 Okay, well, I think we should probably get started. And I'm sure Dan and Jay will probably jump in when they're here. So the first thing is to call the meeting to order so the first, well, so I'm going to call the meeting to order so the first thing is to review and approve the agenda. So, as it looks like my sense is that there's going to be a lot of folks who want to speak tonight and that's great. But I'm guessing that we may not get through the whole advertised agenda here. So just looking ahead, I want to get a sense of who is here. Okay, so I'm just going to say that we probably are going to move the chapter 13 ordinance and the lobbying committee to the end, in case we need to cut anything. But beyond that, it would be good to, I think if we can still get to the parking ordinance coronavirus updates and summer schedule and the budget stuff so with that in mind. And also just a word about the Juneteenth proclamation and the resolution condemning racism and police brutality. I think we're going to take those items probably together but we'll have a motion we'll see if there's a motion to remove the Juneteenth proclamation from the consent agenda but otherwise I don't think there's any changes anyone have any suggestions different than that. Okay. Okay, great. Right so the next thing is general business and appearances so this is an opportunity for any member of the public to address an item that is or a topic that is otherwise not on our agenda. So here if you're here to talk about policing, we will be taking that up and so this would probably not be the time to talk about that will be welcoming comments shortly for that. But if there's a topic not on our agenda, then that would be this would be a good time to to talk about that and so, and this is true for any comments that are made this evening. So I would start with your name and where you live, and then try to keep your comments to two minutes, especially anticipating that there may be lots of people who want to speak. We want to make sure everybody gets a turn so I will try to let you know when two minutes has gone by. So, thanks for that in advance. Alright so is there anyone who would like to make a comment about some topic otherwise not on our agenda. And you can raise your hand there or if you want to, I'm not sure Cameron were you saying that people could unmute themselves and like give a little shout. Oh yeah you're still muted. Yeah I know I'm sorry yes that would be because I'm not seeing anyone raising their hands. So, um, you wanted if you. There was a thumbs up from a Tracy can you know I don't know if that was a thumbs up or a hand. There you go. That works. Tracy. So any sort of emoji if you don't want to speak. Can provide us one we will see it. Can you see would you like to say anything. I have Kim Watson as well. And Stephanie. Well, we're here together. Okay. Okay. Well, let's just start with that so. So Tracy, and then Kim and then Stephanie is that or or Noel. Yeah. That sounds good. Okay, go ahead. Hello. Can you hear me? Yes, Tracy, we can hear you. Hi there, I live in district one on Deerfield. And with the governor's announcement today at the press conference, I just was hoping to get some clarity on how involved the council is going to be for the school reopening. I think we have a lot of concerns with the kids going back to school. And so I just would like to know how that process is going to move forward so that we can know how it how it moves forward and be involved and and all of that. That's all those is more of a question than a statement. So, I think I could take a stab at this. So the school district is a parallel entity to the municipality, the same up here. So, city really doesn't have any jurisdiction over the school districts. We are not hierarchically over them. And so that question would probably be better addressed by the school board, since there's a separation there. Yeah, yeah, you're welcome. Sorry, I can't be more help there but good to know. Okay, Kim, Kim, did you want to say anything? Yes, I do. Oh, okay, go for it. I'm on the health and safety officer at a stone environmental a business here in town, and have been working heavily on the mandatory requirements set forth by the governor on opening, and we have been open all along. Since we have a central purpose. And I wanted to ask them you to rescind the requirement to wear face mask for retail, because it sends the wrong message to our, you know, the, the other requirements that are set forth. So, I don't know if that's on the agenda or whether I'll speak to it then or would you like me to speak to it now, and why. That's, that's an interesting question. Cameron with our coven 19 update, I assume we'll be talking about masks then. There's not really been any changes to the governor's ordinances to specific. I mean he makes changes to his specific groups and different types of businesses and their recommendations, but they don't conflict with white authorities granted you to provide masks, and there really isn't any sector change updates that would impact municipality right now so it's not technically included my update. Probably now would be an appropriate time to address the council on that topic. Okay, I had put in two comments and I guess you guys you had a firewall up so you could see my responses to the action that you took forth in that requirement. One of the things that mask are really can only protect you if if someone sneezes in your space. And so rather than focusing on mass has been a requirement it really should be focused on the cleaning criteria. And also the criteria to keep sick people out of your facility, and the ordinance that you put forth put was really for retail, which has not been opened the, all the other restaurants everything else they've been doing take and these requirements have not been put forth so that people can determine whether they wear masks or not. And if a facility does not have the appropriate sanitizers. Also, I think if you look at shots they have a sub in the right signage, then what you're really sending is a message to allow the sick people to come into those facilities versus the well, because not every if you're if you can keep the six, six foot distance then you really don't have to wear a mask and you you're better off breathing fresh air input air into your facility for fresh air and everything. And now Washington County has only one in 1072 people that have been sick. What the message you're sending is telling people if I wear a mask I'm protected, that is not true. If you wear a mask you're only protected from the sick. People are fit. I don't know if you've watched anybody but they're fiddling with their mask they're touching their mask touching their face. If they're sick and their hands then touch a surface. If you don't send the message to clean a surface all the time and to do that, then yeah, you'll, you'll be having more sick people. But since these businesses have been open, there has been no increases of COVID in Washington County. So I just would like to see you recent that proclamation or you know the safety step that you have put in place because it sends the wrong message. Thank you. Any questions with regards to what we've set up at our facility. You can you can look it up but I am following the more mandated. In the May 15 May 13 mandated memo from the stay at home order and May 29, where it clearly states that employees must have the sanitizers available to them. And the mask requirement is not mandated instead businesses were allowed to do sneeze guards. Okay, so thank you Kim, and we'll take that into consideration. Okay, thank you. Thank you. Stephanie slash Noel. Hi guys. So I'm here to talk about the possibility of having black lives matter painted in front of the state house like Washington DC had done. And I just, I don't know, I guess, putting it out there as a possibility and like, if it could be a community effort. So everybody come together and do this great thing together. Since this was not otherwise on our agenda I think now is a pro probably an okay time to chat about this this is something that we. A little bit about something that I, you know, I think would be great. That'd be fine. And I know Connor's done some work on this do you want to speak to this part. Yeah, sure. So we've had a lot of conversations this week. We've had quite a few folks contacting us saying it would be great if Montpelier was able to send a message as the capital of Vermont by painting black lives matter across from the house. We looked into it we did see that it was in the states jurisdiction to actually paint on the street. So I contacted the chief of staff for the governor Jason Gibbs, and got some pretty good news tonight and that Jason Gibbs said the administration is supportive of a proposal if we come up with us to paint black lives matter across the street on the state house, right by the state house lawn. The only stipulation being that we wouldn't block any turn signal lanes crosswalks. But I really do think this is, you know, it's symbolic right. And I think it needs to be done in conjunction with examining some of the policies we have around policing. It's systemic racism, not just in the police department but in every institution that we have in Montpelier here. So I think it could send a positive message to the state and nationally by Montpelier doing this. So I think we will discuss it maybe in a little bit. It wouldn't be properly warned. So I am going to make a motion at some point tonight to have a special council meeting. It could be Friday afternoon where we could just pop on the phone and properly warn us. But otherwise, we have Ward Joyce who's on the phone right now who's already designed the lettering for us. We've had people who've offered to volunteer paint. And Noel, I want to first congratulate you for having such a successful rally this weekend. It's really moving all the speeches. And it's really wonderful to see everything you've done from when you are Montpelier High School to what you're doing now just pushing the cause further. So we hope we can get this up and run and we'll talk about it Friday. But I hope we're moving in conjunction and should be good if we can pull it off. So Connor you're thinking about making that motion a little later in the conversation. I think I will after we break up to talk about some of these. That sounds good. Go ahead Dan. I just can for clarification. You know, if if this is really in the purview of the state, is there anything that we have to to decide other than, you know, filing some supportive motion with this would there be some permission or residual authority that we have as a city that we would want to give as a result of this motion. Did you have something in mind. No, I don't I just, and this may be more towards Bill or I don't know if Connors looked at this question either. But just understand, you know, if we're meeting Friday to sort of give more of a, you know, a motion in support or would this actually be an action that they would need to do this painting in which case it would be more substantive. I just want to make sure I'm clear on what we what we would be talking about if we had a special meeting. Okay, well let's take that up in a little bit. Okay. Sound okay. Okay, great. Is there anyone else for. Oh, sorry, did you have something more. We I have the events still up for honor their names and so I'm sure people will be more than happy to come help paint. If that's an option. Yeah, that's option I know, maybe with COVID that might have to win time slots or what that looks like. And also were fundraising money for stickers that we sold and so I would be willing to donate some of that money to those of the stickers. I would donate some of that money to painting that in front of the state house. So just to help here, the city would need to approve closing the street during the time that the painting was happening. Presumably we wouldn't want traffic to continue through there. And the city would probably want to give it's okay to the painting on the street the state because it's a federal aid highway we get federal state money for it. There's certain requirements for street markings that's called a manual of uniform traffic control devices MUT CD. So the state, you know, we have to be careful about doing anything that would create a problem from their regard is in terms of obtaining federal highway and state highway a if the governor's office has said they're okay with it. Then they've obviously done, presumably they've checked whoever they need to check with just say that they're okay with so I think normally what would happen is the city would say okay first. They would go make sure it was all right with the state in this case we've already got the state. So I would think when the time comes the city. First, we weren't a special meeting for doing this so we've got time to to announce it and people can weigh in on it. And then secondly, our action items would be closing the street on a certain day for a certain period of time, and giving the okay to the design. Yeah, I also would like to say like, so we made 642 hearts to put into the State House lawn and the next morning, Monday, 330pm at night, so much 38 am sorry, a stranger have gone and taken all those hearts off the State House lawn. So I think it that action alone shows that we need this, and we need this statement because I mean, those are real people, and we wanted to dispose of those hearts in a more symbolic memorial way. So, yeah. Yeah, thank you. Yeah, so thanks. Donna, and then, and then Dan, and then I get anything fast I'm I have not been holding people to two minutes I'm going to try to do a better job. Okay, go ahead Donna. I just want to say those hearts were so impressive. I was so disappointed to see them gone. I went back Monday specifically to take a picture. I just thank you for because it was a positive connotation. I just thought it inspired positive emotions so thank you for the idea. I'm sorry they didn't get that stolen. Thank you. Thank you. Dan, and then I see we have a comment from Thomas Graham. Sorry, I just I was going to follow up and thanks Bill for that clarification and I just wanted to be clear I support this as well. And, you know, I think that makes a lot of sense the way Connor proposing this and what Noel has explained for its its meaning so I, you know, I know we're going to put this off to later but I would support a Friday meeting as well and I think that it's a meaningful approval that we need to give so I'm glad to do that. Okay, thank you. Thomas, did you have something you want to say. Yeah, just related to the question of, you know, what might have happened to these hearts if this was like vigilante thing these disappeared. I don't know if anyone recognizes this how all people can see this. This is a bumper sticker from Patriot Front, which is a neo Nazi hate group that splintered from Vanguard America the group that a member of which murdered Heather Hayer at the rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. And this group is known to be active in Burlington, but I found this sticker walking around Monday night on the. And it was on that like shipping cater that with the windows in it, right by the bike path across the river Shaws. This sticker I peeled it off but I just wonder if there's a connection there and you know, I'm not sure if this is a local within our town or somebody who's who's traveling and coming from somewhere else but you know it's just something we should be aware of and keep our eyes out for is this exists here and we are not immune. Thank you. I actually wrote to Deb Farrell. Yeah, no I'll talk to her and I wrote to her so there's footage of, you know, a person at 330am that's as far as we've gotten. So, answer that question. Sorry, was that Sunday night. Monday, 330 in the morning Monday. Yeah. So, so just general team. If you could still continue to raise your hand to speak that would be great. All right, so anyone else for general. Yes, we have two more been raising their hand Jocelyn will check and Maggie lawns lens. Sorry. Okay, we'll go in that order. Jocelyn or possibly Anthony. You're still muted though. Yes. Despite the screen name. I'm Anthony are Pino I live at four saving street. I want to start my comment as they always do by thanking the council for your service a lot of work that you all do for next to know money. And it's makes a huge difference to our town so thank your city so thank you for your service. So quickly on this topic but I will not be able to participate on Friday and I just want to voice my support for the notion of painting black lives matter across from the state house we are the capital city we are a tourist city. The unfortunately though where I have seen the Confederate flag flying from residences in this town. I have seen it in residences around this town I've seen people drive through this town with Confederate flag and I think painting black lives matter across the state house which is some some place that people from all across the state come would be incredibly symbolic powerfully to send a message that we are welcoming here and that our community stands with our black brothers and sisters and I agree with what it is just a symbolic gesture there's more work to be done, but there is clearly a lot of power in symbolism. And I think it would be great if we could do this as a city and I'm willing to lend resources and and effort as well to this so I it sounds like the council is supportive and I express my appreciation for the council support and I will let you get on with your meeting. Thank you. Maggie. Hey guys thanks Mayor Watson. Thank you city counselors. I just want to add my voice to the chorus supporting this thank you Noel for bringing this forward. This is a great idea. Everyone has already said everything I think that needs to be said but to reiterate this shouldn't stand. This is a substitute for other work that we need to do. But as a district one resident I would like to show my support I would like to do anything I can to help and show the state and the country and the world that we stand with our black community. Thank you so much and I also on a separate note want to thank you so much for passing the mask ordinance. I felt safer shopping. This is about keeping other people safe. I don't think it sends the wrong message I think it sends a great message and it's certainly not a stand in for good hygienic practices but thank you for passing that ordinance. Thank you. Um, anyone else. What was that camp? Oh yeah I just raised my hand sorry I was late to this call. Yeah I'm Shayna Casper man Ken street in Montpelier and I'm also the chair of the social and economic justice advisory council. And I just also want to appreciate my support for taking up on this really important and timely issue. And as you all know the social and economic justice advisory council was committee was awarded $10,000 last year to hire anti bias consultant to run trainings and work with the committee to help make Montpelier more equitable and equitable and welcoming to to to very different communities of race and social and economic class. And as part of coven that funding was taken away but was committed for the next fiscal year. And I just want to, you know, make sure that we're still on track to be able to commit that funding to do this really important work as one small piece as part of a larger set of reforms around social, economic and racial justice in the state in this in the city. So, thank you. And Bill. Yeah, thanks Shayna how we we're going to be talking about our budget for FY 21 we've got about a $1.4 million deficit to cover. Thank you staff for his recommendation. Thank you. But we kept the $10,000 in the budget in our recommendation that was a commitment of the council and it certainly is a high priority item. So just, I mean, obviously, councils have voted on it yet, but it's not included in the cuts that are being recommended. So hopefully it'll go. Thank you Bill and thank you. Yeah, everyone for for really prioritizing this really important issue. And again knowing that it's going to have to be in collaboration with a lot of other, you know, really important work that the city is going to do. Cameron is there anyone else. I can't tell if Mike don't know for you is raising his hand or responding to Shayna so I will put him on the spot. Thank you. Okay, Mike has frozen. Okay, well I'll make hopefully Michael unfreeze here in a minute. But in absence of that, it's anyone else. Okay. So I'm not hearing anybody else and Cameron you don't have anyone else if Mike comes back well, let me jump back a bit. So we're going to move on then so we're on to the consent agenda. Is there a motion regarding the consent agenda. Go ahead Jack. I would request even though I suggested it I request we take the Juneteenth resolution out of the consent agendas and then we would take it up along with the anti racism agenda or item. That sounds good. Oh, seconded. Yeah, okay doubly seconded. So sorry. So Jack, were you moving the consent agenda absent that item. I had not, I had not, but I thought that would be next but. Okay, so we're just. We actually need to vote on removing a consent agenda item. So that's, we'll just take it right out. And then is there a motion to pass the consent agenda minus item D the Juneteenth proclamation. So move. Okay. Okay, further discussion on this. Okay. All in favor please say aye. Aye. Post. Okay, so the consent agenda passes. So now we're going to move on to the Juneteenth proclamation along with the resolution condemning racism and police brutality. And so this part of the conversation is going to go. Jack had brought the Juneteenth proclamation I think it would probably make sense. I know in the past, Jack, you've wanted to read that. Do you want to read it again this year? I am happy to read it. I think that there are probably people present or viewing who have not had a chance to see it yet. And so I think it makes sense to do that. And I have it in front of me. Okay. So if I knew how to put it on the screen, I would, but I don't. So I'll just read it. Whereas the history of slavery in the United States is a history of unspeakable brutality and depression. And whereas the existence of slavery, beginning with the earliest settlements and what became the United States and continuing through the Civil War was a betrayal of the values the United States was created to defend. And whereas the proclamation of the end of slavery in Texas. June 19 1865, long after both the emancipation and proclamation at the end of the Civil War is widely regarded as the end of slavery in the United States. And whereas with the experience of over 150 years of history, we now know that the official eradication of slavery was merely a start to the continuing effort to liberate the formerly enslaved people in their descendants. And whereas June 19 celebrated on as Juneteenth celebrates African American freedom and achievement, while encouraging continuous self development and respect for all cultures. And whereas Juneteenth celebrates the fundamental promise of America and the need for all Americans to continue to work for universal justice and freedom. And whereas the city of Montpelier is committed to the values of liberty and justice enunciated in our Declaration of Independence and Constitution. And whereas the city of Montpelier is further committed to providing a home for all peoples and cultures to form the Montpelier community. And therefore it is resolved that June 19 2020, there's a typo there is recognized in the city of Montpelier as Juneteenth. And it is further resolved that the people of Montpelier are encouraged to celebrate the fundamental American values that underline the founding of our nation, our state and our city, and to recommit themselves to the cause of liberty, justice and acceptance of all people. And I move that we adopt this resolution. Okay. So, thank you. And so just so folks are. We're going to move this item, then we'll have a conversation about. And then we'll have a broader conversation about policing in general just so everyone knows where we're going. So, there's a motion and a second. Is there any further conversation on this item. Okay. David, please say aye. Opposed. Okay, thank you so that. Thank you so much for bringing that to us, Jack. And for the resolution condemning racism and police brutality, I'm going to turn this over to Lauren. Thank you. So I had brought forward this resolution and really I'm excited that it is spurring the conversation that I hoped it would I'm so pleased to see such engagement from the community and so many people here looking forward to this conversation. And do you want me to read the resolution to lay the groundwork and, and we can deal with that and then have the conversation process wise. I think that would be good. Yeah. Okay, so this is a resolution condemning racism and police brutality. Whereas we are outraged at the recent killings of a mod Arbery Breonna Taylor George Floyd and countless others. And the city of Montpelier condemns all forms of racism and police brutality and supports and commits to protecting all of its residents. Whereas these recent tragedies have once again shown a light on systemic racism and the current and historically disparate treatment of African Americans and black people in our country. And whereas data show racial disparities in the criminal justice system in Vermont, including one of the highest per capita rates of incarceration of black men of any state in the nation. And whereas we support and commit to calling out hate and discrimination when we see it, and to promote our core American value that no one should be targeted because of their identity. And whereas violence, hate crimes and police brutality create fearful and unstable communities. And as public servants we have a responsibility to speak out against racism discrimination and bias. And whereas the Montpelier City Council recognized that historical and ongoing systems and structures in our nation, state and community perpetuate racism, sexism, heterosexism, classism, ableism and other forms of injustice and oppression. This response created the Montpelier social and economic justice advisory committee to help the city address and reshape the systems policies and practices that perpetuate these barriers to social and economic justice in our community. And whereas the Montpelier City Council prioritize the creation of an inclusive, equitable and engaged community where all people are treated with respect and dignity in our 2020 and 2021 strategic plan. And whereas law enforcement officers in the city of Montpelier have made important strides in building trust and legitimacy and policing, working to foster open and honest dialogue in our community, but ongoing work remains. And whereas the city of Montpelier affirms and commits to protect the rights of all people, including the Black Lives Matter movement and justice allies and activists in our community who speak up and protest and demand justice for all. And whereas we stand together to fight any form of bigotry discrimination or hate and speech or action against any group from whatever the source. Now therefore be it resolved that the Montpelier City Council and Mayor wholeheartedly condemn the actions and injustices, including police brutality and racism that have again divided and harmed our community, state and country. And be it further resolved that the City of Montpelier recommits to engaging our community members to address and uproot institutionalized racism and implicit bias and offer spaces for dialogue, trainings and understanding. And be it further resolved that the City of Montpelier will continually work to ensure it is implementing bias free policing, actively working to reduce disparate impacts on historically marginalized communities and creating systems and procedures that ensure robust transparency, oversight and accountability. And be it further resolved that the Montpelier City Council and Mayor will strive to do everything in its power to make certain that Montpelier is and will remain an inclusive, equitable and engaged city, opposed to acts of racism and bigotry. Move we adopt this resolution. I'll second. Okay. So we could. I'm feeling that no one is going to be opposed to that. So I feel like we should vote on that and then I'd like to have a discussion, because this this feels. This is a conversation right like we have this opportunity here to be self reflective about our policing in Montpelier and there's always space to do better and so forward to. All right, so any further discussion on this resolution. Okay, all in favor please say aye. Opposed. Okay, so. I just want to share with everyone that Dan Richard Richard since internet had gone out he let me know so he was not on that vote in case people went and why he's not present. He's still working on it. Great. Thank you. Donna did you have the in depth discussion I just really want to thank Lauren and her writing and whoever helped her this is such an exquisite proclamation thank you and thank everybody who participated in doing it. Yes, I agree. Oh, you have Dan back that's great. Dan just FYI we just voted on the resolution. Okay, so now at this point, I would like to. Oh, so I'm going to say this and then I'll get to you Jack. Jack we're going to call we're going to hear from Jack and then like to hear from the public and I'm sure lots of folks have things they want to say so if you can be raising your hand to let Cameron know and then I'll check in with Cameron as to who would like to speak and we'll go from there. I was just going to request that we reopen the vote on that resolution so that Dan would have the opportunity to go on record and supported it. That's a good call. I, I am not technically sure how to reopen a vote does anyone know how to do that. Well it's definitely going to take some kind of motion I'll have to check the book. So, um, So I think someone who, sorry. No, no, you go ahead. Go ahead. I think someone who can, who voted yes, which is all of us can move to reconsider with the idea being that we would reconsider and then move the six votes in favor so I'm going to vote, move to reconsider the vote on the resolution. I'll second that. Okay. So it's been a motion and a second to reconsider all in favor of any further discussion. All in favor. Yeah, I presume the only people that could vote would be the ones who voted on the prior motion to reopen. I think so. I think that's probably the cure. All right, so all in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye. Opposed. Okay, so we'll reconsider that vote is there. Movie resolution condemning racism and police brutality. Second. Any further discussion. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed. Okay, that's the motion passes and that was unanimous with all six votes. Okay. Great. Thank you for that. All right, so Cameron. How are we doing? I don't see anyone actively. Your hands. Raise your hands. I'll put you all in a list. Hold on mayor. I'm sorry. That's okay. Right now we just have. As far as I can tell. Carolyn Wesley and Stephanie. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. And Laura. Oh, is that Lauren Griswald or is that someone else? No, it just says Laura. Okay. We'll go. We'll go Carolyn and Stephanie, then. Lauren, I see your hand. And so you'll be. Laura. And then David. Okay. David Hershey. Yes. Okay. So David. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Keep people to two minutes. I'll just let you know when two minutes is, is up and then try to. Wrap your comments up there if you can. Okay. Carolyn, go ahead. Hi, Ann. I just want to use a piece of my two minutes in public service to let people know you can obviously raise your hand physically the video. But in zoom, if you click on the participants button. A window will open where there's a button to raise hands. If anyone didn't know how to raise hands. I think, I think people are looking if you just raise your hand too. I also want to acknowledge that I got called before Stephanie. Part of the statement that I'm going to read was drafted by Stephanie building on her word. So I just want to give acknowledgement to that. So I want to thank the council for the resolution condemning racism and police police brutality. I think we all know and has already been acknowledged today that words are not enough to address the centuries of genocide that have taken place in the United States. They have taken place in the United States. They have taken place in slavery, colonialism, brutality, disenfranchisement and discrimination against native black and other people of color that have taken place in Vermont and in our Montpelier community. What I most want to impress upon you today is that since we all acknowledge through this resolution and the Juneteenth proclamation that neither safety and protection under the law nor opportunity to thrive exist equally for everyone in our community. I want to acknowledge that we all have a lot of potential to be in this structure and to think about different ways to be in community with one another. With that in mind, I'm asking you to take concrete steps now to truly make Montpelier the inclusive, equitable and engage community you imagine. And this includes examining why and how police function to begin with and acknowledging that policing has its roots in white supremacy and racism. I acknowledge that up until now, recognized that there may be good work under way that can be built upon and accelerated at this moment, but it is clear that the city faces significant budgetary pressures as a result of the pandemic. And I think this presents an opportunity to reconsider funding priorities in light of the demands of black and brown people across this country. Some of those demands include removing police from schools, permanently reducing the number of police officers immediately starting with those who have been have used excessive force. Removing the procurement of military equipment and surveillance technology disarming the police, diverting funding from disproportionately large police budget into social resources, including the underfunded and volunteer based Community Justice Center, arranging for a budget shortfall resulting from COVID-19 to come exclusively out of the police budget and not to disrupt other city services. To certify and disbanding police unions and not entering into further collective bargaining agreements with organizations that represent the police, recognizing that police unions keep officers from facing consequences and working towards creating new structures of justice emergency response and conflict resolution with the ultimate goal of abolishing the police. Two minutes right now. Sorry. Well, then I'll just finish up saying policing is not the only institution where systemic racism shows up. There are other challenges for black and other people of color in our community that should be tended to and all of that requires resources so it makes sense to prioritize city services. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for that value and respect and promote the dignity of all individuals. Thank you. Can I just ask Madam Mayor, for people like Carol and Stephanie, anybody else that has prepared statements, could you send them in just because a lot to write down so that we would have the full text of what you're asking for? It makes it easier in the future when we want to review and respond. Yes. What's the best place to email to send that to? Okay. Thank you. Stephanie and then Thomas, I see your hand. So, Thomas, you would go after David. Go ahead, Stephanie. Hi everyone. Thanks for listening to us tonight. I want to say Montpelier is obviously a special place, a place where we will apparently be in blazing Black Lives Matter on our major thoroughfare. But here's what worries me and I know it worries other people as well. I'm worried that in a political climate where our president and other politicians use such intense hatred and overt racism that we in Vermont feel simply saying the right thing is enough. I'm here to make it clear that the people of Montpelier know the difference, as some of you have alluded to. We know that these words and even big symbolic gestures are the absolute bare minimum. Words and symbols are not enough to address the centuries of genocide, slavery, colonialism and brutality against Native Black and other people of color that have taken place in Vermont, or even KKK rallies that took place right here in this city. So we want to see action at least a systemic change. I'm here to demand that the city of Montpelier take concrete steps now to truly make Montpelier the inclusive, equitable and engaged community that you all imagine. This includes examining why and how police function to begin with and acknowledging that policing has its roots in white supremacy and racism and there is no getting around that. So we demand you remove police officers from the Montpelier school system immediately, permanently reduce the number of police officers starting with those who have used excessive force, such as Chad Bean, who fairly shot Mark Johnson in Montpelier last summer, pass a resolution banning the procurement of military equipment and surveillance technology, disarm the police, divert funding from the disproportionately large police budget into the underfunded volunteer based Montpelier Community Justice Center. A wage for the budget charge forward, resulting from COVID-19 to come exclusively out of police budget as not to disrupt other services that the city provides. Work towards creating new structures of justice emergency response and conflict resolution with the ultimate goal of abolishing the police. Please put your money where your mouth is and demonstrate what the city truly values. Defund the police and fund programs that value and respect the dignity of all individuals because the police inherently does not. Thank you. I just want to say we are watching your progress and if these demands are not met, we will be back and we appreciate your time. Thank you, Stephanie. Okay, Laura is there a Laura who would like to speak. Hi. Hi. Yes, I can hear you. And would you say your, if you wouldn't mind saying your whole name and just where you live. My name is Laura Baker and I live in Montpelier and I'm here with my three friends. I'm Claire Tostin and I live at 16 Hubbard Street and I'm Rachel Tumple and Claire's roommate. I also live at 16 Hubbard Street. And essentially we're all gathered here today to take you back on the words of Carolyn and Stephanie. We have the same exact demands as they do. I'm not going to read out the prepared statement because I think that's going to email to you. But we all feel extremely strongly about that and we think that it will make Montpelier a fair and tolerable place to live. Laura, we have four of us here who are in agreement on those demands that were listed previously. Okay. And John, anything more from Laura and the folks with her, are we good? I could not make out the other names. Thank you for bringing that up. The other folks who are there. Please be. I got Laura Baker. That's all I got to. I'm Claire Tostin and Rachel Tumple. We both live at 16 Hubbard. Okay. I think I got that. Okay. Sorry, I did not get that. Great. Tostin, he lives on, or they live on a street. Okay. Okay, great. Thank you. Okay, Lauren Griswold, I think you are next. Hi guys. I'm trying to get right to it. I really appreciate your resolution, your interest in this symbolic gesture of painting black lives matter, and for the state house. And I do just want to, I'm sure a lot of you guys are familiar with the fact that Mayor Bowser of DC came under some heat for little hypocrisy, the disparity between the symbolic gesture and the lack of responding to the black lives matters and what a main call to action is defending police and she's seeking to raise the police budget this coming year and she's come under some heat for that so I'm also echoing Stephanie's comment here and would ask you guys to keep that in mind that a symbolic gesture like that is beautiful and it will spur powerful action in its own right but it's really important that it comes coupled with action from the city. So I'm here to urge you to take decisive action now in response to the tragic murder of George Floyd and the countless black men and women he has come to represent our country our state and our city needs systemic change and we need it now. This starts with an acknowledgement of the issues inherent in American policing. One cannot watch the barrage of police brutality we've all seen these past two weeks in response to protests and not conclude there's something gravely wrong in the culture and system of the American police force. There is no asterisk there that excludes. And aren't helping. Most of the value thing I can play cities with progressive police reform, but what good is reform if a culture and a mindset of violence control and rage overrides protocol. If officers function above the law with quality immunity and police unions stand by them when the public. They've proven themselves an inadequate response to the crisis at hand. We don't need to daily market rules they won't follow. We need to get in the process of reimagining public safety, we need a public safety plan that. Reduces crime. And funds the management of the resulting crime. To begin the process. I want to act on my neighbor's demand. Police officers immediately starting with those who use the force. It feels like it will strain the remaining staff out. And then we have to work in the police duties to professionals equally or more prepared to handle that has a resolution banning the procurement of military equipment and surveillance technology. And then we have to work in the police duties to provide a proportionately large police budget to the underfunded volunteer based month, not failure community justice center. And do not enter into any further collective bargaining agreements with organizations that represent the police work towards creating new structures of justice emergency response and conflict resolution with the ultimate goal of abolishing the police. And that truly values liberty and justice for all to fund the police, invest in programs that strengthen community resilience mental health and economic opportunity for all our residents. And this won't blow over. I hope you guys will. Well, that's pretty much it. I just hope you guys will take this moment. That it is. Or you'll just keep hearing. So, Lauren, you were sort of cutting in and out a bit there so if you have anything written down that you want to send us that would also be welcome and helpful. But thank you. Cool. Alright, David. Hi, David Hershey. I'm a resident of East Montpelier. I don't know if that affects my ability to speak in this forum at all. It does not but thank you for letting us know. Okay. So I'm here to just echo this, the demands of those before me who've already spoken for the same reasons because it's incredibly important to take not only symbolic action but to actually change the policies of our city in order to to use Stephanie's words to put our money where I'm at this rate. So I'm just going to relist those demands real quick, so that others can speak. Those demands are to remove police officers from the Montpelier school system to permanently reduce the number of police officers immediately, starting with those who have used excessive force such as Chad Bean who fatally shot Mark Johnson and Montpelier last summer to pass a commission banning procurement of military equipment and surveillance technology to disarm the police to divert funding from the disproportionately large police budget into underfunded volunteer based Montpelier Community Justice Center to arrange for budget shortfall arrange or to compensate for the budget shortfall from COVID-19 by taking money out exclusively out of the police budget so as not to disrupt other services that the city provides and certify and disband the police union and not enter into any further collective bargaining agreements with organizations that represent the police. And to work towards creating new structures of justice emergency response and conflict resolution the ultimate goal of abolishing the police. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, can I jump in real quick. Yes, go ahead. Our list has gotten much longer so I just wanted to get you on where we're at. Okay, great. So we have Allison. And some people might not have been raising their hands but reacting so if they don't want to say anything that's up to them but we have Allison, Shayna, Thomas, Julia constant. I'm so sorry. Constantinos. Yes. Okay, so I think I was going to be calling on Thomas next because I saw his hand. So we'll go. Thomas and then Allison, Shayna, Julia. Constantinos, Bogdan, Kate Brown, Ira. Hang on. Oh, hang on. Bogdan, Kate Brown. And then, and then who? Ira and Rebecca. Thomas and then Allison, Shayna, Julia, Constantinos, Bogdan, Kate, Ira, Rebecca. Okay, and again, I'll try to let you know when two minutes has gone by so that we can keep going. Okay, so I think, Thomas, you are up, go ahead. I would also echo those demands. I think all of that is reasonable and just as a procedural question, I was wondering the way presently there are certain blind item budget issues like the library that are separate from voting up or down the entire municipal budget and maybe a way to achieve or at least make a direct democracy out of and kind of put to the public. The question of police funding and possibly achieve defunding the police. Would it be possible to make the police budget in particular a line item that's separate from the overall municipal budget so that voters can vote on that separately from other issues. Before we address that, actually, I think I, is there anything else you want to add to that, Thomas? No, just a theoretical question. Okay. So just in general in the past we have not split out particular departments, though that's something we can consider but usually it's well that would increase, you know, the democratization of voting there. It's usually not considered best practice because it's because the city budget is all as a whole thing and so we try to keep it together. If it's if it's under the auspices but you know that we can talk about. So, thank you. I'll get on that too quickly. Allison. And then, yeah, no good. Go ahead, Allison. I'm Allison Burns. I also live in East Montpelier. And right now I teach eighth grade math at Randolph Union High School and in the fall I'll be teaching at U32. And I just wanted to echo the demands that have been made. It should be abundantly clear right now that speaking out against racism is not enough. It's an urgent issue and we need to be actively working towards being anti racist as individuals but also as a city. This does not just come from condemning racism with our words but instead by taking immediate action to make sweeping changes to the systems that have been built on white supremacy to oppress the black community. We demand the following remove police officers from Montpelier schools immediately. There is no place for police officers in schools. And looking back now, I have been complicit in this. I have sat in countless meetings for, you know, kids who have truancy issues or drug issues. And we've had an armed police officer in those meetings and that is completely inappropriate and does the opposite of solving the problem. We also are demanding that we permanently reduce the number of police officers immediately starting with those who have used excessive force such as Chad Bean who fatally shot Mark Johnson in Montpelier last summer. In conclusion, banning the procurement of military equipment and surveillance technology disarm the police, divert funding from the disproportionately large police budget into the underfunded volunteer based Montpelier Community Justice Center. Arrange for budget shortfall resulting from COVID-19 to come exclusively out of police budget as not to disrupt other services that the city provides. Please keep officers from facing consequences, decertify and disband the police union and do not enter into any further collective bargaining agreements with organizations that represent the police. And then work towards creating new structures of justice emergency response and conflict resolution with the ultimate goal of abolishing the police. Thank you. I just want to check in with the city manager. So we're hearing a lot of the same items come up over and over again. Do you have all of these listed, like, written down. Yeah, and we got carrot we have Carolyn's email as well. We've already received. So just to note to folks that we got those all written down and so you could as an option if you want you can just say I support that same list, but feel free to elaborate or add your own ideas as well. Okay, so Shayna. Thank you. I just wanted to express my support as an individual, not as a member of the committee. And then I also just did have a question about how the school resource officer was funded and if that was through this city budget or if that was separate, you know, with with the city council or with the school committee. Is that the extent of the things that you want to say. Yes. Thank you. Yeah, just want to express my support. I can yield the rest of my time to someone else who needs to go over. Cool. All right, so build you want to explain that the school resource officers split 5050 between the city budget and the school budget. Obviously they do work in the schools counseling and other work as well as during when schools close they're offering working as a patrol officer so we've had that 5050 split down for a long time. Thank you. Thanks. Okay, Julia. Hi, I was just reacting, but I live at 2 limit street and I will since I have the floor for this this moment I will also support the list of demands and I appreciate all those who organized to bring them forth. Thank you. I believe we are up to Bogdan. Hello. Can I speak if I don't leave him on billiard. You may just tell us where you do live. I live in barrier right next and I'm, I'm interested in this since we are neighboring communities and if anything happens in Montpelier will affect Barry and vice versa. Okay, thank you so thank you very much for having me time is over the essence so I'll be brief. The reason I joined today is because of the recent Facebook and front porch forums regarding defying the police. We have a racism problem in America and it is not a small problem it affects lives every day, regardless of age and it is sad and it's bad and heartbreaking that in 2020 we are still judging people based on their skin color. It is unacceptable and this must end. The online post stated that Montpelier we are watching thank you for anti rhetoric anti racist rhetoric and put it into action to find the police to make our community safer. The question is, are the two exclusives. Can we have an inclusive anti racist and safe community community without the funding the police. I believe the answer is yes. One major concern I have honestly is that we are trying to do something here based on what is going on around the country. Yes, last events are appalling. However, does Montpelier have an actual issue in terms of police racism. The reasons that are demanded are to reduce the number of police officers immediately starting with those who have used excessive force. It feels that we are automatically deeming any and all officers that they've ever used force guilty without addressing the circumstances surrounding those actions that is no different than convicting anyone of assault if that action was taken in self defense. And also to pass a resolution banning the procurement of military equipment and surveillance technology. Are we talking about banning any and all military equipment or just particular categories, because three years ago when Orlando saw an active shooter, a military helmet saved a police officer's life. We are talking about disarming the police. I genuinely cannot imagine personally this happening and still having a safe police department. If we are condoning any violence, we have a moral obligation of condemning all violence and police are experimenting the same violence as well. Police officers are still being attacked, assaulted, shot, etc. And these days understand how it is hard to realize it and feel for it. But there are some amazing cops out there. They are really some amazing officers that understand what policing is that are focused on their community and they are involved in the community and they want to make their community better. And the most important thing, the one that really I am passionate about, they care about the young generation, because if we do not invest in our young people, what good are we? Bottom line, I don't think it is wise to take them out to the police department for the actions of other officers in the country. This is no different. You're at about two minutes right now. This is no different than what the far right is doing at the moment, blaming Black Lives Matter for recent riots when the ones that actually believe in change and they do believe in Black Lives Matter are protesting peacefully for change. That being said, I 100% agree with discussing the police budget. I think it's a good topic to discuss and thank you very much for the time. Thank you very much. And Constantinos, I'm so sorry I skipped you. So, Constantinos, you are up next. You are muted I think. Okay, can you hear me now? Yes. Okay. So the city council's resolution condemning racism and police brutality declares responsibility of Montpelier's public servants to speak out against racism, discrimination and bias. It's not enough to address the centuries of genocide, slavery, colonialism brutality against Native Black and other people of color that have taken place in Vermont, or the KKK rallies that have happened here in this very city. We just heard earlier on this very meeting about white supremacists active in our city today. Words symbolic gestures and reformism are nice, but have never been enough. I'm an abolitionist. And when I say abolish the police, I mean abolish all racist and white supremacist institutions, including policing. This includes examining new systems of justice, emergency response and conflict resolution. If you just browse police media logs here in the city, I'm sure most of you will agree, an armed individual is not the best way to respond to these community issues. I know abolition won't happen overnight, but it's a long process we all must go through together as a community. This includes examining why and how police function to begin