 Six o'clock on Monday, January the 14th, 2019 We'll call to order the Wenuski City Council meeting and we'll ask that everybody please join us in the Pledge of Allegiance led by Deputy Mayor, Nicole Mace Okay So first up tonight, we have agenda review. This is an opportunity for council to make any adjustments to tonight's agenda Mostly we've been adjustment based off of Guess looks like we've got the auditors and treasurers report early and that looks like the main crux of our guest to it outside of staff Any other questions or comments in regards to the agenda? Just singing hearing none we'll move forward with agenda as presented next up is public comment This is a chance for members of the public to address the council about anything. It's not on tonight's agenda You can find a copy tonight's agenda on the back table and we also really appreciate everybody who's attending tonight taking a chance to sign in So we have a record of attendees and especially if we need to put your name in the minutes because you have something to say tonight So this is an opportunity for members of the public to address the council about anything. It's not on tonight's agenda You know There's a truck pulling out of the garage about right now Hope everything's okay, it's seriousness Any public comment? Okay, so singing hearing none. We'll move forward next up. We have a concert agenda. We have one item on tonight's consent agenda That's the councilman. It's from January 7th, 2019. Any questions or concerns from council in regards to the consent agenda? Okay, so any questions or concerns from the public So singing hearing none. I entertain a motion for approval the city council minutes from the January 7th, 2019 meeting Motion by Eric second by Christine any further discussion singing here none all those in favor, please say aye in those opposed Motion carries and now we'll turn it over to the birthday girl for our city update Thank you Skim right over that part and a couple updates for tonight first I wanted to share that Steve Woodworth who is our most senior employee here in the city He is our mechanic extraordinaire at the public works garage has his 40th anniversary with the city tomorrow So little younger than I am So we're very thankful for his work He is incredibly diligent John can speak volumes for him But keeps all of our fleet well maintained and on the streets and knows Obviously every inch of our infrastructure that's been touched over the last 40 years. We thank him for his service John Rouscher, and I had a good meeting with the downtown association last week about the garage and hotel plan That downtown association not to be confused with downtown Winooski is the association of all the major property owners in the Tiff district As you may remember they were very concerned about the previous location of the hotel And so we've been working with them on this global settlement to to fully build out the Tiff district and build some new parking infrastructure, so They were are very supportive of the current plan, and we had a good discussion about Some of the parking improvements we plan to make in the next couple of years Angela and I met with the Vermont Economic Progress Council on Friday They are the group that oversees the Tiff districts across the state And we were meeting with them in advance of audit. We anticipate happening sometime in 2019 That's a regular scheduled audit done by the state auditor's office as we are three quarters of the way through our Tiff district So we were doing some strategizing about that Just a quick update on another major project Paul Sarn has been very hard at work building out our new website Which we have a mock-up of The website vendor will be here Wednesday Thursday and Friday this week training Paul and Heather and Angel on the use of the website and updating it and keeping it fresh and live And then also training the clerks on the module that will support your work and the work of all of the Appointed boards and commissions which we think will be a huge customer service improvement and still are planning on the launch of that site in February There's a Middlebury J term class they have a January term at Middlebury College That's on community economic development financing And they are focusing their efforts this January only on Winooski and looking specifically at development potential here and how we Develop for inclusion diversity and affordability So I will be meeting with them on Friday as well as some of our local developers, which is great I think it's great to keep young people interested in what we're doing here Kudos to Ray and his team. We are the finalists for a land and water conservation fund grant That's a hundred fifty thousand dollars that we're looking for for pool construction Ray and perhaps Nicole and some of our other team members will be going down on Friday to present To that funding board and hopefully lowering that debt service cost over time I did want to very quickly comment on the impacts the federal shutdown is having on us There are two significant ways that we are feeling that right now and just want to flag that for you all for your knowledge One the we were expecting from the Burlington Airport at the end of this month the updated noise exposure map with the F-35 data in advance of the Working with Burlington to submit Grant application to the FAA for a nose compatibility program. So we had pushed them We pushed the airport to update the map before putting in that grant funding request to understand how our residents were going to be impacted before the grant dollars were Decided upon That map is currently with the feds for review and it is there they are shut down. So they are not reviewing So we don't know the timeline now At which we will get that data back additional similarly and additionally the We were lucky enough through John Rouscher to get a big USDA grant for Main Street as you know They as part of the strings for that grant they review our major contracts So our contract with VHB for the next for the final design and engineering is with them for review and is Awaiting staff to do that review. So nothing You know, obviously we're still Probably a year out for cons from construction, but we can't move forward with the engineering until that is approved by the funder So just wanted to flag those two things for you and the and that they may have an impact down the road depending on how long this federal government shutdown lasts and then finally a just a plug to residents to Register for youth basketball yoga and card making which is all up on available on the website And Not over yet This meeting We'll go to council reports Sure last week There was a conference call with Jesse Nicole myself and the two facilitators for the equity training that we're planning and one of the Decisions was made about the timing for it. So we're looking at April 6th. It's a Saturday At this point and we talked about really making a special effort to have Is many community leaders involved in attending it and we'll be revisiting it soon to Agenda, but we're pretty feeling pretty good about how it's coming together You're a relation. Thanks for all your work on that So the public safety commission was unable to pull together a quorum again last week But it was I was able to sit down with two members of the commission And have a good discussion despite a lot of their challenges and dwindling membership and not being able to Get a quorum to meet they are still at least some of the members very interested in staying actively engaged and involved So I'll be reaching out to Jesse and Rick and John to sit down and chat about what that might look like Not just in kind of the work Up ahead that would normally hit that commission But also in ongoing discussions as we look in the future to talk about Commission alignment to our strategic vision statement and then this upcoming week on Thursday downtown when you see board is meeting At that meeting they'll be discussing next steps following the appropriation we made of reserves They'll be looking at their next steps to move forward and get a job Description application materials and then what they're hiring process for Great. Thank you Let's see last week huddled with Jesse and Nicole on transition items Make sure we have a smooth handoff for the month of February. We're going to cover a number of those items coming up later So I'll save some of the details from that conversation and then just want to highlight that we had a A really busy evening on Thursday where the housing commission met and considered IZ proposal Inclusionary zoning and also work through a number of the details on the loan program and received our updated Resolution regarding the loan program and kind of processed what that meant for them in terms of implications They're coming back this month in the 28th to give a pretty comprehensive overview And I had to leave that meeting a little early make sure I made over here fill planning commission to progress the master plan and we shared also the proposed timeline for Getting that completed with the current sitting body Which I did want to highlight is something that we are planning I'm doing but of course that's also in tonight's agenda didn't confuse it this time Eric And we'll hear more about that a little bit too. So Busy night for for Winooski on Thursday in addition to that. I believe the regional planning commission held comprehensive housing Housing meeting as well So we'll keep folks updated as to the date of that because I saw it like come out that same day and was like who boy were conflicted so More on that update as well I attended the public works commission on Thursday We had a chance to look at the hotel and garage plans that we all saw as well at council And that group was particularly interested in ensuring that operations funding is built out in that long-term budget and then also Discuss some of the facade issues We also John shared with us a memo to start a scoping study on East Allen from rolling court to the Rotary to look at issues with Safety and flow improvements So representative one of the members of the public works commission is going to be joining that An advisory committee for that They're also pulling like a resident from great Cedars someone from V trans CCRPC I Did not note the whole list, but it sounds like a lot of stakeholders that are in that stretch of road so I know that People are probably wondering about that given the construction that's happening. So Some future planning being done there And since I will not be able to attend the meeting in February I wonder if anyone here is available It's the second Thursday You can contact me after the meeting Okay, anything else on council reports So seeing and hearing none we'll move forward with our regular agenda items So first up tonight. We have Fred and the others presentation of the FY 18 audit Good evening So what I can do is just give you kind of a quick overview and I know that you're Mentally aware of the numbers. So I don't think I'll talk about that unless any specific questions The the audit this year was done in accordance with general acceptance auditing standards and government auditing standards It was not a single audit this year. You didn't expend more than 750,000 federal funds But hearing all the talk about federal money, it sounds like maybe you might push into that this year next There's been no changes in terms of financial reporting I know that you probably have an electronic copy and maybe the bottom copies in front of you It's a big document what I read when I read it is the management discussion and analysis That starts I think on wrong page four or five In about ten pages you really get a good sense of what happened during the year. There's descriptions of various funds What's going on in each fund? What budget variances there were why there were variances it talks a little about your capital activity Your debt activity and then even goes a little bit into the budget that you're now So quite a bit of information there Responsibility is to make sure that everything in there is consistent with Or it is Our responsibility really is the two letters one the front one in the back the one in the front tells you that you present your financial statements And full conformance with generally set the economy principles So it's a clean unmodified opinion. There's been no significant changes in principles this year There's some major changes on the horizon but down a number of years But for the time being it should be pretty consistent The only change from prior years that you might notice is that we've added back in the community development trust There was a question back when the corporation Started the trust whether that amount ever be paid But based on history and the fact that it that there are payments the interest is starting to be paid We instated that in financial statements show it shows up as a separate column as a We're called extremely presented component unit is a separate legal entity But as you're aware controlled by the city council portable so It is back in here the disclosures related to the debt have always been there But now we actually re-show the entity as it appears that that at least the interest will be paid and hopefully the principal In the back is a second report on compliance and internal control and That indicates that we have no findings no material weaknesses. No significant deficiency. So that report is clean as well That means you've got a good system of checks and balances Not on the year-end but during the years so that the information that you get to make decisions on on a regular basis should be reliable Those controls are in place. You've got a good system. You've got good personnel And that that's really important so that you have that uptime the information We had two minor recommendations I think one's already medel with those already resolved and the other one is probably being worked on None of them are rising to a major level. We simply tell you everything that we see Things are dealt with so anything that we've ever raised in the past Would dealt with I don't think we've had any significant deficiencies in two weeks. This isn't a number of years That's since 2012 Yeah, so since then there's been minor things, but nothing rising to that level I don't think there's any general questions about the process or anything specific about the report that I can answer first off we want to thank you for your work and Solven powers is a tremendous partner. I always look at audits as a partnership. It's it's an audit Which can scare some people and we understand that there's independence on your behalf that you're coming in with Taking that from an integrity standpoint very seriously But we also appreciate the partnership and the exchange that occurs as a result of the audit where There are always things that we can do better and improve upon No matter who you are or what your organization is that we can do better So we number one appreciate all your work and time and effort in the way that you work with staff So thank you very much and then obviously, you know the two Primary folks to think on our side Angela and Jesse Thank you so much because this audit is a great demonstration of the way the city is being run and managed And it's very glowingly positive It's hard to read for probably most people But if if you read it if you read audits, you know, it comes across as a really really great report On how things are being managed. So thank you both very much for all of your work The time that you put into making the city run the way that it does So thank you very much and that goes to all staff because you guys have to follow the rules and the policies of procedures, too It's not just obviously making the rules. It's also following them. So thank you guys for your work Gotta say that up front and first Um, could just so the public source since we mentioned them could we just talk quickly about the two items just so we highlight Basically a fun definition the O'Brien Community Center was being Treated as a special revenue fund, but really didn't really need that definition Probably did when it started but but over time it didn't and so we understand That's become a part of the city That's appropriate We just simply remind you that From time to time take it with your funds and make sure that they are still in the definition of what the way they're being reported And the second one just have to do with making sure that your payable system includes all of these payments so that it Reminds you when they do and I'm sure that's an easy one too Yeah, I'm just gonna do a quick review or accounts payable procedures and policies to make any updates I believe right now it requires that we have an invoice on hand in order to remit payment And I think we're gonna be able to update that for debt payments that we have by contract to be able to remit according to the Schedule in the contract, right? Those were really the two issues great And then just as we're saying thank yous to I want to acknowledge we're gonna have a presentation moment from our new treasurer Alex So great to have him on board and just want to acknowledge to publicly that Obviously for the majority of this fiscal year actually the entirety of the fiscal year We were served in a treasure of capacity by Dr. James Tyshurst Who unfortunately passed away? Last year and would acknowledge again all the great work dr. Tyshurst did for the city on behalf of the community It was a tremendous asset and somebody who gave a lot to the city and The fact that we have clean on its year-over-year is also attributable to his efforts and work and the time that he put into the city, too So Grateful for that I'll turn it back to council now and see if there are any specific questions Anything that you read anything That jumped out or you've got questions for Fred about Just want to add to that, you know, if you do read the audit and have questions, you know, we've bounced things off of From before to general questions or ideas or if you've got questions about specific funds and how we're handling them Pass those along through justine angela and be happy to help us address whatever concerns or questions you may have Just be interested to hear staff's reaction to the second recommendation That was in the report About the late piece. Yeah, so Angela talked about the need for updating our policy So the current practice is we pay for the policy invoices as we receive them In this case the invoice Wasn't processed in a timely manner. So we incurred this twenty four hundred dollar late penalty Angela is going to look at changing the policy to be able to schedule in our our debt payments So we can automatically generate Payments on a schedule without that needed Sure somewhere to set up You know the questions concerns Boy, somebody who came in before they were all clean audits. I know somebody who survived some not clean audits in the past You know, we kind of take it for granted now But this is this is something that in our The entirety of our history is something that's still relatively new But really again appreciate all the work that goes into making this happen because it's not an automatic slam Dr. You guys have to do a good job. So thank you Questions comments concerns from the public Okay Great, we appreciate your time today. Thanks for the report Okay, next up tonight staying on the same thing We'll see how we're doing for the quarter and we are very pleased to welcome Alex Anastasi Hill who is making his first presentation as our treasurer Alex welcome. We're excited to have you I think everybody's familiar with you and the third person in terms of knowing a lot about even hearing great things about your work And that you fit the ground running so welcome. Thank you. It's a pleasure to be here Thank you to Angela and the Sullivan powers for my job It's a pleasure to present the second quarter Financials I apologize if I kind of read off my notes a little bit I like to describe kind of the second quarter going into our fiscal year is conservatively positive Some of the deficiencies I noted sort of temporary and isolated and not necessarily systemic and I also kind of focus more on the year-end projections instead of solely focusing on the second quarter as I believe Much of our revenue and expenses are incurred towards the second half of the year And didn't want to kind of focus on things that we're going to be relevant later on Moving into the general fund this kind of mirrors my general summary We're predicting a minor surplus of twenty thousand dollars. I'm just like this I kind of like to focus on individual items to make sure that there's no Crazy new item individual items that are sticking out in this case the