Like to call the 17th regular meeting of the shabuigan City Common Council to order where the clerk, please read the quote for the day Certainly Know your worth know what you deserve. No one. It's time to move on Thank you with a clerk, please call the roll there are 14 present Alderperson Schneider and Savaglio are excused Tonight we have a special guest to lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance Patrick is just recently this last weekend received his Eagle Scout. He had his court of honor Last Sunday Pat is a member of Troop 8 59 which is chartered by st. Dominic Parrish Current and he's currently the senior leader of Troop 8 59 His Eagle Scout service project was an important learning opportunity He wanted to provide the Shabuigan Leadership Academy a local charter school with a better and safer location for outdoor activities He planned and directed the transformation of an empty lot into a natural playground through the hard work of 35 community Volunteers who generously donated 220 hours of their time to make this project a success Scouting has instilled the values of hard work dedication and goals and achievement in many boys and help them to become strong men Pat's goal is to attend the United States Naval Academy and serve as a naval aviator Please stand and join Eagle Scout Patrick Fisher as he leads us in the Pledge of Allegiance Pat. Please come forward Thanks for joining us this evening Next item on the agenda is approval of the minutes from our last meeting all the person will Thank you for that motion and support. Is there any discussion on the minutes? Seeing none all those in favor signify by saying aye opposed motion passes Next item is mayor's appointments city clerk city attorney the mayor hereby submits the following appointments for your consideration to the Shabuigan squared bid board David gas Scott Brinke Steven McCartle David Hannahman David Sanderson dame check a linsky Thank you. Those appointments will lie over next. We'll go on to mayor's confirmation of appointment The mayor hereby submits the following appointment for your consideration Craig sider to be considered for appointments of the board of License examiners as the second alternate according to general ordinance number 1917 all the person wolf Thank you for that motion and support All those in favor, please sit. I'm sorry. We have to call a roll on this 15 eyes motion passes item 1.6 is mayor's confirmation of appointments city attorney Mayor hereby submits the following appointments for your consideration Jody Kramer to be considered for appointment to the mayor's neighborhood leadership cabinet Representing the Memorial Neighborhood Association as the primary member with the term to expire April 30 2018 And Nancy Maring to be considered for appointment to the mayor's neighborhood leadership cabinet Representing the Memorial Neighborhood Association as the alternate member term to expire April 30 2018 Thank you all the person wolf Thank you for that motion and support with a clerk, please call the roll 15 eyes motion passes Next item we'll move on to a presentation the Sheboygan squared business district annual report by David Hoffman Dave, please come forward Thank You mr. Mayor members of the council and honored guests I've never spoken before you before so this is kind of something new for me But over the last five and a half years I have been the manager of Sheboygan squared a business improvement district and over those five years the question that I get most Often is so you're the bid manager.  So to answer that for you guys tonight, we're going to talk about what we've done for the past year so for 2017 we Just a little bit of history we established three working committees That work in in report to our board and they are the Development committee the marketing committee and the operations committee these committees meet every month. They are Formed with our members Some of them that are board members some of them are just the regular members and we have monthly meetings And we set our strategy and our work plans and we work from that next slide, please One of the things that we've been working on and a few years back A lot of us took a trip over to Holland, Michigan And we saw a lot of things that they had done for their downtown and they've been working on it for about 20 years So they were kind of pretty far ahead of us But some of the things we noticed is they did a lot of creative things with music in their downtown and Lighting so we've been trying to establish that in our downtown and you can see from the pictures This is a little bit of what we've been doing with as you know, we've got the great Christmas lighting We've been lighting some of our underutilized spaces, which is in our alleys and of course one of the experiments we tried is having some classical music playing at the The water feature area of the library and it's been pretty effective at kind of clearing out some of the kids that We're hanging out and just making it a more Pleasant place to be Also, we the last few years. We've been purchasing flowers not only for The big planters that we have on the corners and then we bought the the baskets the pole baskets this year we actually bought new planters in conjunction with the city and Shoreline Metro and in addition to that separate planners for individual businesses and we went with a different florist this year Outer Creek and they just did a fantastic job I hope you all notice the flowers this year in downtown and throughout the bit It was really fantastic very happy with that. So we once again from a lot of the Symposiums we've attended Targeting our underutilized spaces especially along a street, you know with Plaza 8 We had a lot of alleys that were closed off and they've kind of been neglected So we've been trying to focus on those and once again with our lighting and our planters in there And of course we've got a partnership with the Art Center to put some hard work in some of these alleys and the first one You can see there on on the bottom right-hand side adjacent to the Wild Center. I won't get into this too much. You all know what's going on Of course our development projects we've got the encore apartments Portscape of course Portscape phase one is completely full and of course they're building more and they're filling up fast what we've seen with Portscape is a more of a The empty nesters, you know people my age And they like the garages I guess And in encore we've seen more of what what we kind of intended there was the Young millennials about 90% Then of course Parker John's major Addition to our riverfront And the new one the harbour point not harbour point Help me on high point high point apartments. Of course the location of the former tripar And that one's going up quick This is a document that we've been working on and this took a long time to put together But I think we're we're pretty happy with how it turned out This is a document that we can use kind of as our talking points to to talk to potential Retailers and new members to the bid and also to let our current members know just exactly what benefits and services We can provide for them. So it's a great document We really are digging in more into our marketing we now have a comprehensive calendar To coordinate our events what we're doing for advertising our cross marketing We really want to focus on that and of course the social media We found that a lot of our members really have no Just not much knowledge of how to utilize social media because a lot of it is basically free And our partnerships with the arts community, you know, that's one of the things that we stressing with our Masterplan we of course have the partnership with the John Michael Kohler Art Center for the Lebedan concert series It's been a big big Success and of course we're going to go into our fourth year now. We haven't gotten the grant yet Little snapshot of our events over the past year restaurant week was new in 2017 and that was very well received the restaurants are very happy with that Get some people out and about in the middle of cold January Harvest Fest is always a great great event for the kids and Venetian night It's just only in Sheboygan. Could you get thousands of people to see some boats with with some Christmas lights on? I thought I'd go back five years on this this kind of gives you a little bit of an inclination or indication of how we've increased our social and Internet web presence our newsletter started out with about two hundred and eighty five Subscriptions and we're up to fifty five hundred Our website our average weekly users were over seven hundred a week now our Facebook likes were at about forty seven hundred Which is borne by Caitlin Bratz of all of them. She's in the 25,000 but we're doing pretty good and our map and events guy, which is very popular Started out when I when I started we we had 17,000 were up to 30,000. So that's a great piece to market To tourists, of course And we want to welcome our our new members into the bid. This has been a banner year for new business as you can see I won't read them all off, but Got five there next one Six more harvest cafe great place Parker Johns, of course the lost sheep great great little shop You know if you've got people that like to knit boy They just love that place and of course sports gave repeat after me We got them from the Miller Road little strip all there They wanted some more action and they got it And of course a credit union was a name change Our day makes opened up men's clothing once again in the downtown for the first time in about 20 years I think and Rella shatted on a cooking school, which has been very popular and another Change on the red Move all of who moved across the street kind of tripled her space and she's been going great guns The other one very proud of his freak toys if you've never been in that store. It's Any of you watch pawn stores a lot of people say that this this store right here in downtown Sheboygan blows that one away. So check it out. You really got to be in there You know our partnership with Metro and the guys over a chance it has been nothing short of amazing a lot of the things that we do in the bed would not happen without those guys DPW as well, but those guys kind of really have helped us out a lot So this was to introduce the parking study, but anyway, thank you to the guys from Derek and the guys from shoreline metro. They they work on all of our planners and Keeping our streets free of weeds, which is important So looking forward to 2018 One of the things we're going to do to try and get a little extra revenue into the bid is an associate member program Basically, we're looking at asking some of our rental rental properties to kick in a little bit of money towards the bid for For our efforts and then also an associate membership for people like perhaps Charter boats Charter boat captains would like to be part of the bid And this is a way that they can do it without actually owning on the property Marketing once again, we've got a great