een suffering and the level of suffering for the Burlington school district this year is profound. We cannot do this fast enough and I appreciate that there's going to have to be a phase in but delaying. I don't really understand and honestly, I think I need a graph or something that shows me where everything goes at the state house because I don't completely understand that your processes but the task force concerns me and I wonder if you can share with me who is on the task force and what they can do better than what the study did. The study did prescribe exactly what the weights should be and I think that it's important that we not politicize this process. We don't want it to have to go through, Brigham was decided by the courts. We were not treating our students fairly and we know right now we are not treating our students fairly and the ones that are taking the brunt of that are students in Burlington. So could you please explain to me who is on the task force and what they will do better than what has already been prescribed in this study? Thank you for the question. I will try to answer the question to your satisfaction. I have met with other school boards who are school districts that will not benefit in the way that Burlington and Winooski will but I am actually passionate about providing waiting factors that benefit Burlington and Winooski. I have seen for years the extenuating circumstances that exist in those districts particularly with respect to our BIPOC culture particularly with respect to our English language learners. When I hear that there are 79 languages in one school district and I talk about that in Montpelier, people don't believe it but I believe it and I believe it's necessary to respond to the needs that we see in those districts and that's one of them right here. So in case you're wondering, are we holding out for our districts that will not benefit? The answer is absolutely not. This has gone on for far too long. So the membership of the committee or the task force includes and I'll read the membership for you, a member of the Senate Finance Committee appointed by the chair of the Finance Committee, a member of the Senate Committee on Education appointed by the chair of that committee, a member of the House Ways and Means Committee appointed by the chair of that committee, a member of House Education appointed by the chair of that committee, a member of the, I guess I said Senate Education and then the Secretary of Education or Designee, the chair of the State Board of Education or Designee. So it's an even number of members. Then the consultant will be hired and the consultant shall be hired to assist with executing the powers and duties of the task force which are enumerated one through nine. And the consultant shall have expertise and experience in providing advice on Vermont's education funding and tax system and shall be nationally recognized in the field of education funding and tax systems. So you say, well, why didn't you just go ahead and do this? So there are no excuses about this. Why we would not go right ahead is we want to make sure we do it right. And so the task force is an implementation task force. It's a group of folks who are going to bring back the action plan and recommended legislation. All the testimony that we heard that we heard from a number of districts benefiting and not benefiting. But we heard from folks who would be involved in implementing the new waiting factors and perhaps changes to the funding structure for schools. Everyone agreed that we should not rush and we're certainly not. It's unfortunate that COVID got in the way that Senator Baruth is absolutely right.  And now it's a time to pick up the pieces and to move forward. So we're doing that. So I can't answer it any differently from that. And I hope that we have your understanding. I don't know if I could answer it any better. I think Senator Lines hit it on the head. I would say, Councillor Shannon, that the thing I already stated, but just I think is very relevant to bring up again is that when we started this at the beginning of the term, we heard from Senator Baruth and then we immediately turned to Secretary French. And what I heard Secretary French say is, I don't have the resources to implement this and everything that goes into it. And that's why I guess the study didn't happen with Senator Holcomb. So where our mind went to is, we need to secure the funding and that's what's in this bill. $150,000 were consulted with the plan which our outcome are deliverable is the legislation for us to vote aye or nay on next year to implement the waiting study and all the factors that need to go into it. So I too need that same chart on how the legislature works. I'm trying to pin Senator Baruth and Senator Lines over a cup of coffee sometimes so they can help me understand it better. I'm still learning. But Councillor Shannon, all I know is that we're moving this forward and I took that we had to find the funding to support it. But Senator Baruth, I don't know if you have anything to add to Councillor Shannon's response to the question. I don't on that piece. The only thing I will add that we haven't thrown in yet. I went so little to hear it described as Winooski and Burlington benefiting. I think Councillor Shannon was much closer to the mark in talking about ending the lack of benefit or the suffering was the word you used. And that's exactly right. But it's not just relatively urban districts. It's very rural districts. And that's why I believe the minute the UVM report was done, there is a ready-made coalition which you've now formalized in some ways by joining with these rural districts to push for passage of this. So Bobby Starr, who is a Senator who represents Essex or Lines, the least population in the state, they are on board with this in a big way. And he got it the minute he and I spoke about it and we agreed to work together on it. In miniature, that's how we get this passed. So in addition to the reasons Senator Lyons gave you, there's one more reason to have this interval where we create the implementation study. And that is at the same time, we're putting together a coalition in the state house because it will be something that we have to whip votes on. Now, fortunately, the speaker of the house is now a Burlingtonian and that's a big help in getting the votes together in the house. But it will be a district by district coalition and that work is going on right now too. Thank you, Senators. Councillor Shannon, you saw the floor. Can you tell me when, if you go forward with this task force, when will the district, and I don't really understand Senator Baruth why you object to my statement that Burlington will benefit. I think your point is that we will only finally be getting our fair share after 20 years, which compared to what we have now is actually a benefit. And I don't believe there's any provision to retroactively compensate us. And maybe if there's going to be further delay, there should be. But then can the Burlington School District expect to see results in the form of actual funding? If this goes through, if this isn't going to get approved this year and it goes into next year, exactly when does it come through in funding? Is it 2023, 2024? Senator looks like Senator Chittenden has an answer. Yeah, go ahead, Senator. Your timeline proposed is about what we've heard. But the one other thing that I just want to inject in this that I heard the pro tem offer and I think Senator Lyons would be able to speak to a better Senator Kitchell. We have a lot of money coming from the federal government to address the shortfalls of COVID. And that was meant to and highlighted to address these inequities. To use this federal funding, these opportunities from the recent CARES Act, CRF funds, I don't know if I'm using the right term, to partially bridge us during that time frame so that communities like that have been not benefited as or not equally funded based on the current weighting could get some relief on the shorter term. I don't know, Senator Lyons, if you have a better way to frame what point I'm trying to make here. No, that's good, but your timeline is pretty accurate. It would not be 2022, it would be 2023. So the bill would be passed next year and then it would go into effect. Councilor Shannon, you saw the floor. Thank you. Senator Chittenden had mentioned the COVID funds and I don't believe the COVID funds can, they won't have any effect on, they can't, we were just told tonight, they can only be used for COVID related issues. So I didn't know. That's absolutely true, but, and I'll let Senator Bruth speak to this as well, but there are guidelines for use and then the school districts that have found themselves with expenditures, unexpected expenditures as a result of COVID or including things like mental health counseling and so on for kids, which is quite serious, will be eligible for funding. So it may tie up some loose ends, but I'll let Senator Bruth speak to that as well. I was just gonna add that there are ways to use COVID for approved expenses and relieve pressure on the general fund, freeing up sums of money for things like this that we need to do, but in a tighter budget year, might not be able to. Okay, thank you very much. Okay, so I have Commissioner Allwell next and if others are interested in speaking, please let me know by waving the hand or using the raise hand function. Commissioner Allwell. Yes, I just have a few questions. One is whether we do income tax or property tax. Yes, I'm not saying anything about how that tax is collected. We still are not getting for our children the amounts of money so that they need for poverty, for rural students, for ELL students. So that should not be a problem with the weights. The weights, no matter whether it's this year or five years down the road when we figure out taxation, they have to be in there. I have been working with poor children for my whole career here in Burlington. I'm the one or not I personally but my programs are what have given children help after school to do their homework in summers to keep them studying so that they don't lose where they are at by the time they get to school the next year. I have taught them language. We have done a lot of things to help them but it is not what they need in school. And that the school district could not afford all of the things that these children need to give them equity or we would not be seeing the reading and a lot of other scores that are so desperate between wealthy children and our poor. So Tammy Colby and Rutgers, so UVM Rutgers and the American Institute of Research did this study and it is there for us to use. We do not have to do, in fact, they tell us not to touch those numbers because they have been scientifically put together and they have studied waiting across this country. They did not just look, they looked at New England, they looked across the country. So this is scientifically put together. And personally, when you say we're gonna use COVID money, our children need that COVID money for the results of COVID. But for their normal education, they need that money that is in the weights to equalize their education. So I personally, and I am not talking for the district, the school board as a whole, find that these weights need to be enacted this year and we can't wait any longer. 