Energy Commission 2-12-19

001twelve after six everywhere my meeting of the Ann Arbor Energy Commission please call the roll sure councilmember hater here councilmember Eden your Commissioner murski your commission Eric levy their chair Appleyard here come is Cheryl eleven here comes your Schreiber your pusher Colvin Garcia Commissioner Hawker here I'll call for a motion to approve the agenda does anyone have anything that they would like to change signing the agenda so moved second well in favor I approved approval of the minutes we have the minutes from the January meeting does anyone have a problem with that there are no changes I'll ask for a motion to approve I move to approve in a second all in favor high post it passes on to public input anyone in the audience can come up and speak for up to three minutes

002on something that has to do with energy please state your name thank you louder now so thanks to some excellent reporting from cranes Detroit we know that our monopoly utilities routinely fund 501 C 4 nonprofits better known as dark money and dark money because it's hard to find where the money is actually coming from and it's hard to associate how it's being spent with funding of that nonprofit and we're talking about tens of millions of dollars in the case of cranes documenting 40 million dollars for example from consumers alone not to mention DT so we're talking lots and lots of money that are coming in to these dark money funds and the reason it's important I'll give you an example in a 2018 election cycle utility money was used to fund a dark money attack

003on a sitting member of the Michigan House of Representatives my name is Gary Glenn 250,000 dollars came out of nowhere in attack ads to take down his campaign for a position in the Michigan Senate the source of the money was a 501 C 4 acting on behalf of its major contributor consumers energy so I asked what kind of threat does that imply for our elected officials trying to do what's best for you and for me this led to an unusual settlement where the Michigan Public Service Commission the regulatory body which oversees the monopoly utilities prohibited consumers energy from giving any money to 401 C Force for the remainder of this year it may not have any impact because they've already given them so much that they're sitting on bundles and bundles of cash but it's

004a step in the right direction just not long enough it struck me that the monopoly behavior is just not acceptable just not acceptable to take a highly profitable I'm going to say this government privileged monopoly they're going to say it again government privileged monopoly that gets a guaranteed nine and a half percent return on capital for all its projects and allows that monopoly to manipulate our political system behind a veil of obscurity it's just long and we have to say no just can't let it happen this is not a freedom of speech issue they might say it's this is a freedom of speech that they can do this because they have the freedom of speech it's not that this is a monopoly that controls our supply chain from the top to the bottom and they

005can still get their message out by not hiding behind this veil of secrecy they still have their voice just not obscured from the penetration of everybody in this state so I thank you for giving me the time to talk and I have helped draft some resolution a resolution to address some of these this issue and hopefully it's a good first step thank you thank you is there anyone else who would like to speak during the public input portion yeah so some good exciting events coming up we have the 17th wedgie lecture at Hill Auditorium on March 14th at 5 p.m. the the topics about climate action in 2019 and beyond we also have some great news internally with esteemed school that was a word of the sustainability and over together grant for solar power curriculum

006like to talk a little bit about that yes and the basic just gave me an idea with the role that's gonna be between this school year and next school year there'll be two phases the first phase pilot and in the second phase pilot with an idea to roll out the final curriculum in a school year 2020 so that's the preliminary plan and looks like we're just basically just got the grant we're organizing next steps thank you very much what grades is the curriculum curriculum is for grades kindergarten through eighth grade well and it's a hands-on project-based solar-power curriculum that is designed to incorporate the next generation science standards and there's no curriculum like this that exists at this point in time so it's sequential like every single school year the students will have successive ratcheted

007learning opportunity it's based on a driving question and they'll have hands-on interactive opportunity to learn about generating solar power I think we're all very excited to see develops that's great kind of related to that some internal news we do have currently three different student groups that are working on different projects for the office sustainability the projects range from timing marketing to resilience hubs other news we also have we've been making some progress as far as volunteer basically looking for volunteers to put solar on fire station number six so as we progress we're looking for community members who be interested in helping us to install solar panels on the fire station as well as commissioners and that's pretty much can I make one more comment on the wagonette lecture yes um the speaker is going to

008a woman from Chris Costa Rica Christina Figueres I think her name is and she's widely regarded as the architect of the Paris Accord so it's really a distinguished speaker it's gonna be at Hill Auditorium and if you're interested in going you're supposed to but I don't know if it's really required that you register online so I if you're interested look into it and you want to go then I would recommend you you register to make sure you get to see so we also have a sustainability forum that's coming up next Thursday it'll be at the downtown Public Library the subject was adapting to climate change another energy news I was just wondering who the guests and speakers are for that one other energy news we do not will move on to any budget presentation I

009know it's very shocking that I am NOT Howard Lazarus and so I need to apologize for that our had an unexpected conflict that did not allow him to attend so he sends his apologies and I'm gonna try to give you this presentation in the way that he would but I just don't think I'm gonna you're gonna have some Missy flair on it the genesis of this one is thank you for creating I guess before I get in the Genesis thank you for creating time and space to have this conversation we are in the budget process as a city and one of the things that we wanted to do was not wait and bring a fully baked budget to you after it's kind of cleared the process but still get impact while it's a little bit

010more living and fluid so we have given this presentation at the energy I'm sorry it's the environmental Commission and you guys are second in line I think Howard is planning on doing it's at a number of Commission's so I'm gonna stick to kind of the same script here just so for consistency purposes but feel free to ask me any questions especially is it I can dive much deeper into anything related to our offices requests but that said bear with me what we want to do is give you a little bit of context about the budgeting process because there's no reason - our councilmembers you should know this in detail and then we want to give you an overview of the city budget just a little bit about how it operates where we stand where major

011funds are just because it's not small right like are it's just important to kinda understand context and then I want to take some time and listen to you and get your thoughts on priorities and then I'll be integrating that sharing that with Howard where relevant and obviously integrating it so with that let's jump in excuse me I know this is pretty hard to see but the basic just here is that it's the budget is a process it's not something that easily kind of comes together in the course of a week or so so four months actually staff have been working on their portions of the budget they've been looking at what kinds of needs they have what kind of aspirations they have we've been doing forecasting in terms of what we anticipate in terms of

012revenue and then of course how that aligns with expenses and so there's been this kind of miss not mismatched mixing I think there's a Freudian slip in their mixing of these different variables to try to get something that's balanced in terms of the budget so as staff every kind of department worked on their individual budgets that was presented in December to Howard the city administrator then had to try to reconcile all that make some tough choices where all of us were kind of looking at what could we cut what could we expand and then there had to be some positioning to understand how best to obviously ensure the financial viability of the city and then move forward in the aspirations and goals that we have as a city where we are today is in that

013second bucket and that is where we're presenting kind of work it through working sessions to Council at the different buckets so last night was the first one where we started with the general fund and it's kind of an overview of here's what we think and here are some kind of impacts that might come from doing these things whether it's cutting or whether it's adding to the budget and we're kind of in that formative stages getting feedback making adjustments and that's gonna continue for a number of weeks so you'll have council meetings and then you'll have council work sessions on off weeks where we'll be diving more deeply into the budget getting feedback etc and then in April there'll be a full budget presentation where the whole package is presented right so all of the the

014special funds as well as the general funds the whole kind of kit and kaboodle will be presented having hopefully taken in some feedback right through the process what we're hearing from you okay Council etc and then there'll be a public hearing on the budget in May so chance obviously for folks to hear about what's in there hopefully they're hearing about it in real time as we're going through this process and giving feedback but we also know that's really hard so we have a separate kind of public hearing on the budget and then in May it's up for council consideration we see there's obviously there's a culling process goes on between February March and and April because there's a city administrators recommended budget yes so it takes this stuff from staff that's done exclusively in his