a brian center I like to focus on as it was a we're predicting a 33% Deficiency miraculously though other departments including the police Special police detail incur permit permit line items actually reduced our revenue deficiency Only down to 12,000 dollars, which I thought was miraculous This kind of mirrors that idea that our issues are really only singular and there's not across the war We're not experiencing drastic deficiencies and then on the expense side Expense items that stuck out were really mostly relating to salary contracts that were actually closed after the budget So i'm not predicting these issues to be to be consistent past this current fiscal year Looking into the enterprise funds both the water fund and the wastewater fund We're kind of similar in that despite the initial Very large surpluses or in some cases deficiencies in the wastewater fund are actually much lower than they initially appear The wastewater fund there was 95 thousand dollars in loan proceeds And then the wastewater fund there is a huge amount of money spent for capital improvements So when these kind of non operational activities are taken out Really the water fund is looking at about a 30 thousand dollar surplus while the wastewater fund is down to about 54 thousand Much of which was really able to sewer service charges. Once again kind of a singular item And not necessarily a huge concern Looking down to the combined parking fund. There's a 6.6 percent Deficiency that so far is being estimated. I believe this could grow as the second quarter is down 8 percent already And obviously that's including activity through sort of the holidays I believe that maybe tracking parking fees might Provide sort of helpful analysis looking into the future as it may help to indicate What kind of business the downtown when you ski is looking at Something I don't have yet, but as I kind of grow my insight that might be something to look into moving forward Kind of moving down through the community services program. This certainly is a program There's we're predicting about 23 thousand dollar Reduction in the net fund balances There was a lot of kind of shortages here due to grants and donations But at least fortunately compared to our overall budget 23,000 I consider to be nominal and obviously we're here to fund these kind of services This is not a revenue generator for the city. So I'm not very concerned concerned about it Moving down to the community justice center There's a small surplus that was sort of created by a position vacancy Otherwise, I didn't know any other items of Real concern there One item I do note a possible risk is the TIF fund We are predicting a fairly large surplus by the end of the year But much of the revenue is actually collected in the fourth quarter So I wouldn't put a whole lot of weight on this surplus in addition Much of the surplus was created due to property taxes, which perhaps, you know Some people are predicting sort of a market downturn And so if we have if there's any future adjustments to that that's certainly susceptible to Property assessment And then the rental registry fund and the community economic development fund I like to congratulate these departments. They both did tremendously well We're looking at anywhere between a 10 to 12 percent Surplus for these and at the end of the year So I kind of like to summarize as we're sort of looking conservatively positive Expenses and issues are sort of isolated. There's nothing yet. I think that in the issues I don't believe will consist Certainly as I dig into these things more and as I matured here I will be able to provide kind of greater insight into what I really think should What changes should be Great Thank you. I think it demonstrated that you got into the numbers And I appreciate you going back and forth of it clearly with Angela on those two I think too broadly Just having met with you only once since you've been on the job very unfair to you, but um the The other thing you've done. I think is probably had probably I know you've had a lot of conversation around operational On items with angelo too and feeling like you're getting more and more up to speed in that realm too Yes, a little bit at a time. I certainly welcome feedback to my assessment here and what what things might Be useful or not so useful. I did kind of just present a sort of uh, you know, budget surplus I think First of all the excellent job on the memo. It's very easy to follow very quick kits And uses binary language that is appropriate for what's taking place. It's always It's never great when you Words in this position can be important, right? And the way things are staying because it's stopping about money So thank you. Thank you for that I think Most of the operational items have are Fairly familiar to folks, but are there specific ones anyone wants to tease out or ask questions about this the manager? Most of the part my folks in here too um You know, I think it would be interesting something we talked about before is just sort of mapping parking Year to year to see like what usage is like That's something that I think broadly would be interesting information As to how much we fluctuate year over year Um on meter use. I mean we see it as a revenue line So I think we get a fairly good sense But it might be interesting. I don't know if you can pull data that like gives us like the hours For example, I don't know if the system does like there was this many hours of parking that occurred last year And I'm just trying to find some kind of numerical value there because it you don't know how How often people are using you know what I mean? And if there's any back in reporting with the system that we use might Generate in regards to that My interests We have max Charges within the parking portion zone for meters. So Once you've paid two dollars, you can park the entire night. You should have no idea how many hours past those two Um, and they have a similar daytime rate of five dollars max That's my living limitation. I see we should be able to Figure out number of hours It'd be a very big report That would be an interesting thing to think about every year as I report I'll be gone, but Maybe the next council is council one of the new areas. I think that was interesting Well, are we looking at a new access software anyway? Um, so that would be something to consider is what the data collection is with The tool that we choose Exactly. So that is part of the rfp that we have drafted that we actually offer one over in the downtown association Who will be the primary users of those contracted spaces that you're referring to The challenge right now in the parking garage not necessarily on street mirrors But the parking garage is that we have really no way of telling ins and outs So we know how many spaces Contract users are paying for but we don't know if they're actually using the spaces at those times So with this improved access control system, we think we can measure ins and outs And that's one of the things we're asking for in the rfp Which ultimately would also include the public I think so I think we are fine tuning that data and getting there I would just also say though that I would argue that the real challenge to that is that report those reports aren't hard to Run or develop once you have a good handle on the data and the systems and have somebody to do it Right now that sits somewhere between john haughty angela and myself Are you guys busy with other stuff? We've got a few other things going on So I have not spent a whole lot of time digging into parking data Understood. Yeah Something to put on I don't think it's a critical one at all. No, it's it's important though And I in part it's last year. We got the parking study which kind of gave us It was last spring night or two springs two springs a brief Yeah, so that kind of gave a topic to go over the issues that's interesting Sorry back to the report Questions concerns comments for alex I have a question about the chart You're in projections against budget. Is this The expense budget or the income? This is the general net impact on the net fund balances If they were predicting that um, it would be a surplus. This is revenue and expenses reflecting For the items like community services where there's nothing there. Um, obviously it was budgeted to to break even there Okay So in some instances we budgeted Um A surplus Yes, right got it That graph just that one probably we will talk maybe about ways to I think if somebody saw this naked without an explanation, it might be a little challenging to understand and might That's the one thing in here. Let's see. Maybe something wrong I don't know alarm bells off. I mean there it needs to be noted and there needs to be an error behind it, but There is I don't know Other questions concerns Turn to the public any questions or concerns from the public That wasn't so bad, right? Thanks for all your work, Alex. We appreciate it. Excited to have you with the city. Thank you very much for this great report too And great job. Thank you for the opportunity. If you have any other feedback, those feel to tell me Thanks Uh, next we'll move on to discussion approval the ccrpc fy 20 unified planning work program grant I know So we are requesting to apply for the annual ccrpc Unified planning work program grant. So the the grant is an annual opportunity for us to apply for transportation land use planning type grants So typically it's an 80 20 grant so 20 local match for city specific specific projects So for this year, we've identified two stormwater related projects One is an inspection inventory of our existing stormwater system related to our transportation network That is a 75 000 estimated efforts So that would be a 15 000 city match The other is a phosphorus control plan support related to stormwater runoff Um, that is a 19 000 effort with a 3,800 3,800 match for the city right And just to step back for a minute and give some context and michael brine who's our Representative to the ccrpc board might be able to give some historic Guidance on this as well. These are funds that the regional planning commission makes Offers to municipalities to supplement kind of the regional planning efforts as john mentioned Historically, we have not made a lot of applications for these funds So last year ccrpc was generous enough to come to us with some ideas and The east island scoping study that christine mentioned earlier is one of those projects for this year as well as looking at impact fees They supported was made and Master master plan supported as well So this is a this is a ability for us to leverage non Property tax dollars to do some of these significant and non-rate dollars to do some of these significant Planning efforts in the city and thanks to ccrpc for the opportunity of kind of bringing this to our attention and saying Hey guys like these funds. That's great. And thanks to mic for the support as well Oh, brian. Michael brian. Yes. Mike. You're doing a great job on the camera too Other questions concerns from uh council I just want to throw it again another idea as I walk out the door of things to think about is a leveraged fund to report because I think it tells a really compelling story about how you guys leverage city funds and small investments to Recapture larger investments. I'm looking at ray because it feels especially relevant to their field too. I mean, I know a lot of them do but Sorry Angela that I did talk about you brought that up during the budget presentation as well and we have had some initial conversations and I was thinking about How we pull that off my next week Might be able to do it Questions comments from council Yeah, um, so John and public works commission you spoke before about the phosphorus targets that I don't set yet and it's like the guidance is basically not in place yet Correct. So well, so there's there's two targets. So there's one point source. It's related to our treatment plant facility. That's really A bit in flux right now with dc and then there's also going to be a storm water guidance, so we're we're trying to work with dc on You know what those targets would be because ultimately it's pounds of phosphorus getting into lake shamp land. So you know, how do we How do we treat that most effectively through, you know, storm water bmp's and potentially our point source sort of solutions the plan So ultimately we have to provide a phosphorus control report in 2021 but in this this spring we have to provide sort of Here's what we're doing to start exploring, you know, best management practice to to address those issues that hopes Yeah, like sets us up for the eventual requirement Correct. Yep And the state's really struggling with how the funding mechanisms are going to work for this and where the funding is going to come from Initially, it was going to be the proper transfer tax, but that went towards housing um, and Now there's a lot of different discussions about how they're going to fund it And I'll just tell the pitch in there that we will be spending millions of dollars on our wastewater plant and treatment facilities To reduce our contribution from about a shot glass per tanker to about three quarters of a shot glass per tanker Um, while farms dump tons of phosphorus into the system till they untreated Um, sorry. Well, that brings up to me. It was my understanding that prior A lot of the TMDL targets For our wastewater treatment plant were like nigh unattainable Um, because of what they were set at and what is actually realistic So you're saying there are ongoing conversations with DEC. Is there a positive movement? Yeah, so right now also getting into numbers a little a little So we're looking at um 0.2 milligrams per liter of phosphorus limit, but that correlates to also pounds based on our flow Um, we're doing some optimization right now You know by adding some chemicals into our secondary treatment to see if we can meet that sort of pound Limit and we're we're pretty close. Um, so that's good news. Not to say that you know You know, there may be other Capital optimization things that we have to do to make sure that we're very consistent to meet that target, but That's where we are right now. Um, the plant side is media 0.2 milligrams per liter Thank you. Yep Thanks for pursuing these funds and for designing the projects. Thanks again through our partners at CCRPC for the support and help too Questions or comments from the public Okay, so seeing in here none. I had to entertain a motion For approval of the CCRPC FY 20 unified planning work program grant proposal. So move Motion by house second by Nicole any photo discussion So you can hear me now those in favor of you say aye. Aye those opposed motion carries. Thank you very much Thank you All right next up is discussion and potential approval of musky master plan presentation I'm gonna hope that this connects which it should Um you're taking a cue from last week's presentation with Public works doing a long slide show. I I have 87 slides prepared for this master plan update. It's no Now I'm joking. Um, just need to be able to Get it to connect first or maybe there'll be zero slides Okay It was a good presentation Okay, so while this this is connecting so it is it is getting there, but so tonight we're here to talk about the Winooski master plan update um, the the plan was last updated in Officially formally updated in 2004 and it's been going through Re-adoptions ever since then. So this is the first real comprehensive update to the plan in in quite some time This update was funded in part through a municipal planning grant from the state of vermont and that allowed us to To hire the regional planning commission to to do the work of actually updating the plan Which has been a huge help. So a lot of thanks to Regina and all the staff at the rpc for helping us out with that um and really what this is the This plan is kind of an departure from previous plans in the fact that it's organized around the the strategic vision for this city so What i'm going to do tonight is just kind of walk you through what the plan kind of what's in it what it's about and then Next steps going forward and have regina and mike as the chair of the planning commission Chime in as as they see appropriate So the purpose of the plan basically master plans in general terms are really intended to kind of just be a A roadmap for the community to provide an overview of where the community wants to go in the future and Doesn't necessarily establish policy, but at least to help set policy direction. So um With this plan we there's been a lot of work that's been done in the city over the past five or so years Instead of trying to recreate those Those planning efforts We've we've incorporated them all by reference into this document and are using this as kind of an umbrella document to To support those other efforts. So specifically the transportation master plan the economic development strategic plan The main street corridor plan the housing needs assessment the parking plan and then the branding and marketing strategy are all Are all referenced in this plan and we're pulling the the goals and policies and and action items from those documents To to bring into into this effort instead of again instead of trying to set new policy with this this planning effort So as I mentioned, it was developed basically we were organizing the plan around the community vision From there we we reached out to all of the existing commissions and boards and committees to to get their input as well Since they all play a large role in in how the vision is established and through there Then as I mentioned the rpc drafted the plan for us that has been reviewed by the planning commission multiple times So I wanted to show you the vision statement just not because I Didn't think you knew what it was but because in this effort we did modify the strategic vision statement a little bit in two Areas specifically with economic vitality where we really just dropped off the the last couple of words The we we dropped the small town field language So we just ended it at long-term vibrancy and then the housing The housing statement we did change a little bit, but it still has the same Overall idea and the overall intent. So the the the current strategic vision statement housing Housing statement is to ensure a mix of quality affordable housing stock that maintains the character and aesthetics of our neighborhoods So there was a lot of discussion at the planning commission about these these vision statements and how we How we support them with this plan and and the planning commission felt that that we Maybe should update it a little bit and I don't know like if you want to add anything No, there was certainly some healthy discussion Over the I guess it's been four years since we were working on this um Yeah, and as Eric said we had a lot of discussion about Sorry to call especially the housing Maybe it was the economic vitality about neighborhoods and what that all means in the small town community So this is what we ended up on And we don't think it lost any of the the You know intent of the original Statements as given to us Can I just ask why just dropping the term affordable? What what how do you believe that sentiment is still captured? Because we're talking about a mix of quality housing That supports the needs of the entire community. So we wanted to get away from um Let me give you my my sense was this We have A good share of affordable housing. We need a more grounded housing Stock in the city not just affordable. We need you know moderate and even upper end as as much as we can We need to me. We need a whole broad spectrum of housing to fit all types of of folks That's what this tries to say by saying the entire community to be inclusive of everybody and invite Whoever to come in here I heard in the conversations too just trying to not delineate a specific target at a specific Affordability benchmark because it's a rabbit hole that you can go down Way way down and once you use the word affordable it opens up this whole panel's box of like Affordable to who that was the question that people kept asking on that committee And then the other piece that they removed that they spent a lot of time talking about was this concept of Aesthetics and neighborhood character because that implies that has It's the it's the affordability piece that I think was um I mean supports the needs of the entire community can have that same conversation when Right. Is it well It did you know, we have a new community now and the housing that's there meets those needs pretty darn well But this doesn't essentially display some people for whom You know the needs were met. So I just think it's it's all a moving target And to me you need to have some that's where I