 I'll call to order now the Winooski City Council meeting. Please join us first in the Pledge of Allegiance led by Deputy Mayor Hal Colston. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. You're welcome. First up is agenda review. Any concerns about the order of this evening's agenda? Great. Then we will move to public comment. This is a chance for any members of the public to speak if there is something not already in the agenda that they wish to address. If you are here for an item that is included in tonight's agenda, please wait for us to reach that part of the meeting. Is there any public comments in council chambers? Anyone in the online attendees, you can use the raise hand feature in Zoom or just chat, follow our communications coordinator. Seeing no public comment, we'll move to our consent agenda. We have our city council minutes from our last Monday's meeting, December 6th, and the accounts payable warrant of December 13th. Are there any questions or concerns about the consent agenda? Would anyone like to make a motion to approve the consent agenda? Second. Motion by Bryn, second by Hal. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Motion carries. Thank you. So we are on to council reports. Bryn, can you start? Sure. I just have a quick update. The Municipal Infrastructure Committee is meeting on Wednesday at 6.30. And we have a short agenda, but I imagine we'll be taking up a good chunk of the meeting time discussing the master plan goal relating to energy efficiency goals for the city. So if there's any interest or comments from the other councillors that I can bring to that meeting, feel free to email me in advance. Of course, always welcome any members of the public that would like to attend that commission as well. Jim. Thank you. I have nothing to report this time around. Thanks, Mike. Good evening, everybody. And as I have nothing to report tonight. Thanks, Hal. I had no report at this time. Thank you. I will just report that. On Friday, I joined Mayor Weinberger from Burlington with the Chittenden County, Chittenden County Senators. And Winooski and Burlington state representatives to share some of our shared priorities as they move into the legislative session reconvening in January. Our superintendent and finance director from the school district during that meeting as well and presented on the people waiting factors, which we discussed at our last meeting that would impact the education funding coming to Winooski. So just an update if you weren't able to attend. And that is all for me. So we can move to city updates. And Wendy. Yes, mayor and council, I do have a couple of updates. I wanted to let you know the winter school bus is running as we let you know about last week and the kids are crossing Winooski Falls way because they're switching from one public bus to another public bus. The police department is assisting when they're available. They might not be there if they get another call but luckily it's early in the morning so they're normally able to be there. A couple of just follow ups on the mask mandate. I wanted to let you know what we've heard from the public since that the area towns and cities adopted very different mandates. So we are getting a lot of questions from the public. Folks are not generally upset. I've spoken with a person representing a bank, a church and two restaurants checked with the clerk's office and folks are asking for questions but not upset. I think it's good that we don't have an enforcement component and that what we are looking for is consistency and compliance. And when we explain that vaccination doesn't help prevent the spread of the disease, people understand why we don't have a vaccination component. We did implement the outreach plan for mask distributions. We did that Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. Supply signage printed and translated information which was really helpful for folks and also mask kits to the locations that we discussed. And we put masks in every food kit at the weekly food shelf pickup and that turns out to be what we expected which is a very effective way to reach people. So we are going to continue certainly to have masks at all city locations whenever we're open and also continue the outreach. And just a heads up holiday schedule because this is the last meeting before January. Your next meeting will be January 3rd. So Thursday December 23rd City Hall will be open 7.30 am to 11.30 am Friday December 24th will be closed and then Thursday the 30th will be a half day again 7.30 to 11.30. And that will of course be on our website and all the other places where we post things. And just to let you know, our new town clerk is sitting here beside me, Jenny Willingham. Hi. So we can do a virtual wave. And that is my report for tonight. Welcome Jenny. Hope to meet you in real life soon. Thank you. Looking forward to it. Exciting opportunity. All right. Thank you for city updates. So we are on to our regular items and up first is item a this is on for approval. It is a restaurant license for cell rooms cafe at 10 Manso street. I think we might have somebody here for that. Mariana. Oh sure if you could just speak up a little bit louder please. We're opening a cafe in Manuski surrounds cafe. It's woman owned and run. Offering V me sandwiches, coffees appetizers prepared food and other sweet treats. At Park terrace. That's awesome. And when do you all expect to open and begin service hopefully. So we're still finishing our construction and hopefully by New Year's or the end of January, we're planning to open. That's our plan. Great. We know. There's no always stay right on schedule. So, are there any questions from council. Any questions or concerns from members of the public. And again, you can use the raise hand feature and zoom or raise your hand in council chambers and like Councilor Colston. All right, hearing no concerns. Would someone like to approve the restaurant license for serums cafe. Motion by Jim second by Bryn all those in favor please say aye. Motion carries. Thank you, Mariana. Thank you. Right. So item B this is on for discussion. This is a presentation from when you ski gardening group. Long time resident volunteer group that helps us some city beautification. Wendy, do you want to introduce. Yes, Madam Mayor Susan O'Brien should be here. I don't see her. Oh, I'm sorry. Paul's moving her into the zoom call right now. Great. And two of her partners are here. At City Hall. And they have come to introduce themselves. I'm sure you all know. Most of them. They want to introduce themselves and the group and let you know some ideas that they have. So I will let them explain and describe what they have been doing. And then staff did have some preliminary responses. But some of those would be amended depending on on what the specific requests are. We just tried to anticipate as much as we could how the requests would fit into the current budget discussion. So I'll hand it over to Sue. Thank you, Wendy. Thank you all for inviting us and allowing us to come to present tonight. We really appreciate it. And I appreciate Prudence and Judy being in person and as I told Christine I have a cold so I thought it best to stay home for everyone's sake including my own. So 25 years ago, my family and I, we were driving into Brattleboro and we noticed some formal plantings in the median. And thought it was best that we try to bring such a thing to Winooski and I put an add out in what we had our old Winooski Eagle newspaper and got quite a few volunteers that were interested, including Janet Farrell who she and I co coordinated the group for the for over 20 years and she since moved to Maine, but her her help was so invaluable and we thank her for everything she did and what she stands for. So we presented our idea to City Hall to the acting city manager at that time. Jim Treypass who was the acting city planner to be our coordinator and who was an avid and amazing gardener and organizer. We are so indebted to his help. I've got a cat up here so we presented to them and they were very enthusiastic about our starting this volunteer group that we called Operation Bloom and we solicit our own donations since then in the spring and the city assists us in maintaining an account for us and we submit our receipts and get reimbursement. The Department of Public Works provides us with help with mulching and help with watering when they're able to which is so vital and so important, and they also mulch, as I said, which is so important for moisture retention, and for soil regulation and such so we are indebted to their help. So at this point I'm going to pass it on to Prudence who will then Judy will follow up. Thank you. Thanks, Sue. I'm Prudence Doherty, one of the Winooski gardeners and I'm just going to focus a little bit on our current accomplishments. Over 25 years we've had a lot of different projects and grown plants in different places but I'm just going to focus on what we're doing now. So our gardens on public property right now pretty much start on the east side of town as you come in, so Route 15 we've got that corridor covered in the center of the street and then we move into downtown where we work with collaborators as well to fill as many of the little spots that have dirt as we can. So we have plants in the median in front of the Winooski block. There's a space next to archives with hydrangea bushes, median spots, the City Hall Cottage Garden I think we're calling it now, and there are some beds near the bridge as you come across the bridge. Then we move up out of downtown toward Landry Park and we've revitalized a couple of old beds that are next to the parking lot, so not on the pool side but on the parking lot side. My husband came home one day and said what are you growing in that garden bed and I was like weeds, so that prompted us to revitalize and this year it was just phenomenal how well that spot did. We also have a little bit of plantings at the, I guess it must be the north end of town by the Winooski Educational Center welcome sign. And then this year especially Sue has had some time so she's worked on some other small projects, sort of miscellaneous projects with particularly the Winooski Falls area which is sort of a tangled mess or can be a tangled mess but we're trying to tame it a little bit. And a number of us helped with weeding the pool plantings. We have a pretty active outreach program going on right now with Facebook where we've got a little place on the city website and we're using front porch forum more than we had in the past to let people know what we're up to. And I think the one of the biggest accomplishments is that we bring people together. So there's the gardeners who work together, there's the collaborators who are often businesses, there's city hall folks who talk to us about how we can do a good job. And then there's all the people who pass by whether they're in their cars, on foot, on bicycles. And I think for me one of the most rewarding things is when people suddenly realize that I'm involved in those flowers and they say, oh I check those out every morning when I drive to work. And this is a really touching little anecdote. When I was cutting the marigolds down near the bridge was really cold and windy and the traffic was loud and two men stopped and started talking to me. And I figured out what they were asking for was if I would share the seeds, the seed pods from the marigolds. And they said they were going to take them home to Jamaica, not Jamaica, Vermont. And did I think that the plants would thrive in Jamaica? It was just like the most, you know, if there's a rewarding story about connecting people, that's it. I did want to offer quickly two response to the staff comments which we only saw this morning. I saw that it was, this work is categorized as contributing to economic vitality. And I think that's true. Sure, you know, it makes it more attractive for people who might come and spend their money in Winooski. But I think we're motivated by a higher goal of community well-being. And I think you could almost have both of those things in that box. And then on the work plan part, which, you know, I don't want to discuss in detail, but I think it is important to recognize who's responsible for what and when and where. Is this the city's job? Is it the gardener's job? Just to be clear on who's doing what. And now I'll turn it over to Judy. Thank you very much. I'm Judy