 Turn it back over to you in a second. Is there any further discussion with the consent agenda? Seeing no takers, we will go to a vote on the consent agenda. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? The consent agenda passes unanimously and without objection We are adjourned as a city council mayor presiding at 721. Thank you, mr. Mayor. My apologies We will now reconvene the regular city council meeting at 720 And it's a little early to go to public forum. We can't do consent agenda. So mr. Mayor Are you prepared to do the appointments now? Or would you prefer? No, I'm happy to just give me one so item number four point oh one is a communication from the mayor regarding mayoral appointments and So point of order can Councilor councillor Mason, what's your point of order? Just I'm not sure I think it's probably same thing I'm actually wondering even that it's on deliberative. Should we see voting on anything until it maybe go to a presentation City Attorney Blackwood should we wait on that to watch the public forum? Probably should yeah, okay. So let me move ahead to item 4.02 presentation Brad Siegel founder and president of Progressive Urban Management Associates Puma regarding global trends report Thank You president right Kelly divine for the Berlin business Association The presentation is about 20 minutes long. So if it's the pleasure of the council we can Start that interrupt it and then Well, let's let's start it. It's a still too early to set up So my name is Kelly divine. I'm the executive director of the Burlington Business Association as counselors may know We're operating in a partnership with the Department of Public Works Doing a series of parking improvements and also taking an in-depth look at the current state of our downtown improvement district which Involves public works because the funding is designated by charter to fund the two-hour free parking program and As part of the agreement that came before council last year Authority was given to create a downtown improvement district advisory committee That group is actively operating council roof is on it representing the council and we have through a competitive process procured Brad Siegel and his firm Puma to do an investigation and Come forward with some suggestions for next steps for the downtown improvement district It's been a pleasure working with Brad some of you from the council may remember our trip to Denver in 2010 Brad at that time was with the Denver partnership and ran that group in downtown Denver He's since gone out on his own into the consulting world and has worked with a long series of cities To help them solve and address these types of questions and problems Some of them include Boulder, Colorado. We visited there that they're actively working with Santa Monica, California Some of you may remember that their executive director came and met with some of us about a little over a year ago Berkeley, California over 75 different cities that they've worked with so Let me introduce Brad Siegel the principal of Puma great. Thank you and Are we struggling to find the presentation back there? All right anyway, council, thank you for Invited me here tonight I am going to talk about different trends that are shaping cities and how that's going to relate to our work in Berlin a couple revisions real quickly to the bio to I've been involved in downtown and community development work for about 30 years and for 25 years we've been consulting around the country working in a variety of cities our job in Burlington is to To look at the improvement districts that we have you're aware that Church Street and the downtown improvement district are both 30 and 20 years old Respectively and it's a worthwhile exercise from time to time or within 20 or 30 years to take a look and and see if We have the best tools for what's moving forward It doesn't look like we have the trends presentation so So I don't know if you're back up to public comment period You're still working on the there we go there we go Bingo All right, this is not a 20 minute presentation We also have a 10 minute version for you because that's what's on the agenda tonight So we're gonna obey the agenda walk you through this and then Would love to have comments and questions from council if we trigger it at the appropriate time So thank you next slide, please So what I'm gonna talk about is a body of work that our firm manages About different trends that are shaping cities and this body of work came from our work in our hometown in Denver Ten years ago We were the economists for a downtown plan looking at the next 20 years of our city and to project ahead We looked at ten different trends that are shaping cities actually all over the country next slide, please So this this this trends exercise it not only informed our work in Denver But we found that it also helped us in in cities all over the country And it has since become a bit of a cottage industry for us so we published these results and We'll make that Publication as well as these slides available to council and to anyone who's actually watching in the community tonight This slide simply shows that these trends have changed over time So the trends that we looked at ten years ago are not necessarily the trends we look at today next slide, please So that what we're looking at next slide, please we start with demographics and there are four generations That are really shaping cities and influencing how downtowns are growing We all know about baby boomers. I am a boomer myself. It looks like I don't have many of you sharing that Generational distinction. There are a couple of you there's several of you but boomers We can all be honest in the room boomers though our sheer numbers really shaped the country shaped our cities for For many many years for decades until the Great Recession and then of all these generations shaping cities We were hurt the hardest by this so a lot of us not only lost home values, but we also lost retirement savings Before that as the picture on the slide, that's how it was going to end for us boomers We are all going to be happy on a beach and love, you know somewhere But not so much and what's happening is we're aging in place and that's an opportunity for Burlington More and more boomers are staying in their cities. They're aging in place. They're predisposed to be in downtown markets next slide, please Gen X are those who are 35 to 50 And what I do see among council is what I'm seeing increasingly in cities is that more and more Gen X people are in leadership Positions are really taking the reins in different cities Are the next generation to lead us forward most Gen X now have families and this is where most the disposable income is in the economy So Gen X is increasingly important for downtown areas as well next slide, please Millennials I'm the father of two millennial kids Some of you may have kids who are in that 20 to 35 age range Every city in the United States right now including Burlington are competing for Millennials This is where the growth in the economy is this is the raw material that's powering the growth segments In the economy and we're lucky in Burlington because we have an endless engine of Millennial talent coming out of the universities and the community colleges that we have here We'll talk a little bit more about Millennials in a minute, but they are reshaping society the more optimistic tolerant and Multicultural than previous generations next slide, please The fourth generation this is our latest trend report Gen Z those who are 20 or younger and the big question is that a lot of us have a lot of Understanding of how important Millennials are in the economy, but what about Gen Z these younger people are they gonna continue a lot of the same Patterns and the answer is mostly yes Certainly the predisposition to being in downtown and living in urban situations is attractive for Gen Z as well There are some key differences I think these will have interesting impacts on Burlington one. They're less oriented to college So a lot of these younger kids have seen their older brothers and sisters move back home straddled with debt And they're not so incentivized to go to college But they're also highly entrepreneurial So cities need to remain entrepreneurial very friendly to small business and provide Environments where younger people want to be and where they want to thrive next So the second demographic trend that we looked at is education talent and jobs Whoa, hello Can can we stay in this slide just for a moment? I know we're strapped for time I appreciate the prodding The third bullet on the slide is probably the most important It just shows you why Millennials are so darn important and why cities are competing for them today They're 40% of the American workforce by 2020. They could be half of the workforce Some projections say they could be as much as three quarters of the workforce by 2025 This is as boomers start to exit the workforce So a lot of what follows in this presentation is how can Burlington? How can downtown in particular be that magnet that's attractive to this younger demographic that we need for the economy next slide, please? The third trend this is new this came out of our latest trend report And this is a huge opportunity for Burlington rise of the mid-tier city What's happening is a lot of younger people are moving to what are called superstar cities the Boston's the New York's arguably a place like my hometown Denver and After four or five years, they're they're getting fatigued with the experience in these cities The costs the hustle and the bustle and they're either moving back home Or they're looking for smaller communities to move to and they're attracted by a more reasonable cost to living They're attracted by by by having families in communities that offer high quality of life And also they're attractive at the opportunity to actually get involved in city building And and this is a key thing not only do we want younger people here But do we have pathways for them to get involved in in the city and in downtown? Revitalization in particular next slide, please the next set of trends we look at relate to lifestyles next slide, please and I will quickly go through these changing consumer behaviors is about retail and how retail is changing This is critical as you know to downtown and certainly Church Street, which has been a retail attraction for decades Retails in total disruption We know about the impact of Amazon. We know about how E-commerce is affecting retail, but the niche for cities the niche for downtown's remains local independent unique Concepts that can offer a different experience Certainly Burlington has a competitive edge with downtown and with Church Street next Shifts and how we get around transportation and mobility and the picture on the slide That's that could be my one of my kids one of my millennial kids wondering what that machine is behind him Millennials are shifting away from cars and in fact today 60% of 18 year olds nationally have drivers licenses. That's a low That's a 50 year low of young people actually having drivers license So younger people and remember that 20 to 35 age group and also the younger ones We we're competing to bring them to Burlington. These people are looking for different ways to get around town So whether it's bikes or it's walking or its rideshare their variety of alternatives That we should think about in in planning for and looking at the future of downtown in particular next please Housing and livability also a new trend in our latest trend report More and more downtown's like Burlington's are evolving They're they're not just business centers or retail centers anymore, but but they're becoming neighborhoods So I would argue that over the next five to ten years probably the most Immediate market driven play for Burlington is more housing in downtown And and this is something that is really supported by multiple generations wanting to be down here Not just the young but also the those boomers those people over 50 also attracted to downtown lifestyles next And then the last lifestyle trend we look at is is actually regionalism when we started our trends report ten years ago The US national debt everyone in here accounted for about twenty nine thousand dollars of debt Today everyone in the room accounts for more than sixty three thousand dollars in national debt And what that means is that the federal government is simply broke and that solutions to infrastructure Innovation Education solutions are going to be local and regional and that's really what the message is here those cities and those Regions that invest in themselves Are going to have More opportunity to be competitive moving forward And downtown actually becomes a voice in all of that working with the rest of the community to to advance regional investment Next slide last set of slides and I'll try to stay true to that ten-ish minute Guarantee competition next We're not only looking at trends the United States We're also looking at what's going on on the other side of the planet and how it affects us This slide looks at the world's three largest economies over a two hundred year period And what's fascinating to me is if you go back to 1850 and if you look ahead to 2050 It's the same players so China and India the largest players on the planet in terms of Economy next slide please So the consumption on the other side of the planet in places like China and India it impacts our lives in Burlington and what it means is that Prices for commodities that we rely on for growth and new development things like concrete steel petroleum Prices will continue to be high because of what's going on on the other side of the planet That means existing infrastructure makes sense to reinvest in existing infrastructure So downtown business districts become a competitive advantage Moving forward next slide please Ninth trend that we look at is what's next in technology It's actually these devices that we carry in our pocket the smartphones that have influenced the design of Buildings and cities most interestingly over the last ten years By 2020 there'll be nine billion mobile connections on the planet That means we do a better job getting Smartphone technology and people's pockets around the world that we do feeding people The way it's influenced design is office design is more about social space less about individual space We're seeing that in housing design. We also see that in a downtown area So the importance of a space like the park behind this building in terms of a community gathering space in a place That's inviting Becomes more and more important over time next one the last trend we've looked at it started as Sustainability when we were doing this ten years ago There's three pillars