001e e e everyone it is 6:04 PM my name is Gabriel harp chair of the an arbor energy commission and as chair I'm calling this meeting to order and part participating from my home here in Ann Arbor um this is the February 11th 2025 Edition electronic meeting of the energy commission and we'll conduct this meeting like inperson meetings Commissioners during roll call please indicate your current location also during the meeting please remain remain on camera just as you would be visible during imp meetings and finally mute your microphone when not speaking public comment will be by telephone only to speak during any of the public comment opportunities please call one of the following to two toll-free numbers 877 853 5247 or 888-788-8086 on your phone this information is also available on the published agenda in
002the Public Notices section of the city's website and on the broadcast of this meeting on CTN Channel 16 AT&T channel 99 and online at a2gov.org slatch CN Joe would you mind please reading the land acknowledgement I acknowledge that the city of an arbor occupies is the ancestral traditional and contemporary lands the anab including Odawa muj and bod wadm and why not peoples I further acknowledge that our city stands like almost all property in the United States on lands of obtained generally in unconscious ways from indigenous peoples the taking in Islam was formalized by the Treaty of Detroit in 1807 knowing where we live work study and recreate does not change the past but a thorough understanding of the ongoing consequences of this past can Empower us in our work to create a future that supports
003human flourishing and justice for all individuals thank you and would you mind do taking the roll call please yep um commissioner Bur wtz president here at my home in an arbor council member Briggs here in an arbor um commissioner coven Garcia said they're running a little late um chair harp here and an arbor Vice chair Hans not seeing at the moment um commissioner Leven uh here in an Harbor council member Malik here calling from an second Lord commissioner mki here in at my home um in an arbor in War I then commissioner overc was unable to make it so but uh chair you have a quorum thank you okay is there a motion to approve the agenda as posted in a second see commiss mki and Comm council member Briggs um Commissioners please raise your
004hand if you'd like to make any changes or discuss an issue seeing No Hands raised all of those in favor of approving the agenda as posted raise your hand and say I hi all those posted please say no okay the agenda passes thank you um we'll move on to the approving approval of or the minutes is there a motion to approve the minutes as posted so so moved Comm mki and a second second confer quits thank you um Commissioners please raise your hand if you'd like to propose any changes or discuss an issue seeing No Hands raised um all those in favor of approving the minutes as posted please raise your hand and say I I all those opposed please raise your hand and say no okay the minutes are approved thank you uh next
005we'll move on to public input this is an opportunity for people to speak for up to three minutes if you're watching on CTN please call 888 78899 or 877 853 5247 and enter meeting ID 5 956 7876 this information is also on the meeting agenda in the video feed City staff will select callers that have raised their hand one by one one using the last three digits of your phone number to electronically raise your hand to indicate your desire to speak please press star9 on your phone you will hear an automated announcement that the host is allowing you to speak when speaking please move to a quiet area and mute any television or background sounds so that we may hear you clearly and please state your name and address at the beginning of your comments
006I do not have any callers at this time okay well then if there are no callers we will move on to tonight's agenda um which is a presentation and discussion of the home energy rebate program um and I think we have some guests this evening Joe would you mind introducing our guests and and uh kicking us off for the presentation yep yeah we're joined tonight by Jamie uh from Elevate and Brandon from Michigan en energy options who are folks on the rebate team and I will turn it over to them to give a presentation I believe you have sharing abilities but if you don't let me know great let me give this a try oh I think that's the wrong screen one second looked okay on our end okay there we go yep perfect wonderful
007great well um good evening everyone I am Jamie Simmons I am from Elevate and Brandon I'll let you introduce yourself good evening everyone Brandon kallik with Michigan energy options and of course as Joe mentioned we are here to talk about the um newer home energy rebate program here in the city of an Harbor to give you an overview of today of what we're going to go over tonight um of course our introductions which we check the box on uh we'll be doing an overview of the program as a whole um going over the structure some available the available rebates um we'll be talking about the funding availability um of the program and application process program impact um of course and talking about some of the Les learned as uh many of you might notice there
008has been some new adaptations to the current program so we're really excited to launch um to tell you about some of those new upgrades and um also show where we are in the program so far so what is the home energy rebate program as you know the office of sustainability innovation has partnered with Elevate and Michigan energy options to uh to offer over a thousand sustainab ility related rebates this program um is actually has a budget of $1.9 million for the first year to participate in this program you must own or rent in the Anarbor City Limits all equipment installed must be at the eligible property and meet the program requirements all equipment must be meet the program guidelines which are clearly outlined on the website uh the programed website and you must be of
00918 at least 18 years of age to apply for rebate in this program we talk about home Energy rebates uh and how the program is set up we do offer two types of rebates to an arbor residents one would be the market rate rebate and the other would be income eligible rebates market rate rebates are open to so anyone who is 18 living in an arbor because the owner rent can apply to that market rate but if you're a person who uh makes up to 100 20% area M area median income in the city of an arbor you are actually eligible for an income eligible rebate which is a rebate at a higher amount that helps uh folks who could not regularly afford to go through Energy Efficiency projects make it a little bit more
010real for them and also help uh cushion the cost uh and move the market uh these rebates uh amounts uh the income eligible rebates are actually based on household side so for example if you look at the chart on the right side of the screen um you can look at if there is a three-person household if you make $134,000 or less you qualify in this program for the income eligible rebate now that is definitely higher than some of the Ami you might see in other rebate programs and that is because NR is a very special place as we know um and often the medium area income here is a little bit higher than usual so we definitely all wanted to cater to the folks in in our community and personalize to the program so we
011can have the most impact for an arbor residents that we can so um speaking of rebates uh let's talk about a little bit of the rebates that we offer so of course we uh this program is really designed to Target Energy Efficiency and electrification as you all know with an Arbor's uh mission to being carbon neutral by 2035 this program was design in mind of that with that you will not see any dual fuel options uh listed within this program because we really want to push and drive the market to full electrification Energy Efficiency within the city of an arbor some of the Energy Efficiency program measures that we offer rebates for are the attic and roof insulation wall insulation rim and band joist insulation Coss space basement wall insulation and air ceiling something is
012that is very new that we actually launched on the 29th of January is a new Duckworth rebate which we will be um Inc incentivizing more people to look into whether their duck work is uh up to standard and if they need to make any repairs for their duck work uh we do have a rebate for them again these rebates were identified and selected to help push the market of Energy Efficiency in an arbor when we think about how much of a rebate a person can get back for Market rate rebates under this Energy Efficiency tier those are $500 each um for income eligible folks that would be $11,000 each something that is also new to the program is instead of the bundles that we actually rolled the program out with we have moved to ins
013insulation air sealing bonus and that means if you complete two or more insulation measures and air sealing you qualify for either the marketweight $1,500 bonus or the income eligible bonus of $2,000 and again you only get that bonus if you complete two or more insulation measures definitely would love for you to do all those things if your house needs it um and air sailing for electrification Again incentivizing full electrification of homes um and not necessarily dual fuel we offer cold climate central air source heat pumps we Al offer a rebate for heat pump water heaters and electrical panel upgrades that's actually extremely popular rebate for us at the moment and something that is new that I'll talk about a little bit uh in a couple of slides is our new appliances uh we are rolling