committee there Once again trying to get prop cross promotion. This is something that Jane from relish does really good You know, she has a promotion. She ties it in with all of who she ties it in with the art center With the wild center just to get people downtown the more we can work together everybody does better and Operations, so we're going to keep working on these alleyways and other underutilized spaces, of course, we've got the city green which has been Finally getting to the completion stage. It's going to be It's going to be some work to get that space energized, but I think we've got a great start Of course, we got Levin amp going in there and we'll be getting some more Entertainment in that area and of course keeping up with our flowers and our This is the biggest thing in my five and a half years on the bid has been the cooperation between the bid and of course The city of Sheboygan especially visit Sheboygan The other ones you can see there the John Michael Collard Center and I just my my hats off to you guys I want to say one thing That really made an impact on me You guys have the guts to stand up and purchase that Boston store property if you wouldn't have done that I don't think we'd be where we are today quite frankly that took a lot of a lot of guts and thank you for doing that You know other communities we talked to they they are jealous. They're like wow We wish we had that kind of relationship, but we have it here Sheboygan and that is to your credit. Thank you any questions Thanks day for you know coming in today chatting with us. I think a lot of what you guys are doing is awesome I did want to kind of talk about kind of what are some more future plans with some of the placemaking You know are there any more alleys in the in the bid area that you feel like that we need to oh, yeah What what's kind of the future? Well two in particular that we have pretty solid plans right now the first one will be it's not really an alley It's a space where the former's weavers office supply was it's between Mavericks barbershop and in 501 the 501 building And that's going to be another art piece done by the John Michael Kohler Art Center with a visiting artist And that will get started in spring And of course we also have a real good relationship with the Sheboygan visual artists and Peg Howard has been working with us as a matter of fact we're meeting with her again tomorrow to perhaps get some Some of the local artists and and doing some prints of theirs and actually having them up on buildings in these alleys So it's it's very exciting things are going to be looking pretty good Thank you Chad Pellecek. I just wanted to say on that as well. We in the block grant allocation for 2018 we put aside $75,000 to partner with the John Michael Kohler Art Center So they will be doing a connecting communities program at the city green which will be playable play structures So we don't know what that looks like yet But it's a project that'll be rolled out in the spring where it'll be some additional Art on the city green or the green space so that it energizes that space when it's not having a Concert venue or some type of other venue there And it's kind of a thing of trying to draw people from both the art center and the downtown across that as a connector So that's a project that's I think about a hundred and seventy thousand the national endowment of the arts is funding The rest of it and they've used some of our money as a match against a grant that they have so they'll be rolling That out this spring and hopefully getting these things constructed sometime in summer Which should be a great add to the whole downtown place making Thank you any other questions All their person boring Dave I just want to thank you for your I think it's five years As a chairman and wish you good luck in your retirement It's for I think the older persons that are retired. They can tell you retirement is highly recommended, but stay busy I Get calls almost every other day.  Thank you Jim appreciate that and by the way On my way out the door. I really enjoyed the last five and a half years I got to tell you it's been the most interesting job you could ever imagine. It's really very unique But my successor successor is Amanda Salazar and she's got all that young millennial energy I think it's gonna be great for the bid so look forward to that. Thank you As you mentioned Dave's gonna be retiring a few weeks and I want to extend our thanks for his five years of service as the manager of the Sheboygan squared business district during this time Dave worked tirelessly to accomplish and support the business district He's worked to build strong partnerships with the city Chamber se DC our cultural venues and the businesses in the downtown and Harbor Center Dave's a Sheboygan native who is well networked with the entire community and these connections has proved to be very valuable in his position The manager position is a one-man office No, but no job was beneath Dave one minute to the success of a projector event You'd be amazed the things that Dave has done Outside of what you'd normally expect of a business improvement district manager They became active also in the Wisconsin downtown action council and was Susan invited to serve on their board of directors This last October the Wisconsin action downtown council held their annual summit in Sheboygan They did a great job of arranging tours of our business district and presentation on the Harbor Center master plan I had the opportunity to attend some of the sessions and really impressed by the positive comments from these business district managers from around Wisconsin and what they had to say about our community and Dave's work to achieve this success Dave I want to thank you personally for all of your presentation tonight And all of your past efforts as a manager to the Sheboygan Square Business District is a small token of our appreciation I'd like to present you this key to the city and a big thank you to you for everything David We'll go on to the public forum city clerk Yes this evening we have four people speaking first on the list is Steven Hemsing Steve if you could come on up to the mic and Steve, can I have your home address, please? 1159 cherry And you will have five minutes I am here to speak to talk about the parking ordinance on cherry There is no parking school days 7 a.m. 4 p.m. Tony Orchard Drive and South 12th place also have the same parking restriction This parking restriction came at the request of the residents on those streets at the time Because of the many problems that were occurring in the area around South High School There is a petition by some of my neighbors to remove the parking restriction on Cherry Lane. I Am against any change in the parking on Cherry Lane a street that I have been a resident of for over 32 years Over those years some of my fellow South High neighbors South High school staff The school board and the police department have worked hard to get the South High area the way it is today We now have new residents on Cherry Lane did that that did not live their journeys trying times I understand the inconvenience this may cause some of the residents But most residents are new residents and purchased their home with the parking restriction in place Support of some residents to have the parking restriction removed Should not be the deciding factor in removing the parking restriction It should be why the parking restriction was put in place in the first place If the parking restrictions lifted on Cherry Lane You can bet that the new residents on the other two streets will ask for it also And we will be back to square one in no time Yes, there has been some remodeling at South High But I feel as a result of that remodeling The parking restriction is even more important now than what it was before for several reasons I hope we all had a chance to read a letter from the principal of South High School And it also has the support from the superintendent of schools I would like to personally say principal formal and the staff at South High School For really caring and taking an interest It shows a lot when concerned neighbors and the South High School staff can work together I am asking the altar persons and the mayor if need be to please the parking restriction on Cherry Lane the way it is Thank you Thank you Steve Next on the list is Mike Brunette Mike. Could you come up to the mic, please? And Mike, can I have your home address 1925 so 26th Street? And you will have five minutes sir. All right I'm just here to speak against Steve Simple simple thing and it's like Half procedural half weirdness, but it's like and nothing personal like not most It's not supposed to be but probably is but it's kind of like it might what I signed up for is something In the position of the in the mayor's office that they're switching it over from the secretary slash whatever to communication slash same stuff and Basically from what you read on your thing about the job description and what the duties are and from what I read on The wall up on the second floor out by HR It's two completely different skill sets. I'm seeing needed but more importantly and it's like a my understanding of city clerk's office that they're more or less Third information people when you guys need to know something you're getting it from city clerk's office or they're getting the minutes they're getting whatever get an information out to the city and you all know if you Pay attention to any of my rants, and it's like my biggest thing isn't what you're doing it's usually the information in the lack of it and Basically, I can name more than one time and affecting very many of you councilmen where you're telling me afterwards It's like well We didn't know what you knew and it's kind of like and I'm kind of like how other than the fact that I'm digging And I'm getting it from people and that came from the same sources, but more importantly It's it's one of those things that I'm always shocked that nobody says why aren't we getting that information in the most part It's out there, and it's like but a lot of it isn't and it's very misleading And when you vote on things and go you can't blame me because we were told this and it's that and Basically, it's all boils down to that information and information is actually pretty darn simple I mean you get it out there you put it out there people see it But it's like my concern is a good chunk of the people in City and county government these days are basically the staff of the Sheboygan Press writing all these articles They're all communications people, but yet you have a lot of communications people inside the city Why aren't why don't you have a? Communications person and it's like and why isn't it and I'd say the same thing about the TV station Why isn't it under the directive of the city clerk's office?  