10 minute break now so return at 9 32 all right let's come back to order and bill you are up thank you mr mayor members of the council there's a reason why we normally try to have the first meeting of the new council not have anything substantive on it obviously we failed at drastically tonight but you took care of far more important things uh and you've already elected your officers and adopted your policies and appointed your committee so you've done a lot of good work tonight um I do want to like to run through this I will try to do it more quickly for uh most of you it will be a rerun for councilmember gill it will be new um but I suspect for uh the the I need to share my I thought you did that oh I'm not repeating I thought that's what you did when you oh I thought that's how that happened sorry that's all right you're good now you're good I'm ready look at that beautiful nobody can move mr jones over to the side here okay um so and I suspect for the three of you that were hearing this the first time last year some of this may resonate more than I did last year now that you've done the full cycle so I will try to speed it up but I you know there's a lot of important information here so I would like to beg your indulgence and try to get through it if we can but if it gets to be too long so quickly I will not read this I in you do have this in your packets the Athenian oath which was from ancient Athens about the city leaders and I think the the most important line is that you know we will transmit the city not only not less but greater they're more beautiful than it was transmitted to us so that is our sort of mission ultimately as public officials and kind of the holders of Montpelier right now is to do our part to move it further down the road as we go things I want to talk about our governance and council operations what everyone's rules are what policy making looks like which is most of yours very quick summary of city operations departments and facilities um what some of our current projects are and again this will be at very high level and then charting the course moving forward for the next uh few months uh so quickly governance and council operations I think the most important piece of all of this is that we are what's called a Dylan's rule state and that is a legal term but what that means is that we are a state where towns and cities have no independent authority in and of themselves they only have what is granted to them by the legislature so as much as we like to think about home rule in Vermont and New England and all us have actually New England is a very strong bastion of Dylan's rule states so town meeting and all of that is great but you can only do what the state authorizes hence the city charter which is approved by the legislature and then the state statutes title 24 in particular lay out the powers of cities and towns so often we'll hear you know the city should just do such and such and oftentimes we are not able to do that it's not we are not empowered to do that that's sometimes why we seek charter changes uh to to anyway that's that's the key that's just the most important part is we do not we are a subdivision of the state you may notice the oath that you took today the very first thing you swore was allegiance to the state and its constitution before you actually swore allegiance to the city because we are political subdivisions of the state we operate under a council manager form of government that is a term of art in in local government there are many different types that's the one we're in this council is the legislative or governing body and people get confused whether the council is the mayor and the six council member together the seven of you are the city council the authority that you have and the sort of the weight of the city government comes from the actions that you take as a whole so certainly of you are important especially to me I you know I'm trying to be available to all of you as many as you can and certainly with constituent concerns and those kind of things will work on you but in terms of speaking as a city council it is your role as a group and to do that you need four votes not just a majority of those present you need actually four votes so if there's only four of you present for a meeting you still need four votes to pass an action and that is in state statute I think sometimes it gets confused there's five people here to three to vote it passed no it didn't um so that's that um the mayor by tradition not necessarily legally but our tradition here is the mayor can vote to break a three three title or to make a fourth vote or can choose not to so again there's six people here to three to vote the mayor can either choose to make that fourth vote or not that is mayor's prerogative the mayor may veto any action of the council provided they do so before the next regularly scheduled council meeting and five votes of the council can overturn the mayor's veto probably happened four times in my career here the council appoints city manager the treasurer our attorneys and board and committee members and then the city manager is the chief administrative officer for all operations so well I already stole some of my thunder mayor presides over the meetings you elect your officers the mayor makes the tie you've already adopted all of those things you can create committees subcommittees typically the regular meetings are scheduled for second and fourth Wednesday they can be changed by group decision as you did for April where they are the first and third Wednesdays but normally you will get a weekly memo sent to you that describes things that are going on in the various committees and departments and it also includes tentative schedules for upcoming council meetings and then we have an annual strategic planning session at some point over the course of the year this year as you know everything got compressed with the flood so it was later than we had expected again most of your old hat now so I'll skip over for council meeting basically you get the agenda in the weekly memo each agenda item typically as a cover sheet with the high points of background information and we try to be clear with a recommendation for action if we're really on top of our game the recommended action is the motion we would like you to pass or we're suggesting you pass you can certainly pass whatever you want then it includes the review of the agenda that is a state law by the way that we review and approve any agenda it's also the time you can add something new if it's unexpected general business is in appearances is when citizens can make their public comment the consent agenda as you all know is a group of items that are considered administrative or routine in nature that you can pass all at once any one council member can pull an item off for discussion if they'd like to and certainly and if there are questions on this consent agenda we certainly appreciate if we get those in advance so we can be prepared to answer them or answer you before it even has to get pulled off public hearings we held one tonight they're slightly different because the mayor will open and close the public hearing and there's usually a period of time for public comment and then the council then the public hearing is closed and the council will have its discussions at the end of every meeting you have a council report to your chance to say what you want about almost anything and then occasionally we go into executive session there's a very specific set of laws and in the handbooks you'll notice you all have handbooks on your desk that's the we update that every year with some changes in even other public records law and the open meeting law so the open meeting law in particular sets out the rules for executive sessions and they're very specific and we try to have as few as possible but when we do we always follow the statute to why we go in this is the cover sheet that you get most of you have seen these and council member gill if I'm going to fast any of these either stop me or keep a note and we can talk about it on our Monday meeting yeah just so the I'm not going to go through all these but I would say these are very important things for you as a council member to to know and be familiar with the open meeting law absolutely that really is the public records law the short version of that is anything if you assume that any document that you get any email you send is a public record that's wise there may be things that are exempt but don't start with the idea oh this is probably exempt assume that it could be subject to public request and so think about that when you're writing something the ethics policy approved tonight very important because it really sets a high bar for how we conduct ourselves and you lose a procedure and then the code of conduct for meetings which the council adopted recently agenda preparation we try to close I know there was a request we're still trying to figure out we can get more done earlier but typically we close our agenda by noon on Friday and for the public we are really trying to amend the business on Thursday obviously if it's you folks we can make an exception for that there is occasionally changes that come in on Monday and Tuesday we try to keep those to minimum but sometimes they do happen any council member can add an item to a new agenda the easiest way to do it is during your council report just to say hey I'd like to add this to the next agenda but you can certainly do by email you can call me you do whatever and we'll help you sometimes people will say I want to talk about something and so we'll say well what is it you want to talk about like what we we're not trying to edit you we're trying to help you shape it into a productive agenda and not just some open-ended thing so again things you want to know the budget process we'll spend more time with that and I think there was some desire in the council to revisit how we do that just knowing the annual elections time meeting deadlines there is a specific process for approving bonds that is different than the council charter change process has its own dates and again then once we vote it like the citizens just voted the change on just cause eviction that still has to go to the legislature so it's still a legislature does anything with it and the governor signs it it's it's still not in our charter we have an ordinance adoption process and a zoning process even though the zoning is an ordinance it has different processes under state ruled and regular ordinance adoption so just being aware of that and I did say this last year and I don't think anyone paid much attention but as council members you're also members of the board of civil authority and the board of abatement and that was yeah and so that you do hear abatements you hear tax appeals and many of you