 Councilor McGee can't make it until five City Council President calls the agenda or change and that is to item 4.5. The recommended action should read accept the communication and put it on file. And with that change is there anyone who make the motion on the agenda? In our second. Second. All those in favor please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? And the motion carries. Members of the public wishing to speak. There are no members of the public appearing. I did get an email from former Councilor Busher related to the investment policy statement and she had the very useful suggestion that although we'll talk more about it later. One of the additions was adding the roles and responsibilities. She thought a visual graphic could be helpful. So we are working on that with our colleagues at fiducian. Obviously that was not ready in one day but I am recognizing that comment and that is something we are addressing. And with that I am going to close public forum and move on to the consent agenda. Is there a motion on the consent agenda? Excellent. Is there a second? All those in favor please say aye. Any opposed? And that motion carries unanimously bringing us to our first deliberative item which is an exciting airport item with the cool named project next. Larry and Nick why don't you guys tell us about that. Excellent. So we've been before you before for this particular project and this particular contract. This is taking our existing contract with Jacobs and Sharon who is now fully engaged with design next start north replacement project on the wing of the concourse. This is a large increase from what you've seen in the past and the past from one million just over one million dollars which brought us to a 30% design. Our original request stopped at that one million dollars for Jacobs so that we can get there and put this out to bid as a construction manager at risk project. We have now since gone out to bid we've scored and selected a contractor as part of the construction manager at risk team to help finish the design with Jacobs engineering and that's with angle berth construction. This particular request tonight is to take our Jacobs contract from one million dollars to the full contract amount which will bring us to the 100% design and of course into the construction itself. The project next is a culmination of renovations to north terminal wing new jet bridges north concourse replacement by hands and frankly more flexible and three minutes here as well more flexible opportunities for aircraft parking and a much better flow from a passenger experience perspective. Funding this is incorporated in our FY 24 budget this will continue to be incorporated in our capital plan for the ineligible and non federally funded portions of the project as well as with our passenger facility recharge program however 90% of this project inclusive of this contract is in FAA funded grant. The one thing I have to add is typically we see engineering through construction at 18 to 25 percent where the government GSA sees 43 percent this is in the 12 percent rate so we're tired to get it there so we can move this project forward. Excellent any questions or is the board ready to make a motion? I will move the right method of action. Excellent is there a second? Second. You can also Jen any further discussion or questions? Yes, Dr. Barton. Yes I'm just wondering about is this project what you consider to be on schedule right now or how to schedule and what would you anticipate that we might actually see some of the structural limits? Yeah really really good questions. I would say this is very much a head of schedule originally we were kind of headed down the route of a typical design bid build concept but because of the costs of construction we really wanted to bring a contractor sooner rather than later to help limit the costs and limit some of the school creep that happens during really after design and into a construction project so that's why both Jacobs and Engelberth are now centrally on site finishing this this design work so that we can get shovels in the ground as soon as we get a grant we're expecting a full guaranteed price we're going to be back before the board and council with an Engelberth contract for the guaranteed maximum price most likely towards the end of this year beginning part of the year next and very soon after that expecting a grant and shovels in the ground by summer possibly late summer of 2024 if we went design bid build we would be talking about a construction project 2025 so we are in my world just that point head of schedule I'm bringing to a full construction project yeah I think I answered any other questions with the airport team all right well we have a first and a second all those in favor please say aye aye and any approvals please say nay and the motion carries congratulations thank you item 4.2 we have Ashley Parker from CT team to talk about what's our fairly standard reimbursement for both TIF districts for our related costs for last year why don't you tell us about all the excitement that that entails actually the third thing um yes this is an historical annual thing that we've been doing it seems to have been doing for a long time now to reimburse annual related costs for the two downtown and what will that have waterfronted districts um this is for all costs associated with personnel and some of the um professional consultants costs that are related to any um administrative work that we've done the TIF district so in the memo tonight you'll see it broken down by TIF district department um and I think it's professional consultants is the only other line I wanted to point out in the future we are hoping to actually roll this into our annual budgeting process so that every year you will get the overview for the related cost budgets um for both districts and so we'll have to come back and do this for post reimbursement every year so I think that is the gist I'm happy to answer any questions yes because everyone's uh be willing to make a motion thank you councillor jane and is there a second second we can also follow up any questions or comments for Ashley all right as usual it is um not a lot of questions about TIF we confuse everyone with that a little bit um but this one is pretty straightforward so all those in favor please say aye and any opposed and the motion carries unanimously thank you thank you and thank you director pine for being here as well you