 I'm Jess Hyland. I live on North Champlain Street, Ward 3. In my day job I work for CDOO, the Champlain Valley Office of Economic Opportunity, in our statewide housing advocacy programs and I want to make sure that everyone knows that April is Fair Housing Month and so this month we're celebrating the fact that 55 years ago there was important protections enshrined into federal law to protect against discrimination and harassment based on who people are, based on skin color, race, disability, gender, and family status and then states add additional protections and we've added quite a few and so there are additional protections based on gender identity and sexual orientation based on marital status, on age, on receipt of public assistance and being a victim of assault, sexual assault, or abuse or stalking and so we have these really important laws on the books that make it illegal for anyone to discriminate, to make housing decisions based on any of those characteristics and it's also important to note that just because we have laws on the books doesn't mean it doesn't happen. So Fair Housing Month is a way to, is a time to celebrate the importance of home, importance of community and the fact that everyone deserves a home through from discrimination and harassment and it's a time to raise awareness about the importance of inclusive affordable housing and so we have a bunch of activities happening all over the state that folks can join in on, there's informational things, there are creative things, arts events, if you go to FairHousingMonthVT.org you can find a whole bunch of in-person and virtual and fun events and we really encourage everyone to join in and raise your voice and make sure that everyone knows that housing is a human right and that any type of discrimination is not okay. Thank you. Hi everyone, my name is Ali Ward-Thiam. I'm here to announce about the Battery Street scoping study that's happening. The city is looking for input on changes to Battery Street. I am along with Barbara, work three representatives for this project and on May 2nd there is an open house public meeting at Contoy's auditorium at 6 p.m. there's a presentation and from four to six there's an open house then. I'll read a little bit just from their website. What do you see as the biggest issues with Battery Street? How would you like to see a future version of this street built and use what are your dreams for this important portion of downtown Burlington and if you go onto their website there's a survey you could take and there's a community input map that you can point out specific issues, ideas for improvement or things you like about Battery Street. That's another way to provide direct feedback and additional to coming to that meeting on May 2nd. If you want to go to their website, I can give you the website or if you Google Battery Street scoping study Burlington, then I'll show it that way too. Okay, so now I'm going to move on to our next agenda item. So this next agenda item is just a time to remember Janet Karske, sorry, to share memories and thanks. I'm wondering if anyone would like to open us up, share some thoughts or feelings. Yeah, I'm going to bring the microphone to you so you can record it better. I'm Brian Pine, I live over on Crowley Street and Janet, Janet and I had what I think of as like a friendly, ongoing sort of disagreement on some issues, but yet she made it clear to me when we disagreed that it was okay. We were still good. We were still people. She respected, I think, the fact that, you know, we both care about this community and never really, even though we didn't see how to hide everything, it was always an incredible pleasure to run into Janet and she was not just a bright, cheery face, but she just made me feel, just made me feel good. So just want to say it's a huge loss for our community. My name is Glenn and I had the good fortune to be a good friend to Janet and her partner Patrick for many years. It was just such an honor to have known such an incredible woman. Janet, Patrick convinced my partner Mary and Janet to accompany he and his father on a sailing expedition and we were going to sail from the southern portion of the Caribbean and finally wind up in Grenada. It was going to be maybe a seven or eight day trip. We were going to stop at all the beaches and go swimming and have all the time to spend just relaxing. Anyway, we got together with Patrick's dad and decided, geez, we got to do a nine day mega sail. It was a pretty crazy time and I had the good fortune my partner, unfortunately my partner Mary wasn't feeling too well. She got pretty seasick and Patrick and his dad had to go below and catch some sleep so they left Janet and I in control of the ship and gave us a kind of brief run down on how to watch out for the weather and just see what kind of storms might be. It looked like this raging hurricane was probably coming at us. I kept nudging Janet and said, geez, this looks really bad. This is what Patrick's dad was. Should we wake him up? His lightning and the ship was kind of, or the sailboat was kind of, you know, listing it to 45 degrees and back and forth. But, you know, she just hung in there the whole time, totally steady, just a great co-pilot and I know she was that way with my buddy Patrick and a real gift to this community. She's going to be missed. I'm going to take a breath because I've moved by what you said. I'm Andrea Todd and I'm just going to put on my hyphen because I know Janet loved hyphens too. We were both lady warriors on the road. I think Janet was a badass bitch, man. She was so awesome. She was so awesome. She was so kind and so fierce both at the same time. I think she was, I got to know her a little bit in the garden, in her garden in Richmond. I would bike out and take care of her garden for a small period