 And we are recording. All yours and our thanks. Okay, great. Welcome everyone. Laura will be here. Shortly, but we're going to start because we have court. So let's start with the. We start with the minutes. There's no, oh, there is one public. We do need a minute taker. Oh, yes. Our minute taker. Where what's our. Let's see. Last time is doing so. Next on the list is Jesse. Yes. We just going down the list. Yes. And Jesse's not here yet. Skip to Steve. Oh, get on it. I'm just going on the list of committee members that we have in our. Minutes. Going down. In order. Seems like that's how we're doing it. All right. Taking minutes. So. So Steve's going to take the minutes and now we will. The one is take a. A moment to remember your notes that you wrote. To update the minutes from the last meeting. If any. I had some comments on the minutes. If it's time for that yet. Yes, go ahead. There were just two things. One is that block power, which is spelled with two words in the minutes. I believe it's just block B. L. O. C. Power with a capital P one word. That's right. And there was one place that I sent to Stephanie where the word. Done was incorrectly transcribed as down. So. Okay. Definitely have those changes. I will make a note. Yes. And make those amendments. Any other. Edits needed. There's nothing else. I'll make the motion to accept the minutes. Okay. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Was that you second thing? I'm sorry. Okay. All right. Then I will do a voice vote in no particular order. Allison. Yeah. Sorry. You have to unmute John. I abstain since I wasn't here. Okay. Um, Goldner. Yes. Roof. Yes. Regevon. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Okay. Minutes are approved. As amended. Great. Thank you. Okay. So. Do you have. One attendee. Oh, it's. Anna. Um, Shelly. See if Anna has a report for us. That's not the next thing on the list. It's not public comment for Anna to speak. I don't think, I think we moved to public comment because this is essentially a pre-retreat. Meeting. So we changed it up a little bit. So the public comment is being held to the end. Just. Get that. I have town council liaison update is the second item anyway. Right. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. So I will. Allow. Anna to talk. Hi, everybody. Hi, Anna. Happy Wednesday. So just a couple of things, mostly continuations. I know I threw a lot at you last, last meeting. So hopefully I will not always have so many things to throw at you, but. Today, Stephanie and Laura, I believe received a note about the work plan. The work plan that was just chaired by Mandy Joe. Is taking up that. Rental registration by law, essentially to replace what we currently have. And so they, they have developed a work plan for how they're going to go through it. And one of the things I was at the meeting and I. I encouraged them to specifically add you all to their list on the work plan. And I was like, well, you know, you know, I've been doing sustainability implications as an internal discussion. And I was like, well, hang on. We actually have a whole group of people that, that does this. So they have added you all to their work plan. So for better or for worse, you are now involved in that process. And so what I believe that they have. Proposed and Stephanie, please feel free to correct me if you have a different understanding. Is that they would love Stephanie to attend. One of the meetings on March. I don't have the date in front of me. That is specifically about sustainability implications. Of a rental registration by law. And I guess it's less implications. It's more opportunities, right? So it's more about what, what are the opportunities in this to move forward? Some of the different elements in the, in the carp plan. And that is, I can pull it up. It is Thursday. April. Hang on. I got it. I got it. I got it. I got it. No, it just says April. That's not helpful. Sorry. So they, she will be working with Stephanie. And I believe Laura on kind of when that's going to happen. And so I know Stephanie distributed that. By law to you all to look over. So I don't know if that's something that you're discussing or however you plan on handling that. That's fine. But also just to keep an eye on other areas that you might. Feel free to. Feel free to. Feel free to comment on what you should be invited to contribute on. Similarly, the demolition delay by law is also in front of CRC right now. They. They have been discussing it. The version that Stephanie sent just so you know, is already really changing. So please feel free. Again, however you decide to handle it. I think the. From my, my vantage point. I think that that's, I think that's, I think that's it. And unless you all really want to know about sewer and water regulations. I think that's kind of, that's it from. From my point of view. I think that's, I think that's it. I think that's it. I think that's it. I think that's it. I think that's it. I think that's it. And then what would be really helpful is if, and this is not an obligation at all, but if you just let me know when you've done that so that I can kind of. Chase. Chase her down or whatever needs to happen. I think that's it. I think that's it. I think that's it. That's it from, from my. Yeah. Are there any questions for. If anyone has questions for me. Happy to. I do have one. Yeah. Anna, in terms of getting feedback. Would it be easier for the ECAC. To send comments to me to collect them all in one response package. To Mandy Joe rather than individuals reaching out. I think that's it. I think that's it. Please, please, please do that. That would not only be just generally easier, but also would kind of solidify you all as a, as a, as one voice versus. Random input. So I'm sure Laura will want to add this to an agenda. And I know she's already reached out to Steve. Steve, I don't know if you wanted to weigh in or say anything about that. I just saw the message that she sent about an hour ago. I don't know. I don't agree. Great. It's important, Steve, for you to. Introduce the idea that. We've been working on. Right. So. Have rentals be more efficient. The only other thing that's that I know you all do know about is the solar by law working group is looking for people. I know that. But we are also looking for two resident spots. So if you could spread the word on that, it would be hugely helpful. We'd love to get some knowledgeable folks in those seats. So please. Yeah, feel free to share the, share the information on that. It's all on the, should all be on the town website. And then the only last thing is that we are heading into budget season. So the. This obviously does have some implications for you all. I think that's a good point. I think that's a good point. I think that's a good point. I think that's a good point. Although I believe Stephanie, most of the things you all look for are in the capital, the JCPC, the capital budget. So if you would like to, I'm happy to send. Stephanie and overview of kind of where, when the process is playing out. The finance committee sees different parts of it at different times and then it comes all before the council. Throughout the month of May. So I think we want to keep an eye on the, again, implications of the budget on how we're moving forward in the, in the cart plan and things like that. I think that's everything. Does anyone have any question, any other questions for me or anything you would like to see me doing. I'm sure we'll have other things that we'd like to see. As we go on with our agenda on. That sounds good. And just as a reminder, I do have to leave early, but I do look back at the minutes. And so if I miss something that you want me to do, either let me know or put it in the minutes or however you want me to do it. I think that would be great. Thank you. Thank you all so much for, for all your work. I appreciate it. I do think that. Steve, if you can get in the notes. We do want to have a conversation. About if there's anything else. Around our charges around how to. Move the cart forward. Through this rental by law. Yeah. I think that would be great. Thank you. Thank you. Besides what we've already started working on. Maybe other opportunities here. Yeah, absolutely. I'm hoping that if, if there are, that's something that would be really helpful for you all to put in that memo or whatever it is that you draft to Mandy Joe. They really are. Kind of building this thing up from the ground. So it's a, it's a very good opportunity. To move. Yeah. Yeah. The timing of it is, hang on, let me pull up my little, my little sheet again. Sorry. So they are hoping to. Speak with you all in April. They're going to have. The. Sorry, I'm trying to make sense of this. All right. So they're talking with you all at some point in April, they're going to have a little discussion on that. And the types of licensing and things like that throughout April. In May, they're going to reach out. They're to the board of license commissioners, because there's so many different aspects of rental registration. Some of them are truly regulation and licensing. And then they're going to have, start to have public input in late May. They're also going to then go into. Application processes and requirements. So again, this would be another place for where they have, they have stated inviting. The chair of ECAC and the sustainability coordinator. To that meeting on May 26th. There will also be a public comment there, but just so you all know, and meetings where you all are invited is ECAC. This is, I'm going to inject a little personal opinion. You should not be in public comment for adding your input. That should be something that is held for you all on the agenda. Because ECAC chair is listed on the agenda. However, you all decide to speak. That should be part of the meeting, not public comment, because we don't want to lose your comment in general public comment. In June, they start talking through the application process, the fee authority, the transfer of licenses, et cetera. And then in late June, they start talking through inspections. I don't know if there's anything there that might. That impact you all, but as you go through. And then in July, they start, they wrap up inspections and. And start in on violations. This is thrilling stuff. I know. Violations continue talking through violations in August. And then they get into the definitions and purposes. It's really, truly just so you know, this isn't done till December. So this is a long, I won't, I won't keep going, but basically this is a long, long process. So this is something that was sent. Stephanie, do you have this? Do you want me to send it? If you want to send it, that would be great. Sure. Yeah. Do you want me to send it to the group or just to you? Send it to me and I'll make sure it gets up to the group. Great. Yeah. So this is in public record. This was something CRC discussed. So it's not, this isn't a secret. And there's lots of because nothing, nothing we do in government is really a secret. So the. Yeah. So that is. Okay. Just want to get a sense of whether. Yep. Having an input. Yeah. This month is necessary because I think we're, might run out of meetings. I will say this month is the one I, I truly think that a general input this month on areas that you, like if you look at that and say, here are the future areas where you should be talking to us, whether it's inspections, whether it's registration. That's in my mind, what would be helpful to do this month more than anything else. Yeah. Does that make sense? So it might be necessary for. Some. Proposals through the. Buildings. Electrification accelerator group. First and. And then maybe bring that. To the CAC sooner than later. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So that's essentially what you're saying now is here's where we need to be consulted as you build this. That's, that's important. It doesn't necessarily need to be the exact specific things right now, but. Yeah. Thank you. You're welcome. Yeah. So Laura's here. Laura, we've done the first two. Items on the. Meeting agenda. If you want to take over. I was late. Okay. So I guess I'll turn it actually over to Stephanie maybe for the vote on appointment to the solar bylaw working group. Staff updates first. We don't have that on the agenda this time. Oh, I'm sorry. If anybody has anything quick, they want to. Add feel. Steve, did you have something burning to. No. Okay. Yeah. I'm just going by last month's template. Okay. Just real quick Laura and notice that Hadley's having a climate day. On the 23rd of April, it's going to be a day long. 10 to four event. They're bringing in a panel of experts. Their workshops and some exhibits as well. It's going to be held at the Hadley senior center and. Hadley public library complex. And it does require registration because it's going to be limited. Since it's indoors. I'm not sure. It is. Oh, it is. Okay. Do you. Just remind and sorry, I, this will be real quick. We want to get on, but. I did remind me, I did was approached by, approached by a student group who was interested in. Potentially some activity with the town on Earth Day. And I was like scratching my head. Trying to remember if there was going to be any like. Earth Day celebration and Amherst or whether it was on. COVID lockdown still for that. Yeah. We're not having a, the town is not sponsoring an event this year. Sorry, go ahead. I was just going to say because of COVID, but go ahead, Stella. Oh yeah. I was just to an arboretum, UMass arboretum committee meeting this morning and UMass. Is definitely doing stuff. As well as multiple like Arbor Day stuff spread out over the second two weeks of April. I think the Earth Day stuff is going to be kind of tied in and all. Getting down over the next week or so. There is one Earth Day event that's going to be. A flash mob. First day dance. During the farmers market. 11 o'clock. 23rd, first day. That didn't come into my feed yet. You better be there. So mothers out front and. XR. Western mass and climate action now. And Emerson. Anna, did you have something to add? I did. Sorry. On April 30th, we are doing community cleanups across town. It's not necessarily specifically an Earth Day thing, but there. If you go to, you'll believe it's on engage. Amherst.org. You can sign up for different spots. I will be at graph park if you want to come hang out. But they're also doing it at mill river and starting at the Jones library. So that it's not necessarily an Earth Day event, but I think that they're trying to, yeah, community cleanup. Saturday, April 30th, 10 to 10 to one. 10 to 12, sorry. So you can sign up for that. Feel free to spread the word. Yeah. Awesome. Okay. Um, Stephanie. Sure. So the, um, I sent everybody forward to do the email from the town manager. Um, that he has finalized the charge for the solar bylaw working group and he's requesting representation from the five, I believe five committees. Um, Um, I'm sorry. I'm sorry for being one. Someone from the planning board front, someone from the conservation commission, someone from the. Um, Board of health and then also someone from the, um, I'm sorry, I always forget their name, but they're the water protection supply committee, a water. Water supply protection committee. Um, in any case, there are four committees appointed. One from each of those committees. And so tonight you have all been asked to, um, either nominate someone, volunteer yourself, but then have a vote as to who would be the person to represent the ECAC on the solar. Bylaw working group. I will also note that. You all will be part of the review process. So even if you're not going to be on that. Um, you're not going to be on that. Um, your liaison will be bringing back information, getting feedback from you. And certainly there'll be drafts of documents for you to review and weigh in on. So as a committee. So, um, I just wanted to note that. So. I guess I would ask, does someone want to nominate someone or does someone want to nominate themselves? We've talked about it a couple of times and it seems to me, it's a little bit different. I think it's a little bit different. It's a little bit different. It's a little bit different representative. But. Steve's also worked on it. So. I'm, I'll throw my head in the ring. Uh, and say I'm willing. And able. And I hope capable. Um, Um, But obviously, um, Uh, welcome other nominations as well. Um, what I would say is that I'd be excited to, um, I would be excited to be on the committee. Um, I would be excited to be on the committee. Um, And be diligent and, and, um, Be diligent in reaching out. Uh, to everybody on the committee and, and in these meetings. In the ecac meetings to, uh, go over what we're, we're working on and decisions that have to be made. Um, I would feel it as being representing ecac, not, not myself. So, uh, and, uh, I know there's other people on this committee that would like to be on the committee. Um, and I would be excited to be on the committee. Uh, to be on the committee. Um, in regard, uh, so I'd be really. Um, Keen on that. Um, I will say, I, I, I'm, I'm not a. Uh, zoning. Expert, but I've read zoning. Uh, solar zoning bylaws and. I've sort of looked, looked at, um, um, Worked. Uh, with the Pioneer Valley. Planning commission on some surveys of zoning by law. So I'm familiar. To some degree on, on, on. Um, and, you know, just from my current work and my DOER days, I know my, I know how to, um, Language that goes into regulation. So I think there's some similarities there with zoning language as well. Uh, but I'm also keen on other people's, um, other, um, Nominations, um, as well. I'll note too that you also don't need to be an expert on zoning bylaws to be part of this working group because we, you know, We will be working or the group working group will also be working very closely with the planning board. So a lot of that input is going to come from them. So you all won't be asked to be creating something out of the blue. We were actually going to be. Bringing a draft that's sort of, um, started by the, you know, the planning board will be the draft that would come to the, to the working group and the working group would sort of go from there. So it's not like you're creating everything out of the ether. You're going to have, um, documents and, um, to, to start from and work from. And also I will note that this will probably be a bi-weekly meeting. Bi-weekly. I'll be trying to remember that. That's every other week. Every other week. Yes. It's not Wednesday at 430. Yeah. Well, that wouldn't work for me either. Yeah. So you'll be on that as well, Stephanie. Yes. I'm actually, um, yeah, I'm, uh, Chris Prestrup and I, the planning director and I are the two staff members that are basically overseeing this whole thing. Moving forward. So, um, anyone else then I know Steve, your name was mentioned. I'm interested, um, but I had. That was one question about the frequency of the meetings. And previously when it was thought that the solar study aspect. Was going to be charged with this committee to this committee. There was going to be some alternate weekly meetings or some on that committee. So. Can you say, Stephanie, where the solar study is going to be. Done. It's going to be part of that process. Um, because that what's going to happen is that that information will be fed to that committee. What might happen is securing the consultant to conduct that will probably happen at the staff level. Is what I'm being encouraged to sort of have happen. Um, again, when we write the RFP, you'll ask, you'll be certainly asked to weigh in, but that RFP may get looked at by the solar bylaw working group. Um, as far as the process of like interviewing the consultant and that kind of thing, there may be a representative. I would certainly advocate for Dwayne being involved in that process. Um, even if you weren't on the solar bylaw working group. Um, but I don't think there's going to be, it won't be something that that committee is going to be as engaged in as developing the bylaw. So how much would the ECAC be involved in that? Developing the solar studies that can be handed over to the consultants and then we'll get a report. Are we going to be involved in. You'll be in, you'll be, you'll have some help in shaping it. You know, it'll be. You know, similar to, it won't be exactly like the car, but similar to the car processes because I'm the one overseeing that piece. So I will be coming to you all for your input and guidance. Um, so. And then is the consultant also going to help with the community input aspects of the solar by bylaw development. Not beyond the assessment. And I don't know at this point, because I'm not sure if there's funding for hiring a consultant to develop the solar bylaw. So the assessment is different process than the bylaw in terms of hiring a consultant. They're just focused on the assessment and there will be some community engagement for that piece. Just remember how useful it was having our consultant help us with the car with the community development. Part of that and holding the public meetings and. Coordinating those and consolidating comments and outreach and advertisement and all of that. If that falls to the committee members and the staff, that's going to be a kind of a big task. There's a lot of work. I, I, again, I don't know about the funding for the. A consultant for the bylaw. Development, I would assume that there will be because I know that's been some discussion of, of that. I don't know. I just don't know for certain. The only thing I am certain of is that there will be a consultant as part of the assessment. And that I know that we will be utilizing them for community engagement. I guess I was