 In order the liquor control board meeting, please join us in the Pledge of Allegiance led by Deputy Mayor Howard Colestin. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. Rock and roll. So we have just one item on the liquor control board agenda. This is a licensed renewal of the classical license for veterans of foreign wars. Does staff have any comments or concerns about this renewal? No comments from staff. Any public comments? I'm going to use the raise hand picture. All right. Council, any questions or concerns? Would someone like to make a motion to approve the liquor license renewal third class license for John Ryan? 1767 veterans of foreign wars. I'll move. Second. Motion by Mike. Second by Hal. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Motion carries. We will adjourn with the control board. With that, I will call to order. It is 6.02 p.m. So I will call to order the city council meeting. First up is a gender review. I'll move. Second. Motion by Bryn. Second by Hal. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Motion carries. We will adjourn with the control board. With that, I will call to order. The city council meeting. First up is a gender review. Are there any concerns about the order of agenda this evening? All right. Next up is public comment. So this is space for members of the public. If you wish to speak to something that's not in the agenda. So if you're here for something that's on our schedule. The candidate presentation, welcoming week, whatever. Please wait until we reach that part of the agenda. We can have a discussion on a item, not a group on this agenda. All right. I just got a text from Jim that the. He's still waiting for those being to connect. So hopefully should be here any moment. So let's do city updates. I'm sorry, council reports. And can I start with Bryn? Sure. Thanks. I think the report just want to highlight the next municipal infrastructure commission meeting is Thursday, September 30, 630 highly encourage anybody that has any interest or concerns to join that meeting. I'm so sorry, I skipped the consent agenda. I thought that was intentional. No, no, I'm so sorry. Thank you for taking the moment. We have three items on our consent agenda. We have our city council and liquor control minutes from September 7. We have payable warrant from 915 and payable warrant from 820 to 94 and subsequent to pay up for July. And then we have long term financial planning documents so these are policies that we reviewed at our previous meeting for capital improvement debt investment and TIF district. Are there any questions or concerns on any of the consent agenda items. Public comment on those items. All right, hearing no concerns. Were we all here for the meeting with the financial policies. Yeah, yeah, we're in you just missed the last one, but we didn't. This is from that. Okay. So, would anyone like to make a motion to approve the consent agenda. Motion by House second by Mike all those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye. Motion carries. Thank you. And again, apologies. If you want to be speaking by the municipal infrastructure commission meeting. Sorry, point of order. I apologize. I was not here for the liquor control minutes. So we probably. Was that 97. Okay. Yeah. Apologies. Let's do a separate vote for item a city council and liquor control minutes from September 7. That is the meeting. Correct. Can I have a motion to approve the minutes from September 7. Oh, so move. Second. Motion by Mike second by Hal all those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Motion carries those abstaining abstain. Okay. Thank you. We're off to a great start this evening. Okay. Back to council reports. Take it away. Yeah. Encourage folks to attend the municipal infrastructure commission. Next Thursday, September 30th and 6 30 PM. There'll be a virtual connection and announcements will be on from porch forum and city channels before then for how to connect. Thank you. I wanted to thank those that participated in. The tree upper offer that was on two weeks ago. And for those that also participated in the blood drive. Last Friday, this past Friday. So thanks for those that members of our community that took advantage and participated in those programs. Other than that, I do not have any other updates. Thank you. Mike. Yes. I would like to. Send out some gratitude for the VFW post 1767. On September 11th. We did a remembrance. For the tragic events that happened that day 20 years ago. I want to thank chief. John Audi in his department. For having all glory fly over the VFW on the main street. I would also like to thank the fire fighters for being in attendance. And ringing the service bell. Pay tribute for the 20th anniversary of the terrorist attack. I would also like to thank all the veterans that were on hand for this remembrance. And for those who spoke. This was done very tastefully and very respectfully. We had a gathering of probably a little over a hundred people. I would like to thank Jeff. I would also like to thank chief Heber in his department. I want to thank him personally for getting lieutenant crams patrol motorcycle on hand. As the VFW and Jeff Myers had purchased a memorial bench to recognize that lieutenant crams. Service. Not only for his community of Winooski, but for his country. He served as a sergeant major. And as you know, he was a lieutenant in the Winooski PD. Bear with me for a second. I wanted to thank his family for being on hand. I want to again, thank the VFW for inviting the crams for this occasion. For unveiling the of the memorial bench for lieutenant cram. The man, the mayor and I were there on hand. I wanted to express our gratitude. And in conclusion, I wanted to thank all the folks that were there that made this possible. That did the volunteering, the cooking. They had a barbecue for all who attended. And. I want to thank Paul Sarn for keeping it for capturing this on film as well. So a big thanks for everyone that showed up. To. To thank you for joining us today. To thank you. Give memorial. For Lieutenant cram and for remembered some nine 11. You might. How? Sure. I was not able to attend the state healthy connected. People commission meeting, but I can give a brief overview of the minutes. Great coffee. And the draft was reviewed on June 26th and on July 19th. And the city council approved the document and the plan for the coming year. Ray, along with Angela and mayor lot led the commission through each of the items that the plan would really involve their oversight, which would include the Winooski pool. The ESSER funds, recreational programs, outreach plans for working communities grant. Develop an executive plan for the commission outreach for membership. Form the diversity, equity and inclusion commission. And with regards to the police department, the items covered were recruitment, hiring, internal promotions, regional dispatch. The school resource officer position, there was a discussion about that. The police department strategic plan update. And their effort to adopt the statewide policing policies. Also, in the work plan is to develop a plan for occupation Tennessee at the O'Brien Community Center. And to continue work to bring increased childcare options to Winooski residents to improve service delivery through technology. Winooski bar department. The tower ladder replacement was discussed and development plan for management of Memorial Park. And a plan to develop additional volunteer opportunities for you. And Mary husband spoke about discussion she has had with the school board and how the commission might be better working in concert with the school board. And the head of the school board will likely come to the next commission meeting and present. So that's my report. Thank you. Sure. I can break this again. I apologize for being late. Thank you. I just want to kind of build up what Councilor Oakley mentioned. We had over 100 trees given away at the senior center. I want to thank our fellow committee participants for helping unload and distribute trees along with our director of public works for being there. We had a beautiful day for it and I'm excited to see those trees going out to land owners a little over a month to plan and execute. And I'm excited to see that coming to the city again. And I'll share that I'm going to be joining the Winooski school district safety stakeholder working group around the SRO as a parent and member city council but not representing city council views but do you want to let everyone know that I was invited and we'll be participating in that series over the next several months. So looking forward to hearing from a lot of different perspectives and engaging in that process as it rolls out. So let me know if you have any questions as it unfolds. And those are my only two updates at this point. I guess I'm assuming I'll leave planning commission updates related to housing to you mayor. Thank you. I can start with that. So we had a joint. Okay, sorry. At the planning commission meeting members of housing commission came to present some recommendations based on work that they have been doing investigating how we can more effectively incentivize development of housing that meets our housing goals so more house owners and affordable housing, more family size housing more home ownership opportunities the things that we want to see being built more that currently are not. So the housing commission has spent quite a bit of time digging into research on various incentives that can be used in development to to sway what is built and has found that by and large parking, having some kind of waiver reduction for the kinds of housing you want to see is going to be the most effective tool to actually move the needle on the cost constraints. So they presented those findings to the planning commission. We also referred from a local developer with some real data on the kinds of units that he has is operating has built in muski, what kinds of households are living in them, what the parking utilization is, which aligned well with what housing commission have researched. So we also heard from former mayor Seth Leonard, who works for the remote housing finance agency that builds at least half of the