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Home My WebLink About2021-06-14 SSC Minutes.4gSI/ CIN OF CHULA VISTA REGULAR MEETING OF THE SUSTAINABILITY COMMISSION Meeting Minutes June 14, 2021, 5:00 p.m. Virtual, Via Teleconference Present: Commissioner Baugh, Commissioner Guevara-Gluyas, Commissioner Korgan, Commissioner Richeson, Commissioner Rodriguez, Vice Chair Legaspi, Chair Mathias Also Present: Chief Sustainability Officer Gakunga, Environmental Sustainability Manager Wisniewski, Environmental Services Manager Medrano, Secretary Rodriguez Pursuant to the Governor of the State of California's Executive Order N-29-20, and in the interest of public health and safety during the COVID-19 pandemic, members of the Sustainability Commission and staff participated in this meeting via teleconference. All votes were taken by roll call. 1. CALL TO ORDER A regular meeting of the Sustainability Commission of the City of Chula Vista was called to order at 5:08 p.m. via teleconference. 2. ROLL CALL Secretary Rodriguez called the roll. 3. CONSENT CALENDAR (Items 3.1 - 3.3) Moved by Commissioner Richeson Seconded by Vice Chair Legaspi 1 Commission approve the recommended action on the below consent calendar items. Yes (4): Commissioner Baugh, Commissioner Richeson, Vice Chair Legaspi, and Chair Mathias Abstain (3): Commissioner Guevara-Gluyas, Commissioner Korgan, and Commissioner Rodriguez Carried (4 to 0) 3.2 WRITTEN COMMUNICATIONS Commission approve the absence 3.3 APPROVAL TO GRANT AUTHORITY TO THE SUSTAINABILITY COMMISSION CHAIR TO SEND THE ATTACHED MEMORANDUM TO THE MAYOR AND CITY COUNCIL AS A RECOMMENDATION IN SUPPORT FOR ASSEMBLY BILL 881 Commission approve the memorandum and grant the authority to the chair to transmit to the Mayor and City Council ITEM REMOVED FROM CONSENT CALENDAR 3.1 APPROVAL OF REGULAR MEETING MINUTES OF MAY 10, 2021 Moved by Commissioner Richeson Seconded by Commissioner Baugh Motion was made to replace the last sentence of paragraph one in item 5.1 with the following, City Clerk Bigelow also clarified that staff recommendations are not part of agenda items, but are provided to inform the public of possible actions that could be taken on agenda items. Yes (5): Commissioner Baugh, Commissioner Korgan, Commissioner Richeson, Vice Chair Legaspi, and Chair Mathias Abstain (2): Commissioner Guevara-Gluyas, and Commissioner Rodriguez 4. PUBLIC COMMENTS KA Carried (5 to 0) Chair Matthias called for a two -minute pause to allow members of the public to submit any final electronic comments. Secretary Rodriguez announced that no comments had been received. 5. PRESENTATIONS 5.1 UPDATE ON CHULA VISTA'S ORGANIC WASTE DIVERSION PROGRAM AND LANDFILL OPERATIONS Giovanna Castro, Municipal Administrator for Republic Services outlined the community outreach and education fund for the food and yard waste collection program. In 2016 SB 1383 was signed, the law requires the state to reduce organic waste which includes food waste, green waste and paper products disposal by seventy-five percent by the year 2025. The law also requires the state to increase edible food recovery by twenty percent. In January of 2022 regulations will take into effect and all residents and businesses in the state will be required to divert organic waste from the landfill. All Chula Vista residents will receive a kitchen caddy in order to transport their food scraps from their kitchen to their green waste bin. All organic waste for the city will be processed in to compost at the Otay composting operation located at the Otay landfill. Republic services will work along with the city to make residents and businesses aware of this change. A new website was launched specifically for Chula Vista, RepublicServices. corn/Chula VistaCA, that provides educational material. (Veil Mohr from Republic Services was available to provide answers to the commissioners regarding the difficulty of enforcing this and ensuring residents and businesses are complying. Republic Services has selected a turbo separator made by Scott Equipment Company named Thor or Mega Thor also called a hammer mill in which food waste and plastics are placed in and the mill has a mechanism that actually separates the plastic, pulverizes the organic material and it is squeezed out through screens ensuring that plastics are removed from the organics. This method has been successfully used for the past two years in Anaheim. Chair Matthias called for a two -minute pause to allow members of the public to submit any final electronic comments. Secretary Rodriguez announced that no comments had been received. 