Environmental Services Division - Regular Meeting

Alright, it's 5.30, so we're called to order. First item is roll call, and I'll do a quick one. S. Blair is here, and Member Groh, Member Siebler, and Member Barnes, and Member Chandler is online. Member Loeschel is absent. First item is approval agenda. Does anybody have any changes?

Chair, public comment for anything that's- Oh, I'm sorry.

Thank you. Public comment for items not on the agenda. Is there anybody online?

Is there anyone online that would like to make public comment for items that are not on the agenda? Please raise your hand. Seeing none.

Excellent. All right. I didn't see any opposition to the minutes, so the minutes are approved. I'm sorry, the agenda. So the agenda is approved unanimously. The next item is approval of the minutes. Does anyone have changes? All right. Minutes approved unanimously. And with that, we're on to business. Discussion of possible action on recommendation from ESB on proposed single-use plastic bag ban ordinance. And I think the member Blair is going to be the first to go.

All right. Do we have the presentation? Yes. Before we get started, I do want to remind everyone of a few things. The purpose of the Environmental Sustainability Board is to advise council. We are an advisory council, which means that we can make suggestions, recommendations, and then our suggestions and recommendations are moved to council. the next thing I want to remind everyone of is the timeline of this which is in my presentation but Council did ask us to look at this last year and then the third thing I want to reiterate is that the plastic bag working group basically put the bones of this and then we sent it off to the county legal to add more of the legalese which we are not qualified to do so OK, so basically, I just put together a really brief overview of the ordinance. So can you go to the next slide, Angelica? OK, so last January, council directed ESB to, quote, evaluate single-use plastic bags to include factors such as ability to recycle and other alternatives and costs to county to recycle and engagement to include local businesses and other interested parties. ESB then formed a working group of three members, two of which are no longer on the board, and then myself. And from January to October, we did a bunch of research. We spoke to municipalities across the state, including the city of Las Cruces, Santa Fe County, and the city of Santa Fe to get some insight into how they went about their plastic bag ordinances. And then we presented our findings to ESB and then eventually to council in October 2025 and asked for clearer guidance and expectations on next steps. Next slide, please, Angelica. In April of this year, Council directed ESB to, quote, propose a plastic bag ban for Los Alamos based on other communities in New Mexico and return to Council within 90 days with a proposal with a preference for no mandatory fee. So from April till now, the plastic bag working group, which again included myself and member Groh and then member Loeschel, who is not here, we did research on other plastic bag ordinances in New Mexico and across the country. So we looked at states like California, Washington, and then other smaller communities, basically, counties. We sent a draft ordinance to the Los Alamos County Legal for review and updates to language. And then we presented the ordinance to the Environmental Sustainability Board last month, where the motion, we basically voted to move towards public comment, which brings us to today. Next slide. Okay, so I just pulled a couple sections from the ordinance, not the whole thing. I believe it's in our packets if you guys need a refresher. But Section 4A says that retail establishments shall not provide or sell to a customer a single-use plastic carryout bag or any other bag or box that is not a reusable carryout bag, recycle content carryout paper bag, or recyclable cardboard box for the purpose of carrying groceries, food, or other goods. And then the next section of section 4b is a bunch of exemptions. There are nine. So one through five, or one through five, so one, provided to customers for use with loose or bulk products, produce, meat or fish, et cetera. So that's basically what you get when we're buying vegetables at the grocery store, or if you have a bag for your chicken so it doesn't get everywhere. The next exemption is provided for prepared takeout food with a potential for leakage, so soups, et cetera. Provided by healthcare providers or veterinarians to contain prescription drugs or medical necessities. Four is provided by laundry or dry cleaning establishments. And then five used to transport or contain live animals. Next slide. And then six through nine. Six, used to transport chemical pesticides or drain cleaning or other toxic chemicals. Seven, used to protect newspapers from inclement weather. Eight, distributed by manufacturers for packaging or preparing goods for display prior to sale. And nine, provided by food banks. Next slide. And then Section 5 comments on the fee for recycled content carryout paper bag. Retail establishments are encouraged to impose a fee for each recycled content carryout paper bag provided to customers in order to offset the retail establishment's cost of complying with this article and to encourage the use of reusable carryout bags. And I think that's it. I do want to point out These photos are of plastic bags that have been taken across the county. So short and sweet. There are a couple other slides if we need to reference them about some of the other, what other communities in the state specifically have done. But I wanted to give everybody on the board a refresher of what the ordinance states.

Thank you, Member Blair. Are there any questions from board members? All right, the next presentation will be from Ms. Meng on the comments we received by email and other platforms.

Hello. Okay. My name is Angel Meng. I'm the Sustainability Office student intern. So a quick history of the plastic bag ban. It was first brought up in 2015 with a citizen petition requesting a plastic bag ban and also a $0.10 paper bag fee. Following that, county council directed to conduct public outreach, and they found that 80.1% out of 251 participants opposed a plastic bag ban, 72.2% of 252 participants opposed reducing the distribution of single-use bags, and this resulted in ESB recommending education rather than regulation. It was brought up again in 2019 when a second citizen petition sought to ban plastic bags, straws, and styrofoam. And then council instead decided to focus on waste reduction initiatives, mostly because of the COVID-19, which is when reusable bags were banned from Smith's so that the spread of disease would be slowed. And then currently in 2025, Council asked ESB to evaluate recyclability alternatives, costs, and impacts of single-use plastic bags. And then in 2026, Council directed ESB to develop a single-use plastic bag ordinance, which is the one that we are discussing today. Okay, so for outreach on this plastic bag ordinance, we put it in our bottom line and sustainability newsletter. We did a press release as well as Chamber of Commerce social media such as Facebook and it was on our website. A quick overview of all the comments we got. There were a total of 213 from email, Cognito forums, and Facebook commentary on county posts, and we found that 66% were in opposition, 28% were in support, 4% gave general feedback, and 3% had a neutral stance. And then comments excluding Facebook, we had a total of 110 through email and Cognito forms. 49% were in opposition, 43% were in support, 7% gave general feedback, and 1% had a neutral stance. So the most common themes from the opponents was single-use plastic bags are not single-use. They stated that bags are often reused for smaller trash cans and pet waste, mostly cat litter, packing materials such as wet items like swimming suits, cleaning messes and general household use such as raw meat. A lot of people also mentioned that they will simply buy single-use plastic bags online if they are banned from stores. Many mentioned buying from Amazon. The next point they made was government overreach versus personal choice. A lot of people voiced that the issue should be left to individual choice rather than government mandates because it limits personal freedom and they believe people should be quote, trusted to make the right choice. They also noted that businesses and citizens could be burdened. Many people think that it should not be put on businesses to come up with reusable bag options, especially for small businesses already struggling. They also note that it could cause increased costs for living increased cost of living for middle class and fixed income residents, and it makes it less affordable for them. Another point was education instead of regulation. They want to focus on voluntary reusable bag use and educate people on how to recycle rather than a bag ban. And also a common sentiment that was shared was people who want to use reusable bags already do use them. They also note that it only addresses a small part of plastic waste, and questions were raised about why grocery bags are being targeted, while items such as plastic food packaging, like meat, cheese, and produce, encased in single-use packaging are not mentioned. People also mention how they don't see it in the streets or see it as a major part of litter, but they more commonly see things such as yard waste or food waste or plastic cups. And lastly, enforcement issues. So how would enforcement occur and whether people will have a paid committee looking for violations and they're concerned that every day of continued use would be a separate offense, who is ultimately going to be punished and many are worried that jail time is excessive. Then the main themes from supporters is that the ban will reduce plastic pollution. People mentioned seeing plastic bags when they go on hikes or when they go to Ashley Pond. They're also concerned that wildlife such as deer, birds, bears, or others may become involved with the plastic, which is a risk to wildlife. And they're worried that plastics will harm health through the microplastics. They support the fact that this would encourage reusable bags because a lot of people already have reusable bags and they believe they are easy to use as long as you bring them to the store with you. They also note that other communities have adapted quickly and so Los Alamos should be able to as well. Another point is that it aligns with climate and sustainability goals, which supporters view banning single-use plastic bags as a responsibility they have to make the environment a better place and reducing their carbon footprint, creating a cleaner environment. community for Los Alamos, again, noting the fact that people see them on hikes or just out in nature in the county. And finally, the point that other communities have succeeded in this. Many supporters argued that residents of other locations have adapted, and so Los Alamos can, and they namely point out Santa Fe as a role model, as well as other locations like Las Cruces, San Diego, and Colorado.

