 Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us. I am very happy to welcome all of you to City Hall Park as we approach an important milestone in our collective response to the COVID-19 pandemic. As of this morning, more than 72% of the eligible population of Chittenden County has received at least their first dose of the vaccine, and 89.6% of those 50 and older have reached that threshold. That means that, as of this morning, 99,817 people in Chittenden County have been vaccinated. With a daily average of about 1,000 vaccines administered in Chittenden County, we are confident that, together, we will pass 100,000 vaccines administered before certainly before the week is over. We think it's going to happen today. I want to be absolutely clear, while this is an important achievement that we can all be proud of, it has been truly a collective effort, it does not mean that our job is done. Further, there remain significant disparities in vaccination rates between BIPOC communities and non-Hispanic white residents in Chittenden County and across the state that must be an area of continued focus, resources and effort. We must continue to work together as we have for the last year to ensure the health of our community and the strength of our recovery. We also need to change and adapt our strategies in recognition of what barriers to access remain for many residents. The city has been in discussions with the state of Vermont for weeks and is ready to support expanded vaccination options, and Burlington should be on the lookout for news, Burlingtonians should be on the lookout for news about walk-up vaccination opportunities at North Beach and right here on Church Street. Our goal is to make it as easy as possible for monitors who have been waiting, unsure, who have had challenges getting access to join the large and growing group of Chittenden County residents who are fully vaccinated. Everyone should know these vaccines are safe, they are free and they are helping bring down infection rates in our county dramatically. Just a month ago we were at an all-time high of 106 people and one day got infected, and now this week in recent days there have been less than 10. This event is bringing together some of our most essential partners in achieving these these outcomes. In a moment I'm going to have the pleasure of an honor of inviting Senator Patrick Leahy here to the podium. We will also hear this morning from Kara Al-Nazrawi, the director of the Church Street Marketplace and our Economic Recovery Director. Pitt, Keo Manivan, who is our community development specialist and has been leading an effort we call the Trusted Community Voices Program that has been a key part of this pandemic response. Jacob Bugray, the head of AALV, the Association of Africans Living in Vermont, is with us this morning. Mark Hughes, the head of the Racial Justice Alliance is joining us today and we'll hear from Mark and Blaine and Tensei, who has many hats here in this community. She is the head of the Vermont Professionals of Color, which has been a big part of the the pandemic response. I'm also proud to say she's part of the city team as a member of the Racial Equity Inclusion and Belonging team and we'll hear from Blaine. This incredible group has worked tirelessly to ensure that throughout the pandemic, Burlington has been one of the safest communities in America. In addition, our entire city team, in addition to thanking our entire city team, I also want to thank our dedicated healthcare providers, state officials, local businesses, many public and private partners, and most importantly, every Burlingtonian and Chittenden County resident who has worn a mask socially distanced and signed up for a vaccine. My message to everyone today is don't let up. Continue your hard work and together we can look forward to a future not far away where our lives expand once again and together we can enjoy all that Burlington and Vermont have to offer. 100,000 vaccinations is an important milestone and a testament to the vaccine's safety and effectiveness and now is the time to get your friend and neighbor vaccinated. We are especially grateful to be able to recognize today the work of Senator Leahy who along with Senator Sanders and Congress and Welch ensured that through the American Rescue Plan Act the City of Burlington is receiving $27 million to support our ongoing public health efforts in our economic recovery initiatives. This is after a year in which the federal government played an incredible role working with the state and local government ensuring that we had the resources here at the state and local level to do the work that we are celebrating this morning. Because of the passage of the ARPA Act we have gone from having a severely constrained budget with the prospect of years of very challenging budgets ahead Senator to one where we are coming forward with a full service budget that makes strategic new investments and that does this while minimizing the impact on local taxpayers who are still recovering from this deep recession. We'll talk when I introduce Kara a little bit more about action that we're hoping the city council takes on Monday to keep the momentum and keep making the investments going and that's only possible Senator because because of your work. This is the ARPA is of course just the most recent example of decades of incredible actions that Senator Leahy has taken that have protected Burlington that have protected the entire state made us stronger made us better and we are so honored Senator for you to join us here today be with us in in this brand new city all park. I'm going to turn over the podium to you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you Mayor and like you said I I agree with them what we're accomplishing and I forgive me for taking the picture but you know I can't I can't be without a I can't be without a camera and although I hasten to add that I'll never catch up to my son a lot who first been one of President Obama's photographers that is now Vice President Harris's chief photographer so thank you for bringing me here Marcel and I have been all over the state in the last couple of months and I remember before the sense of pessimism and I now see it changing to optimism I think that