 Recording in progress. Okay we are going to go ahead and get started. It is 602. Welcome and thanks for joining us everyone. Our first candidate is Regina Mahoney. Hopefully folks have found information about Regina in our press release and if not it's available on sxjunction.org. The chat is disabled but if you are having any technical issues you can post it as a question and answer and I will respond accordingly. The question and answer button is down at the bottom of your screen and so that's where you can select and type your questions. You can choose to keep your questions anonymous if you want for the candidate. Only that myself and the candidate will be able to see the questions that come through and certainly you can submit them at any time. We will attempt to get through as many questions as possible after Regina does a short presentation and we will be reviewing questions to ensure that they are legal respectful and appropriate and I'll ask the questions verbally of the candidates and those are the ones that they will respond to. If we do not get to your question I apologize and I will forward them to the city councillors for them to consider when they interview the candidates and without further ado I'm going to turn it over to Regina. Welcome Regina. Great thank you so much Brad and thanks everybody for joining tonight. I'm going to share my screen and give folks a presentation to just introduce myself a bit and talk through some work that I have done. So just to folks give you some background on me and where I'm from and how I got to where I am today. I grew up in Freeport Long Island that's on the south shore about 10 minutes from the beach on a 40-minute train ride into the city so very much appreciated both built and natural environments right from the start. I was lucky enough to be able to get up to the Adirondacks often and especially once a year because my mother grew up in upstate New York and the only way she would agree to move to Long Island is if we got to go up to the Adirondacks. So we did that which is great. I went to the University of Maryland at College Park for my bachelor's in geography. During that time I got the opportunity to spend a semester on Vancouver Island in British Columbia which essentially is the only reason why there's this large spread of map here and it was still to this day one of really amazing amazing experience. I learned a lot about forestry and fishery practices and really land use and the proper natural resource planning. Then I went to the University of Massachusetts Amherst for my master's in regional planning and really fell in love with New England here and decided to stay. My first job out of grad school was for the Farmington River Watershed Association in Connecticut. We did a lot of water quality work and worked with the municipalities and the watershed and ultimately I realized the river hits the road at the municipal level and wanted to get a municipal planning job and was lucky enough to get to be the town planner at the town of Milton. Was promoted to planning director and ultimately was at the town for about eight years. Then the Chittin County Regional Planning Commission was doing a really amazing, very comprehensive planning and visioning project for the county called the ECOS plan and I really was excited to be a part of that. So I was lucky enough to be able to work with the team at Chittin County Regional Planning Commission and I have been there for almost 11 years now. So I am a manager with a planning background and that background really I think makes me uniquely suited to really look at all of the issues that a municipality has to manage and deal with and services that they provide to their residents in a holistic way. And I really excel at finding a balance in varying policy positions for the greater good as a whole. And really I sort of do this quite a bit in this kind of framework, vision and strategic planning, then implementing that visioning vision and then monitoring success. So tonight I am going to walk you through a few projects that I have done in these categories and then I'm also going to talk more specifically about an S-extruction project that follows this framework and that will be that. So strategic planning, I think this is a pretty critical role for municipalities and government in general to play because it really helps you prioritize the issues at hand and stay focused on those priorities because you've got a lot coming at you. That can be kind of get you sidetracked but really I think it's important and fiscally responsible to stay focused on the vision and strategies and priorities that the community has set collectively together. So these are some examples of work that I've done. I'm going to talk a little bit more about the ECOS plan, again that plan that brought me to Chittin County Regional Planning Commission. This is a big effort, a $1 million grant from the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development aka HUD. Also the partners were Environmental Protection Agency and the United States Department of Transportation. Economic Development Administration was also a partner as well. And really we were looking to, based on that grant, which was really stop thinking about transportation and the environment and housing separately, really start thinking about it collectively as a whole. So you can prioritize and figure out what are the most important things moving forward and how to achieve a healthy, inclusive and prosperous community. So we had a 65 member steering committee, all of the municipalities including S.E.C. Junction, of course, and really a number of different partners including Vermont Housing Finance Agency who helped with the housing analysis, AALB, Vermont Energy Investment Corporation, all kinds of folks. And really we did quite a bit of robust community engagement including 10 whole days at the Champlain Valley Fair. I don't think I was there for all 10 days but I was definitely there for quite a lot of that and really liked talking with folks there. So this is a mural that Matt Haywood from the Image Farm created for us for the EGOS plan. And it's a visual that really helps to try to connect all of the different aspects of really government and planning for our residents. And one thing that became very clear in the EGOS plan is that we have a major shortage in housing that is evident by those experiencing homelessness as well as businesses who have a lot of difficulty recruiting workers to the area because they can't find a place to live. And with that it's also important to concentrate where that housing should go. So I want to make sure that folks have access to bike and walking infrastructure, the