[0:00] All right, it is 6:03 p.m. I'm going on
[0:05] Monday, October 5th. Uh, I will now call
[0:08] to order this regular meeting of the
[0:10] Wooki City Council and we will actually
[0:12] begin the evening with the liquor
[0:14] control board
[0:17] and I will
[0:21] ask uh, Councelor Goodrich to help lead
[0:25] the pledge of allegiance.
[0:30] To the flag of the United States of
[0:33] America and to the republic for which it
[0:35] stands. One nation under God,
[0:38] indivisible, with liberty and justice
[0:41] for all.
[0:43] >> Thank you.
[0:47] And
[0:49] Jenny, do you want to introduce the
[0:52] items for all together or separately?
[0:55] >> Um, it's up to you.
[0:56] >> Okay. Um well the uh consent agenda
[1:01] items are for discussion approval of
[1:03] John Ryan VFW
[1:05] um third class liquor license discussion
[1:08] approval DLP LLC or 211 Main Street and
[1:12] renewal for
[1:14] first third class liquor licenses
[1:17] outside consumption permit restaurant
[1:19] application discussion approval for
[1:21] Mountain Valley Restaurant uh 212 Main
[1:25] Street first class liquor License and
[1:27] restaurant application
[1:29] discussion approval for Yen restaurant
[1:31] 65 Wii falls way first and third liquor
[1:34] license first and third class liquor
[1:36] licenses outside consumption restaurant
[1:38] application and discussion approval of
[1:40] Onion River Hotel 111 Wuski Falls way
[1:43] for an entertainment permit.
[1:45] >> Yes, thank you. Um so actually um Onion
[1:48] River Hotel did have that on the agenda.
[1:51] I had on the agenda for August 3rd so we
[1:54] don't need to do that one. Okay. But
[1:56] here is Summer um who's opening up the
[1:59] new establishment at Yen Restaurant. So
[2:01] >> great. Do you want to come introduce
[2:03] yourself?
[2:03] >> Explain about it. Talk about
[2:05] >> just Yeah, come come on come on up and
[2:07] introduce yourself.
[2:08] >> Thank you.
[2:12] » Um do
[2:13] >> Yes, you can move that over. Yeah.
[2:16] >> Um so my name is Chuk Gale. I goes by
[2:19] summer and um I'm opening my second
[2:22] restaurant business located at 65 Wooki
[2:24] Falls Way sweet 104B which is where
[2:27] don't worry used to be in. Yeah. And it
[2:30] will be a Vietnamese restaurant um
[2:33] Vietnamese cafe and kitchen that we
[2:35] offer Vietnamese coffee drinks um you
[2:39] know some kind of cocktails and food as
[2:41] well. Awesome. Yeah. Um, business hour
[2:45] will be Tuesday to Sunday, 11 a.m. to 3
[2:48] pm and 4 pm to 900 pm.
[2:51] >> Great. Nice.
[2:52] >> When do you when are you hoping to open?
[2:54] >> I'm hoping to be open sometime um next
[2:57] week.
[2:58] >> Oh, wonderful.
[3:00] >> Um any questions from council?
[3:02] >> And Mountain Valley has one on November
[3:04] 4th.
[3:06] >> November.
[3:07] >> Yes.
[3:08] >> And is that going to be prohibitive for
[3:12] >> Yeah. cannot open. Um, yen restaurant
[3:15] can't open until I receive that
[3:17] >> certificate.
[3:18] >> Okay. And there's not an opportunity to
[3:21] >> expedite.
[3:23] So,
[3:23] >> um, not unless the code enforcement team
[3:26] has time. Yeah.
[3:27] >> Okay.
[3:27] >> And is that something you were aware of?
[3:29] >> So, not exactly. Um, last week, Friday,
[3:32] when I had the inspection done, I was
[3:34] told by the fire marshall um that um
[3:38] only because I haven't laid out all the
[3:41] tables and chairs in the dining room.
