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HomeMy WebLinkAboutGTF Minutes 03-02-10 GREEN TASK FORCE MINUTES MARCH 2, 2010 Roll Call Members Present: Chair Mario Guerra Vice Chair Luis Marquez Bob Ciatti Julia Emerson Sally Flowers Calvin Davis Tom Davidson Janet Molinaro Sylvia Southerland Lars Clutterham Nancy Swenson Also Present: Desi Alvarez Michael Finn Jonathan Leonard Dan Pruitt John Perfitt Linda Haines Kathy Simmons Absent: Jesse Kalashyan Robert Rubio Bill Kalpakoff The meeting was called to order at 12:20 pm by Chair Guerra. Everyone introduced themselves and gave their association for attending Green Task Force meetings. Minutes It was moved by Sylvia Southerland, seconded by Nancy Swenson and carried to approve the Minutes from February 2, 2010, as presented. Chair Guerra advised the City has ordered recycle bins for City Hall and it was reiterated that the City already does recycle. He said we are shooting for taking our recommendations to the City Council in May, stating one recommendation is to keep the Green Task Force as a permanent committee. He thanked everyone for their input this past year and felt we still have a long way to go. He noted the list brought forth at the last meeting will be reviewed again today and is included in the February minutes. Building Code Update John Perfitt, Economic Development Director, and Linda Haines, Director of Building and Safety, were in attendance to report on the Building Code. It was noted consultant, Paul Armstrong, has had medical issues that have made him unable to attend the February or March GTF meetings. John and Linda presented a PowerPoint program on where the City is regarding local amendments to the Uniform Building Code and where the State is headed. Linda said we are waiting on the Green topics - 1 - but were advised Cal Green will be on line January 1, 2011. She noted we are the first State to have a Green Building Code. Linda advised the State adopted the 2007 California Building Code effective January 2008. The City’s main focus is adding its own prior amendments back in and including those new items that were not in our previous code. She explained how the Building Code is processed nationally and internationally and the timeframes involved, noting there are updates every 3 years so we go through this process every 3 years for the building, plumbing and electrical codes. The different codes are in process and are to be completed by July 1. We then have 180 days to make amendments and it goes into effect January 1, 2011. Linda noted the impact on citizens is: 1. Structures 2. Life safety goal 3. Green issues John said we are seeing it in CEQA and for processing Environmental Impact Reports (EIR’s) that there are quantitative based greenhouse gases analyses that have to be put in place. He said you are now seeing the Green Building Code becoming mandatory and not voluntary in 2011. Lars pointed out the statement on the screen that 80 percent below 1990 levels by 2020 should say by 2050 and John agreed. John advised we made 19 amendments to the California Building Code and will look at other local amendments at the beginning of next year. He said you can see the actual Code in a draft form with strikethroughs on the City’s website and said there are special local conditions that are more restrictive and a lot are administrative. He said you can download it and send any comments to Desi. Linda noted the State adopts the Code and local jurisdictions can adopt or make amendments as long as they are more restrictive and not less restrictive. John noted the intention is to go to the City Council in April to adopt the 19 amendments. Desi pointed out we are adopting the 2007 Code which became effective for all State agencies January 2008. The State is now adopting the 2010 Code which will be effective in 2011. Chair Guerra asked if there are Green issues we can add and Linda mentioned the solar panel fee reductions that were approved by the City Council with the maximum fee of $200 will be added. Lars asked if any applications have been received after fees were reduced and Linda advised they have had about 4. She advised the voluntary Green Building Code adopted in 2008, with the first draft due January 2010, will eventually be integrated into the California Building Code. Dan Pruitt asked if it is correlated with LEED and John advised no. He said the cost is $50,000 to get LEED certification. Dan mentioned paying a $100,000 LEED charge for the Coca Cola plant in Coachella. Chair Guerra said he has an issue with a company like Coca Cola paying $100,000 and felt this is where the green movement gets hit, as it should not cost that much to do the right thing. . Lars asked about grey water regulations and Linda noted they are in the Unified Plumbing Code right now and are mainly for businesses. Lars asked if it is in the Downey Code now and Linda advised you can utilize it for toilets. Desi said it is a very difficult thing to do and there is legislation