 I am Dan McKinley. I am your moderator in the moderate past year. It's been an honor and a pleasure to serve. And I'll serve until the next nominator or next moderator is elected at Part 121. I want to share an invocation to something I borrowed from the town of Vandal. Welcome to the Rochester Town Meeting. We've come together in civil assembly as a community and a tradition that is older than our state itself. We have come together to make decisions about our community. As we deliberate, let us advocate for our ideas, but not at the expense of others. Let us remember that there is an immense gap between saying I am right and saying I think I am right. And that our neighbors with whom we disagree are good people with hopes and dreams as true and as high as ours. Let us all remember that at the end, caring for each other in this community is far greater importance than any difference that we may have. If you would please rise and join me in the Pledge of Allegiance. Pledge of Allegiance. Please raise your hand when I will recognize you in order. I will try to call on you by name, but I'm going to use the bright lights in my face to fall off if I can't remember your name. So I have to point to, I apologize if I can't call you by name. Please state your name for the record. We don't have microphone runners, so we do. Excellent. Who's our microphone runners? Thank you. So a way for the microphone really helps some of us are cruising out here. Business will conduct tonight. It's on page four, support through six in the time report. And there is one typo I want to call out right now in article 10. The amounts in that article is stated, the voters to appropriate $20,400. The real number that is in the budget is $21,420. If you want to check that, it's on page 38 of the time report. Remind you that you get to speak twice on each article the first time when I call on you. And then the second time, if you'd like, when everyone else has had at least one chance to speak, that once to speak, you can make a second time. Five minutes is the limit on our speeches both the first and second time. So 10, four minutes, if you'd like. And breathing from papers and breathing from a poker. Something is not allowed, but certainly if you have notes to help you remember what you want to say, that's fine. For non-election articles, we'll attempt to decide by voice vote. Sometimes that can be difficult to call. So we may, someone may ask to divide the house, the division of the house, in which case they'll be raised hands or standing up and will have votes count the votes. Similarly, if something is close, anyone can call for a paper ballot. And if there are seven voters that want paper ballot, we'll do a paper ballot. A debate on an article can be cut off or stopped by calling a question or saying a previous question, as some people say. But you can't just shout that out. You have to be way too recognized when you turn to speak. That if you want to stop the debate, there has to be a two-thirds majority to stop the debate on an article. Speeches must be combined to the merits of the question. It will not be permitted to engage in conversal attacks. Only word articles may be considered by the action. It cannot be taken under that final article that we'll do under other decisions. The moderator's ruling can be appealed. And I encourage you to do so. My goal is to follow and do the will of the Assembly here. You need not to recognize if you want to appeal a decision that I've made. Just follow her up. I would like to appeal. If there's a second on your appeal, I'll explain my ruling. Everyone gets to speak once to it if you'd like. And then we will vote and affirmative vote sustains the ruling. If you think I'm messing up Robert Choules' order, please pull out going to order. It will happen likely. I do this once a year. And it's hard to become an extra at it. So I'm very willing to hear folks' suggestions. Also, I'll use unanimous consent to allow us to move things along. An example of that will be if a member wanted to speak for a third time, you're only left twice, but if they want to speak a third time, I would say if there are no objections from the Assembly, we'll let John speak for a third time. But if someone objects, then we can go through the process of trying to get a two-thirds vote to suspend the rules and allow them to talk. So unanimous consent is our friend in moving things along. I think there's only one candidate for an office. We can just ask the clerk to pass one ballot, so that we only do any kind of vote for a real call. Public discussion on articles that are voted by Australian ballot is allowed by state law. So we do have Article 14, which is going to be an Australia ballot, but we will be able to talk about it and debate that. We can't change it. We can amend it. But we just get to talk about it, and we'll end the discussion and you'll vote on that tomorrow. At this time, I'd like to ask any folks that are not registered for Rochester voters to make themselves wares, raise your hand. Welcome, welcome. Thanks for coming. I want to remind you that this guest is not registered for voters. He can participate in speaking on an article or voting. However, in the past, our community has been very welcoming to guests, and we have suspended that rule, that Robert's rule, and allowed guests to speak. So I would tonight ask you by unanimous consent saying that we would suspend that rule and allow our guests to speak, if no one has an objection. Great. And that allows our guests, our senator and representative to speak. I don't know why it's open. So Ruth Hardy is our state senator, and welcome Ruth to ask a few words for us to share. Hello, hello. Now it's on. Okay. Thank you for the microphone. Thank you, Mr. Moderator Dan, for letting me speak and for all of you. My name is Ruth Hardy. I'm one of your two state senators, and you are technically part of the Addison District, although you're in Windsor County. But I'm here in part because I want you to know that I don't forget about Rochester, and I try to get up here as often as I can. And thank you so much for having me tonight to your town meeting. I live in East Middlebury, and I'm also going to try to make it to a couple other town meetings tonight. So I will give you a brief update about what's happening in the legislature, and then I will go off to Goshen and Ripton after this. So in the Senate, we serve out of two committees. I serve on the Health and Welfare Committee, which has a jurisdiction over things that relate to health and welfare. For example, last year we passed the large child care bill, which is now Act 76. I was the lead sponsor of that bill, and worked really hard to get improvements and expansion to our child care system here in Vermont. And then I also chair the Government Operations Committee. So the things that Dan referred to as state law governing town meetings and all public meetings fall under the jurisdiction of the Government Operations Committee. And so I wanted to give you a couple little updates about what that committee's been working on that might be relevant to you. One is we're doing a bill, we just passed it out of committee last week, that does an update to the open meeting law. And you, especially your select board, may have heard about this. During the pandemic, public bodies, which are all boards and commissions and committees that work in the public, including your select board, your library board, your school board, they are all subject to the open meeting laws, meaning that you all get to participate in those meetings and come to those meetings and they can't meet behind closed doors, except for in very specific circumstances. During the pandemic, those bodies were able to meet via Zoom or remotely. And we learned a lot about how meetings can happen remotely during the pandemic. That allowance for fully remote meetings ends on June 30th of this year. So we have updated open meeting law to allow for some flexibility so any advisory committees can meet fully remotely if they want to or in person or in hybrid. And those are the subcommittees of boards or the smaller committees that don't have taxing