with and acknowledging that policing has its roots in white supremacy and racism. I'm here to demand as a first steps and bare minimum towards this goal that the city of Montpelier take concrete steps now to truly make Montpelier the inclusive, equitable and engaged community we imagine. So we demand the following, remove police officers from Montpelier schools, permanently reduce the number of police officers and immediately, starting with those have used excessive force such as Chad Bean, who fatally shot Mark Johnson in Montpelier last summer, and was returned to duty before an external investigation was even completed, trivializing the investigation and essentially rubber stamping the use of deadly force by police, insulting all those who have been victims of police violence. Even if he's just one bad apple, any coworker that tolerates this type of behavior is just as guilty. Also, pass a resolution banning the procurement of military equipment and surveillance technology. Disarm the police, divest divert funding from the disproportionately large police budget into the underfunded volunteer based Montpelier Community Justice Center, arrange for budget shortfall resulting from COVID-19 to come exclusively out of police budget and not to disrupt other city services. These certify in the span the police union do not enter into any further collective bargaining agreements with organizations that represent the police. Police Union's purpose is to keep officers from facing consequences and work towards creating new structures of justice emergency response and conflict resolution with the ultimate goal of establishing the police. Mariam Kaba, a fellow abolitionist and researcher at Barnard College said in a recent interview, everything you see in the world. Somebody thought of first, once things are actualized into the world and exist, you can't imagine how the world functioned before it. It's like we develop amnesia, you just assume, assume things have always been as they are. I wholeheartedly agree with this sentiment. Tomorrow does not have to look like today. I implore you to recognize the colonial and white supremacist origins and structures being upheld by policing. Even if our police department here in Montpelier is not problematic to you personally and and think about the damage that this institution has done to indigenous communities and communities of color. Two minutes straight now just and how good institutions affect those within our city. So mayor, council members, city manager, some of which I saw marching on Sunday in the street. Put your money where your mouth is and demonstrate what the city truly values. Defund the police fund instead programs that value and respect the dignity of all individuals. So we'll be watching and if these demands are not met will continue. You'll continue to hear from us. Great. Hey, thank you. All right, Kate Brown. Hi, can you hear me. Yes. Okay, great. Thanks. Thanks for having us. I do want to welcome chief Pete to our community. And it's such an important time. It's always that's Kate's challenge. I think you're not. There you go. You were just talking about me. I do want to voice my support for the Montpelier residents speaking out today and for the mission of the Vermont Racial Justice Alliance. We have really an unprecedented opportunity to create new structures of justice emergency response and conflict resolution with the ultimate goal of abolishing the police. As we know it, the divesting from our armed police force should be rooted in immediate investment in services related to physical and domestic abuse, drug addiction and overdose and mental health emergencies. We must also place our areas of trauma affecting the health of our community. We must also place a priority on the training and wellness of our peace officers. The new city police budget does mention share of a social worker housed within Washington County mental health services. I'm really heartened that this represents a tiny step in the right direction was so much more to do. I just want to say I hope to raise my young family here Montpelier in a community where everyone can access care and help in an emergency without fear of a militarized response or physical harm. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, Ira. My name is Ira Shadis. I live on Main Street in Montpelier. So I would just say that I fully agree with this idea of abolishing the police and that should be the goal. In particular, I do want to emphasize the sort of process where Chad Bean ended up back on the street before the external investigation was complete. I don't know all the details, but something seems amiss there. I would also say that, you know, if, if you can't stomach the idea of abolishing the police if that's too much of a conceptual leap. I still have the question of how, how come the police budget is as large as it is why is it such a big piece of the city's budget and then is that money being spent effectively? I mean, what is in place to ensure that there is some, some metric or some measure that what they're doing is worth our money and worth our time. I think there's a growing body of evidence that points to other institutions and other structures as providing safer, healthier, happier communities. And I think, you know, if, if you want to be practical about it, then hold, hold up the police as an institution against other institutions. You know, Konstantina said something about things needing to be imagined, but there's people around the country who are imagining things and have, have good ideas. There are ideas for civilian review, review boards. There are ideas for community justice centers like our 400 funded one in town here and I think that it's actually the practical thing to look at the comparative impact of those institutions versus the police. And that's it. Thank you very much. Okay, Rebecca. Hi, I'm Rebecca Dalgan. I live on Greenwood Terrace. I believe in District one. I just wanted to voice my support for the statement that Stephanie and Carolyn made. And I also, I don't know if this is the appropriate place to ask questions but I'm given the support that it's shown, has been shown for here I'm wondering what the council's next steps are regarding this. And thank you. Great. Thank you. Well, and I think the next steps is probably going to be part of our discussion. So, Cameron is there anyone else. Yes, Kim Watson and Elizabeth Parker raised their hands. Okay. Kim, go ahead. Kim you are still muted. I'm mute. I'd like to thank the Montpelier police for all the hard work they've done. They've definitely taken care of drug drug addictions and working in all of those areas areas and I do not support the funding of the police. And I would recommend additional training in brutality and in those kind of sources to help them get educated on how to work with different populations and that's all I have to say. Okay. Thanks very much. All right. And Elizabeth. Hi. Well, I too would like to welcome Brian Pete. And of course, thank Tony for his years of service. After Mark's death, I attended city council and asked for more policing downtown so that so that the police really start to have relationships with the residents in the higher density areas that are mostly affected by the challenges of mental health and also areas where potentially there's a higher use of drugs. And I have to say, you know, I have not, I have yet to see that type of policing happening. And I really hope that as we move towards a different model of how we interact with one another that as long as the police department exists as that we take more time to build relationships with those people most in need so that when critical events happen that there's a better understanding of the situation by all the police. And I think that many important, you know, concepts have been raised here tonight that need to be evaluated and, and many need to be adopted. And so I just hope that in the interim, we can have some basic shifts that will help in building the relationships that are necessary to have the kind of policing that hard based policing that we really want here in my pillar. Thank you very much. Thank you, Elizabeth. Okay, Cameron anyone else. I don't see anyone so sort of final call on that, I guess. Okay, yeah anyone else. Okay, well so I want to thank everyone who spoke I appreciate your time and attention to the details of my apply in Montpelier so I appreciate that. And, yeah, so I do think that there are there's always, there's always improvement we. We did hire a social worker this year, and we've also we're also funding a street outreach person for working with our unsheltered community but there's absolutely things that need to be and can be better so in any case, so the question I think is, where do we want to go from here Council so I'll turn it over to you what comments or ideas or what are you hearing, where do you want to go. Connor go ahead. I just wanted to start and thank everybody who spoke today. It's I was at the rally to this weekend. And I think there's like, you know, there's a passive activism you can take the whole design and everybody's saying the same chance and you're all like on the same page right. It's a step further to actually take it to a body like this and come with concrete solutions that you're offering and be willing to have the discussion. Okay, like, okay, we might keep coming back. I would say we would welcome you to come back any Council meeting where we're really a volunteer board here. And we can use the expertise and have a community discussion and come up with some of the best outcomes. I want to thank Chief Acos, because since since I've been on City Council. I've been very impressed by the Chief's commitment to President Obama's 21st century policing policy, which which I think really outlined some of the best practices. I think we're able to have a conversation like this is because the Chief has been so open to feedback always improving. And so I just want to thank him as he's stepping down, he's stepping down on a very hard time. And it must be difficult to hear these discussions to some extent. Also want to welcome new Chief Pete here. He's going to bring a ton of new ideas, a ton of new experiences that I'm sure we can all learn from and improve going forward. One of the things I want to say is, I think all of us are having individual discussions with activists in the community. I know I've had like two or three already this week. I think we need some time to process this but Anne is on the phone who spoke last week she's a resident of Barry Street. So Mike Filbrek and I sat down the yesterday of the day before had a coffee. And as an example of somebody who came with an idea of maybe a community advisory group who could not be under the Montpelier Police Department but maybe, you know, the Community Justice Center or something. That would create a two way conversation with community members and the police force. I would really be interested in exploring as a way that people could offer feedback without fear of any repercussions or anything. I think we could use the Community Justice Center model a lot to do mediations if somebody was pulled over, and just in like the treatment on a stop or something that might be a mechanism, but also sort of a way we can come up with some solid ideas and maybe incorporate them into the budget. So I think we've got a lot of good ideas. I think, and it was fair to say, Mayor, that, you know, again the homeless liaison position, the social worker position, maybe having a conversation about SRO's roles in the school. I think these are great discussions to have, but it's not going to be solved overnight. And I think with any movement, it's more than the rallies. We're going to keep in the momentum going and keep in coming to these meetings. And just want to say I really appreciate it. And I think I can speak for the whole council when I say we're, you know, we're all white. We were born with enormous privilege. And we have an obligation to listen to everybody who may have different experiences on our own. So looking forward to having the discussion going forward. I don't know if we're going to hammer anything out tonight, but that's my sense of what a process could look like in the next few weeks. So thanks. Thank you. Anyone else? Go ahead, Jack. Thank you. I'm unmuted, right? Okay, yes, thank you. I think we've all been, first off, I thought the event on Sunday was great. It was one of the biggest crowds I've seen on the State House and I really appreciate the organizers. I think that my experience has been like many others, which is just being inundated with not only information about the problems, but inundated with different ideas about what could be done. And, and the other day, you know, there's people may be aware there's this organization called eight can't wait that has been started out by saying here are eight changes that police departments could could do right now to reduce police violence by 72%. And I, I don't get, I don't know where they got those figures, but, but I went ahead and shared that on my Facebook page and one of my first comments from a constituents from his constituent was, Well, are you going to support doing that in Montpelier? And I reflected reflexively said, yes. The manager informed me that we probably are all doing all of these things, but I'll read them to people just so they know what changes we're talking about. Ban chokeholds and strangleholds require de escalation require warnings before shooting exhaust all alternatives before shooting the duty to intervene. That's the duty of other police officers to intervene and unlawful conduct by police officers ban shooting and moving vehicles establish a use of force continuum and require all force to be reported. And I think that this is really barely the start of the conversation. I think we're at an important point with the retirement of Chief Fakos and and the appointment of Chief Pete. And I think that the way I think about it is where we should be now is to start a process of community engagement and discussion to consider what fun what the needs of our community are what and what is the appropriate agency to address those needs. And I think it's very clear that some of the problems that our society is faced with with are not best addressed by by law enforcement. So what I would suggest we do and I'm not making a motion just proposing as a way to go forward that we start to put some dedicated time into into discussing this once once the new chief is on board. I think since we have appointed him to be our new chief and in large measure because he addresses and embodies the values that the city is committed to. I think we should give him the chance to get on the job before we start before the bus or the boat leaves the leaves the dock and leave him swimming to catch up. So when they do when the new chiefs in I think we should start having this discussion. Thank you, Jack. Go ahead Donna and then Lauren did you want to say something. Okay, we'll go Donna then Lauren. I mean Florence first that's okay. All right. I'm glad that people brought up 21st century policing. And I do feel it isn't that Tony or any police officer is perfect. I'm looking for improvement but I feel we have to look as a whole community, which is why I was so excited about our social justice committee, and spending money to bring in an expert to help us as a community to increase our full awareness, and to look at systemic problems and policies. And that doesn't mean that not to do things with the police but every department needs to be included. And likewise when I think of 21st century policing that we all need to be more aware of is that we also recognize what we've done in Montaigneur with Safecatch working with mental health experts and doing more of that. And I'm surprised to see the police officers in the school was a negative because when it was started, it was to improve community communication with youth and I maybe I only knew the police officer when it was Mark. I don't know where that is, but I know the intention was to have someone there to talk to kids and have a relationship have a face. Now would have been better if they weren't the same uniform, maybe. I thought that as a positive, not a negative. So if it needs to be changed how we do that. But I, and maybe not quote a police officer but yet a person looking on a community institution which has a relationship with youth. I think it's important as much as we change institutions they're still there governing providing services. So I just don't want to lump everything on the police department. I think it has all more holistically and more inclusively. And yes to keep these conversations going, because it's a very step by step process, and I'm glad we're on board to want to making those changes, but I do think it has to be more inclusively owning the problem and changing the problem. Thank you. Great thanks Lord. I, I mean, in large part, I think a lot of what I wanted to say has already been said, but definitely wanted to thank people for coming out and coming with really specific tangible ideas as Connor said it's easy to, you know, go out to a march but to show up and bring really concrete things that we could act on is incredibly helpful and, and really valuable and trying to move the conversation forward and I think, you know, all of us we heard repeatedly, you know, we don't just need nice words we don't just need to have a conversation and I'm totally with you and I think you're hearing that commitment to, you know, continue to work on this and the resolution and the words were not, you know, looked, we weren't trying to, you know, have the conversation and there but more spur of conversations I'm really glad that that is happening. I did want to echo appreciation for Chief Fakus who I really, I have seen, I've been on council for a little over years, like the big decisions we've made were the social worker and the homelessness position and that was a really interesting conversation because it really was a recognition we were debating is this a position that could be housed at the police department under the chief's leadership it was, you know, different people respond differently and if someone is showing up in a uniform versus a street outreach worker with maybe a different training and skill set and a different approach that that could be viewed differently and council decided that we would move with not a position in the police department and I think it's the kinds of conversations we need more of and the kind of movement that a lot of you are talking about tonight of, you know, what are the services we are providing and who and how should we be providing them. So I think, you know, continuing to look at, you know, what is our, what are we asking of our police and how could those be provided in ways that really serve the community best. I like Conor's idea of, you know, and I know community members have been bringing this forward of looking at a citizen advisory group I think that could be a great way to, to really dig into, you know, what are our policies around use of force what are we using all of the best available, you know, processes procedures, are there issues that we, you know, need to flag and to continue that attention so that could be something that maybe we could do quicker than that and, you know, use it to institutionalize the ability to have this ongoing conversation and make sure that we are, you know, continuing to make progress and do better and, you know, that could include looking at the budget, you know, what are we spending, where is that money going. So as a community we have a better understanding, you know, we can look at 19.9% of our city budget but you know what exactly is that and, and let's let's all dig in and understand that. The, I know that the state legislatures looking at some ideas some of which I know that they're probably not going to get to this year. Often if cities can do something first that can be a way to do proof of concept so we could look at some of those ideas which are, I think a little bit different. Some of them are the same that the community members have brought but I think there's a couple that could be some other ideas to add to the list. And lastly I would just say that I know that the social and economic justice advisory committee is very interested in this and, as Donna mentioned, you know, with the commitment that we made to bring in experts at facilitating conversations I really, you know, I think we need a lot of community engagement in how we're, you know, developing new ideas and rolling them out and ensure that it's going to work for all kinds of community members, like the school resource officer I would love to hear from students I would love to hear from students of color. What is their experience, you know what, what are different students, you know how is that working for for different populations. So I think that that group could also play a role in facilitating community conversations, researching policies. So, and I think they would probably be eager to do that. So, that's my thinking thanks. Great. Thank you. Dan, go ahead. Well, I won't repeat, but I will echo some of the other sentiments that have been expressed and I will thank everyone for coming out and having this conversation, because it is an important conversation to have both Jack and Connor I think of and and Lauren and Donna have really stated a lot of what I intended to do one thing I think we have to be careful about when we talk about any service whether it's Department of Public Works police fire dispatch cemetery for that matter is when we have working and functioning and and good portions of the city. And I think there is a lot of the police service that that fits into that category, if we make changes do we have unanticipated consequences and, you know, in looking at the police budget, you know, we aren't receiving the type of federal, you know quasi military that maybe other cities are, you know, a lot of money seems to go to personnel. And, you know, if you reduce personnel, it has consequences such as, I know that we had issues with under under staffing before that caused mental health stress and strain too many too few people trying to do too many things. And if you reduce the size of any department then you know you may lose better candidates. Not to say that that would occur here, but I think it's something that, you know, is always in the back of my mind when you talk about changing a department and I think, you know, we've just brought on a new chief chief Pete to get over the department. And one thing I've been struck by the conversations with chief Pete that he's in all his messages is a willingness to engage in the public, and I really think that that's where a lot of this conversation begins that, you know, everyone I echo Conor and to say, you know, please keep coming, please keep raising these issues. But I think chief Pete is the person to talk to in the first instance, because it's it's his department soon. And, you know, when he takes it over, I know he's going to bring a lot of fresh ideas. And I think a lot of what everyone is trying to do is to make Montpelier better to make it safer to make ourselves a model for other communities and I fully support that and I fully agree with that. And I think that process and you know these ideas are not, you know, it's not an antagonistic relationship a lot of these things are good practices that can be incorporated in. But you know just merely taking large steps to say that we took a large step can sometimes have the same effect as someone who just simply carries a sign which is it doesn't have the intended consequence. It doesn't have the change that we all want to be on the other side of so I, I support a lot of the ideas that have been expressed tonight. But I think that the process really starts with chief Pete and I look forward to seeing how he addresses that I look forward to all of the individuals who came tonight and to continue this conversation, because I think on the other side of it. There's improvement to be made and there's, as somebody said, you know, we, it's hard to imagine a different system when you live within a single system or have forgotten what it was like without that system and I agree with that. And I think that you know those changes can can occur but you know changes real change happens with thoughtful planning, and I think that a lot of this has to go into that into that network of thoughtful planning and I look forward to being a part of it. Thank you. Jay. Yeah, I'll just add quickly that I'm appreciative and thankful for all the other counselors thoughts and appreciate that we're in, we're in step together in terms of how to approach this issue from, you know, systemic standpoint, and I echo all of it and I won't reiterate it for, because, you know, for the sake of time but the one thing I do, I will add is that I think it probably in terms of owning the process that probably makes sense for us to re evaluate the strategic planning that we did. And because you know when we put those the seven priorities together. Ultimately that's created something of a playbook or guidance for for staff to be able to prioritize our efforts and I think given, you know, our conversation and what we've been working on. I think it might be appropriate to not start over by any means but sort of re evaluate and look at based on where we're at now, and what we're the discussion that we're having is do we need to sort of reshift those priorities so that we're, you know, we're giving appropriate time to what our priorities are. So, I just think that that might be an appropriate step in terms of process for the council. Thanks. Okay, so anyone else have something want to add, because I, so I have a few things I want to say here as well. So, there have been many suggestions that have come in our direction generally somewhere listed here tonight. We've got lots more suggestions via email, Jack mentioned some of them with the eight can't wait those policies. And, you know, it's going to this, you know, it would be great to to make decisions tonight but I think that is this in order for us to do this well it's just going to it's going to take a little bit of time. And I think these ideas are worth weighing and worth considering, especially, you know, if it's a bigger step it's it's going to take some time to chew on. So, just to go through a few of them. For those of you who suggested removing the school resource officer from the school. I learned I appreciated what you had to say there. You know, let's talk to students talk to teachers at the school what is their experience and spend of having a school resource officer in the building I know that can have a narrative nationally is that true for us it's worth having that conversation. And to if that's still something that people feel strongly should be removed. Because it's 50% the school board I'd also encourage people to go to the school board to have that conversation because that's that's going to be if if there's going to be any change there that's got joint decision and joint conversation. There's a lot of policies with the eight can't wait those those policies seemed like those would be great changes, if they are changes. And I know the police department was working on publishing