 All right, so I'm going to call the meeting's order. Thank you all for coming out tonight. This is a great turnout. So the first thing is to review and approve the agenda. I assume that there are no changes to the agenda. And all right, so on to... I'm going to assume that we... You could do it by... Exactly. Exactly, no objection. The agenda's approved. So I do want to frame this for us, just so that people can be aware as to how we got to where we are right now. So the first thing to mention is that I was the District 2 rep and was elected to that seat last year. And there's been a little bit of confusion, I think, about what the process could have been or what it is. So I just want to make sure that it's clear. So anytime someone steps down from the council, it is an appointment. Some people ask me, you know, why isn't this a special election? And that's just not the provision that we have in the Charter to do to replace somebody. And so the proper process for us is to have an appointment. The way I anticipate this going is I will invite some of the candidates to come make a statement, and then the council members can ask questions of the candidates. Then we'll offer a chance for the public to make their comments. And then we're going to go into executive session. And so there was also a question that I've been feeling about, why are you going to an executive session? And again, that's actually totally normal just for a little context. In times past when there's been an appointment, not just to the city council, but to any seat where there are more candidates than there are seats to fill, we go into an executive session for everyone's sake. I think it's important that we're able to do that. And again, just for context, other appointments that have happened in the recent past, I was actually originally appointed when Sarah Jarvis stepped off the council and Jean Olsen was appointed recently when Terry Gerlain stepped off the council. So having said all of that, I'm going to stop talking and invite to get to it. Let's get to it. So I'd love to invite the candidates to come make any statement that they would like to make. And councillors, if you have questions, just be ready to ask them when they're done. So actually one other note, sorry, I almost forgot, for the public's sake. The council has been talking about having some kind of structure for public comment. When there are lots of people who want to speak, we want to hear from you all, but we can't let you speak forever. And so we're going to ask that you keep your comments to two minutes. And I recognize that that's short, but we're going to help you with the timing if you have further comments. We certainly want to hear them. And this is going to be a standing thing going on into the future. So if in the future you have more comments that you'd like to make that don't fit in two minutes, please do let us know we want to hear them. Just be conscious that we might want to hear them in writing. But we do have to keep these meetings moving. So for the sake of that time, or keeping people to two minutes, we have a couple of options for you. We've got a timer thing. So that's option one. Option two is that someone else can time it. And Donna, do you want to explain what? We can show this and you can watch. This is like a tablet with a timer. So you can know when you're two minutes, or I can just tell you. So whichever you want, when you come up, you can just say, use the timer, please, or just tell me. And Donna, how are you going to tell people? Well, I can tell you your time's up. I also have, if you don't want to be verbally interrupted, I have colored cards. So I'm a toast master. We do it five, two minutes. So we want you to be comfortable. We're just trying to be fair about dividing the time. If it's all right with the council, when people come up, you tell me if you want to use this, or you want me to use the cards. You just tell me what work best for you. Do you have a yellow card? I do have a yellow. So at a minute, no, no, absolutely. At a minute and a half. And then when you're two was up, sorry. There was something else I was going to say. I can't remember. Thank you, Donna, for that. For helping us out with that. And just for tonight, because of the situation, we're not going to limit the candidates to two minutes. You can have as much time as you need. Relative. Wait, wait, wait. I think it's going too long. But no, we'll make a note of that. Oh, oh, oh. What was I saying? Okay, so, okay, great. So without further ado, whoever would like to go first. I mean, we can do this alphabetically by, I suppose, last name. Okay. So that puts us, it is the same name. Okay, okay, yeah, doesn't matter. Okay, that's true. Okay, yeah. Okay. Would you like me to do this stuff somewhere else? Well, so for the sake of the camera, where's best for you? I'll move behind Ashley there. I can, I can, I guess. I'm not part of the decision. That's good. I feel like, I don't know. So I want to thank everybody for coming out tonight and participating in our democracy. It's a wonderful thing. Thank you to all the audience for coming out and supporting your preferred candidate. And thank you to the council for taking the time to carefully consider all the candidates, all of these. I want to talk about who I am. I'm a public servant and I have been for the last 10 years in service to the state. And the reason that I chose this role in this career is because I feel strongly that one of the best things we can do in our lives is give back to our community. And I've been doing this at the state for 10 years. And I thought that this was the perfect opportunity to bring that down to a local level. And so two and a half months ago I decided to run a touristic council. So I made this decision and this process of running a campaign, it was a lot. I've been campaigning now for two and a half months. I've met hundreds of district residents over the course of at least seven music candidates or forums and meetings, et cetera, et cetera. And I've canvassed 70% of our district on foot. I've hung over 800 door tags. And I built a website. I've emailed countless people, talked to countless people on the phone or in person. And it's been a lot. I've even took the opportunity to attend all of the city council meetings, except one, leading up to today when I made that decision. Just so that the first day, if I was able to sit on the city council, I'd be prepared for this position. And when I was getting my signatures, I even got cross-examined by an attorney on College Street for a half hour. I'm not kidding you, it was very cold. And by the end of it, I got a signature. So, you know, put the campaigns over. And we are here today. And I would think one of the top priorities that's facing the council over the next year is really going to be expansion of housing opportunities in Montpelier. And I think that all the councilors bring a unique experience and skill set to achieving this goal. But I think there's some areas that are perhaps underrepresented. Areas that my background and my skill set could possibly address. So, one of the most wonderful ways to expand housing, I think everybody could agree, is revitalizing our communities by taking commercial residential properties like the French block and bringing those back into use. I have experience, four years of experience, serving the state in the role of a brownfield site manager. In this role, I managed millions of dollars so that we could help revitalize contaminated or underutilized or abandoned properties. We have a few of those here in Montpelier. And they happen to be somewhat large. And if we're talking about expanding our population, then we're also talking about, excuse me, if we're expanding our footprint onto that of Greenland, then we're talking about stormwater considerations. And I was responsible as a consultant earlier in my career, building the stormwater model for the city of South Burlington along the Roots-Even corridor, which is one of the most impaired watersheds in our state. And with all this, we're talking about expanding our population. Our infrastructure is going to be taxed. An agency of transportation, I'm part of a