 Good afternoon, Council Member Dowd. I have gone ahead and promoted you to panelists. If you would unmute yourself so we can test your microphone, please. Dick, are you able to hear us? Yes, I can. Can you hear me? Now we can. Yes. It's only going to be you and I until Mr. Roger or Mr. Rogers arrives. Hopefully, if you can keep it on-screen, so we make sure that we still have a quorum until Chris is able to join us to give us some technological flexibility. We will do our best, but it's a challenge. Yes, it is. Okay. Kali, are you going to be our clerk doing role or is there someone else? Yes, I will be your clerk today. Okay. I'll be calling the meeting to order of the Climate Action Subcommittee, November 18th. Can we have a roll call, please? Of course. Council Member Dowd. Here. Council Member Rogers and Mayor Schwedhelm. Here. Let the record show that all members are present except for Council Member Rogers. I'll just read some brief housekeeping notes that many of us have almost memorized. So we'll keep our audio on mute unless we're speaking. Staff will remain muted until needing to speak, and as members of the public join the meeting, you'll be participating as an attendee. Your microphone and camera will be muted. Only today's panelists will be viewed during the meeting. If you're calling in from a telephone and choose to speak during the public comments portion of today's agenda, for privacy concerns, the host will be renaming your viewable phone number to resident in the last four digits of your phone number. And as a reminder, the City of Santa Rosa is committed to creating a safe and inclusive environment free from disruption. We'll not tolerate any hateful speech or actions and are well staffed to monitor so that everyone is participating respectfully or they will be removed. Madam Clerk, could you please explain how public comments will be heard during today's meeting? Of course. At each agenda item, the item is presented. The Mayor will ask for subcommittee member comments and then open it up for public comment. The host and Zoom will be lowering all hands until public comment is open for the agenda item. Once the Mayor has called for public comment, the Mayor will announce for the public to raise their hand if they wish to speak on the specific agenda item. If you are calling in to listen to the meeting audibly, you can dial star nine to raise your hand. The host will then call on the public who have raised their hands. Public comment will be limited to three minutes and a timer will appear on the screen for the council and public to see. Once all live public comments have been heard, the meeting host will read email public comments. If you provide a live public comment on the agenda item but also submitted an email, your email public comment will not be read during the meeting. Additionally, there is one public comment period on today's agenda to speak on non-agenda matters, item three. This is the time when any person may address the subcommittee on matters not listed on this agenda but are within the subject matter jurisdiction of the subcommittee. All right, thank you for that. We are now taking public comments on item three, non-agenda matters. This is the time when any person may address the subcommittee on matters not listed on this agenda but which are within the subject matter jurisdiction of the subcommittee. If you wish to make a comment via Zoom, please raise your hand. If you're dialing in via telephone, please dial star nine to raise your hand. Madam host, would you please facilitate public comment for item number three? Of course. Our first public comment will be from Woody, Woody Hastings, followed by Mike Turgen. Woody, I have given you permission to unmute yourself. Great, thank you very much. Can you hear me? I can, let me go ahead and just bring the timer up on my screen. So bear with me one moment, please. Do you see the timer on your screen? I do see the timer, yes. Perfect, please identify yourself for public record if you so choose and your time begins now. Thank you very much. My name is Woody Hastings and I am the co-coordinator of an organization, grassroots organization, the coalition opposing new gas stations. And my comment relates to, it's basically a request. I'm pretty sure it's not on your agenda. To agendize the issue of the city considering some kind of action, perhaps an ordinance that would change the rules around fossil infrastructure in the city of Santa Rosa, but specifically for our purposes, the Congress organization, new gas stations. We just think it's not a good idea to be building new gas stations. In Santa Rosa in 2020, as folks probably know, as the committee probably knows, Governor Newsom has issued an executive order that calls for the cessation of sales of new gasoline powered cars by 2035. And that will trigger a lot of activity starting this coming year to bring us to a place in 2035 where we can stop selling new gasoline cars. So it just doesn't make sense to be building new gas stations. This wouldn't affect the two proposals that are currently in the pipeline. The ordinance that we're suggesting or action we're suggesting would just address any new applications that it would call for some new restrictions to be placed that really would effectively ban the construction of new gas stations in Santa Rosa. That's pretty much my comment, thank you. Thank you. Our next public comment will be from Mike Turgeon followed by Kevin Conway. Mike, I have given you permission to unmute yourself. Yes. Please confirm you can see the timer on your screen. I do. Perfect. Please identify yourself for public record if you so choose and your time begins now. Hi, I'm Mike Turgeon and I'm speaking on behalf of the Climate Center tonight. First of all, I just want to thank Richard Dowd for his service on this subcommittee since he was appointed to the position as city council person, bringing the great expertise that you've brought. Dick has been a great addition to this subcommittee and the general institutional knowledge of the kind of things that we're dealing with. But today I was primarily pre-promoting another agenda item that I would hope would appear on the Climate Action Subcommittee in the new year. The Climate Center introduced their Climate Save California campaign last year. And they have secured close to 1,000 endorsements from individuals, nonprofits and businesses in the last six or eight months. And so now what they are doing is preparing to, they've prepared a draft executive order for the governor to take the Climate Save California campaign and use it as the basis for an executive order that would effectively start to address the climate crisis from the state perspective. And the goal would be to reach net negative emissions by 2030 as science requires. And the four pillars of the Climate Save California campaign would be to accelerate the phase out of fossil fuel development, production and use, to increase carbon sequestration, to invest in community resilience around the state and to generate the funds needed for speed and scale climate action. And so now what we are doing as volunteers is we're seeking endorsements from municipalities and county authorities. And so our hope is that the Climate Save California endorsement from the city of Santa Rosa would appear in one of the future agendas for the Climate Save, the Climate Action Subcommittee. And so I've emailed this to all the subcommittee members as well as Amy Nicholson in the PED department. And so that's my hope is that we can see this come to one of the agendas in the near future. Thank you very much. Our next public comment will be from Kevin Conway followed by Anita. Kevin, I have given you permission to unmute yourself. Are you there Kevin? Kevin, it looks like you're unmuted but I'm not able to hear you. Kevin, I'm going to go ahead and mute you. We'll go to Anita and then we will come back to you. Oh, are you there Kevin? I'm here, but you can't hear me, correct? Now I can. Oh, you can, I'm sorry. No, not a problem. Please confirm you can see the timer on your screen. I can see it. Perfect, please identify yourself for public record if you so choose and your time begins now. Okay, thank you. And thank you for meeting today and giving me this opportunity to make a few comments. First of all, I agree with Woody and Mike and what they had to say. I wanted to add that at the last meeting of the Climate Action Subcommittee, you were considering a feasibility study for building a municipal microgrid. And I hope that on today's agenda, there would be a follow-up report on the status of that effort. I didn't see that on the agenda. So I want to express again my support for building a municipal microgrid. And I hope that's still on the front burner. 83% of the Spanish survey responders, 65% strongly and 18% agreeing that using settlement funds for infrastructure such as installation of backup generators or microgrids is a good use of that money. And 79% of the English survey responders felt the same way with 39% agreeing and 39% strongly agreeing. So with the time and the effort and the money that goes into conducting and reporting on a survey like that and 83% and 79% agreement rating for an idea should be very compelling and I hope be influential in the decision-making process. I did mention at the last meeting that the multi-customer microgrid that's going up in Humboldt County has been designed to be replicated. The cost is about $11 million for that microgrid, but it's a great template for a project like we could do here in Santa Rosa. And if you don't have details on that project, I'd be happy to get them to you. Anyway, again, thank you for your work in addressing the climate crisis and for all the work you do for our community. Our next public comment will be from Anita. Anita, I have given you permission to unmute your microphone. Hello, can you hear me? I can. Can you please confirm you can see the timer on your screen? I can. Perfect. Please identify yourself for public record if you so choose and your time begins now. Sure, thank you. My name's Anita McLeory. I am a resident of Santa Rosa for the last three years and also an employee of the Wayserro team at Recology. And basically what we do is the education, outreach and implementation of the recycle and compost programs, which is obviously an important part of helping reduce greenhouse gases and contributing to climate change. So I just wanted to say we support this initiative. We're real excited about having this as an additional incentive to work when we work with the businesses on the importance of doing what we all can to help fight climate change. And we're also looking forward to the approval of the county compost site so we