[0:00] uh well let's call to order the city council work session for the city of udina it is Tuesday June 18th

[0:07] 2024 encourage everybody here to attend the June 19th juneth celebration at

[0:13] Centennial Lakes tomorrow evening it will'll be a very very interesting evening our colleague James Pierce is going to do be

[0:21] with the main speaker I think are you the main moderator I'm a speaker

[0:30] pressure Ona um refer to him as our special

[0:36] speaker that's much better just feel the pressure kind

[0:42] of speaker um we'll discuss the I think the origins

[0:49] of juneth in an interesting way he's got interesting idea there but for tonight

[0:55] we'll um um call the meeting to order and

[1:00] ask our clerk Sharon Allison to call the RO for the council council member Agy here council member Jackson here council

[1:07] member here here may here and tonight

[1:13] we've got two uh meetings one is the Transportation Commission transp

[1:18] commission and the energy and environment commission about half an hour from now and we've got our chair

[1:23] Andy Lewis from the ATA Transportation Commission with us and let's uh go around the room introduce ourselves and

[1:30] then we'll do the outer ring I think for the transportation Commissioners in attendance if you want to move up to the

[1:36] table Roger and others come on down

[2:00] let's start with Sharon what is you you know we'll come this way with Scott Sharon Allison city clerk I'm Scott Neil

[2:05] I'm city manager Roger buildon uh member of the Transportation Commission good evening K agu city council James beer

[2:13] city council CH melin Council Charan Jackson Council Julie rer councel Andrew

[2:19] skion Transportation planner Chris Brown Vice chair Transportation commissioner Andy lewi chair Transportation

[2:24] Commission Adam Rosen Transportation Commission Grant R Transportation Commission

[2:32] all right very good um turn to chair Lewis or Mr syion is there anything you

[2:37] wanted to do from an introductory standpoint no I think introductions been made I'll hand it over to Andy Lewis all

[2:43] right well thank you for having me and it's always a privilege to just speak about the work that our commission um

[2:50] has been doing over the past year and want to provide you some updates as to our work plan deliverables this year and

[2:57] then have some questions that I think would be worthy of discussion with the group just based on the work that we've

[3:03] done so far this year and to make sure that we're delivering what you as council members is ultimately the

[3:08] recipients of our work are looking for so we had four work plan items uh this

[3:15] year uh admittedly quite a few less than in years past and I think last time I was here I spoke to our intent to sort

[3:22] of bring the number of them down the quality of them up um particularly as we've had a bit of turnover on the

[3:28] commission over the last couple years so I think we've got a really solid stable group of Commissioners that I think

[3:34] purely based on our terms will be together um and with us for a period of

[3:39] time which I think will give us a good foundation to build back from our more simple work plan this year so I think

[3:46] last time I saw all of you was down in the council chambers that was literally one of our work plan items which was

[3:51] recognized 20 years of the Transportation Commission so uh the good news is that's done uh maybe not the

[3:58] most uh deep update necessarily but I think it really important to have some of the folks who preceded our members

[4:05] here recognized for the work that they have done uh certainly to teach many of us who are newer um the way and a little

[4:11] bit of the history of the group so then our other three work plan items maybe I'll work backward to forward in terms

[4:17] of those that are maybe more simple and have less updates and against the ones that are more complex we've been sort of

[4:23] tagged into a parking initiative that is ultimately being led by planning just to look at parking policy parking minimum

[4:29] the future of parking in the city don't have a ton of update on that front we've been sort of following the lead of

[4:35] planning and um I think it's maybe a little bit lower on their priority list relative to the other things that they

[4:41] have going on so think of it as we stand ready and willing to assist at the point that it hits their priority list and

[4:48] they start taking action on it um but maybe I'll pause there and I I really

[4:54] recall that that was at council's directive for us to partner on that so if there's anything else you're looking

[4:59] for us to do on that initiative probably now a good time to hear it from you

[5:04] before we carry on so I did I think it was just a couple meetings ago asked for an update and got

[5:11] a written update from um Carrie Teague and it sounds like they're about ready

[5:17] to start some of it and what they're going to be doing is more of that high level um like strategic visioning of it

[5:25] initially um so that what you just provided as an update meets my expectations of where you would be at as

[5:31] a commission right now from a transportation perspective um but hopefully things start soon absolutely I

[5:38] think it what you described is accurate I think we've seen we've seen that report it's in the hands of our commissioners who are working on it and

[5:45] um I think we're ready to jump into it from there so with you know defining parking um if it could be extended so

[5:53] that it's not the classic you know person goes Parks their car goes and does something

[6:00] um you know and include like delivery services um because one of the issues

[6:06] that I see is people parking the Amazon truck parking in the no parking spot on

[6:12] top of the bike lane um and I don't know how that can be

[6:20] addressed I think part sometimes when it happens is poor design planning but I

[6:25] mean you can't I don't know it would be nice if parking what the definitions was expanded to

[6:32] include that absolutely I think broaden broaden it out absolutely so anecdotally

[6:39] I heard that people at Maison green are choosing to um pay for Less parking than

[6:46] they anticipated so I don't know if how we would gather data from the private Market but I thought that was a really

[6:52] interesting data [Music] point I recall even the council meeting

[6:59] that we were collectively at I recall hearing resident feedback on that front just in terms of truly street parking um

[7:08] all of that over there so that has been on our radar possibly on your radar as well so good to make note of that as

[7:16] well if you look at that issue I think one of the things and I would told the planning Commissioners is the same thing

[7:23] that what I've heard is that uh lenders that might lend to a building project

[7:28] like Mong V are going to require parking at a certain level uh to make sure that

[7:34] um residents can uh Park and uh let the buildings fill up and so they have more

[7:41] ability to repay the the loan that they've taken out from a banking

[7:46] institution so we should find out what what these lenders are requiring in terms of

[7:53] parking in order to finance some of these projects because that could be a factor that we want to bring into play here or bring them into the

[8:01] discussion find out if there's any um tolerance for uh reduced

[8:09] parking one question on that front I'm not sure who I'm directing it to could be possibly anybody in the room here is

[8:15] that something that the city Andor planning or some other body has inroads

[8:21] into who those people are as part of the planning approval process or otherwise

[8:26] I'm just thinking a little bit tactically here of uh how we would go about finding those people and asking

[8:32] those questions yeah I can maybe try to help on that okay thank you we

[8:45] perfect thank you for the input I think this is one that we've been eager to get after and um this is really good for us

[8:52] to start working on so our two other the other thing I I've heard just anecdotally is that this is from some

[8:58] Developers uh that in the north loop maybe there's data like this

[9:04] available we could ask some of the developers that do work around the Twin Cities that in the north loop the

[9:10] buildings that are the have the greatest level of underp parking are the ones that have the greatest level of

[9:16] occupancy the highest level of occupancy and so I you know I'm just

[9:22] hearing that anecdotally and I don't know if that's true or not but that um the less parking there is the more uh

[9:29] higher the vacancy rate so we should figure that out too that could be a factor that you want to

[9:35] put into the balance situation the higher the parking the less parking they have the higher the occupancy rate okay

