[music] [music] [music] Thank you. >> [clears throat] >> Good evening everyone and welcome to the November 18th meeting of the city of Minnotonka's sustainability commission. This is our 18th meet in our 18th in-person meeting and fifth this year. The commission generally meets every other month on the third Tuesday of the month. The schedule and tenative agenda can be obtained by contacting the city's planning division or by visiting the city's website at minnotonkammn.gov. [clears throat] Residents can provide input on tonight's agenda during public comment via email or provide input tonight during this meeting. The Sustainability Commission's first meeting, believe it or not, was on May 2021. Since then, we've accomplished a significant number of useful and practical actions for our residents. Areas of review for the commission include air, water, energy, land, and ecological resources, recycling, waste management, and other related sustainability areas not addressed by city code or another city advisory group. The sustainability commission has a unique role here in Minnotonka as we serve both as an adviser to the city council and as an ambassador for the city programs. As an adviser for the city council, the sustainability commission makes recommendations on city plans, policies, procedures, programs, practices, and proposals that relate to sustainability and conservation of our natural resources. Final decisions are then made by the city council. As an ambassador, the sustainability commission attends events to promote city initiatives with the public. We will now move to agenda item number two which is a a roll call. Miss Hinlin, would you please call roll? >> I'll actually take this. Mr. Olive. >> Thank you, Susan. >> Commissioner Carr is absent. Henry is absent. Ingram, >> I'm here. >> Meer >> here. Ingram >> here. >> Norman >> here. Patine >> here. >> White >> here. >> Chair Gallob >> here. There are Thank you. There are seven of us tonight. [clears throat] Next is approval of this agenda for November 18th, 2022, which is agenda item number three. Uh, Miss Sland, do you have any comments or any change >> changes to make this? >> I do not. >> Okay, very good. Since there are no changes, is there a motion to approve the agenda from one of my commissioners? >> Motion to approve. Quick question, housekeeping. Are our buttons not working for the microphones? >> Um, mine's stuck on. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. >> I don't know if we ever mine's off. Yeah, you have to push it. >> Well, it just it seems to have a mind of its own. >> Yes, that's true. >> Right. >> Mine's stuck on. >> Yeah, I'm going to leave mine on [clears throat] >> and hopefully it won't cause any problem. Uh, so going back, was there a motion to approve, actually? Okay. Is there a second? >> I second. >> Very good. U Ally, would you please pull the commissioners? >> Oh, Susan, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. >> That's all right. Uh, Ingam, >> yes. >> Ingram, >> yes. >> Uh, Meyer, >> yes. >> Norman, >> yes. >> Patine, >> yes. >> White, >> yes. >> Chair Gallup, >> yes. Motion passes. Thank you. Next is approval, excuse [clears throat] me, of our July 22nd, 2025 and September 16th, 2025 uh minutes. Does anyone have any changes to those minutes? looking no changes. Very good. Um, therefore I would like I'm looking for a motion to approve the minutes from July 22nd and September 16th. Is there a motion? >> I'll motion. >> Thank you. Is there a second? >> I'll second. >> Thank you. Susan, would you pull the members, please? >> Uh, Ingram, >> yes. >> Ingram, >> abstain. >> Meyer, >> approve. Norman, >> yes. Patine, >> yes. >> White, >> yes. >> Cher Gallob, >> yes. The motion passes. Thank you. [clears throat] Next, we have our agenda items. >> Oh. Um, chair, we have actually a second round of minutes. Approving. >> Didn't we just approve both of them? >> Oh, I'm sorry. >> I thought we approved the July 22nd and September 16th as one motion. >> Yep, that's fine. >> Okay. I was thinking we should do it separately, but I thought, well, we can combine them. >> It's okay. >> Okay. No changes. Very good. Thank you. Um well, now we'll go to agenda item number five. Um before we start, I'd like to uh quickly review the steps for each one. Uh I will ask each of my uh fellow commissioners to ask questions to staff and at the end I will ask if there any more questions. I don't want to uh eliminate anyone from asking a clarifying question. If no one has registered to comment at that point, I will open and close the public input portion for the agenda topic. If an agenda topic is informational, then no vote is required and we will move along. If there isn't a vote required, I will indicate that and then we will vote and then we will move along. So with those um guidance, I'll turn over the uh item 5A to uh Ally. Thank you. Sorry. Oh, there we go. So, someone else is controlling these. [laughter] Um, good evening, commissioners. Um, this first item is the climate action and adaptation plan review and update. Um, so this is anformational only item. Um, it's meant just to be kind of a listening sh session from myself. I'm going to provide updates to our newer commissioners on the plan. So, the commissioners that weren't here during the development of the climate action and adaptation plan, I thought this would be helpful. I also thought, you know, an update for everyone would be helpful. It might have been a little bit of time since we talked about some of that background information. We'll get into implementation updates. And then this is also meant to help inform um the conversation about the next item, item 5B, the 2026 work plan agenda discussion. So, just to make sure that we're kind of all on the same page, we remember what we're talking about here. Um, but I'm going to try to keep my slides to about 25 minutes. So, I apologize. It's a little bit of information, but there's kind of a lot to cover and I want to make sure we take um time to do that before we get into next year. I am going to stop two times during the presentation to see if there's any questions and then at the end we can um go through questions as well. So, bear with me. Um, all right. So, for the overview of this presentation, we're going to talk about background, just kind of how we got to the point of um the CAP. So, I'm going to be referring to it as the CAP, which is the climate action and adaptation plan acronym. Um, how we got to the point of that approval. Then some recent climate um action accomplishments that the city has done. We'll talk about the communitywide cap baseline data that's included in the plan. So, what our greenhouse gas emissions were at um as of that baseline year. Then look at the cap goals that were included in the approved document and then ultimately looking at some implementation updates like where we're at now. So, if you're not familiar, the city of Minnetonka has a strategic plan process, and I wanted to start out with that because it kind of gives a bigger picture like as to where the climate action and adaptation plan fits into our all of our city programming. Uh, so the city council every 3 years creates this strategic plan document and they go through and they determine um the strategic priorities that are going to help guide what we do at the city. So, this is city staff, commissions, and the council. It helps guide their work. And um fortunately, sustainability, resilience, and natural environment is one of the six strategic priorities. So, that's where the climate action that we're working on really falls into that. Um so, again, this is for both commission, staff, and then the council. Um, not only does the city council value this work, but we see routinely on residential and business surveys that, um, our community values environmental stewardship, which is really great to see. And then also, um, this is not just a recent strategic priority. It's actually something that you can see Minnetonka has cared about for decades. And it's really cool when you think about the makeup of the council has changed over that time, but um it has continued to be uh something that the city has cared about. So this is not a comprehensive list um but I had actually given this presentation to the park board um last month or a similar presentation just to kind of give them an idea of like what does sustainability mean for the city and what does the strategic priority mean and to kind of give a snapshot in time to say look at you know over all the decades we've done a lot of different things and have continued to be a leader in this space and it was a very intentional decision to do that and even going back to the 1970s, I've been told that the city actually um implemented wetland protections prior than the state of Minnesota. So, it just kind of goes to show that um you know throughout time the city has cared about this. I also wanted to show this because it you can see within here there are v a variety of different climate actions the city has taken prior to the approval of the climate action and adaptation plan. So, just because we have this plan now doesn't mean we haven't done anything prior to that. Um and then in terms of recent stewardship examples um related to climate action of course we adopted this plan in 2024 we have since well actually I think before that plan was adopted we started installing these public electric vehicle charging stations we have six of those three of those are fast charging we have five electric vehicles within the fleet we have um as of this year we've started installing solar panels on three city facilities So, those are either installed or under development now. And then as of February of this year, we've enrolled over 2700 residents in organics, curbside recycling, and uh sorry, curbside organics. And that's just as of this year. And then I also wanted to highlight the work of the sustainability commission. And I pulled out some numbers. So, as of just this year alone, you collectively have all attended, well, collectively have attended 10 community events. You've um spent over 98 hours being a sustainability ambassador collectively as a group. You've engaged directly with,250 residents and then also over 9,000 indirect contact. So that's when we're at events um making not that indirect contact, but you're making an impact by having these demonstrations of sustainability being a norm in our community and something that people are able to learn about um and just see um at our community events such as like the EV um EV vehicles that we've had. So thank you for your work and dedication. It makes a very big impact and we still have a couple more events yet this year. So who's involved? Thinking about it more broadly from that strategic priority level, we have a lot of people involved in this type of work. So, city council ultimately there are the policy decision makers. Then we have commissions who are your um yourselves where you're the advisory boards. We also have the park board as well who helps to advise on these topics when it's specific to park related topics. Um we also have partnerships with other local governments. So the state of Minnesota um fortunately is very supportive of climate work. So there's grant opportunities there and they also just help with information um resources. They do a lot of re resource information gathering and they share that with other local governments. The Henipin County has their own climate department that's very helpful and