Public Comment Period (Tilton-Flood): No members of the public requested an opportunity to speak.
Present: Jenifer Tilton-Flood, Celeste Branham, Edward Barrett, Stacie Haines, Susan Hawthorne, Matthew L’Italien, Zachary Maher, Robert Meinders, Jessica Nixon, Pamela Proulx-Curry, Nathaniel Rudy, Luke Shorty
Guest: Bill Burney, Volunteer Maine Foundation
Call to Order: Chair Tilton-Flood called the meeting to order at 10:03 a.m.
Welcome, Announcements, Agenda Adjustments (Tilton-Flood): Commissioners introduced themselves and stated what seats they held on the Commission. Staff were also introduced. There were no other announcements. Executive Director Maryalice Crofton requested that the Commission add a discussion statutory revision and climate corps to the meeting.
Consent Agenda: There were no concerns about the consent agenda. MOVED by Shorty to approve the agenda. Seconded by Branham. Vote on the motion: Tilton-Flood, Branham, Barrett, Haines, Hawthorne, L’Italien, Maher, Meinders, Nixon, Proulx-Curry, Rudy, Shorty. Opposed – none. Motion passed.
Items approved by the motion were minutes of the Commission meeting on June 18, 2021, and the reports of the Executive Committee meetings for July 6 and August 3, Grant Selection and Performance Task Force meeting for August 27 be accepted, Communication Task Force meetings for July 14 and August 17, and Excellence and Expertise Task Force meetings for July 7, August 4, and September 2.
Focus on Mission Responsibilities
Maine Volunteer Foundation (Burney): The chair invited Bill Burney, President of the Maine Volunteer Foundation board, to update the Commission on the Foundation’s goals and recent progress. Burney said that he is planning for 2022 and is currently creating a schedule for additional donors after recent success with a donation from Central Maine Power.
Business Reports
Executive Committee: The committee proposed an updated policy that allows remote participation of Commissioners in all future business meetings. The draft posted with board materials has one modification to consider. It adds a phrase that exempts emergency meetings from the meetings counted under the expectation members are physically present for at least one-third of the regularly scheduled public meetings. After brief clarification of the change, it was MOVED by Barrett to accept policy. SECONDED by Rudy. Vote on the motion: In favor –Tilton-Flood, Branham, Barrett, Haines, Hawthorne, L’Italien, Maher, Meinders, Nixon, Proulx-Curry, Rudy, Shorty. Opposed – none. Motion passed.
Planning and Future Initiatives
Commission Meeting schedule. Proposed future meeting dates consisted of Oct 15; Nov 19; Dec 17 in 2021, and Feb 18 or March 18; April 15, May 20; June17 in 2022. Branham MOVED. SECONDED by Shorty. Vote on the motion: In favor –Tilton-Flood, Branham, Barrett, Haines, Hawthorne, L’Italien, Maher, Meinders, Nixon, Proulx-Curry, Rudy, Shorty. Opposed – none. Motion passed.
Revision to Title 5, Chapter 373, §7501. Representative Rielly let staff know he intends to submit a bill that would add references to climate challenges to the Commission’s purpose and duties. He asked for input on the wording. Staff presented a proposed statutory revision that could be recommended to Rep Rielly.
Branham was concerned that the additional language may be redundant, as the statue already specifies that the Commission addresses Maine’s “environmental” needs; Crofton clarified that the revision intent is to ensure that “climate” was not subsumed by “environmental” and could be noted as a distinct area of priority. After Branham expressed concern that the additional language would create a non-conforming predicate in the statue, Shorty MOVED to place a comma after language concerning climate. SECONDED by Rudy. Vote on the motion: In favor –Tilton-Flood, Barrett, Haines, Hawthorne, L’Italien, Maher, Meinders, Nixon, Proulx-Curry, Rudy, Shorty. Opposed – Branham. Motion passed.
Branham noted that the change caused commas to create a non-conforming predicate in the statue and that semicolons would be needed to establish the climate language’s relationship more clearly to other items in the statue. Shorty MOVED to place climate language in a new paragraph that addressed “public safety,” with climate language included after a semicolon. SECONDED by L’Italien. Discussion on this second motion concerning the language determined the change to be inadequate, and Shorty MOVED to withdraw his motion. SECONDED by Barrett. Vote on the motion’s withdrawal: In favor – Tilton-Flood, Branham, Haines, Hawthorne, L’Italien, Maher, Meinders, Nixon, Proulx-Curry, Rudy, Shorty. Opposed – none. Abstention – Barrett. Motion withdrawn.
Rudy MOVED to create a grammatically correct modification of the document with conforming verbs. SECONDED by Barrett. Vote on the motion: In favor – Tilton-Flood, Branham, Barrett, Haines, Hawthorne, L’Italien, Maher, Meinders, Nixon, Proulx-Curry, Rudy, Shorty. Opposed – none. Motion passed.
Climate Corps: Crofton observed there is discussion of getting a state-funded Commission position to support Climate Corps. Specifics are not clear. On the federal level, funding for climate corps is in the second budget reconciliation package that is under consideration. It also proposes to waive match funding, increase the living allowances for all AmeriCorps members so there isn’t a two-class system or programs, and change the mechanism for determining education awards.
Business Wrap Up (Tilton-Flood): There being no other business to address, L’Italien MOVED to adjourn. SECONDED by Branham. Vote on the motion: In favor –Tilton-Flood, Branham, Barrett, Haines, Hawthorne, L’Italien, Maher, Meinders, Nixon, Proulx-Curry, Rudy, Shorty. Opposed – none. Motion passed. Meeting adjourned at 11:50 a.m. The next meeting will be on October 15, 2021.