 And could you let us know, President Tracy, if there's anyone signed up for public forum in the box, I only see one in the box from today, which is for regular public forum. So we should be good. I don't see any on the signup sheet either that look like they're as usual while you're looking at that. I didn't even get a motion on the agenda. Does anyone like to make a motion on the agenda? Motion to approve. Thank you, Councillor Paul. Is there a second? Councillor Pine. All in favor of adopting the agenda, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed, please say nay. The motion passes. All right. So it looks like there's no one for public forum. Great. Thank you for confirming President Tracy. Is there a motion on the consent agenda? There's actually public. Oh, I'm sorry. Motion to approve the minutes as presented. Sorry, Councillor Paul. I'm just trying to confuse everyone. Sorry. Yes. President Tracy is the first. Is there a second? Sorry. That was the first and the second. My gosh, you guys. I got it. President. President Tracy is the second. Councillor Paul is the first moving on. Item 4.01 approving funds for the city's first annual Juneteenth celebration. This is very exciting achievement for our racial equity inclusion department. Before we get to that, I don't think we voted on the consent agenda. We just had a second. Guys, I'm really apologize. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed, please say nay. The motion carries. With that, I'm very pleased. I would like to introduce item 4.01 for the Juneteenth celebration. And is there a motion? Is there how. Yes. Thank you. I would love to make the motion, but was wondering if the director of the racial equity inclusion belonging and team and give us a quick overview of what is Juneteenth and why it's important. Excellent. Thank you. It looks like we have the whole team. Perfect. Thank you, Councillor Pine. And it looks like we have the whole team here. So I will turn it over to you first. Director Green. Thank you. Thank you. This is really, really exciting. And I, I'm going to, I'm going to ask that Skyler speak on this. I'm going to ask that. I'm going to ask that. I'm going to ask that. I'm going to ask that. Blaine and I are also a part of this, this massive team that includes a lot of city departments, but a lot of community members, but Skyler is leading the effort. So we're going to ask Skyler to, to speak on this on our behalf. Yeah. Just to clarify, are we talking about the, like what Juneteenth actually is or what the celebration is leading up to be currently right now? Just so I'm clear. We are going to be talking about how we're going to do this. So, we're going to be bringing that celebration officially to Burlington with a city wide celebration that is shaping up to have. An entertainment component and education component. A reunion aspects to it. That is going to take place at four to five different locations across the city. And so right now, the people working on that. Obviously myself and the rest of the REI be team, who are giving us a community vision for the Juneteenth celebration, as well as an internal city planning committee that spans multiple different departments from the BCA to planning, to parks and so on and so forth to really lift this celebration up. And so just before, you know, we can get into more details, but just an overhead view of the day as it stands so far right now, we're planning on starting with a gospel brunch and then picking off activities at different sites all across the city for people to enjoy. Wonderful. Thank you. Thank you, Councilor Jango. Are there any other questions for myself or for Mr. Nash? Thank you, Councilors. Yeah. We have a first and a second, so it sounds like we're ready to vote. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Aye. Okay, the motion carries. Thank you, REIB team and all of your committee and volunteers. We're all very excited about our first Juneteenth celebration. Gonna be a really good time. I'm looking forward to seeing everybody there. It's gonna, 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. It's gonna be a great, great celebration. We have high expectations, so we're confident you're gonna help us live up to them. Yes, yes. Okay, item 4.02. This is the tiered progression program for union positions for BED. And as we are getting to the end here, I think this is familiar. How would the board like to proceed? Yes, Councilor Pine. I would move to recommend the city council approve the attached resolution. We'll second that. Thank you, Councilor Pine and President Tracy. Any discussion? Okay, are we ready to take a vote? Excellent. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Please say nay. The motion carries unanimously. That brings us to item 4.03. Corrected retroactive pay for two reclassified DPW employees. How would the board like to proceed on this item? I think it, Yes, Councilor Powell. I think it would be, I apologize, I know Councilor Chang had to stand up first. I think it would be helpful to have, for the public to have an understanding of exactly what we're doing here. Okay, I'm going to start and then I'm going to turn it over to Director Spencer. And as you can see, it's a real team effort. This really was part of a reclassification package involving several DPW members that happened in November of 2020. And for the large majority of people who have been reclassified both in that DPW package as well as others, you may recall around that same time when we're doing CEDA reclassifications. And almost all of them, it was appropriate to go back to the beginning of the pandemic for the reclassification. And so in that, frankly, Director Spencer and I had miscommunication and the two employees here are owed money retroactive pay from beyond that. But it was not processed at the time and I will turn it over to him so that he can describe a little bit more of the situation and how we got here. Thank you, CAO Shad. And thank you Board of Finance for giving us time tonight. So as CAO Shad said, these two employees had been doing additional work beyond their job description. And we had been moving a reclass forward due to multiple priorities within our shop and then transition in who our HR manager was. This did not move as quickly as I'd like. And then due to this miscommunication, these two employees were only given retro pay when the council approved it back to the start of the pandemic. And there is an additional period that we are seeking here tonight when these employees due to the capital reinvestment and demands of what the council and the administration wanted to see did work additional work beyond their job description. And so as a result, we're seeking that retro pay. There is a disconnect between the pay listed in the memo and the resolution. So if the Board of Finance is seeking to approve the resolution tonight, which I hope you will, I can assist with correcting the resolution amount to be consistent with what you saw in the cover memo. Are there other questions or is someone prepared to make a motion? Yes, Councillor Pine. It would seem that we ought to just correct it at the moment, correct? I think that's what I was just hoping we would do is just make that correction right now. So I will move it and then a second and then we can correct it, I guess. I believe that is appropriate. I do not, oh yes, of course the city attorney is here. I think that's okay, right? City Attorney Blackwood? Yes. Excellent, thank you. Okay, Councillor Pine is the first. Councillor Paul, I saw your hand, so I'm not gonna presume you're a second. Did you have a follow-up question or did you want to be a second? I'm happy to second. The reason I mentioned this is because it seemed to show there was an inconsistency and I wasn't sure why that was, but now we know that it was simply an error. Yes. Thank you, great. So we have a first and a second and let's go ahead and correct that. Do we do that now? Happy to do so. So on line 10 of the resolution it should say, but should have received $7,956.02 requiring an additional payment, requiring payment of an additional $5,253.35 and then in line 12 should have received $8,548.83 requiring an additional payment of $5,441.28 and then the last line summarizing that on 17 should say Elizabeth Ross in the amount of $5,253.35 and to the DPW senior planner, Nicole Loesch in the amount of $5,441.28. These numbers are less than what was in the resolution. Yes, Councilor Paul. I just would, this is a fair amount of money. It's not a slight oversight, it's a fair amount of money. Has there, I'm not sure of what the, if we have any rules or if there's precedent for this, it would seem as though this amount of money that are there any rules about what is incumbent upon us to return to them as well, in addition to the retro pay? Yes, I'm going to let city attorney Blackwood answer that question. We did discuss that. Sorry, I didn't follow the question. The question was simply that, as I said, this is a significant amount of money that has been owed to these employees for some time. And wondering if there are any rules that the city has regarding, this is clearly an error on the city's part. Are there any rules regarding what additional compensation could be due to them? So the error on the city's part is since November. Prior to that, what the city's rules say is an employee can put in a request for a reclassification, but the city tries to get to it and do course. And in this case, the due course took some time, particularly with COVID. So we don't really have any other provisions about anything else being owed to them. Okay. Okay, I'm a little, you know, I feel like we are setting a certain, I'm not sure maybe at some point in the future, this is something that should be discussed so that we are, I mean, this is, my understanding is that this is additional retro pay being considered. And this goes back to November 7th of 2018. Am I not understanding this? No, you're understanding correctly. And the error was that you approved back pay in November, but just not, there was a mistake about how far back it should go. Right. So it was- I don't think that piece, but in terms of not getting to do the reclassification for some period of time, we do not have in our policies anything that provides folks anything other than that they get the back pay they should have gotten. Okay. All right. So the five, in the case of the first employee, the $5,441.28, some of that money is money that was owed to that employee back in 2018. Not all of it, obviously, but some of it. Is that right? Right. Right. Okay. I mean, I just, I don't know. I don't feel great about that, but I'm assuming that you're going according to the employee manual. The personal manual. We're going according to the employee manual. If you want us to look at whether or not there's a change that for fear and his sake ought to be made to that, we can certainly look at that. Well, I mean, hopefully these kinds of things don't happen too often. So hopefully we're- We have been working hard to try to get processes down so that it doesn't happen. Okay. All right. Fair enough. We can perhaps that's something that, when we have a new HR director, that that could be something that would be the HR committee that they might look into. But for now, I'll leave it at that. Thanks. Excellent. Is the board ready to vote on this? Before, can I ask a question? Yes. Mr. Jang, and then President Tracy. Thank you. I was also wondering if we have all the employees who are experiencing the same issue at DPW specifically. Are we going to get another set of employees that need retroactive pay soon or you don't know? We certainly looked at this and I will let director Spencer speak to that. Yeah. I'm not aware at this time, there are no other requests like this where a reclassification occurred and there was a confusion around how far back to go and so to my knowledge that these are the two and we're seeking to rectify that tonight. There is one where there's an instance where we may have been too generous. We're working to try to clean that one up but this is the only one where the city that city has to pay additional funds. Yes, thank you. And I think the other question is basically this has been happening since 2018, right? And I know also that we lost an HR director not long ago, maybe less than a year or so. How couldn't we just catch this like way back in 2019? I'm gonna start with that, Councillor Jang, just in that we not only lost the HR director but the HR manager who was tracking this, Stephanie Reed also left about maybe two, three weeks later. So I think the double losses there and COVID, that was very challenging and so it's very important to us to make this right at this time. This is as far as I understand a very unusual situation and we're doing everything we can to ensure nothing like this will happen but I do think because of that confluence of events where both the manager left then the direct supervisor left, then COVID hit this was an unfortunate situation. Okay, thank you. President Tracy. I just wanted to note that we do still need to actually make the amendment because we just got the amount we didn't actually formally amend. So I'm wondering if Director Spencer you might be able to restate those amounts and which lines so that we can actually just make the amendment prior to voting. Yeah, and we do need to move on. We have so many other items. Great, so on line 10, the language should be but should have received $7,956,002 requiring the payment of an additional $5,253.35 line 12 should have received $8,548.83 requiring a payment of an additional $5,441.28 and then lastly on the final line 17 and 18, Elizabeth Ross and the amount of $5,253.35 and to the senior planner Nicole Loach and the amount of $5,441.28 those are all consistent with the memo that attached to the resolution. And does someone like to make that amendment? So I would move those changes. I'll second Councillor Pine. Great, Councillor Pine and Councillor Tracy and President Tracy. And all those in favor, please say aye. Any opposed, please say nay. The amendment passes unanimously and then we need to vote on the underlying resolution and we have a first and a second for that. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed, please say nay. And it passes unanimously, excellent. Thank you very much Team DPW and Team HR for helping us to correct that. Moving on to item 4.04, the elevator contract. How would the board like to proceed? Yes, Councillor Pine. I would move to approve and recommend the City Council authorize the director of Parks, Recreation and Waterfront to sign a contract with Otis Elevator Company doing business as Bay State Elevator Company the amount of $148,493 with a contingency of $14,849 for a total amount not to exceed $163,342 for the modernization of the elevator in the Fletcher Free Library subject to final review and approval by the city attorney's office. Thank you, is there a second? Councillor Paul. Is there any discussion? All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed, please say nay. The motion passes unanimously. Thank you Team DPW and BPRW. Item 4.05, the amendment for wastewater disinfection improvements, how would the board like to proceed? Yes, Councillor Paul. Thank you. I'll make a motion to take the recommended action as detailed on board docs. Excellent. And then Councillor Zheng, your second. Is there any discussion? Great. Let's proceed to a vote. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed, please say nay. And the motion passes unanimously. Thank you Team DPW and continuing with Team DPW. It's a theme tonight. The Vermont Clean Water Revolving Fund, how would the board like to proceed with item 4.06? Just had a question, but... Yes, President Tracy, go ahead with your question. So I was curious as to how if at all this relates to combined sewer overflows specific to that particular outfall and if this is going to at all contribute to their reduction? That's a great question. And it is World Water Day, which is why we're bringing all of these water items and why I have water in the background. This specifically is not going to do anything to reduce combined sewer overflows in that location. It would be addressing primarily the separate stormwater related erosion that's occurring at those outfalls. This outfall as well as the outfall on the other side of Route 127, the frequency of discharge to those locations has been greatly reduced as a result of the projects that we did. In the early 2010s in the Old North End, they do occasionally, this one in particular occasionally goes off but at a very infrequent basis. But to answer the gist of your question, this is really just about stabilizing that whole channel. I don't know if anybody's ever been down there, but I like to say it's about 10 megans deep and 15 megans wide. And with every rainy season that we have, it could get worse. And so we're really trying to, we've been advancing this project so we can take action and stop the erosion from occurring and potential additional damage to the roadways nearby. Okay, thank you. Any other questions or would the board like to make a motion? I just want to apologize. I know the formatting is weird in the PDF. I don't know why if you saw on your screens with all of the L's being bolded, that wasn't some sort of subliminal message you were trying to send. So we'll try to check on that next time. Thanks, Megan. Yes, councilor Pine, is that a first? I will move to recommend the city council, approve the attached resolution. Thank you. I mean, it is World Water Day. And that's a second counts, President Tracy, thank you. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed, please say nay. The motion carries. And then item 4.07, we're going to stay with our friends in water as we seek to execute an amendment for catch basin cleaning services. How would the board like to proceed? Yes, councilor Jang. Yep, I would like to approve and recommend that the city council authorize, authorize the director of public DPW to execute an amendment of the contract with Wind River Environmental LLC for catch basin cleaning services to increase the scope of service and to maximize limiting amount for an amount of 68,975 to 1,032, 1,032,674.85. I'll second. And thank you, councilor Paul. Any discussion? Great, all those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed, please say nay. And the motion carries. And lastly for water resources, a design of our cell antenna corral for the redstone tank, item 4.08. How would the board like to proceed with this item? Come on, this is cool. Yes, thank you, councilor Pine. Is that first? That's a first. Yes. Second. Councilor Paul is my second. And are there any questions or comments? All right, all those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed, please say nay. And the motion carries. Thank you, team DPW. Thank you. Thank you, councilor Glock of Water. Yes, World Water Day. All right, we've got our airport team here today because we are also looking to execute an agreement for construction of the Chamberlain School, the HVAC upgrade. This is an exciting one. It's item 4.09. How would the board like to proceed? Yes, councilor Paul. Thanks. I'd like to make a motion to approve and recommend that the council authorize the director of aviation to execute a contract with Engelberth Construction for the Chamberlain School HVAC upgrade construction services in the amount of up to $1,650,912 plus an additional $247,637 or 15% contingency for a total amount of up to $1,898,549 subject to final review and approval by the city attorney's office. Excellent. Is there a second? Councilor Chang. Second. Any further discussion or questions? All right, let's vote. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed, please say nay. The motion carries unanimously. Thank you so much for your hard work, Larry, Nick, Shelby and the entire BTV team. Thank you. Gene is on as well and I'm sure he says thank you. He's on one of the cell phones over there. Gene, thank you. As always, we are so thankful for your leadership even if we can't see your smiling face today. Moving on to item 4.10 city council initiative fund reimbursement request from Councillor Jang. So question. Yes, Councillor Jang. Yeah, it seems that I need to recuse myself and should not vote on it, but can I still stay online or I have to step out? Question for the city attorney. You can stay on the line, but yes, you should not participate or... Okay, thank you. Ask questions about the fund as the person putting it forward. Councillor Tai. I would move to recommend to the council that an approver reimbursement to Councillor Ali Jang in the amount of $556.40 from the council initiatives fund for the rental of a dumpster to clean up the Lori Lane neighborhood in October 2020. Is there a second? Second. Thank you, President Tracy. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed, please say nay. And the motion carries. So we are on to item 5.01, contract with Holy Construction Company for repairs to municipal buildings due to the Halloween 2019 event. How would the board like to proceed? Yes, Councillor Pine. I would move to authorize the director of the Department of Parks, Recreation and Waterfront to execute a contract with Holy Construction Company in an amount of up to $84,045 with a 10% contingency of $8,404, totaling up to $92,449 for repair to city facilities related to the 2019 Halloween event subject to final review and approval by the city attorney's office. Is there a second on the motion? President Tracy. Any further discussion? Are we ready to vote? All right, all those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed, please say nay. And the motion carries unanimously. And we are on to item 6.01 called update on federal money from your CAO. And I see the mayor has also joined us. Anything you would like to say mayor while I pull this up and share my screen. Just good evening, everyone. Thank you, Catherine, for running this meeting up until now. I'm gonna let Catherine leave this discussion as well. She's put together a PowerPoint. This is an exciting discussion. We have very significant resources coming to us from the federal government over the next year. Some of the funds will be here within a couple of months. The balance of what is now projected to be 19 million will be coming a year from now. As you all know, we really needed this. If we didn't have this kind of revenue replacement, we were looking at very stark issues in the FY22 budget. This gives me a lot of confidence that we will be able to have a full, robust budget for FY22 that really provides all the services Burlingtonians expect and allows the city to have the same kind of nimble, energetic response to the economic recession that we've had to the pandemic over the last year. All of that should be possible without needing to go to Burlington taxpayers for more funds during this time. And I think this is really gonna allow us to help the people who need it most. We know this has been a very uneven recession, very uneven impacts. And we want to find a way to help the Burlington households and businesses, small businesses that have been really, that have borne the disproportionate brunt of this recession. This is the first of what I'm sure is gonna be numerous discussions. We basically wanted to, as soon as we, since the last time we met we got this confirmation that the bill passed basically after months and months of talking about it, the bill passed, so we know the money's coming. We don't know all of the rules that will be attached to it, although we do have a preliminary indication of what the limitations on this money is gonna be. We'll talk about that tonight. We wanted to immediately get in front of the Board of Finance and start to kind of paint the picture as we understand it and start the discussion about how we best use these funds. My sense, and this is one of the things up for discussion but I think most of these funds, we, the great majority of these funds we can kind of figure out together and appropriate through the FY22 budget process between now and the end of June. There is some current year impact that this will help us with as well but most of the decisions are gonna be, I would envision us kind of working out together on that timeline and please consider tonight the first of a number of formal and informal discussions about this. I really would like to fully engage the council and the Board on how we do this and we're gonna do that both in meetings like this and I will be reaching out to you individually as well to try to put together a consensus plan for how we move forward. So with that, I'm gonna hand it over to Catherine and I'll kind of interject as needed as we work our way through this presentation. So go ahead Catherine. Excellent. Thank you, mayor. As the mayor said, we use words like preliminary and estimated draft several times throughout this presentation because this is really meant to invite a dialogue. So with that, I will say when we, first encountered the need for a reduced budget last year, we quickly decided that we needed principles to guide us and you helped us to affirm those. So you'll see on this slide and the next slide, we feel the same thing is going to be important to drive our work this time around. So we've got on this slide, what we're calling some principles around the process and the next slide has our goals for the money. So one of our first priorities will be restoring necessary budget items, things that were cut over this past year and a half. Other things to note, most of the funds will be appropriated through the FY22 budget process. That's the mechanism that we anticipate engaging with you in formally. As the mayor mentioned, there will be lots of informal ways that we will engage with you. Federal dollars are going to be used to we envision restore those FY22 budgets fully. You will recall in FY21, we brought you budgets that were trimmed down that did not include very much for things like employee training and professional development. You really didn't include much even for things like office supplies. Really we squeezed everywhere we could. So we'll be looking in FY22 to use that money to restore budgets to something that's more normal. We'll be looking to keep our unassigned fund balance between 10 and 15%. That's consistent with our policy and with continued uncertainty in FY23. Just by way of perspective, you may remember at the end of our audit, we're at 12% now. So that's not any big change. An important principle here, you can call it the Bob Rustin principle, but really it just makes good sense. One time money needs to be used for one time costs unless there is a plan for those recurring costs. During the recovery, we had certain abilities to act decisively and impact, make quick impacts and we would like to retain that as we move forward in the recovery. And of course we need to continue to reassess as we go along. Because if there's one thing we've learned over the past year, it's that things are continuously changing. So that's a little bit about the process. Yes, Mayor. I just wanna clarify that the word necessary is used in the first and the third bullet. And I just wanna just expand on what we're thinking by that. We aren't just gonna default to restoring budget lines the way they were before to pre-pandemic levels. Certainly I think there'll be a certain presumption that a lot of budget lines will restore to those levels. But in some cases, we have found new ways of doing things. We have flushed out perhaps certain areas of spending that budget lines that really aren't needed before or things that can be done more efficiently. We're not just automatically restoring things. We're planning on conversations with department heads about these restorations. So I just wanna make that point. And then- Thank you. I'm bullet point number four. I just wanna expand on what we mean by this. The board may recall that when we passed two years ago now the unassigned fund balance policy, the policy, it basically lays out a range indicating that it's really barring really unexpected circumstances, really problematic circumstances, emergencies. It is the policy that we have somewhere between five and 15% unassigned fund balance at all times. We are recommending or we are currently thinking as we're going into this process that we wanna be at the upper end of that range when with the budget that we set for FY22, if possible, knowing