There are three different babies from which to choose. We will actually clear the room this afternoon or this evening actually after the panel discussion of all personal learning, otherwise they'll be put in, lost, and found. So I just wanted to let you know that. And I think those are my only announcements. So with that, I turn it over to Chaplain Brian Conkel, who will introduce our third speaker of the day. So what does Jesus have to do with Wall Street? What does religion have to do with economics? What does Christianity have to do with capitalism? Or to ask a question that rests underneath such questions, where is God in all of this? In what has become a distinctive feature at various Nobel Conferences throughout the decades together, we ask, where is God in all of this? Our next speaker will push us and prod us in an attempt to persuade us to ponder the importance and implications of such a question. Our next speaker will reveal the ways in which religion informs economics, and economics informs religion, because in both religion and economics, action informs belief. And belief does indeed inform action. Furthermore, our next speaker will show us that while the positive and negative consequences of personal and public belief are well documented in the study of religion, we rarely use comparable standards to critique the religious-like faith that is often present in the realm of economics. And more specifically, we rarely critique, let alone even notice, the religious-like devotion that is so often bestowed upon the creeds, the congregations, and even the high holy priests of the marketplace. Today we recognize the importance of posing such questions. As our dominant fiscal cycle seems to impose repeated tragic failures around the world, because it seems to legitimize inequality and destruction of the earth, and because profit so often seems to be placed as a higher priority than people. Whether or not you believe in a Jewish carpenter from Nazareth who ministered 2,000 years ago, and whether or not you support a Jewish senator from Vermont who spoke in Philadelphia two months ago, our next speaker will stir us to consider the beliefs and impacts surrounding our contemporary economic edifice. This among other things is why we are honored and delighted to welcome Dr. Jorg Rieger, who serves as the Cal Turner Chancellor's Chair of Wesleyan Studies and Distinguished Professor of Theology at Vanderbilt Divinity School in Nashville, Tennessee. An internationally recognized activist and scholar who engages in questions of liberation theology, economics, class, and issues of religion and organized labor. His prophetic imagination is a valuable addition to our conference proceedings. For over two decades, his visionary work has utilized tools from cultural studies, critical theory, and religious studies to examine the relationship between theology and public life. And to probe the multiple connections and conceptions of political and economic power. Author and editor of over 20 books, his work has been translated into several languages. He has lectured throughout the United States and around the world. And is viewed as one of the foremost activist intellectuals in promoting the fullness of life through both religion and economics. And so, where is God in all of this? What does religion have to do with economics? What does Christianity have to do with capitalism? What does Jesus have to do with Wall Street? Please, let us welcome Dr. Jorg Rieger. It's a pleasure to be here this afternoon as a scholar of religion and theology among economists. In the interest of full disclosure, I'm not an economist. I probably know just enough to be dangerous. But the thing here is not so much what each of us know, but how do we put things together? How do we engage in a conversation that's interdisciplinary, that's transdisciplinary, that asks questions that are not always asked? This is where I see my work, asking some questions. And then, of course, also presenting some challenges and hoping that we will come to some conclusions together. The somewhat provocative title of my talk is what does Jesus have to do with Wall Street? Let me start by turning the question around. What does Wall Street have to do with Jesus? Most people would probably assume that the answer to either question is very little. Jesus doesn't have much to do with Wall Street. Wall Street doesn't have much to do with Jesus. There's a common assumption that there is a clear division of labor between religion on one hand and economics on the other. It goes somewhat like this. Economics is about the real world, while religion is about an ideal world somewhere else. Or economists deal with reality, facts, and hard data, while religionists deal with intangible things like lofty ideas and hopes. Or another stereotype, economics is planted firmly in this world, while religion is, for the most part, floating in another world. Of course, in this case, Jesus has indeed very little to do with Wall Street, and Wall Street has little to do with Jesus. In my presentation this afternoon, however, I want to introduce a different way of looking at this relationship. Among the many books written about Jesus, there is one with the title, Jesus CEO. Jesus CEO. It is 20 years old, and it still sells pretty well from what I understand. The author envisions Jesus according to the prefabricated image of a CEO. Now, perhaps that's not surprising. Many of our images of Jesus have been shaped by the dominant images of the times. As you all know, Jesus was once envisioned as a king on a throne, or as a ruler, as a feudal overlord, and today perhaps it's natural that Jesus is envisioned more like a business person or a CEO. Take a look at the images on the screen. What I take from this is that what happens at Wall Street somehow seems to shape our faith. What happens at Wall Street is not just number crunching, business dealing, and other important things. What happens at Wall Street shapes us all the way to the core, including our faith, except that for the most part, people of faith don't pay attention to it. But test yourself. What images come to your mind when you say the old Christian confession, Jesus is Lord. How do you envision a Lord? How do you envision power today? What kind of power do you attribute to Jesus? That is one of the questions here. So economics, as I'm arguing, is more than just number crunching. Economics shapes our imagination, shapes our religion, shapes us all the way to the core. And the dominant perspective of this economic trajectory is that there is no alternative. There's assumption this is the way it has to be. And it seems that this perspective has been successful. If I think back to my students at SMU where I taught for the past 22 years before moving on to Vanderbilt, it seemed to me that for most students it was easier to believe that the world will go up in flames than that capitalism will ever end. There is no alternative. The world may end, not capitalism. The much-discussed gospel of prosperity fits right in here. It's not just a matter of promising people fabulous wealth. As you all know, the gospel of prosperity preachers on TV do all the time. The gospel of prosperity also shapes our images of God. It shapes our belief, it shapes us to the core. And perhaps the mainline churches are not always that different. When we think of God, people of faith, we very often times think of God as at top. The gaze goes up to heaven. The gaze goes up to the corner offices of the business buildings, and the gaze goes up to the big steeples. So in this sense, there is an imagination that is shaped by what is happening in our economic lives, what is happening at Wall Street. Now it is well known that in the United States we adhere to a principle that encourages the separation of church and state. This is a lesson that we learned the hard way. You know this is a lesson perhaps that we learned also from Europe. And there is a lot of wisdom here to talk about a separation of church and state. What we're not talking about and what we might consider in the future is what about a separation of church and economics? What about a separation of church and economics? So that these boundaries are in some ways at least reflected in that things do not automatically move from one realm into the other and back. So in some my first question here, what does Wall Street have to do with Jesus? I would say a great deal. The only questions you might raise here is does this popular image of Jesus as a ruler, as a king, or as a CEO actually capture who Jesus was and who Jesus is? And are these images helpful to the majority of humanity? Now back to my original question, what does Jesus have to do with Wall Street? Or how can religion make a difference in this context? Now some of you may be pastors and preachers, some of you know pastors and preachers. And there's a great deal of frustration these days because we are figuring out that adding a few interesting ideas may not be enough to go up with Wall Street. Adding a few interesting ideas to challenge an entity as powerful as Wall Street and the economic status quo probably does not make too much of a difference. What I want to talk about this afternoon is about a religion that can be envisioned in a different way, a religion that does not have to be understood as simply a matter of great ideas and lofty ideals. I'm arguing that religion can indeed have its feet on the ground just as much as economics does, and sometimes perhaps even more so. And this is not just a theory, I'm arguing that this is at the core of our three Abrahamic traditions. Let me just talk about these three this afternoon, there's other religions we might discuss. But if you look at our Abrahamic traditions, you will realize that for Jews, for Christians, and for Muslims, our religion is not simply lofty ideas, our idea, our religion is somehow linked to what is going on on the ground. In fact, seeing religion as a matter of lofty ideas is a rather modern idea that was designed at one point to tame and to domesticate religion. Religion is up here, reality is down there. That is an idea whose time is up. So here I want to give you an example from Christianity where religion actually has its feet on the ground, and this particular example that I'm about to give you has deep roots in the Jewish traditions. Just a situation in the Gospel of Matthew that you probably remember, this is Matthew 11, where John the Baptist who was a bit of a radical, also a religionist who had his feet on the ground, has been thrown in jail, got too dangerous, and from jail John sends his disciples to Jesus asking the famous question, are you the one who is supposed to come or should we wait for someone else? Are you the one who is supposed to come or should we wait for somebody else? And if Jesus was a man of lofty ideals, great ideas, you know, pie in the sky, he probably would have answered something like this, well go and tell John he should not lose the faith. Go and tell John to just believe, to think positively, think happy thoughts. Go and tell John to dream big and things will ultimately happen. Now the actual answer is a different one. This is what you get in Matthew 11, this should actually be Matthew 11 verses 4 and 5, not Matthew 11, 45, Matthew 11 verses 4 and 5. This is Jesus' answer back to John the Baptist. Go and tell John what you hear and see. The blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised and the poor have good news brought to them. Instead of asking John to believe blindly, to have some great idea, to think positive thoughts, Jesus provides evidence. Go and tell John what you hear and see. Now regarding the evidence that's provided by Jesus here, it's not my fault if this sounds like a healthcare plan. Think about it, doesn't it sound like there is something about healing here, bodily, material things that have a lot to do with health and healthcare? If you look at the statement, sometimes I wonder if it sort of builds up, if it moves from slightly easier to more difficult things. Saying