015office the calling process like what gets presented in the work sessions that's already starting and present so that's the administration process that goes on yeah it's so I can only speak from my perspective right so this is where Howard would have a different answer so for my perspective it's almost like a child's Christmas wish-list right so you kind of look at if I could have everything here's what I would want and then then there's a reality check like this is the budget that you have what do you need how are you gonna hit that budget and then how it has that wish list right and so can start making decisions based on other priorities of what can make it in because we have room and if we don't have room what has to get jettisoned

016okay that's the best analogy I'm sure our council members can add more clarity because they've had more rodeos than you so that's the budgeting process just a few things to keep in the back of your mind in terms of budget considerations Jack did you want to say something Geoff doesn't really have that much experience we're similar so he was we shouldn't put council members together at the table so just some considerations when you're thinking about the budget forty percent of the property in an arborist tax-exempt and when you look at that this is a breakdown of the different properties both taxable and non-taxable the pull out is the non taxable properties the vast majority of those are City properties University of Michigan and Ann Arbor Public Schools right so that's that's just an important context

017that we do have a large portion of our land mass that isn't taxable or is tax exempt other things to consider so this is we I hope you guys remember run a fiscal year budget so we're fiscal year right now we're in fiscal year 19 and then in July July 1 will be in fiscal year twenty so the budget that we're talking about right now its fiscal year twenty and fiscal year twenty one so we budget on a two year cycle so this is a snapshot of the budget we're currently in and how that's broken down by the different funds because we don't just have one fund we have specialty funds as well in here so this is just kind of a snapshot of the size of the funds for this current fiscal year and

018when you look at the general fund which is the most design competitive fund I guess might be the way to describe it it's actually really quite programmed we have over 50% of that general fund at safety services right so that's please that's fire that's that's kind of that is leave a lot that's left over right for all of the other services that are pulling from that general fund so just kind of his context it's not as if you know sometimes we hear this really big number that we're operating with but there are a lot of things that go into that number a lot of computing things just like your household budget right you've got a balance a lot of different elements this is overwhelming but it's a snapshot of those funds if you actually wanted

019to know I showed you the big funds but we have a lot of funds and so on the left side of your screen you're seeing all of the funds that we actually have in the phone book some are really really big funds some are really small funds for example the energy fund is in here it's not a large fund but it is a fun that we pull from in the city and they were hoping to activate a lot more in the next year because that's a fund that has resources for energy efficiency audits for everyone across the city and then implementation of those results so when you think about environmental concerns more broadly a lot of those funds are touching upon us whether that's water issues whether that's forestry related concerns and stormwater issues whether

020that's energy so there are a number of funds it's not sort of there's one home for this work there's lots of home for this work which is good in some ways it's actually kind of nice to have some redundancy but it also means that there isn't one home for this fund where we can always push we're actually competing a lot for the resources that are available and so the general fund as I mentioned is the most competitive fund and we do have resources in the general fund broadly though at the bottom you can see the funds that we do budget towards or that we have budgeted for in fiscal year twenty and twenty one pulling from the general general fund energy water sewer storm water solid waste and village where's capital improvements this where's its

021if cabin improvements is it into each individual budget or what's being improved so our general operating budget is about a hundred and six million dollars a year but our total budget is about four hundred and some million a year and the differences the restricted funds like water and sewer and roads that have dedicated funding sources that come to the city and can only be used for those purposes nonetheless the 106 million dollar general operating budget doesn't include capital projects that's in the other part but but that 300 million in capital expenditures includes both restricted funds like water roads and other forms of one-time spending so there's not an easy answer to the question you posed and they sent the request in to put a rough in that lacked what many would consider insufficient insulation met

022the standards but wasn't you know stellar and some felt that perhaps we should put more insulation on that building how would that show up it should be in the capital improvements budget okay and it should be under building maintenance you know it's a large aggregate you know like this building right wheeler Center and all of all of the other buildings that we've been talking about energy energy conservation in my understanding well I'm looking at these funds at MIT Betsy said that she draws from so general fund energy fine water fund I did it I don't see capital improvements in there so the place where the road city buildings I'm just trying to figure out is the last one is general capital fund but you also have to understand that there is one that's called general

023and then there are a number of things that are technically also general fund that are separated out as a different category just for accounting purposes mm-hmm I don't I don't know if this is gonna come up later in the slides we got a deck last night that had the different different outcomes for the different funding areas service areas and it had been put forward that they want to create a small sinking fund they want to see to fund for just for maintenance and included in the potential properties for maintenance work fire stations police stations things like that the courts this this building here so they maybe create we may be creating a separate fund inside of these other funds just for that purpose so just wanted to say they think there's two things one is

024the actual money to do the upgrades and where that comes from and that's a really important question the other is then how we don't let anything get through a capital process that doesn't design the way that we wanted to so how do we do that because I would rather stop on the front end where my thing the way things get through it that we're there climate-smart they're designed with equity in mind you know those are the kinds of things that we're having a conversation right now and in fact I've been working with our IT department on some tools to help people answer these questions and we've got some climate scientists pulling the climate data at the right intervals for engineering for example to make your lines so that's something we're trying to get to the

025point where we can handle the money situation in kind of a different way but we also don't get to that problem because we're just designing things the right way to start does that make sense not not to get in the weeds here too much but at least my experience in for-profit companies is Missy's department doesn't have assets under her responsibility so she would not have a capital budget unless at some point in time in the future there were actually capital assets that were assigned to her so you know the fire department has capital assignments but assets assigned in it the park Department etc that's why you don't see for Missy and for the Office of Sustainability innovation capital related funds and the differentiation between expenses and capital assets at least in a commercial environment a

026capital asset can be depreciated I don't know you know the city probably doesn't do that but an expense is something that for example if you replace the roof and you don't change the basic features of it you're just replacing it with the same type of roof that's an expense and a capital investment is something where you're increasing the value of it by additional features upgrades characteristics and things like that so you know if you just take a roof and you replace the membrane that's an expense and that would I presume that would appear as an expense in the city's budget as well if you were to replace the roof put on 10 more inches of insulation put on a bunch of other features that would be a capital improvement so I'm gonna just keep going

027through this because I want to give you a sense again we this is a presentation that Howard's work designed so I'm gonna walk through this and for consistency we just wanted to give some examples of issues of concern that are kind of cross-cutting one not surprising is water quality it's a really important issue because it touches all of us in some way shape or form right within our community so that's everything from thinking about pea sauce and related compounds obviously 1 4 dioxane thinking about with the rate structure so there is certainly a focus within the budget and within all of our work plans thinking about water quality some to some extent I would add from our perspective also quantity not saying we need more water but saying we have more water right if we're

028thinking about from an adaptation perspective we have more precipitation than it's falling on our region and we have more flooding and we also thinking about how we're managing for that and what that does to these other issues what does it do if anything tippy fossa in that relationship so we're also taking it kind of another step to think about how we're preparing for that reality and then another very important community priority not to say they are aren't all important but really is around kind of solid waste management broadly so resource reduction recovery recycling reuse don't kind of a full spectrum here and that's everything from thinking about the role we're playing in solid waste regionalization I would say from from my perspective the role that we're playing in trying to go back to be vanguards