affordable housing in the state has done quite a few projects here was also sharing some of the interesting data. So that information is all available on the city website in the agenda for the planning commission. And I continue discussing so planning is going to continue discussing the recommendations that housing brought forward, and is also waiting for the data, the results of the parking study that we have underway. I think, in the future, can put all of that information together to make a recommendation on zoning changes to create an effect and actually effective incentive in our form based code gateway zone, something that we have tasked the commission with addressing to maybe almost three years ago. So looking forward to seeing that conversation moving along. The parking study information will be coming to council when it's ready and any recommended changes will go through a public hearing process so there'll be a lot more steps before any type of changes made in room for public engagement. Finance Commission also met since our last meeting. In tandem with safety, healthy connected people commission to look at our scholarships grants and fundraising policies. Those will be coming forward to commission at a future date. It was really great to have the insight of folks focused on safe, healthy connected people activities. When we're talking about finance policies that apply to those programs. We also attended the latest airport commission meeting. There was an update on the home installation project. So, as has been shared before there's a 10 house pilots occurring this year where 10 houses will see insulation mitigation. That will be used as the design process for 50 homes next year. The airport, the folks at the airport so that they are going to start doing outreach on to those potential 50 homes. I don't know what that looks like yet, and I'm waiting for them to share their actual outreach plan so we can help push out any information we need to to our residents. Finally, I, along with some folks from our school district and many others joined a task force hearing. There's a legislative task force assigned to look at how to implement the UVM waiting study recommendation that would change the way the education funding. would change the formula to provide more resources to students with higher needs such as special education English language learners, kids in rural districts. And I provided some testimony there in support of implementing those recommendations as did folks from our school district. I would have a really big impact on our community and on the kids in our school. So, if anyone I don't have any, they're supposed to be another public hearing but I would encourage folks who are interested to reach out to their state senators state reps. I'm telling Helen about it right now that that is something that is important to us and that we would like to see the legislature move forward on. That is it for my updates. We can move to city updates would like to go first. I can go first. Hi everyone, just a couple of updates city staff or in communication with us CRI and other community partners about the planned resettlement of refugees from Afghanistan in Vermont. So we're not sure at this point how many families might be hosted in when you ski, but we are definitely hoping to welcome some new neighbors and even that's temporary before they move on and settle elsewhere in the state. And my only other update is I'm excited to have made it to this process in the hiring process for the city manager so welcome to our candidate, Marguerite so looking forward to your presentation this evening. John. Great. Do you have any updates to add. Yeah, can. Can you hear me okay is this mic working. If you're speaking we don't hear you. Okay, here we are. Can you hear me okay now. Yes, thank you. So just a couple of quick updates on my end. So we had the. We had a project review committee. This is the body that reviews form based code development. This is the city of Winnowsky. So this past Thursday, we reviewed a project at 340 Main Street. So you may be familiar with this lot. It's the open lot next to the junior's Fodang development that that area. They're proposing a typical four story building with 24 residential units mainly made up of studio one bedrooms. So that's the design phase for development, starting to come through for the sort of design phase on the corridors. The other sort of development update is Park Terrace. So that's the development that's been under construction on East Allen Street at the corner of Manso that officially open the tenants on September 14. And the only update I had is just to kind of piggyback on Mike, what Mike was saying about the the VFW 911 event. Just want to give some gratitude to our police department and fire department for being there. I'm joining the family and friends of Sergeant Major Michael Kram and and paying tribute to the 911 Memorial. So just want to thank our folks for being there and doing that. That's all I have. Thank you. So we are on to our regular items. Item is just on for discussion. This is an update on the city manager hiring process to proceed item B, which will be a presentation. So to give a recap of where we are and where we have come from. We convened a search committee. I think in May first meeting. Representing city council and staff, the school district, some of our local service providers specifically refugee service providers, businesses and residents. The committee then created criteria to evaluate applicants. We had 20 applicants and 10 that passed the evaluation criteria. The committee then invited six candidates to the first round of interviews. One did withdraw so we ended up interviewing with five candidates. We were then advanced to a second round of interviews with the city council, which we conducted at the end of August. The council then advanced to finalists to this final stage of public presentation. However, unfortunately, one of the two finalists withdrew from consideration after accepting another job offer. So tonight we have our remaining finalists to present to the public to give an opportunity for public engagement. And we want to hear from members of the community on their thoughts, you know, not just on this final candidate, but on the whole what is important to you for our city manager for city leadership. And so tonight we want to introduce our finalists and the memo outlines some opportunities for public engagement. There's going to be a, I don't know if it's live yet a form on the city website for feedback. Folks can stop in city hall and fill out a paper feedback form and always email myself and the rest of city council this call share your thoughts. And I believe we also have a live stream at the O'Brien Center with some people watching. So before we move into I am the just wanted to take a moment to see if there are any questions about this update where we are in the hiring process. Brent. Just have a quick question, are the attendees at the O'Brien Center able to comment, or would they need to be like is there a phone there or something. Oh, yes. I'm here. I'm on childcare duty here. They will not be able to comment but we have forms available and are directing them to the online form as well. So they're just here to view. All right. Thanks guys. Oh yeah, that's a great note is that we, I didn't read. Yes, getting really hands on our providing child care at the O'Brien Center to make more opportunity for folks to watch. Any questions from the public on this process update before we move into. A reminder to use the raise hand feature in the zoom or star nine on your phone. In order to indicate if you wish to speak. Do we have any public comment in our live in our city hall. One second. What's the question. Great. So I think we could move on them to item B. Candidate presentation. Oh, I don't know what the question was just walked in the room. So can you add that question again please. Sorry. Oh, I was just, I had just given an update on the city manager hiring process and was saying if there were any public questions or comments. So we have our candidate Marguerite lad. She is in city hall right now. I believe I see her. So we gave Marguerite a selection of topics relevant to local government in advance and asked her to present on them this evening, or to select one to present on this evening. So after she is done, I will then turn back to public comments and see if anyone has questions or comments about the content of the presentation, her experience in this role. That sort of thing. Maybe have I missed anything. All right, so take it away Marguerite. So mayor, I think what we'll do is we'll have Marguerite come up to the microphone up here at the table so everyone can hear her well and go go through the presentation. Paul, do you are you going to load the slides. The presentation slides. Just a couple of PDF slides about TIF district. So yes, I have those right. Okay, great. All right. Perfect. Get my notes out. Very high tech here. And writing. Okay, I think yes. Wow, I can't see department of it list either so I'll do both. I'll talk here to the screen I think that's the camera and out here first. But first, I just want to say thank you for having me here. Thank you for taking time out of your busy days and lives. I know it's beautiful out right now. I'm a wonderful ball day and into the evening and so just thank you thank you for being here to listen to participate. I think local government is a great love of mine, but that's not true for everyone. And we just, we can't be here without the community so it's really, really important and lovely to have you all here for your engagement as well. So yes, I am currently the assistant manager in Essex. And before that I was the town administrator the very first town administrator in Cambridge Vermont. So, with that, some two room here. With that I will talk about the tips. So tonight specifically I will be talking about the tip expiration in Winnowski, which again is very exciting to me but isn't always super exciting to everyone else a little bit boring at times. But I was given up to 10 minutes so I will be speedy and try and get through this. There are some terms here just because it is