team that is responsible for building a software solution that manages our $600 million and you need to understand the budgeting process in order to build a system to manage it as an understatement. We're also talking about straining our city resources for expanding our population. There's no avoiding it. And I've spent my career at this state trying to modernize our city services, excuse me, our state services through the adoption of software, largely. We've brought paper processes from all over the world. We've made information more accessible online to the taxpayers and we've improved service overall, faster service, better service to our taxpayers through these solutions. So two and a half months ago I made this decision. I wanted to run a campaign. I knew that this day would come and that there would be an appointment for another position in district two. Despite that I made the choice to honor our democracy to honor our residents and go through the public process of running a campaign so that the voters could bet me. I hope that you've taken all of this into consideration and I hope that you make the right decision tonight, whatever that is. Thank you very much for your time. Alright, so questions for Alex. The lawyer will give you a buck to rate on state streets and transportation. I guess I'll ask, what would you say is your highest priority for the city? Yeah. Supporting the effort to expand housing is a lot of people that really want to get onto the property ladder. They want to find good housing here in the city and I think that's a great thing. I think a lot of communities would kill for that. And what do you see as Montpelier's biggest challenge? That's not housing. That's not housing. Yeah, right. So, it's sort of in the name of housing, but I think that infrastructure planning is a huge challenge and it's been a huge focus of the city council over the last several years and I think it needs to continue to be in the future years. Thank you. Great, thank you. Again, we're going to hear from all the candidates and then opportunity for the public to comment. So, I think next week... If it's my last name, it's Lily for next. Oh, okay. Well, whatever you want to do, I'd like to go. It's probably best to go there, I think, for the angle. That's a good camera angle. Yep. I haven't been speaking for a while so I'm a little bit nervous but when things need to be get done, I will do it. So, just give me a few minutes. I just... I'm sorry I'm late because I had... My son had a concert today at Union Elementary. It started at six and at seven. That's why I was late. Okay. I'd like to start by thanking the council with all two candidates for this open position. While there are pluses and minuses to each, the council will be enriched by whomever they choose to rank. But first, let me address the elephant in the room. There has been a lot of politicking and frankly backbiting amongst the supporters of each of the candidates and I would like to clear the end. Alex Gell's supporters argue that since he ran in the actual election and came in second, he deserves to seat. While I can sympathize with that position to a point, I think it misses the mark. Had both seats been vacant in the election, voters would have had the opportunity to vote for two candidates. And in that kind of election there is no telling who would have come in second. It would have been Alex. It would have been Eastman 2. We will never know. And since we can't know who the voters of District 2 would have chosen second, it seems to me that what the council is doing is fair and following the rules of our city's violence. So I urge the council to consider the candidates on their merits alone. But I said earlier each of our candidates have our own unique gifts to bring to the council. That says I have mine and Alex's own. The council members know best the council's own needs and lacks and I would trust them to make the best decision for the citizens of Montpellier as they see it. But let me now speak just a little bit about what I hope to bring to the council should you choose to name me to the seat. As I said in my application letter, I would bring the voice and experience not only of a woman of color but as an immigrant who has achieved here in Vermont. I bring the voice and experience of a single mother, single father who has lived on the edge emotionally and financially with the scars to prove it. And this matters because it seems to me that Montpellier is reaching a crossroad. Montpellier is much to offer but at the same time it is a difficult city to live in for people who are poor. So we have a decision to make. Do we want our city to be of and for the privilege alone or do we want it to be diverse cauldron of all types, all kinds with the benefits of such diversity has to offer. If the later we must walk the tightrope of raining in spending to keep our city affordable while at the same time spending such monies as are necessary to rebuild our infrastructure and encouraging the flow of ideas among all our citizens. Governor Scott has spoken about the need to attract businesses and businesses people to Vermont and Montpellier needs to do its part. But how do we best go about doing that? Not by enticements? Enticements may get them to come here but they won't keep them here. We must make Montpellier a place that people want to come want to open a business in and we do that by focusing on our strengths as a community of business and citizens who support each other as a council who works with businesses to help them succeed and who works with all residents to help them succeed as well. We can and must build each other up and fight the urge to tear each other down. And once we were talking about what are the challenges I know that we were talking about the housing situation so I will not talk about that again. The issue that is dear to my heart not only to myself, other single mothers that I've spoken, parents who have two jobs that are very expensive is quality affordable day care and summer camps. The state offers financial assistance to the truly poor those who are already on welfare but there's nothing for the working poor people who eke out a living but have no savings and no extra money for things like high quality after school care and summer camps. I would like to have the city work with all the different programs available here in Monteria and hash out a system of sliding scale assistance for those in need. For example, I will have to usually I send my kids out to the Monteria Recreation Center. It's quite a distance for me. My kids are bored out of their mind there. I'm being frank. It's like a big huge day care. They have one system from create kids from four years old or five years old and I would like to send my kids to the summer camps here or day camps here but I cannot afford it takes half of my paycheck. I have two kids. I want to give them the opportunity like anybody else here music, dance, arts but it's very difficult for me but I try my best and I've spoken to a lot of parents they have the same issues as well. I'm sure if your parents you want to give the best for your kids so it would help the programs by attracting a larger and more diverse population of participants. It would help many of the city residents by offering assistance with the financial burden of day care and camps and it would help all of our children and done right it need not cost the city overly much. There are some attitudes, ideas and ideas I would bring to the city council while it is important to speak of grand ideas and of technical points and data collection it is equally important to bring in the human element the awareness of and empathy for the people who quietly and courageously struggle every single day to keep their families together and afloat financially this is the awareness I would bring to this body I feel deeply that I would be a good addition to the council and hope that I am given the opportunity to serve Thank you very much. Great questions for Melita Can you tell us about I mean you, so you didn't run in the the original race for the sea can you tell us either about why you didn't run then or what changed for you between then and now I