029and leaders in the space because I think that we're not right now and so how do we step into that how do we really do holistic organics work how do we fix the downtown alley situation that we are sort of in right now and have better downtown operations and how do we get long-term sustained funding to make sure that we can in perpetuity do this work acknowledging that the markets are different so these are just some of the priorities that we've been talking quite a lot about internally and there are many others I'm happy to hear in a moment your ideas for other things you want to make sure I heard loud and clear and then I just wanted to end with some of the priorities that our office is putting forward and this is

030kind of broadly bucketed into these four categories resilience is really important I know that I've said that a few times but this idea for me resilience is how you avoid the unmanageable how you manage the unavoidable and how do you do all of that through the lens of social equity and so we are moving forward with the resilience hub work so we have started some of the design reaching out in the process of reaching out to different neighborhoods that we might engage with on the code designing the first Brazilians hub and then the idea here in the budget is once we code design it we actually did do it right so getting the resources to actually help our neighbors both in the case of a disaster but then hopefully God willing the other 4999 days

031activating that space in a way that's really valuable to them that could be through social cohesion local food production economic development I don't know what it looks like because I'm not designing it right it's the neighbors that are kind of designing that it's also emergency preparedness we've got to make sure that when a disaster hits we are ready and we are okay both like across scales both as a city but also as individuals in our homes and then flooding preparedness because it is the largest impact that we face here in our community engagement is really really critical I said this a few times but this really isn't all hands on deck issue in terms of what we're dealing with and so we need to have capacity to be in the community listening constantly to what

032people want what it is they're doing and then to help meet them where they are in terms of taking action so that's everything from continuing the sustaining in our bure together grant program and really pushing that out a lot more recognizing great ideas don't just come from City Hall they come from everywhere and then also really targeted intentional community engagement that cuts across every area of this city so we might be out thinking we're driving excuse me through a climate lens but someone may come at come at us and we really want to talk about water and that's the lens we're going to talk about right that's the Gateway to have a broader conversation so that's really really important for success in doing what it is we're trying to do so we want to be

033really intentional around engagement and then of course energy right so kind of the bread and butter of what you guys are thinking about we have got to be on 100 percent renewable energy as quick as possible for this city and as quick as possible for our community so we're exploring a lot of strategies to do energy efficiency and then to talk about a renewable energy future with any partner that's ready to stand up and work with us and this cuts across different sectors so we've intentionally designed programs for our low-income elderly focusing on Aging in place those that have been late on their energy bills previously really helping them age in their home by doing some with partners doing some aging-in-place upgrades but then also doing some energy retrofits anything we can do to lower

034those energy bills to help them stay longer and there's a whole bunch of other things that are sort of within this of course we have to figure out our own internal operations and how we're gonna get those off the grid carbon neutral and I'll say this as fast as possible right the science is incredibly clear and that all of that has to be done transparently and tracking progress we've got to be accountable for what it is that we're doing and the resources that we're spending and we need the public needs to see that that it's working or it's not working and being nimble and changing direction as we need to so there's work we're working with our IT department as the councilmembers mentioned we you saw some metrics from different departments we haven't yet had

035a chance to update our metrics and get those kind of out to the public but I'm committed to doing that and to an annual report on our progress around sustainability that's super accessible to folks not something that that just speaks to no one right or just maybe excites me but excite to no one else like that's not valuable so we really want to make this accessible to our public so those are kind of the broad buckets there are other things for sure but generally speaking this is where we're gonna try to run pretty hard and fast towards these goals in these areas so that's what I have for you I wanted to stop and listen to your ideas and your priorities so with that chair is it all right sure questions comments from commissioners so

036this is a two-year budget and it gets approved by council during that two-year period is people go about doing their work I would think that most of the city will be implementing sort of as business as usual they can foresee but two years that that radical changes aren't gonna happen in your office you're looking to make change you're gonna come up I mean that things are gonna be coming up all Everett all the time do you feel that that you can come back into this budget in the system and and figure out how to change it up to according to change conditions serendipity if nothing else so I again I think most of the city is sort of a business as usual that it they know what they're gonna spend money on the next two

037years and we you know God willing that we're not gonna see some major change in police priorities or or the fires gonna you know we all of a sudden we're gonna have more fires and stuff but your job is to find opera these uncovered opportunities for sustainability so you're going to be coming up with new stuff all the time and are you gonna I don't want you I guess I'm worried that we're gonna have to wait two years before you can take the things you're learning in the next two years and get them into the system do you feel that you have a way to take what you're learning and go back into these other other programs in places that have budget and doing their job and you know expect to do things in a

038very regular way in the next two years and you're gonna ask them or say to them gee we didn't know about this two months ago but look at this or do you do you feel you have a way to do that I guess that's a fabulous question and the answer is maybe in truth I think that in some departments unequivocally yes like we have a strong enough relationship and let me just tell you story about Community Services in their impact sheet I mean they decided they were gonna they need to replace their fleet and they were like we're gonna go we're gonna go a hotter percent Evie that's it oh we're gonna do it one time we're gonna pull the band-aid we're gonna go and we want it to be all solar-powered and we want

039you to help design that and we want car ports and just go and the coolant has been drunk right like they sort of see and they're ready and they're gonna put budget on the line and they have flexibility to do that now whether or not mixture through I don't know but that said that we're already there like we're speaking the same language we'll they'll be tension for sure but that feels really positive there are other cases where there's work to be done in terms of a cultural shift to get to that point I feel like I have the support from on high in terms of city government to do this there is the commitment from the administrator's office that this is one of the if not the most important thing that we are working on

040as a city so we have we have to permeate everyone's kind of culture so I'm sorry that's not a more succinct answer it really isn't a maybe and dependent on context I'm the last thing I would say though is it's not an ideal thing to say but it is truth that Josh and Emily and that did a Herculean job with very little budget for a long time and we're gonna keep fighting no matter what happens because we just have to this we just have to can i chime in on that I mean I think what happened with the fiscal 19 year budget is an indication that the process can indeed work so you came in to an office where there was a budget you were not a part of defining the budget you recognized or

041you felt that their own adequacies in the budget we discussed that in the environmental and energy commission we put together together with Miffy Missy's input a proposal to increase that budget it was reviewed multiple times that request was reduced but finally council did increase the budget available for the office so that's an indication that the process can work maybe not always to use Missy's words according to the wish list but that indeed can at least come to an appropriate compromise so I and I hope that not only for the case of Missy's department but for every department within the city that the same process can play through for unexpected needs let me just say I would love to hear your ideas on everything please do not feel as if it has to be related to

042sustainability just because I'm standing here so I had a question about the County millage rebate you mentioned and I know council it passed resolution ending or whatever how that was gonna be broken up does it seem like through the budget process that we're kind of sticking to those percentages or what's the outlook that you know that is a very hard question to answer I will say what was presented last night to counsel was adherence to the policy direction Council has given the last policy direction was a 40-40-20 split there hasn't been a clear resolution directing otherwise and so that was what was presented that said there is also a survey out right now to do a statistically valid random wing of constituents to understand how they feel that those resources should be spent and my

043understanding is that is certainly going to inform how the millage is is spent but for now with the policy guidance we've drafted a budget that includes the 40-40-20 stuff is that fair other questions or comments how is that survey being administered it's a paper-based survey it's been mailed out it is there's a third party that's running the survey I don't know a whole lot other details about it intentionally to keep kind of all of the staff who in some way shape or form could be impacted we're pretty pretty removed from it my understanding I heard a council they anticipate I think it's March March sometime but we should have the full results in but since it is a so this is just survey methodology since it's a mail survey they are not gonna close it

