JOINT SUSTAINABILITY COMMITTEE HYBRID MEETING FORMAT Jun 28th, 2023 at 6pm Austin Energy Headquarters – Shudde Fath Conference Room 4815 Mueller Blvd, Austin, Texas 78723 Some members of the Committee may be participating by videoconference Public comment will be allowed in-person or remotely via telephone. Speakers may only register to speak on an item once either in-person or remotely and will be allowed up to three minutes to provide their comments. Registration no later than noon the day before the meeting is required for remote participation by telephone. To register to speak remotely, call or email Zach Baumer at (zach.baumer@austintexas.gov or 415-694-3111). CURRENT BOARD MEMBERS: Kaiba White, Chair (Electric Utility Commission) Diana Wheeler, Vice Chair (Urban Transportation Commission) Charlotte Davis (Resource Mgmt. Commission) Haris Qureshi (Environmental Commission) Melissa Rothrock (Zero Waste Advisory Commission) Vacant (Community Development Commission) Frances Deviney (Austin Travis County Food Policy Board) Chris Maxwell-Gaines (Water & Wastewater Commission) Kelsey Hitchingham (Economic Prosperity Commission) Lane Becker (Parks & Recreation Board) Jon Salinas (Design Commission) Vacant (City Council) Alice Woods (Planning Commission) Rodrigo Leal (Mayor’s Representative) Anna Scott (Mayor’s Representative) Heather Houser (Mayor’s Representative) Yureisly Suarez (Mayor’s Representative) Christopher Campbell (Mayor’s Representative) For more information, please visit: www.austintexas.gov/jsc AGENDA CALL TO ORDER PUBLIC COMMUNICATION: GENERAL The first 10 speakers signed up prior to the meeting being called to order will each be allowed a three-minute allotment to address their concerns regarding items not posted on the agenda. DISCUSSION AND ACTION ITEMS 1. Approval of minutes from the May 24th meeting of the Joint Sustainability Committee. 2. Refresh on JSC attendance and conflict of interest rules – Rohan Lilauwala, Office of Sustainability. 3. Innovation Office support of Austin Climate Equity Plan Implementation Presentation – Daniel Culotta, Innovation Office (Discussion and/or Possible Action). 4. City of Austin Telework Policy – Whitney Holt, AFSCME (Discussion and/or Possible Action). 5. Austin Community Investment Budget Presentation – Daniela Silva, Equity Action (Discussion and/or Possible Action). 6. Updates from JSC working groups on Austin Climate Equity Plan Implementation (Discussion and/or Possible Action). 7. Updates from home commissions (Discussion and/or Possible Action). FUTURE AGENDA ITEMS ADJOURNMENT The City of Austin is committed to compliance with the American with Disabilities Act. Reasonable modifications and equal access to communications will be provided upon request. Meeting locations are planned with wheelchair access. If requiring Sign Language Interpreters or alternative formats, please give notice at least 2 days (48 hours) …
JOINT SUSTAINABILITY COMMITTEE REGULAR MEETING MEETING MINUTES June 28, 2023 The Joint Sustainability Committee convened in a hybrid meeting via videoconferencing and at PDC. Acting Chair Kaiba White called the Board Meeting to order at 6:06 pm. Board Members in Attendance in Person: Kaiba White (Chair), Haris Qureshi, Charlotte Davis, Rodrigo Leal, Christopher Campbell Board Members in Attendance Remotely: Lane Becker, Alice Woods, Yure Suarez, Melissa Rothrock, Jon Salinas, Heather Houser, Frances Deviney Board Members Absent: Kelsey Hitchingham, Diana Wheeler, Chris Maxwell-Gaines, Anna Scott City Staff in Attendance: Zach Baumer, Rohan Lilauwala, Daniel Culotta CALL TO ORDER PUBLIC COMMUNICATION The speakers who registered in advance for public comment have three minutes each to address items on the agenda at this time. • Ben Suddaby – President AFCSME (Speaking on telework policy) • Transportation costs, energy for buildings. • City showing a lack of respect for employees by forcing people to show up to a workplace they don’t want to travel to or be at. • Travis County has won awards for telework policy, and saved million of dollars in heating/cooling costs and office space. • Carlos Soto – Community Advancement Network (speaking on work CAN has been doing) • Partnership of public, private, non-profit, faith based resources, leverage mutual resources to advance social, economic goals. • Data is available in dashboard – 18 different indicators that assess community health/well-being. 