short tonight so I don't want to take time sort of doing all that. So, if you want to look at some of those definitions as we talk, they're up there for you. And TIFF stands for tax increment finance district. So Winnowski have a tip. And what's really exciting about the TIFF is, in my opinion, is just the fact that 20 years ago, you know, maybe people on this call, maybe people in this room were part of something where they decided to take a gamble on Winnowski and decided, okay, yes, we're going to gamble on ourselves. We're going to reinvest in ourselves. We're going to do this. And so that 20 years from then, that we would all be able to have this conversation and have this sort of opportunity before us. Because those along the way have managed this tool in such a great way that it actually is this really exciting conversation that we get to have. So with that, I will be talking a little bit about what the TIFF looks like in Winnowski, sort of what it's done for Winnowski, and then the really juicy part, which is sort of the future of what it might be able to do in 2024 when it does expire. So with that, if we go to the next, sorry, PDF there. Perfect. Wonderful. Thank you. I'll talk, give a little brief overview of increment here. So, yeah, so in 2004, when the TIFF was established, essentially a snapshot was taken of the district of those taxable values. And every dollar of growth from that snapshot is what's called the increment. And so that's that sort of gray part there on the graph. And every dollar of growth that has gone into that increment since 2004, every dollar of growth that the taxes have been raised from has all been used so far to service debt for the infrastructure that has been happening in and around the center there in the district of Winnowski. So the exciting part is come 2024, the tip will expire, and that increment will actually become part of the total taxable grand list, which currently it is not. So in order to do some more concrete talking here, I have used the numbers for fiscal year 21. And I'm going to talk a little bit about those just so that we can get sort of a good idea of exactly, you know, what we're talking about number wise. So, you can see on the slide there, the taxable grand list and 21 was, you know, oh, and also just to note that these are Angela's numbers I would never dream of trying to come up with the issues, clearly an expert in this. So I have her numbers here for this. So I just want to make sure to give her her credit there. And so anyway, so back to the taxable grand list. So, currently at fiscal year 21 it was just approximately 517 million. So the increment you can see there is just shy of 80 million. So the thing about if this 21 numbers were 24, let's just pretend for a minute that the tip expired that that is what that increment there that just shy of 80 million is what would end up in that total grand list the total taxable grand list suddenly would become just shy of $600 million. What does that mean. So if we were to use that tax rate from fiscal year 21, which was 1.1549 my memory serves and apply it actually to that total taxable grand list instead of just the sort of part that's minus the increment. We would have about $913,000 approximately to work with and what would feel like a sudden spike in our revenue that money that's been used to serve a step will now be something that we can use for our operational budget and working with. And so that's exciting. I don't know about you all, but I have often dreamed of times when I'd be like, Oh, what if I got a million dollars. What would I do with it. So that's kind of the conversation that can happen here because of the way that the, the folks of this community have set it up 20 years earlier to have us here. Okay, so we have a pot, you know, just shy of a million dollars to work with in 2024. Hopefully, you know, again, these numbers are based on 20, fiscal year 21, so hopefully it'll be a little higher. And from there, thinking about, okay, what are we going to do with this? Hopefully go to the next PDF or slide there. Really, what are we going to do? What are we going to do with all this money that feels like a sudden sort of influence of revenue. And so the first thing you want to look at in Winniespie is maintaining no service. So Winniespie's budget is quite lean and amazingly well you get a lot of service for what is there. And so Winniespie also being very strategic, I can tell by looking at these documents that there are, you know, some positions that are already slated for using some of that money when that tip expired. So for example, the equity director and some of those positions in the community development fund. So those are services that Winniespie currently has and she wants to keep. And so that's something that you want to use out of that money so that the taxpayer will not feel that direct hit. They're not going to feel that direct sort of what might feel like a bump in the budget because then you also have what feels like a spike of revenue. They're not going to feel that direct hit or just maintaining those. And it's really important that you do need to know those services because we, you know, when you're using them, it needs them. So that's just the first part to look at. So, okay, so maybe our 913,000 isn't quite that much money, but that's all right. We still got a good amount to work with here. So the next part we want to look at is sort of the capital improvement planning. Now this is definitely something that is big on the strategic vision for Winniespie for sure is the municipal infrastructure. And part of why this is a big deal right here is because through the tip, now Winniespie has a whole bunch of new infrastructure, right? So we want to make sure that the policies that are in place for the capital improvement planning are actually still going to serve Winniespie into the future, right? This is also where you can get at that intergenerational equity. What, you know, what those folks did 20 years prior to allow Winniespie to ensure it would be in a better place now today. You know, we want to think about today and also those 20 years ahead, right? We want to make sure that they have infrastructure that is well taken care of, well maintained and affordable and providing those services in the most efficiently possible. So that's why looking at those with that capital improvement planning is so important to make sure that those policies are still what Winniespie needs. Perhaps the 5% that yearly right now goes into capital improvement planning. Perhaps that needs to be a little more. Perhaps some policies need to shift a little. It's just taking a big look at those and making sure that we can use some of that tip money to offset, again, just so that that taxpayer won't feel that direct cost of investing in Winniespie. And investing in Winniespie's future, the community reinvesting in itself. And a good sort of idea here might be the Main Street Revitalization Project. So the Main Street Revitalization Project is a sort of a good way that Winniespie could reinvest in itself, just like they did 20 years ago with sort of the tips. This is something we're using some of this funding now to really help improve that infrastructure and make it so that that project again, the taxpayer isn't feeling that direct hit necessarily as it goes forward. And or if it goes forward. So with that, okay, so we're looking at kind of those two sort of big items. And yes, they have some, you know, big tickets on there, but we still, I'm sure have maybe two thirds, two thirds of that 913,000 to work with to discuss the new initiatives. Or potentially, you know, they're already in the list a mile along this again, usually people have many lists of things that they are excited about or, you know, if they could just have that money and what would they fund. So it might also be looking like instead of actually coming up with new initiatives, but actually choosing picking those new initiatives and, you know, how do we get the most service and the most out of those dollars, so that, you know, it can be serving to the whole community and that it does fit with the strategic vision and mission, and that it does fit, you know, with the community and the community, what the community values. And so there are all kinds of ideas that I can come up with and sort of throw tonight. Again, the fashion of mine. But actually, you know, it's one of those things where as your city manager that were my role that my role is not to come here and tell you where to spend that money my role is to facilitate the conversation between you, the public, and the council, and make sure that those conversations are happening to make sure that we're hearing from the community to make sure that, you know, maybe the finance commission or some of the other commissions need to be involved too but how we have those conversations and how we start those early decisions so that when 2024 come, we're prepared, we're ready. All of those decisions are very intentional and not sort of reactive, but are all part of a plan and moving the community forward where they want to be, and a part of sort of that strategic vision and those sorts of things. So really, again, it wouldn't be, it wouldn't be my role to come up with all those ideas. I would be the one to engage the public with you all to engage with the council to make sure those conversations happen. This is a role that I would cherish. This is something I love to do, facilitating these conversations, making sure they're happening, hearing different points of view. All of those things are so important. And with that, I will just say that's sort of it from my presentation, but I would be happy to take any and all of the questions that you all have for me tonight. Thanks, Marguerite. Given that the focus of this evening is to get more public input, I would like to go straight to public comment. I would start in council chambers. Is there anyone present who wishes to make a comment or ask a question? Can you, can you come up to the chair and answer them, please? Thank you. Well, first of all, I'm going to say hello to all of you city councilor, our mayor Bruce Wilson here. Welcome Bruce. Thank you. I'm glad to