[3:43] Um, he wasn't able to calculate exactly
[3:45] the capacity just yet. Um, and I offered
[3:49] to do it right away, which he stopped me
[3:51] from doing so and saying that he
[3:53] understand that, you know, these
[3:54] meetings takes weeks to schedule and he
[3:56] wouldn't let that um delay the process
[3:59] of opening. So, I was actually unaware
[4:02] of that until today when Jenny came in
[4:04] and just had a chat about November 4th.
[4:07] That was scheduled.
[4:07] >> Okay. Um well, perhaps you can work with
[4:12] staff um to to see if there's a way to
[4:16] move up those dates. But, um
[4:19] are council comfortable um approving
[4:23] conditional?
[4:25] >> Yeah.
[4:25] >> Okay.
[4:26] >> Yes.
[4:26] >> All right. Um, I seek a motion to uh
[4:29] approve the consent agenda item as
[4:31] proposed.
[4:33] >> So moved.
[4:34] >> Seconded.
[4:34] >> All in favor?
[4:35] >> I.
[4:37] >> Thank you.
[4:39] so much, Summer.
[4:41] >> You're doing great.
[4:43] >> Um, we'll close the um liquor control
[4:47] board meeting at this time and at 6:08
[4:52] p.m. we will open the city council
[4:55] meeting.
[4:57] Um,
[4:59] we'll take a moment to look at the
[5:01] agenda review. Is there any changes to
[5:04] the agenda requested by city council?
[5:09] >> Any changes to the agenda from staff?
[5:12] >> No. Thanks.
[5:13] >> Okay.
[5:15] All right. Um, now is an opportunity for
[5:18] public comment. The city of Wooki
[5:20] encourages public comment during city
[5:22] council meetings. If you choose to offer
[5:25] any public comment, please sit at the
[5:27] public comment table um here in the if
[5:30] you're joining in person um speaking to
[5:32] the microphone um and please don't
[5:36] comment from the audience. It's the
[5:37] microphones. We want to make sure
[5:39] everybody is able to hear that audibly
[5:41] for the recording and anybody joining
[5:43] online. Uh state your name and address
[5:46] where you live. Direct your comment to
[5:48] the city council. Um and staff may
[5:51] follow up after the meeting as
[5:53] appropriate. Um keep your comment to
[5:56] comments to two minutes or less if
[5:58] possible. And if attending online, test
[6:00] your camera and microphone before
[6:01] joining. Use your um first and last
[6:05] name. Use the raise hand function uh
[6:08] during public comment to indicate
[6:09] interest in speaking. Do we have anybody
[6:12] for public comment this time? Anyone
[6:16] online?
[6:17] Okay, great. Um, I will move to the
[6:21] consent agenda.
[6:23] Quite a few things here, so I'm going to
[6:25] read through them all. Um, for approval,
[6:29] city council meeting minutes of
[6:30] September 21st, 2026.
[6:33] Uh, payroll warrant September 13 through
[6:35] September 26, 2026. Accounts payable
[6:38] warrant warrant as of October 1st, 2026.
[6:43] External commission representation
[6:45] quarterly reports for Chin and solid
[6:47] waste district and Wooki Valley Parks
[6:50] District.
[6:51] Uh review of boards, committees and
[6:54] commission structure. That's a memo um
[6:57] provided by myself and the mayor.
[7:00] approval of Vermont League of Cities and
[7:03] Towns Property and Casualty
[7:05] Intermunicipal Fund and the VCT
[7:08] Employment Resource and Benefits Trust
[7:11] um to designate a person to complete and
[7:14] submit ballots for directions and
[7:16] representatives to the annual meeting.
[7:20] Anybody any counselor want to remove an
[7:22] item for discussion? No. Okay. Um,
[7:25] everyone in favor of approving the
[7:27] consent agenda.
[7:30] >> Yes, I motion.
[7:31] >> Sorry.
[7:32] >> Seconded.
[7:32] >> All in favor?
[7:33] >> I.
[7:34] >> Great. Wonderful.
[7:36] >> All right. We will move to council
[7:37] reports and I will start with you,
[7:41] councelor Goodri.