meant to run but I had some family thing come up I also fell down a ladder while painting my house and I hurt my foot so I was in the boot in purchase for three weeks and I had kids to take care and dinner to make and when I got well last week I just found out about this position that was open on Monday so since then I've been out after work after making dinner for my kids make sure they're okay I take my clipboard I go to college street all the streets and talk to people and get their signatures and this race was the last minute of the Thank you good evening everyone up here knows but for people in the room don't know me I'm Jack McCullough I've lived in Montpelier since 1983 and I love this suit I think this you've all heard me say this before this is the best place in all of Vermont to live and I really mean that I've raised my two sons here from education from Montpelier schools they have gone on to their own lives one of them is still living in Vermont and hopes to move back to Montpelier and my vision is that he would be able to move back to Montpelier and live here in a place that he can afford as I was thinking about my life of service when I was growing up in New Jersey our house was one house from the end of the block and so we were there we had a long driveway we had a short driveway long sidewalk the house next door to us went up to the next road back in those days we would still get snow on the motor and when we would go out and shovel the sidewalk my father would never let us stop at our property line my father insisted we go all the way down shovel the sidewalk all the way down to the end that was just part of our responsibility to serve the community to not just parcel out to tiny bit that we were responsible for but to be responsible for for the entire area and we were my city in my town a little bigger than Montpelier my father ran for mayor when I was in eighth grade I went door to door delivered pieces to every house in our election district thousand to thousand houses something like that and throughout my life I've been involved in public service a legal aid lawyer since 1979 I've devoted my life to representing people who are impoverished disadvantaged and powerless and what I do now is work in the mental health law project of Vermont legal aid representing people in voluntary mental health procedures so my professional life has always been service my life in the city of Montpelier has also always been service I have I started out like many people do doing things with my kids coaching the teams that they're on working on the union school parents group I was one of the people who worked on the the playground at union school when the parents group got out and built the whole playground and since then I've done a whole range of things I've been on the housing task force for almost 20 years I've been on the Montpelier housing authority board since 1986 I've been the chair of that board for about 15 years I've been the chair of the Montpelier housing task force for about 10 years and it's not only serve the city but to encourage the city to move in a good positive direction my vision for the city really is that we should be have all the good things we have in Montpelier and expand on that I think we have the ability having analyzed the infrastructure of our city we have the ability to increase our population by 1,000 or 2,000 in the next 10 years or 20 years without putting under strain on the infrastructure and without really changing the character of the city we would still have everything we love in the city and more of it I would very encourage looking in the room today to see there are a lot of people in this room who are younger than me and one of the things that I really would like to see is the opportunity for young families to move into Montpelier and to raise their family the same way I did when I moved to Montpelier in 1983 we bought a house for $35,000 I was only making $15,000 a year we could afford a house to buy a house in the city from $35,000 in 1983 comes to about $87,000 today there's no house that you can buy in Montpelier for $87,000 today or anything close to that that particular house was assessed for around $150,000 and so a house, a family like my family they had a very hard time moving to Montpelier buying a house and raising their family in the city and I think that that is a loss not only to the families families who would like to live here but also to the city who are losing out on the contributions that families could be making here so the main problem that I see in the city the main challenge is the lack of housing the lack of affordable housing through the housing task force we've done a lot of work at trying to address these problems in 2011 I started on the barriers to housing development committee appointed by the council and some of the recommendations are on the web page and some of the recommendations have been adopted by the council in their new zoning ordinance and I think that that's very good there are other things that have not been addressed that could and should be addressed when I moved to Montpelier I've been a housing guy for a long time when I moved to Montpelier I used to drive down Barry street and back in those days in Savings pasture on the other side of Barry street there was a business called Bevin speed and cycle and across the street on the bottom of the pasture they used to park their motor boats and stuff that they had for Sam and I would drive by there and I would think that would be a great place for housing well here we are 35 years later in Savings pasture for that entire time we still don't have housing we have a smaller population than we had 50 years ago we have more households than we did 50 years ago but we don't have the housing to support those people and so that's one of the main things that I think we need the other and third, probably the second largest concern to get to the mayor's question that I have that I think we really would like to need to address is the is the challenges of the business and retail sector of the economy when you go downtown now there's a lot of vacant storefronts and I think in the last 5 or 10 years normal churn of businesses opening, businesses closing moving along I think we're seeing storefronts vacant for longer and I think that we need to address that having a growing young population having people living in the town to patronize patronize those businesses is one approach I also think the city probably needs to take a more active role at talking to potential businesses encouraging people to move into the city we have upstairs spaces, some of them are being offered for these as offices maybe offices aren't the right use for that, spaces maybe should be housing instead of offices, but again among other things that requires some investment by the city and staffing to work with potential developers to define the uses that will be productive for those sites so what I see for us is really an active city government, a government that's going to not necessarily be looking to trim what they do but to in fact look for more opportunities to do more and that could in fact require more investments in government than we have now because I know when we talk to people when I talk to people in city agencies they're constantly asked why do you take on this new project why do you take on that new project I know people as talented as they are I know that Montpelier is able to hire talented and dedicated employees but they don't have surplus time to take on new projects and so as we grow we may need to consider not reducing our staff but actually seeing where we can get revenue to increase the employees so they can do the work that that's expected of a perfect example is there's a lot of talk about about open space and parkland as part of savings pasture I think that's a great idea, people on that side of town really don't have a park that they can go to does the current parks department have the capacity and the current staffing to manage Hubbard park and all other parkland but a major new park on the other side of town probably not so if the city is hoping to develop a new park we need to figure out what the cost