 great so oh the first thing is John all right I guess I'm swearing everybody in so there are two oaths you know I could get all of you the ones for the second talk to do the mayor separately you go over there for the photo okay we're welcome supposedly the sound is off do you solemnly swear or firm that you will be true faithful to the state of Vermont and that you will not directly or indirectly do any actual thing in jurors to the Constitution or government thereof so help you God or under the paints and penalties of surgery I don't know I just got text from former employee Jamie saying oh she says it's on now do you solemnly say thank you for him that you will faithfully execute the office of member for the city of Montpelier and will there and do equal right and justice to all persons to the best of your judgment and ability according to law so help you God or under the paints and penalties of perjury you all are sworn in do you solemnly swear or firm that you will faithfully execute the office of mayor for the city of Montpelier and will there and do equal right and justice to all persons to the best of your judgment and ability according to law so help you God or under the paints and penalties of perjury I do okay thank you and so now on to the agenda so the first thing is to call them meeting to order and reviewing and approving the agenda we I think are not taking up item 15 the downtown master plan and well actually so we have an item that's an appointment to the homelessness task force which since the person has rescinded their application I assume you will not be doing that item either and so any further amendments to the agenda okay so on to general business and appearances and I'm actually going to take the first spot here and then I'll explain how how this works so I just wanted to start out by reading a statement that the city has regarding the coronavirus COVID-19 we've certainly been getting a lot of questions about that so hopefully this is clarifying so the city has been working with the state's Department of Health and energy management or emergency management department to closely monitor the emerging coronavirus health crisis in health emergencies of this magnitude the state departments and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention the CDC are the primary agencies for accountable accountable for response the city has been putting in place plans and response to the coronavirus the city's main focus is how to mitigate impact to core vital services protect staff and residents in their interactions with the city services and how to best support city employees through expanding access to sick sick leave the city has put an extra place put in place extra cleaning policies where staff have been asked to add disinfecting their work spaces to their daily tasks depending on the severity of this unfolding health crisis the city may need to reprioritize services and could consider canceling public a big public events prioritizing the roads being plowed which is whether dependent or other services staff will continue to meet weekly for the foreseeable future to ensure city plans are current and thorough we have already postponed some events at the senior center the march for meals fundraiser and the rummage sale as we know that it serves a more vulnerable population this situation is ever changing so the city will be putting weekly response updates in the weekly report of which is available online and through frequent social media updates we've also made a web page available compiling the most accurate resources for the public available under the community tab on our websites home page banner and as a reminder the CDC has prepared some simple steps you can take to protect yourself surfaces and objects that you interact with need to be wiped with disinfectant regularly ensure that you are washing your hands thoroughly and regularly washing kills the virus on your hands and prevents the spread of COVID-19 also avoid touching your eyes nose and nose and mouth make sure you are practicing good respiratory hygiene cough or sneeze into disposable tissue or your elbow and wash your hands afterwards if you develop a cough or low-grade fever which is 99 degrees Fahrenheit or more you need to stay home and recover so that is all that I have that we have to at least the city had to say about that at this point and you know as things develop we'll update that information so thank you and then so general business and appearances the way this typically works is that this is an opportunity for any member of the public to address the council on a topic that is otherwise not on our agenda and if you would say your name and where you live and try to keep your comments to about two minutes or less that'd be great any comments from the public okay all right moving on so on to the consent agenda is there a motion or any discussion move the consent agenda second and any amendments yes no sorry just second I just like any discussion I just wondered if indeed there's any change in the status with the virus that some parades might be canceled well that's potentially that's a big event that might I think fall under that category so that's just I guess mindful when people are getting this okay so we we've people have been asking about that and we've said you know we're not in a position yet to necessarily shut down we haven't been guided by the state health department but we've also told people it's possible that could happen but we also don't want to be in a situation particularly I think one of these is for August when perhaps the threat may have passed and then they don't have time to get all their stuff in order so we said you know plan but understand that it could be canceled and people have been very understanding about that and as the mayor mentioned we're having emergency team meeting every Friday and evaluating all these types of things actually what we're on that topic even though it's not really a good sentence just want to add something that's happened since the statement was prepared it's just minor but just so people know there's a meeting I think tomorrow of all the regional police chiefs and another meeting coming up next week of all the regional water and sewer plant people just to talk about sharing people if necessary and backing everybody up so that nobody is left with those services so communities are rallying to the cause any further discussion on the consent agenda all in favor please say aye opposed okay so we have some orientation so for this I will turn over to the city manager well I don't have much for general orientation what I will say two things one is we put your handbook maybe if you have seen this before it is very similar to prior years but it has got new you know as we've had staff changes so it has the latest names and numbers and emails there are a few things that have changed slightly over the course of the year and we've tried to update those as much as possible it's for the newer members there's the you know the open meeting laws in here the public records law a certain advice there's a lot of our procedural things so rather than go through all of them even though I did threaten to read this entire book I would call the attention really to sort of pages 9 through 15 I guess which which kind of walks through and short steps the way we handle certain things and then if there are questions as things come up from there happy to take them don't need that now one of the things we'll talk about more under the strategic planning but there's also a conclusion of some meeting guidelines from roles of different people on pages 20 21 these were things drawn up by a prior city council a couple years ago and I think reenacted two years ago our own the communication guidelines and actually starts on page 19 I'm sorry the group norms policy development process so we are going to suggest that we hold a workshop meeting sometime pretty soon just to it doesn't have to be super long but to go through these with this group of seven makes to either change them update them reaffirm them and just talk through roles that would be something in years past we did it with the consultant with the strategic planning but we think this year we'll do it separately and just so when we're talking about dates for strategic planning we might also want to be thinking about a date for this maybe even pretty quickly and again I don't think this is a four hour meeting or anything but I also don't think it's that we want to do on a regular meeting night unless you want to do it tonight we'll talk more about that yeah so that's really about I'll have for orientation I've got regular meeting scheduled up with with Jay with Dan Lauren the mayor and the other three pop in on me whenever so happy to happy to do orientations individually we will be trying to schedule tours usually we try to provide tours for the new members but we let everybody know because sometimes either somebody missed an event last year just wants to go back and see a facility again and we may actually even have some new staff that wants to hop on board as well so you want to go to the poll again well we'll do that with video all new council that's a requirement you have to go down the firepole that's that's the other part of the vow the oath right you didn't put that in you're not actually fully a member until you've gone down the firepole all right so any questions on the handbook or any other aspect of the orientation okay and just as a topic of the tours how are we going to go about scheduling those do you think I would probably put Jasmine in charge of getting in touch with Dan and Jay as the primary tour people and schedule them with them and then let everyone else know okay that's at least how we have done it previously is that the newer people other priority but then anyone can jump on that makes sense okay okay so we'll expect those