be here. So first of all, you know, I know Marguerite and I just want to say how excited I am that she she's she applied and hopefully she'll be our next city manager. I know some things about her that she she's one of the leads in SS on they have this program called like CEE community equity in SS. It's a big deal is more, more of the departments working together. Her departments working all together to ensure based on what they do include the community. So that's her community equity and SSC and that I thought that was, that was nice that they put that together. She she she's the chair, actually. And she came to my youth gallery. Monks are one who got to meet with me and talk about ways that we can work together with our youth engagement. Building more bridges for people who of color and people who look like me and helping them make decisions on how they can include what they do and and who they are in SS so that it'd be more, you know, maybe more of a melting pot that people can actually learn about each other and and and who they are. So we also talked about having more ethnic festivals and cultural events in SS so we can actually get all the people because of who you are involved in equity and inclusion and events and making decisions. How SS think it'd be better for us to be better. So, I'm hoping that she'll be our next city manager. You know, I'm dedicated with new skin. I love this town. I do a lot here when I can, you know, formally on different things. Commissioner or directors and. They have a different party chair and so. So, I'm just happy to be here. So that's that's all I mean, I think, based on the person who look like me and who I've been around a lot of around the state on. Working with justice equity diversity and inclusion. For many, many years, I've been around all those type of work on a central level. I think that she can actually understand and want to understand people. People cover people like me and that's very important because it's, I don't know. I don't know the population is a people who are. Bipod in the city, but I know it's a lot of different diversities and people who are dark, dark, dark people like me. And so that's very important that a person that can come in here and actually work with them and want to see them strive and want to see them be a part of the city. Want to help them build bridges and in helping their, you know, especially equity and they include them. So that's it. Thank you. Thank you, Bruce. And it's cool to hear from a resident with as much experience as you have who also knows this candidate. Yes, I see your hand is raised. Yes, I actually have a member of the public here who would like to comment so I'm just going to send my phone over to them. That's okay. Yeah, thank you. Thank you. Hi, good evening. Thanks for giving me the microphone for a few minutes. My name is Stephen for back up. Appreciate the opportunity to ask a question to the city manager applicant. First, thank you very much for the presentation. I have been following the chip for a while and I'm glad that you are as excited about it. As I am and as many of us in Winnowski are. And I also appreciate that you are prioritizing public conversation and public input on what happens in 2024. I wonder if you could say a few words about your plan to engage our community members who may not have English as a first language. And how you can ensure that their voice is an active part of the conversation. Yeah, good to go. Thanks, Stephen. Go ahead. Yeah, sure. Thank you so much for your question. Yes, I think, you know, this is just like everything else with a community, it's, you know, relying for sure, you know, getting the experts who are involved. So I would first go to obviously, you know, the commissions that we have already those who are already volunteering with the city, you know, the experts in just the, I guess I want to say like Phoebe and John here who have been working, you know, sort of getting us through to this point and catching up on that. But then, you know, using those regional partners that are here to to make sure we know exactly what you know what we're looking at what are we you know what are we facing what are those challenges, and then go through sort of and systematically be able to tackle that if the interpreters are certain times of day are there, you know, what are the barriers and making sure we understand those so that we can make sure to tackle those and have solutions and that is a good reason to start now. Just because you know that all takes time to so making sure that we have time for all of that engagement is important before we get to that that 2024 so yeah, I hope that answers your question. Sure. Do we have additional members of the public either at the OCC or it in council chambers. Is there anyone attending on zoom that wishes to ask a question and make your comments. Thank you. I see a hand raised. I think she'll then good when she'll whenever you're ready. My question was, we have a lot of different like commissions and volunteer boards and when you ski, could you talk a little about your experience like supporting volunteers and helping to get community members involved in city processes. Yes, yeah, actually, volunteer those one of the first things they back when in my early 20s, I did a lot of development work and a lot of volunteer work myself. And one of the first things I learned was to be extremely specific with volunteers right learn their pattern learn why they're there and giving their time because that that's the valuable part of giving their time. So learn why they're there and then utilize it to do that of the ability of whatever the initiative is that the at the moment so that sort of, you know, public engagement or whatever it might be. So in this case, having commissions or volunteer committee, it's helpful because already there's sort of a filter in place that I understand. Okay, they're volunteering obviously for this commission because you know, whatever their interests are, you know, are within this framework we have for this commissioner committee. So that's very helpful and engaging and utilizing those skills and making sure that the, you know, the staff and employees are helping to, you know, utilize that and keep them informed to your point of making sure that they can engage and do that meaningful work as volunteers for the city. And the other part of that is so for, for example, like in the town of Cambridge, we had many commissions and committees and it's a smaller town for sure. And so I was, you know, tasked with making sure that all of them knew what was sort of happening being that pillar that they could come to being the one that is listening staying informed, however that best maybe maybe it's being in touch with the chairs maybe it's attending some of those meetings myself, but really understanding what you know what's going on in each of those sort of buckets those areas, and then being the one who's like, Oh, you two need to connect or this project works really well with this other, you know, commission or this one's already working on that, you know, maybe check that out. So it's, it's really important to be sort of the way that I view it anyway, for all of those volunteer commissions and committees is to be that pillar of communication right where how can we make sure that it's happening that everyone is staying informed that other committees know what others are doing, and that we are using their time in a valuable way. So yeah, so I've done that, you know, lots in just in my past experience as well. And then specifically if you want to talk about the municipal experience in Cambridge, as well as in Essex, you know, Essex is a little bigger so I don't have to do as many sort of on my own, let's say. But it is definitely making sure that you know who's there and how to stay informed and know what they're working on, so that it is forwarding everyone sort of as we all go together as a collective. And we're not kind of just disparate, you know, out there kind of on our own. And that helps from what I've found the volunteers also want to stay engaged because they do feel that they are, you know, doing that meaningful work, or they feel if they don't understand they can come to me or they know who to go to to get their questions answered, so that they don't sort of lose interest, just because of a lack of understanding which is kind of common unfortunately so I hope that answered your question. Thanks, Marguerite and Sheldon. Yes, I see your hand again. Can you. Yes, are you there. I think that she never. Oh, is this just. Yeah. Hold over. We're trying. I know. Oh wait. I have another community member here. Yeah. Hi, this is Daisy for Becca. I'm a resident of when you speak community member and I'd love to hear more from the candidate about how you are going to use this position to really facilitate conversations. Very very locally in the way that when you ski kind of organically shapes community. I just want to give you talk about where we're going to interface with you, especially if you are a resident here and we would warmly welcome you to our community of course but I'm just curious how we're going to perhaps informally interact with you. That's great question. I should say anecdotally that all of my favorite restaurants are here and it is definitely someplace you'll find me after work hours often. I am often on that street. It also happens to be my husband's favorite location as well so it works out well for both of us. But definitely I am in when you ski probably second most to maybe ethics and where I live, although some might say I'm in those places more than where I live. But but yes I mean that's the joy I would say in one of the most exciting things of this position or of my job currently is to go out and to go to events go learn about the community to hear from you. That's really exciting. I don't know all of the lived experiences out there how wonderful is it that that is part of my job to to be out there and you know to be there you know whether it's after work hours if you want to say or you know just at community events or partaking and maybe watching you know events at the school and all of those sorts of activities that are