 I'd like to thank everybody for coming out to the Ward 4 and 7 MPA meeting. I'd first like to thank the People's Kitchen for providing the wonderful, nutritious food for us this evening. Thank you so much. Really wonderful. Oh, it's for online. It's a bit of a hybrid system here. Today we'll, as you all know, we'll have a presentation on the MPAs. We'll have city councilors discuss the need for community involvement. We'll get some interest here and people who are interested in joining the steering committee. As you know, we have some vacancies and we're looking to restart the Ward 4 and 7 MPA. As we are operating without a committee at this point, there'll be no need to adopt the agenda. What I'd like to do is have everyone in the house and provide your name, pronouns, your street, your ward. And I'll start with myself. My name is Scott Rogers. I'm a community development director with CEDO. And there's some microphones through the audience if you'd like to start handing those around. A community economic development office for the City of Burlington. Hi, I'm Christopher Aaron Felker. I'm a resident of Ward 3. Bill O'Chin, Ward 7. Sorry. Someone else could go first. Okay, no. Keep that one. Are you okay? Yeah. I'm Colin Larson. He, him. I live in Ward 7. Colin Larson. I'm Joanne Hunt. I'm in Ward 4. I'm Todd DeLuca. I'm in Ward 4. Thank you. I'm Evan Quinn. And I live in Ward 7. Abby Duke. She, her pronouns, I live in Ward 7. I'm Olivia Taylor. I live on Ethan Allen Parkway, Ward 7. I use she, her pronouns. Jake Schumann. I use any and all pronouns. I live in Ward 1. But I used to live in Ward 7. Yeah. Jennifer Mujindo. She, her pronouns. They're leaving Ward 7. Kevin Hurley. And I don't use pronouns because they're silly, fake and ridiculous. And what ward are you in? Ward 3. Donna Hayes. And I'm in Ward 7. Sarah Carpenter. She, her pronouns. I'm the city counselor from Ward 4. And I live on Lakewood Parkway. Monica Ivancic. Ward 7. I live in the Village Green neighborhood across the hill from here. And I'm school commissioner for Ward 7. Hi. I'm Kieran Turner. I'm in Ward 4 on Leonard Street. Hi, Joanne. And I use she, her pronouns. Lee Terhune. I live on Appletree Point Lane. Ward 4. She, her pronouns. Susan Ogden. I live on Appletree Point Lane. She, her pronouns. Ward 4. I'm Hank Prensky. I also live on Appletree Point Lane. I live on Appletree Point Lane. And I live on Appletree Point Lane. I live on Appletree Point Lane. I'm in ward 4, and at the point of the difference between that and Appletree Point Road. In the swamp. Thank you. I'm Fosca. I actually live in Ward 2. But I'm the new NPA public encadement coordinator with CEDO. So, I'll be here every month. All right. seven city councilor, he came for another nine people. I'm Dan Keshergaard, I live in Ward 4, and I'm here to begin from now. All right, well thank you everybody, and welcome today. The next part of the agenda, we'll be discussing the need for community involvement. And we do have several city councilors in here, so I welcome them to grab a mic. Don't feel you have to use the full 30 minutes, that's probably a bit long. But I welcome to encourage your constituents to serve in the NPA. I don't think any of us have anything planned. But we're here to try to reorganize this NPA, and I guess share why we as councilors think it's important. And I do want to start off by thanking Fareed and the people's kitchen for supplying us with dinner tonight. I think that's always a good way to bring people together. And so maybe one agenda item for the future steering committee is to figure out how we can have food more often. So I'll toss that one out there. And really, I think we all want this just to be a dialogue. We're kind of here with a clean slate. So how do we make the NPA welcoming, useful, interesting? And that's really what we've got to, I think, focus on. For me, as a counselor, and to be honest, prior to my getting elected, I was not that involved with the NPA. And I keep asking myself, well, why was that? Probably no particular reason at all other than, at that time I was working full time and it was hard to squeeze it in. But a lot of people are doing that. So somehow I think in this process of brainstorming as we go forward, we need to think about how do we get people involved? How do we get them engaged? What's important to them about NPA? I think we ought to talk about is it too long, too short, too often, right time of day, not the right time of day? I think we should revisit all of those. But I think the key thing for me as a counselor is this is a really good forum to hear what you've got to say. I was just talking with somebody else here who comes often to council meetings and committee meetings. And it's hard as a city counselor to get often meaningful input in some of that process. We try hard. It's always easier on a committee level. Like if you come to a committee about a specific issue, it's a much different forum. But when we're convening as a whole council, we hear a lot. And it doesn't lend for dialogue. It doesn't lend for back and forth. It doesn't allow for the exchange of ideas. And so I think that's sort of missing. To me, the NPA is a place that we can have all of that. We can have some back and forth. We can take a little bit longer per person to talk about an issue that we can't do very well, clearly at the city council level. And even at the committee level, depending on the topic of the day, it's hard. I think the NPA is, for me, the right place to sort of delve into some issues. And maybe we should look at the agenda. Maybe we spend too much time on updates, and then we'd be better served delving into an issue. But I think all of that should just be on the table. And that's what we want to hear tonight. How do we get back to that? I don't know if the microphone is needed. OK, perfect. And are you OK? OK. Yes, thank you, People's Kitchen, again for this amazing food. And I think whatever we do next, it need to involve more food so that we can eat and be running around. We just came from a meeting. I think this is something we need to add on. From my perspective, the NPAs, why they were created in the first place, it's not serving its purpose anymore. From my perspective, it has become a political machine. And I'm speaking from an elected official of Calo, who been a city council for six years. I have seen firsthand what these NPAs have become. And it was not right. But I have never had the opportunity to speak up. During debates, you see NPA committee members transforming, making you go first, it was not right at all. People, if you can't run for office, this is not politics. This is about bringing the neighbors, dispute their political views, dispute their country of origin, dispute who they are. We're just neighbors. It should be neighborhood-y. So we can come, we can discuss what's happening on my street, on your street, vandalism, those type of things. But not about, this is how I see this issue. And this is what I expect for you to vote. NPAs did not put city councils to office, nor did they put the mayor to office. NPAs should be a different, independent entity, right? Gear toward bringing us together as human, as neighbors, and as people who love the New North End. Whatever we do next, it should be at a level of respect, of acceptance, right? Of a level of collaboration, of getting things done for us, for the people that we represent here. We all love some issues we care about, or the issues we don't care about. But whatever it is we respect to you. Once you walk into that door, you become a doctor. You wear something that's completely white. Your beliefs, you put them on the door. We're just human beings, with minds, with hearts, right? And how do we go from there? One aspect about what I like about the NPAs, though, is the outreach that they've been doing, bringing city department heads to share about what they're working on. Because city councils cannot do it all. We're not machines, right? We only can focus on our committees and the respective department that we work with. Yes, we can provide Zoom. If there are an issue about the police, I am not in the public safety department committee, then I think it would be good for the NPA to do the outreach. The NPA, from my perspective, need to be diversified a little bit. And we tried. People used to come here. They see the, they feel just the atmosphere of the room and they would never come back. A comment that a person of color told me, I will not be coming back here. How would you do this? Because for the love of my community, I show up. Leaders, they do show up. And also we respect people about their gender. I think that's the most basic thing we need to do. She, her, they, them, this is a way that I want to be called. Call me this way. It's okay. It won't hurt you. It won't minimize who you are, right? This is my religion, respect my religion. I don't eat pork, don't bring pork, or at least tell me this has pork, right? So we be a little bit welcoming. I think I brought a resolution when I was very new to the city council in 2018. And it was about bringing money, more money to the NPAs. That resolution did not pass and I encourage anyone to go back to the resolution. It has definite steps about what the NPA can do. In this neighborhood, we have people who are waking up every single day to strengthen our community. We need to recognize them at the end of every single year. We identify who was an amazing person and the NPA to do a token of appreciation for that person in order to encourage others. Not us, not elected officials, but just regular community members. These NPAs need and can bring more food all the time. And if you remember a little bit, there was a group of people, Kenan Christiansen, Karina Driscoll, Constantino, many other people, right? Before the pandemic, the room here was full of people. They cook at their homes, they bring it here, and