Welcome to The Advocate on Plus TV Africa. We're a panel of five. Discuss five thought-provoking topics. Here we call a spade a spade. And like we say, no holds barred. I'm talking about the real big brother in Nigeria. Shola points out a spotlight on the growing discussions on the issue of value-added tax. Adebola is explaining to us clearly the difference between feminism and misandry. Tolu is asking if we are broke because we are sick or vice versa. And finally, comfort speaks on the human cycle and need for healthy living. It's an array of topical issues, spiced with seriousness and laughter. Don't go anywhere. We will be right back after this break. The real big brother. Most young people are entwined in the popular show because it's something they actually understand. It's also very quite straightforward, but the real big brother in any country is politics. You don't have to like it, but it will always have you in the diary room engaging you regardless of what you think of it. Most people blame the below 35s for the reason Nigeria is the way it is and attribute their focus on the reality show to the inaction of politicking. But if they are young, they've asked what is politics. Some will say someone in Abuja. Others might think someone in Babariga or Agbada. To some's mind, posters will come to it. It's hard for some 18-year-old to relate with the constitution and how it affects them. I think it's a bit much, asking them. After all, when I was 18, all I wanted to do was have the latest 50-cent CDs. Let's be honest, for the older generation that blames them repeatedly, if we did our jobs, they wouldn't be so lost in translation. They are youth of Nigeria. The real big brother is politics, but what then is the world called politics? Politics is made up of too much to place in a conversation, but its cardinal points are governance, which is how, of course, an elected government handles its citizens and its policies. Political parties, which are, of course, vehicles to a political office. Influence, which, of course, is what's exerted to cause people to make decisions. Power, which is the use of political will. To solve this problem, the onus is on us ahead to stop the knowledge of everything and our transmission of knowledge being nothing. We must first educate. The level of politricy in Nigeria is poor, and we must learn to make political literacy attractive. Next, we must participate to imbibe a culture of practice and teach little nuggets like, do you know local government elected representatives like your councillors and chairman don't have immunity? So if they defraud any of you in a contract or with something else, you can sue them and they'll actually go to jail. We also need to stop telling them elections can be won on social media. If we do, we will enable them to be bred just exactly like us. Finally, we must allow them, that is the use of Nigeria, the freedom to choose. While enjoying the reality show, we could maybe teach them that politics could be as seamless as the show if the foundation laid for it was solid. Lastly, we cannot discuss the future of Nigeria with the Jurassic Park of the country, and of course the Jurassic Park, you know what I mean. Inclusion is everything. There's an aziki way in all of us. Age is a perception of wisdom in Africa, but vision will create the Obama of Nigeria only. What were you saying? Because this conversation is what we have been saying all this while, that we have failed and in failing, we haven't carried the, as you said, the below 35 along with us. And so because of how the Jurassic Park is, let's be fair or honest, the youth are lost in escapism. I'd rather be in that sphere. Does that make it right? No, but I don't also want to talk about the helplessness of the situation because even you and I, who are somewhat educated, political wise, at least you've thrown your heart in the ring. I'll give you kudos. I haven't bothered to. But I have my PVC, so I'm part of the political cause. I'm doing something. I'm serious on how do we, we have been emotionally, psychologically, spiritually, everything better than this country. How do we, even we, who are supposed to teach them, how do we rise above that to help the next generation? And honestly, I'm asking because it keeps me up at night, really, because I have a younger generation I'm bringing up as it is, but I'm helpless. I feel helpless. The truth is, I think somewhere along the line, we are actually forced by that, those Jurassic Park, to think we are helpless. And the only tribe, because they know they have imbibed that thought, that knowledge, and that process, that we are helpless into us. If we instinctively stood up, there will be a problem. This if has been going on for a while. You know how they say, perception is stronger than reality. Right? I think that's a big factor in this case. Because you can't give what you don't have. Right? If you think about the fact that these people already believe, I mean, for instance, something as simple as an election, there's already the belief that, you know, votes don't count. So because votes don't count, people don't vote. People do not vote, then there's no election. So because that perception is really strong, until someone starts to deliberately change the perception of the younger people, nothing will happen. Because they don't know, and you can't give what you don't have. So they need that information, they need that reorientation.  I'm one of the corporates, because I had the perception.  Sorry. So I just start from, yeah. So I, for instance, I'm a corporate when it comes to elections. Right? And because the perception is so strong, but I've now made a deliberate effort to say, you know what, if it's that one vote, let it count. And then if another person joins me, another person, then before you know it, we're 200 or 5,000. We're 200,000, we're 1 million. And then we'll start to make a difference. So I think it starts with that education and reorientation. Talking about people joining forces, remember what happened during the NSAS protests? During the NSAS protests, a lot of people came out to speak. People slept outside, made sacrifices. People cooked for each other. Everybody came together. But at the end of the day, what did we, what do we have out of it? Nothing. So I just believe the NSAS protests, I wouldn't call it, I wouldn't say it had no impact. But the desires of the youth in that protest wasn't fulfilled. We do not, and at the end of the day, there was a lot of issues. We had a tribunal set up to make inquiries on all that transpired. So how many youths today are willing to come out to stand for justice? Like to say, we don't want this anymore. A lot of people would rather sit back and watch because they do not want to die for Nigeria. Actually, it's not even worth it to die for this country. So nobody is willing to make that sacrifice. We know countries, even Ghana, Ghana had their period where they had to go through that reform. So how many Nigerians, even young Nigerians are not even willing to make that sacrifice? Those who have made the efforts in the past, all efforts proved abortive. So that's my own opinion. You know, I had the opportunity during the NSAS time to sit down with quite some people higher up in the legislative system. I've never seen them so scared. Do you know what was the flaw in NSAS? The poor understanding of politics and how it works by the... The number of people that were out were enough to take out the entire legal state House of Assembly to recall the entire legal state federal representatives. But because they were looking at something else, if they did that, you would have triggered massive recalls of state House of Assemblies across. And once you've recalled... And this is constitutional. Once you've recalled the House of Assembly, between a governor and a zero, it's down the road. And this would have totally changed the whole game. And we could have... You don't need to wait for a whole election to take out such a system. But they have implanted it to you. Come on, recalls are hard. Don't try it. That's what I had to say.  And this is where then you would also say it's the responsibility of the youth. It's their responsibility to get educated. But you see, because as you said when Miss Jurassic Park and there's a lot going on, they've allowed the externals to distract them. And so escapism is the best thing. This is the best way. You would find them in their droves, but where? In the wrong places. So what makes... How would I put this? Why aren't they angry enough? I think that is it for me. Why aren't they angry enough about the leadership, the politics in the country, knowing full well that they are in the majority? I think for me that is where the question should be.  I think she should address that. Okay, she should tell us. Why aren't you people angry enough? I'm still putting my thoughts together. Okay, so for me at this stage you were talking about even knowing your local government chairman or that when we were growing up here it was part of the thing, part of your exam. You had to know the states of the country, the state and the capital and then the governor. I don't think anybody but us anymore. So that deliberate action too by the government has been taken away because it was part of the curriculum. You had to have it. You had to write the exam on it.  That you knew about your country, your state, what foods were eating there, what were the traditional ceremonies and all that.  This generation doesn't know anything. In closing, I like to say something. I said something one day on media and on the show and then I said that local governments don't have immunity and people were shocked and some people were like they're going to check the constitution and I was laughing because they actually don't and it's something most of us don't know. Anyway, up next is Shola on the issue of taxation. Stay with us. Value added tax is the world's most common form of consumption tax. It is a difference between the business sales and the purchase of goods and services from other businesses. With more than 160 countries using a value added taxation system, this system is mostly used in the European Union, which the United States is not one of them. In Nigeria, the Federal Inland Revenue Service had the responsibility of collecting that on behalf of the 36 states and the federal capital territory. This is shared among the federal states and local government as an allocation with the federal government, taking 15 percent, whilst the states and local government shared the remaining 50 percent. A federal high court in Porta Cote ruled on the 10th of August 2021 restraining the Federal Inland Revenue Service from demanding taxes from the residents of river states which impliedly affects other states. It further ruled that states should commence the collection of fat which is the value added tax and personal income tax. Following this groundbreaking ruling, the Lagos state government has demonstrated its consent to begin a collection of value added tax with a proactive strategy in compliance with the new reform. Lagos has further directed the Federal Inland Revenue Service to stop using demand notices for payment of vats and further instructed the FIRS to render the accounts within seven days of all the sums collected. By the court order, both Governor Wike of river states and Governor Babajide Sonwolu of Lagos state had signed into law bills authorizing the state government to collect a value added tax, a move being resisted by the Federal Inland Revenue Service. Meanwhile, states like Gombe and a few northern states have appealed to the southern governors to rescind their steps and seek continuation of the process that allows the FIRS to collect vats. States like Delta, Kaduna, Oyo, Katsina, Kano may experience a minimal impact while other 30 states that account for lower revenue generation within their states are currently perplexed on what steps to take. Surprisingly, majority of the northern states have opposed the ruling of the court considering its huge impact on the state revenue as they have solely relied on the federal government without deliberate strategies for internal revenue generation within their states. The federal reform will impact positively the financial and