 Hey good evening and welcome to Montpellier Civic Forum and this year we have another series because we have another Tom meeting day coming of which of course you can vote ahead of time and many of you will vote ahead of time but I hope that all of you will engage and actually show up and vote. Tonight we're going to deal with the mayor's race and we have our incumbent mayor Ann Watson and this time we're going to do something very special because with her baby and all Ann is going to come out and zoom so what you're going to do is you're going to hear me in the background asking questions and you're going to see Ann in the foreground. It's a very engaging conversation and I hope that you'll stay with it. She's going to speak to us about being mayor of Montpellier and why she wants to continue being mayor of Montpellier. Now this is not the first time that Ann and I have spoken Ann when did we speak first what year? Oh my gosh it was nearly 10 years ago actually because I was looking to be appointed to the city council for an open seat and then I ran to keep that seat a little bit later in that year so it's been a long time. Ten years. Yeah. What made you I say this every time this is not something new for me. What made you run the first time? What made you want to be appointed? Now at that time you were teaching physics at the high school. Yep. You had more than enough to do. You didn't need the small stipend that we pay. What what brought you forward? Yeah I am passionate about energy and particularly renewable energy and at the time I was starting to tune into the discussions about district heat and interested in the energy committee and then actually because there was this open seat a friend of mine said you know you should put your name in. I'd recommend that you that you do that and so I went with her suggestion and put my name in for the appointment and mainly because I care deeply about the environment. I mean as a physics teacher I spend a lot of time thinking and talking about energy and spending time with kids you know folks who are our future and so I I'm very invested in energy and renewable energy and I still am this is it continues to be a top priority for me for the city. Let me bust down for those who do not know what is district heat. It's a great question. So if folks are familiar with the smokestack in the middle of town directly underneath that is a wood chip burning basically multiple furnaces that are providing heat through underwater hot water pipes to businesses downtown as well as many of the city's buildings. So the city hall police department and fire department are all heated with wood chips and that actually allowed us to get off of burning oil for heat in those buildings which was very exciting. So you know it's been a system that's evolved over time and yeah it's it continues to several downtown businesses also go off the wood chips. Yes not every business but there are there are somewhere in the neighborhood of like 17 businesses or buildings. How is it doing fiscally? I know that because oil didn't spike the way that we thought it would yet we weren't coming in with the projections that we thought. Where are we now? Yeah so we just had a recent audit of or a sort of a report as to how the system was working and you know physically speaking it is working just fine and the the city is is you know making money with it but it is it is not it's not as it's not saving folks as much money as they had as we had hoped and we're very interested actually in the next couple of years to do some like reevaluating of sort of where we're at with that and what needs to happen next because some of the businesses that are off-takers are actually non-profits and so they you know their ability to pay is different than you know someone who like a business that is for profit so in any case it's an ongoing conversation and we'll we'll see what we can do to make it work for everybody. That was the first you were involved in the next big energy project which was the the waste treatment plant or yes would you discuss that one and whether it's meeting the projections you hoped. Oh sure yeah so I guess it was last year we passed a bond to do significant upgrades on the wastewater treatment facility or the water resource recovery facility it's what we call it and not the one on the hill it's down by the dog river fields it's across the street there you can see it from the highway so that plan called for us to start trucking in significantly more of what we call fat soils and greases or high density waste I'm sorry sorry high high energy density waste and so that has happened and our capacity has increased and what that means is that we are generating significantly more methane and that is is on purpose because we are going to be able to heat the buildings there with that methane and basically take those buildings off of oil for heat as well and that has been successful and fiscally speaking that has been more than successful it's been doing really very well financially for us it is quite a boon and so we're actually looking at the next phase of this that what we passed was what we call phase one where we're starting to generate more methane and that's an energy source so there is this question of as to whether we should burn it for electricity or whether we should try to drive the sludge with it so like dewater the sludge so that it would be less costly to transport it and it's it's looking like that actually might it is the best fiscal solution for us and best use of the energy and it actually also works out timing wise because we end up with a lot of excess methane in the summer as it's not being burned for for heat and that's actually exactly the time that the load for drying sludge is the highest so that actually works out great so this next bond that is on the March 1st town meeting day ballot is is for this phase two for using this energy. Are we also talking in that bond of taking another building into the alternative heating grid? Yes so there is a part as a part of another bond taking care of this one building actually it's the water treatment building the one uphill to get that off of burning oil and so instead we're we're hoping to put in a like a pellet furnace or pellet boiler up there and so this is actually one of the first projects that we can check off of our list that came from a series of recommendations from VEC that we worked with to come up with a roadmap for us to achieve net zero energy so obviously that building what's that