First on PLOS TV Africa. We're looking at politics right now. The National Executive Committee neck of the ruling all-progressive Congress APC has fixed the cost of its presidential expression of interest and nomination forms at 100 million Naira. The spokesperson of the party, Felix Morca, disclosed this at the end of the emergency meeting of the neck on Wednesday in Abuja. He said the expression of interest form is 30 million Naira, while the nomination form will cost 70 million Naira. So far, about 10 aspirants have declared interest to be the flag bearer of the party for the 2023 general elections. Those who have declared interest include ex-legal state governor Borla Tinibu, vice-president Yamio Shibajo, the Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Aimechi, and the Minister of Labor and Productivity, Chris Ngige. Others, Governor Yahaya Bello of Kogi State, his counterpart in the Buenos Aires State, David Umayi, former EIMO State Governor Rocha Okoroccha, former Senate President Kent Nnamani, among others. These has generated mixed reactions from Nigerians, from the high costs to corruption and all of that. But joining us now on this conversation is the publisher of Metro Star, Emeka Madunago. He's been with us since off the press, but let's talk about all of that. Now, thanks for staying with us, Emeka. Thank you very much. All right. How do we even start this particular discussion? Lots of reactions have trailed this 100 million Naira nomination expression of interest of the APC for the presidential ticket. Even the PDP has its own reaction. And Nigerians are saying the political party is now more like a business, a concern, and they are more interested about what they can make from the party, as against giving enough people the threshold and the opportunity to exercise the franchise of being able to contest. What are your thoughts, Emeka? Well, it's interesting because politics is one major business we do in Nigeria. It's a big business. So it's the big players that are going to politics. So even you have 18 political parties. I don't know why people are so focused on one political party, what they are doing with themselves. It's a family affair, like the PDP. It's even surprising the PDP is even responding because they are just a little away from APC. Then after the PDP, you have SDP. After the SDP, you have APGAP. You have ADC. Just removing fractions, just removing some figures away. So what's the difference?  We need to really have a conversation about extracting productivity from this. I told you government officials are usually very busy but not productive, largely non-productive. So ensuring that the resources available to them for different kinds of things turn out it can be accounted for in the kinds of policies and outcomes we see from the activities. And it's also interesting because these elections will bring out a lot of new things. Remember President Muhammad Wari said he would ask the youth to hold on for him to finish before the SAPU is not too young to run. So you now see young people, I saw one on your screen, one 38-year-old, what you call somebody. Then you have different people coming out, women also coming out. You also have the governor of Kogi State, I will be telling you that. He's the voice of the youth, he's experienced, he's been in government, he's been a governor for eight years. So he knows the problems of the youth, he knows the agenda of the youth, he can push it.  He wants to serve Nigeria. You have Vice President Jamiro Shimbaju telling you that he will continue from when President Wari stops. And Nigerians are saying we don't understand this kind of, some people say it's a threat. Well, these are interesting times. And you have other, you have ministers, you have other kinds of, even Senators or Judo-Kalu. Then in the PDP you have Anim saying he will continue from where Jonathan stopped in 2015, that's seven years ago. So all kinds of, you have different ideas coming up. So if the APC decides to say 100 million, what it means if you permit me to play the devil's advocate is that this is serious business. We want serious contenders to come forward, not jokers, not people who will come and say, okay, I want to run for president. And then along the line they say, okay, my family and community have prevailed on me to step down for this person. And it becomes a joke, even though that's what politicians do, but for you to put down 100 million is a big business. Then to the other side, Nigerians should also get ready to ask questions, where is all this money coming from? So again, it's one political party out of 18. So like I've said, if you know your interests cannot be factored into what this political party is doing, you have 17 others. If you can't afford the fees of the PDP, which is half of that of the APC, all right, try the SDP, which is a bit away from PDP, or next door is ABGA, next door ADC, just little sums. Some parties are saying, come and take forms free, but I wonder how that will work out because you have to process the forms. You have to pay certain fees to process these forms. So it's beyond looking at the forms, at the cost of the forms, I'm sorry. We should look at what each of these candidates is bringing up. What are the current issues? Because if we get lost in the debate about the cost of forms and all of that, we allow the real issues to slip by. So what are the real issues? You have security. I talked about youths before, youths and women. Inclusiveness, youths and women. You have food, hunger. Hunger is a major problem. Then none of our refineries is working. In fact, produce a drop of oil. Maybe in the past, I don't know how many years, has produced a drop of oil. Then you have infrastructure. Even though President Buahari is telling you that infrastructure is the strongest point. But a lot of Nigerians will still tell you that the roads are largely not what they expect them to be. So we will put up all these issues. Then we need to also look at the track record of these, the contestants, of each of them. Nigerians are telling you that, for instance, Vice President Yemio Shinbaji has been a part of the Buahari administration. So they don't even want to hear anything about Buahari once he's gone. Let him just go with everybody around him.  They're coming out to say, well, all right, we'll make things better. Then you have Tinubu, who is coming to say, I will restructure things, I will change things, I will make things better. Fine. Then you have, I'm still talking about the APC. Then you have somebody, you have Ojika coming out to tell you that, okay, I will make sure that Nigerians have a better deal. I'm talking too much about continuing with the legacies like some other candidates. Then you have Yaya Bello, who is trying to keep a distance from all the, I will continue with Buahari's policies and all that. Coming out to say, okay, as governor, I have put in youth, women, even people with special needs. I have been able to secure my state, keep my state secure. In a state that has borders with 10 other states, I've kept my state secure. I've been able to serve my people, even though people say, well, we still have areas to cover up. Yes, there's no perfect system. So when you look at all these issues, look at the profiles of the candidates. Nigerians should focus on what the issues are. Let the parties sort out their party issues. But if you even look at it, because we've also had some Nigerians who are concerned about the issues that you have raised. And if you look at it, nobody seemed to be saying anything about the blueprint. When we're talking about the blueprint, it's not just a statement that's been made. You hear some presidential aspirants saying, we're going to turn the country around, make it to compete with the likes of Japan and what have you. These are just statements. There's no, you know, how you want to address all of these issues and how do the people even get to that point? But that's on the one hand. But let's also look at the issue of, because it is at the party level that we get to, you know, the larger level. And this is very fundamental to our democratic process. And so if they don't get it right, then it means the entire process might just be, you know, truncated. So with the pattern now, right now, INEC also stipulated a time where this party should be able to say this is the pattern. This is the mode we're going to adopt. For instance, the presidential, you know, primary is going to be here for some of these political parties. And the APC is still not decided.  