 The public who wish to speak to something that is not on the agenda. Now is the time to do so. Please make sure to raise your hands and I'll be sure to give you time to speak to the board. Go ahead and raise your hand if you have any questions or comments or concerns. I'm not seeing any hands going up. Nobody has called in. So I will take that as there is no public comment. Moving on to business items 6a. Consider an adopt meeting schedule for the year and discuss remote only and or hybrid option. So Andrew, yeah, so you all are familiar that each April you set the meeting schedule for the year. Andrew had indicated that he wanted to have a full-blown discussion. Typically you just kind of approved meeting on the second and fourth Tuesday of the month at 6.30 but wanted to open up the conversation to all of those different variables to include the frequency, how often you all are meeting and the day of the week, the start time, and then we need to figure out if we're going to continue to be fully remote or hybrid. As you can see in the memo, I have put some points out there for discussion in terms of consideration of moving to a monthly meeting. I won't reiterate those. And of course, you know, I think that will lead to the rest of your conversation of day of the week start time. You can go fully remote for the remainder of the calendar year if you so choose, but also you can switch back to hybrid at any point. I think I'll leave it at that and open the rest for conversation. Thank you, Brad. Why don't we just start off with what we have on the screen here in terms of frequency, whether or not to maintain the schedule of two meetings a month or prepare for one meeting a month? I'd love to hear some initial reaction. My initial reaction is that we have a ton of stuff going on going down the road here, particularly looking at renovation of Lincoln Hall and some of the other projects. It's hard for me to imagine doing it just with one meeting a month unless you had a really crammed meeting. And I think it could cause problems because you could have decisions that need to be made, can't be made for two or three weeks until you have that one monthly meeting. On the other hand, I would certainly, I'm sensitive to the fact that we have two interim managers and they've got a lot of other responsibilities, so I'm completely open to ideas as to how to lighten their load. But I just think that having meetings delayed just one month, you could just have a lot of decisions that need to be made relatively quickly, particularly things around capital improvement and inevitably some other issues are going to come up regarding some of the projects we've got going this year. And to see things just get pushed off for a month, I think could get us into some trouble. But just my opinion. Thank you, George. Others? Andrew, if I'm sorry, if I could just chime in real quick to piggyback on George's, please make the decision that's best for the board moving forward. You know, Wendy and I are not going to be here long term. And it's only going to be a few more months where we're ready to advertise this position, I would say in the next three weeks or so. So please make, just don't use that as a criteria. Thank you for that, Brad. Go ahead, Ross. Yeah, I'll share some of George's concerns. I wonder, I was trying to think in my head of specifically what we have coming up. And on the one hand, I thought, you know, having fewer meetings once might work some months and some months, it might not. Yeah, I was wondering if there's a way to kind of look at what's coming, maybe predict for instance, as an example, the manager hiring process, you know, so once we have some candidates identified, you know, if that two month period around that process, there was one meeting to free up other time to handle that process, to meet with the candidates, to do the community work that we're doing around how that process will play out. Meeting department, you know, whatever responsibilities we have around that. The other option I was wondering is, you know, this is a little more hinky, but every three weeks, try to reduce it a bit. But the only other serious suggestion I had was to make it sort of dependent on when. So maybe, you know, we've got May and June coming up. Maybe we do one each for that. And as we start off the new city, we look at what the workload is, or we go vice versa in the summer, we do one, one, one a month and see where it goes. I'm not having a solid handle on what's on the list for agenda future agendas. I'm a modal in the dark, I feel like in that respect. So if I could just jump back in, I mean, and I agree, it's a little, it's hard to predict, but I, you know, the, as you, as just as Rajia said, the manager recruitment process, you could kind of anticipate that, that there's going to be the, you know, we've got public committees that are kind of, you know, grinding through this, but quickly we're going to need to probably be making some decisions. And we want to move that process along. And it, what, you know, one thing that occurs to me is we can always cancel meetings. We can always say, Hey, there's, there's nothing on the agenda, or maybe, you know, we can always not have a meeting. And I would certainly be interested if we can get ahead of things in the summertime to try to cut back and only have one or two, you know, have one meeting a month in the, in the, you know, in July and August, perhaps, but I just have, there's just so much uncertainty in the coming few months. I just don't know how I feel about this. Thank you, George. Amber, your hands up. Go ahead. With everything that's been said, added points, I would prefer to have two meetings a month. And again, as George said, cancel if there's nothing on the agenda, but shorter meetings rather than having a one to month meeting is my preference. And just as an aside, the hiring committee met for the first time alone. This week, we have developed kind of a timeline which hasn't been fine tuned yet. But we're looking at like the end of July for the decision to come back to the trustees. So I know there's, there's some, some conversation about that, but that's, that's kind of the plan. We're still fine tuning it based on what the recruitment committee does. And obviously it'll further be defined as we have some candidates. And can I just ask a quick, Amber, do you mean the decision coming back to the trustees as, as, as to who? Yes. Okay. So you kind of, by the end of July, so you kind of figure mid-June to that point is finalists in that process. Yeah. Yeah. And I think what'll happen is once we finalize that time timeline, I think there'll be communication, there needs to still be communication back from like our committees to the whole board as to what's happening in the committees, but the recruitment committee has decided on a time frame for when they're going to have a job posting. And we kind of worked back from that to end the September one day to have somebody in that seat. Okay. So based on that, that's what we're looking at. But I think I had some concerns with whether that's something we could do in one meeting or not, but that's another topic for another conversation. Great. Thank you, Amber. Go ahead, Dan. Thank you. I would prefer to have two meetings per month rather than one long meeting. Also, I agree with a lot of George's comments and discussions so far. As far as the day of the week, Wednesdays, the third Wednesday every month is the regional planning meeting. So that would not be a good day, but for me at least, I'm kind of open as far as days go, but two days seem to work well for everyone. I thought, you know, it's not right after the weekend. So if something comes up over the weekend or whatever, there's some time to address it among staff and others before we actually meet just in case. That's my only thought. Thanks, Dan. All right, George. You're muted, though. Second. Got to unmute there. When we talked about this before, one suggestion I had was that we could have a typically structured meeting and then have one meeting which is just business-only. In other words, consent agenda, warrants, all the stuff that's in the reading file, we could have one meeting a month that handles all of that. And then the second meeting is just any issues, any business things, any decisions that have to, that the manager or that have come up in the meantime. I mean, I'm not saying that's what we should do, but that's a possibility for, in a sense, reducing the workload of staff to get that, because then they would only have to get all of that bureaucratic stuff together for one meeting as opposed to doing it twice a month. And I'd be happy just having the consent agenda once a month in the warrant file, warrant approvals once a month if that made things easier. Great. So I'm taking away from this that trustees are looking for keeping the schedule as it is to keeping it scheduled for two meetings in a month. Along that line, one of the things that I can do is work with Brad and Wendy on the agendas themselves. If there are opportunities where we can cancel a meeting, then we can certainly do that. And so Brad, you, Wendy and I, when we get together before meetings, we can talk about what's coming up and see if there are opportunities to either cancel them and or move things around if possible. At the same time, something that might help with overall planning for what's coming up for our meetings. What we used to have with our joint meetings with the previous management was that spreadsheet that would have the day of the meeting, where the meeting was, and in that right column was generally who the minitaker was. While, of course, we care about our minitakers and who those are, I wonder if instead we could utilize a day of the week and have the topics that we know are coming up. So that way we as trustees can better understand what is coming up. I think also the public could better understand what's coming up. And that may help with planning as well as whether or not we could cancel something in order for well prepared for something that might be six or so months down the road. You know, thinking about things like in our transition to the city, having the renovations to Lincoln, hiring a manager, as well as transitioning from, transitioning to having a DRB, you know, I'm assuming there's going to be a fair amount of work that needs to happen to make these things finalized. And so I can certainly understand trying to keep two meetings scheduled, but should the possibility arise, cancel it and join it off? Rush, your hands up, go ahead. Yeah, a couple things. Although it probably won't directly impact our work during a meeting, we will have quite a bit of zoning to talk about since cannabis passed from here, ideally through that same timeframe because after that we'll have to put a committee together. We'll have to put some process together for approving retail licenses. So we've got that to work out. We've got the lot to implement. We've got various other things. The other thing I was going to put in there was, so yes, I agree with the two, if we can cancel one, great. I'm just going to put a plug in for Wednesdays as opposed to Tuesdays, not only for the reason that I've mentioned before, but now there's some other just family commitments from other people in the family for Tuesdays throughout the summer. Maybe we can try this for the summer, see how it works out, reevaluate after Labor Day or in the fall, and see if it worked for people. If it didn't work for people, we can revert. So I'm just putting a plug in. It doesn't have to be the third Wednesday. It could be the second and fourth. Those don't seem to conflict with anyone. Other boards or other things. And Brad put channel 17 is now, which is not something I considered when thinking about this. So thanks for that detail. Go ahead, George. Yeah. And just to touch on something that you just touched on, hang on a second. I just lost everybody here. You still there, guys? Okay. We are going to need to convert our zoning board and planning commission to a DRB and a planning commission. There's going to have to be reappointments. And I brought this