ulie what would I what should I do what would Julie do in this situation and we know and so because of that it's going to be easy for me to support this I mean so um I will be voting against the motion and in favor of the 16 precincts okay thank you Mr. Diggins and I just want to clarify one point before I move on I'd mention the town bylaws it's actually the town manager act section 33 of the town manager act that states that you have one member per precinct if it's an even number of precincts you then add one at large member if it's an uneven number the way it is now it's one member per precinct and there has been some provisions to add at large members when there is difficulty finding people within a particular precinct but that's that's what would have to be amended on the on the numbers is there is provisions in the bylaws about what the finance committee does but the membership is in the town manager act so just for clarification I'll now turn to mrs. Mahan thank you mr. chair it's quite the in case people are confused um it's do we stay at 21 and first I'll second mr. Hertz motion if it hasn't been seconded we stay at 21 or do we go down to 16 um just the finance committee fiasco or disastrous result um that will come if we did support 16 precincts I'll drop here tonight it's just not to say where the lines are not to say what 16 21 uh 100 I think someone said 100 precincts it's just do we stay 21 and continue to have a discussion or do we just all of a sudden flip to 16 where that decision isn't made by anybody here tonight except for the town clerk the town moderator and the select board administrator and and the maps just recently came out so and in terms of um I know for allington two of our three legislators didn't have any change in the district and representative godly I believe lost one in east allington so um it so we're not really here tonight to that's not what the board can do we can't say well we're accepting 16 and we're accepting these recommendations from the working group because that's beyond what we can vote on so um I guess I'll go on the short end and say I'm in favor of mr. Hertz motion let's see what happens uh down the road once we get out of the pandemic and the other reason I'm just so fearful if we did have 16 precincts everybody here really needs to pay attention to long-range planning yes we got the opera funding which is probably I'm hearing from people who I respect in the allingtons financial genre that that maybe buys us another year but we're looking at a massive override and on top of all the work we have to do through long-range planning through the uh town manager through the school superintendent to really see how we can get that I mean the number that we're talking is three to four times more than we've ever asked us should we go should there be another operating override so I think this is just not the right idea for this time this is not the right time so um as I said I'll be voting for mr. Hertz motion sorry I went on so long but lost in my previous speaker's thoughts all right thank you mr. chair thank you mr. behind mr. helman thank you mr. chair um I have some questions and then I'll share some thoughts one of them is just to confirm um what seems like an eternity to go and when you mr. chair introduced this um and you had some clarification about the timeline um and I apologize for this so do do we need to find deliver a final map by October 30th or do we actually have more time at this point it says so so this is my understanding and this is just based on what happened a week ago and the governor signed the bill into law um so I think the outside date for completing this process is December 15th the the date contained in the act is that the city or town in our case town completes its maps 30 days after the after the legislature determines its map but no event shall that period be go beyond December 15th so um there is a little bit more time given what happened here but but again I think for tonight's purposes we're talking about the number of precincts and then future meetings we'll talk about future meeting or meetings boundaries yeah thank you yeah thanks but anything for me the long view is helpful just even in the context of this decision um another question and this and this um I think goes to history but also kind of to my larger thinking um you know 50 years it goes a long time so it's difficult for us to understand why the precincts were increased to 21 but if I if I recall correctly and again I sorry to put you on the spot Mr. Chair and if do you do I recall that you had unearthed some suggestion that the town meeting had actually driven the process of of going to 21 and not the select board that that that well the select board made the ultimate decision but it was a special town meeting in the in the fall of 1970 that started that process thank you and that was that was under a different statute that was within chapter 43a that that caused that process but that's that's where it began thank you yeah and thank you for indulging the irregularity of quizzing the chair um this is as long as there's no math questions Mr. I'm not sure where this one should land Mr. Chair so I'm going to leave you to discretion as to whether to ask the town council or a member of the working group or the clerk but you know I think I hear a pretty clear expression of intent or at least of invitation to contemplate intent on our part that if we define communities of interest by housing rendering versus owning or by income level that you know that that may we could contemplate though that representation in town meeting you know having effects on policy decisions that town meeting might make regarding to housing other things so I'd want to I guess my question is how sure are we that we would be on safe footing for that to be defensible as um as a purpose should that be questioned and and I you know I don't mean to suggest any doubt in the competence of the professionals that have presented this but I think you know one of the members of the public um raised the point I think it just as a matter of due diligence it would be good to get a sense for where we'd likely to to be on that to make sure that that is you know all right to do yeah I I don't know attorney heim if you have any comments on that or sure so I think it's important to understand a few things both for the board and just the general public that what you're engaged in is a process of trying to account for something that is not a necessarily a super bright line test so there's some very clear things that the select board and only select board has to make sure that our maps comply with and we sort of talked about those very basic criteria but the sort of additional aspect of it that can get a little bit more I don't want to say subjective but involves a more detailed analysis is is it consistent with the constitution is it consistent with the voting rights act of 1965 does it dilute a member of a protected class the general principle is that you know um no equality among citizens exists as long as one vote basically produces more more power in electing members than another vote and so we talk about these things in elections law with respect to packing and fragmentation but the reality is is that it's a little bit unlikely that the ledrc the local election district review commission would um sort of extract one potential purpose from our discussion and afford it you know a disproportionate amount of weight but they're really going to look at first is the maps and the data and see do we have some sort of clear cut pattern that suggests that but members of protected class their voting power is diluted under a map and I want to note something it's important the status quo can be found to have a dilution it doesn't have to be that anybody intended to dilute or pack the intention it can be totally irrelevant to either one of those things and they're primarily going to look at the data first so I don't think that the discussion that you're having tonight for these sort of comments about some of the things that feed into this are going to decide this one way or the other whether you choose 16 or 21 precincts I think that the ledrc is not going to be overly moved by one sort of facet of discussion I hope that's responsive to your question that's really helpful thank you um I think that gives us some some context to understand you know how how this works um I have a follow-up to mr. Dickens questions about the effect on finance committee you know and first I'll say that I'm sensitive to that and I also think that we you know this is a 10-year decision and so I'm trying to balance you know the long long term versus the short term um effects um so but but you know there is there's legitimate concern short-term concern about you know the effect of that group and I guess I'm trying to get in a sense for how long we've talked about so if I understand mr. chair the I think the conclusion of the of yourself and and town council is that as soon as we submit a map or as soon as it's approved um and not the town election in the in the spring that's when the precincts legally change and therefore they find the fincom membership would need to would need to change as well attorney heim if you want to comment on that rather than giving my view on it so I think the operative question would be when do we actually change from 21 precincts to 16 precincts under the town manager act um there is some discussion about how a term expires uh on the 31st of the fiscal year uh following the fiscal year in which member is appointed but I have a tough time reading um and I'm not sure the town manager act contemplates this situation I have a tough time interpreting it however it can be in this maybe for everybody's discourse that we would sort of be able to have residual members of the finance committees for precincts that no longer exist if the precincts don't exist they don't exist and if somebody's not in a precinct anymore that they're supposed to be representing usually if we say somebody's not in a precinct um they're not supposed to be representing that precinct's interest um I don't know that I have a better solution I think that's unfortunate because I know that it's an important matter for everybody's discussion this but unfortunately I don't think there's a convenient way out of that yeah sometimes that's just life yeah thanks um I have a question if has the has the precinct working group determined um in any kind of a way that you're you could comfortably say tonight if the board asked for what you clearly don't want which would be a minimum change or at least change 20-month precinct map um do you know how many of those applying um you know reasonable best practices um how many of those precincts would need to change and how many town meeting members would be talking about that would have to run again um if we try to minimize that yeah the number of precincts has changed I don't think we know specifically I mean if we were um I mean we we haven't drawn that map I mean I think Mr. Seltzer's map um you know balances population and if your goal is to just move the lines um to balance population and disregard the rest of the charge then yeah um the probably I mean I believe it's five six precincts I think Ms. Landema has a something to add yeah if I may also add um I guess it's also a matter of do you how much attention do you want us to pay to the new legislative maps from the state um because those would also factor in and those would also lead to potential change right right that's true and that just happened yesterday or today so yeah yeah good no fair fair points fair points um so here's my thinking and I'm not going to be I'm not trying to be cute here I'm really not sure how I'm going to vote um I want to hear from our last member um but here's here's kind of where I'm at um I suspect we have more precincts than we actually need I think I'm I find it persuasive that we are an outlier um in that regard proportionately to to our neighbors um which isn't to say that we need to be exactly the same as our neighbors but you know from an administrative point of view my gut for this has all along has been that it's normal to resist change because we're we're used to what we're used to and we think you know and and um I'm not insensitive to the the effects and the inconvenience or even the expense or the risks of telling members having to to rerun for their seats especially a lot of them I just don't think that