014out in 2025 a list of appliances that will qualify for a rebate under this program the breakdown for the amount of rebates that you can get or the number attached to the rebates that you can apply for as an nrb resident um for electrification we do have these rebates not necessarily a set rate so that you will see the market ratees for some of these go from 1,000 to 4,000 and for income eligible ranges um and rebates it goes from 2,000 to 5 5500 uh on the an arbor website for the home energy rebate program you will clearly see each one of these measures outlined um of what they are the program requirements and what that exact amount for the market rate and income qualified rebate um is we do offer battery storage we do
015not offer rebate for the actual solar panels um but we do offer for battery storage and those rebates are $22,000 for market rate and uh $3500 for the income eligible so speaking of new things um that was referenced in the slide previous slide is the cooking appliances so uh and to help folks uh choose Energy Efficiency and energy star appliances we thought it would be a great addition to the program to include a rebate for the heat pump washer SL dryer and induction cooktops so um if you are a person who wants to uh get one of those really fancy energy star two in one washer and dryers you can get a market rate rebate for um for $300 were um income eligible rebate for $500 the heat pump washer and dryer must replace the
016existing dryer and it has to be energy star um and we do ask for that um proof of that uh when you apply and we'll talk about the application process in a few slides for the induction cooktops [Music] um it must be at least 30 Ines with four burners uh market rate rebates are $500 and the income eligible rebates are $750 we are not offering a rebate for the portable units um only for the actual uh exchange of cooking tops uh and you see for uh we don't offer portable because we don't want to necessarily offer rebates for recreational things we'll talk about that a little bit with the the ebikes as well so we want to actually help folks move forward to decarbonization and within their homes so so that's why we're really leaning
017towards the full cooktop with the four burners so ebikes this has been an extremely hot commodity since the program launched in July of last year July 1st of last year uh we do offer rebates for standard and cargo ebikes um we only allow one ebike per household a must be UL 2849 certified and we do not offer a rebate for retrofits um retrofit kits um we do understand that an arbor has a lot a of students um and we have seen some folks show interest and um multiple folks within the household uh receiving an ebike rebate but for right for now um our program is only allowing one ebike uh rebate per household um originally when the program launched uh the ebike uh rebate was limited to folks in one to four unit that has
018been expanded to include more than four unit households do qualify for ebike uh rebate in this program and for both the market rate and um income eligible uh rebates for the ebikes we do have kind of a up to 50% of the cost standard for Market rebate it's 50% of the cost up to 500 and income eligible is 50% of the cost up to 1,000 currently um we have maxed out of all of our ebikes uh for rebates for the 2024 2025 year but we will be reopening applications in July 2025 and I will pass it over to Brandon to talk about fund availability and applications thank you Jamie go on to the next slide there so how to apply to for the program uh we realized uh pretty quickly um that uh the rebit
019application there was a few confusing parts to it when we launched back in July um so we tried to simplify the process a little bit uh make it a little easier for the resident to understand uh what qualifies for a rebate um how to uh Reserve that that rebate and then how to uh submit final documentation to receive the the rebate application or to receive your rebate dollars um so we still have uh an income eligibility application available on the website this is where a resident if they're interested in receiving the income eligible rebate amount they can get pre-qualified for that level so they'll know that they do in fact qualify for the larger incentive and um can then uh plan accordingly and um that income eligibility is good for an entire uh calendar year
020uh so customers can fill out that income eligibility application once they get approval for income eligible they can submit a reservation application um we have online and printable applications on the program website uh by uh online app is incredibly popular and very easy to use um that allows customers to reserve the rebate funds uh our team will then review that application provide the resident notice of the uh reservation and then the uh resident has 90 days to submit uh complete the project and then submit the required documentation showing you know the final invoice uh any additional documentation we need to approve that uh rebate and mail a check to the resident um contractors can also claim the rebate onal of residents um they so they can uh apply the rebate amount as a deduction from
021the total cost of the measure um making the process even easier for residents um and also allowing the contractor to use the rebate as uh you know um for marketing purposes and to help make that sale push that customer towards making the um energy efficient choice we still have uh quite a bit of funds available uh for the 2425 program year um the graph here on the right of the slides is actually a interactive graph that is on the program website and so that uh these graphs show the committed and available funds for each of these three programs uh that Jamie just walked us through um this will help customers excuse me residents um understand kind of what funds are available and kind of what projects to maybe um you know prioritize if we're running
022low on some funds or um really help them plan and help them um know that there are funds available um have the confidence to know that that they can do the project and receive the rebate um these are large incentives um and these are very costly upgrades to homes so we know that residents kind of want that um want that kind of verification that they will receive those funds and that is why we have the reservation process as well um to to Really set aside those dollars for each resident um we are working with OSI uh to kind of improve the marketing strategy and kind of re-engage residents now that the program has changed pretty significantly um trying to get both residents and contractors kind of now you know re-educate them on these these rebate
023levels how the program is designed um and we would you know greatly welcome any kind of inputs and ideas around increasing engagement uh that that you as the commission have uh so program impact uh since July uh when we launched to um about to through January um we've provided 222 total rebates to 173 households across San Arbor of those rebates uh that we've processed uh about 44% of those households uh are Income qualified and 37% of the measures uh were were um uh installed in income qualified households uh 58% of all rebates uh paid were completed via the reservation process and we'll speak a little bit more on uh the reservation process and in a few slides here um but we are expanding as Jamie mentioned to increase you know increasing those rebates adding new
024measures including all property types to help try to boost the that participation level even more in the final six months of this program year uh and then just give you insight as to where we stand right now right uh current reservations we have about 40 uh in uh Reserve status with a potential rebate value of $84,000 um those are not included in this table on this slide uh and I do want to just quickly mention that the uh program impact data that's mentioned in this graph does differ from what was given to you guys in your packets uh the impacts were calculated incorrectly using outdated estimates rather than current participation um so those are um now calculating correctly in the version of the uh gra uh table here that you see and I believe Joe
025will be providing the updated version as well um at a later time here um so with these 222 measures uh we've paid out $324,000 roughly to Residents and we estimate that uh the those measures will have a uh impact of reducing about 163 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent um that's rough that's roughly equal to the annual greenhouse gas emissions of about 38 vehicles um to give you just put that into perspective a little bit um um or it's about the carbon dioxide emissions of 22 homes energy use for one year um and then over the full life cycle of those measures that were rebated through the program uh we estimate the um carbon dioxide equivalent reduction to be about 2500 metric tons next slide so what are we doing to move more rebates um
026and Jamie touched on just some of those measure improvements um or increased rebate amounts previously but um we've made a lot of additional changes administratively to improve the program accessibility uh make that larger Financial impact for residents offer more diverse rebates and further incentivize the Energy Efficiency upgrades so um we move to a full reservation uh system where we no longer have separate budgets for reserved and unreserved funds if you recall from the uh from program launch in July um we had situations where the reserved budgets were fully exhausted for certain measures and unreserved funds just weren't moving at all customers excuse me residents um clearly did not want to kind of take that risk of applying for the unreserved uh rebate um they wanted to have that reservation know for sure that they were
