Please listen to the first reading of the bills by number only H 491 to government operations and we are going to take a look at the the last charter that we want to take a peek at today. Rest assured, there will be others for us to work on, but this one is is one that brings a few of our colleagues. From the village of s extension here to help us understand the charter change relating to Essex separation so welcome to you folks and you're welcome to come and join us at the. table you. Representative Lori Houghton from extension representative Karen Dolan also from extension. And you're good i'm just going to read our prepared testimony and then we can answer questions at the end. Before I start, though, I think it's important to share two definitions, because it does get confusing when talking about the village and the town. So when I refer to town outside the village we're referring to those residents who live outside of the village. And then when I refer to the village it's the folks who live in the village, so the village is its own municipality, we pay taxes. We're also part of the town of Essex, but then there's an area which is not a municipality but we clarify it classified as time outside the village to make more sense as I read on. So thank you. So h 491 is a charter change to establish the city of s extension. I think it's important for us to review how we've come to this place and why 88% of those who voted wanted an independent community. Since 1892 the village of s extension has operated as a municipal unit of government within the town of Essex both are charter municipalities. Our communities have been voting on some form of merger or separation since 1958. I will spare you the details between 1958 and 2000. So I'll start in 2000 and this won't take long. In 2000, a five month long house government operations mandated mediation process ended with no agreed upon resolution. In 2006, a year long community led task force created a charger for a new merge municipality. It passed narrowly with town outside the village voting no and village voting yes. A revote overturn those. Over the next 10 years, the board's works collaboratively defined shared services. Then in 2018 created a subcommittee to again craft a plan for the future of our two communities. This is the plan to merge your vote we will discuss shortly and that failed. And here we are today with our charter change request that creates a path forward for both communities were fully recognizing the past history of efforts. Last year, the town of Essex was before this committee with a charter change to establish a three plus three governance model. At the time the decision by this committee was made to hold further discussions until the community held the merger vote that had long been planned. The merger plan we voted on in 2021 included the three plus three governance model and a 12 year financial phase in to limit the immediate financial impact to town outside the village residents. I want to be clear, the merger plan included the three plus three governance model that was before this committee last year, passed by the town outside the village, but failed in the village. That was the three plus three. I'm talking about the plan of merger close to 50% of registered voters participated in the plan and merger vote held in March 2021. The plan and merger failed in the town outside the village by 72% and passed in the village by 81%. Overall the vote failed by 19 votes. This action by residents throughout the communities we had to revote on April 13. Over 50% this time of registered voters participated in this vote. Again, the plan and merger failed for similar percentages within each committee as the original vote town outside the village voted no, the village voted yes. As part of the community outreach, three plus three governance and a 12 year financial phase in the town outside the village overwhelmingly rejected the plan and merger twice. As part of the revote village residents also voted on a non binding resolution to have the village trustees draft a charter to establish the city of S it's junction should the plan and merger fail that non binding vote passed overwhelmingly. The city of S extension charter vote was held by special meeting in November 2021. Again, close to 50% of registered voters participated. The charter passed with 88% of the vote 3070 yeses to 411 no votes. Equity and taxation has been a driving factor behind our decades long community discussion and votes. Clearly stated through public outreach that should merger, not pass separation would mean an increase in municipal taxes to residents in the town outside the village. In fact, at a joint municipal meeting on September 28 2020, the town finance director at the time said and I quote. The equity is in the way government is funded in our current situation. Village taxpayers are paying for services, they are not eligible to receive and are paying more for services that they and town outside the village taxpayers have equal access to. This means that town outside the village taxpayers are paying less than the true cost for some services, and quote. Recent votes were not just about taxes, both communities have spent a great deal of time and money over the years on our relationship at the detriment to important important community specific projects and each municipalities distinct community values. In March of 2021, the two municipal boards entered into a joint resolution to investigate amicable solutions separation. As written in the resolution and I quote members of the select board and trustees agree to negotiate in good faith throughout the amicable separation process. In the spirit of inclusion, all voices will be respectively heard and considered. President and Dolan and I have watched and engaged in the process and believe that the trustees and select board worked collaboratively to establish a transition plan that could be as fair as possible to both communities. It is time for our two communities who have tried almost every conceivable relationship to have the opportunity to thrive as two separate entities for the betterment of all residents. Dolan and I believe that both communities can and will thrive. Thank you. Can answer any questions. Questions from committee members. Thank you Madam chair I guess I'm still a little fuzzy and tried to follow along. I know it's been back and forth. Tell me if I'm wrong. My understanding is the last vote. Again, had the village voting yes and voting no. And so again what the village decided to do was include that incorporation in return. Right. Include the three plus three is that we are referring to. I'm sorry. Are you referring to the three plus three charter change. Yes. Yes. So that was included, even though the village had voted against it when that vote happened. We included it in the plan of merger, knowing that the town outside the village wanted that governance structure. And so, so again, my understanding is that still town outside of the village structure still doesn't wouldn't approve of this charter change. Correct. They voted twice to not approve a merger plan. Okay, yep. Thanks. Thanks. It's hard to follow. Any other questions for the representatives answering this charter change. Maybe. So this is the charter. Green circle, which is big. No, this chart changes for the little for this one. Okay, existing at this point, the original chart. So I'm going to, I'm not sure I'm following this. So the three plus three charter bill you had last year would have amended the town of Essex charter, which the village is a part of the village also has a charter. And so what we're asking now with H 491 is that we change our charter to become a city of Essex junction completely independent from the town of Essex. All the reasons we just stated in the years of votes we've taken. I think we will explain to me. What would this mean for like emergency service second right now I'm thinking like very bluntly like very city very town, there is a distinct thing that they have their own police and fire and rescue. So what about what this means for our great question, our police force has actually been shared since the 1980s, it was the village of Essex junction police force, and then we merged it and became one. So, and in the charter in the, it specifically states, I think in the transition plan that that we continue to be shared for at least 10 years. And, excuse me, our EMS is actually a separate entity that both communities pay into. And then the. So there's the fire station on sandhill and then there's the one in the junction, there's one in the city will not be the city. And so they would be able to maintain what they have. So, and the key thing to remember is that the village has always maintained our own services. So we've always operated as our own distinct municipality. So right now the fire departments are separate. Yes, we have the village we have the town. So yes, they would continue what their work is. I'm just trying to think out loud of anything that we could be missing for like a very blatant cost that like, but you guys I know from my size on as a rescue for many years. And I went to underhold your vote. And I went to as a sex. So like, I'm trying to think of something blatant that is not like it does distinctively operate on their own to. So something that does not operate on their own. Yeah, I'm trying to think of something that like this is going to. So we've had since 2000. I want to say I was a trustee so probably since about 2016, we had tried to bring together departments, administration finance human resources in order to try and equal out the tax equity situation. So that will be unwound, but honestly, it's starting to be unwound now, even without this charter change. So our, our, our unified manager contract is up in February. So we will each be hiring our own manager, our town finance director left for another position. So we are each, they have a finance director we are hiring one. And it's, it has been a lot of discussions and that's where the trustees and select board worked well together to ensure that when we unwind things, it's okay. But I appreciate that it was at, you know, highest point and all of the discussions and it was mine. Well, my question and then our inboxes have been very full of assets. And that was the only thing that I saw from somebody was like, you know, affirming that the police services. Yes. Yeah, that's the only thing that has been brought to me. What an active engaged citizen, right. You do have many years to, you know, get to the representative look Claire. Good morning, Madam chair, good afternoon representative so you touched upon it briefly but could you give us a quick, I guess, description of what has to be unwound, and what has to be stood up in order for this to transpire and everybody has a standalone entity. Good question so we. So administration, which is already being unwound because we're hiring our own managers, which, which before we had a unified manager we all had our own manager and in fact we have to department heads in the village acting as co managers now until we hire someone. The finance department had to be unwound, but at the same time we've always kept the ledgers separate. So the actual dollar finance you know the actual money is separated anyway. Our fire departments were never connected our libraries were never connected our school district is its own municipality so that's not affected. So we can go through, I will say that is what the two musical boards have been working through is a separation kind of document that transition plan that goes through all of it because we've been focused on merger for so I'm putting it together. There's tons of information doesn't prevent unwind it. So, there's a very detailed plan. I'm just not going to remember the details. I apologize representative look right up remember anything but represent Dolan degree mind me so there is an overarching agreement that has been signed between the boards that should the charter pass. There are about seven agreements below that that have been agreed to but not signed yet, because it was felt by the town select for that they couldn't have assigned because we would have signed as a village and not a city. But those documents have outlined the process of what will be about. Well, thank you because I seem to recall last time we heard about a relationship change. There was a lot of conversation around sidewalks, if I remember correctly. Oh, yes, yes, there's a reason for that so in the village, we are a walking community. We are kids always walk to school we had no busing until the school district merged and I don't know 2000 something, maybe five years ago. And so, and but the town was not a walking community. So, so anyway, so I thought so the village we always taught our sidewalks, like, that was the first thing that got cloud before the streets because kids had to walk to school. And the town they didn't have that in the merger plan we actually I'm sorry yes in the merger plan. We actually put in a special taxing district. So the village would be responsible for paying for their own sidewalks and the town outside the village would not have to pay for our sidewalks. Again they rejected the plan of merger twice. So very excited. Where we're coming was like, I'm having independent everybody can be in charge of what their priorities are what they want to have the top of the list and how they can make it work. Thank you. Representative Cooper. Oh, I don't know if you heard be mumbled with water and sewer cross lines or. So, we have a wastewater treatment plant that actually that's located in the village, but is a tri town wastewater treatment plant for the town of Essex will extend and us. So that's a joint authority. So that's joint authority. Yes, that will not be effective representative McCarthy. Because that has been such a big issue between the two municipalities that I represent the one owning all of the water treatment infrastructure and so just to be clear, the three towns already all participate together and this won't affect that in any way. So really, because I would never want to subject any other neighbor communities to the type of conflict that we have had in Saint August. Very large facility next to IBM. Maybe members any other questions for the representatives from Essex junction. Can I get the vote one more time on what this was for the divorce. That's how I put it together. percentages I did not do the same difference. For the village charter it was 3070 to 411. That was for H 491. This bill we're talking about my new way to describe this divorce versus marriage. Unfortunately, our language has been to vote on the force now. All right. So, unless committee members have other questions for the sponsors of this bill I think it would be helpful for us to shift gears and go to Tucker now to take a look at the next slide. Thank you so much. Thank you, Tucker for sticking around and representatives you can go back to your committees if you have committee work you need to do this afternoon and hopefully you can take a peek at the YouTube at some point and just see what folks questions were on the details and we'll be in touch if we need you to come back. Great. Thank you. Thank you for your time. Thank you. Good afternoon again Tucker Anderson office of legislative council. You have in front of you h 491, which proposes to create the city of s extension to approve the charter of the city of s extension, and to dissolve what was formerly the village charter. Let's start with section two of the bill, which contains the charter of the city of s extension. Before diving in, I will briefly remark that you all are experts now at dissolving villages, merging villages and dealing with village issues. It seems as though once a biennium, you all deal with a village. The