 Do we have any agenda additions or changes tonight's I don't there's just a minute that we're sent for the joint board. They were sent out this morning for your review from the path to joint board meetings in September, just to get those approved and done with. So, to add those, yeah, as seven E and F correct and Andrew, I had a slight change on one of those can pull up to 27th. So I did email Evan the change earlier. So we can add the minutes from September 27th to six F and the minutes for whatever date that other meeting is at to seven E. Thank you. Yeah. Did you want it to be seven F or no, you wanted it to be six F is that what you wanted. Sorry. Because I've got it right right there. Thank you. Great. Appreciate that. Trust these are staff. Any other agenda additions or changes? Nope. All right. If somebody wants to make a motion, then will we approve the agenda as amended? Second, second. Thank you, Dan. Thank you, Raj. Is there any further discussion on that motion? Hearing none. All those in favor, please signify by saying aye. Aye. Aye. Anybody opposed? Great. Pass unanimously. Thank you all. And that will bring us into public to be heard. So this is a portion of tonight's meeting where there is somebody from the public who wishes to speak to the board about something that is not on the agenda. Now is the time to do so. For those of you who are using Microsoft Teams, please be sure to raise your hand so that I will be able to address you. And for those of you in the room, if you can raise your hand now as to whether you'd like to address the board about something that's not on the agenda and Evan or George, is there anybody in the room who wishes to address the board? No, there is not. Great. Then we will go ahead and do Microsoft Teams. Microsoft Teams, if you want to address the board about something that is not on the agenda, please make sure to raise your hand and I will give you the time on the floor. And I am not seeing any hands going up. So we will go off of public to be heard and into agenda item five a public hearing on the charter for the city of S exjunction with me a moment while I get the PowerPoint up. Can one of the trustees please let me know if you see me going back and forth between the first two slides. Yes, you're going back and forth between the first two slides. Great, just so we don't have to deal with me. Talking about a slide that none of you can see. So this is a public hearing for the village of S exjunctions charter for the city of S exjunction. In terms of what is it that we are voting on the main question is whether or not to adopt a new municipal charter that would transform the village into an independent city and no longer be a part of the town of Essex. The ballot question is you will see on the bottom of the screen is what that means and in a nutshell what this basically does is this would this is a legal process for the village to become a city and would grant us as the city the same amount of powers and capabilities that any other municipality in the state of Vermont has that is the basis of what a charter is it does not do anything more than that in order to do anything less than that. So in a nutshell, if you vote yes, you are saying that yes, the village of S exjunction should become the city of S exjunction. And if you say no, then you are saying no, that should not happen. If you're looking for a copy of the charter, you can find that a physical copy at 81 Main Street between the hours of 730 AM and 430 PM Monday through Friday, as well as there is an electronic version at the link on the screen. And I believe there is another link for a condensed version of this on the s exjunction website at s exjunction.org slash independence in terms of why are we voting on this? This is definitely a question about merging and separation, which has which has occurred numerous times over the many decades between the town and the village. Currently, or this past year at least with March and April, nearly 80% of voters of the village voters had voted in favor of merging with the town. And both times nearly 70% of the town outside of the village had voted against merging. During the April vote that happened in the village, over 75% of village voters had said yes to a non binding article asking the trustees to pursue independence by November if the merger vote failed. Since the merger vote did fail, the trustees are now presenting an independent city of S exjunction charter to village voters. So what would be staying the same? Basically, s exjunction will continue to maintain its identity. We will continue to be the same community that s exjunction has been. We will continue to have the same high quality services that we have all enjoyed for the years that we've been here. There will still be a five member governing board, just as we have now, where all of the members will be elected at large in three year terms, just like what we have now. There will be a president and vice president of the board, which will be elected by the board, which is exactly the same situation we have now. There will not be a mayor and the trustees at the time when the charter takes effect will then become the city councilors. An annual budget will be presented to voters and voted on by Australian ballot, which is what we are doing now. And we will again maintain that quality of life that we appreciate. In terms of differences, we will have full control of s exjunctions future. Our tax dollars are going to stay within s exjunction. We will also be an equal municipality or be a an equal municipality like other Chittenden County communities. And our planning board will shift from a planning commission and a zoning board to a development review board and a planning commission. So those are two different boards that we will have. Currently, we have a planning commission and a zoning board in separation. We would have a development review board and a planning commission. You can see on the screen in terms of what the process was to getting here. The main takeaway from this is really that this is not something that we have been doing in a knee jerk reaction. This is not something that we did with very little time and or with very little dedication to the efforts. In terms of the trustees, we have dedicated the first 60 to 90 minutes of all of our meetings since April 27th on this effort. And so we have certainly spent a significant amount of time getting to where we are. In terms of today, this is the second and final public hearing on the charter. And the next data significance is November 2nd, which is the date for voting on the charter for the city of s exjunction. Although, absentee voting, mail-in voting is currently happening now. So if the vote passes, what would then happen is that in January, the s exjunction legislatures would introduce a bill to the Vermont House of Representatives. During the months of January through May, the bill would be taken up and hopefully considered by the various committees within the House and Senate, as well as then it would be voted by the full House and the Senate and then need to be signed by the governor. In July of 2022, the city would then be formed. Now, between the time of July 2022 and June 2023, that is a transition year. The reason for that is the community will not have had a chance to vote on a budget yet. And so because of that, the budget that will be in place is a budget that we are going to be working on. And so we can't be a fully independent community until we've had an opportunity to vote on the budget to support the city. So that is why July 2023 with a new fiscal year is when the city would be fully operational at 2 Lincoln Street. One thing that should be noted is that the legislature can of course change this timeline and or the bill could fail at any point in time along that way. And at which point in time that will change these dates that you see in front of you. With the financial impact, there are a few slides coming up to help answer the question is what is this going to mean for my wallet? A word of caution or a note of caution is that these are based on the budget for the current fiscal year. Had the city of Essex Junction been fully formed and functioning at this current time, an actual budget would be developed by the city manager and approved by the city council to then be presented to city voters at annual meeting. As budget reflects the organization of the city after the conclusion of any shared contract and relationships with the town of Essex other than the police department. The summary of what the impact would be on a on the average home on a $300,000 assessed value home. The tax for your property tax