 Oh you found it oh my I don't know how awful that is my dog runs away all the time you stand at the bottom down there probably the whole time I've been here they've been looking for this awesome out the door oh my gosh back leg you might be hurt oh you were a spirit hey I got him I'm up at battery all right he nice big adventure right to beps we're gonna go right to beps huh yeah we're going right to beps we're gonna go right there I know honey you're okay we're gonna get right home all right yeah hello thank you for tuning in welcome to the Street Talk for Moncho I'm Bruce Wilson executive director of service rendered incorporated straight talk on our programs and we have many we have art so wonderful was about to put out some incredible events one is gonna be 20 August 26 at UVM I mean University Mall and when our new space is called art so wonderful annex and performing centers is right across from targets and it's gonna be a free of community events we have a community community resources there like with my department labor health department housing people giving our information as well as live entertainment all kind of cool things free it's 26 from 1 to 3 so today I'm very excited to have new ski city manager Elaine Wayne I'm probably new ski well Elaine Wong she's got to correct me which is good and I'm living with new ski so Elaine Wong is my city manager yes ma'am and we meet a lot of times that we talk and have give some understandings about ways we can work together and how the city is operating you know so I want to first say to you congratulations on your position because you've been in this position since I was 16 so about two months yeah wow it's been it's I've said this before but it's really an honor of my lifetime to be there's nowhere else I'd rather be the manager for that's awesome and I know I'm when it has they had other candidates because I had met you at O'Brien Center when it was like a meet and greet and I got I think it was like three other two other candidates and they all had a very interesting and very smart and good ideas you had to go about yourself though you don't mean like you know like I probably can feel your your inspiration about one of the city manager and you know I don't I don't get we're gonna talk about a little bit but like right now so why why you want to be with right well so I mean it's a really fun town it's a lot going on for like 1.4 square miles you know kind of a little bit of everything which is important to me part of it is because so you know I got into local government about six years ago and you know that opportunity to serve and a whole variety of different ways interesting to me and also you know I'm my pop black indigenous people color is a group term that obviously not everybody likes I use it as a term of solidarity I'm Asian I'm Chinese American my parents moved here from China about six years ago now I've been living in Vermont for the last 17 years and you know being a person of color in Vermont for you know a period of time already being in local government before this job and having immigrant parents that is a set of characteristics that there just aren't very many people that fit all those boxes and that are not those aren't qualifications obviously I still have to be able to do the job technically having those characteristics doesn't mean that I know how to reach people or listen well but it helps right so it's like it gives me a basis for understanding folks and I'm not just talking about it's everyone because they know I've been working on environmental issues I've worked in primarily white organizations you know there's a number of different things going on you know and it's not and the frankly the murder of George Floyd really a lot of local government officials be included we're like oh we are not doing this good enough we have to do better so I've been trying to learn since then and you know try things and then and the interesting thing about that it's not only giving me an opportunity to understand more like how our systems are not set up fairly or equitably or justly or in a welcoming way or an inclusive way for everyone of people of color black people especially indigenous people especially people are a lot next and so forth but also people who have disabilities and of course anyone could be disabled and people who are older very young people people are powerful so it's just the last two years have been an opportunity for me to really think about access to local government services and what we can do to make our cities work better for everybody and when you ski leadership you know from the council the current council on the leadership team on staff and the community at large you know there's that sense of like you really want to do this we're not really necessarily sure how to do it and that you know most communities are in that situation I mean most people who most communities that are interested in equity are in that like not quite sure how we're gonna do this yet mode and Vermont news is certainly in my opinion in the lead in that and so being able to be part of that is why I'm so excited to be the next in yeah well we really appreciate you and so yeah you're right so when this key is very you know culturally diverse you know and new Americans a lot of new Americans came to this game which is awesome it's so so beautiful to see up so many types of people 25% I think 22% people color 22% since we have those types of individuals in our community who are there you know it really are new Americans a lot of the youth that goes to our school and little school and I'm still long learning to speak like English they probably speak English but I'm gonna say I'm really trying to get it together and learn what you mean and what some lot of things mean you know like what the United States what it what who I win what all the things that really