[9:42] the vacancy rate oh the vacancy rate vacancy rate vacancy or vacan no it's a

[9:48] vacancy rate excuse me I okay the less parking they have the more

[9:54] availability they have for apartment dwellers way put higher vacancy r

[10:04] understood so are two initiatives uh one is taking a sort of new halfway through

[10:12] the life cycle look at the Pat and bike master plan so we've had a couple of different work plan initiatives over the

[10:18] past few years just talking about bike infrastructure looking at it through a few different lenses and so we sort of

[10:24] took all of that and combined it into a single view this year to say we created

[10:29] or last updated the bike pad master plan in 2018 it's was 2023 when we kicked off

[10:36] this initiative a lot of things have changed um we've built out parts of it

[10:41] the environment around us has changed how have we been doing on it um are we

[10:47] achieving its goals um have has the macro environment changed in which the goals don't apply or should be revised

[10:54] so credit to some of the Commissioners here to to uh to Andrew as well I think

[11:00] we've started well down the road of this of looking at looking at it from a data perspective of saying we intended to

[11:06] build this what percentage of it have we built so far what percentage of each of the things have we built as planned have

[11:14] we modified in a way that built more than what we expected in what cases have we built something less than what was

[11:20] dictated in the bike master plan so I think it's a real good thorough look it's maybe a segue into some of the

[11:27] questions that we have for you as commissioners as to what you're looking for based on our experience but what I

[11:33] think will be a good output from this is here's how we're doing which is good I'm not so sure that we always look back at

[11:39] those plans until we've reached the end of them or the next time that we are compelled or interested in revising it

[11:46] um and a good starting point to say if we do a new version of it if we do a revised version of it how might we

[11:53] change it how might we evolve it based on some of the conditions that are out there 2018 Co had not happened

[12:00] um that our commuting patterns transport patterns have changed pretty dramatically um we don't have a segment

[12:05] in here about Transit service in the city that looks quite different people's commuting patterns have changed people's

[12:11] I believe even in 2018 we were still in the midst of the bike and scooter pilot so a lot of things have changed since

[12:18] then we're intending to summarize all of that put it in there add the data to it

[12:23] any questions on that one before I move to our final you have ebikes now we do yeah huge

[12:30] yeah um so when we looked at the conquered Street reconstruction I went

[12:35] out to Pamela Park and walked across 58th Street towards conquered school it

[12:43] was very difficult to understand where the twin Loops were the inner loop and outer loop I think they kind of

[12:49] intersect there so to the extent that you guys can take field trips and walk those two loops and get a sense of in

[12:56] the future this is sort of our connection right that you should be close to one of those Loops to get where you want to

[13:03] go I could get the way it was going but like the street that really needed a

[13:08] sidewalk it wasn't even on the plan so um so if you guys could walk that and kind of get a on the ground sense of is

[13:16] this the right path and and are we going the right you know only partly tongue

[13:21] and cheek I'll say I'm trying to bike them oh good it's dangerous okay that's

[13:27] good to know yeah but be safe so say more about that you said you bike it but

[13:33] it's dangerous um we still live in a car

[13:39] Centric world we live in a beautiful city that's designed to get car from

[13:45] point A to point B as fast as possible and I'm when I'm pedaling away in the

[13:51] bike lane I'm an annoyance especially when I come to a sign that says end of

[13:56] bike lane and I'm 100 feet away from the stop sign and the box truck behind me

[14:02] wants to turn right when I want to turn right um Tracy at Vernon would be an

[14:09] example so I mean it's an exciting opportunity and a

[14:16] real challenge for us because it's really happening if I continue on Tracy

[14:22] up Veron to Jerry's as I did not many days ago an older gentleman was standing

[14:29] holding two electric bikes because there was no place else to lock those bikes what so his wife went in oh spouse went

[14:36] in but he didn't want to leave the nice bikes so we have a real opportunity and

[14:44] it's and as Julie said in 2018 I'm not

[14:50] sure I knew that ebikes existed and now they're everywhere yeah thanks thanks

[14:56] for that Roger so that that there's two things in there that I um that you highlighted that I had questions on

[15:03] maybe three uh one is just the big question of we have these Master

[15:09] plans and every one of our I I do this for a effect cuz they are master

[15:15] plan and they take a long time to um get to the end and by the time we get there

[15:21] we're starting over again probably something like that um but what what's

[15:26] our process for making sure what we put in place functionally is operating the

[15:33] way we wanted to and so the example I use I have heard people um cyclists talk

[15:40] about having a protected bik Lane versus just labeled or marked B fighting as as

[15:48] one um and so that's kind of a big question thinking about well what's what is the right process to assess what

[15:55] we've already built and how we should be tweaking it to make sure or it's functioning the way um we want it to so

[16:03] that's one I don't know if that's really a question but maybe an Ask um two um I I feel like kind of we we uh

[16:14] survived the lime uh scooter right we we kind of survived that you still see a

[16:20] few of them around but I think we kind of survived that but now it's the ebites

[16:26] there's these um I don't know what they are they look like tiny motorcycles oh those are yeah they were like mini bikes

[16:33] when I was growing up um and what I see

[16:39] is sometimes people use the bike path some of those devices aren't supposed to

[16:45] be on the street so they either use the bike path um or the The Marked One in

[16:51] the in the road or they'll use a shared use pad which is like really dangerous

[16:57] and so sometimes I'm not quite sure what our policy or ordinance is for

[17:06] ebikes should they be on the share path or should we be considering them as scooters and they shouldn't be so again

[17:14] similar to the the first question looking holistically at our ordinances

[17:20] and and and um making sure that we have things in place that keep us safe and

[17:26] that we're getting the right functionality um that we want and then the third um

[17:34] sometimes I don't think that and there's nothing wrong with this this is just a fact like we could all five of us could

[17:41] look at a Shar use project and not see eye to eye on what we should do and so

[17:47] sometimes I think it would be good if there were some core principles um if there aren't core

[17:54] principles we kind of make it up as we go along and we have great debate I think we end up okay but um saying

[18:01] something like Yeah from this neighborhood to that neighborhood we just need a Connecting Point it doesn't

[18:08] have to be 8 ft 10 ft or whatever but have some principles some core

[18:13] principles around things like that to just help guide decision making and that

[18:20] ask is it is for this current Council but then when you start to think about

[18:27] these plans are so Broad every two years there's this opportunity

[18:32] that there could be two new people at the table and so how do you kind of keep that momentum going where you can

[18:40] quickly get two new council members to understand what's going on and get them engaged in the thought process of what

[18:46] we're trying to accomplish cuz I think this is really this is really key I think this is what what um one of the

[18:54] highlights is of our community being able to to comp this master plan in the

[19:02] current may I I think the core principle idea is a great one for us to have on

[19:09] our plate Adam and I are working together on this and the core principles

[19:14] because things are changing so fast and ebikes are a great Mobility

[19:21] tool for elderly and and young if you will last week there was an article in

[19:27] the Wall Street Journal about about kids who are not getting their driver's license because their ebbi works and mom

[19:34] makes me pay for gas so I'll keep using my bike very exciting but we've got to

