and we have an incredibly qualified group there but you're going to raise the bar to a whole other level too so that's really exciting. I don't mean to predicate the you know the council doesn't have lots of grilling questions in my life. I'm just extremely appreciative of your willingness to continue to assert. I'm absolutely amazed you didn't turn and run. It's too much fun. We greatly appreciate your work. Thank you very much. Thank you. And so with that any questions or comments from the public in regards to the selection process for boards and commissions for the city? Okay so seeing and hearing none I would entertain a motion for the appointment of Panicat to the Public Safety Commission. Motion by Brian Corgan second by Eric any further discussion? Hearing none all those in favor please say aye. Aye. Aye. And those opposed? Motion carries. Welcome aboard. Thank you. Good to meet that. Yeah. Item B approval of the event permit for Waking Windows. More strangers. Yeah. I'm kidding. Okay so this is the application for Waking Windows 2018. This will be the eighth year? Is that right? The eighth year? Correct. Yes. We're looking at here with Allie Nagel. So we've received the event application for a three-day arts and music festival that has been held for the last seven years in Winooski and draws thousands of visitors to downtown business venues. The event will take place in a lot of the downtown businesses as well as the outdoor stages on Winooski Falls Way and in Rotary Park. The event sponsor requests the closure of Winooski Falls Way for Friday through Sunday May 4th through 6th. Use of Rotary Park. Use of city property along Winooski Falls Way. Use of the Terrace Park in front of VSAC. Possible closure of the first block of West Canal Street and potential use of Landry Park at the Skate Park. Staff has met with the event sponsors and discussed requirements and event needs with the event sponsors at our monthly event review meeting November 15th. I said here that a list of conditions and requirements is included in the event application. I did not include it for you but I do have a list of those. It's very similar to what we saw last year. So my apologies for that mistake. And staff recommends approval of the permit. I have Allie here to take any questions. Welcome back Allie. Thank you. Great to be back. So just in summary, any big changes people should, if we could summarize in a sentence or two, any big changes? No, it's pretty much the same footprint as last year besides the potential addition of the Skate Park for outside stuff. And then obviously there's a bunch of new businesses that will probably be involved as well. Right. But the footprint is going to stay about the same. Awesome. Questions for Heather and Allie. I mean as an attendee, last year was the first year. I went to Waking Windows and it was pretty mind boggling. All the work that goes into pulling off such an amazing and high quality event. When we talk about vibrancy here in the New Skate, I can't think of a better example of that. And then got the opportunity to go to Waking Windows Portland a few months back. Yeah. It is not quite there yet. It's fantastic, but it's just the best. Thank you for all of your work. Thank you all for attending the festival and supporting it. Questions or comments from the public? Yes. I'm proud and grateful to you all for running in six years. They do an incredible job running this and given that you have virtually no problems, we would love to put our vote in as a yes. Okay. Other questions, comments from the public? There are communities who work a really, really, really, really long time, invest a lot of money and been over backwards to try to get something like this into their community in town. And the fact that it's been fostered here is a real testament to both the professionalism and the ingenuity of you guys on your side and of city staff too. And the fact that you guys together have worked in a way that's allowed this to grow in a way that's been sustainable and manageable is really, really impressive. And I think it is one of the great feats that actually happens across the state, not just from our little community perspective. And the fact that we really allow and manage an entire town turn into what it is, a beautiful circus for a couple days is really takes a lot of coordination and work and to do it professionally and well is really something I'll say last year I had one negative exchange and it was not reasonable to be really blunt. It wasn't a person who was being reasonable. And I'm sure that there are a few of those folks out there who are going to find a reason, but we do ask folks in this city to understand that part of being in this community means it's also going to be a community that supports vibrancy and supports things that are going to support the businesses that are here and make it an exciting place to live. So we do appreciate the residents who do have some level of impact on their lives and their willingness to accept that for a couple days as a result of something so great happening in town. So thanks for all your work. Very appreciative. Thanks, that's a great partnership. Couldn't do it without the city. And I owe you a quote. Okay. And so with... That's on tape. On record, yes. With that, I would entertain a motion for approval of the event permit for waking windows. So moved. Motion by Nicole, second by Brian Sweeney. Any further discussion? None. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. And those opposed? Motion carries. Welcome back. Welcome back. Thank you. See you next year. Item C, approval of transportation alternative grant Main Street revitalization. So this is a request for approval of a grant application that I will, in interest of full disclosure, say has already been submitted for stormwater work as part of the Main Street project. So as Seth, the mayor alluded earlier, we had a great meeting on Main Street with the public a couple of last week. And one of the things that came up is that this will be a very expensive project. And one of the only ways it will work is if we really maximize other funding sources into the project. So we are not relying solely on property taxpayers to fund it. So in the interest of that, we are working really aggressively to go after every funding source we can that could be applied to this project. And the transportation alternatives grant through the state is certainly one of those. So this is an application for $300,000 specifically requested for stormwater work associated with the project. The other funders we have currently interested are specifically water and wastewater and streetscape focused. So this is a unmet need at this point. There will be a $75,000 grant match that if awarded we can use other project funds to match. So at this point we're not asking for any new dollars to match this. We also, as you may remember, got awarded one of these grants two years or a year and a half ago for pedestrian improvements that we've also received permission from the state to prioritize towards Main Street as well. Three of those intersections were on Main Street. So again, this is kind of the attempt to piece together multiple funding sources to make a significant infrastructure improvement project work in the city. Awesome. Source of grant? So it's the VTrans transportation alternatives grant which I believe is federal funding. So we would need to match with local or other state dollars. And I'm going to ask that you call for discussion and vote because it's an application for federal funds. We got that whole HACAC thing. So if you're comfortable doing that, sir? Yeah. So I'm going to recuse my day job is with the federal government. Okay. I actually can't read the glasses. Any further questions from the board? No. Any from the public on this particular issue? Okay. I would accept a motion for approval of the transportation alternative grant Main Street revitalization. Seconded. Moved by and seconded by. All those in favor say, Hi. Maybe I shouldn't pick up a politician. No. Sorry to put that on the other. Yeah. I didn't know this. Okay. We'll jump into item D, discussion of the master plan roadmap. So I'm going to ask Paul Dreyer to come up for this one as well. So the planning commission has been hard at work doing the initial work towards the development of an updated municipal master plan for the city. You've heard us talk about that before. The commission is at the point of being ready to ask other commissions to start working on master plan sections and chapters. So as you will start hearing about this through your commission work and just because we hadn't updated you in a fair amount of time, we wanted to give you an update of where we were reminded from the public again on what a master plan is and why we go in this direction, provide a timeline and additionally in your packet you see the chapter outline that the planning commission has developed. And you'll note that that chapter outline is aligned to the council's strategic vision areas. So Paul, if you could give a quick overview on kind of where we are and next steps. Sure. So the planning commission has been engaged in what I called sort of expansive visioning which was sort of collecting as much information as they could from within their ranks and also externally. They're at the point where they've come down, come to a chapter, a list of chapters and subheadings or subtopics within that chapter. They also have a loose format which is loose. The format is not, I think that they've sort of settled on not being a thick book that is something that sits on the shelf that is mostly unlooked at. They want to kind of do a dynamic, very graphic document that has sort of the themes of the four city vision woven in and out and sort of in between woven together. And where we are now is about to start. You'll see on the schedule, scheduling pretty intensively cycles through the commissions and the partner organizations or partner groups so that we'll start to see the commissions meeting with the planning commission on a almost four week basis. So one week we'll do two, one or two. Next week we'll do the next and cycle through them so that we can first see what they offer and assign tasks and then have regular updates and visits with them to kind of see, to get kind of a measure where they are. The plan is to finish by January 2018. I think we're in good shape to do that. I think we've been collecting photographs, collecting images, collecting input and we will be doing some public outreach as well. But the planning commission and I think under city management and my direction is sort of acknowledging the full complement of planning or visioning we've done in the past through the form-based code project through the transportation master plan, the energy plan, the economic development plan so strategic plan. So I think we've done a ton of work as a city and now it's really a matter of assembling that and putting it together. To any word, 2019. 