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HomeMy WebLinkAboutNatural Resources Advisory Board - Minutes - 11/15/2023 Page 1 11/15/2023 – MINUTES Natural Resources Advisory Board REGULAR MEETING Wednesday, November 15, 2023 – 6:00 PM 222 Laporte Avenue, Colorado River Room 1. CALL TO ORDER: 6:02 PM 2. ROLL CALL a. Board Members Present – • Dawson Metcalf (Chair) • Barry Noon • Danielle Buttke • Lisa Andrews • Kevin Krause • Matt Zoccali b. Board Members Absent – • Kelly Stewart (Vice Chair) c. Staff Members Present – • Honoré Depew, Staff Liaison d. Guest(s) – • None 3. AGENDA REVIEW Chair Metcalf reviewed the agenda. 4. CITIZEN PARTICIPATION None. 5. APPROVAL OF MINUTES a. July, August, and September Barry – Q – Is it really necessary to have verbatim characterization of our discussions. I am on other boards, County boards, and that is not what we do. And frankly, I think most people don’t want to labor through page after page. And I also feel compassionate toward the person who has to keep all those records. Honoré – Comment – The context I would offer is it does vary board to board and organization to organization. My understanding is that board Page 2 11/15/2023 – MINUTES members can decide how they would like their boards recorded. It may be worth checking with the Council liaison to see if there’s a preference for a summary set of minutes and recorded notes from meetings, or is the verbatim for some reason preferable. It may be worth checking with Councilmember Pignataro. Barry – Comment – That’s just my perspective. Lisa – Comment – I asked the same question last summer and was told that for some reason it was important to have verbatim so that if anyone on Council wanted to see exactly what people said, they could refer to that. I was also told to kind of skim them and just look for things that I asked and make sure that that was a fairly accurate representation. But, I agree with Barry; I think a summary is much more palatable. Honoré – Comment – I’ll also apologize for the backlog; having three months worth of minutes is not the norm. This summer has been pretty hectic for a lot of reasons, but mainly around personnel changes and not having had the temp agency that was intended to come do the minutes…ended up completely flubbing it, and so we just waited for the person to get back who normally does it. We do have a new system in place where there’s a regular person who also does minutes for the Urban Renewal Authority boards and others, so it’s just like a one-time payment…we can give them a hundred bucks a month or whatever and they just do it. And so it’s not such an issue I think now that we’ve got a system in place from a staff capacity side. It would really just come down to what the Board’s preference is; and you may be referring to the advice that I gave, which isn’t necessarily a reason, but the reason some boards like a more complete set of minutes is so that it can support staff in giving very specific information to City Council on a subject. And that has been the case sometimes with this Board where an extraction, an excerpt, from the minutes will be used in the attachments for the Council packet materials. I have also seen this Board be very effective in summarizi ng your positions in memo format, which probably are more impactful than just a memo excerpt. That’s just some more food for thought, but ultimately, I would say it’s up to you with advice from your Council liaison. Dawson – Q – I can follow-up with our Council liaison and confirm that this is helpful to have the actual transcript verbatim, and if not, I don’t see an issue with us altering over to a more summarized version of minutes. I agree with you Barry…these are recorded correct? Honore – A – The recordings don’t stay around. They are deleted. Dawson – Comment – I was going to say, if the public really wanted to, they could get word for word. But, for me, a summary of the salient points and action items and th ose things is probably effective, but I appreciate you checking with the liaison. Danielle – Comment – I would second that, and also think if they want verbatim notes, they can also attend in person if a recording is not available and palatable. Page 3 11/15/2023 – MINUTES Lisa – Q – If we switch over to a summary, who would be tasked with doing that? Honoré – A – That’s a good question. In some ways, it is logistically easier to outsource the verbatim where Zoom creates a rough transcript and have the person sort of clean it up and format it. I would want to check with the Clerk’s office and with a couple of colleagues to see what the approach is on Boards that use shorter minutes because I’m feeling like…I’m not sure who would be…it could be a large amount of my time if I went through the entire transcript and then tried to summarize the salient points and the action items. Lisa – Comment – That might be even more onerous. Honore – Comment – In the old days, we had a person who would actually just attend the meeting in that capacity and just hit the things that were most important. It seems like someone could be able to do that from the transcript, but I’ll have to check on it. It’s not going to be me, don’t worry. Dawson – Comment – If the easier process is verbatim for whatever reason, I think we can rehash that conversation. Honoré – Comment – I’m definitely hearing a preference for summary notes, and I’m sure we can accommodate, because other Boards do it that way. You do have a few months to correct and approve for now. Lisa – Q – Do you want to do it month by month, to approve them? Dawson – A – Maybe we can just start with July, if there’s any alterations. I know that there’s a yellow marker that Kevin mentioned. Honoré – A – I think that was just a holdover by accident. The person who does the transcription highlights things that they couldn’t understand so I go change them. Lisa – Comment – Well I skimmed the notes for July; I’m comfortable moving that we approve them. Dawson – Comment – Regarding July minutes, we have a motion to accept. I will second. All of those in favor of accepting the July minutes as written? The motion passed 5 -0 with Kevin abstaining. Dawson – Comment – We can move on to the August meeting minutes. Are there any changes for August? I will then motion to approve the August meeting minutes as written. Lisa – Comment – I will second that. Dawson – Q – All of those in favor? All of those opposed? Any abstaining? Kevin is abstaining. The motion passed 5-0 with Kevin abstaining. We will now move on to the September meeting minutes. Are there any changes to the September meeting minutes? Then I now motion for us to approve the September meeting minutes as written. Lisa – Comment – I will second that. Dawson – Q – All of those in favor? All of those opposed? Any abstaining? The motion passed 6-0. 6. UNFINISHED BUSINESS 7. NEW BUSINESS Page 4 11/15/2023 – MINUTES a. Board Inputs to City Strategic Plan – Review the City’s seven Strategic Outcomes and discuss where NRAB aligns. Discuss Council priority setting and how Strategic Plan input can inform. (Discussion) Dawson – Q – For our first item, we will review the City’s seven Strategic Outcomes and discuss where our Board aligns and how we should approach informing Council on such matters. Honoré, does it maybe make the most sense to pull up the summary of the strategic objectives? Honoré – A – I think it makes sense. And I can remind, there was one slide in the packet that summarized the ask of the Board from the budget office. Matt – Comment – It felt to me like the strategic objectives under four, environmental health, and six, whatever six is called, felt the most…you can see the Board in other places, but those two felt the most appropriate. Honoré – Comment – This is intended to be a bit of an open conversation for you all to think about how you align and what influence or suggestions you might have. And so, as you’ll remember, the confirmation of our Strategic Plan informs the budgeting process. For many years we’ve had a very long and thorough strategic plan; it really got a bit outsized where in each of the seven outcome areas there were a dozen objectives, and in order to get an item funded, it needed to be tied to one of the strategic o bjectives. So, people would write the strategic objectives in a way that they would fund offers…it’s become too convoluted. And so my understanding is that they are going to be doing a pretty major update to the Strategic Plan in the very early part of this next year so that can be used in an effective way to inform the budgeting process, which happens once every two years, and this will be a budge t year, next