 All right, I'd like to call the meeting to order, please. All right. I'd like to call the meeting to order at 7.12. If I can please ask everyone to rise and recognize the Burlington Police Department Honor Guard. Okay. Thank you, everyone. So the first item on the agenda will be the agenda. May I have a motion? Thank you. May I have a second? Second. Thank you. All in favor? Opposed? Thank you. We have an agenda. The item 2.01 will be swearing in of the newly elected and re-elected City Council members. Yeah, new Councillors, join me in the center of the table. The duties of the Office of City Council, the best of my judgment, according to law. Congratulations. And the State of the City address. All right, thank you to our CAO and Acting President for a few minutes. Beth Anderson. Thank you for your service to the City tonight and throughout the year. Good evening and welcome to Contoy's Auditorium. Thank you all for joining us and being part of this annual celebration of municipal reflection and renewal. I want to congratulate and welcome again our newly elected and newly sworn-in City Councilors, Perry Freeman, Jack Hanson, and Franklin Paulolino to their first Organization Day meeting. Welcome. It was an honor to swear you in tonight and I am looking forward to seeing what we can accomplish together. I also want to say welcome back to the nine returning City Councilors. I'm looking forward to another year together. I want to have stand and recognize our great Department Head team. Did you guys all stand up? Thank this group for their commitment, their sacrifice, and their many talents. The City has never had a better cohort of leaders, of communicators, and innovators than we do right now. It's an honor to serve with them. Close observers of municipal infrastructure may notice that we have a new podium tonight here. This is an exciting moment in the Mayor's office. For years we worked with a music stand for our podiums. It actually achieved a certain degree of fame, seven days reported on the music stand once. It appeared in Paul Hein's campaign finance report, sorry, but it broke about a couple of years ago and we've been looking to replace it since and we finally today, this is the first time we are using this new podium, it was built by a Burlington High School student, Ali Hussein, who's here at the back of the room, working with Elliot Katz. It's really got a lot of features. It's solid maple, has two angles, it's got magnets here. Ali did this working with Elliot Katz, who is a teacher, a generator, and I do think on a serious note it is such a resource that we have here in this community, to have a generator as a makerspace that has been serving the youth of this community and turning out innovators and new companies. It's a nice, it's very fitting I think to have the Mayor's office podium come from generators. So thank you for doing this tonight. I appreciate it. I want to thank and welcome Mayor Clavel, Mayor Peter Clavel, and Betsy Ferries to be here with us tonight. It's been so great having you back in Burlington after your years are broad, and it has been a pleasure to work with you on so many fronts, most recently and very excitingly to help make the Old North End Community Center a reality. Thank you for both of you for the hard work to make that possible. And I'm fortunate to have three generations of my family here with us tonight. Michael and Ethel, who came up from Heartland, Vermont here today are here in the front row. My girls, Ada and Lee Lynn are up in the balcony. It's such a joy to be your parent and your son. And I want to say a special thanks to Stacey for your strength, your support, your love, and your incredible hard work and grace as a leader at the King Street Center. Stacey, I want to acknowledge someone who can't be with us here tonight. Last month we lost a mayor. We lost Mayor Frank Cain. Mayor Cain lived a full and accomplished life and contributed a great deal to modern Burlington during his six years in office from 1965 to 1971. And then when he returned to private life and returned up to Mansfield Avenue and raised 10 children there on the avenue. One of the privileges of this job for the last seven years has been the opportunity to get to know Mayor Cain and his wife. And they attended every one of these state of the city addresses since I've been in this office. And so they are on my mind tonight. We remember Mayor Cain's life here tonight and we miss him. I want to begin tonight by reflecting on some of the events and achievements of the past year and what it took to make them possible. It's no secret that this has been another tough winter on our roads. So I'm going to start tonight with the same great news that I opened last year. Once again, happily the asphalt plants are about to open for the season and we'll be able to bring a permanent fix to those potholes. Until the plants open, we rely on the muscle and the hustle of the Department of Public Works street maintenance and fleet maintenance teams to keep the roads in shape and to keep our trucks and plows running. And this year, that team worked extra shifts on more than 60 days to clear snow from the and ice from our roads and sidewalks. And in the last weeks, they've been applying literally tons of cold patch and hot mix to potholes by hand to get us through until the paving season