we are we really are turning the corner as we were walking up and down Church Street I want to see more of these doors open I want to see the people out there doing the things we normally do I look at the at the Flynn they say help us reopen soon I think when the tremendous gathering we had there not that long ago when I invited John Lewis to come up here and we had just standing room only and the thrill that was but as he said to me afterward this is a community look at the diversity look at the people here look at the question look at the young people look at the excitement and that's what we want to go back to and I want everybody to roll up your sleeves and get vaccinated I like the high numbers we have we still have people need to be vaccinated I talked with grandson Patrick who is now 15 and he's going to get his vaccination in a few days a 16-year-old sister already has hers of course his parents do as do Marcel and I and the rest of our family it is essential that you do that so I would hope that we we have to keep going you know our lives our country has been divided for many different reasons some political some because of the pandemic bring us back together one thing that will do that is all of us all of us being vaccinated the pandemic has had an outsize impact on on Bipark Americans both health-wise and economically I mean that's that's the kind of double whammy nobody wants to have to face we've gotten billions of dollars in aid but some of the programs were confusing hard to access and I have been working since I became chairman of the appropriations committee officially in January and as president pro tem I have been bringing together republicans and democrats and members of the administration and roe I've talked about you and what you've done here and I said let's let's bring this back together I you know we talk about the cameras I bring these pictures everywhere I go that I take here I know after Hurricane Irene anytime I'd walk in the Oval Office President Obama say everybody pause Patrick's going to have pictures to show us I said now that you mentioned it but the pictures show what we are and I wanted to I want everybody to unite it I look at the pictures on my desk over here my five grandchildren my black grandchildren and my white grandchildren I want the world to be the same for all of them and I know you do and we will and so I'm I can keep the money coming and I will but you have to spend it well you don't mind I think that was I think that was okay if you gotta send it Patrick send the money damn it we'll take it but it there is an advantage Bernie's got the budget committee I have the appropriations committee in the next year a lot of the parts we have to fill in are going to go through the appropriations committee I would urge you I've got all the members of my office here John Tracy Chris Sanders poly major call them and say look this program is working right this one's not sending money here or not here we'll listen so roe I'm glad you're doing this I'm proud of you I'm proud of Burlington I think of the you know this is the city where Marcel and I were married long before all of you were born and where we spent time our kids growing up when I was state's attorney and had my first office and a senator in that building and this is a special place let's bring it back not to where it was before but even better even better there where it was before thank you so I was pointing out of this is uh an echo echo hat another institution here in Burlington that wouldn't exist without the senator's leadership and which I've had had the pleasure to serve as a board member on years ago I we're gonna hear from a few other people in a moment but before we do I just want to say on behalf of all Burlingtonians and Vermonters again senator thank you we know that literally without for your work without you being in the leadership roles that you're in and using that leadership to help help Vermonters what would be happening now it has it has it has been the difference between hundreds of millions of millions of dollars coming to Vermont at this key moment and it's uh few few people get to do this work work in government have that kind of impact at a key moment and we're we're so grateful thank you senator and yes those are those are key members of the city team excited about the message the more money is going to keep coming library parks arts uh all cheering that on there we're gonna we're this team is going to do everything we can to keep Burlington that special place you talked about senator all right next we're gonna hear from and maybe she'd come on up uh Cara here she is come on up Cara is both the director of the church tree marketplace and um over recent months has taken on an important additional role which is the director of the recovery and as our economic recovery director Cara is overseeing this deployment of new federal funding some of which will support the extension again of the public health initiatives that led to this uh this milestone um and she also is leading the city team effort to design new initiatives that are going to boost and really help lead the economic recovery those economic investments that are coming in the in the weeks ahead will include mobile placemaking free and reduced cost recreation such as uh free paddle boarding and bike rentals for all to really bring to reopen the the waterfront and the downtown for all Burlingtonians um pop up markets new public art programming and um and and getting the word out about all Burlington has to offer making it clear that uh in the weeks ahead Burlington we're almost there Burlington will be fully reopened for business we also will take action in the coming weeks to make permanent important constituent services can sit constituent service capacity that's kind of a tongue twister as you can see for me at least created by the city during the pandemic including bridge funding for the resource and recovery center which has provided one on one direct support for thousands of Burlingtonians over the course of the last year and immediate translation of city documents into seven languages with these ongoing efforts and more to come I'm confident that Burlington will remain an example of collaboration and forward progress through