December 3, 2025 — Environmental Advisory Board Regular Meeting

Transcript

Captions from City of Boulder YouTube recording.

[0:52] Is the audio still working okay? Yep. Alright. Loud and clear. Perfect.

[1:15] And Heather, always big thanks for pulling everything together virtually, last minute. Of course. I was looking forward to dinner, so yeah, there's that. I could say a pizza from… for January. Alright. Yeah, I was kind of looking forward to a Mediterranean from backcountry also. Yeah, exactly. Cool. I'm gonna try to switch to my desktop. for anyone curious, I had plugged the monitor. into itself. Oh, I don't think that works. No, turns out… Causes problems, but… Here we are.

[2:05] I'm gonna pause the recording since we've still got a couple of minutes to go. I think we're ready to go. Welcome, everybody, to the December Environmental Advisory Board meeting. Hannah, take it away. First, let's see, I don't. We appreciate it. Approve the minutes. Oops. Is that what's first added? By, calling the meeting to order. Called order! The meeting. Thank you. I second. Alright. Wait. And I will go ahead and, Get the meeting protocols pulled up. Sorry, everyone. Thank you, as we are… Dealing with some… some tech stuff on the back end. All right, here we go

[3:12] And it's not gonna let me share my screen now. We'll just do it this way. There we go. Can you see my screen? Still no. Yeah. Yeah, this weekend. Time's a charm. I heard it, there you go. All right. Welcome, everybody, to, like I said, the December EAB meeting. Thanks for your patience as we're, virtual tonight. Things are, we're a little out of practice, at least I'm a little out of practice with the, virtual Zoom format when, we're usually in person. Anyways, 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 members, as well as democracy for people of all ages, identities, lived experiences, and political perspectives.

[4:06] For more information about this vision and the community engagement process, please visit that website seen on your screen, boulderColorado.gov forward slash services forward slash productive hyphen atmospheres, and the Boulder Revised Code, Section 16B. The City will enforce the rules of decorum found in the Boulder Revised Code, Section 16B, including 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. No attendee shall disrupt, disturb, or otherwise impede the orderly conduct of any board meeting in a manner that obstructs the business of the meeting. This also includes failing to obey any lawful order of the presiding officer to leave the physical or virtual meeting room, or refrain from addressing the board. Only one person at a time may speak during open comment unless an accommodation, like an interpreter, is required.

[5:05] 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, other epithets based on race, gender, or religion, and other speech and behavior that disrupts or otherwise impedes the meeting will not be tolerated. 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.

[6:02] Alright, I don't see any… Attendees, is that correct, Heather? That is correct. So then… I'll move. Motion to approve the minutes. From last month. I'll second. Wonderful. Great! Our agenda today is Annual Letter to Council. Approval of the 2026 meeting schedule, and then some matters from the city. which Jonathan said would take about 20, 30 minutes or so, so… We can jump in on the letter. Thanks, everyone, for getting in the dock. Let me… share my screen, in case anyone's gonna watch this YouTube and wants to follow along. Adam, I went through and made some comments on your Great notes.

[7:09] Yes, thank you for putting this together, and I'm sad I probably should have… done this earlier than today, but, but I, it was nice to have something to work with. Yes. I'd say the overall goal, and you guys should edit this as if it does not kind of hit that, is kind of to frame, like, the problem And, like, a broad solution. without getting too in the weeds of what they should do. I did add, like, a potential We can delete this, I just did this today. I think Jonathan is trying to say something. Oh, I can't see people. Oh, that's okay. Oh, sorry, there we go. Thanks. I didn't want to interrupt. Just as a matter for the record, I might suggest doing a quick little introduction for those that may be watching, if they pop on, just on the topic of creating the letter for Council, just so we have a good record.

[8:10] About the conversation, if you don't mind. Thought that might be useful. Yes, thank you, sorry. No, you don't have to apologize, it's just… just an observation. Great. For the record, this is the biannual, depending on the year, letter to Council of the Environmental Advisory Board, sorry, scrolling, recommendations of what Council should include on their one-year work plan. So it's just 2026, 12 months, because we're gonna do another election next year. And they'll have 10 priorities, and so they reach out to all the different boards. And they receive letters of what those boards would recommend. And this is our letter. High level, it is to hire a food policy director that works across departments at the city that integrates both climate and environment from our perspective, but also health, equity.

[9:07] Across all sorts of food programs, so that could be health, emissions. procurement, food waste, just… we don't really have anyone at the city that manages that. There is some folks at the county, so this person would work with the county, with local nonprofits that are working on these issues, and kind of help bring everyone together under one have some real ownership from a city perspective. So that's kind of the high level of what our letter draft says. So far, and it kind of goes into a lot more of the sustainability problems to be solved than kind of other aspects, since it's coming from our board.

