Alright, the bodega stabbing. You know I think everybody knows the story by now. A woman comes in, she wants to buy a bag of chips for her kid. She uses one of those cards, which I guess she gets from welfare, like an ATM card. She uses that. It's rejected. I think it's tried several times. It's rejected several times. The clerk, the guy behind the counter, 61 year old, you know, takes the bag of chips and says, from the kid says, sorry, you know, you can't buy this. She gets into an argument with him, threatens to call her boyfriend, calls her boyfriend, boyfriend comes in, basically goes around into his, the space behind the counter, pushes the guys onto the shelf. And as the guy's getting up, you know, lunges at him. At this point, the guy takes a knife that's somewhere on the shelf there, stabs his attacker five times, kills him. Now it turns out that the woman also stabbed him, you know, once you realized what was going on. He's arrested and now is going to stand trial for second-degree murder. And I think bail was originally set at something like half a million dollars and and ultimately that was lowered to $50,000. So he's out on bail. And this is really, I mean, I really haven't seen anybody, you know, significant voices out there, really talking about the, really advocating for this guy to go to jail for a long time. I just haven't seen that. I haven't really looked that hard, but I haven't seen it. But this makes complete sense that he would be prosecuted. Because if you think about, if you think about the district attorney for New York City, this is D.A. Bragg, who I have talked about, who I've talked about on the show a couple of times. When he got first elected, I mentioned the fact that this is a attorney general who does not believe in prosecuting things like mugging and even, even armed robbery, maybe not a jail sentence. Jail sentences have to be violent. So this is a district attorney that, you know, is the opposite of law and order, that is an advocate for the criminals that is, you know, you'd expect him not to prosecute armed robbery, send them off with a slap on the wrist. Don't, don't, don't send them to jail. But then when somebody actually defends themselves, put them in jail, lock the keys. I mean, this is a district attorney, Bragg, who clearly wants to turn New York City over to the criminals and, and ran on these ideas in his campaign, got elected in, in, in a mixed election because he got elected at the same time. The mayor of New York, Mayor Adams, got elected on a tough on crime agenda. And indeed the mayor of New York has come out clearly on the side of the Bodega owner and saying he shouldn't be prosecuted that this was an act of self-defense. So what you've got right now in New York is a political battle between the progressive wing of the Democratic Party and I hate to call them progressives because they don't deserve the title. We are the progressives. I'm a progressive. I believe in progress. They don't believe in progress. They're regressives. Oh, that's the, that's what we should call them. The regressives of a New York City who would like to hand over the city to the criminal element. Of course, they can't actually win long term because people don't like this. So we saw what happened in San Francisco. We're seeing what happens in Philadelphia and LA. These, these two attorneys get recalled. But in the meantime, they can do a lot of damage. In the meantime, this guy's doing a lot of damage. And a mayor who was elected by New York City, the less progressive Democrats and Republicans. And in New York City, Adams is now, is now fighting for law and order and trying to get the police to be tough on crime. And, and that's a battle between the two. And it's going to be interesting to watch. And the bodega is just, the bodega stabbing is just an illustration of that political battle. My, my guess is going to be that Bragg is going to have to fold. There's too much political pressure on him. If the Democrats start persecuting people on such obvious self-defense claims. I mean, this is, look, if somebody attacks you physically, I agree that the first thing you should do is, get away from that.  Get out of there.   The best thing is to protect yourself is to get out of there. But if you're behind a counter on a bodega, you're on the floor, the guy is hunkering and, and, and, and, and dominating you.  You know, you can't escape. Where are you going to go? You're cornered. You're behind the counter in a narrow space.  I mean, this guy is a hero, not a bad guy.   There was no way to back off. There was no way and no place to escape. By the way, the stats that I've seen, I'm not expert, haven't looked at the deeply, but I did this a few months ago. I looked at the stats. The stats are that in stand your ground states, stand your ground, basically encouraging people when attacked to, to take the offensive, to, to, to, to, to not to back away, not to walk away, not to try to disengage, but to go all in. That the number of people who are being killed, not the bad guys, the good guys, the people who initially got attacked, though the number of them getting killed has gone up. And it doesn't surprise me. Most people don't know how to defend themselves. And most people should not try to defend themselves. Most people should try to get the hell out of it. Now, if, if, if you have the capabilities and if you're known, if you know how to, if you've trained on a gun and if you know how to use it and so on, it's a different story. But for most people, they don't know how to do it. They're only going to get themselves in bigger trouble. The bad guys are usually just better at using guns and using violence to get out of there. But in this case, that's ridiculous. In this case, as soon as you're being dominated by somebody else with force, you should be able to use any kind of force, any kind of force, as much force as necessary, including deadly force in order to stop them. And the idea that you shouldn't use deadly force when you're not attacked with deadly force. How do you know the force is not deadly? Once somebody violates your rights, there's zero, they're out in that kind of way, in a violent way. They're out. And, and if, if, if you cannot call the police, if you can't protect yourself by using the police, it's, you have to protect yourself by any means possible, including shooting them in the head. You have to do it, do it. But your primary concern has to be your own self preservation. And all I'm arguing is that empirically, you are better up preserving yourself by backing off, by getting out of there, rather than standing you ground. But if you cornered, you cannot do that.  So the bodega die, no questions, an act of self-defense. I don't think you need a jury here. You've got, you've got the video. I don't think you should be prosecuted. There's no, there's no question here. There really is no question. So anyway, nobody has an obligation to run in the face of deadly force. But it's the rational thing to do. Now, if you're trying to protect your family, if there are other people involved, if you can't run, I mean, there are all kinds of considerations, but your only concern should be your own life. And your own life is better served typically, not always, typically, by running away. That's not an issue of cowardice. It's an issue of reality. But here he's cornered. So there's no question about what is at stake. And this doesn't have to go to a jury. For a matter of fact, we know he was attacked. It's not an issue of fact. Again, he couldn't have run this guy 1E61B. But more importantly is he was cornered. He had no out. No out. on any one of those, any one of those channels. Also, if you'd like to see the Iran book show grow, please consider sharing our content. And of course, subscribe, press that little bell button right down there on YouTube, so that you get an announcement when we go live. And for you, those of you who already subscribers and those of you who already supporters of the show, thank you. I very much appreciate it.


