February 5, 2025 — Environmental Advisory Board Regular Meeting

Transcript

Captions from City of Boulder YouTube recording.

[0:21] Set up before we start. The recording. Hey, everybody? Sorry I couldn't make it in person. No problems, all good. I'm probably gonna be on mute a lot because there are babies in the background. So to minimize distractions, I'm just gonna keep myself muted, unless I am talking. Of course, right comes back in or up to you.

[1:05] We have calling, we we can we? We can go ahead and start, and I'm sure Hannah won't regret missing the procedures. We've all heard a dozen times. Okay. So in that scene we have quorum actual at the post meeting open. Call it to order. Welcome back! Oh, cool 1st off! No, 1st off heather. Do your thing. everybody. My name is Heather Sandy, and I'll be serving as to the technical host host for tonight's meeting. Sorry about that. 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 commission members as well as democracy. For people of all ages, identities, lived experiences and political perspectives.

[2:14] For more information about this vision and the community engagement process. Please visit that website screen on your scene on your screen boulder, Colorado services, forward, slash productive type and add spears. 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.

[3:02] Currently, only audio testimony is permitted online 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've joined us by phone, you can press Star 9 to raise your hand. Great. Thank you, Tyler, and I would like to again reiterate, especially in light of recent events. How much we in stand by those rules, and how much this is a space that any kind of bigotry will not be tolerated by myself as long as I am chair, and hopefully by the rest of the board. So

[4:02] just on the record, and for clarity that we stand by that next approval of the minutes. cool motion to approve, and I'll second that all those in favor by hand. I. Great that passes in unanimously, and with that do any of our public participants wish to speak? If you wish to do so raise your hand. Seeing no hands, we can move on with that. Jumping into our discussion items for the night. Starting off with our excel partnership update. Sure. I'll I'll tee this up. And I'm going to turn this over to Carolyn. Anyone who's joining us virtually record on director of climate initiatives. So we we put this item before the board this evening as an informational item, because there's a lot of discussion taking place right now, and probably will continue to ramp up over the next couple of months around

[5:16] our Excel energy partnership as a reminder. And I think Carolyn will go through a lot of the details about how we got to where we are. But a lot of the discussion is leading up to a study session that we have scheduled with city council on March 13th to talk about the partnership and the fact that we are at a a point in time where our agreement gives us the opportunity to put something before voters to opt out of that agreement. So there's a lot in motion right now with respect to the the partnership, but also the the work that's going on. In regular course of business. With respect to a lot of the proceedings at the Public Utilities Commission around reliability and rates and emissions, so I thought it would be useful to spend a little time orienting the board. We've not had a conversation with you in some time about

[6:04] excel and our utility provider and the role it's playing in helping us achieve some of our environmental and sustainability reasons goals. So again, an informational item just seeking any thoughts, any comments, any feedback that you have? And if there's follow up that's necessary from Staff, we can certainly bring that back to the board, so I want to introduce. I know many of you. We should all know, or should know, Carolyn. She's been with us. She was with us last month as well. But, Carolyn, if you want to introduce yourself for the record, and we don't plan on doing Carolyn's not plan on doing a Powerpoint presentation more just an update. So we can be conversational. Alright! Thanks, Jonathan. Thanks everyone. And again. Great to see everybody. thanks for letting me be virtual. I'm Carolyn Elam. I'm a senior manager for energy systems in the Department of Climate initiatives, and in one of my many hats is I.

[7:00] I'm the day to day manager for our partnership with Excel energy. And you know, just just since we're on the record to do just a little bit of of journeying. I think everybody will recall that in November of 2020 the community voted to go back under franchise with excel energy, pause our municipalization work and work together in partnership to advance our goals rather than independently, through municipal utility. And so the franchise became effective in 2021 and one of the nuances. It's a 20 year. Franchise agreement. So it it. Creates the foundation by how we work together. For the next 20 years. But it does include a few unique things to our franchise. One is performance based milestones around our grid emissions. And so there were. There's multiple of those. We had a presentation from council to Council last year on the 2022 target which I can come back to just to talk about kind of progress overall. There's another one that is a 2024 target. And then there's there's future looking targets as well, all of which are intended to show clear trajectory towards our community's goal. To eliminate emissions associated with great electricity, use

[8:14] the other thing in built into the franchise is the ability to reconsider our continuance of the franchise as it exists through the 5 year Anniversary points, and so each 5 years within the franchise, there is an opportunity, through either a council vote or community decision. To exit the franchise if we so choose, and the end of this year is the 1st anniversary. So the 1st 5 years. And so if, for example, we wanted to exercise that exit point, whether it's to pick up municipalization, just exit the franchise for any reason or do something else. We have that opportunity to make the decision this year, and to put excel on notice of that by the end of this year. That we wouldn't proceed.

[9:03] I will describe this as you know less about. Do we want to exit or not? But but really these milestones afford us the opportunity to do what you know. We we've tried to ingrain into our department's work. Thanks to one of our longstanding colleagues since retired. This is some urgent learning process, right? These milestones present a great opportunity for us to pause and and reflect on. You know what were the goals of our partnership together when we laid out this franchise, the partnership. how have we been doing? Where are the opportunities? Do we end up where we envisioned, and if not, why, and then vision forward, you know, based on what we've learned and what we've reflected, where do we want to head? And so that's the framing of the conversation we intend to have with city council on March 13, th and support their conversation as well as a broader community dialogue. So at a high level. That's what we mean when we talk about the franchise anniversary and milestones.

[10:01] and I will pause and and see if there's any questions just architecturally around. What I just said in terms of the the milestones, and and how that plays out in terms of a affirmative decision or not to continue forward in the franchise. Alright, I I think we're all good here, so unless Alex has any questions then I think you are good to continue. Perfect great. So again, yes, structuring will be joined by our partners. Excel on the 13.th we anticipate we'll we'll share, you know some of the progress, some of the, you know, opportunities that we've identified to continue working together and then have that discussion with council wherever they wish to take it in terms of any additional information they would like to have. What kind of if any public conversation they would like to lead? What types of things they would like to see us vision towards year 5. And and that's that's what we anticipate. We did have a great opportunity on Monday. So just 2 days ago, to visit with our community advisory panel, we did stand up an advisory panel to support our partnership work, and we had our regular we're there now every other month.

