The City Council is continuing to question the city administration regarding the proposal for Jamestown to adopt the New York State Climate Smart Communities pledge. One of the council’s main concerns is how the pledge could potentially impact the Board of Public Utilities. Pictured are Sarah Swinko, environmental planner from Southern Tier West, and members of the City Council. P-J photo by Timothy Frudd

Jamestown City Council members still have a lot of questions about the city administration’s proposal to adopt the New York State Climate Smart Communities pledge.

Chief among them is the effect on the Board of Public Utilities and who among the city administration would lead a required task force. Council members discussed the Climate Smart Communities pledge twice this week, with many questions reiterated from past discussions.

WHAT DOES THE BPU SAY?

During the City Council Finance Committee’s most recent meeting, Doug Champ, a city resident, questioned whether the Board of Public Utilities is supportive of the New York State Climate Smart Communities pledge.

“If they haven’t passed on this, the biggest greenhouse gas emitter is the turbine,” he said. “They need to understand this. The board of BPU has to pass on this. If they haven’t passed on this, why was this even brought up to you?”

City Councilwoman Marie Carrubba, D-Ward IV, acknowledged that Champ presented a “good question. She emphasized the need to have Dave Leathers, BPU general manager, present the BPU’s perspective of the Climate Smart Communities pledge at a City Council meeting.

Champ suggested that the City Council should table the resolution until they receive input from the BPU regarding how it the Climate Smart Communities pledge would affect the day-to-day operations of the utility company. Champ added that the pledge is “not clear” and would require Jamestown to follow through with future projects to address climate issues.

“I often say that what we have in front of us are programs and projects and opportunities, but nobody knows the return on investment and what it is going to cost the city and the taxpayer down the road,” he said. “It can’t be done until you know what you’re going to have to do.”

City Council President Anthony Dolce, R-Ward II, admitted that the Climate Smart Communities pledge would affect the BPU more than anyone else if the city decides to adopt the pledge.

Champ also pointed out that the “whole purpose” of the Climate Smart Communities pledge is for municipalities to not only adopt a pledge but move forward with climate change initiatives and projects.

“If you’re not going to do any of it, why do you want to pledge this?” he asked.

AN ATTEMPTED REWRITE

Elliot Raimondo, city corporation counsel, told the Finance Committee that he had “some major disagreements” with the Climate Smart Communities pledge resolution when it was previously introduced and tabled by the City Council. In the time since the resolution was first introduced, Raimondo said he has tried to rewrite the resolution from more of a “conservationist” point of view.

“I do think from a grant perspective it would be great to adopt some sort of climate or environmentalist resolution, especially with earth day coming up,” he said. “That being said, I attempted to rewrite it.”

Both Raimondo and Finance Committee Chairwoman Kim Ecklund, R-At Large, pointed out that the resolution proposed to the City Council this month is “exactly the same” as the first time it was proposed to the City Council, indicating that none of Raimondo’s changes to the resolution were included by the city administration.

“I think the intent was that there are grants or things that can be applied for down the road but you have to initiate with some kind of, I don’t know that it has to be exactly verbatim like this, but you have to adopt something that lends itself towards this is where you’re moving toward and away from toward a better climate or better environmentally structured city,” Carrubba said. “I get that, but again, if it’s not answering our questions, if it’s not bringing the BPU into the discussion, we’re putting the cart before the horse.”

ON THE RIGHT PATH

During the City Council’s full work session, Sarah Swinko, environmental planner from Southern Tier West, gave a presentation on the New York State Climate Smart Communities program and answered questions from City Council members.

Swinko described the Climate Smart Communities program as a “guideline” with a checklist of any possible projects municipalities could complete in order to create a “more sustainable” community through climate actions. While Swinko acknowledged that not every climate action would be possible for a city like Jamestown, she said the city has already completed multiple climate action tasks.

“You guys are a clean energy community because you’ve been designated for doing four actions,” she said. “Those four actions were clean fleets, charging stations, LED streetlights and energy code enforcement training. Those four actions in the clean energy community also count in the Climate Smart Communities.”

According to Swinko, some of the climate action tasks are “super easy” to accomplish. For other tasks, such as greenhouse gas inventories, Swinko said the city would not be required to “do every building.” However, the number of points for the Climate Smart Communities program would change based on different factors, such as the number of buildings the city included in a greenhouse gas inventory.

“But let’s not jump into the actions,” Swinko said. “The first step for this program is the registration, and to register you want to pass the resolution.”

Swinko told the City Council that the climate actions included in the Climate Smart Communities program are “not mandatory,” that there is “no compliance” and that the city would be able to “completely ignore” certain aspects of the program.

“It’s all about how you want to create this program,” she said.

TYPES OF ACTIONS REQUIRED

The Climate Smart Communities program has two different levels of certification for municipalities. A bronze level of certification would require the city to complete roughly 15 climate actions to achieve 120 points. A silver level of certification would require the city to complete about 30 actions to achieve 300 points.

“There’s 115 actions total,” Swinko said. “It’s almost like you get to pick and choose which ones you want to do or which ones you’ve already done.”

While the Climate Smart Communities program involves grants that are associated with various climate actions, the city would be required to have a 50-50 match for each grant opportunity. In addition to grant opportunities through the program, Swinko said another “bonus” of the program is that it would give the city “five points” toward future grants, allowing the city to “look a little better” on grant applications.

Although Swinko said the Climate Smart Communities program’s climate tasks are “not mandatory,” she said there are two mandatory actions the city would have to take if the climate pledge was adopted.

“There are two mandatory actions, which is to create that task force and a to choose a coordinator,” she said. “The task force literally just has to be one person from the local government and one person from the community so both are represented. The coordinator can be whoever is passionate about this; it does not have to be paid position. Other municipalities have chosen like the schools or the local college to be their task force. You don’t have to meet all the time. That task force is to double check the actions.”

Swinko said the task force and coordinator position are the only two mandatory actions for the program. Additionally, once a municipality is certified, the city’s climate program would have to be updated every five years.

“For example, that first year if you want to do a greenhouse gas inventory for a building, you don’t have to do that for another five years, and then for certification again, do that same thing or just update the actions,” she said.

Ecklund asked the city administration is they had a plan in place to fulfill the mandatory requirements of the task force and coordinator position if the City Council voted to approve the resolution. While Crystal Surdyk, city director of development, said the city administration does not currently have a plan to fulfill the mandatory requirements, she said Swinko’s presentation was just the “first step” as the city administration attempts to address the City Council’s questions and uncertainty with the climate pledge program.

“While I think our end goal is to be able to get to a place where it can be supported and a resolution can be passed that everyone is comfortable with, my goal is not to have the council rush into making that decision this month or even next month if we’re not there,” she said. “I think the next time we have a conversation about this resolution, it should be us coming back to you with what have we accomplished so far and what is that plan, who is the appropriate person to be a coordinator and then what does the task force need to look like.”

Dolce added that he is working with Leathers to possibly have a presentation from the BPU during the first City Council work session in May in order for the BPU to share its perspective of the program.