to sustainability economic environmental and social equity in these days We're really talking more and more in cities about the notion of social equity I know this is front and center in Burlington and particularly with this body and the message here is the city and the downtown Is it a place that provides opportunity for the full spectrum of the community? Are we providing opportunities not just for high-end housing, but are we providing affordable price points as well? Are we providing education opportunities for the full spectrum of folks in the community? So I sort of leave you with that thought on social equity the last slide Which is the next slide which doesn't have to be the last slide if you want to keep going but conclusions the conclusions of all this trend analysis and again We'll make the slides and we'll make the publication available to you There are 250 different sources that go into our trends exercise But the bottom line is this is that these trends are very favorable for vibrant downtowns for downtowns that have a sense of vitality and We summarize this into six big conclusions one the demographics are really in the favor of downtowns and urban areas So we're growing older boomers and younger millennials and Gen Z at the same time These generations are predisposed to being and and wanting to be in downtown areas Secondly increasingly connected in competitive world that that gets into what's going on the other side of the globe and if if we can Promote entrepreneurship if we can partner with institutions like the university and even the hospital to create jobs in downtown We've got a competitive advantage. I'd be an opportunity city That's what that third bullet is and really take advantage of this reverse migration from the big expensive cities to people who are looking to resettle into smaller more affordable cities global growth making investment in existing infrastructure more attractive Fifth innovation and investment more reliant on regions. Are we investing as a city in a region? Are we not relying so much on the federal government moving forward and then lastly planning for economic and cultural diversity? So the bottom line of this whole presentation is really never In our lifetimes have all these trends converged to support areas like downtown and like downtown Burlington and to tie this up in a in a tidy little bow back to what Kelly was talking about that relates back to our project looking at The best model of how we manage maintain and market downtown Burlington and how your existing improvement districts should best be configured Moving forward. So I know that's a lot to digest. So, thank you, Mr. Segal So we're gonna take a pause there and I we need to move back and we'll bring you back up Okay, if there are questions if you have anything further if there are questions So we'll take a pause on that item and move into back to the number two public forum So I'm gonna open the public forum tonight I only have two people signed up if anyone else wants to sign up the sheets are over here give them to the clerk's office They'll bring them up to me. So we'll open it up with Margaret Murray to be followed by Stephen Marshall and Ms. Murray, are you here? Okay, so let's switch Steve Marshall will go first and you have three minutes and you have a lights that will indicate that you're getting close through the Light will come on you have about a minute left and then red light means you leave wrap it up. Mr. Marshall welcome Thank you very much as everyone here. I think knows I'm an advocate for the homeless community and I one of my battles is to reduce stigma Against homeless people most homeless people are people who want to be members of the community in good standing It's just that they've had bad luck and they're homeless. I personally take this very seriously and Have been it for the last month or so cleaning the Sears Lane camp because I want The community to know that the homeless community will take care of itself. I Would like to ask the city council and the mayor To authorize city departments to help by picking up the trash in the future I'm hoping to recruit other homeless camps to do their cleanup. I've had a lot of receptivity to the idea I'm willing to provide plastic bags to them so that they can and If you could if I could count on the city to pick up that trash, it would be a big selling point for me Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Marshall This Murray is up next to be followed by Karen long Welcome Ms. Murray Margaret. How are you? That's your opinion That's your opinion Someone sent me the CEDO package on the housing and I have to tell you that I'm absolutely lost in all the alphabet Soups that get used Hutt is the one I'm most familiar with of course because that's simple But the amount of money that the city receives From all the different sources both at the state level and the federal level to me has become very troubling It is virtually impossible To find out exactly how much money is being spent on What? Now CEDO deals with a good number of programs But one of their primary things for money happens to be Housing And while I know there's a whole lot of people who have a lot of trouble with housing in a city that's had rents go up 35% in the last two decades I also know that homeowners have had Property taxes go up 39% in the same time frame So all the rotten landlords aren't the only problem in Burlington The main thing that concerns me though is every time I see all the programs That are being activated by all the nonprofits. I See a lot of stuff about tax exempt and tax credits and the amount of money That is not being paid in taxes by people who could easily afford to pay it is very troubling I Always remember when the mall owner first came to town he said That 42% of the cost of the mall would eventually be paid for with tax credits I'm only now really starting to understand How that happens on a daily basis because of the amount of tax credits. I Recently spoke. Oh, excuse me. It was back in February At a public hearing for a three million dollar rental car turnaround at the airport Unfortunately, I was the only person at the hearing from the public But I just got a draft of the minutes from that meeting on May 17th In the letter I was advised along with the copy of the minutes that the city had of course already taken action and Decided to go ahead with the project. I think a three month delay in minutes Maybe not criminal, but it's getting there. That's not letting the public know what's happening And that's what's been happening. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Murray Karen long is our final speaker in public forum tonight Good evening miss long welcome So I had an opportunity to meet with Brad Segal if that's his name earlier and I hope you will take more time to look through the slides more carefully But I do not want to miss an opportunity here with a lot of changes that are going on I think that spending three million dollars on City Hall Park I know a lot of people have spoken about it But the fact that we are going to like wipe out what's there and start over is super wasteful The amount of trees to go is really wasteful and then the 22 million on the streets when they really are going to look the Same we're going to keep parking and actually add parking on both sides of the street some places don't have parking on both sides The slideshow that we are trying to get away from cars making it more Pedestrian-friendly this new new age of people growing up and I just I can't see why we would ever spend that kind of money on those streets And not make it more Pedestrian-friendly and bicycle-friendly. It's we will have parking garages Last two weeks ago a DPW person spoke about that. We are under utilizing our parking garages So that's just we need to think about that. We've invested money in them and Streets are really for moving people not parking cars. So I really hope that that can get looked at again I also want to echo the thing about kids moving out my children are 31 35 and 38 and two of them have moved away went to New York City went to Portland, Oregon Of their friends most of them have also moved. I Would love to keep them back. I kept him in Vermont for four years They all each one of them went to Middlebury College So they were around after high school, but then they fled and we have to make it nice here and really Families when you think about what's happening to our schools. I don't think we're investing in them I don't know what's happened to the idea of the high school Sounds to me like they're talking about putting in a preschool building and not dealing with the high school. So Families will not stay here. I mean it just seems like we're spending a lot of money and to me it's really frivolous the park my opinion and then Just to make the streets be the same and not change not take some opportunity and Look forward and try to keep people here Anyway, thank you Thank You as long that Concludes tonight's public forum. So I'll close out the public forum And we will move back to item number 4.02 so mr. Segal if you'd want to come back up with BB a director Kelly divine and If you have a any other thoughts you want to share with us at the end of your presentation Before going to questions from the council You have the floor Well, I know council has got a jam-packed agenda as usual So we do have some more thoughts on the slides, but I think at this point We would simply defer to your questions related either to the presentation or our work currently in downtown probably be the best use of Limited time. All right, great. Thank you questions from the council's counsel butcher So I just want to thank Kelly divine and the group that brought you back here to Look at us and then to give what I thought was insightful and useful information For me not only as a city counselor, but as a resident and actually I'm still working even though I am a baby boomer and you described me absolutely correctly that I have to work because Of the recession and all of the impacts financial impact so But it will help me in my job Also, I think you gave enough insight into the different generations to better understand and better relate to people All of this information is out there But for me to pluck it and bring it together as you did would have taken a tremendous amount of time and It also I think the mayor if he pays it if he listens to me will understand that I Did not support the downtown development for a number of reasons. I've supported some of it I did not agree with the the massing or height but The activities within it seemed appropriate to some degree some disappointments and with your report I Am a little more hopeful about how this will there will be some positive to this structure especially with with how you Discuss the needs of these small downtowns like we are So, you know, I'm I want to be wrong about what I think about the downtown development But I don't know if I will be ultimately But this offered me some greater insight as to the value of doing it that way and development that way, so I Really don't have questions for you Except that I look forward to I did download what was in the packet But if there's more information I'd very much appreciate that that there is there's a Full-trends report and we'll make sure that that's available to you all so there's the slides and then a more thorough report that Where you could take the time and really understand? How these different forces are shaping downtown and I do think this is a lot of common information but we have packaged it purposely to Relate to cities and so that leaders of cities can can have be better informed about decisions particularly about downtown Can I ask one other question certainly so Kelly? Can you just tell me what what your group plans to do with this information? So Brad is in his team is real is really primarily focused on looking at the current Models that exist for the business improvement district. That's the one that helps underwrite the cost of to our free parking as well as the church Street Marketplace and They've been tasks specifically through a council memo to come up with a report an Assessment and as well as look at sort of what might be next for those entities and organizations And what might be next would cover really two main things one the scope of services they could deliver as well as three proposed governance models with a preferred one so We wanted to bring Brad before you to give you an opportunity to see this global trends information also to introduce you to Brad and his group and Our next step will be his primary goal Which will be a recommendation delivered to the city and to the council specifically about what we should maybe consider doing next with our Downtown improvement district, which is the larger one that covers The the boundaries are actually South Manuski Street Pearl the waterfront Main Street And then there's a little leg that goes down battery to where the Denzi nap Mechanical offices are in Truex Collins So he'll be coming back with a report with some recommendations for where he thinks we should take those types of organizations Next and how the city could benefit from a more robust and active business improvement district for the downtown Thank you. Thank you. Councillor busher. We got Councillor roof then Dean Tracy Paul and Hartnett Thank You President right. Thank You Brad Kelly the the presentation was insightful and I think that it's an important conversation I know that you've been doing a good job as well and reaching out and engaging with Berlin Tonians and stakeholders For your work. There's a survey as I understand Could you maybe share a little bit about that survey and and how it's still open that in that in that work? Thanks. Yes, Councilman. Thank you so much for for bringing that up We we've been talking to a lot of different Burlington stakeholders about priorities where people would like to see improvements in downtown and Through our three visits now to town we have probably met with a hundred and fifty different downtown Stakeholders, but we also have a survey that is up online in a moment Kelly is gonna tell the world where that survey is It's for anyone in the region to really tell us what their priorities are As of today, we have a little more than 500 responses to the online survey We would like to double that by our deadline, which is June 15 Yeah, so our working group on the downtown improvement district is the BBA the church Street Marketplace CEDO and DPW so we've got that Survey linked in on websites for all of those organizations And we have been working to push it out actually just this weekend Jillian net and helped us get it out on front porch forum and in the neighborhood buzz Ron and I have