So we'll call to order this meeting of the Winooski City Council in combination with the school board. We'll start with the Pledge of Allegiance, led by Councillor Oakley. Please stand. Pledge of Allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. And I'll note that while we're fortunate to have our mayor joining remotely with this many people in the room, we agreed I'll facilitate the meeting when needed. So thank you, mayor, for still being here despite not being in the state. And we'll forge ahead. At this moment, we can look at our agenda review. If there are any items you want to raise about the agenda. Okay. Next, we'll move on to public comment. This is an opportunity for members of the public to make comments on any topic that is not included in tonight's agenda. If you're here for a topic included on the agenda, please wait until we reach that item. And as a reminder for folks who are joining us on Zoom, you can raise your hand and we can move you over to speak. Is there anyone who wishes to speak during public comment? All right. Moving on. We have our consent agenda tonight. This involves the approval of the city council minutes and cannabis control commission minutes of 10, 3, 2022. The approval of the approval of the accounts payable warrant 10, 13, 22 and approval of payroll warrant for 9, 18, 22 to 10, 122. Any concerns with the consent agenda? Could I pull out the city council minutes? There's a small correction. Okay. I want to make sure it's noted. So we will remove the city council minutes from 10, 3, 22 and make that regular item H at the end of our meeting and we'll address those then. So with the remainder of the items on the consent agenda, is there a motion to approve? So moved. Second. Motion from Bryn. Second by Thomas. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Motion carries. Next up we have council reports. Can I start with you? Certainly. So we had last week, we had both our safe, healthy connected people meeting on the 11th and our inclusion and belonging commission meeting on the 13th. At the safe, healthy connected people meeting, we began the process of reviewing the nonprofit grants. The commission members didn't feel they were quite ready to finish review and go through it all. So we're going to hold a special meeting, most likely on the 1st, November 1st and finish that review then. And so we can have it on the council meeting on the 7th floor council to review. And at our inclusion and belonging commission meeting, unfortunately we didn't have a quorum, but see our first regular item is to bring on two more members. So hopefully going forward we'll have everyone that we need to run those meetings. Those are my main updates. Great. Thank you. Absolutely. Sure. The municipal infrastructure commission is not having its regular meeting. We met jointly with the finance commission earlier this month. And time we discussed ARPA priorities as well as budget priorities for council to consider. We will be having another joint meeting on November 17th and look forward to reconvening at that time. And that will be the regularly scheduled meeting for the infrastructure commission. The chin and solid waste district bond vote just want to remind residents to request that ballot in addition. It was not a part of the mail in ballot that was sent by the state. So just want to advise folks if they are doing mail in ballots to request that from our city, city clerk. Thank you. Mayor, could I move to you next as you would normally be right here? Certainly. I joined the town meeting trustees, town meeting TV trustees meeting, reviewed financials and received information about work they are starting in a grant funded project to look at accessibility options in media. I was fortunate to attend this week's school board meeting where the board signed final documents to accept the U.S. State funding for the capital project, which I cannot remember the numbers, but they have saved more than $15 million in interest over the life of the loan from what was initially projected. So kudos to WSD and their project is on track to complete this fall under the the bottom out approved by voters. Very exciting. Also attended a meeting with a lane with some Somali community leaders, as well as some residents at our lady of Providence with counselor heard our planning commission looked at their work plan. So I continued some historic preservation instead of discussion and looked at some new information on parking. Unfortunately, I was unable to make that meeting so don't have any detailed updates to share. That is it for me. Thank you, Mayor. And since our last meeting, I was fortunate to attend the heart of the new ski foundation meeting as a board member, which is the first time I've been able to get back together with that group in quite a while, which is really exciting. We were talking about a BIPOC educator fund, excuse me, BIPOC teacher fund set up so the ability to apply for receive funds for training support to grow our workforce BIPOC individuals in the school district, which is great. Also, we're seeking a parent representative for the group still so a member of the PTO is supposed to be appointed per charter. This would be a great opportunity to get involved in the new ski school district and understand some of the work in needs of our students and teachers and support them. And great chance to get involved with the PTO and great chance to get involved with our new ski. It's a two for so encourage any parents who are interested to reach out to the school district or myself and we can get you set up with supports and information for joining that group. And another topic we discussed is kind of how to phase out phase expenditures and thinking about how to target the funding that the Howe Foundation currently oversees, which is great because it comes alongside a lower debt estimate than originally bonded for as the mayor alluded to. So this is it was a really encouraging meeting and exciting to be restarting that process with that group now. I haven't met with downtown Winooski since our last meeting but I did want to remind everybody that we still need some volunteers to help with setting up the pumpkins in the middle of Winooski for our Halloween celebration. So this weekend Saturday and Sunday from nine to five at the Winooski Senior Center, we will be carving pumpkins. I'll be there on Sunday. So if you want to join me, come on by then. If you don't feel like carving pumpkins at the senior center, you can pick them up and take them home and carve them as well. Thank you. Thank you, counselor. So we'll move now to the next portion of our agenda, which is regular items. Oh, sorry. We'll move to the next item on our agenda, which is number seven city updates. Sorry, Elaine. I'll turn it to our city manager, Elaine. So welcome to the school board. For those of you watching this remotely, you can't see them right now. So this is a reminder and the school is superintendent of course. So this is a reminder that as the weather gets colder and we gather indoors more that COVID is still around. You can get your free test kits from the city from the city clerk's office, the library or senior center and vaccines are available near you to find a walking clinic near you. You can use it. 19 slash vaccine or just call 211. There are city board and commission seats open when you ski commission for inclusion and belonging town, meaning TV trustee, finance commission, municipal infrastructure commission, safe, healthy connected people commission to learn more and apply. So this is the state updates section at when you ski vt.gov. It is not too late to register to vote in the for the November 8 election. You can do that all the way up until the day of voting. You would do so at that on that day at the polls, which for when you ski is at the senior center. You can also register to vote now up until then in advance visit when you ski vt.gov slash vote. You can connect with the city clerk's office at<PHONE_NUMBER>0 and also send an email to clerk at when you ski vt.gov. And you or you can stop in at 27 West Allen Street Monday through Friday, 730 a.m. to 430 p.m. All new ski residents may vote in the chin and sell waste districts materials recovery facility bond vote. Just us citizens may vote in the general election because they though that includes statewide and nationwide offices. Lastly, if you're looking to develop affordable housing as a developer as a homeowner on your own property or need a bit of extra help with a down payment. For buying your first home and it isn't when you ski please note the when you ski housing trust fund is available to potentially help you. More information is that when you ski vt.gov or by calling opportunities credit union, which is the grant administrator at 1-800-865-8328. Thank you. So now we'll move on to number eight. Our regular items. The first item we have up is for approval inclusion and belonging commission appointments. Jenny, I believe will be introducing this item. Chair doesn't know. Good evening. A couple of a couple of little amendments that were discovered after the agenda was created after reviewing the charter. With Elaine, we realized that the terms for our five members should have been staggered three two year terms to one year terms. We had everybody in at 630 24 for two year terms. So in order to correct this and I reached out to all the council members, they contacted them all for their preference in the length of the term. Today, regrettably, we received a resignation from Ariana Kano who just time issues. She's really has a full plate. So she's unable to be part of our commission. So I extended the welcome that if she wants to ever join us or has thoughts, I think she was a key person. So tonight I'm here for the appointment of Parker Silver as member to a two year term expiring October 31st 24. And with the resignation of Ariana today, I'm requesting appointment of Abdi Muhammad who is I know visiting with us was zoom to a member. He originally we had Abdi as a alternate, but due to the resignation, we'd like to bring him aboard for the five. So we have a quorum. So he is we have a one year term expiring on 1031 23 for Abdi. Okay. Okay. Okay. I'm very literal. So June 30 of 23. Yeah, the terms are all engines. So that was my oversight. So Parker will be June 30 of 24. Abdi is June 30 of 23. And he is there. He and Councilor heard a night interviewed him. It was a great interview. And we're excited to have obdi as well as Parker join our inclusion and belonging commission. Wonderful. Thank you for that introduction. Jenny. Paul, can we bring up the over to speak about the girls set when you're ready. Thank you. Everybody hear me. Yes. Well, I just want to say thank you guys for taking the time to especially Jenny take the time to introduce me very happy to be here and Looking forward to making one of ski and continue to make money ski a Very moving forward city Well, thank you for your interest and commitment to serving this is great I guess I'll check. Are you okay with having a full member seat as opposed to an alternate? Absolutely. Wonderful. Um, thanks. Any questions for opti from counselors? No questions just want to say I'm sure the school board is very excited to see you applying for this role course Wonderful any other discussion on this item? Well, thank you. I'll be for being here. I will take a motion to approve Parker Silver for a two-year term experience six thirty twenty twenty four And Abdi Muhammad for a one-year term experience six thirty twenty twenty three. You want to split them? Yes, I need to abstain on one. Okay All right, let's start with Parker So I'll take a motion to approve Parker Silver for a two-year term experience six thirty twenty twenty four Second. All right motion by Thomas second by Brynn all those in favor, please say aye. Aye And I think the mayor said aye I'm sorry and All those abstaining Motion carries and next I'll take a motion for Approving Abdi Muhammad to a one-year term to the inclusion and belonging commission experience six thirty twenty twenty three Second motion by Brynn second by Aurora all those in favor, please say aye. Aye Motion carries. Thank you Thank you Jenny and thank you Abdi and Parker And Jim So you'll you can expect a cleanup item on a future agenda to set the terms for the remaining members wonderful Thank you Alright, we are coming to a wonderful yearly Tradition of having the school in the city meet jointly and I don't think we did this last year So I'm glad it's hopefully going to become a yearly tradition again So very excited to be welcoming our school board members and our superintendent to the meeting Thank you for being here on our regularly scheduled evening and in the city hall chambers I would ask the mayor. Do you want to introduce this item? Yeah, sure Thank you Jim for facilitating and Thank you school board for joining us trustees I definitely didn't do it last year and I almost want to say the year before either but I've historically tried to have an annual joint meeting as part of our partnership in serving Manuski And so bringing that back to tradition Wanted to do first some introductions I don't know that we have all had a chance to meet and Then do a little overview of each of our boards and how they function in our organizations Talk about the memorandum of understanding and some changes that are coming from superintendent McMahon and city manager Wong and Then I drafted a memo here related to the shared equity audits that our two organizations went through Wanted to touch base on our shared priorities There were a couple of recommendations out of that report for for the school and the city and then talk about ongoing engagement opportunity so To kick us off if you could share your name your role and maybe something that you do outside of your board role so I'm Christine Lott mayor of the city of Manuski and I Am currently in Atlanta because outside of being the mayor I work for an education nonprofit and I am attending a conference right now If I could I'll start with Alex who's closest to me on the screen Actually My name is Kamal I'm on a school board This is my first time on this type of joint meeting One of the fun thing about myself is I actually got married and over on to me Hi, I'm Tori Cleveland. I am the current board chair I've lived in Manuski for 18 years and the reason I know that it's because it's a year before my first daughter was born So am I free time? I like to parent Which is very fun And hi, I'm Steven verbecto a school board members who were trustee he him pronouns and Gosh I'm like 80% dad and 20% everything else And the 20% includes helping when is he newsroom Sean McMahon it's superintendent he him pronouns and I Was a Peace Corps volunteer in Botswana 30 years ago Elaine Wong city manager as of five months ago almost exactly And I Really like mushroom hunting and I found a blue edible one two weeks ago, and I'm still excited about that Thomas runner city counselor. I have two dogs and six chickens, which is fun I'm Jim Duncan Been here for ten years that two kids in the school district. I was gonna say I have five chickens And I was really excited about that But they are they are my little hobby and I stare at them and wonder what they're thinking We're not leave she her pronouns. I was elected in 2021 to council and live on Franklin Street and Also in public service did AmeriCorps out in Washington state Hi, my name is a war heard my pronouns are they them city council members since March and Fun thing about me. I guess in my spare time I do creative fiction Wonderful. Thank you everyone for sharing So first wanted to kind of run through our different board roles I Have I can share my screen right?  