 Good evening like to convene this meeting of the regular meeting of the Burlington City Council at six ten I think is the clocks a few minutes slow First I'm on the agenda is the agenda your amendment councilor. No Dell. Oh, let's actually correct. Let's do their Pledge of Allegiance first please now councilor. No Dell Amendment to the agenda. Yes president, right. I moved to Amend and adopt our agenda as follows first to note a revised version of the consent item 4.33 Communication from Larry Lackey director of engineering and environmental compliance at the airport Regarding the trash removal compost recycling oil and grease contract note revised version of the memo and resolution for consent agenda item 4.43 the resolution from the marketplace district commission Author is authorization to enter into sidewalk cafe license agreements board of finance per count per city attorney's office per Councillor Buscher Add to the consent agenda item 4.47 a communication from the clerk treasures office regarding openings to Burlington City Commissions and boards with the motion to waive the reading accept the communication place it on the file Add to the consent agenda item 4.48 a resolution about the Airline surplus budget amendment and critical improvements to the Burlington International Airport infrastructure Board of Finance with the motion to waive the reading and adopt the resolution note written materials for agenda item 5.03 the communication from the mayor regarding the appointment of chief administrator officer With the motion to approve the mayor's appointment of Beth Anderson the CAO beginning May 1st 2018 and to make a finding that because of the particular circumstances and her specific qualification Qualifications Beth Anderson be compensated outside the limits of the city's compensation plan Pursuing to sections 5.4 a of the personnel policies by placing her at step seven of the CAO place pay scale with an FY 18 salary of 131,187 Dollars per the mayor's office note corrected version of agenda item 5.04 that I was just talking about Communication Beth Anderson interim CAO and CIO Sorry, this is different and Rebecca Samaroff special advisor for finance and technology regarding Response to resolution requesting evaluation of phasing out of the tax on business personal property So there's a corrected version of that item, which is on our deliberative at 5.04 note presentation Slides for agenda item 5.06 Presentation about the 2019 update to plan BTV Burlington's comprehensive plan per Megan Tuttle note also put presentation slides for deliberative item 5.08 communication from Chapin Spencer the DPW director regarding the 2018 construction Season overview per Robert Goulding Thank You councillor Nodal is there a second to that Seconded by a council roof a discussion Seeing none all those in favor of the amended agenda, please say aye Any opposed there is none and passes unanimously we have our agenda Item number two is the executive session city attorney Blackwood I'm happy to talk about potential litigation that may be a piece of what we we cover in this and we need To do this I would use your microphone city turn sorry. Sorry. I would I believe that premature disclosure of the information that I would be sharing with you Would put the city is at a disadvantage and I would also be sharing with you attorney client privileged communications And so again both of those would put the city at a disadvantage So and then we would you would if you make that finding make move to go into executive session Thank You city attorney Blackwood their motion to go into executive session on the Councillor Nodal yes, president right. I moved the finding per the statement of the city attorney second councillor Mason discussion All those in favor, please say aye. I The opposed passes unanimously do we need a second motion now Councilor Nodal president right. I moved that based on the finding we enter executive session and Include an executive session members of the mayor's office the CAO and the city attorney members the city attorney's office Thank You councillor no doubt seconded by council Hartnett the discussion Seeing none all those in favor of going into executive session based on the findings, please say aye Any opposed we will move into executive session Good evening with councillors, please take their seats councillors, please take their seats councillor Dean, where is councillor Dean? so I am going to recess the regular city council meeting and convene the liquor control commission meeting Commissioner Dean, thank you commissioner right so I'd like to move to the agenda, please second by council roof on adopting the agenda Commissioner Dean right So I'd like to move to adopt the consent agenda taking Mr.. Dean my fault we need to vote to approve the agenda all those in favor of approval of the agenda, please say aye Any opposed we have the agenda boots, okay, so my motion then is to adopt the consent agenda taking the actions as indicated seconded by council roof any discussion Seeing none all those in favor of taking the actions adopted in the consent agenda, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed We have passed the consent agenda, right and I will make motion to adjourn Move to adjourn seconded by council roof any discussion all those in favor of adjournment, please say aye. Aye Thank you, and I will now Mean the meeting city council meeting with mayor presiding and turn it over to mayor Weinberger Thank You president right. I will call in the session the city council of the mayor presiding first of them on the agenda is The agenda do we have motion? Thank you any discussion all those in favor adopting the agenda is moved please say aye. Aye. Any opposed We have an agenda, and that brings us 2.01 the consent agenda. Do we have a motion here? Thank you councilors move to adopt the consent agenda and take the actions indicated. Thank you second by a councilor Nodell Thank you any discussion all those in favor in motion, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed Carries unanimously and the city council mayor presiding Turned at 727 p.m Thank You mr. Mayor, and we'll now reconvene the regular city council meeting at 727 and the first next item on the agenda is the public forum at a number three and We have if anyone would like to speak to the council and public forum so far. I have two people signed up There are sheets over here in the corner Turn them in over here to the city clerk's office, and they'll bring them up to us. You'll have three minutes to speak But we'll start the public forum here a couple minutes early And it starts out with Mary Ann Ward to be followed by Sophie judge Good evening this ward welcome and just pull the microphone in so we can The plan is flawed undemocratic and unethical thousands of dollars have been squandered on it 26 people from public works planning and zoning CEDO the police department transportation energy and utilities The city's attorney's office code enforcement public works and planning commissions and for consultants worked on the plan for over a year This comment from a counselor the feelings and politics around restricted Residential parking run very hot To my knowledge for you if any of the recommendations from plan have been implemented today because of strong opposition to change Wards four and seven voted not to install bike lanes Yet we were rendered voiceless and vote vote voteless by wards one two three Five six and eight and here again. It is wards one two three five six eight Who were granted access that wards four and seven were denied? Does ward four and seven not have an investment in Burlington's parking? Certainly if bike lanes weren't city-wide decision-making Street parking does too The plan states that none of the strategies propose Removing existing resident only parking signs How could it have been otherwise the residents at the table were representing themselves? There are words in the plans like fair balanced flexible and maintaining character of a neighborhood I'd like to know what's fair about forcing taxpayers whom cannot afford to live in any Given area in the city to maintain its character What's fair about private homeowners and greedy non-resident landlords controlling public streets? Some homeowners stated that because they pay higher property taxes a personal choice Mind you that they should be entitled to control the tax maintained streets Even though they have ample off-street parking Other homeowners stated that their home value is tied to residential parking restrictions on their street So again, how is it fair or ethical that taxpayers are? Responsible for the value of homes on Summit Street or any Street the plan accommodates non-residents that is communers Commuters and residents living within the eight miles of resident only parking streets But nothing that is fair to taxpayers living outside of those destinations This came from a public works commissioner one lesson I have learned from my years on the commission is that hell hath no fury like tinkering with local parking No elected official would dare support a parking change that did not have brought support and therein lies the challenge And this from a counselor looking at the resident only parking outlay in the city It's pretty clear that it's been mostly enjoyed by wealthier folks self-serving leadership Residents thank taxpayers access to maintain streets and wards four and seven being denied a seat at the table are all troubling Thank you for listening. Thank you, miss Ward Sophie judge is our final speaker in tonight's public forum Good evening miss judge welcome and Look forward to your comments First I want to say thank you to the city council for hearing me today As a former Charlotte resident and current UVM student living downtown I've always been near Lake Champlain and spent my summer swimming in it with Vermont weather The lake is one of the only reasons I ever enjoyed staying up here in the summer I can't imagine Burlington without it, but a couple years ago I started realizing that beaches were opening later than usual due to pollution caused by Ecoline algae And water clarity The lake is one of Vermont's the hallmarks of Vermont's iconic beauty Locals and tourists alike flock to the waterfront for the views water sports and boating However, it's not only tourists and waterfront residents who benefit from the lake Even those who don't live near water Still benefit because we shop at stores in which products come from across the lake Recreation and tourism supports hundreds of part-time and entry-level jobs Property taxes will decrease as pollution increases a study conducted at UVM found that Vermont stands to lose almost 17 million in economic activity for every one meter decrease in the lakes water clarity. I Know that Governor Scott opposed the original act as to 60 on the grounds that additional taxes or fees Would put a strain on Vermont residents who already pay high taxes But it is not resources was already dead lines and now the clean water work They're clean water working group has had to go back and provide new potential funding plans to be reviewed again next year All this has added even more time to the process while the condition of the lake continues to be poor a New version that has been approved by the House Ways and Means Committee Includes a very small portion of the necessary funding But is likely to be vetoed by Governor Scott anyway because he does not want any new fees Because it is being dragged out so much the conservation law foundation has given our state a D plus rating for its efforts Although taxes in Vermont, especially in Burlington are already very high It is important to remember that Lake Champlain is an integral part of Vermont's a beauty and economic success The condition of the lake however is only worsening every year the more we deliberate propose oppose and start again The 2015 state of the law reports states there have been indications of worsening conditions of the lake Due to agriculture and increased development for over 25 years Yet it has taken this long to get a pill a bill passed to fund cleanup while the transmission line Project can help provide some of the funding I don't think it's feasible to expect to be able to pay for the cleanup of the lake without implementing some type of small statewide tax and As we sit and think of alternatives the expense of the cleanup increases if we want changes We can't wait for the perfect solution So I ask you to pass a resolution urging the Scott administration to approve of the bill that will save our lake and our economy Thank You miss judge appreciate that That is the final speaker we have for tonight So with that we will close the public forum and move forward on to the next item on the agenda number four Which is the consent agenda is the most on the consent agenda sir. No doubt President right I moved to adopt the Consent agenda as amended and to take the actions indicated. Is there a second? Councillor Paul seconds So is there any discussion? Hearing none all those in favor of taking the action passing the consent agenda and taking the actions indicated as amended Please say aye. Aye any opposed Passes unanimously. We have passed the consent agenda and we'll now move on to the deliberative agenda item 5.01 is an outdoor entertainment permit application for Honey Road 156 Church Street Councillor Dean, thank you president right I'd like to move approval of the 2018-2019 For Honey Road 156 Church Street with all standard conditions and after a second request the floor back seconded by council roof Councillor Dean you have the floor back. Thank you president right This is a simply an application from Honey Road Whose owners have two outdoor speakers that they have at the exterior of the restaurant And they are playing music to out onto the church Street marketplace During the times that they're open the committee discussed with them appropriate levels of How loud their music should be I think they were very receptive to our remarks and we supported this application. Thank you Thank You councillor Dean any discussion Hearing none all those in favor of approving this, please say aye. Aye None unanimously Move on time number 5.02 and this is a communication from Mayor Weinberger regarding appointment of a chief the chief Administrative officer Mayor Weinberger Thank You president right I'm excited to be bringing to the council for confirmation tonight Beth Anderson who has been serving as our chief innovation officer for Over two years and since last fall Has served in the dual role of Acting chief administrative officer as well as the chief innovation officer she in this time as the interim CAO has established the respect and support of her department heads and has presided over Busting person has given me great confidence that she is the right woman to serve in this role permanently and We had a good discussion at the board of finance earlier tonight and Secured a unanimous support for the Confirmation and the motion being requested of you and I'm hopeful the council will give a strong support To Beth as the next chief administrative officer for the city of Burlington There is I've found in the six-plus years now in this role There really is no more important position within the city then the chief administrative officer role I think we're very fortunate that Beth is willing and able to step into this role at this time Thank You mayor Weinberger Most from Yes President right I moved to approve the mayor's appointment of Beth Anderson and CAO Beginning May 1st 2018 and to make a finding that because of the particular circumstances and her specific qualifications Beth Anderson be compensated outside the limits of the city's compensation plan Pursuant to section 5.4 a of the personnel policies by placing her at step seven of the CAO PASCA with an FY 18 salary of 131 thousand and 187 dollars Thank You councillor Nodal seconded by councillor Paul discussion hearing none All in favor of passage of that motion, please say aye Any opposed? That passes unanimously. Congratulations Like to say a couple words or I'll just say thank you and we'll be talking a lot more in the coming weeks as we look At the budget. All right. Thank you. We appreciate the brevity but congratulations Um Okay, we'll move on to item number 5.03 which is an outdoor entertainment permit application 28 2018 2019 monarch and The milkwood 111 st. Paul Street councillor Dean. Thank you president right I'd like to move approval of the 2018 2019 Outdoor entertainment permit Application for monarch and the milkweed 111 st. Paul Street with all standard conditions and after a second request the floor back Second Mike councillor roof councillor Dean you have the floor back. Thank you president, right? This is a similar application to the one that you heard out from Honey Road Monarch and milkweed has a speaker that that that they are on the west side of City Hall Park and during the time that they're actually Open indoors they have a music playing to the outdoors to Enhance their ability to attract patrons and to add to the life of the street We again discussed the committee discussed with them appropriate levels of Decibel levels and loudness They were very agreeable and we supported this application. Thank you Thank you councillor Dean any discussion by the council councillor Mason. Thank you president, right? I guess if I may indulge with a question to the chair Is it true that these hours for the outdoor are consistent with their hours of operation? I'm just we've left here many a time around midnight and I've never seen them open at midnight so that sort of This is consistent as they reported and in the there are words to the committee with the hours of operation. Yes Any further discussion? Hearing none all those in favor of approval. Please say aye Aye any opposed Passes unanimously Concludes that item will move on to item number 5.04. This is a communication from Beth Anderson and Rebecca Samaroff in regard to this is a holdover from the last meeting And it is a report response to resolution requesting evaluation of phasing out of the Business personal property tax. So this was as I said, we ran out of time at our last meeting so we Look forward to hearing from you You have the floor. Thank you So the demo basically outlines options for Eliminating the tax so the business personal property tax is a tax leave it on levied on local businesses on their Basically machinery and equipment the assets that they have not the not the visit the land property that they have could you pull the microphone in clothes? Yes So the business personal property tax Generates about 1.3 million dollars in revenue each year for the city again. It's levied on the Assets of individual businesses. There is an exemption for businesses that have less than 45,000 dollars. Thank you In assets, they do not pay this tax other businesses do so what we were asked to do