 Thank you for your patience All right, we will reconvene our city council meeting the next item on the agenda is public comment So this is a time for anyone in the public who wants to discuss any items that are not on the agenda today Agendas are available at the podium in the back and there's also a sign-in sheet for we ask that you please sign in So we know who's here who makes comments I Mean if you want to see oh, yeah, yeah, that's great their community My birth name is ebony Kirkland My god-given name is freedom. I Would like to congratulate all the wonderful capable and dedicated candidates elected into their new offices a Special congratulations to Christine lot for becoming the first woman Elected as mayor of Winooski Congratulations, I would also like to go all over one of the residents of Winooski who voted for me However, my running was way bigger than me Thus the title of my speech in the midst of Woman's month is inspired by a sojourner truth ain't I a woman this was delivered by sojourner truth in 1851 Akron, Ohio at the woman's convention Well children where well children where there is so much racket there must be something out of kilter I think that the Negroes of The south and the women of the north all talking about rights the white men It's pretty but what's all this the man over there says that women need to be helped into carriages and Lifted over ditches and to have the best place everywhere Nobody ever helps me into carriages or over mud puddles or gives me any best place Ain't I a woman? Look at me Look at my arm. I have plowed and planted and gathered into barns and no man could head No man could head me and ain't I a woman I Could work as much and eat as much a man when I could get it and Bear the lash as well and ain't I a woman I Have born 13 children and seen most Sold ought to slurry and when I cry with my mother's grief None, but Jesus heard me and ain't I a woman? Then they talk about this thing in the head. What's this they call it? Members whisper intellect That's it, honey What's that got to do with women's rights or Negroes rights if my cup won't hold but a pint and yours holds a court? Wouldn't you be mean not to let me have my little half measure full? Then that little man in black there He says women can't have as much rights as men Because Christ wasn't a woman Where did your Christ come from? Where did your Christ come from? From God and from woman Man had nothing to do with him If the first woman God God ever made was strong enough to turn the whole world upside down all alone These same women together ought to be able to turn it back and get it right Side up again and now they is asking to do it the men better let them Ablides to you for hearing me and now old sojourner and got nothing more to say Please take into consideration the many residents That were excluded from the voting process I and others are personally Invested in working with the city to ensure that all voices in Winooski have opportunity to sit Six and from 2012 so the numbers go higher The black population in Winooski is somewhat about 4.5 percent native American point 3 percent Asian 11.6 percent Two or more races 1.4 percent Hispanic 2.8 percent non-white totals over 20 percent at least Immigration population which includes white people totals over 18 percent non-English speaking residents total 19.3 percent or I'm sorry. I don't want to get the figures wrong Multiple language speakers total 19.3 percent and None of them well, maybe one There's a lack of effort there's a lack of Accountability to be on just getting yourself on on the council on the ballot Help other residents not just hear from them what their needs are help them to make it on the council seats Because this is sojourner truth hundreds of years ago, and I'm reading a Speech that she wrote hundreds of years ago, and it's just as relevant as today. Ain't I a woman? Thank you Thank you ebony your sentiment is duly noted I think that we now that this election has passed it's time to Re-indigrate efforts on the all-resident voting committee that we established last fall and get the ball rolling there Awesome committee, thank you. Thank you Anyone else for public comment? All right, we will move on to the consent agenda On the consent agenda this evening We have approval of the minutes of the Windows community development trust or trustees February 19th and council minutes of February 19th and 26 Approval of warrants ending March 8th, 2019 payroll February 10 to 23rd, 2019 and subsequent to payout January and And an in gate approval of an engagement letter agreed upon procedures audit for tax increment financing district Is only one person in this approval No, as because of the change over of elected officials you actually retroactively approve their minutes as well All right, so I would entertain a motion to approve all three items together so second Motion by house second by Jim motion carries We will move on to city updates. Thank you So this is a section of the agenda at the beginning of each meeting where I give you an overview of things happening in the city and Share any important updates for the council or the community So I have a number of those tonight First I want to remind you and I'm going to remind you again later on is meeting about our April 6 equity and inclusion Summit that's a Saturday. It is a day-long conversation with formal and informal leaders from across about How we best represent folks who may not be at the tables where we are making recommendations and making policy decisions So I hope that's on your calendar. We had a great planning session today with the facilitators the facilitators for that are Summa Cormick and Keisha wrong who both have extensive experience with such training Last two weeks ago, we issued RFP for a wayfinding sign plan So that's a plan to better orient folks to the community to parking to our public infrastructure The responses to that are due on Friday And this is an effort that we are funded for through a grant from the agency of commerce and community development Heather and I are going to the AARP conference on Wednesday around place-making. It's being held statewide conference being held in White River Junction And we are presenting on the Main Street That was this summer and other place-making activities that were being as a community So we're one of three communities being highlighted Last week Eric Borewald and John Rauscher and John Audie implemented a new Permitting Form integrating all three types of permits so building permits owning permits and public works permits into one form We hope that this really improves the customer experience when they come into the city to get a permit and may not know exactly what they Need it kind of walks them through that process in one place as opposed to having to ask for separate forms And then improves our back-end processing as well And then a bunch of updates from community services last week Ray and Alicia and Lauren from the Newsy parks district We're in Chattanooga, Tennessee as you probably read about we got a we were one of ten communities from the National Parks and Recreation Association That will really focus on park-wide open space planning in the city as well as accessibility in our parks So they were down there for three days for a grant orientation training And sadly mistown meeting day, although I believe they all voted ups and teeth Community garden plot registration opens to the public on Friday the 15th So if people are interested in getting their community garden plots for the first time registration will be Friday You can learn more on the website The play the move play connect play group for preschool kiddos is going swimmingly this Winter so that people are looking for things to do Fridays through May from 9 30 to 11 at the OCC come and bring your kiddos and participate in that and then finally Rays team is launching a girls rock Vermont program Really a program geared towards musical education learning about music instruments composition All aspects of music so encourage people to look for that So for all ages 10 to 18 Thank you. Thank you So the next item on the agenda is city or I'm sorry council reports So this is our chance as members of council to share any updates. We have Event you attended a meeting you had anything that you've done relevant to your role as a member of council Obviously, you just most of us just started tonight, so I'll start with how no record of this time. All right, so that concludes the council update section Yes Our next Ones for discussion we will first start with city council orientation which Jesse will lead us in So welcome officially Very excited they have the whole staff. We are very excited that you all are here So this is really going to be the kind of meat and potatoes of tonight's meeting and thank you for accommodating the kind of special Special meeting off our regular schedule Because there is a lot going on in the city and we already know that next meeting is going to be a pretty tight agenda We wanted to leave some real space and airtime tonight to walk through a bunch of expectations So I'm going to walk through this presentation and Christine and how as we've both served before feel free to jump in as well I also want to draw your attention to the Binders that are on your desk So these are meant to be resource books for you within this Within this Charter which is our kind of founding document the presentation from this evening Several other resources that we think might be useful to you in the next in the kind of initial three to five months One of the things the last item in this agenda The second to last item in this agenda is a toolkit that my professional organization the International City and County Management Association Puts together for newly elected City council people and select people and I encourage that so that's a national publication Encourage you to take a look at that at your convenience as well So if you have any questions about this book happen to answer them But meanwhile I will jump into this Presentation so I'm going to walk through this tonight again You have it in front of you on your technology, but it's also in your binder I'm going to talk a little about who we are as a community walk through council protocols But you can see how we are legally and manage the different authorities we all have How you communicate with staff and to outside organizations? I'm going to get a very high-level overview of your fiduciary responsibility. We'll have many more conversations about that in the future Talk a little about who we are as staff and then go over our big current big projects and emerging issues So we've been starting with this value statement and most of our public presentations in the last couple of months this came out This is the Statement we heard from the community as part of our branding and marketing process The story we heard from others about who we are as a community. I think it's a really beautiful statement So I try and say it a lot as a leadership team to remind us of who we are and who others think we are So I'm going to take a moment to read it For almost a hundred years when you ski has welcomed strivers people looking to build a better life for Their families small Where all of our kids learn together play together grow together We're a community where