most recent was the village of Perkinsville, which was dissolved and merged with the town of Weathersfield. And prior to that it was the village of Waterbury, which was dissolved and turned into the Edward for our utility district, affectionately called the e fud. In front of you now you have historically significant creation of a new municipality, the city of s extension section one declares the General Assembly's intent to create this municipality. Section two contains the charter, which will be the city specific corporate structures and powers. Later on we will get into the transitional provisions, which will provide specifically for the villages assets and relationship with the surrounding town, as it becomes the city over the year of the transitional period. Section two adds a new chapter four to title 24 appendix, creating the city of s extension sub chapter one. We have the incorporation and powers of the city, many of the sections that I will go through now contains some belt and suspender provisions, providing that as this city is created that the village is not going to lose some of the general provisions that it already has under law. So first section one oh one provides that notwithstanding the provisions of any other municipal charter, the inhabitants of the village within its corporate limits shall become the city of s extension. And then section one oh two, we have a provision that is contained in the general law for all municipalities that are chartered, and within many charters, it states that accept is modified by this Charter Charter, or by any lawful regulation ordinance of the city, all provisions of the statutes of the state that are applicable to any municipality shall also apply to the city of s extension. Essentially it's restating the general law applies in the city has access to it. Under section 103 we have some reservation of specific powers, the city shall have all powers granted to any city or municipal corporation by the Constitution and the laws of the state, together with any implied powers that are necessary. It may enact ordinances, not inconsistent with the Constitution, general law or this Charter. Subsection be the city may acquire real and personal property, including stormwater collection disposal, wastewater collection disposal, solid waste collection disposal, provision of a public water supply, and of parks and recreation facilities, municipal facilities for office fire protection and police protection, provision of public libraries, public parking areas sidewalks bicycle paths and green strips highways, public view zones open spaces, and other purposes that are provided for and addressed by the general laws of the state. The city may acquire property in fee simple, or any lesser interest and may purchase gift, devise lease or condemn, and may sell lease mortgage holder manage any property as its interests may require. These are provisions of general law that the city is making sure to reserve here. In addition, the city may exercise any of its powers or prefer perform any of its functions, and may participate in the financing of any of those powers or functions, and may do so jointly with other municipal corporations, or the United States government or the state of Vermont. The city may establish and maintain an electric power system and regulate power line installations, provided that the city shall have no authority under the provisions of this new charter that conflicts with the authority that has been under the Public Utility Commission, or any other state regulatory agency. In addition, the city reserves here the authority to establish a telecommunication system, and an enterprise to deliver internet or broadband services. The F here again contains one of these belt and suspenders provisions that we see in a lot of charters, it states that the mention of any particular power within the contents of the charter shall not be construed to be exclusive or to restrict the scope of powers that the city would otherwise have if that power were not mentioned. Section 104 concerning the reservation of powers continues this theme. That nothing in the charter should be construed to limit the powers and functions that are conferred upon the city, or the city council by general or special enactments, and that the powers and functions conferred by the charter in front of you shall be cumulative in addition, and in addition to the provisions of general or special enactments. A few years ago, this committee might have been six years ago, did the work of actually adding this language into title 17 to make it express that all of this was always the case and this is how charters would be constructed to avoid some of these provisions, but here we are. Section 105 concerning the form of government. The municipal government that is created in the charter shall be known as the council manager form of government. The provisions we're going to cover subject only to limitations imposed by the Constitution in this charter, all of the powers of the city shall be vested in an elective city council. That council will have the power to enact ordinances codes and regulations to adopt budgets determine policies and to appoint a city manager, moving on to sub chapter to which covers the governance structure of the city. Section 201 contains the powers and duties of the city council. The members of the city council shall constitute the legislative body of the city, except as otherwise provided in this charter where their powers reserved to other officers, and shall have all the powers and authority, given to and perform all duties required of city legislative bodies. The city of s extension council shall have the power to point and remove a city manager, supervised create change and abolish offices commissions or departments other than the offices commissions or departments that are established in the charter to appoint members of all boards commissions committees for similar bodies to provide for an independent audit by a certified public accountant to fire into the conduct of any of the officers commissions or departments, and to exercise every other power. It's not specifically set forth in the charter, but that is granted to legislative bodies by the laws of the state of Vermont. Section 202 contains the composition in terms of office for the city council. City council is going to be a five member legislative body. The city council shall reside within the city, and the term of office of it, an individual city counselor shall be three years, and the terms of the counselors shall be staggered. I have a question from representative yet. Is there a language about staggering terms in this charter change or is that it quickly referencing my notes, are you are you asking about transitional provisions. Yes. Yes, there are transitional provisions after the charter language. There are a series of session law sections that deal with the transition, including setting the first terms of the city council. Yes, specifically though the transfer of the current trustee terms to city counselor terms until replacements can be elected. They already have the staggered system that will carry over, and the trustees will hold their terms until they're replaced. Great. Thank you. Representative Cooper. Thank you Madam Chair Tucker. 2015 on age six. What's the difference between the League of Cities and Towns language it says we can do what anybody else does and this language that says anything that is granted to council or other legislative bodies, city councils and other things being legislative bodies. So that subdivision five is pointing to the general law, and it's another one of those safety belts that's built into this charter. It's saying that anywhere where the general law is giving us power to legislative body of any municipality in the state. We're also going to have those powers. This doesn't add anything really because that those powers would already be available to the city council. And the difference here is that they are not accessing special law that has been granted to other municipalities. They're saying we get to use powers that are given to us through general law. Okay. Thank you. I'm going to go through section 203. In the case of a vacancy in a council seat. The vacancy shall be filled by the council pursuant to subsection 204 C, which we will get into now. Section 204, the election of the city council officers. The members of the members shall commence on the first day of the month following the election. At the first meeting of the month following the annual city meeting the council organize and elect the president, vice president and work. The president of the council, or in the president's absence the vice president shall be the presiding officer for council meetings and shall be recognized as the head of the city government for all ceremonial purposes. Subsection C, this is what governs the vacancies. In the event of death resignation or incapacity of any council member, the remaining members of the council may appoint a person to fill that position until the next annual election in capacity shall be determined by a vote of the council. And incapacity shall include the failure by any member of the board to attend at least 50% of the meetings of the board in any calendar year. In the next annual election, the vacancy can be filled, and the person so elected shall serve for the remainder of that specific term of office. In the event that the council is unable to agree upon an interim replacement, a special election shall be held to fill the position. Subsection D elected counselors who move out of the city prior to the expiration of their terms shall surrender their seats. I would like to notice at recognition that one of the qualifications specifically living within the city. If you move out, you're no longer qualified for the council position, and you are deemed to have surrendered your seat. So again, I have a question. So you're deemed so you do not have to take any action your part to surrender your seat if that's automatic. If you leave the city and you're no longer a resident it is automatic under these terms. Okay, thank you. Does this also cover what we distinguished for what rep Ganon did for Wilmington, because it sounds like that doesn't does it. So, in the case of wanting to know is somebody who is elected to a seat who chose not to be seated, which is different than this. Representative Lefebvre, both would apply. So the specific terms for the city council members here would control in the event a miss 50% of the meetings in a calendar year or they move out of town, but the general law as we've discussed will also be available to the city. So representative Ganon's issue and bill from last session would also apply in the event you had an officer that failed or refused to take their oath of office within the 30 days after election. Yeah, I just think it's important that people that are elected to do something show up representative McCarthy. Tucker does move out cover. Like, that seems vague to me is. So, like, I would want it to read change their residents or declare residents in other town or something like that. Just move out exists in other charters or other places in law just he's really big. No, move out does not exist it's not a term of art or a legal term that I would be familiar with outside of this context. So the terms that are used for purposes of title 17 would be resident or residency. So for example, an individual who is no longer a resident of the municipality shall not hold office something along those lines would be more clear and cut more closely to what we do in general election law. Yeah, we should clarify that. Does that sound like a good clarification to other committee members. If I may madam chair sorry. So, if we, it sounds like it would accomplish what they're trying to say if it read something to the effect of like elected counters who changed their red as residency, prior to the expiration of their term should be deemed to have resigned their seat. Yeah, or no longer resides yeah so we have to those would be the options right. Good catch. Shall I move along I can't quite see when their hands up in the room. I will do my best to make it to make an audible notation when we've got somebody waiting in the queue otherwise we will go right back to you so thank you Tucker. And thank you. Section 205 deals with the compensation of the council members, the compensation to the members shall be set by the voters at the annual meeting. This section establishes the minimum amount which is $1,500 a year. Council member compensation here is required to be set out as a separate item in the annual budget that is presented at the annual meeting. Council members are given permission to forgo the compensation or a portion of the compensation. The city council is granted authority and subsection be to fix the compensation of appointees and of the city manager, and to review approve and ratify collective bargaining agreements, which may be negotiated or fixed by the manager or their subsection. So this sets up what we will get to later division of authority between the manager who handles the day to day interactions and negotiations, and then the approval by the legislative body. Section 206 covers the conflict of interest policies for the city. Subsection a no council member shall hold any city employment during the term for which they were elected to council. They're appointed to represent the city on other boards, except as pursuant to the state's general prohibitions. No former council member shall hold any compensated appointed municipal office or employment, except for poll worker until one year after the expiration of the term for which they were elected to the legislative body. An important note there the council members for one year after they leave their office are not permitted to hold another office in the town compensated office that is, as an employee important pointed office or employee. Subsection be concerning appointments and removals. If the council or any of its members shall not in any manner dictate the appointment or removal of any municipal administrative officers or employees, who the manager or any of the managers of ordinance are empowered to appoint. So that is a long sentence getting at if the manager has the specific authority to appoint the employees the legislative body and its members shall not dictate those appointments. The city council may discuss with the manager the appointment performance and removal of those officers and employees in an executive session, if that is necessary. Subsection see, except for the purpose of inquiries and investigations under subdivision 201 before of this charter which we've covered the legislative body city council or its members shall deal with municipal officers and employees who are subject to the direction and manager solely through the manager and neither the legislative body, nor its members shall give orders to any such officer or employee, either publicly or privately. So again, we have another separation here between the manager and the manager's office in the legislative body, legislative body is going to have the power to appoint move the manager but none of the subordinate officers. And here, any communication or interaction between the legislative body and those subordinate employees is going to go through the manager representative Anthony. Thank you madam chair thank you Tucker, my recollection this is a little hazy. There are special protections or provisions for the chief of police of cities. I'm wondering if the non interference language that you just read in any way conflicts with the special provisions for the chief of police to to be afforded some particular due process and I can't remember the details off the top of my head. I just know that it's, it's quite specific