was to Consider options for actually eliminating the tax. So what we laid out was four different scenarios that looked at ways we could Over time the Texas state as a take-up ten years to do that if we should decide to eliminate the tax And we looked at ways of doing it That would Hopefully have some potential for offsetting revenues in particular the Tiff district coming offline in 2026 We'll provide tax revenues back to the city that could offset some of the losses But it would leave some gaps in the general fund budget that we would potentially want to consider and we laid out options to do that both increasing the tax the general tax rate or the The the 120% factor that's applied to business property The fifth option that we laid out is not an elimination of the tax But what it is an attempt to make the tax a bit more equitable by applying the base 45,000 or potentially more dollars actually to all businesses so it would apply it as an exemption to everyone Not just those that fell below that value in total Thank you. All right, let's open it up to the council questions Councilor Nodell Thank You President right I believe this came forward from through a resolution that we worked on Earlier in a few months a few months ago, and this is a really nice memo I think it's just an example of the outstanding work that we're going to be seeing from our new CAO and In particular what I think is great is the range of options that we are given Different ways to accomplish the goal that I think we're going to be I feel confident after reading this memo that we're going to find a way to phase out this this fairly unfair tax over over time and And also remove a potential impediment to the growth of businesses Make things seated Burlington I think would like to have an economy with some businesses who actually make things that are useful for and that people use Or drink or etc. So thank you very much. I look forward to carrying on the conversation. I think likely this will be implemented in FY 20 budget planning versus FY 19, but I look to the mayor on that. Thank you mr. Mayor Thanks President right Yes, we are not building in a phase out into the FY 19 budget that we'll be talking a lot about in the next couple months I believe Correct me if I got this wrong, but I think it would there there would actually be action by the voters required to Take that to start the phase out period. So There's some lead time between now and and when this could begin and the way we have been thinking about it up until now as the Option suggests is you know gradual phase out over over time But yes, we would anticipate starting to work with the board of finance on this relatively soon If you know one possible action council, you know, we would welcome tonight if you wanted to Encourage the administration to come back to the board of finance with the next next steps in here that we'd be Happy to work with the board of finance Pursuing the you know further progress here Thank You mr. Mayor further discussion by the council on this Communication regarding to the business personal property tax and potential of phasing it out Seeing none, I'll recognize councilor nodel for a motion. Thank you. They are invited to motion So I'd like to make that motion I would know that the council The board of finance to come back to the council with an implementation plan within six months So referring this back to the board of finance for further work and with a plan to be forward to the full council within six months Yes, president right okay second by councillor mason Any further discussion councillor busher? So and I'll be supporting this but I feel like it's really important that I Found it fascinating and I have a lot to say about the scenarios and it would be really valuable for the councillors who either can't attend the board of finance or Anyways would or attend the board of finance But to weigh in and let us know if you have some thoughts about the various scenarios because I think it's a very important It would be good to hear from every councillor on this, so thank you councillor Shannon I just have a Quick kind of minutia question, which is our solar panels considered business personal property You know what we would have to check that and get back to you. I'm sorry. I do not know. Thanks Good question Councillor Hartnett and then councillor mason. Thanks. Yeah, so this is good news I think the administration worked hard. I think we heard it on the campaign trail during the race Going out to the businesses especially in the new north end as well I think it's welcome news and I think also going forward it would be given the four options that we have it would be Important to kind of bring the small business groups in right and maybe get their perspective and and kind of outlook on what say Think might be the option to so I think you know certainly we can you know on the final decision here But it would be great to get the input of the small business owners And I think it's something that we don't do enough and it would be great to have them involved Thanks. Thank you. Hopefully we'll invite small business owners and any others that want to Let us know what they think about at the board of finance council mason. Thank you president right to sort of pick up on that I know a number of those who had been advocating did reach out. We're not able to come tonight I think it was a bit of a surprise that this was on our agenda tonight But I do know that you know they intend to be more engaged on a going forward basis to also Pick up on councillor shannon's question on solar panels if and guidance to sort of the board of finance if it is determined that Panels do in fact are included as business personal property I would ask the committee to sort of fashion some potentially more accelerated phase out a room We'd have a both or shannon I had a business reach out and say well We just spent a lot of money on solar panels and seems you know if you're taxing us on that It seems to be in conflict with the city's desire to get to a net zero. So I don't know the answer to that bet But if that is I would ask maybe that board of finance to look at a more aggressive phase out or elimination On solar panels. Thank you. Thank you councillor mason. So we will await that answer Any council busher? Sorry, I just wanted to I don't know Rebecca Samoroff But I just wanted to thank you for the input that you had in this communication. So I've since you're here tonight I just wanted to acknowledge that and thank you very welcome. Thanks. She did all of the modeling for us great work So thank you, and I would add to the words that you've heard and Councillor nodel said that it was a great great work And I think just a type that we were looking for which gave us options to consider. So appreciate that very much Thanks. Any any final words? Thanks. Appreciate it All right, we will move on and we will that's been we need to vote on referral to the board of finance That's right. So it's been moved and seconded any Any further discussion all in favor of referring this to the board of finance and with a plan to come back within six months Please say aye Any opposed passes unanimously. Thank you Okay, we move on to item number five point oh five and that's a presentation from Megan Tuttle comprehensive planner and It's an update on plan BTV Yes, we will actually you're right here. We'll continue with that. So the next one is is actually the report on the proposed the resolution that was passed asking for a report on potential for senior property tax relief as well as a couple of other things and the municipal tax rate and and fees for programs throughout the city So as a councilor Hartnett just indicated not as good news on this one, but tell us tell us what you have on this one I will give credit Rebecca did a lot of the research on this also in her coming from the tax department was very helpful particularly in the first section So the first question was to Good options for adding the moderate income seniors with a reduction in their property taxes and what options we can consider to achieve that goal Rebecca did a lot of exploration about kind of the size of the population of seniors Income within and their income levels in Burlington then looked at some of the state programs And the state has a number of programs that are available for both homeowners and renters As far as getting tax assistance to help those of lower income, which many of the seniors in Burlington would qualify for and potentially there's a concern at the state level that they Do not take advantage to the levels they could so I think You know in kind of understanding what is available it also understanding from the state Some of the challenges in implementing a program that's based on income levels really creates an administrative burden to collect the information from individuals to verify the income and first ability would add an additional burden to the city of cost to do this so I think the the recommendation was was that this might be hard for the city to undertake but that you know Encouraging individuals to take advantage of the state programs available to the fullest extent possible would be beneficial All right counselor open it up to the council for discussion counselor Hartnett and then counselor no doubt Thank you And I understand there's assistance out there, but this problem is real I mean you it's it's too real because you go to too many doors and you hear it from too many people And so whether they're not informed about programs that they're you know capable of Access access thing to to them I think you know that maybe we could think outside the box a little bit and bro again and make Workshots together or some of the seniors that live in And in Burlington to let them know what is out there and are they taking advantage of everything that is offered to them because they certainly don't They certainly don't know about them from knocking on doors as much as I do It's the number one issue that comes up when I knock on seniors doors And I think it's probably throughout the sea bro and then just not here in the new north end out the new north end so It would be great Maybe through CEDO or through somebody that we would have some workshops throughout the city to make sure that everybody is Aware of some of the programs that they have out there and that they're not taking advantage of and see if that would make a difference I mean we have to do something and I would I would hope that we would concentrate in that area. Thanks Thank you. I'm going to tell and then councillor Bush Thank You I was hoping to get a nice menu of options here as well and it's a little bit less Less promising in that regard, but this is really good information and and I'm not going to give up I do think that the city needs some kind of focus on On income constrained the kind of housing and costs that are facing income constrained Elders just because when you are elder you are out of the labor force and you tend to have fairly fixed income You don't have that many options in terms of ways to kind of boost your income I Do know that there are some you know, we know that there are other states that do find a way as municipalities to provide Property tax for property tax relief to low-end modern Yes, I like to maybe do a little more research to see how do they get around the administrative costs of of these programs There are state programs, but I think that that folks are still Allocating too much of their income to property taxes just across the board notwithstanding all the efforts that we are making at the state at the state level So I'd like to if we can't do something with property tax relief can we prioritize Building permanently affordable how senior housing for people we we know that that you your memo tells us that There are a larger proportion of the senior population That is That our renters are cost burden Homeowners So does that miss in the direction of doing something with rental housing permanently affordable rent the rental housing for seniors that we know is Is in short supply? So I'd like to have us somehow as a city continue to work on how we can Better meet the needs of low and moderate income seniors in our in our community if not with the property tax relief Perhaps in some other way in terms of number three, I wanted to speak briefly about the fees and You noted that there we may be talking about the the fee budget within parks and rec and the budget process this year And I look forward to that conversation that might be an area where we can do more And I wanted to and you noted that if we were to reduce fees that that would be a revenue That would be a burden Because it would reduce our revenue and just to emphasize that our idea was I think more income sensitivity in the rate structure Which would not which could be revenue neutral We know that some families qualify for scholarships Maybe other families can pay a little bit more to do more in the sky in the area of scholarships so it's kind of a sliding fee idea which Didn't get too much attention in this memo, but hopefully we can keep that in mind as well So thank you very much for your work, and I hope we can continue the conversation Maybe in CDNR or in some I'm not exactly sure where President right, but I hope we can keep this going somehow that it doesn't just end with this memo Thank You councillor no doubt councillor busher and then councillor Tracy Thank you I too feel like I don't want the conversation tonight Especially as well with all of this but the senior program so I grew up in Massachusetts and I grew up in a family that had limited income and I can give you the name of the community and There was first people that are 65 or older that meant income sensitivity You could defer your property taxes and and they would accrue and they would earn Interest, but when you sold your house you had to pay them back Now one of the comments that you make here is that you know There'd be a loss of revenue and a shift to the other taxpayers if you did some kind of program True, but then when that property sold you'd get that lump sum of free payment So I think people need to look at that all out I can do the name of the community that I grew up in I went through the process with my mother and It was the only way she could stay in her house And so I would like to think that we can look beyond the state of Vermont to try to figure out are there other ways That we can help people stay in their homes if they choose to and I think you know what we have in Vermont Is we had home share which allows people to stay in their houses in Massachusetts didn't have that so I'm not saying that we We do a lot, but there are things that I'd still like us to explore And so the conversation for me needs to continue as to what we can afford to do and what that cost is Administratively also and I appreciate that. I'm only dealing with the home ownership aspect when I Grants to a talking about from Massachusetts. I'm not dealing with the rental aspect So I just wanted to state that I'd like this conversation to continue And anything that I gleaned from my own personal experience that be more than happy to share with you all The other thing has to do with the fees and I was just I Was hoping that In some of the scenarios you talk about Scholarships are awarded at 50% now There are people I know that that would be wonderful But still that wouldn't allow them to attend and yet you make statements that no one's turned away But I think that when people see things some people just see that as a maximum and don't even bother to have the Conversation so I'm not sure we're really getting at the issue here when we say you know Because I think there are those who won't ask So I was hoping that in the programs that do offer scholarships if we could explore if they could go above 50% what that would actually would mean Are there any and like parks and rec are there any that go to 75% or 100% and I certainly support what councillor Nodale said about a sliding Fee where those that could afford would out ultimately pay a little more for those who couldn't afford to pay as much so So anyways, this is so much important information in these reports tonight That need more discussion and really make such a difference for the people that we that are our neighbors And so I want to continue these discussions. Thank you So Right Work on this as well as those who initiated the resolution helping us to bring forward this really important conversation given the increasing Increasingly aging population in Burlington And like Councillor Hardin in this past election cycle heard a lot of people people who were in tears at their doorstep About whether or not they'd be able to stay in their home in the old north end We talked a lot about gentrification Or at least that's been a conversation that's been going on in the old north end And I see this is directly related to the conversation about gentrification and the ability people to stay in their homes and stay in their neighborhood So I I very much viewed in that context And I think that we need to continue to do more to keep those people in their homes. Thank you Thank you Councillor Tracy. There seems to be some discussion about Continuing this discussion. So we maybe need to quickly think about how we might do that I just want to ask myself one thing Do Is there any data or any way to figure out how how many people we know everybody does not take advantage of the programs that are offered? And do we have any idea how many what percentage do not or is there a way to find that out the state program the state? Yes That information that There's there's an anecdotal impression at the state level that people aren't taking advantage of this program just because of the Way we what we know about income in Vermont and income of home homeowners and then what we see in terms of people, you know Putting in their claims for property tax adjustments and income sensitivity. It seems like there's a gap there But there out the state hasn't been able to quantify that gap and It's largely attributed to like administrative burdens for people filling out the fairly complex Howling come on Thanks, that's your pine Thank you, I get the sense that the council views this as a priority and so As chair of the community development neighborhood revitalization committee I'd like to move that we refer this item to the committee and we'll come back to you. It's some future date I don't have an exact date We have a motion to refer this for continued work and discussion to the CDNR committee by the chair second by councillor no Dell Any discussion on the move to refer this to the CDNR committee hearing none all those in favor councillor jane Thank you very much, and can you remind me? Second by councillor no Dell to refer this to the CDNR committee for continued discussion on this on this resolution on this Presentation and topic Yeah, I mean