[19:40] be ready for that and so but setting up some core principles about how this all

[19:46] impacts us and makes it possible for us to get around um it's a great

[19:55] challenge another data point that I'd like layered in at is where are we

[20:01] seeing use um so especially for this was a part of the plan it's now implemented is it

[20:08] being used like we projected it being done um to help in building out the

[20:16] story for continued investment and I think of you know the sidewalk that was

[20:22] put on to 58th um bip pamel Park um like between France and Woodale really

[20:29] um oh like push back on putting in a sidewalk there we put in the sidewalk there and it's amazing and I always see

[20:36] people on it but wanting almost a data point around that so that we can say like yes it was worth the investment and

[20:42] this is why it's worth a continued investment across our city as much as we can and in Bethesda

[20:50] Maryland there's this Trail it's called the capital Crescent Trail it's gorgeous

[20:56] um and they have this Mark on the end that every day the numbers reset of like

[21:01] this is how many people bike the path this is how many people W walk the path today and then it also keeps the annual

[21:06] numbers and so it's also just that like visual indicator and it's kind of fun to like you go on a three mile run and oh

[21:12] how many people pass me now and i' like concluded their walk um so bringing some of that visibility too and not that we

[21:19] need those like plastered all around the city but if there's any like strategic Place something like that could be cool

[21:25] if we're already thinking through how are we measuring it I think we've tried to kick the tires on the data front um

[21:32] and the challenge with it is your sources are pretty disperate and they're

[21:37] going to capture a certain segment of the population right so speak for myself

[21:43] I'm a straa Enthusiast I track literally everything so you can check where I walk and I bike in the city on a daily basis

[21:50] and it will show you how much and when and heat map the whole thing but that is probably percentages of small

[21:56] percentages of the city that do the same thing thing but I think that's something that Andrew and I can look at that's one

[22:02] data source there's probably all sorts of other ones and I know that we obviously do the studies when we're

[22:08] considering crosswalks or other potential improvements just to see if we meet warrants and things of that nature

[22:14] I realize staff's time is not unlimited um but I would love to get at that

[22:19] because might be a good segue um to your point and um to council member Pierce's

[22:25] as well around what you're looking for from us and what we might be looking for from

[22:30] you as well and I think the question that we've been posed with based on some

[22:36] of the work that we've done based on just some of the outputs of the transportation related decisions we've

[22:42] seen are we have the bike pad master plan and sometimes we make decisions in

[22:47] support of it sometimes we make decisions that run counter to it and it

[22:53] is true that the plan is outdated right it is from 2018 but it's the plan that we've got and I think where we sit is

[23:00] we're trying to do a couple of different things listen to members of the community who come to us members of the

[23:06] community that we talk to we are members of the community try to make the best decisions that we can based on that

[23:12] input and then based on the plans that the city has and puts in front of us and

[23:18] I think particular a couple of examples I think the conquered sidewalk was one

[23:24] that we felt like we had made decisions we had put advis communication forth and then ended up in a different place and

[23:31] that's your prerogative right we are providing Our advice and recommendation to you but I think that as an example I

[23:38] think maybe there's flavors of this with organized trash which is obviously at the fringes of

[23:44] Transportation but I think the question that we have of each and all of you

[23:50] is should we be following different guidance than our stated plans that are

[23:57] out there and and if you want to see us advocating differently presenting our

[24:02] data to you differently presenting our opinion to you differently we'd be happy to do it um I think we may be just a bit

[24:09] lost in terms of what is the best way to bring our input our counsel to you um

[24:19] and maybe feel like we're having a bit more of a dialogue about it versus we're putting it out there you guys make

[24:25] decisions rinse and repeat so I'll pause there but I think it's a big question that we've had as Commissioners um one

[24:32] because we want to do good work we want to do work that you as our customers ultimately find valuable um and we also

[24:40] want to feel like we're hitting the mark in that regard

[24:45] so I'd like to speak to that because when we look at both of those issues we

[24:51] heard from a lot of people but we didn't get to hear from youh um and I think

[24:56] that the community needed to hear from you as well um because especially with the organized hauling we heard where's

[25:03] this coming from who's imposing this on us it's like well other citizens want it

[25:08] and so you know I think when it's a commission initiative I'd really like to

[25:14] have the Commissioners um you know be able to present because you are voices of

[25:21] community as well and um in both situations the angry voices were pretty

[25:26] overwhelming um and we did didn't get to hear the positive voices um you mean you could come testify just you know in a

[25:33] public hearing and stuff like that but um when it's a commission initiative I'd

[25:39] like um just for the other side to hear that there are citizens who are put who are interested in this and are just as

[25:46] valid as the citizens who are against it so so maybe just I want to make sure

[25:51] that I'm tracking on that to because I could interpret that to maybe two different ways or two complimentary ways

[25:57] one of which is we need to work much further ahead to present

[26:04] outputs from a work plan item to you in a formal manner is that that could be

[26:11] one interpretation of you hearing from us the other is and to Andrew's credit when we've talked about this we are all

[26:18] citizens as well so we can appear whether we are on this commission or not and speak there too is it both of those

[26:25] is it one more than the other I think it depends on the issue too right so if

[26:30] it's a research and Report you know something that um is not really an

[26:37] action that we're taking um well let me think about

[26:43] that I don't know the answer to that but um but I thought you know in both of

[26:49] those situations I would have liked to have had shared with the broader Community um your voices um at least in

[26:57] the circumstance where they they made a recommendation to hear their voice in the context of whatever follows in terms

[27:03] of a matter before us you'd like to hear their voice too yes yes which you we talked about relative to energy

[27:10] environment and other commissions yeah yeah okay but there I think we did

[27:16] especially with the garbage hauling have um I thought some decisions were

[27:22] made and particularly part of it was a process issue because the summary

[27:28] statement or analysis at the back of the report my understanding is did not really reflect the commission um

[27:36] perspective and that was a huge problem and we can't have that happen again um

[27:44] and so it really needs to be a report that is coming from the Commissioners

[27:50] and not being filtered through um another perspective and so

[27:59] we we've got to get that in our process otherwise it's you know we can talk

[28:04] about you trying to do things further ahead of time and all of that but you

[28:09] know if the summation is not reflecting what you have found in your research

[28:16] then that's a huge huge problem just to interject real quick so

[28:22] Cory Lan's the chair of the energy environment commission I agree with what you're saying I I would come in defense

[28:28] of the city staff a little bit I think since that we worked with mayor hoveland as well as uh Scott and and members of

[28:35] staff to try to fix that a little bit where we're getting ahead of things and

[28:41] I think we've seen Improvement uh we saw that with the tree ordinance stuff that we're working on right now um and then I

[28:46] guess the other comment I would have and kind of how we're approaching it from our commission is at the um work plan

[28:53] item setting point in time I think we want to have dialogue with Council around

[28:58] what what some of this could mean 6 months down the road when we've developed an ordinance and we might be asking you to vote on it so we can back

[29:05] the truck up and say okay here are some of the implications this one might create some noise do we have the appetite to go down this path before we