that it is, I think, very unlikely even if there is a slow recovery or even if, you know, let's hope not but somehow the pandemic worsens again and there's more disruptions. It is quite unlikely that we will receive more funds than those appropriated in this bill. So given certainly where we're sitting now, the uncertainty about FY23 and whether all of those budget lines which were very significantly impacted over the last year are gonna fully bounce back by then. It seems prudent to us to try to plan now to be on the upper end of that range, not over the 15%, which essentially a policy says you shouldn't be reserving more money than 15%, but, you know, towards that upper end given the uncertainty about the future. Any questions, thoughts, reactions to these, you know, support for these principles at this point, President Tracy. Thanks, Mayor and CEO Shad, I appreciate this kicking it off with these principles. Two things that kind of stick out to me are just wanting to codify, we know that the pandemic has been really as laid bare and exacerbated many of the disparities that we face as a city in terms of race and class issues with folks really, okay. That's why I'm wondering, Mayor, I think maybe I should go quickly through this and then get comment. Sorry, President, I didn't mean that. Just wanting to see where equity falls in the conversation and if that's really important. And then the other piece being just public participation and what principle we have for checking with public. That's all. Thank you. Okay, that's good. Okay, is it okay with you, Mayor? No, I think it's a good idea, President Tracy. We tried to sort of split it into these sort of process principles and then these are the more substantive, programmatic goals, if you will. And yeah, Catherine, why don't you, and again, initial preliminary for discussion. And Catherine, why don't you walk through? Okay, I'll at least get through this. And then I think we could have a discussion before I get to the numbers. So then the goals, yes. Number one, our relief and recovery efforts will continue to be racially just and that we need to continue to target our efforts at individuals, groups, and small businesses that have been most effective, most negatively affected by the pandemic. Positive local government innovations should be made permanent. We're thinking about things like, what do we do with all of the amazing work that the RRC has done and with all of the outreach we have done to the new American community. So you'll see some proposals around that and we'll be engaging you with that. Also, it's obviously critical that we stimulate the local economy and activate both the downtown and waterfront in accordance with the public health conditions. And then lastly, you'll see prioritizing these investments regarding racial justice, climate, housing, and infrastructure. So why don't I pause there and let us talk about that. I know none of you have seen this presentation because unfortunately, Laurie, I had Laurie post it very late. It's up there now. We'll talk more about numbers, but I know we would like to have your feedback both in this meeting and then both the mayor and I would like to engage with you after as well. So mayor, why don't I turn it over to you to- I'll say a couple more quick expand a little bit on the bullets and then we'll open it up. When we blow number one, when we say continue to be racially just, what we really specifically mean there is we've had this eight point plan for racially just public health response and pandemic since last June. We really want to stick to that lens with all of the actions during the recovery. Point number two, again, we know a striking fact of this pandemic which wasn't clear at first, but is very clear now is that this has been very uneven. There are many businesses, many individuals that had a great 2020 financially that did better than ever. And that's really true in Vermont I've found in my engaging a lot of our outdoor companies and our companies that are involved in cleaning or janitorial products. There's a lot of our major companies have very good years in 2020. And then there were many that had on the edge of not being our clinging to survival because the pandemic has been an existential threat to them because the hospitality industry shut down because the meals and the activities that have become such a major part of downtown, Burlington have essentially been shut down for large chunks of time. And that translates at the individual level as well. We know that many, especially service workers have seen their incomes dramatically hit and not recover yet. And so other levels of government, I mean, the federal response is not really targeted. It's a lot of the money's going out to, it's very broad in the way it's being disseminated. We think there's a need and opportunity to be really targeted in our limited but significant funds that we're gonna get here. And we wanna talk to you about the best way to do that. I think bullet three is clear. Bullet four speaks for itself. And then let me just say one more thing about bullet five, what I mean here. When I think we had a really good joint community success with using emergency funds, homeless funds to not just house individuals experiencing homelessness that needed some kind of low barrier institution. We didn't just house them during the emergency. I mean, part of our response did that, right? We had as a council pine knows well, we had sort of exceptional temporary situation at the facility at the holiday end. We had the North Beach temporary facility, but towards, but later in our efforts, we were able to take these emergency dollars, $2 million of emergency dollars and get them invested in it. What is gonna be an enduring community asset with a shelter on Shelburne Road that a new place now is owning and operating with city support. I think there's gonna be a whole lot more or at least a number of additional strategic investments like that where we can use these one-time dollars, emergency dollars in a way that supports the public health effort, supports the economic recovery, but really allows us to meet long-term needs. We've known we needed that low barrier facility year round for some time. And this seems like a principle, a good goal to have is when possible if we can make these sort of structural progress. I think that should be a goal. Now with that, I'll turn over, open the floor to any reactions at this point. Councilor Pine. I think a couple slides down, it talks about what the funds can be used for. I would just under infrastructure, I think I'd like to make a plug for specifically in this document and in our plan, our thinking to include energy and energy efficiency in that one. Cause I see that as an investment that has the climate impact, it has social and racial justice impacts, it has economic benefit and it lasts. It's something if we invest in with this one-time money, it will bring dividends for a very long time. So I hope we'll be really focused on making some of those climate related investments in a very meaningful way around, in relation to and connection with our other efforts around weatherization and energy issues, I hope we'll actually plan to devote some serious resources to that. Great, and I don't want to like go back and forth on everything that's raised, but I do just want to kind of, I think this is a good segue to this emerge slide here that these are the federal rules at this point, as we know them, I think we believe there could well be sort of more detailed rules promulgated, doesn't explicitly call out climate investments as one of the kind of allowable uses, but we want to dig into the details and understand, I agree with you, Councilor Pine, and I think as we really figure out how we're allowed to work with this money and what's funnable and what's not, we, I agree, it would be great if, I think that's an area of great common ground within city government administration, Council, and we know there's some major needs there, so I agree. Thanks, and I just want to second the comment Councilor Tracy asked about, and that is how we're going to engage the community in defining these priorities. You know, there will be some time, so I know we have our budget process that will be underway, it is underway, and we have April, May, and June to work through that. I want us to be pretty expansive and perhaps even some out-of-the-box thinking and approaches in how we solicit public input into prioritizing these resources. I think we've got a lot of interest in the community about how to direct these, and not everybody's going to be necessarily satisfied, but at least we have a process that is open and transparent and inclusive. Great, agreed. And definitely looking for specific ideas and thoughts on how we do that. I mean, I think what the kind of table stakes, the baseline public engagement will be, you know, I think the solid transparent process that we've had for many years now of multiple, first of all, I see a lot of this money being the great majority of this money being appropriated as part of the FY22 budget. That means we have the rest of March, April, May, June to do that. Of course, that doesn't mean every decision needs to be, we oftentimes create kind of reserve funds or items that may require more process after the budget passes, but we'll have our multiple meetings, we'll have multiple departments involved, we'll try to get channel 17 to help promote the kind of broadcast of those meetings. And that's sort of for starters. In addition to that, I think it's likely we'll have the additional sort of public process and public engagement of perhaps RFPs for certain areas of this money. So, you know, for example, like during the pandemic, we had $100,000 that went to food programs. We had an open competitive process for community groups to come forward and say, here are our ideas for how to use, you know, best meet that need. I bet there's some areas like that that we'll want to identify together and do that way. I'm certainly open to engaging the MPAs in new ways for certain aspects of this. Yeah, we have a, you know, we have a, I think we have an unusual opportunity here and we should think out of the box in unusual ways and make this a really a process that as many people as possible feel good about. Thank you. And then my last question is, do we know if the delegation has a read on whether or not there will be, in addition to this, which is substantial and I don't want to minimize what this is. I have, I've been hearing and reading a little bit about at least Senator Sanders wants to really implement some of his broad sort of green new deal vision and bring some program specific or some resources to bear on the issues. Some, many of which are on this, you know, sort of on these slides as well. So I'm wondering whether there's some potential, you know, additional resources that we may be discussing down the road as well. I want to hear your thoughts on that. Yes, I'll go to you, Councillor Jiang and then President Tracy, you got a little cue going here. Just briefly, it is very clear the Biden administration intends to make good or attempt to make good on their campaign promise of an infrastructure plan. There was a lot of discussion. There were multiple media accounts today in the New York times and elsewhere that they are essentially floating a $3 trillion additional plan in addition to this 1.9 trillion that is in this bill that would be broken up maybe into two bills, an infrastructure bill and then kind of a social justice bill of some sort and that is certainly something we're gonna remain very engaged in. We do believe old friend Luke McGowan is gonna be on the front lines of working with municipalities. Once he just had a second child was just born in the last couple of weeks. So we've left him alone a little bit for the last couple of weeks but he will be returning to a senior leadership role. We expect to work closely with the Biden administration to understand, yeah, on that infrastructure plan. In addition to all of that, there is a lot of talk that the moratorium of the last decade or so on earmarks may be coming to an end and that there may be additional specific opportunities there. So yeah, after, I mean, it's really quite something, Councillor Pine, when you were working in CEDA, when I started this job, we lamented many times how the era of federal assistance was over and it appears to be returning, at least for the next couple of years, with some very substantial opportunities. And we are, you know, something I wasn't gonna talk a ton about tonight, but we're trying to organize, reorganize the CEDA team to really be ready for that. With Kara Al-Mazrawi playing a leadership role, I forgot Catherine had a slide for it. So we have, I see Kara continue to play this sort of overarching leadership role, helping the downtown and the businesses beyond just her tertiary marketplace role. Taisha is going to really help us find ourselves to the mass, make sure we're looking through all of these investments and new programs and efforts through this lens of a racially just recovery and the eight point plan. We do intend at least for the FY22 year to have the RRC continue to be there. The RRC has been one of the busiest periods it's ever had over the last week because we were running these, we're helping the state run these BIPOC vaccination clinics last weekend and probably another one this coming weekend. So after a period where we weren't getting that many calls there, it sort of sprung back to life and we had to pull employees from many different parts of the city to help staff that. So we want to keep that capacity going as these different programs and opportunities arise for Burlington businesses and individuals. So yes, we want to make sure maybe the most important thing we can do is make sure that Burlington individuals and organizations can access these federally funds and we're going to stay focused on that. Sorry, I went on probably too long with that. Councilor Jang and then President Tracy. Yeah, thank you. So I mean, I think it would be wise for all of us to maybe think about to wait on before putting the challenge before the horse and waiting in order to understand better what are the streams attached to these funds? I think that could have been the first step. And also I'm requesting as soon as you receive those those strings attached to it to maybe communicate it with border finance and also the city council as soon as possible. I wanted to see that as a priority. That's the first to request. And second, I think most of these ideas are great but maybe let's try to think about them in a different context not in a reactive reactionary context but just a sustainable context because some of these ideas after these grants run out the issue about how do we sustain them would be a question. I think these are just wise things that we need to think about as soon as possible. And lastly, I tied to the question from Councillor Pine is about the infrastructure and it doesn't seem that these 19 million we're talking about another set of funds that we should expect from the federal government. So there are three things there. One is about a request and two about the sustainability of some of these programs. And yes, and the last question too. Great, Catherine, can you just flip back to the strings as we currently understand them? Just, and we'll email out these, well, it's up on board docs but if you want it as a file as well, we can circulate it. I was thinking the next slide, Catherine. So just these are the broad areas that the money can be spent on. I have heard, and I don't know, Catherine, if you've heard anything more detailed or different than this, but I believe there is an expectation that in the next week or two, there will be, this is sort of the language more or less that was in the legislation. The budget department or the federal government will be promulgating more detailed rules about how to understand these broad restrictions and what's gonna be expected in terms of documentation and all the kind of detailed questions that could flow from this. So I believe there's been a commitment to get that out to states and municipalities very quickly, like in the coming days. And as soon as we have that, we will share that. Catherine, do you have anything else to add about the rules? No, I would say that's exactly right. Everyone's anxious for them and we will certainly share them per year request, Councillor Jang, and I'm sure everyone else is anxious for them as well. Sorry, Councillor Jang, did that, was there, I think? Yeah, the other element is about maybe for the city to consider thinking about this, how do we roll it out differently instead of maybe hiring, let's say, a language access plan, people to support new Americans, but let's look into investing, for example, where they leave such as Franklin Square. How do we make that infrastructure much better for quality of life purposes, you know? That's the second element, to just think about it differently instead of just reactionary or action-oriented items. Great, great, great. I think there's opportunity to be quite innovative here and think of the things differently. Yeah, and I think that's the only way we can secure sustainability and also these funds will definitely serve those people, like in generations even to come instead of giving you $10,000 in two months it's gone and now you're back to normal, to square zero. And also look into maybe opportunities for people to own homes and start new businesses. And I think we see it all in the scale supermarket place. What they have is Burlington.org. We need to be strengthened with this in order to better support those who need these funds. Yeah, thank you. Thank you. President Tracy, thank you. Thank you. Thanks, Mayor. I was just curious about the infrastructure slide that says that there's that 3.5 million and just wondering what you're thinking might be included in that and how that would relate to the reemergence of earmarks being a possible option for us. And if we might be able to secure any additional earmarks that there are ways that we might be able to put those ideas forward if that's part of it. And then also how you see this capital expenditure relating to the capital planning going forward so that next chunk of capital work that we know needs to take place but that we still don't necessarily have a plan in place for recognizing that we do have to still come up with that plan. So just wanting to get your thinking on what this involves and how it relates to those other two aspects, those being potential additional aid, specifically earmarks and then the five-year capital plan. Great. Let me answer that by just briefly, we didn't really spend any time on this slide. So let me just kind of briefly go over each of the lines here and speak to your capital questions there. So the first line, people may recall, we've talked about it before as a board, we actually passed a budget last year that had a million dollar hole in it that we kind of basically hope we were gonna have these funds come in or other funds come in and wouldn't need to make another million dollars of painful cuts and that needs to, so this is one of the clearly things that is allowed by this from this kind of allocation and this means we don't have to do that very painful cutting. Similarly, the next 430,000 we are, we think we should move out of this sort of semi-austerity posture that we've been in with hiring freezes and very low expense, discretionary spending, number of things just sort of frozen in place. This is probably a high end, but as we kind of turn back on full city operations, there will be some expense to that and that's what that second line represents. The third line is a projection of, basically if we went back to a pre-pandemic budget and we wanted again not to have a full robust FY22 budget, that is probably about the gap between the revenues that we have from revenues and local revenues and the expenses of a pre-pandemic budget restoration. And so a good chunk of money is gonna be needed if the council agrees that we should essentially go back to normal operations. Then finally the capital needs, that presentation, what that is is a recognition that we have basically expended the 2016 sustainable infrastructure, $50 million of various pots of money and that we will be looking at a construction season right now that is not as strong as we have had for the last five years if we do not find a way to find some additional capital dollars. And so we would like to have a conversation with the council about whether somehow we can find some additional dollars, whether it's on a sign fund dollars or these emergency dollars somehow to have a really strong construction season. This would allow us again to have a very strong investment in sidewalks at historically high standards, strong investments in our roads at historically high standards, finishing the final piece of the bike path down through the Oakledge Park. This helps, there is a budget gap related to the other bike path work around the Amtrak relocation. So basically that to boil it down and we haven't gotten into the weeds even I haven't gotten into weeds yet on it but at three and a half would represent something comparable to a really strong construction season like we've seen over the last five years bridging us until the next round. As I think your question was asking, I do think we should need to have a conversation administration council about some kind of fall election for another round of infrastructure investment. We've been talking about this for some time. We knew that we had only kind of funded five years of investment. I think it's time to talk about the next five years of investment and we do have capacity within our borrowing kind of policies. So this sort of bridges us until we can have go to the voters and do that work to decide on the kind of next round of capital investment. Did that fully address your question? Yeah, no, that was helpful. Thank you, mayor. And then the other piece that I just wanted to understand is how you see CEDO playing into this specifically the specific effort and particularly around housing. I see small business support which I think is gonna be necessary coming out of this but understanding that when that eviction moratorium lifts there's probably gonna be a significant need throughout the community for support, for tenants in particular and to make sure that we don't see just a wave of houselessness emerge in the wake of this causing real pain and hardship in the community. So just wanting to see how the housing work that CEDO does already might be expanded or if there might be new work that could take place in how you see that particular thing, that particular element going forward because I'm particularly concerned about businesses, business eviction, but particularly housing evictions coming forward. Right. So absolutely we need to organize ourselves to help Burlington families, individuals through this period. By no means that I mean to suggest we're just gonna care about the impacted businesses. We care, we're gonna do everything we can to help the impacted individuals as well. A lot of that, President Tracy, I think our role will be to really help Burlingtonians access the massive resources that have been appropriated by other levels of government at the housing crisis. Hundreds of millions of dollars have been appropriated within Vermont for rental assistance in one form or another for closure assistance. And before we start using the dollars that we control to address that in some way, I think the first line of our strategy should be making sure Burlingtonians are fully aware of those opportunities. And we're gonna do that through the RRC the way we have throughout this. We're gonna have the advertisements and the posters and the flyers going to people's homes and the call center set up and the great web resources. We're gonna keep that really kind of rich and current and helpful. We have throughout this been like you thinking there could come a moment where all those other safety net efforts we find holes in them or they are fully extended. And so we have been setting some emergency dollars aside kind of to be as the sort of housing assistance of last resort. And I think we'll probably wanna continue that strategy in some forms for emergency dollars so that we can ensure that through this recovery period we're doing everything we can to help Burlingtonians avoid evictions and foreclosures. And I do think reserving some local dollars or locally controlled dollars for that will be important. More broadly or kind of medium or on the kind of structural and I think Councilor Jang was talking about this. I'm really excited that together we've almost completed all those, I think next time the council gets together we'll finish the weatherization ordinance and then we have the short-term rental ordinance coming close on the heels of that. And then we've sort of gotten through a big chunk of the share basically that shared housing agenda that we had coming out of the housing summits of 2019. I think we need to have another conversation really soon about where we go from here on housing policy work and increasing home ownership opportunities in particular and addressing kind of racial disparities is I think gonna be a really active conversation in the near future. And... Great, thank you, Mayor. Okay. And so you asked that through what seat. So yeah, CEDO housing people absolutely be engaged in that but we also, this whole effort we've set up around the RRC will also be engaged in it. So it won't just be owned by CEDO. This is going to be quick. Go ahead, Councilor Jang. Yeah, and it is about, you know, it's an infrastructure but do we have any thinking around memorial auditorium about this funds we will be receiving? Memorial auditorium? Yeah. I don't believe investment in memorial auditorium is sort of squarely programmatically or maybe even within the dollars we're talking about. I'm not sure how much we'll be able to get done on that through this appropriation. Maybe there's another stage of planning or we're not. I do think between infrastructure and the possibility of earmarks absolutely more memorial auditorium, main street investments or further investments in Moran, investments in some type of cultural empowerment center that we've been talking about over the last year related to our racial justice work. Those are some kind of big items that might well fit into the infrastructure or earmark opportunities. So we have a big decision to make as a community where what we want, you know, do we continue? I think there's a lot to talk about with Moran auditorium and that gateway block and maybe some recent, you know, whether the pandemic or other events in the community have, do we just go back to where we were at with that plan before the pandemic or do we want to think about something different? It's not obvious to me which way we go with that. Okay, thank you. All right, I think we're getting close to seven o'clock and it feels like a good first discussion. Can we just go to the next steps slide, Catherine, before we wrap up? So we envision continuing this conversation with the Board of Finance the next time we gather which I think will be with, sorry, we'll be with the new Board of Finance. I think, you know, the next Board of Finance meeting is after reorganization day. And so we'll continue this conversation then. I expect we'll have more detail by then. We'll also have a schedule for you by then or for the new Board of the full budget schedule and we can talk more about additional public participation that we want to work into this year. So that would be sort of the formal process. The CAO is going to share this presentation with the full council for feedback. And I am going to try over the next couple of weeks to have some of you have had individual conversations since the election already. I'd like to touch base with every counselor before reorganization day and hear broadly about where we go from here as a city and how the council administration work together on that. And specifically kind of budget ideas I'm going to be reaching out to people individually as well. So hopefully by the time we reconvene the week after organization day, three weeks from now, we'll be able to flesh out this conversation in some important ways. That said, any additional things we should have on this list? You want any feedback on