that the blind receive their sight, of course, is a belief in miracles. But you know that something you might envision, that the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, is something that you can still imagine, that the dead are being raised is perhaps more difficult. So it kind of builds this way, you know, from the easier things. Raising the dead is a fairly difficult proposition. It happens, says Jesus. But perhaps the most difficult statement here is the last one. The poor half-good news brought to them. That might be slightly more difficult than raising the dead. And I'm not just kidding about this. It builds the poor half-good news brought to them, weren't we supposed to believe that this is not possible, but somehow it is happening. Of course, what is good news to the poor? Well, pie in the sky as far as I can tell is never good news to the poor. Telling the poor, you know, that if you only believe you will go to heaven after you pass, is not good news to the poor. What is good news to the poor? The only thing I can imagine here is good news to the poor is the message that you will no longer be poor. So here you have an example of religion, not as lofty ideas, but as having its feet on the ground and providing some evidence. You might wonder, how did we get to that point? How do we ever get to that point? There's a new insight in the historical Jesus research that points out, there are several books on the topic these days, that Jesus actually was more, was not merely a radical preacher. Well, that's of course the story that we know, and I think that's pretty clear. Jesus had a few radical things to say, and people listened, came to hear him speak, like you all coming to the Nobel lectures, that's great. But what we're learning about Jesus these days is that Jesus, in addition to being a radical preacher, was also an organizer. Jesus was somebody who not only had a few words to say, a couple of ideas, but he organized people, he brought them together, and he built power. That's of course what made him dangerous to the Roman Empire, and you can see another line in that history. On the Baptist who also preached and organized, got jailed and killed, Jesus who preached and organized, got jailed and killed, the same happened by the way to the Apostle Paul. Even the Apostle Paul was not merely a radical preacher, Paul too was an organizer. So here, religion firmly has its feet planted on the ground, and it's not surprising that for that it is getting some pushback. Now I'm not recommending people to get jailed and killed, but I often tell my students that if they don't ever get any pushback at all for what they're doing, perhaps their religion is not all that it could be. With this in mind, let's take another look back at economics, which is a discipline that supposedly has its feet on the ground at all times. What's interesting to me as a scholar of religion and theology is that there is now a conversation in the field of economics whether religion, sorry, whether economics itself actually functions now more like a religion. Is it possible that there are parts of economics these days that actually function like the sort of religion that always talks about great ideas, pie in the sky, and lofty ideals? This is not an argument that I'm making easily as a theologian. This is an argument that economists have made themselves. Robert Nelson, for instance, has argued that important parts of economics today function indeed like a religion. By that he means that the task of certain top economists is not so much economic analysis or number crunching. The task of certain top economists, says Nelson, is keeping the big ideas before people. In other words, the role of certain top economists is to maintain the faith. You might talk about a division of labor among economists themselves. Some work with numbers and data. And others function like the high priests of old who seek to comfort their faithful flock with great ideas. Now Nelson talks about this simply as a scholar. He's not evaluating it. He's not critiquing it. But as a scholar of religion and theology, I have to express some concerns. What happens when the discipline of economics or at least some people within the field of economics lose contact with economic reality? And for me, the question is always, what happens when faith, big ideas, big ideals become blind? This is one of the genuine problems for scholars of religion and theology. Keep in mind, not all religion is necessarily helpful. The big ideas religion may not be as helpful. Is it possible that the same is true for economics? I'm concerned that blind faith is perennial and pervasive. It's not only a religious problem. It sneaks around, and sometimes it comes in through the back door. As a nation, I would argue that blind faith has become one of our key problems today once again. And perhaps it's not surprising if you see how religion, politics, and economics have sometimes worked together and reinforced each other in negative ways. Of course, that's what many people think is the basic definition of religion. Blind faith, big ideas that people hold as they please, especially in such a way that never anybody gets to ask for evidence and hard data. Tight to the assumption, of course, that if you believe long and hard enough, your beliefs will eventually come through the so-called power of positive thinking. I would argue this happens much less frequently than people think. The power of positive thinking is not as powerful as you may have been told. Now, the good news for me is that neither economics nor religion have to be built on such big ideas, positive thinking or blind faith. Of course, one could wonder about what all this does in current economic and religious debates. You all have heard the statement that a rising tide will lift all boats. This is a statement that President Kennedy made at the dedication of a dame in the state of Arkansas. A rising tide will lift all boats. And if you look at the physics of it, it actually makes sense. But one of the questions today is, is this actually happening? Or is it just one of these great ideals, big ideas and blind faith? Is it actually happening? What we can tell today is that more and more boats are not rising in the rising tide. And of course, what do you do with people who are not even in a boat when the tide rises? What we can tell from the numbers is that the gap between the rich and the poor is now greater than it ever was, even in the United States. I sometimes ask my students to tell me whether they thought wealth inequality was greater in the ancient Roman Empire or today. And I get mixed responses. Sometimes people feel it's worse now, sometimes people feel it's worse then. But the numbers are always surprising. In Rome in the year 150, the common era, it was such that 1% the top 1% controlled 16% of all wealth. That was inequality in the Roman Empire. 1% controlled 16% of all wealth. If you follow the debates, you will know that in the current situation in the United States, the top 1% controls 40% of all wealth. It's two very different situations, 1 to 16, 1 to 40. A rising tide will lift all boats? Well, if you look at the current situation of inequality, we're still waiting for that to happen. And it hasn't happened ever since President Kennedy phrased the term. On the other hand, even though this may be a somewhat simple example, you can still realize that much of our economic policy is based on this belief. That's why stimulus money spend at the top. That's why there are enormous tax cuts for corporations. And that's why bailout money went to the top rather than to the bottom in the Great Recession. Based on the belief that if the top is rising, everybody is rising. Another example for beliefs that may or may not be true anymore is this idea that the economy always goes in cycles. Now, if you look at the macroeconomy, I think this is still true enough, at least for the time being, the economy goes in cycles, it goes up, it goes down, and it goes up again. But if you look at what's happening in people's lives, that may not be the case. Our personal economies may not be rising at the same time that the other economy, the macroeconomy is rising. At the time of the Great Recession, people were telling us, economists were telling us that half of the jobs that were lost in the Great Recession would never be coming back. Well, that was true in the sense that the jobs that came back were not the same jobs. The jobs that came back after the Great Recession were usually jobs with fewer benefits, jobs that were either temp or had other sort of limitations, jobs that were not of the same quality. So here, the idea that the economy always goes in cycles may be true to some degree, but it's less and less true for the rest of us. For most of us, it seems that the tide is not rising for us while it is rising for others. If the goldfish on the cover of this book could be looking worried, I think, probably it would. No rising tide. This is not to contradict the fact that the economy goes in cycles, but it is to remind us that this may not be the case for more and more of us. So what do we do when economics becomes a bad kind of religion? Like the Gospel of Prosperity, blind faith always helps a few. There's always some people that get wealthy through the schemes of the Gospel of Prosperity, but it is never the masses. Blind faith helps a few, but not the masses. The antidote that I will suggest this afternoon is that we need to pay attention to where it hurts. Pay attention to the masses. Pay attention to where the pain is. Pay attention not only to the big ideas and perhaps not even the common market indicators tell the whole story. Pay attention to those who get hurt in the current situation. During the right recession, we had a situation where more and more people were losing their homes, their jobs, their livelihoods, and their retirement funds. People were losing things, not only in terms of property, but also in terms of the options they had, in terms of the possibilities they had to make a decent life. I once called this the logic of downturn, not in a negative way, but simply to remind us that we have to look at things from this perspective. We can no longer ignore that there is downturn happening and that even as the recession seemed to be lessening, downturn was not completely gone. So here I'm suggesting that we might look at things from the underside, looking at things from the perspective of the least of these, which are not just a few people, but very many of our contemporaries. In many of our large cities, a third of all children live below the line of poverty. In the city of Dallas, where we lived for 22 years, it was 38 or 39% children in the United States that lived below the level of poverty. In these cases, blind faith is not helping. The gospel of prosperity does not work. It cannot produce fabulous wealth for more than just a few individuals. And even mainline religion, it seems to me, may not be able to help unless we pay attention to what's happening all around us. So what does Jesus have to do with Wall Street? Go and tell John what you hear and see. Here's the challenge. Let's look again at our big ideas at the performance indicators from the perspective of those who are not benefiting from the system. Let's look at economics from the perspective of the poor, women, racial, and ethnic minorities. And let's look at economics from the perspective of the 99% of us who have to work for a living. That includes the middle class, which has come under a great deal of pressure in recent decades as well. In the rest of my time, I want to give you one example of how religion might actually help to reshape Wall Street. There are other examples, but here I want to focus on the notion of desire. This is one of the things that connects religion and economics, the notion of desire. It plays a key role in both realms. Now, one shallow way of addressing desire is by moralizing about it. It is common to blame desire in the form of consumerism, greed, envy, and jealousy. And