[29:12] get too far down with any particular ordinance and research and report and whatnot so that's approach we're taking

[29:18] from our work plan for this year is trying to get ahead of it and working with a great staff Aon and Chad and

[29:24] others to to work through I would just just add to that though you we do have

[29:29] to keep in mind that it is just another data point and so I say um the um yes

[29:38] the commissions the reports it's and I say it that way on purpose it's just another data point and we put a lot of

[29:46] effort into Gathering that information which is and is very valid but it is

[29:52] it's another data point and so we still may take that data point and make a

[29:57] different different decision based on all the other data points as well and you said like that's our I don't know if

[30:04] you say it's our prerogative that maybe said something like that yeah and so that may very well happen

[30:12] but I think these three points what we really want to make sure is whatever your view is that we are getting it

[30:20] unfiltered we understand that data point in and of itself not filter through some

[30:25] other View and we get it in time yeah so that we can then make our informed

[30:33] decision and just so all of you Commissioners know I as a city council

[30:39] person cannot be reaching out to you but you can reach out to me and say

[30:45] you want to meet and talk about something why can't you reach out because we're not supposed to be interfering with what they're doing

[30:52] we're not supposed to go to their their meetings and direct them I think it's perfectly fine to talk the Commissioners

[30:59] so and I love meeting with people so I'll just put that out there you're you're untethered

[31:06] no I know yeah in the interest of time maybe just to try to at least leave with

[31:14] a little bit of an action on our part I fully acknowledge I think the prudent

[31:20] decision knowing that the work plan is the item that we all agree to that we're going to work on for the upcoming year

[31:27] is the way to do it it just requires thoughtfulness and planning and organization and all those things so

[31:34] acknowledge I think we desire to be better on that front and that's what we've been sort of trying to rebuild a foundation on I think maybe our question

[31:42] here is those are set right so unless we revise those those are set until we sit here in the room and come up with our

[31:48] next round in the meantime when these things do come up is is the best

[31:55] communication vehicle in advisory communication from us is it something

[32:01] else I think we have maybe landed on we come together we talk in the room Grant

[32:07] helps us write an advisory communication because he's a gifted Communicator or do you want to see something else from us

[32:14] that does what I heard which is let us hear a clear timely and unvarnished

[32:20] point of view about the commission's recommendation wouldn't your advisory

[32:26] opinion fall into that category I would expect that what you send us would be clear and

[32:31] unvarnished yeah I want to make sure that it's that and not something not something else and maybe my ask would just be to

[32:39] City staff to include it in the packet in the packet materials that we're

[32:46] considering and I think sometimes it gets placed into advisory Communications

[32:51] but even just like the the order matters as small as it that may seem um um

[32:58] because I read the packet in order okay so maybe that's a small enough ask um but I do think that having that written

[33:05] component within the packet is is Meaningful for me um I also would say

[33:14] that when there are specific things where you're passionate don't feel like that has to

[33:23] be the only way that you're connecting with us um or I mean you are welcome to come and do community or public comment

[33:30] all of that um and especially when we know that maybe the topics are a

[33:37] little bit more contentious it is helpful to have people who have maybe

[33:42] that differing point of view being willing to come and speak in person as well so I know that's a lot to ask

[33:49] sometimes because you're putting yourself out there in front of the full community in a different way right um

[33:54] but just remember that that is an option and it's oneway

[34:00] communication and just you're giving us your advisory opinion but if you want to

[34:07] know what questions it may be raising in our heads you know it'd be good

[34:13] to reach out and have coffee absolutely so yeah I would actually ask you to to

[34:20] reach out and everybody's busy but um the times that folks have reached out um

[34:26] made time to meet and if you're kind of effective with that time to just share hey here's how we're thinking about it

[34:33] um I I almost would prefer that CU if you do community

[34:39] comment you're not going to be able to comment and talk about something that's on the agenda and

[34:45] so I often times feel like that feedback gets kind of disjointed because you're

[34:50] talking about something that might be in the future and then you can't have a dialogue and so I would

[34:58] maybe do both but I definitely would prefer if there's something contentious

[35:04] that you want to chat about to just reach out to us and do that well and I

[35:10] kind of view it differently depending on what the report is if you've done a

[35:16] report and you're telling us we research this and everything uh you know a report and I like Kate's idea of putting it in

[35:22] a packet you know uh in a way that the public will know to look for it as well

[35:27] um so if there's like a staff report and they have a commission report but if there's an action I would

[35:35] like to have the Commissioners have a voice in that because like I said it's not just us that I want to hear the

[35:42] voice I want the general public to hear it too because like I said it's very easy to say no because nobody wants

[35:49] change and if someone's asking for change we need to share with the rest of the community that there are members of

[35:55] the community that want to see change so so before we let you all

[36:01] go there's one more thing I'd like to touch on and that is a couple things

[36:07] actually uh one is ija funding or grant opportunities I

[36:13] don't know if your group has been looking at that with this reion or not

[36:19] but so I go this weekend again to the US Conference of Mayors meeting it's in

[36:24] Kansas City this annual meeting but um we'll we'll be having uh one of

[36:31] the under under secretaries there from us do and we've been all about at us

[36:38] Conference of Mayors uscm about trying to make sure cities maximize the iig

[36:43] opportunities we have because it's only two years left on this funding and there's a lot of potential projects out

[36:51] there it's not moving the way they want it to move the money is not moving out the way they want it to move out they

[36:57] don't have much to talk about yet and so we just need to be thinking about what

[37:03] what are the opportunities there that's a federal level opportunity at the state

[37:08] level your chair and I are on the transportation Advisory Board of the Met Council and we know that from a regional

[37:15] standpoint we've got these active Transportation funds coming thanks to the state legislature that's going to involve a about 25 million a year to be

[37:23] used on non-motorized projects safe roads to school sidewalks

[37:29] Trails um and then we'll also be getting our own money I think from the sales tax

[37:36] and we know how much that's going to be uh the sales tax that coming to the

[37:43] region yeah 400 something 400 400,000 that's exclusively for the parks

[37:50] projects isn't it no no no he's talking about our our share of a of a metrowide

[37:56] say we were thinking it was 600 some thousand but it's actually down from

[38:01] that so just under a half million y yeah so that might change how you want to

[38:08] look at your work plan or suggest to us how you want to look at your work plan with respect to these non motor

[38:14] movements um and then finally I was on a call the other

[38:20] day with the chief staffer for the for transportation for the UFM and uh he said that there's a

[38:28] company out in Seattle called INX that's done a study on uh the change in transportation

[38:35] infrastructure movements post pandemic pre and post pandemic and it's it's like

[38:42] this thing we all intuitively know he said they be before the pandemic

[38:47] they could predict pretty carefully how much traffic was going to be on Interstate systems trunk Highway systems

[38:53] County Road systems but with the with Co in the pandemic world where we went to

[39:00] ordering everything online shopping online that the pressure on local Street

[39:06] systems has increased dramatically and in inrix has a study that's showing this

[39:12] increased pressure on local systems the mayor of Kent Washington was

[39:17] on the call and they've got the fourth largest Amazon distribution center in the country and their local roads are