these certain next steps page at this point? Okay, again, this is the beginning of a significant conversation. So by no means should people feel there's going to be lots more chances as we've been talking about. So I think that is the end of the agenda, right Catherine? Okay. If there's no objection, then we are adjourned as a board of finance at 6.58 pm and I will turn the Zoom over to you President Tracey. Thanks Mayor, I will. If I could be pleased given hosting responsibilities I'll get us started in just a couple of minutes here. We'll wait for other counselors to get on. Thank you for that. If folks are interested in signing up for public forum you may do so by going to BurlingtonVT.gov slash city council slash public forum. And that will take you to a forum that you then fill out and submit, which I then use to call on folks for public forum. So again, that's BurlingtonVT.gov slash city council slash public forum. If you are calling in using a phone number just ask it on that form to just let me know what phone number so that I can identify you. I've had some issues with that in the past and then just would, and then I do prioritize Burlington residents. So please just let me know if you are or aren't a Burlington resident on that forum. It does ask that as well and that helps us to figure that out. So we'll get to that in just a moment but I'll let some counselors get on before we jump into the meeting itself. I'm sorry. President Tracey. Yes. Hi. I'd be happy to start off the, when we get onto the item of the agenda, I'd be happy to start off the discussion or the presentation. And I know Senator Bruce would probably be interested in going after that. Okay. I had heard from Senator Chittenden and Lyons that they would also be able to do that. So I was going to go to them but I can then come to you after that. I have a background. I'll come to you representative Odie. I'll come to you. No problem. Yeah. Just because, because I, it will be like late to hear about the Brigham decision and what I've got history. And then. All right. Yeah. If you think that makes more sense. I was, you know, I didn't hear back from too many folks today. So I appreciate you clarifying that. I'll come to you and then we'll be able to do that. Councilor Carpenter. Did you have something? I let representative Odie my link and she's now listed as me. So Oh, you may want to change your. Oh, you might want to. If you may and yourself. Go ahead and change your link. Hilarious. Okay. Uh-oh. I don't know if it's going to, it won't let me do that. It's just a pin. It doesn't, you know, the three dots. Oh, I'm pressing Ali Deng, Councilor Deng's thing. Okay. Nevermind. Got so excited, Councilor Deng. I, I pressed the wrong thing. Okay. Great. I see representative Welch joining us. Welcome, Peter. Representative Welch. I'm sorry. I know. And, um, we'll get started in just a second. Um, I just want to make sure we get the counselors. We have all get all the counselors on board. Getting on a few more counselors, and then I'll go ahead and get us started. Okay. I believe, I think we have all the counselors on board. So we'll go ahead and call to order the regular meeting of the city council. It's seven oh three. Before we get started, I just want to have a, um, a moment of silence, um, for, um, the victims of the Atlanta shooting, in particular, Soon Chung Park, Hyun Chung Grant, Soon Cha Kim, Young A. U, Xiao Ji Tan, Daoyou Feng, Delana Ashley Yuan, and Paul Andre Michaels. Thank you everyone. All right. The first thing on the agenda, um, and then we start with is the pledge. So I'm going to go to the pledge. So, um, we'll do that. A pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America. So with that, I will, um, we have a, our next item on the agenda is the agenda itself. Um, we have an, an additional, um, item on the agenda, um, that it will address, uh, after we make the main motion on the agenda, um, the reason for that is that, um, we generally work that we require, uh, resolutions to come in, um, on the Tuesday beforehand. Um, sometimes there will be things that happen after that deadline happens that are, um, timely. And as I've spent our practice, we have had, um, we have what we've done is we've put that on as a motion to further amend the agenda. Just wanting to make sure that the full council is on board, um, with addressing that particular item, um, and making sure that everyone's had a chance, um, to review that and feels comfortable with it. Um, so I just want to use, just explain why that is, um, the case for, for this particular, um, meeting as it is, um, something that we've done in the past, but that we don't usually do. So just wanted to clarify that for members of the public. So, um, with that, um, may I please have a motion on the agenda? Councillor Stromberg. Yes. Um, Councillor Tracy, my connection's a little strange. Can you hear me okay? Yep. You're coming through just fine. Okay. If you don't mind, I'm just going to keep my screen off so I stay clear and then I'm going to switch my wifi after this. Um, sorry about that. I moved to amend adopt the agenda as follows. No written materials for consent agenda item 5.27 resolution corrected retroactive pay for two reclassified department of public works employees, board of finance per CAO Shad and city attorney's office. Note revised version of the, of this agenda item per city attorney, Blackwood per BOF, add to the consent agenda item 5.28, communication mark Barlow, member parks and recreation commission regarding resignation with the motion to waive the reading, accept the communication, place it on file, advertise the vacancy and send a letter of appreciation to Mark Barlow thanking him for his time served as a member of the parks and rec commission, parks and recreation commission, add to the consent agenda item 5.29, communication David White and Megan tunnel of the city's COVID-19 analytics team regarding state workplace guidance changes regarding bars and social club operating restrictions with the motion to waive the reading, accept the communication and place it on file per David White, remove withdrawal from the agenda item 6.02, resolution joining the Vermont coalition for equity in education, counselor Shannon Jang per counselor Shannon, note revised version of agenda item 6.03 resolution recognizing the 200th anniversary of the independence of Greece and celebrating democracy in Greece and the United States, full city council per counselor Paul. Thank you, counselor Stromberg. We have a motion on the agendas or a second, seconded by counselor Jang. Any discussion hearing none, we'll go to a vote. All those in favor of adopting our agenda, please say aye. Aye, aye, aye, aye, aye, aye, aye, aye. Any opposed? Okay, that carries unanimously, which brings us to 1.02, which is that further amendment that I was speaking about when I kicked us off. Counselor Jang. Thank you, President Tracy. I would like to make a motion to further amend the agenda with the additional agenda item 6.6 resolution condemning hate crimes against Asian, American and Pacific Islanders by counselor Jang and the full council. Thank you, counselor Jang. We have a motion from counselor Jang. Is there a second? Seconded by counselor Paul. Any further discussion on this? Okay, hearing none, let's go to a vote. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye, aye, aye, aye, aye. Any opposed? Hearing none, that carries and we will also add that to our agenda item as item 6.06. Thank you for that, counselor Jang. One change that I will note for folks as a result of a request in this meeting and I'm sorry I didn't do it at the beginning of the meeting is that as a result of our request from counselor Freeman we have enabled or added the live transcript function within Zoom. Those of you who watch on YouTube know that you or may know that you can use the CC button to turn on that function when you're streaming it on YouTube because these meetings are also streamed on YouTube but you can also turn on the live transcription function through Zoom if you would like to and that's just at the bottom of your screen and then you're able to turn it on and have that happen. So you're able to go forward with that. So that is just a clarification. So and it's our first meeting so if there's feedback on that or people are having issues, please let us know and we'll work through those. So but thank you to counselor Freeman for raising that opportunity for us. I will now move us into item number two. We are excited or at least I'm personally excited to have representative Welch with us this evening. I really appreciate your request to join us and certainly excited to hear what you have to share with us regarding the American Recovery Act. So I'll turn it over to you representative Welch. Thank you very much President Tracy and it's really a thrill to be with all of the counselors. You have a big job ahead of you and what I'd like to do report to you and to Mayor Weinberger on information you probably have had but do it personally. Number one to just go through the highlights of the American Recovery Act and number two to make certain that you know our office will be with you and at your command really to do anything and everything we can to answer questions as we go along. Just a little background here. It's really quite astonishing what our state, our country and of course the city of Burlington has been through in the past year. I mean, it was literally a year ago, literally just around right around now, a little before when we had the state of emergency declared here, I was going out to the airport in Washington and I got a call from American Airlines asking me am I planning on taking the 1030 flight? I've never gotten a call like that. I was kind of curious and they said, well, Congressman, as soon as you get here, we're ready to go. I was the only person on the plane back to Vermont and it's usually totally crowded and you know, we're in a different world for a year and I just want to salute you because you all had to hunker down and try to figure out how to contend with that when you had to close down businesses, you had to close down Church Street where folks were scrambling trying to figure out about daycare and of course everyone was really anxious about their health and they were really scared about the health of people they loved or their children, people they had to take care of and we didn't know when we'd get a vaccine. You know, fast forward and then we now have a vaccine and shots are getting in the arms. So I'm feeling much more upbeat about how we hung on here and how we're coming out the other side but obviously we've got to hang in. But the American Recovery Act has its goal, $1.9 trillion that would help us get through until the vaccine is administered to everybody, hopefully. And that means that, you know, it's like we're on a bridge walking the other side where the vaccine is, but we don't want to leave our businesses behind and we don't want to leave individuals and families that are struggling behind. So it's a big and it's a bold plan but it reflects a decision that was made that we should err on the side of doing a little bit too much rather than a little bit too little. So going through it very quickly, there's money for the vaccine. So the state and local governments are not going to be paying for the cost of the vaccine. That is a federal responsibility. The hard job is getting the shots in the arms and we're doing, I think, very well here in Vermont for that to happen. But number two, help for individuals who are still reeling from this. And this will be significant for you in Burlington and the citizens that you represent. And as you know, there's really kind of two economies out there. Some economies are doing fine. They can do their work online, but a lot of folks can't. So there's going to be the $1,400 checks and then a family of four, that would be a $5,800 check that's going to help people obviously make it to the other side. One of the other provisions in this bill is the childcare tax credit. And this is, I think rightly heralded is probably the most significant policy accomplishment in the legislation because it is going to mean that any family that has a child six or under six is going to get a check for $300 a month. And up to age 17 is $250 a month. And many economists estimates that that will reduce childhood poverty by nearly 50%. There is additional money in there to help our small businesses. And a lot of the businesses in Burlington, as you may know, I've got an apartment. My wife and I have an apartment right downtown, but it's been so tough on the restaurants. It's been so tough on our performance spaces like the Flynn where they really can't open up and get ticket sales until everybody is really safe. So there's money in there that they hope will help them. But then what you're really going to be responsible for is the local money that is going to be distributed to Burlington. And let me just say this. There was a big debate in Washington about whether there should be funding that went directly to our cities and towns. And that got resolved in favor of including cities and towns in getting direct relief and with significant flexibility so that our local elected officials would have the authority and the responsibility to make judgments about how to use that in the best interest of recovering for the citizens they represent. And even though we didn't get any Republican votes, there were a lot of my Republican colleagues who really were in favor of the state and local aid and giving some flexibility. So this is going to be a huge challenge for you and because the decisions are hard that you have to make in consultation with your constituents. But I think as you probably know, the number for Burlington is significant. Now Burlington gets 19 million directly. 19 million goes to Burlington. And then 8.3 million additionally goes to you as a county allocation. And don't ask me to explain that because we really don't have county government here but the way the formula worked, it took into account the metro kind of area situation that you have that's unique in the state of Vermont. So the total amount of money that will go to Burlington is going to be $27.3 million. The Burlington school district is going to receive a separate check for $14.3 million. And my understanding right now is that half of that allocation to your city will be distributed in 60 days and then the balance in six months to a year. Now, in addition to that, there's a $112 million capital projects fund that will be administered out of Montpelier but where municipalities in smaller districts, towns can apply to see if they can get some of their projects funded. And the use, what can you use that for? It has to be used for COVID related impacts but that's broadly defined. So it can be used to assist households for small businesses or nonprofits or you could partner with nonprofits on something like food distribution. It could be used for premium pay for essential workers. It could be for revenue loss that Burlington may have experienced as long as it's due to COVID. It also can be used for water sewer and broadband. And I know that's a big issue in Burlington but I know around the state of Vermont that has been a huge issue for many of our communities that are struggling. So you are gonna see as a result of the legislation significant financial assistance that's going to go to the Burlington School District. You as the representatives of the citizens of our biggest city are gonna be making the decisions about how best to allocate that to help your city recover from COVID and the big challenge here. A lot of times people will say to me, Peter, you've got a hard job because it's a mess down there. And it is a mess. January 6th isn't that long ago. But in fact, you have the hard job because it's one thing for us to struggle in Washington for the policy and there was a big debate about what do we include state and local aid. And I was strongly in favor of it. Bernie was strongly in favor of it. Patrick was strongly, strongly in favor of it. And we succeeded. That's the good news. But the hard, hard, hard job. Now that we have the money flowing to Burlington and other communities in Vermont is making certain at the local level, at micro level that money is well used and goes to the long-term benefit of the citizens you represent. And in a way, it reminds me of how what's really hard about the vaccines, it's not so much what we did in Washington to authorize the money to pay for it and distribute it. But it's the actual organizational efforts that have to go into getting those shots in the arms of all the people we represent with all the variability. That's involved in that. So I wanna end by saying that I'm really, really happy that we were able in Congress to, and Patrick by the way, you know, as the chair of our Appropriations Committee in Bernie as the chair of the Budget Committee, we're usually helpful with the small state minimum and the overall design of this. So we owe them a lot of money. So we owe them a great debt of gratitude, but you are gonna have a consequential job that's gonna be very significant in the long-term future of the city of Burlington. And I wish you the best of luck in carrying out that responsibility and that burden. Thank you. I'm not hearing you. Thank you for that. I appreciate it. So I will now open it up. We've got about 10 minutes, counselors, Mayor for any questions you might have or thoughts you might like to share before we get into public forum. I know that's a little bit of a brief time, but I see Mayor Weinberger, if you'd like to go and then if counselors are interested in engaging, please let me know. Go ahead, Mayor. Thank you, President Tracey, I appreciate it. I just wanted to say thank you Congressman Welch for joining us tonight and moreover for your many months of hard work to make this American Rescue Act possible. We are, it has already started to have impacts here on the ground. We have already taken steps to lift the hiring freeze and other really local government austerity measures that we've had in place over the last year in response to the passage of the legislation. We are reorganizing city government to be able to meet the tasks that you just laid out there and make sure that this money gets out into the community in a way that impacts and helps Brolin and Tony and it's the greatest degree possible. Just as federal dollars have allowed the city to be very active and nimble throughout the public health emergency, this money means we're gonna be really able to help people through and really help lead the recovery, lead the way out of these dark times. And we met tonight as a city, the Board of Finance, met and got a presentation from our Chief Administrative Officer Catherine Shad to begin to figure out how we do this work together. And I commit to you, this is gonna be a major focus over the months ahead and we'll make you proud. We'll make sure that this money gets out and helps our shared constituents and the greatest way possible. We're gonna be very focused on having a racially just recovery as we have been for the last year since we've had an eight point plan to ensure racially just pandemic response and recovery. And we're gonna try to make the best we can, not only make sure that we really help the people that have been negatively impacted by COVID, this has been a very uneven pandemic. We know it's hurt certain households, individuals and businesses much more than others. We're gonna really try to make sure this help gets the people who need it. And we also are going to whenever possible just to use this once in a lifetime opportunity to make progress on some of the structural challenges that we face as a community, whether that's with the climate emergency or racial justice or our housing crisis or our infrastructure challenges. We're eagerly awaiting some of the more refined rules to figure out how we do this best but we look forward to working with you and your team to make sure we really maximize this opportunity for the people of Burlington. Thank you. Thank you, Mayor. Councillor Pine. Thank you. Thank you very much, Congressman Welch, for being here with us tonight and really appreciate this. The money that's coming forward in this recovery package is critical and is much appreciated. And I would just point out that 40 years ago, Burlington received a couple million dollars annually from the federal government under something called federal revenue sharing and it was eliminated. So if we had revenue sharing, we'd be in a much different place and I just wanna acknowledge that. But just to ask you if you could tell us whether cities should expect to see the notion of earmarks which I think were maligned by people because of the way some members of Congress may have decided to use those resources but I believe through your work and Senator Leahy and Senator Sanders, you can prove that earmarks are actually in service to the American people and I'm wondering whether you can speak to whether earmarks are really going to return and what are the prospects for that? Brian, they are gonna return. That was decided last week when the Republican conference agreed along with the Democrats who had done it a week before too. We have a different word for it. It's called Congressional Directed Spending. I mean, it's not just a euphemism though. This is really the truth. This is kind of an absurd situation we had. Congress has the power of the purse. It's much like you and your board have the authority to decide how to spend taxpayer money and you have to be accountable for that. And there was an abuse of that during some previous conferences. The Bridge to Nowhere, of course, is the famous one. So the new Directed Spending requirements are very strict. It has to be nonprofit. If I'm gonna promote a spending for a nonprofit in Vermont, I have to put my name on it. I have to sign a statement that I have no financial interest whatsoever. So we're trying to build in the accountability at the beginning and that would allow for the return of Congressional Directed Spending. Excellent, thanks for your great work. Thank you for that, Councillor Pine. Are there further comments from councillors or questions? Time for Councillor Hansen. Great, thanks so much, Representative Welch. We really appreciate it. I'm wondering if you could give a high-level overview from your perspective of what the restrictions are on the dollars that are coming to Burlington in terms of how we can use them. Well, I can tell you broadly that it has to be COVID-related. So for instance, a big area of concern has been pension funds around the country. Vermont also has an issue there. And that was really a bottom line non-negotiable demand by Republicans that did not be used for pension funds. And actually, that's not COVID-related because whatever our pension situation is pre-existent COVID. So that's an example of what it wouldn't be allowed to do. But broadly speaking, anything that's related to the COVID recovery, and that's impact on businesses, it's impacts on individuals, it's impact on, for instance, your nonprofit and your performance spaces. You've got a lot of that in Burlington. You'd have a lot of flexibility there. There can also be some capital spending like on many communities are really excited about getting money that might help them with broadband. Also, it's always the case that when these federal programs get started, some agencies start writing the rules and the rules sometimes are frustrating and in conflict many times with the congressional intent. We saw that with the payroll protection plan and we went back and advocated for changes in the rules to accommodate the intent of Congress and the needs of our businesses. So one of the reasons I wanted to get together with you and Rebecca Ellis, my state director is on with us, is to say, we're all hands on deck and responding to your questions as they come up, okay? And what I'm advocating with other municipal officials is if you're experiencing a problem with the rule, the likelihood, you know, is it when Nusky is or Colchester is, is probably going to affect you in the same ways. So we want to make certain that, you know, we regarded as our responsibility to you to hear your practical on the ground concerns and try to work with the administration and the agencies to get it right. Thank you so much. Okay, we have time for one more quick one, counselors. Anyone else? Counselor Paul, go ahead. Thanks very much, Congressman Welch, nice to see you. I very clearly remember you tweeting that photo of you on the plane. As a sole occupant, can't believe a year has passed since that time, but we're looking forward to better days. One of the things that's in the plan was funding for housing and funding for rental assistance. And, you know, we know that when that there is going to come a time where we're going to once again be faced with people who are facing homelessness or facing eviction and just wonder how much of, you know, ideally we would love for the 19 million that has come to us that we not have to use that money for that purpose and be able to use it for other things. However, that's obviously a significant concern in Burlington. And so I'm just wondering in your opinion of the money that is coming to the state, the money that's federally going for housing and rental assistance, how you feel about that in terms of being able to provide and for how long on for those people that are, you know, have had a bit of a more, they've had a moratorium right now, but that is not going to last forever. Now, you know, you are asking, I think a really practical and important question. There is money in the significant money in the federal bill that is going to help individuals, you know, the $1400 check, the $300 child tax credit. I mean, this is really significant. That's not to say that it's enough for some families and it's probably more than other families need, you know, quite frankly, but there's also very significant money in the plan for rental assistance, okay? So, you know, if I were in your position where I was really concerned about two things, one, the wellbeing of the people that really need to help and two, the finances of the city, I really would be coordinating as best I could with the state because they're going to have a lot of money from this program for rental assistance and you want to use your money wisely and you want to help. So, even though it's a big number, it's a finite number. And so the suggestion I'm offering is to really try to coordinate so that you know how much rental assistance can be provided with the funding that goes to the state rather than who have to pick that part of it up and then you have to make a decision about whether you think that's sufficient and you may have to supplement it with some of the latitude you have with your funds. And that's what I meant about the hard decisions that I think our local officials have to make. That is hard, but I think start with the fact that the state is getting significant money and in some cases individuals, but that child tax credit are getting funds that are going to really be a lifeline for them. Great, thanks very much. Thanks for being here. Yes, so that brings us right up to public forum. So I just want to thank you again, Representative Welch for joining us since we're sharing this update regarding the React. Very much appreciate it and look forward to continued collaboration as this rolls out. Well, likewise, President Tracey and as I said, we're here to try to help answer these questions as we go along and good luck to you. I really, really admire the efforts that you're making on behalf of the city of Burlington. Thank you. Thank you, have a wonderful night. Yeah, you too. Okay, so with that, that brings us to our public forum for this evening. Again, if members of the public are interested in speaking at this evening's forum, you may sign up by going to burlingtonvt.gov slash city council slash public forum. That's burlingtonvt.gov slash city council slash public forum. We have a very light agenda this evening and only a few folks signed up. So I let the clerk's office know that I will be giving three minutes this evening for folks to speak as is the case with our forums. We do prioritize Burlington residents. It looks like everyone who has signed up as of now is a Burlington resident. So that's not really an issue this evening. And then just want to