those emails okay so any other comments about this okay great moving on then to the ethics policy so this is for the city council and we do you have any comments on that bill only that we do adopt this ethics policy formally it's not changed much in recent years but we still make it a practice of putting it on this first agenda every year so that there's a record that this particular group of seven sigh read it agreed to it and has you know accepted it as their rules obviously it can be amended or updated and you have a couple of times over the years done that but and of course you can always bring it up later too but it's these are the ethics policy I think as you can see we first adopted it in 1999 it's been coming through ever since we have one piece in here that mentions when someone speaks that we recognize by the chair and I'll require to state their name and address and that sometime has been hard to get people to do but I do think it's helpful to know what district they're from so we get a sense of where the certain opinions line where we're missing some I think you might be in the rules rules of procedure oh I'm sorry that's okay it's coming up this is mostly regarding conflicts of interest well it's so it's not well it is it's in the book but it's also in the it's also on in the agenda so just on the ethics policy and you comments counter yeah I just want to note that I should have I should have said this beforehand but under section 4 C's public body should be bolded just like the rest of oh right got it we'll take care of that meaningful is there a second okay further discussion yes yes I just wanted to mention that I don't know how many people are are watching the meeting on television but during the last several months there's been public discussion about allegations of bribery and claims that the city ethics policy has no enforceable prohibition on bribery and I just wanted to mention that it's actually a crime under Vermont law for someone to bribe up or attempt to bribe a public official or for a public official or officer to accept a bribe and so the idea that there's no effective prohibition on bribery is is just false and it's important to say that I'm sure that everyone on the council and city employees take these principles very seriously thank you for raising that okay any further discussion okay all in favor please say aye opposed great all right and so now we are on to the rules of procedure so don't you want to revisit your point I feel like I interrupted you but anyway it's okay worth on that page 24 where it talks it's number four the members must be recognized by the chair and are required to state their name and address and I think it's helpful it doesn't you don't have to tell me nine pine Street but least pine Street so I know where you are district-wise and it does confirm whether somebody lives in town or doesn't I prefer we do that so by address you're hoping for people's street name yeah not town but address but maybe that isn't how everybody else interprets it so that's part of my question it seems like that would be helpful to know particularly if you know to know whose district the person is speaking from other thoughts on that I agree with that I think it's helpful to know where people are coming from when they speak and obviously there's nothing in here that requires that only people who are residents of Montpelier speak and people should not get the impression that they have to live here in order to to address the council we're open to anyone who's has views they want to share with us yeah any other comments on these rules ask a clarifying question when we talk about number four this would seem to apply to not only the general public session but then whenever there's open public comments such as if we're discussing an ordinance or such we would we would seek that sort of a den of identifying information I don't have a problem with it as a practice and certainly as a rule of procedure it's something that can be enforced or not you know I'm ultimately concerned that people have an opportunity to speak and I think that this is a good discussion because it underlines that it's not it it's helpful for everyone to understand is this a resident speaking about something that they're personally impacted by or is this somebody you know from out of town who may have some insight into this you know where they're coming from in the context so you know I just want to make sure that understanding when we would ask them for their their addresses as opposed to somebody who's sitting and presenting who we kind of already know why they're here and why they're presenting making that a requirement a rule of procedure that makes sense yes so we would ask this of anybody speaking to the council on even if it's not during general business appearances but just on any item on anything you uniformly in in force so that it's not just not just some but all yeah Jack but I think that if the city in fact has a as an engineer who's doing work for us and if they come and say I'm me from such and such an engineering firm I think that's an adequate identification it actually makes me wonder if we should amend that to say like or their affiliation with the city right that's actually I think a fair point because you know if this person is coming up to speak as the engineer not as the resident of Pine Street unless we're defining the audience is not including that right but I don't know that it's do it would we like to amend it to say something like that or do you want to just understand that that's how we're interpreting it yeah I'm comfortable just adopting it as is I think of anything some of these smaller nitpicks might be something that we can think about down the line and it may be something we can always amend if we choose to in whole I would be loath to just take this one line and change it when there might be other sections and it might make more sense to just have a review as part of our orientation as we get our feet under us as a new council sounds good Donna so we have this made up and it's attached to the mic here I don't know there's one on the table but it actually says introduce yourself name where you live and so sometimes we do get a lot more towns that way versus address so maybe we want to change this to match here or that would make sense yeah okay sounds good all right any further comments about the rules of procedure that we adopt the city council rules of procedure as as originally adopted 1963 and as last amended in March of 2014 I'll second further discussion I'll in favor please say aye I opposed okay so now we need to elect some officers from within the city council so typically there is a council president vice president and parliamentarian of the council Jack I nominate Donna bait to be council president are you willing to okay so there's a any other nominations I'll just point out as the current parliamentarian seconds are not required for thank you wow that's his campaign speech for parliamentary fair enough okay well so I think we should probably vote on each of these individually any other nominations for president okay so there was a motion didn't need a second all in favor please say aye opposed congratulations on thank you and vice president Jack are you willing to be okay any other nominations okay all in favor please say I oppose thank you Jack all right and then we do not need a second for nominations so parliamentarian I would nominate Dan Richardson you willing to serve I am willing to serve okay any other any other nominations yeah unless Connor really wants to be okay no other nominations so all in favor please say aye I opposed okay thank you Dan okay so I think that is it for this item so just so we're clear like in case the you know president or in case I'm out president leads the meeting because we're both out the vice president leads the meeting in case all all three of us are out then the parliamentarian I see I assume leads the meeting but I don't know I'm not sure about that that prospect yeah no I think you'd have to know the Secretary of Agriculture at that point okay well we'll just we'll hold that that doesn't happen maybe John Odin come up that one up for you all right so now to committee appointments that's my favorite part okay so we have a number of boards or committees that the council has typically had some kind of representation on either through a council member or through some kind of staff or resident representative and so we I think we just need to go through this one row at a time and see like who is interested in you know are you interested in continuing to serve on that board who else might be interested in just take it one step at a time here so hopefully you have a sense of what you are interested in even at this point so Americans with disabilities committee Jack what's your thought on that I've been on it for a couple of years I'm happy to stay on it okay anyone else interested okay so you're willing to stay on all right so the building code appeals committee yes I can in our building code if people have an appeal if they're not happy with a decision of the building inspector they may appeal it and it's a basically the folks that you see here two council members actually two council members and a resident the resident has been Jeff Stetter for a long time we haven't actually re-advertised it for a period of time which is something I could also consider and then we have our staff two staff people that deal with the building codes so if somebody you know can do that we used to this used to be a somewhat active committee for seeking sprinkler variances but since we relaxed the sprinkler requirements a couple years ago it has been a pretty non-active committee but nonetheless if someone were to you know if Chris Lumber says you can't have this deck or this rail is inappropriate and someone wanted to appeal that then we need a local