supportive. And then we also have our wersheds too and they do a lot of partnerships with our staff. every city department is involved in this work in some sort of capacity. And I've shared just a few um different staff that are involved in this type of work in one way or the other. And then I just wanted to kind of reiterate that collaboration is really the key to success. Um and because climate action and sustainability are so multidisciplinary, it's crucial to have that um interdep department collaboration. So just so you know, it's not just me over here doing this work. It's really fundamentally every department is involved and that's something that I've been um very happy to see embraced at Minnetonka and I will say um it's not like that everywhere. So we're very fortunate to have that level of cooperation. Um so getting into so this is the baseline data sorry um that was included in the climate action and adaptation plan. So again, the development of the plan began in 20 uh 23 and that's where we had the community engagement piece and the sustainability commission was involved, staff was involved, that sort of thing. Um and then in 2024, the commission recommended approval to the city council and the city council ultimately approved this document as you see it now. Um the intention of the plan was not that it's a city of Minnotonka municipality plan. It was meant to be created by the city with city um uh community member participation in hopes to help guide and inform the entire community about how they can participate and take climate action as well. And so it's really supposed to be a collective communitywide plan. Um, it's meant to break down an extremely highly complex topic um into distilling it into actionable ways that residents and businesses can take action either today, tomorrow, or in the future. And that's um that was very intentional the way this plan was aligned and created. So, we'll we'll talk about some examples there. But um the plan breaks down two different ways to participate. It's either through the mitigation which is slowing greenhouse gas emission reduction or sorry the growth of greenhouse gas emissions and then transitioning away from fossil fuels. The other is adaptation. So how are we adapting to a changing climate? And I will say that's actually pretty unique especially at the time this was approved. I think more plans are starting to incorporate this adaptation piece. But because uh the council and the community has such support for natural resources, that's why you see that really shine in this plan. And I actually want to say that we're a leader in this space because I just saw St. Paul is recently calling their plan an adaptation plan now, too. So, um pretty cool stuff. Uh the plan also includes a summary of climate hazards and it talks about what we're already starting to experience in Minnotonka and then will continue to experience. So hotter summers we're already experiencing and again will continue to experience um which leads to or can lead to poor air quality and unsafe temperatures to be outdoors. Warmer winters which can um lead to rainier and icier conditions and just more of those like freeze thaw cycles. So you can think about our roadways and sidewalks and how those would be impacted. Heavier precipitation which can lead to flash flooding, increased hail damage, which we just all in Minnotonka experienced not too long ago with those that hail event storm and then the prolonged droughts, lower water levels. And these uh we can think about the these having adverse effects on both health and safety of residents and workers. And then also it can be even on ecosystems, our outdoor recreational activities in Minnetonka and then our built infrastructure. So there's a lot of various impacts and um things that are being impacted through climate change. So the community profile um a summary of the city was also provided in the CAP. And so in 2024, our uh population, we had 56,162 residents in the city and we had 25,240 households. Um the cap talks about uh Minnetonka on average having a lower poverty rate than the average of the state of Minnesota, which actually um fortunately leads to having a lower than average climate vulnerability within our community. And that's because when people have more resources, they're more easily able to adapt to climate change. So if you have less resources, you just don't have that ability, time, or money um to do so. So we're fortunate in that capacity. Uh the lower poverty rates also lead to a lower than average um energy burden. And an energy burden is the proportion of your income that's going to energy bills. So our average here is that on average 1% of our residents income is going to an energy bill. However, um the plan did actually call out that at least 900 households have a severely high energy burden, which means 10% of their income is going to their energy bill. So I think it's while we can say we have low poverty rates, that doesn't mean that everyone's not experiencing that. Um, and I think that's also important for us to think about when we're moving into implementation because we can consider ways that we can help alleviate that energy burden for this particular population. Um, it tends this this population tends to, not always, but tends to live in older or less efficient homes that could really be in need of those energy efficiency improvements. Um, and that we can consider ways of helping to provide the equal access to home energy efficiency improvements. and then also clean energy opportunities. So um is there a way that we can help kind of fill that gap if you will? And then um uh switching to the right hand side of this slide, we have a generalized land use map. And this wasn't actually included in the plan, but I just wanted to kind of call out um since we don't talk about land use much at the sustainability commission level. Um, if you think about how the land is used in Minnetonka, so around 57% of the land use is used for residential purposes. 50 of that is I'm assuming for more like single family looking at our city planner over here. Um, single family like duplex if you will. And then the multif family is going to be like your apartments and condominiums, that sort of thing. And then for commercial and industrial, and I call these out together because on the next slide they're kind of combined. That's about 7% collectively. So when we look at um our greenhouse gas communitywide emissions inventory that was completed and is um 2021 is the most recent date that we have that data for that was done for the whole community. So this is kind of like the impact of that land use. So we think of like the emissions impact of what that land use graph um is for our city. And so generally there's been a trend downward since 2007 um for our communitywide emissions. So there's um as of 2021 that the greenhouse gases have um decreased 32%. And then in 2021 54% of our greenhouse gas emissions were from building energy. And again looking back thinking about the impact of the land use the emissions within the building energy sector actually are relatively split between residential and commercial even though there's a greater proportion of residential land use. Um and then you can also see that the energy that created those greenhouse gas emissions within the building energy is actually split between natural gas fuels so fossil fuels and then the other half is electricity. And then looking at the other portion of this graph, so 44% of our emissions were from vehicle travel in 2021 and then the remaining 2% is from waste sources. And then looking more at the actual sources themselves. So breaking electricity out, you can see there has been a downward trend of the emissions. So since 2007, emissions within the electrical sector have continued to decrease and that was due to energy efficiency technologies becoming more commonplace. It's also due to Excel Energy creating a greener grid. So more renewables uh more carbon-f free sources uh creating the electricity and that has actually put more of an emphasis on the natural gas fuels or fossil fuels. So, you'll probably hear more focus on Center Point now and how they're trying to implement more energy efficiency measures um with residents and businesses. Um the emissions actually haven't really significantly decreased. They've mostly stayed the same and I've been told the variation is just due to hotter or colder years because this really follows our heating and cooling usage. And then for travel, generally staying the same. there's a slight decrease and definitely towards the end but I believe that that was more due to co 19 impacts and some of that is maybe due to cleaner vehicles but really the the rebound effect is still we're kind of waiting to see like what happens after co 19 and um how that changes and then waste has generally stayed the same and then so that was the communitywide emissions now looking at a smaller subset of just our city municipality um greenhouse gas conditions or emissions. So in 2022 1% of the community's greenhouse gas emissions were from the city and city or operations. So just 1% of our entire community's greenhouse gas emissions are from city operations. So I think that emphasizes the importance of community participation in this work especially when we think about these goals and what does that mean to achieve them? How do we move the needle? Of course, we have to focus on our own facilities, but we also clear very clearly need participation from the community. Um, if you look at figure 13, this breaks down where the emissions fell into. So, about 51% of our city operations emissions were from city facilities. A quarter were from water and sewer distribution. A quarter about a quarter were from our fleet vehicles. And then 4% were from street lights and signals. And then the figure 15 graph is a little confusing. Um, sorry, I thought I was going to go back. Let's see. Previous um, but I just I included it in here. It doesn't include the not the travel emissions, but I included that in here to say recreational facilities. You can see that is a pretty large component of our facilities uh, emissions and it's about 50% of this this piece over here. So if you want to think of like our buildings, 50% of that is from like Williston and the ice arena. So I think I'm going to stop there for questions. So before I move on to the CAP goals and implementation, does anyone have any questions so far on what I've covered? And chair, I'll I'll let you call on folks as they have questions. Seeing a couple hands. M Michael um so you mentioned adaptation and how St. Paul's like uh claimed that their plan is now an adaptation plan. Uh what does that like actually mean to adapt to climate change rather than trying to stop it? >> Yeah, great question. Um so mitigation means that we're going to try to reduce how much greenhouse gas emissions we are admitting. So if I'm a business, I want to emit less, you know, I want to um you utilize electricity to use, you know, cleaner electricity, that sort of thing. Um mitigation or sorry, adaptation is where I'm adapting to a changing climate. So yeah, is that kind of makes sense? >> Oh my. Um yeah. Uh, I wanted to ask if like like what physical like adaptation examples are there? >> Yeah. So, I'm trying to think. So, like we could we I know like right now we're the um natural resource division is like looking at putting in different types of plants that are adapted to this new climate that's coming in. We're also