Environmental Review Committee - Regular Meeting

Let me go ahead

and talk. Okay. I'd like to call the meeting to order. It's 403. Staff, can you do roll call?

Yes. Chair Hanson?

Here.

Vice Chair Pham? Present. Commissioner Padguancar? Commissioner Carter?

Here.

And Commissioner Yea? Yes. Here. Alright.

So the first thing is the approval of the minutes. So can we start with item one? June 16, the 2025, commission meetings minutes. Can we pull them up? Thanks.

So when we view up here?

Alright. I move to approve.

Okay. Do we have a second?

A second.

K. Is there anyone that wants to make edits? Okay. So we can proceed with a roll call vote. Great.

Chair Hanson? Yes. Vice Chair Fang? Yes. Commissioner Bhatt Gonkar? Yes. Commissioner Carter?

Yes.

Commissioner Yang? Yep. Fantastic. Okay. Do we have any postponements?

No postponements.

Okay. Do we have any we'll move on to staff and commission reports. Do we have any, staff and commission reports? Yes.

On 13 reports? I have a right up.

Can I close the door? Yeah. Is that okay?

Let's see if I can find it. Okay.

Yep. Yeah. Go ahead.

So many of you were there, but Council did approve the post collection services staff recommended action on June 17. So starting in '20 probably early twenty twenty seven when the garbage starts routing to the smart station, we will accomplish an action in the action plan. So

Yay. That's

nice to be able to

check one off every once in a while. K? Okay. We have several upcoming events. I wanted to make sure you were on your calendar. The paper shredding event, August 23 from eight to twelve. That's the environmental recycling day one. Not mandatory at all, but we have them every few months. The creek cleanup is September 20 if you wanted to volunteer and pick up trash. The garage sale the garage sale is September.

We have a big stop in.

Yes. Step on that table behind you. And then the next

Kaina, when you say creek, there are several creeks going to Cupertino, I believe.

Yeah. We have an event where we meet near Wilson Park, and we go along Ragnard Creek.

You get to go down into the Dry Creek bed.

Okay. No. Ragnard Creek is near where I am, but it's way far away. So I just always when you say creek, I'm always trying I'm always

Yeah.

We have a meeting point, and we organize a volunteer driven event twice a year.

So Okay. Great.

Gather nine to noon.

Okay.

Great. And then the last one is our home composting workshop on October 25. I also wanted to say the budget was adopted. There is one main line line item related to this commission. You have $1,200 for any sort of sustainability workshops or trainings for you, the five of you. If there's a conference or something that you wanted to attend that you thought was relevant, let me know, and we can put it to the group and see who wants to attend. For example, the one that I emailed about that vice chair Feng and commissioner Carter going to, that's $25 next month. So that's a good use of that fund.

Can we visit that smart station station? It will probably not cost much.

Can talk about that. It would be a field trip if everyone went. It would have to be noticed in something that we organize, so that's different than, like, a training. Right? Our induction cooktop demo, the interactive with the two chefs was sold out.

But we had 79 people in attendance, so that was great. The Cooper's Climate Quest sorry. Clean Air Challenge and the VR that you all saw, I emailed earlier with a link to play the game. Commissioner Yang said you played it already, so hopefully you enjoy that and can find all of the behavior changes and appliances. If you hadn't heard already, the EV chargers that were supposed to go in that sports center, those were defunded.

So that was one of the council's CIP projects that was just recently taken off their CIP list. The residential survey results for all of your work, we have consolidated most of the information, and 767 responses were collected. Thanks to all of you, for all of your tabling efforts. We are putting that in a bigger memo to counsel for the city work program item, and I should have that out in the next month so you can see all the detailed responses. Two more.

The building energy, we talked last time about the residential, law that was happening for residential existing buildings that the code couldn't change until 2031. Just wanted to let you know that did pass. So we do have limitations that we can't add new building code related to electrifying existing residential buildings. I should say making more energy efficient, any sort of wiring requirements, anything like that, we can't add until 2031. There are some exemptions that we're exploring if we could fit into those categories, but it's unclear at this time.

Not likely. And then the last one, I'll read this, is about the active transportation plan. This September, we'll begin phase two of the project, focused on identifying and prioritizing specific infrastructure and programmatic recommendations. During the next phase, city staff will host additional community workshops and release a new survey to collect feedback on the recommendations. Phase one of the project ran from March 19 to June 5 and included 12 outreach events that engaged more than 1,300 community members and generated nearly 3,000 public comments.

The community feedback is playing foundational role in shaping a draft network concept, which will further refine and share in the fall for the community to reevaluate. In addition, to community input, spatial analysis was conducted to assess existing conditions, identify unmet demand for active transportation, and determine where improvements would have the greatest impact. Ongoing community participation is crucial to ensuring that the final plan accurately reflects Cupertino's shared priorities. Please stay involved. Join the mailing list and help shape their future of transportation in Cupertino.

So this is what our transportation department's working on. So this includes walking and biking and EVs. So they're doing a big plan for that. Hopefully, you might have seen it at the events when we were tabling. They were kind of right next to us at some of them. So I will email you when that draft comes out of their plan in September for you to review and make comments on.

May I throw out something that it pertains to our electorate?

We may move on to commissioner updates. What do you have?

The the law that was going to the PG and E wanted to use to renege on the contracts, solar contracts failed. So they're not going to renege on the solar contracts. They wanted

to The

numb numb two, numb three notes? Yeah.

And so that might affect us financially.

I think we're grandfathered into it.

Grandfathered

into it, but you you would lose. They would undo it.

Oh, good.

That was what they were trying.

Okay.

And that's so, basically so, yes, we also our house was grandfathered into it, but then they were going to be able to renege on that contract.

Okay. We'll keep an eye on that one. Any other commissioner updates?

No. Are there any other commission reports?

So I just wanted to talk about couple of things. Well, just one thing, actually. So had a meeting about for all the block leaders and, you know, the the other, like, emergency preparedness and all those volunteers. And there was a lot of talking about how this all network can be used. And one of the things I always talk about is kind of using block leader network for our outreach program.