It might just be derv. The electoral act doesn't. Yes. And so the issue of indirect primaries and direct primaries. So what do you make of this? And what do you think it will play out, you know, for the APC? Do you see crisis? Do you see people decamping shortly after all of this? Or even in the midst of all of this? No, people have even already started defecting. So it's not politicians. Politics is a game of interest. So positions are always on the move to places where they feel their interests will be better taken care of. But I respectfully disagree with you that they have been just statements. Because some of these experience have come out to draw up care. I mean, for instance, Pete Obie has told us that if he becomes president, he will have a special vote for hunger, to take care of hunger. And he has stated how he intends to do it. Tinubu has said in terms of security, we need to boost the numbers of people in the, of those in the armed forces. We need to boost their numbers. We need to employ, get more Nigerians into the security services so that they can effectively police and secure the nation and its borders.  You go on to Yahya Bello. He tells you that, okay, fine. That the problem here is that one, Nigeria has no need to borrow in. That if we manage our resources very well, we don't need to borrow. So for me, the reason I'm saying this is okay, because this is a statement. Have we, you know, have they been able to, we know that the time for campaign has not started. But have we seen this aspirant putting out this document, the how, answering the how. So if you say the... Of course, they made that. Then you begin to put, okay, this is how we intend to recruit. This is what we need to do. This is how, because it's not just a statement. Then make this statement. Oh, we're going to do this. We understand the problem is because we don't have personnel. But at the end of the day, you see what happens.  It worries everybody. It bothers not just, you know, the rude, but the ruling class. Everyone is part of all of the issues that we're faced with at the time. Security, economy and corruption. How far have we fed? These things were actually saved. It felt like it was written down. But we haven't seen the how, you know, that was put to answer them. You see the problem is this. Part of why we're here today. Is that president Muhammad Wari came in on an adversarial note. Okay, 16 years of PDP have been a waste. All right, I won't do what PDP has been doing. Instead of looking at government as a continuum and following up on policy. If there were policies that were not well thought out or well executed, you could have tweaked them and made them better. You had a policy like you win, for instance, which was meant to produce young entrepreneurs. Women, you know, youths. But what happened? It was just a thing. It was just a thing. Empower. Empower. Where have we gone with? Where have we gone with empower? When Jonathan was here, we had Shopee. He got mad in controversy. And that was the end of it. We didn't know where the font went to. So part of the problem is the adversarial nature of politics we play in Nigeria. My predecessors were all useless. My predecessors destroyed the country. My predecessors destroyed the state. My predecessors did nothing. But you ride on the roads the third. You have an office you report to as a president or the governor, which was maintained by a predecessor. If there was nothing, if they did nothing.  You have a government house. You sleep in every night. You see, the point is we must make our system a policy-driven system. There must be clear court policies. And the Nigerians must ask the right kinds of questions from these people. But you see, that's what I'm talking about. Right now we are mad in the debate over the cost of forms. Instead of asking like my colleague has said, give us your blueprints. They've declared. They've brought out all these statements like she said. But you can see if you go through the declarations, they contain action plans about what they intend to do. But you see, we also as citizens, it's our civic duty to make sure that we look at the declarations and say, okay, give us more clarity on how you intend to do this and do this and do this. But don't you think that the sum itself, because I understand the fact that you're saying, let's not be carried away by the forms. The cost of the forms, yes. But let's also pay attention to these individuals, their capacity to perform and their policies on ground. But don't you think that this also would influence their behaviour? For instance, we'll remember a time, I would make reference to 2014, the president had complained about 27.5 million error from not mistaking and that it was so much and that he had to take bank loans. So imagine someone who does not have, I don't know if all of them have the capacity to cough out and trunk out 100 million, it might not be so much. But don't you think there's already a mindset that might just think that if you have people coming together to support you to get this, then the policies at the end of the day will be reflecting the interest of this sector peasants. You might just be doing the bidding, or you might more be concerned about how to recoup your forms because it's a business transaction. So don't you think that these... Like I said earlier, politics in Nigeria has come to be seen as a lucrative investment, that's one side. But the other side is that the conversation, Nigerians must get to the conversation where we have to decide what's best for us, what's most workable for us. We started out this country in 1960 with a parliamentary system of government where you elect MPs, the MPs now choose the prime minister. But by 1979, we opted for the presidential system of government which is the most expensive, it's a very expensive system of government, it's not cheap anywhere to operate it. So let's even talk about that because you mentioned that when we were having a preacher just before we got on air. So the system of government that we are running, is it actually a bane to us right now as it is? Because you were saying that the parliamentary system was way more cheaper compared to the presidential system that we are in right now. Are we supposed to be going back to the parliamentary system? Or just what exactly? Well, it's for all Nigerians to decide, 215 million people, it's for us to decide. We are having a constitutional amendment exercise right now. If we can accommodate it, fine. If not, we should prepare for future constitutional amendments so that we make sure that we get on board those platforms that will advance the collective interest.  