everyone can participate in city government in neighborhood gatherings and in our lively downtown We're always striving to improve our city and to welcome our next new neighbors And then of course for those who have been on the council for a while this strategic vision is very core to how we do business so this Strategic vision also posted behind you So we always remember it was adopted in 2015 by the at that point council it outlines the areas of policy focus that The council feels are important and that we use in a shared way between council and staff to prioritize our work to identify a So not only is this been really critical for us as a staff team to guide our work and guide how we prioritize our efforts We've also you'll see coming up as well We've aligned our upcoming master plan to these areas as well So it really outlines the focus on our shared focus on Economic vitality municipal infrastructure housing and safe healthy and connected people How and Christine, I don't know if you want to say anything You'll see this again in the planning the master plan I I would just say when I joined the council last year. I found this really helpful to go back to Just kind of guide my thinking and decisions on things And I found it very helpful as we went through the budget process This is the guiding So having worked in several municipalities We all think we're very special important, but when you see really is very special important for a number of key reasons You probably know most of these but I think it's important to you know To Ebony's point earlier to remind us of who we are and who's at the table and who's not at the table So we were the most densely populated city in northern New England for the most diverse city in Vermont We have this shared value of being welcoming and I think that really tracks back in my experience here here in the last couple of years I think really tracks back to waves of immigrants over the history of our city So even when you meet folks who have lived here potentially for generations They often still identify as You know K-Beckwa or Irish or something like that and hear that we you hear the stories of where their families came from We have a strong sense of volunteerism and restorative practices as you know In terms of municipalities in Vermont, so our hundredth birthday is coming up in 2022 We used to be part of Cold Chester so the other reasons were Quite unique in the state is we are bucking a lot of the trends that other communities in this state are Experiencing so I won't read all of this, but it's here for your For your resource so what we're getting younger So while the average age in the state is I think we're hovering between 34 and 36 at the moment We're actually dropping from 33 in 2000 to 31 and a half now We also are growing so our population is Growing over time whereas a lot of communities you hear about in Vermont are shrinking We have So that that is not a comment on immigration is really a comment on where our residents were born And we hail from 20 different countries One of the significant ways we are very different from other communities in Vermont is we have a more Higher percentage of our neighbors who rent than own that 6040 split in Winooski So 60% of our residents rent versus 40 who own Is the reverse in most of the rest of the state? And then our household income has actually been increasing at a far more modest rate 4% since 2010 As compared to 12% in Chattanooga County as a whole and Vermont as a whole and 20% in Burlington So we are Kind of maintaining our affordability and population mix So I'm going to shift For a little bit and talk about our you as counselors and our protocol for the city council what you can expect And how we kind of function as an as an organization So as you know, you have a mayor and four counselors So three members of your body is a quorum. You need three votes to make a positive vote to approve something Request for agenda items must be submitted to the mayor and I by 430 the Thursday before meeting So if we have a meeting on Monday, and you have something you want to get on the agenda that needs to come in 430 before The mayor and I then finalize the agenda for distribution each Friday before a council meeting you will get a council packet for each agenda item you will see a Cover page like this. This is something we implemented a couple of years ago You have a bunch of them in your packet today This allows a quick snapshot of what we are presenting before you so as part of that Coverage sheet you will see the name of the agenda item who's submitting it whether it's a public works item or a community services item or item for me You will see any legal Issues you need to think about financial Implications and then a short paragraph on the background. We often include in there as well a recommended motion So if it's something we want you to take action on we will flag for you This is what we're hoping you will do for that. Obviously. It's always your call How you choose to move forward we found that this Template really helps kind of get information out clearly that Document is usually followed by a memo or a presentation or a contract or another document that we are asking you to take some action on It's our way of not just you 25 pages of a contract and asking you to do something with that without being very clear about what we're asking Does that make sense? Yeah, and I would add like you'll see on the agenda Often we'll have something for discussion first and then the approval might come at a later date just so there's time to address it and if you notice earlier Motions are always in the affirmative. So like a motion to to pass the item and then a first somebody makes the motion and somebody seconds it and then The I or no vote at the end Does that make sense? so we We In our state and our city around being transparent and doing things in accordance with state-open meeting laws and in accordance with Public records laws. So all so the the thing to really keep in mind here And again, we've tried to share with you a bunch of resources is The debate and decision-making that you all do really needs to take place in the public's eye So to the extent that you to the extent that for example, I am sharing an email with you all that's a resource I am doing that is a Information sharing what should not then happen is you all to engage in an email discussion about Whatever the question is and then come and sit at this table and make a decision that discussion about How you all approach a topic what policy call you might want to make what? The exception for that of course is executive session so state statue has a whole list of Opportunities for you to enter into an executive session to share things with me to share things with you or vice versa and discuss That would otherwise put Our decision-making at peril if we're to happen in public session. So examples of that are Lawsuits where we are trying to settle or negotiator come up with a strategy an example of that or is Negotiating employment contracts negotiating contracts with our union things where there's an active discussion going on with another party That we want to have a discussion about internally first All with for city business always use your I should thank you all now have been set up with your When you ski at email addresses Courage you to all those any city business Those are city properties. So to the extent that You are ever to leave service that information is saved with the city and can be queried in the future for public information requests for example The last thing I want to say about this about email is Again be careful of the reply all but also Don't be afraid to share information. So if there is you will see emails from me with A newspaper article or a story or a report that we've issued or something like that That's totally acceptable and fine to share with each other. We can also do Meeting scheduling by an email That does not violate any Clarification if there's background that we feel we don't have is that something that can be done over email So that's absolutely something that can be done over email my Because and I'll talk more about this in a little bit, but because I work for all five of you I don't work I work for you as a collective body not individually, especially in the early days If you are requesting information that I think might be useful to everybody I might share that I might respond to you with everybody included Really our goal is to make sure you have the best and the right and the accurate information you need to make decisions So a hundred percent if you have a question if you need additional information about something Feel free to shoot me an email and I will get back to you on that if it's a question about like Oh, can you remind me what time that April 6th meeting starts? That's I will just email you back and get that answer to you Yeah, please this is meant to this is for you guys so interrupt me as much as you want About avoiding an instance where three counselors are present. Obviously, this is a small city if we are Say we're all at a restaurant or a bar should one of us leave or how does that situation? resolve itself so Again, the point here really is to not make decisions not at this table So if you're all at a restaurant or a bar or party or you know, Winooski Wednesday or event in the city I would encourage you to all stay and be present and enjoy your lives and enjoy each other I would encourage you not to be like hey Christine I want this item passed and this is how I wanted to go and Jim are you with me? How are you with me? That's what you should not That's what you should be avoiding if you're there with your family and friends and having a good time. That's absolutely fine The reason I word it like this is you will see instances where We would like you all to participate in something that could inform a future decision But you're not taking action at that time to cover ourselves. We mourn those opportunities So for example on April 6 at our equity summit We will be warning that as a massive public meeting because there will likely be quorums of you all and the planning Commission and the public works Commission and others So to cover ourselves. We want to tell the public this thing is happening with our Elected and appointed officials if you want to come and observe that you are welcome to But no actual decision of any kind of policy Question is being contemplated Jesse if we're at the same bar and We the others can you're able to answer that question or do we have to not answer? I mean how would that work? So I think if I I think that I Think you should always at answer residents questions No matter if they're in the booth next to me, not my family. Yeah, so it's really intent It's really the how do we ensure to the public that we are holding their trust that we are making the best decisions We can make that we're making those decisions with an opportunity for the public to weigh in And to come to a warm meeting and have their voices heard So as long as you're not undermining that potential again, it goes back to the like You know, you know, you're gonna vote on the master plan next week So after this meeting you're all going over to keys and deciding if you're gonna approve the master plan or not That's what you want to avoid If we are enjoying