their policies which I really appreciate. And I think it's either as of today or recently anyway, we've published at least some of the the police's policies. The police department's website. I just want to check in with Bill and or Tony, Tony Vegas do you do you is is that list that is published there is is are those all that you're going to publish on the website. You get the, all the policies available on the site. Okay, great with our vendor, but we're doing it policy by policy though we just want to get the ones that I felt we're going to be, you know, critical critical importance right now to this conversation. Okay, so but we can expect to see more of those up on the website in the near future. Okay, great. And I mean that is that's something you know what I think about like, you know, how have I been, how have I been complicit in all of this it's, you know, one of the things is like being content to not know what the policies are so I'm, you know, this is a, you know, tiny step, just even in knowing what our police policies are so, and then, you know, we can actually take a look at if there's, there's gaps that need to be filled or adjustments that can be made there. Again, just coming back to the idea that these ideas are going to take some time. Some of you mentioned that like if changes don't happen we'll be back and I hope that you do come back. And I hope that you, you know, continue to stay engaged in this, this process so thank you, thank you for that. And I do hope to see you again as we, you know, continue to work through some of these issues. One of the things I just wanted to reiterate for folks. Can we just have the date out again. What's the date that Chief Pete starts live first July 1. Okay, so, you know, it's kind of this funny time here. To me, to be 100% honest, he starts working on June 15 in conjunction with Chief Faye because he will be actually keep the department on July 1. Okay. And one of the things that came up last time that I think would be good is to have some kind of a forum with Chief Pete to Stephen just have an informal time of, you know, discussing some of these ideas or hopes or goals for the department or even just a time to get to know our new chief. So I see he's on the line here I don't necessarily want to, you know, ask him to do that. But, you know, just heads up that I think, you know, that that might be a good thing, even if it's remote at that point and who knows if, you know, by July 1 where where we'll be but even if it's remote I think that would still be useful. So, so there's, there's that. And then, I'm going to also come back to the idea of abolishing the police and I just want to clarify that what I, what I hear there in that idea is is really about when people really talking about re reimagining the police or re envisioning what policing looks like. And I think that really gets at the question of what is the purpose of the police and what is the, what's at the heart of what what we need as a community. And I think that is, you know, always a good conversation to be having and something that I think we can, we can talk through as, you know, we look at, you know, the vision and mission of the police department. So that's, that's pretty much everything that I wanted to say about that came up. I guess the others. You know, people have mentioned the oversight committee. That's very interesting. Just in terms of training, I think we could potentially be publishing what our the kinds of training that our police do go through because we get that question very often. It's just to like, you know, our police officers getting trainings and, you know, with mental health or with implicit bias and that sort of thing so I think we could be publishing more about that. And yeah, so and even in terms of funding you know this that's that's something that we can certainly, we can certainly talk about so. But I just as Jack and I think Dan mentioned probably the most logical time to have that conversation is when once we're starting to transition to our new chief. So we'll take that up relatively soon. Any, any other further I know I've just said a whole bunch of things to any further thoughts on that on any of that. So with Connor, go ahead. I was going to make a motion for a special meeting at some point that. Oh, yes. Thank you. Right. Before you do that. I just wanted to reiterate that I think we'll. Yeah, we, because I would I would like to at least have some plan for moving forward. And so let's hear you all feeling about revisiting some potential changes. Once we have our new chief installed. Okay, so I've seen a lot of thumbs up and who would actually like to say something about that. So Dan, go ahead. And I think it makes total sense to have this conversation once she is there, I would just say, like, it doesn't mean there's no work that we can do between now and that meeting I think there were a lot of really interesting questions raised. And information gathering research on these ideas to dig in. Just to say it doesn't mean let's just put everything on hold but more let's do some more due diligence work research, figure out how we, you know, might engage community members in different ways how the social and economic justice advisory committee could play a role things like that so I think those conversations and research should continue. So that's the process and a few weeks after with the new chief. Thank you. And learn it that I was, I was feeling that I was feeling like there was something missing and I think that's it. So if there is a point that you as council would like to bring to the forefront. Let's be working on those in anticipation of July. And Dan, yeah. Yeah, I guess the only the only point that I and I agree with what Lauren is proposing, which is what I was going to say. The only thing that I would add is that I think you know, part of this is chief Pete's timeline, because July 1 is when he's going to officially take over, but he may not be ready to have this conversation on July 2. Even though he's done some of the initial work, you know, he may want, excuse me, he may want more time, you know, to have some of these community conversations so, you know, I would be close to put on sort of an artificial timeline on this but at the same time I think we we keep it on our, you know, on our future agenda. And we, you know, direct chief Pete or direct the city manager to direct chief Pete. However, we would feel most comfortable about it, you know, to start that process to come back to us. And understanding that this is, this is not a year long study but something that, you know, we do want to have a thoughtful conversation as opposed to a rushed conversation. Yeah. Thank you. Yeah, that totally makes sense. Well, and I think it's also reasonable for Chief Fakos and Chief Pete to recognize that part of the transition, an important part of the transition process will be community engagement. And so, Dan, I agree, not putting a timeline on it necessarily, but understanding how they can engage with the community to manage the transition process. And then, then as, you know, Chief Pete takes his response, it takes over responsibilities how he can then sort of process that feedback and continue the feedback loop and then also think about what changes might happen down the road. So, I mean, I think that that seems like a that could be based on our conversations the natural part of the transition process coming up this month. Great. Okay. Thank you all. And Connor, go ahead. Did you want to make a motion. No, I think like anything worth doing is worth the one right. And, you know, we want to adhere to open meeting law, which would require some more notice than just passing an agenda item today. So with that, I would make a motion that we have a special meeting, maybe around like noon on Friday, could just hop on the phone. And that would be the official warning to close down the portion of State Street in front of the State House law on there for the purposes of painting up Black Lives Matter over the course of that. I think I see, I see Ward Joyce is off the call, but he's already done on Saturday would probably be enough time to Connor, we lost you after something about Ward Joyce. Oh, sure. He had a markup and I think he was saying between seven o'clock in the morning and two o'clock in the afternoon would probably be enough time to mark this up. But I'd love a chance for him to talk to Donna Barlow case he over at Public Works and maybe huddle in the meantime and we can nail that down for sure on Friday. Also Noel still has access to the honor their names Facebook group. So I told her we probably don't need 5000 people for the painting like they had last weekend. But pretty confident that she could get a crowd to come out and get it done pretty quick there. So I think that could be a nice community event. I think it's something that we can all have a tangible product at the end of the day. And again, I want to reiterate we recognize the symbolic nature of this and plan on following through with concrete policy ideas. So the motion is to have a special meeting. I could be corrected but noon on Friday, just over the phone to pass this out. I can. Do you want you want phone or zoom in case people want to comment on it. We need to be zoom is down. We've had to. That's how we've been advertising all of the rest of our meetings. And I think it's an easier way to participate. That sounds great. Okay, Jack and then also is there, there was a second right. There was a second. Okay, Jack and Donna, and then Dan. As we discuss this, I would like to add. Another item to the, to the agenda for this special meeting, which is consistent with it. And that is a resolution to for the city to fly the black lives matter flag at City Hall. And I think that is that I don't think we need a motion on that because any counselor can just add something to the agenda, I believe. So I think we're probably good there. Unless anyone wants to correct me on that, but I think that's how that works. Okay, so Donna. I'm sorry. So, are we going to add that to our agenda? We've got a Black Lives Matter flag now, or are we going to discuss that on Friday? We can discuss that on Friday. Okay, because I'm just a little concerned about how long the meeting on Friday I have a microtransit advisory group meeting at one. So if you start at 11, maybe we get done. It doesn't sound like it's just going to be a vote, but maybe I'm wrong. Well, I'm my, it's tough to say, I would guess, I don't know, it's tough to say, I would guess that it would probably not be very long. I don't think it would take an hour. Even if there were. I didn't need to make sure the movie, the less you, I'm going to mute you unless you have been recognized to speak like a meeting, please. So if you want to raise your hand, that would be great. And then the mayor can recognize you to speak. Thank you. Okay. And also, Donna, if you need to duck out early, that's probably fine. Jack. Oh, sorry, I didn't. Oh, no, Jack. I'm sorry, Dan. Yeah, no, I think 12 noon will be fine. And I think, you know, we've had a long discussion around a number of these issues. As I see it, it's really just a matter of finalizing and making the approval that we need for the street painting and then the black lives matter flag flying. And I think those can both be discreet conversations. I'm comfortable having both of those on Friday at noon. I don't want a clock appointment. So we'll try to keep it keep it to then. Okay, any further discussion. Oh, Jay, good. Sorry, this is just getting silly practical scheduling wise but in the likely event that Main Street middle school graduation gets canceled tomorrow because of thunderstorms. It will begin at noon on Friday. I know Dan and I both have children involved and I'm volunteering all afternoon with that. So to Donna's point about starting at 11 or 11 30, I'd be open to that. I'm just fine with being very practical here but just sorry. Yeah, that's fine with me. Any other thoughts? I'm open all day Friday. Don't have a trial to Friday. So anytime we wanted to do it. And Donna, that's okay for you. 11, that's okay. Better for me. I have a meeting till noon but I can duck out a little early but 11 would be. Okay, so 11 30. Okay. Okay, great 11 30 great super. All right, so we have a motion and a second think everyone understands that it's 11 30. Any further discussion. All in favor please say aye. Aye. Opposed. Okay, so we'll have that special meeting then and then I think both are outgoing and incoming chiefs would like to say something. So I think we'll start with Tony and we'll end with chief Pete, go ahead. I just appreciate the dialogue and thank everyone. Thank you. Go ahead, Brian. Mayor members of the community council members. I'd like to echo Chief Ficus as well. I do appreciate the dialogue I'm looking forward to being available for having very honest and robust conversations and just thankful to be here. Thank you. Bill. Yeah, so I just want to say, you know, I also appreciate everyone's, everyone's comments and I appreciate the events that have happened across the country the last couple weeks and the last couple hundred years that have precipitated the comments. And I guess I hope that we are thoughtful as we think about why we're going ahead and doing these things here in my pillar. And I, I, you know, we could change some things but we also I think it is informative that we did a extensive strategic planning effort and we weren't focused on needed change to the police or that we haven't really heard a lot about this we heard from a dozen or so people residents today it'll be good to I think maybe have a community dialogue amongst all people who may have similar or different feelings about how we proceed and about some of these ideas. I'm going to say, you know, our police department has been excellent. Not perfect but excellent and in large part due to Chief Fakis and we don't have a hard, large hue and cry here at the city council by and large about police concerns. I think that's worn out by things like the protests not just the one we had on Sunday, which if you think about it was specifically to talk about this treatment by police of people and our folks handled it as pros perfectly they kept a low profile out of the way to make sure if they happen they work their way with people. I think the idea of the social worker came from the police department. And as Lauren mentioned was very highly emphasized that it should not be a uniformed police officer. The same with the school resource. I don't know. I mean sometimes they were there for uniform because they'd be coming from another call, but I believe they do try to have them wearing something different. There are protests I think if you talk to the organizers of protests like the one where they took over State Street with oil Derek. If you talk to the level of communication corporation with our police department to help those types of civic unrest occur peacefully. And in a way that reflects our community's values. The 21st century police policing we were one of the first in the state to champion that and real leaders in the nation I think people ought to read that. I think many ways it bodies what we're hoping to accomplish here in our community. One of the reasons, one of the main reasons chief Pete was hired was his commitment to those principles his commitments to community engagement and outreach and hearing from people and I think that our community is always stronger when we reach out and hear people. But I'm not going to just sit here and and nobody said anything bad about our police will be clear but I don't want anyone to leave here thinking that we have such huge problems with our police that they need drastic change. If there's systemic change with racism by all means we should be dealing with it and if there's ways we can improve. You know one of the reasons our police deal with the some of the things that they deal with is because there's no one else out there in the middle of the night there are no necessarily mental health workers there are no drug addiction counselors there are no other things so our police department have become social service agencies and the by all means if we can fund more of them or the state can fund more of them. We ought to be doing that we again the social worker so but oftentimes at three in the morning when there's a domestic violence call or anything else the only two people out there in the entire city to respond to our two police officers. And I'm just one last thing I'm going to say about the budget. I appreciate that they're that their budget is 20% of the of our operation. So is our fire department and our public works department. And those are our main three services that we provide. And in fact when you add in all the equipment and everything else, those those three things come to about 75% of our budget that is what local government provides. I don't think when you look at the police scene in our budget compared to other communities you can just find that it's outsized or oversized or anything else. Can we spend it better sure. So, I guess I'm going to be the guy that sticks up for our folks. And I'm proud to do it because they're great department. Thank you bill. Okay, so looking forward. To the next agenda. We've about an hour and a half before I would like to be done, which means, I think we're going to actually push off the, the lobbying committee and I see that Alec Ellsworth is still on the call I think we should probably unfortunately punt the chapter 13 to another day. Yes. The lobbying committee is really only just three members. Yeah, it's not. And then let them figure out what they want to do. And on chapter 13. I believe we made all the decisions at the last meeting and we just asked for it to come back finally drafted to be approved so everybody can read it so. It's possible take very long. Okay, well fair enough. So, what I would really like to do though is take a break. And when we how about this when we come back from the break, we'll do the lobbying committee and then we'll do chapter 13 and then hopefully those will be hopefully those will be fast, and then we can move on from there is that sound okay team. Okay, great. Thank you. So we're going to try to keep this to five minute break so I'm going to try to be back here at 841. So specific. Okay. All right, well we'll come back from our break then. Let's take up the lobbying committee first. Connor, do you want to talk about that. I think we talked about it quite a bit. I just think you know reiterate. I think it's a good idea to have our thumb on also what's happened in the state house, because there are always opportunities to pull down money opportunities to collaborate with other municipalities. And anytime there's just an agenda item like again, public this task force we could send our members there. So if there's a position just being in close close proximity to the state house that we can have a bit of a presence there. So if there's three people I would certainly volunteer to be one of the three. So we're mostly just appointing three people is that right. Yeah. So Connor you're interested anyone else interested. Lauren. Anyone else. Oh, Dan. Great. Anyone else. Okay, I think we probably need a motion district. Yeah. Straight be planted that way obviously. So is there a motion to point these three to the lobbying committee. So I'll second it. Any further discussion in a second. Any further discussion. All in favor please say aye. Opposed. Okay. Great. Thank you. You three very appreciative of that. Do we think chapter 13 will be relatively short. That's my hypothesis. Okay, so let's take up chapter 13. It has been revised and re revised. So I'm going to open a public hearing on the amendments to chapter 13 of the ordinances. Natural resources chapter. Any comments on the changes. I like the changes and I really appreciate what the park commission brought forward for our consideration. And you want one. Okay. Connor, did I see you and then Jack Connor than Jack. Yeah, and I really appreciate all the work that went into this. I still have a little discomfort. I think I would prefer the smoking ban. I would prefer the public property. I would prefer the public property across Hubbard Park, just because it's the biggest piece of public property. We have in the city would be, you know, sort of shelters or trails or something like that and not, you know, park wide. So I might actually vote against this, but it's not because there wasn't good work and every other piece there. And I really appreciate it. So that's all I'll say on that. Okay. Thank you. Thank you for your question. But I think that as I reviewed this for tonight's meeting, there are still some seem to be some spots where there are some stray matter. If we go to section 13 dash 319. There is still, there's still one place where my name appears in the text and one where Dan's appears in the text. I don't see that. I don't see that. What number is that, Jack? You know, Jack, you may be looking at the redlined version. And there was another version that was not redlined. I think had those changes removed. Okay, let me, let me just see. Well, we can just make sure staff removes them. Yeah, they're not. I hate to be that person, but if you look at the non correct. You're correct. Never mind. Great. I'm happy. I'm happy to put my name back in. Dan Richardson Memorial ordinance. Okay, Donna, go ahead. Can I make that motion? Yes. I make a motion that we accept this final amendment of chapter 13 of ordinances as presented for its third reading. Second. Okay. Any comments? This is a public hearing. So any comments from the public? And Cameron, do you, any word from you? Okay. All right. So we have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? Okay. All in favor of you say aye. Aye. Aye. Opposed. No, but I love you guys. Okay. Best dissenting vote. I've heard a long time. Okay. All right. So that motion carries. And I think we are moving on then. Let's go to the coronavirus update. Yes. And before I do that, I just want to check with John, because I, I do believe if there is any dissenting votes, I'm not sure what the new rules are. I think that still stands. Does it still stand? I actually wasn't sure about that. I thought it was sort of free for all meeting now with. No, I thought it still stood to John. And within to do it just in case, I suppose. Sounds just fine. All right. So regarding that. I just want to make sure that we do that so that that is valid inviting. Well, that's the old rules. I'm not sure what the new rules are. I'm not sure what the new rules are. I'm not sure what the new rules are regarding that reconsider. Okay. So we're going to revisit that previous. Do it by rolls. All your name. Uh, Uh, Dang. Yes. I'm not sure. I got a bubble. Okay. Okay. All right. Well, let's, we'll try this again. I'm not sure what the new rules are. Um, Actually, I'm going to go in the order around the horseshoe just so you know what to expect. Okay. So I'm going to start with Donna. I. Um, Connor. Hey. Jay. Hi. Dan. Hi. Jack. Hi. Lauren. Hi. Okay. So thank you. It's the motion passes. Um, so now we're on to the COVID-19 update and Cameron. All right. Thank you. I'm going to breeze right through this memo that I sent out and for the public's awareness that is on, uh, the website under the agenda materials for today. Um, if you want to look at it, um, we did have some state updates, um, since your last regular meeting on June 1st, the governor announced that the DMV has a restart plan and will be offering driver's license exams starting on the eight, which was two days ago. Um, our Montpelier office is open, um, from eight to four for driver's exams only by appointment. So you have to call them and make an appointment if you want a driver's exam. On June 2nd, um, Governor Phil Scott signed a new executive order to form the racial equity task force, um, as a component of a broader state effort to promote racial, ethnic and cultural equity, including its response to COVID-19. On June 5th, the governor announced an addendum 17 to the COVID executive order, which modified quarantine restrictions on travelers arriving in Vermont and municipal regulation of bars and restaurants. So starting June 8th, two days ago, restaurants who have been able to begin limited indoor dining, um, which allows for 25% capacity limits with six feet between folks, uh, bars seating is still closed. There's also new cleaning standards for restaurants. Um, this also does allow local municipalities to, uh, restaurants if there is a pressing health need. Um, the amended travel policies, um, effective this Monday, um, had interstate travel to and from New England, uh, areas and New York counties that have few, fewer than 400 active COVID-19 cases per million was permitted without a quarantine requirement. In addition, starting in five days, travelers making complete quarantine requirements in their home state before entering Vermont. So that means if they quarantine in their home state, they wouldn't have to quarantine here. Um, the governor also, um, updated us on June 5th about a new outbreak in Winooski, which they consider a official community outbreak. Um, the health department is working to keep that contained. Uh, they did provide us another update on that on June 9th. Um, and the outbreak has now been known to include people in the neighboring Burlington area. Um, there are test sites and this is a good time to remind folks about those, um, test sites can be found at Vermont's human resources, uh, department page at humanresources.vermont.gov slash popups. So you can also figure out where the testing sites are by calling to one one. The governor and Dr. Levine have also, um, encouraged folks who have been out protesting and in large groups to get testing, um, to ensure that you're not spreading the illness unknowingly. Um, know that you can be, uh, infected with COVID-19 and not have symptoms. Um, his update today included a outbreak update. Um, there are now 74 total cases associated with the Winooski outbreak, but he did have some exciting news. He announced that he is planning on opening the schools in fall for in-person instruction and they reviewed what that phase plan would look like. And then the exciting part of all of this is the Louis McClure foundation. Sorry. They announced that they have a gift for the high school graduating class of 2020 and that every single member of the class of 2020 from all Vermont high schools will receive one free course of their choosing from, uh, community college of Vermont this fall, uh, with all the expenses paid via that foundation. So that was a pretty uplifting announcement and a really great one for, um, education. So our general city updates and what we've been doing, a lot of it is recreation related, um, interesting update. Um, the summer capital kids day camp will is moving forward for summer 2020. Um, we created an operations plan to ensure compliance with state regulations on camps and that information as being shared with those registering for camp. Um, the ACCD issued new guidance for organized sports. So starting June 15th. Um, five days interest squad activities and practices can begin. So group numbers have to be under 25. Um, but the recreation department has changed its rental policy to accommodate that. Um, so we are opening our fields for