Thank you, Ms. Ming. That was excellent analysis. Are there any questions from the board?

I have a question.

What was the reasoning behind removing or analyzing stuff without the Facebook comments?

We had a comment from one of our board members that perhaps it was skewing the results. Yeah, that makes sense. And if that was an official record of public comment. So just to be clear, we only pulled from the Los Alamos County posts that we posted. Okay. Specific to like the advertisements for the public meetings. Yeah.

Okay. Thank you.

All right. Ms. Gourlay, how many people do we have online from the public?

Chair, there's three individuals online.

Thank you. All right, so now we'll do the public comments segment. So anyone wishing to give public comment, please come up to the microphone and state your name and keep your comments to three minutes or less.

All right, give me one second. I'm going to time everyone, so you have three minutes. Okay, ready whenever you are.

My name is Valerie Shelley, and I am coming before you today. I don't have prepared notes, but basically the gist of what I want to ask you to consider is that in the studies of other places which have enacted bans you did not consider alternatives to actual bans put forth. Have there been other communities who were able to address the apparent trash problems and use of without the big hand of government coming and saying, you must do this and you must pay for it this way. Instead of using persuasive logic and to enable a community to be persuaded to act in the way that those who believe that it is necessary to use reusable bags instead of the so-called single-use bags. And I do not feel that that has been addressed at all. It hasn't been thought of as how can we, is there some way that those people who are most interested in continually bringing this forth. This is the third time we've talked about it. What about those stakeholders anteing up and coming forth and persuading all of us county people to their ideas and to their views? And that way you preserve county council from instead being used as okay if I want to get my way about what I think I don't have to persuade people I just have to get County Council to come in as the big bully and the big hand of government and force everybody to do rather than to use persuasion and I haven't seen any evidence of whether it's been looked into about perhaps there's a way that county council could work with stakeholders who want such a change in the way people work enacted instead of bringing it forth as a government regulation, instead of allowing people to act out of goodwill because they have been persuaded that the reusable bags is the better way to be. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Shelley. Please come up when you're ready.

Hello, my name is Michael Eibling. A brief survey of the attendees here, I do notice that somebody does actually have a very clever solution to this problem, some reusable bags attached to their purse. And I think that's an excellent foray into this. You don't necessarily need to ban the reusable bags for citizens to actually reduce the use of said bags. So I feel like it's a huge example of just government overreach to sit there and ban something when the overall goal is to protect the environment. I mean, it's a great sales pitch, but I don't know that you're actually accomplishing everything when this is a global issue. And there have been multiple studies, I came prepared with seven of them, but I'm not going to go through all of them, that show that the overall impact of banning the reusable, the single use, as you say, plastic bags, has a net negative impact on the environment because the replacements are all more energy intensive to manufacture. So banning these bags would be a key example of unintended consequences with the best of intentions. So what I'm saying is the draft ordinance says the ban may reduce greenhouse gas emissions, fossil fuel use, and that's the claim I want to focus on. A plastic bag ban can reduce the number of bags handed out, But that's not the same thing as reducing the total environmental impact. Studies consistently show that the material weight and actual reuse rate of replacement bags determine whether or not this policy will hurt or help. So the United Kingdom Environmental Agency Life Cycle Assessment Report authored by Dr. Chris F. Edwards and Jonah Mayhoff states that the Threshold of reuse for paper bags needs to be between three and four times to meet the same environmental impact as one of the disposable bags. For nonwoven polypropylene bags, that rises to 11 times. For cotton bags, it's 131 times. And when the study included the real-world fact that about 40% of lightweight bags are reused as bin liners, these numbers rose to 4, 5, 14, and 173, respectively. So they're basically highlighting that the impact is not offset at all unless you meet those thresholds of reuse for the replacement bags. Another study by the United Nations Environmental Program and Life Cycle Initiative in their 2020 report, prepared by Thomas Ekvall, Chris Littal, and Sofia Miluntico of the Swedish Environmental Research Institute, Institute reviewed seven life cycle assessments of single-use plastic bags and alternatives. UNEP concluded that single-use bags are bad for land litter, marine litter, and microplastics, so they do agree on that point, but they often score well in other categories, including climate change, acidification, eutrophication, water use, and land use. That's three minutes. That was already three minutes. My goodness.

And what's your last name again?

Eibling. Michael Eibling.

Eibling?

Eibling.

Eibling. Sorry about that. Thank you, Mr. Eibling.

I was unaware that there was an opportunity to submit comment via email.

You're welcome to give those to me, and I can include it in the record.