027going to receive that that rebate um and then move forward with the project so we've completely eliminated the separated budgets for for reserved and unreserved and went to a full res reservation system um this will simplify the process for the customer too it makes it easier for our team to um to show what's remaining uh what funds are remaining um if you recall the the graphs that were on the on the website from a couple slides ago there was only you know we we've we have three bar graphs basically two tables you know six total um bar graphs now previously we had four different graphics with 12 bar graphs each trying to show residents you know if you wanted a storage rebate and you're income qualified well here's that amount that you have we've gone
028completely we've simplified it gone away from that um so now the customer knows okay I electrification budget it's available we can reserve um and it will hopefully allow us to allocate more dollars to to Residents and get more project across the the uh the threshold and and being completed and getting money into resident's hands um we simplified the application as well by just consolidating some measures um for air source heat pumps we used to have four different measures available for an air source heat pump we've not simplified that down into a single rebate measure customers weren't sure what they needed when they were filling out the reservation application so they were were either selecting everything or they were selecting the the standard um air source heat pump and then realizing oh I actually wanted the
029high efficiency version simplifying that to a single measure a single rebate amount will just help make it easier for the customer to know exactly this is the rebate amount I can get and move forward with making that decision what's best for them um so we're happy to to simplify that for everyone um and then we've expanded the reach of the program by adding more measures to the program such as the heat pump dryers and induction cooktops we've also increased the eligibility by removing that 1 to four unit property limitation and now residents have all in in all types of Residential Properties are eligible to participate in the program um so uh you know again just removing those barriers simplifying and just expanding Outreach expanding the reach uh next J and then just a couple Lessons
030Learned uh through those processes kind of mentioned a little bit of of all of these here um probably throughout this presentation but I'll just quickly go through a few of these here uh multif family as we said we have now removed that that one to four unit uh requirement um now residents in uh buildings with uh five or more are are eligible to receive um rebates um this works in tandem with these additional um measures such as the heat pump dryer um and the induction cooktop these are things that rental you know people in rental uh units could take advantage of but so um that's uh one of a a big kind of program design update and then the reservation process as I just mentioned that was very confusing for people so by simpli in
031this just going to a straight reservation process um it will um remove that uh that uncertainty and and improve participation um and by moving to a fully reserved uh reservation based process uh you can still apply if you don't have a reservation and as long as there's funds available on those budgets the you'll receive your rebate so by no means you know like if you didn't reserve and you get into an know like let's say a break fix situation or something and you decide to make that change you can still receive the rebate even though we've kind of gone to this full reservation process we'll still process that rebate for you as long as there's funds available in the program one of the big issues and concerns that we had with uh contractors and residents
032were notifying us was our 60-day deadline for project completion um just supply chain issues uh the you know contractors being very busy busy 60 days was uh a challenge for some projects to get over that uh from from reservation approved to project completion um so we extended that out now to 90 days and we provide additional flexibility um to now extend that even longer as long as the resident or the contractor can show kind of that project's moving forward um by no means will a project be rejected or um a reservation be rescinded because uh you know the they over the deadline but you know as long as they're still moving forward will process and allow that reservation to continue um and then by simp and then the complex rebate structure that we started with
033just again led to confusion among residents unsure of what rebates to apply for push people away simplifying the rebates into single measure tiers and increasing Clarity in the project requirements um helped greatly will will will help greatly in in simplifying uh this process and and hopefully increasing resident participation next slide Jamie now we're moving into the questions but I did want to know um in addition to um the things that Brandon mentioned in the last slide we also did have a website redesign um and that is thanks to uh us working with OSI to really Envision how we can simplify the website not I'm pretty sure some of you might have visited it a few months ago and it was a little bit overwhelming because we were trying to make sure that folks had all
034the information that they needed and but now we F figured out a way to give them all of that in a more seamless design so thank you to grace over at OSI for supporting on that initiative so um we're open for questions at this point thank you Jamie thank you Brandon that was super helpful um why don't I pass it to um council member Briggs yeah um thank you so much it's always great to hear about this and I I love the rebates I well say that I was I got my use won myself to get a ebike last last summer and um it has done everything that I had hoped and more I'm now an ebike evangelist and I cut out more trips that I and um getting around more so that is that's
035great and I was already a big biker so um it's I think you know I can see it influencing my own behavior um just a few questions around um that one which has been a popular incentive um you noted that I know we just shifted the rules around this and you mentioned something about there being um there's only one ebike um per household um and I'm just curious how how household is defined um for for apart you know for apartment situations is it by address or you know like if there's an apartment building that has multiple units in it how does that how that being defined now great question um so for the purposes of the program um we we defined a household as as a a single address um that um you know all
036residents residing in a in a single address right so if it's an apartment it'd be each unit right so if we have an apartment with three people in it three unrelated people that would be considered still a single house hold uh for the purpose of the [Music] program and I'm just I'm just thinking about an apartment complex and so just making sure that that's not I know that we're kind of tweaking and and understanding how this works the we had gotten some concerns around the multi family housing um situation and the lack of Eligibility and I know we're trying to open this up and all that and I'm just making sure that we're not um just trying to figure out if we if it still needs some modification or if it's yeah it's it's we're
037still talking internally with with the OSI team and and our program teams because um it definitely causes a a a problem right with unrelated people living in the same um apartment unit um you know they're they're both still going driving their vehicles right if only one person get an ebike we're only eliminating one vehicle travel right so so we are we we do understand that and we are still talking about that and we're working with OSI the OSI team to kind of take a larger a deeper look into multifamilies um and see whether that means it's a new multif family program or we make some uh changes specific to multifam um but yes we we are aware of that and and are working on on that okay and then the other piece um I appreciated
038hearing what the impact is a little bit uh of these all the rebates that have been used um I'm curious how some some of this feels like you'd be able to identify what the greenhouse gas you know make do that accounting a little bit easier on the biking side I could imagine that being a little more difficult and so I'm just curious um maybe this is too detailed but I'm curious how that um how we're doing those calculations Jamie do you want to chime in there I know that's um not really either of our uh expert and I can ask I can ask that as a follow-up question I know that's a super detailed question and I am fine with just saying that is that I can I can send in an email about that
039that is not it does not need to be answered right you have the answer to that it's just going to take me a little bit to pull up exactly what calculations we use for ebikes but yeah if that's something that we can um offer you and yeah that's fine um I'm happy to get that you know after the meeting or now whatever whatever seems better um and then oh one of the questions that you had was just how to increase the you know knowledge of this I was just looking around this on the city's website a little bit I have a lot of thoughts um even about our new website but um I think one piece is just going to having the rebates be um prominent on osi's homepage um would be a good thing
