 inspection services position per assistant City Attorney St. James note proposed organizational chart for agenda 4.01 resolution update the staffing structure of public works water resources division board of finance per HR manager read note the response summary document for this agenda item per Megan Moore remove from the consent agenda item 3.37 communication City Attorney's office re annual report on livable wage ordinance f1 19 and place it on the deliberative agenda item 2 per assistant City Attorney St. James motion made by Councilor Mason seconded by Councilor Roof any discussion hearing none all those in favor of the motion has to approve the agenda as amended please say aye any opposed that passes unanimously and once again welcome to new councillors for your first full meeting of the City Council councillors Freeman Franklin and Hanson you just had your first first full vote of the City Council unanimously they might not all be unanimously going forward so with that we have the agenda and the second item on the agenda is the public forum so we'll open the public forum tonight I have two people signed up so far if anyone else would like to speak in public forum there are sheets over here on the table just bring them up to the clerk's office over here and they'll get them to me so we'll open the public forum with Joe Scrimmenty to be followed by Lulu there's Eddie good evening welcome I don't know if I did I butcher your last name yeah all right then the credit goes to Councilor Mason he said I said it was good and you have a lighting system there you have three minutes the middle light will tell you there's about a minute left then the red light means you have to wrap your comments up thank you so much like to say welcome to all the new councillors thank you pull the microphone right in close to you got it thank you my name is Joe Scrimmenty I'm a sophomore at UVM and through work on City Council campaigns and local activism with 350 in the sunrise movement I am deeply invested in the city and I've been my voter rights and voter suppression my entire life with my father having run nearly a dozen grassroots campaigns for mayor and state house seats I moved to Burlington because of its liberal and innovative reputation I've come to realize that this may have been true at one point but the city has fallen prey to neo neoliberalistic ideals in recent years Burlington must live up to its reputation and be a city at the forefront of liberal ideas and democracy an effective way to achieve this is ranked choice voting ranked choice voting is an increasingly common election method that allows voters to rank candidates in order of preference these rankings ensure that as many voters as possible will help elect a candidate they support rank choice voting is currently being used in 13 cities across the country including Amherst and Cambridge mass in the entire state of Maine compared to our current system Burlington would benefit from ranked choice voting in many ways voters are given more choices and are not between the two evils third parties are given a better chance to win and it also decreases the impact of money in politics a Rutgers study found that with ranked choice voting friendlier campaigns were much more effective in achieving voter preference additionally the voting rights organization fair vote states candidates who have won in ranked choice voting elections have been successful because they built grassroots network outreach networks to continue a report co-authored by fair vote and the new america foundation found that racial minority populations also prefer ranked choice ranked choice voting lastly a university of Missouri study shows that when compared to the elections they replace ranked choice voting elections are associated with a 10 point increase in voter turnout in conclusion ranked choice voting gets rid of several of the problems with our current system and is more democratic i'd like to see this council put this issue to the voters and if any follows i will gather this on the ballot if we want Burlington to be a truly democratic city at the forefront of liberal policy ranked choice voting is the next step forward thank you thank you very much lulu's arizy is the next speaker and our final speaker and was that the correct no it's uh luke is our zeki luke okay thank you that looks like lulu thank you thank you council mason okay so penmanship may not be your strong suit but public speaking maybe you have the floor hi my name is luke is our zeki and i'm a student at uvm um when i go down to the waterfront as a native english speaker i can understand the science placed by the city of burlington if there's too much algae in the water i in the science say not to swim i know that i should swim in the winter when i'm walking in the morning me about i know to be careful however if i didn't speak english then how would i be able to read these warnings according to city data five thousand five hundred burlington residents are speakers of a nine english language burlington brands itself as a city that is welcoming of people from all across the world and i come from chicago and i feel very welcome but i am also an american that speaks fluent english how would someone from butan or basnia which are two of the highest places of origin for global diversity in burlington understand the warnings and signs if they aren't in their native language many of our many of our signs are also in french however french is the sixth most spoken language in burlington we need more signs in indica indica languages which are the most commonly spoken languages other than english and we need signs in spanish and servo servo Croatian how are our citizens supposed to understand the dangers that the city warns them about if the signs aren't in their native language by putting these signs in different languages perhaps it'll be people rush to the hospital for oxygen and toxic water this is not only an issue to make burlington more inclusive this is also a safety issue it is not enough to have signs in english and french we need to make signs that have all languages represented by the people of burlington especially danger warnings i visited montreal a few montreal a few weeks ago i am not a french speaker and it was hard for me to understand the parking signs the warning signs the menus because i didn't know the language luckily i don't live in montreal if i did i couldn't imagine being able to get around and knowing what i was able to and not not able to do how are new immigrants in burlington supposed to understand what is going on if the signs aren't in their language we have people all across the world that come to live in burlington they pay taxes and they should be able to see signs in different languages in their own language if burlington is going to brand itself as a welcoming city accepting people from all over the world the least the city can do is put up signs especially danger signs in languages that all citizens can understand thank you luke appreciate that that concludes the public forum tonight and we'll move us on to the next item item number three which is the consent agenda motion by councillor busher do you want me to make the motion or councillor busher i'm recognizing you thank you for whatever it is you want to do okay i'd like to move to adopt the consent agenda and take the actions indicated councillor busher busher has made the motion councillor roof seconds it all those in favour of passing the consent agenda and taking the actions indicated please say aye any opposed that passes unanimously and we are on to the deliberative agenda and that's item number four four point oh one a resolution update to staffing structure of public works water resource division dr. spencer and we had a work session on this last week and just discussed this at the board of finance and now we'll hear from chappan and megan again thank you very much president right thank you to the full council appreciate the time that you gave us last week for the council work session and tonight at the board of finance so there was a strong representation of the council at the board of finance we won't retread on much of my remarks we do have the presentation loaded up if there's anything that we want the full council to look at but we are here to respond to a number of your questions and we appreciated the breadth of the question on public engagement on successful stewardship of our water quality and on phasing and with that offer megan to say any opening remarks and then happy to answer any questions thanks chippin and thank you to all of you for attending the work session last monday spending time with us tonight at the board of finance we completely understand that there is a cost involved with adding the staff and doing the reclassifications that we're proposing i do not bring these to you lightly as a burlington rate payer myself and as somebody who is deeply concerned that even though we don't have a very high delinquency rate with our with our water billing um with our water bills that doesn't mean that people aren't making hard decisions and potentially not buying groceries or not buying prescription medicine um so that they can pay their water rates with that in mind and and we thank you uh councillor shana for pointing out i had a minor typo when we went back and did our research chippin and i certainly recalled because there was a lot of conversation that in f y 19 we needed to bring back to the council in advance of f y 21 um some alternative rate structures look at affordability programs have a whole stakeholder involvement process we have been proceeding as if that had been in the budget resolution and the packet that i had sent out last night attachment b was the request for qualifications that we issued in january to hire a consultant to in fact help us do that work so i just wanted to make sure that um everybody knew that that was something we were already committed to um while the impacts of the these positions over i apologize mangan could you pull the microphone and write close please so we can hear you better while the impacts of phase one um and phase two are um as proposed we're going to hit the f y 25 budget