Lance and I've lived in Winooski for more than 30 years. I haven't been involved in the gardening group since it was started, but I have been for a long time. Thank you for allowing us to meet with you tonight. We appreciate it very much. I'll try to be concise. A couple of something that Prudence didn't mention that I think is important that we do every year in the spring and May. We have what we call our plant share. It's at Richards Park and we try to publicize it pretty well. People can take plants that they've started from seed or plants that they've dug up from their gardens and take them there. We take a lot of stuff. Now a lot of people are bringing their own things too. And anybody can come and take whatever plants that they want for their own gardens. And it's amazing the vast differences in people who come. It's a really good example of the diversity that we have in Winooski. People who show up at this plant share. It's just a lot of fun. It's just a couple hours on Saturday morning and we share information as well as plants. It's a very valuable experience I think for everybody. It certainly is for me. So I just wanted to mention that. And another thing as far as the gardens that we maintain on Route 15 is you go up Main Street and Mount Mouse Bay Avenue and also now up at Landry Park parking. Especially because of the pool there are so many more people there on a daily basis this summer. We know that there are more than 25,000 vehicles that pass through Winooski every day. And all those people see these gardens. And it's amazing when we're working out there. People will honk and in front of the Winooski block Lance McKee has been very helpful. And he'll come out and say, oh, you're doing a great job. Come on over afterwards. And if we need a bucket of water to water the plants that we're just putting in, he'll take the buckets over. We can take them over and he'll fill them up just very helpful. And that's rewarding for us so we know that people are happy with what we're doing. And it's meaningful. It's kind of a pride of place, pride of our city. And I think about, you know, it is the broken window syndrome or something. You see one broken window and people think, oh, it's okay to leave broken windows. But on the other side, when you fix something up, people see it and they say, oh, that looks really nice. We could probably do something like that. So we're hoping people take inspiration from what we do. So my role tonight was to explain about the asks that we had. And we got this morning, as Prudence mentioned, a copy of the staff report to you folks. And it looks like we're going to be able to get our three yards of compost, which we really want to help amend the soil. So thank you for that. The other things we're not recommended to you, which is disappointing to us, but what can we do? We can ask again, I guess. I would like to point out that as far as one thing we asked for was for the city to consider either employing or contracting with a gardener for maybe eight to 10 hours a week during the growing season this year. And the intent of that was not to reduce the work that we've been doing in any of these gardens and not to expand any of the city's gardens. It was to rehab and maintain some of the gardens that the city already has. For instance, in the roundabout, there are big gardens with various kinds of flowering perennials. And there are shrubs in there and there are grasses. And there's a lot of deferred maintenance that's been ongoing for quite a while in there. That's too much. We can't take that over. It's just too much work. And it seems to us that the city had made the investment in that. And if you don't maintain it, it seems to us like it's not a wise investment if you're not going to maintain it. And there are other places like Winooski Falls Park. There are some old gardens down there that I'm sure at one time were beautiful gardens and they are completely overgrown. Two and another volunteer worked down there some trying to get them rehab started, but it's a big job. So those are the kind of things. Then there was something else. I think Prunes mentioned the plantings at the pool in front of the new pool house. Apparently, those were all put in just this year. And rumor has it that the pool staff was supposed to maintain those gardens, which doesn't seem very practical to me. And it wasn't done. And Prudence and Sue noticed that and they took it upon themselves to go work on those. Those are city gardens, not Winooski Garden and Group Gardens. So doing a garden, installing a garden, building a garden, whatever you call it, it should be looked at as an investment. And just like you wouldn't do something at your house, spend $3,000 putting some landscaping in and then just not water it or anything. The city shouldn't do that either. That's my opinion. So that was the intent of the request to have the city contract with or hire someone for the growing season. Then the other item was a request for $1,500 to augment what we have available from donations, monetary donations and donations of plants for the gardens that we maintain. And one thought we had, there are places where new shrubs would be a benefit. And shrubs can be pretty expensive. So that was one thing we wanted to use some of that money for. The other thing is that right now we plant, we put plants in, we plant perennials and perennials and they're there for the season. When those are gone, they're gone. But there's an opportunity to have almost a second season later in the summer and into the fall, you know how people put mums out and this and that and the other thing that are fall asters. It would be an opportunity to extend the whole growing season kind of for people to enjoy and that would mean more money. So that was part of the reason we wanted to ask for some, some augmentation of money for our plantings. So I think that's about it. We certainly understand as being runuski residents, we know there are big demands for city revenues, for infrastructure, for health and safety issues and that the budget and many other things I'm sure are challenges that you all are dealing with. We understand that those are there. We don't understand them all, but we understand they're there. And we appreciate your listening to our explanation of why we asked for some more money and hope that it might be considered beyond what the staff report is. Maybe you can find a little money somewhere, maybe not, but whatever. We appreciate whatever you can do. And another question that I have just came to me this afternoon, the debt for the TIF district is going to be paid off soon. Is that right? Yeah, so 2024. And starting right around town meeting day is when we want to start doing public outreach to get community input, helping us plan for that money before, you know, before it actually gets received. Okay, so are there any restrictions on what the city will be able to use that money for once the debt is paid off? Um, so correct me if I'm wrong, staff, but it is, it would become general fund money. So it could be used, you know, the way any other tax revenues. Okay, and I do think, you know, the goal of that money is to create some sustainability. And so having this information right now from you all can help inform that future discussion. Okay, okay, I get it. I just wasn't sure if that money had to be used within the TIF district to some extent. And no, okay, okay. So I think that's all I have to say. Well, so first off, thank you all for coming in tonight and obviously for this ongoing effort that you've been doing in our community. I love saying the flowers. I did do work on that when you see Falls garden with y'all a summer ago and it was a lot of work. And I think there. I think having the details, you know, you were just speaking to like, here are these gardens that could use rehab here is where maybe more shrubs could be used. I think having those details for staff to consider maybe for next year would be handy to your point about like investing in a thing and then not being able to maintain it. I think that's something that I would want us to think about more as well before just saying like, let's add more like it'd be I would like us to have a little more time to think about like what is really manageable. And that if you like have that kind of outlined already, you could pass that along I think that would be useful. I also am wondering if we could be doing like helping solicit more volunteers. I don't know if this is like a something that we do. It's like opportunity comes up when like folks reach out to us for volunteers. But I'm wondering if that's like a temporary solution as far as like increased support for gardening. So something for, yeah, go ahead. About volunteers, we do, you know, Sue is always putting something out there about, gee, we can use more volunteers. We're having a work session where we're going to plant, plant flowers in such a place on a certain day at a certain time if you can just come for half an hour. And we'll get people occasionally who come from one or two times that sometimes people will come back a couple times during the season, but it's a hard sell seems to be a hard sell. And sure, if the city wants to help us, I'd recruit people, I'd say, great, let's do that. We don't, we're a bunch of worker bees. We don't spend a lot of time trying to administer our program, you know, we get out there and work. And I even thought myself today, gee, you know, maybe the city could have a, I don't know, a special gardening advisory committee or something, although we don't want to be told what to do necessarily. So sure, we welcome help recruiting people. Yeah, I think that could be like an interim step here. Like, I generally would agree with staff recommendation. I am not looking to add staff to our budget beyond what's already there. And I am thinking more of that. You know, long term planning needs to take place. Are there other questions from council before it? When do you see your hand? Yes, but I didn't mean to interrupt. I can speak after council. Oh, Mike, do you want to go? Sure. Well, thank you guys for all the work you put in. As someone that works with their hands, I know gardening and landscape work is very hard work. And I surely appreciate all the volunteers and everyone that does make our city more beautiful. I have a couple of suggestions and I don't know if this is something that we can think about. I can reach out to the Myers pool foundation to kind of help out maybe around the pool area. And maybe we can get a donation done by replacing or maintaining those flower beds. Yeah, I can't speak for them. I can only do the ask. And I was also also wondering if there is any possibility that the local option tax money, if we could set aside a little bit of that, perhaps to help these folks out. I'm considering that, you know, a lot of people visit our city and I don't know all that money is accounted for. And if there's a small percentage that maybe we can help these folks out. And the other question I have for the city and my fellow counselors is perhaps downtown district could help out as well. I know those folks do a lot for our city down there. But perhaps maybe we could take some stress off these volunteers and ask the businesses to water the plants that we plowed for just to maintain them to keep them going. Or maybe, you know, they just hadn't asked themselves for some money for their budget. Maybe they can kick some into keeping the downtown part up and running. Mike, would you like to bring that question to the next downtown when you see meeting. I surely can if you would like, and we can find out. Yeah, and you could invite. So Judy Prudence, if any of you wanted to attend that as well and talk to them. Bren I see your hand. Yeah, thanks. Definitely echoing the mayor and council buyers. I think that it's very noticeable all the hard work that the group does and and it really does add a lot, a lot to the city so can't thank you enough for that. I, I'm happy to also help with recruiting additional volunteers. I'm curious about the ability to get some approved volunteer hours from city market. Often that tends to drive some volunteers. And that that might be dedicated to the group and have some longevity because it sounds like that's an item of aspect that you're interested in as well. I'm also curious with counselor Myers is his question about the local options tax. I know that we just approved