whatever and And Somebody asks you. Oh, what happened at council last night? You know, that's that's a public record unto itself and you are welcome to answer that question It's really maintaining that how Always ask your question. Are you doing something that the public could proceed perceive as violating their trust? Helen Christine, do you want to like share how you've made this work in the past? Well, for me, I just remind myself, you know, the meeting happens here not out on the parking lot So as long as we're having discussion and making decisions here, we're good to go Yeah, and if you're sure you're sharing information that's already happened or decisions that have already been made I think that Is not made like To somebody who asks you then that could be problematic. So to a certain extent this is another way to look at that same Transparency ethical perspective. So we have a conflict of interest policy. It's before you tonight for discussion You can talk more about in detail But the the general point of this and the the standard we have held ourselves to in our charter and in past policies Is that no public officer of the city of Winooski will gain a personal or financial advantage from serving in their role as counselor? so to the extent that you Are discussing a decision that you personally would benefit from You are encouraged to recuse your Discussion we do have a whole And it's before tonight's question about how you make that determination about whether something benefits you personally or financially and then you're The process in your role of recuse You are a self-governing body in that so to the extent that you Feel it like you have a conflict and and share that with each other and you as a body believe that that either solely by sharing it kind of dispells that Personal challenge or that it's not a real it could be Perceived as a conflict, but it's not a real conflict You are allowed to continue as part of that discussion if it is something that you are really conflicted in You know, you have a family member who works for a company. We're giving a contract to for example You are asked to recuse and really that means you leave the table. The debate happens without you the vote happens without you Committee member was the city disbanded and we're now the Myers pool Foundation put some of volunteer of I don't know if that If I have to resign From that to be on the council to hear all the information from the pool as you know, it's going to be a big project this summer I don't know how the council feels about that as well. They don't want to jeopardize any decisions I make or If I need to resign like or I'm just a volunteer, so I don't know That's where I don't know where that conflict Ends our enters. Yep So I think that's a great conversation and I think a great example of something that should be Disclosed to the body as a whole and then the body could have a conversation again about it You know going back to the again the corn and at the intent of this Policy and Apply generally is is there a personal financial benefit to you? I Haven't heard for me personally if I was on the council making this decision I haven't heard a description from you about how you are personally financially benefiting from being on that Serving in both roles, but there could be one that's the council may want to vet So I think it's again really the intent is disclosure discussion and then making a decision. I also want to caveat for a minute to say There is a state ethics commission that currently serves currently provides over provides oversight to Ensuring the ethical behavior of our statewide elected officials There's some open question about the applicability of that to municipalities broadly speaking for These individual policies and Julie is actually the chair of that statewide commission So if we get into real hot water, we have her expertise to call on as well The other example have of it too is because we're fundraising and I'm part big part of that as well So I just don't want to get myself in hot water. I don't want to Get the council not water Because I'm gonna be going out fundraising, but on a separate entity not as a counselor But as a Myers pool foundation volunteer So So again, I think that's a that's a determination for the five of you to make You know, I think one of the things I think Mike, you've heard us as staff talk about before is We as staff have a real resistance to doing fundraising in our community because we require Paying tax and so to say you are hired to pay your property taxes and oh by the way while you're paying for those Give us more money for these other things I Think the same holds true a little bit for counselors of if you are making decisions about how much to raise a property tax rate for To fund projects in the community What's the then additional role to go out and fundraise? Certainly elected officials across the country fundraise for things and fundraise for projects and fundraise for libraries and Parks and prior and other priorities. So I think generally speaking. There's no Prohibition about that, but it's how you as a council want to in this very specific case So I'm gonna switch a little now and talk about our shared authorities So we function as so forgive my dorkiness. I get read some of you know, I get really dorky about municipal government We have what's called a council manager form of government, which is Different than for example, Burlington, which has what is called a well. It's traditionally called a strong mayor form of government so in Burlington the mayor is the CEO of the city is the executive hires and fire staff Is in charge of operations, etc In our form of government You all are elected and you hire me to run the city So in that form of government, there is Already she's very prescribed in our Spool charter copy of in your binder. So these slides are taken pretty much exactly from the charter document And I would encourage you to read that at some point So starting with the mayor the mayor is a member of the council the specific duties designated given to her as Holding that citywide role She is the presiding officer of your body She chairs and sits on the strategic planning commission. So for us, that's the planning commission So she is the liaison from your body to that group Um, and she primarily acts as the liaison between your body and me and therefore the rest of the staff as well as other government entities and Independent agencies so to the extent that your body is going to speak to some to The state, you know the legislature or state agency or whether elected official That is done through the mayor's role You as a body again so We've got we caveat Tangent for a minute. So we have gone through not only a rebranding initiative or a flipping the switch on branding this week We've also transitioned technology and so the current technology. I am on does not support the new font So for this is why it's coming Please do not tell Paul. Sorry. He will be very mad at me for showing you this presentation If you look at it in your notebook, it is correct. So forgive me for that. Sorry Paul So this is so as a collective body the five of you share this authority So I the way I think about this in my mind is you have three primary roles You And you tell people what they can do with their property through zoning or other land use regulations So if you think about those three as your major responsibilities in the city most other things fall under that So that includes adoption and repeal of ordinances personnel policies You provide for resident participation through our boards and commission processes. You appoint people onto boards and commissions Can you set up the city's organizational structure with me through our annual budget process? So the roles you technically appoint are the city treasurer The city attorney or firm that is currently paul franken collins our auditors And a health officer who's currently chief body Your body also serves as several other bodies in the city. So not only do you serve as a council I know you also serve as the board of health and we're both the board of What's your commissioners personnel board members of the board of civil authority And you are the trustees of the winewski community development corporation I am not under asking you to understand all of this tonight. I just want you to have heard these words So when we come back to you for example in an hour and ask you to convene as a liquor commission You understand that it's the same group of you but functioning as a different body so Other authorities you have Are you provide the link between you will be assigned to a Commission or an operational area and you'll be kind of the key Link between that service area and the council In that role you often help us think through financial proposals those liaisons to commissions you also On a rotating basis rate a piece for the school newsletter um, I think one of the things to really Keep in mind about your authority as a council Is that the authority you have exists in the body of you and not any one individual? So while the direction you can provide is by a vote of the whole not an individual direction I'm going to come back to that a little more in a minute. Um So this is uh outlines my authority. So as your primary staff person You hire me to be the chief administrative officer of the city in that role. I Hire staff manage staff I am ultimately For all budget oversight and reporting For all the implementation of all long-term planning I also per our charter serve as the emergency management director and personnel director So within my authority is appointing these positions So it's essentially all of our department heads as well as our staff who have some kind of other statutory authority So this gets really This idea of this shared authority between policy level authority and operations authority Is something that we will dance back and forth on Very often and through every meeting likely So I find this over my time in these kinds of roles. I've found Helpful to think if you think this three pillars So the pillar is the work we will do together. So we will set citywide A citywide mission or values will set policies that help us implement that mission We will make administrative decisions to Um affect that the operations of those policy decisions And then we will manage that work to make sure it's done well If you think of the left side of the screen as the roles that you all have in each of those categories You can see how those are defined and then the right side is my role with the rest of the leadership team So for example setting the mission of the city or where we want the high level direction of where we want to go That's it's almost solely with you all you all are responsible for telling us High level direction What can we do what is realistic within the humans we have on staff within our legislative authority Etc. So we may provide some guidance, but ultimately that high level direction is on you Um as opposed to the management of that work, so you've set the vision We're going in this direction. I decide how we're getting there and I manage to that You have very little say in how that's managed whereas that's The majority of my role your role in that management is holding me accountable For getting to that end goal you set up for