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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2.06.2023 MinutesCITY OF OSHKOSH SUSTAINABILITY ADVISORY BOARD Joint Meeting with Common Council Minutes February 6th, 2023 SAB PRESENT: Margy Davey, Lisa Marone, Vic Oliver, Ken Osmond, Aaron Wojciechowski EXCUSED: Pat Dwyer Hallquist, Bob Poeschl, Bradley Spanbauer ABSENT: CC PRESENT: Lori Palmeri, Lindsey Erickson, Michael Ford, Aaron Wojciechowski EXCUSED: ABSENT: Courtney Hansen, Bill Miller, Matt Mugerauer STAFF AND OTHERS: Brandon Nielsen (Staff Liaison), Kelly Nieforth (Community Development Director), John Fitzpatrick (Assistant City Manager), Staff (Oshkosh Media) I. Call to Order Chair Margy Davey called the meeting to order at 6:00pm and a quorum was declared present. II. Public Comment Ms. Davey asked if there were public comments. No public comments occurred III. Approval of Minutes, January 5th, 2023 Mr. Osmond motioned to approve the minutes. Ms. Marone seconded the motion. The board approved the January 5th minutes 5-0 (Osmond/Marone). IV. Native Plant Brochure Ms. Davey shared an update with the board on the creation of a Native Plant Brochure. Ms. Davey said that a graphic artist is interested in creating the brochure and that she actively watches the SAB meetings and is therefore aware of this project’s needs. Mr. Nielsen confirmed that there is a language ordinance that will have to be followed. V. Environmental Leadership Award Ms. Davey shared that two nominations have been submitted and they should be ready to present at State of the City. VI. No Mow May 2023 Ms. Davey shared that SAB wanted to get this topic and the conversation around it started earlier this year. She asked if No Mow May needed to be approved by council again and Ms. Erickson stated that she recalls some council members asking for scientific data showing how No Mow May has helped pollinators. Mr. Nielsen stated that he will reach out to Professor Del Toro from Lawrence University to ask if any new data has been gathered and could be shared with Oshkosh. VII. 2023 SAB and City Manager Goals – Discussion with Common Council Ms. Marone and Ms. Oliver presented the SAB’s 2023 goals with a PowerPoint presentation. Mayor Palmeri asked if there is an opportunity for a board member, or intern that would be interested in looking at past budgets to determine if there are items that would be considered sustainable efforts and helpful for the Green Tier Legacy report. Mr. Osmond explained how SAB’s past proposal to fund a Sustainability Manager Position within the city would address a number of the goals SAB has put forward this year and why, along with stating that an intern could be helpful. Ms. Davey said that SAB needs the council’s help to get all the city departments and boards/commissions aware of what SAB is accomplishing or trying to accomplish. The sustainability plan has been available for 11 years with some updates. Other boards or commissions are not aware of the plan. She also said there has to be other ways to reach out and make this known to the public. Mr. Fitzpatrick said the goal of getting city employees involved is foundational to moving forward. The city employees can use the sustainability framework in their jobs. Mr. Osmond said that sometimes it requires us to ask things of staff, and one of the things we have been consistently asking for is a formal process. They are sensitive to the time they may consume of city staff. A formal process to integrate the sustainably plan into the staff’s daily work while being respectful of their time. Mr. Fitzpatrick responded by saying SAB is being modest about what they are requesting. The employees are ready to become educated and work on these projects. Mr. Nielsen said that the Green Team idea has been moved forward and Ms. Nieforth said there has been a lot of responses from employees requesting to join the Green Team. Mr. Wojciechowski asked Mr. Nielsen how much time he is allotted for SAB and Mr. Nielsen said he allotted four hours a week for SAB. Mr. Wojciechowski said that is helpful to give context to the resources available and why council was invited. Mayor Palmeri said there is a specific goal that council has requested from the City Manager, and that is to seek outside contractual resources to achieve grant funding. Ms. Davey said there was training through UW-Extension to help municipalities with their sustainably efforts. She is hoping there is a way of building sustainability in so it’s there and being thought about even with different council members being elected. Mr. Fitzpatrick said that SAB has done a lot to integrate the suitability plan into the city and that it is a great start to building the foundation moving forward. Mr. Nielsen said the proposed SAB goals are concurrent so if the first one is completed it sets you up for the next one; and if all goes well, staff should be ready to apply for the Energy Innovation Grant in 2023. Mr. Wojciechowski said the goal is to present this to council at a meeting to get the other members input and to have a discussion with Mr. Rohloff. Mayor Palmeri said that public participation would be helpful, but they do not know how to get that. Ten years ago, there were public relation students that put together proposals to help and maybe UWO could be a resource to help now. Mr. Fitzpatrick stated that Mr. Rohloff said he fully supports the SAB goals and they nicely correlate with the goals the council has given him. Mayor Palmeri said that she has asked for KPIs or scoring mechanisms to help assess how the goals are progressing. Mr. Nielsen said the plan for the employee Green Team, when created, can use information from the Green Tier Legacy scorecard to help create their KPIs. Council Member Ford said that council has given the City Manager direction to make contractual services available. SAB should be able to hold the City Manager and council to that goal. When going through the SAB goals, if SAB is able to identify a specific person or position, they could hire for that goal, it is something tangible that council could see. Ms. Marone stated that the goals are a little broad in range, in case council or staff had any input they could do that. She said that UW Oshkosh does a lot with sustainability and SAB should reach out to them when needed. Ms. Davey expressed gratitude to the council members who joined SAB for their meeting and is excited to see where further conversations and actions lead to in the future. Mr. Wojciechowski motion to approve the SAB’s 2023 goals with the intent that they will be sent to council for review. Mr. Osmond seconded the motion. Motion passed 5-0 (Wojciechowski/Osmond). Mayor Palmeri questioned Mr. Fitzpatrick how much a potential budget would be given for SAB and would it be similar to DEI, asking if the $25,000 range for one year was in mind and Mr. Fitzpatrick explained that a budget has not yet been discussed. He added that working on the boards goals and coming up with some tangible products will help drive a budget request. Mr. Osmond stated that there are likely two areas within the board’s goals that will require some outside help, initially on the front end with educating employees about sustainability and then again with grant writing in the future. Common Council members, staff, and the SAB continued to discuss the SAB goals and the different options and ways to achieve each of them. Agenda Items for Future Meeting Native Plant Brochure, No Mow May, Oshkosh Ecological Restoration VII. Next Meeting, Monday, March 6th, 2023 VII. Adjournment The board voted 5-0 to adjourn (Oliver/Marone) Recorded by: Brandon Nielsen, Associate Planner