a percentage. Rather than a flat fee. So I don't know that it's in our existing agreement with downtown when you ski but perhaps something that could be added to the the upcoming revisions for that agreement. Given that it really it really I do believe that it has a community connection component to it as well as overlap with economic vitality. And then I, I wasn't sure. And maybe council ducking can speak to it as well of whether or not there's an area of discussion or consideration with the tree commission. And if there's any support that that could be provided. I notice a work plan in here. And if the tree commission could do anything to offer that it might might be scope creep so I'm not volunteering the tree commission at all but just something to share along those lines so I and then additional details that the mayor was asking for. It sounds like you have an account with the city and I just be curious like, how does the, how, how are you with, you know, raising, raising donations here and just kind of managing that just so we have an I like a basis for comparison is all but I think it's great discussion and again I can't thank you all enough so look forward to continuing the conversation. Thank you. Go ahead. Thanks. I, like, I echo what has been said, and I've been appreciative and told to view I think how much I appreciate the work the gardening group is done on the question that you raised counselor relief about the tree commission. One of our most active members so I think that overlap and also was previously one of our very active members so we've been connected and I think the gardening group has been able to do a lot on their own with the work that they do and there is a connection and that they're both plants but the kind of the maintenance and longevity and planning that goes into those two groups I think are a little bit different. So where there's been overlap in the gardening group in the past I think it's been convenient, not convenience but that's the right way to say it. It's been good but it's definitely different skill sets and different considerations when it comes down to maintaining annual and friendly garden beds versus planting and caring for trees so I think it's got to be rolled in together as part of our green infrastructure and thinking about how we are creating green space in this city, trees and gardens are both parts of that. So I'm glad to see that the city is going to be able to bring the compost in for the median improvement that's good to know that we can do that this time around. And I, I see the budget request for purchasing perennials, especially perennials and shrubs which do have a longer lifespan is not very high. And I think that that's something I hope we could consider so yeah. Councillor Myers if you go to downtown when you see and raise that issue I think that would be a good place for that but you know I think we've got to be also realistic that local options taxes, putting some of that towards something else is an increase in the property tax to maintain everything else so I think doing some planning over the next year to see how this fits into next year's budget and see if there's anything we can do on materials purchased this year with what we've already got and out would be the best. I made it like I see your hand again. Yes. Um, you know what, I think, I think we need to scrape by for the next couple years because this is the perfect opportunity or example of what this tip money. This could be a good program for for us to use some of this tip money when we get it back into our general budget. These are the kind of things I think our residents are looking for for us to start planning the tip money back into the budget. And I'm hoping that this conversation or if this this record of us talking about this isn't forgotten about and was it two years when the tip ends. Because this could be a good example of the so called payoff for the people that have been here when they voted on the tip 20 plus years ago. So I'm hoping that someone city saffers, the mayor remembers this, because I think it could be a good example of how we can invest back in our community exact I do believe that the gardens and trees. It's calming. It makes our city look nicer. And it just puts everyone in a better mood when you have, you know, and full bloom. I mean we go through a long winter of looking at bareness. And then once spring and fall hit we have a lot of prettiness going on this way. Mayor, yes, for a comment. I agree with everything that's been said about supporting this effort. And I hope there's opportunity to really attract more volunteers. I think that would be good in a practical sense but also I think important for supporting the overall effort so that we can be creative and and find other resources to help it grow. Thank you. Thanks how. Yeah and sorry when the camera isn't on you I can't see you so feel free to just jump in. Thank you. Wendy, did you have something to share still. Just a couple of things. I completely agree that there are multiple ways that this program that a beautiful beautification program benefits this city it's much more than economic fatality it's always it's also community pride. It's just a general wellness as as folks have said. I do want to just let you know this year staff is particularly stressed I mean they have been especially the public work staff the last couple of years, they've been under staff so this year is a particularly tough year and we don't really see an end to that just because it's a shortage of workers and what other communities are doing and including Bratabar which is nice to hear that that was the original inspiration, especially with baskets with hanging baskets is they're using volunteers and the volunteers are supported somewhat financially I'm not sure of the exact arrangement but their downtown organization does play a big part in having those those flower baskets and flower pots they have very large barrels of flowers. And I know at least two other communities who do it that way too. And I think in the future when you're looking at expanding services it's important to look at things that can be done by volunteers and things that need to be done by staff because if it's inside of a building or say a park. It needs to be done by staff but annuals and flowers can be done by others and which also is a nice opportunity for volunteering and we can follow up on. I'm not sure the programs that city at the co op I believe was what Britain was referencing we can certainly follow up on that. But it's a great program and I don't want you to think that staff doesn't completely appreciate it and it's this conversation is going to be helpful for future planning also. Mike. I got one more comment. You know the other thing too is I don't know if they still do this in high school. I haven't had a high school or in a quite a few years right now. But I do know that they have to have volunteer hours in order to graduate. So that this might be an area to tap into to to get some young backs into this work and get some kids some practical experience and gardening. That may be an area that you want to tap into to in the beginning of the season because you know I know my back isn't the way it used to be and if you get a nice 16 or 17 year old to do some of the heavy lifting. It gives them an experience so when they're later on in life. They'll have this experience as well. Thanks Mike. Is there any public comment or questions. Again in Zoom you can use chat or the raise hand feature. I have comment. Go for it. Yeah. A lot of these ideas are great. So I think this discussion here tonight has been helpful to us from that standpoint. I think maybe high schoolers at the plant share that we do getting ready for that and hosting it. That could be a great opportunity because it would kind of be a one time thing in a safe place that these youngsters could help with. I'm not sure about the plantings because a lot of the plantings we do are by this like in the median in front of the new ski block up at exit 15. There's a lot of traffic going by and we're always worried about ourselves and we're very careful but I'm not sure with a bunch of youngsters just how safe it would be. But we could there may be other places we could find you know they could help so it's great idea because some great ideas so thank you for your thoughtfulness. Right. Thank you all for tonight. And thank you I think we've helped to plan a seed and have it hopefully you know continue for years to come and we really appreciate all your kind words and thoughts and ideas. Thank you. Yes, and this is a topic that we will be visiting again. And then staff will have make sure staff is in touch with you about the mulch. And then we'll follow up about like volunteer recruitment and that sort of thing. Mike did you have just one more thing I'm sorry. So once you reach out to me and before spring and what I'll do is I will plant a seed. And then obviously to the Myers pool foundation to try to get something going for you guys for that because I think that would be a good area where we could help the city and the pool to keep it nice and pretty. That sounds great Mike thank you. All right. Thank you again. Appreciate your time and we'll be in touch. So we will move on to. Thanks. And now to item C and this is the FY 23 community services budget presentation which Ray will be leading. Right. And Paul is going to be my, my slide, advanced sir. So, I'm going to have some pull up presentation. And hopefully for cool work smoothly. So good evening really happy to be here tonight. As always putting this together as a, as you know labor love, I think all of us as department has worked super hard to get these budgets pulled together but I know for me personally it's, it's a great opportunity to be able to reflect on what we've done where we're going and I think, you know, we really view our budget as a pretty significant policy document that's kind of guiding our future direction and the pieces that we're trying to prioritize so very happy to be here tonight. I'm going to go to the next slide. I always every year if you've seen me do this before apologies for the redundancy but I like to take this first slide as an opportunity to butter up my staff. You're going to hear a lot of things tonight none of this work happens without the people that are on the ground every day working hard on behalf of residents here in the city. That's lifeguards that's thrive staff that's barb at the senior center that's, you know, Claudine who's, who's moved into a new role as a thrive director, all the folks in the rec department so it's just a really fabulous team. And, you know, as folks probably know we've had a lot of turnover in the last year but have some really excellent energy on board, moving forward and are really excited about the direction of things in the last year or so. Looking forward to all these great humans on the screen here, being part of the mix in the next 12 months. All right, next slide. So a couple highlights. Again just like to kind of give you a sense of what you're buying here or what you bought I guess in the past with with previous year budgets. So after the initial shutdown thrive was one of the first programs back out of the gate has has continued to run really strong and have really strong enrollment numbers actually throughout, which is great. And we've had knocking all the good very excellent health outcomes in that program as well thanks to the hard work of staff and the kids quite frankly who are working really hard up there to keep each other safe. And it continues to be a hub for food security support. The more than a meal program grew tremendously. We're up to about 100 folks a week that we're giving meals out to and then the meals on wheels program which we support age well to deliver so significant growth as well so we're seeing a lot of demand on the security programs but today have been able to rise to meet that demand which is great. The library, you know, didn't go dark at all many libraries in the state shut down completely and we were able to maintain at least curbside circulation throughout the pandemic. I give Amanda Perry, our former director a ton of credit, a bunch of staff in the department who filled in in between and then Nate and his team obviously in the last year or so have really done a great job of keeping the library moving forward. We've seen a lot of interest in