 Thank you all for being here tonight. Appreciate you all coming out to our first meeting in quite a while. Does that sound, it's not really, it does not gonna project to the room, but this is for our Zoom, people joining us on the screen tonight. Can you hear me in the back? Is that okay? Okay, good. Great. Medium. Okay, I'll try to project a little bit more. Thank you for being here. We're gonna get started. Hope everyone had a chance to sign in. We have a little email list to keep you up to date on what's going on in the neighborhood. One of our new steering committee members also made a great new website, which is on the agenda, but I'll just say it to start us off. It's northburlingtonnpa.com. So that'll be a resource for these dinners and in our upcoming meetings, as well as other information that's going on in the community. So yeah, we're just gonna, we're gonna jump in. If you need a copy of the agenda, we've got some up by the sign-in table up there. Time for me to put in for a plug. You guys got $5,000 and you can set this up. We used to have them and then they went away. So hopefully they'll come back. That's all they have to say. So I'm Charlie, and you can tell me. Thank you, Charlie. I also did not introduce myself, so I'll go ahead and do that. My name's Sarah. They pronouns, I live in Ward 7 and I'm one of the new steering committee members. So here we are. Let's get into it. Yeah. I put myself in there when nobody was doing it, but since there's other interest, let other people do that. I can go ahead and repeat those. Don't project to this room. I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry. Okay, I would like asking to move Vicki Garrison's nomination and election to. The end of the meeting? Before public forum and to remove my name from the community block grant because there's other people who wanna do it and who are awesome. Okay, so the first proposal was to shift our steering committee nomination. Does anyone, do I have a second for, all right? So we will move that to seven o'clock post by law discussion. And I think, yes, Hank. Will that agenda item include other people who may be interested in serving on the steering committee? Because there are a number of vacancies, I'm told. It will, I believe that that's, oh, there used to be a bullet point that said any open, if anybody else wanted to be nominated. So I think that we can, if we have a second on that proposal. Yeah, I'd like to propose that we can amend that. But anybody expressing interest can also come forward at that time and be nominated. Right. Is, aren't the times on this agenda wrong? So if you're moving it to seven, aren't you really moving it to seven, 30, or six, 30, or, somebody told me these times are wrong. I don't think so. We're getting started on this welcome and steering committee introduction right now at six, 30. Order of the agenda, not the times. Okay, good. Anybody second that? So yeah, does anyone wanna second the, all right, so we'll add that to our community announcement and vote in steering committee members. And I don't know if anyone needs to second Carmen's retraction of your own self-nomination. So I think if you are at capacity, we can all agree that that is a very reasonable thing to do. So, great. Great, so without further ado, I'll just kinda start off to say, just kinda wanna lay our ground rules and create a respectful environment here for all of us to be present, share comfortably, and listen to others when they are speaking. When you, if you do choose to speak, please use the microphone. We've been reminded it doesn't project to this room. So try to use your, somewhere in between an indoor and outdoor voice, but it is helpful for our folks on Zoom today. And also if you can introduce yourself and maybe say which ward you're in since we have folks on either side of the avenue here with us tonight. Also just in terms of sharing your opinion politely, we all have different opinions. Sometimes they're the same, but just wanting to be polite in that. We've already kinda looked over the agenda a little bit and we'll try our best to be timely and respectful of our agenda and the process. And then another little shout out to Carmen who made our new website, northburlingtonnpa.com. So be able to find information there. I just want to acknowledge Champlain Marketing, Steve McIntyre, his business. He's doing the technical back end of the website and he is hosting the website for the NPA for free. So we are gonna skip on to our next agenda point which is the rest of the steering committee. Sorry, I've got the microphone. I'm just feeling really powerful right now. Just kidding, yes, please. The rest of the steering committee, this is our first meeting altogether. So I will hand it off to comrades over here. Colin, if you can introduce yourself. My name's Colin, he, him, I live in Ward 7. Nice to meet you. My name's Monica Ivancic, I live in Ward 7 and most of you know me because I also serve on the school board, the Burlington school board. Let's see. Hi everybody, my name is Hank Prensky. I'm on the NPA for Ward 4. We do have vacancies, we welcome new people because most of us are pretty new of the whole process. And another, is there any other? Joanne? I am Joanne Hunt, I'm from Ward 4. Thanks, and I'm thrilled to see so many people here. Thanks for coming. No, you gotta find somebody else. Hi, I'm Carmen George from Ward 7 and my pronouns are she, her. Yeah, I was gonna say, we do have one member who is unable to make it to this meeting. Their name is Olivia, they are Taylor, thank you. And they live in Ward 7 as well. So like Hank mentioned, there is room for other members, if anyone is interested in joining the steering committee. We are a little bit leaning towards our Ward 7 folks, but anybody's welcome. So, yep. Yeah, so we'll move on to the Community Development Block Grant Representatives. These will be folks who volunteer or are nominated to review the Community Development Block Grants. So it looks like in Ward 4, Elaine McNamara was nominated. Is Elaine here tonight? Not seeing Elaine, okay. I don't know if they, yeah, does anybody else want or wanna learn more? Can you take nominations? Yes, yes, we can take nominations with a second. Dan Castigliano, I'd like to nominate Dan. Thank you, I'm gonna pass, so I'm running for Ward 4 City Council, so I think I'm gonna pass on this opportunity right now, but thank you, Lee. Oscar, could you just briefly say what the responsibilities are of a steering committee member? So I think we're talking about the Community Development Block Grant, right? Yeah, can we do that later, Hank? Or, what do you prefer? Yeah, sorry, Hank just misspoke on what the nomination is for, right now we're talking about the Community Development Block Grant representative. So yeah, Fosca, if you could give a little information. So I'm Fosca, I work for CEDO and the NPA Public Engagement Specialist with CEDO. Hi, Fosca, she, her pronouns, I work with CEDO and the NPA Public Engagement Specialist. This is my colleague Scott Rogers, the Community Development Manager for CEDO. So the Community Development Block Grant, basically the federal government gives Burlington a certain amount of money, but it's about $700,000 that the residents of Burlington basically get to decide what that's spent on and the idea is that the money is used to fund projects that are gonna impact marginalized communities, especially low-income folks and a certain amount of that money has to be spent on services and another amount on