been sharing it with our constituencies We've been doing some social media push on it But if any we can provide the link if any counselor wants to share it with their constituencies We've actually talked to Joe Spidale about UVM. We've been sharing with downtown employers So the main place it's located is the websites for those four organizations, but I'm happy to share a link It's relatively short. We tried to keep it. I think under 15 questions And we'd like to get we're hoping to get over a thousand responses So it'd be great to have as many voices in that In that survey as we possibly can so we'll we'll send that to council as well Great. Can we maybe throw one or two web addresses out there for so Burlington Business Association go ahead, Adam I was gonna say I could push it out on my Facebook page right now So anyone here or at home can just go to that page and and find it But maybe the URL would be helpful So I think the URL is probably more complicated than just the BBA Yeah, so the URLs are you have to go into the page and then I don't know the URL off the top of my head But I can certainly Get that before the end of the meeting All right, it's been on our it's on been on the BBA Facebook page the BBA website park Burlington All right, thank you councillor roof councillor Dean Thank you president right. I have two quick questions. Thank you for mr. Seal for a really fantastic presentation a Insightful and very in a very compact way. There was a lot there So I one short question. We're already at generation Z. We're at the end of the alphabet. What do we do next? You know, that's a great question. I I don't double a I don't know The other more serious question is around other communities or Smaller mid-tier seated cities that you mentioned. Are there benchmark cities in the United States that we should be looking at? Either as examples of success or examples or cautionary examples of cities that have not Move forward with initiatives like this. I think that's a really good question and I think overall In a case like Burlington where downtown is relatively healthy where I I happened to get here yesterday So I got my two hours of summer Yesterday and downtown was great. I mean people were down here. The jazz festival was in vogue people were enjoying themselves And and on the surface, it's a wonderful vital downtown and for any of you who are involved in the church street make over 3035 years ago. You were visionaries your visionaries on a national scale however all assets need to be continually maintained and marketed and polished and and to the To a trained eye like mine. I start looking at all the details. I start looking at the bricks I start looking at the how the grass is kept in the parks and I start looking at the the trees and all these different things and And I do think that Burlington is probably due for some polish to To really help make sure that the downtown asset is as strong as it can be So that's sort of a long intro to say that I do think there's some cautionary tales from other communities across the country that that maybe grew somewhat complacent With their downtown revitalization one that I've worked in That I'll throw out there just because it has a pedestrian mall and it may be comparable It's also very progressive community But Santa Monica California Which would initially did a similar thing that you did with church Street and in the 80s and then up until the about 2000 was had fantastic results, but then they Started to get complacent The infrastructure went into disrepair It did and people started to leave the downtown now in about 2008 They went through a process similar to what we're doing here. They reinvented their downtown management structure And they have since come back, but my caution is this is if we want to be at an A grade and We're at a B grade. We're good, but we're not great We need to be very careful that we don't slip to a C or a D because the cost of Improving from a C or a D to an A is exponentially more than going from a B to an A and I guess and and I don't want necessarily Get myself in trouble, but I would say Burlington is sort of in that B range right now It's a good downtown that people are enjoying themselves down here, but it's showing signs of age and showing the need for some new energy And some polish to really make it that a downtown the last thing I'll say is is you are competing with with every other Experience not only cities now, but you're you're competing with online and you're competing with all sorts of different things So the competitive pressures are may be more intense Then they've been since since you remade Church Street 30 35 years ago Thank you. Thank you. Councilor Dean Councilor Tracy then Councilor Paul and Harnett Thank you for the presentation certainly appreciate it One of the things that we're going to be hearing about a little bit later this evening is our housing action plan and talking about how We're choosing to use some of our community development block grant resources as a city Unfortunately, those resources have continued to decline at the federal level and subsidy for housing similarly So such that we find ourselves in a very challenging position much like many other communities around the country And so what I'm wondering is if through your work you found ways to Are different models that other cities are using to address that funding issue because that's really seemingly a huge barrier to affordable housing generation and maintenance within cities and What specifically those models are that we might be able to look at such that we'd be able to really see a greater development of affordable housing Across the spectrum not just sort of at a certain at a one point of median income But sort of across that economic spectrum Yeah, let me I In a can follow up with you after this because there's there's a lot of information a lot of cities are responding But but where I've learned most about affordable housing is in my hometown is in Denver Denver is now the most expensive non-coastal housing market in the United States We're playing catch up and we waited too late But what we have done is we're creating a number of different funding sources Denver has created a dedicated fund locally to support affordable housing. So our city leadership has has approved a Millevi increase on property tax that's devoted to affordable housing We have created very modest linkage fees on new development To go into the pool for affordable housing I've been involved with It's maybe telling you too much but I've been involved with an activist group in Denver that has been pushing our city actually to do more and We're now gonna double we're gonna double the dedicated fund We initially had found 15 million dollars a year and now we're gonna double up to 30 Through general fund and through a funding source that I don't believe is tangible here We're actually gonna increase our marijuana tax By 2% which is gonna create another eight million dollars a year We're gonna bond the property tax to create a hundred and five million dollar infusion There are great models nationally land trusts extremely effective on a neighborhood level accessory dwelling units Are a great way these are mother-in-law units They're called somewhere where you can you can build a unit maybe in your garage or by an alley if you've got an alley network There's a whole variety of Options but but cities particularly in the West Coast Expensive markets like Denver are all over this coming up with locally based solutions because we waited too long and Perhaps Burlington can benefit from our knowledge Before your market here starts to to get too pricey and too inflated So I would just end by saying there's a lot of hope for local and regional action and creating Locally based sources for housing. Thank you very much. Thank you counselor Tracy counselor Paul and then counselor Hartnett Thank You president right So again, thank you as well from for me for being here. I I did read the report I'd love to be able to get a copy of all the things that you have up there It's a little too quick to absorb even though I had read the report. It was still a lot to absorb And it was a group of very courageous a very small actually band of people that You know 30 40 years ago who created what we have down here. They they were it was it was I think a It was pretty brave what they did There were a lot of people who were not in favor of it and look at what we have now that being said It has been a long time you all you have to do is walk down on the you know walk down Church Street And you can see that there's there is this repair It's a precious asset like many of our assets that we have But it is one that I know Ron Redmond has said many times. We cannot rest on what we did 40 years ago We have to keep on improving it. So my question is About the the slide that you had about the mid-tier city And whether or not Burlington can be a mid-tier city And there's there were just a couple of things that you had on there that I just didn't understand What you mean by strategies to become an 18-hour city? And then when you talk about being engaged in city building Meaning city building what that means and then the only other question I had was I'm just curious to know when it comes to the Generation Z which are people that are under the age of 20 I'm How do you know? What they are thinking if we're talking about eight and nine and ten year olds Let me start with that and I'll go up your list That you said, you know the Gen Z Psychographics is what we're extracting is we're extracting research that people who know more about this stuff than we do are doing and This is research primarily on teenagers and those who are a little little Little older so how it'll pan out when they become full-fledged adults, you know, there's always a little bit of Of art and and not so much science when you're looking at a group like that however, there is real hard evidence on this This notion that it's gonna be more difficult for conventional four-year universities to recruit and maybe one example is You can go to coding school now You can go to computer coding school for eight weeks and you can come out of there and you can be eligible for 60 70 $80,000 a year job and And whether it's tech or some of these newer industries the four-year degree just doesn't have the same power as some of these Others also these younger people they're growing up with technology in the crib. I mean for boomers for those of us over 50 Computers came at work and they were not part of leisure, you know, they're they're a different thing For for people under 20. They're wired essentially from day one. So that that that makes them extremely versatile and tech savvy and entrepreneurial moving forward. So to answer your question about Gen Z. It's really There's art and their science and we're extracting Psychographics from those who know best to get a good sense of what could be ahead for them. There is some guesswork 18-hour cities in terms of Second-tier cities if we want to appeal to people who have either moved out of Burlington Or maybe they're in a large expensive city and looking for options They're gonna move to Burlington and they're gonna be seeking some of the same amenities that they enjoyed in the Boston The New York or the Denver or whatever and that doesn't mean we we're gonna become a place like that But do we have Do we have a music scene? Do we have? Cultural amenities do we have entertainment options for them? So when we talk about an 18-hour city It's it's instead of shutting down at six or seven You know, do we stay open till 10 or 11 and do we have some of those options? Fortunately downtown Burlington is pretty lively and I think there are many of those options So the 18-hour city is just a way to measure the vitality of the smaller city and then lastly city building Really important and I think this is important Not only for elected officials, but for for Kelly at the BBA and Ron at Church Street Younger people particularly the 20 to 35 age range They really are looking for meaningful civic involvement and you're seeing this nationally. This is nationally There's an awakening now not only people 20 to 35, but now an awakening people who are younger and Meaningful city meaningful avenues of involvement is not just about politics. It's about Influencing where we live and making our city a better place So are there avenues that we can get younger people involved to help make things happen downtown? For example, I met I did meet with the livable cities group today and I asked them about a playground Is there a downtown playground and they said no, you know Is that a civic project that we could get a group of younger volunteers who would use a playground, you know younger mothers and fathers? Organized to help make something like that happen Are there different volunteer activities different special events a variety of ways to plug people in? So the city building refers to do we have ways to get younger people involved in civic affairs? But in a meaningful way, we did they just don't want to go to a committee meeting and be talked at They want to roll up their sleeves and they want to be involved in helping you you all change your city Thank you that that's fascinating and very important. We could go on forever But I'll I'll close at that. Thank you. Thank you. Councilor Powell Councilor Hartnett will have the final question. I just kind of want to shift gears You say you go across the country and you work with different cities and in towns on on their downtown and market places And are you familiar on how we are governed here in Burlington? How how it all kind of works? I have become educated. You are unique, right? And that's the question. I'm asking in your judgment and Your experience You know given you the way we do things here in Burlington Is it the best practices and are there better practices that we could be doing to be more successful? And in the downtown and Church Street Market area what your your last question is kind of a tough one It's kind of a loaded question. So I'll just be honest. I'll be giving an honest answer I I think you do things well here. I think they're adequate They are not considered best practice from a national scale and What I'm talking about is how we do the the maintenance the management the capital reinvestment the polishing of downtown You are unique in having a city department Managed Church Street. That's a very unique model You are unique to have a downtown improvement district that is by charter Restricted to subsidizing parking with the ability to do nothing else So We are looking at best practices from other other cities and and we're not looking at big cities We're looking at cities your size. We're looking at college