bill would go down $195, but really that second line of a tax rate change of 7.25%. That's the one to pay most attention to in the sense that whatever your property tax bill is now for municipal services would go down 7.25%. So if your home is assessed greater than the $300,000, then your tax reduction would be greater than the $195. If your home is assessed at a lower value than the $300,000, then your taxes will go down less than that $195 per year. You can see the changes with this slide and in many of these subsequent slides, the way that this is organized is these columns. This is the current village tax. These are current village costs. The total town costs. The village outlay as you'll see below is a village budget plus the villages portion of the town's budget as we are dual citizens. And that this is a total amount that is raised by taxes from village property owners. The city, this is the estimate as to what the city of Essex Junction would cost for these various for these various services and departments. And then the change is a difference between the village outlay or what village residents currently pay and the estimation as to what city the city of Essex Junction would pay, which as you can see the city would cost the community $800,000 less than what we are currently paying. You can see some of the details of the expenditures in that same layout by the various departments. And so if you look over in this change, you can see that some of them are going to cost slightly more. Some of them are going to cost slightly less. You'll see that continue into this slide as well with other departments. And down again at the bottom, you can see the total cost being a decrease of a little over $800,000 tax rates. This is very similar to what you had what we had before. Here's a village tax rate for village residents. The second column is what the city of Essex Junction estimated tax rates would be the difference. Then an increase or a decrease and a percent change. The one to pay most attention to that bottom one of the total municipal rates. You can see the percent change of a decrease of 7%, meaning your total municipal tax rate on your tax bill would property tax bill would go down by approximately 7%. And then here is that little table in terms of what your assessed value of a village home would be and then the impact on your tax bill. So again, if your home was assessed at $300,000, your annual bill would go down by $195. And then you could see higher up how if it's a lower assessed value, your decrease is a little less. It's a higher assessed value than your value or your tax bill goes down by even more. Some of the most significant cost savings you'll see on the screen here. And one thing to note is that there are budget savings in 12 out of the 19 departments or cost centers that we have in the village. And really the largest cost savings are from no longer paying for services that are provided by the town that we in the village don't necessarily receive. There are departments and employees and services that the village already have and we would no longer be contributing to the town's capital reserve fund. So when I say paying for services or when it says no longer paying for mirror services in the town. If we look at recreation, for example, these are the costs for the Essex Parks and Recreation departments while we also have Essex Junction Recreation Parks. In separation, we would no longer need to pay for Essex Parks and Recreation. So that is why you're seeing a decrease there. There are some cost increases. Those are for five out of the 19 cost centers. And the most significant is a police budget. And the biggest reason for this is because in the contract that we are working on with the select board, currently we pay taxes based on how much our properties within the village are assessed. So it's what's called our grand list. And currently the properties in the village take up 42% of the total grand list for the town of Essex as a whole. We are agreeing to pay based on how many people or per capita live in the city, which is a little bit less than half of the entire town of Essex. So instead of paying 42% of the police budget, we would be paying 48% of the police budget. And so that is why you're seeing a $400,000 increase for police services or the city of Essex Junction. So as a summary, you will see that financially the village will be well positioned to become the city of Essex Junction, especially considering there would be a tax decrease. That residents can again continue to expect the same high level and quality of municipal services and pay less in taxes. And that the cost savings will be realized by no longer paying for mere departments in the town. If you want to take a look at the proposed or at the estimated budget, you can do so at Essex Junction.org slash city budget. And in terms of some frequently asked questions, I address a little bit about what is happening with the police department and that we would be contracting with the town of Essex for the service. And this would be for all police related services. So it's not necessarily just when you call 911 and having the law enforcement officer come and assist with whatever is necessary. But it is also the dispatch to help make that happen, animal control and the community justice services. There's a question, do we have the means or assets to be a city? And the short answer is yes. The village has been in municipality since 1893. The village of Essex Junction owns the wastewater treatment plants. We have water and sewer. We've had a streets department, parks, sidewalks, employees and so on and so forth. So yes, we certainly do have the means and the assets to be a city. There will need to be some people that we need to hire. And there are going to be three new employees, a city manager, an assistant city manager slash HR director and an assistant city clerk. So yes, there will need to be some new hires and those are accounted for within the budget that you saw, which does still have a decrease for residents here in Essex Junction. The question of why do we have to become a city is certainly something that has been asked quite a few times. The short answer is a village can only exist in the state of Vermont if you are a part of the town. With the village of Essex Junction or with the city of Essex Junction no longer being a part of the town, it can no longer be called a village and must then be called a city. We would not be eligible to be called a town, so we would be a city. We would be the, or interestingly enough, we would be the fourth largest city and eighth largest community in the state of Vermont. Another question that has been asked quite a bit is how will the city continue to grow its grand list? Well, we would be able to do so by no longer needing to pay taxes to the town of Essex and instead having all of our taxes being paid by village residents to support village of Essex Junction only. We can also then focus our efforts onto the economic development, downtown revitalization and reduce the tax burden for all property owners. In terms of the senior center, the trustees have committed to continue having the senior center operate at 2 Lincoln Street. There should be no, there should be no changes that any senior should be experiencing within the village of Essex Junction. In terms of how to vote, ballots have already been mailed out to all active registered voters within the village of Essex Junction. So many of us have already received our ballots. Please do make sure to vote. You can, the instructions are right on the ballot. You go ahead and fill out yes or no, whichever is your choice. You put that into the first envelope, which has a signature line on it. You seal that and then you put that into the mailing envelope. You seal that and then you can either put it in your outgoing mailbox or you can bring it in person sealed up and place into the dropbox that is at 81 Main Street. You can also deliver it in person on Tuesday, November 2nd at Essex High School between the hours of 7am, 7pm. Or if you lose it, if it gets eaten by your dog, you can go ahead and still come to Essex High School to educational drive between the hours of 7am and 7pm on Tuesday, November 2nd. If you're unsure whether you are registered to vote or if you would like to register to vote or if you want to see if your ballot has already been counted, you can go to the link that you see on the screen. There is not going to be a next public hearing. If you have other questions, you can go ahead and you can go online to sxjunction.org slash independence. You can also see the contact information for us trustees on the screen. And