perhaps that's what you would expect of somebody speaking from a religious perspective. But I'm going to argue that this kind of moralizing is not very helpful because it barely scratches the surface of our problems. What is the problem with consumerism? Most people seem to assume that the problem is desire for more and more stuff, and somehow that we can control it. But what if consumerism is not merely about stuff and what if it is beyond our control? What is consumerism is about desire for happiness, meaning, love, and freedom? Buying a new cell phone is not just about having a little computer in your pocket. It's about feeling connected. It's about feeling appreciated. It's about feeling loved. Can you hear me now? What's the old Verizon slogan? The reformer, Martin Luther, and of course this is the place to talk about Luther here at Gustavus Adolphus. Luther understood this deeper level of desire. In his greater catechism, he said, God is that to which your heart clings and entrusts itself. God is that to which your heart clings and entrusts itself. In other words, what we desire points to God or perhaps becomes our God. That's a reminder for me that desire goes very deep and merely moralizing about it does not help. Surprisingly, even though desire is such a crucial part of our lives, economics and religion often take it for granted, assuming that it is natural. But here's another look at desire. In the world of economics, there's a principle called the falling rate of profit, which is to say that over time, profit margins go down. As a result, production needs to increase if you want to make a profit. Adds to that what economist John Kenneth Galbraith has called the diminishing urgency of wants and consumption and you get another picture. Desire here has to be produced constantly and reproduced because desire and wants diminish at a certain point. Galbraith has pointed out people only need so many things or as I sometimes say to my students, you only need so many candy bars. The comes upon when your desire for candy bars is satisfied and you're not gonna buy anymore. People only need so many cars, so many houses or cell phones. So here in economics, it's pretty obvious that desires have to be produced in order to keep the economy humming. Whatever natural level of desire people bring is not enough. Desires of consumers have to be created. So desire here has become a battleground. The average person is exposed to somewhere between 300 and 3000 advertisements every day. In other words, the buck does not release stock with the consumer. Blaming the consumer for consumerism does not go deep enough. The consumer is not really in charge. The common talk about a consumer-driven economy misrepresents the issue. Consumers, I would say, are not so much driving their subjects to be driven. As a footnote here, this has deep implications for democracy. Who is actually driving what? The desire that is produced here reaches into the deepest levels of our desire. This is something that commercial advertisers have always known. Their primary task is not to provide information about stuff. Their primary task is about linking stuff with deeper desires for happiness, meaning, love, and freedom, with the ultimate goal, of course, of imprinting people for life. Unfortunately, people of faith and of good will often fail to deal with these deeper levels of desire. Many of our indictments of consumerism, therefore, are not really helpful. Moralizing about desire will not do it. So here, I want to suggest an alternative strategy for shaping desire. And I would start this by pointing out that desire is always shaped in relation to material things, whether we like it or not. The deal here is not that we have to play off material things and spiritual things. The point is not that we have to become more spiritual as a lot of religious people are arguing. The point is we have to become aware of material reality in a different perspective. Recall that Jesus is not fleeing material reality either. In fact, Jesus, instead of leaving material reality behind, deals with it, addresses it, changes it, transforms it. So spiritual and material are here not disconnected in two different realms. They belong together and they always shape up and get reshaped together. So you won't get out of this by simply leaving the material realm and economics behind. The problem is not that there's a concern for material things. The problem is what kind of material reality is promised here. There's one material reality that's tied to the idea of limitless wealth for individuals and the fulfillment of all our desires for more and more stuff. That's one material reality. There's however another kind of material reality that we're not always talking about. Material reality can also be seen in terms of the needs of people. And I'm arguing that desire can be reshaped as you connect it to real needs of real people. By reconnecting with real needs, you don't have to moralize about desire. You can actually develop a therapy where desire is gradually reshaped. Now some of these real needs I need to point out are very tangible things. First of course, food, shelter, and clothing. This is what all of us are aware as the basic needs. But second here, you have sanitation, education, and healthcare. I think this can also be listed as part of the needs of people. The third one is the one that we're usually not discussing. I would argue that another basic need for human beings is the need for work, the needs to be productive, and the need to have opportunities to be creative in your world. Too often, economists are measuring economic progress by the number of things that people own. More and more stuff here is not on this list of needs. Acquiring more and more stuff is not one of the basic human needs. And it's not a good measurement, I would argue, of economic progress. Historian Peter Stearns has noted that for the poor, consumerism is never the question. Seeking adequate subsistence is. I would add, the poor also need the opportunity to work, which means to contribute to a good life and to employ their productive and creative capacities. So here we have two very different material realities. One is acquiring more and more things, limited wealth, unlimited desire. The other one is paying attention to basic human needs. And here, the poor are not unique. If the poor are seeking adequate subsistence rather than consumerism, they simply reveal what at the bottom of it is true for all of us. For those college students in philosophy classes studying epistemology, my advice would be sometimes you see things better from the bottom than from the top. Back to religion. There is something we can learn from the Abrahamic traditions and again, that's Judaism, Christianity and Islam. The lesson here is easily summarized. God is not always found and sometimes not at all found on the mountaintops, but God is always found in situations of real life needs. I'll give you two examples. The first one is the example of Moses. This is a figure that you all have heard of and it's a figure that the three religions share in common, Christians, Jews and Muslims. All have this figure of Moses and all have the ancient stories of the Exodus. Remember Moses being raised at the Pharaoh's court as a prince. You can imagine that he had some fairly large desires, perhaps limitless. You can imagine how he was looking at things, acquiring more and more stuff, more and more happiness. Yet in Moses' case, you have a great example for how desire is reshaped in relation with basic human needs. The book of Exodus, we read this passage. One day after Moses had grown up, he went out to his people and saw their forced labor. He saw an Egyptian beating one of his kin's folk. The story continues. You see Moses siding with the Hebrews. Moses' desire being reshaped. All the way to the fact that Moses becomes one of these early labor leaders, organizing the Hebrew slaves, leading them out of Egypt.  What really matters is what God is saying here. The old story tells us that God says, God has observed the misery of the people and has heard their crying. Perhaps there is a sense that even God wakes up in this situation of suffering. Even God's desires get shaped in such a way that liberation eventually occurs. By the way, in the bottom left-hand side of this slide, you see a picture of Harriet Tubman, who was one of the leaders of the Underground Railroad. And I put her there because she was oftentimes called an American Moses. So this is not just the story of an ancient person named Moses. This is a story of many leaders that have had their desires reshaped in the struggle so that they made a difference. For Christians, I think this is what the Jesus story also reminds us of. The Jesus traditions really make no sense without siding with the real needs of people. Seems that Moses learned a few things when he joined the labor movement in Egypt, but Jesus might have also learned a few things by working in construction with his father, Joseph. If you ever wondered why God in the Christian traditions does not become human in an upper-class family, especially since this would have had all sorts of advantages, all other things being equal, as economists say. So here you have the Jesus traditions that also show how desire is reshaped in relation with the real needs of people. I wanna tell you quickly a story that very well demonstrates what I'm talking about. This is a parable that Jesus tells in the Gospel of Matthew. You know it by the name of the parable of the unforgiving servant. In this parable you have a boss who forgives an enormous amount of debt for his worker. And then the worker goes out and he does not forgive his fellow worker a little debt. The way this story is usually preached is that you must be like the boss, you must forgive. Now for a lot of people, what is the reason? You know, why would you worry about forgiving debt to your fellow human beings? I talked about two material realities a moment ago. One material reality of course suggests that having a few bucks in your pocket is always better. The other material reality, and I think this is what Jesus is talking about in that parable, is thinking differently. Now think of it from the perspective of the workers. The one worker doesn't get it. The other workers actually get it.  This was a bad move on the side of that one worker. What was wrong?  