growth in our digital circulation which perhaps not surprising during the pandemic lockdown. What's been interesting is that that level has maintained coming out of the lockdown and so we're continuing to see really strong usage in our digital circulation. Halloween as always a great event. So my reminder this is now Halloween we go that I'm referenced in here but in spite of meeting to contact trace every member of the community that came through which was not something I'm going to rush to do again ever for a large event like that. We were able to pull that off, which was really exciting. Next slide. There's tons of outside resources coming in through the hard work of the department again you'll see some more details about this in a future slide but just wanted to highlight the hard work and the staff to try to bring in resources to allow us to do more for last for residents here. So we've adopted our parks plan during last fiscal year towards the beginning of it. Or sorry fiscal year 21, and then obviously the last year with the O'Brien Center vacancies has presented a lot of challenges for the community and for staff here just as we've tried to figure out how to accommodate programming and community need but also create a long game that's going to make sense for this building so I think you work there. Next slide. And then it's always strange presenting these budgets because we've got one full year that we're presenting on and then you know obviously a portion of the year we're in but just a few highlights from the current year since July. Our city staff has maintained a role as a leader statewide frankly in the coven response our weekly coven huddle meetings have been really robust and and have led to a lot of policy change and a lot of systems change at the state level. So we're always better serving our diverse community, both by pack residents and limited English proficiency residents. We've really stayed laser focused on that as a priority and have put a lot of time and energy into that so really proud of that work. And we continue to be part of what is now called the Vermont language justice project but formerly the multilingual task force. So that's a group that's meeting every two weeks to create coven related content in upwards of 15 languages depending on the week. Obviously, you've probably heard we opened a pool this year so that that took a minute to take care of and work on. And again some more details around the pool coming but really proud of the outcomes there in our first year. And then obviously the answer contract through the school has really been a game changer in terms of our ability to provide programming for youth. So these numbers here are from our summer slate of programs you'll see a slide later that has an updated number which includes our fall programs as well but long story short we're serving a lot of kids with free programming through the answer contract. And it's really allowed us to kind of I think meet community need where where it is and provide some new and exciting opportunities so really proud of the work that we've done there. All right, next slide. I'm going to pause for a minute before I move forward and just ask if there's any looking in the rearview mirror any questions or comments from folks before we move into the proposal. I can only see a few of you so Christine if you can help me. I'm not seeing any hands raised in the call. Okay, feel free to interject or interrupt as we go. So, at a high level, what's included in the fiscal year 23 proposal. So the, the whole budget for the department, little short of $1.2 million inclusive of the non general funds budgets. The general fund fiscal year 22 so the year that we're in includes wreck and thrive being fully integrated into the general fund for folks who don't recall of both of those used to run as special revenue funds or program funds outside of the general fund and we decided with this year's to bring those in as a way to create some stability for those programs moving into the future which was I think a really, really admirable and frankly smart move for the city to kind of stabilize those those programs. And as you can see they're generating a good chunk of revenue 184,000 for projected for fiscal year 22. So just to break that number down about 175 of that is from drive so a big chunk there. Part of that is that with us or we're not charging a lot for programs through rec. So the sort of revenue if you will, from a program fee perspective is not as high. We've also, I think with Jenny at the helm, seen a lot of growth in rec but our actuals from recent years for rec revenue have been fairly low. So we're we're stepping that up. I think conservatively and and frankly would be rather be surprised with a higher revenue number than a lower revenue number at the end of the year. Obviously as I've mentioned a number of times that us or contract. So as part of this proposal we're projecting $211,000 in revenue coming in through that contract to support an offset costs that are increased costs that are required to run these programs that we're offering pool staffing. And again will there's a slide further down where we'll get into the pool and a little bit more detail but this increase here so we are projecting to have the pool staff. All the pool staff this coming year be city staff versus the 21 season, where we had our lifeguards contracted through the YMCA. And by our projections going to come at a higher cost to the city, but we do have a few offsetting items here that will help kind of buffer that cost for us overall so that we're really trying to keep the impact as neutral as possible but we're pulling some other revenue line items in to kind of help offset there. So here we did include as part of the base budget of increase of about $2000 in our materials budget. Primary reason being that the cost of our digital materials is significantly higher than our print material. So as you can see here, these are just average numbers that that need shared but you know and the average print material costs about 14 bucks to buy and house on the shelf. They're there forever or you know until it falls apart which is quite a while for a book. In terms of the digital materials, the one time cost is $40 for a single ebook or the average, and those need to be renewed, depending on the company or the publisher either after 26 uses or every one to two years so there's that $40 is not just a one time cost that's a perpetual cost every few years that we need to reinvest in that individual material so there's a slightly higher number there. And then we did John Rauscher and I have worked with Angela quite a bit and Joe Shaw and Jenny Hill our REC directors well to try to start to untangle some of the parks maintenance costs. So those dollars have lived in the public works budget, but a lot of the work has been sort of directed or been happening through the community services staff, the REC staff. So trying to get those resources placed in the right places so that the folks spending them have the access so that $4,500 shifting over represents an increase in our department's budget but it's not new money to the city that's that had been in the public works and then with our other funds again we'll get to those there. I think for the most part pretty straightforward but wanted to flag that the senior center budget as you look at recent years is down quite a bit in terms of projected revenue. We've structured the budget to have them. You know it's similarly lower expense budget as well so that it remains a net neutral or better budget, but did want to just flag that you know we're we're doing fewer large scale programs there because of the high high risk nature of the population related to COVID. We are also for a host of reasons, not expecting that we're going to return to offering bingo through the senior center and that was a pretty significant financial you know revenue generator for us, we are going to try to backfill that with some other other programs but that's a decision I think we're we're anticipating will keep keep that program off the docket for now. So any high level questions before we dive into a little bit more detail. All right, go ahead Paul. These numbers again sort of reflects the dollars and cents of what we were discussing here so I'm not going to go through and read all these numbers out to you I think I'm happy to answer any questions or any pieces that I can jump off the page. You know I think things that I would notice or would would call out or obviously the staff and benefit line going up, pretty significantly lion chair that growth coming through the after contract and then through the adjustment to the pool approach. So those are really the two primary drivers of that larger benefit line. Any other questions on the numbers before we. For john. Yeah, I am curious. So for f point 22, the budget compared to the year and how much of that is for the variants how much of that is offset from grants that have been awarded. So, Angela can definitely correct me if I'm wrong but the bulk of that is coming through Esther. So when we put this budget together Esther was not, you know was not a thing. It was not on the horizon for us and so the bulk of that growth is coming through the program and just the additional staff that we've brought on sort of make here if you will. So what percentage is from the of the variants like an estimate I guess what what percentages as are covering. In terms of the. Well, let me look here really quick. I want to say 95%, but and look can throw something at the screen or jump on here if that number is not right but again most of the variance between, you know what was budgeted and what we're doing is being driven by by after primarily at nearly 100% of that excess is going to be covered by Esther it's primarily related to staff that we have hired for Esther programming. And because Esther is reimbursement based on the provision of programs it's not directly related to what we spend, we could bring in more Esther funding than we spend. So it could be more than covering this over which. Okay, and I, you'll probably get into it right so I'll, I'll let you continue. Okay, yeah. Interrupt at any point if I don't get to it or me again. All right. Any other numbers questions before we move on. And then kind of high level break on here to see you know community services I think it's sort of a unique construct in terms of what it entails a lot of communities have many of the components of our department sort of split out and so we wanted to show the amount of the relative spending levels across the department, and then again just contextualize that by the smaller graph in the corner, showing community services being about 13% of the broader city budget so just I think an FYI number here. Not for if anything here comes off the page or there any questions about that breakdown. All right, go ahead Paul. Oh, go ahead Bryn. Yeah, sorry, I. Go back a slide. I'm just looking at the graph in the lower right. Yep. And so. Okay, so the community services 13% of the larger budget and that's what that crap is correct correct and then the larger pie chart is the breakdown of that 13% into the different components within the department. Got it. Okay, thank you. Yep, no worries. So I mentioned details here on the Myers pool and what we are proposing for the 22 operating season versus the 21. And I will say I'm going to probably refer as I'm talking about the pool more to the seasonal operating season. This is a weird one that that very much splits across the fiscal year so just bear that in mind. I'm talking about the operational season coming up. So the summer of 22. And again there will be some expenses at the tail end of the fiscal year which will be related to the fiscal year 23 budget. But just wanted to acknowledge that here. So as we look ahead to this coming summer, we've had ongoing conversations with the YMCA really since we closed the pool in September about next year and have been very much in touch with them about a strategy. They've been pretty clear that they're, they're not going to be in a position to offer a lifeguard contract as they did this current summer. I think, you know, I think this I want to preface all of this by saying this summer I think we learned a ton. I think we worked really hard and really well with the Y and provided a really good experience for the community. So any of these