thinking about ways of um like I'm trying to think of other examples that the city is currently doing. Uh, Commissioner White, I I think of things in our engineering department where they're looking at new modeling for new rainfall amounts and where do we set flood plane elevations based on those new rainfall amounts. So, adapting some of our regulations also. So, >> not just adapting what we're um what we are doing physically in the community, but how we're regulating those things out. So, >> I see. Okay. Thank you. Yes, Alan. >> Um Ally, could you go back to the last slide, please? >> Yep. Let's see. Previous >> I just have a clarification question. How is on the left water and sewer 26% but then on the right it's the biggest one. >> Um let me see. Oh, it's because I know I don't really know why. So, these were pulled out of the cap and the consultant made these >> and for some reason they left travel out of the figure 15. So, it doesn't include the the fleet and it also breaks out the city facilities. So, that's that's why you're not seeing like the largest. I think they were trying to just break it out to say like what does it what are what are these smaller subsets of this figure 13 graph. >> Okay, understand. Thank you. Any other questions for staff at the moment? Oh, one one point I just want to add, Michael. [clears throat] During the before the the plan was written, a little bit of history. Most of these documents prior to ours were called uh CAPS, climate uh action plans. And as they were being developed, folks said, "Hey, we need to think about adapting to a climate to a changing climate." And so the acronym CAP stayed CAP, but it became climate action and adaptation plan. And we discussed that with staff and our consultants. and several of us were extremely uh interested in changing the cap from a climate action plan to a climate action adaptation plan. It just seemed to make a lot of sense going forward. Um and so we did. So they did and that's why ours is a climate action adaptation plan looking to try to mitigate issues going forward. >> And chair just one other thing. Um, so I think there's also a distinction between thinking about adapting our natural environment and then our infrastructure. So there's two different components of that and they both need to be focused on and the CAP does list out like different examples of that. But you can think about you know our natural spaces and how do we make sure that they um, you know, withstand the climate changes that we expect, but also like our buildings or our streets. um even like extreme storm events like now we're expecting to see more hail damage like what what does that mean? So those are some other examples. >> Good point. Thank you. Any other questions for staff at this point? >> None. >> Okay. Awesome. Great. Um so we'll move on. So this is the goals that are included in the um cap. So um this is a mouthful, I will be honest, but I'll break it down. So, one of the goals, the main goal really is that the cap aims to reduce communitywide greenhouse gas emissions by 63% per person and per business by 2030 from the 2018 base level or baseline levels. So, um few different things this means. So because we had the greenhouse gas inventory from 2021, the consultants called this pathway out to say from 2021 through 2030, we can meet this 2030 target by reducing our miss emissions per person by six metric tons um either as a person or a business. And if everyone does that, we will achieve this 2030 goal. You might wonder what a metric ton means or what that is. And while it is actually a measurement of mass, um they try to help with visualizing it as a volume. So this is like what the volume of one ton of carbon um metric tons would look like. And I also found out that on average an American actually emits 16 tons carbon dioxide per year. So if you can think about what that means and that what that means to reduce six of those. Um another example that I was able to find is that and we didn't make this chart but I think we should make our own version of it at some point. But um if you think about one one action that you can take and thinking about like okay how much is that actually like how much carbon is that actually reducing. In this example if you red or if you transition a fossil fuel vehicle to an electric vehicle you can actually reduce your carbon emissions by two metric tons per year. U so that could essentially be your reduction in the six six metric tons. So I'd like to do more calculations of this. I think it's helpful to put those numbers. I know maybe not everyone is interested in those, but it helps to know what we're doing because um it's not a tangible thing. You can't see this impact. So, if we can kind of show people like here's your chart and you know, choose your own adventure um I'd like to move towards that direction. So um the other goal that the cap has is that we hope to be net zero zero by um 2050. So the goal there is that no greenhouse gas emissions would be emitted by 2050 or if they are that we balance that by carbon removal. So like carbon sequestration [snorts] and that would require that everyone whether you're a resident or business reduce your emissions by five metric tons past that 2030 goal that we would have already met. And we also do have the resilience adaptation visions um in this plan and going back to Michael's question. So what does that mean? It means that the vision that was set is that we preserve our natural resources thinking about our natural environment. We strengthen community connections so we become closer to each other. Um and then we also prepare our infrastructure to withstand any climatic changes. So and the CAP also included uh a scenario. So an emission reduction scenario to say can we can we achieve this 2030 goal and if we can what would that world look like? Um this scenario doesn't necessarily mean we have to meet each each of these. It's more just like this would paint a picture of how we could get there if we um were focused on this or I mean there's other other ways to do it but it's just one one example of a way. So the world would be all new buildings are all electric and as energy efficient as possible. A quarter of our existing buildings would have completed an energyefficient retrofit and switch to electricity for space heating and water heating. 80% of our community's electricity is from carbon-f free sources, which Excel Energy is actually already committed to um meeting and they're on track to meet this. Um a third of our vehicle trips have been eliminated. A fifth of our cars are on um on the road are EVs. We've all cut our waste by a pound and then uh 75% of all waste generated is either recycled or composted. Uh so going back to making this document at the time the everyone that was involved wanted it to be a very usable document for the public. So these uh checklists were added. So if someone picked this up they could look through the checklist, choose what they wanted to focus their time on. It helps them understand the impact um either related to adaptation or um mitigation and they can you know have a game plan. And I would say this is a really great starting point. I think that we will as a group create more flyers, but this is a really cool starting point and um was a unique part of our plan. So, this is for homes and businesses. And then we also had a municipality checklist and this we'll be talking about when we talk about the implementation uh section of this presentation. There are 50 strategies here and they fall into different categories and I think it's helpful if I read them out. So, I will read those categories. So there's um strategies within city processes. So updating our city processes, looking at building emissions, um fleet emissions, natural resources, um resilience, multi-jurisdictional collaboration, uh education, outreach and engagement within the community, providing incentives to the community to participate in climate action work, and then updating our policies and programs. So, we will talk more about this in the implementation section, but I'm going to stop there again. Does anyone have any questions that came up during that piece? I >> I have one, Ally. [clears throat] Our our plan was worked on in 2023. It was adopted in 2024. The last year that the consultants had in terms of our greenhouse gas data was 2021. >> Yeah. >> And the curve is going, it's going downward. Do we I don't mean to put you on the spot because I don't know myself but do we have any inkling what will hap what has what has happened to that curve since 2021 has it rebounded slightly because more people have been more active with with co >> I don't want to say going away because it's not right >> but it's not quite on the uh forefront of everyone's thinking so I was just wondering has that curve or the straight line continued to go down or is it rebound a little bit? Do we know at this point? >> Yeah, >> I I don't know. >> Yep. Great question. I think that's a logical thought to think that yes, I think in certain sectors there's going to be you know um the the emissions coming back to like you know the office or whatever or you know uh with travel of course those are going to rebound. However, I mean, some of those emissions were just displaced, but at a residential property perhaps, you know, you're still using electricity there. >> Um, but time will tell. I mean, we're just going to have to get those emission um inventories, and that's a goal or a strategy within the cap. So, I expect us to start looking um at talking to consultants and kind of moving forward with receiving quotes to do that study. Again, um I believe they very intentionally chose 2021. um to make sure it wasn't in the midst of COVID at the time and it was probably the most recent data that they had access to because the data lags. I think you can only get it, you know, a year or two um in advance or you know in the past that sort of thing. So stay tuned on updates K but >> thank you. >> Mhm. Any other questions? >> Apparently not at this point. >> Okay, sounds good. All right. So for implementation, so the plan as approved included these 50 municipal strategies um and I wanted to define what a strategy is. So a strategy is we can think of it as a long-term plan to achieve a major goal and our goal being the goals that I had uh just reviewed on the other slide. So they provide another way to think about strategies is that they provide an overarching direction and vision. Um for example, they provide us policy direction. I think that's the easiest way to think of it. Some examples of these strategies um are for example, strategy 7 is to ensure energy efficient operations at city facilities. Strategy 31 is to partner with watershed districts. Strategy 40 is to implement a green cauture program. So when I arrived here and I looked at this document um my thought was that okay we have the policy direction which is great um but now we have to figure out how to do this how do we make these strategies come to life and that's been my task um over the last handful of months um so what I am hoping to do and I've started to do is to create this like roadmap for implementation and of course I want the commission's feedback and other staff's feedback but I think as a city that's what we need to do next. And to create that roadmap for implementation, we need to develop tasks for each of these strategies to figure out what are we going to do next. And just to compare, so a task in comparison to the