development projects. And so basically what this agenda item is asking is each ward can have someone represent them on the advisory board, which then looks through all the proposals, applications that other organizations have basically put together, ranging from, you know, a Champlain Housing Trust might, you know, put some application in, also mutual aid organizations, smaller non-profits as well, a range of organizations that apply for funding and basically what you would do as a representative for your ward is you'd rate the applications and as a group kind of decide on which applications you wanna fund and ideally, you know, reporting back and communicating with your ward to show the interest of that ward also through that process. So there is an orientation this Thursday, so tomorrow evening and that is online and if you are nominated and voted tonight, we'll get you that information as soon as possible and then there's one meeting in February and one in March in person and that'll just be decided on what your availability is and then you'll meet as a group and go through those applications a bit and then eventually present them to city council. So when are the applications due for the grants? They were already due. They were already due, so this is for next year or this is for this current level? No, so basically starting tomorrow, basically you would receive those, an orientation but these are the applications that were sent in for January 2024. Okay, thank you. How much of that 700,000 is for community non-profits and how much of it is administrative costs for CEDO? I don't believe it's any part of it is supposed to go towards administrative costs for CEDO. Anyone can, any organization can apply for funding and it's up to the advisory board to decide who receives the funding. So there could be projects that are run by people within CEDO that could be have applied for funding. It's not guaranteed that they're gonna get the funding. So anyone can apply for the funding. So there could be like the PCA plus program which is organized by one of our team members that could apply for funding to fund that program but it's up to the advisory board to decide what is funded. Do we have another hand over here? I don't know if anybody else wanted to speak on? No, okay. And then they also have one person on Zoom that had their hand raised, but go ahead. Okay, thank you for all of that information. I just wanted to clarify exactly how long the responsibility for the position would be. It sounds like if the meeting starts tomorrow and then through March and then once the grant money is allocated is that kind of the end of the block grant position? Yes, I believe so. However, I think you can serve up to two years, basically like two terms. So if you do do it this year and you want to continue and do it again next year and the beginning of 2025, then you would be able to do that as well but it's not required. You also had someone on Zoom who had their hand raised so I just wanted to let them speak before we get to you right over here. Just wanting someone on Zoom to speak first, Olivia has their hand raised. I just thought I would mention that we in Oregon have served on it and served together last year. I'm going to be doing it again this year and I thought maybe Lee could give a quick synopsis of what failed. It is true. I thought I would mention that maybe Lee could also further supplement anything. Sure, Muffy. Thanks for that introduction. So yes, my name is Lee Morgan. My pronouns are they, them. I did serve last year as the Ward 7 representative on, yes. Mike doesn't project into the room. This Mike is just for Zoom. Feel hard to hear you. Okay, I'll try to be even louder. That's usually not a problem for me. Walk over here, all right. We're going on tour. All right, Lee Morgan, Ward 7. So I served on the Community Development Block Grant Advisory Board last year with Muffy. I cannot do it this year because I am running for Ward 7 City Council but yes, it's an excellent chance to serve the community. I found the time commitment to work really well into my busy schedule. There was one online training for the orientation to in-person meetings and you don't feel like you have to have a lot of financial experience to do this. You are guided by a facilitator. You talk to your co-members on the board and you make decisions. I found it very rewarding. I highly suggest getting involved. I have a question. Thank you, Lee. How many applications do you receive and does each member receive the same number of applications? Are you, so you're each kind of like prioritizing them and then sharing, coming to a consensus? So there actually, all the applications are available on CEDO's website for everybody to look at. They're public information. I believe last year there's two categories. It's not coming to me right now what those categories were but I believe in each category we had no more than eight applications and so you review them in between meetings like you read them and then when you get to the meeting that's when you discuss between you and your co-members and you decide what the allocation is. Hey, I like spending money. Hopefully that was helpful. Okay, so I've actually done this four or five times over the years and the way it's done now, let's say I volunteered tonight to do this starting tomorrow. Okay, so I'm gonna go online tomorrow and meet everybody who else is on the board and then the city either either gonna send you like hard copies or whatever of all the applications. So on your own time at home you're gonna go over all the applications. You're only gonna have, it looks like you only have two in-person meetings so you basically have like a couple of three hour commitments outside of your home. So it's really not that, it's not really an ordeal to do this. You got a lot of applications. As you read through them, you just make notes and say I like this one, this one's too much, that one's, I'd like to half fund this one, et cetera. So most of the work is at home. So it's not really a burden. Thank you. Where'd this go? One more, go. How many applications? Sounds like about eight. Oh, that's it? To 10. Okay, per. Total. Per like focus program that they are hoping to use that funding for. So it sounds like it's kind of split into categories for, you know, whether it be housing projects or more of a open community projects. It sounds like, yeah, there is like a little bit of kind of categorization. And then within that, there are maybe 10 applications. So Fosca, did you want to add one more thing? Yeah, I just looked up to make sure I didn't get the numbers wrong. But generally the time commitment is estimated at about eight hours of meeting time in total throughout the three months. And then about eight to 12 hours to read and rate the applications in total. So that's over February and March. Less than 20 hours. Yes. Awesome. Thank you for all that information. Fosca and Lee and Charlie. With all of that information, is anybody in Ward four or Ward seven? Well, yes, there are two people on the list already. Is there anybody in Ward four who is here tonight who is interested? Yes. Hey, can you introduce yourself? There's a, that one doesn't have a cord. So I'm not sure. I didn't realize I was supposed to. There you go. Thank you. Sorry. I came to one of these a while back. I've been in my ward for only like six months now and I've lived in Burlington for a while before that. But just bought my wife. I'm supposed to give qualifications. Like I can