19, yes, so sorry. That's okay. I have all these between this project and the... That seems fairly aggressive when you said it. Between this project and the Main Street project I have dates sort of swimming in my head about when things are happening and so... Yeah, just reflecting on having heard the planning commission go through this and the idea is that what they tasked Paul with is really coming up with more of a useful narrative that's accessible to the public too in terms of a document and something that really conveys a vision and does it effectively in an accessible way and I think this is a really valuable way of looking at it in a really interesting way and I think too that it's a process that will play out and they'll have an opportunity to kind of see how it wonks together and that's exciting too. The other thing that I want to acknowledge is that the idea of this too is and it's in the text here is it allows us to use those other plans that we've created like the transportation plan and even the resiliency plans economic development plans and use those as reference starting points that can be updated independently as the city goes on so that we're in a constant state of updating things versus being in a situation where we are now where the whole thing is outdated and way behind and I think referencing those documents versus trying to rewrite all that into the plan is a really smart way of going about it because it takes pressure off that plan of having to stay on the test of time and uses those items that are frankly much easier to update and to reassess on a piecemeal basis. So someday I can see the city getting to the point where it has a rotating roster of okay it's time for us to really invest some time in updating this area in this area so that it's not this kind of all-inclusive process that we're having to undergo now that's really challenging but you've done a great job of framing it up and putting together a concrete timeline and path and very appreciative of that so I think not to speak for Michael Bryan Chair of the Planning Commission but we had a meeting with Paul and I think both of us left really excited about what was presented here so that was good. Questions and concerns? Comments? I was just in wondering this looks both familiar and exciting you know it's definitely hits on a lot of common themes and I think the process that you've described makes sense. I'm interested in and I know there's been a lot of events and outreach that's gone on as part of all these planning processes. I'm curious to hear more about how we might ensure that folks who typically don't get involved in these types of processes are going to have their voices or perspectives those voices and perspectives are going to inform this and whether you think that's already been accomplished and so how or whether we might add to this list of commissions and partners some organizations that may have the relationships that we don't necessarily have as city government with members of our community that may not think to come to a Main Street revitalization meeting on a Wednesday night. So I think that in general there's always you can always do more. Public outreach is something that we can always do more of it and we do have some well first of all we're going to stream or have all the meetings filmed so that we've shifted our TV time or CCTV time from DRB because we don't have that many DRB meetings to the planning commission. So we'll have that on CCTV. We will also couple intervals in this process reach out to the community. I think we have tentatively planned with Ray and Heather of what I would call it's going to be a public outreach meeting where we get all the commissions and we sort of do a cafe style seating where people from the public can revolve or rotate through the various little meetings that are happening and then we'll have a report out at the end so that we can hear any other concerns that we're not addressing. And I think that as far as this list goes or any of these things we think of it as a very much an evolving document so we will always be looking for partners and I'm sure that this list that's included here is not comprehensive but I think the goal would be with the commission members and just doing their regular ambassador work reaching out to their people that they communicate with and then also through public outreach meetings at least two in the upcoming year. So just two additional things to add to that to underline what Paul is saying. We've had Paul's done already some preliminary work reaching out to the school district thinking about how we engage young people in this process as well as we talked about with the school board at our joint meeting this fall thinking about young people are really the ones who are going to most own and benefit from this plan so how do we involve their voices early in it and then Ray's also our leadership team has done a fair amount of work developing our relationship with ALV and VRRP and we've talked about this initiative as well and thinking about how we best engage individuals or families or groups or go to them and their regular meetings and opportunities to gather to solicit targeted input as well so I think those are also processes that will happen that are not necessarily codified in necessarily the public official hearing processes but voices will try and engage throughout the process. I think working with the school district is great not just to connect with youth but also a lot of families that's the plan of contact and there's a lot of events that happen up at the district where it would be relatively easy to have a commission member or two there with like we've got a couple quick questions for you. I think it's hard for people to commit especially folks with young families to commit to a three hour on a weeknight meeting but if there's a way to connect where they already are in a way that's not requiring a big time commitment I think you can get a lot of interest and engagement in that way so thank you. So just additionally I've also reached out to AARP and have verbal commitment from them that they'll help with sort of the I mean they have a huge reach and they love projects like this and Kelly Stoddard-Poor has committed to help with their machine basically for lack of a better word to help reach the community members that may or may not have access to these kinds of events or discussions. And I think from the understanding standpoint something we've brought up a number of times here is it's about starting to I'll say a frustration of mine through the years is we have been building up to this and we have been taking steps towards this and creating the vision and gleaning that from the public right through a number of different processes one place where I do think bluntly we failed is making sure it's clearly community that all those things are being tied together in a cohesive way so that when they're answering surveys when they're attending meetings they know that that's all feeding this process we verbalize it a great deal but it's something that you know this is predates everybody sitting up the table over there and frankly even a lot of us but I think that's that thread that we as counselors too need to really be proactive about talking about in the community is that we have done a lot of that legwork had a lot of input and a lot of opportunities for people to participate and there will still be more but all of that has kind of funneled into this and that's that's exciting because it it reminds folks that they didn't participate in those things for not because if you ask people what they want enough times eventually they start saying okay I'm kind of tired of answering that question what are you doing you know like what's happening I thought about that here before so the the last thing I'll say and I find it really amazing so I as you all I think know I was on the form-based code team so I've been involved with Winooski for some period of time and the consistency of the message that these chapters actually reflect a very consistent message from that process to transportation master plan process to the economic development strategic development so I feel quite confident that we're we're kind of hitting the notes and every time we do some reach outreach or we and we open it up so that it's open discussion we end up back sort of at this similar list so I think we're we're again we're hitting the notes at this point and not to say that these are all them but I think cast a broad enough net that we're going to capture a great deal of the sentiment that the city it's pretty amazing to be honest with you from coming in from the outside how consistent how like the message is really clear and it seems like a lot of things are moving in the right direction in the same direction and it's being reflected in this kind of process Any questions or comments on the roadmap the master plan roadmap Questions or comments from the public Seeing and hearing none that's a discussion item so thank you very much Paul I think the thank you so I know we don't have enough time to do the city manager's budget presentation with that being said I think we probably could fit volunteer handbook in seven minutes is that feasible okay so I'm trying this over to Ray who's done the yeoman's amount of work on this team that's done the yeoman's amount of work on this with Julie from Resources as well so I think hello first of all document in front of you here represents as just a lot of work from a lot of folks so in particular tips of the cap to Paul Sarn who is now our communications coordinator but who was a best stuff for the last two years working on not only communications but volunteer work and also a fair labor partner who is our current VISTA who sort of helped take all these pieces get them into the same document and take this across the finish line a lot of work with Julie as well who's been really a great resource for us helped a lot with cross referencing this document with our personnel manual I think one of the pieces we really want to do as we professionalize our volunteer purchase to look at our volunteers through very similar ones to the way we look at our personnel and hold folks to similar standards and I think really again coming in here I have to say I'm a pretty relaxed dude and there is not a lot that keeps me up at night about my job this is one area where I stress right out and coming in here without a system for screening volunteers knowing who's where when with who was a real concern so I think again this document represents the codification and consolidation of a lot of work over the last five years to really move this volunteer process and management system into a more professional vein legal review was done as well so we got the lawyers look at this and one other exciting piece to note is that we are working pretty closely with the Justice Center that's a group that is very volunteer dependent and for a long time has kind of operated with their volunteer stuff fairly separately but we did a lot of work with Eli and Michelle to make sure that this document can be applied not only to community service volunteers but across the city and in particular with the Justice Center so pretty exciting to be here and getting this in front of you for approval and I think represents a pretty big step for us overall so I don't know that's my intro I thought it was accessible and I think people can read this and understand it which is great too it was written in a way the legal has touched it questions concerns one thing I wanted is the can we get an emergency contact with people so we do have a volunteer application that does have that information that does have it nice yeah great job and I can imagine that not having any guardrails on this can make it a little nerve wracking Julie thank you very much for your work too so do we anticipate handing that out with every person that comes of order or just going to hand it out with the application I think ideally what we'll do is I think dependent on the volunteer position either hand this out as folks are coming in the door or at the very least make them aware of it on the website and I think to such a point this is designed to be pretty accessible and to be used as a tool with volunteers coming in this was not supposed to be particularly wonky or like hard to read so again I think as we have volunteers coming in it gives us a chance to hand this to them and say read through this sign off and say you've read through it if you have questions let's talk about it but again I think it brings everybody kind of on to the same page in terms of expectations which is a big deal other questions comments for you on the volunteer handbook I appreciate this so much coming from a volunteer management background knowing how important this can be especially for municipality and some of the liability around engaging volunteers there thank you for all the work that went into this questions from council any questions or comments from the public great so as seeing and hearing none this item is actually up for discussion so I'm assuming it'll be back next time for our final approval great thank you for your work on this and let's be aggressive we've got a couple minutes so if you're okay staying in that seat and rock and roll with the community service fees that'd be great yes let me just quickly grab my paper that I left over there perfect so largely I guess what I'd say is an administrative item that is stemming from language in the charter so charter establishes that all fees need to be set in ordinance when we redid the ordinances back in June I believe it was within that chapter there's language that says for community services fees that are not otherwise codified in ordinance we will come back periodically to get resolution approval of fees so this is a set of fees that reflects things that are not already codified in the ordinance so for instance the thrive program which is fees based on the state subsidy rate in ordinance already established already approved by council so this is by no means a comprehensive set of the fees we're charging these are just the ones that either we didn't want to set a pin down in an ordinance or that have come up since that point I also expect we're working now on a quarterly basis to do our program planning so I suspect you will see us sooner rather than later for sort of the next