or legislative capabilities. And then all the other bodies like your select board have to continue to meet in person or if they meet remotely there has to be an in person location for people to come to for those meetings. So that's one big bill that we updated to make sure that meetings are transparent and boards are accountable and that they're accessible to all of you. And then we also have been working on a big bill about the government response to flooding. You were very fortunate that you didn't get flooded this time around but I know that Rochester has a very, very stark experience with flooding. So we wanted to make sure that next time Vermont gets flooded that we are able to respond appropriately. So this bill would update our emergency response system, our emergency alert system, it updates statutes related to stormwater districts and utilities and it updates provisions related to first responders specifically for public works departments. I don't know if anybody in here is part of the Rochester Public Works Department but those people are incredibly important during an emergency. And it also provides a grant program for towns to apply to to update their infrastructure to avoid flooding in the future. So those are the two things that the Government Operations Committee has been working on. The legislature as a whole has been working very closely on housing issues. Probably heard a lot about Act 250. I'm not an expert on Act 250 but I'm happy to get you answers if you need them. And we also have been working closely on school funding issues and I'm sure that you've heard a lot about the potential tax increase we did pass a bill two weeks ago at age 850 that did limit some of the tax increases and so hopefully your district won't be seeing as high a tax increase as potential but I encourage you to talk to your school board members and read about your school budget proposal before you vote on it tomorrow. I don't have all the details on every single school district but it is definitely something that we're still working on in the legislature to hopefully find additional fixes so that the tax increases won't be as high as you've probably heard. So that's my quick update and I don't want to put too much of your time but I'm happy to stay around for a couple minutes to answer questions if you have them. One last thing, because I'm the chair of the Government Operations Committee we deal with voting and civic engagement and I have a comic book here and I brought a few others that were put out by the Center for Cartoon Studies and the Secretary of State's office. They're great for 4th through 8th grade kind of level for people and grown-ups too frankly, I read the whole thing who are interested in civic engagement and democracy in Vermont. It's called Freedom and Unity. I'll leave some out on the table if you have kids and if you're a teacher or somebody who wants more please reach out and I can get you a whole bunch for your class. Thank you so much for having me everybody. We also have Kirk White, the representative. Hi, I'm your representative, Kirk White. I live in Depple and I live in Rochester, and one of the advantages of going 2nd is that the group covered a number of things that were on my list type including the H850 and some of the other bills around school funding and those kind of things, but I still have things to say. So your house this year set a number of priorities and they've been working on quite a few bills pertaining to creating affordable housing and also to find ways to combat homelessness that is a real problem. And some of that includes altering H850 and making other kinds of funding for construction projects for people like I came here a few weeks ago and we talked about VHIP, the Housing Improvement Program and those kinds of programs. So there's a lot of that that happened and they're still happening and there's going to be really that's a big focus. Some of the other committees are focused on public safety, improving our justice and correction systems. There's been some lot of support for our working lands and partners and loggers and those folks and also, again, a lot of help for those affected here and respected by flood. So and of course your state legislature requires you all to be balanced. So we, unlike the feds, we can't run the deficit so we have to pick and choose what we can fund and what we can. I, as unlike the Senate, each House representative sits only on one committee and my committee is Commerce and Economic Development and commerce is all the stuff that regulates business. So that's insurance, the excitement world of insurance and as well as consumer protection and economic development, helping businesses and all that stuff. So that's my committee. Last year my committee spent a lot of time on that workforce development piece and so we put through a lot of programs for upskilling workers. People wanted to get higher credentials to get better jobs. We set up a bunch of grants and forgivable loans for nurses and teachers and a number of other professions that would forgive those loans if they stayed for a month after the graduate. So those kind of, the idea was they had to stay for a certain number of years and hopefully by then they would settle that on a stay. We also had done a lot of other kinds of coordinating of these things and one thing we found was that a lot of state departments have their own economic development pieces. There's a piece to help the teachers and the education, the agency of education is a little one to help the nurses in the health department and there's all these little economic development and training program things and all these different departments and they don't actually communicate with each other which is probably surprising to you that the state never has trouble communicating with one another. So one of the things my kid has been working on is actually redoing that whole structure. There was a study committee that worked over the summer and we're actually restructuring the economic development commission in the state. We had 69 people on that commission and it was hard to get anything done. We had too many people on the board so we're cutting the board in half which would also save some money and a number of other pieces to that. So two of the things Mike may have been doing. Mike may also work on baby bonds to help with generational poverty. We've updated our captive insurance rules. If you don't know what captive insurance is, you're missing out. It's actually more exciting than it sounds like and so if you're ever just curious come on ask and tell you about captive insurance. Vermont is the number one domicile of captive insurance in the world and so whatever that is. We also work on insurance coverage with particular breeds of dogs creating a new Vermont film commission to encourage more film industry in Vermont. We also work on bills around consumer protection around predatory vehicle telling and storage and a whole bunch of things. The biggest bill that my committee's worked on is data privacy. We work on consumer protection. Every day we disclose a ton of information about ourselves whether we know it or not. It's more than just our life's on our social media but it's also the search engine, cell phones, health trackers, if you've got a little health tracker somebody knows what your blood pressure is, what rate it is and they're gathering that data. They're also gathering offers. They're scraping your Facebook page and recording your face image, recording the veins on your hand, the date at which you walk. They're paying attention to the places you go, what the friends are interested in. They know what doctor's office you go to if you have a cell phone in your pocket when you go. They're collecting all that data and they sell it. And virtually almost no control over that piece right now. The federal government would be the right place to that happen but they actually have it. So there are 14 states that pass legislation to protect consumer privacy and particularly especially around children's privacy. And so my committee has been working with all the other states around the country