and so we always gotta somehow make sure that we're helping them in ways that we should right and so I guess what are some of the things that you think that we how we need to work with the people different cultures and by park and we think we should do so I think that's important that we understand what they do right their cultures and then if you're gonna live in America I mean to you know based on how jobs work how schools work application process work those so maybe I should say that if you need to understand what these systems right I think what you're getting at is like being able to have options right it doesn't mean that understanding how Americans do things that to me the point is integration the point is you have options if you know how the Americans work then you if you wanted to work for an American or you then have the option to just tell your own past and you know things that work for your community I feel like those that would be that's the goal right is that everyone has the same options sure to pursue whatever it is and we certainly don't have that so to you know to your earlier question I don't have all the answers yet well you've been on a job for two months I know what gosh yeah but you know so some of the little pieces I mean there's like you know I'm proud of the fact that when you see as an employer the city when you see it as an employer has some staff that are not quite straight not sure about able-bodied like maybe most of her I mean I don't know that's the thing like the disability piece is not always sure it's hard to know but the point is like we are starting to do that but do they feel as included as our white staff or our staff that have grown up in the United States I don't know I suspect that the answer is not really for at least not at the same rates so there is that inclusion piece right and like us understanding the diversity of our of our workforce and then by extension of the risk of our community like I'm having that cultural understanding you know they're in our equity audit that our equity director led the process for she resigned for good reasons but one of the findings is that we're not a very integrated community and that the folks who answered who are new American and or color said that they feel welcome but not included and that's kind of a classic thing right you know even my own my parents like my parents and they would rather talk to my mom you know they have she has a friend group in their Chinese and they speak in Chinese all day long she goes to Chinese store she goes to Chinese restaurants not always awesome you know what I mean like she's got that community and she's comfortable on it but you know my dad is like so there's like varying degrees of like what people want to have access to and I think that you know there's definitely an opportunity there I think some of it is just like we don't know how to bridge that gap in a way that will feel comfortable for everybody so you know we've been kind of toying with different ideas and there are some of that already going on you know there's some of their neighborhoods are a little bit more diverse than others and having block parties there is a way to be like oh yeah here's a casual opportunity to get together and feel like yeah I have the option of staying in my ethnic group or have the options you know hang out with my neighbors that don't look like me so it just it's and I've mentioned before so one of my goals is to get out and 100% of our and if that takes my whole career you know but I want to do it like this big grand scheme where you do this and everything's magically better it's really that continuing building relationship listening trying things out that's how we're gonna get there so being out there there are the rest of our staff being out there and hopefully you know there's that building that trust where they're like okay yeah we have our organizations but we're willing to kind of let you in or come to you and then have you know just continually building that up you always trying to learn what's going on you know what you try to be I mean can we do so many hours how many legs can we do well it's you know it's there's a lot of us you know there's like a hundred people that work for the city and when you pass here another you know so well so yeah we talked about this before about a diversity equity and inclusion we talked about that some so would you know we we think people like every I don't know but most of your business community organizations you probably maybe talk a little bit about DDI or diversity equity and inclusion what do we think what they have minimum goal you think many people minimum goal is how to make things better for the person equity and inclusion you have any idea that what people might want hollow what they thinking about how to make things a little better minimum goal well yes I feel like and again I still there's still a lot of more experienced community partners that I need to discuss this ideal with the something that's coming coming out of the the federal funding that when he has because of the pandemic it's a you know a decent amount of money that we want to spend wisely and invest wisely so trying to consult the community as part of that council's been holding a listening sessions with with the community and we did a survey that anyone can answer they still respond to it's on the website but they've also been doing language specific listening sessions to make it try to be more accessible to folks who might look at the survey and say well that's what it's asking so through that process with our language communities it's been coming out one of the areas that I feel like we could that has potential is English language learning for adults so you know we have folks in our community that have been here for like 10 12 15 years and don't have don't feel comfortable interacting in English