rentals. If people fit certain guidelines, including, um, providing their own cleaning and disinfectant supplies, if they need it, and, um, making sure they understand that they are not allowed to have actual games, they're basically just being able to play scrimmages against each other and they need to keep their group sizes under 25. The rules are also pretty clear, um, about what types of sports you can play. Uh, they made it very clear that things like high contact sports like football are not allowed. Also reopening pavilion rentals. Um, that information will be shared and hopefully updated this week on our website. Um, there will be stipulations and understanding that it's basically at residence risk. We still do not have staff available to clean those. We weren't, like, disinfecting them to begin with. It's not a reduction in service. It's just letting people know that that space is an outdoor space and they can use it. Um, so we are working on opening that back up. And the city has finalized its phase one reopening plan. And that is for you to look at today as well. I did make in the memo a note of your mask ordinance that went into effect June 4th. Our regional aid group updates is pretty much the same as it was last time. Not a lot as, um, changed. We have still been a regular communication with the can, uh, groups and, um, representatives from, uh, thrive and other area groups. Um, I don't have any other news to share for them right now. Um, as an update for our communications, we have had an uptick in viewers and residents reached all of our COVID related posts since our last update have received an average about 1,450 interactions, which is way better than we have been doing before. So people really are turning to the city for information. And, um, understands what, like what sources we're using to spread information. And as an aside of our announcement regarding the hiring of incoming police chief Brian Keith reached, um, almost 10,000 people on Facebook, which is our most popular post ever. So that was pretty exciting. And that is my update for this meeting. Super. Thank you. Any questions about that? Jack. I just wanted to note for thank, thank you for the update, Cameron. I just wanted to note for whoever's still at the meeting or, uh, or who's watching at home with regard to the governor's, uh, advisory panel on racial equity applications for, uh, membership on that panel are due by the close of business, uh, this Friday, June 12th. So I know that there's, there's likely to be a lot of interest in this panel, but if anyone is interested in applying, the site is racial equity dot Vermont dot gov. Great. Thank you. Anyone else? Jay. Yeah, now seems, um, as good a time as any owner talking about the, uh, mask requirement just to mention that, um, uh, I brought this up a couple of meetings ago that I was concerned that if we were going to require masks in the city, that that might, uh, Be have a, an impact on, on some local businesses and also some populations that might not necessarily have access to readily access, to, to, to mask. And so, um, uh, last, earlier this week, I reached out to the folks at the hunger mountain co-op because they have been, uh, offering masks to, um, requiring masks for a long time, but, uh, earlier than even, you know, before, before the city required them, um, but offering them and they agreed to buy, uh, uh, to purchase masks, uh, at cost for the city. Um, and so I spoke with Bill about it and we, um, we should have about a thousand masks coming early next week, um, that we can make available to, um, to business owners and to other populations that may, like I said, may not have easy access to them so that they can, um, shop safely and access stores. Um, and it was a pretty small impact, uh, budget impact. And, uh, thankful to, to the co-op for helping with that. And I'll be working with Bill and, uh, potentially, uh, Dan Groberg at Montpelier Live to figure out how we can make those available to folks. Great. Thank you so much for working on that, Jay. Anyone else? Okay. So I, uh, managed to skip, uh, an item. So we're going to go back. Sorry about that. Um, so we're going to go back to, uh, the Parklets, uh, ordinance and all that is that. So, um, I think for this over to, to Bill, I mean, I think that makes sense. Sure. Um, unless while you, well, that's fine. Unless you want to do the reopening plan and finish up the COVID stuff, but no, no, no. So I don't know how much more I have to add at the meeting we had last time, uh, the council laid out some general parameters. So what we were asked to do was prepare an ordinance or some sort of direction on Parklets. So as you can see, basically created a, a replacement section, a temporary, uh, suspension of, of a, most of the ordinance with a new section to be in effect until October 25. And to lay out, um, The terms under which we would have. Parklets. Uh, and I think it's consistent with everything we talked about. I read all of this through Dan Grober, who I can see is on, and I believe we are in sync on this, Dan. Tell me if I'm wrong. And then, uh, the other question I was directed to look at was to create options for, uh, to lay out some options for Langdon street. And some pros and cons. And obviously we had a site visit last week. And, um, So, uh, basically laid out five things we could do. And, and my recommendation, which again, I believe is consistent with Dan's recommendation. You can speak for yourself. So happy to go through it all in detail, but I think it's, we've talked about it quite a bit. Okay. Um, so I think we should probably take this to, um, One piece at a time. Um, let's maybe talk about the Parklet piece first, and then we'll talk about Langdon street. Um, any comments, particularly your questions about, uh, the immense. And it is an ordinance. You'd want to open a public hearing at some point. I don't think I've ever closed the previous. Uh, the chapter 13, uh, ordinance or, uh, amendment public hearing. So I'm going to open the public hearing now for, um, the Parklet, uh, amendments. And Jack, go ahead. Thank you. Um, this is, uh, an informational question, which. I, I tried to, um, Resolve by looking at the city parking map and I just want to be sure given that, uh, Are there any, uh, Designated handicap parking spaces on the streets in the area that are covered by, uh, by the ordinance? I didn't see any looking at the map. I don't think there are any. I intended to, uh, to lead to make sure that they were excluded. Um, Let me just take a look here and see. That actually made it into my fight. I believe that's in the manager's discretion to exclude spaces but I don't think there are any. Handed up spaces that they would not, uh, Be available for the Parklet. And I don't know if we have to put that in the ordinance or just Undo. I believe that's in the manager's discretion to exclude spaces for curbside pickup. Handicap accessibility, et cetera, et cetera. Yeah. And I would want us to specifically provide that. If there are any handy up spaces that they would not, uh, If there are any handy up spaces that they would not, um, If there are any handy up spaces that they would not, uh, Understand that that's the way you would, uh, That was kind of writing that was if, If it's an accessible space, then it's off limits. Okay. Great. Yeah. That's in there. Um, under each. Yeah. As a conflict. Um, Great question. Um, Any further comments or questions about the amended Parklet? Uh, Dan. Um, yeah, I'll just, I think this looks good. I am, I'm happy with it. It captures what we intended, which is to sort of loosen and liberalize the Parklet. Policy for this period of time. So. You know, I. I would support it going forward. Um, especially because I think time is of the essence given where we're at in the season and its purpose. Um, and it will be, uh, you know, I think we'll let we get this past as quickly as possible so that businesses can take advantage of it. I agree. Oh, any comment. Cameron, are you. We're having a hard time hearing you, mayor. Um, well, any, anyone, um, on your way to speak. Um, I don't know. Can you hear me? Yes. Bill, do you have anything you want to add? No, I'm good. I think we've covered it on that. Um, they're a motion. I'll make a motion to approve the Parklet ordinance. Um, as presented. Oh, second it. Great. Further discussion. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Opposed. Okay. So we have that. Um, Uh, On that. Um, and. Do we need us? Sort of a formality. Um, so we don't technically need a second reading. Your recommendation there, Bill. So. Um, We don't our, our, um, Charter just says the council can adopt an ordinance, uh, after holding and hearing our pro, you know, longstanding practice has been to hold the second reading. Um, but it isn't required. And so I think if you. If, uh, you know, we want to get this out fast. Um, You can just consider to approve tonight. Or you could hold the second reading on the 24th. Or you could hold the second reading on Friday. If we want to continue tradition and not hold it up too much. Yeah. Uh, Donna. Well, but the other thing is, unlike our other ordinances, we didn't post this as a first reading. So it's not like the expectation was set up. But Friday's fine. Friday's fine. Okay. Well, so we'll add it to the agenda Friday just for good measure. Um, That makes sense to me. Um, Okay. Uh, so. I think we're going to consider that done. Um, So discussion about Langdon street. Um, what are. Council, what would you like to. Do regarding Langdon street. Can I just say, uh, we have Brad and Melissa, who are business owners on Langdon street. And they were having trouble getting in. I just, I just got a text from them. I'm not, I'm not sure. She was. We might have to keep on going, but they're trying anyways. Well, would you like to, we could, um, move on to a different topic and come back to this. I think it might be worth it because it does impact them pretty directly there. So, yeah. Okay. In that case. I'm sorry. Uh, Brad and who was the other one Connor. Oh, Melissa from sweet Melissa. Okay. Thank you. So we'll, uh, Assuming that they would like to be present for that. We'll back to it. So let's jump. Summer schedule. And we'll come back. Langdon street conversation. Um, So summer schedule. That is also Cameron. Or maybe. Summer schedule can be either of us. Uh, I mean, this is really your call. It's typically in the past. We have. Eliminated one council meeting. Um, So we'll, uh, Assuming that they would like to be present for that. We'll back to it. So let's jump. Summer schedule. And we'll come back to Langdon street conversation. Um, So summer schedule. That is also Cameron. Or maybe. We'll come back to it. Um, And we'll come back to it. And we'll come back to it. Um, So we've eliminated one council meeting. During the summer. Um, Usually typically in August, although it doesn't have to be. And I believe our cover sheet just lists. The current, um, So currently we're scheduled for July eight, July 22, August 12, August 26. Not counting any special meetings. So really the question is, is, did you want to just keep that in mind? Obviously we've always reserved the right. To. Hold a special meeting if we had a contract or something that needed to be approved. But, um, It's, it's just good to decide it early for planning for agenda items and scheduling and that sort of thing. Sorry. So we usually skip at least one of those meetings. One meeting in the summer. Um, just cause people are away and yet, but again, this is an odd summer. I don't know how much people are going to be traveling and. Those kinds of things. So it's really, it's up to you, but normally. It's, it's often been the first August meeting. Not always, but often. Well, that would be definitively my preference. Um, But yeah, I bet it would. I'm getting married on July 25th. So I'm hoping to be gone that next week. Um, but anyway, uh, Jack. I don't feel as much pressure to cancel the meeting this summer because I think we're mostly going to be. In month earlier. Uh, but how about we take August. Um, and meet once on the 19. So that it's sort of in the middle of the two meetings in case, uh, something comes up, but I'm, I'm happy to do anything to any of those. Uh, weeks. That would be fine with me. Point out that I, you all have a meeting with me. That's also perfect. Um, Uh, thoughts or opinions. Uh, Is that me and like, yeah, sorry, Lauren, I think my. Uh, no, I would, I would just know what there's depending on how everything's playing out. There's a chance I would miss, uh, second July meeting, but. You all can go on without me as well. If that's, um, just in case other people had similar conflicts. Um, I think that's a good point. Yeah. But it seems given that that the second July meeting has. Um, two conflicts. And I would suggest that we. Um, that we pick that one. Um, given, especially that the other, uh, the rest of us, I, I certainly don't foresee any type of vacation. This summer. Um, so I don't have a problem meeting in August and. I don't have a problem meeting in August. Um, And giving up one week in July, uh, for. Called a mayor's holiday. Yeah. That would be great. Work for me as well. If we. The last meeting in July and. But Jack, you were saying let's push the first week. August back. 18th. Is that what you're saying? But I was assuming that it would be the only meeting in August. Yeah. Yeah. Whatever works best for you and your mid bliss is. Yeah. So good. Um, Okay. Other thoughts on this. Donna Connor J. No. I'm fine with Dan's suggestion of if we wanted to eliminate the July 22nd meeting and go from there. Sounds like if there's a couple of conflicts, that's fine with me. Um, if we don't have a meeting on July 22nd, um, but we do have a meeting on August 5th, I will probably still also not be at the August 5th meeting. Um, but that's okay. Donna can lead it. Um, but I would also appreciate the one before the wedding off as well. So either ways. Doesn't matter to me. You're wrong. It's the second is August 12th. Right. August. Okay. I'll be back. I'll be back. It's fine. Okay. We'll be on, we'll be July 8th, August 12th and August 26. Thank you. So I'm good. Okay. So. So we're going to take off the 22nd. All right. Got it. Perfect. Sorry for the confusion. Okay. No problem. And I don't think we need a motion about that. Right. I don't think we do usually do it. What, what do you think, Jack? Do you think we should? No, I don't think we need to agree. All right. Um, and, uh, Connor, were you seeing, uh, Brad and or Melissa on, do we know if there's still, do we know if they're still trying to get in? I'll, um, I'll give her a ring actually. Okay. Um, While you are getting in touch there. Oh, we didn't actually cover the reopening plan. Is that right? Right. Okay. So, okay. So let's, let's talk about the reopening plan. Okay. Sorry, we were jumping around a little here a little bit. I apologize. Okay. So, um, this was amended. Um, you talked a little bit about this, uh, last time and I took your, um, discussion to heart and I've had some further discussion with staff on how to, um, best reopen some of our facilities and services. Um, so this is still subject to change, depending on what the governor does, but I did want to give you a general idea of what, um, what we're doing and what we're doing and what we're doing. Um, and what we're doing is, um, basically in the loop of what we're doing and how we intend on, um, Moving through reopening and want your approval really on how we plan on opening because this needs to be through the community engagement process because we're really what we're doing is reengaging our community. So, um, the opening plan goes through a situation overview, which really talks about what the virus is, and then discuss a bit about the financial strain of the coronavirus impacts. Um, we discussed how we've put about a third of our staff on voluntary furlough. Um, we have been discussing and you will hear later in, um, Kelly's budget presentations, sort of how we plan on starting to bring those folks back, but that really does have a huge, um, service impact on to what we can do in direct services. So, um, making sure that we're, um, letting people know that many sell city services will still be limited, accepting those that respond to public health and safety, which have been continuing as normal. Um, just because some of our employees will not be back until the end of July. So some of these things, their timelines may shift from the beginning to the end of July, but that's really the only. The flexibility within this plan. So we understand that the general considerations is that the primary spread concern for COVID-19 is through respiratory transmission. So our primary focus has been, um, preventing atmospheric spread. So we've changed some of the ways that we're going to be letting people in and out of our buildings. Um, and we're really still trying to provide services that do not require face to face interaction to protect our staff and residents. And we really do encourage digital communications and people using our drop boxes whenever it's possible. We will be requiring appointments for all in-person meetings and sites of city facilities. We will require social distancing and the wearing of masks within city facilities. And we'll continue to use telework when possible, if it's not disruptive to operations. Um, those decisions will be made by city departments individually, whatever best supports their, um, operations, but we will still be trying to give our staff as much opportunity as possible to work homes. So that is the governor's, um, suggestion. So I split the plan outside of those two general concepts. Into facilities changes and our, um, services change. Um, if you give me a second, the print version that I was given is not complete. So I need to pull up the actual version that I'm wanting to read. Hold on a second. I'm sorry. No worries at all. Okay. Sorry about that. So now I'm going to be looking at my computer screen and not you. I apologize. So our facilities updates, um, really are pretty specific to each facility building and what those, um, each building will be able to handle. So going about facilities and how we're going to be opening our building in city hall at 39 main street will be still continuing limited public access and opening the building only on Tuesdays and Thursdays to the public. So that means any appointments that people want to make will be need to make on Tuesdays and Thursdays. We'll be opening our bathrooms on a limited basis on Tuesdays and Thursdays when the buildings are open, the upstairs bathrooms, the ones on the floor where a lot of the offices are, um, will be reserved for employees only and our basement bathrooms, which will are closest to the back of the building, um, through that entrance, um, where masks will be required for public access and we will be providing those masks to folks who have appointments and business inside city hall based on mask availability. Um, we're discouraging in person meetings. Currently the limit is 25 folks in the one space that allows for six feet between participants. So that really limits some of our, um, availability to meet. Um, we will be asking that people meet in our conference rooms and not in their offices. Um, we also, um, I say this later, but we have been putting up those plexiglass barriers for most of our, um, point to point contacts, um, such as, um, our office attendance and people who really serve the public one on one. And we knew we're going to be hotspots. We've put in those, um, uh, dividers. Our department will remain close to the public. It will accept walk-ups for health related issues. Greenmount cemetery is still open, but the buildings are closed to the public. Our police department remains close to the public as does our senior activity center. Our recreation center or indoor facility will remain closed to the public for now until we have enough staff brought back to be able to clean it and programming and reservations are currently canceled for our rec center. Regarding our outdoor parks and recreation facilities, parks are open to the public. Um, the playgrounds are closed and the city playgrounds that we have authority over are behind the pool at one poolside drive and directly behind the senior center at 58 Berry. The pool is closed. Um, we did amend this today, but it was, um, at like four o'clock meetings. So this will change after this, um, reading is we are accepting limited field reservations and outdoor facilities shelter rentals. Um, so that will be updated. Like I said, this really does need to be a, uh, living document. Can I put one in for July 25th? Yeah. Being honored, mayor. Woo. Currently our programming and events are canceled, depending any further decisions by the state and, um, our fields, courts, um, and state parks are open on a limited basis. It's basically use at your own risk and those are all tied to the governor's safety guidelines. Our department of public work facilities still remain closed to the public. Um, we're also going to be implementing a pickup drop off location in city hall. You all have been here many times. So you will have seen the big desk that sits next to the stairs that go downstairs. We'll be making that desk into a pickup drop off location, where most of our common forms can be found so people can walk in, take a form and leave without having to interact with anyone. Um, we will also be placing markers on the floors, which are a tape of some variety, um, that is safer floors, um, instead of our heavily trafficked areas to indicate where folks should stand if they're waiting, um, and, uh, have directionals in and out. So folks know, um, to stay six feet apart. Um, we'll also be placing signs and markers throughout city hall, uh, saying what areas are open to the public and which remain closed. We'll be making sure that you can see our hand sanitizer stations that are all over the building. Um, and we'll be putting directional signs for those. Um, so starting again, just starting July 1st, we will be opening city hall for Tuesdays and Thursdays with y'all's approval and the upstairs bathrooms will be reserved for employees only. Um, so city hall downstairs where our public works departments are in our planning departments will remain locked. Um, those are by appointment only and we're trying to keep, um, our facilities as, um, we're able to clean them as much as possible. So limiting places where people can wander is the, we think the best way to address that. So I'm going to pause there and see if anyone has any just general facilities questions before I go into some of our service changes. Yeah. I might have read this or I might not have seen, seen this, but, uh, our, are we doing something in city hall where it's the front door goes in and the back door goes out or something like that. So it's one way in and out of the building. Um, I considered that. Um, that is, uh, one of the ways we can have best practices, but that really does limit our ADA accessibility. Um, so folks who need to leave and come out that one door, that would really limit that. So we're just trying to hope that, um, you know, we will put signs up that say, please socially distance one person out the door at a time. Um, but I don't think it would be fair to, to do that. Or safe to do. Honestly. Thanks. Any other questions. Uh, Jay. Not a question, but just a really quick comment. And that I think it's worth mentioning to folks to remember that, um, uh, a lot of the more high, the, the larger and more high profile playgrounds in the city are managed by the, by the school district and not, not the city. Um, I've had some questions from constituents. So, hey, a playground is opening. Um, and you've, we've got two different decision-making bodies around those. And so ultimately the school district is adhering to what the age is. Education directs them in terms of opening school grounds. Um, and as far as they know, they're planning on playgrounds, um, being closed through the summer until the schools open back up in the fall. But I just think it's an important distinction if people have questions. Um, it's not a city decision for like the union elementary school playground to open or the basketball court at the middle school, et cetera. So. It's, that's interesting. And I, and thank you for bringing that up because I, I recall our previous discussion about how the city owned playgrounds are also going to be closed through the summer. And that continues to be true or not so much. Yes. Uh, they are closed right now. We are getting our guidance. Wreck departments are getting their guidance from the ACCB. Um, and right now they have, um, they should remain closed and I've had a lot of, um, citizen comments about that. And I do want to sort of address is that. We have not been directed to, um, disinfect those. There's no, um, cleaning, uh, Protocol for playgrounds. We don't have staff to do that. They're not being maintained. And we can't really condone opening something that would, um, allow children to touch them and then potentially spread that to the community. So we can't really condone that activity. So, um, we have been advised by the state to keep those closed for now. And if that changes for the government or the governor makes any changes to that, we will let you know. But right now we're being told to close those. Okay. Thank you. Any other comments or questions? Okay. All right. I'm going to dive right into the service limitation. Sorry. This is a long time. So the assessor's office, we just want to make sure everyone is on the same page about what we're offering, but the assessor's office is going to be in person by meetings by appointment only. City council. Um, your meetings will remain via zoom or other online pro platform to encourage social distancing. Um, the act 92 that allows us to do this. Um, we'll be out of effect when the state of emergency lifts and we'll have to revisit that because what that will mean is that we can still have zoom meetings, but someone will have to be in the city council room. Um, in person, like a staff member will need to be in there. If anyone, um, wants to participate that way. So if the state of emergency ends, we will set up our own, um, zoom. Um, station if you will for public comment and, um, I'll be in there to make sure that, um, people can be, uh, participating via zoom. Through the city council hall while still remaining six feet apart. So, um, that is not in place now. Um, that depends entirely on when the state of emergency ends. So the city manager's office is still requiring appointments. Um, again, our building will be open for meetings on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Masks will be required. Um, in person meetings are still discouraged. And all meetings will be taking place in large conference rooms to promote proper social distancing. And we do encourage remote services. The clerk's office will open on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Um, appointments only for land record searches. There will be no more than two researchers at a time. The office will be available Tuesdays and Thursdays from eight to four and sets of two, two hour time slots. These appointments can be made by request on a case by case basis before July one. And the clerk has provided a, um, Google sign up. Um, John, I, it's also on your