HARTFORD — The Selectboard adopted a sweeping Climate Action Plan this week that offers a roadmap to bring Hartford to net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 and instructed the town manager to develop an implementation plan.

Six out of the seven members voted in favor at a meeting Tuesday evening, while Dennis Brown chose to abstain because he felt that his rental properties amounted to a conflict of interest.

The Selectboard postponed consideration of the Climate Action Committee’s resolution to adopt and implement the plan until Sept. 7.

The chair and vice-chair of the Selectboard prepare the agenda packet that informs the public about upcoming meetings with advice from the town manager, Tracy Yarlott-Davis. At her recommendation, the agenda packet did not include the resolution. The Selectboard’s standard policy is to wait to vote on an item until the public has had a chance to review it, and so removing it from the packet meant that it was not up for a vote at Tuesday’s meeting.

In an interview Wednesday, Yarlott-Davis said that resolutions are usually “a little more broad” than the one that the Climate Advisory Committee drafted.

“A resolution is a formal expression of will or intent, and so to have specific items called out in it muddies the water,” she said.

In particular, she was concerned about the resolution’s commitment to specific actions, such as generating an annual progress report on the climate action plan and amending the town of Hartford’s procurement policies to take into account greenhouse gas emissions. Moreover, the staff is at 50% capacity and she did not want the town to make commitments that were “disingenuous” because Hartford does not have the resources to carry them through.

On Tuesday, Ted Redmond, a consultant with paleBluedot who worked with an ad-hoc team of residents as they developed the plan, presented the revisions to it, which ranged from increasing the commitment to public transportation to including more input from Indigenous groups.

Two members of the Climate Action Team urged the board to adopt and implement the plan.

“The work can only be meaningful if we do something about it, and the board is really important to taking this plan off of the paper and into the world,” said Meg MacLaury, a junior at Hartford High School and team member.

Erik Krauss, chair of the Climate Advisory Committee, presented the resolution for discussion. He recommended reviewing the resolution to “make sure we’re ready” to discuss passing it at a later date, but the Selectboard postponed that conversation.

“I don’t think it makes sense for us to promise something that we know that we can’t deliver,” said Dan Fraser, chair of the Selectboard. He recommended waiting to consider the resolution and emphasized the need “to make it something that’s practical, that is going to be successful.”

Redmond assuaged some of the Selectboard’s concerns by emphasizing that the climate action plan was “an overarching plan” that offered broad strategies. He said that the town has the ability to modify actions and take into account ordinances, staff and financial concerns each year. If a given action require a change of ordinance or a town expense, the Selectboard would have to approve it.

“As we were talking to Ted last night, I felt much more reassured,” Fraser said in an interview Wednesday.

Several attendees expressed frustration with the Selectboard for not moving more swiftly to implement the plan.

“I don’t think we need more time to discuss details. I think that is how we die; I think that how things like this die is in committee, with everybody having their one little thing they want to change,” said Courtney Williamson, a member of the Climate Advisory Committee.

“I think (the Selectboard) has good intentions, but they are going to good-intention this into the ground,” she added after the meeting.

The board agreed to consider the resolution at its next meeting on Sept. 7. Krauss said the delay “provides us an opportunity to ensure a productive discussion during the next Selectboard meeting.”

In an interview on Wednesday, Yarlott-Davis said that the Sept. 7 agenda will not be finalized until next week. She said that a draft of the resolution may be included and that the Selectboard may make line edits on the resolution at its next meeting.

Yarlott-Davis said that her office would also provide a preliminary summary of the actions that may be included in the first year of implementation so that the Selectboard could make a more informed decision. She added that she finds the climate action plan very “personally motivating” and that she is “deeply invested in making sure that we make this happen.” A final implementation plan complete with staff allocations, budgeting and a timeline will take at least two more months, she said.

“I’m very on board that climate change is essential,” Fraser said. “We need just a little more time. It will be soon, not three years, just more time to process it. A lot of my questions were answered last (Tuesday) night.”

Claire Potter is a Report for America corps member. She can be reached at cpotter@vnews.com or 603-727- 3242.