where sort of that community can happen and that bonding goes on just sort of informally I would say and getting to know everyone. So my hope is to be joining a lot of those events or you know at least for the beginning for sure I'll be attending a lot of you know I would plan to attend many many commission you know volunteer meetings or just even put my name out there to help you know meet people and really have them know how to find me how to reach me you know maybe if there are invitations to places to take people up on those offers those sorts of things. So that would be yes I guess I would try to attend as many of those kind of local just sort of organic as you put it events that really are where the community shine and and come together. Thank you again Marguerite and thank you Davey. I think I see another hand in the zoom chat. So next up we have Sarah. She is currently thinking just give it one second. Sarah whenever you're ready. There we go. Hello. This is Sarah van Rijk-Forstel. And I wanted to just you talked about working with volunteers. And I was wondering if you could talk a little bit about people that you situations where you may have actually had staff or employees that you were running. You have quite a few people that you will be a boss to essentially and just if you could describe your experience in that. Yeah. So as a manager in all sort of just even you know just in this position and then the ones previous. I you know rely on that the expertise of the staff I rely on that teamwork. I am not a micro manager who is going to go in there and think that I know everything and have that expertise or some sort of authoritarian sort of way of that. I am much more I come from a school background. So I'm much more the educator in that sense of you know I have something to teach you have something to teach. Let's learn here together. So that's definitely how I run my teams as well. It is a team effort for sure. And it's the most exciting part is actually working with those team members to again this goes a bit back to the volunteer. And to work on you know where are their passions. Where are their expertise and how do we get everyone sort of on that same boat moving in that way while employing the things that they love to do the most. So that that inertia is is you know passion driven itself driven. They like it. People like to come to work. People like to work together. I'm a big proponent of the process product relationship triangle when I manage. So it's really making sure that you have every point of that triangle sort of taking care of and held space for. So you know whatever the product is that you're trying to get whatever that process looks like to get there and then that relationship. Those are all equal points that need to be kept in held for you know having space for them as you go. So that's sort of more my management style. And how I can I can I just ask what is the largest group that you've ever met. Yeah sure. Well I mean I guess in Essex as assistant manager there. There's at least 17 department heads. And as assistant manager yes I do have a manager above me but there are times when I am the one that is there. So I definitely have you know over a hundred employees for sure under those department heads that I've had to manage at times. And then in Cambridge it was a much smaller sort of bench there you know we're looking at ten ish sort of employees. But that's where the volunteer part was so important because the volunteers were key to really you know doing so much of those functions. And so then you're looking at dozens of commissions and committees and you know to work on there. So you're comfortable with the size of the group that you'll be stepping into. Yes yeah yeah and I look forward to it actually a little bit because it will be it's a little bit more intimate than me. Maybe look a very large situation so it works you know it makes it easier sort of for for me to get to know people faster. Okay thank you problem thank you. Thank you Sarah do we have additional public comment or questions. Again you can raise your hand and zoom or start on on your phone. Or if Yaz is with you tap her on the shoulder. All right so as a reminder. Please feel free to share feedback after this meeting. Via the forum on the city website when you speak to you dot gov paper forms in city hall open. 830 to 430 Monday through Friday I want to say 730 to 430. Oh even better 730 to 430. So email myself and City Council. We're all first initial last name that we use to be to that gov so I'm pale to T how is HCL STL and Sarah available online. And feel free to give us a call and this is also these meetings are recorded right so we're also going to distribute this recording via town being TV and try to get as much community input as we can. So thank you so much for coming tonight Marguerite and for continuing on in this process with us. Thank you so much for having me really and for all the questions. I appreciate it. Yes I'm so glad so many community members came to engage. With that, I think we can move on to item C. This is a welcome week proclamation. So there is a proclamation attached here but for a little background. Welcome week is a an international campaign to bring attention to the work of folks engaged in refugee resettlement and supporting folks that are in, you know, conflict, like struggling in in where they are in the world, trying to get resettled or, you know, trying to adjust to a new home and as a community that welcomes refugees and welcomes new neighbors. This is a nice time to, you know, re spend a little time thinking on that and recommitting to us being a welcome a welcoming city, recognizing the contributions of partners like US Committee on refugees and immigrants. The work of our school district local mutual aid efforts age well so many other local organizations that are helping folks in our community. The communications coordinator has been working on communication campaign around this as well trying to spread the word in our community. Thank you all for that. And as we are looking forward to as a state welcoming refugees from Afghanistan. So I would say, look away here and each and county or otherwise, you know, I know city staff is already thinking about how to be prepared to support new neighbors in our community. And so putting forth this resolution. Are there any questions or comments from Council. Any questions or comments from members of the public. I would say that the main point here is that we are proclaiming the week of September 19 as welcoming. And that we stand united to commemorate the strength courage and resilience of the millions of refugees around the world, including refugees who have come to call when they ski home and would encourage folks to visit. Welcome America.org to learn more. We have this for approval. Do I have a motion to approve the welcoming proclamation. So moved. Second. Motion by Bryn second by Jim all those in favor please say aye. Aye. Motion carries thank you. I also wanted to acknowledge that tomorrow is the International Day of Peace, which is another thing that we have celebrated in our community. That I think connects well to this cause. So we will move on to item D. This is a municipal infrastructure goals update with John. Great. Thank you. So yeah, this is the first infrastructure update for the 21 22 reporting. So in your packet is a memo just kind of giving an overview of where we are with the current municipal infrastructure goals. You know, in general, the must do tasks are moving forward. I will say the the sort of recommended tasks. Most of those have not started yet. I'm not really concerned that we're going to have an issue getting some of those completed. It's just pretty early in the sort of 21 22 season to get some of those started. So I'll I'll just hit a couple of the highlights of the must do is and then kind of opened up for questions. But some of the the bigger ones, the traffic calming manual. So that that has got to start that that started this month. We have a consultant on board associated with the Regional Planning Commission's grant that we receive. So we had a first sort of kickoff meeting with those folks. That's roughly a six month process to basically starting now to get to a final manual slash policy that will be coming to the Council sort of probably end of March for review and feedback. Before that, it'll it'll go through the commission. It is a bit of a technical manual. So we're we're debating on how we get sort of public input on that, whether we do surveys or do more of a public meeting. So we're still, you know, trying to figure that piece out. But that's one of those items that we've been looking to get going for the last, you know, year or two. Since really, it really jumped jump started when COVID hit and a lot of folks were at home and seeing cars speeding down the road and asking, you know, what what measures could be implemented slow folks down. So really happy to see that one going. The other big one is the V V trans capital project coordination. So as you see in the memo, there's two big V trans projects that are going to impact when you ski next year. One is the exit 16 improvements, which that's the double diamond exchange, which you're probably pretty aware of. That project they're proposing to start next spring with utility undergrounding relocations and installing a multi use path underneath the bridge, which will be very welcome to get bike pad access through the intersection up through shaws that shaws Plaza area. And then the following season is when they'll do the sort of heavy transportation construction work. So that will be a major traffic disturbance for the city, even though it's technically in cold tester. The other big project, which you may have not heard too much about yet is it's a resurfacing project, but it's really just it's more than that. So it's the us route seven and vt 15 resurfacing work. If you kind of see the sketch in the memo that that incorporates the circulator where there's asphalt payment. So they're doing the concrete work this year and wrapping that up soon. But next year they'll be doing the asphalt work around the east side of the circulator and across the bridge. And