we all come. Whenever, even Bernie Sanders was like right here, talking to us and eating and everybody. Once the food is gone, nobody will wait for these agenda items, they're gone. They have their reasons, right? But I think finding a way of bringing people and finding a way of keeping them, that's what the NPA could become and should become. And I'm hopeful with the new leadership team of CEDO, we can get there. Thank you. Thanks, I'm gonna agree with what Sarah and Ali both said. First, in terms of it being sort of neighborhood-y, I mean, the first NPA I ever went to was, I think in 2009 when Lee was on the steering committee and we were all sort of organizing around something that the neighborhoods out here were against. It was that disc golf project that was going up in Letty Park and that was my first sort of public, like being sort of awakened civically and wanting to make a difference. I mean, and all these years later now I'm a city counselor and if it hadn't been for that experience, going to the NPAs, sort of meeting my neighbors and engaging on something that was important to all of us that, you know, that may not have happened for me. So I think it is, it's a really, it's a unique sort of entity in that it is neighborhood-y and you can meet with your neighbors and discuss issues that are important to everybody in your neighborhood. But it's also a way like Sarah was saying, the format of council meetings and committee meetings, there's a lot to wade through there if you're a citizen unless you're like a total civic wonk, like I know some people are. But so it's an opportunity for us to bring those city initiatives and projects and things people need to know about to the neighborhoods and do a deeper dive and get all that community feedback. So it plays a really important role. I know there's not a project I can think of or an initiative I can think of that, you know, it's part of the engagement process now. It's like the NPA tours. So we need to have that. So the NPAs play that role. So yeah, I think it's a vital piece and I'm looking forward to sort of get it reconstituted, especially we have elections coming up and the other thing the NPA provides a forum for candidates to be heard and for neighbors to meet candidates, but also to talk about the issues too, which we do at this NPA every time meeting day. So yeah, I think it's really important. You know, will we have them there? Does anyone have any direct questions? All right, well thank you. Our next presentation is one of the NPAs. We'll have Fosca, Martina, and Martina here. So I'm going to give you a follow-up and we'll discuss the discussion during the meeting. Maybe we'll turn, maybe we can turn off the front lights just for this presentation so that we can see it better. Colin, do you, would you be able to hit the light switch closest to the left, please? Would you mind just moving the video a little? Yeah, thank you. Sorry, Colin, I'm just, it's the other switch, the one, the furthest to the left, yeah. That's great, thank you. Okay, I hope most of you can see this. Once again, I'm Fosca, I work for CEDO. My role is to support the NPAs, that is, yeah. So my role is to support the NPAs and so I'm going to present a little bit on what the NPAs are. And I'm going to use some graphics that Christine Tyler Hill, also known as Tender Warrior Co. An artist created these little comics and I think words four and seven have received copies of them at some point. Hopefully we'll get to print some more of them but I'm going to use some of those graphics throughout this presentation. So yeah, we'll just start. So on the website it says NPAs serve as organized democratic forums where neighbors can learn about public issues that affect them and advise the city of their concerns and needs. So where can you make your voice heard? And one answer is the neighborhood planning assemblies. So the NPAs, they're also known in that acronym. They're grassroots neighborhood organizations and Burlington's eight wards. They're currently six different NPAs. Some wards have combined NPAs like wards four and seven and wards two and three. Monthly NPA meetings invite neighbors to gather while learning about local issues and engaging directly with city officials and community groups. So some background on the NPAs and what they do. So in the 1980s Mayor Bernie Sanders created the NPAs to meet resident demands for more transparency from city government and more neighborhood autonomy and decision making. Since then the NPAs have helped connect neighbors, improved communication between residents and city government and given residents a louder voice in city hall. Showing up to your monthly NPA meeting is an act of social and civic engagement. So they were originally created in the context of getting feedback for city proposed development projects but through time they have evolved and many of the NPAs also grew out of existing neighborhood groups. And thus each NPA has a unique and different character and approaches to how they go about discussing things, how they decide to solve problems within their communities. So if you happen to go to any other NPA meetings sometimes you'll find they're very different from each other. I find too just going to them they're so interesting. Also depending on how people are sitting, the kind of space that you have, how big it is that really influences the feel of the meeting and how people engage with each other. So I would really encourage you to go to another NPA meeting and see what it's like and you can always bring feedback back to your community about ways you wanna change things. And then residents who participate in their NPAs are empowered to influence public policy and collaborate with others to make change. Many of your elected officials come to these meetings so it's a great way to tell them things that you care about and here get updates about what's going on. And so what occurs at NPA meeting? So the steering committees, they're elected, the volunteers who plan and host the NPA meetings each month inviting neighbors to gather, to share announcements, discuss local issues during public forum, eat like we did today, connect with elected city and school representatives, hear presentations from city officials, citizen commissioners, local organizations and businesses about what's going on in the city, engaging with city representatives and senators, and also hearing from city and state candidates during pre-election forums. So like the mayor, the election for the mayor, there's in the works, a mayor forum of candidates. So Justice. So we've got some veteran NPA steering committee members in the room. Do you guys wanna comment on anything that's been set up to this point? Like your own, grab a microphone. Do you have something in the agenda for people here this week? Yeah, for sure. Wait. Okay. Cool. Sorry. Yeah, so just to summarize that generally, sharing a meal, some of the NPAs do that, announcements, public forum, discussion, connecting with local elected officials, engaging with state reps and senators, hearing presentations, passing resolutions, and the community development block grant fund allocation, which we'll speak a little bit more about later on today, but each NPA elects representatives to an advisory board that then allocates federal funding to different projects within the community. So in other words, NPAs like a neighborhood town meeting, people have the right to have a say in decisions that impact our lives. When everyone gets to participate in decision making, they will be invested in successful outcome. Burlington's greatest strength is its people's participation in neighborhood assemblies, which led to many of Burlington's greatest achievements. Yeah, so yeah, we wanna empower people through these organizations. And so how did the NPAs actually work? Most NPAs have bylaws, which are guidelines that provide rules for meetings and how decisions are made and recorded. Membership, it's open to all residents of award. You must attend a meeting to officially be a member. And then generally, most NPAs have a rule of being age 14 or older. Steering committees elected by NPA members and are responsible for scheduling meetings, setting agendas, moderating meetings, and ensuring everyone can participate equally. Agendas are drafted and set by the Steering Committee with participation from NPA members. Anyone can request to place an item on the agenda for discussion. And then City of Burlington's Community and Economic Development Office, also known as CEDO, is responsible for supporting the NPAs in various ways. And yeah, now questions and comments. Yeah, Colin. Do we have bylaws in this NPA right now? We do, yes. And they are, you can find them on the City of Burlington's website if you go to the NPAs and click on wards four and seven. There's a link to them. I can also make them accessible in the minutes from today's meeting on Civic Clerk. Thanks. Yeah, Olivia, was that right? Could you tell me more about your role and what that looks like? Yeah, so I am working part-time for CEDO. My role is to support the NPAs with any projects, direct support, like coming to every meeting, running the Zoom, posting agendas and minutes on Civic Clerk. But also I've met with a bunch of Steering Committee members from different NPAs, talking to them about what they care about, building relationships with people and trying to support you all with whatever you want, basically. I have a little bit of limited time every week because I'm only part-time. I'm another job. But yeah, this is what I wanna do and yeah, I'm here to listen to what you have to say. Hey, go ahead if you have a microphone. My name's Monica, she, her pronouns. I appreciate your presentation on the NPA meetings and their intent. I wanted to, today I showed up today because I care about the future of our NPA. I've gone to a lot of the Ward 2-3 NPAs where because I