sort of learning pieces or kind of adjustments are not reflective of negativity I just want to make sure that that's like out there on the table. And also why they were really stretched by trying to manage to aquatic facilities this summer and as a result were were pretty regularly needing to adjust schedules or close down their pool indoor pool in Burlington, because of staffing concerns about having enough lifeguards to cover Myers. And as folks know, we weren't able to cover all of the lifeguard hours at the at the Myers pool in terms of having the slide open as much as we had hoped. So I think for them as an organization, being stretched across two facilities was was a lot, and I think not something that they were anxious to repeat. So, you know, really, we prior to entering into the contract with the Y, you know, we did do a bid for lifeguard services did not have any other Bible applicants for that. And prior to that process even going out we had reached out two years ago to several local municipalities about whether some sort of like lifeguard sharing opportunity would be a possibility and I think the general point was like we've got all we can do to manage our own staff where we're good. So, with all that said, there's not sort of a huge pool of potential third party contractors out there to provide this service for us which is why we're looking at trying to do it ourselves. I do think to that having one sort of organizing entity would really help with a lot of efficiency around staff scheduling program schedules, shared duties, you know, I think we were more often with the why having them having a supervisor and us having a supervisor on site. I think it presents some opportunities for efficiencies in that way. And I also think just again by having a single entity running the facility. It's more opportunity for streamlining of policy enforcement behavioral intervention strategies and just having everybody kind of playing from the same sheet of music at all times. Again, I don't think we really had a ton of like huge misses there this first summer, but I do think sometimes, again, having different folks answering to different supervisors working in the same space can be challenging. So I think that there's a lot of positive to to having a single entity running it. So as we look at how to address that you know one of the challenges that comes with that is I think our, we're anticipating our staffing costs will be will be higher than what we were paying on a per hour basis through the contract. And that is that is something we've modeled here as part of this budget presentation. And then that that net increase of 24,76990 includes the offsetting reduction in the contract line, because we won't obviously have a redundant contract with the why. And then that 24 and change is more or less offset by the increase in pool revenue and the excess revenue being swept over from from thrive. So we've tried here to build as best we can a fiscal model that is has minimal impact but you know I think at the end of the day the cost of lifeguard services will be higher in this proposal than what we had last year. We've gotten a question earlier about the higher pool revenue projection and where that came from and I just wanted to say, you know, to answer that question for the whole group. In case others had it that are as we saw in October when we presented to you all, we had a much better summer from a revenue perspective than we anticipated. And so we have carried those actuals forward into our planning for fiscal year 23 so a lot of that increase in our revenue line is reflective of actuals it's not it's not theoretical money it's money that we actually saw come in the door in our first operating season. And then go ahead Christine yeah. Sorry, the my recollection from the like deep conversation we had at the end of the pool season was that the operations costs were also higher than expected. That is correct. Yeah. And so there is some budgeting. As well for some of those costs. I think one of the things that we did talk about there is a lot of the costs we saw, not all, but a lot of the costs that we saw were kind of first year costs so investments in equipment materials, things that I think were were just higher ticket items a lot of those are not things obviously we're not going to buy picnic tables every year, we're not going to buy beach umbrellas every year. So we have some of these things now on handed in place that I think are allowing us to keep our staff operating budget closer to where we had hoped it would be. So I do think that it's an angel correct me if I'm wrong it's a little bit higher but it's not as high as it was. In terms of the actuals from that first year. That's correct. And then, could you please tell me again. How is there extra surplus from. Yep, so thrive since coming out of the pandemic and and partially driven by us or we've seen really strong enrollment numbers like this past summer we had full enrollment for every week of summer which it's been a number of years since we've had that level of enrollment and thrive and I think a lot of that was driven by the fact that for families answer was was a free program so we were able to bill either to state subsidy or to our answer contract for those kids to attend, but also we had revenue coming in but for families who are attending, there was a zero cost. So we are, and then for after school, you know, in spite of remaining a P based program, we've seen really strong enrollment through this year so far, and that's even with the transition in August, which the timing of which was not ideal. So we're feeling pretty confident that with us are funding on board for the coming summer will see comparably high enrollments for the summer. And then, you know, again, we're, we're basing it off what we're seeing on the ground now but we've got really good after school enrollment as well happening at the moment so that's really allowing us to see those revenue numbers be strong and that's certainly this question as well, you know, one of the things that when we have better enrollment, we can, we can realize some efficiencies of scale around our economies of scale around staffing. So we can staff up to 26 kids in a quote unquote classroom with two to three staff. So obviously if we're enrolled at a lower level, we have fewer revenue generating kids, but we still have a similar need for again by running pretty close to capacity which we have been, it allows us to be more financially effective. So thinking long term, this is this excess revenue could potentially be impacted once SR is over. Yeah, I think that's right. I think that's right. And I think we're, we're sort of, I'm anxiously watching what's happening at the federal level right now with with bills coming through and I think, you know, as easy as it is to read federal he leaves you know I think there's some good indications that there will be support for, you know, other funding sources for childcare. And I think we're also seeing the state really take a strong look at the reimbursement levels that we're getting for subsidy in particular. So I think there's some positive potential out there obviously none of that is, you know ironclad but I think there's some good, some good indicators that will have some options to offset that as our funding when that sunsets. Awesome, thanks for a brand I saw your hand went up shortly after I asked my question. Yeah, I'll let counselor monitors go first because he might actually ask or answer some questions that I have. All right, go ahead. Oh, you're on mute so you're here. There we go. So there you go. Thank you, Brent. So a couple things Ray, the operation costs, correct me if I'm wrong, some of that was because the first year process of dialing the pool in. And also because of the valves that they weren't screwed in properly so we lost a lot of water and chemical. When we first opened the pool correct. That's correct. Yeah, I think those two lines in particular were impacted by that operational issue up front. And so I mean confident that that I mean once we know how to tweak it and dial it in. It should be a routine thing anyway every year. My second question was the lifeguards. brings us into a position where are you feeling strong about being able to hire lifeguards and yeah, are we doing are we talking high school kids that are on the swim team, or are we talking. Are you reaching out to St. Michael's and UVM because I know they have I quite programs. And it makes me nervous because everyone's looking for help right now and the workforce isn't there so. Yeah, yeah, just quickly on the lifeguard piece so we are a couple things one is that we're working with the YMCA we've already got. And I'm not going to remember the dates off the top my head but we've got a lifeguard training course scheduled with the YMCA that we're planning to run this winter. Where we can bring in and train up some new lifeguards from the community. So that's something Jenny and M from the Y have been working on to get organized so that's one sort of strategy and approach. I think, broadly in the lifeguard, you know, employment world I think one of the things that was really difficult last year and I think you probably heard me say it but there the lifeguard shortage was not just a Winooski problem it was a national a lot of that was driven by essentially a last year of training because of COVID. And so I think there's a lot of feeling in the in the market that some of that deficiency or kind of lack of staff will be addressed by a new crop of trainees coming out of what will be a more normalized training cycle for lifeguards. We definitely have seen Mike's is a good a good one that's not a group that we've had a direct connection with we've got some contacts through our actually through the pool foundation work and the pool committee work with the UVM swim team so we actually had two employees one of whom ended up not coming back to Vermont for the summer for personal reasons but two employees that came our way from the UVM swim team that we're going to be our front desk staff. And so that's definitely another kind of channel that we anticipate using to try to recruit some folks. And then the other thing is I just, you know, I think, again, because our pay rate is likely to be a little bit better than what some of the other non municipal lifeguarding opportunities pay, we're also feeling confident that we've got a little bit of a recruiting advantage there from the local area, you know, I think a lot of the folks. And I've talked I'm not saying anything that just and I from the why haven't talked about you know I think they have a lot of lifeguard staff who are experienced have had a lot of years of service and are and are looking to take that next step. I think an experience like Myers for them over the summer might be an opportunity to do that so I think we're both feeling like there are a handful of folks that are on currently on the why sort of radar that that might jump over and and frankly, I think both Jess and I feel like that'd be a really good thing for them, and for us selfishly as well. Excellent and would the lifeguard training be an ongoing thing as the pools open all summer for to set up next season that can we get the steps in place. So you could definitely try to get that scheduled some of it is, you know, certainly finding instructors. Once one thing we ran up against this past year was that, and again this was largely a function of the why being split across two pools, the folks that they have on staff that do the course were lifeguarding. We didn't have the flexibility between the two facilities to pull them out of circulation to do a course and not be sitting on a guard stand, keeping those facilities open. So I think again, if the why doesn't have that pressure of trying to run to pools, their instructors I think will have some more flexibility so we're, you know obviously we're a little ways out from having our summer program schedule dialed but that's what we've been holding as a hope that we can get early in the summer another round of lifeguard training on the books. Well perfect because, well, if we don't have lifeguards that means the pool doesn't open so right to that vital part of the pool operation so yeah. Thank you Ray. Yeah, no great questions. Yeah, follow up with that I have similar concerns that my counselor Myers has about staffing the lifeguards. The point