So it may be nice if we can actually ask go and in the city council and if we want to, like, present and ask them, like, how we can use that. And it might be a good start now because it has kind of started the com the at least the talk and the conversation has started. Okay. Alright. Like, in a blog leaders are supposed to email stuff to their blog. Right? So whenever they're evening, we can send, like, a newsletter or whatever, which they can forward.

Okay. Alright. K. Really quick. I went to the mayor's meeting yesterday. We had an agenda, but we spent the whole time talking about how we set mission agendas. And so we didn't go through our agenda. So I have the report from all of the different commissions if you'd like to. I guess that's available online then. I we can send a link maybe Okay. Just so we can find it. And then she heard about the 2024 commissioner's handbook so we would know what our roles and responsibilities are.

I thought it might be a

little bit too rigid. I think not our permission, but I think they're just trying to make sure that he knows what the guidelines are.

Great. Has everyone read that and received a copy?

We should have received it. Right?

Yeah. But I just wanna confirm.

I read it last time. Okay.

Think I had to in order to begin with commissioner.

Yes. It's the updated one.

So Oh, it's updated. Forward. Yeah. Okay.

Okay. And that's all I have. So alright. So can we go ahead and move on to oral communications? Do we have any oral communications?

No. Don't have any oral communications unless you wanna speak to something generic.

No. I have a specific problem.

We get to that item?

Promise section.

K. Yeah. Because this is the portion of the meeting reserved for people wishing to expect to address the commission, on any matters in the jurisdiction of the commission and not on the agenda. Just because I'm limited to three minutes. But we don't have anybody. So okay. So, since nobody wants to speak, let's go ahead and go on to written communications. Do we have any written communications?

We did have two written communications that were sent out earlier today. Did everyone receive this?

I did not have a chance to see this.

Yeah.

One was the agenda, and the other one was the game. Was that

Yeah. The return communication comes from people. Right?

Like, on

the public. Public comments.

Okay. Let me look. Because I I got something from plant based

Yeah.

Advocates, but it was more than one. There. That one, six or something. It was the same form of

Yeah. We We

got us too.

I can share my screen and share that with comments. Okay. So we just had two. I included this was the plant based one.

And that's the one we got, like, to us. I think a lot of emails about. And then What do say?

Let me know when you're ready. I'll show you the second one.

Yeah. I read it earlier.

Should can you make it a little bit bigger? It's alright. Shouldn't focus on supporting the city's online. People are doing that, though. Right? So, I mean wants to do more. Okay. No. I think we just say, it's tab two point o. It's in there. Right?

It's in there. It's just hard.

There's a lot of words.

No. But it's just it's just hard to

Tease out?

To do to get I'm a bike advocate, and I it's I go out now. It's lazy and hot. You wanna go on certain roads because it was dangerous. It's hard. So this is a long term

K. They might just be aware. That's what they care about.

K. No. I I think the answer was we were actively involved. I'm biking to work as much as I

can. K.

The active transportation team will be doing part of that. And

The I could change.

The school the bicycle safety commission.

Project zero or that Cupertino is definitely hooked into the bicycle commission, bike head commissions, something to that where you make roads.

So we are spending so much money on so many things. Why don't we have buses?

So I mean, I just that we were getting into this topic right now.

Okay. So maybe just do a response or just the things that we have going on in this.

Great. K.

Great. Thank you. Alright. Staff and commission reports. Do we have that in the reports?

Done. We did that.

Oh, wait. We did that? Oh, no. Old business. I'm sorry. I I rewrote the the cheater agenda. Is there any old business at this time?

No. Old business.

Okay. So we're all new business. So let's go ahead and proceed to item number two. Discuss and set sustainability commission to your prior award of projects. Do we have a presentation?

We do. A brief one.

Okay.

So I just wanted to remind you all as we go through this conversation what is within your scope and what's kind of without of your scope. So I bolded some words here. So continuous regional leadership and focusing on what's happening regionally, reviewing policies and programs, but not necessarily getting involved into the programs, accepting public input to drive community awareness and behavior change and education, and also reviewing federal, state, and regional policies. So just to summarize things that you're not pursuing on your regular agendas are operational. There's no, like, hey.

We're gonna go walk the streets with Recology and look in trash cans. Right? That's like an operational thing that staff do. So going and doing a lot of the things, we just don't want to have you all going on from an advisory role as much as a doing role, but I know it's a little bit of a gray area because you guys want to do the things. So just kind of keeping that in mind.

So I'm hoping to structure this conversation. I know there's a lot of content here, and a lot of us have different priority areas. So I know if you received my draft of my list that I had pulled together, that list came from me going through our whole entire climate action plan and pulling what I thought was applicable based off of your guys' role and scope, plus what I know we have going on right now and how I think you can best support the commission. That's not, you know, a comprehensive list. If you have other ideas, you're welcome to include them and suggest them.

But I figured we would start with clarifying questions. That was a very the list I sent was pretty generic. You're like, what does that mean? We can go over any ones that you specifically wanna call out and say what would that look like. And then we'll go into public comment, and then we'll go into open discussion.

So if you have things that aren't on the list that you wanna bring up and add to the list, I gave everyone a copy. And on the back of that page has some blank lines. So then as we're going through and people do have a structured thing that they want out of the list, then you would write that in. And then I'm going to ask you all to vote by circling your eight topics that you wanna cover in the next two years. And then I'll collect them all and prioritize based off of what gotten the most circles.

Does that sound like an okay structure for this conversation? Yeah. Okay. So with that, I'll stop sharing my screen and hand it over to clarifying questions.

Do we have a public comment on this item?

Questions come before public comment. Sorry.

Can we go through the list and ask for them?

Or

Yeah. Exactly. So if there's ones that you want explained more, what would that look like on specific items? That's what I'm here to clarify.