up before where I would like to do it. I think there's some leeway in the division of Labor there and how we organize things. And also, they may be looking to guidance from those two commissions, those two boards might be looking for guidance from us about the size of their, because there's their flexibility about how their meeting schedule and their size. And that all has to be done fairly soon. That's not, I think we need to try to have that in place by one July. So that's just another example of the kind of thing that is probably going to preclude us from just having a meeting once a month. Thank you, George. In terms of the day of the week, one of the things that I had raised and Roger, you and I talked about this as well. The desire was to try and get away from the school board meeting dates, especially those members of our community who want to be able to attend school district meetings as well as attend our meetings. It would be nice to not have to have community members pick which meeting they're attending. So that was certainly the intent. And the thought of Monday was, well, if being in independent city, there's no need to worry about what the select board is doing and when they meet. As well as if we have then joint meetings, they're already set up at that point in time. But since that's not a possibility, what I'm wondering is would the board, Roger, with what your comments are, I'm open to Wednesdays and taking a quick look through our committees that we have in the community. It doesn't appear as if there is another committee that would meet the second and fourth Wednesday of the month. Would that be something the other trustees could do with their schedule, or do you prefer to keep it on Tuesdays? I'm fine any day of the week, but I, Dan, when does the RPC, when do they meet? Third Wednesday of every month is the RPC meeting. Okay, so as long as we avoid that conflict, that would be fine for you. The other thing is, I mean, getting back to the whole thing of in-person or hybrid or completely online meetings, I'd love to see the hybrid meetings continue. So going back to hybrid instead of fully remote, Amber, any concerns with Wednesdays? No concerns. Roger, it seemed like you were getting ready to say something. Thank you. I mean, obviously the consensus of the board is there, and so I hesitate to even comment, but I think I would be remiss not to. I think I understand and agree with all of all of your points, and I guess I would encourage you just as Raj said, maybe to regroup at the end in September, about Wednesdays. I would encourage you to regroup about frequency. Then I understand there's a lot pressing. I think when a new manager starts, it's a great opportunity to move to once a month. For the community, the people that potentially could be interested in running for trustee, I think it's pretty daunting to be meeting twice a month at 6.30pm. Certainly, if you have younger kids in your family, that poses a pretty serious challenge to do that twice a month. I think we probably exclude a fair number of people from considering being a trustee given the amount of time that is required. I think also it demands a lot of following from the community when you have twice a month meetings, where's the agenda, what's in the packet, all of those things. I think reducing that impact on the community to follow the meetings and what's happening. If they only have to do that once a month, I think it's better for them. In terms of the manager, as I wrote a lot of these bullet points, but I am reiterating, if you truly, which I think we've had some conversation, I think you all envision a manager who is out and about in the community, who's active regionally, who's representing us in Montpelier, who has a bigger role. I just can tell you from the last six weeks that doing meetings every other week and trying to accomplish all of those things is going to be challenging. A reduction in that meeting schedule will free a manager up to do some of those things that I think you all would want him or her to accomplish. I agree there's a lot upcoming and I think let's go ahead and tackle all these things. I think when the new manager starts, I would encourage you to at least have the conversation again and just see if things are different. I think there's never a time where everybody's going to look into the future and be like, well, we don't really have much to do this year, so let's just move to monthly. I think there's always going to be the excuse. Oh, now we have a new manager. Oh, we're in transition year. Oh, the two Lincoln renovations are actually happening. Oh, it's our first year of being a full city. We can project for the next several years all of the things that you're all going to face. I know change is hard and I know there's some personal preference of trying to reduce the length of meetings. But again, I think you're such an efficient group and I don't think it would mean double the length of meetings. I think you all would recognize that we're meeting once a month and let's try and be a little bit more efficient if our agendas are a little bit more hefty. So I said my piece and I appreciate you listening and you can move on, Andrew. Thank you. Thank you, Brad. I do appreciate all of those points that you raise and you're 100% right. There never is a good time and there will always be something coming up that makes it feel pressing and daunting with the workload. I totally hear that. So from what I think I'm hearing from the trustees is the desire to change from Tuesdays to Wednesdays, the second and fourth Wednesdays of the month, having the meetings be hybrid for the foreseeable future and when possible being able to to cancel the meetings we'd only have it once in a month. Amber? I think one of the reasons that we had put this on the agenda was to ask Brad and Wendy what their thoughts were on the remote versus hybrid. So I don't think Brad's talked about this so I'm just curious to hear what his thoughts are. Obviously not wanting to add anything more to his plate. Thanks, Amber. I appreciate that. It's fine. We've brainstormed some solutions to town meeting TVs actually willing to take on just a few little things like opening up the building and unlocking the door and locking the building at night. Some of those things that would extend the meeting for a little bit on either end. So we're good. I do want to just jump in, Andrew. I think I would almost and I know we don't have a masking in the building's policy right now. Things are getting a little more serious in the COVID realm. If we wanted to give it a month I don't think that'd be a bad idea or we can consider making those in-person attendees mask for those events. I don't know how that would work but I do know that things are going up again and what the next two or three or four weeks look like are a little unknown. So we'll talk a little more about that when we talk about purchasing masks but I'll just throw that out there for the hybrid. I am anxious to get back to doing some in-person things and regards to our meetings but I just wanted to throw that in. Thank you, Raj. I would certainly want Brad and Wendy to weigh in on if we were to require masks in the buildings just in terms of the employees who are there and what impact that may have on them. Please don't take that to mean that I'm against the topic or against having masks in the building. That's not at all the case. We just want their perspective and so if you're okay with it I'd prefer for that conversation to happen. I can talk with Brad and Wendy about that and we can go from there. So trustees anything else on this topic? If not, we do have a recommended motion. I'll move that the trustees let's see here. The trustees adopt the meeting schedule for 2022 through 2023 with meetings occurring on the second and fourth Wednesdays of the month starting at 6.30 pm and that the meetings are hybrid and then move or sorry I guess just leaving it that they're hybrid. Thank you, Dan. Thank you, Amber. Any further discussion? Please note that we can always change this should anything in the continuum of this pandemic change or otherwise this can always be revisited when necessary. Motion's on the table. It's been seconded. All those in favor, please signify by saying aye. Supposedly say nay. Great. Pass unanimously. Thank you all and going on to... Sorry, Andrew. I just don't know if you obviously the motion is passed but I didn't know if you wanted to see if there's any public comment. Oh sorry just going right through things. Yeah, if there's any members of the public who wish to address our meeting schedule please feel free to raise your hand. Not seeing any hands up. So going on to the city manager's job description and starting salary range. That's so the the two committees are working on recruitment and hiring but I think it's the role of the trustees to define the job description and the salary range for the manager. There is an existing... There are three different iterations of job descriptions included in the packet. We already have a village manager job description. I think either we should update that or adopt something else and then also talk about the salary range. There's some information here about salary range. You know currently it's way too low of what's in the personnel regs. It's listed to start at 92 and the midpoint would be 107. You could see in here in your packet there was some other communities and what they're starting at. I can tell you that Winooski just listed theirs within the last couple of months starting at 118, 750 to 134, 375. So I encourage you to try and be where is appropriate to be competitive in the marketplace and attract managers probably from smaller Vermont communities who are ready to move up or assistant managers or other folks regionally knowing what else is out there. Thank you Brad. So why don't we start with the job description or actually how about since it's first it's maybe a little bit easier just in terms of the memo. Why don't we start with the salary portion and then go into the job description. I totally agree with you Brad about ensuring that we are able to attract someone who is talented, would also feel valued and not somebody who would come into the role and then quickly leave. So yes, would want to make sure that we are competitive. Also just really appreciate that the salary would be listed in the in the posting. Don't want to have somebody opt out simply because of being uncertain. So to get the conversation started I would not be opposed to I think that I'm trying to find where I said in the memo. So with the starting salary range are you talking about sharing both the minimum to the midpoint? Okay I think saying 105 to the 130 I think that that's yeah that's a good starting point. I think that also keeps the the midpoint within what is currently budgeted. Other thoughts? That's what I thought too Andrew you read my mind. I thought that was about where and using the same logic that's about where we are right now. And that's what we paid Evan and that was for someone who was answering to two different boards. So I think that's about right. The other thing if you don't mind me just going on I think although we want someone dynamic and energetic and talented and all that the fact is is that I don't think relative to other communities I don't think the challenge of being a manager here in S-Exjunction is enormous. I think we have a pretty good track record. We have a pretty good crew of department heads and we tend to keep things on an even keel. So it's not like we got to really get out there and try to spend a lot of money because we get all kinds of problems we want some of the commitment solved. So I would agree with you that 105 to 130 is about right but I could be persuaded to go a little higher maybe. Thank you George. Who's next? Raj go ahead. Yeah I'm happy with that I was somewhere in that on that line or the one above it so and for the same reasoning. To kind of address some of what George got to we are kind of what we are. Yes we're not we're not looking for someone that needs to come in and solve a lot of problems but I'd love to take this