Good evening, Chair and Board. My name is Jason Chappell. I currently serve as the Assistant Store Leader of Smith's Marketplace. Tonight, though, I come to you as a citizen of Los Alamos County. First of all, I'd like to say that I appreciate the intent behind the proposal. I think that everyone here shares the goal of having a cleaner community and reducing unnecessary waste. My concern isn't whether it's a goal, but rather this particular approach is most effective use to achieve it. From a business standpoint, I recognize that reducing bag usage could lower costs to retailers like mine. But my greater concern, however, lies in our local small businesses. Independent grocers like the Co-op stores, restaurants, and other small retailers don't have the same ability that we do to absorb the higher packaging costs. And I believe those impacts deserve careful consideration. One question I continue to come back to is how we will define our success. If we reduce the plastic waste is our objective. I hope we consider a broader plastic use throughout the community rather than focusing on one single item. From produce packaging to beverage bottles to frozen products to household goods, plastic is part of every grocery trip. If we are going to address the issue, I hope that we can do so in a way that is comprehensive and truly moves the needle forward. I also believe that there needs to be greater clarity with regard to any fees for alternative bagging. If customers are paying for additional fees, what's the purpose? Is it to simply offset bagging costs or should those funds support recycling and other environmental opportunities and initiatives throughout our community? I think these questions deserve a clear answer moving forward. Finally, I believe education and personal responsibility are just as important as regulation. Many customers already choose to use recycle bags, as noted by Ms. Meng, and I think we should continue encouraging those choices while being careful not to create unintended burdens on our local businesses or adopt regulations that address only a small part of a larger problem. Whatever decision is ultimately made, I hope it reflects a thoughtful balance between environmental stewardship, economic realities, individual responsibility, and the practical experience of businesses that serve our community. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chappelle.

Hello. My name is Joyce Anderson. I have been following this issue since 2015. Back then, I started a group called Save the Bag Los Alamos. Some people really still hate me because of it. But I'm here tonight to voice opposition to a plastic bag ban. And Mrs. Ming Her presentation basically covered all of my prepared remarks. But the thing that I want to focus on is the trade-offs. Alternate bags like cloth or heavier weight plastic bags or non-woven polypropylene bags have their trade-offs. They also have environmental impacts. And it's just... really important to me to let people make the best choices for themselves. 11 years ago when this issue first came up, I had three very small children. Two of them were in diapers. I wrapped up countless amounts of diapers every single day in those plastic bags. My life is very different today, but we reuse those bags every day in our house, and they serve a function. It should also be noted that in 2024, Albuquerque, rescinded their bag ban because after two years they discovered that it was an undue burden on businesses and on families. And yes, we do have the occasional bag out on the trails or in a park, But if we're going to be honest about it, you're more likely to see a soda pop can or a water bottle or a paper or a food wrapper out there littering rather than a plastic grocery bag. They do serve a function and a utility for a lot of people. And it's the penalties that have been written into the ordinance I think are punitive, and I think they could probably raise some Eighth Amendment violations of cruel and unusual punishment. Four days in jail for a petty misdemeanor is ridiculous. So thank you for having this meeting tonight, your consideration, and I would hope that you would take all of our comments My greatest wish would be to table this forever because I would like to never, ever come back down to the municipal building to talk about this. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Anderson.

Good evening. My name's Elizabeth Jones. When I go to Smith's to shop, about 95% of the time I do take my reusable bags, but the other 5% of the time I accidentally on purpose forget them so I can resupply my stash of plastic bags because I don't consider them to be single use. Some of the multiple things they can be used for were mentioned earlier, waste basket liners, wet swimsuits, wet snow boots. I keep a few in my suitcase for dirty clothes when I travel. I keep some in my car for a litter bag. I actually have one in my pocket right now because I'm going to walk home from the meeting, and if I see any aluminum cans I want to pick up, I don't want to get my hands all sticky. Some of these things you could probably do with cloth reusable bags or with paper bags, but not all of them. Pet waste in a cloth bag, uh-uh, that's not happening. Okay. So, again, if plastic bags are no longer distributed at the grocery store, that does not end my need for plastic bags. I'll just have to go out and buy my plastic bags to use for all these things that paper and cloth bags aren't suitable for. So, I too would approve of... Let's educate people to try to, you know, if people aren't using recyclable bags at all, let's educate them to try to reduce their consumption. But I don't think that an outright ban is the way to go about it. It's not going to reduce the amount of plastic bag waste because people who need plastic bags will just find another source for them. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Jones.

Good evening. My name is Lyle Scofield. I live at 3282 Walnut Street. I'm a little concerned about a plastic bag ban for a number of reasons. One, I wouldn't recommend picking up waste with a paper or a cloth bag because the bacteria will go through that. You'll get sick. It won't go through the plastic. So I wouldn't recommend that. When I looked at the comments saying that the plastic bag ban would reduce our carbon footprint, I was prepared to say that that wasn't the case. I actually think it might increase our carbon footprint by the number of automobiles leaving the hill to go shop where there's not a plastic bag ban because people will leave the hill to get to be able to shop where they're not going to be penalized. We just raised grocery seats taxes in Los Alamos. This will not help. We need to be considerate of the business community and what will harm business. If I had my own preference when I go to the grocery store, at my advanced age, I would prefer to take my groceries home in a cardboard box because at my advanced age it's easier to carry the groceries in that way. It's just, this is, it's been tried and several, you've had this come up several times already. Even by your statistics now, the majority of voters in Los Alamos would prefer this not to happen. The majority of people in Los Alamos would prefer not to have this happen. Let's use some common sense and not injure our business community, not do things that are going to harm our community. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Schofield. Does anyone else in chamber want to make comment?

My name is Dawn Marie Maldonado. I'm a resident of Los Alamos County and a business owner. I would echo many of the points that have been made in opposition to the plastic ban, as well as asking what is our overall goal. So if our goal is to get rid of the ugly litter, then let's sponsor more cleanup days or initiatives to get clubs and groups involved and have some sort of encouragement for everybody picking up their trash. Yeah, when I go to the store or I go different places and I see all the garbage collected around the edges, it's gross. I agree. I'm also curious if the board has investigated biodegradable options since everybody has multiple uses for their plastic bags. We need them, but they don't have to stay there forever. So can we partner with the lab or partner with another company that will find a way to create an item that will be more biodegradable, that will ultimately reach our goals without involving government interference in an individual's choice as to what they need for their daily lives? while also encouraging protection of our environment. Because we all live on this planet. We all want it to be a sustainable place. There's a balance to be had. So I would encourage looking into that. I haven't heard that yet. I don't know if biodegradable options have been investigated for bags or for other containers. I know some of the plastic water bottles are now saying, oh, we're made from corn or whatever. The paper straw thing pretty much flopped. Nobody liked those. But if you have straws that can break down, that's all the better. People need to make their choices. When I go to the store or I go to a restaurant, I pass on the straw. I bring my bags. But that's my choice as an individual. It is not the place, I feel, of government to tell me what to do. It is the place of government and of individuals who are interested, nonprofits perhaps, to educate, to encourage, to provide options so that people can make better choices. So I think that would help us reach our overall goals in a better manner. I think everybody's echoing each other. We're all saying the same things. Yeah, we love our environment and we love our bags because we use them for lots of things. If this item is voted down again, let's leave it voted down for a long time. Let's go a decade or two before this is revisited so we can make some progress in technology, we can make some progress in other efforts. I remember when paper was banned to save the trees.