number one the EIC. Oh yeah gosh VIC well so they are the company that what does that stand for? I'm not entirely sure it's like Vermont Electric something corporation yeah but they're the ones that work with efficiency Vermont so they're sort of the the company behind efficient efficiency Vermont if that helps. The energy consultant position what is that how much is it budgeted for what does it do and what's the accountability on that what's the metric of success for that position. Yeah that's a great question so the sustainability coordinator we're we've budgeted for that about a hundred thousand dollars and I know that might seem like a lot but for the typical salary for someone after you include benefits often comes to that much anyway so that is sort of a buffer amount to make sure that we can adequately pay someone and so what that role might entail so just to be clear to be fair the role of hiring and firing staff that belongs to the city manager and so that's going to be up to bill so the city council has come up with a list of possible job you know roles like job description but that will ultimately be up to the city manager to to adopt and enact. What did the council hope to achieve with that position? Yes so getting to it so there are a lot of things that this person could be doing you know for example they could be managing the district heat system we also have this net zero energy goal to achieve net zero for the whole community by 2050 that is something that this person could take on you know connecting federal and state dollars with Montpelier residents to ensure that folks who need it the most are receiving assistance in an energy transition. They could also be working with their home energy information ordinance in terms of support and compliance there as well as helping us with our our internal green revolving loan fund to identify projects that the city can be doing and help use that fund those dollars wisely to ultimately help save taxpayer dollars and there's there's just a number of things that we anticipate this person could be doing and the accountability there would you know like other staff would be to bill to our city manager. The energy compliance bill if you want to sell your house that is voluntary right now yes it is voluntary right now and we are looking to make it a requirement by July 1st of this year. How much do you anticipate that that would add to the cost of selling your house? So there is some data out there that suggests that regardless of how well a home does or on you know in terms of energy performance that having a score like this increases the value of the home by as much as like 3% so it's not very much but you know that's that's what the the data suggests so far so we'll see but you know. But that would be the person who buys the house or the person who sells the house. That would benefit the person who sells the house. So that person would end up having to contract someone to do this. Oh no. Sorry that's a great question. No the coming up with the home energy profile. It's called the Vermont home energy profile is free and anyone selling their home can do it. There's a website you just log in all of the city properties in Montpelier are already pre loaded into this database with all the publicly available information things like you know square footage of the house and age of the house number of bedrooms etc. That's that's already public information and so starting from there someone could just say I don't want to add any more information I'm done just hit you know submit basically and it'll come up with an estimate for you but you can also add more detail if you want to and it'll make the estimate more refined. Let's get to the elephant in the room the city budget. Sure. The city budget presumes the inflation rate of 7%. Do we believe that households are making 7% more than they made last year. Yeah, no that's a great question they're up 7%. Yeah, so when we look at like how are we managing the budget. Yes that it is 7% is a lot but one of the things that we were really intentional about last year was keeping the city budget down to it was basically flat last year. So it was about 0.76% of a budget increase. So altogether both years combined the inflation rate or I'm sorry the budget increase amount. What's that? No, no I was saying it for you. I was prompting you forward for my little thing up here. Yeah. Well anyway it's both years combined it's it's about 3.5% over two years. So in a way you know because we had drastically cut the budget last year in terms of the services that well the projects that we were doing and even like we had to furlough staff etc. So of course coming back to a budget that is relatively normal for us is going to look like quite a jump. But isn't this inflationary towards the future as well that we're bringing all those people back and this will probably be held on to in the future. So it might be difficult to meet a lower inflation rate in the future. Well that's that's possible. We sort of anticipate that that this is a jump that's one time as we get back into what we hope is a normal budget for us and you know what what I'm hearing from businesses downtown is that businesses coming back that folks are returning and that's really very encouraging. And so the hope is that as covid starts to ideally disappear that it will only continue to get better and so our position for the budget should also also get better as well. So anything else that's an increase in the operating budget except for taking those people back. Well so there is actually some increased money in the police budget and I know that that might be of some concern to a number of folks. But just to be clear that was not a result of like you know adding another officer particularly but rather we are adding body cams body worn cameras for the department which should help with transparency and accountability for the police department as well as increasing the trainings that they're doing. So that's another area of increase. Well I think there's also concern on the other side. How many police are we down to. I mean ideally we're supposed to be staffed at 17 or 18. Right. What are we staffed at right now. Well we have budgeted enough positions to maintain the you know the 16 or 17 officers that we need for a full time department. I think we are still looking to hire a one. So I think at least there's there's at least one position open. So if anyone knows you know a good officer who's looking for a physician we might have a spot