It's like that's all good. They have an information thing, but not as a Website designer this and that and da da da and he's going to be our PR guy You have pretty much tons of those already and it's like I think it's more important to get all just all the bare facts like from a meeting for say Why isn't it just simply recorded and which would be the easiest of all things and cheapest and Basically online after the meeting and then you can all this go back to the notes more than once I've heard all other persons go. It's like boy. We look at these Reduced minutes which also take a lot more time to produce than the actual minutes and it's like we don't get the real minutes It's like neither does anybody else and on the same note as that when you had your brainstorming session And it was all about information and openness my favorite part is the people who were doing it on that their big their big thing is well We are the ones that have the hard problem getting the information us the city council people and it's like no you actually have an Advantage, but the fact is most people are drowning in the lack of information and that's all I got and Have fun. Thank you, Michael Next on the list is Kevin from old Kevin if you could come up, please Yeah Right I'm here as the speaking as a principal at South High School And I wanted to speak about the petition that is out for removing the parking restrictions of 7 a.m. Before p.m. On Cherry For us, it's been you know, thank you first the Cherry Lane residents for having made this decision back in 94 and Holding it through the years. It has been helpful for us and managing our students and helping them with making Kind of keeping those Things from happening the community. I do Just kind of want to give some background and just not speaking really for or against necessarily But just want the the older persons here to know some of the ramifications or concerns that I would have is the building principal about What this might mean for us and for our students when it comes to managing student behavior But also looking at student safety concerns as well So as you know, our main office has moved to a new address of 1240 Washington Avenue So our main office is now on the west side of the building where previously have been on the east side of the building That's if you weren't aware of that there has been that change some of the things as you know with just Some of the scary things that are going on in terms of school safety We work really diligently at creating a one entry to our building during the school day So students may enter the building Before 745 a.m. Through two areas they can enter through the commons or through the main office And also through the doors the previous main office doors by our library on South 12th Street During the school day the only entry into our building is then through the main office for which we buzz every visitor into our school And we have some very strict policies for students who would choose during the school day to leave or exit any other doors without permission from us so So those doors are not kind of unlocked again until 315 and the students can kind of be capable of any door that they please And also during the lunch hour We allow students to use the doors on South 12th Street our previous main office during lunch time To support really kind of the surrounding neighborhood with kids who are going home for lunch Also lucky star on the corner of Washington and South 12th is a hotspot for many of our students But reentry back into the building during that time can only come back to our main office where students can be buzzed in So just so you have the background of kind of the the change in structure that Is with our building hours and things like that the concerns that I have you know the current policies really allowed us to manage and Supervise our students in a much more contained environment where with the school policy We have some very strict policies on what students may have on their person or in their vehicles So we're looking at school safety. We know that the vehicles that are in our parking lot are subject to some of our own building expectations with Search if you will have a student permission We do bring in the police department canine unit periodically for which we do a run in the parking lot So allows us to kind of ensure that safety for our students when it comes to those pieces Students are most likely will gravitate to those streets of South 12 for orchard If they become a part of this as well and share your lane because it is closer to our academic part of our building And there's also, you know that piece of no-off campus Supervision if you will we don't have cameras in the air. We do have cameras in our parking lot. So it is some concerns for us Community impact. I know that as experienced prior to 94 and There was an issue of a lawyering littering skipping And some of those things will probably come back to us when students start to see that the signs are down Who knows how long that will take them to look up from their screens, of course similar issues of student safety is We have You know by creating the environment that you would have when people get dropped off or get picked up There's not a vehicle can't reside too long in our parking lot without one of us noticing it and going out and saying hey What's what's going on when you've been hanging out here for a while? We won't be able to have that same type of Supervision when it comes to the city streets. We're just not gonna be able to manage that the other Piece for us, I think you know I respect the Cherry Street residents and I understand that you're gonna make a decision I just hope that you take some of these pieces into consideration And I'm you know, I'm hearing an overwhelming number of the residents are seeking for it to be removed But I'm hoping that there would be a speedy process if that in the event or if we're not able to do it now I understand that you're bound by some of your own Bylaws and policies that if there was a way to get to resident permit only it would really be a win-win for the kids and for the residents And allows us to kind of be able to manage our kiddos and keep them safe while at school and not have to worry about What's happening on the other streets of our community? so thank you for that and please email me or phone me if you have questions before Resolution is made of us not tonight. Thank you. Thank you, Kim Excuse me and last on the list is David Mim David And David can we have your home address, please 1144 cherry Lane, okay? And you'll have five minutes sir. I also am speaking on the parking restrictions. I'm chairling Saturday I received the letter same letter that the console got during the club works committee from Sultai's principal On there there was no written that somebody reconsidered because we do not have States I might not have signed a petition doing this Senate to understand we would get resident parking only not open parking to include students With that information I went back around my neighborhood this afternoon today and I talked to 13 out of 15 residents that were home Everybody's still in support of changing it. So I don't know who the one resident is that has a concern But we have still overwhelming majority. I didn't have a chance to get to the last couple houses As they were probably work we It's been An inconvenience By a fire stretch. I mean not everybody works day shift. We do have third shift families that are there And we only have certain amount of parking spots as our kids are getting older. I moved in in 2009 my kids were very little now. They're coming up the park driving age And we're just out of spots to park now. They're parking round the corner and out in front of other people's houses And just not seem right to us We'd like some consideration into this with us We cannot change it to permit parking by a state statute that we have to change it to take the signs down first And then if we have problems, we'd like to come back and address it to get permit parking at City Public Works Committee We had a police department chief there and he stated that it wasn't a concern for the police department either if we Part constrictions were to change I'd like to consideration and really thinking about this and helping us out with this situation Thank you. Thank you, David And that's it for this evening Thank you very much. Next we will go on to Mayor's announcements First of all, I want to remind everybody about the snow emergency public information meetings coming up our Public Works Department has followed through and formed a committee and put together some recommendations for possible changes in the snow emergency and At these public meetings, they're able to gain some input from the Residents that they can bring back to the Public Works Committee at a future meeting and those are going to be this Tuesday The 12-5 at Maywood this Wednesday 12-6 at Mead Public Library and next Monday 12-11 at King Park and all these meetings are scheduled from 5 30 to 7 o'clock And also remind everybody that the current alternate side parking has started Remember to park on the correct side of the street based on the date and the basic rule is park for tomorrow And I also like to thank County Board Chairman Tom Wagner for a quick response and allowing us to use this room Late last week. We found out that we had a problem with the elevator and it took a call and And he checked out the schedule and said sure. It's no problem And this you know, maybe an opportunity for us to test this because when City Hall is being remodeled We're going to need an alternate place to hold our meetings and this could put the bill for us And if anybody came late just remember if you'd like to speak press the blue button Blue button on the pad in front of you in order to get the chairs attention Thank you Next we'll move on with the consent agenda This will include items 2.2 through 2.15 all the person will Thank you for that motion in support is there any discussion on any of the items in the consent agenda See none will the clerk, please call the roll nice Motion passes moving on to reports of officers I am 3.1 is our number 239 of 1718 by the city planning Commission who was referred general ordinance number 27 of 1718 by all the person full shoe Schneider and Our number 233 of 1718 by the city clerk submitting a communication from actually Breslin LLP on behalf of Wilson land holdings LLC along with petition for direct annexation by unanimous approval and recommends Approval of the general ordinance all the person down here. Thank you. I move to accept and file and pass your orders Is there a second second? Thank you for that motion in support. Is there any discussion on motion? See now will the clerk, please call the roll for passage Motion passes item 3.2 is our number 240 of 1718 by the city planning Commission to who was referred general ordinance number 28 Of 1718 by all the person whole shoe and Schneider and our number 232 of 1718 by submitting a petition for direct annexation by unanimous approval from Brian J Briggin and Julie K Briggin Living trust three parcels racetrack road and recommends approval of the arguments in our own all the person Belanger