year in 2024, to set the funding levels for ’25 and ’26. So, it’s an important step in that process of how we align resources with priorities. Keep that in mind; that’s also in the packet there. We’ve got these seven outcome areas: neighborhood livability and social health, culture and recreation, economic health, environmental health, safe community, transportation and mobility, and high-performing government. Matt – Comment – Yeah, it was transportation and mobility…four and six, to me, when I read through them, felt mostly associated with our mission. Honoré – Comment – At the high level, they are all listed right here. Matt – Comment – And don’t let my comments stop us from reviewing each outcome area if the Board wants. Honoré – Q – Do you want to zoom in on the identified ones suggested based on Matt’s comments and prior focus? There’s a sheet somewhere that shows the different outcome areas that are most associated with each board. Or would you like…shall we just start at the beginning? Dawson – Comment – Why don’t we start at the beginning and go though. Page 5 11/15/2023 – MINUTES Honoré – Comment – Neighborhood livability and social health , affectionately referred to as NLSH. So this one does talk a lot about housing and access to services, some stuff related to mobile home communities, affordable housing, the urban canopy is in here; there’s definitely some aspects of interest to the Board. Barry – Comment – This is a point I’ve brought up before…it seems to me that there are so many boards, that it would be useful for us to narrow the scope of the things that we address. It’s so broad, and it isn’t…I’ve been on the Board for quite a few years, I’ve lost track…when I think of natural resources, obviously there is a linkage across all these things, but there’s all these other boards, and it seems to me that a narrower, more drilled in focus on what I would think would be natural resources. I’ve mentioned this before, that it seems like we are rolling over into social and economic things which I feel I don’t…I have opinions, but I don’t have any expertise. But, environmental issues, I do, because that’s what I’ve done my whole professional career. Matt – Q – To Barry’s point, I know this is taking us off track, but could we quickly look at the bylaws and the mission statement of the Board to hone in on what that is? Is that reasonable. Honoré – A – I think so. I see Danielle has her hand up, and I know the second agenda item tonight is the 2024 Work Plan for the Board, so it also might be appropriate to either blend these conversations, or you could reverse their order if you wanted to talk more about the Board’s core functions and charter, and th en come back to the Strategic Plan. Matt – Comment – I’m fairly new to this group, but I feel similar to what Barry has stated. Sometimes it feels a little squishy, and maybe I don’t work that well in that environment, so I’d like to know exactly what is the scope of work. I’m not afraid or opposed to having broader conversations, but it does sometimes feel squishy here and there. Danielle – Comment – I understand where those feelings come from, but when you look at an individual, and especially a family’s impact on the environment in terms of water consumption, carbon emissions, overall consumption, the greatest factor in determining how much emissions and impact you have is where and how you live. And, additionally, the greatest factor in predicting whether or not you have solar panels, or whether or not you have a lot of energy upgrades, is whether or not your neighbor does. So, social and community health is one of the greatest levers we have to change peoples’ consumption behaviors and protect the environment and our natural resources. And so, it’s hard; it is tangential, but I think it is actually absolutely core in terms of upstream drivers of impacts to natural resources that are purely our bread and butter. Barry – Comment – I don’t disagree with that; I just fee that if you spread yourself too thin in all the dimensions; it’s not to deny anything you said, I mean obviously we’re the drivers of all the environmental issues that we have. Page 6 11/15/2023 – MINUTES If you did a causal graph on a white board with your students, and you would ultimately get back to us, to humans. But, I’m wondering how that overlaps and intersects and compliments, or my concern is duplicates, efforts on all of these other boards. Kevin – Comment – I think that’s a good point; I think it would be probably fruitful to be scanning the list of boards in a way to give us that context, because I think high-level that makes sense, digging in maybe to some examples, and saying, well, we assume maybe X board has an applicability to a given area, is that true in practice is kind of the question to me, because I don’t know that it has the same focus…it might not apply in the ways that we’re assuming it would in that board versus their focus in these areas. I resonate with all these points. I think maybe getting more specific to …let’s look at that list of boards and…to guide us as another input to say, if not us, do we really think it’s accounted for…the viewpoint, and how that stacks up and backs into the natural resources impact, to Danielle’s point on how it relates. Dawson – Comment – Seconding a couple of things in that…our perspective from the natural resources piece, from the environmental piece, that touches on transportation…the Transportation Board might not be looking at it from that perspective that we bring to the table. And so, that bring mobility or transportation in as a part of our Board to drive that environmental lens, I feel is important. And as far as the duplication piece, although I see concern and consideration in that, I think there’s also something that’s really meaningful to City Council when an issue has multiple perspectives from different boards saying these things, or even saying the same thing, and it drives home the importance and significance of it. And I think that’s where I kind of see this…our hands might be in a lot of areas, but I do see a lot of benefit in that. That’s my two cents. Matt – Comment – I’ll just add one more comment, when you look at the strategic objectives in number one, NLSH, except for 1.9, to Barry’s point, I don’t feel that is in the scope of what I understood when I looked at the bylaws and the mission of this group. I have opinions and strong feelings about those other things, but only 1.9 feels like…I don’t know for lack of a better term, something in our wheelhouse. So, I’m just trying to hone in on where we could maybe have the most input. But, I do understand the other perspectives being presented. Danielle – Comment – I’m just going to throw in my public health perspective here. When you look at the health outcomes in almost every single one of the other objectives here, exposure to nature, having equitable access to natural resources can dramatically influence every single one of the other ones, including things such as crime, harmonious relationships in your community. Access to nature and having public spaces is one of the most powerful ways to address inequity, provide for community connection, address crime, transform the involvement of communities in these spaces, and so I think that what Dawson highlighted, that we have a very unique perspective, because Page 7 11/15/2023 – MINUTES we’re thinking about natural resources. And, if we don’t integrate public spaces and natural resources into especially a lot of the urban planning design and development, we will loose our chance to have more equitable spaces, to be thinking about the ways in which design influences carbon emissions, active transit, et cetera, in a way that no other board will. It’s really easy for the Transportation Board or the Bicycle Advisory Committee to talk about getting bike trails in place, but very few people th ink about, well, it’s not just an additional slice of pavement…let’s also think about pollinators, let’s think about urban tree canopy, let’s integrate. I think it adds a lot to our plate, but I think…I realize I’m coming up to the end of my seven year term; I think we’re limited at seven years, and it makes me really sad because I think this Board is just so unique in it’s ability to be multivalent in its impacts, and that sometimes is the value that we bring. And the last thing I’m going to say, and I’m sorry for the long monologue here…I think I’ve been on travel for too long. The thing that I feel uniquely committed to the social…number one…I think there’s a lot of the other ones that we could skip over, but this one in particular, because of the