Minutes
Sustainable
Greater Green Bay Task Force
Thursday,
7/16/2009, City Hall Room 604
3:00 PM
Members
present: Paul Linzmeyer, Chair, Nic Sparacio, Vice Chair, Mayor Schmitt, Andre
Jacque, Josh Beaton, Chamber of Commerce, Crystal Osman, Kevin Vonck, UWGB, Lisa Evenson, Dan
Lindstrom, City Planning Dept., Tom Duffy, Renee Wery, Karen Kohlbeck, Jennifer
Pollitt, Village of Howard, Nancy Nabak, Judy Vogels,
JOSHUA, Amanda Griggs, Rich Krieg
1. Call
meeting to order
The meeting was called to order at 3:00
pm by chairman, Paul Linzmeyer.
Introductions were made as listed above.
2. Approval
of minutes from the June 18, 2009 meeting.
Motion by N. Nabak,
second by N. Sparacio to approve the minutes.
Motion carried.
P. Linzmeyer opened the floor to Mayor
Schmitt.
3. Committee
reports
Mayor Schmitt
said things are moving along and we have submitted the EECBG application for
the million dollars and it’s important to know that there is funding
coming. He said he met with people from
the Extension about Community Gardens and said we have some work to do on that
and said we need to set up a subcommittee which he will help coordinate.
Judy Vogels gave brief overview on JOSHUA, stating that it is an
interfaith organization that works on areas of social justice in the
community. They have 18 members from
different faiths in the community and they work on matters that they see social
justice for the common good and often is an advocacy
group for various issues and work to try to empower people to know how to work
in the public arena on these issues. P.
Linzmeyer said he met with Judy and her husband, Dick and said he felt it’s an
important component to have part of this conversation.
He opened the
floor to Jennifer Pollitt who is on a year-long fellowship with the Village of
Howard. Jennifer stated that she is the
staff liaison for the Go Green Save Green Task Force and one of their
initiatives is to work with other municipalities on big environmental
initiatives to try to save money. She gave the example of composting in their
school district and said she plans to attend all Task Force meetings.
Update on
Subcommittees:
·
Local Food – Karen Kohlbeck – Correction will be made to reflect that Karen
Kohlbeck is the chair of the Local Food Committee. Karen reported that she,
Nancy & Crystal went to Des Moines, Iowa and took in some of their food
initiatives including touring their community garden and met with the
coordinator of their downtown Farmers Market with is held on six city blocks
and the streets are closed off. She said it’s a very active market similar to Artstreet and said they will be giving an update on their
trip at the August meeting.
Karen stated that she had
a conversation with Lynn Walter, Professor at UWGB, Center for Food and
Community Culture and said they would like to partner with her to do a showing
of the movie “FRESH”, which talks about where your food comes from, hopefully
the early part of fall semester. She
said the Urban Frog will also be holding a screening of that movie. Paul stated that he has seen this film and
said it’s a powerful, short film that gets people uncomfortable, which isn’t a
bad thing. Karen said another movie
coming out is “Food, Inc.” which isn’t out on DVD yet and she may look at doing
a double feature of the two movies.
Karen said they would like
to put together a mechanism where people can donate fresh produce at the On
Broadway Farmers Market and she met with Karen Early from the Extension Office
and Steve Harro from the Catholic Diocese and
contacted On Broadway. She received
approval to contact the vendors to donate any extra food they have left to
distribute to the emergency food outlets in the community and is also looking
for people to donate money to purchase this food to be distributed. Karen indicated that they will be meeting
with the Food & Hunger Network next week to find out which pantries or food
outlet might be interested in collecting food from that Market. She said they are looking to raise $50 for
printing and bins to collect the food.
Mayor Schmitt said he will check on used recycle bins that might be
available. Paul suggested contacting Amy
Kox regarding the printing. Nic stated
something could be added on the city website as to what citizens could do with
their unused recycle bins. Lisa will
follow up on this. Karen would like to
have this up and running by the first week in August, adding that Des Moines
has this initiative in place. Paul
stated that he would like to see recycle bins at the Saturday market.
Paul said they had talked
about closing the street for the Wednesday Market and asked where we should be
on that issue. He said we had identified
some of the obstacles which included some of the local businesses and the
street being a truck route and trying this one time on a trial basis. Mayor Schmitt stated that the street is
closed for the Taste of Broadway event and said the businesses have to be in
favor of this and said it’s important to get everyone in favor of that and
secondly, the traffic would be re-routed to Ashland and the residents may not
be in favor of this. He indicated that a
lot of people have been complaining about the safety of not closing the street,
and said there is a cost issue involved as well. Paul said he will place this back on his
agenda, with Karen stating that the market has gotten so busy and this would
allow them to have more room. Paul said
we need to walk the businesses through a cost/benefit. Karen inquired about grants to offset the
cost of closing the street, with Andre stating that he can’t think of any
larger grant but maybe a smaller grant surrounded by a community event. Andre will take a look at it.