bus because that helps reduce our energy use. And so I can kind of go on and on but I don't have the time to sort of point out a lot of the different ramifications that come into play when you kind of pull one piece out of this. But the intent and the purpose is that collectively if we're thinking about all of these things collectively we can really get focused up on the important issues and stay focused on those. So moving to the next step of the framework, implementing once you've got that vision what are the next steps to make that vision become reality. So this again is just an example of things that I have done in my career thus far that falls into this category from managing the budget and personnel in the planning office in Milton to putting together the capital improvement plan, getting grants for actual infrastructure there and working with a variety of state and federal grants at CCRPC. Then sort of moving down here into some of the more regional partnership work building homes together is really a partnership that almost grew out of the ECOS plan because housing was so important and because we really at the Regional Planning Commission did an excellent job at expanding relationships and working with folks, all kinds of stakeholders in the region. So I'm going to talk a bit more about the Winniesky form-based code project and then also as extension zoning. So this is Mallens Bay Avenue in Winniesky. We at the Chittany County Regional Planning Commission were able to fund this project and I managed this project. We got a consultant team on board for I think about $75,000 and we did quite a bit of public engagement, did lots of visioning, worked with the Ferrell-Madden team and Urban Advantage and Dreyer designs to put this together for the community and you can see from the zoning side of things the intention was to set up the zoning so that the built environment would be how the residents would like it to be and then with that growth ideally that increased tax base can help make the improvements in the streetscape to ensure a more safe and walkable environment and with street trees that can really help with carbon sequestration and slow storm water and really try to create an environment that is deserving of the residents of Winniesky. And so if you go to that spot today you'll see Champlain Housing trusts one of their latest projects. This is a really great project. This has got home ownership units in it as well and the building itself has some row houses and townhouses in the middle and it really meets the vision that the residents set out and it also utilizes a vacant parking lot here in front of the O'Brien Community Center in Winniesky. So then moving on to monitoring. So at the municipal level there are annual reports to communicate progress and success and audit information and future budget information to residents. For the EGOS plan at the regional level we have committed to monitoring that work every year going forward from when the plan was first done and so we track a lot of indicators and publish a report every year that really helps us and is a communication tool to the communities about whether we're going in the right direction or not. Also personnel evaluations, I'm certainly familiar with doing those for my staff and my department. It's really a critical step certainly in government to make sure that staff is working towards that vision that you're working towards. So I'm going to talk a little bit more in terms of monitoring on the building homes together annual reports. So this is an infographic from the first round of the building homes together. It was a five-year campaign to build 3,500 homes. We were successful at doing that through getting additional funding from the state legislature, through working with all of the municipalities on both regulatory improvements and non-regulatory tools for increasing housing. But we fell short on the affordable goal. The intent was to build 700 affordable homes and we only were able to build 536. And so we have collectively decided to do a second building homes together 2.0 and really the challenges are still the same as I'm sure folks know it's hard to avoid hearing somebody who hasn't been able to find a house. So we are stepping up the goal to 25% and hopefully with the ARFA funds we'll have some greater success and the 2020 slowdown did not help from COVID in this time period. So to recap with an S-extunction example, so the first part of vision and strategic planning really this starts with a comprehensive plan at the municipal level. My, supervised my staff, Melanie Needle, who worked on this plan with the Planning Commission and Robin at S-extunction. I wrote this plan in 2014 and really it's a holistic look at all of the issues facing the city with some priorities and strategic actions on how to address those things. And one of those implementation steps is the Design Five Corners project that was done by Du Bois and King with some image work from Julie Campoli. And so this is something that really, I think is very critical for the junction to really see this vision come to come to fruition. So it really, it feels safe in the downtown to walk and bike and also for the trunk routes coming into the center of the village as well. So in this last year I have been working with the S-extunction Planning Commission on some zoning changes to try to really make some improvements so that the developments you see coming forward have some better streetscape connectivity and some improved water, walking and biking infrastructure both within the center of the village and the trunk routes going into them. And I'll just give a little bit of a plug that there's a public hearing for the Planning Commission on these regulations on August 4th. So hopefully you'll be able to check that out. So going forward I am very much looking forward to working with the city and the team of great folks at the city and city council and boards and commissions and the staff to do the items listed here. I think that I have the experience and expertise to do this work. I am very, very excited about doing this work and really looking forward to bringing my energy to the city. So I will stop there. Great thanks Regina. So it is 619 and we are going to do Q&A until 640 and at that time I will post in the chat and give folks the opportunity to provide the city councilors with some feedback about your experience tonight with Regina. So certainly folks the question and answer button is available and please again you can submit those anonymously or attached to your name and as those come in I will read those out to Regina. Regina I do have some here as well. Why don't you start by telling us