001e 2m and my name is Claire McKenna I'm the chair of the anber energy commission and as chair I'm calling this meeting to order and participating from an arbor tonight um welcome to the April 2024 installment of the energy commission electronic meeting style uh we will conduct this meeting like in-person meetings Commissioners during roll call please indicate your current location and during the meeting please remain on camera uh public comment will be via telephone only tonight to speak during any of the public comment opportunities please call one of the following toll-free numbers 877 853 5247 or8 78899 and enter the meeting ID number which is 956 8718 7876 on your phone this information is also available on the published agenda in the Public Notices section of the city website and on the broadcast of this
002meeting on CDN Channel 16 AT&T channel 99 and of course our home a2gov.org CN Joe would you please read the land acknowledgement statement for us tonight yep um I acknowledge that the land the city of an arbor occupies as the ancestral traditional and contemporary lands of the Ana shanab including Odawa oji and badmi and W do peoples I further acknowledged that our city stands like almost all property in the United States on lands obtained generally in unconscious ways from indigenous peoples The Taking of this land 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 human flourishing and justice for
003all individuals thank you very much and now we're going to move to the roll call um Joe do we have any excuse absences today and then would you please take the roll call yeah I've heard from um Commissioners uh Sandra Levan and covin Garcia that they'll be a little bit late so they should be joining us at some point um so yeah for roll call on gja state where you are located um commissioner burwitz from an arbor uh council member Briggs here and an arbor um said commissioner cven gcia will be running a little late um let just make sure they're not in the lobby okay um commissioner Hans you Arbor Vice chair harp president here in an arbor um commissioner 11even will be running a little late today um chair McKenna here um commissioner
004mki eron an arbor commissioner overp eron an arbor council member Rina here in an arbor uh like I said commissioner Sandra is running a l late today um commissioner Smith here and an arbor and commissioner zlan here and an arbor all right Cherry you got a quorum back to you thank you so much okay so we're going to move to approving the agenda so we can uh move forward with our meeting tonight is there a motion to approve the agenda as posted tonight so moved thanks commissioner mki and a second second commissioner burwitz um Commissioners please raise your hand if you want to propose changes or discuss an issue any issues tonight on the agenda great um so seeing all hands raised all those in favor of approving the agenda please raise your hand and
005say I I I'm seeing unanimous agreement and so the agenda is approved now we'll move to approve the minutes uh as posted is there a motion to approve the minutes council member Dina thank you and a second commissioner mki Commissioners any any changes proposed changes at this time to the minutes from last month okay seeing No Hands um all those in favor of approving the minutes as posted please raise your hand and say I hi thank you unanimous agreement there and uh the minutes are approved okay so we're going to move into our first opportunity for public comment tonight um folks may speak for up to three minutes um if you're watching on CTN again the numbers are8 78899 or 877 853 5247 and the meeting ID number is 956 8718 787 six this information
006is also displayed on the meeting agenda in the video feed and City staff will s that callers that have raised their hand one by month one using last three digits of your phone number to electronically raise your hand to indicate your desire to speak please press star nine on your phone you will hear an automated announcement that the host is allowing you to speak and when doing so please move to a quiet area so that we may hear you clearly and please set your name and address as you begin your comments thank you Joe anyone on the lot yep and do just want to note we have a number of callers so we will again be focusing on that thre minute uh time period I'll give you a verbal notice when you have 30 seconds
007remaining so um first up we have caller ending in hello hello hi this is parel mcarter um I'm at 560 little Lake Drive Unit 30 an Arbor Michigan 48103 um yeah I'm calling because I want to ask um I want to express my concern regarding proposed Lang ballot language um for having um a sustainable um electric or energy utility I do support having an seu in N Arbor I think it's an important and critical step um in the direction that we want to go and I think one of the valuable things about it is that it can be um a step towards full municipalization which the city of an arbor needs to reach a number of different goals from environmental to um social justice to equity to cost Effectiveness over the long term um to
008financial um and I'm concerned that a proposed B language as it stands right now is by biased Against full municipalization um this needs to be amended to remove this bias and to remove this these obstacles from municipalization um there are a whole host of reasons why full municipalization is important and needed in an arbor one of the things that I care about personally is the fact that DTE is has been moving towards um the use of more fracted gas braen um I I'll just read some quotes from a Yale environment 360 article it notes that a paper by the Yale School of Public Health this summer this was writing a little bit before but showed that children living near Pennsylvania Wells that use fracking to harvest natural gas are two to three times more likely
009to contract a form of childhood leukemia than their peers who live farther away that followed a Harvard study in January that found elderly people people living near or downwind from gas pads have a higher risk of premature death than seniors who don't live in that proximity it also notes that since 2014 a compendium of various studies um has tallied 2,239 peer-reviewed papers that found evidence of harm with nearly a thousand of those papers published since 2018 um DTE um is planning to use fracking for the foreseeable future really not an end in sight um and so we should not be using um you know residents of an arbor should not have to pay their utility bills to a company that uses fracking full mun municipalization will allow n Arbor to have more reliable cost effective
010and Greener electricity thank you so much thank you um caller ending in 683 I heard 683 I hope I'm the right person yep you're good um my name is Greg marks I live at 1621 harball drive off Broadway in Ward one I'm a homeowner um and I very much support both of the municipal um uh electricity utility and the sustainable energy utility um and I believe that in terms of what I'm reading in the draft uh section 1510 um it's too restrictive and it may well get in the way of the overall goals that we have in the long run uh giving us a chance as a city to uh move quickly and creatively as possible um and my understanding and and history with such things is you want to leave maximum room for maneuver
011in your um bylaws rules regulations whatever um so that you can adjust as the field of play changes is a very Dynamic area so I would drop the opin Clause I would drop the uh seu will be fee based and I would rewrite uh the section on renewable energy just to say with the goal of 100% renewable energy um I appreciate the effort to get this on the ballot I hope uh that you'll indeed give both the folks working on the seu and very much on the meu maximum chance to be flexible and adjust as this uh progress passes forward thank you for the time I'm done thank you uh next up is caller ending in 228 hello uh my name is Greg Woodring I am the President of Ann Arbor for Public Power I'm
012calling in like the other previous speakers tonight to encourage you to recommend an amendment to the proposed ballot language that would place an seu on the ballot uh an aror for Public Power does support an seu as a step towards full municipalization however we do not believe it is sufficient by itself the feasibility study report that came out in September uh showed that uh the estimate is that it will only provide up to 10% of Ann Arbor's total energy demand we do not have enough rooftop solar potential within the city to reach 100% Renewable Power with the seu alone without the ability to do power purchase agreements the utility will be significantly curtailed in its ability to roll out renewable energy to the city and without a built-in Revenue base it'll be slow very slow
013to start up creating a green field utility is very difficult and while it can accelerate the expansion of Renewables it will never hold a candle to full municipalization potential as it stands and number for Public Power believes that the proposed valad langu City Charter language would not allow the Su to transition into a full Municipal energy utility if the city chooses to condemn and purchase BTS infrastructure the restriction on the utility being exclusively an opt-in utility would prevent it from being the exclusive power provider for the city Additionally the uh statement that the Su would be fee based is likely not compatible with a rate-based utility like fulled Municipal energy utility and finally while it is anra for public power's goal to reach 100% Renewable Power it is a significant logistical and legal liability to
014require that within City Charter language instead we would propose that the city uh State something such as the goal of powering the local grid with 100% renewable energy to serve all of an arbor which is in line with our A2Z goals I very much hope that you will have a good discussion about this and that these amendments will be made so that we can continue together in a spirit of cooperation towards a Greener and uh more publicly owned and sustainable and just energy future thank you so much thank you next up um caller ending in 897 caller ending in 897 if you're speaking we cannot hear you thank you my name is Katherine Daga I live in ipsan now uh since 2014 but between 1998 and 2014 I was an arbor resident we who are
015living in other municipalities throughout the county and indeed throughout Michigan are really interested in what is happening with all of the efforts in an arbor to decarbonize and to move to to a legitimately um sustainable energy program and that's partly because we can all follow Ann Arbor's lead presumably once you set a standard but that's also why I'm calling today because I support the publicly owned Municipal municipalization programs and I support the idea of having an seu as an intermediate step but I find it dismaying for ballot language at this point to foreclose any additional options to boost decarbonization and to maximize affordability and reliability for all residents of an arbor um this 10% cap is pernicious there's no way of being able to um make that an equitable program and I urge the um