social economic sectors of the economy as the state and local government will no longer rely on the federal government to boost their internally generated revenue. With all states having to take charge of their territories this will urge states to look inwards and seek ways to diversify their economies. States with dormant revenues will seek to venture into tourism development, production of resources and massive development of agriculture without total reliance on the oil sector. With about 30 states generating less than 20% of the Nigerian value added tax these states will suffer significant revenue decline until they seek meaningful strategies to raise sufficient revenue for state growth and development. Conclusively, it is pertinent for states to look inwardly and develop proactive strategies for internal revenue generation which would be of immense good to the national and global development of the Nigerian states. Guys, what do you have to say about the issue of that? One of Grand Commander Wike I was happy. It's enough, on a serious note it's enough. Now that the courts have said people should go and collect themselves. We have been shouting about the federal government releasing the hold on things like what is in mining in the states. So that states that have the capacity can do whatever they need to do to generate whatever. So now this will have that rebound effect. If the northern states want to be serious that's where they should get their representatives to work now. And say, look, we can't do this unless you people sit down and help us remove this chain because federal government is not involved. Work out a formula. Maybe we'll give them 15% of whatever it is that we generate. But I think it's enough. We can't have states relying solely on other states for survival. It's not fair. For example, I think the one that has really come up is the issue of the alcohol. That it is part of that. You take the vat from alcohol you just... None of the northern countries have that bad part of the vat. We don't want it. They collect it. Yet, when people who are supposed to be living in a country that is secular want to sell the alcohol in the states you seize it and you destroy it. But you collect the money from the federal government. So it's double standards. I want to bless that judge. You see? I would never have thought that the political climate of Nigeria which is usually destructive would produce something good because it's kind of... But states that are doing well like Lagos should also keep one clear thing in thought. If there should be a clear structuring down like this Lagos would not be the one with a pot alone. And that would cut down more than 70% of Lagos revenue. Lagos should wake up to it. No, I'm looking at it. The competition... No, it means that the competition is on. And this is exactly what we want. Because you cannot have states for me that Zanfarra cannot function. Sokoto states should buy them. That is... No, it's true. Countries right now... Countries in the world right now operate like businesses. If I'm Sokoto state and Zanfarra okay, you have a problem. Okay, you know what? Become part of us. Our governor is your governor. Merge, who will take it. Deon Stan writes to the federal government pass it by national assembly. There's nothing wrong in that. I feel we have too many states. Because if you look at the generation of that, Lagos, Akwaibom, Kaduna and the rest are funny people. As in they are below par. You know, you kept saying Northern states. Funny, there are a lot of Southern states spending this. Abia is totally doing nothing. They are being fed by the federal government. There are a lot of Southern states in this. Honestly, I feel very strongly that every state in Nigeria has potential. It's just a question of thinking. Of actually doing the hard work and the diligence of thinking. I don't think there's any state that by itself is useless. However, if you have done this thinking for four or five or ten years and you find that you are not useful, by all means, met with another state. Why do you have 36 states and only six to ten states are actually generating income? Then why do you have the remaining states? It's just for the purpose for the vanity. If we need ten states in Nigeria, they need a government. They need a government. I feel like every state has potential. It just takes, I mean, give me any states in Nigeria and put a think tank in that state. They will tell you exactly what you can do with that state to generate income. The federal government holds on the resources of the states. That's why I'm saying that the states too need to wake up and make their own representatives. Do you know why the federal government can put their hand on the states too? They have refused to let go of the feeding bottle of central. They want to, like in this situation with VAT, you will notice that they want to collect the VAT. They still want to collect federal allocations. It doesn't work that way. You will start thinking and saying, oh, we have tourism. We have this resource. So that's what happens. When you cut off that supply, then people start to think. There is a desert rally. It's that beautiful. We have small Oasis. Dubai has been a desert for how many years? Look at what they've known. We have those deserts. Dubai because it has those small Oasis that are more. They are shorter distance. They are not like the Sahara desert.  See how we killed Tinapa. Tinapa was killed. I think what even hurts me the most is that we have a five-star hotel with a golf course at the confluence. How many confluences are in the world? There are just about three. I want to believe that if we can have more people, more indigenous of all the states that are not as developed as that of Lagos and Abuja, if we can have a lot of them come out to want to privatize some of these businesses, I think that what they can do will be more than what the government can do something that they are spending their own money on and they want to develop their states and give them more global recognition. But the government is not ready to let go of that. It's not even the government. What scares the people is the fact that once the governor changes the money you've invested, that's where the problem is. But you see this bad thing is a good thing. No, it's a good thing. We know that it's not from a heart of they want to do what's we have yet to wear. It's a good thing. So we'll keep this conversation going. The issue of vats cannot be overemphasized. And the baller is next after this break. Stay with us. Feminism versus misogy. A lot of people are getting it all wrong. The fact that we get a lot of people complaining about these people that call themselves feminists is a good thing. I'll tell you why. We've gotten noticed and have built a presence. A presence that is going to last a long, long time. Feminism, true feminism, is the belief in an advocacy of the political, economic and social equality of the sexes expressed especially through organized activity on behalf of women's rights and interests according to Miriam Webster dictionary. This means that a feminist is someone who believes that women and girls have every right to hold political, economic and high social positions without any oppression from the opposite sex. Lately it seems to me that we have misandrists hiding under the feminist banner.  Misandry could be belittling, being violent and completely excluding yourself from any activity involving men. Here in Nigeria we may not have come across such offensive comments but we see it in their actions. The thing is that a lot of people are misandrists without even knowing it. Some just don't want to believe or even admit it.  That's how long misandry has been living amongst us. Feminism is all about empowering about women supporting women and girls supporting girls through a just cause building one another up for the seeable future. Why have I brought this up? It's about time that we lay down on the table. We've got quite a number of them that look at us feminists as misandrists. They take a part of the blame for being ignorant and not sourcing for knowledge. Regardless of the sex, if you believe that women and girls have every right to hold exclusive positions as men in all fields you are a feminist.  Are you a feminist? You wouldn't as a man deny your wife, sister, mother or friend a position that you are entitled to with you. So are we all feminists? No, I'm not. I'm a human being. I think for me that has always been my issue with the tagging. There's always when it comes to women issues we tend to want to label things. We're human beings. I think we should look more at these issues from the lens of human beings.  So if a human is entitled to go and work and earn 5,000 Naira then it has nothing to do with the sex. If it's a human being you are entitled to work. Number two, feminism got a bad name from the people practicing it because today's first I'm hearing of me is today I'm hearing it because feminism had carried all of it because of the people who were behind it. It's now that feminism is better defined because they needed to step up and make it clear. We don't let men know. It's just the way we are being shouting and doing it. It's not we have been very aggressive. Okay, so we'll be ladylike about it but now presenting the issues going forward. Number three, the one about holding hands. It's not because we were Miss we were practicing it. We were young. They said if we touch boys we'll get pregnant. We had nothing to do with it. We didn't know what it was. We were supposed to be till we go to a certain stage and also what I'm just saying is that I think going forward now that thankfully feminism is beginning to bring itself out as look, it's economic, social, the general well-being of women in relation to all these factors. It's clear. It's not that we hate men or we're aggressive or we don't want them or whatever but we want to make sure that we're heard. I think there should be the emphasis also on the fact that we're human first. Absolutely, yes. In an ideal world in Utopia yes we're humans but the reality today is no we're not. So the women don't have the rights that they should have. So you'd expect that somebody is thinking extra and saying how I mean I have two daughters I have a wife. I'm already outnumbered. So whether I like to or not, I'm a feminist but beyond that, beyond the labelling like Comfort said is what is the spirit behind it? What is the objective? What are we trying to achieve with the whole idea of feminism? It's equality. It's saying if a man deserves 200 Naira then a woman deserves just as much. A woman doesn't deserve 199. Once there's one Naira shot someone needs to say what's going on here that's basically the spirit behind it and once it crosses that and then it becomes abused so it's just achieving a critical balance between understanding the objective and the outcome you want to get versus when you now cross the line and then it becomes something else and you're easy to not label you and say oh then throw it with the baby with the back water. I think what has caused the reason for the clear distinction is that they found out or feminist found out that they had become the same thing they were fighting and that has shown clearly and in that kind of world man has already become an individual species because they seem to take it to a undead lion to exchange more personal so they seem to take it to another level but like Comfort said also I have always called myself a humanist I believe everybody deserves the opportunities they get regardless of gender, tribe, religion I even always say governance is not based on gender, tribe or religion so I don't look at it anyway a lot of people have grown to see things differently there are people that once they just read a story and I've seen this occur on social media once they read a story they don't want to know the other side of the story they say woman, they are behind the woman if it's a man, they are behind the man they don't want to know how else it occurred and this is creating more of a fracas and we are becoming a lot of people think we are more intelligent now as a generation trust me we are far becoming more unintelligent than the 14th and 15th century people because we have so much