know today's an important role in test um item 4.3 um is an investment to an update to our investment policy statement this is for the burlington employees retirement system and I am going to turn it over to chris rollins who is um one of the principal advisors that we work with at fiduciant advisors they are the city's investment consulting firm um and as a part of our regular due diligence they helped the board to review um our policy which had been in place since 2019 without having any changes um so you'll see in the red line version in your packet fiduciant suggested that we add a section more clearly defining the purpose of the plan updating the duties and then most meaningfully perhaps adjusting our asset allocations so I'm going to turn it over to chris great uh thank you Catherine uh good evening everybody I'm chris rollins a partner and and senior consultant at fiduciant advisors and head of our public funds practice so just by way of background we've been consulting to public pension plans for over 30 years we consult to about 55 municipalities in greater new england that's across about 110 pension plans and ope plans that we've been working closely with the burs since the first quarter of 2021 one of the items before you today is the plan's investment policy statement we believe a well-written investment policy statement serves as the blueprint for the management of the pension portfolio and to that end we think there are some important elements of the IPS as Catherine had outlined that is investment objectives assignment of responsibilities uh asset allocation framework so there's a good a deal of uh thought and and process a judicious approach around setting asset allocation that aligns with the plan's investment return assumption which today stands at about seven percent there's rebalancing guidelines it's important to rebalance uh so that there are no surprises to the asset allocation selection and monitoring criteria for investment strategies termination guidelines for investment strategies and liquidity guidelines we think are all key elements of the investment policy statement so what you see before you are really some of the changes to the corpus that we've included we're working closely with the burs as it stands before you today is a document that has been adopted or approved by the burs and working through various channels within the town as we speak excuse me as a city as we speak today and that's where we stand uh in its in its current structure and happy to answer any questions I also want to thank you Chris I also want to note that um Mayor Murrow Whiteberger is joining us um he is the phone number that is listed below um any questions we'll start with those of you in the room yes Councillor Barlow thank you just two questions um I noticed that the asset allocation is sort of skewing more conservative is not accurate yeah I would say the asset allocation is along the lines of public equities and fixed income and and really backs into uh the plan's discount rate so the plan has an investment return assumption which has trended lower over time so as we speak with the new fiscal year 23 24 uh that discount rate is 7 percent so when we run our asset allocation modeling uh we run our capital market assumptions each year uh to ensure that we have what I would call a high probability of hitting that return assumption uh on an annualized basis over time so I think what I would call is is somewhat of a plain vanilla conservative allocation passively managed equity strategies uh and actively managed fixed income allocation high quality fixed income okay thank you and my other question I look forward to meeting me um in the policy statement um but I couldn't find it so maybe you could add some um you could address the question I have around how um policy that the council might make to restrict investments say in their um in the military after your complex or in the fossil fuel industry how that would would be incorporated into um a policy statement yeah that's that's a great point or good question so you'll see that the the IPS is absent such language because the burrs has not carried out any of those directives I know there's been discussion uh with the council particularly around fossil fuel divestment so we were tasked with uh responding to an inquiry from council with regard to exposure to fossil fuel which was less than 40 percent of the portfolio but I think given fiduciary concerns given that these assets are tethered to liabilities and beneficiaries the burrs has not gone down the path of divestment but I do think it's it's open dialogue and communication that could be had outside of the IPS but carrying out their duties today absent those type of restrictions along the lines of ESG or or divestment um the IPS is silent at this at this time okay thank you very much I hope that helpful yep yes it was any other questions in the butcher room yes um yes comes with Jack you know I think thank you for the memo it seems that you returned it and was just wondering if the retirement board had access to this and also what are the impacts yes uh the memo should have said that but the board has thoroughly considered it um we worked with Hailey McLean who's our attorney in reviewing it and they unanimously supported it and frankly it's just been a little bit of my um having things backed up otherwise we would have gotten this to you in September um but the board um several people said they might attend tonight I know how schedules are but um everyone unanimously was very supportive of making these changes yes so the way that the board is structured is that we have a representative from the police union from the fire union and then also from AFSME IBEW at least and then there might be a general and so all of them were able to weigh in on it and be a part of this dialogue anything else um Mr. Mayor is there anything you would like to ask or comment on thanks John and I do want to thank the BERS board and our consultants for the work on this I would say this is most you know significant revision to the policy statement since the major pension reform effort that we made about 10 years ago now and um I think it's you know I spent a fair amount of time with chapter and reviewing what the changes were and feel comfortable um with all the changes I think they're they're helpful I um I also appreciate that the plan from the BERS board is to um continually like check in on this about once a