040to be able to see that I think that's one of the things that's most you know folks might be looking for the most and at least for me I'm not seeing that easily on the homepage of OSI so I would say that that would be an easy lift thank you so much for that note council member Malik hi thank thank you so much for this presentation it was great to see um the results you know and it's still early in the program we're not even one year into this so it's great to see kind of this impact already um I think I've mentioned to this commission before that I am also one of the rebate recipients from a few months ago um I took part in the home insulation bundle and I'm thrilled both with
041the rebate process um as well as the insulation work now that we're well into winter and I've been able to see some of the you know very tangible effects of having that insulation work done um one thing I did not realize in you know getting the work done or during the rebate process is that there are rebates available from other sources that can also stack with the an arbor rebates um this includes you know from like GTE which uh our contractor filed on my behalf um the rebate from GT in our case was you know not huge by any means uh very small in comparison to the an Aral rebate but you know that's that's still money back uh and still makes a difference so uh I guess my question is would the home energy
042rebate program consider uh advertising the possibility of some of these other rebates from other sources uh to further incentivize getting some of this work done I know Dr staltz in the in the past has said for instance the insulation work in particular is kind of difficult because it's it's not exactly a sexy item to talk home insulation but you know when you you factor in possible federal tax credits DTE rebates and it's my understanding that there could be some rebates coming from the state level as well through the IRA uh assuming you know things work out there uh just wondering if that could help incentivize some of this work absolutely um I think that is uh a really good point this program was actually designed to be stackable with the other uh rebates that are
043available um currently we are also uh working on a partnership with pearl Edison um based out of Detroit well offers a platform for folks to kind of get the assessment sign up um uh sign up for their assessment help them along with their process and also it shows which um rebates that they would be eligible for within that platform so we are working with OSI around how we can more Market the full inent of impacts that are offered not just with this Reb program but with the other things going on as well great thanks so much commissioner mki thank you um I have a number of what will hopefully just be one or two sentence responses to questions um first of all let me start by saying um I really appreciate the program the design
044of the program I appreciate um what OSI and jam Elevate and also Brandon and Michigan energy options have demonstrated in terms of sort of a continuous Improvement mindset on the program that's that's really that's really great to see um so my first question um is um real quick I think Jamie said carbon neutrality in an Iber by 2035 I assume I did I hear that wrong or is it 2030 and nothing has changed 2030 thank you for correcting that good okay great um second question um I think U you said that the total available funds were 1.9 million um I understand that all of this was funded by the climate millage in Anarbor and none of it is dependent on for example federal funds that potentially could evaporate is that correct yes that is correct
045great um question related to that um if I add the figures that were shown by Brandon at the End 323,000 plus another 8 83,000 or so in the pipeline it seems like we will have used about um 410,000 or maybe 25% of the available funds for this year is that correct correct okay good good good quick short answers um will those funds um and maybe this is something that Joe has to answer will those roll over into the next fiscal year or do they evaporate um if they're not used I don't know that answer on my end but I can get an answer on that yeah I think that's important I mean we're talking about you know 1.45 million doll or so that really could be significant um I know that um with the uh
046continued growth of the program we are exploring a few Co-op and multif family um uh properties in N Arbor who are interested in piloting something through this program so we expect that to take up a super super um then another um question that I have there was several um or mostly the references were to um residents and there was a mention of renters but I never heard the word landlord um If a landlord is renting a building and says I want to do some of these actions are is the landlord eligible or is only the renters in that building that are eligible I can take this one Jamie yeah the landlord is eligible uh actually we in the um very beginning of the program a couple landlords took advantage and had many of their properties
047um uh install heat pump water heaters and and other measures so great excellent um let's see um if I understood correctly the the extra bonus for efficiency with insulation and sealing the important word there is and in other words you got to do sealing in order to be able to also get the extra money for insulation is that right yes excellent that's really good because we really want incentivized gum ceiling um a comment about batteries um I would ask that OSI look at what we want to do with batteries um I think most of us know that um there is going to be um Vehicles there are already vehicles um on a li very limited basis with um biral charging and vehicle to home and event and there's some Pilots going on here and elsewhere
048in the world where you can do vehicle to grid and if we just use sort of the generic what we all know Tesla power wall capacity of a battery um a vehicle electric vehicle has roughly three to four times that capacity so if um vehicle to home and vehicle to grid um comes to pass and I mean you have a limited version of that that I actually have a vehicle that has a plug in it where I could in the case of a um power outage run an extension cord and power you know a space heater or my refrigerator um but as that comes to pass I my recommendation is is that we really look at driving bir directional charging and um vehicle to home or vehicle to grid because the there's just so many
049benefits that are going to flow from that so that's just a comment um and that's something to put in a parking lot for future future use um energy star was mentioned for heat pump dryers was there a consideration of requiring energy star for all appliances just so that we're making sure that we're really pushing the most efficient uh appliances um I believe the we are essentially for the appliances that we offer rebates for um the energy star certification I don't quote me on this but I don't believe that um induction ranges have an energy star certification yet um I don't know either so yeah I'd have to double check that um but um for um everything like we um we are offering energy like having the energy star um requirement for the um dryer I
050think covers the rest of the the equipment so maybe just again another thing for future consideration putting the parking lot is um look at all of the other uh rebates and consider adding energy resty requirements either as they exist now or as they um are are provided um you sort of connected um to my next question and that is uh the slide on induction reference cooktop you just mentioned range I assume they're available also for ranges yeah yeah we we just refer to it as a cooktop but yeah so if it's just a standalone cooktop or a range as long as it's induction y y and that's clear on the on the website that okay good and by the way that's really attra um I in a different capacity I was just looking at induction
051ranges you can get a 30in frigid a uh range induction range for like 899 bucks so $750 is really attractive so that's great um I'm almost done sorry um let's see um you asked about how to really Drive uh people going to this program um our next presentation is an update on herd and um that that uh policy where we have home energy scores that are going to that are basically posted at the time of of marketing of a of a unit um I can't remember I I glanced through the report but I um afterwards I didn't think to look at whether or not there's any mention of the rebate program in the form that goes um with the herd um the home energy score print out is that is that in there so that
052we're telling people hey by the way it looks like um you know you you could do this um and by the way here are um the various options even for things that may not be tied directly to um some of the things that are pointed out in the in the report yeah that's part of the updates um for herd is having both that um those wraparound services that are mentioned in there yeah right exactly people connected to that and in the um both in terms of like you said that that report that you get from it we're also going to have that a20 version of the report that similarly can can mention all that okay okay great um and then the last thing is um Can is is there any I know I know the
053city budget is approved you know like in May every year for the next fiscal year but it would be really nice since this is tied to a 20 year millage um could could people just simply over subscribe to something that's in the budget and have it simply delayed and go into the next fiscal year and do that automatically so that you we don't have to worry have people re Reserve or anything like that is that possible you understand what I'm saying so right now I understand if if we exceed what's Reser available for the current year um it wasn't clear to me whether I could go ahead and reserve with the understanding that um that has been used up for the current fiscal year but given the 20-year millage um that that would automatically then
