 It's going to be in the fall. What's that? We're getting away for a little bit. What do you feel when you're working? That sounds like it. Oh, you're not, no problem. Oh, okay. Where have you been there? Oh, yeah. The seaside. Wow, welcome morning everybody. Good morning. The ambition to actually, you know, break a form and be prompting on time today. But as usual, circumstances intervened. Ada was sick last night. It was a tough, tough morning. But this is so great to sit here with all of you. One more, one more time. We, you know, I figure we never actually, unlike President Karapal, actually went back through and got a precise count on her number of city council meetings. We haven't quite done that with bagels, but I believe this is well over 500 that we've been doing. And looking around the room, if you add up the number of times you all have been here, there may be many thousands given the regulars we have here. You know, I'm not quite sure the best way for us to do it this morning. And normally, you know, people who haven't been regulars, we kind of go around and get some topics on the table. Jordan, my chief of staff for those of you, many of you have met her here over the years. Jordan, one of the reasons we stay committed to doing this all this time, sometimes Jordan would actually get me on a bike to come out here, especially once we got the bike lanes bell. Yeah, great. I guess before we go around, I know not everyone will be able to stay, so let me just kick things off with a couple remarks. I will, a lot of you I think know that we started doing these Wednesday morning events back before I was mayor, right when I announced my candidacy to be the Democratic nominee for the position. And, you know, I don't think everyone here was around back then to become the Democratic nominee. To win this contested caucus against, turned out to be three other much more experienced qualified candidates. And to win a caucus, we had to get hundreds of people to come to Memorial Auditorium on a Sunday afternoon in November. And, you know, I started out with some supporters, but had to find a lot of others quickly. And one of the strategies that we settled on was to have these coffee conversations. And we actually did them every morning of the week for about two months leading up to that caucus. So we had wanted every part of the city. And it was just barely successful enough. For those of you who don't know the story, we survived a tie vote, 540 to 540 at one point. So I definitely credit these coffee conversations with making everything that followed possible. Then, when as a candidate and then as a new mayor, I knew it was important that you have a connection with this part of the city. And it always seemed to me in my kind of observations of city government that this part of the city was often polarized and sort of alienated by what was happening down at City Hall. And I thought there might be a way by having a physical presence out here on a regular basis that we could break some of that down. And, you know, I wouldn't say it was entirely successful. I certainly pissed a bunch of people off in this part of the city with those bike lanes and some of the other decisions. But I do think it mattered to be out here every week. It kept me aware of what was happening out here. It allowed me to make sure, you know, there is something about the mayor's office, especially with the way I tried to do it, maybe, where it got easy to sort of... There was a trap of being in the office too much and being too focused on the details of trying to keep things running day-to-day. Having a commitment to be out here every week made sure... was pushed against that. Made sure I stayed connected with what people were thinking. And so we kept doing it. And I'm so grateful to Peter for allowing us to... Cafe owners wouldn't have been so happy about the shopping and taking over like this. I mean, this is a large crowd today, but we had a lot of days that were approached this. And I know there were times where... There were a few times where things got a little uncivil and that concerned you, Peter, and you took actions to make sure that didn't continue. But other... they were rare. You've been an incredible host. Thank you for making this possible. And then just a couple of last thoughts. Another reason that I kept doing it is... You know, part of it was... It was the regulars who showed up all the time, helped me navigate all the challenges of this job. You know, the fact that so many of you continued to show up during the pandemic when we did this for months online was part of my personally being able to kind of get through the isolation and the challenges of the pandemic. But another thing that made it me think that this was... You know, if it had just been the regulars showing up, I might have questioned whether this made sense, right? If it was just 10 or 12 or 25 you, is this where I should be spending, you know, a couple hours of mayoral time every week? It might have been a question. But I knew that even for people who weren't showing up, there was value in this. I always had this sense that people liked that we were doing this. And one of the... Even if they couldn't make it there regularly. And one of the reasons I believe that is literally almost every week for 12 years, somebody new came to offer a new perspective to get a question, asked, answered to make sure I was aware of something. It so many times, you know, Emma and Jordan and other people worked in the mayor's office over the years, and we would go back to City Hall