 Mayor and other friends joining remotely. Yes, can you hear me okay. Yes. For those of you who may be wondering why the mayor is joining from his office. It is because he is not feeling well and does not want to spread it to us. Oh, thank you. Yes, that's right. As the days got out, I've gotten a little bit. I don't think I have a bad cold, but a little bit of a cold and said it. So I asked Catherine to chair this. I intend to vote and participate though. Ramona. Excellent. I'm going to go ahead and call the meeting to order at 505. We have all members of the board here. I do not see counselor, except for counselor high tower. But we do have a forum and I spectrally allow shortly. The first item on the agenda is the agenda. Is there a motion. So moved. Thank you, President Paul. Is there a second second. Councilor Jang. Any comments. All in favor, please say aye. Any opposed. And the motion carries. The next item on the agenda is public forum. Are there any members of the public? Wishing to speak. I do have someone who has called in. I'm going to enable your microphone. It appears you're muted. Once you unmute yourself, you will be able to talk. Hi. This is Sharon busher. The link on the agenda. Wasn't highlighted. And when I tried to go in under the internet. I got a bizarre link to some wildlife. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry about that. So. Anyways, I'm calling tonight. To speak about a couple of items on your agenda. The first one has to do with public access and their budget. That they're proposing. And I wanted to highlight the hybrid. And I wanted to highlight the hybrid. And I wanted to highlight the hybrid. And I wanted to highlight some of the meetings that occur. In the city. And I noticed that in their budget. That when you adopted that, um, you had, um, Entailing their support. It was for a period of three years. And I was just hoping that the administration and the council would consider the value of this for increased participation. So, um, I'm just continuing with that. Um, I think it's up after this year after 2023. Um, so I'm just hoping that you will. You know, reflect on the value of hybrid. I know it is a pain in the tush, but, um, I think it. It has been really nice for me and for other people. Um, so, and I think the goal is increased participation. So thank you. And so there's three things. The second thing is the Letty Beach access project. Um, and, um, that has to do with, um, Um, the budget that they're asking to transfer money from that project now. And what I, what I would like to have, um, as part of your consideration is my understanding of their obstacles. And that's why they're, um, I think it's, um, I think it's important that this is stagnated and that's why there's an opportunity to repurpose this funding. But because accessibility. Um, is so important. I mean, I saw that at North Beach. I was just hoping that in your discussion, you would, um, continue to keep this alive by asking, um, Um, I'm hoping that access in some form can occur for people just like it can at North Beach. So that's the second thing. And the last thing had to do with, um, The, the TIF, which you're going to discuss. And when I read through that, I just wondered how much lower the tax revenue was due to the errors. Um, I, you know, I feel that there were mistakes made. There were, there were challenges for the city. I was on the council and board of finance during that time. And, and, and was aware of the challenges and, and we tried to address them as best we could. And, but it took resources and time. And I don't, I'm not pointing fingers. I just would like to know just, um, if we have an idea of how much lower the tax revenue was due to these errors. And I applaud you for addressing this for being upfront and working to make it better. And you had already started before the auditor came out with the report. So, uh, for Catherine, um, I just thank you. Thank you. For your due diligence and, um, and also for the board of finance and the mayor. So thank you again. Thank you, Sharon. Any other members of the public wishing to speak? And with that, we will close the public forum. Um, Is there a motion on the consent agenda? We have several, um, meeting minutes there. So moved. Thank you, Councillor McGee. Is there a second? Thank you, Councillor Jen. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. 24 money but you're the first one that we get to hear from. So welcome. I'm Megan O'Rourke, I'm with Ceasing TV and I'm here with Jordan Mitchell who is taking over directorship of town meeting television and so we'll be presenting to you in the future and is here to give you a little update on town meeting TV. Can you hear me on there because I speak kind of quietly and I know we talked about how you need more mics in this room anyway. So really the big highlight is that there are three asks. One is the general operating support of town meeting television which has been ongoing to offset cable revenue declines with the overall operational support. The other is the 15,000 and we increased that by 16 percent. That's half of the actual cost of services for the neighborhood planning assemblies and I will note that we actually have now since we're one and one eight have split and are meeting separately. We have six meetings a month that we are covering of those neighborhood planning assemblies and we are doing those as hybrid meetings so we are supporting those. We have set a camera, we support the NPAs to live stream those and give them some support to make those meetings accessible in a hybrid fashion and it is of note that folks are using that and pretty good numbers and appreciate that and so that is something that we will want to discuss for future budgets to bring that in line with the actual costs and then the last is what we call CCTV productions which is additional Burlington Municipal Meeting coverage that 40,000 which you increased last year and we didn't ask for an increase this year. Mindful of the budget crunches that everyone is facing and so that's just I'm going to leave it there with a highlight and let Jordan Mitchell take us through just an overview. I think you're all familiar with Time Meeting TV but it's helpful for us to say it again. Yeah so if you're not familiar with Time Meeting TV we're one of the public access stations here in Burlington. We