towns. We're looking at cities with pedestrian malls We are hoping to bring back some best practices We're also hoping to give you some options that that if are there some ways that we can adjust our current districts to do better or is there an option through charter change through voter approval to actually look at Revisiting how we do all this stuff and and we'll come back with a continuum from sort of minor adjustments on one end to Really bringing this up to to a 2018 Business plan not a 1982 or a 1999 business plan Thanks off the top of your head, you know about around the country how many are kind of governed the way we are By any chance handful Okay, handful. There are thousand improvement districts across the United States And there may be a handful that are governed like Burlington Great. Thanks. Thank you Councillor Hartnett. So thank you. Mr. Siegel and Kelly divine from BBA We appreciate that great presentation and So we'll get the Presentation as well as a copy of Brad's report to the member of members of council as well as the link for the survey Thank you very much. Thank you for your time. Thank you. Appreciate that pause Right, so with that we will move back Apologize to the council for bouncing around on the agenda a little bit tonight We'll move to the consent agenda and a motion from councillor busher Yes, I'd like to move to adopt the consent agenda as amended and take the actions indicated Consent agenda is moved by councillor busher seconded by councillor roof Any discussion by the city council? Hearing none all those in favor of taking Approving the consent agenda and taking the actions indicated please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Thank you. We have passed the consent agenda unanimously and now we will move back to Item number four four point oh one a communication from the mayor on mayoral appointments. Mr. Mayor Thank You president right. I am excited to come forward per our charter and traditions to submit to you the council tonight for appointment and reappointment a substantial list of department heads and select other positions to lead our city for the next year President rights request I'm just going to quickly Read into the record each of the Appointments that we are pursuing tonight. This is also captured of course in the memo that I sent to you and here here are the the Individuals that I'm putting forward many of them are here with us in the room We have Eileen Blackwood who? I'm Asking to return to city attorney in her office for assistant city attorney and assistant grandeur is Richard Hasseller Hasseller junior Kimmel you stirred event will be the assistant city attorney and assistant grandeur Justin st. James for assistant city attorney and city constable Anthea Dexter Cooper for assistant city attorney and city grandeur and Gordon Gilbert for second constable Doreen Kraft is being appointed again to the be the brolin than city arts executive director Steven Locke is both in fire department chief and emergency management civil defense director Brandon del pozo is a brilliant in police department chief Ron Redmond as the Executive director of the church stream marketplace Jean Richards the brolin international airport aviation director Mary Danko Fletcher free library Director Chapin Spencer Department of Public Works director norm Norma Baldwin city engineer and surveyor Beth Anderson chief administrative officer Cindy white parks recreation and waterfront director as well as cemetery commissioner and Aaron Moreau as harbour master The we are also asking for a two-year appointment for John vickery as the city assessor and I've also put before you two interim appointments Brian low for the chief innovation officer and Neil Lunderville as the director of the community economic development office Susan Leonard is serving in the middle of her to your term Also, because sometimes this creates confusion. I will mention that There are two people that are Action is not needed on tonight, but they are on the memo Bill Ward is our code enforcement director and that is an annual appointment, but not one confirmed by the city council and David white is the planning and zoning director and that appointment is Made every three years by the planning commission there will be Vacancy In the general manager position and as well as in one of the assistant city attorney positions that we'll be back to you Hopefully in the months to come, but that is the List that is before you for action tonight Maybe I could ask them all to rise for a moment and just say a couple more words about them as a group From my perspective this is an incredibly committed group of department heads and Officials they are hardworking. They are very talented. They are outstanding collaborators and communicators. I Am very proud of this group and very grateful for their partnership in the day-to-day management of the city and I believe the people Burlington value them a great deal as well and It is certainly my hope that they will earn your strong support tonight president right Thank You mr. Mayor. I appreciate that and with that I'm going to recognize councillor Paul for a motion Thank You mr. President. I'd like to make a motion with pleasure to confirm the FY 19 mayoral appointments and That is seconded by councillor Shannon and that can all be done in one motion despite that summer one That's all good to go in one motion, right? All right perfect. Thank you. Is there any discussion? Hearing none All those in favor of approving the slate of mayoral appointments as proposed, please say aye. Hi any opposed Congratulations, and we we appreciate all your good work and keeping the city running smoothly and efficiently and also putting up with the Questions that we all Lisa give you going forward. So thank you very much That concludes the mayoral appointments item 4.02 we'll move to item 4.03 Which is a presentation from? Marcy Esberg the assistant director of CEDA regarding a five-year consolidated plan for housing and community development action plan Assistant director Esberg welcome Good evening, and I Will need some assistance over Getting my presentation up, but I'll start it They're working on your boat. Is someone assisting to get that going I'll start talking and we'll catch up All right, so this evening your next slide so just to Brief those who have not heard this before CDBG community development block grant is Was started in 1974 From with the housing and community development act Burlington is one of 1200 communities around the country that gets a direct allocation we are the only direct recipient in Vermont and The main goals of the community development block grant is to provide a decent safe and affordable housing Expand economic opportunities and to provide for suitable living environment And when we go through the needs assessment what we do is rank those in order of priority for our city And those are the order of priority for our city based on our needs there are three national objectives for CDBG and 99.9 percent of the time the objective that we fulfill here are activities that benefit low and moderate income persons and Whenever we talk about low and moderate income persons or LMI We're talking about people who earn 80 percent or less of the area median income next slide so this is part of a process and I'd like to Just talk about the roles of different groups and people CEDO is the would be considered the lead applicant. We're the ones who administer The community development block grant. We've formulated the five-year consolidated plan and the action plans and and We coordinate an RFP process. We also coordinate with our sub recipients once we Grant out the money. We deliver some CDBG projects actually in-house. There's some projects that we actually do ourselves We report to HUD and and we report also to the mayor and obviously to city council As we get into the action plan in a few slides I'm very proud to say that this is another area where Burlington is unique That we do have a citizen advisory board that reviews all of our applications and makes the funding decisions and brings it to you for for your approval and I am Affiliated with a national community development group and I speak often on our process and we are very unique and When you talk about People that want to get involved and roll up their sleeves. This is just a really great opportunity for them to do so so citizen advisory board The mayor is our certifying official for our HUD programs and he also reviews the committee's recommendations and forwards them to you and Your job is to vote or change the recommendations and send those in the form of a Resolution and an action plan to to HUD when we ask for different agencies to submit Programs or projects for selections. Basically, we do our rating on federal regulations but also on the needs of the community and They have to meet those goals and the national objectives and they have to be able to actually Report on the beneficiaries. So they can't just say we're doing good work and in HUD's world If it's not written down, it didn't happen. So they have to report on I always say that CDBG and HUD funding comes with the Heavy strings attached to it So what you have before you today is the consolidated plan It has the following sections It has starts with the needs assessment then goes on with a market analysis for housing economic development and also non Housing at community development then that information is Simulated into a strategic plan and then a one-year action plan if you're a visual person look at an upside down Triangle it starts off very broad coming down to a point of the actual items of how we're going to spend the money that we Get. So what I did through the plan and what I'd like to do for you tonight is really just hit on some highlights a lot of information 189 pages Wondering who's gonna say they read the whole plan probably none of you But so I'm just gonna highlight it and through the needs assessment check Councillor Busher did I was counting on you So as we go through Needs assessment what I often did was compared it to five years ago because I think it's really interesting to see our trends And to see what's going on. So as you could see Our population has gone up the number of households has gone up the median income has gone up and The amount the number of low and moderate income households has gone down Those are all good things we went up where we should go up and we went down where we should go down Some other interesting facts if you could go back to that slide one more time Interesting there has been a 7% increase in the number of households at less than 50% of the median income 50% increase in the number of large families that we have here and that is most likely due to the number of refugee families and A 33% increase in the number of households with at least one person over the age of 62 Which just emphasizes that our population is aging next slide Interesting slide I actually put together this side for a CEDO exercise And I said if you just had this information at all this the only information but I said based on this information, how would you allocate money and You could see that our biggest population that's that has low moderate income persons is children under six which is Shows that our investment into early childhood initiatives and things like that really match the need there Next slide in the Mar analysis well before we get to the market analysis we look at housing problems and we're looking at Substandard housing overcrowded cost burden and severely cost burden and those two definitions are Cost burden people spending more than 30% of their income on housing and severely cost burden people spending over 50% of their money on housing and it's important to see look at our ratio of renters and owners there we have Significially it's about 6040 in our ratio the number of renters to owners here So here's some key findings under housing problems really we're not looking at a big issue with Housing it increased a little bit, but it's still not significant The issue here in Burlington is cost burden. How how much people spend on housing? I know it's a no-dub, but it needs to be emphasized over and over again, so they're the amount of households that are Cost burden by 50% or more that's increased and and the most severely cost burden are those renters that earned the less and those are at 30% of the Area meeting income. They're the ones that are most severely cost burden Number well elderly renter and owner households have increased their cost burden has increased and And cost burden ratio between owners and rent renters is one to five, so there's more cost burden among renters than there are owners and so in the next slide we There's a big section in the plan that talks about Disproportionate housing needs and and we talked about this also when when I came and brought you the assessment of fair housing Because not only do we look at cost burden, but then we also look at it is are there Ethnic or racial groups that are experiencing more housing cost burden than the population as a whole or the white population and And we have gone to so those are those are populations that experience more than 10% of what is the the average and so So in the next two slides is are the different groups that do experience a Disproportionate housing need in cost burden here black African-American households and in 30 to 50 percent and 50 to 80 and 80 to 100 experience and American Indian and Alaskan 50 to 80 next slide In severe cost burden and getting 50% or more Asian households in every aspect of that and then what I did was I also added this is a slide that that a map that we had with the assessment of fair housing and so you also see that You see where people of different ethnicities and races settle so you not only see housing cost burden, but what appears to be somewhat of a segregated Flow of housing of where people are settling In the market analysis when we start looking at housing, you know, we're looking at how much house how much housing costs How old it is and how available it is. So let's look at just a few of those things we're looking at 62% our multifamily units and 6040 split and the greatest need is for those earning 30% of the median income the average annual increase for rent in Chinden County is 3% and that's that's down from 2013 and that chart is the chart that we usually keep a record of for housing vacancy and what you can see is that the housing vacancy in Chinden County is getting better 4% is the norm and we're coming close to that Condition of housing our housing stock is older. That was quick, right? And and and so one of the things like if you could go back to that one our housing stock is older and One of the things is that it's important to help