encourage folks to please direct comments through the chair and to keep things focused on the issues that are facing our city as much as possible, not trying to refrain from getting too personal with your commentary this evening. That's what we generally try and bring to these. So please just adhere to that as best you're able this evening. And I'll go to our first speaker, who is Christine Fleming. Christine is to be followed by Lu Mulvaney Stanek, Thomas Poon, Cheryl Green, Don T. Lee Terhune, and Christy Delphia. So Christine, I'm going to enable your microphone, should be able to speak. Hello, can everybody hear me? Yes, I can, go ahead. Great, my name is Christine and I'm here to speak in support of the weatherization ordinance. Having a place to live that protects you from harsh weather is a human right. And with our freezing Vermont winters, it becomes especially important to have a living place that's properly insulated. I will begin renting in Burlington later this year and I would feel comforted to know that if this ordinance were passed, I wouldn't have to worry about having drafts in the winter or paying an enormous heating bill. Besides helping renters, weatherization is a critical component of making Burlington more environmentally sustainable. Emissions from heating and cooling make up a large component of greenhouse gas emissions. And by weatherizing buildings, we can significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the city. If we want to successfully address climate change, we must reduce carbon emissions from all sectors of our lives, not only those that are easy. Thank you, I yield my time. Thank you. Our next speaker will be Lou Mulvaney-Stanik to be followed by Thomas Poon. Lou, I have enabled your microphone. Can you hear me? Yes, I can, go ahead. Councilor President Tracy, my name is Lou Mulvaney-Stanik. I'm a 20 year resident of Burlington and I own a home in Ward 8 out in the North End. I've spoken to the council many times over the past year of the pandemic here. I joined you for public comment tonight to share a letter of importance that I wrote the mayor on Friday afternoon. I've edited the letter for brevity to fit into public comment. Dear Mayor Weinberger, I vividly remember standing next to you, Tim and Steve backstage at Memorial Auditorium late in 2011 when you won the second Democratic Caucus is a historic moment for the city and I know a momentous one for you. In the decade since then, I appreciate how our paths have continued to cross in the community. While we've not always been on the same side of an issue or a campaign, we've engaged with each other with integrity and respect. I hope you read the rest of this letter in that same spirit. Mr. Mayor, I'm writing today to ask you to consider to resign as mayor. Let me be clear, I do not make this request lightly and I've not come to it easily. I know serving as mayor has been one of the highlights of your career and I know you are proud of all you've achieved to make our community stronger, especially fiscally and most importantly during COVID which no doubt has helped save lives. Yet Mr. Mayor, there's another crisis brewing that is now at a reckoning point. How burning to move forward to dismantle our racist systems and practices. Your leadership and decisions on these issues have increasingly become problematic, especially in recent months, weeks and just days ago with the reassignment of Director Green. These poor decisions have repatuated not alleviated harm against BIPOC-Berlingtonians. When faced with feedback, you have been quick to double down on your position or shut citizens out, rather than seek to further understand and thus grow and change to be a better mayor. To be frank, Mr. Mayor, I believe your white privilege is jading your thinking and your decisions. And yet I do believe that you wanna be doing the right thing, especially for BIPOC-Berlingtonians. Yet your actions have a much different and harmful impact. During public forums, you are dismissive and defensive oftentimes to our BIPOC local leaders. This is the kind of leadership that is not only troubling, it holds our city back. As white people, it is easy to be silent. It's easy to explain things off, to not show up and to think that we totally get it. The hard truth is we will always have bias against the issue of race and the social power that comes from being white. It's hard to work to do as human beings. It's even harder to do when you're in an elected office. Mr. Mayor, I believe this is a critical moment for you and the city. We're living an unprecedented times when our leaders must grapple with immense decisions and look within themselves to do the right thing. Even if it's bold, even if it's hard, even if it means stepping back or down. We have an opportunity to transform the city not just on public safety, but on so many levels towards racial justice. Who our mayor is in this moment is gonna make the difference. With respect, Lou Mulvaney-Stanik. Okay, thank you. I'm gonna go to our next speaker, who is Thomas Poon. I believe I have located you, Thomas. So I'm gonna go enable your mic. Show your face, right? I believe I've located you, Thomas. What's wrong? Thomas Poon. I have it under Schoon Poon. I'm not sure if that's the correct account. I'm not seeing a Thomas anywhere. Ah, okay. Thank you for using the raise hand function. I will go to that one. If folks, if you're on the Zoom, if you could change your name to just reflect who you signed up, the name under which you signed up. And then if you did sign up using a phone number, just if you could please indicate that phone number there. I'd appreciate that. But thank you for also using the raise hand function to help me find you. So. Who are you hearing? I have, I'm sorry, I had a Galaxy S8 signed up. Is that the right, is that you, Thomas? Or are you under Schoon? Yeah. I should be myself. Okay, all right. I don't see you as a Galaxy 8. So I'm gonna disable Schoon Poon and I have the Galaxy S8-1 enabled. So is that you, Thomas? Yes. Sorry about that. What? Hi, my name is Thomas Poon. I'm calling and representing the 15 War Street in regards to the easement. And I'm just trying to help my father out. Currently right now, I believe that we are just trying to have an easement for a parking spot for Fort 15 War Street there. It's the only residential property that does not have a parking spot throughout Wellington. Vermont gas had to come over to our property and dig up the makeshift parking spot that we had since 1940 and forward. With that, there was extensive work because there was a gas line through the sewer line. Because of that, we didn't have a choice but to allow that to happen due to an emergency. And then I believe through the public of a neighbor that complained about that there was work being done. We had no choice but to halt because the city official had to stop that based on a parking spot between the green belt and the road in the sidewalk. That being said for the record, I want to point out the fact that we have a prescriptive easement. And I believe that it's in our right to be able to realize that given the circumstances of the property as well as the land. Only available to the house and the property. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, our next speaker will be Cheryl Green to be followed by Don T. So Cheryl, I found you and have enabled your microphone. Cheryl, it looks like you're muted on your end. There you go. Thank you. I sent this letter directly to the mayor via email last Friday as part of the public record. I believe it to be clear, respectful and non-shaming and I'm going to read it now. Dear Mayor Ron Burger. This is Cheryl Green writing. I use she, her pronouns. I am white, age 73. I am an original resident of Burlington Co-Housing and Ward One. Our paths have crossed several times during your three terms as mayor. This is a serious letter. I am requesting that you consider resignation at the end of this month, March, 2021 and not be sworn in for another three-year term. Here is why. I have followed the course of the city council on Zoom for the last year, missing only one or two meetings. More recently, I attended a police commission meeting and on March 15th, the public safety meeting. On March 15th, with your announcement that you were removing Tayisha Green from her role in overseeing the contractual study of the BPD and transferring that responsibility to Darren Springer of BED, a white man, you crossed a line, not a line in the sand, rather to my thinking, a line in fresh poured concrete and that has solidified. Your attempt to walk back across that line by reinstating Tayisha Green gets her rightful responsibility back in place but does not get you as mayor back across that line. Your leadership style is different than what Burlington needs at this time. I wish you and your family all the best but a brave and brilliant quartet you are. All four of you need to be relieved of the stress this job entails for you, particularly in addressing the issues of racism and traditional policing. As white people, we are in a time of serious reckoning that includes deep listening. I am sure I am not the only person voicing this request for your resignation in the next 12 days. It is possible for you to resign with dignity and self-respect. Lots that's positive has happened during these nine years of your tenure as mayor. Sincerely, Cheryl Green. Thank you. Our next speaker is supposed to be Don T. Now, Don, I'm having difficulty locating you. If you could either use the raise hand function, if you've signed up on a different, if you're listed under a different name or if you've signed up using a phone number, I can come back to you if you just let me know. Mtracy at BurlingtonVT.gov. Okay, I see that raise hand function. Okay, I'm going to enable that to speak again and you should be able to speak for Don T. Can you hear me? Yes, I can, go ahead. All right, well, I once again, I'm once again speaking about 15 Ward Street in Burlington and the parking situation. I'm sorry, sir, did you already go? Nope. Okay, I'm sorry, I apologize. I just, when you said once again, I thought that you had spoken already. I apologize for that, go ahead. No, no, Thomas Poon was on about the same issue. Okay, I apologize, you're both under the same name. Yeah, nope, not at all. You could please reset the timer for this person. I really, okay, well, I really don't think I may need that long, but nonetheless. Okay, go ahead. I am backing up the fact that it is in fact the only property in Burlington with no parking after discussions with the city engineer through the Department of Public Works. The property was sold back in 1940 through a Howard Porter realtor who is now deceased. So it's kind of hard to prove, but he sold the property with the parking spot. And the resale value of you sell this property is going to kill the value of the property alone. As well, the curb cutouts been there for way over 50 years. The curb cutout is intentionally there because it is the actual parking spot and driveway for the property. And considering that Burlington has a winter parking band, I really don't know what you would expect one single family home to do about the parking situation. That is, to me, just kind of a little bit absurd. We're talking about, you know, probably 17 by 10 foot easement in the front of the property that has been there all along. As long as the property's been there, I'm sure. And we are talking to an attorney by the name of Benjamin Luna. And he's the one who guided us towards searching for this easement, searching for the easement and trying to obtain that. Now, we've already done an encumbrance permit and we want to do that and go by that. But once again, with the encumbrance permit, it states that after five years, the city's going to take back that property. That shouldn't be allowed really. I mean, they're talking about statutes and laws and rules that have been created in the last, you know, four or five years. And that property's been that way for, you know, well over 50 years. So there's got to be some amount of grandfather and there's got to be some kind of negotiation. There's got to be some neutral ground. It seems to me even very singled out, very one way. It's only one property in the whole entire city that doesn't have a parking spot. And that's because what we're fighting for is actually its parking spot. So it would make sense that everybody just saw it that way. And really, I don't have anything other to say. I mean, that's, you know, I've lived in Burlington probably longer than most of you guys, if not all of you combined. So yeah, it's been there forever. Thank you. I have to say thank you. Okay, thank you. Our next speaker will be Lee Turhune to be followed by Steven Whitaker and Kristi Delphia. Lee, I've enabled your microphone. Thanks, Max. I'm calling in tonight to talk about the management of the operational and functional assessment of the police department. The decision has been reversed, but irreversible harm has been done. This decision was considered since September of 2020. And in the last two months, someone said that it had been discussed with black leaders in the community. So the repercussions of this decision had been discussed in advance. It wasn't any kind of a knee-jerk reaction. Mr. Dodson told the Joint Commission that when he was appointed as director of police transformation in September, 2020, it was always his intention that he would represent the city as the facilitator of the operational and functional assessment of the police department. But because of delays, the city hadn't started the contract yet. His tenure's coming to an end. He's going back to the Y. So the mayor needed to find someone else from the administration to represent the city, someone who shows up as pretty neutral. There's a pattern of bias here that includes the mayor's handling of the parade mural in 2012. The ongoing environmental justice issues related to the dumping of traffic into the King Maple neighborhood. And now claiming that a white male would be seen as a neutral facilitator of the BPD assessment. The mayor and all city employees have an REIB director to check them on their racial bias. Either they're not checking with her or not listening to her. I'm asking the council to create a space on every agenda for a report on our progress toward becoming an anti-racist city. An opportunity for the REIB director and staff to address current issues and present the anti-racist response as a model for our community. Like the health commissioner guides us through COVID pandemic, the REIB director can guide us towards a healthy recovery from the epidemic of racism. I think that the mayor's actions were not an isolated incident. There's a pattern of racism there that either he's got to take some crash courses from director Green or, yeah, resign. I don't think the mayor is the right person to lead our city in the next three years. Thank you. Thank you. Our next speaker will be Steven Whitaker to be followed by Kristi Delphia. Steven, having difficulty locating you, did you use, if you used a phone number, please let me know by using the raise hand function or sending me an email. Do not see any indication of the number Whitaker. I'm still not having it to locate you. Steven, use the raise hand function. I'll check my email again. Okay, if you are able to, I'm gonna go to the next speaker, Kristi Delphia, and then I'll try for you one more time if you could just either indicate using the raise hand function or send me an email, I can try to come back to you. Now, Kristi Delphia, I've enabled your microphone. Good evening. I am speaking from 37 years of experience of renting in the city. Time and time again, this person has shown that the pedestal that they have built for themselves by stacking up broken promises, disrespect, racism, lies and hatred is much more important than even the words of colleagues that have trusted and respected them for decades, causing their friends to throw their hands in the air. This person, she completely understand the damage that they have caused to our BIPOC community. As the people of their own faith have endured the worst atrocities by the hands of others through racism and sheer hatred that this world has ever seen. Yet their last actions were planned behind closed doors. And by the time that damage was realized, it was two weeks. Causing further pain to someone that did not deserve it. I hope this part of my comment holds the most impact and rocks this person to their core. Their repeated, disgusting actions have torn the very fabric of our community and holding it hostage through their racist actions and sheer terror by removing our ability to protect ourselves against their money and power then has the audacity to steal from it. Our democracy, our dignity, our safety, our security, our respect, our health and the most sacred thing we have in the figurative and physical sense the very life of this city have all been absolutely obliterated. This person may occupy a chair in the office named by government, but has never earned the title of mayor. Do the right thing, publicly apologize for destroying Charles Chicky Winkleman's life with Brandon Del Poso and a fake Twitter account and resign before we have to legally petition you out. Thank you. Thank you. Our next speaker I was able to locate, Steven Whitaker. Thank you for letting me know. So I've found you Steven and have enabled your microphone. Steven, it looks like you're muted on your end. Looks like you're still unmuted or you're still muted on your end. There you go. Sorry about that. Steve Whitaker, address list at present. I have been raising with every public official I can find since last fall, the restroom issue on the waterfront with public works, the folks that lock and unlock the parking lot by the L.A.E. Center. L.A.E. Center has signs posted on the doors, restrooms not available for the public, boat house, restrooms are locked. There was literally a thousand people out yesterday. I was counting and walking all over and I was trying to help parents with young kids find some discreet place for them to believe themselves. But I've written to the mayor's office multiple times. I've asked for an acknowledgement of receipt of the request that this is a pandemic, people need to wash their hands, people need to not be leaving potentially contagious waste in public areas. And I've gotten no response. I saw the mayor personally on the waterfront down there for a photo op and I said, I've written your office, I've asked for a response. And I just don't know what else to do, but to raise it with the whole council and point out that this is a humanity issue and a hygiene issue and a pandemic issue, a public health emergency. And really you've got good bathrooms available in the boat house that can be monitored every hour or something and similar in the parking lot and open from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. or something. There's no reason not to have, there's no way to wash your hands in the new restroom in the city hall park. So I just think that both from the point of view of old people, incontinent people, unhoused people, et cetera, it's the least we can do in humanity and in public health to find the resources, you know, the extra pay for somebody to monitor and clean and refresh, you know, consumables. I just ask please, thank you. Thank you for that and that is our final speaker. Let me just check one more time. Yep, that is our final speaker for this evening. So I'm gonna go ahead and close the public forum. We will now move into other agenda items. So our next item on the agenda is our climate emergency reports. Did any counselors have a climate emergency report to offer? Okay, seeing none, we will go to our consent agenda. So I will go to Councillor Stromberg for a motion on our consent agenda. May I please have that motion? Yep, I move to adopt the consent agenda and take the actions indicated. Thank you, Councillor Stromberg. Is there a second? Seconded by Councillor Hansen. Any discussion? Seeing none, we'll go to a vote. All those in favor of adopting our consent agenda, please say aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Here, none that carries unanimously. That brings us into our agenda, our deliberative agenda and item 6.01, which is an update from our state house delegation regarding education, funding and tax reform. We have a number of senators and representatives with us this evening. I very much appreciate that you are all, during a bit, but it's probably a very busy session, I'm sure, are making time to join us for this. I also wanna thank Councillor Shannon for your request to bring our colleagues at the state level to this meeting. I think it's helpful to get this update. So thank you for that, Councillor Shannon. And I believe, so before the meeting got started, I had heard from senators Chittenden and Lyons that they were interested in potentially kicking us off than Representative Odie felt that she might be a better person to kick off. So I'm gonna go to you, Representative Odie, and then I'll follow up with the senator so we can hear sort of the House side and the Senate side. And then if other senators or representatives have additional bits to add on top of what they initially share, certainly welcome that. And I'd like to leave time for questions and comments from counselors as well. So Representative Odie, go ahead. Thank you very much, President Tracy, city counselors and Mayor Weinberger. Back in the 1990s, the decade that I was on the Burlington School Board, there was a funding formula in Vermont called the Foundation Formula. Burlington was a foundation town. We received federal funds, but little state aid to education. As a city, it was easier to raise funds with less effort, with Burlington's large grand list of real property than it was in a small town with only a handful of residential property and little commercial property. And in towns with a large scare af, for example, that contributed mightily to that town's grand list, there was very little burden on homes and non-commercial properties to raise taxes for schools. New school funding formulas were proposed in successive legislative bienniums to address issues with school funding. But it was the Vermont Supreme Court's decision in Amanda Brigham versus the state of Vermont that changed everything. The court said that the Foundation Formula did not eliminate wealth disparities from town to town and from school to school. In 1995, for example, the bottom 5% of schools spent $2,700 to $3,600 per pupil while the top 5%, 5% spent 5,800 to 7,800 per student. The tax base in Richford was $140,000 per student and in Peru, $2.2 million per student. While we recognize, said the court, that equal dollar resources do not necessarily translate equally in effect. There is no reasonable doubt that substantial funding differences significantly affect opportunities to learn. Money is clearly not the only variable affecting educational opportunity, but it is the one that government can effectively equalize. That system the court concluded which concededly denies equal education opportunity is constitutionally deficient. How and with what resources we choose as a state to fund education is up to us, the government of the state of Vermont. The mere fortuity of a child's residence to determine the resources a child should have is perpricious said the court and they were unable to fathom a legitimate governmental purpose to justify the gross inequities and educational opportunities evident from the record in the case. Finally, the court explained, we hold that the educational financing system in Vermont violates the right to equal educational opportunity under the constitution. The court did not opine about the tax rate equity, however, saying that there was not adequate briefing upon which the court could make a ruling. And so came Act 60 followed by Act 68. And with Act 60 acknowledging that students enter schools with different needs and that they need different levels of support for a common outcomes, students were assigned weights. A regular K-8 student was assigned the weight of 1.0, a high school student 1.25, then that changed to 1.13, the special education student 1.25, an English language learner 1.2 and a poverty, a child in poverty 1.25. And it was thanks to a concerted effort by then Winooski superintendent George Cross and joined by my efforts that we were able to get additional weights for ELL students. 