 See a couple people attending. Others can certainly join but we don't need a quorum for this to get this going because we're not making any decisions and that's really an important preface to this meeting is that this is our ballot informational meeting to just provide another opportunity for folks with questions about ballot items to get a brief overview of what those ballot items are and then ask questions that will help you to inform your votes either before town meeting day if you're already holding your ballot or on town meeting day itself. So that being said what we're going to do is just run through the questions themselves one by one but the first item on the agenda is the agenda. Can I just kind of please have an emotion on the agenda? Do we adopt the agenda? Okay we have a motion on the agenda. Is there a second? Seconded by Councillor Carpenter. Any discussion? Okay all those in favor please say aye. Okay that carries and we have our agenda which again as I said before is just to go through each ballot question and have a brief introduction to that question and an opportunity to ask questions so and when we get into that question side please really try and keep your comments if you need information to help make your decision on a question. If you need clarification on an issue that doesn't make sense or that you don't understand please use it for that. This isn't a great time to go on a long advocacy bend. This is something that we're really trying to that those meetings already have happened and again we're not making any decisions here that's really these decisions are all in the hands of the voters at this point so we're really again trying to just provide folks with information about making your decisions on on or before town meeting day with your ballot. So with that let's jump into the agenda and the first question on the ballot which is the school budget for the year and we have the finance director from the Burlington school district Nathan Lavery with us welcome me really appreciate just all your work on this in collaboration with Superintendent Flanagan and the school board and as well as the community I'll turn it over to you for a brief introduction and then we'll see if anyone has any questions. Great thank you very much President Tracy happy to be here tonight I'm Nathan Lavery the executive director of finance and operations for the Burlington school district and I am here to speak to the question about the school budget that's on the ballot as usual the ballot question contains the total budget for the school district as well as a few other figures related to our education spending for people and and also we added a tax rate estimate impact I will say that the the school budget this year is increasing and the budget increase is primarily driven by the fact that we have rising costs for wages benefits and so forth so the kind of baseline growth in the budget I think it's important for the community to know that we've also included in our budget funds to pay for the rental costs associated with our downtown bhs facility and our other rented facilities that are necessary in light of the fact that we can't occupy the institute road campus at this time one thing to know that is not part of the total budget estimate and that gets accounted for separately are our federal funds that are coming as part of the recovery funds that we've had a few different branches of funding come that way and there's a big spending there part of that spending in a big part of that spending is also envisioned as going to support the new high school and technical center so that is not reflected in here and I think that's important too to point out as well so lastly I think one of the confusing questions that's come up is around the tax rate and what the the estimated impact will be this year one of the things that I think is important for folks understand is that the education fund had a major surplus in it that's a state education fund from last fiscal year and we have based our estimated tax rates on the on current law which means that that surplus stays in the education fund and is used to reduce education taxes for for taxpayers across the state we don't know for sure and we never know frankly whether or not the governor and the legislature in their wisdom will change current law governor Scott has suggested potentially doing something different with some of that money that's in the education fund so it's possible of course the at the end of the day that the legislature and the governor will agree to use use that money differently in some fashion and that will change the tax impacts on the budget one of the news pieces of this are the things that I've heard discussed about alternative uses for the education fund money are potentially things that could also be at Burlington whether that is more money for things like supporting school construction even or doing things to change the weighting of people that would be advantageous to Burlington so it's a you know the reality is none of us know how that's going to take out but I feel like as far in the process one of the most common questions has been how how can we what can we expect the legislature and the governor to do and the reality is we don't know right now which is why as usual we don't kind of get involved in the politics of who wants to do what with that money we just base our estimates on current law so I think that's kind of the most common question we've we've faced on the budget to date great well thank you so much for that that overview of the the school budget if there are attendees who are interested in asking questions and again that's the the the primary thing that we're doing here this evening is to ask questions and get clarifying information for the ballot so this is not a great time to be making long advocacy statements we've had several meetings on a variety of these these topics where people have had that opportunity prior to their placement on the ballot so this is really an opportunity to get the questions answered ahead of the ballot so with that I'll open it up to questions and the way to get it in is just you can use the raise hand function that'll probably be the easiest way which is at the bottom of your screen you can just click on that and indicate if you are interested in asking a question and I'll enable your mic at that point so are there any attendees interested in asking any questions specific to the school budget before we move on to other questions okay not seeing any thank you so much finance director lab we really appreciate it thank you all good night have a good night that brings us into item number 2.02 which is a proposed tax increase increase to the general fund tax rate I see chief of staff for Dell are you