a helpful clarification on the. Zoning bylaw working group. And the charge there did seem to be a pretty. Important, but. Robust. Step or portion of that to really get stakeholder and community engagement. And I think that there was a very significant, very significant constituent input. That I think was good when beyond sort of just public hearings and just hearing what people have to say, but more targeted surveys or, or judging perceptions and. Preferences and so forth and opinions. And I guess I, one question I had on the, on the bylaw working group is that. Is there going to be. Sort of doing that on, on their own through some, some coordination or is there going to be some support. From the town or maybe I'm misreading that in terms of maybe it's just sort of straightforward public hearings, but it seemed like a little bit more robust. Process of trying to gauge the communities. Preferences and interests in this. It'll definitely be community engagement. For sure. And it's also eventually what's going to happen is there's going to be a draft that's going to be developed that will then go to the town council. So, you know, it's basically, and then there'll be, you know, their community process as well through their. Review and discussion. Of the bylaw. And I see Anna has our hand up. So I'm going to. Do you have a question now. It's a comment. They did apply in through the capital budget for funding, specifically for a consultant for the study. And that was checked by JCPC. We liked that idea. However, it still has to go through the full council. So it's, it's in there right now. Okay. Yeah. I knew that there was discussion. I just didn't know it had moved forward. So yeah, it's in there. Yep. Okay. Great. So. I envision it will be a fairly. Engaged process because there's so much interest. Yeah. Will it be possible, um, Stephanie to have like, let's say Dwayne can't make a meeting. Like, is it possible for Steve to go in his place or someone else on ECAC? So we like, feel like we are consistently being represented. There's no, there's no, um, official appointment of alternates. You know, for, for the committee. So I would say, you know, it's, it's not a regulatory body. You're not, you know, you're sort of developing a draft, but you're not voting on anything and making regulatory decisions. So it may be possible if, if Dwayne can't make a meeting that somebody else goes in his place. I would just have to double, I just need to verify that. I don't. Not that it's critical, but it's worth knowing. Is it, is the expectation that these would be virtual meetings or in person meetings? Um, they'll, they'll be virtual. For now anyway. I mean, there is a point at which, um, depending on what happens with state law, I mean, you know, this is all based on state law, right? So if. If we, you know, if the state lifts the, um, national public health policy and the state could be disorganized, then they're not going to get into remote meeting policy. And we have to go back to. Adhering to the open meeting law, then then we have to meet in person. We're obligated to, so, um. So, and that I don't know when, um, and Anna, I can't recall. Have you heard any update on when that potentially might happen? I can't remember the date of when it expires. Oh, she's in back in the attendees listening us. She's been there. Okay, there we go. Sorry. I had to switch over to my phone so I lost my ability to unmute. I believe it's through June or July right now and then they'll revisit at that point. Yep, I just couldn't remember what the date was. Yeah, I think I think July. Okay. So yeah, so at least we'll be and we'll be more meeting remotely until then but at the point that the state lifts the remote, the ability to meet remotely. And we go back to the, you know, to standard open meeting law, then we are required and obligated to meet in person. It doesn't mean that you don't have the option of meeting remotely. Everybody can't do it, but if there is a member who has a specific reason, then you have to complete and we've done this in the past. There's a remote request to participate and there's an application and you basically send it to me, Laura signs it, looks at it and then a member can can participate remotely. It is a little more complicated. Again, it can't be more you have to have a quorum in person, that person meeting remotely can't be the person that makes up a quorum so it's not quite as easy as doing it this way that we've been doing it views them. So okay, then it sounds like Steve go ahead. I was just going to nominate myself and say that this is something that I've been following the developments of and very interested in and have been doing quite a bit of research on both what other communities have and and as you know also digesting what the state is is the plans from the state, as well as other plans other states plans and other plans both done in the United States and also the plan that was just released this week. So I'm very interested in this process. I, a little torn I would love to participate or willing to participate I'm not sure it's going to be a fun process entirely. So Wayne would be a great member. I was trying to think of a way that we could sort of split some of the duties, because it looks like there's two really big tasks one is the bylaw development and then the other is the solar assessment, the solar study. And I have some want to make sure that the questions that get asked as part of the solar study before it even gets started or critical questions. There are questions I think we need to ask that are probably not typically part of a solar study. And that's true for the bylaw development to I've seen the planning board go through and have been kind of picking and choosing different elements from other communities, solar bylaws, and I think that's a start but that's not going to be very innovative. That's not going to address I think what we in progressive Amherst want to have other other aspects like I've raised about what is the amount of solar that we need. So there's I feel strongly about some of these things. And I'd be happy to serve on it and this will then give us a chance to have a vote. There's a way that one of us can be an official member and the other support, or take on tasks of the solar study that that could be a great way to split the workload. So yeah I don't know in terms of how that works as an official committee that's being appointed by the town manager I don't know that you can necessarily both serve and split tasks but, you know, again, I believe that there's a role for the ECAC and that some of the work will be coming back to the ECAC or requests for guidance or input. So as I've said, numerous times. This person isn't going to be that's not going to be the only time the ECAC has any connection or ability to influence the development of either of the assessment or the bylaw you'll be weighing in through the whole thing. At every step of the way, information will be coming back to you either through the appointed liaison or myself. So, I just want to reassure all of you because I think, you know, others have opinions to and will want to weigh in so I just want to be clear about that. So as it stands now then both roof and bregger are interested in serving on that committee so is there anyone else. Okay. Sorry, I missed a little button to raise my hand. Stephanie maybe you can help me out. Is there an issue like for which whichever one of the two that are now interested is chosen. There's no reason that whoever is chosen can't consult pretty intensely. The one who isn't chosen independent of whatever comes back to us I mean I would presume that either Steve or Dwayne would want to spend some time. Whoever was going to be representing us in that committee would want to spend some time with the other. And not just coming back to us as a committee and giving us other other chances, but I don't I don't know why the two couldn't work together. To be honest with you it's just that one gets to go to the committee meetings and be the mouthpiece for us. I agree. I'm familiar with being mouthpieces that's all. I agree I would also just really encourage public process to, you know, so it would be really helpful to have some of those conversations in, in public session to because that's also how other people understand what the issues are. And how you're sort of working that through, I think that's an important piece. So it's, I don't disagree that that can happen I'm just saying that that's also, you know, I don't personally. I think that's fine. Just, you know, remember about public process and transparency for others too. So, any other comments doing you have your hand up. It's fun to before we also publicly say that I think Steve would be a great candidate. Member member as well. And how it turns out. I'm happy. But also, I also appreciate what Don just said, in terms of, you know, because I think both Steve and I have some subject matter expertise and, and interest and familiarity and specific issues that want to be discussed that I wish we could somehow serve together, but in either case, whoever's appointed it would be great to work together in ways that may be a little bit more robust and then what we can sort of just on a bi-weekly, bi-weekly basis discuss with the committee. I would say so this is what I would say given some conversations I have had with the clerk to the console about open meeting law and, and sort of being cognizant of that. You may both have conversations if you are seeking Steve's expertise, or Steve is seeking your expertise, you may do that. What we cannot do as a committee here is assign you both to that task. And then you become an official subcommittee. So we cannot do that. Yeah. So, I would say that you can informally together, whichever of you gets appointed if you want to speak with the other one, do that informally outside of meetings you can bring share that expertise, but you cannot work together as an appointed body. Right. Does that make sense. Yeah, just two professors having coffee. So, so you had your hand up. Yeah, when do we have to make that decision, this decision on who's going to be part of the working group. Now I'm about to, I'm about to move the process. I know I'm asking because if we have some more time. I wonder if it makes sense to do it after we all meet and we talk about, you know, see face and CCA and engagement. Who's going to cover all that because is, and who has that expertise right is it doing or Steve. You know, they're not going to be working on these working group and something else. You know, if Steve has better relationships with the community, maybe Steve is better suited for engagement right now. I think both are capable. I just think there's other things that we need to think about as well before thinking about whether it's going to be doing or