Good afternoon, everyone.

My name is Robin Wansley, and I am the chair of the Climate and Infrastructure Committee.

I'm going to call to order our regular scheduled meeting for today, Thursday, July 23rd, 2026.

But before we begin our meeting, I do want to offer a friendly reminder to all committee members, staff, and the public that these meetings are broadcast live to enable greater public participation.

These broadcasts include real-time captioning as a further method to increase the accessibility of our proceedings to the community.

Therefore, all speakers need to be mindful of the rate of their speech so that our captioners can fully capture and transcribe all comments for the broadcast.

We ask all speakers to moderate the speed and clarity of their comments.

And with that, I will ask the clerk to call the road to verify that we have a quorum.

Councilmember Vita.

Present.

Is absent.

Chowdry.

Present.

Palmasano is absent.

Vice Chair Stevenson.

Present.

Chair Wandsley.

Present.

We have four present.

Let the record reflect that we do have a quorum.

It has already been noted.

The reason before uh behind council member uh check ties absence.

And I was also alerted before today's meeting that council member Pamasano will be late joining as a result of her attendance at a legal uh settlement conference.

Um that said, I'll remind my colleagues that we'll be using speaker management today.

So please make sure to sign up if you have any troubles.

Please uh connect with our clerks over there uh to the right.

But let's start off with our consent agenda, which I'll read for the record.

The first is approving a commercial block event permit for dinner due nord on September 10th, 2026.

Items two is approving block event permit for a banana ball games on August 7th through August 9th, 2026.

Items three and four are setting public hearings for September 10th to consider proposed 2027 services and charges for the downtown business improvement district and the 42 428A special service districts.

Number five is authorizing Skyway easement from Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board for a portion of 2nd Avenue North.

Six is authorizing subordinate funding agreement for the Metro Green Line Extension Southwest Light Rail.

Seven is amending the Minneapolis street lighting plan to reclassify the listed railway segments as pedestrian street light corridors.

Eight is setting a public hearing for September 24th to review sanitary sewer service availability charges and to authorize collection of unpaid balances.

11 is setting a public hearing for October 22nd to consider assessment of charges for unpaid water and sewer service line repairs.

12 is accepting the Metropolitan Council municipal infiltration and inflow grant for cured in place pipelining repairs of existing sewers and cross-connection elimination and resolutions related for the grant agreement and appropriation.

13 is accepting the low bid for the 2026 through 2027 public works tree removal and disposal.

14 is accepting the low bid for the installation of green storm water infrastructure for the West Fulton Neighborhood Improvement Project.

15 is accepting the low bid, Columbia Heights Membrane Plant Roof Replacement.

16 is authorizing contract amendment with CS McCrossen Construction Inc.

for the bridge nine improvements and 17 is approving one appointment to the bicycle advisory committee.

Uh yeah.

And with that, colleagues, is there any discussion or any items that anyone would like to pull over further discussion?

Okay.

I'm not seeing any.

So I will move approval of the entire consent agenda.

All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Those not in favor say nay.

The ayes have it.

Um also let the record reflect that we have been joined by council member Pomasano.

Would you like to be recorded as aye on the consent?

Awesome.

Clerks, please make a note of that.

And that motion carries.

This is a presentation that uh Vice Chair Stevenson and I requested several months ago.

Um, and I'll now invite uh deputy commissioner Patrick Hanlin and Director Megan Hoy to get us started.

Chair Wandsley, Councilmember, Chair, uh, Vice Chair Stevenson and Council members.

My name is Patrick Hanlon.

I'm the deputy commissioner in the health department.

I'll be uh joined today by our director of climate equity action, uh, Megan Hoy in our presentation.

We're gonna split this was two present presentations, and I appreciate uh you allowing us to come together and bring both of these presentations here today.

I'll be going over funding impacts, and then Director Hoy will be talking about the climate equity plan overview.

Uh we thought we we don't usually do this, but we thought we would start with this because the one thing that the federal government has done very effectively is suppressing information on climate change.

Um it's you we don't see a whole lot of it in the news right now.

It's not out in in a lot of news stories uh locally or globally.

Um the last hottest three years on record have been the last three years, and I think it's a good point to highlight.

2023 was the hottest year, 2024 was the second hottest, 2025, the third hottest in 2026 is on track to be in that in that range of one of the hottest years on record.

Um 350 parts per million is the atmospheric CO2 upper level uh planetary capacity that scientists agree on that the earth can carry.

And I remember when I started here at the city, we had just passed that threshold, and it was a big deal that we had passed that.

We are now at 422.7 parts per million of atmospheric CO2 and climbing.

When I come back for a presentation next year, that number will be higher.

Um we aren't imagining things as these wildfires are intense intensifying that we saw last week.

Uh low snow packs, prolonged droughts, and record heat are contributing to that and other issues going on around the globe.

And even here in Minneapolis, we've already experienced uh a two-degree uh increase from the 90s, a 3.5 degree rise from the 70s when we had our first Earth Day.

So I just wanted to highlight that piece.

Director Hoy will go into this graph in more detail, but these are the different categories of greenhouse gas emissions that we have.

And uh on that that black line is the uh scientific uh scientifically recommended goal that we have for our climate uh emissions, and as you can see, we are on the verge of a steep in need of a steep decline in our greenhouse gas uh emission reductions.

Fortunately, I just talked about the federal government uh and the money that they're pulling back, the information that they're pulling back.

Fortunately, we gave ourselves a fighting chance over a number of years.

In uh 2017 and and before that, we had foundational investments that were made by most large cities into sustainability and climate work in 2018.

We had the first climate-specific programming passed uh through the franchise fees in 2024.

We had the climate legacy uh initiative, which I'll go through in a second of where we're at with the funding on that or spending on that, and in 2026, just last year, we had environmental justice specific funding for weatherization that was passed by uh by the council, and then from 1998 uh till today, we've had pollution control uh funding and have had increases in that, and that has gone towards our fight on climate change here in Minneapolis.

So, this is the uh climate spending for the climate legacy initiative uh year to date that I just mentioned.

Uh I'm not gonna go through this whole chart for the sake of time.

I will point out on the first piece that 123% of budget allocation may stand out to you, and that is because we have a number of projects, any anywhere between 25 and 30 percent of projects that drop out uh throughout the year, and that's for various reasons, whether it's tariffs, it's uh labor issues, it's all sorts of different issues where people aren't able to complete their projects, and so we intentionally budget above uh the base budget, knowing that we'll have a number of projects that will back out by the end of the year.

Uh and then the other one that may stand out is the zero percent uh council member vita uh that is with the Hennepin County CAP, uh, and we've gone through the RFP process, and that just passed, so we'll be starting that work here in July, and that's providing energy assistance uh to folks here in the city.

So I just want to highlight those few pieces, and then the tree program where we just have a lot of people that are asking for trees, and that one actually is uh we'll have to stop planting now because we're out of budget on that one.

Uh I talked about the different funding that we had.

I just wanted to point this out.

This is a graph of our green cost share projects uh over the years, and just to note how that lines up when we've had investment.

Uh we went from in 2017, 2018 from 48 projects across the city to now over 1,100.

This year we are on track to be to have the highest number of uh green cost year projects that's energy efficiency, air source heat pumps, ground source heat pumps, innovative technology in the fight on climate change.

Uh so when we get investments, we are able to scale the work that we're doing.

And we believe that we've built a machine that can scale through contract staffing.

Imagine going from 48 projects to that 1,100 uh projects.

We have to have contract staffing, outreach, leverage leverage partnerships, doing marketing and awareness around the city so that people are aware that these funds are out there, and then that last piece is uh important in our climate equity plan as we center equity is to be able to scale with equity.

And uh these this is uh maps of both total spend uh of the climate funding and then also total projects, and as you can see on those maps, there's a light yellow, and that is the north side green zone and south side green zones, and that is where the money has been going.

Um I think council member Warren's board is the is the reigning champion each year in in getting funds into her ward.

Um and that's deliberate.

That's we do intentional spending in North Minneapolis and the green zones, and then also areas of concentrated poverty.

So our definition of environmental justice.

Sorry, I'm clicking out here.

Our definition of environmental justice is north side green zone, south side green zone, anyone in a low-income uh situation, so a low-income qualified uh situation, or a nonprofit that serves low-income people.

Uh, and then these are the uh percentages of environmental justice spending that that has gone out each year.

We set a target of a base of 40%, and we exceed that number up into 60% or above 60%.

And some of the uh differences in dollar amounts there is there's also grant grant dollars that have been uh brought in in the last couple years.

On the lower right hand side, the cumulative project savings, those are very real numbers, the economic uh savings.

We take a piece of HBAC equipment that has gone into a house, we look at the UL certified uh specifications of that piece of equipment, and then the new piece of equipment that goes in there and looking at what the actual energy savings of that piece of equipment is over the lifetime of that equipment, and then you multiply that by the thousands of projects that we're doing each year.

And these are the real dollar savings that people are will be saving are saving now and will be saving across uh Minneapolis.

And then the transportation numbers, I know public works takes the same care in the number of the numbers that they put forward with their EV charging and uh EV car share program.

We really focus the the programs on affordability, trying to move some of the hardest pieces to move first with the funding.

We've we've supported over 6,000 low-income households with our climate funding.

On the left-hand side is the 4D program where there's tax credits involved as well, and we can get into uh deep energy retrofits that save them money, but then also get at some of the pre-weatherization issues such as knob and tube wiring, insulation, mold issues, construction issues that happen uh in some of our larger units, and then also like in Marshall Terrace and some of our single family homes, and then this is sort of the gold standard, the Willard Hayes, uh Willard Hay neighborhood project that's a passive certified house through urban homeworks, and um that is also funded by CPED, and so that's offering people uh a large amount of energy efficiency savings and then also uh comfortable uh livability as well across all of these these sectors that we're uh investing in.

This is the electric car share program.

