WORKING WITH THEY CITY OF DURANGO IN 2018

While we received a positive response from the Durango City Council, they will not be signing a 100% local, renewable energy petition until a more detailed road map on how to get there exists. This will mean continued engagement between the City of Durango, LPEA, Local First and its partners. To discuss this further and set goals for 2018, Monique DiGiorgio and Emily Bowie of the San Juan Citizens Alliance sat down with Mayor Dick White in December to discuss our common goal and how to get there. We decided to work on these three approaches:

1. The City, as well as other non-profits, businesses, and individuals should attend the LPEA Subcommittee that might be forming to discuss the future of LPEA and how we can increase local, renewable energy generation given the current constraints of the Tri-State contract. The Mayor thought it would be appropriate for the City to send their Sustainability Coordinator to these meetings to stay engaged in the dialogue and as a follow up to the lunch discussion between the City and LPEA in October. The City Manager should support staff time dedicated to this important dialogue.
2. The City’s engagement in the Compact of Colorado Communities is a great way for the City of Durango to engage with other municipalities, especially rural ones who also have contracts with Tri-State. Based on what the Mayor said, the rural cities/towns may have an opportunity to work together to see how they can increase renewable energy goals given the constraints of the Tri-State contract (that they are all tied to).
3. Annual meetings/discussions around the city’s Franchise agreement with LPEA would help increase the dialogue on these issues. The franchise agreement specifies that an annual report detailing the financials of the last year should be forthcoming. We talked about that report being more widely available and perhaps a specific dialogue with LPEA, the City, and the Community when the report is available.