website, correct? Uh, it's not on my website currently because I have been managing access and a little bit of a hands on way, but it should be soon. Okay. Thank you. And the clerk's office will be beginning to promote, uh, election participation by mail for August 2020 elections. Polling places will be minimally staffed as it stands now. The community justice center will continue to, um, provide remote services in person intake services may be allowed on a case by case basis with physical state space, permitting by appointment. Finance is also encouraging remote services and we'll be holding meetings by appointment only. Um, the fire department, uh, the facilities, uh, the facilities remain closed to the public, but walk-ups for health related issues are accepted. They will be resort responding to calls for services normal. And, but fire prevention activities within our area of schools are still on hold. Green Mount Cemetery is maintaining their current service levels. The police department is responding to calls for services normal, but their facilities are still closed. The senior activity center has no changes plans to, um, the closure of their classes until the state of Vermont advises on reopening specifically for senior centers. Um, and I do know that Jana Claire, our director for our senior center is working with the adult services division, department of disabilities aging and independent living to kind of come up with a cohesive plan for all senior centers across the state so that it can be a coordinated effort. Um, the rec center indoors is still closed. Our programming is canceled. Department works is still asking people to have remote services and we'll be doing meetings by appointment only. Um, I included a rec link for sign up for vacation day camp. Um, but otherwise right now, most of our other programs are canceled. As we sort of reviewed earlier. And planning is doing remote services and in person meetings by appointment only inspection services or health officer services will be appointed appointment only as well if safety guidelines can be upheld. So further in the, um, memo, I explain again that act 92 may expire and cancel the program. And the plan is to do remote services and in person meetings by appointment only. And the plan is to do remote services and in person meetings by appointment only inspection services or health officer services or health officer services. And the plan may expire and council meetings will maybe need to be, um, both in a physical space and on zoom, but we really do, um, encourage that meetings are still held remotely since we are seeing other outbreaks in Vermont. And we would like to hold as many, um, remote meetings as possible. So our advisory towards council committees, advisory boards and task forces is that they should be able to do all of the work. And we'll need to establish through their staff representative, what their schedule will be. Um, we encourage them to remain remote in their meetings through phone or online meeting platforms until further notice. Uh, city hall only has one conference room that can accommodate, um, every all of our committees in a socially distanced way. And so we need to make sure that we can, um, work with the staff representative to schedule those appropriately. Um, we also need to make sure that our agencies in city hall, that includes the lost nation theater and the teen center, um, those agencies both need to follow their ACCB guidelines and the other state guidelines. And that does take into account the 25% capacity, um, that we have to have here in city hall has to be lower than that. And no more than 25 people can congregate in those locations. So we will be keeping them up to date and they are keeping them up to date. Um, and then I listed what our internal city policies and procedures that we have created, um, around COVID are and what we are being, um, what we are holding our employees to keep their workspace and, um, other employees and residents safe. So I know that was a lot, but does anyone have any questions? We are looking for approval for this plan because we just wanted to. I'm not seeing any other comments or, um, if there's no comments or questions, go ahead, Jack. Thank you. I'm not sure if this is the time to, to raise this or if it, uh, should wait until the, uh, until the budget update, but I do have a concern about the, uh, Discussion of the date of work of return to work for, uh, the COVID employees and I recognize that, uh, this phase one plan doesn't say anything specific about the, uh, what date they're returning. So I just want to flag that. Yeah. We'll, we'll save that for the, our Congress budget. Um, Donna, do you have something? Cause I thought it said either July 1st or July 31st. Yeah, we'll, we'll be actually going to go through this in the budget. Some are coming back on the 1st and someone August 1st. And if we change it, then don't have to change that as Cameron said before, it's a living document. So. Yeah. I appreciate all the details. Thank you very much, Cameron. With that, I move. I move it. There a second. Okay. We got a motion and a second. Um, any further conversation about, uh, the reopening plan. Okay. Not seeing anybody, um, all in favor, please say aye. Aye. And opposed. Okay. All right. So that is approved. Thank you so much. Um, so I think at this point, again, I apologize that we're jumping around here a little bit, but, um, I just wanted to, um, go back to the conversation about, um, Langdon street. Um, all right. So. Looking at all the possibilities there. Um, and I don't know if, um, Brad or Melissa were able to join us, but, um, I do have, um, I have no sense. So I can read them. Um, Um, council conversation on that. So you're a member of the public that would like to speak about, um, What the possibilities are for Langdon streets. And are you seeing anyone? Okay. Just wanted to check. Um, all right. So, um, Yeah. But Connor, you have some comments from Brad and Melissa. Yeah. And both of them are free and what option it is. Um, both of them really support the close Langdon street halfway measure. Um, they're really worried about the Parklets that they don't think, and especially where Melissa is situated that it would work distance wise for. And I did get permission to read this, uh, with Brad, he says with only 25% occupancy, that only gives them 12 people in Tavern if they want to reopen. Um, and he can't really justify that. They would need more sitting. Um, but the rehire of the employees can't be doing the 25%. Uh, so, but, but anyways, I can sum up both those businesses would be really eager to have the, um, Or tables each if they could with the 10 feet apart there. Um, Brad's told me they're losing $10,000, you know, a month with Langdon street Tavern. So for the viability of both of them, um, it would be a real boost to be able to get some tables out there. And in a socially distanced way. Yeah. Okay. So, um, comments from council. What are your thoughts? Uh, Dan. No, I guess I'm, I'm, I'm struggling. You know, if we do close down a section of Langdon street, who is exactly going to be responsible. For doing that closing and then doing that reopening. Um, and, you know, will there be liability on the city? Um, if, for example, you know, there is an accident. In someone, um, not anticipating a portion of that street being closed. Um, those are my initial concerns. Um, I talked with a couple of business owners. Um, and I think the other thing, um, I think we have to be clear. Um, we have to be clear on Langdon street after our visit. And, you know, I think Connor's right is that we're really talking about two businesses here. And to the extent that we can benefit these two businesses. Um, I, I think the other Langdon street businesses have no, no issue. Um, and the four PM. Closing makes sense. Um, But, uh, you know, I think this is, we have to be clear first of all that this is for these two businesses. Um, and I think we have to go about it safely. And so I guess I'd like to just talk about how we would see that being done. And if there's any sense of liability. It's a great question. Um, So Dan, are you, you're thinking about if it's only closed from four PM. Um, Um, I mean, I think it's still something like nine PM every or later. I need to like get back or 10 or 10 PM. You know, how do we, how do we make people aware of it on, you know, the, the traffic flow. Um, you know, if somebody comes around on to Langdon street. You know, obviously we're talking. There'd have to be some, uh, You know, If somebody stops them and who's going to move that in and out of the street each day, would it be the city's responsibility or would it be a private, uh, entities responsibility? Um, You know, and. And is there a liability to the city if, if that's done improperly. Um, Or somebody forgets to reopen it and somebody crashes at midnight. After it should have been reopened. Um, I think that's a good point. Um, I think that's a good point. Um, And thinking about this concerns with doing it this way is to make sure that it's done safely. Consistently. Um, and without. Potential risks to the city. So, um, what I thought on, uh, if it was just a. Thank for. Emergency vehicles. If it was a more or less a permanent. Um, If it was just a, you know, times of day. Does that make it easier? Well, I mean, then I think you're right. You have the emergency vehicle question. Um, And I think we have the other questions about. Um, Access to these businesses. Um, Rerouting traffic. Because at that point, you know, what we had, what we had talked about on that site, was that we were directing the flow on the north or the. East part of Langdon street. You know, so that we've come a two way street. Um, in and out back on to main street. Um, But any of the businesses like Jay Langdon or the get up. Um, You know, where would their sort of deliveries or pickups occur? Um, the, and as well as the apartments on either side. Um, Or those businesses like Rome that would be in the middle of that, that closed street. That would be my concern. I know four o'clock had seemed like a good sort of compromise because it would be towards the end, if not the end of retail hours. At the beginning of dining hours. Um, And I thought that was, you know, what one of the good compromises, but I think the problems. Um, But they're still there, whether it's, um, You know, permanently closing down the street, then how do we deal with the businesses that aren't. Benefiting from the closure. If it's temporarily. Closing down the streets. How do we deal with the temporary closures? Those are my concerns that I didn't necessarily see a. A clear answer to and in the proposed plan. Um, and I thought I'd raised them. Okay. Thank you. Um, I thought I saw a hand from Donna, but maybe I imagine that. I wasn't sure if Bill wanted to respond to the liability. And then J. Go ahead. Yeah, I don't know that I have a specific answer about the liability. I'd have the same questions. I can tell you that we at staff. Didn't really. Vet through, um, Time of day type option. So that is not. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't have given thought logistically too. I think typically we don't like those for a lot of the reasons that Dan said you have unpredictability. Uh, who's going to close it? Who's going to open it up? All those kinds of things. But we, if you're, if you're going to consider that. Like chance for us to. Get you a better feedback on that. Okay. Uh, Donna than Jay. Yeah. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. It wasn't one of the five proposals. And I'd be just to go through them one to five. I would be really disappointed if we left it as it was. And the second option bill, you say, this does not require additional safety guards, but if they're Parklets, Parklets do require safety guards because there's moving traffic. Yes. So when I was talking about safety guards, I was going to say, you know, I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know how to prevent a car from driving down. Okay. Which any street closure will require. Parklets have safety things, but not. Right. But you still have the same safety issues for the Parklets. Correct. But you have those regardless. Right. The other place. Well, okay, but if, and I guess I still have my bias for safety, I'm going to say, I'm going to say, I think that there's a possibility that's at least talking to me wants to see at least some change, even if it's not all the way that they like to see with some major opportunities on our streets and sidewalks. And I do feel that three allows all the business to go through. I feel the liability of partially closing in is no different when we closed it every Saturday. A few years ago. I can't remember his last year. I think the retail stores that are removable. So the far engines, et cetera, police can get through. That if we kept the center for bikes and pedestrians. I feel that's a way of encouraging outdoor space. And I do think the retail stores also will find their customers. Being more comfortable waiting outside as they take turns going in and out. If there's other things going on. And to me having the. You know, the retail stores, the retail shops be able to put things in the parking spaces without being as large an investment as a parklet. I think also bodes well for a short summertime. Trial. And I think if indeed three penny, want to come around the corner into the street. Maybe there's something we can accommodate them in that portion that's closed. I don't like the idea of closing the street in the entirety. Number five, because I think it's unfair for all the moving parts of people who live and work. And businesses who depend on vehicles to get in and out. So that's all. Great. Thank you. Jay. It's backing up just a little bit, but I just want to add my perspective having gone through this process with the city around closing park avenue. And I think it's important to, to relocate the playground outside of union elementary when we were doing construction of the new playground. And to, to Dan's point. I think that what's, what's so important in having sat down with bill and, and fire and public works and police. And I see Bob Yons is on the call too. Is consistency is consistency equals safety. And we were talking about, could we open, close it down during school or during recess hours and open it back up. Everybody was in agreement that having to change it every day and maybe having it different on weekends, whether relative to school days and what if the kids are on vacation, et cetera. It just, having an inconsistent traffic pattern was just not safe. You know, regardless of liability, it just, it just didn't work. It wasn't safe. It was not practical to be able to open and close based on any regular, you know, somewhat irregular and unpredictable schedule for all the reasons I think, you know, Dan and others have mentioned. So I think any option that we look at, it makes sense to look at something that will, will be one way and stay that way for, you know, whether it's when, when it's approved to when we, to when it's too cold. And we decide to open it back up to how it is now. So I think that that type of approach is, is works best for all our agencies and ultimately is the safest. So finding that balance with what can work best with the businesses in using that framework should be how we proceed. I'll just show him in here and say, I agree that whatever we do, it should be a not a not depending on time of day. To make it easier. Dan and then Jack and then Connor. Yeah. Just a point of clarification on, on number three, I didn't understand necessarily that. Number three was, was necessarily closing. Down the center travel lane is, is that the vision for number three is that it would close, it would close Langdon street to, to cars and make the parking, because I understood it to turn the parking spaces into a walking lane and allow the businesses to use a sidewalk. But I didn't necessarily understand that the center travel lane would, would, would necessarily alter in that. And I agree with everyone. I mean, I, what I was looking at was both point four or option four with, with the conversation that we've had before about having sort of timed, but I think that's, that's off the table, but I just want to make sure I understand option three. So you do Dan, I think, um, and I didn't really catch it in the earlier conversation. Um, three and four confused in my head, but I didn't have a thing of, uh, so three is intended to still have vehicle traffic going through. Uh, and, and that the basically what we do is convert the, the parking spaces to the sidewalk, people would walk where the parking spaces are and the merchants could then use the sidewalks to expand out or serve dinner on and that kind of thing. And so it's got the advantage of it doesn't close the street down and it might be easier to have seating tables out. Um, you know, it doesn't require as much of a structure to, to put stuff on sidewalk as it does in the practices, but the downside is then you've got people walking in an unprotected, you know, we'd probably have to put some kind of cones or something along there to delineate. Well, that was my question. I referred to the wrong number. I added the confusion. I apologize. It's number four that I was talking about, Dan. Sorry. Okay. Um, so at least in number three, you know, the, the, what we would be putting up would be the low ramps to get on and off the sidewalk for accessibility issues. And then perhaps like combs or something similar. To create that walking space in the, in the parking lot. I mean, none of the parking space areas that right. Bill. That's right. Okay. And just to jump back down it, just to clarify, that the roadway was for. It's for the wrong number. Yeah. I like the shuttle shutdown of the street. And nothing about partial times. Full time. Down there by where on the other side of outdoor sports. So all the roadways and parking spaces are available. So you'd have two way in the first little portion, and then you close it down. Jack here. I think we're next. Yes. Thank you. I I'm a little bit worried about missing an opportunity and You know to see how things there are really going to could work and how we could change the the environment of the city, but I Think I'm a little more worried that we really have had a hard time to have a fully studied and considered Consider fully studied the consideration of all the options and I think it's really pretty hard. I think Doing something like for Seems like something that's going to be Confusing and difficult for for the road users to To interact with The option option three of Having that walking lane just seems like kind of a Worrying thing to me, you know, even even if we're putting in Semi-permanent barriers Having people walking In what's now the parking spaces Alongside the moving traffic seems problematic and so I Think that even though it's the it's kind of the least imaginative and Least ambitious Of the options The thing that I think is the easiest to manage and the most practical given the limited time we've Given ourselves to discuss this is is option two of just Allowing all the businesses on the street to To put a parklet in what are now parking spaces if If they want to do that Connor Yeah, I think I could probably be accused of the last book I read here but you know and just just talking with Melissa and And Brad there, it's I guess the question is like why are we doing this? If not to be able to save a couple businesses here They're being pretty explicit that they can't open with the 25% capacity and it's not viable for them to keep doing takeout here So if this saves two businesses, and I think it's a very real possibility. We get an empty storefront there Maybe now is it time to be a bit bold be a bit imaginative and sure enough There's there's going to be some dents in the armor here. I think that we need to adjust as we go forward But yeah, I think I'm I'd also reiterate some of the points Donna made there So I would be pretty solid on four on this one Lauren or any interested in showing your thoughts Yeah, I mean I agree with a lot of the various perspectives and I've been struggling a little because I You know like I love the vision of long term trying to close the street to traffic And I'm struggling with this year being a time when we don't want to create a public gathering space per se So some of what we would want to model like we're being discouraged from doing um I mean I I I could support the The number for closing it down helping those businesses um, I think I think we could make it work. It would be a little confusing to some people, but I think people could figure it out and And and we could we could make that work. Um, you know, otherwise. I think the parklets Is you know seems like then the next best option number two You know, and I guess it just comes down to if it really is the difference between What's going to make viable businesses like if the parklets is not actually helping the businesses um, or you know a couple of those businesses Then then that it seems like Maybe we should try the more ambitious thing. I mean we could always you know, we could be obviously continually Assessing and if there's some more dramatic problems than we realize, you know, nothing's forever We could we could reassess if we needed to but it seems like we could figure out how to do um Do the number four option and try to make it work Um jack and then um, oh and and then j Um, one of the questions I had about number four and you know, I'm uh, I I did something I'd really like to see work when we were Viewing the location Last week one of the things that we were discussing and measuring was Whether we have enough room on the on the road to have Parking on at least one side of the street, which obviously do because that requires Because right now we have two lanes of parking and uh, and one lane of Traffic and instead we just be swapping one lane of parking for one lane of traffic. But if we were to adopt four I would want to Remove probably want to remove the parking on both sides for uh to make that a little More manageable. I don't know what other people think about that That's an interesting thought there. Um, you know, I think my guess is that Really what we're gonna end up doing tonight is choosing a direction. It's not um definitive that like, oh, you know We're officially making this change right now. Am I is that um It depends on how we choose those that was my suggestion. That was gonna be my suggestion if you choose for um You know, we're gonna need to work with a little bit more to just figure out the logistics You know, I I think from a driver perspective taking out the parking spaces and having two-way traffic there is probably the safest But I would imagine if I were a bookspealer Um, you know, I'm not getting the benefit of the closed street and then I just lost the parking spots in front of my business Um, there's a new business opening on the other side of the street that maybe using a takeout window that wouldn't mind having parking in front Um, so, you know, I think we need to we need to work through some of those details and figure out exactly What turning radii are gonna look like and what Road widths are, you know, we may need to come back to and say, yeah, we do need to take out Parking lanes in which case, you know, we may hear from those businesses, you know We're not going to do anything physical until we've laid it all out If there's a problem with any of it, we'll let you know and we can talk about it Okay That makes sense Jay So I just want to Say that I fully agree with jack and lorence thoughts about this being an opportunity to Don't want to miss an opportunity to be bold and make a Make a change that may not be the easiest but at the end of the day Will help improve the downtown experience and and in doing so supports Businesses as we manage through the, you know, the transition to them opening back up. I guess my just real practical Concern with number four is And and connor maybe you can help me with some sort of like math or geometry here in terms of Sorry, no, I'm sorry about that never mind But just in terms of like practical what's practical for Langdon street tavern because if we talk about closing for just when we were out there, it would be just beyond Access to that parking space where like this wcax parking spots are and and those Those buildings on the left hand side of the road are so ultimately what we're closing is mostly bridge You know, so is it even is it even realistic for Langdon street to move out and then go On to the move their tables on to the bridge and then bring them back in To to create space for themselves I mean, I know that You know, we're not closing space that's in front of businesses You know, I know that at sweet melissa's at the other other side of the bridge. Yeah, that would open up some, you know More space for them, but I just don't know what's practical for for jay langdon and then on it's a very small thing But I think is is relevant here And it came up from a constituent to dan and I and I think it came up at the meeting last our last meeting is that There is at the end of Langdon, there is a drive-up Mailbox and it's the only one on a one-way street And so we heard from someone who has really young children who are too young to They hooked to a mom who can't leave them in the car so she can go in the post office but uh, so it's really the most practical way for her to be able to put something in the mail I know there's lots of drop boxes all over the city, but they're not necessarily Accessible for a driver without having to get out of the car and that's a small thing But it is a consideration when we think about cutting access off to that second half of of langdon um Donna One you should tell the woman you talk to that she can leave letters to mail in her own mailbox and her postmaster Will take it and maybe she doesn't know it though. So that might be helpful information for her to learn I mean I've heard from brad. I mean connor and I talked to him right out there on the street and he felt Having some open places that he can put tables way far away as he said beyond the two Parking spaces most parklets are that would really help him and melissa Also felt they could come around the corner onto the bridge and spread out tables So I think for them it's very important, but I also think the retailers May underestimate what a benefit for them as far as people on the street And I do think it's an opportunity To try something out and yet we're not encouraging gathering But we are encouraging people to go to those stores because there's now more human space instead of so much car space Um Dan and then also just being conscious of the time. I would love to see what people's first choices are and See if there's Uh consensus if people want to if have if people have a second choice that would be good to know as well, but Um, we'll we'll start with that. Uh, but go ahead. Uh, dan and then Cameron Sure. Um, I you know, I did talk to a number of the retailers along Langdon street and I they're they're not interested in this being outside. It's a cost for them Um, you know, something like book spieler, they'd have to They'd have to put up extra staffing that they can't afford to have to have people outside Uh, or have part of their business outside