Pikeville Fire Department's battalion chief, Mitch Case, was presented the emergency medical provider of the year award June 11th. The VFW presents three national awards for public servants each year and presented the awards at the recognition ceremony in Louisville. When I was growing up I either wanted to be a police officer or a firefighter and I didn't choose the, I choose the fire side and in the fire service anymore you pretty much to be, to be employed as a firefighter you have to be an EMT and going through all those, those different certification processes. EMT was, was one of those and I, I practiced as a, as a volunteer at my local volunteer department, Big Creek for three years before I was able to get hired on here. But it's just the, the old adage of just being there for, for people. Taking care of your, taking care of your neighbor. We are Pikeville Medical Center and we are an amazing place to work. Healthcare heroes of all types work here. All who deserve great rewards. So while our heroes are working hard to take care of our patients and visitors, we are taking care of them with top-tier benefits, higher pay rates, and great sign-on bonuses. So join our team today. So what are you waiting for? Apply today! Incredible opportunities await at PMCjobs.org. Case is the first EMT from Pikeville that has been presented with the EMT National Award. Whatever may be the case, I'm just a person that likes to help people. And as far as an award is concerned, I'm a person that don't think that I deserve an award. It should be, it should be the other, the other guys that, guys and gals that are out here doing, doing the work every single day, putting the, putting the work in. As far as the people that do this job, we're, we're not in it for the, for the awards. And it's great to be recognized. It is, but I don't have to be. I come in and do a job. If I can help someone while I'm here, whatever the reason be, then that's what I want to do. That's, that's what we do whenever we come, come to work every day or we leave work and we're involved in our communities. We just try to take care of people. For more information on the VFW National Awards for Public Servants, go to vfw754.org. For Mountaintop News, I'm Breanna Robinson.


Welcome to ongoing election coverage by town meeting television. This is one of many forums we're bringing you in advance of local elections in town meeting on this first Tuesday in March, March 2nd, 2021. I'm your host Stephanie Lehar and I'm here tonight with two candidates, the two candidates that are up for reelection to Williston's select board, Gordon St. Hilaire and Terry McKay. And we'll be talking with them tonight and I wanted to invite you if you're watching live to call us with your questions or comments at<PHONE_NUMBER> we would welcome your questions and comments. So we'll hear from the two of them about all sorts of questions and issues facing the town of Williston. I'm going to start by asking Terry McKay to tell us why you're running and what you hope to accomplish when you see it on the select board in Williston. Well, thanks very much and thanks to town meeting TV for hosting the discussions. I have a long history of in my 54 years of residence in Williston to the town of Williston. My wife and I were involved with Girl Scouts, Cub Scouts, Boy Scouts, Girl Softball and Little League. I was the scout master of the Williston Troop 692 for six years and served as the Eagle Scout project review board chair for the county for 13 years. I was the town health officer for 27 years and on both sides of that 27 years I served another three or four as deputy health officer. I've been the historical society president for 13 years. On the regional planning commission as a representative for Williston for nine years. I've been on the select board now for 19 years and chair of that board for 15 years. I was on the as a state representative for 12 years and did not seek re-election. But tonight I am seeking re-election to the select board for a two year term. So we'll get into more discussions later on about what the what the projects are. That's great. Terry, what a deep history of civic engagement in Chittenden County. Gordon, tell us why you're running and what experience you bring to the seat. Good evening first. Thank you for the invitation to be here tonight. I do appreciate the opportunity to speak. Again, my name is Gordon St. Haller and I'm a lifelong resident of Williston. I'm a proud product of the Williston public schools currently work as a classroom teacher in Richmond, Vermont. I was a page in the Vermont legislature in 1987. So I've got a little legislative tie there myself. I've coached middle school basketball, Little League, participated in supported lots of town activities along with the Fourth of July events. This is my first bid for re-election. I'm running for re-election because I believe in our town and the people who live here. I'm proud to be a public servant. I think every resident deserves to be listed to and their voice counts. As I said, I've served on the select board for the past two years. I also serve on the Board of Civil Authorities for the past several years. I've also volunteered in many other capacities. I've certainly enjoyed all of Williston's way of life it promotes. That's why I'm still here. I feel I'm a strong leader, but at the same time I know how to collaborate with others. I feel my experience as an educator, public servant, neighbor and friend, the beneficial to have again on the select board. Great community roots and experience too. That's wonderful. All right. Well, let me ask the two of you a question that most voters want to know, which is, do you support the town budget that is set forth this year? And I'm going to start with you, Gordon. Thank you. Yes, I do support our town budget this year. I feel the entire staff work diligently to watch the bottom line. And I'm proud to say that the tax rate remained flat. I believe a lot of careful considerations were looked at during the budget process along with the current pandemic we're all still dealing with. I know all of our decisions that we've made or have been asked to make bringing along change and challenges. But I do feel that these changes were looked at for the best interests and alternatives for all. We provide a lot of quality services for our townspeople. And I think if you've actively ever used any of these services, you really get a begin to appreciate not only what the service provides, but the people that are behind the service and why they're in place. So again, I'm, yes, I do support our town budget this year. Thanks so much. Terry, tell us about your thoughts on the town budget has been put forward and whether you support it. We'll select more unanimously supports the 2022 operating and capital budgets. And that amounts to a total of 11,571,355 dollars, which requires 5,669 and 389 dollars to be raised by taxes. And as Gordon said, there will be a flat tax this year. There will be no increase in the tax on property. So I do, as Gordon has mentioned, there's a lot of services. And if you look at our tax rate compared to any other town in Chittenden County, we're the lowest tax rate except for Charlotte. And you can think that Charlotte probably doesn't give as much services to their residents as well as the does. So, and this has been true for probably at least 10 years, maybe more than that. I'd like to chat just a little bit about the ballot items that will be on the Australian ballot. In this year, there'll be a couple of different items that usually are taken up in town meeting. And town meeting is not going to happen this year except for an informational meeting on Monday night to discuss the town budget and the school budget. So we won't be elected a moderator this year. The moderator was elected last year by state statute. Now we'll carry on as moderator until a new one is elected. And we'll be voting by Australian ballot for accepting the town reports. And also setting the dates for when taxes are due on August, November and February. So we'll be doing some of the usual things on Monday night, but not as much. And there'll be no voting on Monday night. But every all voting on Australian ballot will be on Tuesday the 2nd of March. Great, thank you. Thanks for that information too on what's changed. Well, let me let me ask you about the pandemic and some of its effects. The the COVID pandemic's been a huge game changer socially and economically for so many people and communities. I'm just wondering, what have you learned over this past year that about the community and its needs that you will bring to bear as a select board to serve your constituents with particularly in terms of adapting to COVID impacts? And I will start with Terry on this. Well, as far as the pandemic goes, we've learned that there's greater community involvement since COVID struck. The 2020 annual report town report is dedicated to the people of Williston rather than individuals. There's been mask making endeavors to food drives, parades to virtual parties, neighbors helping neighbors and caring for the community has been constant. Participation at select board meetings has noticeably increased. When we were holding meetings in person, you'd be lucky to have one or two people attend the select board meetings and now with using Zoom, a term I wouldn't have used before this probably, but we have increased the numbers that are tuned into Zoom considerably ranges and usually upper teams to in the 20s and Tuesday night we had, I think close to 30 people tuned into the broadcast. So we've learned a lot and we've in actuality, it's probably benefited us as far as the