 We're gonna get started. I will call the Board of Finance to order at 5.05 p.m. on March 20th, 3, and personally on the agenda is the agenda. I'm hoping it can be moved with one late change, which is 5.01. We are not ready to address tonight. Okay. So with that, we can have a motion on the agenda. So moved. Second. Thank you. Any discussion on the agenda? We'll vote. All those in favor of the motion, please say aye. Any opposed? We the agenda is adopted as amended. We are now at the public forum. Is there any member of the public? I see Sharon Busher has her hand up. And we also have Councillor Jiang with us who appears now. Sharon, go ahead. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I believe that the communication, my comments have to do with the reorg and in the water resource department. And I read through, and fortunately there was that credit that they received, which allows the new positions and the increases to be funded according to the memo through FY, well, through this FY24 and FY25 and FY26 is a little bit up in the air because there could be someone retiring. My question really is, as you look forward, I do worry about water rates and I worry about just the impact overall as we add positions to the city. I'm pleased that we compensate people well. The benefit package is a great one, but as someone who has now lived on a fixed income for a while, I don't want to be priced out of living in Burlington and I worry about that. So I have to comment every time to you and to the Board of Finance to just make sure that people are thinking about how this plays out. This one seems okay, but overall, as you're embarking on a new budget, you know, it trickles down to renters and I don't know if we can always afford to do what we'd like to do. So those are my comments. Thank you so much. Great, Sharon. Thank you. Appreciate your new attention to these issues. With that, I don't believe we have anyone else. Actually, I should check. Is there anyone in the room that is always speaking to the Board? It doesn't look like it and there is. Do you have one other attendee online? If you are online, is he going to be recognized? One was Keltzer Chang trying to get in. He's in now. So I think we have heard from everyone who wants to speak to the Board, so I'm going to close the public forum and now move to the consent agenda. I welcome motion on the consent agenda. Motion to adopt and send agenda and take the actions as indicated. Thank you, sir. Second. Second. Great. Second by Councillor McGee. Discussion on the consent agenda. Seeing none, we'll go to a vote. All those in favor of motion, please say aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries unanimously. And we have adopted the consent agenda. Okay, we're now 4.01 and we are planning an overview of the city's insurance program. That's my pause here. Do you want to say anything, Catherine? Just a quick. Councillor Jane, just so you're aware, can you hear us? Yes. Okay. Okay. It's quite odd. It's sort of glitching in and out. So I just upgraded it. That's why. All right. Well, with the camera off, it's not happening. So just shoot them. Thank you. Kicking us off. I can't remember. It was maybe a month or two ago. I got a question about insurance and I said, I don't know the answer to that, but I know someone who does. And it was my good friend, Paul Blunkett, who's here. And that conversation sort of morphed into we have been fortunate to have a presentation from Hickok and Bourbon most years. We've kind of gotten out of that habit because of COVID. And in advance of our marvelous next of May coming up and upcoming budget conversations, we thought it would be a good time to get back to that practice. So we won't spend too long on this, but maybe 10 or 15 minutes. Paul's going to walk us through all of our insurance coverages. So take it away, Paul. Okay. Thank you, Catherine. I'll give you a high level overview of the documents that I'm assuming everyone received. Yes. It gives you a summary of, yeah, share that document. It'll take me a minute. Sure. That summary is an overview of the city's various insurances from property liability, law enforcement liability, the public official's liability workers compensation, the insurance that we maintain for the waterfront. So a very comprehensive program. A majority of the program is with travelers insurance company. We've been joined with travelers in a majority of our program for 14 years that I've been working with the city, largest public entity insurer in the United States. A plus AM best rated. So we're looking to do business with carriers that have the money to pay their claims and have best in class claims adjudication services when a claim doesn't occur. They particularly shine very well on the workers compensation coverages. We have a high deductible program that you'll see in the packet. Our retention is $500,000 per claim. On average, we have saved about 15% in the total cost on the workers comp program from when we joined the city 14 years ago. And this past year, we were 30% less than that third that 14 year old figure with approximately 75% more in payroll that we're rating off from. So the city's grown and that cost of of insurance has declined dramatically. Our challenges on the and that's really embedded in some really good claim adjudication services and loss prevention services that the city, both the city and our firm are applying. We do about 160 hours of loss prevention work for the city in actual dollars for spending 30 like it was about a million and a half when we showed up 14 years ago. It was it was a guaranteed cost program different than the structure we have today. Last year, we paid a million one. And again, I knew we were trying to identify those things. Yeah, and this inflation despite growth of a place. Exactly. So we're closing claims. Yeah, exactly. Closing claims quickly getting people to the right medical care and returning the fact to work as quickly as possible. So that that's working well. The pinch points in the program are no secret. We hear it in the news and read it in the papers each day. Our industry is challenged in the property insurance area because of supply chain issues, inflation issues. So the costs, the cost of a claim in the property area is significant. And so schedules of property are being inflated to meet those claim costs. So that's a challenge for us. Social inflation is a challenge for us and the liability lines of coverage. So same same lawsuits five years ago to today are infinitesimally more expensive. So that's being funded for in general liability law enforcement liability public officials liability employment related practices liability. So we're challenged by that distracted driver is a challenge in the auto line. So never before in my 35 years that have we been challenged with so many set the lines of coverage at the same time. A majority of the increase in the program over the last few years has been somewhat claim driven. But part of that is in the excess liability. So we were able to maintain 15 million of excess liability for travelers five years ago was $140,000 travelers that has retracted their available limits to us. So they're now no longer doing our umbrella coverage, which was that 15 million. So we're now using an alternative carrier at almost triple the cost. And that's happening across the country. We're no longer at 15 million, we're at 10 million plus the primary for a total of 11 million. But it's triple the cost. So that's been a real challenge, primarily driven by the law enforcement liability issues across the country, not necessarily here at the city of Bruins. And but we do get washed with that concern, if you go from the insurance, even in this region. That's a high level overview. We've instituted a few new coverages over the last few years. We instituted four years ago cyber liability network security coverage that has been challenged as well as we all read in the marketplace. So that cost has gone up two or three times in the last few years. We also instituted a fiduciary liability coverage over some of the retirement benefits that we oversee. So we put that in place a few years ago. So that's an added cost to the plan as well as well. Questions based on what you've seen, what you've heard, certainly happy to skip you an overview of the workers compensation. So premium is 590,000 plus our claim cost, which in 2022 was about 500 grand. So 1.1 million was our all in cost on the workers comp in comparison to 14 years ago as a baseline for us at a million five. The deductibles $500,000 our claim trending is headed downward. So we are looking at returning to a $350,000 deductible if the math works. And we can get the same price for that lower retention. So that'll be favorable to the city. And keeping in mind that deductible is each event. So if we have several firemen in a building that are all injured at the same time, it's one deductible. The collateral has not changed. So that is the collateral that the city puts up in a form of a letter of credit for the open claim cost. Questions on the workers comp at all. This gives you a sense for bottom line and the challenges that we've talked about in the last five years relative to cost. So you'll see the the umbrella liability was 140,000 and 18 it is 365 grand today. It's about the middle of the page Karen umbrella and excess liability 365 versus 140. We instituted cyber liability. So it was 20 grand the first year this year. It's 50. We're anticipating a 6% increase in this budget for FY 24. That's what we've given the city. This is a little misleading in that this cost is not all to the city general fund because we share coverages with some of the enterprise operations as well. So that's that gets allocated including the cost on the workers comp. I'm kind of surprised to see the law enforcement liability actually it's down. So we did a little bit of a deal there because travelers left us on the umbrella liability. We made them feel really bad about that and they reduced the cost of the law enforcement the primary law enforcement liability to offset some of that increase. They did what they could to support us there. I'm just curious like these comp they said to other department you know enterprise funds. So I'm just sort of looking where is the other than the workers comp? Is there something that is specific to one of the you have an additional airport there's no. There is so the airport well there I'm not breaking it out here because the airport shares with us the workers compensation coverage the employment related practices liability coverage as does