that deals with grey water and facilitating the use of grey water by removing some of the requirements the health department imposes. - 2 - Downey’s Recycling Program Kathy Simmons, Integrated Waste Coordinator, passed out information on what the City currently does regarding recycling programs and also what is given out to residents. She noted our residential recycling program is the three-bin system, grey for trash, blue for recyclables and green for yard waste. Calmet is our trash company and have an exclusive franchise for commercial and residential waste. She mentioned Calmet’s quarterly newsletter and said they provide large item pick up service free for residents and for commercial accounts do so for a fee. They also pick up electronic waste from residents at no charge. Vice Chair Marquez asked if there was a limit and Kathy advised 5 items per week. Chair Guerra noted Goodwill Industries is also a drop off point for electronic waste. Kathy noted Calmet also collects Christmas trees and takes them to the County’s landfill where they are used as mulch for the groundcover for the landfill. We also promote the County’s hazardous waste roundups in surrounding areas. We produce the One Person’s Trash newsletter which comes out quarterly. The front and back pages note city events and generic recycling information is in the center. She said residents love this newsletter and feel it is very informative. Our commercial recycling program back in the mid 1990’s was the DART (Downey Area Recycling and Transfer station) and all of the City’s commercial trash went to this facility where huge sorting belts pull and separate items. Chair Guerra suggested a field trip by the Green Task Force and asked Desi to coordinate one. Kathy noted they no longer sort our commercial trash but do handle residential and green waste. DART is now owned by the County. Our commercial waste now goes to the Paramount residential recycling facility and Calmet takes it there for us. Calmet does provide free recycling bins for commercial accounts. It was noted Calmet provides free audits to businesses. Kathy mentioned Earth Day and said back in the 1990’s she had an Earth Day environmental faire and then Community Services invited her to combine with their Kids Day event and she does this now. Chair Guerra asked if we can promote Earth Day more and said this will be one of the GTF’s recommendations. She advised we receive Used Oil grants yearly and do a calendar where we go to schools and have students submit art work. We incorporated water conservation and pollution into the calendar this year. Deputy Dew Drop is the mascot and other cities have asked to borrow it. Kathy said we have 13 certified oil collection centers in the City and do hold events where if people bring in a filter, we buy them another at no charge. Kathy noted she does the Holiday Toy Program which started with old toys that were sent to Mexico. A few years the program changed and is now new toys. Our Sister City group can no longer accept the toys for delivery to Mexico due to strict regulations so they are now distributed locally. She mentioned that a landscape workshop will be held on March 13; a mulch give-away on March 27 provided by Calmet; Kids Day is May 8; and a Smart Gardening Workshop on June 12. She mentioned a partial list of things the City is doing to help our environment and asked for questions. Chair Guerra asked if materials could be e-mailed to him and to Green Task Force and thanked Kathy for a great report. Education Working Group Lars presented a PowerPoint program stating he wanted to clarify comments noted in the minutes by Bob Phillips at the last meeting. He referred to Styrofoam waste and said that it was miniscule in terms - 3 - of weight but not in terms of volume. He said Styrofoam is not significantly recyclable and huge quantities go into landfills. Plastic effectively does not biodegrade. In different ways it goes into the waste stream. Styrofoam is much cheaper than any existing kinds of containers but there are bigger suppliers of containers who have made changes on a moral basis, such as Albertson’s who made the decision despite a 32 percent price difference not to use Styrofoam at its deli’s. He said Bob noted the number one source of marine debris is cigarettes but said it must be cigarette butts. He said it is much more complicated than this. Cigarette butts are made out of cellulose acetate, an earlier invention of plastics. The polymer plastics, polystyrene, polyethylene are all fossil fuel plastics. The plastic for cigarette butts comes out of trees and are environmentally conscientious. They do take toxicity of tobacco to the environment. It is a complicated issue and they are a huge problem but not the whole problem. He mentioned the issue of picking one product and felt we have to deal with other problems. With respect to the cost to maintain the California Redemption Program, stating if you don’t recycle plastics, they are out there in the waste