Thank you. I move to accept and file and pass your orders Second. Thank you for that motion in support. Is there any discussion on the motion? See none will the clerk, please call the roll Motion passes item 3.3 will lie over items 3.4 through 3.6 and we refer to various committees And the resolutions 4.1 is resolution number 104 of 1718 by all the person's not anymore and both Ryan flesh and Ross adopting the 2018 city of Sheboygan compensation program for now Employees and recommends passing the resolution This one is scheduled to lie over what I'd like to call up HR director CD Warwick to introduce this concept to give us some information all over until our next meeting Handed out a document. I'll be referring to the success of our organization is depend upon a skilled trained workforce On a yearly basis employees who successfully perform their job are eligible for a yearly increase Problem is that oftentimes we hire people at entry-level pay and often they become fully trained in a position Yet they're way behind in salary So that is our current state and our future state is to offer not just the merit increase But for those people who are under market rate to have an accelerator built into their increase Again, it's all based on merit and job performance The first step of this process was to do a review of the positions and determine the market value The second was to revise a pay scale our current scale has 16 steps the new scale has 19 and Then to develop a reward program that offers Different grids and rewards for different levels of achievement So what you see in the compensation review that's on the attached document there is a It's called 2018 city of sheboygan permanent non rep positions this this scale Was revised and you did not receive the revised one. So what you're going to see next time is It has purple on the top And that is through direct feedback from department heads And there was a few positions that we did go out and review with Carlson Deppman They did not participate in this whole program, but they did do some spot checks And then you also have the the new pay grades There are 19 different grades And you have what's called a merit increase guide The hope is that we can retain our employees. We have had an increase Approximately 36% of our employees are paid less than market rate The number of employees who have resigned since 2014 have either doubled or tripled And that's not people who retire we average about five to seven employees per year that retire But the people who have resigned we went from approximately seven or eight people in 2014 to as many as 19 people And that's that's a pretty good percentage increase There is a cost to this program a 2% merit increase pool costs approximately a hundred and twenty-seven thousand Our average payroll is about a million dollars per payroll. So total payout is about twenty six million An accelerated portion of this program would likely cost an additional sixty thousand But we expect results that we can reward employees and that we can retain them And then the second thing you have is our employee benefits There are several changes the highlights are health insurance You've already approved an increase in health insurance of 10% and different Contributions to health savings account. That's simply documented what you have the discretionary paid time off Employees like to save because we have a conservative workforce They like to save some discretionary paid days off to the end of the year But then if they don't use them they lose them now. We're allowed to carry over 24 hours overtime pay We do not pay overtime automatically on holidays But we are recommending that we include holidays paid in the calculation of 40 hours work So that if an employee works over 40 hours in that week that they were paid they get the overtime at that point Be read with me. This has been a hardship for many employees who've expressed concern So we're introducing that back into our benefits and then shift premium simply allows department heads discretion with an average Shift premium of 40 cents an hour and again this document somehow got mixed up So you had this plan on the document so that also has to be held Over until the next council meeting Thank you very much. My question for you is is are there questions? Do you feel you feel you can support the program or do you have any questions for me? Thank You mr. Mayor my question be have you tracked where your resignations have gone? What type of industry have they gone into? similar industries most of the resignations are for people who are trained on our jobs for example, we would have a Snowplow operator starting with us at 17 an hour and get trained and then jump over to the county Making 20 an hour because that's their minimum pay. Thank you We have to hold it because the document is not the most current document so we have to do that logistically So we'll come back to this the first meeting and meet the next meeting on the console on the person wolf Thank You, ma'am. I think this is a good a good plan It's very important that we retain the talent that we have and that we have a plan for the future to To entice people to stay within the city and grow within the city So I think this is a good opportunity even though it does have a cost again We need to keep that talent and we need to stop having people jump ship Just because of the dollar we need to work on our benefits and our pay when 36% is under the average That's not a good sign well the person Just want to point out that Finance a personal committee spending extensive time going through all the details of everything that is here all different jobs And all the different benefit levels who are looking at so This is coming quickly, but we spent a good deal of time at the committee level actually reviewing it and there's an HR person I think it's a really good plan to send these put together and help you support Thank you for those comments all the person Belanger I'm concerned about the accelerator the way it's worded and it says lightly cost an additional 60,000 What is exactly is it going to cost? I mean I guess I don't want to support something with the word likely and then be surprised that You know increases significantly or something down the road. So I guess I would like Clarification to what exactly it is currently we have I can give you statistics from last year because this is a merit-based program We don't know what what people will earn when I say likely it is worst-case scenario of if every single person had an absolutely outstanding review and Our budget was increased by 2% for merit increases Last year we did a study on how many people actually received the 20 the 2% and it was 65% of Employees received it. So then there's Stegars, you know a little bit low and a little above But the amount that was eligible for that last year was 127,000 so there was much less than that that was actually given and it's based on Performance this is the complicated part of a merit program is you can't do across-the-board Calculation in most organizations you have 2% everyone gets lifted 2% there. There's an absolute worst-case scenario for this merit program was if everyone was an outstanding review They would have received about 80,000 and the cost 60,000 uses the same calculation of the Portion of people that received different reviews as last year Okay, so I Guess I'm a little confused. I thought you identified certain positions that were under You know and then you would know what those positions were to get them out to get them accelerated And that would be it, you know a finite number and be easy to pinpoint what that is You're saying that's not the case What you have is is a merit review guide And so I can tell you that 36% of the people are under the midpoint for their position Then based on where they fall if they receive an exceeds or outstanding and the majority of Performance and achievement of goals. They can get actually up to a 4% Very few people will reach this threshold So when I say projected cost of 60,000 I do Talk with every department head and I put out a projection with the input from department heads on where they felt The employees would be so this is a it is a guesstimate, but it is a very educated When is the reviews do and when would you know where these people fall? The reviews are due by the end of December Okay So then that's when we know Correct. Thank you for those questions Thank you And just following up on older Belanger's observations it is very helpful for us to remember and I appreciate that information that are By weekly by monthly Our 26 payrolls Equal approximately 26 million dollars All right, so that when we do put that Accelerator portion of $60,000 in the context of that It seems that as we had discussed in finance and personnel That the payback to the city in terms of retaining personnel that we've trained Is what more than pay for itself? So I think that Even if it is the full $60,000 I think it's a really smart way of for us to be doing business and to and to keep the folks that we've been trained If we put a cost there's some estimates out there six months to a year to the total cost of replacing a person is One year salary of that job. So far if our turnover has gone just in resignations from seven people to 19 That's 12 extra people times an average $50,000 This is this is an investment. It's not just a cost. It's an investment and retaining people Thank you very much It's Authorizing the appropriate city officials to execute The attached termination to release document regarding the South Pier townhomes Thank you mayor make a motion to suspend and pass resolution and I would recommend that Thank you for that motion and support You go right there The last council meeting the council approved the document that Approved basically the sale this land so in the development agreement between the city and Portscape departments and so here it gives them the option to exercise an option to actually purchase the land They had originally we're going to purchase all of the land. So they're building on four parcels They're purchasing just the land under the first two parcels where the project that's completed today is At the last meeting you approved Conditions to that sale They're moving forward with the sale and In this termination and release document. There's been some modifications to it that their lender the permanent lender Which is Fannie Mae has required and in a couple of them are Trivial or minor, but there's one in there about a Release of a blue of this land from the Blue Harbor development agreement this this these parcels had originally been back in 2004 looked at as maybe potential I would say expansion for Blue Harbor resort and Kind of income that development agreement encompassed this land and we're just releasing our Rights to that land so they can obviously purchase it With the apartments on it Blue Harbor isn't going to exercise their right to purchase it. So There's Chuck and I reviewed the information. We really don't have an issue with