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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCFE Meeting Summary 09122022 Orange County Commission for the Environment Meeting Summary September 12, 2022; 7:00 pm Hybrid Meeting Present: Veronica Penn Beattie, Jessie Birckhead, Kristie Mather, Ian Morse, Elizabeth McWhorter, Jaya Nair(via Zoom) Absent: Reade Oakley, Kim Piracci (excused), Kim Livingston(excused), Bill Ward (excused), Jane Harris (excused) Staff: Wesley Poole, Chris Himi, Amy Eckberg(via Zoom), Kalani Allen I. Call to Order Veronica Penn Beattie called the meeting to order at 7:04 pm. II. Additions or Changes to Agenda None. III. Approval of DRAFT Meeting Summary—August I It', 2022 Motion by Jessie Birckhead; seconded by Veronica Penn Beattie; all in favor; none opposed; motion passed. IV. Community Climate Action Grant Review Amy Eckberg began by introducing UNC intern Max Feldman. She then discussed the Community Climate Action Grant timeline and specified that projects are prioritized by social justice and racial equity. Amy informed the CFE that the total community project funding requested this year was $585,873 and the total school project funding requested was $368,000. The BOCC has only allocated$550,150 total and ($275,075) will go to the community organizations and the other '/2 will go to the schools. All community organization applicants are return applicants and Carrboro Chapel Hill City Schools are once again, the only school applicant. CFE members inquired about the status of previous unspent grant funding for schools and Amy said she is still working on it. The review timeline that has been established is CFE members conduct independent reviews between now and the next CFE meeting on October 10t'. Final scores/ranking will be discussed and agreed upon at the October 10t'meeting and if needed, a special meeting can be held on October 17t'. Jessie Birckhead had set up a Google Drive to put all of the applications in so Veronica Penn Beattie volunteered to add a Google Sheet to the shared folder to help organize the application review. Amy briefly discussed how everything was organized and stated that she would also add a"Suggestions for Improvement"tab for Q/A, etc. Page 1 of 2 Orange County Commission for the Environment Meeting Summary September 12, 2022; 7:00 pm Hybrid Meeting V. Sub-Committee Designation and Discussion Veronica Penn Beattie informed the CFE that sub-committees have not been keeping minutes and they need to be doing so. Once sub-committees start meeting regularly again after the Community Climate Action Grant Review process is complete, they will each need to elect a Chair that will keep up with the minutes and present a brief summary to the overall group once break-outs come back together. CFE members discussed the possibility of creating a new 4th sub-committee for climate,but some thought it would be best to just leave the 3 sub-committees as is and let the air and energy group focus on climate issues at this time. It will be all be discussed at the November meeting so CFE members were asked to decide exactly which sub-committee they would like to be on. Wesley Poole and Kalani Allen informed the CFE that we would have hopefully have some new CFE members coming in by the November meeting. VI. Updates and Information Items • Amy Eckberg gave an update to the CFE on the status of the Climate Action Plan. They received 2 proposals from their RFQ and one was a standout. That consultant presented ten additional options to the initial proposal and the two options that stood out were the funding option and the additional stakeholder engagement option. The evaluation team agreed to add those for approximately$17,000 over the initial proposal of$75,000, making a total of approximately$92,000 that will be allocated. Amy stated that the climate action planning process will give us a roadmap with specific actions and tactics that the County can use to get to a 100%renewable energy economy by 2050. • Chris Hirni discussed the advisory board policy that has been established for requesting to attend meetings remotely. Wesley Poole reminded CFE members to notify staff when they can't make a meeting for attendance tracking purposes. • Amy Eckberg gave the CFE an update on the Solarize the Triangle campaign. They have had a great start so far and they are organizing an informational webinar for September 28 from 6-7 PM. VIL Adjournment Kristie Mather motioned to adjourn the meeting at 8:36 pm; seconded by Elizabeth McWhorter; all in favor; none opposed; motion passed. Page 2 of 2