Thank you, Ms. Maldonado.

Hi, Jody Benson, 3547 Pueblo Drive. And yes, we've been working on this since... And we've got to say that it's not a question of science. Plastic bags, microplastics are dangerous to the environment, to humans, to all species. It's not a question of science. It's a question of political will. I want to remind people and everybody, I don't know if anybody in this room is a smoker, but it was in 1957, Our CDC understood that smoking cigarettes was dangerous to health. It wasn't until 2007 that New Mexico imposed a smoking ban in enclosed spaces. So I don't know about you, but I'm happy to have that smoking ban because smoking is a personal choice, a personal habit, but it's unhealthy for me and for the environment. And we're talking about... that people need that families need plastic bags and that the poor kids need plastic bags to bring their lunches to school now we have free lunches and free breakfasts and i think that we can certainly give elementary school kids free cute little plastic tote bags for lunch and um I want to say about, sorry, this is wet. Here is a biodegradable bag I picked up this morning on West Hamas Road. It says here, thank you, reusable and biodegradable. It still is trash. This one, it's wet. I just got it out of the canyon on my way over here. And then this one I fished out from under my neighbor's lilac bush. This is one day of plastic bags. Does anybody need any? It's reusable. These things fit in my pocket. But the other big ones for heavy carry are given out by just about everybody in the community. And that's another thing. It's not up to the retailer to pay for the bag. It's up to the consumer to bring the shopping bag. And for that matter, it isn't about freedom. government imposition about my being able to have a single-use plastic shopping bag. It's about getting a free shopping bag. So I fully support this bag ban, and I think we can do it. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Benson.

Good evening, and thanks for having this forum. My name is Celeste Raffin. I live on 99 Rim Road, and I'm representing myself and my husband. And I'm going to say at the outset that we absolutely 100% are behind a plastic bag ban for Los Alamos County. I did a little spitballing and just research at Smith's over the last two weeks while I was thinking about this, and I came up with the number, I think the average household gets at least 12 bags a week, 12 single-use plastic bags. So let's just do a little math. 12 bags a week times 52 weeks per year is 624 plastic bags per household. Los Alamos County has about 8,000 addresses or households, so that comes to 4,992,000 plastic bags a year. Basically, 5 million plastic bags a year are being used in Los Alamos County. Now, where do these bags go? The overwhelming majority goes into the trash. One use, bye-bye, into the trash, into our landfills. Yes, some are recycled, very small. Yes, some are used, again, for a garbage bag or to bring your lunch. But then they go into the trash. So the overwhelming majority of these 5 million bags are going into the trash every year. What is that costing us as a consumer? Well, my friend Google estimates that each plastic bag costs retailers about two cents. So those five million bags are costing $99,840. So almost $100,000 just for single-use plastic bags. Now we have the trouble with plastic. Now you can look and there's all kinds of estimates on how long a plastic bag sticks around. Anywhere from 20 years to 2000. Who knows? I certainly don't. But I do know that the plastic degrades into microplastics. And microplastics are found everywhere in our environment, in our water, in our air. You can find them down in Antarctica. And the frightening thing is now in autopsy, scientists are finding frightening amounts of microplastics in our brains, in our spinal cords, in our skin, in our soft tissue, in our muscles. Now, plastic bags come from hydrocarbons. Hydrocarbons are coal. Excuse me, hydrocarbons are natural gas and oil. Take a look at the carcinogens in plastic bags, or excuse me, in natural gas and oil. It's a wonderful list. And you guys are worried about red dye number 22? Let me tell you, that's nothing compared to hydrocarbons. Then we have the environmental cost. What does it cost our environment to get that coal, to get that oil, to get that natural gas out of the ground? It costs a lot. And finally, our geopolitical costs. Can you say OPEC? Can you say Strait of Hormuz? Can you say Iran? Can you say Iraq? These are all direct effects of our love affair with fossil fuels. And we have two choices. We can use less or we can dig out more at a huge cost. So I say if we love our children, if we want to protect the generations behind us, Let's make a first step. It won't solve the world, but it's a great first step, and let's get rid of those plastic bags. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Raffin. Anyone else in chamber? Ms. Gourlay, is there anyone online?

Is there anyone online that would like to make a public comment? Please raise your hand. Chair, I don't see anyone raising their hand.

All right. I want to thank everybody who made public comment tonight. We value everything you guys said. I also want to remind you that we have an opening coming up on the Environmental Sustainability Board. And for some of those, some of you who did a lot of work getting prepared for this, we'd sure like to see you on the board. So thank you. And with that, before we have discussion, would someone like to make a motion? I'll motion to oppose. All right. I'll second that. I'm sorry. We already closed it. I let you go, but we already have a motion made on the floor, so it got seconded. All right. I'm going to let her speak, but

My name is Jane Young. I live 2149, 43rd Street. I'm sorry, I have a minor hearing problem, so I didn't catch what everybody said. And I read, which I think that was really well done. About all I can say is that I lived in a foreign country for 10 years, Switzerland, Baird, Switzerland. And when I arrived, this was in the 70s, you took your bag to the store. You took your basket to the store. You just did it. There wasn't a band, but it became part of what the culture was. And so when I hear about personal choice, I like that idea. It is my personal choice. when I go to Smith's or Whole Foods or any, I take my bag. It's not a big deal. And I think whenever I see people load up their little plastic bags, I see the point of that. But I think if we could have a little bit more of an attempt to demonstrate, you know, and I don't know how you're going to do it, it's okay to take your own bag. Even in my purse, I always have a bag with me because it became a part of my life, the culture that I lived in, and it just, was one of those things. So whenever I see people with the plastic bags, I feel like we're going to do a ban. We're going to look at them and ask, what are they doing that for? So I really hope that something happens where there's some kind of persuasion. And you know, Smith's has tried a couple of times to provide some option to the plastic bag, I know. But I just, from my own personal perspective, once it becomes a part of who you are and when you go and you feel like this is something that you feel responsible for, it's really not that hard. So that's really all I have to say. Thank you.

All right. Thank you, Ms. Young. So we have a motion to not recommend That's been seconded. Is there any discussion?

Yeah, I don't feel comfortable voting until we discuss as a board.

Right.

So, okay.

Do you have anything to?

Well, I did do a little bit of research, because I, when looking at the comments, I was concerned about a few things that people brought up, and I just wanted to understand some of them a little better. I couldn't find any data that supports the idea that a ban on bags would hurt small businesses. And I tried really hard to find something meaningful that could support that, and I couldn't find anything. And I don't want to... diminish that fear because I do think that is a very valid concern. But from everything that I could find, there wasn't anything that supported that idea. Let's see what else I looked up. I guess one thing I also want to stress is there's like a scale reduction, right? So if people are reusing their reusable bags or the canvas bags, then that reduces the environmental impact of that bag per use. So I think that's something to consider when we're talking about this. Like, yes, initially those have a greater impact, right? Because they're using materials, but over time they have a smaller impact. And again, there's a ton of research of you have to use it 300 times. You need to use it a thousand times. Like I couldn't find anything that was consistent across the board, which I think is what we have found when we were doing research on this initially. Yeah, I have more to say, but I'll let other people speak.

