 This is Bill Doyle and Sophie on program issues, and it's Mayor Watson and congratulations on your win. Oh, thank you. I know we all know you had a win and you're doing very well as the mayor. Well, thank you very much. And speaking of that, a lot's going on in the city of Montpey, so let's start with that. Sure. So we recently completed the goals for the year and our strategic outcomes and we are just so excited to be starting to work on some of this stuff. Let's talk about some of the goals. Okay, so I mean, as has been a goal for many years, we are looking to add more housing to the city. We know that there is a need for housing at all levels from affordable to market rate, and so with the new zoning that recently passed, that seems like that would clear the way for some new and what we feel would be appropriate development for the city. So we're really excited about that. And in addition, I mean, we have a net zero energy goal for the city for the municipality, you know, for the city operations, but as well as for the community as well. So we are continuing to make progress there. That's always something that I'm very interested in. And, you know, we have some other goals as well. We have a newly formed equity or a quality committee, social justice committee, which is going to be looking at some issues around social justice with the city, which I'm really excited that they're going to be taking on. But more generally, we're going to be starting to track more data about the city. So, you know, we can have a really clear picture as to how the city is doing. So, you know, in terms of jobs or population or, you know, percent of vacancy rate for our rental market or those kinds of things. So some population level data that we're going to start to keep track of as a city. And then we're going to be looking at, yeah, what kind of performance indicators can we use with the city as well. So pretty excited about all of that. I could talk about any one of those things for a long time, but those are some new things going on with us. Are you surprised about any of the information that surprised you? Well, I think, I mean, one of the things that I was surprised about this last year, I think it was probably about a year ago our police chief came to us. He was there for another reason. And he happened to mention that crime in the city was down 11 percent, which that's great. That's great news. And I was very interested to see, like, how does that fit in the larger trend? You know, how does that fit? What's the trend doing over time for the city of Montpelier? And how does that compare to Vermont? And how does that compare to Washington County or to the nation? So that's the kind of data that I'm really interested in. What are you looking for in the next 10 years? Oh, goodness, over the next 10 years. Well, I would like us to make substantial progress towards sustainability. I am so passionate about Montpelier being a sustainable community. And so that means that the city needs to make some significant steps towards that, because that's what we have control over. These are our systems. So we really need to be ourselves net zero. So, and I think there's a lot of opportunity there. I mean, one of our priorities this year was prioritizing non-fossil fuel vehicles. So, you know, everything from lawn mowers to police cruisers. You know, we want to look at what are the options for us that don't involve fossil fuels. Or, you know, if we can be incorporating more biodiesel into our fleets, that would be great, too. So there's a lot of options out there. So that's one thing. But then, too, I think, you know, looking at Montpelier as a part of a whole, you know, we are just one piece of Washington County. I think if we want to prevent really sprawl from happening, if we would like, you know, places that are open landscapes now around us to continue to be open landscapes, then we really need to be developing in Montpelier. And so I would like to see the number of housing units increase. I think that also has implications for our population. I think there's this popular myth that Vermont in general is losing its young people. And there was a great podcast from Brave Little State recently that I'd recommend to anybody. Where can we get it? So you can get that. I mean, it's to put out by VPR. And I mean, I think you can subscribe to it as a podcast. Or you can listen to it online. But they go into some of the census data and look at, you know, what the populations are doing. And, yeah, we don't have a lot of the people in their 20s, but the population of people in their 30s and 40s and other age groups are, in fact, increasing. So that I found very encouraging. And I think, you know, I think that I want that to be true for us as well in terms of growing our population and the demographics in all demographics really here. So, and really, I want to communicate that from like not just Vermont, but Montpelier is a place where there is a lot of opportunity. I mean, we have a lot of jobs and it's a great place to