Again, I won't go through all of the details on this.

We've put in 62 level two chargers, five fast chargers.

This is these are all put in with an equity focus.

Um in 2025, there was 140,000 trips that were made through this pro supported through this program.

This year we are actually think we're outpacing it.

Public works thinks they're outpacing it uh due to the fact that ICE was here in January and February.

We had a uh pretty substantial significant slowdown in that program and is now picking up speed.

So we think this is probably gonna be one of the highest years for that program.

Uh climate equity funding uh with the green careers and workforce.

There uh as we talk about scaling and the need to scale across the city, and Director Hoy will talk about some of that need that we have and and where we're at and where we need to go.

But there just aren't enough workers to do this work.

And so one of the first pieces that we in the health department have looked at is exposure to green careers, especially those in economically distressed communities, education of green concepts and current technologies, and then credentialed trainings.

And then we funneled those folks into the folks that are responsible for workforces, our community planning and economic development team and getting direct connections to employment, uh direct connections to apprenticeship and uh placement into employment.

And so climate change in Minneapolis, like I said, this is a high-level overview.

Uh, I'm not gonna go into our tree program or biochar program, marketing, the zero waste work that's supported by this uh this funding, those are coming forward in different council meetings, so I won't go into detail on those.

I will say that we are doing more annually than we were doing in combined previous decades.

If you looked at all the years leading up to 2017, we're getting more results annually than we were in all those previous years.

And like I said, we have built this each year to scale, and uh we really believe that we've built something that is a national and a global model when we go and talk to some of our um our global counterparts, our national counterparts.

The reinvestment that Minneapolis is making back into its community is uh really looked at with envy with a lot of cities and the way to boost uh people's savings, so not only addressing climate change, but also saving people money out in the community with an equity approach.

And I think what we realize now as we start to uh what the next steps of scaling look like is that we are in need of having a citywide approach, a comprehensive uh approach in addressing climate change, and that is what we have brought uh director Megan Hoy on board uh to do here in the city, and so she can talk a little bit about the work that she's doing with the climate equity plan and then also facilitating conversations across the enterprise.

And then we can wait for questions afterwards if that's okay, Chair.

Thank you.

Good afternoon, Chair Wansley and Vice Chair Stevenson.

Thank you so much for the opportunity to be here today to speak with you.

As uh Deputy Director Hanlon was speaking to the work that we do is very intersectional, is very intersectional with our community partners, um, all different parts of the city and across all the departments in the city as well.

Um so a lot of uh my work as well as the team's work is working across the enterprise across the different departments to really leverage our knowledge and our skills and our programs and our resources as best as we can because we are building an airplane while we're flying, and we are doing things that humankind has not done period.

Um and so that this is big work.

And uh within within the health department, the the climate sustainability team that I oversee, we really think about the climate equity work as being a vital pillar to the long-term health of the city and the community within it.

And our expertise really sits in buildings, uh, whether that's commercial buildings, multifamily, residential, industrial, as well as energy systems, clean energy, um, and resilient communities.

And that's about building trust, understanding where communities are at, and working collaboratively with them.

So uh within the team, we're looking, we're working on planning and project management, we're bringing um state and local policy and regulatory work, we're engaging the community as I was speaking to research um and studies to understand best pathward paths forward and uh funding support, you know, identifying that and helping to pilot uh flag pilot opportunities.

So just a little background about how we're doing our work.

Um getting into the overview of the climate equity plan.

Uh the plan was approved by city council in 2023.

Um a significant amount of community engagement was put uh uh held to to bring this plan together.

Um, and the vision is to achieve an environmentally just, resilient, and low carbon and equitable city.

Um this plan is a 10-year plan, right?

So this is not bringing us all the way to 2050, which I will say more about in a moment.

Um, but it is a 10-year plan of how we're gonna move through the the next 10 years uh towards that the big goals.

Um it has 10 different focus areas.

I'll speak more to that later too, but 240 plus actions.

Um we're talking about climate mitigation as well as climate resilience.

The plan acknowledges for the first time compared to our prior climate action plan that there are various historical and ongoing disparities and inequities that are impacting our community, and that that's highly tied to this work.

So on to the to the goals here.

I'm going to hit on the headline goal and some core commitments that the plan hits on.

Carbon neutrality community wide by 2050 is that big big bold goal.

Meeting our Justice 40 standard through prioritize prioritized commitments or investments, excuse me, and living within our carbon budget are the next two.

I'm going to walk through each of these.

So carbon neutrality by 2050.

We join many cities across the globe and in this country that have a similar goal or more aggressive goals.

And this aligns with a commitment to keeping global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius globally, and that's what you can see with this black line.

That is a modeled line that shows what we're trying to hit as a trajectory scientifically so that we can keep that global warming down.

And like any good project management, as I like to say, you do hard work early because you don't necessarily know how that last five, 10% is gonna go.

But this is about keeping planet temperature down.

So according to that, then we look at our own greenhouse gas emissions inventory here in Minneapolis, and that's what you're looking at right here.

And we have five different areas of emissions that we track in that inventory electricity, fossil gas, transportation emissions, solid waste emissions, and wastewater emissions.

You can see that those stacked up here in each color comparative to one another.

And so I kind of ask you to see that where we've been seeing the greatest reductions is in the blue area.

That blue area has been reducing.

And actually, if you kind of squint, it's really the only area where we've been making really significant in the form of a community wide emissions inventory strides forward.

That doesn't mean that we're not doing excellent work on the ground and building tools.

So as we do this work, we look over the next 10 years and we see the steepest decline on that curve ahead of us and some of this this most robust work that is needed.

I will also note that we track this and update this annually, but we lag by a year because of data.

And so I do anticipate that we will see for the first time that we are not hitting our uh targets, not our goal, but our target along that black line for the first time when we update this inventory later this summer.

There we go.

So the two other commitments that I wanted to highlight are the Justice 40.

This is a Biden administration initiative that no longer exists.

Um the intention was for federal funded uh initiatives to put 40% of their uh benefit into disadvantaged communities.

So we are building on that in the plan.

Um we are interpreting that as 40% of uh funds or grant funds are getting invested in priority areas, um including our green zones and low-income areas.

So we are continuing to we're really exceeding that goal.

The second commitment that we we highlight is to live within our carbon budget.

So this is really about a speed of action component.

Um and we are on track to exceed that budget by 2030.

You'll see that same inventory here, and then the gray uh the gray area, um, and that we will we would like a budget means we would stay within the space underneath the black line, but because we're overspending, we will exceed that by 2030.

Before I move to the next slide, just to um I'm gonna start to walk you through the the major goals within each of the 10 sections in our plan, um, and kind of just for digestibility.

I'm gonna break them into two sections, even though that's not highlighted necessarily within the plan.

But the first of that being highest carbon emitting or carbon emission reduction opportunities, and then the second being more like resilient and regenerative activities.

Um so we'll have a buildings industry, uh city operations and enterprise, energy systems, healthy homes, transportation, and complete streets here.

But I wanted to call out those that have green circles under city operations and energy systems where we've made some significant strides in completing the goals that are outlined here, such as launching the climate legacy initiative and ensuring community accountability around Justice 40 with a climate legacy roundtable that we have as well as energy systems where we renew the franchise fee last spring for another 10 years or so.

Because of time, I'm not going to go through all of these, but I'm going to highlight a few for you.

So by 2030, reduce industrial, commercial, and multifamily emissions by 75%.

This is a very important part of making good on our goal, but a very audacious goal for us to reach towards.

That sharing will be vital to helping the community continue the work as well.

Energy systems by 2030, we need to reduce emissions from fossil gas by 35% community wide.

I will also return to this, but this is largely the use of natural gas.

If you can remember going back to the prior chart, the gray bar, and we will come to this in a moment again, is natural gas largely, which would be the heating of buildings and homes and industrial uses.

Wow.

We this is in the plan because this is a very important step for us to make our homes more resilient, make uh energy bills more affordable, um, to help us use to use less energy, and then also to prepare our homes for electrification where it is beneficial or cost effective.

Moving on to that second category or second bucket that I was referring to, resilience and regeneration.

Um, and just kind of highlight two here, but increasing the quality and quantity of green space in our community, and we continue to think about how we're gonna regenerate and adapt to climate change and keeping cool spaces in our our city is very important.

Um, also continuing to preserve and grow opportunities for urban agriculture so we can have more local food and less transport of food is very important as well.

Uh lastly, here recycling and composting are 80% of community-wide waste by 2030.

Um, and just to say that this plan really highlights uh work kind of within uh local and um the our purchases, direct purchases of the city.

But when you look globally at uh carbon emissions, it is the consumption of goods across this globe that is one of the most large largest contributors of carbon emissions.

So this really speaks to how we can reduce and reuse.

Just a quick moment on moving of on multiple fronts.

Um, we're making a lot of progress.

I'm really proud of the work that we're doing with a lot of people in this room and within the climate and sustainability team and in the community, um, as already stated by um Deputy Commissioner Hanlon.

Um, we have been exceeding our Justice 40 goal for the last uh three years since we put that forward, and tools that are working at scale and prepared to scale.

Um, beyond that, uh, we are working on clean thermal energy opportunities with our thermal potential study to understand thermal energy networks, and that is a term of art, and we will be able to come back to you and talk to you more about that later this year.

But that is a about an 18-month study that we're about eight months into.

We've also been engaging businesses through a grant that we received, 17 businesses specifically on geothermal opportunities with some really exciting findings there.

We are engaging residents and businesses more broadly to understand barriers and to communicate funding opportunities and pilot opportunities.

We're facilitating facilitate services to serve those with the highest barriers.

So on the residential side, a lot of um we're launching a navigator services contract with community partner to help with those uh greatest barriers and be able to kind of handhold them through that work and translating more materials into non English languages.

We're also working across the enterprise again with multiple departments, just highlighting a few here, but supporting property services with the portfolio decarbonization planning work and again continuing that leading by example work that's so important.