low-income homeowners to make repairs allowing them to stay and retain their housing and also helping make homes accessible for low-income tenants and homeowners and Reducing lead houses. So those are three things that we could be involved in and spending our money economic development Section is after the housing and we'll go to the next slide Burlington holds 26% of Chinden County's workforce. We have a very educated workforce with 51% attaining a bachelor's degree and Chapin should hold his years, but 53% of Burlington's workers drive to work alone so the biggest Area is education and health care comprising 40 40% share of jobs so in the last section we go right into the strategic plan and What we've done in the Did we miss a couple of slides? Keep going Go back a couple more. There should be one. That's a strategic plan. Oh You want me to go to the left side? Oh There should be There should be four other slides Okay So anyhow, so let me go through them the strategic plan lists our goals And what we've done was we've incorporated our goals from the assessment of fair housing and added in Goals that were not in the assessment of fair housing to make it more comprehensive and then In the action plan we have the proposed activities Which I'm sorry that you don't have here And I do want to mention the proposed activities the action plan proposed activities There are actually two changes that The committee did not know about until after they happened so I wanted to bring those to your attention and And they were as a result of the latest information from HUD so the first one under our proposed activities was the The group had offered To give a grant to resource for their youth build program And we actually had a finding from HUD and they would not allow us to fund them anymore Through the this activity this manner, so we could not give them the money Unless we wanted to pay the money back, which is what they were talking about So we repurposed that money to some of the other programs Fully funding all the other programs that asked for funding and also Reserving some money for CEDO to do direct service work to low-income homeowners and then under our Under our public service activities, which you all know to be the most competitive We in both cases we had gotten a little bit of extra money from HUD And so we had a little over ten thousand dollars extra there and so What we proposed is to fund resource as a job training program in a public service activity, which is what HUD had told us it had to be so even though they're not getting as much money as they had hoped They are getting some money and that they're very grateful for so that is the change From the committee's recommendation We also have in there how we're going to spend home funding We got about five hundred thousand dollars in home money. And as I said, this is our timeline and I Do not expect that when we come back on June 25th. That's usually on consent So this would be the time to really ask any questions and make any changes All right. Thank you assistant director Asper Questions now and then we have a public the next item is the public hearing counselor Shannon Thank you, I just wanted to note that the slides that you were missing here. We do have the slides. Okay. Good. Thank you. Yes and I had a question about the Homeownership versus renters you said 60% of Burlington residents are renters 40% are homeowners and that the most I Don't want to say taxed because that's not the road the most Burdened cost burdened are the renters which is Inevitably true because as you point out rents go up 3% a year as Law that we have so many families living in Burlington that are in this very Unstable situation if they could buy a home that stabilizes their rent It stops going up 3% a year. It could possibly go down Even the taxes are income sensitized And it's a far more stable situation to be in and that's something that I don't really see in our plan is An Effort to increase homeownership in Burlington and I wonder if that's something that can be considered if it has been considered and You've decided not to do that for some reason and if that's something that you think we should consider in the future So I actually brought that out from the assessment of fair housing And that is one of the goals in the assessment of fair housing and we have brought it into this To as a goal to increase homeownership opportunities So we do partner with Burlington Housing Authority and Champlain Housing Trust We don't put money to it, but we do support their homeownership programs, but I think that CETA will also be looking at the next within the next year a better analysis of what can be done to increase Homeownership among low-income families because the benefits are more than even income. It's it's their opportunity for wealth wealth building Children who are in stable housing environments are better Do better in school perform better? It really it's it's one of those benefits that it's very long-lasting So it is something that we're looking at and does it is something that we want to put into the plan So where you have strategies and it says support fair housing. That's that's the bucket in which Homeownership is it's actually housing resources for LMI residents and homeowners. So The number three one would be under the strategic plan. That's where we would be looking at resources to increase homeownership and what There there do we have we do we have something doing that now? So again Burlington Housing Authority has a section eight home ownership program Champlain has has a whole motion program We've done Home ownership programs in the past we've done Helping people to fund duplexes. We haven't done it recently But I think what we want to do is have a overall strategy and look at What areas we want to increase homeownership? Also, I go back to the assessment of fair housing where we looked at by Ward or census tract the number of homeowners versus renters and there were some Districts that were really out of balance and again It it could create much more of a stable neighborhood environment to do that as well So I think it having a more comprehensive look at areas that we want to go into and how we would do that it would be something that we'd want to look at more comprehensively and Do you plan to do that in the coming year? Yes, it's in our work plan for this coming year. Great. Thank you Thank You councillor Shannon councillor busher and then councillor pine Yes, thank you first of all Marcy I want to Thank you for Putting this together. I think this is a tremendous amount of work and I think you do an excellent job of the 180-some-odd page and then distilling it down to a manageable kind of overview for the council and for others And including the memo. So This is no small task and I want to acknowledge all the work that goes into it behind the scenes. So, thank you very much The question I had Has to do with your memo dated May 29th and I wanted and you say the proposed allocation of CDBG home and lead hazard reduction funds Is projected to among other things and you've got a bunch of bullets And so one of them was provide emergency or accessible repairs to five low-income Owner-occupied residents What amount of what are we talking about here? Are we talking very is it is it under what's that under? What category could I find that under that is? That would be under the same category that I just shared the Resources housing resources to low and moderate income housing residents and that is one of the programs We do internally at CEDO. So we actually have a project specialist that Works with low-income Homeowners and helps to assess their emergency needs and how we could help them and we oftentimes leverage resources with other programs for example, we work with Vermont Center of Independent Living and recently we've added made accessible bathrooms in units or an accessible driveway or an insensible route so that people could again stay Housed we're doing a lot of work in the North Avenue co-op and plan probably in this coming year to do a Whole grouping of furnace repair or furnace replacements there. So so it so that's what I wondered I had a laundry list of things that the senior center in the community I grew up in in Massachusetts offered and I'm gonna talk to the mayor When I have time I've got a laundry list for the mayor about things that I think we should explore so anyway So I the mayor is excited I can tell anyways But the second bullet was provides screening and matching services to a hundred persons who need support To age at home. Is that just through home share or is that a combination of? Activities because there are things that together that one is not that is just through home share that is just home share and then the last thing is Delivered to 700 homeless residents it goes on who experienced domestic violence emergency you deliver emergency shelter and case management and housing placement services and Provide 90 Chronically homeless individuals with housing first support services to move into permanent housing. Is that what you hope to accomplish in one year? No, it would be both of those the first one is with Steps 10 domestic violence and the second one is with pathways Vermont And they are both are awarded a two-year grant So this is what you hope to accomplish in two years, right? Okay. Thank you very much appreciate it Thank You councillor busher, and I'm just going to say for the mayor that I'm excited that the mayor gets to hear that laundry list the mayor Councillor pine and then council hardening it. Thank you the I think the obviously the work that you all do is is key to holding this community together without a Decent home and a decent job really we don't have much of a hope for folks to To have a decent life and for kids to grow up in a strong family and I would say that many of the things that are in here around Stabilizing housing and helping people retain their housing and providing accessibility funding Allow people to hold on to what they have and I'm afraid many people have a tenuous grasp or grip on that home And so while councillor Shannon was asking about new homeowners, which is incredibly important That's extremely difficult to crack that nut but to retain the homeowners. We have I think it's critical And I really appreciate the efforts you're placing on that as councillor Tracy said the resources available to cities Shrink and continue to shrink and the need grows and so This past March the voters made a pretty clear statement that they'd like to see more support for Affordable housing through the housing trust funds. So I'm hopeful that we'll Be looking at something in the near future as a whole council with CEDO to really identify where to place additional resources At the highest priority levels, so thanks. Thank you Thank You councillor pine councillor Hartnett. Thanks Marcia when you and I have talked about a lot of these issues over over the years and It's amazing the work that we do and I think one of the questions I had then I still have I mean How do people realize that these resources are there for them? Like how do we get the word out to the seniors that might need to help? With home projects and how does how does that all work? And so and I wonder if if if it's being utilized It tooks maximum and our people really are we really taking advantage of it? So that would be my first question there and and then I did have Another question on You know housing and I know affordability is the visit Biggest obstacle no question of the for ability But whether whether our obstacles do we have here in Brointen are that are kind of preventing us from you know Getting that number up there where people could be homeowners What do you think the biggest obstacles there are besides the actual cost of housing? well, you know, so you're either going to have a better job to afford a house or the house is going to be less expensive and So so that comes to affordability one way or the other and then the other thing that I would say is having housing that people want And and that means that it really has to be varied and you know I only heard some of the presentation, but I know that I've done some work with the Urban Land Institute and so So we live in the New North End. We have a small 850 square foot Ranch house which is fine for my husband and I There are young people that are happy to have Like a townhouse, but they want a little green behind them, you know, so so they don't want a tall story They want like a house that you know They're fine with the size, but they want to make sure they have a little yard So I think that the best thing that we could do is make sure that we have a variety of housing to meet different needs In different locations right and then just just to touch on you know Some of the great things that we do and some of the that we reach out to you know, keeping people in their homes, you know, whether it's Ramps for people in wheelchairs or whether it's fixing their bathrooms and kind of can you tell us how that's kind of like How would somebody be able to? Utilize those resources like if they were in need of that People just call us they do and we do have a wait list you do. Yes we have a considerable wait list so so we get referrals from these different agencies and certainly from the senior centers and places like that and We use our own, you know, we have our website. We have our our buzz We have the ways that we communicate so so the word is out there and and You know for us, it's a matter of not only the finances, but the resource we have one person to do To do those jobs and they take quite a bit of time Thanks. Thank you council Hartnett. So I think we're ready to now move to the next item of the public forum and Marcy We then this comes back to the council 25 okay, thank you. So with that item 4.04 is the public hearing on the five-year plan So we'll open the public hearing is there anyone who would like to speak to the council on the five-year plan Hearing none. We'll close that public hearing and We will hear back from you on the 25th. Thank you And with that I will I'm going to move to the next item 4.05 and I'm going to pass the gavel to councilor Mason Thank you. Thank you council right next item is item 4.05 Resolution adoption of findings of fact in support of a finding of necessity reshamplain Parkway Council right Thank you. Thank you acting president Mason so I'd like to move the resolution and Wait for after a second ask for the floor back sir second Councillor pine Council right back to you Thank you acting president Mason. So, you know, this is the shamp plain Parkway necessity Resolution and we Had a site examination as we know on May 21st where many of us went on a bus tour a site Examination had questions answered the