 I'm going to call this city council meeting to order. Please. Thank you. First item is the Pledge of Allegiance. Please rise as you are able. The United States of America means you are a public for which it stands, or a nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. The first item on the agenda is the agenda. Is there a motion to adopt the agenda? Is there a second? Seconded. Any further comments? All in favor please say aye. Aye. And the motion carries. The next item is the Oath of Office, and I will be handing it over to Mayor Weinberger. Thank you, CAO Shad, and thank you for serving as the acting president and to kick us off tonight. I would like to invite the eight newly elected city councilors to come stand out here in the semi-circle, and we will swear you all in together. Congratulations to each of you. If you would raise your right hand and repeat after me. Under the pains and penalties of perjury, I state your name. Do solemnly swear and affirm that I will faithfully execute the duties of the office of city councilor to the best of my judgment and ability according to law. Congratulations. Congratulations, councilors. The next item on the agenda is the state of the city address, and I am pleased to turn it over once again to Mayor Weinberger. Thank you again, Catherine. After two years of convening these reorganization meetings virtually, when we were living under both city and state emergency orders, I am so glad to welcome you all to City Hall to deliver the state of the city address in person. So welcome and congratulations again to our re-elected city councilors, and welcome to our newly elected city councilors, Jean Bergman, Ben Travers, and Ally House. I'm looking forward to working with each of you to make progress for all Burlingtonians. At a moment when we are seeing Ukraine fight tenaciously to preserve its democracy, I am conscious that we should recommit in Burlington to honoring our democratic values and traditions through vigorous, collaborative, and respectful debate. I want to welcome, for Mayor Peter Kovale, Mayor, thank you for your council and your mentorship and the friendship that you and Betsy have shown our family for through the years. And I am so thankful to have my parents, Michael and Ethel, up from Heartland again tonight and my wife Stacy here. My family, like everyone else, has been through a lot since the last time we gathered and it is deeply heartwarming to have you here. Thank you for your love, support, and real sacrifice for the city of Burlington. To say that we've all been through a great deal since the last time we gathered is really an understatement. During the last two years we have faced numerous colossal tests, the pandemic, months of massive unemployment, a violent insurrection, intense natural disasters, and now serious inflation and a major war in Europe. Burlington has much to be proud of and grateful for in terms of how we've come through this period. Collectively, we've battled the virus and kept each other safe as well as any community in this country. We got economic help to the most vulnerable individuals and businesses in this community and voided the mass closures that happened elsewhere. We did not step back from our climate work. We accelerated it. And as a result, Burlingtonians now have access to some of the best financial incentives anywhere in Vermont and some of the best frankly in the country to help us get off fossil fuels. These are all community accomplishments. They were only possible because of the strength, values, and commitment of the people of Burlington. And with each of these issues, city government played an essential role. And now I would like to invite our outstanding team of department directors who led these efforts to stand up so that we can all thank them for the service they have provided and the service of their teams. Before I move on, I just want to say this group really reinvented city government over the last two years to take on vast new public health responsibilities, while at the same time continuing to ensure there were no interruptions in the essential services that the city provides under very challenging conditions. And so I want to say again from the heart, thank you for your service and everything you've done for this community. I also want to welcome Dr. Steven Lefler, who the President and Chief Operating Officer of UVM Medical Center and a great partner to the city in many ways. Dr. Lefler, thank you for your service and for the service of your colleagues, the nurses, doctors, administrators, and others who so bravely and tirelessly care for this community throughout the pandemic. Thank you, Dr. Lefler. I also want to say a special thank you to our new planning director, Megan Tuttle, for her double service as the city's COVID-19 response leader for the last nine months. The council and the public should know that even with the virus currently posing a low community risk here in Chittenden County, Megan and a small team in the city continue to monitor the science and evolution of the virus very carefully. And we will provide you an update with near and long-term recommendations for pandemic preparedness by the end of May. The extraordinary demands of the past two years have left all of us weary and impatient for some sense of normalcy to return. And yet at the same time, this moment continues to demand a lot of us. A year ago, it was possible to hope vaccines and federal aid might allow our return to pre-pandemic times to happen quickly and easily. But today we know the last two years have set us back in many critical areas and that we're going to have to earn our way back to the general prosperity much of this community was experiencing before the pandemic. We're going to have to call on the same compassion, collaboration and innovation that we found in ourselves collectively to make it through the pandemic to forge a broad sustained community revival. I apologize for