Welcome back to the Treehouse, y'all. It's dog days. And I've been wanting to take out the Crispy Collector here lately because I haven't given it any attention this year. There's a good reason why that we're gonna get to in a second. If you guys don't know who the Crispy Collector is, that is my 15 foot John boat. And I love to take it out and go cat fishing and get up in the skinny water and stuff, but I've collected it over the last year. I've been riding around in the Silver Bullet. Last time I took this boat out, the wheel was about to fall off going down the highway. I saw it and it was shaking like this. So I've limped it back and it's been just sitting. It was actually sitting at my dad's house. I just picked it up and I just kind of limped it over here and this wheel has a lot of play and that means that our hub, our bearings, something in there ain't right. And before I take this out anywhere, go to any leg I need to fix it. By the way, you should probably check your hubs and your bearings at least annually on your trailers. But when I had, I got some extra bearings. They got a replacement hub. I got an extra battery. I got a new terminal replacement for you.  So let's go. So I basically had this with like no grease in it, eventually dried out. When you dry out, things get hot and there's problems. So you guys hear that? When I push that side to side, that thing is, it's going like this. So it's just creating a death wobble that's gonna get worse and worse and worse. So this is the worst one. We're gonna take this one off and we're gonna replace this entire hub. We gotta pack that grease in there. This is gonna be juicy.    Also using all my camper, but just because I'm on the road so much, I got this little cheap impact driver off Amazon and I got this other deal. So check this out. There's a little attachment you need to work with that driver and I'll actually leave this on my Amazon links down in the description. So you guys can go pick them up if you're riding around on a lot of trailers or truck camping or whatever.  So let's get that on here and let's take this tire off. Okay, here comes the nasty part. So I'm gonna just tap this off to the side here. That thing is destroyed. Not good. Yeah, you can see like rust and stuff in there. All right, we're gonna have to get this little cotter pin out and find the castle nut. Oh, okay. Here we go. Got our cotter pin. Now we should be able to just unscrew this by hand. Possibly not. Okay, I was able to get the nut off and stuff like that, some kinks in it does not feel right. So now this whole thing should just come off. Okay, let's check out the spindle. Make sure it's still spindly. It actually doesn't look bad. Looks good. That's very good. Just a little concerned about what I'm seeing right here. This threading looks damaged or something.  And then we'll take the new hub to get packed in with grease. All right, so after doing some inspecting, I think I figured out the problem. Now this is just a menagerie of issues. You guys are gonna love this. So, this is the old hub that came off the boat. Let's see if I can focus here. This thing is so nasty and greasy. There's a little spot right there. Turn this up and get in there so you guys can see what I'm talking about. Okay, there's a little spot right there. And so, and this actually looks bent. This whole ring looks bent and the bearing went bad. I guess it caused this to go bad too. So, we want that to be smooth as glass because I was thinking, oh, it'll be easy just to replace the bearings. And then I got to looking at that, I was like, no, I got, so I already got a new hub. So, we're gonna put it on. It doesn't match whatsoever. That's why I wanted to just check that one and make sure it's okay, but it doesn't match. It's all right, it's part of the crispy's character. Now check out this other gem. This boat did not come with bearing buddies. I know a lot of boats come with those. This has the axle spindles that have the little holes in them. So, you can put grease through them and you can grease your bearings that way. But, last time I went to grease these puppies, I pulled out the grease fitting, the Zerk, I think is what it's called. It goes in there. And it's a tap in, it's not a screw in. There's not really any threads right there, so that needs to be replaced.   So, I'm gonna try to brush those out, clean them up the best I can, but that nut doesn't come off there very easily. But now we're gonna move on to a really fun part, which is packing the grease in. New hub galvanized. So, I got one just painted black and one straight up galvanized. Look at me go. And these are the bearings. This is what the bearings look like. So, these are ungreased if I need to grease them. I think I know what grease fitting I need. Took a pair of calipers and it looked like 3.16s, but you know how that goes. I actually thought about getting the bearing buddies and I've had those before in the past. They work pretty good. But, you know, I've got these spindles that have the grease through system and that's actually nice so you don't get as much grease on the back of your wheels. Those bearing buddies push a lot of grease. I'd rather just keep this system. Plus, I don't have to spend any more money with the bearing buddies. That little CERC grease fitting, it's like a dollar. You get solid dollop here. Fully lube it, fully lube it in there. And now, we're going to pack the bearing itself. So, we'll take a dollop of this, just put it in our hand. I've done this exactly zero times. So, just going off what I've learned on the internet in the last four to eight hours. So, I'm just gonna take this and push this in here until it squeezes out the top. Just do one little section at a time. I'm not really seeing this ooze out the top. It's really hoping for some oozing. But I'm hearing less rattling, that's probably good. You just haven't really lived your best life until you've hand-packed your own bearings. You know what I mean? It's that self-reliance that just makes you feel good inside. Boy, this baby can take some lube, let me tell ya. Woo, been packing her in for five minutes. She's still, she's still not fully lubed. Let's just dunk it in here. Let's stick it right, oh no, getting grease everywhere. So, this is the front. So, I'm actually gonna flip this over. We'll drop this one in back here. All right, let's go ahead and pack this other one I still got super lubed hands. Okay, we're dropping the other bearing into the top. She feels thick. She's thick, all right. Now I'm actually going to de-glove here. All right, clean hands.  We'll pop this seal in. This is the seal that goes on the back. So the inside of the tire that you don't see. I'm just gonna take a block of wood, hammer that baby in. So this is what it looks like, all said and done, pretty much. All right, so there's the back, it's sealed. Got the two bearings in there. And now I'm gonna slide this over the axle, but then we'll put this cap on and then I can grease it with a grease gun. Which I should have done already, okay. I shouldn't be in this position right now because I did not take the proper maintenance precautions. All right, Crispy. Here's your new leg, your new pair of shoes. Just gonna stick this right on here. Now that goes, bearing just fell out, we'll push it in. There it goes. Rotation, very nice. Okay, now we can put that cast on up back on here. All right, so I hand-tightened it. Now we're gonna throw this cotter pin back in. We can get it back in, there she glows. I'm gonna snip that cotter pin because it's still full length. And now we just have to go get one of those jerks put in there and we should be able to lube it up. After hours of figuring it out, we finally have a tire on here that is spinning fairly straight. I just spun my other one and it looks wobbly. The hub looks good, but it's spinning wobbly, so I don't know, but you know, we're definitely gonna have to do some secondary maintenance on the Crispy down the road. But the main thing is when I am pressing on this tire, there's no play, there's no play in the hub and that's exactly what we want. Next step is replacing the battery and the terminals. So what happened was I left the plug in, it rained and the boat basically filled up with water, killed the terminals, rusted out the battery, everything. What I'm doing is I've clipped off the ends here and we're gonna be replacing those. Got the positive done, so we're gonna do the negative now. I'm just gonna take my knife and cut through all the rubberized stuff, get to the wire. Not sure what gauge this is. It looks like eight or seven, something weird. It's actually not labeled on the wire, so I don't know. But I found something that's pretty close to it. Little copper attachment for the battery terminal. So we'll place that on there and we'll pinch it down. Definitely not the prettiest thing ever, but it'll work. I got this nifty little tool. I'll leave this linked in my little Amazon store. I use this all the time in the garage for heat shrink and then obviously this little torch too, just for garage stuff.  That way you're not just burning right through the heat shrink. All right, there's one. All right, there we go. Now, we need a new battery. Pick this bad boy up from the tractor supply today. It's a deep cycle, because I'm probably gonna hook it up to my trolling motor as well. All right, just for testing. Make sure our wires are correct. See what we got. Can't stop the crispy, baby. Heck yeah, boys. That's the best thing that's happened all day. You ever just get into a project and like one thing leads to another, leads to another. Can't figure out anything. That has been today. But we'll hook this up and I'm probably gonna have to replace the other terminals. They look pretty bad. She's crusty, but she's running, y'all. Lights are working. The trolling motor sort of works. There's only one thing left to do and you know what that is. Let's go give her a rip for the first time in a long time. Trailer is feeling and looking smooth, y'all. This is it. I'm on a truth for the crispy to ride again. 7.30 in the morning. About 90 degrees, sun laser beam. Absolute laser beam. It feels like the fishing should be done right now. But we're here to rip. We're here to rip the crispy. I really have no fishing agenda. I have seen a couple, it looks like little white bass scootering around. This is what we're here for right now. It's been, I'm gonna say probably seven or eight months since we've run this motor. Electric start, 25 horse, four-stroke murk. Let me hear it now. Come on, let me hear it now. There she blows. Yes, sir. I've got to burn some of this old gas out of here. So let's go rip some waves. Let's give her a rip, boys. The old crispy man, she'll just about rattle your teeth out if you're not holding your mouth right. Something that I definitely want to add on here is some electronics and put them right here. Just something really basic, but also have a little mount where I can put my phone and use my Garmin ActiveCaptain because I've just got so many waypoints from fishing in the Silver Bullet that I can just correspond it right here or get a little Garmin unit with some GPS, something basic, but nothing crazy. Maybe a little life scope, I don't know. My main purpose for this boat is to bass fishing nasty places and then bring the meat. I mean, it's about getting the crispies. In particular, catfish. You don't want to go catfishing. They're gooey, they're nasty. I've got these jug lines here that I worked up last night and I've got an idea for some new jug lines.  I've got a good idea. I think it's a good idea. That will work really well and be super cheap and basic and easy to operate. And I basically want to just keep that rigging in this boat and not have to move it. So anytime I want to go catfishing, I'll just take this boat out and drop my jugs, drop some lines. I've already got some pole mounts on the back, so she's set up. She's set up and she's running good. I'm surprised this fuel is running as good as it is. We have reached the end of the road on fixing up our Crispy Collector. felt good to get it out of the water, rip it. Got me inspired to actually do a couple of things, not spend too much money, but just do some little fix ups and really make this John Boat pop and some performance things. Part of my problem with this, this murk is I have a long shaft and I have a short trance of it. So I have a lot of drag in the water. It just doesn't perform very well. Couple fixes to that. I could get a new engine, you know, try to find one, maybe swap this one out or something.  So that's something I'm thinking about.  So this is the final nail in the Crispy Coffin today. So we're gonna try to hammer this baby in. Completely not the right fitting. Just what I thought I had things kind of figured out. I was getting with the program. No. I don't know what size it is, but it ain't 366.  Well, you know what they say about boats, y'all. Sands for breakout another thousand. So true, so true. But thank you guys for hanging with me today and stay tuned for more outdoor action here at the channel. Don't forget to subscribe, smash that like button and I'll see you on the next one.