with this being a public hearing would now want to hear any questions, comments, concerns from the community. So I will do this similar to public or to the first portion of the meeting of public to be heard. So for those in the room at 2 Lincoln, if you have a question, common concern about the charter or about about this public hearing, please go ahead and raise your hand. And Evan or George, does anybody raise their hand? Yes, there is Irene Renner. Irene, go ahead and work your way up to a microphone and the floor is yours. Thank you Irene Renner. Two quick questions. One is, have you worked a cost of rebranding into your budget? Because there are a lot of things that are labeled village of sxjunction that would need to say city, I believe. And my second question would be, is there at this point any set aside for nonprofit scissors in the town budget where 1% of the total is set aside for human services funding? I would hate to see taxes reduced in the village and the amount that goes to these very necessary nonprofit services not be paid. Thanks. And is there anybody else in the room that had questions? No. Okay. Quick answer in terms of the cost of rebranding. No, I do not believe those costs are included. And a set aside about the human services that the town of Essex does provide, that would be a decision for the city council to make. But it's not a decision for us trustees to make at this point in time. So we will now go to Microsoft teams. Anybody within Microsoft teams who wishes to have a, or who has a question about the public hearing about the charter, please go ahead and raise your hand so I can make sure to give you time to have your question asked. Annie Cooper, go ahead. The floor is yours. Hey, thanks, Andrew. I have a permanently horse voice during the pandemic, but I'm just grateful y'all are really doing such great work and I really appreciate and value and thank you for being so clear in your presentation and just thanks everyone very much. Thank you, Annie. Any other Microsoft teams users? If so, please go ahead and raise your hand. Seeing none, we can go ahead and close the public hearing back on the agenda that would bring us to business item five a work session on Essex Junction independence initiative. Yes. Thanks, Andrew. So that's on page 31 of the packet is the memo. There are just two items on the work session schedule tonight to talk about proposals and contracts with the town of Essex and any get out the vote communications that the trustees would like to see happen between now and November 2. Thank you, Brad. So for the work session, the way we have been doing this is if there are members of the public who have any questions, comments, concerns about those two items that we will be talking about. If there are any proposals and contracts with the town of Essex or getting out the vote, then now is the time for public comments. So I'll keep doing this in the same the same manner where those in the room at to Lincoln. If you could please raise your hand for George identify you if you have any questions, comments, concerns on that on the item. There are none. Okay, Microsoft teams, please go ahead and raise your hands using Microsoft teams. If you have any questions, comments, concerns on those items. Okay, not seeing any. Go ahead and take it away, Brad. Great. So the first item is proposals and contracts in your packet. The next 18 or 19 pages are the current draft proposals as of last Thursday. A new set of several came in today that Amber provided some feedback over the course of the weekend and some other comments were were reviewed and incorporated into the documents. So the set you're actually looking at now is not completely up to date to what will be before you after your next joint meeting with the select board. They will be sent over to the town attorney to also be reviewed so you may see even further changes. But I think tonight just an opportunity and based on your reading of the file. If people have any questions, comments, concerns that they'd like to get addressed before we have our next joint meeting, which will take place next week. Good question for you, Brad. Some of these have red track changes. Some of them have blue changes. What's the distinction between them? That is a good question. So the blue track changes. I just want to verify the blue track changes I believe are from our attorney and the red are from the town attorney. But I just want to make sure I would need to go document by document just to confirm that that was consistently the way it was addressed. But basically there are changes made by attorneys that were either discussed at the meetings, joint meetings you already had or discussed between either staff or board chairs in between meetings. Great. Thank you for that. So should we go agreement by agreement down the list? That would be good. Sounds good. The first one is the MOU, which is just the overarching document. Could someone share that on the screen just for those at home? Sorry. I can do that. I have it up. I'm just going to scroll through if anybody has questions on any sections, I think throw them out. In my quick scan of that original MOU or that cover MOU, it doesn't appear as if anything has really changed outside of the numbering. The rest of those changes I believe were things that we had talked about at our last joint meeting. I think that's an accurate summary. And I know Raj had reached out with a question about some of these other agreements that weren't in the packet. If they weren't in the packet is because it's because nothing has been developed to date that there wasn't enough substance to put into a document that's been either discussed or agreed upon between the boards. So hearing nothing, we'll move on to police services. The next agreement is reappraisal and assessor services. The next is right of first refusal. Amber, you had a question on this over the weekend. I didn't know if you wanted to bring it up. You had expressed either a question or concern about the six month component. I don't know if you want to elaborate on that. Yeah, my concern was the timing in clause or paragraph six requires that if the Villas were to exercise the right to a first refusal that the purchase has to occur within six months. And my concern is, is there enough time from a budget standpoint? Because assuming we wouldn't have, we wouldn't have budgeted the year prior in anticipation of this purchase. So I'm not sure what other folks thoughts are on that, but that was one thing that kind of stood out for me. I think that that's wholly accurate, Amber. We need more than six months to budget that amount considering that we work on a budget in November for the following year. I think a two year time period to allow for a community conversation and a vote is realistic. I don't know what others think about that. I mean, I share it. I share Amber's and you're concerned about that. And I was thinking the two years is fine. I was thinking, you know, six months prior to budgeting season. So that would be, you know, maybe like a January or March, something gave time to do what you said, which would be have a community conversation and budget for it. Since we do tend to begin the budget conversations in September, September, October, then. So I'm open to any of those, any of those things, but yeah, I agree that we would not have time. And in the current scenario may have to call a special, special vote, which would be prohibitively expensive, I would think, and so it was a good point to bring up. Other trustee thoughts, comments. So two ideas have been floated out. I guess one more question. What would be the process for the select board to while it's not our concern, but what would be the process for the select board to put it up for sale? I mean, would they have to have a vote on that at town meeting day, for instance, or something, or could they just decide on their own? I mean, if they were going to do that, presumably they would have already found a new site and had to bond for it and have a long conversation planning. I mean, this wouldn't necessarily come as a surprise to us. I guess that's what I'm trying to figure out because they don't currently have anywhere to go. So you would, you would assume that they would only sell this after building another suitable facility. So I guess in that respect, we may be able to see this coming. Well, unless they can find a suitable place to move into that it's already built. Sure. Okay. Good point. But I think I would agree. I think there is, there has to be some public discussion that would give us a red flag of, hey, this is coming down the pipe. But I still think that even if