MINUTES
October 26, 2006,
2:00 p.m.
City Hall
Members
Present: Mayor Jim Schmitt, Jeff
DeLaune, Gary Delveaux, , Michael Finney, Jessica Garrels, Ian Griffiths, Dr.
John Katers, Rich Krieg, Bill Lockery, Dan Roarty, Rob Strong, Derek Lord,
Clarence Wickham, Andre Jacque, John Miller, Annette Weissbach
Gary
Delveaux called the meeting to order at 2:00 p.m.
The minutes
of the October 12, 2006 meeting were approved as written.
G. Delveaux
distributed a copy of the revised mission statement. There were no comments on the mission
statement.
Copies of the
subcommittee reports were distributed.
Each committee reviewed their report and comments were made relative to
format (liking the idea of including fact boxes), to having overlapping with
some groups, and to including the resources or sources of information that were
used. Comment was made that recycling is
not covered in any report and needs to be included. Most committees agreed that they have more work
to do on their report and more time is needed to have people in the specific
areas (i.e. stormwater and Metropolitan Sewage District) review information for
accuracy and to have time “to make the report right”.
Mayor Schmitt
stated that he would like to see the subcommittees follow the Land Use
Subcommittee format using a table and three boxes listing Recommendation,
Implementation and Measurable Outcome.
Other comments relative to format included breaking down recommendations
in three categories: home, business and municipality and having a link to the
Water Utility, or other department.
Further discussion surrounded having an active plan versus suggestions,
different approaches and educational process; and the outcome of actions people
take on their own.
Discussion
ensued regarding the final written document and what this document will be,
possibly a strategic document, and who is the target audience? The Mayor stated that the document becomes a
priority and awareness and announcing an initiative is a big part, adding that
it has to be measurable. Further discussion involved where the resources will
come from to make these initiatives happen, such as paying for structural
changes to allow a building to have a green roof, and involving neighborhoods
and schools in an awareness campaign. TIF fundings in our development areas
were mentioned as well as property taxes as a possible resource to assist with
rooftop gardens, as well as the City Council adopting a resolution to give them
awareness. Dan Roarty said the Mayor
needs to hear from this committee what resources are needed. Rob Strong said we
need the Council to buy into the Mayor’s initiative. A. Jacque stated that the
committee needs to provide a list of measurables to present to the Council, with
timelines. He cited examples such as next year the School District sending home
flyers with the children three times with energy tips or Mr. Yuck stickers to
place on motor oil, etc. He said the master document needs to be presentable
and have some academic weight to it to be duplicated and to back up a power
point presentation. He said the Mayor will duplicate this document for other
municipalities and possibly bring it to New North. Andre suggested finding a way to make the
recommendations from the subcommittees specific to Green Bay and then ask what
a reasonable timeline for implementation and how this can be done. He said staff will then have time to bring
this forward to committee, and reiterated the need to present good achievable
goals that are measurable. It was
suggested to give Council an update every three months.
Discussion
included the role of this committee and the committee continuing on through
implementation or having a full-time staff person funded through grant money,
who would hold the committee accountable for implementing their
recommendations. Further discussion
included suggestions of an endowment, student scholarships or energy money
savings for seed money and to fund a staff position. The importance of marketing to the Chamber of
Commerce and businesses was stressed.
Andre believes it would be good to have a person whose primary focus
would be this project and asked what background or degree(s) this person would
need to have. He added that it would be difficult to get grant money beyond two
years to fund a full-time staff person.
M. Finney
said the previous Sustainable Group did not have any capacity resources, which
was the eventual reason that the group disbanded and the grant money the group
received expired in a year. M. Finney cited three things he believes are
important for this initiative 1) some dollar resources for awareness 2)
partnership opportunities with businesses or with anybody doing good things and
become the public relations component to it 3) clarify who is the owner of this
initiative, i.e. are we asking institutions to implement the recommendations
the committee makes and asking them to track and report back to us? He asked if a public group can ask the city
to act on things that this committee recommends and to report back? He asked what is the role of this committee in
partnering with the city? C. Wickham said if you want to get something
done quickly, the fastest way is to get the city to mandate it through code
changes. R. Strong said the Mayor will
have to decide what he wishes this committee to be since it’s the Mayor’s
initiative. He cited the example of the
Mayor’s Leadership Council (MNLC) which is comprised of all members of
neighborhood associations; they meet with the Mayor and advise the Mayor, and
this group does not report to the City Council in any way. Rob stated that the funds
the MNLC raises is their own money to spend as they see fit, and does
not need to go through Council approval. He said there are benefits to keeping
it separate and they still have a direct link to the Mayor’s Office when they
need it. Andre said if this group wishes
to follow the model of the MNLC, they could conduct a fund raising campaign.
G. Delveaux
wrapped up the meeting stating that it appears all the groups need additional
time to complete their reports and once we get the full report together, there will be a section on implementation with
deliverables for each section. Ian commented that the last hour was a good
discussion on why we’re here and how we’re going to get where we want to be and
how it will be structured. He added that the committee needs to think about a
funded position that reports to the Mayor or whether this is a body that
reports to the Mayor. He said the next
meeting will have the same structure as this meeting where we bring the reports
up to the next level and see what each member thinks about how this is going to
be most effective. R. Strong said we don’t want to let the action plan fade
like the last group. C. Wickham said normally a survey is done up front to get
input from a six block section of the city, and ask what they feel is the most
important area to focus on from the Sustainable Task Force Group. Annette mentioned the survey that the
previous group conducted of many influential people in the city, stating that
many of the recommendations that came at that time are the same as those of
this group.
G. Delveaux
and Ian said the group is not yet at the point of formatting everything. It was suggested to give input to the groups
if they feel anything needs to be changed in their report.
Jessica
Garrels shared information about her group seeking a new location for Earth Jam
and said she requested a meeting with the Mayor to brainstorm the logistics of
holding this event downtown.
The next
meeting will be held on Thursday, November 16, 2006 at 2:00 p.m. in Room 604
of City Hall.