City Council Work Session

Pradeep Chilkathe committee. Good evening, everyone. I wanted to start with this picture because it reminds us as to why we need climate action and what it is that we are trying to protect here. So when we talk about climate action, there is actually two components to it, equally important. From the comprehensive plan, we get the mitigation portion of climate action, which is addressing the causes of climate change. And from the strategic plan, we get the adaptation component, which is addressing the effects of climate change. So building resilience for all the climate hazards and conditions, whereas mitigation is more about reduction of greenhouse gases. So in the comprehensive plan, we do have a very specific goal to develop and implement

So these are the climate action recommendations. I'm going to skip on three of these because I'm going to also cover the overall recommendations from the ESC. But I will highlight one, which is one of the recommendations is for this. I'm told that the city council has not adopted their strategic goals and priorities for 26-27. I know this is precedence. And the problem is that it creates a lot of confusion when it comes to project prioritization. And so I would strongly urge, so that we get the specific direction that we are looking for, we have to break the comprehensive and the strategic plan, which are looking out. The comprehensive plan is looking out 15 to 25 years. The strategic plan is looking out maybe three to five years.

Stefanie KupkastaffSo since then, the city has adopted ambitious environmental and sustainability goals through the adoption of a comprehensive plan, multiple small area plans, and the strategic plan that was adopted in 2023. The city has backed these goals with real investments and have funded plans, studies, and projects to help move these goals forward. As a result, the city has made meaningful and measurable progress. However, there is limited staff capacity. The Environmental Sustainability Division is made of myself and Melissa McDonald, who serves as our Environmental Sustainability Specialist. So over the years, the scope, complexity, and the number of environmental sustainability have grown. However, staff capacity has not increased as fast as the city's

We will also begin to develop our climate action plan, which was, of course, brought up by the ESC. This is going to be a long-term strategic plan for how we're going to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and reduce the impacts to climate change. Another initiative we'll be working on is developing an electric vehicle readiness plan. So this plan will devise a strategy for how we should encourage and also install electric vehicle charging stations throughout the city. And then also how we're going to transition our entire fleet to either zero emission or very high fuel efficient vehicles. Some future projects that are not quite fully funded is the gas to LED streetlight project for the gas lights that are outside the downtown area.

We partnered on outreach education with them at the History Day where we gave out free energy efficiency kits. Some future programs and projects that we're working on with collaboration is to develop an internal sustainability strategic plan. So this is an action that came out of the citywide strategic plan. And this will basically determine a long-term strategic plan for how we're going to operationalize sustainability within the city. So how can other departments be involved and take on sustainability actions as well? Because we need to work as a whole within the city and not just our division staff working on things. And one of the things we're is to use the Lead for Cities certification as a framework.