Lenin said that capitalism is horror without end and I think today obviously we can see what this means in terms of the horrors that we see kind of unleashed upon society in terms of wars, terrorism and austerity and so forth. And obviously there's a wave of kind of racism and xenophobia and bigotry where it's like capitalism has kind of opened up a Pandora's box if you like of horrors upon society as it goes into crisis and this has obviously led to a growing concern amongst a layer of people about the rise of the far right. People look at the victories of the Brexit campaign or of Trump and the US and certain people draw a kind of relatively superficial conclusion I would say that this represents somehow that everyone's a racist now or that this is the rise of a new fascism and so forth. And obviously we saw in Austria the far right candidate Hoffa coming close to winning with 46% and there's concerns that Le Pen, the far right candidate in France could win in the elections next year there in France. And a lot of the time this has been used to justify actually support on the left for the so-called liberal or progressive section of the capitalists and their candidates. So we see for example a lot of confused layers on the left in America for example saying you have to support Clinton because Trump's a fascist and therefore we need to somehow get in the progressive candidate of Clinton instead of this fascist of Trump. And we have to say well look we share the concern and obviously the disgust towards figures like Trump and the kind of bigotry and the racism and so forth and obviously concern of the potential rise in hate crimes and racist acts that have been seen in the wake of Brexit and so forth. But we also have to remain sober and level headed in our analysis and not draw these kind of superficial conclusions that suddenly everyone's a racist or that Trump is a fascist. Gotta have a sense of proportion because for us you know these political labels they have a definite meaning they're not something to just be bandied about they have a very definite and scientific meaning and we are scientific socialists that's what Marxism aims to be a scientific analysis of society and therefore we have to look at these these labels in a scientific way and not just throw them around frivolously and actually understand what fascism really means in a kind of historical sense in a materialist sense in a in a real social sense it's not just a a catch all label for anyone who's a racist or any party that has certain racist policies. We've got to remember not to confuse the the part for the whole in the sense that yes obviously racism is a part of a fascist ideology but not everyone who is a racist is a fascist. Fascism is much much more than that and we shouldn't throw these labels around as I say frivolously because it actually acts to disorientate and to confuse and to miseducate the movement fundamentally. It acts if you go around calling everyone every every far right group that that springs into to life if you could go around calling every one of these the the potential rise of fascism it's kind of like the boy who cried wolf you're you're constantly warning about this fascism that's coming about but it actually disarms and paralyzes potentially the movement at that time when when a real kind of genuine threat to society rises up and and it fundamentally it misunderstands what is actually behind the rise of these far right and extremist parties and leaders that we're seeing it fundamentally misunderstands what the vote for Trump or Le Pen or or UKIP or any of this really represents which is that it's it's not suddenly that everyone's racist or that this is somehow the rise of fascism but what it represents really is the the failure of the status quo the collapse of the the kind of liberal center ground and also the failure of the the left and the so-called left leaders you saw in in America really you had the potential for a for a strong left candidate to come to to power in America if Sanders had had run it could have actually beaten and actually taken many of the votes from those who went towards Trump and and obviously even the bourgeois themselves have admitted how Clinton was really the worst possible candidate to put forwards in the sense that she represented everything that people were disgusted by in terms of the establishment and the rich and the elite and the one percent and so forth in France you see how only a few years ago you had Hollande coming in with a with a kind of tax the rich anti austerity program as the socialist candidate but obviously his failure and his capitulation to actually carry out that program has led to the rise of Le Pen and even in Britain here we see how UKIP now have just elected in Paul Nuttle as their new leader whose whose main vision for UKIP is he says is actually to become a party of the working class not to appeal to the kind of backwards Shia Tories that the UKIP's base themselves on in the past actually to base themselves on these these kind of left behind towns and communities that voted for Brexit as a kind of rebellion against the elite and the establishment these are the people that Paul Nuttle and UKIP want to appeal to now these Labour voters or these Labour heartlands that have been left behind and obviously there are kind of genuine fascist layers within within these movements but again we have to have a sense of proportion these are quite small and relatively insignificant like in the UK you've seen the English Defence League but the reality is yes they have a fascist ideology to them but they're not a mass movement by any means they're normally having to bus in people from across the country and even then when the when they arrive in these towns they're obviously met with much greater force from the Labour movement and the local communities and similarly in the US where you've had the so-called alt-right and not a particularly scientific term itself very kind of heterogeneous movement but nevertheless it's a very small one as well you see these videos of this alt-right conference that was taking place in America a few weeks ago where the main speaker was kind of alluding to lots of kind of fascist rhetoric and so forth but the actual audience was tiny just a couple of hundred not even thousands or the hundreds of thousands that it's made out to be but just a couple of hundred people and even within that you see in the video there's quite a lot looking uncomfortable as those around them start throwing up Nazi salutes and so forth and so we've got to have a sense of proportion about the real kind of fascist layer that is there and see in fact what is the real reason behind the the rise of these kind of far-right and so-called populist movements and go back I think to look at what Leon Trotsky wrote on question of fascism in the 30s when you had genuine fascist movements arising and what you see is that Trotsky outlined above all that went from you know when he was analyzing in Italy or Spain or Germany the rise of fascism what he explained above all is that fascism is a genuine mass movement it's it's it's made up not just of of kind of the strong men fascist leaders like Hitler and Mussolini but but actually that it has a mass space to it and and at that mass space exists in what he called the frenzied petty bourgeoisie and lumpen elements basically layers of society the kind of middling layers of society like the the ruined shopkeepers and the peasantry and and the professionals the white collar workers who've been ruined by by the crisis and very quickly gone from being kind of a privileged layer in society or a reasonable income layer in society to suddenly thrown on to the scrap heap and they combined with the kind of lumpenized elements the layer that's always been kind of thrown on to the scrap heap by capitalism these D-classed elements that exist in society as a result of capitalism's kind of permanent inability to provide jobs and so well these elements were were grouped together and and actually given life given given a kind of a sense of purpose was but was what Trotsky analyzed this is this you had a genuine mass movement of these layers because there's always been if you like under capitalism there's always been gangs and thugs who've been kind of grouped together and empowered by by the ruling class to terrorize the labor movement to terrorize working class communities you saw in the 1905 Russian Revolution for example pogroms organized by by the ruling class and known as the and these groups of thugs known as the black hundreds that went around terrorizing communities and even today as I say you have groups like the EDL and Britain First and so forth that they go around trying to terrorize working class communities and ethnic communities and and obviously we've also seen how the ruling class will use often throughout history kind of paramilitary groups in particularly in the ex-colonial countries in Colombia for example you have paramilitary gangs used to attack trade unions to attack the labor movement and carry out these kind of extrajudicial killings of trade union leaders in Indonesia you had these sort of gangs used in 1965-66 to conduct anti-communist purges by the but in in in in alliance with the the the Sahato government or or dictatorship really and and even in the end at the end of the First World War in Germany you had the beginnings of Nazism around the Freikorps so these kind of paramilitary gangs of war veterans used to attack the labor movement and the the socialists there but the difference with fascism is that it actually was a mass movement that didn't just rely on on these kind of gangs but actually as I say took together the the destitute and the ruined middle classes and organized them and used them really as a battering ram against the working class and against the the labor movement now the bourgeois have always if you like had to lean on on that kind of petty bourgeois layer throughout society lean on lean on the masses because obviously the bourgeois themselves the 1% if you like are obviously a tiny proportion of society they can't carry out their program simply with the numbers that they have themselves as a class and so they've always had to lean on the masses and particularly the middle classes in the in the French revolutions the when you had a progressive bourgeoisie if you like that was that was actually carrying out a progressive program to to abolish feudalism and and abolish all these kind of fetters in society the the bourgeois the