should be our primary consideration you know and I think that's um that's a very fair point I also think the the arguments for efficiency are not trivial um elections and voting is changing it's going to get more complex and for the better um and that's good and you know I think that it's it's easy to say well just kind of the clerk's office needs to do the job and they will great governance in that but you know it's not a great thing to have room for more mistakes when when you could have less room for mistakes because humans make them and when systems are complicated um and I would say this if we if we decide to keep 21 precincts I really hope this board and the finance committee in town meaning is fully committed to funding elections fully in a way that allows the clerk and and her staff to to carry them out and that means getting paying election workers is enough to to attract them and and all the other administrative overhead that's about to come so I would just you know I'm not the person to fire a warning shot but just as a caveat you know I think that we needed thinking ahead um I really don't think that the proposals that are set before us by the clerk and her team are attacking democracy I don't believe that they changed democratic representation or or the the franchise of voters I think they just changed the formula and how we do it it is clearly within the bounds of state law I think describing the process as a farce or the disenfranchisement frankly is an insult to the integrity of the people who have done this work it is fine to disagree with them that is healthy I don't see the benefit and argument at hominem in that regard and I'm not saying everyone who's leveled the charge of disenfranchisement is in hominem um but I think I think Ms. Harvey's right that term is a loaded term in our nation's history and we need to be careful about how we bandy it about um and I understand that you know having reducing the number of terminating members does change reduce the privilege for some terminating members I get that I think we need to consider it um but it's not hacking democracy it's not hacking democracy we can be better than that in our in our civic discussions but this process has been necessarily compressed and that is not anybody's fault the reason I asked my first question is I you know this liquid has the power to make a big change to to to re radically remake the map and we you know no one's suggesting we automatically should just because we can but but I think we need to be careful um and I appreciate a point that was made earlier um that especially in the light of the history of how we change precincts in the first first place that there were some uh some movement by town meeting first and in the circumstances were different the law was different it was a different age different requirements so we don't have to do the same thing we did before but I think there's something to be said for caution about a five-member elected body um radically remaking the legislative districts without some kind of a broader mandate and and that worries me again I'm not sure I'm going to vote in a few minutes um but that's that's my that's my concern um particularly because this timeline has been compressed and that is nobody's fault that's the census bureau and the census data and the pandemic that was just late um but the finalized maps have come out very very recently um and I think that we've there's been a good in the best possible way of building the plane while flying it which is you know what we say now when we're busy but it's really true and I think that the the staff group working on this have done their absolute best to be transparent and to roll out the data and the draft maps while they're working on the final ones and that's that's fine but the result of that is that we've been compressed we haven't had a lot of time there hasn't been a lot of time to bring people along with with some of the equity arguments and that concerns me um because I'm really interested in them um but I'm conscious of the consequences of making a big decision when I'm not sure there are enough people who are there yet um and that that's that's my hesitance um and you know I guess I'll just leave it at that and I'll keep listening to further discussion and I'll figure out how I can invest consciousness make a vote okay thank you mr helmet um yeah so I'll um make a few comments and then I think we may be ready for a vote and I I want to thank the repressing thing working group all throughout this entire process they've worked in good faith they have sought input you can even see in the summary of the feedback it it's it's evenly split on a number of the um responses and they just reported it the way they received it miss brazil and I had a number of discussions we I I was really concerned with process hearing from the public she was too I wanted to give her the opportunity to present the proposal and and and have time for people to think about it and get back to us and I think all throughout this has been a very good discussion for what we consider doing we have to do something because we're at that that 10-year window um back in july I said it was very important to hear from town meeting members because town meeting members run precinct by precinct and and I wanted to hear from them and for me um for the town meeting members that reached out to me for the town meeting members whose comments I saw um I just didn't see an overwhelming sense that a change from from 21 to 16 is is what people what people wanted and that and that's not the only criteria um but I I think we can still look at the map I'm not um in and see what changes can be made for example uh for mass av mass av used to be sacred that one side of it was the even side for for precinct numbers the other side was the odd side I think there are very good arguments to overlap um and and cross mass av for some precincts but for a number of reasons where I am right now given the timing giving the potential difficulties with the legislative maps um I'm going to support mr herds motion for 21 precincts I do want to say something about the finance committee uh while I agree with miss brazil that should not be the primary criteria in deciding what you do 21 to 16 I will say that this year is probably going to be one of the most challenging years that the finance committee faces because as mrs mohan said we are looking at a deficit and there's some difficult decisions that are going to have to be made for the fiscal 23 budget and I think it's it's critical for for that committee to to continue working in the short term as they are and that wouldn't be possible if we went down to 16 and again I look at my experience I was on the finance committee I know that with 21 members you need that because if you change precincts it's not like you choose which ones leave you don't know yeah how that's going to shake out and and um I know there's been turnover on the committee that doing a very good job it's a consideration it's not the primary consideration I said earlier this year that going from 252 to 240 was a concern for me if there were other ways to on the number of precincts that the number actually could go up but to miss harvey's point I do not consider that a disenfranchisement issue and I think it's unfair to to be critical of the proposal on that basis what what the 16 precinct proposal does is it's proportionate by precinct every precinct gets 15 votes and it's in and it's equal across the community it's not in my mind it is not an issue of disenfranchisement so I want to thank the committee for the work they're doing um I just at this point can't um go along with the reduction so I'm going to support the 21 vote the 21 precincts um I see mr. diggins has his hand up did you want to say something further mr. diggins thank you mr. chair I just had one quick question it kind of revolved involves being um fincom being and and what would happen if we went to 16 although I realize that's not going to happen uh uh so let's say we have and this is directed to mr. heim so let's say we we did 16 precincts in the year and we decided we were going to have a special town meeting in february what would what would that happen because you're pretty much saying that people can't represent precincts that no longer exist me so do town meeting members kind of disappear from their precincts when we change precinct numbers if we were to change to 16 it's an excellent question mr. diggins um when you reduce the precinct numbers for town meeting members you have a um natural election cycle so you can kind of say these are the town meeting members um in these precincts for this term if we reduce the number of precincts I honestly would have to give it a little bit more thought as to how you would call a special town meeting between the time in which a precinct map was altered to reduce the number of precincts and the annual town election I'm not prepared right now to tell you exactly how what would happen that's um you know the the fincom issue is a little bit different because it's described in the town manager act exactly how they're appointed and it doesn't contemplate this specific scenario I would imagine that there's probably is some precedent in state law for what happens to a town meeting in these circumstances so I could probably figure it out I'm sorry I don't have the answer up that's fine that's fine thanks thank you thank you mr. diggins um all right any other comments from the board mr. howland just a question um you know I think if I'm counting the votes right I think I think I know what the vote is is likely to be so if we end up with the 21 number now at what point do we need to weigh in and give sort of further direction about what shape that takes because if I understand the options from the working group you know there's a proposal for all new 21 precinct that that does you know changes things around mass avan does some more unequity so what's our process going to be in timing and do we doing that tonight or is that a future meeting I just want to raise that as a task for us um sure yeah that's fine you know no no no no that's that that that that's appropriate so tonight we were going to vote on the number of precincts I was planning on having a subsequent meeting on the 25th but depending on the vote I may have a discussion with miss brazil and members of the working group in terms of timing because there is a little bit more time now and and I think there are comments that board members may want to make in terms of once we select the number of precincts and um you know maybe we can have that on on the 25th and still have a little bit more time because you're right there needs to be some direction as to to what you look at in terms of the um that that the makeup of the precincts and as miss linema said there has to be consideration of the legislative districts as well because we don't want to be in a situation where we're creating sub precincts if we if we if we can avoid that yeah yeah thank you and I think I would just further suggest that um I'm glad that I'm glad that there's some more time because we also need to do all of those things and also make sure that we uh give the public a chance to have enough time to really react to a single final draft map um whatever that looks like to make sure so that they can weigh in and point out anything that we missed and and make their case so um so that's that's all good news so thank you okay thank you mr helmeth so unless there's other comment from the board we do have a motion by mr herd to maintain 21 precincts that was seconded by mr diggins I don't see any hands so I will turn to attorney hind mr herd yes mr diggins no mr helmeth yes mr vahan yes mr jacorsi yes it's a four to one vote okay thank you attorney hind thank you miss brazil thank you miss linema and and thank you miss harvey thank you for your time yep and thank and thank you to the members of the public too we we received a lot of input from people um just as we wanted and and it was helpful as we went through that process and we'll continue to do that as we move forward all right so we are now on to item 11 our per funding presentation by mr chapterling thank you mr chairman let me just get my screen ready to share here all right can you all see the powerpoint presentation yes okay thank you mr chairman so I will try to be very brief and update um on the arbor framework I have made a series of changes based on the feedback provided