visibility goes, but certainly not a thing that we'd like to do again. And that interesting that you've actually been able to increase your engagement and the exposure of select board meetings. How about you, Gordon? What's your sense of, you know, pandemic impacts on the community and how you might help address them through your select board seat? So when I think of this question, I kind of think globally first, kind of narrowing it back down to our town. First words that come to my mind are slow, slow down. You know, I think we live in such a fast pace and we multitask just about everything we touch these days. And I think this has just reminded us that, you know, sometimes we do have to just focus on one thing at a time or one person at a time. You know, don't take those things for granted, you know, life changes quickly. You know, and I've also learned and learned and seen in our community that people are taking the time to enjoy, you know, the family and friends around them and choosing activities that for lack of better phrasing unplugged from the tech world, getting outside when, you know, appropriate for social distancing and just engaging in, you know, activities and things that our town offers that maybe they didn't really know about or take advantage of before. These are words that I can say tonight, but I have to put into practice myself because I can get caught up in the fast paced world too. But I will go back to what Terri has said. And I do feel our community has definitely stepped up during this pandemic. A lot of adaptations have to be made.  So I think, you know, a piece of coming out of this for me is that we even though we're in a, you know, pandemic, there's been a lot of pluses that have come to our board where not only participation through virtual meetings, but just the outreach of, you know, people, people being kind and getting involved. And I think that's super important in any community, but especially ours. That's great.  That's, those are great points. Well, let me, let me ask you a question, each a question about civic participation. And I'm going to start with Gordon this time. So the seats for your seats are uncontested this year. And is this because you're all doing a great job? Or do you think that there's limited civic participation in the community or people just totally occupied with dealing with COVID? Or why do you think that is? It is a concern you at all or not particularly. So Gordon, would you start? Sure. First, you know, I hope that, you know, we're doing the best job that we can. That's that's our intent. We always look for ways to improve no matter in what endeavor that we're doing. I honestly don't think that this is limited civic participation in our community. In fact, I feel that this year has brought forth participants who care about our town's direction in different ways, maybe not at the leadership level of, you know, speaking out and leading the charge, but certainly have been there to promote or just be involved or engaged in what's happening around them. This has been a year that's brought significant stress change. I do feel that people are somewhat still in a survival mode. You know, you're taking care of, you know, at home first and then reaching out, you know, when and if you can to neighbors, friends and other community members in ways that, you know, you might have a specific talent or just want to give back. And I think we've seen kind of more of that as a rule rather than the out front. You know, a lot of behind the scenes things going on, which is impressive to see. So, you know, I certainly think this is a very different year. So lack of not having, you know, people in the race besides Terry and I, I don't feel is a lack of engagement or participation by the town at all. In fact, I kind of see it as the reverse to the points I've made. Great. I love that you see some other indicators of engagement that you're looking broadly. And Terry, what do you think about the uncontested seats and maybe the state of civic participation in Welliston? Well, part of the question was, is the board doing a good job? And of course, as board chair, I said, we're doing a fantastic job. And I can see people's eyes rolling up in the community about that. But we've we've addressed many difficult issues during the course of the past year. And past year is for that matter. But we in this past year, we've had the retirement of a town manager. So we had a nationwide search for and we hired a new town manager who happened to be the assistant town manager in Welliston, but an excellent choice. And we also had the retirement of a fire chief and we while the board does not hire the fire chief, there was a search also for that fire chief and successful resolution to that. Now, due to the pandemic, we've seen a large increase in civic participation in our boards and commission commission meetings. As I mentioned before, Zoom, all of our meetings now are on Zoom. And the boards and the commissions and the select board have enjoyed having more participation that way. And when we're filling seats on boards and commissions, we've had a wealth of candidates we've had in other years. You know, you'd be lucky if you have one person and putting their names up for these particular positions. And lately we've had to make a decision to have to appoint one person when we've had three or four candidates. And that's very difficult because they've all been outstanding people. So we've we've had a wealth of candidates and we've enjoyed very much doing that. And hope that people will continue to be interested in seeking the positions again. All right. Well, that's a great indicator that you've had multiple candidates for commissions and boards that are open on your town. Wonderful. So let's see, first of all, I wanted to to invite any viewers watching live to join our conversation and tell us what you want to talk about at<PHONE_NUMBER>. All right. And I'm going to go to a question and I'll start with Terry about this. Where do you see opportunities for addressing racial justice in the community of Williston? This is a real topic for our day. And how will you use your select board seat to meet this challenge? Well, it's a great question because over the past two months, we've been debating the the the position that we would take on flying a Black Lives Matter at Town Hall. And Tuesday night, two nights ago, we passed a resolution or a motion that the the town would fly the Black Lives Matter flag starting on March 1st and continuing until two days after Juneteenth, which would be June 21st. That would sunset at that time with there be an opportunity for the board to come back and to see whether or not we would continue to fly the flag. Now, we asked community members to weigh in on this over about a two month period, either by email or phone. And we told them we would not publish their names or inquire on the phone, but we would just take their comments and publish those. And we had about 146 emails over that course of time regarding the the issue of flying the flag. We've also this also inspired the formation of a group named the Williston Racial Equity Partners. And just today, that group of seven has advertised in the Williston Observer and on Front Porch Forum, seeking volunteers to serve on a steering committee for the partnership. And the select board as a whole endorses the partnership and is aims to design a racial equity plan that will include short and long term goals and the activity is necessary to fulfill the goals. So we're taking an activist position on this and we're looking for as much citizen participation as we can possibly get. Great. Sounds like you have some already with a good email response and the response, you know, the formation of the racial equity partners. So Gordon, same question for you. What do you see the opportunities for addressing racial justice in the community and how the select board is playing? Yeah, first, I'll echo, you know, I won't reiterate, but I'll echo Terry's information that he's passed along on how much we've been talking about and moving moving this forward. You know, my job and I feel at my home in in in Williston, you know, it really does start with words like respect and kindness. I think that's just a motto. I try to live by myself and that's what we try to pass along to the youngsters that we're working with in our school and hopefully in our own community of Williston. You know, I've always felt and I've always been taught by my parents that actions have always spoken louder than words. And I think, you know, we have an opportunity to model the values that we have been talking about within our meetings and getting feedback from the public within our own town governing departments and our local schools, our places of work and ultimately in our own homes. I think if this becomes a social norm, then and only then will we be able to challenge the issue of racial injustice. I truly believe that it's it's still out there. It's it's a daily thing. I think it affects, you know, different people or groups of people differently. I think perspectives can vary. I would just ask that people are willing to have a, you know, respectful conversation no matter, you know, what side of the issue that they they might fall on just so that we can get a good good plan of direction on what and, you know, what the town apparently looks like and what what do we need to change to make it better so that we are echoing that idea of being respectful and being kind to each other. I appreciate hearing from you both, both on the actions that you're taking as a civic entity and and also the attitudes that you're aspiring to and committed to modeling. Let's see what I'd like to go next. Let me ask you a very pragmatic question. And this this is about the Champlain Water District Bond. And I'm going to start this one with Gordon. You support the Go bond to upgrade the distribution plant of the Champlain Water District. So this one, for sure, I do support the bond, upgrade the distribution plant. You know, I I'm a science teacher as well. And I truly believe clean, reliable water is essential. I think that we need to stay ahead of these kinds of projects to maintain that that quality service that's provided to many residents, not only within our town, but within the district itself.  