This is from our 2022 council orientation Wanted to start for for the city council with our strategic vision, which was Community driven through a lot of inputs. We kind of focus our work around these four key areas I know WSD has a mission statement. So this is similar So around economic vitality municipal infrastructure housing and safe healthy connected people So we have in Winnowski a council manager form of government meaning that the mayor and city counselors are The policy setting board elected by residents So we work on the big picture high-level priorities to direct staff operations high-level view of a budget and guidance for what gets on to the town meeting day balance and essentially policy setting and We have a city manager who is a full-time employee serving as the chief administrative officer So running the day-to-day operations actually supervising and directing staff So taking care of all the nitty-gritty details, but also supporting us in development of policy I have this very messy org chart From a prior presentation But essentially just want to call out that Winnowski residents and voters are there at the top because that is who we answer to They elect us to then provide guidance To the manager down to staff for the city And so here's another demonstration of the council manager form of government and how our roles function where you know We are primarily there with the high-level mission and policy Whereas the management and administration kind of sits closer to with the staff you can see there's like a little bit of a Little bit of overlap there, but not too much. We try to keep it high-level here And so we are setting high-level guidance and then approving how that is carried out by staff It's a quick overview I would pass it to Tori or Sean to talk about the school board. Yeah, so yeah, so we're the school board. So what we do we? Follow policy governance We are obligated by our owners the way we call it in policy governance is their owners and that would be a Winnowski residents parents staff and One of our big roles that we are gonna Start really focusing in on is how we link with our ownership We do have a policy that requires us to have a three-year plan for how we're going to do outreach and staying communication and Here and see the needs and wants and Advocacy pieces for our parents and students and community members and so we're going to be launching into that hopefully starting in November and us talking about at the board table and Really doing some deep dive into where we've been with community outreach where we would like to see ourselves going We were super. I was super inspired by the engagement plan that the city council mayor and city council did To really show thoughtfulness and why the purpose of outreach Following up with things and then also making sure that each communities within our larger community are being Reached out to and heard and seen so we have some work ahead of us to do in that area And thank you for the inspiration of what y'all put together last spring Anything else board members you want to talk about the board and roles? Thank you for that time So thank you for the introductions and overviews We have a memorandum of understanding between our two organizations on the agenda Elaine and Sean can I ask you to introduce that so I I'd have to say it's quite an operational document at this point I don't know what the school board would intend to do with that. I would ask council to Continue to allow us to take care of that on the administrative level There I'm trying to open it right now Thank you Thanks partner so There's the the items that are on there for the public's benefit include The are rather the 21c ran program where the city partners with the school to provide some programming for students outside of school time The police the student resource officer from our police roster the Snow plowing and salting services to the school. I have to say that City staff have asked for that to not continue in the coming year We did say that last year that this was in here for this year, but it is going to be a challenge We're gonna have to contract out that service again because we're shorthanded again and just a note to the public when we are Working in the school lot and don't have enough staff We end up not calling sidewalks like that's what has to go so it's you know, it's nobody's fault It's just it's the environment that we're in in terms of labor shortages and so forth The fourth item is of course remitting back to the city to the school the statewide property taxes are collected on your behalf the Yes, our own item is actually number five. So the second item has to do with I'm sorry police officers at As security at sporting events and after-hours activities Sixth item is partnership on the school newsletter. So that was a great initiative started by the school district and We jumped on that because it's great that it's mailed to all addresses and I'll say the community I came from it went to property owners, which is not everybody and given our high renter population. That was a That's a nice Thing that we do provide at least English for the time being and number seven The last one is use of facilities for mutual benefit So of the items that I mentioned, you know, the SRO is pending. I think whatever the school board discussed last week There'll be a formal notification to the city by November 1st as Stated in the document for any budget implications between the two bodies by November 1st, right? Okay Salting and plowing was the other item that I mentioned Links are not working as I expected. Oh Something where yeah, no, I would just say this document for me is really important because it symbolizes the Partnership across the city and it gives us shared responsibilities It gives us in some cases even shared language about how we work with youth And how we can all kind of look after our youth and take care of them in different ways Not only by providing programming, but it's lent itself You know having city staff running the thrive program or being engaged in 21c summer and after school programming You know, we share training about how to interact with students in particular environments and so forth and that also Goes out into the community at the pool and at the senior center and in the community where All of our employees city employees and staff many of whom live in the city as well Can take a consistent approach to to working with particularly students, but all community members And I'll add that Staff have our recommending meeting Sean and I that we add an agreement paragraph number eight on The parties developing in consultation with the news key community a shared work plan Based on the shared equity audit conducted by opportunities consulting with the report dating April 22nd 2022 and that is purposely lacking in specifics because we want to develop that over the next year in Futures, perhaps there would be more detail But for now we want to codify that commitment to make sure that the two bodies agree on that and then number nine a new number nine recommended by city staff is We've requested that WSD draft language to codify the circumstances under which the city pays for The school staff's cultural liaison time outside of school activities Yeah, and I would just add that those pieces that Elaine just mentioned those Will be Incorporated into the next MOU the current one expires February 28th of 2023, so we would be working on That on the interim to incorporate the items that she just discussed for the next MOU Right so at this point if there's anything at a high level You would like to us to see work on together in terms of the details. This would be the time to discuss that Thank you for that and to be clear This is a generally operational Document as was mentioned that we have said in the past the manager has signing authority unless It creates a financial change that goes over that threshold and so You know depending how things play with the SRO and the removal of the snow plowing It could come back to us for that purpose. I can't see Over facilitation here, so I think I saw counselor Oakley if you had your hand up and then trustee So in the agenda we the city presents Updates to the shared agreement are there additional is that just from the city side or is that? in collaboration them was that part of the discussion with the school board so I haven't discussed it with a school word. I discussed it with Sean. Okay, I'm gonna get up to him to involve the school board Right because I wanted to as a follow-up question. I was gonna say are there any other Changes to the MOU that the trustees would want us to have in mind or consider sounds like no Okay Thank you Thank you, thank you for the quick rundown of the MOU for the the benefit of our community who's tuning into this You went through those items pretty quickly and one of them that that some of our neighbors may have questions about is the Police at school events. I was wondering if you could speak to that a little bit about how that how that works And what our community members can expect from that partnership agreement? So in the MOU right now what that really specifies is a rate if we request Police present at a presence at a school event and in the past We have rarely done that only for very large more public athletic events So it's just in there so that there's a stated rate for the most part And it sounds like that's been a part of the relationship between the school in the city for for a while. Yes And are there any substantive changes to the agreement with respect to the school resource officer? So I at last week's board meeting I spoke to the board and we had a discussion because I wanted to be clear about whose Decision it was within this MOU To notify the city if there was going to be a change that would have budget implications for FY 24 and The discussion centered around that that was my decision In the existing MOU so I will be formally notifying This city by November 1st in a formal memo that we would like to continue in the same model and Continue to incorporate some of the recommendations that were in the multi stakeholder report for next year and then the following year to Implement the district liaison officer and the school security coach model that was recommended in the multi-stakeholder report Got it. And if it's not too much to ask could you give a quick rundown of what changes our school community can expect next year. I Don't think that they will notice a lot of differences aside from the geographical difference with the new building and that the SRO will have an office at the the front of the building with our receptionist and The there were the SRO will not be in the building all of the time and set up and be there in off time So we'll start transitioning to the district liaison officer Which is really built around that they are the the officer is in the building and on campus at specific times when needed and other than that can Provide services to the city as a regular officer and then would be the one who would come to the city dirt or come to the school campus during A request from a request from the school I understand so it sounds like over the course of next year There will be a change from the model that we're used to as a school community to a Model where the SRO would be on campus less often. Yeah, we'll be inching towards that district liaison officer model and We have a lot of work to do around of our emergency procedures with doubling our square footage So I would expect that he is going to continue to spend quite a bit of time And working on emergency procedures and working with our public safety committee to shore that up This year and next year Thank You Stephen and Sean are there other questions from board members or counselors Just really happy to see the share agreement number eight I heard from some members of the community about the desire for a question-and-answer period or some sort of event around the equity audit So it's great that there looks like some community Input is going to be being sought out. So thank you for that Yeah, and I've heard similar feedback of really looking for some kind of organized response So I want to see action and not just words I think is a lot of what the community is looking for And on a lot of these items it really is going to be a collaboration between the city and school. So I Look forward to making sure that happens I just wanted to mention that next Wednesday the 26th We will be having a community dinner that is going to be focused on a report that was done on diversifying the workforce specific to the school district But it's also something that Elaine and I have talked about that we both share a want and a desire to Continue to grow across the city's public entities here. So We will have a nice community dinner It's great to get back to actually having people together in person and sharing a meal like we have done in the past and then Tntp will be sharing some data and some findings that they had from the work that they did last year and The diversification of our workforce in the district ties into our anti-racism work as well So that'll be an opportunity for the community to come up to the school Dinner will start at five o'clock next Wednesday and the presentation will start in our brand new performing arts center at six o'clock Come on. I have a question for the city manager The plowing services, is that not going to happen for this year? Is that for the next following year? So fair enough, I have an opening gambit to present to Sean and I can picture where it's going to go, but On behalf of the city it is a very challenging Thing for us to cover especially with the increase in paved surface So he's probably going to say no because of the way your budget is going right now but we're hoping to not do that this year, but Well, we'll have to figure it out one way or the other Thanks. I'm glad we have administrative professionals to sort that out for us Yeah, I had a follow-up question. Thank you about the school transportation I know that there is a lot of Interests from the community about ensuring safe transportation to and from school Do you have any sense of time lighting or like when the next meeting is decision points things like that? so to say there's a lot of interest as an understatement as everybody knows and I Would just tell you that because I don't want to get out publicly ahead and promise something that I cannot deliver and this has been really complicated work and the positive results that have happened is that The school district has taken the lead and really gotten outside of what our scope of General work is but we just we've decided that that it was really important we Committed funding to a local community organizing group to help recruit potential drivers to work with STA We have partnered with the DMV so that they are providing testing at Vsac Where our district offices right now and is a very convenient place for local Driver candidates, so there's just been a ton of work that has gone on and it has revealed the deep bureaucracy and the barriers to a lot of folks particularly Who have varying levels of English acquisition at the time? that are in play and So we have been learning how to navigate those and to also teach other organizations how to navigate those put a lot of resource into it and My hope is that we are going to have an announcement for you in the next month or so But I do not I know there would be a lot of people out there who are would be upset with me if I put a date Even a even a range date on it right now Describing the work Which is the small work for the amount of work it took to get to this place is really important and recognizing Barriers that we all need to help continue to break down so that there's more access everywhere and it really is a Huge lift for the school district to do that work, but it was the best interest