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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCFE minutes 021218Attachment 1 Orange County Commission for the Environment Meeting Summary February 12, 2018 Richard Whitted Building, 300 West Tryon Street, Hillsborough Present: Bradley Saul (Chair), Bill Kaiser (Vice Chair), Bill Ward, Will Stanley, Kim Piracci, Alan Parry, Bill Newby, Lynne Gronback Absent: Matt Crook, Marshall Gray, Sheila Thomas-Ambat, Jeremy Marzuola, Jody Eimers, Laura Doherty Staff: Tom Davis, Brennan Bouma I. Call to Order – Saul called the meeting to order at 7:30. II. Additions or Changes to Agenda – Staff informed the CFE that the BOCC made a petition on Jan 23rd concerning a “no idling” campaign. After Chair/Vice- Chair review, this was referred to the CFE to study and make recommendations. The CFE agreed to consider the item in March but requested clarification of: Target (County operations or the County as a whole), focus (education or regulation), and if regulation how would it be enforced. Staff offered to research those questions and provide info to the CFE before the March meeting. Ward described his draft resolution on divestment from fossil fuel companies. The aim would be for the CFE to send to the BOCC, and pending their approval to send approved resolution to the State Treasurer. The CFE agreed to address this item on the March agenda. III. Approval of Draft Minutes from January 8, 2018 – Parry made a motion to approve the minutes as written. Ward seconded. Approved unanimously. IV. SOE 2019 Indicators – Dr. Lama BouFajreldin introduced herself and then the ten students from the UNC Institute for the Environment who are assisting the CFE analyze and improve their State of the Environment (SOE) indicators. The students’ have reviewed the previous reports and have split into three groups based on the three main sections of the report and committees of the CFE. The students gave a presentation on the DPSIR (Drivers, Pressures, State, Impacts, Responses) Framework and the process that they will be using to organize their indicator analysis. This framework has been used in other SOE reports and it has been adapted by the EPA in various ways as well. The hope is that this framework will help organize the indicators analysis and help tell a coherent story. Saul asked about the ability to show causality between chosen indicators. Dr. BouFajreldin responded that this would be difficult without in -depth statistical Attachment 1 analysis, but the framework will still be useful. The students may be able to refer to other indicator studies who have established causal relationships. Saul also expressed interest in giving some weight to indicators that are used widely. Ward asked how the framework would be used, and the response was that it will mostly be used to organize the students’ task into categories. Some of the impact ratings relate to health and CFE members confirmed their interest in indicators that show overlap of environment and health. Saul asked how environmental justice might overlap with this framework. BouFajreldin asked for us to begin by defining justice, and then relate to the conceptual framework they are creating. Davis mentioned that the BOCC specifically requested that the next SOE address environmental justice. Once useful indicators are identified, availability of the data will be considered. The students were asked to point out data gaps. The final product of the students’ course work will be a technical report which will share the details of their process. Saul and Ward indicated an interest in seeing this. The students will be attending the CFE meeting in April to discuss their recommended indicators and formats. V. 2018 CFE Activities – The CFE agreed on the need for specific deliverables and discussed what amount of work would be reasonable for a volunteer commission. There was a desire to reduce the list to a short list of focus areas. Gronback suggested making the SOE update the main deliverable and focus. Stanley suggested that several of the CFE’s existing priorities be addressed through the SOE effort. Davis said that the SOE and the priorities can be linked together and have been in the past. Ward asked to add an action item to help Orange County Schools to improve energy efficiency. It was decided that this was not the best role for the CFE as the Schools have their own elected bodies beyond the Board of Orange County Commissioners. It was recommended that Bill Ward reach out to Steven Halkiotis as an interested resident for guidance on how to approach the School Board. Piracci suggested focusing on trying to help the County be fossil fuel free. This was agreed to be a possible focus of the Air and Energy Committee, but perhaps not the whole CFE in order to maintain broad enough focus to include water and land resources. Parry made a motion to return to committees to re-prioritize the priorities as interest areas, and select one to act on outside of the regular meetings. In place of a vote on this motion, Saul suggested that he would send an email to each of the committees to charge them with updating their focus areas in advance of the next meeting. Attachment 1 VI. Carbon Fee and Dividend Discussion – Parry gave a brief summary of the presentation given at the last meeting by a Citizen’s Climate Lobby (CCL) member on their proposed federal climate legislation. This legislation may be proposed as early as this year, and CCL is looking for local governments to show support. Ward moved that Alan make a few changes to his drafted resolution of support and provide it to the CFE for a vote next meeting, Kaiser seconded. The motion passed unanimously. Staff confirmed it would be added to the next agenda. VIII. Updates and Information Items – information on selected information items was provided: Roadside wildflowers – Additional information was received from the NC Botanical Gardens clarifying the actions they are requesting from the County and CFE on the roadside wildflower project. The attachments required to discuss this item and the requested actions were inadvertently excluded from the agenda packet for this meeting. Staff stated that they would share the information and the discussion would be continued at a future meeting. IX. Adjournment – Parry motioned to adjourn, and Ward seconded. Meeting adjourned at 9:15.