rising bourgeois at that time lent on the the masses to carry out this progressive program of the abolition of the monarchy and the feudal order and they appealed to that layer obviously with with with demands for you know liberty fraternity and equality but and in the heyday of capitalism that followed in the 19th century the the the ruling class leans again on the on the middle class to carry out kind of reforms and this is like the high point if you like of liberal capitalism when when when liberalism and reformism were able to actually expand the middle class and offer certain rights and reforms to to this layer but what we see in the in the in the beginning of the death agony of capitalism and the decline of capitalism is that now this the the ruling class becomes senile and decrepit and and cannot allow and capitalism as it goes into crisis can no longer afford these kind of reforms you have a polarization taking place in society a collapse of this liberal center ground and even the the kind of democratic rights that have been won and struggled for by the ruling class are kind of unaffordable from the point of view of the the capitalist the the freedom of the press the freedom to organize and to vote and instead what capitalism requires in this period you see is an actual smashing of these rights a smashing of the organized working class of the of the working class and its organizations basically capitalism is you know requires these organizations to be to be to be shattered in order to push conditions and wages even below kind of subsistence levels and it uses the this petty bourgeois mass this this middle class ruined layer in society as a as basically a hammer to do this smashing of against the working class in its organization to to terrorize and to atomize the working class and this really we have to emphasize was and still is kind of the primary role of fascism historically was is a desperate attempt really by the ruling class to survive and and and the point was that the Trotsky pointed out that this fascist movement always in everywhere only ever came to power on the back of the failure of a revolutionary movement to offer a way out in for example in Italy where you had Mussolini he only came to power on the back of a failure of the working class to take power in in the the factory occupations of 1920 when you had across Italy mass movement of the working class that occupied the factories and and could have taken power Trotsky pointed out the only thing stopping them was the the vacillation and the cowardice of the reformist leaders who were at the head of this movement in the in the Socialist Party and similarly in Germany you only see Hitler coming to power not after one attempt but many attempts of the working class to take power in 1918 in 1923 and in fact even even in the late 20s and early 30s Trotsky points out the working class was still enormously strong it's the the organizations of the working class in the Socialist Party and the Communist Party together between them they had millions of supporters and and and hundreds of thousands of members with with a huge influence and together if they've been united they could have actually easily broken the the Nazi movement and and kept them at bay but the problem was Trotsky pointed out that they were they were completely unable and unwilling to do this for for two reasons one the Socialists were the Socialist leaders in particular placed their faith in the so-called lesser evil of the of the the capitalists and and the bourgeoisie they they you know they they were rather having a burning then then and voting in advocating a vote for that for the so-called lesser evil basically then then then actually organize a movement against the fascists and Hitler and and and then on the other side you had the ultra leftism of the Communist leaders of the Stalinists who who basically were in what what what was called the third period of Stalinism where it was incredibly ultra left very sectarian and they went around saying the real biggest danger was not the not the actual fascists but they called the social fascists they said the social democracy were the real evil that had to be smashed and and first Hitler would come to power and then it would be the task of the of the Communists Trotsky pointed out if if you'd had an actual united front between these organizations then they actually together could have could have halted the the fascist movement in its in its March and and instead what you had was because of the the ultra leftism of the Stalinists and the the capitulations and the reformism of the social Democrats the result was as in Hitler's own word he came to power without so much as breaking a pane of glass and and it was really this Trotsky pointed out this failure of a revolutionary leadership to offer a way out or failure of the absence of a revolutionary leadership full stop that meant that the petty bourgeois layers would would having seen that kind of failure of the revolution would swing behind the fascists looking for for some sort of order and and end to the the kind of chaos and the the instability in society Trotsky pointed out that the petty bourgeois is as as Marxist have always said this middle layer is not a an independent class in society in the sense that it sits between the working class and the capitalists they're neither outright capitalists who are able to you know exploit a working class for themselves but neither are they part of the working class that has to sell its labor power in or in exchange for wages and therefore this class has a very independent kind of as it doesn't have a rather an independent class interests it's it's it can swing between the interests of the two major classes in society the working class and the capitalists and and by its very nature as a as a as a class it's very scattered and very isolated and and very individualistic and not involved in in common production in the factories in the offices in the workplace doesn't have its own organizations in terms of the the trade unions and the political parties and and and therefore doesn't have the same kind of class consciousness as a as a that the working class has its same common interests and the same organizations like the working class has formed throughout history and instead you see as I say it's vacillates between the two and on the one hand is not part of the working class but on the other hand is crushed by the real kind of capitalists by monopoly capitalism that obviously smashes and crushes small businesses and and and so forth and and what Trotsky pointed out is that if given a revolutionary lead then the the the middling layers the petty bourgeois could swing behind revolution and and and behind the working class and could be won over to revolution and indeed you saw that in the Russian revolution the fact that the the Bolsheviks came to power because they were able to win over this layer by putting you know by having a movement led by the working class that also answered the questions that the peasantry and the and the soldiers for example had they could they actually won over these layers and were able to to win them over to the idea of revolution but in the absence of this in the absence of a revolutionary lead then this layer would swing behind reaction as I say demanding an end to the the kind of chaos in instability that we see in these periods and and that's really what you saw in Germany above all else where this there was this petty bourgeois layer was completely ruined by by the crisis of in the Weimar Republic by the hyperinflation that was taking place throughout the 20s and and as I say it went from being a very relatively privileged white collar layer to to being a kind of part of this mass unemployment and the the fascists appeal to this layer by by actually promising to fight against the kind of crushing domination of monopoly capitalism hence why you know that as a movement is called national socialism it was aiming to provide stability and and some sort of justice to this layer and Trotsky said how this layer this in this layer basically the the fascists they they they untied the arms of the scattered masses he said and and organized that movement out of human dust giving them the illusion of being an independent force so this is what fascism promised to this layer but the reality was was far different as a movement fascism was actually backed by the very big business and finance capital that it claimed to be to be opposing and was really a last desperate attempt by the ruling class in the face of the threat of Bolshevism and revolution it was really a last throw of the dice and and one that was not done without reluctance from the ruling class they they're not willing to to hand over power to these kind of upstarts that fascism creates it's not they're not willing to hand over power to these people lightly much prefer to have a kind of reliable member of the ruling class from the aristocracy from the military to lead these kind of movements but what you see with fascism that actually it's these so-called self-made men like Hitler like Mussolini who aren't kind of traditionally part of the the kind of the establishment and so forth are part of the the aristocracy and so forth these these are the layers that fascism has at its head and and the ruling class is unwilling to really hand over power to these unreliable leaders but nevertheless does so as a last throw of the dice and that and in this respect something like the Pinochet coup in Chile is different where Pinochet was part of the army he was part of these generals and these reliable parts of the establishment and and and there wasn't such a mass movement kind of at the you know around Pinochet it was much more based on the institutions and the armed forces of the of the state and and and the difference with with fascism so it goes far beyond just the rule of the state the this kind of bonapartist use of the military and the police but actually goes much further takes over the whole of society the universities the media all of these kind of institutions become accumulated in the hands of of the fascist state and and and really takes over the whole of society in this respect and but what you see is that once fascism has come into power it actually dispenses with that mass space that's kind of got it there in the first place and and becomes really an extreme form of of Bonapartism an unstable regime that's resting on repression and and on the the police state and it rids itself then of the the