We're not locally distributed town, town water, but I have a lot of folks that I know are obviously within the residencies of town or if you visit any public institution in Williston that is supplied there as well. So I do support the bond. You know, I do feel that not waiting till something's completely broken to fix it isn't the way to go. You know, you want to be as preventative and stay ahead of things as possible. And hopefully hopefully this is a step in the right direction. Great, thanks. Terry, your comments about why you if you support the the bond for the Champlain Water District improvement or not? Sure. So I, as an individual, totally support the bond vote and hopefully it will pass overwhelmingly. CWD is such an important source of drinking water for the whole, essentially almost the whole county. And we need to protect it. So the amount that has been that amount, the amount that has been previously authorized was not used due to receipt of grants and cost underruns. So it will result in no rate rate increase for the users of the of the water system. And it takes advantage of a historically low interest rates this year. It also minimizes the need for a future larger scale projects by making timely investments in their equipment at CWD. So it's it would be terrible to say we're not going to do this because it will just increase the cost later on. All right. I'm going to go back to you, Terry, with another kind of timely question, which is what's it's about policing? What's the most important? What's most important for Williston in terms of policing and community safety at this moment in time? And, you know, what do you see as the role of police in the community of Williston? We do have a community policing in Williston have had for a long time and a police force is dedicated to keeping the community safe. Over the last few years, there there has been introduced into the town neighborhood watches in many of the larger developments and the police routinely interact in positive ways at our schools, the two elementary schools in town. There are ways for individuals to make complaints regarding the police. Hello, we don't see too many of those to the police chief and they're investigated. The town population, of course, in Williston more than doubles each day with our businesses and shoppers at their big box stores. So the that presents certainly with infrastructure challenges in the town and with the police department. But we're very fortunate in that we currently have a police force that's at full staff. And I think and since the we've hired police officers and not sure how many years, 15, perhaps, we've never had a full force until recently. And we hope that that will continue. But as you know, people do move on to other things. And that's been our our history over the course of a number of years. But I think we have a very progressive police force in Williston. Thanks, Gordon, your turn to address what you think is important for policing and community safety and in the role of police in your community. First forward that pops into my mind is visibility. And I think, you know, our our community policing has done a really good job over time of just being visible and out there and not in a policing sort of way. It's it's nice to see that visibility for not only the youngsters that are in our schools. Not thinking that, you know, these are scary folks, but they are folks that are here to protect and serve our community. You know, I have the opportunity to deal with SRO school resource officers in my in my profession, also seen and heard the same opportunities here in Williston. You know, my own experience has been extremely positive with the police department. I find myself to try to be a law abiding citizen. And I think most residents in town would probably agree with me with that. But they are out there and it's nice to see that the patrols that are around the busy sector of tap corners area. But also, I kind of live in more rule part of Williston and we still see that visibility. And so it's it's pretty well balanced, I would say, in my opinion. You know, the police department, as I said before, is is here to protect and serve our town. One of the department, you know, roles is uphold the governing laws. But, you know, they do so many other things around other programs. And one that I think has just been really neat to watch unfold is our comfort dog over the past year named Duke has had a lot of camera action and media coverage on just the involvement, not only with the schools, but just actively involved and engaged in, you know, some of the the things that come up in crisis that the police have to deal with or the people on scene that that the dog really benefits. And that's just one example of the many that I think promotes the positiveness of our department. I think it's got a very well, you know, well, that person that will lead the department and our chief. And I, you know, I do think it is it is still growing and still progressing. It's ever changing because of the world around us. But I do have a good job for our town. Great. Well, I want to give you each a chance to offer any last words that you have challenges that you hope to address in your next term, presuming you are elected or or visions that you hope to realize. Any last words, I'll start with you, Gordon. Yeah, you know, I think it's really important to keep our eye on our yearly budgets. We spend a lot of time preparing and listening to our local departments on what's what's still needed, what needs to be improved. Or sometimes, you know, we have to look at where, you know, potential diminishes need to occur to to help our residents and the tax rate. You know, I live here, I'm a taxpayer as well, and I certainly want to do my share, but I also want to still have some money in my pocket to live life. I'm also interested in our growth plan, you know, I think we have a pretty significant opportunity with foreign based code coming in to the town and looking at what we have existingly to not going to say improve, but, you know, maybe enhance the aesthetics of, you know, tap corners, the busy sector of that area and then also new development where where that's going to be, how that's going to look, you know, I think we have a great commission that takes a look at those pieces. We have a good director. So I think we have some very responsible people that are willing to hear the voices out there.  Are we going to be committed to follow it? And, you know, the participants that are involved, do we have people in the right places and the right plan in place? So those are the kind of the three things, the budget, the growth plan and the existing developments that we have in town. Thanks so much. Terry, do you have any last words about challenges you'd like to address the elements of your vision? Sure. And Gordon has mentioned most of the ones that I have on my list. So affordable housing would be high on my list. It has been for a number of years, but we haven't made sufficient progress on doing that. There's few new developments that are in the process right now that will provide some affordable housing, but certainly not nearly enough for the demand that we would have. We have a lot of a lot of high priced homes and apartments out of out of reach for middle class people in town. We would need to implement a form based zoning code as Gordon mentioned for a future development of the town. It's currently being studied by consultants that are funded partially by the town and partially by regional planning grants. So we'll continue to grow within the constraints of the sewer system and the ability of that to provide the services necessary. And that could quickly disappear. But the growth needs to occur in the areas designed for growth in the town. We need to take a look at the size, the height, the design and, as Gordon said, the aesthetics of how it will look to the public with more trees and with our grid streets being used to supplement some of the housing and businesses. Beauty is going to be important to it as right now, route two, and it's not too beautiful from the interstate down to TAF corners. So it would be nice to see that change. And we need to take a look at the wants of the community and how they're going to be paid for a community center, more space for the library and how it affects the taxpayers. So we do do our due diligence on these kind of things. And I think the last thing I need to mention is what Gordon said, the budget for the rest of this year and the budget for the next fiscal year are going to be necessary to be watched very carefully because we don't know what COVID has in store for us for the next six, nine, 12 months. So thanks again for hosting the discussion tonight. Great. Well, thank you, Gordon St. Hilaire and Terry McKay for your time and effort in connecting with voters before the election. And thanks to viewers for tuning into town meeting TV coverage. And you can find this in more forums at www.ch17.tv. All right. Good night. Thank you, Stephanie.


