 I would like to call the 10th 2021 Longmont Sustainability Advisory Board meeting to order. Can we please start with a roll call? Yes. Kate Collardson. I hear. Mary Lynn. Here. Adam Reed. Here. Jim Metcalf. Charles Musgrave. Here. Kay Volmeyer is not able to join us today. Robert Davidson. Councilmember Christian Sin is here and staff member Lisa Knoblock. Here. Annie Noble. Here. Francie Jaffe. Here. Berenice Garcia-Teles. Here. Tim Ellis is with us, but he's in another meeting, so he's going to be joining in a little bit. And Heather McIntyre is here. Chair, you have a quorum. Great. Thanks so much. Before we get too far into the agenda, I just want to say congratulations to Berenice for being, are you nominated or awarded as one of the women who light the community? Well, congratulations. Well, thank you, Kate. Yeah, I was awarded by that and I will receive that award in September 30th. So if you guys can join me, I would be glad to see you there. I will put the invite on the chat wherever. I was in the two together. Thank you. Fantastic. Well done. Well deserved. Okay. So, plowing into the agenda, let's, the first thing is the approval of minutes from the last meeting. Yes, Adam. Yeah, I believe I found a small typo, an item 9A. I think it should read carbon fee and dividend, not carbon free and dividend. So I think it was just a typo with the R. Just need to drop that. That's all. You are correct. Sorry for that typo. Thanks for bringing it up. Good eyes. So, given that amendment, would somebody like to make a motion to approve with that? Yeah. I move that we approve the minutes from last meeting with that change. Second. I can second that, I suppose. All right. All in favor. All right. All right. The minutes are approved. Thank you. Okay. So now it is time for the public invited to be heard. We have one person who has a statement to make and you will be unmuted to speak. Your turn to speak. Please state your name and address for the record. You'll have three minutes to comment and I will time you and please do stop speaking when I call time. All right. First up we have Bill Altaus with us. Hi. Thank you very much. My name is Bill Altaus. I live in Fort Collins. I'm a retired energy engineer in another field now, but I have a long history of dealing with utilities and alternative energy starting with UL1741 back in the 80s and 90s to connect small solar systems to the grid. And a number of other committees I triple E1547 year 2000, which is how power plants connect to the grid. I'm on a new committee now just convened I triple E P2988, which is interoperability of virtual power plants to the grid. Now I saw PRPH responses to questions and I would love the opportunity to get into the weeds on the engineering and economic impact arguments on every one of their answers. I do not have time, but I would like to say in a global response, they deferred to EPRI for our future and what we're going to do at BRPA and I can tell you this from 40 years of fighting utilities, they are insincere in every aspect. If EPRI or their consultant SIPA likes it, it's a flat disqualifier. If the goal is lower rates and allowing locally owned resources to participate, utilities are monopolist. They will not allow non-utility owned resources to participate and their entire revenue model is cost plus. So any engineer at EPRI or SIPA, whoever made a recommendation to consider the value of a non-utility owned resource or a recommendation that would cause their cost of operation to go down, I guarantee they'd be fired on the spot. So I'm highly concerned that every response to every logical question you guys asked of PRPA ends up with deferral to the people who have demonstrated a 40-year track record of not operating in our interest. And now virtual power plants have dominated other markets. The number one largest power plant in the world and the number two largest power plant in the world are now virtual power plants that aggregate thousands and thousands of resources into a single operating unit. 100% renewable, totally dispatchable and can be built with no investment because it harnesses privately owned resources and they aren't even looking at what is dominating global markets and instead listening to the entrenched monopolist engineers who want to prevent that transition. So thank you for your time and I hope we can get PRPA to look at the future and not the past. Great. Thank you so much for your comments, Bill. I'd really appreciate that and we'll definitely take those into advisement and get there on the agenda when it's coming up. Mary, I see your hand. Is it possible for me to ask that Bill hangs out because I have some questions for him when we get to that part of the agenda? Is that appropriate? Bill is still on the meeting and will be part of the meeting but it's up to you guys as a board if you want to allow him to be able to speak later on in the meeting. Well, just to do a similar proposal that we asked Bill to hang out in case we have questions for him. I mean he's on the IEEE committee that's going to make VPPs possible. I feel like Bill is a valuable resource at this point. Okay. I propose that we invite Bill to stay. Does anyone want to second that? I'll second that. Just for clarification, the public members are allowed to stay on the meeting for as long as they want to so I won't be kicking them off of the meeting or whatever but when we get to that part of the discussion we can definitely let him speak since you guys are open to that so just that point of clarification. Thank you so much Heather so we don't need to vote. We have a first and a second and it seems like more than one so. Yeah no we don't need to vote for that. Okay thanks Heather. I appreciate it. So next item agenda revisions and submission of documents I think. Francie you have something. Yes thank you chair. I would like to make add some additions for items from staff. I also don't think I've met all board members so I'll just introduce myself. I'm the water conservation and sustainability specialist for the city of Longmont. He or she her pronouns. I would like to give an update to the board on the St. Vrain and left hand water conservancy district funding that I provided a little bit information earlier this year and then also we have in-person volunteer opportunities coming up for tabling so I'm also going to ask if there's any interest for that and would like to add those two items to the agenda. Okay so we'll add those and items from staff. Does that work? Okay perfect thank you. Okay moving on to general business. Lisa the floor is yours. Thank you so much. I have to run a baby upstairs really quick. I am sorry I will be back in five seconds. Okay this is Bernice. I wonder if we can speak about that tabling opportunities in the meantime when Lisa is back. Yes you want to speak about it. Yes if that's okay Heather could you oh already on it so yeah Bernice do you want to start with talking about that first one and I'll talk about the second two. Yeah sure I would like to invite the sustainability advisory board members to a tabling opportunity at the Latino chamber fiesta and food trucks at the Roosevelt park on September 18. The city is sponsoring zero waste efforts so we're going to have a table with all our sustainability pliers and programming and also promote the sustainable business program so it's a great opportunity for you guys to get to know Latino businesses and to have a nice time promoting our sustainability efforts in Longmont. If you if you want to join us just let Heather know and we can coordinate together. Thank you. Thanks Bernice. Yeah and you can see we have two shifts time shifts available for both are either set up and tabling and then tabling and takedown with the focus we'd probably we always focus on general sustainability as well as the Longmont Sustainable Business Program and then if you've never tabled with us before we usually provide you with information that's a high-level overview and there will be staff presence so we're not just kind of be like please speak about our program with no context so we definitely try to prep board members and support them. The other two events are backed back weekends so it's there's October 3rd is the Longmont Electrical Electric Vehicle Fair that's run by the Sustainable Resilient Longmont that's I believe a Sunday again we'll have two shifts we'll probably have a big focus on electric vehicles electrification energy as that's the theme of the fair but again just talking about we always try to talk about general sustainability as we've learned is that that's sometimes the most important thing because not everyone knows what sustainability is and then we have an event on October 9th downtown there's a Dia de los Maritos celebration so again I think we have that split up into two shifts on a Saturday from one to four and four to seven so for each of those shifts we're looking for one to two members and we can either if someone knows now that they're like oh I'm free on that time I would love to sign up for a shift we could do that now or we can send this up and you all could sign up over email as well yeah Charles I can volunteer for the first two events for the second shifts great thank you fantastic yeah Adam I don't know my schedule yet so would you mind sending a document out and is there a deadline when you want the responses by I'll probably by end of the month okay fine thank you all right perfect now we'll look for that and and reach out to Heather uh as others want to volunteer thank you um okay Lisa baby free Lisa thank you sorry about that timing did not quite line up today um thanks for jumping in with something else I am going to apologize about my weird not very pleasant basement setup but I am sick and trying to keep the rest of my house all right so in one of those weeks I suppose but I am going to run through a discussion about the sustainability tax updates from 2021 and priorities for 2022 and I don't think that'll take a super long time uh but definitely wanted to have a conversation with you all so you know what our thinking is and uh you all have an opportunity to give us any feedback so Heather you can go to the next slide please uh you can go to the next slide please excellent so just a quick project update I know that we've talked about these things with you all at different points in the year but just as a reminder so um and for those of you that are probably just Robert I believe um the boulder county sustainability tax was approved by voters in I believe it's 2017 or 2018 it took effect in 2020 um part of that uh tax revenue is set aside as grant funding through the boulder county environmental sustainability matching grant which is a mouthful but it had been in place for several years and this just increased the amount that's available to municipalities um it had previously been a cap of $15,000 and now um currently six percent of the tax revenue is split amongst the communities based on population uh and that can go up to 10 but that's such as the discretion of the county commissioners uh the remainder 94 percent of that tax funding is um split amongst boulder county um projects and programs that are determined by the county commissioners but in 2021 we received $110,000 in change it also requires a 25 cash match from the city so our contribution was about $27,500 we put about 40,000 of that to the sustainability grant and program coordinator position which is a two-year fixed term benefited position which is Atra who normally attends our meetings um but she's out this week we also put about $40,000 to the climate risk and vulnerability mapping project which we've talked about with you all that kicked off in July and we'll be coming to this group probably in the October timeframe to give you all more of an update on where that project is at we've just uh been working with our consultants to finalize the indicators that are going to be mapped with that within that project and they are going to start on data collection or they're starting on data collection now and should have that finalized in about a month or so and then we have $30,000 toward the equity and engagement specialist which was also two-year fixed term position similar to Atra's position um that person was hired in June Alberto De Los Rios sadly for us but exciting for Erie he actually has been hired as their diversity equity and inclusion manager um so he had an opportunity presented to him that you know made sense for for his life and career to move on it's a it's a full-time permanent position um so sadly he will be leaving us Friday as his last day so we are in conversations