begins. And we are fortunate to have some members of that team here with us tonight. You know, Lee and Rob stand and I do want to specifically recognize Rob Green who is going to be leaving us, sadly regrettably, after 31 years of remarkable service to the city of Burlington. And Rob, it has been an honor and a pleasure to serve with you. Thank you for all that you've done for the city of Burlington. So fortunately, thanks to the Burlington voters support of the landmark sustainable infrastructure plan in 2016, we have the resources to rebound from a winner like this one and reinvest in our public infrastructure. By the end of this coming construction season, we will have repaved 17 miles of roads over the last three years, which is approximately double the typical three-year period. We will have rehabilitated nearly nine miles of sidewalks, which is triple the amount of sidewalk work in a typical, typical, typical period. We will have relined and replaced nearly eight miles of water lines for the first time in generations. And we will have created three miles of bike lanes, four and a half miles of bike ways, and rebuilt seven of the eight miles of our waterfront bike path. This infrastructure work is just one of the many areas where we have found consensus and together confronted major community challenges head on. Here are some of the other successes in the past year. We came together to spur urgent action on lake health and clean water with 92% of voters supporting the $30 million Clean Water Resiliency Plan last fall. We broke through decades of paralysis and secured strong public approval of the most significant reorganization of city government in approximately 30 years with the creation of the new permitting and inspections department that is already adding accountability, predictability and convenience to our permitting system. And we joined together at this table to unanimously support a new feasible plan to transform the Moran plant I saw into a Burlington landmark and finish the job of bringing life back to the northern waterfront. And a lot more too, it was a good year. We had a good year on many fronts. Our unassigned fund balance grew by another 15% in our last audit. The airport had a record breaking year, serving by far the most passengers it's seen since the Great Recession. Our early learning initiative is helping to create dozens of new, high quality childcare spaces in Burlington. We successfully launched the new tradition of highlight on New Year's Eve and we are replacing a lakeshore parking lot with a new park that will open in the next couple of months. As a result of these local successes and more and because of the industriousness, innovation and compassion of our residents, I am proud to report that the state of our city is very strong and for the seventh year in a row stronger than it was one year ago. The last seven years, the essential ingredient for our progress in this room has been collaboration. Despite party differences, at this table we roll up our sleeves and find ways to reach consensus and get things done for the people of Burlington. As we enter a new chapter with a new city council, I want you all to know and you all to know that I remain committed to this way of working together and working hard to find areas of agreement and keep delivering results for our constituents. Before leaving the topic of collaboration, I'd like to take a moment to talk about the opioid crisis and our efforts to fight it. For the last two and a half years, Chief Brandon DelPozo and I have led CommunityStat, an effort of regional collaboration, coordination and innovation that may have no parallel in the country. Through this effort, we have worked with dozens of partners, some of whom are here with us in the room tonight. I did see our state's attorney, Sarah George here earlier. Thank you, Sarah, for being here. We've worked with dozens of partners to implement a robust constellation of interventions and we have begun to see results. In the last year, opioid-related overdose fatalities in Chittenden County dropped by 50%. Now, you know, it is something we welcome, but even in saying those stats, I am highly aware that this progress, despite this progress, too many of our neighbors, our co-workers and our children are still dying here in Chittenden County and throughout Vermont and throughout this country. So that is why this week we are doubling down on our efforts to expand access to these life-saving addiction medicines that we believe has driven much of the progress over the last couple of years. Starting tomorrow, we will have social workers in the police department screening RSTs for addictions, including opioid use disorder, and offering immediate access to treatment to those who screen positive before they are released. We know that a large percentage of individuals who are suffering from opioid addiction, a large percentage of people who are committing crimes are suffering from opioid addiction. So, like Vermont's successful new program of providing treatment in prisons, this new innovative initiative will ensure that the criminal justice system is doing all it can to bring this epidemic to an end. Since we're in the middle of the legislative session, I feel like I have to say one more thing about opioids, and that's this. The state of Vermont, it's time for the state