 In terms, I'm going to now with the remaining time, let's walk through some programs. Sure. Tony Fakos is leaving. Yes, he is. When is that? His retirement date is June 30th. He will have been with the department for 35 years, something like that. He's been chief for 12, done a fantastic job. I want to talk briefly about Tony. He has, you know, he inherited a good department. He's really turned into a great department. He is committed to this community. He's committed to quality policing. He's brought the policy of 21st century policing and really embedded that in our police department. And... What is 21st century policing? It's a term that was developed actually when President Obama was in office. He created a task force on law enforcement and they developed a theory of policing which they call 21st century policing. He's got six pillars and training, community relations, good policies, accountability integrity, so I can't rename them while he could, I'm sure. And so you build your department policies around those six pillars. And a real important one is interaction with the community. And you see us doing things like coffee with the cop. We've got the bike patrol. We've got folks out talking. I noticed I took a picture actually during the holidays. A couple of our officers wrote with Santa hats on, directing, and I think it's those kind of things that helps build a relationship with the community so that they trust the police in times of difficulties. So anything on the margin in the police budget embedded in this? Any initiatives, anything new other than some equipment possibly? Not real, well, no, that is, yes. In the budget is a funding for a shared social worker with Barry. So Barry would put in money, we would put in money, and the state is putting in money. And that would help assist in some calls and cases when we don't necessarily need a law enforcement response or we need someone with specialized knowledge to help guide. One of the things we've really prided ourselves in mobility is our capacity to interaction with the mental health community. I think if you talk to Washington County Mental Health they would sing the praises of Montpelier PD. There's a required, or there's a team, what they call team two training for police officers for dealing with mental health emergencies. And we were the first in the state to be 100% team two trained and that is our standard and we are continuing that because we want to be on the top of the game dealing with those situations. But a social worker would also really assist us in a lot of situations where we need extra expertise. The policeman in the school is still written into the budget. Yes. Has that changed? That's police woman in the school now. Is it? Okay, sorry. I usually call it the cop in the school which would cover both. Is the police woman in the school's role the same that it's been in the past? Yes, yes. School resource officers, actually the title and it's shared with the police, shared 50-50 between the schools and the police and they interact there in the buildings. They interact with students, they help whether it's with individual cases, family needs, they get information and then obviously when school's not in session they're working for the police department. This is a difficult question. I've never asked you this one before but I always ask the schools, do you feel safe in City Hall? Do you feel that people feel, I always ask that going into the schools, screening for the schools. We don't screen in City Hall at all. No, we don't. I'd say generally we feel safe, I feel safe. It has come up, it's come up off and on over the years particularly after the tragic shooting in Virginia Beach a couple years ago at City and Municipal Employee and other municipal employees. We have had a request for training and for security measures and we are evaluating those. The training has actually been scheduled. We've done a training for the City Council in the past. We will need to do a new one with the new group should someone come into the council chamber during a meeting but it's frightening times. Of the fire department, any changes there? Not really, I think the most exciting thing that's going on with the fire department is their move to a paramedic service that is a new and enhanced capacity that we'd not had before and I think Chief Gowns has been very wise. They've set a long-term goal to have the department be 100% paramedics. We used to have the top EMTI was the highest rating. So every shift to be covered paramedic? Well eventually every person would be a paramedic but right now we have four so we've got about 25% of the department. So what we're doing is as someone leaves when we rehire we seek to go to a paramedic and we're also offering some training for those in-house that want to, this is a much more advanced medical training than our EMTs, it's pretty extensive classes and you have to learn to do intravenous drugs, those kinds of things, it's important but it's also life-saving. And Barry's had a paramedic program for a while and we were seeing enough calls where we felt the need here but we also, from a financial management standpoint, didn't want to suddenly, first of all we wouldn't have been able to just, what we're gonna do with the 16 people we had is just get rid of them all, bring in, hire them, so we've opted for this incremental approach, it's working very well and we're looking forward to that growing in the future. Public Works, we have Tom McCartle left after, during this year, for the last time you and I spoke. Yeah, Tom's another one I could talk for hours about, he knows every little nook and cranny of the city, where every wire is and every easement and right of way. Fortunately, Tom retired as Public Works director and is coming back as a