volunteer with the serving of the community dinner there and I've been at a lot of our NPAs here even before I was an elected official and I find the difference between the two NPA meetings are like night and day. I mean, that NPA dinner starts with a community dinner so it has somewhat of an advantage there. I think that dinner's been going for 25, 30 years of really long time. It just seems like everyone there really wants to be together and talk about neighborhood issues. Well our NPA, it feels just like a lot more sterile, not that many people coming. So I would like to make sure that our NPA is diversified that we're inclusive, that we make people feel welcome and that we each go home and invite a neighbor to come and tell them that it's an exciting place or it's a place to connect with other neighbors. And so we should be able to build an NPA where everybody feels welcome. Yeah, thanks. And on that note, if anyone has anything they wanna bring up related to that, any suggestions for how you could make this space more inclusive or welcome more people, have it feel different, we'll welcome that, yeah. Hi Joanne, word for, well I'm one of those people who also got involved in disc golf. Used to come to the NPAs actually and city council pretty regular and then COVID happened and I'm not a good zoomer. And I suspect that's been true for a lot of us. But I wanna be more engaged. My experience somewhat of the NPAs in the past was a little bit what you said was kind of sterile. And I also found often it felt like I appreciate some of it and I wasn't on the committee so I don't really wanna be critical of it. But it felt like you have two minutes to say what we want and then that was it. So it's like there was not really time, like you talked about Sarah, I want time for discussion, like for sharing of ideas and thoughts and not just a presenter and then like five minutes for questions because I think, I suspect most of us all here wanna be more engaged and we certainly need to be more engaged in the community as a whole. But I feel like I agree with you, I know some other people who are in other NPAs and it seems very different. So I agree with trying to bring more people in and I think it's a great idea to like for each of us maybe to go back to our neighborhoods and put it out more, I'm open to other ideas. But for me, I want the whole meeting of it to be more dynamic in a certain way and not to be quite so strict on, it might be a huge issue, but there's like a half an hour and then we're on to the next one and it's like, but wait a minute, we haven't talked about that. So those are some of my thoughts. Thanks. I was just gonna, I think there's a parking lot, but some feedback I've gotten is we try to do almost too much and then that's we went into time constraints. So I just think maybe parking some of these ideas on things, I've heard food and that takes volunteers and then more recently we had a couple of really good panel discussions, one on housing which you could talk 10 hours on, but it only had really an hour and a quarter and so those are the kind of things that I think will be important for the new steering committee to get feedback on. And I think if you're trying to make your NPAs more inclusive, you should usually, it seems that your definition of inclusive is sort of vapid and meaningless where it's all focused on race and gender and not really bringing people in with different ideological points of view. So I think your definition of inclusive, you're very preoccupied and obsessed with inclusivity, but I know a lot of people who don't feel comfortable, who are not in any of the so-called marginalized groups, myself included. That would be a discussion perhaps for the NPA to have as a whole, like I'm not gonna define inclusivity for your NPA, that's up to you. I don't need a response, I'm just offering life. Okay, thanks. Tonight I would just clarify it's not for his NPA, this is for residents of Wards 4 and 7. I was just, what exactly is the relationship between the steering committee and meeting attendees? You know, like what are the steering committee's roles and responsibilities? What powers do they have or don't have? Yeah, so basically they're just volunteers who wanna spend or have extra time to spend on gathering feedback about what people want to see on an agenda for a meeting, putting together an agenda, then facilitating the meeting, meeting minutes, sending those to me. They're generally gonna have more contact with me than other residents, anyone is welcome to email me of course, but they will send me their meeting minutes and agendas. There's awards meetings which happen a few times a year usually and steering committee members usually go to those and speak with other steering committee members from other wards. Generally though, responsibilities are creating the agenda, facilitating meetings, writing minutes. You don't necessarily have power over other people, you're just facilitating the meeting and making, trying to make sure that everyone gets a chance to speak and an equal amount of time. I think that's generally everything and if anyone else has been on the steering committee and has any other input, there's something I forgot. Feel free to jump in. So I just have thoughts about how I think really thinking about how do we make the meeting something people want to come to? Cause I know I have been to NPA meetings off and on for years and every month I think, I should really go, but then I look at the agenda and I'm like, oh, it's gonna take two and a half hours. And then I go home and I eat dinner and I don't come. So, but if we have well food, I think we think about how do we make it more accessible for more people if there's a way to have some childcare, if there's a way to have things that aren't just sitting and looking at people on the screen. So more interaction, small groups, things that allow you to stand up. Yeah, I mean, I think just, and maybe that idea of fun thrown in there. I don't know, I mean, I don't have the answer, but I think if we just think about it, how do we structure it differently to make it be something that people are like, oh, like they're disappointed when they can't come. And I think shorter is a good idea too. So those are my thoughts. And I think to what you said, also some NPAs do organize more community events that aren't necessarily following like this open meeting law structure, which the NPAs do follow. So to some extent, there are some rules about what you can and can't do, but some NPAs also organize social events within the community. I think that's a great way to build community and then have those relationships then to create a space that you all enjoy being in. Hello, I'm Evan Litwin again. And I am a former volunteer of the NPAs during committee during COVID and a little bit after COVID. And I think everything that everybody said, I don't need to be labor. I completely agree with I think the idea that we did too much, or we tried to fit in too many issues back. And we had many legislators and city counselors who really also wanted to make sure that the issues were getting back to their neighborhoods and their constituents. And I think we need to be more mindful of that. The social events have been sort of suspended because of the fears around food sharing and spreading of germs. And I think people are finally starting to come out and be more comfortable socializing and sharing food and being maskless again. So I really hope that whoever joins the steering committee helps us start back up, but they won't be able, just like our city counselors can't do everything. The steering committee won't be able to do everything. And so I think we'll need to step up and volunteer to help organize some of those social events. And so creating subcommittees or recruiting subcommittees I think is something that would be useful. And then one thing that I found while I was on the committee was just, I went to every NPA like you talked about and observed every single NPA on I think two occasions and you're right. It's like visiting different planets in the solar system sometimes. But what I found was folks were all struggling with their bylaws and that there were aspects of their bylaws where folks either weren't able or didn't feel able to enforce their bylaws or just were not in a place, a capacity to update the bylaws. And everybody's bylaws were sort of all over the place especially around like membership and speaking order and whether or not residents from other wards could speak versus not speak. And so I was actively trying to recruit folks into the NPA because we only had five of us at one point when I was on it and often struggling to keep folks on it. So I do think that stepping up is something that we all need to sort of think about so that we can be more inclusive and provide childcare and be a place that draws our neighbors together and has a fun, I love what Abby said, which was making this something you don't wanna miss or you feel bad about missing. So I would like to see, I commend the counselors who voted to pass the ordinance change to make sure that the sort of bylaws can get up to date and that there are processes in place that need to be there. And then what I had heard from folks was that it became just too hard to recruit folks to replace people who were supposed to sort of age off of the NPA based on how long they had been on it. And it wasn't really clear that that was being enforced or that it had any sort of enforcement mechanism to even monitor it, like how long people were on. And this isn't all the NPAs, this isn't just four, seven. Some of them, you have to take a vote every, you can't even stay on it for more than two years and others you can stay on, but you have to be reappointed by the folks in the committee. So I think synthesizing bylaws would be helpful and putting both sort of term limits if that's what an NPA