and limited. Anthony, I'll have to look into some of those general provisions that you're talking about and compare it to what's contained here. But one of the things that we'll get to later in the charter are which of those officers under this model are going to be under the direction control of the city manager, and we'll have that barrier between those offices and the legislative body. So seven, a provision covering meetings of the council. As soon as practicable after the election of the president vice president, the council will fix the time and place of its regular meetings, and the meeting shall be held at least once a month. Special city meetings under section 208 shall be called in the manner provided by the laws of the state, and the voting on all questions shall be by Australian ballot. So here under section 208 special city meetings conducted by Australian ballot. This is cutting through the 17 vs a 2680 scheme where the voters approve voting by Australian ballot and one of the things I'll know is that the village of Assy's junction is one of those municipalities that have adopted the Australian ballot system. Section 209 contains the procedure for council meetings. The council under subsection a, it's given authority to determine its own rules and order of business. Subsection B provides that three members shall constitute a quorum under subsection C. The council shall keep minutes and according with the open meeting laws, and that journalized minutes shall be a public record. All meetings of the council shall be open to the public, unless by affirmative vote of the majority of the members. The council votes that any particular session shall be in an executive session or deliberative section in accordance with the open meeting law. Section 210 governing appointments. Council shall have the power to appoint the members of all boards commissions to similar bodies, unless specifically provided otherwise by this charter, the terms of those appointments shall commence on the day after the day of the appointment. Unless the appointment is to fill a vacancy. Section 211 contains some additional provisions relating to the city council. First, no claim for personal services shall be allowed to the officers elected at the annual meeting, except when compensation for those services is provided for under the provisions of this charter. The council is authorized to sell or lease any real or personal state belonging to the city. It is also authorized by the council at large. Moving on sub chapter three governing other elected offices within the city. First in section 301 we have the Brown L library trustee. This establishes the five member board of library trustees who shall be elected to five year terms members will be elected by Australian ballot. The qualified voters of the city of S extension shall be eligible to hold the office of elected library trustee. Section 302, the moderator, the voters at the annual city meeting shall elect a moderator who presides over the meeting. The term of the moderator shall be one year. The qualified voters of the city shall be eligible to hold that office. Sub chapter four governs city meetings. Section 401, sorry in subsection a. The voters shall at each annual meeting vote to set the date of the next annual meeting, at which time the voters shall vote for the election of officers to voting on the city budget and any other business included in the warnings for the meetings. General law that governs the qualifications of electors manner of voting duties of officers and all other particulars respective to the preparation for conducting management of elections shall govern city elections. Long way of saying any title 17 general provision. It's applicable to the municipalities the state and their elections is going to be applicable to the city. Under subsection C, the election of officers and voting on all questions that are warned for these meetings shall be by Australian ballot city clerk and the BCA shall conduct elections in accordance with general law. In chapter five we get into the ordinance authority of the city provides that ordinances shall be adopted in accordance with the general state law with additional requirements requirements that will be noted later in the sub chapter. So, to bring us back to some of the earlier discussion within another charter, the procedure generally is proposal of the ordinances notice and publication legislative body vote to adopt the ordinance, followed by the permissive referendum potentially of the ordinances of electors and a 45 delayed effective date. And of course ordinances must be designated specifically as either civil or criminal. Section 502 relates to public hearings for the adoption of ordinances requires the city council to hold a minimum of one public hearing prior to the adoption of any ordinance. The time in place advertised. The ordinance shall be introduced, and all persons interested shall be given an opportunity to be heard so there's a public participation component built in specifically to how the city is going to conduct its ordinance hearings. The city may pass the ordinance with or without amendment. It shall cause the amended ordinance to be published pursuant to subsections and be with a notice of the time and place of a public hearing at which time the ordinance will be further considered. Section 503 may finally pass the amended ordinance or amend it subject to the same procedures outlined in this section 502. Section 503 every ordinance shall become effective upon passage, unless otherwise specified representative Anthony has a question. Mr. Chair, does this depart from general law. I was under the impression that the most common practice is a is an introduction of first reading a second reading, and their time intervals between each before final adoption, and then passage of time and effect effective date, or am I not not well informed. You are very well informed and for the last part of what you said, the space between the adoption of an ordinance and its effective date is 45 days. Unless the voters bring forth that petition for permissive referendum, in which case it is not effective until a municipality wide vote can be held. And that has to be held within 60 days. This is different representative Anthony. Section 504 contains procedures for the rescission of an ordinance. All ordinances shall be subject to rescission by special or annual city meeting. Section 505 within 44 days after final passage by the council of petition is signed by the voters of the city, constituting 5% of the qualified voting population. The council is required to fix the time in place of a meeting. This is held within 60 days representative Anthony this is going back to what you were just bringing up. These are the procedures that are outlined in general law. Notice of the meeting shall be given in the manner provided by the law and the calling of a special or annual city meeting, and the vote shall be by Australian ballot. Here's a difference. The ordinance so referred shall remain in effect upon the conclusion of the meeting, unless the majority of those present in voting against the ordinance at the annual meeting exceeds 5% and number of the qualified voters of the municipality. Section 505 governs petitions for enactment of an ordinance at a special meeting voters of the city may at any time petition for the enactment of a lawful ordinance. The council is required upon filing of the petition to call a special city meeting or to include it in the business at the next annual annual meeting to be held within 60 days after the date of the filing of the petition. The warning for the meeting shall state the proposed ordinance in full or in concise summary and shall provide for an Australian ballot vote. The ordinance would take effect on the 10th day after the conclusion of the meeting provided that the voters vote to affirm. Prior to the city meeting, the proposed ordinance is going to be examined by the city attorney, and the city attorney is authorized under the subsection be to correct the ordinance. Subsection C states that the provisions of this section dealing conditions for ordinances do not apply to the appointments of officers members of commissions or boards that are made by the council. Sub chapter six this deals with the city manager. Section 601 deals with the appointment of the manager council shall appoint a city manager in accordance with the general law section 602 sets out the powers of the manager. The manager shall be the chief administrative officer of the city and shall be responsible to the city council for the administration of all city affairs that are placed within the manager's charge under this charter. The manager shall have the powers in addition to those powers that are delegated to municipal managers by general law. The manager has the authority in subject to appoint and under certain terms to spend to remove all city of s extraction employees, including the treasurer and other employees provided for under the charter for cause, except as otherwise provided by law. So representative Anthony this is where I'll have to look into the chief of police provisions that you were discussing earlier. This charter collected bargaining contract or personnel rules adopted pursuant to the charter manager is authorized. Excuse me, the manager may authorize any employee who is subject to the manager's direction and supervision to exercise these powers with respect to the governance in that employees department officer agency appointments layoff suspensions promotions demotions and removals shall be made primarily on the basis of training experience fitness and performance of duties. So here there is a built in requirements for firings and removals in such manner as to ensure that the responsible officer may secure efficient service. The manager shall direct and supervise the administration of all of the departments and offices of the city, and shall recommend the hiring of a city attorney with that is subject to city council approval, and shall hire special attorneys as needed. The manager shall attend all council meetings and shall have the right to take part in discussion, but may not vote. Someone of an ex officio member here. The council may meet an executive session without the manager for discussion of the manager's performance. The manager is charged with seeing that all laws provisions of this charter and acts the council subject to enforcement by the manager or any of those subordinate officers are faithfully executed. Submit the manager and submit the annual budget and capital program to the council. This is a component of Vermont's manager town manager system, the preparation of budget and capital programs. The manager shall submit to the council and make available to the public a complete report on the finances and administrative activities of the city. As of the end of each fiscal year. Subsection I, we're about halfway through at this point. The manager is required to make other reports as the council may require concerning the operations of the city's administrative offices. The manager shall keep the council fully advised as to financial conditions of the city and make recommendations to the council concerning the affairs of the city. Subsection K, a little repetitive, but it states that the manager shall be responsible for the enforcement of all city of S. E. Shunction ordinances laws. Subsection L provides that the manager may delegate to subordinate officers any duties conferred upon the manager. Subsection N provides that the manager shall perform other duties as are specified in this charter as may be required by the city council and shall fix the compensation of city employees. Finally, the manager shall recommend the appointment of the city clerk subject to council approval. Subsection O, that the village is one of the municipalities that has moved the clerk position to an appointed rather than elected position. Section 603 deals with the removal of the city manager. The council has given authority under the section to remove the manager from office for cause in accordance with the following procedure. The council shall adopt by affirmative vote of all of its members a preliminary resolution that must state the reasons for the removal and must may suspend the manager from duty for a period not to exceed 45 days. A copy of that resolution provided to the manager. Five days after receipt of the resolution, the manager may file with the council a request for a hearing. The hearing shall be in a public or executive session by choice of the manager, not the council. And the hearing shall be held at a special council meeting not earlier than 15 days or later than 30 days after the request is filed. The manager may file with the council a written reply, not later than five days before the hearing. So again, this is a hearing process concerning the removal of the manager. As soon as the procedure is triggered the manager has an opportunity to request the hearing and file a written statement. Representative Anthony has a question. Thank you madam chair. Just to go back slightly. Your phrase the trigger. Do I did I hear you correctly that the pulling the trigger as you typify it must be unanimous. No affirmative vote of a majority of the city council sets this out. Section 604 deals with vacancies in the office of city manager. The manager by a letter from the clerk may appoint a staff member to perform the manager's duty in the event of the manager's absence. The manager, unless the manager has previously appointed a staff member as an assistant manager deputy manager, who would automatically assume the manager's role in the case of an absence. And designates the boards and commissions within the city. Quickly moving through some of these because they relate directly to general law sections 701 702 and 703 relate to the creation of board of civil authority, board of abatement of taxes and planning commission as provided by general law. Similarly, section 704 establishes the city's development review review board. Section 705 relates to a specific library entity within the city, the brine out brown L library brown L library trustees brown L library board of library trustees that holds office at the time that this charter that you have in front of you is enacted shall serve until their terms are completed. Any existing policies of the library trustees at the time that this charter becomes effective shall become the policies of the new running the library board of trustees. The five permanent self perpetuating library trustees shall continue to function in accordance with the terms of the trust agreement dated May 25 1925. The authority to establish any new policy for the operational library or repeal or replace any existing policy and shall otherwise actor conformance with general law. The library is required under the terms of the charter to follow all financial and personal policies that are adopted by the city council. This library is one of those special library entities that we see occasionally, usually within chartered municipalities, where there was an agreement by gift or devise from a private entity to the municipality. That gift carry certain terms here. There's an acknowledgement that those terms under that specific gift will carry through the creation of the city, and will be applicable. Sub chapter eight deals with the administrative departments of the city section 801 personnel administration and benefits. The manager or appointee shall be the personnel director, we shall maintain personnel rules and regulations protecting the interests of the city. These rules and regulations must be approved by the council and shall include the procedure for many then, or for placing them in the practice. Every employee of the city will receive a copy of those rules pursuant to this chart. Subsection be the rules and regulations may deal with the following subjects or with other similar manners of matters of personnel administration. Job classification jobs to be filled tenure retirement pensions needs of absence holidays hours of work group insurance gallery plans and enumerated list of terms of employment and potential benefits. No person in the service of the city shall either directly or indirectly give render pay or receive any service or other valuable thing for or on account of or in connection with the appointment or appointed position. Section 802 a specific provision related to the real estate assessor.  