both internally and with the county in terms of what what our next steps are for that position um because we are committed to the county to extend the remainder of those grant funds by the end of the year uh next slide please uh so with the sustainability grant and program coordinator just an update where we're at so part of Atra's position is managing the sole program in partnership uh with community and neighborhood resources in our community services department it's a program that does in-home uh upgrades through things like uh lighting and water efficient fixtures and do general sustainability education and connecting folks with resources we've trained seven volunteers which we call technicians that uh go into folks homes and do all of that work and connect folks with resources and so far in 2021 we've done 17 home visits obviously being an in-person in-home situation uh we've been hit pretty hard by COVID on that uh however can please go back to the last slide thank you um however we've gotten really good feedback from the community and we're definitely excited to continue growing that program uh once we are able to to do a little bit more work out in the community and we are working on bilingual outreach right now and then as you can see we have um secured quite a bit of funding through grants the grant coordinator side of Atra's position um she didn't include I think a pretty sizable doula grant in that and then as you all know we applied for that 11.6 million dollars through the DOE we haven't received that or have um but we should hear word of that sometime this fall uh so next slide please there we go so as I mentioned the climate risk and vulnerability mapping project we received seven applications from consultants uh we interviewed three different folks and went with RTI international which is a consulting firm out of North Carolina but they have folks um that are housed in the Fort Collins area so they have local folks as well uh this is a project that is mapping both risk and vulnerability within our community to the impacts of climate change as as I mentioned uh we kicked that off it says June but really July is when the the work really got started and we're in the process of finalizing and mapping our indicators um currently one of the reasons that we really went with RTI was because they had really the the best grasp of all of the the consultants that um submitted proposals really around the equity component and that's that's a really key component of this project so we think they're a really strong partner and we're excited about this project and we have folks working from um planning from community services and from public works and natural resources um together on this project next slide please and then as I mentioned the equity engagement specialists we hired Alberto and June uh the main focus of this work is coordinating the equitable climate action team or the ECAT um so we've talked to you all a lot about that group before um Francie has been leading a lot of that work and so she'll be um she's been working um tag teaming that with Alberto and she'll be stepping back into coordinating that role until we can figure out kind of what our next steps are for this position uh he really led the the development of the DEI plan for the um DOE so a lot of acronyms there department of energy EV grant that we've talked to you all about and has been working with our community neighborhood resources folks on city-wide um equity and integrating equity into our community engagement process so a lot of really important work that's happening with this position um and like I said trying to figure out kind of what our next steps are um in terms of whether or not we want to chunk some of this apart and figure out if we can contract some pieces out or if we're going to try to rehire right away I'm waiting for some information on the from the county on what our options are given our grant commitments there uh next slide please so looking forward to 2022 uh our anticipated grant allocation is about 130 so um a little bit of a bump from this year obviously this year did take a little bit of a hit because of covid but um they were anticipating potentially as much as 20 25 percent tax reduction and they didn't see nearly as much of a drop um this year so that was nice and they are looking at an increase for next year uh obviously we still have several months left in the year and hopefully things um don't take a dive again fingers crossed but this is what we're looking at for 2022 again that 25 percent cash cash match from the city is about 32 000 dollars and these are the areas that we are looking at focusing on so the first three focus areas are really more project or program based so following up to the climate risk and vulnerability mapping project so there's we won't really know quite what the needs are yet till we get a little bit further along but there could be some additional needs in terms of uh data collection on more granularity so one of the things that the consultants are working on is really to make this tool as useful as possible we need it on the smallest scale as possible we've been trying to look at the neighborhood level scale so we can really inform um our decision making around where to target resources and community engagement and we're not sure yet if we're going to be able to get all of the indicators that we're looking at at that scale so there might be a phase two to this project that's additional data collection that we may need to procure additional data on a smaller scale and if we don't have to do that I think that there is uh an opportunity to then take the information that we have been able to gather through this project and start looking at some potential demonstration projects or programs depending on the data that comes um the finding is a come out of that project uh the commercial waste diversion so that's been we've talked to you all about the zero waste efforts and the focus from city council uh we have a lot going on on the residential side but there's still not very much happening on the commercial side obviously a lot of the work that Bernice does through the sustainable business program helps to support businesses in waste diversion through recycling and composting efforts but there's a lot more that we could really do there so we've had some conversations with our sanitation manager Charlie and Bernice to talk about ways that we might do further outreach and engagement with the commercial sector around waste diversion uh there's some potential also to put some additional money toward the PACE business equity program and I might hand it off to Bernice for a minute to talk to folks about what that program is if you could Bernice. Hi Lisa um this is Bernice Garcia-Peges I am the economic system and disability specialist and I'm going to talk to you briefly about this program so the partners in a clean environment PACE it's a department at the county and they have a small business equity program where businesses in the community can replace their old and inefficient equipment and they remove all the barriers they are applying equity lenses to make it easy for the customer to to process every page and get that equipment they need to run their business so in few words the business owner only needs to pay 30 percent of the cost in a project in an eligible in eligible units and the county pays the 70 percent so this has really really been very successful especially with minority owned businesses and so far I think 10 10 latino businesses have been gone through this program and we wanted to see if we can allocate more funding and include zero waste efforts to this program since you know it's being very successful and attractive to businesses and especially now that many legislation bills are coming up to to bad studio firm or you know to start charging plastic bags so we're seeing that maybe there is an opportunity for us to invest in this program by adding zero waste efforts great and we would love to get your feedback thanks for this great and then the the two outs potential staffing positions that we would also be looking potentially to support through the sprint funding is again the equity engagement specialist as I mentioned that really depends on what what we decide to do in terms of next steps with that position given that alberto is leaving it also somewhat depends and this is with regards to the program coordinator as well we have requested in the 2022 budget for the program coordinator position the sustainability program coordinator position to be a full-time permanent position and we don't know yet whether or not that's been for going to be approved so those two are a little bit in question but if we do decide to move forward with the equity and engagement specialist position as we had initially envisioned there's sorry I neglected to say this but meant to mention this as well the community and neighborhood resources folks have also requested some additional staffing in 2022 focused on equity so if that's approved then we may not need to continue this position and as we had initially envisioned and we could put more funding towards one of these other opportunities and then similarly with the program coordinator position if that doesn't get approved as a full-time position in 2022 that position will end as of the end of 2021 and we may need to look to put some grant funding towards continuing to support like the sole program and other things that Atra has been working on with that position so I wish I had a little bit more information to bring to you all but the timing you know isn't quite working out because we will need to come back to you and I'll talk about this in a minute in September for a letter of support for the grant application itself um so I wanted to at least bring to you the information that we have today so I know that things are a little bit in flux but I did also want to open it up to see if you all have any feedback or questions for us on where do you think that we should prioritize the funding that we have available given that we probably can't do you know everything that we have on our list here or is there something glaring that we're missing bearing in mind that we're really trying to build on the foundations that we already have not necessarily looking at new projects unless there's something that's really a key opportunity that we want to make sure that we take advantage of so I want to open it up for folks if you have questions comments yeah Adam great thanks Lisa I had a quick clarification question regarding the climate mapping did it also include vulnerabilities like ecological vulnerabilities such as in repairing areas wetlands and like open spaces no we're looking at that mostly so and just to give a little bit of more context which I know I mentioned in the past but I didn't say this today so really in large part we had been talking about this somewhat before the climate action recommendations report but one of the recommendations that came out of that specifically was a public health plan around impacts of climate change and this is really the precursor to that of really understanding from a like more of a public health and a social impact standpoint what are we looking at in terms of impacts of climate change and who in our community is going to be most vulnerable to that so that didn't necessarily include what the impacts are to the ecosystem standpoint I think that that's a really valuable thing that we might want to look at from a follow-up standpoint for sure but the focus of this is really from the social and the public health component to really understand those pieces in particular first and foremost so what we're looking at from the indicator standpoint are and these haven't been fully finalized yet but I think our our list is really looking at heat exposure to extreme heat exposure to extreme cold and air quality issues and things like that that are better more kind of exposure from a public health or safety standpoint questions or comments I can't see everybody here Jim I think was next and then Mary okay thanks awesome thanks and thanks Lisa I was just curious on all those different categories are they are they similar costs like is it is it a matter of just things that are all roughly going to cost about the same or will there be are some of them some of them more expensive than others and might preclude preclude others yeah so excuse me from the staffing standpoint we would probably want to look at somewhere between 40 and 50 thousand dollars from those staffing from that staffing standpoint to make sure that we could