board to be able to hear that appeal it is it is listed in the in our ordinances that we have it so it's and so we haven't had council representation or Glenn and Rosie were our last two reps and I don't I think the way we left it last year was if we needed if we actually had a meeting and we needed a second one besides Glenn we would try to recruit somebody at the time anyone interested in serving on this as we've done I am any notes Lauren okay great thank you no anyone else interested okay great thank you and it also occurs to me that we should probably check in with Jeff Stetter right just to make sure that he's still there's I think there's two questions one is Jeff still interested in to does the kind nothing against Jeff but does the council want to put it out to the community again or you know is this Jeff appointed for life for it's the one office yeah doesn't meet very often at all I think it's probably right for us to put it out to just see who's interested and you know Jeff can yeah say he's still interested yeah okay Bill do you happen to know what chapter of the ordinances this is in it's in whatever I don't it's the building code whatever the section is the building codes and there's just a short section at the end that says board of appeals well in our ordinance review I don't think we've gotten to that yet but it might be when when we get to that point we might want to consider setting a length of term yeah it's good yeah all the building regulations are chapter four oh so we passed it yeah okay well we can we can go okay okay okay capital improvement plan committee so in the past we do you want do you want to say this part so in the past we have put new council members on this committee because it's a kind of a nice introduction to a lot of the work that city does so I don't know if you're interested I would certainly step down it's a very when they hasn't meant for a while we didn't meet this year that was it will be back next year but it's so educational on roads and what we do and why we do it that I think it's really good for new council members yeah for anybody who hasn't been on it before I'd be happy to yeah especially if this is the the rookie committee well so what it is just to be clear it's good for getting to know projects so in that case it's good but it is also what what we do is we draft our capital plan and all the various projects and where we propose to spend the capital money and this group usually meets in a pretty concentrated times it's usually like two weeks in a row in November as we're forming the budget so it's it's not a year round unless every now and then we might have a meeting in the middle of the summer to go over maybe water and sewer projects or something but really it's to preview that budget and make sure that that's where the city's priorities are and and then when the budget gets recommended to the council as a whole it's with the recommendation of that committee on a council as a whole can still change it but it's been vetted at least by three people and we just because of the way the budget went this year we didn't do that but we we should and it will be back so I am also a listed to be on that committee I would love to stay but unless there's other folks who would like to serve on that committee okay great alright central public safety authority I feel like I should let Donna speak to this a little bit well I'm no longer appointed by the council I actually ran for at-large to represent Barry and Montaigneur and there's a mistake on this list is that Kim Cheney is also an at-large right so right now Montaigneur does not have any representation on this board and it should have two appointments whether that's council members or in staff members from the public safety services and so actually one question there would be do you think that well actually the blitz start with this any council members interested in serving on that committee that board okay so one possibility is do you do you think that Tony would have any interest or any other city staff might be I mean you know thinking about how Donna bait not Donna Barlow Casey you know serving as the council's rep to this management board thinking about the possibility of a staff in the past yeah we can get back to you I think in the past I mean our staff members have been very active in this group I think in the past we've been reluctant to put staff people in what is a policymaking board particularly when it was talking about potentially blending dispatch services or public safety services so that these these folks would be making decisions on their their own employee type things and I still honestly have that reservation I think it would be better to have you know citizen representation that's what this is but obviously with us providing technical expertise but that said we can I'd be happy to talk to our folks you know obviously Chief Fakas is only here till June and I'm not sure he has interest in doing it as a private citizen maybe he does but I don't think so it's possible we've had that conversation and I don't know about Chief Gowens or who else but we can certainly check and see but I think I'd like to talk about it with our folks I'm not sure how I feel I just point out that other regional systems do have actually most of the regional dispatches are for far and they have their chiefs on on the board and we had initially thought you'd have the general citizen tree elected like you do in a council when it was becoming and you had all this administrative aspects to deal with in all the towns or buy-in but now we're like into a needs assessment and it's much more into expertise and so and it's hard for sometimes the chiefs to make it a priority without also being I think at the table being able to vote for decisions so I get that and I agree with you that it's changed somewhat where the authority is at now in that it's talking about this particular project nonetheless I think you're talking about people that would be voting to put potentially voting to put money articles on a ballot and you know that may or may not be inconsistent with what the city councils in those communities might want you know I it's it's just I want to think that one through okay so and in the meanwhile we should be seeing if we can we should advertise and see if we get people in the meantime we can talk about having staff people just for the public safety authority is meeting on the 19th to look at vendors there were some really very substantial vendors it's a hard decision which one to choose to do this telecommunication need assessment and so we were offered some individuals one from Barry one from Montpellier I hope that maybe Fred and Joe are there and likewise there's going to be a recommendation coming from your joint community yes there will be the the city our cities proposed our preferred vendor and Barry had some questions so we're trying to work that out so that it's a single recommendation and then the two staff people would be there to assist the committee and be liaisons with there are there to help make the choice they're there to once the choice is made to work as liaisons with each department with the the contractor with the authority okay so we're going to probably revisit that one at a later point Center Vermont Regional Planning Commission all right what's your thought I'm not actually on the Commission I'm on their tack their transportation group and that's where I would prefer to be next one down yes and not the Commission but so then do we need someone who's on the I think Marcella is actually Marcella dad yeah we used to have somebody from the Planning Commission our Planning Commission to be on the Regional Planning Commission's Commission it's a good conduit of information what is Marcella on the planning committee I think she is she I know she's our rep I had to go present to them one night and she was there as much as she's resigned no as far as I know she's still the rep okay is anyone else interested in serving on the Regional Planning Commission's transportation committee nope okay and you're still going to do that on the transportation on their commission yeah alright Center Vermont solid waste management district yeah so I've been the appointee it turned out the meeting time just does not work for me so I know that Donna had stopped up for now from staff and has a lot of expertise in this but I don't continuing it is challenging like even just just because I know it's really hard to make any meeting so if she's unavailable or if it turns out that's too much burden for her which we were concerned about and I would say that we advertise pretty extensively for public participation this and got no applicants so do we need if we have Donna serving on this then do we need a council no we just we doesn't ever have to be a council we've had non-council members what's typically been the case actually as we've had a council member be the alternate and the resident you know remember Mia Moore was our resident for a long time and then we had Alan Cheney was our rep for a long time and and then so we have not had a staff person although Donna is uniquely is there any council member interested in serving on that when are they usually up at the Central Vermont Chamber of Commerce all right so I think we can probably leave that one as it is then the community justice centers citizen advisory board Connor you have been the anybody interested so your kid is okay great City Hall art committee I sort of I feel a little badly that we have not measures so to be fair oh it's a new council session which which means that it's time to change change the art that's very exciting well really what this committee consists of is like just checking in about like is this art gonna be okay I mean we have talked about like we had grander ideas and we did and you have some time off because you have an intern at school it's