Oh, it's my brother, it's our town, it's the town of our area. Because we talk about forms, but the same people talking about forms, we tell you, no, no, no, it's the town of our area, it's the town of our son, of our daughter to get into office. What do we really want? But you see, if we also look at it recently, you remember the statement from Affe Baba Lola who talked about the fact that we should suspend, you know, the 23 elections and get an interim government. Now, one of the concerns he raised was transactional because we cannot afford to continue in this recycling of people and then get into the transactional government that we're going through. As much as a lot of people have, my concern here is this, because the money back politics as we have described it over time, don't you think it has affected how politics, the policies, if you see the policies, at the end of the day, they really don't reflect the interest of the people and don't you think that it's this kind of transactional you have mentioned that it's business? And so if people see it as business, then what policies do you come through with that would reflect the interest of the people that would serve the interests of Nigeria? Let me correct something. I'm not saying I said politicians, not all of them see it as a lucrative venture, not all of them. But you see, even if the forms are expected, it doesn't stop you from performing, it doesn't stop you from bringing up policies. It doesn't give you the chance of even getting there to even talk of performing as well. Why won't you then? Then it's up to the people. You have 18 political parties. If you feel that, okay, fine, APC, they're charging 100 million Naira for forms.  You have other parties vote for their candidates so that the conversation is not just about just talking points, okay, your forms are too high, it's about money back politics, it's about this, that, and the other. You have a wide choice. Nigerians should exercise their rights to elect their leaders. It is a given, it's a given for people in a constitutional democracy. Exercise your rights. On election day, you see people playing football. People sit at home. They want to watch what's going on on TV. Instead of going out to go and cast their votes and at the end of the day they say, the government is not working. We are also a part of the democratic process. We must come out and say, okay, these are the things we want. And you mentioned something about old people. Yes, Nigerians are expressed concern about old people. Then you see young people coming up and saying, okay, look at me. This is one. One is the governor. He says, look at me. I've done something in my state. Then you have some other young people here and there. Why are people not looking at them? Already you have support groups. One of the aspirants. It was actually some support groups led by youths that bought his form for him. That was youths. Those are the youths you're talking about that are being shot out. Okay, fine. You have youths coming in, in APC, in other parties. Why are we not looking at those youths? Because we need to move away. We need the next president, somebody who has capacity to perform, who is healthy, strong, and who is competent. We must move away from all these issues. Yes. Thank you so much. We are going to just press pause on this particular topic for sake of time. Emeka Madinago is a journalist. He is also the publisher of a Metro Star newspaper. He is a political affairs analyst as well. He joined us not to look at all of the issues, the fallout from the APC National Executive Committee and the nomination forms and the way forward for the youth and of course, politics and elections in Nigeria. Thank you once again. Thank you very much. All right. It's still the breakfast that will take a quick break and then when we come back, we'll be focusing on anti-curity in the moment. Stay with us.


Ready for the future. Do a carbon food capture. You can ask for some money from the council. You can use it for things too. Six things right or two. Or any other ideas.


You know, this idea that, you know, at one point we're going to reach this level and we're done, it just doesn't exist. Continue the attack implies, hey, we're always trying to get better. We're always moving forward. We're always trying to knock down obstacles and improve things so that if and when we have to compete on that combat battlefield, the ultimate competition that we're ready and we're going to be successful. Stuff we're doing really good. Number one is operationally, we're killing it. Everywhere Marines are overseas, whether in Syria or Iraq or Afghanistan or Norway or in the Pacific, everywhere we go, people just rave about us. The second thing we're doing really well is we're recruiting good people. You can put yourself in that category. And recruiting is hard. Making a mission. We've made a mission every month. Shoot, I think since 2006. I mean, we're in a world of global competition of pure adversaries where we haven't been for many, many years. So I think it's important for Marines to realize that just like we pay attention to what other potential adversaries do, they're paying attention to us. And we want them to pay attention to us because we may have to compete against them. Finally, Marines have always adapted well to the changing demands of the operating environment through innovation. The battlefield is the ultimate competition. And our nation expects if we compete on that battlefield that we're going to win. Where there is no other option. So we've got to be ready to go. And you may not get a practice game. You've got to be ready to go tonight and you've got to bring your A-game and you've got to be successful. A strength of an elite organization is the ability to self-correct, to see where they are falling short and need to change in order to remain effective without suffering a loss or a defeat. We've got to change. And that's on me. We must eliminate any conduct that prevents us from going to the next level of excellence. Behavior such as drunkenness, sexual assault, sexual harassment, inappropriate conduct on social media, hazing, recklessness, and a general lack of discipline do nothing to help our readiness and to prepare for the fight. The path to success is simple. There is no rocket science here. There is no substitute for hard work and commitment, for grit. When things get hard, that's when we double down. So in the air ahead, we must continue to the attack on multiple fronts. I've never met anybody who hasn't had an issue or a problem or some sort of trauma in their life that they haven't had to overcome. And there's no dishonor in acknowledging that or saying that sometimes you come up short individually. But there is no honor in quitting. You can't quit. It's not part of what we are as Marines. So we don't ever quit on each other. We never leave each other on the battlefield. We never leave each other anywhere when a Marine isn't me. It's just not the way we live our lives. Once a Marine, always a Marine isn't some empty slogan, but it's part of a creed that ran into our soul from the first moment we were in that time. I charge all of you to continue to be Marines of character and virtue. We have done these tasks for the past 243 years for the nation, and as long as the United States exists, Americans will expect their Marine Corps to be there to fight and to win.