[10:00] Did I miss anything, anyone? That sounds good. I like that Adam added the emissions thing. That's a really smart idea, so just wanted to say thank you. And thanks, Hannah, for writing it. So what we're… our goal today is to… generally finish it. We have, you know, a week or so to, like, do edits in docs, but… I think our goal should just be to finish it during this meeting, and… Have it ready to send out. Since people were able to review it ahead of time. So I think maybe we can start with the letter, and then we can look at the part I had added to see if it's, like, a good addendum. Oh, two pages is maximum. Probably the shorter the better, generally. So yeah, I'm not, like, attached to any of this. I think we took some of the work we did last year on the Environmental Advisory Board in our letter, and… expanded it specifically around this food policy director hire, since it felt like something that was…

[11:05] Very attainable for a one-year work plan. Besides the hiring freeze currently in place, but, hopefully that won't be in place all year. So, one thing, I guess to kick us off is, Hannah, in your perspective, I'd like to understand, how you would define, kind of, a food system, and where the city of Boulder kind of plays a role in that, and just understanding your perspective, I think, would help me then kind of better understand how to present our recommendations to the Council. Yeah, and I'm not attached to any of this, so please jump in with other ideas, but, for me, food systems really… Is kind of the whole supply chain of food. So, from what… You know, bottom, what's grown.

[12:03] to end consumer. Obviously, a lot of that's not gonna apply to… the city, because we're not growing all of that food, even a lot of our farms are kind of in the county. So, how do we work, in partnership with, you know, for example, like, BVSD school food systems, like, do really great at getting local food for their schools and working across the region, so kind of having someone that represents the city in those conversations, so that's one aspect of it. But it's also, you know, the health of our Citizens, it's food security, so whether there's, like, I don't know, just… some issue around food security, for our community. Food waste is a huge part of that, where you have a lot of expertise. Procurement, so… a lot of cities, like, run their school programs and run their jails and, like, run senior housing, and all these different places that procure food. City of Boulder doesn't do that. We… it would just be really, like.

[13:06] what they're buying for city staff and city events. It's much smaller than a lot of, other cities that have food policy work, because they're doing much more food purchasing, and that's usually where a lot of the leverage is, but I still think there's a lot… that can be done within the city's procurement. And then, again, it's like a liaison that would work with CU that is doing… CU Boulder's doing some great stuff already. And, like, BBSD, for examples. leading school in the whole country. So what can we learn from them? And, and then, of course, working with the county and our farmers that are in the county. I don't know… if there's any in Boulder, City of Boulder or not. I know we have a lot of land that's managed, but I don't think… I don't know… Okay.

[14:00] And is the City of Boulder involved in many of, like, the food banks, or, like, the… you know, the pantry… Yeah. I don't know… That's a great question. My… Gas would be not. Yeah. Jonathan, you know otherwise, but my guess is not. So yeah, someone that is working with those programs. Like, I know Boulder Food Rescue has kind of created right now, I forget what they're calling it. But they're trying to bring together all the foods. need organizations like EFA, for example, and really support them and help make sure resources get where they get to… get where they need to be, so someone who could work with those programs? Like, there is a food person at the county, for example. Hmm. So having someone at the city that would work with the county and work with these organizations to help make sure that all of our community members are getting what they need. And… It probably would still weigh on these nonprofits, I imagine.

[15:03] But. you know, are there certain policies, or taxes, or anything? Like, who… I don't… I don't know, I would not be the hire for this role, but I do wonder, you know, what could they do? That other cities have done. Because my… based off of what I read and the links that you put in there, the main, I think, like. The two areas where you can have an intervention is on the selection, so, like, finding alternatives to, to meat and dairy, just given the… the high land use and methane emissions. So that would be, you know, you know, covering the gamut of a selection, I guess. And then the other one is the local, you know, buy local, which I think, based on the information, given the low pro… emissions profile of that, I don't want to, like, hang our hat on that particular

[16:05] Aspect if it's not really, you know, a convincing argument or a strong… argument that, you know, you have lower emissions in transporting it. I think it could be local… there's some other kind of aspects, you know, some other value proposition with the buy local. I think that's for, like, economic… the economy of our local community, as well as, like, the health of the food. You know, fresh food has more nutrients in it, and… sustainably grown food has more nutrients in it. But you're right, it wouldn't be an emissions. Yeah. Because that… Or maybe for local meat. There's a lot of local meat, and so that would probably be a… More of that argument. Yeah, so it looks like the venues in which the city could play a role is with the, or maybe the county, I guess, depending on how you want to view it, is the…

[17:09] the Boulder Valley School District, And, how they make their selections and where they procure their suppliers. So I think looking at, like, the selection profile, as well as, the proximity of that could be two areas where the city would play a role. PVSD is actually not… the city's not in charge of EBSD, they're their own… it's kind of different than other places. Yeah. And I also will say, with this, I think… And I'm curious what you guys thought, like, I kind of want to keep the letter, like, high level of, like, just hire a food director. Yep. Versus, like, really prescriptive, and maybe that means some of the stuff I should put… I put in here already should come out. So, like, not saying this is what they should do exactly.

[18:03] But more just, like, this is why it's important, if that makes sense. Yeah, Jonathan has his hand up, so… Sorry, I see everyone's picture except for Jonathan's. Jonathan's hand is up, though. Totally fine! I… only when there's an opening. Okay. Well, I was gonna… I was just gonna agree with what Hannah just said, is I think my preference would be to keep it sort of broad, you know, and I think just… I'm not sure how much movement there will be with this hire, but it just… it shows… to the City Council that this is an important topic, right? And I see, like, in the… fourth paragraph, I think, in the letter. Basically, policy director would enable Boulder to take comprehensive system styles approach, one that simultaneously supports sustainability, public health, and food equity. You know, it's just… High level, super high level, you know, just kind of gets to, you know, we believe this is important, this is a place that we can make an impact, and let's try and make that change.