us As a policy setting board, um, so High level summary of this point is you tell me the direction of where you want to go And I determine how we get there and how we deploy our resources A real on the example of this is how You already electric you are seen as leaders in the community The community is going to want you to do things about how we deliver services That is always a challenge for elected officials In those cases, I really encourage you if there if residents are asking you, you know, I really want to see more Um luxury I'm making this up. I don't think this will ever happen in our city But I really want to see the riverfront full of luxury apartments. That is that is a vision for you That is how we use their land and how we prioritize Who our neighbors are going to be in that case that sits with you you have those discussions If people are calling you and saying there's a pothole in front of my driveway that nobody's fixed for weeks Your response to that should be I'm not in charge of operations. Go talk to the city manager. That's her job That allows to that that allows you to kind of Our relationship in two different ways Money protects your 30 year role It doesn't make others perceive you as responsible for something that as an individual in a collective group You're really not responsible for To it allows me to fix things operationally within the city that are broader than just that one complaint So if so if an individual is complaining about a pothole in front of their driveway that may be indicative of Public works doesn't have enough asphalt or we're deploying our resources Incorrectly or something like that. And if I don't know about those things, it's harder for me to make that community wide change Does that I'm going to stop there and And see if there are questions Howler christine do you want to add anything to To this balance between no, I think you said it well, it's a dance So it's but I I like the way that it bottles that order I would say it's if somebody asked me to do something very discreet and minute like that's probably not something that That's probably something to pass along to jesse operations So a few significant exceptions to what I just said about management and my role in in administering the city so There several of our staff by virtue of their positions and their titles and their roles within the organization Have authority outside of the authority. They're given as a hire of mine And I think it's really important to keep those those independent They fall primarily with these four sets of professionals our zoning administrator our police chief Our fire staff and building inspection staff in the city clerk. They each have unique um pieces of statewide legislation that they are responsible for implementing and therefore we can't direct them to do something differently. Um, so the the most obvious example of this is I can't tell the police chief not to arrest somebody if somebody is broken a law that violated local or state or federal Laws, I can't ask that him or her not to enforce those laws um If I direct carol as the city clerk to Oh, don't worry about this meeting. We're just not going to put up an agenda for that meeting That's not allowing her to implement the state statute that requires us to follow so Civil society to continue But I think for these four rules, it's really important to kind of be cognizant of what those are So I hope that you all will have a lot of A lot of Questions about city operations get excited about different projects. We're doing want to talk directly with staff And I encourage you to do that. I do ask that General questions and requests for information should always start with me So I can one to make sure you get to the right place But also manage our team's workload a little bit Um, as I said earlier to the extent that general questions are asked, especially in the beginning I will um share those with all of you It is it is really important to make sure you all have Clear as and Nation to make the decisions you need to make Um, I encourage you to meet regularly with me Especially in the beginning if you have questions meet with the mayor how get as much information as you can Um, you can we have lots of facilities and and fun staff and equipment that we are we would love to show you So would welcome the opportunity to do that And to the extent that you are corresponding with staff over time By email that's fine. Just please do cc me on it And that that just allows me to understand what the questions are that are being asked And quite frankly allows us as a staff to speak with one voice What we never want to have happen is to give you guidance have me give you guidance And then have a department head give you guys that's contrary to one another and then you're having to interpret that It's our responsibility to make sure we're all same cave first So please do Any questions so i'm going to switch for a minute from the kind of General communicating with each other and the work we do together and communicating with staff Any questions about that Before I switch gears a little bit You guys with me. Are you psyched? Like am I freaking you out? A little bit Okay Sorry, jesse. Can I just go back to that? Yeah, please of course and I think uh, so in Things that we're engaging in outside of our role as counselors that happen to involve city staff How do you want us to handle that both in terms of email address usage things that I've previously Corresponded with using my personal email. Um, is it appropriate to then be using the Winooski vermont email? Or does that signal too much official authoritative use of my position? Like how would you um historical this is where we engaged around city that um It's historically been something that's personally a volunteer effort, but now it still involves department staff How do you want to handle with that with ccnu and also with Use of different email addresses any requests or direction on that one? Yeah, that's a great question and I think one of um I think uh We are becoming victims of our own success and that's so many of you started in your involvement with the city on Other boards or commissions or in other activities, which I think is phenomenal and for me as a manager It's so wonderful to have counselors starting who have been involved in other parts of city operations already It's really kind of adds a humongous value to us as an organization. So just start by saying that I think it's really very special in this community I guess You know now have authority you did not Before tuesday, so I would say if you are emailing staff about anything that has to do with A policy question or resource deployment question, whether that's city dollars or city staff I would ask that you Just cc. I mean don't stop those conversations, but just keep me in the loop on them We are a small community. We have relationships with one another You all probably have relationships with people on staff to the extent that you're saying, you know Hey, do you guys want to take the kids to the library this weekend? You don't need to do that on city email. You can you can have your life on your own on your own time and resources So I think the general rule is if you're if you're communicating with a staff person about city resources or city policy Please with your new authority. Please do do that on city email Otherwise You're really Anything else about anybody from our team want to jump in This should feel free to help orient if you would like Ray's been through this a couple of times so he has lots of insight to offer So the other big way that we may communicate or find our Positions we may find ourselves in that will be challenging the future are in either speaking from Speaking to the media or in emergency situations So in these So starting with just generally speaking to the media Always encourage you to think about speaking for yourself rather than for the council as a whole to the extent that the council a decision That's safer than talking to the media about something that's under debate You will be asked people are curious about what counselors think what elected officials think There is no hard and fast rule. I just encourage you to think about that balance Of speaking for yourself versus speaking for the council To the extent that the council is Speaking to an outside agency or advocating for funding or advocating for state or federal level policy change That communication really should come through the mayor or through myself There might be examples That we face in the next couple of years where that's different. So for example The councilor mace was very engaged in the pool process. So when ray went to the state to advocate for funding for that She went with him as opposed to Change from time to time but More or less the mayor should be the spokesperson for the council And I should be the spokesperson for staff and operations In emergency situations and I and sadly this will happen through your tenure. Hopefully not very much We will do our very best to keep you informed of things you might read about in the media or see on Facebook or twitter or whatnot During emergency events, especially public safety emergency events, whether it's a fire or a police activity It's really important to hold the public's trust by speaking as with one voice And that should As often as possible be the chiefs who are really the expert on what's happening on the ground Myself or the mayor So what this looks like on the street is John do you want to give an example of this? Kind of emergency situations we're kind of programmed to get the message to to the manager or the designee She's out of town But if it is something that we think the media is going to get involved in or we expect to do a press release or it's a Longer event that's going to affect A broader area we certainly get the message to the mayor. This is taking place We're speaking to the manager and then it goes to the council Typically is this kind of a brief email. This was taking place Kind of stand by for more information So we try again to do our best It's high on the list It's not first on the list but it's high on the list to try to to get that school or to see as well We certainly in the city know if something's happening there And again, I think we would operate the same under from our standpoint of hate or We're sifting the school with something going on But we're not going to try to release information that's there to release, but we will certainly Which we're involved operate how How we operate when it's hard and stuff And I think it would really depend on what the emergency was so if it's a you know a public safety issue a fire issue You would hear directly from us if it's a snow day. I'm not going to call you and tell you it's a snow day Get on Sean's mailing list. He's got a great great process for doing that So what's we typically look like in an emergency situation that's Continue Try to get word to you before something media Because often what may happen in your roles is something hits the media and people start calling you and saying You know, why is main street closed? Why is platt street closed what's happening? And I want you to have that information from us as quickly as possible So often what will happen is you'll get an email from me saying, you know, we have an ongoing Water main break