like, does the, does the budget need to be approved before you can move forward with recruiting lifeguards for next year. So we, we would probably not begin a super heavy recruitment process until after town meeting day, and I'm guessing, given I mean that's typically, as we look, you know, we don't like to start recruiting for staff positions in a budget that hasn't been approved by the staff yet. So we'll, we'll definitely on the back end have, you know, everything ready to go on the first Wednesday in March but I think we wouldn't likely be doing a ton of formal recruitment prior to the budget being approved by the taxpayers. I, it makes sense, and I see it being risky, both ways it's risky to go out and recruit ahead of a budget approval and it's risky to wait that long when I mean when I was looking at for summer work I was looking in January. And recruiting was happening in January, I don't, I am with workforce shortages I do imagine that it might not hurt to please put our hat out there I don't know how. I don't know if Burlington recruits their own. I think town pools that opened up this past year, not, not just ours. Yeah, Burlington Colchester as its town as its junction in the sort of local area. So we can definitely I mean where where all the recruiting material, you know, in essence is ready to roll because it's, it's really plug and play from last year so I'm, you know, I'm happy to talk to the staff leadership and see if that's something we want to do but again typically, we've kind of been a little bit gun shy about recruiting before budget is passed. I can appreciate that. Like I said it's, it's risky and both both ways. Sure, sure. I mean, I guess, I guess as I'm just thinking loud but I mean I think the one thing and I don't want to presuppose any outcomes but I think we will be opening the pool in some way shape or form next summer. So maybe, you know, starting some recruitment early and having a finalized leveling after March would be a town meeting would be a way to approach it potentially. Actually that leads to a different question so the pool likely would open during this fiscal year so do we have funds to pay for lifeguarding for the remainder of this fiscal year in the budget. And I'll tag Angela in but you know where again these budgets are built sort of over the primary operating season being July, August, September and then knowing there's a little, a little bit at the beginning or the end of the fiscal year for the following so when we built the budget for this year we were projecting that we would have resources to, you know, obviously to be open in June and bring staff on a little bit early for training and whatnot. If this is approved with us hiring lifeguard staff in June we would do a budget adjustment change which would be approved by the city manager to move some of the remaining contract money into the salaries and benefits lines. So does that mean the budget adjustment is to move it basically from one pot of funding to another but is the funding available now I guess is what I'm asking. We had budgeted $55,000 for a contract, we have not spent $55,000 this fiscal year so there is funding left from that contract. That's what I'm looking for. Thank you Angela. And then another follow up question I don't know if there's any impact to city insurance by taking on our own lifeguards. That's a good question Brenna and it's one I can definitely follow up with. You know I think and I'm not being, I'm not trying to be silly but you know I think when we have a lot of colleagues that that run around with with guns on their hips or run into burning buildings and so I think frequently our stuff is pretty low on the risk perspective but obviously there's a higher risk element. I don't know that that's going to really change much in terms of the staffing but we can look into that for sure it's a good question. So the additional risk in terms of risk to our staff is factored in with the workers concrete use for these employees, and the liability risk was already in our policy by being the owners of the pool itself. Okay, awesome. Thanks Angela. I have other questions but I think I should move on. And then I just one last bullet here before we move on to the next slide so we're still Jenny and I working on finalizing, you know, a proposed schedule for next year I think some of that will hinge on the direction of the budget obviously in terms of what we have to play with but we do have a schedule right now that I think we're feeling good about. I think again response to some of the things we learned in the first year and keep our service levels. Very comparable in all areas of last year, which is great. Alright, go ahead. Wendy's hand and Mike's Mike you can go out when he can. Yeah, I just wanted to make sure you understood that the two buckets that Angela was talking about were both in the same department. Yeah, yeah, thanks. Real quick. Um, is there any thought process on now who actually do you have a person that is at the pool 24 seven that runs the pool facilitates it the scheduling. So Jenny, so Jenny who's our wreck and parks manager is, you know, sort of the operational manager for the pool as part of this budget proposal where we're anticipating having our time supervisors hired on so that between myself, Jenny and those three individuals, one of us would be on site and or on call during all operational hours for the pool so we've always. Like on call, you know, we're thinking about like laps women the morning when it's five people there, we don't necessarily need to have a supervisor sitting at the desk, twiddling their thumbs. If Jenny or I are within a phone call. If something goes on, you know I live 30 seconds away. We've got we've got resources nearby so will always have a supervisor available we're not going to have we're not going to ask lifeguards to take on that sort of managing But just like we did this past summer so Ali who's now on the police department with us, you know, essentially Ali Jenny and I serve that role this past summer. This proposal tries to get Jenny and I away from the desk a little bit more so that we can kind of get back to the other pieces of our jobs that I think really kind of had to go to a back burner this summer. My thought process or where I was going with this is, would it be in Windows key best interest to perhaps get our own lifeguard instructor who's the head lifeguard at the windows people who can maintain instruction. That way we don't have to, we could be finally have our own entity instead of relying on ymca or is it the partnership there. I'm just thinking this how we can shave some money somehow. If we had our own instructor who's the head lifeguard at the facility and Yes, it's a great question Mike and I will say you know that's definitely something I can check in with with the ymca on you know I think I'm, I'm not a swimmer I'm not like in the aquatics world so I don't know how readily available lifeguard instructors are. I just don't know how many of them are out there. So I can definitely follow up on that and see but I think obviously if there's somebody that can serve both roles for us that's fabulous. And what I'm thinking is it could be the swim team athlete that's staying local going to UVM or St. Mike's that wants to continue on. And it could be a good gig for for a young adult on getting certified through the Y. And that way we can just have our own entity. Yeah. Great suggestion. All right. Okay, go ahead Paul. And then again as I mentioned after supported programs so we have been quite busy through this and have added quite a lot to the plate so date. This is both summer of last year and then up through current. We've added almost 100 new unique programs to the the docket everything from some lessons the summer camp to rock climbing teams. It's just been really exciting to see the variety that Jenny and her team have pulled together of programming and the ways that community members are responding we're in the midst of our winter registration drive right now and you know the desk outside my office today for the three rec staff was covered in folders and it's just it's great to see that response from the community to the things we're putting out there so really happy with the work we've done so far and I think next summer, having more than a month notice to put our summer slate together will be. I'm really excited to see what we can do there. All right, go ahead. And then we're going to talk a little bit about leverage funds so I know, you know, we as city staff I think try to really relay back to you as counsel that we are, we're definitely not just coming to y'all with our hands out we're trying to go out and find outside to bring resources into the city again to allow us to do more on behalf of the residents were serving here so from a staffing perspective, this is the same staffing chart that was at the very beginning of the proposal, but the blue boxes here are folks that are either partially or fully paid through leveraged funds. And for the thrive staff and the pool staff. I just want to say like those are leverage funds and that they are serving programs that are our revenue generating. Because it's all in the general fund it's a little bit less of a A to B, but they are generally serving programs that are more or less bringing in the revenues that are needed to pay for those staff. And then, next slide Paul and then we'll get into the detailed numbers here. So again just a higher level of detail for the fiscal year 21 leveraged funds for community services, obviously huge kudos and thanks to the Myers pool foundation for their donation to get the Myers pool up and running that was a critical part of that project. A lot of grant funding to their coming in through the fiscal year through a lot of different sources so just happy to report back that we are, you know, doing our best to offset our costs and again try to keep the cost of what we do reasonable for the taxpayers here in the community. Any questions on the leveraged fund piece, either the staffing or these, these numbers here. I'm curious for the leverage funds, how, what their longevity is. Sure, sure. So in terms of most of these funds and Angela can weigh into the most of these are one time, or relatively short term so I would say the exception being the Thrive support. We have, we have continued to see stabilization funding through the state of Vermont for licensed childcare programs which thrive as one of. So that number while the number here is reflective of a sort of, I think this was three finite grants that we got through the state. We've had to one that's just sunsetting and one that's just starting stabilization funding streams that are coming through the state on a monthly basis. The most recent one is going to be good, I think correct me from Angela that through December of 22. So we've got about a year of monthly kind of influx of resource to thrive from the state. ARPA funds. So, again, those are, those are tied to ARPA so the sunset is, you know, similar to what the ARPA funding sunset is for everybody else. There's going to be some opportunities down the road with federal funding to support childcare in particular to kind of use this ARPA funding as a bridge to some future supplemental support. But by and large, you know, most of these are one time grants that we are trying to go back out for as frequently as we can. And at least two of these are from the same program the mural and state park grants both came from Vermont Community Foundation who's been a great partner for the recreation programs department. They've put up quite a few different smaller grants that don't necessarily come to the council, and because they don't create new assets. You don't see them but that's why we provide you this leverage funds report for those smaller grants. One thing that is a very long performing grant on this list is youth programming grant. That is the 21 C partnership with the school that provides after school programming in stem and health and wellness. And that's been at least seven years that I'm aware of. Yeah. Thank you Angela. So follow up. Are there. Is there any risk or concern about having leverage so much leverage funds for our revenue generating programs. Yeah, it's a really good question. So I think, by and large with with most of these funds. And again with 21 C funding being the primary exception. I think not to build models that rely on these