[19:14] My only hesitation is that I'm trying to get a sense of the purview in which the city could play a potential role. And if it's very small, given that it's only for city… You know, procurement or purchasing decisions. then I'm like, does it… would it require a food policy director? And so that's my hesitation, is that, If we're suggesting that we have someone in there, I would want to have some type of sense of how much substantive work they would be able to be engaged with. Now, there could be a liaison that would work with the school district, or if…

[20:00] like, a partnership, like, if there was an option to have more farm… farmland on open space that went to, you know, to address food insecurity or food equity, then I could see, okay, yeah, there's an opportunity to play a role, but if it's just as small as Guidelines for… for, you know, policy for food purchases from a municipal standpoint. I'm just a little bit hesitant to then recommend a policy director position. That's my initial reaction. Would the policy coordinator sound any… Program manager. Program manager sounds less daunting. But I was gonna say, I think the role is… much more than that. Because, like, for example, when I was in high school, I was able to start community gardens at my high school, and while I understand that Boulder Valley school district is its own thing. I still got, like, funding from my city, where my high school was, to do this because of a rule that was fighting food insecurity, and so there's a whole, like.

[21:06] policy side to this. Like, other cities, when SNAP benefits went away, it was like one person was able to really, like. jump in and take charge and make sure that everyone got food, and I know the governor Colorado tried to do that and send emergency funding, and, like, some of the food banks stepped up, but if there had been one person, like, who could look at benefits that people are on, like, have access to that data, it's kind of like the health equity side, and then, like you said, like, the policies for the city, and then also some type of… I see a lot of, like, land partnerships, for example. I think it's, like, North Boulder. There's, like, a whole urban farm there. I understand that's private, like, non-profit land, growing gardens. farm area, but, like, that's an entrust… entrusted… Jonathan probably knows more about this than I do, but it's, like, entrusted that it has to be urban farmland for at least 100 years, I think is what they were telling me last time I was there. And so, I think, like, things like that, where people can have community plots, not only does that reduce emissions, because you're growing your own food, you're composting, all those things, but also reduces that supply chain, so a little bit of… there could be, like, a whole education side on top of a resource coordination, and then that procurement, and then…

[22:17] Jonathan, Adam, I really like to think… this bothers me to no end, coming from California, that I can't compost. My food. I don't know if I've misunderstood the policy, or my landlord did something weird that's nodding, like, whoever told you that was lying to you, but at least my landlord doesn't let us put food waste in our compost bin for our apartment building. And so, and I've heard that from a lot of other people who are, like, students, or live on the Hill, or downtown Boulder, so… because I asked so many people when I first moved here, and so, like, just, like, someone keeping track of those policies, because I see Jonathan saying that's not… the policy. But I know I'm not the only one who has this from their landlord as a rule that they're not allowed to do, or they'll pay, like I said, they'll fine us.

[23:02] And so, yeah, and I've heard this from multiple people, who rent, specifically. So just, like, I think there's a whole, like, education side of it, too, of, like, what's the actual rules as well. I really like that. Go ahead, Jonathan. Yeah, no, thank you. These are excellent points and really good questions, and I wanted to maybe add a little color, I think, Adam, to your excellent question about what the purpose and role of a position might entail in terms of what is the purview within the city. You started with a question, or someone asked a question about food banks specifically, and you… I think Hannah was absolutely right. While the city doesn't oversee the food banks. We do coordinate and work with them directly through a lot of our assistance programs through our housing department. So those are, like, emergency family assistance programs, a Harvest of Hope Food Pantry, Community Food Share, these are obviously, sites, but there are a lot of smaller organizations that the city does provide some funding to, and my department is included in that.

[24:06] There are, Boulder County resources, obviously. This is all around accessibility to food, but I want to pick up on Hannah's point, too, which is In terms of what the city's role could be, I think it's yet to be determined. I mean, food is a big concept, and so you could explore lots of dimensions. Accessibility, access to healthy foods, the ability to grow locally, and so Hannah's point about policy is a good one, that we look at our land use policies. Are they Both encouraging and enabling people to grow locally, whether that's right-of-way gardening, whether that's hoop houses, greenhouses, what kind of regulation would allow people to do more of their own? I think there is also this big waste piece, that we know is, I think, problematic. And Hannah, just as a PSA, I'll just give you the 20-second view.

[25:04] Boulder has had one of the longest-standing organics collections programs in the country, just like all Front Range cities. A couple of years ago, when we saw increased contamination, at our, processor, A1 Organics. They stopped collecting all materials that were not food scraps and yard waste, and so that meant commercial composting was not allowed to be delivered. So, when you think about commercial, usually multifamily housing is considered commercial. Our ordinance requires, restaurants and apartments to offer composting, and so what you might be experiencing is a little bit of a, misinterpretation of what they are required to do, but if they offer any kind of composting service or collection, it's absolutely for food waste and yard waste. What we don't allow right now because of our processor are those front-of-house things that you see at restaurants.

