MINUTES
January 11, 2007,
2:00 p.m.
City
Hall, Room 604
Members
Present: Jeff DeLaune, Ian Griffiths,
Rich Krieg, Derek Lord, Andre Jacque, Bill Lockery, Annette Weissbach, John
Miller, Mayor Jim Schmitt, Rob Strong, Christine Fosse-Rades, Tom Lesperance,
Veronique Van Gheem
Ian
Griffiths called the meeting to order at 2:00 p.m.
An
updated draft of the committee report was distributed. Andre thanked members
for the feedback and additional information submitted and reviewed changes to
the draft as follows: additions to the
Implementation Plan from the Water Group and the Energy Group, issue raised
that the drafts are set up differently in terms of the voice and asked if the
group wants everything standardized, minor change in acknowledgements and asked
what is the actual membership that should be included as well as if Ann Ruby of
Bay Magazine should be added. Andre said
there has been no update from the Transportation Committee since October,
adding that he has no electronic copy from this subcommittee. Ian said Dan Roarty’s workload has been such
that he has not had time to devote to his subcommittee, adding that he believes
Dan does want to be involved. Ian
suggested having himself and a couple of other committee members meet to
finalize the Transportation subcommittee’s report. Jeff DeLaune, Ian, John Miller and Rich Krieg
agreed to meet with Dan and Andre to complete this section.
Discussion
ensued regarding standardizing the report with Ian, Derek and Rob stating that
are not as concerned with having the report standardized, but believe the
content is more important. Derek L. made a suggestion to give the report a
better flow, putting the resources at the end of all reports and said the
“leading by example” section has been added to all the reports and gives a
different voice within each report and maybe should be a separate section
rather than have it hidden within each section.
He said it could be part of the Executive Summary. Jeff suggested including this information on
the website.
Andre
stated that the report may be ready to be released by the end of the month and
asked about getting a half-time person who would be dedicated to follow through
on the implementations of the committee.
Mayor Schmitt said they are still working on getting a half-time person,
but said nothing is confirmed at this time.
A
new member, Veronique Van Gheem, introduced herself stating that she is
Co-President of Wild Ones, and is a restoration ecologist. She stated that Andre had provided her with
information on the committee’s work thus far. The Mayor introduced himself and
welcomed Veronique, and asked committee members to introduce themselves.
Andre
stated that John Miller has volunteered several fun facts to imbed in the
Energy and Land Use Reports, some additional things that we could use on our
website or for the tip of the week.
Andre
mentioned Paul Linzmeyer’s email, which was forwarded to the group, and the
Mayor stated that Paul has been working on this effort for a long time and met
with the Mayor to give some guidance and was surprised to see how far this
group has come in a couple of months.
The Mayor shared with Paul that the committee’s responsibility is to share
this information with other community leaders and discussed bringing in a
speaker or presenting at a future New North meeting. He said another option would be to hold our
own Sustainable Day in Green Bay. An update
of the draft will be sent to Paul Linzmeyer and Fred Schnook (former Mayor of
Ashland). The Mayor said we need to
figure out how we’re going to follow-up with the implementation strategy,
adding that this is key to the success of this group’s efforts. The Mayor suggested funding a half-time
person for the first six months to a year and possibly then having that person
fund their position by grant writing.
Tom L. expressed concern that grant writing could become the focus of
the position and not what the group intended. Jeff stated that this person
needs to spend a couple of months understanding what the assets are, where the
opportunities are, getting their arms around this whole thing and starting to
network and figure out a strategy, adding that they need to be a good
communicator, comfortable in the public eye, have a broad range of skills and
have enthusiasm for what they are doing. Mayor Schmitt, Ian and Gary Delveaux
will meet to discuss the status of a half-time person. Annette suggested having
“a cheerleader” to motivate and inspire people, and recommended involving the
Chamber of Commerce and the school district. Christine shared that she had
attended a Rotary meeting where it was mentioned that they have excess funds,
and the Mayor added that the person we engage could speak to the various
Optimist and Rotary groups. Suggestion
was made to use the internet as a vehicle to generate interest. The Mayor summed up this discussion by
stating that we need to finalize the funding for a half-time person and
finalize the report at the same time, hopefully within the next three weeks.