PD. Let's see the auto insurance is shared with those other entities as well so BED and the airport cyber liability is is a well so they have their own coverage for cyber liability we cannot share there. I was more thinking like for example there's boathouse locks and liability yes I don't see something that says I don't know. Yeah it's not broken out at this cost okay we can we do have that we do have another spreadsheet that breaks out that. Is there something like from McNeil other than workers? No that would be all borne by the city the Bruxell electric company or department so that McNeil is all you know you mean McNeil. Is there something where to happen to McNeil if there was an accident? Yeah they do have that but some are together and some are still separate and so when I'm not remembering the well there's the joint owners. The person who's the head of safety at BED who comes to us had a risk. Paul Alexander usually comes to us once a year as well so he'll come back and we can ask him. Yes it's another call. So I ensure it's an insurance right yeah I'm sure the McNeil plan along with their other assets in a separate policy with there are four insurers that make up that program. I'll be there in a second but just joining remotely until then. Okay did you have a question or? I did not now. Okay sorry. Councillor Chen go ahead. Thank you Mr. Mayor and thank you for the presenter. I was just wondering if anyone from the legal team can tell us around pending litigation that involve law enforcement and how does this relate with this insurance liability we're talking about. So Councillor Jang I can just try to speak to that briefly. So what I would say to that is generally for our litigation claims we have a deductible that the city is paying out of pocket before our insurance coverage kicks in. That's true with litigation that involves the police department or any other department of the city. Typically I think it's about $20,000 although I am sure that Paul will correct me if if there are some nuance to that. So generally speaking I would say our our litigation coverage includes the police department but it also is subject to a deductible just like the rest of our coverage. Correct just to clarify that the law enforcement legal liability deductible is $50,000. General liability is first dollar coverage no deductible. Thanks Paul. I hope you bet. Thank you. Sorry I'm asking you to repeat yourself. It's interesting how much the commercial items. So a couple of things are bearing in on that. We had some years of tough claim activities. We've also grown the wheat. I don't have those that date with me but the queen's probably grown by 20% and then there's new for all transitions that happen as well. And really it's the fact we've been actually replacing the fire engines. Right exactly. So we're growing new for old. We're growing by numbers and the industry has been 10 to 15% year over year for the last few years because of distracted driver claim funding not specific to the city but industry. Another question Mr. Mayor. Yeah go ahead. Thank you and it's specific to the cyber liability and I was just wondering if it's across all departments including the enterprise you know departments. Yes the BED has its own cyber liability network security coverage and we're combined with the end of the airport. Wonderful thank you. All right anything further you're open to get to? I'm good but I'm certainly willing to entertain. This is good. I had a while to have a conversation like this and I can see you're dealing with some dynamic challenges as you described. Can you just remind us like how with each of these you're out there on the city's behalf getting competitive bids to get each other doing everything. Yeah I'll give you an example Liberty Mutuals the insurer for our property. There's a third insurer we've used in 14 years so in fact this year we're out to bid on the city's property insurance looking to potentially combine that with BEDs for a ballistic discount. So as you know the BEDs had challenges trying to find attractive property insurance so we're entertaining an insurer that will do both and we're hoping that that it's both. But yes so we pick apart the program each year look at where we have opportunities for bidding. It's not systematic because sometimes the timing relative decline activity may prevent us from going to market and looking not perfect to the market at that time but it is always part of our analysis with Catherine and with HR. All right if there's no further questions from the board I think we can let Paul go. Not so easy Mr Paul. Yes can you please help me understand the dissension between public official bonds and also the public official liability. Is that public official bonds? Yeah okay so we secure a crime related coverage for the city of Burlington that applies to all employees with an exception of three positions one of which is Catherine's and we then buy a separate public officials bond for those three individuals in the amount of $500,000. That protects the city from any impropriety relative to city funds. The public officials liability is a third party liability so if the city in its operations makes a decision that is unpopular with an individual outside the city and they sue the city that's the policy that will come into play to entertain those economic damages so one's a liability coverage one is a crime coverage. One is what the last one? One is a liability coverage public officials liability and one is a crime related coverage or an employee dishonesty coverage. Okay wonderful now do we have any type of insurance in terms of policy so for example the legal resident could be challenged into court and does do we have any type of insurance to cover that? I'm not sure I understand the question. So as you know the city of Burlington we also put let's say ballot items and we hear lately that the city of Winnowsky and also Montpelier they are being challenged to court in terms of allowing non-citizens to vote right and in those instances do we have any type of insurance that we need to put aside are we covered in that area? You're saying if we get if the city is sued and we have legal costs to defend the suit will we have coverage for that? Yes the policy that would entertain that would be the public officials liability that would be where we would enter the claim that's the only place we could entertain that claim. I think I'm done now thank you so much. And it just depends on what the suit is right I mean we often have the defense paid for by travelers with it could be another price the coverage for. Yeah it would be the public officials that would be the only place that would enter. On this one but if it was a different topics like it could come from the parent. Yeah that's right so if we had a slip and fall in City Hall Park then that's the general liability and the umbrella absolutely and but any of the the claims that are entertaining a disagreement of philosophy or an economic damage is always going to be the public officials liability we've had a track record of responding to those types of claims and meeting those as the facts cost that's interesting. All right very good any I didn't mean to cut this off pretty much earlier are we ready? Sport ready? Move on. I think we're done thank you very much. Thank you so much appreciate your being in front of you. Thanks for your work. All right we will now move to 5.02 which is a CEDO CJC reclassification of three positions in the creation of one for this so welcome welcome Rachel. Thanks. So we have three reclassifications that from different programs I guess the overarching short story that you'll want to hear is that these don't have an impact on the general climate and they're recovered by our various contracts so the first that you actually just approved in a consent agenda with the balanced and restorative justice contract is moving the staff member that we've had for a year and a half from limited to regular since that natural contact is in a more stable sustainable position the second would be the community assistance program coordinator that is related to a bit of a reorganization that we're doing that hopefully you're able to see in the accompanying organizational charts we had a victim services manager and instead of kind of siloing our victim services we're trying to integrate them more so we're putting aside that position person who held that position is going into the conflict assistance program coordinator position and because of her background and abilities is able to expand that program it's the conflict assistance program is a more proactive upstream mediation-based kind of program so we're wanting to expand the number of hours as well as diversify the funding for that position to include DOC funding as well as the justice assistance grant funding that it had had and so by increasing the responsibilities in the hours we're wanting to reclassify that from 15 regular service to grade 16 still regular service and then the adult restorative volunteer coordinator because of this reorg again is going to be taking on supervisory responsibilities and becoming more of a minute manager of our adult restorative programming so we're looking at reclassifying that one to be in line with our two other positions and then again related to the reorganization with the lack of you know I'm taking away some of the capacity from the victim services manager and trying to have more of the team take on both working with responsible and impacted parties we're wanting to create a coordinator level position the adult restorative coordinator a new position called the adult restorative coordinator so that's the overview and we're happy to answer any questions very good thank you are there any questions Rachel go ahead sorry I know you just tried to kind of do that but can you just talk a little bit about as a whole how this changes how CJC is working compared to maybe three years ago three years ago would be a really different answer because we didn't have the core diversion of pretrial service so we've changed a lot in these last three years I would say compared to a year ago it's trying to integrate in every position the cross-training ability to work with both responsible and impacted parties rather than having a separate division that just works with our victim services we've had our parallel justice program since 2006 that does work with just victims but one of the staff people now given how the caseloads change during the pandemic we had two FTEs covering the parallel justice and that didn't seem necessary anymore so we tried to