it They would like to close on this first phase tomorrow. So that's the reason for the suspension Okay Well the first they're actually purchasing the first phase, so they're just purchasing where the 55 units are And then next year when the Construction 33 minutes 36 units of them that are under construction today Then next year they'll be in here to buy the other two parcels under that agreement Any other discussion? See none of the clerk please call the roll motion passes under reports of committees item 5.1 is RC number 193 of 1718 by the Finance and Personnel Committee who was referred our number 213 of 1718 by the Board of Water Commissioners seeking a revenue bond issuance in the amount of 4.74 million in 2018 for the combined purposes of funding the South Water Tower at 2.4 million and a refund of the 207 revenue bonds at 2.34 million for interest savings and resolution number 2018 by all the person down to you providing for the sale of approximately 4,855,000 water utility bond series 2018 recommends accepting and filing the report of officer passing the resolution Thank you, I move to accept file and pass the resolution Thank you for the motion to support under discussion all the person boring Thank you, Mayor My wife 2007 revenue bonds, therefore I will be stating on the slope Thank you very much any other discussion See none will the clerk please call the roll 14 minutes one extension motion passes Item 5.2 is RC number 189 of 1718 by Finance and Personnel Committee who was referred resolution number 98 of 1718 all the persons down here authorizing the establishment of an appropriation in the 2017 budget for engineering software and recommends passing the resolution All the person down here. Thank you. They are moved to accept adopting past the resolution second Thank you for that motion in support. Is there any discussion on motion? See now the clerk please call the roll 15 eyes Motion passes Item 5.3 is RC number 182 of 1718 by the Public Works Committee members refer communication number three of 1718 submitted by all the persons born and starts in submitting a communication and petition from David 1144 cherry Lane requesting that the parking restrictions on cherry Lane You change and recommends approving the request and direct city staff To draft an ordinance to comply with the request all the person goals. Thank you mayor. I make a motion to accept and adopt Second. Thank you for the motion in support under discussion Other person will shoot. Thank you, Mr. Maynard. I just have a couple comments when we had We listened to the principal of south high school. This came before public safety and protection a couple years ago and It was voted down not to remove The signs and I'd like to hear from the police chief as to why and what's changed that we now They're approving it when they did approve it a couple years ago I think it's important that it remain the way it is and I will not be in support of us All that's happening today is that they're directing our office to draft an ordinance. They're not actually approving it today Normally this wouldn't even come back to council or probably shouldn't have but it did so Directing us to draft an ordinance in what public works next week and come back to you two weeks after When all they're voting on tonight is directing me to draft an ordinance. So in the next meeting we'll be voting on this issue Yes, and I'm curious as to why it's going where it's going and not going back to public safety Because all traffic matters have moved to public works as of a year ago That's correct. This falls under the other one said that we've sent to public work It used to go to public protection safety. I like the public works. Thank you Okay, I'm very free to discussion all the person starts I guess I will speak in favor of this a lot of the neighbors that have spoken Um A large majority of them agree that we should you know try something new this ordinance has been in place since 1994 and I guess I'll speak as Probably the most recent recent high school graduate himself high in the room That I don't think that a lot of students will you know be going smoking in this area or eating their lunch Anything In this area anymore I I'm all for trying something new Seeing if this works. It doesn't work. Let me do a parking impact study See if we can do permit parking only if I teach you that stuff we have to You know remove the signs uh, we're going to the department there the school day So I'm Thank you for those comments all the person so vaguely off my question was answered. Thank you Um, I do have a question. I think mr. Mim said that this is directed to the city attorney that We are not in a position or we are not able to issue residence Licensed resident parking permits like we do in other parts of the city Not yet Could you just explain that process so the residential permit parking process does require a traffic study If you did a traffic study right now with no parking allowed The traffic study will find no problem and not allow the issuance of permits You would actually have to withdraw the Regulations then do the traffic study And you need to give them a little bit of time for things to settle For people to start realizing that that is now The reason why we are required to do a traffic study for residential parking permit restrictions Is because the assumption of the law is that the streets are available for the use of everyone And to limit it to only the residents in the neighborhood requires In essence for there to be a situation that is Unusual and approve that by the party. Um, and that's just a odd kind of quixotic way of approaching it and like traffic I assume you mean parking For example on ontario out in between fifth and sixth street. There is restricted parking resident permanent parking Not a lot of traffic on that street, but there's a lot of parking which is problematic Um, so the traffic study really would reflect The parking study, I mean it would reflect what is happening at the race hours of the day compared to parking. Okay Um, the reason I'm going to vote against this and I understand procedurally now and I appreciate that explanation Um, I just think it's a waste of time to draft the ordinance So just to date myself. I was on the school board in 1994 And I remember the great difficulty That the school was having at that time with students who were parking on cherry and orchard and south 12 place And it really is kind of a free zone In other words the city really i'm sorry in the school district The folks at south high don't really have a lot of jurisdiction.  Formlow indicated in his letter Um students who would normally be exiting to the parking lot on the west will not be just coming out on the east side It's quick. It'll be quicker than we'll have to walk around and and Then and then we're going to have a number of neighbors who are Concerned about the trash the littering The kids hanging out Um, you know just various things because this becomes And I I say playground. I don't need a playground in the sense that these are not kids who use a playground, but It becomes an extended area for recreation. I guess would be the the best way to put it So it was a big battle in 94 it took a long time And it finally got through and I think it's just Kind of foolish for us and I'm just wondering if there is some work around Because the residents should be able to apply for a permit Chuck who requires the traffic study do we or does the state it's both It's it's an ordinance, but it's based on the state statute Really what should have happened is in 1994 that should have done traffic study in the residential parking Then I was in here in 1994 to recommend that That it ended up two years later. I would See That's what they should have done. Um, and then we wouldn't be here, but they didn't um, and so now we're here And so now we don't have the ability to go directly from where we're at the residential parking This is kind of funny. Sorry Thank you for those comments of all their personal rules. Thank you, mayor I get supportive of this. This is a good example of where, um, a group of, uh, constituents have Come to the city ask for change. We've we've spent, uh, two sessions in public works explaining and reviewing the situation like, uh, Like, uh, all the noon Sorry, um, like Chuck had to review the the process whether we like the process or not They would like to see it go to a some type of a permit basis But because of the the rules in place The study would have to be done. They understand that by taking this parking and going to Back to the way it was back in 1984 or 1983 24 years ago six graduating classes later Let's try to give people a little bit of, uh Some benefit that things do change if we're going to have rules and never look at changing them I think that that's that's a little old-fashioned Um, the the neighbors understand that If it doesn't work, they can come back to the city and they can ask for the no parking to be reinstated But they would like to try it and you know have a study done later To go to a permit basis. So I think it's this is a good example of how we're looking at a situation that's Uh, decades old We understand the safety and security issue and if something does happen we can react as quickly as we are in Um, changing it back to uh, uh, thank you Thank you for those comments. All the person or inflation I also was on the school board in 1994 when we actually ended up in the current policy We worked very long and hard with the neighbors to come up with a policy that would address the problem situation we had then I'm close to changing it now Thank you, mayor. Uh, I attended the public works meeting Along with all of it sorenson Both all of them from the eighth district attended the public works meeting and we heard the debate on both sides One thing that impressed me at the meeting was something that all the belliger said and that he said that The north high students appear to be very well behaved and in all regards around north high school He has yet to receive a complaint from his constituents in the north high area I see no reason why that can't happen at south high school This is almost unanimous in the neighborhood And therefore i'm going to support making the change Seconding pretty much with all of the sorenson has already said if it doesn't work out I'm sure mr. Hemsing and other neighborhood neighbors will be will be bringing bringing it to our attention But I feel comfortable with the vast majority of students Going in the entrance over on the washington site I think it has a good chance of working and I think we should give it a chance So I would recommend you to uh vote to have the city attorney graph the ordinance. Thank you Thank you for those comments all the person trust her I live on the west side and I can tell you that the students at north high school are not as controlled as what Alderman Belliger would like you to think because I personally have complained to the principal at north high school That the kids that park by the cemetery where my mom and