As provided for listers under the general laws of state section 803 appraisal shall be reviewed periodically and kept up to date. Moving through these sections, the appraisal of business personal property shall be in accordance with the provisions of title 32. The same may from time to time be amended, provided that all business personal property acquired by a taxpayer after September 30 1995 shall be exempt from tax. You've dealt with a lot of these over the last few years, mostly in the context of repeals of business personal property taxes here the city is carrying over the existing personal property tax from the village, which doesn't touch property acquired after September 30 1995. Section 805 interestingly contains statement of purpose around the appointing of the assessor. The purpose of appointing an assessor is in lieu of the election of listers and the city shall be governed by and each taxpayer shall have the rights granted by the applicable general law concerning real and personal property taxation. Section 909 governs the city's budget process. Section 901 provides that the fiscal year of the city shall be the first day of July and end on the last day of June of each calendar year. Section 902 governs the annual municipal budget with support from the finance department. The manager is required to submit to the city council, a budget for review before the annual city meeting. The budget shall contain. We have an enumerated list of minimum requirements here. First, an estimate of the financial condition of the city. Second, an itemized statement of appropriations recommended for current expenses and for capital improvements with comparative statements of approach appropriations and estimated expenditures for the current fiscal year. Second, an itemized statement of estimated revenues from all sources, other than taxation for the next fiscal year. A capital budget for not fewer than the next five fiscal years showing anticipated capital expenditures financing tax requirements, and then any other information that the city council may require as part of that budget proposal. Section 903 city council will then review and approve the recommended budget with or without change from what they receive from manager. The budget shall be published not later than two weeks after its preliminary adoption by the council, and the council will fix the time and place for holding a public hearing on the budget. It is required under section 904 to hold at least one public hearing 30 days prior to the annual meeting to present and explain the proposed budget. And the manager, not less than 30 days prior to meeting shall make available the council's recommended budget and the final warning of the next final warning of the pending annual meeting. The annual city report shall be made available to the legal voters in the city, not later than 10 days prior to the annual meeting. Section 905 appropriation and transfers. The annual budget shall be adopted at the city meeting by the vote of a majority of the eligible voters. The total budget has been appropriated the council finds the additional appropriations necessary the appropriations shall be made and reported at the next city like city meeting as a specific item. The appropriations shall only be made in special circumstances or situations of an emergency nature from the effective date of the budget. The amounts that are stated in the budget shall become appropriated to the several agencies and purposes that are named in the budget. The council may at any time transfer an unencumbered appropriation balance or portion between general classifications of expenditures within an office department or agency. At the request of the manager the council may by resolution transfer any unencumbered appropriation balance within the council budget from one department to another. In this area, if you're interested in getting into the granular detail where you may want to look at some of the prohibited commingling of funds that will overlap this. While the charter provision permits certain commingling here. It will be read in the context of other general law. One example that comes to mind immediately is that highway department funds are not permitted to be commingled with any of the other funds held within the general fund. And that specific prohibition under general law would likely overlap this representative Anthony. Thank you. Yeah, thank you, Madam Chair, and I, I to which I would add in the commingling discussion of those that are specifically voted to fund the capital budget, as opposed to the operating. And it actually goes back to the use of the word appropriation and the fact or your reading of a process by which the council can meet and the exact language I think was to change in appropriation. My understanding is the general law essentially limits those appropriations to the overall budget cabinet. And then the other language that you recited confines the width of transfer, that is to say, but what I'm getting at is, it seemed to me that the, the language in enabling the council. To increase in appropriation seems rather open ended and yet, I'm pretty sure that the overall budget cannot be exceeded that's the permission that the voters have given the council and manager to spend. Am I am I off on that. You are not off one of the details that I went over and I apologize for getting into so much detail during this initial walkthrough. But one of the details that I went through is that if in those emergency circumstances, the city council is going to need an additional appropriation beyond what was approved, they must present whatever that emergency additional appropriation was as an item at the next city meeting. And one thing that I will point out there. And I did make a note about it is that there should be some consistency throughout the charter. Whether this is an annual meeting or whether a special meeting would be required to be called, and it just uses the term city meeting by default, that would likely mean the annual meeting section 906. This governs the amount to be raised by taxation upon approval of the budget by the voters, the amounts that are stated in the budget to be raised by taxes shall constitute a determination of the amount of taxes of the levy for purposes of the city and corresponding tax year and the council shall levy those taxes on the grand list as prepared by the assessor for the corresponding tax year. Again, these are echoing the provisions in title 32 and title 24 about that process and those officers duties. Chapter 10 deals with taxation. Section 1001 taxes on real property shall be paid and equal installments on March 15 and September 15. The council shall send notice to taxpayers not less than 30 days prior to when taxes are due. This is something that's permitted by general law here they're taking that general law authority and codifying it within their charter with specific dates. In 2002, an additional charge of 8% shall be added to any tax not paid on or before the dates that are specified in the previous section. Again, that is permissive under general law and 8% is the capped amount. Notwithstanding section 906 of this charter and any general law requirements the council is authorized and empowered to negotiate and execute assessment and taxation agreements between the city and the taxpayer or taxpayers within the city consistent with applicable requirements of the Vermont Constitution. I don't think they're there, but at the end I believe that what they are pointing to is the proportionality clause of the Vermont Constitution. So they can come up with specific assessment relationships with taxpayers, provided that it comports with Vermont's proportionality clause. I may want to hear some testimony on this but there are specific allowances under Vermont's tax law where municipalities can enter into essentially tax agreement contracts with certain entities that are paid over a period of time essentially a reduction tax rate to entice certain entities to operate within the town. That would come in the include what we call stabilization agreements Tucker. Yes, that is what I was getting at. And what about the somewhat murky area of charitable and public use kinds of exemptions, which oftentimes include portions which qualify under the benefits clause and portions of a property which do not. That all be governed by the general law that exempt certain types of pious and charitable properties from property taxation by the municipalities. So I would not see this specific section of the charter as being in conflict with those general laws. However, you brought up the perfect example of the stabilization agreement. That is something that I think is being alluded to here in this section. Now, I thought I was finished what a mistake. The proportionality comment applies to situations where a property is a judge by the assessor to be mixed between a pious use and not qualifying. Do I get that the proportionality clause of the Vermont Constitution and I'll try to keep this as simple as possible essentially says that taxes should be proportionate to the tax payer and the benefit they receive. Essentially, you should not tax one entity at a rate that directly benefits someone else. And I can bring you back to a discussion that we had three years ago, the town of Bennington Charter where they were proposing to expand taxing district boundaries, based on a municipal vote, but there would be a case that would be paying a special assessment tax if the boundaries were changed where they would receive no benefits. And essentially, you not only have a constitutional structure but a statutory structure that says, you know, for example, if you're going to be raising a tax for water utility lines and things like that, then those that are paying the assessment tax should be those that are receiving the benefit. You shouldn't use an ad valorem tax to give a benefit to a limited population of people. Thank you. All right, let's see if we can jog through the last few pages. All right, moving through sub chapter 11 deals with capital programs within the city. Essentially the city manager is charged with preparing and submitting to the council a capital program. This is prior to the date of the budget. The program shall include a summary of its contents, a list of all the capital improvements that are proposed cost estimates of methods of financing recommended time schedules for the improvements. There's an estimated annual cost of operating and maintaining proposed facilities. And there's the opportunity for revision built within this. Sub chapter 12 deals with the amendment of the charter, the charter may be amended as provided by state law for the amendment of charters. After 13 contains a series of general provisions. These are contained within many of the charters. They don't necessarily add any specific powers. This includes a savings clause section 1301 a separate clause in section 1302 and specific superseding language in section 1303. The commission states that the city shall be formed not withstanding language that is contained within the town of Essex charter within the town's charter states that notwithstanding the provisions of any other municipal charters. So it's pointing to the village there, the territory within the corporate limits of the town's will not be annexed to become part of any other municipal corporation, except as set out in the general. So within the town's charter, they were pointing to the general law, which allows villages to annex territory within a town by set of those who reside in that territory. And they're saying town territory can only be annexed by the village, pursuant to general law. And here, the city is setting that aside, our charters going to supersede that. I will say that each of those 1301 1302 and 1303 are examples of charter language that is not necessary to establishing the city or granny its powers. The next chunk that we will go through is a series of sections governing the transition from city. Section three governs the transition and assignment of village assets and liabilities. It essentially states that all of the assets and obligations that were formerly owned or held by the village, and that haven't been otherwise transferred or resolved by this point, shall transfer to the city. That includes real property interest and property equipment, personal property, rents charges, lean rights enforcement powers, and essentially any financial instrument including indebtedness that the village has all of the active contracts and trusts that obligate the village shall remain in effect and shall transfer to the city, cities essentially going to assume all of those liabilities. Section four establishes the transition period. So, when the charter becomes effective and the city is established according to this act, the transition period will begin on that date. So, July 1, 2022, following the General Assembly's approval of the charter, and we'll end on July 1, 2023. So we have a one year transition period here. During that period, the city shall continue to receive and pay for consolidated services with the town. For administration, assessing the clerk slash treasurer office finances information technology police public works and stormwater. The city shall set a tax rate and collect taxes to meet the obligations for the city's share of town municipal operations, and all of the city's municipal operations throughout the transition period. And this would be according to the budgets that were approved by the voters of the town and the village in the prior annual meeting. The city is selected by the city for the town shall be paid to the town into equal installments at the end of the transition period, the city is proposed to be fully organized. Nothing in this section is intended to limit reservations made in other transitional provisions throughout this act, essentially another savings clause. July 5 provides for the organizational meeting of the city. So the first annual city meeting shall occur on the date set forth by the voters at the most recent village annual meeting, which is up and coming. Following the approval of the charter, the shall be a meeting of the city of us extension and shall be noticed and warned to all the residents of the city. At that meeting that they shall present and discuss the budget only. That's all they're going to do. This other city business, but here it says expressly that the they will not be voting on other issues besides the budget. After presentation and discussion of the budget, the meeting will adjourn voting on the budget, and the election of counselors will be by Australian ballot. Section six contains the transitional provisions for the village center and neighborhood development area designations provides that the village center district and neighborhood development area. They will continue in the new city for the purpose of continuing downtown revitalization efforts as outlined in the village's comprehensive plan. And that the city shall retain any and all state designations for the purposes of redevelopment. Section seven transitional provisions for the trustees to the new governing body the city council on the effective date of