we, even if you just assume that there's a six months of conversation that this is happening, it still wouldn't give us six months still wouldn't give us enough time. Right. So I do think we need at least a year in order to make the time frame work from a budget cycle. Do you think one year is good enough, trustees? I do think it's likely you would, you would have to go to bond in order to accomplish such a purchase. I mean, otherwise, you know, otherwise you'd be taking from an existing project that you may have been saving up for and then go to bond instead for that stormwater project or something. So you might change hands, but either way, I think you would eventually need a bond approval. I don't think you'd have cash on hand. And it would probably need to be a year out from a date certain, which would be the, you know, so because of the year falls in the middle of a budget year that doesn't still doesn't give us that much time. Am I thinking about this incorrectly? Forget I said anything. Let me think more. Sorry. Thinking out loud again. I think two years is reasonable. I mean, I think that's, that's a good proposal. All right, trustees, two years is on the table. I just don't, I think that relative to everything else we're doing and everything that we're trying to achieve with these agreements, this is it for me anyway is so far down on my priority list. And the idea that the town would be seeking to move out of 81 Main Street anytime soon, I think is very remote. So I just wouldn't want to see us get hung up over this. That's all. Why don't we float two years and see how they respond. Sounds good. Great. The next one is stormwater. So just as an overview on this stormwater one, essentially what this is saying is we have jointly been planning. We will continue to jointly plan as it sees fit. And as everyone agrees, if there is something that is mutually beneficial and there should be some kind of cost sharing, then that would be figured out at that point in time. But in essence, it's basically an agreement to work together when it makes sense. Yes. And this language, Andrew, thanks because this is a total revise from where it's been. This has been developed with all of the public works and wastewater treatment and storm. Stormwater coordinators from both the village and the town. This has been endorsed by Denny and Annie and by Jim and Chelsea is to no longer continue with the joint stormwater committee to complete the projects that have been identified that are being funded through FY 23. There are two separate stormwater permits. It's not just one permit. And so, you know, we've been collaborating in good faith, but as two separate communities don't really need to do so. Thank you for that overview, Brad. All right, move on to shared financial services. Amber, you had some questions on this one, right? I did have a couple of questions. Just to clarify what the agreement was on whether it's a per capita or based on grand list contribution. I believe when we had talked about this, we had talked about it being a grand list. And the reason for that is really the driver for the finances and the amount of work for the financial staff or the finance staff would be driven by that more than the population. And the other questions I'm going to reserve is I would like to go into an executive session at the end of this work session to discuss. Andrew, one comment on, it deals with the previous topic with the first right to refusal for 81 Main Street if the town were to want to leave that location. Speaking to what we were just talking about the grand list, nothing against 81 Main Street, but I'm not so sure I really want to buy or take possession of that property. Buy that property, take it off the grand list. It becomes property to the city of S extension. There's no longer a taxation on that property. I might consider looking at maybe some private business or what have you taken over that property and increasing our grand list by doing so. There's something to think about. Thanks, Dan. I think as George was kind of saying as well, should that ever happen? I don't see this as anything happening in the short term, but in the much longer term and frankly, I don't know how many of us five are going to be, are still going to be on the city board at that point in time. Trustees with Amber's question or with Amber's concerns about having some of the conversation and executive session, would you all be okay having an executive session at the very end of this work session so we can talk about that? Or would you prefer that we have this in open session? Good idea, why? So you're proposing that we have an executive session then come back to an open public session to discuss further matters? Yes. And I'm saying it for that we get through everything else in the work session. And then once we've concluded everything else within the work session, then we would go into it. I assume a short executive session to talk about Amber's concerns. I'm fine either way again. Sure. Yes. Okay. The only thing I'm thinking about Andrew is that for the public that's watching or in attendance to wait and then have to, you know, I mean, it'd be nice if somehow we could as normally we have our executive sessions toward the end of the meeting itself so that people aren't waiting on the line waiting for us to come back so they can hear the rest of the meeting. That's all. Yeah, I hear you. The reason why I was suggesting that is also just for our staff who don't need to stick around for the rest of the meeting so they can do something else and Amber, how long do you think it would take approximately? 15 minutes maybe at most. I think that's okay. Sounds good. Okay. Were there other comments, questions, concerns about the shared financial services then next step is the agreement. And Brad, this one hadn't been seen yet by the by the board before now. Do you just want to quick high level summary of this? Yeah, I think this is just a recognition of what needs to take place in order to transition the village from utilizing town it to a contracted service. And it's basically saying just that the that the city will provide the who the contractors are and that the town it will work with the contractors to pull the data and migrate it over so that the contractors can use it and continue to keep village and city business moving forward. The one proposed change that I had to that agreement was just to add some termination language upon completion of the migration. And that was updated. Amber that language wasn't included. Yeah. Just not in the one on the packet. Okay. And the delinquent tax agreement. On this one, one of the things that's that select chair, the select person or select board chair and he was had asked me a couple of times is whether we would be okay with in this agreement. The town of Essex would have the debt for outstanding tax or for tax delinquencies. And so in a in a separate community situation. There could be a scenario where city of extension residents may get tax collection from the town of Essex and whether we would be okay with that. Personally, I am. But just want to make sure that the four of you also understand that with this agreement that is a possibility that would happen. Sounds like we're good. And that's it. We're getting there. We are. So just, I would, I would just say, you know, a new batch of these probably will come your way sometime this week with some edits. And ultimately, you'll get a packet. I think on Friday for next week's joint board meeting. That they make that again, there, there'll be some edits and these might look a little bit different, but I think I would agree with you, Andrew, we're, we're making progress and it's just little tweaks here and there. Thank you, Brad. Sure. The next item on the work session is get out the boat communications. This came up at a trustees meeting or through an email a while back. Just in terms of the trustees having conversation. If there's anything else you want to do to help inform the community that a vote is taking place. And to encourage people to vote by November 2nd. Go ahead, Amber. One question and then I'll answer that question, but where are we at with the mailer that the previous mailer. I've had a couple of folks asking about that. It is in the works as fast as possible. I don't have an exact day that we will be arriving, but everything has been expedited for overnight and to change to day to one day and so I'm I will continue to keep you all posted as soon as I have an actual date. But I would say it's going to be some time in the next week at the latest would be one week. So I don't I mean my own person playing and I don't think we need