of that is and what we can do to meet that cost so I think I know that I probably spent more time at city council meetings already than anybody who's not on the city council and I would like the opportunity to make it official to get on your side of the table and continue to serve the city as a member of the council Any questions for Jim? Okay well I have the same question in thinking about there was this race that just happened tell us about why you weren't running in that race or what changed for you between then and now what was that process like for you? For me the process was pretty pragmatic I knew we had two scenes coming open and I was very enthusiastic that we were going to have a great new mayor and even before the conditions were closed and even before I knew you were the only person I thought you're going to be great mayor I'm not sucking up I really do but here's an opportunity we have two seats here how can we get two people here with really strong progressive positions to take these two seats and I'm only one guy I knew that I wasn't going to run and get elected to one and then come before you and get appointed to the other one so it was a matter of working strategically with other people who shared my views to figure out who's the best candidate to run for this office and how can we put the people in the positions that are going to be good for the city thank you any other questions I appreciate the candidates you were very thorough really I couldn't think of a question all three of you great thank you alright so I know this is an opportunity for the public to comment and again we're going to limit you to two minutes and we're going to test out our system here one hypothesis is that you might want to stand over there another hypothesis is that that's far away and there's a lot of you so maybe you want to stand here what is your opinion camera lady what's your name what's your name Rebecca what's your opinion Rebecca either way words you can just stand on your seat unless that's okay so at least you're not right in front of me so one possibility is that you could stand where you are I mean if I were over there I think that would be easiest but then one possibility is that you're there can you see the timer or the cards oh yeah I'm short of my arm so Donna are you cool with timing sure is that right I will time you whether you look at it or not but you're going to run in okay so we're not necessarily going to take people who are in favor of one candidate altogether first I think we're just going to popcorn it so if you would raise your hand and I will call on you and then you'll have two minutes to speak alright so who would like to go first go ahead oh also I'm sorry if you would say your name and your street sure that would be helpful Ivan Shadis I just want to say first that I haven't talked to any of the candidates so I formed this opinion based on what I've read alright so to the council by focusing on too narrow a sense of qualification this council risks enforcing familiar inequalities between representatives and constituents as the council often comments we're making committee appointments in Montpelier we enjoy an abundance of well-qualified volunteers competing poor appointments individuals whose professional and political lives show a good record of pertinent work are likely to be selected the problem which arises is that these lives are almost never those of us too poor and busy surviving to accumulate similar accolades for our letters of interest or even develop much of an interest in municipal politics in 2014 Pew Research Center found that financial security strongly correlated with nearly every measure of political engagement while the financially insecure are far less likely to engage yet we remain your constituents whose interests you are sworn to represent is therefore heartening to see a council candidate Lalita who identifies herself among the not economically well off and places engaging the economically disenfranchised at the center of her bid for office this council's power of discretion when making an appointment to fill a vacancy offers a unique chance to consider poorer candidates who may not have the time or resources to run a campaign I hope you will take seriously your responsibility to correct the chronic underrepresentation of the poor in your appointment tonight yes we invite Celia and her child to go next oh would they I think they would like to sure I'll be brief and I apologize for the interruption this guy is causing but two minutes each sorry he already had his two minutes he says bah very well oh yes so my name is Celia Richel and I live on Downing Street so that's District 3 and I wanted to start by just asking you to kind of ask yourselves what it is that your task is today and I think you know there's three people here that seek to fill this vacancy that was vacated by Ann when you stepped up to Mayor and we did just have this election that was 29 days ago in which there was a seat and a three candidates for the District 2 seat and Connor you want it with 380 some odd votes I think Miller was another candidate and he received what I think 309 votes and then there was another candidate who got a hundred and some odd votes um and I don't want to do like a civic lessons or anything here but of course voting really is critical to the democratic process and one of the fundamental ways in which the public is able to voice and choose how they govern themselves is through the of the three people who have put themselves forward at this meeting today only one of them put themselves forward and respected the public's right to make that selection to choose and that was Alex and 309 I think people of his district did choose him to be their representative and I think that is that is significant and shouldn't be shouldn't be best um and I mean no disrespect to the other two who have um put their names forward today but by asking city council to name them to the seat after not choosing not choosing to take the opportunity to put themselves forward through that established process that happened last month to be selected for the seat it strikes me as a little bit either reflecting not taking the position seriously the position of Chancellor or perhaps not respecting the voice of the residents of that district and it seems a little ironic that in proposing to speak on behalf of people that you would two minutes you want to finish your thought I will finish my thought only to say that I think your task is not to try to select a replacement for Al Watson but to simply ratify the decision that was already made by the residents of that district thank you yes I'm sorry that I'm reading you I should do that sorry go ahead if you'd stay here name in your streets my name is Roberta Tracing I live on Kent Street in Montpelier and I am a resident of district two an idea was floated recently on front porch forum by councilman Hutchison that perhaps and I quote since we're trying to fill the vacancy left by Ann Watson who was elected last year to fill a two year council term an applicant who shares her characteristics or viewpoints might be preferred as councilman Hutchison wanted feedback here's mine as a resident of district two I know almost nothing about Ms. Malawaganam or Mr. McCulloch unlike Alex Keller neither of them has sat in our living rooms attended community events or participated in debates so that we the residents of district two could hear for ourselves their positions their passions and their visions for the city of Montpelier Alex Keller did all of these things he came within 70 votes of being elected council member for district two he did this through the hard work of candidacy it has been suggested that we the public appreciate the process established by city council for filling recent vacancies however unlike other recent council vacancies this vacancy comes after a town meeting where the residents of the affected district spoke with their democratic right to vote for the candidate they would prefer to be represented by it would be ill advised for the council to ignore the voting results of town meeting day it would be sending a very clear message that none of us