Okay.

We are all here.

So we're going to get started.

We have to have Ashley start up the meeting.

She's using two systems, so we just need to let her have a few minutes to make sure both of the systems are going up, and then give me the thumbs up and we'll get started.

And we have to be quiet while she's doing that, so we don't overlap.

Good to go.

Okay, great.

All right.

Well, welcome everybody here today to um our really important roundtable discussion.

Thank you all for coming.

We're really glad you could make it to our beautiful public works building that we um love having our meetings in these days.

What we're gonna do to start is just I just want to go around the table and just say who we are and our association as we go around so we know who everyone is here, and then we will get into sort of the objectives for the meeting and into some presentations.

So Ian, will you start us off on your end and we'll go around the table?

Yeah, I never get to be first.

Uh I'm Ian Whiteheiser, the city attorney for the city of Ben.

Scott Jones, uh, human rights and equity commission chair.

Sarah Odendahl, then Chamber of Commerce.

Uh David Berger, local two ninety summer sustained and also the state building trades.

Steve Pop, Ben City Council, Brandon Breen, Campaign Coordinator of Energy Band.

Megan Perkins, Ben City Councillor.

Melanie Keeper, mayor of Bend.

John Evans, chair of the Ben Economic Development Advisory Board.

Alan Spector, Cascade Natural Gas.

Brent Tempest with Central Electric Cooper.

Thanks, everyone again for being here.

So how this is going to work, that's if you want to show the next slide.

So this is a round table discussion, and this is really to bring different stakeholders to the table to uh not only listen to some presentations, but also get a lot of your feedback and ideas.

But we really want to hear from you all and draw out the information from our folks who are at the table today.

So they will have some presentations.

They will also have some input on some of the question on the two questions that we're talking about today.

And those are input on exemptions to this fee and implementation timeline and approach.

So we're going to have the presentations first.

And then take questions that are mostly focusing on just information and clarity from our utility providers.

And then we'll get into each individual stakeholder, you know, whatever your ideas or thoughts are on these two fee exemptions and implementation timeline and approach topics.

We will get into that discussion after the presentations are done.

Since there's a lot of us at the table, just to help me out, if you want to respond or ask a question or give an input, please send up your little card like this so I can see you.

And I'll try to make sure that we're getting to everybody.

Or I will call on folks if we need to, also to just kind of draw that information out.

And this is not a time that council is going to deliberate or decide anything today.

We're really gathering information that's all going to be fed into a work session on April 22nd, where council is going to have more of that time to deliberate amongst each other, make some decisions about the future of this policy, a lot of it based on the information that we're getting today.

So that is what we're doing here today.

I'm going to throw it back to Cassie.

She's going to give some very brief background just to ground us how we got here, and then we'll get into our presentations from our utilities.

Okay, thank you.

So the information I'm going to share is just background information about the climate pollution fee.

It is essentially the information that I shared in the memo last week.

So I'm going to try to be brief so that we can move on to the discussion.

So just for some background, the city has been working on a broader program to encourage electrification of buildings and then is a key part of achieving our climate action goals over the last year and a half.

The climate pollution fee that we're just discussing today, and we have been focused on at the council level for the last few months is the part of the disincentive and incentive component of the overall work plan.

So in addition to establishing the fee, we will be looking to create incentives using to encourage electrification buildings, both using the proceeds of the fee and also exploring additional non-monetary incentives.

In addition to the incentive and disincentive policy, the city has been developing and expanding a more robust outreach and education program to help just share increase awareness and share information about electrifying buildings.

Our upcoming work in this area includes the launch of an energy efficiency and electrification workshop series.

The first one is scheduled for April 29th.

And we have subsequent ones planned for the next three months.

And then the last part of our work plan is to continue monitoring the regulatory landscape for additional policy levers that the city may have in the future for reducing gas use as well.

Following council direction to pursue a fee and incentive program in April of last year, we held work sessions with the council in August, October, and December, focused on a potential fee, talking through analysis we've uh completed on the costs and impacts of electrifying homes, the fee design and public engagement options to develop the fee and the incentives.

In December and February, we shared with the council the fee calculation and the approach to the fee design.

In February, council gave staff direction that they would like to pursue the fee as proposed, but they also set the fee at a reduced uh the fee level at a reduced rate, which we'll talk about in a minute.

At that meeting, they also directed staff to convene this round table, focused on fee exemptions and the implementation timeline to get input on some of what are the sort of final major policy decisions that we need council to give direction on to get this fee policy complete.