cover not only Burlington but other towns in Chittenden County and primarily we're government access little G government but we also cover other community events and things like that specifically right now a lot in 2022 was election year big election so we had time meeting day as well as the general election where we were covering different events in that way and then also your general community events that come on other things we cover as well as other municipal meetings other than say Board of Finance and City Council also other other meetings they're from. Say also in one of the processes that Jordan led us through in the last year was really firming up our archival resources making sure that what we were doing with the archives both going back to pre-time meeting TV. Time meeting TV was begun in 1990 so we have the CCTV archives and then we have all of the time meeting archives and that's making sure that community members can access meetings and events press conferences gavel to gavel coverage on the website in what we call perpetuity which you know we don't know what that looks like but it means into the future so that archival resource and also when we talk about small g government access we just want to remind you that you know we are doing work to make sure folks can access these meetings like sharing referenced in the hybrid meeting support also some outreach marketing we excerpt when we have a mayoral update or councilor updates during the city council we'll excerpt those and share those in around the community so we see ourselves as a partner in outreach and I'll leave it at that if there are any questions. Excellent we are not asking for any action tonight this is an update but we will with your guidance be factoring this in as I am planning the FY 24 budget again just the one ask from CCTV of course we're balancing that with our other assets but because they're such an important partner we do always like to make sure we have a visit from them at least once or twice a year any questions or comments from megan or jordan and other than uh yes yes councilor jay i was just about to let them off the hook yes other than um really thank you so much ccgv for connecting all the communities of belmont all that you do is much appreciated just wanting to say thank you yeah thanks i feel like i have the one of the best jobs in the city so that's awesome i just like to say that from my perspective as well i know what sharon said is true i appreciated it it is a little bit of a pain from the administration's perspective to make the hybrid meetings happen but they are here to say i can't imagine that going anywhere and we would never be able to do it without you guys as our partners and you've been amazing as a partner so thank you for continuing the relationship yeah and sharon if you're still on listening i would love to hear from you where you saw the three years because i call me up and we'll talk about that jen she is still listening yes excellent any other questions yes councillor mcgee um thank you thank you katherine and thank you all for the presentation i think the three years at least when i was reading the memo i saw something about the technology that was purchased for the hybrid meetings being in a three-year life cycle so i i wonder if you could speak to that a little bit yeah so the the equipment that the city purchased um that we installed and maintained for you upstairs in contoys was is a we considered a three-year um equipment lifecycle and i think that'll come up um actually that's a good question is that 2024 or 2025 um i that's worth looking into um so that you could sort of front load that and be thinking about that and wonder if there's any other dollars to support um making sure that that's robust i don't see it as needing to be replaced right away everything seems to be working we just put in a new camera so there's four cameras up there but it's a good thing to look into thanks and just so you know for people who were in the room i don't know if you've heard all of this but it seems like in contoys things are working pretty well but we have gotten feedback from the public that in this room in particular you know we have one mic that's i'm kind of pointing to in the center and um there are lots of options so i was talking um to jordan and megan before the meeting started about how for a relatively modest investment we could get such things as multiple microphones or even ones that are wireless so that your ceo does not trip over this wire when she's trying to set it up so i think there are some things it's a very good point to remember that we can't just one and done the equipment we do i need to keep it up and tweak going away and send you some recommendations great any final thoughts all right well thank you so much um our next item um is board of finance approval only and it's a great one accepting grant funds this time from the great lakes fisheries program cindy why don't you come give us a little blur sure tell us about this great money awesome where's it going where's it going exactly so we're um uh tom bary from what was lehi's office at the time reached out they were interested in um be able to send some monies our way for um with the youth programming and our recreation nutrition program is getting the majority of the funds um having these kids chances to get to take because that was a priority for um lehi is lake champlain but we're also using the opportunity for accessible beach chairs for oakletch it's something we offer at north beach but now that we've got the accessible access at oakletch chairs there and then also just ensuring all the families with the recreation nutrition program have access to all of our beach parking areas excellent how would the board like to proceed are we ready for a motion or any more questions also jai i think you might be muted yeah happy to make the motion as indicated on border thank you excellent thank you is there a second thank you president paul any further discussion all those in favor please say aye all right any opposed and the motion carries unanimously thank you congratulations yep and why don't you tell us a little bit about this lehi pause place public improvements um so the lehi pause place was um designed at the same time as the other pause places that are along the greenway um back in 2018 okay and i