got many gold stars for that this year just want to point out that although we have a council manager form of government there are still certain positions and roles that have independent authority so it's also comes up sometimes about why you know what the council can and can't do so the city clerk is elected they have total independent authority or their operations obviously we work very cooperatively with our city clerk and and they're part of our team but they have final say of elections over land records over any operations from their office I am not their boss you're not their boss they're their own boss the voters are their boss but we do have good rollers cemetery commission the same thing they're going to come in well actually yes one of you might be their boss that is true but I was trying to keep that up um the cemetery commission is also its own independently elected board they're going to come in and present to you at one of the upcoming meetings about how they function the parks commission is also independently elected that's a little interesting because the the parks are also a department of the city so the employee alex is an employee of the city manager but the parks have sort of control of the policies of the parks the rules and those kind of things but the city council still has to approve any ordinance changes so if they want to ban dogs or something like that it would still they could vote to do that but that it would require the council to take that action so there's there's kind of an interesting um interaction between the parks commission but generally you know if it's a decision to create a new trail or do whatever that is the purview of the parks commission wouldn't normally come to the city council uh and then of course the board of civil authority and board of the abatement you take those actions um and all of that the recreation board is appointed by the council the and they form a similar role for the rec department again there's not binding they can't you know spend the money they can't enact ordinances but they might make decisions of you know we're going to run this league this year or you know we haven't had much attendance should we you know certain operational things for the rec they help their citizen advisory board the development review board that you appoint makes independent decisions on zoning applications or variances the ones that go to them this council has no say in those and in fact it's inappropriate they're a quasi judicial body and the council should not be in any way trying to interfere or influence any member of the drb on a matter that's before that if that matter gets appealed to court then it falls in fact with any of these groups if once it something goes to court then the council is now the legal agent for the city and then you can settle it then you can get involved but not until then the treasurer as well the treasurer is appointed by the council used to be elected uh but the treasurer has there are independent duties in statute status treasurer does city manager doesn't do him the finance director doesn't do them the you don't do them so the treasurer has rolled and then they're even under the city manager um there are people that I appoint that have very specific authorities that I cannot interfere with so I point an assessor but I have no say in the actual assessments that they grant nor like the whole grievance process and you know that makes sense right there shouldn't be a political weighing in of you know stick it to mr alfano but give a break to mr heaney right it it should be based on the facts and the records and um and those kind of things the same thing with the fire chief and the police chief obviously administratively operationally I have say over them but the statutes are very clear I had certain emergency scenes um at the emergency at a fire scene the fire chiefs in charge not anybody else and um the police chief I can't interfere with arrests I can't direct arrests to be made I can't you know patrol so so in a DPW director I think has some authority over a certain connection so even though these people are employees of the city and the director of course may run laws provides specific authorities for them so that's a little bit different than maybe say private company where you know you can tell them what to do these these cases there is public laws I'm not going to read all these but I just say these are key resources that you should take a look at um you know by next week uh no but over the course of your time these are all things that will come into play that you'll hear about over the course of the year the charter the council handbook that you just got our website the budget all of these things there are various plans and the last one I put on there is the vermont statutes and I mentioned that because we are a creature of the vermont statutes particularly title 24 and then title 24 um there's a subsection that has all the charters and inner charters in there so those are important sections that we refer to all the time so are there questions about that part about government governance and operations of the council and I know I was kind of going a million miles an hour okay clear as mud I did mention border civil authority so I put this slide in because it's just a good reminder that what the council deals with at council meetings is really the top part of the iceberg that's the policy area that is the things that people are interested in those are kind of long-term public facing things and the area under the iceberg is really the operation of city government the thing that's going on all the time the the fact that there are firefighters in that building right now the fact that there are police officers and dispatchers in that building right now the fact that if it started snowing people would be coming out those are all things that are always happening the water plant is running on automatic pilot right now the sewer plant is doing its things so these are all the the workings of city government and what the council and we try to do as leaders is to take the vision that we have from a community and the capacity that to do that work and then what our external authority might go along with so you know you the council might think something's a really great idea but we don't really have either the money or the staff or the equipment to do it or you might think it's a good idea and we might know how to do it but we haven't convinced the voters yet so that external authority or that in some cases the external authority might be the state government we want them to approve something so that that can change in my case the external authority might be you folks right we have a good idea as a staff we have a vision we think we can do it you all aren't there yet so and obviously the goal is to make that look more like this where so it's supposed to be a power point we just click it but this thing doesn't have power point on it yet so we have to scroll it so but anyway we're those those circles are much more concentric and um and you know the my favorite example of this is snow plowing right everyone thinks we should snow plow everyone you know it's the vision of the public works department city manager that we should snow plow the external authority the council and public think we should snow plow and guess what we have plows we have blades we have wings we have people that do it right lined up there's there's no controversy over whether we should we should plow snow but there are other things as we look at it this is a capacity issue is this and getting people on board issue or do we just not seeing it yet okay so just taking a look at this who's who falls in these roles obviously you can see that the external authority is the voters the governments you folks as elected officials the vision comes from you folks and elected officials and maybe with some help from us as as we see this and or at least for how to operate we might have a vision approach department might operate and then the capacity is really up to me and our staff and our volunteers to come up with that or to make recommendations if we need funding or whatever to do that capacity and to tell you how that works just taking a look at everyone here so the voters what do they do they elect you they vote on budgets and bonds they engage in local discussions they are the external authority so they are interestingly enough they are owners because they are basically the stockholders the stakeholders of the community but they're also customers right so they they uh they are participated with controversy and complaints and I want to talk about that for a minute because it will come up later in this presentation so controversy is something like should we do something so this wasn't particularly controversial but like zoning density right we just had a con that's a clearly a controversy that you can settle so if there's a disagreement right right right now there's a small c controversy over the school budget so the so the residents are laying in and then the elected officials are trying to figure out how to solve that controversy that's different than a complaint a complaint is you know my road didn't get plowed my you know street needs a this the police didn't show up in time I you know I got pulled over for speeding and I shouldn't have so those are those are different things and so if we think about it that the controversies it's really important that they take place here I can't resolve a controversy for someone in the other hand you should you can hear the complaints people will come in and make complaints here the council shouldn't be spending a lot of its time fixing complaints you can check to make sure they're getting taken care of but that's not the best use of your time as a group so try to think about that so as we go forth right the mayor and the city council it's your job to establish to visit vision policy values and goals through our various processes so the strategic plan city plan and you know the last three months you've really been doing the most important policy things you're deciding how to collect and spend the public's money and your events you know basically setting the community standards for zoning how someone uses their property those are the two biggest policies that you do in and out spending taxing what fees and land use and then any other regulations but you also have an oversight role so you approve certain contracts and bids you review reports you got you know our financial statements today you saw them approve them and so you have you know you don't have to be conversant in them but you should be aware of where they are and you oversee the city manager and you know our our goals and policies being implemented to our satisfaction we've set out certain goals are they being done and you