can have something local, have something that's really actionable that we can all do to make a difference. I know when I moved here about three years ago it was about a month and a half after the fires and the tub fires and it was just really heartbreaking to see the devastation. And I think I've certainly after seeing all that I'm definitely dedicated to doing whatever we can to make sure that that never happens again and mitigating the greenhouse gases is a big part of that. So I just want to thank the city for their efforts in that. Thanks for your work on everything we do for the environment. Thank you. Mayor, that is it for our live public comment. I do have one email public comment to read. Okay. Thank you. Please proceed. Hello. Our names are Bella Luna and Zemena. We are two 18-year-old high school students residing in Santa Rosa. First, we want to appreciate all the work that this committee has been done to help address climate change. But we also want to direct your attention to another pressing issue that is very important yet often overlooked. The greater effects that these wildfires have on our undocumented communities. Due to the racial and economic inequity that our undocumented communities face, not only did many lose their jobs because of businesses and wineries burning down, but they also lost their belongings and homes in these fires. FEMA can only help those who are US citizens or people who have a green card. Due to the fear of deportation, many of them don't feel welcomed to ask for help from their local government. Unexpected expenses and additional demands for their children and long periods of unemployment create a huge impact on their lives. The undocumented community faces high stress levels and financial difficulties when impacted by climate change events. It is becoming harder and harder for people to find affordable housing, especially for undocumented immigrants. Since many can't speak or understand English, they aren't able to receive information regarding places they can get help from. These families find themselves struggling and trying to weigh different circumstances without any support. With most of the undocumented community being employed in the agricultural field, they get no access to resources despite contributing to Sonoma County's growth. We cannot let these families lose the climate change. Despite any legal status, we need to provide a safe environment where they can get all the resources to succeed and flourish. We would like to see the Climate Action Subcommittee take this into consideration as a part of the Santa Rosa Climate Action Plan. And that is all we have for public comment on non-agenda items. All right, thank you so much for that. I did want to make two comments. As many of you are aware, I know some of our comments that we just heard were for specific agenda items for this subcommittee. Right now, the City Council is scheduled to do the changeover on December 8th. With that changeover, we'll also elect a new mayor and vice mayor. And the new mayor will be identifying who will be the occupants of this subcommittee. So I personally have a list of all these items that we've been discussing and I'll be more than happy to share that information with the new mayor and the new subcommittee as we start preparing future agendas moving into 2021. And one of the comment was made regarding the microgrid on the Santa Rosa City Council agenda for December 1st as a report item, we do have microgrid, steady and energy audit. So that would be going to the full council on December 1st. So with that, we'll move to item four, item 4.1 where the draft minutes of September 22nd, 2020. Mr. Dowd, did you have any additions, corrections to those minutes? Seeing none, the only comment that I have, I didn't see any indication as to who was in attendance. So basically the first section there, I was hoping that we could add, I believe we had all members of the subcommittee there. So if our names or those who were in attendance could be added to those minutes, I would appreciate it. Of course, I will ensure that is updated and finalized. Okay, great. So we'll accept them as submitted with the names of the subcommittee members in attendance to be added. Great. Okay, item 4.2. Amy Nicholson, are you introducing this item? Yes, I am. Thank you. Mayor Schwedhelm and council member Dowd, item 4.2 is the consideration of the food wear and litter reduction ordinance. And Joey Hanowitz from Transportation and Public Works will be presenting. Good evening. Can you hear me? I certainly can, Jerry. Okay, great. So good evening, mayor Schwedhelm and council member Dowd. As you know, my name is Joey Hanowitz. I'm an administrative analyst here in the transportation and public works. I actually am here with a little bit of a followup to our previous review and meeting on a food wear and litter reduction ordinance, which you will remember is one of our first policy elements of our zero waste master plan was passed by city council earlier this year in January. Next slide, please. So just a little bit of a background and you've seen some of this information before, but just a touch base on kind of why we're proposing this ordinance and why we're here today. 2011, in 2011, there was a study of barrier street litter and areas impacting runoff into the San Francisco Bay. And that study found that 67% of all of over 12,000 litter items counted were single used food or beverage packaging, bringing the details a little bit closer to home. In 2017, there was a Russian River watershed analysis of trash running into the Russian river. And it also revealed that a similar percentage of those items that were collected over 2,500 here locally were single use plastics of some variety, including plastic wrappers, plastic bags, styrofoam food packaging, lids and straws. It is important to note here as well that nearly 10% or about 10% of that was styrofoam food packaging alone. And it was mentioned by staff that polystyrene is a consistent litter culprit and is an extremely difficult issue to resolve because styrofoam often breaks down into very small pieces rather easily and it's almost impossible to retrieve. And then some more information in regards to our city staff here in 2019, our stormwater and creeks cleanup programs are moved over 1,000 cubic yards of trash that were deposited into our storm drain system or active channels to our creeks. So we do know that we have some room for improvement here to try to remove some of these litter items from our environment. Next slide. So the practice of freely giving out single use plastic foodware encourages customers and food vendors to pay little attention to the elements that they're providing to their customers and the associated environmental impacts, which is another reason why we are bringing this ordinance forward to you today. And then just a reminder that the city council did adopt the zero waste master plan with the foodware ordinance being one of the plan central strategy recommendations. Next slide, please. So a little review on kind of where we're at. If you remember from last meeting we did, I did provide to you some in-depth perspective on the model ordinance that was developed by zero waste Sonoma and their ordinance was titled the ordinance to prohibit use and sale of disposable food service wear and other products containing polystyrene foam that was adopted by a few jurisdictions here locally. From what I understand, none of those jurisdictions have actually implemented the ordinance, but it has been considered and passed by a few jurisdictions, Hildsburg, Windsor and Sebastopol are the jurisdictions that I am aware of that passed that already. So just a brief synopsis of what the model ordinance does prohibits polystyrene foam, excuse me, prohibits polystyrene foam food wear distributed by food and beverage providers. Prohibits polystyrene foam food wear and specified polystyrene foam products sold by retail stores. You recall the specified polystyrene foam food products including are the packing, kind of styrofoam packing shells that you have there as well as the styrofoam containers that you hopefully don't see too much anymore but you might see out at the beach or out at the river out at a picnic. Three, it requires food and beverage providers and special events to use compostable or recyclable disposable food service wear. And it also requires that food and beverage providers to provide single use straws, lids, cutlery and to go condiment packages upon request only. So we're trying to move folks away from, providing those in to go to bag automatically and instead asking the consumers to request those materials if they do so need them. And then lastly, it does encourage the use of reusable but there is no mandate on the use of reusable within this ordinance. Next slide. Okay, so this is kind of really getting into the meat of the presentation here is where, kind of where we left off from the last meeting as far as what we were gonna do with our ordinance. We did have the muddle ordinance provided by Zero Waste Sonoma. I did mention that there were some other local jurisdictions in California, specifically the Bay Area that were going above and beyond and they have instituted some more aggressive models for single use food wear measures, including Berkeley and San Francisco were kind of found to be at the top of that heap. And the Climate Action Subcommittee did view their interest in pursuing this aggressive approach and requested staff to come back for more information. And so I am coming back with that information. We did let you know that compostable plastics are not accepted by our local compost facilities, which are going to be located in Ucai in Napa Enrichment. And it was found that some of these jurisdictions that have passed these ordinances, maybe potentially greenwashing are not being completely honest with their communities. And for instance, certain communities have said that these compostable plastics are allowed and they are gonna be composted. When in reality, we understand that whereas some of these jurisdictions are taking their materials to these compostable plastics, they don't break down in the time that they are marketed as and they end up getting screened out of the system and basically backfilled back to the landfill. So that was one of the concerns that I had with for potentially a Sanero's ordinance is I would hate to tell the community that we are gonna be composting some materials when in fact that they're not being utilized in that fashion. Another concern with the compostable plastics, and I guess I kind of wish we were in person that I could show you some examples, but the compostable plastics, they look exactly like a