and while there are concerns given that people um voted to potentially add up to five dollars overall um as the result of the clean water the infrastructure bond that we passed in november i wanted to remind folks that the five dollars that we mentioned is um at the end of when everything has been built and so that money those those cost increases will be phased over the next four to five years and we're not it's not that they're going to all be hitting an f y 20 as we start to construct things the clean water funding that we're leveraging you don't start paying back on that until a year after a project is complete um and so those costs aren't going to hit us however they are ultimately going to hit us which is why we believe the f y 21 budget process is the right time to be really scrutinizing if there's different things that we can do with our rate structure that will minimize the impact to residential users i think i'll stop there councillor shannon um i just want to clarify if you mean the f y 21 budget or the f y 20 budget i mean the f y 21 budget we are a year from from now we're going to be largely because of the amount of work and analysis that is involved in order to answer the questions that we know you guys are going to pose which is okay if you help out the low income residential user how is that going to affect businesses vice versa we have to model all of that go through various alternatives bring them to ratepayers understand what ratepayers are really struggling with and what which programs would actually help them perhaps people are more interested in affordability programs where we give discounts or technical assistance programs there's a whole host of ways in which we can help our ratepayers thank you councillor shannon councillor paul thanks very much president rate um so we had a lot lively conversation and a very informative one at the finance right sometime and as a result of much that was discussed we determined that we would not we would be advancing this to the council without a recommendation from the board of finance so we didn't take a vote for those who weren't there just so you know um one of the things that you know i think in some of the points that you're mentioning right now megan were mentioned at the very end of our conversation so we didn't have the benefit perhaps of hearing these at the outset one of the other things that was mentioned and it was mentioned by the mayor and since the mayor is not here right now i think it's worth everyone also hearing that um you know the uh the mayor in the state of the city address had mentioned that even though the voters did overwhelmingly approve the tax increase um he appeared forth with it that would not have that tax increase in it um thereby saving the taxpayers about thirty dollars the average taxpayer about thirty dollars a year which granted is not the increase that you're talking about but it is significant and so i think that also bears worth repeating so that for those people who weren't there um an hour ago you're hearing it hearing it now thank you thank you councillor paul councillor mason then councillor rouff thank you president right um megan enchaven can you you know there's a lot of talk as everyone knows the budgets not here can you just sort of speak to and there may be an amendment coming forth why are we dealing with this now tonight and not as part of next year's budget great thank you councillor mason we've been looking at this and thanks to the the charge of the board of finance uh to do this work to do third party investment operations when uh the legacy issues hit of the billing errors and then the plant upsets of last summer our ability to respond effectively and efficiently to those was compromised by our staff capacity with the additional capital projects going on uh and our efforts to respond to those legacy issues it became apparent to staff that we were not optimally resourced to tackle those we brought forward the third party study we've done that work we proposed a phasing to honor the fact that we uh are now before the f y 20 budgeting uh process that said our our recommendations that have come from the consultant and that we have tweaked and massaged uh do reflect the proposed f y 20 impact in our budget uh for f y 20 is proposing a approximately in a four and a half percent rate increase about half of that the result of phase one and phase two recommendations the reason we wanted to move quickly and not wait for the approval for f y 20 is because we have two things going on first uh two of our senior staff members will be on personal leave the this summer it was important for us to have the new staff in place and trained before those uh leaves and second we wanted to be able to take advantage of as much of this construction season as possible so that we could uh deliver a number of the capital improvements lined up to address stormwater and wastewater issues uh before this construction season ends thank you councillor mason councillor roof thank you president right this question that i'd asked before i asked that last week at the work session i think it's important for folks to hear excuse the the ask again but could you just talk a little bit about the direct staff outreach that went into developing uh this this proposal tell us the independent consultant um met with i would say well over 80 percent of the staff for staffing groups each of the staffing groups had representatives at at various meetings generally about an hour hour and a half long you know examined various project lists that we had um any other SOPs that we've been developing and were you know familiar with some of the legacy challenges that had hit us recently um additionally because there were some questions about union involvement because there are union positions that are affected by these reorgs we um had a uh a good meeting with union leadership on march 21st in which we went over the entire raft tell us report in advance of the report in advance of giving them a copy so they did the same time that you guys did and then specifically with union uh bargaining unit uh work groups had specific meetings with them to make sure they understood uh what was involved so um we met twice with the distribution metering folks uh the change for that is to take the three of the existing 11 folks and move them over to the customer care um got good feedback on that that they thought that there could be real benefits to doing that um we also met with um the customer care groups since they were having some changes specifically we drew attention uh the union's attention to the fact that while we were moving one position out of the union the billing administrator to the customer care finance manager we are adding a customer care level two and then also in phase two a wastewater operator and training and I think that's probably the reason we got a lot of good engagement about the follow-up to the point uh director spencer that you just made about about timing uh I think we're going to get into this in a minute so I might be preempting a little bit but I asked for forgiveness in advance is there any risk could you just unpackage that a little bit more for me is what if any risk maybe I'll ask it this way is it would be associated with a delay of even just two weeks with that you talked a little bit about hiring are there any system operation or performance risks that we need to be contemplating when when thinking about that because you did have been operating on a timeline and I'm open to uh a delay in a postponement but I'd like to fully understand what risks we might be what risks we may be considering great I'll start it off and then hand it over to uh assistant director moyer uh the document that uh Megan sent along yesterday uh responding to a number of your questions included an attachment that uh able to tell support the risks that are being managed through the additional positions and uh yeah it's attachment c and what was sent out and I think it well describes uh the the risks that we are seeking to mitigate with the water resources engineer a lot of it gets to the water wastewater treatment plant and the industrial pollution prevention work uh the upsets of last summer are something we do not want to repeat we are working as quickly as possible on the clean water resiliency plan uh thank you uh lorry for posting that and uh we need this staff person here to assist us in advancing those as expeditiously as possible and uh Megan want you to talk to the next two um well I guess also I wanted to just one more can you both please when you're speaking pull the microphone right in close to you you're drifting off a little bit I should speak and we're missing it so please keep the microphone right close to you um one of the additional things I wanted to say you know in a perfect with time I'd be looking out a year or two right and thinking what do I need in two years and be hiring those folks now a lot of the issues that we're dealing with our backlog issues right as well as we are adding some of these positions that address both backlogged issues current issues as well as future facing issues and so I guess that's probably some of the reason for wanting to move quickly um hiring takes at least eight to ten weeks um our first uh you know leave is happening in mid july and having contact time between existing staff before those other staff come in right now and we would figure out a way to do it I don't know our stormwater program would have nobody there to manage it if we can't get um some of these positions in uh fairly quickly that being said as as as director Spence you know we will be okay for the next two weeks it's just we really really would like to get started with hiring these folks and kind of building our new organization um and new and also helping morale it's been a tough two years I will admit um and you would you would talk specifically about the which position the engineer the engineering position so the other piece is the policy and programs manager and um I think some of the the reason for expediting this is programs take can take a really long time to develop you don't just flip a switch and all of a sudden you have a