iteration of this but this is kind of again in response to language that from a legal perspective we were kind of held to through the charter and through the ordinance okay we gotta tell us what weasels are so the weasels are the breakout tickets that they do as part of bingo okay and the bingo is used as a fundraiser for senior programs weasels and dabbers that's how you mark your finger it is the most exciting place for sure I didn't have any immediate reactions thoughts or comments the fees seem reasonable from just cursory glance uneducated perspective but I don't know if there's anybody that have any other thoughts or questions or comments trusting that you guys have added those questions, comments concerns from the public good so seeing and hearing none this is an item up for approval tonight I entertain a motion for approval of the community services fee schedule resolution as presented motion by Brian Sweeney second by Eric any further discussion seeing and hearing none all those in favor please say aye those opposed motion carries okay we now are hitting six for thank you Ray let's work on both those items we are now hitting 645 we have a scheduled public hearing in regards to an animal bite and we will now open that public hearing and I will turn things over to Jesse sure so I'll bring John up as well and Stephanie actually I don't know if there are others who are here so just as a little bit of table setting and then I'll turn it back to you for the hearing so we received late last week we received a request for a hearing under chapter three of our municipal ordinances there had been a dog bite Stephanie who is our animal control officer and John have been working closely with both the dog owner and the victim since the event had happened which I believe was November 21st and we're negotiating the relationships understanding the public health exposure it's not a rabies case and tried to come to some resolution and there was the request for the public hearing in front of you I think it's safe to say although eventually I will have John and Stephanie speak directly that I think that there is some shared interest among parties that a decision on your part to direct the owner to muzzle and leash the dog at all times would be acceptable that is only something that your body dictates we administratively do not have the power to dictate that so if you want to do a quick overview for Stephanie my role is just to kind of sit through the hearing and make sure all parties are heard and the parties are here meaning both the dog bite victim now and the dog owner of course Steph who did the investigation again the dog owner is at 24 East Spring the victim is from 34 East Spring the dog in question is a great Dane mix named Thor has a clean bill of health at this point is as of today registered, vaccinated all that sort of thing with the city so some work has been done since the bite that happened on the 21st and I'm going to just allow Steph to kind of do her summary and then I think we hear from the victim and then the dog owner however you want to proceed through the hearing that summary for me would be great thank you for your work first of all so the bite actually occurred on the 19th sorry but we did not get the report until the 21st is what happened the hospital when somebody goes to the hospital or even to their doctor they're supposed to contact the police department to let us know about an animal bite animal bites, animal scratches and so that's the victim was waiting for us to give her call so they ended up calling us because we hadn't reached out to them which was because we didn't get anything from the hospital so that's what the 21st date is so I went, I did my initial investigation with the victim, I got a photograph of the injury I viewed the injury she went over the circumstances she advised that she was walking down the sidewalk in my report it says Kenny Drugs but one of the ladies who works in the town correct me and said that's funny because we don't have Kenny Drugs so a right aid is what I meant so I apologize about that so she was walking down the street and he came off the yard and just bit her in the upper thigh underneath I believe it was the left so the upper thigh on the left side I went over and talked to the dog owner he was very receptive, he said that when it happened he had even brought the victims to the hospital so she'd get checked out the dog, I did meet the dog that night owner requested that he he already had a muzzle for him requested that he put a muzzle on him and I said that would be fine he wanted to be on the safe side since he had something happen on Sunday and I said that's understandable so I put the muzzle on, I met the dog and he was looking me through the muzzle so he was he acted very friendly in the house and the biggest concern was outside of the home and even from what the owner is working with a trainer and it's strangers and people outside of the home is where there's a known problem so we did the 10 day quarantine he was not up to date on his rabies vaccine Anthony called I told him he needs to call that next morning because when I went to talk to Anthony and Christine it was 6, 7 o'clock at night so I advised he needs to call and make an appointment for the end of the 10 day quarantine to get the dog vaccinated which he did he went to that appointment which was the 29th because the 10 days they can't be vaccinated within those 10 days so he went as soon as those 10 days were up on the 29th and got the dog vaccinated he called me right after he left the appointment and I subsequently called the vet and asked them for me that new rabies certificate which I have I went on I got clearance on the 29th that the dog was healthy from the vet but I went on Thursday morning and laid eyes on the dog and saw the dog myself and he was still in good health and previous issues and history there is a previous history I'm partially so this was divulged to me by the owner and as well as and Christine had mentioned that she had heard that there was another incident so the other instance I'm also privy to them because they happened I also covered Colchester so they occurred in the town of Colchester there was no break in skin during these other instances and they were also the victims never reported them it was reported three weeks later by the victims wife and her husband never called us so that was the situation that happened over the summer at a softball game and he was the softball league determined that the dog could no longer come to the field and I remember Anthony being receptive and easy to talk we got all the information I needed back then it was the complaint that wasn't as forthcoming right any questions for Stephanie about at this point though okay thank you very much I think that was thorough and we appreciate the detailed write up dates details, great job now we would offer an opportunity it's by no mean compelled but there's an opportunity for the victim first I think to say anything they might feel like I don't know who's who out there but you're welcome to speak and if you can come up here maybe slide another chair up or good evening good evening well like you guys said these guys covered it pretty well my main concern is I have grandchildren I walk down that street every day and now I'm afraid I really am afraid now I take the long way but it can happen, it can happen to anybody there was one time my mailman actually just spoke to me about an incident that happened to him Anthony's girlfriend had the dog and she was having a heck of time holding him back she had to haul her for Anthony to get the dog I guess all I want is the dog to have a muzzle on on a leash at all times it's scary it really is scary so I'm just the dog was not on a leash or was just outside Anthony had spoke to me and told me he had let the dog go out go to the bathroom and he usually comes right back in but I was coming on the sidewalk and it's not a fence so the dog was off its property yes is there anything else you'd like to say no thank you and we'll now offer an opportunity if the owner would like to have any comments made publicly yeah thanks for having us yeah I pretty much the same thing they pretty much nailed it really that was it I'd open the door it normally just kind of goes around the yard area in the back I kind of turned around just to close the door and it was in that short amount of time that happened regardless it's not really an excuse or anything but it was kind of it normally is a really good dog but he is from a rescue and I've been working with a trainer to try to alleviate his behavior and work on it he's great with people he's familiar with it's a little rough with so you are working with a trainer as well and was that taking place before this issue occurred as well we've had multiple sessions prior to this incident and is there anything about your residence that makes you feel like there are obstacles to maintaining future control too I don't think so no I mean just have to make sure that before the front door is open that leashes on him anything like that it's really I don't really see any obstacles are you living at an owned property or is it a rental property it's a rental property other questions, comments for Anthony I'll just say these cases can be really frustrating when you sit in this chair to be blunt because we understand that sometimes animals do things that are unpredictable or uncontrolled the fact that there's a couple incidences in here is challenging and quite frankly when these cases come up I look at the people who are sitting in that chair as an animal or owner too and this isn't being pious on it there's repercussions and results if things aren't done correctly with pet ownership and that's responsibility that people sign up for and from a public safety standpoint we're then responsible for ensuring that that people are doing a good job with that and following the rules that exist I just want to make that really clear we're going to talk about whatever results going to come out of it I don't say that to make you feel badly I'm sure you do already and I'm appreciative of that I think that's a really important delineation that most of the time I find when we're making these decisions about the people in the situation rather than the actual animal itself and I only say that because I hope it inspires whatever the result may be but that's really focused on and worked hard on so that we don't have to have another hearing later so jump it off that soapbox now any questions or comments for doing Anthony ok thank you very much we appreciate it ok so in terms of potential action I think thank you very much for providing the code so we're referencing chapter 3 and what the options and what happens in the case of a pet or a wolf hybrid biting a victim without provocation and what we have in that section is she'll make order for the protection of persons facts and circumstance and the case may require including that limitation the domestic pet or hybrid wolf be disposed of in humane way muzzled, chained or confined the order shall be sent by certified so any other comments other than that chapter in terms of potential options and resolutions? great I just want to like leashes are already required right so we don't need to do take action requiring a leash or do we if it's on their property so I would reaffirm it and I would recommend you reaffirm it that they follow the current ordinance that it be leashed yeah I'm just giving an example in a fenced secured yard and or a muzzled those are you have some room in there to yeah what I would akin it to is if and I know this is a kind of harsh sounding but it's almost like to me being released with conditions you're reinstating yeah of course illegal things are illegal but if you do this it triggers a whole different process because this isn't the first issue in instance it sets the expectations much more clearly that it is part of this release as part of us not taking additional stricter action that this will be followed through yep so stuff brings up a good point we don't enforce the leash law on their own property so once the dog leaves the property like when he went on to the sidewalk it was a violation so he could so yes in the city every dog has to be leashed but we just don't enforce that on their property so somebody could go out with their chihuahua in their front yard and let them go potty come back inside which was what was happening and which was totally legal so the concern is that he was doing something legal that ended up being illegal shall be confined to his or her space or land leashed and or mowed outside of that area in an open comments it sounds like there's been a