at least fund some fund somebody from a part-time position so if we had to fund both of those staffing positions out of this that would eat up a good a good chunk of our money from the program standpoint I would say the PACE equity program and the commercial waste diversion program we could make do with whatever amount we could put toward that and we would just scale to whatever funding we have available the climate risk and vulnerability mapping project I would say I would venture to guess we would want again between 30 and 40 thousand to do a phase two of that with the caveat that I haven't because I don't have all the information on what we'd be looking at for a phase two I haven't necessarily scope that out but that would be my guess around what we would want to put toward that yeah Mary you're okay sorry my internet is unstable so I have to turn my video off to so you guys don't know free so I'll turn it off after this question my question is um has there been any consideration of doing um DER mapping in the community uh that question I would put to Tim if he is on yet I'm not sure I haven't seen his name pop up or we could follow up with him I know okay Tim can you hop on and answer that by chance yeah sure uh by DER mapping you're just uh talking about figuring out where they are already existing in the community and where they're going to be and trying to figure out how it best works in with our grid yeah that's of course that's a huge part of our DER plan um to do exactly that we need to know they're already distributed energy resources on our grid um active right and we can and they're probably yeah I mean um doing DER mapping since Lisa's talking about the social aspect of the programs um of uh of the um citizens and businesses citizens like like in underserved communities are what I'm thinking is moving in the direction where um all DERs are connected to the grid I'm getting a sense of what already exists in our community right yeah we're that's I thought I was going down that path but yeah there are existing uh DERs out there and to know where they are I mean we don't know right now because they're behind the meter and they're doing it for various reasons uh we know where a lot of solar is that have permits solar and batteries are starting to come on the system so yeah we're keeping track of that um we but that's kind of a lot of newer information we don't have older information for especially home uh DER but we're you know we're in the development of projects for thermostats, water heaters, EVs, you know solar all those are going to be really important parts of our DER strategy so so we'll we'll have dresses we'll have GIS mapping uh to to to know where those things are in the community because you know it's really important for our grid the way to have our grid optimally operate we're going to have to know where to best use DERs and how to use them depending right down to the feeders right some feeders are older some feeders have issues some don't some are new some have a lot of capacity some have zero capacity so lining up the DERs with our grid is going to be a real important effort as we move forward so can I ask how that information is being generated and I'm wondering if it could be coordinated with some of this other outreach that's happening through the programs that we're discussing right now yeah you know I haven't we haven't coordinated with um with Lisa's group on things but we will be talking as our efforts are colliding all over the place these days so we're working together on a lot of programs and certainly all the programs that I'm going to be we're going to be developing uh we're coordinating with with sustainability so it will be a coordinated effort as we move forward I don't know about the funding and all these different things you know at LPC we have our own our plan and our understanding and we're trying to um you know follow or achieve the goals but we haven't really figured out any kind of coordinated funding for tax money or sustainability tax that hasn't been figured out yet if that's what you're getting at no I'm just simply asking um if there's some way to coordinate with the social programs to find out who has DERs and who's planning to bring them especially on the larger scale in the businesses yeah yeah um that's we are I mean we don't even we don't really we don't have any demand response programs even right now and we're just starting our DER planning process but but knowing where they are is one of the first steps and and figuring out where to put them is a next and follow-up step so certainly we're going to have we're going to be undergoing that effort for sure and businesses are going to be a big part of it and I'm hoping small businesses because they're really the most underserved community as far as you know commercial community so and they operate a lot like residential communities so they have similar types of equipment so I'm hoping to tap in and and understand how we can help those communities and also use that type of equipment to help our our future you know renewable goals well having a two-way connections to the grid go a long ways yeah yeah and they have to have the equipment to support that and we have to have the platform to support that and all that's in the works and I'll be happy I can touch base with Tim after this meeting to to discuss what the potential funding needs if if any would be in terms of a mapping standpoint or if that's something that we can do internally I'm not sure and we Tim and I can have that discussion offline but um to know that that's at least on the radar of this group we can follow up with and discuss that more that would be great Lisa I would love to hear about that in the in the future what the plans are and how much has been completed and so forth okay sounds good thank you so I had a question about um the the position you said that the the please correct me if I'm misremembering but the there was a an equity person who was in the sustainability department it was departing yeah and there is a potential position in another department that could make up for that person right is that I uh uh sort of yes yes um so the equity and engagement specialist position when we had first um decided to seek sustainability tax money for that uh last year it was just a climate equity position that was just going to be a part-time position focused on helping to coordinate the equitable climate action team and supporting the sustainability team and the the rest of city staff in incorporating equity into climate action because that's you know a big focus of ours and was a big focus of the climate action recommendations report through the just transition plan committee recommendations now the equitable climate action team just to keep everything as clear as possible for folks um I know it's a lot to check but when we when we had brought that idea um forward because there's also a city-wide focus on equity right now our city manager um wanted to see if there was an opportunity to expand that position to also look at and support city-wide equity work that's largely housed in our community and neighborhood resources um division which is in our community services department and Carmen Ramirez who really leads all of the equity work whose sustainability we work really closely with her and her team so we came together and crafted a job description that was equity and engagement specialists that would be um partly focused specifically on sustainability and equity and climate action and then also would support the city-wide equity work but they would be housed in sustainability because we were funding that position um so it's been really a collaborative position between the sustainability program and the community and neighborhood resources division and that's how we envisioned it for um for we got it to be approved for a two-year part-time or two-year fixed-term position um in the meantime uh because there is more and more of a focus on equity we are in the the process of establishing an equity office that's housed within Carmen's group and so to support that office she has also requested additional staffing capacity in 2022 as well so if that's approved there could be less of a need for this position to continue to support city-wide equity work if that makes sense so it's more of a collaborative position but there's additional staffing being requested on that side as well for 2022 and we just don't know yet whether or not that's going to be approved and when when do you do you have a timeline for that approval or yeah it's actually on our last slide but um yeah so that's sorry oh no no it's that it's on the last slide where I'll talk to you all about next steps but I'll um the the budget conversation has been waking it its way through our leadership currently uh our city manager is going to city council on august 31st to talk about the city's budget proposal for 2022 and then we have conversations with city council all throughout september and then city council finalizes the 2022 budget in october so we still have probably about two months of conversations with leadership and city council before that budget is finalized and in absence of the person who is leaving on friday is like it seems like in that timeline it would take about a that amount of time to hire somebody at least to fill that position right um and well maybe we should let you get to the rest of your slides before i keep asking questions i just have one more slide that's just the next steps um kind of timeline so if you want i can pull that up real quick and talk you through that and then you can ask your additional questions or you can go ahead and ask them now and i'll give you the information i have not if i have a good like that i'm able to formulate my question i'm just trying to figure out our is it going to work to wait until the you find out about funding before you replace that position is there a tremendous amount of work that's being lot not done um in that time frame and yeah what kind of commitment um yeah it's definitely a challenge from a timing standpoint um and also like i said we have um we have an obligation to the county to expend the county grant dollars by the end of the year um so that's in part why we're in conversation with them now of kind of what are our options in terms of making sure that we expend that money and we still fulfill what the work that we committed to the county um to and at the same time as i mentioned having francy step kind of back in more of the coordination role of the equitable climate action team and we are looking at potential opportunities to contract out some pieces of that so that we can get all of that work done in a manageable way in the interim till we figure out kind of what our next steps are so yeah there's a lot of moving pieces that we're trying to to figure out right now with that okay thank you yep sorry not a lot of information right now but trying to figure it out understood all right uh any other questions or comments of before I just pull up our last slide that just talks about next steps okay great so there if you'll do that real quick great okay so um the next step for us is to really go to council to give them an update on where we we are in terms of all of our sustainability and climate action progress as we talked about with you all at our progress update last month um so that'll be happening in the um how we September time frame I'm supposed to go next week but since I got sick this week that's kind of gotten pushed out unfortunately but that's our next step is to also keep council abreast of the priorities that we're discussing for the sustainability tax as I mentioned the 2022 budget conversations and are happening now and will be happening with council in September as well and in finalized in October we'll be coming back to this group for a letter of support for our September meeting because our application is due in October although the date hasn't been set yet the the county doesn't have their entire timeline other than the application will be released sometime in September and do usually about six weeks later so if I have a little bit more time I may bring the letter of support to you in October so we'll have more time to really get into all of these different components that we're trying to figure out right now um but in the past it hasn't lined up time-wise so it we may be coming in September for a letter of support with this group um so hopefully I'll have that information pretty soon uh from the county but and then our application will be due and then the uh awards are made the first of the