the audio issues. These are brand new mics and haven't quite mastered them. Our recovery efforts are well underway and will dominate our work together for the year ahead. I'm going to focus tonight on a number of key areas, economic recovery, children and families, racial equity and justice, infrastructure, housing, public safety and the climate emergency. The city's efforts to play a role in the economic recovery began almost simultaneously with the unprecedented force closures and work disruptions that began in March of 2020. In those early days, I formed a small team headed by our Church Street Marketplace Director, Kara Anasarawi, to communicate with, support and assist the business community. Instead of just being focused on Church Street, I asked Kara to take responsibility for supporting all of the city's businesses throughout the crisis. We launched our first municipal small business grant program just weeks into the pandemic in April of 2020 and since then this team has granted almost $600,000 to our small businesses with over 75% of those funds going directly to BIPOC owned establishments. The city team assisted countless businesses that were attempting to secure state and federal assistance, helped local businesses understand the huge volume of emerging state public health rules, opened city streets for outdoor seating, distributed, discounted and free ventilation equipment to Burlington businesses, invested federal emergency dollars into downtown activation initiatives and much more. Throughout this critical time, the city was better in touch with the entire business community, especially small BIPOC women owned enterprises and more responsive to their needs and challenges than perhaps ever before. And these efforts made a difference. A downtown business owner recently wrote Kara to say, I just want to thank you for the fabulous contributions you made to keep us afloat throughout the pandemic. Your commitment to small business owners and your creativity were what got us through. However, this work to protect our small businesses is far from over. In fact, for many businesses battling inflation and supply chain disruptions, the challenges may now be seriously deepening. To properly organize us for the work ahead, it is time to make permanent this key business support innovation that we made during the pandemic. The budget that I bring to you in June will formalize the small ad hoc economic recovery team we've had for the last two years into a new city department. And that new department, which we'll have in name by the time we submit the budget, will continue providing critical direct business support. For example, we will soon be seeking council approval to use ARPA funds to create a $500,000 revolving loan fund so that we can offer businesses financial assistance now and for years to come. This revolving loan fund will be focused on helping vulnerable locally owned small businesses, including startups, BIPOC and women owned companies, navigate supply chain disruptions and an unprecedented labor market. The new department will also play a critical role in another aspect of our recovery work, supporting Burlington's children after two years in which children around the globe have been hit hard by the disruptions of this pandemic. Understanding the key link between childcare and economic opportunity, the business support team took over the responsibility for Burlington's pioneering early learning initiative in the middle of the pandemic and has successfully expanded it. We've continued to make childcare capacity grants and helped fund the old North End Arts Center, which will soon be opening a new childcare center with 28 slots. And through the pandemic, our scholarship program for low income families increased 30% to 47 children. And over the next year, we plan to expand the program to 75. Our older kids also need help. It's amazing it is is that the school district was able to transform the old Macy's building into a downtown high school in a matter of months. Burlington students need and deserve a permanent 21st century high school. It is amazing, as amazing as it is that the school district was able to transform the old Macy's building into a downtown high school in a matter of months, Burlington students need and deserve a permanent 21st century high school. I'm grateful to have the leaders of this effort in the school district, Superintendent Tom Flanagan and School Board Chair Claire Wool with us here tonight. Thank you, Claire and Tom for the decisive actions that you've taken to keep our children safe and learning during this pandemic and thank you for your partnership on so many other fronts as well. The city and I will do everything we can to support you in the very challenging effort of building a new high school over the coming months. Thank you again for being here. In the coming year, the Racial Equity, Inclusion and Belonging Department will continue to make progress on racial equity and justice issues and build on the accomplishments of the last two years. Last summer, our REIB department put on the city's first annual Juneteenth celebration and it was an outstanding event. REIB also partnered with the Vermont Professionals of Color Network and the Vermont Health Equity Initiative to stand up BIPOC vaccination clinics, building a warm, welcoming space with music and food. And now the city is using ARPA dollars to help fund the Vermont Health Equity Initiative's expansion of its focus to address health disparities for BIPOC Vermonters beyond the impacts of COVID-19. Our anti-racism training for city employees led by REIB is underway and I've heard direct feedback from many employees that the workshops have had a transformative impact on the way they view race and racism. Despite the fact that we face a substantial budget shortfall this year that will require real cuts, I'm committed to maintaining our ongoing funding for REIB at fiscal year 2022 levels in the