La Pietà is a famous statue in Rome. You probably know it.  Her pain and grief are palpable. In this year, as we approach the Easter mystery in extraordinary times, I've been imagining another sculpture. One of Mother Earth cradling all her relations. Some have said this terrible moment of global pandemic is nature taking her revenge. But instead, I see Mother Earth more like Mary of the Pietà. In this sculpture, Mother Earth cradles extinct species, dried up rivers, bleached coral, koalas burned by fires. She holds on her ample lap the migrants lost at sea, children dead from bombs, human rights defenders disappeared, women murdered. She rocks in her arms nurses and doctors who have died saving lives from the COVID-19 virus. Rather than revenge, I see pain and grief. I see comfort for all her relations, anger at injustice affecting any of her children, undocumented persons isolated and without help, refugees and homeless who cannot find shelter, Indigenous peoples without access to clean water. The Easter story invites us to enter into that deep pain and loss, to lament, to cry out, to grieve injustices that lead to the untimely death of what is good. Creation, human beings embodied in Jesus' passion. We do not deny that pain. But carrying our losses with us, lament and repentance opens to another chapter, one in which hope is reborn. Not a hope that papers over the grief, but a hope that heals, animates and pulls us forward into transformation, into resurrection. This Easter may we comfort one another in grief. May we rage with one another against injustice. And may we come together, virtual as it may be, in the sure and certain hope of the resurrection, of a world transformed by our collective action. This Easter, let's not forget Christ risen. Let's not be afraid to hope. Wishing you a blessed Easter from all of us at Kairos.


Frost-retted hemp fibres, with low lignin content and high soluble pectins at their surface, have suitable tensile properties for composite applications and are recommended for reinforcing thermoplastic composites. This article was authored by Laetitia Marot, Percy Festasala, Valdeck Micli and others.


Maya are you stressed out? Are you stressed out? No, you're just beautiful. That's all you are. What is up everybody this is Chris from the Rewired Soul where we talk about the problem but focus on the solution and that was my beautiful little kitty named Maya and I know a lot of you out there are pet owners just like me and you love your pets just like I do and something I try to teach all of you on my channel is that our mental health is just as important as our physical health and some of you caught my last guest video from Dr. Alex Avery who is a vet and I asked him if you can come over to my channel and talk about mental health in animals so I know that I've experienced anxiety with my mom's dog and stress for cats is kind of a big deal so for all of you pet owners out there I asked Dr. Alex to come on over to my channel talk about some of the triggers for pet anxiety as well as some solutions because you know how we do here on the Rewired Soul so without further ado this is Dr. Alex Avery from the channel Our Pets Health I will put links to his channel in the info card as well as in the description down below make sure you go check out his channel but take it away Dr. Alex. Hi so I'm Dr. Alex from the YouTube channel Our Pets Health and also from ourpetshealth.com and I'd really like to thank Chris for inviting me to come on to his channel to talk to you today about mental health and stress in cats and dogs my catchphrase is helping you and your pet to live a healthier, happier life and I strongly believe that if you have pets then their health has a strong impact on your health as their owner I mean time again it's proven that having a pet is really beneficial for our sense of well-being but having a sick pet can be very detrimental it can be very stressful and actually if you've got a sick pet and you want to learn more about this then I've invited Chris to come on to my channel to talk about some of the strategies that you can use to help cope with and deal with having a sick pet and having to look after them and medicate them and all that goes with that so that aside I wanted to talk to you today about stress and specifically stress in our cats and dogs so stress regardless of species has a detrimental effect to the body it delays wound healing it causes increased risk of infection and you know our cats and dogs that are stressed they're just miserable they also suffer from a lot of stress related conditions so cats will start urine spraying they'll start scratching everywhere they might start over grooming so they'll actually lick themselves bold and cause real damage in some cases just completely because of stress they'll also maybe develop cystitis and a male cat cystitis can actually cause a blocked bladder which in itself can be fatal and that is entirely stress related problem although there are other things that can cause that as well so dogs to experience problems they can become really aggressive they can be destructive they can just freak out when you you know leave them for just a really short period of time they can inappropriately urinate defecate so there are lots of different causes of stress in our cats they're generally solitary animals so just having lots of other cats in the house is stressful in itself even if you think they're getting on chances are that they're under a degree of stress and that can be due to availability of food water toilets it can be stressed with territory just the other cat in the neighborhood kind of walking through the back garden could be really stressful or building work that might be out in the road it might be building work in the house a new baby arriving maybe another pet another dog having strangers in the house certainly for those cats that are more prone to stress actually it can be very subtle things that just set them off and it can sometimes be really hard to to identify exactly what the stressful problem is and in some cases it's just impossible dogs to can be affected by the same thing and in dogs I guess socialization is a really big one so the need to socialize our dogs when they're puppies and cats as well really benefit from socialization but I guess we think of it more in dogs so socializing them when they're young so helping them come across different noises different people just all kinds of different experiences if they do that then they're going to be much better well-rounded individuals I'm unable to cope and a lot of the behavioral problems we see in our dogs especially is due to a poor socialization and that's really kind of a period up to about 16 18 weeks of age so it's you know their first few months of life thankfully there's a lot that we can do about it and today I want to give you 10 tips to reduce stress in your cat or dog so my first tip is that much like our mental health it won't get better by itself so if your cat or dog is super stressed about something even if they're only mildly stressed about something you really need to recognize that and do something about it it's only going to get worse with time and we see this time and again that an owner will mention you know a small behavior change one year at their vaccination and health check appointment you'll give some recommendations and they'll come back the next year and say you know things have got worse you say well have you done next wine said you know and the answer is no and there's many reasons for that you know life is busy and it may not take priority but really any behavioral problems any stress problems are not going to get better by themselves so getting them checked out getting advice and implementing some strategies is really important so one thing that will often give either as a temporary measure if we're then putting in other changes or if we're expecting kind of short periods of stress is using pheromone therapy so pheromones are chemicals that are released in different situations by different species but can only be detected by that species so in cats we've got something called feline facial pheromone so if you ever notice a cat they're kind of like brushing their cheek up along something they're releasing this this pheromone against that object into their environment and that helps them feel at home it helps kind of mark their territory mark their safe space and dogs have a kind of similar effect with a pheromone called dog appeasing pheromone so these things they're like little plug-in air fresheners although they also come in collards for dogs and sprays for using in say cat carriers or in cars or something like that and they just help our dog and our cat to relax help them feel more at home and can really go a long way to helping reduce stress hopefully what other measures are taken to reduce that stress long term although you know these pheromones can be used long term it gets quite expensive if you're doing it that way I mentioned before cats and resources that's a big stress for cats and you know only having food in one place in a multi cat household it's really a no-no and it's bound to be stressful as a general rule for food and for water and for litter trays we should be having one more of each of those than the number of cats in the household and that's in separate places as well so if you've got three cats really you need four food bowls and that is food bowls in different locations not right next to each other for water bowls they could be next to the food bowls and for litter trays and litter trays need to be separate from the food and water stations you know that's fairly self-explanatory we don't want to eat in the toilet and nor do our cats so the next thing that we can do is we can provide a safe space for our pets to go so cats they like getting up high they like going into enclosed spaces so maybe the top of a cupboard top of a wardrobe something like that you know somewhere that your cat likes to go you just leave you know always leave the door open so they have access to that you know provide a nice soft bed a blanket down there just so that if they're feeling anxious they're feeling stressed that's their safe place that they can go with dogs we could have their crate if you've got a crate for