new ordinance and all of a sudden you have the forms and the fees and whatever it is that you're going to implement that work it again I would have liked to have started it probably a year ago and so I already feel like we're behind the eight ball and worry that if we don't get this moving um that we could be in a risky position particularly waste water issues and then the customer position is largely to support the uh reclassification and the enrichment of the billing um the customer care and finance manager so that that position can really focus on resolving all of these meter issues bringing them to closure and developing those so that they do not happen again because we do not want them to happen again okay I'll just say last thing I appreciate the the presentation last week and the conversation tonight I think either tonight or in some near future date I think this will be just as influential as some of the reorganizations we've done at the city thinking at our BD more recently and and other as well I think this is is an incredible work that you've done um I'm looking forward to having this move forward uh maybe tonight but if not then sometime in the very near future thank you Councillor Roof. Councillor Pine we follow Councillor Franklin and then Kelly thank you um if I could just clarify when you use the phrase um legacy issues is that the same as saying deferred maintenance is that really what that is I got it is it just a nicer way of saying it's like a euphemism it feels like it is so some of the uh issues we are facing stem from deferred capital investment over time we had on the wastewater side uh projected that we would need to be bringing forward a capital plan for significant reinvestment in the wastewater plants 2021 2022 uh we emphasize that in our last year's budget presentation uh the plants have historically had an upgrade every generation and the time for this generation's uh role to play is now what happened last summer was uh an incident that forced us to advance what was already in two three or four in four months where our team rushed to put together a plan fortunately already had contracts with a number of uh uh technical uh leads in this community to help us put together the capital plan and to get it in front of the voters so yes part is infrastructure part is also um our systems the billing errors that our department uncovered and has diligently been tackling now for the last year uh have origins some back as far as three decades prior and we've been researching paper files we've been researching the old database that we're no longer using to bring each one to close we will be leaving a legacy here of a stronger program if we research ourselves appropriately and this plan is a key tool to helping address that as well as the infrastructure sure okay that's helpful i think um i was once told that burlington built a um a water facility treatment facility for a community three times our size expecting to be able to get communities nearby to participate and then the champlain water district pretty much took our customers away and so we had basically infrastructure that was way beyond what we needed in anticipation of being able to sell that capacity to other communities and i think it's just important to point out that as a result there were repeated rate increases throughout the 80s and 90s that became a clarion call for residents telling the administration and city council at the time you are killing us on your rate increases so when we look at the time period and say why was there like a long stretch of time where the rate increases the answer because the public is saying stop raising the water figure out another way to meet your expenses so there's just a little bit of history there that um i think is important to acknowledge i want to say that um this staff under the leadership of both um director spencer and uh megan moore's leadership um i have the utmost faith in and i respect their work and i think that um it's important for us to remember that when we ask these questions and ask for maybe a little bit more time it's because we are we are elected by people to represent their interest and in doing so sometimes it's it's difficult and uncomfortable but i just want to reiterate that their capabilities and their leadership are something that i have the utmost respect for and i think if we don't move forward tonight it is um really a result of um if quite honestly feeling a little bit rushed and i've been uh admitting to them both that i was uh unable to to the level of uh today really that i wanted to i'm given some family commitments and it's just been a really it's been it is a lot of information coming at us so just wanted to point that out thank you councillor pine in fact uh there was a time that i remember when there was when we received a bill once every three months rather than every once every month um count my apologies councillor polino is next to be followed by councillor paul thank you president right um director uh moir i i had some concerns about so i'll start off with the staffing increases just to see if i understand your numbers um so you write that a dollar seventy per month increase will be for f y 2020 for just these changes and that's the three new positions and the three reclassifications that's phase one that is for phase one and phase two so that includes five additional positions um and all of the reclassifications that's twenty dollars a year for an average rate payer for for an average rate payer who uses six hundred cubic feet a month so the request you're asking for is essentially forty dollars for the next two years for the average utility water use uh forty dollars over the two years yes but about twenty dollars a year that's for phase one and two correct and if i uh in response to your april 14th memo you included a graph that had uh how many staffing changes you've had and is it accurate that since 2015 you've only had three new additions despite all the different changes in services i'm trying to think of the graph that i provided you so it says three it's uh it's uh um the most recent position direct response to the question about everybody i need a reminder for channel 17 everyone has to stay right on their microphones so i guess i think i narratively described it exactly the most recent staffing addition was the third uh water resources engineer can you go to slide let's do slide five um so the most recent uh staffing addition was the water resources engineer which happened in 2017 um before that in i think 2016 we added a second water resources engineer and then um believe the other most recent increase our staffing increase was the water resources it was the gis and storm water technician at the time which we reclassified uh i believe last year into the water resources infrastructure asset manager so so you're currently have 43 fte's and in 2015 you were three 40 approximately yes um my last question was the going back to the dollar amount regarding staff increases is it accurate to say that even if you do these six changes of phase one you're still within the average rate of increase per year um yes if we if so the the total um budgetary impact with both regular regular annual operating drivers as well as these uh post staffing increase phase one and phase two which is five positions plus reclassifications um we're currently modeling that rate increase to be about 4.5 percent um i believe over the past uh i'm not sure how many years our typical rate increase has been in the 4.2 percent range and while communities do vary from one to another when we look at the the national averages you know we're within the sort of normal tolerance um of what water utilities are seeing again you'd have to look more specifically at the data to compare us to other medium size but generally medium and large and smaller water systems have higher costs because of the economy of scale and and that's consistent with looking back the last 10 years the rate of increases have been uh according to the graph on your responses that's what I was thinking about after page six 14th memo. Councillor Polino you have to really stay on the microphone and I apologize because you're new at this but if you're looking at your data which it's easy to want to do then you're sort of drifting away from the microphone so for everybody we've got to really stay on the microphone thank you my last point is that seven times in the last 10 years the rate has been over four and a half which is that number you were just talking about yes thank you thank you Councillor Polino Councillor Powell thank you thanks very much um so uh okay so at the board of finance this evening and actually I think it was also um certainly brought forward at the work session that um uh one of the biggest concerns that I think we all have and I and I think you have with um with this is that this we want to be done we need to move forward with this we need to have better billing so that what happened doesn't happen again we need we we need to do this work but we want to make sure that that work and these efforts do not fall on those who are least able to shoulder the cost um and you had said that there um are that you have a number of ideas um for how you could um uh lessen the burden on those who are least able to afford it um and I know uh Chapin you had at the board of finance had given us some revised language that you uh wanted to propose to us um in terms of the resolution um I was it was unfortunate that that came out very late in the conversation we had but I think that in the interest of people being able to see it before we might get to the potential uh the possibility of being able to vote on this this evening or not that that language be introduced sooner rather than later at least so that those who were not at the board of finance can hear it and understand the context um uh I think you know if if if we do vote on this in two weeks um and certainly that opportunity is open to us and it doesn't sound as if it's going to be it would be crushing um for that to happen although not the ideal outcome I I don't want to put words in your mouth um that that would potentially give you time to further develop