 Good evening, everyone. My name is Akol Agwek and I'm the moderator for today's forum for Barrington City Council, Ward 5. We have three candidates this evening who are contesting for the seat of Ward 5 for the City Council. The candidates are Ben Traves, Farid, Munasia, and Lenora E. Traves. These are the three candidates who are contesting for that ward. And I will go ahead and read the ground rule. First, the candidates will have one minute opening a statement and then all candidate will have two minutes to respond to questions. There may be questions from the public, in which case we will take those, all candidate will be given the opportunity to respond to question from the public. Each candidate will be given the opportunity to ask a question of the other candidates. All candidates are allowed 30 second rebuttals. Candidates have 30 seconds closing comments. Questions. I ask the moderator will select from the following questions as well as take questions from the members of the public who will call in. Again, the priority is given to the members of the public. When they call in, I will take their questions and you will have the opportunity to answer those questions. So without further ado, I will go ahead and start the forum right now. First of all, it will be 45 minutes. We will stop at 6.15 exactly. And so let me begin by asking the candidates, each one of you will have two minutes to explain, to tell us why you are running and what will be different for Burlington if you are elected. So let me begin with the way the candidates are listed. Ben Travis, you have two minutes to go ahead. Well, thank you, Nicole, and thank you to TownMeetingTV for hosting this forum. I've always appreciated TownMeetingTV and the great service that it plays for our community. Hello and thank you to Lenora and Fareed as well. Looking forward to the discussion tonight. And thanks for everyone who's tuning in either live tonight or I know this will be recorded. So if you're recording this, thank you for watching. My name is Ben Travis. My family and I have lived in Burlington for most of this past decade. I work as a lawyer downtown. But the focus of my life is on our three kids. I am my wife. Our oldest Lola is a six-year-old and first grader at Champlain Elementary right here in Ward 5 on Plain Street. Our four-year-old Jack and our seven-month-old Zoe attend preschool here in Burlington. I'm running because I believe our city council needs to recommit itself to vital local issues. The lights we turn on in our house, the water that comes from our faucets, the roads, sidewalks, bike lanes we take to and from work, the parks we play in with our kids all depend on effective local government. I believe our city council again needs to recommit itself to these issues. I'm running for city council and listed on the ballot as a Democrat, but I'm not entering this race with political bias or agenda. My goal is to approach the city council as a fair-minded consensus builder, working with others to cut through political divisiveness to make progress on issues that matter to our community, like affordable housing, affordability, public safety, sustainable infrastructure. I'm looking forward to discussing these issues tonight, to introducing myself as a candidate and talking a bit more about my experience in the community, like on our neighborhood planning assembly, our parks commission, and our housing board, and look forward to a good discussion with Fareed and Lenora. Thank you, Akal. Thank you. Exactly two minutes. Fareed, you have your two minutes. Thank you, Akal. My name is Fareed. I've lived in Ward 5 for most of my life, 25 years now, and I am running as a volunteer for an electoral project aimed to revive direct democracy, to strengthen it, and to expand the mechanism and the culture of direct democracy in Burlington. I think Burlington works best when people are able to participate in making the decisions that impact our lives, and I believe that there's a critical need for us to reform how these processes are. We are famous and have a reputation as a progressive city. Everybody thinks it's like Bernie's, like hometown, but I feel like what makes Burlington great has been weakened, and that is the participation of its people. If I win, like the city council, I don't think, honestly, there's not much going to be any difference unless some of these fundamental changes are applied, because the city council, even when all 12 of them agree or I think it's already challenging, and so I think there needs to be more participation by regular people, not just people who can afford to pay attention, and so we hope to enshrine some of this rights for us to participate in decision making in our city charter that needs to be updated, and so that's what I'm hoping to do. Thank you so much, Farid. Exactly two minutes. Lenora, your two minutes. Yes, good evening, everybody. I am Lenora Travis, and I am running for city council for award five. I've lived in Burlington, Vermont for five years since I came to this state and followed my younger son here. I have two sons, one served in Afghanistan. He is still stationed in New Jersey, and my youngest one chose here, so I'm glad he did, because I found that I love it here. I'm running on humanity and for infrastructure and affordable housing, and to find other places and other outlets for our displaced people that are here in Vermont to go to and to feel safe. I feel that infrastructure is also a very good, important thing. We see a lot of that going on now, which we are very glad to see taking place, even though it can be a nuisance for a lot of people going out and about and having detours and things, but I want to stay focused on mostly the people because so much has happened here since this pandemic, and I was walking around yesterday with a friend of mine, and you see so many places that are no longer there. I pointed out Mirabelle's and a couple places on Church Street and the candy store, and so many people lost their businesses, as well as some lost their place to live, their job. So many people have been affected, and the pandemic brings us closer to a reality that we need to build on what we have and do better and try and pick ourselves up after this devastating battle that we have gone through with