the shift in the plan, and I and I apologize because I I know the Board talked about this your last meeting. We had a pretty solid plan, and then I kind of offended that. But I wanted to explain the the reason for that is, I started thinking a bit about the function that we are asking boards to take and realizing that really is an administrative function. It's not a policy, necessarily. and I just got me a little squeamish that I wanted to just check in with our city manager and city attorney to make sure that they were comfortable. and in fact, I know that there's been some I don't wanna. I don't wanna elevate to the level of concern, but just that other boards have thought about bringing things to council and just trying to manage those expectations about what's what's what Board should do, what they can do. How does Council react to that? And I didn't want the I don't want the Ab to be be put in a position of of like, why are they coming to us? And so I just wanted to check in with that.

[69:18] And as a result, I actually think we we found a better pathway. Because again, I think it was my guidance to say it might be good to go and talk to council and just let them know that you're going to go to the boards. Yeah. So you didn't do that. We did. Now, okay, okay, yeah. And so that was a note I put out last week, and and after consulting with Hannah, we agreed that That we still wanted to move forward and had offered, and the Board supported the idea for reaching out to individual council members. So that's still part of the plan. What changed was the ability to actually draft up something that could be sent by you all to the other boards, but also supported by Nuria

[70:08] because she kind of oversees the administrative function of the boards. It it feels like a more positive thing to come from her to say. gonna encourage or liaisons and kind of our the administration of boards to kind of move in this direction, so felt like it had a little bit more horsepower in in that regard. And then the second piece that I wanted to just offer up, and and not sure how you all want to address. This is just what kind of resources you'd like to provide to other boards. Is it some kind of some packet or some materials? Hannah had some really great ideas on in some of the research that she has done that we could then provide from the Eab to other boards and other board liaisons to say. here are some talking points. Why, this is important, and my department can support that with respect. If we want to do any like

[71:04] some layout or some working with some kind of, you know, graphics designer to put something nice together. If you just want it to be a letter. Whatever you all want is totally fine, and that we're here to support Hannah. What did I miss? I'm sure a lot. No, I think that's great. I'm really excited to have Nuria support. I wanted to check just is it okay with her? If we send the invitation still, and either include a line of her support or include her on the email. Okay? Great. Who's that? Maria, our city manager. And on your last point, I did create another document. I'm gonna pare down the number of documents that we actually use. But that's like a how to implement it. That's more focused on the staff liaisons, the admin part of it, so that there's the like kind of the why and the pitch with the board, and then there's like how so I can send that to you all for feedback if you want, but

[72:03] I feel ready to start reaching out at graphic designs are great. I'm more of a lean like, let's just start getting some emails out instead of make something too pretty. And then if we get good feedback, or we learn, we need to add stuff like it'd be great. Maybe once it's finalized. And we know that it is effective to have something more permanent that the city could share or something. But personally, I think a word Doc is okay, for now. Yeah. And also, once we send it up, that doesn't have to be the final version of the thing. Right? We can send it and then still make additional edits. So like I, I think it would be great to just get it across the finish line, and it doesn't have to be perfect terrifying words, I know, but we can get it across. Get it out to other boards, and then, if it needs attunement, as Hannah said, if they get feedback or whatever. If we're looking at, it's like, Hmm.

[73:00] Maybe if we reworded this or redid this, I think that we've reached a hopefully acceptable final form for this to to go out and doing it as a more administrative thing does not prohibit council from making it policy. It just changes the pathway once that happens right? So cause this is also going to council. You're talking to council members, I know. At least the mayor has already gotten outreach for me. I don't know how many other people you've reached out to, but you know they're all gonna be aware of it. It's going out to all of the boards. And so it's it's not gonna just like disappear. It's still gonna be around still gonna be present. And so if there is going to be further substate with that that can happen. But getting sort of the basic foundation across, I think, is, is the most important step at this point. Hannah, are you? Oh, are you open to sending out Pdfs rather than word documents? I just know the PC. Versus Mac. Scramble is real. Right? Right? Right? Yes, I will make them all Pdfs great