1. Approval of minutes from the May 24th meeting of the Joint Sustainability Committee. • Motion by Qureshi, seconded by Davis. Approved unanimously (10-0) (Deviney, Campbell off dais) 2. Refresher on JSC Attendance and Conflict of Interest Form • Form needs to be signed if in person • If attending remotely – form must be signed before the meeting, otherwise you don’t count towards quorum and cannot vote. 3. Innovation Office support of Austin Climate Equity Plan Implementation Presentation – Daniel Culotta, Innovation Office (Discussion and/or Possible Action). (Discussion and/or Possible Action). • Green Workforce Accelerator (GWA) – training next gen climate/sustainability workforce • Qureshi – lots of existing climate/sustainability accelerators in Austin – engaging them would be good, especially for organizations that don’t get accepted to GWA. Have you had conversations with private accelerators? • Culotta – we fill a gap that others miss. A lot of those are focused on for-profit companies, bottom-line focused outcome. GWA focused on programs around social services, people, workers – difficult to invest in …
BOARD/COMMISSION RECOMMENDATION Joint Sustainability Committee Recommendation No 20230628-4 Resolution on City Employee Work from Home Policy WHEREAS, the City of Austin's vision for net zero emissions by 2040 prioritizes greenhouse gas emission reduction and calls for 50% of trips to be made by using public transit, biking, walking, carpooling, or avoided altogether by working from home; and WHEREAS, the Climate Equity Plan states that climate impacts are not felt equally across all communities and that the City of Austin's Interim City Manager's recent orders to revoke work- from-home will disproportionately impact employees who may not be able to afford transportation costs, child care, and other expenses related to commuting while inflation and affordability issues continue to be of concern when recruiting and retaining city staff; and WHEREAS, the City of Austin is struggling to fill many positions and allowing employees to work remotely is a benefit that costs the city nothing and removing this benefit will likely make recruitment and retention of employees even more challenging, and vacancies result in unfulfilled goals and reduced services, which is not in the community’s interest; and WHEREAS, the Austin Strategic Mobility Plan aims to decrease emissions of greenhouse gases by encouraging telework and work-from-home initiatives; and WHEREAS, driving contributes to the creation of ground-level ozone, which is a harmful air pollutant that causes and contributes to asthma and other respiratory illnesses; and WHEREAS, driving creates a large amount of plastic pollution from wear on tires and brakes; and WHEREAS, Travis County has implemented a work-from-home policy and 75% of the employees who are eligible to work from home are doing so; and WHEREAS, Austin City Council directed the city manager to research the benefits of expanding the telework option for City of Austin employees in June 2022 to be completed in September 2022, but the city manager never delivered results of the study; and WHEREAS, the Joint Sustainability Committee recognizes that the Interim City Manager's recent orders are partially meant to stimulate economic activity in the City of Austin near its currently underutilized commercial spaces, but that allowing local startups and creative classes to take advantage of the underutilized city office space as incubators and accelerators for their businesses may provide more long-term economic benefits to the City of Austin than having public workers and city staff drive into an office; NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, the Joint Sustainability Committee recommends that the …