live. So we want to get that word out. It certainly is a great place to live. Oh my gosh. It's so great. Well, I like the net zero conversation. And I'm wondering what parts of that you guys have been working on or what part of it is working? Sure. Like does GMTA have buses that are, you know, non-emission? Yeah, so I know they are working on a grant to get some electric buses, which is great. I'm hopeful that that will come through. I know the GMTA is also looking at rejiggering their route. And there's conversation about trying to coordinate with the schools so that it might be convenient for both school kids and, you know, the public to be riding the bus. So we'll see what that looks like. I mean, I think there's a lot of questions around that, but I'm pretty hopeful. I remember when I was a kid, it was like a big no-no that even teachers rode this kid's school bus. Really? Because Tom, the head of the library over here, he was a teacher at U32 when I was there. Oh, really? And I remember him getting on the bus once. Oh, how'd that go? It was, everybody gave him the hairy eyeball. You know what I mean? Really from the kids? I think the bus driver. Oh, from the bus driver. Like it wasn't something that was done. Oh, interesting. And so I'm wondering, you know, to hear you say that is like, yay, we're going to have, you know, public transit or something similar. Sure, right? I mean, legitimate and safe. And safe, right? Like arguably, potentially safer than, you know, current. Well, no, I mean, we have safe busing now, but these buses might include video cameras, which could be useful. And then, you know, just having other adults, you know, on the bus. Not emitting carbon dioxide. Right. Yeah, right. Yeah. So, and it would be right if it's better for the environment. That would be great. So that's one thing. Yeah, go ahead. I was wondering about the wood chip plant. Yes. Is there some data that you guys have got off of that that's been interesting? So I don't know the data off of that, but it's continuing to operate smoothly. We've had no outages of service since it started. It is continuing to save people. It's continuing, excuse me. It's allergy season. Anyway, it's fine. It's continuing to save taxpayers money because per BTU, it's still cheaper than oil. So that's encouraging. So people are continuing to save. That's great. You know, I would love to see that expanded to other buildings downtown, but, you know, there's other great technologies and we'll, you know, we want to see any kind of renewable options moving forward. So I guess I'm really speaking now about heat pumps. They're also great. So on the French block, are they using heat pumps? Yeah. Well, I don't know about the French block. I know on Taylor street, they're going to be using heat pumps. Yeah. Interesting. Yeah. Yeah. So heat pumps, I could talk about heat pumps for a long time too as a physics teacher. I mean, I just love that technology. That's so, that's so cool. So do you see it working in the cold climate? I do. Yeah. So I have, I mean, I know this is like talking about myself a little bit, but, but I, so I have a heat pump in my house for space heating. And one for my hot water heater. And the idea is that you're using a little bit of energy, like a fan, basically a pump to move heat from the outside of your house to the inside of your house. So with just a little bit of electricity, you can move way more heat than what you're using. So effectively it's more than 100% efficient. Right. Because, because the heat that you're gaining is way more than the heat, than the, than the, the energy that you were using to move that heat into your house. So it's just, it's very cool. It's a very cool technology. And I mean, could the city give incentive some way for the French block to incorporate those? Well, even beyond the French block, I'm certainly interested in thinking about how the city can be supportive of efficiency, energy efficiency as you know, movements as well as renewable energy, like fuel switches. So that's, I've yet to have those conversations really with the rest of the council and see what, what they all think about this. But I'm very interested in figuring out how to provide those incentives to people who live in town. We have great incentives right now for businesses, you know, tax stabilization, but what are we offering in terms of opportunities for residents? So I'm interested in, in expanding that. So this is a little extended as well, but doesn't Montpelier have two great rivers? Oh my gosh, we do. Well, so if you, if you count the, I think it's like the Blanchard Brook, we have five rivers that. We're counting all five. Counting all five go through Montpelier. So gosh, one of the, one of the goals of the city this year is to increase the number of parks in the city and access to the parks. And we are viewing the rivers as potential park space. And so how are we interfacing with the river? How are we accessing the river? So one of the, one of the places that's a lot of interest right now is