with a to-do list of things to follow up on that we wouldn't have gotten any other way. And it just, you know, it just was clear to me this is something I wanted to keep doing. So thank you all for being here and being part of this for so long and for being here this morning. It's quite touching to see so many here today. Thank you. I want to thank you. I want to thank you for the pods on Amman Avenue, because it really does help. It made a difference. Well, David, you showing up every week for the last couple of years to make sure not only I heard that, but that so many of your neighbors heard that and kind of put out a different narrative about that than some people were telling. You know, a lot of people, you know, there were issues that came as a result of us doing that and there were challenges with it. So those challenges were inflated and exaggerated and you made sure that we didn't overreact to them. So thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you. Jim. We had our temperatures back. Well, I'm here to thank you for your effort to get us here. And I have here my last electric bill, which was 13 cents, because we got solar array and heat pump, and we filled up, by October, $600 in credit for the electric which is just the last of it, our last bill, and I've signed my bill. Now, Jim, remind me, we had issues with your roof, right? Like, we had to... And we had to make, you know, we had to get rid of this crazy, deep three feet of space around every edge of the... Several departments there was disconnect between, actually there was no connection between the inspection folks, the fire folks, and the solar pump. Yeah. And with one call, or, you know, Mike Cano, I count a lot to make that happen, and the solar people said to me, oh, we've never talked to people about how we have built the inspection. And anyway... Is that right? Wow. We got down to this, about a solar year ago, the head of the solar array actually was the head of the heat pump, so anyway... So did you see the report we put out last week that showed that you are part of a very important transformation of what homes... how homes are built, how they're powered there's now 2,300 heat pumps have been installed. The solar... We've gone from having almost no solar installations in the city to being for years, you know, multi-years running now, the most per capita solar installations of any city, east of the city. And it's actually making a difference since we're clear now with our missions. Our missions are down 18% since 2018. And, you know, when the rest of the world catches up with that, we will... we will have to address this by the rest of the world. Will you provide a rebate for the... during the three minutes of what we have started? You won't be able to do anything. Sorry, you'll have to... you'll have to talk to Eve about that. She is in charge of the eclipse. Last speech and I particularly is touching that you're coming and say that because we... I remember that we disagreed on some things and you were passionate and we were able to continue to communicate, stay... share a sense of where the community needs to go in some ways through that. It's... I really appreciate it. I think we're following the light now. Yes. Years ago? Well, I've always remember James, Mary Jane, that you played a role in these conversations to make sure, you know, we was not clear what the policy should be. Should we plow it? Should we leave it? Should we leave it with snow on it so that people could cross-catch a ski? And I... as I remember it, I think your input in conversations play in a role in us coming up with the policy of kind of compromising half of it, half of it plowed, half of it left for snow, and we did that as each section of the bike path got rebuilt, we would implement that policy now. You can do the whole eight miles. Someone plowed the bridge to this. Great. And the tennis course. And I thank you. That's great. Thank you. I wasn't going to say thank you when you announced, but now it's time that I can say thank you for all you've done. You've had a lot of challenging issues. Man, I can't imagine being in your position the last four years, especially. So now I will say thank you for all you've done for us. But I think the city's got issues, but it's in the right direction. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for joining us so many times at the table. Ed. Yeah, Mero, I just wanted to say something. That I came to Burlington after a 30-year career in addiction health in LaMoyle County in 2015. And somebody directed me to you to say, pay attention to Mero. And this was 2015. I began coming to your meetings and I watched you hit what I would call a vertical learning curve straight up when it came to people with addiction. And I can just say from a professional point of view that you mastered it incredibly quickly. And I just want to share with you something from, this is your draft for guiding the city of Burlington in response to the opioid crisis. Now, folks, this is from a long time ago. This is from 2015. And this shows how progressive the mayor was thinking. I'll just read a few of the principles. Opioid addiction is a public health crisis with a law enforcement component. City government plays a unique and vital role in addressing the opioid challenge. People struggling with opioid addiction need access to treatment without delay. Police should give amnesty to users seeking help for their addictions and send them to treatment. The pharmaceutical company, the pharmaceutical industry has a role in resolving the crisis