Board Minutes – June 14, 2007

Minutes submitted by Lisa Mastny

 

 

Dick introduced himself and provided a brief background on the history of SASCO. Other board members and the two guests introduced themselves.

 

Renee raised the idea of a community garden. She noted that she and Chris Paulson had agreed that the Riverview area off East 30th Street is a perfect spot for such a garden, and hopes to move the issue forward. She also noted that when she first joined the City Council, she had the idea of forming a green building code advisory group.

 

Renee explained that City staff is in the early stages of planning a homeowners’ forum after Labor Day. She said that the USDA Rural Development Group in Cortez has money available for people to use for new roofs, carpeting, siding, cabinets, wiring, plumbing, and other uses. She noted that people aged 62 and older are eligible to receive a $7,500 grant. She explained that the 2000 census showed that Durango has a huge number (maybe even 50 percent) of homes older than 1950. She said she could plug in the appropriate person/agency to talk about what federal money is available for solar and other improvements. She then passed around an article about how planned coal-fired power plants in the U.S. will offset any state, federal, and local activities to offset emissions for 10 years.

 

Wally introduced himself, noting that he was formerly on the County Planning Commission and had installed a solar water heating system on a previous house. He said he has long supported the idea of “living rightly” on the land. He explained that he studied intensive farming and even tried it himself on dry land, so he believes in and supports strongly the local sustainability movement. He said the movement will be even more important as time goes on.

 

Wally noted that he attended the State Organization for Counties conference, at which both Randy Udall and Colorado Governor Bill Ritter spoke. He explained that he brought information on the proposed Desert Rock coal-fired power plant, and that this evolved into a discussion on electricity. He noted that there is a concerted effort by the energy industry to push coal. He said the County has felt like it’s done a good thing by bringing in electricity for natural gas production, but that this requires ramping up [coal-generated] electricity production. He explained that there is a problem of locally produced electricity going to the West Coast or Las Vegas, but having impacts on people here. He had questions about how “green” LPEA’s green energy program really is. He explained that as the City and County try to achieve LEED certification for buildings, they may end up spending more money to buy green energy. Dick observed that according to Michelle Reott, green power was in fact cheaper.

 

Tom mentioned recent efforts by GreenFuel Technologies in Massachusetts to build algae bioreactors. He explained that in such systems, algae eat up to 85 percent of the CO₂ and NO_x emissions and convert waste to fuel—and that if they were used at Desert Rock, the plant could generate biodiesel and ethanol from the algae. He noted that the technology is in full-scale testing right now at an Arizona facility. He indicated that the County could require that any new coal plant use this technology. Wally noted that such a system goes along with ZERI principles. He said that Gov. Ritter has stated that Colorado is now #2 in the country on moving toward efficient, renewable energy. He explained that a huge solar plant is scheduled to be built in Alamosa, and that 3 to 4 wind farms are also proposed for the eastern part of the state. He explained that the Danish company Vestas will be building a wind power manufacturing plant to provide components. He said that one of Ritter’s goals is to make Colorado a leader in the renewable energy field.

 

Dick mentioned that New Belgium brewery is undertaking an initiative to use brewery waste to grow algae. He also said that Tri-State has backed off from at least two coal-fired plants. He noted that subsidies give rural electrical coops cheap loans to build coal-fired plants. He added that the Desert Rock public meeting has been pushed back to July 16 and will be held at the Iron Horse.

 

Jim said that SASCO aims to be a forum where, for example, broader linkages between Desert Rock and issues like agriculture can be discussed. He said the 9R School District has set up $500 “local food funds” at each of the 10 schools as a pilot/demonstration project, and that these are also funds that people can donate to, so they represent a way to get the community involved in local food issues.

 

Rebecca briefly described the work of the SASCO Ambassador’s committee, and Tom described the activities of the SLED committee. Renee noted that the Chamber of Commerce will be sponsoring a workshop on economic development next Monday. Jim added that Marcus Renner at the FLC Environmental Center is also bringing in someone from BALLE to discuss the “buy local” issue.

 

Sue noted that giving builders a specific set of standards for Three Springs has dramatically changed the outlook and enthusiasm of the builders, and that synergies are forming. She observed that SASCO would love to see the establishment of a Regional Sustainability Coordinator position—a central position that would serve region-wide. Wally noted that he has brought up the idea in the past, but that previous boards wanted to keep a cap on hiring. He noted that the current board, however, is realizing that there is a need to hire additional people. He mentioned that there had been a push to establish an environmental health position in Silverton, and that Wano Urbanos was interested in this, but it didn’t happen. He said that the county now has the ability, especially in this budget cycle, to possibly put a full-time position together.