read. That's a plus. I don't know what necessary, but great. Nominated. Okay. Do we have a second? We have a second and a third and a fourth. So, lovely. Yes. Okay. So members of Ward four, if you would like to, sorry, I did not catch this. Gordon, thank you. Gordon, thank you for being willing to volunteer and be nominated. Members of Ward four, yes for Gordon. Nominated to the community block development grant representative. Yes. Raise your hand. Okay. Any objections? From Ward four. From Ward four specifically. Thank you, Hank. All right. Congratulations, Gordon. Thank you. Well, I wanted to go back to Elaine McNamara, who is on our agenda, but is not present here today. This Ward four. Yes. She is also Ward four. So can we only have one? Okay. Sorry, Elaine. Maybe you're here. I don't know. No. So from Ward seven, Katie Jones. Is Katie Jones here? I am here. Hey, Katie, can you introduce yourself? I can. I am Katie Jones. I live on North. Oh, sorry. I'm Katie Jones. I live in Ward seven on North Ave. However, if Ellen is here, I am happy to have Ellen take this position. So, but if she's not here, I feel like it's a me thing. That's okay too. Okay, we'll take a quick moment to see if Ellen Zemin is present tonight at this meeting. Ellen? Looks like it's Katie. I can also read, so. Okay. Yeah. Are there any other, should I ask for any other nominations? Is there anyone else in Ward seven that would like to volunteer or nominate someone in Ward seven? Okay. Folks who live in Ward seven, voting for Katie to be our community development block grant representative. All in favor. Lovely. Thank you. Great. And any objections? No. Okay. Great. Katie, congratulations. Thank you. All right. Excellent. Thank you so much. We all learned something today. We are gonna move on to discussion of our bylaws. Once again, if you didn't have a chance to grab a copy of our current bylaws, our Ward four and seven NPA bylaws, there are copies up at the front. There is also a sample copy of bylaws, I believe they're from Wards two and three. They have done a great job of having really great bylaws in terms of everything that is kind of required by the city, but also being able to make their meetings a little bit of their own and sort of reflect the personality of the neighborhood. So as you can see at the top of our current bylaws, the last time these were updated were March 2008. So that was a long time ago. I don't wanna even say how old I was, but it's really great to look through the sample from Wards two and three, just to again kind of get a sense, our current bylaws are sort of a skeleton at this point, and again to sort of reflect the sort of space we wanna create here every month and also other kind of details about how our NPAs will run and how we'll use our funding. All those things kind of gives us a baseline into the bylaws. So I don't know if anybody was here at our last meeting back in November, we did briefly talk about the fact that we'll be updating our bylaws and if there are any general initial requests or thoughts. I know Colin, if you wanna start. So if people have a copy of the sample bylaws, there's a part about disputes and conflict resolution. It reads any party involved in a dispute within the NPAs may initiate the conflict resolution process by submitting a written complaint to REIB, which is the city's Office of Racial Equity, Inclusion and Belonging. I would just move that we lift that text to our own bylaws and I'm open, I don't know if we wanna discuss changing the text at all, but I feel like it's important that we have a conflict resolution process that's mediated by a third party who's not affiliated with the NPA. Okay, thank you Colin. That proposal was seconded by Carmen and I think that is a great addition. I think that we will vote as we go for some of those pieces. We are just starting this process of drafting the bylaws and I believe that hopefully by our next meeting we'll kind of take all the feedback from the sample but also the feedback that we have tonight to then vote on a more full document of our bylaws. Yes, Lee. Please jump in. So I'm not sure what you're planning for a voting process but what I would suggest is the typical format is someone makes the motion, someone seconds, then there's discussion and then you vote. I think that might help everyone feel like the decision is equitable. Just a suggestion. Absolutely, I am new. So thank you so much for your suggestion. Let's definitely talk about it. So Colin's proposal was to essentially lift this. It was on the fourth page, I believe. Yes, fourth full page of text, disputes and conflict resolution. I believe everyone has a copy and lots of us can read. Yes. Yes, certainly. Are we taking this to make suggestions possible to be voted on at the next planning meeting? That was my understanding. So we wouldn't be voting tonight. And that's why I'm not clear on it. It's just to start them. So I believe that we're having discussion tonight and our vote will be at next meeting. Anybody, or a future meeting also. Yes, Lee, yes. At the November meeting, we talked about a bylaws committee that would take these recommendations and then make a recommendation to the membership. So do we wanna set up a bylaws committee to work on this? If that's a proposal. I propose, I make a motion that we set up a bylaws committee to work on this. I think that we should have some like general discussion as well. Lee, you can jump in. Point of order, I believe that would violate open meeting law, Scott, do you? Yeah, I think the work on constructing it, Sarah might know more, it has to be done in public. It can't be done in a private committee. What was the question? No, it doesn't. It would just be a different committee. Standing committee. Sorry, my thinking would be you to point effectively a subcommittee who would be advisory to this body and I don't see why they couldn't meet as long as they post the meeting and make it known that you're gonna be working on this. So I think it is a route you could go. And a month is probably not long enough. It's probably a lot of work to do in a month. These things can, so. And I think the January 31st was really a recommendation. I think it was done in the spirit from the city council side to please get going on it. Don't let it drift, but I don't think it's a hard deadline. So just to summarize as a group, can we vote on whether we wanna designate a subcommittee, which is subject to open meeting law and we can talk more about what that means. And then anyone who has an interest specifically in crafting bylaws can do that. And then we don't need to spend like 45 minutes at this meeting kind of going through this process. That's, so let's discuss and vote on that maybe. All right, Joanne, you have your hand up there in the back. I have a question about the formation of the subcommittee in terms of who is gonna be on it, can anybody just be on it? And or what's the relationship between the subcommittee and the steering committee? Do you have another question or is it a response to? I was just gonna say a subcommittee just can specialize in a specific area of focus. And it can be, it can include steering committee members and people who are not on the steering committee. Yeah, so I think it sounds like to go back a little bit. We kind of have two options for everyone that's here tonight. We also have this paper that we can all take home and kind of really sink in to get a better idea if you're not feeling like you are ready to be in the discussion or even be on a