Regulatory services collaboration on rental property outreach, really reaching more properties where you are ultimately reaching renters and making them aware of grant opportunities.

That we won't get into now.

So just gonna highlight um four key metrics and indicators for you and let land on one final slide.

So commercial multifamily and industrial emissions, this 75% is uh overwhelming.

Uh and we do need uh you know incentives and and policies and programs that can help achieve this if if we're serious about it.

What this means is that we need to move all of the gray and all of the blue to be below the yellow line by 2030, and we have four years to do that according to our our goals.

Um move on from there.

Um this next chart gives you a sense of our natural gas consumption uh across the community.

And this is complicated by a lot of factors, which I'm not gonna get into deeply.

Um, but weather is notable.

Um colder years we consume more gas.

That's where we live in the country.

We're a cold, a cold climate city.

And so weather, as well as um industrial processes or the use of like new um heating facilities like the combined heat and power plant that's at the University of Minnesota, as well as population changes and growth.

These are all uh factors that change what this looks like at a community-wide scale.

But the point is is that we're not going down, we are going up.

Or if you're squinting, maybe it's sort of flat at best.

Um this third metric is community-wide home insulating.

Um home insulating is a very important part of weatherization.

It is not all of weatherization, but this is a good um indicator of that.

So while we are seeing a 1,000 to 2,000 projects per year across the community with the Green Coshare program, um, insulated homes insulated or housing units insulated in the last three years have really been 760 homes, which is 3% of our goal of 29,000 homes insulated.

Um you can see on the right the types of housing that have been insulated during that time, and there's uh uh you know, it's been more uptake on the single family side, so certainly working on barriers to reach the other housing types is um work we're working on.

And the fourth and final metric or um is to look at our mode shift conversion.

So we are off track to shift three out of five trips, which is our goal to walking, biking, and public transit, um, our goal for 2030.

So you can kind of see the goal on the right side, and what this is trying to depict is that all the the colors, the green, yellow, and orange would expand and take up the area below the blue dotted line.

Um, so we are off track for that, but there's still good work being done here, and this is a very ambitious goal.

Um, and really our biggest opportunity here is when we are redesigning our streets and reconstructing them and to be able to design for um biking, transit, and walking.

My final slide, um we could talk a lot more, but there's uh a lot here to um work on in our climate equity tracker that we launched last October.

Um, you can see a status by focus area of the different uh actions and strategies that are in progress.

And not only were our there are um areas where we need to make the biggest impact and uh some extra aggressive moves to hit these goals, um, but also areas where we're a bit more off track.

So highlighting those here, uh buildings and industry, energy systems, and healthy homes uh stand out a bit, and other areas absolutely need attention as well, but calling these out here as vital areas of action and and progress moving forward.

So with that, thank you very much and stand for questions.

Thank you so much for the presentation.

I'll give a few seconds for folks to jump in queue, but I will uh start us off with a few comments and questions.

So as I mentioned earlier, um, right after we took some time to recalibrate from the impacts of Operation Metro Search.

Uh by Sheriff Stevenson and myself uh met with all of the department heads that uh report to climate and infrastructure, including um our health and sustainability uh team uh to make sure that this body, because we know we have new uh council members joining us, uh, for everyone to get not only a baseline understanding of the critical plans that shape our work together of meeting our robust climate goals that includes our climate equity action plan.

Um and thus far, too, in this committee, we've received updates about transportation action plan and some of those other um interrelated again plans that shape our work as a body.

We wanted to make sure that we receive this presentation because for years uh we know residents all across the city has been working to hold uh leaders, city leaders accountable and making measurable changes at the local local level and to utilize our full authority as it relates to advancing climate resiliency and environmental justice.

And it's that commitment that hundreds of our residents really mobilized uh almost three years ago behind the climate equity plan to make sure that we did have very strong goals that we were aspiring to reach and making sure that there was you know democratic participation from our residents and supporting this body, supporting the city city and reaching those.

Um so I will say because of that that shared and collaborative uh commitment and work together uh again in 2023, council passed that climate uh equity action plan and subsequently uh the climate legacy initiative that was sent or established to fund this robust work outlined in this plan was formed by the mayor as well.

And then in 2024, residents uh came back to City Hall to demand more robust funding as expected to make sure that we were pouring uh necessary dollars into the climate legacy initiative fund, um especially in recognizing a hostile federal administration to this work and saying that once again, as at the local level, city leaders need to be doing everything that we can to make sure that we're making serious headway on reaching our goals.

Um and as part of those conversations and really heating to the calls to action from our our residents at the end of last year, which was alluded to in the presentation, council approved an increase in electric and gas franchise fees to scale up programs to help working class families weatherwise or ratherize their their homes as you highlighted.

That's a critical component of our climate equity work that we are significantly off track in in meeting.

And again, this presentation was meant to be a level set of where we at almost you know, three years out from establishing that plan and getting a sense of where we are on track and where we're completely missing the mark.

Um so I'm I'm very grateful that our staff came to present.

Um I know also many in the community has been reaching out to council members to say what opportunities still exist for us to scale up that funding.

Um and also again, many of you are well aware that we were meeting many of these goals that's outlined in our climate equity plan and wanted to make sure that this body isn't being lasted days a cool in our commitments to the goals outlined in that plan.

Um and you want to and you deserve to see bold action being employed at the municipal level.

Um so far as was outlined in this presentation, we're making incremental small change at best.

Um, so with that, I did have a couple of questions as highlighted in the presentation.

Um, I think the biggest piece has been around, of course, funding.

Um especially as I highlighted, we know the Trump administration as uh deputy director Helen outlined, um, has essentially rolled back a lot of the programs that was tied to uh needed funding um at the federal level that support this work.

Um so it was in response to that that this body moved forward with a number of initiatives from establishing increases to our franchise fees and electric fees agreements.

Um we also uh updated our PCAR uh registry to include additional pollutants.

Um we established the climate legacy initiative funding with a goal of 10 million dollars in its initial creation with the goal to increase that.

Um so I at least wanted to start off with getting an update on the financial status of the franchise fees that council passed at the end of 2025, and essentially what is the anticipated uh revenue that we expect to collect from both electric and gas going into 2026.

With Luke.

Yeah.

Um I don't have the numbers at my fingertips right now about what we anticipate the franchise fee uh revenues like in the next year to be coming in at.

Um, however, I will say that it's tied to the rates that we all pay on our energy bills on our electric and natural gas bills, and those rates are going up.

And so generally um we've you know the rates were moved up, the the fees were moved up starting in April of this year.

And um then there's also been rate increases um both with center point and Excel.

So that as we see those revenues are the increases last year, that they will slowly increase over time, um, naturally because of those rising um rates for the utilities themselves.

Thank you.

I articulated this in an earlier conversation with deputy commissioner um Hanlin in terms of for my understanding, there were some um anticipated projections of revenue that we would collect at when we pass the increase at the end end of the year.

So I will name it's kind of unsatisfactory to not have at least an estimate, especially I think on your the slide that you added around the climate legacy initiative funding, it already shows that we're set to spend over 10 million dollars for year to date of 2026.

So if we're already over 10 million, how much more are we looking at an estimate to collect for the remainder of the year?

So Chair Wandsley, we can there's a little bit of lag in in what Director Hoy was mentioning in what we actually see coming in.

As soon as we have that information on this year and what's coming in, and like you said, projected, we can get that information to you.

And we can we can also get you the uh hear you asking for uh the other franchise fee increases and what those amounts were.

Did you not have projections at the end of last year of what we passed, like what that would have yielded?

Yeah, Chair Wansley, yes, we had estimates.

And so we can get you what those estimates are.

And then as soon as we have information available, I'm trying not to look at our uh uh some of our sustainability staff in charge uh in charge of uh monitoring that, but there is a little bit of lag in terms of what the actual number is.

So yes, we can get you the projected number, and then yes, we can get you the actual numbers once we have them.

But you do not know that number right off the back right now.

It was it was approximately four million dollars, but like I said, I would have we'd have to look at what the actual projections were going into this year of when it was passed, and then we started collecting.

So I'd rather get you a more accurate estimate, but that that would be off of what was estimated last year going into the so just going back again in December when we passed that, what you name, it was around 40 million four million that we estimated.

And this was an assumption to be in addition to the 10 million that we appropriate every single year to the climate legacy initiative fund.

Is that correct?

That's correct.

Okay.

Um that is yes, I was I articulated that I wanted those numbers ahead of today when we made this initial request so that everyone in the public and this body could have the understanding of where we're at in accurate numbers of how much is being expended in our climate equity um expenditures.

Um that said, uh, I also wanted to note because there was lots of uh confusion around this last year.

So again, council and the mayor agreed to 10 million appropriation every year for the climate legacy initiative fund.

Did we expend that full amount last year?

Chair Wandsley, uh yes, and there's one clarification that I wanted to make as well.

Is the uh we also get you we will also get you the estimates for the franchise fee the previous year because there was an underage uh there it um as uh director Hoy mentioned the variability in weather that we actually brought in less franchise fee.

So I'll get you we'll get you all of these numbers combined as a as kind of a full picture.

Okay, yeah, I was hoping we would have had that in the presentation as we requested um from you all several months ago.

Um but that said, can you answer the you do you just clarification?

You said we did spend all 10 million dollars for 2025.

Yes, our budget was fully expended.

Okay, I just want to have a memo because I know at least in the community there was uh share that we had not reached um that full 10 million that we had spent under that.

So um you're saying today though that all 10 million was fully appropriated.

Yeah, I would have to look at our budget, the full budget was expended, yes.

And and like I said, there was an underage in and what was brought in, so that there was some complexity around that, but I can get you a full picture that we can get to you.

Okay so when you're saying there was the the under collection of uh particularly one of the franchise fees that might have contributed to a reduction and then you will provide clarification then if general uh funding was used to fill that gap uh chair onceley that yes this is all all of the franchise fees go into the general fund so this is all general funding but yes and we can get you a full picture.