044until they get that statistically valid sample that size that they need so it could be sooner if they have really high response rates that come in quickly and it could extend out slightly if it takes more time to get those responses I have a question about the about the the waste you had mentioned that like regionalization versus and I were being in a leadership position or Vanguard is what you said can you talk a little bit more about like what's being considered yeah just at a highest level so we're in the process of - I would say pretty important steps evolving one is a solid waste resource management planning process that's got an advisory committee there's been specific work groups and downtown owners we've had a number of other work groups and that's to design

045a solid waste resource management plan that's holistic and really meeting the needs of the community so that's that's taking place right now simultaneously there's a conversation with a number of municipalities and the county about mud waste regionalization and interest at that table and one of the books is really interested in that conversation seeing where it goes and so when I think Vanguard I don't necessarily think by ourselves right that things have to evolve and sort of change depending on context and that might be through regionalization I think what's more important is what services we offer and doing it right so if that's regionally or if that's as a city I don't know I mean I have personal opinions on that but nonetheless I think what matters is that we really do have salt I mean

046we should see recycling rates jump we should see diversion rates we need to see movement we need to see year-round composting we need to see work in the downtown alleys like that I don't really care so much how we do that I just want to see the needle move on the metro success so that's what I meant when I was saying a vanguard again is that we've actually done what we say we want to do okay and I think that's pretty widely shared it's figuring out the right instrument and kind of the how to get it do know that questions but do you have some do you have something you would like to share that I can get back no I just I've also heard about the interest in the regionalization process so I was

047curious about well what's the perspective of three guards to Ann Arbor and is it gonna develop its own plan and try the air or is it gonna be more collaborative if that's possible you know in terms of what so the it's a great question I'll say that the environmental question at their January meeting passed a resolution formally asking that the City Council sign us up to regionalization so it will be coming I mean just it is coming forward it's coming forward this idea reason regionalization has been going on for a while and you know Western Washtenaw has won already yeah and so we're kind of the eastern Washtenaw and water resource commissioners been heading this up and and you know having a struggle getting all the communities to sign sort of letters of intent but

048that's moving forward now and so we're hoping these both both these plans kind of come before us you know somewhat simultaneously so we can evaluate them I know that I mean I'll to speak for myself I the city made a great investment in in the MRF facility out there and we kind of squandered that investment some some would say and so you know I'm interested in in making sure that we get the most out of that facility and I think it's a good starting off point for for this conversation I mean I'm hopeful that we can be in a leadership role when it comes to you know Eastern Washtenaw coordinated recycling and trash efforts and what you said about the downtown alleys and the organics pilots and the downtown areas I mean I'm that doesn't

049have any problem getting support on Council that's really very necessary and in fact in the budget presentation last night there was money set aside just to deal with those alleys and so it's it's definitely something that's that's moving forward I have one last question and it is as far as the energy Commission's role what we would play if any in consideration of solar installation around city properties if that's something that you'll be asked about to research or support or if that's something the city is gonna be taking moving forward on its own yeah I we've got a subcommittee 100% clean and renewables subcommittee and I think we're moving pretty heavily on that committee anyone is welcome to join that to help us with recommendations on where we should prioritize as I think well Josh Medicine

050mention this but Commissioner levy has been instrumental and really pushing us towards volunteer so literally her which as you may recall from Davis Trent's Keys presentation actually drives down the cost so we've selected fire station to pirate that just because the situation the context was right and it's you know it's just the lives of a lot of community values around from here just to but that that was more circumstantial so yes we're gonna be leaning pretty heavily on that every second renewable and if you would like to be a part of that we would like to other comments and questions I have some general comments I think you know you're in front of the Energy Commission so you generally know we're where our interests lie but more generally is feedback to the administrator and also

051to the council members that are here I took a look at the materials for the December and the February meeting and they're very interesting and illuminating encourage others to take a peek if you have the time or the interest and just some reactions to that and also to comment that you made earlier about the budgeting process and how things are culled from the process you know you mentioned that you sort of start out with a wish list and I would say as someone that submitted budgets before and reviewed budgets and also as a tax payer what I hope the attitude is a budget the department heads going in is what is necessary for my budget to achieve my goals and targets and not only does that include additions but also where is it possible to

052reduce my budget if I really don't need that amount of money based on on the performance of my department or changing conditions so it's not just additions but also proposals where the budget can be cut and from what I could see of some of the submissions that looked like that was actually done by a number of the departments which is which is reassuring the one thing that I would add on top of that from what I saw the some of the budget requests were juxtaposed against some of the strategic goals of the city number one two three four five six seven there were various columns and to me what would make a lot more sense if I were looking at them as someone who's preparing them reviewing them in the case of the administrator or

053looking at them in the case of council is what is how does the budget request align with my KPIs so and I have seen certain key performance indicators that align with those strategic goals and they should reflect my progress against those whether it's an outcome or whether it's a service and if I'm asking for more money than I should be able to say I need more money because or resources let's say in general can also be headcount because I'm not meeting my goals and targets or it could also be that I'm looking at my my KPIs and actually meeting all my goals and targets and therefore I really shouldn't be going in and asking for a money more money potentially if something is doing extremely well then potentially I don't ask for more money and

054one thing that I would point to and you know this is just an example and I might have some disagreement from people and you know that are here today but if for example serious crime is way way down since the year 2000 which it is in Ann Arbor the question is do you need more safety services budget or is there a possibility to cut that and use that for roads or something else so these KPIs in my view really should be juxtaposed versus the requests for the budget and everybody should be looking critically to see either wretched budget requests in line with the performance of the department thanks so I'll share that KPI piece back with the city administrator I did want to say I did not go into excruciating detail about the budgeting process

055but you are right but the way we actually all start with a cut like we all we all had to look and figure out where we would cut and then you had to look at your work plan in terms of what you were asked to do and what you would need to actually perform in that space so we really did do that deep dive like you outlined the other thing is not only is it the goals of this everything that you put in kind of an impact she either to cut or to add had to be evaluated against how to land with the strategic goals of the city as John said and also the sustainability framework so you had to identify which of those sustainability framework principles you aligned with or that you would be

056important if you cut from that space did everyone have to do that and sustainability principles yeah there's excellent and perhaps would you get the administrator to share it with the group I mean our I could if we had a group thing but there's a combined impact sheet that was sent along with us for Monday and it's really great it's a line item thing and as you point out in strategic plan goals and sustainability framework goals and the first thing I did when I got this she was went through and I put a highlight on every line that didn't have a strategic plan goal or sustainability framework goal on it too so I could make my own assessment of the necessity of that line night huh and so we're really we're really going through it and

057we're really for the input from all the Commission's and residents and everything if they get a look at that you see oh they want so much for this so much for that what's the what's the cost to the budget and yeah I mean I think having the sustainability framework to the to the right hand side is is pretty critical and miss you know that I've been when I approach to the OSI opportunity it was what can we do that doesn't cost us anything what can we write into our legislation into our zoning code codes into in the way every department works and I think the idea this integration is very powerful here and you know that's what I'm hoping that you know that these things become part of the way we do business and I