[26:08] bags, and we are working on, an alternative to that program right now, because every city is in that position right now. So I just wanted to make that clear. And then the last thing I wanted to say here is that I think there's a strong role for the city, as we've been doing a lot of work engaging with the community in the resilience space. We talk with our communities and our neighborhoods about what they need during times of emergency. It is, and oftentimes we hear. Access to healthy foods. there are challenges in terms of accessibility, so what can the city do as we build in that resilience structure, as we think about building resilience hubs and sites that people gather? There's a real important role there for food. So, I would just say that there are a lot of connections, and then the… I really appreciate that you all are thinking about

[27:00] you know, the impact associated with food miles traveled, and how we actually secure and procure food. I think I'll end by saying what I started with, which I don't know it's fully… fleshed out yet. All I know is that over and over again, we hear that we need to be putting some effort into the food system or the food, initiatives locally, and the city has a lot of roles that they can play. Sorry, that was long-winded, but I think those are really good questions. So I'm… based off of that, Jonathan, that's helpful to know. Maybe we could say on the outset, that… they're kind of, like, is a dual role. One is to… Influence or have this kind of policy Kind of aspect… Where this… and places where the city interacts with other organizations, either through funding or coordinating.

[28:04] And what they can do is we can say, okay, you know, based on the priorities of the council, here's some of the areas that you can play in. We can look at, you know, the emissions profile and how that would affect selections of different types of foods. We can look at the Grow Local Perspective. And then we can also look at, accessibility. So, if we kind of say, here are kind of the three categories that we're looking at, you know, emissions profile, you know, local sourcing, and then, access to healthy foods. And then that will kind of guide our… That will be kind of our policy foundation, and then we'll implement that with the different organizations that the city works with, either directly or, you know, by some type of educational campaign or informational

[29:00] you know, some information, marketing or something like that. And then that can kind of keep it at a high level. I guess, and then they can interpret it where it makes sense to… to implement that. At least that's… that's how I would maybe see it. Okay, great, I wrote that what you said, don't appear, it's just… I didn't want to integrate it in real time. Jonathan, is your hand… no hand, or… Okay. Old hand. Oh, sad. Teams automatically lowers it. Zoom does not. So I really like the idea of the city of, like, you know, using the tools and the data that it has of, okay, here is, you know, like, how do you measure what a food desert is, or, you know, access to food, or, you know, equity, or, you know, access to, you know, cultural appropriate food, or, you know… And… and how much is local versus… so if you have a place to go to where you can get that information, then the different groups that participate in it, you all have a common understanding of what's going on. The city provides that purview. So you have that, like, that analysis perspective. And then you also have the policy, like, what are our objectives? Are we trying to…

[30:15] you know, source food with lower emissions? Are we trying to, like. You know, have more nutrients, locally sourced. You know, those… if those are the priorities, then we can kind of push those, and those may change over time. But at least you have, like, a shop where you can go to the information to then identify, okay, within the food system. What are the different dynamics in terms of access and local versus, you know, purchased outside the state or whatnot, and a level of nutrients or affordability or, you know, all those kind of questions that would enable you to get an insight into how is the food system working?

[31:01] Sorry, it takes me forever to get off mute for you. Great. I wrote all that down. Anyone else have… Thoughts. Oh, and the other thing is, I would love, you know, so I was grappling with this, because I, I did a white paper on, Boulder's, boulder's recycling and Composting program. And, so… it was basically just a personal interest to become more familiar and learn about the composting and organics system, and… A1 Organics, and I think it's working well. I just wanted to say… I don't know if the food policy director would be part of it, but I thought it would be nice to, like, expand the purview of what is the highest and the best use for the… for this, the food… the organics waste.

[32:05] Right now, it's going into composting, but should we consider anaerobic digestant to create biogas, and then ultimately methane? you know, natural gas to power an electrical facility? Could it be used for… in paralysis to create biochar? Could it be used for bioplastics? You know, all these other options. So, I just want to say one thing that, you know, maybe it's not a position, but I'd have a lot of interest in exploring additional options for the food waste. Beyond composting and say, is there another, you know, path that we should consider that would provide some value to the city? Yeah, and I imagine that this person would work with our amazing waste team. and collaborate. For sure. Maybe to keep it high level, we can link your research in there, but then just put, like, one line, like. To manage food waste.

[33:01] On top of, like, the food systems, like, thinking about food as a full system, like, waste. as well, including composting and other alternatives to make sure it's as efficient, and list some of the things that you listed, and then they can go read about it and, like, to your paper, because I think it's a really good idea, and there's, like, a lot of… that also plays into the economic development side of having a good food system, because can you sell those materials, or can you invest in companies with that, or provide the materials to a really cool startup doing something really interesting, you know? So, I think there's… I think there's a whole, like, circular economy side to it, too. So, it's really interesting. Do you guys think that this… so, not gonna lie, ChatGPT wrote this part right here. I did write the other part. But, do you think, to that point, like, do you think this is a helpful, like, addendum of, like, this is just an example, this is not… we're not… I'd… we'd make it more clear that, like, just to paint a little bit of a picture for Council of, like, what would the city do? Because I did add that here, of examples of types of things they could do, and I put that, comment you had made.

[34:12] into the food waste. Overseas, not the right. It'd be more, like, coordinate with. But… Do you guys think this is, like, too much? It would be, like, the letter page one, and then this would just be, like, an example page two. And we'd probably need to wordsmith it, since… ChatGP. Yeah, I'd like to review it and kind of chew on it a little bit and see. Yeah. This is kind of, like, within the… Within the, arena where the city would play a role. Yeah, we can change these, I guess it's more… we can say, like, high level, do you think this would be… make our letter stronger if we included some examples, or do you think people would be like, oh no, I don't think they should do this, and maybe… be turned off by it, because they're thinking.