the charter. The board of trustees shall become members of the council. So you have direct transfer trustee to city counselor and shall continue to serve in their capacities until they serve out their elected terms. President vice president Thark of the council shall continue to serve in their capacities into the board reorganizes. The ministers shall warn and hold meetings as appropriate and shall address all details and issues relating to the transition from the village to the city. The council wants it is formed will have our review consider and adopt all ordinances and plans from the former village of as extension as its own. So they're reserving to the council here, the opportunity to take all of those village ordinances and carry them for the purposes of the city. So the board with the assistant of the manager shall propose and more in the first annual budget for consideration by the voters at the first annual meeting. Section eight contains a transitional provision for budget and administration. Following the approval of the charter by the general assembly the manager self manager shall pose a budget for the city for the next fiscal year that addresses proper service levels contract obligations capital projects. So something to note here is that introductory clause is not contingent on the act becoming effective it is only contingent on the approval of the charter by the legislature. Next transitional provision governs the separation of the city and town departments. As you know the city is going to employ a city manager, the manager shall plan and hire for the separation of all consolidated departments within the town by the end of the transition period again that's July 1 2023. Unless contracts are signed stating otherwise in which case the contracts shall dictate the terms for the sharing of services between the city and the town. So going back to what feels like 10 days ago but was likely an hour ago, representative that was your question and you may want to investigate what contracts may be extended beyond the transitional period for the sharing of services between these two municipalities. Section 10 transitional provision for planning and development. The city board of village is zoning bylaws and land development code and any ordinances shall remain in effect until they're amended or revised by the city council. And further that the village planning commission and zoning board of adjustment shall become those boards under the city government. All ordinances in section 11 deal with appointed commission committee members. All current trustee appointed commission committee members shall serve out the remainder of their terms and new positions shall be filled upon the existing schedules established in the village. Under section 12 we deal with the unification and adoption of ordinances bylaws and rules we dealt with some of that in the context of development just a few seconds ago. All ordinances and bylaws of the village shall become ordinances and bylaws of the city. The city is fully authorized to amend or appeal any ordinance in accordance with this charter and general law. Section 13, this deals with personnel on the effective date of this charter employees of the village shall become employees of the city, and all contracts for employment with the village shall be assumed by the city. Personnel policies and regulations that have been adopted by the village shall become the policies and regulations the city. The dates of hire within the village will be used as the dates of hire for purposes of related purposes related to benefits with the new city of s extraction and all accrued benefits for village employees are going to carry over to city employment. Section 14 deals with finances. The city shall adopt any and all portions of the town of Essex grand list for properties located within the borders of the city. So for those properties within the corporate limits of what is currently village that will become a grand list of the city. Any and all property tax payments that are due and delinquencies incurred for the village prior to the effective date of the charter shall be payable to the town of Essex. On the effective date of the charter and the establishment city, any city taxes due and delinquencies incurred shall be payable to the city. So prior to that goes to the town. After the date of effectiveness that goes to the city. All contractual agreements, including tax stabilization agreements. Any agreements related to the conveyance of real estate within the village shall be assigned to the city of Essex junction. Section 15 establishes the future governance. Within three years after the approval of this charter the city council is going to be required to appoint a special commission to study governance considerations. And they gave an example here, forms of government elections of officials at large or through wards of districts governing body composition terms of office turn limits and counselor compensation. So board is going to be formed to give advice to the city council about how to move forward with city government in future years. We're at the end. And the end is first that the village charter. will be and will no longer be a corporate entity. Under section 17 the effective date here specifically unlike other charters is not on passage, but is July 1 2022, which will kick off that transitional period. Those are the words on the page. Thank you Tucker, I appreciate your thorough walkthrough and would open it up for committee members to ask any lingering questions that they might have right now. Representative the house game. I imagine I probably have a lot of questions but that was thorough and long and I suspect I'll have to process them but the first one that comes to mind for me is if in your view. This city charter given that the village charter has a relationship to the town outside the village charter if the enactment of the city charter would have would in any way force changes to be made to the town of Essex charter. Sorry if that was convoluted this whole thing is a little convoluted. I understood you perfectly it's a fantastic point and the answer is that the establishment of the city is going to require changes not only in any charter that refers to the former village, but also in a few provisions of municipal law that identify the municipalities of the state. So if this charter moves forward provisions are going to have to be included for example to add the city of Essex junction to the list of municipalities within the state. There's designation, for example, of municipalities for purposes of districting those statutes will have to be amended to recognize the city of Essex junction. There's going to have to be some cleanup if this moves forward. Yes. Okay. But aside from cleanup and the sort of technical changes it would not force any substantive changes to the town of Essex charter. There are places where the town like the town charter significantly has to change because of this. I have not looked into whether there are substantive relationships between the town and the village are specifically referenced in the town charter, but I will. Thank you so much my other question and this may be something that you also don't have the answer to is around the select board that is currently made up of residents of the town outside the village and residents of what would become the city. What would happen to those select board members who are now residents in the city and not the town outside of the village. I'm going to have to take a look at the town of Essex charter and see whether they have a specific provision allowing non residents to occupy their legislative body. My intuition tells me that they do not, and that that would be deemed a vacancy. Thank you. Representative Anthony. Thank you Tucker thank you madam chair. Thank you madam chair. I have a comment about the effective dates. Is there a failsafe position or provision. If for some reason, this process is not concluded by July 123. That is a question that should go to those working within the village right now, or perhaps the representatives of the village who have been intimately involved with the process. The failsafe built into the bill. In fact, some of the things that I highlighted aren't even contingent on the bill moving forward they are a reflection of plans that will move forward. Now that this is in front of the general assembly. So one of the things that I highlighted before this is signed and becomes effective. I think that they're going to be moving the town manager is going to be moving forward with some of the budget proposals. You know for the fiscal year which starts July 1st. So that's something that you should explore with representatives from the village. Other questions from committee members. Okay. So Tucker, this is a really my, I think it's a minor point on page 16 line 11. It refers to subdivision 301 b4 of this charter, which I believe deals with investigations but I couldn't find that. Well I went to section 301 and had nothing to do with investigations. Representative Ganon as always a keen eye that reference should be to section 201 b4, which provides that the city shall have the power to inquire into the conduct of any officer commissioner department. So that is a technical correction that should be made before this moves forward. And I just, I just thought that that was a very limiting session of when the city council can go into executive session without the manager. I mean only if he's under investigation. Or they're discussing his personnel record. I mean that's pretty narrow what if there's a whistleblower complaint. You know, it says there's embezzlement in the city, but it's not specific to the manager. Right. I mean, I would think that the city council would probably not want to have any personnel in that meeting. Representative McCarthy. I mean, if I was putting my city managers, he would say I would want to be in that meeting unless I was the subject of it. I mean, it's sometimes you don't know. Yeah. That's an interesting and maybe someone wouldn't want to come forward if there was anyone else. So all you know there's, there appears to have been an embezzlement, but it's unclear who did it. Like for example your auditor comes back and finds an account is missing money. That's all they know than any member of the city could be likely the treasurer the time manager or city manager in this case. That might be helpful. Good questions. I just think it's very narrowing to say okay, these are the only two times that city council can meet in executive session without the manager being present. That's a great, a great issue to flag. I think we're the village trustees who will become the city council and understand what their thoughts are on this. Any other questions for Tucker about the bill as introduced. Right. We are. Tucker has his hand up. Hi Tucker. I apologize. I had promised interested parties specifically the sponsor the bill who spoke to you earlier that I would relay to concerns that they wanted to highlight with the bill. And that justices of the piece are currently elected by the town and per the Vermont Constitution justices of the piece have to be elected at the November general election by the town that they are going to serve in. This is an issue that needs to be addressed as these two municipalities split. First, whether the current justices of the piece can serve across town lines and whether there's any problem with that. And two, whether because of the specific language within the Vermont Constitution and election or special election could be held immediately, not waiting until November to make sure that there are justices of the piece that can serve in the city. So that's what we've established.  Yes, the transitional provision that we went through in section four, that some of the provisions should be removed. Specifically about continuing to receive and paying for consolidated services with the town for administration and finance those two terms administrative services and finance should be removed because those services have already been separated. So for that year of the transitional period they should not be added back into the mix. Remember, I think it appears to me that there could be other issues. And are we going to hear from somebody from the town of Essex as well. I think that we will hear from both the select board chair and the village trustees chair and and hear a little bit more about the conversations that are going on between the two entities about planning for separation. Thank you representative Anthony. Tucker on the heels. Thank you madam chair. The heels of your observation about justice of the peace not waiting until next November, because they double as members of the BCA together with members of the legislative body I'm wondering whether to be sure there's sufficient personnel to constitute the BCA, because there's some provision to include the village trustees explicitly as serving as if they were members of the council and therefore members of the BCA. So the BCA simply not limited to three justice for the peace. That can be addressed in a transition position, certainly, and I'll also direct you to the BCA provision within the charter I'll send you the language later but they reference general law authority within that section of the charter. Other questions. All right, welcome back. Thank you to the operations committee. We are meeting this afternoon to hear from a couple more witnesses on age 491 and act relating to the creation of the city of Essex junction and adoption of the city charter. So today, Mr Brown from the village trustees, who is vice chair of the select board I understand that the chair of the select board had a family emergency and wasn't able to join us. And so we wish him well. And thank you, Mr Murray for for coming to speak with us in his place. I think since this is the, the village separation charter proposal I'm going to go first to Andrew Brown who I gather is the president of the village trustees so welcome, Mr Brown and please share with us your perspective on why the village of Essex junction would like to become the city of Essex junction. Thank you so much, Madam chair representative Colpin Hans this vice chair representative again and ranking member representative Leclerre and the full house committee and government operations. Truly appreciate the opportunity to to be here and to really help advocate on behalf of the 88% of village of Essex junction residents who voted to separate from the town of Essex. And really what I'd like to do is I'd like to start off in the similar way that the trustees started off all of our work sessions, which we conducted from April through September, when we were creating this this charter to begin with. We started off with a review of our goal statements, which states to create an independent Essex junction, ensuring that it has a foundation that provides for economic and political stability reflects the village character has opportunity for growth and looks towards the future. Further the village trustees agreed to the statement on how we would get there, which states. The village led process that is future oriented. We will steer clear of distractions and act with civility transparency and deliverance. The trustees will work to develop consensus and speak with a consistent voice. We will engage with bring together seek input from and work to inform our community. We will work with the select board and maintain a healthy relationship with our neighbors in the town. Last point, one of the things I want to make sure to highlight is on May 24 of 2021, the village trustees in the town select board agreed to and signed an amicable separation resolution, which in part states the select board and trustees will meet in good faith to cooperatively develop mutually beneficial