opportunity to get someone in to do some innovation and to have some new approaches to things and and to bring some fresh ideas and bring the village in some new directions. I think that the community is excited to look at this opportunity to maybe do a little bit of re-examination over the next five or six years and really step out and define itself in really interesting ways. So I'd love to see whoever we get be able to handle the day-to-day but also as Brad alluded to having fewer meetings be out in the community and really engaging on some innovation you know some some new ideas and looking what what can you know take our take our new city and into exciting in different directions so maybe that's a lot to find in the next couple of months for the first go around but I really hope that if we get this job description and and add written well it will get some really interesting candidates that can do that. The other the one thing I did do is I because Winooski just went through this I looked up what they had put in their ad and and what they were dancing around in their job description. What is not in a lot of these examples that we have tonight is any kind of mention of you know city manager taking on the role of setting a tone of being inclusive and welcoming and the city of Winooski in their ad which is not the job description I realize said the successful candidate for the Winooski city manager will be a champion of equity and inclusion who is able to bring all voices especially those who are traditionally excluded or underrepresented into the decision-making process. I'd love to find a way to think about that in terms of the job description and what you know if we are going to try to make more time for the for this new city manager to be truly representing our community by being out in the community and and doing things outside of Essex to represent us I'd love for that person to have some stated goal around this or stated expectation. I played with some wording and I'm I'm not sure what our process is tonight if we're actually wordsmithing anything or if we're just asking if we're just being asked for input I don't know that we want to get into a wordsmithing situation but you know if if not I kind of trust Brad gets it and could could find a way to add something like that for our review later and again I'm not even sure if the recruitment and also the hiring committee have had these discussions and how they've what they've come to on this topic for that answer so it's very important to me I've heard from people in the community it's important to them certainly this work's been going on for a couple years and you know like I said we have an opportunity to do a little bit of reimagining who we can find and understanding that that you know there's a lot going on and we need and we do want to find someone good. I do agree with you Raj about not necessarily wordsmithing tonight but instead getting the general topics and trusting that that Brad and or others within the committee could take what our thoughts are and put them into paper um if we could first settle on what that minimum midpoint of salary are I think then we can transition into that conversation as to what are some other things that we'd like to see difference and or or added to that job description so I think George and Raj and I are okay at that 105 to 130 Amber Dan see it comes up from Amber Dan's flickering good I think so then yes if we want to go into that that job description side of things having some statement about diversity equity and inclusion really helping to be a champion at the same time also helping to to lead the culture of the municipality helping to lead the the staff culture and to really ensure that when somebody walks into what will be city hall that it is that that warm welcoming environment of true customer service and here to serve the community something in that range I think would be good when we talk about the the responsibilities much of it is outlined within our charter our charter definitely says what the manager's role is and so as long as we don't have anything competing against that it's it's good with me the only thing that I wanted to propose in here as well in the desired education it talks about a master's degree there are plenty of people in our in our community broadly used that phrase who don't have a master's degree and would be very well suited in this role so I would I would certainly be willing to entertain a bachelor's degree instead of a master's degree and I do appreciate how this doesn't say four to six years of being a municipal manager because again just because somebody has not been a manager does not mean they would not succeed in this role so for my only thoughts yeah I I would agree Andrew I don't think a master's degree is required and I think we would I think it'd be it falls in the realm of being desirable but not required and I think if we're I think we're we probably want to loosen up some of our other knowledge skills and abilities I think we generally put it out there but we say you know someone is an outstanding or has done an outstanding job in one field and we think they're gonna but but they don't necessarily have to have that specifically have worked as a municipal manager and I can only if I can just digress a little bit just to go back to what Raj was saying I would leave right now I think the the two committees are going to be doing a whole lot of word smithing so you may want to wait to see what they come up with they may solve your problem for you and I think the other issue that we we talked about was that we we would say in the job description that it would be someone who had been in municipal um who had been in mid municipal administration but not necessarily not necessarily a municipal manager hey George amber uh again I don't want to word smith but um one thing that I did notice that unless I'm missing it there is no mention about attending night meetings um and I know in the past um that was one of those things that we used to put in all of our job descriptions when I worked for the city and it absolutely is a requirement yes so it would definitely win the in the knowledge skills and abilities section I believe kind of where the ability to travel to meetings and other parts of the state section is Roger Dan anything else but I will just say sorry Andrea I will just say that the the town example we have here is seems much fresher than the um the last village go around um you it it it definitely read a little more um for sure current um so I'd um just add that yeah if uh the date on this is February of 2013 so it uh it's been a little while since the the village slash soon to the city has really had this opportunity um since the last to go around great so Andrew could I just I have two clarifying questions one is based on Raj's comment do you want me to build off from the town manager one I think a village manager one is is written more like an actual job description um I'd like to spice it up but I don't know how to spice it up honestly because it's just boring these things are boring and and I I I'd like it to be more attractive to people as they're reading it but honestly they're just boring so and and just to clarify you know this is the job description not the job ad so there certainly is a difference those those the recruitment committee is working on the ad which will have you know a bit more flowery language and um George could you get some spiciness in that ad definitely we're going to make it really spicy George is getting an ad copied now nice go ahead Raj I guess the only thing I'd say is is you know as far as what you asked Brad it's definitely um the town one is definitely less specific so if you see any glaring omissions um work them in I guess um to make sure that you know as opposed to the ad this is what we're going to be judging the performance of the manager on um so we need to be able to look back after the first year um and reference all of the you know all of that work um so we don't want to leave anything glaring out and we want to be specific without being you know without boring amber because once we bore amber so and my second question Andrew is based on my education conversation do you want it just to read bachelor's degree um or and then um masters preferred or desired or no comment no commentary about masters I say no commentary on it I I understand how it it may be preferred but I think that's something that we can keep to our ourselves if it is preferred personally it's not depends on that holistic view of the individual okay and my last go ahead sorry my last question is do you want me to go back and make these edits or do one that does one or two of you want to go back and make these edits I'm fine either way I just want to get your preference I would say if we're going to ask somebody to do some some good writing here I would look to one of our writers for both amber I was not volunteering to write that's that's him I don't know that hands like he did I was just gonna ask if Colleen had any thoughts on this job description it's a good thought and and maybe uh maybe she wants to volunteer to write some of this it's great to have her do a first pass especially because she's not here so we can volunteer her that's that's even better that's the rules amber I'm a lawyer come on so Brad if I can go back to one other thing I'm not sure if it was you somebody mentioned about one of the committees um possibly being involved with the job description is that the case of okay I didn't think so because if it was I was I like how one of the portions or one of the things that you let off with is that this is something that the trustee should approve and I wholeheartedly agree would want the input from from others but at the end of the day it is the trustees who will be supervising this individual who will be making the hiring decision so great okay cool um we'll make some tweaks and get this back to you do you want track changes or you just want to see a final document a final document's fine okay uh before we move away from this uh we don't get this opportunity very often are there any members of the public who wish to make any comments on the city manager job description starting salary if so please go ahead raise your hand I'm not seeing any hands up so we are ready to transition into business item 6c and to discuss the annual meeting outcomes and to personally I'll just start off with expressing my sincere appreciation to all of those thousands of of village residents who came out and voted really appreciate you doing so um whether coming out or voting in your pajamas at home in a comfort of your own couch totally understand that may have been there myself uh I greatly appreciate you doing that too um I also really appreciate the overwhelming support for things like the budget local options tax the bonds really appreciate that and it really helps us set our community up in a way that to move a lot of our priorities forward and to help make sure that things like our infrastructure are well maintained so so thank you oh and we can't talk about the appreciation without mentioning you know Susan McNamara Hill Diane Clemens and all the other of course our volunteers in general who helps to ensure that voting happened that the ballots were counted um that it was a safe environment to do so so I appreciate all of you who took time out of your day to make that happen thank you go ahead George yeah Andrew I I think one of the one of the things that jumps out about about this to me and just going back through the years is article five um you know any every time we've asked for any kind of infrastructure project a capital big you know a grant um it always gets like overwhelming approval and that doesn't I'm not trying to draw a lot of conclusions from there just just an observation I mean here got the most yes votes of anything and and that's been my experience back through the years which just tells us something that when we um it doesn't mean like we want to do this every year but when we really do feel the need uh it was a good idea to do this and the community generally whereas other things