discussion about parties being satisfied at this point in time generally with a muzzle and leash order that's what I understand that's what I understand conversations with Anthony not sure if you could get here for the hearing I mean we've talked and I think the recommendation is that it be confined to its space, the owner's space that they have access to and or muzzle and leashed outside of that area so that's not only the the agreement on the parties but also the professional recommendation we have sitting up here too public safety I think that's yeah so I just want to be clear the property is that the internal because the issue is the dog has let out to go into the yard is the recommendation that the dog be leashed any time it leaves the interior of the house of the apartment unless there's a fence my intent was that it be confined to the space that they control as renters I'm not going to say it's the whole property that may be a fence it may be a lead that that dog cannot leave that space it doesn't have access to public the sidewalk it doesn't have access to free run outside of the space that they control as renters is there a fence in space on the property there's in the backyard there's a partially fenced in area and kind of shrubbery I guess on the other side that normally we go out and go around to the back anytime we go out but it's not completely fenced it's 2 out of 3 size and I know I think that there hasn't been cause to show that he can't be necessarily off-leash behind a fence a 4 foot fence or higher like if their front porch has maybe a 2 foot little fence to it little gate to it or whatever that he can easily jump over but there's no cause to show that he has jumped over or would jump over a 4 foot fence so if he was something like a dog park or you know I don't know how he doesn't do good with strangers so it's not really the ideal place to go or if his friend has a fence in backyard as long as it's 4 feet or higher I don't see that as being an issue unless it were to obviously become an issue but in their situation that they're in right now the dog should not be open up the door let's go outside thoughts around proposal for muzzle leash? I just have a procedural question and having not gone through this process before and also not being somebody who is an expert in animal behavior is there an opportunity to revisit this down the road if let's say 2 years after working with a dog behavior elicitor would there be the opportunity to come back and request changes? Yeah I think it would be up to you I don't think there's any procedure to go to remove in order that's something we'd have to investigate we don't do this very often as a city so this is all geared towards doing in order there's not a lot of provisions here to go to release them it's a good process question I think probably the owner would need to petition that that would be my I mean that would just be my gut procedure and then just I think one of the just understanding this in general especially for the folks at home that procedural double double check that this is the recommendation of staff professionals and has been reached by agreement both the owner and the victim so it's kind of all three of those bases covered in this potential outcome I think that's what it's been represented tonight and I don't want to speak for the folks but I think I think after talking to the victim and the dog owner and her conversations I think that's a fair statement Any other questions, concerns from council? Is the public hearing any questions on process from the public process oriented questions on the new hearing? Okay okay so I guess I'll just say I'm certainly amenable to going with that route and I'll ask for a motion in a few moments I think just want to reiterate it sounds like you're trying to do a good thing and rescuing a dog and trying to do the right thing so hopefully this is an opportunity for that to continue and it be a successful relationship both for you and the community and that you are both happy healthy and thriving in the future and that your neighbors also feel very comfortable that the issue's been addressed in a responsible way so should that be the decision? One last question sorry, is the dog now licensed? I do appreciate also your work working with a behavioralist or a trainer ahead of time his name is Wyatt Okay, so I would entertain a motion from council in regards to a proposal for action regarding the antibody issue we have before us So how do we need to state this? The recommendation standing from staff and that was spoken to by both parties was that the dog being muzzled went outside of the home in an uncontrolled area and also be leashed and not be allowed to be free on streets I'll wait for it It's asking that anytime the dog will leave the premise in this case unless it's in a newly constructed frustrated area that doesn't exist that that dog be muzzled and leashed So moved Second, motion by Nicole Second by Brian, any further questions, concerns or discussion? Hearing is seen done, all those in favor please say aye. Aye. Aye. And those opposed, motion carries Stephanie, thank you very much for all of your work, we appreciate it we unfortunately do not get to see you unless something goes wrong which is too bad I'm going to give you a hand for cake once a year Thank you for your work Thank you all very much We'll circle back to our regular agenda we have up next discussion of FY19 with the steam managers FY19 budget presentation Brian Corgan was my witness that the technology was working earlier Let's see how it goes now It's warming up So what you on your tables are budget books that look like this and in that budget book you have this presentation as well as a narrative memo from me outlining the proposal in front of you you have overview summaries from each of the departments about what they're putting before you and you have the roll-up budgets we'll talk about through this budget season and this document is also on the website so if there are members of the public who are interested in digging into this they can go to the city's web page city initiatives city budget FY19 proposed budget and the full document is there So tonight I'm going to run through this presentation the goal tonight really is to hear this city managers proposed budget presentation and then over the upcoming weeks you will hear individual presentations from all the departments if you have comments or questions tonight that you would like either answers to tonight or more information as we go through this process we're of course willing to take that feedback and integrate it into our budget presentations over time So just for tonight we're going to be talking about the process today and the goals established I'm going to give you an overview of the budgets that are recommendations before you some more overview of what's actually in those and then what to expect over the next couple of months So just a reminder of where we've been and where we're going so we've already had two budget discussions so far this year we had one on September 18th where we talked about the process and just for table setting we are doing this slightly different this year in that we are looking at no I do not want to change the color scheme we are looking at all the funds at once the general fund and all the enterprise funds and special revenue funds with a belief that that will give you a full picture of the complete finances of the city we had a discussion on October 2nd about the goals of the budget what you were hoping to receive from us tonight December 4th you're hearing my budget presentation and then each of the department budget presentations following from there and what funds we'll be talking about on each evening so in terms of goals the goals that we heard from you while no vote was taken this is what we heard from you that the leadership team used to build this budget so we heard that you were interested in a level tax rate budget that had no impact on the tax rate and we're willing to talk about an increase that would not exceed cost of living so you are not interested in any budget presentation that was going to lead to an over cost of living increase currently that's 2% it was 2.7% sorry Ron, come on what would the impact be to the general fund learning cost you asked us to look at specifically to focus on the strategic vision areas and any ads that were targeted specifically at grand last growth and economic development asked us to look at how we manage resources and the people doing the work and specifically as we've talked about earlier tonight already focus on all the planning efforts we've done today and how to forward them forward to action so budgets are as you all know and have talked about already are more than just dollar amounts they're really about dedicating the resources towards the priorities of the city and the accomplishments that we are hoping to glean from staff and our team so here you see your strategic vision areas and successes that we feel like we've already had in FY18 or are working to accomplish in FY18 give me a minute and see if I can get rid of this don't show this message yet there we go of course are very familiar with these accomplishments and again they're in your packet for reference similarly for FY19 these are goals we hope to achieve and priorities we hope to achieve with the budgets as presented with a big note that our recommendation will be once we move beyond town meeting day that the council and staff revisit specific goals associated with each strategic vision area so the assumptions and challenges we had walking into this budget and I should say at this point that this was a complete team effort from start to finish the leadership team spent several meetings together going over these financial realities going over ideas for cuts and putting together these recommended budgets so these are our assumptions just as a reminder a penny on the tax rate raises about $50,000 in Winooski so with this budget we are assuming a 2.2% COLA in FY19 if you probably remember in FY18 we budgeted 1.5% COLA and it actually came in at 2.7% that's very typical we are budgeting 6 months to 18 months out so we are working with unknown numbers there's two ramifications of that one it is a higher assumption than we've made in past years to need to acknowledge as we built the budget from the ground up that because we had only budgeted 1.5% in FY19 and it was actually 2.7% we entered FY18 with a $40,000 deficit so we had to grow out of that with this budget to just get to zero additionally the FY18 budget was built without projections for the recently settled union contracts so that's something else we had to build our way out of health insurance is projected to be go up about 10% 11% this year we are projecting with this budget a very modest grand list growth rate of 0.8% outside the TIF district and 1% within the TIF district so that's approximately in the non-TIF grand list a $32,000 add to the revenue property tax line this year I think about all those things that we were growing out of with only $32,000 new dollars having said that the FY18 or FY17 grand list that was for funded FY18 came in lower than we budgeted as well so the actual impact of that modest projection is only $17,000 over what we collected this year the result of all of this is as the department heads presented their level taxes budget to myself and Angela and we looked at these assumptions we actually had to cut out about $350,000 out of the budget to meet the level tax rate budget so that's what we kind of walked into this process with so what did we include in this proposal so these are our value judgments you have the data in front of you we can talk about this over the next couple of weeks in a month and a half these are some things that we did build into the proposed budget we maintain the current staffing that we've built up over the last couple of years for the strategic vision areas specifically the economic development officer the communications officer and the full-time planning and zoning manager we feel like those positions are really important to forward the shared strategic vision at the recommendation of the auditors we are moving the O'Brien Community Center fund or recommending moving it into the general fund this year we are also recommending that we hold the general fund harmless in this first year in doing that which means we will be looking for about $30,000 in reserves to offset one the loss revenue to the general fund and the operating deficit currently in the historical we have had in recent history we have had a volunteer grandeur or grand jurors that are no longer able to do that so to meet our legal requirements we