20 years have passed and we've not updated the weights for students. When I entered the legislature in 2018, I sponsored a bill to change the weights as did others and the time was right. And the weighting study was commissioned. The results came out last biennium and it has forced conversation and action. What we all have to know is that the weights are meant to equalize, to impact local tax burdens and they themselves don't generate more revenue but they do impact tax rates. And if we were to adjust the weights upward for ELL and poverty, we would have a greater capacity to pay for schools in Burlington because our property tax rates would fall. Tammy Colby, a UVM professor and co-author of the weighting study reported to my House Ways and Means Committee and said, we don't need another study, that the weights in the report are respected in the field. Further, to those who would argue that if the weights were to change, they would not trust that we would make funding choices such as investing in teacher professional development for example, or to teach phonological awareness so that the science-based teaching of reading is employed or the nurturing of school leadership so that teaching and learning is supported school-wide or summer enrichment is offered so that some of our students who are most likely to fall behind after a summer away from educational opportunities is provided or mentoring, tutoring, mental health services and other supports are made available. To those who would question what might happen if the rates were to change as a result of updating the weighting, I pose this question. We have trusted school boards across the state to propose budgets based on current weighting and we have trusted communities to vote on those budgets across the state based on current weighting. Why now, assuming the appropriate setting of student weights as recommended in the study to some question the ability of school boards and communities to make decisions about how to educate their students. I am grateful for the Herculean efforts of the Burlington School Board to work toward a funding formula to achieve equity and educational opportunity. And so finally, in the 1990s, I came before the city council as a Burlington School Board chair and I asked the city council, please join with us to advocate for more funding at the state and local, at the state and federal level. I am so pleased that you have invited your Chittenden County delegation, representatives and senators here tonight so that we can join together to work for educational opportunity for Burlington school children and for Burlington's property tax fair. Thank you, President Tracy. Thank you, Representative Odie. I will also welcome, I know that senators Lyons and Chittenden wrote to me saying that they would also, that they also had an element to share as well. So, Senator Lyons. Thank you, Max. Thank you. It's a pleasure to be here with folks and really appreciate the opportunity. Before Senator Chittenden and I weigh in on the work that we're doing currently in the education committee, I'd like to turn it over to Senator Baruth and he does have some historical perspective if that's okay with you. Absolutely, yeah. No, happy to do that. Whatever you feel would be more helpful in this situation. So Senator Baruth, if you'd like to share with us, please go ahead. Thank you to President Tracy and good evening, counselors. So I appreciate Carol's long, long history because this is an issue stretching back decades. What I'm gonna give you is the last four years and I think like the two decades before it, it's really a record of resistance to this change. So if you go back four years in Act 49, the education committee in the Senate put forward the waiting study, the house signed on and that was passed into law. It required the Department of Education or I'm sorry, the agency to conduct the waiting study. Then Secretary Holcomb simply refused. You might not remember that, but it was a very odd incident where a newly passed law was being explicitly disregarded by an agency head. Her logic was that she didn't have the funding to do it and that she as an agency head had the right then to prioritize which laws to abide by. So letters of protest went back and forth and in the next year, we passed $250,000 to allow UVM to conduct the study rather than AOE. Professor Colby managed that study brilliantly and produced work that no one has disputed on any kind of scientific level. So I think the agreement across the board is that the numbers that Professor Colby developed are state-of-the-art accurate and in need of use. So that's where we were until last year and last year the education committee passed out a bill implementing those numbers, calling on the agency to develop an action plan. That went on the last day of crossover to the finance committee and that was March 13th, 2020 and that was the day we left the building for good. So that bill died as did many other bills. I knew that I was gonna be heading out of the chair of Senate education. So one of the last things I did was to put in a bill this year called S13 that would get the education committee started on a discussion, much needed discussion about how to implement and to my pleasure. They've been doing that and Senator Campion who runs the committee now has done a great job as have Senators Lyon and Lyons and Chittenden. So with that, I'll turn it over to them to explain what S13 is. That has passed out of their committee and is now in appropriations. All right, I will come back to you Senators Lyons and Chittenden. I don't know which one of you would like to begin. Well, I'm happy to begin and we'll maybe we'll play tag team a little bit. So thank you, Senator Bruce for that. The bill that we received for an implementation plan is now has been really, I think, fully developed so that we will see a task force put together mostly of members of the House and Senate also a representative of Secretary of Education and that task force is going to look at the cold report that we have and then begin to analyze how to build equitable equitable funding for education. And just to let you know, I think we all agree it's absolutely a moral imperative that we do this. There's no doubt about it. As we took testimony and as I'm pretty sure Senator Ruth heard testimony when he was chair of education there were concerns about moving too quickly and not having some transition for schools including school districts, including Burlington and other districts across the state. So the new waiting factors will include, absolutely include ELL economic disadvantage. There'll also be a separation of middle and secondary school. So in some ways the middle school becomes a new element in the waiting process. Then there's also a new section on what's known as geographic necessity or the small schools. We think of it as a rural environment where perhaps transportation issues are different from what we might see in more populated areas. And then finally a population density factor. So actually a set of waiting factors for population density that have been elaborated in the proposal. So the task force will be looking not just at the waiting factors but also looking at how these factors fit in with education funding overall. And also fit in with the Vermont Tax Structure Commission report that came out in February. The task force will be able to hire a consultant and utilize, I believe the appropriations committee under Senator Bruce's good support will be bringing the task force $150,000 to carry through the work that's required. There are actually nine different powers and duties that are given to the task force. I won't go through all of them but simply to say that as waiting factors are added in some are being subtracted in some districts but there was a question about how to utilize categorical funding. So in one school it might be to allow for some additional funding for mental health services rather than to have that as a waiting factor but obviously would have associated costs. So to look at categorical funding could be transportation it could be other grants currently with schools. So there is a great deal of information that we're asking this task force to evaluate to look at also what other states are doing so to give us an understanding of how we might work going forward. I think I'll stop there and let Senator Chittenden have a chance to talk a little bit. We did work very hard on this bill. We see it, we're very committed to making sure that when the task force comes back with implementation with an implementation plan whether it includes any kind of transition or not that there's legislation that we can take up and we can pass immediately next year. So I think we're all committed to that and we understand the pressures that school districts are under particularly a district like Burlington where English language learners put a significant burden on the school. Not a bad burden, a good burden but one that requires support services and funds to make to allow for outcomes for kids good outcomes for kids. So I'll turn it over to Senator Chittenden. I'll be very brief and I'm serving on the Senate education with Senator Lyons and my understanding is it's a pretty much all new committee only Andrew Senator Perchlich persists and he'll be reporting out the bill that we as a committee approved to move S13 forward and I had not heard the history that Senator Baruth offered and that fits really well into now me understanding the where this stands. I didn't know that Secretary Holcomb had however you want to frame it did not move forward with the legislation. One of the first things Dan French the current secretary said to us on this is he didn't have the money to actually implement this and as well as there is a political aspect of this. So it makes sense that the revisions are now also calling for the $150,000 to implement this waiting study. So I think that makes sense as to how the committee focused on that discussion and in the efforts to move S13 forward we met with Senate Finance that hasn't been raised either. Questions have come up questions that I think Representative Odie addressed really well in speaking to that that we need to be able to educate and communicate how to roll this out to all the communities across the entire state and to do it in a way that doesn't create enough the shock that can actually in the end generate less dollars to our education fund. Questions like how to tuition to communities that tuition all their students how are they gonna be funded? We also have an email from a community that was affected by Act 46 that was engulfed into a new larger school district in Middlebury and they're concerned with a new population density waiting that they weren't considered in the study. So there are some questions that this implementation plan are gonna dig into deeper to come back exactly as Senator Lyons said this coming year we gave a date certain so that next term not next term but next year within this biennium the legislature will have before them something to enact to address these concerns these valid concerns about inequitable access to educational opportunity. I'm sure I missed a lot of things I'd be happy to share links on this and with that I'll stop talking and leave you President Tracy to guide the discussion from here. Excellent, thank you. So are there other Senate? Thank you, I see you Councilor Shannon I'll put you in the queue. Are there, before I go to counselors are there any other points that senators or representatives would like to cover? Okay, Senator Pierson, go ahead. Sure, Max, thank you everybody not on the waiting study so if you wanna divide it up that way I'm happy to wait but I am can give a quick overview of that. Go ahead, I think it would be helpful to get it out there right now and then we can transition in and I see representatives step in I'll come to you right next thank you for using the race hand function. So folks may be aware last year the legislature dialed up a sort of analysis of our tax structure and chief among those was the way we pay for schools. I've been along with Joey Donovan Bud Otterman a Republican from Windsor County may he rest folks over the years I've been down there pushing for the idea of paying for schools based on the income tax most for monitors two thirds of homeowners pay at least two thirds pay based so-called income sensitized and the folks at the top are not people who are income sensitized pay between two and 3% of their income for schools folks at the higher end are paying 1% half percent of their income. So a lot of us have pushed this it would be a great correction to a very forward thinking in terms of being a statewide Ed fund but frankly regressive tax funding in the tax structure analysis folks came up independent people data analysts tax brains came up with a good straightforward recommendation of not only paying for schools based on income tax but a way to transition it. They unlike other our proposals in years past handled renters in a way that I think is good and allows the prospect of towns and community school districts deciding to have a 3% jump in their school budget and therefore seeing a 3% increase in their tax bill a nice connection between what we're deciding locally and what I'm gonna pay locally. A lot of these kinds of reports and analysis in the past the habit of the legislature it's to take a few years for this to really settle in and then get taken up in earnest. I'm impatient personally but I recognize we are not going to take it up this year. What I'm working with my colleagues to see if we can pull off is permission for the finance committee which is the tax committee in the Senate and others to have some time to meet in the off session out when the pandemic hopefully is easing and we would have time to really dig in and answer big questions outside of the crush of the four and a half month legislative session and possibly be ready to come back in January to really pursue this. Towns, VLTC, many we've had a broad and interesting coalition who support this basic concept of moving away from the property tax for homeowners and paying for schools. So I'm hopeful we'll get there. I sort of feels like a question of when and how it intersects with the discussion we've just had remains to be seen a lot of us wonder if there's an opportunity there at any rate. So no quick progress likely but we're continuing to push in a very promising report and I'll try to send a link of that around to counselors in case you're interested in other things. They also looked at the sales tax and some other ideas but most the forefront and for this conversation was the idea of shifting to income tax for schools. Thank you, Senator Pierson. I'll go to Representative Stebbins now. Thank you, President Tracy, two comments. The first is Representative Bloomley and myself as well as a few others hosted essentially a Zoom presentation with the three commissioners who wrote the tax structure report. So if anyone would prefer to not read through a hundred plus pages and would prefer to listen or watch something for about 45 minutes we could certainly share that link. The other thing I wanted to just say in terms of process there actually have been a number of bills that have been proposed to look at how we roll out the proposed solutions in the UVM waiting report and from the House side in terms of process much of the conversation at this point has been within the Senate Education Committee. And so generally at this point given where we're at in the legislative session generally the House Education Committee is working on other things. And when the Senate bill comes over to the House that's when they'll start to dig into this. And then you'll hear a little bit more from other state reps in terms of where this is going. Wonderful, well thank you for all of that context and explanation. I certainly appreciate that from all of you. I'm gonna go to counselors. I will note that we also have invited and I also did invite our colleagues on the school board as well. So I will also, I don't wanna just invite you and then promote you to panelists and then not allow you to if you have something also that you wanted to say but I'm gonna go and have counselor Shannon to be followed by counselor Jang. Go ahead, counselor Shannon. Point of information. I was just wondering if maybe instead we can start with the school board members and then the counselors can finish. Well, I'm gonna mix it in. I'll mix them together in the order that I see folks hands. So I'm gonna go with, if you wanna get in the queue counselor I can put you in where you wanting to get in the queue or just call a point of order. Okay, yeah, I'll mix it in. I see you commissioner all well. Counselor Shannon, go ahead. Thank you very much, President Tracy and thank you to the senators and representatives that have joined us tonight. I really appreciate this. I can't think of another time that we've actually done this but this is an issue that is just so profoundly important to both Burlington taxpayers and Burlington students. There's a real urgency around this which I hope that you appreciate. I do understand that not all of our senators are from Burlington and that this new waiting proposal there are winners and losers and that your home communities, Senator Chittenden and Senator Lyons are not going to benefit quite honestly from this the way Burlington is going to benefit and Winooski is going to benefit and rural communities in the Northeast kingdom are going to benefit but your communities have been benefiting for 20 years and we've been suffering and the level of suffering for the Burlington school district this year is profound. We cannot do this fast enough and I appreciate that there's going to have to be a phase in but delaying. I don't really understand and honestly, I think I need a graph or something that shows me where everything goes at the state house because I don't completely understand that your processes but the task force concerns me and I wonder if you can share with me who is on the task force and what they can do better than what the study did. The study did prescribe exactly what the weights should be and I think that it's important that we not politicize this process. We don't want it to have to go through, Brigham was decided by the courts. We were not treating our students fairly and we know right now we are not treating our students fairly and the ones that are taking the brunt of that are students in Burlington. So could you please explain to me who is on the task force and what they will do better than what has already been prescribed in this study? Thank you for the question. I will try to answer the question to your satisfaction. I have met with other school boards who are school districts that will not benefit in the way that Burlington and Winooski will but I am actually passionate about providing waiting factors that benefit Burlington and Winooski. I have seen for years the extenuating circumstances that exist in those districts particularly with respect to our BIPOC culture particularly with respect to our English language learners. When I hear that there are 79 languages in one school district and I talk about that in Montpelier, people don't believe it but I believe it and I believe it's necessary to respond to the needs that we see in those districts and that's one of them right here. So in case you're wondering, are we holding out for our districts that will not benefit? The answer is absolutely not. This has gone on for far too long. So the membership of the committee or the task force includes and I'll read the membership for you, a member of the Senate Finance Committee appointed by the chair of the Finance Committee, a member of the Senate Committee on Education appointed by the chair of that committee, a member of the House Ways and Means Committee appointed by the chair of that committee, a member of House Education appointed by the chair of that committee, a member of the, I guess I said Senate Education and then the Secretary of Education or Designee, the chair of the State Board of Education or Designee. So it's an even number of members. Then the consultant will be hired and the consultant shall be hired to assist with executing the powers and duties of the task force which are enumerated one through nine. And the consultant shall have expertise and experience in providing advice on Vermont's education funding and tax system and shall be nationally recognized in the field of education funding and tax systems. So you say, well, why didn't you just go ahead and do this? So there are no excuses about this. Why we would not go right ahead is we want to make sure we do it right. And so the task force is an implementation task force. It's a group of folks who are going to bring back the action plan and recommended legislation. All the testimony that we heard that we heard from a number of districts benefiting and not benefiting. But we heard from folks who would be involved in implementing the new waiting factors and perhaps changes to the funding structure for schools. Everyone agreed that we should not rush and we're certainly not. It's unfortunate that COVID got in the way that Senator Baruth is absolutely right. We stopped dead in our tracks and have done nothing but COVID for so long. And now it's a time to pick up the pieces and to move forward. So we're doing that. So I can't answer it any differently from that. And I hope that we have your understanding. I don't know if I could answer it any better. I think Senator Lines hit it on the head. I would say, Councillor Shannon, that the thing I already stated, but just I think is very relevant to bring up again is that when we started this at the beginning of the term, we heard from Senator Baruth and then we immediately turned to Secretary French. And what I heard Secretary French say is, I don't have the resources to implement this and everything that goes into it. And that's why I guess the study didn't happen with Senator Holcomb. So where our mind went to is, we need to secure the funding and that's what's in this bill. $150,000 were consulted with the plan which our outcome are deliverable is the legislation for us to vote aye or nay on next year to implement the waiting study and all the factors that need to go into it. So I too need that same chart on how the legislature works. I'm trying to pin Senator Baruth and Senator Lines over a cup of coffee sometimes so they can help me understand it better. I'm still learning. But Councillor Shannon, all I know is that we're moving this forward and I took that we had to find the funding to support it. But Senator Baruth, I don't know if you have anything to add to Councillor Shannon's response to the question. I don't on that piece. The only thing I will add that we haven't thrown in yet. I went so little to hear it described as Winooski and Burlington benefiting. I think Councillor Shannon was much closer to the mark in talking about ending the lack of benefit or the suffering was the word you used. And that's exactly right. But it's not just relatively urban districts. It's very rural districts. And that's why I believe the minute the UVM report was done, there is a ready-made coalition which you've now formalized in some ways by joining with these rural districts to push for passage of this. So Bobby Starr, who is a Senator who represents Essex or Lines, the least population in the state, they are on board with this in a big way. And he got it the minute he and I spoke about it and we agreed to work together on it. In miniature, that's how we get this passed. So in addition to the reasons Senator Lyons gave you, there's one more reason to have this interval where we create the implementation study. And that is at the same time, we're putting together a coalition in the state house because it will be something that we have to whip votes on. Now, fortunately, the speaker of the house is now a Burlingtonian and that's a big help in getting the votes together in the house. But it will be a district by district coalition and that work is going on right now too. Thank you, Senators. Councillor Shannon, you saw the floor. Can you tell me when, if you go forward with this task force, when will the district, and I don't really understand Senator Baruth why you object to my statement that Burlington will benefit. I think your point is that we will only finally be getting our fair share after 20 years, which compared to what we have now is actually a benefit. And I don't believe there's any provision to retroactively compensate us. And maybe if there's going to be further delay, there should be. But then can the Burlington School District expect to see results in the form of actual funding? If this goes through, if this isn't going to get approved this year and it goes into next year, exactly when does it come through in funding? Is it 2023, 2024? Senator looks like Senator Chittenden has an answer. Yeah, go ahead, Senator. Your timeline proposed is about what we've heard. But the one other thing that I just want to inject in this that I heard the pro tem offer and I think Senator Lyons would be able to speak to a better Senator Kitchell. We have a lot of money coming from the federal government to address the shortfalls of COVID. And that was meant to and highlighted to address these inequities. To use this federal funding, these opportunities from the recent CARES Act, CRF funds, I don't know if I'm using the right term, to partially bridge us during that time frame so that communities like that have been not benefited as or not equally funded based on the current weighting could get some relief on the shorter term. I don't know, Senator Lyons, if you have a better way to frame what point I'm trying to make here. No, that's good, but your timeline is pretty accurate. It would not be 2022, it would be 2023. So the bill would be passed next year and then it would go into effect. Councilor Shannon, you saw the floor. Thank you. Senator Chittenden had mentioned the COVID funds and I don't believe the COVID funds can, they won't have any effect on, they can't, we were just told tonight, they can only be used for COVID related issues. So I didn't know. That's absolutely true, but, and I'll let Senator Bruth speak to this as well, but there are guidelines for use and then the school districts that have found themselves with expenditures, unexpected expenditures as a result of COVID or including things like mental health counseling and so on for kids, which is quite serious, will be eligible for funding. So it may tie up some loose ends, but I'll let Senator Bruth speak to that as well. I was just gonna add that there are ways to use COVID for approved expenses and relieve pressure on the general fund, freeing up sums of money for things like this that we need to do, but in a tighter budget year, might not be able to. Okay, thank you very much. Okay, so I have Commissioner Allwell next and if others are interested in speaking, please let me know by waving the hand or using the raise hand function. Commissioner Allwell. Yes, I just have a few questions. One is whether we do income tax or property tax. Yes, I'm not saying anything about how that tax is collected. We still are not getting for our children the amounts of money so that they need for poverty, for rural students, for ELL students. So that should not be a problem with the weights. The weights, no matter whether it's this year or five years down the road when we figure out taxation, they have to be in there. I have been working with poor children for my whole career here in Burlington. I'm the one or not I personally but my programs are what have given children help after school to do their homework in summers to keep them studying so that they don't lose where they are at by the time they get to school the next year. I have taught them language. We have done a lot of things to help them but it is not what they need in school. And that the school district could not afford all of the things that these children need to give them equity or we would not be seeing the reading and a lot of other scores that are so desperate between wealthy children and our poor. So Tammy Colby and Rutgers, so UVM Rutgers and the American Institute of Research did this study and it is there for us to use. We do not have to do, in fact, they tell us not to touch those numbers because they have been scientifically put together and they have studied waiting across this country. They did not just look, they looked at New England, they looked across the country. So this is scientifically put together. And personally, when you say we're gonna use COVID money, our children need that COVID money for the results of COVID. But for their normal education, they need that money that is in the weights to equalize their education. So I personally, and I am not talking for the district, the school board as a whole, find that these weights need to be enacted this year and we can't wait any longer. 