[11:14] Business meetings with the with the Advisory Board, their their staff advisory board panel. Sorry. A staff advisory panel. Not an advisory panel, like you all are to the city council, but rather to our operations teams to provide us insight and guidance as we head forward. We got some great feedback from them, and we'll they'll be joining us for the conversation with Council as well about where they've seen a lot of the value and the benefits. the partnership as well as where they see some of the opportunities. And you know, I'll say, you know, obviously transparently. this was a new thing. We entered into a partnership. Laid out a lot of project ideas and concepts, and then the messy work began to figure out how to make it all work. In the context of working within, you know, Excel's regulated utility environment

[12:00] setting priorities, you know, dealing with change conditions, whether that be, you know, pandemics, or, you know, post pandemic impacts or other things. And and so I think there's been a lot of good things that have occurred, and a lot of opportunities that we can learn from and and challenges that I think we can share. And if we have specific questions. I can can talk about those more broadly. like one of the most you know. 1st ones is we our excel team did join city council as well as our advisory panel. Earlier last year, about this time actually last year, to share their progress in emissions, reductions, and their progress towards the specific milestone for 2022. And what they shared at that time is is that their missions were higher than the milestone target, and and they certainly discussed. I think we spoke with you as well. I'm heading to that conversation and previewed that you know, as a milestone close to when the partnership began it was also a milestone heavily influenced by just the speed at which they can make the transition towards more renewables, and they certainly set a, you know, good trajectory that does far better than our goals by the time you know, by the end of this decade in 2030

[13:11] So you know, acknowledging that progress is a little bit slower than they'd hoped when we laid out those milestones. I think what we'll be sharing on the 13, th and what we'll be hearing from them is continued progress, though towards those overall grid emissions, reductions, and, in fact, with their most recent plan that they filed, which is called the just transition solicitation, which is the resources that they'll acquire to replace all the coal plants that are retiring. They're actually forecasting to do even better than what they presented to city council by 2031 so far exceeding their system, wide target, which statutorily is 80% emissions. Reduction. We expect them to be in the 90% if they implement the plan as they propose it. So definitely significant progress on the grid emissions side. I think, as we talked about last month. Certainly a lot of opportunity around building decarbonization and transitioning off of gas infrastructure. But solidly, I'd say, on track in terms of of grid electricity.

[14:12] I think, what we anticipate hearing from, you know, Council, and we certainly know we've articulated to our partners in excel. The community has a lot of concern about reliability and wildfire risk. I think that is very much going to be a central theme. As we look to the coming years. Presuming we continue in partnership. And so I think we'll have a lot of discussion around Excel's planned investments in the infrastructure. In fact, I believe some of our community members had an outage today. To do some of the improvement work. That's part of that wildfire mitigation work, you know. So it's definitely progressing. And then there's a plan before the Public Utilities Commission right now to do a lot of investment in grid modernization and ready in our grid for more rapid adoption of electric vehicles and electric buildings. So that's that's a little bit of preview of what's to come.

[15:02] I'll pause there, Jonathan, anything you think we should loop in and add specifically, or maybe open up dialogue. And and just generally here, I mean, we certainly like to hear from the Environmental Advisory Board. You know any perceptions you have or what you're hearing from the community about. Our work overall with excel you know, I'd I'd say. you know, one of the challenges is. I think, a lot of people understand, you know, very tangible projects like we built this thing, or you know, we did this very discrete project that you can go and look at and touch, and there hasn't been a lot of that. There's been a little bit of that within the partnership, I'd say the the breadth of the benefits is really, you know, having that seat at the table being able to plan forward in some of these. you know large investments that they're going to make over the long term and and our engagement at the Public Utilities Commission, which is a little bit, you know, softer squishier to talk about in terms of benefits, or really quantify in terms of emissions. Reduction. So just acknowledging that challenge. And then, obviously, as I said, reliability and wildfire risk is front and center of concern. And I know that

[16:12] our community is going to want to hear a lot more about that. Pausing Jonathan. That was super thorough. Thank you. Carolyn. The the one piece that I might I might comment on is our relationship. I say, our meaning, the community's relationship with Excel obviously is very complex. as a city, as an organization, Carolyn and and our department is responsible for the partnership activities, though I will just say that many of the interactions take place at all different levels across the city organization. And so it is very complex. We don't. We don't assume to cover and be responsible for all those interactions. But I think, just as it comes to the strategy. And how really advocate for and really move forward with the company to help our community achieve achieve its objectives. That's where we really fit in. And I really wanna also applaud the work of the advisory panel. Again, this group was brought together

[17:17] and represents diverse interests across our our community. appointed by both the city and excel to advise that that work and the work plan. And so I just want to appreciate their ongoing efforts, obviously and really advocating for strong representation, and the work that excel should be doing around, helping us achieve our energy goals. Essentially like a board like this. It is, yes, examples of like, what types of backgrounds? Yeah, sure, Carolyn can go through the list. But from a business representation, a renter so starting to represent like more of like advocacy, just thinking of the people that would be most interested, and the voices that we need to make sure are heard as we roll out the the various strategies and work plans. That we're identified.

[18:17] Yeah, I think we have a good, a great website. Okay? Good. Yeah. And I I think you you hit on it, Jonathan. One of our key goals, was not not to require people to have technical expertise or really understand the utility model, but really to bring that customer on viewpoint. And so we did an initial recruitment in 2021, after the after the community vote to stand up the franchise we got. I can't remember the exact number, but it was. I think it was over 100 applications from the community member from the community. We seated an initial panel of 17 individuals. We've had, you know, some attrition over time where you know, folks have either moved out of the community or

[19:02] You have transitioned to other roles, whether that be, you know, serving on another board in the in the community and and we have an open recruitment process right now. So we took applications and we're in the selection process to to refill a few seats on the panel. But we have a a number of our residential representatives who themselves have been in various stages of the building decarbonization journey. So bring a lot of, you know, lived experience on, on how that was for them and and how their interactions were where the opportunities are. We, you know, have had some. Some people who at least started as renters in the community and became 1st time homeowners here and then, yeah, we have a representative from the Boulder chamber, who seats on the panel and then in our new recruitment, we're expecting to get somebody from the Boulder Valley school district as a representative of the school district organization, and then looking to fill a few more seats to build out that diversity. I say broadly, we certainly know that the

[20:11] your panel doesn't hit all demographics across the community. And so one of the things our panel talks about is is how we can do outreach and and get feedback from underrepresentative groups. I mean, we understand that it takes quite a bit of commitment to sit on these advisory panels, and not everybody has the the ability to do that. And and their voices we definitely need to hear throughout for them. And I think that's a work in progress. For sure. But you know they're they're a great group of really thoughtful folks. So we have somebody from the University of Colorado as well. That's a dedicated seat on the panel. Okay? yeah, I, I mean, if I can jump in real quick with a question says, often become my role to doubt in corporations, as we all know, with monopolistic corporations, they have very little like

[21:09] incentive to do better other than goodwill, which like? Is, are there any teeth in our agreement with excel should they start trying to like skimp on on hitting targets, and like consistently, that is, there like a way to enforce the agreement, or is it just a like we're along for the ride and what they do they do, and we can back out and go back to muni municipalization, if we so choose. But we have no control over, like the agreement itself. Yeah, there are a few questions in there. And I, I think, yeah, the foundationally, the biggest teeth is the opt out that we have. Technically, it is a contractual agreement, though. So there are things within there that you know, if we so chose, we could, you know, litigate you know whether it's

[22:03] it's it's less. I'll say it's less around like the performance milestones of the missions. But more the the tactical components of like how they'll work in our public right away is, and what the timeline is to give us designs that we need, and and those types of things that are really kind of foundationally in the franchise. you know, and I I think you know to the extent that the city wish to pursue, that you know I have not known too many municipalities who have sought to really try and enforce that through the court system. So you know, it's obviously a risk that we have, I say, the greatest power we've gained honestly as a staff member through our partnership with Excel is really the entree that gives us into our work at the Public Utilities Commission. you know. Certainly. you know, as a customer of Excel who's committed to partnership and a franchise, we carry a little bit different voice than as a community who wanted to exit our utility and form our own. And and so we've definitely had a far different conversation with our Commission and our other stakeholders in the Utility Commission process that, I think, has created a lot more strength and advancing our goals than than perhaps where we were when we were

[23:19] out of out of franchise and seeking to municipalize right? That's this commission definitely listens to us in a different way. And we've been. We've been quite effective in that that landscape which, again, is not necessarily through partnership with excel directly or or the necessarily it's not a teeth thing as as you ask specifically, but certainly I think it's kept us on track and and making good progress towards our goals. And I will say, you know, certainly, like one of the biggest things I I meant to mention is when we settled and and went back under franchise with Excel, like one of the big things that I know our community was interested in was was seeing more undergrounding work.