Right and I think also it would be good which I I wanted to see in this presentation the breakdown of what goes into the climate legacy initiative funding.

I think it's not always clear of what is the percentage of franchise fees to also there are uh separate of those like additional general operating dollars that also goes into that climate legacy initiative fund can you actually give a breakdown of what those funding streams are yeah Chair Wandsley uh generally uh one of the the issues that you helped author was in some of the pollution control uh annual registration changes that were made so uh if you'd like a picture of that as well we can get you a picture of that but are you able to provide uh uh at least in percentages at this current moment of what is currently compromising or or the composition of of funding streams that goes into the climate legacy initiative fund uh uh chair wandsley yeah we're we're yes I for and if if I may if we can use just in climate funding so because when we use climate legacy initiative to us that's one specific fund uh so we can give you a picture of what goes into climate funding if that works and then including that PCR uh funding and kind of have a larger picture.

So those are separate so basically the climate legacy initiative fund you're saying that's all franchise fees then that goes to support that one and then your general operating dollars that goes to maybe programs not related to that that's separate from that chair Chair Wandsley yes that's correct.

Okay.

I will pause here and get back in queue I see a number of colleagues in queue next is Vice Chair Stevenson thank you Chair thank you for the presentation that was a really excellent presentation.

I'd love to come and see one of the projects for the the um home rehabilitations energy improvements I'd love to come see one of those um how do you identify new projects?

Chair Wandsley Councilmember Stevenson we would love for you to come out and sure there are plenty of projects in in your ward and and around the city whatever type of projects from energy efficiency to some of the more cutting edge as we refer to some of the thermal energy projects that we're looking at we try to so we do a lot of outreach specifically with small businesses with large businesses with uh weatherization with uh residential uh homeowners through exist we try to go through existing programs as much as possible so center for energy and environment is a common place where people in the city would go to get energy efficiency work and then we dovetail our programs in with their work we work with frontier energy uh who works with uh in people with low income situations in fact we're working out at heritage park right now with those folks and getting services out to people um and so those are existing programs I would be remiss to not mention cooperative energy futures um in the I know that they're here in the room today but try to go through existing programs uh so that it's streamlined it's a streamlined experience for the customer whether they're residential uh business owner or even some of our larger industrial projects trying to get larger emission reduction projects done here in the city okay and you have a a very full pipeline you see no issues in finding new projects I mean I think that's uh Chair Wandsley sorry council member Stevenson that is one of the I think questions that we had when this program started was what is the capacity and it seems to every year we have more demand than uh then we have funding available to do the work um and so it we're typically shutting the program down early whether it's on the residential side or on the commercial side so uh yes I can't answer that question perfectly but from what we're seeing there's there seems to be more demand than funding.

Okay.

Um it's it's really great to see the the the very real impact that the climate legacy initiative is having um it's clear that this program is working and working super well and you're telling me the more money we put in the more is actually going to happen in the real world which is incredible and that's not the way that every program is and so thank you for for doing this thank you for running an excellent program um this is having a real effect on our on our climate and our emissions goals and it seems to me like it's up to us up to us to make sure that the money keeps flowing because the work will keep happening so much as the money keeps flowing.

So the money that goes into the uh Chair Wansley, sorry, uh Councilmember Stevenson.

Uh the money that goes into the climate funding uh from the franchise fee that is technically considered a tax.

Um and and those increases that were made by council and uh and passed by the mayor as well.

Uh there was uh there was a uh commitment to put that those funds towards climate related activities.

And so that is we sit down as a group, uh, we talk with CPED and Rick Services and the different departments and come up with priorities and programs, and so that is the um uh that's the principle that we operate off of is that the the funding goes into uh climate-related programming, and then as much as possible, trying to go at that balance between equity, trying to get some of the hardest people that are in the most difficult situations, uh getting funding to them, and then also getting as much greenhouse gas reduction as we can get, and those are oftentimes not the same projects.

We we love when they are the same project, but they uh oftentimes uh are not, and so it's trying to weigh those out, and the way that we weigh that out is that 40% environmental justice priority that we have.

Uh and as I mentioned, we're up around 60% typically during the year, but that's how we try to prioritize between those two um the principles of the work and where the funding goes.

So, this uh commitment for the money, the franchise fee dollars to go into the climate legacy initiative, and then for that money to be used on climate-related projects.

This commitment is it like a political commitment, is it a legal commitment?

What kind of commitment is this?

Uh Chair Wansley, Councilmember Stevenson, I would say it's not a legal commitment as I'm uh looking at the attorney here, uh, in that it is a political uh commitment made by the city.

Okay, so it could change at any time if city leadership changed it.

Chair Wansley, Councilmember Stevenson, uh that would be my assessment of it, yes.

Okay, that's that's good to know.

I think there's been some confusion in the community and in my office about how secure are these dollars in being designated exclusively for climate projects.

Um so it's good to hear that there is there is no exclusivity there.

It's it's just money that comes in, and we've we've had a handshake about putting it in climate.

We've done that so far, but it's not like a legal commitment that cannot be broken.

So that's that's good to understand, um, and we will be tracking that very closely.

Um I had another question.

Oh, looking back at the presentation, uh, I'm looking at a very exciting slide, the green cost share commercial and residential slide.

Um, I see that the South Side Green Zone is um not dark blue and dark green.

Uh dark blue and dark green being more money spent, more projects completed.

What's happening there?

Yeah, Chair Wansley, Councilmember Stevenson, uh that would be an accurate assessment.

When this program started out, we uh it was the green business cost share program, and we had a number of projects along Lake Street, and I would say that's where some of our best investments were.

Now that we've switched to residential, Councilmember Warren's office is taking the uh most of the funding with in residential projects in the north side green zones, but I would say that's an ac accurate assessment.

We don't use these tools just to uh in fact that was I had thought about that when I sat down because I had planned on mentioning it.

Um, is that as an area for improvement?

Um we need to do a better job of getting money into the south side green zone.

It's a smaller area, but we need to that that graph shows us we need to do a better job of outreach in that neighborhood.

Okay.

Um I'm very happy to see that uh some neighborhoods in Ward 8 are doing very well in terms of the amount of money and the amount of projects.

Uh but just given the way things are, uh, the Southside Green Zone needs to be getting more than Ward 8 needs to be getting.

Not to say that the central neighborhood, which is done quite well, is not a priority place.

It certainly is, but um, with all the knock-on effects of um of improving the livability of homes, uh I I'm just reiterating what you already know about needing to invest more in South Side.

Chair Wandsley and Vice Chair Stevenson, I just wanted to comment that some of the work that I was comment uh referring to earlier about um working with outreach partners in the community such as UNIDOS and CMEJ, uh, that we are working with them to do more door knocking and hold more events to kind of bolster where we're seeing kind of lack of activity and lower uptake for that reason.

Um so we are working on that, and then some of the navigator services that we're talking about as well.

If there are more barriers beyond just being made aware that we can help them actually reach you know the resources and move through the program to completed projects.

So we are actively working on that.

Great, thank you.

I I knew you were, I just was reiterating uh shared commitment that we all have.

Um and I think that's all my questions for now.

Thank you.

Thank you by Sheriff Stevenson.

Next is Councilmember Chowdery.

Hey, thank you so much for the presentation.

I always look forward to this presentation.

I think it's very informative and it kind of grounds us in our current reality.

And it's also good to hear from you again, and nice to meet you.

Would love to set up some time to just sit down and talk through this more deeply.

Is in regards to our areas of action and progress, particularly falling off track around reducing uh reliance on fossil gas for buildings and buildings and industry.

Would love to just kind of hear from you like what is the next four-year, five year kind of strategy on the horizon to really move quickly on this because it does seem like we're just not gonna meet the goals that we need to meet by 2030, and that's really unfortunate.

Yeah, um thank you for the question, Chair Wandsleys.

Um Vice Chair Stevenson Um Councilmember Chowdery.

Uh this is a very important part of the puzzle.

Um policy that we talk about in the climate equity plan is a building performance standard.

Um, and this is a a type of program or policy that um is is targeted at existing buildings and helps to ratchet down carbon emissions um for existing buildings over time so that you work towards that carbon neutrality by 2050, but over time, um, and that there are repercussions or fees if if you're not able to do that.

Um at least a dozen a dozen other cities across the country have this policy in place, four other states have this policy in place.

And the first one was passed um, I think in 2019.

So, you know, we're still the the each city is learning and how to improve from it, but we have others out there that we were tracking and um and learning from and right how the these policy policy can be implemented the best.

Um it's to be noted that this can be uh again implemented at the state level or at the local level, and that there's uh benefit to it being implemented across a more regional or state level um so that there's consistency for the building uh owners and operators for compliance as well as um development implications are a little bit more um there's not kind of like a seams issue.

Um but it's a major policy, and it would have other implications of incenting businesses and buildings to look at the cleanest energy available for them as well.

Um so that's that's a key piece.

Um there's also kind of other state actions or regulatory actions around clean heat and moving natural gas systems to more of uh heating options and heating alternatives that are are not just natural gas um but have a lower carbon footprint, and so more of a state uh policy opportunity that we're we're tracking and um interested in as well.

Yeah, thank you so much.

What are what are like some of the top uses of fossil gas that we're seeing in our city?

Obviously, heating, but would love to know what else.

Yeah, I mean, it is largely heating.

Okay, and that is um how the the time at which our our homes and buildings were built, natural gas is uh primary use.

It is also a use in uh not the only fuel, but it is a major fuel in the district energy systems that feed uh many of the downtown buildings.

It's also then used in industrial processes.

Um and those can be challenging because um each one is its own uh unique process and has a lot of you know pieces to that to that puzzle also of how to figure out if they were to move off of that fuel.