diversify one of that because persons you know one of that staff members positions to already work with our restorative program so that was our first inkling of the benefits of trying to integrate people's ability to cover when other people are gone for instance as well as see the whole view of if you work with an impacted party generally our program because it's so downstream and funded by criminal lethal partners it's easy to just think of your main spin as the responsible party as we're trying to be more victim informed at least we want to have everybody trained to be able to always be thinking about the victim's needs so I I hope that's answered your question in terms of that integration overall goal that we're aiming for it does yes thank you I have a question mr right yes thank you Rachel again for the great work that you do and also for the amazing amount of grants that we have approved lately you know I think it's it's it's great work but allow me to ask about the system ability of these positions in correlation to those grants right and also these increases what percentage is it is it that is paid by grant or what percentage is it paid by the general fund and how do we sustain all of this too so out of our 1.4 million dollar budget that we're looking at for fiscal year 24 91% is sustained by contracts and grants 9% comes from the general fund wonderful this is great thank you so much and also you know I feel that there is this community advocate or diversity advocate position is it part of a grant too or part of the question yeah not yet but you know stay tuned the cultural advocate program is something that we're trying to grow that right now is covered by our current grants the department of corrections gave each CJC a small amount $5,000 in fiscal year 23 to do more DEI related initiatives and that's what we use it kind of a seed funding to start this cultural advocate program but we do hope to grow it and actually believe that the grants shouldn't be covering it it's part of the work it's necessary to serve the people we're serving and to do proper restorative justice you can't have restorative justice without racial justice as well and so like even though you may hear more about it through our various memos we don't expect this to be a big general fund request coming down the pipe this is trying to make our case actually through the legislature that the current contracts need to fund CJCs to do DEI work as part and parcel of what we're doing excellent thank you so much any any further discussion we're ready for motion that's what we gave you I'd be happy to make the motion is recommended on board box second great any further discussion seem no we're going to vote all those in favor of the motion please say aye hi hi very opposed motion carries unanimously and we are now with 5.02 thank you Rachel 5.03 and 5.04 are two police personnel items welcome chief thank you mr. mayor so 5.03 is reclassification and title you a network administrator to see more senior network administrator yes sir thank you and thank you very much to the board for having me so the network administrator is our primary our primary technical person we had a network administrator that individual left for another opportunity we have not been able to fill the spot since we have actually been working with the same individual on a part-time basis and have been getting continuing very strong service it was a loss to us to have that individual move on we believe that with this bump we can attract additional talent potentially that individual back to the police department but also just the the length of time the spot's been open has been indicative of the fact that we're just not really meeting market rates on this but it's not just a saying that we that we want the position to be to be compensated differently we've also changed its parameters there is going to be a new position that reports to it we've changed the reporting structure as well the reports outside to now report directly to the deputy chief of administration our situation at the police department is different than many other parts of the city in that we have a lot of very unique restrictions on access both to the physical plant as well as access to the systems and those are governed largely by the federal government and its requirements around what they call sieges or criminal justice information systems sieges is a is a challenge for us at times just with regard to the ways in which we can and can't allow people to have access to it and it makes the need for a person who's embedded and also knowledgeable about the relatively unique structures really important for us. Thanks chief, Councillor Hightower. Who currently supervises the health desk and IT staff? It currently reports to the business manager and no changes are being made to the business manager position that's just to release. Well the business manager has been with the police department for a very very long time our expectation is actually some changing of reporting patterns to that role in anticipation of just sort of changes for the business manager I think that um I don't want to I don't reveal too much got it so I not a bad thing it's not a bad thing at all they're just yes yes uh no worries thank you thank you it's just okay happy to talk off fine yes absolutely happy to talk off fine I do understand. Any further questions discussion for motion? President Paul? Thanks I'll make the motion as recommended. Second. Thank you any further discussion? Seeing none and we really can't see you Councillor Jang so good for that as you have been speak up if you do you recognize um we will be able to vote all those in favor of the motion please say aye. Sorry that's my knee sorry motion carries unanimously so now we go to 5.04 right which is the reclassification of a fire police accountant position go ahead Chief. Yes thank you this is a position that is just it's a long time in coming for reclassification for this position it has been reclassified in 17 years uh this is our accountant it is responsible for our you know our budget monitoring um here too this is a position that is going to be you know that does report to the business manager will continue to report to the business manager but is going to be I think increasingly important with regard to being able to to help keep that part of our department on track um and in the coming years uh this is mostly about getting I think some equality of compensation for other similar similarly situated although not identical positions of the city um but mostly just that this is a position the person who's been in it has been in it for quite some time and the position has not been reclassified in quite some time thank you or is open for questions or motion yes I was just wondering about what um how do we reclassify is it because the scope of work have changed or um is it something else that's one and I thought that also any employee in the city on a yearly basis they receive some type of salary increase like you know 3% 8% depending on on the position can you please clarify that for me yes of course thank you for the question so uh yes the employees do receive step increases um that are annual uh and then there eventually that that does top out this particular employee is in fact topped out but it's not about the employee of course it's about the position the position itself has not been reclassified in 17 years there are other positions in the city that occupy similar roles um and this one those have been more recently reevaluated and increased and some of them have been increased to steps higher than the one that we are currently requesting this one to be classified to and that again is because as I said they are similarly situated but I can't claim them to be identical nevertheless they're they're sufficiently similar that their increases are indicative of the need in the sense of fairness of uh of an increase for this one as well um and I certainly would invite the CAO to weigh in as well these were discussions we've had over a long time uh I've been seeking this for for quite a bit for this particular position and we've had go back and forth with both HR and the CAO and the mayor's office as well and the chief of staff has been very diligent about ensuring that what we're requesting is reasonable and uh in keeping with other increases that have been seen around the city um I think chief mirad did a great job I'll just add a little bit and we do have some HR representation here so if I get anything wrong someone will stop me I'm sure um but uh we do have the process of regular pola increases that chief mirad was talking about and those are um guaranteed increases on an employee's anniversary date um but those do not take into account either an increase in uh duties or a change of duties um which would need cause the need to have this looked at by HR or in this case I think it was both that and the fact that HR hadn't looked at this in light of changes that had not only happened in this position but in positions that were like this around the city to make sure that the pay for this position was still equitable in light of what we were paying for other similar positions so this is the mechanism by which HR does that this reclassification process can you give me one example of a similar position in the city that have been increased lately that happened yeah uh so there is a position in the ct office um that is uh sort of similar to um this fire and police accountant of course the accountants in ct oversee all of the city in theory but in reality they have portfolios and um fire and police are the most complex of the accounting that we do and so um they really partner with um the fire and police accountant heavily and rely on that um specialized knowledge so um it's my understanding that that was a point of reference for HR in this and I don't know if there's anybody from HR who was involved in the great action I was I was not involved in the fun but I can tell you that if you want to come up here just so they can hear you thank you so much I didn't work on this but I'm going to just make it right here so um if it was reclassified it meant that we added something to the job so it wasn't just reclassified we could say could be reclassified so we would graded the job and looked at what the changes were and then compared it to similar jobs in the city um I didn't bring out anything what the department said I actually noticed but um but there would have definitely been changes to the job and I would say in probably 17 years there were probably changes so there were similar