Board Minutes – February 8, 2007

 

Minutes submitted by Lisa Mastny

 

 

Dick introduced Joelle and asked whether the Board had any questions or thoughts for her as she assumes her new position. Joelle noted that she has been in the position for only one month and is still “taking the temperature” on the county, getting a sense of the employees, process, cultural norms, and how best to move forward. She said she has no timeline yet of strategy, and added that Erick is a great resource on the county as well.

Rebecca asked whether there is a county fund that SASCO (or other organizations) might be able to tap into. Joelle mentioned a value-added grant set up by Jim Isgar and said that there are various county files on water, land use, and sustainability, including feasibility studies for renewable energy and wind power. She said she hasn’t talked to Jim specifically about the fund but would be happy to follow up with him to find out whether the money was still available.

Bliss noted that Ken Charles with Department of Local Affairs would be great person to have speak with the Board, since he works with local governments and knows the lay of the land.

Joelle said that there is a mechanism to undertake energy audits for county buildings and facilities. She said that Joanne Spina is chairing an Energy Resource Management Team of county staff and also noted that there is a group of city staff looking into buying wind power, since the cost of this via LPEA has dropped by half. Erick added that different divisions of the county are looking into such things as changes in behavior and more-efficient solutions.Joelle added that while she’s trying to find out what steps are being taken, she also doesn’t want to step on toes. She wants to build trust and rapport with staff and community, and to make thoughtful additions.

Joelle reflected on how the county could be a model in the community for sustainability. She said a top priority would be green building standards and guidelines and noted that staff are already engaged in conversations and research in this area. A second priority would be the strategic plan, and there are “lots of feelers out.” Joelle said the county wants to make sure it’s getting all of the input needed to make this a valuable process, with solid results for the city and community.She noted that it’s best to slow down and make sure all the pieces are in place, because they don’t want an unsuccessful process. For this reason she would hesitate to say they should embrace major changes. But she noted that there are “lots of people waiting for word to go” and waiting to see if the political will is there.

Joelle said two other key issues related to sustainability in the county are affordable housing and health care. She is also trying to find ways to address things the county has so far played a hands-off role on, such as rural water supply and “uncontrolled growth.” She noted that the county needs a good land use code in place, especially in light of the Animas-La Plata project. She said questions about what to do in the southwest and southeast areas of the county have been hands-off in the past, but that the county is making contact with the tribe. She added that the county shouldn’t be too idealistic, however: they’re a “big player” and “we’re making inroads.” She said both groups have expressed willingness to work together.

Joelle said health care is related to sustainability on a base level and will be a priority. She mentioned that she is on the steering committee of Colorado counties lobbying for this, working with the National Association of Counties. She will be going to Washington, D.C. to lobby federal legislators later this year.

 

Joelle noted that while she is focusing her energy on certain goals, such as strategic planning, she has her own personal plans too. She hopes to work more closely with the county board to achieve combined goals/visions, as well as to follow up with the city regarding planning. She said she is loving her job, is excited, and is doing what she wants to be doing.

Tim brought up the issue of the Office of Resource Efficiency and how this should operate. He noted that both this group and the community in general need some kind of baseline measure of community energy use. “We need to know where we are now to know where we are going.” He said that this would require both information resources and possibly funding, and asked whether there is a way to work with the county or city to access these resources.

Joelle said she attended a recent city/county breakfast meeting where Wally White was asked how things were processing with the Mayors’ Climate Protection Initiative. She reported that the city has taken no action yet. Joelle noted that with a variety of groups doing things related to climate and energy, the question is how to create a venue for coordination and for feeding information to the county. She called the ongoing work a “gold mine” and said that the county doesn’t need to reinvent community groups doing amazing work—what’s needed is to get people aware that these resources are out there. Tim said he would happy to help get the climate effort started, noting that the city, Three Springs, etc. will need it. Joelle responded that some kind of joint effort would be good. Tim added that there are good professional resources in the community that relate to energy consumption. He said that he would also like to see county action and will work to keep Wally in the loop.

Joelle said she would mention this to Wally. She noted that Wednesdays from 9 to 11:30 serve as board discussion time, when they decide on formal actions and make referrals to follow up, investigate, or research issues. She noted that these are public open meetings. But she said she is still learning about “sunshine laws”—i.e., what officials can say or not say in public. She said officials can’t talk about issues on which there will be decisions made without this being a public meeting.

Werner noted that the Internet is a critical tool. He brought up the newly hired Sustainability Coordinator in San Miguel County and noted that they are essentially “forming a SASCO.” He said a priority in Durango and La Plata County should be to create clearinghouse/ discussion group that would enable everybody to function well and talk to each other in a coordinated manner.

Katherine noted that there was a well-attended Grassroots Visioning Process (GVP) meeting on intergovernmental cooperation. The upshot was to revise the grassroots strategy in three ways: (1) to come up with a set of actions around what the county can do to foster better connections with Ignacio, Bayfield, etc, in the county; (2) to foster regional cooperation with the other five counties; and (3) to foster connections with public, private, and nonprofit partners. She noted that there was strong sense of support from all tables, and that people would like this cooperation to happen even more, especially around issueslike health care and transportation. Katherine noted that the sustainability arena could be a place where this sort of cooperative dialogue could occur.

Sue noted that while there is apparently quite a bit going on within the county administration and managers, greater political will is needed to step it up. She noted the need for some kind of entity (the county?) to be a regional facilitator. Joelle said it would probably take another $150,000 to do it, but added that the county does have a housing authority and other initiatives.