funds year over year so the 21 C program does fund a portion of our rec staff and in the past has funded a portion of our library staff, but it's a portion so I think there's a scalability there that if that funding or whatever reason to go away, the position wouldn't entirely evaporate. We might have to scale it back we might have to cut hours but it wouldn't be a complete reduction. And then the thrive funding, you know is is really helping to supplement the cost of doing business in the pandemic so it's really being pitched as a stabilization funding for entities that may have seen reduced enrollments or challenges with staff retention. We have been again I'm knocking all the wood fortunate and that we have not seen those outcomes in our programs. So this has really been, in a lot of ways supplemental funding for us not funding that we're reliant on to make the thrive happen. Just to be clear that this is a retroactive look at leveraged funds. This is not. We don't include most of these grants in our budget for the proposed fiscal year. We do include a small piece of the 21 C because it is an ongoing relationship with the school but all of the other ones the mural grant the skate park grant. Those programs were only held because the grant was received if we hadn't received the grant, the program would not have been held or would have been held in a scaled back manner that would fit in the budget that we have built at the city level. So we don't include grant funding anticipated to be coming in in most of our budgets. Great question and thank you Angela for that clarification. All right. Any other pieces before we move on. No. All right, go ahead Paul. So three again fairly quick special revenue funds here so again this this section of the presentation in previous years was a lot longer because wrecking thrive we're here as well. But we've really moved most of our funds into the general fund at this point. The senior center is one that is split across both the general fund and the special revenue fund. Again we've we've always tried to run this as a more or less break even budget so again you see we've we've projected a reduction in revenue but have an offsetting reduction in our expenses here. And these are really supplemental funds to help us run programs for seniors so really try to run this as a money and money out budget to help supplement the general fund and what we're able to do there. I don't know if there's any. And again we've we've mentioned bingo probably not coming back for a host of reasons but happy to answer any questions on this budget that might be there. A quick question. The senior center and the St. Stephens church property is. I don't know if it's a rumor, but is there some action going on that property and will that interfere with the senior center. I will answer this as I can. So the senior center building is a city owned building that and we have a lease on the ground underneath it. That's a 40 year lease and where we're ways out from that being expired. So in the event that something changes with that property, then, then, yeah, we're going to have to figure out, you know, obviously the building can't float there so we're going to need to figure out what that looks like. I'm not aware of anything imminent at this point I know there's been conversations since the church closed but nothing imminent that I'm aware of at this point. I'm sorry about the budget then. Okay. Yeah, not. I mean I don't think anything that's worthy of kind of adjusting course on a budget at this point. Perfect. Thank you right. All right, any other senior questions before we move on. All right. Go ahead Paul community gardens again this is one that we've really tried to run more or less break even we do typically try to have a slight revenue excess for this budget so that we can build up some for time to allow us to, you know, replace raised beds or occasionally we'll add a garden shed to a new garden plot or things like that but this is really one that again we try to scale our expenses to meet the the revenues coming in. And this this budget is performed over the years really well for us. Last year was a little funky and that we lost some garden plots up at Landry because of the construction project. So, last year I think was a little bit of a blip in terms of the revenue number you can see it did not perform as we anticipated but by and large we're full every year in our garden program and that number comes from the number of plots that we have available so on the revenue side. Pretty straightforward budget here. Questions on that one. And then. Is the compost included in the expenses here. The compost that was mentioned earlier is not part of the public workers. Okay. We do get compost but that's specifically for the garden in the program. Okay, thanks. Yep. All right. And last but not least the library. This one is generally we throw a number on here to kind of challenge us to go out and find some grant funding. Again, this is something where we generally will scale our expenses to our revenues so we're not going to spend money that we don't have. I will note that the fiscal year 22 is going to make me look like a hypocrite for what I just said that 1200 1000 of that we had from a prior year grant that was on spent. So for this fiscal year it looks like a negative $1,000 proposition but we had had a plus $1,000 from the fund and prior years that we had not yet spent so we did spend it in the clear 21 but also we're carrying forward $200 for a summer performers grant that came in in June but was spent in July. It's very consistent here we've received $1,000 Simba grant for the last three years, and we receive every year $200 summer performers grant. So that will make up the majority of the projected revenue here. I don't know if there's any any questions on this one. Where is the grant that was awarded reflected in here the, I thought that was a separate funding in addition to the expenses, which, sorry which grant. I think it was a state, a state level grant that we heard about earlier this fall. Probably is in the current fiscal year. FY 22. The projections in this budget were built at the beginning of September so anything that's happened since September may not be reflected in the current year projections. Good memory. Good question. All right, go ahead Paul. So again just like to try to flag a few things for council, you know as we look forward so obviously continuing to adjust to the impacts of COVID. This thing is not over and I think every day is a new adventure in terms of what people are comfortable with how do we keep clients safe, how do we run programs that are going to meet people's needs so that's a huge piece that's going to be kind of a, that's going to work over the next year. Looking at the Brian Center and figuring out a game plan there is definitely something that's going to be consuming. You know as we've talked a lot about tonight continuing to look past Esser and plan for that sunset. Myers pool and adjustments to that schedule, depending on the budget that's passed ongoing parks and open space implementation. And in particular looking at the fourth star for thrive is something in the next year that we would really like to push towards. Obviously given the transition and leadership this year at thrive that's one that got backburner for this current year but we definitely want to look ahead as Claudine has her feet more squarely under her this year. And then I think the library continues to be a place where, you know, every, every variety of need walks through that door. And I think Nate and his team and certainly me want to make sure that that facility is ready to meet as many of those needs with resource navigation as we can so it's way beyond just books on a shelf, and we're trying to make sure we have a facility in a program that provides for that. So, and then go ahead Paul to the last one photo credit to counselor Oakley for this one. I'm sure it's worth me to smile and look happy at the very end of green up day but but yeah happy to take any questions on the presentation and on the budget. So we don't have any more public attendees on zoom. How is there anyone else in chambers. No, any final questions from Council. Jim. I don't really have a question I think you answered the ones that sent me and thank you for that. I guess I just wanted to call out the the turnaround and drive I think that's something I know the SR has had a huge role to play in that but I think SR is also shown that that program was, there was a need for it the problem was the cost and when that cost is removed that program is so I think that it's nice to have this proof of concept that both the after school the summer program are things that are community will utilize when they're there and that we need those so I appreciate you working this into the general fund I just I'm because I remember where we were two years ago and very good conversation so thanks to you and to putting into paper doing what you've done with this program it's amazing. Thank you. Anything else. Well, thank you very much for the deep dive. Yeah, of course, happy and if there's more questions that come up. You guys know where to find me. All right, so next up item D this on for approval and update to the library services coordinator position description. Sure. Yeah, this will be I think a fairly straightforward one. So the original position description had included quite a bit of detail about the former tutoring and homework help program which we are no longer running. The school has really added a lot of tutoring and homework help support to their resources through COVID. We were seeing pretty low numbers when we were running things virtually so basically, this is a cleanup item to get that specific program out of the description doesn't have an impact to the scoring or the budget, scoring at the position or the budget impact the positions just to largely a cleanup item. All right, thanks. Are there any questions or concerns from council. Would someone like to make a motion to approve the job description. So moved. Mike second by how all those in favor please say aye. Hi, pushing carries thank you again ring. Awesome. Thank you. And thank you to your team. I saw some of them on here, virtually. Yeah, they were here. So we are on to item E. This is just on for discussion with an introduction to proposed amendments for form based code that Eric is going to talk us through. Um, included with your agenda packet were updates to parts one through four and part nine of the form based code. The planning commission has been working on these amendments for the past multiple months. Last Thursday at their regular meeting they had a public hearing to take comments on these amendments. There was no specific public comments that were offered so the planning commission voted unanimously to forward on these amendments to you all for consideration so I just wanted to put this on your agenda. Just to introduce this. We, my intention is to have a future meeting where we can get into the details and talk more specifically about the changes to give you a chance to look through the information in advance I realized having this come out on Friday, quite a bit of information I just wanted to give this to you now and answer any kind of general questions about any of the changes that are being proposed but also to highlight some of the, some of the changes that are included so a few of the items that the planning commission worked through were just to add some clarification to the application process including the submission requirements for projects that are in the gateway zoning district. There are some updates and clarification to the, the requirements of common drives and when we would require those how we require those and how they would function. There are several updates to the bonus story provision. They do not incorporate any of the information from your discussion at your previous meeting. This was these were already proposed prior to that discussion so, but there are still some updates to to tighten up the language that's there. So just overall clarification in various processes and specifics of the, of the code. There's some updates to the definitions, but probably the most significant update with this suite of amendments are the siting standards planning commission spend quite a bit of time. Both pre COVID and post COVID talking about the siting standards. One