Steve. Unfortunately, you don't have the luxury of time. The town manager would like the someone within the next two weeks, and would like to start moving this process forward so the longer we wait we can't wait for our retreat to make a decision. No, but we're about to just at least discuss the different topics. Oh, you're saying so at the end of this meeting. Yeah. Yeah, we can do it at the end of the meeting so we can understand everything that we need to do our focus areas and, you know, or your chair and. Sure, that's, that's fine. Stella, did you have a comment. Yeah, I be as a relatively like new new member here I have absolute faith in both Dwayne and Steve's subject matter expertise and it seems like they've like spoken to that. And I also have some familiarity I don't really have a horse in the race as far as like solar zoning but I am familiar with community members who who do and and I'm aware of kind of some of the relational work that probably is is going to go into this. I just wonder. I guess, I guess I just, I just, in both of your little like nomination speeches, it would help to make the decision, both of you could talk just briefly on on how enthusiastic you are about about that. That piece of work because are we were voting right. You know, there's been no motion yet and in fact, but Sue asked that we move to the end of the meeting so that you can go through some of the other agenda items and sort of here where they are in their knowledge base and all of that to maybe help make a decision. Yeah, I just wonder if the if the if the sort of soft, for lack of a better word I know people have issues with the soft skills piece if that's not kind of on the agenda. That seems like it'll be a pretty important part. You know, I would say that that we collectively as easy AC can play that role. And we have, you know, thought about that how we might be a facilitator of community engagement in this and other. Yeah. I feel it's less important. That's fair. That's a good point. That's helpful to hear. So we're going to vote on this at the end is that our folks okay with that. All right. Okay, so let's move forward with pre retreat agenda items here. So I think we could what I'm going to suggest is that we each go through our topics. And I'd like what I'd like to do if anybody has talking points or slides or anything that they're using will pull them all together into like one doc that we can share with everybody ahead of the retreat because I know we have quite a bit of time between pre retreat. So, you know, we kind of have all the materials so if you if you have talking points about your topic that you're going to read out or whatever. Like, just share them with me and Stephanie at the end and we'll compile them all into one one document that that works for folks. We have a lot to go through I think we'll just leave questions as clarifying questions for now and then, you know, chat down any questions you have and we'll spend some time at the start of the retreat like making sure everybody's feels comfortable with everything but the point of this is just to like level set make sure we're all on the same page of what the charge of the Keck is the process we went through for the heart. And sort of some of our ideas around organization and then some key initiatives that we've been working on. So with that, Stephanie, I think I sent through some slides to Stephanie that just lay out the elements of the charge that we can go through quickly. Yep. Thanks. Give me a moment. Sorry, I'm just going to get this going. Sorry. Sorry, I just need to get to the beginning. Sure. Thanks. So these are not pretty slides. So, um, You can go to the next slide please, Stephanie. All right, why is this not advancing. There we go. Okay. So, um, So everyone can read our charge on the website. There's a link here, but really the purpose that's identified for our committee is to guide the town and meeting its climate mitigation and resiliency goals. And there are sort of three or six elements listed under that. So the first two are kind of both goals and goals, recommend, like sort of recommend a plan and prioritization for efforts to, to reduce our emissions and build climate resiliency. These first two are kind of both goals. And so we've kind of done all the, all three of these, the first two we did in our first year where we got the town to adopt our targets, which if I remember correctly or 25% reduction by 2025, 50% by 2030 and then by 2050, if not earlier, and those are aligned with sort of what the IPCC and the science says we need to do globally to reduce, to have a best shot at limiting ourselves to the, from the worst impacts of climate change. So I think we've accomplished these three, these three things. And then there's three more things in our charge that we're still working on which are on the next couple slides. Sorry. There we go. Before we've also done a bit of done a significant amount of through our carp, which is recommends programs and policies. I think we all agree that there's more granularity and, you know, detail that need that's needed on all those and so that's part of the, our future work. There's a point made in the charge that we should we should propose as necessary to either the council or the manager, different ways that implementation could happen around the carp and our climate plan. And these are some of the items that are listed there. Next slide please. Finally, promote a holistic and an intersectional approach to climate action, which, and the points listed here involved working with other committees and other bodies. Coordinating both with other committees, but also with businesses and residents and engaging in education, working with a town manager. This is feedback from impacted town departments, a lot of which we've already we've done. We started doing with the carp development and Stephanie continues to do in her role. This says working with time manager what really is working with Stephanie serving as a resource as appropriate to town staff on climate action goals and strategies. So next slide please. So I just wanted, and then finally, this is a report, the last part of our charge outlines that we should write a report annually that includes the following elements and we just submitted our report last month I believe here. So, so next slide. So like I said I'll share this all with you and kind of a packet of information for the retreat, but I wanted to have all this in one place for us to look at and go back to because I think it lays out a couple of avenues that we can take. And I think what I hope we can do in the retreat is really think about what are the best ways to accomplish our purpose, which is guiding the town and meeting our goals. You know what work should we be doing is you can first is work we need to ask of town staff council or other committees to be doing. And I think, although applying the climate lens is not specifically in our charge. This is a terminology that comes up a lot. And I think I'd like to, to dig into sort of how we effectively apply apply that to decisions like budgeting and project development. You know the IPCC the most recent IPCC report came out this week, and it just hammers home that we have got to get off fossil fuels yesterday. And so it just continues to make me think about what our role can be and really ensuring that the town is not investing any more resources into fossil fuel infrastructure. You know, and how do we help the town do that, not just the town government but you know the rest of the town community. So that that's it for me in terms of my overview of the charge, unless there's any clarifications we can move on to Stephanie. Okay, great. Really helpful to have that outline. Laura, thank you. Yeah, and I'll share it with everybody at the end. Stephanie are you pulling out something. I can't hear you. You're not muted but I am muted sorry well muted on my headset sorry. I'm going to wrap up something so just bear with me one second I'm sorry I'm having some technical challenges here. All right, I'll just do it this way. All right. Okay, so I'm going to actually just give more of an overview of climate action and I'm not going to delve too much into the climate action plan because I know everyone's received it and I'm just going to sort of talk about the quickly I'll talk about the history of how we got here but basically, that addressing climate change since the early 2000, you know in 2001 we came up with a greenhouse gas emissions inventory. We had a student fellow work on that one summer and then by 2005 we developed a climate action plan. That climate action plan was developed with very little engagement with the community. It was initially a, an energy task force group that consisted of roughly 20 people at the beginning and by the time we got to developing the climate action plan I think we were down to five people. So there wasn't a lot of. There wasn't a lot of engagement there also wasn't a lot of buy in or really support for that process to be honest so even though it focused very much on the municipality and the three institutions of higher education in town. So the sort of things that were proposed were things that that happened and we're being done but you know as we all know over time things change technology changes goals change and so that plan is really at this point, both the inventory and the plan were heavily outdated and not really so relevant and it wasn't buy in as I said so in 2012 we really shifted our focus when the green communities program was launched in the state. So we decided to sort of shift our focus to instead of just focusing on reducing greenhouse gas emissions just really trying to focus on energy efficiency as kind of a, a win-win approach to reducing greenhouse gas emissions by focusing on the energy efficiency in the green community it allowed us to, to have access to funding that we otherwise wouldn't have to do some of these efficiency projects. The very first one that we did was a lighting retrofit of all the street lights in town from that the town owned from high pressure to LED street lights. That was a very significant project and had, you know, had some quantifiable impacts for the town. So green communities was kind of our, you know, our shift in focus but then as we move forward with even that process it was sort of getting to the point where it was really obvious that we needed to do more and we needed more community engagement and community buy in and really involvement and engagement in buying from the town as well. So even though we were in community which was great it was sort of the beginning because when you get funding everyone gets you know happy about that so you know people pay attention when you say well there's money to do this project. So that kind of set us set the stage for us to move forward to a next level