25 years is way too long to have this kind of disparity. Thank you. Thank you. I see Councillor Jang to be followed by Commissioner Sowers. Councillor Jang. Thank you everyone for being here, representative and senators. And I also wanna thank particularly Councillor Chenner for really paying a particular attention to this issue. So there are so many terms that are used here and I think one of them is specific to the passage of a bill and also the introduction of the bill. I just wanna make sure we talking we are all on the same page. If Senator, Senator Ginny Lyons speaks about the bill will be introduced in 2022, right? Do we have assurances that it will be passing and then funding will be allocated to communities starting in 2023? Yes, we want it to be very clear we talking the same language. We're talking, that's the language we're talking. Yes. Okay. So let me make sure that I understand exactly what you're saying. This task force will recommend legislation. One or more senators or House members or both will introduce a bill into the House and into the Senate. So there'll be bills in both places. Then it will be a process for the Education Committee to go through, review the bill, understand it. And then if there are additional appropriations to be made it'll go to the Appropriations Committee and then it will be taken to the full Senate, presented to the full Senate, then presented to the full House and then signed by the governor. If everything happens the way we would like it to that will all be accomplished by May, 2022. And at the same time that that work is going on it will be absolutely incumbent on the agency of education to put in place the mechanisms for schools to work through and change the funding formula for schools. So, Senator Bruce, sorry, I'm sorry, Max. Okay, go ahead, Senator Bruce. Thank you. I just wanna speak to Councillor Gaines word assurances. As you know in your own body, there are no assurances. We're a deliberative body and we vote. And what I was trying to refer to before is that this describes this funding formula works within a weighted system, that's a zero sum game and a number of people have pointed out that other communities around the state, Manchester comes to mind, South Burlington actually comes to mind. In other words, relatively well off population centers that don't have a lot of weighted poverty or English language learners, their taxes stand to go up, in some cases dramatically. So there is going to be, there are going to be efforts to kill the bill and we should be upfront about that. Senator Lyons, Senator Chittenden and I, my house colleagues, we are working right now to make alliances to put together the votes. So when that happens, there's a team that's strong across the board and the bill passes, but I don't want anybody to walk away thinking there was an assurance given because sometimes you lose and it'll be over my dead body, but I've lost other things over my dead body. So I just wanted to point that out. Yeah. I mean, I think you're the floor, Councilor Chang. Thank you. Thank you, Senator Baird for that level of clarity. And I think the other offer from Senator Representative Stebbins, yes, please, yes. Those links that you talked about those meeting, please send it to us as well as I think the Senator, Senator Chittenden, yeah. Any like link that you can send us maybe in an email, both of them together, so someone can coordinate all of them for us. And I think Commissioner Owl did have a point for us. What we're looking for is sustainable equitable funding and not maybe COVID relief money. I thank you all again for being here. Thank you, Councilor Chang. I have Commissioner Sowers to be followed by Commissioner Fisher, Commissioner Sowers. Great, thank you. Thank you all for having this really important discussion. I think it's super important and as Councilor Shannon said, the time is really has been overdue by about 20 years and we need to be addressing this. We all need to be discussing this. And we're hoping for a solution really this year. And I know that things take time in the legislature, but I had a question about the task force because for me that's one of the most concerning things when I look at the bill. Does the task force mandate that they follow the weights? Or is it simply a recommendation? My understanding is it incorporates the weights into next steps, but like Senator Pearson highlighted, it also asks to factor in the recent study from possibly shifting to an income-based approach. Another concern, as I think I mentioned, is that there's communities that got wrapped up into larger districts in Acts 46, which are trying to now split or divorce from the larger union and they're concerned that the current weights are gonna very drastically just not serve their needs. So it's to answer those questions. I don't know if that answers your question, Commissioner Sowers, but that's my attempt. I just wanna be sure because we really wanna look at these weights and I hope that it kinda can get separated from the income tax funding. I think that's a really big issue and that can slow progress for the weights. And I feel like the study has been done, the research has been data-driven, it is there. And so I would urge everyone to really recognize that the harm and the damage that has been done and continues to be done by every year not funding our children, our most vulnerable children. And so we really need to be focused on this. And I want everyone to know that the Burlington School District is really committed to this effort and we would like to be allies in pushing this effort and helping in any way that we can. So thank you all for your work and please know that you can reach out to us and we will be reaching out to you as well. Thank you, Commissioner Sowers. I have Commissioner Fisher to be followed by I also see our representative, Tina raising their hand. If others are interested, please let me know but go ahead, Commissioner Fisher. Thank you, President Tracey and thank you, Councillor Shannon for bringing this to the City Council. I can't restate, you've all heard how important and critical this is for our city and not just short-term but for the long-term. But I'm also a very practical person and I understand that this issue is also a financial issue across the state. And for that reason, I understand that some people want to be careful about how we implement this. But I've also seen my own opinion is it's a reason for delay, for kick the can down the road. And you see from, I see that in some of the AOEs, we can't, we don't know, I don't have the resources. It's just a way to delay. And so when I look at this and we're working with a lot of other school boards in the state, we're looking at this as an equity issue. And if Vermont really wants to walk the walk, we need to put our money where our mouth is and we need to allocate resources where they're needed the most. And we know that's gonna be hard. And Senator Baruch, thank you for bringing that up that this is not a slam dunk even though it's the right thing, we know it's the right thing to do. So, I would ask the city council to help us and to help our delegation drive this forward and to a successful conclusion. However, whatever pathway it has to take, we disagree on what exactly needs to happen. But for me, the most important thing is that it does happen. And these inequities do get addressed. Thank you. Thank you, Commissioner Fischer. I will go to Representative China to be followed by Mayor Weinberger. Again, if others are interested in speaking, please it's easiest when we have, okay, I see Councilor Pine, but I'm not getting everyone on the same screen. So folks can use the raise hand functions. Representative China, go ahead. Yes, so I'm not as well-versed in education policy as some of my colleagues who are here. And I'm here mostly to hear the latest from them. And I was looking up the original bill and the most recent amendment the committee was looking at. And if members of the public are interested, you can go to the Vermont Legislature website and everything is there. If you look in the Senate Education Committee, the reports there, the slideshows, the testimony, the different versions of the bill. But when I was reading the language of the bill, the original bill was very strong. It said that like that the plan shall implement those waiting. And it referred specifically to the report and said it shall happen. And then it said that the legislature shall act next year. But in the amended version, that language is not there anymore. And the closest thing I can see to it says, and mind me that I'm just looking at this right now. So I might be missing something, but maybe our senators could help explain. It talks about the report. And then it says that they shall take it into account, but it doesn't say they shall do what it says exactly. And so I'm curious if there's a reason why, so this is more of a question because someone asked about this earlier and then I looked and it's unclear to me. So are we making them implement those exact waits or are they just taking it into account and then they could do something different? That's my question for others. So they...  Oh, sorry. I guess I'll start. So the bill I put in last year was the original language you described. I put that language in again this year to start the conversation in advance of testimony and knowing that I wasn't going to be on the committee anymore. And then the committee has gone through testimony and a process. So I'll turn it to them for where the amendment came from because that was the committee's work this year. Senator Lyons. Yep. So thank you. So yes, the waiting factors are included with the task force. They will look at those waiting factors. But the other part of the task force work is to put those waiting factors into the broader context of how funding, school funding is calculated and is put in place. So it's not, I'd rather have done the previous work rather than this work. This is a little more complicated but it was a recommendation that we do it this way. And I believe also that the consultants would agree with what we're recommending and what we're asking to have happen are to, if the waiting factors were the only factors in our school funding, then we would implement them but there are other considerations to be given and as you read through the bill you'll see what some of those considerations are. When the report, report, it's not even a report. It's a recommended action plan and a legislative action. When that comes back then we'll be putting that, we'll be working hard to make sure that we put that into place. I have no interest in taking out any of the waiting factors that have been recommended and I don't think other legislators do. So I just, it is a process and I think it is a very complex process. It isn't simple. And the more you work with it, the more you find out that it's complex. Matt. Certainly go ahead Senator. Representative Gina, I think some of the language is from the report itself. So I was just reviewing page 96 and it talks about at the end in the conclusions about findings from the study suggest that it's time to incorporate new cost factors and weights into Vermont's education funding formula. So we wanna stay true to the waiting formula as much as in this report as possible. But I hearken back to that point where we went to Dan French and we said, how do we move this forward? And he said, I don't have the money or the resources or the personnel to do this. And so that's where our direction went in this way to call for the $150,000 consultant to bring forward the implementation plan to take this and enact it, to implement it. So I don't know if that answers your question, Representative Gina, Gina. Okay, I apologize if I mispronounced it. Okay, I'll send representative Gina. I just, you know, I will look at the bill more. But the way that some of this is worded makes me question like how much they're bound to actually enact those weights because like in the powers of the duties, I'm sorry to turn this into a legislative committee meeting everyone, but I mean, I'll just say make this point and stop. But like the powers and duties of the task force, it says that there should be a recommended action plan to the legislature. And then it says, recommend which weighting factors to modify or create in their associated weights and whether any weight should be eliminated in lieu of categorical aid. And then it goes on and on, but it never says you shall implement what came out of that report exactly. So it sounds like the task force is being given some power to actually start with that report, but not necessarily, they may end up somewhere else. That's sort of like what I'm wondering based on this, but maybe I, maybe I'm missing something or maybe it is that flexible. I think it allows for a discussion and it allows for the consultant to provide information. It may well be that the consultant that's hired is the same consultant that did the original study, we don't know, but it will be someone who's very familiar with education funding in the state of Vermont and is familiar with the study that you have, that you've been looking at on weighting factors. Thank you for that. All right, I'm gonna go to Mayor Weinberger and Councilor Pine. We've been on this item for about an hour at this point. So if folks could just please be brief. And if others are interested in getting in the queue, just let me know. But again, really trying to wind this down so that we can get back to some of the other items on our agenda as well. Mayor Weinberger. Thank you, President