this work will include a lot of work in Burlington going south, but I'm just kind of highlighting, you know, the work that's going on in the city here. And then East Allen will be completely resurfaced. Again, it'll it'll be disruptive, but the positive side to all this is the East Allen work will include a lot of the recommendations that were part of the scoping study we did a couple years ago. And the benefit of that is it's going to increase the amount of bike ped multimodal use on that that corridor. So they're proposing wider medians for pedestrian access added rapid flash beacons of the strobe crosswalk lights that you see in the circulator, adding one of those enhanced bike lanes. So it'll it'll definitely improve that quarter for multi multimodal use. But again, that's going to, you know, create some traffic disturbance next spring as well. So both those projects, we're going to find a time where VTrans will come to council and and do some present public presentations and, you know, get some public input on those because they are going to be such a disturbance. And obviously in the background, we're coordinating all that work with the the mainstream project. So jumping to that one, no major updates since our July presentation. We did have a pretty big meeting with our funding agency groups. So that's DEC USDA to just get their feedback on the current 90% design. That meeting went pretty well. We really didn't receive much as far as comments. Just some minor tweaks to the plans here and there, but you know, ultimately we're we're still in that right away per easement procurement process right now that's the big push that that we're kind of focused on. And I will say to yep, go ahead, Mike. Sorry to interrupt you, John. I have a question about the news, the bridge going from one is key to Burlington. I see it's scheduled to be resurfaced. Now, as they get into that bridge. Is it VTrans responsibility to maintain that bridge or is it a combination of a new scheme Burlington. Yeah, so for resurfacing, given it's a class one road, they're responsible for just resurfacing the roadway. Technically, the bridge is ours, Burlington, it's 50% Burlington 50% when you ski, so it is our asset. As much as we've tried to give that to VTrans multiple, multiple times. Unfortunately, it is our, our structure. Okay, because the question I have, are they doing any studying on that bridge to make sure it's sound. Is that, you know, it kind of appears to be in, but by looking at it from my perspective as in rough shape, but it wants to fit it as they are digging the tar up. And they find some issues is that is when you ski on the hook for that. I mean, they're so going back to kind of the assessment of the bridge. So VTrans does do an inspection, I think it's every two years, and they did a sort of a big review when they went through that scoping study, which was roughly, I think three years ago. And that's when they said, you know, that's when we went through this whole process to provide recommendations on when we replace the bridge, what should it look like. And surprisingly, what we found was that structurally the bridges in really good shape, like the abutments are in good shape, you know, the steel supports are in good shape. Superficially, the sort of concrete sidewalk and the pavement. Yeah, they don't look so great, but structurally the bridges is in pretty sound condition. Even though it's kind of starting to bump up against that engineered, useful life of, you know, 100 years or so. So really a lot of the pavement work that's happening is kind of that superficial replacement work. Not to say that, you know, when they do that resurfacing, they could find some joints that need some touch up and things like that. We haven't discussed that would be trans, but I mean, the advocacy we would do is if they're touching it, they have to fix it, you know, we would have we don't have the funds program to kind of do any work there. No, you just answered my question. Thanks, John. Yeah. Yeah, so just kind of wrapping it up going back to Main Street. The other thing we're kind of on the lookout for right now is you may remember we submitted that raise federal DOT grants. That would be a massive win for the city if we were to pull that in. It's really competitive. We don't have a lot of confidence. We could be successful with that grant, but those awards are coming out supposedly this week. So, you know, yeah, exactly. Keep your fingers crossed on that one. So, you know, as we mentioned before, we reached out to delegation and try to get as much support as we can. But we'll let you know when when those awards do come out either way. Yeah, and that's all I have on the infrastructure update side. Thanks. Thanks, John. Do other counselors have questions? Any questions from members of the public? Thank you. I will say most of these items that are not in progress yet. I can see where there's a connection to another project timeline or some commission work planning. And I don't, I don't feel concerned about them not all being started at this point. So I just want to make that statement publicly. Thank you for the updates. We are going to move on to item E, which is also on for discussion. This is end of fiscal year review and our treasure Alex is here with us this evening. Thank you so much for joining City Council Mayor. It's an honor to present the fourth and final quarter of the 2021 fiscal year. You know, it was a long year, but honestly, the financials almost don't look like it, you know, we saw improvement in revenue over the third quarter projections across just about all the funds. You know, parking is obviously excluded from that, but you know, between the construction going downtown and you know, COVID policies, they are what they are. So obviously we'll continue to monitor that. So I'm going to go into the holiday season. You know, it's great to see that expenses were maintained under budget, even though in some, even though we didn't have to cut a lot of the salary so that was great to see as well so things were maintained without doing a lot of aggressive cutting. And it was also great to see that a lot of the funds that don't typically see surpluses like community development and community services actually saw surpluses which doesn't typically occur. You know, we passed another year of COVID. Honestly, the financials are even stronger. And that doesn't include, you know, some of the additional ARPA funding that's going to come in next year. So honestly, I expect things to just only become even stronger and more liquid. And for the city to be able to continue to provide, you know, funds both to small businesses and as well as for continued capital improvements. Does the council have any questions. Thanks, Alex. I wanted to ask about the water, the wastewater fund. No, no, no, no, the water. So in this instance, we have excess revenues, but expenses are pretty close to what we budgeted. Is there some expense missing that is going to eat that up or are we really coming in far ahead. I don't have any details on any expended on any expected expenses, but I could follow up on that with Angela. There's not anything that's real cash. We are going to be booking some expenses for pension liability for the beamers and some other adjustments for depreciation but nothing that's actual physical cash out the door. So I'm wondering, this is a question for when we get into budgeting but it makes me wonder if we will not have to do rate increase as high as we have been planning to in the past. We did have a lot of allocation fees that came in that didn't help that. Those are not necessarily routine revenues. We did come in higher than expected on our operating revenues. So we may be able to limit the rate increases that we've been projecting but we cannot count on allocation fees for future operations. Okay, that makes sense. Thank you. I also wanted to ask for the community services funding that is to be clear. Out of deficit into surplus from federal dollars. So probably we'll be fine for the next three years doing extra funding but potentially it'll be something to look at again in the future. This was the last year where the recreation programs and thrive were run out of the community services budget starting in FY 22. Those are both within the general fund. So those will no longer be something that we need to track the programs that are remaining in the community services budget are ones that have been performing. So they're where we spend library grant dollars or donations that are specific to the library, the senior center and the community garden programs. All of those are performing and have not seen deficits historically. That's right. Thank you for that. Thanks. In looking at the parking expenses revenues. Is that primarily influenced about during this past year when we allocated increased parking will have free parking and increased parking for takeout is that where that deficit is the result. Absolutely. We saw a lot less public parking so the on street meters fund came in significantly under where we thought it would and in the parking garage. The parking meters landed and was also significantly under but the parking garage contracts were exactly what we had budgeted them to be. So it was really those public transient parkers where we saw the hit. Was there any. Any noticeable increase in the last month or two of the fiscal year. There was definitely a recovery is not reached the same levels it was pre COVID. But we definitely saw it coming back. So we're currently netting revenues of around $30,000 a month for on street parking. In terms of credit card transactions which is the primary amount pre COVID we were anywhere between 40 and 50,000 so we are still a little low. I imagine this will potentially stay low for, you know, the next couple of years is habits of change and a lot of larger employers have determined that, you know, they're just going to permanently go remote. So I would expect this to probably be continued item of discussion. Yeah, and I perhaps a conversation for another commission, but I've heard some residents that live down on when you ski Falls way complain about availability of parking. And those buildings and perhaps