address controversy so that's the thing and then my last note is that the council speaks with one voice and obviously there are seven of you and you have seven voices and you're going to speak and I hats off to this particular group because you've been exemplary at this all year but once a decision is made that's the voice of the council so you know sometimes you're on the winning end and sometimes you're on the losing end of a vote but once that vote is made now you all have spoken and so for me and our staff and the public like that's the voice you know we go to the minutes we look at the motion that's why sometimes it's mostly do we need a motion this I'm like yes please even if I need it's going to be six zero like say what you want so we we know what the voice is we can go back to it city manager what do I do not much right our job and our staff's job is to implement the council's policy again spoken through your plans your budgets all those kind of things to recommend policy of the council so we are not policy makers but we're your professional staff and so it is our job to tell you what we think and it's our job to do what you say even if you didn't agree with what we think right so if you heard my pave the river right if you you know we can tell you all the reasons why paving the river is a bad idea but if you say pave the river we'll be out there paving it and then two years later when you say that was a bad idea we shouldn't do it it's our job not to say we told you so it's just to say okay we'll undo it so we provided vice information to the council I am the chief administrative officer of the city which is other than the specific appointees that we talked about all other employees are appointed by me so I hire fire supervise manage we deal with constituent service it's our job to address the complaints so if you get them share them with us we'll work with you on those there is a code of ethics that comes with the international city manager's association I follow that and I try to insist on that with all of our staff and I did put a copy of that in your books and it's our job to deal with the capacity so if you're dealing with the vision the external authority it's our job to deal with the capacity so then we have council communications if you read the charter it says you can only communicate with staff through the city manager obviously that can be a little bit burdensome and we we tend to observe that a little loosely what we ask is that you inform the manager copy the manager if you're communicating with staff you know you need to ask Micah's owning question please ask him I'm not going to know the answer I just want to know that that conversation happened and our staff will tell me you know I just met with councilmember Gill today and we talked about zoning I just want to know what's said so that I don't say the wrong thing or something different in a council meeting and so and you can go to staff inquiry information and and a staff reply as many of you see will typically go to the whole council just because one of you has a question doesn't mean the others didn't have the same question you just didn't think to ask it so we try to give everybody the same information so that none of you are sitting here in a meeting saying wow I was told and the rest of them are saying how come you told Tim and not the rest of us so that's how that goes with each other your most legal your best form of conversation communications in public meetings with each other if you certainly can talk to one another outside meetings it would be crazy to think that you don't be very careful not to create a quorum which is for people four of you together you better be talking about you know the weather and not city business so just be conscious of that because that's when that's when things happen by accident that shouldn't happen so don't create a quorum you do not use email to discuss council business again that's kind of a work of art you certainly can raise an issue by email if somebody says I'd like to you know I'm concerned about this I'd like this on an agenda that's great everyone else should not be responding and saying well here's what we should do about it right that's just when you say okay good to know that Palin has this concern I'll be thinking about it before the next meeting so I'll be ready to talk about it if you get complaints from the public you know obviously acknowledge the receipt and be clear when if you're responding to people or the press or anything whether you're speaking for yourself or the or the full council and I put an asterisk on that because there may be a time when typically the mayor would speak for the full council or the manager would speak on behalf of the full council but there might be a time when for whatever reason we've designated somebody else just because they might have certain expertise so they're on that committee or whatever and we'd say hey listen if there's any inquiries about this you know Carrie would you be the spokesperson on this issue but so in that case you would say I've been designated to speak for the council on this otherwise you'd say I'm one council member this is my opinion this is not the position of the council just because because people will misinterpret that they hear it from you they will think but because you told them that that is the rule and so it's just being clear and again all all electronic communications are public records so any questions about roles and that kind of thing including texts and emails yeah including texts and emails absolutely yes that's right they're all anything written letters notes emails texts yeah just okay talk a little bit about policy because that is really your job you know we use this airplane so if you think about it you choose your destination choose the arrival time choose the cost so when you're when you're going on a trip right you can just say all right I'm gonna go to California I don't care when I get there I don't care what month I go and I don't care if I have to make seven stops along the way I just want the cheapest price right or you could say I want to go first class I need to get there nonstop today I'm willing to pay top dollar so as you are setting your goals it's like okay what do we want to do how fast are we gonna get there and are we willing to sort of shell out big money or we will do this but we we're doing incrementally we're going to try to be conservative about funding how urgent is this so you think about these things what are where are we trying to get to how fast we want to get there how much are we willing to invest in resources stole this from a colleague but it took the airline thing and really does have a nice job of sort of showing the handoff between the council and the the staff where you know you're at the beginning the purpose and vision that's what you're really saying here's what we're trying to do we talk about our goals yep so we want housing i'll just use that one for example we want housing okay we're going to buy this property we're going to go through these things we're going to set these priority actions and at some point you know it becomes a planning project and it becomes a project and we're updating you and how that's going but you've set the parameters and then we go and do it and you know so by the end by the time we're landing the job you know you've you've already said you're on to the next thing you're already thinking about the next project we're finishing the last so this is the vision statement that you all approved last november or december again it's in your book so i'll read it and then this was the mission statement that you approved and then the core values that we approved again just recently and we can vision those and again those sort of drive the overview of where we're going so the strategic plan we try to do that annually either an update or a full review as usually has most recently been done in september october with a march check-in if there's a cheat like some of you remember we had three new people last year so we did a check-in and you all said yep we're good for now till we get back to it and it's an iterative process between council and staff off facilitated and we established that final plan is adopted by the council and then once that's done that guides our agenda items projects and activities and we issue quarterly reports on how we're doing so why do this basically you know you've heard this before if you add up the number of meetings we have and how long they normally last it's about 125 total hours per year that you're sitting in this room as a council so if you those are work weeks that's three weeks of work so how how do you use this time sitting in these chairs doing this work the best what's the best use of your time you're you know you're not scraping the sidewalks you're not doing these things how do you how do you use the thing and these are steven covey's quadrants right the what's important and what's urgent and obviously you want to be focused on quadrants one and two the stuff that has to happen and get done and specifically what's urgent it's not urgent doesn't have to be on today but it needs to be done so how do we spend our time planning quadrant three you should be saying yep out you know staff take care of it and if it's not important and not urgent maybe we ought to just get rid of it or it certainly should be in this meeting so so you focus on important leadership issues and you provide clarity on your goals and mission and direction I'm not going to read all these but these are the current strategic plans goals to build in and maintain infrastructure to create more housing to rebuild and plan for future resilience face of climate change and good environmental stewardship improve car community prosperity for residents and local businesses people's basic needs are met and improve public health and safety for all we kind of have an unofficial sixth goal which is provide responsible and engage government that had been a goal we didn't add it this year but it's still I think guides a lot of what we do so I kind of put it as a little subcategory there so there's that's that I'm going to talk more about that in a bit the budget so basically our budget we just completed that strategic plan sets the priorities in October we meet we give you some very preliminary projections at that point you can set whatever targets goals and priorities that you desire that either are the same as the strategic plan or different we start working in earnest on the budget in in November we have what we call budget congress which is basically when the staff gets together and and decides what will be in the budget that gets proposed to you I present that budget to you in December and then you hold hearings in December and January you usually approve the budget for the ballot