Minnetonka City Council — Transcript
Tuesday, January 20, 2026
Sustainability Commission Role and Operations
Commissioner Henry's Service and Potential Departure
Personal Observation on ICE Activities in Minnesota
Climate Action and Adaptation Plan (CAP) Implementation Update
2026 Sustainability Commission Work Plan Schedule Review
Subcommittee Formation and Assignments
Federal Climate Regulation Repeal Awareness
High School Newspaper Outreach for Sustainability Awards
Votes (3)
Climate Action and Adaptation Plan (CAP) Implementation Update (Item 5A)
Staff presented an update on the CAP's implementation, outlining a phased approach for its 50 strategies, covering administrative setup, existing actions, and new initiatives. Key updates included redesigning the Sustainable Minnetonka website for better user experience, exploring Minnetonka Matters for public engagement, and officially designating the Sustainable Minnetonka Awards as the city's business recognition program. Staff detailed progress on developing work plans, reporting processes, and project management training. Performance metrics were introduced, including greenhouse gas emissions, renewable energy subscriptions, on-site solar installations, public EV charging stations, registered electric vehicles, and Home Energy Squad visits. Commissioners provided extensive feedback and requested additional data points, such as heat pump adoption, municipal EV charger usage statistics, and more granular waste/organics recycling participation and quantity data.
2026 Sustainability Commission Work Plan Schedule (Item 5B)
Staff presented a detailed calendarized version of the 2026 work plan, outlining specific monthly activities for the commission and its ambassadors, including Sustainable Minnetonka Awards, 'Switch Together' events, Earth Day clothing swap, Everything Electric exhibits, business blitzes, and on-site tours. The schedule was designed to distribute workload evenly across quarters, taking into account predetermined event dates and seasonal impacts on public engagement. Commissioner Henry suggested moving the 'business blitzes' from August to September to improve reach, considering business owners' vacation schedules.
Subcommittee Formation and Assignments (Item 5C)
The commission discussed the establishment of three subcommittees: Everything Electric Exhibit, Reuse Swap Events, and Education On-site Tours. The purpose was to provide more focused activities for commissioners outside regular meetings and accelerate engagement opportunities. Staff outlined a process for self-selection, aiming for 2-3 commissioners per subcommittee, with virtual participation as an option. The schedule for subcommittee meetings was presented, coordinating with major event timelines. Commissioners volunteered for specific subcommittees, confirming the composition for each group.
Notable Quotes (9)
So the right now it just our pages I would say need a pretty decent overhaul. So it's just a bigger undertaking, but uh the the hope is that once we get to a point where they're all up to date, it'll be very minor updates um and much easier to to kind of keep up on.
I think there's a lot of other uh performance metrics we could be considering um to track and I've collected a couple here.
Could we work backwards and figure out from the kilowatt hours dispensed what the usage data would be from the private ones? Yes. Not from the in the homes, but I seem so kilowatt um in this case actually it's just the power. It's how much power it provides. So it's it ends up translating into like the speed in which it charges. So, it's not a it's not um a comprehensive amount. It's just per charge, not how many kilowatt hours have been correct.
Public charging is not for the weak. [laughter] It is not for the faint of heart. I will tell you right now, I had many grievances that I aired regarding my public charging as I was waiting.
When we talk about recycling programs, I'm not sure if if the city is able to readily get the information in terms of what used to be called the citizen participation rate. You know, what percentage of people are sitting out there recyclable, their traditional recyclables.
It was a interesting exercise to take a work plan and put it into a calendar and say, "Wow, we [laughter] have a lot of stuff that we're doing.
July and August sometimes um there even business owners take vacations and I'm wondering if moving that one month into from August to September after Labor Day if that might be a better time to be able to reach the business owners instead of someone covering.
The purpose of it is to just essentially provide more activities outside of meetings for commissioners. While some commissioners might prefer the meeting format, others um contact me quite frequently saying, 'I want to do more. I want to be more involved and actually, you know, be in the thick of the work.'
I don't remember tours being a subcommittee. Um, and so that explains that. My only question regarding this is the fact that I from what I recall is that we really enjoyed tours as a group.
Ordinances & Resolutions (9)
The guiding document outlining the commission's activities and targets for the year 2026.
The city's primary policy document for sustainability, with 50 strategies for implementation.
An online platform for public engagement and feedback on city projects, being considered for CAP outreach.
Dedicated city website being updated to serve as a formal hub for sustainability resources and updates.
The city's recognition program for businesses and residents engaging in climate action and sustainability.
A public website provided by LHB, tracking community-wide greenhouse gas emissions data for Minnetonka and other cities.
A GIS map/application for locating EV charging stations, mentioned in discussions about EV infrastructure.
A publication used by Commissioner Michael for outreach regarding the Sustainable Minnetonka Awards.
Regulations that limit the types of information the city can request on building permit applications, relevant to energy efficiency data collection.