I guess I'll dive in. I think a lot of good things have been covered this evening, and so I don't want to repeat those. I particularly appreciate the work that people did looking into what's considered to be the total life cycle impacts of different types of bags, because it's really complicated. and people tend to focus on the downstream effects of microplastics in the environment and that sort of thing, but the impacts on human, animal, and environmental health from the manufacturer of the bags that we would be using to replace them is likely to outweigh the impacts of the disposal aspect. But I also wanted to really extend my appreciation To the ESB members and the county staff who worked on this, and to everyone in the community who wrote in, and overall I'm just really impressed by how many people on both sides of this issue clearly care about plastic waste and have changed their own behavior as a result. I really commend the community for caring so much about our environment. A couple of other thoughts that I had that I haven't heard come up this evening were although this first one did, we really do have a community that's wildly enthusiastic about recycling. Our recycling numbers totally support that, but we've really given, I feel, given them little support in reducing plastic use in the first place. There's a whole galaxy of approaches that other communities have taken to this bigger problem, which we could explore if we're interested in having an impact. SECONDLY, I THINK THAT THERE'S SOME LANGUAGE IN THE ORDINANCE ABOUT THE COST OF THE COMMUNITY IN TERMS OF RECYCLING CONTAMINATION. I DID AN ESTIMATE OF THIS BASED ON THE PRESENTATION WE RECEIVED FROM OUR RECYCLING COMPANY BARCO AT THE END OF LAST YEAR AND ROUGH ESTIMATE OF HOW MUCH PLASTIC BAGS MIGHT BE CONTRIBUTING TO THAT CONTAMINATION AND OVERALL I'M GUESSING THIS MIGHT COST US $3,000 A YEAR AS A COMMUNITY, WHICH IS NOT A LOT OF MONEY AND NOT OBVIOUSLY MORE THAN WHAT ENFORCING THIS ORDINANCE MIGHT COST US. I ALSO WANT TO POINT OUT THAT MANY OF THE PEOPLE WHO SHOP IN LAS ALAMOS WHO USE THESE BAGS ARE NOT OUR RESIDENTS AND THEY WOULD BE IMPACTED BY THIS BAN BUT THEY HAVE NO SAY IN ITS ADOPTION. SO I'M UNCOMFORTABLE WITH THIS AS I THINK WE SHOULD BE GOOD NEIGHBORS TO OUR SURROUNDING COMMUNITIES. when making decisions that would affect them. And overall, I think there are just so many bigger sustainable priorities, sustainability priorities, food waste prevention, composting, water and energy conservation, active and shared transportation, efficient affordable housing, heat and wildfire risk that would have much more impact and more support. And I hope we can set aside this bag ban and focus on the many larger issues that our community recognizes

as important and is ready to act on yeah i'll say a few words um so a lot of what was said um i tend to agree with um i i think like ms barnes uh hit it on the head is like i think there are bigger issues within our community that have greater environmental impact than a bag ban Lots of people have spoken up about the fact that really these aren't single-use plastics. I think all the comments that I read, people are using them for other things, trash bin liners. I mean, I won't rehash what everybody said, myself included. That said, I do use recyclable bags or reusable bags when I can, but I also like to stock up on occasion because, you know, why not? I BELIEVE MR. EIBLING HAD SOME REALLY GOOD COMMENTS THAT I TOTALLY SUPPORT. THE THING THAT KIND OF IS AN UNDERLYING TONE FOR ME IS WHAT ARE WE TRYING TO ACCOMPLISH HERE FROM THE STANDPOINT OF RECOMMENDATION TO COUNCIL? WHAT DOES THE COUNCIL REALLY WANT? ARE WE LOOKING AT REDUCING LITTER OR ARE WE CONCERNED MORE WITH THE STATE INITIATIVE TO REDUCE OUR CARBON FOOTPRINT? AND WHEN I LOOK AT RECYCLING PAPER BAGS VERSUS PLASTIC AND THEN, OF COURSE, THE making of probably propylene and cotton, you know, other stuff. It just seems that those have a larger overall environmental impact and kind of, to me, negates the idea of us trying to get carbon neutral from kind of a more holistic standpoint.

Yeah, I'll just make one.

I just have one small comment. I think it's a very valid point that there's more plastic probably from the food containers that you're putting into the bag than the actual bag itself. But this is one aspect that we do have control over. I do think it's worth considering and it is an area where you can make an impact whereas food packaging is a little bit harder to tackle So that's that's pretty much all Remember Chandler You can unmute yourself and Thanks

No, I really enjoyed everybody bringing their opinions and thoughts to bear on this. I mean, one thing that I would say is a little bit in line with what Sue and Jack have said. This is an issue. I try not to use a lot of plastics, but at the same time, there's a lot of stuff going on here. And I think if we fracture the community or try to go too heavy, too hard here, You'll undermine efforts in a lot of other areas that probably do more good. I've heard a lot of stuff tonight predicated on I'm guessing, I'm estimating, in my opinion. And I think that's hard to base the basis of a ban on different things. I think there are other ways that we can look at trying to do the education or trying to quantify this. But the other thing is, as a board member, you have to remember you're representing the community. And I think overall from the statistics that have been laid out and just in terms of the people that have come up and spoken tonight, I think the community is telling us that this is not the direction they want to go. And I think we need to honor that as the board and our considerations in the way that we vote. Thank you.

Can we pull up the presentation again that had the statistics, specifically without the Facebook comments if we're not going to count those as official.

Thank you.

Okay, I have more to say.

One thing I think we've heard a lot is education, and I think we have spent the last 10 years trying to do that. I'm pretty sure, can we go back a couple slides? Sorry, Angelica, I know it's... Keep going. Okay, so... Okay, so in 2015, ESB recommended education rather than regulation. Can you go back or forward one more, too? And then... Okay, so in 2019, there wasn't any more, I guess, yeah, waste reduction initiatives. So that would be education again. I guess I have thoughts on, do we know if this was effective? Like... If we say we're going to educate folks again, like, how do we measure that and how are we going to, like, is our solution we're just going to keep doing that? I don't know. Yeah. I just feel like we need to have a plan. Like, there needs to be a solid plan if that's the goal.

Yeah, I hear you. I think a lot of what a lot of us like to address is the use of plastic in general and what can be done about it. And I'm not sure education is enough. And I know that was mentioned by one of the counselors in council meeting this week or yeah. And, uh, so yeah, so that's something that, uh, maybe could be sent back down to us to look at it or.

