Okay. Good evening. Welcome to the Tonight's Brown to City Council meeting. Would everyone please rise and do the pledge of allegiance with me. Thank you. First item on our agenda is the agenda. Councillor Nodell. President Wright, I move to amend the agenda as follows and it's a very long motion. First note, a date change for consent agenda item 4.12, a special event outdoor entertainment permit, commandeer, block party along the College Street Saturday, September 29th, 2018, per organizer Sarah Beal. Sorry, 4.19 is staying on consent, so I move on to 4.20. Consent item of communication from Cindy White is getting removed, moved to remove that from the consent agenda. This is the communication about the Old North End Community Center sub-leases. Nodin updated page 3 for consent agenda item 4.25, communication from Marie Friedman, CPA, and Gene Richards, Director of Aviation regarding Brown to International Airport Budget Agreement for fiscal year 2018, for Nick Longo. Note, Code Enforcement Director wards communication for consent agenda item 4.28, ordinance, housing, fees, enforcement, office, board of finance. Note, revised version for consent agenda item 4.31, resolution, reorganization, update to staffing structure of Parks and Recreation Department, board of finance per city attorney's office per Councillor Busher. Add the checklist and final memo to consent agenda item 4.32, a resolution, authorization for reimbursement from public improvement bonds for city's downtown TIF district, board of finance per DFO Goodwin. Add the checklist and final memo to consent agenda item 4.33, the resolution, authorizing reimbursement from public improvement bonds for the city's waterfront TIF district. Ditto. Note, written materials for consent agenda item 4.34, a resolution, authorization to execute quick claim deed for 97 Curtis Avenue, Councillor Wright per city attorney's office. Note, written materials for agenda item 5.03, resolution, annual appropriation and budget for fiscal year beginning July 1, 2018, Mayor Weinberger and board of finance. Note, updated version of agenda item 4.5.04, resolution, annual tax assessments on the property grand list of the city for fiscal year beginning July 1, 2018, Mayor and board of finance. Note, written material for agenda item 5.05, resolution, authorization for public improvement bonds for fiscal year 2019, Mayor and board of finance. Note, written material for agenda item 5.06, resolution, approving the issuance of grant anticipation notes for the costs of certain airport improvement projects for fiscal 19, Mayor and board of finance. Uh, removed from the agenda item 5.07, resolution, authorization for renewal of revenue anticipation notes for BED, Mayor and board of finance, per CA Anderson, per city attorney Blackwood. Note, Mayor Weinberger as an additional cosponsor, title change and written material for agenda item 5.08, resolution, investment of unassigned fund balance to improve city services and drive operational efficiencies. Mayor Weinberger and board of finance, per CA Anderson, per city attorney Blackwood. And that is the end of that motion to amend President Wright. And after a second, I have a remark. Thank you, Councillor Nodal. Seconded by Councillor Busher. Councillor Nodal. I would just note that that was a very long motion to amend. Much of what was necessitated by things happening late. And so that underscores it. If everything happens on time and earlier in the week before our meeting, then everything really is much more clear and we don't have such a long motion at the very beginning of our meeting. Yes, agreed. We need to, we need to get together on that. That was a little, little excessive for sure. And thank you for that point, Councillor Nodal. All those in favor of approving the agenda as amended, unless there are other amendments, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? We have our agenda. I would also like to now at 724 recess the regular city council meeting and go to the liquor control commission meeting and I will turn that meeting over to Mayor Weinberger. Thank you, President Wright. Generally, we do, I usually vote but don't chair though. Oh, I'm sorry. I'm sorry, you're correct. I gave you, I took one of your meetings away a lot in the previous meeting and now I'm trying to give you one of mine. So the first item on the agenda is the agenda. Mr. Chairman, Chairman Dean. Thank you, Commissioner Wright. I would move to adopt the agenda. Commissioner Dean has moved to adopt the agenda second by Commissioner Roof. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? We have the agenda. Back to Commissioner Dean. Item 2.01 is the consent agenda and I move to adopt the consent agenda taking the actions as indicated. Motion made to adopt the consent agenda takes the actions indicate any discussion hearing none. All those in favor of that motion please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? We have approved the consent agenda. Back to you for item number three, outside consumption permit application. Commissioner Dean. So item 3.01, I would like to move the approval of the 2018-2019 first class restaurant bar liquor license application for VDC LLC doing business as Pizza 44, 703 Pine Street with the following conditions. All city permits need to be closed out contingent upon fire martial approval with all standard conditions and after a second request the floor back. Seconded by Councillor Roof. Back to you, Commissioner Dean. Thank you, Commissioner Wright. Seconded by, excuse me, Commissioner Roof. So this is an application for Pizza 44, 703 Pine Street, which is in the same building as Queen City Brewery. We have a trusted owner and manager and Tim Williams who currently owns and operates Archie's Grill in Shelburne, Vermont. He served alcohol there for three years without incident. Any plans to use a similar approach with this new establishment? Six employees, 1200 square feet, approximately 60 seats. Sunday through Thursday, 11.30 to 10 and Friday and Saturday, 11.30 a.m. to 11.00 p.m., great menu of pizza, a great addition to the Pine Street corridor and the committee unanimously recommended your approval. Any further discussion? Councillor Busher. Commissioner Busher. Thank you. So the only thing I wanted to ask was, did he really give any kind of precautions will you take to prevent underage sales? And he's in Shelburne, not Burlington. Correct. Very different community. So did he give any details about what they did? Commissioner Dean. I'm sorry, President Wright, can I ask Commissioner Dean that question? You can. Last get through the president and Commissioner Dean, I'll recognize you if you would care to give an answer to that. Sure. So the owner and manager, Mr. Williams has completed his DLC training. He has operated under the similar rules and without incident for three years. We, you know, we did not see any, any red flags that indicate there was any concern that we should have any additional concern about his ability to operate the establishment. Okay. I just wanted to know if there were any kind of things that he did that were different. That's all. Thank you. Also, Councillor, Commissioner Busher. Other questions for Commissioner Dean or comments hearing none. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? That passes unanimously. Item 3.02 is an outside move. The approval of an outside consumption permit for 2018 2019 application for Delhi 126 126 College Street and after a second request, the floor back motion is made by Commissioner Dean second by Commissioner Roof. You have the floor back, Commissioner Dean. Thank you, Commissioner Wright. So this is Delhi 126 for an outside consumption permit on approximately 140 square feet of College Street sidewalk. This is a property that's directly adjacent to Bistro Margo, which also has outside consumption and also right next to Vermont Pub and Brewery. They are asking for space for about 68 patrons sitting at two picnic tables, occasional use May through October from 4 p.m. to midnight. And we've done a reason to to stand in. This is a great application in another good business that we'd like to see thrive on College Street. Thank you, Commissioner Dean. Is there any discussion on this motion hearing none? All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? That passes unanimously. And so item 3.03 moved the approval of the 2018 2019 outside consumption permit application for drink 135 St. Paul Street and after a second request, the floor back moved by Commissioner Dean and second by Councilor Roof. Back to you, Commissioner Dean. Thank you, Commissioner Wright. Drink at 135 St. Paul Street, which is adjacent to Mad River Distillers and the Burlington Wine Shop and down the street from American Flatbread 100 square feet of sidewalk at the west side of St. Paul, four tables and eight chairs. Again, another wonderful addition to having eyes on the eyes on the street and in the public domain. So we approve this and recommend your approval as well. Thank you, Commissioner Dean. Any discussion on this motion? Commissioner Mason. Thank you, Councilor Chair Wright. I don't have an objection to this. I just want to sort of note to the council that, you know, sort of seems like the last couple weeks there is a variety of between toast, drink, deli 126. You know, we're just there are a lot of outside and this is still 2 a.m. So, you know, I don't have any objection specifically to this one, but I want us just to be cognizant going forward that and particularly the licensed committee we may be hearing because this is a pretty dramatic change from what exists pretty much on just on Church Street right now. So I just want us to be mindful, you know, going forward. Thank you, Commissioner Mason. Anyone else? Yes, Commissioner Tracy. This was something that did come up as a concern within the context of the committee, especially they had requested the seats above and beyond the eight seats. And so we brought that down to the eight seat requirement and specified that. So it is something that we're tracking and will continue to do so. But just want you to know that we did bring down from the original request. Thank you for that clarification. Commissioner Tracy. Any other comments from the commission? Hearing none. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed? That passes unanimously. And item number four is adjournment. Make a motion to adjourn. Moved by Commissioner Dean, seconded by Commissioner Roof. Any discussion? All those in favor of adjournment, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Adjournment passes unanimously. Thank you very much. And we will move back now reconvene the regular meeting of the city council at 7 32. We will move past. We have two presentations coming up, but we will move past those and come back to those because we have the item number three time certain public forum. So I will open the public forum. We have just three people signed up so far. If anyone else is interested in speaking to the city council, there are sheets over here in the corner. Please sign and bring them over here to the corner to the city clerk's office and they'll bring them up to me. You have three minutes to speak and you have the light system in front of you. First light tells you you're getting close a minute and the red light tells you you need to conclude your remarks. Uh, Joanne Hunt is up first. Come on down. Welcome. Registered nurse for 40 years and a nurse practitioner for 15 years. Most of that has been at UVMMC. We are now in the midst of contract negotiations. Um, and I just want to bring that to everybody's attention. And I also really want to ask you for your support. Um, as a nurse in the hospital, I worked primarily on a surgical unit and the surgical intensive care unit. Now I work in family medicine and primary care provider. Um, and I feel like most of the demands that we are making are incredibly reasonable and respectful and we recently voted to authorize a strike vote. We really don't want it to get there. Having said that, um, I think we are all incredibly serious about what we feel we need to continue to deliver good care to this community. Um, and mostly what I would ask each of you or all of you, if you don't know very much about it, most of you probably know a nurse. So I would ask you to talk to that person and get their perspective because I think at least thus far, um, our experiences at management at UVMMC has not been very responsive. Um, it's pretty clear that they have the money because at least for the last couple of years, they've ended up with a surplus. I don't really know what you call it. Um, and many of the, um, top administrators are making lots of money and get lots of bonuses. I topped out at the top of my salary about five years ago. Um, and I think for myself, but for a lot of us, um, our experience is really valuable and worth it and we need to be compensated fairly. It's also becoming harder to attract new nurses and new nurse practitioners to the area. Um, in terms of the support staff, the turnover among them is incredible. I mean, even in my office in the past month, we've lost a whole bunch of people. So again, I would really ask for your support. Um, I know there's lots of other stuff going on all over the place, but nurses are in the middle of practically all of it. Um, there also is a town hall meeting on, let's see, Friday. It's at Burlington High School at Shukah. Thanks. All right. Thank you, Ms. Hunt. Appreciate that. Uh, Lori Sullivan is up next to be followed by Donna Walters. Good evening, Ms. Sullivan. Welcome. Have a little bit of trouble hearing you, Ms. Sullivan. She pulled it, pulled the microphone right in. Okay. Is that better? Anyway, I'm here on behalf of my dog, my 10 month old toy poodle, um, Teddy Bear. And I took Teddy to the dog park on June 8th. And we were having a great time and all of a sudden we saw this rather unusual animal walking in. And a friend of mine was there. She says, I think I'm getting out here because that doesn't, that looks like a problem. And in fact, it was a wolf hybrid who took one look at my precious nine pound teddy and decided that, um, he looked like a great male. The wolf came over, picked Teddy up and ran off with him behind a bench. He was going to have his dinner. Um, the owner of the dog, A, wasn't around at the time and then could not control her animal. He's a one year old wolf, which is the time at which wolf, um, reached sexual maturity and he was acting like nature had told him he should do. That wolf does not belong in the dog park. I had to fight and tug of war with the wolf. I was trying to pull my dog's body out of his mouth. Um, that was a no go. Um, we ended up, I ended up kicking the dog. I had read an article that said, if you kick an animal, if you try to break up a dog fight, kick the animal or stamp on their feet and that will distract them enough. The animal, I kicked him and he dropped Teddy for a minute and I was able to get Teddy. But then the wolf lunged at us and grabbed on to one of Teddy's legs.  I ended up at the emergency room. Teddy ended up at the emergency vet. We did call the police. This woman is crazy. She's a very small young 22 something probably and I think she thinks she's a part of my French but a badass because she owns a wolf and she lives in Burlington and she said she would never bring this wolf to the dog park again. Well, on my way here down North Avenue and past Battery Park, there she is in the park with her wolf and two children.  This dog, Wolf, whatever, shouldn't be allowed to live in the city of Burlington. It's unfortunate that people have gone ahead and have decided to breed these animals and it's really unfortunate for the animals. You can't teach a wolf not to eat and nature has told him what he should be eating and that's what he went for. I'm still on antibiotics. My dog is still sick. The risk of a an infection from a dog bite is very high and I'm still watching for that. I'm on antibiotics. Thank you. I hope to be working with somebody to write an ordinance to outlaw these dogs in the city of Burlington and I hope some of you will join me. Thank you, Miss Sullivan and it's very scary and glad you're able to save your dog. Donna Walters is the final speaker tonight. Good evening, Ms. Walters. Welcome. Thank you. I'm here to give you a report on the outcome of the City Hall Park ad hoc committee. The work of the committee saved five trees and added three new saplings to be planted to provide more shade on the hardscape. Saving these five trees means that the city will still be cutting down half of the trees in the park. Down from nearly 60% that would have been cut before keep the park into intervened on behalf of the public. Five trees were removed this spring. 22 more trees will be will be removed next spring before construction starts. Of those 22 trees, half of them are healthy and in good condition. We want to save seven more of these healthy trees during the committee meetings. Keep the park green made a motion to save seven more healthy trees. None none of our recommendations were approved. Why? Because the majority of the city council voted against making any design changes. Saving five trees is not nearly enough. It's not a win-win compromise. We ask you the city council to reconsider your stance and approve design modifications to save another seven trees. Before modifying the design by modifying the design we could more than double the number of healthy trees saved from five to twelve and this would reduce the number of trees being cut from 32 to 20 and it translates to a reduction of trees to be cut from 60% to 35%. We were appalled that when the city initially proposed to save just two trees we came before you and told you that it wasn't going to cut it and you assured us that this committee would make a good faith effort. We encourage the council to step up to their commitment to save more healthy trees and approve design modifications to do so. Cutting half the trees in this in the park is still too drastic. Thank you. Thank you Ms. Walters and with that I will conclude that item the public forum for tonight and we'll move back to agenda item number two which is annual reports to the city council 2.01 is a report from the Electric Light Commission and General Manager Lunderville. Good evening. And soon to be CEDO director. I'm really pleased to be joined by the chair of our Electric Commission Gabrielle Stebbins tonight. Our relationship with the Electric Commission is is great work very closely and we've been able to make great progress in our strategic direction and our strategic vision of becoming a net zero energy city over the last year and I this time like to turn to our chair Stebbins to talk a little bit more about that. Thank you. It's a pleasure to be here. Thanks for the invitation and I'll just start off with the commission did file an annual commission report. It's a two page highlights but then also available on our website is the performance measures report for 2017. I have been working in the energy industry for over 10 years and I will I just hearing this brief little moment of your meeting tonight. It's amazing how many things you guys cover but I will say that if the lights went out right now and the AC went out right now and that went down right now this meeting would just come to a halt. So the energy electricity it is at the core of every day in every way and I will highlight that for 100 plus years in the electric utility world the three most important things have been safety this is electricity making sure folks are safe reliability making sure that there aren't voltage changes making sure that it's always here always there and then lastly affordable rates and I just want to highlight Burlington Electric and Burlington as a city even the previous speaker there is a strong feel towards sustainability and that has been core to Burlington Electric Department. So in terms of all three of those pieces safety affordable rates as well as moving forward towards reliability ongoing and then sustainability you'll see a lot of comments here a lot of highlights in terms of financial management you know Neil has done a phenomenal job and in terms of HR changing how the staff feel whether or not they feel like there are new opportunities to grow to learn and to just become more committed to Burlington Electric Department great strides there but then also the strategic direction to get to in that zero city excluding air travel by 2030 is really out there and it's it's very very challenging it's going to be a tough tough nut to crack but everybody thought 100% renewable renewable sourced power was pie in the sky and if Burlington Electric did it they go broke none of those things happened so we set our site really high really far and we learn along the way and modify the course frequently but with with a very clear guidepost as to where we want to land happy to take any questions or Neil if you want to add anything no i just want to add and gabriel mentioned this but the work of Burlington Electric is really the work of a team we have the most incredibly dedicated employees at Burlington Electric and that's been true since the first day i walked in the door and many decades before that but i can tell you over the last four years that their skills have grown their commitment is stronger and so the team starts on the front lines all the way through the organization and in concert with our commission i think it's top to bottom alignment allows us to move forward on our goals and do so in a way that we remain affordable for our customers provide them the power that stays on better than any utility in the state and of course with the safety record that is we think some of the best numbers we've seen in a generation i won't make any other comments other than to say it it's been a sincere honor and privilege to lead the organization over the last four years and as exciting as it is to tackle another challenge in the city it it is it's hard to leave behind an organization as great as BED but i know it no matter where it goes it'll be under the the good and capable hands of the staff there and with the great support of the council and the mayor we'll be able to continue to march forward into the future thanks i will just want to say one more thing that the commission is attached to Grinn to see Neil leave but it's good to see him as an interim helping out in another place in the city and again you know just with the staff that's in place Neil has really helped to position the organization to carry onward in a really robust strong visionary way but we will miss you thanks we will miss you general manager londerville until we call you in for a seat or issue yes we'll go to the council now for questions for mr londerville or chairwoman commissioner stebbins councillor pine thank you i'd like to hear the either general manager or commission chair could tell us what the commission sees as the next sort of innovation around primarily around efficiency i mean i think that's the the cheapest power is the power you don't have to actually pay for and that's efficiency so i'd like to hear what you're doing both for citizens as well as businesses and even for the city as a large consumer of electricity can i mention that okay so one of the things that i think is most important and since you work in efficiency it's it's really challenging there's something called a split incentive it's really challenging to have to serve renters for both electricity as well as for heating their home because they don't own their home so you know for them to actually invest in a in a major or even a minor energy efficiency besides buying plastic wrap and then like you know taking their hairdryer to the window besides doing that it's really challenging to crack that nut to have someone feel comfortable and spend less money on their rental home because they don't they don't have the direct ownership of the property there's a unique idea to basically have a financing low-income financing correct me if it's not quite right but a low-income financing offer that would basically attach to the meter so that you know in the old north end where you might have people who you know live in the same home for five ten fifteen years they could get a low-income financing offer with perhaps a local credit union this is all still very you know this is still conceptual but it's pretty out there for the utility world that would combine electricity as well as thermal savings and would attach it to the meter so that they are paying for the savings that they will then feel in terms of comfort in terms of moisture issues and in terms of electricity costs but the owner doesn't necessarily have to put that money in but they're reaping the benefits but they're also if they leave they're not continuing to pay for those benefits so if you have renters who've stayed in the same rental unit for you know quite a few years this becomes one of the few ways to really get at that issue we're excited about the tariffs we call tariff-based financing I think it's a real exciting way to to get after that that problem and in one that you know starts to it's one that really starts to get after the split incentive issue that's all we've already done some great work in that area and I think that's an extension of it we've also looked at very very in the broadest possible sense looked at how we start to integrate efficiency with a lot of the other energy innovation that we do one of the things we've talked with our commission about is looking at how we integrate several of the different components of what we do energy efficiency energy innovation some of the unique financing approaches that we take to come up with a more complete package for our customers our customers tend not to look energy efficiency as a unique program in and of itself they look at energy overall how do I save money and be more comfortable in my home and that might be electrical efficiency it might be thermal efficiency and it might even be with their car we want to approach our customers in that way make it as easy as possible for them to take advantage of the programs that we offer and also other other utilities we've worked very closely with Vermont Gas to offer incentives kind of across the utilities so that our customers don't have to think about am I getting a Vermont Gas utility or am I getting a VED utility I'm just getting an incentive to make my bill cheaper my home more more efficient I think there's a lot of work we can do there in the coming year just one quick follow-up is there a possibly that will become the Burlington Energy Department and maybe include the thermal approach that district energy involves and just you know sort of expand what you've been able to do with electricity is that I think I think the best part about Burlington Electric is if we can dream it if you can dream it we can make it happen so we'll we'll wait to see how we move forward on some of the thermal challenges but certainly our partnerships with with other utilities and outside folks do open up the door for a lot of interesting endeavors in the future thank you councillor pine I have councillor tracy and then councillor busher thank you president right and thank you to both of you for your service to the city as well as for this report really easily readable report and one of the bullet points that I really appreciated was the launch of the e-bike program I just wanted to relay and a sort of anecdote about that as I was walking across campus last week to get some lunch I ran into a professor who had taken advantage of that program and he was beaming he just was smiling year to year incredibly excited he claimed that this this program and this he wouldn't have been able to get an e-bike for his family but he was able to because of this and that has since changed their lives as a family and so I just want you to know that some of these things that go beyond sort of the traditional purview of an electric utility have a dramatic impact on people's lives in the city and just want to encourage the utility don't think they need much encouragement but to continue to do these things and to hopefully capture some of these stories so that others might start to consider the the real potential that's there to to have a transformative effect on how they get around our city I just want to say I'm so glad you mentioned we can there's a lot of programs we have that are really exciting the e-bike one is really excited the mayor and I were at the e-bike kickoff and we both got a chance to ride e-bikes and I'm a cycling enthusiast as well if you haven't ridden an e-bike please go down to local motion and get on an e-bike you can you can rent them for free take them for a test drive it is not like being on a moped it is like being on a bike they have to pedal but you get an assist from the electric motor behind it it really changes the way people interact with bikes especially in a place where there's big hills and there's we want to go between meetings not be sweaty and everything else I think they're just like EVs are revolutionizing car transportation e-bikes will revolutionize bike transportation especially as a replacement for for automobiles and trucks so I echo that and I'm excited that BED has been able to be part of that in Burlington and again another BED innovation to be able to offer e-bike incentive I don't think any other utility in Vermont is doing that thank you councillor tracy councillor busher um so I just wanted to say that uh this laundry list of everything that you've done is is so focused on the employee and the customer and I think that that just oozes from you Neil and and from BED and it's always been I've I love public power so it's always been something that I've I'm so glad I live in Burlington but um with your leadership it's just been enhanced by and things coming together with district energy the the the opportunities now are there and I'm hoping that we can realize them I did want to acknowledge and I I won't say much about it because it says something to be publicly announced tomorrow but um there are some awards here in this laundry list and I wanted to offer my assistance you're on a short list uh for um an award in the category of green energy brands and the winners are going to be announced in Iceland so if you want someone to represent you I'd be more than happy to go to be there um on your behalf but um really I I love the fact that you do the performance measure report um it links me with as people get tired of me saying but Doug Hoffer was instrumental in starting this and it really is so readable and just tells you about the department and how successful it tells successes and failures it tells where you need to make improvements um I think it's so valuable for us as consumers to have that available so thank you very much for being here tonight and um and this very readable um report that just makes us just ooze with pride about public power well thank you thank you very much Councillor Busher and um we are excited tomorrow morning at 9 a.m. our award will be announced it's a um it's I could I will say hopefully without it being reported before um that uh it is American public powers um uh most prestigious award uh we want it once before in 1979 and we're really honored to win it again in 2018 and if it it is um it's sort of the best picture for uh public power municipal utilities and it's really due to the work that our employees have put in to uh to to build this list of achievements and our one of our key key folks uh destiny vital is down in New Orleans um to receive the reward and it'll be plastered on Facebook and Instagram uh and Twitter and everything else shortly after 9 a.m. tomorrow and read more about it then so congratulations thank you congratulations on that award and you can talk with Councillor Busher later about representation um Councillor Jang thank you very much president and thank you Linda and for all your work I mean it is just that 20 years your accomplishment has been just amazing so I am new here but what I witnessed first time is a visit that I did with your leadership the climate um the employees you know they they they feel safe and they feel like they want to come back every single day I think that's impressive that's wonderful and we hope you bring the same mindset to Burlington CEDO thank you um so I also think that it is important for people to understand that Burlington Electric Department may be the only city department that reaches old household in Burlington businesses institution all of them the only one and through that I see increasingly every single time you reaching out with working with other organization to reach people maybe to advertise something and I think all of those are initiative and also the rebates in making sure people are encouraged to go through you know cars that are electric you know it's all I think the job in general is just wonderful but there is one thing one specific thing and I think you talked about it in your report that's still not clear to me and that'd be great if you can bring some perspective and it is specifically around the safety part of it in this report and also in all the Burlington plan bike btv all the plans we are not talking about putting our utilities underground and when we talk about safety that is one major safety concern that many Burlingtonian who've been here since the 90s have and it is also not responding to the aesthetic the beauty of our environment so I would like to you maybe to explain to us what is a plan around that how long is going to take what is needed for all of us to see our utilities go underground for safety reasons thank you thank you castler I would say that so safety is our number one value at Burlington Electric and we rank our values so that we always know which which takes priority and safety is our number one value and when we look at across the range of activities that we do and especially in managing our electric grid we're looking at safety and I do want to report that both our underground and overhead system is managed and operated and constructed for safety with safety in mind we would generally not make a move from overhead system which is the utility poles with the conductors between them to move to a underground system for safety reasons alone that is not a generally an overriding concern there may be specific instances when that when that is the case but broadly speaking it is it is not the case we do look at underground utilities when we have an opportunity to especially as we we are thinking about projects coming here in the downtown for opportunities like Great Streets and other places where we can move our utilities underground for aesthetic reasons and and there's a slight reliability gain when we do that as well generally our reliability scores are so good we don't have a lot outages on our even our overhead system so moving them to but moving away from the policy moving toward a fully underground system would be challenging from a cost perspective and it would require some other decisions that we may not want to undertake if we went in that direction so thank you for the great wonderful answer I think it's it's great but me what I'm trying to look for is basically a plan let's say a 50-year plan is that possible to to have in 50 we will be able to put the utilities underground and also how much it's going to cost basically a report in that line I would have to get back to you with with that answer on on how much it would cost I think it is certainly if you look at a long enough time horizon it is achievable but there there would be trade-offs over that period and we'd want to understand those trade-offs before we we endeavored to do that but I think the first place and and where I certainly be happy to get back to you would be what the cost trade-off would be and understanding that I think our you know to build a new street out overhead versus an underground versus overhead is at least five times more expensive to go underground there's a lot of different reasons for that but the conduit itself is pretty expensive and you you have to use certain types of switches and and conductor the actual lines themselves underground to make sure that you are protecting against submersion in particular not just getting rained on but actually being under water our vaults have to be protected against that so we'll think about that and get back to you thank you for the question thank you councillor jang any other questions from the council seeing none thank you very much mr londonville and commissioner stevens for that report and the great work at bd we'll conclude that concludes that item we'll move to the item 2.02 which is the annual report from the parks and recreation commission we have the chair commissioner kaplan here and commissioner hurley welcome as well as the director white he has to speak once again tonight i have just a couple remarks and then actually commissioner hurley wrote this report so which you have so i was going to let her speak to the report the only two things i would like to say is that it has been a fantastic year we're so pleased to have our new director here it was an excellent search um she's been on board since september end of september um can you pull the mic in a little closer please and is settling in terrifically the other thing that we have undertaken as a commission is um is really a commitment to i don't know what i would call it i guess i would call it equity so we have taken the step of deciding to hold our meetings at various places around the city in city owned properties so we have been holding them at miller center we held one up in the new north end we've held them at the new st joes we're going to keep doing them at pine street um we'd like to make sure that people all around the city are able to come to the meetings and one of those is that we are more mobile than many of the people who would like to come and so we are really making a commitment to sort of move our meetings around so that uh more and different group of people could show up for meetings and public forum and with that i will let commissioner hurley either read or talk about the highlight read this don't worry but i will talk about the highlights um hello everyone um commissioner hurley i apologize but can you pull the microphone in close also even closer hello does that work for you okay um we narrow down the numerous highlights of parks to about six items um one of the most exciting to me is the the core program at the now old north end community center the old st joes um and that i think that's a wonderful program because it brings it there's so many community partnerships um with that program we have staff there um we we've been able to bring in the champlain um senior center and we also leased space to the very mary theater uh the vermont hindu temple and the family room so it's just a really great um partnership that came together and we are very proud of it um of course the addition of cindy and um our new arborist bj is also a great highlight of the year and i was also pleased to be a part of the process and um excited that we were able to bring cindy in this year um of course it's been in a news you guys have been on it but the burlington greenway is another proud accomplishment of the parks commission and i hope you all have been out there as much as i have this summer it's been just wonderful and i'll leave it at that because you all have seen it i hope um the the department continues to improve our energy efficiencies there have been numerous court improvements and um and a new software system which has been i think very well received for families booking recreation programs on the website so that has been um a really positive experience for families that i've heard from great i just wanted just to make a quick note on that software uh we just one of our melissa kate sent a report out that we had doubled the amount of money that we received um since civic rec which is the new software person went live compared to this time last year so we're thinking that it just is easier for people to rent online the shelter reservations people have really appreciated how easy that is to reserve a shelter right from the website they don't have to call in with the questions they can easily see what's available and then book it and pay for it right online so that's really been great i want to touch a little bit on the e-bikes we have been piloting an electric bike with a trailer on the bike path with our conservation bike path crew and it's been working fantastic they estimate that um they can probably get rid bring down to about 80 percent of the um what we had previously had either been a truck or the cabota on the bike path they'll be able to do 80 percent of that work with an electric bike i'm using a trailer so that's been a really great um working with local motion to let us test something out and then we'll be looking to purchase purchase a bike in a trailer so that we can do that permanently on the bike path and then of course july 3rd is coming up we hope all of you come down i can't wait to see it i have to admit i have never seen it before here in july in berlington so please come down and celebrate with all of us um and please if you can if anybody is in control over weather if you can please get me a nice night so i don't have to make that that call the mayor will take care of that for you thank you uh mayor um that's the budget councillor uh thank you for that report councillor hartnett thank you so we run i think one of the best departments in the in the city if not the state and really not the entire northeast um and we have great programs one of my concerns always my concern are scholarships available and into the programs into the camps and i wonder if you could just give me a little update on where we are with scholarship funding how it's going and the process really um you know it's great that we made it online for you know people sign up in payments i understand that and i just hope we don't lose sight of affordability in our parks and um and that program so just anyone that wants to take a shot at that just to give me a brief update thanks great so the scholarship i've inherited um a wonderful sort of thought not thought actions of that nobody is left behind as far as scholarships go we've exceeded the amount of money that we originally had budgeted so i've had to make some budget adjustments for the fact that we have given out so much in scholarships some of the ways we make it really simple i'll take you know basketball for example is at if the kids register through the boys and girls club for basketball it's free so they don't have to fill out paperwork it's a program that we offer free for the kids that are connected right with the boys and girls club we try to make it as simple as possible so that if somebody comes in and they have a request for scholarship that it's just a simple you know whether they show that they're free reduced lunch or maybe they have an ebt card or something to make it so that it's just a simple process to get people connected to the scholarship money and we work really hard to get all the kids in the programings in the programs go ahead councillor hatton and i think it's great and i think you know we always yeah everyone says oh we could do more right and you could always do more we're always not we're not going to reach every single family every single kid and i i appreciate that but just some thoughts of maybe it'd be great at some of these events that we have beach bites and other events that maybe have a little table or booths set up letting families know that there's you know there are scholarships available for different programs and list those programs and i think it's a lot easier i think at times when when we're doing the inviting right then having them have to ask it's always it's you know it's a it's a tough call right and so i think we could be i think i think we could be out there a little bit more publicly and and just some thoughts about how we might might do that and so i'm sure there's many more ideas than just that but i just want to put that out there we do a great job i honestly believe i don't think there are many kids left behind the city and i think that's what really makes it pretty special here for our parks and rec and i appreciate all the work you guys do so thanks you're welcome and that was one of the items that the mayor challenged me with with our holiday celebration that we do in december is that we make it really easy there's a lot of families that are there at that event and how can we just get people registered right that day so that's a commitment that we've made to him thank you councillor hartnett councillor ruf and then mayor weinberger thank you president right thank you for the report i enjoyed the read i actually have a question related to border finance you had mentioned the meeting that we had prior before this you had mentioned that the revenue from the camp our campsite was has already exceeded what we expected for the year what is going on at our campsite we have an amazing campground manager from what i understand i believe it's over the past five years since alex came on board that the campground has doubled the revenues than they had brought in before he takes it very much as a business what they're doing there and all online registration so i think when people come they have a really positive experience and and then they want to come back it's a pretty unique environment i will see it's a tired campground i stayed in it for two weeks i had the opportunity to stay there for two weeks prior to um uh purchasing a home in the city and everything was incredibly clean so it was clean well taken care of but it's tired it's a tired site it's um there's been no drastic improvements to it since the fifties so that's something that we're looking at is how do we make an investment in that campground to really kind of bring it up to current standards the last time that any changes were made to it was the land of airstream trailers um trailers have gotten significantly larger in size fewer people are camping and if you get a chance to go down there i encourage you to check out our first of many to come lean twos that was built by the youth build program and they just finished that up and we're looking to do kind of a fun launch with the lean two to maybe someone might be able chance to win for the hundredth celebration weekend they could win a stay in the lean two so that's pretty exciting so come down to north beach and check out our new lean two thank you council roof mr mayor thanks prisoner ray i just wanted to quickly say um in response to council heart and its question about scholarships um just a note i think the council may be of interest uh a noted one of the points i made in the state of the city addresses that we would turn some of the focus of the btv stat initiative to um measuring and reporting out on our public dashboard uh on equity uh metrics uh over the course of this year and um i would say both at parks as well as the library and um bca uh we've been having conversations already on that about how we you know uh have more metrics on on how these efforts are going to be able to say more to you report more to you and the public on exactly how this is going and how this is expanding year over year so this is very much on our mind as well council heart thank you mr mayor council shannon um thank you all for coming here and for the report and parks absolutely does a fantastic job um i will confess that like a lot of brilliantonians i'm a little adverse to change but you've come up with some changes that i think are wonderful the things going on at st joes are um you know just a great addition to the community i love the space and the activities that are going on there and thank you for changing the registration process which is something that director white and i have talked about in the past for those who don't know um they would have sometimes a dinner or something and it seemed a little odd to have to put in the age of your children to make a dinner reservation so that's a really welcome change um but there is one change that i wondered if you could explain uh how why why the change um and that is the burlington greenway which i have known as the bike path in the past and i wondered where that came from and why um so yep i'll talk a little bit about that i don't have the full history on it but i know that part of it is that greenways is um a name that is nationwide that's used to describe a linear path and so if somebody's coming to your community i know for myself personally when we travel my husband i always look for the greenways and so that's something when we go to we were just recently in madison and those are so that's what we looked for was where the local greenways and again it describes a linear path and the other part that we really want to make sure that we get across is that the burlington greenway is for everybody it's not just for bicycles but it also encouraging people to walk and hike and just enjoy being out there on the path and again it's not just for bicycles the other piece of it was that it came out of the extensive master planning process that we finished up a few years ago and it was one of the key points that it's not just the path is not just a bike path that it is for everybody and so and just um we also met last at our last meeting we met with steve norman from the alliance français about um seeing what we can do about having more welcoming signs for our french neighbors and so we are taking that under advisement as a commission as well just to update you about that so it'll be root vert in addition thank you thank you councillor shannon thank you for asking that question because when they said the burlington greenway i was like where under where that is oh they mean the bike path um and i have to tell you i like that name but every resident that i know is still referring to it as the bike path so you'll excuse me if i uh kester jane thank you um so maybe one thing that people did not talk about or don't know yet is you making our neighborhood beautiful and also the city if people know where she lives her garden the whole entire community is wonderful that's that's perfect thank you and you bike everywhere that's great but here's one thing it sounds like that burlington parks and recreation no longer runs the licenses with the state around childcare and i think that was missed in the update here and was wondering if you can provide some we no longer run the uh champ camps or the license through the state uh at least burlington kids i'm happy to to talk about that so the um licensing program just kind of going back i believe it was 2006 2009 i can't remember exact year is when the city um used to run city kids program and the full child care licensing program was under parks and recreation um at the time so we did all the after school we did the summer programming we did the vacation programming and then um the school came into the program with the 21st century grant program and the city then city schools took over the after school program and the burlington parks and recreation continued to run the vacation camp program and the summer program and that was all under one license um with the state so one child care license and then just recently within this past spring the um child care licensing program had decided that it really was not appropriate for there to be one license that the school system was under and parks recreation and waterfront was under because we really have no jurisdiction over each other we don't tell the school district who they should hire for employees and the school doesn't tell us who we should hire for employees so it really needs to be two separate completely different programs so right now um they they have split the two programs we're looking um to look at the licensing for the for our champ camp and the vacation camps and the school is continuing on their path um but we are starting to really look at that is should there be two uh programs with a lot of duplicating of services um with the licensing um if fauna for example had a child that was um in the school district program even though maybe her child went to one school if she then goes to our program even at the same school she would have to work with the child care licensing program to change that license around so there's a lot of additional paperwork families are going to have to do now so we're going to be looking to see is is licensing part of our mission or is this something that we look to the schools or potentially the ymca we're still kind of working that around a little bit um to see how this is going to work without having duplicate services and putting a lot of additional work on the families as far as the paperwork goes with the state okay continue councillor jane thank you um thank you thank you for the explanation so the other thing is um Burlington parks and recreation waterfront might be the only city department that hires temporary seasonal employees and are those seasonal employees also getting paid the city livable wage is that so our seasonal employees are um paid the minimum wage unless i believe i don't have this all memorized i believe if they've worked um i'm not sure if it's a certain number of hours or five years but there's there is a there's a point where they hit where then we have to pay them the livable wage and i don't know if i if the attorney can if i was clear on that or if you can maybe clarify that attorney blackwood that's correct um it's after five years that they have to get the livable wage but i think they make more than the minimum wage most of them um and they and they progressively get get higher as they if they come back year after year and the the city's been very successful in having people come back year after year mr mayor just for those that weren't around at the time that's that was a ordinance change that prior to i think was 2013 um there was uh seasonal workers which are employed by numerous departments within the city it's not just parks and rec but prior to um uh 2013 there was no requirement seasonal workers were explicitly exempt from um from the livable wage but uh the council and the administration made a number of reforms to the livable wage ordinance and that was one of them and uh such that after after five years um this that now they are no longer exempt from the ordinance thank you mr mayor also councillor jane yeah lastly um and i think this one is about equity and i think um even not only about scholarship you also provide programs that are free the summer recreation and nutrition program for low income families we have it at bobbin mill we have it at franklin square riverside those are amazing and it's free you come good nutrition gardening activities field trips and it's 100 percent free and at the end you also provide a big block party for those neighborhoods that's um and now talking about equity too if you look at burlington um we have so many fields but i don't know if i ever seen a softball field for girls and i don't know if it's a plan it's coming up or this is something that requires some fundings in order to get there i'm happy to touch on that so um the field at smally park with a penny for parks application was skinned and has been used by the middle school program and we got a very enthusiastic email by tom smally i think i've got the name correct simon thank you tom simon thank you very enthusiastic email from him thanking the parks recreation waterfront for the support for that field um the admins again has a softball program through the middle school so they use the youth softball program uses that extensively and you talk about my beautiful gardens but from my deck overlooking my beautiful gardens i also have a view out over the the field at behind cp smith where they are utilizing the softball program the waves in their bright neon green t-shirts and their lovely socks and they are i believe have already submitted if they have not submitted will be submitting another penny for parks application to skin that field there than a cat field and to have another softball field for the for the girls so i think there's some nice equitable use of the field spaces she just explained for those who are well council council well council she said skin okay councillor pine did you want to be recognized okay thank you thank you councillor jane councillor no-dow yes just very briefly just wanted to let everyone know that director white was a big hit at the ward two three npa and as you may know the ward two three npa likes to be very involved in decision-making and especially around budgets we're kind of talking more about you know engaging citizens around our spending excuse me and director white offered that she would come back to a future meeting and talk about emerging needs in the parks area where we could make investments using the penny for parks program and that was extremely well received and look forward to doing that i think that's possibly a great model to use in other parts of the city's operations as well so thank you very much you're very welcome and it you know goes back to that concept of rather than waiting for people to come to us is that is there a way for us to go to them i was pretty inspired by the npa there was a lot of the words two and three there was a variety of ages that were there demographics and and so just maybe think a little bit about our penny for parks what we wait for applications to come to us but what if we went to the npa's or there was a young young adults that were there and who are very engaged and wanting to encourage more people to come to the meetings and so i i look to them and you know that sense of you know if you go out and get people to come then we can come to that meeting and if people have ideas for penny for parks there seems like there's no reason we couldn't take those ideas and vet them a bit at the meeting and do those small those small projects that the neighbors really want thank you councillor nodell councillor paul thank you and thank you for this report so my one question is just simply about wi-fi i know we had spoken about that or communicated via email constituent had asked me about getting wi-fi in parks he was specifically asking about smally park um i don't know what the cost is involved in doing that um i did reach out to steven barro cloth at bt and my understanding is that that is something that is um i'm not sure how to put it either being considered or um uh perhaps in progress i'm not really sure where it is so i thought maybe you could just let us know i have not heard any more on that so i will follow up again with burlington telecom they gave me the same answer to that they would um they would consider it but i'll i'll do a follow-up on that for you you're welcome thank you councillor paul um any other councillors hearing none just let you know i was on the bike on the greenway also known as the burlington bike path last night it was a beautiful night the path was beautiful the mosquitoes were not out and it was gorgeous so thank you for the report thank you for your service commissioners kaplan and hurley and that's great thank you thank you with that we'll conclude those reports and move to item number four which is the consent agenda we have a motion councillor nodell president right i moved to adopt the consent agenda as amended and to take the actions indicated councillor nodell moves to take the actions indicated as amended councillor busher seconds and any discussion hearing none all those in favor of taking of passing the consent agenda as amended please say aye any opposed that passes unanimously we have approved the consent agenda and all the items on it item number moving back to now to moving on to the deliberative agenda now is item 5.01 and that is a public hearing on the church street marketplace common fees and i think we're hearing a presentation first from the chair of church street marketplace mr nick come on up welcome well thank you good evening i'm here because ron redmond our executive director is speaking at an international downtown association event in new york so i'm pinching tonight so the commission is met we had a public hearing last month the mayor attended we approved a level funded budget for the past three years so this will be the third year without a fee increase we've done that for a number of reasons we're finding that our fee payers or the retailers and restaurants have a very high operating expense relative to other shopping districts in the county we just learned from our consultant puma who you met with last a couple of weeks ago that we are in fact have a very high fee structure relative to other downtown improvement districts and also we're hearing from our retailers especially although you'd ever know what walking the street at night with the great restaurant scene out there but the retailers especially are feeling the the effects of the deconstruction of the mall the loss of the parking spaces and the loss of the other retailers that were in the mall that we're driving some retail traffic downtown so we're cognizant of all of those issues and with our great staff of two in the office and four on the street a very dedicated hardworking staff were able to pull this off without a fee increase so happy to answer any questions you have okay any questions for mr nick before we go to the public hearing hearing none thank you very much and we will open the public hearing on the church free marketplace common fees anyone who would like to speak to us in the public forum this evening hearing none we will close the public forum and move to item 5.02 which is the resolution councilor roof thank you president right i will move 502 and after a second ask for the floor back for a brief comment moved by councillor roof seconded by councillor dean councillor roof you have the floor back thank you president right thank you jeff for coming in and giving that that presentation just a little bit more context for members of the council and the public of jeff as jeff had indicated no increase this year last time it was increased was in fiscal year 16 which was 284 it's been up to 287 that's where it will remain 30 businesses pay this fee on church street this year as in last it will raise a little over 690 close to $700,000 which is approximately 70 of the operating budget so this is a significant portion of the budget that our 30 or so businesses are paying on church street to get that operation moving every year without any questions i look forward to a vote and moving this on all right thank you councillor roof any discussion by the council hearing none well councillor jane it's it's more more like a question and correct me if i am wrong and it sounded like that we moved there was a resolution earlier to move this into a committee and the committee committee will report back to the council he said no we are actually voting the council is voting now the church street marketplace has voted unanimously on this and now comes to us we have the public hearing it's been closed and we vote now on the actual common area fees which is which is to not pat which is to not increase that councillor busher would have information usually it's a two-step process and i thought that this said we're voting on the re-adopts the existing standards for allocating the common area fees but then at the next meeting i thought we voted on the actual fees is it always has been a two-step process so i guess i'm president right i'm looking for it was all right thank you councillor busher it was my understanding that we were voting on the fees it was that your understanding mr nick and can someone shed any light on that i mean that was the expected procedure that i had seen and expected tonight attorney blackwood thank you i believe this is how it was done last year i did not go back further than last year to look at how it's been done in the past so um councillor busher yeah what the resolution says it's the commission recommends the city council continue to approve the methods and standards and so the public hearing is for obviously you're not raising the fee but for anyone to come forward and voice objection or whatever to the fees that are being proposed and it was always a two-step process i'm positive of this so i have i just wanted to point that out that's all i think well if i may go ahead everybody understood we had a meeting the commission had a meeting and discussed the fees at the meeting and the all of our fee payers were invited to the meeting they all knew about the the meeting and some did come and we had a good discussion and we we took a vote as a commission that was last month unless uh unless attorney blackwood or someone indicates to me that we have to wait a meeting that i think we would we would go ahead and do what the expected action was tonight i believe part of the issue is that there's no change they're not proposing any change to the standards so if you had to vote on new standards that would be one thing but i think the sentence that you just read is is the reason why they were doing it together as one council roof i just want clarity i believe councillor busher is stating that this resolution i understand two-step process has been in the past but that this resolution only adopts the standards and i think it does go further than that and levy's common area fees for the fiscal year beginning so on and so forth so i think this this does intend to do both the standards and the fee and without so that is the intention of this resolution unless there is some objection by the council we will we will vote on the common fees is there anyone else wishes to speak on this again having heard from the city attorney that this is the what we did last year and that this is okay to do this since we are not having any increase in the fees we will vote all those in favor of the passing of the resolution please say aye aye any opposed no councillor busher votes no so the clerk's office has recorded one no vote council busher all right thank you very much mr nick appreciate that with that we will be move into the budget and that is we start with number 5.03 i will recognize councillor paul and i don't know whether there's any consideration to moving any combining any of these i suppose we could connect 03 and 04 possibly but you can do it either way whatever um we certainly could combine um 05 and 06 if you wanted to those are both bonding um if you want to invite three and four i can do those two whatever let's let's move those together then 5.03 and 5.04 all right so i will move uh resolutions 5.03 and 5.04 the annual appropriation for budget for fiscal year uh beginning july 1 2018 and the resolution 5.04 uh the annual tax assessment on the property grand list for the city for the fiscal year beginning july 1 2018 and um waive the reading ask for a second and a floor back the floor back after a second thank you councillor paul seconded by councillor nodell thank you councillor nodell councillor paul you have the floor back thank you president right and thank you councillor nodell for the second um so i think arguably even though there are very few people here with us this evening which i hope is a sign of the fact that the community thinks that we're managing our tax dollars well um perhaps the most important function that we have all year is the approval of the mayor's recommended budget um my remarks about the budget this evening are mostly intended for um our viewing public we have as councillors have had a lot of time to work and look at the budget and ask lots of questions um my remarks as i say are mostly for the viewing public uh just by way of brief background for the public the mayor by our city charter presents a budget to the council in june just prior to the commencement of the next fiscal year in july the board of finance as a group with the mayor offer input into the budget as it's being drafted as do other councillors through budget meetings over over the past few months there were four budget meetings that were held in may and they were extremely well attended by a majority of city councillors and there were some people that were there from the public as well this evening we're going to be voting on five budget resolutions the first two that i've mentioned the other two are the or the other three one is the approval of public improvement bonds which is a fairly standard annual thing that we do and then grant anticipation notes for the airport which again tends to be a fairly standard resolution that we do every year and then a resolution on proposed uses for the unassigned fund balance that falls above our stated and unanimously approved fund balance policy approved in 2015 which is an unusual one and one that i think is also another sign of how far we have come in the last several years the the budget that we have before us builds on the good work that the administration the cao past and present that city department leadership the council and the voters have all worked collaboratively on the budget allows us to continue to make progress on improving our infrastructure increasing effort increasing efforts in public safety supporting those most vulnerable among us namely children in those struggling with challenges that impact our society the goal was to continue all of these valued service to build among upon our collective successes and to do all of this while maintaining our property tax rate for operational services at last year's level not only was the goal to keep our operational property tax rates flat but to also do that while keeping a reduction of a half penny in our tax rate that was started and and strongly advocated by councillor no dell that was started in f y 17 and the good news is that we've done all of that which is really good news on top of providing a high level of service and doing all of these things and keeping taxes unchanged it's important to note that all of that would really be for not if we weren't at the same time improving our strong financial position and our credit rating just a few months ago in f y 18 in november of last year we saw the fourth upgrade to our credit rating in three years this along with credit upgrades to our enterprise funds the airport and burlington electric are another sign of our continued improvement in financial reserves while delivering best practice services to our community as was the case in last year's budget there are a number of things in this budget too many for for us to go into this evening i'll just highlight a couple of them the budget for this year includes increased investment in public safety growing our police force from 100 sworn officers in f y 17 to 105 this year and that is being done with grant funding not with a general fund financing funding for a number of items to do with our fire personnel including fire dispatch and paramedic capabilities it also includes five hundred thousand dollars the same as last year for the early learning initiative for those who are on the cd and r committee and for a number of counselors who have attended our meetings this has been an initiative that took us a little bit of time it was a new program in f y 18 and it did take us a little bit of time to find a process for granting funds and we're working through that the good news is that we were able to to work through that for f y 18 and now the future is brighter for us in f y 19 we still need to be vigilant to ensure that these funds are truly helping the people that we want them to help the budget also includes 175 thousand dollars for the housing trust fund just like last year we're continuing our commitment to the low barrier warming shelter and i think another thing that we are all aware of is that our senior centers have in our community are experiencing reduced funding from other funders this year the board of finance was united in its advocacy led as always by president right who has always been at the forefront of advocating for these centers along with the mayor and wanting to assure that these centers would continue to serve our community as they have been the budget will allow us to replace some of this lost funding there's a number of other things about the bike path and tripling our investment in our city sidewalks all of this is goes to say it goes to show that the budget is a complicated and fairly delicate structure the budget is just over 200 million dollars we have a general fund budget that is 71 million and our enterprise funds make up 114 million managing managing these budgets and balancing many needs is no easy task for the fourth year in a row in conclusion i'd just like to say that we have a budget that embodies our former caos watchwords of being fair factual and forward the budget is a good budget it's fair in its presentation by department it's collaborative by department it's factual it's forward thinking planning for tomorrow with contingencies and conservative assumptions by our cao and building on our past successes and providing needed services for today as far as the tax rate the tax rate is for next year is going to be 83.44 cents per hundred of assessed value on a property last year's rate was 77 cents and i know that probably gives rise to the question of if it was 77 cents last year and it's 83 cents this year and we said that we're keeping the rate flat why is the rate gone up the answer to that is that there's only so many costs that we can control the administration in its budget has kept operational costs within the general fund unchanged the remainder of the increase the increase two-thirds of it is due to debt service on approved voter approved infrastructure improvements the rest of it is due to the retirement tax tax a couple of differences that happened this year and have increased that retirement tax the rest of it is very it's fairly straightforward and very standard in terms of where all the other money goes to there's a half a cent for the greenway bike path maintenance and improvement fund a half a cent for open land conservation money for penny for parks and a half a cent even to go to purchase books in short i think what we're doing is funding our obligations for the present and providing for our future needs i hope that these two resolutions will be unanimously approved and i thank you for your patients and listening to me thank you thank you councillor paul half cent for the waterfront bike path thank you councillor notel thank you president right thank you very much councillor paul for that very very good summary of this of the budget and of the work that we did i've posted a front porch forum my kind of summary and and i where i do say that i think this is a good well managed budget that i am prepared to support as councillor paul laid out this budget continue continues many of the enhancements that we have added in previous years and keeps up with the rising cost of of doing business that everyone meets everyone faces without an increase in the property tax for general city services so and and we have relatively modest revenue growth from prop from property taxes and local option taxes which means that the way that we're covering that expense growth is essentially by shifting our spending priorities with the but within the budget and really very carefully managing expenses and and that is very hard work that it happens has to happen all year round and so i i think this is a very a very good budget we we should note that there is an increase in water and wastewater rates that i'm convinced that we do need it amounts to about five percent like maybe three dollars a month for the typical household and these were well justified and we're looking at potentially more in the future but we were happy to hear that the water department is thinking of ways to introduce i think some ability to pay into the rates for water and wastewater which and we look forward to learning more about that over the coming year so i would just like to thank the mayor and the ceo and the and the entire team for a finding ways to maintain and even enhance our level of services without an increase in the general city tax rate thank you thank you councillor no dal councillor busher um yes president right if you'd allow me to ask a question of the administration certainly okay so first off i would um it's twofold one is i didn't know whether the mayor wanted to make comments before we adopted these two resolutions and the second is that with councillor no dal bringing up the fees i did ask that if you could um give some guidance to the homeowner and there was a statement about what it would cost a homeowner with a house that was such and such and a condo that was such and such i didn't know whether you were prepared to kind of give that that included the the fees that councillor no dal was referencing in in in addition to the increased tax uh tax rate that um councillor paul referenced so i didn't know whether someone wanted to comment on that or just highlight that for those people who might be watching mr mayor um thank you president right and councillor busher um so let me i will speak to your i appreciate the opportunity to give sort of a few general comments i'll do that in a moment um in terms of speaking to the um increase so to be faced by a um typical single family homeowner in terms of the cumulative 4.16 percent tax increase which as was stated is um almost entirely uh related uh not to general uh city or really any of the operating taxes but is really driven by two things one is an increase in the capital investments the streets the sidewalks the greenway the other elements of sustainable infrastructure plan um that was approved you know by basically three quarters of the voters uh that is two-thirds of this four point percent increase and the other third is basically coming from the first increase in retirement payments the city has made for for a number of years that that impact is approximately seventy eight dollars for the year uh for the average single family homeowner and sixty four dollars for a condominium owner that that is the tax increase that is not the um you you also asked about the the water rates which is about a five percent increase uh over the the typical rate so you know as councilor no-down munch at about three dollar uh a month increase mr. mirror i think that they were associated with um like the condominium i believe was associated with a a condominium that was about 198 thousand and the house was 200 and somewhat thousand just to give people kind of a ballpark of where they fit in this yes mr. busher is going through the council president to the mayor mr. mayor that is that is very close 193 thousand is the calculation for the condominium owner and then 234 250 for the uh for the average single family home um you know a lot's been said very eloquently by councillors paul no-down about the budget uh i and i appreciate those words um the um a couple things i i'll try not to be repetitive about what's already been said uh the um i do think it's worth noting um in terms of the work that goes into this i want to particularly um compliment and thank uh are still quite new uh chief administrative officer beth anderson who was leading this process for the first time um and it's really uh it is a daunting process and she dove right into it even while doing another job at the beginning of the process and um i feel very fortunate for her service that we've gotten here tonight with a good document in in front of us and um i you know we've already begun some discussion at the board of finance level about how in that second year we might uh look for ways to make the process even better and and find ways in which um perhaps we could have some early milestones uh in which they're you know we would welcome some greater engagement with the board of finance and maybe other other councillors but uh compliments and thank you to beth and her whole team in the CAO's office um as well as the department heads who work both to create these budgets and then have a lot of day-to-day responsibilities week to week month to month and making sure we stay on budget uh which has been you know an equally important part of uh the progress we've been making in in recent years one um you know one thing that thing is always worth it it was sort of uh some i i don't think i was fully conscious of before serving in this role it is different about municipal budgets than budgets and other uh state and federal um levels is our um by far largest uh source of funding is the property tax and that is a revenue source that does not really increase um with inflation just because our home values go up the revenues that flow to the the city don't um don't change without without a change in in the in the levy in the in the rate which is something we you know have a kind of culture of doing fairly frequently this is the fifth um year this budget without an increase in the kind of general operating uh taxes are actually a slight decrease and it's um and it's something that um is uh it has taken a lot of work to to ensure and um and uh we're probably approaching the end of the ability to to do that without uh you know we've made substantial increases in in public safety and really expansions of how we provide public safety in both in the police and the fire department and there's discussions of even more this may this may be the last year that we're able to do it um but i want to um you know note for the public that there that unlike sales tax grocery sheets tax uh property tax uh not uh income taxes which rise generally with inflation these revenue sources do do not it's only with really additional growth and investment in the community if those those sources increase um uh on their own and so uh you know that that's one of the reasons this is challenging and and uh is to be appreciated what's happened there the um the um i'm just trying to again i don't want to repeat what's been said um so um i think um with that uh counselor busher um i'll just uh conclude by saying we're excited to have this before you we appreciate the the process that's happened uh you know particularly with the board of finance and other counselors and um we certainly would welcome uh a strong support for this budget tonight and uh you know show how local government we can we have we have different challenges uh and then we don't have the same way and we increase but we can get budgets done here uh on time before the end of the fiscal year it'd be great to get it done with you tonight thanks thank you mayor wine councillor busher you're all set i am thank you very much thank you councillor tracy and then councillor hartnett thank you president right and thank you to the councillors uh who gave the summaries i especially appreciate uh the the lengthy introduction that really went through the budget as well as councillor nodel's uh thorough analysis and thoughtful uh sharing with our constituents in the old north end as we think about as i think about my time on the city council i can think about lots of things that have been controversial um budgets really haven't been one of those things and i think a lot of that has to do with the fantastic work that we have uh and that has come out of the ceo's office starting with paul sis and continuing with uh why am i forgetting his name oh my gosh bob roston and now continue with beth Anderson thank you councillors appreciate that and uh and and and then also that we've had really good board of finances that can hardly be described as pushovers they ask tough questions they really vet these budgets and i sincerely appreciate the hard work that they put in alongside other councillors who um sort of come into the budget sessions um listen ask thoughtful questions as well and i very much enjoy it as a way to check in with different departments um and to understand their different priorities as as sort of put out in in the context of a budget um and this year i don't think that that that is different i think we've had a thoughtful process we've had a lot of um good debate in the context of those budget hearings um and i will be supporting this budget but as i close the budget process i like to kind of think back on some of the different things that went on during that budget process and things that we could improve for future years uh and as i think back on that i'm sort of um i i think i i i i i sort of think about our most recent mpa that councillor no-dell referred to um with regards to cindy white and her you know desire to bring people more into the penny for parks process that was really enthusiastically met and this is part of a broader sense of engagement and desire to be more involved in the part of the mpa um one of the things that the mpa had requested was an additional amount of money above and beyond the four hundred dollars that they receive now to support some of their efforts to do public and continued public engagement um i think with somewhat good reason they were not given that in the sense that i think that the administration's position was that they wanted to have an additional or a specific proposal for what they wanted to exactly do with that money and that's completely understandable unfortunately we weren't able to get to a consensus position as an mpa but i do think that that their desire uh and uh some of the conversation that took place around that desire were reflective of an increased desire we're reflective of of a feeling at least uh in in our words and i would hope citywide to be more among citizenry to be more engaged and to understand and have better have increased say over some of the budget decisions and so um i look forward to hopefully continuing to pursue that additional funding for the mpa so that they can continue that outreach function but that we also look beyond mpa's to think about ways that we can continue to engage the public more um so that people aren't just coming to us as we saw with for instance the heineberg senior center getting funding cut um but that that it's more of a proactive process um not really reacting to a loss of funding in a particular context but really trying to go out to the public giving them a chance to influence those priorities and i think that the council um would be better positioned to do so were we to to start earlier i'm not sure how possible that is but i think that um bringing the council into the process at a sooner time would be more helpful in terms of uh having being able to to engage our constituents so um those are just a few reflections but again i think i truly appreciate the hard work on the part of the administration and look forward to continuing that collaboration and hopefully thinking about potential ideas for ways that we can improve public engagement in the budgeting process as we move forward thank you thank you councillor tracy councillor hartnett thanks in general i'm supportive of the budget and i always like the process i think it's a great process that we all participate in and we might not all agree but i think it's great that we have the opportunity to participate um just three observations touching three different things on unfunded uh balance i would have hoped to see more go into paving and sidewalks and i think i know the reasoning why i didn't is probably because we're not going to have enough time to do do the work but i i still think i would have put some money there i think i would have sent a message to the people of brorington is that we've heard you loud and clear they're unacceptable the conditions of our streets and sidewalks are unacceptable we put this money aside and we hope to use it all right i i think it would have been a strong message to send so i was a little disappointed in that um early initiative learning the five hundred thousand although i'm encouraged where we're going with this uh i think there's better work to be done and i like the um model uh that the um that we are we are now uh participating in uh i think it's the um one group is at the uh family room i think we should take that model and i think we should really run with it they're going to take that money they're going to go into people's homes right and they're going to make a difference in the achievement gap that's where it's really going to make a difference and given budget constraints that our school board has and everything in front of them i think it's important that we use that model and we get in front of these kids and we get into their living rooms and we close that gap because if we don't close that gap by the time they get to kindergarten we're not closing it so i think it's important that we use that money and and and so hopefully we can continue down that path um and the last thing the low barrier shelter i'm glad we put the money back in i really would have been i i went to have approved a budget that didn't include the money for the low barrier shelter i look forward to the pilot of a year long low barrier shelter because if there's a need i want it here and i don't know what the cost would be but i just think we live in too great of a city not to offer that service and i think it's vital to our downtown that we offer that we've made this big effort of cleaning up encampments getting people off the streets and by closing that shelter and i know it was no fault to the city but by closing that shelter you know we approximately put 20 to 25 more people in encampments automatically day one that's what happened when that shut down and and we don't want that right we don't want that in our city so hopefully we continue to make those drives but overall i'm very happy with the budget and it's difficult decisions and i understand that but i appreciate the administration's work thanks thank you councillor hartnett any any other comments or questions from the city councillor are we ready to vote here's that we are ready to vote so we are voting on items three and four five point oh three and five point oh four which is the annual appropriation and budget as well as tax assessment on the property grand list so hearing no other comments all those in favor of approval of the budget and the tax assessment please say aye aye any opposed that passes unanimously congratulations great work and we will now move on to i think councillor paul and i quite done here councillor paul is going to move i move council items five point oh five and six together correct yes um which is the authorization of public approve improvement bonds and approval of grant participation notes for the cost of certain airport improvement projects councillor paul since you said them so well i won't repeat them um just i'm moving the items that council president right just um said um waving the reading and asking for a second and then the floor back briefly after a second second by councillor no del councillor paul you have the floor back okay thank you president right um so there's two resolutions here the first of the two five point oh five um as i had mentioned before is something that we do annually it's in the city charter it allows for bonding um uh this bonding to be done on an annual basis there is in the resolution an amount not to exceed two million dollars to address working capital and capital improvements for the city there is three million dollars for capital improvements uh additions and replacements for burlington electric and two million dollars to accommodate capital needs um for the economical operation of the school department so that's the that is the first one um the second is um again something that we often do um in terms of grant anticipation notes sometimes we do revenue anticipation but this year it's just grant anticipation notes this this is temporary borrowing for the airport um at the airport um most of the grants that they receive are federal grants and unfortunately the federal government does not work on the same year um as uh the city does so we need to wait for those grants in the meantime we have needs for them um there's no risk to these notes because they're secured by federal grants that are on the way and the amount of these notes is an is a an amount not to exceed seven million dollars um i would just ask for the council to unanimously approve these funding mechanisms thank you thank you councillor paul um all right let's open it up to the council any councillors comments or questions hearing none seeing none mr mayor thank you president rake um just quickly on and i hope i have a mister this includes the motion on the unassigned fund balance or no no that one's still to come this is five five and six hold off mr mayor okay uh so i think with that we're ready to vote all in favor of these 5.05 and 5.06 please say aye hi any opposed that passes unanimously and 5.05 and six are passed and we are now on to the unassigned fund balance 5.08 councillor paul okay just to note thank you president ray just to note that 5.07 for those following along has been removed yes um so we're on to 5.08 um i would move the resolution on the unassigned fund balance uses for the unassigned fund balance wave the reading ask for a second and the floor back after a second seconded by councillor nodell back to you councillor paul thank you president ray uh so uh during fy 16 as many of you will remember due to a lot of hard work prudent budgeting the fiscal stability bond which we passed a number of years ago and helped from the voters we found ourselves in the enviable position of accumulating a fund balance um there's a limit to how long how large a fund balance needs to be um certainly we want the fund balance to be strong it is an indicator that um uh that is an indicator an important indicator of our financial strength um and it signals our ability to meet contingencies to provide for unexpected um costs and economic downturn things like that um and it certainly is an important indicator that moody's uses for our credit rating so in 2015 um when we had this uh unassigned fund balance um the council and board of finance and working with the mayor adopted a fund balance policy um the policy was put in place to establish a target level of the unassigned fund balance for the general fund and to establish a process and criteria for continued evaluation of that target as conditions warranted um the bottom line as far as the the policy stated is that the target balance was to be 10 percent and the maximum balance after a lot of discussion by the board of finance um was not to exceed 15 percent of expenditures so any amount in excess of 15 percent um has to be appropriated as an assigned fund balance um in other words a specific use um either or either a use or to be used to reduce property taxes um our last audit which was for the end of f y 17 um uh reported that we have a 14 percent fund balance so the reason for this resolution that we have before us tonight is that we are seeking to use a portion of the unassigned fund balance to support projects that would reduce our ongoing annual expenses improve operational efficiencies and create new opportunities for revenue which is what the whole idea of this was um the uh the uses for the fund balance that have been proposed uh in the resolution and mostly for the benefit of the public are 18 thousand dollars for the Heineberg senior center to address the unexpected loss of grant funding that was critical to their programs 500 thousand dollars um to build up a reserve for the state mandated property reappraisal that we're going to be doing in the next two or three years um 80 thousand dollars um for legal and professional services to support um the proposed district energy system 75 thousand dollars um one of the uh one of the one of the other great things that we've been doing um in terms of good news for the our finances that our audit recommendations are practically down to uh there's just a few of them one of them was that we improve our capital project accounting and there's 75 thousand dollars um to work on that um 100 thousand dollars for a full time community engagement specialist for CEDO um 50 thousand um for a plan to digitize and archive the city's records and for anyone who's ever looked for anything in city records the idea of digitizing them is great news um and then 25 thousand dollars for jobs and people study um to look at trends in the working age population and employment um and you know the board of finance looked at this list there it was a long list of items there was a lot of discussion um in exploration about those and other priorities um this resolution was unanimously approved by the board of finance um and some members may want to speak to uh some of the items and their views on it I do hope that it this will receive our unanimous support thank you thank you councillor paul for that thorough and informative report on the unassigned fund balance um seriously and uh councillor no doubt thank you president right um we had a lot of good discussion about the potential uses of the unassigned fund balance and um I think this was maybe where we had the most in-depth discussion of the options in front of us it was a very good discussion um I wanted to say I really appreciate the mayor including on his list updating the jobs and people study which I think is going to give us some really good information about job creation and um potentially guide the kind of the uh in the economic development efforts of the economy of the city as a whole especially CEDO um and just to note that we are not tonight spending all of the available unassigned fund balance and as we get into the year we may be decide to spend more but that would be something that would come to the board of finance and the city council so um I do think it's we're in a good position with the unassigned fund balance and it and we've gotten to the point now where it's in the interest of of the people that we serve to to allocate some of that spent that those funds to uh in a wise way and I think that this list meets that test thank you thank you councillor nodell councillor busher um yes um this is um this is exciting that all the hard work pays off and now we can utilize those funds to help the people in the community and I think that you know some of it seed money um and some of it is is money that um will be you utilize to either um see through a program or uh get started in one um councillor nodell brought forward the um the jobs initiative and wanted that included and as I thought about it I I feel so strongly about this now um that you know we we've addressed things like housing we but we continue to need to address affordable housing um and we're trying to deal we've tried to deal with with wages but I think jobs also or something that really kind of completes that roads here because if we can get people to have jobs that can support them um then people in the community will have a better quality of life so I'm I'm really pleased with that but I wanted to speak to that list that isn't in the budget the additional consideration list which um I asked if we could have a meeting in July um for the Board of Finance to discuss some of these initiatives um these may not actually get any funding um but I thought it was important to have the conversation as councillor Tracy referenced I think that you know what we're trying to do is work with the administration and the community to kind of give some insight and better understand the initiatives and see where we want to potentially put some money uh forward bring money forward um and support them and I think that um I just wanted people to know that as as everyone else has stated there's opportunity here uh I think we want to be cautious I'm anxious to hear what the other members of the Board of Finance think about these other um opportunities um and also to better understand what the administration feels about them you know these are sound bites of of an initiative and what what can be accomplished with those dollars um but when you're really making those decisions you really need more than just this a brief brief paragraph and so that's what I'm hoping will happen um in this process um so once again I'm hoping that the citizens of Burlington are satisfied with how we're spending those dollars they're their dollars and we're giving them back to the community and that feels really good so thank you very much thank you councillor busher other remarks or questions from the city council councillor jane thank you um president and basically I think I the budget or this is the first time for me but I'm just surprised how um all of this assignment of the unused balance are not specifically supporting social services when we talk about homelessness when we don't have enough money we understand but when we have extra we need to put on strong emphasis in that quality of life issues for Burlington and for people who live here that's one and also I would have really want to see someone who is able from the city to coordinate education when we talk about from um the mayoral initiative about early childhood education and also all the problems that we've seen with the Burlington school district budget and how things going I would have loved to see a position from the city of someone who can coordinate that from early childhood education to graduation from high school I think those would have been wonderful we also know that Mayor Weinberger and his administration we just receive a strong report he is one of the most vocal mayors about the opiate crisis and to me we should have definitely find some resources to allocate it to that social service as well um and I also see that you know some of these like supporting the implementation of a district energy I think they've been doing a great job alone with the department with the fees that they're raising I would have really want to see social issues that are real and critical here in this community but that would not hold me to not support this but I think someone in this council talked about it a little bit of coordination with the council about what are things that you think are important so we can work together in making it happen but other than that thank you thank you Councillor Jang Councillor Hartnett thanks I'll be brief um I think Councillor Dang and the rest of us wish there was all kinds of money and that we could give to every organization and it would be easy this is you know this is a win-win really right I mean and you know we I'll take on the opiate crisis here we have we have really donated we have really given a lot of resources to that to that effort as a city probably uh you know as I think about it more than any more than any other city in the state of Vermont and then we should be it's probably to understand that so I wasn't surprised when I didn't see that I think we've made a strong commitment I'm sure we're going to make a strong commitment in the future with that but when we talk about social services and we talk about senior centers I mean over the last four years I think the city has given the Heineberg close to $40,000 to make sure that it stays operational I think we address the services as best we can the early initiative although I do agree with Councillor Dang I would like to see it more based towards schools and programs that get into people's living rooms and to close that achievement gap uh you know I think we could sit around this table and argue amongst ourselves about where this money should go who deserves it where it would be best spent but at the end of the day I think the board of finance and the administration has done a really decent job distributing these funds and it's not easy and so I appreciate it I do think we take social services very seriously in this city I think we address them I think quality of life in Burlington is very good because of it and we can always do better and I and I hope that's what we strive for that we'll always try to do better but in general I think these are well meant and well served so thank you thank you Councillor Hartnett any other Councillor Shannon and I'm going to make a brief remark after Councillor Shannon and then go to the mayor thank you president right um I want to thank the mayor and the board of finance for their work on developing this list and I think we could all probably come up with lots of things that we would like to spend more money on but with limited resources I think the areas of focus that you've chosen here make a lot of sense and I'm not sure you know in order to say that you know I think you should have spent more money someplace else I would have to say you should have spent less money on these things that you've chosen and you know of this list support for the Heineberg Senior Center building a reappraisal reserve supporting the implementation of district energy updating the jobs and people study improving capital accounting practices staffing a community engagement specialist and evaluating evaluating digitizing our historic records I cannot say that you should have spent less money on any of these things so I'm sorry that our funds are not unlimited but this is tremendous progress from where we were years ago and I'm so grateful to have some extra money to be able to move forward on on community initiatives so thank you for your work and I will be supporting this thank you councillor shannon and no doubt surpluses are better than deficits and it's and it's definitely good news it's it's it's great to be sitting here talking about more money than you know where we have to find cuts to make the budget work just a real brief remark comment I'm very excited about what's in the unassigned fund balance the items that are in there and the budget generally and and really gratified that we did help the senior centers and and congratulations to the seniors who came here and advocated a great job you know I think they they came here and they made their case and and they were helped by the city I do want to just say and I'm gratified that even though councillor shannon is right that we don't have unlimited money but we do actually have some more money that we are going to continue to look at as we go forward outside the budget process with the board of finance and I'm glad that the mayor has indicated that we'll continue to look at that one of the things that I did bring up was street paving and I do understand that we're paving more than we have in any other year but I know also that the need has been greater than it has been in any other year and so I appreciated what councillor harnett said earlier I know also that the mayor has and the mayor will be making some remarks when we can respond to this and that we um maybe can't even do any more than this particular year but the two things that I had had asked and that we might be able to continue to look at is street paving and actually making sure going forward that the phase out of the business personal property tax that we if there's a gap in not being able to do that that we continue to consider that as well with other unassigned fund balance surpluses so with that I will turn it over to mayor Weinberger for any remarks he cares to close us out with on this excellent uh president right and you you touched on a couple of the points that were um on my mind um I I hope it's it's clear to the whole council and and um to viewers that um we uh have we are with this vote if it goes through tonight committing approximately eight hundred fifty five thousand dollars of this unassigned fund balance to a variety of initiatives as we've been discussing but um there is uh within our policy and within meeting our 10% goal there is potentially another you know more than a million dollars that we are envisioning reconvening a discussion on as councillor busher mentioned um quickly for an initial discussion and then coming back for likely approvals from this the board and from the council for additional investments by by the end of the year and so certainly we've taken you know as as was noted there's been good discussion at the board of finance levels about some of these items already but certainly it's possible that other initiatives could emerge and counselors are welcome to suggest other areas that meet the kind spirit of what um we are trying to use these funds for which uh you know are not ongoing operating costs but investments that can be used that will reduce future costs that will um uh in certainly uh capital investments are that will have long-term and during value and that won't require uh you know repeated um renewals of it is another area and um counselors are are certainly invited to suggest additional ideas for consideration um as we do that work the and and I will say I I do believe I'm very committed as I think you know council hardening knows I hope I hope everyone knows we the sustainable infrastructure plan that went to the voters in the fall of 2016 and they had strong support we are very committed to delivering um on uh the commitments made in that and that and that's going to be challenging because we we bit off a lot there we said we were going to get the streets and the sidewalks in this five-year period to a certain standard we said we're going to get the bike path done we you know there was a number of commitments made there were a couple years into it uh it's a five-year plan as with any five-year plan unexpected things are coming up we're being pushed in new ways so I I absolutely think uh that is a likely possibility that we may want to suggest um finding additional uh ways to make investments with the capital and I take uh take the point that um there's a lot of need out there with uh with our infrastructure I do just want to um uh say um a little more uh about the way in which we approached social services funding both in this budget in the last couple years and that I in a you know I appreciate councillor Jang's reaction and and I think it's um something we had some discussion about during this budget process and I think we'll have more discussions in the future in that I think the way in which uh we are uh I think there's some shift going on in the world here that the city is trying to respond to um but out in in that um typically in the way our system works the state is the primary funder of social services um that is not the case in all states uh but it is the case in Vermont um and the city's investment in social services has been intentionally and explicitly um quite limited and um as now that doesn't mean the city isn't is not involved and and I will say the our first approach when we become aware of new social needs in the community is to try uh because of that historic um alignment of responsibilities and because of the city's resources are limited um we try to find uh ways to get the system to address these social needs without additional taxpayer spending and when we haven't had some success of that including recent success so you know the opioid uh crisis is something I'm very committed to and working very hard on we're trying to stand up a new uh pilot as uh there's been some reporting about recently um that will increase uh expand access to um uh bubonorphan medicine this anti-addiction medicine and there will be some costs to that it'll be about 150 thousand dollars um we are optimistic that we won't need to make any of that investment using municipal sources we are we are there are other groups out there uh state sources the uvm medical center sources where we can uh where we can find ways of supporting city initiatives without having to to tap already stress property taxpayers um same is been true when we became aware of these uh cuts that um number of social service agencies have uh have um experienced just in recent weeks we I've been convening meetings and um making phone calls and working to find a way in which a lot of the acute and near-term needs are being met um without the city having to to write additional checks now there are exceptions to that and uh where there is a strong connection between uh municipal interests and um and a social service agency we we we have in recent years and we continue in this budget to consider making new investments um we are um doing that um with the senior centers here's an area where um we are talking about activities that take place for seniors many seniors that live here in Burlington or very nearby activities that are taking place in the city um if these uh centers didn't exist there would be pressures on other elements of city life uh we've had a historic relationship with these senior centers we are now running one of these senior centers and so there were their work cuts um we did think was appropriate for the city to step up with about 36 000 dollars of new funding in in in this in this year's budget um similarly uh you know we didn't have a warming shelter four years ago uh we together have supported the creation of that we haven't had to pay for any of that in the first four years again to this point that other parts of the system pay for that but the system but the that low barrier shelter closes down during the summer we feel those municipal impacts in the summer and that it's our police officers it's our parks and rec department employees that um have to break up encampments when they become problematic so we see a real need that maybe other elements of the system don't uh for having um that low barrier shelter operating more months of the year and that's why we added 60 000 dollars for the budget so i just i share that so the public and the council can understand how we've tried to grapple with these difficult issues i think there's more more to come on this um in the years ahead i am proud of the early learning initiative i'm glad we're investing there there was a big major conference annual conference happened at shelburn farms last week that i attended uh where they had speakers from around the country there and the main one of probably the central messages of that uh conference was that um america is the 31st of 32nd industrialized nations in terms the amount of investment we make in kids zero to five in 94 to five 94 percent of what we invest in kids zero to five is on four and five-year-olds uh on pre-k we are doing something quite unusual and i think important by trying to invest in kids ages zero to three and not only is that unusual it's probably the area we can have the greatest impact if we get these investments right in that first thousand days of life there's an opportunity to set the environment set the climate for children uh that may have enduring um aspects for the rest of their life and their ability to succeed in other areas and that's what we're trying to do with this program so i appreciate the council support in uh that focus on uh our youngest broentonians um with that i i hope i haven't gone on too long um it's it's been important conversations i think they will continue and uh thank you to the counselors who have already indicated their support for these investments and i hope uh i hope we will get a strong support for it um with the vote in a moment thank you mr mayor and i think with that we are not quite ready for vote right councillor busher i i'm sorry i neglected to either speak to it or ask the mayor to speak to it during this whole process um there was a shift in the united ways funding of a number of social services and um as it was identified the senior centers was were one of the areas that came up short but there was also an initiative on domestic violence that ended up um not being funded as they had been in the past and the one that i'm talking about is women helping battered women is one example um there are as i stated there were a number of social services that were not funded as they had been in the past and as we've heard over and over again the city cannot be there and support every shortfall um so the administration is looking at working with the state trying to figure out how to make some of this recoup some of this funding for all of these agencies i think that the reason i'm highlighting this one is not only do i care very much about it like everyone else but also at the neighborhood planning assembly that i attended ward one and eight it came up as a topic and um i tried to be accurate and fair in my statement um that you know that in this process they would not see funding um in this budget process but that the administration was working on this and there was a concern and support from the community in trying to resolve as i said that funding gap so i don't know if the mayor wants to say any more about that but for those people who are listening and may be reviewing this i didn't want to leave them without some statement regarding that um so um thank you president right for allowing me to make this statement i don't know if the mayor wants to say anything else thank you councillor busher it is an important topic so i appreciate you bringing it back up mr mayor mr mayor do you have anything to add to that i mean i think councillor busher is laid out that we're going to continue to discuss this as the process goes forward okay all right it is an important topic i mean i appreciate you raising it councillor busher um with that i think that we are ready to vote on the unassigned fund balance and expenditure of the variety of items that we have been discussed here over the last half hour or so which amounts to somewhere around $850,000 in initiatives in surplus unifying unassigned fund balance monies all those in favor please say aye aye any opposed that passes unanimously congratulations on all the great work from the administration thank you um that will conclude the budget and tax items and we'll move on to item number six which is committee reports any committee chair who would like to report to the city council councilor nodel reporting as the chair of the inclusionary zoning work group an ad hoc group we had our last meeting this morning we had our public hearing a week ago we appreciate some of our colleagues were able to join us and share some of their thoughts with us this report will be prepared over the next couple of weeks and i'm hoping if it works for the council president and for the mayor that we can come to the july 16th meeting with a presentation and a resolution to then you know kind of work it into our our work as a counselor because the council thank you councillor nodel sounds good um councillor mason and then councillor hartnett thank you president right um just for the council's benefit and the public's benefit the boards and commissions nominating committee will hope be holding its third meeting tomorrow five to seven in room 12 we have interviewed most of the applicants there were a few that were not able to make it they have been extended an opportunity to come and speak tomorrow following that there will be hopefully a slate advance for discussion but or consideration by the council on our next meeting thank you thank you councillor mason councillor hartnett i just want to get the pack will be meeting this thursday at 5 30 conference room 12 and it kind of highlighted on an update from cdo on the auditorium so if anybody's interested will we get an update from cdo that night thanks thank you councillor hartnett any other chair who wishes to report to the city council hearing none we will conclude item six and item number seven is city councillors on general city affairs any councillor on general city affairs councillor jane so tomorrow yeah the burlington school district penned university and by the way thank you mayor weinberger and yeah the administration for allocating four thousand dollars to this program for the first time and i think it will be ongoing we hope so so tomorrow we will have a wonderful graduation ceremony 55 parents from new american communities will be graduating at the flint theater 3 30 so we have mitzi johnson we also have kirk right as the keynote speaker as well as people from the abenekki community so we have child delaney who is elder from the abenekki and also melody walker brooks who's the chair of the verman commission of native affairs who will be also speaking on behalf of the abenekki's so there will be a lot of food donations there will be a reception beautiful music and we hope to see every city council that's available to show some support thank you thank you councillor jane any other councillor on councillor pein real quickly the new building that's being built on the parking lot adjacent to the cots property on north avenue is the process of the pile driving has become a major issue for neighbors living in that vicinity so if you hear about it it's been hasn't been resolved because it's going to go on for at least a couple more weeks it's extremely loud and the vibrations are causing people to they're calling everyone they can so hopefully they won't call you and other wards but the result of this is that the developer which is redstone has met with residents that are concerned and they basically agreed to a time limit of the the the hammer that drops the steel piles 50 to 70 feet into the ground will only operate during the hours of 9 a.m to 3 in the afternoon they will move as quickly and efficiently as possible i guess we got the hammer going over here too the um it's it's been extremely disruptive for folks they just want to acknowledge it i there's not much that can be done you know as they say you do have to um what cracks and makes to make an omelet and unfortunately that's what's happening right now and it's it's uh nonetheless it's not a pleasant experience for the folks who live the closest to it because it's it's really disruptive and for people who are home all day it's been a really difficult week and it will go on for at least a couple more weeks so um hopefully folks can hang in there thank you councillor pine appreciate that any other councillor on general city affairs hearing none we'll conclude that item item number nine is uh city councillor president update and we really have any other updates and i'm not going to go into this very far because i know the mayor is going to talk about this but just i know that city council all wishes uh everybody's heard about chief talposos a very serious accident over the weekend biking accident and we have a card that we've all signed uh wishing came a speedy recovery from the brook into the city council and with that um i will turn it over to the mayor to take us home thank you president right that's a very generous gesture and i'm sure the chief will appreciate it um i um uh been to the hospital a couple times since the chief's accident late saturday and saw him uh in good spirits yesterday and and very much on the mend and um i i know he and his family appreciates all the the well wishes and um his uh his wife sarah has really been a very strong calm uh forced through a challenging situation and um i know the chief is uh eager to to get back to to work as quick as he can there is it is going to be um it is going to be a little while before he is back at work he was he was definitely making progress um they were looking to move him out of the icu unit um shortly if not already by now but he'll be in the hospital for some additional time um and then it will be some recovery from some broken bones and uh his abrasions um in the meantime chief right um is serving as the acting chief jan has uh been um in the leadership of the department um since early uh on and and uh our our administration and has served in this role before she there was a people may remember there was a couple month period between chief shirling's retirement and chief um del pozos arrival where she served as an acting chief and she is uh stepping up to that role again and we very we appreciate her service um a couple um other um items uh that i would just uh briefly um mention uh looking uh um just one one backwards looking down and then a couple ahead the in this room last week we had a blood drive um first time in recent memory here uh in city hall we've done that i want to thank uh katie vane for her leadership and um organizing that about 30 people gave blood over the course of the day and uh it really is a remarkable thing for people to think about only about three percent of americans give blood um and uh the decision to do so um which there are ongoing opportunities to do really uh can um make the uh the difference between life and death i know one of our neighbors uh word six neighbors uh council paul recently um uh you know benefited uh during the complication in uh in a uh the middle of surgery lost a lot of blood would would have been a real trouble where that supply not on hand i saw him up and walking around and looking as healthy as ever it's quite quite scary to think uh that we uh that that you know if it weren't for the generosity of some that wouldn't happen and uh this community where there's ongoing opportunities for those that volunteering in the city and certainly encourages it the um a couple uh opportunities looking ahead one on wednesday night the we are for the first time in in uh a little while pulling together a joint meeting of the school board in the spot of the city council on that event is going to be at the bollington police department at six p.m on wednesday dinner will be provided um many new school board members of course uh uh i think there's some six or seven new school board members just selected so i think will be a nice opportunity for um the two bodies to get to know each other better a couple topics um are on the agenda for discussion uh one um we are going to talk about um a debt policy we've never really had a debt policy as a city how much debt we should take on what types of debt and how uh that should relate to um a debt policy for uh the school district given that both entities are at a time of borrowing and investment um it's a very timely conversation i believe we'll also be having some update from the school district about um their uh their investment plans um in capital in their buildings and finally um uh next sunday june 24th we are having uh something called the btv block party which will take place right out here on the southern block of the church v marketplace between one and four p.m this uh there's going to be a variety of uh activities um dj craig mitchell will be providing music and um all the different departments in the city will have vehicles and tables uh information about how scholarships can be applied for and uh really it should be a fun event and one for people to get a chance to see and feel exactly uh what um the city government is and uh it's the first time we're we're doing that and again and uh katie vane was involved in the organization of that as well so she's been uh on a roll back there and we appreciate her ser