them or that spot behind the sofa just out to the way it's quiet it's maybe a little bit darker but it's their safe space that they can go if they are feeling a bit stressed and they will often take themselves away to that spot if things are just getting a little bit too much okay so my fifth tip to reduce stress in our cats and dogs is to recognize stressful events and act appropriately so if you know that your dog always gets really stressed around fireworks or around storms and thunder then recognizing that a certain times of year that that might be a problem or you know watching the weather forecast and and anticipate when storms are coming and acting accordingly so there are different strategies that we can use for for phobias like that and that's you know too much to get into today but find out what works and anticipate those so it might be a thundershirt it might be playing music closing the curtains might be actually trying to desensitize them to that fear so recognizing the fear and acting accordingly it's not going to get better by itself like I said before exercise is my next tip it's good for us it's good for our dogs and it's good for our cats so it's been shown that regular walking of our dogs can help just reduce their stress levels I haven't read anything about cats but I can't see why they'd be any different so playing with them you know getting a laser getting a mouse toy out and playing with them but just getting out and about getting them to exercise raise their heart rate burn off a few calories has been shown to significantly reduce stress in dogs and I imagine the same is true for cats okay my next two tips are more for cats one is to secure their environment there's nothing more stressful than having other cats come into the house and eating your pets food using their litter tray it's just a nightmare and as you can imagine they really don't cope with that very well so securing the house now that might involve actually not using a cat flap letting them in and out through the door or it might involve using a microchip cat flap so it actually just reads the microchip that hopefully is already inside your cat just under their skin it reads that microchip and will only let them in or out obviously it can be programmed to several different chips if you've got a number of cats but they work really well I certainly had the problem with my cats where other cats were coming into the garage they were eating the food and yeah my cats were getting stressed microchip cat flap reader they just sorted that out completely the next tip is to allow your cat to come and go as they please so our cats you know they're very territorial but they will share territories with other cats and they are very well aware of who's where and when they will pass through each other's territory so they develop a strategy to avoid confrontation and avoid fighting if you though are kicking your cats out or only letting them in at certain periods of time then you know when they want to be in certain places it isn't going to coincide with when they're actually there so that again will lead to stress and my final tip is just to seek professional advice so that might be from your vet it might be from an animal behaviorist or a trainer so just approaching these people just having a chat about what problems you're experiencing and recognizing that there will be solutions so there's seldom a quick fix but with a little bit of effort especially if you're recognizing it soon and acting soon a little bit of effort upfront will make all the difference to your cat or your dog's stress levels and if you don't have a stressed cat or a dog then you won't be quite so stressed as well I'd really like to thank Chris again for inviting me to talk to you guys remember head over to my channel our pets health or our pets health com where Chris is going to have a video up for me all about helping you guys cope with the stress of looking after a dog or a cat with long term illness that can in itself cause depression anxiety and all kinds of problems in us so if that's something that interests you or if you just want to know how to help your dog or your cat have a healthier happier life be sure to head over to my channel thanks again to Chris for inviting me to come and speak to you and until next time take care all right thank you so much Dr. Alex for coming over here to do this guest video and like honestly I learned a lot from watching his video like I'm kind of a new pet owner I've had Maya for a little over a year I've now I've never really owned pets but I just kind of wanted a little kitty so this this video is very helpful to me and knowing what my my cat's triggers are as well as some solutions for it is very helpful and as a pet owner it helps calm me down quite a bit now I'll be honest and I know you're going to watch this Alex so I forgot that I needed to do a video for your channel so this is an IOU and I promise you that I will have it up over on his channel very soon so if you're a pet owner here's another plug make sure you go over to Dr. Alex's channel our pets health again it will be linked up there and down there and I'll also put in the info card make sure that you go subscribe to his channel because really soon I'm going to be doing a guest video about how to deal with the stress the depression and the emotions of taking care of a sick pet all right so make sure you go subscribe to his channel okay but anyways if you liked this video make sure you give it a thumbs up and please go ahead and leave comments down below let me know about your little critters and how you help calm them down when they're feeling stressed or anxious make sure you leave some comments okay but anyways as always if you are new here make sure you hit the subscribe button on my channel because I'm always making videos to help you out with your mental and emotional well-being and as promised you check it out right there there is a link to Dr. Alex's channel go over there show him some love hit that subscribe button he has a ton a ton of videos about how to take care of your pets better all right but you're all amazing thanks for watching and I'll see you next time


Hold on, we gotta do the thing where I'm a surprise guest. Alright. That'll be actually a good intro. Just use all of this. Good morning, John! Good morning, Hank! Hohohohoho! We're at VidCon. I'm Adobe.  Hashtag win at hashtag any cost. Hashtag invest in your digestion. Hashtag metamucil. I actually didn't bring my metamucil and it's already the problem. Don't move. I'm not going to. Never move again. They won't let me open this. Alright, let's go. Because that kid peed off the balcony at VidCon 2016 and now they close all the balconies. That is such a great metaphor, by the way, for the internet. This is one person pees off a balcony and nobody else keeps a balcony ever again. So I ask people to send us questions about our past and future on YouTube. Cathy asks, why did you stop making straight up silly videos? I think what happened is that I felt like the rest of the internet got pretty good at being silly. Right. But it wasn't as good at being earnest and I was like, oh, I'm quite earnest. Out of everything you've created, Blake asks, what piece of content are you most proud of? Oh, definitely that Tumblr post where it has me jumping against the wall to prove that I'm not an octopus. It may be your most viewed piece of media. John, if death is a cube, does that mean you have to meet the face of death six different times? If death is a marble, will it win a marble race? Probably not. You look very cool. Speaking of marbles, how did the Green Ducks do in the Marble Olympics? I haven't had the chance to watch it. I don't want to spoil this for you. Like, go Green Ducks. Céline says, when you guys retire, I imagine your education channels will continue.  Or is Vlogbrothers something you will continue until you are physically unable? Well, thanks for that. I want to choose to end the channel. You want to upload your last video and know it's your last video instead of just yes? I mean, it's interesting to think about, like, why are we still doing this? It's been a really long time. It has been over a third of my life. Wow. And you're old. I like our job. Like, I like the people I work with. I like making educational video. You like looking super cool in your Adobe hashtag, create your stories on glasses. Do I actually look cool? I don't think I look that good. Well, one thing I got to take off this sticker. You know, like, obviously we haven't done it for money for a long time. So there are other reasons we are making stuff and the main reason is the main reason we were making stuff in 2007 when there also wasn't any money involved, which is that we like making stuff with people we like and we like each other and we really like the community of Nerdfighteria. Yeah. Sorry. That was overly sincere. Can you go blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. You want me to dab? Don't dab on camera. Don't worry. Hashtag no dab zone. Hashtag no dab zone. TheConPancakes wants us to do another year of Brotherhood 2.0 style vlog. Maybe the last year that we do it. Oh, that's a good idea. That would be so hard for me to stop. I think I would, I think I would spiral. The other thing is that it's really good for my mental health to have the anger of a Tuesday. Aside from everything else, there's also that. Yeah. I don't want to quit. Let's not quit. Why would we quit? Stop talking about quitting. It's weird. Phoenix says, I just ate dinner. That's great. If you two could switch personalities and lives, would you? Why? No. No. I like my kids. I like Hank's kid, but not as much as I like my kids. Our Lyft driver just asked us if we were going to see that Chuck Green thing. I mean, I'm really honored if people still associate VidCon with Chuck Green. I was jealous of your eyewear, so I'm putting on my Cinnamon Toast Crunch sleep mask. I'm going to put on this Fanny Pack. These are socks. I can't see anything. Where's the Fanny Pack? I don't know. I also can't see anything.  I thought it was a blanket. It's a Cinnamon Toast Crunch bathrobe. How did you get this and I didn't get it? I'm super annoyed. What what? Hank, I'll see you on Tuesday. Hashtag win it. Hashtag all costs. Avoid the dap. No. No.


