Minutes_Resilient Community Advisory Commission 09.05.24City of Dubuque
City Council
CONSENT ITEMS # 1.
Copyrighted
October 21, 2024
ITEM TITLE: Minutes and Reports Submitted
SUMMARY: Civil Service Commission of October 2, 2024; Equity and
Human Rights Commission of August 13, 2024; Library
Board of Trustess Updates of August 22 and September 26,
2024; Resilient Community Advisory Commission of
September 5, 2024; Proof of Publication for City Council
Proceedings of September 16, 2024.
SUGGUESTED Receive and File
DISPOSITION:
ATTACHMENTS:
1. Civil Service Commission Minutes
2. Equity and Human Rights Commission Minutes
3. Library Board of Trustees Council Update_8-22
4. Library Board of Trustees Council Update_9-26
5. Resilient Community Advisory Commission Minutes
6. Proof of Publication City Council Proceedings 9 16 24
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CITY OF DUBUQUE - COMMISSION MEETING MINUTES
GOVERNMENTAL BODY: Resilient Community Advisory Commission (RCAC)
DATE: 9/05/2024
TIME: 5:00 pm
LOCATION: Jule Operations and Training Center (JOTC) Circle Conference Room, 949
Kerper Blvd.
MEMBERS PRESENT: Josh Chamberland, Jake Kohlhaas, Dean Boles, Sandra Evans, Lalith
Jayawickrama, Robin Kennicker (late, arrived at 5:38pm)
MEMBERS ABSENT: N/A
STAFF PRESENT: Gina Bell, Michelle Kim
Chair Kohlhaas called the meeting to order at 5:07pm
TEST AG E N DA
MINUTES APPROVAL: Evans motioned to approve the August minutes. Boles seconded.
Motion carried. Jayawickrama abstained
PUBLIC COMMENT: N/A
NEW BUSINESS
• Unified Development Code Update by Sheena Moon
o Planning staff met with consultant (Camiros) on Sept 3, 2024 to make sure
the City and the consultants were on the same page. This meeting's purpose
was to Identifywho are the key stakeholders, what info the consultant needs,
share the Climate Action Plan, share the Imagine Dubuque plan,
■ Striking a balance between promoting development and holistic city
interests
■ Stakeholder engagement is key
• Community engagement, technical advisory committee,
developers round table, city boards, city commissions, and
committees (Long Range planning advisory committee, Zoning
board of adjustment, housing commission, resilient
community advisory commission, development review)
■ Parking is going to be a huge discussion, especially when it comes to
sustainability
• Dubuque colleges Sustainability coalition update by Ashley Noonan
o It's a collection of 7 area colleges who are all coming together and working
on issues of sustainability.
o Strong focus on economic benefits and funding of sustainability measures
o Looking at capacity constraints that make sustainable measures difficult
o Partnering with community groups and making sure that there is an feasible
way to follow through with sustainable measures after the sustainable
colleges coalition gives a donation or etc.
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o They have been doing a lot of info sharing between the stakeholders. What's
working and what isn't?
o How are people addressing barriers within their institutional structure
o At UD there area couple of pilot efforts and have been info sharing with the
other colleges
■ Two students are doing waste research, waste education, assessing
the flow of waste through the institution
■ How do we minimize our waste?
o Using EnergyStar— metering is weird! Asking questions and digging to
understand why things are the way they are
o Sept 191h a International Day of Peace
o Oct 2"d a Waste panel at Clark University: starting conversations around food
waste. How do we know our recycling and compost programs are effective?
How do we continue to assess and measure that. Talking more about hard to
recycle materials.
o Oct 7th_9th a Iowa waste and recycling conference
o Emmaus, NICC, Loras colleges have some native vegetation gardens that
could possible be good to do pesticide free garden tours in.
• Sustainability staff will be working on our budget request
o Permanency for Michelle's position
o Does the commission have anything that they want us to consider?
■ Street maintenance, Chaplain Schmitt development, parks
maintenance a is there a way that the Office of Sustainability can
support these priorities? There seems to be so many missed
opportunities for small sustainable changes. Thinking holistically
about street maintenance.
■ The commission might have interest in some of these goals if the
commission understood the details a little more
o Sustainability staff are being realistic about what they have capacity to take
on
• SD Grant Subcommittee
o Gina will send out the applications and the rubric the to subcommittee 9/16
o Robyn, Jake, and Sandra are willing to be on the subcommittee
• State & Federal Legislative Priorities
o Net metering is going away in Illinois, it's expecting that that's going to come
back to Iowa. We need to flag this. Solar companies are worried about this as
well
o What are you seeing at the state Level that we want to advocate for?
o Adopting a more robust energy code than 2012
o Using solar farms as an opportunity to plant natives for pollinators
o Water sense all buildings, but this needs to start with the city. City needs to
start these things in city buildings and then show data on how much $ is
saved
o We will leave this on the agenda for future discussions
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OLD BUSINESS
a. Urban Ag Guide
a. Josh wrote the letter to city council supporting the additions to the urban ag
guide
b. Commission did some minor edits on the letter
HOW DID I SHOW UP? COMMISSIONER REPORTS:
Dean: Community development advisory commission had a public meeting for the
consolidated action plan report
Robin: Parks and recs commission had tours of some pools, these pools need
maintenance or to be replaced. There's a lot of discussion for a new aquatic center,
possibly need to be put in the North end
Lalith: Sponsored a free community library in his home country with hopes to propagate
this to other areas.
Josh: Met with City Councilman David Resnick, continues to advocate for City Council and
Mayor to meet with RCAC.
NEXT MEETING: The next commission meeting will occur on October 3, 2024, at 5pm at
the Jule Operations and Training Center (JOTC) in the Circle Conference Room, 949 Kerper
Blvd.
ADJOURNMENT: The Commission adjourned at 6:38 pm.
Minutes approved by:
Jac b Kohlhaas, Commission Chair
Prepared by: 5�s�
Michelle Kim, Cli tam e Action Coordinator
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