guess the substance of the plan really Matters less so than a sense Yeah, and I don't I mean our conversation was that that it doesn't exclude anything and as sess said, you know setting to me setting targets of of how much affordable housing or Not you want really kind of pigeonholes you into this, you know, if you say I want 50 affordable housing you get 45 percent. Well, you know What do you do? So this leaves it open and to me The master plan or the municipal plan should be a broad statement and not give specific goals That's for the council to come up with those specific targets That was a commission did come up with targets Did they not and that was discussed very Thoroughly about whether they like to include those in the plan or Sort of pivot out to them that like they're going to be goal set They're going to be metrics designed to try to attempt to reach those goals But I think in reading the chapter you'll find that affordable housing is absolutely addressed and I do think there is Something to taking it out of the vision statement because in many ways, you know Whether or not high end luxury housing is built is going to be a determinant of a lot of market factors, right? There's nothing that we Necessarily really need to consciously do whereas if we lose our intention of Wanting to make sure that as we build out this mix of a quality of quality housing that it does also include affordable housing I think if we lose sight of that intention That's where we get into dangerous territory and But I don't think this Loses the site as Seth said that's this gives a general framework and that's for housing commission council whatever You know keep track of so that point was raised in the meeting and the The comment that came back was When Uski used to not have to do anything to get affordable housing built here It just it got built here, right? And there was no actual input from the community in a lot of cases It's just I don't want to say it's where affordable housing was You know, it was a convenient place to put affordable housing for affordable housing developers It was an easy place for that to occur and to happen So I think the idea was to try to provide some elasticity Um here for the goals to change based off of what the current body is reacting to Again, I don't I I think the sense is that like the affordable piece was lost And I I don't I don't think that if you look at the content of the plan that it was It's just I think that they I they spent a lot of time talking about this and it was a thoughtful discussion and I don't want to speak for them But that it was a group that was very concerned about affordability. It wasn't like they were trying to brush that aside Well, it's still in preamble which makes me feel a little better In terms of Our efforts in all of these areas Are intended to ensure that we continue to be local whole diverse and affordable Yeah, and the housing needs assessment is carried through quite significantly in this plan So all the work that was done there is referenced In this document also Anybody want to fight for small town feel? No, please no I don't want to proceed and see you know as further on in the document where um Where that still shows up where that support for affordability and affordable housing still shows up Despite it being removed from the vision statement I'm comfortable with the the language change because I think The intent of vision statement is to you know, what are we aspiring to? You know and obviously the plan will have the details on how we get there Okay, so the In order to kind of talk about some of the organization again on this this plan the the state has Very specific statutory requirements on what needs to be included in the document as the required elements Which are listed here and I realize this is difficult to see but this was also included in your agenda packet as a handout So this is really just a way to kind of identify the The various required elements that are included in statute and where we are addressing them within this master plan So that it's this is more of a referential piece to be able to show quickly where where we're identifying all these all the specific elements And then similarly the state also has specific goals that are required To be included into a municipal plan and I guess I should say that the goals aren't specifically required to The plan doesn't have to be consistent with it doesn't have to be consistent with the goals However, if a plan wants to get regional approval, it does have to be consistent with the goals We are consistent with all the goals. There is a benefit to to having that regional approval Like for example being eligible for grant funding being eligible for some of the state designated programs the downtown designation The new neighborhood designation that all requires the regional approval. So we We are consistent with the goals of the of the statute as well just to In case there's any concern, I don't know if you want to add anything to that regime. Okay, great Um, so a few big new items for for this plan that were not included previously is there's discussion on river corridors Which is based on some of the new guidance that's being provided by the state on how to to address river corridors We currently don't have specific river corridor regulations, but that's something that will be forthcoming most likely as as Some of the the state programs advance and we get better data on that The the phosphorus total maximum daily load, uh, you just heard about that with the upwp application so I won't go in any of that any further and then the enhanced energy planning This is a new piece of of this is a new optional piece for communities that want to To pursue this enhanced energy planning If they would like if municipalities want to get more more say in front of the public utility commission in essence And just to talk a little bit more about that in 2015 statute was updated to to give municipalities more More of a say at the public utility commission if they met certain standards that were included in municipal plans Uh, a lot of it's related to to new data and targets on the various sectors of of energy Which include heating electricity and transportation Um a lot of what we are already doing as a community is meeting the state's goals I think and and also the I believe it's reflected by the regional planning commission in the fact that we have a very dense land use pattern so we are using our energy very Very consciously and very consciously so that that is is helping to support this planning effort and instead of kind of Spending a lot of time focusing on energy in the plan we have this included as an appendix So that all the data is there and all the mapping that is required is there But we are so we are Meeting that enhanced energy planning so that if we if a project does come up before the public utility commission We we can have that that's safe. We want Just to expand upon that a little more In a lot of cases with the rest of the state This is really more this is seen more in the in the areas that aren't developed And it's it's the changing over of green fields to some of these energy projects One of the things that we are looking at potentially using this for is in the city We've made a conscious effort to focus development and density on the corridors So the properties that are adjacent to those corridors may want to do some sort of solar development and By putting these taller buildings next to them it may block that resource So we want to be able to to use Use the energy the enhanced energy planning to to continue to focus our density in the corridors and And make sure that we have the ability to do that going forward So with any good plan, there's a lot of public engagement. We We went to the farmer's market. We went to the halloween event And that's regina and myself up in the corner there dressed as a candy corn and a Longshoreman We participated in the the world of wanouski the the mayor's show and Fun fact, I'm wearing the same shirt So It's just in case you're Exactly. I wanted to keep it consistent a consistent message across so So we did a lot of public engagement To try to get the get the word out about this plan update and and about the fact that we were we were doing this More comprehensive update going forward We did a lot of and with the public engagement. We got a lot of comments back I believe we had about 40 or so comments total the on the website the The master plan section on the website has a list of all the comments and where they fit into the plan So we we tried to address as many as possible and I think we were able to address them all Some of them were editorial. Some of them were more policy related that we we did have to reach out to And when I'm saying we here, I really mean Regina. So don't it's There is not much of a Run-on sentence is fixed. Awesome. So there was some some follow-up some follow-up with with uh with staff and other commissions to To get some feedback to to make sure that we were representing the the comments properly and updating as needed so So moving forward the planning commission this past thursday met and Made took action to forward the plan to you all which is why we're here tonight So we're at step two already. You're receiving this presentation And so the next kind of stage of this is to is to hold public hearings. So because we are a municipality of greater than 2,500 residents we We have to have two public hearings before we can we can adopt so Um, then we're looking for potential adoption sometime in april the plan officially I believe expires april 21st. So we have some time in april, but that's At least that's when the last plan was adopted by council was april 21st of 14. So It'll be expiring in the next couple of months So what we'd recommended is having the first hearing set for february 19th, which would be uh, your The second meeting in february for for council. We have to warn the the meeting at least 30 days We can't have the first hearing There has to be at least 30 days before we hold the first year And then the second hearing we had identified potentially march 18th as the date for that this This gets the first hearing with the with the current council and the second hearing with with the new council So there is potentially if this council wanted to move forward with adoption prior There is the opportunity to do that with a special meeting in february But this would put us on a track to have the new council have the second hearing And then potentially there are there's at least one other date In there where another hearing could happen if changes are made So if if any changes are made substantial changes made We need to re-warn the plan and hold the hearings again before we get to that that final adoption. So That's what we're looking at for tonight and i'll leave it with that And just to clarify too staff's recommendation right now is and the planning commission recommendation is to to split it between the two councils Yeah, that up is recommended So yes, that is the the intent For a couple of reasons one it gives the public more opportunity to educate themselves and become aware of this plan and provide comment To you know The master plan will become the roadmap for all the work the council staff and appointed officials do over the next five or eight years And it is also a I think a pretty excellent Orientation to where we are as a community and what our community are articulated to date community values are So using it as part of Using this process as part of an orientation for a majority new council We see as an asset and then also ensuring that the new council is bought into it and bought into the roadmap of the work for the next Um, a couple of years will be important But we certainly because of not only the expiration date But the hard work the planning commission has put into it to date Did it want to hold not to have a public hearing for Six weeks eight weeks until the new council was seated And that's my staff opinion I'm not sure if mike from the planning commission has a different perspective. We're going to answer that No, we we got that same input from eric and we all said it made sense The concern the only concern is is getting this adopted before the deadline before this current plan expires Which is late april We know you know situations being as they are You're going to deal with it, but it seemed to make sense um As jesse said, especially letting the new council Get a taste of it and get comfortable with it and hopefully pass it On the 18th and I think you said there's if they're not comfortable on the 18th or if there's substantial changes Made to it. There's time to have another public hearing before adoption Uh, you just talked to a little for folks about the repercussions of that's because there will be, you know, a majority of Brand new folks up here with the new council If there's a failure to adopt what the implications are for the city So I may actually look to regina to to chime in on this from the Yeah, so there's a few things that come into play nothing is catastrophic But a potential challenge for you is you can't change or adopt any new Certainly no land use bylaws, but also your capital plan So if the city is i'm not sure when you do that, but if you typically are doing that june april do it We'll do it this one Okay, so then that's that would be one thing that you couldn't do So if that gets done beforehand then that's helpful Um, the city does not collect impact fees if you did you would no longer be able to collect impact fees until the plan was in place um, and then like eric said you do, uh, you get all You're much more eligible to get many state grant programs with a plan in place So if there are any that comes up in that in between time, uh, you wouldn't be you would either would not score highly Or not be eligible for some of those programs Can I ask a follow-up and that could apply to the community development block grant funding and sales tax reallocation funding? Definitely community block grant. I'm not sure about the sales tax, but we can tell sort of on federal funding sources Of all kinds that you sign off that your plans substantially meets the The goals of the regional plans state plans in regards. I mean all new usd applications You're not you were signing off You were certifying that and they're supposed to review that So I I think that's Our biggest risk at this point is we do intend to submit a cdbg application in april um That would be reviewed beyond the expiration date of this and any potential grant funding We have currently in place in in theory if there wasn't a very active plan I think in place to ratify something could be planned Um, so might just mention the other uh component that comes into play is Um, eric mentioned this earlier as you ultimately you want your plan approved by the chitinna county regional planning commission. So um Once this we've already done our initial review of that and have incorporated everything that needs to be incorporated Um, but once the city council adopts this then it goes to the ccrpc to do the final approval So there is a little bit of lag that happens there too Um, it typically we meet once a month. So There's a little bit of like having to line that up correctly, but So just something to keep in mind too that that's a little bit extra time Anything is something that's definitely important to stress to the new body coming in Of course a lot of us as we're having discussions with people out in the community and candidates Coming up through our repercussions for Coming in and doing a 180 degree turn Yeah, so once we know those For definitively who candidates are at outreach to them to say hey, this is what's going on So they don't feel like there's an arm behind their back feeling coming in to be like, hey, you gotta pass this, you know Because it's a it's an important document but The goal of the the planning commission everybody involved has consistently been not to just come up Like we didn't sit in the back of our room and write this up This is the result of a lot of public outreach and other planning efforts that have been really well attended you know Evolutionary conversations that are taking place in the community about what the goals are so You know you could word Smith, but from a goal perspective to try to Redo things would require going back into a lot of outreach And it it is about a four-year Effort on the part of a planning commission that has seen a number of Members change over the four years. So there's been a lot of input from folks on the planning commission Before I forget. Joe parent is here who's current member of the planning commission So obviously if you want to jump in I But also, I mean, you know, like I said, we started I guess four years ago. Does that sound right? Yeah, you know with this process We struggled a little bit early I will I will say that just trying to get our hands around how we're going to attack this this beast and really since Eric came on and Regina came on We've done a hundred yard dash basically That's not to say that we just got this thing done to get it done That means that all the two or three years before that of discussion and notes and public input was all coalesced and Regina Put it into this document. So it is what you see today. And so I just want to you know Make sure folks understand there was a lot of time put in there were a lot of folks On the planning commission who are on the current planning commission who are on the planning commission They started who had input into this And so I mean, I think it's a good plan There's always, you know, we'll look at it in a year and say, ah, jeez. We should have done this, but you know, that's fine I think it covers everything we needed to cover It does a good job and there was a lot of discussion as to the things that are in here Going back to the vision statement we started about talked about in the in the beginning A lot of discussion like that and what we want to include in here how we want this thing to look Let's See angela john elie and chief hebert Think are the only staff members in here who haven't at one point led the planning commission during this process In the back in gray and jesse, I mean that we've all led meetings and part of the planning process So So and I just want to commend, you know, we went into hyperdrive You know less than a year ago and said really hardcore like Number one now we have to get this done And want to commend eric for the way you stepped in and picked up the process and You know can't obviously say enough about rejina and bring rejina and all your health and assistance and professional Professional schools that you brought to this that made it come to fruition And you know a fairly quick manner and pulling together all the information we had worked so hard to collect So thank you both very very very much. We'll have when it gets playing the year we'll we'll have more More time to reflect on all that great work But I also set them a different for men because it's important eric mentioned it before but The other plans that have been developed by the city are incorporated in this and referenced here And it's a vital part of this plan. So although well, you can't see it, but I need magnified glasses to read this but I guess this is more This is this is the hard version But if you put all those plans in there, it's probably you know three times as wide So there's a lot of stuff in there. It's online Or we'll be online So it's it's going to be very accessible to folks That spoken hub model is going to ensure that we're not going we're going to be able to update things incrementally And in those specific areas drill down when they need to have updates without having to go in and redo the entire plan And that's a great way of doing a great model and makes it much more manageable It's awesome I wanted to share that having Been a part of the housing commission previously and being really familiar with the housing needs assessment. I definitely see that like Those data points and those things that were discussed and the needs that were identified are for sure reflected throughout here Any other questions or do you want to tell what a great job it is and move on? I mean well in showering praise To you to Joe and the other members of the planning commission. You're all doing this You're volunteer time and to give that much back to our city is just thank you so much. I thought we got paid I thought we were in a shutdown just between you and I That comes if it's past And that's why I said before there's probably been 15 or 20 different members of the planning commission since this has been going on all had You know input into it and it's really interesting when you get all those people