what you like to do for fun outside of work? Yeah so I really love to hike, yoga, walk my dog and also really love triathlons. I am and just got a lot of swimming in in the last two weeks so hopefully I'll be prepared for the one coming up at Brambury State Park in the middle of August. Great. Regina would you talk about your experience and expectations regarding managing a full city budget? Sure yeah so I think the process has lots of input from the department heads. I'm bringing that forward and I look forward to working with the director of finance to put that budget together especially for the first time really as a city on its own. I've looked at all of the municipal agreements with the town of Essex and the city of Essex Junction and look forward to making sure that those contracted services are incorporated and again sort of monitoring over time that those situations are working. But yeah I think also really going to be important to sort of think about the best use of the ARPA funds, the American Rescue Plan funds that can really be used for a variety of reasons but definitely have a timeline to them and really want to make sure that those resources are being used in the best way possible in the city because it's definitely one time funding and with that really need to be aware and concerned about not using it in such a way that sort of grows a service that we would not necessarily be able to continue to do after that timeframe is over. So definitely look forward to sort of thinking through those issues as well as the federal infrastructure dollars that will become available as well. Great thanks. Deb if you intended to submit a question I only got the first part so if you could resubmit that would be great. Regina can you please talk more about your experiences with public participation and what's your vision for how to communicate to residents all the things you need to tell us? Sure so I think communicating with residents I would definitely do a update of sorts either weekly or bi-weekly whatever the makes the most sense for folks and I have seen this done either as a newsletter that goes out to residents and certainly would keep the city council and department heads up to speed on issues as well. I think that can really just be a great way of being sort of a short quick concise information about what your city is doing to work on your behalf. Especially today we're just sort of like so overwhelmed with stuff but if people are interested they know they could always go to the website and find that probably put it on the city's Facebook page as well and think about some kind of newsletter option in the future as well. And public engagement I think it's critically important to just be thinking about how to do that better. We have as sort of if I just put go into my resident seat there are probably I don't know 10 different opportunities of things that I could be going to every single night to participate in and I'm just not sure that that's really a fair expectation of folks going forward. So I think we just really sort of need to think about better ways to keep residents informed and make sure the engagement is coming in a way that can prioritize what the city needs to do going forward so then the city can really put those things into action. Also I think it's important to really think about making sure that everybody in the city all residents have access to information and the ability to participate so that may be necessitate translating materials and coming up with ways to sort of go to where folks are as opposed to expecting them to always come to a city meeting. And then I think one silver lining of COVID is that we definitely can manage these hybrid meetings and provide folks ways of coming and participating without always physically coming and so I think making sure that those systems are working well and streamlining them is a good approach. Great thanks and as a as a quick follow-up what are the ways you prefer the public communicate with you and staff? Great question. I think email or coming in person or calling I think works well. I think if there's any particular issue I think it works best if folks go to the department of department heads first and if an issue is not resolved then certainly open door policy from me to hear and address any issues that folks have. Great thanks. Regina what unique skill talent or superpower would you bring to the position? I think that my superpower is really bringing folks together and I have really strong relationships with folks that I have worked with in the past and I think part of that is my ability to really listen completely and really hold a table for folks to get their ideas out and then collectively bring some collaboration on the item and move it forward. So a lot of times I am the person who is setting up the agenda taking the notes to make sure everybody is clear on what their tasks are leaving the meeting and then following up to make sure those items are followed through on in preparation for the next meeting and really just doing this sort of organization and like work to really keep things moving along. Great thanks. Regina how would you approach a chronic complainer who may or may not share misinformation? I'm sorry what was the last part of that Brett? Who may or may not share misinformation in the community? I think part of it is being forthright and acknowledging that there are always two sides to every story and making sure that I get the two sides to the story and certainly listening and acknowledging the issue and ideally hopefully there would be something that could be done about it but being clear that for the greater city as a whole there may not be something that can be changed to help this individual person and that while that might not seem fair that might just be the reality of the situation but certainly would be open to listening and seeing if there's any creative ways to to address the issue while also staying focused on the on the goal for the community as a whole. Thanks. Regina there's a lot of positive energy and excitement for the new city. What ideas do you have for building on citizen engagement? I think really using the opportunity that we have right now for lots of folks excited about this about this step and a lot of real social capital of folks interested and wanting to come to the table and I think that is a really great opportunity to think through what can be done with those that unique ARPA funding right now and how best to get that to make the best use for the city going forward. So just just one potential opportunity. It's kind of nice to have a lot of folks at the table and a lot of interest and actually have some funding that