[24:02] and they've certainly delivered on investing that 1% fund that was available to us, including the makeup. And you know, I think we're we're way on track on that understanding. Those projects are are very expensive. And so. you know, a lot of money doesn't go very far when it comes to undergrounding. But certainly they've been showing up positively. I think it's in the softer areas of you know. What does it mean to to advanced projects? Or you know those discrete things where I think it's going to be a little bit more challenging. I just wanna make sure that if you had a follow up to a response I I mean no, Justin, I excel is not the one the company that I have the most issue with. I think they've done a great job from everything that I've heard, I just wanted to make sure we weren't just like locked into a partnership that we had 0. No. And and I think, listening to the question it, I

[25:01] wanna offer a couple of comments that might provide a little bit of clarity to the question, too. And first, st while the agreements that we have with excel don't provide for penalties, for non compliance. I would say that the opt out is is pretty sizable in terms of teeth, I guess, as you describe, and so it might be helpful to the words that we're using around franchise and agreements just to break that down a little bit. So everyone understands when we we talk about a franchise as a relationship. It's really a contractual agreement that a city has with their utility provider. And it is really a public rights of agreement. It sets forth the details of how the utility can do work in public rights of way, how they permit that work. And so it's really a nuts and bolts relationship. It doesn't speak to anything around rates or portfolio programming any of that that does not exist within a franchise agreement. But when we talk about franchise agreements. It's the 1 point at which cities have an opportunity to negotiate. For a thing.

[26:11] Oftentimes, whatever the thing is, a company is a franchise as a side agreement. So we started way back in 2010, when our franchise expired. to really evaluate, what do we want? And how do we actually use the opportunity of our franchise expiring and renegotiating a new franchise which gives them essentially the the continued exclusive right to serve in that territory. So when we abandoned I say abandoned when we suspended municipalization in 2020, we created 3 agreements with excel. The 1st is the standard franchise, and I don't wanna UN under Well, I I wanna make sure that you understand the the criticality of how we negotiated and what our franchise actually does allow the idea that we have these opt outs. Based to based on year over year emissions, milestones, or this year as just a you know, 5 year anniversary is fundamentally different. Franchises are typically 20 year agreements. You sign it. And then yes, you talk about it again in 20 years.

[27:21] So the fact that we were able to tie and insert this opportunity to opt out, and that is now kind of a standard application for other cities that have franchises. So it's a really really important element that we were able to craft in that agreement. So the franchise is the first.st The second agreement was what we call our settlement agreement, because we wanted to retain some of the benefit of the work we had done on municipalization, that if we were going to suspend if we end up going back, we didn't want to lose ground. So the idea there is that we negotiated some certainties around purchase price of assets how we would deal with substations, how we would deal with the transfer of the assets. And so the settlement agreement really speaks to. If it doesn't work out. Then what happens? So that's the second legal document. And the 3rd is the partnership

[28:10] agreement. And the partnership agreement really lays out how we, as a city and community. What our goals and objectives are around energy, how those pair up with what excel, is trying to accomplish, and what are the tactics and things that we want to do, to get from here to there, to achieving some of those things that's where it also laid out in in the agreement that we would have advisory panel that we would meet regularly with executives to talk about progress. So I just wanted to give some clarity that there are 3 legal documents. And this being the 5 year anniversary gifts. And again, it doesn't suggest that that's where we're going. But that's why, I think the conversation is a little bit heightened right now, because we are at that 5 year anniversary and an opportunity to look at. How are things going? Do we feel confident that we are making progress? Should we continue on? Should we opt out and do something different

[29:04] and doing something different does not mean we would go back to municipalization necessarily just means that we would opt out of the franchise, and they would have the obligation to continue to serve. We. We function for 10 years of that, a franchise. So we could go back to that. But there are some implications and risks to that, too. So I just want to make sure that that color was brought in. Thank you for the clarification. I have no questions at the moment. So the partnership agreement. So you talked about Kevin, you talked about emission goals and things and switching over to renewable energy. If there's some goals in there. Are there any goals for putting wires underground? We talked about it, and there was a little bit talk on that, like what? To what extent are wires underground right now border. And I'm asking this because I know, if not in my neighborhood. And then there's a 5 mile per hour breeze go through where the 1st house to use power and last house to get power.

[30:08] You wanna you wanna start and I can follow, or vice versa. Yeah. And it broke up just a little bit. But I think the question is around within the partnership agreement, the extent to which undergrounding or or reliability more broadly is addressed. Is that correct? Did I hear that correct. Yep. Yep. Okay, great, thank you. Yeah. The sound just cut out for a second. So thank you. I just wanted to make sure. So there's a there's a few things within the franchise, and the partnership that relate to advancing our community school to see more of our infrastructure moved underground. So the 1st one was what I mentioned, which is in the franchise, which is the that excel. reserves up to 1% per year of the revenues they collect from the community for community directed undergrounding projects. And the intent behind that fund is really so that, you know, if we're doing a transportation project, you know, re redoing a reconstructing a road or putting in a multi use path.

