e have to pay for 13 new city employees um i price it out just on an internet loan calculator and debt service alone on a six million dollar bond at four percent for 20 years is 36 000 a month so i don't have 47 000 a year annually would come even close to covering the costs um and lastly i'll just say some of the benefits listed might be able to be achieved be achieved in other simpler less expensive ways we already licensed the haulers in the city so if we require licensed haulers to use more efficient routes restrict days and hours of service in various neighborhoods we might be able to achieve some of these objectives and compliance with mandates and regulations might be achieved through more aggressive education efforts um and maybe we even instead of taking haulers out of the mix we create incentives for haulers like fewer restrictions if they electrify their fleets and i think there's other ways to approach this so i'm not supportive of of this resolution tonight thank you thank you i don't have anyone else in the queue councillor mcgee thank you president tracy um i just want to take a moment to uh review the benefit that a municipal operation model would have for councillor mcgee i'm having trouble hearing you is this better i just you can take it okay i just want to take a moment to address the benefit that this would have for our workforce in the city this would create nine to twelve good paying union jobs and those jobs would come with a guarantee of a fair wage health care benefits and pension benefits you know time and again we have seen privatization a sharp decline in union membership result in the erosion of workers rights and economic security through lower wages reduced benefits and no promise of a pension further we know city workers in particular have a vested interest in ensuring that berlington remains a vibrant healthy inhabitable city and these new positions would bolster dpw's capacity to address other quality of life concerns like snow removal tonight we have the opportunity to set a direction for waste consolidation which recognizes that our most essential services should be provided by the city with the best interests of residents considered above all else we can state clearly that all workers deserve a union a livable wage health care and pension benefits while i recognize that there are many questions left to answer i believe it is important for us to take this step that will ensure that the best outcome for both residents and workers uh for these reasons i'll be voting yes on this resolution thank you mayor one burger thank you president tracy i i agree with the sponsors of this resolution that there are some benefits to be gained from the city playing a more active role in the collection of waste the there's a reason i think that 80 percent of municipalities according to our professionals have some form of consolidated collection and i am supportive of us trying to move in a direction that reduces the greenhouse gas emissions that creates efficiencies that has less wear and tear on our roads that improves working conditions and i had hoped that we would be able to move forward in a bipartisan fashion with a proposal that achieves all that and more and perhaps uh there's still a route there we could do that after tonight but i i cannot support um the the current resolution i mean let's let's be really frank about what's being proposed here there is a proposal to essentially create two new businesses to have the city of brunington get into the waste hauling and the compost hauling business this is not something that can be done casually we should all remember what happened the last time the city in the name of lofty goals started a business it was a disaster that took us a full decade to dig out from under and only recently was completed for us to take this on this would have to become a major new priority there's no other way to do it with that and ensure that this does not become another disaster we are living in historically challenging times where we are already fully committed to a huge range of priorities we are still fighting our way through the end of a pandemic we have a very uncertain recovery that gives it the best in us the responsibility of deploying millions of dollars of federal dollars to relief efforts we are uh reckoning finally as a nation and as a community with racial justice and starting up a large number of new programs and efforts we have a acute housing crisis that demands city action on many fronts we have an opioid crisis that after some years of progress is seeing all the numbers move in the wrong direction and as we'll be discussing later on this agenda we have a major challenge with public safety and with forming a new consensus about where we go with public safety and how we get through this period even just looking at the team the you know and the the administration is responsible for working with the council on all those issues the day-to-day responsibilities for starting these two new businesses would fall to a public works team that also is straining to meet historic challenges we they we are attempting to address decades of deferred maintenance on many infrastructure areas we have another major initiative before you tonight that would accelerate that work we are trying to transform our streets to a much better active transportation network that requires innovation and transformation and it's already putting considerable strain on this team it there is no way to add another major priority to this very long list already and and there's no need to we can achieve virtually all as the analysis that's been shared with the council has shown we can achieve virtually all of the the the social goals that the sponsors of this resolution see to through the hybrid model that the department of public works team has proposed and we could do that with much less strain and diversion of critical attention and focus and resources thank you presentry thank you mayor i have councilor hanson to be followed by councilor mason great thanks well first of all i'm really excited that we're moving forward with consolidated collection um whichever route we go this uh it's been discussed for a very long time and i feel like we're finally and in a position to make progress on it and actually implement it it's going to save residents money on waste collection it's going to save taxpayers money on infrastructure it's going to reduce traffic reduce noise improve wages and benefits for workers improve air quality reduce fossil fuel use reduce greenhouse gas emissions and those things are true regardless of what type of consolidated system in terms of the decision between the hybrid model and the municipal i think we're faced with a common issue which is that the choice that is really best in the long term looking decades out is more costly more painful and more difficult in the short term that's especially tough right now with the recent reappraisal and many other competing needs that the mayor just laid out but in the long run this this would save money as others have noted it would build jobs that would support middle-class families to live in burlington really well paying jobs and benefits that are hard to come by these days and we would have more local control over over the specifics of how our waste is collected and you know the ratepayers would have a seat at the table and would actually have that public control over over the process over the system and i guess one example of that is on the climate front which is that we would have a greater ability to decarbonize and maximize efficiency within waste collection if it were municipal because if it were municipal it would fall under our net zero by 2030 goals and we could work aggressively do electrify the vehicles and make the operation efficient we can push through a hybrid system we can push the private sector through contracts and get some degree of of those benefits but having that full control and oversight and running as a city you have greater ability to to make those changes happen and i think the burlington electric department is the perfect example of that is as a utility they've been consistently a leader across utility you know looking at utilities across the country and world and that's because we've had that public ownership and have been able to guide that department not only in terms of economic benefits for for customers but also the values that we want to see from an electric department so i do think it's the harder path and it would take longer to set up but ultimately looking at the very long view i think it's the it's the right way to go but either way i'm excited to as i said in forward consolidated collection thank you thank you councillor hanson councillor mason thank you president tracy um to somewhat pick up on councillor hanson's comments um at least from the constituents that have reached out to me not a single one is interested in paying more period full stop we're all still getting yelled at for what we've done on electric rates on water rates and on the reappraisal not a single constituent has said i want to pay more move forward the municipal model i'm sorry but that's that's the reality of what i'm hearing as the ward five councillor i'm also pretty concerned about other priorities we've advanced and lumped on chappen and his team and an inability to move forward with this last meeting we advanced you know when we are now or i am optimistic that we will break round on the champlain parkway a year you know in under a year we're also advancing um the rail yard enterprise project i don't know that there's capacity to move forward with this at the same time and i think we're being unrealistic to just pass this and ask his team to do that so i will be voting now thank you thank you councillor mason i don't have anyone else in the queue i would like to speak about just crazy go ahead i'll have councillor jing to be followed by councillor hightower thank you i would like to thank the dpw chappen spent and team and the dpw commission as well for the hard work over the past couple of months about this and took as well but i do believe you know that it is important for us to at least listen here to our constituency people are a little bit confused and i think the amount of communication that has gone from the private holders to our constituency has brought some level of confusion and to me i have been leaning toward the uh municipal option but i want to grant my constitution the freedom to choose who would like to pick up their recycling their their trash and their organics therefore i will not be voting in support of this resolution and i think it will be imperative for us to have this conversation keep on talking for the right amount in collaboration with the private holders for the right system for the city of i will not be voting in support of this resolution thank you thank you councillor jing councillor hightower um yes so i just want to quickly state that i think that my understanding is that chappen and the administration um at least is just represented by um mayor weinberger i are interested in moving forward despite the many other projects that are going on in the city with a consolidated option and that consolidation is often a cheaper option which is why it has been chosen by 80 percent of municipalities it supports a lot of environmental goals it supports um some social goals i think the municipal option also supports a lot of social environmental goals including the ability to set ambitious priorities and i think part of what we're hearing is that that part is difficult to do right now i think as councillor hanson mentioned um i do think that it's important for us to show support for consolidation regardless of how we go forward um based on that i would like to divide the question of the two therefore be it resolved clauses so we have a motion to divide the question is there a second for that motion second is that a second councillor stromberg yes okay we have a motion and a second attorney richardson is the motion to divide the question debatable it is not debatable okay so we will um now go to a vote on the question to divide the two the the vote between the two resolve clauses there are two resolve clauses so the motion is to vote on each of those individually um we're not voting on those questions yet but this is a motion just to simply divide the question will the city clerk please call the roll on the the motion to divide the question between the two resolve clauses in the resolution okay councillor barlow no councillor carpenter yes councillor jen no councillor freeman yes yes yes councillor hanson yes councillor hightower yes councillor mason no councillor paul yes councillor magie yes councillor shannon no councillor stromberg yes city council president tracy yes eight eyes four nays so the motion to divide the question passes so we will divide the question were there any further comments on the resolution councillor shannon um just to clarify the um first question we will be voting on now is the city council supports the implementation of a consolidated collection approach to picking up residential trash recycling and organics for at least one to four unit residential parcels um does that include the hybrid approach that in that um if if you're supportive of the hybrid approach that would be included as a consolidated collection approach correct that's how i read it yes so point of order would that not include a municipal model it would it would include both because they're both consolidated collection options the the municipal option is for the the next clause further clarifies a municipal option so so i guess point of information to the city attorney what i'm trying to figure out is if i were to vote in favor of the first which is generic consolidated collection and i vote no on the second which is the municipal model i'm trying to figure out if if the municipal model still is in play based on a majority vote in favor of the first question as opposed to a negative on the second question because if that's true that will dictate how i vote on the first and the second question so my read of the of the two resolutions certainly obviously the second one very specifically calls out the full municipal operation model the first one however just simply speaks of a consolidated collection approach to picking up residential trash recycling organics so under that it would depend upon the definition of consolidated collection approach and simply because it was a resolution it would open up the possibility that both options were essentially on the table however read read together well let me just leave it at that simply because the resolution that would pass would have brought enough language um but certainly the second vote would clarify in some respects that first vote thank you okay any further discussion councilor hanson yeah from my perspective it's important it's helpful even if some even if the councilor opposes the municipal collection i think but they support the hybrid i do think it's helpful to support consolidation in general and not shoot that down because if that if that goes down i don't know exactly where that leaves us in terms of moving forward if the council has rejected consolidation period um so i would encourage anyone who supports um validated generally to support that and then we can specifically vote on how we feel about municipal you know immediately following that council mason oh sorry can i just say yeah go ahead just that if the municipal fails i think then but the but the consolidated succeeds i think it's pretty clear that the hybrid is what you know is where we're going thank you council hanson councilor mason i'm not this is a convoluted way now that we've done this you know i councilor hanson i don't and i i'm not sure i i agree that you know by voting no on both that forecloses the possibility of a hybrid consolidated approach you know we have not specifically voted on and i believe our rules would allow that to come back um so i will be voting no on both only because my intention is to foreclose the municipal option i don't want to leave it open by a majority vote on the first question and a minority or a negative vote on the second so i didn't create this little puzzle we've got here now but i want to explain you know i'm interested in a further conversation about the hybrid model and i'm hoping i don't believe my vote no on both the first and the second question will preclude that from happening thank you council mason i have council shannon to be followed by council carpenter because i don't know what um the uh yes vote on the first one opens the door to and it's not defined i will be voting no thank you council carpenter um attorney wedgeson can you just clarify if can we bring back a resolution on some form of of consolidated collection or other incentives or other program if we don't know on the first resolve that doesn't prohibit us from coming back with another proposal so if if both are just the first resolution was not to pass um you know it would require um the business to be brought subsequent to be significantly new business and i think it could be defined in that respect if you use language such as a hybrid model or with some degree of specificity that it would allow that to come back as as new business so if we vote no tonight we still could bring some proposal back at some time i mean certainly as a piece of new business not limited by yes okay any other comments from counselors we're going to vote on the two questions okay so we will start off with a vote on the first resolve clause online from lines 28 through 30 that reads now therefore be it resolved that the city council supports the implementation of a consolidated collection approach to picking up its residential trash recycling and organics for at least one to four residential unit residential parcels will the city clerk please call the roll councillor barlow no councillor carpenter no councillor jang no councillor freeman yes councillor hanson yes councillor high tower yes councillor mason no councillor paul no councillor mcgee yes councillor shannon no councillor stromburg yes city council president tracy yes six eyes six nays the first question fails now we will go to the second which is the lines 31 and 32 be it further resolved that the city council supports the full municipal operation model where the city would collect all three waste streams trash recycling and organics will the city clerk please call the roll on that question councillor barlow no councillor carpenter no councillor jang no councillor freeman yes councillor hanson yes councillor high tower yes councillor mason no councillor paul no councillor mcgee yes councillor shannon no councillor stromburg yes city council president tracy yes six eyes six nays the second question fails as well that closes that item and brings us into our next item which is uh 7.04 a resolution regarding a special city meeting issuance of general obligation bonds for capital projects councillor paul thanks i'd like to move the resolution waive the reading um and i i'm happy to speak to this but i'm not sure if the administration councillor paul if you could use your mic please i'm not sure if the administration sorry would um would like to speak with this to this first but i would ask for a second first okay seconded by councillor high tower mayor did you want to speak to this first thank you president tracy just just uh briefly want to make sure the full council is aware you know we we have um been discussing and evolving um this plan for the last couple months and including presentations at the two committee and mpa's and the board of finance um two weeks ago and then an extended discussion earlier tonight i am pleased to say that the board of finance did by a unanimous four zero vote rec recommend um the approval of of this plan um and and a vote tonight by the council to put this um bond issue before the voters um for a special election and um i i hope i hope that this council will find a way to strongly support this i think this is um an opportunity for us together to take the next step and really critical work that i think defines uh significantly much more important part of our work together for the last five years 2016 we passed a sustainable infrastructure plan that changed the trajectory of um so much of our critical public infrastructure our streets our sidewalks our bike path the investment in our parks and these municipal buildings it was always contemplated that there would be a need for a second major uh infusion of resources after the first five years of the plan was complete we are now at that moment where if we're going to continue this momentum we need to go back to the voters and ask for the support uh we have tried to be very mindful of our responsibilities to manage the city's finances responsibly and to be aware of affordability issues with this this plan we um are making this presentation consistent and you will see in the details of the resolution this is very much a plan that is being done consistent with the 2018 debt management plan that this council passed recognizing that we were in a period of needing to make major capital investment we can make investment we we can we can take on bonding at this level and stay consistent with that debt policy and as i hope you saw this is recently just in the last week been reaffirmed by our credit rating agency moody's which reaffirmed the city's double a credit rating uh with an expectation that we would be making significant additional general obligation borrowing tiff borrowing and school investment um uh and uh nonetheless um they uh essentially gave an endorsement of the the direction that we are are headed and then secondly in terms of affordability we have worked very hard and what we have brought forward here to have a plan before you that would leverage tens of millions of dollars from other sources to minimize the impact on local taxpayers we'll be pursuing uh federal and state funding over the next three years as we implement this plan we will um be uh utilizing other other sources and um thus we are we our intention would be over the next three years to build nearly 150 million dollars of infrastructure investment um while the local this new bond would be um uh less than a third of that total um keeping the cost to the average burlington homeowner it to a when fully drawn down um approximately 13 dollars a month um i think i'll i'll leave it there and uh our public works director chippen spencer is here to help help answer any questions um i hope this is something uh that uh we can we can do together and that can be a lasting uh impact of our service together if we get this right thank you mayor council high tower um great so i'm going to ask the same question that i originally asked in board of finance um which is would you consider dividing the question to having 30 million of some of the funds that were discussed in tuke and then 10 million for memorial auditorium and two reasons for that the first being um that some of the public process originally did not include memorial auditorium and then the second one being that um i think at least the folks who have contacted me i think would like to show different preferences between those items thank you council high tower mayor the administration has put this forward uh and worked with the council um uh and counselors answering questions and come up with a resolution that that is before you um and it is our recommendation that we go forward with the resolution um as written uh i think we are um already this would be a second ballot item on the on the special election ballot in addition to the burlington electric department uh revenue bonds and um uh my sense is uh that um it as it as two items it is clear and is a straightforward decision and i think it is uh it adds some complication to create another item um and further i i think we have reached the point where we can no longer and then we've been it's been taking us decades to get to this point we can no longer afford not to budget significant funds from a memorial auditorium so the we are we are at the point the building has been closed for years it is deteriorating and we are going to need to make significant investment in it so um i think we should put in front of the voters a package that gives us resources to to deal with that um and um that the 40 million dollar proposal does that if we were to split into two i think we may find ourselves needing to make significant repairs from a memorial auditorium out of the smaller number and that would then come at the expense of other key priorities i think this has been a problem many decades many years in the making and the way to ensure that we have the resources to address the problem is to pass the resolution as it is and and to have one valid item uh you have the floor comes right thank you mayor um i will not attempt to divide something again that i don't know we'll have a different vote um so unless i hear i do think that that is something that i'm hearing from my constituents that they would like to express a difference in preference that some folks would like to vote for one of it so i am throwing that out for discussion but i won't take any action thank you councillor hightower councillor paul thanks president tracy um so you know i remember the vote that we took uh to get this started five years ago and at the time i remember talking about that you know one of the most fundamental and critical needs of our city and one of our most important responsibilities as elected officials is to address infrastructure maintenance and then also what's i think equally as important is implementing cutting-edge technology responsiveness all of these things cost um cost a lot of money and they don't they don't end up they don't cost less if we wait longer the bonding that is before us and it's in the resolution and i think it's worth the the public knowing is that there's a list of the proposed allocation of the 40 million dollars and of course that could be subject to change our evolving needs but i think it's worth mentioning that um in the resolution streets and sidewalks are an amount of four million dollars bike bike infrastructure in intersection enhancements in the amount of two and a half million dollars also our bridges civic buildings parks fleet enhancement and greater public safety infrastructure one thing that's also important to note is that while it is 40 million dollars it's not as if we will be bonding for 40 million dollars on day one and even the numbers that the administration has come up with are very round amounts 10 million the first year 20 and then 10 um and uh but it's important to note that you know we're not going to bond for projects that aren't ready to go so in other words we are going to be careful uh with this bonding authority as we always are but careful in the sense that we're not needlessly spending interest on on projects that haven't quite gotten to that point um as well there's going to be these will go through an annual budgeting process so there's more opportunity for input and um and as i say it'll be on an as approved or as needed basis um one of the things that i also wanted to just mention is that we talked about this um at the uh we talked about this bonding at the board of finance meeting on september 13th and the information that we had gotten at that time was very different from the bonding the the debt policy assumptions that we got in 2018 that were done by the former ceo uh beth anderson and i was sort of taken back by the fact that the grand list was assumptions were much greater than what i have always been told since i've been involved with municipal government how much our grand list grows however i have never been um associated with city finances uh um after a reappraisal because we don't do them very often um and given that um the reappraisal that does have an impact and and rightly so on the overall grand list value um based on that um there is a there was a spreadsheet and well actually many spreadsheets that we were given to give us the overall effect of what this will mean on our debt policy and i share the concerns that i think many people do that we all know we need a new high school um there's probably a very good chance that the school department is going to come back with an uh with an ass that is significantly higher than the one that they asked for three years ago um and how are we going to be able to afford more of this now i don't know what they're going to come back so it's not appropriate for me to say but based on the administration's assumption i think assumptions and their spreadsheets um you know i think that uh there is a lot of capacity um while still allowing us to continue to maintain an investment to maintain um an investment grade bond rating and as the mayor has alluded the moody's assessment um acknowledges all of these things they they acknowledge the um uh the new the new high school that will be coming at some point and they are still uh very supportive of our credit rating which to me adds a lot of credibility and veracity to our conclusion and going forward with this 40 million dollar geo bond um the last thing i just wanted to mention is that um uh i spoke with um i spoke with the ceo today we spent about an hour on the phone sharing uh sharing our screens and um i i certainly got a um a very clear understanding in terms of also how interactive the spreadsheet is and being able to understand what kind of debt capacity we can absorb um uh while still maintaining a a great a great credit rating um and just wanted to thank katherine thank your team and also thank uh the former ceo's beth and bob who have been amazing through all of this you've got like a major financial brain trust going here and i am very grateful for the amount of time that all of you have spent to make this um an understandable um uh uh assessment and am supportive of going of going forward with this i just in closing would also just like to mention that i know that we have all been through a tough year and we've been through a reappraisal many people have had personal losses and challenges through this pandemic um we're looking at a a cost that will work out to about 15 dollars on a median home um i know that money is still money but i'm hopeful that this is something that we can all support because it's a capital need and it's something that we i think as elected officials need to need to do and do now thank you thank you councillor paul mayor weinberger thanks for his interest i just wanted to add very quickly um and just the people that should be called out as having worked on this for years should include martha keenan who has been responsible both for the development of our initial sustainable infrastructure plan the implementation on much of the plan personally managing many of the projects and the presentation of the materials for tonight and so she is a new elected mention she's also here and available for questions if there are any at this point thank you very much are there any other comments from councillors councillor barlow to be followed by councillor hanson thank you president tracy um i was sort of i'd say luke warm at best when this was first brought up two weeks ago and i do appreciate all the work that's been done to address my concern about finding ways to limit the tax implications of this binding request there's two resolve clauses that were added uh the the first that will um seek additional um non-tax funding sources like federal money that we don't know um how how yet will materialize and if we can find that for projects we'll use that instead of leveraging um additional debt and and putting um guard rails around the 10 million dollars for memorial auditorium with additional council action required if we want to move ahead on any of that so i i appreciate the work that was done to address that and those were definitely improvements uh in my view to the original proposal the other thing as councillor paul mentioned is the high school you know i served on the school board for four years and was part of the original re-envisioning project and was spent many many hours on on that proposal and understanding um all of the city uh cap the school district capital needs and bonding processes and um i just wanted to thank uh cio shed and mayor windberger for spending a lot of time and a lot of spreadsheets uh sent to me to make to help me to understand where the debt capacity is and how adding uh this bond will um affect the overall ability of the city to also fund a high school and i have a level of comfort with that now that i didn't have even at the start of today so thank you for that and i will be supporting this tonight thank you councillor borough councillor hanson yeah i come at it from a different angle of councillor borough that i've been very supportive of this from the beginning and the need is very critical um if folks didn't see the full presentation the need is actually much greater than what than what we're asking for and it's a lot of maintenance it's been deferred for far too long um so it's it's really important that we that we try to catch up and that we try to address infrastructure in our city and if we don't and and if this fails um we're gonna just have to spend more money um later so although it might be challenging um for folks to to be able to afford the tax increase that this would that this would lead to um if we defer it it's gonna be even worse economically for for all of us as taxpayers and so it's really important that we try to support our infrastructure um and catch up on deferred maintenance i don't the the the change around memorial auditorium and you know the rest of the 30 million of this is flexible between projects which i think is a good way to go because we don't think the pandemic has really underscored the fact that we don't know what's coming next and um we live in a very dynamic and constantly evolving world and there's so many examples i could think of that would cause us to need to change direction need to be flexible and nimble in terms of what infrastructure we're prioritizing so i don't like that 10 million is can't be used for anything other than memorial um i like the other 30 million because it's flexible among urgent priorities i also don't really like that it's it's a little bit unclear at least when i tried to address it in board of finance is what uh legally sort of where where where that actually falls um because there's the resolution and then there's the actual ballot language so i am a bit uncomfortable with that but at the same time this is so important um and i want councillor barlow and others to support it so i'm not going to propose any changes i want to see us all you know get behind this i think it's it's critically important for the the community thank you thank you council shannon thank you president tracy i think that this bond gives the city a lot of bang for the buck um however i know that my constituents are really struggling with the reappraisal they need lower taxes not higher taxes they also need the infrastructure maintained my main objection to this bond is the timing i don't think it's fair to put this ahead of the school i think that our um voters should have the opportunity to look at them to either look at the school first and then this or look at them together but i won't support putting the spawn forward at this time thank you any other comments from councillors okay hearing none we'll go to a vote will the city clerk please call the roll councillor barlow yes councillor carpenter yes councillor um freeman yes councillor hanson yes councillor high tower yes councillor mason yes councillor paul yes councillor magie yes councillor shannon no councillor stromburg yes city council president tracy yes ten eyes one day thank you and one absent councillor jane let me know that he had signed off for for that item so the the the resolution carries and this will be placed on a special election ballot moves us into our next item which is item 7.05 um before we get into that item i'm actually going to call a 10 minute recess so we will come back reconvene at 947 um so i'll come right back thank you communication acting chief of stabilization plan for the berlington police department councillor mason thank you president tracy um i would like to move that we approve the authorization of john mirad acting chief of police execute retention and recruitment plan for officers of the berlington police department with a maximum limiting amount calculation $850,000 thank you we have a motion from councillor mason is there a second seconded by councillor shannon councillor mason did you want the floor back no but i would invite the chief acting chief up maybe to yield any questions on the plan certainly welcome acting chief mirad thank you council president are there did you want so yeah may may i start chief could um we've had the benefit of reading the plan if i for the public's benefit and for those who have not read it could i maybe have you offer a little primer and then what's proposed thank you sure uh so i i did prepare a uh a power point with some quick slides thank you uh if you will proceed to the first thank so these are we have been rapidly uh decreasing our numbers and that's of course was was the intention um of the resolution last june i think it has happened at a more accelerated clip than many people anticipated um we did have some anticipation of this but certainly it has been rapid uh 96 92 at the time of the resolution uh we are currently at 68 uh as i clarify in i clarify that in the memorandum of what 68 is but 68 is what is currently available to us and in fact it's actually below 68 because three of the people counted in that 68 are either on long-term military deployment or our are injured and are on long-term administrative duty could you go to the next slide please this is a picture of the current sworn staffing and the effective number as i said of 65 that 68 minus those three who are not available um and and these are are the numbers that we have it is below what even the uh the resolution last summer envisioned uh by contract and by workload our detectives must have 10 officers and uh by mo u we must commit a certain number of officers to coosie in proportion to our uh the incidents of sex crimes that occur in burlington and crimes against children in burlington that is part of that compliment that you can see on the right side of this uh graphic federal law dictates the number of officers that we dedicate to the airport it's determined in part by the number of gates including the baggage gate and that dictates the fact that we have a supervisor and seven officers at the airport in order to have 24-hour staffing for all gates there um and then uh we have the rest of our officers primarily dedicated to patrol and to our day shift and our evening shift um but we anticipate that we're going to lose another 10 officers between now and next july and that anticipation is based on uh knowledge of officers who've said they're going officers we know are in processes with other uh police departments and also officers who are anticipated to retire based on tenure uh if we could go now i do want to note that this graphic doesn't show the cso's or the csl's we currently have two cso's we have had those cso positions for a long time this body agreed uh to increase the allotment of cso's we are working on hiring new cso's i i point out in the memo i believe that we are um we have uh three csl's in the hiring process and four cso's in various stages the hiring or training process so this does not show those positions uh but these are the officers that we need to train the cso's and work with the csl's and backstop both positions and we are losing officers rapidly uh at a rate that that frankly does begin to compromise what we can do we already cannot provide the services that we have in the past uh the next slide please um this is just a different way of looking at the officers available uh the next slide please um this is our hiring versus our attrition and and this is actually slightly different than the one that was in the memorandum you'll see that they're 17 in 2021 not 16 which the memorandum shows uh that's year to date and that is because i i had missed one we've lost a large number and there was one who had sort of snuck out at the end of august who hadn't been counted in the table that i included in the mo u um next slide please this is our headcount month by month from 2015 to 2021 these are the first of the month uh so on the you know on january first on february first on march first and you can see where we were previously and where we've gone um and that is a tremendous tremendous deficit i spoke recently with uh former chief of police shirling now commissioner shirling of the department of public safety he pointed out that uh to go from the mid 80s to 100 which was a move they made in the uh in the early 2000s took them seven years and that was with an existing pool of applicants in the hundreds 200 to 300 existing pools we currently have about i think 30 to 40 in our pool uh by no means or all those candidates going to be people who ultimately become police officers the point of a pool like that is to have a deep uh body of folks that you can select from and and be uh stringent in your standards but we don't have that pool we thought we had to forego that pool once we were no longer allowed to hire and we're unsure when hiring would begin again and so for us to be able to climb in the same kind of numbers if if it is determined that this agency needs to be whether it's at 74 whether it's higher than that uh once this final version of the cna report comes out and then others are able to weigh in and and determine a number if that number is is 20 higher than we currently are in in the mid 60s um it's going to take a very long time it's going to take uh several years at minimum to achieve those numbers and what will aggravate that or make that harder is if we continue to lose from where we are that's predicated that that seven-year multi-year bill build is predicated on staying at this 68 65 number if we in fact lose 10 over the next year uh well between now and july is as we anticipate then it's that much more difficult and and as i've pointed out before it has partly to do with the length of time it takes to identify vet uh hire and train a police officer it also has to do with the fact that in vermont all police officers ultimately have to go through the vermont police academy recruits have to be there for the full academy experience but even lateral officers who we bring in from out other states who are already certified officers have to go through a process that that is uh dictated by the pace of the vermont police academy and therefore there's a bottleneck for us that even if i could miraculously identify 12 officers in one swoop and we could also fund those 12 officers we would not be able to have those 12 officers get seats in the vermont police academy and suddenly be hired so this hiring process is going to be for the next year or two it is going to be a matter of of one step forward and three or four steps back as officers depart and then we will stabilize in another two years in a process of of two steps forward two steps back where we're going to kind of stabilize and then we hope to be able to get to a process in four years or more of saying okay now we're actually in a place where we're going three or four steps forward and only one step back at any given time and and anything we can do to minimize the uh the level at which we are falling and minimize the you know to prevent us from falling further um I think is worthwhile and that was the nature of this proposal thank you thank you acting chief comes on me so did you want the floor yes please president tracy um thank you acting chief mirad just I think two points of clarification what would the proposal in front of us because there was a little bit of a discussion about a potential modification to the retention piece as opposed to the recruitment but the retention piece I think the consensus of the council was to move forward with the retention piece of a $2,000 payment on what's the date November 15th 2021 which is consistent with what was in your memo and the second recommendation was to move the second payment on September 1st 2022 to $8,000 and not have the third payment so that was the justification and the math that was behind the reduction in the overall so I don't know how we make that binding because it's not in the resolution but that was the sense of the council in my understanding that's been discussed with the administration with you and that is acceptable is that correct yes sir I uh yes okay and to be clear that amount was in your your original motion correct well the resolution only has a dollar amount it doesn't right and you made the dollar you made a different I did reduce the dollar amount to take into account that there was not the third payment um so thank you for that clarification um I will be supporting this resolution I think for those of us I mean the public comments that were we heard earlier tonight were not a surprise um those are consistent with not only my own personal experience unfortunately I've had my car broken into twice I'm intersecting you know with individuals who are living in our parking garage and dealing with staff who are quite afraid um we're all getting the front porch forums that read more like a crime blotter right these days than you know necessarily a front porch forum I'm not naive enough to believe that this is the panacea or this solves it um but I do feel that we would you know a further reduction of 10 or even one officer um is not going to improve our public safety output I appreciate there are other conversations about how to address what's going on but I think I see this personally as one step um to moving that forward so for that reason I will be supporting this thank you thank you councillor mason councillor hi car um oh my gosh I have so much to say did not plan on saying any of this but I think the first thing is is we have 70 officers first I do just sometimes I feel like we are throwing out a lot of different definitions of numbers of effective cap how many effective officers we have how many actual officers we have and sometimes it gets a little bit confusing when you have charts that not only have axes that don't go to zero which at least if you're a millennial like me you learned in high school that that is a strategy for distorting data um but more than that um when you're comparing things like oh the most officers we've ever had some of which I assume we're about to go into retirement some of which I assume we're also on military leave and then we're comparing it to the worst case scenario now we're comparing apples and oranges to be very clear in the same graph and it's frustrating um but that's not a point I guess a question that I have is why we're coming back for sworn officer deal sweetener which I'm not opposed to because I do think they are I do think that we have good people on the force who are trying to do a very difficult job right now but at the same time we approved other positions back in February none of which we've come back for for a way to improve recruitment around that or if it's been so difficult why hasn't that been part of the plan um and I think the second thing is just we've been talking about alternatives for so long and we keep coming back to the sworn officer count which is great but maybe this is so that's a question to chief mirad but then I think also the alternatives is something that we can't seem to get on the table at all when we're talking about the sworn officer count over and over and over again which is maybe more of a question to the mayor so both of those okay well why don't we start with acting chief mirad may I what what specifically yes I would like to hear why the CSO CSL hires have been so slow and why if they were approved over half a year ago there's been no ask to help support those hires so when when they were approved uh the memorandum at the time actually stated that we wouldn't be able to hire them until the the new fiscal year uh in July we did begin that process we're we have as many as we have had viable candidates we have had a number of candidates I want to say in the vicinity of 35 and the number who actually uh showed up for final stages of interviews and took the tests uh got us to where we are right now with uh approximately I think three in process and a fourth who is is close to being ready to to begin those processes and then going through a background check etc and then training and so I'm quite hopeful that we'll actually have four who are in the field at least in training before the end of this year which is pretty much what I indicated would be the case in the memorandum in January with regard to the CSLs we have all three uh they are not uh I think one is hired and the other two are in background um and uh we're going to have to we'll be working on the training for those three CSLs and then we'll figure out where two of them are ultimately going to be assigned and sit um but as uh Lacey Smith who's doing the bulk of that training uh has made it clear seating is somewhat incidental to the work that they do which is in the field so those positions are priorities for us we've been working to identify candidates bring candidates in and actually get them on board but it's not out of keeping with what the plan stated when I first proposed it in December of 2020 um and then formalized it in the memorandum to the city council in January of 2021 right but your original sorry go ahead your original plan also said that we would take seven months to train the CSOs when we had heard it would take our previous CSOs had been trained in one month um to how much do CSOs get paid training is not seven months training is it is the entirety of the process that is seven months and while the the field training process for the existing CSOs may have been in the order of about six weeks we anticipate this being longer because we're asking them to do more things we have to train them to be able to respond to uh non-injury crashes uh where there's no investigation but reports have to be taken we have to train them to work with people and potentially issue municipal tickets which they have not done in the past there are changes to their job description that are going to entail changes to the training regime um so uh what do the the CSOs make I had that amount I can find it for you if you give me a moment yeah no rush okay did you have another question for the mayor council hi tar yeah which is just if on this we could also get an update on where we are with alternatives and why you know we haven't moved as quickly on that as maybe some of us would have hoped mayor Weinberger um thanks president tracy counselor hi tower um so from my perspective the council has now authorized at different times not all going back to february three different significant uh increases in capacity the cso program the cso program and then the rf the the hope for a cahoots like partnership um I think there has been progress on on all three fronts notably the csl program as the chief just reported we have hired an additional csl the council did not authorize the hiring of the final two csls until I believe the July uh July resolution and as heard we had we had a successful that is going well we have the two candidates identified and they're going through the um the final uh processes for becoming an employee and and and being able to do this work so I think they were making real progress and I'm hopeful about that there's clearly a huge need there and uh them all three of them being deployed can't come soon enough the cso program uh I think it's accurate what the chief uh has said that he indicated this would be a new program that took time to build up at the same time I you know I don't think the chief would disagree we were hoping the the initial yield of the initial round of advertising and um uh candidates uh gives me some concern about how quickly we are going to be able to develop this program and it may be that uh as we are we're in the process of taking stock from this first effort that uh something needs to be done there to make that a um to get to our goals with this the CSLs um sorry with the CSOs uh the the budget process in the past at the end of June is what authorized the creation of a cahoots like uh partnership and there there has been an enormous amount of work that's gone on through the through the summer by uh by city staff as well as um by uh community members and um I I think we are very close to being at the point where we can put it out in RFP there too uh you know it's a major new uh undertaking one that will involve um probably multiple partners and I think we were clear this was going to take um significant time to actually create and it shouldn't be a surprise that it's it's taking some time uh so I I guess I um I uh I think it is clear that there is consensus around these alternative resources and we are trying to move that on them uh and none of that should is there is no scenario where we don't also need a significant number of sworn officers for public safety to be our public safety goals to be achieved as the chief pointed out quick in a comment there but I think it's a combination is important one for all three of these additional alternative resources require significant coordination and in some cases training and uh support from the police to be successful we are we are going to be more able to uh launch and implement those programs if we have uh if we do not lose more officers so I I think there's we agree there needs to be more progress there and I think that is uh I hope we do not lose sight of the issue that is in front of the council tonight which is this is something after a number of contentious uh divided votes I hope this is something we can do with with broad consensus there the uh whether or not you believe the 74 was the right number or 85 or or the original 105 regardless we are now below those numbers and every I think we should believe the officers who are telling us that we are going to lose more soon if we don't do something this is an opportunity for the administration and the council to say together to the officers that we value their work we know they are important part of our of our public safety efforts and um we uh know that um that and we value them we value their work and we value them as individuals and I think that would be a more powerful statement if this this is something that council can do with a broad consensus I Mr. President I do have those those figures um in the the pilot plan that was presented in in January was different than the full plan that was presented in December and early January the full plan talked about 12 cso's eventually and and six csl's uh deploying with officers um and that talked about that being a uh one or two year you know way to to stabilize versus a multi-year five or six or seven uh with regard to hiring officers so it was always planned that that was something that was a it had a time window it wasn't something that was going to happen immediately but are we do we wish that we were able to recruit a little more do we wish we were seeing better numbers as the mayor stated yes absolutely we do so I'll take an opportunity to plug it right now and say that anybody watching whether that's the media or whether that's on on our town hall tv uh these are great positions there it is $47,000 a year uh starting for a cso that's $22 and 60 cents an hour uh that is an excellent wage for excellent work it is meaningful work um and uh uh there is a an opportunity to engage with the public to to serve this community uh to be part of something that is that is new and different and is going to be an expansion of an existing role that role tops out at $56,000 and uh at $26 an hour the csl's as I stated the three that we were allotted are filled but ultimately the public safety continuity plan the full build out called for six six to be based in the police department working with police officers and and turning out with officers that role starts at $60,000 a year or $29 an hour and and tops at $72,000 a year or $3460 an hour those are are are are strong salaries in this marketplace they are strong salaries in the city they are uh indicative of the value that we place in these these positions and the the real potential for people to come aboard in this department and and be able to serve their community in a new way and ultimately I think that we are hopeful that the police excuse me that the cso role will be a uh a way of identifying good police officers it has been in the past uh but irrespective of whether or not that's the case it's it's a great job in and of itself and so I will say to the to the media they were like we are looking for people to fill these positions and uh it is uh an excellent opportunity to find a good job with the city of burlington to serve the city of burlington and to have a real career that has potential for growth and new things thank you councilor hightower you have the floor thanks um and thank you for that recruiting pitch because those are certain positions that I'm anxious to fill um I do think that I have to say that while we say we keep losing not to lose sight of the issue I do think part of the issue is how much more we've talked about this police cap than we've talked about solutions to alternatives I'm really glad that this conversation has happened I think lacy and smith has taken a great leadership role in moving it forward this summer I wish that had happened last summer last fall last winter when we had a bullet director of police transformation who was supposed to be leading some of those conversations um and I'm frustrated that that we're still here and we haven't done anything and while you know half of the city thinks that the problem is that we don't have enough officers the other half of the city thinks that the problem is that we just keep saying we're not going to enforce anything and are releasing more press releases on crime like while we're playing politics like the city's front the city's frustrated like we're not we don't we have problems that can't be solved by police officers that we're not dealing with we have problems that can be solved by police officers that we're not dealing with and I think it's I think it's I think people are frustrated with us because we're too busy playing politics to solve anything so yes I will be voting yes on this proposal but I think that it's frustrating that we're talking about a cap again about what we're talking about sworn officers again when there's so many other public health issues that we should be bringing forward to the council thank you councilor hightower mayor I just think it's important to not lose sight of the fact that we are here tonight presenting a retention and recruitment plan for sworn officers because that was explicitly the charge that was in the council resolution and the police commission resolution um asking us to to come back from from the august resolution so it's just a little tough I think the council invited this discussion we have come forward with a proposal to address a clear need no one is suggesting by the focus on this tonight that we do not have a bunch a ton of work to do in numerous other areas and that work is moving as quickly as we can move it and we will continue to be working hard on that thank you mayor I don't have anyone else in the queue councilor shaman thank you I don't think it's fair to berate you for all the work that you have done to try and hold things together in a profoundly difficult environment which was projected on you without any kind of plan and I appreciate all the work that you have done to to play the hand that's dealt you and to find solutions and I want to thank you the other officers that are on the job that have chosen to stay here and I also want to share that my constituents appreciate your work and I hear that quite regularly I think that it's great that we are hiring CSOs and CSLs because I do think that there is a new future for policing but it obviously it doesn't happen in a day it's a building process and you have diligently worked on building that new process so I want to thank you and I do support this plan to try and retain officers and attract officers to Burlington and I hope that there's an interest in serving here because we are going to have a new kind of of policing here and new kinds of opportunities for public safety and ultimately I think people are not feeling safe in our community and I think we all want public safety so thank you for your commitment to that thank you Councillor Shannon don't have anyone else in the queue Councillor Hanson thanks yeah and I would echo a lot of what I've heard especially from Councillor Hightower I think we're we've been in this really challenging debate and process around public safety and really trying to forge ahead and build a new system that not many communities have have built out in the US thus far but I think it's critical we need to stay focused on that and I too am frustrated as others are that I feel that there's been there there could be more progress and more discussion there rather than that the focus around maintaining the CAP or maintaining sworn officers I think we recognize that that this is an issue that's why we invited it back at the last council meeting because we do understand that we haven't yet built up the alternatives enough to where you know to where the system can handle losing so many officers we simply just haven't created the new system properly enough to to allow for a drop in officer count and so I think that's that's why we're here we're trying to come together around that we're trying to address that that's really what this is about at the same time I want to see us you know coming together around really leaning into the transition and I think part of that ties in with officer recruitment and retention is how do we how do we communicate that vision in a way that that brings people in and and and part of that is coming together around something like this but I think part of that is setting the tone of officers can be part of this transition and should come to burlington if they want to be on the cutting edge of building out a new system and same with existing officers that want to stay and want to serve the community and want to see that and I hope that that's who we're attracting that that's who we're keeping on is is folks who are of that mindset and I don't know I don't I don't want to see us creating a tone of or a culture of of resistance to that within BPD so it's difficult I think we're coming at this issue from different perspectives but as much as we can try to move forward together and recognize that this is a change this is uncomfortable but ultimately it's going to serve the community better and ultimately it is what we've heard overwhelmingly from the community in terms of of where we want to go so I you know I support this understanding that we we haven't built up those alternatives yet and I hope that those of us who have been the most eager to to see that built out I hope that you know others can come together with us on that since we're coming together around around this and around you know supporting the existing system has as we do that work please thank you thank you Councillor Henson Councillor Paul thanks President Tracy um so I think you know I think that uh we've we've come to this we've come to this conversation a number of times but I think it's worth repeating that um I still feel and I think there's a number of us who still feel that there was a lot of good that came out of the racial justice resolution which we passed nine to three last summer um a lot that moved a needle that desperately needed to be moved and a lot that created a stir and discomfort to the status quo but in the end I think it brought us awareness as a community to move forward um and as a community we do need a police department that is community engaged um is supportive of collaborative change and transformation of thinking way outside the box and with a genuine mindset to finding new solutions um as well as professional self-reflection um you know I know that's a mouthful these are complex asks um and our officers who hear this and do this um they are deserving of our support and our mentorship um at the same time I also want to acknowledge um you know how appreciative I am of the work that all of our colleagues at this table have done this evening to come to consensus so that we can send a collective message of support um to our officers um I think our greatest priority going forward is that we need to reimagine public safety together not us them but together and I think that if we do that that we can find long-term progress together and I'm hopeful that we can all be a part of that solution going forward this evening thanks thank you Councillor Paul I don't have anyone else in the queue ready to vote okay will um all those in favor please say aye aye aye any opposed that carries unanimously thank you very much acting chief actually acting chief we have you're on next for the next item as well so state put for for just a second um brings us to our next item which is item 7.06 uh which is uh a community just simply a communication um may please have a motion on the the communication Councillor Shannon I move to waive the reading and accept the communication and place it on file thank you Councillor Shannon there's a motion is there a second seconded by Councillor Barlow Councillor Shannon did you want the floor back thank you council uh acting chief Murad will you uh are you able to just explain now what's in this memo yes thank you uh council president um this memo is about the 2021 equitable sharing annual agreement and certification um since we've waived the reading I don't I don't think it's necessary for me to read this uh the entirety of it but um equitable sharing is is a federal program in which the proceeds of liquidated assets for faded after criminal investigations and obtained almost entirely from post conviction distributions are shared among participating state and federal law enforcement authorities after being distributed to victims it has to go to victims and have victim compensation first um we participate in this program we have uh it requires a certification each year which the mayor signed uh that has been signed for this year in the most recent fiscal year the city received $32,695.52 through this program I have detailed in this memorandum 11 pages of examples of the cases from which that money was obtained all of them with the exception of two postal cases involved convictions of criminals uh these are criminals who were moving felony weight of narcotics 290 bags of heroin and laced with fentanyl in one instance 41 grams of crack uh federal cases involving the sale of contraband and drugs to children um a half kilo of marijuana in a sale front right across the street from city hall a instance in which a long-term case that involved 27 defendants arrested and convicted and again all of these are detailed in that memorandum and an appendix but those are the kinds of cases that we're talking about and from which we received those funds okay thank you chief is there any discussion okay seeing none we're gonna we can go to a vote and just to be clear we're just voting to accept the communication and place it on file we're not voting on any policy matters or any certifications of this program is that correct chief that is correct okay everybody ready to vote okay all those in favor please say aye aye any opposed that carries unanimously having already completed the other items on our agenda this evening a motion to adjourn is in order moved by councilor paul is there a second seconded by councilor McGee any discussion okay all those in favor of adjournment please say aye aye be opposed we are adjourned at 10 29 have a good night everyone


QuickBooks Online 2023 new company test file free 30-day trial. Get ready to earn the skills needed to boost our bank books on up with QuickBooks Online 2023. Support Accounting Instruction by clicking the link below giving you a free month membership to all of the content on our website broken out by category further broken out by course. Each course then organized in a logical reasonable fashion making it much more easy to find what you need than can be done on a YouTube page. We also include added resources such as excel practice problems PDF files and more like QuickBooks backup files when applicable. So once again click the link below for a free month membership to our website and all the content on it. Here we are at the Intuit website Intuit being the owner of QuickBooks that's at intuit.com we're looking to set up our free 30-day trial so we have a sandbox to be working our test company file. Remember that your other free option to practice with QuickBooks Online is the QuickBooks Online test drive file to find that option. I think it's easiest to just type into your favorite search engine QuickBooks Online test drive but we're going to be on the Intuit website. Intuit has multiple softwares that they own. I'm going to go from here to of course the QuickBooks software remembering that there are two major categories of QuickBooks software desktop and online versions. Their main sales page for QuickBooks will typically be pointing towards the online version of the software but it still looks a little bit different than if we go directly to the online sales page. So I would typically go all the way down you can see you don't have like the free option right here doesn't indicate that but if you go all the way down to the bottom then for a long time for many years they have had their products listed at the bottom of their page and if I go into the products and look at the QuickBooks Online product I get a slightly different sales page than just the QuickBooks overall sales page which does have this try it for 30 days option right here and if I toggle down you also see it in this toggle option down below. Now if for whatever reason that sales page changes and you find it difficult to find the free 30-day trial on the Intuit website itself I would recommend trying just as we saw with the with the QuickBooks online test drive just typing it into your favorite search engine and then looking for the browsers that have an extension of Intuit.com and maybe sometimes it might be easier to find it that way than actually on the website but this method has been applicable for years now and a way that you can find is pretty much the same. So now you've got this toggle button that toggles from the free trial or not having the free trial. Now if you toggle it over it's quite scary because it doubles all the prices down below right. So what we want to make sure that we're doing is planning what we're going to use the trial for. Are we testing out the company file that we're using the trial for so that we can later purchase it or because if we lock ourselves in to putting the data that we really need and putting new data into the system for that 30-day trial then we're pretty much locked in to continuing to use that particular software. So what we want to plan on doing is using the 30-day trial as a testing period and then if we want to purchase the software possibly start another company file or look at our purchasing options you know at that point in time that's going to be our plan here. Now you've got the different software options below the simple start the essentials the plus depending on how big your company is one of these options you know might be better or worse notice they're highlighting the differentiations between the options over here the main things that are going to be important is that we want to be dealing with inventory or possibly we might have inventory needs if you have inventory needs then you're going to go up to the plus which is most popular unless you have more advanced needs where you're going to go into the advanced needs if you have just a service company business and you don't need a lot of different users that's when you might be able to step down from the plus to essentials in the simple start but the plus is the recommended most popular option and so that's the one we want to practice with in our free trial so I'm going to toggle this over to free trial I'm not going to let it scare me that it jumps up to the 85 a month I'm going to choose the option and I'm not going to let it deviate me from taking the trial period so now it has the payroll now I think you can actually add the payroll as a free 30 day trial as well so that you can possibly practice with the payroll but it's not something that that we're going to be really working on at this point if it is something that you want to practice with possibly you can get access to the payroll which is a whole another world and of itself you can do a whole courses multiple courses on different payroll settings and whatnot but I'm going to go ahead and continue without it that's like an add up or a step up kind of feature from like a marketing standpoint and then notice here you've got your free your free trial for 30 days so it's still on the free 30 day trial if you don't have an account then you could set up an account with into it now if you already have an account you might still be able to get access to the free 30 day trial because even though you have an account and possibly a company file you are setting up a new company file and therefore you would have to if you'd have to pay more if you if you were running the two company files separately so we're testing out a new company file which hopefully we can get the 30 day trial on or we need to set up an account so that we can do our 30 day trial that's our plan now notice it may ask for your payment information like credit card information paypal or bank transfer or something like that but hopefully we still have it on the 30 day trial so it's not going to be billing me for it but that will lock us in if we don't cancel it you know before the 30 day trial period is over so that's going to be we'll need possibly a payment option possibly to run the 30 day trial and of course we're going to if we do that need to basically cancel the subscription which into it is a is a big company and whatnot and so you should be there shouldn't be any funny business going on for the most part for to be able to cancel before the 30 day trial period is up okay so for the company address I'm going to put in an address of a house that looked up on Beverly Hills and then of course you want to take a look at the terms of service and make sure you're in alignment with the terms of service now we're going to provide just the basic information we need to get the company file set up some of these items we're going to skip through because they're not essential to first setting up the company file and we can typically go back into them and adjust them later so welcome I'll be glad you're here tell us what you you need help with and so on and so forth I'm going to say next what do you call your business I'm going to call this tests company file company file 100 and we're going to say next and have you been managing your finances no matter where you're coming from we're here to help so nothing I'm I'm getting started this is kind of for informational purpose purposes internally for into it so I'm just going to pick some an item here QuickBooks desktop if you had QuickBooks desktop and you were transferring then you can go through the option of basically transferring the data file spreadsheets or pen and paper and it might help you to kind of walk through how to get up the new company file so in other words you might have a company file if you're setting up a QuickBooks file where you had no prior company file you're setting it up from scratch or you might have a prior accounting system possibly QuickBooks desktop possibly you know peach trees sage 50 or pen and paper and whatnot in which case your question is do you want to be importing all that prior data in some way shape or form into the QuickBooks system or kind of cut in a line drawing a line in the sand at the end of the year or something like that and just entering the balance sheet in essence so that you can go forward into the current year so I'm going to go ahead and say nothing so how long has a file been in business so I'm going to go and say under a year and this is probably for mainly internal purposes I don't think this is going to have an impact on the creation of your statement they're gathering data here generally and so what kind of business is this tell us how your business is set up is it an LLC so limited liability company I'm going to say no and I'm just going to pick sole proprietorship partnership nonprofit escort you would think that these different settings would have a different setting on the chart of accounts that's being given because they would have an impact you would think on the equity section in the chart of accounts but I don't think they even do because QuickBooks gives you this massive chart of accounts no matter what the options you put into many of these items and so I think this again is possibly more for internal purposes for into it to manage their data so what's your industry start by typing the selection of the selected industry and I'm going to say you know I'm going to say construction for this one construction industrial building and we'll say other construction material merchant I want to choose something that has basically inventory in it again you would think that this indication would have some impact primarily on the creation of the generic chart of accounts that they give you but I don't think it really does because I think they give a massive chart of account that's basically trying to encompass a bunch of different type of company files that's different than the desktop version which actually does change the chart of accounts you know based on the industry that that you are choosing so what can so again I think it's more for personal information with the online version here so what's your main role so we can be the owner employee bookkeeper I'm going to say owner for our purposes and go next is test your main source of income we use this info to get you started so again I'm going to say no but this doesn't look like it's going to have an impact on the company file this looks like more personal information that QuickBooks is trying to accumulate so which of these best describes I own and run the business I do freelance I do demand gig work something else again will this have an impact on the on the chart of accounts or anything that the company file is being created I have my I don't think so yeah I think it's this personal information that QuickBooks wants to gather so I'm going to say next uh who works at this business so I fly solo employees contractors other partners I plan to hire now you would think that if you chose to employees for example then you would have payroll set up and it might try to upsell you for payroll or contractors we would need the 1099 forms in order to process the the uh tax returns and whatnot but what will these items necessarily set up payroll or set up the 1099s or something like that no it's giving information I believe to QuickBooks so that they can have that for their data analysis as well as possibly try to upsell you on the payroll possibly and stuff like that so I'm going to say next and does a bookkeeper help you with your books if so we can connect them to your account so if you have a bookkeeper that that helps then of course it would be nice to give them access to the QuickBooks file so I'm going to say no here and they then they say we could find you a bookkeeper what apps do you use for your business so if we have if we're using these apps more and more the online version is becoming nice because you might be able to connect it to some of these apps but I'm not going to connect any apps now if you have apps you need to connect to then it is something that you can do at a later time so you don't have to say well if I don't connect the app then it's all going to fall apart I won't be able to do it later no you can typically do it later I'm going to skip it for now and what do you want to do to do in QuickBooks so I'm going to accept payments get business bank track receive expenses track time track sales send stuff manage and pay bills create estimates possibly manage inventory manage sales tax track miles maybe not that one but those are the items if I don't check these off will I lose the capacity to do those options in QuickBooks I don't think so does it have an impact on how QuickBooks is going to set up I don't think so except for possibly like a an intro like sheet that tells you kind of what to do it does in other words I don't think it's going to change the chart of accounts or most of those set up I think it's more for internal purposes is for Intuit's data analysis so I'm going to say next and what should you do first here are a few ways you can help you get started so get ready to invoice track receipt and expenses so I'm going to say that we'll pay get ready to invoice next okay start getting paid with invoices so we'll help you get started fast and and look good doing it so one give your invoice a template touch so invoices can be used as a data input form but they also of course could be customized for your invoicing process we're not going to dive into that now to send your sample invoice to see what your customer see three set up online payments to let customers pay you on the spot so I'm going to go ahead and skip that at this point because that is something that I can do at a later time and that's not where our focus is invoice from anywhere and get paid faster so get the free QuickBooks mobile app with your subscription see real-time alerts download QuickBooks mobile app so this is another way that you can basically set up your payment options uh with QuickBooks that's not our point of focus now so I'm going to say next on that and you're on your way it says pooling your information personalizing your setup building your checklist great all right so it's we're set up welcome to QuickBooks let's show you around and so on you can take the tour I'm not going to do that I'm going to close this out and then they've got your checklist here so this is all that data input that you put in kind of helps you it gives you basically a checklist to go to go over here and that's the main thing it's basically given you so in my opinion it kind of looks like QuickBooks wants to gather data and and then and then you know kind of make a thing that acts like the data is actually being used for your help with checklist but it's not really adjusting most of the files meaning like it's not really adjusting the chart of accounts and stuff that we'll take a look at so I'm not going to dive into the checklist and any detail here so I'm going to close the checklist I'm going to say close the checklist so done with that and then the major navigation fields here are on the left we've got of course our information on the left this is where we'll typically go when we want to enter new data or review data we can go to the new button this is where that we have the forms to enter data and then we can go into the sections over here which I would categorize by cycle or by vendors customers and employees vendors section customer section employees section tracking data for who we buy stuff from who we get money from customers and employees and then our settings and stuff are over here under the cog now also note there's two main views that QuickBooks has been testing out for some time there's the business view and the accountant view when you first set up a company file it puts it in a business view which is less professional in terms of terminology and I think it's supposed to make you maybe feel more comfortable with these less technical terms I don't think the technical terms are any more difficult than the less technical terms I think they're trying to it seems to me like the terminology is trying to appeal to people that are more casually minded you know as they're doing right so the home page is the get things done page the business overviews busy bookkeeping we have bookkeeping and then this one is quite casual language get paid and pay area instead of like your customers and your vendors and that kind of customer leads commerce payrolls pretty straightforward banking services and taxes as opposed to if I go to the drop down on the cog up top and switch to the accounting view which is the more traditional view so this is probably the view that actually most of the presentations that you would find and help that you would find is in and it has now instead of home page you've got a dashboard right which is kind of a more formal term banking sales instead of get paid and paid we have the sales area still not the most formal term but I would call this like your customer area typically cash flows expenses instead of get instead of pay and get paid area which is I would call like the vendor cycle section and then you've got your reports down here so it's a little bit more stuff on on the tab they didn't compact as much stuff into one tab like for example the sales which is the paid and the get paid gets grouped in with the expenses when you go to the business view so if I go to the business view get paid and pay basically combine those two things so now you've got this sub sub area which has these two things kind of combined in it so they've kind of condensed some of the things on the first set of options and then expanded some stuff on the second set of options but the bottom line is the software works in essence the same between the the two views I tend to prefer the accountant view and I think that's the view that you will see more like more often when you're seeing people do presentations and video form but if you're using the business view if you like that we might try to toggle back and forth between the two and note that you should be able to find the two you should be able to toggle back and forth and you want to get used to the fact that things could move around because at any time in the future QuickBooks could just pick one or the other that they like best and just stop the other one which you would think would have happened already because they're basically beta testing these two views putting them side by side to see which is preferred and you would think once they find the preferred view they would drop the other one because that you would think would simplify you know their side of things greatly so I don't know maybe it could be that that the that the business view might work better on like a mobile phone or something like that is another thing I'm thinking as to why why the two views maybe maybe the traditional view is something that people tend to like on a computer whereas the other view works quite well on a mobile phone possibly or something like that but that's where we stand so we've got our file set up now I just want to take a quick look at the chart of accounts which is under the accounting in the accounting view and I have to say see chart of accounts and so now they've given us a chart of accounts notice we didn't we had no options say don't give me a chart of accounts they gave us a chart of accounts and it's a very long like look at all the equity accounts usually equity has like one to five accounts right retained earnings is like equity possibly draws or if you know but now they've got all these different equity accounts and so all these different costs to good sold accounts so what they've tried to do it looks to me is like they've got this massive chart of accounts that hopefully will encompass the needs of many different types of businesses so now as you start a new company file one of the things that we need to do is try to try to handle this chart of accounts try to trim it down to what we what we need but that's going to be our major our major starting point