are building in a very small budget to bring on a contracted staff person to do that work we are recommending the addition of a .3 FTE accounting clerk for $10,000 a year we have a very very small accounting department and as we think about this is actually a strategic add relevant to the strategic vision as we think about planning for this exploration planning for some large federal grants and really building up our capacity to make sure our financial house is in order a very small addition of about 12 hours a week will free up some of Angela's time from doing kind of some of the mundane processing pieces so she can focus on those larger financial strategic thinking pieces the other very significant decision we made going into this budget was to prioritize a fire apparatus so we have two fire trucks in the city right now one is 24 years old and one is 26 years old it is a very real possibility that if we don't replace one of those this fiscal year we could not be able to respond to calls so we have prioritized the purchase of a new fire truck in FY19 over other capital investments and we'll talk more about that in a bit we have budgeted an additional 11,000 for technology improvements we've talked about that before this is an add to our software services line and would enable us to move to a cloud solution and an improved email solution right now we're making staffing decisions based on the number of email accounts we have which is really not very effective way to go the other thing built into this budget is a salary contingency line for non-union staff so we have two contracts recently settled with the AFSCME union who represents public works and the FOP that represents our police department that looked at comparable salaries across communities we have not done that work for our non-union staff yet but intend to in the next six months so wanted to build in a contingency line to rectify some of those places where we're off kilter I think this is really important for recruitment and retention moving forward and we've seen some of the difficulties we've had because some of those those salary we're not competitive on some of our benefit lines in some non-union positions so these are proposals that are included in the budget proposals you see in front of you so what do you see in front of you? you will see as you look through the roll-up budgets two different budgets proposed one is a level tax rate budget has no impact on the tax rate is the result of us cutting $314,000 as well as some other staffing assumptions out of the level services budget then we have what we're calling a leadership proposal budget which meets the council's goals and would result in a 1.9% increase in the tax rate each roll-up budget you see will have these headings along the top of them so you have what was budgeted in FY17 what we actually spent in FY17 the FY18 data thus far into the fiscal year then the 19 level tax rate budget in the 19 leadership proposal budget so that should be in uniform across roll-ups so what's actually in these budgets so this is the specific detail of how we got to those two proposals so this first slide presents some revenue assumption changes we made as we talked about earlier we adopted a new fee structure ordinance earlier in the year as a result of that new fee structure as well as the growth we are seeing we estimate that these revenue lines that you see before you will increase from last year this is the hard side this is the slide about reductions that we are proposing or recommending to our staff and benefits lines throughout our budget in all of the detail this allows you to see where we're making those value calls and potentially cut or add as you see fit over the next couple of conversations so just to highlight some of the assumptions we've made we have cut out all overtime lines for anything not police or public works and level funded those two from this year we have proposed a reduction in the office manager position with the level tax rate budget we have proposed reducing pulling our officer back from CUSI we have proposed eliminating the community justice center match which is the board manager we have proposed eliminating the public works director position with the level tax rate budget that's accompanied as you'll see by the need to invest in other public works staff to make that even potentially feasible and then we've reduced the library circulation assistant and then moved other salaries to other funds where we believe there is some logic based on job description in the leadership proposal budget we have put back in some hours associated with the office manager we've put it back in the community justice match the public works position and the library circulation assistant does that make sense does this math on this column make sense also in your budget book at the end of this presentation a full spreadsheet of all of this data with the accompanying tax rate impact and impact to the property taxpayer so you can look at it line by line this slide presents the other reductions we made in other expense other non salary and benefit expense lines so a few to call out here we are recommending the elimination of two of our city vehicles we currently have a fleet of four we believe we can go down to two and continue to operate we're delaying a plan to install cameras and police vehicles pending the purchase of the new fire truck we believe that the fire equipment maintenance line can be reduced pretty significantly with equipment that's over two decades old that line is pretty big and we believe that will go down with a new truck we are proposing funding the Winooski parks district which is a goal we've had in the past and this one on the bottom line here that I did want to highlight is you've heard me talk about this generally before managers and police chiefs from around the region have been working with the Howard center to build up what we're calling a community outreach team which would be a team of Howard employed case workers who would be placed in the police departments across the region with the idea of serving people specifically our neighbors who are in a mental health break or a substance abuse break at the lowest level free up some public safety resources but also get them as directly targeted to other services as possible so for the city of Winooski that would be an add of $12,300 that we are recommending with the leadership proposed budget that would be $12,000 that's almost a full-time case worker sitting in the police department and we really believe that's a valuable add to our community so the implications of those last three slides so if you start with the level services budget presented by staff make all of those reductions you just saw on the slide we cut out the $314,000 from the budget which is saving the average property tax payer about $140 an year with the leadership proposal we are recommending adding back in $92,000 for a tax rate impact of 1.9% an increase of 1.9% for a total new new cost to the average tax payer about $43 in FY19 and then the additional ads column which is other priorities that we think are important to make it to that level for us but we want to have them here for you to look at if we add them all back in another 2% increase 2% plus 1.9% or 2% plus 1.9% so an additional $48 so this is just another way to say this the impact to the tax rate so with the level tax rate budget no impact to the municipal tax rate with the leadership proposal a 1.9% increase tax rate would be $106.41 so what's not funded with any of these proposals is increased staffing to implement the strategic vision areas over what we have now or any increased staff to implement the economic development strategic plan as well as no increase investment in municipal infrastructure the significant caveat to that is that this budget does assume as you probably all know we had a ballot item a number of years ago to increase the capital spending by 5% each year so this budget proposed does include that 5% increase so it's the baseline capital investment increase but nothing beyond that so I want to provide a few kind of big picture context pieces this is probably pretty obvious to those who spend a lot of time as some of us do with wonky municipal budgets but this is a big picture of a big revenue picture the general fund which is on the left you see that 80% of our revenue comes from property taxes across all funds general fund revenues are only about 50% or non-TIF general fund revenues non-TIF revenues are generally the general fund only covers 50% of them and then we have parking fund, water, wastewater water funds, etc the big picture for expenditures across all funds so we have the largest being currently in the city the TIF debt payments 20% then made up of public works and police across all funds another 8% for general government administration, 7% for community services and you can see the expenditure dollars there associated big picture for the property tax bill so this is general fund only for those of us who have a home the average rate of $225,000 a year we're spending about 1100 on police services 525 on public work services 380 on general administration 350 on community services etc so I have included here because we're talking all funds in a couple of highlights from across all of the funds and I'll try through these but they're detailed in the budget book so with these proposed budgets we are not making any recommendations for changes to water rates those rates haven't changed recently the water fund with the leadership proposal maintains current staffing levels and with either proposal will make a contribution to fund balance wastewater and storm water again no changes to the rate staffing levels remain the same we are planning a significant use of fund balance to maximize the efficiency of the headworks project so as you remember that the bond vote we discussed would fully fund the actual wastewater infrastructure but we have a proposal to do the energy efficiency work and the building work at the same time so we're hiring one contractor to do that work rather than breaking up the project and that would include the use of fund balance with that use of fund balance we still have 650,000 in reserves within the wastewater budget TIF and the community development fund so we are making a strategic recommendation with the TIF budget to reduce our payment to ourselves in FY19 in order to meet our external debt obligations and our one-to-one debt service coverage ratio we are recommending we only pay ourselves, i.e. the community development fund 150,000 out of that existing note for FY19 doing that means that we will need to use 25,000 of operating reserves of the community development fund to fund operations in FY19 that leaves the remaining 137,000 in fund balance in that fund to strategically invest in other projects. If you remember from last year we didn't fully budget that $300,000 appropriation last year in order to have a balance to incentivize other projects so that is the recommendation it also includes it does include funding for a new website as part of the marketing and branding initiative and money for promotional materials the parking fund revenues are increasing slightly to reflect actual collections we are continuing to fund our proposals for parking management and signage as a result of the parking study it does include an additional general fund transfer for parking enforcement and the communications coordinator is indicated on that big spreadsheet and funds these other positions as well so this is what the city is kind of buying with paid parking in the city you have a community justice fund budget before you this is informed by initial conversations with the department of corrections of course we won't actually know the budget for that until the legislature completes their budget process in the community services fund budget the big difference is the with the recommended budgets it contemplates moving the child and family program manager 100% to the thrive budget and the use of reserves to do that one of the things you've heard myself and Ray talk about in the last couple of months is our commitment to growing child care capacity in the city as a result of the promised communities work we issued an RFP for a child care provider to come in and we did not receive any successful candidates as a result of that so we are currently working with the promised community group and the schools to think about how we might build that out with city partnership over the next year or two or three the dedication of the community and family program manager solely to the thrive budget allows us to build the fiscal infrastructure we would need if we were