[31:09] And we need we wanna move the overhead utilities underground as part of that project, then we can direct them to do that. And all of those projects under Excel's guidelines have to be in the public right of way, and so they certainly don't serve major swaths of our community, where a lot of the overhead infrastructure sits in the back of people's yards, or in, you know private easement. where where we put those dollars to use is we undergrounded along North Broadway? When that Broadway project was reconstructed we did a project along 19th Street, which was part of the multi use expansion project there and then. We're just wrapping up the undergrounding out on East Arapaho. and that's that's from foothills out to, you know, close to the golf course there, and that's to allow for the multi use path expansion, and

[32:06] and ensure that to put that multi-use path we're not having to seize like property where that's part of like the apartments and other buildings there. So the the 4th project that will be done will be Chautauqua. Some of that work is underway. Which will underground all the overhead lines. That's it. Trap traverse the open space up to the water tower there, as well as that are in the the leasehold area and about the leasehold area, which is when we flagged as an important one for wildfire mitigation, just acknowledging the risk, particularly there, as well as to improve the viewshed of our you know historic park there. so that's inherent in the franchise agreement. 1% sounds like a lot. It's done some pretty robust projects. But that's that's it. That's roughly

[33:02] 16 million dollars contained with across those 4 projects that I represented separately within the energy partnership. We certainly have goals around reliability and resilience, and some exploration of how we can streamline the process for undergrounding. One of the projects that was completed is we did produce a how to guide for the community. So we do have community groups who have wanted to undertake undergrounding projects on their own. They've banded together, or even individuals, and we created a how to guide that helps better navigate that identify clear contacts with each of the utilities to try and facilitate that. And one of the biggest challenges is, of course. who bears the cost of underground, and is all regulated right. And so there's only so much that excel can do within its relative regulated construct. But finding ways where we can lean into process, streamlining or other things. We're in discussions with them right now to explore

[34:05] how to better quantify the the broader issues that we have and start to develop more strategies around, that we don't have quick solutions today, but just naming that. And then the other thing, I would add is that Excel has proposed a number of undergrounding projects as part of their wildfire mitigation plan. Again, that's largely not gonna address. particularly in the south end of town, where we have a lot of overhead lines that run back behind homes. But it's, you know, would address, for example, like the overhead lines up near and car and some of the the stretches that are in more of our wildland areas, so at least would address some of the Wildfire risk reduction opportunities. So I think we once estimated the cost to underground. All of our overhead lines were roughly. I I might get this get the split wrong. We're either 40% still overhead and 60% underground.

[35:05] Or the reverse of that is it the reverse of that, 60% overhead and 40% underground. Thank you. To to get closer to fully underground. I mean, that's roughly a billion dollar potentially 1 billion dollar undertaking. So it's it's something that we hope to affect gradually over time with strategic investments. But just kind of acknowledging that it's a it's a very big project. I I never missed the opportunity, though, to to name this as I. You know most of us can't distinguish whether the overhead lines have been improved or not, and we see them, and we're very concerned about them, and wind events and and their condition, and there is a lot of work that can be made that can be done to make the overhead system safer as well, and that work has been going on so things like using insulated wires so that those wires are not creating sparks replacing poles that have defects in them. And that's a lot of the work that's going on. So just because it's overhead doesn't mean it's not being improved and made safe. There's still a lot of work to do. But I

[36:11] I just acknowledge that we all feel a lot safer when it's underground, but just knowing that there is a concerted effort to also make the overhead infrastructure safe as well. And and I say that. And I I know that there's still a lot of areas. In town that need a lot of work. As we certainly saw over the recent weekend. 16 million dollar spent was that since 2021, or is that. Correct Well, okay, this is my capitalistic right? Excel. Energy is a very well funded with lots of good revenues, and they have board members who made more than 16 million dollars in one year, so that number to me is

[37:00] kind of small. But I understand the limitations that we work under so but I I do. I think I really strongly believe they need to invest a lot more into safety and reliability of their of the grid and the how to guide. I appreciate that I may look it up and see if I can find it. Yeah. And coincidentally, there was even a meeting with the community group this this afternoon. For a neighborhood led project as well. So it's it's definitely something that's undertaken. But we also know that's not really an accessible solution for most. So just just acknowledging that. And I agree with you. It's it doesn't go very far, and it's definitely not enough to do all that we want, and we need to be looking at some other strategies as well. We're certainly arguing for more undergrounding. In in testimony that we'll be filing next week with the public utilities Commission in response to the Wildfire mitigation plan. So we're certainly making the argument that more needs to be done.

[38:10] One more question about the wildfire mitigation is that talk about more effective trimming of trees through public and private lands? You know, if if if a private property is given easement to the wires it is still excels responsibility to come in and cut the trees, and I really don't think that's top of mind either way, so I don't know if that's addressed. Yes, so certainly. Vegetation management is a key component of this plan, and I I can't off the top of my head coach you the number. But there's hundreds of millions planned over the next 3 years in in vegetation management. A lot of the focus over the last recent years were up in the mountain areas, and so, like, there was almost 18 million dollars spent clearing the line that runs from our our hydro up near Nederland. Down that run in recent years there's been a lot of work in the community. I I think there's a there's a few things of note.

[39:16] a as with everybody, they are resource constrained. It's challenging to get enough crews to get out there and do all the work that needs to be done. So part of this plan is, you know, to create some enhanced capacity there and then we could. They continue to run into challenges? And you know some of this is on how they communicate and how they coordinate just for transparency. But going on to private property remains. A significant challenge. And you know, many people are very concerned about having them on their property and and doing tree trimming, and I I know that that's been an ongoing barrier, and they're certainly trying to work in community to get it done. But it certainly slows down the process a lot to to try and work into those spaces. And so

[40:03] certainly a lot more of the vegetation management has been happening in the the right of way areas where you know where the where the entity that they're working with. But just yeah, definitely acknowledging it. and also acknowledging that that's an ongoing thing that has to happen. And they've certainly been behind in vegetation management. In our community it's been the cause of a a number of outages or areas of town where we see more frequent outages and definitely working with us to to try and improve that. But my infomercial is it? It is important for people to let them in and and do some of the tree trimming, because that has been a barrier. And I'm the point. My last point that I'll make is that you talking about excel energy being resource constrained. Here's my issue they don't excel doesn't come out for vegetation management, at least in the private neighborhoods. They have outsourced it so they are trying to cut costs. Even with that.

[41:05] I strongly believe that if they were to do it themselves, and they had their own crews, and they did not outsource that that is not something they should outsource. It's a key component of their business, and they should do it on their own. They will be able to do it effectively. But the outsource, the folks that they outsource to show up, and most of the private homes ring the doorbell, walk away. There's no forget the more that start coming to mind. But anyway, this is, that's just how excel looks at it. And I think slowly over time, through more, through accidents. that they're gonna come and pay more attention to it. But as of now, I don't see it happening. I I think it's a it's an interesting point. Sorry I raised my hand. I just I appreciate the comment very much. And One of the I think the challenges. And this is not in defense of excel in any shape, but most utilities do subcontract out that work for a variety of reasons, one that most communities expect a level of service that is done by professionals, meaning they know they are certified arborists. They're not just coming in and and doing the traditional. If you know this term, topping a tree, or be cutting a tree which is really detrimental to the tree, and ends up creating susceptibility to disease. And so

[42:26] they they do like to have certified people that know how to do that work. But your point is a is a really important one. I think that veg management is a consistent issue in virtually every jurisdiction that every utility, I think, is challenged with, I would just say, and a lot of times they will go through, and they'll do one section of town, and they'll work their way through. And by the time they're done they have to go back to the original section, and so just developing a strategy to to really manage the vegetation and make sure that. you know, if you're going to be planting, you're planning site, suitable species that aren't going to grow into the line. So there, there's a lot that goes into that that we try to partner with them on. But I I agree, I think that there's opportunity for improvement.