016commission to reconsider language that doesn't um shut down options before we um know what we need to take as next steps thank you thank you um next up is caller ending in 023 hello can hello can you hear me we can hear you okay this is uh Sue Haden I live on 1730 ivywood um and I would just I'll be brief um I would just like for the proposed seu Charter language to uh be tweaked so that it's possible to transition to a full Neu thank you thank you next up is caller ending in hello my name is m mcel my address is 2451 Yos Boulevard an arbor um I'm calling to reiterate essentially what everyone else before me has already said I fully support a um fully publicly owned electric utility here in Ann
017Arbor um although I am concerned about the ballot language as it presently stands on environmental terms on financial terms um and I feel that as it is now the proposed language undermines an seu from transitioning into a full meu which I support um and I hope that the council will reconsider thank you thank you um next up is caller ending in caller rendering in 763 if you're speaking and you're currently muted all right we will come back in a couple um next up is caller and in 462 yeah hi I'm Joshua Jacobson I'm at 1755 Franklin Court South I'm calling in today to Echo some of the um concerns raised by some of the other callers i' support a sustainable electric utility um and and the progress we would make there is a great first
018step in some of our energy transition here in the city um but like the others have said um I would like this to be able to be a piece that we can transition to a more broadly scoped Municipal electric utility at some point in the future um and I think that theed language specifically around the opin nature of the sustainable electric utility um the um 100% renewable energy as a requirement instead of a goal um and some of those other pieces there um are are somewhat hostile towards full municipalization I look forward to supporting this bill on the ballot in November um and I would like to see this be um a piece that we can transition to a more complete energy utility in the future thank you now I'm muted um caller ending in
019893 can you guys hear me we can okay uh my name's Grace Whitney I live at 3378 Landings Drive in an arbor um I'm just calling uh to say um pretty similar things to what you've already heard from other participants um I'm really interested did um in an arbor adopting a municipal electric utility uh for a large variety of reasons um not only for um the pathway to more sustainable energy um and I think that the sustainable utility is a great step on that way um but I have some of the same concerns about the specific language involved um eventually being an obstacle to that broader Municipal electric utility that I think should be the end goal um I think it will help us reach a lot of the um important uh goals of the
020community in terms of equity um and sustainability um and so I think that it's important um with the bout language just to not limit ourselves on being able to transition to a full Municipal elected utility thank you thank you um caller ending in follower ending in 134 you were unmuted for a second we're tapping noises and now you're muted again hello can you hear me hello can you hear me yep okay hi my name is Gretchen kle Alex I live at 1215 Newport Road in an arbor um I'm calling today because I fully support having a publicly owned electric utility here in an arbor there's a lot of evidence from other communities that when Progressive communities such as an arbor push for municipal Community the benefits Cascade to other communities in the state so this
021is a way for Ann Arbor to be a leader in pushing sustainable energy more broadly than just our own wealthy community I think that a critical benefit of a sustainable energy utility is that it could ultimately be transitioned into a full Municipal energy utility but the proposed seu Charter language undermines the seu from transitioning into a full meu I'm not sure why this is but I really believe that putting an end to DTE would make for better energy policy for people not only in an arbor but throughout the state GTE is a rent seeking Corporation and it makes many people in this state vulnerable to a wh whims of a profit seeking Corporation I oppose Reliance on DTE and having only an seu would leave us vulnerable to predation by DTE for the future the
022language that undermines the transition to a municipal utility is unnecessary and I believe that passing this resolution would be hostile towards full municipalization which is what we should be seeking vers both for Equity reasons and for climate and sustainability reasons thank you thank you um next up we have caller ending in 245 hello uh my name Isen Murphy I live at 3:15 Linda Vista Street in Ann Arbor that's in word five and I'm speaking tonight because I saw on the agenda this quote resolution supporting um advancement of the anabor sustainable energy utilities or seu I work with the organization anabor for Public Power A2 P2 and we are interested in bringing about a municipal that mean public um Electric utilities or meu and replacing our current utility investor owned utility DTE we have always we
023A2 P2 have always however supported the seu and have seen it as a beginning Arrangement um with optin options for residents along with still working with DTE we think the seu could gradually transition to an meu and be able to then serve all residents of an arbor last Thursday a22 and and OSI held a joint uh very well attended Town Hall about how the seu and meu could work together uh Dr Missy stal spoke for the for OSI and grade wood woulding our A2 P2 president um spoke for a22 given this history of trying to Foster togetherness um we were we were and our surprised to see some of the language in the seu proposed Charter Amendment which people already talked about tonight language that would be detrimental to ever having an meu possible we
024hope uh you Commissioners can consider uh the following three points we we'd be happy to support the seu charter Amendment if these points could be better clarified and those points which um others have already mentioned tonight but I will just mention them briefly again um issue one is the opin message we think that the word opt in should be taken out and then for this reason removing opt in from the city Charter Amendment leaves open the possibility that the seu could be opt in while the M meu could be also um the words all from renewable sources um we thought that put um uh a A2 P2 prop all all from renewable sources to the goal of powering the local grid with 100% renewable energy and the last one issue three was the seu will
025be fee-based um this wording would preclude the transition from the proposed seu into a full meu and meu would likely be rate based such a specification is unnecessary so for these reasons um we hope you will um consider this and um maybe get some feedback to ey be necessary thank you thank you next up is caller ending in 763 attempting again caller ending in 763 you're currently muted all right we will Circle back at the end and um next up will be caller ending in 529 caller ending in 529 hello uh this is MIL Baker can you hear me okay yes we can uh as I said my name is Milt Baker I live at 628 Green Road in Harbor and I've got some comments on the proposed uh valid initiative on the seu uh
026I 100% support theu and I I do have a rooftop solar and batteries and I've seen the technology and it really works well and obviously Detroit Edison's poor reliability and poor performance are reasons to have an seu uh but the thing about the seu is the information that I've seen and I've heard people say it tonight is uh It could only generate about 10% % of Ann Arbor's energy needs by 2030 so that any ballot uh proposal needs to recognize a transition to other things like an me and I think the specific proposal uh in inhibits the ability to transition for example as others have mentioned the optin um obviously you can opt in for an seu but if you're uh you have an meu you you can't really opt in you you have to
027be a part of it and also the % uh renewable portion of it there may be times when with an meu it can't be 100% right away but can migrate to that um so I really hope you'll take a look at the ballot language the that's on there and make sure that there's nothing that precludes uh meu because it seems to me it would make a logical progression from the seu to the meu and uh thank you very much for your time thank you um next up is caller ending in 474 caller ending in 474 you're currently muted all right we will Circle back um next up is caller 58 Z there can you hear me yes we can hi I'm Kyle leash I live at 1755 Franklin Court South anber um and I was
028calling like other callers to Echo sentiments that I would like to see some of the language around um the sustainable electric utility to be modified so that um it's more easily attainable to to move towards the full municipalization um and generally I would like to Echo the sentiments of the other callers um and that I would like to see the specific Ballot or the specific language on the ballot change uh so that it's not restrictive of adopting Municipal energy utility I think that that's a really important thing for you Ann Arbor as it moves forward and I would like to see the commission Rec recognize that so um yeah that's all for me thank you thank you um next up is caller ending in 661 hello hello can you hear me yes we can great
029great um hi uh my name is Gus teski I live in Ward five also I like to say to 763 have you tried pressing star six that might help you unmute I don't know if you know that or not but anyway like I said I live in W five I'm calling to oppose the current ballot question language from the city for a sustainable energy utility and seu uh for the November 2024 election that language blocks or hinders the creation of a full Municipal electric utility or meu in an arbor I support an arbor for public po proposed amendments to the ballot question language to remove the blocks we need to build the seu and meu in parallel and then transition from the seu to the meu because only the meu can deliver 100% renewable reliable
030power to all an arbor residents and completely replace DTE not replacing BTE is a non-starter for me um I'm tired of their failures um so the muu is the only solution because it actually provides 100% Renewable Power to all an arbites and the phase one feasibility shows that the Su can provide only 10% by 2030 and M you can also do it by about 203 can you know provide Power by 2030 and but if not if there is some delay or something it will come in soon thereafter and a little bit late and and providing a solution is better than early and never being able to get there so that's what I you know please um fix that ballot uh language and thank you very much byebye thank you uh next up is caller ending
031in hi my name is Matt bosart I'm at 615 West hon Street in man Arbor and I'm a PhD student and I study the electric power system um last week I attended the town hall event um whose purpose was to discuss the seu and the meu and how these two ideas might complement each other and throughout the presentations from both and I Public Power and the office of sustainability and the Q&A um supporters of both of these ideas mention this idea of starting with the seu and eventually transitioning to the meu and so I just like to kind of acknowledge that it's important to act quickly and I think that the seu can help with this I also want to encourage uh the energy commission to really consider the ramifications of their actions well beyond