for them here. But that's where we're kind of at the minimum number of officers we need for to run a full time department. And so that's that's where we're at and that's what we're maintaining. Though to be fair we are also adding. So we did recently like I think within last year not it's not new to this budget but we added a social worker embedded in the department and that person I I hear has been used really very well and the response has been good. So we're looking to potentially add another social worker and we're also looking to increase our peer support like outreach positions as well. We share the social work position with Barry. Yes. Yes. That's right. Would we share another one with Barry or note this. What we're looking to add would be just for Montpelier. What is a peer support person in a police context. Well so a peer support person or which I guess is is a little bit different from the street outreach worker is someone that can be a connection point or a liaison sort of between you know folks who may be experiencing homelessness and and the department or other just other services in general. Let's go into homelessness and treating that population. How big do you estimate that population is in Montpelier. Well that's a good question. So I'm told that Montpelier has about 40 individuals who are chronically homeless in Montpelier and with the closing of the local or the hotel program where you know folks were able to stay in hotels through COVID but that you know program was coming to an end. We were anticipating roughly another 40 or 50 folks but unclear as to whether they were going to stay in Montpelier or go elsewhere. So there definitely has been an increase recently but I don't have numbers beyond that that 40 folks who we we know are sort of chronically around. Homeless. Now that's a very wide definition. That's a person and on one level it's very simple and they lack a place that they live in on a regular basis. On another one is that a population that has people who work two or three jobs and simply can't afford an apartment. Yeah, certainly and people who have no predilection for work whatsoever. Sure. Yeah. And we know that folks end up being homeless for a lot of different reasons. You know everyone's not sort of there for the the same reasons and and so helping them get out of that situation you're getting to be housed is you know that there's a lot of different strategies there to help folks because they're not all there for the same reason. The new housing structure for them over in 302 over by the auto dealership. What is the status of that project and what did we contribute to that project? Are you referring to Downstreet's project to build some like a shelter for exactly. Yeah. Yeah. So they they did request some money from us and because that was one of the things that ARPA money could go towards. And so we did acronym ARPA. Oh, thank you. It's the American Rescue Plan Act money and it's so it's federal money that is coming to municipalities and we do have some flexibility as to how to spend it. And so we did allocate. I think it was something like $40,000 to go to to Downstreet to help with the construction of this project. And so beyond that, I don't know where they're at with it. But I think it's important to be housed in this project. Would this take care of a significant amount of the issue of homelessness? Well, I don't know that it'll be, you know, it's not going to be a solution, but I do think it's it's going to be helpful for that particular population, though I can't tell you how many beds there are there. The structure over by Shaw's, could you discuss the thought behind moving that structure from further back to right in commercial downtown? Sure, yeah, it's a good question. So originally, that structure was placed on the bike path on the Sybuinabee shared use path that it was right behind the basically like the over by the bridge. Yeah, the Department of Motor Vehicles is sort of back there. And a lot of folks who were coming off the bridge and going around the corner found that to be really tight and especially when there were people there who might be calling out things at them or whatnot. It was just a very like scary corner for some folks. And so we moved it so that it would open up that space a little bit and hopefully encourage folks to continue to use the shared use path. And so then the question became, well, where do we move it? And you knew a lot of folks were using it where it was. And so we didn't want to move it very far away. And that land was available. Also, there is a we really wanted to keep it sort of near the river. And so it is it is still near the river there. And the there was a lot of discussion as to whether it should face away from the street or towards the street. And that was a discussion that I was not involved in. But that it I believe it was in the design review committee. But I could be wrong. But there the homelessness task force was very much involved in in those discussions. And to be fair, go on. Sorry, go ahead. So to be fair, that is a piece of property that the city has sort of yet to determine what it's going to do with. Right now, the city owns that sort of little triangle of property. But we we could turn it into an official park for the city, or we could sell it and build a building there. And we haven't we've not yet had that discussion. Do you foresee a day when Montpelio families could use that facility again? You know, I would certainly hope so. I imagine that you're talking about just the structure. Specifically, I'm talking about the fact that pretty much the people who are using it are people who don't work, people who use your time. Do you ever see that coming back again for broader public use? Well, sure. I mean, if that structure were to move again, it's very possible that it might end up in a location where it's not as easy to gather. And so, you know, if it if it ends up in, you know, for example, Hubbard Park, that was another place that we discussed or somewhere out further out on the bike path, I think that certainly is a possibility. But for now, you know, it's it's I to be fair, I do feel like it is serving a purpose for a set of folks. And, you know, that's that's that's OK for now. I mean, and we'll we'll see how it evolves. The Parks Commission at the last meeting said that there will be no camping. There will be no living in that park after dark. Do you agree with that? Should should there be people allowed to camp out in that park after dark? That's