[35:04] Yeah. Not getting too detailed. I think I would just want to better understand what these work areas are, and if this is something the city could really play a role in. And if so, then, you know, just keep it kind of high level, but I need to kind of Think it over and say, okay, is this where the city would participate and, could make a contribution? One… Anyone else have thoughts on that? I know you haven't all read it, but… Oh, someone chatted. Sorry, I'm reading it right now, live. One other idea I had was, what do you think about adding food… the word systems to it, a city food systems? That would mean that it's not only the procurement of it, and the production of it, but then also managing the waste.

[36:04] And so, if you had kind of… if that's what you call a system, like the life cycle of food. Then you'd have the, you know, purchase and… And, you know. Yeah, great. Sourcing, and then the management of the waste, so it covers all aspects of the… For the life cycle of food. I'm also, per Jonathan's comment, I'm changing it from director to position, because I think that's right, to keep it even broader. Doesn't matter what the title is. And I'll change at different systems. Did you say food systems policy? Right? I think so. Food systems policy? Oh, this was an example, actually, I… if anyone's wondering why this isn't here, it's gonna be deleted, but this is from the New York City Food Policy.

[37:07] position. And honestly, I was like, man, we should just copy and paste this, because it's… Quite good in terms of… What we also want. Well, we could say something, like, similar to the New York City food policy. Yeah. You know, and… Put that… idea. You know. Because it's… it's just electric. Yeah. Yeah, I'd like to read through that and get a sense of things, but I think, in my mind, it's like. When you think of, like, Someone who has their pulse on the food systems. Or the food system in Boulder. that's who you go to. So, the nonprofits, the BVSD, the… You know, the grocery stores, the chains, the, you know, the different,

[38:03] food banks, like, they all kind of are connected to this person who is kind of the expert, or has a sense of what's going on, and they can explain, you know, who's involved, and they kind of coordinate you know, working and saying, oh, you should talk to that person. So it's kind of like a one-stop shop. I think there's a lot of value in that coordinated effort. I would say, Hannah, back to your original question, I like that idea… of them, but yeah, I just would want to read through them, and yeah, we can wordsmith it a little bit. But I think the idea of just having some… ideas of, like, how it would address some of the challenges, and maybe we can even link it to some of the broader, Boulder Valley, like, comprehensive Plan as well, so it's, like, linking to either our city plans, like, resilience, and…

[39:04] Other solutions, and so really just tying it into, like, the city's own county strategy. As well, on this section of, like, how it… Yeah. It's priorities. Great. Yeah, I think the goal would be, like, a headline and one sentence, and just kind of be like, this is not what you have to do. It's just, if they happen to have the same question Adam did, of like, well, what can the city even do? Then we're kind of answering that question. Okay, so maybe with this, what we'll do… Let's see, it's due the 19th. I believe. Okay. Should we set a deadline in which we add our comments in? I think maybe… One week. from today.

[40:02] and then it'll give us one week after that to… Clean it up. Could we have it done… could we have it done by the 12th? Why? Well, my wife and my… my and my wife's birthdays are on the 9th and 10th. It can get it done by the 8th! Yeah, that's fine. Alright, so if we have all our comments in by the 12th… And then, actually, if you, well, you could do it either way, but… the preference… If you… if you have a strong opinion on actual wording, then… Use the editing tool and… no, suggestion, it's called. And, like, actually write what you want in there.

[41:00] This tool here, suggestion. Versus just saying, add this, or whatever. So you want us to put in full sentences where… rather than leaving comments, right? If you have strong opinions about it. Or… Yeah. Or, like, some sort of expertise that… would be more helpful if you wrote specifically. I think, you know, we'll have one week from there to, like. Narrow it down, and then that, that is… What we need to discuss, how that's gonna happen, because That's just, like, slightly. complicated. I think generally what happened last time is I accepted any pretty much all the changes people added and changed were accepted, for the most part, except for maybe, like, a few that were contradicting or something like that. But when you see what other people add and stuff, try to

[42:11] if you disagree with or anything, comment in there so I know, like, not everyone's on board to accept that, or, you know… I guess I'll just do my best to represent everyone's… So, I mean, everyone can put in their comments before, you know, by the 10th. I just, I wanted to give myself a little bit of time, but maybe, Hannah, if, you know, if the rest of the board members, if we put in our comments. And then… and then the week of the 15th. You go in and then wordsmith it, and then… and then send it off by the 19th. Yeah, that's what I was thinking. Okay, alright. And then I'll… I mean, I'll try to wordsmith it, send it back to you guys one more time. But ideally, I'm more just, like, accepting what you guys have actually written versus, like, having…

[43:00] Okay. Too much. And then I'll, I'll kind of… Except… Comments and stuff based on the discussion today to make sure it's aligned with kind of what we all talked about. Around, kind of, keeping it high level and everything. Sounds good. Any other… Thanks, Ted. Around the letter, anyone wants to say? This is good. Cool. Good discussion. Great, if I know higher up… Next year? Just send it again in 2027. They finally just give in, just so that you stop sending them the same letters. They're like, fine, we'll get some college interned and give them a title. Exactly. I did meet with Council… most of Council, actually, on a separate thing, but some food stuff.

[44:05] And a lot of them are very into the, like, local, like. they're all like, yeah, I want to support local food. I'm like, well, that's not actually what I'm here to talk about, but… so there was some, like. Excitement around it. You get people with, like, organic and local food, and then you're like, actually, food security and food waste. Okay, well… Let me go back to our agenda, then. It sounds like… We're good? Okay, approval… of the 2026 EA… I can stop sharing my screen now, EIB meeting schedule. I'm sure I… that must be somewhere in this… oh, here we go. Shoot, I have it opened on the wrong computer. One second, please. So I can share the schedule with you all.