year check in on the allocation assumptions I think you know since this might be one of the last times that we kind of review this together I will say I think we've made significant progress over that last decade with the pension maybe not as much progress as we were hopeful for when we made the changes a decade ago but I do think particularly with the revision of the rate of return assumptions and the discipline incremental change to get down to a lower rate of assumption which we now I guess I feel a high degree of optimism now that the 7% assumption that um that the plan is based off of is now realistic and realistic uh consistent with this allocation this asset allocation mix I do think it's probably I do think it's wise to continue to look at the asset allocation and understand you know the relationship between this and the tax increases that need to be made over time to support this investment I think it's a healthy thing to keep reviewing um but I am comfortable where it's at and I think uh people should feel good that we have um come quite a quite a ways in uh making a plan that is very is realistic and should be successful going forward great thank you mayor um are there any other comments or are we ready for a motion a recommended action uh to the court thank you councillor barlow is there a second second thank you councillor jane all those in favor please say aye aye and all those opposed please say nay and the motion carries unanimously um is there a problem acting city attorney pelerin if we were to move to item 4.5 due to the fact that the bca employee who's presenting 4.4 is not here yet and is on her way we already set the agenda we already set the agenda the agenda however is going to be the person who's presenting 4.5 is also not here so I'm really just killing time so nothing's going to happen on that item we can hold it and then make something officially not happen in a minute I will just inform you of that and as we're waiting for Sarah I will quickly introduce the solar eclipse budget item because here she is with doreen and I have been appealed in this it's okay you're not the only one I was just killing a little bit of time for your walk over here and then I was like well I was part of the committee I could start talking if no one's we apologize you were just next door yeah no worries you were able to run over very quickly so um we are just getting to your item on the agenda and we were just saying how excited we were for the eclipse so a lot of natural phenomena yes why don't you give us a brief overview well given that we had to sign that to one of our employees we'll do our best I don't know where Zach is and we do have a presentation for you tonight because I thought it was really important that you all saw everything that we are taking out into the community and we gave you at PAC a little bit of a you know it was really an update but it was a real understanding of where we were at the time and since that time um Mayor Weinberger has um brought together the many members of the business community to learn about this event to understand its critical nature to Burlington to understand that the city of Burlington will take major responsibility for the public safety components of this but that when we look at the additional elements you know how we welcome people to the community how the community expresses its uniqueness and we bring out the creative parts of who we are and also take care of people when they're here because as you know the hotels have required a minimum of a two-night stay so we have people who are going to be here doesn't matter whether it's knowing or it's 90 degrees they're going to be here and we have to be prepared for that and we always try to put our best foot forward so what what can we do the mayor has requested that we take care of this in two different ways that first the city take responsibility for the public safety piece but that the city works very carefully with the private sector for all the other components of cultural engagement and entertainment and you know how do we learn about this place and also to the business corporate community how do they best show who they are so that the people visiting this community want to return so we're preparing tonight for you a budget that is a breakdown of a part a part b budget part a is everything that city really needs to do just knowing how many people are visiting this community and we want to provide both from a public safety perspective as well as health as well as well being what what that means and encompasses and then the part b budget it's really sort of how do you show this community at its best and I think I said this at the PAC meeting so please I'm repeating I know there's a new group for tonight that well our model is is that the city can't do everything we have to bring the larger community together with all of our partners and highlight and amplify what they do best and what they can add to this equation so that you know collectively we give the best experience and also we understand that our partners will allow us to use the city as a totality so that UVM will keep many students as they can on the campus that the parks and streets in downtown and different communities will be used and then that we take advantage of the few spaces that we will actually program during that time so this is I would say from every way of looking at this it is a modest proposal and I really want everyone to understand that because I think it's critical that this is kind of like our bare bones how do you go out there and do your best with the minimal amount of risk and also the greatest potential for return so with that said are you able to yes I did login great thank you all right would you like to add anything to that because you've been so engaged thank you during um I'm hoping we're going to be able to go through the PowerPoint because I think that lays it out all clearly it really does and I'm sure Sarah is like one minute behind here with her I have halloween nails already um you know you know we have been on the cusp I I do want to say how critical tonight is in this vote because we've been on the cusp of needing to pull the trigger on this that's a bad word we have needed to get permission to go forward so that we can ensure that we do the best job and the clock has been ticking since the summer when we were hoping to you know move this forward and get approval so we're here with you tonight and