there's an opportunity to work with those building owners to encourage utilization of the garage. Like I said, probably a conversation first ever commission but something that's come up recently. Yeah, that's a great item. The other questions from council. Are there any questions from members of the public on the zero and financials are the burn charts helpful is that still something that people want to continue to see and should that continue to be expanded upon. Yes, please. Yes. Great. We're loving the visualizations. And I'll continue to expand something will be available I can send out a link. I get the final financials fairly tightly against this meeting but there should be a link that I can send out where people can look at some more stuff it just takes additional time to make sure all that stuff comes out right. Thank you. All right, well thank you for diligently monitoring our financials and Angela for your constant contributions there as well. Thank you Angela and thank you city council and mayor. I do have one last question. For the rental registry. Can you just fill me in as as early so we're below budget for expenses but the revenues are also significantly down is that related to the policies for that were put in place for the pandemic. One of the things one is related to the pandemic we conducted no commercial inspections last fiscal year so there is no commercial inspection revenue for that fund for the year. The second piece was the budget was originally bill anticipating doing some equitable enforcement of our rental registry fees to all landlords in the community. We have some that pay on a rotating basis and some that don't pay. And so, in light of COVID changing those contracts was delayed. So, that is a known revenue shortfall that occurred due to COVID. Okay. Thank you. Sorry, final question. Great. Thank you city council and thank you Angela again. Thank you we will move on to item F. This is on for discussion or approval. This is a position of description updates for their wreck and parks manager. Hey, everyone. So, happy to present this tonight. As mentioned in the cover sheet, we saw that a part of our parks and community gardens manager back in August, and are trying to figure out in the wake of that how best to manage the workload here and in talking things over with our team felt like this is the management of both the recreational program pieces and the overall facility management pieces for parks and recreation facilities made a lot of sense. I think we're finding that at times, having two different individuals managing both the scheduling of activities and the maintenance of those facilities where the activities were hosted was creating some some bottlenecks and some challenges and feel pretty excited about this opportunity to consolidate the management into one role. So we're starting to start providing more support staff downstream to implement the work. So, presenting this for your consideration tonight and happy to answer any questions. Thanks Ray and you did preview this with the last set of updates that you shared with us. Do folks have questions. Any questions from members of the public. So hearing no concerns I wonder if someone wants to make a motion to approve the description the position description update for recreation. Okay. Motion by house second by Jim all those in favor please say aye. Aye. Motion carries thank you. Thank you. And next up for item G this is a prescription position description update for communications manager. Thank you. So as noted in the cover sheet we have an existing position title of communications coordinator and this is just a request for council to approve a change to the title and the purpose of this role and there were some additions so you actually received the full job description and I just want to point out that the council is only approving or discussing and or hopefully approving the change to the title, the funding source and the purpose so you have the whole job description here but if we can just focus on the top of the first page for approval purposes that would be great so a couple of things are changing so the job description was essentially updated to reflect the things that Paul currently does. A little bit better the communications coordinator position was developed in 2017 so it hasn't been updated in a number of years. And as the cover sheet says, since then the responsibilities have expanded. And this role is actually a role that supports all departments as opposed to just supporting community and economic development which is currently where the role sits in terms of recording structure and organizational charge. This is a really organization wide role, and it includes a significant amount of strategy and management of the city's entire communications program. So, we are hoping for approval of this title and purpose change and you can see that the funding source on the job description is listed a little bit differently this time this position actually fluctuates from year to year in terms of the funding. So we've added that in here. And you can see sort of the breakdown of where the funding sources coming from per fiscal year 22 but that does change from year to year. So, any questions from the council. Thank you baby. Jim I see your hand is raised. Thank you for taking this on and making this update. I think this is an important recognition of how this position has grown and become integral to our community. Just a quick kind of question on reporting structure side and I know you can last go down the position description but is this a change also organization where this position now becomes a supervisor the city manager as opposed to the community manager. Yes, so that's a question and that is the intention. And in the absence of a of a city manager. The reporting structure in this sort of interim period is going to remain somewhat the same. But yes, so this position should now report to the new city manager and then the new city manager can decide if that's the most appropriate reporting structure for the role. Okay, and then kind of related to that. Maybe this makes more sense is in terms of determining the funding allocation supporting this position going forward. That'll be decision made by the city managers that come down to the department had discretion about which funds will be covering this position each year. And so basically this position stably funded, even as you shift the mix of funds that support it over your every year. Yes, that's a really good question and I would say yes it is stably funded but I don't know Angela if you want to provide any more clarification on that. Absolutely stably funded the reason for the shifting of percentages, it has come from the different types of workloads that vary from year to year. We found Paul warning a lot of construction stuff relating to water projects. So that's why we shifted some of his wages to those enterprise funds but that may not be the case in the future. So that would shift back to either general fund or community services depending on what the next big project that he's doing a lot of communications work around is. Thank you. Are there other questions about this change friend. Just piggybacking on that funding question. So what about so we have planned planned infrastructure and capital projects what about unplanned events like a pandemic. And that funding allocation be made for unpredicted communication needs. Those would be considered part of the general fund proportion of the salary. We actually were reimbursed by FEMA for a lot of Paul's time this year when he did all of the work communicating out. He received the reimbursement because it was based on 100% of his wages, it was actually allocated out to all of the places where Paul is paid from. That's fabulous. Any questions from members of the public. All right, so again, this is on for discussion or approval. Someone wants to make a motion to approve the position description update for communications manager. So moved. Second. Motion by Mike second by Hal all those in favor please say aye. Aye. Bless you. Thank you. Was that a yes how it was. Very enthusiastic. All right. So motion carries thank you and thank you Paul for continuing to to adapt in this role. So item H this is on for approval updates to charter and position description for when you see Memorial Library. Yes, so I'm going to do a quick table set and then Nate Eddie is here our library director to talk through some of the specific changes that the committee are proposing but as mentioned in the cover sheet. This was originally drafted back in 2014 in partnership with members of that committee at the time, as well as quite a bit of legal counsel to make sure that this charter crosswalk effectively with state statute which does govern a lot of the ways that libraries operate in the state of Vermont. So with Nate coming on board really wanted to sort of re up the efforts of the committee needs done a fabulous job as a committee members of really diving into this and after now, you know, seven years giving it a relook. So, yeah, so Nate I'm going to turn it over to you to sort of talk through some of the updates that are proposed here and we're happy to answer any questions. Thanks Ray. Good evening everyone, how are you. Thanks for having me so is Ray said this committee charter was last updated in 2014 and we work closely with the committee over the last couple months updating a number of policies within the library in addition to this charter. So for the charter the updates are mostly reflected under sections four and eight, which are around financial management and how the committee collaborates with say departments and community organizations. In terms of the financial management piece. And that's under section for the change mostly reflects less involvement of the committee in the development and oversight of the library's budget and the language, more so is about the committee providing more of an advocacy role to ensure adequate and sustained funding to the library. Under section eight, which is about collaboration with city departments and other organizations. The library committee there were three changes in that section the library committee will