working with the Fed bill that was proposed and died and just kind of all the advocates and industry people and we're really trying to create sort of... Am I not even working? Yeah, so I'm almost done anyway. So if you missed most of it, you do. So basically we've been creating this huge day proxy bill to protect your privacy, to regulate what they can gather, who they can share it with, allowing you the opportunity to either opt in that I want them to gather my data about this or to opt out and say, nobody can gather my data whatsoever with exceptions. Your court records are never going to go away. Your health records, you don't want your hospital to not be able to keep them. Those kind of things. But we're really working on that and we believe we're going to get a really good bill out of this in the next couple weeks that we'll send over to the Senate. And if we pass it, advocates will tell us that we will be either number one or number two in protection of data privacy in the country. So we're excited about doing that. Otherwise, I want to thank you for having me. Thank you for allowing me to speak a little bit. Let me be your representative. It's an honor to do so. One of the things that when I originally ran and what I try to tell everyone is the large part of what I want to do is educate people how, what's going on and how things work so that you can advocate for yourself. And in that regard, I want to mention two free Bethel University classes that are coming up. First, this coming Wednesday, March 6th at 6.30 will be a presentation called Why Vermont Needs More People and More People Need Vermont. And it's by Kevin Chiu, who's the executive director of the Vermont Futures Project. It's a really in-depth, interesting look into the housing problem and how the housing problem affects how many workers we can have and whether or not we can afford to try to hire people to move in but they can't find a house so they don't move in. The second is a class that I'm actually teaching and it's called An Inside is Look at the Vermont Government and it's looking at, again, kind of the backdoor things that a lot of people don't know talking about things that seem to work and things that don't and how you can use all that to advocate for yourself to get the best response from the government as you can. And that's going to be at my home on Christian Hill in my office March 18th, 6th, 3rd. If you go to the University BT.org you can see all the classes inside out. So, otherwise I am going to stay until the end of your kind of meeting so if after you have questions or opinions or anything you want to share with me I will be here and again, thank you for letting me speak. A few of our viewers have been to the City of Vermont to make the articles we have before us tonight. The Town of Rochester, Vermont annual town meeting to be held Monday night, March 4th, 2024 7 p.m. Legal voters of the Town of Rochester County of Windsor State of Vermont are hereby notified and warned to meet in the Rochester School Auditorium in said town Monday, March 24th, 2024 at 7 p.m. to transact the following business. There are 15 If there are no objections, I won't read them all right through fully right now. I'll read each one as we put it on the table to discuss and I'll read each one before we vote on it. So, you'll hear it a couple of times. Moving on to Article 1 to elect a moderator for the ensuing year of the nominations. I'd like to nominate Dan McKinley to succeed himself. Second. Other nominations. Another way to have an arm. After all the nominations we'll close nominations and then I'll ask the clerk to cast Dan McKinley, the moderator. Article 2 to elect town officers required by law. Number 1 to elect a select board member for a three-year term. This was a seat, this was Pat Harder's second. Any nominations? Yes, Cindy. I nominate Pat Harvey. Pat Harvey is the nominator. Second. Seconded. Any other nominations? We'll close nominations and I'll ask the clerk to cast one ballot for Pat Harvey for a three-year term for the select board. Thank you Pat for your service already. One year term. Number 2. Thanks. To elect a list for a three-year term this was Jessica Arsenault's seat. Any nominations? I'm having a hard time seeing so I wave pretty high. I nominate Jessica Arsenault. Jessica Arsenault is the nominator. Seconded. You'll have to do that? It's her mom. Any other nominations? Any other nominations? We'll close nominations and ask the clerk to cast one ballot and we'll elect Jessica Arsenault for a list here for a three-year term. Number 3. To elect a delinquent tax this is one-year term. Any other nominations? Seconded. Seconded. Seconded. Any other nominations? Any other nominations? I'll ask the clerk to cast one ballot and we'll elect a client for help through a delinquent tax this is one-year term. Number 4. To elect a library trustee for five years term this was Kelly Kelly's seat on that library. Frank. Nominate Kelly Kelly. Kelly Kelly's denomination. Seconded. Any other nominations? No other nominations? Can I just ask Kelly how you spell her last name? SCOGIN. Oh I was great thank you. No other nominations? We'll close nominations and we'll ask the clerk to cast one ballot for Lauren Stagen for library trustee or excuse me. No other nominations? Library trustee or excuse me. Yes library trustee for five year term. To elect a trustee of public funds a three-year term. Nancy. Nancy. I'd like to nominate Barbara Hart to 60 years old. Seconded. Any other nominations? Frank. Seconded. No other nominations? We'll close nominations. We'll ask the clerk to cast one ballot for Margaret Hart for trustee of public funds for a three-year term. To elect a cemetery commissioner for a three-year term. Nancy. I'd like to nominate Nancy. Nancy. Seconded. Any other nominations? No other nominations? We'll close nominations and we'll ask the clerk to cast one ballot for Nancy Wooley for secretary commissioner for a five-year term. Thank you. Article three. Shall the voters authorize payment of real and personal property taxes in four installments with due dates being Thursday August 15, 2024, Friday November 15, 2024, Monday February 17, 2025, and Thursday May 15, 2025 by physical delivery to tax collector before 4 p.m. Postmark's not accepted as proof of delivery. We'll move this article and the second one. Move the article. Move the article. Seconded. Any discussion on this article? Close discussion. Shall the voters authorize payment of real and personal property taxes in four installments in August, November, February, and May by physical delivery to tax collector before 4 p.m. on those dates with postmark not accepted as proof of delivery. All in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Of course. So, Enough talk. Our encampment is successfully completed with reasonable and meaningful construction. Now, we'll move this and second it and then another discussion. Flag. roaring and the second discussion on the album. Close discussion. I think it was post-signal. Eyes had it, Article 4 passes. Article 5, shall the voters appropriate $50,789.48 towards operating consensus of the Rochester Public Library. Moved? Let me give a second. Second. Second. All right. Discussion on this article. Discussion on Article 5. Shall the voters appropriate $50,789.48 towards operating consensus of the Rochester Public Library. All in favor say aye. Aye. It was a post-signal. Eyes had it. Article 5 passes. Article 6, shall the voters appropriate to transfer any remaining FY24 Fire Department budgeted funds to Fire Department Equipment Reserve Fund. Moved? Seconded please. See how he moves it, and a second comes from Bar. Thank you. Any discussion? No discussion. Move to a vote. Article 6, shall the voters approve to transfer any remaining FY24 Fire Department budgeted funds to the Fire Department Equipment Reserve Fund. All in favor say aye. Aye. It was a post-signal. Eyes had it. Article 6, passes. Article 7, shall the voters approve to transfer any remaining FY24 Recreation Department budgeted funds to the Recreation Reserve Fund. All right, move it, and a second it. Any discussion? No discussion. Move to a