I Do think that we can do more Like before referring to anybody and I think this administration have done the groundwork already and Already presented as a detailed Presentation that I thought that you know we already have some ideas that if you want to take it on that we can do Definitely and again what I want to see is for us to take action instead of moving it away somewhere So I don't know and I have a couple of wonderful points I would want to send you and might be something that you use as a starting point You know I've been doing research since you the first presentation you did Since you send out the report through emails and I do believe that you know through research I found all the great wonderful point that you we want to explore But I don't think it is great to move it away We have knowledgeable people that can do the job Thank You councillor Jang I don't think there's any Anyone is ready to take action on anything tonight in regard to this report But certainly you councillor Jang if this gets referred to committee and you have some ideas certainly you can go to that committee and Let them know of your ideas council roof. I'll be supporting this motion It's also my distinct opinion that we are not moving this away anywhere I appreciate Reply and motion. I think that I'm looking forward as another member of the CDNR community to digging into this report finding some possible Waves of moving forward of course working with with you all and other members of the administration to find a way to Kind of loop close the loop on this so I look forward to voting yes on this Thank You councillor roof mayor Weinberger Thank You president right I'm supportive of You know this the administration certainly will play its role in working with the CDNR committee to keep Analyzing and exploring Follow-up from this conversation there. I Will point out I Do think that there's a lot the city is already Doing that is directly on point with the issues that we've been discussing today whether it's finding ways to do more with Seniors housing in terms of promoting Low-income permanently affordable seniors housing There is work going on right now and the inclusionary zoning committee that could potentially result in substantial new funds flowing to the city that could help with Housing niches of that of that type we have the neighborhood project, which is nearing the end of that study that If this council is willing to act on the recommendations that come out of that Could result in substantial additional supply of student housing, which as we've started to see with the Project that 194 St. Paul Street is is having the effect that we hope that would as a council of starting to reduce some of the pressures on various elements of this housing market We will have the opportunity to look at further parking reforms that is one of the drivers of high-happiness and So I think a lot of what We are working on as a city directly goes to this conversation Even in advance of these further explorations and I hope we'll see these issues as related as they come back to this council on different forms Thank You mr. Mayor and and remember as we vote on this that if we if we did nothing with this tonight Right now the report at the recommendation is actually not to take any action. So With that unless there's further discussion All those in favor of the motion to refer this to the CDNR committee, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Passes Councillor Jang opposes this so just let the record reflect that the vote is 11 to 1 with Councillor Jang opposing And with that we'll conclude that item and now we'll add to little Comprehensive planner for the city and we update on planned BTV the comprehensive plan with a slide presentation and Former Councillor Montrell is here as well and David white welcome What and and actually Councillor Montrell? Let me also actually congratulate you on the award you received I saw you in the capital last week in the Cedar Creek room and and let me just I still refer to my as Councillor Montrell I know he's not now, but received an award for was it was the actual word for planner Citizen planner of season planner of the year. So congratulations for councillor and now Planning Commissioner Montrell. Thank you for that. I just want to say that was a real honor and Counselor Nodell before you run away also just want to give a special Thank you to you for the kind words that you wrote in my nomination for that for that honor So thank you for that But you know when it's when you're surrounded by so many really good people planning is one of the least Solitary things that there is it's real collaborative effort and you'll be seeing some of that tonight but it's again a real honor to get that and Working with so many people it just makes it all the more fun to do that. So thank you and We're here tonight though for plan BTV and here is the chair of the Planning Commission This is a project that we've started working on and a little while ago and here with And just stepping back a little bit, you know What we're working on right now is by definition the city's comprehensive development plan, which is really the Provides the foundation for all our different planning efforts in Burlington. It provides the basis for our Zone and it provides the basis for collecting various types of fees It provides the basis for so many different efforts that we do and as you know in the city We create a whole lot of different plans including this one and many of them while interesting aren't the most easy aren't the easiest things to always read or the easiest things to understand and As you as many of you know a few years ago Based on a resolution from this council we created plan BTV for downtown and When we were doing that and for the downtown We really recreated the way that we prepare plans and present plans and that plan focused on the downtown Was one that was really much more understandable much more comprehensive and much more user-friendly and based on that We were able to develop our form-based code for the downtown in a way that was almost seamless from the downtown code I'll say on the Regional Planning Commission We did much of the same things several years ago taking the regional plan and Rebranding that as the ECOS plan making that a much more user-friendly much more comprehensive document that you could actually work with as you're trying to Implement some of the different initiatives that that sets out So here today, we have our municipal development plan that expires in just under a year from now And so it's time for us for the planning for the planning office and for all of you as well as the larger community to start working on the Preparing that our new municipal development plan to be adopted just under a year from now unlike in past efforts instead of just reformatting or Rewriting some of what's in the existing plan and presenting it in much the same way We're taking the initiative that we learned from the downtown plan BTV from the ECOS plan and from other similar types Rewriting that reorganized reorganizing it in a way that actually will be useful going forward the plan is not to make wholesale changes in the policy but to organize those policies and some goals from those policies that are already in there in ways Make it much easier as I said to implement and a lot of the reorganization is what Megan will be talking about and You know as we go through the process I'm sure there'll be some policy changes that will come up We're going to be doing a lot of outreach to the community out and outreach to the council as well from that I'm sure there'll be issues that come up From the get-go the plan is is to really take a fresh look at it and make it something that actually works and With that I will turn it over to Megan. Thank you. I think Andy gave the presentation for me I'll try to elaborate on a few of the points that you made. Thank you Andy as Commissioner Montrell mentioned plan BTV is our comprehensive plan for the city for the entire city I've recently started visiting the NPAs and asking the question How many of you have heard of plan BTV and a lot of hand will go up Most often people have heard of plan BTV downtown or the plan BTV Southend effort I was pleasantly surprised when I was at wards four and seven last week The many of them knew that we had a plan BTV for the entire city And that is really the document that we're talking about updating here today Frequently referred to as our municipal development plan So as Andy mentioned our goal is to continue to maintain the focus of this plan on The long-term vision of Burlington our plan outlines a vision for Burlington as a sustainable community at the core of our region with values as a distinctive community valuing our connectivity our inclusiveness and Continuing to learn and grow and adapt to the changes that affect our community as we move forward This is and though is Somewhat hard to do in the plan's current format This vision is outlined over the course of hundreds of pages There are 80 policy statements and over a hundred action items that spell out how we will do this Organized into ten different chapters by discrete topics like housing Transportation or the natural environment while there's a lot of really valuable Information in this plan it can be somewhat hard to actually understand What all of these issues mean and how how it means that we will move forward as a community Our plan today and going forward is prepared in accordance with our state statute with the Vermont Planning and Development Act It is something that our Planning Commission and our planning staff has worked to update every five years for the past several decades This actually be our last update on a five-year cycle and we will start updating this plan every eight years as we move forward But that is something that our Planning Commission and our planning staff have been working on routinely for a very long time and As Andy mentioned in the 2011 and 2014 updates to this plan We began referring to it as plan BTV instead of the municipal development plan So that it gave it a face and a name that were more recognizable Easier to roll off the tongue something more relatable for our community and began to outline a framework for Implementing specific area-wide or topic Topical master plans such as plan BTV downtown or the walk bike plan So I wanted to spend a little bit of time talking about why we need to update this and what we are planning to do as we move forward with this update As I mentioned already the plan expires next March And while that's an important deadline, I think that what is tied to that deadline is much more important Andy already mentioned that having a plan in effect is the foundation for a number of the tools that we are able to use to Actually implement our vision in Burlington like adopting and amending our zoning ordinance Assessing impact fees participating in programs that provide either regulatory or funding benefits to the community and to property owners within our community in Order to help us move forward with this vision So it's very important to us that we continue to move forward with this update and and re-adopt this plan before it expires So that Burlington as a whole can continue to utilize these implementation tools were afforded as We've continued to elaborate on the vision of what it means to be a sustainable core city in Vermont There's a lot of really excellent information in here But over the years through a number of updates. We've created a situation where there is some duplication There are some elements that are out of date things that we've actually achieved that we never looped back to Pull out of the plan Things that are duplicate So we're hoping to as we move forward address some of those issues as well as addressing issues that are not in compliance with state statute This is a list here of all of the elements that are required to be in a municipal plan per that Vermont Planning and Development Act and in consultation with our planners at the regional level We've found that currently our plan has deficiency in almost all of these topics Not all of them are serious But it does require us to move through all of the elements of our plan and make sure that we're really giving it a thorough update And then finally as we move forward with this update We want to clarify what the relationship is of this plan to those neighborhood and topical master plans a Lot of times people ask us the question Well, what what is plan BTV and and how does it relate to all of these other documents and through this update? We intend to make that process much more clear Both for how those plans that we've already adopted are related to our comprehensive plan and how any future planning efforts We do will be related to that plan So our objectives for this update as Andy mentioned we do not see this as the type of planning process Our community has invested a lot of time in in recent years such as BTV downtown and really creating a new vision for a part of our city We see this as an a process to update and refresh the policies and actions that will help us to achieve the vision That's in this plan To bring it more up to date and into compliance with our statutory requirements But one of the most exciting things I think about this plan is just making it more readable and presentable to the public You can see at the top as I mentioned the current plan framework is Includes ten chapters and there are a number of policy and action items that are organized into each of those chapters The goal moving forward is for the plan not to be organized around elements like housing or transportation But to be organized around a few Impact themes that are the characteristics or values of Burlington that residents can really relate to and understand Being dynamic being distinct being inclusive Organizing those policies and actions around those themes so that they feel more connected to one another and more relatable Instead of just being organized by housing or transportation or the natural environment So that'll be one of our major efforts as we move forward with this plan is reorganizing and reframing how that vision is presented We are also hoping through this effort to make the plan much more accessible Today it is the approximately a 300 page document that's printed in black and white A lot of the maps can be hard to read and hard to find We're hoping to utilize Much more Succinct version of the plan as we go forward But supplement that plan with resources that are interactive and graphically rich online So that residents can really dig into Interactive maps and explore more information about the city and their neighborhoods As they learn about plan BTV and what it means for their community one of the other objectives that we have for this process is to Continue and and really wrap up the process that we started with creating the plan BTV south-end master plan As many of you know this was an intensive effort that the staff and the planning Commission were working on before I was here several years ago and Given the fact that there were a lot of differing opinions about how the principles of this plan could be implemented in the south-end the plan commission spent Through that plan and Rewriting a lot of the sections of this plan We got to a point where we had a nearly Updated draft that was almost ready for conversation with the community But as you all remember in the past few years, we've been very busy with a lot of intensive community projects and community discussions So we felt that the timing wasn't right for us to try to bring this forward then and the planning Commission and the planning staff want to Re-engage the south-end community and re-engage all of Burlington actually and share that updated draft plan that they had worked on and actually Hopefully move that forward for adoption as part of this process to update plan BTV So a little bit about what the process will look like just so that you're aware I'm talking to residents about plan BTV The process again will look a lot different than some of the other processes we've Used for updating plans in the past. This will be an entirely staff and planning Commission-led effort We won't be using consultants on this project Our first step will actually be next month in May tomorrow We'll start by holding workshops in all the neighborhoods of the city so that we can talk about what plan BTV is What its role is what it means to the different neighborhoods of the city and start to ask residents questions about what? The important issues are that we need to make sure are captured in this plan as we move forward with its update The planning Commission will work on actually preparing an updated draft of this plan a much more transparent process By actually doing and discussing sections of the plan over the summer as we're preparing them Instead of waiting for kind of a big grand finale reveal of an updated draft We'll be working on it in a more iterative way throughout the summer And then once we have updated those individual sections We will bring it back in an entire package again to all of your neighborhoods For the specific purpose of talking to residents about which of the priorities among this plan Among all of the priority or all of the recommendations Apply to each of the neighborhoods We really want this update to recognize the individual characteristics and Priorities of different neighborhoods of the city and so those workshops that will hold in the fall will really focus on gaining that feedback from residents and then we'll begin the the adoption process Include public hearings both at the planning level and at the city council level for Several months as we move through the end of this year and into the beginning of 2019 So again, we're here just to let you know that we're kicking off this process Let you know a little bit about what it will include I mentioned earlier that we've already started visiting your NPAs to Share a save the date and let residents know that this is something that will be coming up soon I've listed the dates of the workshops that we'll be having around the city here And they're also on our project website, which is Burlington BT.gov slash plan BTV But we look forward to answering any questions that you might have about this update And we look forward to communicating with you and working with you as we actually update plan over the next year Thank you for the very thorough presentation questions. Councillor Jang Thank you. Thank you again great work. And if we have a plan BTV, why do we have a south end? Plan BTV Why why is that? That's actually a very common question and So plan BTV our comprehensive plan outlines the vision for the future of Burlington for the entire city It's very high level. It's very broad It says things like, you know, we will aspire to be more connected and provide alternative transportation