058think that they are I don't know if council needs to have a resolution to further encourage that but it seems you so that's what's been been happening right oh absolutely and that said though I mean the thing that we have not done that I want to do now that we're going through that is to aggregate that and then do some reality check you know you can claim because it's a pretty much self accounting is that really true that that's that action is gonna drive an energy production or is gonna lead to more economic development or whatever it might be and so this is a step towards that accountability which I think is an important role that we should be playing as the department because that's what education and also transparency so what I also just

059wanted to say when I said wish list it wasn't in that like fun way that was a great I would love one but it was really much more you know we have a goal 100 percent clean and renewable energy what do I need like if I'm gonna if I'm gonna run at that what do I need now to set up for that goal so it was always driven based on the goals we've had set by you and my council and others so I just want to clarify I did not put anything crazy in there I guess question about the most of the energy projects are gonna become like a cost avoidance in the future the electric cars we don't have to buy gas or efficiency or solar less energy or is there a way that

060we're capturing like future savings and you know how that maybe X percentage that could go to the city for other funds but then we capture some of that as a virtuous cycle two five energy related projects working on that right so that's part of the energy fund is the mechanism by which we've had that where we effectively say you don't have the $75,000 up front in your budget to do an energy audit I'm gonna pay our to do the retrofits I'm gonna pay that and alone that tune you're gonna pay it back through savings over time and then your your energy bill is going to decrease right at some point so I've started conversations about capturing that for a period of time where that would actually hopefully cycle into a budget where the fun would

061grow because at some point we're not going to be spending $75,000 for retrofits at some point the kinds of efficiency upgrades we're gonna want to implement are gonna be much more and so that fund has to grow over time in order to meet that need but what's not gonna happen and I I don't think this mix it in enticing is for me to make you pay back longer because that's not gonna I don't think that's gonna work economically for you and your budgeting so we're trying to think of innovative ways to have that fun to grow and that's one example I've been talking to some high-level folks so there won't does that mean there won't be an override I need sir like an overhead yeah no we're in it I'm not particularly interested in an

062overhead so how will you grow the people that it is actually because of this so we will capture energy savings over time but not from you so you have energy savings but your bill is still going maybe will drop even further and I'll capture part but I'm not I'm not gonna make you lock in let's say you pay 11 cents with a reduction you actually pay I'm gonna have you pay 11 cents for 3 years and you're fully paid back in them and put your thanks for one more year right to capture that difference I'm not gonna so you're gonna still see value does that make sense like I'm not gonna lock you in longer okay that's the kind of thing we were thinking about it's all that's all thought process but it's to that

063idea of how we're gonna generate more revenue to grow the funds yeah just a couple of general points John I I believe it was mark raised the issue of what happens when we get to the second year and we want to make modifications although we do set out goals for two-year budgets if we get a year into it and we're spending money in actively will just simply modify we do that you know and it's much easier at the annual point then it way you know when you amend a budget during the budget year it takes eight votes whereas next year a year from no um it just takes a majority so we're not gonna if we're pursuing something that's not working we're not gonna continue to pursue it just because we wrote it down this

064year you know there is that flexibility but on the other hand by trying to project what we're trying to do over a two year period it gives us greater stability so it's yes it makes you less prone to dipping into the reserve accounts for one-time things if you realize that you're gonna have to do the same thing that subsequent year so the solid waste countywide plan I I understand that there's gonna be a little difficulty both in Ypsilanti and in Arbor adopting that program because our solid waste workers are are unionized in both communities and we would just if we joined a countywide consortium the benefit is to contract it all out so unless there's some kind of labor protections put into that that process it's it's probably not as likely to uh be adaptive

065and then there was a discussion about capturing the energy savings that we get when we spend money and I want to point back to the 15,000 dollars that we spent for evie chargers that use a pass card so you know there was they're gonna save fuel but they're not gonna save enough fuel to pay off the cost of the e V Chargers in the short term is we're not gonna we're not gonna be rolling in cash you know the the upfront extra expense of the electric car which i think is an extra $15,000 per vehicle and then $3,000 per charger something like that it's an enormous upfront thing that that we're just going to do you know but we shouldn't pretend that putting the money in the capital into those expenditures will really see a

066remarkable savings and energy consumption in in the early years you know it's just something that we've decided to do as a value issue and then the countywide millage is is gonna be a matter of discussion over just to speak of it what you're saying about the electrical vehicles like in the budget impact analysis for community services of building around construction services they've got in for next year purchase of 13 vehicles and 13 charging stations and so that's about 240,000 that's something like that for those those purchases and so there's an example of how they've integrated that into their business model moving forward and also in a in a way an example of how the city is making an investment in alternative energy that doesn't come directly you know from supporting your office but your office

067has done the fine work to to integrate that into the system and so you know I would say that as we track our return on these energy investments that we also see you know where was the expenditure come from so we see that all departments are really making the investment in in the types of things that this Energy Commission and our climate action plan wants and needs to succeed so like you say the cost might not be the return on that County against our carbon emissions certainly will be and so I think it's important that we recognize the investment that the different apartments are gonna make also on top of general fund investments for your office and hopefully we'll move all those forward together comments questions you've got quite a list of things that was

068on your your sheet and some of them a lot of them fit into other categories and so that there's places for funding but but several of them really don't have a place for funding to come and that's one of the real reasons we're trying to hang on to the millage and when you look at the very long list of funds that we have and when you think about how important climate change is we really should have in my opinion a climate change fund that picks up those items don't necessarily easily come out of somebody else's budget there are no other comments questions Thank You us very illuminating presentation appreciate you coming this evening and sharing it with us next on the agenda proofing bylaws so if you guys remember out of the real interesting yeah

069you guys remember from last summer we had taken a look at the bylaws we worked a little bit with Chris Ross attorney we have here at the city to kind of finalize these bylaws and we weren't quite sure what the the next steps for the Commission's were so we never quite approved them but I think it's time to possibly revisit the the bylaws I did go ahead and print out and kind of a rush printing but a print out the very first the original founding document for the Energy Commission we're kind of a point of comparison as well as and this is the latest copy so last summer when we were working on this this is the latest copy that we had for what we are working on from last year so those are the

070two documents to bylaw documents copies for consideration under an up or down vote or what are we actually doing yeah I think that there was it was expressed to me that there's a little bit of urgency as far as a privy month because other commissions have already done so and we're a bit in limbo but I think at this point it's pretty clear that the Energy Commission will continue to run as it is so I think that's that's kind of the direction I was given I'm a little unfortunately which printed out I was with document that created the Commissioner not the old Commissioner violence okay a lot of the new ones well I had asked for because I wanted the old ones because the old ones I believe said that there were going to be

071two members of the Commission from Council and Mayor also just wanted to see whether there was anything about whether they were voting members and and we don't have that to refer to I to blame I didn't bring my copy so we could pass these contingent a modification says the eleven members plus two voting appointments from the City Council and that way they can modify them and prove move forward our bylaws without having to go around I don't know my understanding was more or less Josh's from the last sets of meetings is that basically this was an up or down vote and if it was an up or down vote as is I would sort of echo marks point that my what I would advocate for is that we we approve these so that we actually

072have something and then also request the attorney's office and maybe the two council members that are sitting here to pick up the the matter that we discussed in tonight which is from my perspective that there should be consistency in how council members vote or don't vote and in particular that that's grounded in the rationale for what that is either that in some committees or commissions or Ward's council members can vote and in other cases they can't what's the consistent rationale for that so I would ask that that would be taken up after we approve these and then maybe they need to be reintroduced just with you know two or three changes and we know exactly what they're about the other thing that I would ask that we look into and there was a lot of

