HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes - Energy Committee - 05/01/20141
South Burlington Energy Committee Meeting Minutes – May 1, 2014
Members Present: Peter Tousley (Chair), Marcy Murray, Marc Companion, Keith Epstein,
Sam Swanson
Members Absent: Don Cummings, Karen McKenny, Fred Kosnitsky, Brendan Taylor.
Staff Present: Ilona Blanchard, Kevin Dorn
Public Present: Roseanne Greco, Tim Perrin (Efficiency Vermont), Jake Jurmain (Efficiency
Vermont)
Peter Tousley convened the meeting at 7:08 PM. Swanson volunteered to serve as scribe.
1. Meeting Minutes: Swanson moved to approved the March meeting minutes with edits
by Marcy & Ilona; members present voted unanimously to approve. Epstein moved to
approve draft April meeting minutes with edits by Marcy; members present voted
unanimously to approve.
2. Public Statement: Rosanne Grecco addressed the Committee about solar ready roofs.
She reported that she expected her home to recoup the cost of her installation in about six
years.
3. City Manager Kevin Dorm addressed the Committee.
• He requested that the Committee provide the City Council with a report on the status of
the Georgetown University Energy Prize (GUEP) project at the Monday, May 12 City
Council meeting. The Committee agreed to do so; Keith Epstein will provide the report.
• Kevin Dorn requested invited the Committee to represent the City at a meeting sponsored
by Congressman Welch addressing energy performance contracting. The City is
interested in the possibility of using energy service contracting to carry out the boiler
replacement at the fire station. Peter Tousley will attend.
Kevin Dorn informed the Committee that at the direction of the City Council, a committee,
including City staff and Councilors have developed a plan to change the organization and
responsibility of committees advisory to the City Council. He explained the purpose of the
changes is to sustain the current citizen involvement, something the Council welcomes and to
improve the ability of the network of committees to meet the needs of the City Council and
the city generally. The Council appointed Council members Pat Nowak and Chris Shaw and
a team of City staff to recommend a better model for committee work and citizen
participation. He outlined the new proposed structure, key elements of which are:
• Leave statutorily mandated committees (e.g., Planning Commission, Development
Review Board) in place as is.
2
• Replace all the advisory committees serving the City Council, including the Energy
Committee, with three new committees with integrated functions that cover the full range
of City government responsibilities. The existing committee structure leave gaps. The
three new “umbrella committees” would be
a public lands committee;
a transportation committee that would address the full spectrum of city
transportation issues, including issues now addressed by the bike & ped
committee but also public transportation, transportation demand management,
street light management, and transportation energy efficiency
a community development committee that would address housing, community
events, management of public buildings, economic development, the energy
efficiency component of public buildings
• The three new umbrella committees would replace existing standing advisory
committees, would be separately appointed and meet only quarterly. Each umbrella
committee could employ ad hoc task force committees to tackle specific “projects” with
the expectation that the ad hoc task force committees would disband when they
completed assigned responsibilities.
• The Council will develop a policy governing appointments to the umbrella committees
that may express community interests, for example by specifying a range of expertise
sought reflective of the committee mission.
• “Community based organizations” would be supported as organizations created and run
by community volunteers, financially supported by the Council, but not a component of
City Government. An example of a community based organization is the South
Burlington Land Trust. It is one of the very few local such organizations.
Energy Committee could become a “community based organization.” It would
serve as a project focused community organization unencumbered by formal ties
to city government but may receive yet unspecified budget support from the City.
Kevin Dorn suggested that City electricity bill savings provided by the planned
“land fill solar project” may provide the source of funds to support a budget
appropriation for the Energy Committee activities serving as “community based
organization.” The Energy Committee could be organized as IRS recognized
non-profit organization able to receive independent grants and Kevin offered City
legal support to obtain that status.
• Some committees may opt to become a “friends” organization, similarly to the Friends of
the Library, in order to provide support and funding to an entity within the public realm
such as a specific park, department or place.
• The Committee members and Kevin Dorn conducted an extensive discussion of the
proposal for the new Energy Committee serving as “community based organization”
rather than a Council advisory committee. The following issues were addressed:
3
Concern that the new Energy Committee would have standing on City policy and
regulation and planning – have a role in city planning and administration.
Kevin Dorn observed that there may be opportunity to do more when freed from
open meeting communication confines within the City government.
Swanson observed that the Waterbury Energy Committee is independent of the
City and is recognized for its high performance
Regarding the timing of a proposed transition, Kevin Dorn indicated the public
announcement of the process will begin at the next Council meeting, this Monday.
The recommendation to the Council will be that the Council schedule a public
hearing for May 19. He anticipates the Energy Committee could be incorporated
as a 501c3 or 501c4 organization.
Discussed the capacity of the new Energy Committee to compete with the
influence of the business interests before the Council that may be occupying the
seats on the new umbrella committees in place of existing citizen volunteers
Discussed the importance of retaining influence within the City government on
energy issues. Marcy Murray with support from others recommended staff
support within the City government.
Peter Tousley asked when this can be expected to take effect; Kevin Dorn
estimated late June or in July.
• The Committee decided to continue discussion of the new Committee structure proposal
at the next meeting, perhaps a special meeting that will address this one issue specifically.
4. Energy Data Visualization – guest presenter - Jake Jurmain, Efficiency Vermont
• Jake Jurmain is a data manager at VEIC/Efficiency Vermont and volunteered to help our
committee with the GUEP project. He presented information on what we can do with
data to assess progress toward energy goals and to inform the energy saving campaign
the GUEP project will conduct.
• Jake has developed tools that enable him to identify patterns from sometimes not
consistent data sets that may otherwise be considered have different foundation
assumptions.
• We discussed with Jake Jurmain and Tim Perrin whether we could get the data
disaggregated by neighborhood. Tim said the issue of data confidentiality is a very
sensitive issue now that 15 minute interval data is available from the new metering
systems. No promises on when this will be resolved.
• We will consult with Jake on to put the data management and display tools to work for
the GUEP project.
5. GUEP Project Update – Keith Epstein
• Keith circulated a report on the GUEP project progress. Because we had exhausted the
scheduled meeting time he abbreviated his report. He reported on the trip that
4
Councilor Pat Nowak, Councilor Chris Shaw and Don Cummings made to Washington,
DC to participate in the GUEP kick-off briefing and celebration. See attached handout.
• Keith Epstein reported that Councilor Pat Nowak has expressed strong support for the
GUEP initiative in South Burlington. Keith Epstein and Don Cummings urge the city to
proceed with implementing energy efficiency improvements in City facilities.
• Keith reported that he and Don are trying to develop a structure to carry out the GUEP
campaign. Peter Tousley urged that the GUEP team identify the tasks need help with so
volunteers would be able to evaluate their ability and willingness to contribute. Keith
observed that he envisions that the Energy Committee will be the core leadership
organization for the GUEP program. A steering committee would serve as the
administrators of the program.
• Sam suggested we convene a special meeting to plan the GUEP campaign.
• Keith reported that we have been invited to address the Planning Commission on May 13,
but it is unclear whether the agenda item will be “solar ready roofs” or a broader energy
related items such as the GUEP.
6. Swanson moved and the Committee voted to adjourn at 9:20 PM