options a Plan like plan BTV downtown or plan BTV south end Really zooms in on a particular part of the city and provides more detail for how we will actually do that So this is the new framework that the planning and a department Launched when we actually began working on the downtown plan is to zero in on the different neighborhoods of the city and Identify ways that all of the actions in the comprehensive plan could be applied within a specific neighborhood So you're saying then the new north end don't need a plan. I didn't say that One of the things that we as I mentioned one of the things that we want to do with this update is to better recognize the different characteristics and Priorities of all of the neighborhoods of the city within our comprehensive plan Through conversations with residents We might be able to identify that there are three or four issues that are really priority issues that we need to focus on within a certain neighborhood We may alternatively here Do feel like we need a more specific and targeted Neighborhood level plan like the downtown plan or south end But that's one of the things that we're hoping through this update and through our communications with residents That we'll be able to identify as an action step coming out of this process Yeah, so maybe one more So what I want to understand is basically what are the elements in which or the characteristics you use in which Determining which neighborhood needs a plan or a specific neighborhood don't need a plan and lastly Which one of these plans have a plan in putting The electric wires down on the ground is it parties That specific issue is something that we touch on in a very loose way in the comprehensive plan We do have a chapter that talks about utilities and community Infrastructure and I do believe that there were some recommendations in that plan about bringing utilities underground in certain parts of the city But as far as I don't know if you wanted to speak to determining what neighborhood needs a plan Yeah, let me let me address that one a little bit and David You may want to add to it a little bit when we did the one for the downtown That was really the first time that I'm aware of that the planning commission and planning staff Really focused in on a specific area within the city and when we were done with that We realized this was a really good effort that we did it was a really important project to undertake and Soon after that was completed or even during the process of being pleaded South ends did rising up and saying you with with the enterprise this district with changes on Pine Street with the Champlain Parkway that really rose up to say this is an area that that We really should start focusing on to develop to try to develop a more comprehensive plan for that particular area And as we were doing that we realized Likely the new north end may need the old north end may need you know the different areas but we could really is practically only work on one at a time and The one we're on right now is the larger one for the whole city because the deadlines coming up for that Because of all the work that we've already done with the south end one We want to try and finish that up wrap it in and I'm pretty confident when this process is over We'll start looking at the other areas and start prioritizing Process will be prioritizing Next if I could just add to that it really comes down to them through the public engagement process beginning next month and Talking with different neighborhoods to understand what really are their needs? What are their principal concerns and is that are those things that we could? Perhaps effectively address through a neighborhood specific plan And is isn't it a part of the city that is experiencing? significant change or significant challenges that again a More focused land use and development plan could could provide more targeted strategies in order to be able to dress those things We hope that that will come out of the process and to be clear This plan and the update of this plans not going to provide answers to every question But it's going to outline. What are our sense of priorities? How do we process to find best answers to those questions? Thank You councillor jane councillor busher then councillor shannon and dean councillor busher Thank you for the presentation So you you compared and contrasted plan BTV to the municipal development plan as it currently is from 2014 and I have some reservations about the direction we're going in and it's really funny A person that used to serve on the council kevin warden who was on the I believe on the planning commission, too Or maybe drb. Anyways had expressed caution about plan BTV and the municipal development plan colliding and wanted to know which truck which and so what has Been planned BTV by any means not even in 2011 I don't remember when kevin got off the council, but you know, I still have conversations with him about that So my concern is The loss of detail I understand it might be more user friendly But my concern is that leaves more to interpretation and I find that concerning I find that that as a resident then I'm left to The planners to interpret for me as opposed to me having a say about what I want and Having that written down in detail in a plan now I understand that ordinance is part of this whole process and the municipal development plan Isn't the ordinance it isn't the grants of ordinance, but it is it is what sets the stage it's a vision for the ordinances and so I Am a little concerned about that level of detail I'm also I Also want to make sure that we still need to have a municipal development plan or whatever we call it In order to access impact fees from the state correct You have said assess but access the money to we wouldn't get the money if we didn't meet the five-year limit I mean if we didn't get a plan in place by April or whatever 2019 is that true we actually assess the impact fees ourselves, so it's not money that comes from the state, but there are There are funds and other funds where having a municipal plan is a requirement In order to be able to access those types of funds So so that deadline is significant because we could lose some funding. I just want to make sure that that's still true and so I Guess my last thing is as you go around talking to all the neighbors I Want to understand how we will bring the community together I support understanding that the south end has different needs than the north end than the hill section And I applaud you for trying to focus on that and bringing that into the plan but Who is going to make sure that that we our vision and our goals are really a cheetah in all of these different? Subplans I have some concern about that. I feel like if I only talk to people in my ward I'm oblivious to maybe what what councillor Shannon councillor mayson have that that would Mean something to our ward so besides just having the neighborhood specific meetings at the end in the fall Will there be some city-wide meetings where people from different sections of the community can hear each other? Because I think there's great value in that and the last thing I wanted to say is years ago, mr. Mayor the NPA is used to Select or the city would select a priority and they take it to every NPA in the fall There'd be food. I know some NPAs always provide food, but there'd be food and there'd be a focus It would be like street food in one year and and the fire consolidation would be another year To me this is such an important topic that it would be really nice to have that be a Prominent just that as an agenda item in the fall for NPAs when you're ready to get that final input So I'm just giving that as an idea also NPAs specific, but city-wide also so thank you Thank you, so I wanted to start by saying that Plan B TV will continue to be our municipal development plan We are trying to use the the term plan B TV or refer to it as our comprehensive plan because it's more Understandable generally to the community, but we will still be meeting all of the requirements of a municipal development plan We've been looking at some excellent examples of Communities that have used similar approach in terms of how they organize their policies and action items around big ideas But provide a statutory cross-reference so that it can be clearly demonstrated that all of those requirements are still being met and Outlined in the plan. Okay, so that's something that we fully intend to work through as we update this plan I Just want to add I understand the concern about the details and the change from the current format and all of that but I'm just reminded Many counselors will remember 10 years ago plus when the city was engaging in the city-wide zoning rewrite at the time that the foundation for that rewrite was The municipal development plan that offered very very little guidance Trying to do the rewrite and it created a lot of tensions a lot of unknowns and when there when When disputes came up when issues came up there wasn't a place to go to to ground that to say well Here's what the plan says so let's follow the plan when we were doing the downtown rewrite the form-based code rewrite on Our committee that was that was working on that as we went through it. We were using the downtown plan All the time any time questions came up we would always go back and refer to that and we were able to understand More or less what it was guiding us to do and so it was fairly easy then to translate that from there to the to the rewrite So I just you know in that example the plan is supposed to help us with all these other Unless you it's helpful in that it's really not very useful And so that's really part of what the goal is with with the reformatting the reorganization To make it a document that you can actually go back to and say you know when you're working on something to go back And say we're doing it because of this in the plan And if it provides you that anchor provides that kind of grounding for you Which we don't have or didn't have when we did the zone in rewrite ten years ago There's no way that we can provide that level of specificity in a city-wide plan We wouldn't have the time and energy of the constituents in order to have that detailed conversation Which is why we break we break the details out into either a neighborhood specific plan or a topical plan like like Walk bike And it's great it helps people understand all part of the city's master plan But it is either broad focused, which is the the comprehensive plan That's kind of the mothership and then all of the other plans are then subsets of it that provide Greater detail on that particular topic or in that particular area And one final comment I wanted to speak to the issue of bringing all the neighborhoods together because I think that that's something that's really important From my perspective as we go through this update Today we get a lot of questions, you know some of the residents in your neighborhood will ask the question What does plan B TV have to do with my neighborhood? I don't see how it relates to me So through this process we want to be able to identify how plan B TV relates to the various neighborhoods and Through this update each neighborhood will be able to see not only their priorities But the priorities of other neighborhoods as well whether just how level or Whether master plan like this out then plan Thank you. Thank you. Councillor busher up next is councillor Shannon to be followed by Dean and then councillor pine Um, thank you. I completely concur with Commissioner Montrell's Reference to what we did ten ten years ago trying to develop the zoning rewrite and Feeling like a rudderless ship when You know our guidance tool was our municipal plan and that was very much in contrast with from the way We worked and developing form-based code and and consistently referencing plan B TV in that process But at the same time plan B TV still did not have the details. It doesn't tell us that This area is gonna be so fee because that is to be decided in the ordinance And I think it always will be but but we developed plan B TV downtown in large part because We had a disagreement about What that downtown should look like should we have taller buildings? And if so, where should we go? And so we create created that document to give the guidance and I think that it did that though There was still a lot of disagreement about what the what it said and two sides Looking at it came up with different answers. So we're never I don't think in it in a Planning document like that going to Have all of the details worked out. It's a visioning document It's the nature of it and the devil is in the details and will come in the ordinance But so our community view I also want to say that What we know is plan B TV south end I would not say that that is a plan for south-end neighborhoods really It really is it was done because the pine street corridor is an area where we anticipate change in growth and in order to plan for it. We needed to have kind of a guiding document we found it to be highly controversial and our vision is Maybe we're not all on the same page with exactly what that vision was and it was a very difficult process But as you ask for the same thing in the north end I would just say a word of warning is that You know, if you're looking to If you're anticipating a lot of change, it's something that you need to do But if you're not Maybe it's not something you really want to jump into and it didn't get into the neighborhoods Or at least most most of the neighborhoods that are only dealt with a quarter. I Think it's really interesting that You're taking a different approach to Public input here and I know in Burlington we forever struggle with public process We haven't found a perfect one yet and I appreciate the efforts that you're going through here but I think that one of the Challenges we always have with the public process is the public is not of one mind The public who comes to any given meeting might be of one mind because sometimes you get kind of a pack mentality and One person says something and the others kind of jump on board with that But how in in your process, do you had any discussions about how you deal with? Sometimes people coming to a meeting with one viewpoint and Evaluating is that Jen a lot of people the vast majority of Burlington isn't going to come to any of the meetings so how do you weigh what you're hearing in the meeting and what gets processed into the plan and Whether or not it makes it into the plan is kind of reflected as as input that you heard Which I think that that's where a lot of our public frustration comes from is that a member of the public can come To a meeting where everybody in the meeting is saying the same thing that doesn't necessarily make it into the plan So I'm actually really glad that you brought up that point because it made me realize I forgot to mention one home that engagement we're planning You it is a mobile workshop line So we do recognize that there are a lot of people who can't make it to a 6 to 8 p.m Workshop on one night in their neighborhood So we're currently working on and we'll be launching soon The same activities that we plan to have at the workshop in an online format So that individuals who can't attend or who don't feel like they have the opportunity to share all of the ideas that they wanted To share in a workshop still have a method and a forum for sharing those ideas in a public way So that we can vastly expand the voices that we hear and the ideas that we hear I think as far as hearing different viewpoints in the public process David mentioned earlier that one of the things about doing a plan at this level is that The diversity of opinions might point out an area that we need to study more in a future effort And I think that you know this process could highlight some of those types of issues that we might want to explore Either through an additional planning process or some other kind of study or community conversation but certainly Looking for those opportunities to identify important issues that might need more work as we go forward and just How do you justify the you know? That not everything everybody suggests necessarily gets into the plan You're saying that those are the things you would put for discussion another day We would certainly want to make sure that those continue to be represented in a public forum So that all of the ideas that we hear make it into you know a summary or into On the website so other people can see those ideas and if that idea becomes something that a lot of people share Or if people have discussion around either pros or cons around that might rise to the level of something that we would include in the plan One of the things that we did talk about when I came on board when we were updating the south end plan is that There are many different ways that the you said the devil is in the details There are many different ways that we can implement ideas and a lot of times in my experience We find that people if they don't see that that really minute detail that they shared in the plan Then they feel like their idea isn't represented So part of this process will be educating people on what the level of detail is that's appropriate for a plan like this And what the future forums are for fleshing out the details of how something actually gets implemented Thank you. Thank you counselor Shannon and thank you for raising the zoning rewrite I'm still I still have nightmares about that Dean's up next before by I'm kind of Dean's right, so I very much appreciate your presentation And but I do have one concern. It's presented as as That you know, we're taking what we have that has worked in the past We're gonna look and see things that don't apply anymore and things we've accomplished and and just tinker you know, we're gonna put in a better format and and It's not a fundamental change, but I I think there has been a fundamental change in my opinion and that is that We are we've made it a commitment to be a 2030 District we have committed to be a zero net energy city We have adopted Leads standard for for downtown buildings and all in an effort toward long-term Responsibility for city to me. I'd like to see in this plan a central role for that as as You know a goal for our city that really I know that they're there. We're talking about As well as we're also going to talk later tonight about a district energy system as well district heating system Those are all fabulous Initiatives that are going to take us forward But it seems to me unless we make that part a central focus of our comprehensive plan And and recognizing that change we won't be able to achieve that. So perhaps you can say a little bit about how we address that Yeah, happy to Certainly over the the last many many versions of this plan There have been a lot more work that's gone on behind the scenes to flesh out What does it mean to be a