might be controversial the community really does get on board and uh and support big infrastructure improvement projects so I think that's just something to make a mental note of going forward and the other thing obviously I think probably for us the two controversial things we're going to be thinking about are the sales tax and again where are we going with that that's that's going to be a big project uh and the cannabis approval um and again how is that going to impact us I I don't really have thoughts about it but I think that these are going to be warrant some discussion and again going back to the initial point of you know more or less trustee meetings I think these are things that we are going to have to be dealing with in the very near future totally I totally agree with you George I know personally I've I've outlined a couple of things for the local options tax especially since it's something I've been talking about for quite a few years now it feels like but with that things like our board will become the cannabis control board the the local cannabis governing board and quite frankly I don't know what that means I don't know what it's going to take to do that um and so really going to need to rely on oh who is it from the CCRPC Raj I know you know who it is um but that that individual to help guide us yeah there I understand there's a group um highly represented from CCRPC that will be working diligently to provide really good info to communities um I think a lot of communities are feeling like this was an interesting time I'll say interesting to bring this up when communities are distracted and stressed from two years of COVID and mitigation and financial uh issues to um then have to implement this and consider zoning which can take an awful lot of energy staff time public input meeting time board time um I'm not gonna lie I'm disappointed that passed right now only in the sense that we had an opportunity to do it again in August when after we've been able to have these conversations and so now I feel like we ought to really move um so that we do have that understanding and we do have answers and so I know Mariah Flynn and others at CCRPC are going to be active and Dan I know you're you're over there with that board so any info you can bring back I'll be working on it on the side um and certainly welcome community input and assistance um I you know I think there's some opportunities there I just think we need to figure out where how when what does it look like how many you know that's a lot of big questions um the upside though is we got the local option tax thanks that's extension so that you know should retail sales happen and then we can leverage that a little bit for the community so so thank you for that. Bye George. Yeah just a technical question and um maybe you want maybe Raj you can answer this so in terms of the the legality of it I mean I I understand that that it's the cannabis is legal now but retail sales will be uh legal in September of this year October I'm not clear on that and does that mean that someone who anticipates opening a retail shop they can start applying for the license right away or they have to wait until October this September do you have a sense of the timing of this does anyone know? I October is the the retail sales month I don't remember the exact day we as the as the local entity and this is a very loose understanding set up that process based on guidelines provided from the cannabis control board I believe so I think there are some things spelled out and so how that works but I don't have a date as to when we're if if and when we're required to start taking applications for that um I don't know if Robin's back from um if he's here um but we we should probably when he returns maybe we can gather you know a bunch of people together not a full trustee meeting but um and just kind of have a you know a couple quick uh a couple quick meetings to figure out what the lay of the land looks like so we can proceed um and you know that might that might include someone from CCRPC might include a member of the planning commission that you know yeah just just just to be able to say okay all right so here here's the picture here are all the different elements right um and that's not a judgment on pro or con I'm just saying these things are all here are the tools in our toolbox here are the requirements here here are what retailers are going to want to know you know and so we can we can make sure it works smoothly um and at the same time we have to ask the community where in the village do you want this okay if how does that work what what is possible what isn't possible and and that's a lot of what CCRPC is trying to provide in terms of guidance um with cannabis they've made it in some ways more difficult they've identified this one particular substance and said you have to treat it a little bit differently but we have to get our heads around what that means if we try to do any zoning we probably have to do it to all adult products um which is fine I mean so that's just that's what I mean when I say we have to have a conversation we have to know the lay of the land so it's going to be some some quick research to figure out what our requirements are um I don't think it has to wait till July 1st I don't think it's a fiscal year thing I think it's once the vote happens a clock starts but I okay I don't have a hundred percent idea okay I just just a just a quick technical dumb question again so honest it does this mean um each community has it can license one cannabis retailer or could you have multiple can there be multiple retailers in one community a and b does that mean that that we would be functioning we might get if we can only have one um but we have three or four applicants and we have to come up with we have to make a decision about who gets it and we have to come up with some rational basis for making our decisions so um these are these are going to be some interesting times ahead of us I think it's multiple I have heard two different things and I haven't taken the time to look to be quite honest as to whether that's in statute from the state or whether it's in a rule or whether the community gets to decide how many I don't have I don't know I know that okay so I'm certain it's I'm almost certain it's not just one okay go ahead Amber just gonna say I remember some discussion about April 1st a start of application process um but frankly now I'm like I don't know what that means um so but I know that that was kicked around in the cannabis committee meeting um when we had the the last public forum on it so I don't know I don't know how that's how that's I really don't know what that means also but April April stuff started happening stuff was happening you know I know the state is taking prefog pre pre qualification applications from potential retailers to get them sort of pre qualified which yeah you know it's part of their process you know Brad look if you if you want to get some people together for a informal discussion I'd be happy to take part in that during the day sometime um and I can see who from the Regional Planning Commission wants to make it um I think Robin had a has had conversations with the folks at the cannabis control board so I mean that might be somebody too that we should be including oh yeah yep absolutely what can I ask what's the next process for the lot for the local option tax what's what's next in that does anybody know my understanding from here is the tax department basically needs to start collecting or needs to excuse me where I believe the beginning of our of the upcoming fiscal year is uh when it would be implemented so local businesses will need to be notified my understanding is that that actually falls within um the the state's tax department but that was just based off of a conversation with with Evan and frankly that's it's been a few months go ahead Amber I kind of recall that we needed to do some have some conversation with the tax department too about scrubbing addresses versus the town versus the village um so I don't know who's gonna have that but I think that needs to happen as well Brad let me know if you need any help with that or I assume you've all got that yeah I think we're good Jess I'll work on with Jess on that great any other takeaways outcomes it's like another boring year coming up next on the agenda going to 6d and the mask purchase purchase initiatives. Brad are you taking this one or is this Raj? Well I'll just introduce it just um of course you know even writing this memo a week ago things were different um but we passed you all passed and supported making the purchase of um masks back in January I believe uh at the time when masks were extremely difficult to acquire as of you know probably two weeks ago demand was way way down it may actually be up if we started to look again tomorrow but I just wanted to confirm that the board wanted to proceed with this purchase um and also confirm that once there are received if if we do proceed what you want to do uh in terms of distribution you know way back in January we talked about getting them here in a mass distribution chain and doing something either at the park or at this one of the schools and um making them available at different locations so I just want to I would like to refresh that conversation and make sure we're headed in the direction that you still intend. Thank you Brad go ahead Raj. Yeah I mean I'll just jump in and say you know mask mandates are gone we actually have until the end of this month if we wanted to redo another one um that's when the authority that we have expires um Brad I'd say I'd say with the way things are right now I think we should do a smaller purchase more on the you've got two numbers in here more on the lower end of the range and as opposed to a mass um a mass distribution um we'll still have to prepackage some most likely depending on what we find but we let the community know they're available make them available to as we discussed any communities at risk you know let let local child care um food shelves um certainly our employees um know that these are available and figure out a way for them to retrieve them from us um and just keep an eye on how things are going um I don't think private and public entities are responding very quickly to the latest uptick and I think um well I can speak for UVM being at UVM on campus they've acknowledged that things are getting interesting and just asking people to be careful but they haven't asked us to mask again on campus but I can tell you people are starting to do more um this would traditionally be a time where if you're doing masking when it's bad and not masking when it's okay this would be the time to start masking up but so I think we should do an initial purchase and see where things go while we can get them but certainly not not go for a you know 10 or $20,000 or 20,000 mask uh a jump I think let's let's see what we can do to put them in the hands of people that are most at risk or that feel that they want them and revisit maybe in six weeks or a month. Roger I think that makes a lot of sense um especially given the way that things are going at this point in time uh so I I will certainly support that. Trustee is there any other questions comments? I agree with uh less I think uh it's a nice gesture for the community for us to provide uh masks for the at-risk population but uh as far as spending a ton of money I mean a lot of money $40,000 worth the time when things are worse it sounds but there's really no true way to assure that the mask once they leave our point where we're giving them out that they're being used properly or just thrown in the trash. Can I can I ask Brad do you have any idea I know the community got some surgical masks through PD there was an allotment from the state for the town in the village do we know what's happened with those at all they're a different style obviously but I don't uh yeah but we we did and we had a conversation with PD and they are available and I don't know where that ended up so I can circle back on those. Well then maybe we can do maybe we can start off on the low number and