of the kids our families our community And it's amazing that you and Cole took that on Thank you. Yeah, so thank you for that. Thanks. Yeah, or Lee and the in the community Organizing that is also in coordination with you all. It's been amazing work. I I'm completely on the sidelines, of course, but hearing some of the details. It does feel like it's a Works out. It's a great case study of how we all need to rethink how our structures work in order for it to work for more people and some great opportunity for elected officials to legislatively advocate and for resources for Breaking down of bureaucracy And for those folks to even push up to the federal level which impacts something like bus driving It has made it very challenging. We've learned a ton and we've advocated But it also will help and we can give you more specific information and language that you could use to advocate as well I think that would be really appreciated to have that resource Yes, Alex Oh There's a lot of people from council That started really Partnership Just want to make sure that we recognize some of those partnerships that's helped us to strengthen the city and also the school district That's just one level of it and also the other thing that we've done together Well, there's a city and there's a school. It's just So what Sean has mentioned isn't anything that we haven't done before But it shows the strength of what happens when we do work together And then I'll say I think not only benefits the residents of the news keep up all residents I Had one other recommendation that's perhaps not covered in here, but in terms of the city and school collaboration Just really exploring the channels of how we Usually distribute information through our own social media through from porch form, etc and I you know, I would want the city manager and to And the city staff to consider Whether or not it would be appropriate to share any school updates as part of the city updates as part of our Opening agenda items I know that Quite a few community members may pay attention to one meeting and not another but collaboratively collectively All residents are are impacted by each other's mutual meetings So I just want to offer that up as something to consider for collaboration Thank you, Bryn, and I do want to know that we'll have some time to talk more about the equity audit Findings to which I think would plug in that will plug in nicely to kind of thinking beyond this MOU in particular How we can strengthen some of those other areas too? I wanted to so I don't know if your comment or questions even was related to that Or something else Yes, sir And I'm not about that up my communication within our community is really important And I'm grateful for the cooperation to the city in the school that produces the newsletter Reliable source of information for our neighbors. I and I also know this Perhaps you must do that it available in English and I hope that in the future as The partnership And the school and that furniture including the resources of the multi-linear systems that there is a possible feature where our neighbors are able to access the same information in In several of our community Yeah, it's sort of something I've started talking about with our communications director and the challenges Money it's a lot of a lot of words to translate which maybe is part of the problem so Definitely something we want to consider because it does get to every doorstep and at the very least having a QR code We can see an electronic version in your home language. That would be delightful So but we'll see how far we get on that and look to have some progress to report in this year. We do have a Language access plan money that should know we should be able to use to Study the need and if really that's the bright thing to be doing and then we can get in the language of them So for thank you at this point I'd like to pause and see if any members of the public who are here in chambers or online have any questions or comments on the MOU Draft and previous out the MOU recommendations in previous items before we move on to talk about the equity audit recommendations So if you're on zoom you can raise your hand If you're in chambers and you want to speak please let us know Right, so I'm seeing no public comment at this time mayor. Do you want to introduce the next item on the equity audit funding and recommendations? Sure, we've already sort of started to dive into this But attached to the the agenda tonight is a memo Outlining updates from the city side on the equity audit priorities So we had coming out of that report three The school district had some priorities given the city had some and then there were three shared areas The first being school transportation, which we just heard an update from the district on In the memo. I included some other efforts. The city has undertaken around public transition public transportation more generally Including some advocacy with GMT around a more affordable assessment or with the the state around increased funding for public transit There's also been a micro transit pilot that GMT ran it sorry Green Mountain transit ran in Montpelier And we've shared that if they would like to expand that or finding the pilot community that muski would be interested in that The second item of shared priority is the school liaison expansion Which having our manager and the superintendent work together on outlining our current stipend structure or Expanding on that, you know right now we have had success through a stipend model working with the school district Liaisons through our upper listening sessions and some previous sessions. We had done Summer before but I did think it would be a nice opportunity tonight to hear from the school side a little bit more about The that role and the work that's being done and the importance of it which can inform our future thinking You want to hear that now? Yeah, sorry. Hey, please So I think as everybody knows our cultural liaisons are our gold and they were particularly During COVID the ability to communicate With families so frequently about COVID and health about learning about logistics and everything was Incredible and so that's also reflective of my biggest concern Which is their? health and their capacity because All of them Will answer the call from a member of their community any day of the week any hour of the day And it happens frequently and they don't go and clock in and Ask for the 15 minutes to take the phone call at one in the morning because the fire alarm is going off and You know, they're not sure what to do or who to call or whatever They answer the call and they help solve the problem and we never know about it so I think we all need to keep in mind the high value and that we need to create positions that are that are healthy and Useful and we need to create capacity across the county and the state where people see this as a a livelihood And don't just do it out of the goodness of their heart for their community But they do it because for that reason, but also because it is a livable wage it is a Good life where they can contribute to their community and they can still have all the things that most people want whether it's a home a family vacations all those things and So I think we just really need to be thoughtful about how we Collaborate on this one as we move forward because I'm very concerned about their well-being Can I say Kind of towards that I think with some of the ARPA listening sessions that that even came up But especially of say families that have moved to other school districts Thank both at the Essex and Colchester were given as examples of the school liaisons here in muski would still be called for help like calling out a child who's sick and having that translation service, so I like the idea of really Expanding it beyond when you ski and advocating with our Other towns to make sure that they have those resources To to make sure there's that fair compensation. I did want to ask a question if I could Sean about The district was able to expand some capacity in adding additional staff or turning part-time into full-time and How you've seen that address address the needs or not Yeah, so we did that with esser funds primarily to address COVID at the time and so our two largest multilingual populations we added An additional liaison in each one of those groups our three groups actually and It certainly helped But again, it's scratching the surface, you know with what can be done And so I think you know that that's our liaisons end up addressing things that are not school-related and We try to help them draw boundaries around that Culturally that's not always an acceptable thing to do and I understand that and So I think we again we need to create that capacity so that there are Folks in other agencies. It's one of the one of the only silver linings I can think of at the moment about COVID was we pushed on the health department We pushed on other organizations to when they said to us Oh, we'll just have your folks translate that and interpret it and send it out and we were like You guys should have been prepared for this and you should have had the capacity to do that Now when you're asking us to we can't do x y and z So I think we need to continue to advocate to kind of build that capacity Everywhere and what does it look like from the city perspective, you know What do you all want to communicate and when you talk to multilingual? Residents, what is it that they want to know from the city and then figure out what the model is from there? Does that help Chris mayor lot? Yeah, that's super helpful Sean. Thank you And teaching us to think deeper on that The second point that I would like to But I think about our way as long as a great Those are skill sets that are So it's a pipeline to positions that go into the city now I'm not saying I'm scared because it means our cultural ways But I think it is a natural And we have to think about that how to develop into building it into the city structure or to those other state jobs So as we move forward you're working together thinking of the latest on how do we create programs where allows them to like kind of Move into the city jobs to make it easier for of the city to serve students and I know this because As you well know, I serve as like a liaison for one student in the Chinese community And I remember doing the phone call at 10 p.m. And I wasn't going to turn it down And so and this was about you know, residency Right, and that's only one and I know that our way is 130 we need to make sure that Don't just Well, I just wanted to add to the example that I can think of well, you know when we think about translating stuff And then sending out to the new American folks, I'll give you in one example There was one person who reached out to me asking if he can get a subsidies on his green color car Because the translated document that he received said, you know for a green vehicle You know electric efficient people would get some subsidies But the translated version made it sound like if you have a green color car you get subsidies That's like it's just a simple example of what? the confusion that can be caused just vibrantly translating so My last two years up being on the board. I've learned one thing That a lot of new American communities from Winniske It's really seeking for an opportunity to get a civic Training or works up from the city and the school because people reach out to me I'm on the board and they know that they reach out to me asking questions that are You know strictly administrative That are supposed to go to the teachers maybe or superintendent or other administrative staff and I as much as I can I try to explain that But I think a more comprehensive training about not just the school Administrative body the hierarchy of the school system, but also the city and maybe the state Would be extremely helpful because we sent out ballots and we have expended that to Permanent residents as well, but I really want to make sure that We also give them opportunity to learn about different positions and their roles so they can come here Participate and voice themselves We have great liaisons to help at this school where the people can for any issue Just reach out to the liaisons and then get to the school that way, but if we Provide an opportunity if the city and the school can work together to help our residents Again that information and knowledge of the system the structure, which is very new To a lot of new American communities. I can speak for my own family You know the place that we came from we had came and the school was completely different so everything here is new the structure of this City council or the structure of the school is completely new compared to what we had Back in Nepal and a lot of other immigrant communities from different parts of the world have various different structures so It's very very important that I think when we talk about access and when we talk about giving voice to our community That's one aspect that we have to think Yeah, thank you. I actually can work together on creating that Yeah, that insight is is super helpful and I think it Touches back to something that was envisioned in some of the shared equity work at the prior to the COVID-19 pandemic around city tours and a civic governance kind of Learning opportunity for different language groups in our community because that was a gap like knowing where to go for what service And who you'll find there and how that all fits together is feels transparent to us But it's pretty much transparent to no one else whether or not you speak English as a first second or acquired language And so I appreciate that and I hope as we kind of come into this new stage of the COVID-19 pandemic That's something that we can revisit Um, may I want to recognize you had other items in that memo that you had not yet gotten to Before we go further on this. Do you want to continue on the other items? Sure. Thank you So the the third area of shared shared priority in the report was strengthening of the city and schools collaboration Which is something that we are intent, you know tonight is a piece of that puzzle Is bringing more connection between our bodies You know, we have a couple of standing touch points, which I outlined in the memo our superintendent and manager are meeting regularly um myself in the I keep forgetting if it's president or chair. It's president President. Thank you by charter. It's president. Yes um school board president Quarterly are also meeting with them. Um, and then you know, we heard from Deputy mayor duck and earlier there's some crossover on various other boards, but We've just heard of another opportunity for potential collaboration and You know Tori and I have discussed I shared with her the community access plan that We approved as council A few months ago and as they set out to work on their linkage plan There's certainly opportunity for alignment there We are We have started um reaching out to community members under that plan. So For those who aren't familiar you know, we've identified A process and a list of existing community groups that we are reaching out to to try to create like twice annual touch points to share key things that are happening in the city and also hear back key concerns and ideas and um The goal is to include school trustees at those meetings as as well when possible um, and I think there's As you all set out on your plans like we can continue to revisit this and see how we can collaborate further on that um And I do just want to say that that community engagement and outreach is sort of a Foundational step that I think supports all of the priorities in that report And building those relationships making more transparency and connection with leadership in the city for all of our