going to end up a child care center through the city that was itself an enterprise fund so it kind of starts down that path of putting the staff associated solely into that enterprise fund much more to come on that last two other funds rental registry is pretty much the same we're seeing a small revenue increase as a reflection of the new housing on the market the staffing and expenses are level funded we do anticipate a small contribution to reserves as a result of that and are really excited once the housing commission wraps up their work to think about how we use those reserves to assist property owners with maintaining quality rental housing and then the capital improvement and equipment plan across all funds as I said earlier we really prioritized the acquisition of a new fire truck this year over other funded sources the CIP budget you can see where those changed also prioritizing the work for the generator and the head works project at the wastewater treatment plant as well as improvements to the senior center that have been planned for a couple of years I do believe that significant attention is needed on the capital improvement plan we have historically really underfunded as the mayor said in his recent budget presentation on the city and new revenue to support ongoing preventive maintenance and if we are able to hire a new public works director this is the area where we would ask them I would ask them to focus immediately so what's next you saw this chart before you will hear from all of these folks over the next couple of months or the next month and a half the final votes required by you as you know are to approve the general fund budget proposed by property taxes approve the enterprise and special revenue funds and if you so choose approve placement of a bond vote for the head works project on the town meeting day warning just a note in the next couple of weeks you will also hear a conversation about regional dispatch that could end up on the ballot as well so I don't want to lose sight of that so finally I just want to say this as I said in the beginning thank you for being able to approach this year I know it's a lot was a complete team effort from start to finish all of the whole team here spent a lot of time walking through this process and a huge shout out to Angela who did this with a smile while also walking us through our annual audit as well she is a rockstar happy to answer any questions or get feedback on more information that you would like through the budget conversations how does she do Angela immediate reactions I'm going to say something that's really blunt and probably going to be a little bit frustrating to hear I'm very concerned that the process that we're asking staff to go through this juncture that there's not enough fat to cut out of this budget any longer that it's a realistic lift because as I look at what the net zero impact looks like that's not a feasible budget to me that's a budget that we can operate with it doesn't begin to I don't know reflect what I think the values of this body has been and what we've been asking for people to do so I just want to put that out there because I know I was really a hard driver this year saying use the same process it served us well and I do wonder if we have taken all the soft funds out of this budget all the wiggle that was there to the point where there's there's not more blood to bleed out of that rock I don't know how else to say that because it's quite an exercise and it's a difficult one and to ask folks to go through when it's that tight so I want to put that out there because I want us to open our minds as we go through this process about how we might even be able to tweak it a little bit more next year and come up with a different system for council setting some benchmarks for percentage increases in light of what the initial numbers start to look like and that's I'm nowhere near have all done that I just I want to throw that out there because that really hit me this week in going through this budget is that it's it's not like years past where there was $40,000 on something that you know what we can sacrifice this and cut this off we're back to talking about potential human reduction and I don't know how we ask for things to keep going at the rate they're going with fewer humans I don't know how we do that so I'm just going to put that emotional plea out there with other thoughts but to open the floor and say a big thank you to all of you for going through this know it's a lot of work that we ask you to have really tough and difficult conversations that are really challenging so thank you for doing that I should also note I should have said this at the beginning we did this presentation I did this presentation also with our staff team this afternoon so they have seen this and we have had individual conversations with all those who are potentially affected by any of these scenarios so hopefully we are managing those hard conversations on our end of things yeah you know that's we can't you can't soften that that's what we do every year that's why this is this is why we spend so much time on it we're so thoughtful about it so we are going to see this a number of times and I'm sure it was a lot to digest but this is a great time to get some of those initial questions out I think it's really effective having the fund the enterprise fund balance the special fund balances in the mix in this conversation that was helpful context that you know we don't always wrap our heads around as we look at it other thoughts questions yeah we're interested in and I haven't gone through all the many gritty spreadsheets yet but there are a couple points in the presentation and as I was reading it looks like we're funding operational costs through use of one-time money or reserves there may be a couple instances of that so we can have a really clear picture of this budget realize on the amount of one-time money to fund operational expenses that's really important for us to have a handle on so we can absolutely give you a summary of that I think there are three key areas where we're recommending that one is the Orion Community Center one is the Thrive Enterprise, or Community Services Enterprise Fund, Thrive Budget and one is the Community Development Fund where we have an outstanding note to ourselves and know that revenue is coming in future years but for this year we are those are the three places but we will give you a memo on that great outline so the Community and Economic Development position has contributed an incredible amount to the city and has been really really invaluable one of the things we talked about with that position that I think looking back at it is a bit of an unrealistic ask right now is that they start to do some some parcel analysis around potential future tax growth and really working that pipeline and I guess I would just ask from your position Jesse coming in how well you feel we have our arms wrapped around future potential growth rates if at all because it's hard when you see construction happening and then see grandless growth of what it is part of what I explained earlier this week was that in a small geographic area we're reliant on a property going offline to put a new one online and so we take a hit every time there's a reconstruction project it's not like somebody's developing a field or developing a parcel that's been empty for a number of years we're built out so we take a property offline and then back on and I guess maybe I'm adding something to the work plan or if you have any input about how you felt about the way we arrived at potential tax growth start to put you on the spot so the assessor and I went back and forth a number of times on the grandless growth projections I think we do have a pretty good handle on specifically what's included in our projections and where that growth is coming from quite frankly for FY19 that's built solely on what we know not what we're assuming is going to happen in the future because to have FY19 grandless impact it's got to be online in April so that's not far out window we know what's under construction right now and what's not so I feel pretty confident about that number I think to your larger question of do we have a sense of that over time I think we do have a very good sense of that I think what we don't have a good sense of is how market factors are going to impact that we have seen the hotel project and the strand project and other projects along main street be there be lurking having work done on them because of outside factors aren't moving as quickly as we want I think I would be honest I think I'm a little concerned how changes at the federal level are also going to impact how we can project out over the next five and ten years what that could look like but I do think we have a good handle on a parcel by parcel basis on where we're investing our time strategically specifically Heather and Paul's time in where we could maximize development I think quite honestly that's a lot of what the main street project is about how we strategically invest to get that full build out so I do think we have a good sense of that I also you know in building this one of the important things to keep in mind is a million dollars of new development gets us ten thousand dollars of property tax growth so when we start thinking about why don't we have more growing we as a city are growing we see this happening why don't we have more natural growth coming into the city you know to add one police officer we would need one ten million dollar project and we're not seeing that we're seeing great two three four million dollar projects and that's incrementally creeping up but it's not a big you know three or four or five percent growth in one year we're one as you said we're one point four square miles to see that real we don't have enough space to see that real big growth so the only reasonable conclusion to me that is to take over part of Colchester start stealing property move your fence lines back suggesting to build a wall a wall I've been thinking a wall yeah thanks for turning the camera I you know I think the only other item that would be helpful for us to and this is really on more you and me and probably Nicole in a conversation standpoint too is to circle back to fund balance conversations in regards to any potential one-time money that is in this budget especially with large expenditures that are being proposed and then you know you did a great memo and I did not have time to go back and read it in regards to what caused fund balance last year but I guess I would just from a decision your responsibility standpoint have to ask the question do we feel like we took into account those actors yeah what happened to cause the fund balance from last year I mean vacancies were so there are two main driver off the cuff I can recirculate that memo off the cuff there are two main drivers there was an incredible increase due to staff's diligence and collection of delinquent taxes so over a hundred thousand dollars of revenue of new revenue old revenues in our current delinquent tax level is about ten thousand outstanding we just don't have that we're not going to see that new revenue again and then the second was vacancies and you know right now but for the public works director and one E01 we're pretty fully staffed and nobody is allowed to leave for the record so it's definitely a lot to process I did just want to say is that they appreciate your bluntness at the beginning because having not been through this budget process last year with you all and looking at that thought of okay what does a level tax rate budget look like I can just say as somebody who just came in in March and wanting to be on this council to be a part of these important community discussions I really think my impetus there is I mean we need to our charges to make fiscally responsible decisions around taxpayer money while ensuring that we are funding the services that our community needs and I am with you 100% that I don't see that in the level tax rate proposal I think one of the so I guess that I appreciate you saying that really bluntly one of the questions I have if we're looking at the leadership proposal is are there any areas there that just kind of make your hair stand up a little bit or make you nervous for looking ahead to FY20 and being nervous of oh I wish we had been in the position where we had to do that feeling like it might put us in a tricky position moving forward. With the level tax rate or the leadership? No with the leadership the leadership I am much more comfortable and I think our leadership team as a whole is much more comfortable with the leadership budget and believing that