stream and then you have the cost of cleanup so you pay for plastics at four different levels. Chair Guerra stated you can make the argument that the cost to transport paper bags is 8 times more than plastic. It is not as simple as plastic versus paper. There is more cost, weight, time, effort, man power, etc. and can result in more of a carbon footprint. Tom Davidson said when Bob Phillip’s was talking about how a single thing is selected he was referring to overall picture, such as taxing sugar in soft drinks and not the sugar in candy bars. Ticketing a single item and not the whole program. He noted the funds generated by the California Redemption Program were utilized for the general fund and then they did not have the funding to run the redemption centers because they used the money elsewhere. Desi referred to the CRP program and said the accumulation in the fund was due to the fact that although everyone pays every time they buy, they do not redeem much. When the industry talks about recycling, less than 20 percent of bottles ever get recycled so 80 percent of the funds collected for the CRP never get picked up. Out of the 20 percent that does, it is not from people taking items to recycling centers. He stated the State loves to raid the money in funds and this fund had almost a billion dollars. Lars said he would send information due to time constraints but gave an excerpt from EPA information that he felt conflicts with what Desi said. Desi noted his data is from 2000. Mike Finn mentioned reading something about the countries that waste the least food on earth. Somalia was first and the U.S.A. was number two. Lars advised that 2 months ago he agreed to consult with Desi about a design for the green page on the Downey website. He mentioned the rational for a flow chart that separates out areas of environmental concern. He showed what the website might look like, noting it should direct someone as quickly as possible to their area of interest. Lars referred to the reusable bag project, noting the cost to do things the right way is an issue. If privately funded you may give 4 or 5 bags to each child and if not maybe you can only give 2 bags per child. Chair Guerra noted Luann Parker, head of the Unity in the Community Group, also wants to distribute bags to her group. Lars said instruction and scheduling is underway with the Principal at Gallatin and teaching will be led by Anna Valcarcel. He showed a photo of students in a classroom holding bags provided by Coca Cola. - 4 - Sustainability Working Group Julia Emerson noted the committee used as a basis the work the other committee has done. She said their committee was trying to look at the balance and respecting what has already been done and cost versus good. Said Efficient Lighting and Electric has offered to do a sign to go over the recycling containers. They suggest a kiosk be located at the Building Department where other utilities can place brochures with suggestions for home owners. It is simply a resource for people to use and said she may sponsor that herself. She said they respectfully disagreed on some suggestions, such as 10. Initiating tax credits. 14. Instead of saying all city vehicles should become alternative fuel, say “a number of city vehicles should.” 19. Office of Sustainability – loves the idea but don’t think this is the time. Chair said we could assign responsibility to existing employee. Julia Emerson said that is up to City Management to decide. Chair Guerra said if we don’t recommend it it will not happen and we can postpone it because of budget. If the Green Task Force encourages that someone have these responsibilities, to what level is a different story. 20. Reinforce policy to implement a Green Alleys and Green Streets program. Like the idea and suggest looking for grants. 21. Research and join one or more Green City organizations. Said there was a little bit of debate. The City could look to all these groups for information but not necessarily join them. 23. City educational program for responsible tree trimming. Desi noted we basically do this and Bob noted this is why they took it out. 24. Update building codes, especially for business new construction. Looked at creating incentives and possibly putting green buildings further ahead in line for plan checks. We are not telling staff what technique would be best but will let staff and Council decide. A few things our committee suggests. 1. Create a program to encourage city employees to save energy. Maybe a contest with ways to encourage them without much cost. 2. A conservation award for residents. 3. Working with other agencies to increase traffic light synchronization. 4. Links on the website to recognize residents and businesses doing a good job in any type of environmental issue. Chair Guerra comments 7, 10, 12 – things would still like to encourage – business recycling – encourage to be looked at in the future. 