[7:42] >> Okay. Um, the Wooki Finance Commission
[7:45] will next meet on Tuesday, October 16th
[7:48] at 6 PM here at city hall and on Zoom.
[7:51] That's all that I have. Great. Um we are
[7:55] anticipating having our regular safe,
[7:57] healthy, connected people meeting on the
[8:01] October 13th. Um the agenda and meeting
[8:04] details will be posted leading up to
[8:06] that. Um
[8:09] so please tune in. Welcome everybody's
[8:11] welcome in person or online. And I
[8:13] anticipate having the housing uh
[8:16] commission meeting on October 27th. And
[8:20] again, details for that will be posted
[8:23] online as the meeting nears.
[8:26] Um, councelor Turos,
[8:31] uh, friendly reminder, Wednesday is walk
[8:33] to school day, October 7th, um, here in
[8:35] Manuski. Uh, I've been organizing it
[8:37] along with our safe routes to school
[8:39] team and the amazing Watt. I look at
[8:40] counselor Oglevie because he's the
[8:42] reason I'm involved. Um, and so just a
[8:44] heads up that on Wednesday morning you
[8:45] will see lots of young kiddos and
[8:47] families, students, staff, neighbors,
[8:50] uh, walking, rolling, and biking to
[8:52] school. Uh, local motion will be there
[8:54] at the school along with our
[8:55] superintendent, Wilmer, who will be
[8:57] handing out prizes, um, and some morning
[8:59] snacks to some of the kids. Um, we're
[9:01] really trying to not only show our
[9:04] students and our school population that
[9:06] we are a walkable and bikable city, but
[9:07] also to the commuters who drive through
[9:09] every single day that we um need to slow
[9:12] down because there's lots of people
[9:13] using our streets. Um, and if anyone has
[9:15] any questions, I'm organizing that and
[9:16] you can email me at my city council
[9:18] email. Um, the Burlington Airport
[9:20] Commission has our next commission
[9:22] meeting on Wednesday, October 7th at 400
[9:24] PM. Um, and just in case anyone has
[9:27] follow-up questions regarding sound
[9:28] mitigation or anything like that, uh,
[9:30] you can always send me an email and I
[9:32] can follow up with them. On Saturday,
[9:34] October 10th, I'm organizing another
[9:36] Wyuski community cleanup that will be
[9:38] happening at 9:00 a.m. We can all meet
[9:39] outside specs at 7 West Canal Street.
[9:42] Again, I will I will be providing all
[9:44] materials, latex, gloves, trash pickers,
[9:46] bags, everything. Um, lovely high
[9:48] visibility vests if you want. Um, and
[9:52] uh, kids are are more than welcome,
[9:53] families are more than welcome. It's
[9:54] just a great way for us to continue to
[9:56] um clean up our city. A lot of folks
[9:58] have signed up. A lot of folks are
[9:59] really eager for this and they love that
[10:01] it feels like green update, but that
[10:02] we're doing it on a monthly basis. The
[10:05] inclusion and belonging commission meets
[10:06] on Monday, October 26th at 6 p.m. here
[10:09] at city hall. We will be engaging in a
[10:11] discussion uh a follow-up discussion on
[10:13] the background check policy as well as
[10:14] the memo that was just approved
[10:15] regarding commission structure. Downtown
[10:18] Wooki held our first Inerson board
[10:20] meeting last week and I just want to
[10:21] share that we went to the newly opened
[10:23] sneaky. It was really wonderful to
[10:24] support a local downtown Wooki business
[10:26] during that time. And lastly, I just
[10:28] want to say a massive thank you to
[10:30] Trisha O' Kain, friends of the Wooki
[10:31] River, and Cidra from the Wooki uh
[10:34] recreation department for hosting the
[10:35] Memorial Park Birdwalk on Saturday,
[10:37] September 26th. This was the first time
[10:40] in my tenure as a city council member,
[10:42] but I think that we had done something
[10:43] like this. It was massively well
[10:46] attended. I have never seen so many
[10:49] people like so engaged in that
[10:52] particular park which I know that we're
[10:53] really trying to revitalize um learning
[10:56] together. It was just like so we did an
[10:58] entire loop and so um I know that a lot
[11:00] of organization and thoughtfulness went
[11:02] into that and so I'm just really
[11:03] grateful to everyone who participated.