has a little bit of flexibility in how and how it can be used. I think also just trying to have folks participate in the ways to really sort of reach the vision of that of that different streetscape so people feel comfortable and maybe it's more collective bike rides or different kinds of things to bring attention to the sort of larger visions that have been in place like connecting different neighborhoods with bike paths. Some of this work doesn't necessarily get too many legs under it if there isn't motivation from the residents to see it happen. So yeah. How do you expect to manage our newfound relationship with the town of Essex? Well I have a great working relationship with Brett Dugan and Marguerite Ladd now. I would expect that to continue. I think just making sure that we are consistently meeting on a regular basis to make sure things are going well. I think it's an interesting situation where there's been so much effort to go in one particular direction. Now it's a different direction but it seems like there are a lot of great agreements in place to really lay out how this is going to work for the year and lots of good process in place in those agreements for how to think about advancing beyond this next year and into the future on those. So yeah. I think it's just staying connected with those folks likely probably still makes sense to have trustee and select board joint meetings on occasion to consistently just stay connected and see how things are working out. Great thanks. You touched on this a little bit earlier but I'm wondering if you can talk more about how to expand and reach out to connect with diverse and using diverse and inclusive engagement with our community. Yeah. So I think really a part of this work is not making sure or not expecting everybody to come to the city meetings and to come and volunteer on boards. I think part of it is a little bit in this work of reaching out to communities and getting a sense of what their priorities are. I think I actually just had a training at CCRPC today this afternoon and started to think a little bit about how planners aren't just the folks who have those titles and the education to do that work. Everybody can be a citizen planner and everybody has thoughts and issues about how to improve things in their city so that they'll feel more safe out on the street and so I think it's really working to develop those relationships with those folks so that their issues are front and center in the work that the city is doing and this is certainly easier said than done but as opposed to the city having a particular project and going to residents and asking for feedback I think it needs to be a much more not just sort of give and take relationship like that it's really got to be clear that the city is taking the information from these folks and what their issues are and really doing something about it as best as possible and then ultimately hopefully there's more diversity on the actual commissions and boards itself because for better or worse the decision making and the powers set up in a democratic way the way that we have it and ideally we would have much more diverse representation on those boards that better reflect the residents of the city but that's not going to happen until there's relationship building first and trust first in these in these communities. Regina what's one thing you would change about s-extinction? I'll I'll put a robin hat on for a second four corners instead of five corners maybe for traffic great how will uh how will you manage our contracts with the police department and deal with the fact that our laws are enforced by a department that you will not supervise. So I think that that's a great question I was pretty happy to read the police contract with the town and there really is there is acknowledgement in there for the city manager to work collectively with the town manager though it is very clear that this is a town department and managed personnel management by the town I think but there's definitely room for communication and information for this and available options for the city manager to be in communication and have sit-down meetings collectively with the police chief the town manager and the city manager so I think that that is really a great system set up I think I think also the city is still going to be paying a decent amount for that service so I don't know that the city is in a bad place in terms of in terms of taking a harder stance if the city feels like the town is not managing that that department well but I've got confidence that the that at least me certainly good relationship with Greg Dugan and feel pretty confident that that relationship will be two-way communication and hopefully if there are any issues in the city and certainly there are opportunities to address those great in April we passed local option tax which will start in October what are some some ways that you think we should be utilizing that new source of revenue so I think in the capital project world I think there's probably really no end to what that could be used for in terms of new infrastructure or operations and maintenance of existing infrastructure but I do think that there's again in terms of setting up the city well for the future all of the infrastructure really has to be well maintained so I'm glad it's an extra revenue source in case there ever is a need to use it in a in a way to fix any emergency problems that happen but I do think in an ideal world in years where there that is creating an extra revenue source that doesn't need to be used for existing infrastructure I really think that streetscape improvement can be a really good use of those funds because it's a it's a little bit of a snowball effect that folks will continue to participate and come to the village to shop and go to restaurants and and bring their money into the city especially if that streetscape is really looking good and vibrant and feels welcoming for folks and so it seems to me to make some logical sense that that funding source would help continue to create the environment for more folks to come and buy things and create more revenue great well Regina that is our last question it is 640 I am oh shoot you got on mute Brad sorry thank you for thank you I'm trying to post in the chat and I'm hoping it will let me it appears that everyone should be able to see in the chat a link to a form and this is an evaluation feedback form the results it's anonymous and the results will go directly to the city councilors as they deliberate and make a final selection so thank you for your time Regina we appreciate it and everyone else I will leave a couple minutes for you to right now complete the