 Okay. You're all set. 734 we're recording. Thank you. All right. I'm going to call this meeting of the governance organization and legislation committee to order at 735 p.m. I'm going to start with checking to make sure members of the committee can hear and be heard and are marked as present. We'll start with George Ryan. Present. Lynn Griesmer. Present. Pat Dangelis. Present. Hi, everybody. All right. So we have a lovely agenda today. Thank you to Athena for posting it. We're going to move to public comment. If there are members of the public who would like to make public comment for up to two minutes on. Topics relevant to the jurisdiction of this committee. You can raise your hand at this point. All right. I'm going once. Going twice. Okay. Moving on to the rest of our agenda. Oh, Athena, sorry. I just wanted to note that just a reggae is in the audience. She's one of the community sponsors for the. The resolution that's on the agenda. So if you'd like to get. When we discuss the resolution. When you're done. Yeah. We all are getting ahead of me. It was on my list. I am aware she is a sponsor. Thank you very much for the reminder. Sorry. It's okay. It's fine. I appreciate it. It's better to stay more on top of it than less on top of it. So all good. Okay. So we are going to move on to item three on our agenda, which is. Resolution for a ceasefire in Gaza. Pat, you are the council sponsor. And we have our community sponsor here. I'm actually not able to bring folks into the room. Even if I wanted to. So. And I'm going, I'm going to ask right away that the. Other. Cease fire resolution that's in the packet. I didn't believe it says it was added 11. Hours ago. It starts with 233 Amherst residents. That's the one we're actually going to be reviewing. And I apologize for having so many versions in the packet. No problem. Lynn, are you able to lend your muted, but are you able to pull that one up? Thank you. And I'd like to thank you. Lynn for having this up on the screen so we can look at it. I want to run with today's date on the end. Thank you. Yeah. As Lynn is pulling that up, I'd like to remind the committee that we are looking at clarity, consistency and action ability of these resolutions. One of the things that I put into the packet. What. Did it make it into the packet? Yes. Was the FAQs for resolutions, proclamations, citations, citations. And that is the reason I put that in the packet was to just remind this committee of what our role is when we look at these resolutions. So thank you. Thanks, Lynn. All right. So. Welcome. Is it. Yosna. Can you pronounce your name for me, please? No. Jocena. Jocena. Welcome. Thank you so much for being our leader. Thank you. I know that there are a lot of community sponsors on this and thank you for joining us tonight. Thank you. Councilor Devlin got here. There's another community sponsor here today with me. I don't know if she can be let in. Her name is Jennifer Cannon. Yes, we can bring her in. Athena, are you able to give me the power to do this? That way Lynn can keep the. Keep screen sharing. Oh, yes. I'll make you a co-host. Thank you. But I can also I'll bring Jen. Thank you so much. Yeah. I think. Perfect. Okay. All right. So I think we've got everybody now. Excellent. All right. Pat, is there anything you'd like to say before we start? Looking at this. I want to say that it's gone through many iterations. It's a very powerful resolution about a very important issue. I would prefer if Jawsna would like to make a statement that would feel very good to me. Okay. Jawsna or Jen, anything you'd like to add. And welcome Jen. Sorry. We were, we brought you into the room. And I got sort of distracted, but I did not welcome you. Thank you so much. It's good to be here. Would either of you like to say anything before we, before we start? We didn't really prepare to say anything because we didn't think you would be speaking to content. Follow up. Council President Greece. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. Okay. Council President grease, Merz formatting. The only, we did a few updates as we informed you about some of the statistics, but kept the formatting the same. Okay. Thank you. All right, folks, let's, let's start in on, on checking this for clarity, consistency and actionability. 240 instead of 233. And we would like to attach a list to the resolution at the end that lists all 240 people. Okay. I think that's, that's fine, right? There's nothing stopping that from, yeah. Okay, great. Any other, Pat, do you have anything else on this? No, I don't think so. Just now you said that you had one or two things that you, in the last email you sent me. It was mostly just grammar and updating because when we first submitted this it was some, it was about the 22nd of January. So it was just raising the number of deaths and... Is there anything right now that you... I don't see anything. I think we've cross-proofed this a few times. I think this is exactly the way we feel it, it's all set from our end. Unless there's anything we don't know about that, we