[11:04] Um that's it.
[11:06] >> Great council.
[11:07] >> Uh so I want to start off with
[11:09] apologizing for uh last month's
[11:11] municipal infrastructure commission
[11:12] meeting was unfortunately canled due to
[11:14] my absence. Um, I learned that city
[11:17] emails don't work internationally. Um,
[11:20] so good job keeping the city secure. Bad
[11:23] news for the people I was supposed to
[11:24] email. Um, that being said, this coming
[11:27] meeting we will continue our discussion
[11:29] about how to better improve and manage
[11:31] commission structure. Um, and we look
[11:33] forward to hearing from folks.
[11:37] >> And what's the date? It will be
[11:39] Thursday,
[11:41] October
[11:43] 22nd.
[11:45] >> Okay, wonderful.
[11:46] >> At 6:30.
[11:48] >> Staff updates.
[11:49] >> Yes. Uh, are you a resident with an
[11:51] extra vehicle? Are you a college
[11:53] student, business owner, or employee
[11:54] looking for a steady parking option?
[11:57] Need a spot in the parking garage during
[11:58] winter parking bands, or just looking
[12:00] for a place to park? The city of Wooki
[12:03] is now offering long-term parking space
[12:06] agreements in the Wooki parking garage
[12:08] on Cascade Way to individuals or
[12:10] households. Multimonth and
[12:12] month-to-month agreements are available.
[12:14] To learn more and uh fill out the
[12:16] inquiry survey to get started, please
[12:19] visit wookivt.gov/news.
[12:23] The general election is Tuesday,
[12:25] November 3rd from 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m.
[12:27] at the Wooki Senior Center. The Vermont
[12:30] Secretary of State will mail ballots to
[12:32] registered and active Wooki voters
[12:34] beginning in October using the address
[12:37] on your voter registration. This is your
[12:39] ballot. Once you receive your ballot,
[12:41] you can return it by mail to Wooki City
[12:44] Hall. Drop it off at the city clerk's
[12:46] office or bring the ballot to the Wooki
[12:49] Senior Center on election day. You can
[12:51] check your ballot status and register to
[12:53] vote at vote.vermont.gov.
[12:57] That's all.
[12:59] Um, do you want to mention Main Street
[13:02] urban cut?
[13:03] >> Um, sure. Yeah, it was a really well
[13:06] attended event. Really appreciate that.
[13:08] Community members in addition to our
[13:09] very important folks. Um, actually, I
[13:12] guess everyone's very important. So,
[13:13] that there was such a great crowd that
[13:15] turned out and uh, a chance to reflect
[13:17] on what a big project that was, how much
[13:19] work went into that, and how much the
[13:22] community put up with and endured and
[13:24] came through the other side with. So,
[13:27] yeah, it was great to have everyone out
[13:28] and celebrate and had some nice said
[13:30] things from some nice people. Thanks.
[13:33] >> Thank you.
[13:35] >> Um, all right, on to our regular items.
[13:38] Uh, we have item A for discussion
[13:40] presentation from the tax the rich to
[13:43] fund Vermont coalition member. Um, and
[13:47] we'll invite um Matt Guyle to the table
[13:52] to introduce this item.