Good evening, greetings to you all, good evening, greetings to you all, so I'm going to speak to you as a human, slightly different story, let's put the slides on please, I'm going to talk to you about the future, what the future may hold as far as technology is concerned and how we're going to go into a future that is maybe a little bit more human than we had in mind, so first quite clearly this is what's happening, if you have this device here, right, this is your external brain, this is your second brain, and for some of our kids it's their only brain, but this device is going to move here, it's been tried before, it's coming back, right, and then it will move here, and the question is really how much of that do we want, which way should we be going in this convergence of technology and humanity, I think really what's happening is that it could be both, it could be really amazing, or it could be really bad, I call this Helven, Himmler, it could be a little bit of both, I mean imagine if we were able to change ourselves a lot, then would that be free, or would it be very expensive, or would it only be for the rich? I mean these are questions that we have to come up with, basically when we're looking at the future there's three kinds of changes that we can go through, first we can have physical changes, as Neil has described to ourselves, becoming more cyborgs, using new equipment, then of course we can change our thinking by using artificial intelligence, thinking machines, so-called thinking machines, they don't think like us, that's really a misnomer, but they will give us more horsepower, you know more brain power, and lastly genetic engineering, this has already happened in China a couple of months ago, when we can change all of those things we can essentially reprogram ourselves, to which I would say same thing, right, could be heaven, could be hell, we're at the beginning of the exponential curve takeoff, the exponential curve means doubling every 12 to 18 months twice as fast, twice as cheap, when we look at this curve this is the new question, is no longer going to be about if or how we can do something, that's the question today, but the really important question will be why are we doing something, and who? In 10 years technology will be virtually unlimited in power, 5G networks, quantum computers, cloud computing, the internet of things, this goes on, that's going to change who we are and the real question is going to be why are we doing this, why are we doing things like this, this is a quadriplegic who can walk controlling an exoskeleton with his brain, I mean if you're quadriplegic you can walk again, you know a million dollars later and lots of practice, that's amazing right, I would say solidly that's great because you know you're obviously not able to walk by yourself, this is a medical condition, on the other hand you know when we're thinking about other things like this guy, you heard who lost his legs on a minefield, he says that people should have the right to pick their legs, I know you find that strange right, he basically says that it's no longer for people who have a problem but it's for everybody who should have that right to change their legs, self amputation, I mean that is one crazy idea, so I wonder what Elon Musk is thinking when he talks about this, this is called the neural lace, you know Elon has had some pretty good ideas, he has some Teslas around in Zurich as well but now he wants us to essentially connect our mind and the brain-computer interface by essentially drilling a bunch of holes into our head and connecting directly with the internet, I think the truth could be in 20 years maybe this is required so we can work for you know credit swiss and just kidding for a bank right, anyone, what a crazy question right, I mean this is a question how far do we go with this and I think really ultimately this is the question right, I'm sure you're aware of this, we are not exponential, humans are just not, I mean I'm not going to live faster or do without sleep or use no food, that's not what we are, we are linear, we're all getting older but we're not like technology so this is a real problem for us, technology is exponential but humans are not and here's the key question that we have to ask ourselves, should we upgrade ourselves with technology, I'm not talking about what Neil is doing, this is a different story, upgrading in general right, using technology, AI, genetic engineering or should we respect the difference, that question is going to arise in so many places and that question is going to be absolutely everywhere because this is the key theory right, who does not want to be superhuman, I mean ask yourself right, do you not want to be like Tom Cruise in Minority Report going inside the data and working a hundred times as fast, that would be amazing, I mean imagine as a futurist I could do this, I could touch God, you know I could become God basically right, I mean this whole yeah, that's the temptation right, omniscience, omnipotent, omnipresence, omnie, everything like a total mental viagra you know, so that's a huge temptation for us but I have to ask a question, what about our autonomy, are we still able to function, I mean this when the battery is empty, I am still functioning believe it or not, I could do without it but if it's here and I'm working on this all day or here I don't think I would be functioning if it wasn't working, I dread the day when we get up and we can't do anything without the internet, we're like incapable to even moving and our free will, Marsha McLoone great philosopher said all the tensions of man are also amputations and that's so true, what has this amputated? Well some people have more relationships with their screen than they have with real people, you know the suicide rate on social networks is the highest rate of any user in the world, people who are power users on social networks kill themselves the most, I mean these are some stats that should make us think about how far we want to go with this, so what about those things that make us human, like mistakes, accidents, discovery, creativity, imagination, ethics, you know machines don't know a thing about any of these things, that's because they're not binary, you know not zeros and ones, you know machines don't understand what really matters to us, there is no download for happiness, there is no app for friendship, there is no data for relationships, data that represents relationships, but you didn't marry your husband or your wife because they're efficient, well efficiency is a good thing, you know but I may get divorced if it's not efficient, you know but different question, but I think clearly this is a temptation, so my theory is that if you really want to become exponential you have to become a bot, this is the GERD bot by the way, this is like the Superman world to where we can do everything better than the machines, and then there's a question here of how much do you believe in technology, you know today technology is a religion, it is actually the religion, and technology is now a place where we say well you know we can change our brain to be faster, and you know technically speaking it's possible, not now, but somebody at ETH will figure it out in the next 10, 20 years, and Elon Musk is already working on this, how computable do you think you are, are you a machine, you know you go to Silicon Valley, there's a lot of people saying who cares, we're only machines anyway, we are fancy machines right, we don't believe that here in Switzerland, you know we're humanists by and large, but this is a key question, maybe this is Silicon Valley's future vision, I call this the AI politician, you know maybe we didn't have to vote last week, we just let the AI run the country, because it knows everything, we can download a happiness kit, and we don't have to, you know it's probably going to be sold by you know one of the big internet firms, guess which one, now I'm not going to comment on that one, but and this is the future of education, minority report, downloading the helicopter, I think this would be a very unhuman world, and also very boring, because you could just download anything you want, but here's the problem, technology is money making as nothing ever before, turning humans into tech is the biggest business ever, taken our humanity and saying if you get this fancy shoe you can run better, if you cut your legs off you can be Superman, and the story goes on if you use this brain computer interface then you can replace thousand people at work, and the company only has 10 employees, so here's our challenge, technology has no ethics, technology doesn't know anything about anything, it's morally neutral until we use it, it doesn't care, technology can't do great things, but it does not want to do great things, it doesn't want anything, if we want something from technology we have to make it be ethical, that includes all the modifications of our body and all the outmoding that we can do, right, societies are driven by their tech, but defined by their humanity, you do not want to be defined by technology, because then you become a robot, so this is a question that we have to think about, well this is constantly being debated, I don't know five years ago nobody was saying much about dehumanization, except for some social media users, now everywhere you go people are saying oh this is really dehumanizing this HR test and all the tech that we have, and I think it's time for us to push the button towards what I call rehumanization, a new human renaissance, here in the city of Zwingli, we have to become more human again on top of technology, not without technology, there's no such thing than without technology, we can't go back on technology, we have to use it, but with a human angle, so I would say it's all the yes, I want my body to be scanned, my DNA, my biome, everything, so I can find out what issues I may have, currently cost $11,000, and I can use that data to deal better with my health, that is called healthcare in the future, but I don't want this, I don't want to be in a place to where I'm going to be this, there is a difference, we can have one and not the other, that's a choice that we make, so I think instead of transcending our human limitations, that's always a good thought, I think we need to reconnect with ourselves, we have to find our own qualifications before we can transcend them, here's the biggest problem, the problem is not that tech will take over, that robots will kill us, it's not black mirror, it's not transcendent, it's not X machine, the biggest problem we have today is that we become too much like the machines, we get lazy, we don't care anymore, we have fake relationships, we go into a world where technology is substituting what we are, and that we shouldn't do because it won't make us happy, so my final word, riffing off Steve Jobs, said something very similar, stay happy, stay human, thanks very much.