should change. Thank you. George? Well, I think you've answered my question. I mean, I have to confess it's difficult to... I mean, I'm looking at older versions. I'm looking at this version. What I'm hearing is that there have been no substantive changes. There have been no new where-as is. And as far as the language, the changes are very small. I do spend time looking at these in advance and it is frustrating then to find out. Not going to look at it again. But what I'm hearing is that I shouldn't be too upset because the changes are, a couple numbers have been changed, but there's been no new clauses introduced and nothing has been taken out as far as clauses, as far as where-as is and now there for us. Yes. Thank you. And the changes are maybe a matter of just slight style or something like that. Ideally, it's helpful to actually see the changes because we do actually look at this. I tried to have that happen, but it didn't work with my sponsor. I'm looking at the screen. I'm looking at this. I'm looking at that. So maybe if you could just, as we go through it, usually we go through it section by section, you could just mention what you've changed, if anything. That would be the easiest way to do it. My hand should not be up. I'm sorry. That's okay. Thank you, George, for that suggestion. I have one really little note which is, and this is the most minor thing and I hate that I'm doing this because I told myself I wasn't going to be that person. We typically capitalize all the where-as is in all caps, just for consistency with every other resolution, that was something, but that is not a major deal here. All right. So starting off, any issues? We're going line by line. Any issues with the title? Clarity, consistency, actionability. Okay. My only thing about actionability is I might, if you want me to be picky here, I might say resolution in support of a ceasefire in Gaza because the Amherstown Council cannot itself declare a ceasefire. That would be my only thing if we wanted to be picky about actionability that this is a resolution in support of a ceasefire in Gaza. I don't know if other committee members feel similarly about this. I would agree. I think it's an excellent point. Okay. Could we make that? Are the sponsors okay with that? Yes. I have one thing. Alicia Walker has asked to be a council sponsor as well. Okay. And thank you for the title correction. That's a good one. Do we need to be doing track changes or is it okay for us to just submit two? We can just do this, I think. Okay. Great. Thank you. I don't, yeah. Okay. All right. Elena's catching up with my, I'm going to keep going while she's, while she's reading here. So first line is whereas, lost it. Whereas on October 16th, 2023, the Amherstown Council gave unanimous support to a resolution condemning the October 7th Hamas attack on Israel that took nearly 1200 lives. There should be a comma in that, I believe. One comma two zero zero. Oh, yes. Oh, one comma two. Second line. Yep. Keep going. Keep going. No, all the way to 1200. Right there. You passed it. Yep. Right there. Yep. She's, she's doing great. She's a trooper. Is this Lynn? Nope. Not there, Lynn. Between the one and the two and the number. Nope. Between the one and two. And I would say to Josna and Jen, Lynn is learning how to do this part. Thank you, Lynn. All right. No more, no more on that. Not seeing any hands. Next up is, where, sorry, I'm going to wait till, Lynn, can we do that as we get to each paragraph? So whereas on, since October 7th, 2023, the Israeli government's siege of Gaza has killed more than 27,500 Palestinians, most of them civilians, nearly half of them children and any clarity, consistency or actionability framing in this one. Okay. Next up, whereas more than 1.9 million residents of Gaza have been forced to leave their homes, many of them displaced multiple times and any concerns with this one? Okay. Whereas humanitarian aid into Gaza has been blocked, threatening more than half a million people with death from starvation and disease and okay, no hands. Whereas during the temporary ceasefire in November 2023, 110 Israeli and international hostages and 240 Palestinian prisoners were released. Since then, no further hostages or prisoners have been freed and more than 25 have died. And should it be hostages nor prisoners? I think it's correct as it is. Thank you. Thank you. It was a legitimate question. I did not know. Okay. Whereas since October 7th, 2023, the United States government has pledged an additional 14 billion of unconditional, sorry, Lynn, your little thing is blocked. I think just if you click somewhere else, it might go away. Yep. Unconditional military aid to the Israeli government and set 250 million without congressional approval and okay, not seeing anything. Thank you. Whereas the United States was the only nation to veto the UN Security Council call for a ceasefire and whereas the conflict is rapidly spreading to the West Bank, Lebanon, Yemen, Iraq, Syria and beyond and nothing. Okay. Whereas the climate of fear, anger and disinformation