committee if we go with that route. But it would allow this meeting to not be full of discussion for the bylaws. In terms of creating a committee, I believe that folks would be nominated and seconded and voted in the same way that we found our other representatives. So to go to Colin's proposal of our folks interested in creating a subcommittee of people to work on the bylaws specifically. Does anybody second that proposal? Got a second and a third. Does anyone oppose having a subcommittee for our bylaws creation? Or does anybody have any other questions or thoughts? Yes, Ryan. I believe if the subcommittee is just tasked with drafting the bylaws and then the NPA still has to vote them in, that I think in that circumstance we don't need to do nominations and elections for the members of that committee. It could just be an open meeting and the people who show up to that meeting work on the bylaws. Is that anyone who knows the NPA laws better than me? That'll work. It can be whatever you want. Yes. That's my proposed modification then, is that the subcommittee simply drafts bylaws and the NPA still votes on them afterwards. And I second that. All right. Do we have two motions on the floor? Did you make a motion? If you made a motion, you can withdraw it. Great. Thank you, Lee. Perfect. Yes, Hank. Do you have a? I have a point of something. I have a question. A point of information. Please use the microphone. I have a point of information. Just as a straw poll, can we see the hands of anybody who might be interested in serving on the bylaws subcommittee? Just raise your hands now if you might be interested. I think it's playing or recording. Can you mute him? Hello. That's you. Hello. Playing or recording. That's very sweet. Love hearing the conversation. Oh, that is me. That's a good trick. Do you remember like an hour ago? I'm terrified. Thank you. I'm really excited. It's late. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. This is my best conversation in quite a while. Is that sound? Is this Olivia? It's for you. This is for our zoo. People join us. It's a recording of Sarah. Can you hear me? Finally, we can hear you. That's how you use the microphone. So, are there any, are there any, just as a straw? Is there anybody who's interested in serving on such a bylaws subcommittee? Raise your hand. This is not a commitment. This is, I might be interested. You don't elect the committee. Nobody's gonna show up. Time for you. Thanks. Thanks. You know. Sarah, I'll do it. I'll do it. I'll do it. You should gotta have a committee. Take one. Can I just make a comment? So, several people raised their hand. And Sarah did, and Carmen did. Oh, I'm so sorry. And so, I just wanted to raise the question, which is when I was serving on the NPA, I also tried to kind of do this and this work can get complicated fast. And so, it would be helpful to have some folks from the committee itself to sort of be stalwart and on that committee so that if folks don't show up to the meeting or it's only one or two people and they haven't been to the meeting before, that there's some like, solidity there. And so, I would just recommend, and it sounds like they already anticipated my question. So, thanks. Thank you for that. And to go back to, I know it was mentioned, this idea of an open meeting law. So, that's just to say that if any work is, any topics are being discussed that will be on a future agenda in the NPA setting, that that meeting is given notice, is warned. Sorry, that's the word. Warned to the public. And so, folks are welcome to join just as everyone is welcome to join tonight. It was warned that we'll be here at this time talking about these things on the agenda. So, it sounds like Carmen and I will start the party. Cool. And yeah, so, I mean, also like Hank said, there's room to, if you go home and you're reading through the sample and sitting here tonight going through this agenda and this meeting, recognize that you do want to be present, have some input, be part of that discussion. The meeting that we will set for some time in the near future will be warned likely through the avenues that you found out about this meeting, Front Porch Forum, also our handy awesome new website, northburlingtonnpa.com. Yes, question in the back? If you could grab the mic. But okay. Oh, they can't hear me. Okay, so just background. These are the bylaws for all of the NPAs, just this one. And how did it come up that we need to examine the bylaws? Was there some issue that came up or is it just time people feel curious? I didn't know why that's all. Yeah, I believe that it's a combination. I know the city did request an update of the bylaws. The Ward 4 and Ward 7 are a lot older than I think a lot of other wards bylaws are currently just in terms of the engagement and the focus on the bylaws specifically here for our neighborhood. So a combination. Yeah. Sarah, you have a question or a statement? Okay. A comment. In this last fall, there was dissension within the NPA. The previous members basically resigned. The city council recognized that there needed to be some provisions added to make these more functioning equitable bylaws. Excuse me, Sarah? Yes? Oh, a difficulty hearing. Okay. Would you mind just standing up and speaking? I can stand up. Even louder. Even louder. So this is a short version. There was concerns this fall, some dissension within the NPA. The former group felt they didn't want to remain as part of the steering committee. In that process, it came to the city council that there was unevenness in the bylaws. We did pass a resolution asking that each NPA update their bylaws, include certain provisions, including the dispute resolution provision, some anti-discrimination provisions. And so that's where we are now. We're asking us to revise our bylaws. That's ward two and three, and they're just a sample. The ward two and three NPA is probably the strongest one we have in the city. Appears to be the most active. I was gonna recommend to Carmen and Sarah, I bet you can get someone from that committee to maybe meet with you and- I met with them this morning. Okay, you're ahead of it. So that's kind of where we're at, which is take what we've got today, copy what you want from that or not. And the goal is to come back with more consistency and equitability in our bylaws. And there's nothing prescriptive that the council came up for just equity dispute resolution and we're the two primary recommendations. Makes total sense too. I just saw that your office showed me the date, 2008. Yeah, thank you for that, Sarah. Appreciate that little background and kind of how we got to where we are now. All right, let's see where we're at. Is there a motion on the floor, Sarah? Yeah. There, I don't think is a vote on the floor, no. It's the conclusion on that was that Carmen and I, and perhaps one person, maybe, Marcella? Okay. All right, yes, awesome. So when we meet to discuss the bylaws, it will be an open meeting. It will be warned, anybody who is not volunteered today, but is still interested, will be welcome. And we will report back at our next meeting here in February. All right. So did we decide not to appoint members to that committee? Was that voted on? Wait, who decided, we didn't decide that. There is it. Yeah, there, so to Ryan's point, if we can backtrack vote on that. So it's an open meeting. So there isn't really any voting necessary. To a point, a committee you need to vote. Those three people need to be voted on as the committee. But it's also like an open meeting. When the committee meets, it will be according to the open meetings law. If we want to propose to vote on it, we have a motion on the floor we didn't vote on. What is it? So Ryan made a motion. Mr. Solt seconded and we did not vote on it. So maybe Ryan wants to restate his motion. Sounds good. So the original proposal was to refer the drafting of the bylaws to a committee. My modification proposed was that that committee doesn't have any official power. They draft the bylaws and then the NPA votes them in. And because of that structure, anyone who showed up could help draft the bylaws or anyone who sent an email or participated in that way. And so the actual decision making power would still be with the NPA. There wouldn't need to be a separate appointment or transfer of power to a subcommittee. That motion can be voted on. That's still on the floor. Discuss it next. Well, yeah, so that motion is still on the floor. So it's been seconded. So at this point, you can open it for discussion or call it to a vote, I believe. Right, yes. All right. Excellent. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. So thank you for repeating that proposal, Ryan. Very clear. Was seconded. So we will be voting on the. Discussion on the motion. It seems like the discussion. Or you're going to not allow. I felt like there was a discussion. But if we feel like there are questions or more to discuss, it seems like you have a can. Are you still confused about what the proposal is? Or you just want to discuss what it is? You stand up to ask him. That's what I was doing. I would like. Go ahead. I would like to comment in the discussion of the proposal that has been voted on, that has been seconded. I'd speak against that proposal. I feel we need to have designated members, not all steering committee members, but anybody who's interested tonight, we would put on that committee. And that committee would not be limited at the meeting they have. The meeting will be openly warned, I guess is the word. And anybody who comes to that meeting has input, as long as they're from wards four and seven, I guess. So I would like to recommend the original proposal of voting members on to that subcommittee that will be open for anybody who wants to attend their meetings is welcome and participates. And I'll second that. OK. I think we can't have another on the floor before. You can propose an amendment to the original motion. I'm picking it up now. And then we would need a second on the amendment motion. Then we would discuss that amendment, vote on it, and then return to the original motion. So Monica, seconded. Awesome, amendment, second. So let's discuss my alteration of the motion. Amendment to the motion to go back to the original motion. OK. Yes, to vote the committee in rather than allow the committee to form and hold open meetings. No, all the meetings are open. They're always open. So do you want to discuss the amendment? Are you in? Sure. I totally support that amendment. I think we need to have a couple of people who are designated as the committee and that they will then hold meetings and invite anybody in Ward 4 and Ward 7 or even beyond to come and comment on it. I think that's a really good idea. OK. Somebody in the back. I'll speak loudly. The consequence of that second amendment is that you're effectively appointing everyone to that subcommittee. If it's open, then everyone just got the points to it. Do you see what anybody who shows up? So it's kind of a bump. But if nobody shows up? Nobody shows up, yeah. Who's going to work on the bylaws? So you would like set people to be mandated to show up? To be offered a position of community interest. How about they have no right to? How about you appoint a chair of the subcommittee and then anyone who wants to come in could join? But now you have a leader who could organize and make sure that they're there and then you don't have to appoint. My final proposal was that we have at least two or three people who are the named committee and everybody else being invited to participate at every meeting. I think if there's only one named person, that puts the responsibility on rewriting the entire bylaws on them alone. So to kind of bring it back a little bit, so the original proposal that you are now amending, Hank, just want to point to Ryan had brought up that those folks don't actually have any voting power. Anything that has worked on at a subcommittee meeting regarding the bylaws will come back to this NPA meeting where everyone who decides to show up is present and will then vote on those bylaws. And to someone else's point, it will be helpful to have folks who are committed to that committee for their own responsibility. But right now what we're discussing is if we feel the need to vote on those specific people or kind of trust that those folks will take that commitment seriously in terms of showing up and being part of that committee. Does anybody have any? Monica, you've had your hand up. So in the last 20 minutes of our discussion, we've asked for volunteers who wants to edit these bylaws. And we had Sarah, Carmen, Maricela, and Deb raise their hands. So these are the four people that are here present at this meeting today and want to dedicate time to edit these bylaws. So I think we can trust these four people. If we need to vote on them, we can vote on them right now. And then they edit the bylaws. It's an open meeting. So they're going to warn the open meeting. Anybody can show up and help them edit these bylaws. And then they bring it to us at the February NPA meeting or the March NPA meeting. That's my proposal. The March NPA meeting. Makes sense. Deb, you have a question or? Further, if everybody agrees on our beginning of the committee, which is we'll show any changes that have been made beside what was the original and what the change is so people can see the change in any addition. So it won't be like crazy to, you know, OK. OK. Back to Hank for last note of discussion before. What you said, what you and I were saying is that the subcommittee of bylaws has no power to do anything. But in fact, if they're amending the Ward 2 and 3 bylaws and changing words around and adding things and deleting things, they do have power to bring a product to the NPA for its approval. And if we, like all of the things they've decided to bring to us, and that it's decided by whoever shows up at that meeting. So they do have power in the essence to bring a, hopefully, a consensus document to the NPA to then consider, discuss, and vote on. Yep, I'll just direct comment to that. I will say anybody has that power because it will be an open meeting. So whether we vote on those folks or not, anybody who's at the meeting, we'll hold that power to be involved in the discussion of the bylaws amending the words, all those things that you mentioned. Can I call a question on his amendment so we can at least vote on that? Is that a friendly amendment to Ryan? It's up to Ryan. Yeah, so I don't see any particular distinction in terms of the NPA rules between that amendment and mine. So I can accept the friendly amendment. And so then the thing that gets called to question here, then, is the formation of a subcommittee for drafting new bylaws with the explicit naming, I guess, of the four people who have stood up as the starting point for that subcommittee. Does that work? OK, all right. I think that's the thing that then gets called to question. So point of order. Larry just called the question, so we have to vote on whether or not to call the