Environmental Commission 12-5-19

001um let's see Oh so what'd you do roll call that's right a Commissioner Graham absent Commissioner Hutton absent Commissioner Skinner absent Commissioner Needham your Commissioner Slavic Commissioner up he'll absent Commissioner give Randall she's here yeah she's here commissioner at callewaert him chair Brown here commissioner over Peck absent Commissioner Mirsky here councilmember Bannister she's here she's here and Commission canceled member Smith so you don't have a quorum at this moment but you will okay all right thanks Emily so the next item is the approval of the agenda is there any are there any comments or requests or additions to the agenda I hear no response the agenda do I have a motion to approve the agenda so second no passes unanimously the next item is the approval of the minutes for last meeting which was October

00224th I believe are there any suggested additions to the minutes or Corrections aye I move that they be approved as submitted all who approve the minutes as they stand say aye aye nay okay this also passed unanimously so now we're at the point where public commentary please approach the microphone and just state your name and let us know what's on your mind okay I guess I guess that ends the public commentary portion so we'll go on to unfinished business the first item on the agenda was documents submitted by Crescent I believe a while back commission participation and RFP processes so we haven't really had a discussion about this so he wasn't clear where it came from and under whose authority and what what and what was it what the expectations of city staff were I'm

003not sure myself chair Brown because it was an internal document that we were working on to try to develop some guidance for participation in interviews because we were looking at actually invite participation with the interview on the Murph RFP so we were looking to have that for the representative for that so it was a working draft document so I don't know how and I apologize I think you might have sent it to me and I assumed it was well that's that so do you know when the city staff would be present that their policy suggestions well again it was an internal working document I guess just a quick background this was an item that I received from our procurement manager who actually got it from the earlier staff actually met nod when he was organ

004system that's been just around tried to lend some internal guidance and just with the project we were working on and that opportunity I got shared with me and so I just kind of took it the next step move forward for review so it's it's an internal working and and really for just those instances when that was gonna come into play so it's got to be a helpful guidance informal document not meant to be anything of any sort of policy or any really just kind of okay but it sounds like if mad nod was involved it's been bouncing around some time yeah so I think I think I really think this would be a good thing to resolve quickly just as a point of policy for all the Commission's cheer thanks for the feedback I think

005it's good for Commission's that have specific expertise to participate in procurements particularly when there's the best value aspect to it it's one of the Charter the administrator has the ability to set the processes for a procedure for procurement so I think what we can do is take what the working document is bring it to a final form to address all Commission's which will establish kind of the rules as an administrative procedure for the participation of appointed commissioners okay when do you think that might be ready no no I haven't seen the document your finalized so I can only give you assurance that I'll use my best efforts to get it done okay well thanks Howard thank you okay so that will remain is unfinished business until further notice from the city administrator so the next

006item on the agenda is the integrated pest management where we have a presentation by the city's Parks Commission not the parks Commerce Department sorry five bucks to parks recreation services I'm Dave ornament I run the city's Natural Area preservation program here with me is Mike Michael Hahn who is also an app staff member and Scott Spooner who's the deputy manager charge of maintenance Colin Smith is hiding there in the second row as well he's our manager of parks and recreation services Victor Morales helped put this presentation together but he's not with us here tonight but any super question thank you any questions about the golf courses Scott can certainly answer we have not familiar about 163 parks in the city 20 188 acres those cover a wide range of different things parks recreation service unit

007provides a balanced network of formalized landscapes play structures outdoor recreation opportunities open lands natural areas wildlife corridors few corridors and greenways that preserve the city's natural aesthetic and community character maintaining these parks in a manner consistent with the environmental ethic that is prevalent among the citizens of Ann Arbor is a high priority for us by reducing reliance on pesticides and incorporating low-risk control options integrated pest management or IPM reduces both pests and pesticide risks that's why we've made it our policy to incorporate IPM procedures into the maintenance of our parks that's a 1 talked a little bit about tonight is IPM and how we use it in the parks both of them Natural Area preservation or nap as well as the golf courses and other general park maintenance pests in our parks and the noxious

008or invasive plant problem insect plant disease rodent nematode or microorganism that is detrimental to the environment or the management plan for the selected park or facility as how would you find pests proper identification of those is critical as is an accurate assessment of the threat that it poses so we can help you determine the correct management strategy to pursue in addition many pest problems are associated with the particular site conditions often the pest appears as a symptom of underlying cause eliminating the past without directing the condition that allows the pest to become a problem only leads to recurring pest problems so what is IPM I will read this rather long definition just so we everybody can hear it out there IPM is a long term pest management system that uses all sustainable all suitable techniques

009for the prevention or suppression of pests that are harmful to the health function or aesthetic value of city-owned landscapes buildings and facilities in an efficient effective and environmentally responsible manner we can often accomplished this through accurate pass identification frequent monitoring for pests presence and impact applying appropriate action thresholds and by making the habitat less conducive to pests using mechanical cultural physical and biological controls if none of these control methods are effective only then might we consider using an appropriate pesticide of some sort so broken down into different parts I p.m. starts with prevention a healthy natural area or healthy turf it's a good way to keep pests out they can better resist the encroachment of the invasion of those pests if not then we can turn to mechanical methods that might include prescribed burning like

010here as well as mowing cutting hand pulling or aerating turf other methods might be control or cultural controls that could include selecting native plants which are better adapted to michigan's climate and are the most imperative against the invasive species in turf areas we can utilize proper irrigation techniques and monitoring the weather forecasts to avoid over watering and also attracting beneficial insects to reduce pest populations physical controls might be fencing like this to keep out deer or other browsers or just to maintain a dense turf or a thick stand of native prairie grass or other native vegetation that will help prevent many weeds from getting established their thin areas with verus I'll often allow weeds to germinate there are biological controls that are often used if they're available that's a way of introducing a control organism

011or a natural enemy of the pests that we're trying to control a classic example is the introduction of Galla Rossella beetles to control the highly invasive purple loosestrife in our native wetlands you we're all another example might be the BT or bacillus thuringiensis that's used your control gypsy moth caterpillars we've tried some other innovative sorts of things you probably heard about the goats that we tried a Gala Park this year there's lots of discussion about using goats we brought in several and they worked on the islands out there goats are great at eating some invasive shrubs we have and poison ivy is well unfortunately that might eat other desirable things as well there's also a fencing issue gallup was a great spot because we could put them on the islands there and try them on

012they couldn't go anywhere so that was a fun and very popular highly visible approach we tried we've also experimented with some vinegar spray it's actually not just vinegar a combination of vinegar table salt and detergent we tried that in three parks this summer and had some success with that especially in the playgrounds where we wouldn't ever use any herbicides but we could put it there in the fire bar it would kill the plants doesn't it's not a systemic thing it doesn't kill the roots so anything with a bigger root would come back but it was a good way to burn it down in the short-term we plan to expand that in the future too most if not all of our 81 playgrounds and one of the things that we'd battle with and nap is buckthorn

013shrubs and we tried something called buckthorn baggies which is a non chemical way to control them involve simply putting a little plastic baggie over the cut stump we tried this with somewhere between 200 and 400 baggies and a couple parks putting them on the spring of 2018 and collected them a year and half later this past November they were about 75% effective it's a great solution for people and in their backyards and things a little bit harder when we're dealing with several thousand acres of parkland we're always looking for different innovative sorts of techniques and if none of those work then we look at potential chemical controls chemical controls should be used only when other pest prevention and non chemical control measures have failed to reduce pests beyond tolerance threshold when a pesticide must be

014used we use the smallest amount of the weakest solution of the least toxic product that will meet pest management goals apply to the most targeted method at the most effective time of year chemical controls begin with spot treatments sometimes apply to individual stems of pest plants to avoid any collateral damage to non target plants broadcast spraying to large areas would only be a last resort when chemical chemical controls argue occations are conducted only by trained and state licensed personnel methods employed conform to all recognized industry standards which are regulated and endorsed by state and federal regulatory agencies and university research institutions furthermore we're here to all product labels which are enforceable legal documents regulated by the EPA so I want to talk a little bit about oh and then finally evaluation it's important that we

015monitor these areas to make sure that we're being effective we aren't having any unacceptable negative consequences to any non-target organisms and to see if our control efforts are should we continue there or not so IPM takes on some different forms both an app in the golf courses and I'm not an expert on those other areas so as questions come up we'll we'll call other people offer to answer those but in recent years golfers have developed playability expectations related to all areas of a golf course mainly on greens tees and fairways they expect these areas to meet certain conditions normally these areas have to be filled with dense turf low-cut weed free with a nice color if these expectations are not met golfers leave and find a different venue that meets their criteria of what a

016golf course should play and look like that Leslie Park and here in Hills golf courses we follow a meticulous IPM and drift management program that combined allow us to meet these standards while maintaining the expectations of the golfers there are six hundred and fifty golf courses in Michigan Leslie Park Golf Course is one of only 11 of those 650 to be certified by both Audubon International and Michigan turf grass environmental stewardship program here in Hills Golf Course is one of only 25 of those 650 that participate in the Monarchs in the rough program our golf course superintendent Victor Morales tells the story of being called up by other golf courses in the area and asked about this program because some of our an arbor golfers went to their golf courses and S&Y they weren't involved