So I have a couple clarify. Yes. K. One was number four on building energy.

Okay.

Does progress updates on energy vent marking I mean, does are is this a are we commenting on it, or who's who's doing the updates?

So the idea of these are things that will shape the future agenda items for the commission meetings. Right? It's like how city council puts together a city work program of things they wanna talk about.

Uh-huh.

So for that one specifically, it would be you receiving the project updates on energy benchmarking and understanding where we're at in that process, how it's going.

I got it.

You know, things like that as we have we, you know, we still have to develop that program and get direction from council. So that one's not for sure that it's even going to move forward, but that would be a big one.

Okay. So that's basically okay. So I'm I marked things in three different colors. One of things that based on my previous commission stuff that I expected

K.

Those were things like review and yeah. Everything that said review, hadn't read things or study session on state legislation or study session on that. Those are things very specific to me in all the reviews. All the reviews and studies, very specific stuff. And then the stuff that was I have in blue are things that I'm going to I'm I'm beginning to to understand that this part of my maybe this is things that I should be adopting in my brain as being part of our things.

Promote Cupertino's climate, you know, via flyers and going out, basically. So all the blue ones, like, distribute information, connect with your neighbors, broken report broken EV chargers, you know, that sort of stuff is is an almost an advocacy thing. Okay.

So for for that, I was thinking the we would come with those topics to an agenda and say, this is how you report a broken EV charger. Right? So we could have a conversation about how many reports have we gotten recently and who is reporting and then having you do some of the advocacy work. Or if you see a broken charger, then you're more familiar with the topic.

Okay. And then the yellow were more oblique to me. Mean, like, success stories with staff. Make public comment to support the sustainability. I mean, I I mean, what does it mean to make a public comment? Promote walking. What does it mean to promote I mean, these are, like

I yeah.

They were to me to me, they were extremely vague.

They are vague.

And recruit friends, and I'm going like, oh,

boy. Okay.

You know? So You

know? I mean I mean so those are the three categories I have.

Absolutely. I think that makes sense. And I that one could be more under that last, like, powers of jurisdiction of, like, promoting, educating, helping us do the project. Right? So recruiting friends, if we're hosting a Fix It clinic and you are out in the community talking about these things and talking about why it's important to fix things, you can just forward us emails. Send us phone numbers. That helps us connect with the community more. You're kind of our eyes and ears, so we want to be a partner on this instead of working in a silo.

Okay. So this is this is a little bit different from the bicycle commission that I was working on, which is fine. I just said I need to be retrained.

And we're we're shaping it. If you wanna not prioritize that one, that's totally fine too.

No. It's fine. And on the last question I only had two question marks. One the other one was advise on regional transportation network opportunities. And

I think that one came directly from the CAF.

K. And I'm just need a little bit more clarification what that means.

If that's a high priority for you, working on regional transportation so we could talk about active transportation plan and how that fits in regionally. So maybe we could do some work with the VTA or find out what's happening at a regional level so that would be more like a study session.

Which brings me to the point of we're overlapping other groups.

Yeah. And Sustainability is big,

but stepping on toes is politically damaging.

Yes.

And so I'm assuming that you're going to help manage soft shoes.

Yes. I think that where it comes in like, we're not talking about building highways or connecting with signs or freeway connections or traffic studies. We're focused more on specifics of, like, promoting biking and how that fits in. Like, VTA has a sustainability plan, so we could comment on their sustainability aspect. We're not trying to do what Bike and Pet is doing at all. And so I would I mean,

when you look at your website, you put links to their to their publications. So

that was the set of a clarification question.

Perfect. I like the ecosystem, and then he's doing the guardrails on the overall process of living. And so if we have the sustainability umbrella or guardrails, everybody goes in there, and we just

kind of

focused on what's the best thing.

I I really feel that.

So

does anybody else have any questions? Any clarifying questions? I

got a couple. So under WAVs number four, report businesses that are not complying with the city's foodware ordinance. Do we have, like, an estimate right now on how many businesses are noncompliant or something?

I'm hoping if you that one was chosen that we could put together a report for you. So we could do the report, and then we can also teach you how to use Cupertino 311 and do reporting. That would be kind of a combination. I don't have an exact number at this time, but we are under contract with a consultant to do the boots on the ground working with all these icons.

Nice.

Yeah. No. I think that's important.

And then with regards to under the first category, admissions, number three study session on state legislation. This study session, I'm assuming, is more for if we were to pursue this one, is to inform the commission what are the new legislation that, you know, Sacramento or DC are considering that's what it is. Right? Okay.

Yeah. So I think that's a big one of your main functions and powers is recommend state legislation and understanding regional policies and procedures. So it's not something we talk about a lot, but I think and it's always evolving and changing. But just to bring it to your attention that that is something we can talk about.

So if we do three, one comes in under that umbrella. Right? Because then we'll be looking at greenhouse gas inventory. We'll have to compare when we do a study.

No. So this the state legislation would be me coming in with a bunch of a b three zero six and what that means and a b fifteen seventy two and what that means, where our greenhouse gas inventory is something that I is a whole like, a six month project I'm working on to pull in all of our Cupertino specific data. So, like, how many EVs we have in the city versus gas cars and how many vehicle miles traveled we have in Cupertine. It's really specific. K. And so we update that every three years. I go through all those metrics and then do a methodology on how that works, and that's how we get our projections on if we're doing what we're supposed to be doing.

That's it. You have any questions?

We're right on to highlighting.

I like the success stories one. I think that one.

Which one?

The number six, rebuilding energy, I think. Like, any case study, like, real anything that could be related as much as possible, even if it's, a small story, I think that is what impacts people most. Right? You can throw all these numbers, all this data stuff at them. It's like, oh, the past twenty years. But I think what they latch onto the most in terms of Yeah. Gets to grab their attention is stories and what their neighbor is saying

to us. Positive feedback.

Yeah. There's so much like, oh, we should improve this, this, this. But, like, are we taking the time to, like, look back and be like, hey. Look. What we've accomplished, you know, for Steve, Tina, and the staff members and stuff.