residents I also shared We had a few items of just city priority that I put updates in here on One being in housing So a few highlights in here the housing trust fund which elaine managed at this top of the meeting in city updates We are actively hiring housing initiative director to support initiatives related to those goals Our planning commission Up to the council we recently updated local zoning to incentivize development of affordable and free bedroom or larger housing to meet community needs and Our city manager has also been working with Other agencies to bring education resources into the community. So one of the specific priorities was landlord and tenant education um, and then Advertising and recruitment in city hiring was also touched on a little bit earlier, but that is another priority of the city to You know diversify our staff by Creating more openings within our community for existing residents um I will pause there For other contributions, but also to offer If the school board wants to share any of the other priorities that they were working on You couldn't share updates now as well Great. Thank you mayor. Um, so I guess we'll start. I'd like to hear from the school board If there's any other items around the equity audit findings of their shared actions that we can be considering Alex One of the things I think is important An equity audit that is missing and one of the things that i'm proud of about this city In the school collaboration the number of projects that we offer For our community engagement Partnership giving our students the The projects to look at parks to look at like I want to listen to them and treat it The authentic projects gives a lot of our students ownership of the city that they can be part of the community And thus wanting to stay in a long-term realm and it is Missing here, but it is a very important thing And I hope that we continue having that type of partnership as we move forward Um, I'm thinking of the number of projects unless I'm misreading it Sean here But I want to make sure that that gets credited and really appreciate the city In that school partnership Alex huge oversight on my part. Thank you for calling Jenna because that is good One of the things in the equity audit that really stood out is you know really highlighting the idea of Schools as a community hub and that that did come out in the equity audit that WSD is the heart of the community and it is a hub for community And there's still places to grow that there are students who do feel that they Have someone in their lives within the school community that they can trust and share their problems with and be seen and heard and there's still discrepancy between Well, there's a predictive discrepancy Of performance in the school still and so What I love about the mo u2 is is having those out the 21st century Learning opportunities and after school care and some of the opportunities that are happening in the city for kids to get involved In doing projects with doing that like we do have a good foundation that Need some building on top of and I think that a lot of it seems like for the school part At least from my perspective is you know We really need to dial in and just investigate or not investigate But just really pay attention to discipline really need some attention And it seemed like law enforcement was also a part of that that discrepancies and how BIPOC students are experiencing those two entities is Not equitable to their white peers So there's some places operationally that need to have them which is not our role But I think the shared pieces is to continue strengthening Strengthening our focus on where our students where our youth Are being cared for Throughout the community and I feel like there's some great strengths already like the library does amazing work with youth amazing the pool this year was A place where everyone belonged and was cared for So there's so many great strengths and it's good to Acknowledge them and then recognizing the gaps that we need to make sure we're coordinating with so There's a lot of promise in here A lot of good work and it seems like Each of our bodies need to go figure out like where are we going to put our priorities as a school district in the The reports that we have here where the city is and and I think we've highlighted some of the places where we can collaborate So it's good work ahead Great. Thank you There are other um comments from board members before I brought into that I'll open it up to them staff council. Are there any other um Contributions folks have thoughts reflections on these items of shared potential action Sean. Yeah, I'm happy to kind of go through the some of the school Recommendations, you know, number one was around early reading strategies, which we have invested Money and time training new curriculum new assessments And really kicked that off wholeheartedly this year and that's a multi-year piece and We incorporated the attention to multilingual learners in in early literacy, but it's also You know evidence research based Uh curriculum for all learners and then as far as the Reducing instances of inequality is an exclusionary school discipline years ago. We had started work We have systems in place where we are tracking Um, both minor and what we call minor and major behaviors and trips to student support rooms wellness rooms Um Suspensions physical interactions all of those things and at least at the elementary They're already there had been some work at looking at cohorts by race ethnicity By teacher to work through those in in supervision between principal and In classroom teachers and come up with strategies and training for that But it does need more attention and more intentionality and then Affording students regular structured opportunities about their education. This has been a struggle You know, and I think the board can attest to it in terms of struggling with do you have student reps to the board? Do you have invite groups in for specific things and there's an effort underway to get student reps to the board in place? And we've struggled At the middle high school to get, uh, you know a traditional Student council into place and gone back and forth was a couple of different ideas there and continued continue to work on that Let's see The educator diversifying the educator work I'd say that's the one we're investing the most time and energy in addition to early literacy right now And we'll we'll share that with the community next week, but it's uh, uh, both through a separate grant with the bar foundation and Through our anti racism work that started a couple years ago. And this is a really active A team that is working on this right now. And if you go back and you'll you'll see some data next week. We have made I think pretty good growth in the last couple of years in terms of diverse sparing our workforce and Bringing new folks in and so we also need to figure out how to retain them and how to support them so that they Want to stay and feel They have what they need to do their job and if I could tack on the law enforcement piece of that other part of that pie so Of similar to what Sean was saying there's data. We want to look at the disaggregated because this is um A certain type of data which is instructive and then we also want to look at what the Continuum looks like looking at school discipline records compared to what we've been doing over time as they get older So some we want our Our actions to be data-driven as well. So that's our current effort with that please One of the things that I want to add on Is that the student voice is important. I know we struggle with the proof of concept that worked I want to just give a shout out to who's saying Mari on Mari Is everyone I'm always in voting and how powerful his voice was on that committee But it did take some mentoring on that end because we can't just put students on there and not Think that they're going to just survive on that end Without it, I think I think he's doing really really well now Post and wants to come back to the new school be part of that community so that that engagement to the second point that I want to make is that I also appreciate the the city whenever you do your city events You actually invite some of our students to perform their cultural and highlight their culture in their dances and all that That is also extremely important activity that I hope you all continue to do Because it gives them a sense that they belong in our community. It's all right to be them Which is often hard for students of color who come in from different communities And I can see their face bright enough when they're given the opportunity to perform And I know that I'm sure you all enjoy their performances on that and that leads to the third data point The data point I care most about on our students and have been one Is that on the and I always wrote the survey on this one. It's the youth and behavioral risk youth risk behavior Survey and on that survey, there is a question about how much do you Does the community do you feel that the community cares about you? And I'm always shocked that like it's less. I think for when you skid or in in vermont It's like 48 do not feel like the community cares about That is the metric that I really kind of want to look at and have been looking at constantly to see If the school that providing our conversations, but it would also be great as we move forward in creating this inclusion And equity work if we combine and look at that metric together and track our progress on that Which also gets broken down if we have enough numbers to use the vibrational capacity to and by gender a true gender not the binary right and also by I think orientation And so so Thank you other um thoughts reflections things to add to you what is already quite a robust endeavor, but I think Rightfully the shared priorities of this group seems like a really well matched list And I think it's great to see it building and coming out of these equity audit recommendations Um, I'll ask if anyone in the room or a mayor if you have anything else that you want to add on this item Um, I'm just really grateful that we could have this conversation tonight. Like as you can see This quick highlights memo that I drafted does not capture all of the great work and forward progress that's being made. Um You know, I think we are Coming from many angles to try to better support the community Um, and obviously have a lot of opportunities to keep working together and doing better in that area. So Thank you all for your hard work At the the school of the city staff all these volunteers Thank you um, I'll pause to see if anyone on our Zoom attendance or in the audience here in chambers would have anything to add any questions for us You can raise your hand or enter something in the chat if you're online. All right. I'm not seeing any So with that, I think we are at the end of This item our kind of joint meeting of the school board and the city council Um, I'll pause again any final comments Other things you want to share before we close this part of our meeting. Yes, Stephen I just uh, uh, I know the bad attitude that I understand that this meeting hasn't happened for years And and that's I think a great loss for our community. I I'm really Grateful that we can come together tonight and talk about our our shared values and shared vision And it makes me optimistic Year ahead and years forward. So thank you Wonderful. I would uh And send that right back to you. It's so great to actually have you here And be with you together in this space. So thank you for being here and for Adding this to your workload As busy trustees, so thank you and adding it to yours as well Yes, thank you. We do and next year. We'll see you at the school. That's right Wonderful. Well, if there are no other items, this is just on for discussions. There's no action to take tonight So I would like to thank you again for joining. We'll take a five minute recess You're welcome to stick around for our treasurer's report if you so desire But we do we'll move on with our major the city council meeting. Thank you. Don't say anything mean. He's right here Thanks so much It is uh 7 29 or call this meeting back to order Um, next up on our ita our agenda is item c the winiski valley parks district presentation I believe ray. You'll be kicking this one off Yeah, hey, how's it going everybody? happy to introduce nick warner the executive director of winiski valley park districts and I think it's fair to say nick and I have done quite a lot of work over the last number of years As well as members of his staff from the park district Just had the pleasure of spending two days with lauren who was also winiski resident but she is the business manager for the park district and we were down at the vermont rec and parks conference last week and Really exciting to have someone from this organization living in our community I often joke. She is my eyes and ears in the memorial park because frequently walks her dog through there, but um, really looking with the park district over the years at how we can sort of I guess I think I'd use the term repair and sort of restore the strength of the relationship that had existed Um, nick's been a great partner and I think we're always looking at new ways to uh work together and moving into the future so um, happy to hear the next presentation tonight and We're gonna answer questions if there are any to come up on the winiski side of the equation Thank you ray. I'm welcome nick Thank you. Ray. I appreciate that By the way, I was just listening in on the rest of the meeting. It's pretty fascinating stuff. So, um, This is my ATR with the park district Just a real quick summary. Most of you are aware of who we are and how we operate, but we're a hybrid Remind Incorporated Municipality and 501c3 nonprofit And we have a board of trustees Or that includes one from each of our seven towns And erin dupuis your trustee. She would have joined us tonight, but she has a class Uh, and lauren would have joined us tonight, but she's been she just finished giving a walking tour to the burlington city council on some trails over at ethan alan homestead, so um So it's just me tonight so And uh, we've been in business the park district for 50 years. We realize that this year it started in 72 winiski was a very early adopter to the system currently we have 19 properties little over 1700 acres of A property 25 miles of trails and about 12 or 13 miles of shoreline that we manage And that is growing incrementally over time Uh, we really uh, I was fortunate when I started that tim larnet who has been there we believe for 20 years now I think this is 20th year And lauren jacody who rei just mentioned who started a couple years before I did so two very experienced people are still there um and doing a tremendous job Of maintaining the parks and operating administration and so forth Um, we had the benefit of having a lane come visit us down at the homestead where our office is And rei and we had a really nice connection Uh, and so she's got a pretty good panel on who we are and how we operate and she gave us some really great feedback on some stuff This year is interesting because uh of what's happening with sx and sx junction Uh, the city of sx junction is going to be voting on membership in the park district on election day We've had a presentation to the city council which went extremely well And are feeling pretty confident that they are going to The join it doesn't really change the financial picture because you're just basically taking a community and splitting it out, but it was interesting this year calculating the The equalized grant list comparison for a list that didn't exist last year So all the logistics watching that watching that community come together that's been really