14. Staff should review if new vehicle purchases are alternative fuel 19. Encourage someone to be responsible “Office of Sustainability and the Environment” Thinks it is great to combine both lists and said it is okay to disagree. Chair Guerra – in April we need to have a game plan for what will be presented in May to the City Council. 13. Said he feels the GTF should continue and noted he is getting a lot of lobbying from staff that it should not meet often but he doesn’t think it should be infrequent. . - 5 - Lars said there was discussion about having more than one monthly full group meeting and suggested having two more full meetings before May to whittle down list and to finalize what to present Desi said it might be practical to have a meeting on March 30 and then the April meeting in the middle of April, which gives two meetings to finalize everything before the May Council Meeting. Mario said he has a Gas Company event noted on his calendar from 9-12 on March 30. Julia suggested the advisory groups meet one month and the full committee meet the second month. She felt they got lots more work done in the small groups. Chair Guerra said if the GTF goes forward, he won’t be chairing it. He was not sure the subcommittees are needed and felt the GTF could meet once a month. He noted it will not have an elected official on it, similar to the Planning and Recreation Committees. He did note he can attend as a guest. He asked Julia to send the list via e-mail to Shirley and said each item needs to have an explanation th and on March 30 we can put it on the screen. The last meeting will be April 13 at noon. Recommendations will go to the City Council on May 11 or May 25. Discussion of Future Agenda Items Julia Emerson announced on April 14 the Gas Company will hold a free municipal Green Building Conference to celebrate Earth Day. It is an all day event from 8 am to 5 pm. There will be a Green Happy Hour following. You must register early as it always sells out. Bob Ciatti asked if he could have a booth. Jonathan Leonard noted Coca-Cola would like to host the March 30 meeting. It was noted Earth Day is Thursday, April 22. The meeting was adjourned at 2:08 p.m. to Tuesday, March 30, 2010, at 12:00 pm at the Coca-Cola Bottling Company. _____________________________ ______________________________ Shirley Conte, Secretary Chair, Dn. Mario A. Guerra - 6 - For reference here is the list from the February minutes. Tom Davidson mentioned when their subcommittee met they talked about both groups coming up with similar ideas. He passed out a list of ideas, noting they were not specific on how the concepts can be accomplished. 1. Inaugurate Earth Day Celebrations (4/22) in Downey, beginning this year, in 2010. It was noted Gallatin Elementary will be the pilot school for Earth Day this year and advised School District Superintendent Dr. Wendy Doty wants the program to be district wide and to involve Character Counts. 2. Provide sustainability information booth at Street Faire (5/1). 3. Provide sustainability information booth at Kids Day (5/8). 4. Create citywide reusable bag art design competition – associated with Earth Day. 5. Furnish recycling containers to City Hall – it was noted this has been approved. 6. Distribute recycling containers to public parks. 7. Incentivize business recycling. 8. Produce and provide sustainability information kit for Downey business license applicants – educating businesses. 9. Provide conservation inserts and varying envelope stamps with conservation tips for use on city bills. 10. Establish tax breaks for using reclaimed water – No room for rebates as water rates are very low. 11. Work with other agencies on annual low flow toilet program. 12. Establish water bill credits for sustainable practices – No – current water rates are very low. 13. Recommission Green Task Force – Desi noted the sunset of the group is April. Chair Guerra noted he envisions keeping it going and will present this to the City Council in May. Vice Chair Marquez agreed. 14. Explore city policy and long-term plan to replace city vehicles with electric, hybrid, CNG, or other low emission vehicles. 15. Explore a long-term plan to increase low emission mass transit in conjunction with the city’s Specific Plan for downtown development. 16. Create a xeriscaped California-native landscape space at City Hall and establish a long-term plan to move towards drought tolerant landscaping on city property. 17. Explore the possibility to establish a timetable to phase out Styrofoam use by the City of Downey – provide information for businesses. 18. Actively support A Day Without a Bag in 2010, including promotion, city activities, and collaboration with Heal the Bay and other participating agencies. 