073email exchange this afternoon about what is a conflict of interest and unfortunately we don't have Chuck or Shana here this evening but Shoshanna had some really good input in an email that I agreed with she reference and did some research and there may be better sources but she found something from Manitoba Canada where their municipal council has a conflict of interest act that is a lot does a lot better job in my view and really defining what is a conflict of interest and what isn't and I think it's important because one of the things that we're going to be considering later on this evening is something that is a potential conflict of interest it's a question of how direct of a conflict of interest is I think that we discussed it will understand what two

074people on the Commission that are employed by the utilities and we're going to take up a resolution that as mr. Kerber from his public comments earlier referred to and indicate that we would potentially be in favor of restricting their ability to to make contributions to where they call me IO what are they 501 fourth C fours and where otherwise known as what is it what's the other know me I will use I think in cases like this either in this case or ones going forward whether it's in a border commission or even in Council that a more detailed discussion or definition I should say really a conflict of interest is warranted so those are meet the two issues that I hope that would be taken up between the city attorney and the council member representatives

075that a little more on that it's interesting this article 5 talks about shall stain from discussion or vomiting and to my point you know in my mind some of the time you know Chuck and and Shana know a lot about the utility and so having them be part of the discussion is one thing voting on it is another and I'm not sure that we should just have them leave the room yeah I mean section five point five says a member who cannot vote due to a conflict of interest during the liberation of the matter before Commission leave the meeting or the area where the members sit until actually not in the matter is concluded that means they can't even provide the perspective their own personal perspective and or the perspective of their employer and I

076think that that actually we were missing something by not having their input for our consideration well not really so if the individual number has an actual conflict of interest where they could financially gain from something being here with their colleagues and influencing your vote just through discussion is part of that whole conflict analysis we all want to get along you know if we had four different kinds of interests here and you know you you you vote in favor of my interest and I vote in favor of your interest and you're gonna listen to me when I'm trying to persuade you on something that has a financial impact on me personally that's exactly what you're trying to avoid and so I understand that often a person who has a conflict of interest also is probably best

077informed about the subject but that's not really a reason not to exercise that the rules you know cuz it's not just whether or not that person's honest or not and and actually does something wrong it's just the appearance that they possibly could you know two different people acting in the same manner one of them could cross the line and the other person could be just so altruistic that they they recognize the limits of what their participation should be and so if you really are going for a stringent avoidance of conflict this is kind of the way you have to accomplish it yeah you know I'm just thinking about that though if you take that to its conclusion then you know couldn't you then not be allowed to speak before Council if you have a you

078know adjacent property to a to a business that could be impacted by them so you couldn't be there for zoning or other things that I kind of agree that the seems to me like disclosing that and then not voting on it and seem like that's a reasonable thing but a member of the public isn't restricted by these rules it's a member of the board but I personally I can't go in front of planning and advocate for myself or my neighbors it's just against the rules that we have even though I represent those people that's just a rule but to keep you out of that head in trouble you have to recognize that merely working for the company that may profit for it doesn't mean that you personally have a conflict so often Council will vote

079on something that affects the University of Michigan and a number of council members over the years have been staff members of the University of Michigan and didn't have to recuse themselves because they weren't personally involved in it or they weren't personally in a position to profit from it so these are the things that I think he just tried to identify in here I don't know how artful he was and when I say he I actually mean the entire office of the attorney okay so technically we could have no utilities representative they don't have any set-aside seats port no I have a question um thanks for your insights and your legal background this is helpful in this regard so let's say um take a specific example in the past mark I'm going to put you on

080the spot we've considered and voted on resolutions related to property taxes on solar installations in the case like that where mark I mean I would use myself had a had one as an example but mark had an installation on his roof he would have benefited personally from a reduction in that tax liability should he have recused himself from a vote like that that's a good question and because it's so generally applicable you know you didn't vote to grant that benefit just to mark her off you know it was generally applicable and it encompassed anybody who here has or plans to get him so I would tend towards the answer no that he wouldn't have had to recuse himself but in a perfect world you do raise those issues you say well you know I would

081benefit from this and if you want me to recuse myself I'll walk away from the table that that's what's also been suggested by the city attorney in City Council cases that the council member has to ask to be recused and the body has to vote to allow that we can make sense in here - yeah as it's mentioned in here so the idea that I mean these things are coming from a somewhat long long ago Council resolution to organize all the bylaws to be consistent with Roger and so we've seen this is a third or fourth one I've I've seen your mob and did they all have this parallel language maybe a conflict of interest yeah yeah I mean it's this section exactly the same as in the body has to go one to one

082but I think very very much that's a festival and and then on some boards and commissions it seems hard to conceive of a potential conflict but number one for uniformity sake they're there including them in all of it and because you know people who sit on this Commission actually work in the industry you know whether it be on the solar side or on the pollution side they you you probably have to pay more attention to these rules than some other Commission's but unless it's gonna personally and particularly benefit you I would think that typically you would be allowed to participate oh and I'm not giving you legal advice I just had a comment on the membership point and I agree that you want to be operating with bylaws and you we are right operating with

083the current bylaws that I mean I think it would be straightforward for article four for one to decide somebody would decide and move that you know where it says that the Commission cell consists of eleven voting members appointed by the mayor approved by City Council gava and to voting or non-voting you know members appointed and approved by City Council right and so I think that needs to be appended somehow to if you'd like us to continue to join you yeah we just have to you have to decide I appreciate what you say it was the I never understood why there was a ex officio operations like on parks Advisory Commission I understand and I said on there Julie and I sit on there Councilwoman grant and we don't get to vote and I assumed that

084was because it was a parks Advisory Commission just like this was formed as an energy of Zuri Commission and so we're asking for the advice of the knowledgeable public that makes up this body not our advice you know we're the ones that are receiving the advice that's why I thought I'm not sure though I'd really have to look deeper into that but that's all I could come up with when I was looking at this earlier so it neither way offends me yeah cuz you know if you're trying to build a quorum so you can start your meeting in time I wouldn't mind being a voting member assist but on the other hand ultimately anything that you said to counsel I will have a vote on and so it doesn't matter whether I have a vote

085here that I get I get to participate in that final debate and so um I'm satisfied to be here and try to give you heads up as to how something like being received at culture so the number of times you were some of the ways we have sent stuff to the council before it wasn't in your terms actionable as action was it could have been when we've gone I know John passed and I've gone back and forth on this and how do we how do we tie to that power we make sure that what we sat down it's gonna have some impact I would think you're being forced to vote on something would be a good thing and then it would give us the discipline to do this we need to say the same thing

086whether I have a voter no I'm not shy I mean what what I want to stop doing is proclaiming good intentions start asking the council to do specific things that have measurable goals and asked staff to identify how much are our intentions are gonna cost within the next budgetary timeframe you know I think it was the environmental Commission that sent a resolution to Council reiterating their best intentions that they had stated a couple years earlier that hadn't been egged event without any suggestion as to how Council enacted those intentions and that's you know that's the problem I have is is let's describe what we want ask staff to identify how much that's gonna cost so that we could take it to Council and and seek the the program and the money to fund it so