sustainable city that the first city mass land that even used And talked about that was in 1996 then after that the 2001 plan Was built on the kind of the framework that was created by the legacy project Which really defined our objectives as being a sustainable city since then we've evolved Significantly in the adoption of a climate action plan and new transportation plan and a variety of things that all kind of Bring a lot of these these climate and energy concerns to the forefront the current master plan talks about You know district energy is a really cool idea and we ought to think about it Well, I think you'll as you all understand and our colleagues from BD will explore more We're way beyond the idea that this is a fun idea and could could really address a lot of our carbon emission questions So now it's new master plan and gets stopped in Incorporate all of the work that's been done since since the last plan was adopted And we package it as that vision for the future and identify What are the next milestones in order to carry us down that road that are as either as part of our transportation plan Or as part of you know plans like the the downtown waterfront master plan or district energy specifically And try to look ahead at what what are the the the opportunities for the future that we ought to be thinking about next It'll ultimately be up to the council to decide You know how how far down that road we go, but but certainly establishing that vision As a as a net zero city and and what are the steps that we think are important to take I think we're updating the framework of this The plan is going to be a really important tool for us As I came on board and began learning about what was in our comprehensive plan I shared with these two that You know the vision of brillington has really spelled out in a dozens of statements about what we will be in the future Over three or four pages And if you read what they are they really are about us being bold and dynamic and continuing to adapt and find creative ways to address These major challenges around climate demographic shifts technological shifts And so by reframing this plan we'll be able to bring that idea Into a much clearer focus as part of the vision And then update what those specific actions and recommendations are for how we will continue to do that going forward I just wanted to kind of re-emphasize the point that The the commitment to sustainability and to our future really it affects what we do everywhere else in the plan So every decision that's made about transportation every decision that's made about density of of Building in in the downtown and and all of the decisions That are affected by that goal. So I think it to me it just needs to be a stronger more clear definition That's that's overarching for all of the other Decisions that are you know or or the the prescriptions that come out of the comprehensive plan Thank you. Thank you councillor dean councillor pine. And then I think we're ready to move on to the next item I'll try and be quick Having been involved in this stuff for a while. It's fun because you have some plans that you were involved in Actually implemented any good white ones are a panel to do the first revitalization plan 20 something years ago and that project actually went forward and has been a huge benefit To the businesses and the residents of the neighborhood So I think there is a way and that was an incredibly inclusive process We involved the school, you know, every kid in the school had an activity or something around it We had focus groups of seniors and new americans and small business people And we took it to a level that maybe you can't do this time But I want to just say that In my campaigning I heard a lot of people say they don't really feel that that emphasis on That neighborhood in particular the old north end has been there for quite a while And so the people felt like there's a little bit of neglect going on and that may be true in other parts of the city I'm just saying from where I come and from where I knocked on doors I heard quite a bit and the folks missed that sort of Engagement that neighborhood level that I think we can get back to and you've got lots of competent people to do it So I hope we'll engage at that level All right, thank you. Thank you very much for the much for the presentation the slide show And We'll be hearing a lot more about this. I'm sure With that we'll move on to item 5.07. This is another holdover from our last meeting that we were unable to get to It's a communication from eileen blackwood city attorney And assistant city city attorney justin st. James regarding the annual report on the liberal wage ordinance city attorney blackwood Thank you We present we gave you a written report that is Set out by the ordinance, but I wanted to really emphasize one aspect of that which is last year one of the things that came To us as every year we do a week We have the dedicated Accountability monitor that is the vermont worker center and each year we meet with them and evaluate How are things going or do we think we're getting at the livable wage? Where where our things can we do this better and last year when we met with them? Essentially there have been very few complaints over the number of years that we've been Paying someone to be our designated accountability monitor and and we sort of said well We want to test that and we made a decision that we would start doing random compliance checks this year So our office, uh, and and you'll see the results of of that in In this report and our office conducted Um three random compliance checks this year and is in the middle of a fourth one right now and We started with an entity that had had had violations the previous year and unfortunately more violations this year, but Beth Anderson and justin st. James from my office sat down with the principal of ada and had a really, uh I think productive meeting with with them to really emphasize to them what they needed to do and they Responded very positively, but we had Actually imposed sanctions upon them for the first time so so we've really Gone pretty far in our enforcement. We did we're doing compliance checks and we actually imposed sanctions We issued municipal tickets against them and we said they couldn't work for the city for a period of time They responded very positively and said okay, we're going to increase Up to not just the the livable wage, but we're going to make sure everybody in our organization Even if they're not working for the city making 16 dollars an hour And that was that that was their response and really trying to get their attention So we are really trying to step up enforcement. We're we are looking at continuing to do these compliance checks and and Uh Where we need to impose further sanctions so Just wanted to let everybody know that's kind of where we are and where we're We are going with a little wage because we really are trying to take it seriously and And be sure that folks are complying with it one of the things is it does get a little bit technical And there is some confusion about it. So We are hoping in the next couple of months to try again We've tried a few educational sessions and and they have not been well attended We're going to try again and hoping maybe that the word gets out there that we are doing this enforcement and folks Really could have some consequences We're going to try to target up a little the larger contractors because where we've seen a lot more of the problems is with subs So, uh, then then with the Then solely the large contractors. So we're going to really target them and try to um make a difference with this Thank you city attorney councillor paul Thank you. Um, so I have a question a couple of questions for the city attorney if that's okay. Sure. Um, so there are a lot of, uh, We have a lot of outside contractors that the city uses And this the what you just mentioned certainly got my attention In terms of the results of the investigations. Yes, there was only one of the three that you, um Put sanctions on however, there was another one that um, there were concerns with and you gave them sort of a word of warning Please don't do it again. Um, and then the matter was closed, which is fine. I have no issue with that um, the the thing that i'm concerned about is that um of the Literally dozens of outside contractors of the three of the ones that you chose and you chose I I didn't know that there was a fourth one that you're working on but of the three that are in this report two of them had Um, there were issues with two of them from an auditing point of view that is statistically significant That is not good. That means that If you extrapolate that that means that there's a lot of other things out there that we don't know about Um, if you're picking them if you are picking them randomly if this was randomly selected No, no, it was not randomly selected. So we selected The first one a da Contractors is one that had had a So we were following up with them and that's why we got to the sanction level with with them And then the second one we picked sd ireland because they are by far the largest contractor that the city does business with The third one was uh janitek Um, which is who has the maintenance contract at the airport Which is was another one that we kind of targeted as being a large provider of generally lower wage positions I mean one of the things is we you know, we have a whole host of of the contractors that are that have professional level folks and They have people who are not being paid even close that are way above the livable wage numbers So for example all the lawyers that we contract with the engineers the architects They're they're those kinds of folks tend not to so we're trying to work on the ones where they are paying people A lot of folks who are at would be low wage workers. So that's really what we've been trying to focus on I'm sorry. I did say random, but I it's not really random Okay, well, so it's hard for me to really actually even evaluate a man I don't know how many outside contractors there are for whom would this would be a concern obviously not Professional firms but others so I it's hard to know whether or not That's just just statistically significant or not Um, I guess the only concern I have is just simply that you know When you only pick when you only pick three and two of them have issues that is a concern to me A concern to us as well That's why we're trying to continue to do this and and why I was saying our next phase is that we're We're going to start holding some educational sessions and try to get and and focus on those contractors that have folks At the lower wages and try to get them to come in and avoid these problems Some of the problems for example is that that they'll have people who Work on another project outside of the city at one wage rate And then they come and work on something in the city for a short period of time And then go back to the other project and somebody misses Getting their wage up and then one of the other issues is That they have to have a certain number of paid days off And and they calculate that oddly sometimes and the third one is that There's been a lot of questions around do we do they offer health insurance or not? What what does it mean to offer it? So some of these have been technical issues and we've been doing a lot of interpretation and education Around it so in many ways. I think it's very much a positive Okay. All right. Thank you. Thank you councillor pal. Councillor mason. Thank you I don't want to thank you for the report and for the presentation I just want to you know for some of the newer councillors, you know, this sort of represents to me although I appreciate it's not wonderful news It is a positive step forward from where we were which is you know, really there was no reporting There was no certification. There was nothing, you know, we have put in place a number of these protections And I do appreciate the commitment sort of to the educational component Moving forward so that hopefully, you know, next year's report and following will continue to you know, be moving in the right direction Thank you. Thank you councillor mason councillor hartnett Thanks Although it is not random I think we need to be consistent and so if we um doubled back with one company that we had to choose with I hope that we would continue that process meaning whoever was on this list and without naming them that we would be And I think that should be over a period of time, right? Maybe they should be kept on the radar for You know, whether it's three to five years, whatever it might be But we should be consistent with this because if we're not consistent, um, it really kind of You know, it doesn't doesn't look good long term for us And we certainly don't want to get the reputation that we're just you know, going after certain companies and so I think being consistent Uh, as as well as we can be random I think random is is is good because I mean then everybody's you know, really in the same You know the same playing field and I think that's I think that's important I just wouldn't want us to get the reputation of you know, we're after you know So certain a few companies Certainly there's a history I think so and I think we should Much like we do with the landlords Right kind of the thing same with the landlords that we should do with our businesses So I think I think we should uh, you know, keep this and maybe work on you know coming up with a permanent Solution, you know and plan moving forward Thank you councillor heart and councillor shannon Thank you Um, you know with this I feel like for For almost a couple decades we had a livable wage ordinance that Turned out to be mostly in name only and you've really turned that into something with some real teeth And I appreciate you going after the violations. Are there more out there? Probably but we've started a process whereby you're finding them And taking action and that in and of itself is really going to be sending a message to All of our other contractors and I just want to say thank you for your work on this. Thank you for Um, taking firm action when you found violations and I think this is going to make a real difference Thank you councillor shannon councillor busher. Um, just uh quickly did we um anticipate that the city attorney would dedicate some hours and Give you some compensation for this work I I thought we did but if we didn't shame on us because I don't know how much work it is taking Taking you but um, that was my question. Are you making a little wage? We didn't specifically We didn't specifically build anything into the budget to for the city attorney office And that's part of why we've had to we're balancing all the rest of the workload How how many of these we can do in a year? But but I did and councillor heart now We absolutely plan to go back to anyone who's out of violation and check them for a couple of years and make sure that That compliance is staying in place Okay, thank you. Thank you councillor busher. Mayor Weinberger Just really quick maybe this is obvious to everyone but again, maybe uh newer councillors Uh, I think it was in the report, but just clear one one of the ways these Um Issues are coming too late as we have budgeted for this compliance monitor that is uh going out making contacts with these companies and I believe has led to Some of the some of the items that we've followed up on and contributed in some way right Modestly Thank you continue to put some resources towards towards So thank you. Thank you. Mr. Mayor. Any other discussion by the council questions Councillor jane Yeah, and I just want to know if Any contract with the contractor, you know with the city Do you add anything about our livable rate ordinance so they read and understand it? Do they have that? Yes, they they do and we have language that we require To be put in written contracts and we require them to sign a certification And in the report that we gave you There's a their columns in there that indicate that when we're and we're updating those certificates each year To for those folks who have multi-year contracts so that we make sure that we're bringing it back to their attention Regularly and the other question is in terms of the penalty if you find one is not respecting it what are the penalties and Are they legal and who is implementing them? so when The violations that so this was the first time we imposed penalties in this case and what we did was we issued municipal tickets Which is how we have it set up. So that's a I think what have we write them for do you remember? Okay, neither one of us remembers exactly what the dollars were we can do it up to 500 dollars per Time I can't remember Exactly how much but I think they ended up paying in the thousands because we issue one ticket for each employee that they didn't pay the rate for so It's not insubstantial plus they have to pay the employee their back wages Or give them an additional time off if they haven't done it and we require them to provide us proof that they've actually paid the employees Again, thank you great work. Thank you councillor jane Anyone else Hearing none. Um, thank you for that and here on the objection. We will waive the reading except the communication and place it on file Um, moving on to the next item 5.08 communication from chape and spencer director spencer come on up Uh, we'll give us a report on paving and the construction season overview with a Slide presentation as well. Thank you, which I think is supposed to go five to ten minutes correct That is correct. All right. Thank you Thank you president right with me this evening is rob goulding our public information manager Thank you president right for the suggestion for us to come up and speak briefly to what is underway this year Thanks to the council and the administration working together on the 10-year capital plan we have Been undertaking a large increase in the stewardship of the city's assets 2018 is year two After the voters in november 2016 approved the two capital improvement bonds so In 2018 we're projecting around 20 million dollar reinvestment in the general fund 2019 a little preview of the budget you'll see for fy 19 We'll be looking at approximately 40 million dollars in other words doubling the amount from this year Appreciate the public's patience and safety as we embark on This increased level of work and tonight we hope to share some resources that may be helpful So you'll see in front of you here A summary of our asset classes on the left hand side The first column being our average annual investments pre 10-year capital plan What we achieved in 2017 And then what would you put them in max target in 2018 we are either in in the range of sustaining what we've done in 2017 Or going beyond that with paving sidewalks water mains curb and sewer storm water Happy to talk detail about it, but moving quickly