it helped create. Treatment for opioid addiction should not end upon arrest. Naloxone must be available to people of using opioids or using opioids, their friends and family, and their emergency service providers. That's not all of them, but there's been incredible progress made in this city and it is directly a result of your leadership from the bottom of my heart and as like a representative kind of of parents who have lost children and the profession, I want to thank you. I want to thank you for everything you've done. You've been a courageous mayor. You know, again, I am proud of the work we've done there. It's hard to feel like we've made sufficient progress when more people are dying than ever before. It's been the most heartbreaking part of the last 12 years that despite what we have tried to do, this problem just continues to grow and grow. It was a little bit hopeful to be able to send out the report a couple of weeks ago that for six months now we've seen a reduction in the police and fire responses to overdoses. I think there's from state as well that there maybe has been, maybe we've turned a corner again at long last after four years of setbacks since the pandemic. And your commitment to action and progress here has been an inspiration to me. You have always shown up and really dedicated your life to saving lives and turning this around. And it's that kind of commitment that has kept me going and continuing to work on this. And yeah, thank you for being here again. As you have so many times in the past. Thank you for continuing. I won't be on the open settlement advisory committee anymore after Monday. So keep up showing up at those meetings and making sure the public forum is well, you know, it's an important part of those meetings. I see officer Corey Offent has joined us as he had many times in the past for state this, Corey. But I know you came to a lot of these bagel meetings at a time when you were kind of taking a pause from your service at the police department. I think trying to figure out what made sense to you in your future. And I don't know, we really never talked exactly about it. So, you know, put you on the spot with television cameras. But I always felt like these conversations played a role and you decided that you you were still committed to this community and wanted to come back to the police department and continue to serve in that challenging role. So, police officer, we've spent a few words. Thank you for your continued service. I want to thank you for completely rebuilding the bison path and making it a up-to-date resource for anyone to enjoy. And I also want to thank you for persistently pursuing certain issues. And I think you've got to change the entire city because I went through those meetings down in the south end where nobody wanted housing. Everybody wanted housing. Couldn't have that. I thought they were going to bring you out of the meeting. And now... I'm at a town, there was that. You're at a... You're at the... You remember the year at the hard hop where we had paper mache effigies and a row of milk. But you stuck with it through all that. And now the entire cities come around and unanimous vote on the rezoning which is building more housing in film development which is something you've been pursuing right from the start. Everybody thinks it's because you're a developer. In fact, that isn't the reason. You understand that if you don't build more housing the res are going to go through the roof. And I'm really glad to see the city has turned that border. So your persistence in all of those issues I think has paid off and will pay off in the state for a long time. Thank you very much. Thank you, Rick. It's your participation. Rick is one of the regulars going back, I think, to the campaign days. You came to some of them, right? And it was, you know, for anyone who doesn't know Rick's history here in the city. He was one of the first the first bike path champions actually building it. You know, it was one thing I am proud of what we did rebuilding it. It was the biggest parks project in the history of the city. And it took a lot of work over years to get done and we made it we made it better and we built it to last and it was it's definitely one of the things I'm proudest of in the last 11 years. But building it the first time was all another kettle of fish and it wouldn't have happened without your leadership and your advocacy taking on some, you know pushing back against all sorts of all sorts of resistance to that early on sometimes from surprising places. So it's been a lot, Rick, that you've come here and even though we too have had disagreements on a few things I haven't been able to build the bike share system that you think is right exactly. But it's meant a lot to me that you've come and given your put over the years. Thank you. Oh. Yeah. Yesterday I saw a brick bike. I saw one too. We were done with that. You don't need to answer but it's been believable I saw that. Yeah. I don't know what that means actually. Yeah. I thought I I don't know. Amber we might need to follow up on that one. I'm surprised to hear about that one. Yeah. It's great to see so many city councilors here. As usual City Council President Karen Paul always already noted. We have Mark Barlow the North North District City Councilor who is here. So many times Sarah Carpenter who is here weekend week out and I think it's that's another reason why it felt like it was worth doing this to be out that that you guys came and saw this as a valuable forum for conversation out here in the New