year so the nice thing about this grant is that it's the application process is um more of a formality than anything as long as we're you know doing our due diligence with the county then these grants are already this grant funding is already allocated for the city of Longmont so it's not a competitive grant process it's more of a form a formal process to just make sure that we're using the money that the way that we've spent and there's accountability to the county commissioners and the residents of the county that this money is being spent in the way that was determined through the tax so um that's that is there any final questions or comments before I pass it off to the next item on our agenda? Holly thanks um so Lisa you are going to do a presentation to council at the end of August? I was planning to come on the 24th but I got sick this week and that's been so now that's gotten pushed out probably to sometime in September we haven't rescheduled that date yet oh okay so be sure to remind council that they need to give a matching grant so that's in the budget okay yes yeah yeah and that's already in my 2022 budget request because I know that this happens every year so I build that into my operating budget yep okay great thanks but I'll remind folks that they know that yeah yeah thanks well with that I'm gonna pass it off to the next item on the agenda fantastic that is uh PRPA response follow-up Tim? Yes hi everybody good afternoon um I don't have a presentation on this I just wanted to supply the responses that we're you know we got from Platte River and and a lot of those questions were you know it's pretty specific to LPC and Longmont the city of Longmont um you know when it's regarding the distribution grid and customers you know that's more pertaining to us while the the bulk renewable our bulk energy transmission system and our electric our bulk electric needs are geared more towards Platte River so I just wanted we put this on the agenda I think to have discussion amongst you guys to see you know what your thoughts were on the responses and um you know have an internal discussion and I can answer any questions some questions that I can answer I can also take some notes to follow up with um Platte River as necessary and um you know keep moving forward thanks Tim um before we get into the discussion I just I'm gonna put a time limit on this um so because we do have a few other items on the agenda and we as a board tend to really get a discussion so I I'm gonna try to cap us at about half an hour um for this topic agenda and I just want everyone to know that so that said Mary I see you had your hand up this is where I um uh I would like to um um ask Bill House to um also respond to some of the questions um I sent them to Heather she said she's gonna send them out after the meeting should I read the um the questions and then have him respond or can Bill just do that since there's three particular questions that have to do with the involvement of advisory bodies that I think that he could speak to how should we do this um Kate I think you guys can do it however you want but my suggestion would be to hear from the board members first and then open it up to um Bill's responses okay so okay I um I had closed my proton mail because my I'm my um connection is unstable but let me just open it up and so I can read those questions so it's gonna just take me a second I apologize um okay sorry could you tell us which questions are like there are they know their number or page that you're referencing um might be easy just for me to so I could see the responses and all that when you find them okay so um I don't have the number it's um should Platte River invest in more energy storage instead of rice units since capital costs for better capacity is lower than gas the second question is what what is Platte River's R&D budget and um then regarding all questions on EVs and the grid um vehicle to grid um so anyway it's so I apologize don't I I don't have the numbers in front of me but I um I I think that um Bill Althouse's comments on these three things are are worth hearing okay um thanks for that do board members have any questions uh comments for Tim before we uh yes Polly um I was rather disheartened to learn that Platte River Power Authority will be receiving its last uh coal shipment in 2030 they're supposed to be done with coal before then so if they're getting their last shipment of coal on December 31st they're still going to be using coal into 2031 and I I understand we have to transition but if we're actually if they're serious about transitioning surely they should be getting you know transitioning out of it seriously before 2030 because they're supposed to be done by 2030 anyway so I would like to hear what Tim has to say about that and also I would like to remind people that the only person the only two people who can vote on this are representative from the utility and the mayor so think carefully when you vote for mayor this time should I respond I mean I don't I'm not going to respond on behalf of Platte River but what I can say is you know they're I think they're closing that last coal plant um uh and in 2029 right so I think they have to guarantee a coal supply until that time I'm not sure if they were how specific they were and what actual date maybe they miss wrote the date because obviously they have to line up their coal shipment with the shuttering of a plant so I think that was their intention is we need to work Tim you're frozen you lost him yeah yeah we might have lost Tim yep it looks like he froze he's really good at this really good frozen face um if he's acting um but I haven't done it will connect as well so maybe I'm frozen too I did send him a team's message to let him know that he's frozen I'm not sure if he can do anything about that but at least hopefully he's aware yeah he just left the meeting so I'll let him come back in when he gets back when he gets it okay um well I'm getting to hear that has questions for uh looks like Charles and Robert uh Adam lots of people okay so um yeah go ahead so just a couple of comments I mean with the limited amount of time we can't really get into weeds or details but generally I was you know relatively disappointed with the responses I think I mean some ways are logical but they're logical within kind of the overall um seems like the feel um overall lack of a firm commitment to accelerate this as fast as possible it seems that um you know they have this 2030 timeline and if circumstance you know they it's um they're basically going to um they have no commitment or don't express any commitments are really pushing any harder than they have to that's just kind of the impression that I got um there were a few things that I thought were kind of um not quite either correct or um you know like the the first question that Mary referenced about the um you know their commitment to going with uh rice um for a peaker general a power generation um and stating about you know the thing about battery replacement and things like that there's uh that's probably currently not exactly true the battery costs are coming down there's other station or energy storage besides lithium ion batteries and um some of them have very long cycle lives and the price and the price is coming down so um I think it just seems like they're not very committed or in some ways not anticipating that there's going to be uh dramatic technology innovations on the renewable side where the um fossil fuel side is the the pace of innovation is very low and the costs are not going down there on the renewable side pace of innovation is incredible and the price continued to drop and so I just was it just seemed that they weren't particularly committed to taking advantage of those trends thanks for that Charles Tim you're back yes sorry about that right as I started talking internet like cut me off it's just the way it goes yeah um sorry did I did you get any of my response or was it just right at the beginning we didn't get any oh I'm sorry so what I what I basically responded is that um the the raw hide plant the coal plant is they anticipated closing it in 2029 sometime so they have to have a coal supply until that time I think they they need to match up what their you know energy resource is going to be with you know the fuel the fossil fuel to to run it so so I'm not sure if they answered maybe incorrectly or were too general but I believe what they're trying to do is line up their their coal purchases with the closure of that last coal plant okay thank you um yeah robert and then adam yeah so I guess my question is is more around harmony between the different communities that prpa supports and their sustainability vision so loveland and estes park and four columns are they similarly positioned with long run or is that a gap that prpa is struggling up to work through now it's a great question there are different focuses for each different community some are more progressive than others even amongst our four even though there are only four but but we're really all on the same page as far as pushing that renewable energy goal and uh in in having plat river fulfill that um on their part for us so there is alignment on that in that regard but but we'll do stuff a little differently you know as any any few cities will do uh slightly different uh tone and and and and you know progressive attitude as I said before but but yeah we're we're all aligned on the goal but we're probably going to reach it in in several different ways specific to our cities and as far as programs and incentives or or whatever else you know we're going to need in our toolbox um but we are all focused on that goal and plat river certainly has it in there um in their in their contractor in their mission statement now to to achieve that that goal and I think they are working on it is that specific enough I I mean that there are probably other resources we can point to as far as uh you know Fort Collins's sustainability plan we of course have a really great system sustainability plan and and our own efforts but it's very specific to each city thanks thanks for that uh Adam and then Mary I see your hand yeah thanks Tim for answering Council Member Christensen's question about the coal plant I also had a follow-up regarding the ride plant I'm wondering how long will it take to phase out its uses like is it really a step function where it goes from burning coal until 2030 and immediately stops or is there some phase out process that'll take a few years and it'll still burn some small amount of coal uh during that time in my understanding it with the IRP and that's all really I have to go with as well is that they are going to phase it out by the end of 20 29 so that they can meet that objective and that's why they're talking about how to fill the gap you know with renewables DERs you know potentially that rice plant but that's still a kind of an idea on how to actually achieve shutting down the coal um and not the end the end that's it that's what we're going to do statement you know but I believe they're going to stop burning coal at 20 29 that's my understanding of what they're saying in the IRP um Mary sorry I want to return to this question what is Platte River's R&D budget I am very concerned that they're pushing off their R&D and essentially deferring any more sophisticated way of thinking about energy resources in the community to EPRI um which is an industry um organization and um I think that we are overdue to create a citizen um sort of task force involving the four cities and the expertise that is here to recommend a restructuring of the way that we look at local energy um this is something that I um would actually like um to uh to ask um build a house to respond to since he's working on it a committee that will is building standards that will help to bring community resources you know to the fore um if that's possible at this time are you there Bill oh you want Bill to respond I'd like to also respond to um the the email and and uh their question as well as soon as Bill's done I guess hi yeah thanks for the opportunity to chat a bit again you know EPRI's position is pay no attention to the consumer owned VPP behind the curtain you know these are already the biggest most profitable power plants in the world all based on consumer owned resources so not only are the biggest power plants in the world they were built at no capital cost to the utility it's just a piece of software and I think to get to the future here in the short term we need to really look at economic impact of localization of these resources the economic