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Environmental Sustainability Board forms working groups and names members for priority items
Summary
The Environmental Sustainability Board agreed Feb. 20, 2025, to form a board-led working group on the proposed plastic bag fee and to assign members to research green building standards and serve on a marketing/outreach steering committee.
The Environmental Sustainability Board on Feb. 20, 2025, discussed and assigned participants to several working groups and steering committees to advance the board’s 2025 work plan.
Staff explained the difference between the two formats: working groups are board-led subgroups (typically less formal, not requiring published agendas if they remain below quorum) that research topics and return recommendations to the full board; steering committees are county-led teams that usually meet during weekday business hours and include one board liaison plus county staff and other stakeholders.
The board agreed to a working group on a potential plastic bag fee/restriction to research options and offer a recommendation to the board and council. Volunteers for that working group named during the meeting included Herman Gephart Kleinrath and Rebecca Paley Williams; staff indicated a third member (Shannon, who had indicated interest in a prior poll) would likely participate.
Board members also agreed to look into green building standards through a working-group-style effort; Jesse Derringer and Joe Chandler volunteered to begin research into what the county already has under consideration and where the board could provide input.
For the marketing and engagement/education steering committee — the consultant-assisted effort to build a county greenhouse-gas reduction outreach campaign — Joe Chandler agreed to be the board’s steering-committee representative. Other steering assignments remain open.
Staff and several board members emphasized that participation on steering committees occurs during business hours and that working groups can be scheduled more flexibly; the board asked staff to support meeting logistics and to provide updates to the full board as projects move forward.
No formal ordinance or expenditure was approved; the meeting recorded volunteers and staff support commitments for follow-up work.
