 We're working in progress. Whoops. Let's try that. Okay. Good evening. It's December 18th. This is a regular meeting of the town council. The open meeting law has been extended. This allows us to continue holding meetings remotely without a quorum of the council physically present. However, this is a very special night, and there will be 12 counselors in the room and one counselor who is not able to be in the room because she's out of town, but will be joining us. It is more than likely the last meeting of this council. We do make sure that we provide public adequate and alternative access to the meeting. The meeting can be accessible in real time by Zoom, by phone, and as a live broadcast on Amherst Media Channel 9, and live streaming. Given that we have a quorum of the council present, I'm calling the December 18th, 2023 town council meeting to order at 6.33 p.m. I'll call on each counselor, and by name at that time, you should unmute your mic and say present. This will indicate that you can hear us and we can hear you. Shalini Balmilna is on her way. I'll come back to her, Pat D'Angelois. Present. Anna Devlin-Gothier. Present. Lynn Griezmer is present. Mandy Johanicki. Present. Anika Lopes. Present. Michelle Miller. Present. Dorothy Pam. Here. Pam Rooney. Here. Kathy Shane. Here. Andy Steinberg. Present. Jennifer Taube. Here. And Alicia Walker is also on her way. So I will come back and make sure once they are here that they can hear us and we can hear them. There is no chat room for this meeting. If you have technical issues, please let Athena or me know. Please use the raised hand button when you want to speak and wait to be called on. If we do have technical difficulties, we may have to suspend the meeting until we correct them, but we will make sure we note that in the minutes. There is a change in the order of the agenda tonight. After announcements, we will continue to item five, the consent agenda. And then to a joint meeting with the delegation of the Konagasaki Japan. That is our sister city, and this is the 30th anniversary of that agreement. There will be only one public comment period at this meeting and it will be after the conclusion of the joint meeting with the delegation of Konagasaki. I anticipate that we will get to that at about 730. The agenda does not include discussion or votes on the rules of procedure or rental registration. Both will be carried over to the next council. The agenda includes an executive session for the purpose of approving previous executive committee meetings. Prior to going into executive session, which we will not return from, we will spend some time thanking and saying farewell to four of our colleagues who will not be on the council starting in January. They are Shalini Balmilne, Anika Lopes, Michelle Miller, and Dorothy Pam. So with that, I just want to announce, make sure that people are aware that on January 2nd, we will be meeting in this room after much deliberation. We've decided to go that way. It will be a special town meeting of the council and the inauguration of the new council. If councillors would like to be sworn in before that, they can go by and see the town clerk. We will have a regular town council meeting on January 8th, 2024 at 630. We're moving on to the consent agenda. The following items were selected because they were considered to be routine and it was reasonable to expect they would pass with no controversy. To move an item from the consent agenda for discussion later in the meeting, ask that it be removed after I make the initial motion. The request to remove an item from the consent agenda does not require a second. To move the following items and the printed motions there under and approve those items as a single unit, 6A, West Side National Historic District Proclamation. Waiver of town rules, a procedure, rule 8.6 for agenda item 6B. 6B is International Sister City Friendship Agreement with Kanagasaki, Japan. 9A1, approval of town manager appointment to the Affordable Housing Board of Trustees. 11A, authority to approve remaining 2023 minutes. Are there any items that people would like removed? Then seeing none, is there a second? Second. Thank you. Shalini, can you hear us? Yes. Thank you. So with that, we're going to start with Shalini and on that vote. It's the vote on the consent agenda. Yes. Pat DeAngeles? Yes. Anna Devlin-Gothier? Aye. Lynn Griespers and aye. Mandy Johannick? Aye. Anika Lopes? Aye. Michelle Miller? Aye. Dorothy Pam? Yes. Pam Rooney? Yes. Kathy Shane? Yes. Andy Steinberg? Yes. Jennifer Todd? Yes. Alicia Walker. So with that, I'm going to call on Anika Lopes, who is going to share with us a little bit about the proclamation and also the event that's coming up. Anika? Thank you, Lynn. So I wanted to take a moment before reading from the West Side National Historic District Proclamation to acknowledge the work of Dudley Bridges Sr., who worked tirelessly to bring forward the Black and African Indigenous history of Amherst. This was his life's work. Decades, centuries of information. This is dates. It leads to a timeline which dates back to the 1300s. This is paired with descendants, community partners, some of the most sought after meteorologists and museum leadership in the world, many who are also descendants. So this is a work that's taken very seriously and is not a new initiative. This work represents his family and community. It was to predate the colonies were enslaved. They represent the oranges of oranges whether it's black business and entrepreneurship of Amherst, whose stories were intentionally erased and excluded from participating in their community. I want to also thank all of you and briefly touch on the Civil War Talent exhibit, which is mentioned in this proclamation. Thank all of you who have visited and encourage all of you who have not to take that moment. This exhibit was envisioned, curated and guided by Deborah Bridges. And the tablets in this exhibit in particularly bring these tablets to life. They represent a blueprint of Amherst while highlighting the black and Afro-Indigenous residents of Amherst who served in the 54th Regiment in 5th Calvary and who make Amherst an important place in the history of Juneteenth. What some people may not know is the Bang Center and the exhibit stand in the same place that Deborah Bridges went to elementary school. And in fourth grade her teacher said to her as they were studying the Civil War, you're a little colored girl, what did it feel like to be a slave? So this was the 60s, right? And so we talk about what if that teacher would have said, what does it feel like to know you're connected to heroes and people who participate in the very foundation of this town? And she is in that exact place doing the same right now and carrying that forward for youth and community. And I just want to acknowledge this is a historic moment in acknowledging the vibrance of the West Side District and the first black and Afro-Indigenous families and community of Amherst. So I couldn't think of a better moment to do this and I walked into this building in 2021. I was elected as the first black and Indigenous member of the council and most importantly, my ancestors walked in with me and they have really been my guiding light for decisions. So without further ado, I'm going to get to this proclamation. Now therefore be it proclaimed that the town council of Amherst honors and recognizes the West Side District for its profound historical importance as a haven for black and Afro-Indigenous residents, defying the constraints of housing segregation and redlining and contributing significantly to the cultural diversity and strength of our community. Be it further proclaimed that the residents of Amherst are encouraged to explore and appreciate the rich history of the West Side Historic District and to continue fostering a community that celebrates diversity and inclusion. And you're all welcome to join us this Thursday, December 21st at 11 a.m. the corner of Hazel Avenue and North Hampton Road where we will unveil the street sign honoring the West Side Historic District at Hazel Avenue. Thank you. Thank you so much. Daniel, I can see that you're here and I just want to see whether your people are assembled enough for us to proceed. Can you hear me? We can. Okay. We are not all assembled. Okay, then in that case- Our town council president and them are not here yet. So they should be here in about five to 10, they should be here by 850 our time, I think. Great. In that case, I'm actually going to suggest that the council move to item 8F, which is the town manager goals. Okay. We have met, we have talked about these in the past, additional changes were made. I'm going to call on Pat DeAngelis to see if she has anything to add from GOL. I'm going to actually ask Jen, who was at the meeting where it was finally decided to speak a little. Okay. The goals. So we, I think we also just discussed them at the meeting when you were there, but we, if I wasn't planning to speak, so let me just call up the goals. I just got them on my screen. So what we had tried to do, I think we discussed it before was keep them specific but also streamlined so that we were not giving the town manager, I think as we had maybe last year, like 90 different goals and tried to bring it a little more in line with other cities and towns in Massachusetts. So I don't think it's, and we incorporated what we, at the last meeting, we incorporated some of the other, some counselors requested amendments that had gotten there too late for the previous GOL meeting. So I think as you go through them, it's really not that much different than at the last meeting that we reviewed. I just, there was a request to change I personally wanted to make. I don't know if this is the time to do that. Sure. I mean, do you want me to walk through each one? No. Yeah, no, okay. But yeah, so again, it doesn't look that much different. We just, as you can see in the track changes, we just, what we tried to do was not be repetitive. So if we had mentioned an item like in relationship with the town council and it had come up maybe word it slightly differently in a different section, we just kept it in one and deleted it in the other. So again, we were going for specificity but not but keeping it manageable. Okay. I'm going to make the motion and then we'll ask that it be put on, I'm looking for a second then we'll ask that it be put on the screen. The motion is to adopt the 2024 town manager goals as presented slash amended. We'll see which way we go. Is there a second? Second to Angela's. Okay. Are there questions, comments or requested changes? Jennifer. Yes. And could we put the goals on the screen, Athena? Thank you. And I'm under climate action. So, wait til it's up on the screen. It's number three under climate action and I'm going to go to, did I lose you on the screen? So where it says support the development of climate action focused by laws including the waste hauler. We had had, I was trying to get to my screen with the specific language, but it said that it included universal curbside compost pickup and a pay as you throw fee structure. Here, I back on my screen. So the words that we had taken out, it said waste hauler bylaw, that includes universal compost pickup and pay as you throw fee structure, comma, solar bylaw. And I, as discussed in the committee, it was taken out because when we just talked about the solar bylaw we didn't call out a particular feature of that bylaw, but in speaking with the community sponsors for waste hauler that was the actually why we introduced that amendment. So it's integral and it's actually not waste hauler is what we sort of colloquially been calling it, but it's really the amendment to bylaw 3.3, you know, refuge collection and compostable material. So I wanted to request that we add back the, maybe eight words that we took out at the last meeting. So it says the waste hauler bylaw and the words that we'd add back are, that includes universal curbside compost pickup and pay as you throw fee structure. Okay, let's stay with comments on this, Pat DeAngelo's microphone. I don't agree with adding them back the bylaw has not been really designed and while those are things I want, we are not specifying what's in the solar bylaw, what's in the waste hauler bylaw and I do not support having those words put back. Okay, are there any other comments? Michelle. Jennifer, could you just say one more time why you're asking, I got a bit distracted. Because that's really the key part of what the bylaw is. It's not actually called the waste hauler bylaw, that's sort of how we colloquially refer to it. It was an amendment where you are requesting an amendment to by general bylaw 3.33, which is refuge collection and, yeah, and recyclable materials. And so the waste hauler bylaw really means, you know, what the reason it's being proposed is to have universal compost pickup and a pay-as-you-throw fee structure. So that was a key part, that's why that language was there. It wasn't trying to pull out a particular feature that is kind of the core feature of why the bylaw amendment is being proposed. Lynn, may I ask a follow-up to that, please? So this was in the goals last year. It was actually in two meetings ago. This was taken out at the last meeting. Right, but we approved it with that language last year, or no. No. Getting, yes. We did. Okay, yes, we did. Last year, town manager goals, those words were there. The language you're requesting was there. Has anything changed significantly? No. From that time? No. Okay, thank you. Okay. Anna? So I think my initial concern with keeping it in was, because we don't know what the information we're going to get back from the haulers is yet. And so my question is, and I apologize, because I know I'm on the committee that should have this in their head perfectly, but I don't have it in my head perfectly. Is there a chance that we would get proposals back that do not include universal composting or pay-as-you-throw? Because what my concern is is that this, I want to make sure this is aligned with the RFI and future RFPs that we put out. So I'm looking for either confirmation from Paul or from the sponsors that is there a possibility that we would have a waste hauler bylaw that doesn't include those things? Paul, an updated one, I mean, an amended one. So the RFI included the request for information on that. If you wanted, when you're doing RFP, if you included in it, you will get the responses back. So it's up to the council to decide if it wants it or not. So I think my concern is that it's, I can kind of go either way, right? Like I think that that's probably why we're debating this right now is really, should the council decide that before we put it in the goals or are we effectively making that decision by putting this in the goals, having never voted on it as a council? And that would be, that's my concern, right? Is if we put it in the goals this way and we've never voted that that is the change, and I'd love to hear your thoughts on that. Cause that's my, that is my hang up on it. Yeah, I mean, my thoughts and other sponsors can certainly weigh in, there's four sponsors, but to me, that's why we proposed it. Yeah. I got that. Dorothy. We've discussed this a lot in TSO. I never thought it was about waste haulers. I always thought it from the very beginning it was about universal composting. So I do not understand what this desire is to take those words out. It's changing what we've been doing and talking about for the last year. I think this should, this, these wording or at least the words universal compost pickup, those are the words that we were supposedly central to what we were talking about. I'm gonna skip you Pat for a moment and go to Kathy Shane. My question is, do you also need the clause and pay-as-you-go throw structure if the focus is on compost? Again, I'm, it's a level of specificity, not that if that's possible, that's be great. But what if we get a great proposal that has universal compost pickup, but they can't figure out how to do the second part? Shalini. So yes, universal composting and pay-as-you-throw are integral parts and especially pay-as-you-throw is a fundamental change regardless of what happens. What you're gonna do and the whole purpose of this is to bring about universal composting. However, we are gonna, I mean, not we, the TSO is gonna have that discussion. I think the important thing because this is town manager's goals is what would be most clear to the town manager in terms of his expectations. And my understanding is that having that language gives a clear indication and direction to Paul that we are looking to do some, you know, to change this to bring in universal composting and pay-as-you-throw. Okay, Pat, Jennifer. You know, I was just gonna say that pay-as-you-throw is integral to waste reduction, to incentivize reduction in waste because you would hopefully pay less. You would be charged more if you dispose more trash. Pat. Gonna get back to the specificity issue. If we're gonna do that for the waste hauler by-law, which everybody probably could recite, the rest of the language, which makes it unnecessary, but why aren't we putting in aspects of the solar by-law then? You know, which ones do we want for the town manager to look at? Whereas where it's talking about the solar by-law, it's talking about waste hauler, it's simple, it's direct, and it doesn't tie us. I think, okay. Shalini, you still have your hand up. Michelle. Jennifer, if it were to say that could include or is there some, I guess I'm not clear whether there's a possibility that when the RFP goes out, something else could come back that is not these things that would also be acceptable to the sponsors. Or is this it? I'd say this is pretty key to why it was proposed. The amendment was proposed in the first place. And did the- It could say could. I think if it said could, it would take away the idea that we have made policy by passing the goals. Did the council vote that this is what, the waste hauler? No. Okay. Well, that's the language in which it was referred to TSO from the council. Dorit, Pam Rooney. Oh, Michelle, did you have anything else? Pam. Thank you. I wanted to respond to the solar by-law with its apparent lack of details. The fact that none of us on the council has actually even had any discussion about the solar by-law. So we have no preconceived notions of what should be included in there. But none of us has, none of us has seen it in a committee other than it being referred. But we've had no conversations. Let's stick with this one for the moment. And Nika. So my question is also in response to Pam and also really to the sponsors. Seeing as the, within the carryover memo, the new draft for the by-law has not come before TSO or discussion either is there a consensus through with the sponsors that you would be comfortable with saying could. Because just because the conversation has not come yet before TSO in regards to the new draft that was submitted that we just received on the 13th of December. The TSO received on the 13th. Well, that's another conversation. Because I think both should be, the original should also be there. But that's, we'll get. Well, there's lots of attachments. Okay. There's lots of attachments to make it easy for going forward. Okay. We are now looking at the possibility of adding into this the phrase that could include universal compost pickup and pay as you throw fee structure. Pam, you still have your hand up. Nika, you still have your hand up. Are there any other comments on this? We did not do it. Hi, Alicia, how are you? And first of all, can you hear us and welcome? Yes, thank you. Can you hear me? You probably want to move your mic a little closer. Okay. Is this better? Yeah. So I just came in in the middle of the conversation. So I'm not sure I'm certainly exactly clear as to what we're talking about, but I did just want to weigh in that, the portion that's included here and that is highlighted is part of the intention of the bylaw. So I do think it's helpful to include that. Okay. Are there any other comments on this? There is a motion on the floor. There's not a motion to amend. So there is a motion on the floor. Let's go with a formal motion to amend. Jennifer? Would like to move that we amend the town manager goals as came out of the very last GOL meeting to add the words under climate action number three. I would still like to, well, that could include universal compost pickup and a pay-as-you-throw fee structure. Is there a second? It should say yeah, universal curbside compost pickup. I second that. Okay, the motion, the amendment's been, the motion to amend has been made and seconded. Is there any further discussion? Alicia, you have your hand up. I was going to ask for you to clarify what the motion was on the floor, but I do know it now. Okay, thank you. Dorothy? I don't like could because we have waste haulers and who do in fact, I've heard offer an option of curbside pickup. The purpose of this motion was to have more than a waste hauler who offered