multiplier it generates uh plot rivers IRP they're not going to do anything until 2029 and then they're all going to be purchased power agreements with corporations and so all the benefits of ownership the tax credits the wrecks depreciation all of those economic benefits are going to leave the community to outside wall street type investors Goldman Sachs oldest partners just through and a billion bucks a piece 10 billion dollars to launch the hundred percent renewable virtual power plant in the UK markets these guys are not environmentalists I think we've got to bring the business community if we want to see change we've got to turn it into a profit center right now based on plot rivers projections of cost rates are going to go up and up and up with a massive expensive expense in 2029 the business community needs to understand this can either be a really heavy expense or it can be a profit center limitations like you can only install 120 of your use pre grants like big commercial entities from doing community solar over parking lots and getting subscribers and the electric vehicle thing their response there shows no awareness Volkswagen has already announced they're going all electric vehicle and in 2022 all their vehicles will have vehicle to grid on board allowing them to be a utility storage resource for F-150 on board inverter I'm also in the SAEJ 3072 committee writing the technical standards for on board inverters with electric vehicles would be teaching capability this is not theoretical they'd like to tell you that this is all in the future two biggest automakers Volkswagen and Ford already have products coming at us right now with the V2G capability you know plot the the curves of storage we need to turn off the coal plant we're going to need 500 megawatts of storage to go with 500 megawatts of renewable to covers well if you look at the adoption curve how many F-150 Ford trucks were sold in the four service territories if this goes electric just conventional vehicle sales will provide us the storage capacity we need to go 100% renewable at no cost to Platt River a small incentive to the vehicle owner boom you have your storage there's so many options and I like what Mary Lynn said about putting together a group and talk to instead of the EPRI people who any one of those people would be fired same thing at SIPA they would all be fired if they recognize the value of a customer owned resource or they made a recommendation that would cause the cost of operation to go down they would be fired that's the reality so how about the people building these massive power plants I'm in communication I have a really nice webinar by the head of engineering of a company called Kraftwerke and that is a commercially available software platform right now to run a VPP it's running the second largest power plant in the world at 9.6 gigawatts composed of entirely consumer owned resources so I have to say you can't replace central power with 100% DER is crazy when it's the most dominant successful technology in the world at this moment so if anybody would like to see that webinar that gets deep into the weeds of how virtual power plants work I would be delighted to share that but it's we really need to make sure they're looking at what's doable I feel with the EPRI it's the equivalent of asking a fourth generation cattle farmer to design your veggie burger business it's just crazy to even ask those people what they think about the technology that's gonna make them obsolete can you send that link to Heather and she can send it to us absolutely thank you Phil um Tim I I assume you want to respond but I want to acknowledge that uh Jim has his hand up that's fine Jim if you'd like to go ahead I can respond afterwards that'd be great thanks Tim I appreciate it um I mean I I certainly think that we need to have all options on the table but one of the things that I think concerns me a lot about the idea of um about about everything whenever I see pictures of the the people that can generate their power and uh on their own it often feels that it is um that it goes against many of the necessary changes that Longmont as a community is going to have to make the primary one being we're going to have to become a much more dense city so we're not going to have the same amount of roof space per citizen for solar panels uh or yard space and and I I certainly don't want and I know that this isn't what he was but Bill was implying but I don't want to encourage more people to buy Ford f-150s whether they're electric or not because roads and parking lots are never sustainable there there's no sustainability plan that ever begins with we're going to build more parking lots um and so as much as I uh am very much a proponent of of decentralizing as much as we can I also think that we have to keep in mind how important the the primary the primary drivers of Longmont becoming a sustainable community are that we're going to be a more dense place to live with more public transportation and that's going to that those are necessary requirements that that are going to preclude some of the things that that uh many of us might like to have but um but I think that in terms of in terms of prioritizing how we're going to get to sustainability we really do need to keep the kind of the the big driver uh in in in in our mind right now and with the city expecting another 30 000 residents in the next decade or whatever that is um whatever that's going to be um and envisioning the type of communities where people are going to be living that are going to that are going to allow that um I think that we have to keep that in mind uh when we think about how we're going to actually accomplish these things okay um so there's a lot of things that were said there I'm going to address I think the research and development item and then maybe talk a little bit about the vehicle to grid issue and I'm not going to for the response from Platte River and R&D I'm not going to respond for Platte River but what I can respond is with my own personal experience my career I've have over 20 years of working with large IOUs investor-owned community uh utilities which Longman is not and Platte River is not um I work for ConEd New York I work for Hawaiian Electric I also work with Heart of Energy for a few years and I work for a really large renewable energy developer and all the while being a dedicated utility customer so I've been on all all sides of the issue and and looked at it in many different ways um and I can tell you this on the utility side back in this you know in the heyday of the utilities in those 50s and 60s 70s 80s they've had a really significant R&D budget and they spent a lot of money doing a lot of great research but it was very expensive and what the public utility commissions ultimately did in the 90s was to remove those budgets from the ability of the utility to collect those funds from customers you know they took it out of the rate base so there really wasn't the ability for utilities to do their own R&D on a large scale plus there are so many utilities with so many similar and shared issues concerns needs that organizations like EPRI were formed to kind of get the utilities get funding together to do R&D that everybody wants to look at and I can tell you from personal experience with EPRI when I worked with Hawaiian Electric back nine years ago now we did a pilot with them to look at hot water grid interactive hot water heaters and we actually did a pilot with them and we ended up installing a bunch of them and now it's it's getting to be a full-scale program there so to say that they're outdated and they don't do anything I think is not really fair they are a very hardworking intelligent organization that does a lot of important R&D that frankly utilities don't have the funding to do that's just speaking on my own behalf as far as R&D and utilities and the things that EPRI can do and things that the utility can do and now on our side what we're trying to do is take a look at technologies that are getting to be out there like all thermostats have been forever and water heaters but there's new ways to act with smart thermostats and you know smarter ways to act with solar and then EVs are coming into play now and then batteries and so there's the technology is changing it's becoming smarter and easier to work with we're looking at programs to do demonstration projects to really work with all those residential items and we're also going to be developing things on the commercial side as well so I can say as far as our own R&D we're doing demonstration projects we're developing them now we you know a year ago we didn't have anything in the pipeline but now we have two or three or four things we're actively working on to try to get out there and test and make sure we know how to properly scale those programs up for our community and for you know on behalf of our community and all the Platte River communities so we are I think we are doing a lot and we're starting we're starting off but there's a lot of great opportunities and I think we're in a pretty good position to get those up and running in in a few years at least on the residential side so I'll answer any questions on that but I wanted to also address the EV side the vehicle to grid I'll address really quickly that is I mean you say it's right now but it's not right now right the Volkswagen said they're going to have all of their batteries two-way Nissan is the only custom only car manufacturer that actually has two-way capability now and doesn't void the manufacturing battery manufacturing warranty by using it in that fashion so there's a lot on the car manufacturer side that needs to be done there's a lot of stuff that needs to be put in place just on the car manufacturing side not and not at least of which is the 4 to 450 electors haven't come out yet right they're going to come out with where when they come out we're going to look at them we're going to see if there's that capability to enable them as a DER and it sounds like it will be but it's not yet it's we're still the industry is really new on that and we're all figuring it out right now the ability to do that how do you do that and as far as a small incentive to customers I'm not sure that's really true if I spend all that money on a Ford F-150 you think I'm going to let the utility play around with my battery for some small fee I don't know I don't know how a lot of those customers are going to feel that has to be figured out the market isn't even developed yet the only one locally that I know about is I know Boulder is the city of Boulder is running a pilot on a V2G right now which is great we're I'm talking with them you know regularly to see how that's going and there's a lot of ways to build that out and understand it better so on the V2G side it will be there and we'll definitely be playing a part in it but it's a super brand new industry really and it's just being developed and we're going to tag along and be part of it go ahead Adam thanks Tim for that yeah thanks Tim just a quick question will the DOE grant have any pilot programs to study that yes that's the great thing about that grant and we will be finding out in the late September or late October we have we're going to be working with NREL to study the school bus fleet V2G and we also as part of that grant will be able to purchase a few of those Ford F-150s because we need them as a utility you know for to do the work we need to do in the field we already use those vehicles but we're going to be purchased we're going to be swapping them out with the new electric vehicles and we'll be able to study how we can use those V2G when we get them and that will be in the next few years so that's that's definitely opportunity that we're looking at now and it's already in the plans if we get that grant and even if we don't we're moving ahead with a fleet plan now to electrify our fleet and we're going to look at the opportunities to start there because we since we own the vehicle we can test it out for V2G capabilities because it's ours and you know that's one way to move forward without depending on a customer and a lot of legal and other contractual arrangements with using their battery to power the grid and whatnot so as a starter we're really looking at that grant and and any purchases we make in the next few years to start looking at that vehicle to great because it's certainly an interesting opportunity that was a great question Adam thanks thank you um I I have a question that is I don't think it was addressed at all in the list of questions that because it's a question for LPC um solar