Tracey. I'll try to be brief. I just wanted to say to our representatives and senators, thank you for joining us tonight. Thank you for making this a high priority issue. I really don't think there's anything more important for the future of Burlington being discussed in Montpelier over this session and the next, then getting this weighting factor right. I wanna congratulate the Burlington School Board and Superintendent Flanagan for their advocacy and getting this issue front and center in Montpelier for the nine years I've been in this role. This is the conversation I've always thought we needed to have in Montpelier. We've had many other conversations that have been sort of periphery to really the central challenge of properly addressing getting our children, which is recognizing the huge equity issues and unique challenges that many of our students face. I just wanna offer my full support for adjusting the formulas pursuant to the weighting study. I wanna offer the resources of my office and the lobbying efforts that we make every year in Montpelier as partnership to the school district and also offer, and I've made this offer to Superintendent Flanagan as well. I also know that most, if not all of my fellow Mayor, Vermont mayors feel similarly that this is critical to their communities and we're kind of standing by wanting to be supportive as this coalition move forward. We'd like to be part of that coalition to help you get this done. So please be in touch and look forward to working with you on this critical issue. Thank you, Mayor. I'll go to Councillor Pine. Thank you, President Tracy. I'm gonna just state something that maybe rather obvious, but I think we should just repeat it a few times is there are no such thing as low income kids, right? So when we were talking about closing schools in lower income neighborhoods in Burlington, parents and administrators kept talking about the low income children of Lawrence Barnes and HO Wheeler, and one of the parents stood up and said, kids are kids. Kids don't have incomes. They're not high income or low income. We should be thinking of children in Vermont as all part of the same sort of cohort, if you will. It shouldn't matter what their address is. What their zip code is should have nothing to do with it. So the notion that somehow senators and representatives would be looking at how does this affect my taxpayers and my kids and all that is just, it's kind of just a little, it's a little off-putting when you think about it really it's kind of, we are all in this together. Children are raised by an entire society. They're not like narrowed down to a school district. They're a zip code. So I just think it's really important to point that out. I just want to ask, since there's about 60 people on this meeting tonight and all of us probably share this agree on this, what is the best strategy as a city council? What can we do as a city in addition to what the mayor just offered in terms of his full support besides joining a coalition? Is there anything else to be done as a city? Councilor Pine, to whom are you posing your question? Well, we've got a few bright people here. I'm gonna let them answer. Senators, representatives, what do you all think about? I'm talking about strategy now. We're being pretty open about the strategy in a public meeting. So let's just, let's put it right out there. What's the best strategy? I see Senator Baruth, go ahead. So the districts, as I mentioned before, have begun working in partnership with one another, urban districts and rural districts. We heard the mayor talk about mayors working together. I don't see why the Burlington city council shouldn't reach out to select boards in all sorts of rural communities around the state and have a third coalition. That would pretty much cover the waterfront if we had select boards, mayors and school districts. Those are, I would say the most powerful institutions we have in every municipality. So that would be my basic take on it. And I would encourage, as you're reaching out and you're building the coalition, that you speak directly to the benefit that kids will receive as a result of the changes that we're talking about. Because this is not about additional money. This is about outcomes for children. And the more that we talk about that, and I think that you bring that argument to the state house, the probably the faster we can get this work done. Just to pile on, I think it all night. Councillor Pynne, I just wanna say we need the kids to be the winners in this. So Vermont kids are the winners. And that's where the first thing we need to do when we move forward with next steps, it's not about which communities pays more or less. We just need to make all kids have equal access to educational opportunities. And I think that is shared among all the centers that's possible. Thank you. Councillor Pynne, I'll set. Okay. Anyone else on first round who hasn't gone yet? Okay, seeing none, I'll go back to Councillor Shannon. And then hopefully we can wrap this item up and move on to the next item.  Thank you, President Tracy. I know that we're out of time, but listening to the discussion really raises more questions and concerns for me.  And I can also send these to you by email. But I would like answers in writing to these questions. Senator Lyons, you said it was recommended to do it this way. And by this way, I think you meant the task force, but I'd like to know who recommended doing it that way. Senator Chittenden, you said we would implement the weights, quote, as much as possible. And I'd like to know why it isn't possible to implement the weights exactly as they were scientifically determined and how it would be anything but a political process to change those weights. If the AOE said that they did not have the funds to implement this study, I don't really understand why the funds were not allocated to AOE to implement the study. Why was it allocated to a task force? And I'd like to know how it seems like the dye has been cast that this is not going to be implemented this year. And Senator Baruth said, you know, this isn't a done deal. We don't necessarily have the votes to do this. But honestly, if it's going to fail, it's probably better for students that have failed this year rather than next year, because then we can get started on a legal process to get the students what they're entitled to. So I don't see how it's already been delayed a year by COVID. And I'd like to point out that I understand that this is going to be very painful for some communities. And I can imagine how it feels to be apparent in a community that is going to have funds taken away for this. But in this year, if you did it this year, there's actually COVID funds that may be able to fill some of this void. As one of you mentioned, there are ways to use the COVID funds freeing up some extra dollars in other funds, even though these funds have to be used just for COVID. This is the year to implement it. This is the year that it could be done far less painfully, because this is when we have those funds. We're not going to have them next year. So I would urge you, I don't know if there's a way, since you have already voted this out in the form of creating this task force, I don't know if there's a way to undo that and to get it done this year, but I would like to know that. So I'm not going to ask for answers now, because I know that we're out of time. But thank you. I do really appreciate you all coming tonight. Thank you. I need to respond. Okay, briefly, please, Senator. Sure. If the bill had gone forward last year during COVID, it would have been a task force. And so this year it's going forward. The first time it can go forward as a task force. I can respond to your other question about doing it this way, and I'm glad to answer that, but I just would like to say that during the past year, the people that you're talking with tonight have been working on Zoom, some of us for 12, 15 hours a day, just on COVID. And now some of us are for the first time confronting an issue that's brand new to us. And we're looking at a bill that was introduced that said task force, and we're carrying out that work and we're doing it as quickly and assiduously and thoughtfully and equitably as we can. So I'm not being argumentative, I'm just stating the facts for you. So thank you. Thank you. Okay, Representative China, you can go briefly. Counselor Shannon, is that how we properly refer to each other? I would say council, not city council, right? Counselor Shannon, I believe asked, I don't know if we're supposed to directly address, like the member directly asked a question about like what could be done if people aren't happy because it's getting voted on the Senate. Well, our government has two bodies and it goes to the House and it's going to get all kinds of testimony and commentary in the House. And so there's always that opportunity for people to review what the Senate produces and then make your case to the House and see what happens. So that's one of the, it makes things more complicated but those checks and balances, you know, make our democratic process, you know, force us to compromise on things. So I just wanna put that out there as everyone knows this already, but it's a reminder that if people are unhappy with what the Senate did, you can try to influence it in the House. So thank you. Thank you for that. And I'll go to Representative Stevens briefly. I was gonna say essentially the same thing. And I think, Counselor Shannon, this is a good timing to have this conversation because we are too much halfway through. And that's why I said at the beginning, this is not really even been vetted fully within the House. That is not to say I'm not on the committee of education but, you know, it started in the Senate and it will apparently it's now in Senate appropriations and then it will come into the House. So it's not over yet. Wonderful. Well, thank you all for sharing all of this information with us and being willing to engage in this conversation. I really appreciate all the senators and representatives as well as school commissioners who have also joined us this evening. It's been really, I think helpful to bring all of these different electeds together to have this conversation and dialogue around this issue. Certainly look forward to continued collaboration across the board as we continue to work on this issue together. So thank you all very much. And again, thank you, Counselor Shannon for asking for this update. Cause again, it gives very helpful. So I will go ahead and close that item down and we will move into, thank you. Good night everyone. Appreciate you all being here. And our next item, item 6.02 was removed. So I'll go to 6.03 which is a resolution recognizing the 200th anniversary of the independence of Greece and celebrating democracy in Greece and the United States. We'll go to Counselor Paul for a motion on that. And we'll also move Father Andreas to a panelist role. Cause I know that that was a co-collaborator on this with you, Counselor Paul. So go right ahead, Counselor Paul. Thanks very much. So I'd like to move the revised version of the resolution that we have on board docs. I'd request that we be able to read the celebratory resolution and would like to do so after a second. Sure. We have a motion from Counselor Paul. Is there a second? Seconded by Counselor Carpenter. Go ahead, Counselor Paul. Thanks very much. So as is our, often is our custom on these kinds of resolutions would just simply like to enter the resolution into the record, the title being recognizing the 200th anniversary of the independence of Greece and celebrating democracy in Greece and in the United States. Whereas the country of Greece is celebrating the 200th anniversary of its independence from the Ottoman Empire. And whereas the people of the United States generously sent humanitarian assistance to the people of Greece during their struggle for independence, often through Phil Helene committees. And whereas it is proper and desirable for Burlington to join the United States to celebrate March 25th, 2021, Greek Independence Day with the people of Greece. Now therefore be it resolved that the Burlington city council extends warm congratulations and best wishes to the people of Greece and to our Greek Burlingtonians as they celebrate the 200th anniversary of the independence of Greece. And be it further resolved that the city council expresses support for the principles of democratic governance to which the people of Greece are committed. And be it further resolved that the city council commends the Burlington Greek American community for its contributions to our city and its role as a bridge of cultural awareness between our city and the vibrant culture of Greece and the Greek people. And it's grateful for the important role that Greece has played in the community of nations since gaining its independence 200 years ago. And be it further resolved that the city council asked the mayor to declare March 25th, 2021 to be Burlington solidarity with the Greek Bicentennial Independence Day and further requests that a signed copy of this resolution be sent to the Dormition Greek Orthodox Church as a sign of our recognition of their proud heritage and contribution to our great city. And would also like to say thank you very much President Tracy for promoting, Father Andreas, he has been on this call patiently waiting for an opportunity, I believe to say a few words of thanks. So thank you very much. Thank you, Councillor Paul. I will turn it over to Father Andreas. Welcome. Thank you so much, Mr. President. Thanks for having me on here. I'm very grateful to you and to Karen and to all of the city council for their support of us for this 200th anniversary of Greek independence is a very big deal for us. I guess as we all know Greece was the foundation of the city state of democracy. 