of Vermont to also fully embrace the life-saving potential of addiction medicines and to do everything it can to destigmatize and ease access to them. The public health science is very clear. The use of the addiction medicine, buprenorphine, saves lives, whether that use has been prescribed or not. So, when we're living at a time when thousands of Vermonters who need treatment are still not getting it, are still not ready to go into a clinical setting to get treatment, the state should stop prosecuting small amounts of buprenorphine possession just like we did here in this city 18 months ago. I urge the legislature to make Burlington's policy the law of the land by passing H162 now. So, I'm going to focus the rest of my remarks tonight on three critical areas of work facing us in the year ahead. In 2019, we must continue to focus on fiscal responsibility, including the careful stewardship of our public infrastructure. We must make progress towards our ambitious climate goals, and we must redouble our efforts to end the housing crisis that, until recently, had been worsening for a long time. I'm going to start with a focus on fiscal responsibility and stewardship of our public assets because this is the foundation upon which all of our other progress is built. It is only as a result of our work to decisively resolve the financial crisis of 2012 that we've been able to make investments like improving public safety by adding new firefighters and police officers, make additional investments in our most vulnerable infants and toddlers, and expand our youth programming at the library. The four credit rating upgrades that we've earned since 2012 aren't just gold stars. Our improved financial standing is keeping millions of dollars here in Burlington that otherwise would be sent to Wall Street in the form of bond interest payments. Last month, our Clerk Treasurer's Office published a report that estimates that since our upgrades began in 2014, our improved credit ratings have locked in total interest savings for Burlington taxpayers and ratepayers that now total more than $15 million. And, you know, as significant as that figure is, these savings are going to expand dramatically in the next few years as we take on new debt to make historic investments in the high school, in our water systems, and in other vital public infrastructure. We've also made progress in stabilizing our pension system by cutting millions of dollars of wasteful management fees, negotiating new cost sharing agreements with all four public employee unions, and improving our investment strategies. We have achieved millions of dollars of savings for taxpayers and changed the trajectory of our system. However, we have one substantial reform that we still have to implement, and that's this, to fully return the Burlington Employee Retirement System to stable ground and avoid painful crises in the future, we need to follow the lead of most public funds around the country and lower our assumed rate of investment return. I urge the BERS Board, some of who are here tonight, to reduce our assumed rate of return from 8% to 7.5% in the coming fiscal year and then to phase in reductions over the next couple of years to get us down to approximately 7.1%, which is the figure that has been recommended by our financial professionals and which is back in the mean of other public investment plans. But, you know, while we continue to plant and nurture these seeds of future financial progress, we are also happily now in position to harvest the fruit of our past work. By finishing the challenging job of saving Burlington Telecom last night, last month, thankfully not last night, we not only ensured that Burlingtonians will have high-speed internet choice for the foreseeable future, we also earned back $7 million for our taxpayers that many thought was lost and gone forever. After years of waiting, it is time for Burlingtonians to benefit from the recovery of these funds. So, to that end, the budget that I delivered to you for the upcoming fiscal year will include using a portion of the funds to do two things. One, to eliminate the property tax increase plan for next year, making good on our commitment to voters to use only the new tax authority that they granted us in March if we needed it. And two, to replace our nearly obsolete fleet of sidewalk plows. Many of our plows are so old and worn that they were in the shop instead of on the streets 50% of the time during this past tough winter, slowing our ability to respond to major storms. It is time to welcome in a new generation of BTV snow dragons. Our second major area of focus will be on the great challenge of our time, fighting climate change. Cities can and must be centers of innovation that show the world that decarbonizing our society is possible and that we can thrive while doing so. While Burlington already has an impressive track record on this front, it is time for us to make even more progress. By taking action now, not only will we address the urgent need for change, but we also save Burlingtonians money and give our community a competitive advantage. When our society finally and inevitably responds to climate change with new carbon regulations and other major shifts, Burlington will be out ahead if we continue to act now. For years, our climate efforts have been led by our beloved public