And the commission starts talking about things we had one exercise when paul was here Just throwing out thoughts on it to go with the topic was but Everyone on the commission was pretty much in a line. So It is not I don't think there's a lot of controversial stuff here in this plan I think it's all stuff that has been vetted for for years And it reflects your strategic vision statement that you folks came up with three or four years ago I know you did that after I left because you're forward thinking but anyway You know, we kept that as the the focus of this plan and trying to stay true to that. So And mike their point, I mean, thanks for all of your leadership and all of your efforts and energy to crowd the conversation. It was a really high-functioning powerful group and You know, you led them in a terrific way to get to this place So thanks for all of your time and effort and energy and this is something you've been passionate about for over a decade A couple decades. Yeah Started with rewriting zoning In 1998, but that's another story No, it's you know It's a pleasure. I have one question. Yes, please So You know in addition to housing, I can see the connection between this and a lot of the sub plans that were referenced But when I was reading through this the public health section was Actually a conversation that I haven't been deeply involved in Or you even kind of heard a lot and what we've been focusing on lately. So I was curious where Like what found that information in that section of the plan I'm going to refer to Virginia. She has it all on her fingers 55 55 So some of that comes from the community services. Thank you to Commit all of those names to memory community services commission And then Part of that I was just so this is a particular section that is not actually A plan requirement public health per se in the state statutes I would imagine that is going to change Sometimes soon. So it's definitely a much bigger issue As you folks know dealing with opioid crisis and all kinds of different things that are going on And just sort of the overall picture of moving public health funding from a much more reactive program to a much more proactive program and really trying to Improve and Influence better behavior choices So that's really where some of this stuff comes from There's a lot of different regional information and data The hospitals does a community health news assessment That has lots and lots of amazing information in there So this is Very tight very succinct. It could be enormous, but I think the idea of just Getting those overall points in there was was the idea That's great. Thank you I just want to add that Another thing that I would pass on as a potential to do is really Some of this is going to be reactionary to what's going on in the community, but You know, one of the greatest things I ever saw was a national organization That had all their policies and procedures on a national on a rotating annual list of each year We're going to pick these three things up and review them And we'd really like to encourage the city to think about coming up with a schedule model Where all those subplans are picked up and these issues are picked up on a regular basis and on a schedule because In the absence of that and even if you pick it up and put it right back down and say, you know, what this still works um in the absence of that suddenly it's 2018 and it was approved in 2000 or 1982, right? And because it can just get away from you and then it becomes such a huge job that it's overwhelming Which is what I think it felt like, you know eight years ago. This felt like, oh my gosh, how are we going to do all this? So that's why it was super stamp fine you know four or five times And um, I think you're right That was one of the goals that we had not only with this but the zoning regulations Is to make those living documents that that get looked at annual especially the zoning because we know we have a lot of things that we have to pick up in that I did want to say that when when christine asked about the The health stuff it brought to mind the fact that When we started this the the goal was because we had the commissions in place and now Five commissions with the housing commission But to get input from that and I think that served us very well Having those commissions and getting that much more input It made it much easier for the planning commission To to put this together because instead of trying to invent all these sections We were able to get it from the commissions get their input and then take from that Give it to regina to to make uh cohesive You know, and I think that again I'm going to have the benefits of those commissions and the number of people who are on those As well as the school for you know, they gave Input to this too in the section that you'll see about schools. That was all the school board, I guess that And shaw McMahon really So again, that's another nice thing to see the cooperation between the city and school that we have to maintain as we move forward Other questions comments concerns from council and this is also a time to share any concerns about the schedule hearing because this is on as a Item that you could approve essentially the content of the memo today and send this as direction Yes, so the the specific action would be to set the public hearing date And I do want to be clear that this this recommend this recommendation is ours to be as Respectful of the current and new council coming up. It's certainly your prerogative to move this process forward I think you've heard tonight a lot about all the different input that's been gathered and the culmination of this of the culmination of this as You know hundreds of when you skip residents have participated through the public process or the commissions or the planning commission. So We will not fight you and moving it faster if you want to move it faster I do personally think there's value in having the new body go through the process of learning about the Planned and the content and putting their Stamp on it even if it is a bit of a rubber stamp But to have some ownership How do you feel that cornerstone foundation? I'm feeling good Any other comments concerns questions from council Questions concerns comments from the public Thank you for all of your work. We really really appreciate it. Thank you And with that I would entertain a motion to set the public hearing schedule as presented this evening So moved Motion by house second by eric can you for this session? Seeing here none. I wasn't prepared to say aye. Aye and those opposed motion carries Thank you. Thank you. I appreciate this Okay, here's the big moment We know that there's going to be a fire call any second because it's time for the public safety budget presentation Yeah, the conversation you can I may and then we'll just switch from Closing stays on track Good evening. Good evening to you. Thank you all for coming. I appreciate it Um Wanted to start the presentation a little bit. Um, I was just You got an email while I was sitting here in the chief francis Terry francis who is with the city of brollington for many years just got appointed as a south brollington fire chief That's extremely important in the system that we work in for the city with new ski. So Welcome chief francis and look forward to fostering that relationship and working with south brollington and Everything you can get better from here It's great. Just a full chester to keep their hands off of our amazing people So thanks for having us obviously, um Got battalion chief spittle with me tonight on the fireside chief rebert and elive. I'm from community justice You know the opening slide here. We wanted to try to start to Set the stage for folks a little bit as far as how busy our little city is Um emergency wise There's about 10,000 upward of 10,000 emergency calls between police fire and ems here in the city Obviously police holds holds the lead on that part You know ems. We don't talk a lot about st. Mike's does that for us and part of my effort is to try to bring them into that discussion You'll hear me talk a little bit about community risk reduction The last piece of the ems that I'll include in the slide but um You know St. Mike's wanted me to in the community risk reduction world One person out of their 1200 and 90 calls here in the city Was responsible for 80 of those So the importance of community risk reduction and why one individual You know, what are those needs for that one individual? And how can we reduce those responses is an important part of my message So fire prevention code You know, this is again emerged um department as of last year. We were separate entities A lot of the same and and listing you know our responses to emergency calls Um 176 building permits. We issued the building permits along with that is You know, some of those or a kitchen renovation or a window install Or it could be as large as 265 of east down where we're there every week for several months Um, you know big bigger projects. Um, we we go there weekly on the big projects and obviously Keep track of the smaller ones We inspected 734 residential units and 76 commercial units Going back to 2018, you know a lot of the message out of here was it was our first year of firehouse data We were really standing that that software up the inspection software and and how we do business So there's a lot of mention of that in here You know the from the stand-up of the software to the creation of the Checklist and we'll start to see some of that data come out in this presentation. So pretty excited for that Part of that data is um, you know, we wonder this is in the in the public building registry realm Not on our whole housing stock, but what do we see across the board our top six? You know, obviously multifamily You know the owner occupied duplexes have been a big discussion here and are we losing those that numbers had holding stead at 248 within the public building registry Again, you know, this is a type of data that we're collecting on a annual basis when we're out this matters for You know economic development and community services the cross functionality of city Just a quick question on that and I mean I think the answer was just that's Owner occupied duplex isn't the number of units. It's the count of the actual properties. There's 248 properties, right? That's correct. And then similar on the multifamily. Yeah Is that's 1431 actual units, right? Okay. Yeah, we have over 2600 rental units This again is just looking at a category as we try to Do workflows and that sort of thing You know 2019 accomplishments today You know along with creating that inspection checklist of 56 now We're we're starting to be able to evaluate some of those inspection points Which you'll see in some of the data we provide tonight We are in the midst of We've signed and working towards Implementation of the park mobile App the mobile app. We have way to park currently Park mobile is an app that is used in the city of brollington and used by uvm So there'd be some unification for the user the end user There's there's a lot of reasons for us to as a region start to look at doing business that way So if you're in brollington with the park mobile you've been able to have you know brollington and wenduski Built into your account And we'll be able to do some hopefully in the future some pretty neat stuff together as far as Marketing and some other pieces with that There's also some merchant pieces of that that we're pretty excited to explore Obviously our big infrastructure piece this year was a replacement of our 1991 rescue pumper Just said no more fire trucks this year So you want to see that this year? A big project for us we emerged a public building registry information with some of the existing city information land use records We've we in the past of built these as two very different systems Um, so there's a there's assessing records. There's land use records and then we had to rental registry We're trying to align those better so that we can all use those during billing and and other pieces As we move forward or have to contact a certain piece of the city For us as districts, um, if we want to be able to send a message to that district We now have the contact info just for that district and we can start to communicate with those folks Um, we reengaged with the school safety committee meetings Um, you know PD's been there or EMS folks have been there So we're pretty excited on the fire side to be back at the table there um, you This year has been a lot for us about continuing to professionalize the fire delivery model Um, you know our development of training standards in a program that we spoke to you about in the compensation plan were huge Um, you know, we continue to develop our part-time firefighters along with per diem firefighters and What what that all means? It's it's again a lot of professional development pieces a lot of little pieces that add up to the A good experience on the end users Increased staff presence at the firehouse, you know again, obviously we're there and right now your staff during the day seven days a week um, so We've been surprised several times at how much foot traffic we get into the firehouse when the truck's out on the ramp or You know a group or six or seven preschool kids will will just walk in instead of having to make an appointment It's pretty exciting and enjoyable Some of our call stuff and you again, this is the some of the data that we're able to pull out of um firehouse data And we can now start to talk about workflows and staffing, you know An interesting piece for us is as I look back at last year's also is the the monthly incidents are staying pretty consistent The incidents by days of the week are staying pretty consistent And the alarm times are staying pretty consistent. Um, these are not changing year to year the whole lot And again as we start to talk about how we staff and how we plan certainly the alarm times and day day week and Monday through friday, we're here seven thirty to 1600 on the sheet and you can see the gap that we're plugging from 1600 to 20 which is eight o'clock with our proteam is capturing quite a few of those spikes So again, we're being being very intentional where we're trying to staff up Questions about that data. It's great to say. I mean it's awesome to see that you're putting that much thought into The workload and managing and the resources that way. So thank you Top 10 incidents again, like we could go Crazy with this, you know, there could be a another 128 types. Um, again, just trying to to give you a snapshot of what are You know, what's busiest and again, this will really start to drive our community risk reduction efforts As we look at becoming proactive instead of reactive Um, you know, I would I would really like to think about 40 cook cooking fires before they happen instead of showing you that we went to 40 And that's what community risk reduction is all about and that's what from my seat We're going to really be using this data for can we stop all this? No Um, and that's not what I'm saying at all But we certainly can use this data to start to think about where we invest our money in our time Top 12 violations again, you know I can't say it enough the community risk reductions. Um, you know the lead law we wrote 348 you've had 344 violations and again, keep in mind There's six or seven of those violations that we could write but my point is More times than not and we go to the to these rental properties either the EMP essential maintenance practices or the posters aren't up and that causes us to write a violation under the code and That's a real easy Place for us to invest in time and some minimal money in educating the landlords and the tenants of of what needs to happen So again, we're trying to turn The traditional fire service fire response models Here on its head and think about doing it before same with heating units And we're citing that it's extremely important 294 times. We cited it for violations five of those units Both in residential and commercial were units that were red tagged So it means that the heat exchangers were packed and coming raw ceo into those spaces and that can be fatal So again, we know the inspection pieces are working, but why wait until we find that violation? Is there a piece that we can be educating? So if I can just interrupt here for a minute Both to brag about the work john and his team do but also maybe to educate if we have a Uh state rep in our midst in the next week or two This is one of the way this what john's just talking about now through the rental registry and and these citations and ensuring Quality housing stock is one of the most innovative things we are doing as a city. There is currently a bill before the state Or a bill passed by the legislature to do for to form a study committee Report of which is supposed to come out the end of this month Looking at how we do this statewide or how municipalities do it or how the health department does it Or who's going to take ownership of ensuring that our housing stock, especially our rental housing stock across the state Is safe secure and not Uh and inspected regularly so we can have some trust that our residents are are living in safe conditions Um, there are very few other communities in the state that do anything close to what john and his team do And almost done that do it in conjunction with a fire department and provide that Back up fire service Um, I think when I go to managers meetings throughout the state and try and figure this out for other communities What in other communities, especially our smaller neighbors? This is all done through volunteers through town health officers who have You know a day-long annual training, but no resources at their disposal So I think we should be incredibly proud of this work. We can always improve it and make it better Um, but the fact that we are in every Rental unit once every on a four-year cycle ensuring that our residents are safe and secure and giving helpful resources to our landlords About resources they have at their disposal to improve their housing stock Is a huge benefit to our residents. So sorry for the soapbox, but you might be hearing about that a lot more Take the opportunity So on that vein that I know it's a capability of our new software and The way that we're tracking a lot of this information But what is the process if we're seeing repeated violations over and over and over again from the single property owner? So I'm going to use the lead the lead law as a perfect example I was quick surprised by that number. Um, as you know, we work with the burlington lead program They have some pretty substantial Federal funding that that we are part of So an example of what we can do locally is I sent two staff members to the certification for essential maintenance practices Which is where most of our landlords are falling down. It's an annual thing that they have to report to the state of ramon And we find in most cases that's being done from Not being done from the location that's become kind of just I need to get this paper to the state So we sent our two inspectors Erica and Courtney To the class in hopes that we can start to educate the landlords and be of assistance I don't want to go out and do those certifications for them But there's certainly a piece of education that we can help them with. It's not punitive We need to we it's going to take time But we need to change their mindset of this isn't always punitive. It is a violation But the what ifs, right? I mean we've had some lead exposures to kids under six here. I think we had two cases recently That's That's preventable. That's preventable stuff and that's a life changing changing event for that child So we have to invest Our time and money and this is going to change year to year I would hope that this changes year to year to continues if we continue to see the lead violations Over a three or four year period. I would hope that someone here is asking our department. Why isn't this number changing? Or are we putting the resources where they need to be? So this is going to change year to year Especially as coach codes change within the state and or locally but It's examples like that of You know the brook and lead program has a grant funding and we can offer that class here in Manuski free And now we have some staff trained up to help Let's see if the trend drops and let us know just getting here New York did a huge study where they found elevated lead levels and Like a scary number of their school districts that were was insane New Hampshire picked up on it New Hampshire's done millions of dollars in tons of attention to this issue. Vermont's been totally silent until now Where they've said they're going to