Approved Minutes - 2021-05-17
CITY OF LAKE OSWEGO
Sustainability Advisory Board Minutes
May 17 2021
Call to Order / Roll Call
Kathleen Wiens called the May 17, 2021 meeting of the Sustainability Advisory Board (SAB) to order at
6:30 p.m. over Zoom.
Members Present: Buzz Chandler, Jay Hamachek, Matt Schaeffer, Steph Glazer,
Susan Mead, Kathleen Wiens, Ben Connor, Paul Soper, Councilor
Verdick
Members Excused/Absent Mark Puhlman, Kelsey Yutan
Staff: Jenny Slepian, Sustainability and Management Analyst
Public: Duke and Jan Castle
Announcements from Board and Staff
Kathleen- transition to Electric LOSN event went well. Founder of American Green Zone Alliance
speaker.
Jay- Recapped the work of a group working on WWTP sustainability input
Matt had a new baby! Also been doing some work on the Multifamily EV work. Duke added that they
have worked through the list of apartments and condos, put together a survey form and discussion
guide for going out to talk to people.
Buzz is working with Jaguar/Land Rover about types of EVs to move forward with.
Jenny gave updates on working with the Interns. Ridwell is still taking up enormous amounts of time.
May involve legal challenges. Design Charettes for WWTP and new recreation building. SB 784 inputs
and meeting.
Approval of Minutes
April Minutes were approved.
Public Comment
Jan Castle gave an update on working with PrepLO about how to use school buildings in emergency
situations. Interested in recommendations to Council about climate adaptation and using the schools.
Thinking that the new middle school could be used as a safe air shelter? Building could be sealed off,
also new filtering system could be used to ionize air. Notes and info will be handed over to Don Johnson,
who will coordinate with the city. Tony Vandenburg from LOSD would be the point person.
Regular Business
A. Review Agenda
Kathleen Wiens reviewed the meeting agenda.
City of Lake Oswego Sustainability Advisory Board Minutes
May 17, 2021
Page 2 of 3
B. City Council Update
Councilor Verdick was absent but shared that the City Council would be getting a presentation on HB
2001 tomorrow.
C. Solar Goal
826 kW installed so far in 111 net metered projects. City projects contribute 92 kw. Another 200 will
come from the new middle school by November. Paul asked what percentage was residential? It’s a fair
amount of residential. This item is almost complete to meet the 2021 resolution goal. This data does not
include new City Hall, and the new WWTP and Rec Center will also have solar.
Steph asked if there is anything the board needs to do to update the Council by year end- we will include
it in the progress report to the City Council after verifying it with more detailed data from PGE about the
mix.
Susan asked if we would then have a new solar goal? Unlikely that we would. The original solar goal
came to us from Environment Oregon. We can always do outreach to large office parks and work on
design standards to make rooftops more amenable to solar. Always have to look at tension between
trees, village design standards, and solar- those are other areas to look at.
Jay asked about total energy usage in LO- 313 million kWh.
Paul added that older buildings don’t have roofs designed for solar, they just aren’t strong enough. SAB
could look into design guidelines and creating a carve out for solar so that they are not an impediment.
Jenny suggested working with the planning commission on this.
Jay suggested that Biden administration will free up more funding for local renewables and microgrids.
Stephanie recapped: evaluate status, check in with LOSD, in Q4 come up with a calculation and report it
back out. Jenny added that it would be fine to sign off on this, and then update the SCAP with new
actions around solar in the progress report.
Matt asked if we consider the lake as a source for hydro power- Jay answered that they are occasionally
used in large storm events, but water rarely goes over the spillway.
D. PGE Drive Change Fund Application
Jenny updated the board on the PGE Drive Change Fund grant application for an electric shuttle bus for
the ACC. The ACC was chosen because it serves several “environmental justice” communities, including
seniors, people with disabilities, and low-income residents. Provides clean energy solutions to those
populations. Shuttle bus will be from Lightning e-motors. We will also apply for a charging station. Total
application will probably be for $250k.
50 plus board will write a letter in support. Looking for a letter from SAB on how this meets our SCAP
goals. Jay added that 30% of our footprint is transportation, so this helps reduce emissions and act as a
demo project for the city. Buzz added that this is another step to serve as an example for the
population.
Steph went through the recommendations made to the City Council in March and the fleet goals we
had. She suggested some points about how the grant can help us reach these goals. The board discussed
some talking points for a letter to PGE, particularly around this being a “reach” vehicle- heavy duty, not
typically included in EV projects. Would be great to have this as a rolling dvertisement for EVs.
Steph will put a draft together and send it around for thoughts.
City of Lake Oswego Sustainability Advisory Board Minutes
May 17, 2021
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E. SCAP Update
Not a whole lot to add from last month.
Jenny has so far:
Contacted a group of people to update the adaptation goals
Working with PGE on fleet funding application (Rachel Sykes in PW)
Ben updated progress on the sustainability certification program. The Board gave feedback on the
amount of time people would have available, and Stephanie suggested including younger kids. Still
working on the verification side of it.
Support for SB 784 to reduce our Scope 2 emissions
Kathleen asked if we have made any progress on the climate and sustainability impacts on Council
reports. We have not yet, still need more input and make sure that it doesn’t put too much work onto
the sustainability analyst to review every staff report. Could be a lot of work and create a logjam for staff
trying to get staff reports in on time.
Steph had some feedback: for SB 784, she had questions about the additional charge on bills and the
equity implications and how do people get information about opting out? Jenny will ask PGE, but the
costs will still be lower than existing Green Source program. She also asked how we have shown
support- we have added logo to PGE one-pager.
We ended by saying thank you to Paul Soper, who will have his last meeting with us in June!
Adjournment
Kathleen Wiens adjourned the meeting at 8:30 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Jenny Slepian
Sustainability and Management
Analyst