054my reservation would go over till the following fiscal year um it's my understanding Brandon of how the system works is that that reservation would be continued if you as if a person makes a reservation in June like say June 15th um and then the fiscal years up in July would still continue their reservation that is true um to I um John I think what you're um getting at though is if like for ebikes for instance like all the program year ebikes are the r that those funding is exhausted exactly could you reserve an ebike now and then still then yeah that goes through you can then do it on July 1 I'm essentially first in line if will going into the next fiscal year so we currently don't have like a weit list or like
055a kind of a list kind of like that that designed into the program um if you applied for a ebike reservation we would tell you unfortunately you know that those that the funds are exhausted and direct you then to come back at in July to then reapply it would be nice if that could be streamlined maybe that's a a continuous Improvement opportunity so that's it thanks for bearing with all my questions thank you commissioner 11 uh yes first of all uh thank you for the presentation both of you uh very very informative um I guess I'll start with myh suggestion for publicizing and then I have a couple questions um it'd be cool like I think you know word of mouth and like what neighbors do is like very helpful so I would suggest like
056using the ambassador program to publicize this um as well as maybe even like you could get like a like a yard sign kind of like you know a construction company would do to be like hey I got Energy rebates for this that I just did or whatever and maybe there could be like a small incentive for them to do that like I don't know exactly if it'll be like a few dollars or they get like a cool like cup or something something like you know nomal but um that would give them a little incentive to do that possibly something similar like like where if they after they do it if they do like a post on like next door or something to say like hey I just did this like you know and then again
057maybe like a small nominal um kind of incentive to do that um anyway uh so a couple questions um just about making sure we're like you know using the money as efficiently as possible um ebikes are cool I I'm I do have concern about how efficient that is in terms of like are we going to get like a bunch of college students that are like applying for this and then they could be like biking without like an ebike like are we are we tracking like surveys in terms of like hey is this like how are you using your ebike like are you just going for a Joy Ride Like that's cool like they're fun to do that with but is it really replacing you from using a car that that I do have a concern
058about that and also like how are we measuring the impacts of I know that was a question that came up and you were GNA get back to us on the the impacts of it I guess if you want to answer that first I'll uh I guess it's more of a comment but if and maybe it's more directed at city than you guys but go ahead um well well that that is kind of a concern in general when designing that for the ebike uh program and that's why the ebike budget is much smaller than the insulation and air ceiling budgets and electrification budgets the they wanted to be able to offer that incentive for KNE bike for people that are actually eliminating travel um but again the main focus of the program is the electrification and
059the insulation and air cealing um weatherization kind of rebates cool cool that's helpful um another point would be like the batteries like how are we considering batteries because like in theory batteries don't save us like carbon at all unless are we using these are they have to be like backup batteries that you're going to use instead of firing up like natural gas as your backup system um how are we like thinking about batteries as a way to be more carbon neutral I guess well when the program was first designed we didn't include solar panels and B because the voting measure that was on the table around the utility so that's why we focus more on the PV storage um but we do incentivize folks who do participate in the Solar for all or um will
060participate in the um utility to uh apply for the PV storage to be that storage unit U to be that Excess power um when it's an outage or something like that so and sorry go goe oh I was just noting that it it is to conserve and rely more on the the energy that you're capturing okay so yeah I would be interested and if you're also looking into the information on uh ebikes as to how you're like calculating the the impacts of someone buying batteries um and then just one more thing it's kind of I guess more of a comment than anything else is just well I guess it's sort of a question comment but um relating to like the whole contract like allowing contractors to do it I do have a little bit of
061a concern like how do we know they're not just like quoting a price that's like more than it would be normally and then they're like oh but now we're giving you this rebate like people do that on like Groupon and stuff like that I mean this is obviously different but do we have any way to like look into making sure that they're not doing that I can take this step both um of of those questions but just to really touch go back to your last question about storage in the um carbon impacts um storage and uh electric panel upgrades do not have any um any kind of carbon um savings associated with them um the electric panel upgrade is included because it's a necessity when electrifying to to upgrade um and storage as Jamie mentioned
062uh the reasoning behind behind um adding that so I just want to touch on that um and then in terms of contractors yeah raising prices and stuff um obviously that's a concern we do tell residents you know get multiple bids when you're going out working with contractors don't just go with the first one um and then Jamie alluded to the OSI collaboration with pearl Edison um and that platform once created will actually provide number of bids from different contractors um to help residents identify you know what works best for them pricewise and system wise in their homes so we we have a a a little bit of that and working towards you know additional things cool thanks that's all I had Joe um two quick notes one just also on the again I don't work
063directly on the rebate program but do UNS solarize and got to say like that was one of the number one questions we got in every solarize group is oh there's a there's a battery rebate now so helping you know filtering from solariz where there is group by discounts into this um can be helpful um since we don't necess have those discounts on batteries through solar eyes um the other thing just want to say got clarification on the um the funds if they're not all exhausted in a year um they they can be rolled into a future year or if there's a pressing need with in the budget we can shift around a little bit to take care of something there but they they are able to roll into future Years thank you Joe council member
064Briggs thanks I have turned a bit into an ebike evangelist over the last six months and so I just want to take that opportunity to do it again um which uh you know I I agree I want to make sure that we're you know account that we are um the ways that we're reporting on it are are as accurate as as possible but I um I think there's a temptation to think oh folks could just um get out on a an acoustic bike as I here is the the way to refer to him now um instead of an ebike and I absolutely agree I love love biking um but I will say that uh it is they can be transformative and I think that that's one of the the reasons that we're providing providing these
065rebates is that um you uh even for the Hardy cyclist um which I bike in the the Subzero temperature so I I I count myself in that in that group but um you know I never before had gotten kitty litter for example on a bike um what you find is that you can just um it makes it easy to do a whole bunch of other trips and we see that um you know students are um should have this benefit just as much and and they are the ones paying for the uh the exorbitant housing prices in our community and she be benefit fting off of this as well so I want to make sure that we have we make this available to everybody in our community um especially making those trips back and forth from
066Central to north campus there's a big hill so let's make it as easy as possible to to get around without a car in our absolutely and we'll definitely take that note back into our conversations with OSI as we're contining to grow this program and as a former Wolverine definitely understand that truck I'm jump in real quick I'll I just want to ask a make a couple comments and and add a a question or two quickly um with respect to the stacking of the federal and the state uh roll out of some of the federal funds but also the an arbor ones um just to note that rewiring America does have a a calculator so it might be a fairly straightforward ad to the rebate program to provide a link to the calculator which has all
067of those rebates sort of bundled up for each zip code um and that might provide an easy way for folks to sort of see the whole range of things that are available um without doing a whole lot of extra work um to make that visible um so that was just one comment there um it sounds like you were saying also that there is some this was my main question was going to be about one of the biggest challenges of this which is finding the con you know finding the contractors comparing the bids understanding the tradeoffs of different appliances and and things like that and it sounds like you were describing some of the plat the platform um Pearl something I can't remember what it was that might provide some of that um help and support
