The Environmental Commission shall:
(a) Advise Council as to possible courses of action with regard to its purpose, which may include matters affecting the preservation, development and use of the natural and constructed features and conditions of the Village insofar as beauty, quality, biological integrity and other factors are concerned. In addition, the Environmental Commission shall advise Council on any major threats posed to environmental quality that may result from human activities and developments;
(b) Initiate public education activities related to its purpose, which may include developing and conducting programs of public information in the community designed to foster increased understanding of the nature of environmental problems and issues and support for their solutions as well as conducting studies, surveys and inventories of the natural and constructed features within the Village and other such studies and surveys as may be necessary to carry on the general purposes of this chapter;
(c) Conduct an annual planning process that results in priorities and specific activities centering on its purpose, which will include adopting rules and procedures (or otherwise following Robert's Rules of Order) to carry out its purpose that are consistent with the Village Charter and Ohio Sunshine Laws, approved by Council and filed with the Clerk of Council;
(d) Keep minutes of its proceedings that reflect the actions of the Environmental Commission, the reasoning behind those recommendations, and the vote of each member upon each question or, if absent or failing to vote, indicating as such. Minutes and the records of all official actions shall be approved and filed with the Clerk of Council and kept as a public record;
(e) Hold regular public meetings that are properly announced and provide a list of agenda items to the Clerk of Council a week before a regular meeting, which is available to interested citizens;
(f) Serve as a sounding board for issues related to its purpose and provide feedback and information to Council, which may include coordinating, assisting and unifying the efforts of private groups, institutions and individuals within the Village and Miami Township in accordance with the purposes of this chapter as well as liaising and communicating with public and private agencies and organizations of local, regional, State and national scope whose programs and activities have an impact on the quality of the environment or which can be of assistance to the Commission;
(g) Working in cooperation with the Planning Commission, recommend from time to time to Council features, plans and programs relating to environmental improvement for inclusion in the Master Plan of the Village. Also, the Commission should recommend to Council appropriate and desirable changes in existing local laws and ordinances relating to environmental control or recommend new local laws and ordinances;
(h) Recommend to Council actions that could be taken to accomplish the goals of the Village;
(i) Carry out such other duties as may be assigned to it by Council.
(Ord. 2015-26. Passed 11-16-15.)