utility, the Burlington Electric Department. In 2014, BED led the way to Burlington becoming the first city in America to source 100% of our electricity from renewable generation. But we didn't stop there. So for example, with my strong support throughout the last seven years, BED has invested in as much local solar generation as possible and we now have 16 times the amount of solar capacity as we did at the end of 2011. Throughout this decade of progress, BED has held rates steady. There's been no increase. In 2016, we doubled down on this progress and announced that we would work to become a net zero energy of city across the electric, thermal, and ground transportation sectors by 2030. This is perhaps the most ambitious climate goal of any city or government agency in America and we're serious about achieving it. This summer, after months of working with some of the nation's top experts, BED will release a net zero roadmap that will comprehensively analyze our current energy use across all three of those sectors and lay out different scenarios and strategies for us to pursue to achieve net zero on our planned timeline. Even as we plan future initiatives, 2019 will also be a year of action on climate change. This is especially true when it comes to ground transportation, which has been the sector that continues to be our biggest emissions challenge. That action started in January when BED became one of the first utilities in the country to roll out a special residential electric vehicle charging rate. This means that BED customers can now recharge their vehicles off-peak for the equivalent of 60 cents per gallon of gas. The equivalent of pulling up at the pump and paying just 60 cents per gallon. Tonight, and you can do it in your backyard, in your driveway, tonight, I am happy to announce another effort to incentivize electrification of our vehicle fleet. BED is doubling its incentive for plug-in hybrid purchases or leases from $600 in 2018 to $1,200. The best plug-in hybrid rebate offered by any utility in the state. There's more to come. In the fall of this year, Green Mountain Transit will add two new electric buses to its fleet with the support and incentives from BED. However, we're not gonna get to net zero simply by electrifying today's vehicles. We also need our transportation infrastructure to be updated to better accommodate different modes of travel. In recent years, we've made some progress on this front. We have begun to implement the Walk Bike Master Plan. We start 2019 as a result of some of that work with dedicated bike lanes on two of our six major roadways into downtown Burlington, and the Champlain Parkway will soon improve bike infrastructure on Pine Street as well. In the near future, we have a chance to make further progress on North Wenuski Avenue and Main Street. Only when we have a true network of continuous and interconnected bike lanes will we see our transportation pattern shift in the direction that we need. I look forward to working with this council and the public to create that network. One reason the bike lanes are so important is that in the future, Burlingtonians will have additional options for getting around our city that will benefit from this alternative transportation infrastructure. In recent years, Segways, e-bikes, and shared bikes have begun appearing on our streets, and it's clear that soon the micro mobility movement will include e-scooters and more. These smaller vehicles offer the promise of reduced car trips, transportation electrification, linkages to our bus lines, and reduced costs for low-income residents. Let's work hard to learn from the many e-scooter pilots that already took place around the country in 2018, and find a way to break through the concerns and explore this new form of transportation in Burlington this year. Finally, I wanna address what I see as the third urgent area of work that we'll tackle in the year ahead, which is our housing policy. I've spent my entire professional career building and advocating for more homes because the shortage of housing has become our largest social challenge as a reason and as a country. Building a wide array of homes from more housing for the chronically homeless to more market rate rentals is the solution to many of our key issues and concerns. Let me explain what I mean about that. How does this address a range of issues and concerns? Well, when we create more homes in our urban centers, this is another way for us to fight climate change by structuring our land use in a way that requires less energy to meet our heating, cooling, and ground transportation needs. Downtown residents produce half or less of the climate emissions of their suburban counterparts. When we create more homes, we strengthen our local businesses by addressing their top concern that our shortage of housing makes it tough to attract and retain workers and to create new jobs. When we create more homes, we share the cost of our high quality public services and amenities over a larger tax base. When we create more homes, we open up the opportunity for welcoming new Berlin Tonians into our neighborhoods from around Vermont and around the world and becoming a more racially diverse and inclusive community. And when we create more homes, we fight income inequality in the most potent way that we can as local officials. President