the many challenges and opportunities ahead Kara's gonna make make good on those words and welcome to the podium Kara thank you thank you hi good morning everyone um I'll keep it brief because the mayor covered many of the points already I'm Kara on the Sraue just to give you background in the past year as the mayor mentioned um I've been running the church street marketplace but I've also my team and I have spent a lot of time guiding the business community through what was a painful shutdown and an arduous process of applying for grants and loans and now the slow reopening of the economy and now we're really happy to be looking forward to a full economic recovery while we understand that the health response hasn't gone yet and we're the city team is still very much focused on that I have the pleasure of focusing on reopening the economy fully and getting it reactivated and revitalized thanks to all the ARPA funding that our our senators and our congressmen have gotten for us we have this amazing one-time opportunity and we need to obviously be careful with this money and invest it in our community in the near term future we will be focusing on using these funds for just an equitable recovery from a health well-being and economic perspective we're looking to reactivate the community and the economy as the mayor said with beautification and activities that everyone can enjoy we're especially looking as the mayor mentioned to more streamlined ways to connect with our residents what we are doing right now is tracking some the most amazing programs and opportunities that are coming down from the federal and state governments and we need a clear streamlined way to connect our constituents and our residents with these amazing one-time opportunities to make sure that everyone has a seat at the table and is able to take advantage of these once in a lifetime funds coming down this includes ensuring that all members of our community are aware of what's coming down the pipeline and how they can access it even the members of our community who are non-native English speakers which brings me to our next speaker which is Pet Kail Manivan and she has been working really closely with our trusted community voices team which is helping to get a lot of this information out to our community to make sure that everyone has access to it we see this as a vital part of our just recovery and an equitable recovery and i look forward to helping working with pet further to make sure that all of these economic opportunities reach all of our residents and as the mayor and senator lehi said it feels like this is more of a positive time in our community and we really look forward to reopening and welcoming everyone back thank you pit morning everybody thank you car thank you mayor thank you senator um my name is pet kail manivan and um i'm community development specialist in sido the role of my job is focused on is on public engagement um and from the early eighties we've been a resettlement um location which has made our population more diverse ethnically and racially burlington school district records show that there are over 45 languages in our school systems as spoken students homes however however many of our communications and infrastructure outreach systems do not reach our full community the current COVID-19 pandemic to get out information to the public made it all the more urgent for the city to increase language access efforts and a broad use a broad range of communication methods and create multilingual health public education outreach to be more informed for our full residents to find relief and to make decisions with this in mind we implemented translation and interpretive services in our resource and recovery center created multilingual citywide mailers monthly newsletters psas and updated our websites we also implemented a new engagement team called the trusted community voices led by sido the trusted community voices hired five liaisons from the nepalese samali congolese rundian and vietnamese communities these trusted community voices liaisons helped develop strategies to further help the city reach the full diversity of their community which helped the the residents find utility information about utility housing grants unemployment benefits food assistance programs and the liaisons also helped hand out thousands of masks and also helped with COVID-19 testing and vaccine information so this led to much more actionable processes and programs to help improve equitable distribution and outcomes the trusted community voices not only shared essential government information but they also established a two-way good communication and relationship with BIPOC and refugee communities for burlington robust community engagement provides an opportunity to transform burlington by identifying and addressing challenges in much more of a collaborative manner this creates much more just and equitable communities through this continued work of expansion of language access and the trusted community voices we will build a much more authentic relationship that promotes racial diversity inclusion and creates more equitable opportunities and systems across our city departments in our city towards a path towards recovery together thank you everybody thank you pit okay next we are going to hear from jacob bugray who with his team at alv have been just remarkable during this pandemic since february sorry we'll pause for this okay so just want to say a little bit about the work that jacob and and the whole alv team have done working alongside us cri vermont they have run special vaccination clinics for people with limited english skills in both burlington and winewski they've delivered food to those in need throughout the pandemic they've tirelessly advocated on behalf of the immigrant refugee communities such that there have been translator trusted communicators from many different groups essentially at every state vaccination and testing site they are in short a major reason why our community has fared so well in this pandemic jacob thank you for your service and welcome here this morning thank you so much good morning everyone my name is a yakuha jacob bugray and i work with the association of africans living environment alv over the past year