a great question. And it's the answer is is a little bit complicated. And so the reason is because the the city recently came up with an encampment and emergency camping policy that said that there were certain criteria that would need to be met in order for a for someone to not be allowed to camp in a certain location. And so, you know, some places in Hubbard Park would need that those criteria in other places might not. And I think that actually it highlights, I think it's really interesting. I guess I'd call it either a conflict or an interesting Venn diagram, maybe of like whose authority is it to regulate that in in Hubbard Park or in the parks in general? And because we know that that authority is a charter for the Parks Commission. Yeah, right, exactly. It's, you know, the maintenance and the maintaining of the and the oversight comes to or goes to the Parks Commission. But in terms of enforcement, it would be the police department. So of course, that's, you know, under the city council, which anyway, I'm very interested in continuing to have this dialogue and work out a solution together with the Parks Commission so we can make sure that everybody is is happy and taken care of. What do you mean by happy and taken care of that? The Parks Commission and City Council are on the same page or? Yeah, well, it'd be great to well, first, it'd be great to clarify the question of authority so that we're really clear on that. And then I think also to make sure that if we can find places of common ground together with the Parks Commission, that would be great. And then also to make sure that people who are experiencing homelessness have a place to go because ultimately that's that's that's really, you know, the the most dire concern. The City Park, Hubbard Park and North Park, for that matter, do not have a fire policy. There is no formal fire plan for what should happen if somebody now called a high school kid because high school kids have been in Hubbard forever if they use one of those fire pits after dark or anyone use it and a fire breaks out. We don't have a plan for how to respond to that. Should we be thinking before we're thinking about homeless people using that park should we somehow come up with a coherent plan as to what happens if there is a fire after dark because for years, no one slept in that park. Sure, it's not designed for being slept in. They're just three rough latrines, actually. Yeah, well, to be fair, people have been sleeping in Hubbard Park. It's just that they've been sort of out of the way and out of people's notice. Right, which is easy to do when you have a small police department stretch. And it's a it's a lot of areas. Exactly. Yeah. So but but that is a good point. And I think that probably would be a good proactive thing to do. A part of the policy that we approved was a set of you can think of them as guidelines or expectations that of like what someone who is experiencing homelessness could expect. So, you know, if we encountered a illegal encampment, you know, what would happen to the stuff and how long would the city hold on to it and where could they go to find it if they needed it, you know, that kind of thing. And so we could potentially build in something like that into those that's that protocol. But I could also picture that being under the auspices of the Parks Commission. So anyway, we'll open to discussion about that. In our capital budget, which is different than the operating budget, Confluence Park is in there. Yes. Would you explain what we think we're going to do with Confluence Park if that passes? Sure, yeah. We're going to do it. And what is Confluence Park? Let's start with that. So there's a corner where the North branch of the Winooski meets the Winooski right by the railroad bridge behind Shaw's. And right now there's a couple of picnic tables there. But that was sort of a temporary solution as we were exploring the possibility of turning that area into a much more robust park in which folks could actually get down to the water where you could you could actually enjoy the river. And so the Vermont River Conservancy has been spearheading this together with the city. And so they they held a number of public hearings and feedback sessions. And there were multiple plans drawn up for that. And folks got to vote on what part of the plan they liked or what what plans they liked the most. And so there is a plan in place. And so if this passes, then that'll be money to leverage further dollars from grants and whatnot. And then hopefully we'll be able to construct the vision that a lot of folks voted on. When do you see that happening? If it passes? Yeah. So if it passes, I mean, my anticipation would be that I think there's still more planning that needs to be done, which might take another year. And then in terms of construction, it might take another year on top of that. So it might be 2024 before we see. You know, actually, you know, it being done at the soonest. So and you know, these things just take time. But that's why, you know, we've got to start now. OK, let's walk east a little bit from there. We'll go across the new little bridge to Maine and Berry. And that is the capital budget as well. Yes. So a different plan, the downtown master plan, one called for a number of street improvements. And one of them was adding a traffic light at the corner of Berry and Main Street. I don't know if viewers have ever tried to turn left coming off of Berry Street, going left onto Main Street, but it is tough, especially during rush hour. And so having a streetlight there, we think would be a real improvement. It I think it's considered a failing intersection right now. And so a streetlight should help that in terms of wait times. But it'll also increase this pedestrian safety around right around the intersection. I mean, I'm sure folks have maybe heard that now there have been multiple accidents involving pedestrians right around that area. So having a light there will be better for everybody. Yeah. So a failing intersection is a euphemism for a bit dangerous. Say again, sorry. It's a euphemism for a bit dangerous. Well, so it's a it's actually I think it's a euphemism more for wait times. You know, how congested is is that intersection? So but it's an untaught, you know, in addition to I mean, so to be fair, I'm pretty sure it takes into account, I know it takes into account wait times. It might take into account safety, I'm not sure. In that master downtown plan, we talked about timing lights. Is that going to