true I so maybe we could try to do something yeah that's fair ironically I I'm probably gonna step down you know I sort of helped start this well for the other council members who weren't around here at least from my perspective I would really like to make it so when you walk into City Hall it's appealing and that you're not faced immediately one with that bell and I think the bell should be over here with all the ship pictures it belongs to and relates to but I also don't want to all these faces of old former mayors who just happen all the men but I I just don't feel that's enticing or exciting so I would love to dress up city all races out there one woman there now Mary no not in the hall going the hallway yeah I think the woman's on this side not that side anyone else interested in working on that all right super I will leave it to I can help to awesome yes working in the arts I can lots of connections super I'll leave it to you so it's Jay Donna and cameras the committee and I can jack no didn't okay I can I started to throw up my hand but that somebody over there did you have to have an odd number of people to break the tie well you can have three council members in camera can be the staff person oh yeah it's true staff okay you are you you're on yeah I'll help out I so I will email you the contact that I have for the TWD gallery that helps us select art okay great all right so the Energy Advisory Committee Lauren you have served on that yeah I'd love to stay on I will probably continue to go regardless apparently I'm not a voting member I don't know if you are discussion yeah do you vote that much yeah yeah they vote on I mean they approve minutes and I know but more consensus than voting or I just asked some groups you just talk about things and share and you come to an agreement versus voting yeah no they we vote on stuff okay advisory suggests that it would be more discussion than action well the advice the council they can still take an action to recommend something to the council but it doesn't anyway if anyone else is interested just you're certainly welcome so leave it as is okay all right all right the Harry Sheridan scholarship I've been that person I'm happy to keep being that person unless anyone else wants to you probably are uniquely qualified I am uniquely qualified so this is a scholarship for a high school student so yeah when some of the money goes to popular high school students and some goes to you 32 so having someone who's at the high school probably it does help good take I know at least you know half the candidates so in other words taking science is a good it's more appealing you know you know everybody okay so all right housing task force that has been Jack thoughts want to stay okay anybody else because I suppose any of these that have only one could take up to two more if you want to assume the committee has room for them that's fair okay and the housing task force is possibly unique among these committees that in that it's a self-selected group people are not other members of the task force are not appointed by the council so anyone can come in fact if if you make the mistake of showing up for two meetings in a row you're kind of stuck being up and the housing trust fund I'm also willing to stay on that it tends to meet like once a year and make recommendations for city council for what to do to allocate the money that's raised by the housing trust fund item in the budget anyone else interested in that okay great all right the investment committee Connor you had been on that okay all right and the Montpelier live board I think I should step off this one they meet pretty frequently a Tuesday every month there my just doesn't work out for the schedule too well I think any better particularly interested in that one I'd be willing to step into that role great awesome anyone else okay great super thanks okay so with the Montpelier foundation you know I meant to check on this we did they did reform their board and we approve their bylaws but there were some mayor oral appointments as I recall maybe we should check on that one okay yep all right socially economic economic justice committee I have been serving on it I'm happy to continue or in the middle of a process that started in the last few months so happy to see it through would love other folks interested but yeah you should stay all right well thank you learn okay the transportation infrastructure committee we've had three people on it where where are you all thinking about now wait a minute here Connor Glenn had been on it and he resigned because he had this almost immediately because I think we're both I'm interested in continuing I'll stay on it too I think some having having some continuity makes sense in this group and we could have a third we don't have to have a third okay all right and the TW wood board now so I technically am member of the board but it's it's often like the mayor's designee so because it's really a part of their their bylaws or you know forming documents that sites that they have you know the mayor or the mayor's designee on their board I used to serve I used to go regularly but I have not gone in the last year so Glenn was really active yes Glenn and I think he's going to continue which is great but so he could be unless anyone else is interested in representing the council well let me just ask it and what is the relationship between the TW wood and the councilor is it essentially a fund overseeing so that you know we have a voice in how they spend their money or is it just because it's a community board and they like city councillors do you have more information I don't know the full nitty-gritty I've never really looked into it that closely but the TW wood collection was actually left to the city and so then the city I think some point form this board is an independent board of trustees to curate and maintain and keep the collection and alive and display it and so as part of that being formed the mayor of Montpelier was named as a permanent member of that board it's not a fund per se of the city correct right we give them a little bit of money every year in the budget independently correct managing along with other resources that they grant right and I think because of that relationship we do get art from them that sort of thing but otherwise I don't think it's a very strong connection okay was that interest or not well I'm in J J looked like he was perhaps interested I want to step on your sure okay you're welcome I'll be happy okay great excellent okay so I think that wraps that up we're missing some oh we're missing some well I know there was at least one that isn't on here the homelessness task force Glenn was on there that's parks commission's not on there the water raids not on there so the parks Commission is its own elected right but I was appointed a rep to court to collaborate with them right I'm attending anyways but that's so that we didn't catch that I think because it was a formal it wasn't a formal built-in thing but we it was something they'd ask so so yes I'll put that one we can add to this for next and then the same sort of vein of trying to have just regular conversation with the park commission I also thought we were going to try to do something with the recreation board because when we go when you go visiting at least it was apparent to me that we didn't have any real clear communication and we sort of needed that so that would be another one I would add whether we do it tonight or not I just think it would be good and then you also raised the water into a rate committee that had been listed by name for a long I actually took that off the list because it hadn't met for so long and at this point we're not sure we need it you know one point we had spent a lot of time on a major overhaul of water rates that never really rate structure and it never went forward I think if we needed such a group we'd come to the board and ask at that time but I don't think we need to appoint people for board hasn't met in at least three years that I'm aware of if not longer otherwise all the water and sewer rates come to you for approval the group so are we missing anything else you can think of parks commission was the one that I was most vested in and the recreation board I think we need to have a communication going there so we can revisit that when we there were a couple others that we're going to revisit anyway so anything else you can well the homelessness task force was Glenn was our rep and they meet pretty regularly well so it was anyone interested so Cameron you're attending those meetings so I actually feel like we have you know someone who's there all the time who can report back to us as to how it's going so having staff representation there I think it's so I think staff representation is great in terms of putting forth the policy of the city or helping them get stuff done you know it's different than having someone who might be vocally offering opinions on what policy should be happening and that kind of thing so you know you would be losing that voice on this committee you know she's not gonna get out in front with them saying here's what we can do unless unless you all direct her to take a certain or direct me to direct take a certain position so how long are the meetings right now it's 11 30 to 1 every Wednesday there is conversation about revisiting scheduling but they haven't taken up that conversation yet so right now it's every Wednesday 11 30 I don't know that especially weekly is gonna be realistic for well certainly for my life yeah mid-days mid-days really sorry no I get used to raising my hand you know it's funny because I was actually thinking about trying it out today just to see if I could you know in looking at these committees and it's just not possible for me most Wednesdays because of work schedules but I'm wondering you know I actually called Ken to say can we