influence of nature on health, I think is an important one for us to cover. I’m not going to be this annoying on all of them. Honoré – Comment – I don’t want to overly influence the conversation because I think it’s up to all of you, but I would add the context that yes, there are a lot of boards. There is a board specifically dedicated to water issues, a board specifically dedicated to ai quality issues, et cetera, et cetera. There’s the Land Conservation and Stewardship Board which is actually dedicated to natural areas, not natural resources. So, there’s a lot of boards. The context I would offer is that, over the last couple of years, our community helped develop a new guiding framework for how we lead around environmental sustainability, that’s Our Climate Future, and Our Climate Future is more than a climate action plan, it’s a strategic and visionary document, an organizing framework for understanding how these different complex systems work together in order for our community and ultimately their elected officials to assign resources and prioritize what sorts of policies, programs, and projects should be helping us meet our goals. That adds complexity, it does, but it also focuses in on resilience and equity as a commitment in that work to what Danielle is speaking about, knowing that just by reaching our goals alone does not get to our end state, that we can’t do it alone as a city, and that if everyone doesn’t benefit from those improvements, it’s not really the community that we know everyone wants. So, there is a reason…there is some precedent, maybe not in the bylaws that were written in 2011 for this Board, bu t in the way that environmental work has evolved in the city and in this organization to include mitigation focus, resilience focus, and equity focus. So there is some precedence and some context around Our Climate Future and this Board’s work in sustainability more broadly. I did put in the chat a little summary that was included in the Board flyer for this Board when they were doing recruitment that speaks to that. Kevin – Comment – Yeah, I think that’s helpful, Honoré, the evolving context. And, again, I don’t know that this as a whole fits squarely, but I put a link there in the chat too, just to the general board’s page, because I think looking at the Page 8 11/15/2023 – MINUTES boards themselves, where does this then fit, does it fit in the Affordable Housing Board, does it fit in the Economic Advisory Board…having the context of what else is out there and how we can either know, or how we could interpret how those groups of community members would be approaching some of this I think is an interesting way to consider it was well. So, I agree, number one, it doesn’t feel like that’s our main focus, at least to me, personally, but it definitely feels like there are those tie-ins, as you mentioned, where we might not want to have certain things too peripheral, but it’s also not going to be what we are core talking about maybe as a regular basis in the individual issues, more of how those all come together, at least is my thought. Matt – Comment – You know, strategically, those objectives are fine, but where the rubber meets the road is when the tactical budget offers come in, so you see what the City departments are proposing to move the needle on those things. I mean, we could offer wordsmithing , or where our role might be, and that’s fine, that’s the ask, but I think I’m fine to review this; I think it’s going to be more critical to see what really is being proposed, because we’re not going to propose operational things, that’s not our role. So I guess my comment is neither here nor there; I guess what I’m saying is I’m fine looking at one and four and six if it helps timewise to do that. Kevin – Comment – I think what you’re alluding to is there might not be much there that we say that’s a direct…when the actual offers are in play. Is that correct? There’s some assumption there that we might say mostly no, but maybe that. Honoré – Comment – I could bring an example related to 1.8 here. There have been some budge offers of late that involve energy efficiency upgrades that are specifically targeting manufactured home communities, mobile home parks, and so there’s a real connection, or that interface b etween the environmental goals of reduced emissions, increased efficiency, building performance, with an equitable focus on the implementation of that program. That’s sort of a cross-cutting type of a program that is being worked on. Danielle – Comment – I think also 1.7 has similar implications there. Matt – Comment – I’m curious how the Board feels about looking ahead…will we take these things and then say in our Work Plan, we will address strategic objective 1.9 by doing what…how will we do that? I guess I’m just trying to figure out what the role is. Will we be offering potential solutions or will we be there to simply review what staff presents as their solutions? Danielle – Comment – I was just going to say, in my experience, I think things work out best, and I unfortunately learned this the hard way, if we stay general. Because we want to be responsive to City Council’s interests, particularly when we have new members coming in, we don’t know exactly what their priorities are going to be until they have their retreat. And so, I think when we think about our Work Plan it works best to talk about the things that matter to us, to stay general and kind of at that 40,000 foot view so that we Page 9 11/15/2023 – MINUTES have the opportunity to weigh in if the City Council comes up with something way out in left field that we didn’t previously think of. Kevin – Comment – We haven’t come up with necessarily solutions. We’ve honed in on and maybe tried to indicate support for certain offers in areas, and maybe indicated a lack of support for others potentially, but in my history, we haven’t come up with new solutions not in play, for the most part. Dawson – Comment – I think one of our more powerful pieces in this conversation too is about where funding goes, where we prioritize and say we approve of budget 1.3, or whatever that element is, but we approve that on these conditions. We’ve also put forward those kinds of elements too, of understanding the linkage between some of the environmental and social issues that exist that have direct implications on each other. So, I definitely see a lot of value in neighborhood livability and social health as a part of our core, to many of the things Danielle has been discussing. And I also come from the environmental social sciences as well, it’s my discipline and where I work. And I think we have a bad habit of separating those in a way that is almost too singular and a very specific lens that leads to inequalities, that leads to all of these challenges that we see in our social existence. Barry – Comment – I think you can trace every one of our problems back to a social economic problem. Let me just give an example of stuff I’ve been working on, including just the last two days. Working on the thirty by thirty initiative and mapping mature and old growth forest, and my role is working on the biodiversity benefits of doing that. So, what I’m doing is trying to identify late seral forest dependent wildlife species and look at what’s known about them. So, I’ll use an example that I’ve been working through with a former post doc of mine. This is with the Pacific fisher, it’s a mustelid, it’s in forests in the Sierra Nevada, the Coast range, the South Cascades, Klamath region . And so one of the things we’ve developed is conceptual model of the Pacific fisher’s relationship to elements of late seral forests, and then we developed a stressor model. What is stressing those old forest elements? And of course timber harvest and fuels treatments. Now, I don’t look at our stressors graph, we don’t go to how many mills are operative, what’s the economic market f or trees, are the mills set up to even cut old large diameter trees, what’s the economic demand. Now, clearly if timber harvest occurs, it’s an economic social driver, but that’s out of the purview. If I were to extend that stressor model, I would ultimately get back to the human enterprise, but that’s not workable for me. I have to put bounds on the problems that I work on trying to solve, and that’s the way I look at natural resources. I have to bound it, because otherwise I’m spread so thin and I’m going into areas in which I have no knowledge and no expertise, and I feel very uncomfortable doing that. It’s not to deny that the demands in rural timber dependent communities on harvesting trees on public lands isn’t