jobs and nothing new and updated through this really good job that would be my solution thank you thank you if I may very quickly one thing that has happened over the past three years is the introduction of a large number of new roles to the police department all of which have sort of new accounting practices and uh there has been sort of a learning curve there um thank you and I think the past two the last two explanations that I received are missing basically on the memo and I hope that you guys can sell more about you know increasing the salary of your employees and I think another element also could be managing over times lately um at the police department um you know all of those need to be in a memo so it's clear for people who are reading it to understand it better but I do believe overall the city need a better process in increasing these salaries by hiring maybe a consultant any position to look into also outside it's not just because yeah this department or this department have received increase and another department should receive an increase as well I think we need to establish a better process that's very thoughtful and methodical in looking into elsewhere around around around the municipality as well but I'm happy to make the motion um to support as indicated on board that thank you councillor jane second by councillor hightower any further discussion we'll go to vote all those in favor of the motion please say aye aye right by the way your post motion carries unanimously um and uh maybe consider since we a benefit of staggering the board of finance like this is maybe for the final memo I'm gonna go stuff forward consider what add some of these notes yeah absolutely sir okay thank you to the board thank you thanks okay uh 5.05 reclassification of three water resources positions creation of three new water positions and uh point of information mr mayor yes I was wondering if we did 5.01 the city assessor one um you uh agenda was amended when it was adopted to uh to move that 5.01 it will be it was not ready for actions all right wonderful thank you okay um so we are 5.05 welcome shaken welcome back in um this is a significant item and one I know you pretty much are working to so uh yeah first yes thank you for indulging us with seven items tonight at the board of finance meeting this first one is a very important one uh as we know water wastewater on water three regulated utilities uh enterprise funds in the city this is a long-season proposal and it does propose three additional positions three reclassifications here we do thrive providing water services 24-7 to the city we've talked to you in the past about the increased regulation we're facing the aging infrastructure all of our plants have not been overhauled in at least 30 years the water plant more and there isn't growing expectation of coordinated work we don't want to see a paving project done without water being coordinated with that as a matter of fact you'll see that on the next agenda item coming to you tonight um so we've worked with HR uh to bring forward tonight's proposal one of the things I want to clarify is department uh director here is that I am coordinating a similar review of the technical services team in DPW so that we are moving in coordination and not having unattended discrepancies between divisions this is an exciting proposal in my mind that is budget neutral for FY 24-25 and Megan I'll explain why so no further ado I'll turn it over to the tradition director Megan Moore thanks Chapin um yeah I mean simply put we are looking at a very sustained period of extremely heavy work we're not only facing a slew of generational investment needs that was brought on by you know numerous decades of underinvestment including a 10-year period in the 1990s of no rate increases which I believe put us on a trajectory of sort of always struggling with trying to fill in the holes um and that's compounded quite severely by a new numerous regulatory burdens additional regulatory burdens so not just doing what we're doing 24-7 but doing it even better which certainly Burlingtonians deserve the lake deserves the environment deserves her so it's not something that we're opposed to it's just everything kind of happening at once you bought a really old house everything needs to be overalled and brought up to code um and and it's it's really challenging um sporting metaphor would be I feel like I'm a soccer player supposed to have 11 people we're on a really big field that's sometimes growing and I've got about seven I would like goals in because I have an amazing amazing team but we're tired we're covering more than we need to and we're certainly not putting the goals in that that Burlingtonians deserve um we and I'll get into the details uh Sharon Buscher brought up you know rapier affordability um and that you know she doesn't want anybody to be priced out of living in Burlington that was the exact reason that we worked to bring forward what I consider the foundation of the rapier affordability program it's just the start uh we're actually hopefully for Fy 24 doing a review of that rapier affordability program trying to look at some other communities how they're providing its essential renters and how we can turn the dials up as necessary as our rates need to increase there are plenty of people in Burlington you can pay more for their water they already pay a significant amount for other things like cable and cell phone but there are people who are going to be burdened by that we want to make sure that that doesn't happen um so that's definitely the forefront of our minds um the the three position ads uh are largely about I guess I'll start with the the creation of the special projects engineering position of the working emotions steve roy um you know he's been with the city for 35 years he is the water resources division he's had his hand in everything and he is going to retire within two years if not sooner um and so this position really is about providing our organization with that necessary stability and resiliency you don't always know when somebody's going to retire depart but when you do what do you do with those last few years of their time which is so critical and in his case we are you know going to have him available for mentorship um I call him less than I used to but still I call him a lot um but also to work on some high-priority documentation and training tools that will give to future generations he knows the wastewater planting of the water plant better than anybody need him to write it down need him to have time to do that the position uh the creation of the director of engineering operations you know I've looked at a lot of different org charts at other water resources organizations our own furlington electric and why they call those managers and people below them or directors which I don't entirely get but is what it is they have enough of a structure with a little bit more depth um on the leadership team and really I'm trying to bring more technical and management horsepower um you know onto my team to review all the complexities I mean I'm on calls even today it's probably why I've got migraine starting where it's just trying to figure out all the moving pieces and if you change this you're you're changing that um needing somebody else who can also walk with me in some cases or for me so that I can work on other things um and really just guiding technical staff and really delivering the best product for our repairs we're doing pretty well but I think we could do more uh and then lastly the wastewater plant mechanic position this was actually a position that was identified in our 2019 rap tell us staffing study that we've kind of been sitting on um but as we look at not just the fact that things are breaking more and more frequently at the plant until we can get to that upgrade but even during the upgrade uh I've never been through a wastewater treatment plan upgrade but I know that the stuff doesn't stop it's 24 seven so talk about a slide puzzle of coordination and the things that are going to crop up and we need to make sure we have a fully trained resilient staff who can keep things going even when we're trying to literally build the the plane as we're flying it uh the other reclassifications are just you know some moves out of much detail to go into those um uh and then the reorganization the reporting structure is the other key piece of having the director of operations uh and engineering is moving a couple of small teams under one person who can then coordinate the activities of the engineering asset management group the storm water group and the water distribution group they already work pretty well together but formalizing that and having it go through somebody else other than me uh is really the the driver behind that um as Chapin mentioned um due to some cost savings we are able to keep this uh budget neutral through f-way 24 and f-way 25 uh the special projects position would uh where it is be re reabsorbed yes um uh and then I think by that time we're going to have a better idea of what our true wastewater plant staffing needs are so there could be a shift and we don't need as many there could be more until we figure out all the different places and what our plan's going to look like um including the new treatment technology that we're going to be putting in place for phosphorous removal it's a little hard to say so let me tell you about the next few years great um we'll open up for questions or not go ahead yeah that's it well me maybe you know let me just uh it was a lie yeah well let me let me say a few more things uh um to share the board I feel like it might be helpful to share at the jurid board how I've been thinking about this so two minutes can we start the discussion several months ago um I you know um um uh conscious the fact that we together approved some significant changes to water um not long ago really want to understand how this fit into a kind of big picture and in our kind of the arc of the investment and strengthening of the department that we've been trying to make and I'm I'm very persuaded that these three positions need to be addressed one of them was in the raft Ellis report that we've relied on for changes so far as Megan just said the senior position it really is quite striking and you know we don't have the artwork shirts I don't think well maybe we do but like to compare like the the strength of the management at the capacity the management capacity that we've invested in and created at BD in comparison to the depth of the team that we've created water resources is is