Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutClimate Council Meeting Summary - 10-15-2020 Orange County Climate Council Meeting Summary October 15, 2020 3:00pm - 4:30pm Online Meeting Attendees: Mark Marcoplos (Chair), Brennan Bouma (staff), Pat Clayton, Paul Cough, Ray DuBose, Robb English, Tyrone Fisher, Laura Janway, Kathy Kaufman, Adam Long, Melissa McCullough, John Richardson, Donna Rubinoff, Owen Ryerson, Sammy Slade, Mary Tiger, Stephanie Trueblood Public comments received by advertised deadline: None I. Call to Order, Land Acknowledgement - Marcoplos called the meeting to order at 3:03pm. Bouma gave a native lands acknowledgement for Orange County, recognizing that Orange County sits on the historic lands of the Occoneechi, Saponi, and Tutelo people, and historically the land where Orange County is now was also the land of the Tuscarora, Sissipahaw, Eno, Shakori, Saura, and Catawba people. II. Additions or Changes to the Agenda Tiger requested screenshot No additions or changes were suggested. III. Approval of Meeting Minutes from August 20th and September 17th, 2020 McCullough moved to approve the minutes as written. This was seconded by Paul Cough and passed unanimously. IV. Report on Carbon Dividend Kaufman presented on the subcommittee’s deliberation on of the presentation given by the Citizen’s Climate Lobby requesting Climate Council endorsement of the federal Carbon Fee and Dividend legislation currently under consideration in the House of Representatives. The subcommittee was comprised of Kaufman, McCullough, Rubinoff and Ryerson. Kaufman asked for any responses to the subcommittee’s written feedback sent separately to Climate Council members. Marcoplos said that he agreed with their recommendations. McCulllough also voiced agreement and then moved that the Council vote not to endorse the Citizen’s Climate Lobby resolution. Cough thanked the subcommittee for their analysis and Janway and Richardson noted that as staff they would need to abstain from voting. Marcoplos reflected that all staff would likely need to abstain from voting on this item. And called for a second. Cough seconded the motion. The motion carried with a vote of 8-0 with all staff representatives abstaining. V. Update from Climate Action Reporting Committee Bouma summarized that the focus of the members of this committee have been in preparing for the Annual Update event coming in the following week. Members have been working hard to prepare for the event, and do not need time for overall updates. He then asked if the other committees were in a similar place. McCullough said that perhaps a chance for brief updates would be helpful. Marcoplos asked whether the Council felt we should switch to updates on the event, and leave committee updates to the end. The Council agreed. VI. Discussion of Public Event Bouma provided an update that several Council members had just participated in a rehearsal of the event agenda and technology with the two members of Orange County Information Technologies who will be assisting with the event behind the scenes. Bouma discussed the technical details of the way the meeting platform will work and help direct the flow of the meeting. He also discussed the timeline for when presentation slides would need to be finalized and asked about Poll questions. Rubinoff asked how long the presentations and how long the Q and A would be. Bouma ran through the timing of the whole agenda. Kaufman discussed the way that questions would be addressed both from pre-meeting and during the meeting. Tiger asked Council members to review the draft introductory video to ensure that the names were spelled correctly. Bouma shared the participant list to date and discussed who was represented and what questions had been submitted so far. Rubinoff asked for a copy of the list to be able to prepare for who will be in the audience. McCullough verified that there was a registration link that she could disseminate. Marcoplos said that this could be a featured event on the Orange County homepage. Bouma said that he could reach out to County communications staff about that. Bouma then reviewed the questions submitted to date and the Council made plans to answer them. The Climate Action Reporting Committee said that the CARD was now ready to go live in advance of the event. Trueblood made the point that the CARD contained some of the answers to the questions received. Rubinoff pointed out the dangers of getting too detailed in the Q and A section, in order that we meet our overall meeting objectives. Bouma shifted to a discussion of the two sets of multiple-choice poll questions that the meeting would include in the introduction and closing, and asked for Council members to provide ideas for additional questions. Rubinoff then discussed the closing poll in more detail and got Council feedback on responses and terms to include. Council members provided several ideas and then also weighed in on the format and phrasing of some questions to make them easiest to answer in the time allotted. Marcoplos closed the discussion with an encouragement to members to continue promoting the event. VII. Update from Policy Committee This discussion was merged with the Annual Update event above. VIII. Update from Communications Committee This discussion was merged with the Annual Update event above. IX. Adjournment Marcoplos asked for a motion to adjourn the meeting and this was provided by Slade and seconded by Kaufman. The Council voted unanimously to adjourn the meeting at 4:31pm.