in the US and Amherst has been no exception. In the US and Amherst has been no exception has led to an escalation of threats, hate speech and hate crimes against Jewish, Palestinian, Muslim, Muslim and Arab Americans. Should we spell out United States? Sure. If we do that, should we also spell out United Nations and the one that's too higher? Thank you. Okay. So we're done with the warehouses. Moving on to the now therefore. Now therefore, let it be resolved or now therefore be it resolved that we, the Amherst Town Council, call for an immediate and sustained ceasefire in Gaza and end the Israeli military siege of the Gaza Strip, the release of the hostages and detainees on both sides, the removal of obstacles to urgently needed humanitarian aid entering Gaza and an end to unconditional US military aid to the Israeli government. So United States. Yeah. Thank you. Yep. Next one. Be it further resolved that we extend our support to all of the broken hearted to all the broken hearted and vulnerable members of our Amherst community who are directly affected by this ongoing crisis, reaffirm our commitment to the safety of all members of our community and pledge to join with others seeking just and peaceful solutions. Do we need ands? No, we don't. No, we just end it. Okay. Thank you. Just and peaceful solutions. Okay. No comments on that one. This is so minor, but I think the B needs to be moved over just one. I think you're right. I think there's a space. That's better. Thank you. Be it further resolved that the clerk of the Amherst Town Council shall cause a copy of this resolution to be sent to President Joseph Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, Senator Elizabeth Warren, Senator Edward Markey and Representative Jim McGovern. Okay. All right. Seeing no further edits to this, I move to declare the resolution in support of a ceasefire in Gaza, clear, consistent and actionable. Second. Thank you. Calling the vote. Lynn Grismer. I declare consistent and actionable. Thank you. George Ryan. Okay. Sorry. Councilor Ate. I'm messing that up. Sorry. Pat D'Angeles. Hi. Great. Thank you. It is clear, consistent and actionable. This will be going back to the council. Lynn, I can't remember when you have it. Is this for the next meeting? Yes. Yes. Anna, did you vote? I vote I. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Thank you very much. Thank you for your work in general. So thank you so much. Thank you. We're really hoping this is something that will bring our town together. Thank you. We'll see you soon. Thanks. All right. So moving on. I'm remembering I need to do those report things. So I'm writing a my report as we go. Okay. So we're moving on. The next item on our agenda is update on an upcoming agenda item. So I made a truly chaotic outline for myself of what GOL has on the docket. And it's not in your packets because I don't want folks to feel bound to things. And so I'm just going to share with you what's coming up in the next couple meetings verbally so that you have an idea, but know that things may shift as they come across. So today our goal is to get through a couple of different things. And there was a bit of confusion. So I want to clarify a couple of things. We are hoping to determine the pool. Well, we're going to look at both the pools for the Charter Review Commission and the Finance Committee. No, not the Finance Committee. Right, Athena? No, not that one. Just the Charter Commission to determine if it is sufficient. You don't have a pool yet. Right. And then the mix-up was that I had thought the Finance Committee position was already posted, but we haven't approved that posting and we need to do that first. So we're going to look at the posting for Finance Committee so we can start moving on that process. But we'll be prioritizing the Charter Review in our calendar because we want to have them seated by April. So that's the goal. So as we kind of move through the process, I don't have dates for it set, but the goal is to get them seated by April. So or a recommendation back. So then coming down the pike, we're going to have two, at least two resolutions at our next meeting. We'll have the resolution for Child Abuse Awareness and Prevention Month, as well as the, what's the official title of it, the Tibetan Recognition Day. That's not the title, but Pat? Yeah, I would also thank you, Tibetan National Day of Uprising. Yes, thank you. Also, there was a COVID Remembrance Day, which is on March 2nd. And I've reached out to the original community sponsor to find out if they, I believe it's going to happen every year. So I'd like to add that to the agenda. Okay, so it will be added to the agenda once it's referred. I'm trying to keep things in mind, but wait until they're referred to me to add them in. It is not currently on there because it was not brought forward by a counselor yet this year. If you're bringing it forward, amazing. As soon as it's referred, I'll put it on the calendar. Is my saying I want it on the calendar not a referral, or does it have to come from Lin? Lin, you