Why wouldn't you do it? Why would you not do that? Especially if you think about the two material realities. In one picture, you have a few more bucks in your pocket. In the other picture, by forgiving the debt with your fellow worker, you now have solidarity. You now have a friend. You now have the beginning of what might turn into a labor movement. If all the workers were to forgive each other, they now had a bond of solidarity. That's a lot more valuable than having a few extra bucks in your pocket. And if one point down the road, the boss ever changes his mind and starts writing on debt again, well, you're prepared. So here, this is a story that might actually have some interesting economic implications. Think about if this story had guided us during the Great Recession. What was the logic for bailing out the big banks? Well, we talked about that a minute ago. But there's an equal logic that we didn't ever really discuss that would have argued it makes a lot of sense to bail out working people who are struggling. What if this bailout for working people might have led to wealth trickling up? Well, one thing we know for sure is that the bailout of the banks has not led to wealth trickling down. So here's the lesson that I'm pushing. Desire can indeed be reshaped, not by dreaming about it, not by moralizing about it, but by putting into touch with real life needs. Today, most of the economy is based on unlimited desire for more and more stuff and the production of more and more stuff. The stated goal, of course, is the infinite maximization of profit for stockholders. I think Luther was right. Troubled desire will lead to troubled gods. The alternative would be an economy based on desire shaped in relation to real life needs. Here, you could look at the production of desire, not in terms of this unlimited desire, but in terms of the needs of people who have to work for a living. Here, the goal is different. It's not the infinite maximization of profit, but it is work with dignity. It is work that lets you be productive. It's work that lets you use your abilities. It's work that lets you be creative. And this might be another yardstick for the economy. The old yardstick that we have been using is how much stuff people have. And economists always remind us that people now have more stuff than they ever had before. That's true enough. I'm not disputing that. I'm suggesting a different yardstick, however, that might be more helpful, namely whether people's work is valued, whether they're able to contribute to the economy, whether they're able to make a difference, employ their ability, and whether they work and live with dignity as human beings. In conjunction with this, the question is whether all of the other needs are made as well, food, shelter, clothing, sanitation, education, and healthcare. I'm not trying to romanticize working people. I know that working people's desire is also a major battleground. But it seems to me that there is a desire here in our society that cannot be as easily co-opted as we think. I would argue that working people cannot ultimately be controlled by unlimited desire because they do not ultimately benefit from it. Working people cannot be ultimately controlled by unlimited desire because they do not ultimately benefit. Now, keep in mind, working people are not a minority in America. We're not just talking about fast workers, Walmart workers, and other low-wage workers. There are estimates that two thirds of all Americans are part of the working class. This is argued by economists. And one thing we know coming out of the Occupy movement, the 99% of us are the ones who have to work for a living. So here, when I say working people, ultimately I'm wondering if there's something in all of us that can help us look at shaping desire in different ways in different perspectives. So in conclusion, I think it is pretty obvious that inequality is one of the great challenges of our own time. It's worse than it was in many periods in history. And we're not observing only inequality, we're observing inequality that keeps growing. No one knows where it will lead and no one knows where it will end. It may take us all down. Why are things out of whack? Let me skip forward to my final slide here. One reason I have discussed is that we value unlimited desire over desire grounded in real life needs. Inequality is rising because our economy is built on the manipulation of desire that follows the interests of the elites. An alternative would be an economy built on desire that respects the true needs of people. As I argued in my talk, many of the Abrahamic traditions point in this direction as well. So this is not just an idea, this is a time-honored tradition that we might have to discuss, that we may have to take seriously again in one way or another. The good news is that these things have been going on throughout history. In our own history here in the United States, we have seen decisive transformations not only of the economy, but also of culture and of religion that have for the most part moved from the bottom up. Abolition is in the end of slavery. The women's movement, women's suffrage, the civil rights movement, the labor movement. If you appreciate the end of slavery, thank the abolitionists. If you appreciate women's right to vote, thank the suffragists, all movements from the bottom, from the people. If you enjoy weekends of work, thank the labor movement. Today, it seems to me, as we discuss economic balance in the future, we also have to talk about social movements that are budding once again. We have to talk about what all of this means in reshaping our desires, in reshaping the sort of common assumptions that all of us thought were solid, and the assumption especially that there is no alternative. Seems to me there is alternatives, and it seems to me that religious traditions have a place at the table, not in terms of telling others what to do, but in terms of being debated, in terms of being taken seriously, and in terms of being weighed as to its pros and its cons. That's all I'm asking for here, and I'm confident that we'll have a good discussion. Thank you. Thank you, Professor Rigger. Again, we will be gathering your questions throughout the arena. We invite our panelists to come up and join us, and as soon as we get hooked up, we will begin the discussion. Thank you.


is Jeremy Hansen, Dana Hadley, our town administrator, and Diane Isabella, our treasurer. I would like to call to order the public hearing for the new town plan. This is the second. So, select board, I mean the planning commission has approved a draft of the town plan. We had to held our public hearing. We boarded it to the select board. We had a hearing last week. We did have comments last week from Bob Bornek and the freshmen who have been involved in the process. They all were, I think, speaking for them, but they seemed happy with the draft. So this is by statute. We have to have the select board have to have a second public hearing on the town plan. So that's what this is. This is the air she's also on the planning commission. So it doesn't look like we have any really just for public comment. If anybody that's interested in throwing a comment. I don't know if you folks have any questions for us. Did the changes that they talked about last week, did those get incorporated? Yes. My understanding, yes, I mean Brandy incorporated them into the document. And my understanding is that what the process would be that you as the select board would forward the plan as approved or as amended with the implementation plan and the map. The planning commission did vote to approve those things at their meeting. Well, actually not the map, but I think that's a minor adjustment and it's okay that you do that without it going back. So it would just be you would just approve it with assuming you approve it. You would vote to put it on the ballot as amended at the last meeting. You do have an agenda item a little further down to approve the town plan. Oh, okay. But where is that most up to date town plan right here? With the amendments? Yes. Okay. Yeah, it was just a redrawing of the changes were and they weren't change. They weren't substantive changes because the implementation plan just incorporated all of the action items that were already in the document. I was just putting them in one place and assigning sort of saying who would be responsible. But there was a change to the map. It was a change to the map, but what that means is it's creating a larger area and saying it would be defined when we actually, assuming we actually go forward with the town center application. So we're basically just creating bigger boundaries from within which we will draw the new lines. Those are not the lines for the town center district. Those are just where we would choose the town center designation area from. Because it can only be 125 acres is a maximum and that area as outlined is bigger than that. And the reason for that was that Michael Rushman I guess is engaged in some kind of discussion or the mall owners are engaged with some kind of discussions with you folks about walking land. With the school district. So that they can I think have access on some point. So we had excluded that portion of that area from the map originally. So it's just in there for flexibility. Of the yellow section or the red boundary section. That yellow boundary section got bigger to include that area in case there was a swap. And that was recommended also by the state. The state approved that because that was okay. It's just that we would have to define it. So there's two things we would define it obviously in an application and then we would have to town center designation have to be. Reapproved or you have to be recertified every five years. The map we will we would have to vote. We would have to review the town plan and re vote on the town plan. So that's a permanent map before we recertified for the town center. Timing wise I think we probably would be doing the town plan around that same time. So I don't think that's an issue. Because she said that when you're recertified it has to be in the town plan what the designated area is. And that's why she being the state suggested that they go ahead and do it now. Yeah. But those are the only changes. And then the implementation chapter at the end. Which basically is your who does what. The most responsible. Any comments? Any comments? I just want to say we I mean we were very lucky to have been able to use Brandy or have Brandy work on this. And the fact that she has done the zoning. I mean I shouldn't say this. She's working with another town and they spent a much greater amount of time on their town plan. And they were when I spoke I worked with one of the folks on that planning commission. And he was shocked that she was able to do it so quickly. And I said it's because she knew already what you know where what what the goals were. Because she had worked on the zoning. So she was able to put it together really quickly. And so we were very fortunate to be able to take advantage of her knowledge. I think that helped a lot. She didn't have to reinvent the wheel. Yes. And even though it looks like a very different document. She said a lot of the information came you know sort of came out of the old plan. And you know the graphics all helped. So I think it's just a really good. We've gotten very positive feedback from anybody that's. That reviewed it or read it or. So the comments have all been good. So if the board approves that when you get to that agenda item. There's also another agenda item putting it on the ballot. For the August 14th vote. Claire has just mentioned that we don't have a town plan now asking if we knew. The town plans are eight years now. Yeah. Eight years. Yeah. You can keep that. Would you rather have one of the state. Anything else. I mean unless you have questions. Sounds good to me. Was that the. I've heard. Yeah. I mean it's been going on for a little while. It has. I mean between the zoning was obviously. That was a two year process and then we sort of. Once we got brandy on board. This wasn't January. I think so. It's been a fairly quick process to actually get this redrafted once we got her. When volunteers it's hard to actually rewrite the document like that. And I'd like to. Echo Bob Warnick statement last week. Of how much we appreciate all. I know you spent hours on this. And have been very mindful. And also consider it to citizens who had. Questions on that. I congratulate you. And it's always nice when people do take part and participate. And we do get an audience. Because we always want to hear from people and we don't always. So when we do we try to be very respectful. Their comments. You'll hear afterwards. Of course. I don't think that I really think there's nothing controversial in here. Or even. Any big changes that's really just. A little bit. A little bit more futuristic in the sense of. Looking at where we go in 10 years. In terms of development. 10 20 years. But it's not really anything that's. Surprising. It's really more of what we have in our current template. I think it I don't think it. I don't expect it to be. Controversial. I hope. There's nothing else. Close the. Public hearing for the town playing. Thank you very much. Thank you. You're welcome to stay of course. You know. Probably not. It's very hot in here. Thank you very much. Thank you. I will call Dana to make sure everything went through okay. Okay. And assuming it does you will be contacting Randy right? I will make. We'll make sure it happens. Yeah. We'll figure it out. What our logistics are. Yeah. Thank you. Well I could go see if they're ready to. Are you are you talking about the Vermont appraisal? I don't know. I got to take and call a certain word meeting to order. That's right. Okay. Yes. We can move up the license permits. Notifications. Yeah. I wish we could. We had to be in the select board meeting. Oh. Because it was warned for 75. 