meet because I'd like to hear more about the committee and you know if if we do things like that and make an effort to do that then I think we have that same effect and if we drop into meetings as opposed to constantly being there on that committee then I think we give it the attention that it needs and it's certainly an issue that keeps coming up and that you know there are strong emotions around it so it's not as if it's not like the TW Wood board that might drift to the side and not be in people's focus on a daily basis so I think in some ways we can if we're we can revisit it if this doesn't work but I'm not as worried if we don't find one person who is the permanent city counselor on that board for every single meeting as far as my role on the committee I you know I help them schedule I help them take notes I help them post their agendas and I help them guide their conversations to make sure they're hitting their goals so I'm not telling them how they should be allocating their time or what their goals really should be so I have a less of I have an insight on y'all because I work with you closely so I can say what I might think you guys would want to see from them but that's a very hard position for me to take as staff I want to support them and what they want to do and what their goals are so Glenn was very helpful to prioritize things that they wanted to do and help them prioritize how to address issues that they've identified and what he thought would be the most politically sound way to get things done and that's a role that I can't really take for this committee because it needs to be led by the committee chair so on one hand I whatever is agreeable with y'all schedule is best they have had conversations about rescheduling it it just hasn't happened yet some of the members we have we do have some vacancies on that committee so that scheduling might need to change anyway when we get new folks from there so honestly that might be a reason why we're not being able to get folks to get to the committee because it is in the middle of the day so that is a lot of things that we're taking in consideration Donna I can not as an appointee but I will try to make a couple the next couple months and just see but more than that I couldn't attend okay we can alternate really okay when I do think if you if the committee wants to have more permanent appointment from the council like that I think that's going to be important the schedule is going to be a pretty important piece and that's something I can bring back to them and say the council says I didn't appoint anyone right mostly because of this so thank you okay great thank you so much okay just one I was just thinking about Donna's comments about parks liaison to the parks for the wrecked board again I don't know why you couldn't point those I mean you're just basically saying here someone who's going to agree to go to their meetings and they're not actually members of that board you're just saying we're sending a delegate to the meeting to keep good communication because I don't know why we would need to put that off sure I definitely like to be the Leon for the park commission and you said rack too right no I wrote that down erase it Bill anyone interested in being actually anyone else interested in being the rep to the parks mission anyone interested in being the representative to the record yeah come on you got a new building coming come on do we know about the senior center board to do we know how often the wreck board meets I want to say monthly yeah it's on Mondays in the evening depending on how often they meet I might actually have some interest in that I'd be happy to help out as well okay well if you're for it but no but that schedule is not sustainable so I'm not sure that's how often it's 5 30 the second Monday of each month that that's our Main Street Middle School Building Committee that actually runs into our meeting was just an idea well I may try to show up to those yeah we've never had a formal designee so maybe we just don't do that and see how it goes we need one they could ask for one too I know parks really wanted someone attending okay we'll take that off the list then okay so I think we're ready to move on so we have some appointments to make the first one is to the social then I got a justice advisory committee so there were four vacancies and we had one application from Marion Khan and by the way are you waiting for anything in particular let's do that one first yeah we thought you're just a really dedicated person okay so for the conservation would you like to be on the homelessness task force okay so we had one vacancy for an alternate seat and we have an application from Marion waltz is that you great well would you like to just come and introduce yourself I'm interested in serving with the conservation commission I worked day-to-day as an emergency management professional with the state so good job on your statement beginning I work a lot with state agencies on impacts from natural and human cause disasters and I'm interested in working with the conservation commission on how we look more broadly at climate change and how we conserve land to save fun our impacts to our city infrastructure so great and I like being outside all right do we have they already questions I'll make a motion to appointment waltz to the conservation commission I'll second it further discussion on favor please say hi hi post great thank you thank you yeah sorry by the way just first of all congratulations and thank you I got just got a message from Morgan Brown he who wanted to tell me that the task force had previously agreed to meet weekly until the overflow shelter closes then we'll probably meet every other week and and also said that they today they chose to meet by phone rather than in person out of an abundance of caution so therefore people couldn't consider calling in okay well to be revisited probably make sure all right so back to oh that was the first one conservation so the next one is the development review review board so for this we have two vacant seats and we had just one applicant Joe Kiernan Joseph Kiernan who is not here it's their motion I move that we appoint Joseph Ryan Kiernan to the development review board for the discussion just a clarification we're appointing him to the full position not the vacant alternate position it's my understanding I think that's why I meant by my motion yeah no I just wanted to be clear great so there's motion in a second further discussion on favor please say I closed okay thanks Joseph and historic preservation so for that we had one vacant seats and we have one applicant who's Brian Powell also not here is there a motion I move that we appoint Brian Powell to the historic preservation Commission second further discussion all in favor please say aye opposed we are skipping the homes this task force appointment and so now we're on to social net and economic justice for that there were four vacancies and we received one application from Miriam Khan and so who's not here Sarah motion to appoint Miriam Khan to the full seat on the social and economic justice second further discussion on favor please say I opposed okay and we are skipping the downtown master plan and then so now we are up to talking about the schedule for strategic planning so for this I am gonna turn things over either to Bill or Cameron well Cameron's gonna do the heavy lifting but I'll start we as I mentioned at the beginning of the meeting we have two sessions we'd like to all three sessions we'd like to schedule one for our own workshop as far as how we operate love to do that as soon as we can like even next week the second would be our strategic planning which I think it would be a two-night operation and we're recommending I think it was the 28th and 9th of April that's a fifth week in April that we don't have a normal council meeting so it'd be you know we would have a two-week break in between meetings and I will let Cameron describe more what she's thinking about is for the council alumni know we've used a consultant the last two years and that's been I think successful but one of the strengths that Cameron brought to us from North Carolina was strategic planning and so I asked her to take a crack at it this year and she's done a lot of work at putting together a plan building off of the work we've done in prior years thanks Bill so I won't go through what I want the procedure to be tonight but I will share what we have been doing so I've asked our staff to come up with key initiatives for each of their departments showing us how that relates to the already established goals that the council has come up with and voted for in the past it's the things that we tie our budget to etc so we really wanted to show that the things that we are currently doing align with those goals and our strategic and get us to an end point so we've sort of worked as staff to outline those and then we'll show those to you sort of as a continuum of here all the things that we're currently doing to support goals and move those goals forward and then what we'll do as a group is talk about things that you want to add to that what are y'all's priorities and how do you want to add to what the staff is already doing to further those goals so it will be a great collaborative a great time to have conversation do you see things on there that you don't like or you don't want to see as priorities and how do you want to move those around and if you have anything additional how do we add that to what is already happening inside of our departments some of the feedback that past consultants have got from staff and councils they felt like there was a disconnect where council had really great ideas and staff wanted to get them done but maybe didn't have the capacity or how didn't know how it fit within the continuum of the work that they were already doing and so we had