So Yeah.

Just wondering. No other questions? Nope. Alright. We have a public comment. Do you wanna step on it? You're welcome.

Stand here. And

It's up to you wherever you're comfortable.

Good evening, respected members of the Sustainability Commission. My name is Seema. I'm the president of a local nonprofit called A Compassionate World or ACW, with a mission to enlighten individuals to make sustainable, cruelty free, and healthier choices, enable animal welfare and rescues through global grassroots level partner organizations, and empower artisans facing socioeconomic challenges to sustain themselves and their family. I'm here today on behalf of ACW to speak about a growing global initiative that could significantly support our city's sustainability goals, the plan based treaty. Already endorsed by 42 municipalities around the world, including cities like Los Angeles, West Hollywood, and Hoboken, this treaty encourages a shift towards plan based diets as a practical, sustainable solution to protect our environment.

Now why is this important? Plant based diets are estimated to produce 75% less greenhouse gas emissions and require significantly less water and land use than annual base tariffs. In cities like New York, we've seen the impact firsthand. Their plan powered Fridays program has led to a 40%, actually, 2% reduction in carbon emissions per student. West Hollywood has made plan based school the default at their city sponsored events, and Overcare is using public campaigns to highlight the climate and health benefits of plant based food chain.

But this is not about asking everyone to become 100% plant based overnight. Instead, it's about simple, achievable changes that can

have a massive impact.

The idea is to increase the availability of plant based options in public institutions and also raise awareness to educational candidates. When we all work together, small actions can lead to large scale positive changes. At ACW, we are keen to partner with the city of Puppetino to endorse the plan based treaty and integrate these principles into our local sustainability efforts. We can add Puppetino to the growing list of cities that are achieving their sustainability goals through this powerful initiative. Thank you for this wonderful opportunity.

We are excited about the potential impact that we can have, and I look forward to working with you all towards the most sustainable future. Thank you so much. Yeah. Okay.

Do

you wanna move on to discussion then? Do we have any other public comments?

No. Public comments.

Okay. You wanna move on to commission discussion about the topic? Does anyone have anything they wanna say, or what do I She said. Yeah. I mean, do we have to wait and postpone to to make it business in the next meeting? Because it's not on the agenda.

What you said?

Yeah.

So and this because you're talking about two year priorities, I think someone could say, yes. I wanna have a priority that matches the community value. You're not supposed to respond directly.

So

I would suggest starting with if anyone brought additional items. I said, you know, you bring two items to this discussion if you have things to add that you can write in on those blank lines. And then if you wanna try to persuade your peers on why your topics are important.

Let's have the battle. I can start. So I if you remember, Andrew had started a slow down version of CAPS, which was easier for everybody to understand. Right? Is that done? The website?

Yeah. That's the ClimateNAS. That's number

two. That's the ClimateNAS?

General. Okay. So

is it possible for give, like, in the staff update? Because, anyway, we meet after three months. Right? So is it something going on with the the capital plan? Like, we had one thing which is we did last quarter, right, for the cap plan, which is the smart thing. Smart. So, I mean, is there any is there any road path to that twenty thirty camp to fortress plan that we were talking about?

Like an implementation plan? No. We don't have a direct implement. Cities do pay consultants and develop, like, a two to five year plan. We have just been doing since our budget crisis, have been prioritizing based off of how it's phased.

So phase one, two, and three, and then what's within our capacity budget. But that's kind of why I'm trying to shape the like, a lot of these came from our climate action plan. So if there's ones that you want to see happen in the next two years, that's how we're shaping what we do. So were you adding an idea there of, like, a cat progress update? Is that what

It almost sounds like number six. Right? But even though it's under building energy, it's success stories. That meeting that should come up under general plan. Share updates to cap. Right? Under energy. Loop item number six. Okay. Does that make sense?

Well, keep people's the cap into people's mind. You know, it's another thing. I mean, we all have busy lives. And every time you come up with a announcement about this positive thing happening

Yeah.

It just reawakens people that, oh, yeah.

This is Yeah. Number set six should read share success stories with respect to tab two point o. Right? So we can celebrate that from sharing the newsletter. Sound any sense? And put it up at the top, and then then we get our status. It's not

like a log. It's like one bullet is okay. Because I I'm not because of the crisis, budget crisis, not seen anything. Right? Otherwise, when I was first in my first term, we talked a lot about it and how we are progressing.

I I think what if I'm correct to say this, you want more of a general cap update on how many of our actions and measures have we achieved so far, how many are in progress, and how many are planned in the future? That's success. We we do an annual report to council, and it's PDF. We normally post it in, like, November, December. So it sounds like you just want that PDF to come and be a conversation of, like, here's all the things we've done in the past year, and here's all the things we're doing in the next year.

Could be done in the form of an email or a staff report.

Okay.

And then, like, a percentage, like, whatever how much is we have obtained or how much we have to

move on. Okay. I just don't wanna make more work because if there's only two people, we slow down the work by getting reports.

They're anyway sending it. Right? Okay. Do you wanna If you are anyway sending it, that's fine. But it should be, like, not very long. K?

Well, I've been thinking about what everybody, including the speaker, has mentioned. It seems like, you know, we don't have a lot of resources, but we also cannot operate in silos. So to what Jack mentioned, we also need to be careful about stepping on the toes of the other clinicians. My point is, I've been writing a couple of things down, and my thing as the business rep, there needs to be something with business engagements. Whatever it is, I feel like one of the goals needs to be business engagements.

And I'm glad that we're gonna have somebody on the economic development committee, whoever that is. I think that's a start, but we need to do more to engage the businesses. I love what Connie mentioned about success stories. There's a part about how us as residents get around a lot and a lot of information, but I feel like we can do a better job in helping the city to inspire others to share these stories, to think about long term sustainability for the residents and the businesses. So I think there's a brand new place and the success stories.

