Loading...
12/19/2007 ENVIRONMENTAL ADVISORY BOARD MEETING MINUTES CITY OF CLEARWATER Wednesday, December 19th, 2007 in the MSB Conference # 221 @ 4:00pm Present: D. Michael Flanery Chair Richard Packman Board Member Joseph A. Calio Board Member Also Present: Ed Chesney Environmental Manager Veronica Josef Senior Staff Assistant Anna Fusari Citizen Absent : Sandra Jamieson Board Member Ron Gregory Board Member Leslie Dougall Sides Asst. City Attorney II Bullet Points: Alternate Member for the EAB • Pursue Green Building initiatives through changes to building codes • Declaration of Cooperation of the Tampa Bay Nitrogen Management Consortium • MINUTES AWAITING APPROVAL called the meeting to order at 4:00 p.m. in the MSB Building, Conference Room # 221 The Chair Mike Flanery To provide continuity for research, items are in agenda order although not necessarily discussed in that order. 1.APPROVAL OF MINUTES he minutes of October 17, 2007 under Item # 9 Discussion Items, Green EXPO to th Minor corrections to t read “Chair Mike Flanery stated that at least three EAB members will be attending the Green EXPO and this will be a great opportunity to highlight the City’s green activities.” 2. CITIZENS COMMENTS None 3. REPORT ON USF PROJECT Ed Chesney stated that Sandra Kling from USF will become an intern with the City of Clearwater, performing a Greenhouse Gas Inventory, which comes directly from the US Mayors Conference Goals. EPA has developed a software that the City can use. Action plan will be written by Sandra Kling based on the Greenhouse Gas Inventory. Environmental Advisory 12-19-07 1 4. UPDATE ON ALTERNATE MEMBER FOR THE EAB Ed Chesney stated that Leslie Dougall Sides scheduled an Agenda item “Alternate Member for the EAB”. The Council members will receive 1 on 1 briefing as none of the other advisory boards other than the CDB have an alternate member. Chair Mike Flanery made a motion that “The EAB will pursue requesting that an alternate position to be established for the Environmental Advisory Board” which is also a follow up to the Mayor’s previous suggestion . All the EAB board members were in favor of the motion. Chair Mike Flanery also stated that the EAB would like Citizen Anna Fusari to be recognized at future EAB meetings as a special invited guest. 5. DISCUSSION ITEMS Ed Chesney distributed the “Declaration of Cooperation of the Tampa Bay Nitrogen Management Consortium” and stated that the Nitrogen Consortium Group was developing reasonable assurances for the FDEP and EPA concerning old Tampa Bay, and asking all the cities and municipalities to buy on to their approach. They need a formal declaration from the City. Nan Bennett, Assistant Director Public Utilities will discuss at the next EAB meeting how Engineering/Uilities department is a major stake holder as the City of Clearwater has waste water treatment plants that discharge into Tampa Bay. Other discharges are Non Point Sources that comes through our stormwater, net work, through creeks, culverts and ponds. Nan Bennett will be presenting this item to the Council asking the Council to support the Tampa Bay Estuary effort. Ed Chesney also distributed “Greening Clearwater” from the Clearwater Audubon Society which Clearwater could easily adopt if this is brought up to the Council. The main purpose was to: - Reduce fertilizers and pesticides through a combination of regulation and education. (Sarasota recently enacted fertilizer regulation) - Goal was to protect the health of humans, wildlife and bodies of water specially Tampa Bay. Chair Mike Flanery stated that we need to identify Nitrates city wide. Nitrates are harmful and need to be reduced to improve our water quality. Chair Mike Flanery also suggested Parks & Rec. consider installing trash cans at strategic locations along the water for disposals. Member Joe Calio stated that a new company “Evergreen Energy” (EEE) came up with an instrument that measures greenhouse gases from power plants. 5. ESTABLISH AGENDA Focus on the following programs from the USF Students Report for recommendation to the City Council : - Community Gardens. - Solar Park - Trash/Sludge - Green Certification - Green Building Ordinance Change - Nitrates. Environmental Advisory 12-19-07 2 .. . . 7. Date of next meeting The next EAB meeting will be a Work Session, Wednesday, January 16th, 2008 at 3:00 pm. 8. Adjournment The meeting was adjourned at 6:15 p.m. // /,/ // / ..~ /1- tic b Dated . icb anery. Chair Environmental Advisory Board Attest: V\ ,- c ! eV 0 v~~" ,~_\ l~i,~ C , - Veronica Josef Senior Staff Assistant ,) \ ::<.. t, ( C ,(}- Dated Environmental Advisory 12-19-07 3