 Okay, well it is 1232, I'm going to call our meeting to order if everybody can join me and say on the Pledge of Allegiance. Okay, so the first item on the agenda is roll call, Michelle Gentine, Lisa Merrick, Karen Houston, Abby Block. Here. Michelle Warner, Nicole Bredesen. Michelle Warner here, sorry about mute. Oh, I'm sorry. Kate Hodges, Christine Potter, Gretchen Houston. Here. And Kevin Post. Here. And Mike Heimbach said he was going to not be here today. The next item on the agenda is approval of the minutes. Do I hear a motion to approve the minutes for September 30, 2020? So moved. Do we have a second? Okay, awesome minutes are approved. Thank you. Moving on to item three, we have some items for discussion and possible action. And item three point one is an update from the survey subcommittee on the creation and distribution of the community wide survey to gather feedback on the current state, a pet friendliness and Sheboygan, as well as how residents envision the future. Has everybody had some time to take a look at these. Michelle, do you want to talk about it since you are the awesome person that did all this work. You know, what I just tried to do is take a look at it in terms of what was the point first, what were the objectives of having a survey. And to me it was really figuring out a gaps analysis of what exists in the city and people don't know about or what you people want that doesn't exist and try to identify those things. So we can combine that with our demographic information of what we do have and then figure out priorities from there, putting it pretty tough to figure out where we want to focus on because we all come in with our own biases right of what we might think is most important. So I tried to take each section of the demographic information and just take what we had and what we didn't have and ask questions that were reflective of figuring out again that gaps analysis. I think that was a little bit long because I just did the whole thing and figured we can edit if people feel it's too long. I don't know what's appropriate or not. But that was my approach for it. Does anybody have any feedback on the survey that we created? Chairman, I think we should just go through the questions one at a time and then solicit some feedback as we go. Okay, thank you, Mr. Mayor. So the first question of course is do you live in the city of Sheboygan. And the next question was do you own a pet? If yes, please share what species, how many pets you have of each species? This would be an open answer. If you don't own a pet but would like to, why don't you own a pet? For example, are you not able to own a pet because you rent and pets are not allowed? Are you not able to own a pet because you work long hours and can't leave an animal at home? The next question is if you own your home or rent and what would make Sheboygan a more pet friendly city? So that's the section on demographics. Does anybody have any comments? Okay, so moving on to public parks, trails and green spaces. We have, do you bring your pets to public parks, trails and green spaces? No, are you aware? There I think we might be able to use a resource in our engineering department. They've created a GIS map that shows all of those areas on a map. So if people aren't familiar with them, we don't have to list them, but we might want to put a link in there for them to access that. That is fantastic. Thank you. Then the next question is, are you aware of dog parks available to you locally? And then we have, do you use either of the local dog parks? I guess the other, on that question, do you use either of the local dog parks? And I'm just wondering, you know, is it referring to the dog run on 18th Street or the beach at Lakeview Park? Or, you know, like the Humane Society is talking about putting a new dog park in their proposal. Do we need to list those or do you think that this covers it? I'll just type in someone who wrote it. I have no idea. I was surprised to see in the demographics that they listed more than one dog park because I'm new to town. I didn't know about more than one. So I think it would be a great idea to list them because I was not sure what they were referring to. Okay. I agree that that would be a great idea to list the names of the dog parks. Maybe separate that out. Do you take your dog to, you know, and list each one? Or are you aware that the Humane Society is developing a dog park? Maybe we could find a question like that. That sounds good. The next question is, are you more likely to use public off leash areas or on leash areas with your pet? And what are the three public parks or trails and green spaces you use most often? And then what would you like to see changed about the laws or the accessibility of Sheboygan's public park trails and green spaces when it comes to using them with your pet? I wonder if something like that, if we want to come up with some multiple choice answers and maybe leave like an other for, you know, like to give people some ideas of what that might even encompass. Sorry, hopefully you can hear me this time. That's a really good idea. That is a great idea. Does anybody else have feedback? I guess I'd say for kind of the multiple choice there, like giving the options because they may think that our current laws are applicable. Maybe give the option of like how do you feel are current laws like a. They're good enough be we need to be more pet friendly. See, they need to be more strict. Just kind of getting a general understanding and then there could be like a follow up question like if you wanted it this way, how would her if you want like more open laws, what are your suggestions or something like that. That way we have a better sense of where everyone else is as well. Because I know we are going to get some that say they need to be more restrictive. I think then and not not everybody I think is going to say like, oh yeah, let's just open everything up or let's some somewhere on that spectrum. But yeah, I think giving options helps bring