But those are the major the major uses great, and then so would you say one of the biggest challenges in reducing the reliance on fossil gas is largely policy we have at the state level.

Yes, I think um it's state level policies um such as uh codes and energy policies, um, and then other ways that local governments can influence around um development from a carbon perspective.

Um there's opportunity there, but otherwise, yes.

Yeah, we're so we're very preempted in regulating building code.

Yes.

And that's a big challenge.

Yep, building code is um the authority sits with the state.

Yeah, that's great.

Yeah, I really think like I've watched our legislative process over the last few years here at the city closely, and obviously there's a bit of like the math at the legislature, but I think there's just a lot of opportunity to be able to have a really like strong uh and comprehensive climate like just agenda that we're speaking to and working with our partners and community on.

Um, I feel like if we don't do that in the next couple legislative sessions, we're gonna have some big misses, and I'd love to see the city of Minneapolis kind of have a leadership role in that conversation and just see what we can get done to start moving some of these pieces forward because I think without it, we're just gonna continue to sit in that off-track spot.

And I mean, we're doing so much really good work uh to achieve our goals and our climate legacy initiative as shown by um the demand in the programs that um sustainability is working on, and so just to have a barrier that is not our own barrier, that's kind of just I I imagine it's frustrating uh for your team as well.

Um a couple other questions that I had.

It's just kind of a little uh more focused in some of the programs.

So Green Careers, I love that program.

I think it's a great opportunity to give um community members, uh working class community members a really valuable opportunity for education in the trades.

Um kind of curious to know if there's any partnerships with Minneapolis Public Schools, adult education, and if there's been anything explored there.

Go for it.

Um Chair Wansley and um Vice Chair Stevenson.

There uh the Green Careers team absolutely has been exploring collaboration um with public schools, and I believe that they are working on that um and trying to engage youth um in the upper ages of high school, and I believe into early post-high school age too for for just that reason.

Um trying to make them aware of careers that could be attractive to them that they might not have had exposure to previously, um, and that that might be putting them into you know, uh pointing them towards like apprenticeships and other programs that already exist, but just them getting exposure and training to um something that's part of the green economy, something that's a a growing um need in our community um and our our future green economy um that that is the work that they've been largely focused on most recently.

And I I totally appreciate the the youth aspect of career pathways, but I'll just share with you what I'm speaking to is adult education.

So in Minneapolis Public Schools, we have a really great program for adults throughout our city um to get something equivalent to a GED and a lot of great programming around literacy and right now the Minneapolis Public Schools for Adult Education recently had a meeting with them is looking for ways to partner um with other local governments to just like have opportunities where those learners are getting into different classrooms and then having an opportunity and job like this.

Um it's a really unique uh kind of part of the education portfolio there because they don't get additional funding due to enrollment, so it's a lot of it's a lot of grant reliance, and it just seems like this would be an interesting fit.

Um a lot of the uh community members that participate in adult education, they are um folks with families and kids, and so getting them an opportunity into a career pathway is going to lead to an opportunity for their kids to have that type of stability.

So interested in seeing if there's like a way to partner with Minneapolis Public Schools and green career pathways to reach those in adult education.

Chair Wansley, uh, Councilmember Chowdhury.

Um we we have connections with Minneapolis Public Schools or down to starting with the guys in Gems program with their STEM programs uh all the way through, and I should just say we the the health department, uh community planning and economic development to CPED folks uh as well.

And so if you have a contact uh absolutely if you want to forward them on, and then we can make sure everyone's connected.

There they are connected through trades, through uh they do some of the accredited training on in North Minneapolis and South Minneapolis at Sebathany.

Uh so there's a number of connections we have with the school, but if you want to forward your connection, we can bring it all together.

I'll I'll write you about and maybe speak to you about it a little bit more offline.

I think there's a really interesting partnership that could happen there.

Um, and then I just have two more things, and I'm good and pass it off to my colleagues.

The second, or yeah, the second one drilling into programming is about the EV uh charging program.

I have a lot of community members reaching out in the Nekomas East area of my ward that want to see um EV charging grow in the area, and there's a larger demand of folks that want to use it.

How do we how do we build a plan towards that?

Chair Wandsley and Vice Chair Stevenson.

Um the the program um is uh a great resource in the community.

Um there's kind of two parts to it.

There's the EV CarShare, um, which is operated by our car in collaboration with both cities, and then there's the um EB Spot Network, which is the charging network, which is publicly available.

So on the publicly available charging network, that's just available and there for use, um, kind of uh arrive and charge as needed and pay for that.

Um and then additionally on the EV car share side.

Um I know that um Public Works, who you know, is the uh department that's managing that from the city of Minneapolis side, um, that they have some resources on on some of their web pages to point people uh make people aware of that program.

Say the city of St.

Paul does as well.

And then our car uh has their their website on this.

I think I've I've heard some of this before and um interested to help raise awareness around this program.

I think it's a uh uh you know it's serving a real need that we we do need to fill that last mile um smaller trips, uh it fills a number of needs.

So I think I think working with neighborhood organizations and with um with our car and and um public the public works are the the two city um teams to get make sure that the word is is gotten out more.

Um that's uh one opportunity, and we've even talked about um starting later this year putting forward some webinars more broadly for climate equity programs that are happening, whether it's city facilitator or otherwise, but um to help elevate this and this is I think it's like a prime candidate.

Yeah, great.

I mean, the neighborhood association, the area is really willing to work to grow the spot network in the area.

It just seems like there's just been a growth of community members that are transitioning into electric vehicles, and that's something that's just has come up.

They're like we don't have enough places to charge, so that's wonderful.

Um my last question is related to the city budgeting process, and it's just gonna we're just not gonna beat around the bush.

I just wanted to ask a very straightforward question about the additional four million that we allocated last year.

Um is it going to be used instead to balance the mayor's budget?

Has there been conversations about that?

Chair Wandsley, Councilmember Showdry.

Uh no, we have not had uh conversations about using the four million dollars to um to to fill budget holes.

Um there has been obviously conversations around how tough the budget is and and possible impacts, uh, but not specifically that fund.

Um so yeah, I'll leave that there.

Okay, great.

And I will just share like publicly that I am concerned about that.

I want that four million dollars to be dedicated towards the climate legacy initiative.

That was its intention.

And it's also something that community members have raised up to me because it was shared um on a social media post that there was a meeting with the mayor's office between uh climate advocates, and it was shared that that four million may be used to balance the budget, and I'm just stating my position to you and the public that I think that's that's a big mistake.

I think we should use this four million dollars to the programming that we dedicated to, especially in a moment in time where we aren't going to see a federal government that's gonna support us in our efforts.

It feels like this is a precious allocation that we we need to safeguard.

Um I am always willing to learn more about this piece of it, if conversations change and also if this information isn't accurate, would love to uh would love to hear from your office or the mayor's office.

But it was something that was just brought up to me by several constituents, and so felt like I had to bring it up in this meeting.

So thanks for thanks for listening.

Thank you.

Councilmember Chadgery next is Councilmember Warren.

Thank you.

Chair Wandsley.

And then I'm saying at whose cost is that at like what is the how is that happening with the financial component to that if we're transitioning over the electric component?

Because I would like to see that happen.

I just know that here it is, and and this is what I hear from so many of the constituents in my role in my ward, because climate impacts culture.

And they want to change over, but you are being subjected by working with landlords who are not interested in making those type of investments for a healthier way of living for the residents who are renters in these situations.

So the investments are not adequately being made.

So at whose cost?

And then what is the what where's the financial response?

Where does that financial responsibility live?

Chair Wandsley, and I'll leave this open to uh Director Hoy after to cover some of the larger picture.

Um Councilmember Warren, uh the with all of our programs, especially around weatherization and and we draw a hard line with folks in low-income situations, is that people need to save money at the end of the day.

Uh so if we're talking about switching to electrification, um that the investments that we put in and at the end of the day that their utility bills are less, that the the folks that are in those buildings are paying less.

That may not be the case with all you know, if people make a decision to move to electrification in some buildings, but especially in what you're describing, uh, people in rental situations, as that's our hard line, is we it has to save money at the end of the day.

So a lot of people are inquiring about solar.

They want to utilize and they want to access solar, but the cost for solar and solar installation on a lot of the homes, especially within North Minneapolis, is far more expensive than what individuals have the ability to be able to budget, right?

Because there are, you know, certain removal or alterations to tree canopies to ensure that you're getting effective lighting and all of the other components that go into you know improving the utilization of electricity, what types of programs and subsidies are coming out of this in order to help make this a reality for a lot of people.

Chair Wandsley, Councilmember Warren.

Um there's been some great, I'm gonna try not to think about the inflation reduction act and all the dollars that were clawed back for the federal level that could have really supported in the tax credits.

Um but there are uh still some low-income solar programs, and it's the same for that is that when we're going in working with someone, working with a family, uh, that we want to make sure that they're saving money at the end of the day, and then also trying to provide the partners, uh, financial partners so that um they have the capital.

That's one of the that's why we center equity in our climate equity plan is because if we just go for greenhouse gas reduction, the people that can that have the capital that can save the money are the ones that are gonna benefit uh and so making sure that we're really focused with that equity lens, and when we go in that people are saving money in the case of solar making money uh at the end of the day.

So a majority of the people that I've been talking to with respect to okay, yep, we want to go with the electric version, but when I hold up my electric bill in price comparison to my gas bill, the gas bill seems to be a lot more affordable than what my electric bill is.

And as we look at the key metrics on slide 22, if we are improving the utilization of electricity, shouldn't that cost index be going down for a majority of the residents in the city of Minneapolis?

Chair Wandsley, Councilmember Warren.

I would say that not all electric is is the same.

You can have baseboard heat that is extremely expensive as an electric source.

There's other electric sources that are very expensive.

I think some of the technology changes that we've seen in air source heat pumps.

Councilmember Chowdhury talked about what are some of the barriers with uh natural or fossil gas.