by the board as well as comments from the public over the course of the past several months I know we're short on time trying to wrap as close to 11 tonight so I'll run through this fairly quickly and then obviously very happy to engage with the board and members of the public on this topic so a quick refresher we've been talking about this publicly since the start of august we're here tonight to provide an update on this framework and solicit further select board review and comment with a hope that we can come back just about our little less than two weeks from now on october 25th to pursue select board endorsement on the framework so if I if I can I'll dive dive right in I just want to move my little screen so I can see everything here I'm just going to quickly go line by line since the last time the board saw this I have slightly reduced the amounts that are currently recommended to be allocated in the first category of revenue loss and general fund and I did that really for twofold reasons one to try to get closer to what our projections are we're constantly updating our projections on what might be able to be attributed to a revenue loss that could benefit the general fund as well as using it to match up with what might be realistic while also trying to meet some of the requests and demands of funding funding other areas of this framework so I've reduced year one had been at a million brought that down to 500,000 years two and three had been two million and brought that down to 1.5 million as you see there public health remains the same as it had been in the prior iteration of this plan premium pay which I fully heard and understood to be a matter of priority for multiple members of the board at the last meeting I increased from what had been 1.5 million to 3.247893 I know that's a very specific number and that is because I increased it using both monies from the revenue loss general fund category as well as the entire reserve so the premium pay number really became the balancing number to balance out with the total ARPA allocation again I want to reiterate I heard board members loud and clear about the desire to fairly treat our frontline workers and those who reported in course of the pandemic and the need to maximize the amount of benefit that we can provide to them I was asked to have staff run an analysis of an or an estimate of how many workers would be eligible our estimate is that a total of approximately 300 town workers would be eligible to receive premium pay per the statute or per the interim final rule not every one of those 300 employees would be eligible for the entire benefit we would want to approach it from a pro-rated basis based on how many either days or likely months you reported in person over the duration of the pandemic so though it's 300 just being frank there are employees who did a lot of in-person work but not as much as police and fire so we would want to handle that accordingly as we went into negotiations our analysis also suggests that teachers should be considered given consideration and considered eligible under this category again not working in person as much as other town employees we would want to approach that from a pro-rated basis as well my goal with this figure is to work with every bargaining unit we have intensively begun bargaining with one unit the AFSCME bargaining unit and are in contact with the other bargaining units that we have not met to begin yet with a goal of having both collective bargaining agreements ready for town meeting for ratification in the spring as well as having as part of those agreements an ability to pay excuse me premium pay before town meeting in the spring so again I want to reiterate this being me hearing the board loud and clear as this being a top priority and something we will actively be working on in trying to come to terms with all of our bargaining units to make happen as soon as possible moving down from there I've added an equity and outreach line this being specifically responsive to feedback I've heard from the community under this line I would be proposing that we would seek out the provision of translation services for many of our documents and programmatic related documents in town as well as enhancing community outreach efforts in the rollout of this plan and other town services deeper proposal around these efforts will be developed but I wanted to put this in here for the board's consideration and comment I've changed the name of the next category it had been listed as mental health but I changed it to behavioral health to tie directly to the language that's contained within the interim final rule though at this point I haven't changed any numbers in in this category I do plan on having a deeper a deeper conversation with Christine Bondrono about whether or not any more resources should be considered here and if that is the case I'll bring that forward the next time I come to the board below that low income broadband support has not been changed since the last time we spoke there is still question about whether or not communities that are already served with any form of broadband will be eligible we're still continuing to work through that and learn more but for the time being keeping this category here small business assistants and tenant assistants have been kept the same as the last time we came together no changes have been proposed there in terms of that funding the next category I've changed the name again instead of addressing food insecurity I've changed the title to providing food security to match up with current current language or use of language around addressing issues of food security with residents as you can see the numbers have not changed in this particular category however I do plan over the course of the next week and a half to work more closely with FoodLink as well as Arlington Eats to make sure that we're planning an allocation that is both fair and meeting the needs of these organizations as they work to meet the food needs of Arlington residents so moving on to the next half of the framework in HVAC improvements that number has not changed I don't yet have a more refined scope of exactly what that work would look like but that's something that we're working towards investment in parks and open spaces again that number has not changed and I do hope actually by the next meeting to have something more refined from parks and recreation to be able to propose to the board for some potential initial investments out of this category water sewer spending has been slightly reduced from the last time I was before you in order to both provide more money to premium pay as well as increase some of the funding that's being proposed in affordable housing moving down to affordable housing in these categories there has been really two changes here increasing in years two and three the amount in the affordable housing unit production from 1.25 million to 1.75 million thereby increasing the total allocation proposed in affordable housing by one million dollars and at this point making it currently overall the largest standalone category within this ARPA framework below that you see the homelessness category that has not been changed since the last time I presented to the board and administration and oversight has been kept the same that has also not changed since the last time that was presented to the board I mentioned earlier that I eliminated the reserve line that had been in the prior iteration of the plan again primarily using that to increase the amount of premium pay that's being allocated or recommended to be allocated within this plan moving on from there at the last meeting it was also requested by the board to provide a categorization of the proposed framework and its expenditures by the sections within the statute so I've broken this down into as you can see supporting public health expenditures addressing that cannot negative economic impacts caused by the public health emergency and aid to the communities and populations harvested by the crisis providing premium pay for essential workers investing in water sewer and broadband infrastructure so you can see the totals across the bottom as well as the percentage of totals within each category and speaking of the board member today I did mention this was a very helpful exercise for us to really cross reference what we were including in the plan by the statutory reference and helping us really ground our basis for proposing these expenditures in the statute and in the interim final rule I will note in those categories the administration and oversight is not included as though that is allowed by expenditure it's not one of these it's not contained within one of these main categories so if you were doing an active total on the bottom you would be off by that amount of administration and oversight next wanted to provide just another look at how the spending or the recommended spending is breaking down you can see significant investments in affordable housing water and sewer spending investment in parks and open spaces and premium pay and then as you can see the numbers start to go down from there at least in terms of percentage but I think it also demonstrates the the width and breadth of what we're trying to take on in the investments that we're trying to make in the community so again we're here tonight to solicit further board review and comment hoping to come back 12 days from now to pursue select board endorsement and I think the only further thing I'd say before engaging with the board is that I think as the board has seen there are aspects of this framework that are needed through the backup memorandum provided by town staff and there are some pieces of it that still need a lot of work to build out what the actual expenditures in the category would be and when we come back on the 25th I think in areas specifically like the public health assistance so the public health expenditures as proposed by Christine Bajorno for the small business assistance and tenant assistance programs as proposed by Jenny Rae I would like endorsement to move forward with those as soon as possible in 25th whereas comparatively things like the affordable housing or even water and sewer to some degree and parks and recreation I'd like endorsement to move forward with allocations in the amount or near the amount is what's being proposed with an understanding that the detailed investments are yet to come and will be brought back before the board when they're prepared for consideration so with that I will stop the share of the screen for now and happy to discuss any of this with the board. Great thank you Mr. Chapter Lane and I will start this evening on this one with Mr. Diggins. Sure thank you Mr. Chair you know so is it appropriate to move acceptance of this report from the manager okay you know I don't want to do unnecessary motions so it's not necessary it's by you know so Mr. Manager you know I like very much what I see and there is a former select board member who often says being our budget reflects our values mean every time and I hear that I feel that that's really true and I think the changes that you made mean certainly reflecting our values mean and also reflects to me the the spirit of cooperation and out of compromise is the right word and the solutions for getting closer to what we really want to do as a community so what I like is that me from the revenues me came me some funds me to increase in premium pay and to increase housing because I think as a community I mean we should do that and so the community as a whole is supporting me providing more pay more premium pay and supporting more housing so I am very supportive of that and I guess I have a question and that is we can only give premium pay to employees of the town. The statute would actually allow for premium pay for private sector employees as well. Okay all right so so for instance mean if we have grocery store workers at our local grocery stores have we is that something that we're contemplating in this? I have not today contemplated that for recommendation I've considered it in discussion I think the statute certainly allows for it however I think I do have very I think I want to measure my words right that serious concerns about the administrative undertaking that would require and managing a program like that right and managing it in an equitable manner right so so I that's those are my thoughts today it's not currently contemplated in the plan that was presented