017in the monarchs in the rough so we're helping to take this program to other area golf courses as well maybe the best way to kind of explain our approach to IPM is taking through a case study this is one that we've used here at Knapp maybe you've heard about it we deal with lots of invasive species we're always trying to catch them early on with the arrive here and one of the ones that just made an appearance within the last couple years is still grass it's highly aggressive invasive species it's very problematic in the southeastern part of the US we first had documented occurrence of it just west of town in 2016 it can take over areas and displace native vegetation it finally reached the edge of Ann Arbor and two years later in 2018

018so we had a chance to try to jump on it before it got too well-established before it got looking like this these are luckily not local pictures but this is what we're trying to avoid what did we do well first you formed a silk grass working group with some area agencies fortuitously the area where it showed up is right were some different property owners such as County Parks and the legacy Land Conservancy all have land so we were all very concerned about this and we formed a working group we started trying different different things we've tried burning it first trying with the propane torches that's a good way to kill young plants early in July but it's a very slow and inefficient method we tried our prescribed burning we do a lot of the problem

019is Spring burn season is too early for the plant in its site and its life cycle fall is too late it's an annual so it just grows and does its whole thing and one season and then dies in the fall and spring and fall we're not well suited to that that's why we were trying the propane torches soot and pulling proved to be very slow and inefficient mowing is also not good in fact it spreads plant around spreads of seeds so that's probably how it got to the area in the first place perhaps through mowers more index we thought about bringing goats out there but there's no assurance that they will eat this plant goats tend to browse a little bit higher and this is a fairly low growing plant there's also concerned the goats

020might spread the seeds as deer are known to do we considered then different herbicides there's are some grass specific herbicides and this being a grass maybe it could work with that but it's too slow acting and that doesn't mean that we're just too impatient the plant grows so quickly and set seed and is done it takes the plant takes herbicide the grass specific herbicides too long to be effective the plant by the time it kills a plant it's already produced the seeds that are viable so with Emma considered maybe using some glyphosate and especially a weaker solution of that that we thought might might just be effective at killing that but not hurting other things the problem with there's still issues with non-target species with something like glyphosate and a issue of potentially developing resistance

021in the plant itself so that it wouldn't be effective in the future that led us to looking at protocols called scythe which is a contact herbicide much like that vinegar we talked about earlier it's not systemic it doesn't kill the whole plant it just burns it out and and and kills a registration that screen above we ground then but this being an annual and short-lived it's seems to be effective at that so it's much more effective and efficient than any of the other non herbicide methods that we've used and that's what end up end up using after this long process to come up with this one product we've also used this other examples of times we've gone had to use herbicides we know what the controls work such as on Phragmites and reed canarygrass case

022study from outside of ab nap in other parks like if you just be poison ivy we get lots of calls from the public about poison ivy if it's in the middle of a natural area we let it grow but if it's along a trail or on playground or something we get lots of calls from the public about the need to control it hand pulling is not a very effective method especially if you're sensitive like I am you can get a serious rash from it not just in the summer in the winter as well that was not my arm but it could have been you can still get of her action in the winter so pulling is not a very effective method especially with volunteers and workdays and things we considered goats but again some of

023the same issues about giving them to eat just what you want them to eat they're enough not other things so we've you end up using glyphosate in these cases the best is it's translocated to the roots that kills the entire plant most of the spots were used in this are areas that we can just target the poison ivy and not I get other things around there as well so whatever sides do we use we can give you it we've done an inventory of all the products that we use in our parks and so we can run through some of those without going into too much detail the sharing with the golf course is they have been using a product called Miramichi which is organically a Granik product listed there by the what's just called the

024organic materials review Institute and award you'll see on these words in italics towards the top either warning danger or caution just tell you what those are those are tough or those are the toxicity ratings that are on the the labels for the herbicides dangers the most toxic then warning and then caution is the least toxic so that's just what the what that word means are and these slides will tell you when we what time you reply them what we use them for golf courses also use club pyro lid where the product is LAN trail they especially exist on white clover and dandelions and mainly in the high quality areas such as the greens the T's and the fairways they wouldn't be using this out in the rough of some place other IPM approaches they could

025use they might look at plugging or coring which is removing the tap root of those plants but we don't have a nursery large enough to to have enough of these plugs to put in and some of these large clover patches might require 40 or 50 plugs of to replace those but what we like about long trial is that it uses it's a low dose of the product and it's one a few herbicides that we can use that will not damage the bent grass which is a turf grass that we use in the golf courses there those are the only herbicides that they used in the golf courses within the other parks one of the things we use is a three product combination of two 4 d acid clip I roll it again and die Campbell

026this is used in in turf grass and not all the turf grass but just in some of the higher the rental fields that we use we have about we'd get my numbers right here we have we treat about we mow probably six hundred and seven I have acres of turf in the parks of those about 25 of them 25 acres which is about 3.7 percent of everything that we mo are the ones that are our fields that are rented out and where there's a expectation of higher quality turf therefore for baseball softball and soccer fields so those 65 fields are the ones that get treated with this combination there are other the vast majority of the motor isn't treated at all at nap one of the things we use is a glyphosate that you've probably

027all heard about we use a water-based version of that some of the concerns that you read about glyphosate or from the the what's the word I'm looking for Mike the formulation it so it's a water-based formation it's the carriers know what's the word on one the didn't roundup in rodeo surfactant that's where I'm looking for our friend a surfactant so we use a water-based one that doesn't carry that surfactant if we need it we can add a surfactant into it you'll see a picture there were somebody with a yellow glove on we call this a bloody glove method we actually will use this there's a chemical resistant glove on their hand covered by a cotton yellow glove they'll spray the glove and swipe it up individual stems of loosestrife or or Teasle or something like

028that so we're actually treating individual stems with that and glyphosate or roundup is a caution so that's the lowest toxicity sometimes you hear about is if you that this is is bad we should use something else I'll show you in a minute some other ones that we use carry higher getting higher taxes to you ratings I mentioned scythe which we use on on the still Chris trek up here is another one that's used instead of glyphosate that carries a danger warning we use that mainly on cut stumps you can see the blue dye there we don't paint the whole stem on a plant on a woody shrub it's just a topside cambium layer that is alive it carries the the nutrients and wood translocate there aside down to the roots so we just paint the

029perimeter I finally am as appear we use on Japanese knotweed one of our other problematic or besides the literature suggests as and our own experience shows us that not one herbicide works the same on all different plants different species are best controlled by different different herbicides so we do a lot of literature review literature research to try to identify which chemicals are going to work the best and apply it in which manner in closing IPM keeps our natural areas beautiful and neck illogically functional and if you'd have told me 25 years ago that we'd be using herbicides Atta said oh you're crazy but as I've been in this field for a while I recognize that we really can't do what we do without careful use of herbicides as part of a broader IPM system and

030with that I and my colleagues were happy to answer questions how did the goats work out I think they worked out great in a place that Gallup where the big issues there that's not an area with known for a lot of high-quality native vegetation but we're trying to clear out the brush so canoe us could see the island park users could see the water so we wanted them to eat everything there and they work great for that we'll see they had to come back in the fall for a little bit of follow-up and I think we'll wait and see maybe their plans to come back in the future to bring them back for some maintenance level we've talked about if we could use them in any of our natural areas and the issue is in

031a high quality site we only want certain individual plants targeted and we can't get the ghost trained to do that I'm just wondering if we can share some of these techniques like the bag around the buckthorn would have fraud sure public applicable ities since you talking about hey it's tough to do on 600 acres but everybody can do this in their backyard yeah we could easily share those and some of these techniques yeah do you think that would work with the Amur honey suckle honey sample as well I would think so yeah I think any of those woody shrubs would work could you just put a cut down the shore Mike up here in a plastic bag over it I think the buckthorn baggies themselves are a high higher thickness plastic and they need to

032sit outside for I think we've let our sit for 18 months or something like that so they marinate for a while a thinner plastic could work is there's a good chance that it would break down and then and not do anything so right but they're not translucent they're not they're they're black bags yeah and I think the labels say that they they're good for two seasons after that they just break down from the sun's rays yeah thank you that was wonderful and I assume you put out signs of some sort when you apply oh yeah we do both because state law but the city regulations are higher in stricter than that we're required by council action to put out there are large yellow signs like this big signs are required to be bright yellow ten

033inches by 14 inches at a minimum they have to talk about the product that we applied the toxicity rating the date in the there's one other thing that escaping me or yes and then what we're treating yep and then those per resolution have to be posted for 48 hours yeah even though any of these products that we use are once they're dry in the plant they're considered safe so that toxicity rating basically goes away once the materials are dry but we still require to keep out for 48 hours any questions just yes well I just wanted to tie in that this thank you Dave for this great presentation and Elena de Ricky and some of our members are preparing a resolution urging council to ask staff to compile and disseminate proposed promotional materials to the

034residents related to all your these great techniques and signage that you all do yep we're looking forward happy to share that information and people are welcome to contact our office and we can share whatever we we know about the these products so this committee was gonna is going to address it again in January with Elena de Riggi and that was my understanding is that your understanding yeah I would second that as well or third it I guess um the question that I had though is um did I hear only Leslie is certified or is also here on hills certified I think you only said Leslie right Leslie certified and here on hills as a member of both the the programs there's a here on we just haven't gotten all of everything together so the intent

035is to get there that is the intent okay good I think it's just a matter of documenting documenting all those things so it isn't that we're doing different practices there no the practices are all the same it's just the documentation and actually going through the certification okay Audubon international certification for the Michigan turfgrass so most of the products that you were talking about where herbicides so I think there's a large there's a more of a concern about insecticides so do you all what insecticides do you use for DS any chlorpyrifos or other neonicotinoids um when I came to the golf courses in 2009 we had some left over neo nicotine you a negative yeah Marit and I sprayed it because we had it I so since that point I had not bought any and I