it goes to city council next week and then right to the horizon I think this says a lot of like enduring to summarize but that's a little more detail and uh graphic layer to it and um but uh I think um and it's this is the same PowerPoint that we have given to a number of uh community leaders in a request for their private fundings as well so um do you want to take it over? Yeah yeah Sarah and Sarah and I will go back and forth when we we get the money out of this. Yay Moral um so we're we're going to experience a total solar eclipse it is a rare phenomena um it the last one was in 1932 the next one that's going to be in 2106 and before you can see the timing of this it's not a long time but it's a critical time in terms of how the city is prepared to manage the various populations that are placing themselves for this experience so you want people to be in place for the beginning of this at the partial eclipse and then when you actually get to the moment there's it is a rare natural phenomenon and so you're hoping you're you don't want entertainment at that time you want people to experience the silence because uh Zach loves to tell the story he's the best trained on our staff but you know nocturnal animals come out and the winds have a different sound and the experience is a very special thing so we actually during this time will just have everything in place to care for people but there will be no entertainment we are considering if funding is available to have somebody who will narrate through this and we've had a number of ideas um have been in touch with two or three within the affordable range of of of bringing guests to Burlington um but you can sort of see the time frame is very short and then when you get to the end of this which is you know you know 4 30 in the afternoon one of the things that we have to be very thoughtful about is making sure that everyone who has come into Burlington is not trying to leave Burlington at the same time and the other thing is that we have partners who are working with all the restaurants hotels entertainment centers etc that can care for people so that there is not this grand exodus but that they get to expect continue to experience Burlington as a great place um the next slide um is uh the Cosmic Super Bowl that was Mayor Hendricks from Hopkinsville Kentucky and um that was their solar eclipse in 2017 um very small city and um the experience of this kind of really um set them apart in the country and then they had no idea that it was going to be as popular and that their volume of visitors was going to increase to the degree that it did um NASA who has a representative here at the University of Vermont um she serves the entire state of Vermont and she's a great partner they use a factor of three times your daily population it's it's been fairly good Zach I've got your script and I'm running uh number of of of visitors um and in some places it has gone beyond those um that factor and in some cases you know fallen pretty closely to it but in no case does it you know is it significantly smaller so the estimates for Burlington are from 50 to 150 thousand visitors in addition to our population you'll see later on that we are very careful in understanding both how we take care of our citizens and how we take care of our visiting population both critical to the success for Burlington so Zach we're going out whether what other cities have experienced sure thank you sorry to just be strolling in here um so we did some research into the last uh total solar eclipse that this country which was in 2017 um we looked primarily at cities that were about our size so we obviously this happens in much larger cities and um they have their own challenges but we're looking for cities about the roughly of our same size you can see there's across the map here but um this this headline was in USA today coast to coast catching so they're really focusing on the eclipse tourism which is a real thing um bringing money to uh communities across the country really from Oregon to South Carolina um we checked in you already saw that quote of us cosmic super bowl about Hopkins in Kentucky notably had about 30,800 people and they welcomed over 100,000 visitors um and you can see the numbers really range in here there's there's a tiny down the bottom there tiny uh Glendale Wyoming has a population of 200 somehow they welcomed 70,000 and 90,000 people which uh must have been insane um and they're they have a lot of camping yeah a lot of space a lot of camping possible from space that I love their quote that they got their name out there um I'll do that oh you're dry oh I'm sorry just so that you know what yeah it's coming next awesome cool yeah we'll be on the next slide cool um great so we can go the next slide it's great the local buzz um it did a lot of a lot of news and especially after this weekend where we had the very very partial eclipse year created a lot of interest in the eclipse and I've heard just in the news people talking about April 8th and stay tuned for April 8th and a lot of news coming out of this weekend but um notably the city council on May 15th of this past spring um had our resolution that said we would celebrate this amazing and unprecedented unique event um Burlington Free Press was shortly there after claiming that it's going to be a 250,000 tourist Vermont I don't know where they got that number but they were looking on the high side obviously the state launched the tourism website dedicated the eclipse a just a small tour here in Vermont announced in the summer that they were going to have a Green Mountains Vermont total solar eclipse and their tour sold out really very quickly which they don't always do so that was notable um hello Burlington the chambers of commerce team here in the city launched their website and then this is kind of interesting Expedia noted searches for Burlington hotels raining from April 5th to April 8th of 25th where we're up 4515 percent which is pretty indicative of what we think is going to happen here and with that rates for room nights have gone up and those were bold rates so it could be even higher at this point did I hear you're renting your house I know people who are renting their house so the city is definitely committed and this administration committed to making sure that the real municipal angle of this is covered we are focused on really making sure that this is a safe and enjoyable experience for visitors and for the