COVID and financial situations. Thank you. Thank you so much, Denora. Now, let me go ahead and ask questions. The first question is related to what is related to your opening statement, which is to say, what is your experience? What experience do you think bring you to bear that make you qualified to be a Burlington City Council member? So let me begin with you, Denora. I'm going the other way. You have two minutes. Yes. I think that because the personal experiences that I had a challenge with when I first got here, I'm someone that moved here from North Carolina with a plan. I had been in touch with Seven Days and found a place to rent and packed up everything I had and came across from North Carolina, upstate New York, and right over into Vermont. However, the place I was supposed to have rent fell through. The gentleman had a problem with the closing on his new home, so he couldn't move out and I couldn't move in. So I think my experience that led me down to where I was spending so much money on hotels and still trying to find a place to move into just went down a dark place and my son and I both wound up looking for places to stay. So I know what it's like to be on the streets in Burlington and the outsideing areas, looking for services from people, churches, other facilities that are open, like winter, cold weather exceptions, when we would be able to get a room because it was so cold that they didn't want anybody outside. I've experienced all that and having to look places to go to Red Door Church for soup and sandwich on Sunday to take a shower and then get back out into the elements to fight ongoing procedures of trying to find a place to live and be settled in this beautiful state. Thank you. Thank you, Lenora. Ben, your two minute, what qualification do you bring to this job? Thanks, Nicole, and thanks for that, and so Lenora. I think lived experience is really important and Lenora, you and I had a chance to speak before tonight and I really value the lived experience that you're bringing to this discussion. For me myself, let me first talk about my experience as a dad of young kids. We don't have a whole lot of folks in the City Council right now who have young kids in the Burlington school system. As I mentioned before, I got two young kids in child care here. We are living the struggles with finding affordable quality child care in Burlington. My first grader should be perhaps one of the first classes to move into a new high school. Our city needs a new high school and like a lot of parents in Burlington, I am personally invested in making sure that we get a high school that is deserving of our community and that is deserving of our children. I'd like to also talk about my professional experience. I'm an attorney, I'm a lawyer. Chip Mason is currently our Ward 5 City Council and he's the only lawyer on the City Council. He served well on the Ordnance Committee. The Ordnance Committee doesn't do a whole lot of glorious work, but it does really important works on the nuts and bolts of how our city works and operates and I think a lawyer's perspective, a legal perspective is really important to that and I would be more than open to following in Chip's footsteps on the Ordnance Committee. And finally, community is something that really matters to me. I've always worked to find a part of my life to get back to the community. It's why when I was a renter living in the Five Sisters neighborhood, I joined the Burlington Housing Board of Review to help tenants and landlords resolve security deposit disputes. It's why after I became a dad, I joined the Parks Commission of which I'm now the chair to be a better steward of our outdoor spaces and it's why I've spent five years on our neighborhood planning assembly building more open inclusive spaces for community dialogue. I spent years working with and hearing from neighbors and developing a deep understanding as to how our city operates and I think that experience will really serve me well as a City Councilor. Thank you. Thank you. Farid, you're two minutes. I'm over 18 and I live in Burlington so I'm technically qualified to run for City Council. I think, you know, these kind of questions always bother me a little bit because I think it's great that Ben is running and it's great that Lenora is running. I think like the question like we should be asking is how can we, you know, include everybody? How can we allow participation from people who actually care? I mean, obviously like at least now we have three people who care. You know, I really value like Ben's like expertise and knowledge and all his work in the community and I do think like Lenora, I'm so glad like she's also in this race because we need to hear what she has to say and I think, you know, I believe my experience like lately especially is that it's been frustrating to see such a, you know, innovative community, such a creative community, such a caring community that gets, I would say like that but like the government is not really taking full advantage of what we have to offer because right now the limitation is, you know, we go to election and all we get to choose is like just one person to make all these other important decisions on behalf of the rest of us. It just can't be that one person could be, you know, have more qualification to represent 5,000 people or so. I feel also I've experienced like disappointment in like the turnout for elections are so low. So I think there are, and we have some proposals that the campaign that I'm a volunteer for, we have some proposals, concrete proposals to improve the system so that it becomes more participatory for everybody. Thank you Farid. So I will continue asking questions so that the members of public can hear your position on those. Question about taxes. How do you respond to the valid item requesting a raise to the city tax rate by 4% this year? I will begin with you Farid. I would hesitate to support like any new taxes. I feel like the budget is like something that's like so disconnected from for me and like I don't feel like I know enough about it. I feel like, you know, like I don't think, you know, there's any way for me to influence the budget of the city. But it's a very important document. It's a very important process that I feel most of us feel excluded. I