SC 02-21-2019 CITY OF CUPERTINO SUSTAINABILITY COMMISSION
Environmental Education Center 22221 McClellan Road
Thursday February 21,2019 4:00 p.m.
MINUTES
PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE
ROLL CALL
Commissioners Present: Anna Weber, Gary Latshaw, Angela Chen,Vignesh Swaminathan
(arrived @ 4:07),Meera Ramanathan(arrived @ 4:10)
Staff:Misty Mersich,Sustainability Manager;Cheri Donnelley, Environmental Program
Manager;Timm Borden,Interim City Manager;Roger Lee,Interim Director of Public Works;
Gilee Corral, Sustainability Program Coordinator
Guests:Rahul Vasanth, Library Commissioner
1. APPROVAL OF MINUTES
Action Item:Draft minutes of January 17,2019 meeting were amended to correct,Gary Latshaw
as Vice Chair. Motion to approve the minutes as amended was made by Commissioner Chen
and 2nd by Commissioner Latshaw.Motion passed with 3-0 with Commissioners Swaminathan
and Ramanathan absent.
POSTPONEMENTS
None.
ORAL COMMUNICATIONS
None.
NEW BUSINESS
Chair Weber reordered the agenized items as follows:Item#4 to the front of the agenda, Item#3
following, and Item#2 last.
2. Subject: Survey on Improving Council-Commission Communications
Timm Borden,Interim City Manager, reviewed the Work Program Flow Chart. .He explained
that moving forward,if the Commission wishes to undertake an initiative that will require
substantial staff time or resources, the Commission should"park" the idea or project on a list
throughout the fiscal year.In December the Commission liaison,will bring the list of proposed
initiatives to her department to be reviewed and submitted to Ci Council for consideration
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during its annual goal-setting process. If something comes up between July and December that
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is time sensitive, the Commission can request that the Liaison bring it to Council to adjust the
Commissions work plan to act on this opportunity.
Interim City Manager Borden noted that the study session for Council's work program will be
March 191h; the work program should come to Council for a vote at their April 2nd meeting.
Items from this adopted work plan will become part of the Sustainability Commissions work
plan.Commissions will start work on the new work plans July 1St
Interim City Manager Borden also explained City Council's request for Commissioners to
complete a survey to inform a Code of Ethics revision process currently being undertaken by a
subcommittee of City Council. Commissioners were asked to return the completed surveys by
next Thursday.Commissioner surveys will be collected and given to Vice-Mayor Chao and
Councilmember Paul to review as part of the Code of Ethics drafting process.
Interim City Manager Borden answered questions from Commissioners and staff.
OLD BUSINESS
3. Subject:Clean Water Storm Drainage Initiative Update
Roger Lee,Interim Director of Public Works, reviewed a presentation related to proposed
increase in storm water fees for property owners and received feedback from the Commission.
A Clean Water Storm Drainage Initiative update will be presented to City Council on March 5th.
4. Subject:2019/2020 Workplan
Chair Weber led the Commission in a discussion of work plan goal-setting. Commissioner
Swaminathan would like the Commission to discuss new standards for green building,updated
storm water service, and Low Impact Development(LID)standards as part of its work plan. He
left at 5:31 p.m.
Staff included the Green Building Code update, regional effort for electrification reach code,
Climate Action Plan goal revision, and climate adaptation planning on the list for Council to
consider in their goal setting work session, and they ranked low on the Council's priority list.
She reported that in the next fiscal year the base budget amount for the commission will be
requested to be$5,600;the Commission can request additional funding for larger projects.
The Commission established goals for its work plan:
• Legislative action: proactively identify legislation for Council's support.
• Green building code update:Choose Tier 1 or Tier 2 as appropriate. This would require
consultant resources to analyze,as staff capacity is limited. Also involves Building Dept
staff.
• Electrical code and electrification: this is being addressed by a process lead by Silicon
Valley Clean Energy on a regional level and staff is involved.
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• Buy Clean Policy:the Commission will monitor the state's progress on developing its
policy standards and then evaluate the policy once established to see what,if any,local
action to take. Commission asked staff to bring quarterly updates to the Commission on
the state's Buy Clean Act policy development.
• Youth engagement: grants,essay contest,etc.
• Greenhouse gas inventory methodology: examine the methodology used in calculating
Cupertino's inventory and Climate Action Plan mitigation measures numbers. Staff will
organize a deep dive discussion of the methodology for the Commission.
• Community outreach/education: Speaker Series,tabling at events
Staff noted that of the above priorities,with their current scopes,the green building code
analysis is the only one that would take additional staff resources.
STAFF AND COMMISSION REPORTS
Earth Day and Arbor Day Festival is April 13. The Commission will table at the festival and
discuss logistics next month.
PG&E is in bankruptcy,but the bankruptcy will not affect Silicon Valley Clean Energy
operations at this time.
Next meeting:March 21St
ADJOURNMENT-6:06p.m.
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