75. Oftentimes I think I should just now put times. You know. Six at one and a half dozen. Immediately following the public hearing. I thought that was pretty good. Yeah. Well sometimes the public hearing is going for hours. Well yeah you don't know. Though some of those meetings I went to were pretty well attended earlier. I think there was a lot of interest in the meetings. Yeah. And they got a lot of feedback. Right. And then it sort of smoothed out a little bit. And I think they were very responsive to the input. I'm going to go get Ted and then just say what you're going to be open to. Well we're not in a meeting yet. I guess. We're waiting to. It's kind of like the plane meeting. I think I'll get them. Yeah. It's kind of like when you're sitting at Newark and they say ladies and gentlemen we'll be boarding the airplane for Burlington any moment now. Thank you for your patience any moment. Yeah.  We'll be boarding the plane and when we board people with children people that need help so forth and so on. Then they say ladies and gentlemen we're waiting for a mechanic to come look at the plane. She's got such a comfortable voice. Yeah. To do that for a living. Yeah. Then they come back and they say well you now need to go to another gate which of course is an East Orange in New Jersey. Yeah. Yeah.  Oh no. So it's still here with guys climbing all over it with scaffolding and I don't know if the problem is but. Oh they could probably just take off it'll be fine. But you know those fractionals they're these groups of mechanics that have huge vans full of everything to just go go go go wherever they need to in the country to fix them stuck. One got iced up in here for two weeks and I couldn't believe the work they had to do it just because they've been sitting outside and not started and it was cold they had to do all sorts of things to test it out first. Make sure it was okay. It's gotta be huge freaking money to do that just enormous. Well you stop and think you have a cold engine.  You don't want to get it too hot too fast. Yeah. Yeah. But then you stop and think those engines are made to run it's a pretty cold weather. But once they're running the pressure is in the beginning and once they're running there's really no pressure it's just and that's you know the 48 hours nonstop no problem. That's a lot of just and when we got those pumps for the car washes they would spool down but they wouldn't shut off so if nobody came in for eight or nine minutes that pump it was doing 67 gallons a minute it would just spin down and then when the demand came it would spool back up and so in the dairy business they have the same setup on vacuum pumps. They're a big power user. Modern dairy they're probably running 50 horsepower just for the milk and machine. Just for the vacuum pump. Clarissa just left. She just went outside. Yeah. Yeah. I don't see Clarissa doing that. I've thought forever all drugs should be legal I mean trillions of dollars leave the country and go to these bad asses all around the world and we sit here with the headache and we're doing it anyways so just stop giving the world the money Nancy Reagan had it half right should have been legalize all drugs then just say no not just say no. We on camera? Yeah. I was checking. I asked you to edit out the middle. Yeah. All set? Yeah. Good evening. I'd like to call the Berlin Select Board for Monday July 2nd to order. To my left is Pete Kelly. To my right is Jeremy Hansen. I'm Brad Town. To my far right is Dana Hadley our town administrator. To my far left is Diane Isabel or changes to the agenda. No, I have none. Public comment. Hearing none. Okay, Vermont Appraisal Company. Let me go tell them to come on down. Yeah, that's fine. You can either bring that chair up if you'd like. We'll be cozy. No AC in here, huh? Well, they're trying to be energy efficient. It's better than outside. Vermont Appraisal Company has had a little staff change since they last met with you. You remember Ted Nelson who was the lead and Tom Cain has been here in Berlin for at least four years? Four or five? Something like that. Clarissa Holmes has joined the team and as far as all the clerical and the nitty-gritty work that needs to be done. And they have provided to you we'd like to talk about the Grand List as you remember last year the Grand List had an error in it. They've been very careful not to have an error in it. They've given you a summary of the Grand List that was in your packet. Also a list of all properties with the old and the new assessment. And stop me if I speak don't speak correctly, but all the changes were sent to the property owner to notify them of the assessment change with an opportunity to grieve and that was June 14th, I think it was. And I know you had a few but not too many. Six or? Something around six. So and our policy now calls for a visit quarterly to bring you up to date on what's going on. I asked them to wait until they were done with the Grand List and come in now with the Grand List total which I guess is 500 million, 100, 1,800 Okay. Some of the significant changes this year was the Honda dealership, Berlin H1 Realty is the Honda dealership and as you know they had quite a building project there. The others are listed what the changes were and also that Grand List total includes personal property taxes which inventories are down and values are down. So that has decreased a little bit. So I guess I just wanted the board to have an opportunity to ask questions. I'd also like to we have included the Form 411 which is a state form that I think Clarissa you'd be able to kind of help us. I wasn't sure who was familiar with the Form 411 if you've ever looked at it before or and this is the Form 411. The report that the state uses to it's all our information in our Grand List that goes to the state is summarized here. It's summarized by category at the top and the first paragraph is all the real property and add personal property if you tax personal property and then below is all the exemptions and these include veterans your Grange the stabilization agreement with the Northfield Savings Bank current use and the solar which is taxed on the municipal side and non-tax on the education side so it shows up on the 411 as an exemption for the education Grand List but it is included with the municipal is that the special exemptions Clarissa down near the border? Yes, special exemptions and it's exempted you can see it's non-residential and the qualified housing which is an apartment building in town it's an apartment building that has affordable housing restrictions it's on the top of Addison Drive and the state if they are using the whole building as an affordable housing entity the state will give them 10% off on their education Grand List so that solar it's enumerated if you go to page 6 it shows that the solar is 9083 and the qualified housing is 85764 that comes off just the education side it shows up as a full value on the municipal side and that was the item that we realized had not been done last year which has since been corrected the current use reduction may change a bit because the state has not finalized all their current use yet there's still two or three properties that are under review because the owners have not provided all the information they need so there's still two or three of those that are out there that may change a bit but they won't change a lot it'll be and then the homestead the homestead non-residential will change as of as people file but that won't affect your municipal that first column of the 411 which is the municipal grand list so the grand list actually for real property went up by before exemptions it went up by 2 million 5461 that was the amount of the changes but that was partially offset by the drop in the personal property so what was our net increase Clarissa the net increase was about a 30% yeah last year's 411 just the first page of the what is that in dollars do you know last year's municipal grand list the final that you filed was 4 million 4 billion 498 million 498 million 461,000 so we feel pretty confident on the grand list this year I appreciate all the help that Ted Tom and Clarissa have done Diane and I have been at them quite a bit and I appreciate their patience well we appreciate your giving us an opportunity to come back and continue to work for you we know that was not easy for you and it was not an easy time for us we're very pleased to have Clarissa working with us she if you look at her arm and how badly it was twisted by Tom she wanted to be retracted in retirement she reminds us of that pretty quickly after almost 20 years of good service Hartford we were lucky to work with our company she's from my perspective much more methodical we do make errors we try to make errors on the behalf of the property owner if we make any errors and we correct them the following year but we try to be fair and reasonable listen to people in grievances I think to the most part we've had a pretty successful year I think we have one appeal coming up that may come to the poor civil authority that would be an interesting case they usually are but nothing like what we had to go through last summer early fall as you go over if you read over any of these the change list if you have any questions any of the changes please let us know I've listed them from the high to the low high plus to low minus so if you had any questions once you have a chance to read over just let us know we can try to describe what the properties were and this includes utilities in the solar everything is on the sheet when we speak of solar you should be aware as you made it the first 50 kW is exempt of the solar field so most residential fields on a roof for example or even the trackers around someone's backyard a single tracker with 10 or 12 panels would be far less than 50 kW a roof system may have 7 to 10 something like that 8 or 9 kW in a conventional single family home so you get into the 4 bigger ones that are over 50 if it's net metered in other words if it goes back into the grid we only put a value on 70% of anything over 50 kW so even the huge ones that look like fish scales on the side if it's really net metered then first 50 is a gimme and we're at 70% of so if you take those out sometimes we're only in it half of what it really costs for someone to put together a solar field that's taxable we did one this year in another town that was 52 kW so they were taxed at 2 kW that's just the way the legislation works and as I said on page 6 page 411 you'll see the solar listed with the owners and the assessment and the last column shows that they're exempt from education tax except for Mr. Luzi who owns land your land still gets taxed on the education it's just the solar array that doesn't get taxed so the other ones don't have any land with them and he's the only one that has a land value and those are separate accounts set up like the one on the auto dealership the daughter dealership itself has a separate value for the building it's just the solar field itself has its own account and again they pay a fee per kW to the state if it's over 50 kW and generally we're at 15-20% of the total tax rate so it's actually with the tax credits if you have the coin it's a pretty good investment or it used to be when they were giving tax credits the only other thing I think is to talk about how we appreciate and what we plan for the future because I think we've passed which we're just finishing up for 2018 and Tom is gearing up with I think a good working relationship through Dana with Rosemary and Corinne to start the Unlanded Mobile Homes and there's about 200 of those Tom is going to work into a schedule while they're here on Wednesdays Clarissa will continue to be here and we're going to update those for what the market says as of April 