really brainstormed away to bring us together to understand what staff is doing and how we can help council further its y'all's initiatives and what you want to do so in the next few weeks I'll be wrapping up all of that work with my staff I'll be getting that together in a sort of easy to understand and digest packet for you guys to review so you have it before this meeting that we're proposing so that you'll be able to look at what we're what we've put out there is our key initiatives for each department and then start brainstorming what you would like to see in there as well so that it can sort of be a good conversation that you are well informed and ready for we haven't finalized as she said the actual process but one of the things we're thinking about and visioning is that the first night would be to go through the initiatives that the staff has created and they would be present to explain them and also for the council to make it's your pitches for what you'd like on the list one of the pieces we feedback we've gotten in the past and even from some of you individuals that people would would list something would have it like a name or it would go up on the board and a sticky but no one really knew exactly what that meant like what what was that one sentence what phrase especially when we group them together so it almost be like time for someone to make their pitch for a proposal like I'd like to see this and this is what it means and then maybe there's a conversation with staff and what would that look like work would be involved and that would really be the first night just flushing out the the list of all that things and maybe putting a little definition to it everyone goes home sleeps on and the second night would be okay now we've got the universe of things now we'll start prioritizing and you know picking the top choices and those kinds of things so that then that really is of course the council's role there but obviously the staff would be there provide whatever expertise and as for those of you again that are new we really do rely on these a lot they make a big difference in terms of not only decisions we make in house but some some of them are just simply we want to report on something so you'll you get the report and we try to set a schedule but it really sets our council agendas then we take we take all those lists and we figure out which ones need council action and we try to at least do a tentative schedule for the whole year based on those council priorities and so it you know it's not not to say other things can't come up and you can't add new things but that really drives the priority work for the year so it's an important thing to do right and I think we've gotten a little bit better at it each year I think this year will be best of all thanks no pressure so you're looking for us to come into this sort of with our own like individual like list of proposals there like Bill said we're gonna make the pitch on it or do you hope that kind of happen organically while we're there either both I've got a lot of weird ideas or great ideas you might want to screen those I think what I think the the I mean the outcome would be y'all vote on which are you know the priorities I mean you can have any idea you want you just have to make us believe it right I think the key thing is to understand what not only what the idea is but what what what what is necessary to make that idea fly I think that's where we've fallen down the last couple years and years before then too we were sorry let's work on whatever and we've never really said but what are we actually committing to to do that and so you know I think it'd be good to put some more meat on that bones even maybe after we get the list and to say okay well what do you what do we mean by you know we're gonna support downtown that you know but you know what does that what does that look like what specifically we're gonna do what kind of effort are you expecting we did that just mean we're gonna give money to MD my people are alive at budget time great that's all the work necessary or is that mean you know what does it mean so and sorry Kim did you have anything more on this no he said it okay thank you don't my question may be degree because when two years was the first time that the same firm came and I thought every year we got less disconnected and more in sync with the department heads and having our golds down to can we do this with the staff we have so maybe it's just amount of degree I hope it's not the same disconnect oh yeah started with no I just I think that was the feedback I was getting and I want to improve that I want to find ways that you can only go up from from where we are you know it's only improvement okay and my other question was do we do a Wednesday Thursday people look at their schedule it's a potential issue for me to do with that Wednesday and Thursday oh Wednesday is bad too for you no the Thursday is the potential problem for me I may be out of town that night well I think we should probably look at our schedules then are we at that point so I know bill you had mentioned two sessions one where we're sort of gathering ideas and pitching and then the other one being brass tax if you will I just want to come back to a conversation that we've had before about talking about our norms we're thinking yes so that would be a complete I'd like to do that as soon as we can like we're talking this this just strategic planning by end April I'd love to do like the norm sing like even next week if we could completely separate do you imagine the norms conversation is being a separate night or built into a council meeting I'd say I well my my preference and suggestion we had to be a separate night just because the vibe is different and while I don't think it'll take all night you know I think it's still you know we sit in a place we can sit around a table it's you know we put the things up it's just a whole it's a workshop different feel to it and I but I said I don't think it needs to be a five-hour meeting unless we were just enjoying ourselves so much well so if we I just want it as long as we're looking at our calendars we should probably aim to do all three of those but let's start with the strategic plan stuff since we started there so you the next so I also we tossed that date out for a couple reasons one school vacation week is the week before that and there are some people with school-age kids if assuming people can take vacation and so we would either we could potentially move our council meeting from the 25th 22nd up to the 15th we have a meeting already on the 8th and then the first was just getting it a little too close actually Cameron and I are gonna be at a meeting on the first so we presumably so we won't be here and and that week of the 29th was a fifth week it's just that rear you know happens a couple times a year where you have a fifth Wednesday so we just picked the 28th and 9th you know they don't have to be consecutive nights they don't have to be even the same week we could do one one week at one the next week and we were just trying to kind of do it while while people's brains were thinking how does the 28th and 29th work okay I'm seeing thumbs up from pretty much everybody said that is great shall we start that at 6 30 as per regular council time or do you we've actually started those a little bit early sometimes we've provided food if that people still want to do that that makes it a little more comfortable and less family I think that's a good idea 5 30 5 30 5 30 is fine with me 5 30 yeah we had we a couple people had troubled earlier starts but I don't know if this group has that I know Ashley and Rosie both had early start problems and we'll take and we'll find a location we've done it in the call in the police room but that's technically closed right now so we'll find a location just from a public meeting oh it's we still we still so to be clear with Steven here we warn these as but they're open public meetings anyone can attend but they're in workshop format they're not you know necessarily we're not voting particularly usually bring the plan back and vote on it in a public meeting but yes they're warned and held that we even had a couple years ago we had a council workshop couple nights at the Capitol Plaza and their conference room but we still warned it and it was open so our we obviously we like to use public buildings if we can they have to be accessible you know so we'll find places but yeah absolutely this isn't a clandestine right well or executive session kind of thing no there's not really anything about this that's executive session so shall we also schedule the norm setting session so if we were we could aim for next week the 18th Lord I guess we have a regular council meeting on the 25th could also potentially go April 1st open to suggestions or a night or a night other than Wednesday whatever works next week what 18th how's the 18th yeah I imagine six 30 would probably be sufficient and no food yeah definitely we should meet at 5 30 then okay okay crazy anything we can do that one in here we can just do it around the table we wanted to talk it all about the possibility of we have a regularly scheduled meeting on April 22nd yes but since we're looking at our calendars right now do people folks feel like keeping that day or would you prefer to move it it makes no difference to me well as of now I'm scheduled to be out of the country that week as of now very tentative we'll see what happens with this travel plan so but if the rest council is amenable to move it forward a week because of you know conflicts with vacations then that would be great yeah I'm the same I we were tentatively thinking of traveling we would be in the country but we're going to visit one of our kids in college and we they may not be there so one of them already we just learned today is not coming back from spring break and the