032the 2030 a20 goals um I believe that as an investor owned utility BCE primary goal is always going to be to maximize the profit for their shareholders and this means that their interests are simply not aligned with the long-term interest of anal residents I believe that to enact a meaningful change on a longer time scale we must eventually fully replace DTE and establish an meu like others I'm calling today to ask the commission to revise the seu charter language so that it becomes less restrictive and does not directly undermine the possibility of transitioning the seu to an meu as outlined by an for Public Power and by simply modifying this language which seems to me to be an easy fix and Arbor will be well positioned to continue to study the feasibility of municipalization um
033through a phase two valuation study thanks for your time thank you um next up we have caller ending in hi my name is Lisa jevans I live at 1312 Cambridge in an arbor um I'm a neighborhood association leader and a longtime volunteer with Ann Arbor for Public Power um I strongly urge the commission to reread the portion of the feasibility study from last year that details the relationship between a city-run seu and a municipal energy U it clearly recommends that any seu should be able to be folded into a future Municipal energy utility however that could not happen with the unnecessary language currently in this ballot initiative it makes me wonder whether the city is truly invested in a clean energy future for all of its citizens or is simply focusing on its own pet
034projects it would be extremely shortsighted of you and a huge mistake to pass this as written I urge the commission to rewrite the ballot initiative as others have suggested so that Ann Arbor can have the flexibility to truly achieve its Net Zero goals and be free of DTE down the road which is what we all want and deserve we do not deserve the poison pill language in this ballot initiative thank you thank you next up is caller ending in 038 yes hello can you hear me we can all right hello my name is kiplin calal I'm vice president of Ann arber Republic power I'm also calling in regards to the resolution reporting the advancement of the anabor sustainable energy utility or seu like others on this call I also believe that f municipalization is the
035only true path for an arbit aeve 100% renewable energy for all of an arbor and I support uh revising the language for the uh the new section of the city Charter Amendment uh as has already been outlined by other members of atp2 by removing this unnecessary language the city has much more flexibility to transition to few full municipalization in the future without having it to introduce yet another section of the city Charter and likely cause more confusion among an arbor voters this will create redundant betic structures in the city if the meu has to be created separately from the seu and ultimately time wasted on this critical issue of addressing the climate crisis so thank you very much for your consideration thank you um next up caller ending in 678 yeah hi um my name
036is Gia Kyle I live at 530 Miller Avenue in an arbor um um I'm first of all I want to just um thank um the energy commission for your patience through all these comments I know that can be tedious sometimes for people who are on boards and commissions um when you get inundated like this so thank you for your patience I like everyone else um in supporting change to the um language for the seu um initiative or whatever it is uh I want to make a political point and also a technical point the political point is things work better when we're all in this together um obviously there's a a movement trying to get full municipalization and elections can be close and uh you know we don't want to alienate people um who might decide
037to vote against or stay home uh rather than saying hey we're all in this together so that's the political Point um and um um uh the technical point is really to say there even for the seu there may be times when non-renewable energy is useful in for instance Battery Systems that provide support when if there's incoming energy that can be gotten that's um that's a mix of renewable and nonr renewable and so even for the seu that Clause seems uh ill ill advised uh I think the other Clauses that have been talked about also are um problematic from the munity perspective and I hope that you can remove them from the language all right um thank you much thank you um next up we have caller ending in caller ending in 897 you're currently muted
038all right um next up we have caller ending in 134 thank you Mr and chair McKenna Ken Garber 28 H Hill Court um yeah I agree with the previous speakers about the seu ballot language and municipalization but I'm mainly calling tonight about the administrator's beneficial electrification memo um we urgently need to end fossil fuels and new construction I know you share that concern but the administrator's memo is absolutely the wrong approach it proposes eliminating Planning Commission review and citizen in participation and suggests waving fees easing natural resource mitigation presumably things like replacement of removed Landmark trees loosening storm water retention requirements even providing direct taxpayer subsidies uh to developers um incidentally it allows gas connections for commercial kitchens and backup generation in violation of the A2Z plan these are all terrible ideas first they normalize
039gas um so I think they're unlikely to even work very well and second they're completely one-sided in favor of giveaways to developers at the expense of public funds and public process no disincentives for gas now the argument has been that state law gives us no other choice than this sort of thing this is false or at least has not been shown to be true you don't have to modify the building code look at what other cities have done Burlington Vermont charges a carbon pollution impact fee for new developments and major Renovations you had first reading for such an ordinance for an arbor last August one that proposed a fee equivalent to the social cost of carbon for gas burning developments uh I haven't seen that ordinance since uh at your table um I mean one
040could argue that it's not a fee it's a tax in which case fine put it to the voters like Burlington did uh also at your December meeting you heard Cambridge Massachusetts city council member Quinton xanden tell you how the city of that City amended its energy benchmarking ordinance to require all large buildings to reduce emissions to Net Zero by 2035 or pay a compliance fee this has the effect of preventing gas and new construction for these buildings neither option compromises development standards or penalizes taxpayers so I suggest you seriously examine both those options and probably others before approving any of the administrator suggestions um yeah I think if people in Burlington or Cambridge were to read read that memo uh they would be astounded so um yeah uh like Mr Kyle uh I beg your
041forbearance about the number of comments tonight and really appreciate your PA your patience in hearing all of them uh including mine and I look forward to in the meeting thanks always for your work uh caller ending in 795 hi there can you hear me we can okay great uh my name is Brian garinger hello Commissioners thank you so much for your service to the city you know it can be a lot I also want to take a moment to thank all the callers tonight who took time out of uh their dinner hour to get their voices heard this is very important um and I just really appreciate it it's very cool to see I am a new addition to this wonderful group of an arbites that call ourselves an arbor for Public Power and in
042my short time working with atp2 so far I have just found such an incredibly dedicated passionate and compassionate group who truly want the empowerment of this community The Greening of the planet the pursuit of environmental justice and ultimately affordable reliable Public Power in many conversations with other people in this community I found that the idea of gaining control of our electricity back from DTE is wildly popular and I think we're seeing that here tonight in many years of organizing experience I have to say it is very rare that an idea will excite people like this one does and it's for this reason that I am calling tonight to uh Echo what everyone else has said um with gravity I think this this community deserves a pathway toward full municipalization of our energy Grid it's very
043clear that that is uh something people are very interested in we're not asking for you or city council to approve the condemnation of dte's infrastructure tomorrow I understand it's going to take more time more public input but we are asking that you strongly encourage city council via resolution to amend the proposed sdu Charter Amendment language so that it does not preclude a later transition into a full Municipal utility that is connected to the grid I think people have gone over this already but we hp2 has identified three specific pieces of language that must be amended in the proposed Charter amendment in order for it to be amendable to Future full municipalization the first is the opt-in language which we are asking to be removed um the second is the specification that all the energy must
044come from Renewables that should be changed to just a dedication towards 100% renewable energy we know that a full munique can operate provide many times the amount of renewable energy to an arbor than the fdu could ever hope for and I do want to also make sure that we I'm bringing up the the line that says Fe base as well because that should be removed and is unnecessary all three of these things are unnecessary um and these amendments would not change the spirit of The Proposal but they would open a pathway for future collaboration thank you so much I look forward to working with you all thank you thank you uh next up we have caller ending in hi there can you hear me yes we can hi my name is Aaron wolf I live
045at 1215 Newport Road an arbor and I just want to Echo what has been said before um about the change to the language to be allow it to be able to not only support an seu but allow for the opportunity that an it can transition into an meu um I'm a scientist and you guys did a study and the study showed that the seu is great but can only support 10% of an arbor residents and that in order to cover everyone which is a major Equity issue um we're really going to need to transition to a full meu and this seems like a no-brainer if we just change the language on three little specific Parts it has no detriment for the um uh ability of an seu to be created uh through this measure and
046it leaves more options open I really appreciate uh the time of the Commissioners and I appreciate um everyone else calling in and I just remember this is like not just a sustainability issue but it's an equity issue we want all in our break and eventually leaving leading the way for people all around the state to be able to have access to clean affordable and reliable energy that doesn't just enrich a large corporation thank you very much I really appreciate it thank you um next up we have caller ending in 1 194 hello this is Rita Mitchell calling um I am the chair of the environmental commission and I'm speaking for myself tonight not the commission um I just feel from looking at the agenda tonight and hearing comments that there is information missing from the