Obama released a report just before he left office, citing local regulations that stifle housing creation and keep people from moving to where opportunities are as one of the country's major drivers of income inequality. And when we create more resources for those experiencing homelessness, as we did by opening the low barrier warming shelter five years ago, we make good on our deeply held value of caring for the most vulnerable in our community. In short, when we create more homes, we are taking a step toward a future where housing is a human right and where Burlington is the sustainable, vibrant, affordable, inclusive, and equitable place that we strive to be. Other progressive cities around the country are taking up the mantle of housing reform. In Minneapolis, a grassroots group, neighbors for more neighbors, just successfully advocated to upzone large swaths of the city to address its history of racial redlining and exclusion. In Seattle, Boston, Madison, and other cities, progressive activists are pushing the forces of the status quo to say yes to more housing with the goal of creating truly walkable, affordable, and diverse cities. Burlington faces a similar long simmering challenge. For decades, well-intentioned but highly restrictive land use rules have kept housing supply from keeping up with dramatically rising demand. As a result, the average Burlingtonian today spends more than 40% of their income on rent, making us one of the most expensive communities in the country to live. For the last seven years, we have been charting a different course with a two-part strategy. One, we have continued Burlington's proud legacy of building as much permanently affordable housing as possible. And secondly, we have also pursued policies and proactive efforts to create more homes for households of all backgrounds. This second strategy recognizes that there will never be enough subsidy to solve our housing problems with traditional affordable housing solutions alone. And that all new homes, not just permanently affordable homes, are valuable, worthy, and important. This effort to increase more homes for all, more housing supply is working. There has been an anecdotal evidence of this for a while, including last spring, when Seven Days reported that the 300 new beds in Champlain College's 194 St. Paul Street building were, quote, spurring competition to fill student rentals that once practically leased themselves. In response, some landlords are cutting rents, others are waiving deposits. We're now starting to see this progress in the data. The city recently commissioned a study of vacancy trends in the apartment market. We studied vacancy rates because very low vacancy rates drive rent increases and often other problems like poor maintenance for tenants in the city. The report findings are clear. During the years 2006 to 2011, the city produced only 67 new apartments and had an average vacancy rate of just 0.7% during that period. Over the past seven years, it's been a very different story. Housing production jumped to 579 new homes and the average vacancy rate more than doubled to 1.5%. Now, let's be clear, 1.5% is still too low. We will need to see sustained vacancy rates of twice that or more to get to our affordability and inclusion goals. However, these trends have increased new homes and rising vacancy rates refute the idea the new housing supply doesn't matter and should be seen as a call to more action. And that's what we need to do. There's a lot more. For years, we've had a consensus that numerous local regulations were getting in the way of creating new homes but progress to reform them is not happening quickly enough. An example of that is in our inclusionary zoning reform where there's great consensus among advocates and housing builders of all types that we can do better, that we can create more resources for our affordable housing trust fund and keep this ordinance from getting in the way of the creation of new types of other housing supply. But still, after two years of this, we haven't finished this yet. In order to make more timely progress, we need to bring focus and urgency to the effort of housing reform. To that end, I'm announcing tonight that the mayor's office will host a housing summit in May to review a range of key housing policies including our downtown parking policies, rule changes to create more accessory dwelling units throughout the city, increased funding of our local housing trust fund, short-term rental policies, and updates to protect renters from unreasonably and wastefully high utility costs. We will emerge from that summit with a list of priority housing initiatives, could be that list and more, that the administration will spearhead in consultation with the council, the planning commission, housing stakeholders, and the public in the ensuing months. And our goal will be to deliver draft ordinances for these priority reforms to the council for formal vetting and action by October. For decades, this community has struggled with the cost of housing. Let us resolve together that 2019 will be the year we accomplish the structural fixes needed to make housing for all a reality. For more than 150 years since our founding, Burlington has strived to be Vermont's city of opportunity, the place in this great state where anyone, no matter their race or their place