right at the bluff of Taylor Street, that, that project. So right where the North Branch meets the Winooski, it's, how do I, it's like opposite the Shaw's on the Taylor Street side. But anyway, there's a little bluff right there. And as we start to develop one Taylor Street over the next couple of years, which has already started by the way, so exciting to see that actually with shovels in the ground. So great. That little bluff right there has been, it's, it's got a lot of potential because it's, it's a beautiful little spot. And we're, there's a whole sort of corner of it there that we're not really going to be doing anything with. You might see it with grass or something, but the idea is that we're going to spend a little bit more time thinking about just that corner and what could be done right there. Like the small hydro turbine to. Oh gosh. Maybe. I mean, that's one possibility, right? So we're going to have a public process. It's been wondering. Yeah. Right. So we'll have a lot of opportunity for the public to have input. We're planning on working with the Vermont River Conservancy to answer some like the Parks Commission and the Conservation Commission to do some thinking about what should happen right there. Avram Pat. Oh, who was that? Avram Pat was the head of Washington Electric Co-op for nine years. Oh, sure. And he's a legislator and he's also really made sure that Washington Electric was all sustainable. Oh, really? Oh, that's so cool. And so that's part of why I love my electric car because it's all renewable energy. It's all renewable. That's so great. I wish that could go all over the state because it's such a like positive reinforcement for me as somebody who contributes to the economy. Sure. You know. Right. And wants to make like the right choices for the environment to know that your electricity is coming from renewable sources. Right. That's a big deal. It's a big deal. Yeah. So I don't know. I feel like how do we incorporate renewable energy into that conversation? That's a great question. And that river. And that river. Well, I know that so Washington Electric has an electric power plant. A pyre, right? A pyre. Right. Yeah. I mean I would love to ever see refurbishment of the lane shop stamp. Yeah. I mean that's... That's a big one. That's a big one. And you know, I don't know what it would take to refurbish it, but you know, there's gotta be some grants out there. Oh, I bet. Right? Probably. I don't know. That's a future conversation I hope. But anyway, so yeah, we're going to be doing a lot of good stuff right there. Well, speaking of rivers, many municipalities don't have any rivers. That's true. Municipalities would crave one river. We've got five. And we've got five. Yeah. The other point is that the city of 8,000 people, I bet they're troubled just the last weekend you had probably 8,000. Oh yeah. Can you explain? People were all... There was so much going on in Montpelier. Yes. Yeah. No, there is so much going on in Montpelier. So we have had just some really exciting events going on. So I mean, I've been going, it feels like I've been going from one groundbreaking to a ribbon cutting just since I started, which is just so exciting to see Montpelier in this place where a lot of projects are coming to fruition. And there's so much going on right now. So between Caledonia Spirits there, building there and I believe it's timber homes, it's building a facility out on Elm Street and then Taylor Street. And we are going to be looking at probably very soon a bond vote about the possibility of a parking garage that would be, I mean it's going to be a public amenity. Like we all know that we need more parking in Montpelier and especially if businesses want to continue to thrive and move to Montpelier. They need places to park. Unfortunately, I know we have mixed feelings about our cars in Montpelier, but they need a place to go right now. So, and I would much rather have it all be condensed into one place rather than, you know, needing to be spread out along the street throughout the city. So if we could, especially if we can open up spaces that would be available to customers that could potentially go to shoppers downtown, that's a good thing. So we're going to be looking at using this parking garage to leverage a hotel downtown, which I think is going to be a great addition. I think it's going to bring more conferences and more people to downtown as well. And then, you know, thinking about the, just the next steps for that, right? Like so we need to have this bond vote, which is very likely to be in November. So we're going to have lots of information about that coming up in the papers. So I want to make sure that people are informed about that. But there's another thing too. Sorry, this is a little bit tangential, but I'm just thinking about things that are going to be on that ballot in November. So one possibility is that either in November or in March, we may be taking up a charter change well, we'll see. We'll see which one it goes on, I'm not sure. But