GreenStep Cities Program

As the Board knows, there was a presentation on the GreenStep Cities program at last month's meeting.  After the conclusion of the presentation, the Board discussed the program and there was general consensus that the City should pursue enrolling in the GreenStep Cities program.  However, there was a question as to how much Staff time may be required to enter all required data into the program spreadsheet.  Thus, the Board requested that Staff try contacting other cities already enrolled to hear what their experiences have been thus far.  Staff did try contacting at least four (4) other communities what were similar in size and has only received one response thus far.  However, that community did indicate that costs for them were really minimal as they had a GreenCorps member available to input all the information into the program spreadsheet. 

Staff has reviewed many of the action items within the Best Practicies Action Options.  It appears that the City has already implemented one or more actions listed under many of the Best Practices.  While completion of additional actions may be necessary to finalize a particular Best Practice, it does appear that the City may have one or more Best Practicies completed already.  For instance, the City should be credited for completing Best Practice #16 (Urban Forests) as it is already certified as a Tree City USA and employs both a Certified Arborist and also multiple Certified Tree Inspectors. 

In communications with Diana McKeown, who presented the program information last month, it was indicated that it is possible for a city to get close to or achieve Step 3 of the program only focusing on its own operations.  That was one potential concern identified after the presentation last month, that if the City were to particpate that the actions should really focus on City operations rather than requirements for the private sector.

Should the Board desire to pursue enrolling in this program, a resolution approved by the City Council is required.  A draft resolution has been included for the Board to review.  The Board should review the draft resolution and, if so desired, make revisions to the document before it is presented to City Council.

Motion to recommend that City Council adopt a resolution to enable the City of Ramsey to enroll in the GreenStep Cities program.