on main street Crews are on scene Traffic stopped we we anticipated this is what's going to happen next. We anticipate the street being closed for this long We don't know how long the street's going to be closed more information will come And then I try to update you as I have updates. Um So that's what you'll experience if it's real if it's an emergency that It's not Is More heartbreaking more community Destructive events in our community We do have an opportunity to pull you together in an emergency meeting outside of the kind of official notification process and have a debriefing in in situations like that often it's the mayor and I coordinating about Spokespeople and who to meet with and how to take care of our community as best we can but Something will come up while you are in office and you will hear from me. You all have my cell phone Numbers use that that Feel free to reach out to me anytime Please in an emergency reach out to me. Please do not reach out to the chiefs. They are often Very engaged in whatever the event is and we need their focus to be 100 on keeping the community safe And I can free range it a little more Does that make sense? um, so we do have along those lines a whole bunch of ways that Paul gets out information. Uh, so you'll see here the website facebook twitter instagram platform. I hope you are engaged in some if not all of those They are great resources So i'm going to switch to talking about money for a minute any other questions comments on communication talking to the public What happens in an emergency? I assume there will be an updated list for the city newsletter in terms of Yes, yeah I did not include that today But we will bring that to you for next week. Although I think one is due this week. I was wondering who that was Is that me? Are you a volunteer? So, oh, this is so Paul's going to be so upset. Look at your paper. It's nice on your paper So you have I while I have Budget operations responsibility. You have overall responsibility for the city budget as a whole So you can't even see it on the screen and see if I can show it to you slightly differently Oh This is awful So total financial responsibility you have is 14.2 almost three million dollars. That's across all funds That's the general fund which is the dollars that are raised by property taxes and then what we Such small businesses paid for by the users of those systems So for example, the water fund Is the revenue generated from the water fund is solely based on the water rates not the property tax payments So the general fund side is usually what people think about when they think about the city budget And here we have it broken down a little more So the general fund this year that we're going into by 27.3 million Broken out by service area. The biggest portion of that is police Um with admin and public Works coming in second. It is important to know in this budget in this slide Public works also receive water and water. So when you when you All the funds that they are So these are the humans that you will be working with this is our Um city-wide org chart so the You are elected obviously from the voters you employ me and the treasurer as The humans that work for you and then within our staff team we have Assessing fire and code enforcement public works police which includes police dispatch and community justice community services planning zoning community and economic development And general admin so all of those teams represent 56 all-time employees Every week and get done the work you set the vision for We do have two different unions that represent our employees So the public works is represents public work staff is represented by AFSCME Which is building And our police department is represented by the fraternal order of police And for the staff who are in the room if you guys could just introduce yourselves really quickly I think most of you know everybody but just To recognize the people who are here I'm Heather Carrington. I'm community and economic development officer Eric we're all the planning zoning manager HR manager Great coffee community service director Although very important unto yourself city engineer Any questions about staff staffing operational areas Have many more conversations about this over during budget time Okay, so Um, we're getting to the fun projects stuff. I promise So you also have a number of commissions that you Oversee so I've broken those out into two different categories policy advising commissions commissions that are appointed to give you guidance on Policies we should implement how we should deliver services The kind of operation side of things and then regulatory commissions commissions that are So do either through Through it's an authority In addition to what you all grant them So for example the development review board is the regulatory body that enforces the zoning laws So while you appoint them and they are your spokespeople They can only enforce what the zoning laws say they can't Approve projects outside of that process On the policy advising side Of your commissions right now we have the community services commission the housing commission public safety commission and public works I want to throw in a caveat here that the prior council Had a discussion about The alignment of the this commission structure to the strategic vision areas. So economic vitality housing municipal infrastructure and safe healthy and connected communities The discussion that council Would be adopted master plan which is you'll hear about in a few minutes Um, it was essentially a shared work plan for all of us over the next eight years It might make sense to align those volunteer efforts to that those work plans That the council well, I think the prior council was Very invested in that shift. There wasn't a vote that was taken So if that's something you all want to consider in the next couple of months Um, it's kind of out there on the table Helen christine do you want to say anything more about that the commission structure? so we had talked previously about Revisiting that topic after the april 6 inclusion training I think so that that like that discussion around inclusion and and whose voices are there could be brought into the potential restructure You also have a lot of facilities that you have ultimate policy oversight over so these are our municipal Buildings and and public lands So that's city hall. And so in this building Is all of our leadership staff our administrative staff and our police department There's the public works garage in the waste water treatment plant There's the fire station and the o'brien community center as well as the senior center And then we have our lovely parks that hopefully you are all very well-versed in so I wanted to This is kind of a a new Slide here. I wanted to there was a quite a bit of discussion in the Election about affordability development So Just a few numbers to things So the grand list And and this is going to get a little complicated for me. So please do ask any questions you have about this So the grand list is the term we use for all of the the assessment of all of our parcels in the city So it's the value of all of that land That number is used to determine What people pay in property tax? So we want to raise $7 million in this in FY 20 We want to raise $5.7 million from property tax. We have our grand list, which is our total assessed value And through uh, Angela would kill me for saying this but essentially by division we figure out what every parcel is Makes that that grand list term So over the last four years our grand list in aggregate has increased by about 1.23 a year If you look at that just in our on our non tiff properties That's been less than a percent a year a point eight seven percent a year over the last four years So the tiff the tax income and financing district is any parcel that touches the rotary And then touches east allen street to the railroad tracks towards exit 15 So that district that The value of that land Was frozen in time when the tiff district was implemented And as that as those property values increase the amount that those parcels pay In property tax to their new assessed value So that the council at the time in the late 1990s early 2000s when we established the tiff district said This is where we want development to happen in our city We're going to encourage it here and that new increment is going to go pay for the debt So that tiff um So the downtown area has increased at a more rapid rate than the rest of the city But it's important to note that the rest of the city the general the grand list has only increased by 0.87 percent So a 1 percent a year growth right now with our current grand list would equal about five million dollars in new assessed value So new um new construction updated construction on the street Just as a point of reference. What does five million dollars in assessed value mean? 394 means Do people know that parcel i'm talking about it's like a two-story Someone with juniors and uh food ignorant, right? No, it's the one farther up that street the like two stories Sorry Yeah across from like the entrance of the school That property is assessed at 1.3 million dollars so far less than five million dollars Five million dollars in new assessed value brings in about 54 thousand dollars of new property tax a year with our current Our current grand list and tax rates So the reason I bring this up is to say what are what are our shared roles in? Encouraging development or discouraging development and ensuring that we stay an affordable community So as costs escalate and as we decide Do A couple of differences if we want to stay affordable I think One time or another We can think about how we strategically grow and Figure out how we grow enough to keep up with that additional cost that we are going to incur We can raise the tax rate Or we can cut spending in other places And I should also say raise the tax rate or identify new revenue streams So for example this year The voters approve the local options tax Which is a new revenue stream to the city and therefore it does not require us to Raise the property tax Does that make sense? Is that helpful? Trying out a new thing here So we are now going to really engage gears and talk about new emerging Current large-scale projects and other emerging issues. Okay. Good. Do you want a little break? Good So we're going to start with The master plan because next week this is going to be a focus of your meeting. I'm going to let Eric Walk us through these. Tell me when you want to talk. Good evening. Thank you very much I realized we all just met recently But I I did not mention that I'm also the city's uh zoning administrator So while I serve as the planning and zoning manager, I also am the appointed zoning administrator But tonight I will be talking about my role as the planning zoning manager and what that means to the master plan Um We are in the process of If municipalities want to do certain things so if we want to adopt any type of zoning regulations if we want to pass a Um a capital program. We need to have a a master plan in place. That's that's been duly adopted by by the council The authority for developing that plan rests with the planning commission and that's also outlined in statutes So as the liaison to The as the staff liaison to the planning commission I've