genuine ideologues of the movement as well you see how in in Germany for example you had the brown shirts the essay around Hitler who were genuine believers in the ideology of fascism in the sense of they genuinely believed in the in the cause of national socialism that there could be this struggle against the monopoly capitalists but but Hitler actually dispensed with this layer once in power in in what was famously called the night of the long knives in 1934 where where this layer the of the brown shirt leaders were basically liquidated and and it came after that fascism much more a force much more concentrated through the state apparatus and and the SS instead Hitler's kind of personal bodyguard and and similarly in Spain you see the move away from the the phalanges to the kind of original real fascist ideologues in around Franco you see a move after 1939 when when Franco comes to power away from these people much more towards technocrats and the kind of Catholics of the the opus day sects and so forth much more based on these layers and dispenses with the with the genuine believers in fascism if you like and becomes more of a Bonapartist regime this as I say an inherently unstable regime and one that is really out of control of the ruling class itself and and you see for that reason why for example in Germany you see attempts to actually remove Hitler who he's he's he represented as I say this this desperate attempt by the ruling class to keep away Bolshevism and communism but in the process they lost control of the situation and and tried to regain it actually through even attempted assassinations against Hitler in the in the so-called Operation Valkyrie 1944 and and these kind of episodes show why really I think the ruling class would be unwilling to go down the path of fascism again today because they've had their fingers burnt by these bad experiences they as I say they much prefer a kind of reliable member of the ruling class and and the use of Bonapartism or kind of military rule when they when when they can no longer use democracy of course that is but but they can also see today the the kind of the dangerous response that actually fascists elicit in amongst the masses amongst the working class for example in Greece you had the the rise of the Golden Dawn a genuine fascist movement that did go around terrorizing the labor movement terrorizing demonstrations and an ethnic communities and so forth but what you saw was actually the when when they did carry out killings against left-wing activists the actually it created a enormous response from the labor movement from the masses you had huge demonstrations coming out against the Golden Dawn and and ones that were very radical in other words these these kind of fascist groups were actually causing a mass movement that was that was dangerous from the point of view of the ruling class and for that reason the the government the not the series of government but the the new democracy one before that ended up actually locking away the the leaders of the Golden Dawn and putting them putting them in jail because basically these were kind of rabid dogs who they they were out of control and they didn't want to to give these people too much too much of a leash if you like too much of a long leash and and and so I think for these reasons you know at the moment at the least the fascists are kept kept at bay by the ruling class and it's not to say that in the future they won't be used as some sort of auxiliary in a reactionary movement but at the moment the the the ruling class unwilling to go down that path for fear obviously that these they can actually invoke a much bigger response from the left and from the working class against against these kind of fascist groups but really I'd say the main reason why fascism is not on the cars today in the sense of a genuine mass movement of the the nature of the type that we've seen in in Germany or Italy and Spain in the the 1920s and 30s the reason why it's fundamentally different today is there's been a fundamental change in the balance of class forces in society nowadays you see that the middle class which is again being kind of crushed by capitalism by the crisis but now you see the middle class actually being drawn much more closely towards the working class you see it being proletarianized if you like and and these layers that used to be kind of white collar privileged layers in society now you're actually seeing them much more joining the ranks of the labor movement and forming trade unions and going on strike and hadn't swine and even in Britain for example you have teachers lecturers and even obviously junior doctors and lawyers and so forth actually now coming to joining the labor movement taking strike action and being much closer to the rest of the working class in this respect and in many respects being part of the working class being proletarianized by this crisis as I say it's not to deny the idea that small fascist groups like the EDL still exist and where they do kind of organize and come out onto the streets they have to be met with with the force of the organized working class you know we can't rely on on Tory politicians or the police and the the bourgeois courts and the law to either the bourgeois state cannot be relied upon to stop the these kind of fascist gangs and obviously you actually see a lot of the time it's the police who are kind of protecting these groups and allowing them to march through town but we have to actually meet them on the streets in the way that for example Mosley and his gang of fascists in Britain were met down the road from here and in Cable Street in 1936 by the organized working class by a united front of the of the of the local community alongside the trade unions the Communist Party the Labour Party all of these came out in force to basically stop Mosley and the fascists marching through the East End and terrorizing the communities there and and as I say in Germany in 1929 to 33 Trotsky emphasized that again a united front of the Socialists and the the Communists could have easily defeated the fascists and smashed the the Nazis but but because of the the betrayals on both sides particularly the the ultra leftism of the Stalinists you had fascism coming to power without any resistance at all today as I say the immediate threat is not of fascism or even really of Bonapartism in the sense of a kind of military reaction all of these are being held back mainly by the the strength of the working class and the radicalization now exists that exists amongst workers and youth and really what we would say is that the biggest problem today is is the missing subjective factor as Trotsky called it in in his program of the the fourth international he said it's he said in in this the the transitional program as it's known he said it's really the crisis of humanity can be reduced in the ultimate analysis to a crisis of leadership and that the conditions for revolution were there the objective conditions in terms of the technology and the wealth in society but also in terms of consciousness he said consciousness was not only ripe but the the conditions have become right rotten in the sense that because of the failure of a revolutionary leadership to actually take advantage of these conditions and and offer a revolutionary way out consciousness had gone gone past and and and people had kind of lost faith in the idea of revolution and you've seen the rise then of these rotten symptoms within society of fascism and and so forth and and the same situation is taking place today where the conditions are clearly ripe in the in the sense of radicalization is taking place but what's lacking is that is again this subjective factor of leadership and for that reason you see these swings quite violent swings in public opinion to the right and to the left and and we must not lose sight of that fact that this isn't a one-way process that's there's not like it's solely a swing to the the far right that's taking place in society there's a polarization and there's a corresponding move to the left as well we've seen obviously the rise of series are in Greece much more prominent than the the rise of golden dawn we've seen the rise of Podemos in Spain of Sanders in in the US reclaiming the word socialism putting it back on the agenda and similarly obviously Corbyn here in Britain we've got a good look at those developments and not just beat the drums about the threat of fascism and highlight really that what's missing what is lacking in this whole situation is a revolutionary leadership with a bold socialist program we need as as Trotsky said a sword and a shield in the sense that you need a the shield of the organized working class the labor movement coming out and meeting these groups where they do come out onto the streets meeting them with with force with you know blocking the path of these people to march through the streets but on the other hand also a sword an actual program that offers a solution to the to the causes of racism and causes of bigotry in the first place provide an actual answer to the questions of job and housing and and health care and so forth because the reality is that the so-called lesser evil of the the liberal establishment figures or the the so-called lefts these these people don't offer a solution to these problems they don't offer a way out onto and an answer to the actual problems faced by the working class in terms of jobs and housing and so forth and and unless therefore you remove that kind of fertile ground upon which racism and so forth in xenophobia thrive unless you remove that fertile ground and offer something to the to the rust belt you know states in in the US or the the kind of left behind scarred communities in Britain unless you solve the problems facing facing these these parts of the country these parts of society these parts of the working class unless you solve that fundamentally you'll always have racism and xenophobia and so forth rearing their ugly head in other words the only real solution to to the kind of rise of the far right that we see today is to put an end to the kind of rotten capitalist system and the failed status quo that have led to the led to the the rise today and in that respect we need above all to end as I say end the capitalist system and have a revolution in Britain and internationally I'll leave it there