make a note of it. You have to send her the text, Pat. That's, yeah. Okay. So once that comes through, that will absolutely get added. What I'm hoping to do at the next meeting, if we determine the full sufficient today, is start to move on with the Charter Commission to think about interview questions and selection guidance. This will be something that we will determine in our committee. And so I'd like folks to start spending some time thinking about what that looks like. Please review the charge for the Charter Commission and consider what selection guidance we will consider. And similarly what interview questions might be helpful in that process. One of the items, I believe that's in your packet today. Yes. So what is in your packet today is an example from FinCom of what selection guidance looks like and what interview questions have looked like. It's a totally different committee, but that might give you an idea of kind of what they, how they've been framed for other committees in the past. And if you are needing some inspiration, that might be a helpful place to start. Questions about that, those two upcoming, those are going to take the bulk of our time for a little while. We do have a lot of other things that are coming down the pike. Sorry, my computer. It's like past eight o'clock, or past seven o'clock. So it's decided to slow down. At our next meeting, we're going to start discussing the legislative process guide, but likely what this is going to be is saying here's how we're going to start thinking about this process because most of our time is really, truly going to be committed to the Charter Commission. We do have to get a report back on the legislative process guide at the end of February to the council. And so what I'd like to do in our next meeting is spend some time thinking about how we want to approach that topic and how it makes sense to establish what we want to do with that guide. At the next meeting, we will also be discussing committee liaisons. The committees have to tell Lynn by the 15th whether or not they would like a liaison. We then look at the list to determine which committees we are going to recommend to the council receive liaisons. So I will be that list, plan for that list to be in your packet and think through what makes sense, which committees make sense to have liaisons. I recommend when you look at that list, think you can decide however you would like. My process that I'm going to use for myself is thinking about the goals, the policy goals that we've set for the town manager and which committees are might benefit from a liaison with that perspective, because many, many committees would like a liaison. They are not guaranteed one. Councilors get to choose whether they will be a liaison and which committee they would like to liaise to, which is a real word. Okay. Questions on any upcoming agenda items? That's the next meeting and then we've got plenty of stuff after that. Okay. All right. We're going to move on to the 2024 Charter Review Committee appointment recommendations to town council. So first up, yes, Athena, what did I do? Nothing. You don't have to interrupt yourself to call on me. I just wanted to point out that the Excel spreadsheet is the that's in the SharePoint packet is the summary of the community activity forms that have been received. Please don't put that up on the screen. It's not a public document. There was one name that is crossed out. That person is withdrawn. Thank you so much. All right. So based on that list, there are 11 people that have submitted CAFs for this for the Charter Review Committee, and there are nine spots on the Charter Review Committee. Am I correct that there is not a specific number or percentage that we use to determine it's typically what what we've done in the past is that we typically look for double the amount of spots, but that's not a hard and fast rule. Lynn question. I actually want Athena to go first and answer that question and then come back to me. All right. Athena. In the council's policy on making recommendations for appointments to multiple member bodies, there is some sort of preliminary selection guidance and guidance for determining whether the applicant pool is sufficient. So if you want to take a look at that, it's it's not a hard and fast rule. It's up to the committee to look at the demographics and where people live in town and to determine whether they feel that the applicants are representative of the Amherst community. But if you do look at that, the council policy on making recommendations, then you'll see a short list of consider. You muted yourself, but I'm going to pull it up because I have it. I was looking at it earlier, so I was I was done. Okay. All right. So this is the process as it's defined, sufficiency of the applicant pool. So the number of applicants relative to the number of vacancies are impending vacancies. We strive for more applicants than vacancies always. So in that in that box, just so folks know we have 11 out of nine spots. Demographic diversity of the applicant pool. We