 It's not as bad as we can think. Yeah. There's much more. Now, had you done this at six o'clock, then that might be it. Yeah. That would be great. This is for our meeting. I'll be quick with comments when you guys have got to the written statement. And go pretty quickly to your questions. Okay. Good. Great. You guys okay too? So good evening and good evening to the live audience via Channel 17 News. My name is Seth Leonard, Mayor of Unuski. And earlier today I issued an announcement that I will be resigning the post of Mayor of Unuski effective January the 28th, 2019. Serving this community in the capacity of Mayor for the last four years has been the greatest privilege and honor that I've had in my life. When you come into an office like this, it's never about your vision and what you're there to accomplish. It's your job to turn back towards the community, understand what it is that they value, the things that they want to see done in their community. And it's your job to then take that and create a workable work plan, right? A vision that we can actually execute. I'm extremely, extremely proud of the work we've accomplished in the last four years as a mayor and two years before that as city counselor. When I came into office, I talked a lot about the idea that Unuski really needed a plan, a solid path to move forward into our future. And some of the key elements around that have been about investment infrastructure, making sure we're taking really good care of the thing we're most visibly responsible for stirring, which is the taxpayer's resources, right? Those tax dollars. And investing them in a way that people believed in and investing them in a way that they saw a vision coming into fruition into reality. I'm really proud of where we stand here today. And we've got a couple of big projects, right? Outlaid right here for folks that I think are wonderful demonstrations of how we've tried to take that vision and turn it into action. That's what the last especially years been about is we've spent a lot of time developing a master plan. We've spent a lot of time talking about whether our community needs are once a pool. We've spent a lot of time talking about where we want our critical infrastructure investments to be and go and what our community is going to look like in the future. And we believe this year we're putting forward a budget that's going to be very representative of that vision. And I'm proud for this to be my last action and the last thing that I look forward to stewarding through is in terms of a community conversation. So this year's budget is going to have a couple components that I think you're really going to you've probably followed for quite some time. Starting with Myers Memorial Pool, right? The pool's been non-operational for about three years now. And in the course of that time, it's become apparent that it's a very really important community asset, not just from an activity standpoint, but from a community building standpoint for the ability for our community members to build that safe, healthy, connected community. We're also moving forward with our Main Street reconstruction. These are parts of the budget, right? We're going to service the debt on these two big projects. This includes over $20 million in investment to do a head to toe redo of Main Street. All new infrastructure, new streetscape to again provide another opportunity for us to have a vibrant gateway into our city and be a Main Street in an area that fulfills that vision that people in Muskie have said over and over again. We want to be this walkable, vibrant destination community. And we're really proud of this project and the impact we know it's going to have in the city's future. In addition to that, we'll be rolling out details very soon in regards to a new parking structure in the downtown. And this is our opportunity to shore up the vibrancy down there, right? We've done a lot to create a business community and district in that area that I think we can all be really proud of. Muskie, we went under with the state's largest redevelopment project in its history, right, in the reconstruction of our downtown. And now we're trying to be stewards to get that to the final destination of sustainability. And we're well in our way. And the addition of this parking garage, we believe, is going to be a wonderful asset for that future. Additionally, it's going to come at no cost to the taxpayers from a tax standpoint, right? We're going to cash flow the revenues from the garage towards the debt of it so it'll be a net neutral impact to taxpayers. They won't see a hike in their taxes as a result of that garage being constructed. Additionally, another big focus in an area that we've tried to work very hard on is coming up with a capital improvement plan that doesn't focus just on gateway districts but also in our neighborhoods. And this year we'll be putting forward a proposal to also bond for the reconstruction of Hickok Street, which is a residential neighborhood that a lot of folks know in the heart of one of our most insulated residential areas. So with that, again, we'll be cash flowing that out of the capital budget so it comes at no impact to the taxpayers from a net new tax standpoint. So we're looking with the Main Street project, we're also going to be proposing to taxpayers and voters that they allow us to do a 1% sales tax on rooms, meals, alcohol, and general sales. We believe that's an opportunity for us to share the expense of the Main Street reconstruction project in specifically with the businesses and also with the folks who come into our community and spend dollars every day. So it's a very typical tax in our area, right? We're surrounded, Burlington, South Burlington, Colchester, Essex, South Burlington. Other communities in our area also have this tax and we think it's time for Mooski to look the same to reinvest that in infrastructure. So, you know, again, this has never been about me and this work's never been about me. It's been about this community. And I have a deep love and passion for our community. It's our job as a government not to create the community that we want to see. It's our job to create what is essentially a canvas for the community to be able to pay it on. And I am so immensely proud of the work we've done to do that. And there's no better sense in stepping away from a position like this than to have extreme confidence in the leadership that you're leaving behind. I can't say enough about the people, the humans that work here in City Hall and execute that vision every day because but for them, none of that work gets done. And I specifically want to call out our city manager, Jesse Baker, who in just two short years has done a tremendous job of leading our staff, bringing a lot