Mayor Schmitt stated that
the Task Force at the July 4th event put up a water tent and
encouraged citizens to bring their vessel which would be filled with good,
Green Bay water and handed out a card with five things people could do to be
more sustainable with water. He said the problem they had is people didn’t
bring their own vessels. Andre said Artstreet is looking to sell water vessels for $3 and the
Mayor said the city will have the water tent set up for that event. The Mayor
said this group could look at purchasing and selling water bottles. Nancy said the Communications committee would
like to promote the Artstreet event in their next
article and are waiting for Tina Quigley to get back to them.
Mayor Schmitt discussed
the Green Bike Program and said this initiative is a result of this committee
and said we bought locks through a donation from Walmart.
He said we have the bikes and locks and need to find a way to make this program
successful and said he has someone who is interested in this program and said
we are going to try this program again and will set out a press release when
the day is selected.
·
Sustainable Building – John Miller
Paul stated that John
Miller has had a difficult time freeing himself up for this committee and said
he and John will have a conversation about sustainable building and said there
will not be a report from this committee today.
·
Communication and Marketing – Lisa Evenson
Lisa reported that she
sent out the draft website and said she received a few comments and would like
to go with it if everyone is o.k. Paul
agreed for her to go forward and said we are looking for this website to become
quite exceptional and said Adrienne Grun has been a great help.
Lisa said we lost our
contact with the Press-Gazette but
picked up another contact and she is hoping to continue the articles in the
paper. She indicated that the
Communications committee is meeting next week at St. Brendan’s on July 21st
at 11:30 and everyone is welcome to attend.
Paul inquired about the television spots with Lisa responding that she
was in contact with Fox 11 but hasn’t heard anything back and said if we have a
great story idea, like La Vida or the reusable water bottles, we can contact
them and said we had a press conference at the water tent. The Mayor said the water bottle is another
story and said we had talked about doing a tip of the week either in the paper
or on TV. Lisa commented that this is on the website. Mayor Schmitt said if we could get someone to
look at a 15-30 second tip of the week in a PSA, that
would be good. Paul mentioned going to
National Geographics and get the 3 minute U-tube
things and said to go to the Carbon Diet Page.
Rich mentioned bringing back water bubblers or fountains in the parks,
which the Mayor said he is not opposed to and will look into.
·
Community Events – La Vita Local
Crystal
will have a more full report at the next meeting.
4. Finalize
Mission and Vision – facilitated by Michael Troyer
Paul gave a
brief overview on what this discussion will be, stating that we need to have a
clear mission and more so, a clear vision as to what this committee is going to
do and said that will make this committee become mission and vision driven and
we are going to be focusing more around governance and the bigger picture
issues and the subcommittees will be project focused. He indicated that there may not be time for a
report on all the subcommittees at future meetings, but may have a format for
discussion on the bigger food issue surrounding sustainability, for
example. He said we will be looking at
having a membership committee and having people on the committee who should be
and how often the people on the committee attend and are all the people on the
committee active on a subcommittee and are the chairs of the committees active,
and is there a process to review or vote in new chairs. He said Michael Troyer will facilitate the
remainder of the meeting after which time we will be formulating a sub
executive team, the steps which we’ll present in September and said hopefully
we will soon have staff who will help the committee
and subcommittee volunteers. He said he
understands that the Des Moines oversight committee who is helping Des Moines
demands excellence and said this is where we need to be. Paul stated that we need to identify how we
can help the formal leaders in Green Bay, the elected officials and the various
managers in city operations and how do we help the more informal, neighborhood
associations and others and how can they help us accomplish this mission.
Mayor
Schmitt left the meeting at this time and thanked everyone.
P. Linzmeyer
introduced Michael Troyer stating that he is the owner of Strategic Management
Associates and said they already went through a process with Laura Warner and
came out with a lot of key thoughts on what their mission statement could be
and next steps. He indicated that he
would like to come up with a draft of a vision statement today and said he is
concerned with concepts. He referred to
the book “The Natural Step for Communities” and said New North has a
sustainability committee and said they are testing the water to bring in the
Natural Step framework starting in northeastern Wisconsin as a framework for
sustainability in business and in communities and said Portland has done a
great job and said he is going to visit there to bring back more models.
Michael
Troyer stated that he worked off of what Laura Warner started in trying to
draft a mission statement and would like to see the group have a great
tagline. He reviewed the four areas: 1)
Educate and Influence 2) Measure Progress and Recognize Achievements 3) Foster
Interaction and Facilitate Collaboration 4) Share Resources and Knowledge. Mr. Troyer said a mission statement says this
is our purpose, this is what we do and a vision statement says this is where we
want to be somewhere down the road and said he is giving the group a 5-year
time frame. He asked everyone to think out five years and imagine that they
have an article in front of them giving national recognition for the
accomplishments of this task force in the past five years and asked what
accomplishments they would like to see listed in the article. He asked the
group to write notes that he will put up on a flip chart and said this is how
you begin to put a vision statement together.