happen sooner or is that still in the distant future? Yeah, so if we put in a light there, then it would be the kind that is coordinated with the light at Memorial Drive in Maine or where we're North Street or Northfield Street. Meets, you know, that intersection. It would be coordinated with that with that light and with the light down at State in Maine. OK, good, good. Let's keep going east. Regardless of what passes or doesn't pass in the bond, what's going to happen with the recreation building? Oh, yeah, so that's a great question. Well, so the recreation building as it is is way out of code. And so it needs it. We either as a city need to dump a lot of money into it to get it up to code or we need to or we need to sell it. I mean, it's it's a relatively small space that is meeting some but not all of our recreation needs for the city. But, you know, as as we a while ago asked the community, you know, what do you want to do in terms of recreation? And we had a survey that was put out and folks were pretty hesitant to to build a new building or we asked about a pool. People were hesitant about a pool or a lot of folks wanted a pool, but didn't want to pay for it. And so all of that led us to saying, OK, well, we'll invest in this property and we'll get it up to speed. But as as we came up with plans and engine, you know, the designs and engineering plans, it became clear that we were going to need to spend millions of dollars just to get that building up to speed. And so, you know, we we realize it like, well, if we're going to spend millions of dollars anyway, then, you know, why not look into building a brand new facility that could be better at meeting the needs for the community? In terms of building a facility, there's always two sides. There's capital to build the thing and is operating to operate the thing. Sure. This budget has five people in the recreation department and a number of them work on that's on the summer camp and the pool. Yeah. And then there's a minimal skeleton staff that contracts out for recreation stuff during the year. Yep. As a community, are we ready to take that department and see a double or triple or quadruple for a new facility? Well, so one question would be like, would a new facility like that require significantly more staff because our staff right now is very much involved in scheduling and and so what we're looking at with the recreation department, I'm sorry, with the with the bond for the Elts Club is a potential partnership with an external recreation organization called the hub. And so they would be running a lot of recreation programs there as well and potentially leasing space from the city. So that's that's the model that I'm anticipating anyway. And but we'll see if that bond passes. OK, I was just heading out towards the Elks property. What's the rationale behind the purchase of the Elks property? Because one of the concerns that people had when I remember that survey, we didn't want to move it to the school because that would be too far for people to get to. They wanted it within the core city more and that's anything but in the core city and you would need a car to get out to that facility. Yeah, well, so to be fair, I don't know that the high school was ever really an option. And the reason is because I mean, as an employee of the city and as someone who uses the fields around it frequently, I know that all that land is is spoken. It's all spoken for like it is all used. And I think that the city would be I think that also I think people are talking about the rec field. Because one of those fields could have been repurposed. Oh, like the like the dog river fields on. I don't think I was talking. I think they were talking more on Elm Street over. Oh, you mean the recreation field? I'm sorry, the recreation center out there. And they didn't want to move it out because it just seemed too far. Yeah, yeah, the Elks facility is way far from the core city. It is farther. But the nice thing about that is we do have a bike path. We sure do use path that goes pretty much all the way out there. So theoretically, it is, you know, accessible by bike. What's that? That's a good hike. It is a good hike. That's true. But I've also heard that the majority of folks who use our current rec facilities are coming there by car anyway. And the parking is pretty limited as it is. So that's your neighborhood. Yeah. So in a sense, it would be not not terribly different. In that way, there have been some discussion of putting low income housing on that area. What is that about? Is that just wishful thinking? Well, so if the city had control of that property, then I mean, it's like one hundred and thirty eight acres. It is a significant amount of property. And so we could go through the process of soliciting, you know, somewhat a developer to develop housing, you know, of mixed mixed incomes or low income or, you know, whatever comes out of a public process there to to go on to that property. So that's it's a real possibility. But we'll see again, we'll see if the bond passes. Text incremental financing. Yes. Would you discuss what that is? And then does I know that district does not go all the way out to there? Would district go all the way out to there? It does not. But first, what is tax increment financing? Right. So so it's a program through the state that in a sense, we take a sort of a snapshot in time of the value of the properties in a certain designated area. And so for Montpelier, it's I believe it goes something like from the corner of Bailey and state all the way out to what goes past the distillery, obviously. Yes. Well, yeah, I'll to savings pasture. And so that the assumption is that folks will continue to to to pay property taxes on that appraise value at that one snapshot in time and any improvement on the property, like, let's say, if somebody were to build a structure that didn't exist. So the taxes would theoretically go up on that property. Anything above what it was paying in taxes. Some of that. Goes some of that they do, you know, it still goes to the city, but or it still goes to the Education Fund and it's still, you know, is taxed regularly. But a portion of that it goes towards paying for any improvements that the city might need to do to enable that development to happen in the first place. So, you know, for example, let's say they, you know, this new building needed a new water and sewer line and the city could use that anticipated increment. What is over and above the value of the anticipated value of