of these projects that were long in the thought process to fruition. And we're on the precipice now. We've gotten to the point where we took the community's feedback and vision. We've designed these projects. We've put the finances together and we're offering for our budget to execute that vision in that future. And I hope in some way that that maybe makes the job for the next person that steps into this role as mayor of Winooski a little easier. They've got some big things that they'll be already working through. So there won't be a lot of pressure to come up with a lot of big ideas right off the bat. And I just want to acknowledge that we have a very deep and talented bench in our city in terms of engaged intelligent people who have leadership qualities. And I know we're going to have some wonderful people step up maybe with multiple people step up. So I'm leaving at an exciting time. And we are in an extremely exciting place as a community. We don't look like any other community in Vermont. We are the most diverse, most densely populated while the rest of Vermont is getting older. We're getting younger. And we have the most diverse demographics in the state. And it's beautiful. It creates an unbelievable fabric, community fabric here that's unlike anywhere else. And I'm so, so proud to have had the opportunity for the last six years to serve the people of Winooski in an elected capacity. And I can't be more grateful to all of our residents because they make all this happen. They've given us this opportunity to lead. And I hope that they feel like we've, we've done well with that vision and moved the community forward in the way that most represents what they want to see. A place that they enjoy living and are proud of. Cause I sure am. And so with that, I'll take any questions you guys may have. I forgot to turn on my microphone. I couldn't do that again because. Yeah. Yeah. So I accepted the position last weekend. The charter and the transition items we needed to work to through took us a little time. We wanted to ensure that we could clearly explain the time we wanted to ensure that we could clearly explain to a counselor, should they choose to run for office or for others, what progression needed to happen from a process standpoint. So that's why we've delayed it by a few days to try to make sure that we had answers to all those questions when you would come up. I'm sorry. Yes. Yeah. So I'm currently the housing program director at USDA Rural Development. So, yeah, the mayor stipend of Winooski is about $1400 a year. Your time as Winooski mayor will stay with you in your career moving forward. That's a great question. Well, I am a practitioner in my professional career. In a lot of cases, I'm looking from the lenses of funder that's looking at how to help a community be successful. It's very beneficial to see that work from the community's eyes and standpoint. In Winooski, we have to engage in a lot of partners to make all this happen, right? There's no project that we do by ourselves. We're very aligned on other funding streams and sources, state, federal, local, regional partnerships to make that work. So certainly, you know, that's something that I hope I've brought to this seat from a professional capacity standpoint and, you know, some knowledge base for the city to benefit. And then from my own, it's been a tremendous experience to see that work through that lens. You know, a great example right now is we're working through affordable housing, right? We have a housing commission and we're looking at potential updates to zoning that could, that we think are going to better reflect the mix of housing we want to see in the community. And that's something I do, quite frankly, in my professional life, too. So it's, it's, it's hard for those not to intersect at times, which is frankly part of the reason why it makes sense right now, too, to step down just from a professional standpoint, not being able to do both. You feel like this is a transitional period for you? You wish you could have kind of been better? Yeah. Moms? Yeah. So there's no perfect time, right? I actually think it's a fantastic time because what my role and job coming in to me was to listen to the community, try to craft a vision that included deliverables, right? Projects, things that helped achieve that vision and a result in the community that people wanted to see. We've done that work, right? The taxpayers still have to vote, right? They have to vote yes on these items if they want us to actually execute them. So if they agree that this is the correct vision, that this is the right vision, and these are the right steps towards it. And the proposed total 6% increase is something that everybody can get behind. Then that closes the chapter on these conversations, the projects then go forward. And look in a policy seat, the city doesn't need me to oversee these projects, right? That's the city manager and the administration's job. They'll make sure that they get executed. It's our job to come up with what we think is a sustainable policy path and finance package that's reasonable to the taxpayers. Yeah, sure. So I have a very honest question I ask myself. Anytime there's an opportunity from either a civic or professional direction, and it's how can I use my talents, my abilities to make as much of a difference in as many lives as possible and impact my community in the best way possible? And to me right now, this has been a fantastic opportunity. I'm really proud of the work that we've done. For me right now, this is an opportunity to work with resources that impact the entire state of Vermont in a way that is dramatic. And it's, to me, affordable housing is the foundation of a healthy community, right? So I believe very strongly in that work it's been my life's passion, something I've done for a decade. And in the course of getting this opportunity, I can't imagine a better chance that could be available to me right now to make that difference. So I measure it in the difference that I can make and it's not to downplay the role here and what we've been able to achieve, but that's the decision I arrived at. Thank you. Yeah, thank you guys. Hey, in seriousness too, I really have appreciated working with all the media in Vermont and you guys do a great job. Thanks for all your work. Keep people informed and engaged. Anything from you, sir? Not allowed to. Yeah. Well, thanks again to everybody at Channel 17 too. You guys go above and beyond and I'm sure we have access to all these meetings and you've been a tremendous partner. And the great part is for the next month and a half I'm going to be talking about this budget. So I'm not gone yet. So you'll hear lots more from me then, especially. Thank you guys. Appreciate it. Thank you.