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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCFE minutes 051418Attachment 1 Orange County Commission for the Environment Meeting Summary May 14, 2018 Southern Human Services Center, 2501 Homestead Road, Chapel Hill Present: Bradley Saul (Chair), Bill Kaiser (Vice Chair), Bill Ward, Will Stanley, Kim Piracci, Alan Parry, Matt Crook, Jeremy Marzuola, Jody Eimers, Laura Doherty, Jim Eichel, Carrie Fletcher Absent: Bill Newby, Lynne Gronback Staff: Tom Davis, Brennan Bouma I. Call to Order – Saul called the meeting to order at 7:30. II. Additions or Changes to Agenda – New members Jim Eichel and Carrie Fletcher introduced themselves to the group. Saul provided a brief update on his discussion with the BOCC at the Annual Advisory Board Work Session on May 3rd. Commissioners indicated they were in favor of receiving resolutions from the CFE to consider. The Commissioners also provided feedback on their preferences for the upcoming SOE report. III. Approval of Draft Minutes from April 9, 2018. Saul offered one edit to the draft minutes. Parry made a motion to approve the minutes as amended. Marzuola seconded. Approved unanimously. IV. SOE 2019 Recommendations and Planning Bouma provided some background on previous State of the Environment (SOE) reports, including statement by D. Stancil 6 months ago that the SOE should be updated. For last few months the CFE has been considering potential formats for the report, and UNC capstone students have been working on a project to evaluate potential environmental indicators to use in the report. The methodology the students used was discussed, including that they used 19 criteria to review potential indicators, compiled 71 candidate indicators and whittled these down to 45 selected criteria, which included 18 that were used in the 2014 SOE report. The CFE can now review the candidate indicators provided by the UNC students and decide how to proceed. The UNC students also looked at the formats used in 6 similar reports, and gave some insight into what they liked and disliked about several of the reports. The primary audience for the report is the county commissioners. There was some discussion of specific indicators and Saul stated that the CFE committees need to look at the indicators and consider their use or not. B ouma reminded the CFE that there is one more meeting before summer break. Saul suggested that we Attachment 1 consider the end point and work back from that point to figure out a timeline for the development of the SOE. Historically the SOE has been completed in the spring, around earth day. Discussion ensued of using UNC journalism students to produce report. Bouma reminded that the report needs to contain “actionable info for decision makers”. He suggested that the CFE use existing committee structure to review candidate indicators, look at available data, see if that naturally leads to some degree of format, and then come up with a draft timeline on how to proceed. There was interest in trying to use a student intern to help with the report. W ard suggested the report could include actionable items for BOCC or citizens to proceed- maybe include timetable for how to proceed? Marzuola suggested we could try to frame all the action items according to climate change policy. W ard said we could consider impact moving forward with regard to indicators and data and asked if the CFE could maybe get feedback at some point in t he process from the County Manager or some other administrative staff to provide a litmus test concerning the draft recommendations of the report. Eichel suggested that maybe the CFE should target a few key points that can be updated more frequently than every 5 years. Saul recommended that the committees start looking into these ideas, and proposed that the CFE draft a timeline of SOE steps by the next CFE meeting. V. Discussion of Draft Divestment Resolution Ward led the discussion of the draft resolution; basically provides economic arguments as to why the NC state treasurer should eliminate investments of state funds in fossil fuel companies. He contacted someone with 350.org, but they did not know of other communities that may have considered or adopted a similar resolution. Representative P. Harrison provided him a draft resolution that she may propose in NC legislature. Ward is not sure if similar efforts are taking place elsewhere in the state. He also spoke with Sally Green, incoming county commissioner about this. Crook suggested the resolution touch on the core values listed on the state treasurers web site. Marzoula proposed approving the draft resolution as written with the inclusion of some edits as discussed by the group. This was seconded by Eichel and approved unanimously. VI. Anti-Idling Campaign Petition – Bouma provided some background information on this petition from a member of the BOCC. He provided a list of possible steps for the CFE to consider including who would be the target audience; would an ongoing outreach effort be more productive than a short term campaign? Education should be focus- possibly aimed at the use of drive thru lanes and idling at local schools. CFE could also consider a policy that would target county vehicles. Bouma reported that a previous idle reduction effort was not successful, but the county could purchase and install devices to monitor idling on individual county vehicles. He reminded the group that the deadline to report back to the BOCC on this item is May 31st. Bouma and Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools staff recommended developing and then sending a letter about the Attachment 1 consequences of idling vehicles to school parents, and obtaining signage to post at schools. The CFE could also establish some county messaging as part of this campaign, or put together a public service announcement to broadcast on a local radio station during lunchtime. There are only 2 more BOCC meetings where an item could be presented to BOCC for their consideration before the summer break. There was considerable discussion of possible ways to proceed. Crook suggested that the CFE could develop a challenge for schools to implement. Perhaps school PTAs could undertake this effort in elementary schools, and clubs could lead it in the high schools. Additionally, some sort of competition amongst schools could be encouraged. The CFE could provide some relevant science in support of this effort. Piracci moved that the CFE adopt the framework compiled by Bouma and shown on a PowerPoint slide. This was seconded by Parry and this framework was adopted unanimously. There needs to be some wa y to measure the success of this effort. The CFE decided that Bouma should lead the effort and the CFE should provide ongoing support. VII. Roadside Wildflower Conservation – Given the late hour, a motion was made by Ward to table this discussion. Seconded by Parry. Unanimously approved. VIII. Committee Meetings – Brief committee meetings were held to discuss the draft list of potential SOE indicators provided by the UNC capstone students. IX. Updates and Information Items – information on the following items was provided: X. Adjournment – Marzoula motioned to adjourn, and Parry seconded. Unanimous approval and meeting adjourned at 9:30.