Name: City Council Work Session - DEI Audit - Phase II Report Presentation
Duration: 2 h 20 min 20 s
Description: I've heard pretty good feedback at concerts of different activities in the community center about just just having just a lot more functional furniture is more comfortable.

[0:08] Recording in progress.

[0:22] Good evening. This is a Greenbelt City Council work session. My name is Emmett Jordan. I'm the mayor, council. Kristen Weaver, mayor, pertain. Silky Pope, council member. Daniel McKinney, council member. Jenny Pompey, council member. Council member. Rodney Roberts, city council. Okay. Any information items or discussion items for the end of the meeting, city manager?

[0:53] Okay, hey, you know, we hope these Council work sessions on Mondays and Wednesday several

[0:57] times a month to exchange information with community stakeholder groups or to give, collect

[1:03] the data information from the staff advisory boards, residents, no votes or formal actions

[1:07] are taken at work sessions.

[1:08] Our work sessions and our meetings are open to the public except for executive sessions as

[1:13] authorized by state laws so that residents and others can observe our deliberations.

[1:17] We do strive to provide reasonable opportunities for the public to voice opinions on the matters

[1:21] is being discussed, consider it so we'll pause periodically for public comment.

[1:26] During these times, if you wish to make a comment, raise your hand after being recognized

[1:32] if you'll go to the podium, state your name, and where you live because we need that for

[1:36] the minutes. That's one way. If you are on Zoom, you can use the Q&A tab on the bottom

[1:42] of your screen to submit a written question, or you can raise your virtual hand. And once

[1:46] again, after being recognized and promoted, you'll be able to speak after the state's

[1:51] name and where you live. And finally, if you are watching on my stream on Facebook or

[1:57] cable TV, you can send us an email at questions at greenbeltmd.gov. So for the public comment,

[2:05] please limit your comments to three minutes. And we ask that, let's just speak on the topic,

[2:12] one topic related to the question under consideration. And as always, we ask that you avoid questioning

[2:19] the motives of others. So tonight we've got a tri-fet work session. We're going to start off with

[2:27] a presentation and update on the Phase 2 of the Tribec DEEI audit. After that we have a special

[2:36] meeting. We'll convene a special meeting. There's a number of year-end contracts that we have to

[2:44] you to liberate on and after that we have a short executive session. So a lot of

[2:52] business to take care of but I'm confident that this is going to go pretty

[2:57] quickly. City Manager Somerone, how are you tonight? I'm doing great thank you. We

[3:03] had a receive exciting news today. Our pool deck repair project was approved by

[3:08] My board of public works.

[3:09] Thank you so much.

[3:11] That's awesome news.

[3:12] I've been stressing for a couple of months now.

[3:16] Yeah, you look much more relaxed.

[3:18] Yes.

[3:19] So just for context, council had previously approved $1.5 million

[3:23] for the pool deck repair.

[3:26] And we saw an opportunity to apply for a program open space funding to take care of that report

[3:30] that would have shifted $1.5 million out of ARPA into a program open space.

[3:36] So this afternoon, actually this morning, the governor, the state

[3:42] treasurer and the comptroller met and approved numerous end-of-the-year projects

[3:47] and that included our $1.5 million.

[3:49] So really happy to do that.

[3:52] We will now kick it into high gear with the team to start planning out the timeline

[3:58] and all the communications with communications plan

[4:02] and with our recreational, recreational facility user.

[4:07] So beginning in January, we'll brief Council on what the project entails

[4:13] and we'll prepare for those public messaging campaigns with a resident.

[4:19] So residents bear with us for just a couple more weeks to get our plan together

[4:26] and we'll make those public and start communicating.

[4:30] Yeah, you know, over time we've been pretty successful with the program Open Space Funding.

[4:35] So the repairs to the pool, a pretty major project, but with program Open Space Funding

[4:44] it's been approved but it would not actually be allocated for quite some time.

[4:49] We get it towards the middle or the end of the year, right?

[4:53] What we got our letter at three o'clock today from the Board of Public Works and the Department

[4:58] of natural resources that are pro-

[5:00] The project was approved and we can commence the project now. So any expenditure we have from today, onward, will be reimbursed through the grant. So it's a reimbursable grant. So we have to spend the money and then ask for reimbursed. So I'll plan to put a plan together with their with their treasure and how we'll fund that locally. I was I will fund the expense with local funds and then we'll get reimbursed. Very good, very good.

[5:29] that's quite a relief to actually get that approval.

[5:35] Okay, well, we're going to move into the work session on just an update and a presentation

[5:40] on the DEI audit phase two and our DEI coordinator, Tyra Smith, is here. Tyra, how are you tonight?

[5:50] Good evening. I'm doing great. How are y'all doing? I'm doing pretty well. I'm doing pretty well.

[5:55] So do you want to frame up the discussion, or I just try best to use, are they on the phone?

[5:59] Yeah, they are nice.

[6:00] Okay.

[6:01] All right.

[6:01] Yes, sure.

[6:02] So as you know, we wrapped up doing our phase one report, which was an internal audit.

[6:10] And from there, we went into our phase two report.

[6:14] So in between phase one and phase two, you know, that prompted the creation of our Jedi action

[6:21] team.

[6:22] And some other things like trainings, I believe back in April, I reported on some trainings

[6:28] that I wanted to do with employees that would be geared towards some of the findings that were in our phase one audit.

[6:35] So, we've been doing those. Our action team has actually also created a draft GenI vision statement

[6:43] and definitions for Justice Equity Diversity and Inclusion and what that would mean for the City of Greenbelt.

[6:49] We've done presentations on that with our employees to gain their feedback on that vision and those definitions.

[6:58] We're moving into doing that for the community.

[7:01] Those definitions went into our city connector.

[7:04] There will be available online to seek the community feedback.

[7:09] We'll finalize, make some changes to them,

[7:11] and then we'll over-up present them to you all to adapt.

[7:17] And now, going into the new year, our action team will break into subcommittees.

[7:23] will where we will be targeting some of the other recommendations noted in our phase one audit.

[7:30] And then one of the main ones would be with our strategic planning which we will now be able to do

[7:35] once we have our finalized phase two report with our phase one report.

[7:41] So just want to, before we dive into our report today, really want to frame it more so as a story

[7:47] and not so much as a report.

[7:51] So if you've seen the PowerPoint,

[7:53] it's themed, it's anchoring our Roosevelt Center,

[7:57] the Greenbelt Center and Newdale Cafe

[8:01] with their historical context.

[8:05] And I wanted to ask how do we want to move

[8:08] with the flow of the presentation today?

[8:11] Do we want to try to see to go through

[8:14] and stop like every 15 to 20 minutes for questions or?

[8:18] Yeah, I think Council, we'd like to, it doesn't look like the presentation is about 20,

[8:24] 30 minutes, so my preference usually is to kind of work through, and I see that there

[8:29] are three representatives from Tribeci online here, and we'll pause if necessary, if there's

[8:36] some specific Council questions, but given the time, I think I'd like to kind of work

[8:41] through the whole thing and then we'll after council it makes discusses a little bit we can

[8:47] open it up to the public and I think that's probably the best way to go.

[8:51] I think that sounds good. So then just a little bit about what phase two

[8:55] entailed. So Charity came from I will say August through I want to say up to October November

[9:05] where we did some formalized focus groups with the community.

[9:10] We also did some more informalized like pop-ups with the community where we were going

[9:16] to events like our Franklin Parks back to school rally and passing out information and

[9:23] trying to get feedback at our Liberty Festival and then some more informalized like going

[9:30] to hooking real and just talking to people there in the community where they are.

[9:36] And then, like we said, so we gather feedback from our community and

[9:40] Travis is going to present today on what that feedback showed us. So online we have Gail Watts

[9:46] and Maya, and I believe I saw Jim up there too. But I'm going to pass the mic over to them,

[9:52] let them introduce themselves, and then we can dive into the story today.

[9:55] Okay. Thank you, Mr. Smith.

[9:59] So...

[10:00] Aye. Tribes, how are you doing? Doing well, how about yourself? Not too bad, not too bad, so welcome. Thank you. If you want to frame things up and we can put the PowerPoint on the screen, we can kind of move through this. Thank you. It would, unfortunately, we're not there in person with you for this session, but hopefully this will still work as well in terms of sharing what we found.

[10:29] So my name's Gail Watts. I am co-founder of Tribacy Consulting. You may all remember also Rina Doyle,

[10:37] who is participated in doing a lot of this work and has presented in the past. Unfortunately,

[10:43] she's not available to be here with us tonight, but there are two other folks from Tribacy,

[10:48] and I'll let them introduce themselves. Hi, everyone. I'm Maya. I'm a coordinator with Tribacy.

[10:55] Good evening, I am Jamal Khaewarite, I go by June and I am a consultant with TRIVC.

[11:02] So as Tyra laid out, we kind of set this like a movie because we know that stories really resonate with people and Greenbelt like any other community has its story.

[11:15] It doesn't necessarily start with just the formation of Greenbelt. There's a history of indigenous people who are here previously.

[11:23] But there's a whole story involved. There's been an evolution of the city of Greenbelt.

[11:29] And so we wanted to be able to capture what is the experience today?

[11:34] What are what are community members saying and feeling and experiencing in the city of Greenbelt?

[11:40] Recognizing that that also connects to the history of the city.

[11:44] And it will set the stage for our decisions that you all make about the future and where the city is going.

[11:50] So, if you could go to the next slide, please.

[12:00] So, we have provided you with a document, a record.

[12:04] Again, it highlights this story with a movie theme.

[12:09] Today, you're going to get the trailer version of the movie.

[12:13] But we want to highlight a few particular things.

[12:16] In particular, how do you use this document?

[12:20] So, the city is on a journey to become healthier,

[12:23] to really infuse these concepts of justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion through a strategic

[12:29] plan and how do we operationalize these concepts across all city functions and in all city departments?

[12:36] This is one component to do that because there are some recommendations and some findings that will

[12:41] help shape that strategic plan in the future. As with all this work, we highly encourage that it's

[12:48] shared that there's transparency as you're doing this evening with the broader community as well

[12:56] as with employees about the kinds of things that we are finding. So this is part of the baseline

[13:03] of where the city is right now along with the phase one assessments of structure and culture.

[13:10] This completes that process in terms of providing a baseline of where the city is overall.

[13:18] Now, just like with the phase one reports, we know that sometimes this can generate some

[13:25] reactions and some emotions from folks. Whatever folks may be feeling, we want to emphasize

[13:32] a few things. This is what we heard from community members, so it's their voice, it's their perspective.

[13:39] It does not negate all of the work that the city has currently done and has done in the past and

[13:44] is planning to do in the future.

[13:46] This just gives some context as to impact.

[13:51] So if you could go to the next slide,

[14:00] or highlighted a multitude of projects

[14:04] that are currently happening,

[14:05] we kind of want to just give you an overview

[14:07] of where you are in a process.

[14:10] Recognizing that this is never linear,

[14:13] it's not like you just go from point A to point B,

[14:15] you're dealing with humans,

[14:17] and those process are never a straight line.

[14:20] It's an ongoing and complicated process.

[14:26] So we did internal assessments.

[14:27] We completed in phase one.

[14:31] Phase two is the community impact assessment.

[14:34] And then as I mentioned, she has formed a Jedi action team that has done some work in terms of developing the lens or the framework in a draft form.

[14:46] and it's spent quite a bit of time getting feedback from employees about these definitions

[14:51] and then we'll move into the community to get further feedback.

[14:55] So the combination of the phase one, phase two, and then using this framework, the

[15:00] The jet-eye lens, if you will, is what will help set the stage for developing a strategic plan

[15:06] that it makes sure these concepts are embedded in all aspects of the city. Moving forward,

[15:12] there's certainly implementation setting priorities, providing education and learning opportunities

[15:18] to everyone to be able to implement this plan, evaluating the impact, particularly the impact on community members.

[15:27] And then, you know, determining accountability, how do we measure growth?

[15:33] We think of accountability as an account of our abilities or growth in doing the work.

[15:39] And then making modifications is needed.

[15:42] So you can go to the next slide.

[15:51] So this just highlights what's in the document itself.

[15:54] We provide some of that history of the city, which we've heard so often that we put it in

[16:00] a little bit of a different context, including the history of some of the Jedi efforts that have been

[16:05] taking place, and your partnership with us, Tribacy Consulting. We put this in the context

[16:11] of an overall process. What does that look like and why? We'll talk a little bit about our target

[16:17] audience, particularly for community engagement, and then the categories of conversations, the things

[16:24] that we heard and those have been framed in terms of strengths, gaps, opportunities, and threats,

[16:29] and then how to move forward. There are some nuggets of information that are important to

[16:35] pull out and identifying root causes that helps, again, formulate that process of a strategic plan.

[16:44] You could move on.

[16:54] Community impact assessment is a little bit different than some other kinds of

[16:59] So we're looking to hear not just the stories and experiences of community members, but we're looking in particular to hear from the folks that are less likely to send counsel emails that are less likely to show up at council meetings or participate in

[17:16] in committees or commissions.

[17:19] We're looking to hear from those who are less engaged

[17:23] and from that determine what is the impact

[17:26] of being a resident in the city of Greenbelt.

[17:30] So as I mentioned earlier,

[17:31] this is sort of the third component

[17:34] of an overall assessment of the city.

[17:36] And so the three documents will comprise

[17:39] the entire assessment process that you can then use

[17:43] to create the foundations for your strategic plan.

[17:49] You can go on to the next one.

[17:54] So we wanted to give a little bit of context as to who we spoke with during our focus groups.