regular plastic cup that you might find anywhere else. And so the concern is that, if we were to allow the compostable plastics, even if let's say that they were compostable, that there might be some concern that you could confuse the public as far as what is a compostable plastic and what is not a compostable plastic. Next slide. So some of the research that I did was understanding that the compostable plastics weren't gonna be allowed because I looked in to see what food containers would be allowed that are fiber-based. And after more research and reaching out to our waste haulers, our compost facilities, and also speaking to a zero waste manager from one of the companies that does make these products here locally. It was actually, excuse me, what was it? World-centric here in Petaluma. It was found that moving to fully compostable food in Santa Rosa is probably not feasible at this point because the facilities that process our compost, they don't accept these materials in their waste stream. And what these materials are, these synthetic materials, excuse me, are polylactic acid, PLA, and PFAS, purin, polyfluoro-alcohol substances. Now what these substances do, and you've probably noticed these on some of the to-go containers that you receive at certain food outlets is they kind of have a little kind of shine to them. And these act as a grease and liquid-proofing agent for the food containers. They make it feasible to go folks to take foods home and to bring them home and for them not to be leaking out on their pants or on their car or anything like that. So they allow these bowls, cups, containers to hold wet, excuse me, hot, wet or greasy foods without falling apart. Specifically, the PLA is made from a fermented plant starch, usually corn, and PFAS are a family of thousands of chemicals used in a wide array of consumer goods that I've documented within the staff reports. You can review that. Next slide. So as I did mention, there really is gonna be no perfect product that is gonna be fully compostable, which for it to be fully compostable, you'd have to have pretty much an uncoated whites or natural plant fiber and paper products, paper napkins and towels are gonna be considered fully compostable. But as far as making it feasible for food service industries to actually give takeout and to expect that their patients were gonna be bringing those materials home and that they weren't gonna be leaking on them or causing any sort of other issues, these PLAs and PFASs are developed into these products for that kind of grease and liquid-hot-proofing agent. These materials are not accepted at our local compost facilities. And ultimately, these materials are screened out at the facilities that Santa Rosa delivers our materials. Couple of issues with those products is that we've heard from the composting facilities that these products that contain the PLA and PFAS, they don't break down or decompose in their regular commercial composting cycle, which is generally about 45 to 60 days. And so when they go to the compost, they end up still kind of seeing these containers semi-formed and they are gonna be screened out and taken to the landfill. Furthermore, and a big concern for the composters is any material that contains any sort of synthetic material, any compost containing any synthetic materials, which would include the PLA or the PFAS, those feedstocks, that organic material, it can no longer be marketed and sold as organic compost, which significantly reduces the resale value up to about three quarters of what they could sell it as organic. And so we're at a little bit of an impasse here with kind of with the market and also with the facilities and with the industry as far as what actually is compostable and what's accepted as compostable and what can be marketed as compostable. So after this further research, it was found that it may not be the most appropriate time to move to a fully compostable option, which is why I will kind of show you what I am gonna be proposing for moving forward in this ordinance on the next few slides. Next slide for me, Kaylee. So policy suggestions moving forward with the understanding that city council may still choose to move forward with a fully compostable option, considering that you may decide that going fully compostable is still gonna be better. You know, having compostable food wear in the landfill is still potentially better than single use plastic in the landfill. You might still, we could still potentially move that direction, but with the understanding that these materials that are gonna be marketed as compostable and sold as compostable really aren't going to be composted or put into the compost stream. So with that understanding, my policy suggestions moving forward is to move forward with the model zero waste to normal ordinance with a few suggested policy additions. And those would be that food vendors that allow self-busting at Dine-In food service facilities must provide a three bin color-coded receptacles. We have your blue for recycling, your green for compostable materials, and then your gray and or your black for your disposal for your garbage. For those, so for any Dine-In food service facilities where guests would be expected to self-bust for themselves, we would be requesting that all those restaurants have a three bin system with clear invisible signage that must be posted above and or on each receptacle. With this one, it also must be noted that this is a mandate through SB 1383, which is an organic law that is supposed to go into effect January 1st, 2022, which is gonna be a pretty major groundbreaking law that city council will be hearing more about in the upcoming months and year that I'm working diligently on. But that is going to be one of the features that is required of that ordinance. So as you can assume, my intention is to get this into this ordinance. And so we allow those businesses to adjust for that sooner than later. And then secondly, I would be suggesting also adding to the zero waste cinema model ordinance that food vendors that are offering on-site dining may only use reusable, durable, or washable foodware to serve customers eating on the premises. So that'll reduce the potential use of single-use plastics or any other items. So folks that are eating on-site, they need to have that reusable foodware as an option. Next slide. So additionally with the policy to just move forward, I am proposing effective date of January 1st, 2022. That is about a year out from now, which would give businesses and residents enough time to adapt to the regulations and to plan for that accordingly. It also does align with the implementation date of SB1383, which is the organics law. And it does provide staff ample time to communicate this information and reach out to the impacted businesses. And then lastly, I would just like to say that I will definitely continue to monitor the marketplace for new compostable foodware options and any potential supplements to the reusable foodware components in the future. I would say that this is kind of what the crux at the very kind of top of where this market is going right now. And I could tell you that probably in the next couple of years, things will be changing. There very well may be an all compostable option that is acceptable by compost facilities, haulers and policy makers alike. And just for instance, I was talking to the zero waste manager at WorldCentric who does make some of these materials. And they said that their research and development team is continuing to research and develop other potential options that they know would be better fits for some of these situations that we're dealing with like we're currently dealing with here in Sonoma County where we take our compostable material too. Next slide. So with before questions, I did want to touch base on a couple of other things that I wasn't able to get into the presentation before I had to send it to Kaylee there. I did reach out to some of the business community for the request of you Mayor Sweldhelm and I do have some kind of information as regards to those outreach events. I did send an email with the proposed kind of ordinance language and the proposed kind of highlights of the ordinance to the Santa Rosa Chamber of Commerce, the Santa Rosa Downtown District and the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. I did have a downtown Santa Rosa District Zoom call about a week ago that had about 10 to 12 business owners and participants on it. A couple of the folks that did make some comments at the meeting, some of the comments that they had to say were that right now there's a recommendation from the state of California and the guidelines for restaurants to use these single use products for health purposes. And so the owner of Russian River wanted to make sure that I was aware of that. Also additionally that there was one business owner that wasn't a fan of the idea of the reusables especially in a pandemic. And another business owner did mention that they would be concerned about any sort of increases in cost especially right now with the pandemic going on. I did also reach out to our Planning and Economic Development Department and I worked with Rafael Rivera to do some outreach out in Roseland out there kind of in Office of Bastopel Road on the Roseland Potential Future Roseland Village site. And a couple of the business owners that did show up for that there was, I guess there's probably about seven rate business owners that showed up that day. And a couple of the comments that I received was that it's very important to do the outreach in Spanish and to provide enough time for the business to adapt to the changes. There was a concern from the food trucks in Roseland Village who I don't know if any of you have ever been out there but they do have this kind of really awesome food truck, I don't know what you wanna call it but there's a bunch of food trucks located out there and they have a little bit of a dining area in there. So there is kind of a dining sort of system and they would be concerned whether or not they would be if they would be required to use the reusable foodware because they said that might not be an option for them out there outside. So that was one of the other comments that we received. And then there was another mention that as far as doing the outreach to that community that one of the best mediums for outreach is going to be the press Democrats. And this information was actually passed on from me from Marco Suarez who works for Sonoma County Economic Development Bureau. And he has a similar role to what Rafael Rivera holds for us at the county where Rafael holds for us here at the city of Santa Rosa. And he mentioned that, you know