25 years is way too long to have this kind of disparity. Thank you. Thank you. I see Councillor Jang to be followed by Commissioner Sowers. Councillor Jang. Thank you everyone for being here, representative and senators. And I also wanna thank particularly Councillor Chenner for really paying a particular attention to this issue. So there are so many terms that are used here and I think one of them is specific to the passage of a bill and also the introduction of the bill. I just wanna make sure we talking we are all on the same page. If Senator, Senator Ginny Lyons speaks about the bill will be introduced in 2022, right? Do we have assurances that it will be passing and then funding will be allocated to communities starting in 2023? Yes, we want it to be very clear we talking the same language. We're talking, that's the language we're talking. Yes. Okay. So let me make sure that I understand exactly what you're saying. This task force will recommend legislation. One or more senators or House members or both will introduce a bill into the House and into the Senate. So there'll be bills in both places. Then it will be a process for the Education Committee to go through, review the bill, understand it. And then if there are additional appropriations to be made it'll go to the Appropriations Committee and then it will be taken to the full Senate, presented to the full Senate, then presented to the full House and then signed by the governor. If everything happens the way we would like it to that will all be accomplished by May, 2022. And at the same time that that work is going on it will be absolutely incumbent on the agency of education to put in place the mechanisms for schools to work through and change the funding formula for schools. So, Senator Bruce, sorry, I'm sorry, Max. Okay, go ahead, Senator Bruce. Thank you. I just wanna speak to Councillor Gaines word assurances. As you know in your own body, there are no assurances. We're a deliberative body and we vote. And what I was trying to refer to before is that this describes this funding formula works within a weighted system, that's a zero sum game and a number of people have pointed out that other communities around the state, Manchester comes to mind, South Burlington actually comes to mind. In other words, relatively well off population centers that don't have a lot of weighted poverty or English language learners, their taxes stand to go up, in some cases dramatically. So there is going to be, there are going to be efforts to kill the bill and we should be upfront about that. Senator Lyons, Senator Chittenden and I, my house colleagues, we are working right now to make alliances to put together the votes. So when that happens, there's a team that's strong across the board and the bill passes, but I don't want anybody to walk away thinking there was an assurance given because sometimes you lose and it'll be over my dead body, but I've lost other things over my dead body. So I just wanted to point that out. Yeah. I mean, I think you're the floor, Councilor Chang. Thank you. Thank you, Senator Baird for that level of clarity. And I think the other offer from Senator Representative Stebbins, yes, please, yes. Those links that you talked about those meeting, please send it to us as well as I think the Senator, Senator Chittenden, yeah. Any like link that you can send us maybe in an email, both of them together, so someone can coordinate all of them for us. And I think Commissioner Owl did have a point for us. What we're looking for is sustainable equitable funding and not maybe COVID relief money. I thank you all again for being here. Thank you, Councilor Chang. I have Commissioner Sowers to be followed by Commissioner Fisher, Commissioner Sowers. Great, thank you. Thank you all for having this really important discussion. I think it's super important and as Councilor Shannon said, the time is really has been overdue by about 20 years and we need to be addressing this. We all need to be discussing this. And we're hoping for a solution really this year. And I know that things take time in the legislature, but I had a question about the task force because for me that's one of the most concerning things when I look at the bill. Does the task force mandate that they follow the weights? Or is it simply a recommendation? My understanding is it incorporates the weights into next steps, but like Senator Pearson highlighted, it also asks to factor in the recent study from possibly shifting to an income-based approach. Another concern, as I think I mentioned, is that there's communities that got wrapped up into larger districts in Acts 46, which are trying to now split or divorce from the larger union and they're concerned that the current weights are gonna very drastically just not serve their needs. So it's to answer those questions. I don't know if that answers your question, Commissioner Sowers, but that's my attempt. I just wanna be sure because we really wanna look at these weights and I hope that it kinda can get separated from the income tax funding. I think that's a really big issue and that can slow progress for the weights. And I feel like the study has been done, the research has been data-driven, it is there. And so I would urge everyone to really recognize that the harm and the damage that has been done and continues to be done by every year not funding our children, our most vulnerable children. And so we really need to be focused on this. And I want everyone to know that the Burlington School District is really committed to this effort and we would like to be allies in pushing this effort and helping in any way that we can. So thank you all for your work and please know that you can reach out to us and we will be reaching out to you as well. Thank you, Commissioner Sowers. I have Commissioner Fisher to be followed by I also see our representative, Tina raising their hand. If others are interested, please let me know but go ahead, Commissioner Fisher. Thank you, President Tracey and thank you, Councillor Shannon for bringing this to the City Council. I can't restate, you've all heard how important and critical this is for our city and not just short-term but for the long-term. But I'm also a very practical person and I understand that this issue is also a financial issue across the state. And for that reason, I understand that some people want to be careful about how we implement this. But I've also seen my own opinion is it's a reason for delay, for kick the can down the road. And you see from, I see that in some of the AOEs, we can't, we don't know, I don't have the resources. It's just a way to delay. And so when I look at this and we're working with a lot of other school boards in the state, we're looking at this as an equity issue. And if Vermont really wants to walk the walk, we need to put our money where our mouth is and we need to allocate resources where they're needed the most. And we know that's gonna be hard. And Senator Baruch, thank you for bringing that up that this is not a slam dunk even though it's the right thing, we know it's the right thing to do. So, I would ask the city council to help us and to help our delegation drive this forward and to a successful conclusion. However, whatever pathway it has to take, we disagree on what exactly needs to happen. But for me, the most important thing is that it does happen. And these inequities do get addressed. Thank you. Thank you, Commissioner Fischer. I will go to Representative China to be followed by Mayor Weinberger. Again, if others are interested in speaking, please it's easiest when we have, okay, I see Councilor Pine, but I'm not getting everyone on the same screen. So folks can use the raise hand functions. Representative China, go ahead. Yes, so I'm not as well-versed in education policy as some of my colleagues who are here. And I'm here mostly to hear the latest from them. And I was looking up the original bill and the most recent amendment the committee was looking at. And if members of the public are interested, you can go to the Vermont Legislature website and everything is there. If you look in the Senate Education Committee, the reports there, the slideshows, the testimony, the different versions of the bill. But when I was reading the language of the bill, the original bill was very strong. It said that like that the plan shall implement those waiting. And it referred specifically to the report and said it shall happen. And then it said that the legislature shall act next year. But in the amended version, that language is not there anymore. And the closest thing I can see to it says, and mind me that I'm just looking at this right now. So I might be missing something, but maybe our senators could help explain. It talks about the report. And then it says that they shall take it into account, but it doesn't say they shall do what it says exactly. And so I'm curious if there's a reason why, so this is more of a question because someone asked about this earlier and then I looked and it's unclear to me. So are we making them implement those exact waits or are they just taking it into account and then they could do something different? That's my question for others. So they... Senator Bruce, go ahead. Oh, sorry. I guess I'll start. So the bill I put in last year was the original language you described. I put that language in again this year to start the conversation in advance of testimony and knowing that I wasn't going to be on the committee anymore. And then the committee has gone through testimony and a process. So I'll turn it to them for where the amendment came from because that was the committee's work this year. Senator Lyons. Yep. So thank you. So yes, the waiting factors are included with the task force. They will look at those waiting factors. But the other part of the task force work is to put those waiting factors into the broader context of how funding, school funding is calculated and is put in place. So it's not, I'd rather have done the previous work rather than this work. This is a little more complicated but it was a recommendation that we do it this way. And I believe also that the consultants would agree with what we're recommending and what we're asking to have happen are to, if the waiting factors were the only factors in our school funding, then we would implement them but there are other considerations to be given and as you read through the bill you'll see what some of those considerations are. When the report, report, it's not even a report. It's a recommended action plan and a legislative action. When that comes back then we'll be putting that, we'll be working hard to make sure that we put that into place. I have no interest in taking out any of the waiting factors that have been recommended and I don't think other legislators do. So I just, it is a process and I think it is a very complex process. It isn't simple. And the more you work with it, the more you find out that it's complex. Matt. Certainly go ahead Senator. Representative Gina, I think some of the language is from the report itself. So I was just reviewing page 96 and it talks about at the end in the conclusions about findings from the study suggest that it's time to incorporate new cost factors and weights into Vermont's education funding formula. So we wanna stay true to the waiting formula as much as in this report as possible. But I hearken back to that point where we went to Dan French and we said, how do we move this forward? And he said, I don't have the money or the resources or the personnel to do this. And so that's where our direction went in this way to call for the $150,000 consultant to bring forward the implementation plan to take this and enact it, to implement it. So I don't know if that answers your question, Representative Gina, Gina. Okay, I apologize if I mispronounced it. Okay, I'll send representative Gina. I just, you know, I will look at the bill more. But the way that some of this is worded makes me question like how much they're bound to actually enact those weights because like in the powers of the duties, I'm sorry to turn this into a legislative committee meeting everyone, but I mean, I'll just say make this point and stop. But like the powers and duties of the task force, it says that there should be a recommended action plan to the legislature. And then it says, recommend which weighting factors to modify or create in their associated weights and whether any weight should be eliminated in lieu of categorical aid. And then it goes on and on, but it never says you shall implement what came out of that report exactly. So it sounds like the task force is being given some power to actually start with that report, but not necessarily, they may end up somewhere else. That's sort of like what I'm wondering based on this, but maybe I, maybe I'm missing something or maybe it is that flexible. I think it allows for a discussion and it allows for the consultant to provide information. It may well be that the consultant that's hired is the same consultant that did the original study, we don't know, but it will be someone who's very familiar with education funding in the state of Vermont and is familiar with the study that you have, that you've been looking at on weighting factors. Thank you for that. All right, I'm gonna go to Mayor Weinberger and Councilor Pine. We've been on this item for about an hour at this point. So if folks could just please be brief. And if others are interested in getting in the queue, just let me know. But again, really trying to wind this down so that we can get back to some of the other items on our agenda as well. Mayor Weinberger. Thank you, President Tracey. I'll try to be brief. I just wanted to say to our representatives and senators, thank you for joining us tonight. Thank you for making this a high priority issue. I really don't think there's anything more important for the future of Burlington being discussed in Montpelier over this session and the next, then getting this weighting factor right. I wanna congratulate the Burlington School Board and Superintendent Flanagan for their advocacy and getting this issue front and center in Montpelier for the nine years I've been in this role. This is the conversation I've always thought we needed to have in Montpelier. We've had many other conversations that have been sort of periphery to really the central challenge of properly addressing getting our children, which is recognizing the huge equity issues and unique challenges that many of our students face. I just wanna offer my full support for adjusting the formulas pursuant to the weighting study. I wanna offer the resources of my office and the lobbying efforts that we make every year in Montpelier as partnership to the school district and also offer, and I've made this offer to Superintendent Flanagan as well. I also know that most, if not all of my fellow Mayor, Vermont mayors feel similarly that this is critical to their communities and we're kind of standing by wanting to be supportive as this coalition move forward. We'd like to be part of that coalition to help you get this done. So please be in touch and look forward to working with you on this critical issue. Thank you, Mayor. I'll go to Councillor Pine. Thank you, President Tracy. I'm gonna just state something that maybe rather obvious, but I think we should just repeat it a few times is there are no such thing as low income kids, right? So when we were talking about closing schools in lower income neighborhoods in Burlington, parents and administrators kept talking about the low income children of Lawrence Barnes and HO Wheeler, and one of the parents stood up and said, kids are kids. Kids don't have incomes. They're not high income or low income. We should be thinking of children in Vermont as all part of the same sort of cohort, if you will. It shouldn't matter what their address is. What their zip code is should have nothing to do with it. So the notion that somehow senators and representatives would be looking at how does this affect my taxpayers and my kids and all that is just, it's kind of just a little, it's a little off-putting when you think about it really it's kind of, we are all in this together. Children are raised by an entire society. They're not like narrowed down to a school district. They're a zip code. So I just think it's really important to point that out. I just want to ask, since there's about 60 people on this meeting tonight and all of us probably share this agree on this, what is the best strategy as a city council? What can we do as a city in addition to what the mayor just offered in terms of his full support besides joining a coalition? Is there anything else to be done as a city? Councilor Pine, to whom are you posing your question? Well, we've got a few bright people here. I'm gonna let them answer. Senators, representatives, what do you all think about? I'm talking about strategy now. We're being pretty open about the strategy in a public meeting. So let's just, let's put it right out there. What's the best strategy? I see Senator Baruth, go ahead. So the districts, as I mentioned before, have begun working in partnership with one another, urban districts and rural districts. We heard the mayor talk about mayors working together. I don't see why the Burlington city council shouldn't reach out to select boards in all sorts of rural communities around the state and have a third coalition. That would pretty much cover the waterfront if we had select boards, mayors and school districts. Those are, I would say the most powerful institutions we have in every municipality. So that would be my basic take on it. And I would encourage, as you're reaching out and you're building the coalition, that you speak directly to the benefit that kids will receive as a result of the changes that we're talking about. Because this is not about additional money. This is about outcomes for children. And the more that we talk about that, and I think that you bring that argument to the state house, the probably the faster we can get this work done. Just to pile on, I think it all night. Councillor Pynne, I just wanna say we need the kids to be the winners in this. So Vermont kids are the winners. And that's where the first thing we need to do when we move forward with next steps, it's not about which communities pays more or less. We just need to make all kids have equal access to educational opportunities. And I think that is shared among all the centers that's possible. Thank you. Councillor Pynne, I'll set. Okay. Anyone else on first round who hasn't gone yet? Okay, seeing none, I'll go back to Councillor Shannon. And then hopefully we can wrap this item up and move on to the next item. Go ahead, Councillor Shannon. Thank you, President Tracy. I know that we're out of time, but listening to the discussion really raises more questions and concerns for me. So I would like to throw a bunch of questions out there. And I can also send these to you by email. But I would like answers in writing to these questions. Senator Lyons, you said it was recommended to do it this way. And by this way, I think you meant the task force, but I'd like to know who recommended doing it that way. Senator Chittenden, you said we would implement the weights, quote, as much as possible. And I'd like to know why it isn't possible to implement the weights exactly as they were scientifically determined and how it would be anything but a political process to change those weights. If the AOE said that they did not have the funds to implement this study, I don't really understand why the funds were not allocated to AOE to implement the study. Why was it allocated to a task force? And I'd like to know how it seems like the dye has been cast that this is not going to be implemented this year. And Senator Baruth said, you know, this isn't a done deal. We don't necessarily have the votes to do this. But honestly, if it's going to fail, it's probably better for students that have failed this year rather than next year, because then we can get started on a legal process to get the students what they're entitled to. So I don't see how it's already been delayed a year by COVID. And I'd like to point out that I understand that this is going to be very painful for some communities. And I can imagine how it feels to be apparent in a community that is going to have funds taken away for this. But in this year, if you did it this year, there's actually COVID funds that may be able to fill some of this void. As one of you mentioned, there are ways to use the COVID funds freeing up some extra dollars in other funds, even though these funds have to be used just for COVID. This is the year to implement it. This is the year that it could be done far less painfully, because this is when we have those funds. We're not going to have them next year. So I would urge you, I don't know if there's a way, since you have already voted this out in the form of creating this task force, I don't know if there's a way to undo that and to get it done this year, but I would like to know that. So I'm not going to ask for answers now, because I know that we're out of time. But thank you. I do really appreciate you all coming tonight. Thank you. I need to respond. Okay, briefly, please, Senator. Sure. If the bill had gone forward last year during COVID, it would have been a task force. And so this year it's going forward. The first time it can go forward as a task force. I can respond to your other question about doing it this way, and I'm glad to answer that, but I just would like to say that during the past year, the people that you're talking with tonight have been working on Zoom, some of us for 12, 15 hours a day, just on COVID. And now some of us are for the first time confronting an issue that's brand new to us. And we're looking at a bill that was introduced that said task force, and we're carrying out that work and we're doing it as quickly and assiduously and thoughtfully and equitably as we can. So I'm not being argumentative, I'm just stating the facts for you. So thank you. Thank you. Okay, Representative China, you can go briefly. Counselor Shannon, is that how we properly refer to each other? I would say council, not city council, right? Counselor Shannon, I believe asked, I don't know if we're supposed to directly address, like the member directly asked a question about like what could be done if people aren't happy because it's getting voted on the Senate. Well, our government has two bodies and it goes to the House and it's going to get all kinds of testimony and commentary in the House. And so there's always that opportunity for people to review what the Senate produces and then make your case to the House and see what happens. So that's one of the, it makes things more complicated but those checks and balances, you know, make our democratic process, you know, force us to compromise on things. So I just wanna put that out there as everyone knows this already, but it's a reminder that if people are unhappy with what the Senate did, you can try to influence it in the House. So thank you. Thank you for that. And I'll go to Representative Stevens briefly. I was gonna say essentially the same thing. And I think, Counselor Shannon, this is a good timing to have this conversation because we are too much halfway through. And that's why I said at the beginning, this is not really even been vetted fully within the House. That is not to say I'm not on the committee of education but, you know, it started in the Senate and it will apparently it's now in Senate appropriations and then it will come into the House. So it's not over yet. Wonderful. Well, thank you all for sharing all of this information with us and being willing to engage in this conversation. I really appreciate all the senators and representatives as well as school commissioners who have also joined us this evening. It's been really, I think helpful to bring all of these different electeds together to have this conversation and dialogue around this issue. Certainly look forward to continued collaboration across the board as we continue to work on this issue together. So thank you all very much. And again, thank you, Counselor Shannon for asking for this update. Cause again, it gives very helpful. So I will go ahead and close that item down and we will move into, thank you. Good night everyone. Appreciate you all being here. And our next item, item 6.02 was removed. So I'll go to 6.03 which is a resolution recognizing the 200th anniversary of the independence of Greece and celebrating democracy in Greece and the United States. We'll go to Counselor Paul for a motion on that. And we'll also move Father Andreas to a panelist role. Cause I know that that was a co-collaborator on this with you, Counselor Paul. So go right ahead, Counselor Paul. Thanks very much. So I'd like to move the revised version of the resolution that we have on board docs. I'd request that we be able to read the celebratory resolution and would like to do so after a second. Sure. We have a motion from Counselor Paul. Is there a second? Seconded by Counselor Carpenter. Go ahead, Counselor Paul. Thanks very much. So as is our, often is our custom on these kinds of resolutions would just simply like to enter the resolution into the record, the title being recognizing the 200th anniversary of the independence of Greece and celebrating democracy in Greece and in the United States. Whereas the country of Greece is celebrating the 200th anniversary of its independence from the Ottoman Empire. And whereas the people of the United States generously sent humanitarian assistance to the people of Greece during their struggle for independence, often through Phil Helene committees. And whereas it is proper and desirable for Burlington to join the United States to celebrate March 25th, 2021, Greek Independence Day with the people of Greece. Now therefore be it resolved that the Burlington city council extends warm congratulations and best wishes to the people of Greece and to our Greek Burlingtonians as they celebrate the 200th anniversary of the independence of Greece. And be it further resolved that the city council expresses support for the principles of democratic governance to which the people of Greece are committed. And be it further resolved that the city council commends the Burlington Greek American community for its contributions to our city and its role as a bridge of cultural awareness between our city and the vibrant culture of Greece and the Greek people. And it's grateful for the important role that Greece has played in the community of nations since gaining its independence 200 years ago. And be it further resolved that the city council asked the mayor to declare March 25th, 2021 to be Burlington solidarity with the Greek Bicentennial Independence Day and further requests that a signed copy of this resolution be sent to the Dormition Greek Orthodox Church as a sign of our recognition of their proud heritage and contribution to our great city. And would also like to say thank you very much President Tracy for promoting, Father Andreas, he has been on this call patiently waiting for an opportunity, I believe to say a few words of thanks. So thank you very much. Thank you, Councillor Paul. I will turn it over to Father Andreas. Welcome. Thank you so much, Mr. President. Thanks for having me on here. I'm very grateful to you and to Karen and to all of the city council for their support of us for this 200th anniversary of Greek independence is a very big deal for us. I guess as we all know Greece was the foundation of the city state of democracy. 2500 years ago in Athens was when the whole concept like we do here in the city of Burlington of citizen involvement and just the sense of volunteerness and just democratic ideals came about. So we're very happy as a community as a Greek American community to be here. We're also very happy right now in the context of Burlington to be a church that can really reflect and see a lot of the issues that are out in the world there just a church in a Greek American community because I estimate probably about half of our members were born overseas. So we can really see and understand the challenges that are coming up to our community here. And we're just glad to be here. We're glad to be in a prominent place in the south part of the city of Burlington and hope that once we can go back to some sort of normality after COVID-19 that we'll be able to host more of the Burlingtonians to our annual Greek festival. So anyway, thank you so much for your support of us and recognition of our 200th anniversary of independence. Thank you very much. Are there further comments from counselors regarding the resolution? Okay, thank you for that introduction. Councilor Paul and Father Andreas, I will now take us to a vote. So all those in favor of the resolution, please say aye. Any opposed? Hearing none, the resolution carries unanimously. Thank you very much. We will now move on to our next item, which is item 6.04 which is a second reading of an energy efficiency and weatherization and rental housing ordinance. I'm gonna go to Councilor Mason for a motion on this item. Thank you, President Tracy. At this point in time, I'm going to, I would like to make a motion to postpone action on this item until our, the time's certain being our April 12th meeting and pass for the floor back for a brief explanation if there's a second. Okay, we have a motion to postpone to the April 12th meeting, seconded by Councilor Hightower. Go ahead, Councilor Mason. Thank you, President Tracy. So while this was scheduled for our second reading after our first reading two weeks ago, I was contacted through Councilor Jiang by the Executive Director of CBOEO with some technical questions about the standards that were put forth in the ordinance. I then have connected Mr. DeCoster with Chris Burns who was the principal architect of the standards at BED. They are having a conversation as to whether, they might come forward with some potential recommended changes or to move forward. So in light of that, it felt imprudent to move forward now until we've afforded an opportunity to hear back from those two experts and hope the full Council supports this temporary reprieve. Thank you. Thank you, Councilor Mason. Any further discussion of the motion to postpone this item to time certain of April 12th? Okay, hearing none, we'll go to a vote on the motion to postpone. All those in favor, please say aye. Any opposed? The motion to postpone carries unanimously and we will take this item up on the 12th. Thank you, Councilor Mason for the motion. Brings us to our next item, which is an indoor entertainment permit application 2021.22 for Coffee Black doing business as Muddy Waters. Councilor Hansen may please have a motion on this. Sure, yeah. Move to approve the 2021 2022 indoor entertainment permit application for Coffee Black LLC doing business as Muddy Waters, 184 Main Street with all standard conditions. Okay, we have a motion. Is there a second? Seconded by Councilor Freeman. Any discussion? Hearing none, we will go to a vote. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? The motion carries unanimously. Just for folks' reference, we do have local control, but I'm gonna go to that after item 6.06. I was wanting to, we had several presenters first and so I wanted to not make them wait any longer. And so I put that towards the end and then now we've added item 6.06. So I wanna get to that before we will recess for the local control before heading back into the meeting to finish up with the committee reports and so forth. So I'm gonna now go to Councilor Jang for a motion on item 6.06. Thank you. Yes, thank you, President Tracy. And I would like to make a motion to introduce a resolution condemning hate crime against Asian, American and Pacific Islanders in the city of Wellington. And that was second and the floor back. We have a motion from Councilor Jang. Is there a second? Second. Seconded by Councilor Pine. Go ahead, Councilor Jang. Thank you, Councilor Pine. Thank you, Councilor Tracy. So as you all know, in our country, we are again shaped up by actions of hate. And this time it is geared toward people from Asian decents. And since the beginning of the coronavirus, as you all know, the rates of hate crime, against Asian Americans, including verbal, physical, psychological abuse have increased exponentially in the US cities. And the rate of anti-Asian hate crime has increased by over nearly 150%. And as you know, and I have no idea that in the city of Wellington, after white Asians are the second largest community members in our city and represent around 11% in our Burlington School District. And it is important for all of us to come together and to show our Asian community that we stand with them, behind them, in saying no to hate. I think we have done similar resolutions in the city of Burlington when George Floyd was killed and we raised the black lives matter flag. Burlington, to me, we are trying to always do better. And doing better is to always come together again and support many in support of people who are minorities in the city. So I want also to take the time to thank all the city councils actually who are co-sponsors of this resolution, everyone. And also the city attorney for allowing this to happen, as well as Lloyd, we, this resolution came very late and they all worked very hard behind the scene in making sure that it comes in front of the council today. Thanks to you, particularly President Tracy as well. So this resolution is basically now therefore, the further result that the Burlington City Council condemns any type of hate crime against Asian, American and Pacific Islanders, AAPI and stand behind our community members of AAPI citizens. And also it is asking the Burlington Parks and Arts Culture Committee to better coordinate with the Fletcher Free Library, the Burlington City Art and also to better promote the months of May as an Asian history months and highlight the contribution of Asian American in our city. And also be it further resolved that the Burlington City Council strives to make our city safe, welcoming and equitable place for all. And we hope that we all will gonna approve this resolution and try to move forward. Thank you, President Tracy. Thank you, Councillor Jiang. Are there, councillors wishing to speak to this item? Councillor Pine. Yeah, I just wanted to share a, I'm gonna sort of paraphrase a message that I got recently. It's a recording, it's a video on YouTube by Jim Kim and the Executive Director of the Advancement Project California Stop Hate. And essentially the notion here is that this violence is not only a sad hallmark of this pandemic because it really has been a very disturbing pattern in the pandemic, but it's also really a hallmark of BIPOC history in America. And that many BIPOC folks were brought here as economic value to be extracted. And whenever they begin to build political power, BIPOC folks become a target, become a real threat. And that often turns to violence. BIPOC folks facing a common fate of violence targeting them that's rooted in systemic racism, white supremacy, indigenous genocide and sort of an anti-blackness and persistent disdain and denigration of groups that don't fall within the dominant racial and cultural paradigm. So if we all stand together and hold each other up when BIPOC are attacked, we are much stronger as a result and to have each other's backs and to speak out with one voice because if we stand in solidarity while folks are being mistreated, we build genuine popular power. And only with that power can we collectively finally bury this shameful American legacy of white supremacy and build our shared future, our shared destiny. We were all seen and heard and allowed just the proper space to just live our lives, which was really all people are asking for. So it's, we're not asking for, people aren't asking for a lot extra here. We're just asking for basic respect. Thank you. Thank you, Councillor Pine. I see Councillor Cheng again. I can come back to you Councillor Cheng, but I'll just wanna see if others on first round who haven't spoken yet are interested in getting in the queue. Okay, seeing none, go ahead, Councillor Cheng. Thank you, President Tracy. And again, this is also an invitation to our Asian communities here in the city of Burlington. To speak up, when they are being targeted, they have processes here. The racial equity inclusion and belonging committee is a great place. The mayor's office and pretty sure is a great place as well as the police. Yesterday, I was in a meeting with the Vermont New American Advisory Council. And one of the Asian shared that Asians in general are very quiet. They do not speak up in many issues. And I am like, this is concerning. And it seems as if some of our children are experiencing some type of, you know, discrimination in the schools and people make fun of them. I think this Burlington School District based on their statement also made it clear and called for all the students to speak up. And we wanna expand that in the city of Burlington to adults as well. Talk to the police, talk to your neighbors. No one should be living here in fear. I just wanted to add that and thank you again. Okay, any further comments from Councillors? Okay, seeing none, we'll go to a vote on the resolution. All those in favor of the resolution, please say aye. Any opposed? The resolution carries unanimously. We will now recess the council meeting before coming back to address committee reports, general city affairs, president update and mayor general affairs to address our local control committee commission meeting. So I will recess the city council meeting at 9.30. Give folks a second to roll over into the local control commission meeting. And I will call to order the local control commission meeting at 9.30 with the first item on the agenda being the agenda. Commissioner Hanson may I please have a motion on the agenda. I move to adopt the agenda. We have a motion, is there a second? Seconded by commissioner Stromberg. Any discussion of the agenda? Hearing none, let's go to a vote. All those in favor of adopting the agenda for the local control commission, please say aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed? That carries unanimously and we have an agenda. The next item on the agenda is the consent agenda. Commissioner Hanson may I please have a motion on the consent agenda. I move to adopt the consent agenda and take the actions indicated. Thank you, commissioner Hanson. Is there a second? Seconded by commissioner Stromberg. Any discussion regarding the consent agenda? Hearing none, hearing none, let's go to a vote. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed? That carries unanimously and we have adopted our consent agenda and then that brings us to deliberative where we have one item, item 3.01. Commissioner Hanson may I please have a motion on that item. Yeah, and also just to note that there might be applicants here wishing to speak and if you'd allow them if they could raise their hand. Just wanted to note that in case any of them are looking to address the committee or the commission. Sure. But I can go ahead and make the motion. So I'll move to approve the 2021, 2022, first class and third class restaurant slash bar liquor license application for coffee black LLC doing business as muddy waters 184 Main Street with all standard conditions. Okay. Seconded by commissioner Stromberg. Is there anyone here wishing to speak to this item? Can use the raise hand function. Okay. Don't see anyone looking to raise their hand on this one. Commissioner Hanson. So any discussion from the council? I mean the commission. Okay. See none. We'll go to a vote on this item. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed? That carries unanimously and completes our meeting. A motion to adjourn is in order. So moved. Moved by commissioner Hanson. Seconded by commissioner Stromberg. Any discussion? Hearing none. We'll go to a vote. All those in favor of adjourn your motion meeting. Please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Okay. We are adjourned at 9 33 and we will go back to the regular city council meeting where we still have a few items at the end to complete namely, item seven through 10. So I'm going to go to committee reports. First, are there any committee chairs wishing to offer a report? Okay. Don't see any. It is, that's understandable given that this is the last meeting of council. So new committees will be formed after the new, after the council is sworn in or new counselors are sworn in and we reform committees. Having that item finished, let's go to item number eight which is city council general city affairs. For this particular item what I'm going to ask of counselors and Mayor Weinberger, I would also welcome you to participate just in the second part which the first part of this I'm going to say is just I will open it up as we normally do to counselors to comment on any general city affairs but this is also our colleague, Councillor Paulino's last meeting and I just as is our normal traditional practice on city council, we open up some time to just allow others to offer some words and certainly to offer the outgoing counselor an opportunity to offer any parting words that they would like to share with us. And so I would like to make sure that we maintain that focus but I do want to, so I'm going to ask that counselors start off by just commenting on any general city affairs that they have items to offer and then once we've completed that I will then open the floor for comments specific to Councillor Paulino so that we can recognize Councillor Paulino's service to the city of Burlington. So with that, are there any counselors with comments specific to general city affairs? Councillor Hanson. Yeah, thanks. I just wanted to speak a little bit towards the conversation that's been happening in the community around the mayor's decision last week to remove the racial equity inclusion and belonging director from her role in overseeing the assessment of our police department. And first to echo a lot of the concerns raised around the ways in which this decision is rooted in racism and white supremacy culture and just a lot of the issues with this decision that have been raised by members of the community and by members of the council as well. And I'm glad that the mayor's reversed that decision and I'm eager to hear the mayor outline how he'll improve to improve work on anti-racism in the city and public safety transformation work and specifically how the mayor will better support the really incredible leadership of the RAIB department and as well as a council how we can better support the RAIB department and how we can better move forward on racial justice. But I also wanted to raise an aspect that I haven't really seen in the conversation that I think is really important to the work of our city government going forward. And that's just process and sort of the balance of power between the council and the mayor's administration. And that's around when council passes a resolution and the mayor signs that resolution. I think we should expect that the executive branch is going to execute that resolution. I think that's a basic expectation for our local democracy to function. And we did pass a resolution on February 8th. It had one resolve clause and that resolve clause stated that the council hereby approves and authorizes Taisha Green, director of racial equity inclusion and belonging to execute a contract with CNA corporation. And it goes on from there with the details. And that was signed on February 23rd. So I just wanna state, and then we found out last week that the mayor was going in a different direction. I hope that as we enter into this next term that we can have expectations around public process, how decisions are made, how they're moved forward. And that really we can know that if we do pass a policy after debate, after disagreement, that if we pass it and it's signed that it will go into effect. So I just wanted to raise that aspect as well. Thank you, Councillor Hansen. Are there further comments on general city affairs? Councillor Stromberg, go ahead. Thanks President Tracy. Yeah, I have some thoughts in the same vein. Yeah, I'll be very candid. I had numerous people reach out to me to ask what I thought about asking the mayor to resign because of this significant list of. And I just, I always wanna focus on accountability for everyone, myself, the council, mayor, staff, everyone. And I think resignation is a tool that can be used to evade the work and accountability on these issues that are so long overdue. I do wanna be very, very clear here though, people make mistakes and apologize for the product of those mistakes, especially if things go wrong. But I wanna focus on, what I wanna focus on is not the product, but rather the process. So the mayor has had feedback, incredible voices reaching out, offering their personal stories, very personal, valuable perspectives. We've experienced the longest public forum in the history of this city. And the main thing that everyone was talking about was racial justice. That's why so many thoughtful people came out to talk. It was about the very important thing in our community. And it's the community that we all serve on this council as mayor and everything. And that process, we all witnessed, I felt it being just so deeply disregarded in this move. So when I saw the communication regarding the assignment of Darren Springer instead of director of Taisha Green, I was genuinely confused because this seemed to completely sideline as councilor Hanson had mentioned, the decisions of the legislative body of our city and regardless if that's allowed or not, like why do that? I just, I didn't see really what there is to gain or grow from this, especially as we enter into this kind of newer time. I mean, you're reelected and all of that. So I thought, this could be hopeful, let's work together. So I was just wondering like, why do I find, like I always find myself constantly using the word monolateral when it comes to issues revolving around the mayor's decisions. And I don't like that. That's not anything anyone should like. So I touched on like the next things I wanna bring up, I actually communicated this to the mayor on, I believe it was Tuesday, it was on the 16th. I said that Taisha's role could not be more fitting and appropriate to manage the contract. I think that Darren is a great person and a great manager, but that's not the point, this isn't about him. After this entire year with all that we've learned as a community, about our community, and after all of the conversations that we've had as a governing body and with organizers, it was just very off-putting to me that we wouldn't be raising up a woman of color in leadership positions and valuing their voices before that of cis white men, especially when it comes to matters of policing. And again, this isn't a question of Darren's character, but mostly because it's not about him. This is about the people and residents that we continue as a society to leave out of the conversation. So I communicated that, I appreciated that, he heard that sentiment, if not for me, then obviously others, but it is truly about who we continuously as a society leave out. And this is a critical conversation that we need to have all the time. We have to, this is so long overdue, but just even real progress from it, from those conversations, we need to move toward that. So I wanna see the mayor lean in with intention, intention of listening. Taisha is doing incredible work, difficult work and too often thankless work. We are so, so lucky as a community, as a city, to be able to have somebody like that in this type of role. So I just, I wanna thank Taisha for being just such a wonderful person. And yeah, I feel the only way we can move forward appropriately on this is hearing the mayor's plan for what he will change going forward. Thank you. Thank you, Councillor Stromberg and Councillor Paul. Thank you. Thanks, President Tracey. Sort of wanted to switch gears on a, I guess a lighter note on this coming Saturday. We will be having a food distribution event at Champlain Elementary in the winter. We moved them to not, it's from 9 a.m. to noon, mostly because we thought it would be a little bit easier and a little less cold. I'm not sure if it's really gonna matter this, gonna matter this week because it looks like it's gonna be at least a lot warmer than it was the last time. So that's at noon on this Saturday, the 27th of March. Anyone who is in need, we welcome you and hope that you will attend the event. And also just wanted to thank the many city councillors who have attended the event, have helped in promoting it and have been very supportive of these events. So thank you. Thanks very much. Thank you, Councillor Paul. Any other councillors wishing to speak to Councillor Jang, go ahead. Yeah, thank you. Yes, and I think the discussion about what happened to Taisha. I mean, it is just unfortunate that in this community, we definitely, we make too much harm. And I think what happened to Taisha here is the impact will stay on her. And it also affects many other people that are women, that are also black and that leave among us. Now I think I had a personal discussion with the mayor and I thank him for making this decision to turn this around and make the right decision. This is what's right. One, it's from a council resolution like Jack Hanson stated, right? And two, there has not been any consultation with the council. And I think the council is here to work in collaboration with the mayor to give advice if you are asked, right? But at the same time, the harm done to Taisha, I think everyone, what they can do the best is to reach out to Taisha and make sure that she's okay. I have been very concerned that because of this, she might leave the city and go somewhere else. That was my biggest concern. But it seems she's strong and she's here and she's willing to continue. She's willing to do the right thing to fight. But I also wanna invite the community to make sure that we talk about public safety other than policing and race. From all of that I'm hearing is the police and race and it is unfortunate. It is at the angle we wanna tackle this issue. Let's never forget. We wanna make sure that Burlingtonians are safe regardless of their race, their gender or where they come from. I think that's what I'm really, really interested about. I have not ruled the idea for Taisha to work in collaboration with Darren Sprinkle. Together, they can make this work better. Taisha may not be interested, the mayor may not be interested but me, what I'm interested about is about safety and well-being of the people, right? That's one. The second element that I wanted to talk about in terms of policing is the council would definitely benefit from an update from the joint committee about what is happening. We're hearing and B.C. is here and there and I think President Tracy wanna make the request. So maybe we can receive a written or in-person presentation about what is happening. Thank you. Thank you, Councillor Ching. I hear that request and can coordinate with folks about how many potential updates in a future meeting when the new council's sworn in. Councillor Pine. Yeah, thank you. I don't know if you've noticed tonight but I don't have audio on my computer. I have it on my phone. So I'm sort of working with two pieces of equipment here. The term that I like to use because it was a process that when I was at CEDO we went through a thing called courageous conversations and this is one of those times where I think as a community we are in the middle of a deeply difficult and courageous moment for many of our community. The issue around Director Green being deemed to be not neutral enough and instead bringing in another department head is just a reminder of what we as leaders of the community as elected officials, especially those of us who are of the dominant racial and cultural background have to bring to this courageous conversation in terms of being really honest about there are times when we take action where we think our intention is gonna result in a certain impact and intent does not equal impact. And when we take action which has a disparate and negative impact on BIPOC members of this community we need to be really willing to acknowledge it, to be open about it and to be ready to make the change needed. I think that's when we begin to have the most meaningful change, the most lasting change, the most durable change so that everyone in Burlington can feel and actually have a meaningful place in this community and have a future so that our young people look to the way we are as leaders and say, this is my community, this is what I'm part of, this is where I wanna stay, this is where I wanna raise my family. This is, we want people from all walks of life to come to that conclusion by watching our actions as elected officials. Not that they're always watching what we do but when they do, we wanna make sure, pretend they're watching all the time, right? So I guess the only thing I would say is I am grateful that we have a healing process as a community that we often are able to go through and I think we're in that process right now. I think there was a moment of time where we were heading was really down a more divided path and I think we have the potential as a community to move us to a much more cohesive, caring, compassionate path and part of that is we have to believe in redemption and people have to be able to redeem themselves and I believe that to my core that that's important that we need to acknowledge that we are humans, we do make mistakes, there has to be room for that as humans working on self-governance as a community and that's what I think about this moment. Do we get a chance to make comments about Franklin Polino yet, Mr. So let me see if others wanna, if others have any other additional city affairs, does anyone have any other city affairs? Okay, Councilor Pine, you can go right ahead and get into your comments about Councilor Polino. Let's switch gears to that now and my floor is open, but I'll go to Councilor Pine first. Well, Councilor Polino, in addition to being the one Councilor who when they vote, you can't actually tell how they're voting because they're just something about this process of Zoom didn't quite transfer, but I really appreciated Councilor Polino's just thoughtful, gentle demeanor and ability to see some humor in our moments and to find common ground, but also when I first got to know him, we were both attending an event at Northgate Apartments that's his district, not my district, but I'm at the event and he comes up and says, what's your connection? And I sat down and told him about my history with Northgate and it was a great moment and he could tell Councilor Polino was just deeply moved by what was happening in a community where folks of low incomes were able to take control over their community and I could tell it really, really resonated with him and motivated him to be part of that and he was part of the process of celebrating Northgate resident ownership of 30 years after 30 years of resident ownership and a lot of the residents really appreciated the fact that Councilor Polino came out and sat down at tables and moved around to different tables, even though he's actually kind of shy, but he seemed to be pretty comfortable there in that setting and it was really, really wonderful to connect at that first time or really got to talk with each other and I'll miss your perspective on Council. Thanks. Thanks, Councilor Paine. Others wishing to, Councilor Stromberg, go ahead. Thanks, President Tracy. Wow, I agree with all of that, obviously. Yeah, I haven't been on Council for very long but Councilor Polino has always been very candid with me and it's very helpful and just was always a very warm, welcoming voice, especially during the first very, very long meetings we were having over the summer and I remember you would like text me some funny thing about how long it's going or something like get used to it and all of that and I was like, oh my gosh. But I really appreciated that, yeah, that humor and kind of lightheartedness, especially with issues that are really dense and you're taking a lot of time to talk about them in a really meaningful way over the summer and obviously continue to do so but yeah, so I really appreciated that and I really enjoyed being on the TOOC committee with you as well and had a good experience there and I believe tomorrow is our last meeting together, perhaps, but yeah, just thank you so much for your voice and your collaboration and yeah, being so level headed and finding kind of those moments where we need to appropriately take a step back and say like, hey, that is small potatoes or this is kind of funny and we need to recognize it so I appreciate it, thank you. Thank you, Councillor Stromberg. Councillor Mason. Thank you, President Tracy. Councillor Paulino, I wanna join the queue of thanking you for your two years of service. I regret that we were not able to serve on a committee together to really spend more time together and I missed looking over, I'm not sitting at that table at Contois and seeing you four down and being able to look at your face, either for levity or for some sort of break from the intensity that was going on elsewhere. I very much appreciated as a lawyer the logical way that you approached many of the questions and I would say my sense of in a non-dramatic way which can be hard sometimes sitting at that table. I also greatly appreciated the unique perspective that as a prosecutor that you were able to bring to some of the very charged conversations that we were having and are going to continue to be having relating to police reform and I have no doubt that you will continue to be involved and look forward to that involvement but also very much understand knowing your personal life in your three young children, how challenging it can be to serve particularly this last year which has been, I would say more taxing than others and respect your decision but we'll miss you and regret that you're not gonna be with us on our next meeting. Thank you. I'll go to Councillor Chang and then Councillor Hanson and Carpenter. Go ahead, Councillor Chang. And Councillor Mayne. Yes, sorry. Thank you. As a resident of the new Northland and also a colleague of Franklin, I know that I have to say thank you, First Franklin for all you have done for the city of Burlington, resident of the city of Burlington in general and people of the new Northland in particular. You know, I do know that you have made so much sacrifices and many elected officials without children won't understand it because sometimes when you are very needed in your family, you step out to serve your community and your constituents. You demonstrated that over and over and over again. And I think you have shown the way about how we should work together because you have always voted based on principles. You have not voted just because you're a Democrat or you are a progressive. You are one of the few city councils that I know you voted both sides because you are a great listener. I know you will be missed and I wish that you will stay involved, stay especially in everything happening in our area of town. You'll definitely be missed. I also wanna say thank you because I know how hard you advocated for social workers to be in the police department. I also know how hard you advocated for people in the new Northland in the mobile park, mobile home park. You advocated for them to have dumps today. You advocated for some zoning changes. You advocated for better lights. You advocated for better traffic lights as well because these are projects that we worked on and I have seen leadership you have demonstrated. I watched you also in some of the TUCS meetings like what everyone said here today. You have always been very calm, very methodical, very thoughtful and also inspiring. Sometimes things are very hard and very rough but you still stay your ground. You have that small, small smile in you all the time and I think everyone said it. It doesn't matter how hard things are, whoever look at Franklin will bring back normalcy. I wanna say thank you for all of that and please let's stay involved and make this city as great as it can be. Thank you, much appreciated, sir. Thank