2500 years ago in Athens was when the whole concept like we do here in the city of Burlington of citizen involvement and just the sense of volunteerness and just democratic ideals came about. So we're very happy as a community as a Greek American community to be here. We're also very happy right now in the context of Burlington to be a church that can really reflect and see a lot of the issues that are out in the world there just a church in a Greek American community because I estimate probably about half of our members were born overseas. So we can really see and understand the challenges that are coming up to our community here. And we're just glad to be here. We're glad to be in a prominent place in the south part of the city of Burlington and hope that once we can go back to some sort of normality after COVID-19 that we'll be able to host more of the Burlingtonians to our annual Greek festival. So anyway, thank you so much for your support of us and recognition of our 200th anniversary of independence. Thank you very much. Are there further comments from counselors regarding the resolution? Okay, thank you for that introduction. Councilor Paul and Father Andreas, I will now take us to a vote. So all those in favor of the resolution, please say aye. Any opposed? Hearing none, the resolution carries unanimously. Thank you very much. We will now move on to our next item, which is item 6.04 which is a second reading of an energy efficiency and weatherization and rental housing ordinance. I'm gonna go to Councilor Mason for a motion on this item. Thank you, President Tracy. At this point in time, I'm going to, I would like to make a motion to postpone action on this item until our, the time's certain being our April 12th meeting and pass for the floor back for a brief explanation if there's a second. Okay, we have a motion to postpone to the April 12th meeting, seconded by Councilor Hightower.  Thank you, President Tracy. So while this was scheduled for our second reading after our first reading two weeks ago, I was contacted through Councilor Jiang by the Executive Director of CBOEO with some technical questions about the standards that were put forth in the ordinance. I then have connected Mr. DeCoster with Chris Burns who was the principal architect of the standards at BED. They are having a conversation as to whether, they might come forward with some potential recommended changes or to move forward. So in light of that, it felt imprudent to move forward now until we've afforded an opportunity to hear back from those two experts and hope the full Council supports this temporary reprieve. Thank you. Thank you, Councilor Mason. Any further discussion of the motion to postpone this item to time certain of April 12th? Okay, hearing none, we'll go to a vote on the motion to postpone. All those in favor, please say aye. Any opposed? The motion to postpone carries unanimously and we will take this item up on the 12th. Thank you, Councilor Mason for the motion. Brings us to our next item, which is an indoor entertainment permit application 2021.22 for Coffee Black doing business as Muddy Waters. Councilor Hansen may please have a motion on this. Sure, yeah. Move to approve the 2021 2022 indoor entertainment permit application for Coffee Black LLC doing business as Muddy Waters, 184 Main Street with all standard conditions. Okay, we have a motion. Is there a second? Seconded by Councilor Freeman. Any discussion? Hearing none, we will go to a vote. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? The motion carries unanimously. Just for folks' reference, we do have local control, but I'm gonna go to that after item 6.06. I was wanting to, we had several presenters first and so I wanted to not make them wait any longer. And so I put that towards the end and then now we've added item 6.06. So I wanna get to that before we will recess for the local control before heading back into the meeting to finish up with the committee reports and so forth. So I'm gonna now go to Councilor Jang for a motion on item 6.06. Thank you. Yes, thank you, President Tracy. And I would like to make a motion to introduce a resolution condemning hate crime against Asian, American and Pacific Islanders in the city of Wellington. And that was second and the floor back. We have a motion from Councilor Jang. Is there a second? Second. Seconded by Councilor Pine.  Thank you, Councilor Pine. Thank you, Councilor Tracy. So as you all know, in our country, we are again shaped up by actions of hate. And this time it is geared toward people from Asian decents. And since the beginning of the coronavirus, as you all know, the rates of hate crime, against Asian Americans, including verbal, physical, psychological abuse have increased exponentially in the US cities. And the rate of anti-Asian hate crime has increased by over nearly 150%. And as you know, and I have no idea that in the city of Wellington, after white Asians are the second largest community members in our city and represent around 11% in our Burlington School District. And it is important for all of us to come together and to show our Asian community that we stand with them, behind them, in saying no to hate. I think we have done similar resolutions in the city of Burlington when George Floyd was killed and we raised the black lives matter flag. Burlington, to me, we are trying to always do better. And doing better is to always come together again and support many in support of people who are minorities in the city. So I want also to take the time to thank all the city councils actually who are co-sponsors of this resolution, everyone. And also the city attorney for allowing this to happen, as well as Lloyd, we, this resolution came very late and they all worked very hard behind the scene in making sure that it comes in front of the council today. Thanks to you, particularly President Tracy as well. So this resolution is basically now therefore, the further result that the Burlington City Council condemns any type of hate crime against Asian, American and Pacific Islanders, AAPI and stand behind our community members of AAPI citizens. And also it is asking the Burlington Parks and Arts Culture Committee to better coordinate with the Fletcher Free Library, the Burlington City Art and also to better promote the months of May as an Asian history months and highlight the contribution of Asian American in our city. And also be it further resolved that the Burlington City Council strives to make our city safe, welcoming and equitable place for all. And we hope that we all will gonna approve this resolution and try to move forward. Thank you, President Tracy. Thank you, Councillor Jiang. Are there, councillors wishing to speak to this item? Councillor Pine. Yeah, I just wanted to share a, I'm gonna sort of paraphrase a message that I got recently. It's a recording, it's a video on YouTube by Jim Kim and the Executive Director of the Advancement Project California Stop Hate. And essentially the notion here is that this violence is not only a sad hallmark of this pandemic because it really has been a very disturbing pattern in the pandemic, but it's also really a hallmark of BIPOC history in America. And that many BIPOC folks were brought here as economic value to be extracted. And whenever they begin to build political power, BIPOC folks become a target, become a real threat. And that often turns to violence. BIPOC folks facing a common fate of violence targeting them that's rooted in systemic racism, white supremacy, indigenous genocide and sort of an anti-blackness and persistent disdain and denigration of groups that don't fall within the dominant racial and cultural paradigm. So if we all stand together and hold each other up when BIPOC are attacked, we are much stronger as a result and to have each other's backs and to speak out with one voice because if we stand in solidarity while folks are being mistreated, we build genuine popular power. And only with that power can we collectively finally bury this shameful American legacy of white supremacy and build our shared future, our shared destiny. We were all seen and heard and allowed just the proper space to just live our lives, which was really all people are asking for. So it's, we're not asking for, people aren't asking for a lot extra here. We're just asking for basic respect. Thank you. Thank you, Councillor Pine. I see Councillor Cheng again. I can come back to you Councillor Cheng, but I'll just wanna see if others on first round who haven't spoken yet are interested in getting in the queue. Okay, seeing none, go ahead, Councillor Cheng. Thank you, President Tracy. And again, this is also an invitation to our Asian communities here in the city of Burlington. To speak up, when they are being targeted, they have processes here. The racial equity inclusion and belonging committee is a great place. The mayor's office and pretty sure is a great place as well as the police. Yesterday, I was in a meeting with the Vermont New American Advisory Council. And one of the Asian shared that Asians in general are very quiet. They do not speak up in many issues. And I am like, this is concerning. And it seems as if some of our children are experiencing some type of, you know, discrimination in the schools and people make fun of them. I think this Burlington School District based on their statement also made it clear and called for all the students to speak up. And we wanna expand that in the city of Burlington to adults as well. Talk to the police, talk to your neighbors. No one should be living here in fear. I just wanted to add that and thank you again. Okay, any further comments from Councillors? Okay, seeing none, we'll go to a vote on the resolution. All those in favor of the resolution, please say aye. Any opposed? The resolution carries unanimously. We will now recess the council meeting before coming back to address committee reports, general city affairs, president update and mayor general affairs to address our local control committee commission meeting. So I will recess the city council meeting at 9.30. Give folks a second to roll over into the local control commission meeting. And I will call to order the local control commission meeting at 9.30 with the first item on the agenda being the agenda. Commissioner Hanson may I please have a motion on the agenda. I move to adopt the agenda. We have a motion, is there a second? Seconded by commissioner Stromberg. Any discussion of the agenda? Hearing none, let's go to a vote. All those in favor of adopting the agenda for the local control commission, please say aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed? That carries unanimously and we have an agenda. The next item on the agenda is the consent agenda. Commissioner Hanson may I please have a motion on the consent agenda. I move to adopt the consent agenda and take the actions indicated. Thank you, commissioner Hanson. Is there a second? Seconded by commissioner Stromberg. Any discussion regarding the consent agenda? Hearing none, hearing none, let's go to a vote. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed? That carries unanimously and we have adopted our consent agenda and then that brings us to deliberative where we have one item, item 3.01. Commissioner Hanson may I please have a motion on that item. Yeah, and also just to note that there might be applicants here wishing to speak and if you'd allow them if they could raise their hand. Just wanted to note that in case any of them are looking to address the committee or the commission. Sure. But I can go ahead and make the motion. So I'll move to approve the 2021, 2022, first class and third class restaurant slash bar liquor license application for coffee black LLC doing business as muddy waters 184 Main Street with all standard conditions. Okay. Seconded by commissioner Stromberg. Is there anyone here wishing to speak to this item? Can use the raise hand function. Okay. Don't see anyone looking to raise their hand on this one. Commissioner Hanson. So any discussion from the council? I mean the commission. Okay. See none. We'll go to a vote on this item. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed? That carries unanimously and completes our meeting. A motion to adjourn is in order. So moved. Moved by commissioner Hanson. Seconded by commissioner Stromberg. Any discussion? Hearing none. We'll go to a vote. All those in favor of adjourn your motion meeting. Please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Okay. We are adjourned at 9 33 and we will go back to the regular city council meeting where we still have a few items at the end to complete namely, item seven through 10. So I'm going to go to committee reports. First, are there any committee chairs wishing to offer a report? Okay. Don't see any. It is, that's understandable given that this is the last meeting of council. So new committees will be formed after the new, after the council is sworn in or new counselors are sworn in and we reform committees. Having that item finished, let's go to item number eight which is city council general city affairs. For this particular item what I'm going to ask of counselors and Mayor Weinberger, I would also welcome you to participate just in the second part which the first part of this I'm going to say is just I will open it up as we normally do to counselors to comment on any general city affairs but this is also our colleague, Councillor Paulino's last meeting and I just as is our normal traditional practice on city council, we open up some time to just allow others to offer some words and certainly to offer the outgoing counselor an opportunity to offer any parting words that they would like to share with us. And so I would like to make sure that we maintain that focus but I do want to, so I'm going to ask that counselors start off by just commenting on any general city affairs that they have items to offer and then once we've completed that I will then open the floor for comments specific to Councillor Paulino so that we can recognize Councillor Paulino's service to the city of Burlington. So with that, are there any counselors with comments specific to general city affairs? Councillor Hanson. Yeah, thanks. I just wanted to speak a little bit towards the conversation that's been happening in the community around the mayor's decision last week to remove the racial equity inclusion and belonging director from her role in overseeing the assessment of our police department. And first to echo a lot of the concerns raised around the ways in which this decision is rooted in racism and white supremacy culture and just a lot of the issues with this decision that have been raised by members of the community and by members of the council as well. And I'm glad that the mayor's reversed that decision and I'm eager to hear the mayor outline how he'll improve to improve work on anti-racism in the city and public safety transformation work and specifically how the mayor will better support the really incredible leadership of the RAIB department and as well as a council how we can better support the RAIB department and how we can better move forward on racial justice. But I also wanted to raise an aspect that I haven't really seen in the conversation that I think is really important to the work of our city government going forward. And that's just process and sort of the balance of power between the council and the mayor's administration. And that's around when council passes a resolution and the mayor signs that resolution. I think we should expect that the executive branch is going to execute that resolution. I think that's a basic expectation for our local democracy to function. And we did pass a resolution on February 8th. It had one resolve clause and that resolve clause stated that the council hereby approves and authorizes Taisha Green, director of racial equity inclusion and belonging to execute a contract with CNA corporation. And it goes on from there with the details. And that was signed on February 23rd. So I just wanna state, and then we found out last week that the mayor was going in a different direction. I hope that as we enter into this next term that we can have expectations around public process, how decisions are made, how they're moved forward. And that really we can know that if we do pass a policy after debate, after disagreement, that if we pass it and it's signed that it will go into effect. So I just wanted to raise that aspect as well. Thank you, Councillor Hansen. Are there further comments on general city affairs? Councillor Stromberg, go ahead. Thanks President Tracy. Yeah, I have some thoughts in the same vein. Yeah, I'll be very candid. I had numerous people reach out to me to ask what I thought about asking the mayor to resign because of this significant list of. And I just, I always wanna focus on accountability for everyone, myself, the council, mayor, staff, everyone. And I think resignation is a tool that can be used to evade the work and accountability on these issues that are so long overdue. I do wanna be very, very clear here though, people make mistakes and apologize for the product of those mistakes, especially if things go wrong. But I wanna focus on, what I wanna focus on is not the product, but rather the process. So the mayor has had feedback, incredible voices reaching out, offering their personal stories, very personal, valuable perspectives. We've experienced the longest public forum in the history of this city. And the main thing that everyone was talking about was racial justice. That's why so many thoughtful people came out to talk. It was about the very important thing in our community. And it's the community that we all serve on this council as mayor and everything. And that process, we all witnessed, I felt it being just so deeply disregarded in this move. So when I saw the communication regarding the assignment of Darren Springer instead of director of Taisha Green, I was genuinely confused because this seemed to completely sideline as councilor Hanson had mentioned, the decisions of the legislative body of our city and regardless if that's allowed or not, like why do that? I just, I didn't see really what there is to gain or grow from this, especially as we enter into this kind of newer time. I mean, you're reelected and all of that. So I thought, this could be hopeful, let's work together. So I was just wondering like, why do I find, like I always find myself constantly using the word monolateral when it comes to issues revolving around the mayor's decisions. And I don't like that. That's not anything anyone should like. So I touched on like the next things I wanna bring up, I actually communicated this to the mayor on, I believe it was Tuesday, it was on the 16th. I said that Taisha's role could not be more fitting and appropriate to manage the contract. I think that Darren is a great person and a great manager, but that's not the point, this isn't about him. After this entire year with all that we've learned as a community, about our community, and after all of the conversations that we've had as a governing body and with organizers, it was just very off-putting to me that we wouldn't be raising up a woman of color in leadership positions and valuing their voices before that of cis white men, especially when it comes to matters of policing. And again, this isn't a question of Darren's character, but mostly because it's not about him. This is about the people and residents that we continue as a society to leave out of the conversation. So I communicated that, I appreciated that, he heard that sentiment, if not for me, then obviously others, but it is truly about who we continuously as a society leave out. And this is a critical conversation that we need to have all the time. We have to, this is so long overdue, but just even real progress from it, from those conversations, we need to move toward that. So I wanna see the mayor lean in with intention, intention of listening. Taisha is doing incredible work, difficult work and too often thankless work. We are so, so lucky as a community, as a city, to be able to have somebody like that in this type of role. So I just, I wanna thank Taisha for being just such a wonderful person. And yeah, I feel the only way we can move forward appropriately on this is hearing the mayor's plan for what he will change going forward. Thank you. Thank you, Councillor Stromberg and Councillor Paul. Thank you. Thanks, President Tracey. Sort of wanted to switch gears on a, I guess a lighter note on this coming Saturday. We will be having a food distribution event at Champlain Elementary in the winter. We moved them to not, it's from 9 a.m. to noon, mostly because we thought it would be a little bit easier and a little less cold. I'm not sure if it's really gonna matter this, gonna matter this week because it looks like it's gonna be at least a lot warmer than it was the last time. So that's at noon on this Saturday, the 27th of March. Anyone who is in need, we welcome you and hope that you will attend the event. And also just wanted to thank the many city councillors who have attended the event, have helped in promoting it and have been very supportive of these events. So thank you. Thanks very much. Thank you, Councillor Paul. Any other councillors wishing to speak to Councillor Jang, go ahead. Yeah, thank you. Yes, and I think the discussion about what happened to Taisha. I mean, it is just unfortunate that in this community, we definitely, we make too much harm. And I think what happened to Taisha here is the impact will stay on her. And it also affects many other people that are women, that are also black and that leave among us. Now I think I had a personal discussion with the mayor and I thank him for making this decision to turn this around and make the right decision. This is what's right. One, it's from a council resolution like Jack Hanson stated, right? And two, there has not been any consultation with the council. And I think the council is here to work in collaboration with the mayor to give advice if you are asked, right? But at the same time, the harm done to Taisha, I think everyone, what they can do the best is to reach out to Taisha and make sure that she's okay. I have been very concerned that because of this, she might leave the city and go somewhere else. That was my biggest concern. But it seems she's strong and she's here and she's willing to continue. She's willing to do the right thing to fight. But I also wanna invite the community to make sure that we talk about public safety other than policing and race. From all of that I'm hearing is the police and race and it is unfortunate. It is at the angle we wanna tackle this issue. Let's never forget. We wanna make sure that Burlingtonians are safe regardless of their race, their gender or where they come from. I think that's what I'm really, really interested about. I have not ruled the idea for Taisha to work in collaboration with Darren Sprinkle. Together, they can make this work better. Taisha may not be interested, the mayor may not be interested but me, what I'm interested about is about safety and well-being of the people, right? That's one. The second element that I wanted to talk about in terms of policing is the council would definitely benefit from an update from the joint committee about what is happening. We're hearing and B.C. is here and there and I think President Tracy wanna make the request. So maybe we can receive a written or in-person presentation about what is happening. Thank you. Thank you, Councillor Ching. I hear that request and can