whenever it goes into the press Democrat he's always receiving phone calls and questions from that part of the community. And so that really is gonna be a really good medium to communicate with those folks out there. And then I did also want to just mention that I do have another meeting tomorrow morning with that's gonna be organized by Marco Suarez with the Sonoma County Economic Development Board with the Latino business owners meeting tomorrow at 9 a.m. So I will be doing some further outreach in that regard and we'd be happy to bring back the comments to you moving forward. So the next step moving forward like I said my recommendation is for me to put a draft ordinance together that would be the model of zero waste Sonoma ordinance with those few policy additions. And what I would do is I would bring that forward the plan is to bring that forward on December 15th as a study session to city council. And at this point I would be open to your questions or comments or anything that you have for me on this matter. All right, thank you Jerry for that presentation and you answered most of my questions in regards to outreach. Can you share with me though? It's great that you have all that it would be much better if I had that in like written form on slide. So when I'm out in the community I could actually use that as a reference. Here's what the outreach has been. Would there be any way that you could get that to this subcommittee? Yeah, I could definitely get that to you in a Word document form. Okay, and just so you know, the framework that I would have is that I would not want anyone who's in business that would be affected by this to not have heard of this. You know, I really want to be creating this with them not to them. And so, you know, no surprises. And I'll bring these same comments up at the, when it comes to full city council but that's kind of like what I would be tasking staff with, you know, I don't want anyone to be surprised that we're going in this direction. So with that, Mr. Dowd, did you have any questions for staff on this presentation? Can you hear me? Yes. Yes. Great. Success. I guess I really, really want to see the city of Santa Rosa move forward with an ordinance as depicted in the presentation. I'm constantly concerned when either my wife or I get a product that's in a plastic kind of container to see if I can be sure that it's a recyclable thing. And it just seems like things keep falling through the cracks. And we really need as a community and expand that to the state and the country really need to take care of this. So we don't see pictures or videos of plastic stuff left in a river or a bay or something that just thrown there because there's no value to it to the original producer of the product that's in it. And we just have to get over this hump so that we can't control the quantity or better yet eliminate the quantity of plastics and things that cannot be reused and are so harmful to the environment. So I'm really in favor of this. I just want to be sure that what we do accomplishes our goal. Thank you for those comments. Yeah, I would say that I really was pushing for the fully compostable option. And then after I did some more research there was some other entities involved that unfortunately that's not gonna be a possibility at the moment. It's not to say that I won't be possible down in down the future. One of the other items and it's really in big and zero waste right now and really is really gonna be the most effective is going to be promoting the reusables. And right now I think, especially in a pandemic that might not be the right time and the most appropriate time to bring forward the reusable component. But I can promise you that my plan would be to at least pass this model zero waste ordinance which is gonna get rid of the polystyrene. And then down the road hopefully as things potentially change for the better that we're able to institute some more significance, either compostable requirements or encourage businesses to really focus on allowing folks to bring in reusables like reusable Tupperware where they can bring in their own and they allow folks to get that to go foodware where they don't have to use any sort of plastic or any sort of other synthetic materials that are better clogging up our waste stream. So that would be my intention is to have this be kind of a living ordinance and looking to add to that in the future. And Mayor Schwedhelm, if I could chime in, this is Jason Nutt. Some of the conversation Council Member Dowd that Joey and I have been having is he's doing a great job of trying to create the broadest picture of what the city could do when it comes to implementing a recycled or a compostable program. And we recognize there are some limitations at this point in time. And as Joey explained before, that doesn't mean we couldn't move forward with something at the request of the council. It just means we recognize and we would be telling folks that at this point in time there's not a market for those particular products, right? And so when Joey outlined the Berkeley program back in September, he was very clear that compostable plastics don't actually make it to the composting program. They actually get screened out in the process even in Berkeley, but that compostable plastic is still better for our environment than the actual plastic product that we're utilizing that is not compostable. So I think one of the things that Joey's trying to be very, very forthcoming and forthright in his approach on this saying, I only want to recommend an implementation of a program for something that I can actually guarantee will occur. If council members feel we still need to be more aggressive, he's got a plan to be more aggressive. He just wants to be able to provide you with the information as well as the public is what the consequences of those are. So as you deliberate and provide feedback, I think those would be additionally good comments for him to be able to take in advance of the December 1st or the December 15th conversation with the full council. Thank you, Jason, for adding that. Dick, was there any comments you wanted to make as to what Jason, I would just follow up those comments and it's, I really, really appreciate the work that staff is putting into trying to come up with a ordinance that is successful in what we're trying to accomplish. And so don't misconstrue that I'm not happy with what you're doing. I'm very happy with what you're doing. I just want to be sure that you continue to work to find the right path for us to walk down so that we are accomplishing the goals. Thank you. And Joey, the other thing I have to add or a couple of things to add. I'm sure you were riveted by last night's city council meeting watching every item that we discussed. And one of the items was the expanding where mobile food vendors can be located. Currently right now it's in the Rosalind area but it's really gonna expand that opportunity throughout the city. So just want to A, make sure that you're aware of that. And so whatever implementation plan that we may be going into, mobile food trucks or mobile food vendors may be expanding throughout the city and not isolated to the Rosalind area. And I do appreciate you going out there talking with Marcos and Rafael because I think that is a key constituency when we want to make sure we get the compliance with whatever direction we're taking. So I don't have any other specific questions on this item. So we'll now be moving to public comment on item 4.2. If you'd like to make a comment via Zoom please raise your hand. If you're making a comment via telephone please dial star nine. Madam host, would you facilitate public comment on item 4.2? Of course. Account down timer will appear for the convenience of the speaker and viewers. The first speaker will be acknowledged and invited to speak. Please make sure you unmute yourself when you are invited to do so. Your microphone will be muted at the end of that countdown or at the conclusion of your comment. Our first comment will be from phone-in resident ending in three, seven, six, nine followed by Mark Mortensen. Hi there, can you hear us? I can hear you, can you hear me? Perfect, I can. One moment, let me just get the timer up on the screen. And you'll hear a chime if you reach the three minutes. Okay. So please identify yourself for public record if you so choose and your time begins now. My name is Mary Foley and I'm a transplant to Santa Rosa from San Francisco where I worked with the San Francisco Department of the Environment on their compost plan and their zero waste plan. And I wanted to, and I was also very active with the Breast Cancer Fund, which is now the Breast Cancer Prevention Partners who have identified PFAS as one of the key endocrine disrupting chemicals that is linked to breast cancer. More important right now, the most recent warnings from the National Institutes of Health and the National Toxicology Program are that it's linked to a decrease in the effectiveness of vaccines. And we're in the midst of waiting for the vaccine to come and we are going to allow restaurants and places to go boxes that are lined with PFAS. It's a, what's called a forever chemical. It stays in your body for up to eight years. It's also associated with liver disease and PFAS itself is used for stain resistant material. But when it breaks down, it becomes PFAS in the environment. If we're working toward, and I can send you information on this and websites on this, but if we're working toward zero waste, which is a great laudable effort, it means that we need to accept our pizza in boxes that aren't lined with PFAS, that aren't lined with a chemical that causes cancer and decreases our immunity. And if we're gonna allow that to go into our waste stream, we're really not working on eliminating waste. As I only did a quick, when I saw the agenda, I did a quick little bit of research on PLA, which is often found in those coffee pods. But it does say that supplanting, using PLA could reduce greenhouse gases by 1%. But in San Francisco, when I was there, we did this. And Chinese food was in white boxes that were lined with PFAS and all of Chinese restaurants and a lot of regular restaurants who use those white boxes, eliminated it. Santa Rosa can do it too. We are an organic safe city. We are a city that loves food. And I really think we should join Berkeley in San Francisco and the state of Washington, as well as that there's a country that is banned PFAS as well. It's not that hard to do. It's not that much more expensive. And I think we need to do it. So thank you for this time and thank you for your efforts. Thank you. Our next public comment will be from Mark Mortensen. Mark, I have enabled