the property to pay for that those improvements like water and sewer, or it could be used for things like, you know, improving intersections, you know, for traffic flow or whatnot, things that the city would need to do you know, to spend money on to enable a development to occur. And so but ultimately, it's a it's a win for the city. And that that tax increment financing or that program ends up going away after like 20 years. Are we talking about extending it out there? Oh, do you mean out to that property? Exactly. That's not something that we've talked about yet, but it seems like it's worth the conversation. Now, I want to come back into town. OK. The savings pasture bond was a long time ago. Our kid was at Union Elementary. When that came up, our kid is graduating from graduate school this semester. It's very exciting. Nothing. Nothing has happened in savings pasture. What what do we look for in terms of housing and savings pasture? Well, I mean, my understanding is that there is discussion about some plans for that site. But I don't know where they're at with that development at this point. Let me go back to the police department. We had a commission that looked at the police department. Why? What was the what was I understood at the time what the problem was in Minnesota and in other cities? What was the problem here? What was the problem that people had with Tony's Police Department and Brian's Police Department? That's one city council to say we've got to take a serious look at our place. Yeah, no, fair enough. So so I mean, I think there's layers to that. So the first layer is that, you know, there was a national racial reckoning around police accountability and that we are certainly no exception in terms of like, you know, needing to take a hard look, you know, everyone was taking a hard look at at their policing practices or they they should have been, you know, at that point. And and I think it's it's fair that we that we did that as well. And I know a lot of folks had particular concerns that they had experienced either with the police department or, you know, there was general concern about like what happened. It was the the shooting deaths of seven of a couple of people, including Mark Johnson. And so, you know, there was a question about also where what are our policies and what are, you know, are there ways to make our our practices more inclusive and more welcoming and just better for everybody. Were you hearing that you were on City Council during those shootings? Yes, we were on City Council for years. Were you hearing that from from people that there was a problem with inclusion, with racial profiling in our police department? I wasn't hearing it very much. No, but and there is some data out there about policing and racial profiling for police departments across the state. And Montpelier's Police Department actually had done had done very well. But that's not to say that we don't have areas where we can improve because, you know, I want us to be exemplary. I want us to be leaders in the state, especially in terms of our policing. So it never hurts. You know, I feel like there's always doesn't matter where we're at. There's always room for improvement. And, you know, it was an opportunity to to do that to take a look at how we recommended bodycams. Yes. Will there be a policy for how that footage is dealt with? Well, I believe there's state statute around that already. And I'm not sure what authority or space we have to create more or regulations around around that. But I think that I know that our chief chief Pete has been thinking a lot about that and is comfortable moving forward. Now, we're going to see more data on the police and what they do online sometime in the future. It's embedded in this budget. Well, so that's a good question. So we were just talking about this actually at our most recent city council meeting. The data transparency is it's a tough one. You would think that it would be relatively straightforward or you're easy to just say, well, we're just going to publish this information. I mean, I certainly have been very interested in like, you know, being able to go to the city website and say, you know, how many, you know, burglaries have been or, you know, how many crimes have there been of this type or, you know, how many incidences of, you know, people of color being arrested or or whatnot. But it turns out that getting that data is we would need an entirely new data management system and the kinds of management systems that have the capacity to do that level of inquiry on the scale of like three hundred thousand dollars, which I was shocked at. But that that's apparently what what it would take to get to that level. And so there we are working towards more data transparency with the department. And I believe the current plan is that we have an intern that's going to be working with the police department this summer, who's going to do a lot of data analysis for us. But that may not be a great solution. Indefinitely, you know, moving on into the the future, we are just going to be dependent on interns for data analysis forever. I would love to see us move towards, you know, this this kind of level of transparency. But, you know, we don't have the the three hundred thousand to just, you know, you know, add into the budget at this point. What else in that report is City Council going to consider? Oh, from the police to that. Yeah, there was more to that report. Yes, yes, there was quite a bit, actually. So there are a number of issues, some of which the police department agreed with some of them. They were sort of neutral on and some of them they did not agree whether they they were not interested in pursuing. So a lot of the the ones that are a lot of the findings that the committee came up with that they did agree with that had financial implications are actually already packaged in this budget. You know, they're they're things like the body worn cameras. They're increased trainings for the police department around crowd management around working with youth around you working with folks with mental health issues. So and all of that, I think is is on the right track and something that we ought to be doing. So I'm really glad to say that those things are in there. But other things in one of the pieces was this data transparency piece. Another was that they was there was a recommendation around allowing for basically open containers like public decriminalizing drinking in public, basically. And so that that's one that