and that feels like such a huge potential just locked away behind the language barrier if we could figure out a way to more efficiently have folks learn English or provide like English language learning opportunity that feels to me like it like there's so much more potential that come out of that they would have more options for employment they would more options for starting their own business and more options for accessing services that right now they need a translator to get to and we only have so many amazing culturally is on the translators that are available because there's funding constraints so it's like trying to that seems to be like a potential there doesn't seem to be some interest in the community to be like yeah we want to learn English so we can do things for ourselves so much we could do we have that but the city doesn't have any hard no we don't yeah and that's one of the weaknesses right like we rely on the schools so they're amazing and there's a handful of them we cannot possibly hope that all the work goes so that's part of my thought of like if we have more people who are more English proficiency then we're not so dependent on them we'll always need them but having more people who can do more of the pieces themselves and access services themselves seems to be to be like a way to not have that bottleneck between the communities that are limited English proficiency community and the things that they could be doing so um so um I'm an inclusive belonging commissioner for the city of Michigan yeah now how if we had a commission called language Commission I don't know how would that look or our committee or how would that how would that look I mean what do you think that look like well I gotta say so for some of the initiatives that like this I feel like it's not a matter necessarily of a commission it's a matter of like making sure that we understand from as many people as possible who would want to make who would be interested or not interested so that we could shape a program that would make sense like having it again like funneling through a limited number of people feels not necessarily like the right approach so I the I mean of course there is still somebody who has to organize it so yeah that's my goal is to console as many folks as possible so that we could just design it in a way that's going to be what they need as opposed to funneling it like say a limited number of people commission so how many commissions that the city currently has I think it might be six including the boards development review board planning commission inclusion and belonging finance housing municipal infrastructure safe healthy connected community of safe healthy connected people municipality this whole infrastructure I think city council they need to be staffed so that you know so you know so that's good though so that shows a lot of strength for what is the city government you know shows that there's all the people that are part of these oldest commissioners or that staff volunteers from the community and they actually want to have some for them to pick those commissions or to be picked to be on this they must have some ideas and suggestions or some yeah yeah absolutely and we're so fortunate to have people who are willing to serve I think it's interesting that the city has these bodies as a signal that like yes we take these goals seriously we want to put this in one way so now before you came to the wonderful city of remiskey I thought it was 1.7 is this 1.4 I think it's 1.4 I heard you say 1.7 yesterday so I haven't looked gone back to check right you've been here a lot longer than me I don't know I was like I want to say 1.10 I mean even larger it is what it is so so you come from some other part of the state some type of right yeah yeah I work for the town of Barry so there I had some focus areas it was recreation human resources capital planning and like oh IT so very I like very nice I was gonna open for you sitting there working with the mayor time out oh yeah that's very city I work for Barry oh it's sort of like the relation between well now it's a sick city and a six town or St. Alvin City and I was telling so we're like the rule part of okay so that's different but I had yes yeah so yeah I know that's kind of different right and actually it's the same thing when you see culture which I didn't know until I got hard for this job that when you see used to be cultures downtown and then I separated wow it's a fun story because the table in council chambers we inherited from Colchester so it's a hundred years old that table the hundred years old because we just had our centennial 101 that's right it looks pretty damn good for a hundred years wow what a sometimes it's kind of weird because like I live on East Island Street yeah and and so you're when this key then soon you get across like this you know little further up it's like you know even Colchester or something right where does that actually miles Bay Avenue it's like wait right and then you're like welcome to Colchester right yeah it's just like like okay some guy named Colchester was gonna buy everything right we're gonna buy a piece of this and when this game is gonna call it still maybe Colchester well and you actually to that point that's why that's one of the other things that I'm happy about when you see it actually has an abadak you need or at least derivative of it I don't know that there's anywhere in Vermont that that's the municipality that has that when they got to where we have we're the onion river well right that's the one yeah so that's the river though I meant like a municipality yeah it's interesting cuz like you go around the river and you go around where to say I'm gonna run places you can see those you can see where the some of them are still coming up yeah yeah yeah the ramps right they're also called ramps well onion well we