tonight though it is allowed under the statute. Yeah I understand that you know and so I mean let me put some brain power into that and maybe see what other places are doing and for that because those sort of folks mean that could use me to help the most mean in fact as I read through in a report I mean it's really about being helping the people who are very low who get very low income mean and and as you know the limit is 150 percent mean of what they would make mean and so I would like to see us max out mean on the very low income people the most mean and so so yeah I understand the administrative challenge mean and and you know I'll see what I can do without adding to your workload by talking to you more so so so that's all I have thank you thank you thank you Mr. Diggins. Mr. Helen. Thank you and very well said Mr. Diggins about quoting the the former member and about budget and values those words ring in my in my ears as well and I really liked seeing the pie chart because that's a really a really good way to focus our attention on that construct so thanks to you Mr. Diggins and thanks to Mr. Chaplin for for making it and thank you also Adam for for being so responsive to the board and to the community I'm liking what I'm seeing with this I appreciate the added investments in in housing and in premium pay and I think it all it's good and I completely understand that you know by by necessity we need to kind of come to an agreement on the categories but understand that the specifics necessarily need to work be worked out over time both under the statute and under what we can you know manage administratively the one request I would make would be if if because food security is so important that if you could just take another pass to make sure that we are meeting the needs of our organizations in Arlington that are providing food security and and you know I value the work of Food Link in Arlington eats a lot they are wonderful organizations but I know that eats went particularly had a very modest request and you know I appreciate that but you know this is an opportunity and the need is great and the need is is probably going to keep growing so if you could just take another look and make sure that we're taking care of those folks um and their ability to serve the community for the long run um and both for both organizations that'd be great happy to do that yeah thank you that's all I have to share thank you Mr. Helmuth Mrs. Mahan excuse me um if I could I don't think there's been a second yet or has there I forgot sorry that's okay I'm the next person you can do it too I would just ask my colleague Mr. Diggins if you take a friendly amendment and have his motion be move receipt versus acceptance because some things are probably usually the votes on move receipt move no action move approval and receipt means we're receiving the report except for me I couldn't really vote for this is a few categories I don't accept Ms. Mahan not only do I accept it as a friendly amendment I accept it as an education as part of the educational process thank you okay um thank you Mr. Diggins just try to make a few comments I want to thank the manager um for uh continue to work work on this and um indicate um there's a work in action uh when I first saw that there was vote requested by the manager on October 25th I was like no way because um I'm still but but the manager has clarified it's just certain um categories and because my brain is scrambled egg rise right now if I could ask the manager and or through the chair just to shoot an email out tomorrow I know we get the information about next week about the 25th meeting but if you could just send out what you said at the beginning about what you would be asking for on the 25th you're not asking for all the categories I would appreciate that um and then I'm gonna talk about uh premium pay for essential workers those are workers who had to come to work that this money is for frontline essential workers not anybody who worked at home so I'm going to be very upset if I hear consultants uh get this pay um and it's for the years 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 um and perhaps even into 2024 depending on how you do the fiscal year so um when the pandemic first hit and when the president talks about the American Relief Act his top three things he speaks about premium pay for essential workers is either the first or second thing he consistently talks about number three changes dependent on the audience now I still think and the other thing is when I saw October 25th the reason why I was upset was I know you still haven't reached out to police and fire um and you're representing to the board I've reached out to them your administrative assistant hasn't contacted them you haven't contacted email text walkie talkie anything I don't know what contact you're talking about with all due respect if it's you saw them in a way that doesn't count I really want you to make more of an effort to set up those meetings only because you've we've had this conversation you and I since July um and I just don't see it happening and I you know um so leave it at that now in terms of the figure that you have put aside I spoke to three town leaders who have knowledge um with employees town finances and I said if we truly did the essential workers please fire public works and if I'm missing anything else in there you know not M schedule not consultants not anybody who worked at home you're not an essential worker I don't know how you read that if you go by I know the manager references you know and this is the statutory statutory reference yeah there's a reference in the US Treasury Department of how you can allocate funds uh for premium pay for essential workers and the uh allocation in there when I sent to my colleagues last week and I thank Mr. Herd for you know I'm I'm hoping that at least one or two three more of my colleagues will agree with me on it I said if I think they deserve the max and I'm going to say that um because the town manager makes this decision I'm one of five who can express her opinion from the three people I spoke to off the record I said I'm not going to quote you they said it would be about five million if we wanted to all these please fire public works people you know couldn't put the banner up put the pieces of wood can't figure out half the decals it's kind of insulting um I I was told that we did premium pay which is allowed by the law basically what the federal government is saying if you want to pay your essential workers of the max because you feel like they did the max maybe even more if you want to give them an aid you give them the max I was told five million the manager said seven million so I'll take the manager seven million I don't think it's even close I think I stand by the five million so if you go by we can give them five million if you want to give them an aid the max allowed by law and that's seven million if we want to give them an F because they didn't really do that but we give them 25 1.9 million if we want to give them well you know what you're okay you're like a c-minus your average we can give them 50 percent of what we could give them if we felt we wanted to give them the max premium pay because they earned it that would be 3.5 million so right now we're giving the town employees our essential workers we all care about so much and thank gosh for them and we can't thank them enough yes this is how you thank them enough so we're not even we've probably given them like a c-minus we're not even half 50 percent is 3.625 sorry now if we want to give them you know a b-minus b you know you did you did good you're okay we can give them 75 percent of what the manager says is seven million I'm I firmly believe it's five million close to five but I'm trying to use his number against him so if we want to say you know what you're a little more than average you're pretty good we're going to give you 75 percent of the money that we could give you that's 5.125 or if we wanted to do the max we could give them seven so I say that just to say that to my colleagues we have time to digest it because we're not voting on this asset I've done the 25th I'm going to tell you and I would ask the manager to get back an approximate number it's not what he said was five to seven million kind of scare you here in a bigger number in my opinion it's closer to five and then you look at that number and really state your conscience and my thing is I'm going to advocate for whatever group I was in with Karen Malloy advocating for non-union employees management who are working from home who other people had an issue with and I defended them to the get-go because we can work from home I've been doing it but I don't know why when we keep saying all we wanted to do can and we could never thank you enough here's a way you can thank them enough I think yeah give them the max not a statutory reference allows you to give them less I think it's close to the five and again I would beg the town manager I don't want to keep having this conversation and I have this conversation offline too I haven't on the phone have you met with them yet I'm reaching out they've been contacted no they haven't a contact is you or your administrative assistant I apologize to mrs. de francisco if that's not her title sends out a google thing or you make a I don't know how you contact the unions because I don't get well I really don't so I don't know if it's a phone call but there's no reason why you've been saying you're going to do it since July and here we are in October so and I did send to email conversation with the manager and the chair when I saw that the apra funding deadline had been extended to January so we still have more time to talk about these important issues and on everything else under the American relief act I'm going to let my colleagues speak to that but I just can't let this go by for the town employees that to me they should be as the president did the top three considerations so but to me it's still an insult that we're not even at the manager's number of full seven million we're not even at 50% of what we could give them I think they're worth a lot more than 50% I think they're worth 100 but so um those are my comments thank you thank you mrs. behind mr. herd always a tough act to follow I do so I do appreciate the presentation um I do definitely appreciate the increase that we've seen from the 1.5 to the 3.2 I think it's a little closer to where we should be um where I come with premium pay is that it's a one-shot deal because we can only do it all on the first year we have a number of categories that we can continue to reallocate in year two or three and on whereas premium pay we make one decision and that's it so I would like to see I'd also like to see some more I mean I'm not gonna go in set I think we need to have a specific number um the number that I always had in my head was four million which I think we're closer to that I mean I don't think and it's something that we can talk about in the next couple weeks before we make the decision I know that's below what mrs. Mahan is proposing and it's certainly not because I think our police and fire are doing a b-minus and I don't I don't say that to throw them back I knew mrs. Mahan it's just that's the number that I had thought that would be in to in my understanding is that what we're looking at when we put a number there is like a credit card that's your credit limit then that's what we've allocated to premium pay then we have to go in and do the breakdown and negotiate with the unions and see who who qualifies and who gets and what percentage they get based on the percentage of time that they spent in the office remote but again we can continue to talk about that number but in my head when we initially had looked at that at 1.5 and looking at the other breakdowns I had come up with four million and I think that's a good place to start the negotiations and then again we can the problem when you have a chart like this is you're shifting funds from one place to another but if we take it from a year two category there's going to be some categories in year one that were unexpended they carry over and so I anticipate in year two there'll be some shifting regardless of what we do with premium pay and then we'll have our final guidance on whether or not we can even use opera funds for revenue offsets but I say my comments are I think we're moving in the right direction on premium pay but I think we