you know, we'll see if that that passes. I think there'll be a lot of discussion about that. There was a recommendation to decriminalize prostitution or sex. What's that? That's state code. How do you locally override from a state code on prostitution? Well, so so to be fair, it's we have both there. So you're right, there is a state statute against that. But there's also we have a local ordinance prohibiting it as well. And so the proposal would be to to with, you know, to to rescind the the local or repeal the local ordinance against it. And and again, that I think will you know, any one of these items could take an entire city council evening that. So when we have not actually enacted any of those things, we've not repealed that that measure against prostitution or against public drinking. But I do anticipate that we may have those conversations over the coming year or so. Now, I don't want to tie this in with the police report because it wasn't, but it just came to mind. The social equity consultant. Yes, what what does he or she do? So that was a budgeted for. Sure. So that was a contract that we had over the last year. And I had that's a good question. I'm not sure how much they are a budgeted for this year. I don't. It's not an indefinite. What's that? I think it's 40,000. I think you're right. I think it is 40,000. But this is not sort of an indefinite relationship. So what they did for us this last year was they did a needs assessment for the city to analyze how we were doing in terms of equity across our local government. Like what are how are folks feeling about participating? What were practices that were either working or not working for, you know, the breadth of our community folks of all backgrounds and races and ethnicities and and income levels really as well. So one of the recommendations that came out of that that needs assessment was this idea that some folks actually cannot participate in committees that they might not go up for appointments to participate in our local government in that way, because they either need to be working or they can't pay like a babysitter or whatnot. And to be fair, you know, all generally speaking, most of the folks who are in local government now are either sufficiently employed or over employed where they can they can afford to take that time off and volunteer. So one of the recommendations was that we should have stipends available to participants on our committees to encourage folks from all, you know, economic backgrounds to participate. And I'm going to edit this back when we talk about the the police issue. OK. One of the elements of the police report was a civilian police review board. Essentially, I don't call that. But would you explain what the rationale for a civilian police review board and whether you've been on console forever? Do you believe that a civilian police review board is merited? You've had the chance to read their report. You've sat on console. Would you explain what a civilian police review board would do? Who they envisioned sitting on that board? And why do you think it's a good or bad idea? Well, that's a good question. So for a police review board or oversight board, what this could potentially mean for the city is that there would be a group of Montpelier residents, particularly, I think the recommendation was intended to have this group be folks who spend a lot of time looking at, you know, policing issues and and who are effectively, you know, content experts or become content experts in terms of dealing with issues around the police. And the idea would be that that they would hear complaints or concerns from the public or that there'd be some kind of a review process if there is you know, use of force incidents, that kind of thing. Now, to be fair, the one of the questions that I have is, you know, thinking about the authority that such a board would do is, you know, what would, you know, the board have? Yeah. So what would they have the authority to do? And so and is that authority already being met somewhere else? You know, I think this is a topic that we're going to end up having more conversation on. And and one of the other recommendations from this committee was to have a use of force policy. So any time, you know, an incident that is either a, you know, where force was used or if there is a shooting, that kind of thing that there should be a policy that the the police department follows to help get information out about it. And so one of the things that they were willing to do, this the police review committee was willing to help shape what this policy could look like. And the police department was actually very receptive to that. So, you know, welcoming a conversation about having a use of force policy. But as for a review board, you know, as of right now, this, you know, such a board would not have the authority to say like dismiss an officer or even to like reprimand him and any or her in any for them in any meaningful way. And so the question in my mind sort of becomes sort of why, like what what function would we anticipate that they would serve? Someone I know said when they were talking about appointing themselves because they were experts, their logic was that you don't appoint experts on a jury and that it would be better just to go to John Odom's office, go down a random list of voters and say, would you like to serve on this so that the average person from Montpelier would be sitting in a judging their police department? Is there a logic behind that as well? You know, I could I could see that, but I also think that there are. I think there's a lot of misconceptions about police and the best practices of a police department and and knowing what the best practices even are. And I think that that takes time to get up to speed on. So, you know, I think there is a place for sort of like the random selection. And I but I don't think that would be useful for for this particular kind of committee. If we elected mayor, what are your priorities? Yeah, great question. So as we mentioned towards the beginning, I continue to be passionate about the environment. We know from the science that we have a limited amount of time to make significant progress on reducing carbon emissions worldwide. And Montpelier needs to do as part. And so both reducing our carbon as well as anticipating a hotter, wetter, more chaotic climate in Montpelier is something that is top priority for me. And I have lots of thoughts as to how we can do that. There are specific projects and plans that I