[43:13] Who's your and the last comment on the Underground? And just so you're aware I again you pre appreciate your comments on accelerating and the importance of accelerating underground. The reason that we spend, and Carolyn and the rest of the team spends a lot of time at the public utilities. Commission is oftentimes again not defending excel, but the way the the business model is set up is one that they replace like, for like meaning. If there is a a need to replace a particular line that cost is built into their own to replace it the same way it was, and do some upgrades. But because of the yeah, it's it's significantly more expensive to underground and could be more complicated that there are not funds that are socialized across the entire system to do that. So the question becomes pushing, how do we push, excel to understand where their most vulnerable parts of the system are.

[44:06] to say, wind loading snow, loading vegetation, etc, and prioritize undergrounding those. And that's really what's starting to shake out, I think, in the Wildfire mitigation plan. The Commission is paying, I think, really close attention to how do we get to a place where the lines are going to be protected? That we're doing what needs to be done to make sure that they're not a risk of vulnerability to the communities they serve. Yeah. A total cost of ownership is a theme. Of some of the testimony will be finally next week, which is. if you just look@firstst Cost of capital undergrounding never wins. But if you start to think about reliability, risk of knockdown other, you know, ongoing vegetation management, we think it's far more cost effective. And so that's certainly one of the arguments we're planning to make. Okay, thank you. How does it, like battery storage and virtual Powerpoints

[45:06] play into the reliability conversation something they're doing, or I know you mentioned it last time. Yeah, no. And I think I think it's I I don't know that anybody knows the answer yet, but more broadly, I could say. you know, certainly excel has had some programs. We, we. our community members, have participated in a lot of the pilots around adopting batteries. And I think, understanding the role they can play to deliver broader community level reliability is part of the point of the hopefully grant that excel received from the department of energy to study virtual about power plants and start to dive into what are the the benefits and what's the financial model that makes sense for, you know, you and me to be able to participate in those foundationally. The focus of theirs is going to be more on just delivering power. But I think the same learnings will translate to like, how do those same resources provide better local resilience?

[46:08] Micro grids is certainly something that we want to have a broader community conversation around. We throw the term around a lot, but not necessarily hone in on like, what is the thing we're solving for? And then what are the technologies that get us there? We just kind of talk about the tool without the application. So that's something that we as staff are going to be leading some community engagement around over this next year to really try and bring a little bit more specificity to those types of terms and and kind of the long term strategy. So a lot more to come, I I think, for sure they play an important role. I think even simple things of putting, you know, putting more devices in. So we can sectionalize the system so that not everything has to go off putting some redundancy, so that if we have to shut one side down the other can still work. I think there's just even those simple things that can enhance resiliency. And then you go even farther by taking advantage of

[47:08] solar energy and battery storage and and distributing it throughout that. So I think all the utilities in our in our excel included, are are starting to dive into that a little bit more. But nobody's got the silver bullet yet. Yeah, do you guys feel like you have leverage right now with this thing coming up like, are there? Are you planning on pushing? Excel in any way. And do you think that there's real leverage? Given that, we could. Yeah, I mean, I think it's staff team. We're here to support our council in the conversation. And and so I would just kind of put it that way. We would not presume like where our council wants to go or or not. Obviously an opt out is an opt out of. And and obviously it means something. If we're choosing to be in franchise or not choosing to be in franchise. How that truly translates into leverage is.

[48:01] you know, I I think, challenging to try and quantify. I mean, certainly, if I were excel energy, I would want to remain in partnership. I would want you know it to be pretty clear that the community wants to continue, because that means something. And and I think a community that chooses not to, because it's dissatisfied would mean something. What that really results in is is, I think it to be determined, Jonathan. Anything you would offer I'm trying to navigate was somewhat challenging question. I I was grateful that you jumped in and took a swing at that one. No, I I think Carolyn said it said it well, which is, I think, it's a subjective question in terms of whether or not the partnership has been sufficient. Has it delivered on what we anticipated. And are they the partner that can get us where we want to go? And weighing that against any alternative is is complex, and I think there are a good number in our community that

[49:02] would just assume Cs out of partnership with excel, because they are a regulated monopoly. Others prioritize different things right, that that they that they are established, that they are a big company, that they are making good progress on their emissions, commitments. And so I think the question then becomes, what would the relationship and the partnership? How would it look different than the last 5 years? What do we want to emphasize in terms of where we are now? Let's take a look back to say what we were able to accomplish. How are we working together. How do we use that to inform the next 5 years if that's where we choose to go? And so I think there's always leverage on both sides that the alternative is there! There's a lot of implications for sure, and if that's the direction that our council and community chooses to go, then as a staff team, we're prepared to do that. We've been here before. We've worked on it for 10 years. We know what it entails.

[50:08] But again. That is, I think, a really important conversation for our Council to have what happens after the March 13th Council conversation. Sorry you probably told me. No, no, it's okay. So really, it's the the session with Council is to give them a sense of how things are going, what we have accomplished. Give them an opportunity to weigh in on whether or not they believe that's been satisfactory or not. Be able to say what they would like to see if the relationship continues, and if Council is in a place to say this is this not working out we'd like to let our community vote on whether or not. We continue this partnership. They they can do one of a few things. By 2 thirds vote council can vote to opt out on their own. They could. I? I don't believe that they would do that. But again, speculation just my historical perspective. They would want the community to weigh in on that so they could, in fact, put that to to about. They could put that on the November ballot affirmatively the other opportunities. They don't do that, but there is a citizens like petition that puts it on the ballot in November.

[51:23] So I think the correct. We would stay in our agreement. We have other milestones, other opt outs coming up. So based on the emissions, milestones, we have others. We have another opt out in 2030 in another 5 year anniversary. So yeah, I think there are a lot of opportunities just to continue to refine and make sure that we're getting what we believe we should get out of the partnership, and just to make sure I heard you right. Oh, sorry, Alex, I saw you want to talk to you said we're on track for 90% emissions. Reduction by 2030.

[52:01] Electricity, electricity. I I if you quoted me right and it's over. So it's excels. Statutory requirement is measured against the 2,005 baseline and statutorily, they have to be at 80% emissions. Reduction relative to that 2,005 baseline last year. What they presented was closer to an 87% reduction compared to that baseline. And now they're forecasting over 90%. If they realize the the system wide growth as well as an over 90% renewable grid mix. So it's both. you know. th. Those measurements are like how many hours of the day are are delivered by renewables. And and then how does that compare to the Pre? So it's a complicated kind of labors. But it's still pretty spectacular, and that's system wide. There's going to be.

[53:05] you know, in the coming years already there's going to be days of the year and days of the week and hours of the day where we're 100 emissions free. which is, which is pretty significant as well. So there's a lot of opportunity to think about how we align, how we use energy in in ways that you help them go farther beyond the system, wide goals and progress. But I think it is a really tremendous accomplishment. And and for all transparency, like trying to close that those last percentages for a system migrate is is really hard. And so I think they're among the leaders still in in moving progress there they should still go farther and faster. Just to be clear. I am from Boulder, and I will tell them that any day of the week. But still, I can also say that. It's impressive how far they've gone.