should allocate some more to that particular category again just because it's a one-shot deal and we we want to make sure that we have enough allocated there in year one whereas if we go in peel back the onion and see that there's going to be a higher expenditure than we anticipated more people are included and and I just want to make sure that we have the ability to address that and fully compensate our essential workers particularly police fire and DPW for the work that they did in person during the pandemic at great risk to themselves which we've covered in the last meeting and we don't need to go go over again but that's the one item that I think that we can do a little work on and not to not that I want to take away funds from any of these incredibly important causes because we want to be able to support all of the values that we have in in the city in our town and we're doing so with the breakdown I think we can do some work on that one item thank you thank you Mr. Chair thank you Mr. Hurd and and while I'm happy to see that the amount has been increased on premium pay I like the approach Mr. Hurd just referenced in terms of having an amount having a discussion and as we said with some exceptions that that particular earmarks these amounts are going to change over time and to me the most important thing to take place is the conversations between the town manager and the various unions and I know I'm not going to get into a definition of what contact was or what happened I know there's been some sort of outreach and I don't know the specifics of it but I think it's really important to have those discussions because the discussions need to take place between the manager who who conducts our bargaining with the unions and the union representatives and people have asked me about it and they said that's the discussion that needs to take place with the manager I think it's appropriate to have the range that Mr. Hurd spoke about I also want to say to one point Mrs. Mahan made without question the definition of essential worker does not include someone who performed telework it is performed from a residence it's there's a very specific definition of what the essential worker is and I think we have our arms around we have our arms around that and it clearly does not include somebody who's working part-time from from home or or has it has worked from home that's not what this provision is all about there are the things that we mentioned at the last meeting in terms of some definitional references that I still think need to be nailed down and Mr. Chapter Lane mentioned earlier there are other categories of workers even if we're just within the town namely teachers are a category that that would qualify for premium pay albeit not to the same degree as as police and fire for example who are out there every day but if they're there is a they qualify and so it's I think that's something that's you know maybe it needs to be looked at you raised it earlier Mr. Chapter Lane but I think the most important thing I can say to you is let's have that I love to see have those discussions and and and you know see see where it comes out of it and and because that's what we've been telling people that that those discussions need to take place as far as the other categories are concerned I think there are some things that when we come back on the 25th one thing that that comes to mind is small business assistants we had a meeting with the the chamber and one of the things that was mentioned is for these small businesses that really need the help now if we can release some funds that may allow them to continue on and so I think we look to release that earlier rather than later there's other categories that I think we need flexibility in such as the affordable housing category water and sewer and the investment in parks and open space there are things there are needs there are perhaps opportunities that are going to arise in the future maybe even in the near future that that we can use those funds and we need to to maybe try to be flexible on that but overall I appreciate you parsing this out and and having the different categories I think you've heard us further on on premium pay and in particular the other thing I would say to the board and to the public is the four categories that the manager had that he laid out for various spending the state has five point three billion dollars worth of opera funds they have the same four categories so I think there needs to be some coordination too as we go forward what needs perhaps as a state taking care of that need maybe we reallocate or or take a look at and we're not going to have all the answers on that but it's it's the same categories the state and local governments in terms of what they can spend things on so I think it's appropriate to receive the report now you've gotten feedback and I think to the extent that you can identify specific things at the next meeting that you'd like us to to approve for specific spending priorities in the short term I think that would be helpful just to to start releasing those funds and then also to repeat it again just to to have that important dialogue that we refer to um is there anything that you'd like to say Mr. Chaplain in in response to our comments yes thank you Mr. Chairman um I think the primary thing I would say is I would like and I think I can draft a narrative vote for the board's consideration that would make clear what I'm asking for endorsement to move forward with an implement versus what I'm asking for endorsement to do further work on uh to come back and propose for implementation so I can think I can keep the spreadsheet as it is with with changes in iterations to come and then draft a narrative um a narrative vote for the board's consideration and and again I continue to hear um you know the majority of the board asking for a further look at premium pay and and without directly responding um to board members comments I would say I I I am I am committed to it still the only municipality that's receiving our funds to be even looking at it and I feel I feel good and I feel I feel that I'm I'm handling this in good faith with due respect um to our hardworking union members and thank you Mr. Chairman um I had said previously that we were going to have comment on this it's 1105 now I I I think what I would propose there are a few hands up I what I'm going to propose that we do we're not going to take a full vote tonight on this other than to receive it um I will put this on early in the agenda on the 25th um and we will allow public comment at that time I I just think we're we're past the time that we're going to run our meeting and I would say to those people who wish to be heard um if you want to reach out to us directly in between meetings please do that I I know one of the hands up I had a exchange with today so I'm happy to have that type of conversation but I think given the hour um I don't think it's fair to the board members at this point especially where we're not voting to endorse anything in particular so I want to apologize I did say we'd have public comment but I think given the hour we do that at the beginning of the next meeting and unless there's any objections by board members that's the way I'd like to go tonight okay all right so um so with that we have a motion to receive Mr. Chapter Lane's report that was by Mr. Diggins with a second by Mrs. Mahan uh Attorney Han. Mr. Hurd. Yes. Mr. Diggins. Yes. Mr. Helman. Yes. Mrs. Mahan. Yes. Mr. Corsi. Yes. It's now in the spoke. Thank you um and the last item tonight is is new business Attorney Han. No new business. Uh Mr. Chapter Lane. Given the hour no new business. Okay Mr. Helman. Given the hour no new business. Mr. Diggins. Negative. Mr. Hurd. I wouldn't remember if I had it. Mrs. Mahan. My own sake I can wait. Okay um I I just have five things so I'm just kidding um I don't have anything either so I will uh take a motion to adjourn. So moved. Second. Second. Okay great okay a motion by Mr. Helmuth seconded by Mr. Hurd. Attorney Han. Mr. Hurd. Yes. Mr. Diggins. Yes. Mr. Helman. Yes. Mrs. Mahan. Yes and have a good night everyone. Mr. Corsi. Yes. It's now in the spoke. Okay thank you everyone. Good meeting. Bye-bye everybody. Thank you.


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Hi everybody, it's Mayor Betsy back with you tonight for our Facebook live. Remember yesterday we reminded you that we were taping these a little earlier and then go on at six so that we don't step on the president's toes. His briefings are now at four thirty. I'm going to talk a little bit today about council actions that we're going to take on the declaration but before I do that I want to update you with some numbers just as we've been doing. Our Tarrant County numbers are not in yet but I do have Fort Worth numbers. We have a hundred and ninety five cases today that's up from a hundred and sixty seven yesterday and we have seven total deaths and unfortunately that's two more overnight. Our hearts go out to their families. Per CDC guidelines Fort Worth and Tarrant County are now at substantial community spread and once again that means that the source of transmission is unknown.  So today I want to take a chance to talk to you a little bit about what City Council did and the action that they took in a two o'clock virtual meeting. We voted to extend the stay at home order to April 30th. The new declaration is clearly in line now with the governor's directive to April 30th. We had amended it but we have to officially adopt it. There are updates that bring us closer in line to the governor's order and to the county's order. Since substantial has changed but we confirmed the April 30th data. Please if you have questions about whether your business can be open or not, direct them to the governor's website, the Texas Department of Emergency Management, list essential businesses and you can apply to be essential business or not. Know also that we're working hard on your behalf. Every day we talk to the governor staff or the governor to the White House and their staff, to our friends at HUD, to Health and Human Services, along with the county we are partnered up and twice a week we have a call with all the local mayors so that we're all on the same page. Everybody is working hard to ensure that Fort Worth and Tarrant County slow the spread of COVID-19. If you haven't had a chance to take a look at Tarrant County's website for all the data, please do. It's really robust and interesting. Go to TarrantCounty.com and you can find it. It's a snapshot of where we are now and where we're going. The hard part is behind us but it's not behind us but we know there's more to come and it'll be difficult. But I'm confident that with your help we will get this right. Easter is one of the busiest days of the year and it's this Sunday. Passover begins tomorrow night for our Jewish friends and it's a time of family and friends.  Small limits on the parks. The parks will be, the parking lots at the parks will be closed for Easter weekend. You can go to the park but you have to practice social distancing and you'll have to walk or ride your bikes to use them. It's a difficult time but we simply can't have everybody congregating for Easter egg hunts. Do your Easter egg hunts at home. There's nothing more fun than turning the kids loose in your own yard or in your house if it's raining. We'll get through this. JEOC is working hard. I couldn't be more proud of city staff and where they are right now. Thank you all for playing such a vital role in helping us whip COVID-19. Remember, y'all stay safe, y'all stay healthy and y'all stay home.


And he used to say, Oh Allah, did you not promise me that you would not punish them? We're out of fee him and I am amongst them. Oh Allah, did you not promise me that you would not punish them? We'll only start feeling and they're seeking forgiveness. And this is why one of our early Muslims, our predecessor said, We had two guarantees against the punishment of Allah. One of them was the physical presence of the Prophet Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam amongst us. And the other was saying, I start feeling Allah. The others just didn't fall. And we have lost that one outwardly, the first one. Not to say that the Prophet's not amongst us in a figurative or in a broader meaning, but physically the Prophet asked, Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, So he said, What? So you better do a lot of this to go forward.