The local plan is the most important document that nobody has ever heard of and actually it touches every part of every resident's life for tomorrow, for next week, for next year, for 10 years time, housing, development. It touches how they're going to live their lives in the economy. It picks up issues around social inequality and the things that are really important. The local plan is like a map for the residents to go forward. So even though we have just adopted a local plan, that local plan was started in about 2013. So the basis of the map we've got now is quite old and we need to put in place something as efficiently but quickly to provide a map from now moving forward. The local plan, as Katie has said, is a map. It's not just a map, it's a map that shows where we will be looking at putting new houses, new employment spaces, new shops, leisure parks. It's a map that shows how the Greater Cambridge area will develop over the next 10, 15, 20 years and it affects everybody. We're very keen to make sure that every resident has a voice. We want to sit with you and make the opportunity for you to be heard. So that's why we're here on this video. We can't have everything if we're going to have so many thousand houses. How do we fit that in? Where do we put it? Where do the businesses go? And where will we put the parks and the leisure places and retail space that we need? So these are some of the things that we need to weigh up and decide we can have this but we can't have that. Everybody has an opinion about what should happen in Queen Ediths. It's extremely hard for residents to get their voices heard in the middle of contested spaces which are, you know, having schemes put forward by the County Council, the Combined Authority, the City Council, the GCP, Uncle Tom Cobble and all. And I think possibly we were naive last time and we didn't get involved in the local plan making process early enough. And I would hate to make the same mistake a second time.  So really what we were looking for today is clarity so that we can deliver and along the process all the landowners, the developers and homeowners at the end all understand what needs to be delivered. There is no holistic view of all the developments that are taking place and that is a major, major concern for everybody as far as I'm concerned. The transport links are going to be, if they are not looked into holistically, we will have a huge, huge problem with traffic just backing up and not moving. My main concern is the health of the river and the springs and the over extraction of water and the situation is likely to get worse with more development and so something really does need to be done to persuade people to use less water. Everybody said, oh, Greenbelt is Greenbelt, full stop, but it's not. There are several categories of Greenbelt and you can start at one end, which is the cricket pitch in the village, which is absolutely psychotactic. You must not touch that. To me, that is Greenbelt, full stop. But then at the other end, there are several categories down the line and you get the scrub land which nobody even walks the dog on. Now, you know, that is Greenbelt, but why can't we build on that and there are several gradations in between? Of course, I take the values for the residents as being of great importance and I think that has been somewhat forgotten. It's all about tarmac and machinery and not the actual improvements for the people living along the road. So what I am worried about is air pollution. Will it increase a lot for our residents? I think it's the distribution of the future development in the area needs to be more diversified with regards to spreading it out to the other parts of Cambridge and the urban areas. At the moment, it seems to be more heavily loaded onto South Cambridgeshire and the North West of Cambridge. And other areas don't really seem to have the correct distribution of that future development. So there is already a vibrant economy that has highly motivated people who are looking forward to driving it forward and want to see growth. There's a huge understanding of a need for homes and so there is willingness and opportunity to grow the economy and to build homes. There are clearly huge challenges in how you do that, where you put the homes, where you put the jobs and how you afford to do all of that on top of keeping everything very green. But this is the place where people think into the future and innovate and that creates a great opportunity. I think the big issue to do with Cambridge is trying to reconcile the needs of growth, carbon neutral economy to do with issues around whether or not we want to have people cycling and walking to work, all of those things impact on where we build our houses and also simply put, building houses closer to where people work. So for me, that's crucial. If we are really serious about developing Cambridge in a carbon neutral, sensible, sustainable way, we need to be making it easier for people to get to their places of work closer so that they can cycle, walk and get the bus. One of the really key and important things I think we need to be looking at is the supply of land coming forward. At the moment we just try and achieve a five-year land supply for housing but we need to look beyond that and try and look towards 10, 15-year land supply so people have certainty of where development is coming forward. So the next formal stage will be issues and options consultation which is going to be later on this year, probably around about November time. Over the next two months we'll be formulating all of the comments that we've had back from people from these two workshops, the previous two workshops last week and then trying to feed that into a really high-level document that outlines those challenges and those opportunities so we can then go and do some really focused consultations. So again, probably a series of workshops, probably even greater coverage. We're going to look to really focus on some of the interest groups and some of those areas that we haven't managed to reach in this process and kind of refine that down a little bit but that will be any time from October through to November we'll be sending out updates on that process and we really want people to get involved in that so that's a really important part for us.


I think tomorrow being in New York and the anniversary and stuff I would imagine it's it's a a different kind of feeling here than it is around the rest of the country. You know I think everybody has has their own feelings about it. Memories of it like we're just talking about but I think it's probably a little bit a little bit different here in New York. You know I think it'll be a good atmosphere here. Obviously you know Yankees and Metz on top of that. So you know I think that there's every year we we do something for for September 11th you know in a major baseball but I think this game this game especially might might be a little bit different. Are you going to ask the Maritas Morales? Hey Tori how close do you feel to your old form when you have your pinpoint control and getting the movement that you want? It's hard for me to say here or there but I do feel like you know even the the last couple games when maybe the end result wasn't what I would have liked them to be I don't feel like stuff is far off. You know I think that throughout the more and more repetition that stuff that stuff kind of clicks in sooner and sooner and I think it's a matter of of making the adjustments a little bit quicker. You know I don't think it's a that's a matter of not being able to to execute and do things with it. I want to it's just a matter of when when something maybe isn't where it needs to be making that adjustment a little bit quicker. Do you feel additional pressure pressure not only the stretch run but the hits the bullpen or the hits the rotation has taken and really the state of the bullpen to try to give them as much length as possible? You know I think those are kind of things that you're always aware of but try not to actually you know feel more pressure or put more pressure on yourself because of it. You know I think that those are ultimately factors that are when you're out there on the mound out of your control. I think that you know you can only focus on going out there executing pitches and trying to make quality pitches and getouts. I think that at least personally if I start trying to manage the game to where I'm trying to provide length there's things like that. You know I think it pulls my focus away from where it needs to be and like I said that's you know one pitch at a time making quality pitches and executing.


I'd like to call the eighth regular meeting of the 2019-2020 Common Council to order. Would the clerk please read the quote for the day? Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Communication is the real work of leadership. Thank you. Would the clerk please call the roll? There are nine present and Alderperson Donnie Hew is attending remotely. Thank you very much. Please stand and join me in the Pledge of Allegiance. Now, the Pledge of Allegiance is going to be led by a special young man today that's going to be celebrating his Eagle Scout banquet very soon, and we'll introduce him to you later. My God, indivisible, with another meeting after the call. I'd like to thank Alexander Cunningham for leading us today. Next item on the agenda is approval of the minutes from our last council meeting. All the person will... Thank you, Mayor. Make a motion to approve. Thank you for the motion and support. Is there any discussion on those minutes? Seeing none, all those in favor, please signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion passes. Next item is a resignation. Alderperson Wolfe. Thank you, Mayor. Make a motion to receive and file. Thank you for that motion and support. That motion is before us. All those in favor, please signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion passes. Next item is public forum, City Clerk. There is no one this evening. Thank you very much. Then we'll go on to Mayor's announcements. We thought it might be useful for you to mention that you were the Minister of California in Florida that I think you should start to learn much more. And City Clerk, it's been a long memory in our community, let it develop to an expertise in human trafficking. For hard to work with knowledge, you should go and resolve it in Virginia's point to do it. Why do you struggle with human trafficking cascades? Do you stand for anti-human trafficking taxable as well? We talked a little bit about citizens who are identifying as contradictions in the city of California, Florida. And she