[13:57] Yeah. Hi, I'm Matt Guile. Um, and I'm a
[14:00] resident on Mount Street and a candidate
[14:03] for state rep here in Wooki. So, I've
[14:05] been working with the tax the rich to
[14:08] fund Vermont coalition. Um and um we've
[14:12] been working to put ballot measures on
[14:14] several different municipalities that's
[14:16] really encouraging our legislature to
[14:19] tax the rich so we can fund the sort of
[14:21] programs that really will make uh
[14:23] Vermont an affordable place for working
[14:25] people. Um so Wooki is one of the
[14:28] municipalities we're working on. Um
[14:30] there's also a measure that's being
[14:31] proposed in Montpielar and another one
[14:33] in um in Randolph. Um so we've gotten uh
[14:38] I don't have all of my clipboards. Some
[14:39] of them are still out in the wild. Um
[14:41] but we've got over 100 signatures so
[14:43] far. Um we've done two canvases. Um
[14:46] actually actually I have right in front
[14:47] of me. We were on Thomas's street last
[14:49] week, but Oh, there he is. Hey. Um,
[14:55] and really our goal with these ballot
[14:57] measures is to really put it to voters
[14:59] and to show that this is these sort of
[15:01] policies are something that really are
[15:04] um are popular among people and I will
[15:06] say talking to people at their homes um
[15:10] it is some of the easiest petition
[15:12] ballots collection I have ever been
[15:14] engaged in. Um so the uh we are trying
[15:18] to collect over 300 petition signatures.
[15:20] Our target is 350. so that it can go on
[15:23] the ballot. But I would love if the city
[15:25] council was sort of a partner um in this
[15:28] um and um you know so I think we so we
[15:31] can say in as many ways as possible that
[15:34] taxing sort of those that can afford it
[15:36] to fund the social programs that we
[15:38] really need um is something that we can
[15:40] do as a state and is something that um
[15:43] you know Wooki residents and our city
[15:46] council um could support. So um I have
[15:50] one of the petitions here. I have some
[15:52] of our tax rich to fund from a
[15:53] coalition. Um but again the petition is
[15:55] saying um we are the city council is
[15:59] going to be
[16:00] >> in progress
[16:01] >> advising the uh the the legislature um
[16:04] to uh tax the top 5% of income earners
[16:08] in Vermont and use that revenue to fund
[16:12] the social programming that again makes
[16:15] is making affordability a struggle for
[16:17] Vermoners. So, universal primary care,
[16:20] funding housing programs, really again
[16:23] the things that really are making um
[16:25] Vermont a uh a a a hard place for a lot
[16:28] of working people right now. Um but um
[16:31] but yeah, again, I I would like to if if I could open up for any questions if
[16:35] anybody has about um the petition. I
[16:38] think I had shared the the text of it
[16:39] with with Thomas earlier. Um but yeah,
[16:42] it's really been it's been a really
[16:43] inspiring thing actually talking to
[16:44] people um and just how excited they are
[16:47] when they're like tax the rich to fund
[16:49] the things that we need. Yes, please, People almost like tear it out
[16:52] of my hands. Um and then even people who
[16:55] haven't signed have been really
[16:56] interested, have taken the cards and um
[16:58] and has really initiated some really
[17:01] interesting, really fantastic
[17:02] conversations with uh with some of uh
[17:04] yeah, some of our Wiski neighbors.
[17:07] >> Matt, thank you. Apologies for being
[17:09] late. I was driving up from southern
[17:11] Vermont and can't always control how
[17:14] that's going to go. Um,
[17:15] >> my people
[17:17] >> precisely. Um, I appreciate you coming
[17:20] in today. We we spoke about this I think
[17:22] as you had started to say when I was
[17:24] walking in um for well maybe just for
[17:29] you Eli but because I think everyone
[17:32] else has seen it but at the before the
[17:34] legislature starts right after the
[17:36] elections city council sends um a list
[17:39] of our priorities um to uh the
[17:42] legislature. So, if this were something
[17:44] that voters were to approve, if it was
[17:47] to get put on the ballot, I would
[17:49] imagine that that's probably would be
[17:50] the avenue that I would look at to to
[17:52] communicate something like this. Um,
[17:55] definitely, you know, an interesting
[17:57] topic that I've been hearing about for a
[17:59] little bit and I've definitely heard
[18:01] from residents and people across the
[18:03] state really. So, um, was was very
[18:06] intrigued when you, uh, said that you're
[18:07] getting petitions for it. Um, I'm sorry
[18:11] I didn't hear. How How many have you got
[18:13] so far?
[18:13] >> So, we've got over a hundred so far. Got
[18:16] I've got 80 on my uh at my desk at home
[18:18] and then we got a couple of uh uh
[18:21] clipboards that are out in the wilder
[18:23] friends collecting some signatures.