[18:00] So of 91 people, 62% identify as being part of the African diaspora,

[18:07] 21% identify as white, 13% identify as colonized by Spain, 3% identify as

[18:16] other unknown, and 1% identify as Asian. And next for age, the largest group of

[18:24] people we spoke with were people in their 30s and 40s, and then the next

[18:30] largest population where people over 50 and then the smallest group was people in their 20s,

[18:39] still missing some representation there.

[18:44] We can go to the next one and

[18:50] now I'm going to pass

[18:51] it over to Tyra to explain a little bit more about why we chose these specific locations for our

[19:07] getting all of the different parts of Greenbelt, but mainly we also we wanted

[19:12] to talk to you like Gail said, our community members who are less likely to

[19:19] engage with council because those voices are the ones that we're not able to

[19:24] hear. So we wanted to be sure that when we were collecting our data we were

[19:29] getting a broad scope of perspectives and experiences of our residents and then

[19:35] And we wanted to go to them.

[19:37] So you might look and see like there aren't many,

[19:42] like Greenbelt owned, like city owned places here.

[19:46] We just wanted to go in the community where they are

[19:51] because you know it was much easier

[19:52] to talk to people in your own living room

[19:54] versus trying to bring them home

[19:55] and have them talk to you there.

[19:57] So we chose the,

[20:04] I just want to add that we did a number of, well, for lack of a better phrase, drive buys if you well. We're literally, we just go to different locations. If somebody was willing to have a chat with us, we would talk with them. And that would be part of our conversations as well. At Hook and Real, we went to karaoke night, danced with people while talking to them about their

[20:31] experiences living in Greenbelt, right? Even though design

[20:36] church is outside of the official city limits, we were able to

[20:39] talk to quite a few people who live in and or visit Greenbelt

[20:45] and not their experiences as well. So the whole point was to go

[20:48] to people as opposed to expecting them to come to us. Thank

[20:53] you, Tyra and Gail. So now we're going to go to our next

[20:57] slide and talk a little bit about what topics we actually covered during our

[21:03] community conversations. So I'll let everyone read through these. But this is

[21:08] by no means an exhaustive list. We definitely didn't have a specific script, but

[21:15] these were general like guide posts for our conversations. And yeah, I'll let

[21:20] everyone read over them for a minute.

[21:29] And I'll say also, um, some of these, um, we didn't

[21:33] could necessarily cover all of these topics with every single individual we spoke with our every

[21:38] group. Um, so again, just kind of guidepost of some topics we had to cover with people.

[21:47] And I'm going to pass it back over to Gail now.

[21:50] Thank you. Next slide, please.

[21:53] So

[22:04] we use the same assessment criteria as we for the phase one assessments for the phase two assessments.

[22:12] So you can see the level one through level five on the left with a little bit of explanation.

[22:18] And just a note and reminder in the phase one assessments both the structure and the culture were assisted a level one.

[22:26] And you will notice here that we're assessing actually the impact of the city of green belt on its residents at a level two, so slightly higher.

[22:41] So we probably could have assessed this even higher at a level three, but there were some particular threats that will highlight later that made sure that this state at a level two.

[22:51] So if you go on to the next slide, we're going to talk a little bit about the strengths

[22:57] and gaps opportunities and threats and give you some highlights of these areas.

[23:02] So your strengths probably are not going to be a surprise to you at all.

[23:06] Most people talk about the small town feel and that they really enjoy that, the parks and

[23:11] trails, the services for senior citizens in particular where things that come up quite frequently.

[23:18] would also was a note community policing in Franklin Park was perceived very positively that that was seen in a positive light and those relationships were very meaningful.

[23:34] Events the city puts on a lot of events and those events are viewed as very accessible.

[23:39] And people really like the fact that we were out there talking to them about their experiences.

[23:46] So in the focus groups and even when we just stopped and talked to somebody and said, you know, we were working with the city and we want to hear what it's like to live here.

[23:54] People responded very favorably to that and wanted more of that actually.

[24:00] Some of the gaps probably also not a surprise for you communication.

[24:04] And you notice we put it there twice with multiple exclamation points because this came up from every single person that we talked to and every single focus group and group conversation is that the communication strategies are not effective at reaching the entire community.

[24:22] That the city events that are planned while there are a lot of events and those are viewed positively, they're not really viewed as very inclusive.

[24:30] and they're not viewed inclusive for a variety of reasons.

[24:33] Not only their location, primarily being located in central green belt,

[24:39] but there's a feel that they aren't necessarily planned by and for the entire community.

[24:45] And so they're seen as old green belt events and not necessarily city of green belt events.

[24:54] Another gap thing, I'm sure won't be a surprise, is around recreation.

[24:59] I know what you're doing.

[25:00] While we know that the city has been making changes and improvements to recreation opportunities outside of old green belt, that is still perceived as a very strong gap. Even people in old green belt can recognize that other parts of the city don't have access to similar or the same kinds of activities. And so those disparities really stand out and do have an effect on folks. Affordability, we heard from folks that,

[25:29] And you know, from some who said that when they retire, that they didn't believe that they'd be able to stay in the city of Greenbelt that they would need to move out of the city because they would no longer be able to afford to stay here.

[25:42] We heard from a few small business owners in Greenbelt who do not live in the city and they said that they would have liked to have lived in Greenbelt but they couldn't find housing that was affordable for their family.

[25:54] And then we also heard some conversations or some comments about safety at night,

[25:59] particularly around the parks and trails.

[26:02] So you can go to the next line.

[26:10] So you've got some opportunities, of course.

[26:13] People do want to hear what's going on.

[26:16] They want to be engaged in two-way communications, so we all have some recommendations

[26:20] about enhancing communication.

[26:22] People because they like the small town feel would like more community building activities.

[26:28] They would like not only activities in different parts of town, but they want activities that sort of bridge the geographic divide within green belt.

[26:38] So part of that conversation came up, transportation improvements, you know, whether that's a shuttle or other ways of getting around within the city of green belt.

[26:47] That makes it safer and easier to get from one part of town to the other.

[26:52] folks talked quite a bit about wanting more youth and family kinds of engagement as part of that community building activity and also talked quite a bit about wanting more improved community relations.

[27:06] I'd like to point out that we generally did not hear negative things about the police even from African American males.

[27:15] There's still a, that idea out there very much that police is not policing and in policing

[27:22] and the community may not be safe, but we did not hear negative comments.

[27:27] And so we wanted to highlight that as something that's kind of unique to the city of Greenbelt

[27:32] right now.

[27:35] So some of the threats, and as I said, these are some of the reasons why you have a level

[27:38] two and not a level three.

[27:40] People are quite aware of the explicit divisions.

[27:42] those divisions are not only geographical, but they're also felt racially as well.

[27:49] And that's, they're seen, people see the inequity between different parts of town.

[27:54] Just so you know, it says here centering GHI. People generally use GHI, old green belt and

[28:00] central green belt kind of synonymously. So residents are aware of these divisions.

[28:07] They feel the divisions and they see the differences in different parts of town and they feel

[28:12] that inequity very strongly. So as a result there are some parts of town that really feel a sense

[28:18] of exclusion and stigma, particularly in the Franklin Park area. We heard a lot of comments about

[28:25] city council when we asked people why don't you go or why wouldn't you go and they said things like

[28:30] well why would they they probably wouldn't even listen to me. So why should I bother to go?

[28:36] And that stems from the fact that much of the city has not been actively engaged.

[28:43] And so there's a feeling of disengagement as a result of that.

[28:47] And that disengagement translates into, why should I go to Old Greenbelt?

[28:52] Why should I go to City Hall? Why should I participate in things that the city offers?

[28:57] So these threats kind of all tie together, and they're also tied to the history of the city itself.

[29:04] So if you can move on to the next one,

[29:11] so this feedback is really important because this

[29:14] is residents telling you what they think and what they feel and what their experiences

[29:18] are.

[29:19] As I said, this is a baseline.

[29:21] So you can use some of the quotes and comments that are made in the report itself as a baseline

[29:27] to measure in the future as the city makes changes in terms of how are people affected

[29:33] by the changes that you've made.

[29:35] And so we have here five specific kinds of recommendations.

[29:40] The title for the first one, just as community engagement coordinator,

[29:45] but basically somebody who's responsible for engaging the community,

[29:49] a person whose job description includes building relationships,

[29:53] outreach to community groups,

[29:55] making those connections, developing engagement plans,

[29:58] that that would be

[30:00] It would be a critical role for the city itself, especially in reaching the communities that are least engaged. A more robust communication strategy needs to be multifaceted. Thinking about that different parts of the community have different interests and different needs. Not everybody reads a newsletter, you have to think generationally, some folks are far more into technology, others are less engaged through technology. But that also communication needs to be two ways.

[30:29] It can't just be communication out from the city about what the city is doing, but

[30:34] also opportunities for engagement and providing input in a real way.

[30:42] In terms of council engagement, we're just going to suggest that council itself may be

[30:46] hold some modified town halls or forums in different parts of the city that are designed

[30:53] specifically to build relationships, designed to build those engagements.

[30:58] We know that council is frequently out at community events and that those community events

[31:03] don't necessarily reach all aspects of the city.

[31:07] So having it in different parts of the city as an invitation to participate in city government,

[31:13] we think could go a long way.

[31:15] And then at some point, having roving locations and times of council meetings itself, I think

[31:20] will help bridge that participation in city government.

[31:27] Departmental evaluations, we suggest that they be made based on the impact to community.

[31:34] So as I said, here is a baseline that's giving you some baseline about different, a few

[31:38] different departments at least.

[31:40] We generally didn't hear a lot of negative about any of the departments, but it sets a baseline.

[31:47] And so therefore, constantly evaluating your departments based on the impact to the different

[31:54] parts of town and the community as large will go along ways to infusing these concepts within

[32:00] the city. Also, equity in some of the programs, as I said, one of the things that people really

[32:08] notice and feel is that there is inequity in the services that are provided. And so it's not

[32:15] that people want exactly the same thing in all parts of town. What they want, though, are services

[32:21] activities that are geared to their community and their community dynamics. And so, again,

[32:29] evaluating programs based on impact to different segments of the community and constantly building

[32:36] in getting evaluation and getting input from community members for both departments and

[32:42] programs will go along ways to evolving the services that are provided by the city.

[32:48] So you can go on to the next slide,

[32:57] so you'll see this highlighted in the report, this concept of seven generation principles.

[33:02] We draw this from a multitude of indigenous communities, including indigenous communities in this country.

[33:10] The idea of connecting the past to the present to the future, so that decision making is made based on thinking about the

[33:20] of regenerations in the past and their experiences,

[33:23] how that then is impacting current generations,

[33:27] which this report is doing today,

[33:29] in terms of the current impact,

[33:31] and thinking of past and present in terms of,

[33:34] well, then what kind of changes do we make

[33:37] that are gonna positively impact generations

[33:39] that aren't even born yet?

[33:41] So across a seven-generation span.

[33:44] So we use this reference point of seven generations,

[33:47] both in the storytelling of the city of Green Belt, but also in the types of recommendations

[33:53] that we made and suggestions for moving forward.

[33:59] So, seven-generation principle, again, if it's

[34:02] not something that you're familiar with, allows you to think in ways that are really sustainable,

[34:08] and also provides a holistic way of making decisions, so that you're constantly

[34:14] lessening burdens for future generations while acknowledging what past generations have experienced

[34:21] and couch that in the ways it's experienced today. So if you could go on to the next.

[34:36] So

[34:36] in thinking about this past, present, and future, some of the root causes for what we have found

[34:43] in listening to community members is that the history of exclusion is felt today both in the geographic

[34:52] and inequities that people experience within the city.

[34:55] People are feeling that systemically,

[34:57] and that is very much tied to the history.

[35:02] So, how is that affecting people today? You have large segments of the community that are feeling disconnected from the city itself. While they may feel connected to their immediate communities, they don't necessarily feel a connection to green belt as a whole. There is an overwhelming impression that the city focuses on old green belt, central green belt, the GHI area. And then, and then, and

[35:31] In terms of thinking about the future, anything that the city does to increase the engagement

[35:37] particularly of younger generations in building relationships and connection with decision-making

[35:44] will reflect positively really on the entire community.

[35:49] You're building an environment where future generations are going to see that part of their

[35:56] role or responsibility in being a resident in Greenbelt is to be connected to the decisions

[36:01] that are made because they see that they have a voice in that process.

[36:08] You can go to the next slide and

[36:13] I'm going to turn it over to Maya.

[36:15] Thank you, Go.

[36:17] So we want to anchor this report in community healing as a lens for this work.

[36:22] some essential components of community healing are that culturally

[36:27] symptonic processes are integral. So culturally symptonic or culturally

[36:33] relevant. So storytelling is a tool in many of the targeted demographics that

[36:44] we had for the focus groups to advance community healing. Justice must also be a

[36:51] process and an outcome and a conduit of transformation

[36:55] for community healing, their psychological

[36:58] dimensions to community healing.

[37:01] So recognizing that we have a collected memory

[37:05] as a community and really reflecting on having

[37:10] critical consciousness skills, critical thinking skills

[37:13] to question existing practices and systems.

[37:18] and that ultimately leads us to the community being an agent of change.

[37:23] So the community really driving the changes that we want to see.

[37:31] So this is sort of the context that we were thinking about in terms of developing the topics and how we approached folks

[37:39] in terms of giving opportunity for people to tell their stories and tell their experiences.

[37:45] This is reflected in the reason why we went to particular locations within the city to engage people in different ways.

[37:53] And it also reflects some of the types of questions that we ask participants to elicit their experiences in ways that may be more reflective of their cultural experiences.

[38:05] So, if you would go on to the last slide.

[38:10] So, what's next?

[38:11] This is the trailer to future work.