What we're going to do is talk about AI technologies that you can actually use. Yes? Good? Not DNA. We're switching. We're not talking about healthcare anymore. This is actually closer to what I love to do, is to make stuff. Okay, so here we go. We're going to make stuff. First thing we're going to do, we're going to go to QuickDraw. QuickDraw.withgoogle.com. QuickDraw.withgoogle.com. I'm going to show it to you. And then we'll play together, okay? Yes. Talk. This is, we can talk together. QuickDraw.withgoogle.com. It should look like this. Any questions? Can you guys get to it? Give me a thumbs up or something so I know you got it. Alright, great. Okay, so what we're going to do, we're going to click the yellow rectangle. Have you guys done this before? Have you seen it? Some of you. Great. Okay. If you haven't played before, you will not be sad to play again. It's fun. If you like Pictionary. Okay, we're going to draw six pictures and then we're going to wait on the screen together. I'm going to draw a peanut apparently.  Use your site. Oh, I have no clue what you're drawing. Okay, you should be on this well drawn screen. You guys get there. Thumbs up for me when you have drawn. Thank you. I have two, three. Thumbs up. Thank you. Okay, so here we are. We have drawn six pictures. We gave Google some information. We did give Google some information here. What did we give Google? Yeah, our own Googles. How do we draw? I drew this one in particular. Who do you know what that is? You can tell it's a bird? Yeah, okay. So Google, when it gathers this data, you can click on it and see if you got a word that was wrong. And you can see, I thought I was drawing a mouse, maybe a seed boat or the Great Wall of China. Whoa. I thought my drawings looked more like those things than my bird. There's not a human mind happening here, right? This is a different thing. But I'll show you why it didn't recognize that. If you're on this well drawn screen, there's a word that says data that you can click on right in the middle. So if you can find that data word, it shows you the 50 million drawings that people have given it for free. And you can see all of them. So if you click bat or bathtub or bear, I personally am going to choose butterfly. It's one of my favorites. What is it at now? 114,000 butterfly drawings that people have given to Google for free so that they can learn what a butterfly looks like when someone draws it in 20 seconds or less. The important thing here though is, do you see that when I mouse over one and you can pick something else if you like something else? It's actually showing the way that people draw it. So even though my bird ended up looking like a bird that you guys didn't have at most people draw it, that's why Google couldn't recognize it in the end. Because this data set is not about the final picture. It's about the initial shapes that people use in order to make a drawing. So this butterfly, people are either going to start with a long skinny oval. People usually point it up when they say almost all point up. And some oddly shaped B letter and reflection sizes. So you can see that they either start with the long oval or they start with that backward curved thing. And mostly from people who grow up writing English, we draw from the left because that's where we start our letters in the top left corner. So that pattern is what makes a butterfly to Google, not the final image. You understand the data is actually the way that you draw it. So we have given Google all this data and now it knows what human sketches look like. And then, let's go back to the slide. Not that one. We can close that one. Here we go. This one. We're going to go to autodraw.autodraw.com. You get to go there too, autodraw.com. This is a product that Google developed from your free data that you gave away to it. That is what happens with AI. We give it data and it learns. So I'm going to type in autodraw. Here I have a blank piece of paper and the tool that I want to use is this black magic pen here.  I think I'm drawing an ear. And then by the time I get to the two big shapes, I have a list of items at the top. And now I click and I have a clip art maker. So Google turned this data set into a product. And I can click on this shape and I can resize it. I can make it bigger. I can change its color. And all of a sudden I am an artist. I can totally draw. There's a little bit of a problem with this data set though. Let me give my magic pen again. As far as I know, this is my sad attempt at a horse. Sorry, horse people. It looks like I've got some dinosaurs up here. There's a camel. There's a horse. So even though I did a really bad drawing, it knew that other people draw equally bad horses. But there's no unicorn. Which is really interesting to me that there is no unicorn. However, let me get my magic pen back. There is a dragon. Three dragons in fact. So I think Autodraw is a really great example of a data set that is perhaps designed or developed more for the male typical presenting gender. There are more options for things that boys like in this database, typically, than girls. And there's no reason for this to be true except that the people who created this program didn't think about unicorns, but they did think about dragons. But Autodraw is learning. So there's a hamburger menu on the left and you can see, there's some options here. You can read about the program, which is nice how it works. But you can also see the artists. And the nice thing is that you have power and agency to choose, let us know, and to tell them what you want. So if you are a girl that would like to see more girl products in this program, tell them what you want. If you are an artist and you want to submit your own drawings, you too can participate in the development of Autodraw. So I like that because it's not a closed system. It's not like you're using some art program that you don't have options. Autodraw is ready for you to help with it. Okay, anybody draw anything cool with Autodraw? Autodraw.com? Did you guys make anything? Did you draw? Okay, well at least you could see it, I guess. Okay, let's go back up here. Autodraw. Yeah. Okay, Pinscreen.com, if you have an Apple phone, this is more fun for you. You can go to the Apple store and you take a selfie, a single selfie of your face. And it makes a 3D avatar. Sorry, my friend. Oh, look for the Google logo if there. Pinscreen.com, we're going to go over there. Pinscreen.com. This is an avatar made from a single selfie. And so you can use these style them however you want and you can watch a video of it. Which I think is pretty cool. So this technology, one thing that's really cool about it is that UNC Chapel Hill did some of this first work in the computer science department. They were creating avatars and they do full body stands from something that's either a tablet or a laptop. They're using very low power and they capture your full image. So like I would want to be able to find so that when you move into virtual spaces, you have an avatar that's a lot like you. Sorry. Okay, you get the idea? That's Justin Bieber there. You guys use Snapchat, just where we put a filter on it. It was like a huge breakthrough in AI. And so this is just sort of an extension of that. Just being able to transform your face. Alright, got the idea. Let's do something else. Crowdsource.google.com. Crowdsource.google.com. We're going to spend a few minutes here. One thing that AI does really, really well is label an image search for... Hey, sorry Zoom people. Sorry Zoom people. So here we are at crowdsource.google.com.  It's corn. How do we get a six-year-old into the mix and not just some corn, right? So let's go to crowdsource.google.com. Oh, I feel bad about my Zoom friends. Okay, crowdsource.google.com. You'll see this is a website that Google uses in order to learn how to label images. So we're going to choose image label verification. And I used to use swimming all the time. But guess what? Google got all the information it needed from swimming. So we don't need to do that category anymore. Yeah. Hello. Oh dear. Sorry Zoom people. We're 14 times. Okay. I didn't turn it off. It was not me. We're okay. Okay. Image label verification. We are going to choose... Oh, let's see. Let's do cats. You guys want to do cats? Everybody loves cats. Oh, cats that are done. That's because everybody loves cats. They should take those off. Let's try another one. Okay. Image verification. Okay. Let's do chairs. Certainly no one did chair. Is this a chair? My friends is a hot dog. So I'm going to choose no. You can play on your own. You're going to get different images. You don't have to use mine. Okay. Does this image contain a chair? Is that a chair or a couch? Oh. But I have to say yes or no. Are we already struggling to define whether or not this image has a chair in it? Okay. We can't even decide if that thing in the background is a chair, friends. So this is why computers... Sometimes you get really mad at the results, but we actually have the same conversation. I'm going to say no. I agree with you. This is not a chair. Is this a chair? That is... I think that's a church. Church not a chair. You guys say no? Okay. This is a hobbit hole. But does it contain a chair? A bench. It's a bench and not a chair. Okay. Good. Does this contain a chair? That is a... That's a table. Thank you. Yes, that is a table. Does this image contain a chair? Yes. Why is it a chair? She's a sitting on it, but what makes it a chair? She's sitting. It's for one person that contains a chair. Okay. This appears to be a television and an entertainment center. I see no chair. Do we agree? So we are teaching Google about the differences in some of these images. Okay. So now these people are sitting. Is there a chair? No. So sitting is into chair. So we are teaching the Google very specifically what a chair is just by giving images. So if people are sitting, but there's no other thing, there's no chair. Right? If the thing is for sitting, but it's too long, it's not a chair. The thing can be made of wood. The thing can be made of fabric. Oh, what's this? Another kind of chair. Made of plastic. Is it a chair? It's a very iconic chair, right? Everybody has this $9 version in their backyard. Their grandma's backyard. Yes. It is a chair. Yeah. Yeah. So this is very specific. Does it contain a chair? So in this case, it's trying to figure out if there's any sort of chair in the image. With swimming, swimming used to be one of the ones that I did. And the first picture that would come up would be a fish. It's the fish swimming. Some people would say yes and some people would say no.  