community that already lives here obviously so we have plans to fund and to produce you know enough amenities including bathrooms traction recycling at key places a parking system that we're still working on and it has some question marks on but a way to get people in and out of the city safely and somewhat quickly definitely purchasing safety glasses a club safety glasses a lot of those were out this year um are sorry this past weekend but um we'll need many many more we're thinking in the number of 50 000 the state also was providing a bunch of glasses but those are destined how we've learned for smaller communities um working on emergency services and planning much of that is ongoing and will be informed by some of the decisions that we're making here in the next couple weeks looking at building additional rv parking here in the city so Perkins pier and oxley and pine street people do travel by rv for these events and making giving them a place to go um also a revenue opportunity for us uh looking at travel control um it is hard it's a three-day period but we'd be really focused on that monday um but again um similar to some july third tactics but looking at how to get the cars into now and to the interstate quickly uh this school district has internally at least announced that they plan to make that a half day i think that's going to be announced here pretty soon um and uh wrote the projects both in burlington across the state are expected to not be happening on april 8th because of the many visitors are coming here um we think that while we are going to provide all those great services this is a chance to also really showcase vermont and burlington uh specific and all the this amazing community that we have here hopefully you know all these people are coming here for this eclipse but they'll realize it's a great place to be and come back or stay longer or um we're having a great time even though it's snowing exactly even on april 8th so um we want to encourage visitors to return to burlington we want to do that by showcasing the arts showcasing the businesses showcasing the what we have here in burlington that makes this place special um we also know this is a place to great revenue for businesses and through the city and for the city at large through you know sales tax and meals tax parking and camping fees so it's really our chance to go beyond just the municipal bathrooms and trash and and really showcase the cities to uh to our visitors uh so we have uh set about imagining a better event a bigger event and i will say we're not unique in this um there's a whole website of what states on this whole path of totality are doing um so most most cities are are you know making the most of it and trying to produce some kind of entertainment or some kind of cultural happening that it relates to the eclipse so um we have been we have our discussions with nasa state program administrator who's housed up at uvm um about collaborating with their programming that they're going to do bringing in keynote speakers they perhaps could give a speech up at uvm and then come to contact us and get the speech in the evening focused on the education and the science of it um we are working closely with echo uh they just did a small event for this saturday's eclipse but um this would be a much bigger event um we echo has a good relationship with the vermont astrological society um and uh they would uh astronomical we were supposed to fix that astronomical society i get this too we are in astronomy not astrology not doing tarot card readings right though actually that might be a good money i don't buy all of our you know tarot card readers to um to be well i'm sure the astrological society would love to get involved but we are going to work at astro astronomy uh side of that so um we would have educational tents at um in some of our venues some of our preferred viewing sites there's also a live tracking telescope that could present a feed that we could broadcast on the video wall or on the online as well um of the picture of the actual eclipse happening and then we look to this really meet a weekend event because it happens on a monday people aren't going to want to be here um probably friday saturday or sunday most with elevator requiring a two night stay so um we would want to have other programming starting that you know on friday and um those would be the good thing about that honestly is we can do those inside it is april so the weather could be uh touchy but if we do um purposeful programming that's eclipse related and appropriate on that friday saturday sunday indoors one it gives us some touch points with this visiting community we can treat the glasses we can distribute information try to educate people about how monday is going to go and also we can sell tickets and make some money in that way and we also can really showcase take that chance to showcase whether it's um music performance or the vso or projection like you see up there in um you unitarian church last highlight um we can really kind of showcase in a different way um what we have here in burlington that's a little bit of a smaller scale um and not the huge scale that one day right yeah um in this speaking more to monday we would direct attendees to some key viewing locations which are not solidified but at the moment include battery park waterfront park perkins pier oakwood park in the south end city of park right here in downtown and rooseville park in the old north end um we purposely want to spread people out we can only fit so many people in say waterfront park um or anywhere along the waterfront so by having things in rooseville park we could really kind of address the old north end population maybe maybe they would want to stay in the old north end and celebrate with their own community um same with oak ledge could you know direct people down to an avenue and get them to oakwood park where maybe the tourists would be more downtown and battery and waterfront park um it's hard to say obviously but uh it's our our thought that people are going to want to be um together and in a key being the only spot where they can actually see the cyclips in a really great way so and and I think what we've heard um and have discussed is working with the npa's and local organizations to work more uber local in communities so that geographically we cover the whole city and we allow people to do the things that are brick joy and gathering reasons you know