strategy, a task is a specific short-term action that's taken in order to execute the plan or in this case the strategy. I think of it as another way to think of it as a day-to-day action that's actually going to move us towards implementing that policy direction. So, um, as an example, if we look at strategy 40, which is to implement a green cost share program, which I expect that our commission will be pretty heavily involved with at some point. In order to make that strategy really come to life, there's a lot of things we need to ask ourselves before we we get to that point. We need to know who is going to work on this. What does a green caut share program mean to the city of Minnitonka because it could mean a lot of different things to a lot of different people. Um when are we going to do it? How are we going to do it? What's the cost or budget impact of that strategy? What is the ease of the implementation? Some of these are a lot easier to implement than others. And background status. Um some of these as I was going through it I it was very clear we're actually already doing a lot of these things. some are brand new and that again u impacts the ease of implementation. So I've combed through all 50 strategies and I've started to ask these questions for each and I've done that because that's the really only the only way we can get to the outcome that we need which is a prioritized implementation timeline. So I'm going to walk through the steps that I've taken um to get to this point. So again, my my main goal has been to take the very large list of strategies and break them down into actionable tasks for us. So I've I've reviewed all the 50 strategies and I've organized them into a working spreadsheet. This looks chaotic. I I know um but I've broken down the strategies into actionable tasks. And it's certainly I didn't I didn't put every single task that we need to do, but I tried to call out like what are the main steps we need to do in order to achieve this strategy. And in some cases, most of them it was like maybe three steps. Other ones it was a long list. Um but I got to at this point there's about maybe 150 tasks that the spreadsheet has and I was actually able to narrow it down to 45 strategies unofficially. Um and I did so by consolidating like strategies and we've kind of talked about that at the commission level with our work plan. One example of that is that our city facilities um there was a lot of actions related to the city facilities and I felt that it wasn't um the right approach to think of them independently. They were all so related like ensure energy efficient operations at city facilities and then another one talks about electrifying our city facilities. So really all of them should be considered um simultaneously. So I've consolidated them all into one strategy for example. And in other cases, I actually added additional strategies, again, unofficially, but I felt that they were needed um for reporting as one example, kind of like Brian just asked about the greenhouse gas emissions and um sharing our progress with the commission and internally and the public. And then also needing to do this exercise that I'm doing in terms of creating a work plan. So, our our near-term work plan and then our long-term work plan. and just, you know, considering these as strategies because they're a big part of what we need to do. And so that's how I got down to that 45 number right now. Um, then I started going through and assigning different attributes to each of the strategies and I kind of went through that list before, but I started thinking about who's the lead of this, what are some phasing requirements because in some cases like one strategy really needs to happen before the other strategy can happen. um is this new or existing work, that sort of thing. And then that all that information led me to start creating and drafting a staff work plan, which I've now started organizing in a quarterly Gant chart. We've talked about that too as a commission. Um I don't know if it'll always stay in that format, but for right now, that's um what made sense and I'll show it to you um a little glimpse of that in our our next slide. But then from that chart, I was able to um come up with a drafted commission work plan that you reviewed and made comment on last week and the commission is going to be working on that um in our next item tonight. So just want to know this is all kind of what I've been working on and I hope we can all collectively continue to work on this and internally we're going to work on this too. So, I'm not going to go through the Gant chart one by one because uh that's going to be slated for the January uh commission meeting, but just wanted to call out some highlights. So this quarter my focus is of course creating these like short-term, near-term, long-term work plans or just um you know making suggestions and then meeting internally and kind of re revitalizing the climate action internal team that we had during the development process and start working with um those folks and getting them on board and assigning them essentially some of these actions. Quarter one of next year, I've have it slated to be focused on um evaluating there's about like 20 different strategies that are strategies we actually already do and they just need to be um kind of like reviewed to determine if updates are needed in order to comply with whatever the cap is asking of us. In some cases, I honestly don't think that we might need to make changes and in some cases I think we do. So that's kind of an information gathering for me and I honestly see it as more of like our lowhanging fruit. Like let's start there and see where we're at. Um so that kind of actually falls into quarter 1 and quarter three and then the other two quarters I have slated to continue that research. So a lot of these will bleed in kind of like to the next quarter, but then starting some research on the really heavy lifting um ones. So thinking about like our city facilities and what does it mean to be um you know what I forget one of the goals like completely carbon neutral like you know just these really big goals like what does that mean and where are we at reducing our greenhouse gas emissions um you know decarbonizing our fleet just some of these really big questions and trying to figure out like where are we at and where do we need to go and what does that mean for um our city budgets it's like longterm. So, I want to start thinking about these early so that we can start slating them for, you know, future years maybe um for our budgeting purposes. So, again, more to come on all of these, but I just wanted to give you kind of a glimpse into what I've started. So, lastly, just ending on the what I'm going to be continuing to do is meeting with the staff team. I'll give the byianual updates to the commission. So with that Gant chart specifically, so January will be the first time and then we'll circle back in July. And then between those times, I'm anticipating having the general staff updates, you know, providing some internal updates what we're working on. And then of course the commission will have a related discussion item based on your um work plan, too. So stay tuned. I think there's a lot of work here. I'm super excited. So I hope you guys are all too. Um, and if you have any questions about the commission work plan, let's table those till the next item, but otherwise I will um answer any questions you have. So, thanks. >> Thank you, Ellie. Any questions from my fellow commissioners to Ally for that excellent summary, Dave? Yeah, it's very it's an impressive amount of work. And um can you go back to the last or the last slide or the one that had all the stuff on it? Uh one Yeah. Um there's quite a few here that I don't know if I would call them like safe safety related, you know, first responder gear and training, welfare visits and calls, um stuff like that. is that doesn't really relate to our greenhouse gas or that sort of stuff, but it's part of sustainability in terms of safety or >> Yeah, great question. So, that's it's related to the adaptation piece and thinking about it from, you know, are we going to have more severe frequent, you know, extreme storms, I guess, is where that's coming from. >> Thank you. >> Yeah. And that's a perfect example. like we do a lot of these things, but how how should we think about potentially up updating it in the context of climate change? >> Thank you, Dave. Thank you, Ally. Any [clears throat] other questions? No, I don't think so. Um, >> it is is very impressive. Thank you, Ally. >> Great. Well, thank you all. Appreciate it. If there are no other questions that will um item 5 A isformational um we don't need to take any other action except uh we will then move to item 5B there for okay sounds good all right so item 5B is a discussion on the 2020. Yeah, >> excuse me. Following my own notes, um, we had no further questions. So, um, I will, since no one's registered to comment, I'm going to open and close the public input portion for item 5A and we will move on to item 5B. Thank you. >> Okay. Thanks. Um, next. All right. So, item 5B is a discussion on the 2026 Sustainability Commission work plan. This is a continuation of the item on the September 16th agenda meeting. So, oh, >> oh, that makes sense. I was like, wait, what is happening? Oh, here we go. Sorry. It Okay, this is a discussion item. So, I uh Brian alerted me that there was a misprint in the packet. So, it is a discussion item. We're looking for a vote tonight. um discussion, comment, and then recommendation for city council approval of the 2026 commission work plan. Um an overview. So, we'll do a really quick overview of the work plan goals, like what what the work plan um purposes, the commission duties just in general based on our city code, uh work plan organization. So, it looks a little different this year, and we'll kind of cover why and what's it what it looks like now. We'll talk about the feedback that you provided on September 16th and then we will review the revised draft. So the goals of the work plan is that it guides next year's work essentially for the commission. It's meant to determine our annual goals, priorities, and objectives for the commission and it's also meant to provide the city council an outline. Um I've talked about it with Brian. Of course, there's some flexibility, but it just gives us some level of guidance um of what we're planning on doing. It is based on the commission's duties and responsibilities as well. Um the city code defines these and it's much more um verbose than this, but I've kind of distilled it into four what I call like duties, the four main duties. And really it's just to be a sustainability adviser, which you all know very well, um to the city council. Same thing with the sustainability ambassadors to the public. Uh cultivating community partnerships and then of course just reporting on our progress and our work. So the work plan is organized this year based on the duties. So if there's an action, it falls under one of the the four summary duties. We also have included the smart goals. Um, so specific, measurable, achievable, relevant or time bound goals. Either the target is written that way or the goal is. And then I've also included if it relates to something and each action has at least one thing it relates to. So um, just thinking about like how this action is going to align with a staff work plan, staff capacity, city plans, and then also the strategic priorities