mentioned in her speech that their efforts are to come not directly to millions, but for the longest time on land. They're not clear what the short-term police department can or can see in many accolades. Do you think they're worth it? I'm not even going to mention here, but I hope they're human. The spirit of recognition is ensured in the place of the City of California Association in 2008, a life-staking work by the employee group and the National Association of Human Officers in New York. And I thank you so much for your service and I want to wish you the best in retirement. We'd like to give you a small tribute of the success of our appreciation of the city's employees and their services. Thank you so much for your appreciation and recognition and for the years that you've been through to the residents of the city of California. Thank you so much for your time. Thank you so much. And we really hope you have a very good time. Okay, next we'll go on to the consent agenda. That'll include items 2.3 through 2.14. All the person will... Thank you, Mayor. I make a motion to receive and file all ROs, receive all RCs and adopt all resolutions and ordinances. Is there a second? Thank you for that support. These items are before us. Is there any discussion on any of those items in the consent agenda? Seeing none, will the court please call the roll for passage? All the person for instance? Ten ayes. Motion passes. Under reports of officers, items 3.1 through 3.5 will be referred to various committees. Under resolutions, items 4.1 will be... We'll laze over and 4.2 will be referred to finance and personnel committee. Under reports of committee, item 5.1 is RC number 69 of 1920 by the finance and personnel committee. To whom was referred, RO number 39 of 1920 by the city administrator, submitting a request on behalf of the Shboygan County Economic Development Corporation, requesting the use of one of the city days for 2019 on Wednesday, November 13th for the 2019 SCDC's annual meeting to be held at the Blue Harbor Convention Center. All the person borne. Thank you, Mayor. I make a motion to receive the RC and grant the request. Second. Thank you for that motion and support. Is there any discussion on the motion? None, could the court please call the roll? Ten ayes. Motion passes. Item 5.2 is RC number 70 of 1920 by the finance and personnel committee. To whom was referred, resolution number 42 of 1920 by all the persons down to human borne, awarding the sale of 6,655,000 in general obligation, corporate purpose bond series 2019A. All the person borne. Thank you, Mayor. Mayor, did you want Carol Worth to come up and fill the rest of the council in besides finance on what the interest rates, et cetera, are on these issues? I think that would be prudent. Okay. Carol? I am going to walk you through this handout and I'm going to take you through just the first couple of pages because this summarizes everything else that's behind it, okay? So, as you've seen on your agenda, the dollar amount was 6,655,000. Well, the handout at the very first item references 6,630,000. So we've actually reduced this issue by $25,000. And to give you a little background on the, actually all three issues that we're going to be eventually talking about here is the $6 million issue is a borrowing for the city's capital improvement projects and a small portion for some refinancing of some existing debt. And the next issue is $4,225,000. They're called general obligation community development bonds which is for TIF projects. And the third one is on the agenda references 3,315,000 taxable general obligation refunding bonds. That issue also was reduced to the size of $2,960,000. And that is strictly for refinancing a 2010 bonds for savings. And the reason they have been reduced is because when you sell bonds in the marketplace, you receive what's called premium from the investors. When you get the premium, you use it to downsize your borrowing. So we have a little bit more premium on the first issue, but we had over $300,000 of premium on the third issue. So therefore we just reduce the amount of bonds that you're issuing. So with that, we prepared the city to go into the bond market. And we do that with what's called an official statement which is really a prospectus on the city. And we distribute a notice into the marketplace to let underwriters know when and how to submit bids. And we also go through the bond rating process with Moody's. For the results, Moody's has reaffirmed the city's double A2 bond rating. And there is a credit report in this handout. So I'll take you to that briefly. In terms of the bidding results, this morning we received bids. The first issue again was referenced as $6,655,000. And the projected interest rate was 2.45. But when we received the bids, we received five bids. So the first page shows you the winning bidder. On that issue was UBS financial services. And they had a true interest rate of 2.35%. Because we received some premium, we downsized it to the $6,630,000. What this is doing is again providing dollars for your capital improvement projects. And the refinancing portion is now has the savings of a little over $22,000. The next page has the same information for the next issue, which is 4,225,000, community development bonds. This issue size did not change. The projected rate was 2.67. When we took bids this morning, we received five bids. The winning bidder is Robert W. Behr at a rate of 2.57. So the difference between the six seven and the five seven is about $44,700 of less interest. And the third issue is the taxable refunding bond. Originally, it went to market at $3,315, a projected rate of 3.04. And that one we received 12 bids. And the winning bidder was Mesero Financial. The true interest rate was a 2.47, but there was over $300,000 of premium. And as a result, we brought the issue size down to the 2,960 level. And that we did strictly for savings. And when we did a projection, we were anticipating savings of about $276,000. And we ended up with savings of $354,000. So very successful sale. There are three resolutions attached to my handout. And they are what's called the award resolutions. Your approval of them will prove the borrowing terms, lock in the interest rates and tax levies. And awards the bonds to the respective winning bidder. Also two of the resolutions that we talked about refinancing contain what's called notices of call. You're authorizing us to notify the bond holders of the 2012 notes and 2010 bonds that their interest will stop on August 16th of 2019, at which time we're going to take some of the money that's been borrowed here and pay them off. So we're basically exchanging the debt for a lower interest rate and taking advantage of savings. The notices would be published tomorrow. The closing is July 29th. That means all the money that you borrowed is going to come in at one time for projects. It goes into your project accounts. If it's for refinancing, it goes into a debt service account until those 2012 and 2010 bonds can be paid off on August 16th. So this is followed by some schedules. I'll just tell you what's on the schedule. On page three is the repayment schedule for the first issue, the 6 million 630. So it shows you how you're paying principal back. Okay, that's a 15 year repayment. It's a bond issue. And the next page is what's called a pricing schedule. A lot of numbers on here, but the main numbers is the yield column and that is the market. That's what the investor is actually getting. In order to get the coupon, which is the column to the left of it, you'll see those are all at three. The investor pays a premium. That means he gives you more principal up front. So the dollar price column shows you that well, price column shows you 102.275, which means anything that's over 100 means he's paying more than $100 for $100 of the bonds. So all of that math adds up to the dollar price column. You can see the bottom of the dollar price column that this produces 6,996,245 dollars and you're selling 6 million 630 of bonds. So that's why when we get that much premium that goes into the math below, which shows that the underwriter keeps some to pay expenses. He's responsible as part of his bid to pay the expenses of issuance. And then the rest of the money comes back to the city. Now anything over 6 million 630 is going to be available to go into debt service and can downsize your impact on your tax levy. So you're going to have quite a few dollars there for tax relief. And the true interest rate is way at the bottom and that's where the 2.35% comes from. So it's all 3% in the coupon or which means interest rate, but when you get that premium back, that's what reduces that total effective rate. The next page is the same type of a showing, but for the 4 million 225, you'll see this goes out a little bit longer. Principle starts in 2022 and goes out to 2038. So 19 years and you will do this type of a structure when you are working with community development and you get the project rebuilt and then starts producing increment to start paying off the debt service. So that's the reason you see that type of a repayment schedule. And then page six is the same exercise with the pricing. Again, the yield column is the market, all threes on the coupon column, but the dollar price column adds up to more than 4 million 225, that's the premium. So the city will be getting back premium on this one as well. And again, you can use the premium to offset debt service in 2020 and in some cases part of 2021 works out very well. The next page is the refunding. So you will see the repayment schedule is, now this was an issue that only went out to 2027 because that was the term of the existing debt. We didn't go out beyond the existing term. So the new issue goes out to the same term. The bottom part of page seven shows you the comparison of the 2019 bonds to the 2010 bonds that we're paying off. And then the column to the far right is your final net debt service savings because it does include expenses. So you can see there, you're going to see saving about $44,000 a year. And that rolls up to the 353 number and in total over those years. And the following page is the same thing. Now this is a taxable issue. So it's a little bit difficult to tell sometimes normally the difference between a tax exempt and a taxable is much greater but in this market where interest rates are so low, the yield column is also very, very low for a taxable issue. And you'll see the coupon column is all at fives. And that's the reason why the investors