combine the two and ask people which they prefer because I think those weren't just for staff they were for for the general public as well so maybe starting out with the 5,000 number combining them with the ones from PD people can get a choice do you want a KN95 or do you want a surgical mask kit you know group and then we just we see where we are in a few weeks or revisit as needed and if everything goes well we want you to do it trustee is not seeing any of your hands up you're okay with it you can go to public comment on this issue so Annie I see your hands up why don't you go ahead hey thanks Andrew my voice is really shot you guys from working I'm sorry um can you hear me yes we can hear just fine I'm really sorry so um on the regular I I'm always in a 95 okay not now not my house and I agree with Brad and Raj that the timing is really good right now to have a choice of ordering in bulk I agree with Raj with not ordering as many as original um lately I've been handing masks out occasionally when people come in and realize the numbers are up and it does not work to pass masks out that come in bulk in one container and I've recently come upon an N95 that is individually wrapped and I think is a really good idea and I'll I'll email that thank you for letting me be on the discussion I appreciate it thank you any anybody else in the public if you have questions comments on this please go ahead and raise your hand not seeing any other hands up we have previously made the motion to approve of the allotment of funding so I don't think we need another motion tonight or so our next agenda item would be tree farm contracts uh with this agenda item I would say trustees for us I'd like to have this conversation in executive session but with that said um I do welcome members from the or Brad I suppose if you want to introduce a topic I would appreciate if what we do instead is take some comments from the public if there are any members of the public who have any questions concerns or things they want to make sure that we hear um but that I think that this conversation uh from the trustee side of we should be in executive session so there are three contracts that that govern um the 99 Park Soul uh acre parcel called the tree farm on old school sister road there's a memorandum of understanding with the town of ethics and then there is a management agreement with a third party management group the tree farm management group and a lease with them on the property all of those documents were set to expire on July 31st of this year and both you and the select board passed motions to extend that to December 31st since July is the middle of their season the question is what do the trustees want to do after December 31st both boards did pass uh the same motion back in um November I think it was that um that both boards were were planning to extend um these contracts for a couple more three to four more years uh and then turn it over to municipal management by the recreation departments and so that's part of the conversation as well thank you Brad so with all that in mind uh members of the public if there are questions comments concerns you want to make sure the trustees here please go ahead raise your hand make sure you have time to talk with us not seeing any hands up uh so for the executive session what we can do is we'll do that at the end of the meeting so that that way members of the public don't need to stick around and wait for for us to come back so we'll table this agenda item and go on to six at the annual review of the ethics policy per the policy the trustees are to review it annually this is your opportunity to make any changes to the policy or just accept it as I acknowledge in the memo I think historically this this shows up in the consent agenda it's something you all read through I just in looking through it you know there's some language in in section 11 that I only bring to your attention because I don't think we're actually adhering to it and so I hate to have a policy that we're not following so I just would love for the trustees to discuss the policy overall but specifically address section 11 in terms of acknowledgments of the policy and how often it's reviewed and who needs to review it there there's a pretty cumbersome process that's outlined and it's not being adhered to so if it's your desire to keep it that way that's fine we can we can put staff on that but I would maybe appreciate some clarity if that's truly the direction we want to be going thank you for bringing this up I personally would say that I think if we do this at the time of somebody's individual appointment that that would make sense I don't personally feel the need from a either a risk management standpoint or also then those of you in the staff who would need to track this I don't feel that having this be done every year for all of us makes a lot of sense especially when this also includes our fire departments and the many members that exist there I'm imagining it would be quite be logistical neither to be quite frank Amber see your hands up go ahead I agree I think once a year or once it once when they're appointed once when you're hired is sufficient enough I think I've actually brought this up in the past that the policy itself I'm not really quite sure the distinction and why it's separated as an official employee volunteer firefighter as opposed to just municipal employee or some other definition that includes everybody because there really is no distinction in the policy I kind of I I know we there is this is marked as approved in 2021 and I went back to look at the meeting minutes just to see because I know we discussed this but frankly I can't I can't I couldn't determine why we why it was changed and what was changed there are there are typos in this I would love to see this this revamped a little bit so that it's clear it may be an end change obviously with the change of the village to the city there are some changes that need to happen in that regards how about this Amber would you like to take a first pass of making changes that we could then discuss in a subsequent meeting you know what my my customary response is going to be Colleen's going to kill me but why are the four of us smiling so big though I know you guys are so excited I I do think I'm happy to do that um well I just don't know where I don't know where that line it's like because this is this is really like I actually went on and looked at South Burlington's charter to see you know what they had for there is a specific section of this their ethics policy it just is easier to understand this is just very cumbersome so if you want me to then I'm happy to do that but I again I just don't know where that line is between what our role is and what the HR this is ours okay this is this is 100 within our purview to make whatever changes or edits we so see fit so we can we can do what we want with it yeah if we want to engage Colleen in this in this and she has a time the availability and if Brad and Wendy as the interim co-managers would like for her to spend the time that way then yeah that can happen so I would say that then uh Brad if you think it's okay for Colleen to spend some time uh working with Amber on this I think that it would be good to to update this fix not only just the typos but also just some of the logistical pieces and if there is a way to streamline this process going forward make sense great that sounds good I think it also makes sense to kind of put this on like a July one time frame so that it all kind of like happens with the transition if that makes sense yeah I think it's traditionally happened now um because when there is a new trustee that the new individual signs off on it at the same time there's also the uh the new trustee is supposed to be sworn in so I think there's there's ways that we can logistically make that work yeah I think what I'm what I'm what I'm saying is that any changes are done before so that they're implemented essentially for July 1st to coincide with the city so it doesn't change it doesn't change that that normal process per se it just changes this particular revision because if we're not we're not going to have people constantly we're not going to have people renewing this on an annual basis it's just going to be one time right when they're either appointed and or elected or hired right any other trustees have comments on this so I know that we have a couple of options for motions I think that given the work that's going to happen it doesn't make sense for us to approve of anything or to really make a motion tonight but instead Amber and Colleen will go work some some magic with this document and process bring it back at a later time thank you Amber now going on to business item 6h and to discuss city celebrations we're gonna have a party right no ah so close 6g discuss committee reappointment process I gotta head to myself so just wanting some clarity on how you all would like to proceed with reappointments there's about 11 or so people that we will reach out to to see if they're interested in being right reappointed to their existing committees and so would love just to have a clear understanding of what you would like that process to look like so we can factor that into the upcoming meeting schedule I will say one of the things that I I have enjoyed about this process is the ability to have some back and forth with candidates while it doesn't happen often there are times where just the ability to ask some some pointed questions about like for the planning commission are you in favor of the downtown redevelopment efforts and making sure that our committee members personal desires philosophies aligned with ours I think is important it's being able to to get at that in these interviews makes sense at the same time I also recognize that not everybody is good at you know coming to answers off the cuff and so I do think it may make sense for us to come up with some scripted questions to to have candidates at least be prepared to come in front of us and talk with us because I can certainly be an intimidating thing as well and want to try to make that as as easy and smooth and friendly as it possibly can be so those are some of some of my thoughts Andrew I'm not I'm sorry yeah hi George yeah so I'm not clear are you saying anyone who anyone who gets reappointment is up for reappointment we would have them come before us and we would ask them these questions or I'm not clear or only new people that were appointed I think it makes sense if we're going to appoint somebody that we we have that conversation with them okay whether it's a if it's a reappointment or not with that said someone like John Alden longtime planning commission member who we we generally know what he that he's in favor of what's going on and that conversation may be vastly different than a a new member makes sense George yeah well I I just think that for some people who have been on committees for many years like and you mentioned John and we could mention a bunch of others are you saying they are if they want to if they want to maintain their seat they're going to have to show up in front of the board of trustees and answer these questions or are you going to make this piece optional it's a good question uh I'd say let me think about it a little bit and we'd love to hear from some others as well yeah go ahead Raj well framed that way um framed that way I would worry that would come off as a lack of appreciation and and a and be taken as disrespectful for the time that they've given although I was right on the board with you um you know I can't think of anybody right now and I certainly wouldn't identify anybody anyway um you know we're we're in a weird place sometimes we have trouble getting people who want to put the time in who you know have the time to put in with the knowledge and once we have them it's awesome some people this could be an opportunity for them to reevaluate are they doing what they intended to do are they getting the work they intended to get done done is it something they really want to do um and I also question sometimes their reappointment without seeking other