agreements as necessary to reach to achieve an amicable separation, along with the possible provision of sharing services. The select board and trustees agreed to negotiate in good faith throughout the amicable separation process. I say this to ensure all of you know that the intent is to ensure that the town of Essex and city of Essex junction remain cooperative neighbors, and in no way should this be viewed as a messy divorce. Madam chair, if you don't mind, you asked your original question is, or was why does a village of Essex junction wants to separate from the town of Essex and to create an independent city. I can certainly go into the, the why, although I believe that representative Houghton did a great job of doing so. If you don't mind what I would like to take some of the time at this moment to do is to go through some of the questions that I that I heard from the previous, the previous committee time on this, this charter change. That would be very helpful. Thank you. Yes. I believe there was a question around what will separation mean for emergency services. One of the things I want to make sure that is understood the village of Essex junction and the town of Essex currently have their own independent fire departments. They are not funded together. They are their own separate entities funded by the unique municipalities. So, I believe that Essex which provides the ems services as a separate nonprofit, and the police department. That is one that is slightly unique in the sense that the town of Essex oversees the police department for Essex, the whole. One of the agreements that the trustees and the select board have worked diligently on is an agreement to continue to have the Essex police department provide services to those in the town of Essex and to those of us that would be in the city of Essex junction. In this agreement is a multi year agreement where essentially the two entities would pay the necessary costs for the police department on a per capita basis, as our populations are relatively similar. But this would be a department that is overseen by the town of Essex. So essentially the city of Essex junction is contracting with the town of Essex for the police services. On a related notes, there was a question around whether our charter for the city of Essex junction would interfere with a conflict around the termination or supervision of the chief of police. Given the agreement that we have with the town of Essex, the police department would be overseen by the town of Essex and so the police chief would be an employee of the town of Essex. And so that individual would not be subject to the city of Essex junctions charter. There was another question about what has to be unwound, and what has to be stood up in terms of which departments are, which municipality has which departments. I've already mentioned the police department. We are, we have finalized an agreement with the town of Essex on an assessor through the reappraisal process. We're essentially the city of Essex junction will contract with the town of Essex for the, the impending reappraisal process should start in the next couple of years. The process has concluded our municipalities may continue to have a shared assessor or we can separate the assessing department or assessing function and have our own, but that would be a decision for a future board at that point in time. We have an agreement to separate the it functions and to ensure that we can extract all necessary data from town servers as necessary so that that way come the effective date of the charter from day one we can have a fully functioning access junction information technology infrastructure, which we would have contracted out through separate provider. We believe you heard at the last time. We have an agreement where stormwater, we will work together when necessary, but that we would have our own individual stormwater processes and funding. We currently are unwinding our finance staff in our finance department. We are unwinding the clerk in the treasure functions. Both of those are in are in an agreement that we have discussed as recently as last night. We are working on an agreement to share the benefits of recreation in our community so that way our residents are treated equally in terms of recreation services. Other than that, everything else is separate. Our finance will be separate after the transitional period as our previous books had been or previous processes had been consolidated so those are being unwound. Our staff though are going to be separate so the town has a finance director the village is going to be having a finance director starting on February 7. The town has a manager and the village slash city we are already starting the process to hire for a city manager. The village of Essex Junction has a wastewater treatment plant which I know was discussed at the previous meeting as a recap. The city of Essex or the village of Essex Junction wastewater treatment plant serves the town of Essex, the village of Essex Junction and the town of Williston in a very collaborative manner. In no way are we trying to replicate anything else going on in any other municipality. As I say a great collaboration has existed for many decades. We have separate recreation departments. We have separate public works departments. While the villages public works department is funded through town the town taxes. They are supervised by the village of Essex Junction. They are the best extension employees. We have separate community development departments. So planning zoning. That is all separate. So overwhelmingly, we are separate in many ways. And for those where it may expense we are working collaboratively with the soul to continue those those opportunities. There was a question around and around to move out. Sorry for the chuckle on that one. Yes, move out in terms of a representative. A city council member moving out of the more specific alternative would certainly support that. There was another question around section 503. Yes. I have a question in favor. Your audio. We adopt ordinances. That space between the adoption date is normally 45 days an hour. Is my audio becoming choppy. Your audio is becoming choppy. And I don't think we were able to hear your answer to the move out question. So if you could back up to that and try again. Yes, absolutely. Can you hear me any better now? Great. My apologies. So yes, with the move out statement, we would certainly support the, the recommendation from, I believe it was representative McCarthy. Or legislative council. Frankly, that is, we are amenable to that. So I was from there, I was going on to section 503 in the ordinances. And that with our ordinance proposal, it was slightly different than, in that the effective date would be effective upon passage. The intention there was that the rescission date would still be applicable. But seeing as that is different than what is common practice in the state, we would certainly be amenable to have that be the typical effective upon 45 days after passage. There was another question around section 1003. And let me take that moment to just say, I'm really sorry about how much time you all spent on this charter. It was certainly very lengthy and appreciate the time that you all took to go through it. Not a problem. That's our job. So section 1003 and around utilize tax stabilization and we have utilized the tax stabilization agreement for that farm. After the charter review, there were some other questions or any potential changes to the town of Essex Charter. And in looking at the town of Essex Charter, there is no direct mention of the village of Essex Junction municipality. There is a mention mentioned of the village of Essex Junction school district, which no longer exists. But other than that, there is no direct mention of the village of Essex Junction. There was a question around a failsafe provision. Should the charter not pass? We are currently planning on the best case scenario in that the House, the Senate, the governor signs off on this charter change. We need to plan for that as there are going to be some initial individuals that we need to hire. As I mentioned, we've already made the offer to a new finance director who was starting at the beginning of next month. We're starting the process for a city manager. And so we need to make sure that we are prepared for that scenario should it happen. Other than that. Should the, should this bill not pass this session? We will be right back here at the exact same place as this meeting. I think this is absolutely desirable by the village of Essex Junction community. And frankly, overwhelmingly so as there were more individuals voting for separation than there were for any of the previous merger proposals. There was another question around the investigative powers. Oh, I'm sorry. That was a question around. When the city manager would be in executive session. We would be in executive session. We would feel comfortable with, we are more than comfortable with. There are times where we do not want the manager to be a part of the executive sessions. I believe it was vice chair representative Gannon who had, who had talked about that. And yes, there are certainly times where we need to be able to do that. Not necessarily just in terms of evaluating performance. There was a. Another question. There was a reference to section 301. Where. That was just a, a typo where instead of 301, that should be 201. Certainly appreciate that being fixed. Apologize for that typo. And there was also a question around justice of the peace and BCA, which I believe that legislative council had already had already addressed in the committee time. Other than that, the, the main thing that again, I really wanted to, to drive home as you can see here. The select board chair, while unfortunately there, as was mentioned, there are some health concerns that are going on. I wish him and his family well. But we have the vice chair, the select board here to really help in and ensure that the committee understands that this is not one community trying to harm another. We are neighbors. Some of us like myself grew up in one part and now live in the other. And so we have a lot of, a lot of issues. We have a lot of issues with the community. Our children end up going to the same high school. So we root for them together on sports teams. We watch their plays. Many of our, our children become classmates in the high school. And so we certainly don't want to jeopardize that, that future relationship in any way, shape or form. And overwhelmingly, if there are other concerns around the charter that was provided to you all. We are very amenable to what the committee believes is in the community. We are very amenable to what the committee believes is in the community. We have more and more charters than we do. And you have that expertise. And we are very amenable to that. As frankly, we want to ensure that separation passes. Thank you so much for being with us today. And thank you for taking the time to look at the previous committee hearing that we had on this subject, because it's very helpful to, to have someone from on the ground. Help us answer these questions. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Any other questions. For Mr. Brown. Representative Leclerc. Thank you, Madam chair. Good afternoon, Mr. Brown. It looks like I'll be one of two that might potentially be reporting this charter change. So I just, I have a couple of questions. I just want to make sure that I understand that. Going forward, you're going to be continued to share the police department. The assessor, the rec department, wastewater. How about the Brown L library? Our libraries are separate entities. The Brown L library serves the village of Essex junction. The Essex free library is built to serve those outside the village in the town. And so those will continue to remain separate. Thank you for asking that. I forgot to mention that. All right. Are there any other shared services that you can think of going forward? Or even maybe shared positions. Not shared services or shared positions at this point. Unless I am forgetting something. And in which case I am, I would look to vice chair Murray to certainly correct me. Similarly in the future at this point in time. Our boards and even our staff have agreed that separation isn't the best interests as our boards in many ways have differing priorities. And as such, it's been a bit of a taxing experience for many of our management staff. I just have one more question. It's, I guess it's section 15. In the proposed charter. It's actually one of the last paragraphs. The transitional provision future governance commission. Did you speak to the intent of that? Certainly. You said that was section 16. Section 15. Yes. So the intent of this is early on, there were questions as to whether or not the city of Essex junction should have a mayor, whether or not five city counselors is appropriate. And the intention of this committee is to explore those, those concerns and to help provide a recommendation back to the city council. One of the things that we wanted to ensure as we were going through this process is we didn't want to change the experience of the village of Essex junction residents. We wanted to ensure that the city of Essex junction, frankly, is take away the word village, replace it with city. And that's what you get. And so we didn't want to change the governance structure at this time. We didn't want to change the city of Essex. Even though we had heard from some of our, our constituents that they would like that. So this, the intent here is to have that committee explore those opportunities. Okay. So this is just to do with the potential city of Essex, as opposed to looking at any shared governance structure going forward between the two entities. Yes, you are correct. Okay. Very good. Thank you. Other questions from committee members. I am seeing none. So Patrick Murray. Welcome and thank you for being here to speak on behalf of the select board of the town of Essex. And would welcome your thoughts on the charter proposal as a whole. And also would love to have you explore a little bit for the committee to help us understand the. Collaboration that has happened between the village and the town. To get to the point where. We stand today. So welcome. Thank you very much, Madam chair, Mr vice chair. I apologize a bit in advance. I was not anticipating needing to testify today. So as you can see behind me, my nerd is in full swing with the various. Comical, paraphernalia. Speaking more seriously though, it has long been and our chair, Andy Watts, uses exact phrasing that the select board does not wish to get in the way of the formation of a city of Essex junction. It is not our, not our intent or our desire to try to throw up any roadblocks or to prevent this from happening in any way. The select board's concern is obviously in what is now a bit of a tricky situation, we are representing both those individuals who live outside of the village in Essex currently, but we are at current still representing all of those individuals who live within the village of Essex Junction because they remain residents of the town. That creates quite a balancing act when we are going through all of our proposals and through working with the trustees in the various agreements that we've come to. I think so far, however, we've been fairly successful. We have worked continuously with the trustees since the results of this vote last April and have gone through a significant number of agreements that have been set into place. We continue to work on those, as Andrew Brown mentioned, police services, assessor, stormwater, clerk, treasurer. We continue to work on those, but we have made significant progress in what we classified as higher tier agreements, simply just a way for us to identify those items that are of a significant priority. Police services, for example, was the, I think, number one concern for almost all of the citizens that we represent. Now, I did not spend as much time watching your last meeting on this as Andrew did, so I'm not sure that I'll be able to go through each question. There was one in particular, though, that I would like to reference. There was some question as to, once the residency of select board members, should that change if the city of Essex Junction does indeed become a city? At present, I am the only representative on the select board who lives within the village of Essex Junction. Again, that tricky balancing act. However, in this case, I am not running for my seat. In April, my term will end at that point, so there will be no residents of this village of Essex Junction who will sit on the select board at that point. Our largest concern, obviously, has been limiting the difficulty and the, you know, financial aspects of the separation, losing roughly 42% of, you know, the tax base does come with its own unique challenges, some of which we've already begun to address. We have reduced our administrative staff, we anticipate in the time going forward being able to reduce some of the levels of service, but we will be able to reduce some of the employee numbers that we have. And ideally, we also hope to use fund balance going forward to smooth out the sudden jump in an anticipated tax rate. So for us who are on the select board, our biggest concern is simply timing. We can plan and we can, you know, theorize about a lot of the financial questions, but, you know, until we know a specific date, that's going to be difficult for us to speak with real certainty about, you know, where we may make adjustments. However, we are more than prepared to do so. Thank you. Questions from committee members?  