in late January there's a statutory deadline and then residents vote on the budget on the first Tuesday of March and it begins it takes effect July 1st that process goes round and round and so that's that's it for now and again we just went through this so again with policy I think stealing from different people begin with the end in mind that's another Steven Covey so as we launch things what are what are we trying to do right so what's the goal here is it create more housing is it to do this thing so what's what what's we doing this is just a management consultant that I know I heard him do a presentation and he asked this question I thought it was great so what good for which people at which cost what difference do you make what are the outcomes you desire the kind of things to be thinking of so who's benefiting who's paying what difference will it make at the end and then putting first things first and using you know effective leadership is putting first things first so picking what the top priorities are the management is carrying it out and then Brené Brown clarity is kind that sometimes people don't like clarity but it's kind because then people know what's going on and I like that what we use that one a lot so any questions about policy making I know I'm really buzzing through this and that I also wear of the time okay so facilities operations and projects this is now getting more to the bottom part of the iceberg this is just a list of city facilities it's in here you've got it so I'm not going to read them but there's a lot there's a lot so these are things that the city owns manages runs operates and is a response or so again some of these are are below the iceberg but there are things that will come up and are things that occasionally need repair and funding or your attention we're certainly happy to provide tours and visits we wouldn't take you to all of these but we certainly take you to some of the highlights and again our operations public safety our police fire EMS emergency management all these things public works community services parks recon seniors planning and development city clerk finance office and the city manager and the cemetery commission of course is independent they maintain the cemeteries very briefly in the organization chart again you have all of this and here's so just so you have a sense of what we're doing because I think sometimes there's always an idea of what I want to keep doing more but we're doing a lot so these are our current projects that are either underway or in the queue under our infrastructure goals we've set a goal for improving infrastructure these are the things that we're already working on the capital plan the water and sewer plan implementation that you just approved whether or not to have a storm water utility stump dump we just met with the state today all these other projects are in various states of completion or planning or whatever so we are certainly working on our infrastructure goal looking at our housing goal obviously the country club road is the biggest one the zoning revisions are related to that that you're almost done after that we'll be completing the city plan which then starts talking about looking forward to the next iteration of things we want to do and then coming to you are relatively soon now be 12 to 16 main street the property that we own is finally cleared all of its legal hurdles and so not legal hurdles but the subdivisions and all the things that needed to happen so it's ready for us to do what we want to do with it so we'll have a discussion about that in an upcoming agenda a prior council approved a plan for it we're just going to make sure that the current council was on board with that plan and then we will go ahead rebuild and resiliency goal obviously the biggest thing is our FEMA projects just rebuilding all the things that got wrecked and putting them all back together we also have our net zero plan implementation our district heat trying to work on customer expense expansion and making that more financially viable the emerald ash borer response we will be having the modular commission on recovery resilience recommendations coming to us at some point in the future so we know that and then we have grants in for the 55 berry street the rec center systems upgrades if we get that grant that will be something we will be doing to take a terrible building and make it a little bit better and be more energy efficient in our advanced the economy goal we have an outdoor recreation plan we're just launching our recreation needs assessment to figure out what we should be doing about rec facilities and particularly if we're going to try to do something at country club road we have a downtown master plan that was adopted certainly pre-provid and I think it needs to be updated implemented because it was really designed to be done when the the state street bridge day uh realtor bridge was going to be replaced the idea is that streets going to be closed down that's the time to do big sidewalk street scape improvements we got streets closed anyway let's be ready for it and we did an extensive plan and we want to make sure that it still meets today's needs and wants and also to sort of reacquaint people the public with what that is in or to to may recall that was actually the 12 to 16 main street site was part of that remember and there's the berry street cycle track still under consideration and dog river path extension and public health and safety we are still obviously shelter for unhoused persons is a big deal public restroom is still a big deal we are actively still trying to do the regional public safety infrastructure we're still pursuing funding from the state we have a lost fire truck that we are hopefully we have a lead on a replacement we do need to plan for fire tower replacement update our ambulance replacement schedule we are working on our crisis intervention team actively and we have a flood after action recommendation so a lot going on with that goal as well and then again the non-goal of responsible and engaged government we will be updating our communications plan you know a key part of it had been using the bridge and using the Times Argus and we won't be doing that after July so we're going to be taking a look at how we're going to be doing that differently we've got some IT infrastructure that needs to be upgraded we are working on very specific work plans with all our departments which would be folded into the strategic plans we're doing some benchmarking with these are things that are more internal but you'll probably hear about them just so you know I mean these are kind of things that happen that you don't necessarily know about but they're all going on we're doing some HR improvements and updates and how our systems can work better we're trying to improve our budget tracking our grants management intern in just a bunch of internal processes so we're really taking that on so those are the kind of things we're doing so any questions about city operations again you'll have more time to do that but if there's in general about how they function get it so what's going to happen next and I think this is really probably ties into all of this is our plan unless you tell me otherwise is over the next several meetings we're going to focus on one goal uh and do a deep dive so that you can take a look at you've set this goal and we can talk about the initiatives strategies for trying to you know we we had to rush the strategic plan and so this would be a chance to come back to it and talk to it when it's less rushed and you know in addition we're going to tie a department overview with it so that you get it again we did the quick run through during budget this would be a chance for a little bit more expansive explanation and just ask maybe questions about the department and again without the budget sword hanging over us but chance to find out and talk about departments future needs and those kind of things so the plan is we've just teed them up in the order of the goals as you had prioritized them so March 27 our next meeting will focus on the infrastructure goal and DPW will be here to do their interview their overview and you know their large departments and they they're kind of the equivalent of two or three departments when they go through all their things the following meeting we'll be doing the housing goal and that will include the planning and development overview which is perfect that you put the zoning there uh so that ties that's what we're we might get out we're saying that's aren't you on for the third that's what we were talking about uh April 17th we will be doing the rebuild and resiliency goal uh the Montpellier Commission on Resiliency and Recovery has agreed they will come in to provide the data on their activities and our sustainability board and we'll talk about some of their activities there's obviously more this is the short end the May 8th is be the economy goal so we'll hear from Montpellier live parks rec uh those kinds of actually I think I'm may have moved that anyway whatever and then the health and safety goals so that's we'll do police fire and the justice center and then lastly again the the non-goal uh uh responsible governments who will go through the manager clerk finance ITHR all those kinds of things and we one of the things we talked about during budget I think during my review was then beginning a conversation of what are our core services as we we kind of go into the summer we're going to come out of the summer that's all of a sudden budget will be a month or two away so when we talked a lot about in the budget about uh I know it seems crazy right uh but that's how it rolls um we talked a lot about we got a fund core services but you know core services mean different things to different people so how do we as a group decide what we think are the key things that that are important and um in in how do we prioritize so that when we go into budget we're all in a better shape that we've got a clearer idea of our mission so that is the plan for the next what one two three four five six meetings will be centered around these things obviously other things will pop up like the zoning hearing and those kind of things that need to be dealt with but we're going to really try to keep your time focused on policy things that you should really be digging into you know last year we lost half a year because of a flood and so we were just getting into the swing of things with three new members and then we just kind of lost it so well now we everyone's got a year into their belt except for councilmember gill and we have a chance to sort of do the work that we didn't get a chance to do last year so um the teddy Roosevelt quote the man in the arena uh please please don't mind the uh sexist language it was from 1909 but uh i think