Agenda - 04-21-20; 8-a - Minutes

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4 1 voting to approve funding for the recommended Solar for Schools Grant program for FY 2019- 2 20 as outlined in the attached report. 3 4 Travis Myren presented this item. 5 6 BACKGROUND: As part of the FY 2019-20 budget, the Board of Commissioners authorized an 7 additional '/4 cent property tax to provide an estimated $469,272 dedicated to accelerating 8 climate change mitigation through the new Climate Change Mitigation Project in the Capital 9 Investment Plan. 10 11 When the tax was authorized, the BOCC stated that it would decide the final prioritization of 12 projects to be funded, and the Board requested that the Commission for the Environment (CFE) 13 provide feedback on prospective projects in advance of BOCC review. 14 The CFE completed its initial scoring, and the BOCC reviewed a report that outlined the 15 recommended projects at its Business meeting on February 4th. At that meeting the Board 16 approved funding for two of the four recommended projects, and at the request of school 17 leadership, temporarily deferred taking any action on the two projects which make up the 18 proposed Solar for Schools grant program. Attachment 1 is a copy of this report revised in 19 accordance with the comments received from the BOCC. 20 21 During the discussion of the Solar for Schools grant program, Board members asked several 22 questions in preparation for additional discussion in the future. In response, staff has revised the 23 report and has had discussions with staff in both school districts. 24 Attachment 2 is a list of the Board members' questions and follow-up responses on the 25 recommended Solar for Schools Grant Program. 26 27 FINANCIAL IMPACT: The Climate Action Tax is projected to generate $469,272 in funds in FY 28 2019-20. The top two recommended projects have already been approved to use $169,272 of 29 these funds, and the remaining $300,000 is recommended to fund two Solar for Schools grants 30 for$150,000 each. 31 32 Chair Rich said the recommendation that was in the published agenda abstract is not 33 what is happening now. She said the schools contacted the County Manager and declined to 34 participate in the solar arrays project. She said the current recommendation is to send this 35 process back to the CFE to come up with additional suggestions for the climate mitigation tax. 36 Travis Myren said it would not be useful to go forward with the recommendation for the 37 schools. 38 Commissioner Price asked if there is a reason preventing further discussions with the 39 schools about other climate mitigation projects. 40 Chair Rich said the original process included scoring, and the schools have not added 41 any additional projects yet. She said if the schools did have additional projects, they could 42 submit them to the CFE to be scored. 43 Chair Rich said it is important to utilize the process set up for the CFE to review and 44 score potential projects, as the process focuses on social justice and racial equality. 45 Chair Rich said it is a climate mitigation fund and the Orange County Board of 46 Commissioners decides what to do with the funds, based on recommendations from the CFE. 47 Commissioner Price asked if the Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) is going to 48 send a letter to the Boards of Education inviting them to submitting potential projects to be 49 scored. 50 Chair Rich said she and Bonnie Hammersley have already spoken with the two schools 51 Boards, and both are aware of the open invitation to submit projects for consideration.