BOARD/COMMISSION RECOMMENDATION Joint Sustainability Committee Recommendation No 20230628-5 Resolution Endorsing the Community Investment Budget The Joint Sustainability Committee hereby endorses the attached FY 2023-2024 Community Investment Budget created and endorsed by dozens of Austin community organizations because it is aligned with the goals of the Austin Climate Equity Plan and improving sustainability in Austin. For: Kaiba White, Haris Qureshi, Rodrigo Leal, Christopher Campbell, Lane Becker, Alice Woods, Melissa Rothrock, Jon Salinas, Heather Houser, Frances Deviney Date: June 28, 2023 Motioned By: Rodrigo Leal Seconded By: Haris Qureshi Vote: 10-0 Against: None Abstain: Charlotte Davis Off Dais: Yureisly Suarez Attest: Rohan Lilauwala, Joint Sustainability Committee Staff Liaison Community Investment Budget The City’s budget is a reflection of our values. Those values should be reflected in a city budget created through an equitable, language-accessible and digitally-inclusive participatory budgeting process. The undersigned organizations jointly urge the following investments in community health, affordability, sustainability and safety for FY24 totaling $101.7 million or 7.8% of this year’s roughly $1.3 billion General Revenue budget. This request should be prioritized in the development of the City Manager’s Proposed Budget and as Council finalizes it. Austin’s budget is also a reflection of our city’s priorities. Austin should center its community needs in its budget, as articulated below. The undersigned groups ask that City management and elected officials prioritize the community issues listed below, which include but are not limited to, appropriate across the board pay increases for city staff to address inflation, park/youth/family programming, workforce development and services for those most in need. In recognition of the need for equitable resource support we ask that BIPOC led & served organizations be prioritized. ● Parent Support Specialists [$2.4M] ● Tenant Notification & Relocation Assistance Ordinance [$500,000] ● Emergency rental assistance, eviction defense, and tenant legal and support services [$16M] ● Inflation adjustment for city workers [$4M] ● Ebook Licensing Fees [$1M] ● Workforce Development [$5.9M] ● EMS Wage Increase [$14.7M] ● Domestic Abuse & Sexual Assault Victim services [$1.2M] ● Office of Violence Prevention [$500,000] ● Implementation of the Austin Climate Equity Plan [$685,000] ● Park Maintenance, Safety, Equity, and Restoration [$3.9M] ● Carver Library and Museum [$300,000] ● Tenant Education, Stabilization Support, and Community-based Agreement Support [$600,000] ● Displacement Prevention and Reentry Navigators [$1.5M] ● Estate and Probate Planning for Seniors [$300,000] ● Fair Housing Education, Support, and Testing [$500,000] ● Emergency Supplemental Assistance for Low Income Residents …
JOINT SUSTAINABILITY COMMITTEE REGULAR MEETING MEETING MINUTES May 24, 2023 The Joint Sustainability Committee convened in a hybrid meeting via videoconferencing and at PDC. Acting Chair Kaiba White called the Board Meeting to order at 6:12 pm. Board Members in Attendance in Person: Anna Scott, Kaiba White, Charlotte Davis, Rick Brimer, Chris Maxwell-Gaines, Yure Suarez Board Members in Attendance Remotely: Alice Woods, Jon Salinas, Melissa Rothrock, Rodrigo Leal, Heather Houser, Chris Campbell, Diana Wheeler Board Members Absent: Kelsey Hitchingham, Frances Deviney, City Staff in Attendance: Zach Baumer, Rohan Lilauwala, Sydnee Landree CALL TO ORDER PUBLIC COMMUNICATION The speakers who registered in advance for public comment have three minutes each to address items on the agenda at this time. Scott Johnson o Air quality and climate are intertwined. Find ways to implement air quality plan. Scott can be a resource. o JSC made a recommendation to hire a full-time employee on sustainable purchasing – Scott supports this. o Need JSC support to make this position successful and expand their reach across the city. 1. Approval of minutes from the April 26th meeting of the Joint Sustainability Committee. Scott motions to approve, Houser seconds, all in favor (13-0) Passes 12-0 with Woods abstaining. 