question, which means, are we going to vote immediately or have more discussion? So since he called the question, that vote needs to happen now. If it passes, then we vote on the motion. If it fails, we can have more discussion. So if you want to keep discussing this, vote no. If you want to move to a vote, vote yes. Thank you, Larry. Thank you, Lee. If you would like to continue discussing, vote no. Sorry. Yes, can you state it? You did a really good job. Do you want to restate your motion? It will need a second. You would move to call the question. Call the question on the amendment to the original. I second it. Second? There is a second. So now the motion we are voting on is whether it is, the motion has been made to vote on the question. So a yes vote is to vote, a no vote is to not vote. OK. To vote on the question, if it's a yes, raise your hand. OK. Does anyone vote no? All right. We are now moving forward to voting on the question, which is amended by Ryan to say we are voting to create a subcommittee to work on our bylaws with four named folks, myself, Carmen, Deb. Initial members. Four initial members. Yes. Four committed members to be on the subcommittee for bylaws. Yay. We can vote to create that subcommittee. All in favor. Hi. Anybody against? Great. It has been voted. She keeps her cool. OK. Thank you for that lively discussion. We now have a subcommittee to work on our bylaws. I'm glad everyone is excited about bylaws. And they will notify everybody of when that meeting is called. It will be warned. Yes. So moving through our agenda, we will move to the community announcements and vote in steering committee members that was bumped down. So is Vicki Garrison from Ward 7 present here tonight? Hi, Vicki. You have already been nominated, I believe. We should nominate our own floor. Or been nominated. Do you want to introduce yourself first? He has to be nominated and seconded. OK. Look behind you, Lee. I nominate her first. OK. Ali is nominating Vicki Garrison. Thank you all so much. And it's my great pleasure to nominate Vicki Garrison. Vicki Garrison was born and raised in the city of Burlington. She grew up in the city when there were no people of color in the city. She has experienced so much hardship. She been very resilient in becoming a doctor, very well-educated person. What I like about Vicki Garrison and why I'm nominating her to be in the steering committee is the way in which she takes care of her lawn. Very welcoming lawn. The lawn is so beautiful. And the lawn is also so engaged in what's going on in the city. The lawn also has apples, the apple tree that generates like apples in winter, summer, spring, all the time. She made the neighborhood in which she lives so much beautiful. She changed definitely the landscape in the neighborhood. She does not care only about her own lawn and about the birdhouses that she built. But she definitely cared about each and every single neighbors across her. She is an amazing doctor who is very involved about what's going on in the city. And I think it's about time for our NPA to be diverse. We cannot talk about diversity without talking about Vicki Garrison. It's my honor and my privilege to nominate Dr. Vicki Garrison. She's amazing. I enthusiastically second. Lovely. I actually did prepare something to say. I'm going to sit, so I don't want my back to people. Is that OK? I was told that you've got to use the microphone. Can I use this one? You've got one. Yeah. I told that three minutes, so. Wow, he said some things. So I'm Vicki Garrison. I use she and her pronouns. I was born and raised in Burlington, and I live in Ward 7. I have a bachelor's degree in education, a master's degree in community mental health, and a doctorate in educational leadership and policy. Thus, I have a background in education. I'm a licensed clinical mental health counselor, and I'm also a diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging consultant. I saw the recording of the November 29 election, and I appreciate the community members who stepped forward to serve on the NPA Steering Committee. As a black woman, I also acknowledge that there failed to be adequate representation of the community of color. Representation is critical to evolve, inclusive ways of being, policies, and practices. It's also critical to foster an environment of belonging for our neighbors of marginalized identities. Without representation, we are not, and we cannot be inclusive or function in a capacity that is equitable and encourages a sense of belonging for all our neighbors. I desire to be a part of the Steering Committee to assist with ensuring that all experiences, voices, and needs are valued, encouraged, and welcomed. And as part of my introduction, I also want a name for the sake of healing and forward movement, that what happened here last meeting was hate speech. During introductions when people were stating their names and respective pronouns, award three resident said, I'm Kevin Hurley, and I don't use pronouns because they are silly, fake, and ridiculous. I witnessed many neighbors become visibly uncomfortable, and I also witnessed that nothing was said or done. For me, that was harm times two. There's a difference between First Amendment rights and spewing hate. According to the United Nations, quote, hate speech refers to offensive discourse targeting a group or individual based on inherent characteristics such as race, religion, or gender, and that may threaten social peace. What happened here last meeting was a direct violation of social peace and cannot happen. It was hate speech, transphobic, exclusive, and impedes peace for our transgender and non-binary community members, as well as all of us who truly, truly value diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging. I believe we have a responsibility individually and collectively to do better. I believe we have to be accountable to doing better, and I believe we can. To start doing better, I recommend that we as an assembly and as a steering committee develop front load and stand in a diversity mission statement that will guide everything we are and do in this space to ensure an uplift democratic process because without this, there is no democracy. I also recommend that this diversity mission statement be visible on every webpage in all documents associated with the NPA. We have the opportunity and capacity to work towards something greater than ourselves and is community. Let's do this. Thank you. Thank you so much, Vicky. Do we have a question in the back? A question. I'm sorry, were you talking about this meeting here? Someone at this meeting in earlier months making fun of the pronoun issue? November 29th, so. This meeting here? November 29th NPA meeting. I'm sorry to hear that. I'm disgusted. Thank you. Thank you. And welcome to the steering committee, Vicky. Really excited to have you. We're gonna vote. We have to vote. Come on, we all know what we're thinking. We're at seven residents vote. Yes, ward seven residents voting to appoint Vicky Garrison to the steering committee. All in favor. Aye. Look at how many people are here. All right. I think that's official. Any opposed? Can I help you? I have a nomination first. Okay. Now welcome to the steering committee, Vicky. Do we have a question or another nomination? No, the next item on agenda is ideas for next meetings. No, we have nominations for ward four. Oh, okay, sorry. If there are any other... Joanne? I nominate KC for ward four. Yay! Good one. Thank you, Joanne. Second that nomination. Thank