of time and I think one of the things that's going to be so missed about Janet is that she's built a community wherever she was. She built here with the food in her garden in Richmond and with the people that she connected with. She was just such a gift to all of us. Even though I didn't see her all the time, she was a huge presence and Patrick was so excited to see you and Glenn on the bike path last week because it's important. I know that that was a big part of her life too, is the biking and being out and loving the nature. So I hope I keep bumping into you out there. So I guess I don't know how to wrap up other than to say she's going to be very missed and I'm happy that you have had this opportunity this evening to be able to allow people the opportunity to recognize her. So thank you. Sure what I'm going to say, but I can't pass up the opportunity. So I'm also a Janet and I was in on the beginning of the Old Nathan community dinners and the dinners have gone through a few phases and the biggest, most important one was with Janet. So I had been gleaning miscellaneous food and putting together a dinner and I was cooking low key, unfancy with what I had to work with. And a series of things changed, including Janet came on board and we did what I like to call, we went stealth vegan. We never told anybody, we never asked anybody, but she started making food from every conceivable culture except routine New England, which is what I have been making. So we suddenly had meals that had at least an entree, at least a salad, at least a soup, and at least colorful condiments that usually we had made. And it was from Thailand and it was from Italy and it was from, I don't know where, any country you could name. And she was really a gourmet cook. And they were just stellar. Like if you go look in the history of the Old Nathan community dinner online, you will see some gorgeous photos of dishes. They were fit for a white cloth, white tablecloth restaurant and it was just really fun to work with her and learn from her. And at about the same time we got a little bit of money, a small monthly donation, and we were friends with all kinds of farmers so they gave us food to work with. And we began having city market member work credit for volunteers, which I think Janet also had something to do with. And so it just blossomed. It just blossomed and Janet was so calm and centered and mellow. And I wish you could see what a comic difference that was between the kitchen that I was running with different volunteers every week and people who didn't know how to cook and we didn't have a recipe. Janet became the head of the triumvirate and did such a beautiful job. She had this gift that she brought to everything she did. And I think that's really what I want to say is that she had all these gifts and she brought them wherever she went. And she certainly brought it to the Old Nathan community dinner. I wish I could show you with pictures how wonderful all those dinners looked and I should probably stop there. But she's, Janet Karsgaden was a gift to Berlin too. Thanks. I just wanted to say that in the healthcare community she's going to be very missed. She had a, anyone who knows her knew how caring she was but she helped a lot of people out with a unique and very caring approach to physical rehabilitation. And taught a lot of people in the healthcare community how to bring yoga and that whole modality into physical therapy. And she was definitely going to be missed in the healthcare community as well. Would anyone else like to speak? Hello, my name is Charlie Gee and I've been with the NPAs going way back. And the Old North End community dinner actually started in the 1990s. And so what we're doing is we're trying to get a history of that recorded. But in the meantime I'll just say that the Old North End community dinner has been very important to the Old North End for a long time. And every time we had an NPA meeting we would talk about what is it we can do for the community dinner. So when they needed bunny we gave them as much as we had. When they needed a place to have the dinners actually if you go way back to like 1994-ish or so. And the Clure Multi-Gen Center opened up on North Winooski Avenue. I remember there were representatives from Leahy's office and Bernie Sanders office, etc. And so my recollection is that they had a big opening ceremony for the Multi-Gen Center. And so I actually happen to say that after they had made all their speeches about how it was supposed to support the community and bring seniors together with the other people in the community. So we actually got the community dinner into the Multi-Gen Center. It was there for a long time. And then other people like Melanie Poots Brotz was a large participant in that. And as we said Janet Hicks here who just spoke she was a big factor in it for years. And then it's so important for another person to take on because Janet Hicks can't do it forever. So Janet Kars-Caden came in and she did a wonderful job with it. She was with Patrick and they did a wonderful job with the dinner for so many years. And still every year we have funding from the NPA. And the first thing we say is how can we support the community dinner? Because the community dinner is so important to the NPA meetings and to the community. So we do whatever we can every year to help the Old North End Community Center. So you're going to see a better video than this right now. So don't be a video coming out. We're getting Melanie together with Janet and with Jessica Landon who's coordinating the dinner today. And we're going to get all those people together. We're going to put a nice film together that will be released to the public. Because as I said, the Old North End Community Dinner is very important to Burlington and the Old North End. Thank