036don't think Victor's had any either it wasn't it was just kind of a on my part it was kind of a decision not to just looking at the research I decided not to do that and try other methods for dealing with grubs basically sure yeah and you don't use chlorpyrifos no because of human toxicity so in the United States its controversial okay any other questions what do you see the future but what are you what are you what is keeping you up at night I think one of the things you know we're trying to we hear the same news as everybody else does about lawsuits about glyphosate and things so we are monitoring those situations and trying to be current with what the science is and looking and whatever looking at whatever other options that

037might be out there the fact remains that glyphosate is still we think the best product for what we what we need to for a lot of the concerns I think I have to say issue gets confusing with food issues and GMO and aerial spraying on crops and things which is a very different application and what we're doing with it so we're trying to just not be knee-jerk have any reaction to what what we might hear in the media but really try to follow the science of it and we've we've hosted a roundtable discussion at a local stewardship Network conference up in Lansing last year Mike and I and some others from the ecology Center talking about these issues just have an open upfront discussion about it I think that's best thing we can do is

038to is to have open discussions about it and hear the concerns and make make sure that we're current with our decisions about them I don't know if you can even speak to this but do you know if nan parks properties that are city-owned or following IPM I don't know if they have I'm not sure if they have an IPM policy like us yet we have started we have a quarterly meeting with everybody in the city that we have identified to date who uses our sites so besides parks there are folks in public services who might use them on streets and things and we've started there probably a little bit behind where we are in terms of documenting inventory what all the products are I do know actually I forgot that you're sitting back there so

039in the past we have used small amounts of glyphosate along bridge decks and in certain areas to treat you know the shrubby material that comes up between cracks this year we have not used any we've tried the vinegar solution but we don't have a formalized IPM so just because we almost never use it because we I have not had any communication with with any of those companies I can wait and say you know a couple years ago when Matt nod was still here we were approaching that issue it I think the council ordinances that anybody in any chemicals applied on city of parkland by staff or contractors they fall that same signage so I know we were asking the questions back then I communicated that with them I don't know if we've closed the loop

040on that it's something that we've been aware of if they aren't following those guidelines they should be but we'll look into it yeah do you see that as part of your role or is that another city department that should be doing that doing what specifically Oh monitoring the parks that are being maintained by not ever this always fall under my jurisdiction so alright anybody else okay well thank you guys thank you thank you thank you so the next item on the agenda is the solid waste resource management plan good evening commissioners Creston Sutton public services with me tonight my Chesky already stepped up part of our team on the solid waste resource management plan and City Administrator Lazarus as well and passing on regards from Eileen Naples our new resource recovery manager who had hoped

041to be here but had a another commitment that she couldn't make it so we passing the baton to her because this will probably be my last meeting and she'll be more the regular provider of content around solid waste to you folks moving forward so tonight pretty straightforward want to come back to you folks update you and fill you in on where we left off and what's transpired since our sod waste resources management plan team came to you folks in August so as a quick refresher August 22nd converted your typical work session thank you very much into an actual full session so that our team could come and present to you on our process that we had completed to develop the draft solid waste resources management plan went through the process that was involved culminated in

042the recommendations that were coming out of that and shortly after that and was even acknowledged after the discussion with the Commission that we were going to the city council work session very shortly thereafter in September 9th to also present the plan as well as some other solid waste updates and so we had both of those sessions sharing the process the plan and its initial complete draft form to both you folks and the council and sought input from that over following the council work session in the September October time frame team we received a set of questions from from various council members wasn't everyone but certainly a full set which for the record that's what that blue underlined is a link there but it's also listed in the packet was the set of questions and the

043responses that were developed afford those and then around that same time frame administrator Lazarus certainly a staff input but administrator laid out the memo titled the solid waste roadmap really culminated with the various discussions large part being the plan well we had heard where we were headed to put it to a final draft form but also other areas regionalization that folks have certainly been talking about a topic of interest contracts and the like and so feeding all those items in the presentations the discussion at those sessions file questions the administrators solid waste roadmap over the late October to November timeframe revisions were made to that initial complete draft from August to develop the November update which was attached to the packet tonight for your review both clean and a red line version so to identify

044for the audience at home and folks that may not have gone through the red line or the clean version changes that were made the very beginning actually at the very front of the document even ahead of the table of contents administrator Lazarus was very kind and really appreciate him taking the time and the effort to develop a cover statement for the plan as he sees this and the program moving forward there was also an addition of a forward section to the beginning of the document ahead of the executive summary that was included in the initial draft incorporating the current solid waste goals and discussions regarding measures and metrics so that those could be brought in and again some discussion and we can answer questions if you do but another aspect that the plan really didn't

045hit because we were looking at our programs and service delivery and then specifically to those service delivery and the recommendations from the plan there were revisions made particularly to the recommendation around residential recycling that in the initial draft that was framed around a consolidation of dental collections to bring that fully in house salad ways trash recycling and compost to city the delivered services and that that was modified to now be titled improved residential recycling collection that there's we are certainly looking to improve that getting more efficiencies and cost effectiveness but now through a competitive procurement process to evaluate how to do that so that audition was there and actually a slate but not insignificant item where we did have a literally a typo and a number that did not get carried forward correctly and got

046corrected in a couple spots in the document around the recommendation for consolidated commercial collection that if the recommendation were implemented with the city basically getting out of the front load business of dumpster collections the savings that could be realized was 1.3 million rather than 660,000 that was in the body of the document it was correct in the cost analysis at the back of the document but just wasn't in the tables correctly excuse me and so that revised items put together and put out to you folks with the agenda and reviewed in internally and so really the steps to complete this process from this plan to put the pin in it so to speak to move things forward is have tonight for your consideration the resolution that was drafted by staff by myself folks helped me

047with it through reviewing it but asking for your consideration tonight to recommend that City Council accept this plan and move forward with its recommendations and at the time putting the presentation together was my hope and target I've got a data in there of December 16th which I had the item in legislating on it didn't get through its review process so it's not on the initial draft agenda for the 16th and so is likely to be scheduled for the first meeting of January because it just hasn't gone through the internal review process and then after that it'll be up to staff to undertake the steps to implement the recommendations of the plan but realize in the recognizing and it's mentioned in the document that there's still recommendations or approvals even that need to come through whether

048it's this body but certainly City Council at any contracting ordinances whole myriad of things that will still be going through that will need approvals along the way but this leaves the the roadmap and the strategy for us going forward for these programs okay well thank you Creston so um I just had one comment or one question actually on it's a four hundred and thirty-eight page document so is the document that was presented to us or all the changes in red font yes so the there's two documents that were in the packet one was clean and the other included the red lines and the bulk of the 432 not to say the front part of this plan isn't large really kind of text if you will is ninety nine pages what's in a fourth of it

049page 100 in back is the background information so the material from the Public Engagement this is in survey that cost the service analysis those items did not change because it wasn't anything that affected that so the red lines would have just been in that so just just so that we understand that all of it was changed from the August 22nd document is in red is redlined yes other than the fact I didn't do an entire red line of the administrators statement document in the forward section so those are all brand-new that's rather than have it all red and underlined that's all very clear yeah there was over dinner the modifications within the body are the red lines okay great thank you yeah it's all hard going through 432 yes as you're putting that together -

050okay I won't think so any questions I think I have won another one and that is you know you mentioned on page three of the first I want to thank you for this for this whole process I know it's been a long one and and we're reaching close we're close to reaching closure here for sure so you mentioned on page three that the collection of residential recyclables that the city will compare whatever cost estimates there are in the RFPs to the city's cost so will the city formally submit an RFP it's comparable to what's been asked to that up and outside speak to that that concern yes we have the cost of service analysis as the basis for our expected cost but okay that hasn't been my direction that we do have the cost of

051service analysis no serve a basis so I think we've done a good job of identifying direct and indirect costs for our finding of the service that document is public so any potential interested parties can see how we put it together what if we did a proposal that wouldn't be public so I think it serves the interest of the city of the potential field of the offers better to have that out there so they can see how we came up with the cost of service that allows them to sharpen their pencils and to look and see where they can be competitive and I just want to add it's not necessarily a direct cost issue it's a value issue when we look and see when we get back in and those are things well we'll bring back

052and we'll have a discussion on because what drives our ability to do there things in the solid waste resource management plan is adopting the whole suite of recommendations to free up resources in one place so we can apply them elsewhere while being ever mindful of the fact that the solid waste millage is one thing that impacts the general affordability of our community so I think what we provided gives more than enough information to those who would be interested to submit a really sound proposal great okay so I have a question in looking at this document and and knowing that there's been discussion of creating a solid waste district downtown to try and address the alley issue if this body is to recommend acceptance of the plan how does that recommendation guide potential direction for exploring

053the opportunity for a solid waste district downtown it's if you bear with me it gets in there we were careful though to not with our language that we didn't want to imply AB is for sure ever Creason because so so we were careful with the word about what we definitely tried to describe was just that a district service just wanted to make sure that any action that this body took in recommending something to Council didn't necessarily preclude that from happening so I've had discussions with mr. Poli over at EPA and trying to use their contacts and network to pull together the downtown stakeholder to talk about what a solid waste district in downtown would look like you know the main street this would be one the State Street Merchants Association to try and provide a