It's a good implementation action. And my last thing is we need to also focus on building relationships. Right? I love that. Staff is sharing with us these opportunities to go to conferences, just to network and get ideas and come back. So my spiel is I don't really have any specific actions I'm advocating for, but would it be if we as a group should focus on those overarching. So

my second thing is I always say the same thing for a long time. So I always wanted to shift I always want to focus on the waste because that is one of the things we can easily achieve. So is there what is the number of people who are on our email list? Do we know?

The green newsletter? Uh-huh. Last time I checked, it was 900 and something.

That's a good number, but still not enough. Right? So that's the one of the things I I really want to so I like all the things you have listed under. I circled all of them. So so recruit friends and family. And as I was saying, lot of people, when we were doing tabling, come to us and say interested in volunteering, and I I kind of said, right, so in elementary school, what we have, this is called art dossier. So you enroll as, like, all the project cornerstone where people will go, get educated, and then they spread the news. Spread the spread it around. Like, in they'll go to each class and teach. Basically, it's something like that.

So the block leader program was one of the things. We have about some two two hundred something block leaders. So not too many. What was the what Martha said? I don't remember. But yeah. So we have a good number of block leaders, and lot of this side, one of this side is covered pretty good, actually. That is one of the things we should see. And then so this is, like, the promote with sorting guide. Right?

So we we can promote it, but then we can actually, if people are not we sending flyers is not going to help. That's what I'm saying. Right? So Okay. And I also always said that we have 80 environmental science in all of our schools high schools. And high school kids are looking for internships. Right? Like, in Cupertino, that's what they want because they want to get into good schools. So it's a win win situation for us and them, both of both. So the youth youth climate action.

Right? Only instead of using them only on the other day, I mean, we should look at it to use them as a proponents in school. In school, if if the email comes from the teacher or if the emails come from the principal, the parents will read them. Right? Because that's how it is. And I really would like to incorporate if something in the in the but that's a big ask not going to happen.

Yeah. So it's I guess I'm trying to figure out if you could propose that as an item that would come to this this commission, right, we could in my head, the understand promoting the waste sorting guides that would be bringing it to this commission as an agenda item to understand what guides we have, how we use them, things like that. Not necessarily going to the people and educating with the guides. It would end up being more of, here's all our guides for you to help distribute.

Yeah. That's fine. Okay. Yeah. But then distributing guide is, like, if you have something on three one one, like, I am having so many issues, and I'm a good sorter. Right? So recycling is a good problem. So how can we update the 311? If you are really talking about restarting guides, one of them has to be in three one one.

And the reporting app?

Or like to

ask a question?

Like, some

sort of way to ask. Yeah. Use, like, now so much ML stuff is going on. All these high high school kids, the college kids, they really want to do a project. Just ask somebody to do a project, like, how can you use AI ML to to look at something and tell you how they can recycle, how people can recycle it? There are so much information is available, so much technology is available.

I mean, how One of the simple things is to put a sticker on a plan. Honestly, a sticker with a picture of the book cost money.

Yeah. I mean and then the audits that we used to do. So that is one one thing can be one of the things can be, like how we can bring, like, the audits. So we don't want to do audits. The thing is that you need to do it consistently. Right? That one year we went to those in the chair Susan's class, and we did it, and you probably did it. But if you integrate it in the school syllabus, it's going to happen. Like, you don't you won't be here. I won't be here in ten years, but it will stay. And that is what we want.

So for school and city, I think they are different per views. I think they impede it.

No. I mean, I I understand that. Like, I am in this commission for four years, and I was in PTA. I know how slow things work. Right? But somebody has to make a start somewhere. So next in three, two years, I will not be here in sustainability, but it has to kind of keep on going. Right? So sometime down the line in ten years, it will happen. Otherwise, it will never happen.

Yeah. Because the school curriculum is decided at the state level. And the only thing I can see is trying to learn the state policies that are happening if there's any around sustainability curriculum.

So there are there are stuff that we can the teachers have some leeway of doing it. Not like I'm not saying, okay. Here is a thing what I had what I was thinking, and I might be taking a lot of time here. But, like, for example, kindergarten kids, send a paper home asking them what you will put where. That that's it. The kindergarten kids will do only that. Then first graders will have something more. Second graders will have something more. So each year, a quarter every quarter, they send one paper home. You know?

Yeah. And, also, it's kind of operational because we're we're contracted with Recology. They are supposed to go into schools and do this education to every school as the schools request it. Right? So they can't force the schools to do anything, but they are moving forward with both this the high school and the Cupertino Unified School District to get into more schools. So it is happening, but I'm not exactly sure how that could come to this agenda or to this commission.

So that is what is happening. Right? Everybody is working in their stuff, and there is no communication. So finally, I don't know, after ten years, we will only say that, okay, the oncology is doing something we still no problem.

I think I think it's a the umbrella of what do we know. Like, when we're looking at successes, we know that oncology is working on it. I think being It

is not tangible here. Being in

the schools, it's very difficult. I would think maybe approach PTA and see if they wanna do that. They have purview over clubs. I mean, if you could get the kids to do something like that or you know?

I understand I understand all of that. Yeah. The thing is that see, I the in my if the environmental science is there, there is a club, use a climate action plan in high school.

Right.

So at least we can use those two. We can talk to the teachers or somebody there at school, approach one school and say, we want to do this. How can you help us? Or can you help us or not? Okay. You cannot help us, forget about it.

No. I I think the thing with the with ACE, the ACE class is that the kids take the leadership and decide what it is that they wanna do as their driving project. It's not all waste. It's all kinds of stuff. Right?

So Let it be, but they we can always guide them. Right?

Is the issue that I have is my kids went to Cupertino Union School District, and they went to Fremont High School District.

High School District.

Those schools are not they're taking kids through all the all the adjacent

That is true. That is true.

And all and right now, we don't have a regional plan for recycling. We just don't.

Just is different.