an option, but to have required universal curbside compost pickup. So what you're doing now is going, making with the using the word could, you're going against what was but presented and what we've been discussing. That's it. The motion to amend has been made and seconded. Are there any further comments? And I'm going to bring that to a vote. And the motion is to add the phrase that's on the screen highlighted in yellow. We're going to start with Pat DeAngelis. No. Anna Devlin-Goth here. Aye. Lynn Griespers and aye. Mandy Jo Hanneke. No. Anika Lopes. Michelle Miller. Aye. Dorothy Pam. Yes. Pam Maroney. Yes. Kathy Shane. Yes. Andy Steinberg. Aye. Jennifer Tob. Yes. Alicia Walker. Yes. Shalini Balmille. Yes. Pat DeAngelis, I already did it. Okay. It is 11 in favor to oppose the motion passes. We go back to the original motion. Are there any other questions or comments before we go to the full set of goals? Seeing none, I'm going to go back to the actual motion and it's to adopt the 2024 town manager goals as amended. It's been made and seconded. Are there any other comments? One, two, three, done. Okay, Anna Devlin-Goth here. Aye. Lynn Griespers and aye. Mandy Jo Hanneke. Aye. Anika Lopes. Aye. Michelle Miller. Aye. Dorothy Pam. Yes. Pam Maroney. Yes. Kathy Shane. Yes. Andy Steinberg. Yes. Yes, Alicia Walker. Yes. Shalini Balmillan. Shalini Balmillan. Yes. Pat DeAngelis. I thought you forgot me. Yes. It's unanimous. Thank you. We are going to go back to the order of the agenda that I described earlier in the meeting and Daniel, are we ready? Daniel? Hi, can you hear me? Yes, we can. Okay, everyone's here. Okay, great. This is a very special part of our evening and it's going to include translation, so please bear with us, okay? Could we please start with the initial slides? We are pleased to welcome to our town council meeting this evening the delegation from Kanagasaki, Japan headed by Takahashi Kanju, the Honorable Mayor of Kanagasaki and Ito Masaki, the Honorable President of the Kanagasaki Town Council. The town council. Daniel Degrasse. The coordinator of this event is our translator. The occasion is the 30th anniversary of the Kanagasaki Sister City Agreement with the town of Amherst and the signing of the 30th anniversary Friendship Agreement. Daniel Degrasse is our translator today. And this event is the 30th anniversary of Kanagasaki and Amherst and the signing of the 30th anniversary of the Kanagasaki Sister City Agreement. I'd like to switch to the next slide. And there we have both the Mayor and the President of the town council. And on the next slide, we have the full town council. The next slide, present tonight in the Amherst, is the Amherst full town council, including Andy Steinberg, who in the past traveled to Kanagasaki as part of our agreement. Town manager, next slide please. Town manager, Paul Bachmann and Doug Slaughter, interim superintendent of the Amherst Public Schools and the former chair of the Amherst Select Board, our predecessor, government. I'm going to pause for translation. Today, in the Amherst side of the meeting, we have all the members of the committee. Andy Steinberg, who in the past traveled to Kanagasaki as part of our agreement, and town manager Paul Bachmann, and the former chair of the Amherst Public Schools, Doug Slaughter, he has been the chair of the Amherst Public Schools and the former chair of the Amherst Public Schools. The next slide please. Tonight, we span 6,427 miles to renew our agreement. Kanagasaki is located in the Iwata Perfecture in the Tehoku region of northern Japan. Amherst is located in the eastern part of the United States in the state of Massachusetts. Each of us is sitting in our respective town halls. We're going to now take the slide down and go through translation. I just want to call attention to the picture of our delegation in the corner sitting together. After the translation of my opening remarks, we will hear from Mayor Takahashi Kanaju and Ito Masaki, president of the Kanagasaki Town Council. They will be followed by Councillor Steinberg, town manager Paul Bachmann, superintendent of schools Doug Slaughter. We will then hear from the mayor again briefly and proceed with the signing of the agreement. Today, we will hear from Mayor Takahashi Kanaju and Ito Masaki, president of the Kanagasaki Town Council. After that, we will hear from Mayor Steinberg, the mayor of the Kanagasaki Town Council, the town manager Paul Bachmann, and the mayor of the Kanagasaki Town Council, Doug Slaughter. After that, we will hear from Mayor Takahashi and Ito Masaki, the mayor of the Kanagasaki Town Council. So, Daniel will proceed with the mayor. Okay. All right, we're ready. Good evening, everyone. Good evening to everyone in Amherst. Thank you for welcoming us here to your town council meeting. While this meeting is being done online, I am very glad to be able to meet town council president Ms. Lynn Grissmer, as well as the other counselors and Mr. Andy Steinberg, town manager Paul Bachmann, and superintendent of schools Doug Slaughter, among others. To start, I would like to introduce the members on our end. The mayor is Mr. Suzuki Hiroyuki, Vice Mayor, Mr. Suzuki Hiroyuki, and the mayor is Ms. Katsuhito Chiba. Superintendent, Mr. Chiba Katsuhito, and Mayor of the Kanagasaki Town Council, Ito Masaki. Town Council President, Mr. Ito Masaki, and the mayor is Tomoe Masaiichi, I was elected mayor of Kanegasaki on March 19th, 2022. From the start of my term, I have been working with the town residents, local communities and businesses to promote industry and foster a vibrant and engaging community here in Kanegasaki. We are working towards achieving our goals of being a town where people want to live now and into the future and where people feel proud to live. We have since 1993, when we first signed the sister city agreement, there have been many exchanges between our various towns. I would like to take this time to convey my deepest gratitude to you, the members of the town council, as well as to the many residents of Amherst, whose hard work and commitment have grown and fostered this relationship over these many years. I hope that during this ceremony today we can talk about the future of the exchange between Kanegasaki and Amherst. Thank you very much. Next, Mr. Ito Masahaki, town council president will give his address. Good evening to everyone in Amherst. My name is Ito Masahaki and I am the president of the town council in Kanegasaki. I am very happy to meet with all of you today. It has been 30 years since Kanegasaki and Amherst started their sister city relationship. Over the years, of course, there has been the junior high school exchange, but there has also been government as well as personal exchanges as well. I would like to take this time to express my gratitude to all of you. Thank you for that. Just a few months after my visit in September 2001, the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington took place and the exchange had to be postponed for a year. However, seeing the exchange continue and thrive since then and now being able to come back to you as council president and to address you on this occasion, it is a big honor and I am very grateful to you all. I am very deeply regretful that due to the COVID-19 pandemic, there has not been an exchange that has taken place for several years now. I am very much looking forward to starting the exchange again. The town council is also a city with a rich nature and a strong education, just like Amherst. Also, the town council has a historic townspeople. The town council has a historic townspeople that has been selected as the most important traditional townspeople in the country. Our town as well as yours is bountiful in nature and has a strong focus on education. Just like Amherst with its long and treasured history, our town also has a national historic district with many historical sites that we work to preserve. I hope that you all will have the opportunity to visit us here and experience the wonders of our town. I would like to conclude by expressing my deepest desires that this important exchange between Amherst and Kanagasaki continues long into the future and that our friendship and bond only deepens from here on end. Thank you very much. Andy. First of all, let me say good morning to my friends in Kanagasaki since it's now about 20 after nine on Tuesday morning for them. They were in Monday evening in 1987 Kanagasaki and Amherst agreed to create an education exchange program for students. Groups of Kanagasaki students made annual visits during which they stayed in the homes of Amherst families attending a school and saw an American town similar in size to their own. The first visit was in 1989. My family was a host for two students in 1990. The second year of the exchange. The visits happened annually except for one year. And continued into the pandemic of 2020. Andy, can I get your hand? Please. Okay. In 1987, Kanagasaki and Amherst was established as an education exchange program. In 1989, Kanagasaki and Amherst were established as an education exchange program for students. The first visit was in 1989. My family was a host for two students in 1990. The first visit was in 1989. My family was a host for two students in 1990. The first visit was in 1990. The second visit was in 1990. The first visit was in 1990. The first visit was in 1990. The second visit was in 1990. The relationship was expanded with the sister city agreement in 1993 that has allowed the exchange for officials from each community in cooperation between libraries and schools. Amherst was unable to regularly send students to Kanagasaki because of a policy that students in our school cannot participate in a program that is not available to all students. our community theater program went to Kanagasaki in 1991 to perform that year's musical, Anne of Green Gables. The most recent delegation from Amherst to Kanagasaki was in October 2015. My wife Valerie and I were part of the delegation to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the founding of the new town of Kanagasaki. I spoke at the community celebration as a member of the Select Board with translation assistants from Daniel Degrasse. I presented proclamations on behalf of Amherst and our state legislature. We met the father of one of the students who stayed in our home 25 years before the anniversary event. He told us how important the experience was for his son and we were able to share the successes of all three boys including our son. We'll stop for translation. Andy, can I get in? Please. Thank you. And the school and the library had a meeting. Amherst was not able to send students to Kanagasaki because it was a program that no one could participate in. We were able to meet the father of one of the students who stayed in our home 25 years before the anniversary event. He told us how important the experience was for his son and how important the program was for his son. Thank you very much. When I visited Kanagasaki, I observed how much our towns have in common. Both towns have strong agricultural communities, beautiful surroundings and are great places to live, work and visit. Both towns are in areas that are rich in the history of our countries. We share commitments to education. We cherish the beauty of the areas in which we live. We are proud of our towns and the quality of life we enjoy. I welcome the opportunity to participate in this renewal of the friendship of Amherst and Kanagasaki. Thank you very much for your participation in the renewal of Amherst and Kanagasaki. Thank you very much. Thank you. We are honored by the presence of the Honorable Mayor and Vice Mayor, Honorable President of the Town Council and Vice President of the Town Council and the Superintendent of Schools. I thank each of you for your leadership and commitment to continuing this important sister city relationship. Our mutual commitment to sharing our cultures through the experiences of our students will foster greater understanding in our world. Each student has had a valuable life experience and Kanagasaki and Amherst have benefited from the culture exchange brought by our younger residents. Thank you. Thank you very much for your participation in the renewal of Amherst and Kanagasaki. Thank you very much for your participation in the renewal of Amherst and Kanagasaki. It is my great honor and privilege to extend a warm welcome from our schools to the people of Kanagasaki. My family, similar to Mr. Seinberg's, has also benefited from participating in the hosting of a student from your community and the positive impact of this in-person visit was and is profound. I look forward to the opportunities that our renewed friendship will present and am hopeful that in the coming years many others will be able to experience the richness this type of ongoing exchange presents. We will go back to the mayor. We'll go back to the mayor. Thank you very much for your kind words. In 2020, due to the COVID-19 infection, there was a difficult situation for direct access to public schools. In 2020, with the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, it became too difficult to have direct interactions. And so the yearly exchange of junior high school students from Kanagasaki to Amherst had to be canceled. However, with the pandemic now over, we are taking steps toward a restart of the exchange next year. I would be very grateful if the town of Amherst would be able to continue to give its support and cooperation to the exchange as before. And we're now going to proceed with the signing, which we're going to have done by the delegation in Japan. Very nice. Mr. Mayor, concluding remarks. To conclude, I would like to thank the members of the Amherst Town Council for allotting this time during your council meeting for this occasion. I look forward to working together with you all into the future. Thank you very much. Thank you. It has been our pleasure to meet with you, Mayor and other members of your delegation this evening. We look forward to the exchange visit of junior high school students from Kanagasaki and our renewed sister city relationship as agreed to this evening. Have a nice day. Thank you. Thank you, Daniel. Thank you. I'll talk to you guys again later. Five minute break. That's it. Please turn off your mics and blot your picture. So we've done all of this and the announcement from the hearing. If there's anyone entering the room who wishes to make public comment, please sign in over here. That was our joint meeting. Thank you. I know I rarely make it to the meeting, but I'm excited to. I know it's been a very long while since I've been to a meeting in person, so. I'm excited to be here. If there's anyone with empty seats up here, if anyone would like a seat, there's a few up here. Good evening. As soon as you can reassemble, we need to move on to the meeting. Line your cameras off. Thank you. Maybe others remember when we had standing room only, but I don't so welcome. It's nice to have you all here. We are going to move to general public comment. And so I need to ask that if you are on zoom, you raise your hand now. If you want to make public comment and anyone in the room who wishes to make a public comment, please sign in right now. There are eight people on zoom and I'm going to hold it to eight. The last person is Pat on the block. I have 11. Okay. So I'm going to ask that you keep your comments to two minutes. We have a long agenda tonight and it is our last meeting. And I also want to remind you that residents are welcome to express their views for up to two minutes. I will not engage in dialogue or comment on a matter raised during public comment. And please note the clock on the zoom screen. And it starts turning colors to warn you that you're almost at your end of your time. And otherwise, I have to be the heavy and get asked you to stop. With that Athena, we're going to start with somebody from the room with your permission. I'm going to call on some young Amherst residents who need to get home and do some homework. Please, if Jonas bit sir, I'll go Mankin and tell you, Meyer would please come up. When you come up, please state your name and just that you live in Amherst is fine. You use the mic. Good. Nice help. Thanks, Mandy, Joe. And why don't you all sit down and we'll pass the mic back and forth. My name is Jonah and I urge you to vote for a new Jones Library expansion. Libraries aren't just a place to take out books. It's also a place to do activities. Like going to the teen lounge. I went to the D&D club at the library. I enjoyed having such a fun experience and plus it was free and inclusive to all. If we do the expansion, it will give us more space dedicated to the teen lounge so that we can, yeah. Oh, thank you. My name is Talia. I enjoy the library and I use it a lot. My friends and I would like you to support having a nicer library expansion. My name is Ago and I'm sorry. My name is Ago and I please support the new library and we need a new teen center. We want to thank you all for being here and wish you good luck as you finish your school before your winter break. Thank you. Okay, we're going to go to the first person on zoom. They are noted as yes to the Jones library. I just want to mention that I had already stated that we would be ending with Pat on a Baku. So, if you've put your up your hand since then, I hope you'll submit your comments to us. But we're not adding additional people. Thank you. Point of order Lynn. Sorry. Folks can't see the list attendees can't see the list of whose hands are up so they won't know if they're after. Okay, so we have a yes to the Jones library. I'm sorry, why see? Oh, I'm sorry Karen. Yes to the library on my cursor wasn't in the right place. Karen please enter the room state your name and where you live. My name is Karen Cassidy. I live in Belcher town but I've worked at the Jones branch for the months and for seven years. And I've used the Amherst library for 35 years as my primary library. These provide free positive services to all members of the community. The Jones library is the best model of serving people birth to death. It is the hub and a primary community center. The Jones and its branches strive to provide inclusion for all. Although everyone is concerned about fiscal issues, focusing on our community's health and well being creates a brighter future for all. In times of trouble. The Jones library is good health physically and socially is essential to the health of the community. Please vote yes to the library. Thank you. Thank you for joining us. We're going back to the room. Jeff Lee, please come up and state your name and address before you begin and make sure the green light is lit. You might have to push the button. I am Jeff Lee. I live in on Southeast Street in District 5. The new town library memorandum of agreement looks nothing like what was requested by several town counselors two weeks ago. It includes no library contribution toward interest payments for the additional borrowing and no protection against the need to borrow even more money if the project cost continues to rise. Vote yes and you may be handing a victory to the capital campaign fundraisers, the friends of the library donors, the Amherst forward lobbyists, and the Jones library trustees who have little sensitivity to townwide needs beyond what is good for the library. But you will be consigning a generation of Amherst residents and taxpayers, many of whom may never use the Jones library and may have an understanding of the financial impacts of such a large expense. You'll be consigning them to maximal tax increases, continued gentrification of the town, delays in more urgent capital needs like a new DPW and fire station, and $25 million less to spend on competing budget priorities like road repairs, climate action, and staffing our public schools. All to build a palatial library that has been described as a vanity project, a boondoggle, and a white elephant, which offers no guarantee that it will restore the former vibrancy of downtown Amherst. Please vote no. Thank you for joining us. We're going to go to a person who is identified as yes to the Jones library. They're on Zoom. Please enter the room, state your name and where you live. My name is Bonnie Vigeland. Can you hear me? We can. And I live in Amherst. I'm a retired librarian and would like to say, first of all, that there is probably no more democratic institution in this country than the public library. To that point, a majority of voters in Amherst in several elections have expressed support for a version of this project. That is clear. And endless delays really only make those who oppose the project, who have really several good reasons for their opinions seem a bit like election deniers at this point. They keep trying to avoid the fact that the majority has spoken clearly and often. So please honor the will of the people in this town and vote yes for the library. Thank you for joining us. Going back to the room. Lou Conover, please come up and state your name and address before you make your