Mr. Troyer
said there is no such thing as a bad idea and members can feel free to write
any thoughts down. Ideas included:
·
An
active, vibrant downtown, that incorporates the ideas of sustainability to
include practices around plastic containers
·
Bike
lanes and bike corridors
·
Change
the perception of Green Bay/Wisconsin being a city with an obesity problem,
healthy food available to all income levels
·
Business
community becoming active partners in moving sustainability ahead within our
city and providing leadership
·
More
appealing infrastructure downtown to promote pedestrian safety and
socialization
·
Trees
added into every city block/an edible landscape
·
Retain
young professionals to live, work and play because of the city’s sustainability
·
Place
people want to retire to
·
Sustainability
measures are used as discussion framework for all city committee meetings and
agenda items
·
Sustainability Dept. initiative has saved the
City of Green Bay millions of dollars in operating expenses
M.
Troyer stated that he was given a tour of St. Mary’s new Regional Cancer
Collaborative and St. Mary’s has worked very hard to find ways to be
green. On the top floor of this new
cancer center is a green space for cancer victims to sit and enjoy. Suggestions
to send letter of support to St. Mary’s Hospital for their 22,000 square foot
roof top which is going to be completely green where they are following health
standards for green and will be the largest green roof top garden in the
state. K. Lefebvre suggested the the Y open their top floor and put walk ways connecting
like the Navy Pier has. P. Linzmeyer
asked that the minutes reflect that a letter of support will be sent by him as
Chair of this committee, to St. Mary’s.
·
Explored
and implemented opportunities to create green roofs and walkways that encourage
movement without vehicles
·
Alternative
renewable energy sources/ solar panels
·
Government
lead through pilot projects in trying new things and implementing experimental
ideas and incorporating 21st Century Accounting Principles
·
Sustainability
Helps Local businesses see green profits, businesses take the lead with
sustainability
·
Advisory
panel meeting with organizations and individuals from businesses to buy into
and help drive change
·
Have
a director position to include people from surrounding municipalities and open
communication to combine projects and make a bigger impact
·
Consumer
responsibility (Paul commented that we’ll need to begin collecting data)
·
Actively
protect natural resources and utilizes existing infrastructure for
redevelopment
·
Become
a model for Community Involvement and reduce crime
·
Reach
out to minority and low income groups relative to sustainability
·
Speak
the language of sustainability and understand how sustainable practices can
advance the quality of life for themselves and for generations to come
·
Our
city is viewed nationally as aesthetically pleasing and appealing, Rich
commented on the listing of the 15 most sustainable cities in the country with
Madison being #1 for medium size and Seattle #1 for large city
Mr. Troyer
said these suggestions will remain in draft form and any other ideas can be
emailed to him. He will type this up for
members and said we will continue to add to the list. Rich suggested preservation of current green
space. P. Linzmeyer commented on what
Mayor Daly did in Chicago and enlisted the assistance of businesses and said
Chicago is looked upon today as a great city and commented that Green Bay has a
great opportunity with a lot of space.
He said we can be part of something vibrant and said it’s critical that
we involve the surrounding communities.
K. Lefebvre suggested adding cleaning up the river and the bay,
commenting that the bay has as much PCB’s as the Fox River does. Paul commented
that there is no easy answer to this and said the biggest source of pollution
is a lot of things and many things we can do that we don’t realize we are
doing.
Mr. Troyer
summed up and said we can keep adding to this and he will try to pull out of
some of the work that the group has already done and what seemed to be some
core values that speak to the people out there. He stated that he will then
lead the group to pare down the things the group wants to accomplish in both
long term and short-term in the next 12 months, specific outcomes, and be
reasonable about what those things are and at what level; a policy level, a
more active level in terms of subcommittees in terms of this body and he will
push for things we can all accomplish together.
We will develop an action plan for the next 12 months and said he
suggested four areas and said those are not locked in and can be changed.
P. Linzmeyer
thanked Mr. Troyer for this session and will ask him to lead another session,
possibly in another meeting and said Mr. Troyer is doing this pro bono as Laura
Warner did and this is very much appreciated. He stated that he doesn’t want to
lose any of the work that this group has already done and the old work will be
reviewed and we want to be certain we don’t lose that.
K. Lefebvre
asked members to take a walk around downtown to look at trees and see that the
Parks Dept is cutting trees when they don’t need to be cut. P. Linzmeyer said
from a government example, that is probably not where
this group is going to go and need to make sure we have the discipline to focus
on strategic initiatives and have the right people and subcommittees to march
toward whatever vision we create.
Rich
commented that green drinks at Kavarna is being held
tonight from 6-10:00 as well as Leicht Nite Concert at Leicht Park from
5:30-10:00
5. Adjourn
The meeting adjourned at 4:33 pm.