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Sustainability & Climate Justice Commission Agenda
Date Monday, March 9th
Time 5 pm
Location City Hall Council Chambers
Watch Online https://www.youtube.com/@CityofIthacaPublicMeetings
Time
Item Voting Presenter
Allotted
1. Call to Order
1.1 Agenda Review No Aaron Fernando, Vice Chair 5
2. Public Comment
2.1 Statement from the Public No Aaron Fernando, Vice Chair 10
2.2 Commission Response No 5
3. Announcements, Reports &
Presentations
3.1 Participatory Budget presentation No Siobhan Hull, staff 20
4. New Business
4.1 Commission structure and electing Yes Aaron Fernando, Vice Chair 30
a chair
4.2 Recommendation to Common Yes Aaron Fernando, Vice Chair 15
Council to adopt the Climate
Action Plan
5. Meeting Wrap-up Aaron Fernando, Vice Chair 5
5.1 Next Meeting: April 13th No
5.2 Agenda Planning for Next Meeting No
5.3 Adjournment Yes

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March S&CJ Commission

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AGENDA

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Participatory Budget Review

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JUSTICE50
In May 2024, Council adopted Justice50 to create a framework for implementing the
equity component of the IGND.
50% (at minimum) of total IGND program 40% of participants in green jobs workforce
funding allocated to serve Climate Justice training identify as climate justice
Communities (CJCs) individuals
50% (at minimum) of the City’s total capital
10% of the City’s total capital project
project budget serve Climate Justice
budget allocated to participatory budgeting
Communities (CJCs)

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WHY A PARTICIPATORY BUDGET?
Participatory budgeting allows residents to imagine and
then determine which projects are prioritized and funded
in their community. For climate justice communities who
have historically been excluded from decision making
processes, it can be an empowering opportunity to build
community resilience and a sense of shared responsibility
over the City.

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EXAMPLES IN OTHER CITIES
New York City (launched 2011) Durham (launched 2018)
$30 million in 2026 $2.2 million in 2025
Playground upgrades
Lighting at parks
Air conditioning in schools
Pedestrian safety
Upgrading community
garden water system
Rec center equipment
School bathroom
upgrades

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HOW MUCH MONEY?
10% of the total Capital Project Budget is to be set aside for participatory budgeting.
This is what the Capital Project Budget has looked like in recent years:
2024 2025 2026
Challenging
budget year!
$5,006,000 $5,440,001 $0
So ... participatory budgeting could involve around $500,000 - depending
on that year’s budget!

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HOW WILL IT WORK, BROADLY?
1. Proposing: City residents brainstorm and propose ideas for how to use the allocated
budget within stated guidelines, as decided by City representatives and local laws.
2. Debating and Refining: Both the public and City representatives provide feedback on
proposals; proposals are reviewed, discussed, and refined through a series of
engagement efforts, such as forums, listening sessions, workshops, surveys, focus
groups, or online engagement methods. The goal for this step is to have robust
proposals ready for a public vote.
3. Voting: City residents vote on the final list of proposals.
4. Implementing: The City of Ithaca government implements the selected proposal(s).
Best practice for this step is monitoring and reporting results back to community
members.

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HOW WILL IT BE DESIGNED?
Internal Staff Committee Community Committee
1. Identify legal guardrails in process
1.Recommend a voting process (timeline,
a.Determine how PB funds can/cannot be
proposal review process, feedback process,
spent in accordance with local and state law
review committee)
b.If needed, identify alternative mechanisms
for funds disbursement if a conflict is
2. Recommend community’s preferred staff
suspected
and Council roles in implementation
2. Identify project approval process
process
a.Recommend how projects will be pre-
screened
3.Identify resources residents may need to
b.Identify what, if any, approvals are needed
successfully submit proposals and potential
once public voting has taken place (e.g.
groups/sources to provide those resources.
final Council vote)
3. Identify any additional necessary stakeholders
4.Identify an effective, and iterative,
(e.g. external entity to disburse funds)
outreach and engagement plan.