been working with them to to get to get us to the point of a plan of a new master plan Uh, it's required to be updated every eight years by statute. Uh, our last plan Uh was adopted in 2014. So it will be it's technically on a five year schedule There's a change in statute to make it eight years. But so our current plan will expire this april That's why A high level Road map for the community that outlines the direction forward for the future It it tries to bring together all the different components all the different programs and departments and kind of synthesize them under one umbrella document To to kind of outline what that high level direction is moving forward. So so our last while we have While we adopted a master plan in in 2014 The last time the plan was comprehensively updated was in 2004 So over the past several, um, several times it's been adopted It's really just a been a re-adoption of the previous plan with any new statutory requirements in it So this is the first time in about About 15 years Completely wrapped up in the plan. What we try to do with update was Master plan strategic vision So that we're not trying to to stray too far from that that initial That initial guidance of of council So there's been a lot of different documents that have been adopted and approved over over the last five years by the city And they're outlined here starting back in 2014 with the main street Corridor plan and going all the way through the the marketing and branding analysis. Sorry the marketing and branding strategy um That that is Just been recently rolled out So with with this planning effort because all these other documents have been updated and have been Approved by by the various boards and commissions and and counsels We wanted to make sure that we didn't lose sight of the the policy directions and the goals that were identified in in In those efforts by creating a new a new set of Policy, so what we're doing As much as we are re-emphasizing the policy direction that's already been established by the city Yes so part of a master plan is there's this state statute outlines 12 elements that are required to be in a master plan. There's 13 items listed here So the the last one that shows up the current analysis and data is really more of a Is to ensure that the data that's in the plan is current and up to date But this is really just a crosswalk to kind of show where each of the statutory elements Falls with our current strategic vision and how we are aligning it with the master plan So if you're looking through the document and you want to see how we're addressing Energy for example, you'll know that that'll be in the municipal infrastructure section which again aligns the With that the strategic vision so Also, there are The that state statute outlines that a master plan Should include the the interesting part with the goals is that they're not required to be a master plan But if a municipality wants to to get their master plan approved regionally In our case by the chitin county regional planning commission It the master plan has to be consistent with those statutory goals. So The reason why that's important is because some of the some of the the programs that Communities are eligible for Require regional approval of the master plan in order to be eligible. So getting that regional approval is an important step So this is just really a crosswalk to show kind of where we are with the With the state's goals and how we're meeting those in in this current version of the master plan So this was as I mentioned Relive very To this point over the past basically six months That was done with some funding through a municipal planning grant That helped us bring the planning commission the regional planning commission on to do this There's been a lot of public outreach that we've gone through as well to get to this point The there was a public comment period that we went through in november december We've done public outreach events at the farmers market at the festival of pumpkins the widowsky halloween We've also We did a presentation on the The mayor's Show the in the world of widowsky So there there's a lot of outreach that we've tried to do Additionally the planning commission held a public hearing which is required We're where we did identify some of the kinds and At the Again the statutory requirement based on the size of widowsky the population So the first hearing that we had was held on The 19th of february with with council. So we have another plan another public hearing scheduled for next monday So that would be our second hearing Throughout those hearings. We really have not gotten a lot of feedback at the hearings themselves And I think that's because we've done a lot of outreach in advance of those hearings. I like to think that's why And also because there was a lot of work that was done with the other planning efforts that we're bringing into this document. So So next next monday the reason why we're talking about this tonight is next monday You will have a public hearing to to take public comment on the master plan again That'll be your second hearing and after that hearing if you so choose you could adopt that master plan So The only thing I'll add to that. Thank you very much, eric Is that the the previous council very intentionally did not improve the plan before town meeting day Because it lays out the goals for the city for the next eight years They thought it was very important for you all as the newly elected body to Read and understand and put your fingerprints on that plan if you so choose um, I do think as eric mentioned there has been a lot of public comment about um, this document and about the strategic vision and how we want to um how we want to set the goals to That's So I think I feel very confident in it as a document and the amount of community work that went into it But because it's going to be essentially your work plan for the next eight years The council very specifically did not kind of shuttle it through in february before you were elected And again, I don't hope you guys want to add anything I would just urge you of course to read And the the previous slide that listed the different plans that had fed into this I I think all of those are worth a read eventually. I wouldn't try to squeeze all that in before our next meeting. Um They're certainly Reflected in in what's in that master plan And from the presentation that we did receive I think um, it really spoke to Um And we will do a similar presentation next next week as well for for the public and for the for the new counselors Just so so that you're you're getting that orientation again Has the public have any feedback on this so far through the through the public comment period We did we received about 40 comments on either some very specific items in the plan or some areas where we could potentially Broaden some of the scope which we we addressed all of those comments And try to incorporate as much new information or is be as responsive to those comments as we were able to The I believe on the on the website. There is a there's a there's a dedicated page for the master plan on the website And on that page is a link to the comments that we received and I believe it Is So whether Whether we are going to refer it to another another entity to to provide more detail on There's there's detail on on how we're addressing the comments. Yeah, I did read it and it's It's a good job of work of tally. It's pretty impressive I'd like to take credit, but I I definitely cannot Others were much more instrumental, but thank you for that. Are there master planning comments? Great. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you Um So the next set of slides um Go over kind of the big projects that I know you all are pretty well versed in the reason I wanted to include them here one is to have that resource for you But also to head to uh foreshadow for you things that will be coming before you for decisions in the next couple of weeks So Pretty Object most immediately coming before you at your 18th meeting will be the award of the final engineering contracts We will also bring back to you in the future awards for other construction contracts You will need to determine over the course of the next year the phasing for this project consider any additional grant applications And determine the debt to incur I think this is a great all of these are very good examples, but this is a great example of We will never come to you with a big project like this To which you will take one vote big projects like you've probably already taken A dozen votes on main street and you will continue to take votes So I say that to say while these are big projects and big decisions to be made. There are lots of um, small decisions that make So Memorial pool reconstruction, um, and this and ryan is here if you have any engineering specific questions here We will be going out to bid on the construction of this project this month So your next immediate action will be to award the construction contract And also to determine the amount of debt to incur so the prior council Had several conversations about The total cost of the project the amount we took out to We went to the voters to authorize a bond amount for and how much we are Looking to other grant grant sources to raise and how much the fundraising committee is looking to contribute So by the middle of main we will need to make a decision about how much Main project. This was another project that was approved by the voters 85 percent approval, I think So this is the replacement of the water main along hiccups street in west lane So again future council actions are To approve contracts and the financing documents preliminary engineering on this was completed in january We anticipate the Water main construction to be done this current summer and then the full road reconstruction to be done in this in the 2020 construction season The voters approve the bond for the avanaki garage with 60 approval on town meeting day Next steps on this project is uh to draft the legal documents that Outline how the relationship we will have with the developer How we will do address the land ownership structures One of the authorities that I kind of glossed over on your authority list is only you can Determine what we do with our property So this project for example requires us to subdivide the parcel the city will maintain ownership under the garage and the The hotel developer will take ownership of the second half of the site So you need to authorize the the transfer of that site Again the lot line and land swap agreements Any questions on this one that you will be hearing much more about this one over time This is really kind of foreshadow some some future discussions Any questions on that one this is going for the summer to the parking Uh, this will not be under construction this summer It's been locally permitted by the council who has authority in the tift in the downtown core Um, it will be under permitting and final design this summer. There's a possibility We might get it out bit out for construction for a very late fall start, but that's pretty aggressive at this point Is there any There's nothing more for the council to do on the act 250 permit. There is more work for Us to do with the development partner the the downtown not all of the tift