vote. Article 7, shall the voters approve to transfer any remaining FY24 Recreation Department budgeted funds to the Recreation Reserve Fund. All in favor say aye. Aye. It was a post-signal. Eyes had it. Article 7 passes. Article 8, shall the town give the select board general authority to enter your tax stabilization contracts with owner's leases, bailies, or operators of commercial or industrial property pursuant to Vermont State law. Move. Move to a question. Seconded by someone. Second. Seconded by someone. Thank you. Any discussion on this? Thank you, and then move back. David, use the microphone, please. Thank you. Thank you. I did actually punch up... You can hear who? I did actually punch up Vermont statutes online and looked at USA 2741. And I'm wondering... What... I mean, obviously B-1 is placing emphasis on the select board being given general authority. What... Frank? I'm so sorry. Can I turn it on? Just so you can hear. There you go. Hi. Sorry. I'm wondering what would be the difference if this article would have limited authority, which is the other choice under that category B. Is... Is the wording of that the way we generally select business? The select board responds to that? I believe that as we were... had that wording dictated by the legal counsel to make sure that what we put in the warnings would be proper. But I think that it just... And giving the general authority to the select board, that just gives us the opportunity to present any issue like this to the voters. So it's not something I think that the select board would be deciding so much is just giving us the opportunity to present it to the voters. But is that the authority you have usually done all the time? No. In this case, this requires the population to vote to get that. So in other words, the way we usually operate is limited authority for this topic. Right? Right, so you're expecting a lot of applications for stabilization coming forward? I don't know, but this is one step towards hopefully some ability to stimulate some economic development to support it. And to facilitate the process? Right. Thank you. Any questions in the back? I got a big voice. I didn't make the town pre-meeting and so many others didn't as well. Just won't get to that. Maybe others didn't as well. We did a quick description from the select board of somebody to say what the stabilization would actually mean in practice, just briefly to give us a little view. One example of this in a slightly different form, but that when I moved to the former Opio Studios building part of that transferred with the help of the Vermont Economic Development Association was that in the moving to that property and developing it for their purposes part of the arrangement was that it was a five-year stabilization so the increase on the property tax, this was held stable for five years to get them a foothold so they could kind of, you know, get back on that feed after hurricane or crop of storm. And generate more jobs. I don't know if Kurt White and your work towards support of economic development together and the input on what this would be for that given the situation but I'm happy to afterwards do some research for you if that would be useful. Further discussion? I'm just curious because this article hasn't appeared before. Can you grab the mic? Hi. I'm curious has this article ever been voted on before? Any language like this or is this new? And what circumstances brought this article to come into this years? This is new. I don't think that it was in before like I said Opio Studios was a slightly different form but just in looking forward in efforts to you know, be supportive and encouraging. I don't know if this could have any effect with what could happen in a school or not but it's another tool in the toolbox of trying to help just be like active any time. Further discussion? Thank you. More discussion on this? Go ahead. To give you a select board general authority to enter into contracts to give you a select board general authority to enter into contracts there's nothing in there that says they'll do the pre-work and then they'll come to the voters to say yes they're going to get a tax break to a business for a certain you know because it makes sense economically. But this seems vague to me a little bit I really want this to happen but the language just seems like it's getting general authority to enter into a contract shouldn't it be general authority to enter into a conversation and then the agreement of the voters into the contract if it has a significant impact on the tax specialization just asking it, I'm not against it I'm just curious and it just seems really you know if you could move that as an amendment to the article if you think that would make sense Maybe others can discuss it I don't know Maybe Hey Guli, is there a formula or a Is there a formula for the stabilization process that you use? You set five years from the old wheel still through the old transfer Do you have a formula that you use? No We don't have a This is all Yeah It would be tailored to the every situation I suppose Further Stabilization in perpetuity is different from tax stabilization for three to one year or five years Yes So does not make any decisions to the We can amend this to say that they could enter general authority to enter into discussions tax stabilization contracts with owners, leasees and dealers etc to be brought before the voters Instead of giving them general authority to enter into tax stabilization contracts as Rob said conversations with owners pursuant to contracts that have to be loaded on the family You might be setting that up Very good Any amendments from the Regency of the complex Shall we give the select board a strike general Sorry is that your intent was to strike general? No Authority into stabilization discussions with owners pursuing contracts Amanda do you have a piece there about the voters Contracts of which will come Excuse me Yes General authority to enter into discussion pursuant to tax stabilization contracts Yes A general authority to enter into discussion about discussion pursuant to tax stabilization contracts Sorry So in two tax stabilization contracts which will come before the voters or is that contracts with owners, leasees, mailies or operators or some of the which will come before the voters Yes All right One more try Shall the town give the select board general authority to enter into discussions with discussions pursuant to contracts tax stabilization contracts with owners, leasees, operators commercial investors property pursuant to state statute which will then come before the voters kind of discussion on this amendment but back there I can't see you I just have a Can you hear me? I just have a question Is the intent for new property owners businesses or is this for existing property I just It's for economic growth for existing businesses that want to grow It's for new business that want to move here Anything that would stimulate the business economy in our town Thank you Just look at it back there I don't know if I can see what it is I have a I would have to wait until the town meeting until before I think I've had one I think two or one I think I could have a a very special special reference I don't know it was a practical Yeah, so the question is how would it come before the voters I don't know if you could call a special meeting to do that instead of not have to wait until the general town meeting until you know putting the word out and making it a public public vote Do you remind speakers to say their names Yes, but yeah speakers if you're able please stand and say your name so we can get a bit of votes Mary first Go ahead Harry Go ahead and just get the mics there It's my pleasure So if we nobody can get it My name is Mary So if we want to change the language to the amendment so that instead of saying it has to be brought before the voters a town meeting it just says it has to be brought before the voters then I think that would give us enough flexibility to do it here or a special election Just brought before the voters Period Period Yeah, so there's no change to that Harry So I Hi, Harry Burkard So I