19. Explore a City of Downey “Office of Sustainability and the Environment” with a budgetary commitment of at least one half-time staff 20. Reinforce policy to implement a Green Alleys and Green Streets program, retrofitting alleys and streets with environmentally sustainable road-building materials, bioswales (natural water drainage) where possible, and green spaces. Desi said this is already in place, stating we look at opportunities to modify streets and all our asphalt is rubberized asphalt. - 7 - 21. Research and join one or more Green cit organizations ICLEI (Local Governments for Sustainability), Smart Cities, Natural Resources Defense Council 22. Reinforce city standards for gathering rainwater and use of grey water 23. City educational program for responsible tree trimming 24. Update building codes, especially for business new construction, to include at least LEED silver standards. Chair Guerra noted we are in the process of doing this Vice Chair Marquez felt a lot of the recommendations are easy to do and noted some, such as No. 22, are already being done. In reference to water: Chair Guerra mentioned a bill two years ago by Assemblyman Hector De La Torre, Assembly Bill 640, which is now being resurrected. One thing is the difference between us and the Central Basin and West Basin water agencies where we are subsidizing the South Bay area to a point. He mentioned the oil companies, where there were no mandates to use reclaimed water, were using 8 gallons of clean water to refine a gallon of oil. The water was basically used as a coolant. He noted some of the oil companies now want to come onboard. Desi said we are working with legislators to review this issue to help convert some of the refineries in the South Bay to use reclaimed water. Chair Guerra said he has learned that water is a fighting word and that we are subsidizing other areas. Desi said we pay one million more than necessary. If there was equity in the plumb tax, our rate would be $1,060,000 less. He said when the idea of a uniform rate was brought up, every lobbyist was there. Calvin Davis mentioned one Downey school on the border with Bellflower, Pace Elementary, pays seven times what is paid in other Downey schools for water because it is supplied by Park Water Co. Chair Guerra mentioned the City had a public hearing on sewers and Downey is by far the lowest cost. It is time to upgrade and have an increase. Desi noted our water is the cheapest in the region and we have worked hard to maintain this. We have other agencies that increase their charges to us and we have absorbed this but cannot do so any longer. Chair Guerra noted the recommendations are not for us to do but to recommend. Vice Chair Marquez asked Mr. Kalpakoff when his company switched to CMG trucks did he find them efficient and he replied that they work as well. He noted they take spark plugs that have to be replaced, at an average of $600 per year per truck. He said he was told there is more maintenance involved after 4 or 5 years. He also noted they cost $50,000 more. He said in the old days they ran 1988’s on 50 gallons a day and noted the 2005’s are down to 22 gallons. Sally Flowers said her city passed a resolution stating they had to consider CNG vehicles when they needed to replace a vehicle. She noted it was a choice. In reference to item No. 17, “Explore the possibilities of phasing out Styrofoam - provide information for businesses,” Tom Davidson mentioned a take home food container that is made of recycled bottles. Bob Phillips stated Styrofoam waste is miniscule and felt it would put a significant cost on small chains. He referred to the green caps on Dasani water, stating they are 30 percent plant based and a renewable source of resin. He said a plastic recycling corporation did a study and found that 70 percent of bottles have caps on them. He said they are saying plastic caps are a significant source of marine litter and that Albatross feed them to their young. He also noted the number one source of marine debris is cigarettes. He stated, if you are going to deal - 8 - with an issue, you don’t pick one product, but need comprehensive policy to deal with the whole issue. He referred to the cost to run the California Redemption Program and questioned whether the results were worth the cost. Janet Molinaro said we need to promote the things Downey already does and Vice Chair Marquez said we need to inform the citizenry of what the city already does and put it on the website. Bob Phillips noted words sound good but there is a cost factor. He noted recycle bins have to be bought and maintained. He suggested caution against proposing things that have a cost that the city will never do, feeling it will harm the GTF’s credibility. Chair Guerra said these are our recommendations but the Council will decide. Janet Molinaro said we are recommending the Council take this action. If we come back with weak stuff, it will not look like we did anything. Robert Rubio said this past year we came up with recommendations and the City Council can come back with work to be done regarding those recommendations. Chair Guerra said the committee can make sure the recommendations are being followed up. Chair Guerra said next month we want to fine tune the list and include a paragraph on what is meant by each item. - 9 -