that we mentioned before. So I'm just going to quickly summarize the feedback that you provided either through the menty or just through other comments um at the last meeting. So one of the questions was what has been your favorite activity as a commissioner and unanimously the um commission responded that ambassador opportunities particularly at events have been your favorite. So this was really helpful for me. I mean, as a new staff member, I'm still just kind of learning about what you like and don't like, and I want to make sure your work plan reflects what you all like to do. So, thanks for sharing all of these answers. Um the favorite activity that was proposed in the draft work plan was either the CAP planning program planning um the award ceremony the commission liked that and then again just events and the everything electric exhibit and then the reuse swaps were called out as favorite uh events proposed or activities proposed. You also suggested additional actions um that we can consider. So multiple swaps the commission um stated and sorry I forgot to mention that if if something's listed on here it had a majority support too. So it wasn't just like one person was interested. This was kind of like majority support from the commission. Um so multiple swaps were of interest. um exploring this idea of the neighborhood champions program, considering financial incentives for um participation in our CAP goals and um strategies, progress tracking documents like we just talked about in the last uh action or the last agenda item. And then there was a unanimous interest in subcommittee. So this is like a planning um event planning committee. So that was really good to see new forms of resident engagement. So um everything or electrify everything mn um collaboration so that's a thirdparty group that provides like outreach around electrification at home um include geothermal in promotional materials. So starting to talk maybe um you know about solar or geothermal along with solar and other renewable actions that people can take. Um find new events to join. So, not only joining like city events, but if there's a non- city sponsored event, like how can we be a part of that? Recording interviews of award award winners. So, we've talked about, you know, just more of these like videos or actual like podcasts or something of that sort. Um, and even like a topic expert coming in and having a recorded audio of that. New forms of businesses or the community- based organization engagement. Some um that were listed were the business splits with CE repeating that as previous years continuing with the Minnotonka Business Council partnership. So that's our chamber. Um developing a strong list or developing a strong existing connections list. Um so that would be like who are we already partnering with and just kind of starting there. And then also I liked this idea too of um asking others to connect us to their existing network. So, kind of like trying to build our own network based on um you know, maybe someone that's won an award uh or sustainable Minnotonka where we ask like do you know of another business that's already doing this and maybe they do within their business community. So, that's exciting. And then lastly, I just heard that there's um you know more ways that you would prefer to learn. So, inerson tours, webinars, presentations, and articles. So, again, thanks for providing all that feedback. So the way that we'll plan to use the feedback is that I have included some of that in the commission the work plan the revised work plan. Um I think some of that also is a level of detail that just can be noted for future discussions on implementation in 2026. So one example is the work plan included like um ex explore one program that the commission would like to implement related to the cap. instead of putting it specifically in there, we can just kind of table some of these conversations to a broader um discussion at a future meeting. And then I've also noted at least one action was converted to like more of a staff work plan than the other uh than keeping it on the commission work plan. Okay. So, I will go through this. Um I'm not sure. I think I I'll probably just summarize each at a high level just so we remember because it's been a little bit of time since we went through this. So for the first action, we talked about reviewing the byianual um cap implementation updates from staff and making comments and suggestions. And so those updates would be in January and June. That action was not updated. Um review, research, evaluate, develop and advise CAP related plans, policies, and programs. And that's where that develop one new cap related initiative pops up. And I kind of like the idea of keeping it open and just allows us to have broader discussion on that. But of course that's up to the commission. Um item three was to review the Minnitonka or sustainable Minnitonka awards and recommend special recognition and nominee awards and that you'd recommend for um residents and for businesses for a special recognition award. And that was unchanged. Item four was slightly altered to include trainings, workshops, and then also the webinars related to CAP priorities for the commission just to continue learning. So that was that slight update there. Item five was unchanged and that's just to coordinate and attend educational on-site tours related to the CAT priorities. So, we want to attend at least two next year. Um item six was related to the educational tables. So, I won't list all of these, but the priorities um fell into the cap priorities. So, either a home emission reduction table, travel emission reductions, waste emission reductions, and the climate uh resilient ready home. So, I I put them the ideas there because I think we could probably expand a bit on some of our tables next year from what we've done and just kind of gives us a list to go off of. And the target again was unchanged, talked to at least 300 residents at those tables. So, this is where it maybe gets a little confusing, but I'll try to explain. So, some of these I um combined based on some feedback. So, the old item seven and old item eight were both related to the Everything Electric exhibit. One just talked about hosting and the other one was um creating a subcommittee. I just combined those into one with two different targets just to make things a little bit simpler. So that's um hosting the Everything Electric exhibit at the Summerfest again and the city's open house. The old item eight was related to outreach at multi- household residential units and the feedback was that it just felt like more of a staff task based on kind of the conversation we have and I agree. I think that'll probably be more of like the mailor outreach. So, we struck that and that will be something that I work on. The new item eight was unchanged and that's just hosting an event to educate residents about the renewable energy options. Item nine, let's see, sorry. Um, I consolidated the old items 9 and 10, which is related to the Earth Day uh reuse swap. I consolidated that into a new item nine. And that I I put hosting two reuse swaps based on the feedback. And I left the Earth Day reuse swap cuz I I like this idea of it being around Earth Day and I think the commission was really in support of that. So I wanted to call that out. Um but I also left it open where the commission could, you know, consider what you wanted to do for your second event. And then the second target was to create that event planning committee. So I expect you'd be like myself and then at least two commissioners um would join something like that. And item 10 was updated to specify the business splits instead of leaving it a bit more general. And since then, I did talk to CE and they had some suggestions that instead of um going to a lot of places on one day, it's better um for them and it's just more recommended to go to um to kind of create these like smaller business blitzes that are targeted geographically in like one area, like one strip mall area or one retail space. We focus on that. Um we do that once a year and then we do like another um version of that later in the year. And I I put in here at least two of those, but depending on how they go and the commission's availability and willingness, we could certainly do more, but I thought two was maybe a good place to start. Um, item 11 is to interview businesses and residents about their sustainability efforts. So, that stayed the same. The old 12 and 13, I believe those were combined again and made into just this one, create new community connections. And that was based on feedback from the commission and growing the sustainable Minnotonka award program that stayed the same. 14. Oh, this was something that I kind of just started thinking about myself is that um I think it's helpful in January if we created kind of like an implementation schedule assigning each of these items to a commission meeting. It just kind of keeps us on track. It's almost like an agenda calendar if you will. It's not to say that it's um you know defined and required, but it just kind of helps us slate the whole year as like what what are we going to talk about when I've I've done that with the previous commission I worked with and I I thought it was helpful. So I added that in as a suggestion and then the item 15 stayed the same. That's just reporting our updates to city council. So I think that was the last piece that I had. So with that, um, I will open it up for your discussion, questions, and comments. So Brian, if you want to lead that. >> Thank you very much, Ally. Excellent summary of a lot of information. Does anyone have any specific questions to ask Ally of her presentation? I don't I don't see any questions. It was >> no question. Um yes, thank you Ally. Very thorough. Um and I agree with the agenda items for the upcoming. Um two things. One, I um looking at our goal of decreasing greenhouse gases, we see that the city's tasks are a small portion compared to the community in business. And uh we've got an excellent um chart of actionable items that residents and then a separate one that businesses can do. Um, but I think it in order for that education to occur, um, I think it needs to be highlighted through our media sources, pulling out each of those single pages as well as updating the resources and tying them to the action items. So, for example, the weatherization for one's home could have a um a clickable uh link for um home energy audit and then even um to make it a QR code at our events so that people could with their phone be able to tap right into that action list. Um, it's an excellent resource, but I think we need to highlight it for um, residents to be able to readily take action. I'm going to try to turn my Oh, there we go. Thank you, commissioners, chair. Um, yes. And I'm realizing I probably didn't explain it fully properly. So, the municipality checklist with those 50 strategies. >> Yes. um it's not only for municipal operations. So some of those includes that engagement and outreach and that is one of the strategies. So exactly what you just said like updating our city website, updating flyers and educational materials that falls into at least two or three different of those strategies. So yes, that's definitely going to be a big focus and something that I I really hope and I I see the commission being of help with those. Um, so yes, great great points. I appreciate that and I I think that'll be exciting to to make those