information but have value for nothing for me I think the issue of feminism has been misinterpreted you know the initial ideology behind feminism was equality inclusion for women women should be involved in every other thing that the men do but I think there has been I think the way the message has been passed has been passed wrongly on certain issues like for instance there was a story on Twitter about a lady who said she bought a house for a husband or something like that so there are a lot of comments like why would you buy a house for your man and before we could say anything everything just went in different ways all the ladies came out to say why would she why would you why would you do such a thing what if he cheats what if he leaves you so you know there is this women supporting women has also been misinterpreted because a lot of women would also if a woman does something wrong because she is a woman and I need to support my fellow woman I wouldn't scold her but it's a very good ideology especially if we are looking at it in terms of the workplace where you see some organizations I think things are changing now the issue of the feminism ideology things are changing now a lot of companies would rather employ a man than a woman but things are much different now I see a lot of women also taking up very good roles in companies becoming like now virtually all the banks have female CEOs yes virtually all the banks are I'm not sure I think that is important as well I've conducted a lot of interviews I find when I ask the men what do you want to earn but the women would say a lot of times and I say what is wrong with you I do get the question right there tell me exactly what you want to earn I don't tell you a guy that you come out to run and say you are here to shrink your value and your worth as far as money is concerned so you have to also do that education every now and then and having to tell people this is not time to shrink you have the opportunity the truth about it I have never believed that between the sexes there could be equality I have only believed there could be equity now I will define equality if you give a 50 kg bag of rice to a man and a woman you can't expect the woman to carry the same way but what you must do is ensure that while she is carrying a 50 kg bag of rice there is someone to help her because she is a woman there should be a balance and managerial positions actually making decisions they are more emotional and caring about things a man just takes the obvious logical decision it might be destructive without thought process so they both have their advantages we should learn to play the line according to those advantages and no more we just give them equal even with feminism we have to be realistic and practical with what is on ground you can't call equality a log cement now you can't do it but it's the equity that if there is a job a number of men that apply should equal a number of women that apply if he is going to earn this you should earn that but there must be a balance stroke because whether we like it or not there is a home that needs to be built we can begin to argue it in all shades but what it is what is on the ground so it seems that we have so many misconceptions but we have to put this discussion and hold as Tolu is next stay tuned are we broke because we are sick or are we sick because we are broke Ralph Aldo Emerson an American essayist and philosopher who lived in 19th century he used the phrase first he said health is wealth in the context of American people stating that health is of utmost importance and wealth and in its true sense health is only the real wealth of a person so a cause we look at the Nigerian health sector really gets us thinking if indeed health is wealth how rich would we say we are in Nigeria also if indeed health is wealth it is rather apparent that only the rich in Nigeria are rich unfortunately our country is one where human life is not taken as seriously as you would expect perhaps you have not been delivered enough to see how health contributes to wealth some statistics might help looking at some of the best medical sectors in the world incidentally happen to belong to the top 21 countries with the highest GDPs and then have also the lowest depth profiles so let's start with Sweden GDP $530 billion the health system they have a decentralized universal healthcare system for everyone Sweden's life expectancy is age 2.4 this surpasses the life expectancies in Germany, the UK and the United States Sweden also has one of the lowest maternal and child mortality rates in the world there are 5.4 physicians per 1000 people which is twice as great as in the US, the UK and 100% let us think in 100% of births in Sweden assisted by medical personnel let's talk about Germany GDP $3.9 trillion the German healthcare system is a dual public-private system that dates back to the 1880s making it the oldest in Europe healthcare in Germany is funded by statutory contributions ensuring free healthcare for all again let us think in free healthcare for all Germany is one of the biggest spenders on healthcare in Europe it spends 11.1 of its annual GDP on healthcare expenditure only Switzerland and France spend more in terms of GDP percentage German healthcare spending works out at just over 4000 pounds 4000 euros per inhabitant every year final example, Denmark $350 billion in GDP the healthcare in Denmark is largely provided by the local governments of the five regions with coordination and regulation by the central government the central government plays a relatively limited role in healthcare in Denmark its main functions are to regulate, coordinate and provide advice life expectancy in Denmark has increased from 7.9 years in 2005 to 80.6 years almost 81 years in 2015 Danish women have a higher life expectancy is 2.5 percent is 2.5 years in 2015 than Danish men 78.6 in 2015 in Nigeria currently Nigeria's healthcare system ranks among the lowest in the world it started from 2018 in the land side of global healthcare access and quality looked at 195 countries around the world and Nigeria scored 142nd Nigerians usually have to pay for medicine out of their own pockets often the medicine is expensive and difficult to afford in 2019 on average healthcare made up 6 percent in Nigerian household spending with higher figures in the rural areas than in urban areas for obvious reasons resident doctors in Nigeria have been on strike for about 6 to 8 weeks technically there is an MOU in place now waiting to be signed after several lives have been lost and another proposal to borrow money added to the already sinking debt profile so again I ask are we broke because we are sick or are we sick we are broke really but you know what I want to add to this conversation you missed out the fact that Denmark is just about the size of Karnas state Germany is about it's less than quarter the size of northern Nigeria these three states put together Canada dumped them in north or southern Nigeria and there will still be space so please tell me in Danish I think they are known for milk their cows don't work around they work in peace what is happening in Nigeria you know I was really happy during Covid I was really happy during Covid because we are all trapped here rich or poor if you notice we had some high profile debts I didn't say anything well it's almost as if you knew what I had written about anyway we will get to the way that Karnas can survive but I wish you had given us our GDP also and our own life expectancy just so we could see the stark reality of what we are living with following up on what Kule said about the sizes of these countries this is what happens when a government is deliberate if we were as deliberate America is a whole continent living well too by many standards they are living much better than we are so it still goes back to the issue of leadership what we care about who is pushing what and where and for what interests the interests in this country are largely driven by not by justice or fairness I mean with all due respect I understand that the doctors are not happy how many times are we going to go through this in every other year at what point will you sit down and think and say you know what we need to get what we need to get without because this is what I swore to I remember the first time I heard of Dr. Strike then professor he was doctor then I was in primary school it has continued he has died governments have changed over 12-13 governments have changed we have gone from primary school to university to having a son that is now at that level and I am still going through the exact same thing and it's not only that we are not deliberate look at how much people spend on health to top it Nigeria has our health health pension scheme and it doesn't know where they found 6 billion inside somebody's roof how can we continue like this if you go back to that COVID you know I am very upset about the amount of money that was given to Nigeria for COVID and I wondered you mean there wasn't somebody on that panel that committee whatever they call themselves now that we have this thing let's build the hospital this is so hard we are all going to die here I think it comes down again to value for human life I think it's really as simple as that I don't think it's value for human life because people are dying do you know why I know it's not value for human life so I have this friend he's within the government system in an eastern state and then people that come from that eastern state old doctors that were retired spoke to their friends abroad that there was no primary health care center they were going to stock up a hospital A1 guess what the state health commissioner of health refused to agree because they are building a hospital for free but they said no they want dollars how many dollars are they giving them you turn down the hospital when you don't have one to ask for dollars and that's what goes on it's just very painful like anything else is supposed to be number one like anything else because how long are we going to keep traveling to treat malaria a lot of our politicians travel during COVID in Nigeria but how long do we keep traveling to treat malaria to treat typhoid and get health care you want to say something yes but I was going to say that if they really value human life I don't see how you are a leader and the well-being of your citizens is number one in your mind and you are able to sleep you should have a conscience I mean health is wealth like you said where oh my gosh where are we going to how do I put this draw the line no like how can we move forward when you know that because majority of people who don't have access to quality health care are the poor and the percentage of the poor people here in the country is way more than the rich who can easily take care of themselves in private hospitals so we just need to it's not even that easy because even me now when my mom tells me she's going to the doctor my heart is beating because by the time she goes and comes back Kondraki has died easily that's also every month I'm praying God please help me let her not fall sick please help me even with me in this class everybody is touched I understand that the doctors need money they can't prescribe drugs or perform some certain operations or diagnosis without some certain equipment but still I mean I can't remember what the doctor's vow is but the health of your patient should be number one I understand that you can't just leave them to be because you're not being paid it could have been that they may not have done their best and they've decided to go on their first try this is a whole one-hour topic we've not even sort of described the suffix but I think we've thrown out a few important points so comfort runs up the show after this break don't go away who else to live forever anyway the human life circle has six main stages fetus, baby child adolescent, adult and elderly which we refer to as old the first five we tend to embrace and take care of but the last stage we either attempt to wish away ignore, disdain or mask with a growing aging population on timely deaths and impaired living conversations on growing a positive attitude to the inevitable dusk years is paramount while we are somewhat relaxed while going through