should bother voting as our votes that reflect who we prefer are not relevant and that council members know better than the members of district two who to represent us so the residents of district two spoke loudly and clearly on town meeting day I strongly encourage the council to acknowledge and respect this democratic process and appoint Alex Keller council member district for two to do a version of democracy thank you oh yes so if you would if you would say your name and your street and then we're going to time you so you got that I'm not going to be long my name is Corby Griffin I live on Liberty street in district two and I'm just struck by the argument that I've heard twice now and I came in late I apologize my son was in a puppeteer show but I'm struck by the argument that because Alex came in second he should automatically ascend to the seat and I guess my difficulty with that is if both seats had been vacant and had been voted for there would have been the opportunity for the citizens of district two to vote for two candidates correct that's how it works right so if we had had that opportunity there is no guarantee that Alex would have come in second with the votes because at that point in time Ben Eastman might have come in second so I guess my point is to use the argument that just because he came in second in that election that he should automatically get the seat is I get it and it's a valid argument but I don't think I don't think it's completely valid because when you look at the fact of if there had been two candidates would he have come in second he may have but he may not have that's all thank you Jake and Eve you want to go next good evening I'm Jake Brown I live at 115 college street and it's district two I'm going to be speaking on behalf of Alex Keller I hope you'll be able to point him to the council but first I want to be clear I want to thank all the candidates including Jack and Lalitha for their engagement and thoughtful participation in the process we're lucky to have such interest in the seat that's very important that said in terms of the approach to seeking this seat there's one very large difference there's very one large difference among the candidates Alex Keller is the only one among them and others have said this who has planned and executed a full on district wide election campaign and put his name squarely before the voters for their consideration he's developed a platform articulated thought proposals for the city he's greeted voters he's canvassed over 800 homes in the city in his district and held seven meet the candidate events among other things the short Alex Keller did a real campaign and that sets him apart not only did he do a real campaign one that demonstrated a distinct level of commitment he garnered 309 votes that's a respectable second place finish in this case and the campaign was just weeks ago it's a fresh sounding of the voters in the district something that doesn't often proceed a proceeding like this so Alex stands out for me from these other candidates no doubted, no doubt talented candidates so as you weigh the merits of all these candidates I would think it would be important to remember how the district two voters spoke and I know you'll be working hard as a new council tackling a huge range of issues facing the city and I wish you the best and I really do hope you will appoint Alex Keller to join I think doing so in this case is the most faithful to the spirit of local citizen based democracy that we prize so much of them on thank you Hi, I'm Eve Jacobs-Barnahan and I served on the school board for two terms and so I know how difficult it is to make these kind of decisions and I know that when I remake these decisions somebody is going to be on how and you're always being known to something that's really difficult but what I want to offer to you is actually an advantageous situation this year because Alex Keller comes out of the election and so you can look at a very recent election where you can say I know what the district was looking at the district very clearly showed that there were two candidates out of the three who ran who rose way above the third candidate it wasn't close and so you had the opportunity to essentially pull the district now you don't always have that situation and that gives you an advantage when you don't have that situation and if you were to ignore the choice of the voters in indicating how strongly they supported us you'd be playing into questions of favoritism personal relationships that people may have with the other candidates anything that suggests that you'd be circumventing the will of the voters I don't know if those factors would be actually taking place but those are like the suspicions that people will be having and so I think any it's really best and fairest and best representative of what the district voters want to go to the vote of the district voters and actually I realized I didn't say it that I live in district too and I didn't want to say that I'm going to report Alex thank you hello my name is Dan we know Alex because he campaigned door to door and came out to speak to the people in district too in this case you have a candidate who went through all the steps he petitioned campaigned and lost by only 70 votes in the past when you needed to fill a seat there wasn't someone who had run for the office that was still interested picking the runner up is the rational way forward and has recently been the practice of the school board and the parks commission this is the first major decision of the new council choosing Alex would be a way to unify the city doing otherwise would be divisive and you would lose the respect of 300 plus voters in district too if you should select a person who has simply petitioned for the office the whole council would lose credibility among the voters and it would smell of cronyism that is no way for a new council member to get started and to keep tenure what we know about Alex is from his door to door campaign he understands systems he knows how to make them work efficiently so that housing and other future needs of the city can be met he understands how to work with state funding systems such as the TIF and capital improvements Alex is very pro-planning and concerned about housing housing is needed without compromising wastewater water supply increased traffic parking and storm water Alex understands that infrastructure takes constant attention if the city is going to have a viable future the decision you are about to make is going to define you are you going to be defined are you going to defend democracy by supporting the process that got you elected or are you going to select someone who has not been vetted or gone through the electoral process the support of the citizens of this city will excuse me the support of the citizens of this city will give you what support they will give you hangs on the balance please make a great decision thank you as well though and full disclosure I am an interloper from Worcester but I'm a former resident I used to live on Barrich Street and I'm essentially here as a character witness for Alex mostly to talk about Alex listening to Kenny mostly to talk about Alex as a professional which I worked with him for the past five years three things in particular I want to note one would be his work ethic one would be his approach and one would be his temperament all of which I think are apropos a city council so in terms of work ethic I would call Alex a workhorse this guy will do anything you ask of him and more everything he does is at a like extremely high level of quality any project that I have worked with him on and there have been many both in his role in D.C. and with AOT he's done the work and I don't have to worry about it I never even have to ask him if things are going to get done he gets it done and the start about for him recognition or praise it's about that he values the work and he values the outcome of the work so if the work is actually going to have the intended impact work that we're looking for AOT of his work ethic was evidenced in his campaign of which he got 309 votes Alex didn't have the benefit of resting on his laurels or working