054better level of service some things we have done is we have increased this past year with Council's approval we put another FTE in the budget for enforcement of alleyways and there's been really positive feedback from those efforts particularly in the near downtown areas as well where we have should always say fraternal organizations and so we've seen some immediate success but we're gonna continue to pursue it we want to do it in a way that's engaging of all downtown stakeholders yeah I think from from our perspective and from my perspective is you know trying to solve the would I consider geometry problem in the alleys downtown and figuring out a way more importantly to add organics collection into that you know perhaps you know we are not the entity best suited to have that discussion with

055downtown businesses and I think maybe that's just a function of of how we are and I just want to make sure that in endorsing the acceptance of this plan we still have the leeway to to do that and go that direction if that's how we might go we do and you'll note in the comments I provided putting in food waste collection organics collection essentially is a pretty big savings from greenhouse gas emissions to the tune of the same amount of people who drive around the city every day so there's some compelling reasons to do it yes exactly and the elements are here to get us there great perfect okay any other questions so I'm kind of late to this debate and I really process and I really appreciate what you guys are doing save money

056and the greenhouse gas comment you just made I thought was good I'm just wondering with the city committed now to a carbon neutrality what would it take to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions to zero in our solid waste management plan that's a pretty tall order I mean what do you mean there must be some method to find the boundary of the problem to understand I think we're always we until we can get something other than a CNG or or other fossil fuel powered truck we're gonna be challenged to do that I think so generating less waste is a big part of that generating less waste means we can have less frequent collections and some of the cards so that'll reduce emissions as well but unless we have some offsets I don't think we're not going

057to put the current technologies we're not going to be able to not admit anything so we're gonna have to find other ways to offset what we do but being more efficient in generating less waste that needs to be collected is part of that it sound so like transportations the big issue it is transportation is the two things that will drive us give me any wider transportation home heating and there are some things which is a great conversation for another meeting but there are some things that you know I think you're well where we're trying to put 23 megawatts of power on the landfill as a way to solar energy there's a way to offset some of the city's use and as we come back and talk about things we'll talk about the city as an

058entity we'll talk about those things the city influences through the unified development code and other aspects and then they'll talk about things that we can help encourage our community members to do but home heating is the biggest source of emissions followed closely by transportation and those are things that are weaving their way not only to this plan but to the master plan the driven transportation plan they are the carbon neutrality commitment is sort of the unifying thread that's woven through every one of the governing documents that we're putting together right now and this is pretty reasonable in the sense that you're not investing in anything like a new vehicle that would be have to be replaced in order to meet our carbon neutrality goals I will share something that dr. Stoltz probably get mad over

059since we only talked about it this afternoon but one of the things we had mentioned is in addition to giving a monetary budget to Council in April give them a carbon budget as well and while one of them will go up one of them should go down and you can figure out which is which okay so there's a strong commitment we're gonna and I think personally is the operating officer for the city we're gonna set an example and we're gonna push hard to meet carbon neutrality deadlines well ahead of 2030 and we'll continue to squeeze as much as we can that's great can I ask another question yeah I like to brag about where I live it makes me feel good or something how does our recycling rate I came around the term you used

060in here how does that compare to other communities out there are we like in the top 1% are we in the top 20% that kind of thing you have a way of estimating that so I think we're closer to the top in the middle but remember guessing that it's hard because the number there is 29 30 % you'll see other communities that have 40% but you have to really dig in to how they calculate so first of all we don't have beverage cans and bottles in the waste stream those because of you know if you're like me you've collected nothing taken back to Kroger's so that's part of the value that comes out other communities include things like organics and we don't include the compost in the video that we do we do there are

061other aspects so we don't include wastewater sludge and which other communities do that we do recycle so do we don't we don't we don't calculation but it's a recycle product but other communities include that so it's a very Apple store enjoy into what makes up the numbers we could probably we could run a calculation but the further you get away from what you measure the more it becomes a swag and the less credible if it comes but what you can measure is tonnage and the amount of tonnage that we're disposing of has decreased and the amount that we're recycling has increased maybe just to characterize it a little bit and speak up if you think anything I state is incorrect I'm the residential side we're really good especially taking into consideration the bottle law here

062and things like that where we really fall short is in the commercial sector and I think our diversion rate there is around 12% um so commercials I mean the residential side were in the high 50s if I'm not mistaken commercial were in the low teens and as was mentioned overall we're about 29% so that's the big opportunity for improvement and one of the things you'll you'll know too is that we are highly cost efficient compared to other pier in leading cities and that's buried deep within the bowels of the report if you dig out the chart so regionalization helps us with a couple in a couple ways it to be successful at operating a merlot cailli we have to have certain volume of waste so we'll only get there if we have or I should

063say ways but recyclables will only get there if we can have more than the city produces particularly if our focus is on reducing resource consumption as a whole to be successful in the market today with very tight restrictions on contamination working through a regional management Authority helps us to set standards before it goes into the blue card so that we are then able to through the partnerships that exist make sure that the materials get recycled and not just dumped somewhere else so I think that's really important there are other benefits to potential contracting where we can get some volume but I think really the big thing is to exert an influence regionally on encouraging everybody you know without within the county area to recycle more so and having that dialogue as always it was always

064helpful I think I think we'll get there I think will become a member have some issues that you know council is justifiably raised that I'm going to address with long with kresson at their next meeting and then we'll report back to Council on the results of that but there's no doubt that we will always have a good and strong influence because we are the biggest entity within the region so even after going through the planning process going to which process oh absolutely absolutely I think it's an important part of the strategy okay any other questions or comments I just have a couple of brief comments first of all I support the resolution and I'll be voting for it be happy to also introduce it but I have a couple of just brief comments and that

065is I hope that as we implement some of the recommendations that we look at some of them carefully for example organics collection year-round whether that really needs to be every other week or whether monthly suffices I think it's gonna be easier for people to remember that my organics are picked up on the first Monday then on what is it in the middle of the month and I don't think there's a whole lot of organics that are accumulating during the wintertime so we also say the greenhouse gas emissions from I'm having you know a whole extra route and then we're also talking about textile collections and bulky holes household waste those will impact nonprofits in the community that currently provide those kind of services so I would hope that the city looks at how we can

066partner with them as opposed to undercut them in those kinds of activities but in principle we want to increase the diversion of any of those things and I think that's captured in the plan and so hopefully we can come up with a win-win as opposed to a win-lose solution and one other thing I would add about the regional authority we talked about that at the last meeting I had direct questions to the two council members here and I don't know if we need to have a lengthy discussion on this but we've been talking about this before meeting after meeting we know what the the couple issues are I sent an email out to a few people today I think maybe was even the entire Commission highlighting what we had addressed in the resolution that we

067passed I don't remember the date now in April I think it was and it seems we keep on dancing around the same issues and nothing really has changed in terms of what we know we know that other authorities have various voting rights or they can change when an investment is made we know that we have the ability to not have imposed on us anything rude of her labor issues and we also know that if we don't like the way that the authority is going that we can step out and so I really don't understand why we just simply all don't come to the dance and make decision and move on with it so that's a personal opinion well here here yeah I think most of the people on the Commission here are we agree without

068so any other comments or questions oh yeah well I just for folks who weren't copied on the email that's that some of us were sharing today about this issue and while mr. Lazarus is still with us I think what we're looking into if I understand mr. what we agreed to correctly is that mr. Lazarus is going to bring up with the warm up board at their December meeting the couple two two three sticking points that we've identified which is as the Commissioner mirskiy mentioned the weighted representation issue and to see if they would secure a commitment to fixing that before we join the waited representation and then also there's some discrepancy still and I hope that mr. Lazarus can make progress on the issue of a responsible contractor because there's some people and that we

069discussed before this meeting that it's illegal for us to suggest that the other communities have be required to use a responsible contractor but nonetheless that sort of sets a tone that we like well-trained well paid workers in how we how we do awarding of our own contracts so those two things to take to the warm aboard for further discussion in December was what we were looking what I think we were looking for and then there was just a last third question about if the communities in the county can contract with our MuRF and still have standards and enforcement without actually having the my type entity is the third issue that you know you have to have a warmer entity in order to have the enforcement and the standards of the materials coming into the MuRF

070George responds yes [Laughter] those so weight a representation I think is something that the the authority will have to decide whether they want to address now or into the future I think our conversation about that has been the city of Ann Arbor will always have a disproportionate influence because warmer won't get the benefit of scale of the farm materials are not included in the contract so whether it's a formal or informal waiting there's always that that power of of quantity but that's something that's of interesting and important to counsel I'm going to bring it up with authority when we talk about contracting responsibilities deals with the ability of the contractor to meet the requirements of the agreement we always agree we include living wage requirements in our contracts and we require certain fiscal guarantees as

071well so there is the count that the city is not obligated to enter into any contract where the requirements we have or the values we possess are not reflected in that contract and we can do that without ceding our membership and the authority and because again we are the bulk of the material that will be processed you have we have a strong voice in that as well and then in terms of enforcement particularly weather and there may be non warmer members who bring materials to the to the MuRF as well and there has to be some sort of inspection protocol the advantage of being part of the warmers that can be done throughout the member communities and you can nip that at the point of origin if you will when you're accepting other materials from