crawl yeah isn't that cool it is cool and the river is so beautiful it's funny I'll tell you a story can I tell you so where I used to live in very town we were right by the gel ranch river and my mom my mom used to call it the million dollar view and so she was to come over and say oh your house is worth a million dollars a million dollar view it's like a million dollars but yes I agree it's a really nice stretch of the river like if you go all the way up and down the gel ranch it's the most beautiful stretch because there's like a little bit of falls and some rocks and stuff and then when when I showed her when you ski because after I got the job she had the same feeling about that stretch of the Winnowski that covers oh this is also a million dollar view you move from very town but this is a good I would say it's more than a million what but that's the word so so how do you so so long if you look around Winnowski's wow there's a lot being built there's a lot coming up a lot that's coming up right was that what's going on housing how these how little stuff swinging up so fast one minute was nothing the next few minutes like this this spinner plays yeah all those all this more housing down up down that way so every you see like everybody's building up something yeah good I guess right yes it is it is and I know they're you know there's disagreement about that so there's a couple things with that actually I I'm fortunate I landed in Vermont just as they were developing that so back then the city leaders had the foresight of developing a tax so that the idea of that is the city is able to borrow money to build out sewer and water lines and other kinds of infrastructure that would improve it and make it more attractive to the private developers because otherwise the private developers have to pay for all that and it's you know they might not feel like it's worth it so that planning in that structure did attract a lot of development that's where the downtown core sprang up because of the tipped up where I come from tax okay it's right well so there's a there's the loan came out for that but then it's paying for itself with the taxes that are that's why it's called tax increment because the increased value coming from those developments they come from taxpayers but it's from new taxpayers the ones that are developing those those big buildings so that was one piece the second piece is that with that that attracts more investments like oh there's a cool downtown here now there's housing here now there's business interesting businesses in there now so then it'll attract other development so if you go up the quarter on Main Street that is not in the TIF district but it's like it's interest in building there redeveloping those spots came from oh there's this great investment downtown part of what made that development come up as quickly as it did is because we now have now have what do they call it form-based code so that's a planning tool that allows for so form-based code is a tool that allows for developers to streamline the permit process more base code usually planning and zoning is developed in a way that says like you can only have commercial buildings here or we want industrial uses here or we want form-based code says more or less we don't really care what you're doing inside this building what we care is what it looks like and as long as it looks this way then you'll probably be allowed to do it it's much more straightforward so that that shortens it up because usually when you say okay well I want to put in an industrial like a plant there or I want to put in a business there or build a new commercial building then you have to go through all looks like and how much of those a lot you're taking up with the building well form-based code you're telling them this is what it needs to look like and we don't care what you're doing so it makes things a lot faster so some of the developer that's good because I'm telling you permits of like places other places around the state is credible to my flage and board members like they are all developers like for instance like the bronze model is going to be turned to a residential unit 330 units and two streets open up on Street St. Paul Street and some green space and all that kind of stuff we've been working on that since 2013 they were like the whole the whole you don't like he tried man yeah so as long as permanent and all kinds of stuff crazy I learned a lot from the property oh I bet yeah from this being a part of it we used to laugh and probably look at this window yeah we're about to go and we're about to take the whole building 2013 no way man so long time so actually I'm sorry you asked it earlier question earlier one is it a good thing the one of the reasons why I would say it's good thing is because it reduces the tax burden on everyone else so if you want services like the ones that the city is already providing or if you want more services it's either going to come out of your pocket or it's going to come out of the taxes from new development so having new development helps support current and potential new services so in that way it reduces tax burden yes some of my other advisors and former board members are still sponsoring stuff have incredible properties you know but they got something else about the building incredible residential housing you know and so I'm just so happy that they're able to be able to build things love and also be able to help families not building new residential residential residents so I just can't wait to start coming up for a sort of drawing some properties or something else alright we definitely need more housing I mean my top four external priorities and they're not mine these are how I'm framing it in my head is housing equity access to local government in like in the space of our last few minutes you talked about a whole yeah and