and we realized that we needed to, you know, start with our baseline and create a new greenhouse gas emissions inventory and again the original inventory was so outdated we really needed to start fresh So we had a fellow from the University of New Hampshire sustainability Institute fellows program from California come in and spend a summer doing our greenhouse gas emissions inventory which was great. We have all of this methodology I can share it with anyone who's interested, but it was an ability to give us a place to start and start afresh. At that point, we knew that we were needing to move towards creating a climate action plan again and so we sort of started through the municipal vulnerability programs planning grant process, which allowed us to gather community members and stakeholders in the community to identify what the communities vulnerabilities are, or were at the time or still are at the time to identify those vulnerabilities as they pertain to climate change. So, things like for instance, you know, flooding increased heat days increased storm events, infrastructure damage, and those types of things were identified through that process. And through a series of meetings that was the beginning of our opportunity to try to look at doing the outreach a little differently. So, a community member was engaged to help out with some of the, what we called the information sessions, where community members were invited to come out and sort of talk about all the vulnerabilities. We had information. So we had the sessions with stakeholders that was by invitation, then we had the community sessions, all of that information was pulled together, and we had a report of findings that was then published. Again, anything I mentioned here if anyone's interested and you want access if you don't have it already. Let me know and I will get it to you. These would all be helpful to have prior to the retreat. In the process we moved then to apply for a 2019 MVP implementation grant. The implementation grant is the funding that helped us to develop our climate action plan. So, we specifically asked requested for $100,000 to develop a climate action adaptation resiliency plan. And that was something that was recommended from the planning grant process so there had to be some continuity between the planning grant and the implementation phase. So development of a carp was something we identified as being a primary driver for moving climate change, addressing climate change within the community. So, that process was also again, we engaged a community member to assist with that implementation grant as well. We hired a consultant line and solutions for those of you who are not members at the time. We worked with us. We identified in the grant that we wanted to do our outreach in a more equitable way so we actually formed task groups where we engaged community members to represent sectors of the climate action plan again working with our consultant. We were able to identify four sectors, transportation, renewable energy, land use and buildings. And we then had task groups that were relevant to each of those topics and two ECAC members served as the chairs of each of those sector groups. And with the consultant we held a series of three, I think three to four meetings over the course of the summer spring into summer. And we're able to sort of narrow in on identifying where we saw vulnerabilities where we saw need for resilience where we saw need for project in action, and all of that information was gathered and, and that's when you look at the climate action plan, all of that in each of those sectors, basically that work stems from primarily the work of the task groups, but then we also engaged the community at large we also engaged staff and department heads in the municipality as well to contribute to the inclusion of the projects that are identified in each of those sectors that are in the climate action plan. One I will add that we also because of our process added a fifth sector which was basically governance and communications and that really stemmed primarily from the whole community engagement piece in the task group process of the need for the community to be engaged in the work that's happening in the town, and for the communication to be enhanced in a way that was it was accessible to all. So our meetings included interpretation when we had members that needed interpretation. We did have in the beginning we had a member who required sign language so we had someone who was able to interpret with sign language. So we did our best to address the needs of those members who were engaged in the process and moving forward we want to make sure that in the work that we do you'll see that equity is a huge piece of our huge priority that's that's infused throughout our climate action plan. And then I will say then we moved on to once we had that implementation grant, the one of the first things before we even developed the climate action plan was that we had to go to the town council and identify our target goals of climate reduction so we propose the 25% reduction from our greenhouse gas inventory baseline emissions 25% reduction by 2025 3050% by 2030 and carbon neutrality by 2050. So all of those are, you know, that's kind of built into the climate action plan, however, the only specific strategic projects that are laid out are in the pathway to 2025. So the idea was that as we move forward and as we move along in this process. There's going to be technologies and opportunities that we aren't even made aware of at this time so we'll have to reassess and reevaluate and re identify those projects that we need and meeting our next target our 50% target. So by, you know, 2025, we should have started developing our pathway for 50% reduction to 2030. So that would be a next phase, and that's something that I would just identify for you all to think about as we move forward at the retreat and sort of looking at the, the next steps as well. So there are aspirational goals and targets that are in the climate action plan. I'm going to talk fast because I know times of the essence. So, are there any questions. Thank you. One thing I do want to say very quickly about the community engagement piece is that although we had the task force members invited. I will say that it often gets touted as being an example and model of community engagement. And I want to say, and be clear with with us that for some people that wasn't the case. Some people that were participating in the process didn't feel that we engaged in quite didn't feel as sort of engaged in a way that they had hoped and so I just want to put that out there that it's a it's a model and we learned and there's more we can do and now the town has a DEI coordinator so we do have more of a lens on equity infused in the town now I think in a way that we didn't have before and I would say that. Our process was certainly one of the first real attempts at trying to make that happen. Yeah, Don. Yeah, Stephanie is there. Have you given it has any thought been given to having it at some point a periodic look at inventory again to see how we're doing these I mean 2025 isn't all that far away. So we have and I think we're going to have a, I'm going to be looking for funding for a fellow. Probably, excuse me, I'm sorry, with the sustainability funds will probably want to use some of that to hire a fellow. I would like to have someone if we could get them for next summer for the summer of 2023. So we would apply in December and then we would have them for 2023. Okay Stephanie that was really helpful to get that history. So, next we'll go on, Steve, if you wanted to give a talk a bit about the organization organizational structure VCAC sort of what are the next step beyond the carp I guess was like trying to think through how we would organize ourselves we never quite got there but we're going to this time. Okay, we did not include a document shared in the agenda packet did we. Oh yeah I know what you're right we did not. I think we included a previous one but we'll include it in the packet we share for the retreat. Sure, then what I was my idea and this will be something to discuss at the retreat is that are, I think our organization has been good but I think what I've noticed is that pretty much all national state international climate plans refer to several pillars of decarbonization strategies. Those are electrify everything increasing energy efficiency, expand renewable energy sources. That sort of thing. So I thought it might be helpful for us to organize our efforts and goals under these widely used pillars. I've heard from people in town and feel myself and sometimes people like well you're doing this but are you doing that are you are you working on energy efficiency it's like well yeah we are but it's not under one of our current headings. So I proposed five headings are five head headers I guess that's what we could do in no particular order one would be education and outreach. Second would be renewable energy development. Third would be electrification. Fourth would be energy efficiency improvement and a fifth resilient lands and healthy living. I went back and I looked at our previous notes and minutes and reports, particularly the report we submitted to the town council last year, or few months ago, and was able to put a bunch of our activities very neatly under these five headings so education and that includes the sustainability festival that Stephanie has been doing for years the block party we did once. Newsletters things we've talked about websites scorecards and more community education on the clean energy and climate plan. Under the heading of renewable energy development that would include the solar study and the bylaw that we're working on it would also include the community choice that a substantial fraction of our members are working on the metagrant for limited municipal and school PV potentials. The study that's going on now and then development of those. The landfill that falls under the renewable energy development category. And then Dwayne has mentioned some interest in solar reparations. So that would also be under that category. Electrification we we've talked about and done various things increasing the availability of electric car chargers school bus electrification. Discouraging fossil fuel infrastructure and new buildings. And then the residential heat pump promotion. Those would all be electrification initiatives. Then energy efficiency improvements see pace is one of those that we've been working on the empower grant and the rental building energy efficiency improvement initiative that Andre and I have been working on with RMI and others. Transitioning the waste hauling system. Net zero or high standards for the new buildings the library the schools and DPW and possibly instituting building energy benchmarking