test the waters of the school, but that's going to be an increasing So thanks for jumping on that and You guys with the lead program have been really leaders on that I think so I guess I am interested if there's room for future discussions about Places where it might make sense to have some punitive measures in place specifically if we're looking at Property manager or property owners that own Large developments If we're seeing repeated violations and failure to address a lot of that kind of and a pattern of behavior Does you know do we have a stick to say okay? you know if you want to come in and Develop a future new property. We're not going to let you do that so I don't Feel our program has the authority to stop a developer from coming with but I can tell you is everything we do Can end up being punitive Voluntary compliance, which we have a huge success rate at is extremely important It's the best usually for the tenant in the end And the owner and we want them to continue in most cases. We want them to continue to own property here But if we make it punitive immediately and or too forcibly it ends up putting pressure on the tenants And we end up with a civil Issue so a lot of times we end up threading the needle of you know getting the tenant to realize this is a process We have a commitment for voluntary We put a we put a deadline on it and certainly make it clear if we go beyond that then It's going to be a different conversation Um, we can always get better You know the systems Certainly with the software our follow-ups are a lot better. Um, they're automatically generated where before if I go They're handwritten reports. So if I remembered I had to go to Eric's back to Eric's Or if it was high enough But now every inspection every violation is automatically kicked to a to a follow-up I guess what I would say Is some of our limiting factors and in that type of follow-up and or how aggressively get with this is going to be staffing His follow-ups take a ton of time. I do really appreciate your focus on the impact of the tenant And just for additional context on that that people will hear more there's now a board established the housing Community is kind of going to lead in that to establish a statewide Rental registry Right and talk about compliance tools for their cities and states And I know that you guys are already being thought of as a model to bring in to advise that so that's great, too And I think the aggregation of data is going to be a really interesting conversation point and what systems used Val core for example From a police perspective and if there's going to be a common platform or a transferable platform of some point Ownership of it is going to be really interesting. I've started we've we've just discussed it this week Tentatively fresh thumbs on it for sure. We get grass So 2019 goals and priorities again park mobiles going to be instrumental, you know a new folks tech touched on some parking Data collection points and that sort of thing. Um, so again, that's rising. It's going to be a focus of Of our team And we're starting to think about updating our permitting process You know currently we have a We have a combination zoning building application which works very well here in the city For a member of staff meaning you come in and fill out a permit and get you through zoning and then transfers right into building So with Eric's help, we've started. He's actually passed the first draft out In the last week or so So that's and public works will have to be a huge part of that You know the capital improvement plans for both the fire station and their pay stations again, you know, this is all critical Parts of our infrastructure We'll be into our second year of data from firehouse So pretty excited this again start to be able to plug some of this in look for trends and and see Create our workflows around some data instead of quite frankly telling you the sky's going to fall I think it matters You know we will this year hold Both the residential and commercial building registry meeting and training. Um, we had been doing the Residential one every year and it seemed like it was a little saturated the last one we did we got like six Where we had taken a couple years off years prior and we we ended up on close to 40 At one of the meetings. So we're going to do it every other year Um, we did do a commercial of a tagging. We did a commercial type fire safety, you know Very well received. I think we put 60 some on employees through that in the afternoon Um, so again, we'll probably do that every other year in offset them for staff Again, you've heard me talk about community risk reduction vision 2020 If you ever get a chance to look at it, um, again, it's taken traditional models of emergency response and We're really thinking about prevention to the extent that we can This is being done across the nation There's we won't be reinventing the wheel will certainly be tailoring it to musky And hopefully beyond touching our neighbors because that always is helpful to us when we can get our neighbors to To look at what we're doing and in some cases do something similar that helps You know retention Recruitment retention you hear me talk about but community connections is a program I did Where it really targets school age kids Through k through 12 In hopes at the end we end up with some of the the 12 For recruitment, um, and it's about really coming in for like a six week program You know, I've had many as adults that I had children go through it and just really understand What it is like to get in the fire gear go up in the aerial truck or spray water And we hammer home at each of those meetings fire prevention of the importance of escape plans and kind of smoke detection, so We get a lot of mileage out of that Um, we'd like to try to get into a couple of the multi-tenant buildings this year and talk about, you know, cooking and cooking safety and Fall safety, you know that sort of thing again, cooking fires is a pretty Um, preventable in a lot of cases Um, so we'll start to try to get that message out Scott's vision of you teaching people how to make toast I'll invite is that the most popular Just never tell the person that they burn food over there if it's just a little smoke You don't say on the radio the tenant burned food. Yeah Some of them will tell you right away. I did not burn it It's just cooked So what's in this is um, when we touched on it or updated comp plan increased coverage hours Again, you're pretty in folks on here saturdays Saturdays and sundays doesn't seem like a big deal back to somebody in the firehouse saturdays sundays from eight to four thirty And then here in the evenings, uh, usually four nights a week From four to eight. Um, it's having a Um, a huge benefit and impact on the morale and just knowing one person doesn't seem like a lot, but it is You know, we ran three calls today with three people So take one of that evolution in matters You know, we increased number of residential and commercial inspections and then again the data to driven budget decisions You know our budget this year the increases are around salaries and benefits For the most part pretty straightforward From last year to this year questions I love the question Can you tell us what's in the contract professional services bucket? um, so in this budget, it's a lot of um It has some of our parking Our back office of our Who does our tickets? So comp plus Yeah, that's a large contract We have our iam responding software in there so that when we get tones it Puts it across mobile devices for our folks Things like that in there The large percentage of that is is comp plus over $20,000 is comp Yeah, and then for the vehicles and equipment maintenance We have like three three years essentially here, but is that a pretty steady figure around 60 grand a year to upkeep Yeah, and again these budgets emerged But we were able actually last year with a new purchase to drop that by 10 000 with a new truck And that will hold Moving forward as wondering how how we would do and we're in good shape with that Okay, thanks So we have some trucks that are 26 years old still going on 26 So again when we start to get that age stuff the maintenance starts to go Is that something you monitor so I could do it But I wouldn't set the way you guys would want me to say it Could you talk about this the shifting we did that increased the salaries line from what it was in 18 to 19 And then why it subsequently staying that level and Angelina needs some help on that one because it was So, um between FY 18 and FY 19 we merged the fire department and the co-department for use in the co-department was Mining zone Didn't really make sense the it's under separate Management or separate budgets now. So in FY 19 we split those so the additional salaries that you see there were The portion of john salary that's in the general fund and our two co-enforcement officers coming in To this budget Thank you That was a busy year of eating rather than things This is our first full year with the structure in place. So and um It's our first good look at it It's a little we feel like it's working so working well Um rental registry again, so we shifted from the general fund rental registry as a standalone Budget um This is the revenues. Um again charges for service or simply what we charge for inspections We are projecting um Quentin increase this year through the commercial inspections. Um And some other inspections that we know we're going to be taking on Piece to call out on the bottom is the rental registry fund balance as of july 1 2018 was um 53,7474 26 that is um The fund balance that will will work with economic development and work on Um low venture loans or however we however that ends up getting structured for Hopefully upgrades with coat compliance issues for landlords and homeowners So like support for the actual yes So it won't be massive, but I mean, you know, if there's a couple thousand dollars that goes to a home and Upgrade smoke detection for a 10 year period. That's a pretty good investment So Pretty excited to to finally start getting some some thought behind that And we can contribute pretty much every year to that Little by little, yeah so um, you know the expenses on the rental registry again, um, you know the staffing Again, this was a shift of duties for the most part angel correct me if i'm wrong It's percentages that we we shifted around Um The other line items essentially stayed pretty Pretty much level funded wait sorry angel could you walk through so the roughly? I mean because it's about a $19,000 increase from 19 Yeah, so that's Largely due to admin and actual acceleration of growth or is that another portion of another human? and the in addition the final piece of the rollout for the compensation plan so At least one of the staff members for this department is it's going to see a jump higher than the 1% cola That was budgeted to get them up into that step one of the new page It's a good reminder since we haven't Highlighted that a number of times that that is integrated into these budgets and with a department where there's only four staff members to which are Portional, um, it can seem like a really big hit Okay, thank you So this is not for extra money right Um emerging issues and I did I picked kind of two of the top ones and these are not small And we will not solve these in the next year recruitment and retention in wunewski's certainly feeling Feeling you know the pressures of this, you know the current our current model We rely heavily on part-time staff those who choose to You know all of them work somewhere else a full-time job and then we're asking them to be here To answer calls and or do trainings So we currently have 11 of 16 available spots filled Of those four live in the city Again, so we're seeing some pressure on those who want to do this type of work and we're seeing what I think is we'll we'll prove through some recruitment effort to Some challenges with from recruiting from our one square mile And we're going to through the actions we're going to we're going to try to do some very appointed recruitment here in this one square mile to try to really answer that and Find out that's true. I can assure you that the others live in close proximity and We do a tremendous job of getting out the door But again as we start to tip that scale You know those who live in the city those who don't john with the test it puts some serious pressure on those who live here in the city You know because they they know that they're they're probably on that first truck out the door On some cases our second truck waits Until those other people that live in close proximity get here into the city Not usually a delay much of a delay But different another use of our software too that we mentioned before I am responding That's a piece that we use and we have a screen in the station So if people are responding they have different parameters they can set being out of town from burlington It'll come up on the screen and tell you where that person's coming from And you could determine your first truck load your second truck out It's that action last year. Yeah, you guys saw it. It was really it was pretty amazing to watch It lined people up and tell you who was had accepted the call essentially Yeah, knowing you got another driver coming all those things helped make decisions at that point Different than you know, someone with a full staff who knows exactly what they have to start with We don't have that luxury to start so Again as we see the data with the date, you know the times of calls We know nationally and certainly here in monoski those who choose to do this type of work part time Are generally more available from 6 p.m. To 6 a.m Again as we see those trends and time of day when those calls are coming in and where our demands are high Again, we'll matter where I put my staff because I know there's pressure Or availability issues So again the action is pretty much what we've spoken about One piece I will pull out of the action is For two years now. We've kept a st. Mike's student st. Mike's college through colchester St. Mike's does our ems and st. Mike's has a fire department Do an excellent job of it But in the summertime as those kids all go home For the most part and the alumni staff They're a fire department that means we have less people coming into the city during those periods of time So we again have made an effort to Employ one of those students Eight to 12 weeks during the summer to help with their high demand times And then through the semester or through the rest of the year one day a week To help them stay here during the summer the college houses them feeds them They work for us during the day in the summer And then they go back to st. Mike's and they come back into the city on that on their fire truck So it's a pretty good investment. We get a huge return on our investment So looking to formalize that through An internship this year. We do enough of the business piece of it where Everyone feels that they can be getting some credits for it. So Pretty excited about formalizing that plan And then lastly is keeping up with the build out of the city You know the growth that we've seen and the growth that's You know projected all Ends up with demands, whether it's more inspections or more calls, you know, obviously Comfortable is where we are certainly right now. You know, we've kept We've been able to keep up with the demands Again, that data is going to start to drive some of our decision making in the future and Prove some of the concerns that we have so You know, we mentioned in here plans review That's certainly something that we don't do here in the city If you're going to do a big development project, you still go to the state do pretty Exhausted plans review process where they before they issue the building permit and you pay the fees to the state I listed some projections in here So we're in early conversations of What that would look like for us to do here Brawlington does their own South Brawlington does their own So it may be a good fit for a new ski All right, I'm going to throw you to the wolves Any questions on the fire side? Yeah, I just had a question if you think In thinking through some of the staffing challenges Are there Would additional professional development opportunities perhaps incentivize Being able to fill those spots with more local folks So my sense is um There's only so many hours in a day for any of those folks that are working, you know full-time We've got people that work in st. Albans, um, you know, so they're leaving here traveling in st. Albans Working their day going back into the city So we offer quite a bit of professional development, but it's it's time Of we still need that body in the firehouse to solve part of that problem So I don't know how we pay her down How we extract more of their time Um without adding bodies Yeah, it's enough. There were opportunities to attract new people if there were I mean, there's a ton of professional development to offer and I don't mind being kind of a Um Of a building block for someone that wants to go do this as a career We talk about the career chief's meetings all the time of you know, what if somebody wants to start and do this for a career Um And we don't offer EMS, but we certainly have enough partners around us where I'm certain that if someone has the interest Um wants to go that path we can get them through their initial certifications over a two or three year period Um and set them up to be able to go on and pursue this That's an important two to three years that I've had. I'm here in the firehouse So that's kind of our market for the recruitment internally and I think we will have to continue to offset with some external folks You know right now the per diem folks are folks that work a shift They do this as a career. Um, so there's 24 on 48 offs Um, so they have a three day two to three day period that they're looking to plug a part-time job It works very well for us because they're trained. They're certified You have to teach them kind of show them the the runuski way if you will. Um, but they're certainly able to function very quickly And come with some assurances that they know know the job I think from a High level of perspective should I think you'll hear the same thing from chief hebert recruitment around public safety right now is very challenging Um, we see and you see this is not a when you ski specific thing. You see this across the state and across the country that um with generational shifts the shifts away from this kind of paid volunteerism is changing pretty dramatically And quite frankly people who want want to get into public Public safety through police departments is is declining. So I think one of the things that chief adi with paul sarin has come up with is how do we When you ski has a real sense of place in a sense of community and a lot of young people who Feel connected to this community. How do we tell that story in a new creative way that makes people understand that This is a way they could serve and get back and and develop some real professional skills and perhaps develop a career So that's what the video that you saw John alluded to is about is how do we tell that story about Living here feeling connected to here. What is what is a paid volunteer fire department? How do you get involved and try those kind of new techniques to get Young people even aware that this is an opportunity for them. Um, and again, that's not a when you ski specific challenge That's a nationwide challenge I do think I will add that part of the The higher level of professionalism that we're striving for that in itself does help with I think will help with retention, but it does help with how the department is viewed When somebody sees the professionalism that's displayed then they do want to be part of that And I think going back many years when I started That's what drew me in was that there's a group of people Who are very dedicated to what they're doing So that's a professional thing and they always said whether you're doing it for a full-time job Or you're doing it as a volunteer or a part-time You're still professional what you do regardless of what your pay scale is And that's I think what we've we've tried to do and we're getting to that level So hopefully displaying that and getting them out to the public More people seeing that will draw somebody But again, even if it's one or two people, you know We've got several people that are still in the department because they joined 14 15 16 years ago. We're still here So that's valuable Yeah, I definitely appreciate that. I'm just trying to keep my ear open for if there are opportunities that you need You know resources from us to support you as we're going to do