072outside the warmer where the regional authority you probably have to inspect truckloads as they come up and turn things away which is more labor-intensive and more problematic so if we can meet the capacity needs of the MuRF through the region for the regional authority and all the regional members are educating the public to the same standards it makes it a lot easier to ensure that the materials are not contaminated you know I think I would also add as we're looking at the the warm issue is is we've known for 15 years that we need to replace the drop-off station and we're totally on the hook for the entire cost of that if we're not part of more my I think that that's a significant part of why this is such a strong recommendation is we

073need the financial help to do this because a lot of that that drop-off stuff comes from outside of Ann Arbor I think that that's really important but I think you know what what Howard said about being able to work with our partners in the authority potentially to identify what's appropriate materials is is really important I think that making the taking the step that Council took last Monday night to authorize you know reopening the MuRF you know I think that that being very proactive in working with warmoth to say here our materials here's what our what our standards are I think that that is only in our benefit I just don't see any downside to it at this point of course I haven't seen a downside to it in a long time but I think really

074makes a lot more sense now I just you know Crescent in particular thank you you've put up with me dousing with you now for I don't know three and a half years and and I appreciate that you guys have worked tirelessly and I do really appreciate the effort and the integrity that you've brought to this and even though we don't always reach the same conclusion I really appreciate your dedication and your service and the work that you put into this so thank you very much any other comments no okay so I guess the next item on the agenda is the resolution that was submitted by city staff are there any suggested I almost have a discussion on it are there any suggested changes the resolution the City Star resolution I second okay all you agree

075see I well now discuss discussion any any nays who would like to start I'm fine with it as is I'm fine with it okay all right then let's move forward to a vote let's see it is our motion to accept the resolution as written by city staff moved second all who agree say aye aye any any nays no so it passes unanimously so thank you again crescent and Molly and our go drink a beer he stuff yeah it's worse or champagne or whatever new business so and the first item here is the 2020 meeting dates that Emily circulated we're gonna keep the meeting dates to the fourth Thursday of every month however I would like to suggest that we change the times from 7 o'clock to 6 o'clock what's everybody's feeling about that sorry Oh

076at 6:00 it's hard okay can you say why you're thinking that just two just so that we would finish off earlier I think that's hard for us with those of us who have office jobs it starts just in terms of the time I don't know if we've yet decided and formally have Council's approval to add to youth members did that go through yet Energy Commission it did but I can't remember if it has been finalized here as well I can speak to that so it was waiting on Energy Commission to approve its new bylaws which we did okay fantastic so after that I think it is on a faster track okay so it'll go together with the the tool will go together to Council is that that's right okay okay so it's waiting on council

077final approval but the intention is to do that yes and so hopefully the relevance of my question is does that have any implications on our start time yeah it could be easier for the for the youth members once they come on board but having had two teenagers nothing starts before 7:00 it all depends on what else are involved in yeah they have all their sports and and dinner and then right okay well forget about that for now I might say that keeping our current time and just trying to manage the agenda so we don't have these eleven o'clock meetings might be a better approach but here that also helped to keep the community engaged in what we're trying to do as well it's a little bit easier to look through a two-hour meeting the archive

078yeah I agree okay all right then we'll forget about that for now motion to approve the meeting dates for 2020 so move all agree say aye hi no passes unanimously the next item is discussion on the 2020 work plans and workgroups emily's submitted a few handouts before the meeting and she's gonna be leading this discussion so I give you the floor okay sounds good so as you might remember from February when we did this last it's gonna be a lot more informal and a lot fewer papers on the wall but I'm thinking that a good way to start the conversation about what you all want to accomplish in 2020 is to review what the workgroups accomplished in 2019 and to see if and to hear from the workgroups about their plans for 2020 and then

079we can make a decision if the workgroups are good all the workgroups are gonna continue and then offer people can offer ideas about new projects and we can see if that fits into existing work structure or if we need to look at something different so I'm wondering if so Chris Graham isn't here is anybody else from the natural features working here willing to commit council member Bannister I guess you'd be talking about the features yes where are your slides so just talk about what you worked on this year and then what your plans are for 2020 if you have any yes oh well it sort of matches what you've got on the chart here we covered a few things having mainly to do with heritage trees and tree protection and gee I see maps and

080and then so everything everything about the trees which are coming along we had the two resolutions pending one for further staff assistance at work and then also as a 1/4 ultimately a tree protection program and we're looking at Austin Texas and Rochester Hills and Novi and so that and we're meeting tomorrow from noon to 2 so we'll expect to make a bunch more progress tomorrow but natural features we focused everything on trees ok fantastic I'm gonna make a controversial comment here and it's something I shared with Steve beforehand and I've shared it I think with the Commission in the past and that is I'm concerned that in our working groups and here in this forum that we talk a lot we passed resolutions but we frankly don't get much done that leads to positive outcomes

081for the city where we can say we did a B and C and because of that there was an increase in the tree canopy or we did X Y & Z and because of that that our Wadud water quality or we recommended you know whatever we did and there was an improvement in the water quality or in the watershed health related to that in February I recommended that we have regular reviews of metrics that are linked to outcomes and that as we review those we target specific actions that will then lead to improvements of those outcomes and I just don't see that happening and in the natural features committee I agree with everything that councilmember banister said but we've done a lot of talking but we really have not done anything yet we do not

082even have as we've done with multiple ordinances in the Energy Commission we don't have a skeleton ordinance that we've looked at where we started commenting and say what can we cut and paste from other ordinances that we think are a good practice so that we start to build something that works for the city of Ann Arbor we hope maybe to start that process tomorrow but we are just I mean if if I apply this to some of the things related to carbon neutrality we will be carbon neutral by 2060 and we you know we we need to we need to be more outcome focus and outcome oriented I just don't see that so I'd agree with absolutely everything that John just said you know I think councilmember Bannister and I were given some homework for

083the council work session meeting of Monday night a lot of which was give us performance standards that we can use to define success and as we look at metrics and and you know certainly councilmember Bannister and I can throw some things down on paper but you know we look to experts like this body to tell us what are some very specific things that we can identify that we should be measuring we just had a discussion of the solid waste plan so much of what we need to be doing with solid waste is is evaluating you know we just don't have any data like what roots are collecting the most trash would have the highest diversion rates where is the highest participation in in composting you know we don't have that information and that's the information

084that we need I think the the second part of what John said is exactly right is staff we cannot look to staff to write ordinances for us we have to take the lead on that the working groups need to take the lead on that you know that's the way it's always been with with boards and commissions is that if we're gonna have a heritage trees ordinance you know let's have some language and let's talk about it the language the specific language I think we're all on board with the idea of protecting heritage trees let's let's have that group bring us something and instead of meeting and talking about who we need to look at let's bring some stuff forward I think our big accomplishment in 2019 was getting city council to approve getting the Murphree

085operational you know that was the focus of I would say 75% of our discussion at this table and I think there is you know we can show that there was a deliverable there but I think as we go forward everything should be placed in the lens of the 2030 carbon neutrality resolution the council passed and everything that we need to do is focused on producing something that has an outcome as commissioner mirskiy said if it is an ordinance we need to then talk about how we measure whether it's successful or not if it is a policy it needs to have parameters by which we we measure the effectiveness of that and all of our subcommittees need to be operating in a very specific mechanism like that and if we're not we're not doing very much

086if I make play catch ball briefly with you on that what I mean by outcome is that we actually see a positive result I'll take diversion rate so diversion rate when the last solid waste resource management plan was adopted we had a tart we had a diversion rate of 29% six years later we stand at a diversion rate of 29% we had a local MuRF through the summer of 2016 we did not make any improvement in the diversion rate so you can do 50 things and say I finished 50 things but if the diversion rate didn't improve the 50 things weren't the right things or they weren't good enough and we need to be focused on things that improve the diversion rate or improve or reduce the pounds per resident to landfill or that reduce

087for example or improve the watershed health we had a metric that we reviewed over a year ago here we haven't reviewed again you know these are the things that are the bottom line and I just give one more example you know the city can say we did ten road projects and if those ten row projects were completed that's great but if 20 roads fell into disrepair and the overall net Road quality drops the ten road projects were not good enough and we need to be looking at our work the same way anybody else have thoughts about metrics and how to frame the Commission the workgroups work together it's more of a question I think you know in the past we've talked about the sustainability dashboard and I think that is kind of the foundation of

088what we're talking about for this but I don't have a good understanding of where that is right now if that's still what we should turn to to build out towards the outcomes John is talking about her effect we need to revisit the little thing we had a subcommittee of the energy and environmental Commission's that came up with recommended updated metrics those metrics were presented to both groups as far as I'm aware they're not being used really by anybody that's that's not entirely fair I mean we you know diversion rate we're using we got updated statistics which we didn't have for a long time by the way so you know kudos to the city for at least providing them and knowing now we're really where we stand but generally speaking the work that was done in

089that subcommittee is gathering dust I mean Susan in the city's website the dashboard has been updated a very little bit for example greenhouse gas inventory has been updated other than that any of the other environmentally related sustainability metrics have not been to my knowledge I may be wrong but that's my understand and I feel like that's kind of a core of the problem I don't know that it's up to this body to be setting the metrics that we should be pursuing it seems like the metrics should be a citywide goal and we can come up with recommendations to get there but but we don't I don't I don't think it's our role to say we should be pursuing this or that and then go forward with it which I accept and it'd be fine if