This is St. Tech, Hawaii. Community matters here. Aloha. I'm Marcia Joyner, and this are the ties that bind. And today, we have my new best friend. And as our audience knows, I only talk to my best friends. But this lovely lady is Representative Beth Ufamoto. And I have to tell you this. This is really special. This is new for me, anyway. A year after quitting the Republican Party, she joined the Democratic Party as a state rep. And now, she is seeking a seat at the House of Representatives. She is going to leave Hawaii and go to the big time. All of this within a year. Well, welcome, Beth. Welcome. And tell us all about Beth. What district are you living? I live in District 36, which is Milani and Milani, Melka. So I'm a political junkie, as you may know. But what I don't understand is that I have seen so many smart, lovely, beautiful women in the Republican Party, and then they get pushed out. What happens? What is that about? Yeah, there are a lot of things. I think for me, because I've always been a moderate, there was definitely a philosophical issue. So as a Republican, I was considered a moderate, often labeled progressive. And I think even when we're seeing within the Democratic Party, there are many people way more conservative than I am. And I'm actually much further left than most. And so I think philosophically, I wasn't fitting where I was. But I think a lot of women, especially women who are pro-choice in the Republican Party have been pushed out over time. We've seen that happen. We've seen it here, here in Hawaii, how many really talented women, if they would keep them, the Republican Party could be something. And it's usually women of color. That's one of the things that we've seen, especially many of, it's specifically Japanese American women who just felt like there just wasn't a place for them, that the party didn't want them. And that's fair. Philosophically, I didn't fit. But I think my gender caused a problem for me in the party as well as the fact that I was non-white, to be honest. Even in Hawaii. Even in Hawaii, which I think there's something, you know, there was something that I say all the time that happened to me in one of our caucus meetings. The Republicans had just lost big and people were sitting around trying to figure out why. And I just openly said, I just openly said to them, you know, the reason why is that none of you are identifying with local people. I grew up here. This is my culture. And you don't, you're having trouble identifying with me and I'm sitting at the table with you. And somebody said to me, one of my colleagues said to me, listen, Beth, this is the party of middle America. And it is our job to bring middle American values to Hawaii. And I just said, oh my goodness, that's a very, very problematic statement. And this is why you lose, right? Well, yes. And that is problematic because that is what they work so hard to get rid of with the big five. And the plantation was exactly that. And now to see it come back. And it's still there. I went home and I drove, I was so frustrated by that conversation.  I didn't, they're racist. Like it, people kept saying it to me and I wasn't realizing it. And, and they're racist. And as I said it, my dad just nodded. And he was like, yes, yeah.  He had, he had helped with my campaigns. But I think he just in his heart also knew, you know, this wasn't the right place for me. That's too bad because I, like I said, I am a political junkie and I do believe in a two-party system. Sure. But this, this isn't working. No, no, no. And unless they reach, and every now and then they reach out and I see these great women that come on board and then pretty soon they're gone. Yeah. Well, and I, I think, I used to say I believe in a, in a two-party system. Of course I do, but I think more than anything else I believe in dialogue and diversity in the system. And I think we can do that within the Democratic Party too. Right. Now, of course I'm considerably older than you are. And I remember when we did have a vibrant Republican Party and that you could get along with each other and we, they were friends. There was not no animosity. They were just different. And each district had a two-member district. So you would, you would vote it for the best person and then you voted for your friend. Right. Right. And so there wasn't this nasty animosity. Yeah. Well, people have said that the one of the worst things to happen to the Republican Party is multi-member districts getting, going away, right? Well, but it was the Republican Party that voted. Oh, I know. I know. They're the ones that suggested we can save money if we have. Oh, it's a good example of Republicans shooting themselves in the foot here in Hawaii. Okay. Well, this is the unintended. It happens. Yes. Yes. So now that you are settled into the Democratic Party and you're right, there are some people in the Democratic Party and I won't mention names, but you can tell by their voting record that this is not the place to be. That the only reason they're there is because with the D you win. Right. Right. Yeah. Right. But, but I have seen a lot of them. Right. I hate to say that. Yeah. And I don't want to say go away, but the only way we have a strong two-party system is if they belong to the party and they work to make it stronger. Right. But, okay. So now what I remember is that you were like the rest of us a part of Women's March in January and then you were not very kind to Mr. Trump. Right. And I don't think that went over well with your, your fellow. It did not. They shouldn't have been surprised though. I had not hidden that opinion for a full year at that point. And they shouldn't have been surprised. But I guess he was a president at that point. So apparently I was supposed to fall in line. Oh, I know. I know. I've known Gene Ward forever and even I had trouble talking to him at that point. Yeah. Yes. So now tell us, you have decided to run for Congress. Yeah. What, now the people in your district, anybody that doesn't know, when Beth decided to change parties to be a Democrat, you polled your constituents. Yes. And what was the response? About 70% of people said that they didn't care which party I was in or that they wanted to see me switch. The majority actually just said they didn't care. And, you know, the other 30% did not want me to switch. Of the people that responded. So we got about 500 responses. Oh, very good. Very good. How many people in the district? The voter count is about 11,000. Yeah. Well, that's good. 500 was a great sample. Yes. And you figure the people that didn't respond probably fall more into the cap of it didn't really matter to them. I would think so. Yeah. Most of their surprise that they even know your name. Yeah. I mean, Milani, Milani is a great place to represent. There's one place to sine wave. And that's it. People are coming in and out that way. So you get good name ID very quickly. I've been door to door so many times, like they've seen my face so many times. They do know me. And I think that's part of why the response was just it doesn't matter to us which party you're in. They know me. Yeah. So tell us about me. While you were in the house. Yeah. So when I first ran for office, I had actually gotten back from graduate school in 2008. I came back to Hawaii to save up. I wanted to go get my PhD or law degree eventually. Came back to Hawaii though because it was the recession. Wanted to find a job. So I did. And the only place I could find a job is at the legislature. And so I started working for the house minority at the time. I knew so little about about politics that I didn't know that that meant Republicans even I just needed a job. So I got in. But when I was there, I just felt like there wasn't enough progress being made for people like me, right? My student loans were so high. I couldn't move out of my parents house. My parents were struggling to to get by too. And I just looked at the legislature and said, you guys are fighting about small things when Hawaii is facing these big issues and nobody's doing anything. And isn't this supposed to be what the Democratic Party is about? And and if if all of these things of protecting corporate interests and if if only listening to Bishop Street is what the Democratic Party is about now, then I guess I'm a Republican. That was, you know, my thought process. And maybe as a Republican, I can make a change for for regular families and average families. So I tried really hard. That's why I got into politics. It's why I ran for office. I think I did I was able to get a lot of legislation moving on some very progressive bills actually passed the legislature. But you know, even then I looked at it and said, well, I think I'm actually passing Democratic bills, not really, you know, things that would fit better in the Democratic Party. But what like what? So one example of the bills that I one of the proudest ones for me was that I got coverage for women that wanted to get STD and HIV testing. So one of the things that was happening is that people that were grandfathered in and didn't have an affordable care act appropriate plan couldn't get coverage for STD testing. So they were having to pay out of pocket. Yes. And and so what my bill said is that insurance companies have to cover it regardless in Hawaii. That's turning out to be a really great thing because now that we're looking at, you know, the Trump administration possibly rolling back some of the requirements, Hawaii people will be covered because I passed this bill, which I just find so rewarding. Well, it is, but I'm just amazed that something as simple as a blood test would not be covered. No, and it's out of pocket and people were paying as much as, you know, if you paid cash, you could maybe get it for $60. But who has that? Simple. Simple is a blood test. Yeah. I'm amazed. I am absolutely amazed. So why would that be a Democrat or a Republican issue? It doesn't necessarily have to be. A lot of the supporters that came out forth, though, were the Planned Parenthood and the typical sort of Democratic Party supporters. It shouldn't be a partisan issue. But, you know, even within the Republican Party, yeah, people were like, why are you talking about STDs? Why aren't you talking about abstinence or, you know, that sort of thing? Right? I just, I mean, the Republican Party has gotten very far to the right on a lot of these things. I can understand like Gil Rivera. Now, I don't know if he's way to the right or what not, but he comes from a district of Mormon. Correct. So we understand, you know, we can't blame him because that's who, that's in the district, Woodson, again. I don't agree with his votes, but that's the