068and I know for a lot of folks that sort of for example understanding whether not you need 2 in versus 3 in of air seiling and insulation on a rim joist and what that means when you know one bid is $1,200 and one is $1800 and where the difference is and what kind of they're using and all that kind of stuff you know I think that's a lot of times where some of the friction can come in in terms of um doing some of this work and the the sort of um complexity of the choices and the architecture of those choices so um you know I was just wondering if there was anything um it might be out of the scope of your remit but if is there are there things that folks might be
069able to do to sort of better understand these particular areas you know aside from going and doing the research themselves online which which is challenging um I'll say yeah absolutely um the home energy rebate program was actually designed to complement the home energy advisor program that the office of sustainability innovation has so that's definitely something um a program that we try to push folks into like if you're someone who are just starting your decarbonization journey and you need that one-on-one support that program was designed for you and cases in which that program is exhausted I I know when launched it was a million bookings that they had um that's when Pearl Edison will come into play where here is a um platform that you can engage with to get that contractors to get those assessments
070to get those bids to make this process easier um even though it's not necessarily what our program program does folks can call in and if they have general questions we will try to guide them and point them in the right direction but uh city of Van Arbor is trying to build up as you all might know the infrastructure to support those new decarbonization Enthusiast uh in the community thanks and if I could ask one one last sort of followup is are there are there insights that we're able to gain out of the rebate program itself such as like the various costs of installations and the various costs of things that we're able to fold back into sort of how we learn and design the program itself or you know are there types of types of
071information that we're capturing that we're able to learn from over time absolutely yeah we we are capturing as much information we can um in regards to the equipment cost installation costs and we're we're compiling that um and hoping to to you know learn from that too so you know we see um you know we see the maybe that installation costs are much higher for certain equipment and our rebases really aren't doing what we want them to um you know that's that's what we're kind Gathering that info to learn about and then update accordingly um so you know we are still you know couple hundred rebates in the door um obviously we like a little bit more info coming through and um you know also then with the um additional things we've just mentioned I think
072that'll help us um get a good understanding too of what contractors are charging um for this equipment and help better educate everyone so yeah thank you uh commissioner sorry go ahead jump in um also one aspect of this program we didn't focus on too much is our contractor engagement um uh prior to launch we met with contractors in an arbor area several times to kind of gauge uh what they thought about the program how they might want to engage with the program um those kind of type of uh kind of development aspects and we are uh planning on now that we have the program launched to continue that contractor engagement of getting feedback from contractors getting an understanding from the data that uh we're gathering in the program why certain costs are some are the
073way it is or why there are con continuous delays as we can predict especially with all the stuff that's going on the world of the cost of things and getting things from that we will see a couple more delays so that's something that we'll have to think about within this program as as well as it comes to timeline and working with the contractors thank you um think want we take one more commissioner mki do real quick things you don't even have to answer them maybe just just to um Park them away um it would be great if all of the city's programs advocated for all the other programs so if I enter in the door through solarize then solarize tells me oh did you know we have this home energy rebate um system did you
074know we have home energy advisor if um I'm a landlord and I'm working with green rental housing program did you know we have um you know all these different things if all of them would advocate for each other Pur we talked about um in the reports that would be really great um and the other thing is um hopefully we're doing something at some level to ensure that um spray foam insulation that's being used is low um global warming potential because some of those old blowing agents and they I don't know if they're still really being used much but the the global warming potential some of those old agents were like a thousand or more and there's um several of them that a lot of them that now just have a global warming potential of one
075so um hopefully somehow that's that's being captured or pushed or whatever so that's all thanks okay um there is anything else I I want to thank uh Jamie from Elevate and Brandon from Michigan energy opin thanks for your presentation this was super helpful and we appreciate all the work you've been putting into the program and making this work and I I know I've been hearing a lot from folks out in the community and and that they're noticing it and I think it's starting to to get a lot of awareness so hopefully this is going to catch on and and people be doing quite a bit in the next the next few months so thanks for spending time with us tonight yeah thanks for having us and um thank you for all your input in your
076questions definitely we'll be taking a lot of this back and as we continue to re-envision and grow the program I think um inputs from you all will definitely be welcome yeah thank you and hi Mike I just have to say that great well what we will leave you to it sounds good have a great evening next we're going to move on to um the staff report um maybe what we can do is just take a two-minute Break um really quickly and we'll come back at um 7:15 on the dot and and we'll just get started with the the staff report out and and move on from there e e e in just a second we want to turn back to um the agenda and next on the agenda is the staff report um and Joe
077do you mind I think we've got a her update um for the energy commission as well well as possibly some other items yep yeah just going to do the normal staff report but yeah as part of that I know a couple folks had asked um some questions about the herd program um we hope to do a broader update at some point soon just because the the one-ear portion of herd is um what March 12th I think is the the Oney year anniversary but just had some questions so just wanted to note um kind of in response some of it and just give a quick update um you can see all of the information in the um the attachments to it but just to run through some of just the the quick overviews of kind of
078um what is coming up next some of it's like what what we talked about a little bit during that for instance um but just noting uh some of the big things they're focused on right now is figuring out what is you know the next step of herd to connect everyone to that so um The Herd team is working on what we're calling a wraparound service program which basically just provides all the information to folks who end up buying those homes uh with the inspiration and the ability to kind of take action based on that report um so that way they got you know they have information on all the programs and incentives we have both here um with OSI as well as you know some of the other ones around there um just so they're
079aware of it they can figure out what they need and they can get connected to resources for you know actually making those improvements rather than just seeing a number on a report um like I also mentioned where they're working on creating a new um a20 recommendations document that will be part of it um what we've been using so far is that the home energy score report which is a great thing it's developed as part of the um as part of the tool itself the only issue is just kind of with with some of the stuff we have here in an arbor it it makes some of the it has a certain criteria for what recommendations it recommends um so sometimes that makes it difficult to apply in an arbor for instance so it says there's
080nothing for you to do even though there's clearly things um that can be done which again um making sure we can connect people to those um to those different resources um additionally working on building an online searchable map of all of the you know all the um properties that have gotten a home energy score um again these these reports are already publicly available there you can get them through the the stream which is our our public parcel database um it's a great tool but definitely not the most userfriendly and requires you to search for everything instead of just having it all kind of laid out so that that online map will have a a better user interface for it all um and we've also been working to ramp up the different permissions we have around