North End was a big part of it. I had Turner and Peter on the corner to see New North End residents Mayor Peter Claes join us as well. I wanted to come and see the Stacey's left but Moreau's getting a lot of thanks but let's thank Stacey and Moreau's two daughters for 12 years of their life. It's not always easy being a family member of a mayor. So let's give Stacey and the girls a round of applause. Thank you, Peter. There definitely are some sacrifices of the family's big sacrifice the family's made. Both my daughters and Stacey love this event though and they often they came many times over the years. Ada wanted to be here this morning and she didn't come down with the fever last night she would have been here but thank you for noting that. That's the public school system. I really appreciate it. I see speaking of the neighborhood code passing the other day I see several several members of Vermonters from people oriented places to start here people that came out calling them talking about you I just wanted to know that you, Ryan, Colin, Todd your advocacy for many months leading up to the vote on Monday was critical to that passing and that you came here and part of the conversations as people had questions about that was it's great to see you back here thank you for being here again. It's pretty tiring. I'm not used to this you know local colleges. I think we got time. I know it's here for the very first morning with Morro I just saw Jessica come in. Oh my gosh. I didn't know if I tried for response. And many more after. So this is Jessica Nordhaus who is one of oldest friends I have in town. We met in college in another lifetime and Jessica ran my first campaign for mayor back in 2011 was the architect we were talking about the caucus a few minutes ago. We would not have won that without your efforts and Jessica's gone on to have many great roles in this community led that changed the story initiative for a long time and is now playing a key leadership role in Becca Baylitz congressional office and I'm so touched you're here Jessica thank you for being here. I want to call out Sam Morbel who I am not sure I don't know how many of these you made it to Sam is this your first not enough this is my first this is your first but you played a big big role in my surviving the pandemic as well Sam Sam ran the owned and ran the CrossFit gym down the south end of town now has a new CrossFit gym at the base of main street we're building a new road down to you there Sam thank you for being here today it's touching the you're here delight to be here and a particular thing during the pandemic as a small business owner the amount of like the amount of support that you gave the amount of time you spent listening to me as a small business owner you personally spent listening to me helping personally connect me to resources so we could keep air clean etc I love shooting the ventilator in the gym there it's big and it's ugly but it works and it kept us open so thank you again for that thank you Sam alright we don't need to belabor this I mean how do people want what do you want to do this always happened we got coffee and bagels around the corner here and you know there's not much more I can do with your input from here maybe we should maybe we should just make it a party from here it's going to be a challenge maybe maybe someone should stand here take the photo this is something that really evolved organically over the course of being in this role I started my first challenge as a candidate for office was to win the Democratic Caucus which ended up being this kind of epic political event in November I think it was November 12th 2011 who were your opponents in that call? there were three other candidates ultimately and each of them had been city counselors or state senators state reps Jason Lorber Tim Ash and Bram Kranichfeld Bram just we have seen the news just a few days ago he's just the governor just appointed to be a state's attorney and so I had never run for any office before so I had strong social network but I knew I needed to meet hundreds of new people to have a chance to win that caucus and one of the strategies that we pursued was to come to these coffee shops around the city and just talk to whoever show up answer questions talk to people we put up little signs initially so people knew who I was and and would just stop in spontaneously and we did that for weeks I think like two months leading up to the caucus vote and we had a coffee in each different part of town we had this one here always on Wednesdays we had an old north end coffee we had a south end coffee there was a fourth somewhere too I think and that ended up being an extraordinarily close election where it went through three rounds of voting after the third round of voting it was just me and one other candidate left Tim Ash and after the votes were counted I had 540 votes and Tim had exactly 540 votes so it was a dead tie and we had to keep campaigning for another month before we had the fourth ballot so we kept going to the coffee shops we ended up winning that decisively in that fourth ballot and then then faced an opponent in the general election who was from this part of town and we knew we knew there were probably this was Kurt Wright he had been a state rep and city counselor from out here we knew it was probably not going to be possible to win the new north end but I knew I had to keep it close to have a chance at winning and continuing to come here having physical presence here was an important part of that general election campaign which