any more mailers per se. I mean that one's going to hit probably, you know, within two weeks of the vote or or November 2nd. I think the discussion that occurred was regarding a banner and whether we wanted to place any type of banner or something at five corners, which was, you know, visible to folks to remind them to vote. I think that that's that was what I wanted to start to throw out there as to whether we wanted to do that or not. I would say, yeah, as long as we have an informative banner that can say here is when the voting is here's what you're voting on. It makes sense to me. The more we can inform our community that there is a vote happening, the better off will be. And are you talking about Amber and Andrew just right out in front of to Lincoln? Or are you talking about over the dam? We also wanted a sky writer maybe. The balloons, all that stuff is not going to be ready. I was personally thinking in front of to Lincoln. I don't. I think the dam probably not. Yeah, I think the banner over the dam might be a little too much. We don't do that. We don't do that for normal elections. So I think it's too Lincoln like we normally do and like the town vote, they have it in front of 81 main. So. Yeah, maybe something in front of 81 main and something in front of the five quarters. Like a sandwich board outside saying, you know, but I think in front of 81 main might be a little provocative. Yeah, I think too. Well, that is where the that is where we are collecting them and where our city close. That is true. That is happens to happen to reside. So I don't see a real issue with having at least a sandwich board out there asking people to remember to vote. We certainly do it with our village water bills. I think I think no, maybe I'm wrong on that. That's probably too Lincoln. November 2nd, but I think we do. Okay, we could check. Evan, I don't know about others, but I can't hear anything you're saying. You guys can hear me. I think we have a vote banner that goes in front. Can you guys hear me? Yeah. I think we have a vote banner in the vault for 80 for to Lincoln. I don't know if it has a date, but we'll have to look at it. If not, I think the lead time is less than two weeks. I've got crayons. Got any spray paint? Yeah. Oh, I can do that now. So I will check tomorrow morning. But if that's what you guys want, we will try to get a banner here at to Lincoln and or something for five corners. Sounds good. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Two Lincoln and 81 May. Are there any other? Is there any other signage or other efforts the trustees would like made? I would like to share my appreciation for our bill, our voices volunteers who have been canvassing and ensuring that the community does know that the vote is coming up with with very informative materials. So I thank you for that. Yes. Yeah. Thank you to everyone. How about what do people think about enlisting the sign at CBE? I don't know if we want to pay for that. I believe in the past, they've done it, I believe for other for other votes out of the kindness of their hearts. Well, how about direct department down on the main maple tree? Yeah. We're happy to put signs up if you want them made. We could either make another banner. You can do lawn signs. We don't have a sandwich board, but we could probably get something. It's a heavily traveled route and the elementary school. I mean, you got ADL right there. So people, a lot of people are going by there frequently. So a great spot. So I think the general message is whatever is, you know, reasonable within the budget that is currently available. We want to make sure that the community knows about it. And I think it's safe to say would trust staff discretion about what is within the budget to help spread the message. I just do want to recognize that I do see that there are some hands up. Typically, we don't do public comment during the work session. Elaine, I assume it's a part of our village, our voices. Yeah. And I was going to alert you, Andrew, when you were just talking about our village, our voices, but Dan at his hand up that Elaine is available. If you wanted to just hear briefly about what their get out the vote efforts are, which are kind of happening in tandem with what you're talking about. Yes. I was going to ask if you would be willing to give an update from the our village or voices perspective. Perfect. I'd be happy to do that. Thank you very much for the request. I did pop my hand up because someone mentioned the CVE and we did reach out to the CVE to ask them if they would be willing to post signs signage about the vote and they respectfully declined from this vote in particular because of its controversial nature and they wish to remain completely neutral, which is understandable. So that will not be an option. I mean, that's a request from a private citizen. If the trustees wish to approach them, maybe they'll change their mind, but I that's what the response that we got from them. I just wanted to update you that our village, our voices has been really working incredibly hard in the last couple weeks, particularly when we discovered that the ballots were mailed a little sooner than we expected. And so at this time, we have personally contacted or at least provided material to over 2200 households in a six junction. We expect top 2500 in the next two to three days. And that's over 60% of all households in the entire village. So your mailer will be a great reinforcement of the message that we've already gotten out there. And we have been doing a great deal of social media outreach. We've started a front porch forum campaign. So everyone is pretty much aware that there's big stuff happening and folks have their ballots. They have now they have the information about the frequently asked questions and the website links. So your mailer will be a great reinforcement of that. And with the hope of having a really big turnout. Thank you so much Elaine and other volunteers for our village, our voices. I do appreciate a great week. You're very welcome. And thank you on behalf of all of us for the hard work you're doing to have gotten us this far. So, trustee is anything else on this? It sounds like there is already a lot going on. I'm good. So if there's nothing else from the work session, except for the executive session, then community, if you can bear with us for approximately 15 or so minutes, we are going to jump into another meeting. We'll have to make a formal motion for that. And I assume Evan Marguerite and I see, I think I saw Kristen audience here. Oh, and Claudine. Good morning, executive session handy. You want the language Andrew. Yeah. I think I think I've got it. Okay. So I move that the trustees make the specific finding that premature general public knowledge of the village's position. Currently concerning the proposed contract discussion would place the village at a substantial disadvantage. Second. Thank you, Amber. Thank you, Raj. Any further discussion on that motion hearing none of those in favor, please signify by saying aye. Opposed. Okay. And I move that the trustees enter into executive session to discuss potential contracts pursuant to one VSA section 313 a one a to include the trustees, the village attorneys. Unified manager. What else am I forgetting? Assistant manager. Assistant manager. Anybody else? Oh, and Brad look. Second. Thank you, Amber. Thank you, Dan. Any further discussion hearing none of those favorably signify by saying aye. Opposed. Great. Thank you all. So we'll be back again in about 15 or so minutes community and then we'll continue the meeting. Thank you for your patience as we went into executive session. One of the things that we have heard is we have her depreciation for not doing that during this process very frequently. And so just as a very brief summary, we have agreed not to make any changes to the shared financial services agreement at this time. And I believe that concludes our work session. Now bring us to business item 6 B consider charter revisions for the city of S extension. Yeah, so this is our your last and final opportunity to make any changes to the charter as trustees. Technically tomorrow is the last day, but this last time you're meeting. So I just, I think I'll just start by sharing my screen. There's one suggested change that came from the attorneys based on a conversation with Amber. Are you seeing the charter? Section 107. Yes, we are great. So you can see the language. That's there's some language that's been struck out. And so removing the words during the transition period, changing the lowercase t to a capital T and removing the word higher and replacing it with the word