substantially different and I think that's a problem when you consider that they're you know it's very comparable center responsibilities a kind of size of operations that the two different entities are responsible for so it's it's long felt to me like we hadn't given we haven't given Megan enough support and really making that kind of strategic management decisions that that she's really responsible for the department's responsible for so um I think we are being quick you know mindful of like four accounts of our shoes comments in the public forum I think everyone in this effort is is very aware that these are precious repair resources but I think this is a change it's very much needed I do think it's do you want to bring attention to the board in the memo as the memo does this is not the last time we're going to be having conversations about capacity at water there's some additional raft Ellis work that we've commissioned I wasn't comfortable going beyond these three until we did some additional analysis to understand how we uh stood in comparison to the industry and that we had to sort of have that independent look before we made a significant further step by increasing the headcount so uh I fully support that what's in front of you I think it's important that we do this before it's going to support us so hope that's helpful tell us right down right I'm happy to move the many recommended actions oh I'm happy to second that I do but just I just want to make sure I understood thank you great back in the middle and I did see you breathe so I think I didn't say the ball and I can't lose the you said at the very end that FY 25 4 and 25 wouldn't you say that's essentially budget so the special projects position was already in the FY 23 budget we just had an active on that so we have savings for that the director of operations and wastewater mechanic position you know that impact would be neutralized by the cost savings we have and can be carried forward to FY 24 and 25 the what is budget neutral those those positions essentially yes and that's as far as we can go yeah I mean would we use those cost savings for other things sure but I can't it's getting very hard to do the things we need to do unless I have the people to do yeah I mean I'm having a I have faith in college you have this okay any further any further discussion um yes um thank you the for the presentation thank you mr mayor I think you have just done a disservice to the members of the board of finance because this is really complex and we did not get enough sufficient time to look into this better creating position reclassifying positions I think and the memo is while reading it I got lost in translation to tell you the truth another element is director Spencer you were really good at reaching out to counselors if there are complex issues and I think for this specific one you miss to do that so that we can talk about them better and for that I was at least thinking so we divide the question at least vote on one of them that just the new positions tonight and then reclassification we bring them next time to give us enough time to this need even a presentation to the city council about their scope of work how does it tie into the underwater infrastructure and the bounds and what councillor busher was sharing right here are so important things that we need to think about let's think about the bigger picture I do not feel comfortable voting yes and all of this because I do not understand them right now not because it's not needed but you did a disservice to me as someone who have limited time to do this work and doing right for the burning turns I'll be voting now unless we divide the question and vote on the new positions tonight I'm happy to remove my motion and if we want to send us to council without a recommendation that I'm voting on it if that's what we want to do well let's fix it so it's a week before the council action is going to happen here again it's a benefit of breaking it up this way are we currently planning I mean one thing I mean to sit on is for exactly situations like this that we'd be able to have a short order finance meeting I mean no I cancer JX when I'm hearing you say you would like the opportunity for to engage further with with water resources before coming to vote on this yes I would say it's that by next I mean I don't really I'm gonna be concerned or at least we have to hear about the implications of delay but she strikes me there's a possibility of maybe allowing Chip and Megan to follow up with you offline and have further discussion this is a possibility you might be in position to weigh in on this by next Monday be open to that yeah you'd be open to that okay so I I'd be inclined to postpone action on this tonight to next Monday to get an opportunity for further engagement given a level of concern expressed by councillor jane that's you see any reason I mean my hope is keep the same timeline and I guess for next week certainly want to answer councillor jane's questions and be happy to meet with them outside and any councillor who's interested in knowing more about this and Megan won't be here next Monday for a previously scheduled item but I am more than happy to represent so just that would be one consideration for you all but Megan is here for most of this week so we can connect with councillor jane I'm here I am here Wednesday thank you all right um so again so you know because we do prefer to act by consensus councillor jane I think that's the way we're headed if you think you'll have the you know the ability to spend some time between now and next Monday we were well we're gonna we're gonna suspend it on that uh we're gonna suspend action on that on that thought that you'll engage further with the department between now and next week really appreciate that thank you okay excellent uh so I guess if there's no objection um we will all uh am I supposed to yeah I think oh it's wrong quite a motion all right sure why don't we do it that way let's be more motion opposed phone until let's do it to it let's be certain next Monday it was just second and any discussion of the motion seeing no we'll vote on that all those in favor the motion please say aye all right any opposed all right the motion carries unanimously and we'll we'll reconvene on this item on Monday okay uh 5.06 is the calendar year 22 street reconstruction program amendment with additional water resources infrastructure work on virtually correct what are you would like to say one more about this uh as part of a lot of our work we are always trying to coordinate with the paving program I think it's another item through a little bit behind just vacancies with keeping coordinated but we were able to assess the remaining calendar year 22 streets of which for the first clip parkway was one and determined that the wastewater and smaller infrastructure there was certainly in need of some investment in a perfect world the drinking water line would also be upgraded but we hopefully do not have funds remaining to do that um that's all what we can do and so this request adds a chunk of money to the existing paving contract to be able to have the contractor take on that work as they do the repaving and I just like give a shout out to tech services requirements for working on a very complicated pots of money situation as we try to make sure we're managing what's what excellent um two questions from the board rapture ready for motion I'm happy to make the motion is uh recommended on board box great thank you council McGee is there a second yes second second by council jang um any further discussion I'll just say I very much appreciate the attempts at coordination but it's complicated significantly this work to do it but I think we got a lot of value out of it so thank you for the effort um with that we'll go to vote all those in fairly emotionally say hi hi hi are any opposed the motion carries unanimously and 5.06 is recommended so thank you thank you um to 5.07 the calendar year 23 paving contract go ahead it's not for calendar year three so this is the calendar year 23 paving contracts we're looking to get optimization for the funding um to execute this contract um we're following a state council approval as well as a chamber number one which would include an additional approximately and uh well a large patchwork as well to go along with the paving contract we went to bid we had three bidders this year which was good uh previous years we've only had one or two so this is you know something that we're excited to see more competitive bidding um with that the um better uh low bidder at the NPCI this year would be looking to start that work uh based on this contract we were looking at funding to be and at y24 so the work will be starting in july uh early july and yeah I would just uh I think the memo obviously states we have approximately 1.3 miles that we're going to doing this contract um and uh substantial patchwork as well as well is it possible to I mean we've had some a couple years of not just a few number of bidders but very high bids yeah how does this compare so the numbers are saying not fairly consistent with the higher numbers that we have been saying so that being said obviously higher bids means less mileage paving um there are well this bid in itself um is in distance a little less than what we would hope for uh there are other paving activities going on throughout the season uh the cy-22 contract which may go just after speaking out was being completed which will include a couple of significant stretches along flannab and in a birch cliff uh there is the class one paving state is doing that is continuing for second year which is going to be a fairly substantial uh continuation of their class one upgrades um through all miniski avenue um south willard from main street southbound to st paul and then uh st paul street from howard kind of going down to shelber and all the way down to the southern limits so that's going to be night work continuing this summer and then there's also um some work going on lake letalwood as well as north prospect street that was part of the water resources um providing fun contract that has been going on the last year or so um and that work is being held off until the water infrastructure work is completed and then the final paving was going to happen with those streets as well and that's anticipated all be occurring this summer as well do you mean prospect street uh the memo says to miniski ask but those streets don't uh sorry this one here um well pearl street prospect came yeah yeah so we have uh a grant again um state