your speaking permission. Can you see the timer on your screen? Sure can, thank you. Perfect, please identify yourself for public record and your time begins now. Thank you. My name is Mark Mortensen and I'm a resident of Santa Rosa and I'm representing two local climate action groups, Friends of the Climate Action Plan and the Working Group for Emergency Climate Action Now. We just wanted to say that we are two groups wholeheartedly support this proposed ordinance. Staff has just done an incredible job, Joey, and whoever was working with them on this. We support the ordinance as provided by Zero Waste Sonoma but also with the recommended additional policies put forth by staff. And we like the timeframe of January 1st, 2022 to allow restaurants sufficient time to deplete their current stock and to get educated on what's going on. We understand the issue with compostable food wear. It's not a perfect solution. It's possible that maybe Willbox Renewable Sonoma Facility might be able to work with these current composts but in the meantime, it's better to put them into the landfill than single-use plastic. And so other issue, other point was that we've got some issues to be addressed. Those food trucks that issue got brought up so important to support small businesses. And so as far as reusable go and food trucks, there's really no good way for them to deal with that. So there might need to be some exemption for food trucks. We encourage restaurants to impose a fee for those who feel a need to take disposable cups and don't bring their own. Once things get back to whatever the new normal will be. Yeah, and so we're just very supportive of this and we really appreciate the hard work that staff has done and the work that our Climate Action Subcommittee is doing. And to tag on to the comment from our previous person. Yeah, it sounds like we really need to take a hard look at whether we wanna have PFAS's compostable products in Santa Rosa. So thank you very much, appreciate the time. Thank you. Our next comment will be from Logan Harvey. Hello, this is Logan Harvey. We see our specialist, Recology Sonoma Marin. Just wanna thank the Climate Subcommittee for their work on this and really thank staff, especially Joey, it's been fantastic to work with and just a real leader on this subject. So fully support this ordinance. Appreciate the comments about outreach. That's gonna be key to making this successful and probably as many languages as possible. There's a lot of Chinese and Vietnamese restaurants in Santa Rosa as well. Obviously, Spanish is gonna be number one. But yeah, this is critical to reducing climate emissions and saving landfill space. So appreciate the work that Santa Rosa is doing and glad to see you guys leading the county and fully support this. So thank you so much for bringing this up and happy to be a partner however I can. Thank you. Mayor, that concludes our live public comment. I do have three email public comments to read. All right, thank you. Please proceed. The scourge of plastics must be faced and replaced in Santa Rosa and everywhere. Compost as much as possible, beginning as soon as possible. Reduce, reuse, recycle. Onward, thank you, Judith Ion. Dear Climate Action Subcommittee, I hope this email finds you well. My name is Lendrie Purcell and I am the president of FACTS, Families Advocating for Chemical and Toxic Safely, a national advocacy group based in Petaluma, California. I also work as the vice president of Jonas Philanthropies and manage their environmental health grants. I am writing to bring to your attention the fact that there currently is a large public health issue with compostable foodware that is commonly treated with toxic non-stick chemicals, PFAS. Environmental health groups have been working on a statewide ban of these chemicals and compostable foodware, but that could take years and years because of industry pushback. Luckily, there are many companies including world-centric local that are no longer using these chemicals in their compostable foodware. We at FACTS applaud and move away from plastic and polystyrene foodware. At the same time, we urge you to encourage the use of compostable foodware made without toxic PFAS substances. Below, please see reports on this issue. I am happy to connect you with top advocates and scientists in the state working on this issue. Sincerely, Lendrie Purcell. Dear members of the Climate Action Committee, thank you for your work. I'm writing on behalf of the Alliance of Nurses for Healthy Environments. We have been involved in climate change and the use of safer chemicals for some time. The Climate Action Plan you are considering is comprehensive in that it addresses zero waste. However, the model ordinance you will be considering tomorrow allows for the continued use of foodware that is lined with harmful chemicals from PFAS. Family to be exempted from the prohibitions in the ordinances. These chemicals have an eight-year half-life in our bodies and are known to have harmful health effects. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention and the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry have acknowledged in a statement that PFAS harmed the immune system and may put certain populations at greater risk of contracting COVID-19 and greater risk of increased severity of infection. In addition, ASDTR warns that exposure to PFAS can interfere with the body's natural hormones, increase cholesterol levels, affect the immune system, and increase the risk of some cancers. According to Toxic-Free Future, exposures come from many sources and bio-accumulate or stays in our bodies. Some exposures include food. When PFAS are used in food packaging, such as standard trappers and takeout containers, they migrate to our food. Indoor air and dust. When PFAS are made in products such as stain-proofing for furniture and carpets or waterproofing for clothing, these items become PFAS factories releasing the chemicals over time into air and dust. Drinking water. An estimated 6 million U.S. residences with drinking water supplies contaminated with PFAS above safety levels set by the EPA, which ASDTR advises should be lowered and home and workplace products. PFAS use in cleaners, personal care products. Please take this opportunity to not silo solid waste and composting from the health and safety of Santa Rosa residences. Safe food containers that are compostable should be part of this ordinance. By prohibiting only polystyrene from the food wear list, the ordinance contributes to exposing people to harmful chemical and to adding to our solid waste burden. As the staff summary points out, the EPA warns of the health risks of PFAS. It also points out that the composting companies used by Santa Rosa will not take food wear that may be lined with PFAS. Containers end up in landfill, which is the exact opposite of the intention of this ordinance. Join San Francisco and 27, All right. That concludes public comment for this item. All right, thank you. Joey, I had a question before we go into final comments. Sure. And I had enough paper for you too, mayor, just to want to let you know, give me one chance to tell you something. Okay. The question I had is about the PFAS. My understanding is the model ordinance is silent on that does not prohibit it. Is that correct? The model ordinance does not prohibit PFAS, but from what I'm hearing, and I also would tend to agree with some of the public comments that are made, my direction would probably be to move forward with an ordinance that would ban the PFAS as an option. That was going to be my suggestion, at least for the 15th, give that as an option for council to say yay or nay on that specific point. Because I would like to know what would be the impact, either cost-wise or otherwise, of prohibiting that substance. Yeah, so what I'm kind of thinking right now from based on the direction of the council and also from hearing from the public is to move forward with a fully compostable ordinance, where we would make the PFAS, we would ban the PFAS, we would ban the polystyrene, and also my suggestion would be also to ban the compostable plastics because that really kind of tends to confuse folks what is actually compostable and what is actual real plastic. Now, the messaging is going to be the challenging part as far as messaging to the business owners, what actual materials can you actually give out to your customers. That is going to be challenging for staff, but I think that that is going to be the best approach moving forward. Okay, so do you have any specific request or information you would like from the subcommittee? You know, I think we kind of just discussed it over the past minute or two right now here, so I think I have my direction moving forward is to move forward that fully compostable option with the ban on PFAS, allowing the PLA-Lined products. We understand that those may get screened out currently, but it is still moving, I think, in the right direction and getting us away from single-use plastics. Okay, Mr. Dow, is there anything you would like to add or any other direction you'd like to provide to staff? No, I very much appreciate the way you presented that, Mayor and for Joey to understand that that's the way I would like to move forward as well. Okay, and then Joey, my last comment I know in the report you said the effective date of being January 1st of 2022, which does sound a long ways away, although things are promising for a vaccine, you know, I am open to me that's not a hard date. It's one I think we need to have a date to target for, but until we see when our impacts from the pandemic will start being modified, I would just be somewhat flexible with that date until we get more information about our pandemic situation. Sounds good. I will definitely consider that. I guess one question I did have for the two of you is in regards to when you mentioned the expansion of the mobile food vendors, Mayor, would that be something that would you be looking for me to exempt food trucks from the requirement to have the reusable, the diningware as a component of this ordinance? Or would you like those folks to also fall in line with that? So for me, the only reason I was bringing it up that we may see more of the mobile food vendors than we have in the past based on what we just discussed and approved last night. So it may seem from an education slash enforcement, it's one size of a problem if it's limited to Roseland, but with the opportunities throughout the city, I would just want you to be aware of that and factor that into the staff capacity to be able to address compliance. But I don't think they should, well, we can talk more about this on the 15th. I'm not looking for an exemption. I'm just thinking