who are paying look at the price column as high as 117 for $100 worth of bonds, you see? So tremendous amount of premium on this one, tremendous. And they want that in order to get the fives. So that's okay because then what we do is we're giving them more on the fives than we would have if they had no premium, they'd be getting the yield column as their coupon. So if they want the fives, we cut back on the principle. So it balances it out. So again, lots of premium resulted in a downsizing and the true interest cost on this one is a 2.48, again, much shorter but very good results for a taxable. That's followed by Moody's credit report. And the very first page, it says credit opinion, the summary is truly the summary of how they arrive at your AA2 and it talks about your healthy operating reserves, number one. And that provides financial flexibility and liquidity, it talks about the tax base is experiencing renewed growth. That's a very positive statement. We've been waiting a long time to hear. So that's very good to see. They talk about fixed costs and fixed costs typically is a combination of debt payments and pension, any other type of liabilities will fall under that. They also as part of, and they do make a comment that they do expect them to remain manageable. As part of our rating call, we do talk about the city's capital improvement borrowing, what the intentions are with regard to borrowing going forward. So we have credit strengths and you'll see now we have our operating reserves, our financial picture as well as a growing tax base. So that's good to hear. The challenges of course are individual income levels and levy limits which are out of your control.  So this is out of your control. And things that could lead to an upgrade in and downgrade which are typically offsetting factors. And then you get to the next page. I know the bottom part, the top part are key indicators which is used by people in the industry to compare a AA2 Sheboygan to maybe a AA2 in another state. The profile and then you have detailed credit considerations. Now you're gonna see paragraphs about each of the things that was in their summary. One paragraph about the economy and growing tax base, a paragraph about your financial operations and reserves. Okay, so we talked about liquidity. And the next page gets into your debt, your pension and OPEB. And it's a little bit harder to explain because Moody's has their own methodology for comparing pensions and OPEBs. They see quite a variety of different models and in order to do an apples to apples comparison for Moody's database, they've come up with their own methodology. So they have a little graph at the bottom that shows the system that's reported by the state which is the very, very tiny bar graph. And so you can see it's getting, technically it's getting better. But when you look at their own methodology, you'll see how it looks like it's going in the opposite direction. So that's the reason why it's very hard to explain. So I think it's kind of nice that they now, this is something new, they did not report it that way before. So whenever you got a question, it was like we have no way of explaining it, but at least now you can see that you can get credit for the fact that what does your state pension look like versus Moody's methodology. So that's kind of good news. And the last page, what's new is a scorecard. We've talked about a scorecard before, but now they've decided to put more information in their credit reports and they have categories and they have four categories and they have a couple of subcategories. And even though this gives us number one, the measure is your statistics and then the score, they've given us the letter rating. We also haven't requested and have the numeric version because if it says A or AA, we don't know if it's a one, a two, a three or a AA one, two or three. We don't know how close you are to either one by just this showing. So the numeric version we have helps us a little identify that better, but you can see the economy near tax base puts you into a AA category. There's some subcategories which is a per capita and family income. Now that's strictly what your population number divided into your tax base. That's what gives you a per capita. So as your population grows, that number gets better and your family median income levels. That's in the A category. Now A is below a AA. Now look at your finances. And this is weighted at 30% of your scoring. And you'll see there that you're in the strong AAA category for your finances. So indeed your finances is carrying a very significant part of your rating score. And management, management even though it sounds like it should be something reflected internally here, management really is a score that Moody's assigns to all cities in the state of Wisconsin. So that's what they mean by your institutional framework. They call the institution the state of Wisconsin and the cities have an A and all school districts have another rating. So that's just assigned to you. That's nothing that you can change. Debt and pensions, which is 20%, again it shows you all in the single A category. So all of that rolls up to what they have a scorecard indicator of a AA3. However, you go into committee and now you have a subjective portion of your rating process. And discussion takes place for things that just can't be scored as a number, okay? They see other factors that we've talked about or that they see a trend and we get credit for that. And so that brings us up to a AA2 rating, okay? So again, we haven't seen this, this is just brand new in terms of how Moody's is approaching their reports. So gives us a chance to go through that with you, okay? So that's your credit report and the resolutions that you have, I'm not going to take you through all of them but I will tell you that the series A and series B are tax exempt issues. So what that means is that you have to not only be following state law but federal law with regard to the issuance, you have to spend the money within 24 months from the day you receive it. So all the security is the tax levy but that does not mean that all of the debt service needs to be on the tax levy, it just means that's the security. So for example, if you have increment coming from TIFF, you can abate your levy with that increment. So the first series A is general obligation debt, tax levy for projects. The second one is your tax incremental districts which has that security but again, can be offset or abated with an increment. And the third one is a taxable refunding bond. The whole purpose is only to pay off the existing 2010 issue and it's taxable because the issue that we're refinancing was taxable. So you cannot combine them with a tax exempt issue, they must remain separate. Each one of these has what's called the bid tab showing the bidders. Each one of these has a copy of the bid form attached to it as an exhibit from the underwriter. Each one of them has a notice of sale that went out into the market, giving bidders instructions. Each one of them has the debt service and the pricing schedule that you've seen in the beginning part of the report. Carol, thank you much for that complete report. Does anybody have any questions, Carol? All the person's sirens in. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Thanks, Carol, for coming up and presenting this information today. It's always a pleasure. I did have one question regarding our credit challenges. I'm just wondering if you can kind of go more in depth about the weak resident income levels and kind of what that means and what that would look like and what an ideal situation would be to improve some of those. And definitely the levy limits, I know that's frustrating that we don't have any controls over that, but it's kind of disheartening that the state can be punitive on our credit scores as well as other cities. But if you can go kind of on that first point with more information, I'm just curious kind of more what that means and kind of what that looks like for the future and for the residents of our city. Okay, what they're comparing there is information that is available through the Census Bureau. And they take, I should know this, American community, but anyways, it's a five-year history and it produces your per capita income. It produces ages of individuals, so you get a median age for your community. So they call those social economic indices that they pull off of the census information. And right now, they're up to 2017. Okay, that's the most current number. And they compare them and according to Moody's, when they look at the numbers for your city of Sheboygan, compared to the state and compared to national numbers, they consider them to still be below an average. Now, in terms of what can the city do, I think the city indirectly tries to influence that with employment opportunities, with housing opportunities and economic development decisions. And, but that is one characteristic that does take a long time to change, okay? So you know the questions, Carol, thank you very much. The motion on the floor, Jim, I'm going to assume that that was as amended by the committee. Yes, there was motion made, but it was just to approve the documents. And so we need them as amended by the committee. Okay, we have a revision of the motion and a second, so that motion is before us. Now on item 5.2, is there any further discussion on that motion? Seeing none, will the clerk please call the roll? 10 ayes. Motion passes. Item 5.3 is RC number, Carol, you can sit down if you'd like, I think. Okay. If we need anything else, we'll call you back up. Item 5.3 is RC number 71 of 1920 by the Finance and Personnel Committee. Tumor is referred Resolution number 43 of 1920 by Alderperson Donahue and Bourne, awarding the sale of $4,225,000 in General Obligation Community Development Bond Series 2019B. Alderperson Bourne. Second. Thank you for that motion and support. Is there any discussion on this item? Seeing none, will the clerk please call the roll? Alderperson Wolfe. Aye. Alderperson Donahue. Aye. Alderperson Donahue. Aye. Alderperson Bourne. Aye. Alderperson Phillips. Aye. Mitchell. Aye. Ackley. Aye. Feldy. Aye. 10 ayes. Motion passes. Item 5.4 is RC number 72 of 1920 by the Finance and Personnel Committee. Tumor is referred Resolution number 44 of 1920 by Alderperson Donahue and Bourne, awarding the sale of $3,315,000 taxable general obligation refunding bond Series 2019C. Alderperson Bourne. Second. Thank you for that motion and support. Is there any