some of the ideas that could potentially um be more just ideas but a little bit more found numbers if you had the opportunity to have a couple of weeks more to develop that and so I hope that you would speak to that as well thank you sure I'll start off and just saying your department is 100 committed to doing a rate analysis to doing a full evaluation of affordability programs and other incentives we have uh we are currently working to procure a uh a team to help us with that this is complex work it is not something that we can have ready in time for fy 20 but we are already underway so that we can be ready for fy 21 I do have draft language that could be inserted into the resolution should it be friendly to the council because we share your commitment to exploring ways to work with our rate pairs and balance needs and various rate pairs and so we are suggesting should the commission should the council be interested of adding a be it further resolved clause it says that the council directs the department to evaluate alternative rate structures and affordability programs to minimize the impact on low income and low use customers engage the public in the development and review of those options and present the findings to the city council for its consideration prior to the fy 21 budget presentation thank you president right so um could I just um we don't have the resolution on the screen but um do you have a proposal for where you thought you wanted that to go in terms of the lines just so just so we can all I mean I don't mean to say that it would obviously have to be proposed by one of us and then seconded but if you have a would it go at the would it go at the end of the that that would be the thought that it would go at the end of the resolution okay all right so if someone wanted to move that language it would go so place that would make sense would go at the end would you like would you like me to share the more concrete ideas or well I think I think the language that you're proposing should be disseminated to to the to us if there is a way that you can do that easily let's see if we can let's see if we can get that language up on the board in the meantime well are you outside councillor paul yeah I I would I would be willing to propose that as an amendment but I I would prefer to let others be able to see it first yes so let's get there and in the meantime we'll go forward with some other councillors just as mentioned to me by a couple of councillors and I agree is I know there is some desire I don't know where the votes are to postpone action and deal with this in two weeks if that's where we end up going I just don't want to have a full-blown two or three hour debate tonight and then postpone action until the next debate until the next meeting but having said that councillor busher is up next to be followed by councillor jang councillor freeman councillor tracy so thank you thank you president right um to pick up a little bit on what councillor paul was talking about at the board of finance I think that really the focus has been on trying to balance the needs of the department with the long-term impact on the taxpayer slash rate payer um and also our retirement system and I think that that really is the crux of this when I looked at when we left the work session I left with more knowledge than I came in with thank you very much um but I also left with an understanding that there would be three new positions added um and when I got the packet and the information uh for tonight not only were there three positions and they weren't the same ones but there was also some reclassifications and when I looked at all of this um this made a bigger financial impact for me than I had originally thought one of the engineers um one of the positions the engineer currently exists they are a limited service position so they don't have retirement benefits but we currently have them on board so financially I didn't see that adding that much however it would be a change and um so I just want you to know I did explore earlier this evening whether or not we could continue using that position as limited service and then consider in the next year or so um once we had made all these other changes and shifted some of the workload from the engineers consider whether or not we then bring that person on board full time um as a permanent position excuse me um so having said that and and Megan you referenced this earlier um that in an ideal and and shape and you did also in an ideal world the process would have been different in an ideal world we would have a way to provide relief to the taxpayer and taxpayer we would know how we were going to do that before we posed a rate increase um we would have known when we went to the voters we would have been able to say that this was a cumulative this was a package this was a package for a bond and this was a package for some additional staffing now the bond does include 1.25 FTEs one of those being an engineer to go with the work that is associated with the bond I'm not sure what the other point 25 maybe that's contingency I don't really know what that is but anyways um so there is that but I think it would have been better if we could have said this is where we're going and this is why we need the all of these positions um so I think that having said that I think that's why we find ourselves where we are tonight because it it hasn't been ideal we we as elected officials want to understand it started with councilor roof asking you know what's the impact to you know and and what's the benefit to the customer what's the impact on the customer that's what you asked at the work session and and I think you know that's what we're trying to be responsive to um so that the language that you are providing is a step in the right direction but I think I still would wonder if in two weeks you could make that stronger and give it a better um and more depth to that president right asked well we certainly don't want to impact people low and low and moderate income people but he was worried about the people middle income people how are we going to do that and what about businesses really you know how are we going to find this because it's a balancing act and it's delicate um so I think that there's a lot to contemplate and um and that's why I asked the question at the board of finance what would it do to the department if we were to delay action for two weeks because I feel that I haven't heard from everybody around the table and I myself feel like I'm still trying to pull this together so anyways thank you very much thank you councillor busher councillor jang then councillor freeman and tracy thank you and I have to definitely apologize to um megan yeah because you know this weekend this morning six a.m. you sent an email and we've been communicating and you never stopped any question that I ask before 10 minutes you reply and I'm also the great work you did at um last Monday to do a presentation it was the role but what I want to say about this is basically when we were talking about the bounds here 30 million bound utility I was the only council who did not vote for it and I think I provided my reason why but this plan today in front of me it is basically a combination a continuation of what you started and these actually give me confidence that things will get better right and I think you did an incredible job in just presenting it to us and to the council polliners point we are talking about an addition of 20 dollars per year to a regular customer who's using 600 cubicle or less we're talking about that it is it will be 40 dollars right so I am apologizing to you why we are here trying to delay this work I'm apologizing for that but at the same time I think president um consul president right did ask a wonderful question at the board of finance and I think it will be important for for you to come back to the to bring an answer to it and the question was about will this reclalification and adding three new position will be at least guaranteeing that our infrastructure and the water distribution the water meters will be functioning greatly is how did you respond that I think it is important for also the viewers and everybody to get a sense of that thank you thank you and I I understand you all are coming from um even if it is even if it is hard I will admit uh as far as um as far as will it guarantee I have quickly learned after taking this job that there are there are no guarantees and um that things can happen even if you think you are doing planning in the timelines that you need to do them in um I think that without this additional staffing I have very strong concerns about my ability and my existing staff's ability to weather to to keep the the ship moving forward and to weather the next possible thing that I don't know will happen when it happens so I there's a there is a universe of planned things which I try to get my hands around every day and in water resources in part because of climate change in part because of aging infrastructure these less the issues that things that we haven't realized the volume of unplanned work every day undermines our ability to work on the important programmatic generational things that move us forward and so there are no guarantees but I and I won't say that I'll guarantee you that we're going to fail because I will not let that happen even if I end up somewhere else um is is is that I need I need I need this I would not be bringing it to you except having many many months working with the consultants to figure out what's the minimal amount that we can do that will get us pointed more in the right direction and give me it it's like showing up to a soccer game with nine people or eight people every single Saturday at some point your existing players they can't do it and you can do so much more you can make these amazing plays if you have enough team members and it's the only way I can think about it as a as an athlete um you know two weeks I hold on um and we will try to give you more data more indication of why we've brought this forward and maybe more indication of how how we think these affordability programs will address the concern um but I mostly just appreciate