you. Oh, I don't know if I can follow up Vicky's speech. That was very beautiful. I'm KC Carpenter. I live in ward four. I just bought a house two years ago there. I previously rented in the Old North End for years. I have been wanting to get more involved in the community up here on the New North End and would love to contribute as a steering committee member. That's it. Okay. KC was nominated and seconded all in favor of KC, members of ward four voting for KC to join the steering committee. All in favor. Lovely. And anyone opposed? All right. Congratulations. Welcome to the steering committee. Yes. Larry. Do you have any other nominations? Any other nominations? Oh, yeah, that's what I was gonna ask. Oh, that's not what you're doing. Oh, okay. Any other nominations for the steering committee from ward four or ward seven? All right, moving on to... The next thing. Okay. Are you jumping into the next agenda item of open forum space? Okay. Go ahead and you'll follow Larry. Okay, I had asked Carmen George if I could do this. Since 2008, I worked here for nine years. I appreciate the Miller Center and what it means to the community and especially for so many people to come tonight. I've worked the elections many years and I was asked to be an inspector of elections last year to fill a one year position. We have such a great team. I would like to ask if people in ward seven would sign my petition. I have two clipboards here for a three year term. Tom Florey has been our clerk and Jeff Comstock and Tom have changed. Jeff Comstock is now going to be the clerk. Tom is one of our inspector of elections, Trish McCain and myself. We have such a nice, strong team. I know if you remember, we had that one election where it was protested. Well, I forget what it's called. It was two votes and we went through all the ballots again and at the end it stayed at two votes. So we feel very confident that we're doing what we should do to protect your voting rights. It just pleases me to see such a great turnout here tonight because this is like old home for me right here. So I have two clipboards and I appreciate people from ward seven. The Hunt Middle School soccer fields in my backyard. That's where I live. I used to walk here all the time. So I'll leave them right here on this table. I have two pens so you don't have to wait for somebody else to sign up. So I'd really appreciate that. Thank you so much. Was it a, do you have a direct reply? No, it's an announcement. Oh, okay. We have someone in the corner and then Ryan after that and then it'll be Lee. Go ahead. Are we asking for ideas for activities in the coming semester? Yes. I'd like to wonder if anyone else would be interested in a presentation about pesticides and PFOS in our environment? No one understands the word, the acronym PFOS stands for per and polyfloral alcohol substances. And they are pervasive in our environment, in our water, in our ground, in our products. Anything with a water resistant coating is probably made with PFOS. And they're toxic at very small amounts. We need to learn about this. And there are laws at the state house coming up on these issues. So I'd be glad to do a presentation about this in the next month or two. Let me know when's a good time or I could talk with the steering committee about the best time to do that. Is anyone else interested in this subject besides me? I did see some heads shaking. Yes, I mean, nodding. And there is a form online, but we can also take those notes for a presentation for our next NPA meeting. Are you volunteering to give that presentation? I could do that presentation. I may want to have someone with me on my team. I'm a member of the Vermont Pesticide and Poison Action Network. It's a grassroots network around Vermont. So I might have somebody on my team with me or I might do it by myself depending. I might need help if I wanna do a PowerPoint. I'm not sure I need technical help with that or I could just do a talk show, whatever. We can help you, we'll help you. We'll talk to you and we'll help you. Okay. We'll try that for next month quite yet since the elections are gonna be coming. These are just suggestions. Okay, all right, yes. Yeah, so I think next steps for you would either yourself or perhaps someone from the group that you're a part of to, fill out our form, which is on City Clerk, I believe. What do you say? The website. Oh, on CEDO's webpage. I should give you my card so that you know how to contact me and tell me where to go next. Perfect. All right, thank you. Thank you for bringing that to our attention. Okay, Ryan, had you next? Lee, after that. And then you? My name's Ryan. I am with the Odd Fellows. We have the Lodge with the really nice mural on North Ave. Thank you. We also host the North End Pantry. Every Saturday and Sunday morning, 9 to 11. You can come for food, clothing, hygiene products. Take what you need. There's no questions, no income, anything, no paperwork. So definitely let your neighbors know. We serve about 600 people a month in the new North End. And anyway, we also have lots of other kind of social events starting up. We're trying to bring back the Odd Fellows as a bit of a community center. And there's a few other members here, if you don't mind raising your hands, just kind of, we didn't pack the place, we just kind of all showed up here tonight. Anyway, I would love to hear from you if you're interested in what we're doing. But also, I feel like it's important to say we ask for city money for things. The city helped pay for that awesome mural through one of the committees, and I'm really grateful to our counselors for helping out with that. And probably in the next year or so, we'll be asking for more city money for some upgrades to the building so it's more accessible, things like that. So we're putting together a lot of these things, but I want to make sure that everyone the neighborhood knows my face so you can come and let me know if you don't like the way we're asking for tax money. Anyway. Yeah, so we do take donations for the pantry. We'll take food or money any time. Clothing, we're trying to shift that so it's just the last Sunday of every month so that it's easier for us to sort through it and we don't get a big backlog, which is what was happening before. So, yep, we got a big sign up and so that's gonna be this coming Sunday is the clothing donation day. So if you have used clothes that are in good condition, bring them by and we'll see you there. Thanks. Would you say that's the end of the month? Yep, yep, this coming Sunday is the last Sunday of the month. Right. So, I know, it's terrifying. Thanks. Thank you, Ryan. Lee, you are up next. All right, hello again. My name is Lee Morrigan and in the spirit of petitions so I am collecting 15 more signatures to get on the ballot as your progressive nominee for Ward 7 City Council. I'd appreciate some signatures. Thanks, folks. This was a great meeting and thank you so much to the steering committee. Lee, what ward? Seven. Seven. And only Ward 7 can sign your name. Only Ward 7 can sign. Don't get me in trouble with the clerk. I encourage Ward 7 people to sign. Thank you. Hello, everyone. I'm Andrew Chronichfeld. I'm the Activities Chairperson for the Vermont Council of the Blind. A week from this Saturday on February 3rd, we're having the second annual Midwinter Music and Arts Jam, right in this exact room from 12 to 3 p.m. So if you wanna come out and network and if you know any visually impaired or blind people, please let them know about it. And we'll