strive for a diverse applicant pool, including racial, economic, gender and generational diversity. I don't have those numbers broken out. Are there any comments that folks have after looking at the applicant pool and this the the that selection guidance is in your packet. Lynn. Yeah, I'm I really hate to go into this with only two people more than we need. And I would like to call upon all of us to get this advertisement out. It's also been pointed out to me that it's hard to find on our web. And so I would really like us to leave it open for at least two more weeks before we declare it full because I I just don't think it's sufficient. Thank you. George. Yeah, it's not sufficient. Period. So we have a lot more work to do. I put in my newsletter, but that I don't think produce much. But we just have to go out and and find more people. It should be at least twice as many. I think for something as important as this. And in my previous experience when you create a body and you are basically just barely have enough. It doesn't go well. So we need to get more people. I am inclined to agree with both of you. I also think when you look at the demographic data, there's there's a lot of homogeneity there. So I think we can we can improve in that arena as well. So we are not going to declare the do I need to make that a motion Athena or is it just because I'm not making a motion to approve it? It's just remaining unapproved. Yeah, nobody's making a motion to do that. So you're all good. We don't need a negative All right. Thank you. We'll stay positive. Okay. So, oh, Lynn, sorry. I thought it was the same. I just want to make sure that for the people who have put their names for, we say, thank you. The fact that we would like to see more applicants is no reflection on the people that are actually in the pool. And we want to hear people to hear that loud and clear. Thank you. I can send an email out. Athena sent a note out to the folks. Thank you so much for doing that, Athena. I can send another note out just letting them know we're going to keep the process open for at least two more weeks. And at that point, we will be determining if the pool was almost just that clear, consistent and actionable. Athena, is that yes, what do you have to say? You don't have to interrupt yourself when I raised my hand. I feel like I do because I feel like I'm heading down the wrong path and you're trying to stop me from doing that. What are you saying? No, not at all. I wanted to know that there have been, I've been receiving many questions about the deadline to either submit a community activity forum or the statement of interest. And so I wanted to say during the meeting that once the committee establishes that the applicant pool is sufficient and sets the interview date, then according to the council's policy, the chair determines the deadline for submitting the statements of interest. So even after the committee declares the applicant pool is sufficient, people can continue to submit community activity forms to apply. They just need to make sure they get their statement of interest in before the deadline the chair sets. And that deadline is usually just far enough in advance of the interview date that we have an opportunity to post the applicant names on the agenda and put their statements of interest on the website. Thank you for letting me share that. That was really helpful and I want to thank George who put a really helpful timeline in the packet from the first GOL when I believe you were doing finance appointments that works it backwards. So thank you. Thank you for that, George. That was really helpful. Councillor Ate. I had several constituents ask what the time commitment would be. Is that something that is set in the charter or is that going to be determined by the group once it has confirmed? I don't think that it is a pre I'm pulling up the charge now to confirm. There is not a set determined amount of time. Inland, do you have a clearer concept of this? Technically they are supposed to report back within a year. So it does mean that it could be a fairly intense year. I want to recognize that Athena will be staffing this charter commission, charter review committee. There may be a certain way in which they go through certain pieces of the charter and they do have to seek a fair amount of public input in the process. So I don't think it is going to be as heavy a lift as being on the council but I also don't think it is going to be a once a month meeting. I think they should assume it is going to be at least twice a month during the time. Thank you. It is a really good question. It is a relevant question and it is one that does not have a super clear answer. Councillor Ryan. Just looking at the charge and the one thing that it says is they have to produce three reports, initial report, preliminary report and final report. So I think they are going to have to figure out the timeline on that. I think Lynn is right at least twice a month sounds fairly reasonable but at some point the requirement is to produce those three