that We're in it together Thank you. Thank you I think they were just walking in the exit Fire safe Good evening everybody Like to start just with a quick run down of the organizational chart in the police department for people that haven't seen it in the past It remains pretty much unchanged From the time that I took over as chief. I put this in place over four years ago Some of the names and the positions have changed, but the organizational structure itself has remained the same So underneath me, I have two lieutenants three sergeants Two detectives one is a local in-house detective. The other is currently assigned to the dea task force eight patrol officers and Three part-time on-call officers, which is dramatically down from what we've had in the past we'll get into that with retention and Obviously changes in people having interest in law enforcement, but that's a big concern for us because we Rely pretty heavily on our part-time staff Eli will be touching a little bit more on the community justice Piece of it and his employees. So I'll leave that for him We have a dispatch supervisor who is in charge of all things dispatch and really all administrative duties being divided within the dispatchers in the police department And we do still have four on-call dispatchers available to us to help supplement coverage Part of the fy 18 accomplishments. We continued the partnership with the Burlington's opioid project It's really a boots on the ground hands-on program where we try and pull people out of addiction one person at a time It's really that personalized Well, we had several Narcan deployments to assist in saving lives prior to ems arrival Hosted several community outreach events throughout the city. We worked across city departments With code and fire to address quality of life issues together And we completed two conscious unbiased training sessions citywide Some of the fy 19 accomplishments to date we step up very closely with the community outreach team You'll see quite a bit of discussion on that tonight about possibly growing that team We focused on career development for current employees to prepare for for promotions And that was part of what I was talking about with the organizational structures We have a lot of moving parts and a lot of new people We're very lucky to have a lot of talented people that have filled those roles pretty seamlessly We continued our effort on strengthening relationships across several groups within our community Part of that is we included a alv in the development of Our pd strategic plan We got some really great input from them and things that we just wouldn't have thought about if they weren't in the room So I very much appreciate their time Part of the other you know relationships and groups may not be what you traditionally think about but we you know youth groups at the High school senior citizens at the senior center We tried to really touch a bunch of different groups of people throughout our community We completed the three-year strategic plan. It was a huge lift very proud of the work that we did on that We also recently certified two officers in icat, which is a degrading communication assessment and tactics There's a group out in the midwest called perf, which is the professional executive research forum And very well respected chiefs in that area. They were instrumental in the president's task force report on 21st century policing They developed this program Brawlington south brawlington and when you skier committed to Bringing this to chitin county and working together to train our officers to respond the same way to people in crisis We also contracted with a mental health professional to strengthen the police department wellness program The reality of police work is we see a lot of sorrow and a lot of anger on a daily basis and it takes its toll on our employees So the only way we can take care of our community is to take care of our police officers first and make sure that they're well adjusted and Reacting well to the things that they're subjected to out in the field Through a few numbers up there for you We always traditionally come in right around 8,000 calls for service. I use january 1 to january 1 just so you'll have a 12 month snapshot 394 criminal arrests. That doesn't mean 394 people were actually arrested if there's multiple charges. It's considered an arrest So just so you know, it's a significant amount of time that our officers spend, you know Unfortunately doing criminal arrests. So it's important to mention 108 calls involving mental health issues in the community outreach team I want to mention that's the one number in there that's only from april To january 1 because that wasn't stand stood up until april and that also doesn't include any Follow-up visits they had with these people. That was just outgoing and incoming calls that we actually asked them to respond to 26 community outreach events specifically hosted by the police department, which included the mindful mentors after school Athletically coffee with a cop public safety day The dismus house dinners I'm proud to say that I think the police department's Participation and that takes part in an award that the city of when you ski is going to be I think it's in may Doesn't take part in is because of it was a part of it was a part of But we're going to be recognized by the dismus house dinner for our basically willingness to welcome these people into our community and Make sure that they feel welcome and and you know, obviously a Part of our community and know that the police departments there support them and not to put them back in jail Or or to focus on the mistakes that they made It's tremendous reward and reflection of the way you approach the work. So congratulations. Thank you And for those who may not be familiar just miss house is a house is a Home on east island for folks returning from incarceration back into the community and fully integrating back in and The concept is that we these are our neighbors. They have they're entering our community We want to have the most positive experience and feel connected here and To the chief of this team do regular dinners with them to get to know them as humans and share a meal and make connections Just going to one of those just seeing how the officers there were like genuinely so invested in the people there and actually like You know viewed through the lens of a fellow human being a member of our community that they share a lot with was Just fantastic. Absolutely So important in the past. There's been a lot of requests for foot patrol. So I'd like to in the top 10 incidents Bar graph on the left. I'd like you to notice the number two thing that we have now done on a daily basis is Foot patrols We really made a directed effort to try and touch all parts of the city and really just get out and see people talk to people Get to know our neighborhoods a little bit better. So I'm really proud that That's the second largest Way that we spend our time during the day That's awesome The rest of those, uh, it's really just every year this kind of comes down to this, right? It's like when does crime happen and or when are you responding to things and traditionally it always comes out almost perfectly Within a few percentage points of days of the week times of the day And months of the year It's the reality is that you need your police 24 hours a day seven days a week and there's not a big fluctuation in call volume I think part of that is during the slower times police officers get to be more proactive and that's why those calls even out So f y 20 goals and priorities As I alluded to earlier and we're going to integrate the tri-city de-escalation training between brawnington south brawnington and winewski We hope that is going to lead to A substantial amount of block training together to help control costs But to also train together so that if we're responding to something together that we're talking the same language And we've had the same training We'd like to continue to utilize and also expand the community outreach team one of the line items that you'll see increase this year is there's been Major support from all of the city and town managers to possibly add a fifth Member to that team to help Possibly have us grow and accept other communities into the program, but to also have better coverage Possibly later into the day and weekends for the existing program We're going to actually drill down into the three-year strategic plan and start Assigning and implementing All of the great ideas that we came up with and actually start doing the work So that'll be exciting to be able to track We're going to continue to move toward exploring consolidated dispatch. I say countywide the majority of Our neighbors have decided to continue with the project. So that's a pretty a pretty big lift and The city and town managers have done a great job keeping that moving forward We're going to continue the participation in the brawnington opioid project and again Try and host several community outreach events throughout the year Now what you're going to see with the budget And because a few of you are new to this I think just because of the size of the budget I feel that I should explain some of those condensed line items to maybe get out ahead of some of your questions, which If it gets to be monotonous or It's too much information by all means just be like if I've had enough We'll start with salaries Obviously that includes full-time part-time overtime and holidays for employees And we recently signed a new bargaining agreement with the police union that covers fy 19 through 21 And that was on the heels of a signing an expired contract So it was a pretty difficult process and Jesse did a great job bringing it across the finish line because it's never a great business to negotiate two years back to back It's just hard for everybody So it was a big win for us to be able to get a little bit of relief and have a two and a half year break before We're at the table again The benefits line item includes things all job related health insurance dental life disability the retirement workers comp Equipment that officers need to do their job gym memberships. It's our training line item And unemployment if that you know comes into play Office and general supplies includes Basically everything we need to function as you know for administrative tasks or copy or lease Telephones cell phones. It also includes our community outreach and awards line item printing in general office supplies Specialty supplies is limited to ammo taser supplies and the maintenance and parts to keep all of those things working Utilities is just gasoline for the for the cruisers and that's remained steady Uh, we don't have anything under buildings Contract and professional services Some things that happened this year to increase that Obviously we're trying to build out the community outreach team. So I think that was a $4,340 increase that we're looking for for that Lucky puppies who houses all of the dogs and sometimes cats that we pick up Um that also doubled in in cost it went from 1800 to 3600 which was completely unexpected It includes our animal control officers stipend The contract that covers the humane society all translation services And the one thing I wanted to mention with this and when you see our current uses for translation services Is it's worked so well that we have kind of become the go-to in the county Nobody else feels that they really need it enough to have their own account But they really like the service that we can provide. So I've made that available to Burlington, South Burlington, Colchester and Essex as of right now So you'll see the revenue although we'll overspend this line item by quite a bit a lot of it is Translation money that's going to be coming back as revenue Also includes our val core records management system the vlets, which is everything we need to be able to access NCIC and vehicle information our sieges email, which is criminal justice information system has to be Encrypted and meet certain federal standards in order for us to be able to send secure emails and that comes at a cost The morpher track is our infrared fingerprinting system and that comes with a maintenance plan That's pretty expensive But anything that breaks on that particular piece of equipment tends to be five to ten thousand dollars So you definitely need a maintenance plan to have it Uh internet access to secure shred to get rid of all of our documents and make sure that it's obviously can't be compromised and dues and memberships which includes The insurance for the f.o.p Next line item is vehicles and equipment. That's all other equipment that we purchase in the in the police department That needs to be maintained or purchased vehicle maintenance safety equipment, which is gloves sharps containers anything Criminal evidence, you know collection supplies all of that stuff And any equipment acquisition that doesn't rise to a capital cost level we use that long item for that And are we pleased with the lease? I mean that's This was is this the second year we've had a leased police vehicle Oh, absolutely. So Part of that is that that doesn't actually come out. That was a capital purchase But it's worked out well because what we found before we had those administrative car leases is we were spending almost as much money Just to keep old vehicles on the road as we were to probably pay half of these And now you know now we have nice new vehicles and other than routine maintenance and oil changes We don't have to deal with that anymore. So it was a great investment to get that. That's lowered some of that Well, yeah, okay, absolutely And then the miscellaneous line item is for Margaret Bass's position It's the restorative justice panel manager where we do the in-kind To the state grant, okay Any questions on that I think for the sake of the public to mention how many staff are included in the salaries for Why it's so significant. Sure. You have 16 full-time officers Um, the three part-time officers and then you have four full-time dispatchers and four part-time dispatchers It's a lot of folks it is I think it's also important to just for comparison's sake And this is in the beginning of the budget book for people at home who are interested While this is the biggest general fund budget When you look at the public works budget across funds so general fund waterfront and wastewater fund That's actually the biggest salaries budget in the city The other part I always like to throw in there to just remind people's You know, we have staff here 24 hours a day seven days a week 365 days a year You need people, you know and money to do that. So it's a pretty big investment I add too that you have managed through Significant illnesses and other Right limitations on the physical capacity that you had even if somebody was Right, frankly on the roll, right and rights Balanced out quite a bit. I think at this juncture. I think so I mean, you always hope for going forward that you never deal with, you know, absences and things like that, but absolutely It was a problem in the past and hopefully something that we've gotten by No, we and the chief has managed to hire two really impressive lieutenants We lost two lieutenants last year and have staffed up and it's They're doing a great job One question I did have because it'll come up these guys renegotiate the school piece is The sro is coming the school resource officer is coming out of the general The the general officer batch correct because in the summer they're they're Working in department and you get a right transfer in on the revenue side from the school for so nine months a year We have an officer Full time at the school the school gives us $55,000 towards it's 55, right? 55 towards funding that position for what? Basically boils down to a full-time employee for nine months So you're right. It is a body that for nine months isn't necessarily assigned to patrol or a basic function of the police department Thank you. You're welcome So emerging issues this really this list doesn't really change a whole lot It's kind of the world that we're living in right now mental health responses continue to be a concern and The community outreach team I can tell you I haven't crunched specific numbers But talking to police officers and looking at call logs I know we're spending far less time on follow-up calls with the people in crisis because Quite frankly, they're not in crisis quite as often now that the community outreach team is is looking out after them and doing Follow-up before they reach that point where the police was the last call you could make so It's been a huge amount of time that's been freed up to the patrol division not to have to necessarily not respond But not deal with it from start to finish. We can hand it off to them The opioid epidemic and narcan deployments will continue to do that to save our citizens, you know when we're called upon Uh diverse cultures and complexity of calls for service. We continue to learn and try and get better all the time um, obviously I say we're new to this we're still fairly new to to trying to police different cultures and understand different cultures And be sensitive to all this so we continue to try and improve Each and every day, but we're going to stumble. We're going to make mistakes, but we're going to try and learn from those mistakes and get better Community policing versus reactive policing. Obviously if you just go to a call take the call and then leave It doesn't take nearly as much time as drilling down into community issues and trying to solve neighborhood issues We're really trying to you know include code enforcement other departments when there's Basically life issues that we're trying to solve so just it's a lot more time involved Where officers may have just gone to a noise complaint before Said oh, it's kind of a landlord-tenant issue and and cleared to now trying to Set up mediation through the community justice center or get the neighbors together and try and work out long-term solutions It just takes time staffing levels recruitment training special assignments career development. You've heard this all for me before We're no different than any other department in the city, right? Like we're growing at a pretty exponential rate and staffing can't keep up as much as we would love to right way There's an x you know x amount of money available to pay for staff and we understand that We just want to I keep putting it out there Just for you know thought it's not to put any pressure on anybody staffing levels Is a concern as the city continues to grow Recruitment continues to be an issue throughout the county are all of our surrounding partners are offering anywhere from five to $15,000 sign-on bonuses that quite frankly we haven't we've been very lucky to continue to attract Good candidates. I think part of it is you know the Winooskis are a really exciting place to work and live I like to think that we've created an environment of career development And independent thought where you have a voice from the day you walk in the door and that's you know a good recruiting tool Special assignments were again, you know, we have the DEA assignment At 16 we're running pretty lean So if we put somebody in koozie the chitin unit for special investigations and we put somebody at a domestic violence investigator slot We're already running at a deficit and then if one person leaves retires or gets injured on duty The last thing you want to do is commit to a chitin unit for special investigations Slot only have to pull that person back because now you can't function So we just have to be really Aware that we we're not going to be able to offer outside career development at 16 long term You know, are there ways to get around that? Of course, there's you know, we can do some leadership training possibly, you know In the future I'd like to use some drug asset for future money when we have enough money in there to cover standing up Canine programs possibility where it's it's an assignment that somebody can do but it's not retracting from our road coverage The motorcycle has been a great addition to the community outreach and you know, you were nice enough to sign off on us being able to purchase the motorcycle So it's ours now. We'll be able to continue to do that So there are ways that we can continue To basically be a great place to work and offer some things other than just traditional patrol work We just have to get creative It's the next eligibility for the cops grant because right wrong or indifferent. That's how we historically stepped up some force presence So they did they did offer cops grants last year. I have no idea where that stands this coming year As you may or may not be aware. We're