through let's go For water rehabilitation work we have 3.8 miles. This is both reline and full replacement the map on your left are the locations Of that work the blue lines are the replacement the purple lines are Rehabilitation relining Next you'll see the list of those streets that we are relining or replacing and We have Ethan Allen Parkway of note last year we did half of Ethan Allen Parkway while school was in session That was due to project delays and challenges We have written the contract this year to require the contractor to do it during school vacation to avoid that conflict this year So in our paving work as you all know, we had a difficult winter We last year were able to do five miles of paving That was about double what historically we do around two and a half miles This year including some patching and additional paving. We're hoping to surpass seven miles Some of that paving is carry over from last year. Then you'll see platzberg cherry manhattan and lake view cemetery We had the original for 2018 paving that the commission group And then we had the addendum in response to the winter conditions Streets being added to that our north avenue And you'll uh Colchester avenue pine street and you'll see that soon This uh, it was the scene uh, friday on platzberg avenue The start of our paving season has gotten underway We used to not have significant paving funds and we didn't start paving until the beginning of the fiscal year july One each year. We are now in the ground in april This is a fundamental difference to our approach. So we were pleased obviously with the winter deterioration to get in as early as possible next So this is the original paving list for 2018 You'll see it's the length of each street that we're paving and the type of work reclaim as a Complete rehabilitation of the roadway whereas a mill and fail is taking off the top layer of asphalt And replacing that with a new top layer of asphalt next This is the work on pine street You'll see we had specially requested a grader to come in this morning after the rains this weekend We know a number of people complained about the Challenging conditions that pine street was in over the weekend But came in early this morning to keep traffic moving next This is the additional winter deterioration paving and patching list. So the streets I referenced earlier We're getting attention that these are streets that we were able to fund by using some fund balance in the street and sidewalk fund reprioritizing Paving over some other items in our capital plan for this year And we're able to add substantial mileage in our Sidewalks we are proposing to do 3.7 miles of sidewalk across the city We have 130 miles in our system and the the actual streets are in our construction portal You can zoom in you can look at the names of those streets if you have specific questions We're happy to answer them. We know the commission and council has asked for specific names of streets For this work and that is all on the portal next Uh, and then these are the numbers for sewer lines and storm water lines We traditionally had not done much work in repairing these facilities The storm water lines in particular many of them are corrugated metal pipe Which are in some cases in very bad condition or standing up I pay a loan due to our high salt usage on our roadways next Rob is going to speak briefly to engagement Thank you city counselors for the opportunity to be here and like japan said, I will be brief Trying to find different ways to reach people early and often is Priority of ours and we tried to start as early as possible in the construction season and well before that We did try to meet with as many community and business stakeholders as we could as you can see On a pretty comprehensive list there might be one or two that are missing from there But we met with all of the npa's to try to give a brief overview of our construction season We hosted a public meeting for the folks in the maple pine corridor Where obviously there is a significant series of projects that are going on And we brought some temporary parking options to the commission and tried to do some outreach around those neighborhoods To ask people for feedback on those options We're not finished. We're trying to be pretty robust and keep an ongoing Engagement strategy throughout the construction season to let people know when things are going to happen when impacts or delays are Uh Knowable and schedulable that we can let people know about and to really just stay in communication with the community with businesses And with residents to let them know about what's going on in their neighborhoods. Thank you So as you'll see here, this is work at the maple and battery intersection This is where water line is being replaced to upsize the water line We're also replacing all the signals at that intersection with pedestals So that uh pedestrians will have signals at that intersection as well as improved uh vehicle vehicular circulation Next You've all seen the myriad of work projects in the lower downtown area. We've put together this gantt chart on the website Uh, it extends far out into the season, but we blew it up so you could see How we are coordinating the various projects uh on top of one another. We're trying to get Uh in and out as fast as we can and coordinate work Wherever possible the dark gray is where we expect the work duration to last the light gray is Extended period if we hit uh unseen for circumstances Next uh with this work in this uh lower downtown area We are having uh significant traffic detours The yellow street at the top is main street As you'll see two streets down is maple street with local traffic only That's this first phase from april june while we They start our line on maple street and those new signals that go into the battery You'll see that pine street as you know currently is one lane northbound between maple and main Uh for the water line Relining Next Once june comes the traffic pattern will shift pine street will be back open to way and site the st paul street will become one way southbound For our work with the great streets project that this council has supported in the past And uh, we will be then moving into a paving phase on maple street, which will have intermittent open and closed cycles next With this uh further down on pine street, uh, we have two water mains 12 inches in diameter One of which was constructed and installed in 1844 We'll be relining both of these in advance of the champlain parkway next We have managed traffic control for this work to maintain two-way flows on pine street You'll see how we are phasing it We have lines in two different locations, but we'll be able to maintain two-way flows. We do have Uh a period this week with the paving where we'll be looking at pine street is one way northbound We know this has been an inconvenience It will enable our contractor to complete the work more quickly and safely for the folks working in the road Next Here are all the resources that we have made available. Uh, happy to answer any questions. Thank you Thank you for that report Very hot topic out there. We'll go to council heart net. Thanks So let me first say I appreciate all the extra work that your crews know for the winter They received that probably hundreds of calls to go out and fill potholes Which I think we all knew during the winter that wasn't going to make any difference They were going to be right back there the next day, but the crew still went out and did them He answered all the calls and I appreciate that And they worked hard But that being said This is without a doubt the worst These roads have been that I that I can remember from the north end to the south end Old north end hill section. I have never seen the roads In this worst shape, and I'm not sure what the reasoning is it it's certainly My travels around chitin county I didn't see it in colchester didn't see the messics didn't see it in south brongton. I'm not sure what happened but it's unacceptable and Talking to many people that live in north end and the damage that was done to the vehicles It's just to me The paving project that you just presented isn't even enough It's not even close to being enough Any projects you have that can wait till next summer put them on hold We should be paving 24 7. We should bring lights out on pine street. We should get it done at night Whatever it takes we owe it to the taxpayers after putting them through the last eight months of these streets It's embarrassing It's not right I'm not saying it's anybody's fault There's got to be a reason for it though And I'm not sure what that reason is To have those roads in that condition But we had cars actually coming down Going in the opposite lane to avoid on north avenue. So they were they were traveling in North going south and south going north just so they wouldn't be in these and ruining their cars And that that is unacceptable. I'm sorry. And there is no reason for so So for us not to get just about everything that we need to get paved This summer would be unexcusable needs to be done And and like I said, I don't care if it's done at night It should be 24 7 maybe create some new jobs and we can put people to work Whatever and hopefully they'll be local people, but whatever it takes The paving should take top priority Thanks, director Spencer any Yep paving it has been our top priority and we had the wonderful foresight that our team Reserved some asphalt that was reclaimed last fall was able to Use it this uh this winter by heating it up reclaim it. We're able to do some more durable patches This winter we certainly agree council hard. It would be a very difficult winter Uh reasons for the asphalt failure relate to either inadequate sub base We have the freeze-thaw cycles the Drainage systems that need improvements so we can get water where it belongs Keeping the seal coating going with our crack sealing We didn't crack seal prior to two years ago when the water gets in the road It creates damage and we need to help Create an impermeable barrier for that water in the winter time so that it does not freeze thought in and under our roads We are looking at some of the concepts of how we can push this faster Night work is a challenge. It is expensive. It is difficult for our teams. It is a safety issue We are Looking at how we can excite projects, which is why we're coordinating a lot of them But i'm happy to receive any ideas as we're moving forward All right, thank you Thanks, then i'll be done. I I would agree that it's expensive, but I think we owe it to taxpayers. So at any cost For me anyways for this council or at any cost these roads should be done and I hear your concerns, but I went In s6 junction many times over by the fairgrounds route 15. They were paving no problem at night I'm sure they have the same safety concerns that we do. I'm sure I'm sure it's the same issues, but You look at the project and the work they've done over that they did over on route 15 in front of the fairgrounds a1 No problems at all. So I I always hear I always hear reasons why we can't do things in burlington I never hear why we just can't That is frustrating especially when it comes to our streets and sidewalks. I hear about all these great plans tonight All right, you know plan vtv vtv great That that's great, but let's just take care of the basics right now Let's just take care of our streets and our sidewalks. We owe it to the residents of burlington And the condition that they're in they're just not acceptable So we can make excuses. We can say things are expensive. We can say it's unsafe And I understand that to some regards, but at the end of the day, let's tear down the roadblocks And let's get the work done Thank you councillor hartnett councillor shannon Um, thank you, but in fairness to the taxpayers. I do think that they're mindful of costs and I know that Knife paving costs a lot more money. I Would agree that it may it's something that we can Look into and anticipate for future budget years You know, should we be expecting to do some night paving? When we have major road work that we have to do major arteries like pine street and north avenue And uh It would be good to have a better understanding of the conditions that led to this because it doesn't seem like something that happened because of The maintenance in the last year or two But rather something that goes back further and if it's something that goes back further Where else do we have these problems that are about to Bubble up or bubble under as it may be um Because it clearly it's a I know that you drive these roads as well and you're no less frustrated than any other taxpayer in the city Um, probably much more frustrated than your average taxpayer in the city I wondered if you could explain your terminology in One of the Slides you showed winter deterioration paving and pavement patching You have one section of pine street being reclaimed and another being modified Mill and fill and I know you covered a lot of stuff. Maybe you said it, but I missed it But what what do those things mean? Sure reclaiming is a complete removal of the asphalt grinding it up Regrating the sub base and then laying down Usually multiple layers of asphalt. That is a reclaim a mill and fill Is taking off the top writing off of asphalt and placing down a new top layer of asphalt The reclaim is a much more substantive rehabilitation of the roadway Okay, I I know I expect that Things are going to get worse before they get better and that we're all going to be suffering a little bit through this process And hopefully at the end of the day, we'll all be Glad for our efforts and uh, thank you for getting the work done earlier in the year And for really bringing it down to the base level where we can correct it Permanently I hope Thank you Thank you councillor shan and councillor jang and then councillor tracy Thank you very much president. Um and chappan, you know that I respect you, right? You know that I like you You know we Will be paid Okay, um So basically what I'm saying is I want to say a special big up to rob Because your community engagement plan that you worked with sido to put together is incredible And on top of that you showed up at parent university Speaking with over 30 families with pet. I think that was great And you did it in a way that's very professional and also open The the eyes of the people say we are here for you. I think I want to give you a special Thank you great work for that Um, but at the same time, I do believe that DPW what we need to work on is not to react But we need to prevent because what is happening right now? I totally agree with uh councillor That it is kind of embarrassing I mean if you are on pine street or in the new north end It's just kind of like you feel like you're not in burlington anymore. And I think the tourists are coming We need to make sure that our roads come back to normal Canadian people are coming this you talk to people in wintersky. They kind of say what are you gonna do with this? I was going to go to a performance. I swear on Saturday before I go on the stage someone pulled me I turn around he asked me about when you're gonna Make the road on the new north end I mean, I do believe that we need to work more on preventing things from happening instead of reacting to them Because right now I believe it's too late and I totally agree. Whatever it takes We can With you at night or whatever it is But pine street and the new north end. I feel like they those need to be prioritized So the other thing that I wanted to say is thank you for also the platzberg avenue that repavement is wonderful But what it will also take um to put some Speed bumps because it will be it now people will be complaining about speed When the roads are nice and clear people gonna speed and we've been hearing speeding Specifically on that road and I think with this plan putting it we need to think about that And I don't know if that requires you to talk to the neighbors if they need it I don't need it But personally I received some feedback around it and if we think think about that way And the other thing is one um You know the speed trackers looks like the city has only one The only one the radar speed feedback. Yeah, it looks like we have one and we have two we have two So if it's needed, we need more because most of the time they don't stay to where we need it most of the time But again, I like you. I like your work, but let's make sure we get these roads done The sooner the better Whatever it takes. Thank you. All right. Thank you. Councillor jane. Councilor tracy Thank you very much. Uh, so two questions First if we're talking about preventative maintenance and that being important I noticed that we have 5.46 miles of crack ceiling in 2017 and a maximum of of five miles for this year Why not given what we've seen You at least last year levels now exceed those levels given that that is that preventative maintenance that would prevent us from getting into that And then on a sort of different topic What elements, you know, we talk a lot about the roads and that's certainly been an element of concern But another constituent today raised the issue of of bike and pedestrian safety So i'm wondering what specific elements of this construction season are really Are really being done with an eye towards improving pedestrian and bike safety in the city great So on the first question about crack ceiling Uh, we don't quite know how many miles we go. It's basically, uh The the tar that is laid down does Very in terms of how bad a street is and how much it takes last year. We thought we were only going to get Four miles or so down. We were able to do five and a half. We're hoping we can exceed that this year We just had board finance approved the contract earlier tonight and then the council tonight So We can look this is this is more than the city has historically been spending We didn't used to do it at all and last year we were able to go much further than we thought based on the The crack ceiling going further street per street than we expected So hopefully we'll be able to beat those numbers this year It's not the only preventative maintenance activity. We're doing we're doing the sidewalk cutting That just started two years ago is a cheap way of kind of maintaining an ADA surface Without having to rebuild As it relates to bike and pedestrian safety, we're doing a lot of quick build efforts this year We'll be putting planters out painting bollards at a number of intersections narrowing crosswalks providing kind of calling elements at on keyboard doors and so if people are interested in that for Streets, I heard councilor jang talking about platzberg We can look at some of the tools there. We can look at lowering the speed limit the speed limit I believe is 30 on platzberg av. It's 25 in most of the city So there are options and the public works commission would be happy to engage in these