public was included. We came back here and we had a Necessity public hearing We then heard from a couple of members of the public and we closed that public hearing out And we directed the city to come up with findings of fact And come back to us at this meeting So we have a number of links here. That's on the city website board docs That have many items, but including the fact findings of fact And so that's what this resolution passage of this resolution is tonight is a Passage of those findings of fact and finding that there is necessity to move forward with the condemnation Proceedings and on a number of properties, which we were not able to settle with we did settle with many others, correct and This will be one more I think significant step forward in the long-running shamp plain Parkway saga that even predates Councillor Busher You know, it's been around a long time then so so Councillor Busher is not paying any attention All right, so so with that I will That's my comments on moving passage of this resolution any other councillor was to speak at this time Council Tracy Thank You acting president Mason certainly appreciated appreciate all the work that staffed it in In getting us down there to look at the different sites and the clear explanation The different folks walked us through I personally want to thank Kirsten Merriman Shapiro for The explanations struggling to explain which each parcel was because that was very very helpful in terms of understanding What exactly we're voting on so very unique thing to go through so Certainly appreciate that One thing that that helped me to gain context for was that a lot of these properties that we're seizing are needed in order to construct the shared use path that we decided that that is part of the current design for the plan and When I look at the when I think about the shared use path and when I look at where that comes out It really feels like a missed opportunity. Well, it's better than nothing in terms of bike pedestrian Infrastructure in this particular area of the city It's certainly not ideal and when I say it's certainly not ideal I mean that it's not ideal to have fast-moving bikes alongside slower-moving pedestrians moving through what our Numerous curb cuts and driveways along the way Throughout that path that then end up in an intersection that I think will end up being very convoluted And so I feel that in order that to take the properties in order to facilitate What is what we know will be an obsolete and inadequate and less than gold standard pedestrian and bike upgrade Will be I think is is not necessary is not necessary and I would like to see us Really a have it embrace a design that was much more in keeping with the broader Plan for the city which is to have separate facilities for different modes of Transportation throughout the city rather than building one thing knowing that it's not gonna work and then having to go back and say oh well We can fix it later on so While there are certain properties that in certain elements that are just pure upgrades the overall the majority of these feel like therefore in order to enable a shared use path that We already recognize is inadequate and that is not necessarily up to the standards of The the plan that we've set for but that while the the the goals of creating you know a network It sort of creates it sort of I think in many ways replicates some of the patchwork effect that we have Going on now and so for those reasons I do not think that it merits taking people's property in addition to that I'll note that there was also a Member of the public who said that they were still it that they felt that they were close to negotiation And that they just needed a little bit more So that led me to wonder if that was the case another with with other Particularly with other properties in question here though. There was that one So I don't feel that we shouldn't force that that hand when someone is willing to come to the table and Continue to talk so for those reasons I will not be supporting this resolution Thank You counsel Tracy Any other counsel Shannon Thank You My understanding is that While we are taking properties many of the Properties are taking our temporary easements to do things like put up a fence during construction to improve safety and While technically it's a taking in many cases these are not being contested by the property owners It's more a case of the property owners failing to respond to notices and signing documents and things like that I Was hoping City Attorney Blackwood might be able to answer how many of These property owners are actively contesting the Taking of the property I'll allow that City Attorney Blackwood or is there mr. Rose is there someone that might be able to answer that question I Would defer to John Rose who is there outside counsel who's working on the project? Thank you. Thank you. Thank you counselors. My name is John Rose obviously As as I understand nobody none of the property owners except for the person who spoke here is actively contesting None of the property owners with interest at stake in the proceeding is actively contesting the taking My recollection is that it was somebody from Cumberland Farms who spoke before us About that particular shaking saying that they were hoping to work something out. Is that the one you are referencing? I think I'm not sure that the Cumberland fine. You'll excuse me. I'm not the most knowledgeable person about this I think V trans is handling most of the negotiations with property owners But I believe that Cumberland Farms had a concern about access to their property during construction that they were So, Mr. Rozier your norm sort of waving behind you. Mr. Baldwin might be able to answer that question Mr. Baldwin My experience in communicating directly with Cumberland Farms, they are reasonably content with where this is going I think they're they're still negotiations with the state in terms of financial compensation, but They they were having concern and about access to their facility to deliver fuel and Based on my comments to them. I think that least verbally they've expressed to me comfort with where it's going so Thank you, mr. Baldwin. I was there and I can confirm that it's an accurate recollection of the conversation that went on a week ago or two weeks ago and So sorry, mr. Rose, and then I'll go back to counsel Shannon so the only other property that that I was talking about was the Howard Center where its attorney came to the hearing two weeks ago and and lodged objection because their negotiations were still ongoing, but He was not formally contesting Thank you. I'm sorry. What did you say at the end? But what? But his his he didn't have a specific basis for contesting necessity. It was just to preserve his rights while they were negotiating going forward Okay, so there there are two That are contesting this and do they have any I don't remember specifically what those Were do they have anything to do with the shared use path? Those two no counselor Shannon. I'm not sure I'd say that too. We're actively contesting the the project Either at least in the sense one just lodged an objection to necessity to preserve its rights going forward The other one norm just spoke to Neither had to do with the shared use path as far as I know Okay, so so Really these these takings are just about being unable to get signatures and Putting up fences mostly with a few that are outside of that. So whether we vote I mean Yes, or no, it doesn't really affect this Shared use path issue does it These properties aren't being taken for a shared use path There are there are permanent takings for the shared use path, but the ones that that you reference are not Well, actually, I'll take that back the Howard Center Got a shared use path that goes in the front face of their building and there was they had expressed some concern about Children crossing the shared use path to their building and we had since offered some signage and some Some design improvements to make it a higher degree of comfort We've not been directly involved in those communications with v-trans and the property owner but as as Jonathan had noted it's Through all of our conversations and necessitating no one came to contest The takings that were necessary for that process and I believe The takings already occurred for the Howard Center So let me let me just go to city attorney Blackwood who seems to want to I think just to clarify There's sort of the two issues one is is there a necessity to take the property and then there's how much money people get for the condemnation and so there How much money they get is is People aren't contesting the necessity For the most part is my understanding from what we've heard from the state But they're they're saying we haven't settled with you yet because you haven't offered us enough money yet And there are how many of those? Still remains of the 12 or 14. It was 12 properties That have been actively negotiating with you about the money issue With the state with the state, okay, and just to be clear Let me just interject again. We are not deciding on the money piece tonight. This is just a finding of necessity Correct. Okay, so just so the council is clear. We're not making a decision on Money, how we know what the way that the way the condemnation works is it's a two-step process first you all have to make a finding that there is necessity for the taking and then When you go to take the taking a court can if you haven't already settled with people a court can determine how much money You have to pay people for the for the taking Thank you. So if we vote to If we vote on the necessity There will be another stage at which we Make determinations about value Yeah, so there will be probably more negotiations Come I mean, I'm not sure that the negotiations have continued as my have ceased, right? They're still going on Yeah, the trans continues to negotiate the values for the properties And we'll continue to do so until we set a compensation hearing for them. So there is no dispute about the necessity Set We're not hearing any formal dispute other than what you heard at your necessity hearing two weeks ago. Okay. Thank you Councilor busher So, thank you very much. I I think you just answered my question My concern was that if we acted tonight, we would halt negotiations, but I'm hearing that's not the case Because you know I there were when I and the site visit was very insightful for me very informative There were three Properties that stood out for me, but the Howard Center was one that I thought I Was hoping that there could be some resolution to their concern So the negotiations will continue, but you're telling me they're only Financial and not not Substitutive so let me to direct that through me I'm not sure maybe the city attorney's office can answer that I think there's some confusion about the financial piece and maybe you could sure I think part of it is because we're not in on the negotiations with the state It's hard for us to say exactly what they're doing But but in order to have contested necessity They had to come to the hearing the public hearing and say I contest you don't have Necessity to take my property and I don't think we heard any of that That's you know, but but you all were here and that's really a little bit your decision to make Did you hear anybody come to the hearing and say I contest the necessity? I don't think it's necessary for you to take my property if not, then I think what we're Advising you is if you didn't hear that then nobody was contesting necessity that means that If assuming you find necessity tonight, then you move to the second phase Which is how much money do they get the state has been negotiating with many people already and has these properties left And we don't know exactly what? What is there the concern with each of those properties because we're not in on that at negotiation at this point in time? Thank you, so Mason I It's sort of clear as mud for me I I feel that I appreciate what the city attorney said and that was very clear, but since we don't know what the state's doing I as far as what the Overall extent of the negotiation is whether it's just financial or whether it's more than that But you but I'm getting advice that those negotiations will be ongoing even if we do this action I'll be supporting the resolution. Thank you. Thank you. It's council right Just to be clear. Thank you President Mason What would defeat of this resolution mean tonight It would mean that There is no finding necessity so the city council has decided not to do the first step in the condemnation process Which president Mason would where would that leave us? I would ask but my understanding is I would kill the project That's that's correct. Thank you Any other councilor wish to speak at this point in time if not There's a motion on the table to adopt the findings of necessity all those in favor Please say aye. Aye all those opposed Got that Laurie councillor Tracy opposes Thank you. I will sorry Turn it back to Thank you councillor Mason So that passes by a vote of 11 10 to 1 8 9 9 to 1 thank you days not here. Sorry. I apologize council right heart and it's not here and Thank you. Thank you very much Appreciate that and with that we will move to item number 4.06 and that is a Presentation from Sarah Reeves general manager of Chittin and solid waste district regarding the fiscal year 19 budget Proposal and we have you slotted in for 10 minute presentation. Okay, I can go fast. I don't need to breathe So there we go. Thank you very much. I appreciate your time. My name is Sarah Reeves. I'm the general manager for the Chittin and solid waste district and For the few who may not know what Chittin solid waste district is we are a municipality created by act 78 to implement solid waste management Mandates legislated by the state of Vermont We function much like a solid school or a water district in that we are a government entity That designs regional solutions to solid waste challenges faced by our member communities We do encompass Chittin County and we are the largest solid waste district in the state We are responsible for population of about 156,000 people and about over 6,000 businesses We have five main departments administration finance facilities Unregulated hazardous waste and communication and outreach and we either operate or manage five types of facilities drop-off centers Environmental depot the rover the materials recovery facility angry mountain compost now. I'm just going to do a very high-level 30,000 foot Review and then I'll come down to maybe 5,000 on one or two items We are budgeting in our general fund revenues in the amount of 11,000,131,561 We are budgeting expenses in the amount of 10,597,613 dollars and we are