[54:02] Yeah, I was. I was. Gonna I I think we're we're tapped out here, Alex, if you want to jump in, feel free. Yeah, I had a question kind of going a step beyond what Jonathan was saying. The 2 situations in which we would maybe get to an opt out, either via council directly or community ballot measure. If we were to opt out what is, what does that look like in terms of a timeline. Obviously we have to decide explicitly what we would do. But is there a timeframe even of like? How long that would take the transition process. Yeah. Yeah. Go ahead. Go ahead. Carol. Yeah, no, I was gonna say, and I think it depends on on what to do. So I think there's a very simple scenario just to say it is. I'll call it the keep your options open. Approach, which is. you just got down to the franchise, and and then that gives you the ability to pick up like, if you wanted to pick up municipalization, you don't have to do it at the same time. You could do it anytime, or wait for something else to come along. You know, in in that scenario there's no specific clock that goes with that or transition. Really the principal impact is we lose the

[55:19] the structure of the franchise agreement. Those things around like how we work in public right aways and timelines for projects and those types of things that we would navigate. I mean, the principal impact is. you know, some financial risk on city infrastructure projects. So transportation projects, utility projects which is different than there's this scenario where we you do what we did before, which is to pick up backup municipalization. And so let's just say that's the strategy the community wanted to. Do. You know, I I think that they're still unresolved. There was a settlement. But there's still unresolved issues, and so that we'd have to pick back up. Some of the litigated process that went with that. The systems change quite a bit in 5 years. And so there's some pick back up of the

[56:08] in engineering work that had to go, you know. So I think you know, we're still looking at years potentially decade to formally like we would to formally stand up a municipal utility if that's the path the community wanted to head. So if for transparency use excel, would remain our utility provider for quite a number of years, even under that scenario. And so then, in that scenario, say, there it takes a decade for the transition, where we still are in partnership with excel. Are we or is excel still held to the standards that we currently have them in? And or are they just now? Because we have opted out? They're allowed to kind of just do what they want for that decade. It's somewhere between those 2. so they certainly aren't held to the agreements of the franchise, because we would no longer have that or the emissions milestones, you know. There's still the statutory requirements that are inherently in that.

[57:10] And then, I mean, there's certainly things we would seek to do through ordinance or other mechanism to make sure that we were addressing the needs of the community. So they wouldn't like, you know, have carte blanche to do what they want. But certainly we wouldn't have partnership, and we wouldn't be working on joint projects in the way we are, because I I think it's safe to say that. you know, if we're seeking to exit. I think that's a message to them, and and they would just meet the minimum. You know, standard of what they need to deliver in terms of their obligation to serve. And Alex one a little bit of color just on I think your question of what it would look like to opt out, and maybe clarifying the point that Carolyn made, that it could be up to a decade. So when we went through the the decade long process to municipalize, I I would say we got about 80% of the way there.

[58:07] And when we suspended we did put in those safeguards that I described in terms of purchase price, but that it's likely that some of the things that were in that agreement might be litigated. And so we we would have to finish the condemnation process. So it doesn't mean that we would it would take 10 years to municipalize. It would probably be a good number of years before a utility a city owned and OP. Owned and operated. Utility was up and running, and so excel, would continue to be our service provider during what we call the cut over and the transition period, because there's a point of you have to go to the legal process to buy the assets. Those assets have to be separated from excel system. We have to do the engineering. We have to figure out how we actually maintain that system by the poles, trucks, wires all the stuff to to maintain a system. So a lot of that work had been done in the Muni process. We have to dust a lot of that off we have to renew and refresh a lot of that work. So if there was a vote to opt out, we would not immediately go right into municipalization. I don't think that our community is ready for that. We need to do some of that analysis to understand

[59:18] what is the ultimate cost. We have to actually issue debt to purchase the distribution system from excel. And then there is a separate item of the the impact of the loss of what. And I'm getting really wonky now, what's called the franchise fee. So each year excel collects 3% of gross retail sales in each community, and they remit that to that community. And that goes into general funds typically for police fire on the general fund purposes. So when we ran into this. In 2010 we issued a separate ballot measure called the occupation tax utility occupation tax, where we have the authority to tax itself, tax excel for doing work in city.

[60:07] And so the algorithm, essentially it created a wash. So on people's bills. There was no longer a franchise fee, but there was an occupation tax. So that that's a risk. We would have to move that forward at the same time, if we were going to opt out. Otherwise we'd have a pretty sizable about a 4 million dollars, 3 and a half to 4 million dollar impact on our general fund budget. So there's a lot of implications and a lot of parts and pieces. And that's why I would argue pretty loudly that if we opt out we need the time to determine whether an opt in is municipalization or an opt in is something else, or we. We live in some kind of no franchise space for some period of time. Until we can make an intelligent and informed decision. Did that make sense? Alex. Yes, thank you. Sure it's a good question.

[61:03] And any any further questions, Alex or. I am good at the moment. Thanks. Okay. So unless anyone else wants to jump in on. excel anyone else, have thoughts, questions, concerns. Yeah, don't. Don't ask any concerns too broad of a topic, for when you talk about retail. Yeah, no, that's. But no, thank you, thank you. All this. This was this was some great practice of questions and great questions. For us. So as we go into the 13.th But definitely. Yeah. Looking forward to those conversations, I I feel like, I wish I you know, personally recorded a couple of comments. I'm going to play them for the utility. So just appreciate you all. Thank you so much. We always appreciate hearing from you, Carolyn. Yeah, and I'm going to run away back to writing testimony for the Wildfire mitigation plan. But thank you all great seeing you all.

[62:01] Bye, Carol. Thanks, joy! Have fun! Alright! So with the end of that shall we jump into the next item, which is board priorities. Sure, this will honestly be about a 30 second item. But I just wanted to close the loop with the board at our last meeting we talked about fact that Council was nearing their midterm check in, and there was a question of whether or not they were going to be asking boards for feedback on new priorities. The answer that I've received to date is, no, because council is not in a position to add new priorities, and really they're trying to dial in and say. every 2 years we renew our work plan, and this midterm check in is an opportunity to hear from staff on how we're doing on those priorities. What are some of the barriers? What do we need, council to know when that's gonna come back to council for any kind of formal action. And so just wanted you all to know that we we hadn't forgotten about that. But at this point there is not a formal request from boards for anything new. Next year we will go back into the

[63:11] typical like, what do you think our price should be for the next 2 year work plan. Absolutely great. Thank you for the update. Yeah. So with that, I think we move into the the public hearing item for the discussion of our next board chair. So with that we begin with presentation. Jonathan, define presentation for me. Sure. Thanks. So I'll I'll pause. I'll just kind of bam here for a second, and there we go. Yeah. So typically But the way the board handles a change in the chair position. Is that if there is some discussion about some passing of the torch, so to speak. We have no real formal way to do that. The Board is, it's at your discretion on who wants to serve. We talked about this at your last meeting on trying to create some consistency of who might step into that role in terms of tenure, etc.