perhaps as part of the rental efficient rental bylaw. And then finally the fifth category resilient lands and healthy living. And the things that we've done there is the Valley bike program, the mobile farmers market and the healthy Hampshire food justice initiative community gardens. These are things that we have done things that we could do would be developing local land preservation and working lands and enhancing carbon sequestration on those lands, and continue with local foods initiative. And then something that we heard during the development of the car, local access to nature. So, not changing much of what we are doing but just reorganizing it under those common pillars or common strategies that are used in so many of the national and state and international climate action plans. That's that's my pitch, and I can share a document that outlines that a little bit more detail before the retreat. Thanks Steve that's really helpful and I think that could be a good basis for some communication outreach that we do with the community as well so we'll plan on spending. A bit of time, particularly in our first retreat day sort of talking about kind of the large bigger picture organization and and so yeah we'll dig into that that more does anybody have any clarifications before we move to the next. More of a comment, if I may. Yeah, go ahead. I just want to say the only thing I'm not crazy over in those five headings is they don't obviously center social justice and I mean in there for things are in there, but I feel more comfortable if somehow that was worked into at least one of the headings. So that it's clear it's not just in it's not just the thread running through it's also a main point of all of this. Yeah, I agree with that and I have a note here that I didn't read just now that social justice and environmental equity are not typically mentioned as separate pillars, but we need to ensure that they are emphasized in every category, or. I'm not sure if it be a separate category or somehow we emphasize that they are key threads in every category, both and yes. Right. Yeah, that's a good point that would be a good conversation point to have during the retreat. Okay, great. So now let's move on to some quick updates on some of our current initiatives. We've got renewable energy CCA building electrification see pace and educational outreach so maybe just start with renewable energy and all Dwayne or or Stephanie I think I have listed here if you want to speak to anything. We guess we kind of talked about the solar study stuff already so there might not be too much to add but welcome any additional input. I have an update on the CCA process. We are still working on our MOU contract between the three communities and it's been reviewed initially by legal for the city of Northampton and the town of Amherst legal is also covering Pelham as well. We gave us some minor comments and we responded and have sent it back but we're waiting to hear back from them. So, if I don't hear anything by tomorrow I'm going to reach out to the town manager and ask if he can ask them to get feedback at this point it should be a pretty light lift for them there wasn't a lot that they addressed so. And then we would, once we get that back and we can get a final version that we can distribute to the three communities for signature. Then the MOU will actually make us an entity that can then sign a contract with the consultant, then the consultant can actually start getting the whole CCA process moving forward. I wonder if people needed to step back to make sure everybody understands CCA. Yeah, that'd be great. So, I do have some slides but I can't share them. I'll just share them with you, Stephanie, if you want to try to find them and bring them up, but that might be too much. So, to understand what community choice aggregation is, you have to first know that there's a lot of different names for it. The statute by law in the state calls it municipal aggregation. It's known as community choice aggregation but also community choice energy. They're all the same thing. And we started out hoping that it was going to be a much more expansive interpretation of the statute which is very simple law. We're a little there saying what you can and cannot do. And so a lot is up to the Department of Public Utilities to control what you can and cannot do. This may change should we get a different governor and a new DPU leader. So, there's still some hope that we could use this structure to make our. Yeah, if you just hit an arrow, there's the alphabet soup, different names, just keep going Stephanie. And the next slide. So this is what the different parts of your electricity bill actually are for. There's the supply. And then there's the delivery. And they both come to you, and you pay for them in your bill. The CCA chooses the source. Representation we are the ones choosing. But the utility still owns the wires delivers it the energy and does the building. And so the, but the money that the members of our communities pays goes to the CCA itself. So in deciding what the rates are, how much extra we're going to pay for greener energy. There's some leeway there that allow us to express our values as a community. We can use the difference between what's actually paid by customers with the rate that we set and the cost of the supply. We can use this to hire staff person who could, you know, do all run the whole thing, or have a program that that could be run through the aggregation. This is tricky right now under the current administration. So I think the focus that more and more that kind of program could be done through the fees that are collected, based on being a part of the revenue stream. Next slide. I'm still confused as to how this is structured so the CCA is going to be buying the energy, or because right now we can pick whichever it's the same thing for each of us right we get to pick who we're sourcing who we buy the energy from but it's delivered by a resource no matter what right, and we pay based on who we choose as our supplier. The CCA by the energy in bulk therefore providing some savings on both the delivery and the, and the cost of the energy or the delivery. Just on the energy. Just on the sourcing. Okay, they're buying that in bulk and maybe there'll be some relief there then. Yes, it's always a desire of an aggregation to save customers money, but they don't often. We've looked at the data and it's about 5050 a little bit over 50%. So the difference is that presumably you're buying greener energy and trying to phase it in overtime but right now I can pick a place that's 100% green and pay for that, which is what I try to do now I'm not sure they're lying to me when they say this. Yeah. But is that the issue because I'm trying to see. Okay. Yes, and it's definitely, you know, green. I don't have that that question. But we don't want to go down the rabbit hole of is the supply actually green that I'm buying from my third party provider, because that is a whole hour conversation, but I'd be happy to have with you. I think the breakthrough, if you will, with this municipal aggregation legislation is that it enabled a town with permission from DPU to aggregate all their customers in their town, and by, and and and provide them with with a common electric retail supplier to meet everybody by try to buy bulk they need everybody and everybody's automatically part of it, unless they opt out. Right. And so it enables well, up to aggregation of a larger customer base. Yeah. So, it's definitely you can go ahead. It started when Massachusetts deregulated just keep going, Stephanie, and keep going. Bill, you can see if you look at it there's the delivery part this the supply part. You can keep skip through these. This is the law. This is like half of the law. Go ahead, Stephanie. We're not going to go through this or this. Okay, but this is just to have it in your mind. Our original goal was to improve on what was normally being done in aggregations in Massachusetts, and make it more like the California aggregations which have a lot more freedom to add on things. And so, ideally, we get to do this in a couple years when the DPU is run by people who actually want to use this tool to reduce carbon emissions. Next slide. So, yes, you can just keep on getting. We started with residents we brought on Dwayne and River at the mass clean energy extension and formed the, and then the officials made it official. And then the last to join was the one more click. The Pioneer Valley Planning Commission. And for two years, we all met and made made the plans. Now it is a staff group it's just the representatives official representatives from the different towns. And the original residents participate actively in supporting the staff. This is the process we've gone through. We researched. We got authorization from each of the municipalities to develop a plan. And now we are about to hire a consultant who will put that plan in that that we've already developed a version of will make it something that they believe the DPU will. So we can do the next one, the DPU will approve. And then that could take a while, but keep going please. Once the DPU approves it, then we can start with hiring, not hiring but contracting for the supply. So we're not hiring Stephanie anymore. And, and actually, you know, doing the outreach and having out out period. And then beginning to provide the electricity for all of our community members. Okay, that's it. You can, you can go. You can stop sharing. Thank you Stephanie. Thanks, Andra. Yeah, so I think during the retreat it'd be great to talk through we sort of always talk about CCA as part of our sort of portfolio of things that we're trying to move forward and be great to think through some like tangible actions of what we what we could do there. I think that would be sort of the timing of when that would be any other anything else you want to add Dwayne around CCA or renewables or energy before we move on to building electrification. Nope, I'm good. Okay, great. Okay, so the next step is building electrification. I know we talked a little bit about it I think before I joined we were talking about it but Steve I don't know if you want to give a little bit of an overview of just what REM or Andra what REI has been our REI RMI Rocky Mountain Institute, formerly known as has been doing we talked a bit about it last time but maybe just a quick overview would be great. I can say a few things. We started working with RMI Rocky Mountain Institute. I think it's almost two years ago now. And the first areas that we were working with was, I think we attended some workshops on electrification which is a thing that a couple of towns and eastern Mass have been trying to do and that includes local infrastructure to prohibit fossil fuel infrastructure and new buildings. That is ongoing we are