haven't seen, I haven't read the statute but is it the statutory intent from you guys speaking with the lawyer for the town to have us vote on this? I mean it says pursue it to the statute. So if the statute is talking about the select board having this power to encourage the tax stabilization contracts you know that would be the statutory language not the select board entering into conversations So I'm just wondering if we're kind of boarding the statutory language by amendment like when you said that the intention was to have a vote do you mean this vote giving you the power to do it or do you mean that we all vote on you know the next business that moves down the street like oatmeal studios and AI I believe the intent is to give us the authority to bring it to the public for a vote if the situation comes up Okay, thank you Questions or questions for me do you believe is that what you say the amendment is or that's what the original statute is? I believe that's what our original intent was and now I think that the amendment connects that to it. Frank go ahead People are looking for statutory language Frank can you grab the microphone? Yeah okay People are looking for statutory language I mean providing a general authority is B1 in the statute again this is 2741 B2 the language actually I asked I made copies of this and asked Julie to give it to us like board members and to Dan and I made a copy for ourselves too but the language of B2 is provided limited authority to its legislative branch to negotiate contracts which shall be effective on application by majority of those present and voting and an annual or special meeting worn for that purpose I don't know if that would be a statutory language for B2 rather than B1 I don't know if that answers people's desire forms So what you're saying that would make an easy amendment would just be to change that one from two when the authority is already there I'm not I'm not trying to be in the way of economic development but I think I think what would answer people's question is the wording under I think what would answer people's concerns is the wording in the statute already under B2 and I think if you substitute it B2 in this article it would provide an answer for that but you should have working in front of you each solid core member and Dan too I gave them to Julie Smith Yeah I know that Frank so let's Well Julie Smith I'm not going to turn the section down so where we are in process here we have an amendment on the table that we need to either we can amend that amendment and as far as we can go we can amend or we can go back to the original article or we could if folks would like to vote on the amendment that we have up or down the one that we crafted that goes down and we could go back to the original article and someone could amend it for B1 and I could read your language so I would recommend that instead of the amendment that we just created as Frank pointed out if we switch it from B1 to B2 that basically has the specific wording that our crafted amendment was headed towards and then we know that whatever we're adopting is properly legally sort of wrench on statutes First of all I would like to draw the amendment and stick to the two for one in this parenthesis that's basically what Julie was saying right there so where are we amended the amendments well we can't remove it unless we go it down but we're going to amend the amendments and scratch that language that we talked about before and then we'll exchange one for a two so it's statute degree 2741 okay someone want to second that thank you any discussion so what we have on the table right now I'm going to read it and then maybe we'll even read the statutes so you know what you're getting into it's legislation contracts with owners, leases, valleys or operators of commercial and industrial property pursuant to 24 BSA 2741 B2 and B2 so it's provided as Frank had turned it but I'll predict that so you know what you're getting into provided an authority to its legislative branch to negotiate contracts and the majority of those present and voting at an annual or special meeting weren't for that purpose so that's the amendments on duty article any discussion call it a question all in favor of any debate stand back so we end the debate we're going to vote on this amendment so I'll go to the select board general party just that tax stabilization contracts with owners, leases, valleys, operators of commercial industrial property pursuant to 24 BSA 2741, B2 so in favor of that amendment say aye those post somebody help me on this now that we have a commentated article so we got to go back to the new article Kerry? well I just noticed Well, I called up the actual statute on my phone, and I think that we need to change what word of our amendment, because we're saying provide general authority, part two provides limited authority. So I think that's the difference from my reading. I think the amendment does that, what we can read is going to two instead of one. Okay, I thought anyone that's provided general authority. Right, but doesn't it say, I thought I heard you still say the first, the sixth, seventh word, general authority? Yes, I did say that. Okay. So that's my only concern here, and if it says limited then it's awesome. It says limited in the statute. Yeah. It doesn't say limited in our article. Correct. And we can decide whether it can live a better. But the statute actually being, you know, let's provide a new direction. Okay, we'll move to a local new article that's been amended. I'm going to blanch out the town, give a select more general authority to enter into tax stabilization contracts with owners, VCs, bail-aids, or operators, commercial industrial property pursuant to 24VSA 2741B2. All in favor, say aye. Aye. Those opposed, say no. Aye. Aye. That's had it. Nice to come. Good discussion. Fine. Nice to come. Article 9. Shall the voters vote to appropriate the following sums as requested by these community agencies, Central Vermont Council on Aging $3,000, Fire Martin Center, 2,066, Green up Vermont 100, Orange County County Child Center, 250, Queenstown Senior Center, 9,849, Safe Link, Safe Link, 250, Tri Valley Transport Fulmerer Stage Code, 1300, Vermont Rural Fire 100, 100, Vermont News Visiting Nurses Association, 4,800, White River Partnership, 875, Atria, formerly known as Woman's Safe, 250 for a total of $22,840. Can we move that in a second? Moved. In a second. Discussion? Yeah. Go ahead. I can't see you with this. Sorry. You want to stand and give your name? I think. Hello. I thank you. My pleasure. Oh, hi. Hi. Thank you. What is Safe Link? Thank you. Any representative or someone knowledgeable about Safe Link? We can sit down. Stand if you can and give your name. Hello. Hi. Hi, Pat. Representative for Safe Link, Safe Link is an organization in Chelsea that provides services for women and children of domestic and sexual abuse. They have a hotline. If you would like that number, please see the atonement. Further discussion? Yes, sir. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Thank you. Thank you. Mary Petini, I just wanted to say something. The town report is what St. Louis did last year. Thank you very much. Further discussion? We'll move to a vote on our hotline. Should the voters vote who appropriate following some of the requested by these community community agencies. If there are no objections, I won't read through them again, but I'll give you the total of $22,840. All of the members, say aye. Aye. Those opposed, say nay. All those who have it, article 9 passes. Article 10, and shall the voters appropriate $21,420 to continue funding the North Star removal, LLC recycling program from July 1, 2024 to June 30, 2025. Remember that is a corrected number that I read in the report. Move in a second? Second. Alright, thank you. Discussion? Could I just mention that they're the people who do our recycling at the town office every Saturday. There are people who do recycling at the town office every Saturday, and I've been just really impressed at this particular company or group of people working for the company. And just how helpful and kind they are and willing to answer all kinds of questions. And someone who has trouble moving around sometimes, they are very kind to me. I'm just impressed with them and I'm glad that we have them. Third. Loudest stress. Although this was just a typo, just for clarity, I would like to offer an amendment to this article to read $21,420 because it has been posted and warned. And while we have announced that it is just a typo, I think it would be more proper to vote on the amendment to that. Second. I'm on the table and it would read. This might be the review article, but I'll read it again in a minute and bring it up for discussion. So how the voters appropriate $21,420 to continue funding the North Star Rubbish Removal LLC Recycling Program from July 1, 2024, June 30, 2025. Discussion on that minute? We'll move to a vote. I'm not going to read it again. No objections. All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed to say nay? No. Robert's rule question. Mary here. Do I need to read it again? Because it's been amended. We have to do our own. Article 10. How the voters appropriate $21,420 to continue funding the North Star Rubbish Removal LLC Recycling Program from July 1, 2024 through June 30, 2025. All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Aye. Article 11. How the voters approve to transfer $8,000 from the reappraisal reserve fund to the general fund on July 1, 2024 for the purpose of reducing taxes for the incoming fiscal year. Second. Okay. Thank you. Discussion. Why don't we do for our next reappraisal and why are we moving this money out of the reappraisal fund? Last year we thought perhaps we were looking at an reappraisal coming in the near future. So we added $8,000 into that fund which we voted at our meeting to be sure that we had the sufficient funds to cover the reappraisal process. Since then, we have gotten the word from a state that we are doing for reappraisal. We went immediately out to get quotes for that reappraisal process. And the quotes came in a little less than we anticipated. So we have contracted for our town library appraisal to start in 2025 and be completed by the end of June 2027. 26. So it's coming. It's under contract and paid for. So what we discovered is the extra money we put in thinking we needed that. We found we don't need it. So we're going to put it back in the federal fund. Discussion. Discussion then. Article 11, shall the voters approve to transfer $8,000 from the reappraisal fund to the general fund on July 1, 2024 for the purpose of reducing taxes for the coming fiscal year? I don't know if they would say that. Article 11 passes. Article 12, shall the voters approve to transfer $10,000 from the cemetery reserve account to the general fund to offset cemetery budget expenses? Thank you. Thank you. Discussion. Can you ask the question here? If you're transferring $10,000 out of the account to offset cemetery budgeted expenses, do you think there's more than they need in here? The way that that works is the cemetery budgeted expenses lined up. And in the budget for this year, there's an reserve fund that has been built up for the cemetery maintenance and soft stats. It was generously offered by the cemetery commission that they could afford to kick back some of that money that had been put in the reserve fund over the years to help to keep the budget in a moderate increase. Thank you. Any further discussion? Any discussion? Move to vote on Article 12. Shall the voters approve to transfer $10,000 from the cemetery reserve account to the general fund to offset cemetery budget expenses? All in favor say aye. Aye. Those say nay. Article 12 passes. Article 13, shall the voters approve to transfer $8,000 from the revolving loan funds to the general fund? Discussion? Yeah, thank you. What is the purpose of revolving loan funds? Things like this, it appears. As far as we could determine, this was started in the mid-50s, 60s. We're not sure where the money came from, but it's been used throughout the years to help people deal with failed septic systems. It was used once to help the town buy a truck. It was another chunk of money that we thought we could use to keep the budget in control. Does the fund still exist? Yes. We're not closing it. We're just using it. How is that different from general fund? It's just it had its own separate fund category. It's kind of a need account? You could say that. It's definitely separated from the general fund. It's a reserve account, basically. I'm wondering whether it would be wise to leave it be? Catherine and David, do I have anything to add? We only get the money back, right? Catherine? You said that people need help with septic. I think that a property owner who has to replace a septic can actually go to the town and ask for a loan through this fund? It has been used in that way in the past, yes. Because there are people who are in that situation who may not even know that this is an option. So for the rest of the reason, it's not on deficit publicity. Do you have a ballpark of how much is in there? It's 8,000. But you're not closing it, so it's like 8,000 and one. No discussion. No discussion. We'll move to a vote on article 13. Shall the voters approve the transfer of $8,000 from the revolving loan fund to the general fund? All in favor say aye. Those opposed say nay. Here's the ayes have it. Ayes have it. Article 13 passes. Article 14, this one will be voted on by Australian ballot. So tomorrow the town office will be, we'll read it and we can have discussion. Article 14, shall general obligation notes or bonds of the town of Rochester in an amount not to exceed $359,243.00 and zero cents payable from the town's general fund derived from the taxation of real property for a period not to exceed 30 years the subject to reduction by available grants and aid or other funding sources be issued to finance the cost of removing and replacing existing Westfield Bridge Town Highway 37 bridge with a bridge on a modifiable land and associated road and channel work together in the project moved by John Roondett and seconded. Oh, sorry. No, we can move it for discussion. We're not going to go live. Discussion. Martha. This is actually already been done. This work is already been done. I'm clear on the fact that this work is already been done. And what you're asking for in this, to get the proof, is the money to pay for it, obviously. Does that mean that grant money paid up to a certain point and this was like the balance left over? It just seems like a very unusual for this town. It is, yeah. And in fact, the work transpired since the beginning of this project and in the final crisis, the crisis just went frankly. So, do you really want to go live in this town? We basically put this project, we started in 2019. And it went through the COVID era there. The government designed the bridge. They were going to pay for it as pretty much all of it. The original price for the estimate for doing the job was $660,000. We secured funding up to $775,000. We sent out the bids in February. We received four bids. The lowest one was $1.2 million. So we were subject to losing the funds of $750,000 and $75,000. So we elected to build the bridge because we would lose that funds. So it left us with a balance of $359,000 and $243,000. So we did it that way because we couldn't, number one, take the funds. And number two, we didn't think the price was ever going to go down anyway. So we elected to do the job. So that leaves us a balance of what's in there is $359,000 and $243,000. And if we don't pass this article, we will need to pay the bank back because we've already borrowed the money to do the job. We've paid the contractor and his final price that we paid him was $1.129.39 and $0.20. So that made the bond $259,242. So if we don't pass this article and bond this, we will need to pay that money back within a four-year period. So that would be a pretty substantial hit to your tax base in the next four years. I hope that clears things up a little bit. The funds came from the Forest Service. The funds came. We got $600,000 from the Forest Service and $175,000 from the state. And they promised us more, but because of the floods