Uh and that is one of the barriers is that it is cheap uh to heat a home, and so that is what we are up against.

And again again, when we go into each one of those homes, we want to make sure, especially someone in a low-income situation that they're saving money at the end of the day.

And that those possibilities that is possible uh when you're going from a very inefficient home uh to a more efficient home.

With in with programs like um energy assistance and things like that, they denote more funding towards supporting a gas bill than they do with supporting electric.

The electric bill then becomes optional if your home is not primarily heated by electricity, so they'll support funding around gas and not so much around electric.

They only put like 30 percent.

You can denote for 30 percent of that to be utilized towards electricity when it should be more towards the electric component, right, to pay into that if we're looking at transitioning people towards utilizing more electricity than they are using gas if we're trying to weed out that gas program.

So, how are we?

You know, I'm just thinking about how we're supporting the lower to moderate income families in these situations.

Do you want to respond to Chairs?

Yes, please.

Chair Wandsley, Councilmember Warren.

Um you're talking about barriers that, yeah, that is those are the things that we wrestle with in these programs, and and what you're calling out is uh there's validity to it.

Um, and so we wrestle with that as well.

And like I said, it's it's good to have that principle of that bottom line that people are saving money uh at the end of the day uh through these programs.

Right.

And I know that um that when individuals utilize energy assistance programs, whether it's through um, you know, CAP or whatever the situation may be, that that utilizing those programs and and renters being eligible for those programs do promote a discount for homeowners to be able to make certain upgrades to their properties because they have residents who are in their properties that have that, but there's no forcible action or you know, promotion of saying, hey, you have residents who are eligible for these programs.

Here's something else you could take advantage of that will help to upgrade the healthy living of your homes.

Are we doing something to promote that to individuals who have investment properties, like really pushing the envelope on that?

Uh Chair Wandsley, Councilmember Warren, uh Director Hoy was talking about that the relationships with uh regulatory services uh and being able to get outreach, that's been a really helpful partnership for us to get those direct messages out to people that may not live here but invest in homes here and programs like our LIAR program when you combine our money with the Lear program, it's a 90% match for these investments, so it's hard to say no to this type of investment that's gonna save your tenant money and save you a lot of headache on I'm kind of advertising here as we're as we're talking and save folks uh money as well, or save the property owner a lot of headaches with maintenance.

Right, right, right.

Thank you so much.

I appreciate you both.

Next, and before I uh move on to the next council member, I do want to have uh councilmember Warren's attendance be uh recorded, and once we're done with this presentation, um, can get her vote on the consent agenda.

But uh I will uh move to Councilmember Pomazano.

Thank you.

Thank you for this presentation and thank you for your continued focus on equity in spending and in projects.

That means that my own ward, my own part of the city is actually not a focus here, and I'm okay with that.

I fully support your environmental justice goals, and I don't mean to make that sound like the 13th ward doesn't receive any services.

We do.

Um in relation to our fossil fuel goals.

Earlier you mentioned EV charging.

Um I do support our public car sharing and charging be placed in these higher need areas, but I am um working on and wondering about private charging platforms, as councilmember Chowdry mentioned.

There are all sorts of situations throughout the entire city where residents have problems finding access to charge vehicles.

For example, they don't have a garage where they can plug in, or the cost of adding an extra extra electrical into a garage space is prohibitive.

I've found that to be the case.

If they had the support to do that, and from the city's perspective, we could all benefit from that.

Right now, as you've said, Minneapolis uses the city-driven option, right?

All chargers on the public right-of-way are also co-located with the EV car share program.

Unfortunately, that doesn't encompass the 13th ward.

I don't know how much of Ward 12 it encompasses either.

But those two models aren't exclusive and they can work in combination, but we don't yet have a regulatory framework for a private interest option.

So all this to say I I wonder if Councilmember Chowder would like to join me in working on this together some more.

I'd like the opportunity to pilot a residential program catered specifically to areas outside that EV network.

Because they're in the boulevard, we have to think about things like snow removal and ADA accessibility and responsibility of maintenance and how who we contact if one isn't working.

I think that might take a little while, but I I have been in conversation with Public Works about it, and I guess I'm wondering where that fits in your model in these kinds of priorities as it pertains to the electric car.

Chair Wandsley, Councilmember Palmasano, I heard someone whisper Dale Howie over here.

There are a number, he's a he's a property owner that's invested in a lot of electric vehicle stations at his own properties, making sure that people have access to electric vehicles.

So we have a number and we have a number of other projects where we've invested with private partners for them to do a cost year to do a green cost share on their private uh property.

Um so that's where we've come in.

It's not I wouldn't say it's widespread, but where there's a number of projects around.

So I think we'd be interested in that conversation, and I would be remiss if I didn't allow uh the former chief operations offer of Zeph Energy to weigh in on anything that she has to add to that.

But we'd love the conversation.

That's me if you're wondering.

Um Chair Wandsley and uh Councilmember Palmazano, I I think it's an excellent question.

Um, Excel Energy has programs um in place, even though they've changed and um I think I have some more limitations to them for supporting private development of charging infrastructure out in the community.

Um, and there's a difference between level two charging and fast charging.

Um, if we're talking about charging that would allow people to go kind of fill up the pump, the electric pump relatively quickly, but they are residents.

Um, that's kind of one thing versus if they're businesses or business fleets and things like that.

So they they should be looked at separately.

Um I think the green cost share program and and being able to invest in it through that, through you know, funding opportunities is is a path that many other cities um even other utilities use um across the country, so it might be that.

Um there are businesses that you know that are interested to support that and to do that.

Um I think beyond that there um there's other considerations, you know, like if if the cities to own versus not own or if it's gonna be outside parties.

Um recently there's been discussion at the public utilities commission around if there could be a rate that if it's publicly owned infrastructure level two, um, could it have a lower rate more like a residential rate because it's supplementing those that live in multifamily housing, and then they're gonna use this as their residential charging option.

So there's many considerations, and it's quite complex.

Um, I think that there's you know more that could be discussed there.

Thank you.

And I think that by the nature of your kind of off the top of head comments, it you kind of point out how complex it is.

So thank you.

Thank you.

I'm back in queue.

Um, just a couple follow-up questions related to um actually looking at what's the slide, slide 24.

So it shows that our progress related to the strategic goal of air, but also transportation there, they're somewhat moving on track.

One project that I will know I have seen little engagement from um health and sustainability on is around rethinking 94.

So I want to get a sense too of what you all's engagement has been with the various um agencies that's been a part of that process, especially as air and also multimodal used um in terms of how to incorporate that into uh a design for the new highway has been a really heavy conversation that the Minneapolis delegation, a lot of uh government partners have weighed in on.

So I want to get more clarity about you all's participation in that.

Yeah, Chair Wandsley, um we obviously have in the health department have a lot of experience uh talking about uh air quality and and those sorts of issues.

So we'd love to be part of conversations.

I wouldn't say we've been in deep conversations with uh a lot of those folks, so we'd be open to being part of those conversations moving forward.

Okay.

Um next question is zero was listed on here as well.

I was actually excited to see and uh this will be presented on at our next well, in a few CNI meetings around the the work plan for this committee, but zero waste was a top priority share by uh council members.

Um and I I want to get a little bit more clarity um as it's listed as when the area is funded by the climate legacy initiative.

But can you share how the resources and information provided is different from the health department?

Well, provided by the health department is different from what the county does for the public, and they do that for free.

So if you could share a little bit of that difference.

Uh Chair Wandsley, so the zero waste funding that goes in that is in here is for public works and doing the work uh that the city is doing around zero waste, and uh I believe there's consulting and education dollars involved with that.

Um, and so they would be uh better able to speak to that.

But that's that funding is not to the health department, it's through public works and having a uh comprehensive approach to zero waste.

Okay, okay, it's redirected to public works.

Okay.

And so we'll I'm I'm assuming then if that is the the lead department, but thinking of who is the target audience then for that program, or it sounds like it's basically relegated to public works as the lead.

So there's not actually a program being run through health and sustainability or sustainability and health.

Okay.

Chair Wandsley, yes, we're in the conversations, but yeah, it's public works that's leading.

Okay.

Um and before I move on to the last, I will note because we have some outstanding questions around the fiscal elements, and I think everyone has a shared interest in getting um that information back.

I do want a motion to hold this um item over instead of receiving and fouling to August 20th.

I'm doing August 20th because I know our agenda on August 6th is pretty full.

Um, so I wanted to move that forward um as a motion and see if all are in favor, uh, say aye.

I those not in favor, polls.

Say nay.

All right, great.

Um, last we have council member vita.

Thank you, Chair Wansley, and uh thank you for the presentation.

I just had a few questions.

The first one was about you said that this is the last year for the tree program.

Or like what's the status?

Your your mic is not on.

Here we go.

Uh Chair Wansley, Councilmember Vita.

Uh no, I for this year uh we're we've run to the they've planted so many trees they're out of budget for the year.

Uh and so we anticipate for this year.

Yeah, correct.

Thank you.

Okay, thank you.

I was like, whoa, I don't want those calls tonight.

Thank you for clarifying that.

So we will have a program for next year, it's just this year.

All right.

And then um I've I've noticed that we have these two workforce programs, right?

Kind of CPED, and then we have one in sustainability.

I don't know if this is a staff memo or if it's something you can speak to today, but I'm trying to understand like where they intersect and if it is some sort of a duplicate service or like what is actually happening between the two programs, how they intersect, and like what are the differences?

It just, you know, just kind of like an overview of both of the different workforce programs.

Sure.

Chair Wandsley, uh, Councilmember Vita.

So the Health Department does uh a green careers program, and it's really focused on I mentioned the Guys and Gems program through the uh Minneapolis Public Schools, uh which is younger age children.

Uh it's focused on getting exposure to these different careers and doing um education around the latest technology, the latest in energy efficiency in buildings, um, and then having uh we get into some accredited trainings, but it's not with the promise of going on to a career.