would say I would not support any increase in taxes until there is some really critical like reform in the way that we set our budget because I do think budget is a moral document. It basically outlines our values. What do we prioritize as a community? And right now it's not transparent and it's not accessible to most people. I think the city could do a much better job in educating us. They could also do a much better job in soliciting input from us and inviting just regular people to participate in the creation of the budget. I think there are many municipalities who have implemented a participatory budgeting process. We don't have to turn over the entire however many millions the city budget is currently at but we could start with like a portion of it that we could allocate to the different neighborhood planning assembly. For example, for a process that's more participatory so that when we understand what the money is being used for and there's more discussion of that because it is our money. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you Farid. Lenora, you have the floor for two minutes on taxes. Thank you. I do agree with Farid. I'm sorry if Mrs. said your name. I do agree that taxes is something that we shouldn't even be thinking about right now raising taxes. There are so many people that had so many personal damages with their income and their business. Like I said since the pandemic which has controlled a lot of things that have happened in our lives. Everything is more expensive. Food is more expensive. You know everything on your daily basis is putting more money into gas is more expensive. Everything has changed and it's like to ask somebody to be susceptible to raising taxes by four percent I believe it is. I think would just be a struggle for people that are already struggling. I don't see any sense in that right now so I'm totally against raising the taxes on people that are trying to get by one step at a time every day. Thank you Lenora. Ben, you have the floor. Two minutes. Yeah. Thank you very much. So I think in answering this question and it's important for us to first be mindful that a lot of folks especially in the south end and Ward 5 already had a property tax increase this year as a result of a property reassessment in my opinion did not follow best practices. Folks in the south end really throughout the city but I would say especially in Ward 5 in the south end a more undue burden has been placed on them and they've already had property tax increases this year so we need to keep that in mind when we talk about any matter that's going to increase taxes especially since with increased assessments on the Ward 5 any future property tax increases are going to have all that more undue burden on those folks whose assessments were increased more. The city has a lot of federal funds available to it right now this is not something that's always there so I would encourage the city to do everything they can to use those ARPA funds on projects to avoid are having to increase taxes. The reality though is that inflation alone requires an increased budget to keep our city moving forward so I don't I understand the question is posed to us that do we approve of a 4% tax increase but I think what's important is for us to focus on where that 4% increase is coming from which is the capital bond that's been put on the ballot for 20 some million dollars and I'm concerned because there's some really vital topics in that bond like for example we have some fire trucks that are off the road right now because it deferred maintenance our fire department's communications equipment is a couple decades old and they don't even make replacement parts for it any longer. These are really vital items that are supported by that capital bond I don't think we can put it off any longer so while I'm reluctant and don't like the increased property taxes I will be voting yes on that capital bond. Just before I move on if I am very clear let me just put this forward Farid said no to the increase in taxes Lenora said no to the increase in taxes if that's that's what how I heard you can correct me Ben can you go on record and say you are yes or no? Well if you look at the ballot call there's a couple different questions that have to do with taxes one of them has to do with the school budget but if you look at the language it actually involves potentially a decrease in taxes but it looks like up to six and a half percent the ballot measure on the capital bond does not talk about an increase in taxes so I don't know what the net gain necessarily will be I think the appropriate question here is whether or not we support the 20 million dollar capital bond and the answer to that question is yes I do because of the really vital issues to our community that are in there. So for the record for the members of the public that I will take it is it fair to say that you are saying yes? Yes I support the capital bond and I would encourage neighbors to support the capital bond as well. Okay thank you I thought I want that distinction to be clear. The next question is about the COVID-19 or the COVID right now and it is basically what are the biggest challenges facing the city right now as a result of COVID and how can the city council address them? It is you Ben two minutes. Yeah so this is the issue that we're dealing with I feel like the pandemic has stolen two years of our life here coming up on the two-year anniversary and I know more people who have COVID right now than at any point during the pandemic again as a dad of young kids including two kids who unfortunately cannot be vaccinated yet because they're under five I'm really aware of the challenges that the parents in particular have been facing with the pandemic not only because of their own kids getting COVID but also because of having to quarantine with close contacts and school closures over the last couple months or so. We also obviously have a lot of frontline workers, educators, health care workers who have been going above and beyond here and I want to continue to give a nod to them and thanks to them as a community but because so many folks are coming down with COVID now or having to quarantine or having to stay home to care for their children you know my biggest concern right now