other is still undecided so they're sending them all home so I don't know but if it was the 15th would be no potential conflict just the 15th work for folks so we meet the 8th and 15th for regular business meetings and the 28th and 9th for the strategic planning my daughter's granddaughter school vacation is opposite of Montpillars it's that okay you can bring her to the council meeting that's that's our that's our greater council meeting you're moving it from the 22nd to the 15th right I would be remiss to say if I wasn't very excited to do this and I appreciate the opportunity to lead us through strategic planning I am very excited about that so we'll also just thank you we're excited about having you do it yeah okay through your paces yeah and she strategically planned it for just two weeks after her six-month probation and so if it doesn't work out she's still here okay so that is the end oh yes Lauren just wondering just knowing like to what we were just talking about how quickly a lot of things are closing down and stuff like is it worth tonight when we're not in the throws and it's a pretty short agenda of talking about if we get to a point where public meetings are not encouraged if we can set up an alternate protocol of calling in or what what what are we gonna do in the event that it doesn't make sense to have an in-person meeting sometimes that's an interesting question I mean it's so acknowledging that it's hard to know what the advice will be potentially because at least right now I think anytime that we have a public meeting even if it's understood that it's just a phone meeting you still have to have a location that people could show up to and so if that were not you know if we were encouraged to not show up you know would we still make the space available I don't know we I think we have started talking about that and in fact the homeless task force today met by phone in this room so Cameron was here with the phone everyone else was on the phone and there was only one resident here in person for that meeting we always you know there is a conference line we published the call-in line so members of the public can also call in you know depending on I don't know what the circumstances would be whether we could even do well I guess if we're not here you know the other choice would be we could have the meeting but we just put it out to video with call-in or something and not have an audience here I mean obviously we have to follow the open meeting law but I think the worst case scenario we just have a situation where you all could call in anyone else could call in and listen I could also picture to you know maybe we don't we're not going through the regular you know business that's not urgent you know liquor licenses or whatever it was you know needed to happen contract approval boom boom boom right yeah we wouldn't have long presentations and policy discussions and those kinds of things I think we just have to that would probably mess up our strategic plan a little bit but yeah but it's good to talk about it ahead of time yeah other thoughts well there there's a great quote from Nancy Pelosi a day ago and she said we're the captains of the ship we're the last to leave and you know well I don't think we're congressional level I think we this is a serious obligation and you know paying the bills of the city making sure that the finances run forward being here is an important thing and I would be loathe to cancel this anything short of you know very clear direct public health requirements that it's unsafe I mean I think this is an important function of how society at these points in time you know need to continue to function this is not a vacation or a fun conference this is the work of government and keeping the city functioning you know it occurs to me too that thank you you know making me you know think about how people participate and even if we're here there may be other folks who don't feel comfortable coming here even if we are and so it makes me think about like just other mechanisms for people to be able to participate I mean I could picture it would probably not really work for people for members of the public to call into this meeting because you know how would we recognize them and say okay please you know what do you have to say like how would you signal that but if there was I know it would not be accessible to everyone but if there was an online way for people to ask a question or participate or make a comment you know that that sort of thing and then we can do that in an orderly fashion just just more mechanisms is a good thing Jack this is something that I would expect there will be some guidance coming from the Secretary of State we have in the past had a call in provision and we used to do this for years during the budget public hearings and it just got so that nobody was coming in nobody was calling so we stopped doing it but we actually would have someone answering a phone here and people would have to give their name and address and their question or comment and then it would be brought up and then read just you know that's it was the technology that we had at the time but it also identified who the person was and then we would try to answer it public and people did have to give their name just like you would if you were here and for we had I think a volunteer or someone we paid you know gave a gift card or something to come in and answer phones and then I know Beth Hill did it for a while when she was on staff and you know so that might be something we consider having a call in number where people are relaying their comments it's tough to have a dialogue it's not the same but it's at least yeah I'm speaking for myself here but I would be interested in looking into that as you know especially considering that they're you know even if there's not advice from above saying hey you should people should stay home but if someone is self-quarantining like how how can people participate if they're in self-quarantine so just making it accessible to that population along that point I mean I think there's a number of free apps like zoom that you know we may want to look into just because I think you can control on some of them I don't know if zoom is one of them but I know that our go-to-meeting or such sure that that do have the ability to control who's speaking and if it was even tied in with the projector you know we can just project we can just project larger than life public participation but I think I think I would support that as well as just looking into that knowing that that would come with its own set of hiccups and needs but I think it would be great if on the other side if we come but not forcing other people to come especially if they're in a vulnerable population segment yeah great thanks for raising that we'll get on that all right any further comments about this all right so that is the end of our regular business for tonight's meeting so now we have council reports and so Jay just a year aware as to what this section of the meeting is it's a time for counselors to we go around and you sort of get a platform to one hand you can say anything you want but a little more specific guidance there would be that if you're on a committee you have any updates from that committee that the council should know about that's a good time to review that if there are any events that have happened in the city or that are coming up that you want people to be aware of that's also it's also a time you can float an idea for a future agenda sometimes be either make a specific request as I think I told you and Daniel any single council member can request that on the agenda sometimes people I wouldn't want to let the political people in the room speak but I think sometimes there's also a little bit of a trial balloon like I'm thinking of putting this on the agenda and you get a sense of whether there's going to be support for it or to take it any further or not so it's those kinds of things okay so mentioning parks parks commission has actually added they meet monthly but they've added a second meeting for the last three four months to work on their green print and their green print is like their big master plan and it is on the website if you want to read it they're been spending a lot of time on it and I think ultimately it will really help to find the vision for the park city-wide that will be really good to keep working towards as we expand our parks the Montpellier Transportation Infrastructure Committee meant Jack was there and they're working with the Mike and the Planning Commission dealing with all the aspiration goals that the Planning Commission wants from all the committees and you're probably on committees that are also working on these and it's a lot of words smithing a lot of patience is required and I just want to thank voters for voting me in office both as a council and for my at-large position on the public safety authority thank you all right and I might just bring up Don and I said on the micro transit committee today this is a new committee more city focused we've previously been on the state one I think I was encouraged to hear that it is a green light you know we're still waiting to bring down some federal dollars hopefully but regardless the GMT money that's currently in the state budget is going to be reallocated to micro transit I think they need two hundred thousand more dollars but they are going to find this and it's pretty exciting it was a good group of stakeholders around the room I think we should probably have the state coming in give an update on this pretty soon because it is going to move quick once you get it going and I think you'll probably have a lot of constituents so have questions about it particularly are the current services going to be in place will I be able to get where I'm going there and I think it is going to be improved and they are keeping