you. I have to say any words? Okay, thank you for everyone who shared everything. What a great legacy that she's left us with. Oh, did I miss someone? Great, no, why are you sharing these? So I hurt my back in 2006. I fell and hurt myself just as evolution was opening. So that's how I met Janet. And it was while I was opening a business that I had to hurt my back. So we kind of connected on that. And then later when I became vegan, we connected on that. And then the thing that I loved about her so much as I started having some food allergies. And when I would come in here, she would see me from across the room. And she would run up to me and let me know every single ingredient that was in every item. And it really, because I felt really insecure about coming here and eating food that I wasn't sure whether it was going to make me sick or not. And she, I didn't even have to ask her. And I didn't even ask her the first time. She just knew because we were friends that I was having these issues. And she would just come up to me and about what Brian said. Her and I definitely agreed on a lot of things. But I witnessed her many, many times. Always, always be nothing but kind. Even when she 100% disagreed with somebody. And obviously she would be kind if it was less than 100% too. But that's just one of the things about her. And I throughout the years, I would always think of her whenever I was dealing with somebody who I just couldn't get along with and be like, what would Shannon do? And so I'm going to continue to think about her when I'm in those situations. But yeah, she'll be missed and she was a really important part of this community. Thank you. Did anyone else like to share? I'm sure this isn't going to be our last time to talk about this. And I hope it's not. And thank you all for who, thank you to everyone who did share a story or feeling or just open up with us and share that. It's very special and thank you. So now our next portion of the MBA, we're going to be meeting Milo Grant. Our recently elected Central District City Councilor. So excited to have you here. Thank you Milo. There we go. Hey, thank you everybody. I've been really tardy with some of my thank you cards, but they're coming. I've still continued to be really humbled by the support that I received and just people volunteering to do all kinds of things to help get me over the line. Rachel isn't here, but she is a goddess. Oh, I'm Milo Grant. Did you not know? Central District City Councilor. So maybe we can end up having kind of an extended chat since some other people couldn't make it and maybe some of the other legislatures or legislatures or their Montpelier, they might not be able to make it. So I'm going to tell you a little bit about my adventures so far. And then if people have some particular questions, that'd be great. So I have started out by been trying to meet with different department heads to kind of learn the lay of the line, the land and also complaining about some things, talking about equity for our area. As we all know, we live in the historic north end. And that's what I am calling us right now because I want some respect on our name. And I feel that as many people feel that there just hasn't been the respect like where are the projects for our area, right? And then of course, the one project that we do have that's impending is the project coming in on North Winooski Avenue. Shout out to Liz for her wisdom and speaking out about a number of issues. The crew at DPW is very kind to me, but I was just like, you know, please don't compare us to other parts of the city because it's not fair and it's dismissive. So if we talk about the new north end, where is the greatest concentration of business? Oh, it's the Ethan Allen Shopping Center, right? Where do they park in a big A parking lot? And the other businesses down the avenue, even if they don't have their own parking lots, they have significant all street parking. So it's just a push to say, you said you would find parking spaces. Please find those parking spaces. So hopefully we'll have an update on that soon. I also talked to had a really nice meeting with the parks department. And then there's kind of overlapping with parks and public safety issues. We are now getting into the warm season. It's like 80 degrees today. And everyone's very familiar with the issues that we had last year with the camping in the parks, drug use in the parks and the difficulties that we had. So for the immediate downtown area, they're going to have officers patrolling Church Street and they're going to have CSOs, the community service officers also patrolling, which I think is great because that's an important pair of eyes. If a CSO calls and says we need to get officers here, that's probably going to happen. Where right now we have a lot of instances where people are reporting things that should fall under priority one or they believe they should fall under priority one and they're not being viewed that way. As I left the police commission, there were more complaints coming in about that and the police commission is going to continue to examine those situations. People are pushing back. They're getting a little angry. Because anyone can see the blotter. You can see the incident blotter. So if you think you have a priority one incident that wasn't responded to, you can look at the incident blotter to see what was going on at that time that you called. So people are definitely using some of those methods. So I think it'll be great to have the CSOs. So there'll be more attention on City Hall Park. There will be with the park rangers, they're going to be addressing people who put tents up in the parks, the other parks, not just City Hall Park, but there was a lot of issues with camping and encampments last year. So if they see a tent, they're going to tell