 

Wally noted that the idea of regional sustainability is related to the projected decline in the San Juan Basin natural gas field. He said the County needs to figure out how to change its economic basis, given that 66 percent of property taxes come from the gas industry. He noted that the County is currently doing an update of a study from 2001 on the productivity of the gas field, to give a more refined sense of when production will die off (likely in 10 to 15 years). He said that over that period, the County hopes to do some alternative economic development; otherwise, there are not many efforts to attract business to the region—this is “a difficult place, given the challenges of location, transportation, and to some extent climate.”

 

Sue observed that if the County hires an environmental health position, then maybe the City could hire a sustainability person, and the two could go hand in hand. Renee explained that she had considered the idea of establishing a natural resources coordinator position, since there is no such dedicated environmental professional on City staff. She said it would be helpful for SASCO to write a letter reminding the City Council that such a position was mentioned as part of the Comprehensive Plan.

 

Werner described his conversation with Greg Hoch on the possibility of SASCO taking on the sustainability actions in the Comp Plan. He said that he sent Greg a memo, and that Greg spoke to Bob Ledger. He explained that the idea would be that SASCO would carry out an initial six-month plan, looking into what other cities have done, outlining a systems approach, and writing a report and recommendations. He said that Greg would then bring the proposal to the City Council on July 17. Renee asked whether this activity would preclude hiring a staff person. Dick responded that this would probably put off the hiring for a year or so. Werner explained that the idea of this initial plan would be to see what has worked in other towns. He noted that such an assessment could also be used at the county level. Wally observed that the atmosphere is right for such a plan. Werner explained that local expertise on the topic exists—for example, Claire Bradshaw with the Discovery Museum wrote Berkeley’s Sustainability Plan.

 

Wally asked whether SASCO has talked to anyone at Rocky Mountain Institute. Werner said that he has had interactions with Michael Kinsley. Renee noted that she is an old friend of Amory and Hunter Lovins. Werner added that Paul Sheldon, Hunter’s brother, is now here in Durango, at Ecos Consulting. Rebecca noted that Paul Bent from the San Juan Citizen’s Alliance is also now working for Ecos as well. Werner observed that SASCO will need to grapple with the potential conflict arising from the fact that we’re an advocacy group, but might also be working for the City and County. He noted that San Miguel County hired Kris Holstrom to start up a nonprofit that is doing the kind of work that SASCO can do, and that her work is paid for by Telluride, San Miguel County, and the ski area.

 

Wally noted that a group in Vallecito is looking into the mercury levels there, and that they may do an analysis on Desert Rock and the polluting effects of that.

 

Jim raised the LPEA issue again. It was noted that, as mentioned above, there is a question whether the electricity that Tri-State is offering right now is not certifiable as green power, and Michelle Reott has expressed disappointment that the city bought “green power” from LPEA without addressing this issue, especially since a specific certification is needed to meet the LEED qualifications. Renee noted that the issue of the City buying green power never even came before the City Council—it was Bob Ledger’s decision. Tom observed that LPEA is also buying “non-local” green power, and that the coop could do its part by installing local renewable power. Renee said that this region is not a big wind area. Dick responded that it is, however, rich in solar resources, and that LPEA is offering a rebate on home solar installation. Wally observed that in the past, Durango was known not only as “tree city,” but as “solar city,” but that very few people in town use solar power. Dick said this is in part an issue of tax structure—the law says that either the City or County can grant rebates. Renee said she would ask City staff to look into this issue. Dick noted that SWCRES has discussed having someone (Mark Stetz) give an overview of what options are available for residents.

 

Wally asked Erick to give an update on what the County’s Resource Committee is doing. Erick notes that Michelle’s husband is also on the Committee. He explained that the Committee has been tasked to get the most appropriate information about either spending money on green power, or using the money for efficiency improvements now—e.g. replacing light bulbs, etc. Wally questioned whether it’s not equally important to keep putting pressure on Tri-State. Erick said it may be better to do efficiency improvements now, and to wait until there are more options for LPEA to choose from. Rebecca noted that LPEA says the problems are with Tri-State, not them, and that pressure needs to be put on both.