[18:25] >> Um, but and again, this is part of sort
[18:27] of a a larger right like the WC city
[18:29] council does not set state tax policy.
[18:32] Um, this is, you know, just
[18:34] >> I appreciate that you know that
[18:37] >> one avenue of sort of demonstrating
[18:39] again putting it out to voters, having
[18:41] it on the ballot and like, you know,
[18:43] being able to go to the legislature and
[18:45] say, "Look, here is, you know, Wooki
[18:47] voted, you know, sort of hopefully
[18:49] overwhelmingly in support of this
[18:50] measure." Um, and then showing that in
[18:52] several municipalities. Um and um and
[18:55] the other the other component of this
[18:56] too is again even if the city council is
[18:59] interested in um putting it forward
[19:01] themselves, we we I still do we still
[19:03] are going to do some canvasing and
[19:04] collecting more signatures. Um because
[19:06] really the goal is to one talk to people
[19:10] um and then also get people comfortable
[19:12] talking about it, canvasing, and really
[19:14] build up a group of folks um that are
[19:17] ready when the legislaturator is having
[19:18] testimony about these things that are
[19:20] ready to show up and testify and speak.
[19:22] uh speak about it
[19:23] >> as you are knocking doors with folks.
[19:26] Have you been kind of communicating the
[19:28] process once you know if it were to get
[19:30] on the ballot, if it were to be
[19:32] approved, have you've been talking to
[19:33] people about what happens in the
[19:34] legislature cuz I think you know and we
[19:36] voted for just cause eviction for
[19:37] example. I think a lot of people thought
[19:40] oh it's law and wooi. I don't know how
[19:42] many people reached out being like but
[19:43] we have just cause eviction here. Um so
[19:46] have you been including that just so
[19:48] that people understand like what what
[19:50] could happen like ideally you you want
[19:53] something to happen but that could not
[19:55] be the outcome. So
[19:57] >> yeah yeah I think um again I have been
[19:59] talking about it as like one component
[20:00] of this larger campaign and that line of
[20:02] the Wooki city council does not set
[20:04] state tax policy is something that I do
[20:06] use regularly trying to communicate like
[20:08] what this is this is this is something
[20:10] that we're demonstrating that this is
[20:11] something that Wooki wants. Um but
[20:13] again, this is not the actual
[20:15] implementation of of that tax bill.
[20:18] >> Awesome. Um well, the item is just a
[20:22] discussion for us tonight, which we're
[20:24] not obviously deciding anything. Matt
[20:25] doesn't know the signatures yet,
[20:26] although I fully believe he will. Um but
[20:28] when that happens, he'll inform Jenny
[20:31] and then Jenny will let me know um that
[20:33] the signatures have been collected and
[20:34] then we'll discuss what next steps will
[20:36] be. But I just thought Matt had reached
[20:38] out and asked if he could come and uh
[20:40] speak to us about this proposal.
[20:42] I love the idea. So, I'm glad that
[20:44] you're able to uh join in. I know that
[20:46] you're doing other stuff, too. So, um if
[20:49] any of you have questions, please feel
[20:51] free to ask. Melie, go ahead.
[20:53] >> Um is there anything specifically that
[20:55] you're looking for support from council
[20:57] um to advance this?
[20:59] >> Yeah, I think well, so um it can go on
[21:01] the ballot if again if we get the
[21:03] petition signatures, but I think the
[21:04] city council also has the opportunity to
[21:07] put something on the on the ballot as
[21:09] well. Um, so again, I was hoping in some
[21:11] way that the city council could be sort
[21:13] of a partner in the endeavor. Um, and
[21:15] it's not something that, you know,
[21:16] again, I I tried to I reached out to
[21:18] Thomas before we started collecting
[21:19] signatures to um, you know, because I I feel like many of you probably are are
[21:24] in support and on board. Um and um yeah,
[21:28] so I guess I guess whatever the city
[21:30] council might feel is sort of
[21:31] appropriate in in sort of supporting
[21:33] this measure and if they uh if they feel
[21:35] they're willing to um uh it could be a
[21:37] statement or if anybody's willing to
[21:39] sign a petition, I do have it right
[21:40] here. Um and uh yeah, any way that you
[21:43] could sort of support or communicate
[21:45] about it, I think would be amazing.