with connections and relationships he had to work hard for every single one of those darn votes and he continues to work hard today to try to get it on the city council in terms of approach Alex approaches any problem with an inclusive mentality so he does not go into something with a closed mind very open minded and he will try to look at all sides of the equation to try to develop a solution which will work for everybody that's impacted in terms of temperament super even heel I don't know anything that has ever faced him which I think is important given some of the situations that the city council is going to have to wrestle with moving forward so in my opinion I think the choice is clear given what other folks have said about the election and Alex's work so far that he's the right candidate for this job and one question I would have for Jack to point to you directly about and one question I think the council should ask if you've been working on housing for 35 years and things have not changed what have you done and why hasn't it worked others yes Carol Carolyn I live on Carolyn Grzinski and I live on center street and I'm supporting Alex and his platform and I actually he had one of his meet and greets at my house and I know Lilitha Well from the farmers market and Jack McCullough from when I was on the planning commission many years and I'm thankful that they're able to put in their appointment for their appointment forward for this position I also know Alex because I worked with him when I was at the agency of a natural resources several years ago but the main thing I wanted to say and I wish I had gone right after Eve is I really support the democratic process to appoint the second vote winner and somebody had mentioned when I was the parks commission is an elected position and when I ran for parks I won by several hundred votes and this was the city-wide election but the parks commission opted to have the second go getter which is who the citizens of Montpelier wanted to see second and that's who we appointed to our commission I just think that's a very important thing to weigh in what the voters wanted in the community Thank you Alright, any others? I really want to look at my notes about my name is Jill Remick I am a district 2 voter I live on the corner of Ewing and Lincoln and I have to say that because my address is Ewing but my driveway is Lincoln it's very convenient I'm here I send you folks a letter and at Glenn's request I posted a letter for comment I posted on french port formal as well I'm very much in support of the council appointing Alex, I know it's not easy congratulations to Connor and Glenn and congratulations to you for being appointed mayor and just quick frankly because of what a lot of folks have already said that the process was what it was it was a very strong second place after a really hard campaign I've been trained in running campaign as a woman pretty jaded about how some of the stuff works and so I'm also very passionate about protecting it and the seat belongs to the district we have district 1, 2, 3 we have a voting process and the district has in my opinion already spoken about who that second seat should go to and I can't, it certainly isn't a philosophical statement about any of the other candidates who have come forward I just understand the work involved I reached out to people I didn't know and those who I did invite strangers to my home because I felt so strongly about the work that Alex was doing it is not easy and I do not envy him and I'm dead at all of you as well but it does take work and I think that's indicative of what you get when you have Alex on the council thank you yeah hi I'm Phil Dodd district 2 you know I think Jack and Lalitha have great qualities as we've heard tonight but I agree that because Alex is the only one of the applicants here tonight who made the effort the significant effort to run that he should get the nod his efforts show real commitment to the job in the city and should be rewarded 20 runner up in a recent election is a common practice of not failure this was done by the parks commission and by the school board in 2015 when two school board members were being elected the third place finisher was Bridget Assay six months after that town meeting the member resigned and Bridget was unanimously appointed to fill the vacancy the school board minutes of October 7, 2015 about that choice specifically cite her vote total in the prior election I think you really need to respect the voters of district 2 and including those who are here tonight Jack talked about the strategy and premeditation of trying to achieve a certain result but I think we should look more to the democratic process in making a decision here I've read on the french port forum some people think another candidate should be appointed because his political views and inclinations are closest to those of the person who held the seat before but how do we know the views of these applicants has there been an investigation of their politics or a political questionnaire to fill out even if that is you know even if politics made some sense neither the most recent council appointments was there an applicant in the mix who had run for the office so this is what's different for somebody who has run many of us feel alienated from congress and the president and by the way national politicians treat each other in my opinion let's try for unity and inclusion and do the right thing the fairest decision for alex and for the voters of district 2 would be to appoint alex beller to the city council thank you any others go ahead my name is mike reed I live on greenock in montpellier in district 2 and I'd just like to echo most of the sentiments that have been put forth to support alex I think I spent some time with him had a house meeting with him and he's clearly extremely qualified he made the effort to run which the others did not and he came in a very close second and despite what has been said I suspect it's very unlikely that if two seats had been opened that he wouldn't have won the second seat there was just too much difference between the second and third number one so my name is dan dickerson I live on charles street in district 2 I will further echo the previous echoes that I support alex scalar for this council seat he ran for office he got the signatures back in january and he did put on a good campaign and so I support him today but I also would like to say that I hope to see all three of these names on the ballot next town meeting day because I do believe all three candidates are qualified and it would be great to see the difference between the three thank you anybody else sorry yeah go ahead my name is francis dot and I live in district 2 on mckinley street and I wasn't planning to say anything tonight but I feel compelled so I will um when I heard from jack that he chose not to run because it would he could have an opportunity to be appointed here and that would um give an opportunity for his views to align with the council and so on I thought that just doesn't work for me it doesn't work for me for a couple of reasons one is when I was in high school in history class I was not a good history student there is one lesson that I learned extremely clearly and that was that the end does not justify the means that's about the only thing I remember from history was a lesson in democracy you don't get there when you want to get there you get there by doing the right thing and doing the right way and jack, you know if you aren't appointed tonight and you have an opportunity to run again and you may win in favor overriding whoever was appointed and likewise with the others that it's just the end does not justify the means Machiavelli we don't want to emulate that the second is that I don't think the purpose of the city council is to have a collaboration of those with the same viewpoints I think it's important to have a variety of viewpoints that's how you come to better decisions it's through conversation exploration challenging each other that you get to the decisions that you need to get to and that may not be the easiest way to get there and maybe that's part of why we jack hasn't