in different parts of the city I I think that's a critical piece of this plan so I want to emphasize that this is not here right now but it is absolutely key I think to our success like we want to make sure people don't get stuck and can't get to a place but boy if you're in your neighborhood and in the new north end and you're out like why wouldn't you want to just stay there especially if there's you know a dj playing or a food truck or right you know hula who or keep keep the snow off your head now it's true but whatever it is I mean I I think after we are able to figure out the funding mechanism for this we can get really down into sort of how do we make this successful first and foremost for our citizens and then second generally for our visitors um one key sorry well if you want to think about that one keeping you can see the live narration up there one thing that we really want to do is have a scientist who understands what's what this is happening there are different stages to an eclipse provide live narration and that we would then stream that to all of our sites so no matter where you are you can hear this uh narration of what's actually happening um and what we're seeing there's also a point in that when it does reach totality where you can take off your glasses and look at it with your make an eye because most of the sun that's covered up at that time so um having to build a safety aspect and a scientific educational aspect to that we also would be interested in activating food trucks a little bit earlier and helping them do that and then very importantly we've worked with rolling to workforce and development to work to really talk to businesses and prep them for the large number of people are going to be in town and to be open on a Monday for instance it is going to be a large event not in the normal kind of tourism season so i'm helping them prep for that and be ready uh and to kind of amplify what they're doing for sure with that implication on the next slide we do have a lot of what we are calling partners right now i will say this list is is not complete and also it doesn't mean we've sat down and talked to every one of these people but each one of these people you know every one of those businesses or organizations has uh the ability to do something on the event on the eclipse and we would then amplify that by including it in our website in our marketing plan you would say you know we're doing this and this but you can go to radio bean and see this at 10 o'clock you can go to the boys and girls club is going to be doing this activity you can go to switch back or phone and really help take this moment to support our local economy and local businesses by us not doing it all by helping us tie the tie it all together and present a complete package of options to anyone who's visiting this area so um i think it's it's a great angle that we can do working through love growing to it and through the business workforce development and through bca and our connections but um getting the lanes here is to do something making sure that there's something happening with vita um in all these different places we are talking to the bsso as well um but a lot of great really potential there that we want to see come come to come to happen and that is the bulk of the programming and then we get to the money absolutely gets the mayor us and really what the board needs to to kind of weigh in on and and what we'll consider supporting so um hopefully this powerpoint the presentation from our great bca team gives you a sense of um both the opportunity kind of responsibility that we have with this event um during reference to this before my thought has been that um we would could approach it like this the city could tonight and next week commit to using reserves unassigned fund balance to front the two hundred thirty five thousand dollars of that is necessary or to commit to it we wouldn't actually have to like spend it all upfront but we would commit to give the team the ability to move forward knowing you know with a binding commitment that they would have sufficient funds to ensure the public health safety basic amenities budget we would you know if we had to use unassigned fund balance we would hope to recover much potentially all of that through enhanced revenues when this event actually happens assuming we have good weather and things are successful but there would be some risk that that does not all materialize that we do end up having to spend spend the reserve money and don't get it back we have to know that we have to acknowledge that upfront um I have gone to a number of business leaders in town various businesses that both will benefit from a weekend like this and with the sort of general positive experience of Burlington people coming here having a positive experience and that you know have a vested interest in there being a good experience here and one that could lead to future successes and said to them ask them if if they could come up with the essentially the two hundred thousand for the event and tourism and investment budget and um we have gotten a couple commitments so far um we just really had this meeting last week when we laid this out for a number of different businesses and uh I think overall the meeting went well and there was appreciation for both leadership say showing again the idea that there would be kind of a public private partnership if you will here I think by the time we get to next Monday our our goal is to have be able to share with the council a greater level of confidence that you know where we are on this and our level of confidence that we're going to make it I would say I'm I'm pretty optimistic that we can get to and it's question how much work we all have to put into getting there but I am pretty confident I'm sitting here right now I'm pretty confident we'll get there I'd be more ready to really be clear about that when we sit down next next week so that's our idea that's our our proposed strategic approach if you will to this and um hoping it's one that makes sense to my colleagues if that was basis or I think that's basically yeah right yeah it was really focused on sponsorship opportunities that we share with the group that you referenced so yeah why don't we pause there and Sarah Katz would want a free photo of my accent for sure thank you hi prison paul um over you hi sorry to join you so late I had a really had a really tough time for some reason getting