did go our way and and then we realized I should keep doing it once I was in office because it was and we didn't we didn't keep all of them we had occasional coffees in other other parts of the city but we kept doing this new north end coffee every Wednesday for 12 for 12 years because I really was a goal of mine to break down the sort of physical isolation of the new north end which had translated some into kind of political isolation and sort of a sense of polarization and alienation out here and I thought I could do something about that by being here and listening to people talking to people regularly and I think that you know there's definitely times where this part of the city was unhappy with me as you could say that about every part of the city for one reason or another but I do think having that sticking to that coming here I mean literally we had this event except for Thanksgiving week we would have an event out here once a month or so I would send a department head to fill in for me because I had some kind of conflict but but we've kept it going for 12 years I'm proud of it it was it was an important part of how I was able to lead the city for 12 years and you name you mentioned a few before but like an example that comes to mind of how these meetings actually change your administration and impact the city yeah so I mean there there are so many examples because and there are varied and there many of them are very granular like I said before one of the remarkable things about this event is there's sort of a group of regulars who came more or less every week and that group would shift over time but then without exaggeration and beside even here today every every week for the 12 years someone new would come for the first time and they would bring a new issue or question that they wanted addressed you know the examples range from people coming to tell me there was a pothole on their street that that needed to be addressed or you know a problem with their sidewalk you know I remember elderly folks coming saying you know you got to do something about this my wife is in a wheelchair now we need the sidewalk addressed we had sometimes people who were hoping to make an investment in the city thinking about maybe trying to build something new in Burlington they would come and show up here and just have a chance to meet the mayor and get some feedback on what they were thinking about I remember the folks who are now building the hotels at city place I met them first out here we a lot of people especially this time the bike path is a beloved part of life out here in the new north end people would come in and say you got to put a speed limit up on the bike path because of all these electric bicycles that are on there and we've done that we've established a policy around that we have this as you may have heard before this policy of plowing half the bike path and leaving half of it open for runners and walkers but leaving the snow there for cross country skiers that's something that kind of evolved in part out of conversations here we this new this neighborhood code that just passed on Monday we did a lot out here the planning director came in would have coffee joined me for the coffees and actually had coffees of their own here in other parts of the city as a way of getting public input and then this grassroots organization for monitors for people already in places that is this kind of youth movement in the city they frequently came and pushed me to get as much in this reform as possible and engage their neighbors here so those are a few examples to jump to mind but there are literally hundreds of others thank you and one more quick thing so Tommy and TV kind of putting on the media hat here there's clearly some around narratives how we talk to each other how do we communicate about the work that's happening at city hall what role do you what do you see as like the media needs of the community and what do you like what role needs to be filled when it comes to making our like dialogue or discourse a little bit healthier and what role does town meeting TV as well as seven days digger other you know what what can be done to make our media environment to help you well I've said it many times I hope you and all your colleagues know how much I value what town TV does I think we're so fortunate to have this community resource for many reasons I think the the way in which you open up and the coverage that you provide to the city council meetings and so many other events is remarkable the fact that people can participate in and also access archives is extremely valuable I've been you know I believe in my 12 years your world has changed some some of the the way in which the role that cable and cable funding played has changed there was a need for more kind of municipal support and I've been proud to work with you and find a way to expand this space you know what more could town meeting TV do you know is a a great question I think you guys have been very nimble and adaptive to the increasing role that social media plays making sure you are trying to reach Berlin Tonians through Facebook and Twitter having such an active YouTube channel in these quickly evolving technological times you guys have been keeping up with it and it's a great thing and I think you make you know it's Burlington remains fortunate that we have not seen the devastation of the traditional media that many smaller cities communities have we certainly have seen change the Burlington Free Press is a shadow of the what it was when I came into office I mean