am anticipating that we can that we can do. And then a second priority is that we know that there is not sufficient childcare in central Vermont, particularly for meeting the hours of typical working family, nor for very young children from zero to five years of age. And childcare is a tough business to be in. And I think the city can play a better role in meeting that need for central Vermont. So I'm very interested in the city taking on that service to the to the city, especially in terms of like getting folks back to work and even just like we know that those those zero to five year old ages, those are essential years for young kids in terms of their development. So it's literally an investment in our future. And then another thing would be would be infrastructure. We just need to be catching up on our on our infrastructure. We've had a couple years now due to covid that we had to put put off projects, we had to postpone projects. And it's time to to get back on the horse there and catch up to where we need to be. One final one. There's a freak out coming. The reappraisal. Oh, yes. There's a sense already that that it's really expensive to get into Montpelier and that this could become a gated community. Can you trust that? I mean, it's going to be a freak out when people see the new appraised value. Right. Well, so I think it's important for folks to recognize that when we do a reappraisal, it doesn't necessarily mean that your taxes are going to go up because everyone's being assessed. So, you know, if the entire market is floating at a higher level, then let's say everyone's house went up by the same percentage, then everyone's taxes would literally stay the same. But even though your home value had had gone up, so it's really how much your home value has changed relative to to the rest of the city, so to speak. So that's that's one thing to keep in mind. And the other thing that, you know, I sort of want to remind folks about is that for a lot of homeowners, there are protections, at least in terms of taxes, in terms of something called income sensitivity and the circuit breaker. So if someone owns their home and they're making below a certain threshold, then their their taxes or their their education taxes are are limited, they're cut, actually, in light of the fact that they don't make as much money. That's called the income sensitivity. And then there's a different threshold for if you make a below a certain other amount of money that that your city, your your city taxes are cut as well. So there are protections built in for low income folks. But the other thing that that I am certainly thinking about there are is the renting community. Montpelier has approximately 40 percent of its housing stock tied up in rentals. And we know that the the rental market in Montpelier is very expensive. And so that's something that I'm certainly thinking about and interested in like how we can make Montpelier more affordable, particularly for for a renting community. And that's that's a tough thing, because, you know, we're we're. You know, not we're popular, not doing red control. And and there may be some other tools that we can look at. But otherwise, it's sort of an indirect relationship. So yeah, I mean, one of the things that I'm particularly interested in in with the renting community is energy justice, you know, for for folks that have to pay for their own heat or electricity. A lot of times, you know, there is they don't have the the the agency or the authority really to make energy improvements in their home because it's owned by someone else. And so they, you know, renters often end up getting stuck paying higher costs for energy. And so that's something that I'm very interested in in addressing as well. And as the sitting mayor and today that this is being filmed is Tuesday. As of Tuesday right now, how long are we going to wear masks? What is the state of masking right now? And what when do you see the masks leaving? That's a great question. So at our last city council meeting, we did just renew our mask mandate for, I believe, 30 days or so, which takes us into sort of mid March. Though I don't know the exact date off top of my head as to when it would expire. But I think, you know, as we I think we're going to continue to look at the COVID cases, you know, it looks like the Omicron spike might be over. You know, I'm certainly hopeful about that. But we also don't want to make a hasty decision because we do know that a lot of folks specifically come to Montpelier to shop because we have this mask mandate in place. And we want to make sure that folks feel comfortable coming to shop in Montpelier. I know there are some folks who hate that, who really don't want to wear masks. But I think the majority of the people that I'm hearing from, you know, even if they are not feeling threatened by COVID at this point, it's an act of kindness and generosity to our our neighbors, to our fellow residents. And so as as an act of kindness, you know, I think that's that's an admirable thing. And we're going to keep it in place until this is really under control. So we might have a situation where the masks come off in schools, but not in the businesses and city that is that is very possible. And, you know, we'll we'll deal with that as as we as we get there. Yeah, that's great. And the final question, will there ever be mayor meetings again, a time when the mayor will be back in City Hall to meet with people? Oh, that's a great question. So I do hope to be meeting with people in person once COVID is, you know, again, more under control, but I am actually having virtual office hours. Would you tell us how and when? Yes. So when is it? That's a great question. So Sundays at 2 p.m. I'm going to be hosting office hours. And so in order to avoid, you know, zoom bombs and all of that, I'm asking folks to email me and to request to join and and also send them a link so they can email my city address or or Anne at Watson from appeal your dot com. And that's all you can email. That is that address as well and request a link to to join for virtual office hours. Thank you for watching. Anne Watson, who's running again for mayor, another term and get out there and vote on Town Meeting Day. It's really important that that you do that you weigh in not only on city, but on schools, on the Park Commission, on the Safety Commission, on the Cemetery Board and, of course, the two budgets as well as the capital budget. So take your time, get out and vote or return the ballot. Take care.