reports. And the last one has to be by April 1st of 2025 which is really why we want to get them seated by April 1st of this year so that they have a full year. So what this likely means for us because we are not determining the pool sufficient, the clear consistent actual thing is just so stuck in my head, but because we are not determining the pool sufficient today, I want folks to consider that we will likely need to add some meetings to conduct the interviews for this process. That will likely be in March. So it would be really helpful for me if you could let me know which right now I'm thinking if there are Thursdays that you like if we kept our same meeting time, if there are Thursdays that you know you will not be here in March, please email me those dates. And if we need to look for additional times to accommodate possibly some of the applicant schedules and our own, we may need to do that. I'm not going to totally cross that bridge until we get there but I am anticipating needing to add extra meetings for the interviews specifically given the number of candidates that we need to have in order for the pool to be sufficient. If we're saying we want, I know not everybody is set on the number of 18 at least but if we're talking about that as a ballpark number to shoot for that's a lot of folks to do an interview for. So we're going to want to dedicate some, we'll need to dedicate some time for that. And there's, even if we just committed our meetings to it, there's just not enough time before April. Lynn? And this really needs to come to the council with a recommendation for April 1. Yep, exactly. No fooling. No fooling. Ha ha ha. Okay. So I know that was a downer but any other questions on this part of the process? Pat? You're muted. You're muted. Sorry. I'm sorry. Would it be valuable if people could offer other evenings? I know Councillor Ate is working during the week, during the daytime hours. So if there are other days I think we need that, we may need that potential. Understood, as I also work during the weekdays. Athena? I was also going to suggest looking at other days of the week, I think there's going to be significant interest in these interviews. I think because it's a council appointment that's important to a lot of councillors you might consider a Monday evening on and off council meeting because you might have a lot of councillors and attendants, but I would suggest not creating this as an interview process, the full council. I hope that councillors attend and watch, but I think it could get really confusing if it's a joint meeting of GOL and the council, but holding it on a date that works for Bull I think would be wise. Yeah, I agree. And my plan was to, I will be soliciting interview questions and selection guidance thoughts from other councillors, they're welcome to send them to me and I'll be announcing this at the meeting. So because we ask only the questions that are on our interview questions sheet, councillors will be able to attend as audience members and still hear the responses from folks because we wouldn't, we're not going to go off track anyway. Thank you. Councillor Ryan. Am I correct in understanding that we do however allow a follow-up question? Is that true? So in the old days back in my ancient times, you were restricted to just the questions on the sheet. Maybe Pat remembers or Lynn, but when we go through this process, are you allowed to ask a follow-up question or not? Or maybe we'll go to that later. I think that we can decide that as a committee don't believe that there's any particular rule about that. So we can, maybe we can talk about that when we talk about the interview questions. That sounds good. Okay. Does everyone remember your homework about this topic? I will remind you. Please look at the committee charge and then please consider and look, I want you to review three things. The committee charge, the selection guidance for the finance member and the interview questions for the finance member, which both of which should give you an idea of what we are going to start to look for in terms of how it's framed, how it's contextualized. And I'd like you to start thinking about selection criteria or selection guidance, excuse me, and interview questions that might be relevant for this. All right. We will revisit this at our next meeting. Please, please, please push this out to your networks. I'll be asking counselors to push it out to theirs as well. All right. Moving on. Non-voting finance committee member appointment recommendation to the town council. So because we haven't posted it, we don't have an applicant pool to deem sufficient. So what we're going to do instead, Athena, do we need to vote to approve the vacancy notice? The vacancy notice that I put in the packet was a vacancy notice that had been used in the past. So if someone wants to bring that up and edit it to the committee satisfaction, you don't need to vote to approve it. But if you can agree by consensus, at least then it's in the shape that you'd like it to. And if I need to update links or