[38:15] Using phase one and phase two, all three assessment reports

[38:19] to refine strategies and address some of the gaps

[38:22] that have been highlighted in all three.

[38:27] Constantly an ongoing engagement of staff and community

[38:30] in a collaborative process will be really significant

[38:34] and moving forward, especially when we think about that seven generation principle, as well as community healing, because community healing is a process as much as it is an outcome.

[38:49] And then embedding these definitions into the structuring culture of the city itself with a vision for moving forward.

[38:57] also at the stage for a strategic plan to begin doing all of the implementation work moving forward.

[39:05] And so with that, that gives you the highlights of the phase two report and I will turn it back over

[39:14] to the mayor. Hey, well, thank you so much, Gail. Appreciate the good work and the overview.

[39:21] Also, the presentation of the information in the context of PowerPoint, very effective.

[39:31] So council, do you have questions or thoughts?

[39:35] Yes, please.

[39:36] Yeah, I have a few thoughts.

[39:37] I did appreciate the demographics.

[39:39] I think that I was trying to do a comparison to the census demographics and the ages especially

[39:46] are not quite in the same categories as the census does.

[39:49] But I think clearly that is a closer to representative of the Green Belt population than then we often get in surveys

[39:56] Then in fact we just saw in like the wayfinding survey we were talking about

[40:00] On Monday, in the sense that it's more African-Americans, especially represented, and I think also younger folks, more middle aged at least, if not young, but more middle aged represented. So, I appreciate that. It still may not be perfect, but it is, I think, closer to Green Belt's actual demographics. I think still a good under-representation of the Asian population, I noticed. There didn't seem like you talked to so many folks there.

[40:28] so that's just an overall comment. Did you ask a couple of things, did you ask, is there

[40:35] information in the full report about what part of the city, the people that you talked to from,

[40:39] and also where all of these conducted in English, or where any of them done in Spanish,

[40:44] and did you collect information about that, about like primary language?

[40:49] There was, we did have a Spanish translator with us, and so a couple of times, and so there were a

[40:57] few of the conversations that were in Spanish with a Spanish translator leading those.

[41:04] The rest were primarily in English.

[41:07] And did you ask people, I mean, I know you were mostly in East and West, did you actually

[41:13] ask and collect data about where they lived in Greenbelt or if they, in fact, did not live

[41:17] in Greenbelt?

[41:18] We always ask folks whether they lived in Greenbelt or whether they were a visitor to

[41:23] green belt. The majority, by far, the majority of the results you're finding are residents

[41:27] of green belt. There were, we made a point of also talking to some business owners

[41:32] in green belt, even though they didn't live in green belt. And we talked to just a few

[41:36] people who visited green belt in terms of their experiences, but were not residents. But

[41:41] overwhelmingly, the data is from residents themselves.

[41:45] And then I guess one other, and then I'll let some of my colleagues get some questions

[41:48] in, but did you, so it seems like clearly communication and or lack thereof was a big

[41:54] theme. Is there, are there any particular, did anything come out of those conversations

[42:01] in terms of ways that we could reach people better like ways that they, if they feel like

[42:06] they are not being communicated well with, I mean, I think you talked about a few in terms

[42:11] of like having forums in other parts of the city and things like that, but were there

[42:15] Are there any other themes that came out in terms of what they would like us to be doing

[42:19] better to be able to reach them?

[42:22] Is that any thoughts or is that something that's also in maybe in the report with some

[42:26] more details?

[42:28] There are some more details in the report.

[42:31] Everybody had a different idea depending upon their demographics, right?

[42:35] So younger folks tend to want something that's more electronic, newsletters tend to resonate

[42:43] more with the gender, you know, older Gen Zs and baby more generations. So you have to think

[42:49] that of that in mind, but really because there are so many facets of the city that are

[42:55] disconnected in certain ways, probably the primary form of communication at least to begin building

[43:00] that would be to go to communities themselves and having those conversations one-on-one

[43:05] in small groups or in forums. I think that part of the plan moving forward would be

[43:13] bringing together community members and staff to help build what that communication strategy would

[43:19] look like.

[43:23] Well, thank you, thank you. I've got a couple of thoughts kind of following up on what

[43:29] what Mira Pro Tem was saying about the demographics. I'm just wondering, I didn't really just knowing

[43:37] the city really well. It seems like there's a proportion of the Asian population but more

[43:44] so the North African population. We've got a pretty substantial number of folks that are French

[43:50] speakers and both in the east and the west and I didn't really see that come up. So was was anyone

[43:57] in the sample group of 91 of African descent?

[44:04] Yes, quite a few were.

[44:07] We did put people together in one lump group,

[44:11] but that really should be the African diaspora group,

[44:15] just as they colonized by Spain as sort of the Latin diaspora.

[44:22] So, yes, within that group, we spoke with immigrants from Africa.

[44:25] we spoke with a couple of business owners who were also immigrants from the continent.

[44:31] And so, yes, that included a wide range of folks, not just generational African-Americans.

[44:37] That's helpful.

[44:39] And so, another question that I had had to do with the length of time that the folks had

[44:47] actually lived in Greenbelt or been visiting Greenbelt.

[44:51] I think that's important when you're talking about communication, it just seems like there are different cohorts for people.

[45:00] I know that I've lived here for, I don't know, one to three years. They may not have had a chance to really become acclimated with the community. I know in my life, when I've moved from one place to another, it takes, I'm a little slow, but it takes me about five years to really move from one place to another. So when, so is that one of the questions that you actually ask people how long they've been in Greenport? So since we, as Maya talked about, we have these guide posts

[45:29] of topics. It's amazing once you get people started, they start telling you their life story,

[45:35] right? So we heard quite a few life stories from some people who've lived here and

[45:41] dreamed out for most of their life for very long periods of time to those who'd literally just

[45:47] moved in a few months ago. So we got a pretty good mix of that, but we didn't necessarily get that

[45:56] information from from everyone to be able to provide you with a chart.

[46:02] I think that'd be helpful just having a sense the questions about communication and

[46:08] feeling connected and also just being aware of programming and opportunities.

[46:15] I think some breaking it into some cohorts might be helpful in us better understanding

[46:21] the interaction and you know council is is you know we're in the community and we're elected to

[46:29] represent our constituents so when you talk about gaps I think you know actually focusing you

[46:40] on staff and making sure that those connections between the public and staff may be a little bit more

[46:47] remote than the connections between the public and council. I'm not sure that

[46:53] that's the case but sometimes it seems that way. Hey so and finally I was just

[47:00] wondering so just specifically the breakdown of the 91 people. How many were

[47:07] from Greenbelt East?

[47:12] I don't know that I can give you that number.

[47:17] So I think that's

[47:18] important to know. I'd have to go back and go back and let us know that. I'd appreciate that.

[47:25] Hey, other thoughts and questions or comments or gratitude?

[47:33] Yes, I'm certainly grateful

[47:35] for this work and I'm grateful for all the learning that we're doing as part of this.

[47:43] I agree. Thank you so much. I did have one question, or maybe two questions,

[47:51] on 16 and 17. So you have, you know, community healing. Do you see that as an outcome or do

[48:01] you see that as another step in the process? So in that leads me to, you know, your phase

[48:08] three trailer and what we should expect. Like I'm just trying to think of what are we hoping

[48:15] to achieve within the next phase of this process and how would you know what are the action steps

[48:25] that community members will be able to be involved in creating that change. Since you call out

[48:32] that the community is the agent of the change, what are some of those tactical things that we might be

[48:37] able to call out for people to get involved in? So community healing we recognize is not a concept

[48:44] that necessarily a lot of folks are familiar with at least in this country so it is both a process

[48:51] as well as an outcome. So when you engage in a process that is focused on ways in which

[49:03] communities naturally engage with one another that focuses on building connections and storytelling

[49:10] When you focus on processes that are culturally relevant and center the community is having the voice for making change, that in itself is part of a process of creating healing, which is also an outcome.

[49:26] So we think of all of those points that Maya spoke about as both a process and then thinking about them in terms of the outcome as well.

[49:36] So in moving forward in terms of the the trailer to phase three, so Tyra had spoken about the the Jedi action team has developed a draft framework for Jedi and defining what each of those concepts mean in the context of green belt specifically and they have run that through and gotten a lot of feedback.

[50:02] So, the next phase would be to go and get community input. That's part of the engagement strategy. And in that, you begin to hear, again, more community experiences and how those terms need to be defined in ways that are relevant and work for community members. The same kind of process is something that we use over and over again, where a group begins to develop a draft, whether that's a draft,

[50:28] vision, a draft, a Jedi framework, a draft strategic plan, whatever it may be, taking

[50:35] it to employees, taking it to community members, refining it, coming back to counsel with

[50:40] a final version that gets approved, and then everything just constantly repeats that cycle

[50:45] of developing something, taking it out and getting input, revising, and then finalizing.

[50:51] So that's an important process, and that is also part of a community healing process.

[50:55] Yes.

[50:58] Well, thank you.

[50:59] Thank you.

[50:59] We've got a couple of questions from Mayor Potem.

[51:02] Please go ahead.

[51:02] This is actually, I think, more a question for the city manager, because one of the suggestions

[51:07] in there was having a person who's sort of responsible community engagement coordinator.

[51:13] And I know we're probably not going to be able to add any new positions in the budget next

[51:17] year, but we have a new position that's constituent services.

[51:21] Do you see any possibility for that person?

[51:24] I know that you're already in the process of hiring that.

[51:26] So the job description is already written, but do you see any possibility of incorporating any aspects of that community engagement role as part of maybe the constituent services role?

[51:37] Yes, in fact, some of the job description language includes community engagement, so the person will be tasked with representing my office on HOA and civic association meetings that's community engagement.

[51:51] So getting our folks out to meet with residents where they are.

[51:56] Right.

[51:57] And we have some good news.

[51:59] We finalize our interviews today.

[52:00] So we're going through the last steps of getting some commitments from candidates.

[52:07] So great.

[52:08] Congratulations.

[52:09] It's exciting.

[52:09] Only good news today.

[52:10] Wow.

[52:11] Yeah.

[52:11] Don't say that.

[52:13] Oh, man.

[52:13] I didn't think so.

[52:14] There's so four hours to midday.

[52:18] We have a couple of comments from the public, Mr. Orleans, you had your hand up.

[52:26] Booylin is resident, other than Gail and the two people from Trebessie with Gail.

[52:36] May I inquire how many people are online tonight?

[52:40] Potentially how many residents are online tonight?

[52:43] There are four listed attendees.

[52:46] Yeah, that would not include anyone that was viewing on Facebook or on Kable TV.

[52:51] and will not. Yeah, so that's just the people who are signed into Zoom.

[52:57] I think the question of civic engagement should begin with all of us asking ourselves,

[53:08] why so few residents, whether it's Old Town or East or West, participate in City Council meetings

[53:20] meetings and work sessions and the Averis advisory bodies meetings.

[53:25] One reason that has come up tonight in the report, which I presume is now available, and

[53:31] I'll be inquiring for a copy tomorrow.

[53:35] But one reason is transportation, and while it's transportation would not prevent someone

[53:44] from watching the meeting on Zoom or streaming or Facebook or whatever by electronic means.

[53:52] One reason people don't come to the municipal building, which is set up for meetings,

[53:59] transmitting out electronically, is that it's difficult to get here at 730 or previously 8 o'clock.

[54:09] And more even more difficult maybe to get home unless they have a car.

[54:12] And the question has been suggested to Council for many years that Council do more to facilitate

[54:22] the opportunities for residents, especially West and East, to come into Old Town for meetings

[54:28] and other community activities, and Council has rejected that suggestion.

[54:34] We have very pretty landscaping in Greenbelt.

[54:36] We're shortly probably going to have a lot of informational kiosks in Greenbelt.

[54:41] But folks from West and East, any of you may be old-town who don't have a car, I would

[54:48] suggest need assistance coming to the municipal building.

[54:51] And I believe this was alluded to in the report.

[54:56] It's also along been suggested a council that.

[55:00] The city, city management, sponsored by the council, have outreach in various parts of town,

[55:10] Shromb Hills. We can find a location in either Franklin Park proper or if necessary Green

[55:17] Belt Station, so-called, where we can have community branches on a nice day. Tables can

[55:23] be set up, there can be food prepared by the families or maybe home made plates, dishes

[55:36] that are prepared by people with their ethnic background and mind. And again, the city

[55:42] has not accepted that suggestion. I look forward to reading the report. I think the three

[55:48] folks from Tribeci, much of this, of course, requires city councils budgeting to do so.

[55:57] I look forward to that as well.

[55:59] Thank you.

[56:00] Hey, one point that did come up in the report was this idea of getting around moving the meetings

[56:06] around to different sections of the city.

[56:08] And that is something that we did consciously before COVID kind of fell off during COVID and before

[56:16] that a little bit. And also things have changed around a little bit because we are zooming

[56:20] and doing so many other hybrid technologies. We really couldn't do that. But we used to

[56:29] move our meetings around anytime we had a meeting with Franklin Park. We would hold it in the

[56:33] Recreation Center. We would go around to the different HOAs in Greenbelt East. So that is something

[56:39] that we need to get back to and then kind of adapt it to the new technology because I do think

[56:44] That I'm always surprised at the number of people that will say, hey, I was watching

[56:49] cable TV and I saw the last meeting and I saw what you said, you know, here's a lot.

[56:58] Yeah, remember that.