someone you cannot tent here. They don't want it to get to the situation where they have to take somebody's stuff. They don't want to do that. They will if they have to, because if you have too many people start to camp, then it becomes an encampment and then you have the encampment policy which kicks in. And I'm not fully sure what that is, but it's going to be sent to me and I will be taking a look at it. I'm sure it's not going to be really pleasant reading because this stuff is very, very difficult. So as we know, that's only going to lead to whack-a-mole because that's what it did last summer. If you move someone, they go someplace else. People complain and you go someplace else. Why? Because you don't have enough housing. We don't have a plan for the drug crisis. And that still disturbs me greatly. You know, the mayor did put something in his State of the City address. I think he had to say something about it because I'm like, we don't have plan for the drug crisis. And I just say that as much as I can to as many people as I can. I feel we should be further along than we are. And now we're having more severe labor shortages. I think everyone's heard about the situation at the Howard Center. I really thought that we would have the cahoots model up by now. There was going to be some discussion about it. Then that got pushed back. Counselor McGee brought up some really important points about what was initially posted for discussion. They wanted to call the program Merck. What are you doing? Merck is a very common military term that's a variation for mercenary. What are we thinking here? And there was really nothing about how the program is going to be run. Who's going to be oversight? A lot of stuff still not thought out. And they want to have it in the department. And maybe it could be in the department, but could it be with the Howard Center? So there's still a lot of stuff that still needs to be vetted out. So I have some concerns about that. But I love the people at the parks department. We want to give them a shout out because in dealing with all of this, they're still working to make our parks a really beautiful place for us to be. And so if you see them working, they have a lot of seasonal people that are starting work. You know, be nice to them. Be nice to them. Don't give them a hard time if they try to educate you about the park. They will have park rangers out there. Their job is to do engagement, educate people about using the parks, address issues like firecrackers and fires. People set a lot of fires, not just unhoused individuals, but tourists are like, let's go down the lake and set a fire, you know, a residence. Let's go have a bonfire. And they set fires in places they really shouldn't. So that's one of the things that park rangers are going to be working at. And so that's going to be good. Had a great meeting at the Burlington Fire Department. They're kind of like the silent warriors. You know, when we talk about community safety, the Burlington Fire Department is very, very important. And they've got some great leadership there. I met Chief LeChance who's been working at the department for a very long time. And he's in his position now. And we had a great talk. And we talked about some data collection. One of the things that's very interesting is with the budget talks are starting. Budget talks are starting. So everyone's going to be flat funded, but that may mean different things. So he needs more money. The department needs more money. And they want the city wants them to increase their billables, which I thought was interesting. They very have a very high percentage, like 86% collection of billables, which is great. But what does my mother use to say? My grandmother, my mother used to say, I can't squeeze butt out of a turnip, but that's what we're looking to do. But they have certain parts of the budget they've already gone through, like certain EMS services. So when we look at the big increase in overdoses, those crews are going out there addressing that. And if they go out, they find someone, they administer Narcon, they bring them back. They're like, you okay? You need to be transported. FU, they walk away. You know, then our crews go back to the station and there's nothing billable for that. And they're out doing that a lot. And like that part of the budget is already gone. So they already have to start to look for more money to get through the rest of the fiscal year. So they're out there doing some work and they have some really great things coming up. So I hope to bring more attention to the work that that department is doing. I will be, I've got my city email address M.E. M.E. Grants at Burlington VT.gov. M.E. is very important because there is another M.Grant in the city. The campaign website, MiloGrant.com is going to be merging over. I hope to be working on it in the next week or so so that it's a city council website. I'm going to kind of go get links on important things, direct links to certain meetings because I still want you all to watch public safety and meetings and the police commission meetings. I think that's going to be really important. I'm on the Public Safety Committee. As a committee I really wanted to be on. I knew things were going to be political sometimes, but it got political fast because Joe Wiggy offered to step down. He's done a great job as a chairperson, but the Democrats did not want two progs on the Public Safety Committee and we didn't have the votes. And I was really upset about that, but I'm very grateful to Joe for giving me this opportunity. I'm also going to be in the REIB, Racial Equity and Inclusion Belonging Committee, which is also doing a lot of great work and also has some overlap in public safety. So I'm looking forward to being on that committee and helping to support the new director, Kim