anything like that, I could do it before I post it. And I also wanted to note while I'm unmuted, I put in the SharePoint packet the list of community activity forms that we've received for the non-voting finance committee members. That's not officially the pool. That's just the applications we've received since January per second. Those folks, if they don't count as being in the pool until after the vacancy notice is posted. So anyone that's applied in the last two years, including those folks that have applied since January 2nd will need to be contacted to determine if they're still interested and then submit a CAF to be considered in this interview process. Sorry for needing to type. Okay, so this is the posting from last time. My question when I was looking at this posting first is that we are filling a vacancy. We are not may be filling a vacancy. And then my only other question, Athena, is it typical to put the date of the date the term ends on the posting? I'm not looking at it carefully right now, but I think we do put the date the term ends. And I would have to check on that because I don't remember when Bob's term was set to end. I don't think it's this year. I think it's next year, but I have to check. I believe Bob's term ends this year, but I will double check. And I think that it's not currently in the posting. So I do think that we should, I think it would be stronger if we add that in. Yeah, I can add that after we don't know it now, but I know Bernie's term ends this year. I don't think they were all in the same schedule. I thought we just reappointed Bernie. Bernie's term ends this year and Matt ends in 2025. When just Bob said, his end, because he's on the council and it didn't write that one down. January 2025, I pulled it up. Okay, sorry. No, it was fun. I was like, I know the answer. I know the answer. I'm just going to interrupt you. Okay. It's not a good solution. I 10 out of 10 do not recommend doing that. And I apologize for interrupting. No, it doesn't bother me. Okay. They can still contact George if they want to. Athena? I was going to say you're going to change that. You said January 2025, but I think you mean June 30, 2025. It says on the website that he was appointed January 2024 and it expires in January 2025. Oh, that's his term as a counselor. Yes, yes. I changed that. That's his council term. That's why I have to go back and check. If you just put a highlighted space in there, I can check and put in the right expiration date before I post it. It doesn't have to be perfect right this second. Okay. Yeah. The vacant position does say 2025. But yeah, great. Perfect. Thank you. But then it would be, yeah, it would be June 30 then. Okay. All right. But we'll just, can you highlight that lens so Athena can confirm it before we do that? Where I highlighted it to just add a date the term ends here. Oh, yeah. Sorry. It was, I think your cursor was over at residency, the highlight. Perfect. Thank you. Okay. Can I, this is just occurring to me that we are going to turn right around and have to do this again in June? For burning, yeah. For burning. Correct. Athena. I'm not sure that Lynn was finished. I am for the moment. Okay. I think there were, I, so I think what you're getting at Lynn is that why don't we just wait maybe until June to appoint two members. But I think there were feelings of some finance committee members that they wanted to get someone seated quickly so that they could be part of the budget process for this year. I totally agree with that. But I just want to mention that we should be keeping our eye out while we do the interviews that we'll have yet another one open because Bernie by then will have served two terms or maybe he didn't serve two full terms and he could be reappointed. So I just, I just want to mention that. That's all. I definitely feel we should be appointing this person as soon as possible and in time for the budget season. George, Councilor Ryan. Sorry. So the point is we have two vacancies within a very short period of time and Lynn is correct and we're going to have to fill them both. And so we should keep that in our, in our heads. Is there a minimum date that we can post? Does it have to be vacant before we post it? Athena or George, I don't know who wears their hand first. I think Athena. The vacancy notice needs to be posted for at least 14 days before the committee can declare the applicant pool sufficient. The committee can post a vacancy notice for an impending vacancy. But I would have to check and see how early, I think it's awkward to post it too early, but you would want to be able to make an appointment recommendation so that that person can be seated by July 1st. Okay. All right. I know we're going to be revisiting this again soon, but I think because of the timing, we're just going to have to do it twice. That's my, that's my hot take. Councilor Ryan. So that's how we get this interesting wording between will be appointing and may be appointing, right? So we will be appointing someone because we only have two slots at the moment, but when