resources. Thank you. >> Thank you, Dan. >> Any other questions for Ally? Um, Ally, I I have one. In the past, some of us know that we the city was fortunate to have some green core interns. I I was wondering, it's kind of a twofold question because [clears throat] all it's all interrelated. What is the likelihood of of that happening in 2026? And or what would the likely be likelihood be of not necessarily getting a a green core intern, but a an intern essentially at the college level that could provide some additional assistance to you. um is I know that in the past prior to you coming to the city um we had some interns and they provided they did a lot a lot more than our staff person could do only because there were more bodies to do that. So I was just wondering what do you think the likelihood is? Yeah, all great questions. And um so we actually did apply for a green core member for this last round and we weren't selected. So we tried. [laughter] It's a limited number and it's competitive, right? So we will try again. I will say there were issues with the green corps program this year where I believe the federal government no longer is funding them because they're a part of the Americanore. >> I was afraid of that. So the state of Minnesota actually elected to f fully fund the program. I believe that's at least at one point that's what was happening. Um so it was very contentious and for a long time it was uncertain if it would actually go through or not. It did. So actually people do have these green core members. Now that being said, I have no idea what's going to come in 2026. Of course if the opportunity comes up we will be sure to apply again. you're right that there was at least two green corps members that have helped out with um the city and we were very fortunate to get two at one time. I don't think that's normal and I think they [clears throat] kind of had a surplus um and they liked working with Minnitonka is what I hear. So um yes, we hope to have more interns like that in the future and I actually talked to us uh Susan about this too. as we go through and do more research and development of these programs, we certainly will start having those staffing conversations to say, you know, if we want to implement this, we will need this many more people helping or this much more staff time. So, we'll we'll be looking at all sorts of options, whether it's an intern staffing, that sort of thing. >> Thank you. And Susan might just add on uh to that that as we have conversations about staffing obviously all staffing decisions are you know budgetary to decisions certainly >> um and [clears throat] uh whether it's sustainability or planning or engineering or public works and so that's a much larger uh conversation that has to happen with the city council. >> Very understandable. Thank you. Any other questions for uh this agenda item? No. Okay. As as Ally pointed out correctly, um we uh it's a discussion uh item, but it does require that we recommend to the city council approval of the 2026 sustainability commission work plan as Ally has just disclosed to us. So, with that, I'm I'm looking for someone to make a motion to approve the 2026 Sustainability Commission work plan for Ally then to go before the city council. >> I'll motion to approve. >> Thank you. Is there a second? >> We had two either Amanda or Michael. I don't Amanda, I think you went first or sorry. Sorry. Thank you. Okay. staff, would you pull the commission members? >> Ingram, >> yes. >> Ingram, >> yes. >> Meyer, >> yes. >> Norman, >> yes. >> Patine, >> yes. >> White, >> yes. >> Chair Gallup, >> yes. And with that, I should have said that with that uh discussion ended. I will open and close the public input portion for item 5B. Thank you very much. [clears throat] are with that we'll move to uh item six on our agenda which is report from staff staff >> oh yeah it's me again >> yes [laughter] >> just kid um okay so general staff updates let me just pull them up here because I realize I didn't put them in the PowerPoint um so couple things our next sustainability commission meeting is January 20th so it's after the new year um we will stay on Tuesdays, every third Tuesday next year for each month is what I've been told. So stay tuned for that calendar. I'll send that out to you. You should have already received the calendar invites through your Outlook um city outlook, but um I'll share a PDF version of that as well. And then I also just wanted to highlight uh the upcoming sustainability ambassador opportunities. There's um an event coming up. It's the winter farmers market which some of you I know have attended in the past and that's on December 13th and I requested that we have two tables. We we don't have to um but I figure if we can why not. This is also a really really fun event. I actually went it was like the first week of work last year when I started and it was so fun. It was very much like a crafts fair. Um so it's not just produce you know there's so many homemade goods. So, I really encourage you just to attend if if you can actually help volunteer. But, um yes, I I see a couple hands. >> Um I was just wondering if that um farmers market was taking non-commissioned volunteers. Do we need those >> for the farmers mark? Oh, do you have like a friend or something or I guess what's the context? >> Probably. >> Well, I just know a lot of people through my IB diploma program who probably could use some volunteer. So, I just wondering if we needed that. >> Possibly. I will say the way it works it's mostly um people bringing their own tables. So in that way I don't it would just kind of maybe be more based on like setup but let me get back to you. I will ask the event coordinator. I appreciate the offer. Thanks. >> So uh the event is on the 13th of December and I actually don't have the times written down. Does anyone else remember? I think it's 9:30. >> What day is that? >> It's a Saturday. >> Saturday. That's what I thought from last year. >> I think I believe it was 9:30 to 2. Diane, I saw you registered online for it. So, [laughter] >> 9:45 to 2, >> I believe it was. Yeah. So, um, if you're interested in volunteering, you know, your schedule, you can maybe raise your hand now, and I'll looks like Brian and Ashley are interested in um, oh, and I also wanted to mention, so I we don't have to do this, but I thought we could maybe do one organics recycling table. We're still trying to promote that. And then I actually left the other table open to whoever I think Diane signed up for that one, but I thought it would be fun if the commission just kind of started choosing your own tables um based on the topics that are, you know, included in the cap and then maybe we have a conversation before and I can get the materials ready for you. But Brian or Ashley, do you know which table you're interested in or do you not? >> Um either one, but organic recycling is fine. >> Okay. >> Yeah. And we can have more than one person at each table. So >> I was like my sustainability soul sister. What do you want to do? [laughter] >> You want to be there? >> Energy. >> We love renewable energy, you know. No, we'll >> electrification. >> We love electrification. We'll figure it out between the three of us. We can we can work these tables. Wonderful. >> We'll work it out. >> Great. >> Sounds good. >> Awesome. Well, thank you for that. So, yeah, that will be our last event of 2025 and then we'll look into 2026 after that. Um, but those are the only updates I have. >> Okay. Thank you very much, Ally. Appreciate that. [clears throat] We'll move to item uh seven, which is a uh report from our sustainability commissioners. Does anyone have anything that they would like to share? Ashley, please. >> Team, my sincerest sincerest apologies. I have been attending the zoning committee workg group for the past I forget your last name. Susan, Miss >> Susan is fine. Miss Thomas, >> Susan, >> um, we started in February of >> We started in February and I have not given reports to this group. I [laughter] realized we start we did one in February. We did one on September 10th, which I realized I think we had a meeting that same week and my apologies, but I have been attending as the sustainability commission um, ambassador, our commissioner from that group. We have a different um commissioner from each of the park and boards and um it's been a great opportunity of course to meet the other commissioners and to work on zoning um information for the city. Uh as you you may or may not know, we are working on reszoning uh Minnotonka. They hired a um consultant for that opportunity and so they gathered a bunch of information from through several projects through Minnetonka matters. Um they did a phone survey. They were also at Summerfest. And so they gathered a lot of information and then they had us look at it. They had um city staff look at it as well. And so um they went through a lot of unique um questions um to see whether or not um how people felt about reszoning. So um like overlap doing some overlapping zoning with residential and commercial zoning together. Um also how people felt about um shrinking down the lot sizes a little bit so that we can um adjust our housing needs. um because we know that we do need to adjust housing needs to help um Minnetonka grow a little bit. So, it's been a really unique opportunity. Um I have tried to show up as best as possible for our sustainability commission and help make sure that we had um helped make sure that sustainability was at the forefront of people's minds. So, it's been a great opportunity. Apologize apologies for not making sure that I updated our commission sooner, but it's been great. >> Thank you. Thank you, Ashley. That was very interesting. I had no idea. [laughter] Can I give a plug since we said you had no idea? I encourage everyone here and our viewing audience to um go to Minnotonka Matters. Um there is a web page on Minnitonka Matters called the zoning update and you'll find information about kind of what we're looking at right now. You'll find um opportunities for public engagement in the future. Um we keep that updated as best we can. It's a a long project. It was going to be about an 18-month project. So, just continue to tune in and I'm I'm sure Commissioner Patine will have more information as we uh get closer to having an actual document to view. >> Thank you very much, Susan. Any other questions or comments for Ashley? >> Quick question. So, the the role is like an official sort of representation of our body, correct? or ambassador like how does that look? >> Yes. So I was not at the meeting when or because I received an email from or a call from the mayor, an email from the city. I believe it was discussed at one of our meetings that I was not in attendance at, but um yes um so I was selected from this commission and there's a representative from each of the other commissions and boards. And so we just all come together and basically are giving feedback from our um perspective from our respective boards or commissions. >> So the voting like in terms of a vote, >> there's not voting, it's more so feedback on just a variety of questions they have about different zoning things as and then there's also um some a few members from the community um just like residents from Minnetonka as well. So that's kind of nice as well. The mayor also um came he wasn't able to make it to the first meeting but came to the um second meeting that we had. And I'm assuming the new mayor will be at the any additional