is that that has folks having to forego work opportunities either to take time off from work or to forego an opportunity to work all together and the reality of this is as I know the other candidates here know all too well is that it's put too many of our neighbors in further food insecurity it's made housing all the more unaffordable for them and so I think the city and other partners need to do more to address those issues and just finally if I could say one thing I call I really appreciate Lenora's comments with respect to how COVID has impacted businesses I think that we need to do a whole lot more to support our businesses in getting through this pandemic. Thank you thank you we are running very short on time Lenora you're two minutes. Yes I do like I think I made this statement earlier I do believe that COVID has basically taken all of our lives hostage they're so limited at what we can do and where we can go and it has just basically turned everyone into trying to survive whether it be a business you know kids in school or college students or people in their homes my grandbaby her great grandmother got COVID at 81 and it was devastating to know that you know the one daughter had to take off work so she could go and stay with her mother because at that time this is when it first started that at that time they weren't having people come into someone's home because of the epidemic being so bad so it's situations like that you know that people are looking after their elders you know they're looking after other people around them in their neighborhood and stuff trying to get people to you know to step up and take care of each other because sometimes the hospital can't do everything they're not all you know they're all in the neighborhoods watching over everyone so I do think that you know we need to step up and really stay focused on what good we can finally get when this is behind us like building back up our businesses seeing that so many empty places on church street are no longer empty they'll of course they'll be replaced by things that we liked being there but to boost people's morale that you know we can afford to do things like I said affordable housing and to get people off the streets and to get people into a place where they feel safer we feel safer because right now there's a whole lot of hostility out there and it's leading to bad things happening because people are frustrated short-tempered and just outwitting themselves they just don't know what to do so they make the wrong choice and it affects all of us so it's not just COVID it's everything that's happening because of COVID and our lifestyles thank you thank you Lenora Farid you have the floor for your two minutes I think a lot of the challenges that we're seeing they've been going on for a while even before the pandemic and obviously things like the housing crisis also inequality the fact that people are having to choose between paying rent or and buying food I think that has been going on for a while and the pandemic just brought it all to a peak and and I do feel that we know the pandemic has taught us that we you know we are on as a community we are only as strong as the most vulnerable among us the pandemic don't really care about your class background or your partial affiliation or any of that if somebody is vulnerable that means the rest of us are also at risk so I feel like there's a lot of challenges but I also see a lot of opportunities that the pandemic has brought us while we've seen the limitations of our municipal government the community has risen up in response to fill in this gap you know we have the mutual aid groups that are meeting the needs of people directly and people are just helping each other I do feel like the isolation that the pandemic has imposed on us that could be really stressful which is why it's so much more important for us to have a connection to the community and I think we are adapting to that I do think we need to really let everybody participate in making all this decision because the city government they're limited and as we see like our community is more than capable of stepping up and taking care of one another so a challenge but also hope and opportunity thank you thank you I will keep going because as we want to express in as many questions as we can before we're running out of time this the next question is about racial justice where do you see opportunities for addressing racial justice in the city and how will you use the city council seat to meet this challenge Lenora you have the floor two minutes I don't think it'll take that long I want racial justice you know the progressives and stuff to be voted out I think that I am a meteor I'm just meteor and I'm just you know I get frustrated sometimes when I you know things are going in in that direction so it's kind of like I just I don't have a whole lot to say on that I'm sorry thank you thank you thank you for saving time that racial justice yeah thank you so first of all if I'm elected city council I think it's first important to acknowledge that as a white man I've had certain privileges in my life that others don't and that I need to acknowledge that the lived experiences of many of my neighbors have been very different than my own so my commitment is first of all to approach every issue through the lens of equity and inclusivity and to do the best to the extent I can to put myself in the shoes of all my neighbors and looking at these issues if the question is where do I see opportunities for addressing racial justice from my perspective the answer is everywhere and we talk about it a lot in the context of public safety and rightfully so given historical bias and policing but we also need to talk about racial justice on other issues COVID for example and the disparate impact it's had on communities of color you know I serve on the parks commission and we talk about it all the time with respect to where and how we build our parks inclusivity and city programming and city staffing issues related to affordable housing affordability tenant rights and the disparate impacts of cost of living transportation issues all touch on issues of racial justice and I will look at all these issues through that lens thank you thank you Ben Farid you have the floor two minutes