 

Werner raised the idea of starting a local investment fund to keep money in the local economy. He explained that the idea would be to create a fund, as in Alaska, that would go to economic development, school bonds, investment revenue bonds, etc. If the County had collateral available, it could later invest in specific projects. Werner said the idea would be that the County earmark a specific amount on an annual basis, which would generate funds. Wally said the idea is being talked about but needs to be more fully developed. Werner noted that the County currently has very low property taxes. Wally said this is why people move here—while housing prices may be expensive for us, they are cheaper than elsewhere, and property taxes are even lower.

 

The two guests thanked SASCO for the invitation to attend the meeting and left.

Dick raised the possibility of having SWCRES affiliate with SASCO, in much the same way as the current Farm-to-School Committee. He explained that there are several motivations for this: (1) CRES is fairly disorganized and has promulgated onerous guidelines on affiliates while not always holding up its end of the bargain; (2) 4CORE is starting to get off the ground and may take on some of the SWCRES issues locally; (3) SWCRES Board members feel that there is a lot of effort to keep Board going and that this leaves very little time to do outreach and activities.

 

Dick noted that at a recent meeting, SWCRES discussed the pros and cons of affiliation, and that the “cons” came out as a series of questions—for instance, what would happen to the SWCRES money, and would it be earmarked for energy issues? Dick said he assured them that this would be the case. He said there was also concern about blurring the identity of the group in the community. He said one option would be for SWCRES to affiliate with the Community Foundation first, but that this would still leave administrative issues.

 

Dick noted that SWCRES could become the “Smart Energy Committee” of SASCO. SASCO could have an advantage from the human resources, in particular gaining representatives who are actively involved in energy issues. He explained that at the recent SWCRES meeting, Chris Calwell, Michelle Reott, and Tim Wheeler were tasked to talk with SASCO and to revisit the issue in August. The idea would be to make the formal decision at the end of this year, when both groups would make changes to their Boards. Dick noted that the SASCO Executive Committee had already discussed this issue and “didn’t see any show stoppers.”

 

Tom noted that when people donate to SASCO or sign up to be members, they could be asked whether the funding should be earmarked for a specific project. He also brought up the issue of raising the membership fee. Dick noted that currently, with the SWCRES $35 membership fee, the bulk goes to CRES and only $14 goes back to the local affiliate. Sue noted that CRES also has a corporate membership level—Three Springs pays $350 annually—and wondered how much of that stays with SWCRES.

 

Jim said it could be problematic if we promise SWCRES that we would take on two energy Board members, when we haven’t fully discussed what would be the best Board composition internally. He noted that the affiliation would be setting up for a bigger Board and giving specific issue areas slots on the Board. He said Board members might start voting from their issues rather than in consideration of the broader interest of the organization. Tom noted that this brings up an earlier discussion of whether the Board composition should be regional, topic oriented, etc. Dick said that the idea would be to have the leaders of affiliate organizations at the table, but that we may need to revisit the issue of Board representation. He observed that the potential SWCRES affiliation is nudging us on two issues: dues/support and the structure of the board/how we can organize ourselves most effectively.

 

Dick said that we may want to draft an MOU between the two groups. Jim asked whether we have one with SOS, and Dick said no, because they decided to take care of their own business. But he said this raises the question that if a Cortez sustainability group starts, it might be problematic to have only one SASCO board member from outside La Plata County.

 

Dick noted that the SWCRES bylaws require notification of proposed changes one month before the annual meeting, so discussions on a potential affiliation need to happen soon. He said they hope to aim for a September decision on this. He also noted that the Solar Home Tour had been adopted by SWCRES, and that the organizers will continue to hold it regardless of the affiliation. He noted that being linked with the tour would be of mutual advantage for SASCO and the tour, in terms of outreach and other functions. He said there is a concern among some that the Tour be preserved in more or less its present state.

 

A Formal Motion was made that the Executive Committee be delegated to meet with SWCRES to work out the details of affiliation. The motion was seconded and all were favor.

 

 

Werner raised the issue of SASCO potentially contracting with the City to:

Werner explained that Scott Huffman would be available to come back to Durango starting in mid-July, through at least September. He said that at a meeting on the Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Inventory early last week, Greg had talked to Bob Ledger about possible giving the ball to us, and leaving it up to us to decide how we would organize.

 

Werner said the idea would be for SASCO to make recommendations after six months. He added that there could be follow-on work that could extend even further, though this would require another proposal. He said the ballpark funding would be around $30,000 to $50,000 from the City, though it would be even better if we could get a similar amount from the County.