still waiting for jagrants from two years ago So that money never came through it was awarded but never released. So fy 18 and fy 19 programs where that you Approve the money never has been released and that's statewide. It has nothing to do with when you ski. It's throughout the entire state, right? That's an issue to flag, but the I'm sorry. I'm gonna cut you off chief. That's okay. Go ahead But just that could be a potential future opportunity to help build staff It could so one of the things that I When I say presented to Jesse, I mean I ran it by her real quickly because I don't want to make it any more than what it was I don't want to put her on the spot here But as our our part-time numbers dwindled there's a pretty good amount of money for part-time salaries in there And you put that together with a cops grant and it could get us to the tiff money where it may It may be something that we could work in a 17th officer at no immediate Um cost to the taxpayer, but has to be a much bigger conversation not just here, right? And so and for folks who haven't followed that previously approved one cops grant basically helps us Cover the salary for over a three-year period where then we have to keep the position for at least three years after one Is it one retention years long yet? But you're basically Staging in a new officer. So it allows you to build capacity. It's Not a total shock to the tax base too. It's a great program We've really wouldn't be at 16 today without those programs. I was hired on a cop's grant Obviously regional dispatch is a huge project and it's a great idea You know, we are Continuing to move forward on that but there's still so many unknowns and and we cross each turtle and Make that one extra checkbox and we're getting a little bit closer and Um, the firm that was awarded the contract to actually kind of do the work to talk to all the departments and find out what the needs are and Really drill down into what it's going to take to basically stand this up I say in the next 18 to 24 months The timetable could change as well because they're doing the work right now. So That's going to continue to move forward and as long as it makes sense for the police department in the city Financially and both, you know for career development and things like that We're going to continue to push forward on that With that becomes a pretty substantial problem downstairs with admin support because we don't have any other than our dispatch staff We've talked about leveraging the clerk's office every time that they have to kind of Get us to a point where we can really understand how much of a Strain that's going to be on the police department if that moves and what we can offset with the clerk's office And can we get by with a part time? I don't know, you know, it's it's we're going to have to take it step by step And really start to drill down into what we need So physical upgrades of the police department again, this is no, you know new information for anybody We have a little over 2,300 square feet downstairs. A lot of it is unusable wide hallways and the footprint just isn't great It's not really A respectful space for people that come to visit or need our facilities Um, we currently have a holding cell that doesn't have any bathrooms facilities Which means we have to have officers uncuff people let them use the bag It's unnecessarily putting a lot of people at risk of making a split bad decisions, you know split second bad decision that could You know cause us some problems We don't have a respectful space for victims or witnesses right now When we bring people in they're literally separated by a brick wall where the person that was arrested Can hear us interviewing and asking them to give us statements and apply for restraining orders and We're working on some solutions to try and make that better. But again, you know, we're we have 2,300 You know square feet. We have a locker room or 16 While 15 Sean is the only one that's kind of like living large right now because she's our one female officer in the same size room Is 16 Or 18 male officers Yeah So she's she's enjoying that but you know locker rooms are really small There's no shower facilities if you end up getting covered with pepper spray or some other fluid that you don't really want to have on you Yeah, it just comes with a lot of challenges So and again, just sorry, but excuse me for that conversation. That's something we explored thoroughly about potentially You know, it was part of the conversation about the o'brien community senator from a future perspective and potential investment But certainly adding more staff and not thinking about space strategically would be a huge mistake and one of those things that I know I sure regret we haven't figured out but There's a lot of big projects on the horizon and I only say it just so it doesn't get completely lost in the mix of of conversations So, you know in short just soft spaces respectful to community members that that need our services And you know, there's going to be an officer safety piece now too because our dispatch is our lifeline right now As the police department is currently configured if if an officer was either overpowered or knocked unconscious Somebody would have a free reign of the entire building And if there's no dispatcher there to call anybody for help You know, it's just it's just not a good scenario. So we're working on solutions. I'm not overly concerned that we won't get this all in place In plenty of time and we will address all of it, but We may be coming to you for some For some money to try and fix some of these issues And then I'm free to ask or answer any questions that you have I definitely hear your need there. I mean, I can't imagine We're taking over crime and needing to sit On the side of a wall where the perpetrator of that crime can yell across and intimidate them And to you know, our officers should be in a place where they feel as safe as possible, right? This I think too from a philosophical standpoint, there'll be more pressure as we talk about development, right? And I've been a big champion to say, hey, if we If we grew tax-based through development, you need to think about how we use that to again increase the opportunity for the city to have development growth and And be respectful of the tax-based needs You know, some of this some of that also is going to have to acknowledge that that growth also Puts a strain on existing resources And as you look at exciting things like a concert venue And things like that And great festivals and things like that. It's a constant strain That vibrancy comes with a cost to us in terms of the needed service provision so that's This is an economic development tool quite frankly of people feeling safe And us not having any huge mishaps because of the professionalism and a properly staffed department properly trained to support department You know, our our just as important as as the other factors of that growth So that's something I think will be a real challenge for people to benchmark in the future of We've got to do some of this growth opportunity to also Take care of the departments that are getting More demand because of that growth One last thing I just wanted to touch on I didn't really talk about revenues in here One thing that we came up with that leadership table that the police department is going to add This next budget year if the budget is passed is we're going to offer employment fingerprint services and It's for two things right now I'm hearing people have to wait upwards of two months to get the fingerprints for employment and that's not okay Um, and the other thing is we're hoping, you know, I think If we do eight sets of fingerprints a month or a week That should equal out to $10,000 of revenue So it'll help offset some ongoing costs for the police department and offer a service to our You know residents or employers or whoever needs the service It's great So you mentioned recruitment the challenge Have you considered anything like what she probably shared about bringing young people exposing to the You know profession and planning that see we have I didn't touch on this in the powerpoint presentation I don't have all the details yet, but our school resource officer Is putting together It's going to be from what I understand a combination police and fire Academy class It's a week long at the school over the summer this year To try and start to drum up some interest in both police and fire services And I think we could turn it into a little csi camp. We'll make it really cool and and regardless of Um, how many people come I think they'll have a good time So we're trying to do things like that Thank you very much chief Hey, how are you guys So kind of an in stark contrast to the police department, uh, the community justice center is very small Budget's very small. However, we do a lot of Good work and our case numbers show that So my name's Eli free. I'm the director and I have a a staff of Margaret Bass. She's my panel manager I have a ranch coordinator and then I have a victim advocate So for FY 18, uh, we continue to be a a center that welcomed, uh, Ex-offenders coming into Winnowski From incarceration back into our community Uh, we started the first inch in county, uh, a new, um, branch of program called welcoming circles Which, uh, encouraged, um Ex-offenders typically from the dismissals and pro-social engaged Volunteers from the community to interact in a way that, um Neither of them probably have before together. Uh, so it was different activities food games, uh, and just being very genuine. It was it was almost like a A non-programming program basically Um, we Continue to run offender focused programs Cosa with which you guys know, which is high risk. I need offenders and our panel program Which is for youth and low-level offenders. So this program was aimed at the mid-level if you will Of offenders who haven't burned all the bridges who haven't Burned all family ties things about nature to try and really get them engaged In Winnowski with people who they might not normally have met before Um, we we continue to be housed in city hall actually right right there We continue to we continue to reap the benefits of the you know leadership team with jesse and rick and john and right I can't uh, say how strongly uh, or loudly enough that that benefits us Whereas with other cjcs in the state. That's just not the case So i'm i'm very proud of that um In fyi 18. We hosted a safe space. We we brought in Trainers from the lgbtq ia plus community for staff and volunteers of the cjc Of the police and of um, you know other city staff to help us understand That diverse community, um, you know when we interact with them Unfortunately, sometimes when we interact with them they're their victims of different levels of offenses So that was very helpful to us Um, michelle a former staff person which on alex, um, you know alluded to earlier today Help to increase our diversity within our panel process with regards to volunteers Diversity of ethnicity and gender and age. So that was very that was very needed We also hosted other trainings. Um trauma informed trainings You know culture culture sensitivity trainings and you know things of that nature to Increase awareness and part of education In these various areas I don't have phantagraphs, but I have some data So, uh, as you can see In fyi 18. We had over 200 total cases. They were broken down. We had panel low level cases. We had about 50 criminal direct cases 161 which which are Cases brought to us from police We had rick cases 12 which is which are rapid intervention cases coming from court I did 13 civil mediation cases again coming from officers typically This is In the area of neighbor to neighbor disputes Um, and so that that translated into our panel volunteers hours 56 Then our victims Identified in those cases and contacted 76 Um, we did five COSAs, which is above board for our for our deliverables and we serviced 31 Rancher clients and our COSA Volunteer hours came up to 490 We did seven trainings and we did three community forums. You like can you do two sentences on what coast? Sorry. Yes, uh coast is um circles of support and and accountability It's geared like I said to and towards high-risk. I need offenders Coming out of facility. Um, it's an intensive program It's a year long the The X offender is called a a core member And they're wrapped around with three to four trained volunteers who who go through statewide COSA training as well as specific trainings based on the X offenders Crimes so if we're working with a sex offender then the volunteers go to A sex offender training And they learn about what that term means what you know, what the gradation is of that? and tries to Not minimize the risk but debunk some of the myths and then also Give them give the volunteers some tools as to what to look out for but through regards to manipulation or verbiage or You know risk areas Thanks. You're welcome So f y 19 At the beginning f y Or excuse me at the end of f y 18. We had Camille Coosman who was my grantry coordinator who left for a full-time position in francona county And we and we had michelle old donald, which was my Volunteer coordinator and victim advocate. She also left for a full-time position at cots So, um, it kind of left me scrambling a little bit not not much but but a little when when hacker staff You know decides to vacate so what I did was I leaned on some of my community partnerships in this case with you know uvm and so I I had a former coastal volunteer In nicky durand who is now a second year Masters level social worker. She'll be finishing in may So I brought her on because she knew the program. She volunteered in it As well as she knew, um, you know, we're sort of justice what what that meant what the philosophies are what the principles are You know, what the mindset is as well as I brought in another intern based on the recommendation of a Chair um within uvm who I respect a great deal and does our cosid data with us So between those two volunteers, I kind of leveraged some of the work that was lost I had I had nicky doing my, um, you know, rendering, you know coordination and postal work And then I had uh, tori do some of my admin Data crunching and volunteer, um, you know recruitment and outreach um, also In f y 19. Um, I was able to I I Was contacted by uh, uh, the Windows key middle school and high school to um Help them understand what you know, restorative justice was what a circle process looks like and how that could be, you know, you Um, you know utilized in a school setting. Um, how that would impact students How that would impact teachers and admin staff? Um, so I did that. Um, I'm proud to say that it uh, it went off like gang busters Um, several of the staff who, uh, you know reached out to me Um, implemented it and now they've instituted an internal mechanism or process with regards to, you know, conflict resolution. So, um, rick was talking about, um, our SRO being contracted nine months out of the year Jason, uh, you know, um, is his name. He's done an awesome job Kind of being the, you know, the link, if you will between, uh leadership at the school and admin staff when You know issues, uh, you know rise So they then circle up and it's what it's called and they handle the, um The incident then and there in the setting in which the offense happened with the people that it happened to and if translators are needed Then they're on staff also. So it's a it's a very, uh, awesome tool What had meant for us selfishly is that there's been a vast reduction of referrals coming from this school to to, you know, to the CJC which I mind because That's how we get funding is through cases. However, I don't mind because that's what we're supposed to be doing is decreasing You know, you know the amount of referrals that we get um So, uh, no, so those are two goat stars coming, you know coming through. You should mention margaret's work up there That's that's correct. That's right. So, um, margaret is our panel manager. She does the youth cases and little little offenses And she's also been working Up at the schools to Just have a seat at the table, you know, help them, you know, when appropriate Kind of navigate some of the, you know, the issues she's She's very versed in, you know, rj. She she comes at it from a specific lens and life experience that We don't have that I don't have And so when she speaks she's heard and It's been it's been giving us some good traction up there Not that we want to encroach on their house, so to speak, but just to be involved and to Understand, you know, those dynamics that are in play is, you know, very important to, you know, to all of us Um, so also, um, in f1 19. We just recently hosted a um, a little aid expungement clinic That was put on by little aid. We just held the space but we also helped with some other logistics But that was a great You know jumping off point for individuals who might have Or not might have did Stumble, you know in their early years, you know in their in their, uh, maybe somewhat foolish late teens early 20s And so This was able to give them kind of like a new lease, you know on life, you know, so to speak So that so that clinic was geared towards, you know, low-level offenses as as, you know, very young adults I've also, um, increased our, you know, collaboration with with the various stakeholders in wanooski Dismiss house like rick was saying The, um, you know wanooski housing authority The, um, the united states attorney's office and the local p&p office. Um, I can't I can't say it enough just Bringing in or helping. I didn't do everything obviously, but just bringing in police and jesse into the dismus house After me going there or nicky going there For quite a number of years if not nicky then some other person in that role Um talking about what we do how we're linked to the police department, but actually seeing an officer in uniform Not to arrest them, but to sit down cook food with them break bread with them talk to them as people Um, it was uh, it's it was amazing. It it is amazing and it's definitely going to continue So i'm definitely proud of that So again some data this is from 71 to the present So if you could see you could see our decrease in panel cases 14 13 from uh police we've had no rick cases as of yet. We've had three Um, you know we're frozen coming from the school. I've done two mediation cases which Then correlates to For panel 13 hours and victims identified and contacted 14 we've we've had Eight rancher clients and we were currently doing three active cosas, which equates to 136 Uh, you know volunteer hours, uh, we've done five trainings already and we've done four community forums already So the goals of f y 20 is is really uh Some of it is just business as usual. It's continuing to meet All the all the deliverables that the department of corrections has before us um remaining committed to Having a you know collaborative mindset with all of the stakeholders and supportive agencies in cheney county, but also in franklin county um Continuing to nurture the next generation of rj practitioners through internships and mentorships Um, and then remaining uh dedicated and spreading the message of rj You know throughout the state and throughout the nation, you know, when at all possible through different uh professional learning You know conferences We're going to continue To be housed in the police in the um, you know city hall continue to reap the benefits of the of the leadership team um, we're continuing to Push, um, you know restorative justice throughout the county and throughout the state like i've said, um I serve on uh the restorative justice, um, you know consortium out of waterberry which takes a Um a macro level view of restorative justice and trying to have vermont become a truly restorative state And what that means what that looks like? What's the obstacles? What's the hurdles things of that nature? um Continuing to host, um, you know many more trainings with you know with regards to you know community outreach Cosa trainings You know anything and everything Um that you know comes our way And then really trying to figure out Why and how to increase our referrals coming from the various uh places that it does p&p court Police things about nature So what this budget includes is It just um, you know allowing us to stay You know currently staffed while hitting all of our deliverables Being able which would then be able to assist as citizens of onuski whether it be Coming out of incarceration or not With the mindset of public safety and community outreach as our focal point So, um as you can see here, um our grants that we were awarded from the department of corrections through the state is 130 The intergovernmental is