[39:25] getting torn to shreds because of all local truck traffic as they move out into the region to serve to deliver

[39:32] those goods to everybody's house so that's something we need to be mindful of too so that's something we're going to work on on a federal basis for the

[39:39] next reauthorization at the federal level is to try to get more money push directly to cities as opposed to having

[39:45] to go the traditional method to your state do2 do and then trickle down down the line where we're the last people to

[39:53] get any of the Crums so we'll work on that but you guys should be thinking too about I think uh is it worth trying to

[40:01] do a study locally to see if we have we do indeed have increased straight truck traffic and and other pressures on our

[40:08] roadway systems that are going to cause our road systems to deteriorate quicker than and that those data points might be

[40:17] really helpful to a federal strategy so and a state strategy

[40:23] frankly I'll defer to uh Dr Milner and uh to Andrew on the first couple I I

[40:30] think we're well down the road of considering all the grants and funding available to us um so but so I think we

[40:38] could always probably do more in terms of advocating for the direction of those grants and fundings I think that's a good point but um I'm optimistic that we

[40:47] are down the road of trying to take the money that's out there and use it um and that last piece is interesting I think

[40:52] we've dipped our toe into that on organized trash to some degree just because I think part of the discussion

[40:58] and part of our involvement in that was the implications of single hauler multiple haulers on city streets and if

[41:05] I recall there were sort of varying different outcomes on that front but this could be a useful data point to

[41:11] build that possibly so it's good to hear with organized hauling I really hope um

[41:17] we can work with neighborhoods and really try to encourage people to limit

[41:23] the number of haulers within their neighborhoods and I I think we talked about about that so it could start from

[41:29] the ground up a little bit um neighborhood night out you know a survey

[41:35] like what are all the hollers that everybody's using and so people get together bring out your bill you know

[41:41] let's compare notes let's see you know would you be willing to switch

[41:46] um that that could be a way to kind of keep that going um and I know there was

[41:55] one neighborhood now I can't remember which one that I think is down to two haulers interesting

[42:05] so use it more than my lot of time I greatly appreciate the discussion and apologies for for running

[42:12] long we've got our marching orders you will likely hear from us um and we just

[42:18] appreciate the guidance and the input and your support thanks for having usk

[42:35] only two of us guys you transation me never oh

[42:43] did we' certainly talked about issues I've got you on speed

[42:53] okay all right guys we're Switching gears to energy and environment commission we've got a lot of updates

[42:59] but we can pause at every um initiative if there are questions or we can save

[43:05] them to the end but I'll kind of just jump right into it so uh first and foremost the first item on our uh list

[43:11] for this year was the green business outreach program um we are in the middle of the application window until closed

[43:18] last night last night so we got five applications uh three new applicants and

[43:23] two renewals uh very excited about that we'll be anal izing those to see what level gold bronze silver gold silver

[43:30] bronze we're going to give them um sweet science of ice cream van Thomas Salon vivrant which is a retail location are

[43:38] the new applicants and then Western National Insurance and Belmont partners are the new new renewals um so we will recognize them as

[43:46] part of uh celebrations ideally at the 4th of July parade but we're still figuring out if we can get in for that

[43:52] um and then ongoing Outreach with um chamber and uh meetings that we've been

[44:00] having just to keep them updated on a lot of the initiatives that we're doing from Green business um the study of

[44:07] paved areas conversion to Community Gardens so if you remember this was part of our climate action plan particularly

[44:13] around finding ways to um add Community growing spaces for uh people

[44:19] experiencing food insecurity we have uh two members of our commission as well as our student commissioner who are meeting

[44:25] to identify spots to add Community Gardens the intent here is to put them

[44:30] in places where uh there's underutilized uh impervious surfaces um Fred Richards

[44:36] Park is currently the focus area for that so we're going to have an update for you guys at app point in time on

[44:41] that um the next item the Buckthorn removal event so we have an event scheduled for July 13th from 9:00 to

[44:49] 12:00 p.m. in Pamela Park and this is uh initiative being led by Luther in

[44:55] conjunction with I believe a church group right Marissa um and our commission will be joining if anybody

[45:01] from Council wants to roll up their sleeves and take down some Buckthorn and Pamela Park uh we'll be out there what

[45:08] time did you say 9 to 12 on July 13th all right sign me up yes that's the

[45:13] spirit I love it your pressure I 12 July 15th 13th 13th um and don't roll up your

[45:21] sleeve the recommendation is the recommendation is long sleeves long pants and gloves

[45:27] just remember that we have people on our commission have scars that uh would show that that's an important

[45:34] decision um all right the next update if you flip to the back the EV ride and

[45:39] drive event so on October 5th from 11: to 2: p.m. here in the city hall parking

[45:45] lot we are hosting our inaugural event we're going to have about 12 to 15

[45:51] electric vehicles displayed I'm stealing Tom's Thunder a little bit here because this is Tom's event um we'll have a

[45:57] couple of hybrids potentially a food truck we're involving the shift to electric group including the chief EV

[46:03] educator so we'll have uh community members able to come check out electric

[46:09] vehicles uh potentially involving some dealerships Tesla and others if we can get them to come they have done that in

[46:15] other situations um focus is not going to be as much on test drives but more on education so educating people on you

[46:23] know the the benefits of electric vehicles to misdey some of the rumors

[46:28] around how long it takes to charge and things like that to get people more interested in that what's the date on that again October 5th from 11: to 2:00

[46:36] p.m. to Saturday in the City Hall Parking L could that be an opportunity

[46:42] for us to also engage

[46:47] firefighters uh we recently did our fire Ops like 101 and one of the things that they talked about is like response to

[46:55] electric vehicles is different in some ways like they they need to know like is this an electric vehicle or not if

[47:01] there's an accident and I think that that I'm particularly curious about that because you hear some of the I don't

[47:09] know electric cars just spontaneously start on fire right like some of those like thought

[47:15] processes um so being able to like speak to that but also talk about like maybe that safety angle I don't know if they

[47:21] would be open to that um but it just might be a cool like safety

[47:27] angle to cover as well sure I know we have um a couple City Vehicles signed up for that right

[47:34] Marissa a police car yep we we're talking with the police um depart in

[47:41] coordination of logistics but they have a few EV in their Fleet um as well as some other vehicles that we might be able to have available but I'm I think

[47:47] it's a good idea Tom's the organizer and I think the any difficulty finding uh EV

[47:53] or electric bike retailers to have participate we can look at that we talked about that yeah we haven't

[47:59] secured one yet if you have any connections know one of the people own a

[48:04] bike shop that' be great okay that be great yeah we're trying to get ebikes there to participate I think I read that

[48:11] the school district has ordered a electric bus or two so if you reach out to them to see if they if it's there in

[48:18] time okay okay um take that David El will drive it

[48:27] the bus yeah is he still doing that school bus driving yeah I don't know we could you know we're trying to keep it

[48:33] focused on Resident education oh that's fair you know we're trying to get we're trying to we've kind of plateaued in the

[48:40] EV space right so now it's the next generation of adopters um so that's the spirit of