090we developed the resolution and pass it on to Council and have counsel dictate that as policy the the metrics that are currently on the website the a to gov website were never formally adopted they were put together by Matt nod they were put out there but in Matt was in the subcommittee and he said you know these were normal never formally adopted by my council so we we have admittedly a gap there well it is our role to make recommendations and I think that's what we did what happens with those recommendations it's not and and I won't speak for council member Bannister but as I was filling out our homework for next Monday night you know there are a million metrics that I could throw out there I I want to know what this body

091thinks we should be measuring and how we determine what success is I you know I know the big picture which is are we reducing our emissions you know number but outside of that there are a million little things that go into that you know I want to know what those need to be so that I can then tell the city administrator in my homework assignment these are the things we need to be measuring this is the things that we need reports on every month this is how we're going to determine if our policies are successful or not it strikes me that this is sort of accountability 101 exactly and the public was going to especially with something and I'm sure everything on our list that we have public advocate's for but certainly I'll take climate

092change the public is going to want to see real progress so we need to be able to figure out what are the steps that we are going to take I don't know since I'm new to this game who it is that you know can make them be real we can recommend them to the council have to do it or do we you know whatever I'm sure we can work that out but we ought to every time we say here's a process that we want to put into place we should have metrics hopefully a very small number that give us a sense of how well it's working and greenhouse gas in your case your example just tracking green you know bulk greenhouse gas emissions might not be good enough we need to be able to diagnose

093not going down fast enough we need a diagnose why so we need to have metrics that are can get to the to the why and I just worry on the other side of it is that we could go crazy and have too many metrics which is what I think you're also want to avoid so I applaud this you know it's something that just should be part of what we do we better figure out real soon how to make sure it becomes practiced right you know and I think the dashboard idea is wonderful we got allow the public to see what we're doing so I I have to everybody knows is my my my big issue if we don't have reviews we won't have a discussion about are they too many or are they too few

094can we do a deep dive can we not do a deep dive are the targets realistic are the targets unrealistic do we have enough projects do we not have enough projects and without reviews we won't be focused and without reviews we won't be able to say this is what the problem is this is what we need to do this is the ordinance that we need to write and the ordinance isn't is it done by this date or not and if we don't have that drill down and then drill back up we're gonna talk and talk and talk and we won't be outcome focused exactly exactly so I'm thinking that it sounds like there are possibly two levels to this metrics conversation there's the level of citywide using metrics to track progress across many different disciplines

095and many departments including the sustainability office and then it sounds like there is also a discussion about using metrics in your sub-par your work groups not subcommittees but work groups so we could have a larger conversation about the citywide thing I think that might be a little hard given the time if we could focus perhaps I would suggest focusing perhaps on how the work groups could use metrics I think that would be a more viable item so a recommendation could be that the workgroups go and come back to us with proposed metrics that they feel comfortable with let me suggest something that that what's the new solid waste I mean suggested to us so that we focus on goals and outcomes and then all of these workgroups kind of say you know if there's a

096natural features workgroup you know what is the goal of that workgroup is it to make sure that the city achieves this percentage of tree canopy is it to you know eliminate this percentage of invasive species like let's each workgroup set goals that are measurable you know if it's a solid waste working group you know perhaps a goal is you know it is going to be you know hey we want to hit this target of organics collection and diversion but for you know that all of these workgroups of the over the next month to set those goals and to come back to this body and say this is what our goals are for 2020 and I think that would give us a good way to think about all right how does this fit together with that

097certainly could be something you guys could do the hard part might be that the workgroups are going to be relatively small and if you're setting targets it's gonna be hard for a small group of people to actually move the needle especially if there are you know staff and different departments working on it as well as like correlated directly I don't know necessarily that you have to move the needle I think that you have to define what you're trying to accomplish and I think we spin our wheels a little bit in talking about a lot of stuff in these work I mean just the whole idea of just a natural features workgroup I mean that's a pretty broad subject you know so let's figure out some short-term goals for each of these things that we hope

098to accomplish in 2020 you know maybe it is hey we we are concerned about tree canopy and heritage trees in Ann Arbor so our goal is to create a heritage tree preservation ordinance you know so that there is a we are going to do max yeah and I think you know in the in the whole time I've been on the environmental Commission is we do struggle a little bit to figure out Oh what should we be working on because there's so many different things that we can get sucked into I think I do think it's important for us to set a work plan that's based on a goal and and we haven't done that in a couple of years and and I think it's it's shown you know I mean I think we get sidetracked

099do you have I guess yeah no I agree I agree that I think we need to be goal-oriented and we need to set not just short-term goals for the year but say three years olds so that we have we're looking at three years I had every year and then we can you know better see what needs might need to be done this year in order to get to another goal four years from now I would also say that I think with this 2030 goal that as we meet in our small groups that we really think about that through that lens because I can think I mean I'm the natural features group but just something that's occurred to me is you know tree canopy but maybe it's tree canopy on the right side of the street

100so that we're actually getting more heat island effect out of it you know so that there's we're just this is not gonna happen without us all putting our brains on it and I think that the the 2030 goal has a certain sense of not just certainly it's a crazy amount of urgency in terms of us being eliminating progress in the time that we have and so it's certainly kind of a fire under me in terms of how I'm thinking about some of these things and so I would just like to encourage all of the subcommittee's when we do revisit our goals to really think about that in through that lens and see how we can be most effective because this is not just a general thing this is this is urgent chair Brown would you

101be willing to work with each of the working groups chairs to make sure that they can come back with measurable outcomes or goals in the next month no I will do that okay so does that sound like a plan for is everybody okay with that that the next month the workgroups will continue to meet and come up with some tangible goals for 2020 and come back and then the whole body can sort of approve that as a work plan and if there are suggestions for different workgroups or whatever we can maybe have that conversation in January after we hear the workgroups does that sound like a good plan forward yeah I just also want to say that this body is charged with making recommendations concerning the air the land and water and I believe we

102have three working groups there's a whole range of areas that we're not contributing to and so if that's part of our charge then I think we need to figure out how to address those areas that we're not currently addressing yeah and I'll note that from last year on one of the four items was Climate Action and clean air and that did not there was not a subgroup form right that's exactly what I mean it's hard for us to make recommendations about metrics we don't have anybody working on it yeah however I mean most of that under climate actually clean air what I read here is most of them were transportation options mm-hmm so maybe that's something that should be more pertinent to the transfer right or maybe we should be in communication with the Transportation

103Commission or something just to make sure all those areas are in that specific regard I'd like to point out that the Energy Commission is primarily focused on that and we just changed our bylaws to reflect that I mean I can read from from the resolution but my recommendation to this group would be let's not throw another fall into our court and try to juggle it let's do a good job on the things that we're doing and let the Energy Commission focus on that together with the a20 carbon neutrality activity where we have four technical advisory committee groups that are working on different projects trying to determine impacts and costs so that that will all feed into the budget process and I think my recommendation to this group would be let's focus on those other things

104again through the lens of contribution to carbon neutrality like sequestration and how that ties to some of the things that you talked about but let's not get into weatherization and transportation in EVs and things like that those are things are already being done elsewhere and I agree with that also but I still think we need to be putting all of that out in the public and the sustainability dashboard or some so visible area that people who are interested in these areas can see the progress the city is making and I'm not sure that if it's our charge to be coming up with those sorts of metrics it's not something we can do and I agree that the energy commissioners should be doing that but I think that we all need to make sure that we're

105communicating so that it's covered by somebody a good dashboard will define the goal it'll define the metrics it'll define the targets it'll define who is responsible and accountable including you know what the department is and what also what Commission is working on it so if we revamp the dashboard that should allow people then to zero in on that and then go to the right meeting and approach the right people it could be something that dashboard could be looked at from the carbon neutrality goal actually so I'm you know in our office things have kind of blown up because of the carbon neutrality 2030 goal I mean we had a five-year plan that was you know we put tons and tons of planning effort into it and now it's just a part of something that's gonna

106be much larger so if we can focus on the 2030 goal that would be great and have the metrics tie into that like Shannon was saying okay I want to remind everybody that our bylaws only require one commission member to be to chair working group we can recruit other people so I have a question I want to apologize for sort of commandeering this conversation so we started with natural features I would be interested in hearing from the other working groups if they did really let's put it this way accomplish something and I make the do a clear distinction between doing and accomplishing and I'd be really interested in hearing what what the other working groups potentially accomplished maybe I'm miss characterizing the work of the Commission by just a little bit that I know from

107what we've been doing in some of the working groups and not all of them I'll speak for the solid waste working group we've sets of a few metrics we've checked that was our major smart goal this year and we've checked a few of them however I noted that one of the features of this solid waste of this SWR repeat proposal on page 8 they pretty much copied and pasted some of the you know the other recommendations from the waste lists solid waste resource plan update from 2013 and the climate action plan of 2012 and these are not smart goals so those which relate to solid waste I think the solid waste working group will commit to creating smart goals out of these that are consistent with this the dashboard and also whatever council might might

108find useful information for example and then right here from 2012 our m14 from the climate action plan is implement a compostable recyclable to go packaging ordinance but that's also the thing is that this body can be like hey policy agenda committee you need to have your lobbyists working on this in Lansing and we can provide examples from other states so we had a waste resource management talk um Susan do you want to talk about water sure we could talk about water um we hit an obstacle that we didn't predict when we began we met with a staff person who came up with some ideas and then we were unsuccessful and getting any follow-up from that staff person so we were sort of floundering for a while we have reoriented and found guidance with a staff