uh the the money that we get From the police department Um, which translates into 143,000 Out of that money comes mostly it's eaten up mostly by salary of our staff and benefits um Then our office supplies and general funds that's um That's a whole host of things Desks and phones and you know all kinds of things that makes our justice center run um Contracted and professional service could be a whole host of like community Functions, you know outreach services, you know things of that nature I'm not seeing um, it might be maybe it's not blown up, but like, you know, offender services training and traveling things Um, uh training programs including defendants and other defender services I believe is in the context of professional services. Yep And the actually the michelin is on fy 18 Uh, that was the return of work funds. That's right. Yeah So we had to return quite a bit of money Because that was carry forward money from fy 14 that we couldn't no longer carry forward So we had to give I had to write I had to I was one of the signers. I have a quite a big check so yep, and then uh Then the rest of that was for me know michelle's position Can you go back to the revenues live for a minute? So I think it's important to note again in case we have a statewide official in our midst Um, you see the total revenue has gone down over the years We had been using those carry for forward funds as the grant was frozen at the state level And then that was discontinued and we have to give that big amount of money back with a little caveat for money We had already planned on spending right. This is a again not a winewski issue a statewide issue It's a statewide issue. The DOC has the department of corrections has frozen the awards to communities So the increment that that communities are experiencing through natural costs of health insurance rising And talent rising and whatnot is no longer covered by the state and more and more Uh, municipalities are trying to absorb that. Um, I think Eli's done some really creative things to absorb that I think that um, you know, we had a conversation last year with DOC and our continuing to have conversations about What this looks like in chinden county. What we hear from our DOC funders is that Not surprising A lot of the grant funds come to chinden county and there's some pressure from other parts of the Um state to reallocate some of those funds even though the population base is here And the effect and arguably the affected population is skewed here We will continue to do the best we can with the funds that we're very thankful that DOC provides for us But if the statewide end if the statewide priority is You know, welcoming all of our friends and neighbors and treating them well in our communities and being proactive and preventative and not Just uh, I don't know Justice oriented, you know jail oriented. Yep. Yep. This this proportion has to switch a small investment here Saves a lot of money down the road keeping people healthy and in place and in their communities Right. It's it's a simple flood for revenues. Yeah, right. This is going to be correct It's it's it's similar to what you know, john was saying about being more proactive versus reactive, right? Or not being punitive for being more restorative I'm sorry to interrupt your So, um, unfortunately, um, some of the you know issues are what's rippled through, you know, um, all of our presentations. It's uh, well For me, it's it's uh, you know funding streams My sole funding stream is coming from the department of corrections Which as a business model or as any, you know coming just from one Places is, you know problematic if if that, you know drives up So it's up to me specifically to try and find other, you know avenues and revenue streams to offset the diminishing Um amounts that we get even though we are incredibly You know appreciative of of them And then but then, you know similarly its staff size. Um, my staff keep, you know keeps, you know dwindling They're all part time I'm keenly aware of The stresses that the job puts on them that, you know, the different things that I'm asking them to do Um, and then, you know the constant turnover. So while the constant turnover can be seen as a negative Um, I tend to view it as a positive with regards to This gives us an opportunity to, you know Re-evaluate our procedures our policies You know the way we do business Where where it where it is a negative is that I'm constantly in training mode And I can't really hit the ground running, you know, with with all the with all the programs that we run and serve The people that we need to at a very high level because I'm constantly trying to train new people um so, um I was just actually told this um A day or two ago, but that niki will be leaving us after her internship is finished in the summer So I'll be hiring um another, you know, um, you know ranger coordinator So that's uh, you know, that's a that's an issue that I have to tackle Um, and while we do, um, identify and contact and make every effort to Bring in victims, um At the panel level, um, what we find is that they don't want to engage that the victims don't want to engage That they don't want to participate So that's that's an issue for us to try and figure out You know the housing wise and get them at the table um, then like I had Stated that the that the drastic decrease in referrals Are an issue because if we're not getting referrals of people that need our services Then you know, what are we doing? So then lastly, um, it's our limited office space. Um, like I like I said our office space is right behind us there It's two rooms a perfect example of the limited office space was last monday when you guys had council Sessions going on here. I had two coasters going on one in each room. So I'm I'm keen and aware of Confidentiality and how to you know, I'm hearing different conversations from different volunteers and different core members and things So, um, it's a it's a sticky it's a sticky situation to be in so You know, um Yep Thank you for your work. I mean you're This is like when we take those buzzwords like criminal justice reform Wouldn't you write out of business? Yeah, right, you know, that's that's kind of the point, right? It really is it really is kind of the it's kind of the model, right? So it's the um community outreach team presence. Do you think that's how Um I mean we do we we do have overlap, you know the people that they see sometimes we see the same people Not not quite in the crisis mode as what's the outreach team does. So we do talk, you know, we have been talking more Um, but we haven't really sat down in a real meaningful way to collaborative like hey So how can we each you know mutually benefit? Um, you know, I'm trying to let the police department and outreach team kind of work out their coexistence together And you know how they vibe then I'll kind of add in like hey, we're here to Reduce, you know, somewhat similar things with similar clientele Um, you know, how can we be you know, you know beneficial to I'm just wondering if maybe there's fewer arrests being made that would then find themselves working their way into your work because Folks are getting different types of support. Yeah, I think you know, I think without specific data I think I could absolutely say that like the low-level shoplifting complaints or those types of calls that would normally be sent to the Justice senator to begin with or down because of that Which is Which is good, you know, I mean, you know, I mean No nipping things into budge proactively. It's great But a funding from the department pressure corrections hinges off of That's correct. So it's a double. Yeah, you're right. So it's this weird cycle, you know, you're definitely doing the right thing That we're putting these we did have a talk at the last quarterly meeting about we did I'm putting a lot of pressure on that proactive preventative work is just as important and we can't just tie it to numbers all the time Right, that's correct. It wasn't welcome I think the advantage we have from Again, looking at this from a statewide perspective is I actually think one of the things that's led to the biggest decrease Is the work the school is doing and it really making sure that kids feel connected and important in their community And therefore not two or three later years later having more challenges That is Again incredibly unique in when you ski I can tell you from working in Montpelier. We never got into the schools We couldn't we couldn't even participate in what they were doing So I think I think I would argue that the sales pitch to doc is we have a good model going on right now of how Eli and his team are partnering with The professionals at the school to build knowledge to expand Familiarity with the model and the tools and that we we need to keep Demonstrating that over a couple of years And that's the preventative hook with right because other places in the state are really still struggling with how to Do rj well in schools, right? Right? I mean just yeah We're going to pick up that if we if we lose this type of programming, right? It's going to come back Yes, it will right right, of course it will you know I mean Everyone knows who does this work it when a person feels connected to their community valued heard seen It's it's very hard to hurt their community, right? It's when you become shunned and othered and all that so And it also produces better outcomes in school. That's correct, which which Creates a successful Entry to the community so you don't have to rely on ahs Yes, so we need to make a stronger That's right Thank you, thank you Thank you. How I mean not only is the resource limitation too. I would imagine taxing emotional and I'm so glad for work. So thanks for that too. I know You guys are exposed to some really challenging dynamics and situations Yeah, I imagine that too from a retention standpoint can present a challenge Yeah, but but with the partnerships that we have with the with the departments that that i'm with with rick. I mean, it's just I'm not going to go into it here, but just you know Over the course of a couple of weeks We've had some cases that have been very serious and we've collaborated well We've got out different messages of community safety and public safety and things about nature It's it was pretty beautiful to see it's pretty great because not all communities operate like when you ski so no Other questions comments concerns from council So I just want to back up and say that We've got three city employees here and a fourth Person to all four of you have stepped in the leadership in the last Four years five years or taken on new leadership or adjusted leadership roles in the last four five years and just want to Say that you guys have grown so much and have done an outstanding job with your program areas and the contributions of your department skips the community into the city and I hope that you are Extremely extremely proud and I know that these are numbers who are approving a budget or walking through a budget tonight but Really appreciate the time you took to show the impacts and emerging issues and the thought that goes into doing your Jobs the way that you do them because that's exceptional right and your approach is exceptional You know we can parse numbers about whether a budget line item is too high or whether we're spending a little bit too much here there, but What was consistent throughout this entire presentation material and thread was The incredibly thoughtful approach that you take to doing your work so And to see you guys all have grown in that way in the last You know four or five six years has been really awesome to watch in a real honor. So thank you Thank you. Thanks. Thanks. Thank you I think the professionalism the collaboration the forward thinking The like how do we break down barriers and make this The services that we provide and work for the citizens of this and the residents of this community I think it's a really powerful Really appreciate the leadership that you've brought to the work. Thanks And some of these adjustments in your budgets are great, right? You're thinking and making some Some changes some alterations and some adjustments and I appreciate that too Turn it to the public any questions comments concerns from the public Seeing and hearing none. We appreciate your presentations as always Council members feel free to shoot questions through Jesse on any specific items you need to follow up on If you start to think about numbers afterwards, we'll look at more of the line items and have specific questions Thank you You know didn't all of you stay for John's presentation All right, looking back at tonight's agenda we'll move on to the library grant Let's hope it is thinking for nine o'clock because we all know how that goes after night But yeah, I'm here on Amanda's behalf. I'm glad because she would have had an expensive babysitting bill at this hour, but um You know relatively small grant but pretty exciting one here through the association for rural and small libraries and partnership with online computer library center and the national leadership grant through the institute of museum and library services, so The idea behind this grant is a 15 month process This is the second cohort. So there was 15 that went through last year Pretty exciting looking at small spaces and how to make them more efficient and Effective which I think in our cases. It's fair to say something we need to Continue to work on in that small space It's great future libraries Yep Comments questions concerns from council I just just here's if you have like a specific goal or outcome in mind or if it's just a general Trying to work with that space. Yep. So the the grant itself is as we're seeing more and more with grants You don't go in with a project in mind. There's a lot of community process that goes into it So certainly for us a few things we've talked about from upfront increase in public access computers Looking at the possibility of adding or leveraging some of our outdoor space during the warmer months Anyone who is in the library last summer knows it was crazy in there So starting to sort of literally expand the walls outside during the nicer weather Those are two of the bigger projects that we've talked about But I think we do really want to hear from patrons and the community about some other ideas as well That makes sense. It is for $5,000. I looked at the just looking at this implementation plan piece. There's Some steps there. Yeah, it's it's a big process, but I think $5,000 aside, I think to walk through something like that intentionally can be really beneficial for that Yeah, it'll be cool to hear what the community says back. Yeah, exactly Other questions comments concerns from council Any questions concerns or comments from the public So seeing hearing none I entertain a motion for approval submission of the small libraries create smart spaces grant for $5,000 Second motion by Eric second by Christine for the discussion So you can hear none. All those in favor please say aye. Aye and those opposed She carries Thank you All right, next up is discussion and our approval of interim council appointment for february So I think a fairly quick item Mentioned this briefly that I'd be bringing this idea back This month or this meeting You are going to be down to Three counselors there were three people sitting on the body as of The 28th so we were proposing That we bring back An opportunity or a temporary council appointment I think from a process standpoint, you know Just briefly talking over with the incoming mayor and And jesse We were thinking about making this a public announcement, but obviously some targeted outreach to be done I think it's appropriate to try to get a former counselor who's versed in some of the issues quite frankly And have already reached out to some of those individuals and have gotten expressed interest And people who are not currently sitting on other boards and commissions to take away from that work as much as humanly possible So with that being said, I think we should make a public notice that it's taking place As well We're going to mention that and to say that if folks had interest in having a conversation about that that they could reach out to We're going to use carol. I think it's the flow through on there I just see so we would post that pretty quickly with the intent of bringing somebody back at the next meeting And they aim back at the next meeting and an individual To do a temporary appointment And then you know, we get that person set up to have a couple conversations from just in a pool About kind of big items that are going to be coming through so that they're aware of what's going on and that way you've got somebody To fill that capacity we needed because leaving them just three right makes it complicated conversations and makes it A potentially so we get sick. Yeah You've got a couple big issues. Unfortunately, we have to go through go on Any concerns or comments questions in regards to that? You know what I was thinking is just a very simple front porch form post notification that says So the public is aware if you want to throw your name into consideration for that, we're going to do that very quickly Yeah But consider also Maybe not running for one month, but Two years Pass on this one Yeah Okay, sound okay great then we'll move forward with that plan um I don't think there's nothing there's nothing really presented to approve So I think we can just leave this discussion. You've given direction and we'll we'll proceed down that path and have it done For you next week any questions in terms of the public I have a question. Yes ma'am. Do you really mean next week the 22nd or the 28th? I Oh, we did say the 28th. I apologize. Yes. So I think the intention would be to post it tomorrow Give people about a week to respond and then give you a list of names the friday before the 28th Too much coffee today. Yeah, just want to That's that's right 28th is going to be a light agenda, right? You only have to take I think we're up to 16 votes I'm not kidding. A lot of us. Please get your budget questions in ahead of time. Yes, you had budget Okay, so pardon me. We will bring that back for the 28th at the end of the 28th counts me Any questions if it turns Any questions if it turns from the public Good. So seeing and hearing none We'll close that out and move on to the next next up. We have city manager review. Um, we uh Uh, Certainly, I think um, oh it to jesse. Absolutely and frankly signed up for that process To ensure that she receives an annual review We may have slow rolled this a little bit if the composition of the council is going to be, um, predictable But given that it's not I want to make sure that we hand the council the next council number one in fairness to the Employee and sure that the reviews done on the visiting body that's been part of the work over the last year and then also Hand the next council a review We included in um this in our materials today You know, especially for how interesting we completed a review using these materials last year We all kind of agreed that let's revisit this process and really thoughtfully update it Guess what we didn't really do But in designing this process, we did borrow heavily from Very standardized documentation from the international city managers association In terms of coming up with some review tools and I would say it worked pretty well last year The one thing that we're not promoting or not offering this year is a full 360 from all staff that we are pulling management team To get that feedback And we described in here kind of the way that'll flow and then how we'll compile it and come back So I'll work with Julie to take those Inputs and ensure that they're organized for everybody to be able to sit down and have a thoughtful conversation Can we get the evaluation tool in a word document? Julie's going to send it out in the morning. Yep Yeah, and actually I think she's got like a PDF or something that's filled out Yes, yes Sounds good to everybody any concerns or questions regarding the process Great. Um, this is one I would actually since we're going to do a bunch of work on it And it's pretty formal ask for a vote on Any questions for the public? Any questions of concerns to the city manager? So seeing and hearing none I entertain a motion for approval of the city manager review process Second Any further discussion? Seeing and hearing none. All those in favor please say aye. Aye. And those opposed Motion carries Next complete tonight's regular agenda. I can't motion to adjourn Motion by christine tech about a poll any further discussion? So you can hearing none. All those in favor please say aye. Aye. And those opposed motion carries All right