meetings we have. >> And so you're there to provide sort of the sustainability lens >> through which to kind of >> look at that work. Yes. Correct. >> Yes. >> Okay. >> Thank you for clarifying. I appreciate that. >> Thank you, Amanda. Thank you, Ashley, for the [clears throat] clarification. If there are no other questions, that will conclude item seven. Item eight on our agenda is other business. I do not believe uh Ashley. >> Oh, I think D. >> Diane. >> Oh, I was just going to add that I was pleased to be able to take the Hannipin County Recycling Ambassador program this fall. Um it was taught by my niece so who inspired me but it was very I would encourage other sustainability uh commissioners to consider it because it was an excellent resource of people from MPCA from county state other communities as well as tours of herk and and murf and organic and metal recycling. cycling. Um, it was eyeopening and a great resource. So, >> it sounds very interesting >> and I would just make a note too. So, any It's open to the public actually. So, any Henipin County resident can sign up for that, right? And is it offered twice a year? Is that how often? Do you know? >> Um, I believe it is. >> I believe it's twice a year. They had been um virtual up until during co up until this fall when they went back to a in-person class and I believe that it's going to be twice yearly. >> And where was that class held? >> Um St. Louis Park Library. >> Okay, very good. Thank you. >> They may have different locations and >> it's about eight sessions. >> I just looked it up. The next one is um planned for spring 2026 starting on March 5th. So if you're interested, you can go to Henipin County's website and search recycling ambassador and that's how you can sign up. >> Yes. >> Thanks Diane. >> Thank you Allie. As that [clears throat] concludes item seven. >> Sorry I have Ashley. Go right ahead. No problem. >> I was just trying to let Commissioner Meer go. Um, so I have Wait, are we on comm. Sorry, I have other business. >> Oh, okay. >> Oh, it still says item seven. >> Seven is uh >> seven's report. Okay, I have So, sorry. >> Okay, so that that will [snorts] conclude item seven. So, now we will move to item eight, other business. >> Okay, >> thank you. >> Thank you. >> Um, like I forgot I was in court. I was like, "Thank you, your honor." Um, anyway, sorry y'all. It's been a long day. Um, so, um, I wanted to discuss, um, so I recently was, uh, blessed enough to purchase an electric vehicle, um, and, uh, Kia EV6. Love it. Um, would be happy to share that with anyone who would like to see it. It is fantastic. I'm in love with her, uh, 2025 model. Fantastic. Uh, GT. Um, and she is fantastic. I purchased it because, as you all know, I am committed to lowering my emissions. I was appreciative of the slide tonight where it talked about how are we all going to lower our emissions. Um and we of course have this goal over trying to get down to zero emissions by 20 2050. And I also appreciated when you um very clearly listed out what does the you know each ton look like and how do we each like personally commit to getting there um by 2050. And one of the ways that we could do that while was by purchasing an electric vehicle and the um what was it two 1.95 to be exact carbon emissions each year is saved metric tons excuse me thank you is saved each year by um purchasing electric vehicle um and I will say that I appreciate I think Minnetonka the slide that you ch showed to start off the um presentation tonight showed Minnetonka's commitment since what is it 1976 to being sustainable um and the journey that this city has taken um and culminating in 2021 with just creating this commission. Uh with that said, I think there is, you know, always going to be steps that we can continue to do and take, which is part of what, you know, why we were coming up with our work plan tonight. Um, one of the steps that I hope that we can continue to work on is encouraging our community um, our community, its residents, it's uh, businesses to make being sustainable um, residents as easy as possible. And something that I have found really challenging as a new EV owner is charging. Um, so I wanted to purchase a charger at home. I purchased the vehicle without um intending to plan to with a a plan to purchase a charger at home, but I live in a um HOA. Um so I like to think that I represent a part of the Minnetonka community that lives in a u multif family housing. I live in a condo. I am a part of the Creeks Bend um HOA community and um that has been really challenging. I am still without a home charger. I am fortunate that I can afford to buy a home charger. I had several electricians come out to offer me bids. I found an electrician that I liked. I am just waiting on the HOA to give me approval to install the electric charger. Still, I have purchased my my EV. It has been about a month and a half of public charging and that is really really not ideal um for myself. Um especially when I am in a situation where uh I want to charge at home, it would be ideal for me to charge at home. I did not purchase my EV with plans of charging at home. And so I really say this to say that I hope that Minnetonka in having this commitment to have us get to zero emissions and especially seeing that part of how we can get people to get to zero emissions in one on another slide you also had that we want to get people to have one in five of our vehicles be EVs. Um and I don't know what the number is now. Does either uh anybody else know what the number is right now? I'm sure it's not one in five but I'm sure it's much higher um like of um fossil fueled vehicles. But if we're going to encourage people to make steps like this, I would hope that we'd make sure that we're encouraging um homeowners, associations, like let them know truly that Minnetonka is committed to making that transition as easy as possible for its residents. And I think that we as a um city have to really create ensure that we have policies that support um that messaging. And so um I have really struggled with my homeowners association at present. I am not sure that I'm going to be able to get a home charger. I don't [clears throat] want to say that that would have changed my whether or not I would have purchased an EV. Um, but I would have definitely thought more differently about it. My commitment to sustainability, my commitment to um trying to do what I can to combat climate change because I want a better future for our young members here for my own children is still very very um strong. However, I think that I would hope that my city, my um the city of Minnotonka would help support me in this mission by making sure that the place that I live, the place that I pay a mortgage at makes sure that I can easily access the power to charge my vehicle at home. um especially um when there's already so many barriers for so many people where a lot of people can't afford to just say, "Hey, I'm going to go buy a different car because I'm committed to climate change. U committed to combating climate change and I understand that that is a privilege and I am that that I am afforded and I am so grateful for that. But um I I I hope that when that there that that is not a barrier for certain people that we don't have homeowners associations creating additional barriers for people by saying no and I understand that it's not going to be super easy. I understand that there are there's other things that are in the way. But that is not the situation that I am in fortunately. Um, so I say that to say um I have too many passions and um but I think that one of the things that I would really like to focus on this year and I did see on your slide already that you had I think I can't remember how you titled it exactly. I probably should have written it down was EV readiness I think perhaps is what it said. And so I saw that that was already on your list. But I do want to be very intentional with my efforts this year to make sure that um we truly put our uh intentions uh best intentions forward in that effort because we need I believe that um if we are truly about making this goal happen and yes we are seeing significant decreases but I don't know if y'all looked at that line that's a pretty drastic drop from where we are right now and so if we're going to make that happen. I think that we really need to stand on business and um make sure that we are creating enforcing and supporting policies that make it as easy as possible for people to be uh lowering their emissions. And so that is my little story about me purchasing the EV that I love so much, but hope that we can um live in a city and support a city um that has already done so much great work to support um sustainability um to and push them into making even more changes and um better policies that encourage strongly encourage our community to make even better policies and better decisions to support its um residents. So that is just my little spiel for tonight. Thank you. Thank you, Ashley. Dave, >> yeah, just to follow up to Ashley's uh point because I think it's a really good one. If from the standpoint of the city um whether it's I don't know if it's ordinances or zoning or whatever would be is that something the city could put into uh again I don't know the right terminology. I use the word requirement uh a requirement for either new uh multifamily uh development or any way to put it into retrofit into existing homely family home multif family housing for the accessibility for that. I think for their purposes it's an advantage from a sales perspective to provide that kind of benefit but uh to help make sure it happens whether it's inside a garage or just a communal space uh in the within the facility. >> Yeah, I can uh speak to that if I may. Uh Chair Gallob, thank you. Um we in the zoning ordinance um we have in the past been reluctant to put in a requirement for new um construction to include EV charging because of uh several lawsuits that have been um pending uh in the state essentially requiring something in construction above and beyond what the state building code um requires. Having said that, I can say that in every case new construction specifically for multifamily since 2000, we have as planners um said exactly uh what you said, Commissioner Ingram, to to the developers. This would be a great selling point for you to include EV chargers. And 100% of those apartment buildings have done that >> to um a certain extent. Um, we also our planning department, um, even though Ally is in the planning department, she doesn't review building permits, but we do. And I would say that the vast majority of new home construction, single family homes are also um, being constructed EV ready um, for for charging. Um so something we have not required in the past um the zoning ordinance update that Commissioner Patine uh spoke to. We have asked our consultant to consider including a chapter on sustainability as its own chapter and um including kind of some menu of options that we would expect um uh future new construction and as you said remodels, retrofits to select um from that menu of options. So, we haven't seen anything uh yet, but that's something that planning staff has asked our consultant to take a look at. >> You know, just as a followup, [clears throat] I know in the deck, I think somewhere it indicated how many registered EVs that were in the city. I think it was 474 point in the report. Uh you bring up an interesting point. Do we is be interesting to see the um if we know