an eye towards that so stay tuned otherwise big congratulations to the lads from Montpelier High School on coming so close to the state championship last weekend the tremendous year there and also yep thanks to voters for giving me another round as well and congratulations everybody else thanks well I don't have much to report he started in about probably about 15 minutes I'll play next time but other than to say thank you to the voters congratulations all of you and I'm excited to be here and to work with work with all of you that's it so I want to report on a committee that Jay and Jack and I are on which is the Main Street Middle School building committee that was it's actually a subcommittee of the Montpelier Roxbury Public School board we've been meeting since October we met this week and we will be actually doing a public presentation next month at the school board meeting on April 15th the committee's been charged with really assessing some of the needs as well as the facilities there at the Main Street School you know it is one of the older high school it is the oldest school building but it's also city owned I mean all of the school buildings are owned by the city and it's really important to discuss some of the future some of the potential some of the needs and we'll be doing some of our initial findings for that so if anybody has an interest in that school I would certainly encourage them to watch or attend the April 15th meeting and before you before you get on to that I guess I'd ask I'll take a look at this too but you might want to ask the committee to look into the school I think there may when when the charter was changed and created the new district the school may have taken ownership of those okay I'm only going because I was looking at this the only reason I mentioned that was because I looked at this map last night right still listed a city on property publicly I wasn't necessarily intending to make a sort of title opinion no but no but up until recently it always was the reason I make that distinction is up until recently it was the city was the underlying owner of all those buildings and as we saw at 58 Berry Street which had been the offices for the rec building and the school administrative offices when they just walked away you know when they moved out they were just like it's the city's problem now and so we were the ones up and having to renovate it and do all the things so I think for years the future of the middle school has always been well the city has a stake because we might be left with it and I don't know if that's that may still be the case I'm just not 100% sure so I raise that if one of the strategies is we're just gonna dump it on the city I'd make sure that they know that that might not be the case and I can say that is not one of the strategies that's being discussed to be very clear I wasn't trying to suggest it you give that date again I thought you said the 15th April 15th that's a council that Wednesday we just made our council meeting that night did I screw up the date I don't that's correct because they're alternate alternating Wednesday so right so we we may not be there because of the council but I know that there are other it's not just simply a city council for their number of members and so they would be there okay and right I don't know the time it would be the normal school board meeting when 6 30 thank you but I think there is an important discussion going on and I should say the discussion is not about should we abandon the school should we should we you know build on to the school in a massive way it's really just looking at what is what is the state of this building now what are some of the needs based on sort of larger standards that are set by the state as well as the future of you know education and what are people in the building saying we we like or we don't like about the building and it's it's been a fascinating discussion I mean it's been a great education the other thing is I do want to thank the voters of District 3 for for officially voting me in I want to make myself available to any member of the city that wants to discuss an issue I have my city email set up it should be on the city website fairly soon and I welcome I work every day at 44 East State Street you're welcome to come to the office you have a good chance of running into me there I'm available I would love to talk usually you'll want to leave before I'll want to stop talking and so I really appreciate the voters and I look forward to serving on the council with everyone here and congratulations around to those who did stand election just congratulations to those who ran and were elected to the city by a majority of vote of their constituents in their districts and welcome to new members and congratulations to our great mayor for being willing to serve another term I just wanted to raise was following up on the conversation we had on the PFAS issue I thought it was a really good discussion really informative it seemed like there are a lot of open-ended questions I think some work that could be done to try to suss out what the city's options or what work we could do but I just wanted to put that out there something I'd love to follow up on at some point maybe giving a little time and space to do some work to have some more refinement of what the city's choices are but just appreciated a really good conversation and hope we can follow up on what we might want to do about it before you leave that let's why don't we connect on timing and yeah because it yeah and yeah let's let's yeah I'd love to chat about that and then I wanted to say thank you John city clerk's office for a great run election and to all the volunteers like ton of community members came out it was just it ran great great attendance and participation from voters so yay nice work great to see that democracy working and congratulations to everyone who won their election we're looking forward to working with you all yeah all right so I also want to offer my congratulations to to everyone who has just reelected and also thank you for your willingness to serve and also thank you to just everyone who ran for their willingness to put themselves forward it's great and really important that people do that I also want to thank particularly the voters for their support in voting for me as mayor I mean I know there were not a lot of choices I'm still very grateful for those folks who built in the bubble us and yeah anyway so I want to just report out on a couple of things so we have this it's not listed on the committees but there's an organics collection and diversion committee if anyone's interested in we've been meeting to in part to talk about the upcoming food waste ban that's taking effect in July for residents and so we are hoping to help facilitate just getting the word out about that like what the requirements are like if you do compost at home you are allowed to continue to put bones and meat in the trash if you're composting other products otherwise you know these kinds of kind of common questions we're talking about maybe having some kind of like a compost festival not that's like an ongoing you know year-to-year event but particularly for this because this is coming up let's have an event where we celebrate compost and help answer people's questions and maybe eat some ice cream so that's on on something maybe up and coming and then as you probably know I'm on this committee that's looking at home energy labeling home energy information particularly at the time of sale I just want you to be aware that we are continuing to I hear now all that we've gotten a lot of great feedback recently it's what's taking us a while to filter through it and then also we're continuing to test the the website that would be the mechanism that produces the the score and then the home energy is cost estimations and then also just want to make a note that I will have office hours here right next door in well so right in this building across that wall 3 30 to 4 30 next Tuesday 17th try to make that a regular thing so that is it for me John do you have anything Jay had the election it went pretty well almost company flat-footed we had every indication of a certain level of participation because of the rate of early voting which was not strong voting this Saturday before the election which is usually also good indicator was not strong and then we about got our butts kicked the day before so that's when I put out the call to Facebook oh my god we're swamped anyway plenty of people so thanks to folks who helped or were available to help you know we did things a little different we must have registered about I don't know the numbers yet about 120 new voters at the polls God we had enough volunteers to manage that and it it seemed to work we did run out of ballots in district 2 so we had to photocopy some and hand counter but that didn't amount to more than 20 so no big deal fun story but but yeah thanks to volunteers and voters and all the candidates whether you want or not and water bills are due Monday well welcome all congratulations to all of you for your elections or re-elections and also thanks to everyone who ran I also like to thank the voters for their support of the city budget and items that were on there another strong showing that's sort of our staff election see how that goes but voters do appreciate their support of the local government and we will strive to deliver the goods we've been spending a good portion of our time on coronavirus we've talked about that plenty today I don't need to add that that has really been a big thing and otherwise things moving along we're hopefully moving into spring things soon we'll see and thank you for scheduling those meetings so easily so we move that business forward okay great so I think that is the end of all the items for tonight so without objection we'll consider this meeting adjourned