It's like soccer sort of, but in the water. And polo involves swimming, but were they swimming? Not necessarily, right? Throwing, defending. And so some of those nuances is what the data is learning. What happens if we all go in and just click yes for every photo? Yeah, Google gets stupider, right? Yeah, for sure. So this type of information where we give labels is really helpful, but it can be used nefariously. Do you guys think it's fun? You are actually participating in helping the Google image recognition software get better when you use CrowdSource. How are we doing on time? Pretty good. Okay, let's make some more stuff. You can always go back and play with CrowdSource. Okay, W3 schools. You guys have learned a lot about technology today and you haven't necessarily learned how to make that technology. This is one of the best websites as a resource for online learning about computer science, very broadly. But so I want to show you a few things about it so that if you want to be more of a maker, you can be. This is a place where there's a ton, a ton, a ton of references of how to code, how to learn any type of code, but they specifically have a section right here under tutorials, learn AI, learn machine learning, learn data science. It assumes at the start that you know nothing. You don't need to know a single thing to start here. As a former developer, 10 years, I worked in computer science in building databases and web development, primarily business-to-business systems, the back-end side of things. And although I started out with some college knowledge, what was way more important was actually that I built my own stuff. And so if you are figuring out whether or not you can afford college, if you have a strong portfolio and you teach yourself stuff and you are good, you can find that entry-level job for real. So you can teach yourself, and I want to make sure you know that this is a place to do it. The important thing is that you build things that work so that you have a portfolio to display. And so in their learn AI section, I just want you to know they have the first example, image classification. So this is not the Google version that we just did. This is the code. This is how it works. This is the math that you've learned, and I wonder what it was for. This is what it's for. And so you can go through and learn all about how to create these various things right here on W3Schools. It's completely free. Questions? Anybody actually going to try this? Check it out? Yes, good. Okay. One of my favorite things here too is just like if you just want to mess around with a website, you can. There's really good stuff in here. There's guides and forms, all kinds of things. And one of the things I use all the time is that there's this HTML colors, and you can actually see what all the colors are named and how they're picked, and all the different types of names. So if you have your very favorite color, I have a friend who's really into pink, and all of her stuff is like branded pink. And so she has her favorite hex code color. And so this is just a great place as a reference if you're working on other things and you need some specific information. They have all these great tutorials. You don't even have to sign in. You can just use it. Okay. Write it down. W3Schools. Remember, if you forget, it's www, right? How many Ws? There's three of them. W3. And then you'll learn. If you want to be a coder, if you are interested in computer science in particular, you will have to learn forever. It never stops. You'll always have to be learning. The stuff that I coded doesn't even exist anymore. The languages that I use, they aren't around. So you'll always be learning. Okay, Vocaloid. Have you seen a Vocaloid? Do you watch them? You know, yes, a little bit. Some of you know what I'm talking about. These are like anime characters that sing and dance. And you can go see them for real on a stage. Please tell me you know what I'm talking about. Yes? No. Okay. I do feel like we should at least maybe visit the YouTube and see a Vocaloid performance so that you know that I'm not crazy. The O-C-A-L, there it is, Vocaloid Los Angeles. Hatsune Miku, anybody? Anime fans. This is a real concert. There's 70,000 people here. You can see them. Oops. The real musicians and the performer is an anime character. Anybody in band? Band kids here? Few. Okay. So musically, there's a revolution happening. We're never going to get rid of real live in-person performance. But singers and musicians are moving to the digital space. And some of our biggest, this is a very popular character around the world, particularly in Japan. Some of our biggest characters are not people. Okay. So if you want to be a person making art and music from people that aren't real, Vocaloid.com is where we're going. Vocaloid. This is a singing synthesizer. If you really are into music, digital music, if you want to create music without singing it yourself, you should download this software to a real computer. It's really how it works best. But I at least want to show you there is a free trial version right here in the corner. You can get it right there. And we can preview some of these songs right here on the main page. Now these are AI singers. They are not real people. They make music. I don't know if my people far away can hear them. Okay. And what's interesting about them is that they are not just singing. But you can adjust every bit of what they sing.  The way the software works. There's a person at home on your home studio. So that line is the graph of the singer. But it's not a real person. So just like in any other software program, you can grab the line and move it and change what they sing. So you can see he's changing the words. He's typing in the words and then he's moving the pitch. So you get the idea. When you use Vocaloid, you can start with a voice that isn't your own or a completely digital voice. You can use your own voice and modify it. You can change what is said, how it's said, the pitch, the timber, all the good things there. And if you want to play with this, download free right there. Cool, right? You can manipulate accents, vibrato, rhythmic feel, and change your own vocal production. There's another program like this. It's called Descript. I find it fascinating. We can't do as much with it. But if you're a podcaster or video editor, this to me is the coolest, coolest thing. So what happens is I go in and make a voice print of myself. That means I read a script so that this AI knows what my voice sounds like. And then I can... There it is. You can see. She talked. It recorded into like a Google Doc type thing. And now someone else that isn't me can go in and edit what I said in the text version and it updates my video.  And then I can hand that off to my friend right here and they can edit out all of that. So that I can have a completely clean podcast or video. And if I've done a complete voice print, you could even take my voice and write a script for me and I could say it without ever having said anything out loud. Say that. Yeah, yeah, right? You have to trust somebody with your voice print. Totally, totally. You have to be careful with that. Okay, you can generate singing voices. How about AIartists.org? AIartists.org. This has over 40 tools. If you are into AI or if you're into art and you're not sure about AI, this is a fun place to play. AIartists, I-S-T-S has the S on the end.org. I spelled it wrong, didn't I? A-R-T-I-S-T there. AIartists.org, largest community of artists using AI. There's a little bit of a debate right now about who owns AIart. If you're not the creator of the original art and you modify it using an algorithm, is it the original artist who contributed? Is it the person who created the algorithm or is it you who came up with the unique genius of merging various things? I think what will end up happening is we'll end up with some sort of policy. You know how a lot of cool hip-hop music is resampled and remixed? We're probably going to end up with some sort of visual legislation that gives credit to all of the contributors and financial credit too. Those systems aren't yet in place though. If you're a person taking paintings from the 16th century and having an algorithm merge them with future scapes, there's not really any way to tell who should be compensated and who gets credit for that. This community, AIartists.org, if you scroll down, you can see cool, really nice art and what people are doing and some history of it. And then also there are resources which are creative AI tools and generative art guide, but this creative AI tools is the cool place to be. So we go to create, look, 41 tools. 41 tools. So lots and lots of AI that you can make. And they're bisections. So music, art would be like visual art. There's also movement and dance, sketches with Bill Jones, really cool stuff. PoseNet is much like a Kinect if you've ever seen a Microsoft Kinect where your body turns into like points and you can interact in an important way. But we're going to try Deep Dream Generator right here under AI-generated pictures. There's also some neat GANs over here, but we're going to try Deep Dream to start. We use a lot of the Google ones because they're really accessible. A lot of the other ones require sign-in. So Deep Dream Generator is a human AI collaboration and there is a text-to-dream tool and you can just try it, get started. Don't put up a wall for me. Well, you used to be able to do it without signing in. Can I please text-to-dream? You can see these are artworks that it has made, it's collaborated. You didn't used to have to sign in. Yeah, free, you need to sign up. Okay, well, let's try A-S-D-F. Do we have to make a password? Let's see. If you feel like signing in, you can. I have a Google account. If you don't, you can watch here. Okay, so the way this works is that we're going to generate an image at the top and what you do is write what you want it to create. So I can use some words, give me some words, something cool, something you'd like. Favorite sport? Any of you play a sport? Basketball. All right, now tell me your favorite animal. Horse. Okay, we're going to do horse basketball. Oh, we could have unicorn basketball. Can we do unicorn basketball? That's a cool idea. Unicorn basketball. Okay, we want normal quality. We don't necessarily need to enhance anything. Let's generate it. Unicorn basketball. Now, this has never been created before. We could have a really long sentence here. We could also specify some of these generators. You can be really specific. You can say like photorealistic or Salvador Dali. And if you, you can imagine something very different from 4K photorealistic versus like a melting image of Salvador Dali. It is actually creating a image here that, that if I did this again, I might get a different result. Okay, what do we get? We got unicorn basketball. It did it, right? Yeah, yeah, stable diffusion. Yeah. Yeah, all right. Did you do it right now? Very good. Any Discord users here? Unsurprising, yes. I realize my fellow adults have not always followed you onto Discord, but I have. So I want to make sure that you know also like the best. Yeah, you've done it. Yeah. I know. And so it was on beta for a while and it was totally free. So mid-journey is on Discord and it's an AI generator. There is a cheat sheet that I think is worth downloading. This is, I have to give credit. Mid-journey is an AI generator like Deep Dream, but better, super good. And this is a cheat sheet that was