on zoom um so I'm having to make the motion that's recommended in the memo thank you president bach is there a second a second second by tessar barlow thank you any discussion or questions go ahead I just want to thank bca counselor genuine myself sit on pack have seen a couple early iterations of the presentation appreciate how far it's developed even from the earliest stages where it was a lot of us conceptual seems like there's a lot more detail as we tell them looks good I'm not going to follow it this yeah thank you I'll second that I mean I think it would be important for maybe those who are watching those who are here to go to the facts um meeting last time I think the details about what we discussed was was was very good it was captured in the news from my perspective you can go back to the slide about yes with the entire packet but it was 95s wow thank you it was earlier in the summer yeah we did start at 95 nice job right there okay and I think you know uh we all understand the reality situation right now and we also all know that this is only for a couple hours right and we also all know that whoever's coming here to be in a hotel maybe you won't make you may not need anything from us right and to think about from the perspective of those who live here and I think the first the 230 times there are things that I completely agree with which is the security the promotion the traffic control you know the bathroom unit of etc couple of things but there are all the things that I feel we still can go back to all the businesses you know city place people we provide all of these um the the bathroom stuff that they should be able to do they have it it's just we have to transport it we have to put it for us we don't need to pay any money for it the shadows I mean it's this is not a night the buses will be running we definitely need to do how do we how we don't do that right and I think you know there are existing stuff from the city owns like buses and stuff like that how do we utilize all of it to not put any type of funding I mean the realities are not the same as it used to be putting 235 000 to preserve I would want to see you guys please consider the half of it this is this is a commitment from the city and how do you work around it to make it happen that's that's and I'm impressed by what you did to raise 204 000 we haven't gotten there yet yes but I think the thinking the thinking is you the thinking is beautiful how do we provide this great effort for the resolution for our students to make sure everybody's safe it's less money that means more thinking and we still have time but holding on the um I mean on the emotional improvement of us I don't think and I think this either can come back like maybe maybe at our next meeting it's something and then then you may have more information too about we have all these commitments but it's as possible can I can I understand some of these things if we don't pull the blog and say we're doing them we're going to be in trouble there's only so many part border parties in Chippin County there are other cities in the state in the state that are in the path of the eclipse and they are now beginning to think of it in fact St. Albans has already spent a hundred thousand dollars towards the eclipse and towards planning for their community and that includes no entertainment that's just plain public safety St. Albans so you know I think this is bare bones I think what I take from you to Councillor Janney is that we should do our best to bring in all those partners to um as much as possible underwrite this to the best of our ability which is you know a strong best but we need the permission now to go forward and if you look at that second part of the budget the event all we're saying is we're getting approval to spend it if we raise it yes if it comes from the private sector then we will do these additional things for event and tourism and community at large but the first part of that budget that is like the bare bonus Burlington being able to care for itself even if you have public buses running for example how do you bring thousands of people from UVM at a parking lot at the field house down to Burlington to get them safely back like that's an additional service the current service we have doesn't do that so this is adding into that this budget looks at everything we already do and already spend and these are additional charges so I don't I don't want to underplay that this has any there's this is there's no meat there's just meat on the bone there's no fat uh oh I got into a bad metaphor you know what I'm saying it's just and and um and I think maybe um our esteemed financial advisor and all of a sudden we'll forgot your title um could explain what we already looked to as the way that through rooms and meals and other ways that with these number of people in town we can already expect to find additional revenues that will support some of that public safety the end of the day yes I think that's a good good question right but I think also that's that's that's maybe keep that in mind in terms of if different raising funds that come if it rains if all of our calculation did not go as expected right but those who are in a home and meal how much extra money the city would be getting I think it would be good to know from the same but at the same time I think as part of your plan talk about UPM and you pushing for UPM to stay there that we don't know yet we also do now have like bike infrastructure people can buy from places to places and it's going to be even a bit faster for them because there would be a lot I'm not saying no I'm saying this is great and I love it right but let's let's also you know go incrementally and I just as as we move forward but from my perspective in reserve for just a couple hours you know it's related to that's what I'm saying okay thank you Kester Jang I understand the perspective and certainly I think your point that maybe some of what's in the top could be provided in kind you know the city police team's definitely on the list and got what they've got a request here and if they want to and they've seen the whole budget so they think they can best make their gift for example by using their equipment as opposed to the cash that we've talked about that would be definitely a conversation we'd be open to with them and and you know somewhat fungible if somehow people really want to help us on the top side that we accept that I you know