district, but the the Downtown master plan is all within a A single act 250 permit. So this is actually amending that permit that permit's been amended I think 42 times already for construction of the different pieces of the downtown It's a it's a project the District commission is very familiar with but we will need to go through that amendment process One of the advantages for us on this On this project is that we are Engineering project is an engineer who's involved with most of the other bit of In the history of the district So it's very well versed on the standards that were set the Allocations that were made as part of the original act 250 amendment So we're hopeful that it won't be controversial, but we will need to go through it Um, so this is an embarrassing thing to talk about while I can't get my font store correctly But we have a new website as of today if you have not gone to winuski vp. Dot gov yet today I encourage you to do so. Um, it is very beautiful unlike my terrible powerpoint presentation One of so this is our new logo that you are now seeing on everything and will be branded accordingly moving forward And then the other exciting part of this is this Vermont's opportunity The And the use of this to launch our legacies campaign So as I said in the beginning 2022 is our 100th birthday And one of the things that came out of this process was To use that Date that's community celebration and the work up to that to really tell the story and change the perception of who we are as a community Heather and paul are using This value statement and the tagline of vermont's opportunity city to think about What does that mean for all of our residents? What are the opportunities that have been presented to winuski's individuals and families and faith communities and businesses and schools and Religious communities, etc. So we're over the next couple of years. You'll see Hopefully a community-wide discussion Of And therefore But we are really So then just a list of other emerging issues that I that I believe we will be tackling together In the next months So again, April 6 get in on your calendar diversity and inclusion summit. We're very excited about it In may and june, I will be asking you to also participate in a um What we call policy priorities and strategies retreat. We've done this Um annually for the last couple of years where we come together for part of a saturday Look at the strategic vision. Look at the work. We're doing together and prioritize the work We want to accomplish in the next year. So you see this quick snapshot of that shared work plan from this year The full document is all It's a really useful Understand our capabilities are what we think are the priorities and then what council thinks are the shared priorities um, I think it's been a Useful tool on both sides for the last couple of years Our tax increment financing district is on track to successfully retire our debt in 2024 That will be a very significant financial change for our community So I think in the next couple of years We need to actively start planning for that and understand what that means and what are how we strategically invest Or strategically make decisions about That financial change for our city Our relationship with the airport, um is always a discussion point As you probably know the burlington international airport is wholly owned and operated Our primary impact by the noise from the airport. So how that How those relationships are managed is very important to us It's also a huge strategic advantage to us as a city to be so closely located to the airport We hear that a lot from our business community and from our residents who Enjoy being close to the airport um The f-35s are planned to are scheduled to arrive in september of this year We are anticipating an updated noise exposure map, which is the map that Demonstrates based on the noise data the impact those will have on our communities. We anticipate receiving that map They momentarily we think it's coming soon. Um, and that will be a discussion that the I'm sure we'll have discussions about the Regional dispatch line through these really quickly. I'm really just trying to get these concepts in your minds and as we go through actions I'll have much more to share with you So last town meeting day town meeting day 2018 our community voted to join the jinden county public safety authority It's a new municipal entity Created by several of our neighboring communities to stand up a regional dispatch center Currently all of our communities. So it's willa st in winewski Colchester south berlington berlington and milton Operate our own dispatch Center so right now sitting downstairs in this building. There is a lone dispatch operator who is received Dispatcher at a time I think for winewski as a whole both as an employer of those humans as well as a service provider to our residents That is not the optimal way to provide that service So we are exploring with our other communities how we jointly provide that service delivery, of course keeping Fire and police locally administered but in partnership with a regional dispatch entity So much more to come on that but again want to just be on your radar screen that it's a discussion Did you say that winewski employees at dispatcher? Currently we employ our dispatchers. Yes And they're considered the regional dispatcher Oh, sorry. No currently we employ dispatchers who are winewski dispatchers We are also working in partnership with our other communities to stay up our regional dispatcher At some point A decision before you to say we are going to stop providing dispatch services locally And we are going to partner with the ccpsa to start providing Regional services, but right now we are doing it in the city. Okay The community outreach program is a program that chief heber and myself and some others Implemented with our with several community other communities in partnership last year It is a partnership with howard mental health to embed Caseworkers in our police departments. We were seeing I mean, we've been seeing this statewide, right the increase in mental health needs and substance use disorder Neighbors who are struggling with substance use disorder Often time those neighbors in crisis Worst response The tools that are to respond and people entering with mental health expertise resources to offer etc are much more successful Um, so that pro program has been up and running for about a year now What it means for us in winewski is about 40 hours a week. We have a trained mental health professional Working directly with our police officers and our neighbors to get them connected to the support and services they need Um, it's been hugely helpful in our community for our neighbors and it's been extraordinarily helpful for our police officers Um, so I am hopeful and it is included in the fy 20 budget to continue Um, we are ray and his team Are working very hard to lease up the o'brien community center As you probably know, there are several spaces in that building that have been vacant for quite a while And it is not finally supporting itself at the moment We the previous council entered into a pre-development agreement with champlain housing trust to explore um, an affordable housing home ownership Um development on malice bay out of actually at the front of the o'brien community center So in in your mind's eye if you can picture the occ with that big parking lot in front of it The idea is we would take about half of that parking lot Subdivide it and give it to cht who would build likely between 20 and 24 A perpetually affordable townhouse Um homes for neighbors in our community This really partners with the work that ray and deke did before I started about the possibility of moving to that location We would need a lot but we're all working for a community partner to partner to build Build out the second half of that parking lot. So this is kind of doing those two processes in reverse getting prioritizing the city's affordable housing goals While starting the redevelopment of that parcel Is that a done deal? All that is a done deal is that we have signed a pre-development agreement with cht to say yes, please go and explore Using our property what this project would look like We have not made any commitments about it yet. What kind of affordable housing is going to be? So it would be a perpetually affordable home ownership Housing so what that means is it would likely be townhouses or Two townhouses like a honest connected What it means by perpetually affordable is that the land is owned by Champlain housing trust the housing The home units are owned by whoever owns them Champlain housing trust partners with the buyers to do down payment assistance The homeowners then own the homes own the equity in the homes can live there as long as they want But when they go to resell they get their equity out of it but the The initial investment stays with the property and it can then and then be resold for to other people looking for a similar situation So it's a way to get our To a as our home prices are increasing. It's a way to offer An option But it is not it is not a done deal and the council will need to make decisions about that in the future We are partnering with two Really important community partners around new hiring processes in the city So wunewski housing authority is looking to hire a new executive director And downtown wunewski is also looking to hire a new executive director. So we are Partnering with both of those entities and those new professionals in our community will be Very important people for us to work with and build good relationships with And then finally we are um As I just mentioned our housing As our housing prices increase and our houses sell very quickly We are in likely anticipating to see a wide resell Next year, but will likely be something we need to start talking about in the next year to prepare to do in 21 or 22 When was the last one done 2007 Right now we are required by state statute to do a reappraisal if our CLA our common level of appraisal hits 80 Right now. I think we are at 80 88 So ideally we would be planning for this, you know Right before we hit that state statutory requirement It's just a question in case someone asks. Yeah great questions. Yeah Um, and then finally a promise. I'm almost done here. Um, it is important that you are aware of our we are currently being Very common three pending Listed there. Uh, so the first one hall v. Fourthwick. Um, we have filed for summary judgment on that one Um, beshaw versus franklin county and the city Has been dismissed pending a late motion submitted by the Um, other side. So we believe that dismissal will stand, but It's important to be aware of it um, U. M. B bank versus the city, uh, we the council approved the prior council approved settlement documents for that case at their last meeting Those have yet to be executed, but are in process Um, and then we have one threatened litigation that has been threatened since Fy 15 and hasn't been realized. So hopefully that that is not going to be filed I am happy to go into any details on any of these if you like that those discussions should happen Happy to answer any questions. Thank you for your patience Anything big I missed guys The questions from council any questions from the public About this lengthy orientation It's