dad are both very Tend to throw their trash Empty their cars and it blows into the cemetery and I have asked the principal on several occasions to please have the children come out And pick up the trash So I am not voting in favor of this Thank you for those comments all the person down here Just very briefly, I would suggest that if the neighbors think that they're going to have more parking available to them They probably will not because the students are going to be very happy to park up their streets So if they're hoping for additional parking, I don't think this is their solution All the person starts Just to make a few more comments. Um, I'll let anyone guess where I was in 1994 Um, but If we if we listen to what principal formal was saying that the entrance to south high school has changed Students cannot access The cultural entrance during school day Or you know anytime, you know before after school so students aren't going to park on cherry lane walk all the way around over there I was a student at south high Not that long ago So I don't think especially in the winter. I don't think students are going to be hanging around outside of my car um Walking all the way around just to get in the school to eat a hamburger or whatever from McDonald's and throw their glitter out um I think you know this ordinance was put in place 24 years ago a lot is changing this uh this time I also want to reiterate that this has been a constituent driven initiative 16 of the 15 neighbors that live in this neighborhood Signed a petition asking for this. So it's the citizens. It's the people asking for Something to try something different. It doesn't work. Um, you know, I'm sure that through the government process will act very quickly to address this situation Thank you, the person bill here Thank you. Um, I just like to clarify something that alderman bornersome stated At the public works committee meeting, uh, there was a comment made by Mr. Henson that He referred to north and he said if you just he go back to that just look what's going on up at north It's a complete mess. Was the was the word that he used and I took objection to that stating that Um, I've recently had three kids go through north. I'm heavily involved with the north north boys basketball booster club I'm up there all the time. I represent that district Um, there has not been one complaint that I've received regarding anything as far as parking goes I did have one a couple years ago On north 12th street where they wanted to have commuter impacted parking study done Engineer ryan says come with the city conducted that study determined that it fit the requirement There was that restriction put in place and the residents were able to buy permits And everything has been fine. There's not garbage. There's not cigarette butts. There's not loitering You know, there's not kids hanging out on lawns There's there's none of that what alderman trusted is referring to is north 10th street And that's along the cemetery and that is not commuter impacted parking.  What I had asked that you do is do what we normally do which would be to direct me to, uh A draft order or to which you did How it came to council tonight is beyond me, I don't know how that came to happen because What what you did is voted to direct me to draft ordinance that's going to come back to public works So tonight, so how did this happen? I don't know how it got put on the agenda. Unfortunately, I was gone Friday, so Okay, if I had seen it, I would have asked them to take it off Thank you for that explanation Thank you for those comments. Seeing no new lights We'll put a police call to roll for passage And the draft order would be to file a document And I guess technically to ask me to draft the ordinance although the work is normally asked me to do that Sue, aye for me Now I know I didn't know Motion passes I'm going on to ordinances item 6.1 the lie over Matters laid over Item 7.1 is RC number 181 of 1718 by public safety committee to whom I meant to discuss for public safety consideration IFC by By your chief role as to recommend that the common council authorized city staff to seek good for station Number one building repairs consistent with the adopted 2018 budget The recommends approval of the request all the person drawn Thank you. Mr. Motion to Okay, thank you for that motion in support. Is there any discussion on the motion? See now will the clerk police call the roll Okay 14 ayes Motion passes 8.1 through 8.2 will be referred to various committees items 8.3 through Okay These are other matters 8.1 is By the city clerk submitting various license applications of the period in December 30 on 2017 june 30 2018 and june 30 2019 You know, we refer to a lot of licensing committee 8.2 is Ordinance Enactment territory one by the city by to the city I refer to the planning commission 8.3 is a resolution expressing the intent of the common council and the city of shoying exercises police powers In levy the special assessment for 2017 tosses operating The off-street parking facilities within parking access to the district fly over 8.4 is a resolution expressing the intent of the common council the city of shoying exercises police powers In levy the special assessment of the 2017 cost of operating and maintaining the off-street parking facilities within the parking District parking assessment is 8.5 is a resolution expressing the intent of the common council the city of shoying to exercise It's police powers in levy the special assessment for the 2017 cost of operating and maintaining the program acquisition Within the parking assessment Other person down here if you had a question just a quick question is there reason these don't go to committee The parking assessments They're rolling over, but did they go to a committee at all? No, never have Usually I'm concerned, but we just got them Okay, next item is a contemplated closed session of the person both Thank you, mayor. I make a motion to convene in closed session under the exemption provided in section 19.85 so the one sub e Wisconsin stats for the purpose of reviewing strategic strategy and collective bargaining negotiations for bargaining reasons require a closed session second Thank you for that motion in support. Would the clerk please call the roll for closed session 15 eyes Motion passes. We'll take a three minute recess and reconvene For our TV viewers this will end our transmission for this evening and we will be adjourning closed session. Thank you you


If we continue to destroy the planet as we currently do, and if we don't find better ways for people to buy food, to get out and onwards from poverty, we will live in a very different world and it will not be a nice one. The 2022 edition of FAUSE State of the Worlds Forest Report looks into a new narrative how forests and trees can help us with solutions to get out of some of the environmental and economic crisis that we currently face. Forests and trees are vital for us on the planet. They provide air, water, food, energy and renewable materials. For us, it is really important to maintain them, but the factor they are still shrinking. The issue basically is simple. Those that are here to maintain or even grow them, they do not get enough benefits from doing so, so they continue to shrink. Now here is the thing, if we use forests and trees more wisely, we can both address environmental crisis and economic recovery needs at the same time. Forests and trees can be powerful solutions. Storing carbon and removing greenhouse gases from the atmosphere, here forests and trees can provide some 14% of the additional removals of these greenhouse gases that we need to stay within 1.5 degrees by 2030. That's a major contribution. Maintaining and in some areas even increasing biodiversity by restoring forests and landscapes and using trees and forests better for renewable materials that are carbon neutral and with which we can build a more sustainable world. These are three pathways around which we have to look into the future. Protecting forests, stop deforestation, is the most important single contributions that we can make. Putting trees back into landscapes is a major way of improving our perrestrial ecosystems and productivity for our economies. And the third one is using forests and trees, using environmentally friendly renewable materials that are carbon neutral to build a better future. In any given local context, one or more of these can and need to be applied in a balanced way according to the situation that is needed. The three forest pathways, they connect better environment and better production. The 2022 report of FAU State of the Worlds Forest report has reviewed data and evidence to find out how much do we actually know about the benefits of those pathways and the costs. How much do we know about what needs to be done to make them a reality? How much do we know about how much upscaling potential they have? You will not necessarily be surprised that we have found many data gaps, many areas where we think we need more discussions, more reflections, more research. But then there are also really important points that we think we have to take note. For instance, that in total, if you add up those contributions of these different pathways to climate change mitigation, we are around in the magnitude of 20%. 20% is a lot to contribute to the reduction of climate change. It is also clear that millions of jobs can be created if we restore landscapes, if we put trees back into farms, into areas where people can make a living, to improve the productivity and environmental resilience at the same time. Investment in forest pathways would have to increase by four by 2050. But this seems feasible given that the climate and the sustainability finance sectors are very dynamic nowadays. I'd like to point to two areas that I think need particular attention. One is agricultural subsidies. They are already established mechanisms that reach farmers and the amount of funding is huge, 540 billion US dollars per year. If some of this can be reoriented from environmentally harmful to environmentally friendly productivity enhancing investments that will give a major boost to restoration and more sustainable management of forests and agriculture including agroforestry. This is one part. The other one is the absence of good mechanisms to reach small scale producers. Only 1.7% of all the climate finance currently reaches small producers. We do need mechanisms to bring those billions to the small producers to change their way of how they produce today. Let me come to my last point. I have made this before because it is so important. All holders, local communities, indigenous peoples, they are at the center and need to be at the center of that development. All together they manage around 4.3 billion hectares of land. If they can own and lead their development and if we can support that then we are on a winning path with forest solutions. Forests and trees can be powerful solutions for a better environment. For a better economy and for a better life for us all.


