MINUTES
November 16, 2006,
2:00 p.m.
City
Hall, Room 604
Members
Present: Mayor Jim Schmitt, Jeff
DeLaune, Gary Delveaux, Jessica Garrels, Rich Krieg, Dan Roarty, Rob Strong,
Derek Lord, Andre Jacque, Tom Lesperance, Annette Weissbach
Gary
Delveaux called the meeting to order at 2:00 p.m. and explained his
plan for the committee stating that today the group would review the updated
draft reports from the subcommittees, then a small group will put these reports
together to flow as one report, then the group will meet again to review the
draft report. He stated that a section
in the report will be the implementation plan and
asked if it made sense to the group to pull the individual implementation plans
together into one plan? Jessica stated
that each group should still have their individual top two priorities. Mr. DeLaune suggested saying that “these are
the projects that will be worked on for the next twelve months” and it would be
more of a living document. Mr. Delveaux
said we will talk more about the next twelve month’s projects.
Updated
reports from the Energy and Water/Air subcommittees were distributed. Jeff
DeLaune reviewed changes to the Energy Group’s report indicating that their
project list consisted of 20 projects and said the group will prioritize the
projects and will list their top two or three and will include funding and a
timeline. He said the background section
was basically the same but added weblinks for obtaining more information, and
said their implementation plan is more of an overview than a plan right now.
Dan Roarty
reported that the Transportation committee has not had time to meet since the
last meeting and therefore had no updated report. He stated that he believes there will be
significant changes in their report and it will blend more like the other
reports and more attention will be paid to the projects. The idea of a trestle trail at the end of
Porlier Street was discussed such as the trail that was done in Menasha. Mr.
Krieg said this trail was not included in the Transportation Committee report
with Mr. Roarty responding that Michael Finney was working on that portion of
their report and it will be put back in.
Annette said the Menasha trail was funded by grants. She stated that the Army Corps of Engineers
has a sustainable communities type of group and will
get further information to share with the group.
Derek Lord
gave an update on the Water/Air report stating that they used the format that
the Land Use group followed and said their implementation tables were attached
to the back of the report and broke down the recommendations into a table in
the categories of .
He said the recommendations throughout the report were broken down into
business owner, municipal leader, and residential. He said they have not yet prioritized their
recommendations. D. Roarty inquired
about prioritizing the recommendations by importance, cost of the recommendation,
the quality and overall expected impact, and possibly a fourth area. J. DeLaune said this is the matrix he
suggested at a previous meeting. Copies
were made and distributed of this plan. D. Lord said they do not yet have an
implementation section for the water conservation section and they will
prioritize their recommendations.
Annette
Weissbach reported for the Land Use Committee stating that they didn’t change
anything on their report, adding that they need to prioritize their projects
and will be adding factoids. Rich Krieg
said that UWGB is working on a Green Bay Green Map. Jessica explained what a green map is, saying
that it’s an online tool where you look at what buildings are green buildings,
where you have green spaces, hot spots for pollution, sustainable environmental
businesses, etc. It is a class project
and expected to be done by the end of the semester, or by spring.
Discussion
surrounded the Table of Contents which would include Title Page with a picture,
Acknowledgements, an Executive Summary (to include the mission statement),
followed by the five sections.
Implementation/Strategy which will include marketing and funding will be
at the end.
Mayor Schmitt
stated that part of our mission is awareness and cited Portland as an
example. He said this is going to be a
working document, with an introduction, executive summary, mission statement
that draws awareness to it and then kind of a state of the city as to where
we’re at, and then some short and long term goals. He stated that all the
information is here but it needs to be pulled together and we need to make this
part of the community’s goals. Comment
was made that long term strategy and goals is important and has not yet been
defined.
Discussion
included a section stating that the city could lead by example and numbered 1-5
recommendations. Mayor Schmitt said he
wants this to be a regional thing not just Green Bay and said he’s not sure how
much he wants to separate Green Bay. He agreed that we can state what Green Bay
is doing but said we cannot tell other communities what to do. Further discussion surrounded a separate
document stating what things we feel are important to the Green Bay Metro area
and this is our strategy and our implementation plan, or another option being
to recommend what businesses, residences and municipalities can do, stating
that Green Bay has done these things and this is the outcome. The idea of a
friendly competition and the opportunity for Green Bay to overtly state the
leadership was discussed. Paul Linzmeyer
was brought up as an example of fleet management using bio diesel fuel. Annette
suggested the city using one test vehicle that uses the oils from restaurants
or one garbage truck that has been converted to alternative fuel. Mayor Schmitt said the city could make a goal
of 10% of the city vehicles to use E85 and the City of Green Bay purchasing two
of these vehicles in 2007. Suggestion by
J. DeLaune that low sulfur bio diesel fuel could be used in one city bus, paint
that bus up and it would become a mobile billboard and challenge other
businesses that have diesel vehicles to do the same. A no idling policy was
also suggested. Suggestion was made to pick one recommendation from each
subcommittee area for the city to adopt and challenge businesses to do the
same. Energy saving recommendations for
the city to adopt included: any new buildings would meet some sort of energy
performance standard, conduct some energy efficiency audits, with Focus on
Energy dollars, do upgrades with energy saving lighting, have City Hall buy 10%
of their energy from Renewable Energy. Creating awareness activities for residential
is a goal of the energy group, i.e. buy an energy efficient furnace, award programs for energy efficient homes. Further ideas should be submitted to
subcommittees.
In summary,
each group will choose 1-3 recommendations for the city to take a lead on and
challenge the rest of the community.
Mayor Schmitt stated that the municipal recommendations will need to be
approved by the department heads.
Each
subcommittee will prioritize their projects and email their final draft reports
to Mary Haupt. Andre will review the reports to see what’s still needed and
will work with Mary, G. Delveaux and Ian Griffiths to compile the information
into one document. This document will be
reviewed at the next meeting and changed as needed. Mayor Schmitt said we will have
recommendations for businesses and will incorporate the Chamber of Commerce,
and residential recommendations which is where the media will step up and
communicate the message of this committee.
The idea of a
resolution was discussed with the Mayor saying the City Law Dept. could help
with writing one if the Land Committee wants to include a resolution as part of
their goals. Rob Strong said the key is to have some deadlines to get a
resolution to the City Attorneys Office by a certain date to get it through the
committee and Council.
Rich Krieg
asked the Committee to review the email sent by John Miller, and distributed a
copy of an article entitled Physical GREEN GIANT.
The next
meeting will be held on Thursday, December 7, 2006 at 2:00 p.m. in Room 604
of City Hall.