interesting, but we are We put together our numbers this year Making a an optimistic assumption that the city of sx is going to be part of our system This for starting in fiscal year 24 Um, this year also has been very productive in terms of our work with the city of whenoski Tim has put in around 20 hours a little over 20 hours so far I do a lot of work down in memorial And I believe a cassava as well um You if you didn't realize it already, uh whenoski has some of the highest value conservation lands In the region in cassava park in the memorial area. You also have some of the most archaeologically sensitive and amazing Areas in the entire state of vermont. It's it's truly a treasure Down especially down by the river and gas pond and gill broken and memorial are just really spectacular gems Um, we've been working very closely with gray uh, since I've been here, uh on like you say sort of Starting from scratch again with whenoski. Uh, it's been great. I feel like we've really grown our relationship And each year the city has has climbed back in financially Just for context You are the one town who hasn't paid the full boat each year but From the beginning When I first started eight years ago whenoski's overall fiscal situation was not strong Uh, and we had also had some relationship issues with the city involving Things that had nothing to do with the ray and myself So we took a deep breath. It's okay. We want to rebuild this relationship. We wanted Strengthen it and I feel like that's gone extremely well We have talked about the potential of the park district Uh, owning memorial. It's uh, it's early days on that but uh, we Feel like it would make a lot of sense for the park district to own that property within your municipality Uh, it's it makes the money that you pay us a lot more efficient, but it's also We we do active management of all our trail systems in all our parks So when we acquire a property, we only do it if we know that we can do a good job maintaining it The signage and the trails and the litter and the mulling and all that stuff This last year also has seen uh, a park called walk cut family natural area Which took several years to open and cold chester is fully open to the public as has der way cove down near the mouth of the musky river We just had an opening there a couple weeks ago Which of course we had to delay because of the pandemic But we are also working with the town of williston On a property that we call the jacob parcel because we're going to have a name for the park yet But for the last several years we've been building up Our Our resources and our planning to do an acquisition of that property It's all tied in with a housing development. That's going through an approval process right now So that will be another growth in our park system We also own seven historic buildings between cold chester On natural area and euthan island homestead. We have two caretaker houses We have a great arrangement where we have caretakers caretakers who live there I greatly reduced rent and they open and close gates and do maintenance for us And I think what's really uh Key, uh, also we were enjoying working with robin your new rekt director about it. She's great. So That's been another good relationship that we're building Really a huge part of our model is leveraging so Each year we get dozens of nine sometime couple years We've got a hundred a couple hundred hours of volunteer time between corporations schools colleges Even individuals who approach us about doing volunteer We work closely with the youth conservation core We have a couple merit boards working our office right now with associate with the wildways program in burlington And we go after grants pretty aggressively and work to Increase our impact through leveraging. So that's that's a huge part of our model Frankly, it's one of the more fun parts of the job Is finding resources and bringing them in We carry no debt And we own all of our Assets and fee simple and all of them have some form of legal protection that keeps them in conservation permanently So if you if a property comes into our fold We manage in perpetuity We we have an easement that's held by a third party That's irrevocable and keeps the the property and conservation So it's a very Simple but very strong model Which interestingly is now Being duplicated in different parts of the country It's it allows the municipalities to be front and center in the conservation world Which a lot of times municipalities aren't so I've worked in municipal government my whole career and this one reason I wanted this job is because I saw that connection between economic development and social economic development and conservation and municipal government So I did give you some materials to look at I don't know if you had any Any questions or comments? Each year we do a comparison to the previous fiscal year We do a formula in which we take The equalized grand list for each town And the population of each town and we do a little bit of math to come up with a way to What we call our fair share split of The town's contribution to our system each year the towns provide about 80 percent of our operating capital So we are a creature of the municipalities But to be clear you have a trustee on our board that meets monthly So I'm looked after very closely in a good way. It's a very active board. Erin is fantastic She's got the strong real estate background. She loves when new ski and we hope she stays with us for a long time And she's sorry. She couldn't be here tonight Any questions Um, Elaine anything that you wanted to add or rave before we turn it over to counselors for questions No, thanks. Um, so thank you for that and I notice in our memo We does cover the uh dues that have been requested and paid over the last three fiscal years I appreciate that. So thank you for including that as history and I remember this was added My first go around on the budgeting to start this increasing March towards the request while not being able to meet it So, um, I'll open up to questions from counselors or mayor lot. If you have anything you want to add or ask Yes I was just wondering if you do plan on doing any research into where your visitors are coming from given that There aren't any parks within the windows ski borders and a large percentage of our population does not drive I'd really be interested in knowing that when we're talking about allocating money to an organization Yeah, the only issue with that is because we have no we don't charge a fee for any of our parks So in order for us to gather that data, we would have to commission a survey And station people to interview people that come into the parks We did a limited survey about four years ago I believe with one of your previous city managers helped us help Deake And we really wanted to get a sense of what people were using the parks for where they were coming from what their attitudes were And it was fascinating data, but it was by no means comprehensive So I We can tell you just because we're in the field every day and especially our more heavily used parks that in general since the first day of lockdown for covid We got overwhelmed and we felt like that that was going to tail off Pretty significantly and it hasn't I'm happy to report That we get pretty heavy usage in our parks in a way that we did not see pre covid and You know, it's funny. I see families that when they first came they didn't even have the right shoes to walk a trail and now they're showing up with backpacks and equipment and People have educated themselves in the outdoors. There's more demand for it There is more specific demand for For decent trails Uh, it's it's really striking and my colleagues across the state and parks and recreation are seeing a lot of the same thing I'm sure you are too ray and In the numbers. Yep. Absolutely. It's a long way of saying. No, I don't have numbers. Um, I can tell you that there's a lot of use of Salmon hole and river walk by people from wuniski because you can just walk across The bridge to get there. So just informally as we get to know our regular users over there There's you know, four or five fishermen that are regularly at salmon hole walk across the bridge But I don't have those numbers I could get them but it would cost money and we were actually going to get a proposal from castleton to do it some more of that work and they shut down so Um, which kind of stunk, but we'd love to have more data Thank you. Um, and thank you nick for coming in tonight and running through all that I do want to Express appreciation for the support that you've been providing in our natural areas over the years And for having a funding formula that does take into account Um some income sensitivity um, however, I would ask What if you have considered in that like how the funding formula came to exist without consideration for where you actually manage properties and provide programs And if you have had discussions about adjusting the formula to Yes, that was a huge context for when we hired deke a few years ago to help us out because uh, I know if you remember but back in 2016, I believe it was williston Uh went to the ballot to vote whether to keep us there because at that point we didn't have a park property Um 67 percent said yes when we stayed within williston But it was a very healthy process because it forced us to ask those questions if we start Going by acreage Uh, it would kind of upend the whole model At least my board feels this I have feelings both ways um The vast amount of physical land is in the town of colchester So But if you live in wunewski or essex or jericho any of the other member towns you have free access to those parks And the the the actually we don't charge to any of those parks um So we there were especially a few years ago We had a lot of deep discussions with our board and with deke about that and really just came back to We need to deal with income sensitivity. We need to deal with population If we start parsing it by town it would change our operation completely in our relationship with our park system in our towns And it would skew things. We'd probably lose a couple of communities um It's not a perfect system uh But it's as You know, we looked into we've studied progressive versus regressive models. We feel it's moderately progressive what we're doing It's not completely progressive, but it does not um Cover every aspect of in every data point of how we operate, but it does make that attempt to Divvy up the pie as best we can based on The grand list and income sensitivity Deaked a lot of data runs on it Yeah, I could agree that like pivoting to an acreage based model wouldn't make sense um Maybe some kind of base or like a flat fee for areas where you do provide programming like I see you know, I use some of your other spaces and really appreciate that I have access to those for free. Um but I also feel like Managing those properties like you're sort of creating an opportunity to bring Visitors into a city and help with their economic development and like that's not something that we're getting out of the relationship as strongly So I'm not looking for an answer tonight, but I would urge you to consider Some adjustment in the future That's that's a really great point. Um, and I have a trustee meeting a week from tomorrow So it'd be a good good point of discussion I'll connect with Aaron too. Yes, great. And you know, just just to be clear I fell since day one on this job that we need to have parkland in winewski. Now the history is that we used to lease castle vault and When the the redevelopment of downtown started to occur uh, my predecessor I think probably disagreed with some of the item I'm not sure what happened but the relationship kind of soured at some point in the past And rea and I just sort of picked up and said, okay, let's take a deep breath We looked at cask bond again We did things like transfer the right of way underneath the highway back to the city So you guys could more effectively plan the potential Uh expansion of riverwalk We did a lot of you we worked with your parks and recreation plan a few years ago To get some more traction on that then when memorial came on board I just felt like this be the the park That the park district could take on as as something that would manage for the city So I agree with you. I think we should own parkland within the city of winewski and that's been a goal that rea and I have had Other things have prevented that from happening Just in terms of the huge priorities and the huge growth and in downtown and all the things are going on in the city of winewski, but Um, we're about to achieve it in williston And we'd like to do it in winewski as well because I do feel like we should own parkland within your town Yeah, I think it could be if you I think we talked about this last year Yep When and if staff has the bandwidth to deal with that and want to bring something forward to commissions or council We'd certainly entertain a discussion well, I've actually been directed by lane to Come up with something for to talk about next fiscal year. So we'll be It's something we talked about with elaine and we have a more clear path. I think now Towards having that discussion. I mean, I can't speak for elaine in the city council, but But meanwhile we're doing our best to Make sure that that park functions and Doing a lot of trail work down there and there's also an interesting At the end of more house drive in in colchester They're they own some land back there that connects into the trail system. So we've been working with the shampolyn housing trust on that I think long term That there is huge potential for trail connectivity along your side of the of the winewski river um, and that people are Uh, smart about it over the next decade or so that there could be some really great connections that go into colchester and then go Up into s6 on the other end and it's expensive and it's hard But um, I do that's just my personal opinion. I think there's some great opportunities for trail connectivity Which would be beneficial to everyone. I don't know if you're aware of it on the colchester side There's a lot of new public land the Fitzgerald farm the centesac farm Pine islands we have mccray Those are all interconnecting public parcels with sort of an informal trail system But there is the potential for a huge connection between trails There's people talking about putting a pedestrian bridge across the winewski river into the inner hill Our goal is to secure uh You know a our Short-term goal is to work with city winewski to to secure a piece of parkland over the next Couple of years and get it developed and up to snuff To the point that people can enjoy it Um, and I feel like ray. I think we've made some good progress towards that next fiscal year At point 25. Yeah, thanks, right. So yes, until what nick said I am interested in it for a couple reasons So memorial park is overgrown at the moment and not serving as a canoe access, which should be a possibility It is also currently being used by the unhoused which Nick's organization is more used to supporting and managing and you know, what have you in terms of Making sure that folks know what resources are available to them And we are completely not so That is uh, those are a couple reasons why we I would like the council to consider that in a future year. It's You know, there's a lot going on this year. So it felt like a new thing I didn't want to add to the plate, but so you know going forward that um, it will be in front of you at some point Thank you. Can I ask the question on that? specifically So with the memorial park, um, I know in our abanaki land use acknowledgement um Resolution we specifically have But the city of wanooski shall work in partnership with official abanaki leadership on future forest