important, and I’m compassionate abo ut it. But, it’s beyond the purview as a conservation biologist, of what I try to solve, the problems I try to find solutions to. Dawson – Comment – And I think that perspective is exceptionally important Page 10 11/15/2023 – MINUTES to this, but I think we all have a different perspective, a different lens, a different background in what we bring to these conversations. Barry – Comment – We’re in the College of Natural Resources, so there’s distinct colleges on campus, and those colleges have disciplinary boundaries, and it’s not to say that other colleges…what people are studying and researching aren’t extremely relevant, it’s not to say that they’re not related, it’s when I’ve trained, particularly PhD students, they all start out with a project like this, and what I’ve got to do is work on it and take their project down and get a focus on it, because that’s the only way I think you begin to make significant contributions. And then you depend upon other people whose areas of expertise overlap and compliment what you’re doing, and collectively you form solutions. That’s the way I’ve worked in my career. But, it’s not to say that that’s how this Board should function. So, I’ll be quiet, but that’s my perspective. I’m happy to be on this Board. Honoré – Comment – It’s a really interesting conversation that really mimics a lot of the conversations in the sustainability field. Dawson – Comment – So, just real quick team, just also being cognizant of time and the priorities that we do have to set tonight. The annual Work Plan does have to be a major priority tonight because it is due by November 30 th. So, I guess looking back at the slide, the inputs are due by this Friday, and I don’t see that as a realistic thing for me to accomplish this week. Honoré – Comment – I could probably summarize a few of these salient points. I think the rest of the script, if you don’t mind me jumping in, that I got from our budget office is basically here are the overall strategic objectives and strategic outcomes, please agree as a group on one or two outcomes that most align with the work of your board. So, I think it’s pretty clear, outcome area number four, environmental health, is prima ry, and the conversation you’re having is whether just to focus on that as your primary and leave it at that, or whether to add a social or transportation…strategic objective one or six into the mix. Then in thinking about that outcome area, environmental health to start with, the question is what ideas come to mind about what that name means. What does it mean to your board or commission, what about to you as a resident? So, you can decide how you want to generate some ideas and thoughts around that, if that’s a valuable use of the limited time you have tonight. I can try to capture a few of those thoughts and report back. Then it says, review the key elements of how we’ve defined environmental health, and thinking about those, what are the ways the city can help achieve this outcome: expansion of existing programs and services, implementation of new ones, policy changes, et cetera. And what might be some of the key focus areas. So, that’s kind of the high level input that they’re looking for, at least I think for environmental health, and then if you wanted to do that with s ocial, or you just leave it at environmental health, and then decide in the next conversation around your Work Plan how much the other strategic objectives should come in. Page 11 11/15/2023 – MINUTES Dawson – Comment - I think I would push for that option, of doing the primary role of environmental health for the point of what we’re needing to submit by Friday, and then in our Work Plan, we can kind of divvy out these elements of the secondary outcomes that we’re looking at, which sounds like neighborhood livability and social health and transportation and mobility. Does that sit okay with the Board? Okay. Matt – Comment – What does environmental health mean to us, was that the first one? And I think this is there Danielle’s comments really come into play about the social aspect and those things, I mean maybe it can be filtered in here as well as our Work Plan. Again, I’m not trying to take us off track, but maybe in our general statement about what it means to this Board, we can include these elements of environmental health, of social aspects , as a general comment. And I will offer one thing that…you guys know I was with the City for fifteen years before coming…one thing that’s always bothered me about this one, I feel personally like 4.4 is a safe community thing, but that’s from my emergency management background. Resilient, reliable water supply is what we talk about at Texas A&M with safe communities, public health, all those things. But, it’s fine here as well, as environmental health. Honoré – Comment – I’m happy to just take some notes that can be rough and I can send directly on to the budget office by Friday for you to expedite that. I put in the chat, thinking about environmental health, what ideas come to mind about what the name means, what does that mean to NRAB, and what about you as an individual? Barry – Comment – Well, can we define the concept of environment? What do we mean by that? This room has an environment, not one that I want to spend most of my time in. So, sometimes it’s the vagueness of these terms, and then people have different mental models of what we’re talking about ; that’s difficult. Danielle – Comment – We do a lot of visioning around environmental health because it has a very specific definition in the public health world, and then it also has a very different colloquial meaning in conservation. I think what is meant by environmental health in this context is life -sustaining services, and not exclusive to human life. Barry – Comment – What comes to my mind, but this is my world view, is what is probably the most primary environmental function for an ecosystem to exist and persist is photosynthesis. So, I tend to think about the process of photosynthesis and what might be compromising photosynthetic rates. Certainly a draught, temperature, literally replacing photosynthetic organisms with asphalt and highways and footprints of buildings. I don’t know, that’s kind of where my mind goes initially. Matt – Comment – Could it be some combination of the two things that you said? I liked what Danielle said about life-sustaining, or however you said that Danielle, life-sustaining system. Something about environmental health realty is about providing for the ongoing, sustaining quality of th e systems that are Page 12 11/15/2023 – MINUTES around us that provide these…whatever you just said. Some combination of the environmental, the systems around us that are life-sustaining, and not just the human environment, not just humans, but all these systems that are around us: aquatic, air, and the health of those systems. Are we trying to define it for the Board right now, because that’s what I’m trying to do. Honoré – Comment – What ideas come to mind about what the name means? I think Barry’s suggestion was to try to define it, and we have some pretty good stuff in here, but it can be more broadly… Matt – Comment – To try to ensure the ongoing health and resilience of these life-sustaining systems that are around us. Dawson – Comment – I see it a lot with the notion of resilience in environmental health. That’s the piece that continues to reverberate around my mind, the human, the community aspect of it as it’s tied to natural resources. So, 4.1 encapsulates that in my mind to quite an extent…and there was another one: the resilient, reliable, and high-quality water supply. I do definitely think of environmental health tied to resilience to those natural resource pieces. Kevin – Comment – Minimizing our collective impact to those systems, that scale is what I see as a city being able to do, and using tools and approaches that are either known and available, or will become known and available. So kind of being in a space that is set up in a way where we’re kind of continuing to lead…to be thinking with that mindset. Barry – Comment – What I pulled up here, and it may not be useful at all. So, over the many years, the University has public lectures, in quotes, at Avo’s, so people are drinking beer and stuff. So, I’ve given lots of those over the years, and I just pulled up one. And I have slides; it’s a PowerPoint, about…so we’re talking about environmental health, and we’re talking about systems, we’re talking about resources which are obviously outputs, products, from ecological systems. So, we wouldn’t be here if there weren’t ecological