The URL can be used to link to this page

Home My WebLink AboutMN-SCJC-2024-08-12 Sustainability & Climate Justice Commission Agenda Date Monday, August 12th, 2024 Time 5 pm Location City Hall Council Chambers Watch Online https://www.youtube.com/@CityofIthacaPublicMeetings Commission Member Attendees ☒ Scott Doyle ☒ Christine O'Malley ☒ David Kay ☐ Iris Packman ☐ Tanya Saunders ☒ Alexander Travis ☒ Aaron Fernando ☒ Siobhan Hull ☒ Nick Goldsmith ☒ Fernando de Aragon ☐ Kris Haines-Sharp - Common Council Liaison ☒ Pierre Saint-Perez- Common Council Liaison ☒ Rebecca Evans – City of Ithaca Staff ☒ Savannah Vega – City of Ithaca Staff Agenda Item Timestamp 1. Call to Order: David Kay 00:01:00 The June meeting minutes will be voted on at the next meeting. Savannah Vega shared a summary and the goals of the IGND, as well as an IGND program spotlight on the City’s Fleet Electrification Study. 2. Public Comment 00:08:40 Public comment from Yayoi Koizumi, founder of Zero Waste Ithaca and Ithaca resident. Spoke on the planned artificial turf project at Cornell University. Urged the Commission to urge the City of Ithaca’s Planning Board to declare a positive declaration for an environmental impact assessment before the August 27th Planning Board Meeting. Commission members responded with several questions and a discussion, which included process, timeline, the Commission’s role, how to take action, and how they could find more information. 3. Announcements, Reports & Presentations 00:23:30 3.1 Survey Results from the Commission Feedback Survey 00:23:30 Savannah Vega, Sustainability Planner; David Kay, Chair o The Commission’s summary sheet was shared with Commissioners o The Commission would like to process this information in a separate workgroup o City Staff will send out email for volunteers for the workgroup and then coordinate a future meeting. o City Staff will coordinate to allow the Commission’s workgroup on this topic to share their recommendations with the City’s working group on creating more commissions at the City. 3.2 CCA Program Update 00:31:30 Rebecca Evans, Director of Sustainability o The Community Choice Aggregation (CCA) program is stalled (for over a year) due to the Public Service Commission (PSC) not approving any new current or prospective CCA administrators. o Guidance the City received indicated that the Public Service Commission has had challenges with current administrators – and they want to fix those issues before approving new administrators. o The City and the Town of Ithaca have written letters to the PSC urging them to approve CCA administrators. If that is not possible, they have asked to have a pilot program with our CCA consultant, Local Power. o If the approval or pilot program do not go forward, the City may look more into the Distributed Energy Resources (DER) program. o Commission members responded with questions and suggestions on how to move forward, including writing an additional letter to PSC. o City staff will share with the Commission the letters that were sent by the City and Town to the PSC 3.3 Financial Review 00:46:07 Rebecca Evans, Director of Sustainability o Presentation on historic and current funding of the IGND, and how that funding fits into Justice50. This included: o Capital Funds o Grant Funding Sources o Pending Applications o Justice50 Breakdown 3.4 Update from the Climate Justice Communities (CJC) Survey Working Group 01:02:40 CJC Survey Workgroup Members: Siobhan Hull, Aaron Fernando, and Alex Travis o Discussion that the workgroup has been having: o What level the survey should be at – landed on a multimodal survey o Defining the parameters of the survey – goals:  Consistency  Trust  Data Protection  Engagement o How we want to define climate justice communities in geographic parameters. 4. New Business 01:08:30 4.1 Vice Chair Selection 01:08:30 David Kay, Chair o After some discussion about process, duties, and interested parties, the Commission voted unanimously that Aaron Fernando and Siobhan Hull serve as Co-Chairs o Co-chair duties to be determined at a future time. 4.2 Air Conditioning Policy 01:16:25 Rebecca Evans, Director of Sustainability o Introduced possible air conditioning policy options. Slides included: o Number of days above 90 degrees in various areas of New York State o A/C in Ithaca rental units  Some leases outright ban the use of portable A/C units. o Two policy pathways  Require landlords to provide A/C  Ban lease clauses that prohibit A/C  Bonus pathway: do nothing o The good, bad, and the ugly of the A/C policy options o Discussion by the Commission o Questions  How prevalent is this issue? Could we map out the prevalence and work out solutions based on specific area needs?  Can we see cost estimates of the various policy options? Requiring vs. banning lease clauses? Window units vs. heat pumps? Interaction with good cause eviction?  Are there any ready-made policy options (from other municipalities) that we could present to Common Council? o Other comments  This issue of hotter summers requires a holistic/systems approach to address.  Commission members are mixed on what policy option they are initially drawn to - further discussion needed.  Old homes may need electrical upgrades to support.  We don’t want to strain the grid or contribute more to climate change by adding more need for electricity – need to balance.  Look into other solutions to the problem, such as insulating the building 5. Meeting Wrap-up: David Kay 01:37:25 Next Meeting is September 9th, 2024. Chair, Co-Chairs, and City Staff will look at future meeting date options for October and November to adjust for the holidays that fall on our normal meeting dates. Adjourned meeting at 1:38:25.