budget year ahead so that we can build upon the progress of the past two years. With these resources and a rebuilt team, we will continue to reshape the municipal government of Burlington as an anti-racist organization, invest and innovate to eliminate the racial disparities and home ownership rates and mount a sustained multi-partner effort to eradicate racial disparities across the social determinants of health. The REIB department does challenging work and making progress on racial equity is not always linear but I remain as committed to this work as ever. Public infrastructure investments continued through the pandemic and we will increase them as we emerge from it. We must continue to renew and enhance the streets, sidewalks, parks and public buildings that serve as the foundation for our community, our quality of life and our commerce. When I first ran for this office 10 years ago, one of my central promises was that we would get stuck and stalled public projects moving again. And I am proud that this summer, a decade later, toddlers will splash and run through our new City Hall Park fountain. Cyclists will be able to ride a rebuilt and improved bike path from the border of South Burlington all eight miles to the Winooski River Bridge. Passengers will board trains headed to New York City from our waterfront for the first time in decades. And after 30 years of fall starts, we will cut the ribbon on a completed first phase of the Moran frame project. And yet when I walk the streets of our downtown, I still see so much to do. And I am grateful that the voters acted decisively in March to provide approximately $50 million in bonding capacity for us to continue this important work. As has been the case every year since 2016, for the next three years, we will continue to build three times our historic average of sidewalks and twice the annual amount of roadways. On top of that, the 2023 rebuilding of Main Street will be both a key extension of our alternative transportation network and bring new investment and activity to more of our downtown. Not since the creation of the Church Street Marketplace 40 years ago has the city made such a transformational and impactful downtown investment. And I look forward to working on it with all of you. We also have a public-private partnership with the developer of Cityplace to deliver blocks of new downtown infrastructure as well as a new mixed-use neighborhood that creates hundreds of homes, hundreds of jobs, and many millions of dollars of new state and local revenues. The city has continued to do its part to make good on our commitments and create a clear path for the developer to move the project forward. And we continue to support the project in many ways. One way or another, we will see construction at that site soon. If the developer does not meet their committed timeline, we will again hold them accountable and invoke the construction contract they negotiated, which, if necessary, will compel them to build the new Pine Street and St. Paul Street at no cost to the taxpayers. Another area of recovery focus is housing. Before the pandemic can hit in 2020, Burlington was making significant progress addressing our long-standing housing crisis. We were building more than twice as much housing in Burlington as in the previous decade. Rent increases had slowed, our vacancy rate was slowly creeping up, and our housing first policies were getting formerly homeless people into permanently affordable housing. COVID-19 dramatically reversed these trends. And in some ways, the housing crisis today is more acute than ever. Housing production halted at the same time that more people than ever sought to live in this special place we call home. Burlington home prices and rents have skyrocketed and chronic homelessness is now up nearly 500% from its historic low just a few years ago. Here's the thing, we know our methods to address the housing crisis work, and now we have to double down on those proven strategies. Our overarching goal, our overarching housing goal is to build a lot more housing in Burlington because the only way to solve our housing problems to make good on the promise that housing should be a human right for all is to build a lot more homes. We have set and announced the goal of doubling Burlington's housing production once again. That would be 1,250 homes over the next five years, including more than 300 permanently affordable homes. And the city will work in multiple ways to support the achievement of those numbers. First, CEDO is spearheading direct collaboration with nonprofit and commercial developers to secure our share of increased federal aid and accelerate specific Burlington projects towards construction. Potentially even more impactful, however, is the work that we should get done at this table to create new housing opportunities city-wide by creating more supportive housing rules. Last December, I proposed three major rezoning efforts to create new housing opportunities across the city. And the city team is pursuing a work plan that would complete all of these major zoning efforts, each of which requires a great deal of detail and effort over the next 15 months. And I look forward to working closely with the planning commission and this council to make this ambitious schedule a reality. Solving our city housing problem is gonna take sustained action year after year from the city, but also from individuals and organizations outside of municipal government. And a shared current understanding of the problem as we progress is vital. So to that end, the city's BTVSTAT initiative, now led by the planning department, will launch a housing dashboard by the end of this month, which is April, of course, Federal Fair Housing Month. The dashboard will track key metrics related to housing creation, affordability, and the overall health of the housing market in the city. While increased housing production will dramatically reduce the number