wants, but also just having a way to recruit folks and get folks onto those steering committee on a regular basis is something that I thought we struggled with and I saw many other NPAs struggling with the same, but the long nights, sometimes two and a half or three hours. And the other thing is we've increased participation by creating Zoom and hybrid options, which is relatively new, but it's also had this sort of effect where it's a little easier to stay home and cook your dinner while you're also listening to the NPA and being part of it that way. So it's like you have to weigh those pros and cons and I think we haven't really assessed it. We haven't really put the questionnaire out to the community and said, are you joining NPA through Zoom? Would you come? What would make you wanna come? So I'd like to see whoever steps up for our steering committee undertake some data assessment, I guess, of what our specific neighborhood and community would like to see. So thank you, sorry for the long comments. And yeah, Scott did pull up the Ward 4 and 7 bylaws. They were approved in March, 2008, so definitely a long time ago. But yeah, over the next few months, we're hoping to get groups of volunteers, people together who wanna work on bylaws for all the NPAs. So this will be a discussion, like a continuing discussion. Anyone else? Yeah, do you have a microphone or yeah? Sorry, yes, but before I say anything, I wanted to give a special big up to the youngest attendee, Mr. Jonathan over there. Please give him a round of applause. Thanks for being here, Jonathan, with us. That's beautiful. I mean, I'm looking at Jonathan and I'm thinking, how do we make our NPAs even more welcoming and more accessible? When we talk about being neighborhood-y, what do we have around us, which is the schools? We have a lot of kids, we have a lot of talents. We should invite them from time to time for a talent show. For example, very easy, middle schools. We have to start a little bit early though, but they can come and perform for us. Their parents will come with them too. I think that's that aspect. We're building relationship with the parents. The kids are learning about civic engagement. Another aspect also is about the businesses. Every NPA meeting once a month, we need to ask one business to sponsor it by giving, let's say, 10% for any attendees, 10% discount when you come to my business. So we're building the relationship, supporting the business, supporting each other, and for the business to stay here and strive. For all of us also to taste what else is happening here. I think also our NPAs, from time to time, we need to make sure we move it too. Not only in the same place, we have other places here. Elderlies, they have a couple of places. We should go there if they have a community room and make this NPA for them and about them. We're building community. Let's not tie ourselves into just issues about the city, but how do we build a strong and vibrant neighborhood? But Burlington, New North End, that's what is missing. All NPAs are different. Let's make our NPA unique and different. And from my perspective, we can get there, but let's stick politic over there. Just us, with us and for us. Thank you. Thanks. Can we get you on the steering committee? Yeah, yeah. I will be nominating amazing people. I have served my city very well in so many different capacities. Yeah, but... Well, we gotta have the talent show for him. Okay, just give me Bernie Sanders seat. That's better. Okay, thank you. Anyone else have anything they wanted to say about this? Actually, I can see a few things. So the first thing I wanna say really quickly is about childcare, so somebody brought up childcare. So wards two and three tried that a couple of different times, but the only people that would take advantage of it, so we didn't have childcare for the community dinner. We provided childcare for the meeting, the NPA meeting, and the only people that took advantage of it were people who were coming here to speak. Like if you invited Megan from the water department, she might take advantage of it, or if you had a candidate or something, they might, but the general public didn't really go for it, and so we discontinued it. We sort of have daycare, childcare now but it's during the dinner, so it was provided by the dinner. A second thing is, so somebody just tried to nominate Ali to me on the steering committee, but see, that's exactly what you need to do. So I'm Charlie, I'm from wards two and three, and so what I would do over the years, so I would see something on front porch form or I would see something on Facebook, and somebody would be doing something or has done something or has responded to something in some way that you like, and so what you do is you basically just email them out of the blue and just say, you kind of have to have certain links at your disposal. So you email them and say, you know, that was really interesting what you said on Facebook or front porch form. Do you know what the NPAs are or what they do? If you're interested in possibly participating in your community a little bit, here are some links that will show you what happens at an NPA meeting, you see, and that actually has drawn in like one or two or three people over the years for wards two and three. So that's a really good technique, so don't wait for a crisis where everybody resigns or, okay and the second point about that is when you do get people on your steering committee, what happens to all the NPAs is that you're gonna have, let's say you've got five people on a steering committee, so out here that might mean 10, five for ward four and five for ward seven. Okay, but what ends up happening with all the NPAs in the city is that you'll have one or two people in each ward who will basically be very active and do all the work that needs to be done, not that it's really work per se, but which happens all the time, like for instance, if you've ever been on a jury, you know that when those 12 or more people go into that room, you're gonna have two or three people who are gonna do 90% of the talking in that room and two or three people are never gonna say anything and the same thing happens with NPAs, so you're gonna have one or two people who are very active and the other people are basically just a name on a list, I mean they might go to the general NPA meeting but they're really not that helpful, so be on the lookout for that. But the thing is that what the NPAs need is somehow gradually over time, if everybody just looks for people who they think would make a good steering committee member, get them on board, let's say your steering committee is full, I think it's seven per ward out here in wards four and seven or nine. Okay, let's say you've already got nine in ward four. Okay, you don't stop trying to recruit because you can have 15 people go to the steering committee meeting and have just as much influence into what happens at that steering committee meeting, planning for the next meeting, it's just that they don't actually get technically a vote but they can still go to that meeting, like Lee can go to the next steering committee meeting that they have here even though she may not be a member and can influence what happens at that meeting and they can come to the regular general meeting like you have here and do the same thing. So you can have as many steering committee members as you can fit in the room. So my attitude is I'm constantly trying to recruit for wards two and three and that's why we're stuffed with, well, I shouldn't say that, okay, that's not from me but that helps over time to fill your steering committee when you've got people who are actively trying to do that, looking for good steering committee members. And the second thing is when you do get people on the steering committees, try to encourage them to be active and help to, so the number one thing for people on a steering committee to do, in my opinion, is to keep their focus on the community and figure out what the community needs, okay. That is the best steering committee. They don't have to do anything else. They don't have to come here and set up tables and chairs, they don't have to go and basically say something specific needs to be in the event or something. It's people who watch the community and figure out what the community needs. Those are the best steering committee members. Okay, I'll give you an example that happened right out here in Ward seven this summer. So there were, it was already announced there weren't gonna be any steering committee meetings here during this last summer. However, we had the big flood. So there's no meeting planned. We had the big flood. The city came in. They changed the sewage system in Ward seven. So what happened with the steering committee in Ward seven here? So they saw there was a need and so they actually had a special NPA meeting just to talk about what was happening with that sewer line, okay. That is the NPA meeting of the year. That is the NPA meeting of the decade right there. You had steering committee members who saw there was an actual need for the community to know more about what was happening concerning that sewage line and they did that. That is so wonderful. Okay, that is as opposed to like the other steering committee members in August who basically, or maybe July or September, who basically just wait for the city like some department in the city to request time to get on the agenda. Okay, that's really not the heart of the NPA. It's just waiting for the city to say, well, we'd like to have a discussion about the McNeil plant or something. Like there was a terrible one that happened about a year ago where the BED wanted to talk about changing the ordinances in Burlington about how the largest buildings in the city would have, for heating plants. Okay, no one, no normal human being wants to come to an NPA and have that discussion. But BED was