think a while ago originally this project was bid out in 2019 twice it came in over budget we did not have the funds to move it forward we are we have assigned additional funds from paying for parks to move it forward and we are combining it with a stormwater requirement for a bioretention area at lehi that's part of our permitting for the greenway now that the rest most of the rest of the greenway is completed we need to construct that this season so by combining those projects we're hopefully reducing mobilization costs and other costs from the contractor side and putting it out to bid to see what we get but we're anticipating that the costs will be beyond what we have budget at the same time we have a project that has um that is not moving forward at this time but we have expanded part of those funds to address access at lehi beach by adding in a new new stairs two years ago um to be able to implement that project um but there's still 112 000 dollars that's left and so we're asking for reallocation of those bond funds to the lehi pause place um to see that project forward as it is also funded with donations and it hasn't been not yet sorry for that long ramping and i think getting to um Sharon Bush's question as far as uh when Sophie's in the middle of a comprehensive plan at lehi park and part of what they're looking at the comprehensive plan is where is the best place um to try to achieve um accessible access down to the beach and one of the things that we'll be balancing is the ecology and access because it is a sharp bank down so just i want to just assure Sharon as she brought that that question up that it is something that we're considering um and we're looking at as part of this comprehensive plan that we're in the middle of and as part of that to build on what Cindy just said um when we the consultants we're working with identify how that can be done we will go to the public and ask um you know how do we proceed because it will require an ecological footprint because of the topography and there's already erosion and other issues along the banks of the lehi beach so we don't want to exacerbate that and really balance what we can do there excellent how would the board like to proceed to questions yes um president paul um hi um i'm happy to make the motion uh as recommended actually it's a resolution i believe uh to recommend that the council approve the attached resolution excellent councillor mickey second that great any further questions or comments it's like we're ready for a vote all in favor please say aye hi hi hi any opposed the motion passes thank you very much good luck thank you our project best do it um let's move on to roof structure stabilization at memorial auditorium nanta it sounds very exciting very exciting hi everybody i've actually already been here to talk about this and it's just a need for a contract amendment um the company is ready to get started but um working with our structural engineer realized that there needed to be additional shoring to the floor to allow for their lifts to come in to do that work um so we have to make a contract amendment um to cover that cost it exceeded our contingency cost um with this change that their bid was still the low bid in our process um so i don't think there is any issue with moving forward but hoping to answer questions and get approval great any questions from the board seems like a good sign um would somebody like to move this forward councilor mickey i'm happy to make the motion is recommended on board docs is there a second president paul all those in favor please say aye hi hi any opposed and the motion carries unanimously thank you thank you it should be underway at the end of the month great um item 6.03 is uh resolution of the waterfront tiff audit items um this is another item that we have spoken about um and um i hope that everyone had a chance to look at the memo um i won't speak i won't go through all of the memo because a lot of that is background that we've spoken about um about the state of the audit um and what the state auditor's office found um but as uh we discussed a few weeks ago when we talked about the results of that audit um i am here um following up on all of the things we said in public and in the letter that we wrote back that's the part of the um official audit the management response um that explains how we move forward from here what steps we need to make to um do those corrections um there are some of them that do not um that we're able to take on our own the administration doesn't need um board of finance or city council approval um but of course the big one here is um the headline that was the um tiff report and that is transferring almost 1.2 million dollars from the general fund to our tiff waterfront fund and the beginning of page two of the memo we go through i list those sources and the first source is 681 thousand dollars from waterfront access north sources that were not yet fully drawn down um and the second source is about 41 thousand dollars worth of interest at a our vermont municipal bond by checking account and then the last piece and this is obviously where um we need board of finance approval is the balance of about 450 thousand dollars is coming from the city's unassigned fund balance it is important to stress as we have all the way along that these adjustments will not impact the tax rate and they will not impact city operations um also i will not go through um all of it again here but it is important to note that while we're making um these important corrections in the clerk treasure's office there are a bunch of the long term steps and i have listed them under additional city progress made to date um where i list the long term steps we've made to ensure that this doesn't happen again those involved things such as working with our consultant hiring additional staff the use of our trusty bank account to fully segregate funds um mayor what would you like to add anything i forgot um no i don't think so that's a good summary um i think i would just help you answer any questions the board has them great one question is the answer for people yes councilor check thank you i have to say really thank you so much for both you and the mayor for your diligence in identifying the resources without raising the tax from the taxpayers i think it speaks volume right and also all the