[74:02] for you guys. It's words so you can add comments. But for. Yeah, okay. Stuff I'll do. Pdf. So the next step is to send this letter to the other boards. So yes. So it's it's gonna be a like an email with information and any additional attachments that and Hannah is going to be taking point on this. It has been her project from start to finish, and I don't want to take that away from her. So but just like an email with information and any attached materials that Hannah feels is appropriate. And what does the final version say now? I haven't looked at the document since I think the last meeting, the the much change. I have not changed it at all. I probably will. I'm gonna add a line about nuria support with once I get that confirmed. and then I'll just read through again. To maybe simplify. It probably is what it needs. It's my guess. But it's so right now. It's exactly what you guys saw, and it's all in one folder that I think I can resend. Again, you should have access to everything

[75:03] in the Google Drive folder that, I mean, and also just as a random notes. So you all know, there's a whole coalition of folks from around the world, really. that are working on plant based default, advocacy, not some cities, but a lot of like nonprofits and people within companies and stuff. So I do have these great resources of other people and their best practices and kind of sharing learnings together, which is kind of fun. So I'll be sure to incorporate anything that I learned from other people. And in the letter, right now it reads us a suggestion, right? More of a suggestion like, Hey, we're doing. An invitation. Invitation. I think it's this, this yeah invitation, or challenger 1 1 of those. This is what we're doing. We would love it if you could join us. Go, be more environmentally conscious. Have fun.

[76:03] right? Definitely. Not a like mandate, not a not a demand, not a. you know. Hold for ransom. Whatever it's, it's it's very. It's much more voluntary. And I I hope I think it could be quite fun if we make this like an annual thing, we have our annual Eab board challenge, like challenging the boards to make one small change, to make themselves more environmentally conscious. And so a a great start to that. If we want to continue. I like that. I thought it was a fun idea. Yeah. so do we have more questions, more more feedback, more conversation needs to be done. Or are we feeling pretty happy with with what we've got on the table right now? My only question will be if you need more feedback on the documents, or just from the latest, like the edits from last month, they feel complete.

[77:04] Yeah, I feel pretty complete. I mean, obviously, anyone's welcome to but yeah, like, I said, they haven't really changed since since you looked at them last. I have one question that I don't think we've talked about and this is not a requirement. Again, because this is not. We're not putting this out there as any sort of necessity. It's more of a invitation like you said, but it would be cool on our side to track who actually implements it. Is there a way to get that information other than just people who decide to email back saying, like great, we're gonna give this a go is is that like something that the staff liaisons can communicate of? Just yes or no? Our Board decided to do this. I was planning on like for sure, following up and making sure we know, like I have a spreadsheet, and I'll track it. And you guys all have access to it

[78:00] and just put any comments. And I also said, I just make myself available like for Staff. I made a document, but if they'd rather like meet in person and talk about it clearly, I have too much time on my hands right now. But Awesome. I know. It's impressive. Into this, and. Impressive. So anyway. I have this time and space. And this is what I'd like to do with it. So yeah. So all board meetings are public record. so if they talk about it, it will be hopefully on the record. something something sunshine calls but so so I don't know. Trawling through board meetings is what people want to be doing with their free time. That I will. No, but you know. So it's it. Yeah. But I will follow up with people and check it, because otherwise it's. And I also, I mean, part of it is making sure they implement it correctly, or else we don't reduce any emissions. And we don't have the benefits we're looking for. So

[79:05] just making sure that they know how to implemented and and check in, even if they say Yes, you know, let's check it in 6 months or something, and just see if it's still a thing. Yeah, that sounds wonderful. Okay? And any further. Then maybe the last thing is I'll just connect with you for that how to include Nuria in the and then I think we'll be good to go. Wonderful. So hopefully, this, this will be our last. If Heather opens a group order. Should she put in the email. please, over vegetarian. preferably. Great question that I've included that as my implementation document. my thought and this is the one document I will share with you. So was just to include a sentence that was something like.

[80:03] you're welcome to order anything you want as a reminder. Our board is practicing a plant based by default approach for food, ordering to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and. In the paper. Like, and you can open and order anything you want. Yeah, there was something in the paper that you share the the menus that have like a disclaimer, or I guess I don't. I don't know if it will be called disclaimer, like something about the effects of need. They did have more people choosing the vegetarian. I can remember like which studies did that. But it was it was there. So I think, maybe, like, yeah, like, if it included that in the emails, something like that, it will be good, and I mean the other definitely sounds as well. It seems like that was affected to to a certain degree.