Um, and I think someone like juliana at j langdon. This is a hardship and she said, you know She's a team player and she wants to have businesses succeed Um, but you know, she expressed to me at least that this was not something That that she was driving um But I'll you know, so I'll express I'll I'll start with the whole Uh top choices which would um, you know, I I guess I would my first choice would be Three than two Thank you And Cameron. Oh, I just wanted to um, uh, recognize Konstantinos who's had his hand up. So I do want him to be Oh, great. Sorry. Well, maybe we can take uh, Konstantinos's comment right now He's ready. Yeah, I'm ready. So I just want to support closing our landing landing street It was kind of if you looked at the Um, the downtown master plan that sc group put together one of the I think it was No, um Proposal a actually had a redesign of landing street to be More of a pedestrian plaza So it makes sense to to follow some of that It is one of the recommendations that we were given by a consultant that we paid for To give us that recommendation Also, given that there's lower traffic volumes now because of cove at 19 Microtransit coming sometime in the fall possibly Less demand for parking It might be beneficial to have more space as Donna said for for humans and less for For parking would also support the businesses there, especially the ones struggling Uh, especially the food businesses there. Um, the other businesses are not too far from either elm street or Main street for parking or delivery purposes. There's also that alleyway That they have access to I'd also like to mention that at the Montpelier infrastructure transportation infrastructure committee. We've also talked about Closing streets to allow for more distancing So, um, you know, take advantage of that reduced traffic to temporarily make Some streets car-free specific with Langdon is what we spoke about creating temporary barriers to create one-way streets So at half the street could be reserved to non-motorized traffic pedestrians Keep traffic flowing but create loops for example loops of one-way streets between state now and around the school Take advantage of reduced parking needs to temporarily remove parking spots right at your space for non motorized pedestrian traffic And maybe make sidewalks one way to avoid people rubbing shoulders while crossing Each other. So, um, you know, I'm speaking for myself here, but it is something that's been on the infrastructure committee's agenda as well Thank you. Um, Dan Go ahead Uh, two things one. I just wanted to quickly clarify Jay's Concerns about which part of Langdon would be closed and we'll note that Even with closing it just beyond the cx parking lot The road would still be closed in front of the buildings that contain on your river outdoors Langdon street tavern Rome the get-up and books feeler. So, um nj Langdon rather So not books feel like but the get-up and nj Langdon. So So there would be space in the closed street in front of Langdon street tavern Not just on the bridge as Jay said The other thing I just want to flag is the question of fairness, um, I Absolutely believe that every single business deserves saving And that we should do whatever we can. Um, I am a little bit concerned about the notion that, um, The businesses that are not on Langdon street are going to You know only have the parklet option Including sidewalk parklets You know, but, um, limited space to expand and potential costs that, um, Langdon street businesses may have You know extra space and Less costs because they you know, they wouldn't need to install a parklet necessarily. So, um, just something to Something to think about in this conversation Thank you Okay, um So just think going through folks's first and possibly second choices if you have one, um, got dan's Anyone else want to weigh in? Was that connor kind of did I see a hand go ahead? No surprise. I'm very obviously for here Um, again, if it saves a couple businesses, maybe it's five or six people back to work. Um, That's what it's all about here. I guess I give three is a distant second choice Okay Go ahead dana. Sure. I mean four I think four would be my second choice too depends how you add it up. If not four, then I might end up going to two Okay Uh, lauren, um, I would do four and then two Anyone else Jack or j So, I mean, is that three votes for four right there? Is there a top choice? Yes I I think I really Weirdly would go with the think of two is my first choice and four is my second choice, but uh, but I would I would support four because I think that I'd be It it does give us A chance to try out at least a partial Uh, closure of the street and see, uh, see what the effect is Um, I I don't know if that we're making Actually voting on an ordinance today. I don't think we can um I Yeah, it'd be kind of interesting and I don't know if it's practical to do it, but it'd be kind of interesting to, uh some evening or someday when there's When there are not people out there in the car is to actually Try Closing down the street for an hour or two and have Have a few volunteers Pull their cars in and out try it out and see How would work having uh, having that end of uh, Langdon street open and two-way traffic on You do a simulation Yeah Um Jay Yeah, well, um, I I just really appreciate everybody's thoughts on this and and how we could see making it work. Honestly um My first choice would be five If the city managed if the city's off if we could figure out a way to make it work Um, you know, I know that there's considerations with emergency vehicles And providing access for deliveries, but I think that that's Uh Always doable and and adaptable. Um, but if if that if we didn't think that that was feasible then then I would support number four as well okay interesting, um, so just, uh So that you all know where I stand on it as well I think my my first choice would also be four and uh, probably my second choice would be two um but um Sounds like the Um, most folks had four either as first or second Um, another popular choice was two though. Um, only one person had two as their first choice um So one thought would be um That we could be asking the city manager to come back with more Uh, potentially like a more plan for four um or I'm wondering if we need to vote on that probably probably we do. Um, or do we want to keep two? Um, sort of in the running here or we could just direct it as like, you know, we're narrowing it to two or four Or unless unless folks have other Um thoughts So two won't require any work from us. I mean, it's already it's actually already included in the ordinance you passed First reading earlier tonight. So That's really on the businesses to to put their things in I would say if you if you're seriously considering four and that's the message I'm getting loud and clear then we need to lay it out and Have our traffic folks take a look at turning great, you know, really Come Give it even more detailed look As quickly as we can Okay Get it back to you as soon as possible. Okay. Um, and uh So, uh, do you Feel like you need a motion on that. I mean, it's it's really just in more investigation at this point If you want to direct us to Research and for more thoroughly and report back ASAP that'd be great. Okay. Um, Dan Yeah, I I don't think we necessarily need a motion I mean, I think we've had a straw poll and there's um, you know, clear direction And given that we're not necessarily locked into, um Option four until it's we see if it's feasible because now now we're down to the engineering and the Turning radius is and if they come back and say it doesn't work And I don't think we it would make sense to have it locked in. I mean, I think, you know People have expressed the clear Direction and it would be foolish say to to plan out three when there's No other person supporting it, but that would be my sense No, that that makes sense to me as well um Okay, so we'll revisit that at another meeting Not not Friday Not Friday. Um Okay, so the only other item that we have on our agenda for the evening is the budget and um So I want to just check in with bill How urgent is this one? Um, or can we take it up at the next meeting? Not Friday Friday, um It's pretty important. Um, you know, this is I guess it depends on how you want to We've got to make decisions and we've got to notify people about their status, um You know for july 1 and You know the next meeting schedule meeting is june 24 um Okay, well, how are how are you feeling team about? Giving this some time here before we close this evening Thumb scale of of good to go. Okay. I'm I'm willing so okay. It sounds like everybody else is so Let's dive in Okay, great. Thanks. And while so kelly was going to come on while she's getting set up So she's showing her screen. I'll just say that the good news is we you know, we do have A proposal that balances at least we think it balances. She's got a presentation to walk you through I mean, obviously you may disagree with our recommendations and that's fine. Um But at least uh, hopefully we can move through this pretty quickly It's not stuff you haven't seen before or heard before already. So kelly and unmute yourself too You have terrible sound Yeah No, it really can't work if we if it's gonna be that bad Actually gets you to log off and then walk back on or something. It's bad You also could be near another electronic device from the sound of it Oh, there you go You know, we didn't we didn't get this presentation, right? It's anything we can pull up No, you didn't um, because we are still vetting numbers today, but you got the outline you got an outline On in the packet of a preliminary and then and that's fine. I just want to make sure I didn't miss an email bill. That's all. Thanks Um while we're waiting for kelly Jumping exactly while we're jumping all around we might as well continue anyone have a council report they'd like to offer Donna I have just so enjoyed our cemeteries and all my walks almost daily and green mountain out on state street because they haven't been able to mow It's just the most a bountiful of grasses All these colors and wildflowers. I was telling patrick. I saw him in the truck on one of my walks That I hope they don't mow in may and june next year It is so pretty and they're just beginning to fade now So if you haven't gone through the cemetery recently on state street, please do so. It's just lovely really lovely Thank you, donna Uh kelly trees lots of maple trees huge Uh, can you hear me? Okay now? Yeah. Oh good. Okay, perfect. So And you can see my screen Um, not yet. Oh good. Okay. Hold on. You have to read Share that Yeah, we'll get there. Hold on. I promise What about now? Yeah Sound and sight All right Okay, so i'm gonna walk you through um quickly. Um, I am the fast talker so i'm going to try not to be um for this presentation just so you can get kind of the details but Um, but and if you have questions, just feel free to holler But basically, you know, we are facing a Revenue downgrade of 1.4 million in f y 21 The approach that we took is sort of a blended approach based on the experience that we've been seeing with some of the revenue line items As well as um, you know, considering what the state's doing with their projections And so we took a you know, a quarterly Approach of a you know, 2% or so reduction and actually ends up being about You know 7 to 10 depending on what the gap is But you know, we've kind of settled here at 1.4 Um, I will say that you know, we over the course of doing this have you know learned some favorable information But at this point it's not finalized. Um, so I think this is a pretty good estimate. It's a pretty good worst-case scenario So that we're safe as we're approaching This first quarter and we'll kind of have to see what happens and then we can kind of Address it on a quarterly basis and determine whether or not You know, this can be taken down or you know, if it's not enough. Um, there's just a lot of unknowns at this point Um, and so I do you know Want to mention some of the things that the revenue downgrade does include in the general fund the state pilot payment You know, we may get our FY 20 allocation at 100 but we just don't know that yet. And so as soon as we do, um, you'll be the first to know Um, and then that's part of a conversation for sure Local options tax is really not performing well at all, but that's not surprising given what the businesses are doing in town Then ambulance state highway aid licenses fees and permits. Um, you know round out this set of assumptions Um, I will say that I did not include property taxes in this projection because you know, historically we've done pretty well with property taxes Right now to date. Um, we'll know more on monday, of course because property taxes are due along with water sewer Um, but to date, you know, we've got about 1.5 almost 1.6 to collect in property taxes And then you know, we've also got about 7.4 and water sewer But you know, we've also got a lot of auto pays there. So we're trending in the right direction It's just we've got to wait and see what happens. Um, you know, there's also Some room here we're monitoring 20 pretty closely and I'll get into that in the future slides or towards the end Just so you have a perspective of where we are But we've taken a pretty conservative view just in case if there are some pressure from 20 that bleeds into 21 Um, and then parking parkings down. We're just we're not enforcing parking And so this is the quarterly assumption of not getting any revenue and and parking and so That's how we came up with our um gap. Um, and you know, hopefully, you know, we'll know a little bit more as time passes but we've also come up with a listing of Items to address this um, and so here they are you did get this list in semi final draft form in your packets, um, but we've been you know, um reviewing it um with department heads and Have you know gone over this um in depth and so there are a few adjustments that we've made around You know really fine-tuning the furlough extension based on you know, who's on that list and then also considering The hiring freeze and what that will really look like. Um, so we wanted to bring to the table Some items or a lot of items um for you to consider Um, and what I will say is the lion's share of this is you know all department based But there are some community enhancements that are listed here and you'll know they're towards the bottom part of the The table here and that's about um 76 thousand and some change. Um, just for summary purposes. So you're kind of aware of that um So then I'm just going to kind of get into the details so that you've got sort of the big picture For specific categories. Um, one of them is equipment reductions. And so you can see here Um, what we've proposed delaying And that's I should also say that that's really what we're trying to do delay anything that we can put off projects that we can and then to the extent that we can um Make up some of the shortfall with um hiring freezes cola and furlough. We're going to do that as well so This is part of it. Um, and hopefully, you know This delay won't last forever. It's just a one time kind of thing And we'll you know keep moving forward when we can but here's the list. Um, so of the 515,000 that we had budgeted We're you would take it down By 3365 So that's that And then the operating um projection rejection. So you can see here are listed out. It's um 454 thousand dollars The one that I will highlight is at the top there. It's the projects from public works Based on the priority listing from dpw Clareton Taylor street westward drive chestnut hill culvert and crack ceiling will still happen um But then the projects that will be delayed and so depending on what happens, you know, we'll assess, you know conditions as You know things change the projects that would kind of come sort of further down the list are coming street Hubbard street retaining wall berry street and loomis street repair Um, donna is on the call. Um, and could speak a little bit more to these if needed But you know, that's sort of a thumbnail sketch of you know, what we're not Um What we're going to be doing and what we're not going to be doing um And so I will also note that as part of the f y 21 budget for this particular group of projects The amount is about 1.2 Or so, um that we would be taking this from um, so There's that. Um, we've got a little bit of contract savings and finance The facilities project manager is you know, sort of all the facilities within Citywide service are you know maintained and we currently have a contract in place with the assessor that would just be held They get until we can you know address it, you know at a later date when we have the resources um Planning um, this is their professional development money postage supplies. It's also um the conversion of one um fte 2.8 Um, and then parks gave us a you know suite of savings of about 20 000 dollars in the clerk's office also kicked in 2.8 um Okay, and then you know moving on to the community enhancement pieces Since we're not having a fourth of july celebration. We thought that it probably Was a good idea to consider that as you know, something that's on the list um the development corporation. It's a 25 percent reduction over um What was appropriated? The arts fund is also uh 25 percent And then getting on into the housing trust fund again 25 percent homelessness task force Uh 25 percent and then the emerald ash were there's still some money remaining But that's a 20 reduction over the 14k that we had put in the budget And let me know if i'm moving too fast. Um That looks like everybody's still with me. So that's good. Um So personal services reductions. Um We are focusing this pretty conservatively. It's the general fund portion of colas at 2 percent that Staff would be receiving this does not include fire Because they're currently still under contract Um So that's that piece and we'll be monitoring that as we go along and then if things get better then That's maybe something that we consider restoring but at this point. I think it's safe to say that something we should really um hold back And then furlough extensions. So based on department conversations, um, we've determined that Out of the 25 employees that have kind of remained in that pool of furloughed employees 10 would return to work um based on need Um, and so they would come back on july 1 And then the remaining 15 would stay out until july 31st and come back on august 1st Um So there's that and then the hiring freeze, you know, we took an assessment of Our current pool pool of employees current vacancies, but then those that will become vacant in fy 21 Um and did sort of a tiered approach and you'll see in a future slide What that looks like what the positions are and the departments that are impacted it's um finance and public works that um are going to be Shouldering this and you know, I think we can manage um, but we've got sort of an approach in terms of The line share of them are from public works, but we don't we still need them to do the work So some of those positions would be held vacant on a quarterly basis so that then we could put them back and play As soon as is reasonable and then some of them Will remain out for the full year based on our known assumptions So you can see here based on the notes. It's um 7.6 fte's 3.6 for all of fy 21 for for the first quarter And then in this calculation is also a police position that would shift to The task force so they go from 17 to 16 positions that are generally funded So here's the table for the um hiring freeze impacts. Um, and so you can kind of just see A rough cut on what's not so rough. It's actually um based on what we would be paying for these positions. Um And so I still have in here the the benefit totals But then part of the grand total here is where I really want to point your your attention And then the the full year and quarterly calculation is really what um Our uh placeholder is based on and so we'll keep monitoring this pretty pretty closely the green bar are those positions Um that would Remain vacant for the full year and then the clear bar would be the ones That would end up being filled if it's possible On the quarter depending on how revenues come in so Moving on. I also want to note that um, you know, and I could underscore this more but i'm just gonna Just for you know time's sake kind of go over it really quickly But you kind of see the slide but there will be operational impacts because of this, you know We're going to do our best to mitigate them and we're going to um, there are definitely some silver lines here I think in terms of you know, assessing what we're doing how we're doing it in deficiencies to be gained but you know, there are still areas where it's not business as usual and um, you know, we recognize that and we're trying our best But we also want to just kind of put that out there too. So Folks understand that, you know, there may be some limitations And hopefully things will get better and then, you know, we can kind of you know pivot We're setting ourselves up to be able to do that once things do improve And so I wanted to give you also a quick Look at f y 20 and what that looks like you look at the bottom line down here based on our Rough assessment of the gap that we were projecting back in april. We've closed that gap Um, and so we've got about 26 three on the bottom line But I am a little bit Just a little bit cautious to really even call that out because You know, we've got to see what happens in the final weeks of the fiscal year and what comes in what goes out You know, what we're dealing with in terms of You know cash flow and we're expecting a few things to happen. So this is still in flux. It's not firm But it's at least I think a positive reflection on the actions that have been taken To make sure that we've been managing in these conditions. So I mean, that's really great And then I also wanted to put a list out there of additional things to consider that are currently not Contemplated and do need to be funded in some fashion in 21 One of them is the tks tks property. Excuse me. We talked about this a while back And I'll start keeping a running list just as a reminder of like things that are out there The elevators still need to be addressed. Thankfully nobody's been in the building. So we're square there, but eventually You know, we really are going to need to do something about that Confluence park was something that was mentioned During the budget process and was put in and we just need to really Identify that source within the budget things have changed so rapidly since You know, the budget was adopted in March that You know, we just need to figure out where we're going to identify and what that's coming from We did put the parking meter upgrade on here for $365,000 This one we needed that just a little bit because there may be you know Fees that may net against this once we decide to do the upgrade But basically what it is is the the internal upgrade within the meters themselves And so it's a pricey proposition and hopefully we can maybe get that down a little bit But you know at this point it's just out there for your consideration And then the reappraisal in fy 22 This figure is a little bit lower based on the bids that we did receive. So that's Stuff in the right direction But all told in fy 21 there's $619,000 of Expenses that we've got to just figure out how to fit into our current construct So I just put that out there because even though I think you know, we've got you know, a manageable task at hand would be Reductions that we've identified. There are still things that are hanging out there that will also need to address And so recommendations And then I'll kind of if you got questions or if you want me to flip back to some previous slides, I'm happy to do that Is to operationalize our savings initiatives to kind of put things on ice and on hold, you know So that then we can kind of preserve our resources so that they weren't in a good spot to respond and react as things happen And we'll continue to monitor things really closely And then, you know, once things do improve you say, well, it's just I don't know when that'll be and it's probably not going to be any time in the near future We'll consider restoring some of those reductions And we'll start working on that list too So then there's a plan. So this the idea of tonight is really to get a plan in place So that then we're squared away and then we'll report quarterly. So that's what I have And with that I Leave it up to bill or Cameron I just thought right we'd like you to Consider approving the plan or changing it however you wish And then the key to it is we're not asking you to actually change our approved budget We're simply saying here's our plan for managing since the revenue projections have changed And part of that is we want to review this with your recorder to see You know our revenues looking better than we thought what what could we do in it? You know, what could maybe be changed added back in or are they worse? So we'll be Continuing to watch this every three months. Well, we'll be watching it all the time but you'll be dealing with it every three months if things improve or some of Revenues come in higher than we thought then we can look at maybe in the second half of the year You're doing some of the projects that were delayed or Purchasing some of the equipment that we put off Because you know fiscal year goes all the way till next June Or looking at our staffing at that point or dealing with some of those Undoubt with problems Instead So we've got some time to look at this but this is Staff and particularly Kelly have put in a Lot of hard work trying to make this work Yeah, that seems pretty clear. Um, so I Solid Dan and then who else then Lauren? Yeah, and then jack Well, I'll say thanks. Thanks Kelly and thanks bill and Cameron for putting this together. It's really In depth thoughtful And it has you know, it does the heart heavy lifting that I'm very glad I don't have to do to Come through this, but I did have one question Are there any Savings on the rec Department that we're not opening the pool this summer Or limiting some of those services, you know, similar to how you put the fourth of july parade savings in Um, is there a similar savings or is there is it just not a savings? Unfortunately, no, I mean we Did look at that. Um, there is some maintenance that needs to happen at the pool But the pool, you know, kind of ends up funding itself Through the user fees and sometimes and sometimes we you know end up, you know Is it expensive thing to open? Um, so that being said, there's not savings there to be Garner to add to this I wish there were, you know, we are looking at it from a perspective of maybe doing some maintenance on the pool that You know, otherwise wouldn't be able to be done um So the startup fees that that would normally be incurred in the budget are going to be transferred over to the maintenance Well, as some of those we took us we've already counted in f y 20 is closing that initial 500,000 Yeah, so, um This is from july on Okay Uh, okay, lauren and then I think it was jack um Yeah, thanks and I Agree with dan. This is very thorough in the presentation of a lot of information, but like very clear and thoughtful So thanks for all the work that has gone into that. Um, I