homeowners and um paying a monthly fee to be a solar homeowner is that is is there something in the works to maybe make that go away you know I don't know about go away but change maybe you know the the whole net metering you know net metering was put into place originally and originally in order to promote the industry you know get people to install solar on their roofs because if you have to install solar and battery then that cost is huge especially 10 20 years ago so to bring that and and also so the utilities know what's going on on the grid right if we know which coming what's coming on what's going off it helps us better manage the grid and make sure we have the equipment out there to have grid work in a safe manner right if you're putting always putting juice back onto the grid on a transformer that can't handle it that's going to be a problem so I think the net metering was in place for a long time to support the industry and for us all to understand how solar is going to work on it um I think what we need to figure out is what role solar plays on the grid there's a lot of benefits but there's also wear and tear on the grid from two way you know distribution which was never the case before you know a decade or so ago it was only one way from the generator all the way to the home and that's it and now we're talking about two way not only with solar but battery you know EVs so there's a lot of this two way communication two way electric flow that we're going to have to understand in order to appropriately monetize the benefits and costs to that because there is a cost to having the utility the grid operate as a battery that's essentially what it's doing with net metering we'll take your extra you know electricity we'll hold it for you until you need it and if you don't use it all at the end of the year we'll credit you back for it that's the way that net metering works but there's a cost to that you know and we have to figure that out um that our rate analysts try to put a number on that um the the dynamics between us and our customers are changing rapidly um so we're going to have to continue to analyze that and figure out the fair compensation or a fair rate because we also don't want to subsidize solar customers with our other customers that can't afford solar or don't or can't put it on for one reason or another can't put it on the roof so there's a lot of reasons on both sides to have it and not have it and you know figuring out what the value is to the system but also what are the costs to the system so that everybody is treated fairly uh with their utility bill is something we're continually working on and I'd answer your question at all to completely dodge the question Fin I I appreciate what you're saying uh and yeah it's it's a calculation yeah it's a calculation from a rate folks to feel to try to monetize the impact that or the use of of the grid as a as a battery and and you know it's going to change going forward I'm sure um as more DERs get up and running and more of these programs come out and more of this equipment develops the technology to put the energy back on the grid there's there's going to be a lot of change and we got to have to figure it out as we as we're moving through it thanks Mary Kim it's always really interesting and educational to hear your perspective on all of this because you've been involved in this for so long and it's it's great to be getting a real picture of what sort of the muni point of you is um I do have a question for you though about reinventing the wheel all of the concerns that you've brought up have been solved by other cities around the world and there are cities in the US now who are working on bringing in VPPs um isn't there some benefit to reaching out to people like start craft or craft verka to see who their consultants are who can come in and maybe they can say oh well in our virtualization software here's how we address with this here's the how we put together the community committees that answered these questions I mean it seems like and you're certainly not getting any of that stuff from the industry related research entities because they're um you know obviously to some degree they're going to be protecting the interests of industry and being a centralized energy creator in my opinion I think you know different utilities have different interests Mary Lynn you know that you're certainly right there are utilities that want to keep that that one way you know old-fashioned utility style and hold on to that that um that amount of all their assets and keep them running and make as much money as possible there's a lot of utilities that are complete opposite that want to do what's best for their customers and and you know have renewable energy and sustainability goals so I think it's all over the map um we do talk all the time we're always in conferences we talk with the our member communities we talk with communities throughout Colorado we talk with the Department of Energy and NREL and all and and a lot of local consultants on what this whole future is going to mean and the virtual power plants is you know we're working on if we if we come forward with a like bringing a thermostat program that really attaches itself to a Durham's platform a distributed energy resource management platform which is a virtual power plant right I mean that's that's really what you're talking about and that's those are the things we're lining up but we want to do it right we want to do it so it we have a good long-term plan and don't piecemeal it there's a lot of cities like you say that already there but they have um a thermostat program they have a contract with Honeywell and they have a contract with it Ecobee under contract and then their contract with Google fell through and then they they got to set up this system and they're constantly patching and adding on and it's like this Frankenstein of a Durham's right that they're trying to create we're in a really good position actually because the management system is really developing now and it's it's dependable and it's it's getting to be able to accommodate all those different devices and and manage them really well so we're actually on right on that edge of saying we're going to step into that Durham's market but we want to make sure that we have a product that can accommodate the future so and the future is still developing with the VDGs and all that stuff so so it's a big effort we want to set it up correctly but we are moving forward on doing some smaller demonstration projects in order to understand how that's all going to come and and and work up to a a really nice sophisticated Durham's platform that we're going to be using for the future okay so I know that Jim has his hand up and other people I just want to because you mentioned NREL can you speak about what's happening with modern west and how that's part of we're talking I mean they're they are working on their own with NREL before we even got involved but we're in active talks to see what what what what opportunities we have and we'll be coming back to you guys I'm sure later in the fall early next year with ways to work with with that development they you know they're just getting started they have a really a mixed use development that's super interesting they want to do a lot of new things we are in in talks right now with what opportunities we can create together so for sure we're working with them okay thanks so we've the amount of time that I was I allotted if are there folks like Jim Charles do you do you do you squeeze in your question I'm willing to give you the floor for Zach I want to say something real quick although I'm you know disappointed with you know some of the language that is used in the responses at the same time um you know I want to acknowledge you know the the power you you know the utility industry has actually made a faster transformation towards renewable energy than any other industry and you know they've done a lot and in the US and other countries especially places like the UK so they have tens of trillions of dollars of installed infrastructure that you know needs to be converted so in some ways I think we need to acknowledge that there's a lot that's already that they need to do and that they've actually already done and if you look at things like you know sorry the general public hasn't done as much as they should how many people take public transportation I ride my bike to work every day here in Boulder how many people are driving their cars past me how many people have installed ground-source heat pumps in their homes etc etc so in some ways I think we should be progressive we should work hard on these things and we should push Pat River but I think we also need to work with them and be partners with them and not antagonize your I'm not sure what's the right word but I think we need to appreciate much of the good work that they've already done but push them to do even more thanks for that reminder Charles nobody here Tim thank you for your thoughtful answers we appreciate your expertise and yeah and your time to walk through all this with us thanks anytime okay so the next item on the agenda Annie there you are yeah we're going to change subjects right now so I wanted to invite you all to a joint board meeting on September 20th at 5 p.m. it's a meeting that's been scheduled after the water board meeting I think the Parks and Recreation Advisory Board is also invited it's a zoom meeting and it's a meeting where the left hand watershed center is going to be presenting their annual report and I'm not sure if you all are familiar with the left hand watershed center but they're a nonprofit organization whose mission is to do restoration and restoration projects along the left hand watershed and so they've done the city has funded some of their work they've done like forest restoration river restoration projects forest fire restoration projects they are working on adaptive management studies they're really their focus is on watershed health and maintaining and restoring watershed health and they do a lot of work with the city of Longmont and we thought you would be interested in learning more about the work that they did last year and the work that they're looking to do in the upcoming year so I just want to encourage you all to come it's a zoom meeting so you don't have to go anywhere it's at five o'clock September 20th and it's right after the water board meeting you might get to meet some of the water board members and I think maybe the Parks and Recreation Advisory Board is also invited so Adam thanks Annie will we get emailed a link to the zoom meeting yes we'll get you emailed a link the day of the event and so if you could put it on your calendar September 20th at 5 p.m. that would be great and it's a two-hour meeting I don't know the time frame I don't think it'll take that long they presented their annual update to our leadership team and I think that was always scheduled maybe for an hour I'm sure you could say on as long as you want to their presentation wasn't very long I think it was a lot of questions and answers so okay fantastic so we'll we should we we will all automatically receive that link we look at now yeah I would just yeah if you're interested perfect thank you thank you Francie thank you so when I was presented to the board in May on the water conservation update I mentioned that the St. Rain left hand and left hand water conservancy district mill levy funding that became available this year the city was looking into applying to that funding but in the end decided not to apply this year we'll continue to look into that in future years we decided not to apply for a couple of reasons one we are planning to do a pretty extensive update to the water efficiency master plan if you all recall or four members who were present last year when we reviewed the climate action task force recommendations there was one around water conservation and we decided to not pursue that recommendation but did propose based on feedback from the sustainability advisory board the water board to instead reevaluate our current water conservation goal for the city based on climb more extensively on climate impacts so instead of doing just maybe a year process to update this we're taking two years so we realize that process will start earlier than expected I think we're going to kick that off pretty early next year so I think we just want to make sure we have plenty of time to focus on that and even though the mill levy funding is an exciting opportunity it does take time to give updates on grant opportunities and do that work