And so it's it might be doing a certain certified solar training if they're gonna spend the time in a classroom that they get a certification that says they did the course.

Um but then that's at the point where uh it would be directing folks into to CPED, who it's their role to focus on workforce.

So we talked about GED programs and getting people into trades and really directing people into uh trade programming uh where they can go and be directed to a job and land in a job, and so that is the role of CPED.

Uh and we work in in tandem and in handing people off to their programs, and of course, they have uh feeder programs throughout the city with different organizations that they do workforce.

So sustainability is more preparation and then CPED is like workforce and getting folks jobs and uh continue training.

Chair Vita, Councilmember V, or sorry, uh Chair Wandsley, Councilmember Vita, correct.

Okay, thank you.

And then what what about um renewable energy partnership?

Are we still in partner with them?

Have we figured out uh ways in which we can collaborate?

So earlier this year, my office connected director Sayers in emergency management with the renewable energy partnership, and I I need to check back in to see if they've um figured out some ways to collaborate, but just wondering how sustainability is doing with with uh the North Side Renewable Energy Partnership.

Uh Chair Wandsley, Councilmember Vita, I can follow up with exact what's what's been going on lately, but we do uh work out of that space at 1200 Plymouth.

Um, and there's uh trades partners that are in that space, the electrical uh trades partners and a number of a number of different uh community organizations and partners as you as you well know.

Uh, but I can follow up with uh exactly where we're at and doing the partnership with uh renewable energy partners.

Okay, I think she'd be well.

Uh council member or uh Chair of Wandsley and Councilmember Vita.

The conversations with renewable energy partners.

Um we have I know we know that um emergency management had a meeting um and kind of in coordination with our resilience hub uh staff person.

So we're aware of that, and um we have been working with emergency management on how to collaborate in general with our resilience hub locations and kind of uh where they fit in because we've been figuring out like emergency management services at those hubs more broadly, how that fits into the to the picture.

So that's kind of an ongoing conversation, just to add that.

That that's awesome, thank you.

Um I also want to just make sure we tap into them too for uh this workforce development because they certainly have the ability to train and to um prepare folks for jobs with the trades or wherever uh folks land, and that's youth, adults, whomever.

I think it's just a great resource to have in North Minneapolis, especially when we're talking about the future of green jobs, sustainability, uh all the things.

So whatever partnerships we can generate, you know, I'm just a fan of a fan of if it's in the neighborhood, like that's what we want to access.

They're there, people have the ability to take public transit, ride the bike, do whatever they need to get to that location.

So whatever ways we can partner with them to make sure people have jobs, have adequate training, have access to these careers, even if it's just the education pathway.

I think it's just super important for Northsiders to know and to know that the city is a part of that.

I know they do a great job at advertising for themselves and recruiting students, but it's something that um I'd be proud to say the city is partnering in and making sure that we're um not only adding jobs to our workforce at the city, but encouraging young people in our community to seek these jobs and to seek this training.

So that partnership would be great.

Uh as far as we can go with a partnership with the North Side organization, not just this one, but any of the organizations on the North Side would be great.

And then my last thing is I just wanted to thank you all for the work you did on um making sure that CAP HC got the funding.

That is gonna be 250 families who are um in need of energy assistance who have a hard time paying their bills, and so I really do appreciate how quickly you got that uh program up and running.

And I'm I know we had a list of more than 250 families who needed the service when we started.

So I really do appreciate thank you so much.

Thank you so much, Mr.

Mayor.

I really do appreciate the the work that you and the entire department did so fast.

I mean, we were in a crisis with uh with families in need of energy, emergency assistance, all of the assistances, and you all quickly got this um up and running, and our families are certainly getting the help from this.

So thank you so very much.

All right, seeing no one else in queue.

Uh we've already approved the motion to for this presentation to the August 20th uh CNI meeting.

So thank you all.

I look forward to getting a more comprehensive follow-up about the fiscal accounting for the climate legacy initiative funding as was requested by then.

And yeah, thank you all for our today's presentation.

Uh, before we move to the next uh discussion item number 19, um, I do want to see if Councilmember Warren, if you would like to have your vote uh be recorded as I on the consent agenda.

It is an I, thank you.

All right, uh clerks noting that without any objections, thank you.

All right, moving on to our next receive and foul item uh number 19, which is the 2025 progress report for your city, your streets.

I will now invite Gustave Stewart, transportation planner, transportation planning and programming to get us started.

Hi, Chair Wandsley, Council members.

My name is Gustav Stewart, and I am a transportation planner with the City of Minneapolis Public Works.

Today I will be giving the Your City, Your Streets 2025 Progress Report presentation.

This presentation provides an overview of all the projects completed in Minneapolis in 2025 and a brief overview of how are we meeting the goals laid out in the 20-year streets funding plan.

The neighborhood park and street infrastructure plan ordinance was adopted by the Minneapolis City Council and Mayor in April 2016.

The ordinance provided the groundwork for the 20-year streets funding plan by providing additional funding to help complete important street projects throughout the city.

Work under the plan began in 2017.

The 20-year streets funding plan provides the framework of how the city prioritizes street work in Minneapolis.

The City of Minneapolis adopted the racial equity framework in March 2023.

The racial equity framework for transportation outlined transportation equity priority scores and tiers to help prioritize transportation investments and evaluate progress in street work.

These equity priority areas look at the demographic makeup and income of Minneapolis's neighborhoods as well as transportation related metrics such as vehicle availability, commute time, and temperature.

So since 2017, the 20-year street funding plan, the city has built or participated in a total of 308 miles of street work.

This is about how many miles it would take to drive all the way across to the Canon Canadian border through International Falls.

89 miles of that work were completed in equity priority areas.

So while 21% of the streets are in equity priority areas, 29% of the work has actually been completed in the area, those areas.

Oh there we go.

Since the adoption of the 20-year streets funding plan, a lot has changed within our plans and overarching policies.

The city has adopted plans such as the Transportation Action Plan, the street design guide, a green storm water ordinance, the racial equity framework for transportation, the Vision Zero Action Plan, the ADA transition plan, and the parkways ordinance, just the name of you.

As a result, the city has invested in street improvements aligned with goals, which include but are not limited to zero fatal crashes, mode ship, mode shifts, and increasing green stormwater infrastructure in the street right-of-way.

At the same time, we have also seen a rise in costs, whether it's cost and materials or our cost participation on cooperative projects that has resulted in a decline in the number of miles of resurfacing work we're able to complete each year.

So while we typically resurfaced about 25 to 30 miles of work, last year it was under 10 miles of resurfacing in the city.

Pavement condition is a closely tracked metric associated with the 20 year streets funding plan.

The 20 year streets funding plan brought in additional funding that has helped curb the decline in pavement quality.

At the same time, pavement conditions have still managed to decline over time in part due to those increasing costs I mentioned earlier.

In 2017, the city's average estimated pavement condition index was at around 72.

This year in 2025, it was at an estimated average of 57.

So before going into all the highlights of 2025 completed projects, we want to highlight that the public works has done a lot of work over the last nine years.

Even though pavement quality has declined and may decline further, our investments have been made with an eye to a balanced transportation system, keeping keeping in mind that maintaining the current system while also providing safe, reliable access for everyone.

Our goals look different than they did in 2017, so we make the decisions based off of climate, sustainability, equity, mode shift, and safety as well.

So looking in 2025 street accomplishments, there's been 93 intersections that were upgraded.

39 signals were upgraded, and just under 29 miles of general street work.

5.1 of those miles were made in equity priority areas, and 5.6 miles were safety conversions, which either involves a four to three lane conversion or a narrowing of a street to improve safety.

In 2025, the city completed the second half of the Hennepin Avenue reconstruction project from 26th Street to Douglas Avenue.

Prior to the street reconstruction, the road was over 65 years old, which is past its useful life.

The reconstruction project provided important safety improvements, new and improved sidewalk space, green stormwater infrastructure, a two-way sidewalk level bikeway, bus lanes, and new signals.

The project was an accumulation of years of community engagement, detailed design, and construction work, and is now a safer and more comfortable place for all modes of travel.

Phase one of the First Avenue South Reconstruction Project was also completed last year.

The project was a reconstruction reconstruction project that includes a sidewalk level bikeway, green storm water infrastructure, new sidewalk, and new pavement for vehicles.

First Avenue South was one of the most highly rated projects in our 20 year streets funding plan.

Notably, this project was constructed in-house by our transportation maintenance and repair staff, which is a huge undertaking and accomplishment.

As part of the concrete rehab program, the city completed work in the Kenwood area.

The concrete rehab work involves repairing concrete panels and performing a diamond grind finish with ADA upgrades.

The remaining segments of this work will be completed this year.

Public Works also maintains MPRB parkways in Minneapolis.

The city completed work at St.

Anthony Parkway from Hay Street to Central Ave last year to extend the life of the street.

A red ship seal will be completed either this year or next year as part of that capital maintenance work and to provide that look and feel that parkways have throughout the city.

As part of the city's alley program, Public Works reconstructed the alley between Park Avenue and Columbus Avenue between 45th Street and 46th Street.

The alley program is focused on improving pavement needs as well as addressing drainage issues.

So the next few projects that I'll highlight are cooperative projects.

While these projects are not led by the city, the city has an important role to facilitate the concept layout approval and often cost participate on these projects.

The project on the slide is a Hennepin County-led Lowry Avenue Northeast reconstruction, specifically from Central to Johnson Street.

This project reduced the overall width of the street, added pedestrian medians, and it added a new shared use path on the north side of the street.

The project adds important safety improvements in Northeast Minneapolis.

Hennepin County also led on a resurfacing and reconstruction project for University and Fourth Street.

Last year, University Avenue from I-35 to Oak Street included upgrades.

The project included both sidewalk and in-street bike facilities, new pavement, and sidewalk improvements, improving connectivity along the street, but also across it as well between Dinky Town and University of Minnesota.