this summer, they couldn't deliver on it. So that's how we have to go for that amount. Any other discussion? Thank you. How are you participating in that? Dale Viano, funding from Grants and AIDS. We've got all the funding we could get for the project. I tried to get more, but there was just no way. The state had offered us some more money, but then we had the floods this summer and they just didn't have the funds to put forward it. That was how we, that's about all we could do. What we got here is... Referring back to the earlier article where we were discussing giving the select board authority to enter contracts in a limited manner. How was your entering into that contract to build the bridge related to that? Totally separate. Apples and oranges? Yeah, yeah. You already have the authority to prepare the roads. There's two choices. One, we voted down. We pay it back in four years. Or we vote for it and we pay it back over 30 years. I don't see that we have a choice. The interest rates are a lot different. Can you elaborate? Can you elaborate on the interest rates? We really have to look into it deeply enough on that end of it, but figuring that the bond is a lot cheaper. Maybe Julie, you researched it more. Once we've been approved then after bond counsel, then we can go for the bond and have that kind of rates, you know, but they can stay around 500. Any further discussion? We'll move to vote on the subject. Oh, sorry. No, it's not. Is that argument? We'll have a discussion on this and we'll move to article 15. I would just like to say that this is one of the times when it takes This is one of the times when it takes simply courage to be someone with authority vested by the public. And I want to thank the select for making this decision. Moving on to article 15. Tell the town about the following declaration of inclusion. The town of Rochester condemns racism and welcomes all persons regardless of race, color, religion, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, and expression, age, disability, or socioeconomic status, and wants everyone to feel safe and welcome in our community. The town of Rochester has will continue to be a place where individuals can live freely and express their opinions. Move far, vote it, make a fire. Seconded by name. I have a amendment to make to that. So I thought it would be suggest to place five words into the in between and operating procedure and reflect the commitment so that it would read the right words to the person. So, I think that would be a good idea. In between an operating procedure and reflect the commitment so that it would read an operating procedure from this day forward to reflect this commitment. If this was adopted, we don't want to have the exposure of having to go back and end all of our policies to include this statement in them. So it would be from this day forward. Seconded by name. It has been seconded. Let me read the amendment. Talking about the following declaration. I was talking about Rochester condemned racism and want all persons to regard this race, color, religion, national, art, and sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, and expression, age, disability, or social, economic status. and wants everyone to feel safe and welcome in our community. Does the town reformally condemn all discrimination in all of its forms, commit to fair and equal treatment of everyone in our community, and will strive to ensure all of our actions, policies, and operating procedures from this state forward reflect this commitment? The town of Rochester has looked to be a place where individual states can freely express their opinions. Discussion? In the room? Yes, sir? Yes, this is raised in a way in certain about page 88 in reference to this article that we want to pass. Page 88 is a situation where we should replace the names of individuals with parcel numbers, because basically this is still a situation where some folks are in difficulties after being a wonderful taxpayer, and this should not be a public whipping post. And it's time to eliminate it. In reference to this particular article, is that what I'm hearing in this article that we're supposed to be welcoming? And the fact that we are having this public, the situation where people can be squinted by someone else if they see their names published like this, is that what I'm hearing in this article that we've eliminated? I think that's what we're talking about. Yeah, what he's asking, if I understand he's asking, it's also on page 88 with the tax property. Is that something that would be covered by this article at the point of pass? From the state board? From the state board? That's just an example. We're not voting right now to get rid of the equal income tax. He's asking as an example that this is the discussion. Yeah, and this is an example of a lot of the things that might be considered in this discussion. I guess is this discriminatory to list the people that I've got to link with taxes? Is that a good question? Meredith? Just that I, this is Meredith being it. So just that I understand what we're talking about now is whether we want to amend this article with the five words from the board from the state board. And so to my mind, that's one question. And then if we were to pass that amendment, pass this at town meeting, a question, the specific question of this example of whether posting someone's name for being delinquent in taxes is an example of a policy that would discriminate against them for the socioeconomic status would be something to be brought up at a subsequent select board meeting because it would be a change in policy operating forward. Right. So that's how I'm understanding the question of what we're doing right now. Yep, we're only amended. Can I use the images of the article? Well, I'm sorry, we have a discussion. We can end the debate on that and move on to that area. That would be the next step if the discussion is finished. Thank you. Thank you. I just wondered how declaration and inclusion, how does that affect the town or how the declaration of inclusion, how does that affect the town and how we do business or how it affects the charter or whatever? Theoretically, not in any specific way unless we do determine that the town has been discriminating against people and Mason brings up this point, but I think that Mary had a good point that right now we're voting on the amendment and then we can move on to the discussion of the policy itself. Well, I moved the vote. Do you amend all the questions? Yep, John, I just called the question. All in favor of any discussion moving to a vote, say aye. Aye. Opposed, say nay. As the discussion moves to a vote on the amendment. If there are no objections, I won't read the entire piece. I'll start from the sentence where the amendment is. Pardon. We know we're voting on the amendment right now. And once we approve the amendment, then we'll go back and vote on the new article. Though as a town, we firmly condemn all discrimination in all its forms, commit to fair and equal treatment to everyone in our community, and we'll strive to ensure all of our actions, policies, and operating procedures from this day forward reflect this commitment. The town of Rochester has and will continue to be a place where individuals can live free and express their opinions. All in favor of the amendment, say aye. Aye. Opposed, say nay. Aye's had it. We have an amended article. Any discussion on the amended article? So this comes down to Dain's question. So how does it affect the town? That was our question. Quite a bit. This has come across our desk for just a year, at least a couple of years. This has been presented and we decided this is, and a lot of towns just adopted it at a select board meeting. We decided that this was something that should come for the town as a whole, that we don't need to make these kind of decisions just on our own. And that's why I brought up to discussion the response that we got from the people that put forth this policy, which has been adopted by the state itself and not every town in Vermont is quite a few. 130 towns in Vermont have adopted this. It's generally that it's a way of