the sentiment's important it's not the critic who counts that's not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done them better credit goes to the man who's actually in the arena whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood who strives valiantly who airs comes up short again and again and spends himself at a worthy cause who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement and who at the worst if he fails at least fails while daring greatly so this place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory or defeat and i say this because you are the people in the arena you're going to hear all sorts of criticism this year you did last year you will next year um there are folks and and you know that's fine we're a government we deserve that but you're the ones that stepped up to do it and you're making tough decisions and you are either daring greatly failing spectacularly or doing things but that's that's the risk and and the monday morning quarterbacks will be there but um so i think it's just uh you know we begin with the athenian host and we end with teddy roosevelt so any questions about any of this what's that great presentation thank you well yeah i got it down to under an hour this year you know bill we i don't know how much of this we did last year i wasn't able to be at them but i think this might be a good year to try to set up tours for yep the facilities and offices you know this visit the fire department the police department the public works facilities all that stuff right no absolutely and there are a lot of them but usually certainly police fire the public works facilities the treatment plants those kind of things um rec facilities parks and rec yeah parks you know i mean the list can go on but certainly the big expensive things you know because people don't understand right until some of you i know i've done them until you see the dispatch center and you see what the people are doing you know you know it's just gives you a different perspective the water planet the wastewater plant uh so it's it's you know it's helpful i remember one time one year we did tour bus we actually got a little like one of those and we brought everyone together we warned it as a public meeting with some members of the public team and uh this is a while ago now steve gray was still here as the public works director and all the way we had a resident was here and all the way up we were in the water treatment plant he was just all over us about why we needed three people we're on the place we got there we were on the tour and on the whole way back he's like how do you do it with only three people so you know i think it it helps to to get those uh pieces informed uh yes tours are important and then obviously i will stop talking oh you're charged for the tours like a little bit right for tours of things that people already paid for like museums right it's the nonprofits yeah there we go there we go well i think the most important thing is for you all to get acquainted and i know that the staff loves to have visitor council visitors because they like to to talk and they're proud of what they do and they want to be able to talk about it so uh and help you get that perspective so i'm going to stop then um stop and stop sharing and stop talking and um we can move on to set a retreat i guess this the next so thank you for listening thank you for doing what you do everything i said is in the book i gave you and the outline is in in the packet so it's all there if you have any questions anytime about anything do not hesitate text call email weekends whatever you know i'll get back here since i can so you are my most important external approving authority so thanks bill this is great having even having seen it before i think it's it's a great reminder of what we're doing and why set a date for the retreat so here we are yeah so in the years past we've had a council retreat where we didn't talk about those things the hundred and twenty file did not talk about policy we really talked about getting to know one another better i mean maybe a big picture sort of what people were interested in and how to you know how we function best every group is different some people like to receive information differently some people like to communicate differently just kind of what are our rules of engagement what works for us what doesn't work for us uh how do we want to you know are we happy with outlining the agendas the way they are there's things we'd like change procedurally those kind of things that's the one time to really focus on the function of the council and the staff typically so we you know we can do them wherever the only rule is that you know it is still a public meeting has to be warned and so it has to be a place that is you know accessible meets accessibility requirements um you know in the years past we've done them in the police community room we can't do that now because the planning office is set up in there but you know the library you can you know we really wherever and sometimes it's good to get out of this room to do it i think so just that it's a different dynamics sit around a table somewhere and and do that so but i think once if you want to pick a time that you all can do it we can figure out a place so that'd be like you know and you can just say we either want to be in here or we want to be somewhere else and we'll we'll take it from there and i think to me it makes sense typically i and the assistant manager have been involved but that's also and sometimes it's facilitating sometimes and to me it makes sense to do it i got on an off week how long do you figure it takes to get prepared for it you know i think a lot of it depends on what you want to take on is do we want to have i mean they are good when you have a facilitator because then everyone you know then everyone can participate the mayor doesn't have to run the meeting and can be a equal participant so that you know we got to line someone up and find a space and those kind of things but i don't know no i within a month i would think we could do i mean the sooner we do it the better because you know last year we didn't get to it and then summer comes and then a flood come and right then it didn't happen so that's one of the reasons i wanted to put on the very first agenda so yep well let's see yeah i'm thinking and april we changed our our meeting dates so we're not are we doing the third and the seventh third and the 24th or we're doing the third and the 17th third and the 17th okay okay so we would have the 10th and the 24th free if we wanted to stick well but there were there were conflicts for the 10th and 24th that's why we did that okay yep you would have may first where you had a meeting on april 17th and then not another one until may eighth mm-hmm some of that might be worth doing the first and that gives us we're gonna have to get it blocked out it's all the same time that's exciting yeah i'm just like checking that's right we just see people at least yeah we could do food too you do all of all of your committees happen to meet the ones that only meet once a year they're all meeting that way yeah same here that's why i asked maybe we can meet a little bit early maybe five thirty instead of six thirty so i don't know that works for me personally yeah so just very unusual so five thirty may first okay and facility yeah in a location mm-hmm right and it seems to me at one point we were thinking about well would camera and want to do that please smart cookie you're on it in her own right all right okay yeah to midnight midnight okay i will just like any facilitators a little different what some do just so you know some may call interview some like to because they like to get an idea of what people want to talk about so that they'll perform the agenda ahead of time so that's it's useful so i will let you know once we line someone up we'll let you know and if they plan to do that you can expect a call cool great well that was easy yeah and then we'll see maybe maybe we'll hear from Lauren that she's not available and we'll we'll have to figure that out she's she's she had to get off the meeting she's yeah a long time ago so yeah yep so council reports start at your end to report i just want to say welcome to um consular gill and congratulations uh carry cell and uh jack that's all that's it what are you taking on the queue from the presentation i topic i'd like to get on a agenda but looking at the gender topics it's like i don't know where we're going to fit it in but the pfs is still a concern for me and with the news with what happened in coventry with gisela recently um it sounds like the filtration system won't be up and running till june or july maybe a conversation on our end about i think kurt twice and i don't know if they said that we're not accepting any right now um but just conversation about for how long and and what our standards are because i think after our last conversation was late at night and ended again i when it came out after i just remembered it a little differently so i'd love to finish that yep so um i just wanted just wanted to say that uh i i'm back for for a reason i i i learned a lot in that first year and uh i'm happy to be back it was it was uh fun working with this group i mean uh um considering the long list of intractable problems that we've you know facing us um i think we all get along pretty well we don't always agree on stuff but the process seems to work we know where it has to be improved i think but um i want to thank everybody for that it was a good year for me and um i'm ready for two more i guess thanks uh so i'm also happy to be back here and reelected and um taking on a second term and i want to welcome adrian to join our group um and uh this morning the social and economic justice advisory committee had a meeting and one of the things we talked about was a proposal to change the stipend policy that's that we currently have to expand it a bit and broaden it a bit so i will be they have a written proposal but i will be hoping we can get onto an agenda as soon as we can um the committee recognizes that the stipends are not in the budget for next year but wants to still have to make the best use of the time that we have left with that money in the budget and also to um hopefully look to the future when we can bring that back you know not assuming it's gone forever and so in the meantime to try to make as good a policy as we can so you'll be seeing that soon great well thank you all for the warm welcome i'm excited to be here um one thing that's been on my mind the past like week um and just listening to the constituents over the past uh month and especially after tonight i wanted to this is my first time i've ever proposed anything or sharing my thoughts with these groups or tell me if i'm doing this