conversations For pedestrian improvements. Yes, and the full signalized crossings there at maple and battery Thank you. Yep. Thank you. Councilor tracy. Mr. Mayor Thank thank you president right um I appreciate the uh feedback from counselors tonight, you know specific suggestions that uh the team can look at And we will go back to it as we have throughout the process this spring that has evolved as Rob pointed out quite a bit of community engagement activity and um, you know with the council's suggestions about night paving We'll be following up and understanding If there are opportunities there Again the crack ceiling pit, you know contract just got approved tonight by you guys, but um, you know, I think it's great to hear the interest in that and we can look at Further expansions. Um, I have to say though the idea that um what you heard tonight was excuses is to me Quite unfair. I mean you just had a group come out and say that we are paving at an unprecedented rate We are repairing sidewalks at an unprecedented rate. We are doing preventative maintenance as Has never been done before And frankly, I think it's being communicated. Um, it's never been done before and there's a lot of positive feedback coming from the Look about the jazz guys are doing they are working really hard and the notion is put out here tonight That somehow they're making excuses and not working hard and it's just not right and uh This is a very challenging Conditions are working under they're getting it done and we're gonna be a much city That's in much better shape at the end of summer Then we are now and it's quite stunning that uh, this work didn't even use to start until july and they're out there On the first uh weeks it can uh, it can take place in so Um, this is a squad that is working hard. They deserve our support not attacks on them Thank you, mr. Mayor Yes, um, thank you I just want to say that I think that the the um message Is not that you're not working hard and not that you're not investing money But that as we start our conversation counselor partner started the conversation was The state of the street the the condition of the streets that we find Now after this winter and that it is troubling because they are in worse shape than we've seen them in a long time And so I think that That overshadows all of the good stuff because we don't totally understand it Um, chape and you referenced a couple of things that could be at at the basis of some of the Reasons why some of the streets didn't wear as well Um, we don't know whether it's because of the extreme Change in temperature which used to cause Frosteves and all other kinds of disruption I don't know the answer, but I think that you know, I don't want to I don't want to have The statement about the state of the streets and the need to invest as much as we can lost in this conversation I don't I'm not pointing blame at anyone But I think that we really need to focus on what can we do this year Is there a way to augment what you already have here, which is a very good plan um Even though I want to say jared wood I'm here for you and mansfield avenue sidewalk is not in the plan and i'm working on it as hard as I can But having said that I I want to say that you know, this is this is serious and um And so I I want you to understand the message because I think you're seeing frustration and Not understanding why we have inherited the streets this spring that we have but I do want to Want you to understand that thank you. Thank you for starting earlier in the season I always used to get so frustrated that it was like almost fall and we're starting to pave So thank you for doing it when spring arrives if it ever does. Thank you Indeed and uh, I would welcome the opportunity to do a 40 minute Description of how we are working differently regarding Pine street just a quick example When the street failed this year we did an investigation of subsurface Excavation of what is the sub base on this road before we decided what the best approach was And we had to come up with an approach that was consistent with the champlain parkway design concept We worked with many engineers with lawyers to figure out the approach found out how we could avoid urban soils issues Deal with the repay not getting the way of the parkway And it was through doing those surface boardings that we realized that pine street Did not have sufficient enough asphalt thickness and just putting another layer on top of it was not going to Give us a long-term investment. We had to take it all the way down to the dirt That is smart work and the team is doing that every day Councillor Hartnett. Yeah, I just like to weigh in it's it's too bad because this has happened before it's too bad when You get accused of attacking and when you're just trying to ask for accountability And I think that's what we're here for and I think the taxpayers of burlington deserve accountability Can give it given the condition of our streets. So it's not an attack. In fact, I was As I said, nobody worked harder to pass those holes But and when I talk about excuses, I meant it. That's what we hear. We hear excuses why we can't do certain ways to get done faster So it's not an attack on the department. It's it's holding on And I think after the winner that we have just gone through and the damage to done to these taxpayers Councillor shannon mentioned it's very expensive to night pay I would bet if we were polled the taxpayers in burlington, they would say pave at night That's how frustrated they are. That's how much car damage has been done It's just it's really been frustrating and I I take it personally that I get accused of attacking when I'm asking for accountability And that's unfortunate Thank you. Councillor councillor hartner councillor jane councillor jane passes Anyone else need to weigh in We will close that item out. I just last remark for me. You don't have to respond. It's just I appreciate the work I was on plasperg avenue today. It was much nicer trip on plasperg and Anyway, and I'm glad to see you worked on major Just my own one personal one at the top of archibald by the cemetery By st. Joe's that road has been horrible for quite a while. I'm dodging. You can't even dodge them. So just Throwing that out there. Thank you Great, we look forward to many smooth sailing days ahead and getting ready for the marathon as fast as we can Thanks. Thank you. Appreciate that report. Thanks Okay with that we will close that item out And moved to item 5.09. That's a resolution Obtaining public safety commission rulings and approval and we have a report on the district energy system from The team come on up and So this is district energy resolution we have in front of us And for viewers on viewers on channel 17 who are watching who may not understand What district energy is? Please Put it into explainable terms for it Sure, uh, daren springer chief operating officer with burlington electric I'm joined by mcletty who is uh council for us on the district energy project and other projects for burlington electric And uh, just want to also mention i'm joined by mike canerick and sam swanson who's here representing the birdies Citizen group that's been supporting district energy. Thank you. And we should report. I think that General manager londerville is under the weather tonight. He is unfortunately regrets that he can't be here Um, so we're here following presentation on april 16th about district energy Energy has been studied for a number of years in burlington and it's the idea that we can take Heat from neal biomass plant that currently generates electricity and capture waste heat capture steam from that plant And provide it through underground pipes to customers particularly large commercial industrial customers around the city To expand renewable heat and reduce greenhouse gas emissions and hopefully do so in a way that is cost competitive With their current heating system Happy to speak to the resolution if that's helpful Sure, give us a little overview. So again, so the for the listening audience in tail 17 as well Sure, so we burlington electric has partnered with uh point orders Point of order council tracy shouldn't we move the resolution before we discuss it? We can do that So I move adoption move to waive the reading and adopt the resolution And after the second after their explanation, I let the floor back Move the council second by council heart net and Council tracy you want to wait for and have the floor back after okay continue So burlington electrics partnered with corkx which helps operate district energy systems around the country and and internationally as well And we had been going through a process to study the feasibility of weather We could after years of study Actually bring a district energy system forward in burlington Using waste heat from mcneil and using the steam that we could extract from mcneil as well as natural gas backup And over the summer last year they determined through the feasibility work that there was a cost competitive district energy system that we could Build in burlington That would have a significant greenhouse gas emissions benefit In the heating sector and could be done in a way that's cost competitive with the current heating systems The potential customers and the customers that we have been talking with include uvm medical center certain uvm buildings The downtown the new burlington city place project other buildings downtown hotel state government buildings and Following that feasibility work. We've been working with corkx to develop Indicative pricing for customers which they have now Received and we're at the point at which it would be helpful To advance the project for us to be able to make a couple of filings one from burlington electric And one I believe on behalf of the city to clarify with the state public utility commission That this could be a locally controlled project not a project regulated by the state And also that the mcneil biomass plant would not need a permit modification In order to move forward with district heat and so I believe the resolution would provide the authority for us to make those Filing make finally we have the city get clarification on those issues Thanks, council tracy Yeah, so and thank you to to mr. Springer and your team at burlington electric It's an incredibly exciting moment for us as a city having you know seen what this can do in other cities Like st paul like vancouver. This is truly a game changer when it comes to the energy portfolio of a city and its ability to provide Costability as well as really making a true dent in not just a dent But really having a transform a transformational impact in terms of the the greenhouse gas emissions of a particular city This is the single largest thing that we can do to address climate change that's identified in our climate action plan It's been Studied and looked at for many years. We haven't gotten to this stage before and that's why this is so exciting because we're having conversations Uh, you know with potential customers where we've we've engaged an entity that has the skills necessary to to not only take us from this conceptual stage But to take it to reality And in order to and in order to do all that we're going to need to take a whole lot more steps But what this resolution does is it lays out in the whereas clauses? What district energy is while also providing some of the background that that mr. Springer just laid out for us Well in the resolve clauses doing two things first um authorizing BED and the administration to seek that declaratory judgment from the puc basically allowing us to to to Move forward with this and then it also really is a signal from us as a city council that we like the direction that this is going Generally it specifically however, recognizes that we understand that the governance structure and agreement with corex will be Suffered by the council. So we're going to have a whole lot more to talk about It's really important to recognize that whole lot more public engagement whole lot more public education Um, and that's where I think the birdies team comes in in a big way. Um, so I look forward to that I hope we can have a unanimous vote tonight to really send a strong signal that this is something that we're invested in as a city Uh, and that we look forward to to to bring into reality. Thank you Thank you. Councillor tracy council mason Thank you, um, president right forgive me, uh, darin. Thank you for the presentation if you've covered this But um, it just dawned on me Where's the where's the money coming from at this point? You know, I'm not it's unclear to me whether it's general fund dollars rate payer dollars Yeah, I appreciate the point that councillor tracy made which is a lot of that Structure the governance for the agreement would be coming back to the city council in the future So we haven't made any determinations about that but the structure working under would be a partnership Corricks would provide the investment to build the system Design finance build the system. Uh, we would have a city ownership structure a long-term city ownership structure Corricks would run the system for a period of time and have a return to pay back the initial investment that they would make But we want to have not only city ownership, but through the public utility filing City regulatory structure as well, uh to help govern the way that the systems rates are set the way the expansion works I guess I asked a bad question I should have been more clear like by it's by passing this resolution I'm trying to get a sense of what are we committing from a dollar perspective And is it city dollars or is it rate payer dollars? So in terms of the work on behalf of burlington electric You know, we we don't we're not requesting any specific funds for this I don't know. I can't speak to this city's piece But these are we make these types of funds into our regular business So we wouldn't see you to expend any dollars that are outside of our budget city attorney blackwood And similarly it's all within budget at this point, but we we are Going to be expending some general taxpayer dollars from on the city side probably to get this project underway And the idea is that once we get through Hopefully we get the ruling we want from the public utility commission That's going to speed us on the way to getting to a place where corks is involved Is handling most of the costs and and that the system begins once it gets started then The idea is the system is going to pay for itself. So it won't it will be a short-term investment for a long-term goal Thank you Can I just follow up on that? Is that a is it a minimal amount of money though? I mean in terms of because we we know that other checkpoints where the council will improve And I would be curious to how much an investment in case we didn't go forward Because I know at the work session we had recently there was also a discussion Which i'm interested in hearing more about which is the risks that could come with this So we will probably have to check in with you if The public utility commission tells us that we have to go forward With getting their approval, but if what we're doing is There's what the way we currently have it set up I I would say that that it is within a few thousand dollars probably is what we're Spending on the city side of it if we get where we think we want to go But we have not worked out a budget because it's kind of a decision tree set of things if this happens then this happens If this happens then that happens all right, thank you and and if The action we take With the risks there may be will will be identified at further on of the checkpoints that we I mean that's correct. This does not yeah I think that the action that you would take tonight would allow us to better define what the project would look like We would need to come back for a number of items that including we could talk about the risks But a lot of that would be embodied in the agreement between the city and corex The corex customer agreements and the mcneal agreement to sell thermal energy and all of those I believe would have to come back to the council All right, thank you Further discussion or questions from the council councillor jane Thank you You know and I I I want to just ask a question about because what I what I don't want to see and I'm totally going to vote for this. This is an amazing opportunity. This is perfect But what I don't want to see and I also Is that And also we know what happened when we all been struggling selling bt And I heard about risk right here some risk What are the risks For burlington to lose bed to corex Are there any type of rigs in that there is absolutely no risk of losing bed to corex whatsoever. In fact BED's role really is You know, we're the electric company. We're not the heat company. We don't sell heat We would have a couple of different specific roles in the project The first of which would be as one of the owners of mcneal plant We would sell thermal energy to corex to the district energy system So we would have a new revenue source Potentially for the mcneal plant and be able to make that plant more efficient Be able to get some greenhouse gas emission benefit from that BED also has a role potentially providing incentives We have we actually have legislation in my superior that passed this session that authorizes us to use Some incentive funds that previously weren't available to us for this project in particular So we may have incentives that we can bring to bear at the right stage To make this economically viable and help the city and burlington electric reach some of our fossil fuel reduction goals But those are the key roles that we would have and consistent with I think the conversation around this city's Budget at a certain point when this becomes a more engaged and intensive enterprise Burlington electric staff time to the extent that it was put towards this project would be built back to the project We would separate the rate payer funds from the district energy funds at that point. Thank you. Thank you Thank you for putting it that way and one more question. Sure. Yep And Whatever we're trying to get through the puc we're going with corex, right? Actually for for this phase Burlington electric would be going on behalf of the mcneal joint owners to get the clarification there And the city would be going on its own behalf to get clarification that the city can have local control and not have the state assert control So it'd be two filings one for bd one for the city Corex would not be making any filings. Thank you and that was not that was my only concern It was not on the resolution, but thank you for clarifying. Absolutely. Thank you Thank you councillor jane councillor nodell Just very briefly. I'm also very excited that we're here at this point And I also want to acknowledge The citizens of burlington who have carried this vision literally for 30 years Um, and