systems that were functioning and intact. So, we’re products of all those ecological systems. So, I have these cartoons of the processes that go on in an ecosystem, and to me, those are the fundamental things you need to sustain, and then you try to identify what are the things that are putting those fundamental functions at risk, what are the stressors? And of course, that eventually does get you to the human enterprise; that drives everything no matter where you are, even if you’re in Greenland or Iceland these days, it’s all being driven by that, or Antarctica for that matter. Danielle – Comment – I think that’s spot on, Barry. I have three very disjointed thoughts on that. The processes is really key. When you look at 4.4, you could have an incredibly resilient, reliable , high -quality water supply if you take all the water from the ecosystem right now and put it in a steel tank. That’s not really what I think this goal is getting at. And similarly, protecting land can be really easy if you keep absolutely every living thing off of it, you Page 13 11/15/2023 – MINUTES have land there, but that’s not really what’s the value of having that land protected; it really comes down to processes. I really think there’s so much value in the indigenous knowledge approach to conservation, which is not natural resources, it’s natural relatives; it’s recognizing the connectedness of all living things, which also really hinges on those processes being so important, that it’s preserving natural processes and systems as opposed to individual resources that we can define or consume, beca use it really shifts it away from this consumptive/extractive focus to this more holistic/connected focus. And, Kevin, on your comment, we already have really degraded systems. I think we need to maximize our impact; I think we need to maximize…focus less on minimizing our negative impact and focus more on maximizing our positive impact when it comes to natural resource conservation. Honoré – Comment – An abundant versus scarcity mindset; I’ve heard that phrase used. So, just to keep moving us along too, I think the second part of the ask is around potential focus, what should the City be doing more of in terms of programs, policies, et cetera. And I know that’s a huge question, but even if it’s just sort of in buckets, or some general thoughts that you’d like me to pass along that could inform the Strategic Plan. We have a whole bunch of them that came out of Sustainability Services which I’m happy to talk about after you throw some ideas out there. Matt – Comment – Programs and initiatives that recognize the connectedness, as Danielle said, that aren’t looking at so much in these silos, but how they are all related. I mean these are all good as they stand on their own, but seeing them together…that’s well said, Danielle, I appreciate that perspective. Dawson – Comment – I think of more incentivizing-type programs for that environmental behavior change that we are looking for. I’m definitely thinking of how can we be more innovative and creative in how we’re connecting and doing community engagement, doing programs like the signage, the materials, the marketing, all of that, and building more hope-framed context instead of the climate impacts, natural hazards, fires, and the things that are important, but we also know that hope and building those positive incentives creates more behavior change over time. So, that’s where my mind goes. Barry – Comment – How do you define…we are a Natural Resources Advisory Board…what’s natural? Honoré – Comment – You’re taking us into the most philosophical realms, Barry. Barry – Comment – That cartoon I sent you…it may be something to hardly spend any time on, but if you could just pull up slide three, and that’s from a talk at Avo’s a few years ago. So, an ecosystem, whether it’s terrestrial or an aquatic ecosystem, all of the dynamic processes that occur in that system, but somehow have an intersection with species, so there is just a cartoon of a terrestrial ecosystem. And there are inorganic elements, things that are not Page 14 11/15/2023 – MINUTES living, don’t reproduce, but all the boxes that produce natural resources, all of our food, all of our air, all of the decomposition of our waste, all of those are things that species are the actors, and that’s why for me, I’ve focused my professional career on trying to conserve species, because they are absolutely fundamental to everything we have. So, if you just go to the next slide, this is where in this talk, and I’d say, really the most fundamental…if I were to pick one process that is absolutely fundamental in life that occurs by plants and algae, is photosynthesis. That’s our source of carbon, and anytime we do anything that’s going to compromise photosynthetic rates, they’re going to ramify throughout that entire web that I show in the previous figure. And so, when I think of processes, I think of natural processes, processes that are mediated by living organisms, species. And that’s, when I think about natural resources, my first thing to think about is the organic, and then the inorganic part, the soil, the nutrients. And so, when I thought about this Board, I thought we’re really going to focus on sustaining these fundamental ecological processes, because that is what gives rise, in my mind, to what is a natural resource, natural, not something that is manufactured, but something that is natural, and it’s an emergent product of an ecological system. Enough said. Honoré – Comment – I think I captured some of those thoughts: life-sustaining services, not exclusive to human life, sustaining ecosystem health and function, photosynthesis as the foundational building block of life, what inhibits photosynthesis is bad for all of the system, such as drought, extreme heat, deforestation, need to ensure the ongoing resilience of and help the environment thrive, environment is tied to natural resources, minimizing negative human impact or maximizing positive human impact to those systems of scale using tools and approaches available to do so. Those are some of the notes I captured in the first part. And then the second part was, what sorts of specific interventions, programs, and initiatives that recognize the connectedness of systems, that different aspects are related, and incentivizing and encouraging behavior change using hope -framed context. Let me just show you real briefly the notes that we sent to the budget office…I’m sorry, Danielle, you have your hand raised, before I go on. Danielle – Comment – This could come later, too. I don’t want you to lose your train of thought. Honoré – Comment – Sure…this was just, not to get too deep here, but we took sort of a triple bottom line approach in sustainability with our economic folks, our social folks, and a couple of the key stra tegic issue inputs that we added to the mix: talent availability, that’s more on the workforce side, ongoing pandemic impacts, supporting community and residential resilience, the regional nature of our challenges, and then barriers to climate action is the one that I worked on the most. We’re in a climate emergency that’s been declared by our Council, impacts felt across the globe, droughts, fires, et cetera. Council has adopted ambitious goals, Our Climate Future is the primary framework, community support for stronger action on mitigating and adapting to climate change, we’ve seen that across the board, and then these specific challenges and barriers: how do we navigate the City’s role in climate Page 15 11/15/2023 – MINUTES change and climate action, understanding where we’re best poised to lead, where we should be better as supporters and advocates, centering the work in climate and environmental justice so no one is left behind, address and counter the narrative that it’s too expensive to act on climate, develop regional and community-scale infrastructure, especially for diverting waste materials like food scraps, and ensure everyone in our community has access to clean and healthy air through monitoring and emission-reduction resilient strategies. So, just to give you an example of some of the things we’re thinking about at the staff level in this space that corresponds to the work you’re doing. Danielle – Comment – I think that goes really well with our discussion overall, and I really like, here, how equity is brought in. I do think, though, that equity in the context of climate is often talking about the unequal impacts to vulnerable populations, and not enough is given to the fact that inequality drives emissions. It’s not a country’s GDP that predicts its emissions, it’s a country's