Thank you, Madam Chair. This may be a question more for Mr. Brown, but either you, Mr. Murray, going back to holding the same assessor or assessors between the village and the town, how is that going to work? Does property evaluation or review consider each of those entities a separate grand list and so on? I'm just wondering how that works. Certainly. Not at present. You know, we as a select board will continue to function as if, you know, until we hear the word as if we will remain one town. It's just simply how I think we have to continue to move forward to, you know, give our citizens relatively, should I say, to try to avoid introducing, you know, as many elements of the unknown or uncertainty as we can. So in this case, yeah, right now and currently, and I believe until after the city becomes obviously its own municipality, we, our assessor will treat that as one grand list. Andrew, if I'm missing anything, certainly please feel free to step in. Yes. Thank you, if I may. The only other portion that I wanted to mention is that our town staff through using the geographic information system capabilities that staffing have already have the separated grand list of which or have the notation as to which properties are currently within the village and would then become in the city, which would be in the town outside of the village. And so they are well equipped to be able to manage that process and be able to distinguish which property is on which side of the line. Thank you. Other questions? Representative Leclerc. Thank you. I don't know which one of you this would apply to, but other than the proposed charter change, do you have like a master document that you're working from like a memorandum of understanding or what are you using to work from to agree on what are going to be shared services and then how you're going to unwind some of the other things that you have? Yes, absolutely. Andrew, if you don't mind, I'll begin and then Phil and we do indeed have a list. We generated an MOU and within that are the various agreements that we have worked on since late last year. That does include the police services that includes the stormwater, all the various departments, the unwinding and the untangling. This document contains, while it does contain all of those different agreements, not every single one of them is final yet. So it's something, it's certainly documentation that is available. I would just simply hesitate to say, we use that as a complete hard and fast list of this is the map, how we get from A to B. It is simply what we have worked on and created in the, for mutual respect between our communities and hopefully going forward to, as I mentioned, minimize the impact on all of our citizens. So I recognize it's kind of a working document. Is that something that's accessible to the public? It is indeed, yes. That documentation is contained within every agenda packet that we send out for meetings that we work on it and there is also a sort of a larger master plan as it were that was, is also available on our SX website. We're good. Thank you. Absolutely. Thank you. I have a couple of quick questions and then I actually do have to go because I have an appointment at 3.30. But my first question around the select board and who's on the select board, I recognize you are not running for reelection, but there is nothing barring another city or village resident from running for that seat. Is there? There is nothing barring that. No. As of, I believe yesterday, the deadline for those who are running for the upcoming seats has ended. And to my knowledge, there are no village residents who are running for the three open select board seats that we have in March. Thank you. I will certainly, slightly, I thought someone hadn't had announced, but maybe they didn't file the paperwork, but that is helpful. And then my other question around these memorandums of understanding, am I right that sort of the police sharing piece was voted on in the charter change and the rest of them are being negotiated between the trustees and the select board? Or is that incorrect? We have Andrew, please go ahead. Within the, if I may, within the charter itself in the transitional provisions, it does discuss some shared services. The details, but the details of those services were not voted upon. There was an advisory vote back in April for the village where the village of S extension residents had voted to share police services and had desired to only share police services. And so then in the subsequent conversations with the select board, we had agreed that there should be additional services that we share. Okay, great. And on these shared services that would share between the village and the town there, it was only the village that voted. There was no townwide vote on any of this. Correct. Thank you. All right. Any other questions from committee members? All right. Thank you to the Essex trustees and select board members for being with us today on what's very short notice. We appreciate you helping us understand the extent of the collaboration as the two entities work on preparing for what appears to be an upcoming separation would welcome you to reach out if you have any further thoughts after today. And the committee will continue working on this with the intention of moving it out as soon as we are comfortable that we've heard from the various perspectives. So anything else before we sign off for the day? I may have one question. Apologies. I believe Andrew touched on something related to justice of the peace. And perhaps this is my lack of not seeing the entirety of the last meeting. The select board did have some questions as to current justices of the peace. And as they were elected during a townwide election for the town of Essex, we do have JPs who reside both within the village and outside the town, excuse me, outside the village of Essex within the town proper. We were not sure if simply by the separation or the creation of the city, if those individuals living within the village would automatically become justice of the piece of the village, or if that was something that needed to be re-voted on. It was just an open question that we on the select board had that impacts the ability to run elections going forward should separation occur, specifically we're thinking of November and potentially March or next year. Thank you for raising that. The members from very city and very town are the dynamic duo who will be carrying this forward. And so I'm going to invite them to weigh in if they have a thought, but also to follow up with legislative council. It would occur to me that upon the completion of separation that any person who lives in the city of Essex Junction would no longer be a resident of the town and therefore would no longer be eligible to serve as justice of the piece. But I believe that your city would need to establish a charter or a transitional provision that would call for how you would stand up trust JPs within the city of Essex Junction. But I'm going to let the members from very city follow up with you on that to give you a sense of what legislative council says. This is a rare occurrence in our state for municipalities to separate in this way. So it's not something that we, it's not something that we have had a lot of experience with. So I thank you for raising it. Absolutely. Other questions, folks? I don't think I could have said it any better than you did. All right. Thank you gentlemen for being with us. It is Friday afternoon and I promise not to keep you all too, too much longer, but there was a request for a little bit more testimony to understand the plans that are in process between the town of Essex and the proposed new city of Essex Junction as the separation charter is in front of us in the form of H491. So we have with us this afternoon Susan MacMera Hill, whose town clerk from Essex. Susan, I don't know if you have prepared remarks or if you are making yourself more available for Q&A. I think the committee's testimony so far has been around, you know, focused in on the charter for the future city of Essex Junction. But if there are any considerations that the town clerk can share with us, we would love to hear from you. And we need you to unmute yourself. Okay. So the only thing I want to say is that I am the town clerk, but I'm also the village clerk, the village of Essex Junction, and I am still employed by the village of Essex Junction. So that was my first position was as village clerk and I've been, and I was then appointed to the town clerk and I've been doing both jobs for the last five years. And I don't really have any prepared statements. I'm here to answer any questions that the committee might have. Okay. Representative Leclerc has a question. Good afternoon. Thank you for being here. So it sounds like it puts you in kind of a unique position there. So would it be appropriate to ask you if this goes through? Which way do you go? So I am still a village of Essex Junction employee and under the charter, I believe I would then become a city of Essex Junction employee and I see myself becoming the city clerk of the city. So then that would put the town into a position of having to elect their own town clerk. Is that? Yeah. Both clerks are appointed in both municipalities. We're in the process right now because my assistant clerk left for another job in December. So we're in the process of interviewing candidates for a deputy clerk position that we anticipate would be able to ease into the or learn the town clerk position and go into that when the time comes that I would be fully just doing city work. So you're anticipating that position with sort of transition into the towns. I guess the town clerk would be appointed into that newly created position. Right. Okay. Very good. Thank you. Wendy, any other questions for the town clerk of Essex? All right. Representative Vihovsky, thank you for adding a physical hand as well as your zoom hand. Yeah, absolutely. Thank you for being here, Susan. I have a question and I admit it is a little bit because of my lack of knowledge about the processes around municipal tax collection. So in my reading of the city charter does tax, currently you do tax collection for the whole town. Right. And does, is that going to travel with you to your position as city clerk? My reading of the charter says that the, and again, I may be reading it wrong, that the city would collect all taxes for the whole town and that, am I misreading that? Yeah, I believe so because I think we split up and the city would be collecting taxes just for the city properties and then the town clerk would then collect for the town and the city would pay the town for the sharing services. Right. Okay. Thank you. I was trying to like manage through that like this doesn't make any sense. Okay, that makes a lot more sense. So thank you for helping me understand that. You're welcome. Any other questions from committee members? Wonderful. Well, thank you for being with us. We also had a request to hear from the police chief because I understand that the plan going forward is for the two municipalities to continue to share police services. So chief, thank you for being with us and please share with us an update on how those transitions are going. Sure. So very welcome. So just the update that I would have is that the two entities have worked out an agreement or a tentative agreement if this was to go through where as far as law enforcement operations, they would look exactly the same as what they are now and have been. The only difference would be is how the two entities would pay for the services of the police department that would still remain under the provance of the town. So, you know, going forward, the citizens shouldn't see anything different than what they've been seeing. Excellent. Thank you. Questions from committee members, Representative Anthony. Thank you, Madam Chair. Chief, my reading of the document and the understanding historically is that you are now and will remain an employee of the town. Is that correct? Yes, that is correct. Thank you very much. Other questions from committee members for the Chief of Police. Well, thank you for zooming to Vermont House Government Operations Committee this afternoon. We're going to do a little bit of walkthrough on the bill language that we'll be taking up again on Tuesday and it is our hope to vote the bill on its way on Tuesday. So, we have one other question from Representative Leclerc. Thank you, Madam Chair. Good afternoon, Chief. Sure. So, you're going to be working underneath basically, I guess it's a memorandum of understanding, correct? Yes, that is correct. And the anticipated time frame is about 10 years? Yes, that would be correct about 10 years and it would be a long-term self-renewing contract unless one of the entities chose to back out. Okay. And are you able to say how much of that document has been flushed out as far as how detailed is it now compared to how detailed it could potentially need to be? The iteration that I last saw was the last draft was pretty well flushed out as far as who would control what, how the financial aspects would be laid out. It was, it's pretty well detailed. I believe that the town and the village both agreed on that and there was some discussion but it wasn't anything too extensive. So, as far as I know, the draft that I've seen is pretty well flushed out for how it would look. Okay. Very good. Thank you. Great. Thank you so much. Any other questions from committee members? All right. So, I welcome committee members to refresh your committee page and on your committee page, you should have another draft and Tucker Anderson is with us.  