we come around the next time, we may be. So that makes sense. Athena. There's only one vacancy currently, George. But the other vacancy doesn't exist until July 1, but the committee can anticipate that and then post a vacancy notice in advance so that they can make a recommendation. Okay. Thank you. All right. So general consensus, if we add in the date that the term ends, are folks okay with this bulletin board posting? Can we just say member, not members at the top in the title? Okay. Any, any further desire where you want the date to be? Is it, I'll just let Athena do whatever I would like the date. My thought, and I am not the ruler of the world as much as I wish I were, is that it would make sense to go at the end of that first sentence. The town council, so it would say the town council is filling a vacancy for the resident member on the finance committee and is currently seeking applications. The term would be from X date to X date. Something along those lines. Or for a term. For a term. Yeah, that's better. For a term. Immediately. Yeah. It's actually immediately upon being sworn in, but I think it's close enough for government work to say this. Okay. And am I wrong here in thinking that it would then be June of, or right June 30th of two years hence? No, because it's filling, it's finishing Bob's term. It's not a new appointment. So it would be, we think June 2025, but Athena's going to finish it. The next one will be two years. Okay. I'm seeing no ardent disagreement to this. So I think we are good to say there's general consensus on this being posted. Once it is posted, I'm just, I'm saying this out loud to confirm it to myself because I want to confirm my to-do list here. Once it is posted, I will reach out to the folks that have submitted CAFs within the past two years, I think, or one year. And encourage them to submit another CAF in order to apply for this spot, this vacancy. And we will go from there. We'll leave it open for a short, well, for as long as we need to. I think, Athena, is it, am I allowed to keep tabs with you on the numbers to know how many folks before we bring it back on the agenda? Yeah. Okay. You'll all receive the CAFs through your emails. They'll be able to see, but if you want me to run that same kind of Excel report so you can see them all in one place, I can do that anytime. Okay. I'll let you know. Okay. Councilor Ryan. Some people wonder why they have to submit a CAF a second or a third time. And my recollection is it's basically so that other council members are aware of what's happening in the process. In the past, when we didn't require that, there were people in the pool that other councilor simply didn't know about because they didn't have access or they weren't members of our committee. So that's, first folks who might say, well, I've already submitted one. Why do I have to do it again? That's, and it only takes a minute. It's not a big deal. But it then alerts other members at rest of the council that that so-and-so is submitted a CAF with this. Thank you. That's a really helpful note that I will include in my email to folks when I send it. Okay. Excellent. The agenda had 2024 council liaisons to multiple member bodies. This was an error that's supposed to be on the next agenda, not this one. There is no update on Lynn. Yeah. Let me just give a quick update. We've sent out a solicitation to every committee. So far, eight committees have come back and said they would like a liaison. And we haven't even heard from some of the committees that presently have them. So I'll be sending a reminder out probably on Monday. Excellent. Thank you so much. Yep. All right. So look forward to that next meeting. We do have minutes to approve. They were in the packet. These are the minutes of January 25th, 2024, our first thrilling meeting. Do I have a motion to approve the minutes? If not, I will. All right. I'm going to move to approve the minutes of January 25th, 2024. Do I have a second? Second. Okay. Thank you. Calling the vote. Councillor Ryan. Hi. Lynn Grismer. Hi. Councillor Ate. Hi. Pat D'Angeles. Hi. I am an I as well. That is unanimous. Thank you all so much. I do not have any topics unanticipated since 48 hours ago. And with that, I think we are ready to depart. I will see you all on the 22nd, having done your homework, correct? Excellent. Oh, crap. We're ending early. Look, I have things timed out on my little calendar, and they're not quite going the way I anticipated, but I'm pleased with how it went, mostly because of the finance committee thing. I thought we'd be talking about that longer. Oh, sorry. Other, before we do adjourn, you know that we will be doing finance selection criteria and interview questions. If you've got extra time and want to start looking at those sooner, that would not be a bad idea for things to do. Yes, ma'am. Thank you. All right. Thank you all so much, Athena. Thank you very, very much. Is that a goodbye, Lynn? I think she's waving herself. She's not flipping herself. Thank you all. Oh, sorry. All right. Have a great night, everybody.