grants that for the pearl street section and again coordinating work with water resources there will be um some water uh work being done by this contractor funded through the water resources group that is going to be taking place on st paul and then everything are right away crew staff doing work on the other streets in advance of the contractor not to kind of separate those activities and try to manage our contracts as best as possible and just because i know folks love to see where things are happening with the capital projects map that you have on the website is that like when would that be updated and then are we doing layers now that we have that map or is it just going to be a new map for 2023 yeah it will be updated by mid april and there our hope is to maintain the layers uh as we've transitioned some backhouse technology but that is our expectation very helpful for explaining why things are being done when yes and we want to help in that process i think the one piece to add is is referenced in the memo is a little foreshadowing that the prices are reducing production and the bond that we went back to voters for when the 40 million dollars wasn't approved but the 23.8 was there's no third year of general obligation bond support for paving next year we'd be relying entirely on the street capital funds which means the production next year is going to be very small unless we find another path forward this summer though it's going to feel busy to people yeah 6.3 miles of roads being done this summer is actually quite high by our it's coming largely from state efforts but two thirds of it but uh almost two thirds of it but it's 6.3 is going to feel it's going to be disruptions this is going to be quite a lot of fun okay um are we ready for a motion on the sound happy to move the to recommended actions as this is important to us thank you second by president paul's discussion shingnan we'll go to a vote all those appear in the motion please say aye hi hi any opposed motion jerry's notice thank you carcune okay uh 5.08 is optimization of sidewalk reconstruction program project budget and construction contract and should i kick that uh i'm actually a lot better if you guys are interested excellent welcome back ready center um i'm missing a couple of words engineer um so this sidewalk contract is um for a total of six hundred and ten thousand dollars with a base of five hundred and fifty five thousand roughly and fifty five thousand dollars of contingency um we're doing three streets east stab north union and cliff street um we are adding some coordination here with a bump out um that will have a rain garden on grant and union so this will be part of the old north end hardscaping effort because we were doing north union through the sidewalk contract we absorbed that section of the old north end hardscaping into this contract so we are getting twenty five thousand dollars from transportation and five thousand dollars from storm water um and then the rest of the five hundred and eighty thousands from the industry now though um the short-term lists will be finalized shortly and also added to the construction portal for that april kick off reservoir thanks uh thanks for that explanation um i'm happy to get the uh big motion to take the action is right second thank you customer g discussion yes mr mayor um thank you um thank you for the presentation and i was i was just wondering about how do you how do you determine which sidewalk need to need to be prioritized this this you know in these contracts but before you respond i also wanted to just say thank you so much for bringing some level of equity between the contractors it seems they all receive the same amount of um you know work because they all work with the sea all the time i'm asking the question that i asked prior to this just because i haven't seen anything in the new north vent um and was just wondering how do you prioritize this so i have a short snippet of the prioritization process and a memo but to go into it further um we have staff inspection um we prioritize um based on the sidewalk inspection as well that we did in 2021 so we did a city-wide inventory of all the sidewalks and then on top of that we overlay um usage with which not only considers the utilization of the sidewalk but also um who is using the sidewalk so we have some equity metrics in there based on some census data we've worked with reib and i've continued to work with them to kind of fine tune that process um but we also i mean i go out and walk the streets and hear from residents and also have that way and we are also we had a janet circle we had some additional funding that came in um last year to the contract and um so we will be doing janet circle as a portion of that contract that will happen this upcoming construction season yes thank you and i think you you about the reference about the prioritization and when you talk about reib you're speaking specifically about the department but not the committee right yes okay yes um yes janet circle and also all the many other um sites that were reported since 2019 in the new north end um and we are in 2023 i think we need to revisit those and you can ask um baldoin and uh and uh uh chief engineer with will cox as well things have been reported 2018 2019 and we're still waiting um just so you pay out the particular attention to that as well but i'll be voting in support of this tonight thank you thank you council jag we will certainly i'm happy to follow up offline uh we have 130 miles of sidewalk we are getting through lists and buying down the backlog here at three miles a year but we still do have deficient sidewalk that is still in queue from many years ago so thank you for your patience happy to follow up offline um and this question is for cfo chad i mean and also the mayor knowing that those are priorities and some of them are very proximity in schools and was just wondering um you know the unassigned fund balance can we utilize them sometimes in this type of project that are that are priority for constituents thank you council jag yeah i mean the uh we have used unassigned fund balance to um at times the past help increase the overall um mileage of sidewalk investment we worked hard in this budget to stick with try to keep to the goals that we've been developed in recent years to put us back on a sustainable put us on a sustainable read a production every year and um i think this budget we do you want to say more about how it sized i think i could speak to it a little bit laura wheeler with public works um we put the budget together that went into the geobond for uh 20 the school year 23 year sorry for 23 24 and 25 unfortunately like many of our projects there was a pretty significant increase in construction costs we are still using those bond funds those were allocated and estimated to have covered our three miles a year but like many projects going in with that funding we are now feeling the pinch that it's not quite enough with our current construction pricing um i do think it's important to see those funds through we still have a next year's allocation um of 900 000 to to make use of so but i do agree in the past we've used unassigned fund balance but that's not the the long-term sustainable answer for the program thank you right so we're okay i hear your point councillor jane as i i'm not sure as you know we've been the we've been using the unassigned fund balance we've kind of it's pushing it we've been spending it down to the the target level um between now and when this contract is fully approved next week i'll review with uh ceo whether um they're sending opportunity to and with dpw is to whether it's an opportunity to get back to the call all three miles um this is quite close to it but it's it's slightly short of the the target that we've is like it's inflationary pressure so hopefully in aiming at in the past so is that if there's an opportunity for any expansion um we'll work on that over the course of this week does that sound is that responsive councillor jane to your comment yes yes thank you all right um so with that are we ready for a motion on this recommendation i think we had motion no we did okay sorry are we ready for a vote then sounds like we are all those in favor of the the motion please say aye aye you posed motion carries unanimously all right thank you thank you mani for the presentation um all right we've got we still got a number of items but we've been going for a while now so uh five point where are we five point oh nine f y 23 expense authorization standpoint parkway project yeah go ahead so uh yeah we're here to look to get additional expense authorization for the chamber parkway project um this project the initial construction contract was issued to start and uh by june and april be authorized to be worth that contract to lose the 40 million not a hundred thousand dollar contract it's garyland bricky joint ventures um as we proceeded with this work this season uh there have been um spent contract to make a progress and the activities as well as uh change orders that were in place in order to address um upgrades to existing infrastructure that were not anticipated um have had to that along with other activities and soft costs have had us uh ahead of where we anticipated in our engineering estimate us to be at this point in time in this year um at this phase uh the work for this contract is anticipated to be done uh in advance of the contracting end date which was october of 24 there's a chance this is looking to be more early completion um which means that we will see more of those expenses that were anticipated sooner than we thought um we had gone through and kind of looked at what we were seeing for the spring work to be um and are looking for an increase the expense authorization to address anticipated additional expenses we plan to see this spring um and we're looking for additional authorization for that expense authorization um the obviously this is all still the same funding so is this still the 98 percent state but and two percent local match the additional two percent local match would come from street capital uh and would come from at quite 23 available funds from the street capital so um i just meant i didn't have time to go back and research this but i wasn't clear about how this relates back to that phase approach that we talked about and what this means in terms of how much we're providing in that so yes so this is nothing more to the overall this is just we it's work that we anticipated being done in 24 and 25 is happening sooner which is what phase oh so all this is a