For starters, we're going to take the rug out From there, we're going to start taking the carpet out. Next will be the walls. We have to take out go up to 24 inches from the base Make sure that all the walls are clean up to that point from there We're going to check the second layer underneath the carpet more than likely. That's compromised considering that The bio is also leaking into the bottom down into the basement all the carpet is going to be coming out So we're going to be moving everything Getting the carpet out one at a time getting as much out as we can and Help this family move on


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No, I really got rid of it. Sorry. Do you need me to send it back out? Nope, I got it. I just X out of it when I joined the zoom. I then just, you know, how it goes. I'm sorry. I didn't send out the agenda too. I feel like this past. You know, this past six months has been really silly. And I feel this month in particular has just been totally bonkers, but I can actually be at this meeting all meeting today. So, um, but I apologize, Michael for not sending out the notes and everyone for not sending out the, you know, full agenda. Um, but so we've got review and improvement minutes, uh, review agenda review and improvements from prior meetings. We got the September 22nd and October 6th. And then, um, public comment, you know, check-ins round table, report back to other related city committee meetings, um, and then housing initiative follow-ups, including VHIP funding discussion. Um, and then, uh, city initiative updates and discussions for the 2022-2023 plan and the budget process, including stipends for city committees and CJAC funding for FY 22. Um, and then going over other business and sending the agenda for next meeting. Um, and with the agenda for next meeting, I also, I'm wondering, I'm going to be starting a new job, uh, in November, and we'll have a lot less flexibility over my work schedule. And so if we could, um, just talk about a potential new meeting time for me, that would be great. Um, how does that agenda look for folks? Anything else? Seems all right. Okay, with me. Cool. Um, should we review and approve the September 22nd and October 6th meeting, uh, minutes and hello, Pelin. Hi everyone. Sorry. I'm using my phone. I'm listening. Great. Great. All right. So Cameron forwarded the September 22nd notes. Pull those up. Did someone, uh, look carefully if I did the summary of what, um, Marty Roberts said, I don't want to misrepresent what they're, what they're doing here. I thought it looked fine. Okay. Is someone taking notes, by the way, or am I doing this again? Michael, I can, I can take notes for us today. If you want. Okay. Thank you. I appreciate that. Sure. I'll move to. Oh, I can't. I wrote them. You can move, Michael. All right. I'll move to accept the, uh, the minutes for. You want to do them both together or separately? Together. Oh, good call. Let's do them together. All right. For September 22nd, 2021. And October 6th, 2021. I second. Jeremy seconds. All in favor. Hi. Hi. Great. Motion passes. Awesome. Okay. So yeah, let's just do a review. Okay. Yeah. Awesome. Okay. So yeah, let's just do a round of, uh, introductions check-ins and then, um, any like self-indication or learnings or to share. So this is our opportunity to share a few of, you know, done any readings or participated in the events or, um, things like that. So, um, If anyone wants to go first. Uh, well, I was to say, I've been reading an article in, um, my, um, my college alumni newspaper by, um, someone who, um, was following people after their release from incarceration. That's a really, um, and the difficulties of re-entry and the barriers to re-entry. Um, it's part of a book. So I'm thinking I'll probably want to get the whole book, but, uh, I don't have it really handy. So I'll send it around to, um, I'll send the word around the title around to all of you. Thanks, Michael. Um, yeah. I'm Shayna. I, um, I, I'm still working my way. I, Michael gave me cast about a year ago and I charged through about half of it and then lost steam and I've been picking it back up and it's still very, very good. And I'm glad I had like a pause while reading it. Um, yeah. And then my only other just update it like a, you know, two things is that still working with best makeup synagogue and working on reparations. And so I've been going to a bunch of different calls and webinars and, um, and, uh, learning readings and things about, um, uh, institutions doing reparations, you know, particularly around context of indigenous people's day and, um, institutions versus individuals and, um, you know, government institutions versus other institutions and, um, there's some interesting stuff that's, um, more focused locally coming up that I can share if folks are interested. Um, and, and then yeah, as my other update is that I just have been going through processes of getting a new job and I just accepted. And so, um, I'm not moving or anything, but I'm going to be moving into, um, more like healthcare advocacy prescription drug pricing work. I'm just exciting. So my, my life is working with China. The group called type one internationals. They work with type one diabetics for prescription and pricing reform. Yeah. Congratulations. Good luck. Thank you. Yeah. Congrats. I can go next because I don't have too much to share. It's Palin and, um, I was pretty sick for last two weeks. So I couldn't do anything. So I just want you to tell that you should be careful. There's another virus going around in addition to COVID. So I got this from my kids. So. Yeah, it is a little bit, uh, heavy cold. And I'm very happy to be with you again. All right. I hear that. Um, I thought of Jeremy Boagry, member of the committee. Um, let's see. Just finished. An interesting book that I'm still processing. It's called warmth. It's by someone, a climate organizer activist named Daniel. Cheryl. Um, And it's, it's a very interesting book in that it's, it's written from a younger person's perspective. So this. This person is, um, I think in their just turned 30, perhaps. So kind of in that, that generation. Um, and kind of taking the perspective on the climate crisis that. We actually have to. Fully kind of grieve what's happening.  Present. Um, and prepared for what it means. For us and future generations. Um, so he's, the author's trying to get us away from these kind of two poles of. Kind of denial and helplessness and. Um, kind of. Aggressive hope and optimism. Optimism. And, um, Find like a place to be that's more kind of settled. And what's happening to the, to the planet. Um, so it raised a number of interesting. Kind of new perspectives for me about. How to make sense of what's happening to the climate and the planet. Um, so it was, it was very interesting. And, uh, I'm Cameron. I'm the assistant city manager and staff support for this committee and, um, Uh, something that we're doing this week is actually, um, Carol plant, Um, I'm going to talk a little bit more about what we're doing next. I'm going to, I think y'all, she shows up to these meetings every now and then. Um, her and I are going to be. Doing a, um, equity and inclusion sort of training with our. Staff this morning, our leadership team, and we'll be discussing like. Going back to basics, like what is equity and inclusion? What does it mean? We're going to go talk about the creative discourse. We're going to talk about what is equity and inclusion. And then we're going to talk about what steps are. Um, and then, uh, Carol's going to be doing some sort of, um, uh, implicit bias type. Hands-on training with folks. So. Um, that'll be really fruitful. Uh, for this morning. So that's sort of what we're doing. Really working very hard on putting creative discourses, recommendations into practice. So. Art, it isn't going. It's going to be, it's going to be, it's going to be, it's going to be going to be, it's going to be, it's going to be, it's going to be going to be the best. And we. Oh, yes. Hello. My name is Seth Collins. And, uh, I, I meant to attend these meetings before the pandemic, but I couldn't get myself in the gear and then everything.  