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Meeting every other
COMMUNITY COMMITTEE MEMBERS
Thursday at 5pm - next
meetings are 3/12 and 3/26
at the library with a hybrid
option.
Armin Heurich - Ithaca City School District
Taili Mugambee - Ultimate Re-entry Opportunity
Ashley Cake - business community
Niki Ray-Israelsohn - Bike Walk Tompkins
Ace Dufresne - Sunrise Ithaca
Harry Smith - Black Hands Universal
Basil Ibrahim - previous Participatory Budget experience
Katie Church - New Roots and food system work
Chris Skawski - CCE liaison
We would like to have a liaison between the community participatory
budget committee and the S&CJ commission.

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Discussion of Commission
Structure

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PROPOSED STRUCTURE
Elect a Chair and Vice Chair of the Commission
Rotate facilitation of the meetings - have commission members
sign up for the year ahead of time
That month’s facilitator joins the Chair and Vice Chair in an
agenda setting meeting with the staff
Is there interest in starting one or two working groups? Could
have non-commission members participate. If there’s interest,
we can discuss more fully at a future meeting.

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Discussion of Commission
Recommendation of the CAP

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DRAFT Sustainability & Climate Justice Commission Recommendation
for
Ithaca Common Council Adoption of the Climate Action Plan
[DATE]
Following the City of Ithaca’s 2019 passage of the Ithaca Green New Deal (IGND) resolution
and the subsequent legislative reaffirmation of this resolution in 2025, the City’s Sustainability &
Climate Justice Commission now recommends that Common Council vote on and adopt the
Climate Action Plan prepared by Ithaca’s Office of Sustainability.
This recommendation comes to Common Council from Ithaca’s Sustainability & Climate Justice
Commission, which was formed in [MONTH of YEAR] with “the purpose of providing Common
Council and the City’s Sustainability Office with advisory research, public input, and analysis for
matters related to sustainability, climate justice and goals delineated in the IGND.”
The recommending commission is made up of residents of this locality with professional and
lived knowledge across domains including, energy, transportation, housing, financing, labor,
public health, etc. who have reviewed this action plan through these lenses as well as our status
as county and city residents. We offer our endorsement of the CAP based on our expertise and
inherent interest in helping the City implement its sustainability and climate justice goals.
The 2019 IGND resolution committed the City to putting in place a Climate Action Plan (CAP)
that would, "provide details on how to achieve the Ithaca Green New Deal." In effect—as
members of Council will see—the CAP outlines a scope of work across a range of domains.
Once passed, this will enable City staff to scale up the implementation of new and existing
programs, and will provide a framework for the City’s elected officials in grounding thinking
about policies intended to benefit the City’s residents, businesses, visitors, and ecology.
The recommended CAP impacts several sectors in our community. This breadth is intentional
and matches the far-reaching nature of the issues the CAP necessarily addresses: climate
change and its transformative effects on communities in Ithaca, as well as the physical and
economic realities that affect these communities. Due to the complexity of these issues, the
CAP touches upon six focus areas: housing, labor, public health, equity, power reliability, and
emergency preparedness.
The CAP being put forth for your consideration does not simply outline methods of mitigating
emissions that contribute to a destabilized climate. Rather, in alignment with best practices in
the fields of energy and sustainability, the CAP takes a necessary step further to set our
municipality up to meet expected climate-related challenges and shifting conditions, as well as
address climate justice. Thus, the CAP contains recommendations that pertain to climate
mitigation and climate adaptation and climate justice. This is important to note: the climate

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adaptation recommendations included in the CAP are intended to indicate courses of action and
legislative policies likely to help those who live and work in our municipality as they adjust to the
many and diverse effects driven by climate change.
Over the past two years, the City’s Sustainability Director and staff has actively sought insight
and feedback from beyond the Commission as well. The Sustainability Office also sought public
input through different forms of engagement, including:
● A public survey focused on labor and housing
● A public survey focused on public health and racial equity
● A public survey focused on emergency preparedness and electrical reliability
● In-person outreach events at the public library and on the Ithaca Commons
● Public comments during meetings of the Sustainability & Climate Justice Commission
This commission has reviewed the proposed Climate Action Plan, and now sees fit to
recommend its adoption by the Common Council of the City of Ithaca.
The Sustainability & Climate Justice Commission recommends that members of Ithaca Common
Council review the Climate Action Plan thoroughly, and adopt it as swiftly as possible, so that
the next steps in implementation of the Ithaca Green New Deal may commence.
Signed,
The Sustainability and Climate Justice Commission
[LIST NAMES]