Carson. She's fantastic. Please reach out to her. I think she really needs a lot of community support. So I'm looking forward to that. And on the Licensing Committee. Heck, that was a little fun last night. Actually, I'll leave it there, but I think that's... Well, that whole thing is very interesting because you basically get paperwork that's already been vetted by the state and you just have to... Like, you don't have a choice. You have to approve it, but... Yeah, that'll be another side story, but it was... I'm trying to get along with everyone, but I have a lot of, you know, a lot of people who know the IDJ, so I and I go into shows. So I and I've known bar owners and I've known things that they've gone through and I suggested for... And it was a bar that had some recent difficulties, but I felt that for this... I felt that there are Friday and Saturday night hours and there should be consideration to have them extended. And there have been, honestly, some neighbor complaints, but there's another place very close that is also loud. And it's in an area where there's been a lot of drug activity at night. And so if you have later hours and you have more positive forms of activity going on around, it can discourage these other forms. I think a lot of things that are going to be happening this summer, especially around the parks, is the more positive activities that are taking place that bring all kinds of people in. It will help put other types of activities at bay. But if you want any off-the-record information about my first experience in the licensing committee, please come and see me. Budget, budget. So do definitely start to pay attention to those finance, the Board of Finance meetings. If you can't watch them live, they will be recorded. And just listen to what they're talking about. The meeting this week on Monday was always already given a report from some of the departments with regards to where they were this year and what some of their challenges are for next year. And I think it's going to be really important for everyone to understand the police department. Even with all the information that's come out about the hospital complaint, there's still information that people don't know. I will only say, I've had a lot of people ask me about this. It was very difficult for me. I really felt that you had witnesses who were not hurt, who would not talk about to the department. So you're talking about continued issues of trust. And then there is a way that the people who work at the hospital feel about it. And then there's the way the hospital administration feels that they have to handle it. There are so many different levels to this. And I was at the mayor's coffee yesterday. And he basically implied that there really weren't sufficient policies in place. And it just wasn't true. And I'm not sure what's going to happen, but I'm just deeply concerned. And then the squat thing and the gun actually going off and nobody being noted. I mean, what are we doing? So I think I'll just leave that there. I'm sure I have other stuff at which incident, the hospital. Yeah. So I can only talk about what's publicly been released. So I've got to be very careful because I have other details that should be filled in, but they're not. So essentially there was a group of young men were hanging out. One of them had a gun and one of them shot their friend. This individual who was the shooter was later also arrested a few weeks later for two other students. So he was a significant part of the incidents that we had going on. There was an officer sent to the hospital to stay close to the victim to see if they could get some information from him regarding who shot him. The trauma doctor that filed the complaint said he filed the complaint because he had asked the officer to leave the immediate area where they were providing care. And the officer refused and he asked them again and he refused. The officer said that after talking to other staff people, he was allowed to come back in. But this is where some other details are missing that would really bring clarity. But in a nutshell, the Acting Chief Marad came to the hospital and there was a confrontation with the doctor. The doctor said, you know, I'm following HIPAA. I need you to, you and your officers move out. They had an exchange. Acting Chief Marad advised him he could be impeding an investigation and threatened to handcuff him. This is all outlined in the seven days articles. And the doctor asked, is this young man, is he a suspect? Well, if he were, you could be impeding. Well, is he a suspect? If he were, you could be impeding. And then at that point, the doctor said, you really need to leave. So there was a witness to this, a witness, the name was not released as a resident. And that was concerning because the resident was like, I don't know if I was going to have to call another doctor because if this kid has to go to OR, I can't take an OR by myself because I'm just a resident. I'm not allowed to do that yet. And it's just a lot of things, you know, it's very clear that they were interfering with care. And they weren't asked to leave the building. They weren't asked to leave the floor. They were asked to leave the immediate area. So there's more. It's definitely worth reading if you haven't read it because I think people need to know that this is what's going on. There's continual pattern of intimidation that is inappropriate. And this is one of the issues that had come up previously. And Councillor Hightower had talked about this previously. So when they brought the vote up last year, one of the things that was kind of a deal to make, hey, Councillor Hightower is like, I can get on board with this. We can do a quote unquote reset. But there has to be a plan to address this type of behavior. And it seemed to be a good