employed. Okay. And Amber, I don't know if you want to provide a quick comment on why you suggested this. But that's the only current recommended change at least from legal and staff. No comment Fred. Okay. So the summary was that it was that the city may the village or city may hire a manager prior to the transition period. And so this just more accurately reflects that they may be employing a manager and not simply hiring. Sounds good. Are there any other suggested edits from any of the trustees? So this is not the version that's in the packet. Correct. This, this is the version without the strike through and the highlighted. No other for me. And so Brad, just for clarity, the only difference between what was in the packets and what you're showing now is that yellow highlight and the crossed out portions. Everything else is the exact same. Correct. Great. Just want to make sure for transparency's sake. But there are no further revisions. It would just be recommended that we have this motion and I can pull up the language so somebody can specify what's changing. Amber, since you've asked for the change, do you have that? Are you ready to make that motion? Yeah, Brad, can you put back up the highlight? I've got the motion in front of me. So I move that the trustees make the following revision to the charter for the city of Essex Junction that was approved on September 14th, which is amending section 107 to remove during the in the first sentence during the transition period to end the word hire. Thus the first sentence would read the city council shall employ a city manager. Thank you, Amber. Is there a second? I'll second. Thank you, George. Trustees, is there any further discussion on that motion? Hearing none. All those in favor, please signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? That passes unanimously and trustees after almost six months of work, the charter's done. Good job. Take a moment. Give yourselves a pat on the back. Thank our staff. Thank our community. Couldn't have gotten to this point without everybody involved, so thank you all. Maybe this could be a side business for us. We could, you know, you know, charters are us, something like that. I like that. So many, so many things. All right. Well, thank you for that, Brad. With that, I believe we are now on to 6C, the Chittendon County Regional Planning Commission, annual report. And Mr. Charlie Baker. Good evening all congratulations on that. I know a lot of work went into that. So this is my annual check in with the trustees. I'm really a customer service call, wanting to make sure that we're providing the services that you expect of us as your regional planning commission. I think you got our report in your packet. And I know you had a few other things in there that may have caused you to spend more time. So I'll review the report real quickly and kind of pause after each section and ask for any feedback. The first section is really just background that we're a political subdivision who our board is made up of and that we leverage municipal dues to bring in state and federal funds at the bottom. Are your representatives? I want to thank Dan and Andrew and Robin and Chelsea for being very active participants in our process. And I'm still on the first page. Charlie, can I can actually hold you up right there for a moment? At a previous meeting we had actually appointed Elaine Haney as our as our alternate. She's the alternate in this fiscal year. So this is looking backwards. I think when you were the alternate. So thank you. And yes, we know Elaine has been actively participating as your alternate in the month since then. So thank you for that. And thank you. Yes. And thank you for that mindset as to going to the previous year. I'm with you now. We are still working on our ability to communicate because it's often a confusion, a point of confusion. On the second section on the next page are specific things that we did with the village last year started work on the revisions of the land development code. Stormwater work, emergency management work, ground fields and happy to take any feedback positive or negative on any of those specific projects. My feedback is all positive. All positive. And I appreciate your work and your expertise on all of these things. Thank you, George. Appreciate that. You guys are in a positive mood tonight. Excellent. Move on. The next section is on the next page there. I don't know who's scrolling, but yet shows you got a couple of projects in our transportation improvement program, which mirrors V Transes capital program. The gravel wetlands and the pressing connector. Finally, so glad to see those both moving forward. And I don't know if you have any feedback or anything you want me to look into those. I'm sure you probably are getting more detailed updates than I am on some of those. Cannot appreciate enough. All of the assistance, especially with the pressing connector. It's been a little while. It's been about 10 years since we pulled the, we as a state pulled the plug on the search. So here we are. Here we are. In the next section, you have one project in our current work program, which is the phase two of the stormwater pipe inspections. So that's going along. And then the last section is a variety of regional activities that we undertake without regard to any specific municipality. I'll just call out a few of them. Just a highlighter for you. One is legislative forum. We try to do that every early December. And so this is kind of a heads up. If you have any topics, you know, I don't know, something like charter change that you want us to bring up. And I'm joking about that. We don't usually talk about any town specific charter changes in our meetings. We're usually talking about more global issues. But if you have other things that are on your mind that we should bring up with the legislature in this session, please let us know. This has been a very interesting time with all the ARPA money flowing. So let us know if there's anything on your mind. The next topic there, public engagement and racial equity. We have brought on a creative discourse, the creative discourse group. I think maybe they've done some work either in the town or village there. We're kind of doing some internal work now and appreciate the opportunity. We've also been gathering some feedback from our municipalities of just kind of making sure we have a good understanding of what's going on, you know, a variety of conversations going on in different municipalities. So that, you know, as we're doing things internally, we'll also with one eye towards being of assistance to our towns if we can, you know, with any best practices. So, and we are also hosting an equity summit on November 6. That's not actually in the report, but just looking forward. And you probably, I hope you received an invite to that on Friday from Emma. Let me know if you did not. I see Andrew shaking his head. No, thank you. We will follow up on that and make sure that it actually did get to you all. Sorry, just jotting a note on that. Thank you. But for the November 6 summit, you know, we're trying to make an extra effort to invite BIPOC community residents and, you know, invite them to help us figure out what would be most helpful in terms of addressing issues of inequity. And then the other one mentioned is the Building Homes Together campaign. You may have seen a little bit of press. We ended the five years of the first campaign and we are kind of having discussions right now and open for input on anything that we ought to focus on in the next five year program or initiative. Clearly, our housing market is really not that healthy. You know, it's been good. I think if you've been a property owner, you got some good appreciation over the last few months or last couple years. But there's still a lot to do to make our housing market healthy in terms of healthy vacancy rates and just the cost distribution of our housing. So happy to get any feedback on that. You have some? The only thing I would say to that, Charlie, and it's certainly a great effort. We all know that the rental housing market is nowhere near healthy. We have too few vacancies. So we certainly do need more rental housing, but it seemed as if the focus was just on rental housing and not the ability to have our community generate wealth through home ownership. Which, as we know, that's generally the most significant way that community members can generate wealth to pass on to their heirs, if you will. Wondering if the next iteration may be a little more than just rental housing and or if my understanding has been wrong. Well, I will blame our ability to communicate. We were trying to