of people experiencing homelessness, solving the problem requires something more. It requires a core belief that we can and must end homelessness in a well-resourced multi-agent system that makes that happen. We have been building towards this system for years and have made progress, including achieving the functional end of veterans homelessness in the fall of 2020. Now, with new investments in a strengthened coordinated entry system and the new shelter podge village that is co-located with a community resource center on Elmwood Avenue, we are well positioned to join the small but growing number of cities and counties that has functionally ended chronic homelessness by the end of 2024. I am confident we can achieve this goal in part because we have found the right, highly qualified and committed person to oversee and lead this effort. I wanna introduce tonight and thank her, the city's new special assistant to end homelessness, Sarah Russell. Sarah, welcome to the team. I stand up. Yet another area where we must forge together a strong recovery over the next year is with our system of public safety. Here too, we are actively making new and transformational investments and strategic changes that give me confidence that we will put the setbacks and polarization of the past behind us and make Burlington safer for everyone over the years ahead. It's been a long standing priority of this administration to have a police department that practices 21st century policing principles to keep Burlington one of the country's safest communities and make the city welcoming to all. Like many communities in America over the past two years, we've experienced troubling criminal trends that have undone some of the public safety gains in the last decade. We've seen sharp increases in gunfire incidents and burglaries and last summer, there were simply too many disturbances that discouraged residents and visitors from coming to the marketplace and made downtown workers feel unsafe at night. I've directed Chief John Murad to concentrate on reversing these trends in the year ahead. We will see new deployment plans, continued focus from our excellent detective bureau, federal and prosecutorial partnerships to address gun violence and a multi-department effort to improve downtown safety. I also appreciate the commitment of our police officers. We ask a lot of them and it's not an easy job. It's our job as policy makers to provide police officers with the tools they need to succeed as a 21st century police department. I wanna highlight two key actions we'll be seeking from the council in the months ahead to deliver this assistance. First, the department faces heightened challenges and stresses in meeting our community goals when it's operating 25% below the authorized head count and 40% below the numbers we were at not long ago. Now that we have consensus about the needed number of officers, it is urgent that we rebuild the department as quickly as possible. To that end, Chief Murad and I will come to the council in the next month with a rebuilding plan to return the department to the staffing levels we need. This plan will include targeted financial incentives, investments and recruitment capacity and a revitalized effort to recruit from local communities that are not currently well represented in the department. Second, we must continue to build a community support liaison program that Chief Murad created with the council support last year. This three person team is working very well and it should be expanded further to give us greater CSL coverage throughout the week and during the evenings. I support the recent police commission resolution calling for the hiring of two more CSLs and we will fund these positions in my 2023 budget. We must also continue with efforts to ensure that proper systems are in place for department policy, oversight and accountability. I appreciate the efforts that are being made by counselors and commissioners to work with the administration to implement recommendations from the CNA report and look forward to collaborating on this process further in the year ahead. In addition, consistent with past council resolutions seeking to formalize, clarify and strengthen the role that the Burlington Police Commission has in policy development and officer discipline, the administration has proposed to the commission, the city's first ordinance detailing its role. It is my hope that finalizing and improving that ordinance is something we can do together early in the year ahead. In short, our work in this area is not gonna be easy but I'm convinced that if we work together and get this effort right, we can lay the foundation to rebuild a police department that includes new types of professionals and partnerships, looks like this community and is better resourced and positioned than ever to keep all community members safe. Finally, I wanna focus on an area where despite the pandemic, we have continued to make steady progress. In 2020, we announced a set of green stimulus incentives. That have helped increase the uptake of Burlington Electric Department's heat pump rebates by more than 14 times and more than doubled the adoption of electric vehicles in Burlington. Following the voter support for the net zero energy revenue bond, we started 2022 by announcing expanded incentives, including larger rebates for electric vehicles, plug-in hybrids and home charging stations. Combined with state and federal rebates and incentives, there is more financial support today for Burlingtonians to switch to electric vehicles than ever before. Talking about individual issues doesn't really quite capture the transformation though that's happening at BED. We are changing the entire approach and business model of our more than 100 year old municipal electric utility. The same team at BED, which you have trusted for years to help you with energy efficiency is now ready to help you get off fossil fuels with rebates, technical