Hey there friends, thanks for checking in. Today we're looking at the Kel-Tec P-17 budget handgun MSRP 199. It is a 22 long rifle that comes with three 16 round magazines. It has a 3.8 inch fixed barrel adjustable rear sights, a fiber optic front sight, standard Kel-Tec grip as you can see right there. Very much a budget gun, ambidextrous, trigger guard, magazine release, ambidextrous, thumb safety. It has a plate here that just keeps all the internals in place. It looks optic ready. It's really not and a rail right there. Unique slide design. It also has a threaded barrel. There's a thread cap on there right now. They give you a tool. You can take that off and add an adapter. A very cool little handgun for not a lot of money. Now, I've shot this before. I've shot many types of ammo through it and it has performed very nicely. Let's see how it performs today. Yes, just as I remember it. You may notice this has machine screws all over the place. More than I've ever seen on any handgun for a budget handgun though with this kind of price and performance so far. I've shot quite a few rounds through it. It's a fun little plinker. There's no doubt about that. I like the ambi controls especially for lefties. The disassemble is actually pretty easy. All you have to do is take these takedown levers, pull the slide back, and up like that comes the slide. That's the slide right there, and that's all you have to do to clean the gun. You can see it has a 3.8 inch fixed barrel and a fixed recoil spring right there. A single action trigger that is measuring at three and a quarter pounds. They say on the site it's a three-pound trigger, but I'm measuring it closer to three and a quarter. To put it back on, all you have to do is get it in this position. We'll see if I can do that. And then on comes, nope, let's try that again. I guess I have to rest it on. There we go. I hope you saw that. I showed it on my table review. It only weighs with 17 rounds, 15 ounces, so it is very much a light handgun, a hammer fired gun. It also has on the back of the hammer this red paint right there. And then when that hammer drops, that goes away. So it's a charger indicator, not so much a loaded chamber indicator. Before the reset, you're looking at right there.  I think Caltech came out with a winner here. Many manufacturers raised the MSRP during the buying surge and Caltech didn't, at least so far with this P17. It's pretty nice. How about a limp wrist test? I'll get you. The P17 passed. The lightweight P17 may serve as a good training tool for young shooters or people that just are recoil sensitive. But I've got six rounds here backed up a little bit. Let's see how I do one handed from this distance. And I have a little hang up there. I was able to see that right away. It passed a lip wrist test, but yet it hung up a bit. We'll try that again. It seems that the P17 does not like, there's a double feed. See that? A double feed. It seems the P17 does not like one handed shooting. First time that I have seen that. But we'll go ahead. Chamber is unloaded by the way. I was able to see that. Let's try that again because, whoa. Okay. So the shell did not, did not eject. Let's try that again here. Whoa. That three and a quarter pound trigger pull got away from me there. So that is something to keep in mind. A very light trigger pull with the P17. The website says three pounds. I measure it three and a quarter. Not that great a difference, but I have to say, I like the gun. When I first got it, I didn't think I would like it that much, but I actually do. I think it's a very cool little .22 blinker. And it reviews very well. People said that this is well worth the money with an MSRP of $199. Good luck getting for that though. I will mention it has increased in price. At least at the dealership, Caltech kept the MSRP at $199. If you like videos like this, please subscribe and share. I always appreciate thumbs up button. Thanks for watching and you guys be safe.


Well, good morning everyone. Thank you so much for coming out as Brittany said. It's a beautiful day, and I checked with Lou Rockwell and Pat Barnett at the Mesa Institute. It turns out we have never in our 35 years held an event in San Diego. So this is the first time even after dozens and dozens of events. Yes. Our first-ever conference in San Diego, we've had many of them in Orange County in Los Angeles, so thank you. Who says there's no libertarians in San Diego? I'm happy to report we have over 300 people today. I think about six or eight states represented and one lucky person from Australia, who may or may not make themselves known. We'll see. Finland? Okay, we have a fin. Are you escaping the Russians today? They're okay. They're okay. So it's good for me personally to be back. I lived in San Diego for many many years. My wife is from here. We met here, and our daughter was born here, and you know, when you leave San Diego, there's lots of things you miss about it and the climate and the weather and the natural beauty and all that. But I'm living proof of the fact that it is entirely possible to psychologically get over not having the San Diego Chargers in your life. So I'm confident that the Spanos family will somehow be able to soldier on without a few hundred million dollars from all of you assembled here in your city taxes. I'm really excited though to have such great speakers today. We have three speakers in particular in Patrick Byrne, Tom Woods, and Nomi Prins, who are just those kind of remarkable people who are able to excel at more than one discipline in life or more than one job in life, and that always impresses me. I think most of us would be thrilled to just start one company or write one book or have one high-powered career, but they've all done more than that. So speaking of San Diego, I wonder how many people in the room. I know Richard Ryder is here. He's an exception, but I wonder how many people in this room remember the name Dennis Thompson. I'm going to suspect not very many. So Dennis was actually a wonderful man, very sweet man, kind of a big guy, kind of a Santa Claus. Looking guy. He owned an IT company here in San Diego County way back in the 1980s, and he was a dedicated libertarian, ran for Congress a couple of times. And in 1990, he ran for Senate, I'm sorry, he ran for Governor of California in 1990 on the Libertarian Party ticket against Pete Wilson and Diane Feinstein. And this is the pre-internet age, of course, and his campaign budget was very tiny and he had to spend an inordinate amount of it on some late night cable TV ads because in 1990, late at night on certain cable stations, the ad spots were cheaper. So he had this really short clipped ad, and because it was so short, not too well produced, I might say. He felt like he had to get a lot in in the 32nd, so he comes on and he's this kind of big guy with a beard.  I'm going to get government out of your life. Just this crazy diatribe. And I'm thinking to myself now, looking back, those ads probably just reached a few thousand people. On the cable TV airways. In fact, they're probably mostly insomniacs based on when they ran and they cost many thousands of dollars to air. And when we look back on that, we think, you know, not a very good return on investment. I think Dennis ultimately got about 145,000 votes in that 1990 gubernatorial election, which is about 1.89% of the electorate. So, you know, if we were to fast forward to today, 20-odd years later, I think Dennis, who unfortunately has passed away, I think he would be astonished by this world we live in where a candidate or an individual who's trying to persuade other people can reach tens of thousands or even millions of people, which is a simple click. Putting something on a website, putting something out versus social media, versus all the work he had to do in 1990 just to reach a few thousand people. But I also think he'd be shocked that in this milieu we live in that Rand Paul and Ron Paul and Gary Johnson haven't done better. It's so much easier to reach people today. We have all this technology at our fingertips. I bet he'd say, why aren't libertarians doing better? And as far as I'm concerned, especially for purposes of the day, I define libertarian broadly when I speak to audiences. And that's anyone who wants government less involved on any issue for any reason is a fellow traveler. And that's how I certainly view all of you today. I don't care much what your politics are. But this is always the question. I've attended a lot of conferences over the years. And we're very good at identifying problems and what's wrong. And of course, I'm biased. I happen to think Mises and his two conferences are a little more interesting than the ones when they talk about which guy or gal to elect or how much we should cut taxes. But we're always left with this unsettling question of what to do. Haven't we all asked ourselves that question a million times? Haven't I been asked that question a million times? What should we do? But maybe we have to look at the problem a little differently. What if the problem isn't political? And what if the solution is something that we haven't really even considered? In other words, we're framing the question to ourselves even incorrectly. And that's why today we asked all of our speakers to, if they could, give us at least one or two real action items, things that we could employ in our own personal lives that might make a difference. So I mentioned Dennis Thompson. I hope that more of you in this room remember the name Harry Brown. Can I get a show of hands? People who remember the late, great Harry Brown. Well, Harry was an investment advisor and a great libertarian. Of course, he ran for the libertarian part. He ran as the libertarian party's nominee for president in 1996 and 2000. And Harry was a tall and elegant guy, a superb speaker, always very well dressed. And his elegance, his eloquence was very much missed during this last run, this last campaign where I, with all due respect, I don't think Rand Paul and Gary Johnson had his innate ability to present the libertarian message in such a simple and a compelling way. I mean, Harry was really one of a kind. And Harry made quite a bit of money as a contrarian investor in the 1970s. He wrote a book that some of you may remember. It's called How You Can Profit from the Coming Devaluation. But he wrote a much more famous book than that entitled How I Found Freedom in an Unfree World. And this was really a huge bestseller, even among non-libertarians. And it became a libertarian classic. It was a big seller in the 1970s. And I asked Tom Woods, who's here with us today, to sort of, in a tongue of cheekway, reference the book as the title of his talk. So how I found freedom in an unfree world is it predates much of the self-help genre that became so big, but in a way it's kind of a self-help book. It's full of Harry's advice about avoiding what he called traps. And what's a trap? A trap is a false way of thinking when we start to think and act in a way that we feel we should, rather than examining things for ourselves and commanding our own lives. So the book does have some sort of 70s feel to it.  