2. JSC Officer Elections for the 2023-2024 Term (Discussion and/or Possible Action). Wheeler nominates White for Chair, Campbell seconds. White nominates Wheeler for Vice-Chair, Scott seconds. o Both pass unanimously (13-0) 3. Creation of JSC working groups to help advance implementation of the Austin Climate Equity Plan and updates from previously informal working groups (Discussion and/or Possible Action). Groups have been meeting informally, and are unofficial to date – Transportation, Buildings, Consumption + Natural Systems. Existing members been meeting unofficially, new members welcome. Goal – bring momentum to plan implementation, identify priorities and push them forward. Buildings – Salinas, Maxwell-Gaines White motions to formally create groups; Houser seconds o Passes unanimously (13-0) Updates from groups o Buildings – interest in moving forward building codes (2024 IECC, Passive House, etc.) some already happening with AEGB, how do we build on that work? o Consumption + Natural Systems – difficult to go through the plan and strategically rank actions. Consider implementation difficulty – will require outside outreach. Consumption section does not include as many policy changes, needs more money. Composting, green infrastructure, carbon neutrality for public lands – high impact + …
Green Workforce Accelerator Program Overview Joint Sustainability Committee | 06/28/2023 1 1 What and Why 2 Green Workforce Accelerator The GWA is a collaboration led by the Innovation Office between the Office of Sustainability, Office of Resilience, PARD, EDD, and ARR to expand the number and capacity of organizations providing good green jobs and green job training in Austin. ● The Climate Equity Plan has the overarching strategy of creating equitable access to good green jobs ● Several other departments and programs - e.g. Resilience, EDD, ARR, PARD - have initiatives that call for or support green jobs and equitable workforce development ● Historic IRA, BIL, and CHIPS and Science legislation is investing over $1T in clean energy and infrastructure, could create 12 million jobs - but no guarantee they will be good jobs that are accessible and provide career pathways to those who are most affected by climate change and have been locked out of economic prosperity. ● This program gives the City a vehicle to support community-based good green jobs and programs that help pursue our climate and equity goals. How we got here ● Fourth iteration of this program model for green jobs (others in 2019, 2021, 2022), seventh for all focus areas (affordability and homelessness, displacement mitigation 2019; homelessness 2023) ● Innovation Office developed the ACCC which included two community-based research studies to better understand what people want and need from green jobs programs, and an Austin green jobs economic analysis by UT. ● Number of partners providing training for and access to green jobs is low. Even less improving access for BIPOC, low income, LBGTQIA+, women, and other groups highly affected by climate impacts but with low access to green careers. ● City and its partners have and will grow significant power and influence for creating and supporting good green jobs based on the grants, direct payment tax credits, and infrastructure projects available through legislation. Now is the time to support and advance good partners. (Some of) the results from past programs ● ● ● ● ● Since 2019, 45 orgs enrolled/completed programs on affordability, homelessness, green jobs and climate change, workforce development, and anti displacement ● Created capacity for over 100 new jobs or job placements for residents 16 new programs or areas of service launched serving thousands of residents ● Majority of org participants go through major restructurings, growth, or formalizations or their …
City of Austin’s Telework Sustainability Impact Joint Sustainability Committee June 28, 2023 Whitney Holt Pushing for a return to office rather than expanding telework demonstrates leadership that is out of touch with the needs of taxpayers and the workforce. A fully maximized telework policy is the only option that both saves taxpayers money and brings the City of Austin closer to our Climate Equity goals. A robust and fully maximized telework policy for City of Austin employees will move us closer to meeting the goals outlined the Austin Strategic Mobility Plan and Vision Zero.