inequity. We know that the top ten percent of people are responsible for forty to fifty percent of this country's emissions; their investments alone are responsible for over forty percent of their emissions. Inequity itself is a driver of climate change, and the lack of recognition of that as both a cause and effect, I think is inhibiting our ability to center equity in a lot of our work, and I think it’s important for us to center equity in our environmental services and our natural resources work, both because of the impacts, but also because of the effects. Honoré – Comment – I’m sorry if I’m talking too much in this meeting, but to build on that, Danielle, I talked about the evolving nature of environmental work in the organization…we’ve been trying to make the same point that you’re making, Danielle, that says the root cause of environmental injustice or environmental degradation, and social problems, is the same; it’s the exploitative and extractive attitude that we’ve had as a culture toward people and planet. It is making it less well-defined, but I think the attitude and approach that we’ve been supported in taking as staff is to address…try to find ways to address both simultaneously. I think after reviewing the key elements of how you defined environmental health, thinking about…what ways can the City help to achieve the outcome? Expansion of existing programs and services, implementation of new ones, policy changes, et cetera. So, I think if there’s anything else you want to specifically add, I’ve got programs and initiatives that recognize the interconnectedness of systems, and I’ve got incentivizing and encouraging behavior change using hope-framed, positive context. Is there anything else you would want to make sure we capture? This was after the discussion of what environmental health means to the Board and what are some specific things the City should be doing. Dawson – Comment – So then based of this conversation we just had, the notion of how equity has to be a key player in these plans. The equity has to be in addition to…that lens or perspective of equity has to be brought into the natural resource conservation plans, procedures, I think is what I’m hearing out of that last conversation as well. Page 16 11/15/2023 – MINUTES Kevin – Comment – Kind of separately, I don’t know how it will factor in…just being bold, and I’m not saying we’re not, but when it comes down to it, how to get in the culture of, well, we don’t want to limit parking because the businesses might…we just kind of need to be okay with doing what’s right and knowing there will be some change and adjustment. We can sit in here and say these things, but the implementation and the community acceptance or expectation or willingness to put something out there still feels like a huge limiting factor, so how else can we have some language and some framework…we’ve got to bigger things. There’s always so many reasons to not. This is only one area… Honoré – Comment – I put taking bold action to prioritize environmental health even if it causes some discomfort. Kevin – Comment – There’s going to be discomfort no matter what, so let’s pick some discomfort that we can control versus the discomfort we can’t control. Not to say that shouldn’t be equitable, et cetera, that still applies as well. That’s where I get a little stuck and frustrated in feeling like we can’t go as big as we really need and want to on some levels. Lisa – Comment – I have a question; I’ve lived here three years, so I can’t call myself a newcomer anymore, but I’m just sort of wondering if people…how we see ourselves as citizens of Fort Collins. Do we see ourselves as kind of, we’re a green community, we’re a tree city? I don’t get that feeling in this town. I don’t get a sense of civic pride that we are environmentally on the leading edge. When I look at these goals like renewable energy by 2030, that is amazing, but if I didn’t sit on this Board, I wouldn’t know that. So, this notion of hope…I almost feel like educating people and getting people on board…I mean you see people sitting in their trucks idling at Starbucks for thirty minutes. Where are the signs telling people how horrible it is to i dle your truck? Stuff like that. Another thing, the leaves; I’ve been blowing my mind thinking of the volume of leaves that have been collected on the campus, in the city, in my neighborhood, everywhere, where do they go? I bet they don’t get composted, but maybe they do, but we should know. Honoré – Comment – A huge amount of the leaves in this community get composted. Lisa – Comment – Well, we should know that, take some pride in that. Barry – Comment – Actually they’re better to leave on your lawn. Lisa – Comment – Well, I heard that discussion too, except the guy I heard on the radio said, no, that’s not…that’s a myth. Barry – Comment – There was an article in last month’s Scientific American about the benefits of leaving leaves in place on your lawn based on a whole series of scientific studies. Page 17 11/15/2023 – MINUTES Dawson – Comment – I think that’s a really great perspective though…you say you’re fairly new to the community and are thinking ‘what’s going on here?’ Kevin – Comment – I like promoting that pride concept and creating that as a cultural expectation and make it very clear. I always joke around that you should get a handbook when you move here: you live in a high desert, water is scarce, there’s wildfire risk, we are a bike community, we take pride in these things. The more different folks that come to the community and have different backgrounds and expectations…if you’re not really sustaining that culture through very visible means and taking pride in that. I do think there are a lot of people that care about these things, but it starts to feel a little watered down, I would agree with you. You could be anywhere when you’re in the Starbucks parking lot and people at school are idling…how do we really, as part of this, create that…continue to perpetuate that culture that I think is here, but it feels like it starts to get a little bit diminished. Lisa – Comment – I think it is here, but it might be sort of assumed that everybody is on board, when I don’t think everybody is. Danielle – Comment – Identity is one of the strongest drivers of behavior change. Identity comes before changed behaviors, so if we can create an identity that aligns with our climate action plan and Our Climate Future, we can actually drive a lot of beha viors. Honoré – Comment – Here are the four bullets I put in the chat for what are the ways the City can help achieve this outcome of environmental health: programs and incentives that recognize the connectedness of systems, incentivizing and encouraging behavior change using equity as a lens and driver for policy and program development and service delivery, taking bold action to prioritize environmental health even if it causes some discomfort, and promoting pride in Fort Collins’ environmental commitments and connection to this place and its unique ecosystem. What do you think, Dawson, are we at a good place with this conversation or is there more to be said? Dawson – Comment – I think we’re in a good place, and specifically thinking about time and our action plan…the point of us having this conversation is the promotion of, now let’s talk about what that action looks like. So I think this is a good place for us to jump to the next agenda item. Barry – Comment – I think that’s really excellent, here’s where I’m just struggling a bit. Danielle mentioned something that I totally agree with; I think you can trace almost all of our problems, if not all of them, to the inequitable distribution of wealth and opportunity. And I think that’s the Israli/Hamas/Palestinian war, anything. But, as an ecologist, I accept that that’s the fundamental driver of all the problems we’re having, but in my work day-to-day, how do I reconcile that with me spending th e last week with colleagues trying to develop a plan so that the Forest Service sustains Pacific fisher on the landscape. Sometimes it makes you think that the stuff I work on is so trivial and irrelevant and disconnected, but I have no idea how to tackle Page 18 11/15/2023 – MINUTES this structural, foundational problem, which I believe is exactly as Danielle stated it. That’s where I struggle. So, the best I can do is work a little bit at the margins of things. Danielle – Comment – Well, when we think about eighty percent of the world’s biodiversity being protected by six percent of our population, which is indigenous people that have some of the fewest resources and have faced some of the greatest challenges, I