looking at a very Heavy capital intensive year. So we are budgeting 1,755,000 dollars in capital Expenses we are not proposing any increases to the solid waste management Feed that will stay at twenty seven dollars a ton We are not proposing any increases to the trash fees at our drop-off centers Nor are we proposing any municipal assessments or per capita fees We are also not proposing any increases to the fees at Green Mountain compost We increased those fees last year and they will remain at fifty two fifty two dollars a ton We did just increase the tipping fee at the material recovery Material recovery facility on May 1st that went from twenty one dollars a ton to twenty five dollars a ton for our Indistrict members and fifty dollars a ton for out-of-district members. We anticipate that fee going up again Sometime this summer And again part of that is that we are significantly below The market regional market average of seventy five to one hundred dollars a ton We do not anticipate getting anywhere near that high of a tipping fee We just need to cover our costs and cover our capital expenses The administrative fee for a biosolids program also increased this year Due to again now I need to spend more money on capital investments and As a result of the change in how we allocate our expenses across all of our budgets And finally we are going to begin to charge for blue bins the 16 gallon Recycling bins that we had been giving away for free forever. We are no longer able to go away for free So we'll be charging five dollars a bin they cost us about five dollars and sixty cents And really the goal is to move more folks towards carts We think that having more capacity than 16 gallons for recycling is a good thing So we want to encourage that behavior So one of the things I did want to highlight are some Effects happening at the Murph as I mentioned We're looking at a heavy capital investment year and the bulk of that is at our materials recovery facility We are looking to spend almost nine hundred thousand dollars just in that facility one on a baler Which is the lifeblood of any material recovery facility that will cost approximately seven hundred thousand dollars And we need to fix the floor not just fix it, but repair it that'll be another hundred and twenty thousand dollars We're also investing in our drop-off centers. We have several that need refurbishment in the very least and a couple that need to be built is I think this council is well aware So we are focusing on that in fiscal 19 heading into fiscal 20 We are also embarking in a few weeks on a strategic retreat with our board and our staff about our drop-off centers To take a look at the next generation of the docks They've served us fairly well for the past 20 25 years And we need to look ahead to the future and how they can best serve our population as the population has changed Where they live has changed the consumption habits have changed the materials. We need to manage has changed So we may need to change So our board and our staff is looking at that in the next couple of weeks. That's coming up With that I would love to open it up for any questions you may have Thank you very much stayed within the time appreciate that we'll turn it over to the council counselor pine Thank you, Mr. President a great presentation. I'd like to just Ask if you can describe what type of capital investment will be needed to handle the the compost law that's going to go in effect In the next I think two years maybe yeah, so the act 148, which is the universal recycling law was amended this past session and the deadline for food scrap The band has not changed so by July 1 2020 Everyone who generates food scraps will need to somehow keep them out of the landfill and they can do that any number of ways They can back your compost they can drop them off the food scraps at our one of our drop-off centers They can bring them right to Green Mountain compost if you allow garbage disposals that people can put in garbage disposals You can hire a hauler to pick up your food scraps. So that deadline has remained in place so right now we are in the midst of Taking a hard-look at Green Mountain compost efficiency and capacity we think that we are currently at capacity we are actually taking in about We will probably end up at about 5,800 tons of food scraps this year So that's pretty much what we feel we can manage and not have odor issues. So We're thinking we may need to figure out a way to accept about 10,000 tons so we are right now again, like I said embarking on a Focused Review of that site and in what that site will need to look like in two years So the board has charged us with saying with us with the question being What will it take money-wise capital investment to ensure that we can manage that amount of food scraps So that's what we are now. So we're going to be giving our board a preliminary report Probably this month towards the end of the month with some initial findings And then we will continue throughout the summer to refine those findings so that by budget time for fiscal 20 We know exactly what we need as far as construction So to answer your question about capital investments this year very few in Green Mountain compost we had heavy years the past two years and we are I've asked my my crew to take a breather and to Only use what you have nothing's on the wish list There is no wish list this year and then to gear up for fiscal 20 Where we most likely will be making some some changes to how we operate So this year is a very light capital investment about 30,000 35,000 dollars Thank You councillor pine councillor Mason and then make sure thank you president right miss Reeves I've been reading sort of we all have in the national news about sort of the changing economics of recycling with China And sort of no longer taking what it's termed our garbage. I'm wondering, you know, how that's you're reading in a number of larger You know municipalities they're recycling is going into Dutley and a landfills instead of so I'm curious if that's had you know that sort of decision is impacting us here and Even the but you know your budget which is may not be relevant at this point. So It actually is very relevant. That's a very good question and you're right It's not a problem that is only in Vermont It is around the world and it's I think it's interesting when I give presentations and talks that people don't necessarily Realize just how Globally connected Vermont is particularly in the recycling world We are fortunate in that the only Waste stream or recycling stream that has been affected has been mixed paper The rest of the materials that we sort at our material card facility are sold domestically whether here in the yes or in Canada, so we're very fortunate in that regard the mixed paper Unfortunately for us is 37% of what we process at the Murph. So that Necessitated a another hard look at our infrastructure, which it was planned. It just wasn't planned for right now I was planning to take that hard look at the Murph maybe in two years But we're doing it now and what that means is taking a look at that particular material stream and Trying to tease out the better high quality material, which is essentially office grade paper that still has Excellent value So we want to be able to see if we can pull that material out it will still leave us with a essentially a junk mail but less of it and The high quality on the paper on the ledger paper can buffer the losses on the mixed paper We can wait that out that doesn't solve the problem of what to do with the mixed paper The real solution is waste reduction We need to stop producing and throwing out as much as we do of the mixed paper Are we going to be able to solve that problem 100%? No, we're not one of the things that we can do is consumers is To opt out of as many things that are coming into our mailboxes and our post office boxes that we don't want as possible Some of it's not possible, but we need to try to do as much as we can Where you can get things online get them online if you don't need that catalog, please don't take that catalog So what we're doing is again looking at the infrastructure looking at our sorting capabilities looking at what that cost will be and Wrapping that into again a strategic conversation about infrastructure with the district So we started with GMC would be mountain compost We are looking now at the drop-off centers and next will be the Murph So those three big components will look very different within the next four years I guarantee So the paper We were receiving seventy five dollars a ton for it last year We're now paying about fifty seven dollars a ton to move it. It is still being moved to secondary markets. China has Really drastically changed their acceptance rate to where it's essentially a ban on a lot of products. They have also Between May 3rd and June 3rd So just yesterday stopped taking anything any of our recycling at all So there was a complete ban on any imports We had been moving material to Vietnam and to Korea Vietnam has now closed the doors for about the next four months They're going to come back in the fall There's capability in India not as much. There's some Indonesia So we're looking at secondary markets, but they will probably fill Some programs particularly on the West Coast are landfilling recycling. They are shutting down their programs They relied on China much more heavily for all of their products We did get into the law this year into actually the clean water bill the ability for the secretary of A&R to Wave the landfill disposal ban on paper if necessary We asked for that as a relief valve should we need it? We're hoping to not need it We continue to work with our broker to move material But if we if it's going to cost us a hundred and fifty dollars to move material to a broker and it's a hundred and twenty dollars to put In Coventry I have to make that choice to move it to Coventry. So we have that ability. I hope to never have to use it Thank you for the thorough but sobering response Thank You councillor Mason councillor busher, and then I think we're ready for a motion So Mike I have a cup of comments, but a question was Did the board of commissioners unanimously support your budget? Yes, they did okay, so our representative said yes Yes, okay. That's important to me. I always ask for that So I think that Burlington has some work to do regarding composting because Backyard composting if not done correctly brings animals And so I think the board of health may need to get an early start on some legislation about how to deal with this How to do it right and I think we as a city need to be smart about it So I'm a gardener and I go to Gardener supply and take classes. I thought I'd do my own composting. Hmm. Not so much Because of how to break it down and really make it useful. So anyways, just FYI I Wanted to know About compost bins the little ones. Do you charge for those or is those still free the little kitchen? Yeah side ones. I believe we're going to start charging for those as well I'm sorry. So we had to we had two different versions of the kitchen compost You have the little sink ones and then you have the bigger ones I have the bigger ones, but you will be charging for those also. I believe we are I don't know if it's gonna be two dollars or five dollars, but it's a nominal charge. Okay, okay I know a dissatisfier and because it's not mandated that you Keep your compost out of the garbage is that when you started charging people who just went to your drop-off centers for composting? People are now. I mean the people I talked to are not bothering doing that anymore and putting it in their garbage Which really bothers me and I spoke against that last year. So I'm just letting you know I still think it's in the world of what we're trying to accomplish I I I don't know how much money that generates for you But I I would prefer that that not happen because I want to encourage people to separate their Compost from trash. So that's just my sense on the budget and I see it's still there So there was one other thing You talked about upgrading the drop-off centers so The one in Burlington that's on Pine Street Is that got a future and is that going to be upgraded because I don't even dare go there I feel I'm going to lose my car there. It's awful to avoid Have I don't know if any of you have gone there But I mean it's hard to avoid the dips in the oh my goodness So is that got a future for not at that location? No, so we have a Memorandum of understanding with the city We're in year two of that three-year MOU and we have land on Flynn Avenue And that is where we intend to build the new drop-off center for Burlington when we are able to do when this road is done Okay, incentive to get the road done. Okay. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you councillor busher Thank you We now have I was very wrong. We are not ready for motion We have councillor Dean Shannon and pop and pine Thank You president right just a quick question regarding The what we're seeing is the possibility of actually having to landfill mixed paper Is there any possibility that that could serve this mixed-use basic paper could serve as an energy source for McNeill? Rather than ending up in a landfill That's a good question. I would have to talk with them about their Specifications as far as what they want as feedstock obviously, we do still have the leaf drop area there and I Know that they want a consistent Infant you know inbound which every Biomass incinerator waste energy facility wants to be a very consistent material coming in But it's a good question and if so what condition would they want it in they would certainly want it dry They can't have any additional moisture Would they need it shredded with a so it's a good question to ask and I can't pose to them Thank You councillor Dean councillor Shannon then pine Thank You a Very substantial part of the budget increased is this new baler and I wondered if you could speak a little bit about What that is it replacing something does it give you new capacity? What does that do for us? Yeah, so the the baler is It's a very very large machine It's at the end of the process at the material recovery facility So after everything is sorted out will sort into Seven or eight different materials they go into a holding area called a bunker and one we have enough in that bunker It's released into the baler and they make cubes so that baler essentially is making a nice compacted cube that goes onto a truck And then that goes on to market We are contractually required to replace certain capital equipment on a regular basis on a schedule That contract with our vendor who operates the MRF so we own the building we own the land We have to buy the equipment and then the vendor operates that for us so we have to replace a variety all of the equipment on a regular basis this baler has I Want to say at least 18? I'm getting the hours wrong I don't want to make a mistake here, but it has many many more hours than it should they have maintained it Very well for a very long time And it is now to the point where it is not generating enough Compaction power to get the density that we need on the bales and that's dangerous so What you don't want to have is to have your bales explode in a truck or on the floor in front of someone and can have Close problem, so it's just replacement of existing capacity and correct just needs to be done It needs to be done and unfortunately we have delayed it. I think for two years now As have we've delayed the floor So we looking at things and can we defer certain capital expenses? This was one that we thought that we could we wanted to make sure we had enough money in our Capital reserve fund for the mirf to be able to pay cash We don't want to take it alone and we do now. Thank you now's the time unfortunately And then just to follow up on counsel Mason's question when you're talking about the overseas market. Is that market for? Reese recycled materials or raw materials to recycle that Quit sure I understand the question so the material that is going overseas is literally that bail of mixed paper So that will go to a mill and then that mill will pulp it and then they will make new paper new boxes new box board Tissue paper all kinds of things so it's bailed raw material to be recycled overseas to be made into something new Correct. Okay. Thank you. Thank you councillor Shannon and Then councillor pine and I think we should be ready for motion after that we do it's an important topic But we have an executive session left to go so councillor pine. Sure. Thank you The idea of taking recycling and taking it to the landfill just deeply disturbs me Me too. I was a senior at UVM when I was appointed to the recycling task force We came up with this thing called the blue bin system in 1985 so it goes back quite a ways for me The idea would be to take a look at what it would take for the waste district to set aside a Reserve fund or a sinking fund or some way to make that so it's not just driven by the price all the time I mean, I know we need to be cost-effective, but this is just our only planet So I think we have to kind of keep that in mind as well I hope absolutely and landfilling the paper is the absolute last resort and it's it is You know and again, we we don't need to make a profit. We're not a profit driven Entity we just need to cover those costs We do have the ability to subsidize those costs So, you know, that's something that we did look at we did before we raised the tip fee in May We had been subsidizing the losses out of the operating reserves So we didn't want to do that anymore because we knew we had these pretty major Expenses that we needed to cover in the very near term and we didn't want to leave ourselves too short To be in case of an emergency But what came from those conversations was exactly what you said was we need to also have an operating reserve So that is something that to come out of those conversations. We will be establishing over the next year to help to buffer and you know that That idea where so we can not landfill We also don't want to have to be fluctuating the tipping fee to irregularly We want to maintain as a steady a fee as we can for as long as we can We are not a private entity the private Murph down in Rutland is raising their fee every month Not lowering their fee every month raising their fee every month We don't want to do that to our member communities want to maintain a nice steady fee So that is the hope to set up that operating reserve fund And look for every other option other than landfilling. It is the absolute last resort Great. Thanks. And since we have a former city manager here I want to see if deke had anything she'd tell us as as elected officials There's there's something that we should be watching out for here with the waste district at all or no actually, I think the yeah, thank you for that My bosses, you know No, I think the finances are an awesome shape defect that we can just go out and buy a $700,000 dollar because we've been paying attention to that for so long is indication that we've been when we've been planning And we we will continue to so the difference between the revenue and the expenses that you see is going into the capital reserve fund So we can stay on top of that because when we take If we were to incur debt you incur debt That's how it works and we'd like to avoid all of that by simply planning ahead So we'll be part of my job will be to extensively plan ahead and make sure we're putting enough money aside to avoid debt to whatever Thank you, thank you councillor pine and thank you for that presentation and we'll now look for a motion to On the Chittin solid waste fiscal year 19 budget councillor busher Yes, I'm going to move to approve the Chittin solid waste district FY 19 proposed budget Seconded by councillor Dean Any discussion on that motion? Hearing none all those in favor, please say aye any opposed That passes unanimously. Thank you very much. Thank you very much for that presentation. We appreciate that And with that we will move on to item number five, which is committee reports. I know excuse me You have a point but excuse me councillor busher I'm going to recognize councillor busher now for a point of information or a pound of order 4.07 was an executive session. Do you want to are you going to do the other things before that? We are going to the executive session when we're done with all these items. Thank you. Thank you We are moving ahead to committee reports Any committee chair who would like to councillor Paul? Thank you, president right? This came up in between the last meeting so I apologize for the last minute notice There is going to be an HR committee meeting tomorrow night At 6 p.m. To discuss a step policy were visions so again my apologies for the last minute notice Thank You councillor Paul any other committee chair a councillor roof and then councillor Dean. I have two Public safety committee will be meeting tomorrow here at City Hall at 5 30 In room 12 will be discussing several items related to The homelessness initiative that's been going on in that committee also on behalf of councillor Nodell who was in Finland she asked me to share that the inclusionary zoning working group will be meeting Next Monday here in contours at June 11th from 5 30 to 7 for public hearing. Thank you Before I go to councillor Dean. I'm going to go back to councillor Paul to give us a little more Thank You president right I just I forgot to mention the meeting on the meeting tomorrow night at 6 p.m. Is in the HR resource the human resources conference room. That's a 200 Church Street on the first floor. Thank you Thank You councillor Paul for that informational update councillor Dean Yeah, so just a reminder that the License and local control so committing committee will be meeting tomorrow afternoon June 5th at 4 45 Thank You councillor Dean councillor mason. Thank you President right the boards and commission will be holding its first meeting I think with an expectation of two five o'clock June 11th in room 12 The following evening the ordinance committee will be meeting at 5 30 also room 12 to continue its discussion of Proposed amendments to the suspension and revocation of certificate. Thank you. Thank you councillor mason councillor Shannon The Charter change committee will be meeting on Wednesday the 13th at 7 o'clock in conference room 12 And we will be discussing the capital improvements on Church Street how they're Allocated as well as the numerous issues that were discussed at our council retreat in terms of Council interactions will say thanks Thank You councillor Shannon councillor pine The community development and neighborhood revitalization committee will meet this Thursday the 7th 5 30 Conference from 12 on the agenda is a presentation on the consolidated plan that Marcy presented tonight We'll also have a update on the early learning initiative Thank You councillor pine other chairs Seeing none will conclude item number five item number six is city councillors Ungeneral city affairs any councillor on general city affairs councillor Dean Thank You president right I Conscious of the late hour, but I just wanted to call everyone's attention to the report that's coming back to the city council Regarding our natural lands and connected initiative that Initiated here with a resolution about a year ago I want to Call particular attention to a new name for our initiative, which is called Burlington wild ways Which is a little bit easier to pronounce and also call everyone's attention to a slate of items that we have planned for the year ahead 2018-2019 And Our intent to come back to the city council for a little bit of his distant additional financial assistance In moving those initiatives forward. Thank you Thank You councillor Dean other councillors on general city affairs Hearing none we will include item number six and number seven is city council president updates Just a couple of quick things the ad hoc committee on City Hall Park and trees meets Wednesday June 6th at 7 o'clock in room 12 and we will hope to conclude our work of that ad hoc committee Wednesday evening if possible So that's this Wednesday at 7 in room 12 lastly Just a friendly reminder on a couple fronts one is is on deadlines And the first one is is the city council is doing a pretty good job on deadlines And we just need to and I think generally everybody is but we just need to make sure that Any whether it's executive session, and I know things happen, but that it's important to for the city clerk's office It's important to move things think move things forward in the most efficient way possible that we Maintain those deadlines so especially if hopefully when there's time sensitive actions We can get those in in a timely fashion and also just a friendly reminder councillors Please let me know if you are not going to be able to attend or will be More than a few minutes late to meetings with that I will conclude and Mr. Mayor we'll move on to item number eight. Mr. Mayor on general city affairs Thanks, president right. I'll try to be brief just first of all Jazz Fest is underway. It runs through this Sunday, and I hope everyone will have an opportunity to get out and enjoy this year's festival. It's a 35th year in which the discovery jazz Been happening here in Burlington, and I think this year's lineup is as good as it has ever been and it's Really not to be missed The community sailing center Had its grand opening this past Friday and Saturday if you have not had an opportunity to get down and see the new facility yet I encourage you to do so. It is truly one of the finest facilities of its type in the country and to me it's just Really exciting to think what this organization that has worked out a makeshift spaces on the waterfront for more than 20 years What it will now be able to do in this state-of-the-art facility already this organization manages to touch Just about every child that goes through the public school system and profound ways and Inspire an understanding of the lake this new Facility will I'm sure allow them to do even more and Congratulations to everyone involved in the many-year effort to reach this milestone Another exciting event that took place two other exciting events that took place this past Saturday at almost exactly the same time actually there was the Opening ceremonies for the Special Olympics summer games that took place up on the UVM campus and I was really quite a remarkable event of That brings together Really incredibly well organized effort from across the state in a demonstration of sportsmanship breaking down stereotypes about the mental disabilities that the athletes in that event Experience and really this Special Olympics effort has become a international movement for inclusion and this Opening ceremony is really a remarkable event to behold and again. I encourage anyone that this isn't becoming an annual event here in Burlington and Look for future opportunities to participate in that and Also on Saturday night was the silver jubilee anniversary for the Tibetan American community here in Burlington Burlington is one of about approximately 30 communities in America where Tibetan Americans have sell in substantial numbers the first of those communities to form as I understand it a local association was here in Burlington and this was the 25th anniversary of that Milestone and involved a representative from His holiness the Dalai Lama coming up from DC to mark the ceremony. I'm Sarah Leahy Who has had a long? interaction with the Dalai Lama spoke at length and it was really quite a special event and was a reminder of The close connection that municipal government has had with the Tibetan American community throughout that time We have a significant number of Outstanding public employees working for the city that participated in that event Last item I wanted to note looking ahead is a event that will take place here Next Wednesday on June 13th at 3 p.m. This is our first annual City Hall blood drive something at Katie vane from the mayor's office as a really taking a leadership role in organizing and Sorry, it is from 9 a.m. To 3 p.m. It ends at 3 p.m. So don't show up at 3 p.m It it's the first time we've organized it in this way And we're hoping that there will be strong participation in the public and certainly city officials are invited to attend and be part of that Thank You president right Thank You mr. Mayor and Councillor Bush, you thank you for Reminding me that that the executive the recess executive session was 4.7. I think what I really should have said was If there's no objection from the council, I'm going to move forward with the agenda items and come back to this I wanted to complete the agenda items that we had here so With that city attorney blackwood. I can just now Reconvene the executive session. What's the yes, okay? So we will do we need to adjourn the regular city council meeting first No, you're all you'll adjourn at the end of the executive and do we have any action coming out of the executive session? No, right? No, we do not. Okay, so Unless channel 17 needs to come back for Adjourn, okay. All right, so with that we will We will go back into the recessed recessed executive session Are you are you on? All right, we are back From executive session and I'll now entertain a motion to adjourn so moved moved by council roof second by councillor jang All those in favor of adjournment, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed We are adjourned. Thank you