again I'm I can understand the desire to keep working on this before giving the fault amendment I do I've been I'm persuaded by the BCA team that now you know events like this cannot be planned overnight they really we've we've been putting them through their paces as was mentioned they've gone to PAC committees talked about this for some time the plan has evolved you know it's taken I this this proposal went through several revisions before I was ready to bring it forward and have this discussion so I think we're really at the point now where we need green like this doesn't mean there will still be refinements new ideas that come up from here can still be pursued there's still a lot of work to be done I mean there's all the work to be done from here but I think we're gonna be in trouble if we don't give them the green light to move forward now and you know it really is one of those situations there's risks to not acting too if we don't act we don't pull this off right we screw something up in terms of a basic public health public safety when this event happened we could end up having a far bigger financial problem for for the city through you know through something going wrong later so our spectator coming from it I hope maybe this has been persuasive for you and you might be able to green light it at this point or maybe uh uh you know if this is going forward to the full council next week maybe we can continue to to talk and still get your support when it goes to full council I I am hoping we can vote this out tonight and if there are no other comments I think I will go because we're still a couple more items after this right yeah so um is there anyone any other burning comments on this or can we go go to a vote and keep working to try to get councillor Jang's support over the next week very quick one and I think the next last part meeting I think first thing for you guys every month we'll come to plan to discuss it and you know we'll keep an eye for support it's important we'll be there one of us will definitely always be there make sure that council gets the glasses first ones yeah all right we have a motion a second I think that's fishing discussion if there's no further um the schedule go to vote all those in favor or motion please say aye bye are there any opposed we lose I think we lost president Paul so um vote carries by sorry did you yeah you voted with us thank you councillor Jang I appreciate it and but I understand we got some of the work to do still and we'll be we'll be getting more information over the next week um that uh let's go to the last item which is the FY 25 operating budget for the Winooski Valley park district did we make the change here on the recommended action we did yes um and my question is um do we kind of um someone from the Winooski Valley park district who is here and it appears we may have gotten our wires crossed I asked him in order to um come and just be available to answer the questions um he is not we can invite him back if you wish otherwise um this is a pretty straightforward request this is a request um for an item that appears every year in our regional programs budget um if you decide you have questions it's an FY 25 request so we have plenty of time um I just wanted to send it to you as soon as I got it um but if there's anything we need to do if someone just wanted to accept the communication and put it on file that is our new motion go ahead yes sir I didn't have quite enough questions okay yes but but perhaps we could just forward questions yes why don't we do them to me yeah I can send them on to Nick and then if it turns out Karen's back um that you would like to have him come again there's plenty of time to schedule that if we can do it over email we'll do it that way or if there are more for my own information about the Musque Valley Park District and its relationship to the municipalities this is fine excellent great and this is really something we would be this is a request for the upcoming budget year we have until June to fully act on this so we have plenty of time for that in our state yeah I was in prison bomb hi um I I'm not really sure what's going on with zoom I'm just having a difficult time I I would like to at least have voted yes on the other item if it's possible to if the city attorney allows that you're present yeah we can cast that vote okay great we'll make sure the director shows that uh you both made the motion and uh and and supported it so thank you principal and uh it was unanimous I don't know if you heard after the conversation Councillor Jang it was unanimous vote um right so uh that's good um thanks I'll admit on this one I don't think we have a motion in do we we do not we are looking for a motion to accept the communication and or would you like to postpone this until I'm happy to make that motion okay thank you councillor Barlow is our second yep second thank you councillor Jang um uh but if uh but if you want to just be clear if you'll get a email exchange going if if you do feel need to come back and discuss it please let's let me know what cap or no we'll do that uh it's just no further discussion we'll go oh Councillor Jang sorry and what he's wondering is we can identify what points for standing committee where they can go and have this discussion where the missus city missus city council see we allow the council they could be invited I think as part of the request um yeah and also I'm accepting the communication facing it on file does it necessarily mean that we accept to fund correct that's right it just means yeah we will have to come back and we'll do that as part of the budget process this just means we have to receive this yeah okay thank you um it's actually just at the winters new ally park district uh last week with nick warner they just celebrated their 50th anniversary so uh they see no striking milestone and it is an interesting uh entity that has this sort of inner municipal responsibility works with eight different municipalities and um these are responsible really for quite a bit of land so um uh great glad to have a little discussion now and if there are more questions later we'll have more so with that I'll let's favor of accepting the communication placing on file they say hi hi hi sorry pose keep watching carries unanimously that includes our deliberative agenda there's no objection given that we are adjourned at 6 10 p.m we'll see everybody next monday thank you thanks everybody thanks