Yeah. Like I think I would, depending on what happens obviously, but I think I would request. more robust, like, guidelines for what that means. Like, and I know we have potentially, like, other resources to do that with our environmental, like, our climate outreach subcontractor. So, okay.

Is Smith's the only place to recycle bags right now?

Currently, yes.

Yeah. I mean, has anybody on the council talked about expanding that so it's easier for people to do like in some of the you know other places in the county yeah that I think that came up on Tuesday or it was like I can't remember yeah so one of the counselors did have a proposal for that so I'm just thinking of like the the goal is a reduction in plastic then maybe a solution is is I know we all shop at Smith's and we can all take them but maybe alternatives to Smith's for recycling plastic bags?

Yeah, I think you'd have to consider like the staff costs to support something like that. And I obviously have no idea what that would be, but that could be a heavy lift depending on the range of what's being asked.

Yeah, and we brought up the potential staff, because I'm sorry, I think it must have been last week when it came up. Yeah, it was last week. Yeah. But it could come up again, so. Any final words? All right. Before we take a vote, I just want to reiterate Member Barnes' recognition of the workgroup and staff. We were directed by Council to come up with a proposal. You guys did come up with a proposal. It met Council's guidelines, but I want to reiterate also the general public's opposition to the ban itself. So I want to thank everyone who participated in public comment, whether it was online or tonight. And with that, should we do a roll call vote? Or do you want to just take a...

Sorry, I have a question about the motion that was proposed. one in our packets uh includes um preparing a memo to summarize the board's comments that would be sent to council not um so i think i mean i think that would be important to include if that is the motion that's going to be remember grow would would you like um um

Member Blair could read the suggested motion, and it's still not to recommend, but it's with other things.

Yeah, I support that.

Do you want to read it since you made the first initial motion? No, where is it? It's on here. You just read it.

It's right there. Oh, I see. Yeah. Okay. Yep. Yep. Okay. So I move that the Environmental Sustainability Board board recommend that county council not adopt the draft ordinance and authorize the chair to work with staff to prepare a memo summarizing the board's concerns.

Is the second still there?

Yeah, I still second.

Okay. Should we do a roll call vote or do you want to just do hands?

Whichever you prefer, chair. OK. I'll start online, Joe. Joe Chandler.

I'm in favor of the motion.

Sue Barnes.

I'm in favor of the motion.

Carly Blair.

I'm in favor of the motion.

Dave Hampton.

I'm in favor of the motion. I'm in favor of the motion.

Shannon Blair.

I am in favor of the motion.

Right motion passes unanimously. Thank you for everyone for attending tonight. I know this is precious time that you took to address it, so thank you very much. Our next item is our quarterly climate action plan implementation update.

Can I have one second to say goodbye to Angel? Today's her last day with us here on staff, so thank you so much, Angel.

Thank you, Angel. Great presentation.

Great presentation. You wrote an excellent article for the sustainability newsletter, and I'm sure you provided all sorts of other excellent work for Angelica, so thank you, and good luck.

Sorry, give me one moment. Is it here? Get situated chair, I apologize. I thought it was here. Oop, I didn't want to do that. I had my PowerPoint up and now I can't find it. It's hard to... Goodness. Just searched my email. Okay. Okay. So thank you for this opportunity to present. So one of the things I do, there's only one counselor here, so they won't have to hear it again in a few days. So. And how can I ask a question?

Do you want us to save questions to the end? Oh, yes, please. Okay.

