Minutes for the Chatham County Climate Change Advisory Committee (CCAC)
Location: Agriculture Building 65 E. Chatham Street, Auditorium Pittsboro, North Carolina 27312
Date: _____07/25/2019
Secretary for this meeting: ____None
OPENING OF MEETING; LOGISTICS, OLD BUSINESS
1-Roll Call/Call to OrderMembers and Others Role In Attendance Last Time as Sec
John Bonitz Pittsboro Rep
Sara Collier Member Yes
Ron Dameron Siler City Rep
Jeff Gannon Member
Martha Girolami Member Yes 04/23/2019
John Graybeal Member 06/27/2019
Sonny Keisler Member
Keith McLaurin Vice Chair Yes
Becky Peer Member Vacant position
Mike Petruska Chair Yes
Sarah Justice Member Yes
Town of Goldston Rep TBD Goldston Rep Vacant position
Billy Cummings Member Yes
Diana Hales Commissioner
Dan LaMontagne County Manager
Kevin Lindley Director DEQ Yes
County staff
Quorum: Y/N ___Yes___ (quorum requires 50% plus 1 voting members) Currently ____6/11 Other Non-member Attendees at this meeting (e.g., from County, members of public, etc):
Attendee Organization or public
None
2- Approve minutes from previous meeting: Y/N _______Deferred___ Any comments?
Notes from Meeting
6 members present
Introduction of Billy Cummings as new member; introductions
Confusion about approving minutes due to lack of quorum
o Becky Peer resigned from Committee earlier in day. Becky will remain a member of the building performance sub-committee as a member of the public. Committee deferred approval of minutes
Minutes for the Chatham County Climate Change Advisory Committee (CCAC)
Discussion of Chair and Vice Chair succession: Mike proposed that he would stay one more year as Chair, Keith to step down from Vice. New Vice Chair would be most likely candidate to assume Chair after one year, with new Vice. Need volunteers interested in Vice Chair position for August meeting.
o Duties of the Vice Chair include running meetings in absence of chair, reviewing agendas and minutes
Kevin reported that Rachel Thorn is the County lead for the 20,000 acre goal, she indicated the County would be using the Unified Development Ordinance (UDO) to help identify areas that may be protected from development. Protection will not necessarily come from County purchase, but may include ways that private land owners can designate properties are protected.
o The County may encourage conservation easements and “density shifting”
o At some point would be useful to have staff lead on these issues to meet with the Committee
Sub-Committee report outs:
o Building efficiency: Mike noted that Jeff G. is pulling together information from the Committee’s past efforts to set efficiency guidance for County buildings, to serve as a starting point for the Building Performance Subcommittee
Martha suggested that “solar” might be the basis for a sub-committee. For the moment, members agreed to see if the Building Efficiency sub-committee can adequate address the topic.
o Trees. John G. is hoping to start a sub-committee on “Trees” (forest management, etc.).
Billy, Sarah J, and Martha indicated interest in being on the sub-committee. Sarah J.
passed out recommendations developed for the Town of Cary regarding for Committee consideration.
o Electric Vehicles. EV event on track for Pepperfest 9/22/2019 in Pittsboro. Sarah J is interested in helping and will contact Tammie S. of the Abundance Foundation.
One idea is Plug Share app to find and print map to show all the locations of charging stations in Pittsboro.
CCAC Annual Report: Mike went over Annual report, members had no comments.
Sarah J. provided an overview of the Cary sustainability web page. Members thought the Cary example could be a model for a Chatham County page. The Cary example features a
sustainability “landing page”, with links to Town activities and programs.
o Kevin suggested that he and Shannon Culpepper (County lead) would review the Cary example and come back to the Committee in the next couple months with suggestions for how to approach the Chatham County page.
Public input: there were no members of public present
Adjourned