047energy commissioner uh packet that would be very useful to to have before voting on either item tonight um there is um information about the ballot that I don't see in your agenda and yet you're being um requested to vote in favor of moving forward with the SCU um and there is almost no information providing details with respect to the beneficial electrification um uh information so I think you need much more information in order to have an adequate discussion and to certainly to vote with respect to the seu so that's all I have to say tonight in addition so I do uh support the other comments that have been made tonight thank you thank you uh we're going to circle back to the ones who were not able to speak previously so uh giving one one
048final call uh to caller ending in caller ending in 474 if you're speaking you are muted hi this is Cheryl sibilski I live at 839 Bruce Street in Ward 5 here in an arbor and I'm really calling just to Echo what has been said many times here this evening um probably the only thing I can add to that is that I personally have experienced living in a public power community in Lancing for many years um and also in Gul Shores Alabama for a while um there is a difference and it is notable um in many ways in terms of responsiveness and in terms of costs um uh inconsistency for certain so I have supported um uh Public Power here in ant Arbor ever since it was very first mentioned uh for those reasons I have
049family in Seattle I go back and forth there they also have trees and many of storms um yet they don't seem to experience anywhere near the problems that we have here uh during those issues so uh Public Power is U has been good for me and it's been my experience so I think people in an arbor deserve the opportunity to move in that direction at some point it's going to take some time and the changes that are suggested in from the callers seem like they're the right way to go to me so thank you for your time and for listening to all of us thank you no further callers at this time well we got one more last second caller ending in 934 sorry I didn't realize that I had to do that at the
050start of the meeting um can you hear me yes we can okay hi I'm Natalie Maxi um I live off of stone school road kind of in the south of an arbor just wanted to add another voice echoing um kind of what nearly everyone else has said um about changing the language in the proposed um City Charter Amendment just to make sure that um we're not uh hindering the creation of a municipal electric utility in the future um again of those um or the language of the opin um it's honestly more like that's um not uh what what how do I say it's unnecessary and it kind of eliminates the possibility for the SE to transition to a full Municipal energy utility and also having more people have a say and especially like wealthy more
051privileged people um having a say in their like electric policies and in their electric utility will make the whole process um more efficient because those people will be able to provide resources um to accommodate those that don't have the the resources to obtain this 100% renewable energy utility um also the language um all from renewable sources we understand theist ially that is going to take a while before um our city of Ann Arbor will be able to give everyone power from specifically all renewable sources it's going to take some time to transition this is not going to happen overnight but I think that language should be changed so that um it's to the with the goal of powering the local grow with with 100% renewable energy just so that it allows for that transition um
052and also the fact about the SE will be fee based I don't think that makes sense especially because the muu would be rape based and I think that leads to people being um more energy efficient or encourages them to be more energy efficient because they're paying based on how much they use um but yeah just those three amendments to that um proposed ballot initiative thank you that's all I have to say thank you um and is all the callers I have at this time uh reminder there is a second public input session um at this point so back to you chair okay great yeah thanks everyone for calling in um very enlightening comments and I know we'll have a very uh fruitful discussion coming up here in a minute I would like to take a
053three minute break um just have everybody let's just collect our thoughts and um we'll come back and and dive into this uh next agenda item which which is discusses the resolution so I'll see you back here um at 7 p.m. e hey everybody come on back come on back come on back all right all right so we will be moving forward uh to our next agenda item which is reviewing the resolution supporting advancement of the nror sustainable energy utility uh this is the second reading of this resolution and it has been uh amended since we looked at it last um and um so we have the opportunity to make amendments uh further amendments perhaps uh or vote on it today um did we want to go over the Amendments that were added um or or
054the ways that has changed since we looked at it last yes commissioner mki I have a question for clarification uh referring particularly for to the comments made by um environmental commission chair uh Rita Mitchell and that is uh while we have seen a resolution I'm not aware that we have been provided the language that apparently 20 or so an Iber for Public Power members have seen and therefore if unless I'm wrong um I looked uh online during public comments I could not find anything in our agenda I could not find anything on legistar I could not find anything in the public domain uh so my position is I'm not willing to vote on a resolution in favor of a resolution uh that calls for a ballot initiative where the language has already been drafted we
055haven't had a chance to look at so correct me if I'm wrong no that sounds correct um but perhaps Council Briggs has some more information on that um I don't necessarily have information on um the fact that that was not included on the on the B on the um agenda tonight um it I mean I you're correct that um energy commission has not been provided that language has been drafted um I think it was shared as um as a courtesy with um A2 Public Power um I think you could perhaps be correct in assuming as that this is maybe it would have been useful to have it on the agenda tonight as well um I suspect that that might be able to be something that could be pulled up however I think the desire around
056and I would certainly defer to council member Rina on this as well is to it's not appropriate in in my opinion for the energy commission to be in to specific language of the ballot um that is this has been carefully crafted by um the attorney's office to achieve very specific goals to make sure that the sustainable energy utility um is um the the city is granted permission by um you know or Not by the uh by the people to set up a a very specific um type of utility sustainable energy utility and so the language of that is not necessarily appropriate for to be Wordsmith by um by commissions it's something that's uh needs to um be developed in a different Manner and I think that was probably one of the considerations from speaking generally
057and broadly to the goals of setting up the sustainable energy utility rather to than to the the verbiage around a specific the specific ballot language um I am happy what I wanted what I was raising my hands handout and I'm happy to make those comments right now or or um wait on them is to speak a little bit to some of the public comment that we heard and some of the critique there um because I think that that was really important one I'd like to thank everybody for calling in this evening um I think there was a lot of thoughtful comment and I appreciate um um people taking the time to do that I think there has been some confusion around kind of what is what are our goals of bringing um a what are
058we trying to accomplish from this ballot um and that is as I mentioned already it's it's to set up a sustainable energy utility and so it is crafted around that um if we set up um in the future a m um a full um transition to full municipalization that will need to go to the voters and we will need to be granted that power specifically by the voters to do that and so um the the points that folks brought up around this um some of the language not allowing for municipalization full municipalization that is that's correct um that is um that is um it would not be appropriate for us to go to the voters at this point and ask for those permissions um when that's not what we're intending to set set up that
059does not mean that this is a poison pill that it sort of hinders us from transition in to an me rather this is um it is step one it allows you know should should the voters um allow for this it would essentially you know create that um proof of concept for us um to be able to to be able to move forward and gain experience in this and it is very much um to accomplish our sustainability goals and so um some of those you know there is overlap at the municipalization but there are differences as well and I think that's important to know what we're voting on tonight which is I guess for the callers in there is no language in front of the energy commission right now um it is rather um support for
060um going to the voters and asking um us to set up the sustainable energy utility so council member room D may be able to correct or fill in what I missed yeah go ahead thanks yeah I I was going to say similarly I mean I think so the the resolution as I read it is u i mean it's not an endorsement of specific language it's an endorsement of of the concept and and moving forward with that concept which is um uh I I can absolutely understand why why folks are interested in the language itself particularly after all of the calls we received but I think the um the endorsement of of moving forward with the sustainable energy utility I feel like we at this at this group this particular body have had a lot of
061conversations about what a sustainable energy utility is um and and the the concept of what that means for the city in terms of moving it Forward um I would concur with with council member BRS that um this is language that's highly legal and Technical it's going in the city Charter um and so there we've had not just one but a number of attorneys who have worked on this language who have tweaked it and changed it um it was shared with I think A2 P2 out of the spirit of uh continuing collaboration um I I'll be honest I'm a little surprised by some of the comments tonight about this being a poison pill or hostile to an meu um because I reread you know I've read through the language uh I I reread it after I