presenting what we hope is a positive supportive environment and a place for people to live. So now we added that amendment from this case forward just so it wouldn't complicate the running of the town and all of a sudden we've adopted something that obligates us to start digging through the history books to try and expand anything that was discriminatory. I don't think there is a lot. Now Mason brings up the question, what is the listing of people that have to live when taxes fall under that definition of discrimination? That's a question. I don't know if it does. That's an interesting question. Further discussion? I think the town evolves. My husband loves to do the history. And there was a time when we published the names of people who lived in a poor farm that was supported by the town by every penny that was spent on them. We don't do that anymore. We don't have a poor farm anymore, but we do have a charitable fund in Rochester. And we keep all the applicants confidential. So I think that, you know, philosophies identifying who we are, it evolves. And this to me is just sort of making a statement to who we hope to be, who we would like to be, who we are. I would admit I was a little bit skeptical of this. I've heard on VPR how folks have been, there's kind of an outside effort trying to push this for adoption in towns all across the state. But I've been thinking a lot about it. I think it's very low cost, very low risk. But it does say something about us. And I think that Mason brought up a really good point. This is something where, if someone has a concern about something we're doing in town, whether that it is inclusive, or kind of put certain people out in a different way, in a way that is discriminatory or unfair, this gives grounds for someone to raise this and raise the question that's left toward a town meeting. So I think it's low risk, low harm, and it's an opportunity for us to give people a chance to raise their own concerns like this, with an official grounds for laying it out. So I support it. So you could look at the list of the liquid taxes as an invitation to join the justice that pay the taxes. No, we're still in discussion. I mean, that's right. It worked. So I just want to say that Mason makes a good point. I'm not sure what utility it is to the town to have people listed when many of them may have financial problems, economics as whatever, the way that this statement suggests. So I would just put, I think Mason brings a good point up. And since what we're, in a way what we're talking about is what kind of place we are, over our urgent statement kind of place we are, do we really need to list the liquid taxes? Help me to stop talking about it. We're not actually voting, we're talking right now about whether we should or shouldn't put people's names with their delinquent taxes. What I'm understanding about this principle of inclusion, whether we voted up or down, is that it articulates a principle that the town commits to. And if you had an experience, imagine that we voted to accept it moving forward. If you have something that you believe that you believe, a town policy that you believe is discriminating against you under one of these categories, this is what Lizzie Niedrich says it becomes ground for you to take it to the select board. You could then take it to the select board and say, here is a thing we haven't been doing. We have been publishing people's names. We have also now adopted this principle of inclusion and I would like to make the argument, for example, that we shouldn't do that because it is exclusionary. And then we can have that specific conversation. But what this would do is just articulate the general principle and then we can play out specific examples in the smaller form of a select board. John, do you? Still running for time. I would suggest that I can see both sides of the argument on whether this list should be in here, if only because I'm on the list. But for a small amount, very bottom. If I could see both sides of this argument, however, I support the amendment as it is. Yeah, I'm sorry. I support the amendment as it is. And maybe somebody should make a motion, not an amendment to this, a new motion that in the future the town should not post the Lincoln Tax List. Either now or make that a motion now as a new board. I would say that would not be germane to this article. No, not in catching it because it's all right. And if it hasn't been worn, that's a big hope. We could, if you wanted to, in other business, someone could bring that up and say, let's have a straw hole and sort of give it a test. That's where I was going. I could see, this should be discussed, but it should be hacked onto this article. Yeah, I agree. I'm welcome to bring it up and write on business. This is an aspirational thing, and I think it should be understood. This is what we want to be. This is what we believe we are. Thank you. I have one back here. I don't need the mic. Well, thank you. Thank you. All the article. All the questions. I don't need the mic. All the articles. All the questions. Do we have a discussion? Any discussion? Say hi. Hi. Let's both say hi. Okay. And then the discussion will move to a vote on the article as amended. Article 15 is out of town. Without the following declaration of inclusion. The town of Rochester condemns racism and welcomes all persons regardless of race, color, religion, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, and expression, age, disability, or socioeconomic status, and wants everyone to feel safe and welcome out here. As a town, we formally condemn all discrimination in all its forms, commit to fair and equal treatment of everyone in our community, and will strive to ensure all of our actions, policies, and operating procedures from this day forward reflect this commitment. The town of Rochester has and will continue to be a place where individuals can live freely and express their opinions. All in favor say hi. Hi. Let's both say hi. Is that it? Article 15 passes as amended. Article 16 to transact any other legal and proper business to be brought before the meeting. I know there's a lot of non-linear that can't do any binding business here, but you can discuss things and make suggestions to the select board if you want to go that route. Mason. Hello. Tom. In other regions with the town report, for me, our town is has a climate of urgency initiative. When I read a four page report from the US Forest Service to our town where for many of us, this is the biggest issue in our lives right now. And to read the report and not see the language of the climate crisis by the US Forest Service and talk about what they are planning to do and what our Green Mountain Forest means not only to us but to the planet. How do we manage that? And they should be aware that we passed a climate emergency initiative and we have expectations to know what our biggest partner in this community is planning to do. Now, we are aware that there are large fires going on in May in the northern country and it seems to be migrating south. We haven't been talking fires, we've been talking floods. So, we need to have more response by the US Forest Service I feel and the town in the select board should be more diligent. I do appreciate the select board in their letter to us in their reference to environmental concerns. I think it's okay to use language like a climate crisis. So, I just want to bring that forth and it's business to this family. Thank you. So, the other business, Catherine. Right there up here. This is a question. Did anybody notice how dark it is in the parking lot? Aren't there lights? And whose responsibility is it to get the lights for the high school working lot relive? Pardon? It's the school responsibility. Okay, thank you. Any other business? Catherine? I would make a motion to adjourn. I don't know if it's accurate about what I called in the fall about the lights I was told in electric company that's got to do things to the lights. And before we break up, can we thank Mariah? Yes. Any other business? Catherine? I would make a motion to adjourn. Very good. Very good. All those who remain seated. Thank you. That's it.