5.2 SAN DIEGO COMMUNITY POWER Conservation Specialist Downs presented on the San Diego Community Power phase two which launched in June and focuses in businesses enrollment. San Diego Community power is a public non -for-profit provider 3 of clean electricity that does not provide natural gas or distribute electricity, it purely purchases the electricity and then works with CA ISO and SDG&E to distribute the electricity. Phase three will begin in May of 2022 for Chula Vista. Currently the San Diego Community Power rates are about one percent below SDG&E. Things that are not changing is customers still will only receive one bill from SDG&E, service reliability and discounts. Carolyn Scofield shared an update about legislation and regulations pertaining to SDCP. Chair Matthias called for a two -minute pause to allow members of the public to submit any final electronic comments. Secretary Rodriguez announced that four comments had been received. 6. ACTION ITEMS 6.1 DISCUSSION AND ACTION ON THE PROPOSED REVISIONS TO AMEND CHULA VISTA MUNICIPAL CODE CHAPTER 2.32.060 "MEMBERSHIP" TO INCREASE THE NUMBER OF COMMISSIONERS SERVING IN THE SUSTAINABILITY COMMISSION FROM SEVEN TO NINE Chair Matthias called for a two -minute pause to allow members of the public to submit any final electronic comments. Secretary Rodriguez announced that one comment had been received in support. Moved by Commissioner Baugh Seconded by Commissioner Richeson Motion to approve the increased membership of commissioners serving in the Sustainability Commission from seven to nine with the new members being a high school youth and a young adult serving a two-year term. Yes (5): Commissioner Baugh, Commissioner Guevara-Gluyas, Commissioner Richeson, Vice Chair Legaspi, and Chair Mathias Abstain (2): Commissioner Korgan, and Commissioner Rodriguez Carried (5 to 0) 6.2 DISCUSSION REGARDING ANNUAL REPORT OF ACTIVITIES FOR FY 19-20 AND FY 20-21 AND AUTHORIZING THE CHAIR TO WORK WITH STAFF TO FINALIZE AND SUBMIT REPORTS TO THE CITY CLERK 0 Deputy City Attorney Silva shared that this annual report of activities is a summary of activities performed by the commission and provided some examples of what should be included. Chair Matthias called for a two -minute pause to allow members of the public to submit any final electronic comments. Moved by Commissioner Richeson Seconded by Commissioner Rodriguez Motion was approved to authorize the Chair to work with staff to finalize and submit the annual report of activities for FY 19-20 and FY 20-21. Yes (6): Commissioner Baugh, Commissioner Guevara-Gluyas, Commissioner Richeson, Commissioner Rodriguez, Vice Chair Legaspi, and Chair Mathias Abstain (1): Commissioner Korgan Carried (6 to 0) OTHER BUSINESS 7. STAFF COMMENTS Environmental Sustainability Manager Wisniewski shared that the Second Annual Summer Sustainability series starts this coming Thursday, June 17th. She also shared that in a meeting earlier in the day the Climate Emergency Declaration Subcommittee welcomed it's new member, Commissioner Legaspi and their next meeting will be held on July 27th. Conservation Specialist Downs shared that he will be speaking at the upcoming webinar on June 17th. He will also be presenting to the local government sustainable energy coalition on July 1st along with Conservation Specialist Locci on the recent building ordinances both the residential and commercial side and cool roofing here in Chula Vista. Environmental Services Manager Medrano shared that all Chula Vista residents will be receiving an educational mailer on the organic waste program. He also shared that he is inquiring with EDCO about the tour that the commissioners requested, the tours being available starting in August. Finally, she shared that the city was awarded a grant by CAL Recycle to equip parks on the west side with recycling containers. 5 Chief Sustainability Officer Gakunga shared an update on his second meeting with Gina McCarthy who is the the domestic climate advisor for the Biden-Harris administration and they are very open in terms of engaging with climate mayors. Their last meeting was focused on ways in with climate mayors can help inform the federal government in terms of opportunities to open up federal resources and make the federal programs more effective. 8. CHAIR'S COMMENTS Chair Mathias shared that she will be scheduling a plastics recycling plant tour up in San Bernardino and asked if any commissioner were interested to let her know in order to plan accordingly to avoid any Brown Act violation. 9. COMMISSIONERS' COMMENTS Commissioner Richeson spoke on the water shortage issue in the Colorado River. The City of Las Vegas has passed an ordinance that requires the elimination of all non-use grass to be removed as a method of saving water. He asked for a report back from the city as to what the plan looks like while facing a water shortage emergency. 10. ADJOURNMENT The meeting was adjourned at 8:28 p.m. Minutes prepared by: Monica Rodriguez, Secretary ,-L,w �� e Monica R driguez, Secr [:i