there may be more opportunities and a little bit more challenging to communicate some of the understanding education of what the ordinance we ultimately decide on. Got it. And then just one quick follow up for you and then also might be some interesting information for the community mayors. You did ask me at the last meeting, what were the potential impacts on COVID as far as disposal was concerned? So I do just have some brief updates for you on that. I did look at some of the annual reports, the quarterly reports that Recology does provide. And I could tell you that from the first quarter to the third quarter, we've seen a 60% increase in large item pickups because I did mention that to you, but actually to have some figures for you. Disposal has been more or less about the same. There has been about a 5% increase from the first quarter to the third quarter on disposal from this year. Recycling has increased 17%. So more people being home, probably ordering online, having more recyclables to dispose of. And then the organics has increased about 8% from first quarter to the third quarter. So we are definitely seeing those, those underlying impacts from COVID affecting our disposal rates and disposal tonnages. Great. Thanks for sharing that additional information. Anything else? Yeah, Mayor, this is Jason Nutt again. Just one more question to help Joey as we prepare for the 15th. In September, we talked about phasing the implementation of this. At this point, the proposal that Joey has is a single date where we're looking at January 22 as the implementation date for the entire program. I think there are portions of the program that are more complicated to implement than others. For example, the ban on polystringering doesn't necessarily, I think, need to wait until a year from now or beyond. But there are also potentially other components that Council may show interest in waiting even beyond January, 2022. I'm just wondering if you and Mr. Dowd have any suggestions for us, for Joey as we look to bring a proposal forward on the 15th and whether we should break apart the ordinance into phased implementations more than he's already proposed. Mr. Dowd, would you like to go first, providing feedback on that question? I think that the City Council and the community is ready to accept it as a complete package and not get into phasing too much. That's kind of my overall opinion. Okay, and my feedback would be a little different that I would want more information from, A, the vendors or businesses that are gonna be impacted by this, what would make sense for their business model, and also the staff capacity. Because I think compliance is gonna be something just to have an ordinance with no opportunity to check on the compliance. And that would be, again, a staff recommendation. So I'd be looking for those two other data points to kind of give Council a little bit more information to ultimately come up with a decision. Thank you for that feedback. Okay, anything else from Joey, Jason or anyone else on this item? I am good Mayor. Alrighty, let's move on then to item, thank you, Joey, by the way, for that presentation, always very thorough. Let's then move on to item 4.3 and Amy, will you be introducing this one? Yes, thank you, Mayor. Item 4.3, Sonoma Climate Mobilization Strategy Update and Tanya Nareth from the Regional Climate Protection Authority will be presenting. Good evening, Mayor Schwedholm and Council Member Down. This is Tanya, and thank you very much for this opportunity to give a brief update on what the RCPA has been working on over the last couple of months, which is the Sonoma Climate Mobilization Strategy Update. Next slide, please. So first some background in terms of what led to the development of this strategy. So as you may recall, in 2016, the RCPA released the Climate Action 2020 and Beyond, which is our county-wide Climate Action Plan. And although Santa Rosa already had its own Climate Action Plan, we did incorporate by reference the goals and targets that Santa Rosa had set in its own plan several years prior. And then in 2018, we released the Shift Sonoma County Low Carbon Transportation Action Plan, which was designed to implement some of the transportation components of the Climate Action 2020 plan. And then in 2019 and early 2020, we had nine of our 10 jurisdictions and the RCPA adopt climate emergency resolutions. And in the resolution that our board adopted, our board directed staff to develop what at the time was referred to as the 2030 Climate Emergency Mobilization Strategy, which we have since recently renamed to the Sonoma Climate Mobilization Strategy to shorten it just a bit. And so we have been working on this strategy since the spring of 2020. And the strategy is being designed to achieve a goal of carbon neutral by 2030 for Sonoma County. Next slide, please. The strategy to kind of frame the strategy, we adopted a set of guiding principles. So kind of one of the key items is that we wanna focus on high impact actions that are within our local government control to implement. And so when you look through the strategy, you will notice that we're not listing every potential climate action that could be taken, not to say that they aren't all very important, but we wanna try and focus our efforts on those really big impact items. And so that's what we're aiming for in the strategy. We also want to integrate and focus on equity in the strategy. And we want to, as much as possible, connect our community's priorities with the work we do around climate action and resilience because they are all very much interrelated. We also recognize that we can't do all of this work on our own here in Sonoma County, that we will need assistance and support from our regional and state level governments in terms of policy solutions. And one recent example of that is Governor Newsom's executive order that was mentioned earlier, the ban on the sale of gas-powered vehicles by 2035. And so that certainly will support our efforts here locally to transform our transportation system. Then we wanna make sure that we're aligning with and supporting local jurisdictions, which is really part of my intention and purpose for being here this evening is to make sure that you are aware of the work that we're doing. We have been working with staff members in the city of Santa Rosa and our other jurisdictions, but again, wanna get the information out as broadly as we can. And then finally, we wanna be able to establish metrics as we go forward so that we're tracking our progress. And we're interested in identifying metrics in addition to our greenhouse gas inventory because we only publish that or produce that every several years and it's not sufficient to track our progress in between. And so we also wanna include that as part of the strategy. Next slide, please. So the strategy at the core of the strategy is what we're calling a 10-year emergency policy package. And we've organized the strategies in the package into these four categories, decarbonization, carbon sequestration, resilience and adaptation, and then equity and community engagement. And the equity and community engagement pillar or strategy area is really intended to be a foundation and really flow across the other three strategies so that we integrate those important elements into the other areas. And in a little bit, I'll go into more detail on the strategies that are in each of these areas. Next slide, please. So before I do that, I wanted to say a few more words about the goal of carbon neutrality by 2030, which I will say is a very big goal and it's a necessary goal. And in this slide, I just wanted to share that it is in most cases in alignment with what other jurisdictions have adopted in their climate emergency resolutions in terms of a target for 2030. And you'll see it worded differently in the different resolutions, but there is definitely some consistency across. So including the city of Santa Rosa, there's definitely a strong commitment to achieving that goal or at least aiming for that goal by 2030. So that's what this slide is all about. Next slide, please. And so here's an overview of the strategies that we've defined in each of the initiative areas. And under decarbonization, we have three separate sectors that we're focusing on, buildings, transportation and solid waste. And so I'm really encouraged and impressed by the work that Santa Rosa is doing to advance the zero waste goal. Kudos to Joey and your staff. Very important. And so you're well on your way in terms of that item. So we've identified a total of 14 strategies. And in the next couple of slides, I'll go through a little bit more detail on each of the strategies. So next slide, please. And these are the milestones that we have set for the strategy. We've been working since June to gather input from a broad variety of stakeholders in the community as well as with our partners in each of the cities in the county across Sonoma County. We presented a draft of the strategy to our board in August and received some great input from our board. And then since then we've been working with a number of different groups to revise the strategy and add a bit more detail to it with the goal of our board adopting the final strategy at its next meeting on December 14th. And then we envisioned taking the spring time to really define an implementation plan and probably the biggest challenge or one of the biggest challenges that we face is identifying the funding sources to actually implement the plan. And then we would have our board approve that plan this spring. And I should also comment or mention that we don't envision RCPA doing all of these actions. The intention of the strategy is really to set out an overall framework that we can work together on across the county, the cities and the county as well as our partner agencies to implement the strategy. And so part of the implementation plan will be identifying who the lead organizations will be to carry those individual strategies forward. And RCPA will play a supporting and a coordinating role. And in some cases may be responsible for implementing a strategy. So next slide, please. All right, so now I'll go through a little bit more detail on the different strategies and then welcome any questions at the end. So in terms of decarbonization for buildings and this won't be of any surprise to you, I think because of the work that's already been done in Santa Rosa but we have two main areas that we wanna focus on here. And the first is to accelerate the electrification of our existing buildings as well as electrifying all new buildings. And I think the really big challenge in this area is our existing building stock. As you know, it's the majority of what