construction contract um the work that we've been doing already is just you know we're we're moving in a long faster than it was anticipated uh based on original estimates okay so we're not approving additional pieces which makes them the phase full to Kilburn middle section correct yes good question this is not changing subsequently approved it's and just to give you a heads up you're going to be asked to do this again if i'm understanding that one correctly uh yeah it's due to size f 2024 but that will again be just appropriating the final amounts for the initial construction correct thank you well that's good news yeah never hear about the it's bad news we need more money now yeah i'm happy to thank you for the pause we have a second second roll counsel right darin thank you um as noted in the memo we are still the one other kind of uncertainty still sitting out there this project is we are for a final final little challenge to me hold on and then i'm feeling weeks really right by jim budget let's try this yeah if there's no further questions we'll go to a vote those in favor of the motion please say aye hi any votes motion carries unanimously i believe sure uh thank you thank you 5.10 traffic signal modernization numbers of letters after that um welcome back to you yeah thank you um so i actually i was wanting to have another one here to introduce our master he's our new traffic manager so he's in charge of all the signals the lines the signs the crossing guards and i'd also like to thank cori if he's still here for what it made it said pots of money situations because he helped us a lot with tonight making sure that there were pots for us yeah so anyway so this is basically for a continuation this is another opportunity that we had we were back here last spring talking about riverside avenue where we're putting my own cameras in on riverside operating detection system we have a similar situation happening this summer with the paving project where we're leveraging monies that are being expended by the state where they otherwise put loops in the ground there's old technology we're leveraging that to put cameras in the sky to watch the intersections and control them detect pets detect bikes count cars um brings us boldly over the 20th century um and that's it yep great floors open for crush rules or mushroom the thing i do feel compelled to highlight is that this will expend our impact fee balance which is very important we're actually required to spend all of that money when it puts us in a puts a set of balance about 100 which is sounds bad actually really good so that is some of the controls of the past very well yes i'd get back for like my tenure here over the four years we pretty much carried a couple of two to three hundred thousand dollars and that would so that's really good prism paul thanks i'll uh make the motion that's right thanks thank you second second thank you thank you discussion yes it's more of a question mr man okay great uh go ahead the way of councillor hanniter our view yep um and you know in terms of the fight uh the funding the one line is saying no participation costs of camera system paid to v to v trend can you explain that a little bit non-participating costs oh because the the paving project allocated $33,000 to the detection system and the the detection system now costs 141 so our contribution our 107 $107,000 is what's called a non-contributing cost in the parlance of the contract so it's plenty we're putting into the paving contract they're not paying for and then we have ancillary costs which are costs that we're actually we're piggybacking on this to take advantage of the destruction so to speak to make a variety of other improvements $53,000 worth of other improvements that would never have been entertained by v-trans anyway yep um and basically it it means that whenever we hear okay we receive this grant or the state v-trend is paying for this specific project about construction road construction it only it is only limited to that but anything else the municipalities or the entity needed cover it is it the same thing in essence we're doing add-on work that they weren't anticipating paying for so that's that's what we're paying for okay um yep and traffic so now help me understand like traffic signal like basically I've and also cameras yes like the traffic signal themselves cameras or there's a there's a single fisheye lens that sits over the intersection and it sees it can see all four approaches at the same time so it can see the cars coming in and it can count the cars as they enter the intersection and it can also count pedestrians going to the intersection and it can count bikes going to the intersection so we get a much more robust data set for the engineers I actually mentioned to Maddie I said what do you think of this new data we got she literally said it's awesome so that's a really important part you know we're detecting we're detecting the whole intersection at the same time and we're counting everything that's going on okay okay okay wonderful and now you know how does this relate with the 400 000 dollars the city spent in purchasing new camera equipments those are those are security cameras those are completely different completely different system we don't have a resolution these are intended just for detection so they're very low grade can't read license plates with them we can't even really recognize faces this is just seeing trucks car people wonderful all right thank you this is good that's right I think that answered my question and then actually another so I know that we had a conversation on this for the reverse side cameras and we basically said these cameras can't do any of the things that people are worried about in terms of surveillance if they can think that by most of that if we can we'll disable that functionality in the future and then I'm just curious as to if you've done any because I assume people will think cameras will be visible or visible on you know if they're on percent yet and so we've done any education around that this is happening but not we haven't done a lot we haven't done any outreach about the cameras they're subtle we're there up there and they're the same cameras that they're used all over the state this is one of the other things Ansela are doing is getting on the same platform as the states selling all over the state so now our traffic system can talk to when you can talk to show or we can talk around the state so instead it's these camera things are they're becoming common but I think what we're hearing is some outreach would be good we're happy to do that matter of course to let the public know about these and their limitations so that they hopefully answer the questions around right yeah and I don't know that obviously you don't need to but it's like if you're going to the NPAs anyway they just mentioned them yeah I'm happy to include it in our education yeah sure okay I think we're ready for a vote ready for action on this item all those are favorite motion please say aye hi are any opposed motion carries unanimously thank you you're coming back okay so now we're at five point one one which is the approval of four-year agreement with national business technology shall we set up yours and keep our cut payment systems that is me I will keep it very brief I believe this is a very quick item we lease our copiers the lease is for four years we work with the state because our purchasing policy allows us to piggyback off of theirs if it is advantageous to us we talk to two different companies the current one who is providing excellent service is able to provide us a lease over a four-year period that is cheaper than the one we are currently paying and so that is what is before you today very good um questions or motion happy to make the motion to approve and recommend the state council authorized the have to execute a four-year agreement as well so important thoughts excellent thank you is there second second that counts are McGee uh further discussion go to vote all those those are favorite motion please say aye hi any opposed motion carries unanimously and uh brings us to a exciting update on the local ed universally accessible playground construction uh contract amendments so welcome so if you and Cindy and you know I've somehow or not been in Oakley park for a few months I think and I understand there's lots happening down there maybe you could get paint a picture for us uh where this stands are done well right now it's covered in snow less and less says the day that's true that's true um the the project kicked off in earnest in fall in terms of construction as you know it's been project for a while um but uh the contractors went in there and uh did way more than expected before snowfall and freezing um and completed all the major earthwork that was required to create the playground um they did install some of the play from if it don't tell anybody it's covered right now because we don't have the surfacing um the safety surfacing in that will come um in the spring when the self contractor gets in um but thankfully um they're working their way out and the way that they've progressed the grass was already establishing before snow fell which is pretty amazing given they started in pretty much September um and then obviously uh we had to shut down for the winter but during that time we also applied for additional funding which I've already been here to request uh approval to accept grants um going towards the project and um we also uh had requested funding for from the bond to go towards the project as well um because when we initially received bids it was uh they were significantly higher than what we had in terms of a budget but now that we're going back into the spring they're very eager to get in there and then complete the project and with these additional influxes of funds we're adding in pieces as we can um as well as looking at other creative ways to um complete the project for example planting we're ordering them ourselves we're going to have work day to do the plantings um and then there are other ways that we're trying to add other pieces back in that aren't that are basically the site is set up to welcome once we have that those funds available but for now we're trying to just get the these other portions back into the contract before they get in and then they want to be out because they have a full season ahead of them so this is a request to modify the contract to add the pieces that we want them to finish before they leave us um and it's also for the resident engineer as we're adding in contractor funding