Tim brought up the idea of an Office of Sustainability, noting that now that Operation Healthy Communities doesn’t exist, there is a void in intergovernmental cooperation on such issues as health, planning, natural resources, sustainability, and economic and social issues. He said a person is needed to coordinate these. Tom reiterated that San Miguel County had hired its first sustainability coordinator.

Joelle said that this goes back to issue of having so many groups competing for funding, and not enough coordination. She said they should combine efforts to increase their power. She said there needs to be a more philosophical approach to issues like transportation, but that there are a lot of politics and, often, changes get pushed back because of fiscal impact. She said she is looking forward to moving on the strategic planning process, getting a sense of the county’s values, and helping to implement actions with tangible results.

 

Joelle noted that with regard to the land use code, there are a lot of issues that don’t make a lot of sense. She said she wants to get these off her plate so she can work on bigger picture stuff and “get dialed in.” Rebecca asked whether they are any efforts to hold large developers accountable to sustainability issues. Joelle said the county was looking into road impact fees, but that they still need studies and to hire consultants to get feedback. Rebecca noted that there are also programmatic aspects to this, such as the need for common standards. Dick noted that there will be a public meeting on land use next week, and that the issue is being resurrected after two years in limbo. He asked Joelle how this ties into the strategic plan, and whether there is timetable for approving the land use code.Joelle noted that there will be a meeting on February 21st at the county fairgrounds at 6:30, as well as one on the 26th in Ignacio at 6:30. She said the county hopes to pass the land use code by mid-March andadded that they hope to wrap up strategic planning soon as well, but that this will likely not be on schedule.

Joelle noted that a group called the Healthy Lifestyle Coalition is working on issues of interest to SASCO (intergovernmental communication, trails, local foods) and distributed some information on this. She added that the best way to contact her is via phone, rather than e-mail.

Ambassadors Committee

Rebecca described the rationale behind the committee, noting that there are a lot of people doing great things in the region (200+ non-profits in town, churches, etc) and that it would be great to try to meet with all of them. She said the idea is to engage the big players, churches, etc in an open dialogue about sustainability. She noted that the committee has already met with three pastors (Evangelical, Episcopal, and Quaker), all of whom are already taking action on sustainability, but from different angles. She described how each congregation is divided into three groups: those for, those against, and a big middle section that is unknowledgeable and needs to be educated. She noted that the committee would compile the information they gather using Roy’s computer expertise, and will figure out how best to connect groups by shared interests, etc.

 

Tom explained that there had been no committee meeting for a month, but that they are still looking into a project to come up with local economic multipliers in the community—for instance, looking at the effects on the community of spending $1 at Albertsons or City Market as compared with local businesses such as Nature’s Oasis and Durango Natural Foods (or getting meat from Sunnyside Farms). The goal is to have research indicating why the community should favor local business rather than “big box” retailers.

 

 

Dick explained that this was the first SASCO group to take root and gain momentum, largely as a result of Jim’s other agriculture-related activities. He noted that Jim will be speaking at the Durango Green Business Roundtable on Wednesday. He said the focus of the committee is on local food and its importance for sustainability, especially in terms of reducing “food miles.” Dick explained that the committee is actively engaging with the school district, which held local food breakfasts for gatherings of staff and teachers in August. Efforts are also underway to try to get local food into cafeterias, but these face statutory obstacles. Joelle noted that the Healthy Lifestyles Coalition is also focused on some of these issues.

 

 

Werner explained that committee has gathered ideas from the last year and agreed on various goals and action items at a retreat in November. He noted that these have been compiled into a spreadsheet where the items are delineated by urgency and by who is responsible for them, but that they still need to be prioritized.

 

Werner explained that education is one of the most important elements of sustainability, so that people learn how to take care of the local environment, economy, and social structure. He noted that fundamentally, no one can object to these goals. He described several proposed committee educational initiatives, including sustainability and educational standards, courses on global warming and voluntary simplicity. He also described possible outreach tools for getting information out to the community, such as a SASCO PowerPoint, index cards describing what people can do, and other “little bits of education.” He stressed the importance of developing indicators to measure the success of these efforts.

 

Bliss introduced Denise to Joelle, explaining that she is the coordinator of the Pagosa-based sustainability group SOS. She also noted that SASCO aims to work regionally and has formed synergies with the GVP as well. She said such efforts could use SASCO support to promote their visibility. She also noted that SASCO could help inform the language in Durango’s Comprehensive Plan.

 

Katherine said that what is needed is a coordinator who can be aware of these various happenings, so things like the GVP don’t slip away. Werner agreed that there needs to be greater sharing of ideas, to avoid duplication. Dick noted that there are lots of other organizations represented in SASCO, so there is some degree of synergy already, but that the goal is to figure out how to work together better. Joelle said she sees SASCO as a group that could come give recommendations to the county (as opposed to her coming to SASCO and reporting back). She then left the meeting

 

 

The Board reviewed the latest version of the SASCO brochure and discussed plans for a table at the upcoming Homegrown local foods conference. Katherine suggested combining the SASCO and GVP tables.

 

The Board then discussed Rebecca’s logo design, which she described as an ancient design showing the flower of life. The overlapping circles represent the three rungs of sustainability: economy, society, and environment. The group voted to approve the design that had one point up and two points down.