input from other potential candidates um I don't have an answer to that but it does strike me as a blanket reappointment without opening the position again to another candidate after a three or four-year term or whatever the term may be um you know I think that's something we should consider as well um does that do people just get reappointed even if they answer our questions or or do we open it for another interesting or interested person to come forward and say no you know like I've got these ideas for this and you know I'd like you to consider me and you know I will say that if we're going to get some diverse viewpoints and and get new people involved in general simply reappointing that the people that are already here is just going to elongate that process and we're not going to see we're not going to see any any change in that realm so I just wanted to put that out there I'm not saying one way or the other but if we're if we're not if we're not welcoming new people into the process whenever we have an opportunity I think we're in the long term we're probably shooting ourselves in the foot and again the risk is that that comes off as being disrespectful to the people that have put in the one or two or three terms and all that time enough for and are still interested and that is not the intention but it I do wonder if it should just be a pass so that's my input thanks Raj go ahead Dan um well I hear what Raj is saying making some good points for opening it up there you have the appointments to new candidates but also it could get contentious I think and for us as a board it's not like we're we don't go we go to the people for a reelection they vote and as opposed to having the reverse where a board is saying no you're you're done and but I hear what he's saying I agree we just at the start of the meeting we're discussing going to one meeting a month if you're going to go down this path and talking about interviewing people you're talking adding meetings to our schedule this is going to lengthen the process so I mean I hear what everyone's saying but on the other hand I also realize that you know it will take time does anybody have any other thoughts I guess I would say I'm fine with reappointing people through an expedited process if no one else puts their puts an interest letter of interest in let's say um and just because someone else puts a letter of interest in doesn't mean that that's the way the board goes it's an evaluation I again I don't know I'd be curious to see what other communities do um and how that works for them but my whole intention around thinking this way is to bring more people different people different voices and really identifying those seats that have been held by the same person for three or four terms and and again I don't even know if that's I'm saying this without knowing if that's you know something that is happening a lot so I apologize for not doing that homework term limits is a good thing or not so much term limits but but re-evaluations after you know it doesn't mean that they're not going to get you know we could have two people three people show up for the same seat but clearly the person that's been there is the right candidate but but to just make it a de facto thing seems odd as well one thing to I don't have the exact number so I'm not going to be able to quantify whether there are a lot of people who fit this bucket but the the zoning board for instance the the members of the zoning board have been on that board longer than I've been a trustee and so that's also a board where you need to have a fair amount of of technical knowledge to be able to to make a determination where having some level of tenure makes sense and can make a board more efficient well at the same time yes that does then mean that there are no new voices making that decision so I only offer that just as as an example that is also a a committee that is currently underappointed I don't believe as of now they actually have reformed so the so there is also that George you have your hand up yeah Andrew one one way of getting around not getting around but on the one hand getting feedback from committee members and providing that opportunity but on the other hand not you know getting around the complexity of inviting a whole bunch of committee members to trustee meetings is it might maybe what we could do is go to their meetings go to one of their meetings for example go to a meeting of the bike walk committee the planning commission and just go around the table and ask each member to answer these questions if they answered them in private or just one-on-one the way it's being proposed here that would still be it would still be a public document so I mean that might be a way to for us to achieve what you're looking to achieve here on the one hand but to make the process more efficient and maybe even be the catalyst on some of these committees to have that kind of a intergroup discussion it's just a thought also along that line what would you all think about if we were to ask for those who again this is only for reappointments and I realized my first comment was talking not it was talking about both reappointments and new appointees so I may have started things off with a confusing way for those who are who are seeking a reappointment I don't think it would be asking too much to ask them to answer two or so questions and I like some of the ones that Brad you provided here about what have you enjoyed and something around what are you like why are you seeking reappointments what is it you hope to accomplish I don't think that's asking too much of those seeking the appointments where they can submit that and at that point in time we as a board could say yep this is good we can reappoint them or we could say let's have a little bit of further conversation I don't have a problem with it it's fine if you want to do that any other thoughts on that could like to think for a little bit longer I saw Annie put her hand up and down a couple times topic to go back to public comment and I'll trust these take a moment to think so why don't we do that so members of the public if you have thoughts on this on this topic please feel free to raise your hand I'll make sure they give you some time to speak with the trustees on this go ahead any hey thanks Andrew you might be able to hear me better if you can see me um I feel like we we're in the middle of this huge thing right that we just did when I say we I mean you well we right we do this enormous thing this historic enormous change and quite frankly although it obviously will affect me as well these this discussion these questions that are being offered here you know we really should be looking at committees and perspective and what committees we need creating efficiency and getting outside the box a lot and making sure that the committees are functioning as they should should some of them be merged just like I think you should just shake that I shouldn't curse it I'm sorry shake that stuff up and and find out what yes it it might be offensive it might be confusing but done respectfully and done properly you could ask people to submit a short video that they could do on their iphone to answer these I don't know I'm making that up but really we're in a moment in time that is so historic that you're worrying now and I don't mean to be offensive because I really do respect the opinions but this is a time to do things that might be different and unique and maybe yes hard but this moment in time is not going to come again and we're you already got your so much work being done we've you our community has fortunately chosen Raj again as should be and we've got the right team in place in the trustees to to do the work that would engage our community in ways that make it clear that the committees we do have should function as they do or changes should take place or roles should change or committees should be added and I think that to not look this in the eye and do it would would not speak to who we are as a junction in all the work that we've just done for the past year and before thank you for your time thank you many go ahead Harlow yeah I I don't really see where it comes off of the being offensive I feel like doing our due diligence all checks and balances are good I kind of look at this as a review process I like some of the questions that are posed here what are two significant things that you feel like you've accomplished what you've been there what are you hoping to accomplish as you move into the future what are the things that you like about it I feel like if we're it bothers me to continue to reappoint people without doing basically a review of the work that they've done a minor review of the work that they've done and see if they're still enthused about it as Annie was alluding to we're moving into a city I think there are some big hopes and dreams and excitement and and as a resident I don't get the opportunity to go to a lot of these meetings there's so many meetings and so many different committees it'd be nice to hear somebody that's being reappointed what they feel like they're accomplishing and and what they're hoping to accomplish to move forward in a meeting that I do attend on a regular basis so um I think it's a good idea instead of just doing a blanket re-employment to have them come and introduce themselves to the to the new members to the to the city residents and to be excited about being on the board that they're on so that's my two cents thanks. Annie is that a new hand or is that a holdover? I'm embarrassed but also feel strongly that I want to mention one more thing it's a new hand can I go ahead? Harlan's statements just reminded me that when I was fortunate enough to be on the EDC that one of my ideas and goals was to bring committees together and and it would not be a bad idea in some form Harlan Harlan I don't know if that's what Harlan meant but it made me remember that a concept where there was committee crossover or committee like just something that it's just it brings energy and it brings enthusiasm to committees that might be I don't know I'm talking too much but anyway I think that anything that brings fourth committees to engage with one another and to engage with the trustees and to engage in a public space that like Harlan said we are already going to be at can only be good thank you again. Thank you Annie Rosanne go ahead and unmute yourself. Yeah I building on what Harlan and Annie had to say I also I believe very strongly that there shouldn't be any automatic reappointments that if somebody wants to be reappointed considered for reappointment this should be their part of the interview process but that all the jobs should be posted and if you don't get other candidates you don't get other candidates but if you do then you know the current person would be you know interviewed using these questions and the other folks you know whatever your standard process is but I mean you spoke about how you want you know to use the opportunity for a new city manager to be dynamic and new and changing things and I think to just automatically reappoint anybody without posting the position is not consistent with that and I would not like to see that thank you. Thank you so I'm not seeing any other hands up coming back to the trustees then go ahead Dan. I agree with the comments Annie and Harlan and Rosanne as far as having people come back to the board and it's not an automatic thing but we really you know have to sit down come up with a process make sure it's everyone's treated the same I don't want to see you know it's it's difficult you know because it's going to be addressing people volunteering to be on boards for different you know purposes whether it's bike walk or the planning commission or the zoning or the many of the other boards we have that are out there but to basically come out with the reason why somebody wouldn't be reappointed after we interview I just want to be consistent. Thank you Dan go ahead Rosh. I am unmuted I guess I would I just reiterate that I think there's a middle ground I think we you know we ask these questions of the reappointments and we open up the