[21:46] >> Thanks.
[21:49] I have one. So, I'm just thinking very
[21:51] similar and I appreciate the mayor for
[21:53] asking reading my mind and asking a
[21:54] similar question. Um, I think sometimes
[21:57] and you and I both know this from, you
[21:58] know, being in politics is that uh
[22:00] people don't understand the process.
[22:02] >> And so, I guess I'm wondering like in a dream hypothetical scenario, you
[22:08] collect all your senators an excessive
[22:10] amount. It's on the ballot. It passes.
[22:14] What happens then? What's the plan?
[22:17] >> Yeah. Yeah. So, I think
[22:18] >> after town meeting day,
[22:19] >> the the really the the only thing that
[22:21] the um if it passes, it would be
[22:24] advising you, the city council, to
[22:27] inform the legislature, that they should
[22:29] be imposing a tax on the top 5% of
[22:31] income earners in order to fund robust
[22:34] social programming. Um, so again, it's it's
[22:38] really a demonstration of its popularity
[22:41] and it's not the thing itself. Um, and
[22:42] again, I've tried to be really clear
[22:44] with everybody as we're talking. And
[22:45] again, these these um these uh ballot
[22:50] measures are one part of a larger
[22:51] campaign. Um and this is just one of the
[22:54] ways that the the coalition um is trying
[22:57] to, you know, make this a really visible
[22:59] thing and activate and mobilize people
[23:01] to sort of get in involved in the issue.
[23:05] >> Thank you.
[23:09] » I don't think so. I was looking for the
[23:10] board to found it.
[23:12] >> Perfect. All right. All right. Well,
[23:13] we'll hear from you again when you've
[23:14] got your signatures.
[23:15] >> Amazing. Thank you so much.
[23:17] >> Thank you.
[23:19] >> All right. So, um we will move on to our
[23:22] next item. Discussion approval fiscal
[23:24] year 2028 budget goal setting. Uh Angela
[23:28] and Elaine.
[23:29] >> Yes, I will.
[23:30] >> Oh, I'm sorry.
[23:32] >> Um if you want to leave something
[23:33] behind, uh then councilors can choose to
[23:35] sign it once we're done.
[23:37] >> Yes, absolutely.
[23:38] >> Don't want to put any of them on the
[23:40] spot while we're still still filming
[23:41] here. Yeah. Yeah. I will uh
[23:44] >> I'll leave some materials in that.
[23:46] >> Yeah. Sorry. Thank you.
[23:47] >> Oh, no. You're good. Uh yes. So, staff
[23:50] asked for your direction uh to council
[23:53] as we work to build the proposed budget
[23:55] over the next three months. My
[23:57] recommendation is that city council
[23:59] continues the strategic investment
[24:02] approach to budgeting that you have that
[24:04] the council has began with the 2024 2023
[24:08] 2024 budget. A strategic investment
[24:12] budget allows for updating costs for
[24:14] existing services and allocating
[24:16] additional resources to priority areas,
[24:19] particularly deferred maintenance and
[24:21] underst staffing. In contrast to a
[24:24] strategic investment budget would be a
[24:26] level services budget that would be
[24:29] allowing for costs for existing services
[24:31] to be updated for estimated inflation
[24:34] and cost of living increases but would
[24:37] not increase investment in any area to
[24:40] continue catching up on deficiencies.
[24:42] Uh again in contrast to a strategic
[24:46] investment approach would be a level
[24:47] funded budget meaning the same dollar
[24:50] amount as this year. That would
[24:52] essentially mean reducing the budget
[24:53] because of course inflation forecasts
[24:56] indicate next year's dollars will likely
[24:59] be worth less than this year's.
[25:01] The reason I recommend a strategic
[25:03] investment approach to budgeting is
[25:05] because the city's strategic vision
[25:07] statement in its current comprehensive
[25:09] plan is that the community wants to
[25:12] ensure that Wooki is a livable, diverse,
[25:14] and affordable community.