just had two quick questions. One was um Like how so if we put off things like Equipment purchases and things I know sometimes there can be like delays and doing that just have I guess Maybe it's a thought for when you're thinking about okay, if we were in the fortunate position of some money more money came in then we've Um, anticipated here just like that consideration of which things would take more lead time to do versus we could like Turn a turn a switch and bring staff back in or you know things like that. So I guess just Just putting that out there to um some thought on that like as we look at the plan for How we could phase in if we ended up in the fortunate position of being able to put some things back and um, and I guess my other Question just had to do with the furloughs for staff. So I know it was just handled so well. Um At the beginning Offering it as a voluntary thing and I was just kind of curious at this point I know you said it was based on needs for um people some people coming back and some people staying on furlough Are people like clamoring to come back and you know, we just have to do it because of the budget or are some people like This is great. I'm Home with my family or whatever. I just curious what the what the sentiment is and if there's you know, if if there's considerations we should Be There's a little bit of both, you know, there are people that this is really working well for um, but the thing with furloughs is you know, so it's You do have the right to call them back and and people understood this that it was going to be till at least july 1 and and Potentially till august 1st. So what we asked all the departments to do was to Tell us, you know, kind of where where do you who do you need like? Especially with summer coming, you know And one of the areas we've really noticed you are building inspectors been on furlough and It's summer people are building. This is you know We need and the nice part is some of He is also covered by fees and revenues so he can help pay for himself But so that's when we just needed back that the assistant city clerk for example Um, you know, we're getting election coming in august So john needs are back really these are back now, but he certainly needs are back in july So, you know, a lot of this was program based need And for those that could stay for another month, we're trying to take the savings on And we have thought about, you know The timing on equipment and all that stuff we could we can still order stuff this year and book it to this year Even if it doesn't arrive, I think If you don't take anyway, so Start timing game You know pushing, I mean none of these are great ideas in general I mean they're great ideas for meeting the crisis that we have You're delaying Keeping up with projects. You know, that's that's not good But it's the best we have to work with and still deliver basic services yeah um jack thanks, um I had a similar to a question or observation wrote as lauren made about the furlough and I should just say That I do have a family member who's who's a city employee who is On one of these voluntary furloughs, and I don't know from looking at this whether that person is affected by the extension or not, but But the question that Occurs me is that it if if city went to people and Said well, we would like you to take a furlough Through the end of june and now they're being told that they're losing another month's pay Whether that's really fair that those are the people that should get the burden where to bear that burden as opposed to considering whether Some other employees if if we need to lay off some set of employees for the month of july whether That should go to whether that should be borne by those same employees or other employees And thinking into the future not That we're hoping to have be in this position in the future, but that it makes me wonder if People who thought they were going to be laid off to july 1st and now are going to be laid off to august 1st if what effect that's going to have on people's willingness to accept a voluntary furlough in the future So we were I think people are okay with this I'd have to go back and we can find you the communications for other employees I think it was always clear that this could be till august 1st. There was never any question about that that Might be as soon as july 1st, but it could be till august 1st And that's as long as the federal the extra six hundred dollars a week continues So we believe that most of the people that are in fact, we're pretty sure that most of the people are taking advantage of this are Being held are held harmless financially. In fact, some may even be benefiting So i'm not sure anyone's paying a price for the extra month And and I haven't had direct communication with them, but I know our hr people have and I believe we're on pretty solid ground here as far as employees understandings of this Oh, we definitely are we check that out through public works over a week ago and all the Documents that our furloughed staff sign Said that it could go through the end of july last day in july would be their Last day being on furlough, but it could have they could be called back earlier. So I assume that if it was done that way for our department, it was done through hr for everybody Thanks Thank you. Donna Thank you Bill has the staff considered Suggesting that we open our meters and start having people use meters parking meters Our parking meters, you know, that's the big revenue hit. Have we considered opening? So park we've talked about it. Um Let's see. Let's be clear. I mean, yes, it's a revenue hit, but really the prime Purpose of parking meters is to manage parking You know parking shortage to help provide turnover for businesses And You know when we first stopped this it was the perception that okay We've got a downtown that we're trying to get is what few customers we can So we've been in pretty constant contact with d. N. Groberg about this and the business community Yeah, you know, we're just starting to open up So I think you know a lot of the cars on the streets right now are Employees or owners of businesses that are parking all day, and I don't blame them, you know, why not? So we're gonna keep an eye on that and see when You know, ideally we'd love to have this back open by august 1st So that our parking people don't have any issues with coming back to work But it also has to be what makes sense for the business community I mean, we don't want to create another disincentive to come downtown You know if it's already still too tough or not Absolutely, but if indeed we are having more parklets and if we do the aspect with Langdon We are going to have less parking spaces And believe it or not, I still see people feeding the meter, you know, if I catch him, I'll say you don't have to do that But you know, so I don't know that it's that big of a burden Okay, but I just wanted to bring it up at some point maybe just keeping evaluating that and what is the flow Because it also helps for take out moving the cars Of the people who are coming into town And my second question was it's a bit more about the allocation that happened through the community fund Those checks usually go out in august and I have had Some nonprofits call me about that. Is that still planning to happen? If you noticed the community fund is not on this list of recommended I did And it was basically because I mean, it was our Recommendation you all could reconsider it. We have not sent the check so we could You know, we send some of their money, but our sense was we made commitments to groups They're probably losing funding everywhere else already The least we could do is keep our commitment to them and not hit that and Similarly the commitment to the social justice thing, you know, the council said in the spring We're going to take it now, but we're not going to take it next year. So we want to make sure we honor our commitments No, and I appreciate not seeing either of those here I just wanted to make sure because they non-profits are hurting and I have heard from several of them. Thank you anyone else I'm grateful for all this work. Um, it makes sense to me and I think it looks Good and hopefully we do end up in a better place and we don't need to make all of these adjustments. Um, Dan Groberg I saw you had something and then Jay Thank you. Um, I have a question for kelly and I have a comment. Um, the question is What if anything is the understanding about the state pilot payments within the downtown improvement districts? And whether that may be impacted and whether Montpelier alive could be losing that funding source or whether The expectation was maintaining that piece of it. Um, that's about 19,000 dollars, which is about a third of the total d.i.d money and about 8% of our annual budget Um, so we don't know yet My guess is sort of the long and short of it. Um, we have heard Sort of favorably on that front, um from two different sources within, you know, one from the administration and one, um You know from our delegation, but we just don't we don't know so I don't I'm not quite sure how to answer that I mean, I would like to say that, you know Yes, that that is part of that figure, but until we actually get it in we just don't know So that's why it's still actually included in these revenue projections. Um, because we just Don't know yet what the state's going to do because they are facing some pretty significant Decreases as well. Um, and so we're just trying to be conservative Um, and so it's a non answer and I'm sorry for that. Um, well, they do split it out They do split out the general pilot and the downtown pilot So probably to be safe I don't have the number kelly made off the top of your head and you might want to just project whatever percentage we're projecting 30% or whatever that is from your 19,000 Yeah, it's it's about Local options tax what we're seeing for experience Yeah, so um, thank you. So I just want to uh flag that for the council that that's sort of a hidden, uh budget cut that you may not have noticed. Um, and then the other piece and I I don't fault anyone for this, but there had been discussions with the manager's office about the july 3rd funding going towards our moonlight madness event, which is planned to be our sort of reopening kickoff event and where we're redirecting a lot of the other resources we have for that july 3rd, including our sponsorship funds So, um, I understand that you have to make difficult choices, but um, that money was would not go to waste That it would going to be redirected towards another event Okay, thank you Uh j Well, I think what dan's comment is a perfect segue just in that I want to uh try to understand Um process is to help manage expectations moving into f y 21 I know if we we're going to move forward with these numbers. Um, I appreciate that but if we find that um That we we have more um more of it, there's you know revenue is is higher than what we were expecting. How are we um going to prioritize making some of these line items whole and um, and then Beyond that how you know, I know you you said there there'd be a quarterly check-in is that sort of um What how we could communicate with constituents and with folks is as to when we can let them know if we might be able to To to make them whole. I mean I look particular, you know with particular concern to economic development as we you know Um, hopefully are are in a place where we're recovering and then of course a lot of the social services that were Um that we're we're reducing funding for as well. So it's kind of two questions How do we what's our timing process wise and then how are we going to prioritize? so, um, I think our our anticipation is the timing would be a quarterly review and You know, how are we doing? Have we got hard news? You know To say pilot that's a pretty big reduction for us in this budget, right? So say we find out we're going to get full funding You know that right there will But we also that may also offset other projections that we got wrong. So, you know, I think we need to We need to take a look at that. Um So say october 1st What I would anticipate in terms of prioritizing is that we staff would prioritize, you know, sort of which Equipment order and which project order and those kinds of things and you might prioritize which of these sort of Community type things and then we'd have to weigh, you know, if we have You know sort of say well, how much how how ahead of revenues are we and how How soon can we restore these monies? You know, I mean Some of these people, you know, maybe we can't Actually make a firm commitment to almost the last quarter of the year to say suddenly hey those last Community fund, you know enhancement things we can make that all up now. We know we're good Which is why, you know, that's why even some of the hiring freeze we We set some we thought we can freeze for up to the whole year others You know, especially the dpw was like, well, we could probably freeze them for the first quarter But we need them for plowing, you know, we can't they were short last winter. We need to make sure they got full crew So that's the plan to have people back on in time for those sorts of things So just to make sure i'm understanding you correctly as As we review things over the year and if we are if we do find that we're able to Um, make some of these lines Just have to do that on a quarterly basis and look at time Use the priorities for the money. So that would be your you to prove any changes Right, okay, or further reductions if this goes the other way Right, right, okay Good question though. Um Any other comments Uh, Cameron, um, so, you know, Konstantinos is also waiting. Okay. Um, you know Now is an okay time Go ahead Oh, he's on mute You're muted. Okay. Well, I just want to first thank uh, thank you guys for all the work on this finance stuff You know as a cpa, I really understand and appreciate the work that goes into this, you know, kelly bill and all your staff Uh chose um, you've done a lot of work and I really appreciate it So, uh, you know, I truly understand the civil decisions you need to make and how hard it is to get to this point But I just like to point out that, you know At the beginning of a recession that could turn out to be a depression Reducing funding to things like the public housing trust and the homeless task force will probably hurt the most vulnerable people in our city Uh, you know, these are the exact types of expenses that build our community and decrease the need for policing Um In general and then we could take more of that fund So I'd just like to remind you from earlier in this meeting that you know You know, you have many of your constituents including myself demanding a reduction in the police budget So please consider looking into tapping those funds to fill your gap Um, thank you, sasinos. Um, I just want to make a note that um That ask is And I don't think that we are prepared to that decision meaning um and We have been putting funding towards the housing trust fund um and other community services for a long time and um So, you know, and we you know once we are back into regular mode, we will be continuing to um for those services Oh, um Thank you. Just wanted to make a note of that. Um jack At this point if it's appropriate I move to uh, approve the staff plan To to bring the budget into balance for fiscal 2001 Very I don't know if that's the right way to phrase it or approve the decision uh plan Second, um, okay, we have a motion and a second um further discussion About the plan Lauren One other thing just um, I'm thinking of a little bit sparked by Konstantino's comment, but um You know the other big moving piece. I feel like Is also, you know, so there's potential federal money There's also a lot of state decisions happening right now with what's happening with our Cares funding like I I just saw A brief article about you know a big influx to vhcb for some housing and you know, so I think Really keeping a close eye too on where there might be opportunities for doing the kinds of Projects that can help so that maybe the housing trust fund might do in a typical year And maybe there's going to be different ways that money's moving around the state in unusual ways this year that We can see okay. Where where is the greatest need for the community? Is it being met by? You know some other source that's atypical Or you know, whatever So I think just just putting out there to keep an eye on that too and really make sure that the the key needs And point well taken about keeping an eye on you know, our most vulnerable and And how we're addressing those And just you know, that is exactly why we try to lay this out as a management plan as opposed to actually changing the budget because We don't know what other kind of monies could be available to us or projects and those kind of things So it's you know, this is this is what we know on june 10. It could be different on june 24. You know, can be different on july 1 so This is The earlier tonight that are in our Consent agenda we approved the resolution Sponsored by the league of cities and towns to call for More money from the federal government for relief from the COVID disaster and I wonder if we have any sense of We can expect Anything to come from that I I will confess I don't have a good sense of whether or not we will get any further funding from But we'll see Yeah, that's what I figured but We'd be good to know if we knew Yeah The heroes act in this federal house would be help local governments considerably, but whether it makes up stuff all the way through Yeah, we um I did have a call with Peter Welch the other day in support of that, but It's um The chances of it passing are questionable, so we'll see Thanks Yep, um All right, any comments on this? Um, Dan Groberg is raising his hand. Okay, Dan go ahead Um, I I just want to express a small concern that I'm not sure that people who um third sort of these outside agencies who may see their Funding cut were notified that this was being discussed at the meeting tonight. Um, I I know mom failure a lot I mean I happened to be here and read the packet because of the other issues that Were relevant to us this week, but I was not specifically informed That there were any of our funding was on the table And I'm curious whether the other I don't see any representatives from the development corporation or the public arts commission or The housing trust fund or homeless and staffs for so I'm just wondering whether folks were informed and whether it's reasonable to be making having this conversation without them at least having some voice That's a fair comment and I think you're right, Dan. Um I well, I know I didn't comment contact them so we could certainly put you know Put this again on the follow-up conversation on this of the next agenda have this be a preliminary plan and Give them the opportunity. I think you're right. They should get the chance to speak. So thanks for mentioning that I knew you and I had a conversation about We weren't didn't have my pillar alive in there, but Yeah, I did not That was my oversight So if we approve, um the mo Um That would be a preliminary approval or do you think it's better to table it and go from there? What do you think? Well, I think You can do it either way actually because um But we you know some of these things we need to start putting into place um Just taking a look at the the two that he talked about 2030 57 000 so that's really what we'd be 50 60 someone thousand dollars. We'd be saying We've got to cut somewhere else. It means a lot of the rest of this stuff we could We could be doing anyway, so I would say if you approve the plan tonight give them a chance to come in and make their case, um And we'll give some thought to where we would recommend Way to take it somewhere else So we could potentially approve it with the exception of those organizations Everything up to the last section Okay, um dana I really appreciate all the work in discussion and Unfortunately anybody in our budget has to stay sort of tuned I would rather Pass the management plan now and make changes as more information comes in and that's more information from the development core or the house fund or housing or homelessness whatever um that we can be open to hearing people but I would like to Give the management plan a approval for they can move forward Tonight so you're suggesting that we Just approve the whole thing not um leave out the last section Yes, okay. Well, there's a motion and a second on the I'm forgetting who made that now. Was it dan? So jack Is are you considering your motion still standing? Would would you like to change it at all? What's your preference? I think my motion is as I Made it if somebody wanted to move to amend it then we would take that up but But I'm not moving to amend my own motion at this time Okay, and so if we wanted to give other folks a chance to weigh in We could Come in for the next meeting and and just revisit That decision or so. Yeah, right And was dan the second on that I was Okay, and how are you feeling about that? Yeah, I I am consistent with jack's thought that we pass it tonight And we'll come back with the conversation if we need to an amend okay All right, any other comments on The plan, okay, um So we'll at the very uh have this on The next agenda to And invite those policies that might be affected To be a part of the discussion Okay, so any further conversation on favor, please say I And opposed Okay, so that passes and we'll also visit it next time and Kelly if you wouldn't mind on sharing your screen, that'd be great. Thank you. Um, okay I think we really are Just about done here. So we've also we've had a report from so next would be connor Um, not not much. I think just, um It's worth reminding People to be very nice to city employees, you know, and as we look at this we've had, you know, a third of the workforce Out, you know, the fields are not going to be Mowed in the same timely manner as they might normally be City employees are looking at a knock in their cola. So Yeah, hug a city employee if you see one and just want to thank everybody for their Good work in us through the storm here. Um, you know, these are tough cuts plus, um, You know, nobody's losing their job. So that's a good thing with that level of cuts. So thanks Kelly and the staff too That's me. Thanks Okay, Jay Yeah, just a quick specific thanks to, uh, Kari Bradley and and uh, Mary Malali at the uh, at the co-op for, um, for partnering with us to Be able to acquire mass, um For the city, which I think is great and also just uh, uh, a quick shout out to if you were downtown today you might have seen that uh, the uh, indefatigable Montpelier live crew was out, um, putting it in the flowers and so it certainly is Um, uh, a great You know, it feels like summer when the flowers are out, right? So it was just really great to see those out And thanks to all the folks who put in there volunteer their time to make that happen for our downtown Great. Thank you. Um Dan Um, just simply that, you know, along the lines of some of the other speakers that Montpelier businesses are reopening and um, you know We've reached a level of certain reopen of safety and Uh, they're back in business and ready to ready to serve. So it's it's good to see them Open it's good to be able to walk through bear pond for the first time Um, and it's it's really wonderful to see the downtown come alive again. And I hope everyone out there You know has has love for those businesses and and can continue to support them Great. Um, all right Jack um, two points to make one we've seen A lot of correspondence in the email and also a lot of discussion in front porch forum about, uh One of the businesses in town downtown show are really making no effort Oh, certainly making not not making much effort to get people to wear masks and You know that really doesn't comport with my experience because when when I've been there virtually everyone has been wearing masks and they've done well at doing the one-way aisles but If they if they haven't posted the signs and um I haven't Been there since the sign requirement went up to see if the If they're required to do it, but if they haven't posted the signs I hope that somebody would communicate with them that This is the city ordinance ordinance that you're required to comply with Um, I don't know if you have an observation about that bill They they put they had the signs posted the day after we passed the ordinance. Okay, great It's it's clearly something that their corporate did it doesn't have the by order of my Peter city council on it, but it's definitely masks required to enter great and the other thing was most of this got to participate in the uh press conference the other day introducing our new chief and I thought it was great and uh One of the things that really stuck out for me was uh when he talked about How he felt it's a real honor to be chosen to serve as chief of police in the city and I really appreciated that statement. It also made me Reminded me again Of how much I feel it's an honor For me to have the opportunity to do this and and serve the people of this city and And you know, it's easy not to think about that all the time it it becomes kind of mundane, but But it really is that's all I've got Great Uh, Lauren Yeah, thanks. Just real brief. I just wanted to reiterate my thanks to The many people who came out. It's great to see such community engagement Um, my gratitude to the staff. I mean the quality of work we're seeing across the board and knowing how short staffed You all are it's really impressive and I just so appreciate it And echo conners, you know, maybe I can't say hug, but a distance hug Um, and and does wanted to to again welcome chief pete and It'll be a very, uh, exciting and interesting time And we we welcome you to the city and are are so happy that uh that you're here and that's it for me. Thanks Great, um So I guess the only thing for me, um is I I think I was probably remiss. Um Early station for not also, um, just thanking our police department and uh wanted that, uh, you know, we especially in the earlier part of the conversation like they're there's obviously a lot of, um concern and questions, um out of the community right now and While we you know while we listen to them, I also just want to thank them for their work and um, just acknowledge that they are They're working hard and we appreciate that So, uh, just wanted to say that and um, I think that is it for me um So john anything I would just remind everybody that uh water sewer payments and taxes are due monday Hey bill Yeah, i'm not going to keep you guys any longer. I just Like to say thanks to all the folks that organized the rally on sunday was really fantastic I've known two of them. Noelle and Mary aunts and say we're a baby. So it's fun seeing them Become community the young community leaders. So it's great Great super All right. Um, so I think that is everything. Uh, thanks for hanging in their team. Uh, so late But uh, here we are so Without objection, we will consider this meeting adjourned 11 11 John what time will the things be uh, there at this uh police to uh to sign? Well, I'll bring that's the warrants. I'll bring them over tomorrow. Uh, there are Sorry to interrupt. They're already there. Oh Great. Thanks You're welcome Okay Bye folks. Thanks everyone Bye