it into focus a little bit. Thank you. Those are very helpful. And the next section would be pet friendly businesses. Are you able to find businesses in Sheboygan that cater to your needs as a pet owner. For example, veterinary services, boarding services, daycare services, food supplies, etc. And then we have what services are you not able to find in Sheboygan as it relates to your needs as a pet owner. That one is an open answer. They can fill in the blank. And then we have our pet friendly businesses like restaurants that allow pets to join you for outdoor dining stores that allow you to bring your pet inside hotels that allow pets, etc. Important to you. If pet friendly businesses are important to you do you think Sheboygan businesses do a good job of being pet friendly. And if pet friendly businesses are important to you what is an example of something you'd like to do with your pet, but you're unable to do. I wonder in that question if we could just leave off the if pet friendly businesses are important to you and just make it what is an example of something you'd like to do with your pet that you're unable to. Well, and I don't know about for the, you know, are they important? Could it be something like very important, somewhat important, you know, don't really care either way. We're not at all important or something like that just to make it a little bit more standardized when we're pulling the results together to say, you know, this percentage of people said it's really important to them to have this particular thing here in the city. That's a fantastic idea that would probably make it much easier because otherwise you're giving people too many options that they have their own choices to make with that answer. So we'll, we'll have to work on some of these things and then bring it back for review again. The next section we had was pet friendly workspaces. Does your workplace allow you to bring pets to work? If you're allowed to bring pets to work, have you chosen to do so? Would you value being able to bring your pet to work? If you would be able, if you would value being able to bring your pet to work, why would you value that? For example, it would cut down on your pet separation anxiety make it easier for you to have a pet. And the first three questions I'd like to see us consider adding an option for I don't know, because some people may or may not even, you know, be looking at that. But obviously we would want to identify the ones that do and don't. Okay, we can do that then. Thank you. The next section that we have is shelters. If you have a pet, did you adopt it from a shelter? The next one is have you wanted to adopt a pet from a shelter but were unable to? And if you wanted to adopt a pet from a shelter but were unable to, why? Now there, you know, we kind of put shelters in one group, but there are fostering groups, you know, and things like that. So I don't know if we can do something to maybe expand the title there. And then this kind of acts asked only what your present tense is, but I think we should also maybe allow people who maybe did this years ago or, you know, who did something in the past reply to it too. I don't know if we want to capture anything around like other programming. So even if you haven't necessarily adopted a pet to do, you know, call for the traps bandit or program or something like that. I think just to get a sense of maybe those people that utilize the human society or the other rescues, but don't necessarily have a pet from there. But I don't know how to reach that, Michelle. Sorry. Okay, we can work on those later then. The next section is family support. Have you ever needed financial or other help to afford your pets? Do you know that support is available to pet owners to help you afford your pet? Do you foresee needing support to help keep your pet in your home? And what kind of support would be most useful to you as a pet owner? For example, emergency food lodging or vet assistance. Does anybody have any feedback on those? Not to be redundant, but maybe the multiple choice options for the last, you know, you already listed on the show, maybe just listing those out and leaving like a room for an elder. There's somewhere that something that's not on that list. That makes sense. And then the last section we had was pet friendly housing and community amenities. Do you feel your housing options are limited if you rent and own a pet? If you rent, are you able to have a pet? If you rent and are able to have a pet, do you feel like the additional fees you pay are reasonable? If you rent and own a pet, what would be the most useful thing that could be available to you? Five species, breed, flexibility, lower fees, amenities like green space, et cetera. So I think multiple choice on that one also, maybe Abby. I mean, that would be my inclination, I guess, but like I said, always leaving on other so that people are able to write in if there's things that we haven't thought of or that aren't included. Also, oh, thank you. Do you feel your housing options are limited if you rent and own a pet? This might, this doesn't include people that are in a condo that feel like their options are also limited in terms of, you know, free flexibility and, and, you know, whether or not their condo is even pet friendly or not. So I don't know if there could be something in here. We could combine the rent and own a condo in one question or create a separate question. Well, I think the last three questions have fallen into that category. So maybe we could put a little precursor up there. You know, if you own your own home, you're done with the survey. And if you rent or are in a condo, then please answer these last three questions. Okay, and that is the end of it. Yeah, with those adjustments, I think we can work to put this into one of the online survey mediums and whether it's survey monkey or something like that. And then we'll be able to do kind of like a test with the group and then maybe make our final refinements and then look