And I, I just would like to put something onto the agenda for next meeting. Yeah. I'd like to, uh, I'd like to request the city created feminist neighborhood watch. Um, I don't know. Yeah. We can see if we have time on other business too. That makes sense. Oh yeah. Sure. Yeah. Cool. Awesome. Can you spell your last name, please? Oh, yes. I'm sorry. C-O-L-L-I-N-S. Okay. Thank you. Cool. Thanks all. Um, all right. Report backs from related city committees. Um, I can just share that I just met with. A couple of people this week about the, um, the, the restroom committee, uh, public restroom committee that has not met yet. And it's still going to be kind of on hold for just a little while longer for while the homelessness task force, um, is kind of wrapping up, um, and figuring out a couple of other logistics there. Um, so have still hasn't met. Um, but yeah, is there, is there any update on when the police review committee's been released? I don't know. Um, I don't know if there's any update on the police and pieces or anything like that. We did. We did make the presentation at the, uh, this past Wednesday. Okay. Um, the, uh, the took the entire text is up on the city website. Um, there is some talk about. Perhaps, um, doing. Producing a few hard copies. That will be deposited at the library. Um, I think there were four or five places that were mentioned. So, uh, you can go, you can go to the, to the city archives and watch the presentation because I think it may be up already. Um, how long, Cameron, you know, what's the turnaround time before. Okay, gets those on. Just a day or two. So they should, it should be on their. Right. I can send that. And, uh, there was a good exchange there. Um, there were obviously a couple of very controversial. Recommendations. Uh, unfortunately they've gotten all the press. Um, because it's sex and alcohol. Um, and so, you know, that's where that's what sells newspapers, I guess. Um, but, um, But there were, I think we made 26 or 27. Uh, recommendations. The city. Um, The council agreed to sort of look at the ones that are, that we said were highest priority and could be done right away. And then they, they will start taking them up in some order. Um, there was a spirited exchange. Uh, I would say. Um, But, um, we are now done as a committee and I think we, we just banned. Um, I don't know. Officially, maybe it's disbanded officially at that meeting. Okay. Do you know when those items are going to be voted on by the city council? Is that what happened on the last meeting? It was the, what the city council did was vote to accept. The report. Um, I don't know if you can start and kind of can fill in the details that they'll simply create an, uh, items for the, for their agenda as they go along. I don't think the priority. Uh, expressed at the, at the meeting that I recall, but that's what that's the next step is. Decide which of the ones are the most urgent or the easiest to, to start dealing with. Um, Um, Um, But they, they'll simply, I guess, as they continue with their strategic plan, they'll start to decide which, you know, which, which recommendations in which order they're going to attend to. Okay. Is that your understanding Cameron? Yeah. So one of the things they did talk about is, um, in their presentation is, uh, staff. Um, I did send a report to them basically saying what staff. Could immediately get on board with and what we wanted to hear from council about, right? Yeah. Um, and so council was like, okay, well, the ones where y'all agree, um, those would be easiest to move forward with. Let's talk about those first. So we'll have sort of a, uh, proposed schedule for them. And then we'll have them come up with a preferred schedule on how to talk about these things. So that's some work on staff's end and the mayor's end, but, um, I, I, it was included in their presentation in the slides on what we agreed with and what we did agree with. So. And by we, I mean city staff, not the council. So whenever that sort of schedule is created, I'll share that with y'all as well. Thanks. Any other. Report backs. I can talk about the homelessness task force real quick. Cool. So they also presented to council last week and asked for an extra. They, they were, they had been budgeted $45,000 by council. For this fiscal year and they haven't spent any of it.  And so they asked for an additional $35,000 on top of the $45,000. And it was for a variety of things. It was approved, but it was for a variety of things, including. Um, emergency transportation to get folks into shelters. Um, supporting the winter shelter operations through good Sam for. Uh, this winter at Christ's church. It was for, um, It was for, um, Funding a study to basically say, here's what we need in this town. Do we need a day shelter? Do we need a overnight shelter? Like what do we need? And how do we get shovel ready for whatever that is? Um, some money to help the state or the county continuum of care. To do some research on what is causing homelessness so they can provide more pure outreach workers to help folks on the street. And, um, to, uh, Add more evening hours to the transit center so that folks can use the restroom and they're late when it would normally be closed. And I, I think I'm forgetting one. But that was the general gist of their ask. Oh, and buying hotel, like renting hotel. I'm sorry. Reserving hotel rooms, uh, Around our area in case somebody really needs like emergency shelter and can't get into the general assistance program. Or any of our day shelters or night shelters. Um, so I think that's it. I think I captured everything there. Cool. Anything else, um, Moving from there to the housing initiatives follow up and putting the VHIP funding discussion. And I know this is where I've had to duck out the last two meetings. And I have read the notes, but, um, With the love for someone else to kind of steer this. Well, I think where we ended up last time was with the question of could see Jack. Help organize community conversations around. This, this kind of opportunity for local landlords to create more. Housing units that are targeted to folks who, um, Maybe have a lot of difficulties finding housing. Um, so I don't think we answered that question. It was just the kind of. Thought that came up about what role can we play? Um, I mean, I think there's also when I say that question out loud, there's also the, well, what's our lane versus the homelessness task force is lane. Um, and how do we make sure we're not. We're, we're doing what we're supposed to be doing, but also in collaboration with other groups who are a lot closer to this issue. So, um, that's the question that kind of came up. This could see Jack be a convener of sorts or help organize landlords in some way around this conversation. So I don't know if others have anything to add about that. I do know that there is a community group. That has met of landlords a few times. Um, obviously I haven't been super involved in that because it's not less necessarily a city thing, but I have been aware that it has happened. And so I wonder if like that would be the best way to convene that is to like reach out to that group. Um, and ask like, Hey, can we help connect you to this thing? So I will scrounge up who's in charge of that. If it's still meeting. Okay. Very cool. Yeah. Sorry. No, I was just gonna say with the homelessness task force, um, disbanding as they're like a new, is there. Yeah. No, okay. You're not, you're not disbanding. Got it. Sorry. Standing committee. Um, I don't remember something about the hip. Oh, I was trying to do more research into that. And, um, it's kind of, it's murky to me, depending on like, what, what, where the funds are and how to like apply for them. So I think there needs to be a little more clarity there on my end of flight before I want to jump in and recommend that to people. Um, So I don't know if any of y'all did any more digging on that. Um, at all. You want some help with that, Cameron? With, um, I mean, I can, I can do some more research.  