strategically positions us a little better I am worried about our level of capital investment I think we need to be investing a lot more in capital on an ongoing basis to do that we also need a public works director so what really makes my hair stand up about the level tax rate budget is the lack of a public works director I think the leadership proposed budget would allow us to keep doing what we're doing now to strategically invest in kind of scrappy way we do in the vision that's been set by the council and set us up while going into FY20 This is four years out from Tiff the gold leg We're spending all that money already I do want to I do want to say just because you brought it up this slide to me I feel like is also really important for us to be paying some attention to yeah this is my job we need to see progress in the Tiff district if we do not fully build out the Tiff district soon we are going to have a problem in the Tiff budget and what we have been able to accomplish going into FY19 with this deferred payment to ourselves is not going to work for another year so I just want to call that out 70 okay okay other questions we're going to get to talk about this for two more months anybody have any immediacy questions then I would just also really encourage you to if it's not something you think that benefits the public from a conversational standpoint to set up time with Jesse and have conversations about I'll certainly be circling around everybody to have conversations about your priorities interests and kind of where you're at too more to come there but any questions for right now the only thing is like every year I feel like always the same thing goes to my head that like we we ask for and get a couple more percent from tax payers and then we end with a half million dollar surplus we talk about having to cut 350,000 when we're projecting 500,000 in reserves so like it when we're too conservative with our numbers so many other factors that there's just no way to dial this in anymore or do we just need that reserve for capital it just seems it's bugged me every year and I just don't know if there's a way to start to wrap our head around that fully when having these budget conversations or if that you know what I mean so the last two years last year we ran 390,379 on fund balance prior to that we had five years between 79,000 and 150,000 kind of a steady run and I'll just say that was under consistent budget management at that point in time I think the fund balance changes quite frankly in some ways it's reflective of just some shifts that we've had in leadership and in staffing and in work so I wouldn't consider I think it's a good point I mean you're completely valid in asking I think it's a good question I do think there was a stretch of five years prior to the last two years where we were really consistent in the amounts and it was roughly you know like I said I think about 75,000 year after year so I guess it's all about how much value you place in the explanation about where the fund balance is coming from and how much that is truly one time and that's why I brought it up to get it and no good answer for it just I throw that out there for the thought good thinking any questions, thoughts, comments from council I know you have lots of thoughts but I certainly would welcome the opportunity to talk with anybody about it or if you have requests for additional information that you'd like to see over the course of these meetings please feel free to send those in our direction or if any members of the public have questions as well that they would like us to unpack we're now is a great time to send those in and let us do some homework when we get into the individual department presentations are we going to get more detail on the actual budget lines or is it still going to be that same roll-up so currently our plan is to give you the roll-ups which are all in your binder now if you would like more detail on a specific one we certainly can provide that Angela Spetsche thanks any other questions, comments, concerns from council questions, comments, concerns from the public great so hearing none this is the first of what it's going to be like we said two months of conversations great job, thank you I know that is a Herculean effort on behalf of SAF to get there, thank you all everybody from every position I know that takes a lot of work and we're incredibly appreciative of the hard conversations and discussions you have to have we're grateful for you for doing that, thank you thanks for the hard work okay so with that this is the CCRPC Brownfields grant because we have a couple of guests here for another item and I want to be mindful of your time we'll stay on order for Mike Sanity approval of new services CCRPC grant award for Brownfields so this is a grant pool that's been out there for a while and I think we were sort of holding off on applying for until we had a little bit more clarity about next steps for the preliminary engineering for the pool having gotten that in November really quickly pivoted to an application I want to give Wes and Samson a shout out for the help in putting together the application went to that meeting on the 20th November over at RPC here in Manuski and we were fortunately fully funded for our request so that means $15,500 in grant funds to support the environmental and hazardous material portion of the $92,500 project that you guys approved to fund as I mentioned in here and this was something we knew going in applying for these grant funds because of additional reporting requirements that come along with that funding stream which is a federal funding stream Wes and Samson the contractor does have to tack on an additional $3,000 to their fee for the service time that that takes so that brings the net impact positive impact to $12,500 versus $15,500 but still better than what we were at before so as I mentioned here that brings our total commitment to the project down to $80,000 versus $92,500 so that's that Questions, comments, concerns a big thank you to our partners at CCRPC again for managing those funds and for Wes and Samson for their assistance with that too and just a quick related update for action surveying on the property occurred the 28th and 29th with Wes and Samson and we've got a kickoff meeting scheduled in the evening of Wednesday the 6th with the pool committee and then the 7th with staff so we are moving that process along at a good clip right now so has the fundraising committee decided to split it with us 2.2 each I'm not going to speak on the record any other questions, concerns, comments from the council only on raised lack of commitment to that last one questions, concerns, comments from the public so seeing and hearing none I entertain a motion for approval of the grant for this Chittin County Regional Planning Commission Brownfields grant award motion by Brian Corgan second by Eric any further discussion hearing and seeing none all those in favor please say aye motion carries all right item I we have item related to deposit agreements with Opportunities Credit Union I assume we are going to be joined by Dr. Tysers we are also acknowledged show front nasty CEO and president of Opportunities too we'll have an opportunity as well for you good evening Dr. Tysers good evening all it's good to see you all especially in a reasonable good spirits you have a copy of the memo that I sent you in regards to the collateralization of city funds at the Opportunities Credit Union I won't regurgitate the memo itself what I tried to do for you is lay out the factors as I saw it based on the input from the auditors from the FY16 audit which said that the excess funds at Opportunities Credit Union for the community development programs were not fully collateralized I've tried over the course of the last 10 to 12 months to get that done you saw from my memo I haven't reached that point yet and so what I did was based on that and to offset the situation as it stands right now I made a recommendation to you for you to consider and of course as the final fiduciary responsible agent for the city of Wynuski the council can make their decision based on what they want to do I'll entertain any questions you might have at that point so issue that arose on our audit and the auditors have reviewed any proposed agreements that have been circulated the one agreement draft agreement that was sent to us I reviewed it the auditors reviewed it as I said the draft agreement called for a collateralization with mortgages rather than a third party line of credit so to speak and the auditors made their statements that they didn't think it was necessary that we go with mortgages that it should be more liquid rather than with mortgages I agreed with them the the government finance officers association also had articles out relative to collateralization of public funds they also agreed on liquidity rather than any other form of collateralization and we bring this to your attention it just hasn't materialized and made a recommendation to you and based on that you can decide what you want to do I would suspect that opportunities will have an opportunity to tell you what they think they should do and then you can make a decision it is public funds and it needs to be collateralized and it's in excess of $300,000 so you decide questions for Jim from council so if you were to pull it what would you do with it? park it in our bank account I'm sorry? so if we were to pull this money from opportunities right that's your recommendation? my recommendation for the interim basically is to offset this particular issue is to remove the monies from opportunities credit union and put it in a financial institution where it will be collateralized where it will be protected and then it can be easily transferred in whatever denominations we want based on the amount of loans that are given out we can easily transfer it back to opportunities as each loan is materializes that would be a stopgap measure the best possible measure is for opportunities to simply collateralize it with something that is acceptable to the city okay other questions for Dr. Deasers? well if that were to be the direction that we move in are we aware of financial institution that we would be able to house this money where it would be collateralized chances are what we would do is simply put it in with our normal banking activity which is at TD bank north who right now is one of the two banks that we do banking activities with we do our main and general fund checking accounts with the TD bank north they do collateralize with a third party vendor and they collateralize us up in excess of six million dollars to cover our checking account the other one that we deal with is peoples united and we have our parking meter funding sources through them the credit card sources also we have $200,000 checking account with them and they also collateralize under normal conditions banks themselves will collateralize deposits and aggregate up to $250,000 after that it's almost on your own or you get somebody else to collateralize them in excess because the TD bank does understand that they have a significant amount of our funds in their bank they simply go out and get a third party vendor to collateralize the excess funds over the $250,000 just to safeguard the city's money and that's that's pretty much of a normal practice with most of the banks I'm not that familiar with credit unions although I've learned a lesson over the course of the last six months and so for context because you weren't there for some of those loan program discussions so we have two different loan programs set up with the credit union one is for both were from pools of money that have very specific potential proposed use not potential proposed uses we have to use the money for the two purposes that they're geared towards not necessarily in the format that they're geared toward but we have to use it towards one as a housing fund you know roughly $250,000 in that fund and then go ahead $300,000 in another $250,000 in the small business fund so both those funds were set up in deposited opportunities does specialized programs with focus on community development around shared secure loans and loans that offset risk so the funds were deposited there for that purpose to run those two loan programs the housing one's been open since over the years it's been a long time in the small business one we just negotiated and instituted we just kind of finished it last year the agreement was signed and we deposited the funds in the bank good, good other questions for Dr. Tyshurst on this issue okay thank you Dr. Tyshurst, very appreciate it yep, Ms. Van Nassie, how are you I'm good thank you welcome