Sustainability and Resiliency Committee Minutes - February 14, 2023

The meeting of the Sustainability and Resiliency Committee was held in the City Commission Chambers at Fargo City Hall at 3:00 p.m., Tuesday, February 14, 2023.

The meeting of the Sustainability and Resiliency Committee was held in the City Commission Chambers at Fargo City Hall at 3:00 p.m., Tuesday, April 11, 2023.

Present:
John Strand (chair), Fargo City Commissioner
Tim Mahoney, Fargo Mayor
Bruce Grubb, Fargo PT City Administrator
Shawn Paschke, Xcel Energy Representative (Ex-officio)
Paul Matthys, Cass County Electric Cooperative Representative (Ex-officio)
Shawn Ouradnik, Fargo Inspections Director
Bekki Majerus, Fargo Facilities Director
Mark Williams, Fargo Assistant Director of Planning and Development
Brenda Derrig, Fargo City Engineer
Ben Dow, Fargo Director of Public Works
Blake Mikesell, Fargo School District Representative (Ex-officio)
Dave Leker, Fargo Park District Representative (Ex-officio)

Absent:
Jennifer Sweatman, At-Large Member of the Public
Greta Gramig, At-Large Member of the Public
Casey Steele, At-Large Member of the Public

Commissioner Strand called the meeting to order. Introductions were done around the table.

Approval of Agenda
Mr. Grubb moved, second by Mr. Ouradnik that the agenda be approved as read. There was unanimous approval.

November 22, 2022 and February 14, 2023 Minutes
Mr. Williams moved, second by Ms. Derrig that the minutes from the November 22, 2022 and February 14, 2023 meetings be approved as read. There was unanimous approval.

WSB Presentation on Introduction to Sustainability Work Plans
Amy Fredregill, Senior Director at WSB, gave a brief overview of the company and its consulting services. She said her company defines sustainability as simultaneously advancing economic, social and environmental outcomes and describes each of these aspects as a leg on a three-legged stool. If one leg is shorter or weaker than the other, she said, the stool is unstable. She gave some examples of sustainability and resiliency-related topics, including franchise fee research, stakeholder engagement and project management, technology recommendations, grant writing as well as feasibility studies for EV charging. She said the goal of a sustainability work plan is to define three objectives and include such information as a final goal, strategic alignment, who leads and who needs to be engaged and progress reports. Some previous sustainability plans she has been involved in included in their work plans such topics as energy waste management greenspace, local food, renewable energy, community health and renewable energy. She has worked with other communities to help establish sustainability goals and work plans, she said, and with sustainability a city has to look at the needs of current and future generations. She said a landscape scan looks at what other communities are doing and what might be applicable in Fargo to try and determine goals and priorities. She said she likes to collaborate with community-based organizations to share ideas. Having a work plan also determines who is leading the plan, she said, which avoids confusion, duplication or conflict. With most work plans, she said, it is common to evaluate after 12 or 18 months and recalibrate if necessary and implementation plans are needed that are actionable and not something that will get dusty on a shelf. She said it is important to determine the top three goals and roll that into a one-page work plan that will help focus the work and resources. It is also important to look into public-private partnerships and what the SRC wants to do does not duplicate what other organizations are doing. For example, she said, MetroCOG is initiating an EV readiness study, and the City should ask how that study could dovetail with any studies or initiatives and see how the City can contribute. She said a lot of time could be spent trying to sort through all of the state, regional and federal programs as well as private foundations and with all of these funds, the City needs to prioritize and focus on what is important; otherwise, it is overwhelming. She said if the SRC decides one of its goals, for example, is to advance economic development through a clean jobs initiative, the first step is to find out about available funding sources. Part of the work plan should be a look into the future with some longer range multi-year plans such as energy, wastewater, ecological health, local food and agriculture, green spaces, water waste management, transportation, buildings, land use, community health, local foods and fleet equipment. She said sometimes communities will start with a few topics and in a couple years, depending on what they learned, add another layer.
In response to a question from Commissioner Strand asking how long it would take to come up with a work plan, Ms. Fredregill said she could do a streamlined version in about six months. She recommends for the first plan to keep it simple, and after a year of data collection, look at a five-year plan.
Mr. Grubb said the SRC has not established any definitive goals or areas of priority and it might be useful to have WSB’s assistance. He said WSB’s services would cost between $10,000.00 and $25,000.00 and with the City’s procurement policy, three quotes are needed. If the SRC thinks this is an area it would like to move in, he said, he can prepare an informal quote sheet that can be distributed to comply with the procurement policy and bring three proposals back to the Committee.
In response to a question from Commissioner Strand asking if WSB can provide guidance on researching federal grants for infrastructure and clean energy, Ms. Fredregill said a work plan with goals and objectives can help decide which grants would apply. She said there are millions of dollars available for all types of programs and researching grants is a service WSB provides. She said for example, a new program came out recently from the Federal Highway Administration for community-based EV charging and there is another new program called the Climate Pollution Reduction Grants Program from the EPA. She said it is all about finding the right fit for the City.
Mr. Grubb said the SRC operates without a budget; however, he will be proposing to the City Administrator a budget for the SRC for next year for things such as professional services. He said there is a large snowball of things the City wants to do; however, the focus needs to be on three priorities and then find some resources to complete those activities.
Commissioner Strand said with pollinator gardens, Mr. Leker and the Park District are doing a lot more than anybody even knows and many of the projects are possible with grant dollars.
Mr. Dow said the key is to be opportunistic about things, such as laying conduit pipe for EV charging when pouring a concrete parking lot, for example. It is much less expensive to weave things in such as that up front instead of adding it in the future.
Mr. Grubb said he would like to ask for the Committee's consideration of seeking informal quotes for assistance in seeking three priorities for the SRC and for a budget. He said the SRC does not currently have a budget; however, in cases where the SRC needs some funding, the City is using funds from the sale of methane and Solid Waste Director Scott Olson has agreed to do that again to get the Committee through the end of the year.
Ms. Derrig moved, second by Mr. Williams, to bring someone in from the outside to help get three top goals for the SRC and to look at some potential grants. There was unanimous approval by all members present.