be much more inclusive and including ownership and rental in the first campaign. So when you see that we built, you know, more than 3,600 homes in the last five years, that did include I think probably the majority or close to a majority of them were ownership. So it is meant to be inclusive and not just focus on rental, but and you bring up a good point. Of course, in terms of equity, you know, certainly home ownership rates amongst the BIPOC community is nowhere near what it is for the white community. And so that is a significant part of the equity work. I think moving forward to just to knit a couple of these things together. And feel free to share any other thoughts that occur to you on what we should be focused on for the next round of that campaign. And I don't know. There's a lot of other things. Energy planning. We did just hire an energy project manager with some of the funding that state legislature provided to us for this fiscal year. So it's not mentioned in this update here because this is, of course, looking backwards, but going forward, if you have energy projects that you're trying to move forward and don't really have staff capacity for. We, thanks to the state legislature, do have some staff capacity to help move projects forward. So please be in touch if we can help with anything. It's a fun fact actually. It's and Janda. And Janda is who they hired. I'm just saying they did some work for us six about a year ago. That's right. That's right. They all know who it is. That's interesting. That's good. Absolutely. She knows a little bit about how towns work. So and I think I'll I guess one other thing I'll mention is I'm looking at all these topics here at the bottom of page seven. We are in the process of updating a comprehensive economic development strategy for the region. We had done one a few years ago and in conversation with the Economic Development Administration in DC. They there were only a few counties in Vermont that weren't covered by a comprehensive economic development strategy. And so we've partnered up with them, which is if you read this paragraph, you'll see it includes Addison County, Rutland County and Central Vermont region, Washington County area. And so we're we've banded together to work on a combined economic development strategy, which will mean the whole state is covered with economic development strategies. And this is kind of a precursor to being able to bring economic development administration funds into our region. So if you have economic development projects that you're thinking about moving forward or that need to move forward. This is please let us know so we can make sure it's in that economic development strategy and make sure that when you want to get funding, we can help support you get funding from out of the economic development administration. And at that I think I'll leave it and have it take any open up to any questions or feedback on any of those or other items. Thank you as always Charlie I mean the the CCRPC is a fantastic partner. We appreciate all that you do for the village with our staff. I have have no points of criticism whatsoever. And and frankly I also appreciate I believe I saw an email forwarded to us from Evan just either today or yesterday about some ARPA uses of funds and some some ARPA updates. So just I can I really appreciate you ensuring that we know all that we need to know and keeping us in the loop. So so thank you. Yeah we are trying and I think somebody said it takes a village somewhere but we really appreciate you know working with all of you and your staff have been great to work with you so really appreciate it. Trustees any other any comments questions concerns for Charlie. No I'm good thank you. And or staff sorry I don't mean to leave you out. Well Charlie thank you for sticking around and appreciate you being here as always. Yeah thank you guys have a good night. Thank you you too. Thanks Charlie. And that will bring us into our next agenda item to consider the approval of the winter operations plan. Is Dennis still with us. I'm still with you. I saw him I saw him on you've been Dennis you've been very quiet. I'm going to. No problem with that. Jump in at your show. OK it'll be real real short. Every year we've done this winter operations plan. I think most people know this is probably the last plan that I'll present. Irrespective of what happens with regard to the upcoming vote. The pitch I will make is that I think this document is a worthwhile document for both the town and the village. It is very easy to split apart if in fact that would occur. The first section is very general and. Is something that's I think really important as far as just general. Operation and training for the employees as well as general public knowledge. The town has its own section the village has its own section so those can be fairly easily preserved with just a little bit of work in the future. It does provide the public with an idea of what we're doing why we're doing it. It also links the the trustees and the select board to the crew. You know we follow as close as we can what the plan is. If we have complaints it's a lot easier to go to the plan and say this is the plan that's been approved by our elected officials and we're working within the context context of the plan. It takes a lot of the misinformation out of it. We can direct people to the appropriate section and we're often running. There aren't many changes in this year's plan. There's a few in the town but very very few in the village. There is one that is not in the copy that was provided to you and I would ask that if you consider approval of the document that you add this to that approval. One of the select board members noticed that there was an error in the document. In a number of places we talk about the cost of replacing mailboxes and if we were to hit one and the homeowner said well I'll replace it myself I just want the money to replace it. In one place it showed forty five dollars in the other place it showed fifty. Based upon that phone call I did some checks with our local big box dealers and found that in today's market. Prices for lumber and prices for the mailbox have gone up and at the low end of the price market if we were to and we do get a small discount at the municipal level. But if we bought the standard metal mailbox the standard post that goes with it with the frame were up over seventy two dollars in terms of costs for the homeowner and the select board approved the change so that we would reimburse homeowners. If we were to hit it we'll replace it on our own we'll go out there and put one up we'll get them and do that if they have a special mailbox or they want to do it themselves. Our recommendation is that it be changed to reimbursement of seventy five dollars so that it's that cost for the homeowner. If in fact that's the route they want to go doesn't include their services to put it up but at least it would pay for all the materials so that's that's about the only change that you don't see in the document. Again there are two versions there's an internal version which we use which has all our key phone numbers police contacts that is internal for internal use only the copy that's posted on the web page and that you get is the external version. It's essentially the same document in fact it is the same document with all those contact numbers radio call signs and other items taken out. That's to protect our employees and to protect that communication network that we need to keep things running. Other than that I can answer any questions we're still under you know we're still subject to covid so we kept the same scheme we had in last year for kind of the red yellow green notification. The intent would be that we hope to make it through the entire winter green could be the village has a problem could be the town has a problem if we do. We'll put that up on the web pages and show how it's changed and the document pretty well describes what happens if we have to switch to a yellow or red. We're still under the red following version in terms of that. Dennis seven it while it's not necessarily in the plan can you also touch upon salt and purchase of salt this year. Yeah that's that's come up we've been desperately and not just the village and the town but almost every community around us and almost every community in Vermont has been trying to get updated prices on salt by this time of the year the states had its price posted. We've had all the vendors we usually have three different vendors that we deal with we have their prices. We have contract signed we're ready to go. None of us have seen a price statewide that I'm aware of