you guys being willing to continue asking questions and being curious you know I don't take any of this is you thinking it's not a good idea you just want to understand more and lastly I think the voters did at 90 percent over 90 percent vote in favor of passing this so basically I can say that this is like a green light from the community members and I will not go to someone and say this is an addition it's going to be very easy to explain thank you for that um yeah thank you thank you councillor jang I have three councillors in the queue and then I wanted to get either a motion to move the resolution or a motion to postpone action and whether without the language by the way the language that councillor paul asked for is now up on the board and can be seen um councillor freeman can be followed by councillor tracy and then councillor roof councillor freeman you have the floor thank you uh thank you both again so much um as councillor jang just mentioned I've been um sort of just blown away by how responsive you both have been and so willing to um connect and touch base with all of us and um you know for me it's there's a lot that I'm getting up to speed on um really understanding how the organizational structure of water resources and dpw was working and how this is going to impact it and so um yeah you've both just been so receptive and I appreciate it I understand it's a it is a stressor um and I appreciate so many others um bringing up the the fact that delaying um even two weeks is a is a stressor so don't want to um diminish that impact um I am personally strongly in favor of that um of that two-week delay I think um some of the concerns uh that some other have raised have been sort of ones that I've um felt which is really if we're going to incur these long-term expenses to really understand the nuts and bolts of of how that's going to impact ratepayers um and that's I think just really primarily um and sort of also just maybe needing to it's a lot to process and and just needing to sit with it um a week is it is it does feel like a short amount of time and and I apologize for just needing some time to sit with it but I'm so in the in the sense that the the timeline there's a sense of there is some sense of urgency around it and I understand um based on some other conversations that I've had with um that there are um aspects in ways that the or that has been particularly researched for some time and that we now have sort of this incidental bad timing with two folks going on leave which is creating sort of this perfect storm and so I just want to understand I think in the broader context perhaps these organizational changes have been needed for a long time but um I just I don't really understand I suppose folks go on leave um and how um that it's incidentally bad timing but is there there's no this is just a really actually very specific question about when um when departments have key um sort of actors like us like to sort of who go on leave how is that because I understand it's incidentally bad timing now but I'm just curious how that just to better understand how that would just play out in any other circumstance normally yeah I would say that happen for any number from medical uh situation to a family situation happening and uh sometimes those things aren't planned these fall into something that's been known for a while but is a family obligation that both need to attend to and uh it's my duty if if need be and if there's a two-week delay here to look at do we bring in temporary staff or other solutions to get us through it's just hard to bring in a temp as you're trying to train somebody who's you know it's it's it's a difficult transition yeah thank you for clarifying on that that was more I was just wondering if there are you know if people bring in temps or or in sort of an interim and and I guess it's the it's the cumulative impact of of the other work that we have going on for instance one of my major concerns with the uh stormwater program manager going on leave is stormwater and basically the stuff in stormwater if my engineers my existing three engineers were not completely flat out trying to build water lines and and get things moving with the clean water resiliency plan I could probably have a little bit more of them to keep it floating additionally I am also going out on leave and I'm the one who holds the rest of the stormwater expertise I could be providing that function but I am going out 20 days later than this other person and so it is a bit of a perfect storm and I wish and I will be thinking about this in the future to have my organization have enough resiliency that we can tolerate which are normal things I want people to be able to go and be with their kids or their family for three months and not have to worry about this place so yeah yeah no I just I appreciate you um clarifying that and it's a little bit particular to the situation right people who are going out right thank you thank you councillor freeman councillor tracy thank you president right and I also wanted to extend for all that conversation that you've been willing to extend to us with regards to this I specifically appreciated the clarification that you provided with regards to the efforts that you've had to reach out to unionize folks I think that's particularly important making sure that we're working well with our collective bargaining units and doing proper outreach to make sure that when we do make a change to the size or scope of a bargaining unit that that's done so that we do so collaboratively so I do appreciate that I think that you know with more time it might be helpful to understand a little bit from their side and specifically from directly from them we've heard from managers who want a plan to come forward but I think that it could be helpful to hear a little bit from the union specifically and I think that that's one of the things that having more time would allow us to do on the other hand I also think that this is something that as I said before I think that there is a need to also check in with the public and really give folks a chance to understand that you know this would be essentially 70 times more you know it was around 60 and as your prior presentations which is a significant addition to a monthly cost to your average water user and again there is that cumulative effect although that will be taking impact you know as the bond starts to hit but there are several other bonds and costs that are continuing to build for voters so I think that giving them a clear understanding of what it is that might that this might actually do in terms of driving costs would be helpful and so I think that having a little bit of time to flush out what exactly that would look like and and giving folks just a chance to engage you know our wonderful public outreach specialist Rob Goulding to have him push out some messages around that would be very helpful as well and then finally I think that there's also you know I don't like this idea of developing something that's as significant and as important as dealing with you know looking at alternative rate structures and conflicts of an end of board of finance and it's a very general amendment it speaks to very general sort of terms you know that we're committed to this that we will engage the public and that you know we will provide these at least on a very vague timeline of before the 21 budget cycle well that doesn't deal with really how we get there and some of the other process steps that for instance you shared a memo with me with regards to the how you've tried to engage a consultant doing to deal with this work and there was a lot of great specificity in there I think that we could bring a lot of that specificity of what we're asking from the consultant into the process as to how we're going to be developing alternative rate structures and in this so that we give clarity to the public that you know we are we're not just doing this in some sort of general statement but that we're really laying out the process steps where we're going to try and check in with them so outlining that public engagement for dealing with alternative rate structures and then also I'm verifying that the strategies by which we are going to do that I do think that we need to take our time and at least if we're going to need to have lots more process around alternative rate structures but I think that setting forward a process instead of just you know having a vague amendment would be a lot more would get me a lot further towards supporting this particular plan so for those reasons the desire to see you know to get the clarity for directly from the bargaining unit around their feelings on this the desire to see more public engagement over the next two weeks and then also the desire to see a more fleshed out process whereby we'd be able to to move forward on this conversation of alternative rate structures I'm certainly in favor of delaying a little bit and I think that through that delay I'd be able to get that information and feel a lot more comfortable with this thank you councillor wait I'm not done so I would so what I would like to do is I would like to move to postpone to time certain the April 29th meeting councillor Tracy has moved to postpone action on this item until the April 29th meeting seconded councillor Hanson point of order president right I don't think there's a resolution on the floor to amend that is true we have not made the the resolution has not been moved city attorney's office can we postpone action on something without putting it on the without actually having the motion on the floor can this action be postponed without that first initial action I mean we're putting amendments on there are amendments that are being discussed on the floor before the resolution's been moved so I mean we've come to far down this rabbit hole already I can't have different councillors taking the floor and speaking without being recognized the attorney if you have no jevony no okay I'm going to I'm going to make the call that is I believe that this can be put on the floor without this having been moved so it's it's simply calling for postponing action on this we haven't actually