 The August call the August 30th 2023 city council meeting to order this is a special meeting called for one purpose. Are there any agenda additions or changes? I don't have any. Okay. Nobody else. All right. No agenda decisions or changes. We'll move right into public to be heard. This is the opportunity for folks attending the meeting to bring any topic that is not on the agenda to the city council. We are not in person. So I'm looking at hands raised on zoom. I'll give it a minute. Looks like someone just any just joined. So this is public to be heard. So we'll give it a few more seconds and see if anybody has anything, not seeing anything. Okay, so we'll move right on to the first business item discussion and consideration of health officer. Regina enough yet an intro for this. Yeah, I can just share my screen so everybody knows what we're talking about here. So essentially, the health officers role is to ensure that the state's health code is enforced at the local level. This position is unique because it's actually an appointment that's done by the commissioner of the department of health. But it does require a legislative body recommendation to the commissioner. Our current health officer is on leave. And so we have Claire Contreras, who was an intern, a stormwater intern with Chelsea over the summer. And she is also a Middlebury graduate who has her graduate degree in environmental public health shows she's very much interested in this position and stuck right up when she was told about it. And Colleen and I talked with her and I think she'll she'll be really great. And the reason why we had to do this quickly is because the commissioner only does these appointments once every month. So we will need to get all of this information if you folks recommend Claire for this position, we will get all the paperwork over to the state tomorrow so they can make this appointment official for September 1st start date. And the memo also describes that as you folks know in our FY 24 budget. We have a full time position contemplated to do this work code enforcement work and rental registry work and as you know we're so working through all of those parts and pieces to see how that comes together. But Claire is very aware that this is potentially a part time position as it states as it stands today because it will eventually get rolled into a full time position. And she is aware of that and still very interested in doing the role at this point as it stands. Any questions. I'm sorry I was going to say that's great. She's got a great resume, especially for this position. And a lot of really interesting experience inside and outside of military college so I think it's an exciting candidate for this position. Any other counselors have comments or questions. Elaine. Thank you. Yes. Just a quick question about the memo, the sentence about the former health officer may return to the position. What does that mean. So, she is on leave dealing with some personal stuff. And so she Claire is also aware that that position she may want to come back to this position. And it's also possible that she may not want to come back until we're ready to move on to the until we're have the full time position set up. So, everybody's aware that these are temporary situations going on. Faith is on a fairly suggested a fairly long term weave so it's not likely that she'll be back quickly and so we really wanted to make sure to get this position be appointed with the state's office so we know clearly who has this responsibility. And we have been working with the Sharon at the town as a deputy. And this position in this case Claire Contreras would be deputy for the town as we've been operating. Sort of that mutual aid situation. Yep. Okay. And Marcus you had your hand up. Yeah, just so that I guess I in the public are clear about this so it sounds like again there's a personal situations taking a current health officer off out of this. So this is had to happen very fast because we need to fill this role it only happens once. But I'm just curious about process here and in the case of, I totally understand that we need to fill this position, looking at the letter here and Claire's resume, it looks great for what I understand this position to have to do. I guess it sounds like she has the basic qualifications to do this particular role, but I'm curious about whether or not what I guess why, why aren't we interviewing people I, and I also know that this is also state statute that that is makes this man a mandatory position for us so I just want to make sure that I understand that the public understands how this is playing out. It's definitely a unique situation and it is not a full time position, it is a stipend based position. It is a position that if we do not fill it and have somebody in this role, it reverts to the chair of the legislative body. And it is a unique position because it sort of lands a little bit in the in the realm of a volunteer who wants to do it, but it is paid because we do have a have a stipend for it. So we did announce that when we heard about the leave, we did announce to all staff that this position is out there if anybody would like to do it because we have also, you know, ideally, this position would be a component of a full time position with the city that is how most municipalities that are of our size handle this it's not typically done by somebody else and so our full time solution to that is that this will eventually be incorporated in that other code enforcement rental registry position. We're just still in this in between and really have to make sure we've got somebody in this role who can who can step up and do it. That helps answer that. Yeah, thank you. Great. Any other comments or questions. Anyone in attendance in the meeting in zoom land have any comments or questions on this topic right now. Now be the time to raise your hand or. Annie has her hand up. Why not. Okay. Hi, any. Thanks, Elaine. I believe you're right. I zoom is funny. Yeah, I appreciate it. I don't I don't feel slighted. Thanks Elaine for seeing me. I, I feel like at the same time that staff was notified that there should have been information put out to the public, both locally and further I think a job, certainly one that's going to turn into more should be something that was interviewed for like Marcus was saying, and I really feel that it doesn't make us look good. And I don't mean that we should walk around trying to look good, you know, we should just do what's right all the time I get that. But in the scheme of a lot of things. Let's just cross our T's and daughter eyes. That's what I'm saying. Thank you. Yeah. I think I see your hand up. Thank you. I'm, I'm wondering how she could have signed and dated the affidavit yesterday and you're discussing her employment today. So the affidavit is a documentation that. Those to the state and again, we needed all this paperwork lined up so we can get it over to the state tomorrow and we've. I just asked her to fill it out yesterday. But none of this is approved and ready to go over to the state until the this board approves that and then we will send it over tomorrow. Are you asking Risa, how are we having a meeting so quickly. No, I understand that. Meetings can happen very quickly what I was asking is, was this a foregone conclusion. Here's somebody who's already signed an affidavit before the meeting where you discussed whether or not you were going to. I don't know if higher is the correct word, appoint this person in this position. It seemed a little backwards to me. Well, the, I think Regina explained the timeline on this. This person is also known to our HR department as an intern in wastewater who has unique experience compared to some of the other applicants we've had in the past for this position. So I think due to the deadline with the health department, and the fact that we have no one else to facilitate this in the timeframe, I think that's likely why we've. We have to work ahead. Tending a positive result from the council on decision from us. Amber, do you have your hand up. Yeah, I just wanted to see if Regina could just clarify that. I think you did earlier, but just just to make sure that I'm hearing it again. This is strictly the health officer position. This is not a full time position for the code enforcement rental registry that position will be advertised. As we normally do, just to be clear. That is correct. And we are still working on the part I'm hearing a little feedback on where that's coming from, but we're hearing that we are working on the parts and the pieces so we can actually create a job description for that. And so, certainly, definitely when that job is available, it will be advertised just like any of our other full and part time positions are advertised. Okay, great. Bringing it so we're back to the board. There are no other questions or comments from the board. And we're feeling like this is a good candidate and we want to move forward I'll entertain the motion, which I think is on the first is on the memo at the bottom. Again, that's helpful. I'll move that the city council make a recommendation to the Department of Health to appoint Claire Contreras for the position of health officer for the city. Oh, second. Not any discussion. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. All those opposed nay. Motion passes. Great. Thank you everyone for taking the time. Yep. Thank you for putting this together. Please thank Claire for us for stepping forward or forward to meeting her. And I think that is all we have. So I'd also entertain a motion to adjourn. I will move to adjourn the meeting. Second. Great. All those in favor say aye. Hi. All those opposed nay. Motion passes. Nice to see you all. See you in a couple of weeks for sooner. Thank you. Okay.