of birth, their income or their gender, can thrive. Being such a place requires our continued vigilance and action by acting to strengthen our infrastructure and financial health, lead the country on climate change and reform our housing policy. We will ensure that Burlington is truly a city of opportunity. I look forward to working with all of you to make it happen. Thank you again for being here tonight and being part of this ceremony. Thank you, Mayor Weimerker. Now I'd like to open the floor to public forum. Item 302 on our agenda. Do we have any sign ups? Seeing none, we will move forward to the election of the city council president item 401. May I ask for nominations for a president for city council? Council Bercer? Thank you. I would like to nominate Kurt Wright for president of the city council. For the new members of the council, Kurt has demonstrated a willingness to work well with all members of every party and the independence that are present on the council and also works well, plays well with others and works well with the administration. You know, he's a wealth of knowledge. He's a great resource. He's available to discuss any issue that you want to consider to bring before the council or is on the council's agenda. He's able to work with you and discuss that. He's, as I said, readily available. What I found also, he's respectful and fair in committee assignments, which I think is really key. He tries to achieve political balance, but yet honor the requests that all of us put forward where we want to serve on a certain committee because we think that's where our constituents feel that's a priority for them or that's where our skill set is. One added quality that I think Kurt has that really makes him an excellent candidate for president is his sense of humor. I think we've all benefited from that. We have some stresses, although the mayor said, you know, the council works well and we get to consensus most of the time. That's not without stress and without issues and Kurt's sense of humor has helped lighten that sometimes when we really needed that little bit of relief, release of attention. Kurt also was quick to call to mind the fact that I like to talk. So he asked me to nominate him, so I am. So anyways, but I'll ask that all of you join me in supporting Kurt Wright for president of the city council. Other nominations, we will put it to vote. All those in favor of councilor Kurt Wright as city council president, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? It is unanimous. All right, let's get to work. I wanna thank the council for your confidence in electing me to another term. Look forward to working together with all of you and with the mayor to make our great city and even greater city over the next year. I would like to just indulge me for just one second. I wanna give a shout out to some city counselors that are here. We have Karina Driscoll in the back of the room. Karina, Mike Monty, former city councilor way back in the day, former president Bill Keough and recently departed Dave Hartnett. I'm sorry, I knew I was gonna miss someone. Terri Bureches also here from really back in the old days. And another one that I didn't see is Selina Colburn. Who else did I miss? This is a dangerous when you start naming names and you miss people. Did I miss anybody else? Earhard Monkey. Earhard Monkey. Gene Burrman, can anybody stand up if you are not a former city councilor? I think I got them all now. We also have some school commissioners and I tell you I can't see out. So just congratulate school commissioners. We thank you for your service. Any school commissioners that's here, any commissioner that's serving us, we appreciate all your service. And of course, as I said, every city councilor that's spent all of your time serving this city, we really appreciate that. So thank you very much. With that, let's move on to the next item on the agenda and that is the election of the Board of Finance. Is there a nomination? Councilor Mason. Thank you, President Wright. I'd like to nominate Karen Paul to the Board of Finance. Karen has more than capably served a number of years on the Board of Finance. Brings a unique skill set from her work and is the hardest worker I know. So I'd like to return Karen. Karen Paul has been nominated. Are there any other nominations? Councilor Tracy. Councilor Tracy. I'd like to nominate Brian Pine. Brian has been a steadfast advocate for the city of Burlington for years, having served the city for well over a decade, working in CEDO and has transitioned gracefully back into a role as a city councilor. And I look forward to him representing hopefully the old north end on the Board of Finance. Okay, we have two nominations. Are there any other nominations? Councilor Pine. I'd like to place a nomination in the name of Councilor Busher. Councilor Busher was first elected in 1987, partly because I was her campaign manager. But I would just like to say Karen, Sharon comes to the Board of Finance with not just a wealth of knowledge, but with a discipline and a rigor towards city finances that is critical to the process. She provides a perspective. She understands departments. She understands human resources. And Councilor Busher is, I think, serves the city great, not just her constituents, but the entire city. So it's my pleasure to put her name