[56:59] Well, I would just like to point out that I think as we were going, you know, just about

[57:02] a year ago, as we were going through the process of filling the vacancy after Councilmember Gordon

[57:08] passed away. There were several of us who very strongly advocated for bringing those listening

[57:15] sessions to all three parts of the city. We didn't have great attendance at the one in Franklin

[57:19] Park, but we did have, I think, very good attendance at the one in Greenville East. And so I think

[57:23] that is something that under the right circumstances has, we have actually done. And I know that

[57:29] many council members have also been involved on some of the community walks that the police chief

[57:34] has done, I think there's still more work to be done, but I would argue that there have

[57:39] been some attempts and certainly I was one who very strongly advocated for those three

[57:43] listening sessions in all three parts of the city during that specific incident. So I think,

[57:47] I think you're right, Mr. Orleans, we can do more, but I think I don't think I would agree

[57:52] with the characterization that we have done nothing in that regard.

[57:56] Let's move to another comment. Bob Rand is online. Bob, are you there?

[58:03] I am. Can you hear me? Yeah, good evening. Okay, I'm Bob Ran 19 Ridge Road. Again, I want to

[58:11] applaud the leadership of Tyrus Smith and other staff and working with privacy to better understand

[58:16] the city and its residents and develop a vision for healing and growth for Greenbelt. I'm excited

[58:22] to see how these phase two efforts build on the initial phase one work. As a resident,

[58:28] I'm grateful for the progress I'm seeing through this process.

[58:32] I'm not sure how many other cities are doing this, but it's really exciting to be in a city that's taking this on.

[58:37] I noticed in the slides that the Jedi phases overview that there's a lot more work to do.

[58:45] I encourage staff to recommend funding in the fiscal year 26 budget

[58:50] and for council to approve the funds to continue working with tribacy

[58:56] to develop a strategic plan and implement it.

[59:01] I'll be looking for that line item in the proposed budget

[59:04] in early spring.

[59:05] Thank you.

[59:06] Thank you, Mr. Rand.

[59:09] So at this time, I don't see any other comments.

[59:13] Ms. Smith, would you like to say anything?

[59:17] Yeah, no, just thank you all for being here tonight

[59:20] and giving us opportunity to do this work.

[59:22] Very exciting world ahead of us.

[59:25] Thank you and happy holidays.

[59:26] it had behind us. And to the to Gail and the Tribe SET team, you know, thank you for your

[59:32] good work. So we're looking forward to just seeing the entire report. And so thank you so much.

[59:43] Thank you all. Just a final reminder from the Tribe SET team, I think today marks the end face one

[59:50] officially. So I wanted to just add the face two, excuse me. So I just wanted to add that as we

[59:57] cloud. Thank you so much.

[1:00:00] And best regards for the holidays. City manager's on the road. Would you like to? Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Thank you, Council for supporting this very important work. Okay. Okay. Well, at this time, we're going to move into the next phase of our gathering tonight, which is a special meeting. And we've got a number of items, given that today is December the 18th. And this mayor pro-10 pointed out a little bit earlier.

[1:00:29] this is the last time that Council is going to be gathered in 2025. So this is a very special.

[1:00:44] But we got some business to take care of just in regard to the end of the year contracts

[1:00:50] with the American Rescue Plan Act. So I'm going to ban the gamble. I hear by call the special

[1:00:55] meeting of Greenbelt City Council to order. Madam Clerk, will you call the roll, please?

[1:01:03] Ms. McKenny?

[1:01:04] Yes.

[1:01:05] Ms. Weaver.

[1:01:07] I'm sorry, Mayor Proc and Weaver.

[1:01:09] Here.

[1:01:10] Ms. Pol.

[1:01:11] Yes, here.

[1:01:12] Ms. Pompey?

[1:01:13] Here.

[1:01:14] Mr. Robert.

[1:01:15] Here.

[1:01:16] Ms. Miso.

[1:01:17] Here.

[1:01:17] Ms. Jordan.

[1:01:18] I'm here.

[1:01:20] Okay.

[1:01:21] Well, let's, let's dive right in. I don't know if we can do it.

[1:01:24] I move.

[1:01:25] Would someone like to move that we adopt the agenda as presented?

[1:01:28] I think we do we have some things to add?

[1:01:30] Yes, so we have a couple of things that we want to put before the council, Mr. George is passing that around.

[1:01:38] We have a GPS probe that we want to add to the list.

[1:01:42] This was on one of the projects on the list.

[1:01:45] Now that money has viewed up, we're able to move that into the queue.

[1:01:50] We have HVAC system for the animal control project.

[1:01:56] And then we have been looking to resolve the sound issues in the Council Chamber.

[1:02:01] We have two proposals, ones for 13,000 others for 26,000.

[1:02:07] We're having some heartburn about spending that kind of money on microphones, but

[1:02:13] it's the options that we have before us.

[1:02:16] So we want to add those as discussion item, I think, well, because they exceed the $10,000,

[1:02:23] We would the $10,000 we would need councils approval to be able to move forward with those items very good very good

[1:02:30] So let's dive right in yeah, we also need to talk about the Brayden field art is that that's already on the agenda

[1:02:39] Oh, it's okay. It's just not listed as one of the contracts

[1:02:42] There is a contract for it. It's on the on the

[1:02:48] I thought it was in the agenda.

[1:02:51] Well, I thought I pulled the one right off the website.

[1:02:53] But let me, let me, that one, yeah.

[1:02:58] No bottom.

[1:03:00] Oh, that's the one I pulled up that time.

[1:03:02] Fifth on page nine of the 19 page packet.

[1:03:05] No, I guess I didn't have the most recent one I found.

[1:03:07] Okay, I apologize for that.

[1:03:09] No, I think I didn't, I think I hadn't refreshed my,

[1:03:13] the window for council meetings,

[1:03:15] so I think it was not pulling up the most recent one

[1:03:17] when I pull through that.

[1:03:18] So, we're adding to the agenda, the GPS probe.

[1:03:24] The GPS probe, and as part of our, our, our, our effort to document and map our assets

[1:03:34] energy, our system.

[1:03:37] Energy.

[1:03:37] Our assets.

[1:03:38] Sorry?

[1:03:39] We said energy assets.

[1:03:40] All of our assets.

[1:03:41] All of our.

[1:03:43] All of our.

[1:03:45] All of

[1:03:50] our.

[1:03:54] So these items are all under Council discussion more or less.

[1:03:59] So really it's not just added a couple of things to the discussion.

[1:04:03] So I'll just make a motion to approve the agenda for the special meeting as presented

[1:04:09] as modified.

[1:04:11] I'll second that.

[1:04:12] Okay.

[1:04:12] I'll enable.

[1:04:13] Please say aye.

[1:04:14] Aye.

[1:04:15] Opposed?

[1:04:16] Motion carries.

[1:04:17] Well, let's dive right in.

[1:04:19] And Mr. George, thank you so much for being here with us tonight, this very special last

[1:04:26] session of 2024.

[1:04:29] So let's, you want to talk about, or Mr. Somerone, would you like to talk about the

[1:04:35] ARPA American Rescue Plan and the year contracts?

[1:04:39] First, we can just reiterate that this process, the funding that we received, which was a little

[1:04:45] a little bit more than $22 million and has all of the funding has to be encumbered or allocated by the 31st of December.

[1:04:56] correct. Although we can we'll be

[1:05:00] We'll be able to actually implement the programs between now and two years from now, but this is really the last opportunity to make any modifications. So. That's correct, Mr. Mayor.

[1:05:12] In the many of the contracts that have been approved, particularly at the last meeting, there were contracts, MOUs, and grant agreements that encumber the funds.

[1:05:22] Some of those expenditures are going to happen through December of 2026.

[1:05:27] So a good example will be, or food subsidy programs, which the Greenbelt News Review highlighted in today's paper.

[1:05:35] Those programs, that funding is being allocated in December of 2024.

[1:05:40] But those expenditures are going to carry through to 2026.

[1:05:43] And speaking, part of the strategy, at least with those programs,

[1:05:46] were that we wanted to adhere, and we took into serious consideration the recommendations

[1:05:54] are the people first coalition to put some of this money into serving a residence.

[1:06:00] And we allocated that funding for the next two years for those projects.

[1:06:04] Other projects, we just need to make sure they income with the funds.

[1:06:08] So many projects that are before you tonight, they're going to get spent, those funds are going to get spent right away.

[1:06:13] In fact, the first one, the office furniture to go, that's to make the improvements to the chairs here in the council chamber.

[1:06:21] and getting tables that are more conducive to how the space is being utilized for meetings and functions

[1:06:28] and the space will be smaller tables that are collapsible and to themselves

[1:06:33] will change the look and feel of these tables so that they get better usage.

[1:06:40] The PROPAC is the sheltered trailer that search requested.

[1:06:45] It took and taken us a while to get that trailer and the outfitting, it's before you for 14,738, a little bit above the 11,500 that they had initially requested and this is the proposal.

[1:07:02] So we as reported at the last council meeting, we were down to 70, 75,000 dollars of opera money left to spend.

[1:07:12] And so we really don't have that much money left to spend.

[1:07:16] Okay. Well, we can just kind of go through each of these.

[1:07:19] And if there is no discussion, you know, we can just vote.

[1:07:24] So the first item, which is the quote from office furniture to go.

[1:07:31] Would someone like to make a motion, or is there any additional discussion?

[1:07:35] Well, we can, I think we should probably make the motion and then we can discuss, right?

[1:07:38] Right, I move that Council approve the use of $14,000 and $120 from ARPA funding for office furniture to go for replacement of tables and chairs in the council room.

[1:07:53] Is there a second?

[1:07:54] Second.

[1:07:55] I think Council Member Niesel was fast on the microphone, so we'll give her the second discussion.

[1:08:02] Okay. Mr. Mayor, this furniture is very similar actually, it's the same type of product

[1:08:07] that council approved for the senior senior and a friendly furniture for the ground floor

[1:08:14] east. So we put that equipment to use in that, in the community center, we like the use

[1:08:21] and feel of it, so we're buying more of it for this space.

[1:08:25] There will be for here for the more sessions and such.

[1:08:30] I've heard pretty good feedback at concerts of different activities in the community center about just just having just a lot more functional furniture is more comfortable.

[1:08:45] These tables also how old are these tables?

[1:08:54] Well, Mr. Mayor, you've been here 15 years, was this a choir bike?

[1:08:58] Actually, no.

[1:09:00] They're not older than that.

[1:09:02] So I think we've got a really good use of the furniture and we should be proud of being able to use this furniture for so long.

[1:09:09] I think the chairs of some of them, not all of them have really come to the end of their useful life.

[1:09:14] Yeah,

[1:09:17] and so it looks like in the, in the quote, it's four chair dollies and 60 stackable

[1:09:22] chairs, which seems like more than we have in here right now. Are they all intended?

[1:09:26] Will they all fit back there? They, they should. Yes. Okay, without the table, thinking

[1:09:32] of the council meeting, 60 chairs, we can fit in here. I think. Yes, 60 chairs do fit in here

[1:09:38] for the FBI announcement, we had 90 chairs placed in this room.

[1:09:44] And it looks like the tables are ones that, do they, that, like, sort of fold down so

[1:09:50] they'd be easier to get them out of the way, which is one of the problems with these.

[1:09:53] So, yeah, that, that seems like a, definitely a much more flexible furniture for this

[1:10:01] We also looked at power modules for the tables and we looked at the integrated ones that caught the price point is significantly higher. So we decided to do with the power modules, the power modules or essentially power strips that are attached to the tables or embedded into the table. We're going to go with off the shell power modules that clamp onto the table and then we can daisy chain them to the to the table. So we could provide power at the tables.

[1:10:28] So I won't have to bring my extension cord in here.

[1:10:32] So real problem for when we have a work session and folks are sitting here from whatever

[1:10:38] agency they cannot, there's no place for them to plug in their laptops to make a presentation.

[1:10:45] So that's addressing a real problem.

[1:10:47] If there's no further discussion, let's go ahead and take a vote.

[1:10:51] All in favor, please say aye.

[1:10:53] Aye.

[1:10:54] Opposed?

[1:10:55] No.

[1:10:56] No, okay.

[1:10:56] Thank you.

[1:10:57] So,

[1:11:00] next up, you have the pro-pack?

[1:11:03] Yes, this is the cert trailer that the cert team has sent a price doubt for us.

[1:11:10] We support, well, the council have previously approved this allocation,

[1:11:15] because the cost has increased from the amount previously granted by council.

[1:11:20] We felt obligated to bring this back to council.

[1:11:24] How much did the price increase?

[1:11:27] It's only, yeah, $3,200.

[1:11:31] Seems like mostly that's freight.

[1:11:33] We were shocked by the delivery charges.

[1:11:36] In fact, we talked about sending someone down to pick it up.

[1:11:39] Like, almost 30% of the cost of the units.

[1:11:43] Right. So the team has had some conversations about whether this is the right place to order it.

[1:11:51] Um, given given the time we're sort of stuck with this offer.

[1:11:56] However, we would not rule out swapping it out if we can get it from our local provider

[1:12:01] that will save us thousands and shipping.

[1:12:05] So gave us for no, it's not in the car.

[1:12:08] I don't care.

[1:12:09] South Carolina.

[1:12:10] Yeah.

[1:12:12] We didn't price it.

[1:12:13] We took the recommendation from cert.

[1:12:17] Okay.

[1:12:17] Is there a motion or?

[1:12:19] Yeah, please go ahead.

[1:12:20] I move that we authorize $14,738.80 from ProPAC Inc for a shelter trailer for the cert team.

[1:12:28] Yes, and I, of course, will second that.

[1:12:30] Did you want to make the money?

[1:12:31] No, no, that's fine, I'll second that.

[1:12:34] Mayor Pro Tem, given the concern about the shipping charge, would you like to approve that subject

[1:12:40] to, if we cannot find out a local distributor?

[1:12:45] So I would ask if we can modify that approval to be up to 4,738 with the caveat that if we find make that a friendly amendment.

