Title
Notice/Advertisement Title: Public Utilities and Sustainability Committee Hearing
Contact Name: Chelsea Golterman
Contact Telephone Number: Chelsea Golterman
Contact Email Address: CLGolterman@columbus.gov
Body
Public Utilities and Sustainability Committee Hearing
Meeting Minutes
Thursday, November 13, 2025 3:30 P.M. Council Chambers
PRESENT
• Councilmember Christopher L. Wyche, Council President Shannon Hardin, Councilmember Otto Beatty III, Chelsea Golterman, Emiliana Morales, Joseline Martinez-Cortez, Director Kristen Atha, Brooke White, Shelly Douglas, Erin Schmerschneider, Jason Koma, Jon Lee, Kwesi Low, Alana Samuel, Madison Hill, Michael Wagner, Kristian Fenner, Rob Priestas, John Newsome, Douglas Lumpkin,
CALL TO ORDER
• 3:31 P.M.
INTRODUCTION
[Chair Christopher L. Wyche] Thank you for joining us. We will be discussing three major initiatives-first we will hear the status of the Climate Action Plan, next an update of the Aggregation Program, and finally we will be hearing from Columbus Water and Power about Utility Rate updates. I would like to thank Councilmember Beatty for joining us and we will have several Councilmembers coming in and out of the hearing.
CLIMATE ACTION PLAN UPDATE
[Chair Wyche] We will be hearing from Sustainable Columbus about updates on Climate Action Plan. Thank you for being here Brooke.
[Ms. Brooke White] Thank you for allowing us to speak. Columbus is committed to the climate goals and is currently updating the Climate Action Plan. The plan will be updated every 5 years and we will revise every 10 years. Serves as a road map to reach the 2030 goal of a 45% reduction and the 2050 goal of being 100% carbon neutral. We began the process of updating the plan earlier this year in January. We worked with each City Department and in the summer we began our public engagement. The updates of the plan will be done by February of 2026. We are not backing down on the plan, we are currently accessing the pitfalls and looking to see where we can lean in more.
There has been lots of successes like the Empowered Program, The Columbus Region Green Fund, updating of the zoning code, the clean energy aggregation program, the bike plus program, etc.
As the regional plans are being created, it is important that we are all aligned and we have alignment with the goals and steps
[Chair Wyche] Thank you Brooke. I have a few questions. Also I would like to acknowledge Council President being here.
Was there additional feedback the highlighted by residents?
[Ms. White] Yes, this year we have asked residents how does climate change actually affects residents personally. We are currently looking at the those responses specifically and how it can guide the updates.
[Chair Wyche] What are the planned financial investments on the trees and the our urban tree canopy?
[Madison Hill] We do not have specific details. It is housed in CRPD. We will be partnering with them.
[Chair Wyche] I would think it would be a line item in many budgets not just CRPD. One other piece - what are some of the barrier to achieving these goals?
[Ms. White] There are a lot of barriers, funding is big, so is educating residents. Also the regulations and priorities from the state and federal administrations. The policy and funding landscape from the state and federal administrations
[Otto Beatty] Where does Composting fall in the plan?
[White] We have parts of the plan that specifically addresses food waste and how to we ensure the food is not ending up in the landfill. And how do we reduce the 1 million lbs of organic waste that end up in the landfill every day. How can we continue to incentivize composting for residents.
[Wyche] This is also important to Councilmember Dorans who is looking to make composting easier for residents. Thank you. I would like to call up Shelly Douglas
[Ms. Shelly Douglas] Thank you for allowing me to speak today. I am with Green Columbus as their Executive Director. I sit on a lot of the Climate Action Plan working groups. We support the Climate Action Plan and the Urban Forestry Master Plan. We are very concerned about where we are at with meeting these goals due to funding. CRPD staff is reporting another year of lack of funding. To meet these goals, we need to double the plantings today. We encourage every Department to invest in the planting. We are asking to prioritize funding all the plantings. CRPD has a full plate with the over 90,000 street trees that need to be planted. We need to be planting and investing in the Urban Tree Canopy now. Green Columbus is here, and we are ready to do the work. We need the city to see the need and to act now. There is a lot of work to be done and a lot of money to get this done.
[Chair Wyche] Thank you for being there and your advocacy. To your point, we need to do so much more. Any colleagues have any questions? Seeing none… I would like to acknowledge Councilmember Bankston, thank you for being here. Any other members of the public would like to speak? No Lets move on then.
COMMUNITY CHOICE AGGREGATION PROGRAM, MARKET UPDATE
[Chair Wyche] Next we will hear from Trebel on updates for the Community Choice Aggregation Program. Thank you, Erin, for being here.
[Ms. Erin Schmerschneider] Thank you for the introduction! I am the Managing Director for Trebel that manages the City’s Clean Aggregation program. This program is saving participants money and is 100% clean energy. There are savings at $60m across the board for all customers and that is around 10% small businesses and 90% residents. Average households save on average $200 per year.
[Chair Wyche] Thank you for giving up Energy 101 in a few minutes, we greatly appreciate the education. You said it takes about 7 year process to get projects off the ground, can you tell me why?
[Ms. Schmerschneider] It was 4 years, but now, today, it is 7 years. The que for the project approved for the grid is back logged. Between the permitting, approval process, the citing boards and the actual construction. It takes time.
