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SC 12-17-20201 CITY OF CUPERTINO SUSTAINABILITY COMMISSION Teleconference meeting without a physical location. Thursday, December 17, 2020 4:00 p.m. MINUTES At 4:05 p.m. Chair Latshaw called the meeting to order. ROLL CALL Commissioners Present: Chair Gary Latshaw, Vice Chair Vignesh Swaminathan, and Commissioners Ram Mohan, Meera Ramanathan, Anna Weber. Absent: None. Staff: Gilee Corral, Climate and Utilities Analyst. Guests: Members of the public. Chair Latshaw read a statement regarding provisions of the Brown Act and a recent Executive Order issued by the Governor to facilitate teleconferencing to reduce the risk of COVID-19 transmission at public meetings. He read a statement noting an update to the phone number to access the teleconference meeting by telephone. APPROVAL OF MINUTES 1. Subject: Minutes from November 19, 2020 meeting Commissioner Weber moved and Vice Chair Swaminathan seconded to approve the minutes. The motion carried unanimously. POSTPONEMENTS None. ORAL COMMUNICATIONS None. WRITTEN COMMUNICATIONS Gilee Corral, Staff Liaison, noted two items that were posted to the meeting website: an email regarding Wyland National Mayor’s Challenge for Water Conservation and an email from Vice Mayor Chao. OLD BUSINESS None. NEW BUSINESS 2. Subject: Sustainability Commission 2021 meeting schedule Corral gave a brief presentation on the item, noting budget and staff constraints to hold monthly meetings in a virtual environment due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Staff propose the following meeting schedule for 2021 to align with the municipal code: January 21, April 15, July 15, and October 21. Generally, Chair and Vice Chair elections occur in January, and Earth Day in April, July is the beginning of the new fiscal year, and October would be final Regular meeting. She reminded the Commission that the Chair can schedule (or the Commission can vote to schedule) a Special meeting at any time. 2 Corral answered clarifying questions from Commissioners, including: - Timing of the Chair / Vice Chair vote in years when new Commissioners are appointed (Weber) o Corral noted that the first meeting date of the year could be adjusted if needed. - Scheduling a meeting in March to plan for Earth Day (Ramanathan) o Corral: Earth Day planning could begin in January and another meeting added to the calendar as a Special meeting if needed. - Differences between Special and Regular meetings (Latshaw) Commissioner Ramanathan moved and Vice Chair Swaminathan seconded to adopt the Sustainability Commission 2021 meeting schedule as presented by staff. The motion carried unanimously. 3. Subject: Sustainability Commission suggestions for FY 2021-22 City Work Program Corral introduced the topic, reviewed general guidance and the Commission’s core directive, and provided background to the discussion. She reviewed themes from public comment received in Commission meetings over the past year, noting that most of the topics were either addressed throughout the year or could be addressed as part of the Commission’s current Work Program projects. Staff recommends including the current two Work Program projects to carryover to next year: CAP update project and Single-Use Plastics Ordinance. Corral noted that the two projects are substantial, multi-year projects, and there is uncertainty on what impact the pandemic will have next year on staff resources. Corral answered clarifying questions from Commissioners, including: - Council process for approving any recommended items (Weber) o Corral: Council will receive a list of Commission suggestions for items along with the Department recommendations, and Council would vote on the final City Work Program. - Clarification on outcomes reported from current Work Program (Mohan) o Corral: outcomes from this current year will likely be reported out in late spring. - How Commission’s work aligns with staff work on the CAP development (Latshaw) o Corral: the Commission would work alongside staff through the different phases of the CAP Update project (i.e. outreach, planning, resiliency, etc.). She noted that the Council could at any time request the Commission to consider or address something outside of these core projects. - Timing and depth of work with the two projects (Ramanathan) o Corral: given the difficulty to plan out given the uncertainty ahead, staff will adjust timelines as needed. She emphasized that these are City Work Program projects, and Commission and departments work together toward the outcomes. - Subcommittee for Single-Use Plastics (Swaminathan) o Corral: staff does not have a specific “ask” of the Commission yet on this Work Program item, but are working in the background on this project. Vice Chair Swaminathan moved and Commissioner Mohan seconded to include the Commission’s current Work Program items as the Commission’s suggestion list to Council for the FY 2021-22 City Work Program. The motion passed unanimously. 4. Staff update on FY 2019-20 Sustainability Grants for Students Program 3 Corral gave an update on the grant projects: - Grant #103 Montclaire Elementary vegetable planter project: request to extend the deadline to the spring due to issues with Shelter in Place and school closure. - Grant #105 Monta Vista High composting project: still working on their project. - Grant #108: Lawson Middle Bring a Fork to School: student has received reimbursement and staff has requested a final report. Staff has carried over the funds for the program and can accommodate a further extension to the end of May. If the Commission chose to extend the deadline for receipts to the end of May, the deadline for reports could be extended further out. Corral answered clarifying questions from the Commission, including timing of the calendar year vs fiscal year closure, process for reimbursing students for expenses, etc. Commissioner Ramanathan asked if funds could be carried over past May or if the scope of the project could be adjusted. Corral replied that because the program was competitive, there would have to be a process to adjust this. Staff would not request to carryover the funds past this fiscal year. Commissioner Weber made a motion to extend the deadline for accepting receipts for the grant funds to May 31, 2021. She asked if the reports deadline could be separate. Corral responded that the Commission could vote on a new date for reports or vote to leave this up to staff to decide. Commissioner Weber amended her motion to extend the deadline for accepting receipts for the grant funds to May 31, 2021 and leave the final report deadline to be decided by staff. Commissioner Ramanathan seconded the motion as amended. The motion passed unanimously. STAFF AND COMMISSION REPORTS Commission updates: Vice Chair Swaminathan reported that VTA has a new Chair and Vice Chair. He noted that the McClellan Road to Stelling project is now open. He answered a question from Chair Latshaw regarding the status of the Route 85 bus transit corridor, noting there is a study of all the light rail corridors underway. The Capitol Expressway project is on hold to determine if a bus option could work rather than light rail. There will be a new price lane expressway going on 85. FUTURE AGENDA SETTING None. ADJOURNMENT A motion to adjourn was made by Vice Chair Swaminathan and seconded by Commissioner Weber. The motion carried unanimously. Meeting adjourned at 5:01 p.m.