remarks. Thank you. My name is Lou Conover. I live on pulpit Hill Road. I see that Amherst forward has packed the room again. So in October, the Amherst indie put a questionnaire to the candidates for town council. One of the questions was whether you would approve additional funding additional borrowing. So I want to read some of your comments. Ms. Griezmer said, the town of Amherst should not pay or risk anymore for the Jones Library. Ms. Lokes said, the town will not pay more than $15.8 million. Ms. Devlin Glotje said, I do not believe that the town should pay for more than that. Ms. Hanicky said, the town's share will not increase. Mr. Steinberg said, the project can and should be completed without increasing that commitment. Ms. Shane said, this allocation should remain the upper limit of the town tax resources for the project. There's more, but I'm going to run out of time. The thing is that this project has been advanced with many faults and misleading statements. For instance, it's been said that it won't raise our taxes. Of course, if we borrow money, we have to pay it back. So that means either we have to raise taxes to pay it back or we have to cut back on services. Now, if we're going to cut back on services, I'd like to know which ones. It's also very often said that a majority of people voted for it. It was a majority of the people that voted, but not a majority of the town. In fact, rather than 65% of the town, it's 8% of the residents of the town, approximately 15 to 16% of the actual people that are going to have to pay taxes on this for the next 20 years. If you're going to break your campaign promises, how can we expect to believe any of the other things you say? Like, well, that's all I need to say. Thank you. Thank you for joining us. Vera Cage is the next person. Please enter the room, state your name and where you live. Vera Duangmini Cage. I live at 12 Long Meadow Drive in Amherst, Massachusetts. I am speaking tonight on the issue of the American Rescue Plan Act. I am concerned that the business community, that the Black Business Association of Amherst area have been advocating for. It's the end of the year and I'm really looking forward to hearing how we're going to distribute the rest of the ARPA funds and how we're going to do it in an equitable manner. I'm also speaking tonight concerning the police. There was an incident at the Hickory Ridge Golf Course that is now town owned and several young people, young men, BIPOC men, 18, 17 year olds, they were parked once again. They were not hurting or harming anyone and the police decide they would come and pull up to them. Their intent to be there as people were recreating, walking. You know, it was a nice sunny day as you all can recall Saturday. They were there to take photos, to do video, upload in their social media. Just being teenagers and unfortunately in their hometown in their own community, they are continuously harassed by the police. So there is video of that exchange. Thank you. And I hope that there's serious follow up to that incident and explanation. Thank you. Thank you. Back to the room. Vince O'Connor, please come up and state your name and address before you make your comment. I'm Vincent O'Connor, 175 Summer Street. My views on the library are well known to all the counselors and I'm not going to restate them here. I would like to speak to two other items. One is the issue of the inspections. I would urge the committee responsible for putting that package together to hold a series of hearings in the town and specifically directed toward tenants of which I am one. In East Amherst or the apartment so on, East Hadley Road and in the North Amherst Library for residents of North Amherst and not ask how often do you want your apartment to be inspected. But what can we do that you need rent control? Reducing the amount of money that you have to earn in one week in order to qualify to rent an apartment in Amherst. Real concrete helpful things to tenants. Not empire building and so forth for the city hall. The second topic you addressed earlier in the meeting. That was waste disposal. I think that the committee ought to the council ought to really consider insisting that there be too large and too smaller apartment complexes included in the initial composting regiment. And also for those who live in apartments. The last collection that happened where I lived was at a quarter to six in the morning as I was about to leave to give somebody a ride to Northampton to work. Those those collections should be prohibited until after seven o'clock in the morning and something ought to be done about the waste containers, the almost invisible waste containers. Vince, we need to mention bike lanes and sidewalks and so forth. Thank you. We're going to go. We have two more people on the zoom link. Kathleen Anderson is next. Please come forward state your name and where you live. I'm Kathleen Anderson. I live in district three and South Amherst. And I just want to voice my support for the ARPA funds to make sure that black businesses in Amherst are included in those funds. I know that maybe there's been one person or two people, but there are other businesses that may also qualify. And I would like us to make sure that the minds of the voters are open to selecting additional black business owners. Thank you. Thank you for joining us Kathleen. Going back to the room. Melinda raid read. I'm sorry. Please correct my pronunciation and state your name and address before you make your comment. My name is Melinda read and I live in Amherst. I'm asking the town council to vote yes to authorize the borrowing of funds for expansion of the renovation of the Jones library. The vision for today's libraries is to be flexible and collaborative spaces that provide access to new technologies and create a safe hub for the public to engage. Today's libraries recognize that inaccessible and closed off rooms are out of step with the recognition that transparency and connectivity creates safer and more dynamic spaces. The Jones has limited accessibility in a warren of spaces upstairs around corners and tucked behind floor to ceiling stacks. It has unstable storage for archival materials and nothing but a nook for a teen room. The Jones needs a building that is moving into the 21st century. Now we have a plan that maintains the historic building facade and historic features within the building while opening up the interior and expanding the building to accommodate diverse programming and better safer spaces. Like a visible but separate teen room more classrooms for the award winning ESL program a permanent home for the Civil War marble plaques with the names of 300 town residents who fought on the Union side. The impressive funds that have been committed to the friends of the Jones and the library trustees capital campaign shine a bright light illuminating the importance of this project to Amherst. It has been approved by the historical commission, the design review board, the library trustees and a majority of Amherst voters. A yes vote says you value the dedication and judgment of your colleagues on these commissions and boards. A yes vote says that you value the judgment of your constituents. Please finish. Thank you. Please vote yes. Thank you. We're going to Pat on a Baku is the last person on the zoom that we are going to. I regret that we did say earlier we were only going to go with those people that raised their hands initially and invite the rest of you to send you send us public comments which I believe several of you have Pat please enter the room state your name and where you live. Good evening. Pat on a Baku Tamarack Drive. I want to echo what Vera cage and Kathleen Anderson said regarding Apple funds. I watched the December 7th. Finance committee meeting and I was stunned by the recommendation to have Apple funds, dedicated to road repairs. I don't know what we're doing in this town. I think people should come first. Black business. Black business owners have not received Apple funds, the existing ones as some BIPOC businesses. We have low income residents who are still suffering from the effects of pandemic. What are we doing in this town. Why is infrastructure more of a priority, rather than marginalized groups in our town. We prioritize Apple funds. And I also want to mention that I do not support expansion of library. The library Jones library will never be a safe space for some kids of color, including my grandkids, it will never be a safe, put some money on youth center. We fully fund all the CSS CS. WG recommendations. Chris. The AI. There are so many projects that needs money. Just just library is not the only one. Stop wasting our tax dollars. Time to last belong to everybody. Thank you. Thank you. Tim. Please come up and state your name and address before you make your comment. In order. Yes. Can I at this point make a motion to include the three remaining hands on zoom plus Daniel and Dr. There's been a motion. Is there a second. Second. Okay. Are there any questions? Then we'll bring it to a vote. And I'm going to begin that vote with Myself. I. Mandy, Joe, Hanneke. Anika Lopes. Michelle Miller. Dorothy Pam. Yes. Andy Steinberg. Yes. Jennifer top. Yes. Alicia Walker. Yes. Shalini Balmille. Yes. Patty Angelis. Hi. And on a devil. Hi. It's unanimous. Thank you. I. Excuse me. It was Gabriel, not Daniel. Okay. Thank you. Please come forward. Good evening. My, my name is Tim Neil. I live in Amity Place in Amherst. I've been a 30 year resident of this town. I've written all of you and I thought I would make a short public comment as well. So you're familiar with the opinions. This I've been a very active volunteer within the town. I former town meeting member or finance committee member. I reviewed and seen this financial plan and it is very sound. The need of course is very apparent. And I just want to end with saying we've seen this movie before regarding debt exposure and debt approvals. The people have overwhelmingly spoken for and in support of the library. And I would just urge you to approve the debt extension and move ahead with this library. Definitely, definitely need for this town. Thank you. Thank you for joining us. Common NS, please enter the room, state your name and where you live. Thank you. This is comma NS at 154 Lincoln. I'm a resident of Amherst and have been here for about for over 17 years. My daughters are 15 and 12. We are all people of color and we have my children have grown up in this library. We have seen it in all of its states of need and completely understand the need for improvement and expansion as they enter their teen years in middle school and high school having a dedicated space for them to go that is safe after school and spend time with their friends is essential. Having a building that is functioning with with functional systems and boilers that do not die in the head of winter, having a space for the Civil War monuments is incredibly important. One of my daughters is here and would like to offer her comment as well. Lena. Yeah, my name is Lena. I'm like, I'm a seventh grader at arms. I think an expansion to the library would be really good because like, it's an amazing space for people to like build community and connections and I think like a team center would attract a lot of like younger people to the library. And it's a great space to like, learn and yeah. So, so in summary, I do think that this is an incredible, incredibly well thought out plan. It has been approved by the majority of voters. We have gone through this several times and any further delays will only increase the funds that will be essential to keep the building upright and functional at the very minimum. I also completely support the expansion of ARPA funds, but I think the library is of paramount importance at this time and I would vote for, I would encourage you all to vote yes. For the funding that we need to move forward with this project and remove any further delays. Thank you. Thank you both for joining us. Back to the room. Sandy must brat. Is the green light on the democratic process has been followed 15.8. I was delighted to see. Thank you for joining us. Back to the zoom, Rob, please enter the room state your full name and where you live. Rob customer. Van meter drive. Amherst. Can you hear me. We can. Great. Yeah, I regret. I couldn't get my hand up on time, but I'm really grateful that you voted to allow the handful of people with their hands up to speak. I had a good conversation with several of you. Conversations with several of you today and in the preceding couple of weeks. We almost all agreed that. No plan is perfect. And I can say that this is one of the least perfect plans. That the town seems to be supporting. And I think it's somewhat inevitable that we're going to go with it. And. I'm not a person who likes to be on quote, the losing side. I don't believe they're losing sides, but I really think that this could have been done better. And I'm not going to offer you a position any other than what I sent you in a letter, which I think we should have been able to get to not this plan, but another plan, but apparently another plan doesn't exist moment. It's sad that there's no other plan because many of us have served in government in the past and some of us served in a position where we thought we could help the library. As it was 20 years ago, 18 years ago, 17 years ago, get on a much better footing than it is now in the mid 2000s, a couple of us served on the joint capital planning committee. We offered and encouraged the library to get to work on its HVAC system. Somehow they didn't do it, even though the monies were eventually appropriated. Here we are. All I can say is the ship looks like it's going to sale. I hope it will stay afloat and wish you all well. I'll be paying the taxes on it. I always happily pay them. I agree with many of the people who said there are many other things. Better public transportation. Better environmental improvements in the town, including preserving farmland and forest land, et cetera, that we could be spending our money on wisely. Thank you for your comments from. Thank you. Back to the room. Halina Donovan. Can we confirm the light is on? I think for the last few, the light was off. There it is. Thank you. There we go. Thanks. Hi. I'm Halina Donovan. I live on Jeffrey Lane. And I have been lived in Amherst for something 40-something years. So I'm a long-term resident. I use the Jones Library a lot. I use the Printer Library alone. I've gone to programs there. I brought my son there. It's a beautiful building inside. I really like using the Jones Library. I've never found that it's been too crowded, though. I also find that we have lots of other priorities in Amherst. I was one of the people who originally voted, you know, with that 60-some odd percent for the original plan. But the plan has changed so much that if we were to have a vote today, I would vote no in increasing the funding to the Jones Library. So that's my position is that we have things like Jeffrey Lane is like a moonscape. They did finally fill in most of the holes, but it's still very bumpy. It's not safe to walk on. There's the fire station has been on the dock for renovation moving for years. And that's somehow the library jumped ahead of the fire station. And I know the DPW building needs some work. We're paying for a new, excuse me, a new elementary school. I feel that this is not the best use of our funds. And some folks have spoken much more eloquently than I have about the votes. And I did read the Amherst Indy and what people have said about keeping the cap down. So I would encourage everyone to look into themselves and see what did you say and, you know, stick to your promises. Again, I love the library, but I don't think this is where we should be putting our funds at this moment. Thank you. Thank you for joining us. Erica Zekos, please enter the room, state your name and where you live. Hi Erica Zekos, I live at Holst Road in Amherst. I strongly urge you to go to authorize the borrowing of funds for the expansion and renovation of the Jones Library. Our library is a gem, but it's a flawed gem and it doesn't adequately serve everyone in our town and it's not a building that's prepared for the future. A vote for a new library means that our teens, our children, our English language learners will have spaces to gather and learn. It means that the building will be accessible to those with different physical abilities. It means that staff will be able to have enough space to do their jobs in a dignified way. It creates space for the community to gather and celebrate our history with the display of the Civil War tablets. A yes vote means that the existing aging leaking building will be transformed to safely house our archives and books. The original historic building will be restored and protected. Voting yes honors the will of your constituents who came out to vote yes and continue to show up in support of this incredible effort. And while some are worried about financing town committees and staff, library trustees have assured us that the fundraising is on track and the library funding will not compete with our other important capital projects. In fact, further delay will only make this project more expensive and less effective by every measure because the necessary repairs to the building and its current form will cost us more than the planned renovation and expansion. And that will make sense from every perspective, social equity, historic preservation, environmental sustainability and funding. I ask you to vote yes. Thank you for joining us. Back to the room. Claire Bertrand. Hi, my name is Claire Bertrand. And I want to thank you for taking the thoughtful time you've had to really carefully review this. You know, there are a lot of questions you've asked them to be answered and I feel like you've gotten a lot of good material and assurances, especially from the Jones trustees. The community, I think supports this and so we need you to take action now and appreciate you doing that. Thank you. Thanks for joining us. Gabrielle, please enter the room, state your name and where you live. Hi, thank you. My name is Gabrielle. Hi, no, my name is Gabrielle Davila. I live on Chapel Roan district five. And I think it's great that many of you have already been reminded of your statements earlier on how you would vote on increasing the debt cap for this project. But I think we should also talk about what it means to increase the debt cap. The increase in property taxes is in regard, you know, and the increase in taxes overall from that is not just some nuisance, but for many people it contributes to the cost of living crisis that we see ravaging our nation and our community as well. And we need to be dedicating additional funds to making our community a place where people from working class backgrounds can live, not where they live outside of our community and then to serve us. I loved and enjoyed going to the library as a child when I lived here as I always have. And it reignited my love for learning at a time when a lot of adolescents lose that spark. And I think that that's great. And I think that the library is important and that we need to keep it as a key part of our community. But we also need to ask who is this library for. And I think that if we continue to ignore the cost of living crisis and we continue to raise the tax burden, then this is not a library for the working people of Amherst. And yeah, so I urge you to remember the consequences of including more debt upon a community. I urge you to remember how you said you would vote. Please show that you are accountable to yourself and to your words and not to Amherst forward because, you know, at the end of the day, Amherst forward. And, you know, that group is not who you're supposed to, you know, you're here to represent the people who live and who work in this community and we need to find solutions that work for everyone, not just ignoring what happens when you include more debt upon the. Thank you for your comment. Back to the room, Robert Ryan. Hello, my name is Robert Ryan. I live at 120 Cottage Street in Amherst and I want to thank all the town counselors for your work. I think this is a hard job to do to hear all these comments. And I want to thank you for, you know, listening to all of us and to studying the facts about this project. The facts are pretty straightforward. The state has given us millions of dollars for this project. In fact, the state is putting up, right, almost the same amount as the town, if not more. And to me, that's the fiscal reality. We are not paying for all this by Amherst taxpayers. We're paying for part of this project, not even half of it. So to me, to get a wonderful, improved library that is safe for everyone, that is not going to leak, that's climate ready, that's going to help our carbon footprint, that's going to use less energy and be welcoming to everyone, I think really is the fiscal reality we need to get behind. And to say no to that money from the state