as of yesterday. None of us have a contract. So at this point we don't know about the availability of salt or the cost of the product. My guess is with in the past that with the cost of oil going up and fuel going up that we'll see the cost of salt go up. The states in a little better situation than we are VTrans is because they buy their salt and the year ahead and have storage facility to store the entire year. Most of the rest of us do not so we do have some storage both the village and the town but generally not enough for the entire year. So that's something that we know we're going to have to buy more at this point we just don't know what that price is going to be. We'll have to figure that as it goes but it's just very late in the season we're well into October and no price for a basic material that commodity that we need to essentially do our job. So with that my request is that you approve the document that is for both the town and the village at this point and that you include the increase on the mailbox replacement cost to $75. Thank you for that Dennis and that sounds like quite the tricky situation with regards to to salt definitely is something our community uses a fair amount of. We've been there before. Yep. So trustees any any questions comments concerns. No I just want to reiterate thank you Dennis for the effort and the organizational and the effort that went into this I appreciate it. We all appreciate it. Thank you. If somebody wanted to make the motion. I would entertain that. I will make a motion that the trustees approve the winter operation plan for 2020 to 2021. After hearing any input and it will include the amendment to the mailbox policy. Second. Thank you George. Thank you Rajani for the discussion hearing none. All those in favor please signify by saying aye. Aye. Aye. Anybody opposed. All right. Thank you all passing unanimously. Dennis thank you again. Thank you very much. Good night all. Good night. Good night. And so 6E will be an executive session 6F Raj you've had asked for the minutes of September 27th. If it's possible for someone to share those. I'd be appreciated. I did email Evan the change earlier so you could forward them on to whoever is I don't know who's doing minutes tonight to make it easier. But on line 140. After the word document. To add or change as the tree farm relationship between the village and town will continue regardless of village separation. It's pretty minor but the intent is different. That's it. You know I sent that on to Tammy because I wasn't aware who was going to be doing minutes tonight. So we have it sounds great. Thanks. I'm just trying to make it easier. And what line was that Raj? Line 140. Of the of the January of the September 27th. Number 28. 28 maybe. 27. 27 because it's. That's this is correct. So line for 140 after the word document is where the changes. And what was your proposal. After the word document as the tree farm relationship between the village and town will continue regardless of village separation. And that would replace the as this is an undecided issue. Right. Cool. Press these questions. Common concerns. If not. And I'd entertain a motion. I'll move that we accept the minutes as amended. Second. Thank you, Raj. Thank you, George. Any further discussion? Hearing none of those in favor, please signify by saying aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Yes, we've since it isn't in this vote, I have to do a roll call since we're doing a hybrid meeting. So, Andrew, I vote aye. Hi. Amber. Hi. George, Hi. Dan? Abstain. Great. Thank you all. And that will bring us into the consent agenda. Somebody wanted to make the motion to approve the consent agenda. I'll make a motion to approve the consent agenda. second. Thank you, George. And we'll give that one to Amber. Any further discussion on that motion? Hearing none. All those in favor, please signify by saying aye. Aye. Aye. Opposed? All right. Pass unanimously. And on to the reading file. Board member and staff comments. Amber, go right ahead. I have a question. Back in September we approved on the consent agenda for the new public nuisance ordinance. What is the effective date of that? Do we know? Was that approved? Was it effective as of approval? Uh-uh, no. I can... Is it 60 days? Yeah, 60 days for an appeal, exactly. We haven't heard anything yet, but it was, you know, we did put it out. It had to be put out within 14 days, basically, of that approval. So we worked and that has been published and posted. And so just in that waiting period to see if we hear anything where there needs to be an appeal or somebody wants to appeal, etc. Okay. Anything yet? Is there a plan as a follow-up to that? Is there a plan to communicate? I mean, a large portion of this conversation was driven by the garbage truck issue. Is there any... Is there plan to communicate that to the haulers that we had communicated with previously, at least? We mentioned that to Robin Pierce that he should be reaching out out to them. Yeah, that's a good point. Well, that's a good idea to follow up and let them know on the 60 day part. So... Yeah, that's just obviously just a comment as I was listening to the trucks dumping at 5 o'clock in the morning. You're counting down the days, is that? I am counting the days and I didn't bring up this issue. Yeah, we'll send a reminder for Robin at least so he knows. Thank you. I thought we were communicating through the solid waste district or something. I thought we did that. We have. I was just saying we might, you know, at 60 days when it's now effective, it wouldn't be a bad idea to just make sure they know. Thank you, Amber. Thank you, Marguerite. The only other thing I wanted to add, based on some of the comments, emails, someone on so forth I've had over the past weekend, I wanted to address just a couple points with regards to separation initiative and this during the work session. There's been some confusion about the police department in the town office and why the village doesn't own those or why we are contracting with the town for police services instead of it being provided by the by the village or city and why the why we don't own the town offices. Basically, the short answer to both of those is both of those departments buildings land are owned by the town of Essex. Those are not owned by the village of Essex junction. So since we don't own those entities, we don't determine what happens with them. So with the police department, we are entering into a car trying to enter into a contract for those services with the owner of that department, which is the town of Essex. So it is not a private entity that owns that land. And that also means we cannot kick out the police department, nor does this board wants to. And at the same time, we do not own the land the town offices are on. So we cannot kick them out nor has this board expressed any interest in doing so. So I hope that that helps to alleviate any questions or concerns about the police department and the town office as again, the village does not own those. Those are owned by the town of Essex. Well, not un-similar to Burlington owning the airport in South Wellington, but not exactly the same. No, it's not the same thing. All right. If there are no other questions, comments, concerns, then you need to go to Business Item 6E and the Executive Session. All right, Andrew, my computer just crashed. No worries. I'm getting there. I got it here. So I'll make the motion of the trustees make this specific finding that premature general public knowledge of the village's position concerning the proposed contract discussion would place the village at a substantial disadvantage. So can I give a second? Second. Thank you, Rob. Any further discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor, please signify by saying aye. Post. Great. Second motion. I move that the trustees enter into Executive Session to discuss potential contracts and the employment of public employees pursuant to one VSA, Section 313A1A, and Section 313A3 to include the trustees. Second. Thank you, Raj. Any further discussion on that motion? Hearing none. All those in favor, please signify by saying aye. Aye. Anybody opposed? Great. So thank you all for joining tonight. Appreciate all of your comments, questions, concerns, Andrew. See you at our next meeting. Evan, Marguerite, enjoy your evening. So, Mr. Brown, we are you are not coming back into session, correct? So the meeting will be ending and even town TV can go home. Everybody can go home, except for George. You guys all enjoy it. Good night, Evan and Marguerite. Thank you. Good night, everybody. So, trustees, let's say 835, take a few minute break.