I see opportunities even closer to home in Ward 5 when I attend the NPA meetings for the neighborhood planning association assembly which is the way like we can plug in as an individual and have like our our voice heard and be participate in decision making about our city so when I look at the NPA for our word honestly like there's maybe two or three times where I have seen another person who's not white and that's that's concerning because I know like our our ward is actually changing in terms of demographics so we have definitely a segment of the population that aren't being heard that aren't being included and I do think there is a lot that we could do there to make sure that people feel like they matter and and it's not like necessarily just based on race because you know like the barriers if you if we address like some of these barriers to to participate it will it will have to address like what when like there are like various limitations for in general for working families it's you know like there's all kinds of challenges that make it so the people who are we are listening to who are making decisions were being empowered are not are not really like the majority of of the residents in this ward which are you know like we're mostly renters we're mostly working class people and most of us can't actually afford to attend any of this meeting so there's a lot that we could do there thank you thank you thank you the next question is it might be it is about the policing and community safety what is your opinion on the recent appointment of Chief John Murat what is your vision for community safety and how will you support that as the city counselor then you have the floor yeah I mean obviously this has been the issue that our community has been talking about here at the last couple days and rightfully so over the last couple years and when I talk to the community and public safety I hear a couple main issues one is how can we continue to address historical bias in policing and the other is how can we best keep our community safe and unfortunately I don't think we can answer either of those questions until we bring much needed stability to our police department I'm really frustrated that our community has gone nearly two years without a permanent police chief even though the city council broadly supported increasing our police officer capped 87 officers the department has continued to struggle in recruiting and retaining folks this has resulted in the elimination of really important positions like that dedicated to domestic violence victims or our community affairs and staffing shortages have placed unsustainable strains on city employees other emergency responders and community partners you know what I'll say about John Murad is if the mayor intends on appointing him clearly there's more work that needs to be done if he's going to secure majority support of the council so whether through a search committee police commission or other public forums I would suggest to the mayor let's have more community dialogue so we can hear from and learn more about Chief Murad and I would also suggest to the mayor to continue to work with city counselors to see if there's room for compromise to see if we can make progress on some other policing issues like independent oversight of the police department or alternative public safety resources to see if there's collaboration in a deal that can be made for us to get a permanent chief and bring some stability to the department sooner rather than later thank you Ben Lenora you have the floor yes I do agree with what Ben has just stated that you know we need a chief police it's been too long I can't remember I was going through my head a few days ago when's the last time I even saw a police officer walking up church street and normally they were always visible you could always speak to them and you know know that they were in your presence but apparently that I've not seen that in some time now and I believe that a police chief handles a lot of situations and we don't just need more police officers we need someone to step up and be in control of the police officers and the community and everything that goes on that's why it's so vital that we do have a police chief it's just you know so many things are happening and it's something that I just couldn't even imagine I mean I grew up in small towns and in the south where we had our sheriffs and our chiefs and stuff and everything I was like I can't believe it's it's two years now so it's yeah somebody's really gotta you know people have to really step up and figure out that we need this is something we need this is not you know this is a necessity thank you thank you thank you Lenora Farid you have the floor your opinion on the appointment of John Mira. So I don't think we know enough information about what happened there in terms of like that particular appointment because I thought they had worked out the compromise and somehow at the last minute it was off the table but I do think public safety is important and I think we need to start addressing some of the issues and policing is only a small part of that and I think it's a problematic part of that and the BPD now has it didn't just start two years ago it has lost the trust of the community in terms of like it's from its leadership and also I do think there is an unhealthy relationship between the mayor the chief and the police officer association we now have had more people killed by the police in the last decade compared to any time in Barlinton's history there is something going on there that that we need to address I do think that accountability is very important any government official we should always expect accountability especially the ones who are empowered to take lives ones who are empowered to use violence and I think we need to start while the police commission do its job and they will negotiate with the BPD and put in some needed reforms we need to also think about other ways that we can ensure public safety and it just can't be at the expense of justice I don't think stability while sacrificing justice is not really safety at all so I guess my other time thank you thank you so much we are just six minute left so I will quickly squeeze in this question for one minute and then you