the other stages of life we do not focus on investing in practices that will help tide us over in old age it is when we have a health incident that we scramble to start living better to bribe old age just as inevitable as death is so is old age and while we cannot run from it if we embrace it and work with it it will be kinder to us it is never too late to make positive changes however we must acknowledge the limitations if we start later rather than earlier to work towards an enhanced old age recently plastic surgery has become the bane of aging from one facelift to the next liposuction to the lifting of sagging bits we have geriatrics looking odd with sculpted bodies and faces and doing nothing for enhancing the quality of life the goal is to use our productive years to prepare for age that will lead to a decrease of everything that we once took for granted although it is taking for granted on this side of the Atlantic that our children will look after us it is gradually becoming irresponsible to leave the comfort of your old age to your children there is a place for that but reality must be faced work, train your kids make investments save for your later years if the kids turn out right and support you well great if they don't, well great too you've provided for yourself there is a thing called healthy aging which refers to a reduction in the undesired effects of aging the goals are maintaining physical and mental health avoiding disorders and remaining active and independent very important for most people maintaining general good health requires more effort as they age developing certain healthy habits can help such as following a nutritious diet exercising regularly and staying mentally active in this way people can have some control over what happens to them as they age also several factors influence life expectancy and gaining knowledge is an added advantage for example you know hereditary what are those hereditary things influences whether a person will develop a disorder know the family history lifestyle avoiding smoking, not abusing drugs and alcohol maintaining a healthy weight and diet exercising help people function well and avoid disorders exposure to toxins in the environment well it's a challenge but it can shorten life expectancy even among people with the best genetic make up healthcare regular checkups can prevent disorders or treating disorders after they are contracted helps increase life expectancy all age may have its limitations and challenges but despite them our later years can be some of the most rewarding fulfilling of our lives time to start being deliberate about taking care of you for you for the dusk of life fantastic so let's go you know I really love that talk when I make friends with senior citizens I have a lot of old friends you know 6, 5, 7, 7, 5 year old friends well yeah older friends and one of the things I've learned about them is in their earlier years and I have all kinds of the rich ones I have the ones that are struggling a bit I realized that most of them the ones that are doing very well they made the decision early in life in their 30s and their 40s they thought about their 70s and 80s and said you know what I have to prepare for it and they made those preparations and it's paying off for them now the ones are not doing too well well a few of them you know life happened but they didn't plan well enough so it's very important to put that plan in especially in your 30s and 40s very important to put in those things in your mind because like you said it's like death it's going to come I personally for instance they have a child they are looking for a money but you've forgotten for 9 months you know you're going to have a child in 9 months it's similar, you know you're going to be old so you must prepare and start making plans to make your old age more you know you know I work within the private sector I've always done, I've never worked within the public sector I turned 40 and my best friend called me he works in the UK and he said we both turned 40 this year he turned in October, I turned in December so he said you know what we're going to start investing in stock and we're going to do this and it's money we're not touching and I said why and he said I kept some money for you and you add what you have go to invest in stocks and it's going to be for our pension and I said he said do you see how 0 to 40 happened I said yeah I was kind of fast we've been friends since we were in crash so I was like did you see how fast it happened the next 40 is that fast it's even faster so he was like come on we have to start paying for it he reminds me every month what are you bringing I'm still preparing I think you need to really be deliberate about it I can say yes we make a lot of careless decisions I can say we eat worse than any other generation before absolutely less healthy there's a lot of bio-generated rubbish and which is generally not good for our bodies which means we probably retire faster than others but if you look at the bright side we have enough intelligence to prepare our health yeah when I hit 35 I decided that number one I was going to do a certain thing at 40 I hit bad milestone and then I was lucky enough to read somewhere where it said by the time as if there's one demon hovering somewhere the day you hit 40 something breaks and it happened to me the day I hit 40 I think it was my back pain I said hey that's happened so immediately I started regular checkups changed my diet water just those small things walking 30 minutes every day things that we weren't doing imagine if I started that even 10 years earlier how look and I saw the pay off I honestly saw the pay off I don't go to the hospital I really don't mostly I don't I mean you have the one two things here and there because your body has to whatever but the point here is that I don't need to go to the hospital because I make sure I take my ginger my lemon when it's cold I wear my sweater being more deliberate doing mental exercises and all that just embrace it if you embrace it it actually becomes a good thing because now you're not fighting it so what is it really coming to fight you for you know fighting I've accepted I'm old I'm aging it will come I'm not as strong my knees are paining me my back is paining me sleeping in the middle of the day I'm not fighting it besides I'm not even playing football so not only for football it's why I'm still young that I have all the time to do all the running around all the vigorous exercises all the intensive jobs it's all pay off later and all that leave your life to the fullest enjoy yourself and you go about taking alcohol smoking and drinking I'm not thinking about tomorrow everybody's just worried about today I think that's what my my generation the yellow generation looking forward to is enjoyment they're not thinking about tomorrow because everything they are chasing is money and you know once you have money you're spending on this you're spending on that and that's not the healthy way to live shall I say a little bit about the issue of our African parents waiting for us to go yes yes yes because talking about planning it's very important that when you're in your 30s 40s and you have enough time to plan you begin to plan for your future so that you don't begin to you have to rely on your children if they give you money fine but there is this entitlement mentality not just with parents now but with everybody like some people just even now parents feel I spent I sent you to school I gave you everything so it's time for you to give me back fantastic topic and at this you know rate I'm glad that all of us are within the age bracket you know to actually consciously make changes so I mean hopefully we'll spread the message and that's the size of the show today join us again next week on another edition of the advocate please don't just listen share the advocate with family and friends the more diverse thoughts we share the richer the solutions they inspire the advocacy continues on our social media platforms on Facebook plus TV Africa hash tag the advocate NG and Instagram at plus TV Africa hash tag the advocate NG to catch up with previous broadcasts go to plus TV Africa dot com forward slash the advocate NG don't forget to subscribe to our YouTube channel plus TV Africa bye for now bye


I would like to call to order the Winooski Liquor Control Board meeting. Please join us in the Pledge of Allegiance led by Deputy Mayor Thomas Frederick. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. Jenny, please join us. We have one regular item, a sidewalk use application for morning light bakery. Yes, good evening. So this is a renewal application, he had one last year. It's been approved, I reviewed it with Eric, I submitted the dimensions, it's pretty explanatory. I don't recall any complaints about their setup last year. I do. Morning light? I don't think they set it up last year. Oh, they never got to it? Yeah. He did have some tables. Oh, yeah. What is your recollection, Brynne? I think there is a light post, or there is, and again, I think when we reviewed it last year, there was just similar concerns with ADA accessibility. If I remember, I think that was when it was, they first had it on like this side, and there was a light post, so I wonder if having it on the other side results. If the dimensions on here are correct, it looks like it should not be a problem. Okay. That's what he said, when I set it back to him. Perfect. Any other questions or concerns? Any questions for members of the public? You can use the raise hand or chat feature in Zoom. Okay. Hearing no additional concerns, would someone like to make a motion to approve this sidewalk use application? So moved. So moved. Motion by Charlie, second by Aurora. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Motion carries. Thank you. That is the end of the liquor control board meeting. Do I have a motion to adjourn? So moved. Second. Motion by Thomas, second by Charlie. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Motion carries. It is 6.03 p.m. I will call to order the Winooski City Council meeting. Any questions, concerns about the order of this evening's agenda? No. All right. It is, next up is public comment. Public comment is meant for members of the public to make comment on any items not included on tonight's agenda. If you are here for an agenda item on the agenda, I would ask you to hold for that item. Is there any public comment this evening? I see a hand. Mayor Lott, we have Terry Siegman with us tonight. Go ahead, Terry, when you're ready. Terry, can you hear us? If you're speaking, Terry, we can't hear you. Terry, you are in the participants list here, Terry, and we see your hand is raised. We can't hear anything you're saying. You may try hitting the mute button and then unmuting. Sometimes that helps. It doesn't seem like that worked. Terry, you can also try to call in if that's easier from your phone number. Did anyone else have public comment tonight? Paul, would you be able to share with Terry the dial-in via chat? I will, yes. Okay. I'm going to move to the consent agenda, but we will come back, which he's able to reconnect. Are there any questions on the consent agenda this evening? Okay. Any questions from members of the public? Okay. Do I have a motion to approve tonight's consent agenda? So moved. Second. Motion by Brent, second by Charlie. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Motion carries. It looks like Terry has been able to rejoin. Can you? Oh, maybe not. Oh, perhaps. Let's give it a shot. Terry, can you hear us? Yeah. Can you hear me now? Hi, Terry. Yes. Thank you. I'm so sorry. My computer doesn't seem to work. Hi. Thank you for taking the time to listen to my public comment. Actually, it's a question, and I just need to pull up the email. I had it all set here. I can do it from my phone. I'm calling with a public comment. I wanted to ask again about the sidewalks. I mean the bike lanes and the parking spaces being striped. I'm just curious when that is going to happen. Elaine, do you know her? I don't have a timeframe handy, Terry, but we can follow up after the meeting. Okay. This is something that I've come to council with for the past three years. Yes. There's always been an operational challenge getting the contractor to get here. So it isn't a matter of lack of priority. So I would just need to find an update on when we're expecting them here. Okay. That would be great. And I also wanted to ask the council about transportation impact fees. I sent an email on May 16th, which I believe was the day before you had your strategic planning meeting. I sent an email to city manager Elaine and also to Brynn, asking that that be prioritized this year. And I got an email back from Elaine. I guess I sent the email on maybe the 14th or the 13th. Sorry. I sent an email back from Elaine, saying that council agreed that not to keep this as a priority. And I'm just curious why this isn't a priority. It does say here in the email is that they are one time and unpredictable. And they limit the benefits they have. And I guess the bottom line I'm reading from this email is that the pushback for new developers would just be too much. It would be prohibitive to have these fees as a taxpayer. I voted yes for a fire truck with a larger ladder to reach the tall buildings that we're developing that we're having built in the city. I've been asking for bike lanes for three years. I understand that it's, you know, hard to get a contractor and to do that. The parking spaces have not been striped in over three years. I don't understand why having impact fees is not a priority. I also was able to find a transportation impact fee study that was done and submitted the final report, I believe, was submitted on December 2nd, 2020 to the city council, to the mayor, to the then city manager, Jesse Baker, have members of the council seen this report? Have members of the council, are they aware of it? And could anybody speak to why when you contracted with CCRPC to get this study done, why it's still not a priority? Hi, Terry. We did, council did receive that report. It was reviewed. Some commissions reviewed it as well, back at that time. After financial review and considerations, what Elaine shared via email is accurate. We didn't find that it was as financially productive as other strategies. Like it wouldn't, the return on investment would not be significant enough for managing the program and keeping exceptions in place for priority housing projects. It's never reached a stage where it's been under deep consideration. And so there has been no developer pushback because we haven't actually engaged developers on that. We had that discussion in our priority session and chosen not to prioritize transportation impact fees. We are instead asking staff to investigate public safety impact fees specifically related to the need to replace the fire truck for a larger ladder. So there is some discussion still occurring on impact fees, but not for the transportation program. Okay, well, I'm here tonight, not in person obviously, but I'm here again to ask that the council, not just you mayor lot, but the council who I believe represent me and you also represent me and other members of the public. I'm asking that we look at this again because every community around us, all of our neighbors have this, have impact fees. We do not. And taxpayers are the ones that are paying for new crosswalks, for the blinking beacons. We're paying for all of this stuff.  It's not fair. It's not fair. And I understand the staffing issues. I get it. However, I don't get why we continue to develop without having impact fees. When I was on planning commission six or seven years ago, before you were even mayor, when Paul Dreyer was running planning commission, we had talked about impact fees. Perhaps that's where this study came from. I don't know the exact timeline, but really I'm astounded that the council doesn't see this as a priority and can't seem to find the motivation to do what every other community in Chittenden County is doing. Thank you for listening. And I appreciate the time to speak at the meeting. Thank you so much. Thank you, Terry. I just want to be clear. We are considering impact fees in the priorities that did make it to the priorities list public safety impact fees. Thank you. Are there any other public comments? Paul, I don't think we had anyone else signed up. No one else signed up for this evening. Okay. Let's move on to council reports. Charlie, would you like to kick us off? Sure. Councilor Hurdon, I met with the seniors who are residents at the courtyard residential facility. And they shared with us some of their reflections about their day-to-day, specifically related to infrastructure, the folks in the courtyard. I'm really excited about the Wadiski Farmers Market. They're glad that it's back this year. They'd like to see it be bigger and have more vendors. And on work like the negative side, many, many of the participants in the group have concerns about the state of the sidewalk, specifically around the railroad tracks. We were able to talk to them about how it's a relationship between us and the company that operates the railroad and owns the tracks themselves. And that was something that came up consistently throughout the meeting, even though there had already been talked on. So there were a lot of feelings around that. And yeah, just a lot of traffic stuff. They'd like to see more traffic calming, more sidewalks, and better condition of the cycle that already exists around the courtyard itself, because that's where they're traveling the most. And overall, it was pretty productive. Awesome. Thank you. Thank you. Two items from downtown Wadiski, as Charlie kind of mentioned, the farmer's market did start last Sunday. So that will be going on every Sunday until October 23rd. And it starts at 10 a.m. and ends at about 2 p.m. And then also our first Wadiski Wednesday will be this Wednesday, from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. So definitely make sure to check that out. The doors open at 4.30 p.m. So you can get yourself set up for a good place to sit. And then the mayor and I also met with seniors at Our Lady of Providence. And I met with some seniors at the residence at 65 Parlo. And a lot of similar conversations about sidewalk use, concerns with the safety and the difficulty for seniors to utilize our sidewalks. They spoke about a lot of other things. I think something like council has just, we've talked about for a while, making sure that all of our activities and events are accessible to seniors. And we let them know about Wadiski Wednesdays and the farmer's market. But it was really nice discussions. We had a really good time with them. I had a great time at the other meeting. All right. Thank you. Just want to give a public thanks to the VFW, RVA and all of our city staff for assisting in the return of the Memorial Day Parade and Community Barbecue. And thank you for volunteers who attended and helped out with that. As well to the, want to mention the Wadiski Gardening Group and the work those volunteers have been doing to update flower beds around town over the last two weeks. They're always seeking volunteers. They have a Facebook page. I want to share that I had a check-in with our school board president since our last meeting. And they are in the process of planning for their annual retreat. So we'll reconnect after they set their priorities. I did share our information with her. And also that we plan to resume regular check-ins once the superintendents officially starts on July 1st. And can also talk about other coordination after that. I also had a meeting with the Vermont International Guard Wing Commander to just check in about operation and community engagement updates. I'm told there are no significant operational changes planned this year with the exception that this month, I want to say they said half of the jets are going overseas again so it may be quieter for the month of June. We are going to reconnect as the noise map update from the airport starts to come together to talk about broad community engagement. The Planning Commission will be meeting this Thursday at 6.30 p.m. Those meetings are hybrid so you can join from Zoom, telephone, or here in council chambers. They are continuing to discuss a design review district as an additional layer of permitting review to address historic preservation concerns. Those discussions are pretty fluid exactly what the requirements would be or what the area of coverage is. They haven't reached that point yet. And then finally, I just want to share publicly that myself and members of staff have been engaging in discussions led by the Chittenden County Homeless Alliance and Agency of Human Services about the evolving response to the end of the state motel housing program. I don't have anything particularly tangible to share tonight but just want the public to know that we are paying attention to that and a part of the conversation as things change. That is it for me. Thanks. The Municipal Infrastructure Commission met in May and we reviewed the proposed, some of the initial concerns presented to the CCRPC during a public meeting earlier in May to review the La Fountain-Dion Street scoping study. It's in the very early stages. The Infrastructure Commission will serve as the advisory committee for that. The commissioners were very interested in ensuring there was additional clear ways that members of the community can provide additional comment and that wasn't just the commission that was being relied on for comment and perspective. So the CCRPC did say that they would provide some reassurance that there would be additional opportunities for the public, greater public and not just the advisory committee provide scoping for that because there is quite a bit of interest. I am anticipating that the Infrastructure Commission will meet again on June 15th. We will have some structural changes as the chair has announced that he will need to step down so likely to have a notice recruiting an additional commissioner and seeking somebody to step up into that role. So if you're interested, you need at the pool. I met with folks at the senior center during the coffee chat towards the end of May, similar concerns that have already been mentioned. There was additional topics came up about potholes being filled and a lot of questions about the DDI project actually. And just wanting to know how that's progressing as well as the Winooski Bridge of course, lots of interest on those capital projects and some other elements with the downtown circle area but a lot of what has already been shared so I won't repeat that too much. And also upcoming this Wednesday, the 7th is another airport commission meeting. We meet the first Wednesday of the month, 4 p.m. It's online as well as in person at the airport. There will be agenda items to cover noise complaints. That's a standard item on the agenda as well as progress on residential sound insulation phasing. So just hearing updates on that. There's no thing on this upcoming agenda about noise impact mapping and reassessment for this month. But I'll let you know as that progresses. That's all I have. The Inclusion and Belonging Commission is meeting this week. It's going to be Thursday at 6 p.m. That's a virtual meeting, so it's over Zoom. Folks want to attend. Please feel free. We also have two vacancies for regular members and two vacancies for alternates. So if you're interested in engaging with the city in this kind of work, please check those out. They're on the website. And also feel free to reach out to me as well. Thank you. All right. City updates. Yes, so Myers Memorial Pool season is started. We had an incredible opening weekend at the Myers Memorial Pool. Our first 50 past holders enjoyed a special pizza party on Saturday, and our big opening day on Sunday was a huge success. Big thanks to our Public Works team, pool supervisor and lifeguard team who helped get everything ready and operational. Past sales remained strong and were well staffed, so we look forward to greeting returning community members and new visitors. Community members should know we're offering a shorter schedule for now to accommodate lifeguard availability, but will be open for full hours on Saturday, June 17th. For hours, programs, pool passes, scholarship information, and notices, please visit winuski-vt.gov-slash-pool. The Vermont Agency of Transportation will be performing geotechnical investigation work on the Winuski