basically you know prevention you know processes that you have to forward as well for this to not happen again and i was just wondering if there is a way to raise four hundred sixty thousand dollars from at least the boats that are that are party how do we bring back that are the four hundred six thousand dollars back to the unassigned fund balance um is there a way for us maybe a penny for boat something like that to raise it back i'm happy to get a shout at that calendar i mean the um so i guess the way i would answer that councillor jing is to say that together through the budgeting process we will be making decisions about how the upcoming budget year will impact the unassigned fund balance um i i i guess the way i'm thinking about it is um even with this reduction of four hundred and fifty thousand dollars um we will still be above uh ten percent um the ten percent target which is uh you know the the mid-range of our five to fifteen percent policy and is at least the way i'm you know the way the policy is written and the way we've talked about in recent years that's sort of what we're we're aiming towards um if if this four hundred and fifty thousand was dropping us below five percent or getting us close to five percent then i then i i think the question i'd be asking the question exactly as you asked it there like how do we get this money back in there given that you know we're right around maybe even a little above where our target is i don't um i don't think we need a specific strategy around recovering around boosting immediately the balance by four hundred and fifty thousand i do expect that we will bring forward a budget that keeps us in approximately that spot for f y 24 maybe you know it's possible we'll go a little bit lower than that we have a challenging budget a year coming up we're trying to get a budget through and without tax increase um so it's possible there may be justifications for going a little bit lower but that's the way i would think but i hope you find that responsive to your question i want to thank my colleagues who have been extremely instrumental in um helping me with this so i want to share your thanks with richard hessler martha keenan and ashley parker especially who have been very instrumental in this whole audit um process and um because cito and um the clerk chaser's office are a real partnership with tiff and we have director pine here in the room who has something he would like to add just if i could speak to calcler jane's point about um restoring that lost funding really that lost dollars i want to acknowledge that um when our tiff district expires the end of f y 25 we're going to see a pretty sizable both uh a crude balance if you will but not it's not a major one but a significant amount coming to the general fund and then each year after that the increase revenue to the general fund that was created really largely by the growth that the tiff investments allowed will be um really supporting the general fund going forward so i think you've got some pretty good fiscal years to look forward to down the road in terms of what has happened in the waterfront test in that regard yeah yeah um i i sorry yes council jane go ahead yeah i mean i think uh consular i mean director pine had a good point but at the same time let's also think about that tiff is not coming back from to waterfront anymore and i think how do we recover this four hundred sixty thousand dollars not also uh for getting nearly seven thousand dollars maybe a year in tiff revenue i think um it's a little bit different yeah it's it's a little bit different but i also understand the point you know yeah thank you thank you any other questions are we ready for a motion i i'm happy to make the motion as indicated on board that excellent is there a second i think that was a second from councilor hightower kathryn yes so it was thank you i thought it was an echo of my own voice it's thank you and thank you councilor hightower i didn't even see you on here okay great this remote um this hybrid meeting management without the mayor here and managing all the things wow okay bumping up against my capacity all right friends but that's good we only have one more item to go thank you wait did we vote on that we did not item 6.03 resolution of waterfront tax increment finance all in favor please say aye hi hi hi post and we got councilor hightower everyone is in that motion passes 6.04 is reclassification of two clerk treasurer positions i'm happy to speak to that i also have my good friend tim here from hr these two positions are part of our ongoing reorganization we'll recall several months ago um we reclassified a current position into an operations director and these are two positions that are kind of coming up underneath that position and this is really in an effort to do two things one is to really strengthen our customer service at the front desk of the clerk treasurer's office but also we're utilizing um those associates to also do some of our back end paperwork with the accounts receivable team so um people are less kind of stymied or uh side load into one job area so we have some good cross-training going on um and also um those of you who remember any booby in the position of associate city clerk before sarah she did both elections and oversaw all of the customer service function as things have become more complicated with elections both with um mail-in elections and rank choice voting it's not realistic for one person to handle all of that so we kind of needed to split those functions to allow um sarah and her team to really focus on elections and not all of the day-to-day work at the front desk um that might be more than you needed to know but i'm happy to answer questions and obviously this is something i feel really passionately about any questions or motion yes president paul thanks um i'll uh uh make the motion as indicated on board docs thank you so much is there a second a second tap thank you councillor mickey um any comments all those in favor please say aye hi hi hi any opposed and the motion carries unanimously and that brings us to adjournment is there a motion to adjourn so moved excellent this is just a question do we adjourn do we need a wow as soon as i asked about i was like morrow just adjourned so i'm just gonna adjourn us at 540 but thank you for your motion councillor mickey