of the items that was brought up on several occasions were the, or was the fact that there was some concern that the buildings are being located too close to the road so the planning commission wanted to build some flexibility into allows parts of the building to be set back but not the entire building so that it doesn't separate the building too far from the street space and kind of eliminate that connection and that the idea of creating the vibrancy with buildings being right up close to the street into the sidewalk space so those are some of the highlights of the of the amendments like I said happy to answer any questions tonight and and and provide any clarification but we will have a future meeting to get into the details prior to scheduling a public hearing on on these amendments. Just two things to add one is that the planning commission has been working on this for more than a year, like they put a lot of time into what's in here and really thoroughly discussed a lot of these proposed changes. So I have a lot of confidence in what they're putting forward to us. And to I would say now is probably a good time for general questions, but that we should all take some we have a couple of weeks right before we'll see this again take some time to sit with it and then feel free to send specific questions to Eric for clarification. Land use zoning. There's like a high entry level like it can take a while to understand some of the pieces so might not make sense of the first go around. And I see your hand is missed. Yeah, I don't. I can more or less hold my question till later date but. Yeah, like you said there's there's quite a bit here so it'll be good to take some time with it. Yeah, and so we would eventually have a public hearing as well. So we have to do to your council is that right there for amendments, amendments to the land use regulations you would only need one unless you want to. Okay. Yeah, so we will. We could have this on for discussion again, then if we like it do a public hearing, depending on that feedback, potentially advance these changes. That's correct. Yeah, just a comment. I'm glad that the planning commission worked on with the buildings on the sidewalks because that seems to be the biggest complaint between the residents. And some of the business owners I guess, you know snow removal and stuff like that. I'm just glad that was that was included in this conversation. So thank you. Yeah, there was a lot of discussion on that within the commission. Jim. Thank you. So in terms of process and we will go through more discussion public hearing and then, you know, just thinking about the conversation that we could have the last meeting and when, when is planning Nintendo return to that. And where would that fit in is it going to be something that will be coming up soon or is this kind of the end of for a fun form based codes for a while. Oh, go ahead. Yeah, I think myself, Eric, and our planning chair, Michael Brian need to have a meeting and talk about that timing. This was already on deck to be advanced before we had that discussion Jim so there's a little bit of awkwardness here so I will address that and get back to you. Another question, Jim. Yeah, thank you. Well, just kind of following up on that I think understanding what modeling and thought went into the recommendations that were put forward. So we've been asking for this bonus story incentive be fixed for a while, not just related to housing budgets to make it utilized. And so just understanding where the kind of discussion. Some more details on that discussion be helpful at our next meeting. This also. So this section doesn't include the incentive right which is important, but this is also not like the entirety of form based code. There's still some of a like sections that are being worked on. And then. Oh, and so the other thing that Eric and Mike and I will need to talk about is. We had a discussion at our last meeting about potentially looking at residential zoning so we need to figure that timing out too. That's something that we will have them or soon. And as the mayor mentioned if you have specific questions that you want to send to me in advance that I can have to provide some answers to that would be that would be helpful as well but also happy to take those on the fly. And then a suggestion to Eric, if you get questions from Council ongoing. I think it should be used to craft some sort of like overview when this comes back to make it more digestible for the public as well. Absolutely. Do we have a sense for when that, when we might revisit this, assuming January obviously. So I would say that depends on how the agendas are shaping up in January, you know, we'll have a budget at each of those meetings. This is probably a heavy discussion so I wouldn't want to commit to a specific date in January but I think we'll aim for that. But, you know, trying to balance that with whatever other issues. I wanted to call a recess after this item anyhow. I think instead I'm going to call a five minute recess now. And then when we come just in case anything comes to mind that you want to address here. When we come back we will still be on item E, and then we'll close it out. So let's take, I've got 752 on my end. Let's reconvene at 757. Well, I guess I'll just I'll prompt again just to see if there are any more questions for Eric about these zoning changes at this time. Okay. Well, thank you again for bringing this forward and now we have a couple weeks to sit with it and get our questions along the way. Thank you very much. Okay, so moving on to item F. This is on for approval. I'm just going back to the sheet here sorry. Yes. Okay, so we have been asked. So that's the Vermont State Attorney General's Office is facilitating participation in the national opioid settlement process. These are asked to either choose to participate in the national process of which the state would be facilitating. So the state would do all the work and then distribute funds. If we don't choose to do this we could go our own way. And then the option is you can either participate in this national process that the state is sort of facilitating for Vermont towns, or individual municipalities are able to do their own lawsuits related to opioid impacts. And so requires the municipality to show like all of the community impacts to justify an individual settlement. So it is up to us to give staff direction, which path to go here. And the city's attorney has suggested that we do authorize staff to have musky participate in this national settlement as opposed to trying to do our own, our own sort of settlement agreement would take a lot of bandwidth and financial and legal and staff time. So, open to questions. The information is attached in the packet. The, the, our city attorney is not with us this evening for this item. But we did receive that guidance. Wendy, is there anything that you want to add to that. The other version is that the city attorney's language is what I quoted in the background information. And there's virtually no risk. There's no downside to joining in this agreement. And I would suggest that you authorize the finance director to sign the application. Thank you. All right, so do folks have questions about this. One question. If, if we did join this, this lawsuit with this hinder or hinder any individual going after I like a wooden skeet resident if they wanted to either join or go after a company with this hinder their ability to do this. Do we know I didn't ask the attorney specifically that I doubt it. But I, I don't know for sure. Yeah, I again also not a lawyer but I believe we are as a municipal entity signing on so it precludes us from taking other actions, but I, I also strongly doubt there will be an impact to individuals in windows. Because it would be their own suit right now. Yeah, like an individual. Okay, makes sense. Thank you. Bryn. We have any sense for how the funds might be distributed from the state. I haven't seen anything though, is particularly clear on that. Thank you, Rachel. Have you. There is a percentage breakout that has been assigned. It is still draft and is subject to revision estimating that of the state allocation when he's given to receive 1.3 6%. Is that do you have details on the criteria. allowed to use the funds for. It's a very specific exhibit mostly around overdose response and prevention and treatment options. Do you know what factors go into the allocation that we get? It's going to be a lot of to do with how many communities sign up. So they're really waiting to see how many people are opting in. And I think that this percentage was based a little bit around number of opioid cases seen as well as population. Okay, yeah, that was essentially what I was trying to dig out is how much it would be based on per capita versus impact. And if we would, we don't have to demonstrate impact if we sign on this level, but would we have to demonstrate impact for the state? Can, I don't know, help influencer justify their allocation. So I think it's too soon to know, but it was just question. The way I have read communications is that they're just going to distribute it the way that they have chosen to with whatever formula we wouldn't actually do any demonstration of impact anything like that for the state. I also think they're keeping a portion would be kept at the state level and used in a broader fashion. So it's not like all of it's getting distributed to municipalities and we're only getting that at one point, whatever it is. And one of the reasons why the attorney recommended we sign on to the overall settlement rather than pursuing our own is because the actual direct dollars impact was a hard to calculate and the things that we were directly able to attribute were not high cost. I'm in favor of moving the agenda item. I second it. Motion by Bryn and second by Mike. All those in favor please say aye. Aye. Aye. Motion carries. Oh, so the motion is to authorize our finance director to register us for the opioid settlement agreement. Thank you all. That's the end of our regular agenda. We do have one to executive sessions this evening. So the first one is about civil litigation and the settlement agreement with 133 Elm Street. So I'm looking for a motion that pursuant to state statute section 3131E. We should have this discussion in executive session. Mayor, they gave us the ID on the agenda, but there is no passcode. Is there a passcode? Oh, for the executive session? Exactly. I will forward that to you. Thank you. In your email. Councilor Myers, there was not a passcode set up, but there's a waiting set up. So you won't have to put in a separate passcode. You'll just be let in. Oh, okay, perfect. So motion to have this discussion in executive session. So I'll move. Okay. Motion by Mike, second by Jim. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Motion carries. So I need a second motion to go into, to open an executive session and including Wendy Harrison and Eric Orwell. I'll move. Second. Motion by Mike, second by Jim. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye. Motion carries. So we're going to move to another zoom line to have this discussion. We're only going to discuss this topic. We'll come back to this main zoom line afterwards. All right. Thank you, council. I am looking for a motion to authorize interim city manager, Wendy Harrison, to sign the settlement agreement with 133 Elm Street. So moved. Second. Motion by Mike, second by Hal. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Motion carries. Thank you. So finally, we have one more executive session looking for a motion. This is on a contract negotiation. So looking for a motion that, according to Vermont state statute section 3131A, this is a discussion that would put us, put the city at a disadvantage to do in public. And so we should move into executive session inviting. So we should move into executive session. I'll stop there. So moved. Second. Motion by Mike, second by Bryn. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Motion carries. And can I have a motion to enter into executive session and invite John Rauscher, Eric Vorwald, Bob De Palma and Wendy Harrison. It's almost. Second. Second. Motion by Mike, second by Hal. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Motion carries. So we are going to move to another zoom line to discuss this in this alone. We will return to this line solely to adjourn the meeting.