evaluation please for Regina and then we will begin at 645 which is in four minutes with our second candidate thank you Regina thanks so much appreciate it have a good night so for everyone else hopefully you can see in the chat the link to the form please click on that complete the evaluation we'll give you four minutes to four or five minutes to accomplish that and then we'll be back with Coralie thanks hi Coralie how are you hi Brad I'm well how are you good thanks I'm just going to give folks a couple more minutes to complete the evaluation for Regina so I will come back in about three minutes okay thanks thanks okay Coralie we're going to go ahead and get started thanks so just for folks at home we'll do the same process Coralie will be given the opportunity to do a short presentation and then that'll be followed up by a question and answer and then an opportunity to provide some feedback so Coralie the floor is yours the presentation I um I don't have PowerPoint slides or anything to share I just want to share a bit about myself and my skills and what I'm looking forward to here with this new city of Essex Junction which I'm very excited about and then really I want to hear what's important to the community and what questions they have to learn more about me so I'm going to keep my remarks short so that I can learn mostly about what's important and answer questions that folks have so I know that Brad shared my background as far as like where I've worked in those types of things I'll share a little bit more I am a ninth generation Vermonter I currently live in St. Albans Vermont which is where my family's from I am a mom of three teenagers who are mostly out of the house and two stepdaughters and I have three grandchildren a new grandbaby in April so I'm used to having a full cadre of of kids and working mom and so so I share that little bit about my background I also we own a maple syrup operation and so we my husband and I do that as well and I love building community so when I first came to the city of south Burlington six years ago I wasn't sure why Kevin Dorn the current city manager I thought that would be the perfect job for me with my background in higher ed and finance and I now know the skills that I have picked up in operations finance community engagement public relations strategic planning leadership coaching building both internal and external relationships have allowed me to do the job that I've done in the city of south Burlington and so I speak to that in the fact that the time that I've been there I was able to work as part of the senior team so pretty much engaged in most of the decisions that were made at the city and fully engaged with that and educated both the community and looked at community feedback and really hearing what the community wanted and and measuring that working with our internal team the staff against the comprehensive plan our annual work plans strategic plans and making sure that also worked in our budget and in our capital improvement program I think when I came aboard the vision for city center which is the downtown that south Burlington wanted had been a vision for 40 years and I feel a little bit of deja vu or some similarities with the city of Essex junction for a while wanting to be their own entity and and the day is here and that's kind of where I entered in south Burlington we are ready to get started on the projects of city center the vision had been there 40 years and then it was how do we build a new street how do we get a new city hall and library how do we get a new downtown park how do we start to have connections with for bike ped and so really imagining and reimagining what the community wanted and then bringing everybody together it's a team of upwards of 180 employees I have overseen operations there in some capacities I have also built the human resources component there so everything from new payroll system policies and procedures three three unions there to to negotiate contracts and I've been through that three times once in the midst of COVID and we just completed the last round so those are always fun but I will say this despite any people sitting on either side of the table whether it's in the community or or internally with staff at the end of the day it's about keeping those relationships growing and meeting the goals of the residents so customer service and and meeting the goals so I pride myself and well we might not always see eye to eye we collaborate and at the end of the day get to those common goals so wanted to mention that I will say that my experience is at the senior leadership level and yet I've done some of the nitty gritty but I really rely on the team the department heads which have a similar structure to what the city has although some of them shared services still are contracted services I guess with the town so looking forward to how that can how we can manage to have those services either within the city or continue to contract the components that make sense for example maybe the police department continues to make senses that as we move forward as far as other things it might make more sense for the city to have those positions internally so looking forward to working with Greg and Marguerite in the town as to how we collaborate moving forward in addition collaborating with perhaps the school board and that population as well so I would love Brad I could go on and on about the projects I've done and about the different components you know I would rather answer questions and see if I can if I can share more information in that way and give give more specific examples via the questions great that sounds good Coralie thanks can you talk about some of your experience and expectations regarding managing a full city budget yes so for me a full city budget pertains to both the general funds enterprise funds and then the capital improvement program and so what I sometimes see is the capital improvement the CIP there are grand visions and we have to manage funding for that what I have seen is sometimes the HR component the people part for additional services doesn't always get added so I'd be interested in what the planning is for that as far as maintenance of operations as as services grow or change I'm used to building that budget with department heads we do that as a collaborative effort also looking to the community for any input my typical process working with our team and again my my role is not as the finance director about working with them to get the information out is to reach out to committees to find out what their their areas of concern are things that they want in the budget and so they usually are getting that feedback from the community