[48:47] objective we're trying to deliver on as a parent of a 3-year-old and 4 and a half-year-old who loves buses I might go

[48:54] to the event that's true if I can stick them on the bus and then go look at the cars yeah don't let that be the decision

[49:02] maker but where so we can look into that we

[49:07] can park it somewhere comfortably yeah we talked speaker too right didn't we talk

[49:13] about trying to grab that what's that we do not have elri Italian is like an Italian electric

[49:22] street we want to showcase some of the vehicles the city is is using to promote um our

[49:28] position that's part of it too let people know how to sweep a

[49:34] streeton last week had a story about bike buses which is cities that

[49:42] organize kids to ride their bikes chaperoned by parents to

[49:47] school and sub headline was never wait in the school bus in the school line to drop

[49:55] your kid off again would have to in January here but

[50:01] fun I like that getting organized hundreds of kids biking to

[50:06] school that's going to be fun that could be a future work

[50:11] on what about our uh EV charging infrastructure for our city okay so

[50:17] that's the next uh next topic um so when we talk about the future parking report

[50:22] and Andrew was just getting into that around uh awaiting report from the Planning Commission our angle from a

[50:30] energy and environment commission is highly in favor of uh adding as much

[50:35] electric uh parking spots as possible Carolyn you brought this up on the 7235 France site I think it's hugely

[50:43] important like we should be wiring new builds we should be wiring as much as possible because that is certainly the

[50:49] trend I know there's some uh political opposition to it at the moment but I

[50:54] would say overall we are seeing an uptick uh particularly in Edina there's a lot of uh electric vehicles if you

[51:00] just look around in Edina and so I think if we can add more uh we are in favor of that and that would be our lens to bring

[51:07] into the parking report um and then I also think the piece that Andrew brought up around adding additional locations

[51:14] for locking up of bikes is something that we view as critical uh to meeting

[51:19] our goals for an environment commission perspective um I think

[51:24] it's uh pretty inadequate at this point just in terms of the opportunities where we could add them and they're just I

[51:30] can't imagine they're that expensive but it's more just adding some spots for them um but yeah our commission is uh

[51:38] has not seen what the Planning Commission is working on as of yet but we will definitely review and comment and bring that lens to it for

[51:46] sure you know I've been talking to bot about why they don't put level three chargers at every rest

[51:53] stock State trunk highway system inter system they say they can't make money

[52:00] off of there's some sort of prohibition of them making money well then the next thing is you want to contract with a

[52:06] private company to provide the service maybe Revenue with them maybe not but you do it on RFP basis but I wonder what

[52:14] the options are for us as a city because we've got a few scattered level two

[52:20] Chargers around like at Public Works you've got some over there Chad uh but

[52:26] you know to have level three would be really terrific to have a strategy around level three Chargers in our

[52:31] community whether they're City owned or

[52:36] we've um contracted with somebody to put them in somewhere so I don't know does

[52:42] the IRA have money from they do unfortunately CB din is not eligible for

[52:48] the funding that's currently allocated for the fast Chargers um you have to there's certain eligibility requirements

[52:54] and the city B din just doesn't meet those requirements and they want to prioritize corridors so major travel

[53:00] outside of Metro areas and so a lot of the funding coming into the state of Minnesota isn't going to the metro area

[53:05] it's going to Greater Minnesota um but we are you know thinking about fast charging and we do know that there I

[53:11] believe it's target has partnered with an organization to install fast charger Banks there so that'll be one area of

[53:18] opportunity for that fast charging but it's definitely something we can continue to explore and and maybe something the eec could help think about

[53:25] of we to Str Place POS if it's a value ad and Chad I'm trying to remember I think back in the grace days we talked

[53:33] about adding Chargers and Plymouth was it Plymouth

[53:38] that has privatized EV charging they partnered with an organization to um install

[53:45] charging stations across the city and they're everywhere like the plan is to

[53:51] have think B has done that too they're not seeing the revenue that they're expecting it's not yeah expected is not

[53:58] coming the outcome isn't there yeah and they were kind of on the hook for if you don't generate so much revenue then the

[54:04] city has to pay so it's a okay concern for that because it's not being okay I

[54:09] think for me on that one I'm not sure yet what the right charging

[54:16] patterns are and so I everybody's doing exactly what you just said right there

[54:21] level two in the parking ramps and in certain parking spots and all that

[54:27] and I sometimes I wonder if um there's a behavioral change that's

[54:32] different that we need to do and so we don't have an EV yet but I don't think I

[54:40] would ever charge in a parking ramp I no I don't think so I think our

[54:47] charging pattern would be if if we have 200 miles we're going to charge it

[54:54] home and then we're going to end it home that day and so we're not driving 200

[55:02] miles a day so we would charge at home um and so I

[55:08] don't and so there there are some studies that are also suggesting that by

[55:14] putting charging stations around the city we're we're also causing people to

[55:21] charge at the most unopp forun time so the electricity is more expensive um

[55:28] there's more load on the grid if you're going to charge at noon when you go to Target kind of a thing and so if there

[55:35] are ways to promote people to charge at home at 1 p.m. that's when you should

[55:42] charge cuz there's not as much power on the grid it's more sustainable it's less

[55:48] um impact to the to the uh environment and so I I think it would be interesting

[55:54] for us to do studies to just start to try to get smarter about what are the

[56:00] right charging patterns and then what do we want to really try to influence there because I'm I'm just not I'm just not

[56:07] sure James one thing I say so I I drive a fully electric vehicle um and I do 99%

[56:13] of my charging at home just as you said um I I am charging right now at the city because I'm going to get $3 worth of

[56:20] free electric from from the city while I'm here so I'll I'll take you you're in minute thank you I appreciate it um but

[56:27] I I think my concern is more around the residential buildings that are going up and having more spots there for people

[56:34] who live there to be able to charge while they're there and if they buy an electric vehicle and it's not wired and

[56:40] if 50% of that new building wants electric vehicles and they can't do it because there's not enough spots that's

[56:46] that's my concern more than anything from a from the parking perspective adding 20 more spots to City Hall I

[56:52] don't think is really that value added um compared to what we could could do but um yeah I think it's helpful and for

[57:00] me I think it'd be helpful to know what is that right amount or not right amount

[57:06] but what should we be asking developers to do if it's not 10 or 15 is it 50 is

[57:12] it 100 like how help us with data Maybe position

[57:17] that and one other thing is you see this a lot in Arizona there's a lot of sunshine there but solar charging

[57:25] stations like you go to the airport all it's all covered parking and it's covered with solar panels so Costco

[57:32] Costco has Costco has it too yeah I think it makes sense to have them where you're going to be there for a while

[57:38] like Whole Foods they um there are some whole foods that may have 10 or 12 cuz

[57:43] you're going there you're going to get your groceries it's a level three so it doesn't take long for 30 minutes you can

[57:49] get quite a bit of a charge out B but you're going to be there for a while right go your shop until it's time to go

[57:56] get your car personally though I mean there's a range of EVs and some have smaller

[58:02] capacity some of the more reasonably priced older ones so you have 100 miles

[58:07] and I have actually gone into the Adina parking ramp when it was like way down