087I'm gonna just jump to here and and say that I put forth a motion that we adopt these bylaws contingent on the city obviously attorney or whoever this goes to accepting our modification of four point one where we turn that period into a comma eleven forty minutes apart by the mayor and proved by counsel including two additional city both voting City Council members period and that we vote this up or down and we pass it and if they accept that sentence then they got a new set of bylaws of the don't then we can do one more round and voted on next time I think that clarifies it is there a second second for discussion purposes yes discussion I don't know if we can do that because it's not just the bylaws that would have

088to be amended it's also I think the original original resolution right which is Joshua passed out which says it's cries only shall have eleven members which shall be appointed by the mayor but I think from my understanding the bylaws supersede superseded a document that we'd be most especially because it's nothing consistent right it's something in addition further discussion the only other thing is that I'd recommend again that if there's the potential for improving the language on what is and what is not a conflict of interest but that's that can be a continuous improvement action that could be considered a year from now this is just a minor one but is it at the very end twelve one is it still called the sustainability office is that - that's all right no 12.1 who should be

089the primary provider of administrative support this still named a sustainable deal no it's not called the office of sustainability oh yeah [Applause] I'll take that modification too friendly there's no further discussion all in favor aye nay unanimously utility dark money resolution motion to I'd like to move that the draft be considered by the Energy Commission discussion so if I can open the discussion as mr. Cooper mentioned in his public comments he drafted he approached me about this concern that he had and he told him or I told him that if he were to draft a resolution that I would take it to the Energy Commission and give his voice a public hearing so to speak and what we have in front of us is a first final draft I would say of a resolution addressing

090the concerns that he expressed this evening and I'd be interested in other commissioners as well as council members comments on the proposal the one thing that I would maybe focus on initially or I'm just put out there for consideration at some point is the term dark money because it really doesn't have I don't think illegal and so maybe we just consider striking dark money you know it says permanently ending contributions for investor owned utilities and Michigan's so you know that you know you don't need the dark money adjective if you will in and in there but that's what I wanted to address in terms of some background information for everybody I have a comment also in the first the protected and monopoly I've I've been corrected numerous times by people in the utility industry that

091they're not protected monopolies are regulated utility I think we could say operate in Michigan as a you know regulated utility defiance you know service Tory's service territories but I think they take umbrage with protected monopoly status yeah I think overall it good sense of might support is written for sure but the notion that the investor owned utilities should not be making I would actually broaden this to say political contributions in general I mean this actually doesn't address what on a smaller portion but important which is direct contributions to state lawmakers which are perfectly legal and if you look at the state lawmakers and their top contributions those who are on energy committees it's usually the utilities are amongst if not the top they're often number one and number two yeah and I do think there

092is a there's a problem that utilities with this protected status are allowed to directly influence that of course it's a problem across the political spectrum you could say that about every industry in some ways but it's a particular problem I think when you have a regulated utility item I think my own take is that this resolution itself has too many issues probably for us to work on it in this forum right now I would probably support or at least support a conversation about what is a statement that we could make that would try and take the political contributions that can be directly against those of us who were forced to use this utility so I think there's a broader point to be made but I think this is it's worded in a way that I

093don't think is is appropriate the efficacy of having utilities Lobby the legislature who in turn make rules and hand them to the Public Service Commission and says here's the rules you use to regulate the utilities and so you know sure they should they have the right to do that without I mean what other what other programs do you know that where they the those who are regulated to have the right to write the rule their own rules and I would say to any miss just re-emphasize in the dark money part I work for an organization that has a 501 C 4 right I mean that's actually a small part of what we do at the National Wildlife Federation we actually do disclose it you can disclose donors you just don't have to and so that

094that's actually not the right description it's though if it's about taking political action from the from the regulated utilities I think that's a valid point but again that's a broader in sort of different different points part of the reason that this is worded the way it is comes from to play devil's advocate could could not entities including utilities argue most entities are really regulated boo varying degrees and we're only more highly regulated than other you tend to use so even though we're more highly regulated at what point do you cut off our ability to use any amplification means for getting our voice out there through 501 for 3 seats well in is they they are guaranteed a profit so they're more than we just occasionally their grants get our granted monopoly see that it's a

095profiteering specialist special status but then they their way of dealing with these questions are in rape cases and they they they are supposed to deal with Michigan Public Service Commission that's a designated so that what do they need to go to the legislature for just the question to say that they're you know denied the right to act on their behalf well then stop being regulated go do something else to sell hamburgers want to make money the old-fashioned way but there is a also devilís argument there devil's advocate that's a that's infringement on speech I mean free speech right so how are we to say how a investors spend their money right I mean that that's a that's a legitimate thing that that's part of what you know makes this I think uncomfortable overall and then

096there are cases I would argue that our particular utilities are not playing a particularly positive force on climate change DT in particular consumers a little less so there are states and where investor owned utilities actually are a driving force behind strong action on climate so you know part of what makes me a little comfortable about this is that we're we would sort of be picking it saying we don't like the way they're spending political money if they're spending in a different way we would be in favor of it and that's again sort of an odd position to be in because it's not disclosed discussing something and you it's different it's a good point that it actually when they do do direct political contributions of kids those are disclosed so that is a different category well

097the net metering is a case in point the language used in the net metering arguments right now came directly from Alex so we never here we have organizations that are supported by the coal industry who what have strategic plan is to get rid of net metering number-one priority is to get rid of net metering in every state in America and and you know three years later well it shows up in a rate case so you know who-who are I it's one thing for the investor-owned utility to represent its rate payers its stockholders it's another thing when they have a clear job to do which is defined by the Michigan Public Service Commission in their mission statement and they're working against those interests by you know working with some other organization that's handing out here sign

098here to this legislation so I think that's the best question either be clear about it or I mean what's wrong with machines public service Commission's mission if they think it's a bad mission then they should say so yes adjudged overturn they get to go to administrative law courts and write hearings now the rest of us get to go I certainly don't when my bill shows up later whatever I'm over charged I think it's fairly clear this tonight so I guess the next question well we can - anyway rights gotta you can't borrow that til next me anyway that's that's true so the question is whether or not anyone is interested in working on this meeting or actually the meeting next meeting is working session I played so let's keep it alive you're interested I'm gonna

099be recognized by the chair oh we should have different signals table so if you do want to take it forward I think it probably should go to the City Attorney's Office you know there's campaign finance law has changed dramatically since citizens united and and we should just understand whether this is a possibility beyond the regulatory scheme you know if they can spank them every time they come for a rate increase that might be enough but on the other hand if if we want more than that we should make sure that it's probably legal before we ask for I would recommend using a different term than dark money dark money appears three times than it once in the title twice in the text whether it be contributions from organizations that don't disclose their donors or something

100describes what you mean when you say dark money sure and there are three resolved clauses I think the first of the three should actually be aware as it's not directing any action at home so I'm willing to take this as proposed to the City Attorney's Office actually I meet this Friday by regular meeting with the city administrator and with Missy and I can take it up then and ask that he pass it on to the city attorney and you know he may have some insights as well and then I can bring it back at the appropriate time either with whatever recommendations either not to handle it and why or this is what we recommend and also why okay great great I think that resolves it for now yes and moving on to committee updates so

101we managed to have all our subcommittees meet you know there was a polar vortex scheduled everything I think on the whole they were very successful we got a lot of the groundwork laid out for each of the different subcommittees there is now a Google Drive we'll be sitting around the link for that if you don't already have it and all all of the subcommittee's actually are on the same Google Drive just under different folders so if any of the commissioners are interested Carlene I know hundred percent folder there and you can go ahead and take a look at the documents so you can jump in at any time if you guys are interested in joining us for any of those subcommittees again they meet every Tuesday they're kind of alternating which one goes one so