we have been grateful to live in a community such as vermont and in a state that has always welcomed newcomers we would not have been able to do what we did if it was not because of the support of the states the cities of winewski and burlington our partners like usri the department of health and all the neighbors who have been calling to see how they can help and support our work and also referring their neighbors who are in need of care we could not afford to work remotely like many agencies we closed between march and july 6 and had to reopen because families were coming or visiting case managers at their homes seeking help so we had to work on a target schedule until today but we were able to do so because we got funding from the state and the city to work safely in our office but as the mayor said to also continue to provide support to the communities that we are supporting and working with in vermont after the initial phase of testing and educating on the importance of testing and isolating we had to shift gears towards vaccine and since the beginning of february we're able to support nine one thousand nine hundred and fourteen individuals access the clinics and this represents over 600 households 104 caregivers and as of today 1175 individuals got their second dose this is an average of 3.1 per household and it is our hope that in the coming days many families that have not been able to access the clinics will also be able to attend and work towards protecting each order so we can go back to normal but we could not have done so without the help of everyone here the state our congregational the delegation the department of health and usri that have been working closely with us and reaching and calling and also helping to enroll families to the clinics as we look forward to going back to normal i would like to emphasize on one thing many of our families cannot afford to work remotely or work from home these are men and women who lost their jobs during the pandemic and would continue to do so if we don't invest strategically in supporting their need one of the biggest group that has suffered is women mainly single mothers with children they couldn't afford their kids because it is not affordable and it is not even available i hope that the care act funding that we are getting would look at investing strategically towards day cares and childcare so kids at least from three years old do not have to have their parents pay for that school this should be part of the school district and the school system and it is really important to invest in this early education so parents can go back to work learn new skills that can help them empower their life and give back to that state hopefully this is something that we'll consider before i ends i would like also to ask our delegation here to look at helping our families that are still looking to reunite with their loved one that are still languishing in the refugee camps many families are still suffering and they are still separated and we hope that in the coming days the country will look at a comprehensive immigration reform that could help with legal immigration and unite our families thank you thank you jacob for for jacob thank you for that bringing attention to that the issue of the need for comprehensive immigration reform at the end there's no doubt that burlington was dramatically negatively impacted by the trump era policies that so dramatically reduced the number of refugees and individuals relocating to burlington it's welcome that the biden administration is reversing that and we look forward to working with you to and the senator to see that change positive change in immigration policy continuing two more speakers and then we'll we'll take some questions it's my pleasure to introduce blaine entente entente who is one of the city and community's biggest stars she's an outstanding part of the racial equity inclusion and belonging team as i mentioned before but she is really here today in one of her other hats her role as the operational leader of the bipoc clinics begun in march of this year i'll let blaine fill in some of the details about those clinics as well as her organization the vermont professionals of color i'm grateful for her work her leadership and really her wisdom she's personally given me a lot of great counsel and focus in recent months and really years now she's been with the city team and we appreciate her commitment to addressing the deep and long-standing inequities in our community blaine welcome thank you mayor weinberger thank you senator and everyone else who's spoken today i am blaine entente today i'm doing um work for the professionals of color network of vermont it's a it's a group that's focused on the empowerment and the uplifting of bipoc professionals of color um but really all bipoc people in vermont we are a professional network and somehow we're now doing clinics and i couldn't tell you how we got into that but but we're here because we're trying to fill all the gaps that everyone talked about today the disparity in hospitalizations the disparity in cases are now leading us today to a disparity in vaccination rates um so our clinics are really set up to do that but before going into that all of this is really because of the community partner effort that we have today we have representatives from the vermont racial justice alliance when you ski strong vermont uvm lend program the black perspective we have obviously the racial equity inclusion belonging department and so many other bipoc partners here today with us who've been volunteering their time effort energy resources and expertise at the clinics that we have every saturday these clinics were stood up this is our eighth week now doing these clinics in burlington that are focused on bipoc people and the households in an effort to reduce that vaccination disparity which has gone down throughout the state but of course in chinden county we're still working on reducing that disparity it is an example of true community partnership when institutions reach out to community partners that are led by bipoc people who can speak for and bring in representation from the rest of our community it wouldn't be possible without without all the partners that we have so really a