[1:12:56] Yeah, that's fine.

[1:12:57] Does that make sense?

[1:12:58] Yeah, so up to 14,738,80 from propound ink or a local supplier if one can be, if one can be determined.

[1:13:09] That modification is okay with you Ms. Pope.

[1:13:12] It's fine.

[1:13:13] Okay.

[1:13:13] Any additional discussion?

[1:13:16] All in favor, please say aye.

[1:13:18] Aye.

[1:13:20] Opposed?

[1:13:24] Okay.

[1:13:24] I'm sorry.

[1:13:25] Mr. Hartman, did you have a comment?

[1:13:36] Michael Hartman, two court-gardenway.

[1:13:39] Just two questions.

[1:13:40] One, I noticed that there's no tax on the furniture,

[1:13:43] but there's a $658 tax on the pro-pack.

[1:13:48] I'm wondering why there's tax on one

[1:13:51] One thing, one purchase and none on the other, both are out of state.

[1:13:55] But anyway, the other question I have is the furniture that we have now that we're replacing.

[1:14:01] What is a plan to do with the furniture?

[1:14:04] Will it go to community forklift or another reuse location or what are the plans for the furniture now?

[1:14:13] So, do we have a policy, I mean in the past, we've tried to, you know, vehicles and other city equipment.

[1:14:23] Sometimes we are able to resell it to other organizations.

[1:14:29] I don't know that we have a policy on just some sort of productive reuse of city assets.

[1:14:36] Maybe that's something we can look at.

[1:14:38] The city, the city as a practice likes to squeeze out every use of the equipment that we have, hence the table has been here for so long, so we really do not replace things until they break and at that point, usually they're not able to be sold for these for these are still in good conditions, so we will go through a vendor that's got deals to sell all of our to sell this equipment, so we would.

[1:15:00] Actual vendor to announce it and send it through gov deals. The tax one, I think, that's just an oversight from the vendor. We do not pay taxes, sells tax in the state, even for vendors that are out of state. So that would just be an oversight. We'll have that, how that corrected. The search engine didn't have our tax exempt cert on hand when they reached out to their vendor. But when we, when we, when we process that we, we always

[1:15:33] Let's move on to the next item, which is the Braden Athletic Complex Public Art Project.

[1:15:41] Excuse me.

[1:15:42] Thank you.

[1:15:43] Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

[1:15:44] We have Nicole joining us.

[1:15:45] Nicole DeWalt, who has been instrumental in designing the public art policy and our process.

[1:15:53] So she's joined us online for this presentation.

[1:15:57] Mr. Walder, are you there?

[1:15:58] Good evening.

[1:15:59] Hey, good evening, good evening. I was not able to join the call last night. Do you want to talk a little bit about the project and some of the outcomes from the discussion last night?

[1:16:10] Sure. We are making great strides. We had 11 responses to our initial request for qualifications for this project.

[1:16:20] And of those, we selected four finalists, and those are the individuals who were able to join us last night and make some presentations for the community.

[1:16:30] As you know, as you had participated, we were able to conduct a stakeholder survey to provide some initial feedback to the artists going into this process, and then we followed up with a second survey for meeting attendees afterwards to gain some additional input.

[1:16:47] So we really value all the community participation that we've had along the way, including that of the

[1:16:54] Project Committee panelists themselves, who are doing just a super job of reviewing extensive

[1:17:01] materials from each of the design packets, and really embracing this opportunity for stewardship

[1:17:09] of the project on behalf of the community and with their participation. So it's going very well.

[1:17:14] We have our next meeting tomorrow night, and we are hoping to select a winner to offer a contract

[1:17:22] Okay, and as I said, I really wanted to be in on the call last night

[1:17:26] I was not able to do that. It's health things. No worries. Thank you. I'm just wondering

[1:17:31] I know at some point this had was related to the

[1:17:36] Sun dial that used to be between the youth center and the test courts

[1:17:41] but that's not the only site under consideration, is that correct?

[1:17:45] No, actually, yeah. The sundial was kind of the launching point of the project,

[1:17:52] and boy has it expanded in scope from that initial vision. I think Roy Brayden would be tickled

[1:18:00] by what we've been able to do with this project as part of the renovation. The two sites that we

[1:18:05] had suggested to the artists for consideration were one where the pathway winds down behind

[1:18:13] the youth center and meets with the walking path behind the library on the tennis court side

[1:18:19] of the complex. There's a grassy area that seems like it would be a great place for a welcoming

[1:18:25] element so that we're identifying as the primary entrance point for the complex. We are also

[1:18:32] So looking at a secondary entrance, which is the one across from St. Hughes, former

[1:18:39] St. Louis school off-cross that.

[1:18:43] So if the artist wished to offer us one artwork, we were suggesting that one closer to the

[1:18:50] youth center.

[1:18:51] If they felt that the budget supported them in doing two elements, we would be able to add

[1:18:56] that second element on the St. Hughes side.

[1:18:59] Yeah, yeah, that's, that's very creative. There was a tree there before, right? That grassy area next to the tennis court.

[1:19:06] I believe so.

[1:19:07] So I'm thinking just in terms of our discussions with the, the Prince George's County Library System.

[1:19:15] Now that path that comes down adjacent to the library reaching down to the tennis courts where the peace pole is.

[1:19:27] That's where the library kiosk project is going to be, and I believe that's moving forward, is it not?

[1:19:33] I

[1:19:36] have any information about that.

[1:19:37] The Story Walk project?

[1:19:39] Yes.

[1:19:40] Yeah, it's moving forward.

[1:19:41] They've got the sensitive impact.

[1:19:45] I think they're just waiting right now on weather to make sure they have enough dry weather so they can get the post site in the concrete set.

[1:19:51] Those sites would be along the walkway or would they be in the parking lot where the EV charging stations are gonna

[1:20:00] They're along the walkway. There are going to be some along where the EV charging is going to be, we're going to position them so they're not in conflict with each other. Right, and they would stretch down to just before where the Peace poll is. Okay. Let's get a little busy over there. Yeah, go ahead. Well, I was going to say Council Member Pompey and I were able to attend the session last night and it was very interesting for very different concepts, but all very interesting and certainly

[1:20:30] different strengths for each of them.

[1:20:33] So I think I enjoyed the presentations last night, very different perspectives from all

[1:20:37] four of the artists.

[1:20:38] And it kind of made me, I don't know, I liked all four.

[1:20:41] I think I had some that I liked better than others, but it seemed they all had something

[1:20:46] to offer, which I thought was really interesting.

[1:20:50] And I think the idea, Mr. Samarona or Mr. Waldo, you can correct me, but I think the ideas

[1:20:58] is now authorizing a contract, but it's to be one of those four, but to be selected by the committee.

[1:21:05] But we have to get, we have to get this vote done now.

[1:21:08] Correct. Unfortunately, the timing is such that we need to encumber these funds and we don't have

[1:21:15] a final recommendation for the team yet. So we ask for a leap of faith from council that the

[1:21:22] committee is going to make the right decision and the best decision.

[1:21:26] I think any of them, I think any of them would be, any of them would, would add something.

[1:21:33] I think there's different strengths and weaknesses to each one.

[1:21:36] Councilmember Poppy.

[1:21:38] Yeah, I want to recommend that we budget up to $50,000 for design materials, testing,

[1:21:48] fabrication insurance delivery and installation of artwork and artist travel slash lodging as applicable.

[1:21:55] Second that. Any further discussion? Well, I would still like to take the presentations with the

[1:22:06] four designs or online someplace so people can look, I'd like to take a look maybe in the packet here.

[1:22:13] But I'm thinking it's getting kind of busy up there towards the youth center.

[1:22:18] So, I don't know if the installations on the St. Hugh side would be secondary or contingent,

[1:22:26] but just I might to kind of weigh in on that side possibly, but it's up to the committee.

[1:22:33] Is there any further discussion?

[1:22:38] Thank you.

[1:22:38] Okay.

[1:22:38] All in the favor, please say aye.

[1:22:39] Aye.

[1:22:40] Opposed?

[1:22:41] Okay.

[1:22:42] It passes.

[1:22:43] The call.

[1:22:44] Thank you for your work.

[1:22:45] This sounds really, really exciting.

[1:22:47] Thank you.

[1:22:47] You're most welcome and I really appreciate the participation of several council members

[1:22:51] in the process.

[1:22:53] It's really been a pleasure working with you.

[1:22:55] And maybe Mr. Walg, you could, since I know, I think, I believe it was recorded last night,

[1:22:59] maybe you could just send that link out to council if others want to take a look.

[1:23:05] Absolutely.

[1:23:07] Great.

[1:23:07] Thank you, Nicole.

[1:23:08] You're welcome.

[1:23:10] Well, let's see.

[1:23:11] I guess that's going to take us to the GPS probe.

[1:23:17] GPS Pro. We have a lot of our assets mapped, but we have still have some work to do, and we need

[1:23:24] the right equipment to do it. So we've got these options. In speaking with Tim, the price, the

[1:23:31] quotes are set up in a way that we can order and procure the items below $10,000, but we're just

[1:23:39] disclosing it to you that we're following through with the GPS project and we're going to be moving

[1:23:43] and forward with that, or want to move forward with that, update our GIS maps and make improvements

[1:23:50] to the system.

[1:23:51] I envision a solution, and I think you've heard from me before that, if a resident has

[1:23:59] an issue with either a sidewalk or a dead tree or a branch, hang in there the public right

[1:24:05] away that creates a nuisance or a danger or risk, they could open an app.

[1:24:10] see, click it, or take a picture and just submit it, and being able to report that.

[1:24:16] In order to build out those database, of those things that people can report on, we need

[1:24:21] to have good GPS, GIS, data, database, and data sets to, for people to be able to tag

[1:24:28] and report issues on.

[1:24:30] So, the probe would be under the auspices of public works, or would reside in administration,

[1:24:37] because a lot of several of our departments are working with GIS layers and I agree with

[1:24:44] you. I think that there's a lot more that we could do, that we need to do, that we

[1:24:49] should be doing with GIS labor layers, making them available to the public. I know the

[1:24:54] tree canopy, we've got a GIS layer on that and we certainly have a lot of that.

[1:25:00] Yes, from public works on that as well. In some ways, all the departments are touching GIS data.

[1:25:08] Our now economic development office, we're looking at software solutions like the RGIS Business

[1:25:15] and Analytics. We took a demo of that and there's great data sets available through that

[1:25:20] through that program. So our economic development office is going to be using more GIS data.

[1:25:27] the powerhouse when it comes to GIS data collection and use our planning and

[1:25:35] community development because of the work that they do and public works,

[1:25:39] specifically Kevin and public works. Did that answer your question?

[1:25:45] Yes it did, yes it did.

[1:25:47] What someone want to make a motion on this?

[1:25:51] Just a question, is this two separate units, should it be altogether one motion for

[1:25:55] both of them?

[1:25:56] I think one motion, both of them, that gives us the discretion of finalize whether we take

[1:26:01] the unit in that accuracy correction model, both, or work with the vendor to adjust when

[1:26:11] it needs to be adjusted. Because you're looking at one model that's

[1:26:16] subscription-based and there's an ongoing annual expense, we want to roll that as a packet for

[1:26:21] the next two years, or go with the one model and pay for the accuracy corrections for

[1:26:28] the two years.

[1:26:29] Okay.

[1:26:30] And that's still you're still trying to determine which one is best.

[1:26:33] Right.

[1:26:34] So we will stay within the funding that Council allocates for that.

[1:26:41] Tim, what was the number that you were proposing?

[1:26:50] Is that the sum of these two?

[1:26:52] The sum.

[1:26:54] Oh, no.

[1:26:56] Oh, I missed the third one.

[1:27:04] I got 12.746, too?

[1:27:08] Yeah, okay, so I move that we authorize up to $12,746.20 to Duncan and Parnell for GIS units

[1:27:22] exact details to be determined by the staff and the best value for the city.

[1:27:28] This is our second.

[1:27:29] Second.

[1:27:30] This is public.

[1:27:31] Second.

[1:27:31] Any additional discussion?

[1:27:34] Okay.

[1:27:36] So, please, Mr. Orleans.

[1:27:42] I'll go along with this resident again.

[1:27:44] That which Mr. George provided me, and which returned him to answer a question from Mr.

[1:27:51] Sonoron, has a lot of information on it, but it doesn't say what this stuff is going to

[1:27:56] do.

[1:27:57] And I'm just wondering if there should not be at least one more page that is describing

[1:28:01] I mean, what these numbers and that amount of money is going to do,

[1:28:08] of course,

[1:28:09] as soon as it's being proposed and council is about to approve it,

[1:28:12] there must be a good thing, but it would be helpful to know what it is.

[1:28:16] I, I, I, so much in generally speaking, or always that there is in the agenda,

[1:28:22] there are usually comments that sort of describe what something is in plain English.

[1:28:26] And because this quote is coming to us, it was passed out tonight, we don't quite have that.

[1:28:33] But would you like to?

[1:28:35] Yes, absolutely.

[1:28:36] Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

[1:28:37] The project we presented by a while back the need or a gap in our services or functions is to being able to collect GIS data on assets things like stop signs, maintenance, means you name it.

[1:28:58] If there's a physical asset in the city that the city is responsible for somehow maintaining, reporting,

[1:29:05] we want to have that on a GIS map that we can track and do things with the data.

[1:29:11] In order to get that level of accuracy for GIS mapping,

[1:29:15] we need these specialized equipment probes that you can mark a spot, digital mark,

[1:29:22] And it loads that core GPS coordinates to a data set that we can then do things with.

[1:29:29] We have several maps.

[1:29:30] Oh, there you go.

[1:29:31] Yeah, I think this is not from this company, but this is that R580.