just doesn't make sense to me. We've done that before in Amherst. It didn't make sense then, but I think really now we have a chance to do this. These other projects, they're important also, but they're not even organized yet to be at that point. I think it's important to respect all those that work so hard for these plans. You spend a lot of time on this project. So please vote yes. Thank you. Thank you for joining us. Amacar Shabazz, please enter the room, state your name and where you live. Amilcar Shabazz is my name. Truth telling from South Amherst is my game. Konichiwa. Yes. I really am not here for this library discussion, but I will say this, I love libraries. I've grown up in libraries my whole life. I think I counted it one time I've been inside over 400 libraries around the world, including the great library in Timbuktu. But I really hate that y'all in the position now of looking like lion-ass politicians. It's really, really sad. I don't know why this thing has gotten into a big dig looking kind of situation. You all ought to be madder than anybody, but be that as it may. Definitely, I will be one that will fight for it to be a democratic safe space for everybody in this town, every child in this town from black to white and everything in between. And I wish you all success on that. I just would end by saying, you know, the sharing of the ARPA funds, whatever remains to support black business, is very crucial. On the 31st, the night of Umba, we will have a special Kwanzaa event at New Africa House. I'll be speaking on the creative economy and the gift of black folk. And if you can make it, please do, especially young people, please come out because that's what we really need more is to build our creative economy here and the participation of black people being allowed to flourish. Thank you. Thanks for joining us. Back to the room. David let's go. My name is David let's go I moved to Amherst in 1977 and Morgan circle. I support the renovation expansion project. I'd like all of you to travel back with me to 1926 put yourself in the shoes of those who planned and developed a remarkable vision, a vision for not just a book exchange facility. But a pulsing thriving vital cultural center for the town of Amherst. And they realize that vision. You know, looking back over those last nearly 100 years. I'm amazed at what they created. If they were here today, I think they would be blown away. Well, they would understand singing dear baby and they would understand that they would understand programs for preschoolers. They would be pleased that there are, you know, 7,000 attendance programs for children and on and on and on. They probably wouldn't be able to understand the 25,000 log ons to navigate the arcane Byzantine terrain of the Internet. But my point is their vision was real. And I urge you now in their shoes to be bold. We have a vision in front of us, which I feel strongly you feel compelled to realize. And so I thank you in advance for voting to go forward with this project. Thank you. Thank you for joining us. We're still in the room. Athena. Are we finished? We're finished. Thank you. And thanks all of you for your public comment this evening. We are now back to the item that was originally placed on the agenda on the 4th of December. It's a supplemental appropriation for the expansion and renovation of the Jones library. Said some to supplement the amount appropriated under the town council's April 5th 2021 order, approving and authorizing, borrowing of funds for the expansion and renovation of the Jones library. With that, I'm going to place the motion on the table. Pardon me. It's on the floor. It's on the thank you very much. So the motion that is on the floor. Find it. Would you like me to read it? Please. In accordance with Charter section 5.6, having been published on the town bulletin board for a minimum of 10 days on November 9 2023, a public forum held on November 20 2023. And having been reviewed by the finance committee report of December 4 2023 to appropriate the sum of $9,860,100 for the expansion and renovation of the Jones library. Located at 43 Amity street, Amherst, Massachusetts, said some to supplement the amount appropriated under the town council's April 5 2021 order, approving and authorizing borrowing of funds for the expansion and renovation of the Jones library for a total appropriation of $46,139,800. And to meet the supplemental appropriation here under to authorize the treasurer with the approval of the town manager to borrow said amount under and a pursuant to MGL chapter 44, section seven or eight, or pursuant to any other enabling authority and to issue bonds or notes of the town therefore. And that motion was made by Lynn Griezmer and seconded by Mandy Joe Hanneke. The floor is open for discussion by counselors. Kathy. Thank you. Thank you, Lynn. And thank everyone who's come here or been two weeks ago here and sent us comments. Tonight, for me, I am faced with two choices, vote yes or no, neither of which is going to leave me sleeping well at night because I think both have high risk. So first, as I said two weeks ago, I applaud the trustees and our state and congressional legislative representatives for very successful efforts in raising millions in large federal state private grants, not to mention community ledges from our community members. They've raised over $22 million toward this project yet a gap of 7.4 million remains. And they pledged to close this gap, including putting the endowment at risk or taking out a bank loan. The town will be at risk for the 15.8 million long term debt and for interest on the short term debt. There is no agreement. There is no amendment that would share that the 46 million budget is very high. However, it doesn't include sufficient funds for furniture and audio visual equipment needed. The MOA provides an agreement that the trustees will not come back to the town in FY 25 or 26 for either of these, but the library closed for most of this. When it reopens, I am really worried that we won't have enough to do what we need for the community or the beautiful expanded space. So I'm hoping they will honor not coming back. The trustees have pledged their endowment and a willingness to go to the bank, but we all know that the endowment, the returns on the endowment help fund the operating costs. So we can't afford and none of us can afford to be pleaded. Thus, this is a yes vote, is a high risk vote. However, the no vote also puts the town and the library at high financial risk. We have no plan B that we can turn on a dime to repair and upgrade the failing systems, wiring, heat, poorly designed leaking roof and address accessibility, much let redesigned to improve the use. The estimates, of course, I think are accurate in the 18 or 19 million range, especially with the news about asbestos. If we did pivot, we would have to pay back the MLBC funds we've received to date. We would lose over $22 million in funds and particularly the large state, federal and private grants that are attached to this project. And we would lose the expanded community space that this funding would support. I double checked in my own district to see how people voted, and a substantial majority voted yes for the expansion. Their vision was one that the library has promoted, a vision of expanded space as a new public resource for more community access to music events, festive gatherings, celebrations and more, family and children meeting and coming together, and I hope that if we go forward, we will honor this vision and we will be equipped for it. So as I said at the beginning, I faced two choices. I think either of them leaves us at high risk, and I will vote later when we are called on to vote. I must say I would have preferred a more affordable project than the one that's proposed, but this, our origin was way before the council was elected. So this is the project we have before us, and a substantial amount of effort has been gone into it already to minimize the cost of the town with the huge fundraising, very successful effort. Thank you. Dorothy. Dorothy. I find this a very difficult vote, because of course I love libraries, but I also love the rest of the town. But the main problem has been the lack of any give on the plan that is here it is, we got some people we're going to send some letters, and you're going to have to just take it and that I find very just stiff neck if you want to know. So I'd like to see a little trade off in favor of the community, and for example, get rid of the book sorter which at present is supposed to dispoil the historic director's office, which is unnecessary larger libraries no longer think a book sorter is necessary. Instead, invest in some AV equipment, so that we can actually so show movies in that larger room. I don't want us to endanger strong house. I want to return the safeguards to the security that historic building which were somehow overlooked in some adjusting of some document. I would rather that we hire someone to sort books, rather than use that machine, because when you think of a library when I think of the libraries that the great libraries in my life, and they've been very influential. It's never about the machines it's about the people it's about the librarians it's about the staff. It's about the people who get to know you and what you like and connect you with something that's going to change your life. And so those are my feelings about what is important on the library. I have been informed that the delay to get some of these compromises that I see as essential is not going to be a possibility and that it would actually end up in killing the project. Therefore, I feel that we're really quite a constrained vote, but I will have to do what it seems best for the town. Thank you. Alicia. Thank you and I also wanted to take a moment to address my position on the library project. And I agree with some of my fellow counselors who have already spoken in terms of this being a very difficult decision to have to make. Given the volume of feedback that we've received from the community and the financial state of our town. I want to emphasize that my concerns solely revolve around the cost and which is inherently linked to the scale of the proposed project. And I want to acknowledge and commend the tireless efforts of the dedicated community members and the trustees who have passionately worked towards advancing this project over the years. And as a counselor, I take my responsibility to representing the Amherst community very seriously. And I recognize that the project did pass with a significant majority in a townwide vote. Regardless of whether or not we had a majority of our residents voting, this is the current process. And I think Anna said something really wise about that at our last meeting that we have to follow the processes that we have. So I do want to honor that process. But I do also want to acknowledge that there are some disparities in the current proposal and what was originally voted on. And that's what is raising some concerns for me. My advocacy at the last meeting for stronger language in the MOA stemmed from my feeling that there is a necessity to ensure that the town adheres to the strict parameters established during the initial vote and what we promised to. For me also signifies honoring the residents and their trust and the commitment that we made during the voting process. I'm apprehensive about the financial implications and the risk associated with moving forward under the current circumstances. But I also understand the challenges in considering a scale back version, which is probably not actually realistically an option at this time. Although I agree that I would prefer to have a different project in front of us that I think would have been a little bit smaller and more financially friendly. But I do understand that that's not an option at this time. And so I do agree with what Kathy said in that I'm feeling like voting yes might jeopardize our town's financial stability for for future essential projects. But voting no might stall on very necessary progress on the library and I'm not sure we actually have a better option. And so ultimately I do find myself torn understanding the importance of the library initiative yet concerned about the financial burden it might place on our town. And at the very least I hope that we can use this situation as a learning opportunity to navigate very carefully with consideration for the well being of our community and for our future. Because you know the decision that we do make tonight will affect a lot of decisions to come in the future. And so I just hope that we can understand sort of the history of this project this project started long before I even paid attention to politics. And so it's very hard for me to sort of jump in in the middle of it and say hey no wait I actually don't think it should have ever even started this way. Because I didn't have a say back then and so I can only take it from where we are now and we are in a very difficult position. And so I did just want to take my time to thank everyone who has worked on this project because I do see your dedication to the project and how much you care about the library in our town. And I do really want to say that I appreciate that and I am having a very hard time with this decision. Pam. I could say ditto to the preceding counselors. I do envy those who are able to think about this vote without the pile of antacids that I take every night thinking about it. And I'm ready for that you know pile to just be gone put away. I have been continuing to be disappointed that our town with a population similar to Greenfield our year round population similar to that of Greenfield has put forward a project this scale this size and this cost. It's about it's more than double the size of the new library in Greenfield. I've always felt that a plan B a viable plan B was possible that there were good renovations good repairs and a reorganization of the space that could be possible. Unfortunately, that was never a welcome con concept by the promoters of this project. And so it as other people have alluded to at every decision point. There was never an effort to create an alternative a viable alternative. I hold I hold mess. The MBLC heavily responsible for this, especially after seeing so many other towns in the Commonwealth having to give up their projects because they finally could not had to recognize that they could not afford them. And they were not allowed to reduce or or change the scope and scale of their projects to actually meet today's budget conditions. In the decision, all the disappointment aside, I also realize I have to focus on the risk and the cost other people have alluded to this as well and what the impact in the budget will be. Anyone advocating for this expansion and authorization of a larger amount needs to be aware that it will come at a cost to the capital budget. And we use that capital budget to pay for every other capital expense in this town, including the roads and sidewalks that everyone complains about. All the same, the town's commitment of this 15.8 million will be higher than promised whether we whether we whether our campaign promises was that or not it will be higher simply due to the higher interest rates. And the larger authorization amount of nearly $10 million to be covered with short term bonds. The estimates indicate that that debt burden will cost around $750,000 more than we would have had to had we not been asked for a greater amount. We have asked for and received cash flow tables. They indicate the best case scenario of larger and earlier contributions from fundraising to meet the target date and target and date. However, there's no projection indicating the impact on the debt cost for the town if the library doesn't or can't meet that timing and that amount of funding promised. And I'm concerned, as others have mentioned that the larger budget still may not include some of the furnishings and equipments equipment that is needed and will the library have to come back to the town for that in the future. I have gone back a number of times to plan B. I've looked at the estimates I've looked at the Cune Riddle report. And with the 15.8, much could be done for basic repair, ADA upgrades. The 15.8 I have to acknowledge does not buy a fully renovated library. It's really just the basic systems that could get renovated with that money. And so I am having to acknowledge that my goal of our dream of a solid plan B may not be possible. And it makes me really terribly disappointed that it was never a viable option. There was one phrase that was added to the MOA with the library trustees that we received just at three o'clock this afternoon. So again, we have to absorb this information. But it does state, it's like the last item that says, quote, the library also understands that the town will not pay more than its town share committed by this agreement and the previous agreements. And perhaps this one line answers as much as anything my request for a locked case of not coming back to the town for additional money. And all of this has been part of the decision making process. Jennifer. Thank you. So there I will try and be somewhat brief, but I did write something out for my district and constituents who think are divided on this as they are in those districts. Please speak to the mic. Okay. This has been the most trying decision I've had to make during my tenure on the council. No matter how I vote, fair minded, well intentioned constituents, excuse me, will be disappointed by my decision. Personally, I've long had misgivings about the project, especially with respect to the physical size and scale of the proposed new building. It always felt a bit like a classic case of the dog wagging the tail that in order to secure state funding, Amherst is being compelled to build a much larger library than it needs. We're the only town which hosts a flagship campus of the state university in which more than half of our residents are well served by world class libraries on their campuses. I also love as you all do the Jones library building every time I walk or drive by I'm struck by its historic beauty and character. All of this said, I come to the borrowing authorization from a belief that my personal position on the size of the library should not supersede the will of the voters as expressed at the polls in November of 2021. While other elements of the project have changed over the past two years, the square footage of the proposed expansion of the project has not. In the district to which I was just elected, 63% of the voters in precinct 4B and 66% of the voters in precinct 4A voted in support of the library expansion and renovation. Sadly, the Jones library is also suffering from what is referred to in historic preservation terms as demolition by neglect. The deferred maintenance is now at the point that repairs and renovations will require more way more than a new roof and HVAC system. So no matter what vote I cast tonight, many residents will be disappointed. If I do vote, yes, it will be a conflicted one, but one intend intended to honor the will of the majority of voters in the district I was elected to represent and the town as a whole. And also because going back to square one doesn't feel like a comfortable or viable option either. So I hope we can stick to the budget that we've all committed, you know, the town pay for the library. And I hope, you know, we can move forward with a sense of unity in the town. Thank you. I'd like to use my privilege as a counselor. And speak to the issue. It is clear that I support the Jones library renovation and expansion project, but is not with the blind eye. Some people have accused me of. Like some residents, perhaps I do not like certain aspects of the project, the size, the shape of the addition, why certain rooms may be placed, our books are sorted. But as with those involved with the elementary school building project, I respect the trustees and the building committee that have spent hours making these decisions. They're not this is not the question before the town council. After our first vote of the town's 15,751,810 dollars, I said then to the library trustees and I repeat it now. This is all you're getting, as long as I have a say, and I'm only one vote. But this statement did not mean I would not work to help this project get funding from other sources, and I have. And why, while I've only been one of many, I worked with our senator and our state representative to help get the additional money from MVLC. And because the town council supported the project, I've written letters of support for the federal funds. To me, that is part of what we do when we commit to a project. So as we approach this vote tonight, I want to communicate a few key points. Except for increased interest rates. This project is not costing the town any more than originally planned. We were only ever going to spend 15 million plus interest. We were always going to have to do bands, even in the former