without them keeping the flame alive. I don't think we would be here We wouldn't be here without bd also bringing great work to the table, but let's just I mean I want to mention specifically um Acknowledged the the person from be burdes who's here in the room and thanks There are times when it was extremely discouraging. It looked like there was no hope no way, but they didn't give up So that I just want to acknowledge that too. Thank you Thank you councillor nodell With that, I think we are ready to vote on the resolution um all those in favor of passing the resolution that moves us on to the next stage with the district energy system Please say I I Any opposed That passes unanimously. Thank you very much. Appreciate That concludes item 5.9 We'll move on to item six, which is committee reports any committee chair who would like to give a report to the city council councillor pine President the community development and neighborhood revitalization committee met last week and we discussed the early learning initiative and the general consensus of the committee was that the The city deserve the administration deserves a huge amount of credit for taking on an incredibly challenging Shift in public policy around how we Take care of young children before they reach school basically and you know try to improve outcomes for those who are who are often On the losing end of the achievement gap that we're also aware of I think there was recognition that The focus on increasing Slots if you will which is in this regard is is called sort of raising or increasing the capacity of the providers um at the exclusion of allowing for um resources to go to Scholarship funds or funds that allow these centers to operate In a more um profitable way so they can take better care of Their people who can then take better care of the children and provide them with a better learning environment was Something that the committee felt really should be shifted so that it'd be more flexible more Allow for more innovation from the providers and so that going forward the committee's Sense was that that ought to be Provided to the providers through the request for proposals that they ought to be more flexible The funds ought to be treated that way And I just want to let the council know that that's where the the committee Ended up in the end. Thank you Councillor hartnett, thanks, uh, just want to let everyone know I know we're meeting on the 14th, but um the pack maybe we're meeting on Tuesday At 5 30 If all goes according to plan will be at city hall park in city hall park with the meeting Uh, if whether forbidding if not, we'll we'll determine But uh, it will be an important meeting. We have a lot of updates. Uh, no, well is obviously, you know And the maze coming soon and she'll have a lot of updates on the new marina And auditorium it would be Anybody interesting coming to the pack and it would be beneficial to get some big updates that are coming down the pike Thanks Thank you. Councillor hartnett. Councillor roof. Thank you president. Odell the public safety committee will be meeting Keep going Freud has something to say about that Uh, excuse me, uh, president reich still getting used to that. Um, You mean this day may 3rd here city hall at 5 30 in room 12 We'll be looking at a few things. We'll be looking at The report from chief lock on the annual update to the local emergency management plan An important plan for our city. We'll also be looking at Um, what the committee will be hoping to set as priorities for the year What we're coming in with as an initial conversation is a conversation about The warming shelter and the city's role and in that shelter because it's been something that is timely Uh in our community I've asked the members of the public safety committee to come with any items that they would like to prioritize But I'd also like to extend that invitation to other counselors as well In the administration, of course to to send me emails or participate or come participate in Thank you, right. Thank you. Thank you. Councillor roof. Any other councillor uh committee chair Hearing none we'll close that item out and move on to item number seven city counselors on general city affairs Councillor hartnett. Thank you Big weekend best one of the best weekends of the year here in brolington Kids day saturday big event always is Weather's going to be great And opening day opening day little league right throughout the city and those are going to happen on saturday and sunday I think in the south end. It's on saturday in center city. It's on saturday and then the new north end It's going to be on sunday. So You know take some time walk down to the parks, you know kind of see the atmosphere Also green that is important as well You could do that before we head to parks a couple of years should that be great We we usually do meet at letty park. We have green up day every green up day at letty park We meet about nine o'clock in the morning, but it's a great day It's going to be great weather this weekend and it's finally going to feel like winter's gone So I hope everyone gets out and enjoys the festival festivities this weekend. Thank you Thank you councillor hartnett councillor tracy councillor nodell then councillor tracy councillor nodell Thank you. Thank you president right Well on sunday this coming weekend. I'm going to be doing a cleanup with bonniak or so I think we will together take care of about six six streets. It'll be all driven by bonny Okay, um, I wanted to update the committee on the inclusionary zoning work group And also on the bonuski avenue corridor study committee The izzy work We are we are a little late, but we're not going to be very late We are continuing to work towards a consensus plan to bring back to the council We have a public hearing Tentatively plan for monday june 11th, which is a one of the mondays in in june that we don't have a council meeting We are required by and we would want to do this anyway to have a public hearing We'll present our proposals our reaction to the various recommendations in the report And then depending on what we hear we may do another meeting to amend our report And i'm hoping that the report will get to the council by the end of june And be ready for the council to dispose of it as it will All right There is a runuski avenue corridor study And the first meeting is this wednesday And when when I went to the council president, I did a two-point mental committee Councilor paul and myself because it goes through wards two three six and eight so that way We've got at least three of the four wards covered there. So we're starting our work this week Wednesday at fletcher free library in the evening. Thank you at six Great. Thank you for that report. Councilor nodel. Councilor tracy So the this last weekend Saturday is probably one of the first warm days and it was also spring fest at uvm and I got to say that it was probably the worst weekend that I've had in our neighborhood in probably Since maybe st patrick's day of 2012 or 2013 absolutely horrible 200 kids in the middle of uh of hickock setting off fireworks Uh, I had to call the police three times twice for that one occasion. It got worse when they were setting off fireworks I had to say however that people was phenomenal. They sent cruisers. They were there They sent one of the sergeants, um, and they were on the scene. They stayed on the scene. They were there patrolling They were responsive when I called again later on in the evening when kids were on roofs Jumping off of roofs. Uh, it was it was out of control And so I think that if uvm is wants to have spring fest, which is a nice celebratory sort of spring day They got to take responsibility for the impact that has on the neighborhoods and those of us there It was it was a scene and it was a bad one So but I have to say that bpd was phenomenal in their response and their dedication their their continued follow-up So kudos to them. Thank you to the dispatchers and the in the officers who responded But you know spring fest can't go on like that Thank you for that report counselor tracy counselor jang Thank you. Um, so as you probably all know Of our streets now are so beautiful Because I was in new york city with my family when I came back our cities When we talk about quality of life you have to come to burn it in the month Beautiful clean because of it's not the snow dragon But the people cleaning the street those machines. They're doing an incredible job um, and one of the problems though is just that sometimes they tow some cars And they just put it On certain other streets and 10 p.m. At night. I think I'll bring this up a couple of letters that I got and I asked My constituent to write letters and bring them to certain of our committees to look into it Because we can't do it all That what you said kids day will be performing with the kids african drumming and dance. I think it will be incredible Thank you Thank you, counselor jank So this is for the administration. Um, so I feel Disconnected from the university of vermont I live in ward one. I represent ward one. I went to the university of vermont And a representative comes to the ward one and eight npa But when when I hear things like what counselor tracy just stated and in ward one where I live in Ward one Saturday was a day of very loud music which was coming from the campus um I just feel like I didn't feel like I was well aware of what was going on completely and I I feel that There is less involvement with this council and the administration That oversees um the university than there has ever been And I know that they came to us And there was a budgetary question and prioritization to get them to agree to the budgetary contribution they made But the quality of life issues I think really need to be looked at again and And discussed because I think that Um, we we aren't we aren't going in the same direction And I'm worried when I hear things like as I said counselor tracy mentioning that if we don't address this and be proactive We could find ourselves in a situation that is more out of control and not Isolated event So I'm looking to the administration to see if There can be some way to really have a more positive productive conversation about how we Need to understand each other better And we do this occasionally And I'm hopeful. Um, I'm just like lucy and charlie brown and the football. I'm always hopeful Um, and sometimes it makes a difference for a while. So I'm looking again to have it make a difference for a while Just like lucy on charlie brown Thank you council butcher. I was thinking of a different lucy, but whatever Um Anyone else on general city affairs council roof just really quick. Um, because I had planned on making some remarks about That weekend day that uh council tracy and council butcher have I just want to add a little bit of context Well, certainly not defending in this regard the university It wasn't just a spring fest event This is an annual event that's planned actually from uh to uvm shampoam college other Young people in the city called torta burlington. It is not a regulated or official event But it's something that spawns up through social media rapidly through uh text message and social social media You just need to uh, I invite y'all to Search the hashtag torta burlington on instagram and you'll see All of this all of this stuff. So it's um, I think something that university should have a role in But from a background and in kind of social media and organizing This is very hard to see coming. Uh, they organize it rapidly. It's interesting social experiment, but what results in this case Um, is it's really tough for neighbors? Um, many students as well who who reached out and said hey, this is I'm being overwhelmed in my own house. Um, and again, there's pictures all over the internet that you can look at public and Provide some context with the organizing Ability of some of these events. It's hard Thank you council roof other counselors Seeing none we'll conclude that item and item number nine is city council president. Council. No doubt. Would you like to handle this one? City council president updates a couple things one just reminding the council that um Don cynics's office has put out a notice to everyone and they've only gotten a response from one councilor and that's me Just in case anybody's able to miss to make The meeting in his office where he's going to show us what the demolition looks like, etc I think it's a great opportunity. I told him I would be there if i'm back from out pillar in time Um, so that's four o'clock this wednesday Don't forget the council retreat next monday may 7th And that is at the water building which is 53 la valley lane From 6 30 to 8 30 And that will be we'll be talking about city council operational issues Rules basically anything like that we have a there'll be an agenda put out It's a basic agenda one umbrella item that We'll cover anything that we want to talk about in regard to how we conduct our meetings rules, etc There will be food provided So hope everyone can make that the city council commission committee to review applications That will be coming up soon and councillor mason is going to chair that committee this year I will serve on that committee again and councillor tracy will be serving as a third member And I believe jordan from the airsofts will be serving On that committee as well if i'm Correct about that mr. Mayor um city hall park committee is I am serving on that per the resolution councillor hartnett councillor busher Uh, mr. Mayor you're serving on that as well, and I believe you also have appointed the city arborist um, and the two citizens are monique fortum and donna walters and there is a doodle pull out Now on on proposed times for those For those meetings Lastly and we've already appointed the mural task force or not the mural task force But the committee that is looking over the applications and and deciding who will serve on the task force And that is chaired by councillor shannon councillor nodell and councillor jang are serving on that And the mayor's office has appointed Jordan Yes, okay, and with that that's the end of my report and I'll turn it over to the mayor for his report to take us home Mr. Mayor Thank you president right I was going to cover some of the green same ground that you just did with respect to the committee work that's going on and some Elements that the public I think might be interested to know about it If someone is only watching the mayor's remarks later, I will just repeat that The city hall park ad hoc committee has been formed with three city councillors a couple members of this administration and Two members of the keep it green group the good news since the last time We got together is That especially since you know, we spent quite a bit of the last meeting talking about this and all of this process was conditioned on there not being an appeal of the City hall park d rb permit that my understanding that is in fact what has happened now There was no appeal. So we will go forward with the Uh with the process that was contemplated in that resolution Um passed unanimously by the council last monday The administration has already pulled together Um started to pull together The people who are working on this project to start developing the options for this committee that are due under that resolution by May 11th, and I think we're in good shape for that. So the idea is that Options will be submitted to the committee before may 11th and then sometime after that this committee will meet For the first time and and hopefully keep it interactive back if this council for Action at the june 25th meeting as contemplated again in that in that resolution, which if that all Unfolds properly and we're able to move forward with consensus. I think they would put us in good shape for starting this exciting project By uh in in 2019 Another committee Also on boards and commissions. So every board and commission in the in the city will have Seats that are up for renewal or in many cases open seats for this upcoming fiscal year and Anyone who is interested in looking at what the opportunities might be can go to tonight's Um board docs and look at item 4.47 which lists the Isis uh the commissions are open And or or they don't have to be open. Just advertise which ones are up and um, I believe And correct me. So I'm back here if I'm wrong that the applications are due on may 23rd, um, if you are interested in um Serving on one of those boards or commissions and you can find the application right on the city's web page and We Have been fortunate to have significant community interest in these positions over the years, but we It we we hope that continues and we we will be reaching out not just this way But other and other venues to make sure that people are aware of these opportunities Um wanted to make the public and the council Aware an event that is coming up when we get in for it, but this is an event that takes some preparation to be optimally ready for which is A book discussion that is happening. It's being co-hosted by the chitney county opioid alliance Um, which I serve as the chair co-chair of as well as the brooklyn police department. This is an opioid crisis related book group discussion on the book called the unbroken brain This also is on may 23rd. You can finish your application for uh for board of commission and come and celebrate by coming and Having a it's not such a celebratory conversation, but an important conversation at 6 30 to 8 And books are available at the fletcher free library the discussion is here here in conatoys and The author will be with us for this event, which is existing. She's a board winning author My uh salivates and uh, it's a book that has gotten a very positive, you know important reviews a real contribution to um, the understanding of this terrible epidemic And the last item, um, I did want to just add to council heart and it's, uh Uh exuberance about this saturday It truly is one of this weekend really is one of the best weekends of the year in addition to the opening Of the little league, which i'm going to try to get to as much as I can I've got the men's baseball league opening as well since we got rained out this past weekend it's also opening day for the greater burlington girls soccer league and uh, and um On top of all that, uh, we do have the kids day parade and green up day New location for the kids this year is starting at The morning at the corner of college street and church street, which is like a whole new rep So lots to look forward to this weekend. I hope everyone will get out and enjoy it. Let's hope we have great weather to accompany it Thank you president right Thank you, mr. Mayor appreciate that report Bringing us home with that. We'll take a motion to adjourn from councillor hartnett seconded by Councillor roof all those in favor please say aye Any opposed none? We are adjourned Thank you very much