[1:29:35] So it's this sort of thing on a pole.

[1:29:38] Yes. So both of these have these two meter poles.

[1:29:41] So they're about six feet poles.

[1:29:43] And that's what they are.

[1:29:44] So you walk around with these things and you have a device that you mark that asset.

[1:29:49] So if you want to take locations of let's say all the maintenance

[1:29:54] holes in the city you stand over the maintenance hole in the center you put the probe and you mark

[1:30:00] And as you're collecting that data set, it records that location. And then you put attributes. Is it a water main? Is it a sewer main? Whatever it is, right. And so you can, you can tag it. And then I get slowed it up to a database and to a map.

[1:30:19] Well, and I think you might ask, well, so why can't you just use your phone, but I believe these are a lot more accurate. And I think that's when you're trying to pinpoint these things very precisely. Your phone is not necessarily going

[1:30:31] to give you the accuracy enough. I think iPhones can get maybe up to four, down to three or four meters,

[1:30:38] but three or four meters can be, I mean, if you've got a whole bunch of trees, for example,

[1:30:44] there can be a lot of trees within that three or four meter accuracy, so this is more accurate.

[1:30:48] By the way, if you have two maintenance holes, one could be gas, one could be water,

[1:30:52] one could be electric, you want to know which one's which. So for the level of work we do,

[1:30:58] we need something precise. The R580 is subfoot kit that gets down to the foot of accuracy.

[1:31:08] Yeah, I think it depends on the software package that you're using, the ATHA, the Anacostia

[1:31:13] Trails Heritage Area. They have a GIS layer and a phone app that they've been using to actually

[1:31:20] map out the historic markers throughout the area. So my hope, and we talked about this a few years

[1:31:27] back is to actually get more of this information and get it out to the public a little bit more

[1:31:32] so they can look and see. And as she stated, if they know that there's a problem with a water

[1:31:38] main leak and it's going across the street, you know, being able to pinpoint that and tell public

[1:31:42] works exactly where the problem is, that's what I'm hoping will happen. So this equipment's a step

[1:31:47] in the right direction. Let's go ahead. And we have some recent examples with water, with water

[1:31:54] main breaks that we had recently. We had the Sherrywood lane there are the waters coming from

[1:31:59] four different areas on the road. Trying to explain that to the representatives and email

[1:32:07] and phone gets a little cumbersome. We had an issue that Miss Pope reported to us on Springfield

[1:32:13] Drive that we can't figure out where this leak is. There's water present but there's no visible

[1:32:19] coming, water coming from anywhere. So it's still wet, it's still wet. And in WSSC, I think

[1:32:28] you all know, I love WSSC, they're a great partner. They have so much work to do with the

[1:32:34] age infrastructure. They can't get to everything and not everything's a priority. So something

[1:32:38] this doesn't, there's not top of the priority when you have big mains that are, that they need

[1:32:46] to repair. So for us, we can help accelerate the work having that GPS data. I'm being able

[1:32:54] to pinpoint what the issue is. So right on Spring Hill Drive, we located the valve. And

[1:33:02] we've located other valves that are showing that they're leaking. So being able to pinpoint

[1:33:08] those valves and send it to the team and say, hey, there's an issue there. Check. When

[1:33:13] And I'll just find out, just one more example, Mayor Proton Weaver reported a light pole that was down.

[1:33:22] I happened to have the PEPCO GIS map on my phone and computer so I could locate that pole number.

[1:33:29] And I sent it to the scene team and said, that's the pole number.

[1:33:31] So I didn't have to give any more information and say, go look at that, it's damage.

[1:33:35] So that's an example of why these things are helpful to have.

[1:33:40] Let's go ahead and take a vote. All in favor. Please say aye. Aye. Opposed? The motion carries.

[1:33:47] And that's going to bring us to the next item,

[1:33:52] which is that the police station, animal shelters.

[1:34:04] Mr. Summerone, Mr. George, motion. Was the bush moved for this? Okay. For the animal shelter now.

[1:34:10] Yeah. Okay. I have a question.

[1:34:12] Do you want to start or do you want to go ahead?

[1:34:15] So the general, as you know, we've been working on trying to fix the animal shelter

[1:34:20] issues.

[1:34:21] The facility needs significant improvements.

[1:34:26] The HFAC system is problematic, the subfloor is problematic, the roof is problematic, Tim

[1:34:33] is there anything that's now?

[1:34:36] So maybe the kennels inside, those are well maintained.

[1:34:39] So obviously there's some work needed. We look into replacing them with prefabricated shelters.

[1:34:47] The challenge we run into is the permitting, the engineering of adding to the sites.

[1:34:54] It's in a wet area problematic. The vendor will take it on. We found a company.

[1:35:00] On track to say we'll do it at a cost of $400,000. I think that we, $400,000 is money that we currently

[1:35:12] don't have available in opera. If it was available, I think we would, we would argue, we would

[1:35:18] try to make the case for it. But the money is not available. So the team has figured out

[1:35:25] a way to repair the subfloor of the roof and the HVAC system and get more years out

[1:35:32] of the existing facility.

[1:35:35] So this two unit replacement, this replaces both units that provide heating and cooling

[1:35:41] to the current place.

[1:35:42] It comes at a hefty price tag.

[1:35:45] Part of the cost driver is the use of this crane to get the units out, the old units out

[1:35:52] in the new units then.

[1:35:53] So

[1:35:57] this is a temporary solution.

[1:35:59] Well, these two units, they will run for 20 years.

[1:36:05] Right.

[1:36:07] But the animal shelter, I think long term, we need to find a solution.

[1:36:13] So this doesn't resolve that long term.

[1:36:15] I think a permanent fix is having an entirely new structure.

[1:36:19] This buys us time and allows us to continue services uninterrupted.

[1:36:26] uninterrupted.

[1:36:28] I mean, so we're going to have to find a solution for this.

[1:36:32] I mean, $400,000 is probably not the solution at this time.

[1:36:35] But, you know, we did have $22 million in offer funds.

[1:36:40] And we did not spend any on the shelter or the dock park.

[1:36:45] I think we really have to go ahead and find.

[1:36:50] Now we're putting these two HVAC units on there.

[1:36:54] And I mean, of course they're needed, but I'm just worried like you put these new systems

[1:36:59] in there and everything else is around it is kind of fallen apart.

[1:37:03] So that's kind of my concern.

[1:37:05] So are we going to, of course, I'm assuming fixing whatever is there to fix in the animal

[1:37:12] shelter up first and then those units go in or how is that going to happen and how are

[1:37:17] Are we planning for replacing the shelter?

[1:37:21] And are these two units, because they're now new, are they transferable to a new animal

[1:37:28] shelter if we, if we, if we, if we receive a new, in the next few years, a new building?

[1:37:37] The, I'll answer the first part of your question.

[1:37:39] What else are we doing?

[1:37:40] What I expect, or hope, is to do it all at the, around the same time, doing the subfloor

[1:37:45] in the roof repairs and have the HVACs.

[1:37:48] I think the HVACs, because they're system that's attached to the exterior of the building

[1:37:52] they could be done at any point, but we'll try to get all the work done around the same

[1:37:57] time to minimize the disturbance to the animals in the space and the team that's working

[1:38:04] in the space.

[1:38:05] I'm assuming the animals will be moved somewhere else, somewhere else when the work happens.

[1:38:09] You know, fortunately, does it this week?

[1:38:11] we are two dogs that we had had been picked up by an adoption agency. So from K9 perspective,

[1:38:19] we are doing great. Our last two animals were picked up, and we were concerned that

[1:38:26] there might have been adoptable. We were going to ask you to help us.

[1:38:33] So there are two K9s, it will be great to start the work this week, but there are some things we

[1:38:40] we just couldn't anticipate that.

[1:38:42] So we would do that work to minimize the impact to animals.

[1:38:46] Obviously, there would not be in the space

[1:38:48] when we're doing the work.

[1:38:50] So we would have to find some accommodation.

[1:38:52] We do have an external candle that has heating.

[1:38:56] The advocacy is not a permanent candle.

[1:38:58] It will be temporary for any candidates that we have.

[1:39:01] But more importantly, I think we have the relationships

[1:39:04] with the county and we would ask the county to help us

[1:39:06] as we, if we need that assistance.

[1:39:12] The second question or the second part of your question is, can they be moved to somewhere else?

[1:39:17] I think it depends.

[1:39:17] If we have another temporary prefab building such as this one, I think we will look at the

[1:39:24] feasibility of transferring these, this HVAC to that, to a new new shelter.

[1:39:28] If we were to build an annexed concrete structure to the armory, let's say, just hypothetically,

[1:39:35] it's not in a concept plan.

[1:39:36] I don't think it would be...

[1:39:39] I don't know, I don't know that that's would be the best solution.

[1:39:42] Well, I'm thinking about if we're replacing what we have right now with a similar

[1:39:48] it all has to do, it all has to do with the square foot of the building.

[1:39:54] Well, that's what I'm saying.

[1:39:55] If we were like, when we saw it for a certain square foot for the same-

[1:40:00] Basically, when we're talking about it, so that's what I'm, that was my question. If we're doing something like that, if we're not building, you know, a concrete structure or attaching us to another building that's already there, then of course you probably couldn't be doing that. But if we're replacing it, that was, you know, can we move it then? That's my question. But we do have to, you know, find a permanent solution for this animal shelter. Definitely do.

[1:40:27] Yeah, I notice that Chief Bowers is on the line, so maybe we could move the animals to his garage.

[1:40:34] It doesn't currently have permission to speak, so they just leave it that way.

[1:40:42] Well, it sounds like he volunteered. He accepted the assignment, so great.

[1:40:48] Okay, let's see, did someone make a motion?

[1:40:51] No, we haven't made a motion.

[1:40:52] Let's hope that you like to make a motion.

[1:40:54] Yeah, I make the motion that we approve the purchase and installation of the two A-Track units and at the animal shelter.

[1:41:03] No, the amount is.

[1:41:04] Oh, in the amount of $23,745. Thank you.

[1:41:11] Is there a second?

[1:41:11] Second.

[1:41:12] Councillor Member Pompey has seconded.

[1:41:14] Additional discussion?

[1:41:19] A all in favor, please say aye.

[1:41:21] Aye.

[1:41:22] Opposed?

[1:41:24] that motion carries unanimously.

[1:41:26] Thank you.

[1:41:27] And finally, that's going to bring us

[1:41:29] to this audio-visual audio proposal, city manager.

[1:41:36] Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

[1:41:37] We are having some challenges with the microphones.

[1:41:42] Now, the team provided me a background on how we ended up

[1:41:47] with a shirt mics, and this is a major improvement

[1:41:49] from what we used to have the bucket, the this conference of microphones.

[1:41:56] So we're looking at a two-prong approach to solving our sound issues in the room.

[1:42:01] One is having permanently installed microphones, or microphones that don't move from the

[1:42:07] diast.

[1:42:07] So the seven microphones would just stay up there, because one of the challenges that's affecting

[1:42:13] the microphones is the constant moving of the microphones, the playing in the wire.

[1:42:18] you can see this when it's taped up. There's another one with a broken nozzle.

[1:42:24] The top is damaged. So, we're looking at a set up. We'll have permanent

[1:42:32] microphones at the dias and then more portable microphones here at the work

[1:42:38] session set up. The two proposals that we receive, one, the one that's in front of

[1:42:44] used at $11,272, that's a permanent installation with Goosenec microphones that will be permanently

[1:42:53] attached. And then we can use these as are portables for the work sessions. That way, we

[1:43:00] can make sure that that sound up there is tested and won't be affected with the move and

[1:43:06] these will become more permanent. We receive the second proposal, which upgrades the

[1:43:11] to the latest technology that's available by, by, by, by sure.

[1:43:17] There's also a competitor, televict microphone and, and those two are, are identical technologies to give you perspective.

[1:43:24] If you, I know many of you have been to the four cities meeting at College Park.

[1:43:30] They have these wireless televict microphones that allow for your smart card to be connected to it.

[1:43:40] And you can vote on the device to display.

[1:43:45] And if the mayor wants to mute everybody or give them time, just at a click of the moderators

[1:43:50] microphone, they can control that.

[1:43:53] That's the latest.

[1:43:54] That's where the technology is right now.

[1:43:57] So, it's not the future.

[1:43:59] It's where conference rooms audio is set up, this park was two years ago.

[1:44:08] So that's what's been presented to us as a solution.

[1:44:12] They're wireless, wireless, they have all of these components that you can even track

[1:44:17] voting by member and whatnot.

[1:44:20] The downside to it is that it costs 26,000.

[1:44:25] So the question before council is, do you envision any setup with the wireless mics?

[1:44:33] I like the the the sure wireless system because it comes with its own access point, so you can those can become a portable system.

[1:44:44] So if you wanted to take the meeting to anywhere in the city, the microphones will make it easier.

[1:44:50] We bought the PIO mics last year and those served the purpose that we needed for the

[1:45:00] Listening sessions, but the sound are not great, not as good as these short mics. And if we're going to use them repeatedly, the pile microphones wouldn't, wouldn't be the right solution for us. So something like the sure mics that college podcasts would be more of the technology we need. So, question before council, what's your appetite for the expenditure? We can spend up to, we can spend the 26,000 and just entirely upgrade to these wireless microphones.

[1:45:29] or we can try to put together a solution that helps provide a portable solution for a council.

[1:45:39] And the portable solution we're thinking.

[1:45:42] This solution here, this would be for the permanent installation of microphones at the Dias,

[1:45:49] and we will use these as the portable ones and try to get as much life out of them.

[1:45:53] I'm sorry. Let me just make sure I understand. So it would be this 11,000 plus an additional 26 or one or the other.