coordinate with folks about how many potential updates in a future meeting when the new council's sworn in. Councillor Pine. Yeah, thank you. I don't know if you've noticed tonight but I don't have audio on my computer. I have it on my phone. So I'm sort of working with two pieces of equipment here. The term that I like to use because it was a process that when I was at CEDO we went through a thing called courageous conversations and this is one of those times where I think as a community we are in the middle of a deeply difficult and courageous moment for many of our community. The issue around Director Green being deemed to be not neutral enough and instead bringing in another department head is just a reminder of what we as leaders of the community as elected officials, especially those of us who are of the dominant racial and cultural background have to bring to this courageous conversation in terms of being really honest about there are times when we take action where we think our intention is gonna result in a certain impact and intent does not equal impact. And when we take action which has a disparate and negative impact on BIPOC members of this community we need to be really willing to acknowledge it, to be open about it and to be ready to make the change needed. I think that's when we begin to have the most meaningful change, the most lasting change, the most durable change so that everyone in Burlington can feel and actually have a meaningful place in this community and have a future so that our young people look to the way we are as leaders and say, this is my community, this is what I'm part of, this is where I wanna stay, this is where I wanna raise my family. This is, we want people from all walks of life to come to that conclusion by watching our actions as elected officials. Not that they're always watching what we do but when they do, we wanna make sure, pretend they're watching all the time, right? So I guess the only thing I would say is I am grateful that we have a healing process as a community that we often are able to go through and I think we're in that process right now. I think there was a moment of time where we were heading was really down a more divided path and I think we have the potential as a community to move us to a much more cohesive, caring, compassionate path and part of that is we have to believe in redemption and people have to be able to redeem themselves and I believe that to my core that that's important that we need to acknowledge that we are humans, we do make mistakes, there has to be room for that as humans working on self-governance as a community and that's what I think about this moment. Do we get a chance to make comments about Franklin Polino yet, Mr. So let me see if others wanna, if others have any other additional city affairs, does anyone have any other city affairs? Okay, Councilor Pine, you can go right ahead and get into your comments about Councilor Polino. Let's switch gears to that now and my floor is open, but I'll go to Councilor Pine first. Well, Councilor Polino, in addition to being the one Councilor who when they vote, you can't actually tell how they're voting because they're just something about this process of Zoom didn't quite transfer, but I really appreciated Councilor Polino's just thoughtful, gentle demeanor and ability to see some humor in our moments and to find common ground, but also when I first got to know him, we were both attending an event at Northgate Apartments that's his district, not my district, but I'm at the event and he comes up and says, what's your connection? And I sat down and told him about my history with Northgate and it was a great moment and he could tell Councilor Polino was just deeply moved by what was happening in a community where folks of low incomes were able to take control over their community and I could tell it really, really resonated with him and motivated him to be part of that and he was part of the process of celebrating Northgate resident ownership of 30 years after 30 years of resident ownership and a lot of the residents really appreciated the fact that Councilor Polino came out and sat down at tables and moved around to different tables, even though he's actually kind of shy, but he seemed to be pretty comfortable there in that setting and it was really, really wonderful to connect at that first time or really got to talk with each other and I'll miss your perspective on Council. Thanks. Thanks, Councilor Paine. Others wishing to, Councilor Stromberg, go ahead. Thanks, President Tracy. Wow, I agree with all of that, obviously. Yeah, I haven't been on Council for very long but Councilor Polino has always been very candid with me and it's very helpful and just was always a very warm, welcoming voice, especially during the first very, very long meetings we were having over the summer and I remember you would like text me some funny thing about how long it's going or something like get used to it and all of that and I was like, oh my gosh. But I really appreciated that, yeah, that humor and kind of lightheartedness, especially with issues that are really dense and you're taking a lot of time to talk about them in a really meaningful way over the summer and obviously continue to do so but yeah, so I really appreciated that and I really enjoyed being on the TOOC committee with you as well and had a good experience there and I believe tomorrow is our last meeting together, perhaps, but yeah, just thank you so much for your voice and your collaboration and yeah, being so level headed and finding kind of those moments where we need to appropriately take a step back and say like, hey, that is small potatoes or this is kind of funny and we need to recognize it so I appreciate it, thank you. Thank you, Councillor Stromberg. Councillor Mason. Thank you, President Tracy. Councillor Paulino, I wanna join the queue of thanking you for your two years of service. I regret that we were not able to serve on a committee together to really spend more time together and I missed looking over, I'm not sitting at that table at Contois and seeing you four down and being able to look at your face, either for levity or for some sort of break from the intensity that was going on elsewhere. I very much appreciated as a lawyer the logical way that you approached many of the questions and I would say my sense of in a non-dramatic way which can be hard sometimes sitting at that table. I also greatly appreciated the unique perspective that as a prosecutor that you were able to bring to some of the very charged conversations that we were having and are going to continue to be having relating to police reform and I have no doubt that you will continue to be involved and look forward to that involvement but also very much understand knowing your personal life in your three young children, how challenging it can be to serve particularly this last year which has been, I would say more taxing than others and respect your decision but we'll miss you and regret that you're not gonna be with us on our next meeting. Thank you. I'll go to Councillor Chang and then Councillor Hanson and Carpenter.  And Councillor Mayne. Yes, sorry. Thank you. As a resident of the new Northland and also a colleague of Franklin, I know that I have to say thank you, First Franklin for all you have done for the city of Burlington, resident of the city of Burlington in general and people of the new Northland in particular. You know, I do know that you have made so much sacrifices and many elected officials without children won't understand it because sometimes when you are very needed in your family, you step out to serve your community and your constituents. You demonstrated that over and over and over again. And I think you have shown the way about how we should work together because you have always voted based on principles.   I know you will be missed and I wish that you will stay involved, stay especially in everything happening in our area of town. You'll definitely be missed. I also wanna say thank you because I know how hard you advocated for social workers to be in the police department. I also know how hard you advocated for people in the new Northland in the mobile park, mobile home park. You advocated for them to have dumps today. You advocated for some zoning changes. You advocated for better lights. You advocated for better traffic lights as well because these are projects that we worked on and I have seen leadership you have demonstrated. I watched you also in some of the TUCS meetings like what everyone said here today. You have always been very calm, very methodical, very thoughtful and also inspiring. Sometimes things are very hard and very rough but you still stay your ground. You have that small, small smile in you all the time and I think everyone said it. It doesn't matter how hard things are, whoever look at Franklin will bring back normalcy. I wanna say thank you for all of that and please let's stay involved and make this city as great as it can be. Thank you, much appreciated, sir. Thank you, Councillor Chang. We got Councillor Hansen to be followed by Carpenter and Hyde Tower. I just wanna thank you as well, Franklin, for all your work these last couple of years and we got sworn in at the same time and kind of went through that orientation process together and served on committee together and I really appreciate, as others have said, just your ability to kind of step back and try to analyze issues from a unique perspective and kind of ask those big picture questions to really get on an issue and not get caught up in the debate that's happening but to really try to step back from that and look at it from a different angle and just really wanna call out and appreciate some really, I think, important votes that you took and positions that you held around public safety under pretty enormous pressure. In some cases, being the deciding vote and I think it's gonna, those votes will have an enormous impact for years to come and I think helped to put us on the trajectory of really re-imagining public safety and doing things better. So I just really appreciate your courage in those moments to be able to stand up for that and vote for that. Thank you, Councilor Hanson. I have Councilor Carpenter be followed by Councilor Hyde Tower. Franklin, what did you get me into? All of those cold nights that we went campaigning and you told me all the stories about how much fun it was gonna be on the city council and I was really just gonna be right into it and then we get a pandemic, I can't believe it. I just do wanna thank you for all your collaboration with me, your camaraderie, you are a great colleague. We've spent a lot of time emailing back and forth about big and little things and you were right there, I had a thousand questions and you would graciously answer those for me with good humor and so I'm just really gonna miss all of that. You've just been a great support for me in the last year. I can't, it seems like many years and it's only really been a year since I've got to know you and now maybe with a little more free time in your hands I'll be able to pick your brain even more and I'm gonna count along with Councilor Jang and you're being our eyes and ears, you'll be able to stealth around now for us in the new North End and keep us informed and I hope continue to offer you really good insight on how things work and how to solve problems. So I know where you live and we're gonna be talking. Thank you. Thank you Councilor Carpenter, Councilor Hightower. Yeah, similar to what Councilor Hanson said I just wanted to say thank you for two months and to my tenure I sponsored my first resolution which ended up being kind of a big resolution and I just really appreciate the way that you handled that and kind of working with me for the first time and putting so much trust in me and then questioning me in ways that were good but then ultimately putting trust in me to get it right and then also just on the joint committee again I think putting a lot of faith in me and the way that I was trying to lead the committee so really appreciate how you showed up in those two ways particularly. Thank you for that, Councilor Hightower and Councilor Freeman. Thank you, President Tracy. I also feel I think nostalgic Franklin, you and I were sworn at the end of the same time we've served on almost all my committees and we serve on together. You know, it's, yeah, sorry, I'm getting for clump because I'm getting late. No, and I also