Alliance Risk Group/Innowatts Demonstration of Landfill Carbon Dashboard
Mr. Grubb said the Alliance Risk Group and Innowatts have created a carbon dashboard for the RoCo Parking Garage, which tracks carbon emission reductions through the use of renewable energy features. He said the City requested Alliance and Innowatts expand the dashboard to include other City facilities including the landfill, the Border States Electric building, which the City recently purchased for Public Works, and a third facility to be determined.
Randy Roy, Alliance Risk Group, said the methane that comes out of the landfill is 25 times more damaging to the environment than CO2. He said what the City has done through capturing CO2 since 2002 is remove two million tons of CO2 from the atmosphere. In addition, he said, the City has created revenues from the sale of the methane totaling $8 million and that is the kind of high level story he likes to share. As a result of selling the landfill methane to Cargill, he said, that has led to 50,000 tons of CO2 that was not emitted into the atmosphere. He said in 2007, a generator was added at the landfill to generate kilowatt hours that the City did not have to purchase from the grid and what landfill methane could not be used by Cargill or used at the generator, a flare took care of the excess, which also reduced CO2 emissions. He said the City’s streetlight program, which replaced sodium lights with LED, has resulted in the City saving about $200,000.00 annually in electric costs and reducing the emission of CO2 annually by 1,500 tons. He said only 40 percent of the streetlights have been replaced, so there is a lot more room to continue to reduce more CO2 and save money.
Mr. Grubb said grant funding is available through the Federal Highway Program to change out high pressure sodium bulbs with LED lights, which are getting better every day and are more efficient and cost less. He said a number of utility companies have stopped providing rebates for LED lights due to the fact that the payback is already so good.
Mr. Roy said Cass County Electric Cooperative and Xcel Energy will provide data on about 500 meters in the City and that information will be added to the dashboard. He said he has also been working with Ms. Majerus and her team to collect data for all the buildings.

Seymour Lee, Innowatts, said his company has not fully deployed the platform due to some of the data challenges and has had to pivot to an easier version that worked well with the integration with the City’s website. He said he has now received about 10 years’ worth of utility data and he will go through an extensive mapping exercise with Ms. Majerus and her team and is hoping to deploy the sites sometime in July.

New Appointments to SRC
Commissioner Strand said the following would serve on the Committee as voting members: Zoey Absey and Mike Williams, at-large members of the public; Abhijna Kavasseri, a member of the Youth Initiative; and Julie Bommelman, Director of Public Transit.
Ms. Derrig moved, second by Mr. Williams that the appointments be approved. There was unanimous approval.

Public Comments
Patrick Sommer, a member of the International Dark-Sky Association, spoke about the Association and some of its upcoming events that will coincide with Earth Day.

Next Meeting
The tentative date for the next meeting is June 13, 2023.
The meeting adjourned at 4:20 o’clock p.m.
Present:
John Strand (chair), Fargo City Commissioner
Tim Mahoney, Fargo Mayor
Bruce Grubb, Fargo PT City Administrator
Jennifer Sweatman, At-Large Member of the Public (via conference call)
Greta Gramig, At-Large Member of the Public
Shawn Paschke, Xcel Energy Representative (Ex-officio)

Absent:
Casey Steele, At-Large Member of the Public
Paul Matthys, Cass County Electric Cooperative Representative (Ex-officio)
Shawn Ouradnik, Fargo Inspections Director
Bekki Majerus, Fargo Facilities Director
Mark Williams, Fargo Assistant Director of Planning and Development
Ben Dow, Fargo Director of Public Works
Blake Mikesell, Fargo School District Representative (Ex-officio)
Dave Leker, Fargo Park District Representative (Ex-officio)

Commissioner Strand called the meeting to order. Introductions were done around the table.