it, which it sounds like we do, the number of uh residents that are being e either have or in the process of having those kind of uh outlets put in their >> that's certainly a number that we can um get and as part of our strategic profile, we have to do some reporting for the council and we already um track solar installations um and so EV charging Um, I think that would be something if we're not already tracking that, that's certainly something that would be easy enough for us to pull from our permit information. >> Thank you. >> Sorry, the mic's today. Um, no, thank you. Um, so, um, thank you for that's such a great follow-up question. And I do want to say I do appreciate that the, um, city number one, even if you aren't necessarily because I do understand the legal implications sometimes behind a city, um, writing some writing something into its microphones [laughter] today, writing something into its um, its zoning. But I do appreciate though that when um uh builders are coming forward that you are encouraging to them to consider uh how they are going about making sure that homes are EV ready because I think that when it comes from the city there is power in uh where that source is coming from. So I think that that I hope that you all know that that is appreciated because obviously your voice is much the city's voice is it can be you're a different source than of course just uh residents of course. So I just want to note that. >> Very good point. Dave, Michael, >> you have you have something first, didn't you? >> Oh, my mine was unrelated other other business. >> Yeah, I have a different topic though, different question, but >> go ahead Dave. >> Don't want to be uh this might be a weird question, but um we we uh compost at home ourselves, so we don't use the the city thing. >> It's good. And that's a single hauler or is that all the haulers? >> Sorry, I'm trying to Oh, I am unmuted. My understanding is a single hauler and I believe it's republic services. >> It is. Yes, it is. So without being in politic here, at some point do we look at the carbon footprint of driving the truck through the entire city for 274 whatever it was households versus just saying we're creating more in the in the short term until people start getting more in composting. We're creating more problems by having a truck driving over the entire city doing that versus those households. I I believe that they're looking at the trade-offs of it going into the landfill and it um that material then having emissions methane emissions coming through the landfill. So >> my understanding is that that's what Henipin County's climate goals are all focused on this organized like I guess organics collection >> and previously it was multiple different haulers driving around um because residents could sign up for their own hauler. you could have waste management or whoever. Um, so my understanding is that organized is the best way to do that from a climate lens. >> Okay. >> It's also not our division, so I can't fully speak on that. [laughter] >> Right, Dave? If I if I may, [clears throat] you're you're right. The best way to compost organics would be by from an individual house in your backyard so that you're not it's not being picked up or you're not going to another place. However, that being said, I don't know what the percentage is, but I'm not sure how many people want to do that or are willing to do that. So with that in mind, you want to follow the example by Hannipan County and try to minimize or divert organic material from going >> to the incinerator or to a landfill by going to a dedicated location. So hence we have organized organic collection you know which is a huge step in the right direction from an environmental perspective but let's not think about the emissions but just in terms of moving that organic uh to be used as a as a resource. Um uh at the moment I don't live that far from public works and so my wife and I well I generally will drive over once a week with about this much organic material not having young kids in the house we don't waste or generate that much so it's not a problem for me and I don't do it that often but Yes, we and I'm going to jump ship a little bit. We have many municipal we have many private haulers going down my street and now we have another large truck going down the street and you know in addition to a truck picking up my recyclables. So there are these loudable goals but you have to think about the the emissions that are being generated. So, um, and I think looking at one of the slides, Ally, that there are 2772 households that are participating right now in organized organic collection. And how many total households are there? I was just trying to do >> 25,000. >> So, okay. So, we're not Yeah, it's about 10%. And hopefully that number >> that that number will grow. Um cuz as we all know, people are paying for it. So if they want to take advantage of that, they certainly can. But I'm not sure why they've been reluctant to do that so far. I mean, I do it because it's very convenient for me and it's not a problem. And I usually combine it with another another trip. Like tonight, I dropped off at the at public works and I came here. So I wasn't a dedicated trip. Um and hopefully that that number will increase and I think that Henipin have has estimated that at least organics is maybe 18% I may be off on the municipal solid waist stream. So there is a lot of material in the past years that had gone to a landfill or or had gone to the herk facility and people have said that seems uh not like a good use of organics to be either landfilled or incinerated. No. Um, you know, I think I think it's beneficial. Um, and you know, we're we're improving. As you recall, as you're as old as I am, back in the early days of of uh curbside recycling, people said, "Oh, nobody will set out their curbside recycles. They won't set out their glass and their cans and their newsprint." And what is the citizen participation rate? We had people following the trucks and counting the number of setouts versus the total number of stops to calculate the numbers in the numerator and the denominator to say okay now we had 40% of the people setting them out 60% or 80% now if you look at my neighborhood everybody does that but that's been decades in the works. So organic recycling we're at 10% now it will improve. Um I'm I'm confident of it based on the history of uh recycling collection in the past. So a little a little history [laughter] there. Anyway, thank you. Thank you for the questions. Any other u information or Diane, please >> one followup. >> Yes. Um Dave to dovtail on your suggestion of organized hauling. Um, we discussed this at our last commission meeting >> the minutes >> and sustainability commissioners are in agreement that a single hauler at least for a quadrant of our city would be the most environmentally safe and protective and and work towards decreasing greenhouse gases. Um so Minneapolis has been able to do it with a creative method of a quadrant. Um dividing the city into quadrants and haulers having a quadrant. So it's something that we would like to the city to look at. >> As as I pointed out, people have an emotional attachment to their hauler. [clears throat] When I worked for St. St. Paul public works after graduate school they did a study Joanne England who's long gone now but did a study on organized collection the same arguments or logical points were made back then you can see that it didn't it didn't get anywhere because people were not happy with having their hauler taken away from them. >> Um I think we would go through the same thing. I I agree with every all the logic there from an environmental perspective. It makes all the sense in the in the world, but it's not as easy as we'd like to think. All you have to do is look on Next Door. >> It's one of the most popular topics is dumping on their current provider and changing over to a new provider. >> It is. >> It's It is emotional, but it does make great sense. >> It does. We're all in agreement that >> especially if you live on a culde-sac. >> Mhm. Ellen, do you have a question? No. Okay. >> I think if we could contract for negotiate for a lower price, the majority of people would be in favor of a lower price and go along with the switch. Very possibly. It might be interesting. And I'm just speculating if the city ever did a survey of its of its residents to see, what percentage of people would be willing to do that so that it would be less less potentially contentious moving forward. >> Chair and commissioners, I just wanted to respond to that. Um, I don't I we would have to ask Darren Ellingsson if he's done any sort of surveying like that in the past. He's our city's recycling coordinator among many other duties that he has. Um he's spoken to the commission in the past. You may recall him. Um but yeah, we could definitely start there and see if he's done any surveys um in the past. And I think this is also a conversation that city council would likely need to have. Um >> it's definitely a policy decision and some direction would be needed there at that council level. um to the sustainability commission to probably move forward with a topic of this nature. But in the meantime, I can certainly uh talk to Darren and see, you know, if and what research he's done. So >> that that would be great. That would be an excellent first step. Thank you very much, Ally. >> Thank you, Michael. >> I have something related to that. >> Right ahead. >> Okay. So, I may have mentioned this before. I'm not sure but uh I am a part of the Minnitankka High School newspaper Mitaka Breezes and I saw in one of the strategies earlier I think it was strategy 28 uh it reference engaging students and so I think that maybe forming some sort of like connection or like partnership with um like a journalism publication in like high schools would be really important for just making that connection with students because I think from my perspective not many students or like the new generation really know even knows that uh the city of Minnitankka has like a sustainability commission. And so I think um maybe like featuring the commission in some sort of article uh would be beneficial to that and as a person who like is part of that I think I would be able to help out with that a lot. >> Amazing. Yeah. Great. Great ideas. >> Excellent idea. Thank you. Excellent. >> To add to that, as someone who goes to the same school but is not in the newspaper, everyone reads it. So it's not just the people who are writing the articles that are reading it. I read every article. Most people I know read every article or mostly every article. So if we were to do that, I think it would have a really great reach throughout the whole school which is what 3500 students I think. >> Wonderful. >> So yeah, >> great. It's not paper. It is. >> No, it is. [laughter] >> It is. >> That's an excellent idea, Michael. Thank you very much. Okay, with that I think that concludes item eight. We'll move to item nine, which is adjournment. Uh would anyone like to make the motion to adjourn tonight's meeting? >> I'll make a motion to adjourn. >> Oh, thank you. Is it seconded? Would someone like to second it? >> I'll second it. >> Okay. Uh Susan, do you want to pull the members? >> Uh Ingram? Yes, >> Ingram. >> Yes, >> Meyer. >> Yes, >> Norman. >> Yes, >> Patine. >> Yes, >> White. >> Yes, >> Chair Gallup. >> Yes. M. Motion passes. We are adjourned. Thank you all. >> Okay. You can't tell. >> [music] [music]