[64:25] The formality of that is that the Board does need to do a public hearing on that. So what I would suggest and and advise to the Board is that you have a conversation about kind of a summary of of the discussion you had at your last meeting about who would assume the role? And then, as the chair current chair, you would open up the public hearing. See if there's any comment from the public on your essential discussion close the public hearing, and then offer a motion and anyone can make that motion motion and have that seconded, and you can vote on it, and it will be as simple as that delightful thank you so much. So with that I will do a brief summary and overview of what we talked about in the last meeting.

[65:11] So talking about the passing over of chairship. It's been a little bit fuzzy in past years as to exactly how that happened, but the sort of the tradition has been around over the board member with the longest tenure, who has not currently served, who has not served as chair before? And so that leaves us to you, could you? You both just first.st Yes, you joined a few months earlier, didn't you? You were like sick. You were in the interim. Yeah, I started in March of 2023. Is that right? Wait. Yeah. He is. I started. I started in March. Yeah, yeah, one of those. But yes, so

[66:04] that that being sort of the the general process. And of course, if we want to get into like a you know, discussion debate. If someone else wants to be shared, that's you know. that's that's what we're doing here. So if if someone wants to. If someone thinks that they're better suited, or whatever, and we want to get into a whole thing, we can. But that's that's sort of the the general tradition. And I think what makes the most sense going forward. And then this is just a sort of more formalization of that process. So sorry to interrupt. So so you you could anyone could make a motion at this point, make a motion to elect Alex. And I second the motion. All right. Great. Do we have our our public attendee? Do you wish to speak? If you do raise your hand, if you

[67:05] okay, seeing no public desire to participate. We can move on. No, take a vote. We can move on to taking a vote for the okay. Yes. Now you're good. So all those, all those in favor of the motion on the table appointing Alex our next board chair. Are you in favor, Alex? I think she can abstain. Am I allowed to vote, or do I abstain. You're allowed to vote. Yeah. So to make sure, you still want the job. Vote in. I can vote in favor. Delightful so that passes unanimously. So, beginning in the April meeting. Alex. That you shall take over as our next chair. I will finish out this meeting and do our next one, and then I will no longer be here, and we will have Alex as our chair. Yeah, any any questions, comments, thoughts, concerns. Did you apply to get back on the board, did I? Yeah, I did not.

[68:08] Damn it, let's check alright. It's a tragedy. I am such a delight. All right. I'm glad to hear that that I at least made some amount of impact jumping on to our next item. yeah. Do you wanna talk briefly about about plant based food and how we're my biggest learning is a lot of boards don't get meals, virtually. Turns out I did not really yeah, So that was funny, because they're all like, what are you talking about? And some people that meet in person still don't even get food, but those those that do. We did get the Housing Advisory Board. Yes.

[69:09] and that's there's 1 board of. I think that was the only board that said, Yes, I get a lot of non responses. I met with a more interestingly, I met with a lot of city Council members 2 didn't respond. One was a No, and the rest were yeses. So that would leave just out of 6 out of curiosity. Who who is it that you met who was in favor? Who was against? It's all in our little spreadsheet? So the the question to them, with their yes or no. Was. Would you be open to city council, being plan based by default, which for a board like that with is more just like having a higher ratio of plant based foods than meat foods, and of course, being totally because they're

[70:03] very different. Everyone is a yes, if Staff was on board and I could not get get in touch with the staff, the organizing staff. I emailed her 2 or 3 times and then honestly, just been distracted with my own work. So that is the hold up is kind of like getting set like the work, like people who do the work to but it was a lot of interesting conversations and a lot of learning in terms of like. what kind of questions come up for people? What were their concerns? Why, you know, was there one? No with the yeah. but 6 6 people were like, yeah, I mean, that's that's a voting majority. I think that's a indication, perhaps to staff around like willingness around council, to new stuff on food, and in the interest in in the climate perspective of what this brings. So whether they adopt or not, because I'm still trying to get in touch with Alicia.

[71:09] it shows, you know, real support. And then, yeah, most of the on the on the board thing I need to. I'll go ahead and follow up with. I mean, there's really not a lot of that actually have food, I think Parks and Rec. there's like, I'm planning like, there's just a couple other ones that actually. So the leverage is small there. but lucky us thanks for food, guys. I can follow up with everyone one more time. But I am. That did do meet in person to see And

[72:02] let's see if there's any any more interest there. But so that's update, isn't it a bit more environmentally friendly? If people are not ordering from outside and not having food in a certain sense. Yeah, well, that I mean. it depends. It depends. What are they eating at home? Are they still eat food that night. Right? It's just not necessarily here. And then, you know, like buses versus cars, right? Which one's more environmentally efficient. But I don't know if there's any advice from Jonathan in terms of perhaps reaching Staff. It just felt like. and yeah, I just got a little stopped reaching out. I didn't want to be annoyed. But if you have any other ideas in terms of like the execution of, if we have support from council, it needs support for me.

[73:00] Administrative staff. It's not advice, but an offer. I'm happy to have a conversation with the Cmo. Staff representatives just informally. I you, said Alicia. The city clerk is probably not the right person to reach out to. That's who everyone told me to reach out to. Well, I mean she does manage the meeting necessary, but she doesn't do a lot of the what is it? Meg's Megs is the support to council, but it would be more of the administrative staff and the Cmo. And so I will find out who the right person is. But I just yeah. I think perhaps this is where I was reaching the wrong person. but either way I think there was good progress. But what we do with it we should talk about happily. Alex, do you have any any- any fill ups on this. Think so. Thanks for all your hard work again, Hannah. It's been really cool.

[74:02] Yeah, absolutely. Also, as a side note, I am part of a national group that meets with. There's other cities around trying to pass things like this. And that's just been interesting to see and be part of so kind of representing unofficially representing Boulder in this group, and just starting to learn what other cities are doing like La's County is actually really interested in doing a lot. And there is some cool progress. We have more templates and stuff to look at any any updates you can bring from that would be appreciated as well. If if you stumble. If anything interesting comes up in that that you feel is appropriate to bring back to us. We would love to hear that. Okay, not to you. But if you're already participating anything, anything that you think is is interesting. We'd love to hear. Yeah. And there's an updated spreadsheet of all

[75:00] really, all around the world, actually. And what each city is doing. Oh, nice! Where it falls. I didn't make this like, I don't know if they'll let me. Yeah, I think so. Yeah. Happy to. Are you one of the people that have like when you annotated books, did you have like color coded sticky notes in each different sticky note color was for a different type of no, I'm not that type of you know. All right. Unless you have anything else about no questions. No good great cool we can move on to our next item Jonathan scheduling the racial equity training. I know we talked about this briefly in our meeting, and I will take a step back in this conversation, because it's going to be after I am off the board.

[76:05] So. but sure I'll kick it off. And then I'm gonna phone a friend by the name of Heather Sandin as I get into the conversation, because I my guess is she's bringing up some of the details. So one of the one of the modifications or requests that Council has had in our office of racial equity and and engagement and belonging. Excuse me, is to have all of the boards go through our racial equity training. And it's something that new board members will do when they are brought on, and I don't know. I don't think that anybody has done it. I did not do it. It was offered to me last time around but the dates. Just so. We've been talking about utilizing your April meeting to do that training. And I think it's just. It's better than trying to find a time that works for all of you. You're you have busy lives to begin with, so we can modify our agendas, and the the trainers who will be doing the training are are willing to do that which I think will be super helpful.