you, Councillor Chang. We got Councillor Hansen to be followed by Carpenter and Hyde Tower. I just wanna thank you as well, Franklin, for all your work these last couple of years and we got sworn in at the same time and kind of went through that orientation process together and served on committee together and I really appreciate, as others have said, just your ability to kind of step back and try to analyze issues from a unique perspective and kind of ask those big picture questions to really get on an issue and not get caught up in the debate that's happening but to really try to step back from that and look at it from a different angle and just really wanna call out and appreciate some really, I think, important votes that you took and positions that you held around public safety under pretty enormous pressure. In some cases, being the deciding vote and I think it's gonna, those votes will have an enormous impact for years to come and I think helped to put us on the trajectory of really re-imagining public safety and doing things better. So I just really appreciate your courage in those moments to be able to stand up for that and vote for that. Thank you, Councilor Hanson. I have Councilor Carpenter be followed by Councilor Hyde Tower. Franklin, what did you get me into? All of those cold nights that we went campaigning and you told me all the stories about how much fun it was gonna be on the city council and I was really just gonna be right into it and then we get a pandemic, I can't believe it. I just do wanna thank you for all your collaboration with me, your camaraderie, you are a great colleague. We've spent a lot of time emailing back and forth about big and little things and you were right there, I had a thousand questions and you would graciously answer those for me with good humor and so I'm just really gonna miss all of that. You've just been a great support for me in the last year. I can't, it seems like many years and it's only really been a year since I've got to know you and now maybe with a little more free time in your hands I'll be able to pick your brain even more and I'm gonna count along with Councilor Jang and you're being our eyes and ears, you'll be able to stealth around now for us in the new North End and keep us informed and I hope continue to offer you really good insight on how things work and how to solve problems. So I know where you live and we're gonna be talking. Thank you. Thank you Councilor Carpenter, Councilor Hightower. Yeah, similar to what Councilor Hanson said I just wanted to say thank you for two months and to my tenure I sponsored my first resolution which ended up being kind of a big resolution and I just really appreciate the way that you handled that and kind of working with me for the first time and putting so much trust in me and then questioning me in ways that were good but then ultimately putting trust in me to get it right and then also just on the joint committee again I think putting a lot of faith in me and the way that I was trying to lead the committee so really appreciate how you showed up in those two ways particularly. Thank you for that, Councilor Hightower and Councilor Freeman. Thank you, President Tracy. I also feel I think nostalgic Franklin, you and I were sworn at the end of the same time we've served on almost all my committees and we serve on together. You know, it's, yeah, sorry, I'm getting for clump because I'm getting late. No, and I also am an assault person. I, sorry, I have to re-circle back to my thoughts. I just wanna, I think personally thank you for all the time that we've spent together in this work. We've been on so many committees together. We've spent so many hours. Thank you for chairing one of my favorite committees, the tax evasion committee. It's a ton of work. It's an odd committee. We spent a lot of hours there together and I really appreciate that. We are in both public safety together, the joint committee. I think as others have mentioned that work as well as the work around COVID has been complex and I think we've just been in it together and I just appreciate you continuing to show up around those issues and try to work through it. The North District is such an interesting district because I think you can just find such a broad spectrum of political positions among constituents. I think that is such a complex role to be in as a North District City Councilor and I just wanna thank you for the energy and the time and your spirit that you put into that being in such a complicated role. I value as a colleague, thank you for serving on so many committees with me. This work is just, it's complicated. It can become issues can become contentious and rancorous and then there are times when we agree on things as a council and there's an unanimous support. It really runs the gamut and I just appreciate you for doing this work with me and thank you for all your time and I appreciate it. Thank you for allowing me my moment of getting a little emotional about this last two years together on Council. Thanks, Councilor Freeman. I'll go to Mayor Weinberger next and then Councilor Powell. I'll go to Councilor Powell. I'll come to you and go ahead, Mayor. Thanks, President Tracy. I wanna start by saying it's really a small tragedy but unfortunately part of COVID nonetheless that for the second year in a row when we were saying goodbye to counselors who have served the city admirably, we again need to do this through Zoom and without being in the same room and being able to share the experience a different way and give Councilor Paulino proper goodbye and goodbye hugs. And I just wanna say I'm eager to get back in the same into con toys with the council and be able to work together in that space. President Tracy and I had a excellent conversation last week about the future, a number of things. And I think we share the sense that as soon as we are all vaccinated and staff is vaccinated, just had opportunity for that. We're eager to make that happen. Hopefully that's not too far away with the news of recent weeks. I'm also sad that we're saying goodbye to Councilor Paulino so soon that his life and other responsibilities did not line up for him to have a longer time on this council continuing to serve the people of the North District and the city with distinction as he has for two years. Franklin, it's been a pleasure to be your colleague sitting next to you at that table throwing trash away together on dumpster day and working through issues in detail that you many times, Councilor Paulino always had a lot of passion for the details. It was a pleasure to work with you on those. In particular, I think your early advocacy for CSLs, for adding new capacities to our police department, really you were very forward-looking in your understanding of that issue and bringing it to our attention and advocating for it. And I think one of our few disagreements may have initially been over. So the early stages of that, I came over time to understand you got it right and you were very wise on those issues. So we're gonna miss you as a small token of our appreciation and recognition of your time. We do have this plaque that we will be dropping off at your house in the coming days. It says simply in recognition of your service to the people of Burlington and representing the residents of the North District. It's got the city seal and pretty hefty and weighty. I think it's an upgrade over some of the prior plaques. I could be wrong. I've given out a bunch of these over the last nine years but it's a pretty nice one that will be coming to your door shortly. And I do hope once we have gotten through the end of this pandemic, we'll find a way to properly recognize in-person the service of counselors who have left and we'll be in touch about that. And in the weeks and months ahead. So thank you, Councilor Foley, you know, it's been a pleasure. Thank you, Mayor. I will go to Councilor Paul. Thank you. I think, you know, I remember a phone call that I got from Sarah George. She said to me, there's this person in my office who is thinking about running for city council and you should meet him. He's great. And I went to a ComSTAT meeting and the ComSTAT meeting got over and this person comes up from behind me and I turned around and this person says, I'm Franklin Polino. I'm the person that Sarah told you about. And from that moment on, I felt like there was a connection. It's been, we've had many conversations on the phone. I've enjoyed every one of them. You know, when I first was elected to the council, I had three young children and it is a lot to be doing this job with three young children. You've got three adorable girls and I would imagine that they probably are not that upset that you are no longer serving on the city council because they're gonna get, if they didn't have a lot of your time, they're gonna have a lot more of your time to be able to do some of the fun things that it's so nice to be able to do when your kids are really young. So I'm glad for you, but I will miss you. And I just wanted to also mention that the mayor had said and others have said, you really were, I believe ahead of your time when you talked about some of the things that you wanted to see in public safety. And I'm glad that you kept on going because you were right. And I hope that you've come to see that a lot of those things that you had, those points that you envisioned seeing them come to fruition. I hope that you can take a great deal of pride in knowing that you stuck to what you believed in. And in the same way, when you and I and Sarah were talking about the racial justice resolution this past summer, your perspective gave me a lot of confidence and a lot of, made me feel sure of the decision that we made to support that resolution. So I'm grateful to you, I will miss you. And I am sorry that we're all sitting here looking at our little boxes as opposed to being in person, but I do hope that come hopefully either this summer or certainly by Labor Day that we will have the opportunity to be together in person and that you'll come back so that we can thank you in person. Thank you very much and thanks for your service to Burlington. Thank you, Councillor Paul. Any other councillors wishing to speak? I'll go to come to you in one second, Councillor Polino. I just wanted to also add my, just gratitude to you. When we serve on the city council, we so much attention gets paid to the meetings and you don't really get a sense of personalities to a certain extent with these meetings, but you don't really get to know the individual. That really happens, I think as Councillor Freeman rightly pointed out at the committee level and you really develop friendships and collaboration and just a working sense, working relationships with people and I find that work to be particularly valuable. And that's really where I feel like I got to know you before I became council president as within the Duke and I really just wanna just call out and appreciate the sense of collaboration that you brought to a challenging and complicated conversation around Amtrak and where we're gonna store the train overnight and just these complicated conversations that take place. It was just really helpful to have your perspective there. I think the other piece that I wanna also bring forward is as others have rightly noted that just the courage that you showed in supporting the racial justice resolution recognizing the significant political pressures that you were under and cross wins that I don't think were quite the same for others of us on the city council when it came to that particular resolution. And I have to be honest, I was surprised when I heard that you were willing to, that you were gonna be a yes on that resolution because I knew what that meant for you and I'm sure that that was not easy either leading up to it, but certainly after it and in the other months after it, I know that that's the kind of stuff that we all deal with as counselors but that people don't really see as much but it really takes a toll on the individual and the people and I'm sure that it did on you and I just wanna just call that out as a real point of courage on your part and just thank you for being willing to do that because that was really, really brave. The other piece that I'll just mention is that through all of that and during this year when we've all think been pulled and stressed and just really challenged in ways that any of us could have ever imagined as individuals but certainly as counselors, you've been a joy to work with, you've been just incredibly calm and even keeled whenever we've talked about things relating to the council, even if you haven't liked something, it's been with a sense of more of exasperation that you've expressed it as compared to a sense of anger or aggression or anything like that and I just really appreciate that about you Franklin and I think it's just a really admirable trait about how you are as an individual and something that I know I'll certainly miss having you on this council. So hope that we're able to keep working together in different capacities going forward but really appreciate it again, everything that you've done for the new North End and Burlington more broadly. So with that, I will turn it over to you Franklin. Thank you to everyone and to all the voters that supported me and that might have not voted for me but got to know me and gave me a chance and for the course of the last two years we've had good conversations. I really think that this is the beginning of something that just won't stop because I'm no longer a city council or the passion I have for the city. I think like some of us here, Burlington is probably the first place I've ever lived where I really sat, made roots and I own a home and I have kids in the school system and so me becoming a city council was sort of a part of continuing the sort of love relationship with the city and community aspect that I've never had growing up, having moved around just all the time even high school, middle school, just moving a lot and so it's been great. And I've learned so much from all the counselors. I think that one thing that Councillor Freeman really reminded me is that, one of my favorite parts of the meetings were during those tough votes and those tough meetings was going over to their side to Perry and like doing a little huddle and like just like, what's going on? And we just haven't been able to do those kinds of little things that we really benefited and just made me a better informed person before I was gonna vote. And no matter which side we were on we were always able to sort of have that conversation of like why are you supporting that or why not? Or what tweaks can we make? And we've tried our best to do it over Zoom but I think it's been really hard. So I think the only thing I wanted to say is that I think we all deserve a once January or June 1st comes and we're all hopefully reopening with the vaccines and I really hope we can hit the reset button and get back to that. And I thought what a great meeting to be my last meeting where Peter Welsh announces that we're getting over $20 million to be able to do stuff and just to know that you guys are gonna have a part in that it's so exciting and I just can't wait to watch and just know that I'll be cheering you guys on and hoping that you guys will do the right thing and that's an insane amount of money. And it's just what I feel so full of hope to know that we're all all right and we did pretty well and now we're gonna get this huge injection into our economy and just thank you so much for allowing me to play a role and get to know myself and get to know you guys and I hope to continue to stay involved. I will stay involved and I know I will. So I just have to find a way to make it work. That's an honest and counsel for me. Thank you. Thank you, Councilor Paulino. Let's all give Councilor Paulino a hand really just appreciate it. Thank you so much, Councilor Paulino. And thank you everyone for just offering such thoughtful reflections. I very much appreciated that. And it's always one of the more fun things that we get to do every year is just share reflections like that as bittersweet as it might be in saying goodbye to colleagues that we very much value. So just want to thank everyone for offering those thoughtful reflections. Move on to our next item, which is city council council updates. So in that same spirit of reflection, I am very, I'm thinking about as I look towards this next year and we have organization day coming up on the fifth where we'll swear in a new counselor and re-elected counselors where we'll elect a board of finance, have a state of the city, like the council president role. I'm thinking very much and looking forward to the next year in a sense of optimism about that year and what all will sort of come of that. And I think that there's a need to take a moment just at this point as some of the counselors were doing to reflect on sort of what we've been doing or what's been happening in the last little bit here in terms of our community. And I did want to speak specifically to the issue regarding the racial equity and inclusion, racial equity inclusion and belonging director Green in the situation that arose. I wanted to say that I very much appreciated the opportunity to connect last week with Mayor Weinberger. I felt Mayor that you listened and that you were willing to admit a mistake, which I think was very, which is very difficult to do and something that I appreciated. Now that we've done that in a reverse course, which I think was absolutely the right decision and one that I wish we hadn't had to make but that or that you hadn't had to make but that nevertheless was. And so I just, I appreciate that shift in course, but I just want to also state that I feel like the work is not done, the work necessarily has to continue. And to me, that involves recognizing the harm and the damage that was done and really making full amends. And so I hope that we'll continue to repair the damage that was done, particularly to director Green. I think that it's important that we recognize just that when we put someone in the role of essentially uprooting systemic racism in a community, that makes them a target for white supremacists and bigots and people who basically don't want to uproot white supremacy in our community. And that's a daily struggle and a daily stress and a daily pressure that's put on that individual. And just as I was talking about it, taking toll on counselors and that kind of a thing, this is altogether different because this is something that is really, really just absolutely intense and something that takes a deep emotional and physical and I would say even spiritual toll on an individual. And I think that we need to really work together in order to support each other through that. So I hope that there is clarity on some of the additional steps that will be taken to repair the relationship and repair any damage that was done to the extent possible with director Green. I think I also reflect on the racial equity and inclusion belongings role in our city and specifically the need to better define and to clarify the independence that that department needs in terms of being able to really call out and do that work and to say and do things that sometimes members of the community members, the council members of the administration, other department heads, whoever it might be, the police, that they may find these issues, that they may find these things difficult, but they need to have full autonomy and ability and independence to do those things. This is not a department to be stage managed or put aside, but a department to be elevated and to be given the full independence. And so I think it's both independence as well as empowerment that is really crucial. And I think that looking forward, we as a council need to better codify and understand how we can make that department independent in ways that allow them to challenge us and to really raise these important questions. And then the other piece is also just as Councillor Hanson had mentioned, is just how we really work together as a council and how if there are things that the council has done or approved that if those need to be changed that we do so in a transparent and open way and that we have a check back in with the council in order to make sure that we're on the same page and that hopefully we're able to work together on those issues going forward because we certainly have a lot of unfinished business when it comes to the policing issues, but also just racial justice more broadly when it comes to economic and cultural empowerment and the work that that office in particular is doing on those fronts. And so I would just hope that we're able to really take this learning and take these additional steps on whether they be individual related to a department or related to this council and how our relationship is defined with this administration. So I just wanted to offer those thoughts as we close out this particular council and look towards the next. With that, I will turn it over to you, Mayor. Thank you, President Tracy. And thank you everyone who shared thoughts tonight. I wanted to start by just making sure the full council was aware that at the Board of Finance tonight we discussed the topic of the funds that are coming from the federal government that we expect to arrive the first half to arrive within a couple of months and the second half to arrive in about a year through the American Rescue Plan. This is of course what we're talking with Congress and Welch about the beginning of the meeting. Catherine Shad, our CAO created a PowerPoint for that Board of Finance discussion and that is up on board docs. And actually during the meeting, I have emailed you all and a link to that presentation as well as an invitation to give us feedback on these initial preliminary thoughts. This is a conversation that is going to play out, I believe, at least over the next three months as we work towards the passage of a budget at the end of June where I think it will be through that budget that we make numerous decisions together about how we will use this once in a lifetime opportunity to make investments to come out of this pandemic strongly and to lead this recovery there. I imagine some of, we may not make all the decisions in that time. This money needs to be spent by the end of calendar year 2024 and we may choose to defer some of the decisions beyond the end of this budget season. So we're just getting completely familiarized with what the rules will be regarding this money. And so again, you can see that PowerPoint from the administration. I will be, I've met with many of you as a number you have referenced over the last week or so. Those of you who I have not met with since the election I will be reaching out to in the hope that we can connect before reorganization day to get your thoughts on where we go from here. The administration and the council working together what our priorities should be. And specifically if you have any thoughts about either the process or the priorities that we should be focused on as we seek to invest these funds from the American Rescue Plan. I do care a great deal about positive relations with the city council and my entire nine years on the council. We, it's always been necessary to, I learned very in my opening days as mayor that you really can't get much from anything done as mayor without being able to work closely with the city council. I think that has always been a priority in mind to try to find consensus and to find that route forward. It's I think been challenging over the last year as we've grappled on massive, difficult issues through this medium and amidst enormous upheaval and challenge, I really think very few local governments, very few of our processors have faced circumstances like we have faced over the last year. I think we have a lot to be proud of what we've done together but I know we have a lot more work to do together going forward and that was one of the reasons after talking with President Tracy that I dig act quickly to reverse the decision from last Monday when as soon as I understood the degree of unhappiness that it was creating with you, my colleagues, as well as as soon as I understand that somehow that decision was being conflated with a lack of support or belief in our director, Taisha Green. Nothing can be farther from the truth. I fully support Taisha Green's work. It's one of the proud accomplishments of the last nine years that together with you, the council, we created that position a year ago. It was a proud moment to introduce her to the community at the state of the city a year ago, a moment I worked hard to get to, trying to recruit and encourage her to come to Burlington. I fully believe in the very challenging and difficult work that Director Green is pursuing. I meet with her about it every week and I think she has made us a better administration. She's made us a better community. She's made me a better mayor and it was not at all. As soon as I understood that that central belief of mine and support was being undermined by the way the decision was being understood, I took action as quick as I could to reverse it. I will just finally say I absolutely believe it is my job, it is job of the administration to carry out the decisions of the city council. I think I will just say I did not believe the resolution which indicated who was to sign the contract was dispositive on how the administration should do that work. It is, I do believe the mayor's job to figure out how the work of the administration, how the work with the administration is tasked with it, the hundreds of consultant reports as well as all the other responsibilities that we have, how that work is done is the administration's job to figure out is the way I've understood the charter. And that's what I was seeking to do. I always thought that this, if you go back and look at when I first announced Kyle Dodson in a role, I thought leading the operational assessment would be a key responsibility of his in his six months with us. Unfortunately, the way that's played out, he was leaving us by the time the work was getting started and I was seeking to replace him and that's the way I was approaching it. I do think in the spirit of working together well the administration and the council it's long been a tradition for there to be good engagement and discussion of how the administration will deploy resources to get things done before a resolution is passed. That I would welcome that kind of engagement and discussion going forward. I think our city government works best when we do have that kind of engagement and I'll seek to uphold my piece of that. It's been a challenging week. I'm certainly hoping that together there's a huge amount of work to do going forward on racial justice. I mean, several councils asked how I plan to lean into that. I look forward to the conversations we're gonna have about where we go from here on racial justice. We've made major strides in recent weeks hiring a new public health equity manager who has brought new energy and focus and direction to the racism as a public health emergency work that we are all committed to. That effort is picking up speed and momentum. I look forward to talking to the council about that. We approve, I believe, at the board of finance tonight and on your consent agenda, significant investment in the Juneteenth celebration that we will have for the first time this year and that we are making a major municipal commitment to. I hope it is the start of a great new city tradition. I'm committed to seeing the work of the reparations task force completed and then we will grapple together at this, hopefully at the table as to about where we go from there with the recommendations from that task force and much more. I look forward to that work together. I look forward to doing that work in partnership with director Green and I'm also happy to continue to discuss this in the events of last week if necessary with the council if you want to discuss it further after the night. Thank you, President Tracey. Those are thoughts I have to share with you. Thank you, ma'am. That is the last item on our agenda. So, motion to adjourn is in order. Moved by Councillor Pine. Seconded by Councillor Hanson. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Any opposed? That carries unanimously and we are adjourned at 10.34. Good night, everyone.