management plans for wanooski's natural areas Further resolve that wanooski is hereby committed to working with members of the abanaki community to rename Memorial park and the trails using words and phrases from the anaki language So I just want to make sure that in this partnership. We're not going back on um What we stated here and I did see um that Like there is some collaboration or at least some with uh Uh Let's see Vermont indigenous heritage center. So I was just wondering about some more until on that Right. No, that's a great point and that was a third reason that I neglected to mention So thank you for bringing that up. So I in the meeting with nick. I had mentioned that concern like we have a burgeoning relationship thanks to The deputy mayor with the missus koi tribe of the abanaki So we would definitely want to and we are part of their territory. So I wanted to make sure that wanooski valley park district had Some track record of working with indigenous folks on making sure we were doing culturally sensitive appropriate Planning programming. What have you? Management. So that is something that we raised and we would be wanting to include Yeah, I think specifically making sure that we're continuing The relationships already built here too. So Nick do you want to comment on that? Well, it's one of the most archaeologically Important and sensitive areas in the entire region. I mean that that that whole strip of land along the wanooski river so at the very least An archaeological easement or some kind of agreement to make sure that there's You know that there there are ways to protect that land against future encroachment what what we typically would do is work with a um You know bhcb or lakeshine plain land trust and the and the city to talk to negotiate some kind of Conservation easement for the property that would be that's the gold standard for us It's not a requirement for us taking over a piece of property, but Typically we do that and in that context I think there could be language put into that easement that that addresses the indigenous Peoples and their interests in the land. I think there's a lot of ways to get there. It's it's a lot of us are struggling to figure it out because of the newness of the concept of land acknowledgement at least in vermont uh, it I've done a lot of research on way the way state parks is dealing with it the way The federal government is dealing with it. There's no single methodology um But I would certainly want to see that property highly protected um over time and It's it's just an incredibly ecologically important and archaeologically important area That's that's been highly impact But is there's definitely going to be high level of archaeological sensitivity and artifacts and In history and connection in that property as there's across the intervail the intervail is just a stunning archaeological resource Yeah, and I guess the thing that I really want to highlight is making sure that we're involved like We're not just making these decisions without involving the people affected Right, we can involve many organizations that say that they know But if we're not actually involving the people who are affected because we also, you know made sure We put in the right to sustainably harvest um fiddleheads and other culturally important plants in our Parks and natural areas. So that's another thing. I want to make sure that kind of We're not going back on the things that we've said And I think that would be most effectuated by actually having the mciscoe band and others represented as key stakeholders Negotiating such a conservation easement or any future transfer. It's like that's a great reminder um Although I also recognizing that this conversation is um I'm likely to involve many more steps and touches from staff. Yes. Yeah. So thank you for Highlighting this as a potential path forward for actual fee ownership within the city um, I had a wanted to ask uh Just thinking about what kind of connectivity that you're creating um Do you allow other like mountain biking that biking? I'm just curious what types of trail use and impacts you're allowing in uh, not just if When you see where to have a property, but how that trail use is being managed across the network Is it open to all or do you restrict to certain types of use? We uh, we currently don't own we don't manage any mountain bike trails We manage quite a few Properties that have established bike paths gravel or paved that go across them or adjacent to them But we are currently not managing any sites with mountain biking. That's not a philosophy and our bylaws is just We we we've had a couple of situations where it may have made sense on a different on a couple of different properties, but um Currently we it's all you come in and and leave your bike at the door and and and use the trail system It doesn't mean we wouldn't change but mountain biking is it's a whole different thing. I mean, it's it's Needs to be managed. I mean, it's kind of like managing a ski area in some ways in terms of parking in bathrooms and Public safety and and active management It's a whole different to do it right is a whole different level of Of management that we're not currently doing But like it's not a philosophy. We don't have any rules against mountain biking we're very very heavily used by you know people running walking their dogs launching their boats and You know all on all on foot Other questions or comments on the budget request and general program. Yep One of councilor renner's first question was about use and any gauge of use So at the state level they have sign-in sheets and sign-out sheets. Is that something the park uses? We did that in the past the cool chest upon especially and then it got pretty frequently abused and It was actually pretty functional before my time So it It's a little bit different Philosophy when people come to our parks and then they come to a trailhead at state parks And I signed into those same things. It's not to say we wouldn't try it again, but it It seemed to be you know starting 10 years ago or so people just started not being as Light responsible with with those kinds of things. I'm taking your point though. We need better data I'm hearing that so I I appreciate that um, yeah having some type of Even a proxy of some kind Would I think be valuable So you thinking about that as a low low barrier um Way to gather some some data, but I appreciate the reliability of it May not May not be sufficient to meet the needs so um and then I forget my second question um Do so in private provided in the packet is an annual report Um, do you also have a strategic plan? We do we need to update it But we do a strategic strategic plan. I believe it was last updated in 2017 or 18 I'll be happy to send you guys a copy of that if you like to look at it Is that a three-year plan or a five-year plan? Five-year plan, okay Um, and then as part of that plan do you set like performance metrics or goals? It's Uh pretty generalized So we do not have we do we don't say like we need x amount of acreage each year um, it's more That every time we acquire a property we go through a very Uh thorough screening process that Talks about the affordability of us being able to take it on the impact of the community Republic public's attitude towards the ecological values and so on and so forth um and it talks about uh Increasing revenues through alternative means which we do contracting we do leasing um, and it and it talks about increasing our park portfolio Incrementally over time, which is what we've been doing. Um, and then just one more follow-up question Sure so probably I don't know Must be five years ago now um Maybe not that long ago, but uh at the state level there was an initiative for vorac to explore outdoor recreation and increasing um accessibility Was the parks district um involved in any of that conversation? We uh received a grant for $50,000 through vorac. Um, we teamed up with the city of burlington and with local motion and the community sailing center Uh on that grant process and that is to uh Rebuild what is called wetlands walk north, which is this incredible Boardwalk at ifanile homestead that goes right through a major wetland now, which is heavily used and loved by Hundreds of students each year most of the kids because it's like a great outdoor classroom. So that gives us You know a little less than half of what we need to complete the project And we're going to be going after some additional trails money to fulfill that gap And we're getting geared up for that. So so yes, and we also are regular applicants to lwcf And also When we do acquisitions we work with Vermont housing conservation board Vermont land trust lakeshine plain land trust um in the trails program of the state so we're Frequent flyers with the the various grant Proposals that are put out each year Yes, thank you good questions And then we have questions from members of the public who are only online at this point Can use your hand um any other further questions from members of council staff Okay, well, thank you nick so much for bringing this forward and for the healthy discussion and kind of prepping some of the opportunities ahead And thank you ray and elaine for um the prep on this as well Sure. Thank you bet. Thank you so much great questions I have good night You too All right, we'll move to item d. Uh, this is on for discussion approvals. This is the treasurer's q1 september 2022 budget report I'm excited to ask john. I need to join us up here at the podium or the table with mics on it And the floor is yours Good evening everyone um, i'm john fennie he him pronouns I started my position as city treasurer this past august I'm here to present some key takeaways from the q1 f 23 financial report In q1 we saw when you ski's financial position strengthen as community activity continues to return to pre pandemic levels The city's general fund currently projects a final surplus to close a half to close of a half a million dollars The bulk of this increased forecast and surplus is due to cost savings from staff vacancies across multiple departments Um, we're also forecasting Surpluses in the following enterprise and special revenue funds the combined parking garage fund tiff fund community and economic development fund We are also forecasting deficits in the following the water fund waste water fund community services fund and the rental registry fund Specific details to support current forecasts can be found within the respective financial report on the city when you ski website Please bear in mind that this is a quarter one report and that projections are a best guess Guided by the financial activity that we've realized so far and therefore are subject to change as we progress through the year Are there any questions? I think you can I ask on the wastewater and water fund? What the nature of correction was on the um forecasted revenue? for 355 million and 36 malat spay is it just the expected number? Yeah, sure So the forecasted revenue is based on a quarter one quarter of sales Um, I believe this bud. This one was budgeted on march of june of f y 22 Um, there were some large-scale properties and development during that period that have since been completed The 36 malat spay avenue in the 355 main street We err on the conservative side of budgeting where we budget for lower revenue high expenses So we're kind of just like navigating an ambiguous time of these new developments and so we kind of In this particular forecast aired down on our projected revenues just because we're still trying to figure out where we're going to land Okay, so with another quarter of receipts you would expect a better Yeah, as we draw nearer to the end of the fiscal year It's almost like you're going through a thick fog and the fog lessons as you progress through the fiscal year Um, but because these properties we knew we don't really know what the cycle is going to be like um, and again, we just kind of Went down in revenue to be more conservative But we could see revenue bounce up again as we get closer to the end of the year because we are airing on the conservative side Thank you. Yeah, of course I can say with the 36 malat spay that I don't think units for full are completely full until about mid september or so so that could be a part of that Yeah, that's that's helpful to know. Yeah, exactly The first quarter billing In that projection has none of f y 23 in it that first quarter billing is the billing that went out in july for the june 27th readings So any properties that were not yet inhabited by july 1st are not included in those forecasts Followed question to that. Um, so council approved Rate increases Um, is this uh for waterways water use usage? Um, is this is this incorporating that fee increase? That does that does factor that in there. I have adjusted that first quarter billing by the percentage rate increase. Um, and and Ex expanded that over the next few quarters For the usage that had been completed between march and and june um But consumption does vary quite a bit. We do see uh jumps in con Usage and consumption around the holidays and in the spring. So those will be our largest quarters for billing Um, can I ask a question to that? Um, so with new construction standards does it account for any water conservation measures that are part of new construction We did not forecast any usage information into that revenue number for new construction simply because we cannot predict What the occupants will use We could go by awa standards But we do see a lot of fluctuation dependent on the number of people in a household and then how that household interacts with their water service Somebody who showers only at a gym will not use as much water as a two person household where they work from home So we are waiting to make projections for those new properties once we have actual consumption data to base it on Okay Thanks for going this all together. Um, there's a lot of good info in here I'm wondering um, if I could get some more information on the rental registry fund From the report, it looks like this is the fourth year of being in a deficit And that there were plans to correct billing that that's not going to happen this fiscal year I was just wondering is that personnel issues and do you think it will be corrected next fiscal year? I think angela may be able to give a little more insight to that I know conversations started before the pandemic and they kind of got held up because of the pandemic And now we're kind of on the other side of that So I know conversations have kind of restarted, but I'm not sure where in the process there are they are um, we we've recently drafted letters to the properties that um Have verbal agreements where they're not paying a hundred dollars for every unit that they have Those letters have not yet been sent to those property owners A lane may have more information than I do on the status of the other properties that were in question And that's the winewski housing authority properties the taxable ones and then the non-taxable ones where we conduct inspections Yeah, those are the letters that we have drafted and it's just a matter of been a bit of bandwidth to be able to get those out And the reason why we're not projecting it will all go into place this year is because it is going to be quite a Have to increase for them. So we want to give them This projection is the conservative estimate of like how if they're going to request Some time to get into that arrangement. Yeah, the projection that I've included there Includes none of those Additional revenues coming in and we do anticipate potentially having some additional come in from those properties The projection only includes commercial inspection billing and time of sale inspection billing That is anticipated to occur There should be no