[81:00] Yeah. yeah, there's a lot of research that basically don't call things vegan or plant, based like that's not effective. But if you're like your healthy heart option or your healthy planet. Those kind of things are effective. Met vegans on Facebook. anyways. Okay, so feel feeling, okay, feeling, okay, hopefully, this will be our last procedural meeting on this topic next month. I I hope to hear a an. All good things are. Things are happening kind of update. but it has been a long process, and I think I'm I for myself, at least, I'm pretty pleased with what we got to, and I hope that is true for everyone else.

[82:01] For everyone. Effort from you from start to finish, and I think it is going to turn out incredibly. Well, thanks for everyone's support. Yeah. okay, so with that, unless anyone else wants to bring anything forward that is not on agenda. I think we can jump into our accounts and calendar preview. Mr. Kevin. Thank you. Chair Brooke, so I can rattle through this pretty quickly. What I will say as a preface is, we have a lot that is on deck to come to the board, so be prepared. If you look at that back page, you'll notice last time we talked a bit about the things that at least in my mind that I really wanna make sure that have your input one I already talked about. So about the 5th or so bullet down. You can see the landscape updates Wildfire hardening piece again. That's not gonna happen in December. Probably it's gonna be q 1.

[83:02] That's my hope which actually gives us like I said up 20 min ago or so, an opportunity to really refine what it is we are looking for from you in terms of input on, how do we use that code? What kind of things should we be considering in that update? But we're not quite there yet. So that's good. You'll see the climate Action Plan update. We have an update to council on December 19.th I plan to bring back last time I gave you a high level of what is in scope in the charter of what we are actually doing with that update. We have a really great document working now around what we're actually updating. And then the things that I really want to bring and the Board's attention are the additional goals that we are. Adding in with relation to climate, justice, and resilience, so trying to build those into kind of that suite of goals that we have around emissions 100 renewable electricity net 0, starting to fill that out a little bit and codify that. So I'd like to bring those to you for some discussion?

[84:05] And then, is it climate action plan? Is that going to be like, I think if I Google, that there's like a memo to council. Right? That's why we're updated. Because that's ridiculous to some people. So it's going to be like a Boulder Valley plan is a nice Pdf, with graphics or not to that level. Yeah, it is. And we spent a lot of time with the last version was our climate commitment. And that was a really snazzy document. Lots of lots of photos, graphically appealing. But what I have told my team is, I don't want to spend a bunch of our staff time trying to make a perfect document. So what should it look like? Should it be web based? And in a Pdf version? And then we had accessibility issues that we need to make sure that we're following in terms of Pdfs. So then, is there a web based version, that kind of mimics our story map that we do around our impact report. Do we want something that people can print out and get a high level summary of? Here's what we're trying to accomplish by when here are the the different strategies that are. Gonna help us get there. And some of those actions, and then links so we're still working on that format. But there will be something that's a lot more user friendly than than the memo.

[85:12] Then the last thing that I'll bring forward is that in that update is we've done some really interesting mapping across the city organization. I think I shared this last time, which is council, was very interested in adding things like land use more more detail on land, use, water transportation, the economy. And how does that relate? And then how do we identify the work that's going on across the organization? So as an example to your comment about efficiency, we have a drought plan. We have an efficiency plan. We have a stormwater management plan. We have a Grasslands plan. We have parks and Rec plan. We have a facilities, master plan. and every one of those plans as they get updated. represent and signal how it is orienting around climate and resilience. That's where it should live.