River Bridge beginning Wednesday, June 7th and ending on Sunday, June 11th. Traffic impacts and lane closures are expected. Motorists and pedestrians are asked to use caution when traveling through the area. For details, please visit the news update section of our website at winuski-vt.gov. And speaking of vacancies, we're currently looking for an engaged and dedicated resident to serve on the Winuski Valley Parks District Board of Trustees. The WVPD's mission is to support the preservation of natural areas, establish parks, and provide resource-based education and recreation for the Winuski River Valley. We're also looking to onboard an alternate member of the Chunin-Sala Waste District Board of Commissioners, Winuski Representative. CSWD's mission is to reduce and manage the solid waste generated within Chittin County in an environmentally sound, efficient, effective, and economical manner. In addition, there are current vacancies for our local Winuski Commissions, as you heard inclusion and belonging, as well as finance. Applicants with related experience, skill sets, and interests are encouraged to apply. Council and staff welcome diverse voices. If you've never served, we will do our best to support you. To learn more and apply, please visit the news update section on our website at winuskivt.gov. Thank you. We will move on to regular items. We have the introduction of our new youth interventionist. Yeah, so very excited to be here tonight with our new youth interventionist. As folks know, Francine Bahati has, she's still, she's lingering with us to help transition our new member in, but it's headed off to grad school in the fall. So Nandasanga Vandam, who goes by Vandam, is joining our team as the youth interventionist moving forward about two to three weeks into it. Yeah. Already doing great work. We've transitioned a number of active cases over and starting to look at ways before the school year ends to get some connections with the school and kiddos leading into the summer. But really excited about having Vandam join the team. I want to give him the floor to say a few things about himself, but just really glowing reviews thus far. Thank you. Welcome. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for the introduction. My name is Nandasanga Vandam. I go by Vandam. I was in that culture. We go by our last names. I was originally from Burundi, but I was born in Tanzania. So like Francine, I'm actually, she's from my country too, so our parents are really close. I went to Burlington High School. Right after I went to Custiton and I worked as a behavior interventionist at Baird School, a horror center. Prior to this, I also worked, I had many jobs, but I volunteered for Diverse Rocks. I don't know if you guys ever heard of Diverse Rocks, which was a group done in Burlington started in 2011, all the way to 2018. And yesterday we actually had a like a get-together party for it because a lot of the people were gone. But the whole point of that group was to basically share cultures. There was a bunch of people from Africa from Nepal and Bhutan and India, just Americans, and it was just a group where we shared cultures with traveled to different states and we performed or shared music and food and things in that nature. And if students who were the first ones to go to college, we tend to visit a lot of colleges to just get that exposure of hey, you could go here or if not, you might know somebody who might want to go here. But that was really interesting for me to get involved in that group, especially being the first one to go to college in my family. That was really cool. I also worked as a youth mentor for Building Blacks to Success, which was also in Burlington, but it ended, but the whole point was also to help students just basically help students to who are having a hard time in school or just to mentor them with their homeworks and things like that. And it all started with a friend of mine, Adin Hajji, who worked in Burlington for Pathways, I believe. That's what it's called, the company's called. But he started that because he saw his siblings struggling in school and he brought friends of us together to basically help change that, because we know that going to college for us was really huge success for our parents and also for ourselves because a lot of our parents really never thought about or just didn't have that education or just the experience of higher education and I also worked as a gardener used to for Burlington High School before all of this, before I started working with kids and youth and mentorship and things of that nature. So I've always had an eye for leadership groups and mentorship and youth and just give back basically because a lot of mentors who were really involved in the community so that kind of wrapped up on me to do the same. And now I'm here. I'm psyched about it. Thank you Van Nam. Thanks for sharing that. You sound very on track to be in this role. Thank you. Are there any questions from Kinsen? I look forward to hearing how your experience is. Thank you. I appreciate it. Thank you. Have a good night. Thank you. Or stick around as long as you want. Feel free to leave. Okay. We will move on to... What's that? Oh, I'm sorry. Okay. We will move on to item B. We have a public hearing worn tonight for consideration of chapter 28 fees ordinance update. Let me have Angela, do you want to give a brief overview before I open the hearing? Sure. This has been before council a couple of times now. This is an update to our fees chapter of our ordinance. Any fees charged to the public or services provided by the city either need to be in ordinance or ordinance needs to specify that the fee is set by resolution. We are adjusting the rental registry fee from the previous $100 a year to I believe it's now 115. Adding in some passport fees and cleaning up some language that's been confusing in terms of some fees and adding in a recreational vehicle permit that is within the ordinance to not have a fee specified. Thank you, Angela. At this time I would like to open the public hearing for comments. We do not have any members of the public in the room. If anyone via zoom wishes to ask a question or make a comment, please use the chat or raise hand feature. Hearing no comment. I would like to close the hearing of this public hearing and move us into any questions or comments from council. I have a couple of comments it looks like.  I just want to reiterate that these are these fees are minor in nature and many of them haven't changed in quite a while. For example, the rental registry, Angela, I think that's been almost 10 years if not more. The fee has been the same for a number of years, but we did switch within that 10-year period from having it only build in the year that you're inspected to being built every year. So the fee itself that increases is not changed. The amount, the dollar amount has not changed. The frequency has. So just want to kind of note that these are these are minor and very incremental. So on the off chance that the city has told that we can actually change this within this public ordinance change cycle, I just want to alert the public that it's possible that we'll also be increasing the marriage license fee from the current $60 to $80. If we can't actually legally do that, we'll take it up at a future time. But in case we are just wanted to let folks know about that if there was public comment about that during this round. Right, so you're responding to the note in here that the state law increased the fee but because we haven't written in such a way that it doesn't refer to state law. Correct. We can only charge what's written in our ordinance currently. And unfortunately with the way the state has changed, we would be paying money to the state instead of being able to pay for our service of that if we don't change it. Would it be viable to for council to give direction to update that language and hold a second public hearing before we vote on these changes in order to allow that? I wouldn't want to hold up this set because the public building registry fees we're holding off billing those I see. Already? Yeah, otherwise I would have held back everything if it didn't matter too much. Okay. Thank you for that. Any other questions or comments? I just wonder how many marriage licenses do we issue generally a year because $20 could add up a lot if it is a decent amount. Right, Angela crunched some numbers for us. On average it's 55 to 60 licenses a year but they are concentrated in the summer and fall. We don't issue too too many over the winter. So this is the time where people are starting to come in. So there is if you're able to change it the cycle that we'd have a separate public hearing. Yes, it will it will probably be a little confusing to people while you're reopening the fees ordinance unfortunately but yeah to capture some of what otherwise would be a cost to the city we should open it up pretty soon. Okay. Open it back up. Any other questions or comments? Okay. Having closed the public hearing let's move to item C. This is on for discussion approval adopting this ordinance update given that we just had the discussion. Does someone want to make a motion to approve it? I'm sorry. Do I require a specific motion? Just a motion to approve adoption of the chapter 28 fees ordinance update. So. I'm sorry. Aurora did you move it? And then okay. Brinn. Motion by Brinn second by Thomas. Yeah. All those in favor please say aye. Motion carries. Thank you. Fees adopted. Next item. Eric up to the table. Good evening. I'm here tonight to introduce to you a slate of amendments to the city's unified land use and development regulations. The planning commission has been working diligently over the past many months to prepare these amendments. They held a public hearing on April 27th to take public comments and then additionally followed up on May 11th with a additional comment on the specific language in the parking section, section 412 for additional comments. Following that meeting they voted unanimously to forward the amendments on to city council for your consideration. So tonight this item is on the agenda more as a higher level overview just to introduce this information to you and then we will have a more detailed discussion at a future meeting with the potential for setting a public comment specifically. So to highlight some of the changes that have been proposed there's a lot of red line in here but some of it the bulk of the changes are in section 412 which is related to our parking standards. Many of these amendments are focused on article 4 including sections 411 through 412. We are not doing anything we're not proposing any changes to section 412 sorry 4.4 or section 4.8 right now. The planning commission is working on as the mayor mentioned under the council reports is working on the language in section 4.4 related to design review and section 4.8 is related to natural resources and open space and we didn't propose any changes in that section so those are not included in these amendments. There's also a new section section 5.15 which includes incentives for adaptive reuse. This is in reaction to this is the planning commission's way to start proposing some historic preservation standards while we work through the design review component to build in more specific historic preservation and other design considerations and also section 6.6 in site plan review a lot of the language from section 4.1 and 4.12 has been moved into section 6.6 that's why it's included well the parking section had a lot of standards on parking lots and the design of the parking lots which are more appropriate I think in the site plan review section because it doesn't apply necessarily in all cases it really is more site plan specific so we've moved that information into section 6.6 and then we're also including additional definitions and just cleaning up some of the definitions as well so a lot of the work for these amendments is mostly cleanup and clarification to provide some additional specificity to the sections the most changes and the biggest changes I think are in again as I mentioned in section 4.12 related to parking we've added additional categories of land use to include for the parking standards we've reduced the minimum number of parking