it might be on the November charter, I'm sorry, the November ballot, which is around plastic bags. So have you heard of this deal with plastic bags? No, okay. So you might have heard that there are many communities around the country that have banned plastic bags or they tax plastic bags or they have a fee per bag or something like that. And I think we would like to explore doing something like that. If we can be incentivizing people to be bringing bags and not using single-use plastic, that is all the better, right? Because that effectively does not decompose in landfills or anywhere else, which is, that's a huge problem worldwide. So I know that the problem of plastics is daunting, but any steps that we can be taking I think is a good thing. So in order for us to do that though, to either think about a ban or some kind of a fee, either way, so we need to amend our charter in order to be able to do that. And so the language that we're going to be looking at pretty soon addresses, would allow us to have an ordinance about plastic bags, but it's also pretty broad. It also has to do with sustainability and energy efficiency and renewable energy. So we thought there might be a lot there that we could imagine having ordinances about. Even in terms of thinking about our zoning, if we have a minimum building energy code, what is that sitting on? If we don't have jurisdiction to have ordinances or zoning about energy, then this is in a certain sense covering our butts, as they say, to make sure that it's supported by our charter language. There's other things too. I mean, we're talking about compost and anyway, lots of other stuff, but so anyway, that's going to be coming up pretty soon. Now we're trying to change the scope before the legislature. We do, yeah. So that language will need to pass the council and the public, and then it'll go to the legislature for approval as well. And we'll see. I mean, I don't know if they'll go for it, but I hope so. I think the legislature generally is supportive of municipalities that don't have a jurisdiction. Yes. They certainly have been. So you had so many people in the last four or five days and a bunch of people say to you about the city. Their perceptions of the city have never been here before. Yes. So I have heard from people that they are just amazed at the city of Montpelier. They're like, how did you keep Montpelier so beautiful and with all these historic architectural buildings intact? And I think we really have had great, I think we've had some really good processes around our design review committee and the development review board. And it really is a special place. I was just the other day hearing from someone from the historic preservation committee who says that people come to Montpelier and they are just, who understand historic preservation and they are just so jealous of our architecture, of what we have here. I mean, we really have preserved buildings in such a beautiful way. And so much of our downtown are historic buildings. And I think that's really important. And from an energy perspective, I mean, that's a lot of embodied energy that those buildings represent. So I'm just so, gosh, I feel so lucky to be the mayor of such a wonderful place. And the New England states will be visiting Montpelier in a few weeks. Let's talk a little bit about that. Yeah, so Montpelier just was, I guess I'm not sure what the right word is, awarded, designated as going to be the location for an upcoming, basically, like a creative economies conference that's going to be in 2019. So I believe it's the New England foundation of the arts, sponsors this conference. That's the Creative Communities Exchange and as I hear, it's a pretty big conference. And so a lot of creative folks in that world are going to be coming to Montpelier and so much thanks to the Center for Arts and Learning and the T.W. Wood Gallery and the Humanities Council and the Vermont College of Fine Arts. And gosh, I'm not going to be able to list all of the people that helped make that happen, but it's just so exciting to have such a big conference coming here next year. And I know soon we're going to be taking up the conversation about the master plan for arts for the city. So that's going to be an upcoming dialogue. One of the joys of serving in the legislature was being part of the committee. We find out what's going on in other cities and learning from other cities and towns. And so that would be really remarkable. Yes, absolutely. It's so helpful to have connections across municipalities, even in other states, just to know this is how other people are solving the problems that are common to cities. Most cities are dealing with the same kinds of problems, you know, opiates, lack of housing or lack of affordable housing. Is the Council of State Governments part of that conglomerate? That's bringing that conference? I don't know, I don't think so, but I could be there. I've been in touch with them and that was a joy to be part of that committee. Oh, that's so wonderful. I'll be