wrong um was to think about adding a new committee to our long list of committees um if we have to add this to an agenda but thinking about opportunities of volunteers to pull together a grant funding committee um there's a lot at my background i've uh grant wrote wrote a lot of grants i've written federal grants state grants nonprofit grants brought in 50 60 million dollars to organizations and i think there's a huge opportunity for our city to look at diverse funding opportunities um and it ties into our core services right like what are we funding what do we not fund so i think this is could potentially be a big project and a big undertaking but i know the staff doesn't have the capacity to do all the research and the folks that i've talked to in the community are super excited to be charged with that task so um i would love to capture that energy and that excitement and and propose you know on an agenda that we form a committee that focuses on grant writing fundraising for the city cool okay um it's to me a couple of things one uh thank you to the voters for returning me to this position i'm certainly didn't know whether i was going to be reelected or not and i appreciate the vote of confidence and we've got a lot of work ahead of us and i'm happy to still be here doing it um and thanks to the my fellow counselors for running again or and running and and being ready to do the work um i got a couple of other things to mention one i i just got a notice recently of a of a new movie uh directed by best o brian called just getting by uh that it focuses on vermont is dealing with food and housing insecurity and it's going to be shown in a variety of places including at the savoy theater on april 12th and so uh i think that and i think there's another day in april that i'm not seeing but but i think that that's something that uh people in montpellier deal with just like people in other parts of the state and so i think it's it's going to be worthwhile and i also want to take a moment to remember ken libertoff who who just died and ken some of you may have known him ken spent uh many years working in inner adjacent to the area that i work in which is uh working for services and rights of people with the psychiatric diagnoses and ken was tireless in doing the work and was always able to maintain a sense of the humor and and human connection while doing it and so he will be missed and i see the city clerk has turned his light on so it's time for his report well first of all i want to thank the voters too for electing me to uh find however many terms this is i always appreciate the support and that's it was great to see i'm glad that the board of abatement and board of civil authority have been mentioned as part of the council's responsibilities those are not optional responsibilities you all are on that board and boards and so many of you have been doing such a good job slogging through it the last few last few months several months and uh in terms of that coming up we're going to have a so the flood abatement requests are still coming in so we're going to have meetings with the board of abatement on the 28th and whatever the following thursday is which i don't have in front of me but i think those are going to be coming right up to that deadline that we have under statute for april 15th to have all these requests in uh to get the assistance on the education portion of the tax abatement so it'll be really important to have them we do have capital plaza for example which is probably the biggest single question mark we have to to address so yes please try to make those and we do have to have the majority of the council there to constitute a forum as far as the board of civil authority goes uh there is another election coming up it has not been formally set but informally it's going to be on april 30th and that'll be to consider whatever new budget the um the school comes up with um the guidance from the secretary of state is no longer that this is an extension of a previous election that is a stand alone election which means if any of you all watched the school board meeting that i was at i informed them that we would need to be sending absentee ballots automatically to everyone who voted early um for the previous election that is no longer their guidance so this will be a stand home election and folks who want early ballots will need to request them and there will be since i have um moved from the authority in the past for things like tabulating ballots early from previous authorizations for town meeting day for the board of civil authority since this is a different election we may need to have a board of civil authority meeting to authorize me to do that again should i even choose to do that i might might not be uh might not be called for this time but anyways i will be in touch i will also get you all copies since it is a new election of the folks who've been registered or removed from the the roles since then i'm overdue in getting that to you anyways um so that's i think that covers your bca and your boa stuff and other than that um i don't think i have anything else cool to you thanks i haven't talked much tonight yeah uh just quickly good news uh today the governor did sign the budget adjustment act um so while it was not perfect and did not contain everything we would have hoped it did contain 825 thousand dollars for the city to help offset our revenue losses for this current fiscal year so we'll be giving some thought and come back to you with a proposal for how we would allocate that as you know we caught a lot of projects and delayed a lot of purchases and those kind of things and have not filled some vacancies so we'll take a look at how that all works uh and with some thoughts uh we are still pushing for an additional we had asked for 1.3 million that is what you all had cut in the budget this year uh to to rescind from the budget so we're asking for another 475 thousand to get us from 825 to 1.3 million and we continue to push for the 2 million dollars for elevations and dealing with the properties we do believe that if we get the money in our hands we can turn it around uh much more fast efficiently and faster than uh FEMA can and others and so um we'll see uh where they go i know the state has particularly the administration has been pretty uh they they want to help but they've also but you know kind of i think take i understandably i don't really want to criticize and but hey that's what FEMA's for that's what that's money for why should we put up state money but it's the time it's time versus money and particularly you know cases like we heard tonight where people are really living in in tough situations so how can we we help so we're continuing to push for that uh so there's that we learned just today uh and so i don't really anything about this but our big changes in the hotel program coming at the end of the month and i got a call from Representative Casey saying there there's going to be some kind of grouping of like a hundred people in dear Berlin immobility wasn't sure where so we're still trying to learn more about that i don't know if you've heard about this yet chief um maybe national guard armory maybe something off dog river not sure so uh what's that is it this Friday i wasn't sure oh it's this Friday end of the week okay no i'm sorry end of the week you're right i said end of the month so those are hot off the press and we have not really been included in the planning on all of that so um more to come and we will keep you as informed as we can i've already mentioned you got the do updated handbooks and i would also say welcome to uh councilmember gill welcome back to all of you and thank you for running ever doing these jobs because we don't have a local government without you so appreciate it oh i realized there was something else i should have mentioned under my report you know people hear about criticism of our public uh employees and i also have a bit of praise for public employees uh on town meeting day when i was out parked across the street i uh wound up getting a parking ticket and it was obviously it was my car it was the car with my uh magnets on the side and someone pointed out the agent well you know that's the mayor's car and she said well i give a parking ticket to the president it was parked over time and and i think well that's that's great that's exactly what they're supposed to be doing so nobody is usually happy about getting a parking ticket but i'm very happy about not getting special treatment and not getting a parking ticket when i deserved one did your campaign pack paid for the ticket uh no what's with him do you have to do you have to provide any campaign expense disclosure form paid for the by the super pack or yes i'll just pay it out of contact and with nothing more we're adjourned at 10 44 p.m. thanks folks


I head of the International Widows' Day Human Development Initiative has rendered support to widows and the vulnerable people in the society. Executive Director of HDI Olufusho Owasanoye, who led her team at the Baptist Church in Yaba area of Lagos State, says the gesture is meant to elevate the hardship the widows go through. Paul George tells us more in the reports. In every society, there are women of all ages whose husbands have died, leaving them vulnerable. The underprivileged widows and vulnerable children constitute a significant component. It is no surprise that these vulnerable ones have converged on this church. The economic situation of the country leaves much to be desired and have greatly impacted on their daily lives. Olufusho Owasanoye leads the Human Development Initiative. She speaks of her drive and why it has become necessary to show support. As of that 25 years ago, there were this set of vulnerable groups that I would say neglected, that most people like you just go and sit down there. So early then, it was my husband and I, we used to go to churches and some of these, where they have widows go, to talk to them about where or even what they can do before their husband dies. We are pardoned through vocational skills, beat-making, catering, all sorts of empowerment to make them self-reliance. Can we give education scholarship to their children, from nursery to federal university? As of today, we have 75 in university, almost 500 from nursery to primary school. And I want to use this medium to say big thank you to our donors and partners. As admonitions are reeled out, the widows here are encouraged to be prudent and advised to put God first as the future is bright. I'm going to begin by telling you that if I am not prudent, I think I would have been lost. I would have been lost. And all my children would have been lost also. We all are widows. We are all alone, only on our own, that we are the favorites in the God's heart. God loves the widows. And once you keep yourself for God, God will always be with you. One of the donors expresses delight in supporting the initiative, while the beneficiaries are appreciative of the guest job. We always partner with them, not only them, but other, you know, different groups of widows, associations in various areas. We've met provisionally for 250 people. All of a sudden, today happens to be a lot of people that came. The expatriate crowd, they brought their friends and know what not. So they are ranging about 300 and above 300. I'm a widow of eight children. So they say they will assist me, they will help. I never believe it. The good word they started, the Lord who made them to start this war, shall fulfill long life prosperity and health. The callers to come and attend this meeting today, for this Jesus' wife meeting. We pray for them and God give them power to make sure that they remember us every year, by year and God will give them the power and knowledge to be doing this for us. One of the high points of the event was the presentation of gift items to the beneficiaries. Paul, George.