developed. It's at firebasestorage.googleapis.com. And it has all, like you could take a screenshot of this or something. These are the main commands on Discord to generate art within Discord. So Imagine creates the image, blah, blah, blah. Help, help, info, et cetera. But I think mid-journey is one of my favorite AI generators right now. You can also play online with Dolly and Dolly, two really powerful image generators that are sort of blending what's real and what's not real. How are we doing? Pretty good. Okay. Okay, let's talk about GPT-3 and GPT-4. Do you know about them? Anybody heard of them? Yes? Okay. Are your teachers afraid yet? Do you think that teachers should be afraid of this technology? Yeah. Okay, so GPT-3 and GPT-4 have huge amounts of data on how people write. And for small local newspapers who want to publish sports scores, those are probably already being written by AIs because of baseball game. There's been so many years of baseball games and they're all the same. It's like what happened in the top of the ninth and who got a hit and what's his RBI's. And the AIs can just write the whole game now. You don't even have to send a journalist. And so at Stanford, there's a major called computational journalism. And it's like they've almost given up on traditional journalism, although there's a huge need and importance in journalism. But computational journalism is like, you know, there's actually a story in the data. We can mine like Twitter feeds to see how people are feeling with semantic analysis. And we can write some stories using GPT-3 and GPT-4. And so this is an example of how text generators work. But GPT-4 is so powerful, it can write like where if I was an English teacher, I might be worried that my students won't write their papers anymore. No. Right. Right. It's not plagiarism. Well, it is plagiarism. But it doesn't always give the same results because it's generating it each time. So let's write a paper. I need a subject. Tell me something funny you did in the last week. Something funny. Do you have a small sibling? They did something crazy? No. Yes. What? Okay. So we're going to start with Harry Potter. Harry Potter. And we're going to take that little fragment, spilled his cereal. I guess he spilled his cereal. Harry Potter spilled his cereal. And then what did Voldemort do? Maybe. Let's be more interesting. You were a basketball player, right? Basketball? Basketball? Basketball? Okay. Tell me something that happened on the basketball court that Voldemort might have done. Okay. Voldemort scored a three-pointer. Let's try it. Let's ask the AI to write us a story about these things. Harry Potter spilled his cereal. Voldemort scored a three-pointer. Ron stared into Harry's eye. He reached for his wand and started to put it on his head. He started to wail and yell at the door in his ears. Voldemort pushed and Harry pulled up. Harry screamed. He started to run, but Harry caught him. He started running and Harry got to his feet and grabbed the floor, pushing him back. Anyway, you see. It knows who we're talking about. It's written something somewhat nonsensical. But the better algorithms, if we had picked something that is more academic, it would get closer and closer to what a human would write. So these are fun to play with. Especially if you take a prompt like, astrophysicists have discovered. What have they discovered? That dark matter like the sun is extremely close to our solar system in mass and that its red light is just as large as our sun. If I don't know anything about this subject, I might actually believe it. It's kind of fun. Yes, yes. It doesn't only have to write like in standard English. It can write in a dialect or in another language. It depends where you are, though, whether or not there's enough data. I'll give you a really good example. We did crowdsource, right? Like crowdsource.google.com. And if I put in wedding, I am probably going to get white dresses and tuxedos and matching people at a Christian altar. I'm probably going to get something that is close to an American wedding. What I am not going to get is a wedding that would be appropriate in Zambia. Right? And that would look very different. Or India, where there might be a sorry involved and really bright colors because the cultural context of the search is in America. Now, if I went to Google in India, I would probably get the right results for India. But that's a great point. It's like, if there's not enough data, then we might not get as good results. So it probably writes better in English or Mandarin Chinese than it would in a smaller dialect where there's less data available. How are we doing? Oh, we're pretty good. Okay. The last thing is that it's really important to make stuff. There's a guy, his name is Douglas Rushkoff. I really recommend his books. He wrote this title up here. He wrote it 25 years ago and he said, if you're not the makers, then you're the product. All this stuff you learned about today was about data. You're giving away your data all the time. It's almost impossible not impossible. Really, really challenging. So the way to avoid some of the worst consequences is to be a creator of some of the solutions. It doesn't mean you have to code, but it means that whatever you are, whether it's a journalist or a school teacher, that you're aware of the ethics of these technologies and that you do something about it. Okay, questions for me. We've got 10 minutes. Do we have any way to have the Zoom people ask me questions too? Because I'd love to hear from them too. Do you guys have questions for me? Yeah. So you're talking about upscaling images? Yeah, so do you want to know about the math of that a little bit? You know, okay. Yeah, so that's really cool technology that didn't used to exist. Another interesting place where AI, we don't even think about it, but it's totally AI is autofocus and the way your phone knows what to focus on and some of the cool technologies like night sight and stuff, those are all AI technologies. The photo space is like really, really good right now for AI. Totally. Questions, what can we make? There and then there, okay, go ahead. Do you mean like when I visited the doctor? Yeah, when I visited the doctor, they had recorded my son's visit and they were testing to see if that technology would work for transcription. So when you visit the doctor's office, they write down what happened in that visit. They say something like, this patient has presented with a fracture of the tibia and we recommend six weeks of cast and then two weeks of physical therapy, something like that, where they're saying what happened in diagnosis. They might also share different information like the patient presented with their mother, they appeared to be well taken care of. There might be some more, like some information that's not, it's not just about your physicality but like your circumstances. Are you in a safe place where you're likely to get better, that kind of thing. Or what additional support you might need, like they need help with Medicare in order to pay for this treatment. That might be in there too. But the idea is that that becomes a part of your medical record. So one of my questions from that recording was that it was recording while I wasn't in the room. So previously the doctor would leave the room and then type up their notes or dictate into a microphone and that would be typed up by essentially like a secretary. A medical transcriptionist is the word. And then that would become part of your medical record. But if it's a recording that happens from an AI that translates speech to text, that's the AI piece. Could the conversation that I have privately about my treatment go into that record? And it's probably not a big deal if it's about a broken arm. But it might be a very big deal if we were deciding on what cancer treatment to get or something like that and whether or not we wanted to continue treatment or whether or not we wanted to go see a different doctor for a second opinion. Is that being recorded? Is it part of my medical record now even if the doctor wasn't in the room? I don't know. I think the part that bothers me is that I don't know. Questions? Yeah. Oh, wait. You and then, yeah. Yeah, the comment is about podcast.ai, which is a website. I did not play it here because there's some swear words in it. But it's completely AI generated as a podcast and there's enough vocal print of Joe Rogan that it's pretty accurate. The only way that I could tell that it was really fake was that it mispronounced common, famous people's names. I think, was it like Bruce Willis or one of the names was wrong that they had said.  Steve Jobs was on the air even though he's passed away. So that's the interview. So podcast.ai, language warning. Here and then there, yeah. So my job is chief operating officer. So that means most of the time I run a company. And sometimes I get to come and hang out with you guys, which is like the best, the best. High schoolers are the best. Totally you are. Why do you say no? No, like you guys are actually like super interesting and smart and I wish I could talk more to each of you because I always learn from you. Like anybody who played Detroit, you become human. That's an AI. You played it? Yeah. That's an AI game where you get to play as the AI. And I learned that from you guys and then I went and played it. So if there's any media that I'm missing, I want to know about it from you guys too. You could email me, text me. So my day-to-day is to help kids learn about AI. That's the job of my company. It's not always my job. But I was a teacher previously. Yeah. My generation says who it's written by. Very good. It's totally plagiarism. Yes, if you use an AI to write your paper, you didn't write your paper. Just to be clear. Yeah, if you wrote the topic sentence, you did not write the paper. I think there's a college professor. I work with the National Humanities Center. So I work with 15 different colleges who are developing ethics classes with AI. And that's one of the cool things I get to do in my job. And one of the professors in that program is doing a class where you start your topic with an AI and then you write your paper as compared to what the AI wrote. I think that's a really great way for teachers to incorporate AI into their language classes is to start with the algorithm. Because what's really exciting in the end is what you think. Yeah. Yeah, thank you. It's called I Am Woman. I Am Woman is the recommendation. That reminds me there's a book called Clara and the Sun. Clara with a K. And Clara and the Sun is a Pulitzer... It won some sort of major book award, but it's about when it's a futuristic novel, when children have robot friends as companions as they're growing up. That's really good. And then Ray Bradbury has a short story of an electric mother from the 60s, which is equally interesting about what if you could have the perfect mother. Looks like people are coming back. Thank you for spending time with me in this breakout session and having a chat. Thank you virtual people as well.