Sponsor: Public Health
Title
title
2022-2023 Recycling & Energy Board Joint Activities Budget
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Recommendation
recommendation
Accept and approve the 2022-2023 Ramsey/Washington Recycling & Energy Board Joint Activities Budget as recommended by the Ramsey/Washington Recycling & Energy Board.
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Background and Rationale
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The Joint Powers Agreement creating the Ramsey/Washington Recycling & Energy Board (“R&E Board”) provides that the two county boards retain authority to approve the Joint Activities Budget of the R&E Board. That budget is used to administer and carry out joint waste management activities and includes non-R&E Center related activities of the R&E Board. Joint waste management activities are derived from the counties’ respective solid waste management master plans where policies and strategies have intentionally been aligned.
On July 22, 2021, the R&E Board approved and recommended that the county boards approve the 2022-2023 Joint Activities Budget. The attached documentation from the R&E Board includes information about the Joint Activities Budget.
In 2020 and 2021, there were several programs that operated in Ramsey County funded solely by the county. This was a result of a decision by Washington County to reduce funding for the biennium to be able to support Washington County programming needs. There are unspent funds from the Ramsey-only programs that will carry over into 2022 and reduce Ramsey County’s 2022 financial contribution. The Ramsey-only programs, explained in the attached R&E documents, will expand to both counties with joint funding in 2023.
The Joint Activities Budget is summarized below.
|
|
2018 |
2019 |
2020 |
2021 |
2022 |
2023 |
|
Total Joint Activities Budget |
$10,725,643 |
$9,780,831 |
$9,053,290 |
$9,083,369 |
$10,707,727 |
$11,609,454 |
|
Washington County (27%) |
$2,895,924 |
$2,640,824 |
$1,914,290 |
$1,922.230 |
$2,891,086 |
$3,134,553 |
|
Ramsey County (73%) |
$7,829,729 |
$7,140,007 |
$5,175,674 |
$5,197,139 |
$7,016,641 |
$8,474,901 |
|
Ramsey-Only Funds |
N/A |
N/A |
$1,964,000 |
$1,964,000 |
$800,000* |
|
|
*Anticipated carryover Ramsey-only funds from 2021 |
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County Goals (Check those advanced by Action)
☒ Well-being ☐ Prosperity ☐ Opportunity ☐ Accountability
Racial Equity Impact
Recycling rates and participation in waste/recycling services provided by the county are not even across racial groups in Ramsey County. Ramsey/Washington Recycling & Energy works with Public Health to emphasize services and invest in community engagement to assist in designing ways to reach and assure services to underrepresented communities. This Joint Activities Budget includes programming aimed to overcome barriers and bring about parity across our community in awareness of and use of these services.
One example includes the Business Pollution Prevention grant program which is available to all small businesses to transition to less toxic chemicals to reduce their toxic air emissions, (dry cleaners and auto body shops). Initial grant outreach focused on small businesses located near residential areas in economically challenged neighborhoods. The goal is to reduce toxic air emissions to reduce health impacts on residents, especially those with respiratory conditions such as asthma.
The Food Scrap Bag program offers an opportunity to all residents at no cost removing a financial barrier to participate. As the Food Scrap Program expands into collection of food scraps placed in durable compostable bags, outreach and the program website will incorporate information in 5-6 languages. The Food Waste Prevention Program has a significant food rescue component diverting food that would otherwise be waste to making that food available to those in need.
R&E is also researching options to site a “Community Hub” in the general Rice-Larpenteur area. The hub would serve as a county resource center for residents in the area modeled after a similar concept in Toronto, Ontario. The hub would offer environmental programming such as fix it clinics, community education, food gleaning, etc. as well as potentially serve as a county satellite service center. The intended community served are the residents in the neighborhood which includes a larger racially and ethnically diverse community. R&E has launched targeted engagement efforts specific to community members in the area to solicit feedback on what scope of services they would be interested in having in place at the hub facility.
Community Participation Level and Impact
Joint Activities programs rely on community participation to work. Community is defined as all engaged residents. Success in food waste prevention, pollution prevention, organics management, business recycling, and recycling in multi-unit housing depends on residents making the right decisions when discarding materials, and that depends on providing understandable and convenient services. Public Health and R&E engage communities in the design and provision of these programs.
R&E tracks the number of grants awarded, measures the impact of outcomes including those that are awarded to businesses owned and/or operated by racially and ethnically diverse members of our community. Further, R&E is engaging an outside vendor, Ecotone, to assess and measure Biz Recycling grants to equity goals.
☒ Inform ☒ Consult ☒ Involve ☒ Collaborate ☐ Empower
Fiscal Impact
The Ramsey County share of the Joint Activities Budget is $7,816,641 in 2022, with $800,000 carried over from Ramsey-only programs in 2021 plus $7,016,641 in payments. In 2023, the amount to be paid by Ramsey County is $8,474,901. Funds are included in the proposed 2022-2023 Public Health budget for these amounts.
County Manager Comments
No additional comments.
Last Previous Action
None.
Attachments
1. R&E Board Resolution
2. R&E Board Joint Activities Budget Memos
3. R&E Board 2022-2023 Joint Activities Budget