think there’s lessons there, that you can…inequity doesn’t have to be defining and a crutch, and maybe there’s some opportunities there. Although, with Pacific fisher, we’re dealing with a similar project, and that’s a tou gh one. But, that’s where I think thinking systems as opposed to species is an opportunity, because maybe you can’t save the fisher in that exact location, but if you can restore a system and a process, you can still have tremendous benefit to other species that might be moving north while you’re trying to affect change for fishers. Dawson – Comment – Let’s transition then to our action item then. So, Honoré, just to confirm, you’ll take those notes and provide those by Friday? Honoré – Comment – I will cc the Board on that submission. Wordsmithing and all that, it’s never perfect, but in this case I think it’s fine for progress and not perfection. b. Begin Update to 2024 NRAB Work Plan – Board Chair to lead work plan update process – due Nov. 30. (Discussion) Honoré – Comment – I do have your Work Plan draft that I can pull up if that’s helpful. Matt – Comment – That discussion felt like it’s really going to hopefully inform the Work Plan, because I thought there were some really good things shared that could drive what the group does going forward, or at least what the focus is. Maybe that’s not even the right word…guiding principles, how about that? Barry – Q – So while we’re talking a little break here, what’s the status of the Halligan Reservoir expansion? Has the County issued a 1041 permit since all of the North Fork is in Larimer County? Do you know what the status of that Halligan Reservoir issue is? Honore – A – I know there was a major milestone reached in the last couple of months, but I don’t know the specificity around the 1041. Let me see if I can find it. Halligan Water Supply Project milestones: hit a major permitting milestone, final environmental impact statement was published on October 23rd, before the reservoir’s capacity can be increased, it must receive federal, state, and local perm its, once all permits are approved and in place, construction can begin. So, I think it’s in process. Major milestone in terms of the publishing of the EIS, but not necessarily getting through the permitting process yet. Barry – Comment – Because one of the things that I’m trying to find time to Page 19 11/15/2023 – MINUTES review is the Fish and Wildlife Mitigation and Enhancement Plan for Halligan, and that might be something that would be useful for our Board to talk about and discuss in the future. Honoré – Comment – So this first part is the summary memo from Dawson on behalf of you all. And then scrolling down, you’ve got the more specific focus areas, and generally these are pretty high level and they can carry over a bit from the year before. You can see some of the words in here, there’s a reference to CAP goals. Barry – Comment – So, on the first one, at yesterday’s Larimer County Environmental Science Advisory Board, our whole presentation was on the new landfill that’s going to be located about two miles south of the Rawhide power plant. But, what was most interesting is all of the really advanced technology that’s going to be incorporated in that landfill to promote recycling and repurposing of materials so that the volume of material actually going into the landfill over the next decade…their goal is to reduce it by seventy percent. So, it was quite an impressive presentation, and encouraging. And they’re also going to restore and revegetate the existing landfill with native vegetation. So, that’s sort of relevant to this first topic here, and all of that wa s quite encouraging. Honoré – Comment – My understanding is that they are still in the fairly early stages of establishing what types of diversion infrastructure would be most appropriate. Barry – Comment – They have four bids from big time companies and they are interviewing all of them and making a decision within the next couple of months apparently. Honoré – Comment – Not to get too deep into that specific topic, but at least two of those companies are waste to energy companies which are somewhat at odds, at least with the City of Fort Collins, historic approach to waste diversion. So, although it might be zero waste to landfill, there’s a lot of other implications of creating a piece of infrastructure that uses thermal plasma or whatever technology for conversion. But, there’s definitely a lot of promise there. So, you wanted to maybe consider including regional wasteshed…that is intended to be inclusive of some of that work. It’s been under the guise of a regional wasteshed group; the County is essentially leading it, but with Loveland, Estes Park, Wellington, Fort Collins included. This does seem a little bit dated. Community composting project was something I worked on six or seven years ago. Barry – Comment – And the water resources one, as I mentioned, I think some discussion of the Halligan Reservoir and the Fish and Wildlife Mitigation Plan would be a good topic for us to discuss here, perhaps to render an opinion on. Matt – Comment – I’m wondering if this level of specificity feels appropriate or necessary. What I’m seeing, for example, in that first stanza, there’s a lot of Page 20 11/15/2023 – MINUTES really specific programs and projects identified, a number of them are pretty outdated. And so, I think if the intention is to have this level of detail in the annual Work Plan, there’s probably more work to be done in making sure that it's updated to really reflect the scope of upcoming projects or focus areas in the next year. Barry – Comment – Well the County Commissioners are supposed to weigh in on the Thornton pipeline issue today, render an opinion. Matt – Comment – I think one option would be to reduce the amount of specificity in the various sections so that you don’t have to then be responsible for updating them every year with all this exact…like recreating work plans or something from staff. Kevin – Comment – I was going to say on the transportation side, actually there’s opportunity to update from the Bicycle Advisory Committee to the Active Modes Advisory Board, which I guess that would be a little more lasting, and maybe specificity is fine there, but as far as individual projects, I would be open to more generic terms. You’re going to hit those things anyway, and unless there’s a reason to call it out like that and follow the flow of what project is in play in any given year, it may not actually provide very much benefit. So maybe as long as the high level dots are connected, that feels like a nice way to be inclusive of other areas or other specific projects we do want to call out, but otherwise I like the idea of making it a little more generic. It just feels like as task, as you said…it’s just a bunch of time to dial in the specific projects and I don’t see that as a value add in most cases unless there’s something we really feel we need to call out. Matt – Comment – I haven’t seen this document used extensively to drive the work of the Board at this level of detail in a way that’s really helped the Chair and staff liaison develop the agendas. Kevin – Comment – That’s a good way to put it and the other thing I would say is it’s not going to define whether something we decide to prioritize for an upcoming meeting for example; we’re not going to look back to this, we’re just going to follow the 6-month calendar or areas you get exposed to, Honoré, and bring it in. So, if it’s not being used for that sounding board, then it’s just a task. Dawson – Comment – Most of this has been tweaked and updated from last year’s in preparation for us having this discussion. We could take on a little more of those other related items you were showcasing a minute ago, and generalizing it in some capacity like that. So, thinking about these from the last couple of cycles of this, we utilized the first four as our main areas , and these were the interest points of the Board…more individual priorities were called out in this space. Barry – Comment – I like Kevin’s suggestion to make it more generic, and that gives us more flexibility for any emergent things that might arise that we could Page 21 11/15/2023 – MINUTES then focus on. Kevin – Comment – I will say other issues…that can be removed completely because of the structural change in the Active Modes Advisory Board , which will be stand alone, and not structured with each board sending a liaison. Lisa – Q – Are you saying the Bicycle Advisory Committee doesn’t exist anymore? Kevin – A – Yes, December will be the last meeting of the Bicycle Advisory Committee which has been made