we have out there obviously and you've already taken steps as a city to address new buildings or new construction but we need to find ways to retrofit our existing buildings both residential and commercial. And we are in a couple of these strategies recommending that our jurisdictions, our cities and county really set a leadership example by looking at your own municipal buildings and setting a goal of converting those to 100% electricity and carbon-free electricity by 2030 which is a real stretch goal that we don't think is feasible for the rest of the building stock but we wanna put that out there for our municipalities to consider. And then the second piece of the building energy strategy as we're moving to all electric in our buildings we also need to make sure that we're accelerating our transition to 100% carbon-free electricity. And so we would be promoting the use of 100% renewable or carbon-free energy as provided by Sonoma Clean Power or the city of Hildesburg for example and again for municipal buildings looking at ways to achieve this goal by 2030 for all of those buildings. And then the third item is also related to our resilience initiative which is to develop a campaign to increase the installations of solar plus battery storage so that we look at that as a way of increasing our resilience to power outages in the community. And then finally we want to look at using demand response technologies to really manage our use of the grid more effectively. So an example of that would be if you have a heat pump water heater you could super heat that water in the heater during a time when demand is low and rates are low and then you could draw on that hot water during a time when demand for electricity is higher. So really managing that use more effectively. Next slide please. So now we're moving into the transportation section which actually is the bigger challenge I think for Sonoma County transportation emissions make up about 60% of our total emissions countywide. And so the goal of this first strategy is to essentially make it easier to get around Sonoma County without a car. And so in this strategy we want to implement low stress bike and PED network. So really looking here at accelerating and finding funding for communities to implement like the Santa Rosa bike PED master plan that was recently adopted and looking at other ways to improve those facilities. The SCTA is working with the health department right now on a vision zero action plan. And so when that plan is released we wanna be able to implement the recommendations that make it safer to walk and bike. And then our board recently launched an ad hoc committee of the board to look at the future of transit in Sonoma County and working closely with the transit operators at least the best transit operators to begin to look at how we evolve our transit system to better meet the needs of the community and make it a more viable option as well as a more equitable option. And then finally we are working on updating our comprehensive transportation plan. And that also has a suite of strategies that are designed to address the transportation challenge that we have. And in that plan we see additional options like unbundling parking from leases, pricing strategies, et cetera. Next slide please. So then the other piece of the, so you can think of the previous strategy, the drive lesson of the county as looking at ways to decrease our vehicle miles traveled. And then at the same time we also need to look at upgrading our fleet of vehicles to be all electric. And so this EV access for all partnership is designed to accelerate the transition to 100% EVs for all transportation needs that can't be met by the alternative modes of transportation. And so we of course want to work with our partners to increase the number of EV charging stations in the county because that's a necessary requirement to be able to expand the number of EVs. We wanna look at ways to make it easier to implement the charging station. So reducing barriers, looking at cost, et cetera. And then finally, and very critical in this area is looking at new models and ways to make EV ownership accessible to more people in our community. So currently it's been primarily, I think folks with the money and the means to be able to purchase these vehicles. And we wanna make sure that they are more available to a broader set of our community members. And then the final transportation strategy is developing a vehicle miles travel bank, which is something that comes about with the new SB743 regulation that under SQL requires new developments to be evaluated, their transportation impacts to be evaluated based on their impact on VMT rather than level of service. And so we wanna look at a way to create basically a funding mechanism for new transportation projects that would for new developments that either choose to not mitigate on-site or not able to mitigate on-site in terms of their VMT impact that they could pay a fee into some form of a mitigation bank. And those funds could be pooled to fund larger transportation projects like a new separated bike lane or contribute to our bus transit system in some way. And so this is an area that we want to explore as a funding mechanism. So next slide, please. All right, and the final item in the decarbonization is the solid waste. And I will spend much time on this one other than say that we'll plan to work with our partners in zero waste Sonoma and of course the city of Santa Rosa and others to achieve a zero waste by 2030 goal. And zero waste Sonoma is actually working on some more details behind this strategy as we speak. And so I expect that we'll be adding some more to this one very soon. The next slide, please. And I'll move into the carbon sequestration section and carbon sequestration is a set of strategies that actually were referenced and outlined to some degree in the Climate Action 2020 plan. But now we're seeing an increased interest and need to focus on this area in part because when we look at the goal of being carbon neutral by 2030 we don't believe that it's possible to completely eliminate all of our greenhouse gas emissions by 2030. So we will need to sequester offset those emissions through sequestration into our working lands and potentially our urban lands. And so the carbon sequestration set of strategies are designed to help us achieve that 2030 goal as well as provide a whole host of other benefits in terms of healthier soils and air quality and those sorts of benefits. And so the carbon sequestration we're looking at it in two areas. One is how we can increase sequestration on our working lands and our open space. And so we imagine partnering with the Sonoma County Ag and Open Space District to continue the great work they've been doing in terms of land conservation and land use policies that increase sequestration. Our resource conservation districts are doing great work with local ag producers on developing and implementing what's known as a carbon farm plan which outlines strategies that can be used to increase the sequestration on a farm or a working land. And what's holding them back right now is a lack of funding. And so we wanna look at ways to increase that funding so they can scale those plans up significantly. And then the final piece is to work with our community-based organizations to look at the potential for urban and city sequestration and to develop some kind of menu of recommendations that cities could implement. And that leads into the next slide, if you could go to the next slide, please. So this is our green communities for all. And this is really where we wanna look at increasing sequestration options in urban spaces. So whether it be through backyard composting, practices that could be implemented in city parks or other open spaces within an urban setting, tree planting, et cetera. And so that's what this campaign or strategy would be focused on. Next slide, please. And this section now is the resilience and adaptation. And we have two main strategy areas. One, we're calling energy grid for the future, which is really looking at what we need to do to increase the resilience of our energy grid, as well as prepare for the electrification of our building and transportation. So we know that we're going to be relying much more on our electric grid. And that's been raised as a concern that we've heard from community members when we talk about moving to all electric buildings. So we need to look at strategies like microgrids, which is our first strategy that we're recommending to provide more of that resilience for our electricity supply. And we recommend focusing on our critical infrastructure and vulnerable populations first. And then second, it's not something that we can control here locally, but we see ourselves advocating for the creation of a more reliable and robust energy grid. So working with our partners in Sonoma Clean Power, PG&E at the state level to advocate for changes that will make our grid more reliable. And then the second key strategy area is what we're calling climate resilience Sonoma County. And this is where many of the existing efforts that are going on to adapt to climate change impacts would be seen. And we are planning to convene the Urban Land Institute Resilience Advisory Panel. This is a project that we started last year and it actually planned to hold the panel in Sonoma County in March. And unfortunately it was scheduled right when the pandemic really geared up and so we had to cancel or postpone the panel. But what this will be is we will bring a panel of experts from the Urban Land Institute, probably in some sort of a Zoom or remote setting in 2021 and have them take a look at what we've already done here in Sonoma County around our resiliency and recovery efforts both at the city and the county level and look at our strategies around grid management and backup power, et cetera and make recommendations to the community in terms of how we can do even more there. And so we'd want to implement those recommendations. We wanna look at working with local partners to launch a local vegetation forest management and fire prevention corps. So recognizing that there's really a lot of opportunity to do more proactively to minimize the impact of fires. And then finally, and of course support the implementation of the local hazard mitigation plans that all of our jurisdictions are working on or have in place. So next slide, please. So my last slide is the equity and community engagement pillar. And as I mentioned at the beginning, we envision this pillar as really supporting the work that's being done in all of the other areas. So we currently have a community climate action advisory committee of the RCPA. And so