or we build those streams so when we're looking at the budget of course we want to meet budget every year I love it when it comes in and you've got 65 percent or higher of voter say voters saying yes to the budget and did not have a defeated budget I attributes that to the team all working together Tom Hubbard was our treasurer and deputy city manager at the time and so very good working us all together and so I find that it's important to plan for the unknowns it's important to plan for the future both in projects and growth but also for the personnel because you know there is a balance there great thank you can you talk about how you would relate to the city council and how the council manager model works in your experience yes so my experience is that the city manager is the conduit for the staff to the council I say that with the fact of you know love to to have department heads in to share what's going in in their departments to you know firsthand educate council give them information on projects or programs so that they're fully fully and have knowledge of what's going on I feel like the city manager's role is to to take the policy that council puts forward and to implement that out through the systems and through the administration through the staff so recommendations coming from staff and from the city manager to city council but understanding that the policy is made there and that we're following through so I just want to be able to bring that expertise forward and then bring back the decision that would then have to be implemented and I do think it's a has to be a strong relationship between the manager and city council because sometimes not everybody sees eye to eye from counselor to counselor or from staff to council or the other way and so learning how we would collaborate and and know whose roles are are what and I also find it really important to have annual work plans so that we can stay on target make sure that we're going to hit the goals for the residents and the goals that council have and then our staff individually thanks there are some expectations in our community that the separation or becoming our own independent city will lower our overall municipal taxes how would you handle it if you see the need to expand operations or other costs and this affects this expectation so first I would say is that the expectation and and if so then I'd want to hear what the community wants and so I don't think that's a unilateral decision I think that's really going to be hearing what the community wants and being very realistic about what that costs so you know we just came through coven many municipalities had a hard time with that in south berlington we had the issue of are we going to contract services or are we going to our folks going to pay more and then what happens about growth and so I think it's a real opportunity to listen to the community in a variety of ways as to what's important and then educate on why we're why those decisions are being made whether they're voting on on a specific thing because we have to have a bond or or whatnot or the just the money and general operations if there's a need for more staff or for more services then making sure everybody's on the same page so I really think it's about transparency education and listening great thanks coralie what's uh what's one thing you would change about as extension hmm I think I would change well outside of the obvious of maybe the five corners uh becoming the four corners I'm really in favor of the you know the crescent connector or coming down to to four corners but really about having that downtown space where people can gather I know that the parks are a place where folks come together but really having that space um I think is going to be exciting I've seen it in south burlington where folks gravitate more and more to spaces like that and events become available and people just naturally go to the restaurants and come and hang out and it's great to hear like hey let's meet at such and such so really that that opportunity for folks from all walks of life to come together so I um I think the city's already on to what I think would be good for them coralie how would you manage the contract for police services with the town of Essex and and deal with the fact that law enforcement in the city is dealt with by a department that you don't supervise yeah I I'm looking forward to if I have this opportunity to learning more about the police department and the operations there and then collaboration obviously with the town managers um and developing the relationship with the police chief and and his person and know they're directly and so figuring out how that works but really advocating and hopefully having a good working relationship as to how the police are serving the community and making sure that we're getting the service that um that we're paying for and so it's it's a new model for me um coming from South Burlington where we have our own police department but I'm used to working with them very closely and um I know other communities who who also um contract for services and I've talked to some of those colleagues about um things that may be challenging or not so I think first is really just to learn how does it work now how do we make sure that we're getting what we pay for and um and if there are issues that that we we talk about them together the town managers as well as as the police chief and myself thanks Coralie um there somebody had sent me an article uh from 2021 where Kevin Dorn uh had wrote an op-ed piece talking about the importance of having school resource officers in schools as you know there's been attention um and some have called for the removal of those school resource officers what's your position this is uh this is a tough one um I have seen when I first went to the city of South Burlington um there was a bomb threat at the school I noticed happened in Essex as well and um it was very scary for the residents and with South Burlington it was at the high school with them right across the street um and parents showing up at city hall as the safe place to be and walking through that process for for several days um and what that did to sort of rip the community apart um in some ways or separate the community um it was really tough situation and I was thankful at the time that we had school resource officers there um to already be within the school to um have those relationships and then have our police department you know backing that up I will say that with events that have transpired over the last couple of years there it does seem to be a shift um to potentially not having school resource officers and um I think I think it's a