conversation and then the plan was pulled. So as I've also said, they put them on a path of success because they know what the issues are and they're not going away. And what's really frustrating is if people haven't experienced it or have it, don't know people who've experienced some of these issues. They don't understand why people are angry, but it's starting, I think more and more people are starting to question what's going on. I have a lot of ideas that I believe will help the department, but I'm kind of persona non grata because I've been very vocal about things that are just not okay. And especially things around equity and racial bias. Any other questions about that? But I just wish they could just let the whole complaint out. Whoever's got it, just let the whole thing out. Because it's really important, additional details. I'm Deborah Clemer and I'm in Ward 2. And I'm very upset about, I'm very alarmed about the mayor was thinking about making the acting police chief into that role. What happened to the river watch where, you know, to me that was an ethical breach and poor judgment to use city equipment. We, it was, we haven't heard a thing about it. And he's thinking about putting this guy in the permanent role. And I just want to say I went to the first, my first commission, police commission meeting last month. And I would encourage other people to start going too. I was unimpressed with his behavior. I thought he was disrespectful, texting while other people were talking. I had the impression that he didn't really, this is the acting police chief care about what people had to say. He was just there. And if you're going to be in that role, you have to be diplomatic and willing to hear what the public and other people have to say. I'm going to go again at the next meetings, April 25th. But if you have the time, I really encourage people to go. I think we need to get more involved. And I'm just worried the mayor is going to put him up. And there's now enough Democrats that they could make him the permanent police chief. And I think there would be a big mistake. But anyway, I appreciate it. I know you've worked very hard on the police commission. Thank you. And I think that they've got a really great crew right now on the commission that's going to continue to work really hard, especially talking about oversight and accountability. One of the things that's most difficult is that the acting chief does not want oversight and accountability. He doesn't want it. He does not recognize the police commission as the body to do it. But they're backed up against the wall because they did not want ballot number seven. And then what was crazy was I went to the Flynn event about community policing. And it was a fantastic event. It was very, very interesting. So many people came up to me afterwards. Why can't we do that? They talked about this. They talked about, why can't we do that? Well, we voted against it. You saw people that were on the committee, Obama's committee to review 21st century policing. They talked about their work. They talked about the pillars of 21st century policing. They talked about the ideas. One of them is on the police commission in New Haven, Connecticut. They are involved in hiring and firing. They work with the department. They help the department improve the questions they asked to potential candidates. Like, no, you really shouldn't ask this question of someone because you want them to respond as if they're an officer and they're not yet. You want to ask these type of questions, which will help give you a better idea if they're suited for the job. I mean, really amazing cooperation there. And people came out like, why can't we do? Why can't we do? So you voted against it. We can do these things. When people sit and calmly talk about it and don't throw out politics, not about politics, it's about what's right and what's wrong. So it was definitely very, it was very interesting. It was also very empowering because it was like, yeah, I'm not crazy. We're not crazy to want this and it's working in other places and it is new. It is new and communities are starting with basic concepts and best practices and they're evolving things. So yeah, it's not going to be exactly the same as someplace else, but it certainly wasn't, you know, the terrorism that was that flyer they mailed to everybody's homes. And I think seven did well in our district because we, a lot of people here have a lot of experience with policing that has not always been the best. And we have a lot of experience with the issues of racial disparity and some of the misuse of force incidents. And that's another thing that drives me crazy. They need to use force to do their job. And what no one is arguing that occasionally they do need to use force in order to probably do their job to protect themselves and to protect other residents. No one's arguing that. It's the misuse of force. It's the unnecessary use of force. It is the lack of de-escalation techniques that continues to be the problem. So we'll have to see. Any other questions about policing? Any other council questions? Any questions about policing specific? We're going to start those and then move on to the others. I, Milo, I just wanted to say that I find your directness so refreshing and such an antidote to the secrecy that we see at the city council all too often. And I trust you. I trust what you say and that's just such a relief. So thank you. Thank you. I appreciate that. Send a little email to Mira. Milo, you can't say that. Why? It's true. You know, the mayor's coffee is Wednesday morning depending on what your work schedule is. They're from 8 to 9. They're very, very interesting. They really are. And you can find out a lot about him and I've, I think those have helped me really see what's going on too. But I think more