[58:13] cuz when it's cold you can't get as far and so that electric charger has gotten

[58:19] me out of a couple really tight situations and and then it meant I had

[58:25] to which was not a bad thing it meant I bopped around Edina at 50th in France

[58:31] for like an hour and ended up buying stuff and so that was

[58:39] good um so we'll get back to you on where we plan on going with that uh

[58:44] review and comment the last one here uh kind of exciting more of a a fun one

[58:51] from the list so tree recognition campaign um similar to what we've done with the Heritage Home homes around

[58:56] recognizing old homes we are putting a campaign in place to recognize unique

[59:03] trees in E so that could be everything from uh the oldest tree the spookiest

[59:09] tree the most climbable tree we're going to have a lot of different categories um

[59:14] it's going to be open from July 1st through August October 15th with the intent of recognizing around November

[59:22] 14th so we will have uh a lot of help from City around uh Communications just

[59:28] to spread the word on this Better Together site Etc um if you have trees that you're proud of you can submit your

[59:34] own trees um and then there's been some talk of doing the like geocaching which

[59:39] means you could actually see where these trees are located in the city and go um

[59:45] do a little walking tour if you wanted to check out some trees so um that is coming the survey is all set we are

[59:50] going to be launching it July 1st um and if you guys want to have some say in the winners or

[59:56] review the submissions we're happy to do that um and then one thing we've debated is whether or not we would put plaques

[1:00:02] on trees that won awards similar to putting plaques on the homes in in Country Club and whatnot um any

[1:00:09] questions on that okay um I know I was told that no

[1:00:15] mo may was a potential topic for today uh so I'll address that real quick so um

[1:00:22] there is no longer a formal no moay initiative in the city of udina just transparently so after last 2023 is noo

[1:00:31] May um we took it off our work plan because of the research That We Came

[1:00:38] Upon that talked about how it was not truly as beneficial and we're planning on shifting our Focus to kind of year

[1:00:44] round pollinator habitat protection and less of a focus on N that said we did

[1:00:50] put the policy in place to suspend um citations for Turf and weed

[1:00:56] height in the month of May through the second week of June as part of that we recommend that remains in place um even

[1:01:04] if the pollinator research is not that great there's no harm in having people

[1:01:09] mow less right they're using their gas uh mowers and things one or two fewer times at the start of the Season not a

[1:01:16] problem um we think the ordinance is fine uh curious if there's any concerns

[1:01:23] questions I think our plan is to really go into pollinator protection as a

[1:01:30] potential work plan item for next year but uh noo may we still get a lot of complaints from certain people about we

[1:01:36] are not pushing it anymore just transparently so do you think that there's any harm in not mowing in may

[1:01:44] like has it flipped or is it just not as beneficial as once thought it's not it's

[1:01:50] not as beneficial as one we once thought but there's no reason to stop the

[1:01:55] initiative people want to stick with it and there are plenty of people who are still doing

[1:02:00] it yeah I didn't we did it but it's like we don't like to

[1:02:05] mow gives you a month off it was a bumper year for grass today I'll tell

[1:02:10] you that much some I had to hire I had to rent a gas powered weed just to get

[1:02:16] it down oh wow that I think Carolyn you reached out to

[1:02:21] me about the electrification of lawn equip

[1:02:26] and that is something that we have leers y so there's you know there's certainly a benefit in moving to

[1:02:32] electrification of weed whackers mowers blowers Etc so um we could put out some

[1:02:39] education materials for the community on the benefits of doing that I've seen anecdotally a lot of people moving

[1:02:44] towards that um but certainly could have more think could also make sense we do

[1:02:50] the electric lawn mower um and we recently moved and have a lot smaller of a lawn and and it works that much better

[1:02:57] and I think for a lot of the smaller lots that we have here in Idina it works perfectly at our old house I think we had to it's maybe an older model but we

[1:03:03] had to charge it three times to get the first cut in June done

[1:03:09] but one thing that came out of noo May though was the first year we did it and there were signs everywhere it was a

[1:03:15] really good Community Builder so whatever we do with pollinator friendly

[1:03:20] plants or whatever remember that aspect of it CU that was so much fun those signs just pop up everybody like oh

[1:03:26] they're doing it and they're doing it it was just it was a great bringing people

[1:03:32] together people the other side writing and saying well I saw the stud intergen Minnesota that doesn't make any

[1:03:39] difference it doesn't help I'm sick and tired looking at my neighbor yard who

[1:03:44] has adopted not only no more may but no more June either yeah yeah that's it's got to be up to speed

[1:03:51] now particular and why don't you guys go ahead if it's not going to be promoted go ahead and and put a nail in the

[1:03:58] coffin is what they say I think that's why I wanted confirmation that there's no harm in it

[1:04:04] um I think it's maybe something we could consider but I don't see a point in removing it at this point I think the

[1:04:10] same study said no less right that was the that was the guidance just in general no less you're using less fossil

[1:04:18] fuels if you have G if you have a gas mower there's no harm in mowing less sure often times our Springs are so late

[1:04:25] it should be know more June I mean really the benefits of pollinators and stuff like that really

[1:04:31] don't happen if it's a late spring so did you have many people pick up signs out of curiosity I think we might have

[1:04:39] had a few folks call on stop by but I say compar yeah we weren't actively promoting it and compared to previous

[1:04:45] years you were required to register and then we knew who could get ass signed and just didn't have that same interest

[1:04:51] I just repurposed my sign that's the intention is repurposing just a so just a couple quick other

[1:04:57] things on my list um one from uh last year's work plan the residential tree

[1:05:03] protection ordinance um you guys have all heard from from our commission as well as uh John hgan our vice chair um I

[1:05:12] think the progress and the collaboration between the city and the council and our commission in not throwing the baby out

[1:05:19] with the bath water on that and actually kind of working through the nuances of it has worked really well um John is

[1:05:25] cautiously optimistic which is a big thing for John Scott knows big for John

[1:05:31] it's a big thing for him to admit that so we're we're um we're making progress and I think um you know still some

[1:05:38] things are getting ironed out uh John's been working with parks and recck and and trying to get those squared away um

[1:05:45] I think the one thing just to call out is the replanting of trees on other people's properties could bring up some

[1:05:52] challenges right if uh if they planted on their neighbors and then the tree dies over the winter how does that get

[1:05:58] handled who Waters it how does it get taken care of um so some things that we still need to iron out scenario based uh

[1:06:06] things that we'll we'll have to sort through but we're getting there so we feel really good about that um and

[1:06:12] then uh we are going to be touring the recycling plant in August our commission

[1:06:17] if city council wants to tag along with us um recycling rates in the city have

[1:06:23] dropped quite a bit um as a community and we were also

[1:06:28] seeing an increase in contamination in recycling which is not good on either front so what does that mean like volume

[1:06:35] wise or I believe it's a volume wise twilo is the one that told us about that

[1:06:41] I so I think it was volume wise maybe it's participation one one of the two um

[1:06:46] and then a lot of contamination that they're finding at the recycling PL as well so um we're going to tour it in

[1:06:51] August if anybody from Council wants to Shadow us we went out to the um Indian