[1:46:04] Do you have the details on the 26?

[1:46:08] I can pull that up if you want it. That'd be great. And we can, you know, the wireless solution.

[1:46:19] It's not something that's new, it's something that people have been using actively in municipal

[1:46:27] government, state government, and in the private sector for quite some time.

[1:46:31] So it really would be more flexible to have a wireless solution.

[1:46:37] These wires that are all strung together, we seem to just constantly have a lot of problems

[1:46:44] with that.

[1:46:45] On the one hand.

[1:46:46] On the other hand, our technology is changing and as far as a permanent installation on the

[1:46:52] day, I think there's some other things that would be helpful.

[1:46:58] I mean, we're all using these laptops, which it's kind of convenient, but in other settings,

[1:47:06] it would be nice to have a permanently installed screen or something at each station is a little

[1:47:12] larger. So I think a more comprehensive approach would be a good, better use of the funding.

[1:47:23] So if it's a choice between the two, I think I would take the incremental approach as opposed

[1:47:30] to...

[1:47:30] Yeah, I think I would as well.

[1:47:35] So the proposal in front of us has the seven wired in mounted ones, and then four wireless,

[1:47:43] but these are just less sophisticated wireless ones.

[1:47:46] So would those be used, what do you envision those four being used for?

[1:47:53] For the folks out here, so that would be one there.

[1:47:57] When the podium, and then we typically have one or two on my side and then the presenters for the work sessions.

[1:48:06] Right.

[1:48:06] So someone could come to the podium and they can pick up a microphone and then walk over to the screen and actually point at something that they were talking about.

[1:48:15] And the but for work sessions, if they're hardwired into the dius, we'd still be using these for work sessions with all of council sitting at these tables.

[1:48:31] But we still have to use these for work sessions like this when we are all sitting at the

[1:48:36] table here.

[1:48:40] There are comments from council?

[1:48:44] No.

[1:48:45] Mayor Perotam covered mine.

[1:48:46] I just wanted to make sure that the microphone was going to be addressed at the podium.

[1:48:52] So it will?

[1:48:53] Yes.

[1:48:54] Well, we've been trying to do away with that microphone.

[1:48:59] Yeah.

[1:48:59] Yeah, it's a pretty old microphone, the one that's up there right now.

[1:49:04] Try to get as much life out of things.

[1:49:07] That's about 15 years old, that way.

[1:49:09] Mr. Hartman, you had a question or a comment?

[1:49:21] Michael Hartman, two quick, right away.

[1:49:24] I have a question about the microphone.

[1:49:26] Some of the council members are very soft spoken.

[1:49:30] Our city manager is a very soft spoken.

[1:49:33] Other council members have very booming voices.

[1:49:35] is, what kind of modulation capabilities do these microphones have so that if someone

[1:49:44] is soft-spoken, they can be picked up or modulated, and if someone is like at the sound board,

[1:49:55] And are they connected to a sound board, for example, where someone could, good, good,

[1:50:00] Increased the volume from a central location. Who is running the audio visual? I don't know. It doesn't really looking at this quote. It does something say something about it. It does, Mr. Mayor. There's a two items under that modulates the sound. So one is a what's called a DSP with the digital signal processor. It's a processing software that works wind conjunction with the iPad and the iPad.

[1:50:29] Mypad is on there that allows for individual controls of the microphones.

[1:50:34] So the microphones can be adjusted on an individual channel.

[1:50:39] Is that like you're using the iPhone as a soundboard?

[1:50:43] That the one who is running the audio visual can then up the volume remotely, actually.

[1:50:51] Correct, for the individual microphones.

[1:50:54] Right.

[1:50:55] Okay.

[1:50:55] Thank you.

[1:50:56] I don't especially like the fact that it's tied to one technology, an Apple iPod, an iPad and kind of don't like that so much.

[1:51:08] Did it's tied to the iPad? Yes, it's sort of proprietary.

[1:51:11] The app, I think the app is agnostic or the switch

[1:51:25] that's the processor and the software itself is processor or agnostic or they're a proprietary system, but the app that runs off the iPad, I think that could be used on another device.

[1:51:42] But I wouldn't be too concerned that it's stuck with the iPad because the core technology

[1:51:48] of it is proprietary, that being the sure mics and the digital signal processing unit.

[1:51:57] So the iPad is just the digital interface with it.

[1:52:02] But that makes sense.

[1:52:05] I'm not sure that that totally gets to Mr. Hartman's question, but it does to some extent.

[1:52:11] I think, yeah, there's something called normalization that's in a software patch that would actually kind of moderate everybody's voice, so it's pretty much the same.

[1:52:20] So it's not really clear. Mr. Hartman.

[1:52:25] I can ask the, the Pipino is actually the vendor that did the design of the sound and building.

[1:52:31] Oh, sorry, in this, in the space. So we're working with the vendor that designed our sound and video system here.

[1:52:37] And so we can speak with them about what kind of normalization of the sound can be done

[1:52:42] or adjustment, automatic adjustment of the sound so that the volume of the languages

[1:52:49] can be equal or similar.

[1:52:52] Mr. Harmon, I apologize.

[1:52:54] Also, what's the compatibility with our hearing aids?

[1:52:59] Your sound system could be compatible with hearing aids, a considerable loop system, for

[1:53:05] example.

[1:53:05] or something like that that would help people were hearing aids would be able to hear better

[1:53:11] you know the sound the style is modulated yes we actually looked at that as a separate solution

[1:53:17] tyra tyra and i worked on um we purchased uh interpretation equipment um but that's language

[1:53:25] interpretation so they're the these interpretation devices and it's part of that project we were looking

[1:53:30] at creating a sound output at the mixer in the studio room that could put out a radio

[1:53:37] over the air, and that if anybody that wanted a head unit, a headphone to listen to the

[1:53:44] conversation here, they could check out a unit, and we would have the mixer put the sound

[1:53:49] out through the radio frequency, and so you could be sitting in the audience and have a

[1:53:55] head unit where you're getting the sound directly put into it for that is that's one solution

[1:54:02] and then the other one would be a loop system where it would be compatible with hearing aids

[1:54:07] it wouldn't be have headsets that would be a person's own hearing aid.

[1:54:12] So we could transmit the sound directly to people's hearing aids?

[1:54:15] Well, it's picked up.

[1:54:17] Oh, it's picked up that way.

[1:54:18] Okay.

[1:54:19] We did not look at that but that's something that we looked at the the interpretation

[1:54:25] because the description said it could be used in that way, so.

[1:54:29] Thank you.

[1:54:31] Okay, Mr. Orleans.

[1:54:37] I don't know what council is going to be voting on whether it's this $11,000 proposal or the 26,000 proposal.

[1:54:46] That was alluded to earlier.

[1:54:48] If it's the latter, then that should be distributed to the public so that we know more detail about that.

[1:54:55] but in any event, Mr. Shalom was not here.

[1:54:59] Okay.

[1:55:00] What we Mr. George was, certainly three members of council were, about four years ago, the city paid, and I don't remember what the price was, nor do I remember the vendor, but the city paid quite a lot of money to have the entire audio, video, visual technology in the room changed. New technology was purchased, it was supposed to be top shelf technology, I believe at the time.

[1:55:27] I don't know why I experienced it's lacking in recent months, but I don't know why it's

[1:55:37] not sufficient today.

[1:55:39] If it's because new technology has outpaced the technology purchase three or four years

[1:55:45] ago, then we ought to write into our contracts with vendors that if they're installing the latest

[1:55:51] technology and it's superseded by improvements during a normal course of time, they should pay the

[1:55:59] cost of improving and updating the technology, not the city paying again. I don't understand any

[1:56:07] of this, whatever, but if you're going to be voting on the 26k proposal, information should be

[1:56:12] distributed. One last thing, as was pointed out by the Mayor Pro Tem, Greenville Council is not the

[1:56:18] only body that utilizes this room, any new money spent, new technology should reflect the fact

[1:56:26] that other meetings occur in this room, and that technology should be compatible with the

[1:56:31] uses of those meetings as well.

[1:56:36] Well, thank you. Thank you. I'll just say that it's been a challenging

[1:56:40] evolution that's kind of brought us to this point. As Mr. Orleans correctly pointed out,

[1:56:47] I guess it was five years ago, 2000, right before the pandemic, we were advised to invest

[1:56:55] in the technology update, and it was problematic.

[1:57:00] If you remember, if you were around during that time, we had constant problems with feedback

[1:57:05] to the point where our meetings were completely inaudible, and it did not work in the hybrid

[1:57:11] setting at all.

[1:57:12] So we have to change a few things around, so it's not been a smooth transition for us and hopefully this new technology, this new microphone system or permanently installing these wireless devices will put us in a position where we can evolve more smoothly going forward.

[1:57:37] As to the utilization of the room, this is Council Chambers, and some of the modifications that we've been made here, I've advocated for making some similar modifications to the multi-purpose room in the community center because that is a space where there are a lot of meetings, presentations, some of them very, very engaging and important for the community to hear and to be able to record those or the live stream, those out would, or the live stream, a speaker,

[1:58:07] your end of the room would be very, very powerful.

[1:58:11] So...

[1:58:12] In Mr. Mayor, just, I understand and appreciate

[1:58:15] the feedback from Mr. Arlene.

[1:58:16] Certainly we would, anything we want council to vote on,

[1:58:20] we want you to have it with as much notice,

[1:58:24] advance notice as possible.

[1:58:26] Now we usually bring something to council

[1:58:29] that solves a problem for a council.

[1:58:31] And we're running down to the last minute

[1:58:35] on using this upper money.

[1:58:36] And we wanted to use it the best way that we can.

[1:58:38] So that's why we're rushing this to you.

[1:58:41] But certainly we can, we don't have to make a decision on this today.

[1:58:45] We can, if we want to use the ARPA money, then we need it to today.

[1:58:49] But I think we have a solution that works that we can,

[1:58:56] again, try to get as much life out of it as possible.

[1:58:58] I will be replacing that goose neck that it's in front of my spoke

[1:59:02] because she's got a broken microphone there,

[1:59:05] not a one-hundred-of-field slide it by hand and I'm broken, I'm broken, thought tape on

[1:59:12] there. You know, we try to cover it up with the, you know, color as close as possible

[1:59:16] to the microphone but we'll make that repair and I think we can get more life out of these

[1:59:21] and we can talk through it a little bit more.

[1:59:26] So we don't have to make a decision on this

[1:59:29] today but we'll just acknowledge that there are issues with it and we will solve it as things break,

[1:59:37] we can replace these as individual units until we make a more informed decision.

[1:59:46] I think that is a solution. I think that solves the challenge up there but if we wanted to take a look

[1:59:53] at a more comprehensive approach to our sound system, we can we can

[2:00:00] We can wait and see whether the system that college park is more conducive to a college park is the same microphones on the diocese as they do on the tables. So that's just one solution that they adopted for for anything. Now they also have a brand new building. Yeah. Okay. Let's spend a lot of two years there. Well, two year, okay. Compared to this one, it's brand new. Yes. Yes. I mean, it's a very modern. I mean, it's a very modern.

[2:00:29] modern building, it's stated or it.

[2:00:32] I mean, of course, they have the best of everything, you know?

[2:00:37] Of course, the university helped a little bit with that.

[2:00:39] Yeah, well, yes, of course.

[2:00:41] We don't have an university here.

[2:00:43] But anyways, we need to, yeah.

[2:00:45] An opportunity.

[2:00:46] Yeah, I don't know.

[2:00:47] Part of me thinks it's going backward to do another,

[2:00:51] or at least not moving forward to do another wired system at the same time.

[2:00:55] There's a pretty big price difference between

[2:00:57] between 11,000 and 26,000, is there any overlap between the two proposals in the sense that

[2:01:05] if we did the lower price thing now, for example, could we sort of phase it in and do something

[2:01:16] now and maybe we have some of these wireless mics and then later on, we buy another set of

[2:01:22] wireless mics to trade things out, but these aren't the really fancy wireless mics, right?

[2:01:27] These, the four sure wireless beta 58 microphone systems.

[2:01:31] No, in fact, those microphones, if you think being wired is a step back, those microphones

[2:01:39] are a step back because it's just the stand in the microphone with a mute button.

[2:01:43] And the microphones that we have now are run over Ethernet, they have an audio jack.

[2:01:53] So if you wanted to connect your headsets to it, you can select which mics to pick

[2:02:01] from up to four and it's got an integrated speaker.

[2:02:04] We just don't use some of those functions, right?

[2:02:07] Right.

[2:02:08] Yeah, I don't know why we would, you're right, it does have an integrated speaker, I don't

[2:02:12] I don't know why you were trying to think what circumstances that would be useful to use the integrated speaker, but yeah, well, you'd have to have headphones on or something to keep from feedback.

[2:02:23] Let's try and draw this discussion to a close. We do have a motion on the floor.

[2:02:28] What was the motion? I don't think we have a motion.

[2:02:31] I have a question. I wanted to ask for the wireless touchscreen mics that bid.

[2:02:41] Does that also include replacing the mic up here and the one that you sent us in the $26,000?

[2:02:56] Yes, we have item, there's an item titled MXW2.

[2:03:04] Let me share that on the screen.

[2:03:06] I want to make sure that Mr. Orleens is able to see what we're seeing.

[2:03:11] So

[2:03:15] the there's four wireless short wireless microphones handheld with cartridge. Those are the 595.

[2:03:24] Those are wireless mics like the short mics that we have. The big price of the driver here are those, the cost difference of those wireless mics.

[2:03:36] The 11,000 proposal puts a per unit cost at 341 on these conference units with a touch

[2:03:45] screen and voting integration, those microphones cost $1,415.

[2:03:52] Do our profundings allow for the wireless mics the larger?