Uh, it's too full. My plate is very full. Yes. Yeah. Okay. I will, I'll do it. I guess you've gone online already. That was about as deep as it went. It's trying to figure out where, where and how we could get people connected to it. Uh, so that was about all I did. Okay. Well, I'll, I'll start over again. Thank you. Cool. So then city strategic plan.  So. Um, I'm just kind of getting an update on where the process is that, and then the kind of two major things that we were following here are, I mean, in addition to all the other things that are also incorporated and very important. Are the discussion of like stipend specificity committees as a budget line item. And for FY 20 to see Jack funding in particular. You're good. I'm so I'm going to steal my computer for a second. So I capable to pull it up. Perfect. Okay. I just keep xing out of things today. By accident. This is not a good omen for. How the day is going to go. Mercury and retrograde. Is it. I don't know. Great. So. Um, so I will walk us through kind of where councils at. On their strategic plan. Uh, how do I do this? Why, why can't I ever remember? It's like, I am a millennial. I promise I know how to do this. There we go. All right. So council has, um, basically made it through voting on their goals and their, uh, overall strategies to, uh, accomplishing their goals. And now we're getting into sort of the more nitty gritty details of initiatives. So they have not taken this up yet. It was on the agenda for last week, but if you all watched last week's agenda, it went. Thank you. It went very fast or. It went very over. So we did not make it to this. So council is, uh, still yet to vote on this. So this is still, um, To be determined. So, um, basically this. All I did was ask them to rank their preferred initiatives that came out of both their ideas and city. Staff's ideas. Um, so the ones in green are the ones that received a majority ranking from council. Um, so it's what I would be, um, sort of asking them to vote on. So you can see for like community prosperity, the things that I think you'll be very interested in is the. Child care. The peer support outreach workers. And, um, I'm not sure if you would be interested in the tax stabilization program, but certainly a workforce development for those experiencing homelessness. I think that would be very interesting. Um, For y'all. Uh, they also have some responsible engaged government goals. Um, a lot of that is around accessibility and ADA accessibility. Certainly. Uh, and specifically about our website because it's pretty bad. Um, Um, This one would also be where I would stick the, um, The budget ask for, um, stipends for committees. Um, because they discussed outreach for city committees and how do we recruit folks, right? So that's where I would put that budget ask, but that is a goal that they, uh, Ranked high on their priority list. Um, So, um, I don't know if that would be an interesting task force, but it would be certainly interesting for y'all to look at. Um, is how do we create more housing and sort of this land locked. Um, city that we have. Um, One of the things that the homelessness task force asked for in their funding asked that they got approved last week is trying to get ready for things like the BHC be grant funds. Um, The thing we'd want the housing task force to come and speak to y'all about is the barriers to housing study. Um, they would like to update that. And so that really looks at what our community's barriers are for housing. So, um, I think that that would be something that once that report is done, Could certainly be something that we could plug into here. Um, there's good environmental stewardship as a goal. Um, Sorry. Um, maybe a little less, uh, in y'all's will house. Um, they also have build and maintain sustainable infrastructure. And what I will say about this is the one of the bigger ones. Uh, that was their number one priority was the public restrooms. So I think that will also come up. Um, I think that's a good question here. Um, another one that might be interesting. Um, and I will certainly ask for assistance with getting the word out to groups and help me think of groups that. Maybe I didn't think of to contact about. Uh, potential. Rebuild of the recreation. Uh, facility. So. Might need help with those. Um, And then for that regional housing hub for those experiencing homelessness. The implementation of the police review committee recommendations, the peer support and social worker programs within the MPD. The crisis intervention training program. Uh, I think that's the ones that are important. Oh, and, uh, The community justice centers work with the MPD is also high priority. Um, Um, I'm working on, um, Sort of fleshing out the strategic plan right now. Um, One of the things that is really going to be important is coming up with budget impacts for a lot of those. Um, Cause a lot of them are pretty, pretty expensive, right? So. Shayna, you talked to sort of transitioning into the stipend. I just talked to folks in Essex. I don't think I talked to anyone. In my peel year about it. I'm trying to remember. I'm sorry. Did I talk to like $50 a person per meeting? Oh, for the, for the, yes, it was $50 per person per meeting. Um, and then they just reached out to all of the committee chairs and figured out how often they're meeting and how many people, and then so it's over budgeted because it's often under, you know, fewer, fewer, um, seats filled or, you know, fewer meetings get canceled or whatnot. Is that $32,000? I think, uh, I had offered to do the math here and I will be honest, I have not done the math yet. So I will look into that. Um, our budget. We're supposed to come up with our asks by the end of the month and input them into the budget software. Halfway through November. And so, uh, the budget cycle is basically already started. We will be sending out a survey. And so, um, maybe when that goes live, I can ask y'all to help us promote that with the folks that we reached out to for the creative discourse work. Just so it's survey for the budget go back to the public. That's okay. Yeah, we started that last year. That's very new for us is a public budget survey. Um, but it's something we want to continue and grow. Yeah. Um, because it's very, very useful, um, for council, especially to hear from folks who maybe don't often get to talk to council, right? Yeah. Um, so that would be really useful. Is to maybe share that link when it goes live. Can you camera, can you say a little bit more about. The kinds of things the survey is asking from. Folks. Yeah. Maybe it's like, and of how it's incorporated into the council's decision too. If that, yeah. I don't remember this from last year. No, it's okay. If you, if you don't mind if I sort of bring that up as a formal topic next time, but I will. So I can not speak sort of in an off my memory on that. Um, mostly it was presented. If I remember correctly, it was presented to council before they started, um, budget deliberations. So they knew it was at the beginning of the process so that they could