[1:06:56] reservation and toured the um Organics was incredible

[1:07:02] experience if you guys haven't done that just being able to see how that works um are you going to the one in Albertville

[1:07:08] where they're doing the film plastic or a more conventional recycling plant the conventional recycling

[1:07:14] plant yeah um a we'll find out we'll get whole

[1:07:21] month they're just going to hang out there we'll confirm and can share that um so folks are aware when that's going

[1:07:27] to happen uh and then the only other thing that I was going to bring to council that we talked about in our last

[1:07:32] meeting coincidentally I talked to Kate about it already but um student Commissioners I don't know if it's

[1:07:37] pervasive on other commissions we're seeing a challenge with our seniors drop

[1:07:43] drop off and participation Falls significantly as they get in the second half of the year we think there'd be

[1:07:48] much more of a benefit having sophomores and juniors as opposed to seniors it would get people more active and maybe

[1:07:54] if we could do sophomores for 2 years or threee terms or whatever um they can have more of an impact but we're not

[1:08:01] seeing quite the participation in the second half of the Year from the people who are

[1:08:07] seniors well we we're sending you two new commission or two Commissioners um

[1:08:12] we had we had fewer students sign up this year than in the past so um but we

[1:08:17] always a perennial favor that so I want to jump back to the

[1:08:23] recycling um and I I would like to think through yeah like how do you make

[1:08:29] it you publicize it or

[1:08:55] and I'm like oh they can't put that in there but I don't want to be that

[1:09:01] [Music] neighbor you know what I mean but we could like if you could help make it

[1:09:07] more socially acceptable for me to be that neighbor then I would be that neighbor it could be the be that

[1:09:13] neighbor campaign there you go see something say

[1:09:19] something I know what you're talking about though because I it's with cars that are idling and just sitting there

[1:09:27] and I have a hard time saying something we've also um plateaued with

[1:09:32] Organics participation and the people who do it like me and others in this room I'm sure

[1:09:38] are pretty fanatical about it and love it but we're not getting new people partaking so we're open to ideas for how

[1:09:45] to help with that I know Twila is very passionate about that the size of the Indian Reservation Organics site is

[1:09:53] quadrupling to take on more capacity so we are hoping that we can quadruple participation

[1:10:00] um 32 * 4 um but I think if we can get more people partaking I um there's a

[1:10:08] huge benefit there's a huge benefit the one thing that comes to mind is that the County Commissioners are counting on

[1:10:14] cities to push Organics recycling a lot more because they want to close the her

[1:10:20] and if there was a way to say this is what's going to happen to your garbage bill when that happens

[1:10:26] so start composting now um and and get ready because it is going to close and

[1:10:31] it's probably going to close sooner rather than later and when I think all of our garbage goes to the herc I'm

[1:10:36] pretty sure well not not as much because we don't direct where it goes with our

[1:10:42] hauling contracts um there's starting to be some pretty significant push back on the Clos

[1:10:49] the her movement yeah so I'm not sure how committed they are to they had talked about it closing in 2030 and

[1:10:57] that's that's pushing into the future a little bit more now interesting cuz yeah I had heard it was pushing the other way

[1:11:03] closer to 2024 I wonder if there's any like testimonials that we could run kind

[1:11:08] of a campaign of testimonials people around town that would be influencers in neighborhoods

[1:11:14] heads of neighborhood associations getting on use the mayor's minute or something else to get up you know get on

[1:11:22] television and talk about the benefits they experience in their household from composting yeah even like examples of

[1:11:30] like Tik Tok videos like how do you actually do it how do you implement it could be kind of interesting if we get

[1:11:38] youi is there do you have or could you gather the anecdotal evidence of why

[1:11:46] people don't do it uh we have heard feedback around

[1:11:52] smell um we've heard feedback around the bags disintegrate and they fall apart in the bin and it just causes a mess um we

[1:12:00] have a suspicion that you're able to do pick up every week but some people might just do it once a month and only put

[1:12:06] their bin out once a month or every other week and therefore it's not getting counted as part of that 32%

[1:12:13] right because they're using a clicker literally to capture the participation so participation could be a little bit

[1:12:19] better than 32% if people are only doing it every other week but um I think I I

[1:12:24] don't know I mean personally my my experience with it was we have a gigantic recycling bin and we have the

[1:12:30] Organics bin and we have the smallest garbage bin and we barely fill even half of it any given week so it's like my

[1:12:37] two-year-old diapers and and the bags have jury they're great they don't ever

[1:12:43] break I think that's the thing I um we need to study how to change the behavior

[1:12:49] yeah cuz I think we can we can talk around it all night but it's easier for

[1:12:56] people not to compost and not to recycle and there's no platform that makes them

[1:13:04] say it's worth it um and so we have to solve that

[1:13:09] problem and we can figure out how to do that through communication through whatever method we can think of to get

[1:13:16] people to go oh yeah we really do need to do this and here's here's why it's worth the

[1:13:21] pay I did say that Minneapolis is running more like 50% % so I'd like to

[1:13:27] understand like why I don't you know how do they get another 18 percentage points of participation yeah are there

[1:13:33] demographics information we could get around who's participating and who's not

[1:13:40] uh multif family uh of condo buildings are not

[1:13:45] participating as much is one of the things we heard partially because they have like an Organics dumpster as my

[1:13:51] understanding drop off but it's not as easy so they're having to bring it from their unit all the way

[1:13:56] to the drop off uh location in the back or wherever it is so that that is an opportunity area the other thing I would

[1:14:02] say we used to as a city give free bags away I think we don't do that anymore if

[1:14:08] I'm not mistaken there used to be some like sitting on the counter down here I don't know if there's a way we could get

[1:14:14] grocery stores to give them away for free or what whatever it might be trying to partner with grocery stores or targets or places that sell food as a as

[1:14:23] a way to do that um spread the word but we're talk to schools and give it out at

[1:14:30] schools get them at the children cuz like exite the kids about it and then their parents will be we actually it was

[1:14:35] interesting we used to have compostable trays at the schools do you guys know about this there used to be compostable

[1:14:42] trays at the schools and so all the trays would get um thrown away it could be composted after after use and now

[1:14:48] they're back to styrofoam as well as um as well as the hard trays that have to

[1:14:55] be washed every time so uh they had it right at a point in time and I think it was

[1:15:01] pre-co is composting better than washing I would think washing would be

[1:15:07] the best is composting better than washing I don't know that is obviously better than styrofoam but I definitely

[1:15:13] everything's better than styrofoam it's a labor thing I don't know they answer

[1:15:19] that I think um we can find outour either way

[1:15:26] paper bag versus before we wrap up to uh on our consent on the one of the items

[1:15:32] there is the item that you worked on is this use of biodiesel and some of our heavier equipment yes this was really a

[1:15:40] great idea commission yeah as part of the the

[1:15:45] climate action plan yeah that saw this was a terrific

[1:15:52] idea so all right anything else council members thanks members anything else

[1:15:59] thank you you thanks for being with us all right uh session of the city council

[1:16:05] the city of

[1:16:10] stand 47 47