[2:04:00] Here,

[2:04:03] the upper funding allocation that we're using for this purchase is loss revenue allocation so that can go towards any expense.

[2:04:11] I mean, is there enough money, is what I'm saying?

[2:04:13] Yeah, we will carve it out, we will carve it out.

[2:04:17] So we're down to the $70,000 to $75,000 that we're working with.

[2:04:22] So we wouldn't bring it to you unless this was possible.

[2:04:26] So if for whatever reason, we, let's say we didn't agree to this or the expenses didn't line up and we have money left over.

[2:04:39] There are a lot of deferred projects that we can buy equipment for.

[2:04:44] So for example, one of the things that the Chief and I, and

[2:04:47] this is the reason why Chief is online is because we, one of the budget items he's bringing to next year's budget is personal protective equipment.

[2:04:56] for the officers that include the meta-

[2:05:00] Local kit, the shields, the face shields, they're bringing that to the budget, to the budget process for next year. And it's equipment that we have to pay for next year. So, if we have any money left over here, we would buy that equipment and replace what the officers need because that's an expense we have. I don't know if you want to promote chief, Mayor Pro Tem.

[2:05:28] And he can he can speak more intelligently about what that protective personal protective equipment is chief you there?

[2:05:39] He's rejoining it takes a second.

[2:05:41] Oh,

[2:05:44] so any money that we don't use, we are looking at what expenses we're anticipating in 2026 that are mandatory expenses, such as the personal protective equipment.

[2:05:58] and we would look to pay for those things, because we're going to pay for them.

[2:06:04] Well, as far as the mics go, I realize there's a really stark cost difference here,

[2:06:09] but I also do not think that these mics are very effective for many reasons.

[2:06:14] There have been many times in the dias where they just don't work.

[2:06:17] People are trying to talk, like I even think about our last council meeting that we had.

[2:06:22] Almost everybody on the dias had trouble at some point just speaking into it and

[2:06:26] it to work. And only because I've seen those mics, like, and use those mics in College Park,

[2:06:32] I know that they're effective and that they work. They've been working there for a few years.

[2:06:38] I mean, my personal, I personally lean towards getting the wireless mics because I just feel

[2:06:45] like we'll get so much more utility out of them. Then we would, if we were to sort of keep these

[2:06:50] and hardwires something into our dius, so that's just my thinking on that.

[2:06:57] I just feel like we could use these so much better, because these are just their wires

[2:07:01] everywhere.

[2:07:02] It's just, I don't know, I see people tripping on them and getting caught in them and

[2:07:07] anyway.

[2:07:08] Do you want to make a motion?

[2:07:10] I don't know if we want to hear from Chief first.

[2:07:12] Oh, I'm sorry.

[2:07:13] The Chief first.

[2:07:14] I don't want that.

[2:07:15] Preempt him.

[2:07:16] Chief balance, are you there?

[2:07:27] I see Mr. Roberts has a question.

[2:07:29] Mr. Roberts, please go ahead.

[2:07:31] Well, I believe that the last time we went through this,

[2:07:34] we spent the, I think it was what Mr. Orleans was talking

[2:07:39] about.

[2:07:40] We spent about $125,000, and they had wireless microphones

[2:07:47] for a while, and they didn't work, so they got rid of them.

[2:07:52] So I'm wondering what would be different now and why we would

[2:07:57] have to, you know, spend this money now when we spent so much money before. That's my problem.

[2:08:04] And I think if these ones here were properly fastened and you didn't, you know,

[2:08:13] you had good wiring and stuff, they're fine to me. I'm certainly not voting to spend 25,000 or 26,000

[2:08:22] you know, what you want there. That's nasty much. And if we're going to do that, I think we need to...

[2:08:31] The other thing I'm concerned about is, you know, who are we working with now? Did you say we're working with the same people that did the last $125,000?

[2:08:42] Well, I think they didn't do the job the first time.

[2:08:47] Why would we go back there?

[2:08:50] That's what I want to know.

[2:08:51] There's a guy that does work for the cafe over there.

[2:08:59] See him having any problems with their mics and all that kind of stuff.

[2:09:06] And no reason that we should spend $125,000 in that not work.

[2:09:13] and then get the same person to come out and supposedly fix it again. If anything, they

[2:09:19] ought to come out and fix it, period, for what we already paid them. That's my opinion.

[2:09:26] Thank you.

[2:09:34] I find myself a little bit agreeing with Councilmember Roberts here because technology does change so

[2:09:43] quickly. It is really, really hard to want to do a wired solution. I also recognize that the

[2:09:52] largest problem is these moving around and that problem isn't going to go away when they're used

[2:09:56] for other events.

[2:09:58] So it...

[2:10:00] And then all of this in all of it, we are taking $11,000 that could be used for other ARPA funds. So I am finding this a very, very hard proposal to get behind personally because all I really want is for that mic to work.

[2:10:18] I know that this is a deferred maintenance issue. And then I'm also trying to balance in my head something that a member of the public brought up to me that a lot of these quotes at this

[2:10:30] This 12th hour are going to be very, very high.

[2:10:34] Now, do we know what inflation is going to look like in the new year?

[2:10:38] Will these costs continue to rise?

[2:10:40] Who knows?

[2:10:41] But that's also kind of clinking around in my head, just as a counterpoint.

[2:10:48] Okay.

[2:10:49] Well, we've got two proposals in front of us.

[2:10:52] We've got some alternative ideas.

[2:10:55] I'd like to ask you, would someone like to make a motion?

[2:10:58] We also have Chief Bowers, I think.

[2:10:59] Is Chief Bowers with you?

[2:11:00] Yeah, I think he rejoined and I think can maybe speak now.

[2:11:06] She powers.

[2:11:07] How are you tonight?

[2:11:09] Good evening, Mayor Counsel.

[2:11:10] I apologize.

[2:11:10] I was having an assortment of technology issues.

[2:11:12] My iPad wouldn't let the microphone work, and I'm struggling to get the other computer

[2:11:18] up and running.

[2:11:18] But thank you for allowing me to speak tonight.

[2:11:20] I know the city manager mentioned the personal protective equipment that we potentially need

[2:11:24] to buy next year, that if there's additional funds, we can make that purchase this year.

[2:11:28] It is the CBN equipment, the basically gas mask medical equipment, and any of the type of personal protective equipment officers would need to handle large scale events or hazardous material type events, which most of what we have now is expired and needs to be replaced.

[2:11:52] a little bit that we do have is at a date. Most of it was purchased right after the 9-11, so it's about 20 plus years old, so it's all in need of replacement.

[2:12:05] What's the price tag that you're looking at?

[2:12:09] I believe Mr. Solomon has the quotes that I sent him earlier today. It's about $500.580 per unit.

[2:12:17] How many units?

[2:12:19] We have a fifth, we're, Council has budgeted us for 53 officers, we need 53 units, so it comes out to around $30,000.

[2:12:32] So is that, is that one that's like in their vehicles?

[2:12:36] The chief of those in the vehicle?

[2:12:39] Yes, all the equipment is maintained in their patrol vehicles when they're out every day.

[2:12:44] So it's not something that could be just when they're on duty and so you have fewer units for the officers on duty, it would be just stay in there.

[2:12:53] There are signs of a unit. The benefit of this one, of this equipment that the chief has identified is that it's on a per unit basis.

[2:13:01] So we can buy it at unit increments. So we can buy us whatever we can afford on $180 and 47 in increments.

[2:13:14] Okay, and what would be the shelf life of these, the new, you call it PPE?

[2:13:20] What would, how long would, would this equipment last until it expired?

[2:13:26] Chief, how long have you had this?

[2:13:28] The government will last about 10 to 15 years with the exception of the filters, and those

[2:13:31] are fairly low cost and they need to replace every five years.

[2:13:37] Councilmember Pope.

[2:13:38] So my question would be, do we have to, does, so we don't have to buy all at once, but

[2:13:44] but does every officer need its own? Is it like specifying each person?

[2:13:51] Yes, ma'am.

[2:13:51] The equipment is fitted for each officer. So each officer is issued a piece of equipment.

[2:13:55] It's test fitted and sealed to that officer, so we make sure that it works perfectly for

[2:14:00] that individual. And then the next person gets an issued item and it's fitted and tested

[2:14:04] as well. So each person has to have their own item.

[2:14:08] All right. Thank you.

[2:14:11] Okay, Council, so let's make a decision.

[2:14:14] We don't really, and this is sort of a last minute proposal.

[2:14:17] We haven't really been provided with all of the information that we might need.

[2:14:21] For example, maybe there is some way to just address the wireless microphones on the podium.

[2:14:30] I don't know at this time, but I do know that we are here now.

[2:14:35] we can make a decision and this is the last opportunity that we'll have to make use of this

[2:14:41] ARPA funding that is available, particularly from the lost revenue source, which means that it

[2:14:49] can be used for any number of projects. So is there a council member that would like to make a motion

[2:14:56] or Mr. Summerrun that you have some occasional.

[2:14:58] Yes, just to just to just

[2:15:00] Just to clarify, we don't have to buy the microphones. We're trying to bring solutions to solve challenges that we have with the funding that we have. We don't have to make that decision about the microphones. If we don't make the decision about the microphones, we would use whatever funding is available to buy things that we know we need to buy next year. So, the money, though, I don't want you to think the money that somehow is not going to get used properly or is going to be wasted.

[2:15:28] that we're going to use every penny of it

[2:15:30] and as best as we can.

[2:15:32] OK, and if there's no motion,

[2:15:34] I mean, we can just move forward.

[2:15:36] I have another you have a motion.

[2:15:37] No, I first I have a comment,

[2:15:39] and then I can make the motion.

[2:15:41] So at this point, I think I would,

[2:15:43] I may personally, my personal opinion

[2:15:45] is, you know, the personal protective gear

[2:15:47] for our officers is very important.

[2:15:49] Yeah, because they're out and they may need that.

[2:15:52] And then that's that's that is the sense of urgency

[2:15:55] that I have, especially if our equipment is outdated

[2:15:58] an old, right? Because we would not want any of our officers to get hurt in any situation.

[2:16:03] They may have to encounter out there. So I would prefer maybe to wait on the microphone issue

[2:16:09] until we can agree with something and discuss that further. But I would like to move that we

[2:16:16] go ahead and approve the amount for the personal protective equipment for our police

[2:16:27] These officers.

[2:16:30] Just a point of information, Mr. Summerone, did you not just say that if we did not vote

[2:16:35] on these microphones, the funding would be available from the lost revenue, ARPA funding,

[2:16:40] and you would go ahead and purchase these?

[2:16:42] Yes.

[2:16:43] No, this does not require a council action.

[2:16:46] No, because it's not a contract, and we would buy it on a per unit basis, so we're not obligating

[2:16:51] the city to a contract that exceeds $10,000.

[2:16:58] We will buy as many as we need to.

[2:17:01] Yeah, I don't know that that needs to be a motion, but I think I'm not comfortable with

[2:17:06] the microphone.

[2:17:07] I think we should fix that microphone, but I don't know.

[2:17:11] I don't want to spend $26,000, but I also don't think that doing more wired mics is the solution

[2:17:18] either.

[2:17:20] I know.

[2:17:21] Yeah. I think we're in a good place. We're in a good place to move forward. We have, we got our marching orders not spent $26,000 on wireless mics that we're not right now, not right now. No, I get it. I get it.

[2:17:38] And we will move to replace those two microphones.

[2:17:42] I know I've said it previously and just things sort of not slipped or there are other burning

[2:17:50] issues that come up.

[2:17:50] But we will work to replace the two wire mics in the room and I will look to see what's

[2:17:59] the replacement options for these so that we're not making a significant investment on replacing

[2:18:05] these entirely.

[2:18:06] But we have some contingency plans that what happens with the goose next breaking and the head units breaking and we have a contingency plan for replacing those maybe maybe there's some improvements so we will look at those things.

[2:18:20] And we're certainly replaced the goose next are broken and damaged.

[2:18:25] Thank you. I appreciate that. So it's been an interesting discussion and clearly we do have some audio in the needs that need to be addressed, but you know, $26,000 now. It's not the time.

[2:18:41] So if there's no other business before us, we can close the special meeting.

[2:18:46] But it was the motion needed for the second equipment to per unit basis.

[2:18:51] Okay, gotcha.

[2:18:52] Okay.

[2:18:52] Thank you.

[2:18:53] All right.

[2:18:53] Thanks.

[2:18:55] Okay.

[2:18:55] So I'd like to move to our executive session.

[2:19:00] We're not going to move to a adjourn.

[2:19:02] Okay.

[2:19:03] So I, where's the, I don't know, do I have the actual language of the motion?

[2:19:18] I move that council go into closed session in accordance with Section 3-305B1 of the general

[2:19:24] provisions article of the annotated code of the public general laws of Maryland, one to

[2:19:28] discuss the appointment, performance evaluation of appointees, employees, or officials over

[2:19:32] whom this public body has jurisdiction, or any other personnel matter that affects one

[2:19:36] or more specific individuals.

[2:19:38] The purpose of this meeting is to discuss the city manager's evaluation.

[2:19:41] In addition, the council, city manager Jose Marron, and director of human resources, Duane

[2:19:45] Martinez, will be in the meeting.

[2:19:47] Note that council will not return to open session following this closed session.

[2:19:52] Okay.

[2:19:54] Okay, Madame, if there's no discussion, Madame Clerk, will you call the roll, please?

[2:19:59] Yes.

[2:20:00] Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.

[2:20:09] Yes. Yes.

[2:20:12] Okay. And it's 9.50 right now. So this, the open session is closed. Special meeting.

City Council Work Session - DEI Audit - Phase II Report Presentation

Agenda

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