Board of Directors Strategic Planning Summary Notes January 27, 2010 Board Members: Daniel Abdella Jeff Briltz Phil Erro Frank Ferral Laura Fultz-Stout Steve Geil Carole Goldsmith Gary Hanson David Howlett Tom Jordan Roger McNeil Bill Pfanner Rollie Smith Linda Urata
Joy Warren Colby Wells Jeff Wright Guests: Stacey Dabbs, California Partnership for the SJV Jacob Orenberg, California Energy Commission Staff: Paul Johnson Cynthia Downing Mike Nemeth Courtney Kalashian
Time: 1:00-3:30 p.m. Location: Professional Exchange Service Corporation | 4747 N. First, Suite 140, Fresno, CA Next Meeting: Wednesday, March 3, 2010 Location: Bakersfield Area Agenda Items on January 27, 2010 I. Call to order, welcome and introductions II. Overview of current and upcoming projects III. Themes of current work IV. SJVCEO mission statement V. SJVCEO long-term sustainability VI. Establish goals for 2010 VII. Governance VIII. Adjourn Summary Notes • Carole Goldsmith welcomed the board member present and on the phone and thanked them for their time. •
Paul Johnson explained that the driving force behind work is Information and burden reduction and establishing relationships with jurisdictions. The SJVCEO has accomplished a great deal getting jurisdictions to know us, trust us, and come to us. The most valuable outcome of recent work is the relationships. Paul noted that as we move forward the focus is to move out into workforce development and the third area that we are programmatically focusing is on our toe-hold in Ag/renewables.
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The primary core theme is that the biggest impact is in jurisdictions. The first and second years we focused in following the money for the financial themes; we have definitely established secure funding from utilities. We have pursued ARRA funding to the best of our ability. We have had limited support in financial sponsorships without PG&E we would have had a pretty bleak year! We continue to have a light administrative footprint through consultants and PESC, and will change when we ready, but not quite yet. Coming out soon is Home Star II, a residential retrofit for the middle class and it is sort of a stimulus two and we hope that we can be a part of this.
Cynthia passed out financials and noted the checking account is $15,000, and there is $101,000 in receivables. She called out the SJVCEO cost share for the SJVCEP of $21,687.
Carole thanked Cynthia and Paul Johnson for their leadership. Jeff Briltz asked for an explanation between core (secured) and Discretionary (competitive). Rollie Smith asked about the 15% back moving into unrestricted reserves.
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Carole Goldsmith wanted to know where we’ve been, where we are, and where we are going. She asked attendees to read the mission statement, “the mission of the SJVCEO…” and questioned if this is still relevant now and for the foreseeable future. Steve Geil likes the statement. Tom Jordan thought of adding wording that suggests bringing additional resources to the Valley. Rollie suggested the wording “to bring resources” and Roger McNeil suggested “to be a resource”. We discussed changing the word help because the mission is to lead, not help. Gary Hanson thought we needed to go back and revisit the past as he remembered talking a lot about facilitating, rather than being the be all end all. We need to re-evaluate where we’re going. The wording needs to be powerful, not only leading and assisting, but making things happen. The word ‘lead’ is equal to ‘increasing’. Other suggestions for the mission statement were to add “…use, reliance, and funding for clean energy”. There was also a suggestion to use the term ‘resources’ instead of ‘funding’. Words like advocacy were also suggested to amend the mission statement.
The mission of the SJVCEO is to lead the eight county region of the San Joaquin Valley, significantly increasing its use, reliance and resources for clean energy (energy efficiency and renewable energy sources).
Steve Gail motioned to change the mission statement to the above. Gary Hanson seconded to accept mission as amended and all were in favor.
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Paul reviewed models for other California and National energy offices and a discussion followed. In the general opinion, we like where we are. On where to focus, Cynthia suggested the first area we see, helping jurisdictions with climate action planning, and green house gas emissions. She said let us be the ones who facilitate dialogue. Gary Hanson announced that Peter Darby was invited to meet round table with President Obama. We need to make a point for Jurisdictional Consistency (every Jurisdiction has requirement that they put in place, but not consistently). In California we have at least made an effort to do that by proclamation of the Governor.
It was not on the list, but regional sustainability from HUD is another area on which to focus. Rollie will get the proposal to Courtney Kalashian to get out.
We want to expand into Ag sector but Phil Erro thinks we are pursuing the wrong people. We need to get farmers organized around activities that they are already concerned about. We can’t organize around a regional conference. We need to focus on the five main sectors where the revenues are.
In terms of sustainability, Cynthia really wants to go back to writing grants for long term unrestricted funding. Tom Jordan wants to implement the SJVCEP projects. Another idea was to connect with CSUF.
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Goal setting for 2010 o
Goal #1: Develop Relationship with the Ag Community partner with existing groups that represent the various commodities understand their emissions and energy needs Identify three commodity groups and present to them. Could offer technical assistance and grant writing assistance. ENGAGEMENT!
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Goal #2: Green House Gas Inventory for Jurisdictions Pursue Southern California Edison proposal, due March 22, 2010 Complete GHG baseline study for three counties
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Goal #3: Facilitate/Promote clean energy projects in the san Joaquin Valley “Break down the barriers”
Balance Gather Hold one county level peer to peer exchange Learning Work with EDC’s and other agencies. o
Goal #4: Sustainable Valley Home Star: submit grant if available Support HUD: Paul to continue on Task Force On-going/other grants: look for and submit Utility: whole house retrofit; explore and identify utility programs Hold a “gathering of utilities”
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Goal #5: Sustainable Organization $150,000 in unrestricted funds
Motion: work on goals with staff and send out electronically with comment window and vote on it electronically. Rollie Smith moved and Gary Hanson provided a second, and the motion was unanimously approved. •
Cynthia led the discussion on governance and explained that currently the board seats are tied to partnership workgroups. She suggested that there needs to be a comprehensive overhaul of the bylaws. Suggestions from the group included: EDC should move to other designated area; need COG and remove transportation; land use and housing better represented by one small jurisdiction and one large jurisdiction. Housing collaborative could be a good representative. There ought to be a seat for renewable industry, private sector. Labor unions could be a subcommittee of workforce. There is a real need to keep an environmental seat at the table. We need a housing weatherization seat.
Cynthia explained that now there needs to be a mechanism to determine board involvement. The bylaws committee, Cynthia, Carole, Gary, Phil and Courtney Kalashian will meet in the coming weeks to draft recommended changes.
The 2010 Strategic Planning meeting adjourned at 3:46 p.m.