accomplished all he wants in housing but nevertheless we're going to get there and I really think it's important to respect the voters creating opportunities for diversity on the council and to support the candidate who ran just one more very quickly I support I live on Greenock avenue and I formally support Alex we just had an election it was a strong section a strong vote a strong showing I asked the other candidates to run a year from now and let the voters speak and I also was very disturbed by thinking that someone could circumvent a vote and get appointed that was just a disturbing concept to me I ask you to honor the voters of district 2 I just want to wait until I want to Yes, thank you for your comments Okay, would you like to add Yes, I'm sorry Lalitha my logon just give me a second because there was a couple of questions that I want to answer Alex said he ran a campaign from January if I were in a better position I would have run it but I cannot match his campaign style I do not have the money I do not have the resources nor do I have a lot of time because I am the regular citizens of Montpelier a working mother from 8 to 4.30 and I have two kids who go to school so that is one of the challenges that I will have if I were to run for a campaign I was not like the other person say circum like you know whatever word that is the other thing is I do not remember the other thing that is about it can I just ask a question there understanding that this has been a discussion among the council that it is really difficult to have a diversity of economic backgrounds on the council given the time commitment and I just want to verify that you are fully aware of the time commitment that it is Yes, I spoke to my ex-husband that he had to support me to look up the kids when I have to go to the meeting and all this stuff knowing that I had the support and some of my couple of my friends that is why I stepped in I really want to bring my set of skills, my experience if you forget about the skin of my color look at me as a mother I own a house I work here and not only do I want to bring the best to my kids but to everybody else as well and truth to say that is the other thing I remember Alex said he knocked on everybody's door I started the campaign on Monday knocking on a few people door I had encountered some very hostile people some of them would look at me and when I talked to them they would like oh shut the door so I think you saw me shaking a bit because I met a couple of people there is one person in this room which I will not mention so it's a little bit like whoa what is going to happen thank you very much I do want to since so we've had an opportunity to say something further Jack or Alex would you like to add any final thoughts and then we'll entertain a motion to go into executive session I'll just add that I knew full well what the time commitment was I reached out to counselors ahead of this campaign to learn about what the position entails in addition to attending all of the City Council meetings and if you know me well you would know that I have a problem where I don't stop I'm not very good at watching sports on TV sorry I can't relate on that level but I always need to be doing something and that something is serving on City Council that's what I want that something to be would you like to add something sure yes thank you I just heard the question if I've been working on housing for so many years where is all the housing and my answer is well we actually through the work that I've done and other people have done we actually have housing that we wouldn't have had before we've enabled families to move to Montpelier with the first time home buyers program we've got the French work going on the French block which the housing trust fund has supported we have the supported in part by the housing trust fund which I and the other members of the housing task force work for we have 58 Barry street which was create housing there by the work of the Montpelier housing authority it's not enough but we have made progress we have a new zoning ordinance which I worked hard to bring about and I think that we've made progress we can do better and we must do better thank you I I'm short no way you can see me sitting down just I really do believe in the process that is the resumes the interview the application separate from town meeting day but if I were to look at town meeting day I would see 487 some votes voted for two liberals because they ran against one another if Alex had had someone more of his vein I'm going to use the label conservative forgive me full labels then it would be different and that that is a real reality when I look at the vote I look at the number voting for Ben who's very progressive and Connor who is more liberal and so I see that's why I don't want to look at that because it's how do you interpret those votes when you have three candidates and you're not in my head so you don't like the way I interpret it so I don't want to look at that election I just want to take Alex very good application resume and look at those qualifications equally across the board and to me that's not subverting democracy that's being fair so that's just where I'm coming from I'm going to move that we go into executive session he hasn't spoken yet he hasn't spoken yet sure so I'm going to take just a couple more comments and then we'll entertain a motion to go since you haven't spoken thank you so my name is David Kidney I've lived here for 35 years I'm a resident of district 2 in response to that among my friend just for those of you who don't know me I usually consider Jack a brother in arms I've worked for 35 years on public defense I do the juvenile contract for the last 10 years for 20 years I did the adult contract I spent my whole life working Jack's done the civil side I've done the criminal side I'm working for impoverished people dispossessed people of the downtrodden so my political views are to the left but I found in this campaign I find that most of my friends my lefty friends we don't look at labels so much that I found that among the people I talked to there's a huge debate, Connor who congratulations on your win that the debate was between Connor and Alex and people looked at both of them not from I didn't even know that that Connor's to the left of Alex I didn't know that what I heard people say this is an incredibly qualified guy a guy who won, absolutely people were like but they also looked and said this is an incredibly intelligent man a man who brings a lot to the table energetic I can't do justice to him the way his friend did who's worked with him so I didn't hear that debate of who's left who's the left person here that wasn't the debate that my friends and I had we didn't know I've never met Alex I didn't go to any of those sessions I didn't meet him at the door I'm not around a lot and but I was incredibly impressed with both of them and talked to a lot of people these are two really great people that they could both be on there so I disagree completely with this as a left I mean I don't know I didn't know he was considered a moderate or right wing or whatever you're labeled I thought that we had two great people and most people couldn't decide who to vote for and a lot of people I knew were flipping a coin right before they went in between these two really fine candidates it's an interpretation well that's on the ground so again we're going to take I think just because we do have to keep going so Steve if you'd like to comment Mayor and congratulations to you and the other two council members I'm Steve Cease, I live on North Street I'm a resident of District 2 and I think Donna's comments really crystallized for me one of the concerns I've had about this process I would never have known more liberal than Alex or Alex was more liberal than Connor I don't know what in Heaven's Name you're basing that on and frankly that to me is one of the most insidious potentials of this process that the council will substitute its judgment for the judgment of the voters who reviewed these people, listened to them reviewed their candidacy and voted as we did with I think 85% of the vote for Connor and for Alex I