City Council Minutes 2020 05 19 - Laserfiche WebLink

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City Council Meeting Minutes May 19, 2020 Page 10 of 14 Staff will bring back further information on ballot language and legal implications of a ban for further Council discussion. City -Wide Renewable Energy Assistant City Manager Hogan stated that in 2019, City Council adopted renewable energy and carbon emission reduction goals for municipal operations and the larger community. One of these was to generate 75% of Louisville's residential and commercial/industrial electric needs from carbon -free sources by 2030. Currently only 24% of Louisville's residential and commercial/industrial electric needs come from carbon -free sources. In an effort to make progress on this the City has partnered with Xcel Energy to explore innovative solutions for community -wide renewable energy. Potential scenarios include a climate action tax, which would need to be approved by voters, or a fee applied to customers' bills to be used on a bulk purchasing project until the time that Xcel can reach its own 100% carbon free goal. Xcel's initial estimate is $621,000 per year to purchase renewable energy credits to bring the City's use to 100% renewable. Preliminary results from the 2020 Citizen Survey show strong support for such a ballot initiative. Mayor Stolzmann stated Xcel has been a good partner and is working on options for us. She stated she thinks this cost at full retail price would be much more expensive if individuals wanted to buy these credits. It is much more efficient for the community to do this as a whole. This would address a huge carbon source and make a real difference. She supports moving this forward. Mayor Pro Tern Maloney noted this is a tax of roughly $80 per year per household and he supports continuing to look into this and is excited about this concept. Public Comments — None Members were very supportive of this initiative. Staff will bring something back more information for consideration for the 2020 ballot. Minimum Wage Deputy City Manager Davis stated that beginning in January 2020, local governments have the authority to raise the minimum wage within their local communities. This can be done by ordinance and does not require a ballot issue. Local minimum wages may exceed the state and federal minimum wages but must provide a tip offset of no more than $3.02 per hour for employees of any business that prepares and offers for sale food or beverages for consumption on or off premises. The Colorado minimum wage increased