delicate balance I think um I would have to know more about the relationship so I don't have a stance one way or another I um I would like our our students to be safe and I'm not sure about the security measures in the school and so that would be a conversation I would love to have with the with the school board to find out more about that so I can't just blanket say one way or another I have seen um you know the community go back and forth depending on what the current events are so um so I think it's something to continue to be looked at discussed and um and try to act accordingly great thanks what are some ways you would envision um hearing the voices of marginalized um members of our community and uh how would you solicit their input and feedback uh and and um involve that in decision-making of government yes so it becomes um ever more important to go to where um residents visitors businesses are in the community um you know I'm sure here in Essex there are what I've experienced in South Burlington is community meetings are great but probably low turnout people are busy I think with the advent of COVID it kind of like pushed things forward for zoom meetings and ways for you know folks to be able to pop in while they're at home making dinner or whatever it may be um but what's been successful um that I've experienced thus far is getting out to where folks are so if there are places where there's affordable housing perhaps if there is an apartment complex getting there and having a barbecue for the kids if there's families there um senior facilities getting in to see the seniors and have those conversations uh working with the school district to see if there are ways to share information out or get information back to piggyback on events or um or ways that they're collecting information so really collaborating with folks that are already um already communicating with the populations uh one way now uh that we utilize more is uh you know getting into the churches uh if there's a youth group of some sort then we we try to connect with um with parents in that way also um you know in newsletters that we we put out we also share that with the school district so they share out our information and we share links to theirs um so I find that's really useful and then of course just being available and getting out and seeing folks um whether there's uh you know some of our neighborhoods have neighborhood parties so getting out to that meeting with business owners getting to know the folks in town um you know sometimes just taking a walk through a neighborhood you run into folks and so I think there's a lot of different ways and if we're not meeting the needs with a group then we need to figure out how to get um to get in front of them and I think that's the job of not just the city city manager but of the committees of the city council of department heads to to have those communications and then share that information with each other great thanks uh what unique skill talent or superpower would you bring to this position oh I think um I think I'm really good at um when we have to be in a situation that's tough and you have to hold the line that um at the end of the day you do the work that you need to do and you do that in a respectful way and you try to help people understand and be educated and I try to learn and listen and um and find some common understanding um but things can be hard sometimes and at the end of the day I think one of the things that I'm good at is focusing on the work and the issue at hand uh and when that's done we move forward and um and that you know being in a leadership role that happens all the time and so I think the fact that I can keep things in the place that they need to be in and move forward and continue continue on to the next with good relationships um and uh continuing to have those connections great thanks um Corley how would you approach a chronic complainer who may or may not share misinformation in the community yeah well a couple of things um one I think it's always good to listen it's always good to educate but I also think that it's good to have um other folks who are teammates in educating and helping to share the message so um one of the things I say is if there's negative information or misinformation it's an opportunity for people to be educated so um it doesn't mean it always has to come from me uh it would come it might come from a department head or from city council or from a committee member and I will say that my uh relationships with folks allow me currently to be able to um to call uh someone to say hey can you put out some information about that can you share your views of this can you so for example in South Burlington uh we have a Facebook page called community watch and it was set up years ago and it was very contentious and it was like we got to watch the government and see what they're doing um the as a as a municipality we never post there but if there's information that's misinformation going around then um you know I've been able to develop those those folks in the the committees and train them to say hey when you see that speak up share the and link back to the information and share that information so I think it's a group effort of continuing to have that education sometimes folks shut down for one person um and I think finding ways to connect and share the accurate information is is more important than just trying to decry whatever whatever that um that negative person but value their value their input and value um the information that uh the fact that they have passion about the topic um I think that's important too there is a lot of energy and excitement around becoming a city and a lot of a lot of citizens who have been involved and and are are becoming involved uh how would you harness um and build on this citizen engagement oh I'm excited I'm excited for um for this 10th city uh it's I believe the 130th anniversary of of s extension if I have that correct um and I think there's a lot of history I think there's a lot of pride and I can feel the excitement um from the city just working in shittin and county uh with folks I know who live there and folks that work there um I I know several and um it's it's an exciting time uh for folks to come together I think it's an exciting time to make sure the vision as a city um while while um the people have had a vision it's now a reality to be its own city and to make sure that the vision um and the goals and the work uh is truly being heard by the folks um by the municipality itself um so whatever the residents have to say the council the commission to um it's really an exciting time to hear all the dreams all the goals and figure