when I was during those that caucus campaign during those first years it was it was a traditional broadsheet with many veteran reporters and we do miss that you know BT Digger has stepped into the breach some seven days has expanded their coverage and we're fortunate to continue to have you know traditional television local news is still quite strong here so but I think we haven't figured out what the future of media I mean I think media will always be evolving and always be changing but I think we're in a particularly uncertain time about how we you know continue to in a in a society that's that's becoming kind of atomized and people are getting into their own echo chambers how we make sure facts are getting out there how we make sure you know it's a great test it's a real test of our democracy that a strong town-meaning television is an insurance policy that that's going to that kind of culture is going to continue here in Burlington so you can just share some reflections on this event and so you know how long have you been coming to these and what's your experience been I'm David Call I live in Burlington right across from the Almond Avenue shelter and I've been coming here to support the unhoused I've been trying to find a balance in our city to be a community activist after my retirement so I've been really impressed by the mayor and all the things that we've been trying to do for the unhoused especially for the staff of the Almond Avenue shelter they're extraordinary great people any more questions I also live on Almond we're neighbors that's right David nice to meet you can you think of any memories of conversations that have happened here that stick out in your memory the Moran plant and then there's the bike path the tents on the battery park then there's the zoning thing that gets brought up a lot and how sometimes the state and the city don't work well together at all and COVID-19 was really hard on everybody so that's been talked about a lot how long have you lived in Burlington? all my life I've lived in Almond Avenue for 14 years you live across from the pods? well thank you for talking with us David thank you so much can you talk a little bit about what your current has meant to the shop and your experience sure you know as Moran said over 12 years ago when he was running he said if I get elected I'll continue this every Wednesday hold a meeting out here and he's held to it it's pretty impressive I think it's been great good for North End good for our shop obviously and I think good for Moran yeah and how long has this shop been around? well it's been around for about 20 years I've had it for about 15 anything else any other reflections about the Mayor's Administration or I mean I would say it's been a successful 12 years I think he's been good for the city yeah hope it continues I'm Dave Hardnett and I served on the Burlington City Council for 8 years 6 of them under Moro Administration and then after Moro was elected before Moro was elected I was on the other team working working hard for Kurt Wright at the time as he was running for Mayor and Moro was successful and Moro won and he became Mayor and we developed a working relationship at first but then quickly turned into a friendship and it's just really from there has taken on his life of its own right yes the bagel on Wednesday mornings have been a big thing for 12 years I've been a big part of it it's been great to be a part of it I've always felt though that these Wednesday mornings were more for the every person day voting that every person you know couldn't be involved in city politics right they didn't have time to go to the meetings they didn't have time to run for city council it was their opportunity to come here and meet the mayor and kind of you know listen to what was going on in the city and then also for the mayor to listen to some of their concerns and so I thought Wednesday morning was less about politics as far as the politicians right we always had our time with the mayor Monday nights all the meetings this was more about community and having people come here and reaching out and I think it really I hope Emma will continue doing it I think she will you know so it's just been a great tradition it's a great turn out here this morning it's hard to believe it's been 12 years and a big thank you to Peter Barenburg right how many people open up their business like this right to the community every Wednesday for an hour and sometimes you know we might have 10 or 12 people but sometimes there might be 25 to 30 people and you know it's nice of Peter to do that right and it's all about to me it's all it tells you all you want to know about the new north end right it's the best place to live and we've enjoyed every minute of it and look forward to Emma's administration and hopefully if not once a week maybe Emma will do it once a month but we look forward for Emma to come out as well so you just share a little bit about this event your experience with it and your reflections on the bagel breakfast sure Sarah Carpenter ward 4 city council and I come here every week because this is in fact my ward and these are my neighbors and I'm really grateful that the mayor has taken the time to spend time with our neighbors and listen to what we have to say I think that's a special part of Burlington city government we try to hear what each of us have to say we often and not often but sometimes don't agree and this is I think a really good relaxed forum to air some disagreements and share news and just an important part of keeping us all engaged