spaces in some cases we've added a big section was the addition of requirements for bicycle parking we provided more detail on how to achieve parking reductions through shared use parking public parking transportation demand management strategies and offsite options we've included incentives to further reduce parking through the installation of electric vehicle charging stations that are publicly accessible as well as underground parking and just some other general cleanup for that section I think that's a general high level overview happy to take any questions or provide any additional detail if you all would like but as I mentioned the intent is to get into a more detailed discussion on the specifics at a future meeting. Thank you. When did I start? This is just kind of a reminder we've talked about parking minimums around the number of bedrooms previously is that correctly that was am I remembering correctly last year we reviewed some land use requirements around that? Yeah, that's right and we included incentives to allow for parking reductions for units that were affordable and or had three or more bedrooms in them so that is something that's already included in our regulations in section 5.14 That's what I thought but I wanted to double check. I received a public comment asking about the status of S100 the omnibus housing bill and how that will influence the proposed changes in here. Yeah, I'm glad you brought that up counselor I did want to mention S100 so I think it's it depends I think what we need to do is an analysis of what our minimum requirements look like versus the potential incentives to reduce the parking to see if it will be considered to be aligned with S100 or not with the provisions within there I believe the minimum parking that's allowed under S100 is one space per dwelling unit so right now we have one space per dwelling unit however for our multi-unit development we do however require two spaces per dwelling unit for for developments in our residential districts our residential A, B and C but we do also have some incentives and parking so it may the incentives I don't know how that's going to be looked at in any event we are as I mentioned the planning commission is working right now on the design review standards in section 4.4 and if we need to we can incorporate additional changes in reaction to S100 when we find out more details on that. So it sounds like we're waiting on interpretation I can't tell from the legislative website if that has been signed into law. It has not. Yes? Oh today. I heard this morning that it hasn't been so it's good to know. Thank you for the update. Okay so it sounds like we'll just get some additional interpretation. That's right. Thank you. Any other questions? No, I'll wait until more of Beth's session. And I would say if you have any questions outside of this meeting please feel free to reach out and I'll be happy to collect that information that you know. I think one thing I definitely want I want to suggest kind of as we're reviewing is bringing the equity assessment worksheet for this. Sure. Eric one thing that came up maybe February a couple months ago was as part of the incentives for parking reductions about shared shared lots and there were some outstanding questions I don't recall hearing how the calculations would work out for like mixed used structures where there's this is above commercial below and how shared use versus that multi-family parking requirements would calculations would play into each other. Yes, so we did actually the language that was originally reviewed by the Planning Commission was fairly heavily revised and so that is now included in section 412 D1 it's some additional clarification on how the sharing of uses on the same site would be addressed. There's a lot to review here especially if you haven't been looking at it over the course of several months and then one thing that I just wanted to suggest we keep in mind in addition where I'm glad you raised the equity impact worksheet because we need to think about that these land use regulations are super complex and it's a lot of effort to consider how will these changes potentially impact density or housing priorities and also with incentives are they viable? We spent quite a while revising our priority housing incentives because what was initially put in a bonus story wasn't actually an incentive or appealing to offset housing affordability so just some thoughts to keep in mind during review and I'm glad that we are going to have these for a while because that will give us more time to dig in and think about what sections do you want more clarity on I can imagine we'll need Eric to explain quite a bit. Sure and I'll be happy to do that. Like I mentioned section 412 the parking section is probably where the most changes are being proposed a lot of the other information is cleanup certification so there is some additional language in those sections but the bulk of the changes are coming from the parking living standards. I have a question about the minimum parking for ADUs is it the assumption that the ADU would really only have one dwelling unit? So by definition an ADU can only have one dwelling unit there's a statutory definition for what an ADU is and actually I believe statute outlines that you can only require one parking space. Did the commission discuss eliminating parking for ADUs? I don't know if we specifically discussed ADU parking elimination we did have some discussions on whether or not we should well we had several public comments on related to elimination of minimum parking standards all together based on what's happened in South Burlington and Burlington most recently the planning commission was not comfortable eliminating parking all together mostly because their concern and I don't want to speak for them specifically but the comments that were raised is that right now we don't have enough alternatives as far as other options to single occupancy vehicle or vehicle driving we have bicycle infrastructure we have busses but there's not enough frequency or enough connectivity to really allow people to give up a vehicle so they weren't there yet but I think as some of those other programs come along and get improved we may get closer to either further reducing or potentially eliminating parking for some uses. And since we've there's been I think more interest in conversation about density and encouraging ADUs is there any adjustments forgive me because I'm sure this is all here are there any adjustments to allow for reduced setbacks for ADUs? So right now an accessory dwelling unit we consider to be an accessory structure so the minimum setback is 5 feet right now for the side and rear as opposed to most of the other zoning districts require at least 15 feet for rear yard and I believe 10 feet for side yard great thank you we do have one attendee on zoom so I want to open up to public comment Jean if you have anything please use raise hand or chat any other questions? okay great thank you all very much okay let's move on to item E our strategic vision area goal updates yeah so we've got two updates in your packet one for all meaning that these are items that touch on several if not all the goal areas of economic vitality housing a municipal infrastructure and safe healthy connected people under all I'll just ask if council has any concerns about a sole source contract to the family room for the working community challenges contractor host there's a lot of nouns in a row right there is that a question you want now or yes yeah I'll just give a little context for anyone who's tuning in for the first time on this topic so the working communities challenge is a it's an initiative of the Boston Federal Reserve Bank and the goal is to foster cross-sectoral collaboration to resolve to address challenges that can't be solved by any one sector so in our case it is workforce development access for especially new Americans so this project has been challenging to keep going since our equity director resigned because she had and it was challenging even when she was here because it was basically three jobs that she was doing working communities challenge initiative director actual equity director work which is community late outreach liaison so with this current iteration we're attempting to carve out the working communities challenge initiative director role temporarily just to be served by a short-term contractor that would that would foster a new core team which would really be that cross-sectoral group of folks that would be informing what this money should be spent on even though the city is the lead on the grant it doesn't mean we should dictate what happens because there's a lot of other stakeholders here and their voices are just not enough heard so the strategy now is to hire a short-term contractor to to cultivate that new core team so after a lot of back and forth trying to recruit such core team members ourselves we found that it just it was we wouldn't have enough time to get that to happen so we're thinking of paying someone to do that and the family room is one of the is the only original core team member which still is part of the core team and has very strong relationships within our new American community so that was the logic behind justifying justifying a sole source contract and especially bringing it to council wanted to take this opportunity to ask if there are any concerns with that thank you any concerns I'm interested in knowing how the deliverables will be that we're obligated to will be fulfilled if that's a complete relaying of those responsibilities to the family room and the funds that are available will be sufficient to compensate them for those deliverables yeah that's a fair question I basically I guess that remains to be seen when we floated roughly what we were thinking about paying an initiative director based on what the other initiative directors in Vermont get it seemed like we should have enough room in the budget to produce some results so you asked me Gordon the equity director actually delivered on all of the deliverables that have been committed to already going forward it's like we figure out what the work plan is and then deliver on them there's plenty of room to scope it appropriately and we are including consideration of some overhead costs for the host if it was the family room that's certainly best practice that would come from the general fund I would cover in the working community challenge grant okay so there would be that essentially was what I was trying to frame is there are sufficient funds in the working community challenge grant to cover the cost anticipated costs or would there be additional allocation requests from the general fund I see our plan is certainly to scope it in the working community challenge great I'm not hearing concerns okay very good thank you and then economic volatility in terms of that update any comments generally about the all goal update for economic volatility I know you all are rightly concerned about the language access plan so I'll comment a bit on that so we are making progress on the request for proposals for contracts that the initial two phases that project Paul has been Paul Sarn the communications director has been taking the lead on scoping that and we're thinking of it in terms of a assessment and a policy phase for a contractor and then we would be doing a the the plan itself internally and probably procedures as well Paul is there anything I'm putting you on the spot here but is there anything you'd like to say about that I just sent back the comments to you today no I think you definitely covered most of those those points pretty well I'm liking the idea of doing it in a phased approach phase one all the community engagement putting a language needs assessment together and then phase two sort of looking at internal operational stuff policies procedures and then after having all those deliverables for us to put together the plan I think it's great so looking forward to more being able to report more tangible progress on that shortly do you have a sense for timing of those phases yeah so Paul and I haven't discussed my input on that yet he's drafted it as say August to get the RFP out and then September to get the RFP back or the bids