good to see you and we'll also say we've had a long and good working relationship with opportunities between the city so we're appreciative of that relationship so excellent and hopefully we'll continue that for a long time in the future I think when the problem started was as you mentioned we had the two different funds and the fund that was originally used for the housing because about $175,000 to $200,000 of that was lent out back in 2012 in that time frame the amount of the money, the rest of it fell within the quarter million dollars that was insured so it was either loaned out or was in the quarter million that was insured under the credit union insurance fund and so it really didn't present a problem and then when the money came in for the business lending program I think that's when the cap kind of went over the cap so anyway let me just tell you a little bit quickly about our background for those of you that don't know us we were started in 1989 the city of Manuski made their first deposit with us in 1999 the housing fund and we are specifically chartered to work with low-income unbanked and underserved populations our original field of membership was Burlington and Manuski and then expanded to the state of Vermont so about 10% of our members around 800 of the people that we work with come from the city of Manuski and live here we also have additional people that are members of the credit union who work in Manuski so that combined total is about 1200 individuals out of 8,000 members that we have come to us from all walks of life but generally they come to the credit union because they don't have another place to bank so if you look around you and you may not know them by name or face but people that came to us because they didn't understand how to manage their money they could be well to do, they could be very poor but they experienced some events in their life that caused them to not be able to be well served by the banking community and I come from the bank so I have a great amount of respect for the banks and the credit unions we receive support from all the banks and credit unions in the area they all carry deposits with us many of them significantly larger than the mouse with the city because they support the work that we do and that's why deposits like these from the city of Manuski are very critical to us they help allow us to lend we lend about two and a half million dollars to people in Manuski in the last three years many of those were very small loans and when I look around I wish I could tell you the names but because of privacy I can't but as I look up and down main street and throughout Manuski I see bakeries and delis and stores and hairdressers and breweries and people that are long-hauled truckers who all came to the credit union they had poor credit, they didn't have a down payment they were a startup and the credit union was there for them and so that's why this money historically what I do hope to do with Jim even though it seems like it's a really doctor ticers an easy thing to do is to try to find a way to either do a letter of credit or something that would satisfy the city we aren't TD bank, we're not, you know, $12 million we don't have the types of assets to pledge, we don't have securities we don't invest in securities all of our money goes into loans so we don't have the types of investments that you're looking for I don't know if credit is allowed because that could serve to mitigate some of the risks that you're concerned about not something we could do with the Federal Home Loan Bank of Boston it would probably take us about 60 days but it's something that might satisfy and close that risk so I don't know what else to say but we came in 2010 to Manuski, open up our branch across from my webgrocer at that point in time you could kind of stand in the middle of the street and there were no cars and pretty much be all by yourself day or night I think we've tried to be a good steward of our corner of the block and bring businesses down to that area bring people in and I know the city's been really good to us when things have come up the police department and the parking staff and everybody have been extremely supportive of us so hopefully we can work through this and continue to have a good working relationship going forward that's all I have to say great, thank you thanks for all the work I'm going to leave you just some annual reports to just some material so you can get a little sense of who we are some of the businesses are probably pictured in here so you can read their stories but I'm sure you probably know who a lot of them are anyways so I'll just leave these with you can I make one programmatic statement I'm talking with Heather so both of these funds that are sitting the housing and the small business loan funds sitting with haven't been used minimally in the last couple of years we've been before you a couple of times specifically around the small business loan program we are strategically not pushing those out right now as we finalize the economic development strategic plan and understand what we're trying to actively incentivize in the city as well as the housing commission work and what we're trying to economically incentivize I think the funds through OCU are really pivotal to our ability to give out to do that incentivization over the next couple of years and see that balance dropping as we issue loans pretty quickly in the end of FY18 and FY19 it's not I don't want the message to be out there that we're just sitting on these funds and not using them strategically we are sitting on them in a strategic way as we figure out what to incentivize and I think a lot of those people that we might be working with are already credit union customers and I think to that point what we're not here tonight to talk about is we we love the programs, right? we've gotten behind those we've pushed those this body has the public body that makes those strategic decisions so this has nothing to do with the programs we're trying to clean up an audit issue I understand that and I hope you do know that it's very limited to that one item it's not about the larger relationship or the programs overall it's not an analysis that we're undertaking at this point in time we're alive as you just said on you guys to make recommendations on that and for us to implement whatever we need to do to reach those strategic goals so that's not a discussion point I think it's about curing an audit issue an account issue and hearing what the recommendation from the treasurer is on that would the letter of credit be an acceptable method of sure because we get a stand a little letter of credit from a third-party vendor on behalf of TD Bank so a letter of credit it's just that the auditor and myself did not think that having mortgages as the collateral was the way to go standing letter of credit from a third-party vendor would be fine so in lieu of us trying to negotiate that here tonight in thinking about this coming in given that with much respect Dr. Tysher to your time and effort and energy is the potential of setting a timeline to say let's give this window to resolve this issue and let opportunities with staff Dr. Tysher and communicating with our auditor on sign off and whatever resolution could be as an option I think as Jim stated the goal would ultimately be to keep the money there if possible obviously but again understand that you need to take the steps that you recommended in a fiduciary disclosure standpoint that's understood but wondering how folks might feel about that I'm fine about giving the window I think we should exhaust every avenue to keep the funds and opportunities if we can agreed sounded like 60 days was a doable time frame and I think we do need to have the funds a lot of wise that's not negotiable but it sounds like this path forward would be acceptable to the auditor and the treasurer so 60 days is what it takes and I can support that looks like there's a pathway to the best case scenario hopefully so okay so this is up as a discussion item but I said you're shaking your head I think you've shook your head too sounds like we can get to we can do a 60 day window and hopefully it all comes together great, thank you for your work Dr. Tysers thank you very much for coming and thanks for all that you do in the community I appreciate it and thank you for your support thank you okay, up item J, approval of marathon health personal property assessment we're going to fly through these last three so you heard about at the November 6th meeting that this marathon health personal property tax issue and hearing and indicated that you would consider amended personal property tax statement from them we have worked with them to reissue that it is here attached because of how this was done it is we need your approval to accept this revised personal property tax statement and reissue the tax bill we intended this on the consent agenda to figure out how to do it to just enable a yes vote any questions or concerns I think we did this one at late last time but any questions or concerns any questions or concerns for the public so seeing and hearing none I retain a motion for the marathon health personal property assessment adjustment so a motion by Brian Sweeney seconded by Brian Corgan for the discussion hearing seen none all those in favor please say aye and those opposed motion carries item K approval Main Street Revitalization appointment of alternative authorized representatives so the next two items concern the state revolving loan funds for clean water and drinking water these are the funds we have previously authorized for the Main Street Revitalization project these are very bureaucratic forms that require your signature to allow the potential funders to talk to other staff other than me so we are requesting your authorization to put Paul Dreyer Ryan Lambert and John Chote as authorized representatives for the City of Winooski on those grant applications for Main Street Revitalization project I still hold ultimate sign off they just can communicate with the grant tour questions, concerns, comments seeing and hearing none questions, concerns, comments from the public seeing and hearing none I retain a motion along the lines of approval of Ryan Lambert and Paul Dreyer and John Chote as authorized representatives for RF1-212-1.0 the wastewater and storm water and WPL284.1 1.0 drinking water loan applications delayed to the Main Street Revitalization project motion by Nicole Eric any further discussion hearing seen none all those in favor please say aye those opposed motion carries item L approval headworks project appointment with alternative authorized representatives so same request but for Ryan Lambert Ryan Lambert and John Chote on the clean water fund application for the headworks project questions or concerns from council questions or concerns from the public seeing and hearing none I retain a motion along the lines of approval of Ryan Lambert and John Chote as authorized representatives for RF1-213-1.0 the clean water fund loan application delayed to the headworks project motion by Brian Corgan second by Nicole any further discussion hearing seen none all those in favor please say aye those opposed motion carries thank you very much next up on tonight's agenda is a proposed executive session related to potential pending litigation and specifically of UMB Bank in A versus the city of Winooski executive session is proposed under state statute to protect the city's right to negotiate or excuse me to engage with our attorney in a confidential way and also an executive session because doing so in public could potentially harm the city legally and could expose the city to additional legal action and put us at a substantial disadvantage we will not be making any decisions in executive session this evening so executive session will be solely for the point of discussion only again strictly strictly focused on the item listed under the pending litigation heading of the city council agenda city council will not come out of the meeting to make any sort of formal decision we will reconvene only to adjourn so council's regular proceedings will be wrapped up no decision will be made will come out only to adjourn no further discussion on this issue any questions concerns from council any questions or concerns from the public seeing and hearing none I did entertain a motion for entering into executive session bringing Jesse Baker and also the city's legal council on this Ms. Catherine Dingle so motion by Brian Corgan second by Brian Sweeney for the discussion all those in favor please say aye and those opposed motion carries for now entering executive session to return only to adjourn