huge thanks to all of our partners and the continued effort that we have the clinics themselves are happening every week like i said this is our eighth week of doing this and we started out as a partner effort in collaboration with the city of burlington which provided a lot of personnel and resources and now we're a completely community partner led and we'll be growing into a bigger operation as we move forward but as of now our clinics provide a way for us to mitigate all of the different access challenges that that a lot of bipoc community members have not to mention the historical harm that institutions have done to bipoc communities in public health and health care but also what we're dealing with in the last year of this pandemic in cases in deaths in hospitalization disparities and now that we're taking into our vaccination rates but our our clinics offer an opportunity for a simple registration process one that has more case management and support throughout your process one where you can call a phone and get a direct line to someone who can answer all your questions and who can support you the whole way and when you get to our clinics you're received by people who look like you and i'm speaking more to the bipoc community now directly is that there are people who look like you at these clinics who will support you who will greet you there is music at these clinics it is the least clinical clinic that you could ever go to and we want to keep it that way we have to thank st st paul cathedral church in burlington for for giving this space week after week and continuing to offer this space for the rest of the summer um and once you get inside the registration process is simple you get in and you're greeted and the clinic flow and you have someone to walk you through this whole clinic that looks like you vaccinators as much as we can that look like you um an environment that's set up for you and meant to to hold space for you um and as we wait these clinics have become a community resource and a community gathering place at this point there is the the average 15 minute wait time that were supposed to wait but people stay much longer they stay for a community they stay for the first time in an anxious year of this pandemic that we're allowed to see each other in person some after being fully vaccinated allowed to hug each other in person which somehow now is a crazy thing to think about and then people stick around we have pastors coming in and doing prayer for some folks we have people networking there we have other people seeing each other's family that they haven't seen for so long so really um i can't emphasize enough that these clinics are are more than just a place to get your vaccine it's a a place to build community and to support each other after a year of not being able to do so um but i can't say all that without understanding that we have much more to do as we've said as i've said today the disparity in chitin county is still very great and and the fact that disparity even if we get to parity won't really be enough because uh blackpaw communities are being being hit the hardest and dying the most and being hospitalized the most throughout the nation so so our our vaccination rates in my opinion should be even higher um and that and that we are working with these community partnerships and we're thankful for all of the contributors that have been part of this we look forward to continuing to do that these clinics will evolve as need evolves as eligibility opens up for younger folks we'll be bringing youth into into the fold and we're excited to do that too when they're ready um so vermont professionals of color network is doing this work now and like i said it's crazy that a professional network is doing clinics but it goes beyond clinics it goes beyond just vaccinations the economic recovery is still something that is is top of mind for all of us here at the city at the network among all of our BIPOC partners because we know that when there is an economic recession it is black and brown people that are hit the hardest and that recovered the least quickly from it and sometimes never at all so with that i say there's more work to do senator lehi i appreciate your offer for funding we will take it if you have it um so let me know uh thank you all for your time thank you mayor weinberger thank you blaine um and now uh our final speaker it will be mark hughes from the racial justice alliance um mark has really taught vermont a great deal in his service he championed the declaration of racism as a public health emergency and played a key role in the city officially making that declaration last summer and he is continuing to work at the state level to ensure that the state also recognizes this public health emergency he he and the racial justice alliance have been one of the key partners supporting the BIPOC clinics here in burlington um we have while we're again we're we're noting a significant milestone here today we do so while being very aware there's a lot of work ahead of us there are many there are disparities within the covid 19 response um and many other elements of public health that will require years of work ahead i look forward mark to working with you on that and i'm really pleased and appreciative that you're joining us this morning thank you mr mayor first of all i think the last time i spoke with you senator when we were together i think we were in we were at the democratic national head the democratic headquarters in in my pillar and i think they accidentally introduced me after you and i i told you i said thank you for the warm introduction and i felt like i was a little bit more important um but it's good to see you again and i thank you for all your service um and the secret service protection here kind of i am mark hughes and i am the executive director of the racial justice alliance and i'm really pleased to be with all of you this morning and i'm excited about the work of the city as we continue to move forward um this these initiatives that have been in play you know there's been many of them and this this whole idea of uh what we're doing with um addressing the bipod clinics uh initially partnering with the city and then um lifting up and supporting the the network and and