additional rental registry billing in general with the exception of those Few properties and any new units that get developed during the year But it'll be pretty minimal And it sounds like we're well on our way of getting towards that plan. So it's great to know. Thanks Other questions comments Yes, christine I would just add on to that for council I think this is something we need to remember when we do strategy and priority next year that it might be time to lift this up in the priority list To make sure staff has bandwidth to to address it Other questions comments Well, john, thank you for joining us. It's great. Have a good night Hope sorry, we are supposed to approve this. Um, we customarily do. Uh, so I will take a motion to approve the q1 Treasures q1 september 2022 budget report some Second motion by thomas second by aurora. All those in favor, please say aye. All right. All right Motion carries Next up we have a quick item on the fy 24 budget goal setting So, um I think we have had plenty of poor shadowing that this is coming So elaine, I will turn it over to you to set the stage for this conversation So we are currently in fiscal year 23 We are in the first phases of working on developing the fy 24 budget At your last meeting you discussed the unusual context for the fy 24 budget Which is that we have some one-time federal money related to covet recovery Known as arpa that can be used for one-time purposes or as bridge funding for new budget items that you expect to use tiff money for Starting in fy 25 As noted in your packet, we have the following questions for you and I'm stalling so I can open it up Which are What are your priority areas to fund? Given that we may need to identify cuts. What are your priority areas for service reductions? And then are there new initiatives or programs you would like us to consider as staff builds the budget Another question is your criteria for how to spend arpa slash tiff money My apologies for not sending those draft criteria until today Uh, did you all get that? Anyone else yeah, christine. Okay So before we get to the the four questions then I'd also like to note that usually staff does ask you to set a tax rate goal for those of you listening from home You would expect that if you've tuned in in previous years And that's uh, we are I'm requesting that you do not set a tax rate goal at this time And that's because historically you have not had the opportunity to see what providing current services would cost And that's especially challenging for this coming fiscal year because of unusually persistent high inflation That are affecting both labor and material costs and this year as everybody knows Of course that is affecting all of our taxpayers and indirect and direct taxpayers But it's uh, it'll be an Particularly challenging year. So And the thing is as you saw in your packet just the projected Costs to the general fund of living costs of living adjustments and health insurance costs even with a projected Grand list growth revenue offset Just those two costs with that offset taken to account is estimated to result in a 4.48 percent tax rate increase That does not include gas prices material prices, etc Historically the city has done an average of 2 percent increase per year in the tax rate So it just seems impossible at this moment Uh without cutting some painful areas This year I would request that you allow staff to present you a level service budget which includes anticipated increases in hard costs As well as what labor should cost if it had Salaryed people working. They're scheduled versus actual hours As well as a stretch budget that would include some of those new initiatives or programs that you may or may not identify tonight So my first question is really whether you're okay with not setting a tax rate goal today There will be cuts that we and you and or you will have to make Um in terms of like the affordability Problem for our residents and taxpayers But I do feel that it's important that we make that more transparent to you in the public And I think that that would be more transparent if we give you a level services budget at the outset Thank you. Elaine and before I move to that question. May I see you have your hand up? Thanks jim. Um I was just going to share that I think this approach makes sense Given that a level service budget is just Going to be substantially higher increase than like in the past. We might have asked for that. It might not have cost that much more Or I'm sorry as for a certain tax rate that maybe wasn't that far outside of possibility so I'm supportive of seeing actual cost level service budget as well as um Like a stretch budget as another example And I wanted to lift up from the finance commission municipal infrastructure commission meeting um That there was support for use of reserves or arpa To retain level service But mitigate increases So not a specific number, right? But like If a level service budget is 8 percent higher You know, we we could have a conversation about using some of those funds to mitigate that Burden on the community while still being able to maintain a level service budget. Thanks. I to Recall in previous years a level services is the priority and the tax rate increase is the secondary effect of that um and and matched Colas of two or two and a half percent um, so I think it makes sense to not set a percentage target in this case And set that level services goal personally other thoughts on the first question I guess Maybe I could have a little bit of clarity. Um so It sounds like there's definitely going to be a budget that reflects level services Is there going to be a budget that shows stretch from what the mayor just said? Yes, so that Was buried in my comments. That was the plan to have a level services plus and then a stretch as another Scenario, okay As I understood the mayor's proposal would be the level services budget might end up being an 8 percent tax increase And so the finance commission supported putting Arpa in to turn that into a 6 percent tax increase but maintain level services that be That wouldn't be a stretch budget. That would be the level services budget with a lower tax like a depressed rate of increase The stretch budget might be a 10 percent tax increase and we could use arpa to take that down 8 is how I understood it Right. Yeah, and there was no just for the public that those numbers are purely Yeah For example, okay. I was just about to say there was no Discussion on hard numbers. Correct. Yeah, so okay. That is helpful. I was not completely clear on that Anyone disagree with level services, but without a tax rate target All right, so I think we answered that question. Okay, great. Thank you for that Uh, so then we'll just go down the the other three questions that were in your packet. What are your prairie areas to fund? Oh other four questions. Sorry I guess priority areas like are you looking for general like Taking care of kids after school and like you don't want us to get into the weeds of like what that may look like Yes, um that might I'm trying to decide whether that's actually already in the weeds or not Maybe not. But yes, that's certainly Hopefully not more detailed than that. Like a A counter example would be doing a reading program at the library. That would be too specific. Yeah I'll share then my priority areas are the existing Right sizing this the capacity to the tasks at hand like my priorities. The services were already maintaining Um Recognizing some of them are coming from one-time funds like ESSER. So But I think if we look at what we were able to accomplish pre-pandemic And that we've tried to maintain that through the pandemic and I'd like to see that continue to maintain into this new stage of the pandemic So pre-existing commitments around Um, each of our department areas to me seems like the most important priority areas to fund because we know we're asking people to deliver On with time that they don't have Or that they're not being compensated for all the time. So I would like to see that Be our priority personally Um, and I will be getting the weeds on trees. I think that we got to maintain that $5,000 And however that whatever that level that's appropriate to maintaining our commitment to keeping the city tree because it is our one um Think on the ground climate change mitigation and adaptation strategy that we have put in place over time I'd like to see continue Christine Thanks, I wanted to second a priority on on rightsizing existing services Um, and I would say that versus expansion or new programs at this in this year Um, and that to the extent possible we would hold on trying to add new Until you know, we have access to future funds I also want to say about rightsizing existing services We know staff capacity is tight I don't know how much of that is attributable to ongoing vacancies versus just having a pretty thin crew to begin with um, and so I would hope that That is something that staff could bring forward some recommendation on right um and I think are So like existing commitments, you know anything voter supported main street, um regional dispatch I think we have to move forward with I think those are priorities to move forward with and the sort of like pavement striping sidewalk things that we have been hearing from over the last several years from residents um Maybe those are in this stretch or partially in right size Could I ask whether um, you want to really Be specific about that, which you know, I have no Professional objections to just or would you want it to be about? um Anything that we've heard a lot of input on from the public in terms of pavement striping and sidewalk. We oh, oh, sorry Let me be more clear on that. Thank you for calling me out. Um We've made specific commitments about sidewalk and paving that we can't meet We haven't met this year and we haven't met last year and striping um You know if we we have said we were going to do these things and then it turned out that we under resourced ourselves for them so I would I would be interested in I guess to me it's like a pre-existing commitment versus a new thing Um, and this might be a dumb question, but here I am at five months. So I get to still ask them for a little bit Pre-existing commitments in what form did the did that take? The so the pavement plan for like the streets we were going to do each year We had a five-year plan that we showed residents last year, you know, we tackle x streets each year Um, which we weren't we weren't able to complete that work this year um Our inability we said we Approved adding funds last year for more striping and then they got I guess that had to be pulled out Because of where we were financially So I would consider adding those in again And then sidewalk there was also a sidewalk plan that was shared that I don't think we have been able to deliver on either John would have those in the um Last year's budget presentation. Thank you I just feel like I can third what Jim said and second to what Christine said like I I spoke with some neighbors and some other residents recently And they're all They really love the programs that we provided. They've sent their grandkids or their kids But one thing that they mentioned to Christine's point is It's one person said it's great that I can take my grandkids down to the pool But I need a little alignment after driving them to the pool So like I think that's one thing that our community really notices and we did make that promise to them So I know it's line at picky, but I would like to strengthen that line Right, so I'm I'm hearing that if we refer to like pre-existing plans that Maintain what we have Is that fair generalization? I think you could even say catch up on our paving plan because it identified specific fiscal years for The northeast I think Hall Street. Iron Street is supposed to be FY 25. So like continuing to To try and catch up to that rotation of capital improvement would be great Okay, great So it wouldn't be new it would just be trying to meet the existence right I'm going to be the voice uh that counters some of the previous comments um I would say that it's one point in time where I Would love to have additional detail. Um, but that's more operational than is Um That is something that council has access to I would say that the in terms of right sizing I think it would be valuable for the city to look and evaluate what programs are working against your programmatic goals and Be encouraged to sunset goal sunset programs that aren't meeting your goals um, and to look at Either modifying those programs so that they do meet those goals. Um, or developing different programs in their place So when I when I think of right sizing to me, that's what that means Um, and actually having staff feel supported to sunset programs that aren't working and that aren't meeting goals Um, often we continue doing something even though like just because we've always done it Rather than taking a hard look at it and saying this isn't really meeting our needs and this isn't really meeting our goals But that again is a level of detail that council won't have any insights to um So something that I would encourage uh as departments start to develop their budgets to consider um And I You know am an agreement that pavement trees striping. Um, absolutely should be priorities um and one other thing that I would add um as a consideration as a priority is one-time funds that are um, have incentives that would be new but are limited Those incentives would be limited timeline So there are Some capital improvement projects that could benefit from being added That Would have the greatest amount of incentive funds available for the city within the next fiscal year And so I would encourage That to be considered as a potential priority Um, and I think it kind of gets into a later the later in the conversation But in terms of one of the matrix of considerations um having limited High incentives Way way in to some of the budget decisions Thank you christine Thanks. I wanted to support what brin just said about program efficacy um You know, this is something that I hope comes into play as we think about the asset funds rolling off In that we've put out a lot of new programming through that resource But we should but making sure that we look at What was most effective to the community versus just trying to Capture all of that going forward um And and I'm sure you could apply the same thinking to other areas Of city work, but I'll stop for now because I know councillor hurry hasn't gone yet. I'm typing. I want to make sure Um So i'm Right sizing comes into this. I don't know if i'm now going to be too general um, but priority areas to me thinking of kind of department specific would be community services And fire and code I think those are areas that we have um in some ways underfunded and Uh, I think what we've seen Thinking about code thinking about our discussions about housing. I think that's extremely important as well as the continued uh issue um that Uh chief adi has brought up of our lack of coverage at times for our fire personnel um And then with community services, I'm thinking about the esser funds and I'm thinking a lot about the amazing programs that kind of help rebuild And as well as continued community throughout um COVID-19 and a lot of things that I feel like heard from all different corners and all different parts of our community Is that need for community and that and thinking about that too as um Including child care in that and Concerns about what's going to happen with senior center So I just see in both of those areas an extreme need um And if there is that thought of um Using some arpa dollars to keep the tax rate down But I think there's a lot of argument to be made that especially in our community services that those are um some of the folks