got it on a motion on the floor for the resolution but we're moving to postpone action on it so debate on the motion to postpone councillor Paulino I want to go back to what Ms. Moyer said that you know they're 43 fte's waiting for relief and by not taking action for two weeks it sends a message to 43 city employees on what I feel is a non-controversial item regarding wastewater and clean water I started off by addressing the numbers because I feel that the impact is significant it's it's $20 a year but it's also important to recognize that the staffing changes haven't been made in the last 10 years the increases haven't been made in the last 10 years and that's why I think the request is far reasonable especially for phase one thank you councillor Paulino councillor Shannon thank you president right um I I think that around the table we all value clean water and we know we know that our constituents value clean water we know that we've had a very serious problem delivering clean water um and we have had breaches of our that have contaminated the lake we've just come out of a vote where I can't recall anything ever passing with 92 percent of the vote I think the message from our constituents is really clear they have no higher priority and a two-way a two-week delay is not a long time if no accidents happen but a two-week delay with a list of risks that we're trying to mitigate to make sure that we don't further contaminate the lake if something happens that's on us and that's not something that I want to be responsible for something could still happen we can pass it and something will still happen but at least we know we've done the best that we can to avoid it and we can't say that if we vote to delay this at this point I I do appreciate this is complicated but I think that that's why we had the work session a week ago to try and get this conversation started so that we didn't have to do it all in one night and I do appreciate that there are continuing concerns about the rate structure and I think that that is shared around the table as well there's you know an amendment that we have briefly seen there that deals with that a little bit but I also we're not adopting any rates tonight or any rate structure and I think that we can further address this in our when we adopt the budget we adopt our our water rates and I think that the desire to work further on this could be addressed at that time in those budget resolutions and get further detail if we can add the amendment that was offered earlier tonight and then continue to work on that in our budget resolutions I think that that would suffice because I can't support postponing this knowing that if something happens it's on us and there is no higher priority for for this community and I don't think there's probably a higher priority for anybody around the table either we've gone through a really thorough process everybody has acknowledged the responsiveness of staff to try and answer every single question we've had multiple memos that have been very very thorough I do appreciate it's a lot to absorb but I think we have to move forward with this so I will not be I will not be supporting a motion to postpone and I thought I hope that we have the opportunity to move this forward tonight because it should have been done yesterday. Thank you councillor Sheehan and councillor Hanson. Thanks yeah thank you all so much and and this has been very thorough and I I too share you know the fact that this is is a huge priority and feel the sense of urgency I think postponing by two weeks does maintain a sense of urgency that still is a fast timeline but but what it does is it allows for some public input which we we haven't really had yet or I I haven't if there has been I haven't seen it and I haven't talked to I haven't had the opportunity to to connect with my constituents around this issue because I've been trying to you know wrap my head around it myself so I think it's beneficial to be able to to get that input because especially in the wake of of the job on items that was by the voters folks are sensitive to prices increases that that was one of the biggest issues out there talking that folks in my neighborhood is the continual rising costs of living and this is a part of that so I think it is helpful to hear from them and part of why I think it's important as well is because I think many voters rightfully or wrongfully so many voters when they made this huge investment in which they overwhelmingly did support many of them thought that this was fixing the problem and that may have been misinformation or they may have been misguided on that but that was the perception of many people is that all right we're willing to make this huge expenditure but it's going to solve this problem so for them to do that and then without having been reached out to and without having been engaged to then get hit pretty quickly with an additional increase I think could cause some folks to be felt mislead I think it's really important for the public to have the opportunity to to kind of understand this before we move which we haven't had yet so that's why I would support moving it but I do I am very supportive of it I do expect to be supporting it in two weeks if that's when we vote on it and that's when I would like to vote on it and I do I am hopeful that through reaching out to the public and discussing it we will not only have folks more supportive and understand this better and understand the needs better be more supportive to you all and and to us and our process and I think it will pass I am hopeful about that but that's why I'll I'll be moving to just push it back just by two two more weeks thank you councillor Hanson councillor roof and then councillor mason I didn't know it was next all right so someone said we have a lot around this table and we send a lot of messages right we're tonight whatever we do we send a message to staff we'll send a message to the communities and a message to each other and I think that you this issue I don't hear anyone around the table disagreeing that there's a need here and that we want to see this happen I think what we're talking about is very down in the weeds and we're talking about okay we're talking about process and we're talking about how are we going to fund it right are there more progressive ways small progressive ways of looking at funding this and I look at it as an opportunity and I and I'll repeat what I said before I really do hope that this council whether tonight or in two weeks does move this forward because it is critical more so I think from from my perspective on this side of the table from the first meeting of this new council I think we need to be cognizant and aware that as councillors we we should not be digging our heels in one side we'll do another right we should be paying the risk of disaster to our ecosystem with public outreach right that's an unfair I think I'm going to speak truthfully here I think that's an unfair dichotomy I think it's an unfair framework and I don't think that those people who are making those points are intentionally making that framework and so I just want to I just want to bring that out because I think that as a new council we should be striving towards in these opportunities where there's a lot of consensus to try to get there and I want to get there I don't want to see tonight a six six vote so I'm hopeful that one way or the other we can we can talk through this here and find an outcome that the big message that we send is to the public that this council is ready to work and ready to get things done maybe not unanimously every time as president right said at the beginning of the meeting but if we go six six six six in this council we're going to send a message to this community that we're not going to be operating well and we should use this item this issue as an opportunity to come together and figure this thing out so listen to the rest of the debate I think I know where I'm going to vote but I want to hear the rest of the folks out and I just want that to resonate in people's mind here for a little bit while we wrap wrap up this this item thank you councilor roof councilor mason thank you president right I will not be supporting the motion to postpone for two weeks I've listened to the articulation of the reasons behind the delay and I'm not convinced that the opportunity for public input or for sort of coming up with alternative rate structures is going to happen in the next two weeks we've heard tonight you know the plan to engage a consultant and then work with that consultant that's a complicated process is going to take over a year I while I appreciate the efforts you've put in I'm not confident that two weeks is going to make a difference in that I'm also looking to you and very confident I know councilor tracy raised some concerns about wanting to sort of come up with the process now I am confident that you will commit to working with the council to sort of solicit our input in terms of what that public process should look like when that consultant is engaged and I'm seeing you shaking your heads yes which to me gives me enough comfort knowing now that that I will you know vote to move this forward with the understanding that there will be a further conversation about that public process once the consultant is engaged thank you thank you councillor mason other councillors or our councillor jane and then councillor pine um so I I think I am not sure if I would be voting to support the motion of postponing and the reasons are here because all I heard the reason why people want to postpone three things come engage the committee work with the union and the one or how to get you know and I think that point you made it clear it cannot happen in two weeks right and I cannot see a way to engage the community in two weeks the platform we have is npa's npa's none of them maybe you know you cannot meet with all of them in within the two weeks and at the same time you asking to postpone asking the administration the department to go talk to the community or use our city councils need to go back and talk to our constituents I think it's not clear to me we have a proposal very well bedded