have some pizza and we'll have some drinks and we'll have some art and music. Thanks. Thank you. It was next Saturday. Sarah, you're next and then you in the corner. Thanks. Sarah Carpenter, Ward 4 City Council and I actually could take a few more signatures too, even though I've met, you never know who's in or out. And I just wanted to update you on our meeting on Monday. There's a couple of interesting, exciting things. One is a presentation, informational presentation on the so-called Neighborhood Code. Some of you have been following it quite closely. We're not passing it, but it's a time to hear the more detail. This is a change in the zoning that will effectively upzone the whole city, in particular in this end of town, it will allow development of yard lots, backyard lots, more units per lot. This is long-winded, but you can hear more on Monday. There was a change in the state law that requires it. You effectively can't have a single family lot. And so it's just, I think, helpful if you want to hear more about it. Excuse me, we'll also be reviewing an update on Cambrian Rise. We need to re-approve their development agreement and there's some nice changes there. So if you want to come, I don't have the exact times, if you go on Civic Clerk, you can look at the agenda and you'll see what time those informational sessions will be on. Excuse me. And some of you have been following the UVM Housing MOU that will not be on the 29th that's moved probably to the February meeting of the council. Thank you for those updates. And in the back, one more person. Hi, I'm Amy Bilosky Branch. I'm the ward for clerk of elections, continuing with petitions. Another Amy, Amy Payne, is not here tonight, but she's running for a one-year position in ward four is inspector of elections, would love signatures on this petition too. So thank you very much. Thank you. Is it, oh, okay, she's four. One more. I just wanted to suggest for future NPA meeting, the Burlington Department of Public Works has a process through which we can apply for pop-up street projects. I know a lot of people have complained on front porch forum rightfully about the speed of cars in our neighborhood. So I was thinking as an NPA at a future meeting, we could walk through this process and then discuss, you know, if we wanted to create some kind of temporary, like traffic calming project, this would be things like chicanes or bollards or planters that we could put in the street and demo in the spring. It could be a nice community project. We can all go out there someday with, you know, paint and dirt or whatever it is that we're gonna do. And, you know. Throw paint and dirt at cars. Make the street look a little nicer. So that's my suggestion. I like it. Paint. Thank you. Anybody else? Okay. Thank you. I'm Evan. I use he, him pronouns and I live in Ward seven. I just wanted to add to maybe the, for after, I know we have busy meetings coming up, but often I feel like we're sort of struggling to find green up day volunteers at the last second, which seems to come in, you know, so fast. It just hits us in April. And we have so many opportunities and places and I would love maybe the NPA to be a place that could help gather volunteers and start to kind of coordinate with the folks who are, I don't know if that's Parks and Rec or if there's sort of some offshoot of people, but we have so many places and we have so many wonderful beaches in our area that we're very lucky to have. And with the storms and everything from last summer, there's just a lot of stuff everywhere. So I think it's a big kind of project this year. If, if this folks are interested, I know I usually sign up and go out there with trash bags and it is fun if you make it fun. So thank you. I realize it's a little way it's off, but. All right, put that in the calendars. A few minutes left. We have one more thing. As one of the steering committee members, we kind of have a question for the general ward for seven public, I would say. Give us input on what you'd like to see at future meetings. I know until now we had a lot of like state reps would come almost every meeting, city council would come almost every meeting and present. And I believe we're kind of trying to veer away from that and then only dedicate certain months to have reports from our state reps versus city council. So we're open to ideas about that. Next month will be just a week or so before town meeting day. So we might have debates. I think both the ward seven and ward four city council seats are contested. So it'd be nice to hear from our wonderful candidates. I'm not sure what measures are on the ballot. I know that there's gonna be a difficult school budget that we need to pass. So it would be nice to hear a little bit more about that. Hopefully everyone's interested because you'll all have to make that decision at the voting booth. So we only have a few minutes left, but I guess we're open to also email input, right? Yep, and there is... On the CEDO website, someone already reminded me. On the CEDO website, form for anybody interested in presenting at a future meeting. Carmen? Yeah, and if anybody wants to send a topic to us, they can go to northburlingtonnpa.com and go to the volunteer page. And there's an email that you will go out to all the members of the steering committee. A few little things. We have leftover food. If you would like some, stop over. And we'll try to wrap it up. If you have a container, that's even better. Thank you, Carmen. Yeah, reminder, that email is on the agenda for today, on the back, with the names of the current steering committee members as of the start of this meeting. Does not include our two new members who were voted in today. Do you have a final remark, Hank? My final remark. So I have 45 people have attended this meeting. If you did not get a chance to sign the signing sheet, please do. I'll put it on the table on your way out. But that's a tremendous turnout here to be commended. Yes. And like Carmen said, bring some food home if you so choose. If they're... The sugar stamp, the sugar stamp is providing. Oh. Hey. I'm hungry. That's what we'll have dinner now. The meeting is February 28th. The next meeting, I guess. The fourth Wednesday from 6 to 8. Well, we might change the date because it's school break. We always have it during school break. Oh, okay. Forget it. Okay, before everyone goes home, my name is Charlie and I've been involved with the NPAs for like 30 years. And I'd just like to say that about 10, 15 years ago, wards four and seven was the most stable and the most influential NPAs in the city. And I know Lee Terhoun will back me up on that. So it's very encouraging to see this. Many people come to an initial meeting. Don't be daunted by how difficult it was with the bylaws because that happens no matter where you go. So your future meetings are gonna be much easier and much smoother, I guarantee you. Just like to say that I'm really happy with what I've seen happen here tonight and in the last few weeks with awards four and seven NPA because if you go back to cctv.org and you look at meetings 10 and 15 years ago, this room was full of people month after month after month, there's never less than 50 people that attended these meetings. And that was before the internet really. So I'm totally, I'm totally confident that the wards four and seven NPA will continue to grow and thrive and I'm glad to see that happening. Thank you. Thank you, Charlie. And I will make a motion to adjourn the meeting. All right, thank you all.