Approved Minutes — original pdf

Approved Minutes

February 26, 2025 JOINT SUSTAINABILITY COMMITTEE REGULAR MEETING MEETING MINUTES The Joint Sustainability Committee convened in a hybrid meeting via videoconferencing and at Austin Energy Headquarters. Board Members in Attendance in Person: Charlotte Davis, Haris Qureshi, Kaiba White, Chris Maxwell-Gaines Board Members in Attendance Remotely: Marissa Bell, Lane Becker, Melissa Rothrock, Diana Wheeler, Heather Houser, Anna Scott, Chris Campbell, Rodrigo Leal Board Members Absent: Yure Suarez, Natalie Poindexter, Amy Noel, Ben Luckens, Alberta Phillips City Staff in Attendance: Rohan Lilauwala, Braden Latham-Jones, Juan Espinoza CALL TO ORDER Chair Kaiba White called the meeting to order at 6:10 pm. Public Communication • Zachary Leeper – speaking in favor of ACCC • Chase Wright – speaking in favor of ACCC, benefits from providing jobs and workforce training to individuals exiting homelessness and incarceration • Parc Smith – speaking in favor of ACCC 1. Approval of minutes from the January 22nd 2025 meeting of the Joint Sustainability Committee. DISCUSSION ITEMS • Maxwell-Gaines motion, Qureshi second, passes on a 12-0 vote. 2. Austin Light Rail Phase 1 project update, timeline and the opportunity to provide feedback as part of the Draft Environmental Impact Statement Public Review and Comment Period – Lisa Storer, Alvin Livingstone, Deron Lozano and Yannis Banks, Austin Transit Partnership. • Rothrock: what is priority extension? Answer: Airport will be next • White: can you elaborate more on DEIS? Answer: documents impacts during construction and operation. E.g. noise and vibration. Understanding what JSC is  interested in is helpful. Federal gov’t doesn’t require level of detail being provided. E.g. working with city arborist to come up with tree preservation-first approach. • Model shows 20 million + VMT reduced. All electric vehicles. 3. Austin Civilian Conservation Corps Update on staffing, current agreements, pathways, and its future funding opportunities. – Juan Espinoza, Economic Development Department. • Davis: what happened to other pathways? Espinoza: funding shortfall meant that only natural systems pathway is active. Program has always been funded with one-time funding. • White: how much funding is needed to bring programming back? Espinoza: $2.8m at max capacity. 4. Comprehensive Climate Implementation Program Update – Braden Latham-Jones, Office of Climate Action and Resilience. • White: what about public-facing items? Latham-Jones – some items feature this. • White: will this come back to JSC? Latham-Jones: TBD, depends on timeline. 5. Recommendations and possible action on the Comprehensive Climate Implementation Program, including supportive action and/or recommendations for additions to existing plan. • JSC members are broadly supportive. A few policy recommendations that are easily implementable, focused on consumption. • Discussion on how incentives for LMI households will work. • Davis motion, Scott second to adopt recommendation • White motions to amend, add ‘and/or use compostable packaging’ to item 1, and add ‘fund direct person to person community outreach to promote and expand the utilization of City of Austin sustainability incentives with a focus on LMI communities as well as small businesses’ as item 2. 6. Recommendation and possible action in Support for Agricultural Land Acquisition and • Passes 12-0. Preservation in Austin, Texas. • Discussion of legality of this, • Bell motion, Davis second, passes 12-0 7. Recommendations and strategic financial planning for the FY26 budget. • Discussions at length on recommendation across different areas of the Climate Equity Plan • Sustainable Buildings Item 2: The Joint Sustainability Committee Recommends that the Austin Water water leak detection budget be increased to $3 million/year and repair budgets be increased to $7 million/year, including the addition of one full time staff position to manage the increased work. • Commissioners to meet in working groups and refine asks, bring back at March meeting. FUTURE AGENDA ITEMS • Water and Wastewater Commission update  • Environmental Commission update ADJOURNMENT White adjourned meeting at 9:59 pm with no objections. These minutes were approved at the March 26, 2025 meeting of the Joint Sustainability Committee on a 10-0 vote Qureshi motion, Scott second (Suarez off dais).