directly addressing needs um due to the pandemic Any other priorities that have surfaced for people? Or anything that you want to Second or lift up from what others have said that you haven't already I think one thing that's in the mission statement is um affordability And I I do want to keep that kind of at the forefront of what does that mean to our city and What does that mean to our residents? um I think it's it's something we Absolutely strive towards and uses our true north um And I just want to keep that As part of the consideration as we look to this budget cycle And you know moving forward and I think it's Not It's strategic use of funds It's not just maintaining um level services, but strategic use of funds as well Yes, christine To come at this from another angle that no one ever wants to about reductions, um I think the the reverse On the right side's discussion is if there are like Non-essential aesthetic landscaping and maintenance activities that are occurring that we don't need to do or any kind of sort of one-off programming that's like Higher lift than it's where you know, it's not income or revenue generating Um, I think that's a way to look at things as well as we consider potential cuts That also opens the door to where can we partner with other groups? I think that you know giving the landscaping as an example I know that um There is some interest from different businesses and partnering with us on that and maybe funding some more of that work I know it sounds really small The landscaping does give something people does give people something to be proud of When you're driving through windowski, especially with our Giant circle of cement. It's nice to see some stuff around it. That's not just cement um Yeah, it's probably definitely color savings. But are there other places that we can go to try to get that money to keep that going So if I could ask for clarification on areas to prioritize, um our Brin offered a caveat that right sizing includes Sunsetting Where we're not meeting our goals with existing and christian second of that just uh looking to see if there was A consensus around that or a majority or that's something that You're looking for even in the level service budget I disagree. I mean, I think that I would hope the staff wouldn't put forward budget to for a program that doesn't work so I guess I assume that that's not going to be in the budget But and I see that then more is like a second question in the event. We need to identify cuts I would assume that would be the framework used to first identify cuts as programs that are minimally or poorly meeting their goals But I can't I was trying to think of one as your speaking council I can't think of one that I'm like We should just get rid of that because it's not working and and if someone came if staff came to me said like it's just Not working to run the library. It's not delivering at the goals. I don't I'm saying that's like a complete example We would all like gasp and cry and like wouldn't do it. So I think yes, I would love to say like this program just isn't functioning But I worry about benchmarks we used to define that not being well set thrive as my biggest concern It's a money loser if you look at as far as the fee model, which is why it rolled into general fund And I don't know that We would come up with metrics that say this isn't meeting its goals. So we should end it Um, I would rather look for like a real values discussion about like if we have to pick one of the 20 things That we really care about in the city to end. What would it be? um I so I think right sizing in the goals in terms of priorities to fund in a positive way is how do we maintain What we were doing pre-pandemic And that's I think that there's the esser funds added a whole new bunch of work and brought with it additional funding I don't think that right sizing is keeping that going into the future indefinitely. I think that's Pulling back to what we were able to do before personally um, so I think right sizing to me is making sure that we don't Lose any of the core services we are providing the volume and type can change I would like to strip out extra funding. We're using right now to fund those programs at a higher size um, or higher subsidy level But I think we want to maintain as far as I'm concerned each of the departments have identified their priority service areas We have agreed that those are worth pursuing this year and develop even further in some cases I'd like to see those maintained I don't know about like program efficiency modeling like I just don't know what the metrics would be I'd be interested to see if there are recommendations to end programs But I don't know that I want I'd rather see staff telling us what it is they need to do to accomplish what we've already told them that we want In the previous several years And then evaluating that if it's really too high, then we need to look at cuts and that's what I'd like to come back Okay, so So just to clarify because I apparently misunderstood you the first time around Not including esser funding When I say right sizing, I'm thinking of what we support currently with our tax base We aren't supporting the esser funded programs with our current tax base Gotcha, thank you If I could I I agree with that and the What do you learn from esser funded programs? Potentially more funding to thrive actually makes it more effective Or the Vermont Patriots partnership has really engaged more kids, but has every program that's been put out Probably not And for clarity when I Think of evaluation criteria Regarding success of programs. It's not entirely Revenue or cost based So that council understands what I mean there And that I think review and sunsetting programs goes to a depth of city Level that I know I don't have knowledge or access to so I don't feel like I can say This program works or this program doesn't I actually don't have I'm not privy to that degree of information So I can't look at this and say I think that is something that the city and city staff know Close this and not something that I would have the depth of information to make a decision on Great. Yeah I think the dimension I would add to it is Sometimes we might see programs that are being underutilized But that's because we don't have the tools or haven't had the resources to I mean thinking about needing to Do language access work So is it that we have programs that would be meeting needs if we were able to let people know that they were there thinking with the pool And being able to have Of both scholarships and being able to make those scholarships easier and able just to get the word out That see an increase in use. So I guess that would be like my little asterisk next to thinking about How we decide that a program is or isn't working which You know feels like more work, but I would be concerned that you know, you know It's thoughtful work went into creating certain things But we are still missing a step To fully actualize them if that makes sense so I know this is a bit of a murky process there there's clearly some Consensus around right sizing with maybe some caveats, but I think that'll work itself out at some point You're going to have to see cut so we'll be suggesting what those should be at a detail level But in terms of the other items it wasn't unanimous. There was a majority on some of it just curious if you're anticipating that we would use all of your input or the Or Areas where there was a majority of you that mentioned it already I mean no one else can say trees, but I'll be bringing it up to the entire And because it is one of our goals it's it is the single most mentioned thing in our strategic plan if we aren't invested in it I think that's crazy But if you all disagree I will continue to make that case throughout budgeting process I will fundraise if it does not get Might I suggest oh, sorry I guess I'll just close by saying I will close my rant about trees by Saying you know in our main street revitalization plan already We have obligations under tree ordinance to replace municipal trees like what's in it It's a commitment we have to keep Or we have to change our own rules and ordinances to not keep it And there's going to be significant match free federal funding coming for tree planting in this state That we could be well positioned to take advantage of I'm just like to see us be ready for that so that we can Fix it because I do think it's an It's an environmental justice issue in our community where we do we do not have trees and it is a It's something we need to start doing now to get benefit out of it as climate warms Christine sorry, I cut you off. Okay. Thanks. No, sorry. I didn't wait. I didn't wait to be acknowledged What I was going to suggest is This consensus around right sizing fits I think in a level services budget And in a stretch budget, I think you could incorporate All of the priorities that have been shared and then we can hash it out with A caveat that all of the priorities we've shared should influence your As a leadership team decision-making on the what you would advance as well, right? I doubt Ray is trying to run every single thing that he did under us air Forever into the future, but I'm sure he has some learnings of what he might recommend we carry forward um and similarly like code enforcement We know we want to do more there but what has the team actually Thought about or things they could implement, right? So even if we're saying something as a priority if this if you all can't actually produce that in the next year Then I wouldn't expect to see that in the budget, but I think you could include Items that were lifted up here that you also see valuable and valuable And then we you know when we actually look at that budget we'll have to hash it out. That sounds like a workable plan You're all okay with that Okay, thank you. Thank you. Okay second question. What don't we do? If we have to cut which we will For affordability reasons Again, I kind of go back to I don't feel like I have enough information to make a well informed decision I don't feel like I'm close enough to understand How well things are operating to be able to say Let's trim here. Let's cut there You know, I I think I rely on I would look to the staff to help inform that decision Right and I understand your perspective my our challenge is that The level service budget is going to be much higher than the city can comfortably support So we need it would be helpful to have some guidance at this stage To say what areas you would be comfortable backburner ring for a year I I still get like your point is still valid brain But if there's anything that council can say about okay, well So this year this area can yeah, I would say one thing that was decided Copy out that there's not there's Decisions aren't going to be Totally supported by everyone, right? So I think a decision that council made Last year that we may want to reconsider is additional contributions to downtown Wanooski And we had agreed to have a five percent contribution And that may be something that we want to reconsider And I may be brought in that concept to Looking at across our contributions our voluntary contributions to all of our partners because we'll have other requests from town meeting tv and Have one today from wpv wvpd I I think we're already getting fair shakes with these requests, but if there were ones that we can look at those might be areas I and I think generally speaking subscriptions is one of the first areas that organizations look to cut or reduce as One time savings not something that necessarily you won't return to but as Some optional fund funds to mitigate So what kind of subscriptions exactly? I mean all all kinds of subscriptions. So the organizational contributions that That council Duncan just mentioned But I think any and all subscriptions that the city You know Ops ops into So like membership dues for example um, I Did you mean like out external third party contributions? Are you talking like subscriptions for services the subscription for services not membership dues? I think like vlct You know, I don't know if there's obligations Versus something that's optional Does that make any sense? uh, well I mean staff will have more input on that. Oh It makes you like one of the me Um, but I don't know that they're necessarily optional. So a lot of those fees are in exchange for services So the channel 17 payment is for channel 17 coming to meetings a month So if we work to pay that then your meetings are no longer televised um So gmt That's up for bus service coming through a new skis then so a lot of these things While it feels like they're just being assessed on us there. They are for services that are provided to the community I think you use your judgment Okay, but that is an area to look for cuts Fair enough your potential service area reductions Terriller point. That's uh, that you gave me a general direction that we can then look at for details I just want to make sure that's your meeting I could support that. Um, I was going to suggest also We have talked about maintaining existing infrastructure Haven't looked at the cip in a long time But if there's like new capital projects that don't have an urgency We could delay or not do the five percent escalator that we typically do Um I know in the past we have added capacity for Interns in the fire department I don't know how much that contributes to our actual safety coverage Um, or if that's more of a recruitment and pipeline tactic Something to consider Um, I mentioned earlier Unun unnecessary landscaping maintenance I wonder if there are Hours of operation at the pool that are not well utilized and potentially don't make sense to have as many hours there Um, you know, we hold some funds for I don't know if we're still doing this We used to hold some funds for the city council to lower barriers It was like a 5k line item. I feel like we never we haven't even used that in several years that could be removed It's essentially being used for translation services right now Okay, that's good. I'm glad we're doing that with it Um There's the professional development line item. I feel like that's really underutilized Like most of us don't even dip into that that could be potentially reduced I'm talking about for council. I with staff you you make a judgment call on what you need there It's actually a pooled line item right now So between city and council Right like any any yeah anyone that doesn't have a dedicated budget or if a department needs extra budget Like they would all come out of that and it has been underutilized in recent years, but I'm trying to actually make a push for um For staff certainly to use it and I suggested that counselors mentioned to your commissions that you all have access to that because If you're going to serve want to make sure that you feel supported in that service Um, I want let's go ahead. Sorry I wanted to add one more thing. Um I kind of lost my train of thought about oh I would encourage staff to reconsider being the bingo program as it was a revenue generator that we got rid of And I have heard Missed some of our older residents So I'm I'm going to jump in and comment on the bingo program Uh, I understand that was a very unpopular decision to remove that and after I reviewed the reasoning with rey Who obviously is here. I'd say I agree. It is basically sanctioned bangle gambling so that especially with an older population that Some of them may or may not Have all their faculties So that that's why I haven't made a push for that to come back But it is your budget so It can be on the table if you want it to be so Moving on from that unless somebody wants to speak to that directly I guess I don't know how I ever how high of a priority it is, but I know a lot of windows key residents go to colchester for bingo