I don't have a question. I just wanted to let the committee know that I've actually asked the select board chair to submit those various memorandums of understanding to the committee. I know that Representative Leclerc has asked a couple of different occasions for sort of the detailed plans. So, I think we should have those in the coming days for people to look over. Great. That'd be helpful. Thank you. All right. Thank you, Rep Bukowski. Tucker Anderson, welcome and thank you for preparing a few amendments to the bill as introduced. If you could take us through that and help us understand what has changed. Good afternoon for the record, Tucker Anderson office of legislative council.   Each instance of amendment is drawn from committee discussion and policy decisions that you have made over the last few weeks. Starting with the first instance of amendment, this deals with the infamous move out phrase as it used to be in the underlying bill. This would amend subsection D in section 204 of the city charter. It would eliminate the existing subsection in its entirety and instead put in the following language in the event that a counselor is no longer a resident of the city prior to the expiration of the counselor's term, the counselor's office shall be deemed vacant. The council may appoint a person to fill the vacant office until a successor can be elected at the next annual election. This does two things. First, it replaces the problematic move out phrase with the term no longer a resident, which pairs more closely with the title 17 that's your election law statutes definitions of what a resident is and who may run for and hold office and vote in a municipal election. The second sentence refers back to the proceeding subsection, which unfortunately is not in front of you in the draft, but it is in the underlying bill and it echoes the existing process built into the city charter for the appointment of an individual to an empty seat due to resignation or the inability to hold the office. The second instance of amendment starting on line 14 is the technical correction that was found when we did the first walkthrough. It corrects a reference to section 301 subdivision B4 to the correct citation 201B4. The third instance of amendment eliminates two words in section four that deals with the transition period from 2022 to 2023. Specifically, it eliminates two terms for payment for consolidated services with the town. The testimony that the committee heard is that these two particular services have already been accounted for in separate memoranda of understanding and do not need to be included in the legislature's transitional provisions for these two municipalities. The two services that no longer need to be a part of this transition period are payment for shared administration and payment for finances. Those two services from the testimony heard are taken care of in an MOU. The final instance of amendment adds a new section 16 to address the issue of former townwide elected justices of the peace. As a municipality that has more than 5000 residents, the constitutional amount of justices of the peace is 15. And as we briefly touched upon in the initial walkthrough, the constitution requires justices of the peace to be elected at the general election for two year terms, and they must be elected by the town that they are representing. Under current law, there is a procedure in place for the governor to appoint vacant JP positions. So this proposes to add a transitional provision in new section 16 dealing with the appointment of justices of the peace to serve in the city until the November election can be held. The section states the governor may appoint up to 15 justices of the peace to serve in the city of Essex Junction pursuant to 17 VSA section 2623. That is the section that permits the governor to appoint vacant JP positions. The committees for the political parties of the justices of the peace of the town of Essex may submit recommendations for qualified justices of the peace to the governor for consideration. This acknowledges that under the existing statutory framework, whenever there is a vacancy, the political party that represented that individual JP who needs to be replaced is allowed to submit a recommendation to the governor for who should be appointed to the position. Section 2623 does not require the governor to accept the recommendation so long as a qualified individual is appointed to the position. This phrase here recognizes that the existing justices of the peace that are serving the village are townwide officers so the town of Essex JP political parties would be making the recommendations because they would no longer be serving within the village. The appointed justices of the peace shall serve until successors may be elected at the 2022 general election. At the end of the amendment, we of course have a line that says that the remaining sections need to be renumbered to be numerically correct. Thank you, Tucker. Rep Vihovsky has a question. I'm just trying to make sense of this. So right now the whole town has 15 justices of the peace. Some of them will no longer be eligible for the village. Some of them will no longer be eligible for the town in all likelihood. Both municipalities will end up needing appointees. Will this help the town and the city get the justice of the peace that they need? This is going to help the city. The existing statute 17 BSA 2623 is already going to come into play when the vacant seats in the town come up because if some of those JPs are village residents right now, they will no longer be justices of the peace in the town. So the general law is going to take care of the town. This charter provision is going to allow up to 15 appointments in the city so that they have a full complement of justices of the peace heading into the November election where they will have their first elected justices of the peace as a city. Perfect. Thank you. That was convoluted for me. Representative Anthony. Representative Vihovsky, as I recall, the representative of the village had said that he is the only village resident who is currently a town JP. He is not running for re-election. And I take it from that that all the remaining JPs are town residents. So that should, as a practical matter, work out. He was select board. He's on the select board and not running for the election. The justices of the pieces are from my recollection of the ballot a couple years ago are somewhat evenly split. And the justices of the piece that currently reside in the village that will now be residing in the city, will they have to be appointed for their positions or will they just automatically get to be justices of the peace in the city? The transition will not be automatic. So all 15 positions in the city, because there has been no election for the city itself, all of them will be appointed by the governor. The recommendation from the party committees in the town could be that the current town JPs that are in the village should be the city justices of the piece. But again, the process is going to be up to 15 recommendations coming from the current town justices of the piece. And then the governor will appoint up to 15. Thank you. Representative McCarthy. And so any of those folks who are appointed are only going to serve through the next election. So we're talking about just a few months. So they would only, you know, if there's an appeal, a tax appeal or, you know, they're helping administer the general election in November, they've only got that office for a few months before they need to be reelected, right? That is correct. Representative, like that. Good afternoon, Tucker. So what's the timeline with which this all has to happen? In other words, this charter passes and then is the current boards would have to get together and make their recommendations to the governor. Is there a timeline and statute that has to be adhered to? Because as the rep from Saint Alvin said indicated, we've got a pretty short window here that we're dealing with, you know, as a section 2623 does not have a timeline for when the governor must make the appointments. I will check to see if there's another statute governing a particular deadline. But to my knowledge, at this moment, there is no timeline for the appointments to be made. And you are correct that the window between July 1st 2022 and the November general election is short. Representative McCarthy. Am I right in understanding, though, that so I think the immediate concern would be if you need to have like a tax appeal meeting, right? As soon as the charter goes into effect, the new five member council that we're setting up for the city that they would would be the board of civil authority, they would represent like the people who are BCA members. And then once those justices of the piece were appointed, then they would be added on as the BCA, right? Correct. So the select board members and the city clerk, I believe, would both transfer over immediately. And then you would have room for the appointed justices of the piece as they come in. Yeah, so there wouldn't be like a lack of government for a period. It would just be that there would be the opportunity to add more people to that body by the governor. It's not like there wouldn't be anybody to do the meetings that would need to happen if you needed to have a tax appeal or something like that. Is there any sort of a quorum requirement in order for them to conduct business? And I'm just trying to think out loud here as far as we've got elections coming along and primaries and things that they should have some oversight and involvement in, don't we? I will need to take a look back through the BCA requirements to see what the quorum is for taking action. And I'll also take a look at the board of tax abatement as a separate entity to see what the requirements are there. Prep Bihowski. I just wanted to clarify and make sure. So the select board's the town. So they would transition out to the town, not into the city. That becomes the city council, correct? I'll just make it, yeah. Yes, the town legislative body stays the same unless residents of the village who are going to be a separate municipality now need to vacate their positions because they're no longer residents. The village trustees under these provisions will immediately become the city council with their staggered terms until their successors are elected at a city election in the future. Representative Gannon. So, and Tucker, correct me if I'm wrong, but I just looked at the board of civil authority statute, which is section 801, and also the board for abatement. And I think a majority vote of the members, whether it's just the select board members or the justice of the piece is sufficient for them to carry out the business before them. Okay. Representative Leclerc and then Anthony. Tucker, did you get the email I had sent you earlier looking to give you an opportunity to spend some time with Representative Anthony and I? I did and I did respond. Okay. Yes. Very good. I appreciated the call out as terrific Tucker, so I in turn referred to you as Rob of Remarkable Reputation. Well done. Well done. Remarkable, yes. Representative Bihowski and then I've got, sorry, Representative Anthony right after you. I think Representative Anthony was before me. Okay.  Thank you. The alliteration is just staggering. My recollection is the quorum requirements and I think you want to confirm this are different between abatement and civil authority. And the problem I think is on the abatement side because the quorum includes the count of the council or legislative body. And so even though it's the majority of those people seated, the quorum requirement essentially may or may not be met in one of the two, perhaps Rip Ganon is looking, but I vaguely remember the quorum requirements are very different. And in the case of civil authority, you could have literally two of three people do business, but that's not true of the board of abatement. But again, you'll confirm that I'm sure. Rep Bihowski. Wonderful. So I have two questions. My first one is my understanding of the way this charter reads is that the town will hold all tax delinquencies including those in the city and will continue at this time to collect on those. Is that allowed? No. That's right. That's not the way I read it. Okay. Again, I'm trying to wrap my head around this. So if I'm wrong, just tell me I'm wrong. Is it okay? Sure. The way that I interpret that and Tucker, you can confirm how right I am and be gentle if I'm wrong is that up until this charter passes, then the then the town has that authority, but then after it all goes into the city of Essex. So then do this. I'm just right now the town holds those liabilities and does the city somehow buy like I'm trying to just figure out how this how they move from where they are now to where they need to go. So from the point that this charter passes into the future, all existing delinquencies belong to the town of Essex. So the town of Essex will be able to collect on all of them regardless of whether they're in the territorial limits of the city, right? That's as of July 1st, 2022. From that point forward, you have the tax collection in two separate municipalities. Your earlier question where things may get a little more confusing is that the city is going to collect taxes within the city for a period of one year and use the taxes that they're collecting under the currently approved townwide budget to pay obligations that they've agreed to as of the most recent vote with the town. So the easiest way to parse this out, if there were agreed upon expenses by the town as a whole by the time the charter is enacted, the city is going to remain obligated to them and take care of them until July 1st, 2023. And any obligations that are due to the town as of the date of the charter, going back in time, those will continue to go to the town. Okay. So the city will begin collecting on those delinquencies that are owed to the town as a whole and will pay them to the town? No. So any existing delinquencies will continue to be collected by the town because the town is the corporate entity that has those rights. July 1st, 2022 comes, the city exists. From that point forward, the city is going to collect their own taxes on any obligations that are accrued from that point forward. You have, again, the messiness that there's a vote coming up for a town budget that the village is going to participate in. So whatever obligations that the village agrees to as part of the town for that budget is going to be taken care of for the city's portion and through that transitional period. Thank you for bearing with me down this murky trail. Representative Gannon. Oh, yeah. I was reading the board of abatement statute and there is an exception to the quorum, which is this quorum requirement may not be met at the town treasurer. A majority of the listeners and the majority of the select board are present at the meeting. That's 1533 B. Bingo. Yeah, 1533 B is getting us out of our earlier conversation, I think, because then, like I said, if we have the new board in place, we don't need to have all the justices of the piece to have an opinion process. Good deal. All right. Other questions? Large and small. On the city of Essex separation bill. All right. So I want to check in with the duo who are going to be reporting this on the floor because it occurs to me we could report it as as introduced with a separate amendment or we could adopt this amendment language and request that Tucker give us a strike all so that you can report it a little more logically and sequentially. So I would give you the opportunity to tell me whether you would like to present it as introduced and then explain the amendment or shall we do a strike all? Well, you sort of sold me when you said logically and sequentially. It's a little easier to found them how to report this, doesn't it? Well, because it's already a little illogical and complicated. Yes, it is. It is complex to stand up a new municipality for sure. So I don't think we need to roll call this amendment because I think we probably