Yes. So one of the things I do in my new role is to provide a quarterly update to council on the climate action work that we're doing as a county. And what I'd like to do, I just wanted to present to you all tonight and see if there's anything else that you think we should add to this. I always appreciate your feedback. So what council adopted, just to ring everyone's bell, was in 2026, we have a strategic leadership plan. Council determines this plan at the beginning of every year. And we have an environmental stewardship, climate action, and resiliency goal. And this is to implement the roadmap for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, achieve carbon neutral energy supply, and increase climate resilience. So we have a big goal to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. This was adopted when we adopted the cap back in 2024. We also have a big goal to become a carbon neutral electric provider by 2040. And we also have a really big goal to phase out natural gas for county operations by 2050 and for the community by 2070. So just for perspective, there is a dashboard on my website. The link is at the bottom of this page. But you'll find... all of the metrics, the performance metrics that we're tracking. So there's 13 goals that we're trying to accomplish for year one and two, and these can be found on our website, and they're also attached to your agenda packet, what those metrics look like. So we update those as things evolve and change. So like I mentioned, we're focused on year one and two. And there's 13 total climate actions that were spelled out for year one and two as part of our roadmap. Just at a glance, we've completed one of those items. We have five ongoing, so they renew annually. There's four in progress and three that are upcoming. So what did we complete? You were all part of the fleet conversion plan and the community-wide EV charging plan that you all helped scrutinize and ask questions about and helped develop along the way, so I appreciate that. That was accepted by council back in October. As part of that was the fleet conversion plan. So to date, as of FY26, We transitioned five of our ICE, what we call internal combustion engines, to five electric vehicles. So we have two in our facilities, one for parks, two for Department of Public Utilities, and then we added one hybrid to our motor pool. And then the plan for this coming fiscal year, we just started our fiscal year on July 1st, is to transition two to four more EVs. So one going to the library, the assessors, transit and Department of Public Utilities. So ongoing actions are to expand community partnerships. As part of the previous discussion, I heard the comment like what can we do to reduce plastics at the state level and overall waste, right? That's a big goal of ours as part of Climate Action Plan to zero waste. So we've been exploring at the state level, we have partners across the state to introduce an extended producer responsibility legislation. And what that does is it makes the producer responsible for managing the waste. So it doesn't fall on the backs of local citizens to manage tires or batteries or paints or things like that. So in I guess in a nutshell, for example, if we introduce this for paint legislation, you would pay maybe a dollar more at the upfront to dispose of the paint. And then we would be able to manage that paint instead of, or actually it would work a little different. The producer would be responsible for managing that paint. So there'd be a fund where you can say we disposed of 500 gallons of paint and they would reimburse you for that disposal. So that's how it's worked in other communities. So we're looking at that at the state level. Two of the biggest hitters are tires because there's tires in a lot of our arroyos across our beautiful state and mattresses is another big one. Paints is another big one. So we're still looking for somebody who might help carry that bill forward. but we have heard a lot of support across the state for this bill, for this type of legislation. So that's how I'm currently expanding community partnerships. We also have our sustainability alliance, we have our board, we have working groups with LAPS, the county, the laboratory, trying to make sure we're all engaged on sustainability initiatives. Abby Hayward, you all have met her. She's in the middle of this picture on the right. She is really working hard to do community energy efficiency and electrification retrofits. And she always has really fun ideas of things that she's doing. But they just launched a new energy efficiency kit. This is an example of an induction stove popcorn maker. So you can try just cooking with induction and see um, how to use that. So we're, that's continuous, um, throughout the year. Uh, another ongoing action is to conduct recycling and composting outreach and education. So this year we had the opportunity to partner with Hemismill and Trail Run and, uh, out of all of this waste, which is like four or 500, 600 pounds, 71 of those was sent to the landfill. So we were able to separate all that material at the Hemismountain Trail Run. You see our little sorting station. So that was a really great way to get involved with the community. Also, we're working on collaborating with Peak to turn old trash roll carts into rain barrels. So if you're interested in that, I think that is coming up within the next month. So it's a great way to reuse the old trash carts and collect water. So one of our other big goals is to expand electric energy resiliency. This is probably the initiative that will move the needle the most towards carbon neutrality. So when this comes online, we'll see our emissions really drop. So currently, Foxtel Flats, they're building 170 megawatt solar array, and they broke ground. That's the middle picture there. That's so exciting. And they're also building 80 megawatts of battery storage. So estimated data completion, it'll be 50% complete, I hope I got my numbers right, by April, and then 100% complete June of next year. So currently, they've done the site clearing and the grubbing. and 20% of the staking. And the picture on the right is the San Juan Solar Project. This is what it should look like when it's done. Another one of our action items is to promote electric vehicle adoption. So we'll do this through education as well. But one thing that we have been doing is installing electric vehicle chargers to make charging easier for those people who don't have the ability to charge at home. And for a lot of our commuters, maybe they'll adopt an EV if they have an ability to charge here at work or things like that. So we're currently installing direct current fast chargers at Mesa Public Library. And our estimated data completion is October. And this project was partially funded with NMDOT grant funds. And you can see all of the conduit and the picture on the left is the pad area for our ADA accessible charging location. Before we build any more chargers for the community, we want to make sure that they're actually being utilized. So what you'll see on the right is actual utilization for this entire year, but these are only for the chargers at municipal building. So we do have a few other chargers like at Peak and the Visitor Center in White Rock, but I only pulled municipal. But I think what's good to note here is that utilization is increasing. They were installed. They went live end of December, like the 31st or something. So you can see how it's increasing. What's also important to note is our financials. So right now the county is subsidizing a portion of the electric usage. And that's something that we want to get away from. So the thought is as utilization goes up, it'll start to balance that out. So I won't go into that anymore unless you have questions. We're also working on our public climate education campaigns. So, oh. Sorry, this doesn't have a date of completion. This will be ongoing. But we launched Give a Shift at Earth Day and at the Peak and DPU Water Festival. And Give a Shift is really to encourage people to shift their behavior to a more environmentally preferable behavior. So our main focus areas are zero waste, energy efficiency, and mobility and transportation. We want people to get out of their single passenger vehicles and ride the bike, ride the bus, carpool, bike, walk, all of those things. So for the past couple of months, we've been building out some of the campaigns. We had a climate action bingo at Earth Day. We're still playing with that, but we're starting to build out some of our assets that we can take around the community. So to the left is like a poster frame that you could pose with. People really like the poster frames at our booths. And then to the right, we're about to launch a pledge wall where you could take a pledge of the action you're taking. And then these stickers would be like kind of just you could take a sticker and show which of the actions you chose. So we've also developed these little icon emojis we've adopted. Abby allowed us to adopt what DP you already created. And we just rolled out other icons like the little apple core to represent food waste. The prickly pear, we went all over the place with that. We've talked about chamisas and what else too. None of them stuck. So the prickly pear was like the cutest and most attractive. The bottom left is a gear to represent like movement and transportation. And of course, the recycle symbol is just classic. and Droppy from DPU to represent water conservation. So, you know, I think our demographic is like young families, right? We really want to appeal to that young family. All right. So what else is underway? Adopting green building standards. This was another goal to promote fossil fuel reduction in new residential commercial. and municipal construction by adopting green building performance standards. So Eli Isaacson, our community development director, is going to give a complimentary presentation on this about the approach that, you know, he's done a lot of evaluation and research on this topic. So we'll hear more about that at council. So what's coming next? So those are things that we've done or we're doing and what's coming next. These are priorities that we'd like to focus on this year is to establish a food composting program. We've been trying to do that for a really long time. And I think we're pivoting to hire a company that would just help us manage it. So they'd collect it. They would manage it. They'd manage our yard trimmings, which is also a big volume of material. So that's our approach there. So right now the RFP has been drafted. We just need to finalize that and then publish it. So really excited about that. But if that moves forward, then we'll focus a lot of our attention on the food waste prevention and food composting. So And then a vulnerability assessment is something that's in queue. Conducting residential energy audits is in queue. Promoting green stormwater infrastructure and low impact development. That's in queue. Mixed use transit oriented development policies. And supporting our local food system. So you'll start to hear more about those as we dive more into them. Just like to give a. nod to the board since you all are helping with a lot of heavy lift with some of these things so three of our board members terms are expiring so we're looking for some new members we just finished developing a recommendation for the proposed plastic bag ordinance we've hosted we helped host the water and energy conservation education at dpu and peak so we got a lot of praise for the game that we hosted at Peak Water Festival this year. We've been at farmer's markets and Earth Days, and we're continuing to contribute to the cap. So if there's anything else you think I should add here, please let me know. And with that, I'll stand for questions or comments.

I have questions.

Okay.

Do we know – also, good job, Angelica, like always. But do we know what Foxtail Flats, like, is going to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions by from electricity, like, over a period of time?

I don't know that number. I just know that it's – I could get that for you if you think that would be helpful.

I think it would be good. And you can use the EPA equivalencies calculator because you can just plug in – Uh, you should just be able to plug in the like megawatt hours and then it'll give you, it's not, it's going to give you an average. I can help you count if we need to calculate it. Cause you, we might need to like pick our current grid mix and then go from there. But I think that would be good.

Yeah. I think Ben Ulbrich knows. I just don't want to misquote right now.

Okay. Definitely. Or ask someone on the utilities board. Yeah. They discuss this fairly often. The numbers that have come to mind are that they, it should provide 50% carbon-free energy for us during the day when it's under, when it's up and running. Yeah. But overall reduce our carbon emissions from electricity by 80% because we're also reducing going to be overproducing electricity and selling that to Sandia and Kirtland. So it's actually going to take a big bite out of our greenhouse gas emissions from electricity generation.

Yeah, I mean, that's like a staggering number. So I think it would be good to highlight that. Thank you. Yeah, I will add that. Can you go back to the Givish Lift slide? This is really nitpicky, just so you know. Sure. go ahead there is uh on the reduced reuse recycle icon thing uh-huh there's like a little i don't know what that is it's like something like something got yeah oh it's a it's because i took a picture of an image but yeah i'll update that okay um

Okay, and then I just have two more things.