people need to be there. And actually someone who worked at the hospital was there yesterday. And they were, they mentioned that the hospital incident, this wasn't the first time they've seen chief mayor do things like that. So I thought it was, and just more people need to speak out. But you know, we had unfortunately a city council who chose to victim blame. We know when we talk about certain crimes like domestic violence or rape, we know those are underreported crimes. It's getting better, but we know they're unreported for a reason because people feel shame or they feel that the way they've been treated won't be fair. They won't get the help. Now, now filing a complaint against the police department, that is also can be very intimidating and very scary. And there are a lot of people who won't do it. A lot of people talk to me, they talk to other commissioners and they won't do a formal complaint. Even it's anonymous. Oh, if I submit it online, they'll be able to trace that back to me. I'll be targeted. People have said these things. So you have someone who is a doctor. He's a trauma surgeon. And look what they're saying about it, right? Oh, he must have misunderstood. I'm sure he believed what was there were witnesses. And a lot of people knew, and I'm surprised it took this long to come out. A lot of people knew. So it's upsetting. Hi, Milo. I'm Andrea. Thank you so much for coming to the Rose Street, Cedar Street Public Safety meeting last week. Thank you for being there and helping us with an ongoing public safety issue on our skate. I was on the Parks Commission and I'm glad that you're meeting with Parks and I'm also really glad that you're on the REIB committee because I would like help from the Old North End representatives to push parks to be more inclusive in their park planning. I'm glad that I also appreciate the workers at the Parks Department, but the Old North End has about three different parks that are being evaluated for master planning projects, the Battery Park, Roosevelt Park, and the much discussed, after fact, Dewey Park. And I don't think that they're doing a very good job communicating with the community about what the engagement opportunities are for the different people as this master planning process goes through. I experienced a Roosevelt Park experience a couple of springs ago where it had skipped the master planning process and all of a sudden we were going to be getting tennis courts that we hadn't really been asked if we wanted coming from the Boys and Girls Club. So, I struggle with the Dewey Park process and I'm still asking for parks to be more inclusive with the temporary structures that they're going to be putting on the concrete section. I'm getting kind of like non-answers about could the community be asked what we want for that public park before they actually, even as a temporary refresh. The answers I'm getting are like that there has to be a sighting study before they're going to do anything and decide anything about the end result, but there's still this like little part where there is opportunity for the community to weigh in on some of those things. I frankly think that the leadership needs help in knowing how to engage the different types of communities, especially in the Old North End. And so I've asked to meet with Kim and Carson. I'm really excited to be talking with her because I don't know that she understands the landscape of that either. And so I would just ask that there's a push to have more engagement, diverse opportunities for engagement from different communities in the Old North End instead of asking the same people the same questions to get the same results or the expected results for what we want in parks. There's so many different communities that want more benches, not more tennis courts, or they want more places to engage in the community versus whatever we've always thought people wanted. So that's just as a constituent in the Old North End. I'm thrilled that you're going to be connected with REIB and that you're building relationships with parks because I think that that could be a really wonderful opportunity to expand their engagement process. So thank you for that. And thank you for that because, you know, the city has engagement issues, period. The city has issues communicating with the different communities and just talking about a parking issue with someone. And I'm still working on that whoops program like I want people to be able to use whoops. It's like they advertise this program that you could get a free, like an amnesty on a parking ticket per year, but then you can't take advantage of it because there's no information online and they're supposed to be working on repairing that. And I said, well, once you get all this information actually on the website and it's working properly, you are going to reeducate everyone again. And they're like, why would we do that? Well, because it doesn't work. It's you did this education. It doesn't work. So I'm holding out for whoops. I am holding out the Dewey Park issue. Yeah, you had multiple departments that were involved. You had someone I believe in BCA who was a Wellington City Arts who was actually responsible for the outreach, who did admit that, yes, a better job could have been done because we all didn't really fully know what was going on until we got the first rendering, which was completely out of scale and upset a lot of people. So as we know, there have been many conversations since then. I personally support that particular project, but I knew more about it because I knew Director Green and I worked with Director Green on a lot of public safety issues. And so I knew this bringing art to different parts of the city was something that was important. This particular project was important. I think what happened when she got pushed out