1st, 2019 so that'll be what we call a categorical re-appraisal of homes in the six or seven parks in town Weston's being the biggest but the other one's off of a very low credit road and we re-visited the agreement we have and reserved out of what Tom and Clarissa are going to make on that project to work something out with Dana in the town if Corinne ends up being overwhelmed and the workload for her helping Tom with scheduling exceeds what her normal work schedule is but we think it's a natural because she's here and she knows the people of Rosemary knows the people when we did the last re-appraisal 10 or 11 years ago the town did schedule them for us and Rosemary was heavily involved in that so my understanding of how that works is you are going to be sending them out increments, not all at once as far as so many then there'll be an instruction for them to make an appointment and I think Corinne would be natural because lots of people might just stop in to do it thinking that they could do it and also you'll have a telephone number they can call and she would be good at tracking who's checked in and when it is and both type of things Did I refer to this card? Yeah I'm terrible with names but that's good, yeah and that was the item in our values that was most a skew Unlanded mobile homes are always a problem because a lot of times it depends on the park you can take a mobile home and put it in four different parks and on the site it'll have a different value it'll show up with different sale prices based on the desirability of the park I mean if your parks are pretty much similar it's not a big issue in Hartford we had like a lot we had five parks that were dynamically different and so it was they're tricky and while the salvage value if you pull them off is not much they're sitting in the park they carry value but it's a tough category it keeps the equity in because of that So a year from now when we're sitting here having this meeting those values will be incorporated into the Grand List That's correct We did the same thing in St. George for this year about half of their Grand List is Unlanded Mobile Homes they had a COD or coefficient of dispersion which is supposed to be under 20 for that category of 48 it was huge Clarissa had mentioned one park there were three vacant homes that are ready to torture them they would go down and watch them and the other one was up for sale so people were anxious Anything else? Any questions for them? Thank you all very much I appreciate you working with us Dana Let's get our models Clarissa you're a natural at this you should be on television Don't forget your keys Stop for a meeting There you go Treasury report now Okay I want to make you aware that the VMware's rate of the employer has changed and the last time it changed was in 2015 we're on plan B so it went from 5.5% to 5.625% which is under 4% but that's the first time it's changed in three years and now I want to let you know too as far as the amount of money that's in the reappraisal account we have $185,375 in that reappraisal account we have in the sub-accounts all and I'm sure that we will not be using anywhere near that amount for the mobile homes so we'll still have a good balance left afterwards have they given us a sense of what that time commitment for that would be and how much of that budget would have to happen to? I think they told us it was $85 per trailer times it by $200 We discussed that I can give you that figure but I'm sorry to have it in my head but that's where we have adequate In the last full-time appraisal we had done was what $120,000 I don't know what the amount was $120,000 I think that was the ballpark Are we still putting money into that every year? No We don't because we have such a $185,000 is a lot If we were to have a reappraisal then we probably with the first few years have to start putting money back into it because the state replenishes it for is it like between $12,000 and $13,000 a year the state contribution goes in every year But it got to the point where we were our CLA was so high that there was no point in putting money into it I can't remember what board did that one but a while ago I think it's back and it's before Diane so I think it was like in 1912 I think we had like $150,000 in the account and we just said no more and the state keeps adding to that account and then I want to make you aware that the assessors are supposed to be helping me print tax bills on July 10th because I have to have them out the door by July 15th and that's all I've got So they've been working out well seems like they have We've had a very nice relationship It's really worked out well and it's you know I think for from their standpoint it's something different and I think it's they've been very amenable to what we want The few times I've been in just as a person they were great they were helpful and I think even the grievance people understand if you explain it to them so they can be understood and I think they're good at that So did he he said a few I'm not sure I'm not sure you're going to have that one yet Anything else? Yeah, thank you very much Approval of license, permits, vouchers and applications We've approved general fund accounts payable warrant number 18G26 with checks 18208 through 18230 in the amount of $16,145 and ten cents Also general fund accounts payable warrant number 19G01 with checks 18231 to 18241 in the amount of $46,453 Also to void check 18228 and also approve payroll warrant number 18-26 for payroll from June 10th, 2018 through June 23rd, 2018 in the amount of $41,168 and $55 Second Any further discussion? Hearing none, all those in favor signify by saying aye Aye Those opposed, motion carries Okay, town plan discussion and approval That was the item needed for the Board needs to approve the town plan in order for us to send it forward. As you know the planning commission had two public hearings and you have now had two public hearings They've taken input they've addressed been responsive to the input The consultant I think that we had was a very good consultant and has it well organized and I think we have a very workable plan for the town for the next eight years So move to approve the town plan has approved by the planning commission with the proposed amendments as reviewed at the 25th of June, 2018 Select Board hearing Second Any further discussion? Hearing none, those in favor signify by saying aye Aye Those opposed, motion carries Sewer division funding approvals for capital project The sewer division as you know has been working on a project for changing the sewer line They have run into a few changes, originally it was felt that we could eliminate the Shaw's lift station and have the sewer rerouted down Paintern Pike North via gravity to the connection to the Montpelier sewer line which is not possible due to sizing of the Montpelier sewer line The engineer the sewer division is rerouting that hoping that we can avoid a lift station but I'm not sure at this point whether that's going to be the case or not The sewer division also has voted to go forward with this plan in your packet I gave you a copy of their minutes where they approved that and they need obviously funding they are proposing to go out to the town for a bond both in the amount of $2,200,000 is the estimate In the interim they are proposing to take a loan from the state clean water fund to cover engineering costs for $42,212 Both of those loans need to be approved by this board and for them to go forward the bond approval for the $2,200,000 will the next item on your agenda is approving the warning which means they would go to the town for a vote to see if the town voted to proceed with the bond So they are looking for your approval of these two loans The interim loan would be paid back by the bond What they are actually proposing doing is this this additional line including any improvements to some pump stations that may be necessary Is this servicing additional customers? There will be a potential to pick up additional customers Richeson Road Birch Drive I think it is as well as development downpaint turned by north that is expected to occur The motion that we need to have now I guess I would look to you for two motions to approve the interim loan for the preliminary cost $42,215 and the second for the bond approval for the total amount Move to Pursuit the loan in the amount of $42,415 for the engineering for the sewer project Any further discussion? Do you think that motion is sufficient? Yes Because I am going to have you sign for the loan in a moment Fair enough Just want to restate the amount Jeremy Sure $42,250 On the loan agreement document in the packet says $42,415 On the on the warning it says $42,215 On the loan agreement What's going on? Straighten that out See $42,415 on the email between you and Tom So I know what you are looking at Jeremy You are looking at the total The payments are $42,241,15 And I am looking at the I think it is my mistake It is $42,415 I am sorry I just wanted to clarify that I need glasses Any further discussion on that? Hearing none Those in favor Motion carries So the paperwork I have on that if I could just interrupt just to get that signed Brad I would need you to sign this line $42,415 This is similar to the loan that was recently taken out for the water division And a portion of those loans is expected to be forgiven And I am still waiting for one that we have Today is the second I need you to sign as the chair on that one please And then I need all board members to sign these two Is that for the same $42? It is for the same loan This thing And then a motion on the bond approval for projects cost of $2.2 million So move to approve the project cost for the sewer project in the amount of $2 million to $200,000 Second Any further discussion? All those in favor signify by saying Aye Those opposed both carries I don't have anything for you to sign on that but I do have on the next item things for you to sign Okay, terrific And This is the next item is to approve the special town meeting warning and notice And as well as the official ballot The two items on the ballot are article one shall the voters of the town of Berlin adopt the 2018 Berlin town plan as filed with the Berlin town clerk on July 3rd 2018 And the second is shall a general obligation bond or notes of the town of Berlin payable from revenues derived from the operation of the town's municipal sewer system in amount not to exceed $2 million $200,000 from the receipt of available state or federal grant in aid be issued for the purpose of financing the town's share of the cost of construction a sewerage collection and distribution line on paying term pipe from Route 62 to Stewart Road the estimated cost of such improvements is $2,200,000 And that's what if you approve this the voters of the town would be asked Move to approve the review I'm sorry move to approve the warning and notice for the ballot items the primary election on August 14th 2018 Second Any further discussion? There are none those in favor Pause for a second That's all right Motion carries I don't know what I do but I hear $2,200,000 it really scares me Well that hasn't been approved yet It may scare other people too Thank you Are we going to send us some notices maybe on the front porch forum or something like that to say Hey, this is what this is Tom is he and I have talked a little bit about the public relations part of it Also there has been a a salary survey underway being done for this project I don't know if you've gotten one in the mail but I'm not sure what Did they choose just Suarez or Holtown? I saw an email I don't remember seeing the survey that went up by mail And they sent out two surveys so far and now they're going door to door Unless you filled it out You didn't get one either? I don't think so Or maybe it's one of those things you just filed it to open the stuff for the town Well it's not from the town It was a rural water association I almost think they'll be involved because I also got it but I think it was the town of Berlin Of course I