out well which ones are we going to work on which ones where do where do they land um and if there's enough um motivation between between the different ideas so I'm excited I don't have a um a goal other than to hear what the community wants look at the comprehensive plan see if that's still accurate look at the annual work plans find out what people want I think it's a great time to continue that momentum um and and build the plans into the future and act on them I like to get things done so um so I would love to be able to bring those skills of efficiency and um and completing goals and and getting to the getting the dream to be a reality um with this community great thanks uh in april we passed the local option tax which will start in october um what are some uh ways that you would envision us utilizing that new found revenue I think it's early to ask me that question uh as far as knowing what um what council what the community wants this is uh an exciting thing to have that additional revenue but the city is also in a place I believe um financially in a pretty good in a pretty good spot and so is that money that would be used for capital improvements is that money to add to municipal services that aren't currently being utilized um that I don't that I don't know so I would want to hear um but it we have it in south burlington and we allocate it um in in a variety of ways um and so I would look back to the community to counsel to the committees to hear what what are the ways and additionally staff I'm sure staff has a list of things that they would like to see um whether in the operational budget or capital improvement great thanks um how do you like the community to communicate with you and your staff I am pretty open to um to any mode of communication um that goes all the way from you know I happen to be in the grocery store or restaurant having those conversations one on one um email text you know all the different formats uh I'm used to that I appreciate that um it's you know whatever the form is is hopefully easy for the person on the other end I do love seeing people in person and having um having a real a real conversation I think sometimes with email tone and and reading into it is um is hard uh but I'm open to all of those and that's how I operate at the moment um and you know I'm not afraid for us to you know sit down and have those those face to face conversations so open door available um wherever whenever great um how do you define the relationship between municipal government and the public well I look at municipal government as uh serving the needs of the residents the community the visitors that come to sx junction it is our job to provide the best quality of life um economic vitality and community engagement that we can um and so I I look at that as as um the main goal great thanks um as city manager how do you you've touched on this a little bit but um how do you see yourself interacting and engaging with the public uh um I see myself being available um listening um getting out uh some of the things that I think about is uh you know when I when I am in a new situation whether I'm sitting on a board or I you know came to the city or there's a new team or um whatever that may be I like to hear from folks what's working what's not working what do you love what do you not love I'm I'm curious I ask lots of questions because I want to know I want to know what people are passionate about I want to know what's working I want to know what what obstacles they have you know there's nothing more rewarding than um chatting with somebody who feels like it's too difficult to uh you know do x whether that may be come come to city for us come to city hall to fill out a form because they can't get there during regular office hours we've now digitized a whole bunch of that folks do not need to come to city hall uh for a lot of um you know permits things like that anymore um so to be able to resolve something that's a real difficulty for them but we're able to find a solution and know that we've made life easier for them um or we've introduced something that their quality of life increase you know has increased um that's really exciting for me what are some ways as the manager you would support uh the development and growth of the downtown area um so um I would say it would be look at first talking to the folks who are in the downtown area now the you know the village is small but what's happening downtown um talking to those property owners talking to the folks who work there talking to the folks that um that visit there uh what do folks want um you know in my mind I see you know if there's a new park at one main and there's a pedestrian um streetscape there uh what an opportunity for folks to come together and for things to to really grow for those business owners um to to really grow in that area um additionally I I think that um um there's a potential for growth I know that Essex Junction is um pretty developed and so what what does some redevelopment what are the goals for redevelopment of any of the of the areas look like and as we look at that is it a combination of affordable housing and commercial space is it community space is it more restaurants what whatever that may be so I really would want to hear what folks um have to say and would listen to that um and then overlay what I have learned um in my experience um as we've been building city center uh in South Burlington great thanks um we do have a few more minutes if anybody has any outstanding questions otherwise we um we may end just a couple minutes early Coralie so I'll put a last call out for uh for questions hearing none Coralie I think that's a uh we will just end a few minutes early and I will provide hopefully folks can still access the chat and the same link for the evaluation um but thank you so much for joining us Coralie uh we appreciate it well thank you very much and I look forward to uh continuing the conversation great uh so folks in the chat the same link should be there um so you can go ahead and select that and complete an evaluation for Coralie that will go on to the city counselors as they make the final deliberations and selection of the next city manager uh both candidates will be engaging in full day processes with staff and trust and the city counselors um and uh ultimately having uh city council interviews and executive session this week and then we anticipate um hopefully um making an announcement sometime in early August of who has been selected um as the first city manager thank you all for participating I will stay on here just for a sec um you can use the question if anybody uh is having difficulties uh with the form thanks for joining us