project. The original cash flow. Yes, it might have had a lower interest rate. And maybe we didn't have to have as many bands, although frankly, I'm not clear that's true. The whole difference really is the lower interest rate. Based upon the opinion of colliers and the town's capital projects coordinator, the present contingencies are adequate and meet the industry standards. That's one of the latest questions. This project will not increase your taxes because it is not a debt override vote. If we do not go forward with this project, we will lose the MBLC money, the federal money, the donor pledges and other funding that has been committed. None of it is available for repair. There it is at least a partial plan B. It is the repair estimate from tune riddle with interest costs for repair. Increased interest and unknowns asbestos abatement and energy code requirements. Both of those are included in the $46 million estimate we now have for the renovation and expansion. If we turn this project down, our first opportunity to apply to MBLC is at least seven to 10 years away. And add to that that in order for us to get to the front of the line, if they even accept us, it could take another seven to eight years. What condition do you think this building will be in 14 to 18 years from now? So I accept the fact that some in this community believe that this is not a responsible vote. It is our best path forward to provide Amherst with a renovated and expanded library and community center. And it allows us to move on to other capital projects I have personally committed to for many years. And that is a new DPW and a new fire station. Thank you. The chords here. Too often, we are faced with a question of an expensive yes and a more expensive no. I recognize what Kathy has said about both votes carrying risk and that resonates with me. A no vote, in my opinion, or based on facts as well, leaves us with the remaining need and a larger bill than the renovation and expansion. The trade off for the community is clear. We will gain a community hub, a humanity center, a library whose staff can work at their actual jobs versus spending their time trying to plug leaks literally and metaphorically. I appreciate the comments reminding us of our responses to the questions around campaign season and I hold that my response remains true as evidenced in the MOA. I do not appreciate comments which either insinuate or outright state that counselors are not capable of critical and independent thought regarding the library. As a product of the Amherst school system, I was taught to critically examine, to listen and to seek to understand. I was also taught the power of democracy and the meaning of democracy and the value that it brings to a community. This vote is challenging. I don't know any one of us who hasn't poured over spreadsheets, asked tough questions and come to a conclusion after many restless nights or bottles of antacids. I herald the climate benefits of the expansion and renovation, which do outweigh the impact of demolishing the current building. I look forward to the additional elements of a library which seek to unify a community and the work that will be done and has already started to get to that point. I will not ignore the potential of a no vote saddling our community with the cost of patching ceilings and repairing for a higher bill and lessened impact. As well as that negative potential impact on our other capital projects down the road due to the loss of state and federal funding as well as private donations. I appreciate all of those who have stimulated our thinking and pushed us all to make this vote very carefully and with intention. We, I think at this point have a clear understanding of what that no vote means and what that yes vote means and as much of an understanding of the future impacts of both as we can get. The council is a significant steward of the future of our community. I plan to support this project in spirit of that responsibility. Thank you. Anika. Thank you. I also want to express my thanks to everyone who has been involved and acknowledge that this is certainly not an easy decision I think for anyone. And I think it's really important to point out that a vote here does not determine or define how anyone here feels and cares about Amherst. I stand and I'm still this is a night of the West Side proclamation being forwarded, you know, and I stand here thankfully through people who raised me to understand that there's no one really who hasn't had a conversation with me who defines my character. The same goes for me to anyone else. I want to also mention that the gentleman who spoke forward and talked about, I believe he said 1928 and the library being built as an innovative cultural center. And I think here there's a great opportunity through the humanity center to have that be for everyone because it was not then. And so we have there's an opportunity to change this is another location where representation matters. I also want to echo honest statements about our commitments made and just one other push I want to say you know when I came, I had heard I came after I came back home after the previous school vote was done. And I heard all these stories about how people had not spoken to each other for years over how that vote went. And I do hope that that doesn't happen here. And I just wanted to address one other statement that was made in terms of gentrification and this would be and I just wanted to say that, you know, all of us support, you know, we talk about being able to bring people into town. Families young professionals, especially into single family housing. But if we look just on average what gentrification looks like is, you know, currently, a single family home the average is about $2018 you know that is 104,936 that individuals or families would be expected to have for an income. To get into and rent these homes. That's gentrification, you know, and that's been going on for decades if we go to an average which we see and I'll talk about and talk about numbers higher at $3200 we're talking about $166,400. And you're talking about young families sometimes people, they might have one parent that's with the kids and whatnot or it's to income so I think this has been going on for decades and that to. Equate that to the Jones library I don't think this is the roots of gentrification and Amherst and I do think that acknowledging that this is a very expensive project this will actually add avenues for those who otherwise wouldn't afford the services that are going to be in the Jones library that those opportunities. Thank you. Motion's been made and seconded. I'm going to begin with a roll call. I believe grease mirrors first and I am and I Mandy Joe Hanneke. I, and the colopes. I, Michelle Miller. I, Dorothy Pam. Yes. Pam Rooney. Yes. Kathy Shane. Yes. Andy Steinberg. Yes. Jennifer Todd. Yes. Alicia Walker. Upstain. Shawnee Balmille. Yes. Pat DeAngeles. Aye. Anna Devlin-Gother. Aye. The motion passes 12 in favor one abstention. Point of order Lynn. Thank you. We're going to take about a five minute break. And then come back to the rest of our meeting. We have quite a few things to get done. It's nice to have a review study here with me. I know. I know. It's really special. I'm telling you, it's like really special. Let's take a selfie. Oh yeah. So special. I don't know if you can get us all in here. Are we close enough? She's working on it. I'm good. Yeah. Ready? Yeah. One more. Awesome. I like that. That was good. Yeah. We have the rest of the meeting to go. I only did that when we're waiting for a break. Which is good. I'm in pine groves. So like the condo. Yeah. I love that. They are so nice. Yeah. We're really enjoying the room. Yeah. I love that. Yeah. Yeah. I love that. We have the rest of the meeting to go. We're waiting for a break. Which is good. I kind of smashed out in the middle of my day. And so I'm like trying to make the transition. And if I'm not like looking, paying attention to the closet. And we didn't slide once years ago. Yeah, they all look very similar. Yeah. They're slightly different, but very similar. Nice. Please, we need to reconvene. Room is suddenly quite empty. The next item on the agenda is from the town services outreach committee. It's with regard to traffic calming measure, interim traffic calming measures on Henry Street. I'm going to place the motion on the floor. Look for a second. It's to recommend the following traffic calming measures on Henry Street, adding dynamic speed feedback signs in each direction of traffic on Henry Street, increased traffic details from the Amherst police department with a report back from the town manager by February 1st, 2024, regarding recommendations for traffic calming measures. Is there a second? The answer is second. Thank you. I'm going to first ask for the town service and outreach committee report, Anika. Okay, bear with me one second. Let me just get to the top. Please speak into the mic. Yeah, bear with me one second. Let me get to the top. Okay. I just wanted to first thank all of the members of TSO, myself being chair would have been possible without you, especially huge that- Anika, this is on the motion regarding traffic calming. I thought you just asked me to go over the carryover memo. No, traffic calming. Sorry, I was going to give a brief overview of the memo. I knew that's where you were going. Okay, so for traffic, I'm actually going to send this over to Anna, because she made the motion that she was very excited about. Anna. I'm excited about all my motions. All right, so where we got to, I know that this is a long motion. When this came forward, it came in tandem with our work around safety zones. As a reminder, safety zones are something, essentially the concept is that we can opt into a certain provision of state law and establish then criteria to create safety zones around areas that deserve slower speeds, but might not already be captured under state school zones. For example, childcare centers. That's the very abridged version. I highly recommend reading the full lots, fascinating. But when this request came through, we didn't want to delay it further by going through necessarily the entire process of creating the criteria for a safety zone and then seeing if this project qualified because of the urgency and the outreach from community members who are trying to drop their kids off at school and have found speeding vehicles, making it really unsafe. So as TSO discussed this, what we tried to come up with were what were some temporary things that we could do at this location to calm the traffic in front of the childcare center. And then how can we make sure that we're continuing progress on the safety zone process in order to establish those as soon as possible? What we came up with, there was a lot of discussion about things like speed bumps, things like rating of the road, all of this, but ultimately those are much more permanent measures and the cost of doing things that might seem temporary such as one of the plastic speed bumps often have to get lifted in winter for plows and cost as much as a permanent option. So where we landed was the speed notification signs facing each way that will inform you of what the speed is as well as what you are going, encouraging you to slow down as you drive down this road and process for finalizing the safety zone procedure and increased speed patrols on that street as well. One of the challenges that we're coming up with is the study, the engineering study on this road to start it down the safety zone process was due to be completed this month. And with students out of town, we wouldn't necessarily get an accurate picture of speeds on that road. So we are moving forward with the engineering study. The engineer will come back with recommendations which the council can then vote to adopt or agree to. So we've got an interim measure on the floor in front of us. This will not be the last time that we discuss a safety zone in front of Cushman Scott Daycare. But right now we've got some interim measures that we can do to try to support the parents and the kids and community members in that area. I also want to, sorry, I want to throw a couple of gratitudes, I know, to one to the parents who have been advocating so strongly and passionately for this and engaging in our process. I know that it has been challenging and I want to express gratitude. I know that it's tough sometimes. And then I also want to thank our DPW staff and our APD who have been monitoring this area for speed and helping to move this project forward in opposite order. So thank you. Thanks. Are there comments or questions? Mandy Jo. Yeah, my comment, my question actually relates to the bullet point of increased traffic detail from the APD. I'm just curious whether that's increased within each APD's own shifts or whether that increased traffic detail isn't intended to be an increase in shifts and potential over time. Mr. Brockman. So I think it will be as staff is available and there are two busy times during the day in the morning and in the afternoon when they will have some to focus on those busy times when there are students crossing the street basically. So in other words, no increase in staffing just available as, okay. Anything else Mandy Jo? Okay, Andy? As speaking as a member of the ESO, I wanted to also thank the Transportation Advisory Committee. Thank you. And they had a meeting which they solely focused with their expertise on developing the advice to provide to the TSO committee and very convinced by the first prior presentation and the research they did really substantiated that that is one of the ones because when the time shows what the speed is and how much people do slow down and one of our really good and was talking about the sign that is the place for the end of the street and throughout the situation that it really has made a difference. So the proposal to have those installed is appropriate on both sides of the pretty good day here. So let me think of some initial steps while we're using those today. Studying and studying whether it's required or whether it's under study. Thank you, Pam. I support doing whatever we can with it. If this is an interim measure, that's good. It's a good first step, but I would like to actually hear that it's more it's, there's another step being planned that this is simply just a way to raise awareness. Is that true? Yes, it is. So the engineering study that I referenced is going to come back with recommendations. Those will be the permanent measures if that answers that question. And Andy, thank you for mentioning TAC. I apologize. That was not an intentional omission. Thank you. Okay, are there any other questions or comments? Seeing none, we're gonna move to a vote. We're gonna start with Mandy Johanicki. Aye. Anika Lopes. Aye. Michelle Miller. Aye. Dorothy Pam. Yes. Pam Bruni. Yes. Kathy Shane. Yes. Andy Steinberg. Yes. Jennifer Togg. Yes. Alicia Walker. Yes. Shelley Balmillan. Yes. Pat DeAngeles. Aye. Anna Devlin-Gothier. Aye. Lynn Gries-Mersen. Aye. It's unanimous. We're moving on to our next item on our agenda, which is the proposed legislative process guide, and this is coming out of town services and outreach committee. I'm gonna point out, and I'm not, I'm gonna point out that there are two motions, options on the table, I mean, on the sheet. One is to adopt, I would propose that it's accept. The proposed legislative process guide as presented or amended. And the other one is to refer it to GOL with a report back to the town council by February 26th, 2024. Let's have a brief conversation and then we'll see which motion we put on the table. Oh, I'm sorry. Let me ask TSO to, first of all, present and as well as Shalini, who provided this to the committee. Shalini? Sure. So thank you for this opportunity. Pretty excited about this. So they're 13 of us councillors and we have different experiences and we bring different things to the table, which is a good thing, except when we don't have shared language, shared processes to channel that collective wisdom and then also the expertise in our town committees and in our public, then we, the policies we're ending up with are not benefiting fully from all of this. So it's creating certain problems as well. So basically this suggested guide is, I wanna thank Athena for her guidance and also talking to Paul, some of the committee members that I reached out to, CSSJC chair, I reached out to a bunch of people, I'll thank them later. But basically there were a couple of three problems that this guide is supposed to address. One is that it's supposed to help sponsors, councillors, especially who are new, to empower them to initiate new bylaws because it can be intimidating to think that, oh, I have to write a new bylaw, what does, it's a very mysterious and scary prospect, it was for me. But when I actually went through the process with Wasteholler, I'm like, oh, this is really doable. And if there was a guide with what a new sponsor is expected to include in it in terms of the questions you're addressing, the best practices. So I wanna highlight that one particular thing is best practices. What I have found is that most of the policies that we're discussing, whether it was Wasteholler or rental registration, there are already research done out there which summarizes the best practices. So for example, for Wasteholler, there was Bands and Beyond which was a process that is set out looking at different cities, what are the best practices? What are the pros and cons of composting? What were some of the challenges that people, communities faced? How to engage the community? So there are already processes. For rental registration also, I found a best practices which is a guide to proactive rental inspections. So that's one of the things that's in the checklist for sponsors, then is like, hey, you can go out and look out for, and this is for best practices and you can include some of these things in your memo to then help the full town council understand the research you've done, you've documented it and you're presenting it to the council. The other thing is the other challenge with sponsors face is that I didn't know that and I know many counselors didn't know that that when we are proposing a change or an amendment, the counselor is supposed to put forward the by-law in the state that we wanted adopted. And to me, that was puzzling because in academia, we first study the community, we study the issue, whether it's, we do research and then we create the by-law but the charter 2.10 requires that when you are a sponsor is bringing forward an amendment, they have to have a full by-law written and the other part of it is then that signals to the advocates sometime like, oh my God, you've already written up this by-law and that's not what we want but we are proposing a by-law and then there is gonna be a community engagement process to tweak it and decide what the final shape is. So this checklist basically and put clarifies that for the sponsors and for the community that there is gonna be a by-law and there is going to be room for changing it and shaping it. So all that with sponsors with the town council what I provided was a checklist to have a more robust conversation around what are our priorities? What, you know, talk to get feedback from the town manager and the staff like given where the town staff is so they're not overburdened what, when can they realistically allocate time for this? Look at the town council's priorities from a social justice angle from the environmental angle and economic viability. So just providing a checklist so that we have a shared set of questions to have a more robust conversation about how to prioritize this proposed change or issue, right? And then it gets sent to the committee. Now in the committee, there were two problems that we were facing. One is the conversation with other town committees like TAC and ECAC or CSSJC. We've heard like they're not sure what is the role that they play in terms of providing. They feel like a council has already proposed a by-law maybe we're supposed to say yes to it and that's not the case. We want their feedback. So this also creates a formal process for the committee to then ask the whichever committee, town committee or board officially for guidance. This is what we're looking recommendations for and by what time. And then the process also invites the council committee to go back and let the ECAC or whoever know that this is what has been proposed. So you're closing the loop on it and I'm getting feedback. The other pieces that we all have limited resources for community engagement, much as we all want community engagement, we have very limited resources to do that. So I created as many channels, community partners and tools that we already have. Like working with Sarah in Amherst College like she said that waste haul or something their campus would be interested in working with or maybe CSSJC has access to people that we want to or working with family outreach. So there are community