HomeMy WebLinkAboutFebruary 11
Environmental Initiatives Committee
Minutes
DATE: Monday, February 11, 2008
TIME: 7:30pm
LOCATION: Parks & Recreation Building
26379 Fremont Road
Los Altos Hills
1. Roll Call: The following were present: John Harpootlian, Lew Jamison, Mark
Jensen, Breene Kerr, Steve Schmidt, Raj Reddy & Jay Shideler.
2. Committee acceptance of the minutes: All present acceptance the 1/21/2008
Minutes as-is.
3. Concept for establishing Goals and setting Priority: Jay described a format for
establishing priorities for EIC activities, which are based on value and timing. Also,
he presented an outline format for the EIC activities divided up into 4 groups: Energy,
Recycling, Water and Miscellaneous. Both these documents are attached to these
minutes. These minutes, henceforth, shall follow this format of denoting priority as
(Value-Time) until further notice. “Value” and “Time” are expressed as one of three
letters: “H” – high, “M”- medium or “L” – low.
Energy:
1. Energy renewable & energy consumption reduction – (H-H):
• Residential (Steve) - (H-H): Steve discussed efforts to engage PG&E
to determine LAH resident high energy users and how to help them
reduce their usage – he showed a plot of cities vs. per capita energy
users which showed LAH among the top users. Plan is to identify the
top 5% of users and offer them an audit. Additionally, Peter has asked
Cal Cahill to purchase 10 Kill-o-Watt meters to be loaned out and
administered by the EIC – Peter to follow up. Concerning article on
pool pumps, write an article for LAH Newsletter (Ian, Breene).
• Town Hall (Mark/Walt) – (H-H): Kick-off meeting with FSI’s Allan
Pong is set for Friday at 10:00AM at the Town Hall.
• Regulations & Ordinances (Peter) – (H-L): no new activity
• Residential Smart Metering/Energy Simulation (Peter) (H/M): no new
activity
2. Solar Energy Generation – (M-M):
• Town Hall tracker (Jay) – (M-H): SolarCity will replace the sensor of
the faulty tracker by Tuesday, February 12, 2008.
• Solar website monitoring (Breene/Jay) – (M-M): no new activity
• Town new solar permits (Jay/Breene) – (L-M): Discussion of the
Town getting involved in financing schemes was tabled for now.
3. Fuel consumption (LAH government) (Breene) – (M-M): no new activity
Recycling:
1. Negotiation of new garbage contract (Jay) – (H-H): Jay met with the
consultant to review both refuse-collection contracts. Make a presentation to
the Town Council on February 28, 2008 with recommendations (Jay).
2. Residential trash/garbage to the landfill (Jay) - (H-M): Recycling
reclamation by LAG Co. is running about 60-62% according to the most
recent data.
3. Building recycling & demolition (Ian?) – (M-M) no new activity
Water:
1. Landscape Water & Conservation Guidelines (John) – (H-M): no updates
2. Mandatory Irrigation Ordinance (John) – (H-H) John spent some time
reviewing the California Code & Regulations, Title 23 Water Landscape
Ordinance, which will require all residences of California with landscapes
equal or greater than 2,500 square feet to adhere to by 2010. Thirty days are
allowed for comments to be received by the State. Many concerns were
expressed by the EIC especially concerning required audits by residents at
their expense and other onus issues. Time is of essence for the Town Staff
and Town Council to review this ordinance – John to coordinate and
spearhead.
3. Little League Field (John) – (H-H) A meeting will be held with the
consultant, Mr. Reed Dillingham, Wednesday, February 13 to review his
analysis – Jay & John to attend.
Miscellaneous:
1. EIC Website (Lew) – (H-H): Discussion pursued concerning the requirement
that any and all LAH Town standing committees cannot upload any
information to a website. This includes any website connected to the Town by
a link and/or affiliated with the EIC. The committee expressed acceptance to
proceed with the EIC website with the link to the LAH Town website but to
have the Town government upload submitted documents. Lew has
established an EIC website and is soliciting inputs for the “look and feel” of it.
Contact Karen Jost to formalize the website and establish the proper
infrastructure and procedures (Lew).
2. Sustainability in the Hills (Steve/Jay/Breene) – (M-H): Jay and Steve
attended a meeting called by Anna Allioto of Hidden Villa to review the plan
for the one-month long (April) conservation program. Anna is inviting the
mayors of San Francisco, San Jose and others (including the Governor of Ca.)
to attend. Anna wants information from the EIC to upload to their website.
Bring up to Town Council the desire for LAH Town to get engaged into this
program, to integrate Earth-Day into this program and to get involved in
enhancing activities, such as, a tour of the Town Hall and its solar installation,
presentation of recycling by the Town refuse collector/recycler, etc. (Breene).
3. Affiliations (Jay) – (H-M) still no information on whether the LAH Town has
joined ICLEI or the Climate Protection Task Force – needs follow-up (Jay).
Next Meeting: Monday, March 17, 2008 at 7:30PM (Parks and Recreation
Building).
JAS 2/11/08