in front of us we need to move this forward tonight and sending a message to the 43 staff that we are here we hear you for over years you've been not taking serious the most essential service that anybody in the city can the best one of them at all but for twenty dollars a year we want to postpone and not to even mention that the voters already voted in favor of this there won't be a person that you talk to say you will have a one-dollar addition built your water that being a problem I mean thank you I'm not supporting it thank you councillor jane councillor pine I just want to make a point which I think is perhaps obvious but we're all enjoying the benefits of clean water right here tonight I don't think it's fair to cast any of us who are looking to get a couple more weeks of deliberation and outreach to our constituents as somehow not supporting the clean water clean lake we have an obligation to our constituents and we all respond differently to that and we engage with our constituents in different ways and we're not telling anyone how to do that but we all have our own ways of doing that and I think our obligation is to um proceed ahead but proceed ahead in a way that ensures we're not leaving folks behind and we're not um adding insult to injury for folks who are struggling day in and day out I have a neighbor who struggles and literally at certain times of the month lives on baked potatoes and I'm not kidding and so when we talk about twenty dollars as though it's nothing for my neighbor twenty dollars is a lot so please don't disparage those of us who are asking for postponement over what you think is a small amount of money because for some people it actually means whether they eat or not so please thank you councillor pine any other councillor who wants to motion a postpone action until the next meeting councillor shannon I just want to note that we're not voting on money tonight we're voting on staff restructuring continue councillor shannon we're not voting on any budget changes councillor shannon has the floor councillor shannon has okay well people people are disagreeing with this and I'd like to understand what that disagreement is because I did see some salary amounts in there but my understanding is that we are not voting on budget changes in this resolution so if I'm wrong I'd like to be corrected well we would hear from staff on that so the resolution in front of the council articulates the uh reclaiming of a number of positions in the creation of positions uh we have sufficient funds in f y nineteen for these moves these moves in total will drive a cost pressure modest in f y twenty that would contribute a dollar seventy cents uh to the increased rate in f y twenty so I think that the comment you heard is there is no vote uh to a budget amendment here for nineteen but it would drive uh change to the f y twenty budget that will come to the council here in the coming weeks okay thank you um my understanding of the objections is the rate structure rather than whether or not we need to do this so that rate structure discussion is going to be a much longer longer discussion it's not a two-week discussion um in terms of getting constituent feedback I feel very confident that my constituents want uh want to do everything that we can to have a queen clean lake and I do appreciate that for some of my neighbors as well twenty dollars is is meaningful um at the same time I know those same neighbors really get you know the water quality to them is uh as important as it is to everybody else and I don't think that we're going to be changing that um in this process or in the next two weeks um we've also had the opportunity to really we need constituent but we need to reach our constituents we had a work session last year last week with a lot of a lot of details on this and if we need constituent input you know I don't think that we should be putting this at risk for another two weeks because we didn't get constituent input I don't see a whole outcry of people showing up here our meetings are warned we put out a post some from porch forum about what's on our agendas and people aren't here telling us you can't do that people want a clean lake they want us to move forward thank you thank you councillor shanning council roof i'm gonna shift back over to you um if postponement guys are sitting here in front of me not exactly what we're asked for for what to happen in those two weeks I know that there's there's ideas and I just want to make sure that they're fleshed out from from your perspective with those two weeks what will you do with it because there's no direction from the motion and I don't think there needs to be necessarily but for my sake and certainly for your sake what exactly we're going to be doing here and maybe the acute question for me is it's about funding right it's about making sure we're not overburdening folks that that can't pay is two weeks enough time to develop out a a pricing system what I don't want is to my genuine my genuine concern hers coming back in two weeks and still not having the answers that I think people have the right to want and so that's a couple of questions there so one we can embark on some additional public notification I think I heard some councillors we talked about some additional notification that could be done in addition I heard some desire to flesh out the resolution in the next two weeks we can't substantively advance the rate restructuring and program innovation work but if requested by the council we could look at further detail on the resolution just quick follow-up I would assume just knowing having worked with you two now for a couple of years now with or without that in the resolution I feel as though and I'm just looking for validation on this that you would be pursuing those aggressively anyways can you just other confirm or deny that assumption correct we have already issued the request for qualifications which I provided to you all we are interviewing the consultants I believe the beginning of May the any contract the master service contract that we anticipate executing and certainly any school work specifically deal with would come to the board of finance at a minimum if not the city council depending on the value of the work and so there there will be some future opportunities for specific engagement and what the scope of work is on with that consultant and after we've had some time with the consultant who are national experts that's a requirement for them as part of the qualifications and specifically these affordability issues I can certainly enumerate the you know top three things that I think we will be looking at as part of this but I anticipate going as deep as a dive as possible to literally leave no stone unturned as far as potential revenue sources that may be out there that don't impact residential users and also various you know alternative rate structures also have attended an affordability conference you know worked with chappend and and as a mayor at mayor's conference that spent I believe two days at all the affordability measures that we could include and absolutely I mean I as I've said I as I've taken over this this role and seen the expenses that we have and our revenue challenges it quickly became clear that we were going to have to figure out a different way of finding the money to keep running our system and making improvements thank you thank you councillor roof we have I have two more counselors in the queue and then I think we really should be heading toward a vote here councillor busher count and then councillor hanson so thank thank you I will be supporting the motion to postpone and I guess what the way I've looked at this is I've talked to the head of the department and the water resource director and I've tried to figure out taking the recommendations from the consultant and tried to figure out if there were other ways to to accomplish the needs of the department without actually adding the dollar amount that is being proposed I feel that is my job and what would I do with those two weeks I would continue to try to work with the department to better understand it and bring forward my thoughts on this you know when you look at this you've got five positions you've got five positions ultimately that are going to come to be in FY 20 and you've got three reclassifications and you've got a lot of other departments coming forward with more reclassifications and more budgetary impacts and I feel that this council really needs to be looking at headcount and where are we the private sector or are we the public sector where are we getting our salary ranges what are we doing here and can we as a community afford this we already know people can't move into burlington because they can't afford it but my fear is that people are going to have to leave burlington because they can't afford it so that's the premise I will still be working really hard to educate myself to better understand and to get added language in the how you're going to address the rate structure I do think we'd be better served with with knowing a little bit more so thank you thank you councillor busher councillor hanson and then I would like to move to a vote so so for me I I'm very supportive of what you all are trying to do and I and I do have faith that you are working towards a more progressive rate structure um I think what I would like to see and change to it would just flushing that commitment out just for the public so that folks could understand that commitment if they are going to be hit with this increase knowing that in the near future next year they would be seeing some some relief and some changes to that I think that's really critical and I think having having the two weeks how I would use it would be to reach out to constituents who as as Brian kind of alluded to this has a different impact than it does on me um so and also to say that you know I support this because I've had this opportunity to to learn so much from you uh I think the public if they had the opportunity to understand that we'll also support it I do think that but I I'd like to give them that opportunity and I I just think overall going to councillor roof's point um the