very insistent and kept going back to the NPA. Oh, we really need to do this. Okay, and then the third time they came back and we refused, they said, but the city council directed us to go to the NPA. See, they kept pounding us with this thing that nobody wanted to discuss. And it was a terrible item to have in an NPA meeting and that turns people off. So a good steering committee member resists the city pushing them around. Now, Lee Turhune probably remembers a rebellion that we had about 10 years ago with the NPAs because that's what was happening when Jenny Davis was the coordinator and she was caught in between the city, the mayor's office, putting a lot of pressure on the NPAs to control their agendas. And the NPAs, the steering committee's revolted. Okay, they rebelled against that and said, stop trying to control the NPAs. And what happened is they backed off. Okay, so all the steering committee members stayed even though they were threatening to resign and all that, but they all stayed because they got what they wanted. They got the city to back off, leave our agendas alone. If you want time, request it, don't make demands. Okay, you know, CEDO of course would not say, oh, we weren't demanding. It's like, well, you were pretty darn insistent and Jenny Davis got caught in the middle and she ended up resigning eventually. So these are the things like, so if you want a strong steering committee members, what you need to do is recruit them year round, keep your eye out for good people having those committees, and try to encourage them to be active, not just a name on a list, because a lot of people just want to have a name on a list for various reasons, okay? Anybody want to make a comment to what I just said about anything? Sarah? Well, I think... Do you have a microphone? Charlie, appreciate what you're saying. And I think this is a topic, obviously for the NPA. An observation is, if you go back to Bernie Sanders, in fact, hearing city issues is why they were created originally. Life changes. I'm open to any format, but I think we do have to resolve this issue because the city is accused, if you would, of not soliciting enough input. Go out and talk to people, get input. So what's the best for them? And I'm not saying we resolve this tonight. I just think we gotta get the context of that is why NPAs were created. I think fundamentally, we have too many issues, so it becomes a really awkward forum, because, and that's, I think, particularly out here, we've jam-packed it with the issues of the month because that was, you read our bylaws, that's what it says. I think if we want something different, then we should state that. And I think, and I'm gonna bump this back to CEDO, the reason the pressure becomes is because the city, we'll put the council, is being asked, get input from people. Get input from people. Get input from people. So we're damned if we do and we're damned if we don't. How do you get that input on things that are complicated and are not easy to explain in five minutes? So I think we do need to kind of work that through and decide. And I'm gonna toss back to a message to Brian to talk about, are there other forums that maybe we should do more of maybe issue-focused? Could there be more, I'm just gonna call them all ward NPAs, but meetings to dive in, because it's difficult, you know, and I'll use the decarbonization ordinance. That's tremendously complicated. It was a serious ballot item. It was important to get input on, but it was very technical. And I do totally understand why people zone out on it. But the city didn't provide any forum really than the public hearing, which is even more boring, to event that. So maybe there needs to be a conversation with CEDO that doesn't force every NPA to take up an issue, but certain issues would be better sponsored with sort of more city-wide forums. I mean, I think just tonight, well, it's on 17 actually is a mayor's forum, but all NPAs shouldn't have to do all things. I think it's probably more appropriate for us to talk about things specific to the neighborhood, specific to the neighborhood. And maybe CEDO could do more work on kind of the bigger issues that, you know, and you don't have to have it six times. I think you could have it two times, and people will probably self-select. So that's my advice back to CEDO. Think about some issue-oriented, where you want our input, but outside of the public hearing process is just too awkward, and so. Sarah, I think that's a good point, and because you see the NPA, when I look at the NPA agendas around the city, you can see departments doing their tour, their NPA tour, and that is not very efficient use of their time either. It's terribly not, and usually it's something you want everyone to hear, but the department has don't have to repeat it six times. And I think to be honest, those are meetings that probably do just fine on Zoom too. You know, if CEDO could have, I'm making this up, two Zoom meetings a month on a big topic, then the NPAs wouldn't necessarily have to do that big topic. They could talk about, you know, the potholes at North Avenue or whatever we want to talk about. And they could take some of that information if they wanted to and discuss it at the NPAs on a more kind of local level. Yeah, thank you, Councillor. That's a wonderful idea, and I think something that should be implemented. Obviously, when we have, you know, as you mentioned before about housing, that's a conversation that could take two or three hours and trying to cover five topics at one meeting here. Doesn't work very well. I love the idea of Zoom. We could do a Zoom meeting. We could do a, you know, again with McNeil, I heard that six times after the first two. It became tough. But, you know, that's something where you could, all the NPAs could do one big meeting and discuss something like that rather than taking valuable time from local issues here. And, you know, again, I do encourage people to get involved. What I've seen, you know, I don't have a favorite NPA because they're all different and work, I think, lovely in their own ways. But I think Ward 2 and 3 is a really good example to follow. And their community meal is one of my favorite events. Even if I didn't have to go, if I lived in Burlington, I would go to Ward 2 and 3 just because the community meal is so wonderful. So you see people from all over the world. Not everybody can speak to each other. There's language differences, but everybody gets together over food, shares a smile. Not everyone stays, but they have a lot of people stay for the meetings. And they do things for the kids. So kids are running around playing. They have musicians playing. So I think that's a good Ward 2 emulate going forward. It sounds like years ago, Ward 4 and 7 was operating in that manner. So, you know, a good opportunity for change. We do have a few moments for more questions if anybody or comments. Where's the microphone? There's one thing that hasn't been discussed that I wanted to bring up. And it has to do with the functions of the NPAs. And by the way, that 2008 bylaws was the latest rewrite. And a major peace change in that 2008 was we struck the word citizen and put in resident. And we thought that that was really important to include everybody in the neighborhood. And since then, they've talked about non-citizens voting. So that's how that idea evolved. Another function of the NPAs that's in the bylaws is a source of resolutions. Charlie talked about, or Mark talked about disc golf when we were concerned about Letty Park, the central area of Letty Park, being turned into a disc golf course when a lot of people walked and hiked and played in that area. So we, the NPA passed a resolution which we then sent up with our city counselors to city council. Another time we did that was when a resident noticed a bunch of dirt being piled on the parking lot by the skating arena. And it was a little sign that said it was contaminated and come to find out it had PCBs in it or something and it had some flimsy piece of plastic over it which was ripped and torn and the rain was leaching out the whatever contamination was in it, running it right down to Letty Beach and people came to the NPA and talked about it and we brought the department of environmental conservation in from the state to talk about why a permit was given for this. We acted, we took the initiative on that and we passed a resolution on that which our city counselors then took to city council and it resulted in that pile of contaminated soil being seriously covered and chain link fences around it and great big signs of warning about it and it was removed. So using your NPA to initiate issues that originate in the neighborhoods, that's up to you, that's up to us, the residents here. And if we don't come and if we don't bring those things to the attention of our NPA, then it's gonna just be dead. You can't expect our city counselors to do everything and to have eyes everywhere. Somebody was complaining to me yesterday about how long public forum is at city council meetings and I said to them, those discussions are supposed to take place at NPAs. You're supposed to be able to go to your NPA, say those things, your counselors will then represent you, they'll go to a council meeting and say, at my NPA, people are upset about and they will represent us if we have a meaningful forum to present them with information to take forward for us. Olivia? Hi, I'm Olivia, I, word seven, she, her pronouns. I moved here in November 2019 in the New North End. I went to UVM and have not left since then and Evan actually recruited me originally when I was on the steering committee. Something that I, I really love everything that you said. I've actually helped write some resolutions of my own just for fun and have really had no idea that that was something that NPA did in the past and I think that's such a wonderful thing. The thing I wanted