And it's we don't get and I think that's what we're working on, is in if we don't get the foundations I've seen it in work. Somebody tries to do recycling, and that recycling just gets thrown away in the trash. They stop recycling. So we need to have the foundations in place, and that's one of the things we work on in this you know, when we're talking about with Cupertino starting to do more things that are with some of the other adjacent things. Once we get a regional plan and get support from the the school districts will be more, I think

Yeah.

Things like we'll have the different everybody will have the same color canisters, and you just start learning over and over and over again.

So where would that fit in which we're looking at, like, having a uniform waste holder? Because, I mean, as dad says, that's part of the problem going Cupertino, Union Service District, five cities. And so they all have different we're Cupertino. Even though that's the overarching name, each one of the cities has their own little assortment plan. So I think it'll be very difficult to install. So I think

Clarifying question. Yeah. This thing is silly, but some cities, I know they have schools committees that council members sit on between medical schools.

School site council?

Yeah. Do we have something like that for

for the

School site council and It's required by all women already.

Is there they don't do anything. I was in school site council. I've done it for two

Well, that's enough.

I just

can't do anything there. And I don't think we can we can seriously overstepping, so I'm not sure

if this is I made a recommendation. Mhmm. I think a great one to add into the line items would be a study session on what our franchise agreement says and includes. So you guys understand what is already happening, what Recology is responsible for, and what we're doing. Because that's that's a policy. That's within your scope. That contract ends in 2030. And '1. 2031. So it won't be possible to make changes now, but I think it is good that you understand that policy. Mhmm. So that's a write in that you wanna do.

That's an upset.

The last thing one thing I I want to say is I like this study session on the state legislation.

Yeah. Let's take a moment.

Yeah. So I will I I was I would like to have, like, an email about one one legislation every month so I can read it. And if I have question, I can ask. Because I I would like to know about that. They're gonna be the state.

No. Okay. So we

cannot discuss all of them probably Right. So So, if yeah, if we can take one and just kind of Okay. Explain in an email, we can Okay.

So I think we had a process on how we were gonna prioritize this.

Okay. Did everyone get their two items that they want? Is anyone else wanna

add it? Well, I wanna throw out two things that that won't that won't go anywhere, but I still want them voice them. I mean, they're they're not even I don't I even with my two things or eight things, we'll not be on that. But the old and there's an overriding thing for me for urban forest issues, and it's sort of like natural systems number two, study climate, adaptive trees, microagmentation. So urban forest things is near and dear to my part part for just livability here.

And one of them is burying and this, like I said, it's not gonna happen in what what big slides, but burying overhead lines. You see butchered trees and stuff, but also it's not only about the trees, it's also about the effect on traffic. If you go down Stelling, make a right on Rainbow or left on Rainbow, you will have to really look for light. And just it's it's old. It's from my childhood, those overhead lines.

Yeah. We should be they should be not there anymore. That's just one of them. And then the other one is is a cement plant closure in our purview? Okay. So then strike that one out. Yeah. K. That would have been a big one for me for the but the I know the overhead wires are not gonna happen in my lifetime, but I had to bring it up.

Yeah. I don't know if that's necessarily within the sustainability scope.

Well, it's also the urban in butchers, urban trees, if you see the lot, they they you see this tree that should be like this, but it's like this.

Our arborist calls that Mickey Mousing. Yep. Yes.

Yes. So

and it's a it's a it's a it's a issue of if it hits, and once in a while, there's a fire started because of this. You know, those those big canister things are up there. What are they called?

Silenforming. Yeah.

Every once in while, when

it's

where they run the

Blow up and everything.

Clinker through to dry. The the dust well, the dust recaptures.

No. The the on the poles, they have the

big Oh.

Oh. Condenser about the cement plant, the transformers.

Yeah. No. The cement plant is not our purpose.

Yeah. Let's see.

Anyway, I'm just saying there are a number of issues that do affect us in terms sustainability and and lifestyle, but I had to say it. Now it's done.

Okay. Alright.

So Okay. So if you're comments, the next part of that is to prioritize. So if you would make it very clear for me in circle eight that you then are your top eight.

Do you have another paper?

Yeah. Not Oh, did you

I put a partner in my

Are you printing? Alright. Either one. Okay. I got it. Thanks.

Alright. Alright.

About my eight.

And I will tally What's the plan? Check one

one for eight? Not is that too hard?

Whatever. It's gonna be that you both all of you need to Okay. Come together.

Alright.

I'll let you know via email what the results are.

I have a question about the review draft building permit streamline policy.

Yes. We're working on that. What? There's a regional statewide effort. It just got denied at the state level on how to streamline building permit language so that people can electrify easier.

Does that make sense? Connie,

your nose, I mean, you didn't highlight those. Is that correct? Yeah. Okay.

Yeah.

K. How should we do it?

I just took a test, and I regret I regret the answer later on.

Alright, Cheryl, when you're ready.

Okay. So we don't need to make promotion on this because we just Correct. Alright. So, let's go ahead and move on to the next item. Subject item number three, discuss and makeover recommendation to appoint a sustainability commissioner to the economic development.

We have no presentation. Okay.

So we need to select someone.

So what is the frequency of that?

Are there any clarifying questions you have to

It is written to be quarterly and or as special meetings are called.

So far, they're still looking for the other five community members. Right? So they've got six applications as well. Heard last night in the mayor's meeting, but they're not they they're strawberries. So there's some redundancy in those strawberries, so they're still working.

Okay.

Does anyone I mean, does anybody wanna volunteer? Do you wanna be Well, it

is my wheelhouse, and I'm definitely interested. But, well, I wanna be equitable, and I know I'm already serving in a five straight position. So I think it's an opportunity for the other commissioners that are interested. I'll do it if the commission wants me to, but, like, I can think other commissioners are not serving an official world. This would be a good opportunity to.

That would be a good thing.

I I'd be open to supporting

you and back to you. Do you wanna do it?

Oh, I thought you volunteered.

No. No.

I'm Oh, I you volunteered. Okay.