109person and our priority right now is new piece of data that came out of the Huron River watershed Council which says that the Huron River has the highest level of microplastics among the 29 Great Lake tributaries we are interested in working with your honor for watershed Council and with the city to come up with an education program and particularly to we hope promote a device called a coral ball which you can put in the drum I'm sorry wish you can put in the drum of a washing machine which reduces the amount of microplastics that your load of laundry emits into the river we're interested in having an education campaign in coordination with the work that's being done with the parks having education at the Argo livery and at the gallop livery and hopefully being able

110to sell these core balls at each of these places and we don't have any metrics attached to it yet but we are reaching out to all parties and seeing if we can establish those and we can certainly aim to have those in January fantastic if I'm missing a working group no I think we covered it all okay so then I will add it to the January agenda a continuation of this item but more specifically that that all the current existing working group chairs will report on what their plan is for next year at the January 24th meeting okay and if you can perhaps get those get that information too to the chair maybe a week before our meeting then he can work with you so we're from Huron we're here for a government class but

111we need to get our agenda signed to like prove that we went and also thanks for coming just just pass one down and sign it with your name effect your Commissioner councilmember did everybody turn in your agenda signed agendas okay thank you for doing it for all everybody alright so the next item on the agenda is reports from committees oh the policy agenda items let's discuss that so with either the council members want to talk about how this fits into a larger process so I I will because I'm the chair of that fantastic committee the City Council has a policy agenda committee that recommends policy agenda that council adopts this directs our lobbyist in Lansing on how to work to further some of these interests that we have we are asking all of the boards

112and commissions to give us recommendations on policy agenda items I Eve state laws that that we are advocating for I think great examples of some of these things are the fact that we are preempted from banning plastic bags plant banning styrofoam takeout containers you know any of these things that if you know we look at some of the the pee fast issues and you know how can we advocate for good state law so this body needs to weigh in on that and I think by January we I mean ideally we'd like to have it quicker than that but I don't think that a policy agenda is going to come before council you know in January because we haven't gotten all of that feedback yet and we don't have a policy agenda meeting in December because

113that would fall on Christmas Eve so I think we are looking for from this body recommendations on policy positions to advocate for I mean there are a million but give us all of them because we talked about all of them thank you so much for doing that so you can see that there are policy agenda items listed staff came up with six staff being Missy mostly and then the current submissions were ones that your this body sent in 2019 so those that's what's considered the current submissions so and I would say we probably have the most of any board or Commission what do you think councilmember Smith uh yes I think different boards and commissions have different levels of participation in this but I think this has been the most active Commission if I can

114comment on that briefly and that all shorten my report later on the Energy Commission passed a resolution with recommendations of adding specific items to the policy agenda councilmember Eaton had provided us the fiscal year 19 list we looked at that list we didn't repeat any of those but we added several things and I have those in front of me and they tend to cover to one degree or another the staff recommendations I don't know if Josh shared those with either one of you I have the resolution in front of me but I would recommend that if we go through the process that doesn't mean the environmental Commission shouldn't be a second endorsing Commission for the ones that we've done but I would say that we should also focus on the things that maybe are not

115covered by what who the Energy Commission is already done so those are already passed in they're in the hands of councilmember Eaton and I think hangers on the group and you are I think the three of you correct so we've been given a deadline that it had to happen at this meeting but council member Smith you're saying we might have time to finish this in January I can tell you we don't have a meeting until the end of January the policy agenda committee it is good to have all of this compiled having a resolution I I don't necessarily like doing on the floor and perhaps I was not quite as organized as as council member eating and providing you the formal 2019 council policy document our full agenda which I think would be useful but

116I don't know that there is you know I think what I would like everybody on this commission to think about and I don't want to ask you to do it at this table because that's to you know short notice is to what else you know I think what we're looking for is a you know give us other guidance and and you might very well say this covers it and we'll keep advocating for these things you know I think the purpose thing for everybody in here to understand the purpose of the policy agenda committee is to not be so reactive to what happens in but to be a little bit proactive in trying to move legislation forward the one thing we were successful with this year was something we've been working on for two years which

117is the the solar taxation issue you know we were finally successful on that but that was that was a big lift you know our lobbyists spent a lot of time working on our behalf on that and I think this document provides once council endorses it this is what our lobbyists work on I've also been given direction from staff Kelly Bedi that we could also submit it through the chair the chair could collect this information so that might also be a possibility in terms of getting it to you in a more timely fashion so did the two of you possibly have a due date that you have in mind to get suggestions from commissioners well I I would think that if we can get some some suggestions from commissioners by the holidays by you know Christmas

118I think Steve and I can pull that all together this body if Steve can get something to me prior to an assuming that I am still on this committee which I don't know necessarily that I will be because we have new assignments but I it's my desire to remain on it meet on the 21st I believe so in January so if Steve and I can have this body's recommendations together by the holidays we can get together and have something formal for the council policy agenda committee meeting in January okay and I'd request any suggestions by December 20th so is it okay to be talking about this stuff on email well I thought we weren't supposed to do well if it's less than a quorum we can communicate about it because we're not making any decisions

119here well we're doing is well does that mean we're gonna just forward if every anyone send you something it will end up in the forehead list yeah okay because I think I would be very strongly in favor of those first six that Missy put in and we got to get moving on climate change of 2030s really a goal these things are critical I believe and I believe numbers three through six there are already through spells in the legislature yeah I wouldn't be surprised and the governor is really on board with this too so and these are all consistent with our current policy positions the council has adopted you know some of this is is a formality of let's make sure that this is all in our our policy agenda moving forward we have had a

120couple of issues that there isn't complete consensus on how we interpret that but generally the carbon neutrality and the energy and the environmental things there has been complete consensus on we just want to be able to codify it in our documents so that when a bill comes up and the whole purpose for this is we've been on the backfoot on everything in Lansing for 25 years and so when a bill comes up particularly in a lame-duck session which is when all the worst ideas come up and tend to pass our lobbyists nose to work against or what to work for in those sessions without us having to pass a formal Council resolution saying hey we endorse House bill 38 79 you know they know that hey we are really interested in adopting the zero energy

121code and they will work with somebody to try and get that through and they don't have to wait for a formal resolution saying we support this bill they know that we support it it's out there that the city of Ann Arbor's behind that that's the purpose of the policy of Jenica okay but sounds great but it still sounds like we all have to give you something yes and so could I move that we give you those first six and that way I don't have to break any FOIA rules and I've been totally involved in a lot of way crap through my life and I don't want to do that ever again so can I just do it here and the other fit because I suspect everyone we have a lot of support around them yes

122so I believe there's a motion to adopt first second change change we're just I'm just I'm just my motion is just the staff ones I think there are a number of other really valid ones I'm not saying anything negative about them I'm just saying the first six are the ones that I would give to Steve if that's the process and I'd rather do it here and have a vote or whatever it takes to just be done with it we have a motion I understand of the second two for the Commission to endorse yeah the staff recommendations in this document all agree say aye aye so just for to check the process so Steve you're gonna send out an email saying submit additional recommendations beyond these six to me I'd recommend that if you can't attach

123the the fiscal year 19 and also attach the resolution that was passed by the Energy Commission so at least people know what's been covered there that does again doesn't mean they can't be seconded but at least people have have those additions some of those addresses you know like a national carbon tax or carbon fee and dividend some type of legislation like that green new deal energy efficiency codes there's a lot of overlap with a lot of these things here energy freedom powering Michigan forward I think there's a whole set of bills under that title those those things were included so the next item on the agenda would be reports from committees other Commission's Council and chair I don't have anything additionally to report is the chair are there any reports from the committee's other than

124what's already been discussed in terms of the workgroups we're also interested in talking about how we could recognize the work that's being done in terms of development that's improving the watershed in terms of keeping water out of the stormwater system and quantifying that in some way so it's visible to residents anything from council you know I think you all know that we voted Monday night 9 to 2 to authorize the administrator to negotiate with recycle Ann Arbor to reopen the MuRF I just want to thank councilmember banister councilmember Eaton everybody for their support and for that resolution but this body for all of the work that everybody has put in over the last three and a half years to to get to this point I think it was very frustrating and demoralizing to a lot

125of the people in this room that it took this long but I think you know ultimately your voice was very important you served as a great voice for the community on this issue and I think ultimately you're consistent recommendations to reopen the MuRF were really important in convincing people to make this decision so I just want to thank everybody for all that all the work on that it felt really good to that fall forward a little bit so thanks okay anything else from Council I just wanted to circle back again to the warmer issue and so to just a realign that my understanding is that mr. Lazarus is going to go to their board meeting in December and discuss with them whether they would commit to a weighted system of voting within the body and

126what their thoughts were on the responsible contractor language in in their in their contracts and then thirdly whether we need whether you have to have a MuRF entity to really get the enhanced enforcement and standards amongst the different cities and municipalities that might want to use our MuRF so those three things are coming up then at the December board meeting so we can revisit this by email and at the January meeting and then just also at the January meeting will be hopefully Elena de Ricky will have her integrated pest management resolution ready for you all to review and prior to then we're still working on the food gatherers resolution that we approved that one is going to council it got I think tied up in the attorney's office and I think why we don't have

127our tree protection ordinance is that it was more difficult to cut and paste these different ordinances the more we got into the detail there was really a lot to it the the subcommittee has been working very hard and if anyone wants to join and help us on that we are accepting new members and then lastly um on me on the tree issue I know on November 4 you might have noticed that council declined purchasing of the 8 acre property over in wards and Packard Road with the green belt money or with yeah with the green belt money for use inside the city it declined to do that however it also that same evening it did approve of instructions for Howard Lazarus to collaborate with the Housing Commission to explore the feasibility of affordable housing on