what we're looking at is, how could we tap into that group of experts and possibly expand the membership there to represent a more diverse set of our community members, but really to use that committee as a key sounding board and input on the strategies. We're looking at developing a survey to deliver on a regular basis so we can keep track of the attitudes and the needs in the community around climate and climate actions. And then this third one, I think is really key because we recognize, at least in RCPA, that we don't have all of the connections with the diversity of our community that we want to have. And so we envision ourselves working with skilled organizations that are really connected in with the community in the ways that we're not to increase our capacity to implement the strategies and to make sure that they reflect the needs of the entire community. And then finally, under equity and climate and all policies, working with your staff and the rest of the county staff to look at ways that we can really integrate equity and climate into existing policies. So whether it's a review process and a checklist in terms of here are the climate issues that should be looked at. And then there's a number of tools that have been developed to integrate equity into our policies. And so we want to implement that as part of this strategy. So with that, I think that was my last slide. I will stop and ask if you have any questions or recommendations. Thank you. Great, thank you for that presentation, Tanya. Mr. Dowd, do you have any questions? The menu of things that have just been presented to us is mind boggling, but the thing that was going through my mind as I was listening to the presentation which was very good is I think we're quite fortunate in Sonoma County to have a population that supports trying to find means by which we can financially support these kinds of things. I'm thinking of the recently passed sales tax measures and most of the cities and also the transportation tax. Those are the kind of things that we need to have so we can do some of these things. And I'm really very proud of our population in this community and our county at large. All right, thank you for that, Mr. Dowd. I had a couple of questions. Tanya, on slide five, I don't want to put you in awkward position, but I recognize the one city was not engaged. Is that an admission? Did they just choose not to do that? Or is there a reason that we don't have all nine cities plus the county on that? Yeah, the city that's missing has not yet put forward a climate emergency resolution. And I know that that's been of interest, but it just hasn't made it as a top priority for that city. So we'd certainly like to see that move forward and would certainly do anything we could to support the city in that, but they haven't gotten to the point of passing one yet. And I would just offer that if I could be of assistance there with some of the contacts I have with that jurisdiction, I'm more than happy to have that conversation. Because as you mentioned, we all have to be in on this together. Yeah, thank you. And then the second question, last night I was very happy that council approved the purchase of four electric buses, but we had an interesting discussion regarding the battery. Do we go the lease route or the purchase route? And one of the items came up about, what do you do with the battery once it's done? Does it go to the landfill, is it recycled? Can you shed any light on that? Because again, for me, I'm looking at what's the most efficient. Don't want to go electric, which is a good step forward, but if we're causing some unintended consequences, specifically with the reuse of the battery or the recycle of the battery, can you shed any information about how that works? Yeah, I don't have information on that, but I certainly could follow up and get that back to you. Yeah, it's not an area that I've closely followed, but. It would be helpful because I think the sense was to be tragic if these used batteries end up in our landfill or if they're being recycled some of the way. Again, the city of Santa Rosa, I think it's the first step to electrify our entire bus fleet, which I think is a huge step forward, but it would be great to know that information is available. Happy to get that back to you. Mayor, this is Jason, again, I apologize for cutting in just in response. I've spoken with a lot of electric vehicle manufacturers and battery manufacturers. Transport to the landfill is generally not one of the solutions that they have. There are a lot of other options that they're coming up with such as battery banking for electric storage. That's the one I hear most often for those batteries that are below the efficiency rating that most of the manufacturers are putting out. Otherwise there's reconditioning and other things that are going into place that are causing batteries to have a longer life. Sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt on this one, but I thought I could be able to provide a little bit of additional insight. No, thank you for that, Jason. It's just a topic of conversation. I think we really wanna think this all out. And from a council perspective, I know that is on some of our minds as we're continuing in this direction. And for me, I'm very optimistic that the technological advances of this technology will actually come up with some very positive solutions to that potential dilemma. So with that, we're now gonna take public comment on item 4.3. If you want to make your comment via Zoom, please raise your hand. And if you're dialing in via telephone, please dial star nine. Madam host, would you please facilitate public comment on item 4.3? Of course, a countdown timer will appear for the convenience of the speaker and viewers. The first speaker will be acknowledged and invited to speak. Please make sure to unmute yourself when you are invited to do so. Your microphone will be muted at the end of that countdown or at the conclusion of your comment. Our first public comment will be by Catherine Dodd. Catherine, I have enabled your speaking permission. Can you, oh, let me share the screen real, or the timer real quick. Can you confirm that you see the timer on your screen? I see the timer. I hadn't intended to comment, but I'm thrilled to hear this presentation. When you mentioned vegetation and forest management, I wanted to put in a plug for safe ag, safe schools in Sonoma County, which has been working to decrease pesticide use. And we have a fledgling project, which we can use in Sonoma County and in Santa Rosa, using goats and sheep. And from a fire prevention perspective, when you use mechanical equipment to cut down vegetation, those often spark fires. And the fire captain who presented at a recent event said, that's not uncommon. But if we use goats and sheep, sheep in the vineyards, they eliminate the weeds, that will eliminate the need for use of acoustic pesticides and make it safer for everyone to not have glyphosate in their wine. And for the people who are working in the vineyards, and it's a carbon neutral solution in terms of the grass, the grassy areas, the goats are used all over the country. And I'm just kind of putting, I would love to talk to you more about it. And I'll put you on notice, Tanya, and members of the city council that we will be putting together a major project on goats and sheep and vegetation management and fire prevention and pesticide reduction. Thank you. Mayor, that is the last of our hand raised. And I have no email, public comment for this item. Okay, thank you for that. Tanya, I know this seemed to be more of that information. Exchange, I really appreciate all the info. Did you have any other specific feedback you'd like from the subcommittee members? Well, I would ask if you heard anything in my presentation that you would either have a concern about or feel like it wouldn't apply for Santa Rosa. I mean, I know that you're starting your general plan update process and we'll be updating your climate action plan. So if there's anything that you have a question or concern about in terms of alignment with the work that we're doing, it would be great to hear that now or in the future as well. Great. Mr. Dowd, any thoughts or comments? Not at this time. I want to see this move forward. And I'm sure there'll be times again in the future to evaluate as we move forward. Yeah, and I would echo those sentiments, Tanya. I'm very appreciative of it. There is a lot of information there. And I would just ask that you keep the council apprised, specifically if there are specific things that we can do to support or enhance all of these efforts. Because as you mentioned, no one entity is going to be doing it alone. And I'd really like the city of Santa Rosa to be a leader in all of these efforts. Yeah, that would be great. So how would you like me to do that? Would it be good to come back to this subcommittee periodically to provide an update, maybe as we're reaching some milestones? Would that work? Before Jason steps in, it's always best to go through city staff and then they can coordinate that and they know how to get a hold of us and get onto agendas. Great. I will do that. Thank you. Okay. Thank you so much for your presentation. Thank you. Okay, so item five matters held in committee. I'm not sure if we have any committee on this. Amy or Jason, is there anything specific on this item? This is Amy. I'm not aware of anything specific for this item. Okay. The same thing on item six, department reports. Are there any department reports to share with us this evening? I do have a quick update. This is related to a planned eco-adapt workshop that planning staff have briefly presented to the subcommittee before. This is a workshop that would assess climate related vulnerabilities and discuss climate adaptation strategies that can inform both the general plan and climate action plan updates that are currently underway. So we're anticipating that this workshop will be held the week of January 18th. That date is tentative currently. And the workshop will include a community engagement component. So more information will be provided to both the subcommittee and also members of the public in the coming weeks as we finalize those details. That would be great. And I'd ask you, would that be appropriate to share with the entire city council and not just the subcommittee? Yes, absolutely. We can do that. Great. Thanks. And that's all for your report? Yes. Okay. Madam host, could you facilitate any public comment on that report? Of course, I see no hands raised. All right, Eden. With that, having no further items on this November 18th agenda, we will adjourn the meeting. Thank you for the presentations and participation.