What's up everybody? I'm Jason from Jazzy's casebricks.com 2020 clear authentic one box break ground team number nine Just sold out and a chance to win two top dynamic dual boxes. So the way this works guys first We do the break Fortune told spots ever because two round on teams in the break We remove the pirates and combo the rose marlins then showcase the hit out of there Then at the end of the break we'll randomize the original 14 customer names. So let's actually grab the 14 original and and Customers in the top two a win a spot win a box of tops dynamic dual Which is the tops on demand product online exclusive and then we'll rip it for you At the end of the break remember just know that it was issued out the non auto parallel So there's your possibility dual autos right here So let's do the break itself first clear authentic. Let's roll the dice and we got a three and a two five times One two three four and five Tim down her neck one two three four Yanks down the rays Tim with the Yanks Tyler with the A's Tim with the Indians Tigers chair with Astros been with the Royals Marlins Nick with the Orioles Sam with the Mariners calling the Angels Sam with the Nationals Sarah with the Giants Ben with the Brewers Tyler with the Twins Joseph with the Dbecks Tim with the Dodgers Sam of the Padres Joshua the Rangers Braves Calling the Cubs Sam with the Red Sox Anthony of the White Sox Nick with the Phillies Blue Jays Jared with the Gantt Mets and Joseph with the Cardinals Anthony of the Rockies Sarah with the Reds and Nick with the Tampa Bay Rays All right guys, so I'm gonna close the trade window and Stick with what you got and then at the end of the break we'll see who wins the dynamic dual boxes The way we have been doing it guys grab two at random do not know what's in this one But number one gets this one number two gets the bottom box and Jordan Yamamoto That is a autograph rookie For the Marlins and I think that's a combo team Ben with the Royals Marlins Says combo teams can't hear right All right quickly just like that that was the break now Let's quickly see who's gonna get the top dynamic dual box number top two at the end of the break get it And then we'll break it here live for you. Let's roll it again separate ice roller five and a one six times top two get it one two three four five six five and six oh six times Jared K and Tim. Congratulations. So Quickly This down so Jared That's a jar. You're gonna get box one.  Good luck nice chat. We'll add it to the break schedule pretty much all the same and it's even top load Those are C's. Oh, is that right breath? Maybe I'll try that one with the next one and we got a red out of ten of Andre Dawson and Tony Perez nine out of ten That's nice. Well, I mean we don't ship out these these slider boxes smoke. We usually Think these when we just throw them away. So Nice you go Jared very nice Here we go Tim like this Brandon. I we got a stellar sophomores out of 25 You got Craig VGO and Kevin VGO.  That was the break itself. Appreciate it I'm sure we'll have another one up soon. Jasper's case break stuff There


Sociolinguistics, Sociolinguistics is the descriptive study of the effect of any and all aspects of society, including cultural norms, expectations, and context, on the way language is used, and society's effect on language. It differs from sociology of language, which focuses on the effect of language on society. So CO-linguistics overlaps considerably with pragmatics. It is historically closely related to linguistic anthropology, and the distinction between the two fields has been questioned. It also studies how language varieties differ between groups separated by certain social variables e.g. ethnicity, religion, status, gender, level of education, age, etc. and how creation and adherence to these rules is used to categorize individuals in social or socio-economic classes. As the usage of a language varies from place to place, language usage also varies among social classes, and it is the sociolex that so CO-linguistics studies. The social aspects of language were in the modern sense first studied by Indian and Japanese linguists in the 1930s, and also by Louis Gauchat in Switzerland in the early 1900s, but none received much attention in the West until much later. The study of the social motivation of language change, on the other hand, has its foundation and the wave model of the late 19th century. The first attested use of the term so CO-linguistics was by Thomas Callan-Hogson in the title of his 1939 article so CO-linguistics in India published in Man in India. So CO-linguistics in the West first appeared in the 1960s and was pioneered by linguists such as William Lebov in the US and Basil Bernstein in the UK. In the 1960s, William Stewart and Heinz Kloss introduced the basic concepts for the sociolinguistic theory of Pluricentric Languages, which describes how the standard language varieties differ between nations.