062saw the talking points that were sent out um and I just don't see that there um we've always talked about these as two parallel paths we've talked about uh the sustainable energy utility being something shortterm or or or near term that we can accomplish quickly that we can get set up um that should be 100% renewable um that is the the goal of the sustainable energy utility in my mind I would absolutely not support stripping that out um but but I also want to to mention like the directly from I wanted to read briefly from the conclusions and recommendations of the the technical report we received which said that the city should authorize a phase 2 feasibility study to characterize more precisely the costs and risks for this approach of an meu because launch of
063an meu is not assured and would likely take many years if it were pursued the city ought concurrently to consider implementation of an seu to heighten Assurance of meeting its 2030 goals if subsequent studies supported launch of an meu when the time came the seu assets and programs could be transferred over if not the seu could continue a pace in short we see development of an SE as consistent with and advantageous to the longer term development of an meu I would say that nothing in this has changed um and so to hear that characterized differently tonight was surprising to me largely because I think the city is moving forward with those exact recommendations we're talking about moving forward with a phase two feasibility study to continue moving this forward uh if at some point in
064the future the city does vote to uh to establish an meu there is nothing precluding us at that time from making sure that that language allows for the seu to be wrapped up into an meu um but we also would want to make sure that if that language fails that the seu can continue on its own um and so uh you know I I appreciate all of the engagement on this it is an issue that draws a lot of passion from the community um but I would say we're actually in my reading of this and in in my recommendation we're moving directly forward with with the recommendations that were provided to us from the technical report um and so uh anyway I just wanted to kind of provide my my view on some of this
065as as I've heard this conversation play out um but also um you know I think commissioner uh Mery I think you know it is probably we probably should have the language shared out to the commissioner so that you guys can do it as well um but I do want to acknowledge that this my reading of this resolution is not an endorsement of that specific language but rather the endorsement of the concept of moving forward with establishing an seu um and so thank you for those enlightening comments um I did want to share my take on this as well um I see the passion um around um you know getting out of a relationship with DTE and I um that that makes a lot of sense I fully support that um in my role here as
066a chair and as a citizen um but there are two elements to uh the language well I know that not we're not uh this is actually not before the commission so maybe I shouldn't comment um but I did want to share my thoughts um so there two there are two elements that I wanted to share um I think to just Echo what council member Rina has said I think the opt-in um portion of the language actually allows for scaling um of a very new scheme that is extremely Innovative and um you know isn't isn't really uh an off-the-shelf product or or even system that that the city could go out and purchase um the idea is that um you know that that was create you know developed in the consultant report is that this would
067be scaling scheme um with many different options and as we go to market and try to understand what those options are we kind of build it Brick by Brick so that actually fits the E Equity um cost and renewable energy requirements of um the a20 plan um yeah so I'll stop there but I think that that um that constraint is something that's that's super important and I want to say from a technical perspective um that's what the seu does um it's it's an OP system right now um Okay so so hearing commissioner mery's um uh kind of question about how to move forward um can I hear some more thoughts about um do we feel comfortable reviewing the the resolution and perhaps voting on it today or is there um you know a lack of
068comfort given um the fact that we don't have the the ballot language before us um wanted to get some feedback from from um Commissioners uh yeah commissioner we're back you're on mute I'm worried about okay thanks trying to do this on my phone which is a little different for me uh yeah given what we just heard it seems if the goal here is a com you know to comment and to think and perhaps vote on a concept um the seu is a concept I think we've all talked about um and is a entity that could be accomplished quickly relative to an meu and would uh achieve quite a bit for the city in terms of emission reductions and uh the ability to explore what it's like to get greater penetration relatively quickly of renewable energy
069into our community um and so in that concept that I mean that all makes sense I think you're right uh as you just said if the opt-in makes perfect sense for an seu um all renewable uh as council member Rina said makes perfect sense for an seu that's we don't want anything besides renewable energy um I don't want battery energy you know from coal it just doesn't make sense um and uh fee based makes sense as well as some of our phone commenters made so if this is uh just uh getting our sense of whether a we would um support an seu development of an seu or not um and B uh accept the fact that we haven't seen any language I mean I can understand uh that that is kind of moot um although
070um you sure would have been nice to see it um I would support moving forward with an seu for sure Al yeah and I'm gonna look at Erica's little square to see if she starts shaking her head know ferociously but I don't think there's anything privileged about this language I mean it's been shared out with um and so I mean I I'm happy to read it right now it's it's a really short section um but it would uh amend the charter by adding section 15.1 or 15.10 to read as follows creation and operation of a sustainable energy utility section 15.10 the city of an arbor shall establish construct own and operate within its boundaries and opt in publicly owned sustainable energy utility to supply generate transmit distribute and store electricity heat cooling light and power
071all from renewable sources and provide energy related Services the seu will be fee based so if I could keep talking I I really appreciate what you just did I'm not accusing you of cutting me off or anything like that I'm just uh really appreciate what you just did sounds fine to me but my one question would be and it's I bet anything you know a lot more than we do uh you and council member Briggs uh is this going to be something that is going to run a f is DTE G to try and deep fix it in other words has it been determined that we can indeed Implement an I'm gonna skip to council member Briggs do you have a a response yeah sorry to be jum than you um yeah I think the
072whole purpose of this we believe the city believes that we have the the power to do this without going to the voters however we want to be 100% certain um should a legal challenge arise um that we have gone to the voters and gotten permission um that is necessary so this is um this is an extra step likely an unnecessary step but um that's why it's you know it's framed as it is um to address some of those potential um legal criticisms that could you know I guess to just to essent you know essentially make sure that we we are granted permission explicitly by the people to do this so that's um that is the purpose of the ballot initiative okay uh commissioner Hans uh thank you so uh I guess to start I just
073wanted to go on record on my frustration on not receiving the um altered wording of the charter uh proposed altered wording um I understand that uh we are not in a place uh to write or alter legal phrasing um but we are here to advise and recommend to city council um it's quite hard to do so without uh the appropriate wording uh and then to have every caller from uh and our Public Power to already have that I understand that it was given as a c courtesy it does seem unusual to me that the courtesy was not given to the energy commission um I I do agree with commissioner overc's statement that the general um impact on our uh resolution today um does not change but I would very much like to uh voice my
074support going forward to receive all available information um whether or not we are able to alter that information just that we have it available to us in the future thank you thank you for that Insight by sh har thank you um yeah it's it's just to say that um I'm generally I would say I'm in favor of moving um forward on the resolution as as as currently written um and particularly with the the resolved Clauses as as currently written basically what it says to me is that we are encouraging the city council to put the sustainable energy utility to a vote of the people in November 2024 um recommending that it um that any vote related to that come with educational materials about what the sustainable energy utility and what service it provides for those
075interested in Rolling um as well as um supporting staff to put together a request for proposals to determine offerings related to Virtual power U purchase agreement and and to support the continued monitoring and Technical and economic feasibility of a virtual power reduction agreement in Michigan and a feasible exploring ways to integrate that tool of City's Energy Future um from that perspective I think that you know nothing about the the language of the charter Amendment um sort of affects how I consider supporting encouraging the city council to move forward with putting the seu to a vote and and I think that there's um a very strong case um that's already been made and and and referenced in a number of ways for doing so um so I'd be in favor of of supporting this uh this
076is written um currently uh certainly the energy commission could provide feedback to the the language is written um as well um not although fully understanding that that's really G obviously gone through legal um it sounds like as well so um nonetheless I'm it's supportive of moving forward okay commissioner 11 yes uh sorry about the video issues not sure what's going on there but um I I would be okay with going forward with a vote on this I I agree it's unfortunate that we didn't get this ballot um this language ahead of time um I do have to to assume that there's going to be more though that the voters are going to see anyway they're not just going to get that bare language they're going to get some sort of explanation on top of that
077I would assume maybe uh one of the Commissioners could uh speak to that but I mean every ballot initiative I've ever seen has a long explanation that goes with it um that honestly is probably going to be just as important if not more important um to understand what that's going to and this this whole confusion with um A2 P2 does kind of bring up the concern that I sort of alluded to last time too which is just we need to be really careful with how we do this and not mislead people into what seu is and what it's not as well as the future possibility of an meu and you know I I do think this complicates things if we ultimately do want to go to an muu but I understand the reasoning especially being