not focusing on that so much directly but an offshoot of that was looking at energy use and rental buildings and Amherst, like some other community says very high rate of renters something like 55 or 57% of Amherst residents and so I think that's something that we learned in part during the car process and recognize that there's a so called split incentive there where the building owners don't have incentive to increase the energy efficiency of their buildings because in most cases the tenants are paying the energy bills directly. So we've recognized this need and we've been working with RMI since last, at least the last year to address that issue. And we've been making some progress. We've talked about different ways that this could be implemented. And then we have gotten a grant that is the M power grant is that right Stephanie. Yeah, that is going to help us work with local renters advocacy groups. And so that will allow us to working with them and some local community groups, learn what renters want and need. Basic information like how many what percentage of renters actually do pay their own utility bills. We think it's a high percentage but we don't know. So that that's one development that was a grant that we put together last year so that's moving forward. The other thrust has been to try to understand our rental housing stock better. So we've been working with the town of Amherst to collect data from two different universes, it turns out, one is the database that's associated with the rental permits that every rental property owner has to get each year. And that's the bylaw that was passed to me seven, eight, 10 years ago the one that we were talking about earlier that's being updated. The information collected there for each of those primarily it's the number of rental units on a parcel parcel maybe a single house that could be a two family house, it may be a parcel that has two or three different buildings, each a single family or perhaps some two families or a parcel could be a place like presidential apartment complexes or some of the others where there might be 15 or 20 buildings. So the number of rental units on a parcel can range from one to 200 or more. So that's information on the rental property registration permit. The other universe is the property cards that are associated with the assessor's office. And we were really hoping to be able to combine that is the property cards list information like when the building what year the building was built, the heating source the fuel type, whether there's air conditioning or not. The exterior cladding the wall type so information that would really help us get down into the energy efficiency of different buildings. The problem is and this is my new update. I got that data and just last week is looking at it working with the team from our my what we were able to get from the town unfortunately is not including a lot of the details for the bigger properties. So, Puffton village for example there's three parcels and something like 30 different property cards spread out across that none of the detailed information for Puffton village came through on those property cards. The same true for presidential and a couple of the others that I cross checked with the property cards that you can look at the publicly available online. So we still I still want to connect I haven't had a chance to connect with our coach Cora and members from the RMI team about how to proceed. I think we're going to have to probably settle for a slightly less sophisticated analysis of our housing stock, which we can do with the data, and that will be the number of units we can probably get building age for the different buildings, the number of units, and that sort of thing. So we'll, we're working on that, and that'll help us figure out how to best what kind of mechanisms we might employ to help stimulate energy efficiency improvements by the building owners. Can I just add as part of that process where for the rental outreach piece we are working with family outreach of Amherst as our partner in this effort and they've been great so far they're going to be the ones that will essentially help identifying team captains from various apartment complexes in town, and those folks will help create and distribute the survey to gather the rental data information as to what's important to renters. So that information will all be collected. And at the end of that process, put together to compile a report that will help then inform. Maybe the, you know, the development of our rental disclosure, rental building disclosure policy for energy efficiency. Sorry. I think what was the name of that family outreach family outreach of Amherst. Okay, folks. Yeah, it's Wayne. Yes Steve just remind me, in terms of the ticket I'm thinking of the apartment complexes and I do get the issues with the complexity of the data, which is never easy. I'm wondering in terms of the ultimate goal you talked to with regard to trying to help figure out ways to improve the building and energy efficiency is the goal also to really, you know, maybe it's another step up but to also at least begin conversations about electrification of those buildings as well or is that is that sort of too large, too large of a stretch. You think at this at this point I yeah, my question. Yeah that that's certainly a goal and the idea, the dream I guess is that we could entice more building owners to go through and do deep energy retrofits that includes air sealing insulation and electrification. And I just read a really good story. And I can't remember where it was located but I think it was a Massachusetts, a fairly large property owner went through and did that on some of their properties and learned a lot. They added a lot of solar and it turned out it was really complicated because there were multiple meters and the solar interconnect laws didn't really work with that. And so the article describes how the building owners and think folks from DOE are or EA some of the state agencies and the utilities went through and hashed out a lot of these issues about how can you go install solar on units where there are multiple meters. And they're hoping that that will become sort of a template, or at least a pathway better defined for other places to go forward. Yeah, the ultimate goal would be through structures like see pace. The financing structure ties owners to do that and I'm hoping that we might find some local property owners that would be willing to go through the process and help identify those paths and then documented in a way that other building owners could follow. I think that's the term goal I think well that's that's ongoing goal, the more immediate goal what might be things like part of the rental, the new registration rental property registration bylaw would be to have energy use disclosures. So property owners would have to disclose the costs of utilities heating, cooling, water to potential renters. And, and then perhaps also a rating system. And that would be a way to allow us to collect data for a few years and then we might be able to start setting some standards and buildings that don't meet a certain energy efficiency rating would have to think of a way to incentivize them to improve their ratings. There are examples of places in other states other communities that have done this sort of thing. Well through incentives, as well as through regulations like in theory you could say you can't have a rental permit if your building doesn't meet a certain level of energy efficiency. So, those are the ideas that we're looking at. And, but learning more about what the housing stock is like. And what percentage of our buildings are pre 1950 and how many were built in the 70s where they didn't bother with insulation and how many are been built since the 90s that might be pretty good that that's got to figure that out. Yeah, that leads nicely into see pace which I have the slides on it but I don't think we need to pull them up. We'll just share them for the interest of time, but see pace or commercial pace is a financing mechanism that allows community property owners to finance energy improvements for existing buildings over a long term. This is a program that got started in 2020 towns in Massachusetts opt in and if you opt in then building owners in your communities can access this financing. It says here to finance energy improvements through pace, Massachusetts a property owner agrees to a betterment assessment and lean on their property which we pays the financing. So this approach enables owners to undertake more comprehensive energy upgrades with one longer payback periods up to 20 years, and also notes that if a property sells the assessment stays with the property and is transferred to the subsequent property owner so you don't need to be owning the property for a long, you know, a long time, which is, I know, sometimes limitation. The properties that are eligible for financing through this pace program are commercial buildings, industrial buildings, multifamily buildings with five or more units or buildings owned by nonprofit organizations, and the improvements that are eligible, our energy efficiency upgrades renewable energy and then this last one which is not a good one which is extension of existing natural gas distribution to a property. So we would want to discourage that. There's been the first project funded through see pace actually was just this past September. And it was a building in Greenfield, or it is a building in Greenfield. So through pace Massachusetts capital provider green works lending will provide financing for a range of energy upgrades that were installed to this building which is like an office building. Efficient electrification of space heating energy recovery ventilation LED lighting and controlling improvements to windows and installations and solar on the roof. So I think this is, I think the problem we've seen with this and we've talked about it a little bit already is that there's not a lot of communication material so there's really not much. There's like nothing I think Don you even mentioned like do they have flyers on the website. As far as I can tell they don't. So I think one thing we should do is probably reach out to mass development who's running the program and ask them are they planning on their communications I realized all this was launched during cove it so maybe that has something to do with it but I think it's clear to me that if there's a ton of towns opted in. So it's clear to me that if only one program has been funded so far that there's not they're not getting the word out so I think there's work we could do there to either do our own communication materials or see if they're preparing to do some. And then I think we talked about potentially collecting like a list of eligible building owners and starting to get the