assistance, financing support and partnerships with local energy businesses. BED is no longer just your reliable power provider that keeps the lights on, but can now be your fuel provider for transportation and heating needs, competing for market share against well-entrenched incumbent oil companies. Here's the thing though about the net zero energy goal. Local government action will only get us part of the way there for us to truly become a net zero energy city. The media, educators, businesses and ultimately all the residents of Burlington need to understand the environmental, financial, health and other benefits of electrification. And we need everyone to act on that understanding every time you replace a water heater or a shopping for your next car. While plastic bag and drinking straw bands are eliminating air travel, may generate headlines and public policy debates, electrification is the strategy that can realistically get a 70% of the way towards the climate goals we need to achieve over the next decade to avoid the worst consequences of the climate emergency. And electrification is the centerpiece of our net zero energy roadmap here in Burlington. The last point on this, President Putin has given Burlingtonians yet another reason to move away from gas and oil through their horrific invasion of Ukraine. Right now, when Vermonters buy gasoline, we are paying more than $4 a gallon and most of our money goes to a global commodity marketplace that ultimately supports regimes that do not share our values. But when we drive 100% renewable BED powered electric, you pay the equivalent of 65 cents a gallon and we keep more of our money right here in the local Vermont economy. So Burlingtonians, the cars and heating systems are now available at competitive costs for us to send our energy dollars to BED instead of Putin and to create jobs in Burlington and Winoosky instead of Russia and Saudi Arabia. Let's get this done. I want to close tonight with a final thought about the people of Ukraine. Well, as we've discussed tonight, we face real struggles and pressures in the year ahead. We are not living under the constant threat of bombardment that the Ukrainian people are at this moment or experiencing the fear, uncertainty and unimaginable disruption that the millions of women and children who have fled the country are enduring every day. Over the last month, many Burlingtonians have come up to me and asked what we can do to help. My sense is that the best way for Burlington to help would be to repeat what we have done for thousands of refugees from Vietnam, Bosnia, Bhutan, Somalia and other war-torn countries from around the world over the past 40 years. Work in partnership with the federal government and aid agencies to serve as a refugee resettlement community. So I want to make clear again tonight that despite our many current challenges, Burlington stands ready to aid Ukrainians fleeing the war when we are called upon. We'll be ready because we are doing the work necessary to build a city where everyone is safe, where there is economic opportunity and support for all and where everyone belongs. We'll be ready because despite the incredible challenges of the past two years, the state of our city remains strong and it is getting stronger every day as we work to recover from the pandemic setbacks. Thank you all again for being here on this important night for Burlington. On the agenda is public comment and I believe we have one person who may be signed up for public forum. Todd LaCroix, you just want to give us a quick, you do have two minutes and they will begin in just a moment when Chief of Staff Rodel has set up the public forum table. Thank you for being with us tonight. You do have two minutes and the clerk will start the timer in just a moment and just a reminder to be respectful. I do my best. Excellent, go for it. Has anybody here heard of a spiritual round? It's a song and anybody who wants to join in, which I doubt anybody will in this place, please do. Here there's a thing going round that's called genocide. I hear there's suicide in the streets all around. I hear your creed, nuclear, Sting said, love your children but you don't love your children is apparent. You don't love your children is so apparent. You sold their future for your gold and your glitter. You sold your children's future for your gold and your glitter. I don't think there are any other people signed up for public forum so we will go ahead and close public comment and move on to the next item, which is the election of the City Council President. The floor is open. Are there any nominations? Yes, Councillor Carpenter. Thank you. I too have to get used to this new microphone system. I would be most pleased to nominate Councillor Karen Paul to serve as our Council President. We all know Karen and how much she has given to us and I'm excited about this possibility. Karen and I have had the great opportunity and joy to grow up in Burlington and I realize that just before I yap away, I'm supposed to get a second, is that not the case? I'm new to this business so I will hope that someone will second and I'll take the floor back. Thank you, Councillor Hightower. The floor is back. Thank you. I'm sorry. I'm not used to this process but still pleased to do it. Karen and I, as I said, have had the great opportunity to grow up in Burlington, although we did not really know each other until very recently. We have the circumstance of having both of our fathers serve on the Board of Aldermen from the same ward that Karen serves now. So I just think that's a lovely Burlington coincidence. But we had different paths and it wasn't really until I retired and thought, oh, I'm just going to do a little something for the City of Burlington. But I had no idea what I was doing until I met Karen and Karen has been doing a little something in a very big way for the City of Burlington for the last 15 years. And it's been Karen