turning on your camera are you going to speak to this one yes I am great our chief administrative officer is out on a school break and mayor also had another commitment so I am tagged and I'm just gonna what I'm going to do is I'm going to share my screen to help just quickly run through the information about the proposed increase to the general fund tax I won't read what is on this website but the city is proposing a 4 cent increase on the property tax the city portion of folks property tax bills are approximately 30 percent of the total property tax bill and this would be a 4 cent tax increase to that portion of residents tax bills there are three drivers to the need to ask for this tax increase the most significant one being inflation like everyone the city is experiencing significant inflation and we are record inflation and we need to we need additional funds to pay for those costs additionally incorporating the recent equity investments into the structural budget is another reason why we are asking for this 4 cent increase and as mayor has stated publicly these are really important investments and we are integrating them into our general fund budget by phasing them in with arbor dollars over three years and then pandemic impacted revenue shortfalls have also contributed to the need to ask for this increase and there's a table here that shows how inflation is really the the significant driving force beyond behind this increase the city is about to go into about to negotiate with its four unions new contracts and we expect that in order to continue providing the high level of services that cities that residents expect from the city we will need to use these additional funds so maybe what I can do is end there and respond to questions great thank you for that chief staffer del again this is an opportunity for folks to ask questions about this particular item so if you are interested in asking a question about the item please use the raise hand function at the bottom of the screen so if anyone's does anyone have any questions about the general the general fund tax rate increase question okay i'm seeing anyone thank you very much thank you so much appreciate it our next question is a question regarding general obligation bonds for capital projects i believe i believe director spencer from dpw is going to take that question or that intro so turn it over to you great thank you president tracy on town meeting day ballot item number three asks voters whether to authorize 23.8 million dollars for capital bond projects that will continue to shore up the city's aging infrastructure this is reduced from the proposed 40 million dollar capital bond it was included in the december 2022 special december 2021 special election that was unsuccessful there is a multi department multi departmental capital committee and that group developed this capital plan the three-year capital plan between fy 23 and fy 25 estimates a need of around 150 million dollars to reinvest in the city's general fund assets the 23.8 million dollar bond request on the ballot represents about 16 percent of that total need we will bridge the gap through securing other funding such as federal and state grants and triaging investments that can be delayed the bond is proposed to fund replacement of three new fire trucks replacement of the city's aging communication system for police and fire a local match for grants to help us draw down additional federal and state dollars two point seven million dollars to keep the city's sidewalk production at three miles a year two million dollars for roads and bridges that would enhance paving an additional mile per year and fund some urgent bridge repair one point five million for transportation safety improvements that would include traffic calming and walk bike improvements 400 000 for project management four million for civic buildings the city owns dozens of buildings across the city and there are urgent repairs to HVAC eating and cooling systems roofing systems etc and a proposed two million dollars for improvements to park systems mainly dredging the waterfront for the marina and some playground and athletic field renovations happy to answer any questions thank you very much appreciate that does anyone have any questions on the capital bond question and you can use their raise hand function the bottom of the screen okay not seeing any thank you for that explanation director spencer i'm guessing that either that director pine you're going to take on the next question which is regarding the downtown tiff district and specifically the main street project so i'll turn it over to you director pine yes thank you president tracy the question number four which is to pledge the city's full faith and credit behind the bond issued for the downtown tax increment financing district is essentially requesting voter authorization to borrow up to 25 920 000 if approved this will bring the city's total cumulative authorized by the voters to 35 920 000 for the downtown tax increment financing district this will also includes 5.4 million dollars of previously compete completed tiff projects in the downtown and an additional 34.5 million for improvements to main street as well as addressing the issues around the ravine sewer so at a high level the city proposes to use the funds for extensive upgrades to main street from south union street to battery street and to either relocate or otherwise upgrade the so-called ravine sewer and the scope of work for that part of the project remains to be determined based on you know a full engineering geotechnical hydrology assessment really a very detailed assessment so i would add that if the ravine sewer portion of the project is determined to be too expensive for the amount of bond authorization there will be another plan developed but that that item the city will not proceed with the project unless there's adequate funding to do that so people have asked what happens if the ravine sewer ends up being more expensive than you've estimated so that's the piece i want to speak to right there i just want to mention that voters in 2015 approved using a portion of a 10 million dollar bond for the downtown tiff district to upgrade main street to great street standards and great street standards are addressing really everything from the the first of all dealing with the infrastructure below grade and installing stormwater infrastructure that allows for the retention and treatment of stormwater within the within the right of way and it reduces overflow or should say runoff that goes into lake champlain that's one of the most critical points as well is the great street standards involves a significant widening of the sidewalk installation of a of a tree belt with soil cells and other infrastructure that