am an assault person. I, sorry, I have to re-circle back to my thoughts. I just wanna, I think personally thank you for all the time that we've spent together in this work. We've been on so many committees together. We've spent so many hours. Thank you for chairing one of my favorite committees, the tax evasion committee. It's a ton of work. It's an odd committee. We spent a lot of hours there together and I really appreciate that. We are in both public safety together, the joint committee. I think as others have mentioned that work as well as the work around COVID has been complex and I think we've just been in it together and I just appreciate you continuing to show up around those issues and try to work through it. The North District is such an interesting district because I think you can just find such a broad spectrum of political positions among constituents. I think that is such a complex role to be in as a North District City Councilor and I just wanna thank you for the energy and the time and your spirit that you put into that being in such a complicated role. I value as a colleague, thank you for serving on so many committees with me. This work is just, it's complicated. It can become issues can become contentious and rancorous and then there are times when we agree on things as a council and there's an unanimous support. It really runs the gamut and I just appreciate you for doing this work with me and thank you for all your time and I appreciate it. Thank you for allowing me my moment of getting a little emotional about this last two years together on Council. Thanks, Councilor Freeman. I'll go to Mayor Weinberger next and then Councilor Powell. I'll go to Councilor Powell. I'll come to you and go ahead, Mayor. Thanks, President Tracy. I wanna start by saying it's really a small tragedy but unfortunately part of COVID nonetheless that for the second year in a row when we were saying goodbye to counselors who have served the city admirably, we again need to do this through Zoom and without being in the same room and being able to share the experience a different way and give Councilor Paulino proper goodbye and goodbye hugs. And I just wanna say I'm eager to get back in the same into con toys with the council and be able to work together in that space. President Tracy and I had a excellent conversation last week about the future, a number of things. And I think we share the sense that as soon as we are all vaccinated and staff is vaccinated, just had opportunity for that. We're eager to make that happen. Hopefully that's not too far away with the news of recent weeks. I'm also sad that we're saying goodbye to Councilor Paulino so soon that his life and other responsibilities did not line up for him to have a longer time on this council continuing to serve the people of the North District and the city with distinction as he has for two years. Franklin, it's been a pleasure to be your colleague sitting next to you at that table throwing trash away together on dumpster day and working through issues in detail that you many times, Councilor Paulino always had a lot of passion for the details. It was a pleasure to work with you on those. In particular, I think your early advocacy for CSLs, for adding new capacities to our police department, really you were very forward-looking in your understanding of that issue and bringing it to our attention and advocating for it. And I think one of our few disagreements may have initially been over. So the early stages of that, I came over time to understand you got it right and you were very wise on those issues. So we're gonna miss you as a small token of our appreciation and recognition of your time. We do have this plaque that we will be dropping off at your house in the coming days. It says simply in recognition of your service to the people of Burlington and representing the residents of the North District. It's got the city seal and pretty hefty and weighty. I think it's an upgrade over some of the prior plaques. I could be wrong. I've given out a bunch of these over the last nine years but it's a pretty nice one that will be coming to your door shortly. And I do hope once we have gotten through the end of this pandemic, we'll find a way to properly recognize in-person the service of counselors who have left and we'll be in touch about that. And in the weeks and months ahead. So thank you, Councilor Foley, you know, it's been a pleasure. Thank you, Mayor. I will go to Councilor Paul. Thank you. I think, you know, I remember a phone call that I got from Sarah George. She said to me, there's this person in my office who is thinking about running for city council and you should meet him. He's great. And I went to a ComSTAT meeting and the ComSTAT meeting got over and this person comes up from behind me and I turned around and this person says, I'm Franklin Polino. I'm the person that Sarah told you about. And from that moment on, I felt like there was a connection. It's been, we've had many conversations on the phone. I've enjoyed every one of them. You know, when I first was elected to the council, I had three young children and it is a lot to be doing this job with three young children. You've got three adorable girls and I would imagine that they probably are not that upset that you are no longer serving on the city council because they're gonna get, if they didn't have a lot of your time, they're gonna have a lot more of your time to be able to do some of the fun things that it's so nice to be able to do when your kids are really young. So I'm glad for you, but I will miss you. And I just wanted to also mention that the mayor had said and others have said, you really were, I believe ahead of your time when you talked about some of the things that you wanted to see in public safety. And I'm glad that you kept on going because you were right. And I hope that you've come to see that a lot of those things that you had, those points that you envisioned seeing them come to fruition. I hope that you can take a great deal of pride in knowing that you stuck to what you believed in. And in the same way, when you and I and Sarah were talking about the racial justice resolution this past summer, your perspective gave me a lot of confidence and a lot of, made me feel sure of the decision that we made to support that resolution.  And I am sorry that we're all sitting here looking at our little boxes as opposed to being in person, but I do hope that come hopefully either this summer or certainly by Labor Day that we will have the opportunity to be together in person and that you'll come back so that we can thank you in person. Thank you very much and thanks for your service to Burlington. Thank you, Councillor Paul. Any other councillors wishing to speak? I'll go to come to you in one second, Councillor Polino. I just wanted to also add my, just gratitude to you. When we serve on the city council, we so much attention gets paid to the meetings and you don't really get a sense of personalities to a certain extent with these meetings, but you don't really get to know the individual. That really happens, I think as Councillor Freeman rightly pointed out at the committee level and you really develop friendships and collaboration and just a working sense, working relationships with people and I find that work to be particularly valuable. And that's really where I feel like I got to know you before I became council president as within the Duke and I really just wanna just call out and appreciate the sense of collaboration that you brought to a challenging and complicated conversation around Amtrak and where we're gonna store the train overnight and just these complicated conversations that take place. It was just really helpful to have your perspective there. I think the other piece that I wanna also bring forward is as others have rightly noted that just the courage that you showed in supporting the racial justice resolution recognizing the significant political pressures that you were under and cross wins that I don't think were quite the same for others of us on the city council when it came to that particular resolution. And I have to be honest, I was surprised when I heard that you were willing to, that you were gonna be a yes on that resolution because I knew what that meant for you and I'm sure that that was not easy either leading up to it, but certainly after it and in the other months after it, I know that that's the kind of stuff that we all deal with as counselors but that people don't really see as much but it really takes a toll on the individual and the people and I'm sure that it did on you and I just wanna just call that out as a real point of courage on your part and just thank you for being willing to do that because that was really, really brave. The other piece that I'll just mention is that through all of that and during this year when we've all think been pulled and stressed and just really challenged in ways that any of us could have ever imagined as individuals but certainly as counselors, you've been a joy to work with, you've been just incredibly calm and even keeled whenever we've talked about things relating to the council, even if you haven't liked something, it's been with a sense of more of exasperation that you've expressed it as compared to a sense of anger or aggression or anything like that and I just really appreciate that about you Franklin and I think it's just a really admirable trait about how you are as an individual and something that I know I'll certainly miss having you on this council. So hope that we're able to keep working together in different capacities going forward but really appreciate it again, everything that you've done for the new North End and Burlington more broadly. So with that, I will turn it over to you Franklin. Thank you to everyone and to all the voters that supported me and that might have not voted for me but got to know me and gave me a chance and for the course of the last two years we've had good conversations. I really think that this is the beginning of something that just won't stop because I'm no longer a city council or the passion I have for the city. I think like some of us here, Burlington is probably the first place I've ever lived where I really sat, made roots and I own a home and I have kids in the school system and so me becoming a city council was sort of a part of continuing the sort of love relationship with the city and community aspect that I've never had growing up, having moved around just all the time even high school, middle school, just moving a lot and so it's been great. And I've learned so much from all the counselors. I think that one thing that Councillor Freeman really reminded me is that, one of my favorite parts of the meetings were during those tough votes and those tough meetings was going over to their side to Perry and like doing a little huddle and like just like, what's going on? And we just haven't been able to do those kinds of little things that we really benefited and just made me a better informed person before I was gonna vote. And no matter which side we were on we were always able to sort of have that conversation of like why are you supporting that or why not? Or what tweaks can we make? And we've tried our best to do it over Zoom but I think it's been really hard. So I think the only thing I wanted to say is that I think we all deserve a once January or June 1st comes and we're all hopefully reopening with the vaccines and I really hope we can hit the reset button and get back to that. And I thought what a great meeting to be my last meeting where Peter Welsh announces that we're getting over $20 million to be able to do stuff and just to know that you guys are gonna have a part in that it's so exciting and I just can't wait to watch and just know that I'll be cheering you guys on and hoping that you guys will do the right thing and that's an insane amount of money. And it's just what I feel so full of hope to know that we're all all right and we did pretty well and now we're gonna get this huge injection into our economy and just thank you so much for allowing me to play a role and get to know myself and get to know you guys and I hope to continue to stay involved. I will stay involved and I know I will. So I just have to find a way to make it work. That's an honest and counsel for me. Thank you. Thank you, Councilor Paulino. Let's all give Councilor Paulino a hand really just appreciate it. Thank you so much, Councilor