we also need the resident engineers to add in three more weeks of their work so we're increasing their contracts amount so that's a request and I'm sorry that was all really exciting um and we've excited to think this will be open in June we're running for June this party that's going to be a big day yeah big time a lot of people who have been involved in this project for a long time um we're open for discussion questions support um I yes can I speak yeah um yeah thank you Cindy and um and Tim thank you so much for for this this is I think this is this is unique and it seems this is the only playground in the state of a month um that will be accessible if I understand this correctly and also all the great wonderful organization that have been pushing about this and the component of equity in terms of early childhood education and and is is just key right and I'm really happy to make the motion as indicated on board back and to felicitate you too to getting it here thank you council jane do we have a second second by president paul any further discussion okay we'll go to a vote all those in favor of the motion please say aye all right are any opposed motion carries unanimously and the final item of this section we have one more for for we're only the final this section is the leddie park pause place construction pause place another project we've been working on for a lifetime exciting to see it coming to fruition okay great um hi max welcome to the sub press yep sounds good hi everyone thank you for having us tonight basically all we're looking at here is completing a long-awaited project that we've been trying to get to for about the past four years this will be to construct a final pause place along the bike path as was sort of initially called out in the original envisioning of having some resting areas and pause places along the greenway way back when the rehabilitation of the greenway was first designed back in what was it like 2013 2011 so what this is going to consist of is that the intersection of the burlington greenway with the entrance path that comes to the leddie ice arena is we'll be building a new concrete pad there that'll kind of open up that intersection it'll be oval shaped similar to a lot of other things we built along the greenway we'll be repaving that main access path that goes out to the upper entrance of the ice arena bathing the path that goes down to the lower entrance there building some new concrete pads to put in bike racks fix it stations benches things like that that just kind of make the site generally better overall and then building another concrete pad which is going to house some additional fitness equipment similar to what's in the urban reserve up at star farm and also along with a new one that's coming soon at oak latch so that'll be completing donation funds that were given to us by the uvm fitment uvm health center sometime ago to build a fitness trail along the greenway and then the other major portion of this project that we're seeking approval on is to construct a bioretention basin it's going to be adjacent to the pause place but it's actually offsetting impervious surface that was added in the south end of burlington as part of the phase three construction of the bike path this is just how it was permitted with the state largely because the soils in the south end are a pretty heavy clay and so it's really difficult to infiltrate enough water in the south end and through the bike path corridor down there to accommodate the permitting requirements for the state so we are sort of doing this trade or offset which is permittable and through their regulations to build this up at letty where we built a similar one way back during phase two of the bike path rehab in the north end of the city so this one will kind of mirror that new bioretention basin that's there they'll be planted with a whole bunch of perennials and trees and shrubs and things like that and should really help to beautify what is kind of an open desolate stretch of the greenway where you're riding past the big open parking lot at letty arena we have no desolate part so I agree this should be an upgrade of our beautiful bike path um can you that's actually I was wondering about that so the it's the overall it's essentially the overall storm water permit the whole bike path was one project the whole bike path is one project and this um and this ensures that the kind of that impact of the bike path is catching it's catching great okay so thanks for that thorough summary max the floor is over and for motion questions comments yes I would like to make the motion as indicated on board up and max thank you thank you cat searching do we have a second second by cancer ita our discussion it's great we'll go to vote another another project will be exciting to see you get done this season uh all those in favor of the motion please say aye hi all right any opposed the motion carries unanimously and uh great can't wait to uh yeah thanks so much thanks thank you okay final item of the night 6.01 approval to enter a contract with totor LLC for purchase of 2200 various size covered meal and recycling carts thank you nine thousand dollar items welcome Lee thank you for having me if you have any feedback for us yeah sure so yeah we're as the mayor just said we're here requesting approval to enter into a contract with totor as you may remember we were back here last july to order our initial slug of cards for our initiatives we were 4 000 at the time our supplies are starting to get depleted so we're coming another round 2200 cards we're concentrating on 35 gallon and 65 gallon cards right now they're pretty popular um we do have some supply left uh out of our original amount and you're interested i do found those numbers yeah basically and that's in a nutshell we have done a lot of public outreach and continue to do public outreach uh end of this month we are going to be stickering recycling bins as we pick them up to let people know that they're going to have to trade those in i did bring one of those stickers that we received so it will be coming on for the end of this wait say again what are we doing so we're going to be stickering all the bins that are out there in the current you said non non clients so the little rectangular bins got it so i'm getting great mechanic ignore it but we empty and we leave them upside down we'll stick the sticker on the bottom and when they go to pick it up they'll see wow the sticker wait on the bottom oh because it'll be flipped over so yeah because they'll put up ends will be upside down on the green space and this will be honest as they bend over to pick it up to the sticker yeah for the popper that was the best so this is like this is like you know let me say save this for last because this is very exciting so i have a question and i just didn't have time to go back and look who who do we get them from the last time we got them from cascade engineering yes i remember that name so um um really oh yes oh yes um anyway the um are they basically like the same toter it was they come back it's just a different yeah yeah yeah all right well i think this is wonderful so i'm happy to make the motion to as recommended on more docs let's bring on those toners we have a second you got a second by counselor hi tar um discussion yes um yes mr mayor go ahead thank you um yeah and i i like the reaction of the mayor when you said stickering i mean how he definitely asked to make sure that we understand what you're talking about uh it was good also wanted to mention that actually we've been waiting in my household here we applied and we paid i believe and we're still waiting and it kind of makes sense that maybe you don't have enough right now what what size container uh i what i i think we have two sizes and it seems none of them have been here yet we paid around 42 dollars or 40 something so it's it must be two maybe double check two different sizes yeah yeah um and i mean i think yes the stickering is is great and also the cards that you sent to household i think the post via post office was amazing it reminded me that needs to be done and i just want to also correlate it around the parking ban into affect there were significant amount of new american whose card were told right but we'll follow up with the respective people and was just wondering about the stickers as well will it be translated in any different language or is because i can't see it as where i am right now um the stickers themselves are not but there is um you know a code that they can read it will direct them to the website where it is translated into multiple languages okay there's a qr code on the sticker that leads to a web page that is translate translatable uh with links okay all right um thank thank you i think the outreach has been amazing so far yeah thank you thank you we will follow castle jang on your outstanding order i think it's probably because we are out of the smallest toter size and we're probably waiting to bring your toters once we have the smaller but i'll double check tomorrow sounds good thank you okay are we ready for a vote on this item we are all those of you watch and please say aye hi hi any opposed motion carries unanimously that uh it's our final item i do want to say one more thing before we adjourn i just i just with dpw still here i want to go back uh councilor jang to the the discussion we had about the new the new positions with water resources i i hope you i mean we've we've got a plan now to address the questions you raised we're always happy to try to work with counselors to to address them and i know i mean i just the point i want to make is the staff clearly works very hard to give the council information needed to make items and if you need more you know where we will work hard to continue to accommodate that um and maybe it was not intended this way but i think the idea that somehow a disservice had been done uh was um i would hope we could talk to each other differently in these public meetings it's really no one intended to do any kind of disservice uh to to the board here and in fact it was very thorough a lot of work went into it more time is needed to get everyone comfortable with it that's what we're going to do this week but i um i just just felt a need to to point that out that it felt like i'm not quite there challenging language to to use in this forum happy to talk about it further another setting if you'd like councilor jang not not hearing any comment from you here i am yes there's no further business for tonight uh if there's no objection we are adjourned at 6 56 p.m.