make trees more likely to succeed in a dense urban environment you know new curbing creation of a dedicated and protected bike lane on both sides of main street and retention of parking but a reconfiguration of parking really intended to ensure that the right-of-way has balances all the different uses that happen within the public right of way what we're proposing now is to increase that budget for the main street project and to add portions of main street between south union street so at memorial auditorium down to church and between pine and battery streets so remember the first portion that was approved by voters in 2015 was between church and pine and so we're essentially adding the two blocks to the east and the two blocks to the west to make this a comprehensive project for the revitalization of main street and the improvement of the infrastructure in addition to the bond amount there is a request for one million four hundred seventy thousand dollars in related costs and just to explain what related costs are and it's spelled out in state statute are those expenses that are incurred and paid by the municipality exclusive of the actual cost of constructing and financing improvements that are directly related to the creation and implementation of the tiff district so as a practical matter this means costs such as design and engineering costs consultants and legal fees annual audits for the life of the district staff time planning and overseeing construction and tiff district program and project management again over the life of the district so i think that's an important point just to point out that that's what related costs mean so when voters see that on the ballot they hopefully will have a better understanding of what that is those costs tend to be a little higher in the early years of a tiff district setting up the district and planning and implementing projects once the debt is fully incurred and all the projects are built this tends to be a lower cost to the city and so therefore that number goes down quite a bit and not mainly what is is really involved is maintaining record keeping to be able to comply with annual audits by the state and voters previously approved related costs in the amount of 378,000 the current request is for an additional one million four hundred and seventy thousand to cover the estimated related costs through the end of the life of the tiff district which is 14 years from this June so the end of June of 2036 and if approved this will bring the total approved related costs for the district to one million eight hundred and forty eight thousand dollars over the 20-year life of the district or an average of ninety two thousand four hundred dollars per year and i should just point out that these related costs are actually paid for out of cash flow from the tiff fund not bonded so you know we don't borrow the money to cover these because that's not allowed by vexie rules so we essentially take cash flow generated by the district annually to cover these costs i think those are the high points i wanted to highlight excellent thank you so much director pine appreciate that and i'll open it up to questions now does anybody have a question for director pine you can use the raise hand function this is specific to the tiff question that we just that we just got the explanation of okay not seeing any interest in any questions thanks again director pine appreciate it and we will now move to our last question question number five and i believe attorney st james are you able to just give a quick rundown of that one yes absolutely this is a short chart charter change that would effectively eliminate city council the ability of city council to regulate or create penalties for sex work within burlington it would not eliminate any criminal statutes so this is not legalization but it's removing from city council's toolbox the ability to sort of regulate and create penalties in this area an ordinance was repealed that was empowered by this this charter language in fall of 2021 and this is a sort of corresponding piece that will remove from section 48 subsection 7 city council's power great appreciate that explanation so are there any questions and i'm specifically asking if anybody has questions we've had numerous public hearings on this as well as public forum opportunities to comment so are there any questions specific to the the charter change that's question number five on the ballot and you can use the raise hand function at the bottom to indicate your interest in asking a question not seeing anyone so that concludes our agenda for this evening in terms of the the ballot questions polls will be open on town meeting day from 7am to 7pm and election workers will be present for folks at those places if you have any issues with with ballot with your ballot or anything like that they are trained and able to answer any questions you might have folks don't know vermont is a same-day registration state so if you are not already registered to vote you can go to your polling place and register day of and vote day of and if you have already received a mail-in ballot the clerks the city clerk's office is recommending that folks do not send in their their ballots at this point but rather either take them to one of the the drop boxes that are located around the city there's one down at dbw one adjacent to city hall on the main street side of city hall one at the fire station on north avenue that being the north the old north end fire station that specifically and then there's one at the miller center up in the new north end so you have a couple different options there those are open 24 hours a day the other piece is also for folks that you are able to that you're able to take your ballot into your polling place on town meeting day itself and turn it in that way as well so but again at this point it's getting it we're recommending that folks do not send their ballots back via the mail but rather take them in and either place them in one of those drop boxes or go into your polling place on town meeting day one last thing is also that the you can vote at city hall and that's open and and take care of registration issues and that's open during during normal during business hours so just a little bit of voting information I really appreciate folks joining us this evening and for all these great explanations and the work that went into getting these ready to put on the ballot and before voters and encourage everyone to get out and vote on town meeting day is there a motion to adjourn moved by council carpenters or a second seconded by councilor McGee any discussion okay all those in favor of adjourn please say aye aye aye any opposed okay we are adjourned at 527 thanks everyone and make sure you remember to vote