[CM Bankston] It is great to see we are meeting the overall goal and saving our residents money. Are we meeting the target goal of savings? And were are we with the 100% clean?
[Ms. Schmerschneider] 30% is clean renewable energy in state, 70% is renewable certificates. The overall goal was 60%, so we are currently at 50% of that goal. We are meeting the goal today on saving residents money.
[Chair Wyche] Anyone else? No?
2026 UTILITY RATE PROPOSAL
[Chair Wyche] We will now be moving to Rates.
[Mr. Jason Koma] Thank you. Chair of the Utility Advisory Board. I am here to follow up on the proceedings of the year. We met 5 times throughout the year. The UAB voted unanimously for the following rate increase: Water is 18%, Sewer 8% and Water 2%. This will be an average increase annually by $125.80 for residents, $102.79 for low-income, and 149.74 for suburban. The board strongly supports the increase and expansion of the senior and low-income discount programs.
[Chair Wyche] Thank you for your work on this. We can now pivot to Deputy Director Jon Lee
[Mr. Jon Lee] Thank you. Today, Columbus Water and Power will be presenting the 2026 Rate Increase. The goals for the increase includes: To fund a $2 billion water plant with loans dues in 2030, 2031, 2032; Build infrastructure capacity to support growth; Maintain strong credit quality; Be able to meet peak demands; Ensure rates are equitable; Balance affordability with rising rates; and provide rate relief policies. The following is the proposed rate increases broken down: Water: 18.0%; Sewer: 8.0%; and Storm: 2.0%. This will be an overall total of 11.72%. This still will allow for Columbus to have the cheapest rates in the region. These increases will allow for us to continue to build out our large infrastructure projects, like the Fourth Water Plant. We are also going to be changing the commercial rates and will now be targeting high users who need the additional capacity.
[Chair Wyche] Can you give an example of the high users?
[Mr. Lee] Examples are Data Centers, Breweries, placed that are using millions of gallons of water.
[Chair Wyche] Thank you
[Mr. Lee] Implementing these new commercial rates will be completed in 2027.
[Chair Wyche] What was the original use of the declining block?
[Mr. Lee] This was a type of block structure that is standard and was the industry standard when it was first implemented for commercial customers
[Chair Wyche] Thank you
[Chair Wyche] What if we do not raise the rates?
[Mr. Lee] We will likely be coming forward in 2026 with an even higher rate increase.
[Chair Wyche] Let me open it to my fellow Councilmembers.
[CP Hardin] How do we as a city balance our future needs with the current financial situations our residents are dealing with?
[Mr. Lee] Customer affordability is paramount. $10 per month is meaningful. Some folks do not have that in their budget. This is why we are looking at tools and techniques that other utilities are using. We are trying to expanding our low income and senior programs and increase those discounts.
[CP Hardin] Can we afford 100k residents on the discount programs? Why are why is the current goal at 17,000?
[Mr. Lee] We are trying and it takes a lot of research and understanding of why we cannot get more people enrolled? Are most of these folks in multi-units? We have not identified the key to be successful, but we are trying. We want to be realistic on our goals.
[Mr. Koma] This is a point we bring up consistently and we challenge the Department on this point and look at new ways to increase this number.
[CP Hardin] I think that is the point. Is parceling out a low income homeowner v. a low income renter. We need to be telling everyone about these programs. My last question, not to just pick on data centers and to use the Department’s term as high rate user - why do we not hurry and update the commercial rates?
[Mr. Lee] Lets have a realization that we have high users that are not data centers, and their will be push back on it. This is industry standard rate models and we need to remember those customers are in this community and we cannot forget them when we know what data centers are doing. This is new territory, and we are trying to take this slow. Be fore we know we will be in 2027.
[CP Hardin] I hope the department really understands what residents are facing and how can we reach the folks that cannot afford. Getting to those people is an expectation of the Department.
[Wyche] Thank you. We know the department is grappling with these as well. We appreciate the department. We have one person who has signed up. I would invite up Mr. Low.
[Mr. Ryan Holmes (Kwesi Low)] My name is Ryan Holmes, also known as Kwesi Low. I am with Columbus Stand Up. This week we started the “Lights Out AEP” Campaign. And we would like to have the capacity to also push for the water rates. Right now
[Chair Wyche] We would love to connect on water rates and support on the discounts. Thank you for your testimony. Is there anyone else here who would like to provide testimony?
[Mr. Douglas Lumpkin] My name is Douglas Lumpkin and I am a resident in Columbus. I would like to understand a bit more about the bond package and how it relates to this rate increase.
[Chair Wyche] Deputy Director, can you please explain why we need to utilize all mechanism?
[Mr. Lee] In order to be fiscally responsible for our rate payers, we must leverage all mechanisms such as the bond package, loans etc. We then decide what interest rates, etc make sense over all and to ensure that we are spreading out the financial burden over time.
[Chair Wyche] Thank you Mr. Lumpkin and thank you Deputy Director. With no one else, I would like to wrap up.
WRITTEN TESTIMONY
Visit <<https://bit.ly/WycheCBUSCityCouncil>> to review submitted written testimony
CLOSING REMARKS
[Chair Wyche] As we continue to ensure we are working towards a greener Columbus that supports all residents, we need to keep in mind how do we balance the future and today. Thank you for coming and have a great evening.
ADJOURNMENT
• Adjourned at 5:18 P.M.
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