hear from folks. I sort of build that into their conversation. So I assume it will be very similar this year, but I would like to check with our finance director so that I can talk a little bit more about that. Okay. Speak. Quently about that. Great. Thank you. And so with all of that, then too, of funding for C. Jack, I know, yeah, we were initially talking with creative discourse about, you know, having this be a multi-year process and kind of bring them on for the next phase on contract as well. Um, I real, I have, I have not looked into this, I don't know if you have to, um, but like, of kind of where we're at in, I know our contract was just for that initial phase, but like where that relationship and. Funding is at anyone knows. So y'all still have funding for this year. Um, so there is a, there is time to bring creative discourse back. Into the conversation. So I think it would be well worth, uh, checking in with them. And I can do that and copy Shayna. And really just ask them, Hey, you know, the funding is here. Are you still interested in this? You know, we can just do an extension to their contracts that they have now. For the second phase. Could I recommend that we first have a conversation about what we would want? I mean, if you, if you ask somebody. Um, who's going to get some money from you, do you want to continue doing this? I think you can anticipate what the answer is, but I think we really need to have something pretty clear vision of what it is that we would expect in the second, you know, going forward. And do we need that for what we think is going forward.  So what if we spent some time at your next meeting looking over that and sort of like, do we want to add or subtract anything from it? Okay. I'm wondering if you're like timing. Should we try to do that now? Um, I'm trying to pull it up if I can, but, uh, if we want to talk to them, you know, to have more of us. Well, because it's already in the budget. So it's not like this is bringing it up for the next, like, we don't, we don't need to have this as a proposal. Okay. Nevermind. Okay. So next. We, we did initially get a three, three fiscal year budgeting for three fiscal years. So if we want to have any money for FY 23, I think we need to have that conversation very soon. And if we don't have that money, I think we should say, you know, it can be used better elsewhere. Um, Well, right. And that's what I remember about I'm trying to pull it up and I'm not doing it quick enough, but of that it was more about, it was more open ended. It was like more about implementation. And so it was, it was a little bit more like, depending on the priorities, how are we going to be able to incorporate? How are we going to support like pushing this forward? So I think it is a little bit more of like a conversation than being, um, like, Hey, creative. Like, are you interested in taking this money? Cause they might say like, oh, we might not be the best people for this.  But of course I'm not pulling it up yet either too. So apologies. Hmm. We could certainly invite them to y'all's next meeting. See if they want to talk about it. Yeah. Cause my understanding was that they were going to come up with a plan. So they came up with recommendations, but they didn't come up with any sort of like equity plan. And that was sort of what the end goal was, is to have like a document in hand that says, here's what you should do. Here are the steps. And sort of coming up with the, as staff, I would like to see sort of coming up with a, um, a bridge almost between their recommendations and the recommendations that came out of the community members. This is a pretty different. Right. One here. I think I've. Found this. So yeah. So the, then phase two of their plan was to, you know, build the capacity of informal, informal leaders to apply a social justice lens to their analysis, engagement, service, delivery into social making, promote the emergence of leadership that reflects the diversity of the populace, contribute to the ongoing development of a vibrant, inclusive welcoming community that attracts people to the region. With summaries of key themes from having this equity summary, summit, and a summary of key themes instead of recommendation to inform the creation of a social justice action plan for the city manager's office. Um, but yeah, having that, that equity summit and dialogue work sessions, draft recommendations and hold a celebration with ongoing coaching and leadership development. This ringing a bell for folks. Okay. So does this mean. Um, I think that would be helpful in that. Um, I want to hear what they want to do with the 10 K that y'all have. You don't have to give it to them.  You're at, um, and then, but you have that it's in the budget is for y'all. I mean, I think that would be helpful in that. Um, I want to hear what they want to do with the 10 K that y'all have. I think that would be helpful in that. Um, I think that it is for y'all. You have 10 K. Um, and then. What they would propose to do with that for fiscal year 23, which starts next July, which we're trying to currently build a budget for. So if you want another. 10 K or whatever. That would need to be developed kind of now. Yep. And I'm trying to share the link. But I just heard the other thing again, I just heard the. Um, June 2020. Like initial plan contracts. Draft. So, which is what I could buy now. I'll have all those links in the minutes. Thank you. All right. Anything else with this or should we dive into. Other. Or maybe can we just, um, so in, in just jumping ahead real quick for the agenda for the next meeting. So we're going to invite C. We're going to discuss not C. Jack or invite creative discourses to come to the C. Jack meeting. And to have them, um, share, you know, hear, you know, hear from them more about what the, their ideas would be or, um, kind of what the, what the, um, next steps in the implementation and, um, of this, of this work would, would look like. Um, and then we're going to have a conversation about FY 23. Um, and then we're going to have a discussion about, um, um, funding priorities, both. For C. Jack and. For these other priorities, including. Siphon for city committees. That's kind of being the big, the big pieces. Um, do we also want to do more committee on committees, planning and the next agenda. That seems like a lot for an hour. Yeah. Okay. Great. Let's hold it. Let's be red. Thank you. Let's hold it to that.  It's like, it works better for my brain. Um, but I don't know if this is working for folks. And then I want to, I want to propose that we could maybe move to eight to nine. If that's too early for folks there. Um, yeah. What do, what do folks think about. Um, Just shifting it a little bit earlier. It works for me. Michael. Cameron is that. I don't know. I am here to serve. It's just like, if it overlaps with the Wednesday, the city council meeting, it's literally going to be a like 20 hour day for you. That's okay. I do get a comp time. I do get comp time. Okay. Good. The question really is do you get to use it? That's the, that's the rub there, my friend. Feel like you'd only work four hour per day weeks every week. I don't know if it's exactly from the next like eight months. All right, well, so for other, okay. So actually just to wrap that up then real quick. So our next meeting would then be Wednesday, November 3rd from eight to nine. Is that what we're looking at? Yes. Number third. Okay. And Cameron's going to invite creative just course. I will. We never heard from capstone. Yeah. Do we know what's going on or they do we want to try again to invite them or should we just let it go to say. They didn't respond at all. How about I send another invite to them for the 17th. Y'all meet on the 17th and give