[45:05] I'm… Heather, is this, like, a… something we have to do… still change these, I guess, if something comes up, or… Yes, we can still change it. Just a little additional context, there has recently been a request from our city clerk's office to understand what dates each board meets for 2026, or plans to meet, so that they can start inputting those dates into our agenda management system. So, we don't typically do this this early in… in the… or ahead of the new year. Typically, we just schedule them the first Wednesday of each month, and then adjust as needed. However, I went ahead and looked at what those first Wednesday of the month dates would be, and then looked for any potential conflicts. So that's what you see here. So, thank you for doing that.

[46:02] Okay, I'm just looking… you already looked at conflicts, so I don't need to… did… Do we need to approve… is this, like, a vote we should do? I… I don't think that you have to vote, on… on this specifically. I guess I would say this, that if there's any… well, let me back up and say what Heather said is accurate. These are the dates that we want to submit to the clerk. We can always change them as we move forward, but if there's any opposition to any of these dates, I know it's very hard to think about what you're going to be doing, 8 to 12 months from now, but if there's anything that pops for any of you, it's why we wanted to provide this in advance, and if there's any opposition to us providing this to the clerk, please say so. Knowing full well that we can change the schedule as we move along. So, it's kind of a no-regret option.

[47:03] Works for me. Yep. Heather, that work for you? Yes, that works for me. Okay. Next up, we have… Matters from the city. Over to you, Jonathan. Oh yeah, okay, good. So, I don't know that this will take all that much time, but I wanted to, bring, bring back a little bit of, I think. a little bit of a debrief. The last time we met, it was the day before we were presenting the updated Climate Action Plan to City Council, and so I thought it would be useful to talk with you about how that went, what we heard from Council, and some of the next steps. All in all, I will say it was an incredibly productive evening with Council. We're going to show you, how we kicked off that meeting in just a moment, but high level, just to kind of refresh your memory.

[48:02] We had talked to you all some months ago about the fact that this was a council priority, and we've been working on this now for about a year and a half, just to think about what opportunity does this present us to really reframe and refresh, our Climate Action Plan? And one of the things I will just share with you that's been really interesting is, as we got further into, having discussions with our community about what the… what the plan actually represents, and how they can see themselves in it. It gave us a lot of new opportunity to think about how we utilize the Climate Action Plan. One of the things that has always been a little bit of a pain point for us is really recognizing that the CAP is intended to be at this consolidated list of the different strategies, our goals, what we're trying to get to, what's the roadmap on getting there. When we don't control all of those factors, meaning when I say we, that's the city. Certainly, we don't control all of those factors. We need a lot of investment and participation from community to achieve a lot of those goals. We need participation from business.

[49:11] But as local government, we do control a lot of the factors. We can pull some of those levers, and then there are factors that are outside our control completely, and that's why we advocate for policy changes at the state level, for example. So, it also gave us a… so… The point is, is that it gave us a really distinct opportunity to clarify what the Climate Action Plan is, and who it represents, and what body of work needs to go into it. And then my department really is designing its own strategic plan to say, we as a department play a role in this. We coordinate internally across various departments, and we also coordinate and offer and facilitate programming into the community. So, one of the things that I think was most notable in this update was really what we describe as, the whole-of-government approach.

[50:03] Meaning that, we need every department across the city organization to be playing a really particular role in advancing climate work. And I would say, very, pointedly, that all departments have really stepped up to that challenge. We have some departments, like Open Space, who has created their own climate action plan that aligns with the broader community plan. We now work very closely with Parks and Recreation. They have always been a champion of natural spaces and managing ecosystems, but aligning targets within, their master plan, and the Climate Action Plan. So it's this great opportunity to do this great alignment. And we were able to do that, through a lot of the work. Kate Galbu, I think you've met Kate previously, she mapped this work across the organization to see If we care about water and why water connects to climate. Do we anticipate to pull all of the water policy and strategies into the cap? No, they live elsewhere. They live in the water… the strategic plan, they live in the drought plan, the water supply plan that you heard about last month.

[51:13] So the intention there is to really acknowledge that there's a whole ecosystem that exists in plans, and just… we then work to align a lot of the targets, the goals, and the actions, and the KPIs, quite frankly. So, really advancing that whole-of-government approach was, I think, one of the biggest, new, additions to the Climate Action Plan, so that was super helpful. We also added a lot more accountability and rigor into the plan. by… and I shared… this isn't new to any of you, really listing out a lot of KPIs, which in… which is, we have big moves in each of the thematic areas, so in energy, what are the big moves that are really going to help us achieve our goals? in nature-based solutions, for example, and so being able to identify the buckets, what are the big moves, what's it going to take to actually achieve those big moves? And so all this was laid out, in the presentation with Council.

[52:08] I'm gonna pause, and I'm going to have Heather cue up how we kicked this off, and then I want to come back and give you a little bit more. But one of the things that we've heard for a while is, when we talk about climate work, there is this long-standing challenge that we have that It's inaccessible in language, it's very technical, jargony language, and I think many people believe that to take any meaningful action on climate, you have to be a climate scientist, you have to be an energy expert. And part of that is really reflected in, our desire to do more around youth engagement. And so, over the past couple of years, we've had some really interesting opportunities where we led a youth climate summit just before COVID, and it's been hard to get our feet under us since then to really, really accelerate in the youth space.