081enforcement so that way we have better um you know we've been able to enforce but now we'll have a better ility um to do that so we can have a more robust compliance um you can see with the numbers there we've been doing um as it's been going it's been you know ticking up we've been getting better numbers overall uh so this will just kind of help um G get those last little bits across the uh across the Finish Line as we go um like I said those are just kind of some of the quick updates be happy to you know at some point if if folks are interested if we want to do a more you know a deeper dive into it um we could we could certainly do that at a at a
082future meeting with with folks from the herd team um happy to go into the rest of the updates but just want to check if there are any quick questions on that I I don't work directly on herd so I won't NE maybe have the answers but happy to relate them back so yes could I just ask a quick clarification for who might be watching at home which is the relationship between herd and the home energy advisor program and the home energy score um and and and I think my understanding is the home energy advisor program is something that might come and give you a home energy score which you may or may not be able to use for the home energy rating disclosure um I don't know how accurate that is but maybe you could
083just yeah they're they're different the the home energy advisor is um depending on I guess who you ask is more in depth um with the sense of one it's available for everyone um and it's it uses the um the energy assessment that you know we helped um we piloted and you know worked with residents in Bryant for instance and um you know goes through and creates that customized path to zero uh so it goes through it has a um you know the the energy assessment framework which can be done in person or virtually um some similar things some different things but the you know the home energy assessment then goes gives you your path to zero of decarbonizing uh whereas the home energy score goes through the the regular home energy score process developed um
084by the doe in them which gives you that score the home energy assessment does through the home energy advisor does not give you a one to five score so it can't be used for um for that purpose but it has more education as part of it um similarly you know you can get so many acronyms apologies but if you know you get a home energy score you can then go transition that into the home energy advisor home energy adviser will better help um you know make again make that more actionable of being like you got a five here's some of the items it recommended here's the you know here's who you can reach out to here's how you can get connected to those resources so they both kind of are stronger in different ways but
085they're designed to connect to each other to help everyone get along that path thank you um cool um in terms of updates the first I just want to do a a meta update outside of here just because I know everyone's kind of asking about it and wondering about it as you know everything relates to the federal landscape um and I'm going to give the annoying answer of just right now there's a lot that we don't know um there's a lot of things happening it's changing rapidly and you know just everything with these Federal programs their funding and their impact is just constantly changing uh we're in an Uncharted Territory with many of this a lot of even what we're seeing is likely to be tested in courts in various ways so you know at this
086time the simple answer is just we we don't know um how this is going to impact things how this going to impact incentives how it's going to impact all of our programs and everything like that um for folks who are you know considering things whether that be incentives or programs or anything like that um you know the best recommendation is to consult with any financial advisers you might have with your family friends things like that to be able to make that decision because again we just we don't have enough information to make a blanket statement on what what folks should do at this time um yeah I'll pause for a second for questions there yeah um I had heard through third hand fourth hand Maybe um that things like District geothermal is sort of on
087hold in Bryant that solar on anabor Housing Commission properties is on hold I mean to is that true and I mean when when do these things that we have any idea um how and when these get resolved I mean this this is really putting a monkey wrench into all kinds of things potentially right yeah Federal um Federal programs all have a 90day pause to evaluate their efficacy how they fit in with everything and yeah until it could happen sooner than 90 days but um that that's that's what we have and until then we we are where we are commissioner mki uh something that was aligned with what I was hoping to ask um but I'll ask kind of different details about it um so Bryant neighborhood I recall recently um Joe I think you actually
088specifically worked on getting like A10 million grants if I'm getting the amount right from I think it was the department of energy um I'm curious if um if that also falls in the uncertainty if there's um uh any intel around that and I was also curious do you know like um uh like where where the funding came from for that I was just Googling it and I was curious if it was like bipartisan infrastructure law if it was the inflation reduction act if it's just Doe's discretionary something different I'm just kind of curious because that might impact the context or status too yeah yeah same thing there it's that the 10 million is from the Department of energy it is for the geothermal um same same deal we're in that 90day pause for the time
089being um I'm almost positive it's the inflation reduction act if not it's the infrastructure and jobs act but I'm almost positive Ira yeah thank you Joe appreciate it council member Briggs yeah and obviously there's a great deal of uncertainty all across the country we know that this is not climate is um say it generously is is not a priority of the of the current Administration um the impact um to us locally potentially is 30 um my understanding it's $32 million in grant funding um that is uh potentially on hold right now and so um obviously there's a lot of different other other areas um that's just uh climate funding um through SI um there's other transportation funding and and things like that but um you know we're monitoring this um we have to continue as
090a city to and as a community to um continue to make the case for for why these grants are important and I think a lot of them are being reconsidered and um hopefully you know we'll see how see how things turn out but umly a big impact yeah we are again everything's where it is but we are constantly monitoring constantly constantly looking at all the things and looking for you know all sorts of Alternatives where we can so more to come soon hopefully sooner rather than later but lots of uncertainty at the moment um as for the rest of the updates um with you know with the leaf blower um ordinance that went into effect uh we now have a program that's designed to help lower the cost of transitioning from gas to electric lawn
091care equipment in accordance with that um there are now or there's going to be um discounts for electric lawn care equipment and rebates for electric leaf blowers uh that will be available beginning on March 1st um more information on that including the the rebates and specific discount information as well as all the eligibility you can go to OSI a2gov.org leaf blowers um we also have the uh the next recipient of the sustaining an arbor together grants or s2t um is Sun bundle uh they are nonprofit with the goal of empowering Fitness and fostering Wellness education within underserved communities by upsite clean athletic gear um using the grant they're going to be establishing Branch organizations and five different University campuses across Michigan and uh to build and deliver 10,000 care packages in the next calendar year
092um if you're interested in learning more about the the sustaining an arbor together grants um you can visit a2gov.org s2t um with everything around the sustainable energy utility or seu uh we are continuing to current uh to register interest in the uh sustainable energy utility um if you or anyone you know is interested in enrolling or getting more information as it becomes available uh you can go to a2gov.org a2u and fill out the wait list form um maybe not relevant for everyone here but just for the broader audiences uh the Michigan Department of environment Great Lakes and energy or eagle has announced the first in a series of requests for proposals offering $5 million and initial funding to support the deployment of non-public level two alternating current electric vehic vle charging stations at existing multif
093family housing units uh grants are capped at 300,000 and applicants will be accepted in Pro process on a first come first serve basis until that funding is exhausted um for more information you can go to the clean fuel and charging infrastructure program web page um by uh the department of environment Great Lakes and energy um we have our upcoming our next upcoming sustainability Forum will be at the downtown branch of the an arbor District Library on Fe February 26th from 6:00 to 7:30 p.m. uh for the second session uh where you can learn about the work we uh the office sustainab Innovations is doing to advance sustainability within the local food business Community as well as here from the local food entrepreneurs who are reducing landfill waste and advancing a more circular regenerative food system
094um and then uh We've extended the deadline for the uh to to submit for the a20 community cookbook uh to March 1st so please consider sharing your favorite sustainable recipes to be Fe featured alongside an arbor chefs farmers and Community Food leaders uh to Showcase just how good sustainability can taste you can go to OSI a2gov.org cookbook to submit your recipe for more information um the only other thing is rebates but I believe they covered that during the presentation on all the new updates there so be check out the website to see all the new new things or watch the rest of this recording from earlier that all for me thank you Joe much appreciated on all fronts um as always um okay we will move on to the reports from other commissions and councils