think that represents a really strong demonstration that we do is happy with the candidates that we have and be happy with Alex as the appointee to fill the vacant council seat so I'm asking you all to please consider that this is primarily a District 2 judgment don't make this a citywide appointment each of you bringing your own district perspective to this process let's leave it in District 2 frankly Connor I hope that you will help lead in bringing your fellow candidate onto the council and that is my that's what I've got to say please respect the vote of the district so I know there are some other people who want to make comments and I I know I just said like oh we're not going to take you on I think we would like to if you want to have something more to say that's fine I guess I just encourage you to keep it very brief if they haven't made a comment already if they haven't spoken right is anybody who has not spoken like to make a further comment to check so I know two people have just raised their hands who have spoken but if you would like to say something that's great again just keep it really brief go ahead I just I want to affirm what these two have said I had no idea I had to qualify people and I'm just really very distressed by what I just heard and it feels like cronyism and I expect and trust that Connor will lead the rest of this council to respect the district to vote and I'm very distressed by what I just heard because that was not in my mind and I actually am very left and very progressive anyway I'm just really that was very distressing to hear that and then to hear that we were going to wait earlier because we knew there was going to be a seat open and that there would be a likely appointment so it feels to me like the respect the vote of the citizens of district 2 is really being challenged here I think so it seems like a lot of people here are interpreting Alex's second place position as the equivalent of the results of a special election and something that might help us understand what to do is to understand why there isn't a special election why it does the council appoint somebody and is it simply expediencing city charter that's how they can spell that out of course but I mean can we try to understand the spirit of the charter in making an appointment instead of an election no I don't know what what the thought process was anybody else hang on a second oh yeah sure just real quick I hear everybody talking about the spirit of democracy and I am an ardent supporter of democracy but Alex didn't win and there isn't and as you pointed out sorry don't entertain we don't know what would happen if there was another election between the three of these candidates I would prefer an election but that's as you point out not what the charter states so but to assume that district two would rather have Alex than any of the other candidates simply because he came in second is incredibly disingenuous it's not they might but we don't know that and to stand here and or sit here and say it over and over again he came in second therefore he deserves to see I don't get it I really don't and I would encourage the council to look at the candidates based on yes really I don't um given the opportunity you are representatives of the city and the only ways that we have had an opportunity to make our voices known are to vote for those candidates who put themselves forth and to trust in your judgment we will have another opportunity to vote the next time that there is an election and we will be happy to consider all candidates who put themselves forth at that time that's the process by which this government is set up and maybe there are more ways that we need to support people who want to vote who want to run for candidates and like they care need support to have the opportunity to run I don't know what that process would be I don't know if the city charter needs changing maybe there is a process to explore that but I don't think that this is the moment to consider those other ways of doing things because this is what we are given these are the opportunities that the voters have had and these are the only ways that we have been able to make our voices known I am Sheila I am a district two voter I just really quickly I think it's really important to look at voting systems and how we create the most representative democracy that we possibly can it seems like we have a little bit of a problem here of changing a system in the middle of the process where if we are to postulate about who represents from the electoral results on town meeting day the most the will of the district two voters is just sort of impossible for us to do that because we started off with one seat was going to be elected by the voters and one seat was going to be appointed so if we want to talk about changing the charter I don't know how that's done I'm totally new to this but that's it seems like a separate conversation that's all I'm just going to add one thing quick regardless of the election Alex got 309 votes flat period it's just a data point it doesn't matter if he came in second it doesn't matter if he came in 15 19 people in district two voted for Alex yes yeah I would say the number of people who stood up and spoke many of whom are district two voters it's a pretty good indication of what would have happened if there were two seats available thank you I would move that we go into executive session for the purposes of considering an appointment under it's on the agenda oh very good title word title one BSA 313 because the appointment just has to do with the appointment or appointment or evaluation of a public officer or employee I will second before we vote I just want to say thank you seriously to all of you who came out and shared your thoughts with us we've got a very hard decision in front of us alright any further discussion? please say aye we are going to head upstairs to a room to deliberate and then we'll be back I'm not sure when hopefully we'll see you'll still be here when we get back right okay I move that we come out of executive session I'll second all in favor alright move that we recess until tomorrow April 5th at 3.30pm in city hall second further discussion would you like to say something there seem to be some conversation about some pre-conversations that occurred between the candidates and the council I'm wondering if those things did happen whether those counselors with whom those things did happen would consider recusing themselves from any way in on this if they have if it happened there was an exposure of an idea here earlier on about some conversations that might have occurred before tonight I want to lay that out there as a concern I have on what grounds would you recuse yourself based on a conversation if someone has has made a plan of some sort to support one candidate in a given situation ahead of time before hearing before hearing and seeing what we heard tonight that would cause me concern I just put forward that it's pretty typical for counselors to form opinions about any topic before arriving at council and that that's not usually a reason to recuse oneself so if there was yeah I guess I'll just leave it at that it's not it's not it's not typical okay yeah no thank you yeah that's it because that would suggest that this was not a not a proceeding as it appears to be there was there were some deals made perhaps ahead of time for support I'm not figuring anybody in particular I'm just laying it out conversation about that earlier so I just want to play thank you I'm just clarifying I think what Jake is saying we heard that one of the candidates strategized ahead of the deadline to sign up about what to do and the question is was that strategy discussed with any counselors see what you're saying I would say that I think we are all fried and we are not ready to have any more intelligent discussion tonight and I think that we serve the best interests of our city by doing as we have moved we need to still take a vote on that but to reconvene I appreciate that sentiment and we'll certainly sit with that too yeah no thank you alright so any other discussion all in favor please say aye and we did say did we say a time?