district he comes from. Those are the people that elect him. So we understand that's not a Democrat or Republican. That's his neighbor. Those are people that voted for him. Right, right, right. So I, but something as simple as a blood test, it kind of blows me away. Right, right. And I've had, I've had some issues like that too, because I come from another district that's pretty socially conservative or can be. And so one of the, the examples that I always bring up, something that I've had to learn with time as a legislator, when we were talking about medical marijuana dispensaries, I felt really strongly like we needed to pass it. My district survey was coming in at 70 percent against it. And so I said, okay, maybe people need to understand the actual human interest here. And so I wrote a letter to the whole district talking about this little girl in the district that was having seizures, couldn't get access to medicinal marijuana and she needed it. So I was able to turn the district, we pulled again after that and the district was 70 percent in favor because they were reading what I was writing. And so many of your people are in the military where it's no. Right. And so making sure that they understand, I think it's all, our responsibility as legislators is to go back to voters with those tough issues and explain, no, this is why, like, maybe you didn't have all the information. This is why I believe this. Please be on my side. I'm going to vote yes. And that's what we should be doing. And I had to learn that with time. Well, now that's very good. That's a very good idea. I wish more legislators did that, the follow-up. This, I am voting and this is why. Yeah. And I think that is so good. Yeah. Because sometimes you come across things, and I didn't know this early on, but sometimes you come across things where your conscience is just different than that of your voters. And you have to, you have to go with your conscience. Like, you have to go with what's right. But that doesn't mean that you don't answer to your voters too. And there's a way to negotiate that. Yes. Now we need to take a break. Okay. And when we come back, I want to talk about you going to Washington. Okay. Great. We'll be right back. This is Think Tech Hawaii, raising public awareness. I sang this song to you because I think you either are cool or have the potential to be seriously cool. And I want you to come watch my show where I bring in experts who talk all about easy strategies to be healthier, happier, build better relationships, and make your life a success. So come sit with the cool kids at Out of the Comfort Zone on Tuesdays at one. Hi, I'm back. I'm Marsha Joyner, and we are talking with Representative Beth Bukamofo. This charming young lady has decided to run for Congress. Do you really want to go to DC? I do. That cold, miserable weather. I do. You know, I took my, and I've been thinking about Congress. And you always think about Congress. But for me, the decision came in because I was thinking, do I really want to go to DC? Like this is such a mess, and politics is not getting better. And I was actually feeling really down about politics. I went to DC with my niece for the first time. She's 10. And we walked through Congress. We walked through, and I just, I remembered the magic of what DC can be. Oh, that building. When you walk through it, you feel those doors. And you can hear your footsteps on that marble floor. It is mesmerizing, yes. And you know, and more so just it's the building's great, like what it's about is great. But then just all of it, just that feeling of this is what Congress should be. Because it used to be about change. It used to be about doing what's best for the voters, not just fighting amongst ourselves. And gosh, I believe it can be that again. So that's why I want to go. Good. So, and what do you have in mind that you're going to represent a little state and we have less than 218 votes? How many Democrats do we have now? Oh, I don't know the exact count. Okay. Hopefully more. Yeah, more. Just to let you know that to get a bill on the floor, you need 218. That's the magic number. 218 people. The Democrats don't have 218. So they get nothing to the floor, nothing. As is 218 House members. So let's, we're hoping that in November, that number will change. So we can at least get something to the floor. So let's assume that you win and we have that magic number of 218. What would you like to do? What is your vision? What would you like to say? I represent Hawaii and this is what we want, we need, we should have. Right. I would love to champion infrastructure reform and infrastructure funding. I think there are, and this could be like a two hour long conversation. So I'll sum it up. There are all sorts of grants that are not being well utilized. The Trump administration is trying to shift some of that funding to different places that would not be promoting smart growth. So I specifically think that in Hawaii what we really need is three or four different grant programs that already exist, but are on the chopping block right now to make sure that those programs are better funded and concentrated in smart growth areas, like along the rail line, along our urban corridor, making sure that we are able to build housing. Because for me, I think that is the crisis facing our state. It's something that we can address on all levels, but the federal government has a lot that it can do. And that's in terms of energy grants, that's different things to fix the grid, make sure people can have affordable energy, making sure that our sewers are running properly. All these things that are like not sexy to talk about, but at the same time, things that we really need. Okay, now you are running from CD1. Correct. That is a congressional district one. Where is that? So that is, if you imagine sort of a triangle, it takes in Koalina and Kapolei on one side, it takes in Hawaii on the other side, and Milani up at the top. So my entire district is within congressional district one. So all of CD1 is Oahu. Yeah, so I call it urban and suburban Honolulu. Yeah. So CD2 would be Oahu and all the neighbor islands. Yeah, so it's the neighbor islands, it's Kailua, Honolulu, all of those places. It's so different. Right. It's very different, and they're very different needs. And that's one of the things when we talk about energy policy. And when I've been talking to DC groups, they say like, what kinds of energy policies are you gonna or environmental policies do you want to champion? There are a lot. For me specifically, though, I think in this district, it's making sure we have clean water, making sure the sewers are cleaned up and are not going to impact clean water, making sure like a smart growth that we have alternative modes of transportation, bike paths, like all that stuff are environmental issues. But that's the way to talk about it in CD1. And I think in CD2, it's a completely different way to talk about it. It is completely different. What about the oceans? Is that part of your... Oh, sure. I mean, I think we all were all concerned about that. Oh, yeah. I mean, I think we know if for no other reason, CD1, we have Waikiki, that's our big tourism driver in CD1. Coalina is while making sure that we continue to have clean oceans, making sure that we have a sustainable fishery, making sure that we're not like I said, overfishing, treating the oceans poorly. Sea level rise is a big issue. I recently heard that within the next 20 years, we're going to have huge flooding problems in downtown Honolulu where we're hoping to have more growth and housing. Well, let me tell you where I live. We, when we moved in 1982 at high tide, the ducks would fly up to the seawall. Now at high tide, the ducks walk into the yard. So that's how much it has risen in those years.  And that's something, you know, all the different things we're talking about. And that's such a national issue. It's a global issue. All of these agreements we're pulling out of, all the things that, there's suddenly not a focus, right, with this administration on environmental policy and we need to change that. No, they just pretend like it doesn't exist. How? As, since we only have four people in Congress, what can you do to see that we do get those monies? That Hawaii does get the money that you say we're entitled to that is there, this grant monies? What do you do to make sure we get that? I think there are a few things and a few reasons why I think I'm the best candidate for the race. I think one, one is that you have to be willing to be a workhorse, right? We have to, we know this is going to be the largest, likely the largest freshman class we've seen in decades, which means our new member is going to be amongst a lot of new members. And I think the one way to set yourself apart is to say, hey, listen, I don't care if I get the credit, just let me work on this bill. And while I'll help you do it, like just talk to your chairs. That's how I've gotten things done at the legislature here. Talk to the chairs and just say, hey, you don't even have to say it was me. Just let me work on this language and let this is what's important for Hawaii. Let me slip it in and advocating that way. And then I think there's also the argument that we need to start building seniority back. We used to have a lot of seniority and we don't have that now. Oh, that's right. We don't. No. And you know, for me coming in, I would be 35. Dan Inouye was 35 when he got elected. Patsy Mink was 37. That's why they were able to build the seniority they were able to build and to make the change they needed to make because you have to start really early and take all that time behind the scenes. And all of those cold, miserable winters. Right.  I can say I'll bide my time, work behind the scenes. I don't need the attention. I just want to get things done. Well, yeah, that makes sense. And working with, well, with just four people, it's easy to have camaraderie. Are there any Republicans running for that office? So far, unless things have changed in the last week, no, there are no Republicans running for the office. So the primary, the primary election, yeah. Oh, that's not good. No, it's probably not great for democracy. But I do think that that they that the debate is happening in the primary. So I do think voters have a bunch of different options. There is diversity. And hey, there's a really big spectrum here. I think we have all points of you represented in this in this particular group of people running for the primary. And I think that if people actually look at my record and what I believe I'm the strongest Democratic candidate that holds the strongest Democratic values. Wonderful. That is great. I'm impressed. But I still see that the see the Republicans lost to you that that's Oh, well, yeah, yeah, that this is where I belong to those. That was not smart. Yeah. So they by not having a candidate, they've just abdicated. Yeah, I mean, they saw the week, right? So they'll probably come up with somebody, but I don't think it was strong. July, June, June 5. Next week, next week. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, so while crossing our fingers for one more week, nobody else gets in the race. It's in the race. Yeah. Yeah. Because there's enough people running for CD one other than me. Everybody's running. Right, right, right there. I think we are at five now. I would and that's actually similar to 2014 as well. But yeah, there are five people. So well, I am thoroughly impressed. And tell us a little bit more. We started talking about what you've done locally, the bills that you worked on locally. So for me, I've moved a lot of housing policy out of the state house, and it's not passed in the Senate for the most part. One of the bills that I'm actually most proud of it's not necessarily housing policy, but we have real estate investment trusts in Hawaii and nationally are not taxed. So it's it's a loophole. It's largely corporations owned by corporations. And it was originally supposed to be a way for regular people to own property. That's not the way it's been. Now it's the top 1% is investing in this and not paying any tax in Hawaii. 98% of those investors are out of state. So we don't even get that money through income taxes. And so what I tried to do is close that loophole. I took a couple of different shots at it, and it kept dying in the Senate in the all Democratic Senate. I feel like I have to keep pointing that out because this this is a Senate that should have been in favor of, yeah, let's who are they owned by, but who are they taking money from? And you know, and I've said that about some of my some of my opponents in the race, too. You know, why do they keep killing these bills that would help local people help keep taxes in Hawaii, make sure that out of state investors that are wealthy are going to be the ones paying for some of these infrastructure projects and affordable housing projects that we desperately need. We do. We desperately need housing. That's the reason that we have homeless people, right? You can't make $10 an hour and pay $1,800 a month, right? You just can't, right? And I've been in favor of minimum wage increases and a lot of the other programs, but at the end of the day, if we fix our housing crisis, we will fix so much. Oh, we will. We will. Well, my dear, this has been a real pleasure with you. Thank you. And after you win, you'll come back and talk to us again with you. Of course, yes. Great. Thank you so much. Thank you. And Aloha, and we'll see you next time.


ld be more directive rather than just saying would be appreciated. Is that something we can put into next year's into the coming year's goals? Yeah. Again, we're evaluating this year, this past year. Yes. And what I think you're saying is we need to go around this. Yes. For the coming year. Okay. Diversity in government and technology. The most amazing combination of everything else that was left. So boards, and if we're currently using it, I need to look at the wording on this because it's not the right wording. But this was really about boards and use of kind of modern selection, whatever. It's the whole goal to me was a bit of a mystery, it's frankly. If anybody would like to help me word that one, please do. Diversity among staff, boards, and committees. This is a goal that you will never be rated high on. You can try and you can try again. But you'll never, you'll never completely satisfy people. Is there any questions here? I just, I think what Shalini mentioned before might be addressed in this paragraph. So I wanted to ask you, you talked about, I guess, specific policies. And does this paragraph address that? Staff is employees. This is staff, boards, and committees, all of it. Okay. Got it. LSSE, the INET, and the creating a wholly owned communication network. Yeah. Do you have any recollection next to you? I don't expect you to just have this memorized, but on page 18 under diversity in government and technology, and you mentioned utilizing the current best practice. I don't even know what that paragraph's talking about. I have to go back. Thank you. And I have to go back and look at that goal and look at the write up because I, again, I think it was in that shady hours. Yeah. It's not, it doesn't reflect the goal and it doesn't reflect, I'll redo that one. It was question 91, I think. Improving overall modernization and management of the volunteer committee's boards and commission system. Yeah, and I think I probably should speak to that a little bit because I look back on it. Was your goal? At the end, last year when we were still a select board, Ms. Kruger and I shared the role of sort of being the select board people who took kind of the lead role on what our responsibilities were in the system of finding and recommending to the select board when there were select board appointments, people for committees boards. And what we found was is that there was real problems with the paperwork flow system between the forms that were being filled out by members of the public and how it got into the system and how it tracked back to what vacancies occurred and when we knew that there were positions becoming available. And we always felt that the promise of what technology had to offer us never really met with the reality of what was being available to make that process work. And I think that it was largely there and I think that the hope was that the modernization of the community activity forms would help but then really that's a matter for another committee of the council to judge. That's useful to understand, thank you. Yeah, maybe he could just rewrite that section because that's exact. I mean, the rest of it isn't untrue in terms of plans, et cetera, but that was really just referring to the mechanism of having an accurate list of vacancies and accurate list of everything which our current technology does not allow staff to do. I mean, we would like a little flight to come up and say it's time to reappoint, yeah. Or somebody's term has just ended. Yeah, right. There's a couple of difficult areas that have come in here because there are certain goals that were kind of being very carefully worked around sort of what we were thinking of is really suggestions about individual members of the staff, not the town manager, but people who the town manager supervised what they might be able to do differently. It's very difficult to do that in an evaluation process like we have because we're not evaluating the underlying people, we're evaluating the town manager's supervision and ability to hold somebody else accountable. And so how you deal with it in goal setting and how you deal with it in evaluation has never been easy. And it's one of the things that I find particularly dissatisfaction level high for the whole evaluation process that we're forced into with the open meeting law in Massachusetts because you can't really have those kinds of open conversations and really say what I was getting at. You sort of have to kind of pick at what I'm getting at and guess. Right. And believe me, there was many a time I would have liked to have sent several of these questions off to you or Alyssa and say, what were you talking about? All right, so anything else on iNet or the creation of a wholly owned communication network? All right, then we're on to the transition last four. By the way, Board of License Commissioners is repeated here. Is there a certain place you would like it? Would you like it here or would you like it back in finance? Wherever it was. I'll refer to it here. It's repeated. I like the groupings. Thank you. I appreciate that. I spent a lot of time on those groupings. I wanted to regroup as I was doing, but this is great. All right, the Board of License Commissioners, anything on that? Amherst transition between forms of government. Communicate efficiently and effectively with town staff. By the way, this is going to be one of the items on our retreat agenda. Yeah, Paul and I just started talking about it the other day. We have a, oh yeah, it's the 21st of September. Yeah, what we don't have for sure yet is a location, but it'll be someplace in Amherst and we know Steve won't be here, which is unfortunate because there was an item we would want to talk about, but we want you there for. All right, is there anything else on this? The last page, two pages plus is about the process itself and the responses. So I will take your comments and I may check back individually with some of you. And we will hopefully by maybe Thursday have the next round, which will be the round that we will bring forward to the council for your approval. We go into executive session next week as well. And at that point is when we discuss the compensation package, which would go into Paul's next contract, okay? When do we do the vote? We do, we discuss the compensation package next week, but we don't vote on it until September 9th. I don't mean the, before you compensate somebody, you hire them. He's already hired. When do we finish this process? We finish this process next week, this part of it. Then you move to compensation, then you move to approval of the new contract. How do we finish this process? I come back to you with my next draft of this and you have to vote on it. Okay, so we vote that it's a good, that the report is correct. And reflects your, okay. I thought we were gonna vote on, that we thought he was doing a great job. We'll help you to vote on that next week. Perhaps it would be helpful to republish the timeline that says what we do, which week, in next week's packets. That would be helpful. But yes, we vote that, just as Lynn said, we vote that this is the comprehensive document that is the evaluation. Then we have a separate conversation about compensation. Right, so Lynn, is there any other comment at this time? Yes, Dorsey. I just think it would be good to have as a future goal, you know, seriously increasing the amount of people participating of the staff, the committee members and the public in the evaluation process as a goal for the town manager because these are numbers this year. They're consistently low. 10 people representing boards and committees and three members of the public. Yep. I think people don't respond because the process is so unwieldy. If there were a simpler way for people to respond, they would. You know, online form for them