a lot to take in All right, we can move on to item b Uh, the 2019 2020 city, uh, council schedule Um, so you all received this in your packets uh This is the schedule for the rest of the The upcoming year for us Generally follows the first and first and third monday of the month. Um, which is our general meeting schedule Is a meeting in there Tuesday meetings due to holidays and Significant number of meetings during budgeting season As we will meet them there is also In july and august only one meeting scheduled for each of those months Tends to align to folks having vacations and things like that Um We are also as jesse has mentioned able to call special meetings as needed if the schedule doesn't meet our needs Uh, did anyone have questions or concerns about the schedule? I do have one conflict with the schedule. Um So I just wanted to make folks aware for the the june 17th meeting I'm going to be out of the country. I know that they're out of mayor june Hopefully not have that certainly and as we will see in our next item It is possible to attend meetings electronically You're probably taking a vacation though. I don't want to do that It's certainly fine to get to miss it And those special retreats that you were talking about in june part of the schedule too So the april 6th equity and inclusion summit is on here. Um as a as a special meeting We have not set the date for uh, uh Priorities retreat yet. Uh, that will be done in a future council meeting with taking into consideration all of your schedules Any other questions or concerns from council? Questions from the public Uh, the next item is mayor and council rules of procedure I think a lot of this was kind of covered in your presentation jesse So if I can then next two items the rules of procedure in the conflict of interest policy Um, I have given those to you as if they are in draft, which they absolutely are and you can amend them at your will Um Have but they are documents. We like each new council to re-adopt because they are your governing documents Um, they are both so both the mayor and council procedure and the conflict of interest policy are based on the vermont Lead of cities and towns model policies So they're very similar to what other communities put forth and what the legal guidance from the league says Um, and then have been amended to meet our you know, when will you regularly meet our mayor or all structure, etc So I have a couple of questions for them, but uh Any questions from you? And assuming I don't hear any significant changes we will bring them back for approval at our next meeting I have one explicit issue question, but I'd like to let others go first if you have a general question I have I just have one question on procedure, which I don't know if you want to go first. You go first. Uh, just um Any member being able to call a roll call vote at any time? How does that affect then the procedure of debate and discussion that happens around a particular issue? so if a member Calls for a roll call vote right at the beginning of discussion. Is that end discussion or how does that handle? This wasn't clear. Um, so typically Call for a roll call vote does end discussion. Um, and it's often used in that way So if a debate's been going on and people feel like it's just continuing and what call To be honest, I have Is the activity it stops is discussion. Okay, thanks. And that's before we vote on it, correct That would be the vote on it. That would be the vote. Okay So if there was a motion on the table that you were discussing And any one of you called for a roll call vote, it would end that discussion and force you to vote on it Okay, but that has to be a seconded motion or this immediate Doesn't require a second Uh, where where are you in this article three section g? I think it is just you can call for it and it happens So the specific item I wanted to ask about was, um, Right to my location Um, I believe we're posting right now So we post our actual paper agenda at well here Um, a brian center and the high school. Is that correct? We post the agendas In the clerk's office and the lobbyists can call the police department and td bank Okay, those are the current locations. Those are the current locations Um, I just wanted to open it up to ask you all if there are other physical locations that you think the community would be served by having access to that document Um That's something I've thought about for a while But I don't I have I don't know I I know like the There's a I've also wondered about You know, like the bus stops if that's something that we would consider if we would think that's useful um I know when new ski housing authority has bulletin boards, but we'd have to talk to them about that Um, and if there aren't like if nothing is coming to mind now, I would welcome ideas about that at our next meeting as well I like that. I think The better dissemination that we can do for more citizens to See what we're doing. That's all good Yeah, I think the The part that I'm struggling with is like what are actually useful locations that that people would see those at so If any of you all have thoughts about that So could you repeat the locations once more because I was just looking for them in here I sent it to td bank I posted downstairs in the police department windows, you know, so I posted in city hall Our office And it goes to um library Okay And not the o'brien center either You know So just from an operational perspective two things to think about while you're having this discussion is Um, if you put it in your policy document as a required location That means that that holds you for unless clarifying your document Which means in theory staff should be going and putting those up every day a meeting is noticed If you put it in your policy that those are the required locations as well And we don't do it for whatever reason and we are then appealed for Lack of notice that would stop whatever actual was taken at the meeting So I I don't say that to discourage you. I just say that to Think about where are the points where we want to require it and where are the points where we want to say Best effort should be made to post at these locations Where would be the appropriate place to document best effort locations? I think you can still put it in this document just to change the language Clarify what's required and what's best efforts Any other public suggestions? Okay, I think we can revisit that After we've had some time to think about What we may or may not change there any other questions or concerns from council about the Rules of procedure anything else from the public? Was there Again the document that you have before you is the policy that's currently in place is approved And is based on the VLCT Model policy again happy to answer any questions. We talked a lot of in the orientation about again the intent here of maintaining the Perception of Any questions from council about the conflict of interest policy Questions from the public. All right again an item for discussion so we can move on our Next item for discussion is So both so I put these executive sessions I warrant these executive sessions in case you were interested in receiving further information tonight about lawsuits or contract negotiations I have no new information to share no emerging issues that I need responses on So this is really if you are interested in receiving that feed in that briefing tonight And if not, we can certainly Talk about any of these as they come up in the future You do still have a liquor control board. So if you do want to enter into an executive session I recommend that you recess Convenience a liquor control board Reinstate the council meeting and go back into executive session Any interest from folks in the executive session items for tonight I have a short session. I think that would be useful to hear. Yeah, I do too since we don't really know anything about it So let's recess the city council meeting in order to convene our liquor control meeting And when we return When we close the liquor control meeting and return to the city council meeting It will only be to meet an executive session. No decisions will be made outside the view of public Um, and we will simply adjourn after the executive session Uh, I would also like to take a two minute recess before starting our liquor control meeting All right, so as jesse mentioned earlier Us members of city council are also the liquor control board. Um, how are we have separate meetings? It's a separate kind of body We have one item on the agenda this evening. That is a first-class liquor license outside consumption permit restaurant license and sidewalk usage permit For a segment of a LLC doing business as l. Cortillo at three east allen street Are you joining us for this? Thank you for your Just about Um, can you use Jed Davis Welcome, uh, and welcome to wendiski. I personally am pretty excited about having some tacos here in the city You could have brought margaritas, you know Yeah, they're not ready yet Um, so Is there anything that you want to tell us about What your plans are for this but you're going in next to uh The whiskey block building next to scouting company three down We're pretty good at construction Everything's been going very well so far. Awesome. Yeah Um, and I saw in there that so there's the sidewalk usage. You're planning to have some tables out there Yes, yeah within reason. Yeah, it's uh Um, uh, it's a 22 foot storefront and it's about a 10 foot Sidewalk Our hope would be to put just a couple of tables up against the the storefront Okay Um I mean I'm pretty excited about I don't have any Questions or concerns myself, but to other members of council have questions to ask Um, how many seats Indoor physical seats about 50 Plus a few outside Which is a little bit bigger than our el cortillo downtown Yet until we And have the walk-throughs with the Winooski and the state fire marshal But we did build two egress Uh In an effort to have you know a decent capacity Any other questions or concerns? What a public Yeah, um, you know the block was one of our biggest risk in the city So for those that don't know it's it's been sprinkled and um, that allows them to accommodate this type of growth in that building So we fully support that Yeah, well that Thank you. Thank you very much. See you soon. Have a good night. Thank you Uh, so being the last item on our agenda for liquor control board, I would entertain a motion to adjourn the liquor control board meeting Unmotion Oh shoot. Yep. We are supposed to vote I skip that part All those in favor All those opposed motion carries. Thank you um Let's do the same thing again for adjournment motion by James second by amy all those in favor Motion carries Address our executive session items We will move this meeting to the city manager's office For privacy of the executive session We will return only to adjourn At the end of the executive session So technically you do need to make a motion And vote to move into the executive session to enter into executive session for the purposes outlined on the agenda Sighting the state statue and that premature knowledge to the public of information shared with disadvantage body So you could say as so Or or one of you could say all that That's a move I'll second Uh motion by James second by All those in favor Were you guys leaving? Yes