so I found the last night we had our inclusive at the lonely meeting that that I chose to be on the planning I'd be a liaison to the planning yeah and so what do exactly do what because I had this it was a conflict with some of us being on saying we're gonna say once and I think I'm I think I had this was pretty what so I'm gonna play me so what is what do what do what do the planning right so the planning division has this very important role of reviewing our zoning bylaws so that that's a big big responsibility there's this big long list of laws that apply to how we can develop and what yeah it's like basically like everything about the ground like how's it supposed to look where is it supposed to go that's the thing that's the whole way to put it what kind of parking what kind of what style of housing because the housing so reviewing all those laws is one key so right they've been reviewing sections at the time they just finished a big update that hopefully will promote building of more housing with more bedrooms in it because we know that one or two is not gonna be good enough yes exactly yeah especially for a new American family we need in Vermont we need we need young people being able to grow up here and have opportunity here so I'm excited about that so hopefully that will attract some more developers that feel like oh yeah it's worth it for me now so that we just they just finished a big update on that chapter the next chapter so reviewing the laws that govern how our city develops sometimes it will it tackles other topics as well so nothing we talked about too as I mean yesterday we talked about it is that so what's how much when you see been a hundred years old yes I don't know how I don't I don't know it's gonna be so many people that's been in when you see this man around for a hundred years so so it's gonna be a hundred probably 50 even when we're never we are not but so one thing I was thinking as I look in their lobby that's the other cool I look at I was looking at the mayor's picture on all those other mayor's picture she got the one in color right I'm awesome with black and white anyways so I talked about the mission goals and objectives of the city you know you first like when you first build some anything to tell I have idea you come up with some mission why you want to do it right or some mission statement and awesome charter and so I'm wondering out of a hundred years and I see nobody up there on those pictures look like me nobody zero I see I bet it's not no Abenaki's I bet you know dishes people or anybody that's well yeah if I was to get I don't know if I were to guess yes to but it's harder to tell with Abenaki because there's a lot more there was a lot of mixing that involved that means that we still have a lot of Abenaki people among us but my point is that I think you know like companies and business and organizations do this all the time when they get to a certain age they start going back and looking at where's our mission but are we following our mission goals and objectives that we started on charter are we really agree on what we said we're going to do should we what are we missing I mean should we have mentioned the following you know so I think that the people that somebody should go over the mission statement of the city and find out you know people who look like me including in within what is what is it you know it's like like I don't believe I was really included in like vision Frank Franklin wrote the decoration and Adam's and all the rest of cats and sit around you know I don't believe I was and so and the Constitution of the United States I don't I don't know who's been amended or I should be you know I mean I think we see you know based on where the world is today and things that we're trying to do and ways that we're trying to be you know understanding that each of us want to work for others and how we'll get better and so I think you know we need to look over that mission statement if it's one word if it's if it's three sentences we gotta add that it's three three sentence five words we gotta take out let's do it because if we're not working under which we how we was created then why would we why why would we continue to follow the mission statement why and if it's something different that we're trying to do like diversity equity and diversity inclusion or DI whatever why where's that in there somebody show me I kind of look at it myself you know figure out what part of it that's something we got to do with people you know everybody right we're not sure you know I just think like nothing like um like people the bylaws are changing I think that either police got up they check you know they got the fair partial police FIP I mean they got that in there you know kind of like this is who we are I mean this is what we believe in a friend of all people you know they say and so so that's the same thing with them they would they've been inclusive they started to create and make sure that they have something based on whatever it is so that's I think I think I'm not the one to say take that work with that work somebody else here somebody else a year that's changing everybody else you know I probably have something to say too but but I'm just trying to say we're not actually doing what sometimes so something that's sweet of them what they are they say some real well we're the best and we're gonna do this and we love everybody and the whole hands every Sunday you know so but they don't do that you know so because a lot of times people do that just these things that's a good thing so let's just give them a great a-grade have all the time every day every you know you gotta use the good words those words to be used right right so I agree with you and it's good to have you know constantly saying that to us to hold us accountable and you know being part of it so I'll do a quick digression