back October through perhaps March to do the work we'll have to see you know this is our first time through so we'll see if that feels like not enough or too much or what is there is it anticipated or is there need let me rephrase what's the plan to coordinate with the school so the there's a couple pieces that Paul built in so the certainly that the school is a source of a lot of information about our multilingual needs in the community or language access teams in the community so that is that piece so we've built in like there needs to be stakeholder engagement at least of these groups and that's the school district is certainly one of them may all be of course the others and the two commissions that are most connected say probably connected inclusion and belonging thank you any other questions on the agenda appreciate the update questions from members of the public okay we'll move on from item E thank you Elaine all right on to item F finalizing our annual city council policy priorities and strategies so we have a bit of a three parter here oh sure okay before we start into item F let's take a five minute recess we will reconvene at the meeting okay it is 703 so I'll reconvene our meeting from great so what we have here tonight is the list of priorities that we aligned on at our May 13th priorities and strategies retreats with leadership team tonight the ask is to adopt this final list but there is space if anyone wants to have further discussion additionally we had a conversation at that meeting about both commission and community engagement I took those notes and created the two attached documents here and I also had a discussion with Elaine about getting some she shared some additional staff input on engagement areas so pending adoption of the final priorities then we can talk about bringing this to commissions and then community engagement stuff so with that let's first look at our priorities and strategies document I'll open the floor if there are any comments before we move to adopt this there definitely was interest from the commission and from the public on seeing what the next plan is and the priorities for the coming year are so looking forward to sharing this out with those groups are we feeling good about advancing what we came to on last month including the including the prioritizations well that's the one question I had are we like when we advance this document are we going to knock off the items that we didn't prioritize I believe yes just so it's cleaner if you need me to rephrase yeah oh yeah so for example like if it didn't garner enough stars no no sorry you agreed before I wanted to add the stuff from the this year's document misinterpretation our indications of where we put our highest priority so ideally everything in here gets moved forward worked on over the course of the year but if push comes to shove those stars tell staff like the one thing we care the most about and also to be clear must do and recommend are still categories on here so we aren't necessarily telling staff that everything in recommended must happen either so there's tears yeah and there's some things that will even though they're recommended they will be they will receive staff support when they're ready so for example the airport noise mitigation that will get staff to support even though it's listed as recommended it's just as that time approaches and as it's appropriate for us to engage with that so I also want to make sure that there's just a little bit of clarity around that yeah I guess one question slash clarification possibly just for the public too is in municipal infrastructure I think there's votes five votes on the city infrastructure financial needs but that's under recommended because it depends if we have the resources correct it's under recommended because it isn't a must do it sounds funny but that's what it is it's very awkward that it isn't a must do but there are resources so planning is really as we can any other questions or comments on this any questions from members of the public so I'll do this separately I would like to get a motion specifically to approve the strategies and priorities so second motion by Thomas second by Charlie all those in favor please say aye motion carries thank you thank you so let's move on to the commission engagement notes so again sort of a two part discussion what we discussed is here in this grid so all of the items from those priorities that we said wanted commission engagement I've represented that here you'll see an italic text recommendations from my conversation with Elaine and so a lot of these are invite for consultation which is sort of we're not exactly sure what that should look like yet but we should keep it on our radar my goal here would be that first if anyone wants to call out an additional like did we miss somewhere where we should be engaging a commission on one of these items and then second the goal would be that each of us take this document meet with our commission chair and staff liaison and have a discussion about that commission's work plan the timing on some of this isn't entirely clear yet and so that may have an impact on meeting schedules but I also think it would be good for the chair and then like we can show this as well with commissions when those work plans are put together like this is all the stuff that's on priority and here's where we see you fitting in they might have ideas about other areas of engagement which could be brought back for consideration I feel like the bike pad master plan should also be offered to the housing commission sorry I'm just looking for the line yeah it's like it's not numbered so it's four fourth window oh thank you yeah does that feel appropriate to you Charlie yeah I I don't see why not Brent is there something specific that you want housing to weigh in on or do you just feel like having our perspective or the perspective of the commission would be I think that being proactive and bringing that plan to the housing commission assuming that the residents are the ones that are most impacted by parking reductions yeah and the status of our roads and streets and the safety of them for use for bicycles and pedestrians that is appropriate to me that we proactively ask for their input so I would say in the sense of what are what are their concerns what's missing would be for me something that I would want to hear back from that great yeah I'm happy to bring that to the chair because I don't know that we will get that impact that input without proactively bringing it to the group I support that I wonder if the possible renovation of the existing fire station if self-healthy connected people should be engaged in that conversation under the guise of their safe portion of their commission work they would fall under safe health they connected but I don't know if it's like more operational if that should be an invite for consultation consider an invite for consultation depending on like ask staff to consider it yeah I'd appreciate that yeah it would be I support having at least one other commission look at it aside from the finance commission and I'm curious why the parks is not proposed to be shared with the municipal infrastructure second to last no one suggested it during the last meeting I think parks are part of the section of the master plan the infrastructure they kind of straddle that same with senior not at all if that's looking at brick and mortar exciting, join me in I mean they might not be as excited as I am about infrastructure but I'm pretty excited about infrastructure are there any other suggested additions or changes no okay I can add I just took notes by hand like a fool I will update this document and send it out I should be able to do this tomorrow so that we can start engaging with chairs I also want to just say thank you for putting this together super helpful alright and then the final piece is the community engagement notes this I just want to make clear so these are some notes from our discussion as well as my conversation with Elaine but I think this is something that is always evolving and that I wouldn't want us to feel like whatever we're suggesting tonight is all we're going to do but if there's anything else that you suggest gets documented right now based on what we know happy to update this as well and I think maybe it goes without saying on here as we're doing community outreach events we can be sharing updates on any of these priorities looks like a good document I don't have anything to add there are some operational things on here and they're called out so I just want to make sure like we're clear about that yeah well Elaine suggested those and wanted to show where there is some like specific outreach plan by staff okay so that we know that we don't have to go out and tell everyone about the new public building registry updates I don't know how many community members really care about the skills matrix I bet we could find one I would be one but I I don't have anything else to add at the moment yeah there's nothing that flagged for me but it's good to know that it's something of a working document yeah yeah and I think you know we have this Google doc with the community engagement this is where we can like put on there here's the topics we're trying to engage people on and sort of keep track of things there I like having this as a reference document there and then other things that are just not that are high public interest but not necessarily included on here the capital improvement projects and other things like that what's happening with the bridge like what's happening with the hotel so I actually perhaps this is this is still within the scope of community engagement discussion so on the Google sheet that we use to track like the groups I have I added a topics list there following the retreat discussion and so all the capital projects are on here and like just cause eviction and some other things that don't show up on here but this is you know we can continue to add items here as we see what people want to hear about are there any other sounds like there's sort of big things that we want to call out right now any questions from members of the public necessarily have to like approve these but I'll take a motion just for the whole item anyone like to make a motion to approve our strategies and priorities and engagement notes with the changes suggested changes second second by charlie all those in favor please say aye aye thank you very excited to have this move forward with alright we are on to item G our pride month resolution so we want to recognize June as pride month here in when you see again thank you councillors for bringing forward a resolution last year we have brought forward this resolution again with a small adjustment to recognize that some segments of society look to legislate and speak harmfully against the LGBTQIA plus community and so the need for education and awareness remains vital another reason why we are adopting this resolution tonight are there any questions concerns text amendments happy that we're doing it again I would like to make a motion to approve so moved second by aurora second by brinn all those in favor please say aye aye motion carries second by mason we'll share that out happy pride alright this brings us to the end of our regular agenda an executive session has been more pursuant to one vsa section 313 which exempts from the public inspections this discussion is regarding a contract I'm looking for a motion to find that we should hold this discussion in executive session to not put the city at risk as we discuss contract terms second motion by thomas second by charlie all those in favor please say aye motion carries now I'm looking for a motion to enter into executive session inviting city manager elaine won anyone else angela and ted although ted is not here yet because he really whipped through this agenda yeah okay and the city assessor ted nelson and angela all motion by charlie second second by aurora all those in favor please say aye motion carries we're going to move into executive session we will only discuss this topic no other business will be discussed we will now be taking any actions this evening and so at the end of executive session we will return solely to adjourn thank you