No. I said I'm sorry.

I support

No. I mean, it is it is economic economic related. I was wondering if you may be the better candidate. Okay.

I mean

So what goes on in these?

We don't know yet because they have a status.

Still do.

So what we decided is that instead of having two city council members, we'll go down to one city council member, tick planning

Oh, that that I'm sorry. That

five others, I guess. Yeah. And then I guess whatever stat So the thing

is that we cannot rotate. So we will think

from there,

no, we have a position. Mhmm. And if somebody cannot go, other person can decide. That doesn't happen.

It's separate. Yeah.

It's it's actually only one person who will go.

It's four extra meetings. Can you add it? Sorry. You want to tell that?

Well, I'm looking at this. So it seems like the first term would end on January 30. So whoever is serving in this position really is only going for two meetings. And then the next person can do that. So but, yeah, Jack, if you were I know it seems like you were interested from three to six. I'm interested.

It's tough when your kitchen is just being ripped apart that you say, like, I have lots of time. So I'm I'm willing to do this, and I'm going to lean on the rest of the commissioners' Advice. Yep. That's, know, like, feedback about what's going on and get feedback. Because I'll be the representative. Right?

We have a sense of when their first meeting will be.

That's what they're even They haven't even formed them to meet again.

They're not even blessing who's gonna be on it until September. Right?

So So okay. So if it's not gonna happen this summer, then I'm I'm just gonna be fighting.

So so these are my thoughts. I think it's a great opportunity for another com so I don't mind attending, but at the same time, I feel like it's a great opportunity for somebody outside of economic development. Like but I also understand sustainability, but I think it's a great opportunity if someone else from this commission is interested in to sit on it, and I can always provide, you know, feedback and support it, you know, whoever is serving on it. Yeah.

I'm interested. But I don't have a like, Connie, I it I'll be

I don't have great

resume materials. I don't have a I don't do resumes anymore. So not

sure. Your mental resume. You know?

But, basically no. I get interested in a lot I'm not interested in a lot of things, and so this would be I'm more than willing to do this, but what I don't wanna do is push anyone else out.

Clarifying questions to staff. Can you do valid and then alternate, or that's not what we're doing? Right?

So we actually can only make a recommendation for which commissioner we want, and then council gets to actually select. So even if we recommend Jack, they could select us.

Yeah. They know me, so they might go

Just saying. But how often would they really Would would they you know, defy commission's recommendation on an appointment?

I don't know. I don't think so. Yeah. So But

they haven't

I don't know.

They're still they're still trying to get other members to join.

I don't think they're doing substitutes. I know for regular commissions, they dropped the

But that is true. Yeah.

The second

That's how much it sounded like when we went for the the meeting. It well, we it is not like one's sustainability completion position and then whoever can work. It's not like that. So whoever has committed, that person

has to vote. Well, you were inferring that it was two years or something like that in women, but it's not clear again because they have never got it started. So

You know, it's not I don't think we should even worry about the longevity because they don't know what's going on. Yeah.

So do you volunteer?

Yeah. Sure.

Alright. Do we have a motion?

Yes.

I can pass the motion. I can start. Okay. For me to Jake and Commissioner Carter.

I second.

K.

K. Do

you wanna call a little call vote, or should we just do

You can do all that.

All in favor?

Aye.

Aye. All opposed? Abstentions?

I should say hands.

It's fine.

Abstentions. Okay.

So motion passes.

Yeah. A lot of discussion went on. You were there that day, right, as well.

Mhmm.

On how many people should be there on the commission. So

Okay. So motion passes. Sustainability is going to put forward commissioner Carter. So it sounds so so so official.

Oh, congrats, Jack. Yeah.

Crazy. Alright. So the next one is volunteer to attend a regional sustainability meeting. Is this the the conference or the workshop that's happening? August 9.

This is different.

Okay. Sorry. So

this is something that to promote regional efforts and understand what's going on, you know, I think that in the past, we've had commissioners who served on VTA boards or understood they worked with CDP reporting. They understood more of the processes that went into what the commission and what the staff do and understand the regional and were able to during the the commissioner updates, say, hey. Here's what other regions are working on. So I wanna emphasize that this is absolutely volunteer, and so this is just to make you all informed that of some opportunities of things that you could volunteer to get in a part of on a regional level. So that being said, there's five that we've identified with one for each sector, and I'll go through the five just briefly.

You don't have to go to all of them. Thankfully, all of them have a virtual meeting or a virtual option, so you could tune in occasionally and try to pick up some things. This is not a hard and fast that you're voting. You're not a member who's been appointed, but, they're good to be aware of. So VTA has a bike and ped commission.

They did just recently adopt a cap, so we made a comment on that sort of thing as a commission. You know, we said, hey. This is what Cupertino's sustainability commission thinks about VTA's cap and went that way. The recycling and waste reduction commission, so this is one that encompasses all of the South Bay. So all of you know, if you're really interested in waste, wanna learn what the other jurisdictions are doing and how we're collaborating together, They go for all sorts of waste reduction.

They do stuff with HHW. They're the ones who help with the composting program and organizing that funding. They do a lot with s b thirteen eighty three laws. Silicon Valley Clean Energy, hopefully, you know who they are by now. So you'll learn about electric bill rates and where your power comes from and all of their programs for both EVs and buildings so that they talk about legislation on a on a regional level and what's coming down from the state.

So if you're interested in electric bill rates, Valley Water has a couple different committees, but this one is the closest to water conservation. So they talk a lot about water storage and the rainfall measures and things about how we're storing water and where our water is coming from. So they do sometimes bring back the water conservation committee when we're more in drought time. So this one's a hybrid that they just combined with another committee right now. So it might be a little bit less relevant, but there is a big state water bill coming down the pipeline that's banning watering turf or sorry, all grass.

And then there's a regional water board if you wanna go into water quality, pollution prevention, drinking water quality, things like that. So that one's a little bit even broader. It covers all of North Bay as well. So that's really just focused on San Francisco. And that is it.