partners listed and there are tools and channels that we can use including our district meetings, including our newsletters to get the word out in a more systematic and intentional way. And so the hope of all of this is to really operationalize the values that we set out early on. Like we had values of community participation that's our first value, creativity and innovation to listen to new ideas, DEI, fiscal responsibility, respect, teamwork, transparency and healthy balance. All of these values like through this process that we share and engage in together allows us to really act on those values. Okay. Are there other comments from TSO? Are there questions or comments or other thoughts? Pam Rooney. Has any other committee expressed interest in discussing it? So I'm looking at the future GOL. Is that the logical place to kind of discuss this and work it out? Or B, is it a council retreat topic that looks at it and ways the factors and discusses how it could be adopted? It seems like a really good idea. It seems like a really good resource. Okay. Mandy Jo. I have concerns about the first proposed motion that uses the word adopt the guide because I'm not sure it becomes a guide anymore as much as an actual required process everyone must follow including all of the checklists that are included in it and the rubrics that are included in it. I don't believe it becomes anymore just sort of an FAQ informative. Here's what we could be doing. I think it becomes a mandated thing. And a lot of them my further questions as I went through this relate to that but a lot of these when it talks about council priorities within the rubric or on some of the questions mentioned three of our six goals of the town manager goals of council sort of policy goals and it leaves out, there might be seven now but it leaves out community safety. It leaves out housing. It leaves out capital projects as part of the rubric for things of considering and all. And so I don't believe I could hit the word adopt tonight without further conversation. I think if we want to go this route I'd be okay with referring it to a committee to discuss further whether it needs to be a frequently asked questions similar to others that GL has adopted as a committee about proclamations and stuff or whether it really needs to be incorporated into other documents of ours. Anika. Yes. So I don't want to speak for Shalini but just the conversation within TSO this was push for it as it was a guiding document like food for thought, not criteria that would have to be done but it was also to Shalini's point looking at it from an academic it was I think that some of us may have been surprised to hear about oh you should bring forward a bylaw proposal in the form you would like to see it proposed but I do think we see that happen a lot. I think many counselors do also bring forward a proposal bylaw and it is that way but I think where the attention was called also was like with many things be it grant writing so you put forward what you want but then at the very foundation is where you're working backwards and making sure that you have everyone at the table and perspectives then as opposed to when things come to counsel. So I just you know that that was I just wanted to point that out as we've seen like a lot of we'll see research and how someone will say there's been outreach or whatever they've talked to everyone and as we've just seen with our Jones library conversation the percents that you're actually who you're actually talking to is very small and then we often hear like we've talked to the whole such and such community so yes I just wanted to put that in but I would I guess I would imagine like most other proposals that it would go to GOL. Dorothy. I guess I have a confusion as to where the word adopt came from because our discussion in TSO was not using a word as strong as adopt which sounds like required but it was presented at least and we were accepting it as an advisory a very interesting and thorough advisory list of information but not as something that we were required to do. So I thought that had been settled. So where did the word adopt come from? It was in the motion sheet. I think that again that can be changed. Okay, thank you. Shalini, you have your hand up and then I'm going to go to Pat. I can wait for everyone to ask a question and then address some of them. Pat, please go ahead. I was going to pick up on what Pam said I believe this should go to GOL and what was the and possibly the retreat. Yeah, I guess I want to spend time on the rules of procedure at the retreat so I would rather see this go to GOL and come back or something like that. I am not ready to adopt. A guide is very different than and I have some questions about this is a place I'm stuck. It doesn't mean it's accurate or anything else. It seems to me that I have to bring my idea of a bylaw to the council to find out if they think it's important enough for me to continue. That's the, and I'm really uncomfortable with that because it's already subject to a vote before it's been created, designed in my head. I don't know if that's correct. So I'm really putzing around in my brain with that. It makes me really uncomfortable because who decides what, you know, if we're who decides what we can go forward with as a counselor, I stand on my right to go forward with whatever I think is important for town. And if I find other counselors to come with me, that's that's incredible. That's great. And I might then bring a bylaw and forward eventually and it might not pass and I have to live with that or it might pass and I have to live with that. So I'm a little, I want to take out the pieces that feel to me like you want to control it one wants to control it before it gets started. Okay, Michelle. I really just want to say thank you to Shelley and you for putting this together because I think it really captures so much of the challenge that we've all experienced in one way or another. And I know that it takes time to, you've put a lot of time and thought into it and I will not be on the next council, but if I were, I'd be really excited to see how this works into the system. And I certainly would support it being referred to GOL for further discussion. Okay, Andy. Yeah, I didn't ask to speak as a member of TSO even though I am a member of TSO because I actually want to come at it from something that I have raised many times in this council and that's the issue that, which is what does it mean when the council is asked to vote to refer a proposed, and I've been saying this, it's the amount of the committees and staff. And given the amount of resources that we've put into it, I think that we've observed over the last few years is the amount of time that I used to think about this, the amount of time that committees that you're serving on were bogged down on working on more bylaws, proposed bylaws, and other actions of bylaw nature, some of which are policy, that took a tremendous amount of resources, staff and council resources. And as a consequence, look at the number of places that are carryover bylaws that are proposed to us for consideration later in this meeting. So what Johnnie did in part one of the proposal was to think through a framework of what are the questions that we might want to consider in order to make that decision that to help future councils put some order into how it prioritizes its time in the time of staff who support the council work. And ultimately, it is a question that has to be resolved through the rules process, which is why it asks to ultimately be a TOL decision with the advice from the retreat. And the other is to help us think through what we need to do to really get community input into the work that we do. So I'm going to conclude my remarks here by thanking Johnnie in the case that he brought to this council through the entire service that run and did at the end of the service, to try and make sure that some of the issues we have to deal with, including where to follow bylaw and this process of how things can be concluded, how we decide how to allocate our research to staff in order to put some order into that. Alicia. I also just wanted to thank you, Shalini, for putting this together. And it's resonating with me because at our last finance committee meeting, I think Lynn asked Anna and I what would have been helpful for us as finance committee members in terms of being familiar with how the committee works. And this is something that would have been helpful for me as a first-time counselor coming onto the council. Like if I would have had this document before my first council meeting and had some time to like look through this, I think that this would have been immensely helpful and like understanding that it can probably be reviewed and changed. I think this is an amazing start and a very important thing to do. The one question that I have, and I think it's sort of building off of some of the concerns that Pat voiced is like, how do we envision that this document will be utilized? Because I could absolutely seeing it be an incredible resource for any counselor, but specifically new counselors, especially in the future. But I also wouldn't want it to be like a binding, like you need to do it this way, but just that like generally, this is the way to do it. And I think it's, you know, it could be used in a way that an informative way and to help us structure short of the way that we're moving things forward. And so I think that that could be helpful, but I just wanted to learn a little bit more about how you envisioned that this would be used. And I would be happy to vote to refer it to GOL. Anna? I wasn't sure if Shalini wanted to respond to Alicia first. Yeah, I'm getting ready to put a motion on the floor, but why don't you go ahead, Anna? She asked to hear from everybody before she respond. Okay. So the questions posed in this guide are helpful in considering where to start in bringing something forward to the council. And I actually remember reading early on in, you know, 2019 or 2020, an early draft of something similar that Shalini had created when I was deciding to run for council. And I found that guide helpful. So I appreciate Shalini's work on this. And I also appreciate her willingness to hear feedback from TSO and go through that iterative process with us. Bringing something forward in bylaw form, I actually appreciate it. And I think this guide makes it easier to do that, which can be intimidating because it provides something for counselors to give substantive feedback on as something goes to committee versus a vague idea or a proposal that, you know, has a lot of possible loopholes or gaps depending on how a bylaw is written. And I think that it's easier to provide feedback on something once it's in bylaw form. I do not see it as a final proposal. And I think this guide allows us to create or supports counselors in creating draft bylaws to put on the table that are robust in how they're presented. I don't see them as final proposals. This council and the council before it has not been highly discerning in what we send to committee. And possibly the council will be in the future. I hope so. I think that it's a really important tool to decide what moves forward and what doesn't. And I think this guide allows counselors to bring something to the table that doesn't have enough unknowns that counselors feel obligated to send it to committee in order to get those unknowns more known, right? I'm hopeful that this guide will lead to more robust first drafts coming to the council that we can then decide a little bit more, maybe substantively whether or not we refer. I support this document being sent to GOL and I also want to reiterate what I said at TSO, which is that I'm not willing to support this being a mandated or required guide. And I am concerned that counselors may use this as a judgment guide, not considering the merit of an idea if it did not respond to every element of the guide itself. It is important to me that this remain an educational tool and I support GOL examining it for clarity and consistency and possibly proposing some elements of it into the rules in the future as they see fit, but wanted to reiterate my appreciation for this concept and the document that has emerged and that I believe must remain an educational tool and not a mandate. Pam. Yes, thank you. I think a guideline and a tool and a resource is important. As a counselor who has been on neither the TSO or the GOL, I'd love to have a robust conversation about this topic and so I would love a forum where that could happen. That's why I was suggesting that maybe it's a retreat topic. There's a real tension between developing something fully and bringing it forward, which is a lot of work on everyone's part versus bringing concepts forward and sometimes one may work over the other. It's not an always one route and I think we need to discuss that more. Shalini, I'm gonna put a motion on the table, but please go ahead. So the intention is that it's a living document and it is a guide and you can take elements off it and make it into a process if you want that should go to GOL. As it is, I think Athena, I don't know if you wanna speak to it, how you had envisioned that this is a guide and doesn't need to go to GOL, but of course you all can definitely vote it. I'm happy that it's out there. I've done my bit and I'm putting it out there, but does it need to go to GOL if it's just a living document and an informational guide? First of all, I apologize for putting adopt on the motion sheet. I didn't mean that to be a controversial word. I think it could benefit from a review by GOL, but it's up to the council whether it wants to refer or not. Okay, so I'm happy with that part. The second thing is it is based on our retreat actually. So if you all remember when we did the retreat and I kept coming to Lynn, what are we doing with that? You know, we did go through that process and this is very much a reflection of the process we did and I tried to capture that, but then also took feedback from community members from some of our town committees. Like I said, TAC, Road Back, CSSJC, Road Back. I'd written to planning board. I'd written to quite a few committees and a lot of community members who do this kind of work. So I got a lot of feedback and based on all of that. And how I envision it though, is that I think Pat, you raised the question and that is the tension. And it is kind of a vulnerable place when a sponsor is bringing forward something they really care about and then there's gonna be this robust conversation now before it is sent out to a committee. And the purpose of that robust conversation is to move from I to, you know, from me to we and to bring all the counselors on board with why we should be sending this to a committee rather than taking it for granted. Because there can be many different projects and maybe in the future, you know, people can come in with whatever, but the onus is on the sponsors that you care about this, I care about this project. But now I need to share it with everyone here given our shared priorities for social justice, for, you know, viable economy and climate change. I mean, I took those as a broad and within that there are different things. But given our shared priorities and town manager goals, how is this gonna promote those goals? So that's what this document is doing in terms of the priority prioritizing rubric. That's again meant to be like a visual. It's not meant to be like, oh, let's count how many pluses and minuses but it's more like to have the questions rather than one counselor asking because then that counselor feels like it's awkward to ask but if there are questions already from a pool that different people can ask about how is this affecting or how is this contributing to our goals? What is the cost gonna be? What are the unintended consequences gonna be on people? What is it gonna cost the town? Do we need to, you know, so it's giving a set of different questions and it is a living document. So you can keep adding more questions that you all are finding useful. I'm good to in the interest of time put the following motion on the table to refer the proposed legislative process guide to the governance organization and legislation committee with a report to the town council by February 26, 2024. Is there a second? Second. Okay. I just want to speak to the motion very briefly. Kathy, this is just an amazing piece of work that you've done, Shalini, you know, with a reflection on five years on the council and it does come out of a previous retreat but it still needs more time. So one of the things that happens by sending it to GOL it also becomes part of their carryover memo. I'm saying that so the pack gets that message. You still have to finish up the carryover memo. So with that, Kathy, you had your hand up. I'll speak to the motion, Lynn. Okay, go on. I'm fine with it going to GOL but I really encourage this not mushrooming to a giant long discussion to go over every sentence. I think it's a background, a living document and Pam's idea, if we do do a retreat, do a half hour just talking through these ideas. I feel the same about the rules of procedure. I don't think every new council needs to minutely go through it every year. We should just go back to it if there's a problem. So I'm looking for how can we not create work in committees because I was really worried in district one we wouldn't even have two people running for the two slots. And we need to, over the next few years, show that it's not a full-time job unless you just want to work full-time. Okay, if the motion's been made and seconded or is there any other discussion? Shalini, you had your hand up. Yeah, quick question. So I'm okay, I mean, of course, that's how you want to vote it. I totally supported going to GOL but is there a way for it to be brought into the retreat that or the orientation, like even without it being approved by the GOL and the town council, is it something that can be shared with the new councilors? It seems to be that one of the things that GOL should be looking at is how to bring it into a retreat. Right, the other thing is we don't approve, we recommend, so those are different things. Right. Andy, you still had your hand up. I actually just put my hand back up. I guess I'm not in favor of the motion because I think that what we're being initially asked to do is we need to get rid of the first word that was used but to acknowledge that the document and accept the document as a guide, it seems to me that GOL's role is to decide whether something that is going to be acted upon by the council is clear, consistent and actionable. I don't know that this really fits it. So, Michelle? I completely understand Andy's point and I will say that GOL is a committee that deals with governance and this is a document that deals with process within the governance. So, while I understand if it's not going to be something that's coming back to the council to be adopted, I do think GOL is still a good committee for it to go to to get fleshed out a bit more to understand whether it should go into a retreat or if pieces should be proposed to be added to the rules of procedure. So I still support it going to GOL. Okay, so motion's been made and seconded. We're going to begin the vote. In this case, I believe we begin with Nika Lopes. Oh, the motion that was to refer the proposed legislative process guide to the governance organization and legislation committee with a report to the town council by February 26, 2024. Okay, aye. Michelle? Aye. Dorothy Pam? Yes. Pam Rooney? Kathy Shane? No. Andy Steinberg? No. Jennifer Taub? Yes. Belisha Walker? Yes. Shalini Balmilm? Yes. Pat DeAngelis? No. Anna Devlin-Gother? Aye. Lynn Griesmers and I, Mandy Johanicki? Aye. Motion passes 10 in favor of three opposed. We're moving on to the financial guidelines. They have been put before the council, received a lot of input going back to the finance committee. Andy, is there something, I'm going to make the motion and that's to adopt the FY25 financial guidelines as presented and I'm looking for a second. Shane, seconds. Okay. Andy, is there something from the finance committee report you'd like to share with us? I'll let other members of the committee speak. I had intended and I think that it was just to mix up between those of us who put everything into the packet in the end to have two versions go in and one was the Markup version. And the reason for the Markup version is that the process that we used in the committee was a very good one. And so therefore I feel extremely comfortable recommending the guidelines. But what we did was that we started with a version that either included suggested changes or had comment boxes that identified all of the comments from our last discussion at the committee meeting and the Markup version did not have the back and forth that was going on with comment boxes and did have the changes. And I had thought that it would be useful for the committee to have it. But that said, I want to assure you that