and one person filled it out. Was it the same form I got? No, I don't know. It was just like to his request. It was like, yeah. It was very simple. And it was, you know, that's a discussion for a later date. Yes, Shalini. I just want to acknowledge Lynn for the amazing job done. Shh, I'm not supposed to clap, ever clap, never clap. Yeah, yeah, but yeah. Thank you. Thank you. I appreciate it. All right, we're moving on. We have no appointments. Committee reports. Pat. Audit. Okay. Bylaw review, Pat or Alyssa? Ah, I guess it's you then. Same old. When do you think that you're going to be coming forward with the next round? That would be Bob Ritchie's conversation with you. Okay. All right. And CRC. So you've heard part of the CRC regarding the dog park. The other time, the other thing that we're spending a good deal of time on is going through the master plan. Okay. And we're going to continue doing that. We did that. We've been doing it several meetings, but we're going section by section strategy by strategy. And are you talking about what you think the forum that we're required to do should look like? I think that would be fair to say, speaking off script, that we are trying to focus on that part of the master plan that we think may need to be updated. Okay. That which parts of the master plan we think are solid, which parts we think need to be updated. And yes, in preparation for a forum. Okay. Because we do have to have one of them this fall. We have to have one every year within the 12 month period. Okay. The ad hoc goals, we haven't met since the last time I brought you up to date. Finance committee, Andy? So just as a reminder, I think it may have been mentioned at the last meeting. We have a special meeting of the finance committee and the joint capital planning committee in combination scheduled for the evening of September 5th and we're still working on exactly how we're going to structure the meeting that I do feel comfortable in explaining the goal. The goal is to talk about the major building process and to begin to formulate a recommendation back to this council on a process for making the big decisions that need to be made including how to reach out to the community to other elected boards and committees that have an interest in it and how to utilize our council district meetings and other meetings and possibility forums. There's a whole range of things but how do you inform and involve the public which then gets back into things like you've heard and seen in demonstration at one point about the planning tool which has been continually refined to make it useful for the broadest range of public but we want to make sure that that is something that's an accessible part to all of this. So it's going to begin with this meeting on the 5th but it's really a prelude to things to try and formulate something to come back here so that the real discussion will ultimately be in the council or it belongs because it has to be a process that we'll feel comfortable with because the council will have to make the final decisions on all of the major building projects and what we can do with the capital money that's involved. So I at least wanted to tell you about it and make you aware of the meeting. I'm not suggesting that we need to make that a council meeting of the whole on top of the 13 people who will be here because they're either on one of those two committees already including the members of the public who have begun to participate and I should say we have had one meeting since they became members of the committee. It was very effective in good meeting and it worked very well with the enlarged committee in the first meeting of it. So I'll just, at least that's my impression other members of the committee can weigh into their own assessments. So this next meeting on the 5th will be their second time where they're participating. So when I gave the number of people who I expect to meet at the front of the room, they include those three people. The one other item that was discussed at the last meeting and will be discussed again at the next meeting and then come before the council is a fairly large dollar request for money to do some significant improvements to the Centennial Water Treatment Facility. And it's really more than just a modification. It really is a reconstruction of the entire facility. And it's a pretty complicated question both in why this might be necessary and what the consequences and the amount of dollars that are being discussed might be. It is money that would be charged against water rates because it is a water enterprise fund question will be before the council is probably because we're the water commissioners. And the decision we make if it, whether to borrow the money or not to borrow the money and whether to have the improvements or not have the improvements affect the water system to the extent that we do decide to borrow the money and to make these large expenditures it then will affect future water rates. Though the calculation of what that means is something that is still under development to the extent that we can provide and develop that information. So that will also be discussed further on the fifth. And at this point, I believe might come before September meeting of the council. September 9th. I think September 9th is a ton of date. To bring it before the council. But it is the other major work that is going on in the committee. So I think that would advise for the report. Okay. GOL. As I alluded to earlier, GOL has voted to move forward for work groups to the council, but we're looking at amending potentially ad hoc committees too. So we want to bring them together because they're related to each other. At their next meeting, in addition to the referral that we just received for percent of art, we'll be looking at a resolution that should be at the council on Monday, next Monday. And we'll also be close to coming up with a policy to propose for resolutions, proclamations, commemorations and citations that will involve potentially revisions to three different documents. One of which you guys won't need to see because it's our own guidelines, the GOL guidelines for review of stuff, but also the creation of a public document regarding these. We're also looking at revisions to the public ways policy for flag raisings and commemorative flags that we hope to have to the council soon. And we are awaiting some town attorney advice on the publication of candidate statements before we really dig into what we can do with them. And we are hoping to have that advice before meeting on Wednesday, so. Okay. Oka. Alyssa, I think you're on board for this one. This is an interactive report. How many of you actually read Evan Ross's report? Come on, raise your hands. Yay. So we've made some progress there. We wanted to get that out to you now knowing that we were gonna be focusing on the evaluation, but as food for thought, because one of the things that Oka continues to find a challenge is trying to read everyone's minds here before we bring you a recommendation. And so we are hoping to have a conversation that I'm sure Evan will discuss with our president as to when that will be, if that will be at one of the September meetings or an early October meeting to talk more about what our expectations are as a council and how we might choose to meet those, whether it comes to our own appointments, which hopefully we won't have to make for a little while because no one will resign or move away from the appointments that we do, but also of course with the town manager's appointments, which are the vast majority of appointments. In terms of appointments, we were provided some additional appointments that we were not expecting. And so they will be acted on at the Oka meeting on the 26th and you probably won't, therefore you won't have a written report that night. Or if they're not ready, then you'll have a written report for the night, but that will meet the 30 day requirement for the town manager appointments. But we were not expecting them before our last Oka meeting and they appeared. Okay, so you're saying you don't think we have an agenda item on the 26th on that? We won't have a written report on the 26th, but it is entirely possible that we will be able to give you our recommendation verbally the night of the 26th because we will meet on the morning of the 26th. We normally give you written reports, but in this case, I think there are a few that we can do without. Would you please drop an email to tell me what those appointments will be so they're on the agenda? Yes. Thank you. Okay, anything else? Okay, they're moving on to approval of minutes. These have already been revised. Are there, is there a motion at this point and the motion is to approve the July 22nd, 2019 Town Council meeting minutes as presented and actually amended, presented. Is there a motion, a second? I need a second. Oh, I'm sorry. Steve, thank you. Any changes, corrections or additions? All right, hearing none. All those in favor, please say aye and raise your hand. Aye. Opposed? Abstain? An absence. So it's 11, four? No opposed? I'm sorry, it's nine, four. No opposed? Two abstained and two absent. Eight in favor? And who was the third abstain, abstention? Yours, you abstained. Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't see that. Okay, I'm sorry. There were eight in favor. Nobody was opposed. Three people abstained and three, two people are absent. Okay? The town manager's report. This will be brief, fortunately, because you're already in your hour six. Even though it's now six, four weeks since we've talked with you. There's more, but I'll be more, I'm just knocking things out until next week that aren't time urgent. Three date specific things. Thursday, Lauren Goldberg, our town attorney, will be here meeting with the Ranked Choice Voting Commission. This is, they're encouraging people to attend because this is part of their learn with us process. The second is next Tuesday, a week from tomorrow, still tomorrow, is the first day celebration on the town common. At the, which it celebrates the beginning of the new school year. The, on August 28th, which is Wednesday, is the parking forum, which is where the consultants will be returning to deliver their report on the parking forum. Then, once they have feedback from the public, they will be coming back in September, October, when they can ever get scheduled to make a formal presentation to the full council. So this is the preliminary sort of report. They will continue to receive feedback. Their final visit to the town will be before you as the keepers of the public way. UMass and other colleges are all starting the big move in weekend, it starts August 30th. So that's when everybody, we're all geared up for that. And then the only other thing I really want to talk about was Craig Stores because that has come up and that's been an issue. So Craig Stores is operated by a non-profit organization. They have four members of their board of trustees and they hire and fire the staff. They're responsible for it. They receive no town funds. We are, we devote town resources obviously because our police officers are there almost on a daily basis. We're participating in the homelessness systems forum that Julie Fetterman and other staff attend, including Captain Ting and Assistant Chief Olmsted and others who come regularly with other care, other providers in the network. So we're intimately involved. The resignations caught everyone off guard and I think that that was most, if we read the letter of resignation by the staff, it was really directed towards the board of directors. That being said, the shelter is a very important asset for the town and for the region and for the state. Everyone is concerned about maintaining the shelter. The state provides the bulk of funds to the shelter. $175,000 comes directly from the state. The Jane Banks who was the director at the state level secured an actual line item in the state budget as opposed to an earmark which we had had before. Earmarks can come and go based on the favor of the legislator at the time. An actual line item is much better. They get about $15,000 from the United Way. They raise a certain amount of money themselves and they have some other grants that they apply for and get by being a shelter. But so if they're in the $225,000 range in terms of a budget, $175,000 comes from the state. So the state is the driver on this thing. State was informed immediately about the condition, the situation, the state came in, did an audit of the organization. They have provided the organization with a corrective action plan. They also simultaneously were going down another path of saying is there another way to address the, to meet the needs of homeless people in Amherst because we had a state funding, we had a location, but we just didn't have the organized staffing. So they were reaching out to other agencies which Craig Storre's board of directors had done previously and had no takers. They were hopeful to have a larger organization come in and operate the shelter instead of hiring independent staff that's overseen by this four member volunteer board. That's still a work in progress. I think that's the preferred alternative. Whether that actually will come to fruition is a big question mark because a lot of the other non-profits who might be willing to step up also might, they have other reasons for not participating in this. So there's two paths going down. One is for the board of directors to take the corrective action that they need to take for themselves.  We would support them in any way they need to be able to hire qualified staff to run the shelter. The other path is to see if there's another agency who would come in and take the funding that has been secured through the state and others. United Way has promised that their funding would continue for this shelter or at least one member of the board of directors of the United Way has said that. So we think that the funding is secure. Conversations need to be had with the church whether they will continue hosting the shelter. The state has a problem with the way the shelter is operated because it doesn't open until 9.30 at night. They want the shelters to be open at five in the afternoon because there's a big gap when people are seeking to have dinner and then they're just waiting. We all see them every night waiting in bank lobbies and things like that until they can get to the shelter especially when it's very cold out. But the church has had a pretty firm line about we can't let people in because we have evening activities, we need our parking lot, we need our rooms available. So that's something that would need to be brought up with the church. People are very grateful for that the church is hosting. They do get paid rent for the space so it's not a purely an act of kindness on their part. But it's also something that they take on as a community and they're very committed as a religious community to this mission. So no real updates other than that there's a lot of people who are focused on it. You know, we've had a meeting with folks from lots of different groups who are trying to scope out what housed the best strategically. The state has the biggest footprint on this and they will be saying where they want their money spent in essence. And if we're, the hope is that Craig's doors will be strong enough to populate their staff and be able to run the shelter. The goal right now is, let's at least have what we had last year come November 1st. And it's gonna sneak up on it, it's not even sneaking up, it's just around the corner and to get people who are committed to being able to work those evenings and to organize the volunteers and to make arrangements for all the food. It's a lot of work that needs to be done. So I'm open to any questions on that. Go ahead. Yes, Dorothy. What were the staff, I had just visited it maybe a week before and there was not a clue that this was coming. The staff said they had serious problems with the board of directors. What were those problems? I'd rather you just read their letter because the letter was pretty explicit. It wasn't about the full board, it was about a member of the board that they felt wasn't serving their purpose well. I did read the letter and I still did not know what they meant. I'll talk with you. Okay. Yes, Shalini. Could we get access to the audit that was done by the state or is that a private document? I would ask the state, I don't know if that's private or not, but I can certainly ask the state. If they're a filed non-profit, the audit should be available. Yeah, I think so.  I mean, they have to file documents annually. But they may have additional requirements if their budget's a state grant in terms of disclosure. I would imagine because they have the state grant, they have to have their audit filed. So this is just a financial audit. It's also an audit of what the board needed to do. Like one of the things. Oh, that may not be public. To repopulate the board was one that, they were trying to do themselves, so that's been out there. That may not be public and they're not required to make that public. Yeah. Any other questions? I think since we'll see you a week from now, we can maybe catch up on all the other, the rest of the four weeks. Just very quickly on my, I've only one comment and that is, we did receive a proclamation for the 50th anniversary of the Jewish community of Amherst. And as I am supposed to now do, I automatically referred that to GOL and they'll be taking that up this week. Future agenda items. There's so many, I think we could probably sit here all night. But yes. In terms of following up on the shelter beyond just an update, one of the things that I think we need to clarify is what say, we don't have say because we don't have the financial strings that we had in the past when we originally set up the shelter and we asked somebody to come in and before these organizers to meet certain needs. If Craig Stores decides to go a different direction, et cetera, we may be less welcoming of their choices as opposed to another agency. So I think figuring out how to have that conversation is something that maybe you and Paul can talk about. Do we have any say or is it just, it's up to the church now that the state's weighing in and saying, well, we want you to open earlier, et cetera. We had a lot of community input before the shelter got started. Now we feel like it's largely out of the community's hands, but if they're going to come back for us for money at some point, et cetera, then maybe we'll be able to have that conversation again. Or if we can just say, nope, we get no say in this, this is just like any other nonprofit running stories. We don't tell big brothers, big sisters how to do their work unless they want to grant. I just think that needs to be clearer to people. Okay, Paul. So just, so our operating assumption is that what we have had in the past is what we want to continue to have. And so we're not changing anything. The state and we are saying we want it to be, continue to be a wet shelter, what they now call low threshold shelter, which seems to be the going, that the state wants all shelters to be that because it's really, there's no discernible real difference between wet shelter and dry shelter because they really are behavior-based shelters. So that and the fact that we want them open at least as early as 9.30, we'd like them to be earlier, which I think is what the state has said. I would definitely like them to be open. And then we want it to be operational. We would like it to be co-ed. We want to have the same number of beds as we have had previously. We want to support this fall. We need to go to the state building code to get a building board to get permission to continue to host the shelter the way it's been hosted in the past. So just, we're basically saying we're not looking to make any changes unless the council's next year or in the new year process says we want to make some significant changes to the shelter or get rid of the shelter, whatever. Again, the issues, where's our money? Okay, any other council comments? Yes. So I just wanted to mention thank you to Alyssa for starting the organization of first day council presence and first day celebration. And I think you might have started the block party one too, but I'm not sure. And you put out who should do it. And I'm gonna talk to Alyssa again since our chair of OCA is not here, but we have an outreach communications and appointments committee that it seems like the outreach portion of this might fit well under that committee. So I'm, in my council comments, making a strong suggestion that maybe OCA as part of their outreach portion of their charge can take charge of this. So Alyssa is doing this out of the goodness of her heart. No, she said she's not. But she wasn't doing it. Okay, so. Chair of OCA is not here, which is why you're the vice chair. So I'm readdressing that comment too. The list of things to be done as much shorter this year if someone wants to read that email, be happy to answer questions, but it's not my thing this year. Any other councilor comments? Any other topics not anticipated? Is there a motion to adjourn? So moved. Second. Second. Is there any other discussion? All those in favor say aye and raise your hand. Aye. Opposed? Abstained.