078an attorney as to why uh we want to do this we have a stronger legal case um there DT could still very well come along and say we want to fight this because you can pretty much file a law you know I'm just about anything you know how frivolous it is might determine how long it takes to get rid of it but and I do agree with this will give us you know one less argument that they can make but just to get back to my initial point I I it's unfortunate we didn't get this language but I'm okay with what our what we're voting on it's not specifically about the language anyway it's just about a general proposal so I'm okay with that thanks commissioner L I wanted to follow up and ask you
079what you meant by um I thought I heard you say um this kind of SE proposed in Amendment to the Charter confuses perhaps the the um the transfer to an meu what did you mean by that or the transfer transition I just seen in the minds of Voters that okay sure was pretty confused about this and we supposedly were in communication with them they didn't fully understand what the ballot um was really going to do they thought it was going to hamstrung a bunch of things when it's really not going to that that's not actually what I originally thought of last meeting I just thought like you know more generally if we give this to the voters now and then later give them um let's say this does pass and then later on we have
080another ballot initiative um I guess I'm not fully fleshing it out but I just there there could be different ways it could confuse people I guess is what I'm saying we just have to be careful the voters yeah yeah thanks for that point I think um yeah that's super valid um great and and thanks for for clarifying there um council member Rina thanks uh sorry I know I'm talking a lot I do I wanted to touch one more time on kind of the language not being provided and I know I I think that that was likely you know probably an oversight we we should have made sure it was provided I also want to express though that I think this is also um we are in this situation rather as a matter of the timing
081of language being completed rather than its necessity to this uh resolution um this resolution was introduced to this body before there was language um if the language was not complete for us to share to A2 P2 and they had not called in today this would have been on the agenda for second reading um tonight and and I guess I add that in that like I don't believe there was any malicious intent here in that Prov in the language um I think it was likely an oversight because this resolution was moving forward without respect to what the language was um and it just so happened that the language got completed it's absolutely additional information that we can provide to this body but um I will also note that it hasn't been it's not on a council
082agenda yet or anything like that um it is just I know that the language has been completed because I've had the opportunity to review it um but it it um yeah it is certainly I think in in defense of whomever was putting together this agenda um I think it was likely simply that this was not attached to to the the specific language to begin with um and so I I understand given the public comments that we had tonight that it would have been helpful to have it um but but just wanted to add that additional context thank you for that commissioner brtz thank you and um everything that's been said so far very much resonates with me so I'll just add some things that I think might be new um uh so the resolution that
083we are considering voting on today I think actually um it's again it's separate from the charter language but it also um specifically does not have the faults that I think folks had pointed out during the public comic period um it refers to the 100% removable electricity goal it does not I think make that like restriction or mandate um uh to commissioner Levan's Point um it specifically has a resolve clause about uh any vote related to the sustainable energy utility would come with educational materials about it and kind of services that would be provided um so I think it actually helps clarify and mitigate some of the confusion and concerns that have been raised about the charter Amendment uh separately through this resol resolution and so for those reasons I think it is still beneficial to
084move forward with the resolution at this point understanding the context that is separate from the charter language and that it was essentially an oversight that it wasn't shared with this body or the broad Republic beforehand um yeah that's it thank you thank you commissioner mki you I very much appreciate all of the comments from uh my fellow uh Commissioners and Council Liaisons uh I uh accept the explanations and uh as I stated in our last meeting I'm on the record supporting the formation of an seu I will vote for the resolution um I will repeat my concerns but except the explanation that it was an oversight um this is maybe just something that we need to be um aware of going forward uh I think you know full transparency is really important and there was
085at least the impression that had during the comments that there was a lack of transparency but obviously that was something that was not intended um I just want to point out that uh there were a few changes to the resolution uh compared to what we had discussed or had presented to us last time um I had suggested some of those and reviewed the language and I just want to point out that in the last resolve Clause it also uh opens the option of looking into virtual power reduction agreements which I think are very important I think we all know that um an electron saved is better than electron that has to be generated even if it has to be generated um through a renewable source because typically those have embodied energies uh energy in them
086so even if you're doing you're generating more power you still with solar or wind or whatever you still have to make those solar panels or build the wind turbines or whatever the case may be so I think that's an important uh addition and I just want to um speak to one other point I don't expect it to be addressed tonight but I've written some emails I've sent a text it hasn't been yet addressed um there is in the report Pathways to 100% renewable energy um um several references to non-recoverable costs and the statement is made in the report that those are costs that will be incurred to this City that will ultimately be be paid by taxpayers and depending on which of the three options um one is DTE plus one is DTE plus plus
087plus an seu another is DTE plus plus an seu plus Community solar um those costs will be roughly $10 million between uh today and 2029 they will be another 10 to 15 million in 2030 and because the report only covers up through 2030 um it doesn't State anything about what the costs are going to be after that um but um they were they are likely to be in that range declining over time as we get to um more and more Renewable Power um from whatever the source is so we will not have to be buying um Rex essentially and what I want to register here is that um all of us and all of elected officials as well as the city is fully transparent with um everyone here in the city as to what those
088costs actually are likely to be they will change over time um with the the new RPS they'll likely be lower but if we miss some of our targets for example we know that we've approved a number of new hotel and housing units that are going to be natural gas connected that are going to be coming on board that may offset um some of those other of benefits that we see I I want us to be very transparent with uh uh taxpayers and residents about what those costs are and how they might be uh recovered so uh thank thank you very much for the opportunity to comment that's my last comment on this top thank you commissioner mki commissioner col Garcia I also want to thank everyone who submitted comments and also to our um council
089members um for um informing us of the process as well as reading to us um the actual the ballot language I really appreciate that um I think it uh it would be very beneficial to take this situation that has occurred uh during the meeting during that the public input in particular as a um an opportunity to learn from for production of the educational materials it's really basically mine from the comments and the concerns of of all the folks who called in and um utilize that so if if if these folks who are very very informed about this process are asking these questions then then maybe other folks might be having Sim other questions and that's just my very simple comment for tonight okay um I've heard from most folks I don't uh want to call
090people out but um I want to give a little bit of an opportunity for someone um who hasn't shared a question or comment yet um we're going to move to taking a motion to open the vote in a minute um and of course I'll ask for any more comments then but um just give me a little bit of a moment okay so I hear um yeah General support of moving forward um so do I have a motion to open the vote to approve the resolution as posted s Mo thank you commissioner brick wtz and a second commissioner mki a second thank you so much um is there any further discussion tonight um some really really fruitful topics have been raised we heard from great commenters anybody else with um final comments before we we take
091a vote all right thank you so all is in favor of appro approving the resolution as posted please raise your hand and say I I I you're changing your Ming I vote for it as well too okay okay and um all is opposed please raise your hand and say no okay and any exensions tonight all right um so there's a unanimous vote um in support of the res resolution and therefore it is approved so we'll be sending that over um to Council in support of um putting the um see you to the vote of people thank you all for participating in that tonight um all right where are we at um let's see I wanted to consider tabling some items um let's see um I would I would like to L POS a motion to
092table uh the discussion of the building electrification options tonight um is there any SEC any second on that is that a second that yeah okay all right thank you um all right so we're g to um just just vote to um to table that item tonight so all those in favor of of tbling that item tonight I'll please raise your hand and say I I and and anyone oppose to tbling that item tonight I I have a suggestion and that is so that the conversation when we do take it up is hopefully more focused that uh people um provide comments to the city administrator's uh memo um and those are distributed hopefully to the rest they can be maybe sent to to Joe and they can be sent to everyone for everyone's consideration we had
093some uh I think uh important comments from uh Ken Garber uh I'm sure there's other ideas that Commissioners have and that may um speed the and and make the discussion of the the uh the memo uh quicker in in the next meeting when whenever we consider it yeah I like that thanks all right so we are going to move to uh commission business we have oh yes commissioner BR sorry to hold this up but I did want to also flag Just for future discussion on the um City administrator's incentive proposal memo um there was a section on the second page that got cut off I don't think it's absolutely crucial but I just wanted to flag it in case um anybody wanted to add in the missing information there um it's the second page um