But gee whiz, getting married and committing forever and ever and inviting the state into your lives in the form of a contract and a marriage license. Then if you break up, you're going to have all this messiness with money and kids. Kind of a drag. So maybe you should just, you know, check up for a while, see how it goes. So, you know, it does have a 70s feel, but it asks a lot of great questions like, look, your parents think you should be a doctor, you don't want to be a doctor, forget it. You want to be an artist, go to art school, don't feel like going to college and all skip it. I think this is actually pretty radical thinking in the 1970s. I think my dad would have thought such. But really the great gift we get from this book is mindset. Harry told us we have the ability to live freely as we wish right here and right now, at least to a much greater extent than we all think. And if Harry was right, or even partially right, then the answer to the question, what should we do is first and foremost to improve our own lives. This is the key to everything. When we worry and stress too much about government and politics, we waste our energy and we fall into this libertarian glass half empty mentality. Harry called this the utopia trap. He said, some mistaken belief that we have some magical right to live in a world of our liking, which is preposterous if you think about it on its face. Other people have their own opinions, their own goals, their own values. It may be completely different from ours.  Quite the contrary, it may be that you're doing too much to try to change the world. The effort you've expended in that direction could have been used to provide freedom for yourself. Continuing he says, you don't have to reconstruct the social order. You don't have to overpower the villains. You don't have to reeducate the world and you don't need a miracle. You can have your freedom back anytime you choose to take it. So is this hyperbole? Maybe a little bit. Nobody doubts that the state can come along and ruin your day in some pretty meaningful ways. But his point remains is that everything begins and ends with you. And mindset really has far more to do with how freely that you live than government or society does. And I know a lot of you know the name Albert J. Nock, who is really a tragically underappreciated Libertarian theorist. He grappled with this dilemma more than a century ago. And trust me, Nock was absolutely a radical who understood the threat that government poses to us. But still he was convinced that the only reform movement that mattered was the one that was from within. And that all we can hope to do is to present the world with what he termed one improved unit. And I think we all know this on some level subconsciously. But I can tell you for myself, it takes a lot of strength to apply it every day. It's not easy. It's a lot easier to wake up every day and check out the latest outrage on social media. But if Harry's right, and if Albert J. Nock is right, the most important thing you can do for your liberty far and away is to improve yourself materially, mentally, intellectually, and otherwise. That's the real revolution. And I think, you know, it was true for the high school kids who used to visit us in Ron Paul's office when I worked for him in Washington DC, they'd come in and say, oh, what should I do? What can I do? And we'd say, you know, take care of yourself, find a job, find an apartment, get situated in life, find an expertise. You know, we had a lot of brilliant kids come in who had all kinds of skills in hard sciences and mathematics and all kinds of things. And they wanted to spend their time putting out yard signs for a slightly libertarian-ish person running for Congress. So I think it was true for these high school kids, and I think it's true for everyone in this room. Nobody listens to poor, unsuccessful people. It's just a simple fact of life. And that's what Harry Brown understood, that's what Albert J. Nock understood. So focus on your own life, free yourself mentally from all this angst about government. Get on with the best possible life for you and your family. Save yourself first. Find your own freedom in an unfree world. But there's one other quick point I'd like to make before we introduce Novy Prince, and that is that, you know, we have to understand the concept that virtually everything good and meaningful that happens in the world really happens on the margins. That's where all the action is, and if we choose to see it. Now, in economics we understand this concept of the marginal revolution. It changed economics forever. It changed the way we see the world forever. It allowed us to understand that the value of everything, including your time and energy, is highly subjective. It doesn't matter what something costs in terms of the materials or the labor or the capital inputs or how much energy and time you put into it. What matters is how much people value it subjectively on the margins. And I think we can apply this to what we do in trying to persuade other people to come to our perspective.   Okay? I think there's about 40 of them in there. I have this gigantic collection. And you know what I do? I wear the same three or four off the top over and over and over again. And the rest just sit there. And so if you tried to give me a Gap t-shirt today, I wouldn't take it. I wouldn't take it for a dollar. I wouldn't take it for five dollars. You tried to give me 10 of them for free. I wouldn't take it. I would say no. But if I had zero t-shirts, I'd probably start paying five or 10 or even 20 dollars for them. So knowing that the value of our efforts as Liberty Mighty People really lies on the margins, I think it's a deceptively simple concept. You know, we all want the great leaps forward. We all want to have something like a Trump populist revolution or Occupy Wall Street or the recent Women's March or the Tea Party of a few years ago. But that's not really how the digital world works, fortunately or unfortunately. I mean, unlimited information isn't moving us towards some sort of convergence, political or otherwise, some sort of universalism. I would argue it's doing the opposite. It's moving us into enclaves. So we really need to scratch and claw and do what we can to create value at the margins. This is the world we live in, a world with an almost unbelievable amount of content and white noise. And cutting through all of it is a pretty merciless task, but it is our task and it's an incremental one. So understanding things on the margin helps us think about how to put maximum effort into things that'll produce the most productive results. And as much as it might pain any of us to say it, a simple YouTube video might do more to persuade people to think about our perspective than a 900-page magnum opus that represents someone's lifetime of work. A conversation you have with one inspired young person might have a greater impact in spurring them to action and affect the world more than all of our talks today to this room full of 320 people. So that's our task, is finding and creating value on the margins. So I have a couple minutes to leave you with one action item because I said that I would provide at least one action item for the crowd today. And the action item is this, is become a cash rebel. Cash is the most rapidly disappearing commodity I would venture on earth. And in places like Japan and the Scandinavian countries, it's become virtually unused. And that's a very, very frightening thing, both from a metadata perspective, from a privacy perspective, from a tax perspective. I think the war on cash is not hyperbole. I think it's quite real. And you don't even have to be a conspiracy theorist to believe that it wouldn't take much for another crisis like the one we suffered through in 0708 to occur, which would put a lot of banks and a lot of mutual funds and a lot of ATM machines onto some kind of suspended status. I would encourage everybody in this room, if you can only manage $500, $1,000 somewhere at home, do it. If you can have 10 or 20 or 30 or $40,000 at home, do it. I absolutely believe this. And it's just one example. I mean, obviously, we're in an earthquake zone here. But when we lived in just outside of Washington, DC, we had this bizarre summer storm that knocked out power for a couple of days. Of course, it was 90 degrees and humid. And a lot of the local groceries and gas stations were cash only. Their digital payment systems were down during those couple days. And it was interesting to see how people responded to each other after just a couple days of hardship and heat and no air conditioning. So it doesn't take much, ladies and gentlemen. And a little bit of cash in your pockets might be a good thing. So thank you very much for your time.


Welcome to Private Properties Neighbourhoods. This is Morningside. Slap bang in the middle of Santon, bordered by Sandown, Ravonia and Bryanston. It's close to both the M1 and M1 highways. Morningside is both a commercial and residential suburb of Johannesburg that gives both a leafy suburb feel but with smatterings of high end shopping centres. In terms of median prices, sectional schemes are sitting at about 1.4 million freeholds at 3.5 million and vacant land at 7 million. You'll find that about 70% of the properties are townhouses in this area and the rest are freeholds and freeholds in estates. Wondering who your neighbours are? A big chunk of recent buyers in the neighbourhood are between 36 and 49, which means they're grown-ups with families, which is probably the only reason I can justify that many SUVs per capita. If you want more detailed info about this area, search our website, privateproperty.co.ca. Morningside is actually on what used to be a farm named Zanfontein. The suburb itself was established on 8th of March, 1950, named after a suburb in Edinburgh, Scotland, which I'm sure you didn't know until now. Neither did I, until I googled it. In terms of traffic, there are slight delays in the area at around quarter to six p.m. That's because all the SUVs have to get to the houses because they need to park. I'm sure there wouldn't be as much traffic if the cars were smaller. Morningside has three filling stations, three bus stations, three hospitals, three clinics, three police stations, a pre-primary school, two secondary schools, three shopping centres and three options of tertiary institutions. Morningside medical suites are nice and accessible at the Wedge Shopping Centre. It's got this one-stop medical centre with a general practitioner open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., 365 days a year. There's also an occupational therapist, a physiotherapist, a bioconeticist and skin, truth and epilio, which I'm sure if you need it, you will know what that is. Elite Synthetics. Conveniently offers you all your favourite cosmetic and aesthetic treatments under one roof from mega-lash eyelash extensions, micro-blading, IV weight loss drips, skin lightening, IV drips, teeth whitening and more. Pomodoro. It means tomato in Italian. It's also one of the best restaurants in Johannesburg. If you're into Italian food, it is legit, as they say. But also, if you're looking for a really good haircut, there's an excellent Turkish barber at the Morningside Shopping Centre. Hire-in properties with great schools, all the amenities you could want with that quintessential aljobic feel with the trees that line the streets. A hop-skipping and jump onto both highways. It's nice and central. Thanks for spending the day with us here in Morningside with privateproperty.zde.