That concludes the debate on tackling online child abuse, grooming and exploitation. It is now time to move on to those, which an urgent question. Thank you, Presiding Officer. to ask the Scottish Government what impact the Prime Minister's announcement on delaying a range of net zero targets will have on Scotland's target to become net zero by 2045. Maery McLennan Definitely. The Prime Minister's statement yesterday was an unforgettable betrayal of current and future generations and has again put the UK government on the wrong side of history. His reckless pans have been branded shocking and hugely disappointing by Al Gore and hugely damaging and a colossal error by business and consumer groups alike. I'd like to be crystal clear that despite the UK government reneging on their keenest zero commitments arnoedd sylweddodd ac yn cyfarfod i'r gyfrifiadau cyfrifol am gyfrifolau a byddiologau. We have always been clear that the delivery of Scotland's climate ambition is contingent on action by the UK Government in reserved and shared areas. Yesterday's announcements will undoubtedly have serious implications for the delivery of climate ambition here in Scotland. Despite the far-reaching implications, we were given no notice by the UK government by the UK Government yesterday, so we are now currently having to urgently assess the impact on Scotland, and it's right that we take the time to do that. But right now, however, Parliament will recognise that the sheer scale of the Prime Minister's astonishing policy reversals will have a potentially significant impact on developments here in Scotland, not least on the preparation of our own draft climate change plan. I can agree with the cabinet secretary that yesterday's announcement by the Prime Minister is a complete abdication of leadership and sends the wrong message to world leaders, businesses and our constituents. But even before this retrograde step with the Tories, the Scottish Government were failing to meet their own climate targets on homes and buildings, transport and land, and the output from the green finance task force has now been delayed from this autumn to next year. Will the Scottish Government give certainty to business? Will they accelerate their green industrial strategy, not leave businesses waiting for months, so that we can see the certainty in crucial supply chains and investment that will deliver a just transition for workers and businesses across Scotland? I remind Sarah Boyack of two things. First, Scotland's climate change emissions reduction framework is some of the most stretching in the world. While we have missed some targets and met some targets at our last count, we missed it only by 1.2 per cent. That told me two things. Firstly, the actions of this Government are helping us to track very closely where we need to be on the backdrop of some of the most stretching targets in the world. Equally, it told me that we have a great deal left to do. Myself, my officials and my colleagues in Government, we were and continue to be hard at work developing Scotland's next climate change plan, which will demonstrate how we will meet our targets right across our society and our economy. However, there can be no hiding from the fact that this 11-hour upheaval of some of the most important climate objectives across the UK from the Prime Minister last night does create a great deal of uncertainty. It is right that I now take the time with my officials to assess the impact on Scotland. I will be glad to update Sarah Boyack and others after the conclusion of that. I welcome the fact that the cabinet secretary is prepared to do an update, but we need to make sure that we get the change that we need. We in Labour have got the ambition with a deliverable plan, establishing GBNG HQ in Scotland, backed up by £28 billion a year by the mid-term of the Labour Government, reducing people's bills and creating the green jobs that we urgently need. I agree with the cabinet secretary an urgency and need to act now. Will the cabinet secretary accept that the Scottish Government will need to redouble its efforts to tackle the cost of living crisis and the climate crisis by investing to support small businesses across Scotland and to give people the opportunity in our communities to get the low-carbon jobs and training that we need, but ramp up the retrofitting of people's homes across the country, given that 38 per cent of our households now live in fuel poverty and not let people down and fail to deliver by underspending by £133 million, as happened last year? I think that I said at the top of my original answer, but please allow me to repeat that this Government remains absolutely committed to tackling the twin crises of climate change and nature loss, and we remain committed to doing that via a just transition. There are probably just two points that I would like to make in response to Sarah Boyack. The first is that Labour is not standing on a credible position here, given some of the major commitments that its own leader, Keir Starmer, has been so keen to shed as he seeks to ready himself to enter number 10. It seems the closer that Keir Starmer gets to number 10, the more he abandons Labour principles. Of course, that includes its £28 billion green investment fund, which its shadow chancellor was keen to scrap over the summer, and its flip-flopping on low-emission zones. Let's not forget, Presiding Officer, that low-emission zones are one of the key ways that we improve air quality in our city centres, and let's not forget that it is the most vulnerable people in our society who are affected by that. The other point that I just wanted to make in response to Sarah Boyack is that we will keep working to realise our ambitions, but what she does not appear to understand is that we are having to make up for Westminster failure. The sooner that Labour wakes up to that fact and joins us in the realisation that Scotland can only tackle climate change when we are a normal independent country, the better. It is really galling that, although the First Minister shows leadership on the climate change agenda in New York, the Prime Minister rips up what little policies the UK Government had on climate change. That is extremely serious for Scotland and for our entire planet. It has been said today, Presiding Officer, by the TUC, that some 800,000 jobs are at risk across the UK because of the change plan by Mr Sunak. Can I ask the cabinet secretary what analysis the Scottish Government will undertake to see what impact there will be in Scotland, how we can alleviate that situation and what the Scottish Government will do to try and boost business confidence to ensure that we have investment from companies here and abroad? Kevin Stewart is absolutely right. Not only have we had the spectacle of climate change and its impacts ripping across the globe over the summer, not only is there an abandonment of environmental principles and ambition, but there is also economic illiteracy from the UK Government. Not for the first time, we cannot deliver a just transition if we are last to do it. Scotland is once again being held back both in terms of our environmental ambitions and our economic ones. We need to only look at some of the comments from industry yesterday. Our business needs three things from the UK Government—ambition, commitment and consistency. A relaxation of 2030 would undermine all of those. That is exactly what has transpired. I assure Kevin Stewart that, as I do members across the chamber, my officials and I are now urgently undertaking work to assess all of the matters that he rightly raises as it pertains to our climate goals and the opportunities for jobs and skills in Scotland. The SNP provides a perfect example of why net zero targets need to be realistic, which is what our Prime Minister recognises. The SNP Government missed its own climate change targets in eight of the last 12 years. It is failing to roll out enough electric vehicle charging points, and it is failing to say where the £33 billion will come from to decarbonise our buildings in Scotland. So when will this Government start being honest with people and explain to them how much the journey to net zero will cost them and accept that not everyone can afford a swift transition? It is just incredible to hear the Scottish Tories try to lecture me and the Scottish Government on this just now. Just on one of the areas that he mentioned, let me remind him on EV charging that, thanks to the action of this Government, Scotland now has the most comprehensive network of EV charging anywhere in the UK outside of London. That is just one demonstration of the success that we have had to date. Let me be clear, because there is a cynical line being taken here, which is that ordinary people cannot afford to worry about climate change. It will always be the most vulnerable in our society who will suffer from any inaction on climate change. Equally, the interventions that we make in some of the areas that the UK Prime Minister abandoned yesterday in transport and heating buildings have the opportunity to improve the lives of ordinary people, with, for example, warmer and more energy-efficient homes. I acutely understand the balance between those two issues, but when things are challenging, you do not turn your back, you work harder, and that is exactly what this Government is doing, rising to net zero via a just transition. I call Liam McArthur. Thank you, Presiding Officer. Ishi Sunak's decision to roll back on his environmental commitments has caused widespread confusion and anger, including among many within the business communities that the Cabinet Secretary has acknowledged. Facing defeat at the next election, the Prime Minister has embarked on a reckless scorched earth policy. This Government was already regularly failing to meet its climate targets, but Mr Sunak's decision has certainly made that task more difficult. In light of yesterday's decision, but also the repeated calls from the UK Climate Change Committee, can the cabinet secretary advise the chamber when she expects to bring forward a revised and detailed action plan for getting Scotland on track to meet our targets? It had been my intention, and my officials and I had been working on developing a draft of Scotland's climate change plan to lay in the Parliament this year. There is no doubt that this 11th hour significant policy revisal of which we had absolutely no warning. I know that the UK Government Minister has thus far reached out to discuss with me. There is no doubt that that will require time to consider the implications, and, as I already said in response to Sarah Boyack, that will have an effect on when I can lay the draft plan. We have all paid the price of Liz Truss's extremist economic agenda, and now we will all pay the price of Sunak's extremist anti-climate agenda, because businesses have invested, households have begun to prepare, but we have all been let down. The Prime Minister has incredibly managed to unite the Ford Motor Company and Greenpeace in condemnation of his climate climb down. Will the cabinet secretary now request urgent advice from the UK Climate Change Committee ahead of the drafting of Scotland's next climate change plan so that we can deliver the policies with ambition, in the words of Ford, ambition, commitment and consistency that we all need? I echo the sentiments of Mark Ruskell. I note that the Climate Change Committee, who are obviously statutory advisers to both Governments, have already commented on the announcements from yesterday, making it clear that they consider it will make it more difficult for the UK to meet their targets. I will await what I am sure will be further analysis from them. Equally as we do the work to assess the impact on Scotland, I will, as ever, reach out to the Committee on Climate Change, as I will Scotland's Just Transition Commission, of course, the first in the world to be focusing its work on the delivery of net zero in a fair way that leaves no one behind. The Tory's lukewarm commitment to dealing with the existential threat to our planet is now beyond question. With Labour's flip-flopping on climate, the alternative to Tory intransigence is red Tory U-turns. How will the Scottish Government make it clear that Scotland's dedication to the future of our planet must not undermine by Westminster's indifferent attitude to climate change? I echo Jackie Dunbar's sentiments. The difficult truth of the matter is that Scotland, much to the chagran of this Government, has two Governments. One of them retains a great deal of economic and fiscal power over Scotland. It also has power over energy and a great deal of the principal levers that we would wish to use to decarbonise our economy and our society and I have significant concerns about the implications for Scotland of what was announced yesterday, but we are a serious Government. The UK Prime Minister may be content to do late-night press briefings and back-of-an-envelope policy developments that leave business and industry reeling, but we are a serious Government dealing seriously with serious matters, so I will take the time that is required to look into these matters and come back to Parliament with an update. I just want to clarify for the record that the Labour commitment is for £28 billion by the mid-term off a Labour Government should we get elected for the records. Can I just gently remind Ms Boyack that points of order are not for such matters? I confirm to the chamber that there are no questions to be put as a result of today's business, so that concludes decision time and I close this meeting.