each of you will have closing a statement and that is about housing what needs to be done to address housing concern in the city what are the biggest issues with housing affordability safety and access Lenora you have the floor one minute yes housing is a big thing a very big issue I think that even when I got here five years ago that it wasn't as much of an issue as it is right now because I have seen more homeless people displaced people come and are in Burlington since I was and I believe that you know we need affordable housing of course we also need to find some buildings I've been talking with the pastor of the red door church who believes also we should be looking for some buildings to that are vacant to put people into so that there isn't so many people just struggling from here and there and and looking for a place to sit for a little while or I mean I know myself when I when I was homeless it was like I found a McDonald's sometimes to sit in or a Dunkin Donuts two places that were opened all night so I mean you see people just hovering and going places and this is what leads to a lot of tension this is where you know we find crime and hate and instability because people are on easy people have no place to go so affordable housing and places to put people that are displaced right now would make things a lot easier on the community and all of us in dealing with the future thank you thank you Lenora van you're the floor one minute okay it's a very broad question Cole so I'll see what I can get to in one minute you know housing means very different things to different people I think Lenora touched on it right we need to first think about our neighbors who don't have a house at all and we need to do more in our community for our houseless neighbors like more short-term emergency housing like some of the pieces that Lenora was talking about there dedicating a whole lot more resources to long-term stable housing for our houseless neighbors more low barrier and no barrier shelters and shelters that have the right resources such that folks don't have to leave with their belongings during the day housing means something else to tenants as well as folks in Burlington who are trying to afford to buy their first home I think we need more housing in Burlington I think the south end could play a special role in developing more housing in certain areas I look forward to engaging with the community and seeing whether or not we can amend our zoning ordinances to see where the right place is for more housing you know I was lucky enough to buy my first home in 2014 I don't know that I'd be able to afford a first home in Burlington right now and we need to do better thank you thank you Ben Farid you're one minute um so I I believe housing is human right and I do think like it's become a buzzword like now all our leaders say housing is human right but they also want affordable housing which you know it doesn't really how do you reconcile like if it's a right then it shouldn't be available to people who could afford it and I do think it's the job of the government to protect this right and obviously the model that we've been using for the last 10 15 years of like waiting for like the private kind of model to solve our housing crisis hasn't been working I do think you know Burlington actually used to be a pioneer we you know we we initiated like the the community land trust model for example so we we need to go back to like that kind of mindset and you know be more creative it maybe we need to convert like more buildings into single residency single residence occupancy and I do think for renters like code enforcement against like the landlords who are not like doing that there and uh it needs to be stepped up so that the housing that they do have is livable thank you thank you thank you so much for respecting the time 32nd for your closing your statement Lenora first 32nd for your closing statement yes I'm running for city council hall uh city council for um fight board uh because I feel that there's a lot that I can give to this community even though I've only lived here for five years I've learned a lot I've seen a lot I've had to jump through many hurdles to get to a place that I'm in right now so I think that being just a human being that cares and that has the insight of knowing that people need help out there that I would fit in very well I believe thank you thank you that 32nd thank you call thank you Lenora thank you for this discussion I really appreciate running in this race with Freed and Lenora I think they bring a lot to the table and I think importantly you know we come from different communities and I whoever gets elected here you know I look forward to continuing to work with Freed and Lenora and all our constituents bringing them to the table and uh you know working through political divisiveness and our differences building consensus and making progress as a community I feel like we haven't been moving forward for a couple years here and it's time for us to cut through some of that political divisiveness and start moving forward again um if folks want to learn out and learn more go to bendtravers.com and feel free to reach out thank you thank you for it your last 32nd this is unsatisfying huh like I want to keep talking about this stuff it's important so I have issued a challenge to both Lenora and Ben uh that we would do a cook-off where we will bring food cook food and we're gonna serve it at the neighborhoods in our community so the first event is on Friday the 11th uh at South Meadows uh at between four and six so come there like let's talk let's talk to us we want to listen to you uh we'll serve you food and like let's keep this conversation going um proposition zero dot org and people for police accountability dot com as the website if you want more info about the campaign that I'm a part of thank you so my candidate it is exactly 615 you respected the time and I'm so honored to have moderated this debate and um I look forward to meeting you in person good luck on the campaign trail and hope to see you soon come to our cook-off thank you bye thank you thank you good night everybody yeah it has finished the forums and you can meet them you can reach out to them they are there in the city thank you so much good night