If we contract out the yard trimmings, are we still going to have availability for mulch and stuff for the community?

For sure, mulch. We'll have to determine, well, we'll have to determine all of that because we'll still be sending mulch down to Bio Canyon for the biosolid composting operation.

Yeah.

So we may be able to keep some. Okay. And also it's not clear. if the person we or people, company we contract with, how much of the mulch they'll be able to take from us. So all those pieces need to be worked out still.

Okay. And then my only other comment is for the vulnerability assessment and the low impact development. That's definitely room for collaboration with LANL since we did the VARP in 2023. Yeah. which is the vulnerability. And then there's a big push to do low impact development as well. So I can help you if need be. Great. Yeah. Okay. Thank you. Thank you.

I just have a comment. Sure. Angelica connected me with Abby Hayward for that rain barrel event. So I'm going to be volunteering for that. So if anybody wants to join, I think it'll be fun. So yeah, thanks for connecting us.

Oh, good. You're welcome.

Anyone else? I just want to say that working with the bingo thing and asking, you're already doing the trial runs on having people make commitments to what they're going to do. choose reduced water use. And a lot of the people we've been working with are the younger people. And so we actually have to tell them that they can't say take, not take showers anymore.

Oh yeah, that was, they loved that.

Alright, thank you. That's excellent.

I didn't include a staff report this time just because I gave you an update on everything I'm working on, but I know you all really enjoy the residential sustainability report, so it's in there for your viewing.

Thank you. Yeah, I'm sorry if you have public comment, go ahead.

I'm Lyle Schofield. I live at 3282 Walnut Street. I have an RFP for composting. Why not just teach people how to do that at home? When I was a kid and it was canning season, we were taught to take it out and in next year's garden space we buried the peels and everything that we didn't need to. That was composting. If we could just teach people how to do that at home, it's education. It's much simpler and it doesn't cost a fortune. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Schofield. So, I just want to say that a lot of that education is currently going on and the RFP is more for restaurant generated waste, right? So...

Yeah, there's a lot to it. I mean, in a nutshell, we've done a lot of studies about this, but we're starting with, we will be starting with commercial restaurants to begin with, maybe schools partnering with the lab and their cafeterias, and having drop-off locations for residents. That's how it's currently planned, just because it's a Starting with fewer customers is easier than rolling out a program to 8,000 households across the community. So that's our approach right now. But thank you. We have done a lot of education to encourage backyard composting and things like that. Unfortunately, we also have a bear problem. So we're trying to juggle both of those issues.

I just have a question. What is the RFP?

Request for Proposals. Oh, okay. It's our solicitation process for a contractor.

Oh, okay. Okay. I didn't know if it was something that board members should read or could read or if that's more of like your...

When it goes live, you can read it.

Okay. Thanks.

All right. There's no chair's report. Board of Public Utilities report?

So the meeting last night got moved to next week. Unless I'm totally wrong. And in that case, I didn't go. But I'm pretty sure it's next week.

Okay.

All right. Next one's T-Board. And we didn't have a meeting this July. And did someone attend Parks and Rec for Eric? No. All right. So there's no Parks and Rec. Council liaison report. Councilor Hand.

Good evening, everybody. I just have a few items that I wanted to bring up from the last couple council meetings. I'll make it short. I know we've had some extended conversations tonight, and I appreciate all the work that you have done on the two subjects that were discussed tonight. For July 14th, I'm going to just go over some of the things that would be most relevant to the ESB. And, you know, we had a demonstration of the community dashboard for performance metrics. And I thought the presentation was really good. I think we had several compliments to Dave Kruger who made that presentation. He went over a variety of different areas of the database and website that presented information on like our housing projects, et cetera, and how to find that information. It was very good. Anyway, how this relates to the ESB is that there are going to be, performance metrics for every part of the county and this all relates to the leadership strategic plan and that all rolls down to your work plans so you know you you may have some metrics that you're currently working on you know you you would potentially reevaluate those every year to determine, you know, what your goals are, and then also have a comparison, maybe benchmarking from other communities. And as Anne Laurent mentioned, this would possibly be through the community survey. This is a good opportunity to look at where we stand in comparison to other communities around the U.S. We also had a presentation on the comprehensive plan, and that will be ready as a draft, you know, in the upcoming months. And the comprehensive plan is planned to be completed by the end of this calendar year. We also had an overview of a focus area called operational excellence. And I won't go into much of that, but, you know, each of the focus areas that are in the strategic leadership plan are presented to council on a periodic basis just so we know where things are in the different departments of the county. That's really all that I have other than I think there's going to be, we had an approval for three-year Microsoft enterprise enrollment agreement, you know, for basically updating Microsoft software and that will affect everybody in the county. For July 7th, the thing that I thought was most relevant, We did have a presentation on the council's strategic focus area for economic vitality and economic development. And probably most relevant was a presentation. It was late in the evening. I think that meeting lasted until about 11.20 that night, so. Everybody was pretty tired by the time they got to this presentation, but there was a discussion and a possible request for the Environmental Sustainability Board, totally relevant to you, to evaluate expanding recycling services. And this was for plastics, single-use plastics. So... In a nutshell, the motion was to request ESB's further evaluation of how we recycle single-use plastics. The motion was voted down four to three. So I think there's probably going to be further discussion. The one part of the motion that was directing the ESB to look into this further was where I think some counselors had some issues in voting yes on plastic recycling. So it's not totally dead. It's just that the council is not going to ask the ESB to pursue that investigation. That's all I have, unless you have any further questions.

I guess I'm curious as to why you didn't want us to look into that.

Are we bad? There's a specific reason. It was because the input that we received during that presentation was that the ESB has too much on their plate.

I would agree with that.

So I think that's the reason why, is totally just about the amount of work that you already have on your plate. Not that you couldn't provide good input to us, but you have lots of different things you're working on. So anything else? Okay.

Thank you, Counselor Hand.

Thank you.

All right. Sustainability lines.

We didn't meet this month.

All right. That's easy. Education outreach. That was covered under.

Yeah, it was covered.

All right. Preview of coming agenda items. Will we be getting the biosolids?

Yes.

Next month? Excellent. Anyone else have any other updates for us?

I think this will be Sue's last meeting, too. So thank you, Sue, so much for everything. And she's still going to continue to help with climate action work. So I feel like she's not going to go too far.

Thank you, guys. I'm sorry to see you go.

I do have a question. Because in your presentation, you said that three people's terms were expiring. Three. Who else?

Sue, Carly, and Jack. Oh, okay. Yeah, they're in a partial term. Oh, I'm like, no, you haven't been here for two years. Carly and Jack are able to reapply. Okay.

And Shannon, you're coming out?

No, I did a partial year term. So next July. Next July.

Okay.

Yeah.

I was confused.

Yeah.

All right. And with that, we're adjourned.