expected it too Right So is it that we need a certain percentage of people in town to respond and then let's see what income threshold Yes It's like we're reviewing approval of fiscal year 2019 salary As you know when the budget was built back I guess it was last December the non-union employees it was built in the budget to offer a 2% raise to the non-union employees These figures represent that 2% I will point out that Tom We are looking at the portion of his salary that is for zoning Water and sewer His water and sewer funding which is 16 from sewer 5 from water so that's 21,000 Comes from the water sewer division So portion from the general fund is actually voting on the 4232 for Tom which is included in the list here So his budgeted rate for the town is $20.40 Whereas his actual rate is different $30.50 with the water and sewer Otherwise this is strictly a 2% increase Yes it is to approve the fiscal year 19 salary and wages as presented Second Any other discussion on this Hearing none Those in favor Those opposed Go for carries Setting a municipal fiscal year 2019 tax rate David Yeah Now that we have the grand list and we recently last Friday I guess the state figures of the school so I'm going to give you an updated sheet that we just did today that shows the state I said I was going to make copies of those and I didn't so let me go do that So our meeting with those guys making all the racket maybe switched over to the zoning issue They were out there today going pretty quickly All three weeks and Saturday night Was that them? I mean it's loud It woke me right up and it said it's so weird because he says I'm the only one I take everyone down there and I say what about shooting at night because that ain't me and so you just told us you're hearing it from somewhere else and that's teachers will say whatever he needs to So anyways there was a second morning over there maybe So we have the municipal portion of the tax rate last year the rate was 4670 per hundred There are two scenarios that we've given you and again the rate is made up with the budget voted by the town the article appropriations for the special articles plus the fire department The other items we can subtract from that are our income items our item from other revenues our pilot money and our current use money that comes in from the state which is 455,000 so we need to raise by taxes 2,700 in one scenario 2,798,235 that is if we don't use any of the excess undesignated funds that were in the audit report last year which is 43,912 so on the left is the rate not using the undesignated fund on the right is using and I think when we were working on the budget 55 cents is about where we were when we were doing that so 0.5595 without the undesignated and 0.5707 using that 43,000 What that does for the municipal rate and correct me Diana I've got this mixed up but on a $200,000 home it would increase not using that excess $185 for the year for the municipal portion only and $167.60 if you use the 43,000 using adding it in obviously you have to pay the education taxes with that the education rate so homestead is $1.6683 is that right and the non homestead I only put the homestead you just use that one for this purpose and that's what I did last year as well this is just an example so it shows that if you had a $200,000 home using the first scenario your bill would be up just under $300 $277.80 and in the other scenario $260.40 because the school portion was up about $90 $92 something like that last year we had the advantage of a pretty good excess because of the winter before we hadn't spent it on winter maintenance but unfortunately we don't have that luxury this year How so we have 43 undesignated that was the increase from the FY17 the year before it was like $135,000 last year it was 43 so how much do we have in the bank right now we do have other undesignated funds which Diane has and this is as of the end of last year obviously because we don't have this series numbers yet so all in all we got $583,411 of undesignated as of the recommendation of the state is to have 5% of your budget undesignated 5% to save 5% of your budget so we certainly have that we're not in bad shape with the money that's in the bank almost 20% obviously it would be wonderful to use that for the tax rate it would be a great help to the tax payers but as I mentioned last year it's kind of a false tax rate it's going to catch up with you if not this year that's sort of moving things from a one time money into the budget that we've seen this in the news already and having the comfortable, undesignated fund balance does assure us that we have a disaster that we have to finance I mean doesn't like Barry City borrows to meet cash flow I heard that we don't have to do that because we have sufficient resources good because it doesn't cost us any money but second of all we also don't have the administrative overhead of tracking down okay we can get a line of credit and we do get interest on that money although it's abysmal is it just in the savings account it's a sweep it's a sweep account at the bank it's really the highest that we can legally do legally you won't let us do the pork bellies and things like that we'll talk after so I think it makes perfect sense I think the increase is pretty minimal yeah I mean it's not much but I think the budget we passed it's not great but I think having spent what we did and the other part of it is I always hate having to tell people there's an increase in taxes however you have things that have to be done the mirror lake called the equipment the roads the police unfortunately you've got balance both sides well we started that equipment fund or did that get no we started that and it stayed whole so far we've had two days and we haven't raided it yet this is the first year that we started that how much are we putting into that 50 well it's with the culverts it's kind of just a mass amount I don't have that right here but it was I think it's like 184,000 but that was but that's with the culverts and we didn't designate which was going to be rich it's just a lump sum amount our hope is not that the money that we don't spend on the culvert that we can roll over into a reserve account this time next year and then keep adding to that reserve that way when we need the new grade or we need the new see if we could get our borrowing so we don't have to borrow for equipment we must have the money in case that something just get it off I wonder if we off to set a policy at some point looking at the so if there's $500,000 in the bank essentially that's a reserve account does it make sense in just looking at like a 5 year plan or 10 year plan for this kind of capital account as we're putting money into it does it make sense to maybe seed if we say we want to be at 5% we want to be at 10% whatever we say then when we have that comfortable offer there we can take the rest of that and then say okay now we'll get that capital expense account started and then we'll get that expectation that year after year down the road that we'll be buying into it and we can maybe I'm not sure if I'm understanding what you're saying you're saying that using the fund balance to use that as seed money is that what I'm hearing? put that into one of these reserve accounts okay I think you would need voters approval certainly it's a good idea maybe that's something we should consider but I might think about it because otherwise if it's sitting there and earning 1.5% and it would still be earning the same 1.5% if we put it in a reserve account sure but rather than being a really really large buffer we could actually put it to use we would be able to handle as big of an emergency I guess generating revenue with that money at a greater rate generating revenue or at least offsetting future interest if we have our the trucks getting replaced on a regular cycle we're still pulling money into it don't get me wrong but if we can get started with that there I think it's we can sort of spread that spread that out I think that's a good idea more cash well naturally we try to get the most interest with that bigger interest comes the bigger risk I don't regret that but if we can avoid taking out loans that's how many percent I remember one of the fire department meetings they were talking about a new truck that was astronomical and you are going to let them come to you coming and not very long and it makes you great it looks cheap so I guess we're looking to have you tell us what you'd like us to set the rate at as Diane mentioned we need to plug that in and get tax bills out so that would be out in time to be collected August 15th which the voters voted for the first due date I would personally keep the un-designated funds for the town just looking for like you say where that culvert was a surprise that's pretty big money but we have that money we do have that money in our budget and we've got the grant that will cover the 80 percent of the culvert so that culvert but we still have another one in Richardsonville that we don't have which obviously we have to deal with that as well so it's going from 46.70 to 55.08 even with the un-designated funds tax rate I mean that's a that's a significant jump I think it is well the total bill would be just under $260 increase on a $200,000 house as opposed to $277 right if you don't use any of the just to use another figure from the the $500,000 we have in the un-designated fund what we've done traditionally is every year is take the previous years excess and presented it to you what do we usually do with it give it back oh we do I mean it's their money as you said you give it back now and you ask for twice as much next year because that's what's built up our $500,000 over years is this under-spending the budget or greater revenues than we anticipated we do we're very conservative with revenues as I always mention because I'd rather have too much than not enough and then be pleasantly surprised and we've been consistently as long as I've been here consistently coming in under budget not really having to tap into this I wouldn't be super surprised if we come up with roughly the same amount of un-designated funds next year too next year we hopefully shouldn't see that sort of artificially inflated jump next year if there is a jump so it sounds like you guys think we should give it back I think so okay so like about $55.08 rounded up we have to set the municipal tax rate to 0.5508 second any further discussion hearing none all those in favor those vote motion carried would you have to do what you need Diane to get the bills out tomorrow morning by 9 o'clock start that pot of coffee right now yeah I would be okay a plural amount of agreement this is the annual agreement that you signed for the auditors the letter basically outlines the responsibilities that the town has to provide them information and a system in the audit and also that they're not responsible for anything so it really works nicely but it is something that is traditionally done every year and it calls for the signature of myself and the board chair when is their contract up this is the last year so we'll be preparing that for bid coming up move to move to authorize the town administrator and the board chair to sign the audit agreement second all those in favor two of the same the auditors again Diane they're coming in for the preliminary the preliminary of the August 27 and then the audit itself will be the first week of October the nice thing about having the same auditors more than one year is we don't have to reinvent the wheel you actually save money because they have all the information that's a big plus we kind of know what to expect from them and they know what to expect the most what we were told also by other people is that because the firm is big enough that what some companies do is what they say we'll stay with your firm but we want another one of your auditors to do the audit and we've heard of that so fresh eyes we might want to consider that next time thank you approval of select board minutes for can't do it I need