we thought about each comment that was received. I think that we had really good discussion and good outcome of adopting changes that addressed those points and that we did not add anything new to the guidelines that was not in the prior draft unless it was coming out of a comment or delete unless it was coming out of a comment. We were very conscious of our responsibility in this run to only edit based upon comments received at the council meeting. So I'm comfortable with what we developed and I'm sorry that I didn't catch until too late that the Markup version that I had requested didn't end up in the packet because I think that would have been useful for those who were concerned about particular issues to see how they were dealt with. This has made it a little bit harder for you to find that. So I'll leave it there, thank you. Are there any comments or questions? Shalini? I'm sorry I'm seeing this so late in the day but I'll just put it out there. I know we've had a conversation about underutilized assets and I wonder if underutilized assets like buildings or lying vacant and do we need any guidance? I know we've talked about this earlier but do we need to include that in the guidance of or out to the town manager about what sort of revenue options, opportunities that are with these buildings and all that we have? And do we need to include that? Any comments or questions? Let's go on to Alicia Walker. Thank you, I did just want to apologize, Andy, because I was unable to fully participate in the finance committee meeting so I didn't get to share some of my thoughts on this document but there are two things that feel really important to me and one of them is that, sorry, so in, I believe it was like capital or... Let's put it up on the screen so that we can follow it. Thank you, sorry. No problem. So it's expenses for operations, actually. There's a section that has a number of recommendations for the uses of ARPA funds and I'm actually hoping that we can take that out because it's specified specific uses for ARPA funds but doesn't include all things that I believe the ARPA funds should be used for and I think that that should be a separate conversation when the ARPA recommendations come from the town manager that we deal with it at that time. I don't think we should be putting recommended uses in here for the ARPA funds ahead of that conversation because there are things that I think ARPA funds should be used for that are not included in this list and I would of course opt to add those things but I think it deserves a more full, separate conversation, the use of ARPA funds and additionally another thing and I wasn't sure if this is something that was ever resolved and I know it came up at the finance committee meeting and that was the discussion of staffing and I know that there was some discussion about having some type of staffing study or something to look into that more but I think that at the last ECAC meeting Stephanie Chickarello said that she recently missed another grant deadline just because she doesn't have capacity and so I think like when we're talking about initiatives that we wanna move forward and the fact that we don't have funding for all of the things that we need to do something that would be in our great benefit I mean more staffing in all departments which is probably not possible but staff to manage grants, staff to manage more income to the town to be able to work on certain initiatives and I'm wondering if there's anywhere that that was represented because I know it came up but I wasn't sure because I missed part of the meeting how we settled that conversation. Andy do you wanna speak to, I think the second one is included. I think we had quite a discussion about staffing and grants and included something on that. While we're looking for that I'm gonna go to Mandy Jo. I just had a basic question that doesn't really deal with the language of this but on the first page it says the guidelines refer to the town charter and to the town of Amherst financial management policies and objectives that were adopted in January of 2008 and revised in 2022. I don't remember the council revising them so I just have a question as to whether the council votes them or was it another body? Is it the manager that adopts and revises the financial management policies? Is it just, it doesn't have to be answered tonight but I would just like to know cause I don't remember the council adopting the financial management policy any revisions to that document so I'm curious who did? Good question, thank you. So we're looking at two things right now. One was the issue of ARPA, another one was the issue of a staffing study and the third was the one that Shalini raised which is under the utilized buildings that could be used to produce revenue. Of those, I know the staffing issue with regard to grants was discussed and it's somewhere in this page. It's someone who's ever scrolling stuff because you just had it on the page. There's several places where it comes up, this page as well as page 10 and there was one other one. I remember it being. So I can speak to it. What we talked about was that bringing in grants that also cover staff could bring in new staff and we're particularly looking at where the staff could then bring in new grants so in both directions as you're saying, we showed that if the examples that we've all known is that there's federal incentive money out there and we don't have staff to even apply for it we lose the resources so there's probably a way to do some of that within the grant bringing in coverage of staff as well. So we added the words, including staff. Okay, so I think that one's managed. Surplus was on page eight. The surplus property is the end of September to begin. And the surplus property is on the top of eight. Thank you. And the staffing study is middle, bottom-ish of page six. I guess on the marked up copy it's the last paragraph that's showing right now is surplus property. That's the issue of when we don't have, when we have a property we're no longer using. Is that what you're referring to? Yes. What I'm referring to, I think that covers Sean's question, but Sean is the only one that can do that. So I think that's taken care of and then let's find whatever we've said about ARPA. Maybe we have to do a word search. It's on page seven. It's the top of page seven. And so if it's okay if I just reiterate, my concern was just that we have very specific initiatives listed here. And I mean, I could argue to add other initiatives, but I think that just taking them out and having the ARPA discussion be a separate discussion from this in terms of the use of the ARPA funds, I think might be in our best interest because I think that it would involve a much more in-depth conversation to determine what we do believe the best recommendation for the use of the ARPA funds are. So the recommendation would be basically to strike the sentence that says this could include allocation of ARPA funds to town capital needs, including roads, blah, blah, blah, fossil fuels. Yeah. Okay. Let's pause on that for a moment and going back to Finance Committee, I guess. Does it change anything dramatically if we eliminate that sentence? I'm gonna go to Anna while we think about that. Anna? I think the, my understanding was that that sentence was based on a conversation that we as the council had. I do not remember even the month, but a while back where these were brought forward and discussed, I don't mind taking them out strictly because I believe that the allocation specificity lies with the town manager and I don't necessarily agree that it's appropriate for us to be pitching specific projects since it's ultimately his decision. And what we are asking for in the first sentence is basically saying, we need to be made aware so that we can talk to our constituents and pass messages along. But the vote that the last council made authorized the town manager to make those decisions and I would support striking that sentence strictly because even though I think that there's great things in there because I think that what we're bordering on is the council overstepping into what we've asked the town manager to be responsible for. Okay. Yes. I'm having problems getting to kind of having the document and the hand raised on separate pages, separate screens. The sentence, I mean, what we say in there is we recommend that you include remaining ARPA funds and projections of other possible grant support. But we don't really, we give examples but do we really recommend anything other than we're giving examples but it's not an exclusive list. And ultimately it is, I think that the question back to, the elution may be raising is whether we want to make more concrete recommendations than just saying, here's some possibilities and we'd like you to include the remaining ARPA funds and projections in your planning. So I think that it's a, that's really what the question becomes as to whether we want to have the opportunity to provide more than just here's some possibilities but give more concrete suggestions. Michelle. I have a question and a comment. My recollection is we received public input on the second round of ARPA funds. So I think the meeting that Anna is referring to is when we received input from the public and it included many of these items that input but it also included a lot of other items that are not in this list. So I do feel uncomfortable that the list is limited to particular items that I don't believe were discussed as a full council. So I would very much be in favor of removing this because I think at this point we're not going to have that discussion before these are adopted. I also have a question for Paul. Paul, is there a timeline when the second round of funds need to be spent? Like what are the milestones or deadlines? So all the funds have to be contracted for by the end of 2024 and spent by the end of 2025. And is that by calendar 2025? Thank you. Okay. Jennifer, I'm not ignoring you Alicia. I'm trying to get other people. That's okay. Yeah, just briefly. I agree with Alicia that and what Michelle said when there's a list somehow that if it's not comprehensive it looks like we're prioritizing. So I think just to delete what's highlighted in yellow would be wise. Kathy? I'm okay with taking this out but I just want to point out the context. It was in the past when we've seen a budget we don't necessarily see that we bought a bunch of grant funds in and it paid for something in the budget. So that was the context that we don't even see it. So an example would be the turnaround on Palmaré Lane. That was grant funded but you didn't ever see it in the budget. So trying to figure out a way to show us that in addition to the property tax revenue and everything else there were some grants and they bought us the following. So taking this out is fine but that was the sense it was in and we just picked capital projects because you wanted to say some of the roads were paid for by this source, by this source because it says next year we won't have the money. You know, that we get one time money. So that's the context. It wasn't to be selective and say not other things but things that aren't town services would not be there, you know, in the same way. So we get this extra money and you never actually see it year after year if you pull up the budget book. So again, I'm okay with taking out but that was the sense of it that, you know, you're spending money and getting us roads but we didn't see that money anywhere. Paul, you have your hand up. This is just a response to Mandy Jo's question. It's really a typo, it should say 2012, not 2022. There you go. All right, we have one correction we are making and I'm gonna go to Pam Rooney. Okay, so we've talked about eliminating the sentence. Many of the, oh, don't go away. Don't move. Go back, where the sentence. I'll come back, I'm fixing the date on the first page. Well, I'll just say it then. So instead of listing specifically the capital projects, perhaps we could say, in addition to ameliorating the impact of COVID on our most vulnerable residents, we might, you might consider some on capital projects such as those discussed by the community. Paul, you still have your hand up. Okay, Andy. Excuse me. I guess two things. One is I think that there's nothing that's problematic about removing the ARPA section and coming back at it in the next council because the guidelines really are written to assist the town manager in developing the FY 25 budget that he's presented on May 1st. And this is when the council can be most helpful in providing guidance for that document. But the ARPA funds, as was pointed out by Paul in giving the schedule of when decisions have to be made and when funds have to be expended are not operating on the same timeline. So I guess that was point one. So if the decision of the council is to move the references to ARPA, it's not gonna be harmful for the purpose that we created guidelines to begin with. But then the other thing that I just wanna note is and I think I can't remember when I explained this so it was to the committee or the full council, but my experience on the MMA physical policy committee when we did surveying of how funds were being spent far more communities were using it for capital as opposed to operating because operating expenses have a lasting effect and you have to, you're gonna fund them in future years which we found out with firefighters but a large number of communities more than operating capital of COVID. So the thought about putting considering for capital wasn't more than that considering using for capital did have a background to it. There seems to be a consensus that we're going to remove this line. If there's anybody that objects to that, please let me know. Okay, we're gonna take that line out and fix the typo and fix the typo. Thank you. Alicia, you have your hand up again. Yes, I just wanted to confirm with Paul though that when we do come back to the ARPA funds that your recommendations will come back before the council before you make final decisions as to how the remaining ARPA funds will be used. Correct, I've told the council I would report to the council on what the proposed use of funds are. Correct. Although we wanna be clear as Anna pointed out it is a town manager decision. We can advise, but that's what it is. Andy, you still have your hand up. I'm gonna go to Dorothy. I'm just asking a question. I thought that I had heard that there was a chance that some ARPA funds could be used in this next round for supporting black business. Is that still a possibility or has it been ruled out? That has not been ruled out. What we've done by removing the sentence is take away what appears to be the beginning list and therefore it's not ruled out. Because I mean, I agree with some previous speaker that one time funding is much more appropriate than any kind of ongoing expenses. Thank you. Alicia, you have your hand up. Yeah, is it okay if I just respond to Dorothy? I just wanted to say also that I am very much in support of using the ARPA funds for businesses to reopen the application and to focus on black owned and BIPOC owned businesses. But I didn't want, this list first of all didn't include that. And so I didn't want it to seem like we're only advocating for this set of things. I wanted it to be less limited. And so that we have the opportunity to explore those things when we come back to the ARPA decision. I didn't want there to be already prewritten things that we were advocating for before we had the time to talk about those things with the town manager. Okay, good. So the motion is been made and seconded. It's to adopt the FY 25 financial guidelines as amended even though we didn't officially amend them. Shalini? Yes. I just want to say that when you all do have the ARPA conversation, that is something I had written earlier to maybe Paul. But I think it's important to talk to the stakeholders and again, get a sense of what sort of need we need. We have limited funds and how to address some of the systemic things instead of handing out money but like find out where people were struggling. Like where were the problems? I can send more details about that. And then there's just, okay, enough of that. There's, I will send my comments about that later. But we did receive an email from our district and I don't know if this is the right place to put it but I'll just put it out there. And this was a request from the Applewood community. They've been asking for the senior center there has been asking for the ability to get the town to create the sidewalk from there to the Atkins so they can walk. And I don't know where that goes but we just got that email from. That's a larger process that I think Paul has updates on but I don't think that it's an ARPA news. Didn't mean that in an ARPA conversation that was more just the budgetary guidelines if that fits in an investigation now, okay. All right. Can I just say, I suggest that when, what happens is the working with DPW, the town manager comes forward with a list of road and sidewalk improvements. Other, we've never gotten more specific in the financial guidelines about that. Are there any other changes or requests? Andy? It's not really a change your request but Andy has raised a question so I'm not the policy, the financial policy. I just wanted to make a comment from somebody who was on the original committee back when there was a document. There are, it's a complex document and it includes some things that really are management issues about how the executive manages the financial government and there are some policy questions in there regarding things like what we just dealt with or the meetings ago about the percentage of money that should be held aside and proportioned to the budget in various categories whether it's 10.5% Japanese gold, which is the guidelines so that it's no longer part of the policies. If the other one is what percentage we are looking for with totally research, what percentage we can cash, what percentage is the minimum should be and other kinds of capital are funds, the stabilization funds. So there are those policy pieces but those important policy pieces have to be given to the council and are voted on by the council in their actions to make transparent funds. So I think for the most part, the cleanup of language in the amendment was really just efforts by Sean Mandano to work for clarity more than anything else and they're really aside from those few issues with things you have to do with administrative functions that really are in the executive realm and not to be drawn with the legislative plans. Mandy Jarrod, did you have a follow up on that? No, Paul answered my question with that it was a typo. Okay. So, yes, Alicia. Sorry, I did have one other request and then I do have to leave but I will continue to join you all virtually for the end of the meeting. But my last request is just some small wording changes on page six in regards to the Cress department. One, it's just listed as the Cress program. So I would just like to specify that this is an independent department and not a program and also I would like to strike the mental health and homelessness, et cetera in the types of services which may reduce the demand of the police department because I don't think that that's necessary and I think that one, I don't wanna lose the original mission and goal of Cress and also it's not limited to those two things. So I just think it's better just saying for some types of services. Is there any objection to that from anybody? Maybe in terms of the mental health and homelessness, et cetera. And I'm sitting here, that is not the only thing Cress is doing but it's two critical issues. Maybe because I'm around a lot of homeless people through some of my work that I'm aware of their constant interaction with the police and how Cress has supplanted that and fostered more security in that community. So I would like it to remain there. I think those are two important services. If inside the parentheses we said such as or EG, mental health, homelessness, et cetera, would that meet your sense, Alicia? No, I'm not actually hugely opposed to having this language here. I just think that what I have noticed in the past is that when we're talking about the Cress department that our focus is consistently on mental health and homelessness and that was not the original intention of the program specifically. So although that that is included in sort of the blanket of services provided of Cress, it is not the main focus. And so I think continuing to use this language as the only language is changing the focal point of what we intended this program to do. So... What would you add to make so those things could stay? And I'm not saying they have to but what would you add, Alicia? Okay, if you can give me a couple of seconds, I will think about that. But I do also just want to say about the other highlighted part, I would just still prefer for it to say like the Cress department as an independent department, not