to say was primarily that I would love to see more young people involved. I, now that the child left, I think I'm probably on the lower end of the age group here considering I was in high school when these bylaws were written. And I think I do a lot of pet sitting in the area so I know so many people who are my age and I have my ear to the ground with so many people who do wanna be involved and wanna get to know their neighbors and I've done a lot of walks and impromptu things where I've met a lot of people and I think just kind of sitting here, I wish we were in a circle. And I think that's kind of like my one thing I would really love and I would be more than happy to help with a community dinner if there were more people that wanted to do that and everyone who had these wonderful ideas, Colin, Joan, like I would love to talk to you all more and I really like our little neighborhood and I really appreciate all of you being here and I just wanted to say that I, whatever you all wanna do, I wanna be a part of it. All right, any additional questions or comments? Go ahead. I've been out of the loop, but so I don't really know, so we don't, I don't know what happened to our NPA steering committee. Like a little history, you know, I don't need details but I have no idea, like. There was some resignations, some for personal reasons, others for other reasons. So we haven't had one for how long? In a month, about a month. Oh, gotcha, okay, cause so one thing, an example of that is like I didn't know that. Maybe I should have. I'm not blaming anybody, but I do think communication about just general stuff and I know there's. I think it's about an issue they don't wanna talk about. Well, I agree, I think maybe we could have put out more information about the status of the board. Well, and I know in the New North End there's a Facebook page. I gotta say it's a little challenging for me because I feel like there's a lot of good stuff there but there's a lot of vitriol there. And part of what's really hard for me is that seems to be, well, I don't know because I don't know how many people are actually on it. But I wish it were much more positive and ideas and how we can improve things and not just complaining about everything and I'm not, here I am complaining about that. I don't mean to, but I think that seems like that's one of the ways that information gets out there. And I, we need to change that somehow or figure something out. I think it's a specific suggestion. So I had talked to Paul Scott about putting it out on Front Porch Forum, this reorg. And her response, and I love them here, we don't, we're not allotted to do it. And so Mark, very graciously because he's a district counselor, he has more play with Front Porch when he was able to do one on his account. So that worked fine, but I really wanna suggest to CEDO, even if we have to pay for it, I mean, there is a little NPA budget floating around in the world. But that's a more neutral forum. And most everybody uses it. I mean, we're always stuck on what's the best forum, but we don't own it, we can just announce on it, you can respond to it. And so I was suggesting, again, go back to CEDO and say, can the NPA get free buys a month or pick a number, I don't know what the number is, to use Front Porch Forum more rather than, for instance, having to rely on the counselors to do it, because I think it would get them sick. And we love the Facebook part. Can you just speak? So yeah, I just wanted to, there's a couple of things that I wanted to respond to. And honestly, Sarah, my name is Sarah also. Ward 7, she they pronounce. But I was actually looking on Front Porch Forum to find the Zoom link for this very meeting, and then I was like, well, I can't find it, so I'm just gonna walk myself here. So I'm really glad I did. And I also just wanted to speak to Olivia, being a younger person in the neighborhood and definitely feeling like our perspective is just a necessary part of moving anything forward. I mean, yeah, 2008. We don't even wanna think about how many years ago that was, right? But I also met Ali in the neighborhood over the years, and just seeing familiar faces, and also loving the way that folks are able to just kind of call to people's names and know people who, yeah, we're all living next to. But I think that was just a little commentary, but continuing the conversation, I also wanna continue to be involved in what we got going on here and moving forward in the neighborhood. Thanks. I just wanted to quickly, I'm sorry, thanks Sarah, and thanks Ali for pointing that out because I couldn't see you over there. My day job happens to be communications and marketing, so I know very much about Front Porch Forum and actually how costly it is, and I don't think the NPA budget comes close likely to being able to do what you're talking about, unfortunately, unless there's a serious change at Front Porch Forum and how that works. I know the Howard Center has been able to publish their newsletter on Front Porch Forum across the city, and that is apparently something they've paid quite a bit to be able to do and isn't necessarily granted to everyone. So I think if CEDO would like to sit down and have a conversation with Front Porch Forum's leadership, that might be useful. Additionally, when you have the steering committee, you get the skillsets of that particular group of individuals, and they're the ones who are managing the Facebook page, posting the meetings every month, making sure everything gets into Front Porch Forum, trying to get the agendas out to CEDO on time, and I think that's where things can get missed because again, it's all volunteer trying to do all that marketing of the event, and so I think it is important to have resources and support, and actually it's my understanding that that's why your role was created, was because so many of us where the committees were struggling to sort of do it all. And so I would encourage you to look at those processes, and then really I just have a question, which is about our bylaws. So I'd love to talk a little bit or hear about what is the process for updating our bylaws, and how do we sort of go about that, especially while we don't have a steering committee? So how will that be led? Who has the authority to lead that? How can we be gathered together at this very important time while we have folks so much going on in the city? How do we, what's that process look like? Great question, and so the process is right now, it's in the hands of the city attorney with the Racial Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging Department with some input from CEDA as well, and what they're doing there is creating a base bylaw, the minimum amount of bylaws that you have to have that recognizes and follows the city's policy on inclusion, on pronouns, everything like that. So in this case, for word four and seven, there will be those base bylaws. The next committee, steering committee, will have the opportunity to expand on those. You can't minimize what the city says as a minimum, but you can go through and make it your own. As far as a steering committee, what we're hoping here tonight is to have some people raise their hands and say, we'd like to be on an interim steering committee, so we can get this going back into regular order. We will have a meeting scheduled in January, so we have a lot of time to meet with people individually, get some training, have a couple of meetings. This steering committee will have a lot of say on the bylaws going forward, so you'll have everyone in this room, everyone in this community have an opportunity to put their stamp on the new bylaws, which I think is something that should have been done a long time ago, but I suspect when you see this process ends, we'll have a formal process of updating bylaws like every five years so that we don't, it's not generation after generation. Good points on Frontport's forum, it can be expensive. We're trying to get another account for us as well. One of the things that we're trying to do here as well is work with all the NPAs to find out all their existing Facebook accounts, Instagram accounts, anything they're using on social media, and get that all in one place so we know what everybody is doing to a certain degree. Obviously, as NPAs, you have a lot of power. We don't dictate to you how you reach out to your constituents, but we would like to find a way to ensure that each NPA is reaching out in an appropriate manner and that we can refer people to the resources that they need. With that, if there's not any more questions, I would go ahead. Yeah, so just in terms of communications, like personally, I'm not on Facebook, I'm not on Instagram. I think largely, you know, like those social media, big social media is gonna be probably less productive of a discussion forum overall. These NPAs existed in the pre-social media days, so there's surely like a way to get the word out to people that maybe like doesn't involve the internet potentially. I don't know, have other NPAs like had success in physical communications? A lot of signs, actually. Oh yeah, I've seen those. Yeah, lawn signs have been effective. Sometimes people put in various posters in local business establishments. And again, I would not use social media as a place to engage in discussions because we all know how people are, but it is a good way to just remind people of meeting dates and what's on the topic, what's on the agenda, and really leave it at that because social media has become quite a bit of a swamp as I think as we all know, but I think in getting information out, it can be really powerful. We use at CETO, we use Facebook, Instagram, and we got some emergency information out last year regarding a major thunderstorm that was coming over and we had the city opened up shelters for the homeless population. That post, without any boosting, reached almost 10,000 people. It was