the one okay I'll bring those back town administrator's report we have put out the winter sand bid that will be we've asked to have the bids come in for your next meeting which is July 16th yes July 16th I also received a letter today that from Beth doubt that she would like to send to Berlin residents regarding the ash borer giving information we spoke with Beth a few years ago regarding that few weeks ago did I say years how time flies and I'm still working on getting right a ways but Beth plans to do an inventory in the fall and this was a letter that she has asked if we could send out I thought if you chose to send it out we could include that with property tax bills that's a great idea perfect I think it's a good letter it advises people of what the ash borer is Beth and Dave didn't want to have their contact information on the current year that's a very good question I don't know because I mean if somebody asks you I would refer it to them anyway questions about that I see they put a number down for Dan okay I did put Dan's number in there maybe he's a better person to contact anyways I don't really need a motion just a consensus I would also like to inform you of kind of an unfortunate mistake that was made I was under the impression that Tim had told me that we were going to re-bid the paving bid for Pain Turnpike North and Granger Road that was the additional paving and as you remember at the paving we had quite a discussion on paving and that was discussed we had Tim and I put out a second bid which really we should not have because it was discussed at the meeting that you had so I have retracted that bid but in the event someone says something to you that is what happened it's unfortunate I'm sorry it happened and we will take steps so that doesn't happen again was it a bid or was it one was doing tonnage and one was doing yards well the bid was the bid but they were doing it in two different ways and we were it was a so I was sort of what happened is the conversation the bid that we originally sent out was for Fisher Road only because of the grant that we're getting but then Tim is always trying to get as much done as he can and I don't blame him so if he had money left over in his budget he was talking doing north there's a section there that needs to be done by Shaw's going up through the intersection and then Granger Road also is in need of being some attention Tim and at that meeting they were informally talking about what it would cost per ton to do that and so by putting out the second bid we really are not that's not the right thing to do since they already talked about it I was thinking of something different but I wanted you to be aware that happened Wayne doesn't know about it I haven't talked to Angelina about it but I will so in the event someone asks you we've rescinded the bid the other item that is an open item that we've been working on is Brown Mill Road the speed limit on Brown's Mill Road the police department went down one day and sat there I guess at the end of the day and kind of monitored traffic I've asked them to put the speed limit machine down there although that doesn't record anything I shouldn't say that in public but it does so the only person that knows they've gone speeding is the person doing it and I've asked Bill today if we could do another maybe in the morning say seven in the morning that the guideline from the state about taking a survey of 100 cars and so forth we're trying to stay as much as we can but I don't know 30 cars maybe going out of that road you have to live there to want to go there so I will be bringing that back to you once we have the second and I'm hoping the next week we'll have a second visit that the police will give you some the data is limiting right now when he was there he did not really see any evidence of speeding and he was in a place where he wasn't recognized as they are so good at so anyway that's still on the table and that I guess was the end of my report okay I think you did it round table peep Dana on the on the bid for the asphalt is there any way that we could just take and word it so that it's for the job not by the ton not by the it's for the job we want two inches taken out we want two inches put back that's the distance that's the width give us your bid I think that's an excellent idea we are also going to work on both pike and Hutchins unsuggested bids to make it as clear as possible nobody's going to have the same tonnage their calculation is always going to be we are looking for the price per ton yes you want to have we're going to pave half a mile it's so many feet 2,500 feet it's 40 feet wide or whatever I think the vendor certainly would want to get an estimate but that would be up to them and we would come because we're not we're not professional paving I think my goal is to be as inclusive as possible and also to be as clear on the bid as possible and I don't mind asking people and telling them I need help to do that well you're thinking you did it by the job it would take out all the right all the so I think that's I think we're in agreement so does paving come I know it comes in different sizes so different would they determine well we would tell them that we'd want you know like an inch overlay or a 2 inch base and another inch overlay however they were that we would figure in what they need but I mean the actual aggregate itself doesn't that come in different sizes well you got base coat which is a little bit coarser then you have a top coat which is your smaller stone so we would know everyone's given us the same product that's what we have we would also and what we learned last time was we'd also have to know is it being reclaimed are we using that material as a base for the new road we can off the road and we had that discussion but you did it by the job you can always put those little caveats in there the tailings come back to the town garage whatever you want to do but easier to understand stuff easier for us why this year was so difficult because I mean really we've been using the same bid but we were converting the yards to the tonnage to the comparison the tonnage of this one was it got confusing any discussion tonight? no second all in favor?


Learn to say no. I know how difficult this is for some of you. Some of you said yes three times today, but every time you said yes, you meant no. But you said yes. And every time you say yes but mean no, it's exhausting.


Hey what's up guys welcome to Trading Reviews, so I bought the Google Pixel Buds and I'm going to be pairing it with my Google Pixel phone, but I'm going to give you a quick unboxing and then go through some of the bad points of the Pixel Buds and see what you guys think. So let's get straight into it, alright guys let's go ahead and open the box, so you've got your pouch here, you've got the charging port at the back, let's have a look at the pouch, pretty compact, you have a charging indicator when you open up the case, you have a button here as well just to check to see if it's charging and how much it's on, so three lights means it's full, then you can go ahead and unwrap this out and then just pop out of there and you can see inside you have the charging ports as well for the bottom of your earbuds. Alright guys so I've had to play around with this for a little while and there are eight things that I think are wrong with the headphones, so let me run through them now.  Number two, I think they're quite uncomfortable, I put them in my ears for about 10 minutes and actually my ear started hurting after 10 minutes as well, I'm not sure if it's just the way these pixel buds are designed, they don't fit in comfortably and having to fiddle with the wires to adjust to your ear size, I think that's way too fiddly for my liking and I don't think that's a good design to have on these earbuds. Number three, although the earbuds are touch sensitive so you use the earbuds itself to touch and control and do voice commands with with the Google Assistant and so on, it's quite fiddly once you've finished listening to your music you take the earbuds out, you're still holding the touch sensitive parts of the earbuds and it's still playing, pausing, opening up Google Assistant, various different commands while you're trying to put them back into its charging case as well and it's a little bit inconvenient in that sense. Number four, you can't skip tracks, you have to say and hold the earbud to say Google play the next track or you can simply say Google next and there's no way to swipe and play the next song or go to the previous song which you can in most wireless headphones so that's a bit of a drawback, you know when I'm on the morning commutes the last thing I want to do is keep speaking to my headphones to keep skipping tracks or I have to keep going to my phone and just playing it from there. Number five, putting it back into this charging box can be a little bit fiddly, it doesn't close properly afterwards, it can sometimes just keep snapping open, takes about 20-30 seconds as well, it's not the easiest, the Apple earbuds are a lot easier to put in their charging cases, I wish this was a little bit more easier but again that's primarily due to having a wire on the earbuds as well. Number six, it's quite an expensive set of headphones for what you get, I think for £159 it's not actually worth it, I think it's way too expensive and they can do a lot better with the pricing strategy. Number seven, they're not noise cancelling, they don't fit comfortably in your ear, I can still hear everybody talking around me, I can hear the outside noises, the car noises, anything, even the birds chirping, I can hear that and it's not really great in terms of that for the price you pay. Lastly number eight, the translation feature, I'm going to be coming out with a video showing you the whole translation process next so please do subscribe to not miss that. Now it's a little bit inconvenient, it's one way where you can hear the translation in your ears, the other person has to hear it loud, there's a bit of a delay between passing the phone to the other person and then receiving your translation and so forth whereas I think it would be a little bit more convenient to actually just both of you using the phone keep passing it backwards and forwards, it'll be a lot faster for me. Okay guys so those are my eight things which I think are wrong with the Google Pixel Buds, if you have any other problems using them please do let me know in the comments below, let me know what you guys think overall, if you think the sound quality is worth paying that price for, if you do use the translation features, how that's going for you and so on. Other than that please do subscribe, I've got some more videos coming up which I think you'll like and thanks for watching and I'll catch you guys next time.


Over 1000 participants from more than 135 countries are in Vienna to take part in the IAEA ministerial conference on nuclear science and technology. Participants are discussing nuclear applications that can help tackle global challenges. Scientists from the IAEA are working with isotopic fingerprinting to understand how water moves around the planet. They are using fuller radionuclides to estimate soil erosion and they are tracking nutrients from cosmic rays to help farmers adopt to climate change. Nuclear techniques play a vital medical role and can improve quality of life. It is widely understood that effective cancer control is virtually unthinkable without nuclear imaging techniques and radiotherapy. Nuclear science can also prevent food from spoiling and be used to monitor the health of the oceans. As part of the opening ceremony, a new IAEA laboratory building in Cybersdorf, Austria was inaugurated. These facilities will increase our capacity to transfer nuclear technology. In the conference, ministers adopted a declaration recognizing the role of nuclear science and technology for development. From Vienna, Austria, this is Alejandra Silva reporting for the IAEA.


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