November 22, 2022 Minutes:
Chair Strand said with limited attendance and no critical action items, the agenda can go ahead and is recorded and available. Approval of the minutes from the prior meeting will be delayed due to lack of a quorum.

MetroCOG Presentation – EV Readiness RFP:
Mr. Grubb said the Citizens Local Energy Action Network (C.L.E.A.N.) gave a presentation related to Electric Vehicles (EV) at the last meeting and asked the City of Fargo to consider requiring the placement of EV chargers at multifamily or apartment buildings. Following that presentation, he said, the SRC took action to form a subcommittee to look at how that could be done, how it could be paid for and whether there are unintended consequences.
Fargo-Moorhead Metropolitan Council of Governments (MetroCOG) efforts to potentially study the EV Readiness for the metro area falls in line with that presentation. He and Chair Strand met with Adam Altenberg and Cindy Gray with MetroCOG to understand the scope of the EV Readiness RFP, he said, and whether it would meet the needs of the City. A similar discussion with Xcel Energy and Cass County Electric followed, he said, and there was agreement that the state of the infrastructure and readiness for EVs would be valuable information. He introduced Adam Altenburg, Community and Transportation Analyst for MetroCOG.

Fargo City Engineer Brenda Derrig present.

Mr. Altenburg said a draft request for proposals was compiled for a regional electric vehicle study, which ties in the presentation done at the SRC meeting in November. He said it is envisioned the study will provide local jurisdictions with a public understanding of EV feasibility in the area, look at current and potential barriers to EV adoption and best practices to meet EV needs. He reviewed some draft tasks put together as part of the RFP that will go out to consultants. MetroCOG is a federally mandated and funded transportation policymaking organization designated to carry out the regional transportation process, he said, and is governed by a 16-member policy board. Most of the funding is from the US Department of Transportation, and then funneled mostly through the ND Department of Transportation with some funding received from the MN Department of Transportation, local funds and some other funding sources such as grants. Through the policy board and their authority, solutions for different transportation needs are developed, he said. He shared statistics of EVs and said EV sales nearly doubled from 2020 to 2021 in the US and he has seen reports of the number surpassing 1 million in 2022. It is estimated, he said, that over half of vehicles sold in the US will be EVs by 2030.

Mayor Mahoney said he sees a reluctance in the community adapting to EVs. There are naysayers and hurdles, he said, such as converting, particularly with Fargo’s large apartment dweller population and their ability to charge EVs.

Mr. Altenburg said the 50% EV sales prediction is for the entire US by 2030. North Dakota has one of the lowest EV adoptions currently, he said. Nearly every major automobile company has committed to some sort of EV goals, such as committing to a new line of electric vehicles, setting sales goals or becoming fully committed to developing electric vehicles, he said, mostly in the 2030 to 2040 timeframes. Discussions and literature on EVs are becoming much more prevalent, he said, with western states and Hawaii taking the lead in adoption and North Dakota being one of the lowest with 0.3 percent. He said there is a surge in electric vehicle registry legislation across all States as lawmakers seek to speed the State transitions. Some bills include bolstering charging infrastructure, expanding consumer incentives, electrifying State fleets and, in some instances, mandating charging stations in new buildings, he said.

In response to a question from Commissioner Strand asking about the financial aspect and future funding of the infrastructure systems currently based on things like gas taxes, Mr. Altenberg said he believes most states have an EV tax intended to offset some of the revenue currently generated from gas taxes.

In response to a question from Ms. Gramig asking if the income from charging vehicles may be a commercial venture rather than being something provided by municipalities, Mr. Altenberg said the study may not get into how the EV infrastructure will look or who will be in charge.

Commissioner Strand said he understands there is a tax credit of up to $7,500.00 for qualifying vehicles and there may be a credit for upgrades for infrastructure to charge a vehicle at home. He said that is a topic the Committee could look at in the future and tax credits could fuel the purchasing of EV vehicles, he said.

Mr. Paschke said the tax credits are continuously evolving, it seems different things come out every month.

Commissioner Strand said MetroCOG’s input is well received by the local jurisdictions. There is value to having the higher perspective, he said, rather than at each individual level.
SRC Committee - Recommendation for Additional Appointments
Mr. Grubb said there has been expressions of interest from the public regarding serving on this committee. He said he recommends someone from the Transit Department as well as a member from the Fargo Youth Commission be added. He said SRC appointments were made in 2020 by City Commission action for two elected officials, six staff members, three public at-large members and also for the ex-officios. He said recently the Youth Commission made an appointment and so many wanted to be involved, there were three alternates.

Commissioner Strand said obviously the youth are passionate on these topics and something transformative can unfold in the next few years.

Public Comments
No one was present from the public to speak.

Other Discussion
Mr. Grubb said one thing the SRC recommended and was approved by the City Commission was the creation of carbon dashboards for City facilities. He said he intends to bring a progress report forward.

Next Meeting
The tentative date for the next meeting is April 11, 2023.
The meeting adjourned at 3:50 o’clock p.m.