095and if there's we'll start with a report from other commission first and then um I think the environmental commission and then move on to report from Council U if I may um I have a question about uh for Joe um Joe can you give us a status update on the green rental housing program it was was presented to the commission four months ago we approved a resolution of support with some requested um actions to be taken um this affects more than 50% of ant Arbor households and when when when does this go somewhere yep yeah we're currently going through the um the the final feasibility review for the administrator that goes just through all the impacts to our you know budget Staffing everything like that so they have a full um understanding how that goes
096with the hope of going to council within um either later this month or early next month is the is the goal so soon thank you um so as far as the environmental commission um is concerned um there was one primary agenda item and that is we received um an overview of plans for the um comprehensive um storm water management Plan update um so Jen Lawson presented that um is the process um actually started um last year but um the community is going to start hearing information about this um very very soon there's going to be um an Advisory Group that's going to be set up there's also going to be stakeholder meetings that are going to start to take place um it's a really holistic approach it's claimed to be the first of its kind
097type of uh comprehensive Plan update um in the Great Lakes region so hopefully it's uh something that is can be um replicated in other communities um so if you have any interested interest in that you could look at the presentation that was posted in legistar for um that particular topic that's it thank you much appreciated um we'll move on to updates from Council Members happy to provide a little update um we had Council Administration Comm meeting today um and something that would probably be of interest to this group is um for those folks who've been following the municipal energy utility Phase 2 study um that was postponed um to ensure that there was strong community support for that as well um and um it and then reaching that sort of piece goes back to council
098ad Administration committee which um anyway it got voted to move on to council so it's going it will be back at Council for consideration on February 18th um the phase two to understand kind of what the cost would be of setting up Municipal energy utility that would come along also with a companion resolution um that would uh begin uh instructing legal staff to be considering kind of uh elements particularly in relationship to um putting something on the ballot for November of 2026 um that would require a millage um to fund the litigation um so uh anyway for folks who interested you can kind of encourage you to read more about it it'll be up for consideration and folks should reach out whether they're in support or in opposition of this so there's that also unrelated
099but since um the was mentioned and links were mentioned um in this just folks should know if you're trying to find anything on the city's website right now website's having some issues there was there were some updates and um not if you Google things you often get to a broken link right now um even if you're searching on the city's website you end up at a broken link it's in a process of updating we think it's going to be better within uh the next couple of weeks it's apparently a Google interface issue we're not um is how it's been explained to me but um it can be it can be frustrating if you're if you're looking for something in particular right now but um hopefully it'll be up and working properly soon thank you okay
100um I think now we're moving to our second opportunity for public input um this is an opportunity to speak for up to three minutes if you're watching on CTN please call 888 78899 or 877 85352 47 and enter meeting ID 956 8718 7876 this information is also displayed on the meeting agenda and video Feud City staff will select callers that have raise our hand one by one using the last three digits of your phone number and to raise your hand indicate your desire to speak please press star N9 on your phone and you'll hear not anmated announcement allowing you to speak um please move to a quiet area and so that we may hear you clearly and please state your name and address at the beginning of your comments Joe do we have anyone on
101the line no callers at this time okay we will um now move on to items for our next agenda um and see and I'll just open this up to any um suggestions on um future agenda items we have a a few sort of in the in the queue that we have been discussed last couple meetings um but if anyone wants to add anything else at this Mo at this time we can um feed that in we we typically try to meet um to discuss an agenda usually the week following our um commission meeting and sort of arrange for whatever is needed to to um pull together items on the agenda whether it's presentations or information um to help support that agenda um over the following weeks to to prep you all so just to give
102you a sense of the sort of timeline and how that comes together commissioner mki if um yes a question and a request the question is uh we had considered in 2023 a resolution drafted by Ken Garber um regarding the assessment of a carbon fee um through zoning um G um chair harp um you and I and Ken Garber um had uh done quite a bit of work in um the last couple of months looking at that is that on tap or what's the status of that um as far at at this point I I we haven't seen an updated um resolution um sent to um either Joe or any of the chairs as far as I'm aware um it was sent to you by K about a week ago for the next uh okay um
103we can put that on the next uh agenda the next meeting agenda um I believe that we had sort of planned potentially for that to come up in March and or April um uh as the as the case may be and so and then um thank you for that because I that that can be clarified and I'll I'll I'll reach out to Joe too to follow up as well after and and I I know that you um there's going to be some discussion of legality and things like that and precedence um I know that um commissioner Levan also took a look at this and has some opinions he may want to share um so you know there's um a couple of different layers to that topic the other question that I would appreciate being addressed
104um in we addressed it um briefly in the last meeting but also in some discussions after the meeting is what is the future of the energy commission and the environmental commission um I had mentioned that we are not billing uh backfilling openings now for almost two years um in the environmental commission the environmental commission has also I I don't know how it was delivered but essentially been told also not to backfill openings and I you know it's pretty common knowledge for those that are sort of in working with each other between those two commissions that there's discussions quite going back many years of combining the commission so I think it it would just be appreciated at least from my perspective if we get um yeah someone who really tells us honestly what's going on and
105what decision ISS are being made and which ones haven't been made and that we just are are dealt with openly and and fairly that's that's my CR so that can either be done tonight or that can be done in the future meeting council member Briggs you wantan to yeah I'm happy to speak to that latter Point um you know I think I appreciate you raising this John um is we've kind of had separate conversations around this um it's those those conversations are happening it is been a situation where there's been a lot of exploration and conversations and internal conversations with staff around how this might work as well and so and among uh commission chairs and trying to make sure that you know seeing uh before anything is discussed or presented uh that we actually
106have some level of uh you know proposal that has been vetted that uh could be presented so it has taken a very long time to come to something but I anticipate that it's it we're very much primed for having a conversation about this soon um and so um sorry that it's been such a a lengthy process but sometimes things it's been a you know it's it's just taken a long time to to sort through some of these different ideas so um there's no no desire to to keep any any commission members out of this or to keep anybody in the dark but rather to make sure that when we should you know have put it into the light that it actually is something that is worth having a conversation around other items for next agenda
107okay I anticipate we'll be able to follow up um in the next few weeks with with the updated agenda for the for the next uh next next few months I think there's a few different topics we want to to revisit um one included also I think um an update on sort of where we are might be at with respect to the seu um proposal or seu process um potentially as well so we're going to take a look at that probably next week and and and try to follow up with y'all okay um let's see I think that now it is um 7:41 and um as chair I can declare the meeting adjourned thank you everyone for great meeting and look forward to seeing you next time um we'll follow up with anything over email much
108appreciated thanks all have a good night for