094the first paragraph under financial support for defined developments the second sentence starts these costs and then has some PR the parent that whole information and then just doesn't finish so I think there's supposed to be another sentence or two there that not crucial but just that out over here I can work on fixing that sorry about that all right commissioner Mery yeah real quickly uh last Monday city council passed four resolutions which um touch um to varying degrees on this topic and I think it might be helpful if those were also provided to the commission so that we consider the city administration's memo uh in relation to the res resolutions that were passed by Council great okay so we're going to move to commission business uh we have two items of business tonight um number
095one is an update on the empty positions I know that was um something that we discussed last month um let's see are any of the council members willing to give an update on the vacancies um currently or you can pass yeah go ahead uh actually council member Briggs and I had a conversation with the mayor after uh admin our admin committee tonight um and so I believe we are aiming to meet here either this weekend or in the next week to discuss the vacancies okay thanks yeah and um just let it be known that they will have three vacancies in May um including myself so I'll be leaving the Commission in May unfortunately my life is just um taking a bit of a turn and um I don't have the bandwidth um I hope to
096get a PhD one day and that is right now in Conflict so um yeah like my I'd like my objection to that to be noted thank you I appreciate you all right so that's our update on empty positions um so we um had an agenda item to discuss um chair and vice chair elections um Joe did we have anybody um write in about interest or we were just look asking for a generation of interest um someone to take the chair position and um also someone to run for vice chair um did you hear from anybody yeah I have well that's a weird way of phrasing that no I have not um but uh yeah I was somewhat what we're thinking is just kind of you know as as in last time it took us several
097what two or three months to actually have an election wanted to just kind of get this started if we're in a different situation where we have folks who are um you know interested in saying like yes I would like to run for chair yes I would like to run for vice chair we can work on that here if not um just wanted to start seating that um so we can have a vote at the upcoming meeting as chair McKenna mentioned um they are stepping down and their term runs through the end of May uh so the next meeting in May is the only is the last one that chair mcin will be here so if we you know do not vote uh by that time we will be chairless essentially in in June there's ways
098to work around that and such but so just wanted to start getting this out there wanted to again if we have people who are ready we can we can do um discussions and voting this time or we can do discussions and voting next time um I just wanted to start people's thoughts on that yeah thanks council member Briggs I just wanted to want say disappointed but we'll be losing you um thanks for your service um but I wondered um commissioner harp I think you're um serving as um Vice chair right now I wondered about your interest in in transitioning to to chair if you had interest in that um i' certainly supported and um commissioner Smith I think if my memory is serving me correctly that you maybe suggested that you might be um have
099maybe your arm could be twisted to to serve as Vice chair last time and I was curious um if that if you would have um interest in doing it in which case we feel like we might be well positioned to be able to move forward so I just wanted to to raise those as as possibilities any responses to these call outs yeah I'll I'll just say that I'm I'm I'm um I'm I'm still sort of considering and weighing um what my bandwidth is going to support uh for the next year okay um any more yes Mr col Garcia this can also be a call out um I have a question for commissioner burkowitz who in um previous meeting had um comment if I remember correctly commented that uh you would be interested in possibly considering
100a role as an officer the energy commission just a question I I would consider it uh I I I I still have many things going on in my life that uhud makes me think uh being as deeply dedicated to this body as I would like to if I were to step into a leadership role but um sorry that's my dog she's very passionate about energy commission issues as well um anyway I would consider it um but I would love for other FKS to step up and so I can continue supporting or behind the scenes and the work and things that Alina yeah I would just Echo that I think all of the names that have been mentioned are would be wonderful um I I think that um it doesn't seem like we're going to probably
101come to a consensus tonight and so the the other thing that maybe we can do is um you know if if Joe if you're willing to kind of just put out a reminder to folks and let folks express interest behind the scenes which can sometimes maybe be a little bit more uh or less intimidating than uh than doing it here um and just if folks are are interested are willing to learn more about it I'm sure that uh that Claire or Erica or I would all be happy to chat with you as well about what it might entail um and meanwhile don't be surprised if you get a call from Erica i' continuing to twist your arm to step up into the leadership The Show Must Go On yes Joe yeah I'll just say I'll
102I'll send out an email this week or something just one you all have my contact information everything like that but I'll also include like my calendar and stuff like that so um yeah more than welcome to talk to anyone like I said I know this is a awkward position to just be like hey do you want to do it um so you know no that's kind of a weird Forum so happy to talk to anyone um like I said you'll have my calendar availability and all that you're welcome to schedule meeting talk more about it um happy to go into you know roughly here's what the chair does here's what a time commitment looks like here's you know and if that's um you know if that's concerning or anything like that happy to look at
103different Alternatives or different ways to kind of um try to figure out something that that that works for folks so just throwing out there definitely happy to talk to anyone anytime offline in any way so and I want to give Joe do respect in props because he is really the the grease of this entire machine um you know just yeah being so responsive and helpful and kind and um just so great to work with so anybody who would be stepping into leadership position and this commission would be very well supported by him so you're not doing it all alone um okay yeah so let's move on um and just know that we're going to have a vote next month and it's final all right all right so next agenda item uh we're going to take
104report from staff so Joe would you please take the floor maybe if I can find my stuff um no all good um yeah so just just a couple updates um some are you know some that we had questions about before just kind of talked about before um one I did want to note that uh we do now have a public facing performance metric dashboard um it's live on both the a20 website as well as on the city administrator's website uh this dashboard shows metrics on CommunityWide greenhouse gas emissions specific a20 strategies as well as engagement um it primarily shows data and how it relates to the Target set in the a20 plan um do just want to note that because a dashboard is inherently less accessible than other forms of Outreach specifically it comes to
105certain things like screen readers or other you know ability to access um program updates and qualitative information will still be shared on the OSI website in newsletters and in other forms so everyone is able to continue to access um this information regardless of um just regardless of any um inaccessibility concerns um and the dashboard we continue to be updated we'll be adding more information as we have data and capacity available for it um an update on uh some of the work we've been doing on City facilities in regard to solar um the through contracts we've been working with homeand solar and Parks and Recreation to install solar arrays at various city parks um since uh kicked off in mid 2020 23 over 350 kilowatts of solar rays have been installed at various park locations including
106Cobblestone Farm Burr Park Leslie Park and here on hills golf courses and burns Senior Center uh solar installation types include roof mounts ground mounts and carport arrays um in addition over 500 kilow of behind the meter solar installations are currently planned uh at other Park sites and City facilities including the water resource recovery facility the municipal airport and Veterans Memorial Park um and in regard to benchmarking just uh for the 2024 benchmarking cycle buildings greater than 20,000 square feet must Benchmark and Report energy and water data to the city covered buildings have received postcard notifications of this upcoming deadline to do so um the city has increased our capacity for benchmarking support uh We've hired an energy coordinator focused on this and uh the contract with the an arbor County 2030 district for additional support
107um in regard to some of the I know we've talked about some of the data reporting we're currently working to resolve some technical challenges with data reported for previous years um with the this additional capacity we're working to resolve some of these um technical challenges and effort to ensure as it's publicly accessible data making sure that only accurate data is shared publicly and we'll post that data with the report once those um issues are resolved so that is all I have for now fantastic all right so so we will take now a working group update um it's okay if there's I don't know if you you all have met um and I know we were going to kind of highlight you in the um discussion about the administrator's memo so um commissioner burit I sh
108har do you have any anything to add here I think we can probably just wait until uh the city administrators incentive m Open is back on the agenda for discussion I've got some things to share from the one grou meeting that happened the month or two bu but um less less perent how we table that discussion great thanks yeah we'll do that next month okay um environmental commission commissioner mki and you're muted there thank you the commission received a presentation from um Jen lton and and Jerry Hancock who by the way is retiring and after really uh I think doing a providing a lot of great service to the the city they presented uh proposed uh changes to public uh what is it called public Street storm waterer management guidelines um we were also presented