but the interesting thing to me it like once I got in the local government the role of the charter is actually to tell you how to function so it tells us things like this is how you you know if you're gonna make decisions at the count you have a council you have a council manager from the government the managers role is to do these things the council you know if the council wants to take action they have to have these public hearings this many and this many days it's like very like procedural then you have your laws to cover how things are gonna work the nice thing about when so it's kind of I mean I don't know you could review the charter and actually that's why we have all resident voting if that's a good to charter change so there's definitely pieces where you can be more inclusive but from day to day the mission statement I feel like it was a as a co-direct document to work with so with the the with Gnusky's mission in terms of like keeping it alive and making sure we're checking in definitely before me some somebody of my predecessor in council and leadership team and the community I'm sure has there's a pretty robust so these commissions I just need they're named after you know quality miss woman infrastructure that works for all who's they call the connected people but those pieces that's one of the ways that we make sure we're continually living by those goals the other piece is that every year there's a strategic planning retreat that the council and the trip team goes through and they are open to the public so the most recent one that they did was in June and that was like maybe two weeks and on the Saturday so again like the reviewing each of those mission areas staff is coming with proposals that work on in the next year that live out those pieces so the ones that the the actual priorities that I can think of that voted on during that meeting they're not you know they're not the end-all meal but these are things that directly speak to what you're talking about how is everyone include there's an ADA accessibility and that we want to be carrying out this year that we have a grant to do that we are you know starting with a survey of all of the handicapped ramps and all sidewalks in the city you know that's a very basic thing that isn't just for wheelchair accessibility it's also for all the people the mobility issues then there's a piece on making sure that the inclusion of the longing commission is off the ground there is a piece on landlord-tenant relations and education which you know of course that's a low-income new Americans who are also low-income by a podcast we have a huge portion of our population is renting 60% or 70% which is some of the highest in the state so having you know making sure that renters know what their rights are in the language that works for them making sure landlords know what tools they have to provide quality housing and making sure that they know how to talk to each other in a way that's productive that's a big goal that came out of or that's a party that came out of that Oh internally staff has to reflect our community it does not right now how do we be ready as an employer to receive folks who maybe are not used to American workplace forms that's important for us to be able to you know and it's a number of things but I mean I'm excited about that probably because it yes it's the right thing to do cities are good in our good places to work in terms of access to benefits and decent pay and be able to do work that's meaningful that's you know that feels like it's serving folks so it's a good job to have are we ready to employ folks that aren't necessarily familiar with that job no we're not so we need to do better on that so that's one of the goals is like how do we better reflect what do we need to put in place so that we can do that and not just on the you know the lower echelons or the less or lesser paid positions but on up the chain there's a lot of work we need to do there but it is a part of our party so these are some of the ways that we're trying to again build those bricks towards the building that we want to see well Elaine Wong if you want to add anything before we go you know I can sit and talk with you and we have we have you want to add I would yeah thanks I'm going to suck directly to the camera now so anyone who lives or works in Winooski or plays in Winooski visits Winooski shops in Winooski what have you I want to meet you and get to understand your perspective so you can reach me at dwang at Winooskibt.gov or you can call our offices at 655 6410 and I am that's my goal I want to meet everyone get to understand everyone there's 8,000 of you that live there feel like that's doable so I encourage you to reach out I hope you will well so let me tell you when you when you view our our cable show with the city manager here you're going to see a dog in Kenai that our wonderful city manager grabbed while he was running through because people were looking for this dog because the dog got injured you know I think uh on a real accident so he ran off or he ran off and here he is you know he ran past our wonderful city manager she grabbed him the lady she's coming and um she got her dog so how wonderful is that well I gotta say there was a young person involved in that wasn't just me because the young person came up to me said hey have you seen a husky if I hadn't heard that I probably just would assume the dog you know was with someone else so it takes a village that's right our cameraman Travis he also that's right all about it you know they asked him about the dog too so hey we did something good today we saved the dog and he was injured he was really injured he was so I was so happy they were able to walk he was still walking on his hind hind parts of his leg but great so we want to thank you for tuning in to the straight talk for macho and we'll see you again