 

Werner said that he would take the lead in creating and coordinating the team, which would take on specific aspects of the work. He said the core group would include Bliss, Tom, Lisa, Claire, Keith Walzak, and Scott Huffman, but that we would need to clearly define responsibilities and identify hours for reimbursement purposes. Werner said he also talked to Lon at the Community Foundation, who recommended using Payroll Services (Brian Deere) for disbursing funding. Werner noted that the challenge is that we are an advocacy group, but that we would also be doing work on behalf of the advocate (the City/County). He asked whether it would be more appropriate to form an independent local sustainability team that takes on this form of work for the city and county.

 

Tom noted that another issue is that there is nobody at the City or County responsible for sustainability, so it is possible that Greg may be seeing another issue as more important, and therefore farming out the sustainability work.

 

Erick asked whether the contract would have requests for deliverables or would be more of a general guidance sort of report. He observed that it would be better to have functional deliverables that could include a report back to the City/County, as well as recommended policy changes. He noted that not having a request for specifics would be problematic.

 

Tom said that one of SASCO’s suggestions would be to create a job description for someone who would be the Sustainability Coordinator, outlining tasks and responsibilities. Sue added that it is important that any goals we recommend are practical, implementable, and lead to an action plan. Lisa noted that one of the goals would be to make a recommendation to hire someone who would then carry out SASCO’s other recommendations.

 

Werner said we still need to hold an internal discussion over who carries out the various tasks. Rebecca asked how the money allocation would work—would people simply get paid for their time? Tom explained that there would probably be a certain amount of money associated with each deliverable, so the work would be contract work done by employees of SASCO. Jim said this would raise tax issues. Dick noted that 5 percent (roughly $2,000) would go to the Community Foundation, and an even greater cut to a payroll service. Tom said that maybe we could make sure that another 5 percent would go to SASCO. Dick noted that SASCO would have contract management responsibilities. Sue added that there are also costs for printing the report.

 

Erick asked how Greg is dealing with the procurement side of a potential SASCO contract. He noted that the County can’t simply hire SASCO—it would have to issue an RFP out of fairness to the public. He said the County does, however, do contracts with specialists based on particular issues in the community. Werner explained that Greg said he was not legally required to advertise a local contract and had already gotten approval from Bob Ledger, though he wasn’t sure whether Bob raised the issue with City Councilors. Sue asked whether SASCO could apply as a specialist with the County. Erick noted that Janillee Hogan is the procurement officer, but that it may be best to get the City side of things clarified, then the County would follow suit.

 

Sue raised the concern that this contract would be a lot of work. Rebecca asked whether Werner envisions this as his “day job.” Werner noted that the work is not so much advocacy as much as baseline research, so he doesn’t know whether this would be a permanent job. He explained that right now, he wants to see it happen so is making the time. Dick added that some money might go to consultants who could help immediately get us on track, such as Michael Kingsley, Michelle Long, and others. Werner responded that maybe in the proposal to the City, SASCO would ask for extra funds to bring in others.

 

Sue said that she would want each deliverable to have specific summaries of what to act on, so the City/County would be ready to move forward. Rebecca asked whether one of the recommendations to the City could be to do the study on the multiplier effect. Dick noted that another issue is the green building idea that Renee brought up. He said we could encourage the City/County to try to meet the 2030 challenge to make all buildings “climate neutral” by 2030.

 

Jim said he would be interested in seeing the work plan for the SASCO contract. He also noted that it might make sense to refer to any position to be created in the plural, since we don’t want to limit the position to one person from the get-go. Werner observed that we may even need to form another nonprofit to carry out the work.

 

Dick said this topic would need authorization from the Board to assemble a proposal, including a budget, which would be due in 10 days. He noted that if we want resolution of the Board, then we only have five days to assemble it. A motion was made to authorize Werner to assemble and circulate drafts for comment, with the notation that this would be an informational background effort consistent with SASCO’s role. The motion was seconded, and all were in favor.

Jim said that the SASCO website domain name had come up for expiration, so he paid it. He said he would be happy to pass this responsibility on to Tom in the future.

 

Werner said that the Fall vision fair would not be held, either by the Grassroots Vision Project (GVP) or by SASCO. However, he said it would still be good to have a networking meeting that would help us feed into the Spring summit. He noted that SASCO would then be part of the summit, alongside the GVP and the former Operation Healthy Communities team. He observed that the summit has up until now mostly been on social issues, but that it needs to include businesses and youth.