reached out to Councillor Shannon so hopefully we'll get her on in just a moment. We'll call to order the special meeting of the Burlington City Council at 6.07 p.m. The first item on the agenda is the agenda. Councillor Stromberg, are you able to please make a motion on the agenda? Yep, I move to adopt the agenda. Okay, so we have a motion and then is there a second to that motion? Seconded by Councillor Pine. Any discussion on the agenda? Okay, hearing none we'll go to a vote. All those in favor please say aye. Any opposed? Okay, that passes unanimously and we have an agenda which brings us down to our next item which has to do with City Place which is the real reason why we are having this meeting this evening. Just wanting to make sure we get on the same page. Before that though there is the public forum. I've got that forum open and I'm not seeing anyone having signed up for public forum so I'm going to go ahead and close that public forum and move us into our item number three which is a communication from Attorney Blackwood. Attorney Blackwood I'll turn it over to you. Are you able to provide any public updates on where things stand just so that folks can understand where we are in the process and anything that you're able to share publicly at this point? I don't think there's a lot new publicly. What we've been working towards is having a mediation with BTC mall associates and that is now scheduled and that's what we want to talk with you all about this evening because the mediation is essentially a negotiation, a chance to look at take positions and for us to talk to you about what kinds of positions we might take and confidential matters. That's why we're asking for this session tonight and for you to go into executive session to discuss that. Hopefully after the mediation we may have more that we can report to the public but all depends on how that goes. Okay understood. So you're not anticipating action coming out of executive session this evening. Is that correct? That's correct. Okay all right. So we would just you're expecting us to just go into executive session, discuss our strategy going into mediation and then come out of executive session without any additional information so that is just folks shouldn't wait in anticipation of action coming on the other side. That's correct. Okay all right. And I guess I should say Councillor Tracy to just to be clear with everybody that if there is an agreement that comes out of mediation that would come publicly to the council and it would be distributed publicly and discuss publicly and you all would have a public vote and just want to make sure people are clear on that. Okay all right I appreciate you clarifying that. Okay so with that understood I would now entertain a motion to go into executive session. Councillor Stromberger are you able to make those motions that we have up on the on the on board docks? Yeah so I'd move that the council finds that premature general public knowledge of the city's strategy legal advice and other information related to the pending litigation with BTC mall associates would put the city at a substantial disadvantage. Okay so we have a motion on a finding. Is there a second to that motion? Seconded by Councillor Freeman. Any further discussion on the finding? Okay hearing none we will go to a vote on that. All those in favour of the finding please say aye. Any opposed? Okay hearing none we had we have a finding now based on that finding are you able to make the motion to go into executive session? Move that based on that finding that the that the council go into executive session to consider pending litigation and confidential attorney client communications pursuant to one VSA 313A1B and F. Individuals to be invited into executive session in addition to the council and mayor is the mayor's office staff city attorney, CAO, Jeffrey Goldberg, Downs-Rackland, Martin attorneys, CEDO director and Grace Chippo. Excellent okay thank you so we have a motion to go into executive session. Is there a second to that motion? Seconded by Councillor Freeman. Any discussion? Just to notice Glasberg. Okay thank you for that Councillor Shannon. Appreciate that. Was that what you were saying as well Councillor Pine? Okay wonderful. Okay so everybody all clear any further discussion? Okay seeing none we'll go to a vote. All those in favour of going into executive session please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Okay hearing none we will go into executive session Councillors please keep an eye on your inboxes we'll get you a the city staff will get you a fresh link for the our executive session shortly. Thanks so much and members of the public we're not again expecting action on the other side so I wouldn't say it's not uh no need to wait around at this point. Thank you.


Let's talk about manipulating the DOM with refs. Here is the component that we built up yesterday. React has this really handy document that talks about manipulating the DOM with refs. Now there's a handful of things we gotta do. We need to import the use ref hook. I'm just gonna use it off of this global right now. And we need to create a ref. So we'll do that right below our use state. I'm gonna use let and const together because I love chaos. Let's call this content ref just in case we add any other refs. And we are gonna default this to null. Again, I'm gonna use the global here. So we'll change that. That should be all good. Now this is a three step process. So now we need to use the special ref prop and assign our ref to it. Now there's a special thing that happens when you pass in a ref, React knows that and we'll assign the underlying DOM node for every time you render this component to this ref. Okay, so next we actually just need to use it. Now there's a handful of rules around using it. But for now, let's just log it out when we press this button. Let's wrap this in a block because we're gonna call two functions, alerts, content ref dot current. This is the only property that you can access on this thing. It's a one property value. So we have current, that's gonna be a whole DOM node. The value that we're interested in is scroll height. So let's save that and see how we did. When I click this, it should go less and it's gonna show us the whole, the scroll height of 455 pixels. That's great. That's exactly what we want. And we have successfully used ref. Okay, so there's another document that you should totally read. And this is, let's see differences between state and refs. Okay, this is something that you're gonna wanna check out. This is part of the next assignment. Here, you can just see exactly the ways a ref and state differ. It's pretty stark, but one of the ways that they do differ is that you're not supposed to use a ref inside of render. We'll cover that tomorrow.  See you in the next one. Bye.