[53:05] And so we, by having our new engagement specialist, Darren Wagner, on board, she has done some great work in this space when she was with Parks and Recreation, and so she's been leading a lot of that for us. And so, all that to say, we wanted to kick things off with Council a little bit differently, and that's… that's kind of normal for us. We know that usually we're at the end of a meeting, they've had a very difficult conversation, very policy-heavy, and they're a bit tired, and so we would just… we just wanted to do a little bit of a reset. And so, a little queue up here, and then I'll… I'll tell Heather to press go. This was an idea that was, curated by our, both our engagement specialists and specifically our, our communications specialist, who actually put this all together, and I'll tell you more about it. I don't want to say anything more. Heather, you want to go ahead and pull it up?

[54:02] Yes, and as I start this, please let me know if you can't hear the sound, because it sometimes gets a little finicky. Sure. It's about four and a half minutes, so feel free to eat your dinner. Sorry, it's not letting me select the option to share the sound. Of course. I get it all hyped up, and then we have technical difficulties. Is there sound? Not yet. No. Okay, let me try it one more time, sorry. No, that's okay.

[55:00] We did some of this tech troubleshooting just before, but, you know, it… Just goes to show ya. And if it doesn't work, Heather, we can always send it out. Yeah, my apologies, it's not allowing me to add the sound. No problem. Would you like to watch it without the sound? It's still… I think quite impressive. What if you just emailed it right now, and we all watched it? Could do that. Sure. I think sound would be nice. Yeah, I think it's kind of important. Yeah. And let me, actually close this and try it one more time.

[56:00] Sometimes just a little reset can be helpful. Heather, where is the, video located online? Because I may be able to share my screen, and… I don't think that we have it up on the website yet. Because I think I've seen this video, though, but maybe I'm wrong. What I can do, Adam, is let me try to email it to you. It's kind of a large file, so I'm hesitant to drop it into the chat. And let's see if you're able to share it that way. I can share my screen, but there's a button to… It's… it's too big for me to share.

[57:00] Okay, we will revisit this. I will, once we post it online, we can send out a link to it. Yeah, no, no problem. Yeah, we can just move on, no sweat. I'll just give you a little bit of the teaser. So, Lyra Nickley, who is our communication specialist, just… brought this idea of writing a children's book, and then was able to work with a local company to actually animate it. And the intention here is to really, help understand the role that young people do play, and it was an opportunity for young people to connect in, to this work, and it's really beautiful. And our hope is, as… And I will say this, too, that this was actually spurred by some work that we did. If anybody went to the Scott Carpenter event that we had some months ago, where all city departments were represented, and we had an interactive display where young people could choose to be a climate superhero, and so they

[58:04] Through that process, identified some characters. And we wanted to continue that on, and so that's what the video really, showcases. And so, the cool thing is that we hope to just continue to use this video and offer it up to schools, different classrooms, different organizations to kind of continue to build the story out. So once you see it, you'll see what I mean. It's a beautiful story just about the work that we've been trying to do here locally in our key focus areas. So I'll just leave it at that and move on. As far as next steps, one of the things that we did share with Council is that a lot of the work up to this point has really been refining a lot of the data, a lot of the technical components of the Climate Action Plan, but knowing full well, we have gone out and done a lot of engagement with community members and organizations who are critical partners. So we haven't really launched the cap yet. Part of the next phase, as we…

[59:02] Move into next year is really working with those organizations and those individuals to really understand how we can make it more accessible, how they can actually see themselves, participating in climate work. And so, this is somewhat different than what we've done previously, where you just kind of write a plan, there's a lot of charts and graphs, there's a lot of specific strategies, and then it's a great plan that sits there until you update it the next time. We really want to make this a living document, something that's more interactive. really values-based, and Heather has her hand up. I think I fixed it, so let's give it a shot. Okay. Family. Now we don't see the video. Oh, no, wait, now we do. You do, and can you hear it? Right again. Yes. Now it's stories time. Today's story is… The little city that… Baldur's Big Adventure. Enjoy!

[60:12] The Little City That Could. Boulder's Big Adventure. Once upon a time, tucked between tall, rugged mountains and white-open skies, there lived a little city named Boulder. Hey, Heather, I'm gonna suggest maybe it's… it's really choppy. shine on her rooftops, a cool shade… Is it choppy for the rest of you? Yeah, let's just… we'll send it out. You can watch it on your own. I think Heather just sent the link to it. Yeah, it's just kind of buffering, and I don't want to take the time to do that, but if you do have questions about it, have thoughts, please let us know. We are excited about it, and I think Council was they appreciated just a different way of communicating our climate work. So, all that said, I think I just finished up by telling you that Phase 1 really kicks off in January. We will be taking back some new targets, some updated targets, to Council, because we have

[61:11] codified those by resolution, so we'll need to take those back to Council, and I anticipate bringing those to the board so you can get an idea of what we're proposing and why we think they're the right targets. So, I'll just stop there. I could just keep talking about it, but I don't think that's necessary. If any of you watched the session, it was fairly late. Which is totally fine. There were some good questions, linkage, obviously, to the Boulder Valley Comp Plan, how we intend to really make progress on some of the other areas that are a little bit, a little bit more challenging in terms of, say, natural gas transportation, and so we were able to kind of respond to those in real time, but we still have some work to do before we launch, in another month or so. But I just wanted to open it up, see if there are questions, comments, concerns, thoughts, any of the above. If you watched it, if you didn't, I'm happy to field anything.