process is important and making people feel like they've had a chance to weigh in rather than learning about something after the fact and getting upset because they don't know all the details around it I think that was something that came up time and time and time and time again this the past couple months when I was knocking on doors was not so much oh I I hate the decisions that are being made but it was that I don't feel included I feel that things were rushed um I feel like my input wasn't valued so I think it's important to set that precedent and this is an opportunity to set the stage um as having that collaboration and really valuing that public input um on an item that feels like it is extremely likely to pass potentially unanimously in two weeks time but the value of of bringing the public along as well I think is is tremendous um and will allow us to be active in other ways I'm sure it's going forward thank you councillor the clerk shall call the roll please councillor bushar yes councillor hanson yes yes councillor jeng councillor paulino no councillor freeman councillor mason no councillor paul yes councillor pine yes councillor roof yes councillor shannon no councillor tracy yes city council president right yes the motion to postpone passes by believe about eight to four so we have postponed action on that until our next meeting on april 29th so now move ahead to committee reports oh i'm sorry that got all right we i missed item 4.02 that is a communication from the city attorney's office office that was pulled off consent regarding the annual report on livable wage ordinance thank you um our office just really wanted to give an update uh which is required every year but wanted to verbalize it uh sort of bring the council up to speed on the exciting work we've been doing in conjunction with the worker center and the clerk treasurer's office um really I think this year I don't need to go through the sort of uh every audit that we've done I did provide that report if there are questions we're happy to answer but I think the really exciting things that we are moving forward with an increased number of so moving from a complaint system on where we are proactively um with our colleagues at the worker center identifying contracts or projects where it makes sense to check in and check compliance and we're always working on education first um and trying to raise awareness and compliance um with the ordinance uh in that vein we're getting ready we're having uh our first um time where we work with the worker center actually do trainings with employees prior to construction season so they can help um with the awareness issues also we are continuing as well to be the compliance mechanism and that happened again this past year where we're working on uh when contractors do not follow the livable wage there are in the ordinance certain um enforcement mechanisms involving first off we always make sure restitution for workers but there are um you know little tickets that someone can contract will actually prevent people from doing work with the city if they've been found to be um sort of repeat offenders or if they we don't feel are taking the ordinance seriously enough so uh I think our office just really wanted to share that it has been um really a good a good last year for the ordinance we uh dude did also provide uh we have our central database now for contracts that are livable wage eligible we get the certification forms uh we share that as well with the worker center so that we're better able to identify where projects are happening and when uh which helps to better uh better outreach and compliance efforts all right thank you any questions for the city attorney's office hearing none councillor busher for a motion yes i'll move to accept this report and place it on second councillor councillor my understanding is that this report which is an excellent report was written by attorney james and I just want to thank you so much for it and it was very informative and and I was excited that this was not complaint driven but actually it was an audit and we found somebody who needed to be educated and and didn't want to be but anyways and you've got some work to be done um but this is a long shot from when we when we um just had a livable wage ordinance and nobody ever checked so thank you thank the attorney's office and and everyone involved in compiling this great thank you councillor busher any any other further discussion hearing none all those in favor of councillor busher's motion please say I I'm opposed that passes unanimously I'm number five is committee force um committees have just now been reformed so we hasn't any meetings but any committee chair who wants to speak council roof the licensed committee will have its first meeting this Wednesday at 5 30 in room 12 we'll be dealing with a lot of renewals so there'll be a lot of stuff coming from that next one is I'm sorry not this one's I thank you councillor tracy um also public safety will be meeting um actually that's not that's to be determined so forget that also the vehicle for higher licensing board which is a a rock and roll committee for sure um we'll be meeting tomorrow tomorrow 10 a.m. in room 12 as well so we want to come and check that one out thank you councillor roof any other chair councillor pine community development and neighborhood revitalization committee will meet next Monday because we don't really like having money is a meeting we thought we scheduled a meeting on Monday uh at dpd discussing the annual plan for how the city allocates the community development block grant dollars and I want to welcome councillor chang to the committee thank you thank you councillor pine any other chair hearing none we'll close that item out and go to have number six switch your city councillors on general city affairs any councillor on jenny's general city affairs councillor busher so I just wanted to report on our last um uh the east district npa um and just give the council a heads up there was a resolution that was passed that I hope a copy will come to the council um asking um and the resolution was to request some additional funding for the east district um to actually potentially consider small grants that could be utilized small projects in the district this is reminiscent of the the uh cdbg block grant funds that we had that were given per ward and also the money would be used for uh live streaming so that people that were not present but were available could potentially engage more actively in the um meeting um so that was that's one thing the second topic was that um the director of dpw came and there was a lively debate about sidewalks and there was a request a big request um made to the department asking that potentially they do a slab at a time as opposed to a whole section of sidewalk when there is a slab that are in real need and they're disrupt um people's ways uh people in wheelchairs etc who can't navigate and are forced to go on the street so there was a request to potentially have a fund that would would be able to respond to those kinds of uh requests and so I just thought I'd let everyone know about that thank you thank you councillor busher any other councillor on general city affairs councillor jannon then councillor pine thank you president right um I wanted to remind people uh about an event that's happening may 1st uh that you probably got an email about which is the burlington 2030 district annual celebration it's may 1st uh from five to seven at main street landing and the 2030 district um it it actually is a voluntary program to get larger property owners to benchmark their buildings for greater energy efficiency and it's a very important um activity to fight climate change that we're doing here in burlington and at this celebration you will have an opportunity to meet some of the um property owners that are participating in it and the goals of the program and uh it's it's pretty exciting you know right now it's starting with uh really the biggest property owners but it could be coming to a duplex near you in the near future and it's something that I think we should all be engaged in so I hope to see some of you there uh may 1st thanks thank you councillor shannon councillor pine and then mason I just want to extend an invitation to uh my fellow councillors that the vermont council on world affairs is bringing some Jordanian um mayors and elected officials to burlington and uh I often hold hand up to say close it so that way it's right in the workplace I can just walk upstairs so I invite you all because it's a big room and it's a it's a it's a conference room so uh everyone's welcome it's um next thursday the 18th 3 p.m um I don't know exactly how many but it's a pretty good size group and there'll be obviously an interpreter there uh veic is at 128 lakeside avenue so take the elevator to the top floor and you'll find us thank you councillor pine councillor mason thank you president right uh continuing the theme put forth by councillors pine and shannon the ward 5 npa is hosting or will be holding its meeting this thursday uh the meeting is pretty much dedicated to climate change uh it's 645 uh and the it'll be held at city market community room 207 flinnav starting at 630 uh jenny green from bed will be presenting on the climate action plan at 645 uh 740 to 840 climate change panel consisting of uh senate's and representative sullivan sandro flaherty from citizens climate lobby and julie makuga from 350 vermont public is invited to attend thank you thank you councillor mason anyone else on general city affairs hearing none I will close that item out and item number 7 is council president update this will actually close us out tonight the mayor's dealing with a personal issue right now so the only update I have is that we I need to um on the wanouski avenue transportation study I need to replace councillor nodell as the council rep there and I'm appointing councillor tracy to serve as the rep on that committee okay all right well like or not you're the one thank you councillor tracy um and that's it for me the motion moved by councillor ruff by councillor pine all those in favour please say aye any opposed or adjourned