at putting this out to the community after that. Do we have a sense of time line? Thank you so much. Sorry, like when we want it to be actually out to the community. Do we have a sense of timing on that or not really? Well, as far as the timeline, I think, you know, we should proceed, you know, to do this as soon as possible, but there's no real crunch as to when it needs to be done. Okay. So, you know, I think sometime over the winter here will definitely allow probably at least several weeks to a month, something like that timeframe. The other thing we might want to do is see if we can find some kind of a maybe a supportive business that might want to put a prize out there. Sometimes that helps to incentivize people to participate. Does anybody else have any comments about the survey? What having this available through different veterinarians and veterinarian offices in Sheboygun, is that a possibility of getting this out to more people? Well, the thing is, is if we do something that's a paper survey, then we'll have to spend some time putting that into the survey, you know, to take care of it. But if it's just a computer survey, people take it, you just get the results. It's a little bit easier. So we'll have to investigate, you know, that option. Maybe we could put, you know, like a small card in them and just promote the idea of taking it and put the link to that on the card. So it would be very simple for them to get on their computer and take it rather than printing a paper survey. And the incentive, some kind of incentive, like you mentioned, would be great. Yep. With that, I think we can go on to the next comment. Go on to the next item then. Going on to item 3.2 is the update from the online assessment subcommittee regarding the better cities online assessment and information on the proposed dogtoberfest event. I'll let Joe speak to the event and where that's at. Obviously it's not happening October 24. You want me to talk about the dogtoberfest? Sure. Yeah. From the result from what the last meeting we talked that, you know, it was getting kind of late and there was going to be another main society event going on. And we decided afterwards that, you know, instead of really trying to push and change. I think it's important to get permission that we would work towards next year. And I believe the event was, I know it was, it was moved to a, I can't remember the name, a local bar that has outside in a big back room. So the event still went on, but it was just at a different location. Joe, it's still happening this year. Thank you so much for that update. This year, Joe, at a different location. It already happened. Yes. I think a week before what we had planned. Okay. Joe, where are we with the online assessment? Is that ready for submission? Sure. So we did include the assessment in last month's agenda. And there, you know, there are some things that are subjective. There are some things that some answers from the community survey, especially around businesses and what workplaces allow pets would be helpful for submission. But I guess that's up to the committee. If we feel like we want to wait or if we want to get it off and let them know. I was in contact with one of the people from Mars for the better cities. They're having some issues with submission. So even though I hadn't submitted it, it appeared that I had. So I think we could submit if we wanted to and later update that with information. But I guess that's really for the committee to decide. We feel like it's ready. Yeah, I would agree with the idea of submitting what we have and then we can update it when we get our survey done. Okay. Well, thank you so much for that update and all that information and your hard work on that particular project. Item 3.3 is the discussion on the process and timeline for reviewing the city's current pet ordinances and how this information will be used to further the work of the task group. Does anybody want to speak on that particular item? I'm trying to review other cities and their pet ordinances. I know I would like to personally just sit down and put some things together my thoughts on what we could possibly do as far as what we could do different maybe in the parks. So I'd like to work towards that and a few other people wanted to work on that also or the same committee that we had. We could work on that. Joe, as a point of information, the city attorney has advised me that if we have a subcommittee, they still have to meet virtually like this. So that's an open meeting to the community. So if you do something on your own and bring it back to present to the larger group here, that'd be fine. But if we do have subcommittee meetings in the future, we'll have to have them hosted here and do it just like the meeting we're currently in right now. I propose that we just kind of look at it ourselves then and kind of go through it at one of these meetings, whether it's the next one or a couple months from now. Or maybe you could break it up and there's several sections in our ordinance book that deal with pets and animals and maybe we could cover one section at one meeting and one at another. All righty. It sounds like we're getting some plans together for that one. Thank you, Mr. Mayor, for your input about the city attorney's office. And item 3.4 is other discussion or comments from those on the committee or members of the public. Does anybody have anything to say? Well, I'd like to thank Michelle for all the work she did on the survey. We really appreciate you grabbing hold and giving us some great skeleton of something to work with here. So Pat on the back, good job. Agreed. Yeah, you're welcome. It's my pleasure. Okay. Well, then moving on to 4.1. Our next meeting date is November 25th. And since we have exhausted your agenda, I would like to look for a motion to adjourn. I'll motion. Do we have a second? All in favor of adjournment, please say aye. Chair votes aye. We are adjourned. Thank you very much for your time today and we'll see you guys next month.