[77:15] So if we've all gone. All staff have gone through this and multiple different trainings. In the racial equity space. And I would just say more than ever, it's really important one. As we live, our values as a organization. So it will not, it will not. It's not a public meeting. So it would essentially go into a bit of an executive session side of thing where we just it would be a training. So it would not be a public meeting. How long does it last for? So there's a video that you would watch ahead of time. The video is, I believe, around an hour and then the actual training would be 2 and a half hours here. And so if if I'm correct, we'd basically just be like giving notice in March that we are not having a public meeting in April, we will resume our regular meeting schedule in May, and then our April meeting would just be the the time slot would just be taken out by the training instead.

[78:15] So I guess the big question is, would you prefer to start at 5, 30, and 8, or 6 to 8 30. I won't. I have. I have a slight preference of a 6 o'clock start time, but I could make 5 30 work, most likely other people. I'll go with what Alex was considering. She's probably looking for a sitter or someone coming back. Oh, too much. My opinion is not relevant. Okay? So they were really 2 questions. One, does that sound amenable to the board? To take one of your board meetings to do that training. And then, second, is April. Okay with you all, and extending the time from 5 30 to 8, I'll bring coffee.

[79:03] We can more chocolate. That works for me. Okay. But just to be clear, I did hear 6 o'clock start as well. Okay. Oh, yeah, if possible. But I can make 5 30 work, too. Okay? Oh, right? Sorry. I said that wrong. Yeah. I think of of the 2 people who are here that are going to be here you're you're the one with the time preference. So 6 sounds lovely. Alright, unless we have further follow ups Jonathan Heather. Okay, great. Then next we in consideration of you having twins. shell. you know. Sounds like a whole bit of a hassle, and probably taking a lot of time. So making meetings will be difficult. So, making an official leave of absence for you for as long as is needed to. Just so, you know, for ex executive

[80:03] reasons. Not that you're forbidden from joining, but that is fine. We don't need explicit. Start end dates on this. Just that. For what sort of just knowing official. I'm not gonna be able to find the word. Yeah, that, but not not quite that word, but similar. But yeah. So I'll put that forward as a motion, all those in favor. I. Great congrats. You won't be. Yes, And then you can bring the babies in. I mean, I mean, child care like babysitting periods are not terrible.

[81:12] Yeah, it was like 30 seconds. It's basically just that. It's not happening until next year. It did not take very long. Okay, do you want to take a peek at the the upcoming Council calendar. I know that our next meeting is the discussion about Willville. Right? Yeah. It's your next meeting. If you remember, this is back from late summer fall time, when council members had referred. A site room, app site, review, application for 20. I have to write, read the the

[82:02] actual address, the 2952 baseline. So that is the Well Bill Development and Council members had asked that that come to the Eab. So we've been talking to planning staff, and we're ready to do that. This is new for the Eab. You've not done Site Review applications previously. And so we're talking with our colleagues in planning so they can provide a good prime and give you information in advance on the type of feedback. That is being requested. They have multiple boards that they need to go to. So we're happy to have this on for your march meeting. Great it's a good question. I don't. I don't totally know the answer to that. I don't believe so. I think it will be mostly in the critical feedback dan and that's mostly because voting on an application requires that quasi judicial power to do that, so that usually lives with the planning board and Council. The other boards are representative of making sure that your views are heard and represented to council, and

[83:21] that was not what I was getting. Yeah. Great. Are there any other things on on the calendar? Going forward that you think are particularly relevant? A couple of other things. You'll see that March 20th are the Board and Commission appointments. I wanted to flag that one I mentioned as we were going to start before we go on the record tonight that there are 13 applications for the one vacant position that will be up, which is tremendous. So really appreciate the number of folks who are interested in the Board's work. Those interviews will take place later this month, and then appointments will be made at that March 20th meeting.

[84:15] We've already talked about the Excel partnership update scheduled for March 13th again. As you think about we we will have an opportunity to check back in at your March meeting. If there are other outstanding issues that you want to make sure are put into the record for that conversation, you'll have a copy of the memo. But again, it's a study session. There's not a formal decision that council will be making that night. So whatever would come out of that we would have to take back to council. I recall the applications being online for people who apply for boards. Where does where do we find that, like people who actually submitted the application.

[85:00] maybe we had this conversation again before we went on the record of whether those applications were public and available. You did. Okay? So it may be the case. They may not be available yet until interviews take place. I'm not quite sure. So let me chase that one down. That's like stressful. Yeah, if they're online. No, no, I mean, like 13 applicants. One selective. Yeah, it's kind of a lot of work. Yeah, I think we actually had more. And a couple were ineligible because they lived outside city limits. Yeah, I think there were 15 min interviews. No. think, yeah, 1015 min, 1015 min. Yeah. So Heather and I will be doing this along with the council member Adams. Okay.

[86:03] it's good. How did you decide which council they all to watch the recordings right? They all have access to the recording and I think they take it pretty seriously. So most council members will review, and then that Council member that sits in usually makes a recommendation to their colleagues to for who should be appointed? How many boards are there in the city like 22. Yeah. I think my year there were like 7 8 applicants for 2 seats. I think people care about the amount might be something to that effect. I will just say, I can't. I can't remember. Do they have? Do all applicants

[87:02] go through to the interview process? Or is that a down selection process in and of itself. No, as long as they are as Heather just said that 2 were disqualified because they don't live inside city limits, but otherwise they all go through to an interview. They have their standard responses, you may remember, and then we ask some additional questions. During the interview. Okay, yeah, thank you. Alright, I feel like it'd be great to have people with like deep expertise into in like, whatever area of climate I personally, I, you're not looking for feedback on it. But I'm just like, obviously not everything, but like what? Maybe it's like electricity, or maybe it's something else. But like real, like teeth in the

[88:04] and the environmental space would be great. I will say we are losing our angry Socialists. So that is a role we have to have at least once a meeting. One has to say corporations are fucking evil, and you know I might have to. I think we need to attend all right. Anything else on the calendar that any of us wanna bring forward, or do you think is particularly admitted? I think I said this at your last meeting, I'll just conclude there are a good number of items that we're trying to see up for board presentations and agendas in 2025, just doing the best that we can do to make sure we have really relevant timely important topics before you. So yeah, I always welcome the feedback. If you do spend some time looking at that anticipated upcoming council items in the back of your packet. There are things there that you really want to make sure. Come forward. Just please reach out and we can get those calendars.

[89:22] Great. Okay, thank you. So unless Alex did, you wanna put anything forward that you you're interested in talking about in the future, or. I'm all set. Thank you. Great. Thank you. With that. Our next meeting is the 5th of March. Oh, yeah. Okay. That is the last thing on the schedule. So with that I shall make a motion to adjourn community. Second, all those in favor right. I.

[90:00] As unanimously. That will end our meeting for the night.