them maybe more time to plan. And that won't be like too late for those conversations, right? I mean, it's never, it's never too late. Cool. All right. So then staff, I think we'll hand it over to you for talking more about the feminist neighborhood watch and any other business. If that makes, if that's, if we're good to move on to other business. Cool. Take it away. Sure. Yes. So as I was saying before the pandemic, I was working the network with circle to, to have a meetings held in Montpelier, you know, feminist meetings held in Montpelier, and I was almost able to, to build sort of a bridge to them. And then the pandemic came and sort of everything, you know, was, was scrambled for a few years. So I'm, I'm wanting to, to get started again and networking, networking together with the various, groups that feel strongly about social justice. And essentially, I would want my, my failure to be divided, you know, into the various districts and every district would have, you know, some of them was, you know, washing over that, that area of town. And then each, each district guardian, I would call them. I mean, I don't really know what to call them because it's, it's, I'm still calling that is, but each district guardian would meet together at, you know, in some committee and then they would share information of what, what they'd observed and essentially, essentially this would be to, to identify predators and, and, and, and protect innocent essentially would be that to essentially help out the various other organizations that are, that are quite over, overwhelmed with, with this, with these predatory attacks. And sorry, so what's kind of what's the, the problem that this is looking to tell? Oh, well, yeah, yeah, essentially, this would confront the, it would confront the problem of predatory behaviors of, of people taking advantage of people that are vulnerable, essentially, essentially often predators target, you know, people when they are, you know, ineviated or when not, or on the autism spectrum, or things like that. And essentially, you know, this, this neighborhood watch would, would be to, you know, watch over the areas, you know, get to, get to know the, the individuals in a district. And then if, if someone was, you know, vulnerable or in trouble, then the whole, the whole areas that community would, would help to protect that person. Have you talked to our capital area neighborhoods? No, I, that would probably be the next step, but since, since I live in Berlin, I, I, I'm not, I'm, I was in Montpelier a whole lot before the pandemic, but I, I very rarely come into Montpelier now. So yeah, just put me, put me in touch with them. And perhaps, perhaps we can add some of them on to this, to this group or for former subgroup or something. Yeah. So they, so capital area neighborhoods, especially for folks who might not know on the call is a group through sustainable Montpelier. They basically kind of what you just described each neighborhood is sort of in their own little district. Yes. And they have basically the capital area neighborhoods have organized creating a neighborhood leader. And they convene meetings with the neighborhood. They have message boards, that kind of things. That would really to me feel like the very natural. Next step to talk to, because that sort of organization is already there. Yes. Yeah. So I'll do that. Yeah. Yeah. Just put me in. I mean, I still want to, of course, of course, attending these meetings, but yes, definitely for me in contact with that. What's your email? Oh, it says set the new columns at hotmail.com. All in word. At hotmail. Yeah. Hotmail.com. Okay. Michael. In various cities and towns and places I've been, I've seen big signs go neighborhood watch. Maybe you've seen them too. And I don't know if that is a national organization. The signs are uniform. Yes. It is a national organization, but it's sort of, it sort of went out of favor in years past, but still any, any town or city can gather together a certain number of people, then the individuals would meet with law enforcement. And then once they got enough critical mass or amounts of people together, then they could certify themselves as a certified neighborhood watch. And what does that do? I mean, I'm always worried about posse, you know, you know, Yeah, of course. I mean, I mean, essentially it's really just to create a form, a form where people can have discussions with, with, you know, law enforcement about what is affecting their community adversely. Yeah. I mean, I think the, the, we have to be really careful about this now because what is this big trial that's going to go on. And I've forgotten which state about the, the black guy who was shot by three people who were. Oh yeah. Neighborhood watch. I don't anticipate that. The problem in Montelia, but I think we do have to be careful about what kind of authority. Yeah. Yes. Which I mean, precisely what, which is why, which is why it would be titled up or why the feminist state or be called a feminist. I mean, I don't know if you would watch because essentially feminism. In my interpretation, the word is about equality. So it's a, it's a, it's a blanket turn my opinion that would cover all sorts of social justice aspects. It's just from what I've noticed. The, the, the most vulnerable and most innocent are often, often often to be women. I mean, most of the predators are male in this town, at least statistically. So have you been looking at other examples or models, particularly under the umbrella of kind of a feminist. Neighborhood watch organization. I'm curious. I, I, I have, I have not found anything like this. There is a neighborhood watch in St. Albans, but, but I'm not really, I don't really know if they're certified and, and I'm not sure if they have a social justice band. And there is. I don't know. I believe a neighborhood watch in Burlington, but I have not studied that extensively. Yeah, I feel like I'm just going through the police review committee and from our survey, the, that's what kind of was asking about like what, what is the problem that we're trying to solve here? Cause I feel like I don't necessarily know if I, if I heard that being raised as like this, I think there's, there's, you know, definitely other groups that would know more, even if that wasn't raised in kind of these surveys and interviews and things. But I've just want, not wanting to like create a, a new structure that has this like really. This, this, this history. You know, with, with that language of, you know, wanting to, yeah, not wanting to duplicate structures or, or systems or efforts that, you know, we're trying to, trying to also move away from. And so I'm wondering, yeah. I think the, the, the, the can, what does it stand for? Call the, what, what, what, um, Capitalism. Capitalism Association. Thank you. Um, it's definitely kind of like the right, the, the, like the first place to go, I think. And then I'm also wondering if the folks who do like the pancakes for the people or like the, that are a little bit like more, um, On the, on the graph, I'm not sure. Yeah. Yeah, I know what you're talking about. Yes. Yeah. Um, yeah, what I'll do is I'll, I'll connect with, uh, Cavalier neighborhoods. I mean, I've heard that term before. I just didn't know what it was about. So I'll connect with them. Yeah. But I, I, I do encourage this group to continue. Studying, studying this topic because it's quite, it's quite insidious.  Yeah. I think that's a really great question. Yeah. I think that's a really great question. And I think that's a really great question. And I think that, you know, for perhaps every, uh, Every person interprets what is going on in their community differently. No.


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