continue to do that work incredibly important uh at the time um you know for this time and um just appreciate the effort but it has not been without um difficulties and systemic difficulties have brought us challenges along the way and i think that has to be noted because um you know it's been largely because of the resilience and the tenacity of the black and brown folks that are running these clinics that they've been successful not that anything has been handed to them or that the situation was you know put in place for them to be necessarily successful uh from timelines on when uh when decisions were made on and as far as vaccination um the vaccination of a bipod clinic to various decisions that have been made along the way and the systemic um issues that contributed to those decisions all of them have been challenging and i think it should be it's very important uh not to you know go too far into this without at least acknowledging that but as we move forward also understanding that it's because of these folks resilience it's because of their tenacity and because of the hard work that they're putting in that we're putting in that has made us that has made this possible so i just want to acknowledge you and just give a shout out to every single one of the folks especially uh belain intense for the hard work that has been put into this effort i also want to say that yes uh senator lehi it is good it's very important that that we continue to bring money here we do we yes we will take that money and yes it is good uh you know that we continue to spend that money and yes it is good uh that we do set this economy back up and we and we get it working but we cannot go back to doing the same thing the same way before we got here and expect different the reason why black and brown people are hurt first and worse during this crisis is because we are always hurt first and worse during any crisis whether it was 9 11 whether it was the great recession or there's this one or when it becomes the next one and there will be a next one so now is the time not just for us to build back not just to build back better but to build back smarter and to build back more equitable now is the time for us to invest in creating and transforming some of these systems that are hurting us right now now is the time for us to move beyond just a desire an old white desire to get back to where we were and and approach a new right desire to take us to where we need to be because if we don't we will be back here again and what we've come to understand if nothing else through this crisis is is because black and brown people are hurt first and worse and because of our contribution to these communities everybody is hurt at the end of the day we found that out through vaccinations we found that out through testing and how much more do we need to discover to find out more and now what we're talking about right now is only covid housing education employment health services access economic development and the so-called criminal justice system all of them need systems changes because they are not serving our communities well and what that means is is we don't take money one time money lots of money and ask for more and take it and invest it in these same systems and take the small things that are hurting a lot of people and make them big things that hurt more people what we need to do is invest this money in smart ways where we're transforming these systems and invest these money in black and brown folks as we make this transformation we stood on the other side of this building as i conclude uh in september of last year i believe it was as we declared racism as a national as a public health emergency in the city of burlington we did that and i said to you that we cannot do it without a radical redistribution of political and economic power we have not seen that yet it is time that we've seen that senator lehi it's not enough for us to get more money mayor it's not enough for you to spend more money we got to do it right we got to do it right or we're going to keep doing this over and over and over again and again black and brown bodies are being hurt first and worse and at the end of the day it costs us all no we don't want normal we do not want to go back to normal what we want to go back to is right so as i prepare for my first shot tomorrow yeah you can give it up yes this is this process has enabled me to make a decision to do so and i've considered it carefully and seems seems like even the fda's thinking this thing is a good idea so i'll as i prepare for my first shot tomorrow i just you know i just want to again just give a shout out to everybody who's done the work um and also um you know remind you know remind you that the way in which we've done this work hasn't necessarily been the right way you know i want to leave you with just a a thought just for example you know when we start talking about you know economically you know how we invest in our black and brown communities that work does not stop at the a alv that work does not stop when we say that new americans are taking care of do we love new americans that is one of my best friends that is one of my best friends economically you are dividing us when you do that don't do that there's a broad community that we need to be addressing yes i said it publicly and it needs to be said more often your job is black folks does not equal immigrant and new americans hard stop let's get all of the work done because there are there is a lot of communities that are not benefiting from this economic development mr mayor let's get this right so thank you for your time have a great afternoon or morning or whatever it is okay um thank you mark thank you for your laser focus on making sure we continue making progress um i do just want to thank two other people here this morning we're not going to hear from but lewis calderon has also been a central part of this response by pock clinic response and appreciate your leadership lewis and uh brian lowe is here this morning and i know you've all seen him on our briefings has been the city's coven leader from the start and uh we wouldn't we wouldn't be at this milestone today brian without your personal commitment as well you've been a huge computer computer