so we think it'd be better funding to pursue once once we have a better kind of farther in the water efficiency master plan process we are also in requesting an additional half FTE water conservation position uh so that also since we still we're still don't know the status of that so that will also impact uh staff time and ability to apply for a funding opportunity like that this so with kind of the staffing up in the air and then also this extensive master plan update we decided to make more sense to wait on this funding opportunity please let me know if you have any questions that makes sense thank you any questions from the board all right thanks frenzy okay um I the next item on the agenda is the land management discussion lisa um you are leading that discussion looks like I'm I'm actually going to punt it back to you Kate so we have put it on the agenda because you had brought it up it was the very very end of the meeting last last meeting and I hopefully understood it right that you wanted to have a conversation with the board about whether or not you all want to utilize the land acknowledgement statement that council approved um at your meetings is that correct in my understanding of that comment that works okay all right all right um so uh in your board packet on page 15 um is the land acknowledgement state um that uh I think we supported uh sending to the the board uh the sorry the city council and in a prior board meeting um so the statement is we acknowledge that lungmont sits on the traditional territory of the shian arabahoe ute and other indigenous peoples we honor the history and the living and spiritual connection the first peoples have have with this land it is our commitment to face the injustices that happened when the land was taken and educate our communities ourselves and our children to ensure that these injustices do not happen again um and this was adopted in july so my thought was to start our our sustainability advisory board meetings with this statement um I for me it's uh I think it's a nice reminder something that I um am not I don't acknowledge regularly um and I think is is good for us to keep in mind are there objections to uh to having this as like the first item and uh going forward there was last time we talked about it somebody somebody mentioned that perhaps it might feel a little bit wrote after you know just to just say this and and not necessarily um that it could lose its meaning um I'd like I would counter that like it hasn't lost its meaning yet and perhaps we give it a chance to lose its meaning by um poly yeah I think that was me uh you know we only meet once a month and um we are the sustainability board and you know I I do I was the one who made that comment but I I think that it would be a very good idea for us to for this board in particular to open our meetings with this yeah Adam I'm wondering what the thoughts are of some indigenous people now like do they have any suggestions or advice for these types of statements yeah I asked council member christians in this question earlier and I was wondering what they what they had to say about it repeat that again if the city council had the same added um repeat your question please sorry I was just asking if can you hear me okay some of the images are frozen I was just asking if any uh indigenous people now have any advice or thoughts on this I think the concern earlier was raised that it might become wrote if it's presented every meeting and I was wondering if there's any other concerns along those lines that we might be overlooking uh you know we're going to have a a a meeting with the northern Arapaho in September which is our finally the acknowledgement of our relationship with them and it would be if you would like to attend it would be a good time to ask them we you know we just nobody asks them so that strikes me as a lot but that's typical of what people do um yeah so you know I don't know if uh the multicultural's um board has discussed this I think they did I think this is where it originated with the museum I think or the multicultural board so um it might be interesting to ask them nobody else on city council had any other uh concerns thanks thanks for that I I could see a concern of this is a very small gesture um for you know white people to do and and does absolutely nothing for um to to repair any of the damage that was caused um which I think is a valid criticism um and uh I think that to at least acknowledge um like to say some of this stuff out loud is is more than I'm doing right now um so please oh I just want to jump in really quick I do I do want to acknowledge the work that Carmen Ramirez and her team has been doing in particular in relationship with the northern Arapo and the sister cities um project so I can't speak necessarily to her involvement with them specifically around the land acknowledgement statement itself um I haven't been directly involved with that to know the level of conversation that has been happening but I do want to acknowledge that that relationship has been in the works for a very long time I believe they're signing the official agreement with them I believe on September 18th so that's coming up pretty quick that that relationship having a sister city relationship um with uh um a first people's nation is the first in the country they've invited Deb Holland to be a part of that process as well so we we do have a relationship with the northern Arapo that folks in other parts of the city have been working on so I did also want to make sure that people knew that and that that was like acknowledged yeah thank you for that uh Francie thank you that actually reminded me that um we were recently in a meeting with Carmen where staff were also asking when should we use this one shouldn't we and potentially inform that that figuring that process out is still in the works that's still figuring out uh when is it appropriate to use it when does it make the most sense to use it uh and kind of how to connect with board and commission so that's um that was also I'm just want to make you all aware there was the um I think that was on August 4th the last I heard that it was still trying to figure out how and when and when it was appropriate to use this great and we can definitely we're happy to keep you all updated on how that involves within our organization as well I definitely think that it's uh perfectly reasonable and appropriate for you all to decide how you want to use the statement within this group um I I agree with Kate that I I don't think it's wrote at this point in time I do think it's important to build into our understanding and our acknowledgement and I think that it it does also though I think help remind us of the additional work and lots of work that still needs to be done in terms of repairing the harm um and our relationship uh with native communities here as well so we'll keep you up to date on that conversation as it evolves within the city but I do think it's also appropriate for you all to decide for yourselves how to can how to use the the statement itself and what else might be precipitated from that thank you Lisa um Jim and then Polly I mean I think my perspective is that it becoming rote is um less of a danger than it becoming non-existent like it might have been two years ago and with the understanding that we will be open to improving our use and application of the statement it seems like including it would uh and making it part of like the you know the the roberts rules of order style ceremonies that we go through like there's a reason that we do those things and it seems like that uh the it becoming rote is is is the the the danger I care about less perfect thanks uh Polly I also suggested that we um at a city council meeting that we make this that language or that that specific statement at the bottom of uh any new signage we use for open space because then everybody who uses open space will see this again and again and understand it and I also would like to see it as a as a plaque in the city hall where people who come to pay our bills or people who come to look at different things would see it particularly next to the quilt that the north in a wrap-up made for us and we finally have gotten around to hanging up and so if we see not don't just hear it but also see it and I know the museum's done a lot of stuff with this and will continue to do so so um I do think that there are ways that we can incorporate it into anything written that the city puts out and uh any signage and things like that particularly for open space because well obviously all right thanks for those thoughts um I so then Heather will you please add it at the beginning of the meeting um where it is first appropriate I don't know if it will after we determine a quorum um to for that to be read where it makes you know fits most appropriately in Robert's rules of order but will you please do that sure um thank you I don't know if you want to do it maybe just after like you said the determination of the quorum before all of the business stuff starts I think that makes sense okay I will get it added fantastic thanks so much for doing that sure okay um um that's the end of uh items from the board the the next item the agenda unless anybody has anything to jump in with um is items from council uh well we didn't meet this week and um last time we met it was a study session and we met for only half an hour which was a record so I don't really have anything except that to um remind people that there is an election coming up this November and also that um our what we will be discussing from for many months now would be the budget so keep it in mind thanks and and our budget is consider I mean our uh we've just got some financial um information from uh the head of finance and our the financial outlook for the city looks much much better um we still are about two percent short of budget but for most things but that's much better than being 35 percent short so we are coming back um we don't know nobody knows what's going on right now with COVID the COVID variants lambda and delta and uh but I think we've all come to a point where we're much more flexible and we've learned a lot and I think we have uh the facility to mitigate our behavior in a way that's safe if we can just get the knuckleheads who haven't vaccinated themselves vaccinated um we wouldn't have been in this position in the first place but you know if you know any people like that continue to work on them I don't think you'll have much luck but you can try it thanks thanks Paulie yeah Charles yeah I had a question for uh Paulie there's only two uh voting members from each um owner community for Pat River and one of them is the mayor how does the mayor have become informed about um what the community they represent once in terms of um you know um what to you know how to vote um for Pat River items on their on their um agenda well that's a very good question um the mayor it's the mayor's responsibility to inform himself or herself and um we do have a lot of meetings like this uh I I mean a lot of you guys bring things forward to uh uh to city council meetings sustainable revolution long lot or sustainable resilient long lot brings a lot of things forward various people bring things forward so it is um you know kind of optional that's why I'm suggesting that you think hard with who are you elected um yeah it's dependent upon what what people bring forth and our discussions and we do have we do have planned discussions both at during council sessions and sometimes study sessions uh that are supposed to eliminate us about sustainability issues yeah so so um that's kind of what I suspected um I don't know if it's possible but it'd be interesting um to for example if if there are um items where um board members of Pat River authority are power authority are going to be voting that maybe those questions um be disseminated for example to the member communities and for example we could we could discuss it and provide a recommendation to the mayor on what our recommendation is for how they might vote on those things I think that's a good suggestion um I also plan to forward uh plat rivers questions the things that we got in our packet to the whole council because I think they're very interesting some good questions were asked and uh I think it's important for them to understand that the um answers I also think that this we had a very good discussion today with uh Tim Ellis and Bill Althaus and uh all of you and I think it would be worth uh I'm going to recommend that council members look at this discussion you know because that it is