position but we we let the community know it's not like we're going to get an avalanche of interest unfortunately but we are now providing stipends for people to participate in these committees that word's just starting to get out they're they're modest but they're effective I think or they're there's something so yes I think we we do what's proposed here we open up we open up the possibility for other people to interview as well and we make our decision as we're supposed to and and I think it can be done respectfully provides a a check and a review and an opportunity for another conversation I think that you said and and Annie and Harlan said as well so that's the path I think we should try to go down plus I think for some of these we're going to be needing to backfill and recreate right George I mean we have a DRB and zoning is depleted so I don't know that we're talking about a huge net there's 11 half of that's probably bike walk so so yeah my process would be going through this review what's outlined here in the memo and opening the position up to see if anybody else in the community wants a shout out thank you rock go ahead George yeah I I guess my my only thought about it is is that someone may not right off the top of their head may not have answers to these questions and when they really think about them they may not have they may be perfectly happy with their committee they may be doing great things on their committee but they may not be able to give you and so give you specific answers or give you elaborate answers here and you know are they going to understand that you know there's there's a there's maybe an implication here that if you don't if you don't give us good answers maybe you're off the committee and and that's not what we're doing here so it may be the questionnaire saying we would like your your responses on these you know questions and anything else you may want to say but I'm just concerned about someone not really having a a particular answer to for example anything you think the trustee should know about your committee they may not have thought about it they may not um really have anything to say about it but that so then their their next step is just to make something up um which it doesn't do us any good and doesn't do them any good so I I mean just I'm just saying just put a little bit of maybe try to put a little bit of slack into the language so that they know um that it's it's kind of open-ended that is they don't have to give us specific and we're not this isn't a test we'll hardly agree with you just and just to go and Raj I think just to go just to just to go back to the DR the DRB and Planning Commission yeah we're dissolving the zoning board and we're going to have to basically create two we're going to have to find we're going to recruit new people um because reconfiguring the zoning board and the planning commission isn't going to get us there we're going to have to get more people in and I think it's going to be a bit of a project we're going to have to make it lay it out about what what those appointments mean and what the process is and what the difference between those two committees is so it's a it's probably a little you know it's going to be a piece of work getting all that done you know and I wonder Georgia as an aside to that if owner if it's going to take us helping to provide some training for those folks to get up to speed on what what the saw means not to mention them us but yeah I mean that's right and I think I mean if you don't mind me digressing in the middle of your your your your issue here Andrew I I do as I said before I I think it might be reasonable to get someone from the regional planning commission to come in and talk to us about it and maybe have the you know the some of the planning commissioners and zoning people and other interested parties present so we can really get a good sense of what what's one with what's the other but it is a little bit pressing because I think we do need to have this up and running by July which is in far away and look I don't want to belabor this whole topic but I know what you're saying George about not making people feel like they're on the spot though these any of the folks that are going to go through this new process should get a letter in advance saying this is what the process would be so they shouldn't be really taken off guard and anybody that can answer these three questions somebody else comes forward for an open for a for a new position that can and does it better I mean maybe that's what we're looking for honestly and I again I don't have anybody not say anybody in mind but I don't want somebody who doesn't want to put the time into thinking about answering these two or three questions to sit for another two another term on a committee that they've been on for one or two or three terms when someone else can come forward put new energy into it answer these questions in front of us and get the job done so I guess I guess there's a number of ways to think about it but I guess the bottom line is I whatever process is put forward I don't think it should just be a an unadvertised blank fine fine with that yeah so it sounds like having reappointees come back to the trip or come back to the trustees for a conversation I in the notice that they will need to come to the trustees I do think it would make sense to provide some of the questions that we see here well in advance so that that way the appointees have that time to reflect think about it talk down some notes so they can come and be prepared in an odd trip shooting from the hip plus I also think that does a fair amount of provides a fair amount of respect to these individuals to ensure that they have the time to think about it it's only fair I would say and Andrew sorry can can you just round out the rest of that conversation so it it feels clear to me about reappointments I guess I just want to clarify where we ended up so it sounded like Raj was saying we're going to advertise all positions that are expiring so all 11 positions will be broadcast community wide and then if you're interested in if you're already on the committee and you're interested in reappointment we'll send them an email with a link to a form that has these questions do you want them written or do you just want to notify them that if they're interested these questions will be asked of you I think personally I think it should be optional if somebody wants to provide written answers in advance they could do that they could do that if they want to provide a recording of themselves answering these questions in advance they could do that as well but they would still need to come to the the trustees for a bit of a back and forth in case we have follow-up questions from from their responses in terms of advertising positions that's I'm hearing the same thing that all existing positions would be advertised I think it's important to also note that for new individuals applying if somebody wants to apply for more than one seats given the fact that again as George has mentioned and we mentioned earlier with a new development review board with the vacancies that we have someone may express an interest in multiple seats and it could be good to think about where people are at and where strengths may lie and so so it sounds like there will be a standard set of questions for those seeking reappointment do you similarly want a standard set of questions for those seeking for those who are new different different questions obviously yeah and I think that what you offer here provided a good outline of why are you seeking an appointment what would you hope to accomplish those kinds of things with concerns do you have that you know these are these are the starting points these shouldn't be the final questions there there may be something that somebody says and we absolutely have that capability to further question the individual about what it is that they are saying in case something else comes up and sorry I just want to make sure I get this all right and then so with those those two or three questions for new applicants um you want do you want those answers in writing or again you just want them to know that these are the questions you would welcome them to submit submit them in in writing or do a video but either way they will be coming to the trustees and these these will be the areas of interest yeah yeah they can submit them in advance if they'd like if they do it doesn't help if they don't it doesn't hurt so I knew that would work you know I guess I'd say for some of those questions Brad you know that's sort of like some of that is what you'd expect to see in their cover letter request to to be considered you know I mean it's not and that's that's sort of how it could be phrased for people that are applying for an open position please include in your cover letter or your letter of interest you know some of the following information you know like it doesn't have to be a short answer quiz but it you know we'd be interested to hear why you're interested which what experience you may or may not have what you'd like to do with it blah blah blah trustees any final comments on this thank you Brad for bringing this forward sure yeah we'll probably bring it back next month just to make sure you're good with with how we're going to proceed great so going on to the next agenda item we have the city of Essex Junction celebration in 6h please excuse this very brief memo work requirements did not allow for much elaboration but basically what I was trying to get at here is that I this is again this is a once in a lifetime once in a hundred year opportunity I think this is absolutely a time where we may want to make a big deal out of this so the creation of the city of Essex Junction where we have had many many community members who have put in their own time and effort to help make this happen and I'm sure we want to be a part of of helping to to celebrate this opportunity and to celebrate this this accomplishment so where we are I also know that I think all the trustees were copied in an email from from our village our voices and that's members from our village our voices are absolutely interested in helping to be a part of of crafting this process and helping to figure out where we go from here we just want to have this time be an opportunity to get this conversation started as to what we as the trustees would like to see happen in this effort Mike things off I'll kick I'll kick things off Andrew by two thoughts I mean I think obviously a big community celebration would be awesome and terrific I'd like to just throw out the thought though for the trustees and staff for us and for the staff it's been a rocky three years maybe even a little bit longer than that and I'm wondering if there'd be any interest in just having in addition to the community celebration and all the people who helped get us here if at some point we don't want to just have a reconnecting event between trustees and staff to talk about this and you know as a separate celebration or set just a separate get together and I'm not wedded to the idea I you know since we're just being creative I just thought I'd throw that out there the other thing I note is that July 1st which is when we officially become a city correct is a Friday how fortuitous you know so Friday is a great day for a big celebration so just that wouldn't be a bad idea July 1st like a our own local independence day that's why we did it for 2020 for this year because it's on a Friday that's right all together with regards to the staff celebration from those that I have heard I have heard a lot of a lot of joy in terms of where where things are going some weight being lifted off of the shoulders for sure I would be very supportive of it as long as staff wanted it I wouldn't want it to feel like you know the the force party with a boss for those who have had that fantastic experience but rather the opportunity to truly celebrate should be a celebration it shouldn't feel forced so I'm all for it if there's a way where it wouldn't be forced right yeah just we talked with the leadership team and and our planning to do a