13 of your favorite I'm up on Late night show with your favorite late night host this man standing in front of you right here Tonight is a very special episode for you guys tonight. We're gonna have you wondering About a question that has crossed our minds so many times yet No one has given you the answer to but hashtag get in T is here I'm gonna leave you keep on keep keeping on wondering what that question is until then Let's go and check out what's trending and it will be back Once again, we do welcome everyone for joining us tonight now to tonight's episode We're trying to kick it off with with another Champions League news. I mean the hype is done. I think right? No one is super excited, but I think not because Social media is going crazy About what's going on with that with Liverpool and them losing the game We did see the the goalie actually missing up messing up a little bit there and here and then Him losing a few balls which resulted in the goals that round Madrid scored although there were six goals But this goal right here when Gareth Bill shot it deadly shot, but He started crying after the game which any loser would do although mad mad respect to him for only getting three goals No more but It didn't end there people were sending him threats on social media and now the police are investigating those threats and Wanted to see who sent them and why and Will he be threatened again? That's for you guys to see in the upcoming episodes inshallah, but another Topic for you guys for what's trending there has been a flood in Maryland We did have a few brothers joining us from Maryland. Yes, it is. Hopefully they're okay But just a few hours ago six inches of rain fell and the river rose 17 feet Pouring into the valley. It's crazy blood came in with a war Sunday Turning main street in Ellicott City, Maryland into a raging river The fast-moving water quickly swept away cars Wow and carried debris down the usually busy Main Street So everyone, you know the cop car. I don't know why it's going in there But hopefully everyone is okay and this is coming from hashtag LNC all our brothers are down there Hopefully everyone is okay In Maryland, but let's go and jump into tonight's topic because I'm very excited about it Sometimes when we have those, you know wandering off moments. We start to contemplate on like philosophical matters like Why did this thing happen where it happened and and how it's happening or how did it happen, you know Ideas and and such things when they pop through our mind They make us wonder on various topics, but tonight if you saw the commercial for the episode one of the Theories or one of the ideas and matters that have been debated ever since it was published What's the theory by Charles Darwin, which was presented in 1859 now in short this theory states that there has been a Evolve Evolvements of a specific Species that changed over time. There are different ways of how these species changed But most of them were described by the idea of natural selection which we get to talk about one very important part of this theory is the understanding that The individuals cannot evolve themselves. They can only adapt to their environment. Now these adaptations add up over time And eventually the entire species not just one species the entire species evolve being different from The way that it was before now this can lead to new species forming at the same time This can also lead to the extinction of some species now if we were to look at the other side of the table we have What is based on religion the creation of God the creation of Allah the belief that the universe and everything within that universe especially? The creatures everything within that universe has been created Originates from the creation of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala from a divine creation now tonight Ahmed Ali along with the crew of hashtag L and C and everyone out there wants to know Which side are you on? Which one do you think is the best evolution or creation? Which one do you believe in evolution or creation? Basically what you can do is pick up the phone open what's happened down the number shown right there plus nine six four seven seven four Zero six seven eighteen thirty six We did give you a little bit of Ramadan vibes in that ad right there I'm gonna sit to help you or to motivate you thinking about tonight's topic But once again, you can open what's up down the number shown at the bottom of the screen plus nine six four seven seven four zero six seven 1836 and let us know what you think and remember all the participants Whoever whoever participates into this episode and in the upcoming episodes until up until the end of Ramadan Your names will be written down on these sticky notes right here placed in this fishbowl right here for a chance to win A freeze yard to Karbala at the end of Ramadan the final draw on a now we are live on Facebook as well So you can go check us out there Be sure to give that thumbs up share like comment even the comments will also be placed in this ball right here But let's take a very very short break and we're back very short. So do stay tuned Once again, we do welcome everyone for joining us tonight. We are live From the whole is three of Karbala, which are more Ahmed Ali Now tonight as we have been talking about earlier We do remind everyone to call in and participate but tonight is a very interesting topic for me and for you guys because This topic has been debated as I mentioned earlier throughout centuries throughout decades. This topic has been Mentioned and debated now. Let's begin tonight's topic by talking about a brief history Of the theory of evolution, you know, it goes back all the way to the 17 hundreds When we first saw the theories Introducing that the species changed over time scientists like Comte de Buffon. I think this guy was the grandfather the great-great-grandfather of buffon The the the goalkeeper of Juventus and Italy, but and Charles Darwin's grandfather era iras most Darwin now These two guys also proposed the idea that species changed over time But neither men knew why they changed and how they changed. They also kept a lot of their ideas under control and didn't publicize it because They were they feared their Topics and their ideas were controversial to what the religious Points and their ideas of that time were the religious views now If we were to go and talk about Charles Darwin's theories now Some or a lot of people referred to his theory as the survival of the fittest. This is This guy right here. Let's let's check out his picture Charles Darwin right there or there There yeah, this guy this guy right here Proposed the idea and the theory which is sometimes called the survival of the fittest now natural selection Which was most famously explained in his book on the origins of Species now in his book Darwin proposed The individuals with traits Most suitable to the environment they lived in are More likely to survive and those with less desirable traits of course, they would you know die out and They wouldn't survive But if we were to move on and talk about how these individuals or what were these desirable traits We'll talk about them very short But if an individual has less favorable straight traits his offspring won't be able to receive those genes or those traits because a lot of times They won't be able to get those resources that his ancestors or the previous Species had but we just received a text message from Tenvir from India he says creation in the Quran is not told in one chapter, but rather can be peace together from verses all over the book and The heaven or is the verse and the heaven we constructed with strength and indeed We are its extenders verse expander. Sorry versus 51 Chat chapter 51 verse 46. Thank you very much. Then we are from India for joining us tonight Thank you very much once again now Tenvir from India 13 okay, thank you very much. Then we are once again Your name will be placed inside the bowl now Some points he mentioned in there he mentioned the Quranic verse as well We do thank him once again now if we were to go back and talk about the this this very interesting theory that Charles Darwin proposed now We talked about how only those who are able to Adapt to that environment and those traits that we're talking about if they had those traits They will be able to adapt within the environment They they are in which can lead to new species as we mentioned or it can lead to the Instinction of all their species now if you were to summarize Charles Darwin's theory of evolution Charles Darwin proposed many ideas within that theory one of those One of the Ways that he explained natural selection was through a few points now those few points We have summarized them for you guys the first one is that there were more organisms Than the ones that I can actually survive So in that case there was a competition between the organisms Whichever got to the resources first was able to survive hence individuals within a population Very in traits. This is why when we see a lot of people sometimes they're taller than others These were the favorable traits that were passed down And they were inheritable now some Variants are better adapted to survive And hence they can reproduce under local conditions unlike the other species Better adapted individuals the fit enough as he mentioned within his book are more likely to survive and reproduce as well hence Species whose individuals are best adapted Survive only and those who become extinct and and those who aren't able to adapt Will become extinct, but we just have received a text message from a voice message story from John Everton from the UK. Okay My name is John Everton and I'm from England. I have seen parts of the show