part-time project manager for us. So he'll be doing the things I think that he really likes to do, which is get projects done and work with contractors and do those kinds of things and not do the things like go to council meetings and talk to the press and handle emergencies and deal with personnel issues and those kinds of things. So that'll be great. We also had Brian Tuttle, retire, who was the superintendent, operational superintendent. And... Lost a lot of capital, the human capital. Yeah, we sure have. Well, we are, as you mentioned, the police chief as well as Captain Martel is also retiring. We've seen a lot of those changes, Tom Provencher, our finance director left, Jeff Beyer, parks director retired, Sue Allen, our assistant city manager. But we've replaced everybody with really great folks and in DPW in particular, I think we are looking at the opportunity to... So that's Donna Barlow Casey. Donna Barlow Casey is the new director of Public Works. Kurt Modica was promoted to deputy director. Zach Blodgett was promoted from an engineer to an operations manager and engineer. And the team is really looking at how they can best manage and provide services in maybe more modern ways. But you still got to plow the roads, you still got to fix the problems. But didn't they do a shift of one person from supervisory to actual getting out there and getting their hands really into it? Yes, and that is part of it. So we are hiring new people, we've had a couple, we actually also had an employee retire, a line employee. So we've got to fill that position and fill the newly created position in the budget. The idea was to get more boots on the ground, so to speak, to handle the work that DPW does. Again, some of those other grants, the Community Human Services Board. Community Justice Center? No, no, the one that gives out the grants to agencies. Oh, the Community Fund. The Community Fund. Is that the same amount as last year? It's actually slightly less. Approximately the same. They came in, we took us a little while to sync up the timing of these processes so that we were getting the right funding in the budget for the request. And I think we managed to work that pretty well. So they notified us probably in December as we were putting our numbers together that they were planning to recommend awards that were just slightly less than the prior year, so we just put in the number that they were gonna award. The Housing Trust Fund, how did that fair? Last year, it rose up to 110,000 from 60 and it stayed at 110,000 this year. Obviously, new housing is a prime goal for the community, really for all, from low-end housing to high-end housing. And these funds have been really instrumental in plugging project holes. And I think we committed funds, for example, for the French Block, those 18 units of apartments there. The French Block being where? Right across the street from City Hall above Obachan's. Those apartments have been empty for 80 years that are now full and brand new and lovely and tax pay. And so- And we did add apartments above the transit side. Correct, and our Housing Trust Fund was also helpful there. So for the amount of money we put in, we're never gonna build a housing project, but we help leverage grant funds and make applications stronger if there's some local dollars that are attached with other monies. Well, pay for your life. How did they fare? Same as last year, which had been an increase. They got a $10,000 increase last year so that stayed at the higher level. And I think they're very well received in City Hall and clearly in the downtown, they do a lot for the community, provide a lot of events, a lot of support in different ways. And we're happy to partner with them. We're happy, one of our contributions, of course, is in addition to direct finances is providing them office space in City Hall. The Development Corporation, the Montpelier Development Corporation, where we keep losing directors through no fault of our own. Yeah, you know, that's a really sad situation. They've had three great directors and all three of them left for completely understandable reasons, none of which had to do with the job or Montpelier, but it doesn't help the corporation any, but their funding was retained at the same level. Now their funding is different than it's not coming out of the general tax pool. Well, yes, so the local options tax is funding economic development and capital spending. That said, we have the revenues on the side and the expenditures on this side, so it's all pooled. But yeah, when the MDC was formed and the economic development strategic plan was created, the City Council made, the then City Council made a five-year commitment to fund MDC, this is year four. And although the makeup of the council has changed substantially, I think they all felt, it's appeared that they felt that, you know, if the city makes commitments, it's important to honor them, otherwise who's gonna wanna deal with the city? And so they supported the funding and next year will be the fifth year and then we'll see where we go after that. Boy, this is very possibly another show or no show, no another show, Green Mountain Transit. Well, you know, the circulator and the like. Yeah, I think you should probably talk to people from Green Mountain Transit, I'm not the most knowledgeable about it. But they are in the budget. They are in the budget, we have, they're in the budget in two places, we have a general allocation that we pay to as members of the Green Mountain Transit, but which is most times- Like for the Lincoln. Yeah, that kind of thing. Well, and just for their, right, for their budget. Then we pay an additional $40,000 for the circulator. That's, Green Mountain Transit is looking at converting to something called on-demand transit