word out directly. And then maybe also, you know, we can extend natural gas and Amherst because we have a moratorium so that's not even an option for us so figuring out how to build in the electrification. Which I will give an update on because we just got a heat pump for our house. And the first month. So we were operating an oil furnace that wasn't working very well so we had a lot of space heaters. Now we have a heat pump that was less expensive with rebates than replacing the oil furnace, and we use less electricity last month total than the month before when we were still heating with oil. So, it's the future. In a cool climate. Anyway, so with that, I will jump off my soapbox, but it was hard and you have to have credit to get like there's a zero inches long but you have to have credit to get that and so it's not out. It's not accessible to everybody so there are still many problems with the issue with the program. Yeah, Lori. I just wanted to echo I'm now trying to do something similar in my house and have been trying since November and only this week realize just how difficult it is to even apply for those 0% loans, and how much it's going to set me back in time as well. I finally have a quote that I like after six prime. So, yeah, it's, it's quite a process you have to wonder how anybody gets it done. So that brings me back to this idea of see pace and now having seen this article presentation I realized that what block power is doing is what see pace does to some extent only they do it with all the bells and whistles because they do the outreach and sign people up. We have the financing available that sounds awfully similar to what block power does, but we have to go out and do the, you know, get a list of people see where the low hanging fruit is get the ones who want to sign up for this awesome deal to sign up for it. It looks like that's sort of left to us maybe that's a big part of what we should be doing if that's really how this is going to work. That's a really good point. Yeah, it's wing. It's a great point. And maybe it's, you know, a role that we can play a sort of that packaging it up or trying to find some funds to get to or through the CCA to package package something up like this. But I guess my the question I had just to confirm. In terms of eligibility for see pace, you mentioned renewable energy and energy efficiency. And it's not it's it's it's depending on how those are defined. Is electrification included in that. Yeah, that that was my question as well. I mean it does. It did say in the press release about the Greenfield project that it included efficient electrification of space heating. And the terminology is a little strange so I don't know exactly what that means but we could probably reach out to the owners of the Greenfield spot and just like ask what that means. But yeah, I agree with that. I think that that's, and then the inclusion of the natural gas thing makes me wonder because I know there has been some issues in the past with massive and stuff sort of leaning moving people more towards natural gas electrification so we should figure that out. Okay, in interest of time, I'm going to maybe give the last five minutes to the zoo if he wants to say anything about educational plans and then we will go back to our vote. Before we close up. I think about three months ago I was trying to put a structure. Your voices weird again. I think that's good. Okay. Yeah, I was just saying, you know, I started with a structure to the madness the amount of effort that we all put in. So we, I came up with a community engagement timeline with thoughts around what an education series that we can have. You know, what's, what are our goals and does the community know more about our goals and then you know, creating some sort of a dashboard and presenting that to the community so they're actively engaged so I think this is where I can tap into Steve's extensive network and try to get some engagement from the community as well. Great. Yeah, and so we'll include your so anybody with slides or documents. We'll include them all together and sort of our retreat packet so we have that ahead of our of our retreat and a couple ideas that popped up just in this conversation about things we want to cover but it's through this discussion. You have question like now that it's fresh in your mind like if you want to throw out any questions to me or Stephanie that you have or ideas that you want to make sure we talk about at the retreat based on all this information. And throw them away and we'll pull that together on for the retreat, because we know it's a couple. I know I forget things so. So yeah so, and any other additional agenda items and we'll make sure that we have all that together. So I think the time, Stephanie, if remind me of the timing we agree to I think I have it written down somewhere. We were going to skip the meeting on the 20th. Because that was school vacation week. Yes, I will not, I'll not be here. So was the two dates after that may white glasses on May 4 and does that sound right no May 11. May 4 and May 11 I think we had them as two consecutive meetings. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay, great. So, I think we do have. Oh no. Okay, so that will be our next meeting will be May 4 and that will be our first retreat where we'll focus on sort of the big picture items, and then the next day the next week we will go into more detail on specific projects and moving this forward. Okay, great. So with that I think let's go back I guess to the solar. Thank you first of all thank you all for preparing stuff and going through that overview I know it's a lot of information but I think it's really helpful for all of us to be on the same page. All right so Stephanie I'll turn it back over to you for the voting. Sure. Andra can you turn your camera back on just so I have you because I can't even see you at all and right now thanks. All right so. So we have two parties interested in being on the solar bylaw working group. And so I first, I guess need a show of hands. I guess I don't know if we need a motion. That's, I'm sorry I just suddenly got confused as to whether we need a motion to nominate a specific person and then we vote, and then do another vote. That's on right. I'll, I'm not going to worry about that. I move that we nominate both Dwayne and. Well, if we so here's the thing if we nominate them both. We have an issue of like having a little subcommittee which we can't do. So I think go to them separately but nominate them both. Okay. All right, so I guess I'll start with Steve, because he's the first one in my line of vision. So, so I guess I will give you'll have to give me a voice vote. So, I'll go around and ask each of you if you have an intent to vote for Steve. So remember you can only vote for one. Sorry. All right, so I'll start with. Sorry, so can we just say who we vote, like between Dwayne and Steve who we can do it that way. Yeah, yeah, that's fine. Okay. I just need to keep track. So, I'm going to vote for Dwayne. Sorry. So I really think either of you could do this. And I thought I'm going to vote for Dwayne. Allison. You're muted. You're muted and. How about that, Steve. Okay. Roof. You're going to vote for Dwayne. I knew that was going to happen. Okay. Dwayne. I don't know. I guess I'll vote for myself. Okay. Stella. For Dwayne. Okay. I know I'm resting conscious. Oh, for Dwayne as well. Dr. Yeah, I'm going to vote for Steve. And Rose. Okay. All right. Well, we have six for Gregor and two for roof. Steve, sometime I really want to talk to you about the Rocky Mountain Institute. I just, it's not comfortable to vote like this. And it's like, we always, we always, I think all of our votes are usually unanimous. So it's, it's not a pleasurable thing, but I appreciate everybody's support. I will represent as well. And, and, and Steve, I, I, I really appreciate and respect your. Not only interest and passion, but expertise. In this area. So I look forward to, to connecting with you over coffee or whatever we have to do that. Yeah, Steve, you're not off the hook anyway. I mean, if Dwayne doesn't come to you, I will be as well. Yeah, I want to stay involved and you know, perhaps this way I might be able to be a little bit more involved with the solar assessment. And as we are, went through our list of current initiatives, I realized I was involved in a fair number of things. So I almost withdrew my name before the vote there, but. So yeah, I'm looking forward to seeing you on the front lines, Dwayne, and I'll be helping you from the back table of the coffee shop. All right. Great. Okay, let's see if we have one public attendee. Okay. If anyone in the public would like to make a comment, please. Raise your hand. Okay. I don't see Lydia raising your hand. So. Thank you all for this informative meeting and. Yeah, looking forward to, to our retreats. And please send me your slides or any other packet information. Because I'll have to assemble all of that. If it gets too big, we're probably going to have to share it by. I'll send you a link to a one drive folder. I think that's probably how we're going to have to do this. Okay. Great. And if anybody has any like suggestions on, has been to any virtual retreats recently and has any suggestions for things we can do. I know we're a little bit limited. With our technology, but. Like, you know, the games we can play. Yeah. I would swears. Yeah. We just can't do breakout. I mean, that's the thing. Yeah. I don't think we can do that. I don't think we can do that. I mean, I don't think we can do that. I think the presentation is, you know, the main major one is we cannot do breakout rooms. We're able to do Stephanie, like jam. Jam boards. They're like, I think so. Okay. I don't, I mean, I'll have to double check though. I don't know. I would think we can do something like that. Okay. Yeah. Just like a way to like collect notes as we're talking so that. We can share them afterwards with. We can't, yeah, we can't have a chat function going. We're not allowed to have the chat function. We're not allowed to have breakout rooms. But other than that, anything that public can see. The question with the jam board of whether the public would see it. They would need to link to it as well. Okay. Maybe we could put the link in the agenda though. Right. If we did that, would that be. I don't know. I'll ask. Yeah. Maybe someone of us could share the screen of the jam board. Well, that's what I was going to say. If we could do something like that. Yeah. Okay. I'll think on it a little bit. And if anybody has any other suggestions. Ping them to Stephanie and I will see if they're doable. I can reach out to it too and see what's possible. Okay. That'd be great. Okay. Well, great. Everybody enjoyed the rest of your week and. Thanks everyone. Have a good night. Bye everybody. Bye bye.