discussion on the motion? Hearing none, will the clerk please call the roll? 10 ayes. Motion passes. Item 5.5 is RC number 73 of 1920 by the Public Works Committee. Tumor is referred Direct Referral Resolution number 48 of 1920 by Alderperson's Wolf and Sorensen, authorizing the appropriate city officials to execute a contract for engineering services regarding road improvements on Taylor Drive between Superior Avenue and Indiana Avenue and recommends adopting the resolution. Alderperson Wolf. Thank you, Mayor. I make a motion to receive the RC and adopt the resolution. Second. Thank you for that motion and support. Is there any discussion on the motion? Seeing none, will the clerk please call the roll? 10 ayes. Motion passes. Item 5.6 is RC number 74 of 1920 by the Public Works Committee. Tumor is referred Direct Referral Resolution number 49 of 1920 by Alderperson's Wolf and Sorensen, authorizing the appropriate city officials to execute a contract for engineering services regarding the road improvements on State Highway 23 slash Collar Memorial Drive slash Erie Avenue between South Taylor Drive and North 9th Street recommends adopting the resolution. Alderperson Wolf. Thank you, Mayor. I make a motion to receive the RC and adopt the resolution. Second. Thank you for that motion and support. Is there any discussion? Seeing none, will the clerk please call the roll? 10 ayes. Motion passes. Item 5.7 is RC number 75 of 1920 by the Public Works Committee. Tumor is referred Direct Referral Resolution number 50 of 1920 by Alderperson's Wolf and Sorensen, authorizing the appropriate city officials to execute a contract for engineering services regarding road improvements on State Highway 28 slash 14th Street between North Avenue and Indiana Avenue and recommends adopting the resolution. Alderperson Wolf. Thank you, Mayor. I make a motion to receive the RC and adopt the resolution. Second. Thank you for that motion and support. Is there any discussion on the motion? Seeing none, will the clerk please call the roll? 10 ayes. Motion passes. Item 5.8 is RC number 76 of 1920 by the Finance and Personnel Committee. Tumor is referred Direct Referral Resolution number 51 of 1920 by Alderperson's Donahue and Bourne, authorizing the appropriate city officials to execute three engagement letters with Quarles and Brady LLP to serve as bond counsel for the city of Sheboygan. Alderperson Bourne. Motion. Second. Thank you for that motion and support. Is there any discussion? Seeing none, will the clerk please call the roll? 10 ayes. Motion passes. Item 5.9 is RC number 77 of 1920 by the Finance and Personnel Committee. Tumor is referred Direct Referral Resolution number 52 of 1920 by Alderperson's Donahue and Bourne, authorizing the appropriate city officials to enter into an agreement for the installation and commissioning of new heating, ventilating and air conditioning controls at the Mead Public Library. Alderperson Bourne. Thank you, Mayor. I make a motion to receive the RC and adopt the resolution. Second. Thank you for that motion and support. Is there any discussion on the motion? Seeing none, will the clerk please call the roll? 10 ayes. Motion passes. Item 5.10 is RC number 78 of 1920 by the Public Works Committee. Tumor is referred General Ordinance number 4 of 1920 by Alderperson's Wolfe and Sorenson, creating a no parking, stopping or standing zone on the east side of North Point Drive between the North Point Circle and Barrett Street. It recommends adopting the ordinance. Alderperson Wolfe. Thank you, Mayor. I'd like to make a motion to receive the RC and adopt the ordinance. Second. Thank you for that motion and support. Is there any discussion? Alderperson Wolfe. Thank you, Mayor. This is a good example of constituents coming forward with a problem in their neighborhood or concern of issues and bringing it to Public Works to their elders and allowing us to help them in relieving the situation in a good, neighborly way. Thank you for those comments. Is there any other discussion? Alderperson Swaglio. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I just have some concerns on where people are to park on that street. Pardon me? The other side. The other side? Thank you. Okay. Are all good? No other discussion? The court please call the roll. 9 ayes. One abstain. Motion passes. General under general ordinances. Item 6.1 through 6.8 will be referred to various committees and next we'll turn it over for other matters authorized by law to city attorney Charles Adams. 7.1 is a resolution by all the persons Donahue and Boran authorizing the appropriate city officials to enter into the contract regarding the bulk headline survey of the Sheboygan River and Lake Michigan shoreline. That'll be referred to the finance and personnel committee. 7.2 is a resolution by all the persons Donahue and Boran authorizing the appropriate city officials to enter into a contract regarding surveying services for the proposed Union Pacific Trail. That'll be referred to the finance and personnel committee. 7.3 is a resolution by all the persons Wolf and Sorensen authorizing the appropriate city officials to enter into a contract with rebuild its service group to purchase and install a rebuild clarifier drive at the wastewater treatment facility. That'll be referred to the public works committee. 9 bakers tonight I'd also like to extend a special thanks to all administrator Hoffman finance director Marty Halverson and our budget analyst Gerry are read for all the work that was done on these documents that we talked on our bonding we talked about some savings that will get just because of the bond pricing that we got but we also had a significant amount of savings as we refinanced some of our past debts so it was a total win for the city. Thank you very much. thank you very much with that all the person wolf thank you mayor I make a motion to adjourn thank you for that motion in support all those in favor of adjournment please signify by saying aye opposed we stand adjourned thank you for your time


Yeah, so we just start it's a bit different from what we are used to okay that's not a light that much like we used to do with our projects it's all a light but this is not very light so we just start oh wait a minute wait a minute


و أقول في القرآن ما جاءت به آياته فهو الكاريم المنزال و أقول قال الله جل جلاله والمصطف الهدي و لا أتأوله الحمد لله رب العالمين له الحمد الحسن والثناء الجميل وأشد الله إلا الله وحده لا شريك له يقول الحقاء وهو يهدي السبيل وأشد أن محمد العبد هو رسوله صلى الله عليه وعلى آله وأصحابه والتابعين لهم بحسان إلى يوم الدين أما بعد إن شاء الله تعالى في today's contradiction I want to speak about something that you find many people fall into و it's a very dangerous thing which is to indulge into memorizing statements of scholars or memorizing poetry and abandoning memorizing the Quran this is something I myself have been thinking about a very for a very long time contemplating and pondering over it so it's me trying to share with you something that I critique myself for as well and that I want all of us to by the way these contradictions as I've mentioned before it's not me telling you guys that you're contradicting in something that you're saying or doing it is also myself I'm also talking to myself and it's things that I've seen from myself as well and also things that I've seen from other people so even if I don't name it I don't put a name to some of the contradictions that I'm going to mention I believe I'm the first person to fall into it so may Allah give us Subhanahu و تعالى استقامة and make us steadfast and this journey brothers and sisters that we are taking we're all in it together we're all in it together and there's no hierarchy here there isn't me and then you guys will listen rather it is all of us together as brothers and also as sisters trying to tread on that path to go to Allah Subhanahu و تعالى I ask Allah that He doesn't forsake us and that He doesn't hold us account for everything mistakes and shortcomings that we've come with and that if He gives us so here I want to speak about something that I've been thinking about I've been pondering over which is memorizing statements poetry you know the statements of people human beings even though they're scholars great imams of Islam in the on the expense of the Quran and ألمام البخاري رحمه الله he has a chapter in his صحيح in كتابه الأدب there's a chapter where he says بخاري رحمه الله he says the chapter where it's disliked and يكون الغالب على الإنساني that the person is overcome by the majority of what he does is a poetry حتى يصدع عن ذكر الله until it returns him away from the remembrance of Allah و العلم والقرآن and it turns him away from knowledge and the Quran so learn memorizing poetry of the علامة who fall under there يعني if the Quran is being abandoned the statement of a scholar is lower than the Quran then what do you think the poetry that you created or you read some even they write their own poetry and they call it spoken words or they call it poetry or some even call it anashid islamia they call it and they memorize it they will do it in the front of the stage they memorize their own word that they've written they memorized it يعني some of them have written ample poetry and they've memorized it all but in the Quran they've forsaken it they've never memorized the Quran and the messenger صلى الله عليه وسلم he said أمام البخاري also brought that under that chapter in his صحيح he brought under the chapter حديث أبو حريره يصول صفاني صحيح مسلم as well where the prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم he said لأن يمتلئ جوف رجل قيح يريه خير من أن يمتلئ شعرا the prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم he said صلى الله عليه وسلم it is better for any one of you that inside of his body or his body be filled with pus which may consume his body than it being filled with poetry the prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم he said لأن يمتلئ جوف رجل جوف here means the inside of a person to be filled up with قيحا means pus يريه خير من أن يمتلئ شعرا it is يعني to be for a person's body to be filled up with pus is actually and he consumes it his body consumes it it is better than him to be filled with poetry now here it means the poetry because بخاري رحم الله تعالى when he brought it he brought it under a chaptering and بخاري رحم الله is trying to prove the understanding of the hadith بخاري رحم الله's chapterings are his fic his views and his opinions so he is trying to extract from it رحم الله تعالى which is باب ما يكره أن يكون الغالب على الإنسان