or microtransit. What would that, just in two minutes, what would that be? That's either two minutes or an hour long show. Right, well, I think it would be an interesting conversation to talk with people involved in transit. Essentially, I call it sort of government Uber, but you would call for a ride, you'd have an app and you'd call for a ride and it would be paid for with your tax dollars and it might not be quite as fast as Uber, but instead of waiting for the bus to circulate, they'd have smaller vehicles and you could- Might there be a copay? I don't know, I don't know. It depends, some of their funding comes from federal and state grants that don't allow copays, so people say, oh, they should charge money, but sometimes they're prohibited. So it depends, I think, what the funding package for this looks like. The city council is, we really support this, we think it could support a wider range in the community and we've said we would reallocate that $40,000 to the microtransit program if that's the way it goes. This is the two minute version. Might I tell you that Donna Bate from the city council is the person who's really concerned with this, along with Connor Casey. On their show, they spend about 10 minutes talking about this subject and we go into a lot more detail on this, but again, as they point out, this is speculative, we haven't been approved, but they do speak to what this might look like and it's really, really, as Bill said, it's a very interesting discussion. It is very interesting and actually, they are the two people that are the city's reps to the committee that's looking at that, so they are more knowledgeable than I am about that, so I'm glad you talked to them about it. And then the final one is kind of the elephant in the room, that when we talk about incremental budgeting, nobody comes in and says, well, we need to do a massive re-haul of public works or the fire department or the police department, but you really caught a lot of attention with the 45,000 for the homeless task force. Could you explain what the 45,000 for the homeless task force is about? What that purchases us and what the accountability is on that spending? Well, it was a request from a task force to the council, so it didn't come through the manager's office, so we didn't do the normal level of in-depth vetting that we would do, not to say that it's inappropriate, but just... Now, what's the difference between task force and commission? Task force... Like the planning commission or... So the planning commission has very specific, has very specific statutorily-defined duties and so does development review board and those kind of things. This was a task force or an ad hoc committee, however you want to call it, set up by the council to take on a task to address homelessness in the community, which is an issue that's come up from several places. And so they recommended a series of funding. I don't have the list in front of me, so I can't speak to all of them. One of them is a street worker who would be out at night helping people. The idea is to sort of beat people where they're at, help get them to the services they need because everyone's story is slightly different and build a level of relationship and trust with folks. So that's the biggest expense of... Isn't the licensed social worker doing that as well? It's not really the same thing. And if we had more time, I could go into length into the differences. We did prepare a memo which is available publicly about the differences between the two, but they really are completely different. It seems on the surface something they'd be the same, but they're really not. And so the street worker is probably half of that money. We're funds in there to extend the operating times of the shelter. I can't remember if that edited it out because we don't know if there's gonna be a shelter next year. Well, we did the 10,000 this year. This year. So if the shelter is there next year, would that translate to the 10,000 that we spent this year? Well, so that was, I'm doing this from memory, Richard. I don't wanna give you and the public the wrong answer. I know that part of the request was to extend the operations of the shelter. And part of the concern was that we did not get that request from the shelter operators. And we don't know for sure if the shelter is going to be operating in the same manner next winter. So I think the council actually did not approve that money. The original askers for 56,000 and they approve 45,000. Oh, so that slice that. Some of those things weren't included. There were some smaller things that were included and I apologize that I can't remember them off the top of my head, but the street worker was the biggest thing. Would the street worker be working on panhandling? That's a concern to some. Yeah, I think the street worker would be talking to people about the impact of those kind of things and also trying to figure out what resources those people, the folks that are doing that need and where they can be helped to make sure people are safe. We have people in some of these freezing nights that are not in the shelter, that are still out and is there something we can do to help as, you know, humanitarians, but also can we seek to come up with alternate life circumstances for people so they don't need to be on the street. Are we linking with the Vermont Department of Labor to connect or with temporary work agencies? Well, that's essentially what happens is that the street workers then, you know, they have a good knowledge of the various network of services provided. Some people might need labor, some people might need mental health, some people might need substance abuse, some people might need... All of it. All of it. Some people might need job training, some people just