shared 90 times. So it is a good way to share information, but yeah, I agree it can be, we don't want to engage in public discourse on social media. And there's always two, there'll be other steering committee members who, that may be their passion, they want to be the social media person to handle that. I'm just wondering, do we have time on the agenda tonight to like huddle as a neighborhood and talk about potentially identifying new steering committee members? That was my hope here. Obviously, if you want to huddle and talk amongst yourselves, I'm looking at our time here. You know, if someone wants to nominate somebody or if somebody already thinks they would like to serve, like to raise their hand, we can go that way as well. So I know Olivia would like to serve. And then your name is Sarah. Sarah would like to serve. You would like to serve. Do we have anybody else who's interested in serving? I don't think I'm interested in rolling. I think I'm interested in rolling. I think I'm interested in nominating. I don't think I'm interested in nominating. And I'll nominate Carmine. We're nominating each other. Lee, would you be willing? Here's it. You know, you were just talking about by-laws as if this group doesn't have by-laws. If you would go back to what you had up there at the very beginning, look at the wording of that. To advise, go back to the beginning where it told the things that NPAs do. I'm just worried that if you start over from scratch to provide advice to the commissions, the boards, the city, to provide advice, to make recommendations to city officials, to provide a forum for information that concerns the members. You see, this is bottom up, not top down. I'm concerned that if CEDO gives the NPAs, oh, here's what your by-laws need to be. She, he, and they pronouns, don't lose that. That's the baby in the bathwater. No, and you'd be able to customize this NPA on however you would like to do it. Yeah, we're not here to dictate to you how you run your data organizations and that's not our role. Our role is to provide support. We're just in a very different situation than we've ever found ourselves in. I know COVID took its toll on the NPAs and steering committee members dwindled from what they had been before that. We've also had redistricting. You know, we're working on the ward 8 NPA because people were redistricted how their NPAs. So this is a different time and what I would encourage people here today is to step up, become an interim member, think about what your by-laws are, you can have a meeting to discuss that with everyone in this room and have that meeting. It doesn't have to be dictated to the board four and seven by even the steering committee. But to get things going again and then we can discuss when we'll have more formal elections again. Go ahead. It sounds disingenuous to me to claim that the city council, CEDO, is not trying to tell the NPAs how to operate when in fact that is exactly what they are intending to do and pushing on us. I think that's disingenuous. Thank you for your comment. And you know, I understand what the city is facing here is, and I'll leave this to legal to discuss more, but the city has legal obligations that in fact it potentially even be sued for certain things. So they're taking a look at these things. I would encourage you and anyone here who is questioning where this process is going to contact your city councilors and bring just what you said here. Well, that's what I was gonna ask because Lee is bringing up a really good point, and maybe Sarah and Mark who are here and Ali, maybe they know more. And I appreciate this gentleman's point as well because he's not wrong. What process do the people have to be able to, all the departments are told, go get feedback from the NPAs. Well, will there be a feedback process for this review that the city attorney's office and CEDAO is working on that's supposed to be the baseline that we have to build from? And I think Lee's concern isn't misplaced in just making sure that those aspects, those very important aspects that stem back for decades beyond 2008 are preserved and that any rights or authorities that the NPAs have are not stripped. And so that there's an opportunity for citizens to weigh in on what that document looks like. I understand there needs to be certain things written into it such as a non-discrimination policy and a process, but it should not be a carte blanche to sort of rewrite everything that is the baseline for every NPA and they cannot sort of divert from that. I understand how that works and hopefully they're doing that in the best of faith. So I just wanted to ask our counselors if there will be an opportunity for people who are concerned to have an impact in that process. I recently spoke to the city attorney about the goal of their work and I understand is to create a baseline. Stepping back, NPAs are a creation of the city council. So we created the NPAs. That makes, this is from my old hat, effectively an instrumentality of the city. You can have any neighborhood group you want and go at it but because this particular one was created by the council many years ago, you're sort of tied to us. That's how we get CEDO help, that's how we get channel 17, the budget, all of that is that. That then makes this instrumentality subject to open meeting law, anti-discrimination, all the legal things. I mean any of you worked in government, you signed 18 pages saying you won't do this, that and the other thing. That comes with an NPA. But I don't think the wording of that comes with what we're trying to do in the baseline. We're trying to create, are you holding open meetings? Are you non-discriminatory? Are you giving proper public notice? So those are the things that I would see in the baseline. Do you want to have meals every month or not? Do you want to move around? Do you want to do just recommendations or would you rather play, you know, pickleball? You know, those are things you can all kind of decide there. If there's a resistance, if you would, to talking heads, I think you can say that. So I am expecting all of that to be quite open. It's these fundamental, you are, we came to be. You will have, I'm sorry, Councilor. All right, I guess, there's a lot to show you. My only, who are you? Is that Deb? If you could speak up, Deb. Hi, everybody. I will look here. I feel that my only contact right now is I would like to see if, there, that's what I wanted to do, is get the document off the screen so I can see everybody, that's all I'm trying to say. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Yeah. Thank you, Deb. And I know it's almost 8.30, but from my perspective, this is a success, right? The fact that CEDAO people showed up and at least three people stepped up as an interim steering committee member, it's a huge success, right? And I was also going to ask if anyone online would like to be nominated and Deb specifically, if you would like to be nominated, as an interim steering committee member. And then can those people stand up and tell us a little about themselves? Themselves, yes. We elect them. Yes, yes. But really thank you. I mean, I think three months ago, we didn't know where we're going, but I think in between, you guys did so much great work, but I really just wanted to stand up and appreciate it. And I also know that you brought all steering committees of all the NPAs to discuss this. I think a lot of background work need to be recognized and just want to say thank you. Keep up the good work. Are we in nominations right now? We are, people may know. I would like to nominate Colin Marson. All right. Second in the nomination. You volunteered already? All right, I volunteered. Well, he needed to be nominated. Oh, yeah. There you go. I thought he nominated Hank. Second. Second. He's like his own. We have Alan and Hank. I would like to nominate Sarah. You have Sarah nominated. We have Olivia who's been nominated already earlier. There we go. Olivia's officially nominated. And you have the purple jacket. I apologize. I forgot your name. Carmen, I thought you'd shown an interest as well, potentially. In Monica. Second, second. Second in second. Do we have any other people interested in serving? This sounds good. I also nominate Joanne. I'll do Interim. Interim, perfect. OK. Let's start up with you, just to give your. So hi. My name's Colin. Hi. I moved here a year ago from the DC area where I'm from. I went to Middlebury College undergrad, so I'm not totally foreign to Vermont. What do I care about? I care a lot about housing. I care a lot about transportation. And I care a lot about community building. And I don't know. My day job is I'm a podcast producer. And so I think it would be fun to try this out. I've never done it before. If you give me a little bit of trust, I'll give it a shot, no promises. This is kind of like a hard sell. I'm going to be honest. It was like a lot of people had, I think, really good ideas, but I think it's going to be a good amount of work. So I hope we can all kind of do that together. Thanks. Would you like to say a few words as well? No, but yes. I'm Joanne Hunt. I live in Ward 4. I've lived in Ward 4 for 20-plus years. As Mark and Lee have already said, disc golf was something that was like the first time I was very involved in anything. And it was totally neighborhood. And it worked. I'm not sure that anything I've been involved in since that has worked. But I believe in community and in neighborhoods. And I believe that our city, actually everything in the planet, needs us. And I feel like we really need to be way more willing to step up. I know for myself, I think that, and then I don't do it. And nothing's going to change if all of us aren't more engaged. I'm interested in those things. I'm particularly interesting in environmentalism and preserving more nature and figuring out how to do that with housing. I'm a nurse practitioner, so I'm interested