[86:02] And so what we're trying to do in the mapping is to start to identify. Where are those different plans? And then, as we talk about, say, water in the update? Why does water matter? Why do we think about water in the context of climate? What is the city doing across the organization? And where do those policies and strategies live. So then someone can say, Oh, well, water. Okay. So lives over in parks and Rec and an open space and facilities, and in our utilities. And so that's how we're trying to create that kind of new structure. So I just gave you way too much. But that's what I want to bring to you for your input relatively soon before we go to council. Then, also, if you look down, I've I've also signaled to our colleagues. For the vision 0 Action plan. Feel like that's something that you all should be weighing in on in terms of kind of mobility, transportation and kind of the climate impact and environmental impact more broadly

[87:01] around some of our vision, 0 work and transportation planning. And then the the other one that I'd like to make sure it comes to you is the inu update and kind of the occupancy, occupancy discussion. There's a lot of implications here. I think you all would be interested in provide good feedback. So is the email I sent you with about parking requirements. Discussion happened yet or no, it has not. So that's the other one that's cute. Sorry I missed that one. Yeah. that's the amps. Oh, yes, right. And then what we're gonna be bringing forward. Sorry I had that on my list, and but it's on the other side. you recall a few months ago? We had staff that were presenting, like the initial framework of our fossil, healthy, fossil fuel buildings. Roadmap we're bringing that back to you. It has a whole lot more structure. And we said we'd be bringing it back for a check in and and more guidance from you all. So that's another one great update landscape code.

[88:08] Yes. So just to avoid myself. Amps is what Mps is. Thanks for access it's accessibility, mobility and parking. Thank you. Okay. and then when it comes to the council items. Access is study session, right? What is PHCT, OMCN, where do you see that in the in the back. You know where it says in the parentheses, where it also talks about the time. So climate action plan update, December 19, th Mcm. 45 min. Oh, matters from city manager, so that what that signals is, is it going to be a study session? Is it? An agenda item is in an ordinance, and that one is going to be under matters from the city manager. So it's at the end of the agenda, so it'll be the consent agenda the public hearings, and then we'll do it that update them. So it's not necessarily like an ordinance here.

[89:13] No, I mean, it's it'll be at a regular business meeting. But the way we, the way it's coded matters. So if it's if it's a public hearing, that means that there is an ordinance typically associated with that. So there is like, you're getting comments. Council is getting comments. This is an update to council on where we are in the update, getting a doing a check in with them on. Here's how we're thinking about this update. Here's what we've done so far. So it's really just an update to council on a check in with them. In which case it can just be under matters from the city manager. Yeah, that's a really good question. Thanks for asking that. And CTO, while you're at it. The second top, the action certification.

[90:03] CTO, 15 min second item, second bullet point. Yeah, I'm looking at that. Let me see, the 1st one's public hearing. CTO is clear. No. Is that I'm looking at you Heather, to to bail me out. That's an election certification. So that's call it that public hearing study session. That is no, but that's not what it is. Clerks. I'm trying to go from quick and be like what makes sense for it's the election certification. So it's gotta be. Yeah.

[91:00] It's it's it's more relevant. For like scheduling an organization. Enjoy your sleeplessness is cost effective, maybe. Alright. Does anyone else have anything on the upcoming council items that they wanna see talk more about? No, no, all right. let's take a brief check in about our next meeting. Currently scheduled for November 6th unless there are any overlapping holidays there. None that I'm aware of. But Heather, you're more aware of calendar things than I am. Okay? So unless there are any Board Member Movement proposals, then I think we're good to have our next meeting on the 6.th Yeah. I'm unlikely to be there. But yeah.

[92:01] come on. Well, seems optimistic to see you there, and we'll understand if you're not really quickly, since we're on this topic, just flagging, and it's far out. But the January meeting would typically fall on what is New Year's Day. So. yeah, we may want to discuss moving it to the 8th cool. Yeah, unless unless anyone has any immediate concerns with that, I think we can tentatively bump it out a week and check in on our December meeting for more to the date confirmation. Great! Thank you, Heather, for bringing that up, and then, if if I want to dial in to the next meeting. yes, do I need to let you know? No, I send the the zoom invite for panelists to everyone. Just I know things come up last minute, too, so everybody has that option.

[93:04] Pretty sure of that one. It's it's in the hour before email goes out. Yeah, yeah, no. The only thing to notice just food orders. Yeah. So I can adjust quantities cool. So unless there's anything else. seeing nothing. I think I will adjourn today's or I will set in motion to adjourn today's meeting great and all in favor. Okay, that appears to be unanimous with that. Thank you, everyone for joining us. That will conclude our meeting. Okay.