continue to consult with the library. And say management before taking actions on any major endeavors and this language was edited a bit to read more collaborative from what it from what it had been. In the previous language just to myself and the committee read a read a bit siloed and wasn't as collaborative as we'd like the second update in that section is we've updated the self health, safe healthy and connected people as the commission for which a committee will be a liaison to. And lastly, we update the language about the friends and rather than having the committee have a direct liaison to the friends, they will instead serve. They will work with the friends as appropriate in whatever capacity that turns out to be so that those are the big changes everything the language. The other language remains the same, and happy to answer any questions you might have. Thank you, Nate. Thank you for walking us through the major changes and Ray for confirm confirming previous legal reviews. There any questions from Council, Jim. Quick. There is any concern with any of these changes from committee members, or if it's pretty. Everyone's on board in this feels like a unanimous request for change. Yeah, the committee completely 100% on board. I'm just curious about the 10 year of committee members being three years is it challenging to find. Interesting committee members for that length of time. Ray might be able to speak a little bit more. So I've been with the library for a year. We've had a vacancy on the committee since I've arrived. And have been working with the committee to update the position description about committee members that are there. And we hope to do a big recruitment shortly to fill those vacancies in terms of three year tenure on. I've not heard from existing committee members that that's been a deterrent to their involvement or interest in being on the committee. But yeah, and I would echo that historically, I think the, the larger issue we've had with retention has been around. Frequently management of the committee and making sure that they're continuing to meet regularly, feeling like they're engaged and have work to do. So I think, you know, underneath leadership, certainly we've had a really great year of work and have done a lot of updates to policy. And I think, I think the group that exists has been feeling really positively about where things are going. And so I think that honestly has, has been the bigger deterrent in terms of retention versus the three years. And then again, we've kind of held off on that. And I think we've had a really great year of work and have done a lot of updates to policy. And I think. I think the group that exists has been feeling really positively about where things are going. And so I think that. And then again, we've kind of held off on recruitment in hopes of getting the position description updated before we start a real sort of concerted push so that we're consistent about what we're asking people into I guess we didn't want to do a bait and switch of here's the old position description and we'll review that and then here's the new one two months later so we knew this was was in the works so it kind of held off but yeah, I think, I think generally the, that timeframe is not of concern at this point. It's a good question but I don't think that's been our issue. Yeah, it feels long when our city counselors are two years and our, you know, well many of our legislative roles are two years so three years feels long for a voluntary role but I wasn't sure if there was any degree that it's been challenging to find volunteers. So thanks for some insights on that. And the only other thing I see that is a final page item D attend see if healthy connected people commission at least once a year. I mean I would love to see some more strategic coordination I think once is is certainly the minimum it'd be great to have it at really just to encourage collaboration and and just more further opportunities for strategic planning, etc, learning more about what what's coming up and other other commission conversations so that was the only other thing that really stood out to me in this document but I didn't have any concerns otherwise. Any questions from members of the public. The council have any more questions or concerns here. Does someone want to make a motion to approve these updates to the charter and position description for the new school Memorial Library Committee. So, second. Motion by Jim second by how all those in favor please say aye. Aye. Motion carries. Thank you Nate and thank you Ray. Thanks. So we are on to item a this is also on for discussion approval it's our Howard Center contract. Great, thank you. So this is a five year contract renewal for the Howard Center outreach program so you'll see I also put in your packet the latest FY 21 sort of results from this program so a lot of other chinning County municipalities that are part that participate in this program but for us the the program is a specialist that partners with our police department and they will respond to situations where a police response may not be required or or even necessary. So these are typically mental health or substance issue occurrences and for when new ski specifically you know this this program is based on population that's the funding requirements based on population. We rely pretty pretty heavily on this program so you'll see and sort of last year we run roughly 646 calls or you know 23% of the municipality calls but you know we only have we only pay in roughly 7%. So it's a program that you know we really rely on that provides an amazing service for police department and at least the way it's it's finance now we're we're sort of. I guess you know unfortunately we're reaping the benefits of our size but we do have a lot of need there so unfortunately Rick's not here tonight because he's he's been working some pretty crazy shifts filling in for patrols so you know I can I'll try to answer any detailed questions but I may have to bring something back to Rick for for clarification if maybe. Thanks john. I think when we get to when Chief Hebert presents during budgeting. Like that would be a good space to share some more details of the services that we're receiving here. And how we use this in our approach to responses, since he's not able to share any of those details with us this evening. So for the time that I have been around this is having this contract with Howard Center is super beneficial to our community it's something that residents and staff alike really appreciate how I see you have a hand. Yeah, thank you mayor. I just like to echo your your sentiment I think the state definitely feel this the direction we should be going in and I strongly support this effort so it's good for all. Does anyone have questions, Jim. I'm curious on who we are do that's when is he have a destiny to a steering committee and who's feeling that role currently. Yeah, so the one thing I do know is we share a specialist with the town of Colchester. So I think it's one. I think that's right I heard Jim right you're looking you're asking about who the, the specialist is that we use. No, it says that there's a steering committee that oversees the operations of the team and reviews the like whether it's meeting needs and that there's participation by police chiefs or city managers or software managers I'm just curious that there's a question that we have a participatory role in or that's just a subset of municipalities and maybe that's not a question that you can answer tonight but it's going to be curious is, are we, we're taking such advantage of this program are we contributing to the governance and assessment of the program as well. Sorry about that. Yes, the city manager is is on that commission so right now it's either Phoebe or myself that's going to be on that and then potentially who you know the next city manager position. Great. Thank you. Yeah. Follow up question to Jim's is, do we have an idea of how frequently that steering committee makes. Is it monthly, every other month quarterly. Phoebe I think it's quarterly. Yeah, yeah, quarterly meetings. We have not had Phoebe and I haven't had a meeting yet with these folks. It's quarterly and I, as I think once this process is finished so once all the towns on the contract. Yeah, it should be quarterly. And then are those noticed or is that how's that managed. Those are just I don't know that that they're noticed. I don't think they're public so they just go out to be via email to the chiefs and the city manager. Thank you. Are there any questions from the public. Anything else from council. I'm just glad we're continue. I hope we continue to support this. Would you like to make a motion to approve the Howard server contract. Second. Motion by Jim second by how all those in favor please say aye. Motion carries thank you. That's the end of our regular items for today's agenda. We have two executive sessions one. The first executive session has to do with employment or evaluation of a public officer or employees so proceed statute one VSA section 3133. I'm looking for a finding that we should have this conversation executive session based on that. Motion with someone like to motion that to move. So motion by Brent second by Jim all those in favor, please say aye. So that motion carries and then second I would like to invite our co and term city managers, the towns and and John Rousher and our equity director Yasmin Gordon into executive session with the council. So motion by Jim second by Howard server by invitation. Motion by Jim second by how those in favor please say aye. Motion carries so we are going to move to another's in line for this executive session to discuss this topic and not no other content. We're then going to come back to this line. And for the purpose of moving into a separate executive session for another, another topic. So no other business is going to be discussed besides the two topics that are warned here. This line will stay open however until we actually adjourn the end of the meeting. So we will be exiting this line now. Do we have a link for the executive session. Yeah, I can reply to the email or whatever to bump it up in. That'd be thanks.