2019-07-23_PWETC_Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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Mr. Culver explained on the last page of the current agenda staff has started that with a preliminary 2019-2020 calendar and he has filled in some of the more traditional, regular topics the Commission discusses each year. The big one that is pretty well set is the MS4 meeting because it is a public hearing and he thought staff did a good job of coupling that with EUREKA and the Green Team annual meeting. He indicated June is the joint City Council meeting but did not need to be the entire meeting. Beyond that the different months could be targeted to focus on certain topics. Member Huiett asked Chair Cihacek if a separate subcommittee would allow the structure to be a little more fluid to gain that information and to study the topics. Chair Cihacek thought it might open the door as a new committee. The committee would serve as an advisory or expert committee and would not have any reportability, unless the ownership moved elsewhere. He was not sure if that was the best thing to do because he did not know if the committee could maintain a consistent meeting schedule on mandatory topics so it might not be monthly. He thought Green Steps might be the ideal committee to look to because he noted the city is at step three and there is nothing else for the Green Steps committee to do but to monitor to get to step four. He was not sure if this Commission should form a subcommittee, maybe have other Commissions help to form a subcommittee so each Commission is sending a delegate in on these broad topics to start developing a framework for conversation and addressing. Member Huiett indicated she was liking that direction more than just a separate peel out of a few of the Commissioners on this Commission. She thought the more voices is definitely more helpful and there is a lot of interconnectivity and she did not like splitting it up. She thought the direction mentioned of greater participation from other Commission Members in the formation of that committee seems far more relevant to her than just a few of the PWETC. Member Misra thought it would be worth thinking about instead of conducting all of the business reacting to what is already on the Commission's plate, to open up a meeting regarding, for example energy, and design it to have some public involvement, design it to generate a list of questions for staff or experts outside to come in and provide some input on, and then pick that up again at the next meeting. Part of what her sense is, on environmental topics, the Commission is designed to think about projects that need to get done but from the public view, there is a lot more that needs to be done and maybe a way to open the door for some of that to become part of the work the Commission does. Chair Cihacek indicated as part of the November work planning meeting he suggested to open up a space for people to bring ideas forward that the community wants the Commission to get done. Page 7 of 9