[62:03] I was just really curious if you plan to bring back the Youth Summit, because I went to something like that when I was in a high schooler, and look at me now. I'm kidding. But I found, like, things like that, like, really impactful, and one thing I really appreciate about this is I think when I was learning about climate change, it was, like, anxiety-driven, whereas this seems much more positive, and maybe less… like, those of us who are in the, like, Greta Thunberg area, who I respect her and admire her so much, but, like, we're in the, like, disaster anxiety, like. climate anxiety phase, and this seems much more, like, positive, which I really appreciate as well. And then, yeah, curious if you would ever bring back the summit, or, like, something for the high school or middle schoolers, just in the city, because I think that could be cool. Or, like, engaging people who serve on student government, or if people have, like. Green something at their schools, or something like that.

[63:01] Yeah, Hannah, thanks for the question. The answer is yes, and what we've done is a little bit different. Instead of being the main sponsor as government, we've supported our partner organizations, like Classrooms for Climate. Really cool, yep. And so we work with them directly. We've rebranded, rather than just calling it Climate All of the Time, partnering with the school district and C4C to launch the Resilience Summit, and so Boulder High hosted that just a handful of months ago. And so, obviously, it's climate-focused, but it really was more forward-leaning, thinking about the future, what does it mean to be resilient, and obviously it was being resilient to climate impacts. And so, yes, but we're trying to be a little bit more strategic, rather than doing one big thing and inviting a lot of people to it, trying to do it a little bit more intentionally within existing curricula, with existing schools. And so, Darren on our team has been thinking a little bit about what a broader and reboot of a youth strategy would look like, and I'd love to bring her to the board and have her talk about some of her ideas, because she's really creative.

[64:12] So, great question, thank you. That sounds really exciting. I think it's a really positive overall work, so… Happy to field anything else. Just wanted to make sure I was closing the loop with all of you. Good. Excited to watch the video, that's all. Yeah, now we've hyped it up a lot. Yeah, totally. And Lyra's also the narrator, too, so… The question is, do you have to… directed and narrated. Jonathan, are you in the video? That's the question. Oh, no, thank goodness for that.

[65:00] Okay, so that didn't take that long. Happy to move on. I think it's just calendar preview, and then any general announcements. Oh, yeah, thank you. Yeah, so looking ahead, there isn't anything specific that I wanted to flag for you. A couple things coming up, on the 18th that Just for you all to be tracking… The first of which is we've talked, I think, a number of times about, Council's desire to send a letter to Xcel Energy that really is memorializing a lot of the concerns, thoughts, questions about the partnership, that they talked about earlier this year, back in a study session in March. Council discussed this again on November 6th, the same evening as the Climate Action Plan update. And so, we have drafted that letter, they directed staff to draft the letter, and we've done so, and we'll be taking that back to Council on December 18th for their consideration. It'll be a motion for us to send a letter to Excel leadership.

[66:05] The other thing that will happen, on the 18th, I just wanted you also to be tracking, you've seen a couple of presentations now from staff related to the update to the landscape codes, the water and firewise landscape code, and so if you recall the last time Council talked about it, there were a lot of questions, a lot of thoughts, and they… Postponed, any action on that ordinance, and so they continued their discussion to the 18th. And so, they'll be bringing that back, and just as a matter of clarification, I just want to make sure for the record that, there isn't confusion around some of the landscaping requirements. If you recall, the ordinance gives the city manager the authority To be a little bit more fluid and flexible in terms of what gets enacted, in terms of policy and regulation.

[67:00] see how that works for the community, be able to dial things up and down accordingly. And so that authority, in many cases with policies, do lie with the city manager, gives the city manager the authority to do that. So, that's what's going to be happening on the 18th, so I just wanted to make it clear that the landscape… like the approved plant list and the things that you saw before you, those aren't necessarily going into rules just yet. Those will then be the basis for the city manager to really evaluate what goes into rules. So that also happens on the 18th. And then if you look ahead, there's… there's not a lot just yet, but I anticipate a good amount of items coming forward that we're going to get the EAB in the pipeline, before they go to Council as we go into Q1. As I've shared with you previously, staff meet on a quarterly basis. We do a look ahead to say what kind of things are coming up, what are priorities that need to go to Council, and we flag those things to say, let's make sure that the EAB and you all get a chance to look at those before.

[68:07] So I think at your next meeting, we'll have a little bit more, solid, calendar, so we can take a look. And I'd also like to spend time, if you all, feel it's appropriate, one of your upcoming meetings, really trying to map out some of the topics that you'd like to see come before you in 2026, so we can make sure to have staff teams get those things ready for you. So if there is something on the Council calendar that you see that you want to talk about, feel free to bring it up now, but I… those were the two that I wanted to make sure you were tracking. And I think that's all from staff. Okay. The next meeting is January 7th. That's XPM. And I hope Adam and his wife have great birthdays, back-to-back.

[69:06] parties, and everyone has good holidays and New Year's. So, motion to adjourn. Seconded. Right? And don't forget, Google Doc. December 12th. Yes. Okay. Thanks, everybody. Alright, thank you. Thank you.