where it is Basically to choose between evolution or I'm creation Well, I do believe that the matter of creation is being denied through the pope himself when he said that He supports parts of the theory of creation as being partly scientifically proven yet it is a very It is a very confusing thing to choose between creation or Evolution but if what you mean the creation is that people humans were made of clay then I'd rather Definitely support evolution even though it's a theory Okay. All right. Thank you very much Okay. Thank you very much John John Everton for joining us tonight. So John Why is this pen? Okay John Everton. Thank you very much For joining us tonight your name will place in the bowl Hopefully everyone gets the chance to win a free chip to Karbala now We are getting a few Facebook messages. We'll get to We'll get to them very soon inshallah, but let's take a very short break and it will be back very short Once again, we do welcome everyone for joining us tonight. Now. I just take the Facebook comments A lot of people are are sending their salams saying it's perfect. It's perfect, but You guys can do that in a earlier show. It's called welcome to Karbala You can guys you guys can go and do that, you know yesterday or it's funny I was going through the comments and I saw Salamiah Hussein what I went to the live broadcast on Facebook of Muhammad Ali I saw the same people commenting on his post and commenting on my post or on on LNT's post So this is not a part two of welcome to Karbala This is this is LNT a separate show separate topic separate idea of of the show so if if if you guys No, it's it's good if you it's good send your salams Am I show not not in this show, but once again, we do remind everyone for joining us for you know participating tonight And letting us know what your opinion is tonight's topic is about evolution or creation. What do you think? What do you think is the proper theory? Creation is in theory, but evolution is so which one do you support the most? theory theory a solution Evolution or creation Darwin or god That mix up right there Wow, I don't know what comment I got in my ear right now But if we were to move on and talk about How we compared between Darwin and God, you know That there's no comparison but at the theory that Darwin Proposed that a lot of people are taking into consideration nowadays Scientists have disproved that theory and we'll get to talk about how the Quran also disproves that theory but Let's go and check what the expert has to say about tonight's Topic we have say the same cuisine for joining us tonight on evolution or creation to him Bismillah ar-Rahman ar-Raheem Does Islam believe in evolution or creation? This is a very important question And that is this Islam have to necessarily pick one Or can I pick both? Maybe we can argue that Islam believes in both creation and evolution creation, that's obvious the world major religions the Judaism Christianity and Islam these Abrahamic faiths they believe in creation Adam was The first homo sapien to be created And this is very clear that he was created from sand and Allah He was molded into the shape of a human and Allah blew in him his spirit This is that negate The theory of evolution Not necessarily evolution Could be in other animals For example, it could be in in all other animals But it not necessarily Have to relate to humans if this is possible. We have to see if if this works scientifically But that that's a possibility that evolution applied to all other animals except Uh, human beings. This is one theory another theory or another way of joining between creation and an evolution is to say that humans as in homo erectus Not homo sapiens because Adam alaihi salam was the first of homo sapiens Those were had evolved from other species from fish or other other animals, but not homo sapiens being the children of Adam alaihi salam At the end of the day if we can Conform between evolution and creation in in this sort of way Then so be it otherwise We still stand with creation and evolution remains a theory a theory meaning that is Uh, that it's not a fact Gravity is a fact The earth is round. That's a fact Evolution remains a theory So if we cannot conform between creation and evolution, we still stand with creation Thank you very much Sayyidna for joining us tonight Sayyidna Hassan Qazweeny. Uh once again We do thank you and uh very very beneficial points as he mentioned but to continue uh from what Sayyidna Hassan Qazweeny was was saying I would like to mention a few Quranic verses. Um that dispel the theory of evolution Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala mentions in chapter al sajda verses seven Allah says who perfected everything which he created and began the creation from man Of man from clay then he continues in another chapter another verse chapter al araf verses 11 He says and we have certainly created you o mankind And given you human form then we said to the angels prostrate to adam So they prostrated except for iblees satan. Um, which Didn't accept that and didn't prostrate to adam. Um, and uh, he was not of those who prostrated Then in another verse Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and Another verse Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says in chapter asafat verse 11. He says Then inquire of them o Muhammad addressing prophet Muhammad Are they a stronger of creation? Or others that we have created indeed we've created man from sticky clay and this is one of the one of the Excuse or one of the points that satan used against God Was the idea that he was created from fire adam was created from clay. So how can you prostrate to this individual? now if we were to go back and and and try to Refute not not so much refute but look at the theory of darwin and try to look at it from an islamic perspective And to see if this is correct or not Um, we would have to look at the birth of jesus and if it was evolution, um, if you believe in evolution Where was the father of jesus in islamic point of view? Where was the father of jesus and how did the evolution play part into this now? Similar as the camel of idris the she camel of idris it came straight From a mountain where there was no camels in there. So how did that happen? Where's the evolution and that as well the staff of moses? A prime example as well. Where's the evolution within that part? You can say it's magic, but it wasn't Was a proof of god. So we can see how god within his powers He was able to change all of these Change the staff of moses into a snake now. Allah did create humans with different abilities And different heights if you will But at the same time if we were to go back and look at what ad mentioned in the quran And if we were to look at able and how the son of adam Um, I think the guys have a picture for us. Uh, the the grave of of able Look how in in surya. It's it's crazy. It's it's huge I've seen this in in person and it's huge. It's huge Uh, some narrations say he was over 50 feet, but I don't know if that's true or not, but he was huge So the different heights we don't see a person that that that tall anymore But to give us how evolution didn't play a role within the religion of islam If we were to go in within the quran and also talk about how um, there is some kind of evolution There's a natural change within the quran Where we see Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala changing the form of the transgressors From a human form to an animal form So right there people are going to start saying oh see evolution exists It doesn't because these individuals that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala transformed them from being human to animals Didn't live longer than three days So it was a punishment But it was before prophet muhammad's time. It doesn't exist now Or it might exist But the the effect that I had before islam is more than right now People used to get punished through that to look at the sign of Allah, but now it's different Now there are other there are other signs of god where a person can look at and really Try to comprehend the idea of creation We did just get we did just receive a text message from Oh from fazimoon again from trinidad says creation Allah said in the quran he teach adam everything Okay, thank you very much fazimoon for joining us tonight. Your name has already been in here But thank you very much for Joining us tonight now Another verse in al-baqarah That also proves The idea that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala punished the transgressors we are getting a few comments, but Punished the transgressors At the time of the prophets before islam He did it and he tried to show people that In order to have faith You need to believe in god or in order to in in order to have faith you need proofs Just like in our chapter The second chapter of the quran verse 65 Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala States and you had already known about those who transgressed among you concerning The sabbath and We said to them be apes despised That right there people cannot use that as as a As a point or as an argument with an evolution because they did not Stay alive more than three days. No A portion for tonight we got from fawziya Faizi shassalamu alaykum creation indeed as the creator Allah has the power to create and destroy anything human has human as has as human and His so-called brains Are also created by Allah So the supreme always rule It's just a matter of belief. Okay. Thank you very much Fawziya for joining us tonight your your name has already been placed in here So inshallah we'll give the chance for everyone else to tune in And and participate, but that's it for tonight tonight. We are focusing on very important topics Um Tonight we're talking about the evolution versus creation at the end It's safe to say that individual has to believe in the idea of creation because It all goes back to the mentality of of an individual If an individual is able to comprehend the idea that we're um, we come from apes then He really needs to improve himself. He his brain really needs to evolve into a fully matured brain, but if an individual Instead of evolution Then there's a debatable ground that we can debate on Oh, you you can also debate with with people that believe in evolution But there are certain facts that individual need to needs To have and scientists have proved this as well many scientists have disproved The theory of evolution you can go and check it out or you can rewatch the episode and take Jot down some points from tonight's episode. This was Ahmed Ali coming to you live from the holy city of karbala Tune in for the upcoming episodes at 2 a.m. Karbala time 12 a.m. London time and 7 p.m DC time. Thank you very much for tuning in wassalaamu alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh