So I'm going to offer the last time I'm going to call this meeting to order. Oh my gosh. You know, probably not. I'm just as happy to not use the gavel. All right, so a few meeting logistics. So if you're joining the meeting remotely, if you would change your name to your first and last name so I can call on you appropriately. When you speak, if you have comments to make, if, by the way, if we could, if we have conversations going on out in the crowd, if we could take them outside, they'd be great. Thank you. Okay. When you speak, if you could say your name and where you live, that would be very helpful. We recommend or we're asking folks to keep their comments to two minutes or less and Donna over here will help us with the time. And if you are speaking on any item, if you could keep it germane to the to the topic at hand, that'd be great. And if you wish to be if you wish to speak, if you could just wait to be recognized by by me, that would also be good. I think that is it. So we're going to check in on the agenda. I don't have any information about changing the agenda. Anyone else have information to suggest that we ought to change the agenda. Okay, so with that, we'll consider the agenda approved. So we're on to general business and appearances. This is an opportunity for any member of the public to make a comment on any item that is otherwise not on our agenda. And but I, as I understand it, there may be some folks who would like to make some comments about items in our agenda that are later and would prefer to speak now to them so they don't have to stick around to later items. And that's okay. That's fine with me. So if that describes you, that's that's okay. And now is the time so we'll start with folks in person. Anyone wish to make a comment? My name is Onika Turkot. I'm a Montpelier citizen and a student a student. I'm on player high school. I've known Merrick Modan for about three years now as a classmate and a friend. So yeah, over the summer Merrick made it his goal to go door to door every day. He knocked on hundreds of doors around town and when residents answered he wanted to have a conversation with them. I remember this one time we were on a couple's porch for an hour as they described their struggles on a fixed income and the rising cost of living in our town. And tonight is his chance to really take all those stories and all the people he's talked to and turn that into political action. I can say with absolute confidence that he is wise beyond his years and will be a great fit for city council. Merrick is as thoughtful as he is passionate and has served us well as a representative on the school board. He follows the on goings of our town out of pure interest and because he cares deeply about his constituents. Youth voice in our government is incredibly important and if 16% of our population is age 18 or younger we should see that in our representation. I think I speak for most youth and Montpelier when I say we trust him to advocate on our behalf and I really hope the council will seriously consider his appointment. Thank you. Thank you. Anyone else with us in person. And I'm sure I will run over two minutes. Because I'm exercising my constitutional right to be heard and to hold public officials accountable. Which is the purpose of this portion of the public meeting. I said God save our city. And it's a good send off. I believe this is your last meeting, isn't it? There will be another. You can tell me. I want to point out some of the examples of good governance versus autocracy. Last year the budget hearings when I announced, you know, that I would run for mayor. The. It was a deal you were going to already vote the budget. We're just going through the motions to hear from the public. I don't know why we have echo. I can't. It was a it was a done deal. It was a preordained the facade of public participation that we do here. It doesn't amount to much of anything when I talked to many people on the streets people I've never met. They don't bother coming to city council to express their they feel that it's a it's a rigged system that it won't have any effect that they're not heard that it's a waste of time. That's a problem. That's a deep problem. The division I warned you about back in the garage era is still deep. There are, you know, merchants who resent anyone who spoke out about the garage to the point of perjuring themselves about it. So years three and a half years since the homelessness Task Force was created, we still don't have warming places available around the clock. We don't have cooling places in the summer. We don't have toilets. We've got city owned toilets in the city hall and in the transit center that we don't allow people to use in at any hour they need to go. Just last week, the example of asking speaking up about the MOU with Green Mountain Transit and Jack speaks to Bill and is like, Oh, that's federal funds. So if it's not transit related, no pushback at all. Well, if you ever stop to think about it, the unhoused are always in transit. There's no way you would get shut down from the feds from using our transit center as a place where the unhoused could use the bathroom. That's just absurd. But yet there's no will to push back against that kind of mendacious mismanagement. I'm almost making better time than I thought. Missing public records. I've raised issues with you about records related to the conditions for city center bathrooms on the permit for city center. The PSAP when Montpelier decided not to be a PSAP. Bodycams when you were assured it was going to be another opportunity to speak on it and you rammed it through on the consent agenda. With the missing proposal of bodycams and tasers that was presented. Most recently, written correspondence with the police chief about unprofessional conduct and he can't find it.  It's a crime. And you just like sweep it under the rug like you did the shooting the dispatch error that led to Mark Johnson's death. So I'm pointing. Oh, we accomplished lockers lockers that are too small for anybody to put a backpack or a sleeping bag in.  Year after year after year. There's still a foot over a foot of snow in many of the parking spaces, even on state on Elm on May, and that snow stopped flying last Friday or Saturday morning. You know, and yet we're going to still charge people and tow them and ticket them for parking on alternate sides of the streets. Anybody else who collects the money for the tickets for the meters for the taxes and that doesn't deliver that's called fraud. You're charging for something and not delivering. So wake up, you know, wake up and take your job seriously. Thank you. Anyone else with us in person wish to make a comment. Yes. I'm Dan tall from first Avenue and first I just want to thank Steve for his comments in support of among the most vulnerable and deserving in our in our great city. But I'm not here wearing my homelessness task force consulting hat. I'm here wearing a number of other hats. I'm wearing I'm here to wearing my Montpelier police review committee hat. I'm here wearing my citizen of Montpelier in Washington County hat. I'm here wearing my hat as a psychiatric survivor and as a someone with a major mental health condition who is out supporting people who have mental health issues, including people who've been traumatized by interactions with on the street and crisis. I'm not going to have to. I'm not going to say a lot, but I'm going to urge you not to cut the funding for the embedded social worker. The police review committee, which both Jack and Lauren were part of. We recommended adding one and a half fte's in terms of crisis mental health crisis response work, either social worker or even better peer support crisis worker. And we recommended adding one and a half and the and the council agreed, ultimately to add a half an fte. We had the embedded social worker as you all know that we were sharing with Barry. So we were we were paying for for half of that individual. What I understand you're going to be talking about later tonight is not only roll up not only rolling back what the police committee had recommended additional mental health crisis specialist, but moving backward. Calling funding from a program that we had in place, which was moving the city, moving the county towards getting the right types of resources to deal with crisis. The law enforcement is absolutely the right the right response if you have a crime or violence. But as we all know, most of the situations that crisis in the street don't involve criminality that involve violence. And we all also I think we all well aware all across the country. Cities municipalities counties are implementing. Bringing additional mental health resources to crisis response. So I'd urge you please. Don't cut the funding. I know it's been very hard finding someone to fill that position but in my humble opinion and all due respect. Difficulty finding, filling a very vital role is not a reason to cut the funding. So thank you. Thank you. Anyone else with us in person wish to make a comment. Hi, thanks. I'm speaking on behalf of Palin Cohen who's running for the district to seat so I'll say my piece now and then understand that will happen later in the evening but thank you for allowing time to speak on behalf of the candidates tonight. My name is Eva Zera and I live in Plainfield, or maybe Marshfield depending on who you're asking. I'm here tonight to speak in strong support of Palin Cohen who's seeking appointment to the district to Council position of the Montpelier City Council. You have already reviewed Palin's resume and cover letter so you're already aware of her impressive personal and professional accomplishments. So what I want to do is take this time to speak to her character in order to further illustrate why she's the right candidate for this seat. Palin and I were both fellows with the New Leaders Council program. Early on in the program she identified her goal to run for Montpelier City Council in order to serve her new community. She systematically mapped out her plan to achieve that goal, including identifying the obstacles and then set out to tackle each one. Most notably in some ways she would need to become a US citizen in order to be eligible. After studying for the help of her children, she passed her US citizenship test in May 2022, a test that I learned only 36% of Americans would pass, by the way. And I'm so pleased to see her accomplishing this next step of the journey. This tenacity along with her progressive values and logical thinking will serve the Council well. As a new American, Palin consistently brings a unique perspective to every conversation. I often have found myself reflecting on her statements long after the conversation has ended, wondering why didn't I think of that? It is her commitment to inclusion driven in part by her own immigration story that will help keep Montpelier, the capital of our state, a welcoming and inclusive place as demographics shift. Lastly, Palin is inherently collaborative, even when expressing a differing opinion. She does so in a way that builds relationships and fosters constructive dialogue. Working on projects with her was easy and enjoyable. Characteristics that I know will be welcome on the Council. In summary, Palin is a driven forward thinking and collaborative leader who is the right choice for the seat. I appreciate the time to speak on her behalf and thank you for your time tonight. Thank you. Eva Zarrett. Alright, thank you. Anyone else in person wish to make a comment? Okay, so we'll go to the folks with this digitally. Peter Kellman, go ahead. Thank you. Peter Kellman, I live on Mountain Dew Street in Montpelier. Under Item 12 on tonight's agenda, the Council is going to be considering the applications of Merrick Moden and Pellin Cone to fill Conor Casey's District 2 Council position to serve from the time of Conor's resignation at the conclusion of this meeting until town meeting day elections on March 7th. I'm pretty sure that the applications of these two applicants were first posted late Friday afternoon, December 16th. So it's unlikely that many District 2 residents know much about either of the applicants or the fact that one of them is to be appointed by the City Council this evening. This is not a great example of local government transparency or public engagement. While both applicants certainly seem qualified for this position, I will again offer my strong recommendation that the Council not make any such appointment at this time. As you know, at the Council's November 16th meeting, I suggested that it was a bad idea to appoint a brand new inexperienced Council member for such a minimal number of meetings between now and March 7th, most of which would be dealing with the arcane details of a budget that will have been arrived at through months of budget discussion by the other City Council members. However, my concern is less about these practical aspects of this matter and much more about how such an appointment so close to election time flies in the face of the very basis of democracy, fair and free elections. Just to be clear to everyone, the City Council is not required to make such an appointment at this time. If they wish to do so, the Council could have left and still can leave this matter entirely in the hands of the voters of District 2. Either through a special election or simply by waiting two months until town meeting day elections, at which time it will be required, in any case, that a candidate be elected to fill the second year of Connor's term. Thus, if the City Council decides to go through with their intent to appoint one of these applicants now, in my opinion, it will be engaging in an unnecessary and blatantly anti-democratic act that will put the very heavy thumb of the City Council on the outcome of the statutory town meeting day election a mere two months from now. Let me explain. It's there, for example, a likely case that the Council will recognize the strength of both of these applicants, but nevertheless chooses one to appoint. Now fast forward to late January when prospective candidates for all open city seats must file for election. There will be two separate races in District 2. One to fill out Connor Casey's term by serving one year and one to fill Jack McCullough's seat for a full two-year term, which might or might not mean running against Jack as a heavily favored incumbent. Suppose then that the December appointee decides to run to be actually elected this time to the seat to which they've been appointed two months before. That candidate would have a significant advantage over anyone else who might have wanted to run for that seat. That advantage having been bestowed upon them by the City Council's December undemocratic appointment. But that's not all. Now consider the further possibility that Jack has decided to run for Mayor so that his two-year seat will come over. Check, check, check. Oh, sorry, Peter, I just want to interrupt and say you're at about three minutes right now. So if you could wrap it up. I am wrapping up. I would agree. Thanks. Okay, so I'll skip the next part, but as a result of this unnecessary and undemocratic appointed process, at the end of December, this could have significantly could significantly shape the entire composition of the District 2 City Council membership, a third of the council itself. So I strongly urge that you can reconsider your November 16th position to make an interim appointment, or perhaps having heard my concerns. One or both of the candidates might withdraw their application for appointment and instead run for election on time meeting day, or perhaps pledge that if appointed, they will fill the seat only on an interim basis and not run for election in March. Any of those options would result in a much fairer and more democratic election of both District 2 City Council seats. Thank you. Thank you, Peter. So just to clarify our understanding of the charter as it's written is that we do need to make an appointment tonight as we are reading it. So first of all, there is no provision for a special election for a council seat. That's actually not a choice that the council has other than the vote for the one year term. The charter requires filling the seat by appointment if there's more than 90 days left on on the term and because his term has over a year. The council is required to fill this by appointment upon vacancy. Obviously you can time when you fill that, but it's not really an opt out with the mayor. There's a little bit more flexibility that you can call a special election forthwith, as I believe what it says. And I think that once the mayor tenders her resignation at the next meeting will schedule the council to vote for a special election on town meeting day to handle that. So the charter is clear if there's more than 90, it can't be a special election. If there's more than 90 days left on the term, then it must be filled by appointment and it just says the council shall fill. It doesn't, but it doesn't set a time frame for it. Thank you. All right, David Ulbrich. David, you are still muted. There we go. First of all, I thank you for your time. I want to rise in support of of Pellan Cone for the the district to council seat. I have known Pellan for almost five years I myself live here in Montpelier, and I work with Pellan at Norwich University. She has impeccable leadership credentials, whether an academic or an experience, yet I also detect and I've seen a servant spirit. That's really hard to have if you're a leader. Can you also have the servant spirit as an immigrant herself. She's come from Turkey to Vermont and made a life for herself and her family. She has two vastly different worlds. And I think her, her potential service on the council internationalizes the council and brings a diverse perspective that it might not otherwise have seeing how Vermont is about 3% minorities. She's a leader that is also able to collaborate and to facilitate so she can adapt her leadership to collaboration facilitation and so on. She's very concerned about DEI issues. She served on the social and economic justice advisory committee, which is very important. These are timely issues that everyone in Vermont and everyone in Montpelier is concerned about. I think that's invaluable experience. I also know that she's acutely aware of cultural challenges that go on of just mannerisms or attitudes or ideas that, you know, native Montpelierians Montpelier writes whatever may have that may or may not be acceptable to others, so she can help educate. Lastly, two more points. She's been active on a variety of councils both at the local leadership level, and with the Vermont Council on World Affairs. And I think that that local and global connection, not only individually be based on her experience as being born in Turkey and coming here, but then also acting on that can also has great potential in terms of internationalizing experience here in Vermont, perhaps also even working with future businesses and other partners that are international. So I rise in support of her, and I hope you will seriously consider her. Thank you. All right, anyone else with this digitally wish to make a comment. Okay, well, thank you. Oh, yeah, go ahead. Just briefly. Just briefly, I'm not going to get into all of this, but there are comments we were talking about public records. And I just point that all but one of those have been raised multiple times in the past. They've all been responded to in writing to the council and public is public response. Obviously the commenter doesn't like the response. But it's all, it's all been addressed. And I believe there was one new one here. And I, to which I think the commenter has made a good point. All right, well, with that we will move on then to the consent agenda is there emotion regarding the consent. Oh yes Donna. Public comment.  And I was going to build out this last evening for Anne and Connor, and I wanted to say something at the beginning because guess what, all of you will probably be gone. And it's just been wonderful serving with both of you. And so I brought some sweets, please help yourself up here. And but just, you know, can't begin to say what the privilege has been. Connor and I rest one another lot. Of course he's tall, I'm short, bound to be opposites, but it's been really interesting and and you've been here since I got on the council it's really been a treat and your leadership is just such a caring one. So I really wish you both well and the House and Senate, you know, really show them how to collaborate the way you've taught us and to listen. It's really, really been impressive. So a little bit of your personalities. There's more. And is a little understated. It looks really friendly and it is but it's got a strength of steel. And this one looks overwhelming and could be a bit bullish, but he's not. So this is my souvenir to you two. Thank you so much. Thank you so much, Donna. That's so sweet. Here's gonna love. Oh my gosh, that is horrible. Thank you. I appreciate that. And I'll have more to say later in the evening. Okay, anyone else. Yes, Carrie. Oh, okay. So we're on to the consent agenda now. Okay, just just checking. Yes, go ahead. I apologize for still being a little bit unclear, but there's something that I would like to. I'm sorry, I'd like to request that something come off the consent agenda. Not. Okay, there we go. I did it the the ballot item about withdrawing from CV PSA. Okay, I would like. Okay, so is there emotion regarding the consent agenda. Except the consent agenda. Minus item C these CV PSA withdrawal. Okay, motion and a second. Any further discussion? Okay. All in favor, please say aye. And oppose. Okay. Do you want to, should we take it up now? Or is it a longer? Sure. Yeah. It's not, it's not a long. Yeah, go for it. I just, it just felt to me like it's something that was more appropriate. Not on the consent agenda because we, we started discussing it last week. I didn't feel like we made a final decision last week. I felt like we asked for a draft of language to go on the ballot. I'm in favor of it. I'm happy to have it there. I don't feel like we need a big discussion about it. I just wanted it to have its own time. I think that's fair. Yeah, thanks. Any thoughts folks would like to share on this ballot language. Language as much as the process and how we ended up here. I think it's a mistake to withdraw. I think we could see other towns joining at the same time as the two founding members are withdrawing and you might see the legislature conditioning the grants that you are so over optimistically expecting being conditioned upon having regional governance in place. We could share with you federal guidance from safe, common size that specifically requires the type of regional governance that CV PSA had the potential of under new leadership. Okay. It's been a failure of leadership and a, you know, bickering and turnovers and vacancies not filled and a lack of recruitment. We created two committees, one to get new members to join new towns to join and one to work on charter changes. Nothing ever came of those committees in the last two years. So basically I think it's a mistake. I think you're not informed enough, but the idea that the chiefs and the managers have gone behind closed doors claim that those aren't open meetings and they're going to figure out a way to grab this money is anti-democratic. It's unethical. It's totally contrary to why we joined CV PSA. And it's premature. Okay. Thank you. Anyone else wish to make a comment? Okay. There's an ethical illegal about staff work being done in an office by people doing work. It's not an appointed committee of either council. Okay. So is there a motion regarding item C? Second. For the discussion. Okay. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. And opposed. Okay. So that item passes. So I think we are now up to some appointments. And I know we have at least one of the people with us digitally. Lisa Stewart, would you introduce yourself and tell us about your interest in the Central Vermont Solid Waste Management District? Sure. I'm Lisa Stewart. I live on Fuller Street, Mott Killier. I've been a resident of Mott Killier for about 30 years. And I'm interested in serving on the Central Vermont Solid Waste Management District because I have about a 16-year history of working with environmental organizations, including the Central Vermont Solid Waste Management District, where I worked for eight years, six of them as general manager and also Vermont Public Interest Research Group. I also have degrees in public administration and human resources and have a lot of work focus on organizational finance. So I think this is a good way for me to serve the city of Mott Killier. Super. Thank you. Any questions for Lisa? Okay. All right. And I don't see Brett Appel with us, but just want to check, see if Brett is there, is out there, either digitally or in person. Okay. So, team, we can either make some appointments right now where we can go into executive session. Connor. Yeah. I'll move to appoint Lisa Stewart to the Central Vermont Solid Waste Management District and Brett Appel to the Complete Streets Committee. Seconds. Okay. Further discussion? Okay. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Okay. And opposed. All right. Well, I think that's a good idea. Yep. So we are going to flip one of the items here. Since we have a couple of members of our Senate delegation here, we are going to have that item before we have our budget conversations. So, yeah. So I guess we'll invite Senator Perchlich and Senator Cummings up to the table here. And I am going to just keep sitting here. Oh, okay. Yeah. I'm sorry. I didn't. And, and representative elect Casey and representative elect McCann is here as well digitally. Yes. I'm going to keep sitting here, but just facilitate things, but I will be listening. Yes. Well, thank you for being here all. So we do have a legislative committee. And so I'm actually going to turn things over to them to start out. Yeah, to kick things off. Sure. I can start us off. So we had really looked at a range of priorities that of course impact the city. It's a lot of things that are going to look really familiar to you because it's a lot of things that were on last year's agenda. You know, really looking at in some ways the ongoing impacts of the pandemic and so things like, you know, the return to work of state employees and local office buildings, local option taxes, supporting things like Tiff and so on. Also, there's several items around responsive and responsible government. Looking at, you know, we've got course, our strategic plan will keep an eye on and legislation that would be consistent with that.  And some of the examples that are in this agenda, we're looking at additional funding to agencies such as Down Street. As we look to build more housing, expanding funding for ADUs, looking at how active 50 changes could help make it easier to develop in places like downtown Montpelier. And then a suite of environmental stewardship such as, you know, continuing our work on PFAS, micro transit opportunities, working towards net zero and so on. And, you know, infrastructure, of course, we've been looking to, you heard earlier tonight in the public comment, how we have been looking to build public restrooms and it would be great to partner with the state on looking at how we can move that forward. And of course, looking at how the infrastructure and other federal money can be used to help get to local governments like Montpelier and be put to work for our communities. And let's see, and then a couple, public health and safety. You know, we heard earlier about, for example, the social workers and the need for investing in that. And, you know, of course there's both a potential city role there and also a state role for funding that important work. So looking for how we can make sure that we're, you know, providing those resources in our community. So a lot there and happy to answer questions and or turn it over to the colleagues who had helped put this together who want to expand on anything I missed. Talk to myself about. If I could jump in. We sent you all this list and I think we're also interested to hearing what you think are going to be the top issues and which issues here have the most likelihood to move forward. We did throw out of that list the highest priorities just advocating for safe return of the state employees. I think that's really is having an advocate an issue in downtown. I think that's a great question. Definitely human services funding for supporting those experiencing homelessness, including temporary housing options, peer support workers of permanent housing. You know, small cities like us are really being asked to take on something that we really don't know what we're doing, frankly. And so we'd asked the state really step up. But I know it's a challenge. I know you're aware of that. But I think you'll hear that from other cities, but I think that's a great question. Thank you. You know, a lot of people come through public restrooms. We think, you know, many people come to downtown to visit the state facility state house. If there was a way we could partner in funding to create a public restroom. I know I worked on that last year and BTS pretty much shot that down. So if there's any way we can. Get that back into the front burning that would be great. And then obviously any. for your support last year on the communications funding and to the extent that it comes back to the legislature would ask if you have continued support we're not sure it's going to but if it does certainly would ask for your continued support there it's a very important project for not only our city but very in the entire basically your whole senate district so be very very important project. Any thoughts I mean I feel like I could comment on like what I think might have a chance but I'm the freshman here so. Okay I think the two biggest issues I've heard or at least the biggest money issues are going to be child care and paid family leave.  Andy and I finished today the final report and kind of sorted draft legislation on going to an income based property tax, income based education tax. There's a lot of questions that we didn't get to like the impact on the ability of the general fund to raise money to do a lot of the additional programs but we did hear from the league and do know that that would free up some money perhaps for the city to use and we did after Act 60 went in and that the tax rate hasn't been the just intense issue it was before Act 60 so that I think will get introduced as a bill it seems to be out there other than that we'll be monitoring the COVID money that's gone out as it's as some of it doesn't get used and comes back in we were able to use that money to extend the homeless shelter program the Motel program at least get us through the cold this month but the federal money is gone we spent all or most of it on one time because it was one time funding but we're back to our regular budget and expectations are high so it's it's going to be a financially challenging year expect housing and homelessness to be high on the list that you mentioned paid leave and child care but I those are the two things I hear statewide is being really 300 million we put a lot of money into housing unfortunately it doesn't appear overnight it's got to get permitted it's got to get built and we're seeing the same labor and supply issues that everybody else is so the money's out there I think this year well I'm quite sure this year we're going to see a discussion probably a bill around the non homestead property perhaps dividing out the business second home don't touch the deer camp issue but how you know is there some way we can do that that might free up some money or raise some more money that'll be out there for discussion I'm sure Airbnb's will come up in that discussion because they are part of it and we'll probably be watching the success or non success of the Burlington you know just cause only eviction charter change to see if that how that works and is held and so that'll all be out there in regard to housing do you expect any kind of regulatory reform particularly like in cities like Montpelier and you know I think one of the things we hear is obviously costs and you the state did put a lot of money into that and just the cost of land and obviously the incomes for people that can afford but they'll also the duplicative duplicative and perhaps overly regulatory and I'll call it out act 250 for developed cities and the goal of act 250 is to not have sprawl and to create a disincentive to develop in cities and go do 10 acre lots you see is kind of the antithesis of what you'd hope so I know we at the league were received a recommendation for some potentially mandated changes to local zoning many of which we've already done here in Montpelier but we were welcoming but I think the state also really has to take a hard look at its regulations particularly around housing and particularly around doubling the efforts in developed already developed growth centers designated downtowns incorporated cities and large towns that have the capacity to manage it on the water and sewer type things well act 250 change is definitely going to be on the agenda and I think what happens is that there's a lot of other advocacy around changes and that's the issue around downtown act 250 gets caught up in forced fragmentation and all bunch of other so people want it to be one package and everybody agree if we're going to give this change I want my change I don't hear a lot of people arguing against that particularly but it just seems to get caught up in the whole act 250 change unfortunately I think so you know I've heard that 200 miles be quiet after this but I just think you know we have a housing crisis in the state and it seems to be the number one issue for every community I talk to certainly is for the league of cities and towns I think it is for the governor I think it is for the legislature it seems like we have to be able to really look hard at all of the areas you know you did put a ton of money in that was great and now what are the other barriers and you know I understand forced fragmentation and all those things but maybe that's not at the same crisis that housing is in and you know this we really ought to be prepared to look at that and and I'll get off my soapbox in just a minute but that also includes you know one of the things we heard about was if you're on water and sewer you should you know you should have required these lower lot zoning okay fine but you know we have water and surges all the way out of Elm Street are we going to also improve transit funding for people that might be in unaffordable housings that could take you know make these communities better and and if we're going to require that parking requirements get taken out and again we've already done that here but are are we going to look at alternatives for people whether it's transit or funding structures or however you're going to deal with parking uh to to because we do live in a car climate whether we want to admit that or not and um and then lastly the homelessness situation you know um people can't afford homes and as we know there's a million reasons why people are homeless there's no one reason but the supports around that have just got to be put in place and I know it's coming from the general budget I know it's not easy but I also know there's nowhere else to go right here it's it's it's going to come from the state's budget or local property taxes or somewhere because there's nowhere else to go and the state at least has a a structure through the department of you know human services that should have the know how to handle it versus you know local governments who plow roads and answer police calls and do these kind of things and then they're now going to whole human service categories where frankly you know as in we're out over our skis so um okay I'm done yeah well I just stated that and that you know I kind of saw that in the priority list and I would agree with all that I would I know said they're coming former city official agrees with that kind of local control the state giving these unfunded mandates is something that I think your delegation would support and your delegation is going to be even stronger uh with knowledge on that issue so I I think we totally agree on that the only thing just on talking about the priorities that I saw that would be difficult is uh trying to find a way to bring the state workers back or even advocating I mean you know we can we can mention that there's an impact but there that's going to be a difficult thing I think I think it's it'll be interesting to see what the state does with this least space that's all empty and are they going to let it go are they going to make that savings but then permanently lose that space potentially that that was the only one that I kind of had to scratch my head on so like I didn't know how we're really going to help city on that one but uh if you have ideas uh I'm open to hear them but everything else I supported and definitely thought that we could work work together on now I was just absolutely going to agree with senator birchwick on that point it's hard to force the administration's hand to bring back state workers but you know as you look at those empty state lots every day it's a bit frustrating when we're scrounging for a little piece of land to put like a covered shelter right so it's got to be either like one or the other right the state workers don't come back or the state's got to be a bit flexible with that land you know and that might entail building housing maybe even building it up or you keep the parking underneath right so I think it'd be good to look at that anyways but yeah I agree with it dead on everybody I'm on a couple boards and there's also an employee shortage and um some employees like working at home especially when there's no childcare or affordable childcare available and so I think the state like everybody else is working through we've had a forced expectation of remote work and for some people it's worked for others it hasn't um you know and it's going to take a while to figure out what that new mix is going to look like um and I know what that impact is having on the city I mean I just this parking that's not a good thing um you know that really does make make a difference not having those employees um here especially at noontime the eating establishments I'm sure are really taking a hit because I used to eat downtown every day now I'm retired and I don't um but there's a whole lot of state employees that aren't and that hurts I'm going to speak in minority voice because I think remote working is what the state should become a premier remote employer and that if you really should have it there as a benefit and that I feel that the city has to adjust and the council has to help downtown make those changes that that's a reality and it's less wear and tear on our roads it's less pollution it's less cost to have that second car there's so many benefits by reducing commuting so I'm all for it but I do feel like you know that the state has a chance to really grab a hold and be very innovative and not just passive because they have to now now we have some choices and so I really hope you have some think tanks creatively outside the box because there's a lot going on in some businesses that are really showcasing showcasing this also I think we found out being remote and the senate was remote for a year and a half um that there's good things I mean I like being able to go up in my slippers and put a suit jacket on and sit there I was shocked when I had to put on shoes um but you also lose something in corporate group culture I think a lot of the resignations may have come earlier this this year because of that remote thing you lose the support you get from people going through you know you can't sit there and say do you know what that idiot just did but at some point people need to do that you need to be able to share the frustration with somebody else that understands it when I was sitting in your seat I used to say if my dog could talk I would be in big trouble because that's where I vented when I went home and the dog would just look at me and nod but you you lose that when you're all alone all you've got is the dog to talk to and or your spouse and that could be equally disturbing so um you know I think that's just part of the balance we're trying to figure out is how do we fill all those needs the time needs the pollution needs but also the interactive human needs just say that that councilor blade had a good point that it's it's likely we're gonna have to figure out a way to adjust to it and the way that the state could be supportive to the city definitely want to be part of those discussions because then as a state employee in my day job I don't think they're all coming back I think we're at least where I work the the leadership team doesn't see a decrease in production actually sees an increase in production so I don't see a lot I mean some people are coming back so I think there is going to be less workers at least something else changes so how do we transition what do we use for this space you know what can we transition to housing how can how can we solve the problem of having more people downtown but also help with the housing great example across the street that portable housing that was put in that second floor so I think one other issue that I want to mention is more I support full funding uh VHCB so they can do more support cities like my pillar for projects like that I think the one maybe there's others but one positive light on the housing front is that we can pay for affordable housing through the property transfer tax and property transfer tax has got a lot of money because we've had a lot of property transfers at a high rate and so I think we we should use that opportunity to support more affordable housing with that with that funding so we do that and then I think spent a lot of time on downtown redevelopment as that noon market the people that got out for a lunch hour and came down and shop how do you keep them here how do you bring them in on the weekends how do you you know what is downtown what is the future of downtown going to look like that's your job or is it I get it um obviously but the reports we get from our business community is actually weekends and evenings are as good or better than they have been it's it's the weekdays when people are missing um that used to be here and obviously we need to support them and urge whatever can be done to get more people downtown or to productively reused if the land to create more opportunities whether you know for people in need or people who need housing or other commercial you know things to create more vibrancy to support people and provide more jobs for people who need jobs here I mean obviously right now it's hard to find employees but that won't always be the case so property is parking lot so we can convince the state they don't need them anymore because they're not kind of the workers then let's convert those to something useful and housing downtown is really good a lot of the housing we're developing is lower income housing if we could get more of a broader expanse there um then that would also be helpful to the downtown economy so all things to work on yeah downsizers two other things asked all five of you that are attending is child care really think outside the box why isn't child care part of education system and that we have private and public child care that it's integrated I think that's really important to consider when you're looking at it also we are tied to the federal tax base what do you all think about the state doing its own thing yeah when I can you do your income tax your state income tax depends on your federal income tax they're tied together well just right at this point it's just your adjusted gross income we other than we're starting at that base which we yeah I mean we are we we used to be coupled where you were a percentage of your federal tax liability we decoupled a long time ago and when was it the tax cut and jobs act so probably 2017 when that tax cut resulted in Vermonters paying 35 million dollars more in taxes we completely rewrote the tax code to prevent that so we are essentially decoupled other than that adjusted gross income and I think it's just it would just be a duplicate of effort unless you want us to be taxing the first 30 000 of social security okay so then it's all up to the state individually to decide whether to tax the higher brackets at a higher rate oh yes oh do so and we have the second most progressive tax code in the country yeah that's something that I mentioned a lot in my campaign was adding back a fifth tax bracket to ask the wealthiest Vermonters to pay more basically so it's on my certainly on my radar that's got lowered it could it came down it came up because the last tax study committee said in order to be competitive with the surrounding states we needed to get that top bracket down because that's what they looked at and we came out looking terribly in every national tax report and they forgot that your total tax bill is less but it was just that upper bracket that got reported so that's how we got here a chair tax committee forward to learning more anything else folks want to chime in about and I want to check in with you uh representative elect mccann if you want to weigh in on any of this you're certainly welcome to but you don't have to do okay you are muted I think she's out okay oh and rejoining can you hear me now yes crazy I just want to say I'm encouraged by the legislative agenda that the city council is bringing forward and I look forward to working with you all and uh moving things forward when Connor and I were out knocking on 3,600 doors what we heard most was um that homelessness and affordable housing was um top priority so look forward to moving things forward and making things better for uh vermont and for the folks great thank you yeah I guess the only thing I would add is um I feel very tuned in to PFAS and climate initiatives and um feel well versed in the other topics as well but particularly in those so um looking forward to working on all of that so and particularly just for the sake of folks listening I anticipate that the clean heat standard or some new version of it may come back and as well as potentially a renewable energy standard so looking at heat being more affordable for vermonters and the first uh that I mentioned and then uh looking at building more renewables uh hopefully in vermont uh with that renewable energy standard so two things on my radar yeah comments you may these are touching on the topics that y'all have emphasized her uh but at the joint fiscal committee meeting senator Cummings you'll recall uh representative cornheiser used the example related to public safety funding that you still have an agency at the state level that makes sure there's equal opportunity in education uh I feel it's real important with act 250 with homelessness funding with public safety communications with uh uh housing ad use and uh regulation of air b and b that the state set a ground floor that you require for instance you don't just shovel money at a town that has refused to plan disingenuously claimed to be concerned about homelessness at bathrooms but has refused to do a plan year after year after year so you condition your funding on accountable planning and matching funds at the local level before they trigger and release the state funding because you you need a mechanism we need the lever of state funding to force accountability and transparency at the local level I mean it's ironic to have me be the one telling you this but uh with act 250 uh act 250 can solve I mean can at least serve as a safety valve to prevent bad projects from being ramrodded through by unaccountable officials uh the garage was a case in point even though it failed uh on an appeal for act 250 jurisdiction but it's not unheard of for a town this this size to pack a certain council in and ram some projects through and ruin the town for the next 50 years so that participation that public participation of act 250 where a lot more eyes and opportunities to present evidence are important um accessory dwelling units and we we need regulation if you can expedite the process of whatever charter change is necessary so that we can require an immediate inventory of air bnb units and put some kind of cap on that as well as accelerate the best opportunities for accessory dwelling units these are things that the locals towns lack the capacity to do and that can be done in a more organized fashion at the state level and then open up the floodgates of opportunity at the local level um remote work uh telecommunications in telecommuting requires resilience and well engineered broadband which we are not in the process of they they're taking shortcuts on the engineering even tonight's meeting is really flawed based on our communications infrastructure even from the mics in the room so we need to focus on high quality we need to be able to read the closed captioning up there when we can't hear the microphones so that's an area where planning uh and i'll close with one related to the your quote staff meetings your your loose cannon organization called twin cities team to steal the work that cvps a did and own the system for monpelier it's very corrupt bill don't don't laugh but it runs totally contrary to the statutory telecommunications policy and goals of 202 c and 202 d which require participation draft plans review public comment on draft plans agency response to public comment on draft plans y'all think you can and run all that and you can't thanks thank you any other comments folks would like to make anything um anything for them yeah you know where to find us yes yeah yes i know bill has my email yeah you don't i mean that's that's how we learn what's happening out where the rubber hits the road similarly if there's issues about local government whether it's monpelier specific or just general i know there's the league and all that stuff but we we have some experienced folks around so we'd be happy to you know you know from your time if you're a monpelier official you get down you get hauled down there a lot because you're the handiest local officials so that's zoom i'm going to have most of my wit my staff i think on zoom there's no reason why they should have to sit there and um any of the witnesses that have to travel and most of the observers i think will be on zoom so if we need you you don't even have to run down the street you can say let rotlin do it but then you don't get all the other interaction that you don't i mean and that's what we we found out is that if one witness on one side of an issue is in person and the others on zoom there is a feeling that the person that's in person has an advantage and um i think they're right uh so we witness anything controversial everybody will be there all right well thank you thank you thank you appreciate you all being here okay all right so now we'll go to our budget discussion and for this uh i'm not sure if kelly if you want to come up to the desk or or um bill or anything else you all want to say about this i don't have a lot to say obviously we did the overview presentation at the last meeting since that time we have posted videos of all the departments sort of doing an outline of their budget i'm sure you've all watched them many times and have them memorized and they're here to they're here to answer whatever questions you might have we've also posted the budget book yesterday you have a copy in front of you we have the worksheet where you can plug different numbers in and see the impact on the bottom line of the budget and the tax rate i think we're prepared to put that up if you would like but really you know we're here to be your resource now we've turned the budget recommendation over to the council and however you would like to proceed we're here to help in whatever way possible like i said we have pretty much all the key team here and we're here to help you do your job yes carry so um i just want to reiterate and point out that um i need to recuse myself from any discussion about the city clerk budget and that i can't vote on the city clerk budget as well since i'm married to the city clerk and it'd be a conflict of interest so if we could if at any point we're going to be discussing that portion of the budget i will step out and when it comes time to vote um we'll need to pull that one out and vote on it separately and thank you all for accommodating that i appreciate it that's a big controversial budget so all right so i think probably what makes the most sense is to start with where we ended last time at 7.4 percent with the um all the all the items that were included and see if folks would like to either add anything or subtract anything um i will i have some ideas but i want to see what your thoughts are first uh connor we just go over the social worker position a bit maybe it's um because yeah my my recollection was it had been vacant for quite a while there and we did have trouble filling it which is why it disappeared but maybe just talk about it but and i also like my understanding was part it was partially state funded in the past right um and i i don't know if that's set to continue or yeah well chief new ordinance and i think the new i think the new chief is my new job welcome first of all thank you this whole process was extremely challenging um and like you said that position was was unfilled and we struggled to fill it um we've kind of reevaluated that between martin and county and very city pd and rpd and some of the needs that we've kind of identified were more of a screener that could actually write mental health papers um so we're trying to see if we can find some funding for that type of position and then the challenges can we can we find it and then fill it um dan toll is exactly right this one when we have these discussions they're extremely hard um i was just talking to washington county if we had the 20 000 back we could probably do that work because part of it is state funded um so yes you know these are hard choices but uh it was challenging when it's not filled and you know when you're looking at some of the other things that you have to to talk about uh the unfilled was made it a little bit easier so uh yeah hopefully that answered your question not chief can i oh sorry thank you thank you uh if i can follow up on that can you describe uh a little bit more in detail what the screener uh is or does sure a screener is a mental health clinician who who can actually write mental health papers um so if there is somebody that was so i was just going to explain that yet so if there is somebody that is in a media crisis that needs to be seen by a psychiatrist they can do those papers we can take custody and facilitate them getting the help that they need um with the social work position it was it was great the common theme was that it was underutilized um i don't have a great answer other than we were in covid maybe it wouldn't it would be a little better utilized now um you know but for our needs when someone was in crisis to have that ability to do the immediate service to get them the needs and then us to be able to help them instead of having the social worker come then call the screener and then wait and do that part um so kind of our evaluation process was a screener would be a little bit more efficient for us and then the the whole idea of it when we first started this conversation many many years ago was to have a screener and it's kind of evolved to a social worker um so we're we're kind of playing with that and washington county's looking for funding i'm literally texting with gary saying i'm i'm going to try so uh but everybody here is going to try to you know so is the screener that you're talking about someone who would be employed by washington county mental health versus the city of montpellier yeah the the social worker was also employed by washington county so yes they would be there um they already have a network of screeners and we thought we might be able to tap into those a little bit more effectively that maybe they could shift and change different ones into the police departments and we could build even more relationships so the the ideas are kind of getting hammered around and it was helpful they had some um but we're just not quite there yet thank you yes jack well i could potentially add a little more to that because the i interact with the screeners all the time in my day job and the the statutory process for in in voluntarily admitting someone to the hospital starts with a contact typically starts with a contact with one of the community mental health centers and the entire state is covered by them um the washington county mental health only covers washington county but all the counties are covered and the screeners that or another title that they go by is crisis clinician are people who are certified by the state to to do evaluations of people in crisis and so when someone is out is in a psychiatric crisis they will typically go out and meet with them where they are whether it's at their homes or out out in public on the street or something or in the emergency department if they've already been taken there and they will evaluate whether the person appears to have a mental illness and whether they appear to be a danger to themselves or others as a result of the mental illness and if the mental health professional and then a doctor both signed off on this paperwork it's called an application for involuntary for emergency exam they can be taken to a hospital held there and evaluated and so in most of my cases one of the witnesses that I'm cross-examining is the is a screener who uh testifies about what what the interaction is and what they observed it was a danger and and they don't always involuntarily admit someone we they sometimes get to the point they conclude well I understand why you're concerned but it doesn't get to the point where we think the person is so dangerous that they need to be involuntarily admitted and one of the things they try to do is get the person to either admit themselves voluntarily to the hospital or see what other resources they can mobilize to get the person you know to get the person's needs met potentially without hospitalizing them thank you any other questions yeah Lauren just following up on that congratulations awesome um so am I understanding right that the there's there's not funding for that position in this but the hope is being able to work with the Washington County mental health and be looking for funding from grants or the state or whatever um to try to to do that but that's going to be the status if we pass the budget as a budget for that position for the Montpelier share so we are we are working with Washington County to find some funding but that's not guaranteed so and if that was a if that I don't know if there's potential for a shared position with Barry again or shared with them is there do you have any ballpark like is like we had a full 70 000s for a social worker is it potentially less money to put in money for a screener that could be a shared position so the funding for just that position was 20 000 and then the other 50 was the halftime position that we've never been able to fill and so I think you know I mean obviously we come back to the city council but if we actually had a candidate and state funding and Barry was on board we would probably come with some sort of proposal for where we can you know scrounge up 20 000 because it it's that important but the 70 000 was the big one because we hadn't even I think got an applicant for the second position and um so it was like why would we carry this another thing that people may not be fully aware of is that and along all the community mental health centers across the state at any given point they probably have a thousand vacancies combined you know Howard center has 100 or a couple hundred just at any time on on their own it's I keep arguing that the legislatures should give them much much more money than they have but that they really have a hard time attracting and retaining people they're not paid that well and some of what you have to do in those positions is kind of um unpleasant or jobs that things that not everyone wants to do any other questions for the chief about this is the public a lot of comment at this point uh I'm going to go with yes go ahead yeah um I'd like to make two two comments first of all regarding this issue of not being able to fill that role um question I guess this is for the for the chief how um do you know how much effort was put into hiring a peer crisis worker crisis worker as opposed to a traditional clinician or a you know indoor social worker because that's a huge I'm not a huge but that is an untapped pool of um of mental health resource that not that frequently is not considered when it comes to positions like this yeah sure I I don't have an answer for that Washington county was taking care of the hiring processes uh so I I just don't have that answer I don't know what they were doing for the recruitment of that yep fair enough and the second question is or I guess it's more of a an idea yeah I've managed long bigger departments in my career and I recognize it's a real Hobson's choice about trying to figuring out where to allocate monies and a budget like this um and money not not spent um for an embedded social workers is uh money left on the table and I understand um you know the position you're in and I guess I'd throw out the idea of thinking out of the box in a way and this is just off the top of my head and that would be um while we're recruiting for that position um bring in a temporary law enforcement resources I don't know if that exists I'm thinking of the the nursing model you know traveling nurses who fill now obviously they're expensive um and and yeah I'm not asking to have a discussion around this idea I just wanted to throw it out to say if we if we if we step back and think creatively there are ways that we can make sure that that our our city funds are being used efficiently and effectively um but at the same time making sure that we're we're on the right side of the trend of having the right resources to address uh crisis in in the street so that's all thank you thank you Dan I just want to check so you don't have any other questions that you would like to ask or comments you want to make about this I'm going to take that as a no you're you are done commenting on it um uh so um my the reason I bring it up is just because like so we usually don't do um like back and forth so if you have multiple questions if you could ask them together and make all of your comment at the same time that would be great so Dan was there anything further you wanted to say about the budget okay cool just wanted to check in on that thank you awesome um and thank you for for bringing that up um any other questions thoughts yes go ahead Steve would agree again specifically on this topic I think we need to think of a different different model than embedded within the police department you know where this is inextricably linked to the unhoused population that we we drive folks we deny them bathrooms and showers long enough they become more and more unhinged and they act out etc they trash the pocket park or whatever and we I have witnessed an incident with a erratic person up on the transit center property and this needs needs attention you need to hold your police department accountable for it a shared response where the capital police come down now we've prohibited our police department from having tasers but the capital policeman is sitting there anxious to pulling out his taser ready this guy was just seriously just wait and we had to wait what an hour for the screener 45 minutes it was an extremely long time the beanbag shotguns were all prepared and carrying around and it was a long drawn out thing and part of the role of a social worker or a screener or a crisis deescalation professional needs to be trust that you're not going to get if you embed them with the police department the the maybe the fire department maybe the uh justice center but the the person needs to be trusted by the the fragile peripheral community and the police department isn't it we we've all witnessed this police department harass people and steal from people and lie to people arrest people for speaking more than two minutes you know so you need to think about it's it's a necessary function of a social worker trained even peer support social worker i spoke to dan about this on on his way out uh and the where that sits where that fits best we may be able to attract more talent by not putting it in the police department but i i have not heard from i met the social worker once a year two years ago three years ago never once did she reach back out to talk to me about what i know from interacting with this community so you know i think it's i think you get the point thank you okay um any other thoughts on particularly on the um social worker position and yeah um just just a quick one that i i um do you think it would be a good idea not in this process i don't think this is a time for it but to really kind of take a step back and think about how we handle public safety situations when we're that in ways where we call the police now but maybe there's another way to respond um because i think that um it is true that there are many people who will never trust the police that um the police are here to enforce laws and um not necessarily to um i mean i think it's a bigger topic you know and so i think if we're thinking about public safety really broadly um we need to be thinking about various ways to handle conflict and to handle difficult situations um i don't think that in this budget right now is the time to try to figure that out but i would like us to have it on our radar for our strategic planning process and for um the future okay do you want to wait a little bit because i don't think our CIT program may be exactly what you're talking about um but i'll let someone who knows what they're talking about we are feverishly working to implement a crisis intervention team which is not just the police because you've nailed exactly what we're trying to do um so we have our partners with fire and washington county and it could be teachers it could be anybody in the community that actually cares that wants to help uh to de-escalate and work with these people and get them the help they need so the push is to get this training the first training in march it's everybody saying that's ambitious but i'm an ambitious guy so we're going to try and push to get this going and it might be a small class and we might have to measure our success a little differently than some people do but just to have the first class i think would be a huge success so we're trying to to get that through in march so maybe just to and that sentence is maybe after march when the newly elected full council is on board new mayor um we could have we could do a presentation on the CIT program and question you know have an agenda item where it's council gets briefed on what's happening with that and ask questions and take it from there okay thank you any other yes lauren just on that point i mean we spent for the police review committee we talked about that a lot and i mean i think this model like when we were looking all over the country at various models i mean really what we're looking to do is like right up there with like the best of the best like kind of models out there um i mean the other piece of it was the funding the social worker and the peer outreach workers um and and so i mean i i do want to kind of fully implement that vision that we had laid out and that you know worked very collaboratively with the police department on all of those recommendations so i mean it's frustrating that with the staffing shortages is hitting this critical area right now when it's such a need um but i mean i definitely want to keep an eye on how can we staff this and like i would if it does get cut or paired back for this year that we're looking to build that program and invest in it because i think it's could really help um accomplish what you're talking about and what the chief's talking about cool that does sort of leave us in a place where we haven't quite made a decision about what to do about that but maybe that's okay right now um and especially in the content i mean about the social worker position so if it's okay if there's other things that we that folks have on the radar to either add or subtract and then we can discuss we can come back to whether or not we want to do anything differently with the social worker position um so thoughts on rest of the budget oh wow okay so i'm taking your silence as that you like the budget as it is okay jack i've been thinking about uh you know in the in the past year so i've been thinking about what what we've been doing with the budget and part of what i think is that in the last couple of years including what we voted on the on the last year's budget and including on including i think projects that have been in the works for a number of years we have really taken on a lot of big things that need to be done and that includes both what we've been asking the residents of Montpelier to pay for but also what we've been asking the uh city employees to handle and and i think that we're right at the the right point of not asking anyone to take on a lot of new projects now because with the water resource recovery facility the the east state street project the country club road project the barry street intersection we're doing a lot and and so i'm i'm i'm glad that we're not charging ahead with with some more things but i also think that we've made commitments to do a lot of of these things and when we have to keep doing them and and i know that it it costs money but it uh it costs what it costs and uh you know we can't say well the rate of inflation is too high so we're not going to pay the price that the for the fuel that our vehicles need to run we can't pay for the workers we need to employ so i think we're hitting the hitting the target pretty much where we need to be okay um my only maybe i'm the only one that's going to suggest anything different but um i would like us to consider uh adding into the the budget the requests from the rightsville beach folks they were here last time asking for an eight thousand dollar um increase uh and so as it it's included in the budget um at a level funded um from last year um and the i believe it was the parks commission uh asked for some funding am i right about that yes okay and that is not in this budget right uh i thought it was like five thousand um so that's on my that would be great yeah yeah five thousand for the parks commission um yeah i like ellsworth parks director so the parks commission i think is well i know is asking for basically money for the commission to use at their disposal so money that's outside of the operating budget of the parks department that they control and the way they want to use it is to do what they did this year which is to um support their management plan process for all the various parks of the city yep and then the other one oh did you have questions get go ahead daughter so like for example this year they they are currently redoing the management plan for all of hovered park in the north branch park so they hired um uvm student to do uh ecological survey they hired consultants to analyze data they did survey exists things like that yeah so did they they have money this year and it's not in the budget for next year is that correct yeah so okay i think a good comparison is like for example the the conservation commission has like thirty five hundred dollar annual appropriation and the tree board has some amount of money for their nursery so all these committees have small working budgets and the parks commission is looking for that on an annual basis okay yeah so yes they did get funding last year and so yeah they're looking for it as a regular item now thanks um and then the other one that was on my radar was the conservation commission um asked for 10 000 um and so i i would love to know more about that do you have information come on back um yeah if you could tell us more about that um i think i can i actually don't know i didn't see their request but i am the staff liaison for the conservation commission um so i'll do the best i can i think what they requested is um probably money for the conservation fund is that correct do you know so the conservation commission gets an annual budget a working budget to do things like um natural resource inventories and there they there's another body called the conservation fund that's made up of two conservation commissioners and one member of the public or three conservation commissioners and two members of the public doesn't matter how it's made up but some years ago there was an appropriation i think of 40 000 dollars to that fund and it's been drawn down now i think there's maybe 18 000 left in it and so i think they're because they asked for this last year but it didn't make it in i think it's probably a request from the conservation fund to start replenishing that so they can give grants out to various projects conservation ladies so those are three things that are not in the current budget that i would like us to consider even if it's not all three of them if just putting those on the table if we did all three of those that would bring us to 7.6 percent as opposed to 7.4 um but i'm only one person in this trip so thoughts yeah um now i want to thank you for the presentation we talked about inflation being at 7.7 it's currently a little bit lower than that but the actual budget proposal was at a 7.4 percent tax change other thoughts if yeah if i'm the only one that wants that that's okay go ahead i i think i'm a little in principle i don't have real problem with that it's not big dollars for uh but i i think i'd feel better with a little more clarity of what what it's going for for all three of them yeah i i i like the uh rightsville presentation last week i'd be happy with that with that one if we just did the the rightsville beach contribution so if it was just that it would be uh seven rounded to 7.5 percent as opposed to 7.4 yeah you can support that one more questions about the conservation and i i do understand their fun but i want to understand what their remaining balance is before i had to but yeah that's fair yeah uh yeah i'm also very supportive of the rightsville edition um the money for the parks commission just seems kind of fair if other commissions have some money to to use but i'm more hesitant about the additional 10 000 for the conservation fund yeah for the same reasons others have cited okay okay i yeah good um i don't want to at all argue against park funding um because we do support the parks and they you know certainly we do that i would say that in drawing a comparison that the parks also has a full staff at a full parks budget where the conservation commission and the tree board and others while the tree board has the tree board and and a tree budget so some you know not everyone some of those people that have a small stipend to work with don't have the resources of a full staff to do that not that they shouldn't get five thousand dollars but i just want to caught you know when we're making an abstract comparison just make sure we understand sort of the full picture sorry other thoughts um lauren any thoughts on this no i i think kary summarized my my feelings as well like support rights bill and i think yeah i would want to better understand the the need and what i mean especially what bill just said like what's being done outside of the scope or that the park department parks department couldn't do um so like what specifically needs to happen through the commission and i think i could be convinced potentially but i just don't fully understand why that would need to be separate from the department i don't really want to i don't feel like it's my position necessarily to like advocate for it because it's not the park's department's budget like it's a separate request so just from an informational point of view um i think they they just want some money to do their work like their work is their mission is to make the rules for the parks and so um they want to have some money at their disposal to like gather the right information to make those rules so in the case of like this year is a good example um like like we don't have money in our budget to like hire a uvm student to do an ecological assessment of hubbard and north branch park um so that's information that they wanted you know it was useful for their rulemaking process and so they you know they asked for the money and they spent it i think they're basically they're moving on to further parks so each year they're going to do one park and they want to have some money to be able to do things like that that aren't in the park's department's budget so and that that we can't do that staff can't do so yeah it's like sort of like a professional services budget i think would be a good way to explain it but yeah i mean again it's not my uh which one of them were here to talk more about it so i'm probably not doing it justice for them sorry parks commissioners if you're out there yeah good if we're going to add any of these to meet a motion or do you just need an awful majority um i think well so by the end of this process we should have a motion about the budget so we can either do it separately or together i think right correct yeah well council completes your budget and wants to go to public hearings you you adopt a budget for the purpose of bringing it to public hearings and then you don't actually adopt the final budget until the last night of the public hearings but you would say this is so if you were going to make a motion and wanted to separate out the clerk's office you could do that but also if you were going to amend the base budget um you would you would do that i mean if someone should have moved the base budget is the basis of the conversation but we've never done that before so so you're wanting something that you haven't actually made a motion but i think that's fine you say i want to add this to the budget and i think that's fine make this motion see if it makes sense so i move that we adopt the budget as presented with the addition of the rights bill beach increase and the park's extra five thousand dollars additional five thousand exclusive of the summer clerks budget exclusive of the city clerks budget of course right now for that second okay further discussion okay just checking with folks in person um i'm assuming that dan towels uh hand is left over from last comment um so any other comments from and oh yes hi okay waiting patiently no fair enough and so and just so you know we usually don't go like multiple comments um but uh since we don't have a lot of folks here go ahead okay well actually um i just i had a question for bill and this has to do uh more broadly with creative thinking about funding um is there a position are there anybody within the city uh staffing that's working on pursuing alternative funding sources for any any part of the um you know the items that people within the city are looking to get funded in other words federal funding foundations philanthropists um you know other sources and and particularly now with covet funding even though you know some of that has been locked up and spent um a lot of it as we well know is still available so we have several people that are very actively involved in that some within certain departments our planning department has you know grant writing people um are we have a sustainability position now that's pursuing grants for those types of net zero uh funding police departments very active fire dpw all uh actively pursuing we're actually kind of anxiously awaiting uh the guidance on the infrastructure funding um you know grants excuse me philanthropies those kind of things charitable contributions have not the exception of things like the senior center um those tend not to be as successful people don't always want to donate money to a municipal government unless it's for a very specific thing like a senior center library you know those sorts of things that have their own identity maybe other parks could be successful i know they've written some private grants but yes we're very active in grant writing all across the board yep thank you for that bill um and i just want to offer to you bill and your staff um i said on the number of statewide committees uh mostly relating to department of mental health and there still is a tremendous amount of arpa and other covet related funding you know within a hs and dmh relating to you know mental health initiatives so that would include peer um you know um either peer support or traditional clinician christ's response and i'd be happy to talk to any of your staff members about um tapping into those channels for anything relating to mental health or substance use that we'd love to talk to you about that okay thanks bill yeah thank you all right so we have a motion oh i'm sorry thank you yes linda burger go ahead thank you um i just lost track of if you add the right still amount and the parks amount what is the percent increase in the tax at that point thank you um i don't think we actually said so great question it's still rounds to the 7.5 percent yes right okay yeah we can take a look uh so yes that would be the correct number for tonight we could take a look and see if there's i don't know if we can get it back to 7.4 somehow but yes um any further discussion nope okay and from anyone in person okay uh all right all in favor please say aye aye and opposed okay thank you so have a motion on the clerk's budget thank you yes uh is there a motion clerk's budget is proposed second okay further discussion okay all in favor please say aye and opposed okay great thank you oh and just want to make sure i was going to make sure the clerk got that for the record okay uh super so that is the budget that we will move forward with for public hearings um in january those public hearings are on january 11 and january 26 people that are watching and we it is still absolutely amendable at that point some conversations not done to the council votes to place it on the ballot on january 26 and then votes to finalize the ballot it is still changeable okay great uh okay we are uh up to council reports this is very exciting i am yes jack since we have some time uh that that we're gonna take after council reports and for the appointments this might be a good time for our 8 30 break i support that that sounds great it is 8 18 we will be back at 8 28 uh for to get back into it thanks and so we're up to council reports and uh contrary to our normal habit i'm gonna skip connor when we get to him so but otherwise i'm gonna go in same order donna thank you and just as i said before i'll miss you both wish you well and we will remember your debt to us when we come to the state house okay absolutely um i just also want to say thank you so much to you mayor and to you connor um i you know i i'm the new kid here and you all have all of you have just been so incredibly welcoming and so easy to work with but um i'm really going to miss you your leadership and has just been amazing and i feel like you have um provided a really excellent model for how to run a really good meeting that balances public participation and public input with getting work done and um you're very effective at it and i really appreciate that and um and connor i'm uh really going to miss you too and i'm really going to um i just have to say that i can always rely on you to be the um that voice that's going to be speaking up for people and they're the basic fundamental needs of people and not that i mean everybody here cares about that but you are you're the one who comes through absolute 100 no qualms all the time and i appreciate that so much and i'm going to miss that and i will see you both in the state house a lot okay jack all right a couple of things um one is uh tonight the uh Volodymyr Zelensky the president of uh ukraine was speaking at the at congress and i think all of us can admire the uh resistance to the uh invasion and i think it's great that he's getting support um and second it has been great working with both of you um from pretty much the almost the beginning when you were on uh council mayor from uh sitting down talking to you about you know working with you on campaigns sitting down talking about well here's when you're talking about planning to run for mayor and talking about what your goals and agendas were which you were stuck to and uh continued to work on for for all the years that you've you've been here and i always loved even before i was on the council having having a strong ally for the for the values that i was trying to give voice to and so it has just been great and and i will miss seeing you at these meetings will need to get together outside of these meetings and i'll also be be over at the state house and maybe see you there who knows what committees you're going to be on but uh but it's been great and i really appreciate everything you've done and connor it's been great you know connor and i go back 20 years or so something like that since connor was the lobbyist for the uh vsea always working together always in my view on on the right side of things i'm glad you're moving on to something else where you're still going to be uh the voice on the on the right side as i spend a lot of time in the legislature and there are there are some there are a lot of members that are receptive to uh to what i have to say not sometimes not as many as i need but but and and there are definitely other members that i know are always going to be allies but uh but there aren't that many members who uh i know going into the body they already know the fight for my clients my clients fight is their fight and there are just a few who are really like that and you're that's what you're going to be and so it's been great um yeah i would echo all of that it's um you have both and and connor served uh the entire time i've been here um and in fact where i think some of the first people i talked to about even thinking about running and really sold it so thank you um i'm sorry but i just you both really inspire me like you are values driven you have bring a vision and just really incredible heart to this work and you're just trying to make the community a better place and thinking creatively and you know how do we just show up every meeting and you know try to make our community better and it just shows through and i love that you both have vision and values driving you and also roll up your sleeves and do the work and figure out like okay i'm going to come in with a policy i'm going to work i'm going to bring stakeholders together and like that's a rare combination to be able to not only be bringing creative ideas a lot of passion a lot of energy and kind of get in the details and make them happen then so i'm just i'm going to miss you you guys are great i got you some uh legislature care packages um some tums for the inevitable heartburn it's filthy some white you've got headache medicine for all the headaches you're going to endure there's small stinky room gum you sometimes need to offer to people for the bumps and bruises along the way and when you can't decide how to vote some dice i'm perfect so i hope they help you in your new roles and i look forward to working with you in them and we'll miss you here but really excited for vermont they're going to thank you that's great that's great all right kind of go to connor like i didn't write a speech because i you know i think i talk at the end of the hallway you know it feels a bit surreal right it's been like uh yeah five five years for me longer for yourself there um but yeah really like you coming into this i it was a political operative you know i always got other people elected and i was like uh ah what a bunch of turkeys you know i could do that uh so i decided to run you know and i think i realized the dedication of an elected official a local elected official was beyond what i ever thought it would entail there um i really like like i'd always love this community but i i fell in love with this community by by doing this job and you know whether it be like you know some of these people we appoint to committees you know you'll look at like an art commission and uh who's the applicant it's uh you know somebody who does he's in charge of the statues in the Smithsonian you know it's like what incredible like talent we have here you know and just the dedication of people coming out the public meetings you know at the elks club or anything it's it's such a dedicated community uh with such like good kind people in it who really want to do right by each other you see that by the budget's passing i mean we ask a lot of people but they give a lot in return i think too um so you know i i i think um yeah it's uh god it's tough even talking but it's it's such an incredible town and i i think like what i what i saw was that people i would walk past every day in this town um i started paying a bit more attention to them you know like going to gerdon park and like sitting down and you know people who were called like you know transients or something were people with like stories individually every one of them and it could have been like domestic violence or something that they ended up there but they were every bit like as proud to be part of our community as anybody else like you know just cleaning up and tidying up around gerdon park shelter and um i don't know i've learned so much i feel like i've taken more from the town than i i've given really um and i've always come from labor but i i don't think i really understood like what would be in a frontline worker entailed until i saw some of the city staff and i mean it starts with bill you know like it starts with bill if you like Montpelier you have to like bill frazier right he's been here 25 years so you must be doing something right right it's uh but uh you know in in addition to being a great public servant um you know bill bill puts himself out there like and you see him on front porch forum taking a lot of hits for a lot of the decisions we make you know and he does it gladly and he does it like with a lot of dignity um i think that's why people respect them so much so it's been a pleasure working with city staff you know kelly of course it's been it's been amazing having you cameron so it's we've been so lucky there and every department you know spending some time like going down the fire pole with bob over there you know or go off-roading it with the alec in the park a bit you know on the the trails you didn't know you could drive on um it was great yeah you should have been driving there that's uh or uh you know doing ride alongs with the cops or seeing like dpw standing in like two feet of like water you know like you know like i remember tom being like a drill sergeant when some of these pikes pipe spoke and uh bargain orders and everybody it's just been so incredible and i think the biggest thing is like you guys have been like family yeah you have like there's no other way to say it it's um it's um you know every time you come out to a meeting you know you might like disagree it might be kind of a heated disagreement but we leave it all here you know we do there's been many times i've been the sole vote against or for something you know and i never felt like i was being singled out i feel like you know we always like respected that we came from like a genuine good place and that's it that's a beautiful thing i think so um yeah so it's been like uh hits and misses along the way it was fun like the first term cutting a lot of ribbons and stuff uh i i i didn't mention electric scooters too much on the campaign trail uh that was pretty fun we had a hundred electric scooters in town i remember being at the pub and the guy comes in all battered and bloody you know uh so what happened to you man because one of your scooters dude said what he's like well i was having a pint i was on the top of first half it was raining in dark you know so i took a scooter down and like got a fishtail on a pile of leaves you know like flipped over the handlebar i'm a bloody mess and they said hey man if i buy you uh pints the rest of the night will you never tell anybody the story sorry i thought that was a good deal anyways but uh yeah so uh i'm very proud of what we've accomplished together i uh in many ways i don't feel like i'm off the city council i just feel like it's an extension to the state i really do um i hope so i hope so and i i no doubt will be seeing a lot of you but um but yeah no i just want to thank everybody thank everybody in the community and thank everybody here i think it was the one of the best decisions i've made and uh i haven't said too much about ourselves because we're going to be spending a lot of quality time together uh but the the way you know he's like my only problem with an Watson is she's not enough of a politician she doesn't count votes she actually believes that public discourse comes out with the right solution in a meeting and that's uh that's a very like that's a rare leader it is it is so i uh yeah i can't wait to continue serving with you across the street there um so with that um thank you everybody i uh i resign i think i can take my uh reindeer and uh my name tag yeah are you leaving like right now and uh yeah i have to resign well gosh i because i was gonna you're gonna point fair enough are you are you like leaving leaving i'm gonna hang out you're gonna hang out okay i've got a few public comments okay there you go there we go i got a lot of things i want to say to you people thanks so much everybody okay super well thank you oh i'll i'll have more to say uh to you on your behalf there connor um when we get to the mayor's report um but thank you um and with that now that we have a vacancy uh in district two uh we are gonna hear from some folks that are interested in that seat uh so there are two applicants and i know you're both here and so you can go in any order uh but we'd love to to hear from you if you would come up to the mic and introduce yourself and tell us about yourself and um and you're interested in serving on the city council yeah yeah all righty so those are very huge shoes to fill that um yeah so my name is marik modan uh and thank you for allowing me to speak with you all and to present the reasons why i should be montpelier's next city councilor from district two so a little background on myself i've grown up right here in montpelier and i live over on sibley avenue i'm currently a senior at montpelier high school and i've long been drawn to the process of civic service and finding ways to solve problems i'm an active and contributing member to various community organizations notably as a student representative on the montpelier rocksbury school board and heading into my fourth year now as a member of the montpelier complete streets committee so i'm coming from a bit of experience when it comes to the processes of civic government um local change and fielding community concerns and i'm well prepared for the commitment that being a city council requires and as many of you probably know i ran in the primary over the summer to be one of montpelier's state representatives and i bring this up because it's an asset to already have pre developed campaign skills heading into town meeting day and you know knocking on what is it over a thousand doors over the summer has really allowed me to get to know this community and i think that's a real big asset as well for the city council to consider when making their decisions and that brings me to the very reason i stand before y'all today i'm passionate about change and helping this community improve and thrive and along with that i care really deeply about ensuring everyone feels represented and heard i think having a diverse array of voices is crucial for the democratic decision-making process in montpelier people under 34 account for roughly 40 percent of our overall community and those from 15 to 34 account for approximately 23 so from a disparity between what people make and what they can afford and the difficulties of staying in and starting out in montpelier a quarter of our city should be able to look to their council and feel that they're being represented by those facing the same issue challenges that they are so overall from knocking on doors to fielding community concerns the complete streets committee and holding listening sessions for the school board i've quickly learned that resolving difficult conversations involves more than just communication it requires translation turning heartfelt ideas into coherent policy that results in meaningful action and ultimately this skill is what i offer to the council and to montpelier now to use my background experience as a voice and a guide to help once to help guide our community forward on on so many issues that we're all concerned about and that we all care about and toward coherent policy and meaningful action so thank you all and i'm open to any questions if you have any okay um i have a question um so thank you um by the way uh so what is something that you feel like could be improved or a thing that you would like to advocate for or like a like a policy level passion of yours so i mean first and foremost i would say the most important issue to me and there are so many but i think the most important issue to me is housing you know as as i'm as you all know we have a huge affordable affordable housing crisis both in vermont and and in montpelier and i really think that we need to be considering and really having more advocates as well for just affordable housing solutions and i know you've done such great strides and making great work towards that but yeah yeah cool thank you great other questions okay all right well thank you very much thank you yeah all right welcome is it better now i'm learning closer okay uh good evening everyone i am pilling con 292 westwood drive i live in montpelier and tonight i will talk about my application for the city council vacancy in district two but uh first i want to thank two uh two of my friends eva and uh dav they um they were here tonight and just talk uh to support me it it is very important for me because um making friends um after 40 years old is a little bit challenging so i feel myself very lucky to have them uh and also people uh told me i will be lucky when i moved here because in 2017 i was driving uh to our new house and with my husband and there was a wild turkey waiting for me in front of our back door and a woman coming from turkey greeting with the turkey it's a really really nice uh incident then i start talking about it and all the people around me do you know what wild or turkey generally means luck so you will be very lucky here and i feel i'm very lucky so far there are some up and downs but generally i'm very happy that i'm leaving here and five years later 2022 now i'm a woman from turkey standing at the door of someone uh because i decided to apply this um position and i had to collect signatures and i was standing outside the door of one of my neighbors and my heart was beating so fast my legs were shaking my palms were like sweating and i just stood up and i said should i go back or just knock the door maybe i should because they might have some camera so they can see what is she doing here then i knocked and knocked knocked knocked and i collected my signatures but um the scary experience turned out such a grateful experience for me because i talk so many different people and some of them uh talk to me right some of them just oh yeah i will support you and just sign my petition some of them uh ask questions and some of them questioned me and some said our city needs to focus on infrastructure housing environment renewable energy taxes and i know that these represent our day to day issues as a community and i believe that they are significant significant and if i become part of the city council team my commitment dedication and diverse background will play a key role in solving these issues some other people uh said other things they said our city must attract retain and include people from different races ethnicities and cultural background according to uh two censors month earlier and also vermont as a state had six percent of its population these minorities people are from different races different uh cultural backgrounds and in say jack we uh worked with creative discourse and according to their report now in 2020 after 12 years this number is three percent so what happened right we should maybe ask ourselves why and again when my neighbors community members uh talking about this issue they said probably these people are under represented in local offices public services and the representation of people like me is critical and represent representation can make a difference not in the future but today right now thank you yeah thank you if you have any questions i can take any questions i'm gonna ask you the same question i mean you mentioned some of the issues that you heard from folks when you were knocking on doors uh but is there any particular uh topic or policy or improvement that you would be particularly interested in or passionate about um for the city yeah i try to talk about different things than dei but it is my passion so i believe that um our city and as a like a city uh month earlier um we should have dei statement it will be great and also in say jack we are working on the dei declaration so other towns have already passed and it shows that what we feel and what we think about better community so it is good and also i love to see some kind of international center in the city or recreation center and just you know based on volunteerism and attract people like me from different cultures uh they can come and work and uh they can show that they are not outsiders they are part of the community thank you thank you okay any other uh questions repellent okay super thank you all right so at this point yes jack so one vsa section 313 a 3 i move we enter executive session to discuss the appointment of a public officer okay further discussion okay all in favor please say aye aye and a post all right so we will go chat for a while and and we'll be back okay uh so yeah any further discussion uh all in favor please say aye and and a post all right so we are back in public session uh is there a motion go ahead jack i move that we appoint palin cone to the uh vacancy of vacancy of uh connor kasey this is a very difficult decision for the council to make because we were uh faced with two applicants who bring uh very different uh and and very impressive uh attributes to this position i think we could have done very well appointing either one of them either a new american who has come to vermont chosen to make this community or home or a young person who's never been someone who's rarely seen in uh in one of our elective offices who's lived in montpellier all his life and i'm i'm glad that they both came to to offer their their dedication their ideas and their energy to the council and i hope we'll you'll both stay stay involved and so that's my motion hey further discussion all right all in favor please say hi hi and a post all right thank you and thank you marik for putting yourself forward we hope that you like continue um as i you're such a wonderful um energy and and passion so that's true yeah and and welcome felon we're delighted to uh to have you um so i think oh actually yeah go ahead and plan was that uh the city clerk just want you to come by to get sworn in whenever you can between now and then we'll do a formal so what we usually do is just get sworn in as soon as you can at the clerk's office and then we'll do at the beginning of the next meeting we'll do a ceremonial one so if you want your family here and pictures and all that kind of stuff we'll do one for so super thank you all right so we are up to the mayor's report oh gosh well i've been thinking a lot about what i wanted to say um as a part of my last council meeting with you all uh and so i just have a couple of thoughts um one is just you know as uh you all move forward into making decisions for the future i i hope that you uh all will just continue to keep a sustainability lens and what i mean by that is not just environmental mean of course of course i mean that i mean uh adopting the net zero policy is one of my proudest um moments for uh that my time on council um and i mean it means like continuing to hear from the sustainability coordinator but it also to me means um financial sustainability so you know thinking about our study state plans for the roads and for um you know all of all of our infrastructure as well as you know making it financially sustainable for our population um so that's one thing the other thing that i would just exhort uh the the council uh do you know moving on into the future is to just always at least start with the assumption that um the staff is is doing their best um that i've found that to be true um and you know if i have any good reputation uh it is at least like largely in part because of bill uh and his great work and the staff um in general and staff's great work so i am really very grateful for um for everybody's work to make the city a really functional uh place so thank you to to you bill thank you to the to the staff in general i've been very proud to work with you all um and and i also want to thank thank you all like council um this has been a very functional group and i know that we have all been a part of not very functional groups in our lives and so i feel like it matters a lot that at this level where we are making decisions on behalf of the city that this is a functional group i love i'm gonna connor mentioned it that we disagree well and we respect each other when we disagree and that is welcome and okay um and i i really i hope that continues as well uh to make it a safe place to have honest conversation and and to disagree um and yeah that oh gosh is i think most of what i wanted to say i um i've spent the last 10 years of my life uh coming to this space jack has been coming here longer um but just not necessarily on the city council um but i um i have grown as a person as a professional um and uh yeah just as a human in in this space and because of the interactions i've had here um i would not be the person i am right now uh without uh being formed by by this body of this group um and so i'm i'm grateful to to to you all but also to all of the the you know previous counselors and um the mayor and staff that i have formerly worked with as well um yeah it's hard to say goodbye it's hard to let go but it's time and i'm really excited to be stepping into this new role um serving all of washington county plus still orange and brain tree um so please stay in touch uh i'm sure that i will continue to have opinions about how things go and i know how all of this works so i will be back i'm sure with some opinions at some point yeah but so grateful for all of you please stay in touch and with that i will resign as mayor so thank you as of the end of this meeting yay oh thank you uh uh you guys are gonna make me cry oh uh city clerks reports okay introduce yourself for everybody oh sorry yes i'm the new deputy city clerk um i uh moved here from washington state where i was the city clerk for about 17 years um and uh i love it here it's beautiful and everyone here is just so wonderful and nice so thanks i sorry i forgot one thing connor it has been a pleasure serving with you so grateful for your opinions and your thoughts let's keep let's keep we have a lot to work on i'm i'm psyched to work together with you okay done so i wasn't thinking about this when we made the agenda that i get the last word tonight um so first thing i will say to ann and to connor is that we had this little argument that was unanimously passed by this group including the two of you this is our legislative agenda and so um you may see it again in an email or in my hand at the council or in san san so just remember that the unanimous vote was you too good um so there's that um i'm also mad at myself mayor and i will take care of this after the meeting i was going to give you the key to the city but i forgot to bring it on so we'll we'll do that because i know that was one of your favorite things you can't leave without a key to see i should be in the corner to your bottle of a nurse okay um it's been a pleasure working with both of you and uh certainly at the end for 10 years i'd like to say you've already touched on a little bit but i i speak for the staff i know that we really appreciated the trust and faith that um you as a group and you too in particular have shown toward our team and and the assumption that we might be at least trying our best even if we're not correct and i think that support is deeply felt um and secondly uh when i go when i go to uh meetings you know nationally originally and people because you know we're just sitting around together and we're gonna compare what you're saying to council right and i mean that's just like in a job and i sit there and say you know i got nothing to complain about our group is highly functional they're highly respectful they respect the staff they respect the public they they disagree agree but i was just saying this to sarah earlier tonight while we were working for the morning this time they said you know i said you'll be surprised by this group how how they deport themselves and it's just been an honor and a privilege to work that because as some of you i've worked with councils that weren't as functional and um uh the city clerk just arrived um we're gonna take him out for the crackage request from now on i learned earlier today um but that's another side story uh no it's it's really is an honor and a privilege i pulled in i won't tell the whole story but um yesterday on the phone i uh i'll just say 10 years ago we had an appointment for council and i'll look at you yours you will make me look so drunk that's all right here's the king of the city for the mayor wow yes well oh gosh oh there's somebody oh you gotta send me you you gotta send me good boy you're welcome so ten years ago we had an appointment for district two and uh a local person who we all like a lot and has been very active in um city government at the time was applying to fill it and i think kind of a foregone conclusion that he was going to be appointed and i'm in my office one day in this young woman i've never seen before once is in to my office full of enthusiasm sits down and says i'm gonna i'm going for this district two seat i'm in watson it's like oh nice to meet you and we chatted for a bit and anyone who's median knows how nice she is and enthusiastic and you know it's very extremely pleasant conversation and she walked out my office and said that person knows nothing about local government and they don't have a chance and uh so she came in with an odd garage of support and gave an impassioned plea and they went off into executive session and about i don't know an hour later they came out and said we're going for watson and it was the best decision the council ever made but uh i have learned since then ever ever ever to doubt or question her she's now senator watson i'm sure she's going to be governor watson u.s senator watson i did the sky is the limit so um i from that first day it's been 10 very great years you've been a huge supporter and i you know i personally appreciate it but i know the staff does as well and connor just great um so thank you both for your service to the community it's people like you that um that make it worth working here thanks to marik and pelin for stepping up trying to be um keeping good people on our board we moved people like that and uh look forward to working with you and hopefully with you too so um thanks that's all i have to say thank you oh my gosh this is it here we go um so with that team i'm gonna use the gavel because i have never used the gavel um with that we will consider the meeting adjourned you