on it. Any other nominations? Councilor Cenk. I would like to nominate myself as member of Board of Finance, because I do believe that I am the only city councilor here with both a progressive and Democrat endorsement. I am a very independent, like-minded person. And I am an advocate, and also in making sure that we make sure we keep our assets steady, and also we give our taxpayers a break. I would be doing an incredible job representing the city as well as all the people in the great city of Burlington. Thank you. Point of order, Mr. President. Point of order, Mr. Councilor Mason. What's your point of order? Could you explain how we're intending to vote? I had mistakenly assumed we were doing individual, you know, but I'm not sure now with multiple candidates. That's a good question, because I had assumed we were doing this differently too. And to my surprise, we are doing it a different way than I had understood at the beginning of this meeting. So I'm a little taken aback myself. The city attorney have any, we do not normally do this. This is not the way we've done in the past, and I was thrown a curve on this. There's no set procedure in the council rules or in the charter regarding which way you do it. You're off to a beautiful start here. Point of order, is it envisioned that we will be voting for three candidates as there are three vacancies to fill? So each councilor will get three votes. We do need to fill three seats. Councilor Shannon. Would it be in order to move that we vote on a slate of three nominations that would include Councilor Paul, Councilor Busher, and Councilor Pine? You can make that motion. Councilor Shannon, if you'd like to. I will make that motion. Councilor Shannon has made the motion that we vote on a slate that includes Councilor Paul, Councilor Pine, and Councilor Busher. Councilor Zhang. Yeah, this is more of a question for the city attorney. And I was just wondering if people nominate themselves why they should not be on the slate. Since people were nominated individually, I think if we're doing slate, everyone that has received a nomination should be on that slate. So there's only three seats, and I believe four candidates were nominated. Yeah, so then is it appropriate to say we will nominate a slate in here in this procedure? I think that's up to us. And there has been a motion put on the table for a slate. Point of order. Councilor Pine, what's your point of order? It is not on customary for us to fill several commission seats at a time. And what I've seen the council do is take the names and go through each seat as though it's its own race, if you will, or its own, we basically do a tally on each one of these open seats on the Board of Order. Actually, the custom and the tradition has been, when we have had other, more than three candidates has been that there is one seat is put up, one more seat is put up, and the next seat is put up. We don't do it where we throw everybody in together like it has just been done here. That is actually a violation of the tradition and precedent that we've had for many years here, actually. So, point of order, is that the chair's prerogative to vote on individual one? If so, I would move, again, for the first seat, or I'd move in nomination, Councilor Paul. Well, the only thing is we have a motion on the floor from Councilor Shannon. Seconded, was it seconded? No. Was it not seconded? You didn't ask for a second. Is there a second? It fails for lack of a second. Councilor Mason. So, I just, if it's the chair's prerogative as to if there's a desire to go to the individual voting, I think. I think we should take one seat at a time. Okay, so I would, for the first seat, I would move in nomination, Councilor Paul. Councilor Paul has been nominated for the first seat, are there other nominations? Hearing none, all those in favor of Councilor Paul, being elected to the Board of Finance, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Congratulations, Councilor Paul. Is there a nomination for the second seat? Councilor Shannon. I would nominate Councilor Pine. Councilor Pine has been nominated. Are there other nominations for the second seat for the Board of Finance? Councilor Zhang. I would like to nominate myself as member of the Board of Finance. Councilor Zhang has nominated himself. Are there other nominations? Hearing none, all those in favor of Councilor Pine, please raise your hand. Councilor Zhang. Councilor Pine is nominated for the Board of Finance. Congratulations, Councilor Pine. And is there a nomination for the third seat for the Board of Finance? Councilor Roof. I'd like to nominate Councilor Busher. Councilor Busher has been nominated. Are there other nominations? Councilor Zhang. I would like to nominate myself as member of Board of Finance. Councilor Zhang's name is a nomination. Are there other nominations for this final seat? Seeing none, all those in favor of Councilor Busher, please say aye. Or raise your hands, actually. And all those in favor, Councilor Zhang. Councilor Busher is elected to the Board of Finance. Congratulations. And congratulations to all members of the Board of Finance. We look forward to working together with everyone. And with that, motion to adjourn is in order. Councilor Roof moves it. Councilor Zhang seconds it. All those in favor, please say aye. We are adjourned. Thank you.