departmental department. God, I think we're fine on. We're just... Well, just because on the screen it says departmental program. It means departmental. No, the program has a line through it. Oh, okay. You can't see it. Okay. Oh, up there you can't. On this one you can see. I had, sorry. I just have my own version open. So I didn't see it. Got it. So because I want to focus on the fact that this is an alternative service, like an alternative response to nonviolent police calls. So that should encompass way more than just mental health and homelessness. And that its focus was on picking up people who do not necessarily feel safe or comfortable contacting the PD and that they also can have a public safety response to their nonviolent crises, which could include mental health and homelessness, but is not limited to and not solely focused on that. Not sure how to put that into exact words. So if it said EG, mental health, homelessness, other nonviolent, nonviolent events. Maybe we say which may or which can act as an alternative response to the police department for some types of services and then. Okay. I think we have two different things going on. So we're going to take out that thing and the sentence there, but what Alicia is now suggesting is which may act as an alternative to the police department and reduce the demand as an alternative and to reduce and to the police department. How's that? Yeah. Okay. All right. Anything else? Yeah. Alternative to and reduce. Reduce the demand on the police department. So reduce the demand. In other words, don't accept. There you go. Okay. Are there any other changes? Yes. Departments should be capitalized. Okay. Are there any other comments, questions, changes, requests? Okay. Seeing none, I want to bring this to a vote before Alicia has to leave to change her location. I'm going to start with Michelle Miller. Hi. Dorothy Pam. Yes. Pam Rooney. Yes. Kathy Shane. Yes. Andy Steinberg. Yes. Jennifer Tob. Yes. Alicia Walker. Yes. Shaline Balmillan. Yes. Pat DeAngeles. Aye. Anna Devlin-Gothier. Aye. Lynn Griesmorsen. Aye. Mandy Johanicki. Aye. Anika Lopes. Aye. That is unanimous. We did the town manager's goals. Given the hour, I would like to suggest that the council committee transitioned memos that each of you have provided us are fabulous. Can you give us a two sentence or just let it go? They're fabulous. Anika's very- They're good enough as is, Lynn. I don't think we need to speak to them. There'll be a lot of time to do that at the end, but we'd like to get the carryover memos. Okay. All right. All right, all right, all right, all right. We're gonna see her in a minute. She's just gonna go home. All right. Are there any questions or comments about the CRC one? Are there any comments or questions about the financial one? Are there any comments or questions about GOL? Are there any comments? Was there? Yes. Yes. We should. Are there any questions about the TSO report? I would, yes. Okay. Could we use the rate? Yes. Jennifer? Jennifer? Yes. So I have a question because I blurted it out before and Anika said it was there, but no, on the waste hauler, it says the revised, a revised bylaw, which has been referred, is the original one also? TSO memo includes about everything that we have, like all of the information that has come up to date. Could it just say the original proposed amendment and the revised? Well, the revised is what was the updated, rather the latest updated, which was submitted on December 13th, was even from the week before on the seventh, asked that it was approved and that all sponsors were on board with that. So that is what is being, what was placed into the carryover, but the background information is available as well. So it makes it clear that that is the, the updated draft is what we did not discuss in TSO. Okay, nice. The language is, it says the original proposed bylaw and an updated bylaw submitted will be carried over. It says that. Okay, so I had seen it earlier. Okay, great. Never mind. The paragraph for that section is very short. It's very short. Just that paragraph there is very short. So there are a lot of attachments that go with it, but it makes it very clear what is being carried over. Because I didn't see it. It didn't get in the packet till late, till that I had seen it earlier. Okay, thank you. It did, but it's there. Okay, Anna. I just wanted to, Anika had written some really nice thanks to some staff as the presentation. And I'd like to, if she's open to it, give her the opportunity to say that. Okay, Anika, please. No pressure. Make sure to thank the entire committee and also to Paul and Athena who I, I mean, I think Paul, did you even miss one meeting? That was great. And I also just wanted to give a thanks to our honorary members, members that were Amy Russocki and Gil Hurd-Boring and Susan Wait and Mandy Jo. Okay, that was it. Yeah. And TSO. I said that TSO first. All of the members would not have been, have been possible. I mean, I'm sorry, TAC, T-A-C. Oh, absolutely. Yes, Tracy, thank you. And the rest of every single member, but thank you, particularly to Tracy. Thank you so much. All right, we're moving on to H, which is a non-item because nobody submitted anything and you lost your opportunity to take things off of the referrals. We've already done the appointments on the consent agenda. And except for the building committees, are there any other comments that you don't feel have been covered this evening from CRC? I took my chance at the last meeting to thank everyone, but while we're in a full council meeting, I would really like to thank the staff that supports CRC, particularly in the last two years. You know, our staff support is normally Dave Zomek and Christine Brestrup, but in the last two years, we've received significant support from Rob Mora and John Thompson and even recently, Chief Ting, Nate Malloy always supports and all, and we couldn't do our work as a committee without them. And also Stephanie has been to a couple because of some of the referrals. So I just wanted to take the chance to thank the staff particularly. Great. Kathy, anything on elementary school building committee? No. Andy, anything on finance? No, I think with the guidelines, we're pretty much finally done with everything that was assigned to us for this year. Just have to pick up next year. A lot of our work is, of course, things that are not guided by the carryover memo at all but are guided by the charter and the budget process that's mandated by state statute and that work will continue. I want to thank the entire committee, including our resident members. It's the one committee that does have resident members because the possibility was suggested in the charter by the Charter Commission. It has turned out to be a really great experience to have it. I think that the other committees might want to consider having resident members also based upon what is now five years worth of experience with the finance committee and seeing that they really have provided a different perspective. In the non-legislative perspective, they have not gotten out of the lane of the committee who's now a councilor-elect, but I think that he's a councilor-elect because of the success of the process and because I think he learned a lot about the council and the community and the government and learned a lot about him because he was participating on the committee. And the last thing I want to do is thank all of the staff. I even want to thank Sean Mangano, even though he had the nerve to leave us. But since he's not here, I can do that. But I want to thank Paul and Athena for providing what they always do and Holly Jennifer LaFountain, Holly Drake and Jennifer LaFountain for the way that they picked up in addition to doing all of these two to answer questions that the committee may have. And we look forward to Paul's successful search for a finance committee, a finance director who can work with the committee in the future, but in the meantime, I think we're well-served by our staff and so thank you to everyone. Okay, GOL, Pat. Well, I absolutely want to thank Jennifer and Lynn and Michelle and Mandy for their work on the committee and Michelle for sharing it in the first year. That's a given. But I also want to thank the multitude of residents who have attended our meetings. But I'm making a joke because one of the few times that we had a resident come was when we were first looking at the rules of procedure. And I am actually grateful to this person and I won't name her right now. But she really brought up the fact that our rules and procedures had separate rules for counselors and residents and why should they be different? And so got us looking at that and lessening the separation. So I think that was really valuable. And I thank Athena also for the comment she made to me today that I'm thinking about and processing. Thank you. Okay. I'm going to move on to Jones Library Building Committee. I think we are all up to date with the Jones Library. Done. Okay, moving on to TSO. You have another opportunity. Okay, well, let's see. If I'm going to add anything, I would just say speaking up to, to pick up on Andy's comment, we ended a little bit talking about how we would probably also been the committee that we claim that has had the most laughs as well as pushing through, I think, in an enormous amount of material. But I think going forward, and TSO was really the people's committee and that space where not all residents may be aware that it's really a great place to come and express concerns. We really are talking about, I mean, not that every committee doesn't do it, but really just town services. So I think it's a really important place and hopeful that more residents will come and participate and spread the word. Great. Any liaison reports? Seeing none. We've already approved the minutes. Any questions of the town manager that you want to ask in public? I'm not, oh, yes, Pam. Thank you. I had a question about the formation of the Charter Review Commission. And just if I could get a sense of the timeline of when the call goes out to form the committee to interview the committee or whatever happens, what will happen and when? Actually, that is a council responsibility and it rests with GOL. What will happen and when? Right now, GOL has approved the bulletin board notice which will be posted on January 2nd. So you'll start receiving community activity forms. And then at a recent council meeting, GOL was referred the appointment recommendations. So GOL will go through that multiple member body council policy for making recommendations to a multiple member bodies process and bring appointments forward. I love how long the name of that policy is. I always get tripped out. So anyway, so the CAFs will be coming in, allowed to come in on January 2nd. That notice will be available. I think when we passed the charge, we had an approximate start date of April 1 in the charge. That sounds right. There's summer. So I mean, it's not a set date, but I think that was when we passed the charge. The goal was to have it up in appointments done by April 1. Any other questions of the town manager since that really wasn't one for him? Can we confirm Alicia can hear us and be heard? She's rejoined. Hi, Alicia. Can you hear us? Yes, I can. Thank you, Lynn. Great. Nice to have you back. Okay. We're going on to town councilor comments. I did submit a makeup presidents report. My apologies. Oh, I'm sorry. Go ahead. I only doing this because Alicia is here and so I wanted to raise a question. We're asking questions of Paul and his head manager report please. And I was wondering if there's anything more that you could tell us about what calls dispatch is referring to Cress and how you envision that proceeding. Sure. So I don't know the call types off the top of my head, but they have worked between dispatch and the Cress leadership team to choose a select number of call types. And they went live today. They dispatched the first call today to the survival center call came into dispatch and they allocated that to Cress responders who responded in a timely manner. And I haven't gotten the follow up report on it, but they went live this morning. Perfect example. Yeah. Jennifer. Two questions. The RF, the responses from the RFI for the waste hauler. Do you think we might get that report? Or I guess it goes to TSO will get that report. Yeah. It will go to TSO. I don't have it timeframe for it yet. And is buried line coverage? I just had to ask that before the end of the council term. Yes. I'm, what was the question? That is the sewer line coverage from for private No, I care too. For property owners. Oh, that's two years raised with us. You were negotiating I think with Yeah. There are two companies that we're talking to right now. This is for the insurance. Yes. Okay. Thank you. I wanted to make that clearer for other. Are there any other questions of the town manager? Okay, seeing none. I'm going to move on to the president's report. Any questions? Then I'm going to move on to the future agenda items. They were pretty much covered in the carryover memos. Are there any other requests that people want to put out there now? Kathy? I just wonder if we are going to do what you did two years ago which says thank you and appreciations. That's next. Okay. Thank you. Just give me time. Try and blow the agenda. Right. Thank you. Thanks. Okay. In lieu of councilor comments. Athena, I have sent you a slide deck. A deck. Yes. A slide deck. So this is the town council that started on January 3rd, 2021 and ends on January 22, 2022. Thank you and edit already. Manny Joe has been on GOL I think from the very beginning, Ms. Editor. Thank you very much. To January 2nd, 2024. We can edit it up here. It's a slide. Let me just say this has been an amazing council. So let's look at the council itself. And I want to take the opportunity to thank all of you. You've put me to the test. I think I've put you to the test sometimes. I know I have. I want to just thank you for the hours and the consideration of how do we shorten our meetings and taking that to heart. I especially want to thank the chairs of each of the committees. CRC, Manny Joe, I think you've just continued to chair throughout the last two years from when it was almost created. No, you were the second chair after Steve Schreiber. Finance, Andy, I think it's been you and Kathy backing you up from day one. Thank you. GOL, we started out this term with Michelle and Pat took over. And TSO, we started out with Dorothy and then Anika took over. And then on the elementary school building committee, we had Kathy who's been ably chairing that group and Alicia Walker. And then on the library building committee, Anika Lopes. It's, I don't think people fully yet what being a chair of a committee does. I've often felt, and I've brought this up before, that we should give chairs a stipend for just chairing because when you're sitting there and it is approaching the holidays or you're in the midst of your holidays and now you have to write the carryover memo, you're sitting there going, oh boy, this is a dredge. So thank you for everything you do to keep your committees going forward. Thank your vice president, Sana, I forgot to recognize you for TSO. For stepping in and carrying part of the load, this council could not exist without its committees and the leadership of all of you in those roles just could not exist. And it's where the hard work often gets done and then we come into a council meeting and then we rip you to shreds. And, you know, and then we try to patch it up and move on. So just thanks for all of that. We have a couple counselors we'd like to say goodbye to. This is tough. Next one, Anika. I always have fun putting these together. This was my better one. I apologize, I wasn't as creative. Anika, you've been on the council for two years. You've served on TSO and the June's Library Committee and although not part of the council started ancestral bridges at the same time. So I've asked two counselors, Anna and Pat, to particularly share remarks with us about you. And Pat made me go first. All right, Pat respectfully asked me if I would mind going first, sort of, okay. The first time I spent a significant amount of time with Anika was during and after Monty's March in 2021. We were just over a month away from being sworn in as two new counselors. And I remember walking with Anika through Amherst, hearing her story and being struck by how deeply interconnected her story was both with my own, but more so how deeply she honored her connection to her ancestors and to our community. While others went home after the March, Anika and I spent the afternoon together volunteering at the Amherst Survival Center and beginning what would become a close friendship and productive collegial relationship. We, which is how everyone describes their friends, productive collegial relationship. We've spent many hours talking about how this town, this community and communities past have shaped our experience and love for Amherst and how that love has allowed us to look critically at building and sustaining a more equitable community in the future. Anika has dedicated much of herself to honoring the legacy of her ancestors. While honoring and uplifting the stories of the past, Anika herself has also been building a legacy that stands on its own. One small piece of that legacy is that she is the first Black and Indigenous counselor to serve on the Amherst Town Council. Outside of council, she is a phenomenal milliner and the founder of Ancestral Bridges. Well, her story is only the start of a full story and when you place that on the end of that long line of stories that she is surfacing and telling that have been lived by her ancestors, we are seeing the culmination of generations of love and pursuit of justice. I would be remiss to not also take a moment to recognize one of the other stories on that path of Ancestral Bridges, one of Anika's biggest champion, if not her biggest champion, at her mother, Ms. Deborah Bridges. Ms. Bridges' pride and her daughter and her love for Anika and our community is apparent and as all of our loved ones deserve accolades for supporting and loving us through what can be a trying experience in service to Amherst, I want to recognize Ms. Bridges for her unyielding support for Anika. As a colleague, Anika has been steadfast in her grounding in history, using it to inform her decisions, considering how future generations will look back at the votes we took as well as how they impact us now. I have been moved by her unwavering commitment to learning and to doing what is right, not what is expected. She has stood up to voices seeking to box her in, elevated the needs of community members and truly has considered how her actions have the power to bring us forward and help make life in Amherst better for all. Anika is known for her reverence for our history and bringing it into today, but she also deserves accolades for the humor she brings to situations which merit it. I can always count on her for long phone calls, typically on a Thursday afternoon before TSO and exclamations on mutual frustrations or a robust conversation if they were not mutual frustrations. She celebrated other counselors in their work and challenged us with a spirit of compassion. She has engaged with our community readily, chairing TSO with an eye for supporting conversation and resident engagement and made connections with our community which will only add to her legacy. She just called TSO the People's Committee, but ultimately she is the one who made that so. To know Anika is to seek to champion her. Anika sees people and feels their needs deeply. She leads with a special blend of love and pragmatism. We have all learned from her and are lucky to have had that opportunity and I know we all still will. Anika carries herself with the known strength of generations past and the potential of generations to come. I'm going to deeply miss working with her and I cannot wait to see and support where her path continues. No matter where that is, I know she will continue to uplift stories, speak truth and make Amherst a better place. Nice, very nice. Pat, you get to follow. You wanted me to go first. Microphone. The very first time I met Anika, I forgot to turn on my mic. I called her up and asked her to have coffee with me and she invited me to her home and we sat down and had coffee and we're talking and it was lovely and pleasant. And then she said, oh, come downstairs and see my studio. And I went down into her studio and it was like this explosion of color and texture and light and photographs of family. Black and white photographs, man riding a camel, grandfathers, grandmothers, dishes from Amherst College. I just was blown away. I felt like this was a world I wanted to enter and a person I wanted to know and I've been blessed with getting closer and really becoming friends with her and her mom. But I want to talk very much about what you've brought to the council, okay? Because you have challenged every one of us, counselors and community.