128that location as one source of funding to try to piece together we were looking for a very high price of four million seven hundred and sixty but council did approve looking at affordable housing as a possible solution in the puzzle and so this was a witness mall win for the trees because it as you may know there's fifty seven burr oak trees and two hundred and eight woodland trees on that property that are going to be seventy percent of them removed to for the development so we're the developer has been approved to move forward with his project but parallel we are also still exploring the feasibility of other sources of funding so that was a partial win for the trees and thank you for all your different ones of you who helped with that a

129couple of things one is that we rezone several areas that were part of private property that we're donating to the city for for public land for parks there were probably five or six parcels around the city on different sensitive areas or areas that didn't make sense in terms of the development that may make sense systems and things like that the other piece is that there was a development over on Plymouth Road that was looking for some reasoning and it made us think a little harder about our we have a rather anemic solar ordinance in terms of what we consider what we consider kind of an advantage if you're looking for rezoning and we have kind of environmental considerations but we basically our ordinance says you have to be solar ready which is pretty weak you

130don't even have to provide plans you know so you just have to have the right solar orientation which so once we looked at that more carefully they were using that as their justification for and and there's just no way getting back to the whole metrics session to kind of really measure that and so something that the ordinance review committee is gonna be looking at and it would be great if there could be some partnership with the Energy Committee would be like what do we want to see when people submit these things to understand what they truly are what's the advantage to the city you know for how much how much energy they really producing to be able to justify using checking that box is one of the public benefits that they put forward so that

131I think that came right on the heels of the 2030 thing and so I think we're just it's making us focus more which i think is a really good thing actually so I think there's going to be some further exploration and drilling down of what it means to have a public benefit for some of these environmental considerations and that the solar you know we need to see like a real deal plan you know how much of that roof is covered how much energy are you really going to be producing what's what's the real effect of that so that's the direction that I think they're kind of head that relates this body and then the other trend that is happening is we've had to drive throughs comes through Planning Commission and there's been a lot of

132talk about saying it no to drive throughs so as a source of idling and emissions so it's a special exemption use right now and so it's not it's something that they have to ask for but I guess I just feel like this whole twenty thirty thing has really brought some things into focus which i think is good but it also brought up the larger issue we don't again have a subcommittee that's kind of on that air quality thing and I know we have an ordinance about that is it enforced are there plenty of opportunities for us to be able to do education around that seems like that's that's some an opportunity in terms of this twentieth or anything that really relates strongly so it just brought up that whole piece and I thought that it

133might be pertinent for us to think about how that could relate to some of our our work here because there's something on the books but how can we make it more effective I can imagine fifth graders out in front of schools as part of their Green Teams going up to people who are in their cars waiting for their kids who show up 20 minutes before anything would you consider turning off your card rings yeah I mean there could be so many ways that we could be engaging the community to be able to not just have it be a police officer writing your ticket but something that we could really think about how we are we can can you imagine like they would love that yeah so it just got me thinking about the whole kind

134of idling piece and I think that I just wanted to bring that up with you all because I feel like that's again with the 2030 goal that it's probably something that we need to revisit again to really think about how we can try to through behavior management basically figure out how we can set that expectation in a way for people so that it becomes something that people even think about because I think they just don't even think about it right now I have a comment I worked on that ordinance when we originally passed it and there is a toolkit and educational toolkit on the county website that I used I went to I think every PTO council in the every elementary school educating parents about it and it's it's a really it's complete and it's

135easy to use and you know I think that there are people that would be certainly able to go and do it and I think that that would be an easy thing to revive and execute again it's past right maybe there's a little bit more attention well yeah and in asthma and I mean you know we approached from all different angles but but there's a lot of material there that is ready for anybody to use that's great to know energy we as I mentioned approved updated bylaws we passed a resolution on adding things to the policy agenda and we reviewed and gave input on a solar access white paper looking at basically three different ways of treating solar access primarily with the concern if someone install solar makes $30,000 investment $10,000 investment whatever it is and

136then someone somehow blocks blocks that that there might be some type of compensation required so that's just the thinking but there's not a decision how to finally address that that's there's a whole committee working on that and then I've mentioned we're working on a number of ordinances and I only mention that when it gets to sausage-making these things they simply take time I mean every one of these ordinances lighting changes to the specifications for the orange book related to lighting Home Energy Audit disclosure and et readiness requiring Park evey percentage of spaces being dedicated to Eevee charging each one of these groups have probably met 15 times and looking at you know at an ordinance draft language what is modifying the language taking it to planning taking it to planning review committee this and that

137and the other and it just takes time and I'll just add to that we need to get better and faster if we have any chance at twenty thirty women it's gonna be extremely difficult anyhow but what I don't want to see is a twenty thirty target where we need it ninety percent by buying cheap Rex or offsets that's that's not a way of meeting a twenty thirty carbon neutrality will you just and I'm sure you're doing this but you go to a few cities in California and get their ordinance and just modify it in many cases yeah cuz I mean this has already been done in yeah or you know Tucson Arizona for lighting or for whatever yeah exactly it still takes not a dream yeah because there's different stakeholders here and this and that

138and the other but yeah that's exactly what we've been doing great and that's the what we want to do with with trees we have identified a few but we have yet to start to piece it together okay anything else John no okay parks ok nothing from parks I think that completes that section of the agenda on a report from staff sure I'll keep it nice and a short and sweet I'm in all about a20 for folks who are watching City Council unanimously passed a resolution that we should be carbon neutral by 2030 for the whole city to do that OSI offices sustainability innovations is sprinting as fast as we possibly can to come up with a plan by the 50th anniversary of Earth Day which is going to be in late March that plan will

139go come back through commissions as well before it goes to council so you will have a chance to comment on it we're doing hundreds like 100 hundred zuv people came to our first town hall that we had and we're looking for even more people to come to the full-day Town Hall that we're gonna be doing on February 22nd it's gonna be a Pioneer high school and it's gonna be open to the public so keep that date in mind we have about 54 community partners at this point everybody from the n-double-a-cp to United Way to the Sierra Club we have at U of M we also we have quite a few community partners and one of the requirements of being a community partner is that you will do at least one event that we will be

140with you for to reach your membership so an incredible amount of events happening there's a survey on a 2-0 org we encourage folks to take it by January 6 this is the first of three surveys but they're gonna go out to the public we have four areas of concern we're looking at mobility issues energy and buildings waste reduction and adaptation and so as it was mentioned earlier there are technical advisory committees for each of these and that is my staff update thanks Emily can I add one thing one minute on that University of Michigan had a really interesting board meeting the fact that this afternoon the fact that Ann Arbor passed the resolution I think had a positive impact there were probably I mean there was an overflow crowd I was there there were no

141seats left upstairs the entire downstairs was completely full when I left to come here at about quarter to 6:00 the students had blocked the exit of the golf place where they hold the meetings and we're not letting any of the regions or the president leave because they hadn't commented directly on any of the student demands not that they were asking that they accept all the demands but they hadn't even addressed many of them one positive thing was that there was a proposed 50 million dollar investment in a fossil fuel company and that got voted down but they still haven't taken action on divestment there was a number of different demands treating all three campuses the same carbon neutrality 2030 target things like that but I think we can definitely be synergistic and the students were

142great and there are a fair number of some faculty and staff people there as well so if you drive by Stadium maybe they'll still be the people standing in front of the exit tonight it was authorized endowment us to invest another 50 million in fossil fuels so it's essentially the first step in divestment on top of a billion that's already invested apparently and on top of what at least students claim was four hundred dollars four hundred million dollars in indicial investments since the carbon neutral the path to carbon neutrality was made but the main thing is something I want to convey to everyone what we're doing here has an impact on the university and vice versa Doug Kel vos also spoke to the agents today talking about the importance of climate change and really trumpeting

143the fact that the city has moved forward you know work with the city together oh yeah yeah so I don't necessarily think stuff like that falls on deaf ears with the region's several of the reasons we're outside talking to people afterwards I mean they just didn't jump in their car and sit there and okay alright so items for next agenda I have on my list here the workgroup plans for next year in the workgroup structure the wormo recommendations from Howard the integrated pest management resolution that's going to be submitted and something about the food gathers about the progress on the food gatherers requests are there any other suggested agenda items staff would like to add a budget discussion for the next upcoming fiscal year so it'll either be Howard Lazarus or Missy Stults coming to

144talk to you about the budget resolution date for the staff to assist the natural features subcommittee with the tree ordinance that resolution is pending to bring that to bring to you all then at the January meeting okay I missed that I thought I just thought about the integrated pest management resolution and and they're women one or two three protection drafts for for the agenda okay and there are any other suggestions for next month it seems pretty packed anyway so our next scheduled meeting is for 7:00 p.m. on January 23rd at 4th Thursday of the month as usual so this opens up the second time for public commentary you want to say anything Rita because the regents meeting was quite fascinating and I would consider it a first step and I agree that the additional billion

145in funds that should be divested was something that would be great to have you all if when you have opportunities to talk with people in of the Regents or other faculty etcetera continue to do that I am really pleased to hear the urgency that you are using to consider the issues so keep going Thanks all right thanks Rita so there's nothing else on the agenda so do I have a motion for adjournment all in favor aye okay passes unanimously all right thanks everybody you