Andre,
along with a few other members, will complete the Transportation Section. He
will clean up the Implementation section and will then compile the report in
one document in a sequential order and will email the document to all members. Committee members will then be able to review
and give further input.
Discussion surrounded a kick-off date for
launching the report to the public.
Suggestions included Earth Day (the Mayor wants an earlier date) or
April 19th, Leave Your Car at Home Day. Derek suggested at the time we launch the
report, each group have one low cost, visual thing to coincide with the
announcement. The Mayor and committee
agreed this was a good idea. Mayor
Schmitt would like a day between now and February 20th for the announcement,
along with the small measurables from each group, and would like to have a
half-time person in place at this time. Mary Haupt will contact the person in
charge of the Miss Green Bay Pageant to see if any contestant is looking for a
platform. After further discussion, it was decided that by January 26th,
the committee will have received an electronic copy of the full updated draft
of the report (including the completed Transportation section); feedback is
due, electronically, by February 2nd to Andre, the final
draft will be printed on February 5th and will be sent to
committee members, as well as to Alderpersons Chad Fradette and Celestine
Jeffreys on February 6th; the Mayor’s Senior Staff will review the final
draft at their meeting on February 8th to discuss items
related to their department. The full
committee will meet again on Tuesday, February 13th at 2:00 p.m.
to give approval on the final draft and the approved draft will be sent to
print on February 14th. On
March 1st we will publicly announce the launch of the
initiatives of this committee. The Committee agreed that the report needed to
include that it was printed on recyclable paper produced by sustainable
forests, produced by renewable energy, and printed with soy-based ink. Jeff DeLaune said Neenah Paper handles this
type of paper and he believes it’s appropriate to seek a corporate sponsor for
the paper. He and Andre will check into
this. Suggestion was made to have a
couple of people from this committee speak at Leadership Green Bay’s
Environment Day in early April and to have the Mayor proclaim one day each year
as Sustainable Green Bay Day or something similar.
Discussion
surrounded what type of activities the groups could announce on March 1st. Ian suggested each subcommittee meeting once
more to decide what measurable activity they are going to choose for the launch
date. Jeff mentioned Milwaukee’s Green
Stripe program where hybrid cars can park for free. Derek suggested a sign in
the parking ramp reserved for fuel-efficient cars. Rich suggested a proclamation that day for
Leave Your Car at Home Day. The Mayor
asked committee members to email ideas to him soon, since some of the
initiatives need to be cleared with staff or Council. Rob Strong mentioned recommending a Resolution
to the City Council for the Land Use Committee.
Other suggestions included a challenge to other Mayor’s or the Cool
Cities Initiative through the U.S. Conference of Mayors. The Mayor suggested putting a sign on one of
our buses with the tip of the month.
Jeff suggested fueling one city bus with bio-diesel fuel, which can be
purchased from Progressive Farmers. Other suggestions included asking grocery
stores to increase the reimbursement for reusing paper bags to 10¢ for a day
and printing energy efficient messages on their bags, having the city provide a
lot for a Habitat Home and requiring energy wise light bulbs in the home, tying
erosion control measures at the Astor Place site into development in downtown
to make a livable community.
In
response to a question about Cool Cities, the Mayor explained that if you sign
on to this initiative, you have to commit to how you are buying a certain
percent of your energy and said he cannot commit until he clears this with Carl
Weber and Bill Nabak. He said it is a
Climate Protection commitment to reduce Co2 and he would like to
sign on before we start our initiatives.
Jeff DeLaune said the approximate cost to purchase 10% of the energy for
city hall from renewable energy would be $1,000 additional per year. Suggested activities for the kick-ff on March
1 were again reviewed as follows:placing aerators on faucets in city hall,
which decrease the flow but increase the pressure (Tom Lesperance will check
into this) – redesigning the parking lot on Adams Street, using native
plantings, removing the strips of lawn on Jefferson Street (less fertilizer and
watering) and a rooftop garden on city hall, air quality – listing closing the
smoking lounge in city hall, promote bicycling, bio-diesel fuel in one city bus,
changing out light bulbs.
The
next meeting of the full task force will be held on Tuesday, February 13,
2007 at 2:00 p.m. in Room 604 of City Hall (if the room is available). The final draft of the report will be
reviewed at this meeting.
Respectfully
submitted,
Mary
Haupt