up of liaisons of other boards and it will be changed to an Active Modes Advisory Board which will be a board like this one where community members are appointed to the board and they’re not on another board. Lisa – Q – Do you see that as a good thing? Kevin – A – I do; I think it elevates it; it will have a City Council liaison instead of reporting through the Transportation Board, and I think having dedicated more at-large members will be positive. So we could still say something about supporting the Active Modes Plan, though there will be a specific board that will be supporting that Plan. Dawson – Comment – Everyone has access to this document, and you should have editing capabilities. For me, do we alter this in a way to generalize it into a list instead of four or five priorities and a related issues list of what we found important personally? Barry – Comment – I think you could keep the same five headings but have a couple of sentences broadly outlining the scope of what we will be considering without having the specifics that are in there now . I like the flexibility that provides. Danielle – Comment – I might recommend just making those five headings a list and maybe not even having additional language there. I would love to find a place to pop in the summary of our discussion tonight if we felt like more meat was needed, but I feel like less is more beyond simply having those focal areas. Matt – Comment – I’m supportive of that idea as well. Barry – Comment – Works for me. Honoré – Comment – Why don’t I copy and paste my notes into the bottom of this document, Dawson, and then you can use as you see fit…whether you see if there’s a place to bring in any of that content directly to the Work Plan. I will also copy in the summary that was on the poster for the board open house a couple of weeks ago, which may be informative in updating that intro paragraph. Matt – Comment – I think that paragraph is where a summary of the discussion we just had earlier maybe goes, because it gives us our guiding Page 22 11/15/2023 – MINUTES principles. On the first page, maybe we could edit it more so it’s condensed even further. The first page is intended as a memo to communicate to Council? Dawson – Comment – The first two pages of this document is the email that will have the Work Plan as an attachment. So before I start making changes to the document, we’re under the impression that we just want to create the list of items and we’re going to nix descriptions? Matt – Comment – I think that’s what I heard as well, just general categories. Honoré – Comment – I’m just double-checking the bylaws to ensure the Work Plan does not have to include certain specifics. Danielle – Comment – Honoré, I remember Nancy and I going through this and there being basically nothing specific that was required for the annual Work Plan other than the date it was due. Dawson – Comment – So a reconfiguration based off what Honoré captured during our discussion, and then a list like this. Matt – Comment – I might suggest that the last sentence of the second paragraph that you’re on right now doesn’t feel as specific to me as what Danielle described earlier as a recognition of the interconnectedness of those systems. A lot of this is falling on you to go back an update this, so I don’t know if that is a place to start bringing some of that language in from the earlier discussion. Danielle – Comment – I like that catch a lot. It opens the door for us to give input in other places as the need arises. Honoré – Comment – I’m going to put that section of the notes from the earlier discussion here, and I think probably between what was there previously, the input that you all just discussed, and then what I had drafted for the Board and Commission open house, we can pull together something that captures what you are talking about. Matt – Q – And is the ask then, Dawson, for each of us to go into this and offer some comments or thoughts, or do you want to take a stab at it? Dawson – A – Well, I think because of the timeline, we need to finish this tonight and approve it and submit. Honoré – Comment – I think if you’re doing work on a public document, it needs to be in the public. And after having missed the October meeting, I think that there could be probably some grace given if after all the conversation you’ve had tonight, you wanted to do a final draft and send that out for the December meeting and then vote and approve it on December 15th. Dawson – Comment – I am game to wordsmith this, do all of this, over next week. If November 30th isn’t as hard of a deadline as I was under the Page 23 11/15/2023 – MINUTES impression it was, then I am game to go forward with that. But, we do need to decide about our December meeting. Lisa – Comment – I feel like we’re pretty close on this thing. Do we have a whole lot more that we want to…? Dawson – Comment – I think the wordsmithing will take a little while. So, if people are okay with that, I’m willing to take it on this weekend and over this next week, send it back out, people make comments so that we can then finalize it at our December meeting. Are people okay with that? Okay, so that’s what we’ll do. This brings us to the question of our December meeting which is scheduled for the 20th, and I know that would be a bit of a challenge for folks. A couple of things, just because we already have two individuals who have resigned, and we have to have five present to take action. So, keep it on the 20th, just do it virtually, keep it short, where we just come and do this via Zoom, as one option. Right now I do have a medical thing scheduled for the week before so I will not be able to meet on the 13 th, but I could do the 6th. Matt – Comment – The 20th works fine for me, the 6th works for me, the 13th doesn’t work for me either. Danielle – Comment – The 13th doesn’t work for me; I’m tentatively scheduled to be in the field on the 20th, but that may change. But the 6th definitely works. Kevin – Comment – Sixth is fine. Barry – Comment – I think the 6th would work for me, and the 13th, not the 20th though. Honoré – Comment – So that is three weeks from tonight. Just reviewing the upcoming items, there’s not a ton we had on here. Conversation about the landfill, I don’t think that’s going to be timely for December yet, transit initiative, no, that will already have passed, night sky initiative, again, something we can schedule but it’s not priority, end of the year re port is due January 31st, so you’d want to have a draft of that for the January meeting, and I’m sure you could request help from the Vice Chair. Matt – Q – Just so I’m clear on the public meeting aspect, we can or we cannot go into the Google doc and do edits outside of this meeting. Dawson - A – I was going to say comments; we can’t change the document. Honoré – A – The Colorado open meetings law pertains to email correspondence and telephone calls and things like that; it doesn’t actually say ‘shared online documents.’ I think in the spirit of the law and in terms of full transparency, the advice that I’ve gotten is to include the draft with the comments and the tracked changes that were made outside of a meeting. Dawson – Comment – Just use the actual comment function and then we can make the alterations during the meeting. Honoré – Comment – And just regarding the end of year topics, I’m just Page 24 11/15/2023 – MINUTES confirming that I don’t think there’s anything so pressing for December that it would need you to meet in person. Did I hear that your preference is to do it fully remote on the 6th? Dawson – Comment – Fully remote on the 6th, then we don’t have to worry about rooms. And then just the agenda items will be finalization and action on the Work Plan and a discussion and draft version of the end of year report. 8. BOARD MEMBER REPORTS None. 9. STAFF REPORTS None. 10. OTHER BUSINESS • Board Member Reports • The final Super Issue Meeting of 2023 will take place on December 4th at the Lincoln Center in the Columbine Room 5:30PM-7:30PM. ▪ It will be a water-focused meeting and food will be provided • Boards and Commissions Open House on November 6th at City Hall 5PM -7PM. • Clarity on current terms and timing of new members, etc. • Six Month Calendar Review https://www.fcgov.com/cityclerk/planning -calendar.php • Revisit action items from previous meetings & preview of next meeting City Websites with Updates: • Natural Resources Advisory Board webpage: https://www.fcgov.com/cityclerk/natural - resources.php • Our Climate Future: https://ourcity.fcgov.com/ourclimatefuture 11. ADJOURNMENT a. (7:55 pm) Minutes approved by a vote of the Board/Commission on 12/6/23