Paulino. And thank you everyone for just offering such thoughtful reflections. I very much appreciated that. And it's always one of the more fun things that we get to do every year is just share reflections like that as bittersweet as it might be in saying goodbye to colleagues that we very much value. So just want to thank everyone for offering those thoughtful reflections. Move on to our next item, which is city council council updates. So in that same spirit of reflection, I am very, I'm thinking about as I look towards this next year and we have organization day coming up on the fifth where we'll swear in a new counselor and re-elected counselors where we'll elect a board of finance, have a state of the city, like the council president role. I'm thinking very much and looking forward to the next year in a sense of optimism about that year and what all will sort of come of that. And I think that there's a need to take a moment just at this point as some of the counselors were doing to reflect on sort of what we've been doing or what's been happening in the last little bit here in terms of our community. And I did want to speak specifically to the issue regarding the racial equity and inclusion, racial equity inclusion and belonging director Green in the situation that arose. I wanted to say that I very much appreciated the opportunity to connect last week with Mayor Weinberger. I felt Mayor that you listened and that you were willing to admit a mistake, which I think was very, which is very difficult to do and something that I appreciated. Now that we've done that in a reverse course, which I think was absolutely the right decision and one that I wish we hadn't had to make but that or that you hadn't had to make but that nevertheless was. And so I just, I appreciate that shift in course, but I just want to also state that I feel like the work is not done, the work necessarily has to continue. And to me, that involves recognizing the harm and the damage that was done and really making full amends. And so I hope that we'll continue to repair the damage that was done, particularly to director Green. I think that it's important that we recognize just that when we put someone in the role of essentially uprooting systemic racism in a community, that makes them a target for white supremacists and bigots and people who basically don't want to uproot white supremacy in our community. And that's a daily struggle and a daily stress and a daily pressure that's put on that individual. And just as I was talking about it, taking toll on counselors and that kind of a thing, this is altogether different because this is something that is really, really just absolutely intense and something that takes a deep emotional and physical and I would say even spiritual toll on an individual. And I think that we need to really work together in order to support each other through that. So I hope that there is clarity on some of the additional steps that will be taken to repair the relationship and repair any damage that was done to the extent possible with director Green. I think I also reflect on the racial equity and inclusion belongings role in our city and specifically the need to better define and to clarify the independence that that department needs in terms of being able to really call out and do that work and to say and do things that sometimes members of the community members, the council members of the administration, other department heads, whoever it might be, the police, that they may find these issues, that they may find these things difficult, but they need to have full autonomy and ability and independence to do those things. This is not a department to be stage managed or put aside, but a department to be elevated and to be given the full independence. And so I think it's both independence as well as empowerment that is really crucial. And I think that looking forward, we as a council need to better codify and understand how we can make that department independent in ways that allow them to challenge us and to really raise these important questions. And then the other piece is also just as Councillor Hanson had mentioned, is just how we really work together as a council and how if there are things that the council has done or approved that if those need to be changed that we do so in a transparent and open way and that we have a check back in with the council in order to make sure that we're on the same page and that hopefully we're able to work together on those issues going forward because we certainly have a lot of unfinished business when it comes to the policing issues, but also just racial justice more broadly when it comes to economic and cultural empowerment and the work that that office in particular is doing on those fronts. And so I would just hope that we're able to really take this learning and take these additional steps on whether they be individual related to a department or related to this council and how our relationship is defined with this administration. So I just wanted to offer those thoughts as we close out this particular council and look towards the next.  Thank you, President Tracy. And thank you everyone who shared thoughts tonight. I wanted to start by just making sure the full council was aware that at the Board of Finance tonight we discussed the topic of the funds that are coming from the federal government that we expect to arrive the first half to arrive within a couple of months and the second half to arrive in about a year through the American Rescue Plan. This is of course what we're talking with Congress and Welch about the beginning of the meeting. Catherine Shad, our CAO created a PowerPoint for that Board of Finance discussion and that is up on board docs. And actually during the meeting, I have emailed you all and a link to that presentation as well as an invitation to give us feedback on these initial preliminary thoughts. This is a conversation that is going to play out, I believe, at least over the next three months as we work towards the passage of a budget at the end of June where I think it will be through that budget that we make numerous decisions together about how we will use this once in a lifetime opportunity to make investments to come out of this pandemic strongly and to lead this recovery there. I imagine some of, we may not make all the decisions in that time. This money needs to be spent by the end of calendar year 2024 and we may choose to defer some of the decisions beyond the end of this budget season. So we're just getting completely familiarized with what the rules will be regarding this money. And so again, you can see that PowerPoint from the administration. I will be, I've met with many of you as a number you have referenced over the last week or so. Those of you who I have not met with since the election I will be reaching out to in the hope that we can connect before reorganization day to get your thoughts on where we go from here. The administration and the council working together what our priorities should be. And specifically if you have any thoughts about either the process or the priorities that we should be focused on as we seek to invest these funds from the American Rescue Plan. I do care a great deal about positive relations with the city council and my entire nine years on the council. We, it's always been necessary to, I learned very in my opening days as mayor that you really can't get much from anything done as mayor without being able to work closely with the city council. I think that has always been a priority in mind to try to find consensus and to find that route forward. It's I think been challenging over the last year as we've grappled on massive, difficult issues through this medium and amidst enormous upheaval and challenge, I really think very few local governments, very few of our processors have faced circumstances like we have faced over the last year. I think we have a lot to be proud of what we've done together but I know we have a lot more work to do together going forward and that was one of the reasons after talking with President Tracy that I dig act quickly to reverse the decision from last Monday when as soon as I understood the degree of unhappiness that it was creating with you, my colleagues, as well as as soon as I understand that somehow that decision was being conflated with a lack of support or belief in our director, Taisha Green. Nothing can be farther from the truth. I fully support Taisha Green's work. It's one of the proud accomplishments of the last nine years that together with you, the council, we created that position a year ago. It was a proud moment to introduce her to the community at the state of the city a year ago, a moment I worked hard to get to, trying to recruit and encourage her to come to Burlington. I fully believe in the very challenging and difficult work that Director Green is pursuing. I meet with her about it every week and I think she has made us a better administration. She's made us a better community. She's made me a better mayor and it was not at all. As soon as I understood that that central belief of mine and support was being undermined by the way the decision was being understood, I took action as quick as I could to reverse it. I will just finally say I absolutely believe it is my job, it is job of the administration to carry out the decisions of the city council. I think I will just say I did not believe the resolution which indicated who was to sign the contract was dispositive on how the administration should do that work. It is, I do believe the mayor's job to figure out how the work of the administration, how the work with the administration is tasked with it, the hundreds of consultant reports as well as all the other responsibilities that we have, how that work is done is the administration's job to figure out is the way I've understood the charter. And that's what I was seeking to do. I always thought that this, if you go back and look at when I first announced Kyle Dodson in a role, I thought leading the operational assessment would be a key responsibility of his in his six months with us. Unfortunately, the way that's played out, he was leaving us by the time the work was getting started and I was seeking to replace him and that's the way I was approaching it. I do think in the spirit of working together well the administration and the council it's long been a tradition for there to be good engagement and discussion of how the administration will deploy resources to get things done before a resolution is passed. That I would welcome that kind of engagement and discussion going forward. I think our city government works best when we do have that kind of engagement and I'll seek to uphold my piece of that. It's been a challenging week. I'm certainly hoping that together there's a huge amount of work to do going forward on racial justice. I mean, several councils asked how I plan to lean into that. I look forward to the conversations we're gonna have about where we go from here on racial justice. We've made major strides in recent weeks hiring a new public health equity manager who has brought new energy and focus and direction to the racism as a public health emergency work that we are all committed to. That effort is picking up speed and momentum. I look forward to talking to the council about that. We approve, I believe, at the board of finance tonight and on your consent agenda, significant investment in the Juneteenth celebration that we will have for the first time this year and that we are making a major municipal commitment to. I hope it is the start of a great new city tradition. I'm committed to seeing the work of the reparations task force completed and then we will grapple together at this, hopefully at the table as to about where we go from there with the recommendations from that task force and much more. I look forward to that work together. I look forward to doing that work in partnership with director Green and I'm also happy to continue to discuss this in the events of last week if necessary with the council if you want to discuss it further after the night. Thank you, President Tracey. Those are thoughts I have to share with you. Thank you, ma'am. That is the last item on our agenda. So, motion to adjourn is in order. Moved by Councillor Pine. Seconded by Councillor Hanson. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Any opposed? That carries unanimously and we are adjourned at 10.34. Good night, everyone.