FY24 Community Investment Budget Led by Equity Action ATX Introductions Who is Equity Action? ● Equity Action is a Political Action Committee (PAC) focused on centering equity and justice in Austin’s political system. What is the Community Investment Budget? ● In collaboration with dozens of community organizations, Equity Action has been facilitating a 2024 Community Investment Budget that will ask Austin City Council to commit to invest directly to community needs, such as: increased wages for Parent Support Specialists, emergency rental assistance and tenant support services, social services for those experiencing homelessness, increased funding for park support, and much more. Who are the organizations involved? ACLU of Texas Alliance for Safety and Justice Austin Area Urban League Austin Community Law Center Austin Environmental Democrats Austin Justice Coalition Austin Mutual Aid Austin Urban Technology Movement Avow Blackland CDC Black Lives Veggies The Nonprofit Black Mamas ATX Community Resilience Trust Crime Survivors for Safety and Justice District 5 for Black Lives East Austin Conservancy Education Austin Equity Action Fruitful Commons Fund Texas Choice Go Austin/ Vamos Austin Ground Game Texas Hungry Hill Foundation Just Liberty Lilith Fund MISMA (Mujeres Inspiradas en Sueños, Metas y Acciones) Planning Our Communities Pro Choice with Heart Public Citizen Save Our Springs Alliance Sierra Club, Austin Regional Group Statewide Leadership Council Sunrise Movement Austin Survive2Thrive Foundation Sustainable Food Center Texas Center for Justice and Equity Texas Fair Defense Project Texas Harm Reduction Alliance Texas Women’s Justice Coalition The NICE Project Tomorrow’s Promise Foundation Undoing White Supremacy Austin University Democrats Zilker Neighborhood Association And the list continues to grow… Why is the CIB important? When Winter Storm Uri wreaked havoc across Austin, community members and organizations were the first to respond. Parent Support Specialists checked in on families to make sure they had what they needed to be safe, mutual aid and nonprofit organizations mobilized to rescue people from their homes (whether in a house or on the street), and local restaurants donated their time, food, and space to prepare and distribute meals. Our public libraries serve as community spaces, resource centers for unhoused and low-income people, and cultural hubs. EMS and City Workers are exploring opportunities in other cities due to salaries that have not kept pace with the increase cost of living in Austin. Lack of affordable, safe childcare is a barrier from employment and other opportunities to many families across the city. Why is the …
Sustainable Buildings WG Recommendations: • Adopt 2024 IECC Energy Conservation Code • Create a density bonus (that stacks on top of Affordability Unlocked bonus and others) to incentivize use of Passive House standard and/or Living Building Challenge • ECAD 2.0 – require efficiency upgrades to buildings that perform poorly on energy audits • Address AEGB limitations that exist because of Smart Housing (bifurcate program) • Explicitly promoting or incentivizing Passive House Standard, Living Building Challenge and Low Carbon building throughout the CoA RFP and building funding scoring metrics (stating preference for and/or adding points to scoring for meeting these standards)
Transportation WG Updates ID Strategy Description Key Questions and Next Steps ACEP Dashboard Status Not yet started Starting soon Underway/ Ongoing TLU 1.3 Create mobility hubs: Improve the physical access to and through the transit stop/station area to be accessible to all. TLU 3.6 Improve sidewalks, urban trails, and crossings: For new sidewalk and trail construction, improve access to transit stops, healthy food locations, health centers, community centers, multi-family residences, and facilities for seniors. Include provisions for shade and ambient lighting in the design and construction of new sidewalks and trails. ● ● ● ● ● ● What locations have already been identified by City staff/community for mobility hubs? How can mobility hubs integrate with the resilience hubs effort? Learn about status of Resilience Hubs Has the City engaged with groups like Smart Columbus to learn about implementation challenges, successes, etc.? What lessons learned has the City identified? Given that status is "ongoing" and several bonds have funded this work in recent year (trails, sidewalks, Project Connect, etc), what's the progress? Presentation from Public Works et al.? Coordinate with WalkBikeRoll - status of their efforts, where JSC can put its weight to move the needle. Research shade/climate-resilient design, to improve accessibility, safety of transit & trails. Invite leaders in this space. ID Strategy Description Key Questions and Next Steps TE 1.1 Conduct an EV Community Needs Assessment: Work with local community partners, grassroots organizations, and connection points like the Austin Energy Customer Assistance Program and the City’s affordable housing programs. TE 1.2 Create equitable incentives for buying and leasing EVs: Collaborate with community partners to create inclusive and easily accessible incentives for buying or leasing electric vehicles. This strategy would supplement existing state and federal programs, prioritize low-income communities and communities of color and focus on geographic areas with limited or no access to transit. TE 1.4 Launch an e-bike and electric car-sharing program: Be intentional and equity-focused when considering where to install car sharing locations, what types of vehicles to include, and how to accept payment ● What are obstacles to this starting? ● At AE presentation, ask about EV charging infrastructure in Austin - where will it be located? In multifamily housing? How is equity factored into this? Possible rec: Allocate funding for staff/consultant to conduct the assessment. The ACEP Dashboard states that additional research is needed to identify possible funding sources for increased EV incentives. What is …