staff celebration probably on the Friday of the week that the governor signs and we would be more than happy to have the trustees there and it would not feel awkward here you're not an awkward governing group so we would welcome it oh we were okay no Roger awkward in other ways for that just right right those ways go to Amber I love the idea of having the community gathering either at Maple Street hot dogs burgers my only question would be because we are budding up against the 4th of July which is a large event for staff is this going to is that going to pose any problems I was going to bring up EPD for instance like what kind of notice and situation with that put them in with with the fourth being three days away I love the idea of OVOV taking this on as a planning process we probably need to give them a budget from what I saw I I do believe that they would be more than happy to again want to thank you for ever bringing this up to the screen I mean one of the things that I do want to make sure with this is OVOV was created in a way to really take us out of decision making and to take us out of the planning process I am certainly not opposed to doing that this again it we're never going to get to have this opportunity again so if the trustees do want to be involved I want to make sure that you all we all have that opportunity to be involved should we want to so I want to make sure that we had that intentional conversation so didn't want to take that away from anybody maybe the way we could do that Andrew is to have them come up with some ideas we can all think about some ideas they can present what they're thinking to us soonish and we can come to some kind of a you know hey that's a great proposal have you thought about this if we even have any input and what do you think the proposed budget would be for that and then we can because again I'm assuming they're going to need some money this this celebration will need a budget so maybe they'll need that in in advance or a ballpark in advance I can't think of myself I can't think of how I'd want to be involved except to maybe include some kind of cornhole tournament but you know I think I've been promising that in one shape or way shape or form for three years um didn't work as bribing the merger decision but you know I think we also promised to keep us I was totally just going to say that it did make some killer chocolate chip cookies today this is why we're going to have hybrid meetings they're like this big so uh I'd be happy to to reach out to Elaine um and others from our village our voices what do you think about do you think proposing having them come say maybe May 11th would provide enough time to have them do some initial brainstorming come back with some proposals and we can talk through that then I think that works I think your comments Raj about a loose budget would be helpful I mean it's one thing if you're planning a party with two thousand dollars and it's another if it's with 20 I did reach out the village people are 35 to 40 000 for a concert in case you're interested in bringing them in very very interested forget the masks I I think just a general ballpark would be helpful for planning purposes um Brad how much how much would fireworks be for for that do you know um our current show is now up to I want to say 14 000 a year which is a pretty decent show at this point does anybody think it would take away three days in a row or three days apart or would that be I mean this is like a once in a hundred plus year thing you know and and of course that would be you know even more of a logistical issue and probably involve it the fire department there's some questions there about like feasibility for and of course you know that July 1st means it's the new agreement with the police department so what does that mean for a special event we didn't warn for EPD and the agreement um that agreement won't be in place yet so you're still good for the transition year oh that's right that's right 2023 well one other thing is dependent on weather obviously and a rain delay ties it around the same time as potentially the fourth of July and then we need to be I mean whatever I you know who knows yeah something to consider these are some some good initial thoughts um so yeah I will reach out to our village our voices in the meantime uh trustees if you have other thoughts or ideas is the things that we could do to help celebrate until I first uh if you want to to send them to myself I'm happy to filter them out from there right look forward to this opportunity Brad did you need a number tonight or do today can they come up with two do you think you got that could is it something they could be like you know this is 15 and under and this is 20 for 25 I mean are those numbers are those numbers even realistic for us as a group where would that come from not any economic development I mean you start you have ARPA um so you have 3.2 million in ARPA um what if I I think I think getting a pulse of the board right now as to what you would be comfortable I mean if they come back with a $40,000 budget are you are you okay with examining that or do you need it to be somewhere different I think being clear about that just changes the entire conversation when they're planning I think I'll speak for myself just to get it started I think that this is that once in a lifetime once in a hundred year opportunity this will not happen again um I think if we were to start off or to say you know not to exceed a 40,000 I think that that's that that's worth it because it's money will spend time will spend the other thing I just wanted to mention again when we talk about that that penny on the tax for economic development it's about downtime revitalization and so we need to be mindful of is would that align with the intent for me I think I'd rather stick with use of the ARPA funds I'll just speaking to what Andrew said for a for a amount I guess I'd entertain a let's see what that proposal would look like and judge it based on what what's in it and see where we go from there what does that sound like is that just too much or or I think that it makes sense to get that conversation started with that see what it can result in if all that that means is we can only get the village people then I don't know I think we need something else great I think that's I think that's very helpful for them great I know there uh at least Gabriella's here and there may be other members of the public that want to speak if you guys are good Andrew yep took the word right out of my mouth if there are members of the public who do wish to address this topic please raise your hand I'll make sure that you have the time to talk to the trustees about it I'm not seeing any hands going up this was for discussion purpose only so no need to make a motion going back to the agenda that brings us to the end of our business items and so we are on to the consent yeah consent items I think I heard amber go first somebody want a second I'll second thank you Raj any further discussion yes oh it's a sure sign of spring when the trustees have to approve mr dingelings vending permit and I just I mean Raj right am I right okay I just wanted as long as the dingelings bring in the warm weather I'm good I mean it would it would not be springtime if we weren't approving this permit so I just wanted to point out it's great to see it back absolutely great any further discussion all in favor please signify by saying hi those opposed please say thank you great so pass unanimously now we are into the reading file for a number of comments the only thing I wanted to mention I've been asked quite a few times over the last few days about when the governor's went to sign off on age 491 whether it's at this desk yet just a general updates and as of this afternoon it is the bill is still going through the process that it needs to go through to get to the governor so as of now it is still going through the very normal process this is not any kind of a delay but it's working as process from this from the legislature to the governor's desk so that five day clock has not yet started those were all my comments George go ahead yes I thanks Andrew I soon McCormick must have been reading my mind because I was going to ask and Sue sort of reassured me this was the right thing to ask and it has to do with the pocket park in front of the firebird we as far as I know where we left off we own the property we have a plan we have the money and Andrew as you just said it was money that was designated for downtown improvements and in fact I went and looked at the initiation of that fund and it was for improvements in the downtown in the village center such as pocket parks so that it was specifically mentioned so as I understand it this went to for the final approval it went to Rick Hamlin's office for just for engineering approval and then it was supposed to come back to us but that was several months ago and it hasn't come back so I would like to to I would like to make a request that we have something on our next trustee agenda about this either do we have the do we have the the the Rick's final plan to move forward with if not when can we expect it and what exactly is holding it up so I would like to make that specific request because boy wouldn't it be great to get that done this year and and finally have and as I as I've said and as Sue pointed out we have to provide public space you you can't do renovation and be bringing all these people and have this residential density in our center and not try to provide some kind of public space so we need to do it it's good planning it's something we committed ourselves to a long time ago it's time to get it done so please can we try to get that on the agenda for our next meeting thanks thank you George any other trustee comments Brad anything you wanted to to raise from your perspective I should have made a list but we have a candidate for the communications and strategic initiatives director position who has accepted and she is planning to start on May 2nd her name is Ashley Snellenberg and I will get some more information out to you and we'll work on a press release she is moving with her family from Arkansas and so we're very excited to have her her the bulk of her experience over the last eight years or so has been as a communications person for a couple of different school districts so not exactly municipalities but obviously similar line of work in terms of public communications that's probably the most interesting and pressing thing to share at this moment appreciate that Brad thank you for the update it's wonderful to have more people come into the community call it home and call it a place to work so if there is nothing else we have one last agenda item that we will be doing in executive session thank you for putting these motions on the screen somebody want to go through and make these oh go ahead I move that the trustees going to move forward recognition the matter of the executive session following recommendations I move that define that premature general public knowledge regarding the village's contracts for the tree farm facility with the town of Essex and the tree farm management group would clearly place the village at a substantial disadvantage because the trustees risk disclosing its negotiating strategy if it discusses if it discusses the contract terms in public and then the second motion if you want me to do that run right now I keep going okay I move that we go into executive session to discuss the contracts for the tree farm facility with the town of Essex and tree farm management group under the provisions of title one section 313 a one of the Vermont statutes and include the interim man co-managers and AGR EJRP grounds in facilities director Dan is there a second I'll second thank you George any further discussion on those two motions hearing none all those in favor please signify by saying hi hi I was supposed to say nay so passing unanimously uh so public we're going to go into the executive session we will adjourn right from there so no need to stick around thank you all for coming out tonight and enjoy your good rest of your evening