unfortunate that we are all supposed to be liaisons but we never have any time whatsoever to discuss what we learned and what our observations are um with our fellow council members whom we can only meet publicly um and so uh that was tried by council member peck and I but um was rather uh overwhelmed by other forces so anyway um thank you Paulie it's difficult okay yeah thank you Paulie I see Jim and then Mary's hand Paulie am I right that your term limited and that you will be leaving us that's right I'll be gone in two and a half months um so um what is the process for the new liaison being picked assigned to volunteered stuck with us um and is there any possibility that that there is any pros I mean I I have no idea what the process is because you were here when I got here um like do you you know do somebody have to like steal a sword from you and then they get to become the liaison or something like that or well everybody has different schedules and we have something like 30 boards so each one of us well almost each one of us has about eight boards that we go to as you know uh aside from city council work so we have to be able to manage um our schedule around and and several people work um so we have to be able to manage our schedule around when boards meet so sometimes uh what we take up is something we're passionate about I am passionate about this board but uh other times it is something that we's nobody really wants to do it and they sign up for it because whatever you know they'll take it on and uh there are several boards that only meet four times a year uh so but yeah it's a voluntary thing and city council members discuss this among themselves and figure it sorted out because it really depends upon our schedules and when we can actually show up for these things in a reliable way. Mary I think you had your hand up. Yeah I just want to mention that I would like to put on um a further agenda a discussion about formalizing Charles um most recent suggestions. Okay but thanks for that yeah uh can you can you recap what those suggestions are? Could you do that Charles not me or just send them to me Charles if you would. Yeah I was afraid you're gonna ask me um so so yeah I can do that I'll send you something but just to make sure I'm uh Mary and I are talking about the same thing uh the idea that um before you know for things that are uh on the agenda for um Platte River to vote on that they get forwarded to us beforehand and we can discuss it and if we desire send a recommendation to the mayor for how we recommend that they vote. Perfect. Is that right? Thanks Mary. Awesome. Does that make sense Heather? Yes it does thank you. Perfect okay um so I just yes. Annie go ahead um I'm not sure I think the next item on the agenda is to adjourn is that right? Yeah it yep the informational items but oh I'm sorry I don't I just wanted to bring up that last month the board voted to um have a child meeting you know take the time of the meeting and I just wanted to remind folks of that and I know that I think Jim wasn't here so I just wanted to That's right Annie keep it honest thank you um so Jim you were not here for this discussion and Kay was also not here and she is not here again uh but we had talked about moving meetings to five o'clock um no six o'clock six o'clock sorry um to to be accommodating to members of the public who might want to be heard but have to work um and I can't necessarily take the time off to come to this meeting at three o'clock so um we didn't want to make that decision without everyone having a chance to weigh in um and you were not here so do you any objections and I don't know what we'll do about Kay. No I mean that'd be great I I take paid time off for every meeting so I would no longer have to do that that'd be wonderful. Yes Heather um I did talk to Kay on Friday when I was talking to all of you about moving to remote meeting and she said for the fall it would not be a problem but in the spring time due to extracurricular commitments with her kids that would make coming to the meeting is a challenge so just um FYI for you on that piece. Okay um so I I'd like to try it I do I I do like the idea um and what role that we're trying to to achieve there of getting you know being more accessible so can we give it a trial run for next month and um and maybe maybe a couple of times maybe well start with one one week in our meeting next week next month. Adam. Yeah I support that I can be flexible either way I think if we try the 6 p.m. time even if it's a few times I'd be curious to see if there's an uptick in the number of folks speaking at the public session so that could be potentially a metric to look at. Good call yeah I thank you Adam. Yeah so um at least until December if we don't move I will have a conflict with all of the meetings um unfortunately something I can't get out of I was appointed to I'm on a committee that reviews all tenure promotion cases for faculty in the College of Engineering so their careers depend on on us doing our work so I would if we don't move to later time starting next month I won't yell to the 10 for the rest of the semester. Okay thanks for that definitely value you being here yeah Jim. All right my only concern actually are for the city staff members who have to be here and who aren't volunteering and to make sure that it actually fits with their it's it's easy for me to say but I don't actually yeah it's not a paycheck that it depends on for me so I'd want to make sure that it's okay with the city staff members. Thanks for that um we did hear from them that they were okay with it but let's let's all register that again please. Yes we definitely appreciate the consideration but we it is definitely part of our job and we are happy to accommodate the board in whatever way you all um direction you all want to move so thank you I definitely appreciate it for Jim thanks. Yes Francie. I am able to attend on all Wednesdays that the ECAD is not meeting sometimes they meet on the third Wednesday so if that there may be a conflict and I would have to attend the ECAD meetings but that this year the for the end of this year that would just be well that'd be um October and November and we haven't decided on meeting dates for December. Okay thanks for that um yes Annie. Sorry I keep thinking of um some business uh things that we might need to have to attend to um and this is a question for Heather. I think if we continue to meet remotely that we have to do something to the bylaws to address that is that correct? Yeah that's um it would need to be a bylaw change that we could do and if y'all wanted to do that today we actually could um given the scenario uh the way things are playing out I don't know if you make sense for us to continue meeting remotely through the end of the year um sustainability advisory board you all decided at the beginning of the year um to just have meetings through November and no December meeting so would it really just be the next three months that we would make be making that bylaw change for and then we would revisit it again in January um for the meeting time and um anything that is part of the bylaws as well so it could be changed if you want to do it here in the short term as a trial kind of thing or whatever um it is actually a good time to do that so I'm not I I guess I'm not clear on we have to change it because we changed it last time to meet in person no so when City Council decided to go to the in-person meetings and actually the emergency declaration ended for the pandemic um the only reason that we are allowed to meet remotely is because we were under an emergency declaration since that has expired um if we want to continue meeting that way our bylaws have to make that provision for us Mary I'm not willing to vote on that until we've heard from at least some members of the public about how they feel about remote meetings okay uh how are we going to solicit opinion from the public um from my experience I can tell you in the three years that I've been at the city we've had a lot more participation from people in the community um since we have been remote then when we were in person I don't know at least this experience is she's probably the longest one um on staff in that regard yeah I would agree with that but what is the public saying are they saying they prefer I haven't heard anything that direction I just know that uh it seems to have been more accessible to them but maybe Polly's heard from council meetings yeah Polly uh we've had much much less uh public participation since going to remote but I think that's you know I think every board is a little different I I do think that um for instance I'm on the Boulder County Consortium of Cities and many of those people live well they live all over they live up in Jamestown and Ward and it's certainly a lot easier for them to deal with things remotely um so I just I think it's up to every board I would throw in and and this is just anecdotal it's I I can't say that I've done any community surveying on this but I would say that probably the time of the meeting is more of a factor than it being in person versus remote in terms of people's ability to participate thanks uh Jim yeah and I I mean I also think it's it's difficult because like what baseline do we compare it to I mean do we compare it to a pre-pandemic baseline as I I don't I don't know what participation would have been you know it's it's it's just a different beast so it's it's I find it difficult to kind of envision what the actual comparison what the realistic comparison would be and I know for me I feel a lot more comfortable doing these things remotely still um especially as things explode maybe not in Boulder County but you know yeah I tend to agree with the the variants that are and you know just the uncertainty there about what is actually happening with uh with COVID and and it just remote meetings feel safer to us and the members of the public um and so I I I wonder if um if we could if you would be comfortable if we plan on a a meeting a remote meeting next time um for that reason and um and then we can and put that put it on the agenda to to talk about the next the following two months so September meeting third Wednesday six o'clock remote and then talk about October and November and because I see you're coughing but I saw your hand briefly yeah I I just I wanted to ask and I don't know but this question is for Heather although I'm not um I don't know if you have the answer or not but I don't know enough about the process to know can we put something in the bylaws that that is and maybe this is what you're saying but just that essentially allows for remote meetings as needed and then the board can determine on whatever basis what the criteria are you know so that it could be in place essentially for as long as we want it to be in place and then you know fingers crossed that this is not something that we have to revisit over and over again into the future but that at least it's there and the board can pretty quickly make a decision and we have the technological capabilities to to do that so we don't have to keep revisiting it yes I think that is what we could do that's a great suggestion thank you Lisa um so do we need to vote on anything right now or are we good do this temporary for next meeting yeah if you want to just do it temporarily I think it's okay to um just say we had general consensus to meet remotely and then reassess and at the September meeting further discussion or whatever for changing the bylaws for allowing those type of meetings okay great let's do that thank you and um and will you please agenda that we want to discuss this so that Annie doesn't have to remind us um we appreciate you Annie thank you um okay I just so the last item on the agenda or before we adjourn is that there are informational items in your board packets they're there for you to read um just calling your attention to them I also want to quickly um acknowledge my disappointment that there is not a sword stealing ceremony for the liaison from city council and with that I maybe I'll introduce my is there a motion to a golden pond I think you should long dresses we if if somebody volunteers for it we need to all do a surprise recycling inspection of their house to make sure they're okay good idea I can bring medieval costumes perfect all right we've got this all set up they might like to move to adjourn yes Charles I'd like to move that we adjourn the august 18 2021 moderate sustainability uh advisory board thank you awesome all in favor hi hi all right thanks everyone take care everyone take care take care thanks all right