talking to them before they come. Oh, that's great. I'll give them the briefing. That's excellent. Any other questions? Well, I'm wondering if she has another question right here that we should ask. I was a strong mayor. A political scientist did divide cities in strong mayor and weak mayor. Yes, sure. Take us through that terminology. Yeah, sure. Montpelier has a weak mayor form of government, doesn't it necessarily bad? No, it's not necessarily bad. It's just a different, it's just a kind of setup for the way things work. So, in a strong mayor form of government, it's the mayor who has a full-time job with the city and they are making decisions about initiatives and they have the ability to hire and fire staff and they're managing the day-to-day operations of the city. So, like example, Burlington and Rutland, Brattleboro? I don't think Brattleboro has a strong mayor form of government, but Rutland and Burlington both. So it's population-based? Well, as I hear, having a larger population does lend itself more easily to having a strong mayor form of government. And there are only eight official cities in Vermont and so two out of the eight have strong mayor systems and the others have weak mayor systems or council manager kind of systems. So the, or maybe that's different. Anyway, I shouldn't confuse those things. So, for Montpelier, we have a city manager who is the person who is hiring and firing, evaluating city staff, and then he's running the day-to-day operations of the city. And that's Mr. Odom. Oh, no, that is Bill Frazier. Oh, Mr. Frazier. Yeah. And then the council, including the mayor, has one employee and that is the city manager. So we manage the city manager. And so, otherwise, the council is a policy-making body. And so we might be setting the vision, the direction, the policies for the city, and then it's up to the city manager and the city staff to carry that out. To implement. Yeah, to implement. But with a strong mayor form of government, it's that mayor who is more vision-setting for the city. So as we are right now, I mean, as the mayor of Montpelier, it means that I am the more or less the facilitator of the council. So I run council meetings. But then I think in our charter, it also says something about being a figurehead for the city. That's a safe figurehead, doesn't it? I think it might, actually. We'll have to work on that. Yeah, right. So that's the last thing you want to be called. Oh, I know, right? Well, and like, I get it. You know, I'm happy to, you know, talk to the press and to represent. Like, it's fine. And it's fun, even. But it also means that I have another job. So whereas like the mayor of Rutland or of Burlington, you know, that's their full-time, their focus. Yeah, their full-time job. For the mayors in the other cities who are weak mayors, we have other jobs. Right, so. That's been a great interview. Is there anything you'd like to add that you'd like before we close the program? Gosh, well, I just want to... Well, actually, we just had a primary yesterday and we had such great turnout for that. And that was the first time I'd ever had to wait in line to vote. And I'm just so, I'm just so proud of us for getting out to vote. And I hope that people will also turn out in November to continue to do their civic duty to our vote. You're attacking me on the shoulder? I was saying, well, thanks for the primary opportunity, Bill. Yeah. Wasn't that something you had something to do with? Right, well, the whole legislature had to vote on it, but it did increase the participation of people in the process. Oh, good. Wow. What year was that, Bill? Do you remember? I'd say 15 years ago. No, I think it was longer than that, wasn't it? It was when you first became active? Let's make it 20 years. Yeah, we'll say 20, but Bill helped implement that Vermonters could participate in the primaries. Before he introduced that Bill, Vermonters were not allowed to participate in primaries. You had to take your party before you voted. Oh, wow, yeah, no. Yeah, we handed people three ballots and they could choose privately which one they wanted to use. That was you. Thank you so much. Well, a lot of other communities have the open primary, and I think it allows people more participation. No, I agree. I agree. That's great. It's been wonderful visiting with you. Any final comment? Well, I want to commend Anne on her real dedication to Montpelier. It's a small, quirky community, and it has a lot of energy flowing through it all the time and ideas and people, and it's a big responsibility. And I commend you on taking it on. Well, thank you. And trying to be as progressive as this community tries to be. That's really great. Yeah, for sure. You can be very proud of being the mayor of this city. Yes, I sure am. I'm so grateful. You get the final comment. Oh, gosh. Well, I'll just thank you for having me. It's always just such a delight to come here and talk with you. Thank you for coming. Thank you for the great job that you're doing. Thank you. I appreciate that. Yay. Yay.