might need a house, you know, they're just, so, you know, I think it's really figuring out what, and there are folks who choose to live that way and that's their choice as long as they're not impeding on other people's choices. One final on house, any movement on Sabin's Pasture? When we talked about the grand list and growing the grand list, obviously movement on Sabin's Pasture would grow the grand list. I can say there are very, there are preliminary discussions going on with the land owner and trust for public land who you may recall about 10 years ago. For a long time ago. Right, had come up with a, you know, a design that the public generally endorsed. And we've since used... That was a mixed use design. Well, it was the, you know, the bottom half being residential, the top half being preserved. And that, that general design, I call it the grand bargain, but there's no official name for it, has driven our zoning, our planning, all of our types of things since then to try to create incentives for that to happen. Recently, the Vermont College of Fine Arts sold an 18 acre parcel, which is part of, which was their portion of Sabin's Pasture. And I think that sale has then re-stimulated interest in, well, then what could happen with the rest of the parcel? Who could be involved? What funding sources might be available? And so the city and trust for public lands and the property owner are talking about possibilities, how something might be structured, who might be involved? So I wouldn't say there's, you know, movement, like there's not gonna be a house up there tomorrow, but we are trying to move forward. There was at least one point of talk, you know, so we mentioned earlier, TIF, so same as tax increment finance district. So one thing that could happen is the city could, could put in some infrastructure to help make housing development possible and paid back through that tax increment. And so there was at least one point, talk about a possible TIF bond also in November to help move something forward, but I, you know, I don't know if we'll be there or not. Now again, I'm speaking as purely speculation from just a guy who lives in district two. The distillery is not in the TIF. Correct. Would the distillery be moved into the TIF at work? No, you can't. So the distillery was actually left out of the TIF district when it was created because it was already, it was already under development. So the idea of a TIF district is you freeze the tax benefits where they are and then the new growth helps fund the infrastructure in that. And because the distillery was already under construction when we were doing that, basically we were, you know, we weren't allowed to then claim its new tax growth. And so that was one sort of a state legal reason why. More importantly, when the city made it, it had us a development agreement with the distillery, which again, we put in some infrastructure and roads and those kinds of things. And all of that was predicated on the new tax revenues coming from the distillery. So even though it was not officially a TIF, we set the development agreement like a TIF. So we wouldn't want those tax revenues then going into another TIF district. That's sort of been accounted for taking care of what we were doing. So that side of Berry Street, the south side of Berry Street, there's a huge building with a for sale sign on it. That would not be in the TIF. All of it's in the TIF except for the side of Berry Street that includes granite sheds and all of that. That's all in the TIF district up to the distillery. So that would be in a TIF district. So that would not be in the general tax roll. That would be in the TIF district paying for TIF projects. Correct. So other than Saban's pasture, is there other major undeveloped land in our town that wouldn't be in a TIF? That would be available for general purposes? I mean, I'm always surprised at what people come up with. The TIF district is clearly defined. It includes Saban's and the stretch down Berry Street that we just talked about. Now clearly that whole granite shed area could be ripe for redevelopment along Berry Street. The south side. Correct. And especially now with the new bike path that's gone through. But there are some brownfields there. There's need for infrastructure underneath. All of those are eligible for TIF funding. So these are the kind of things that could help create economic development. The TIF district then stretches into the downtown and comprises most of the core downtown. So there could be some infill development here. And they're obviously the hotel. If the property across from the hotel, the former gas station would redevelop, that would go, that would be new TIF dollars. Outside of that, everything else is not in the TIF. So, you know, Crestview Meadows area, the Crestview States over on Terrace Street, out Elm Street, all of those areas, anything in most of the residential neighborhoods, all would be general development without being TIF eligible. Now, this is on the road to town meeting 2020. And I don't want to keep you here until the town meeting on 2020. Thank you, Bill. My pleasure, Richard. Thanks for having me. I hope people come out and vote. You know, it's important for the future of your city to have your voice known. And we urge people to turn out on March 3rd or anytime now voting has already started. C&L double what Bill said, but also say, watch the other shows. I referenced the show with Donna and Connor. All of these shows are really interesting watches and informative watches. But I'll say exactly what Bill said. Get out and vote, make sure that your family and friends do, because that's the bedrock of a community cohesiveness, is the community being out on town meeting day, enjoying it. Thank you so very much for watching.