Mindot led on a resurfacing project for Trunk Highway 121 in Minneapolis, where MINDOT reduced the trunk highway from two lanes to one lane.

This restriping improves safety along and across the corridor, and pictured on the slide is the 58th Street intersection, which had geometry and signal upgrades, making it a safer place to cross.

There are several streets that were improved in conjunction with the Met Council's Green Line Extension Project.

The picture on the left shows the Cedar Lake Parkway and Kenilworth Trail intersection, which was reconstructed to include improved trail crossings and also included a flashing beacon to make it safer to cross.

This slide highlights the E-line bus rapid transit project, which was completed and opened last year.

The E-line brought faster speeds and more reliable transit service, mostly aligned with the previous Route 6.

It also brought along higher ridership.

The E-line route better connects the University of Minnesota, downtown, uptown, the Linden Hills neighborhood, to and Dina.

The project includes high quality neighborhood scale stations with real-time arrival and departure information and near level boarding.

So the next two slides will cover two county-led four to three lane conversions.

The pictures on the slide highlight Lowry Avenue North Bridge, which had over the Mississippi River, which is converted from four lanes to two lanes with a left turn lane.

And this slide highlights the East Hennepin Avenue four to three lane conversion.

These four to three lane conversions improve pedestrian, bicycle, and vehicle safety by reducing conflict.

So the next several high slides will highlight pedestrian focused improvements.

The numbers on the screen highlight both the projects I talked before and the ones to come.

So across the city in 2015 or 2025, there were 6.1 miles of improved pedestrian realm.

There were 271 curb extensions that were built.

Two sidewalk gaps were closed.

4.6 of pedestrian lighting were installed, and over 1,088 ramps were upgraded.

And then lastly, 16 pedestrian medians were built.

The Ridgefield Road Sidewalk Gap Project filled the gap between the William Berry Parkway Trail with the E-Line Bus Rapids Transit Project station Epiday Makosca.

This project was led by public works and included the construction of a shared use path to fill this gap.

The Phillips Traffic Safety Project included improvements along 24th Street and at a few intersections within the neighborhood.

With 24th Street up for resurfacing, public works brought in additional federal and local funding to construct large curb extensions to narrow the crossing distance and slow vehicle speeds on this high injury street.

The Loring Park intersection safety improvements included signal upgrades at eight different intersections.

With these signal upgrades, there was a focus on adding additional safety and accessibility improvements through curb extensions and APS push buttons as well.

The E-line intersection safety improvements project was a city-led project, which included upgrades at 44th Street at Cersei's and at Vincent Ave, as well as Ridgefield Road and 36th Street.

At Ridgefield Road and 36th Street, the intersection was reconfigured to add a diagonal crosswalk to improve connectivity, trail connectivity in the area.

Through the city's Vision Zero Capital Program, flexible delineators or ballards were installed along 38th Street.

These cost-effective quick build safety improvements allow the city to improve safety quickly while slowing vehicles.

The Vision Zero Capital Program also funded speed cushions as a pilot within the city.

The ones on the slide are along Bryant Avenue North between Fourth Ave and Fifth Av.

They're shown as during field testing before striping was completed.

Looking at 2025 accomplishments in terms of improving kind of our bicycle infrastructure, there were 7.1 miles of newly constructed or upgraded bike facilities.

Five of those miles were protected bike facilities, and three were in equity priority areas.

So the Hedipin Dunwoody Bikeway project added important safety improvements as it reconfigured the intersection with signals, a new pedestrian median, sidewalk, and bike facilities.

The project upgraded the previously existing Bollard bikeway along these two streets by including additional green boulevard space and curb extension, as well as a large rain garden, which is part of our green storm water infrastructure just to the left of the picture.

And then last but not least, the Oak Street Southeast Bikeway from Washington Avenue to University Avenue was completed last year.

This project filled the last remaining gap along Oak Street, which connects the East River Parkway Trail to the Dinky Town Greenway.

The project included the addition of a protected bikeway as well as a large curb extension, which reduced the crossing crossing distance for pedestrians, as well as the number of lanes, which will have a positive impact on vehicle safety.

So that concludes my presentation.

Thanks for everybody for listening and happy to answer any questions.

Thank you so much.

I see we have uh Vice Chair Stevenson in queue.

Yeah, thank you.

I mostly just wanted to say thank you for the presentation.

It was great, and uh all public works for these improvements.

They are they're massive.

They are so good.

Um, in particular, I think a lot of the designs for the new constructions have been excellent.

First Street is so much better.

It's so nice on First Street now.

I think Hennepin Ave is great.

There's been a lot of hate on Hennepin Av, but it's actually fantastic.

Um, and I really appreciate those.

Um Richfield and 36 taking out that that swoop lane or whatever those are called and and improving that intersection has been massive.

I've driven, walked, biked through many of the projects that that uh and bused through many of the projects that were raised, and they're all just such massive improvements.

So I just I just can't say thank you enough for these things.

They're incredible.

Um that was pretty much it.

Thank you.

Thank you, Vice Chair Steven.

I also know for the clerk, something weird is happening with speaker management.

Councilmember Pomasano got a cue, and it has her checked in for her first.

And that's that's weird.

Yeah, but uh yes.

When uh right when uh she included herself, I clicked right next to it and immediately got rid of it.

Oh when I was getting ready to uh get have the first one.

So I just re-added you in.

Okay, also.

All right, next is Vice.

Sorry, Councilmember Pomassano.

Thank you.

Um, thank you, Mr.

Stewart, for this presentation.

Um, the report, I thought the report had said we had built around 8,000 ADA ramps in your slide here.

It says a little over a thousand.

Um regardless, how many more do we still need to do?

Um, Chair, Councilmember, um I think I would have to get back to you on that.

Um, unless you feel like we're we've reached the halfway point at this point, or a quarter of the way there, just in your estimation.

I'm not looking for a specific figure.

Chair, council member, I I would have we would have to go back and look at our ADA transition plan, which outlines um how many ADA ramps we've completed so far and um what is the plan to get us there, um, and that would have the exact number in there.

Um, but that is on our website.

Um, so we do have a number out there.

Um, if I can if you can help point me to that on the website, that would be awesome.

Um, it is frustrating to see that despite our investment, the overall pavement condition index continues to fall.

Um, other than increased funding, are there other ways that we're using to prevent this downward trend?

Chair, council member.

Chair, Councilmember, I I think you're right with saying that funding is a big piece in terms of with resurfacing concrete rehab and reconstruction work in terms of improving and helping curb the decline and pavement condition.

Also SEAL Coat, which is funded through our general fund.

But I think what we've done at the city and public works is try to pair investments together as much as possible.

So when we are doing a resurfacing, we're also including pedestrian improvements, which can help fund our ADA curb ramps as well.

So pairing investments together has been part of our strategy to making our dollars go further.

Yeah, that sounds good.

So does um a new different kind of level between resurfacing and reconstruction that I know has been employed in some planned project work in my area.

I've had some work done in the sidewalk gap program in my ward, primarily due to the e-line um construction.

I'm I'm very grateful for that.

Uh there's a new portion of sidewalk on the east side of Viday Makosca.

Um, but where does funding stand for other sidewalk gaps?

I have a few other spaces in my ward that I've not yet been successful at getting addressed.

Chair, council member, um, sidewalk gap funding is part of our six year capital improvement program.

Um I know there's currently conversations in terms of looking at the overall sidewalk gap policy in terms of how we go about assessments.

Um I believe that's in the works, but I would need to confirm that.

Um thank you.

Thanks.

Um, thank you.

Um looking to make sure there, okay, there's no one else in queue.

And um before I receive MFOL, I will note that we've been in conversations uh with public works leadership about getting um regular updates and part specifically getting some um specific timing for an update in Q1 or Q2 next year around uh status report on our ADA uh ramp improvements because I know that's been uh a matter raised by a number of our council members because we recognize this is a significant priority.

We want to make sure our sidewalks, our streets are accessible for all of our residents, uh regardless of their mobility needs.

So I do want to note that this was flagged for public works leadership in terms of a presentation that we would like to see come forward early next year.

Um, and also we will be getting you know, continue reports on this, um, this body of work as well, which also relates to our vision zero plan, which I believe will be coming before this body for uh further consideration at our August 6th uh climate infrastructure uh meeting.

Um, and just for clarification, a quick question too.

I know this was or our your streets, that's the full tagline here.

Your streets, our streets, yes, everybody's streets uh plan.

It was related to a 20-year overall plan, I believe.

Um so I I I'm trying to recall as I was looking through the history of limbs when did it originally uh pass or was adopted was it in 2017?

So essentially, when would we be up or due for uh having to reconsider this one as well?

Chair Wandsley, um so the 20-year streets funding plan.

Um, so the ordinance that funds the 20-year streets funding plan was adopted in 2016, and that provided additional funding um starting in 2017, and then um the 20-year streets funding plan as itself um was adopted in 2017.

Um so that gives us 20 years um of additional funding um to help complete um the street public works projects that um we kind of highlighted today.

Okay, so we got some time.

Okay, awesome.

Uh well, thank you again for this presentation.

Um, I wanted to note if council member Pamasano, did you want a question noti for our staff memo?

Um I would in terms of how many we still need to upgrade.

I did find the answer, which is 8,000 ramps since like 2017 and a thousand ramps just last year is what is the work that was done.

What I'm still curious about is how many more we still need to add to address that would be useful, and then um any updates on our sidewalk gap funding program would be certainly appreciated.

So thank you.

Did our clerks capture that?

Awesome.

And if you need further clarification, please feel free to email me and council member Palmasano to get those uh noted or record.

All right.

Um I will ask the clerk to receive and file this presentation again.

Thank you so much, uh Mr.

Stewart, for giving this presentation.

And that said, we have concluded all business on today's agenda.

So I will declare this meeting adjourned.

All right.