was that things continued to move along, but there wasn't the overall leadership that left this vacuum. So I definitely appreciate what you're saying. And I've already noticed, even as a resident myself, it's just really hard to get information. Sometimes as a commissioner, I have to go into board docs and board docs is really difficult. It's really difficult and they're looking into something that will hopefully be easier for people to go on and get information. But if I'm someone who's a commissioner and I'm actively engaged and I'm having so much problems like trying to track information, so hopefully we'll have improvement there. The city in a year, year and a half is going to be looking at redoing their website completely because the current site's going to be sunsetted. And I think it matters. I'm like, where's the public input on that? Like, why? Why not? So I'm going to be offering some feedback on that and I hope that they're willing to have this understanding. Like, you know, you want people from the public to look at what you're going to do and to have some feedback because we need to be able to use it to find information. I feel there's a lot of services that people aren't fully aware of because they can't find information. Everybody else? Well, please feel free to get in touch. I'm going to start getting, I had a little social media break, but I'm going to bring back the IG account was kind of fun during the campaign. So I'm going to start doing some adventures of the city counselor, little video reels for IG. I'm going to start doing some more Facebook posts. And once again, the website is going to have some links, links to. So you don't have to tell me TV is great, but if you don't want to search through all the meetings, you're like, boom, order finance meeting, boom, please commission meeting and just be able to click and just watch. So if you can't watch live, watch at your convenience because the information is really important. It's really important. It is talked about, but people just need to watch. There's a lot of stuff and then you can give more input. Great. All right, wonderful. Thank you everybody. Time conflicts today. So that's actually it. Unless anyone wants to propose a topic to chat about what word you're from. Hi. I'm Holly Vanderputten. I'm from Ward three. And I'm starting to put this down. I'm coming from the BHS principal forum. So I think many of you know, we're looking for a new principal for Burlington high school and there were a couple of candidates tonight. They had interviewed some people and then they decided to open interviews again. And so I was there to listen to them. So we can make a decision really soon and hopefully have a permanent person in place for July 1st. That's the idea. I think you can access a recording of it on the district website soon. I was trying to think of the updates. There's always just a lot going on. You may also have questions, but in terms of the high school, which seems to take a lot of our time and space, you may have heard that we have officially delayed the move in time to be more like January 2026 for the new building because of various factors that were not totally surprising. Any time you embark on a multi-million dollar construction project, you're going to come up with obstacles, especially with such an aggressive timeline. So we were hoping for August 2025. Now it looks more like January 2026. So stay tuned, but they are starting the mitigation inside the school. So it might not look like anything is happening, but actually there has been some tear down happening inside the old school, which they have to do first because of the toxins that are in there. Then they will start actually tearing down the whole school. There's also work happening across the district at other schools. We've been talking about maintenance that was deferred at other places. And I can't name all of them off the top of my head. We do have our next full board meeting next Tuesday, April 18th. And I think of no and of interest would be that at that meeting they'll be presenting about the new literacy program that they've adopted this year, which is based in phonics systems rather than what had previously been used, which was the balanced literacy approach, which incorporated a lot of stuff that was what they call whole language, the whole language approach to reading, which has not proven to be the most successful way to do it. It's not unique to Burlington. This is like a nationwide problem. So anyway, if you're interested in learning more about that at the full board meeting, they will be presenting about the implementation of that. It's called the ARC Literacy Program, ARC. I think it stands for American Reading Company and how results have been so far this year. I think with anything like this, it takes years for the system to actually show the outcome. So this is just like preliminary findings. Any questions? Yeah. Sorry, folks on Zoom. The ballot in front of Burlington, I assume that that's going to be brought over and incorporated into the new structure. I hope so. I haven't been that granular about what's going to happen, but that should happen. I understand there's a pretty long and lengthy tradition behind the ballot. Definitely. I think there are several things they're hoping to keep. But then lots that just need to get thrown away because they're contaminated. So any other questions? I see none. I think we're going to adjourn. Also, just thank you to everyone who's stuck with our tech issues and manually moved our camera. Oh, is there one more question? Shelby, do you want to run it? That adjourns like most of our meeting. Thank you all. I hope you all had fun. Addessa? Addessa Marana? Janet? Janet? She's going to catch on. Amazing. Thank you. Amazing. Thank you all. Hope you have a lovely evening.