If you wanna ask questions about what the meetings do or you think you know, you wanna say, you know, I know of this other meeting that's happening that you should check out and collaborate amongst yourselves on what you think you know, we just went over these priority projects, and you're like, hey. All my priorities were in waste. Maybe you wanna learn more about waste. So wherever you focus your efforts and the commission focuses their efforts, it's good to get some more context besides what I bring to your one hour meeting every quarter.

So when so do we need to, like, enroll on anything, or anybody can join? Or

Anyone can join. Anyone can watch them. They're all livestreamed, so you can watch part of it. This is all just to inform you on options to help educate and get more informed when we bring these items to you.

And you will send us the links and all that.

Yeah. If if you wanna volunteer for one, you can send me an email, and I'll send you the exact how to join information.

It would be nice if we if we divide because of Right. Is staff going to any of these now?

Occasionally, we I enjoy the MOG. The or not the MOG. I'm sorry. The SBCE one. I normally watch online. I know Ursula goes to them occasionally every time.

Yeah. As many as And I tune in to the recycling waste reduction commission.

We technically have our own staff versions of these. So, like, the waste one, this is the advisory board, but Ursula works on the staff version to support that advisory recycling reduction committee. So

since we're tuning in, we don't there's no forum concern, right, because we're all just going as a pan leader.

Yeah.

But I can We can divide and talk. Extend our knowledge. Right? Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. I can do the list one.

Yeah.

We have commission report.

It's mandatory. It's as you can. So I'll go back to the first slide of when they're available. I know some of you work and some of

Yeah.

Is it in the evening?

Yeah. 06:30. That's a good time. Yeah. 05:30. That's a

good time. Yes.

I like the on the, yeah, I'm interested in that one.

Okay. Is there any hazardous waste groups?

I don't know I don't know what the agency names are.

The Recycling Waste Reduction Commission, we've talked a little bit about HHW.

Right. Yeah.

If you want, I can look into it if you

So bimonthly is one of those those terms that has two meetings. Does that mean twice a month or once every two months?

Every other month.

Semi monthly. That sounds lot. That's just as bad. Yeah. Awesome. Okay.

Does anybody wanna volunteer to attend any

of those? Yeah. I can do the waste reduction one.

Wait. Sorry. There's there's a few of them. You said all of them get canceled. Which one of those? You said many.

It was a few stones.

Previously, the waste one has gotten canceled. I think they're more active right now. They have picked up, and I believe it was the Valley Water one that got canceled a lot.

Okay.

Gotcha.

Has there a little overlap between the Valley Water and the regional water board?

Yes. So Valley Water also works on pollution prevention, but the water board specific, like, focused on water quality. Valley and I tried to find this one as more about water conservation.

Yeah.

So Do we also cover some water?

That would be the regional water board. Yeah.

Storm there. Even any h two m v meetings will be helpful. That's not really

Oh, air quality? Air quality?

Yeah. I thought about putting that on here. If you're interested in, like, spare the air day or understanding air quality filters, we haven't pursued that effort for any of our air quality measures. We don't have wood burnings of, like, stove bands or anything like that. But we you know, when we went into our energy regulation, what we proposed last what was it? Fall. We thought about doing the NOx approach. Right? That was regulating air quality. And we decided against it because it could be challenged more.

There there is conversation I thought about adding that one. So if that's something you're interested in.

Someone curious. Yeah. Someone like that. So

I'm I'm interested in the SVCE.

Okay.

Because it's not something I am it's something that I invested in at home, but it's not something I know a lot about.

Right. Yeah.

I know I cannot do the daytime ones, so, unfortunately, if I did the regional waterboard, I could only do it for thirty minutes.

Yeah. Those are long.

Yeah? Well, I'm teaching, so I'm

What are your priorities?

Making sure I I pass on the trip to Taiwan because I can't take ten, five days off.

I can do the VTA one.

K.

And then can I float and, like, go to

Volunteer? Yet. Not asking if they could commit to anything.

Yeah. So you'll provide the leads and then

Yeah. I can't commit completely because my schedule is consistent just like with everyone else, but I am interested in the recycling and waste reduction. Great. So I'll try to

make as many as I can. Beautiful. And I think that the Valley Water one is the one that it meets very sporadically. It's like, although sometimes they meet on the last Monday and or the first Monday, you know, and I would say, like, a third of them looks like they got canceled. So maybe not best. And if we have a drought, then we can pivot.

Yeah.

Otherwise, we can replace it with the air quality, whatever things you have.

It would make sense. It would make sense.

I can send information about the air quality one too.

Okay.

Yeah. So you'll send the list, and then we can kind of count the. K. So the thing

I noticed is that, like, water gets a lot

of attention. And this is just

I'm just throwing out. I'm not I don't have an opinion on it. I just I just noticed that water has a lot of attention, and a lot of people forget about, like, waste and air quality. Mhmm. Even in even in college classes, like, one third of my classes were just focused on, like, water quality, water management, you know, wastewater. So Mhmm. It's very challenging.

San Jose State has a really robust program of their Quite much. And air. Mhmm. So

it's important.

But water is money.

Water is money. Yes. Yes. And it takes a lot of space too.

Well, yeah. Real estate. Can't live.

Well, you can't don't have paper. You can breathe it whether it's good or bad. Mhmm. K. Okay. Alright. So, I don't think there's any motion we've got. I don't miss the volunteers. Okay. So, I guess future agenda setting. Let's move on to future agenda setting. Finally, we have future agenda setting. Does any member of the motion wish to add an item or remove an item from we we don't have anything on future agenda. Do you wanna add anything on the list? So probably she's.

Yeah.

That's what I Okay. Yeah. So Alright. Unless there's anything that immediately came in the last twenty minutes. Okay.

Alright. Good. So we'll add that. Alright. And then can we join the meeting?

We can join the meeting.

Okay. I join this meeting at 05:19PM on Tuesday, July 17.