in health. The lack of mental health resources and the drug problem in this city is abominable. And I think most people don't have a clue how actually bad it really is. But I also feel like we need to figure out better ways of, like, I'll get on to City Hall Park two hours a week if somebody comes with more structured ways for volunteerism. Because I think a lot of us want to do it. But we don't see kind of ways of doing it. So that's my gig. We start with you. You start with the back with Olivia. Olivia. I need a mic. Hi, I'm Olivia. I spoke earlier. OK, I currently work two jobs, one at the Community Justice Center, so in CEDO. And then I am also doing lobbying for the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. So working on health. I went to UVM for environmental studies. I have a master of public administration in environmental policy specifically. I've lived here for four years. I've been in Burlington since 2011. Moved here when Hurricane Irene happened, which, you know, fascinating as an environmental student. I really would love to see like a magician or like something happening for entertainment. I also want us to be in a circle. I also have a crock pot I don't use that I could donate to this cause. And I'm also the vice president of philanthropy for the Junior League, which used to run the diaper bank. And we have a lot of connections with different volunteer opportunities. And I've been in a lot of different volunteer groups. I'm currently on the housing board as well with Evan. And very involved. I want to be more involved. I want to get to know all of you, so. Hi, all. I'm Sarah. I live in Ward 7. Have been here for, yeah, about four and a half years, lived in Burlington for, OK, Lee. As you can see, I like to give people what they are looking for, what they want. Yeah, I've lived in Burlington for just eight years, actually, this week. And definitely really interested in kind of intergenerational connections. And that aspect of community, I think, is really important for moving forward in a lot of different areas that we're all sort of passionate about in terms of just what it means to live well and together. And I've known Ali for a few years now. And I knew that there wasn't going to be another meeting for two months. And so I really wanted to make sure to get myself out and here today to kind of be part of going forward with the NPA meetings. And looking forward to, yeah. Knowing you all more. Hi, I'm Carmen George. I'm a Justice of the Peace. I'm married people. I'm really into love. I'm also a florist, a photographer, and I rent out arbors and chairs. Anybody getting married, please talk to me. I really care about our community. I just came from volunteering with Hands, which is serve meals for seniors. I have a 20-year-old daughter. I like to play basketball. I don't know what else to tell you. I'm very involved. I used to be a city counselor. And yeah, thank you. I'm Monica Ivancic. And I've lived in Burlington this coming March. We'll be 10 years. I've been in the New North End one less year than that. I have a 15-year-old who, I guess I have to share this with everyone. I live the closest to the school that's being built. She's gonna have to graduate from downtown BHS, like other daughters of people in the room. I'm an environmentalist. I ride my bike everywhere. One of the biggest issues right after I moved here, maybe a year after, was the bike lanes on North Avenue. And I'm a big proponent of that. Sorry if some people here feel like the bike lanes were shoved down their throat, but it makes it a much safer community and a calmer street. Maybe brings us more together. I care about the kids in our community. It's my third term on the board. And I wanna encourage people to run for school board. We need regular citizens on the board. Mark and I used to serve together. Let's see. What else? Dancer. Yeah, one of my hobbies is African dancing. So I'm connected to that community. And I work at UVM in the Department of Chemistry, maintaining some instruments, teaching students how to use them, and on occasion teaching a course, which I'm supposed to teach this spring. So I don't know how I'm supposed to do all this stuff. But it's great to be part of this city and this New North End community. My name is Hank Prensky from Appletree Point Lane. I've only been in Burlington this time three years. And I went to school at UVM in 1967 for one year of graduate school and came back 54 years later. And I'm glad I did. My only tangible experience is I spent four years as a city counselor in Tacoma Park, Maryland, just outside of D.C. Mostly interested in my dogs. And I have a 33-year-old son. And I was turned off by the first three quarters of the meeting and the details and the endless bylaws and such. And that's not what I like doing, but I'm willing to give it a shot as the interim steering committee. You're not interim, you're steering committee. Yeah, yeah. I just said interim. You weren't about to elect you. All right, we do have, is there anybody online who is interested in nominating somebody or serving on the steering committee? And I do see Dab, your hand is raised. Yeah. Dab? Yes, it is. It is, hi. Hi, everybody. Yeah, I just wanted to say, I think it's great, all of these people speaking up, most of the ones who have, I know. And I used to be very involved. I suffered from volunteer fatigue, burnout, whatever it is, and I'm struggling to get back involved a little more. That said, I wanted to just let, since there's a whole new group here, know that one of the things I talked with Matt Curlbert about last meeting that I attended in person was I said, you know, this place needs new signs, you know, those yard signs, because they're really hard to read, the ones that are out when there's an NPA meeting. And so one of the things I do as graphic designer, I did, I've now retired. And so we talked about that. And I said, I'll draft up some new signs. And so I took one of them with me and then I heard that everything kind of fell apart. And so I have one here and I wanted to let people know that I will draft a new sign and present it to whoever, but I just wanted to let you know that and find out who I should present it to or how to get it to people. And then you can decide whether you like it, you don't, whatever, no ego on my end. And just so something that is more visible, it was really hard to read that sign. There was too much information. It was the light green type and all of that. So I just want to let you know that that's in my hands right now. And if that's something you want me to do, let me know. Yeah, that's good. Okay, okay. So who do I, I mean, I know I have some of your contacts and I can throw it out at you in the next couple of weeks, the next week. Yeah, please do. If you can't even contact us here at CEDO, we'll get your information and get that out there. Oh, okay, okay. So I could send it to you and then you would send it out, okay. That's correct. And then we'll put together a new NPA steering committee list so that people can share emails as well. Okay, great. I will leave this up to you how, you know, you want to do this. We've had a slate nominated. Will the group be to approve the slate by acclimation? I have one question that we cast, one slate for the people who have been nominated. I'd like to amend that to say that this is for the interim. All right, I second that. Interim bylaws, not steering committee, is the steering committee. It will be the steering committee. We'll look as the bylaws are created when the next election will be, but. We'll look at it later on. Actually, the next election will be your decision is the steering committee. So. It's a good way to get everyone interested as people are gonna roll in. Yeah. We can write in the bylaws that we have to have another election. Yeah. That is all up to you. No. But so we have a, I understand we have a, do we have a second to affirm the slate? All right, we got a second. All in favor? All those opposed? Unanimous, welcome aboard. Yeah, before you leave, anyone who has just voted on to the steering committee, please come see me to give me your name and email so we can get in touch with you and get your email on the website. And will you put their names and emails on the website? Yeah, exactly, yeah. Okay, I just wanted to say one thing before everybody leaves. So if everybody could listen just for one minute. So I wanted to give people a little bit of history. Evan, so I guess we're not gonna get quiet. Okay, so. The meeting is still happening, thank you. Okay, so I just wanted to say one thing before everybody leaves. So I've been on the NPA steering committees going literally all the way back to the 1980s even though I left for about 15 years in the meeting. Okay, so back in the day, all the NPAs were really quiet. The only active NPAs for many years were wards two and three, but then starting around 2007 or so, certain people, so wards two and three were the most influential NPAs in the city. Then around 2007 or so, people like Lita Hoon and Rob Jim Hallway joined the four and seven NPA and suddenly overnight wards four and seven became the most influential NPAs in the city. I'm not just saying that. Four and seven became the most influential NPAs in the city. So you can do that again anytime you want because I've seen it happen. And then what happened is to wards four and seven is that the pandemic hit and the whole thing fell apart. Okay, so basically wards four and seven still has the capacity to be the most influential steering committees in the city. And you can resign at any time from the steering committee. You don't have to think you're on it for a period of time. But you are under, you should find a replacement. Don't just, just don't leave. Okay, that's all I have to say. I'm turning it back over to Scott. All right, thanks everyone. We are adjourned. Have a great evening. Thank you.