109with a resolution in support of those guidelines but somewhat similar today we were not presented with the changes to the guidelines so uh while we received a presentation uh the vote on the resolution um has been post to our next meeting um the other thing we did uh is that uh as she did to us Missy presented the uh summary of the 100% renewable energy options uh report um and um in addition to that uh there was a presentation by Greg Woodring president of a22 um on the background and the rationale for a phase 2 um meu uh analysis um if I can just make one comment on that I wanted to actually make State this earlier um I Heard um I did not attend the uh Town Hall where the seu and uh the
110meu were presented in discussed um but what I heard afterwards is in a discussion there was some comments this is mostly Decor uh mostly directed at two Council aison um that the million Phase 2 study um most likely would not U be able to assess the value of um the basically permanent uh franchise that DTE has under the foot act and uh I am not an expert in this but I spent my entire life uh working in business and it seems to me that is something that could indeed be valued uh we with the analysis the uh assets of the meu would be um estimated um we know that DTE earns a fixed rate of return I think it's eight and a half% on those assets um DTE knows what the rate stream is roughly
111and um there's lots of people that do valuations of businesses based on what their revenues are and what their costs are and so on and so forth so um it seems to me that um that should be if if indeed there is a two there should be a robust discussion on the valuation uh to DTE um or their loss if you will to DTE in in what it would mean if they were to lose uh the ability to provide um electricity to the city of an arbor so I just wanted to put that out there um because I know that it's in the uh the mayor's proposed or not the Mayors the city administrators proposed budget and um before an amount um is finalized and the scope of that is finalized that really should be
112um assessed so um that's all thank you thanks commissioner mki that's very insightful um thanks for sharing that uh Council updates from Council Members yes go ahead yeah thanks um as commissioner mki um noted uh at our last council meeting on April 1st the um Council passed four a series of four resolutions um that were based um largely in terms of moving for the recommendations that were in the economic development report um that was provided to us and they were divided into sort of four different resolutions based on themes one of which was sustainability and so um definitely important for for um the commission to see this a lot of it um well there were some some some items that Council move forward a lot of it is about getting information back to um back
113to the city council basically requesting information the city council can then um use to make future decisions um from so um that'll also be important for this commission um to be seeing that information and to be getting in for community at large for us to be able to be moving forward um those recommendations a lot of them um a lot of the themes are you know how are based around the concept of you know how do we incentivize since we can't require um electrification and um anything out for our our current building code and you know how can we make the development process easier um for those who are building in a way um much more aligned with with our with our City's sustainability goals so um those resolutions will be shared here later and
114we can kind of think about them as as a package um of of items that we'd love some feedback on great yeah go ahead um thanks uh so I know we've already talked about a lot of things that we might have updated at at this point um I there is some language that that's been been circulated around U moving forward seu as we all now uh intimately know um it is my hope that that will be coming in the relative F relatively uh soon for for Council to consider I'd like us to move forward with this um I also just wanted to add um I had the opportunity last week uh to meet with the acting Secretary of Hud uh who was visiting an arbor um she specifically was in Ann Arbor to to uh
115that well there were a number of reasons she was kind of touring around different sites uh in the washingon County area but one of the reasons she specifically came to an arbor was uh to visit our Creekside court community uh and one of the the important pieces of Creekside court is that uh there are solar panels on the roofs at at Creekside and um the a bunch of the sustainability work that is happening uh in partnership with uh our Housing Commission is being possible by Hud um and their continued partnership and so to see the acting secretary here in an arbor to actually see that to be able to hear a presentation from Jennifer Hall and and to understand kind of the importance of that continued partnership not just around housing affordability but also around
116making sure that those affordable um housing developments here in in Arbor are sustainable and and quality places for people to live I think is really important and heartening to see um and then because this is the energy Commission just also wanted to bring up I know that it's an item that um that several council members reached out to DTE about um with respect to the ongoing infrastructure challenges we have um there was a Transformer outage again um kind of just um west of Packard uh a few weeks ago uh this Transformer goes out almost every month um it it blows up people the same people lose power um and so there are a number the the council members from ward 3 and W four are in conversations with DTE about um why this continues to
117happen and why would they come out and fix it they're not upgrading it and making sure that they're not back out again in a month um but it's something to be on I think this body's radar and and our radar that um if folks continue to see patterns where the same infrastructure is failing over and over and over again please let council members know we are in communication with DTE about those problems um and we need to continue holding them accountable for for failures with reliability so um I just wanted to let folks know that that is something that's on our radar and we're we're pressuring them on fixing that permanently hey fantastic updates thank you all right we're going to move to our last opportunity for public comment tonight uh folks can call in
118and speak up for up to three minutes if you're watching on CTN please call 8788 99 or 877 853 5247 and the meeting ID is 956 8718 7876 this information is also displayed on the meeting agenda and the video feed City staff will select callers that have raised their hand and they will call out the last three digits of your phone number to electronically raise your hand to indicate your desire to speak plus star n on your phone and you'll hear a message that the host is allowing you to speak and when speaking please move to a area so that we may hear you clearly and again state your name and address before beginning your comments Joe is there anyone on the line yep uh we got caller ending in 228 hello can you hear
119me yes we can fantastic my name is Greg wooding i'm the president of Van Arbor for Public Power I wanted to call in again to correct the record on a few things but first I'd like to apologize for not having sent you all the uh language for the resolution prior to uh the meeting we had assumed that you would have already received it uh and so we certainly would have tried to correct that on our end as well if we could have um this language absolutely does create an imped to the creation of a municipal energy utility well we understand that the intent here is to create an seu the language that is in this resolution explicitly forbids without future city Charter amendments the creation of the transition of an seu into a municipal energy
120utility I would refer the commission and council members to the July 2021 energy commission meeting where lawyer Chris bisoc former mayor of Trevor City and board members of Trevor City Power and Light presented on the legal road map for municipalization the necessary vote to the people for the creation of a municipal energy utility a acquisition of the bonds the rest of it is up in the air about whether there is a legal necessity for it however the creation of the city Charter amendment to establish electric utility is certainly a helpful step as the city has identified however there does not need to be more than one electric utility for the city of an arbor and that is what the seu language is creating there is no reason to mandate that it is opt in Feebas
121or from 100% renewable energy in this language it simply creates an additional vote an additional ability for DTE to stop this Movement we well I understand that the idea that there may be some concerns about not including some of this language I point out that there is much about the utility that is also not established in this such as how it'll be governed or how rates will be based or how it'll be uh how people will access it that will come later in an ordinance and things like an opin or Feebas or anything like that could be passed by ordinance after this P ballot amendment is voted on by the people of an arbor an AR for Public Power is always supported in seu as a pathway towards full full municipalization this does not create
122an seu that is a pathway to full mization and I do not believe an aror for Public Power will support this language as it stands thank you thank you um no other callers at this time yeah yep okay so um great we're going to move to our next agenda item which is um items for our next agenda um so I already have our discussion of the um resolution directing the city administrator on uh carot and six incentives for electrification and um increasing emissions reductions um and our our chair Vice chair vote um are there any other topics that folks wanted to float it's commissioner rski uh I'd like to propose two things uh we heard that the OSI has a new uh dashboard related to grh housee gases and energy uh we know that we
123get an annual report on the greenhouse gas inventory uh typically that's occurred in August I would hope we can accelerate that process and I would hope that we can review the dashboard at the same time because the two sort of go hand inand so I think there's an opportunity to uh combine those two topics um and the other thing that I'd like to continue to point out is we have yet to review the green rental housing program um we know that it was in front of uh the the city attorneys in uh uh sometime in January um it's now April uh there 50% of the units in an arbor are rental units um if the same kind of delays are built into the introduction of this where we like we had with uh the home
124energy disclosure where uh there was six months after it was passed before it went into effect and another six months before there were in penalties that's another year that we would lose on anything related to upgrades to rental housing stock and we just cannot afford to have another year of delay on this it was scheduled in the a20 plan as going into effect in 2022 so I would urge us to try to get that on the agenda as soon as possible and to get it to council thank you okay noted any other agenda items all right fantastic all right so we'll move to adjournment uh it's currently 8:05 pm and as chair I declare this meeting adjourned thanks everyone for a great discussion and we'll see you next month thanks good night thanks e