who's helped many of us focus on how to be a good Councillor and has supported us when, again, maybe we didn't know exactly what we were doing. One of the roles I've observed is she's provided tremendous support to new Councillors and I think we'll continue to do that as she serves as Council President. I know she will do that. And I think Karen's the one that can help us bridge some of our gaps, some of our divides. We're not all going to agree on the same positions, but I think we can go at it in a trusted way. And Karen is really one of the fairest and most ethical persons I know and I know she will bring that to her role in the City Council. So thank you, Karen, for agreeing to take this on and thank you to all my colleagues for your support of her nomination. I never want to cut off applause. Is there any further comments before we take a vote? Any other nominations? Any other nominations? All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? The motion carries unanimously. Congratulations and I didn't even get to use it. Justin Case. Thank you. Thank you so, so much to all of you. Thank you, Councillor Carpenter, for your kind words and nominating me. I'm grateful to my council colleagues. Please accept. And for those of you who know me so well, please accept my heartfelt thanks for your support and your vote of trust in me this evening. Thank you to all who engaged in a collaborative approach over the past few weeks so that we can all feel confident in the direction that we're taking this evening. Over the next year, the level of debate will be enriched by each of your unique voices. I'm excited for the year that lies ahead and I look forward to the new relationships that I will develop with each of you. I'm hopeful that we can once again gather in person all year this coming year as we did for many prior to the spring of 2020. And I have no doubt that we can develop the rapport that is so important to our work. And that rapport will be made so much more easy when we have the chance to sit around a real table on Monday evenings instead of the virtual one that we have spent most of the last two years. I have a few thoughts, you know, I always have a few thoughts. I have a few thoughts that I'd like to share with all of you and with our community. And my message is one that I hope will carry us through the next year as we strive to move our city forward and grapple with the challenging issues of our day. We, each of us and all of us as a body are absolutely at our very best when there is mutual respect. When we can rise above the rhetoric and the heat of a debate and not allow the moment to blur our most basic instincts as caring and compassionate human beings. And we all are caring and compassionate human beings. When we do our very best to treat one another as we hope to be treated and heard, we can disagree and we all know that we will disagree. We can be respectful at the same time. We can make our points and be fair-minded. We can set an example to our constituents and greater community of civility and modeling good governance. It is up to us, all 12 of us, to temper the influence that we have by virtue of our roles and our position, our elected position with an innate responsibility to engage with those we disagree and agree to keep an open mind and a sincere heart, devote knowing how far reaching many of our actions are and to remember that this office that we serve in is much greater than ourselves and that this body will live on long after we leave this table. I will do my very best to value each of your voices and the perspective that you all bring to this work. I will do my best to exhibit fairness, transparency, and to always be responsive to each of you. Tonight is a night for celebration. Beginning next week or one week from this evening, we will come together to begin a year of the city's business. I am looking forward to a productive year as I know all of you are, one where we can honor and learn from our past, embrace and affect just and responsive change and continue to improve our beloved city for the present. This I know we can do because we will do it for our community and we will do it together. Thank you so much for listening. Thank you very, very much for your votes this evening. I am so glad that we are sharing this moment together. Thank you. So, the next order of business on our agenda this evening is the election of three city counselors to the Board of Finance. And are there, is there a nomination? Counselor Bergman. Thank you. And I don't know whether it would be appropriate, Madam President, to offer a slate or would you like them done individually? I can offer a slate if you would. That would be fine, Councillor. The slate would be Councillor Jang, Councillor Hightower and Councillor McGee. So motion is made by Councillor Bergman to elect Councillor Jang, Councillor Hightower and Councillor McGee to the Board of Finance for the next year. Are there any other nominations for the Board of Finance? Hearing none, I will close nominations. Is there any Councillor who wishes to speak to the motion before us? Seeing none, we can go to a vote. All those in favor of the motion, please say aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed, please say no. It's always wonderful to start out the year like this. The motion passes unanimously. Congratulations to our colleagues, Councillors, Hightower, Councillor Jang and Councillor McGee to your election to the Board of Finance. Seeing no further business on our agenda, I would welcome a motion to adjourn. So moved. Seconded. Motion to adjourn made by Councillor Bergman and seconded by Councillor Freeman. All those in favor of adjourning, please say aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed, please say no. The motion passes unanimously and we are officially adjourned at just a couple of minutes before 8 p.m. I wish you all a wonderful evening and thank you so much for joining us. Good night.