الشعر حتى يصد عن ذكر الله والللم والقرآن that the poetry or what you are memorizing it doesn't block you from it doesn't become a hindrance or an obstacle in the Quran and the remembrance of Allah and the knowledge and that's so important brother and sisters you're contradicting yourself or you're saying that my memorization is very weak I can't memorize I can't I can't but you're memorizing unnecessary stuff but when it comes to the Quran you're not memorizing it's a contradiction it's a contradiction and the first thing that we should give importance to brothers and sisters when it comes to memorizing is the Quran and everything else is secondary it comes second place it comes what? it comes second place و لذلك الإمام الأوزاعي الإمام أهل الشام رحمه الله رحمة نواسعة it was said that if a young child came in his حلقة he would say to that child have you memorized the Quran and if he says yes I have memorized the Quran he wouldn't just take his word for it he would test him and he would ask him the ayat such as the narration mentions as يوصيكم الله في أولادكم و لكم نصفوا ما تركأي يستفتونك في النسائي those verses which are ayat that talk about the inheritance so he would ask him about the ayat which are متشابه that can really tell the one who memorized and is alert if that student or that young child or that young brother or sister they've memorized it they got it right الإمام الأوزاعي رحمه الله he wouldn't يعني take them away from the حلقان he would allow them to benefit and study because they're now ready to go to the next phase of memorizing a hadith and studying but if that person had not memorized the Quran and إمام الأوزاعي would say to them go and memorize the Quran and come back go and memorize the Quran and come back and this is something brothers and sisters that if I actually written a book on it to compile the times that the إمام زواليس سلام told the people to memorize the Quran first I could come with a thick big volume I could gather a volume on this whole issue so إن شاء الله I'm going to conclude there anything which I have said that was wrong or incorrect is from me إن شاء الله his message are both free from it سبحانك الله بحمده أشدو الله أستغفرك السلام عليكم ورحمة الله وبركاته how can you do a two second action right now that will give you a share of the reward of everything we're doing on this YouTube channel simple like this video and click subscribe why it will allow YouTube to recommend our videos to other users and imagine the huge amount of reward that could be waiting for you on the day of judgment if you did that with a sincere intention of spreading the Dean of Allah you'll be rewarded for every single person who benefits from one of our videos as a result of your like or subscribe that's an easy two second action that you definitely don't want to miss out on do it now click like and subscribe and don't forget to make that intention


c'muppance. Is c'muppance the right word? I feel like it just feels right. C'muppance. Let's make brownies! But um... I don't understand, I don't understand, page, no button. Doing rush vlogs, it's actually 11 in the morning. I'm sorry, I haven't checked until now.  I haven't read any more of The Last this morning. If you haven't watched yesterday's video, I started The Last by Hannah Jameson, which fulfills two prompts for me, which are reading a book that has the same color as my birthstone and a book that starts with the. I only have 140 pages left for this and that's the end, so I definitely will finish this today, I'm hoping. I think it's all gonna really have a really fast pace at the end because everything is starting to kick off. So the aim today is definitely to finish that. I have, however, this morning listened to quite a bit of A Song Below Water, which was read the first book you touch. So I'm now 17% of the way into this and I feel like I'm starting to understand what's going on. So it's about two sisters, they're not biological sisters, but one of the girl's families has adopted the other girl and one of them is a siren and sirens have historically always been black women and they have been really discriminated against and prejudiced against and treated horribly and so she's made to hide that she is a siren by her family, they see it as like the best thing for her. Then they find out that a black woman who has been murdered by her partner, the defence is claiming that she was a siren and so it's kind of like her fault and so so far it's about the girls kind of grappling with that and you know trying to get people to recognise that this woman's life still mattered and grappling with their identity as as young girls and stuff and it's really interesting so far. It's very like fabulism to me, you know it's set in the normal world but there's all kinds of like magical entities or creatures that people can be like sirens. I can't remember what the other one was that because I'm not reading it it's sometimes difficult to remember the words but the point is that people can be lots of magical entities and some of them are recognised and some people can be open about what they are because it's not got negative connotations but the sirens is definitely a way to like communicate how black women are discriminated against in our own society so it's been really really interesting so far I would I definitely would recommend it so far I mean I'm only 17% of the way in today I would definitely like to get to maybe like 50% of the way in. We're making brownies today which I'm very excited for I love my brownies and so when I'm making that I will listen to it. That is not correct. I'm so excited to finish the last today I just want to know what's going to happen who's bad who's good I'm so excited I haven't finished yet I've only got like 60 pages left but um I mean just happen that makes like zero sense like I I don't understand how this is happening it's interesting like I don't see where the story can go from here and in only 60 pages I don't understand where we're going I don't I've lost the plot like I I'm still enjoying it something has been very much just sprung on us and I don't understand where it's going to go and I need to go make brownies now so I'm not going to get to find out until after brownies I'm fucking confused so we decided to do the Instagram challenge first and today it's cosplay as a book character so out of the books I have with me these four are our options I think our best bet is the fair fight because I have a dress I can put on that's like kind of similar did you have to make my brownies this is a recipe from having bad bakery please don't see me we're gonna be making double so any normal person would probably just make half of this but what you're gonna get is 400 grams of dark chocolate and 350 grams of unsorted butter and what we're gonna do is break it all up into small pieces put it in this glass bowl and then we're gonna put this over the top of this on boiling water and melt it melt down these ingredients it's time to weigh out the other ingredients which are 650 grams of caster sugar 260 grams of plain flour and six eggs this was the weirdest ending period ever just took a completely different turn than what I was expecting oh my god I didn't love the ending I didn't love it this thriller surprisingly is one is definitely better at the beginning than at the end whereas most winners I feel like are better at the end than they are at the beginning this ending will not satisfy everyone the ending is like what it's like what some it was just a bit ridiculous it was just a bit ridiculous and listen I like a bit ridiculousness in my thrillers like I do like it to be a bit like haha a bit campy like a bit never gonna happen you know like I like that in thrillers but this I just don't know how to react I just don't know what to say to you I realized I never explained that this was obviously I think I said at the back actually I read it the last minute yeah so this was written after the 2016 presidential election and politics and blame for voting someone like Donald Trump in plays a big role in this it's obviously written with the eye that Donald Trump is going to cause a nuclear war which you know touch work I can't let me not let me not jinx anything has yet to occur I think that's the last thing 2020 could take I mean at that point 2020 just got hold its hands up and just say fine we thought it couldn't get any worse I I really liked this book on the whole I'm gonna give it four stars it's a four star it could have been a 4.5 a four like it paid 200 to 250 even it was a 4.5 the ending brought it down a bit I didn't hate the ending it just wasn't brilliant it felt a bit like oh my god what am I gonna write what am I gonna write you know like just chucking shit in the wall and hoping something sticks you I'm still I'm kind of angry though you find out things I can't spoil anything but you find out things about characters at the end here fuming fuming fuming but also then the ending you're like you got what you deserved you got what you deserve you got what you deserved at points you know I was there with you and then I found out the truth about you and now comeuppance is comeuppance the right word I feel like it just feels right comeuppance with this finished we have got prompts one and two down to read a book that matches my birthstone and a book starting with the word that I'm very happy on day two we've gotten two of the prompts down and it was a good read I'm glad I read it however the ending I still haven't wrapped my head around it like my brain can't compute like my brain doesn't understand it's like bitch on the whole a strong thriller a very different thriller that doesn't have a nice little bow at the ending with everything tied up necessarily if you're okay with that I would still really really recommend this I have read a bit more of a song below water I'm now 27% of the way through that so I've listened to another 10% um but I don't really have anything more to add to in that 10% so hopefully we'll make really great progress in that in tomorrow's vlog so if you're interested in a song below water definitely check out tomorrow's vlog because I'm hoping to like get at least 75% of the way through that tomorrow thank you very much for watching this vlog I hope you enjoyed it I'm guessing it's going to be a bit shorter than yesterday's but who knows and I'm having so much fun doing this reading rush it is like the most fun I've had on bookchips so yeah I hope you're enjoying everything and I will see you tomorrow with another reading vlog bye