102for the hundred percent clean a municipal operations we took a look at energy efficiency and renewables we broke them out based off of groups so we kind of I got a house as to which commissioners wanted to work on which topics there are action items for each of those different items so for example we'll be looking at City Hall and wheeler with the energy efficiency group we'll be looking at solar and battery storage along with a few other things for the renewable side so all good stuff there are also on legislature actually agendas that are set up there in case you guys want to check that out as well as minutes that will be posted okay so the lighting ordinance John do you want to speak a little bit to the updates the lighting ordinance

103yes we have a draft ordinance that's facing lighten 98% done there's a few open questions about how to handle athletic fields which really has limited impact because of there's not that many fields that are are gonna be impacted by the ordinance we were to have a meeting with councilmember Griswold today but she had a conflict so where she's gonna provide verbal comments I'm she particularly interested in how the lighting would affect pedestrian safety related issues we plan to review the draft with Planning Commission at its March working session and then with the historic review or historic what's the name of the Commission historic the Preservation Commission yeah I think the next day or the day after so middle of March for both of those just one point of interest also related to what I talked

104about with councilmember Griswold the ordinance does not apply to street lighting and lighting in the public right away that's governed by what's called the City Public Service services standards specifications or the so called orange book and we agreed with the Planning Commission that we would first address the ordinance and what ordinance is applied to as a first step and get that through and get a reaction and some feedback on how that's working and then take a second step and address the orange book so that that's my plan and hopefully this will move forward over the next couple of months where it can get to Council by mid summer or late late summer great this is that gesture yes so I just want to point out that next Tuesday's council meeting agenda includes spending about a

105half a million dollars on the streetlights and I don't know that we've taken any of this into consideration in bidding up that work you know we continue to move forward because there are considerable pedestrian safety issues revolving around the lack of proper illumination but if if we're hiring companies to install lighting power at the same time working on standards that would decrease light pollution I think this is just an unfortunate yes we have made a mess big mistake in the past Josh Moses where we've installed these global type fixtures which wastes a lot of light because they're not shielded and they just throw light and wasted energy then you know up into the sky and so what's really important is that the fixtures are what are called fully shielded and I would recommend that council

106either put that as a rider on the approval or maybe defer action on this until that is looked at but we we don't want this light fixtures that are that are shining light all over the place like the globes do we are approving account a bid already won out so I think this half-million dollars were probably late you can you can almost do a change order on a contract sure I know we don't want to really delay these kinds of things are important all right also I hope someone is on the ball as to how these things are being placed because that's half the battle is getting them in the right spot so they're illuminating exactly what you want and not putting glare it for instance in drivers on glare and like trespass into other

107properties where you really don't want her Neath the light and then the associate it's waste that's no I I understand I'm trying to get it's a good people who are doing this I bring them the pending ordinance every time we talk about streetlights yeah and good response is big well the problem in the ordinance bike as I mentioned by design doesn't really address street lighting in public right away but the lessons learned from developing the ordinance should carry over to orders like this and the orange book and unfortunately yeah we have parallel activities well because we have so much control over what we did for you know if we put it out for bid we can we can describe whatever it is we want it has the other half and it doesn't require an ordinance

108or anything it's just correct so some fully shielded foresight is on that exam we're experiencing a massive excess of light on a Taylor and Pontiac trail where the crosswalk in Carlene and NARS neighborhood has men put in it looks like the spaceship is landed or something and it glares very agency that this windshield I I almost hit a pedestrian the glare is insane and I mean we have perpetual you know the four houses there at perpetual daylight basically now yeah and so yeah we're talking about please the dim and scrim you know like when we would enroll these new crosswalk lights out it good so what to look at this look look at this purchase order maybe we can pull it out with at least you have this conversation monitor Tuesday rather and I guess

109this all comes back to whether or not we've got somebody on staff was pop properly trained in order to locate these things properly and size them properly and get them shared with properly so that it goes into that I'll pull that RFP out Tuesday they love it when we pull stuff out like it's an agenda and perhaps our sustainability director advisor to the city manager could bring this up during his Friday meeting yes because I have failed to get its attention so we also have the energy audit disclosure ordinance also known as time of marketing we talked about putting up a sample ordinance and then working on that as a group next meeting we'll be reviewing that there is also the Eevee readiness ordinance where we talked a little bit about the scope of the

110ordinance and some of the parameters whether that be you know affecting multifamily commercial residential to what degree do we want you know these locations to be ready for Evy Chargers and so there are also on the Google Drive dock some ordinances that are going up as well for subcommittee members to take a look at Carlene outreach to schools the sustainable and sustaining and I were together grant is the update that we covered already and that's all I have at this point in time environmental Commission's so a lot of this has already been covered tonight so I'll try to keep it brief first of all the same budget presentation that Missy made this evening was made by administrator Lazarus in the environmental Commission we have had some discussions about solid waste related issues and there were

111presentations by crescent Slaton and by the county about the regional authority and based on that as was mentioned earlier this evening the environmental Commission approved a resolution in support of the really regionalization one thing that didn't come up that I'd like to mention to everybody which is something that's known and understood but was a concern in the environmental Commission is that the authority is being set up so that each municipal entity has one vote so that means a municipal entity with 10,000 people has essentially 10 times the voice per residence as the city of Ann Arbor has with roughly a hundred thousand so it's sort of set up like the US Senate or you have two votes per state and this is one vote per municipal entity and that was apparently what was discussed and

112negotiated and arrived at and that's something that City Council is gonna have to consider in the end whether they finally approve the authority or whether they asked for modifications and I think the only other thing that's maybe of interest that was covered pretty well in the in Arbor news it wasn't acted on in the Commission meeting because it was voted on earlier at that level but City Council approved a resolution asking the state of Michigan to harmonize nuclear preparedness and public health related issues so that in the case of any kind of a nuclear accident whether it was something related to power plant or whether it was for some other reason that that there would be potassium iodine tablets that would be stockpiled and provided to residents so that residents could take those in time

113in order to minimize any impact negative impacts on their health in particular you know thyroid glands and that was approved by by council and the hope is is that that would be then addressed and by other municipalities to put pressure on the state to harmonize those regulations with the province of Ontario where they sit right across from for example the fermi reactors um actually again there was someone that approached me and asked it was actually a xep a employee and they approached me I looked at you know what we're doing in the environmental commission if you look at the sustainability framework one of the goals related to the environmental condition is public health protected public health so this really wasn't a statement about nuclear or not nuclear power generation or anything else it was only

114related to a public health concern so I worked with them on the draft and through the process of introducing it in the environmental Commission and finally passing it on through a chip and an to City Council world was approved thank you public input we still have some public any input seeing no one rising will close public input for tonight items for the next agenda which is a working session so think about what you want to work on we do have so Shoshana has asked somebody from DTE to give us updates in April in the April Josh you mentioned several meetings back that you're gonna be updating our greenhouse gas emissions for 1617 and hopefully even 18 yes would that be available to review in the working session or at least so as it happens now

115we got in touch with our contact at DTE I think it's probably at the end of last month and he said they'll probably be able to get us the data by I think it was February 20th mm-hmm so possibly I guess it depends on but if not then definitely for the April okay great great any other closing comments questions not motion to adjourn you