[25:17] uh staff meaning mostly Angela um have
[25:19] provided quite a bit of contextual
[25:21] information uh in the memo that was
[25:24] provided in your packet. I'll highlight
[25:26] just a couple of those points from that.
[25:28] Now one sometimes we hear that Wooki has
[25:31] a very high tax rate compared to area
[25:34] municipalities. While true the tax rate
[25:36] isn't really useful for understanding
[25:38] affordability, what matters is how much
[25:41] households in Wooki are paying in
[25:43] property taxes in terms of an amount.
[25:45] and they are paying a comparable amount
[25:48] in taxes as in other comparable
[25:50] municipalities.
[25:52] The second point of context I wanted to
[25:54] highlight is that thanks to a lower than
[25:56] anticipated health insurance increase,
[25:59] we are expecting a lower than recently
[26:01] typical tax rate increase needed for
[26:04] just level services.
[26:07] And remember that benefits and wages
[26:09] make up about twothirds of the budget
[26:11] because the city provides services which
[26:14] are u mostly what we do is we provide
[26:16] services and services are performed by
[26:18] people.
[26:20] So any questions about the context or my
[26:23] recommendation uh before I turn it back
[26:26] to council for your discussion on my rep
[26:28] recommendation that council direct staff
[26:31] to develop a strategic investment budget
[26:33] for fiscal year 2028. Thank you very
[26:36] much, Elena. The one question I have,
[26:39] well, I have many questions, but one
[26:41] before we start talking is in in the
[26:45] past council's directed what we thought
[26:46] that strategic investment should be. Do
[26:49] you have an area where you were planning
[26:52] on recommending that strategic
[26:53] investment should be or your hope is
[26:55] that we will just pick one?
[26:58] uh we are
[27:01] in the process of looking through our uh
[27:04] budgets now. So it's I would say it's
[27:07] like
[27:09] steady as she goes sort of a thing. Um
[27:11] continuing what we've been doing not uh
[27:14] and I would actually request that
[27:16] council well of course if you have very
[27:19] strong opinions that we need to know
[27:20] them uh but I would like council to
[27:23] consider what we have to propose.
[27:26] >> That is fair enough.
[27:28] Um, anybody else have any preliminary
[27:30] questions?
[27:33] >> I don't know about questions,
[27:36] have comments?
[27:38] >> Sure.
[27:39] >> Um, I will share that just this within
[27:42] the last two weeks since we met, I did
[27:43] have a a resident complain to me about
[27:46] the tax taxes um that they're seeing
[27:49] already this year. So, I'm sure
[27:51] >> um I I appreciate the memo and you know
[27:55] the mentioning the average inflation um
[28:00] is higher than the average tax increase
[28:03] um but also
[28:06] your comment tying that back to what
[28:08] folks are paying um as it relates to the
[28:12] comps. Um
[28:15] I I think that
[28:18] it's this is the budget period is one of
[28:21] the most difficult times um of being
[28:26] personally for being a city counselor
[28:28] because there's so many things we want
[28:29] to do and so many difficult choices that we need to make and um also sitting
[28:36] on the reality of what the lived
[28:39] experience is for our residents. So,
[28:42] >> um, just want to acknowledge that it's
[28:44] the beginning of another very difficult
[28:47] annual conversation. Um, and to lead
[28:51] with like I know that staff put an
[28:54] immense amount of work into and thought
[28:57] into this. So, um, I appreciate that.
[29:00] Um, this is my sixth budget cycle. Um,
[29:05] so I apologize in advance for all the
[29:07] questions that I asked.
[29:09] We love your questions, R.
[29:12] >> Um,
[29:13] thank you. So,
[29:16] I too would recommend that we think
[29:20] about a strategic investment in our
[29:22] budget, um, I think that a level
[29:24] services or level funded budget,
[29:27] although it may be appealing
[29:29] financially, actually shortcuts the city
[29:32] in the long run. I think a lot of why we
[29:36] have so many things that we have want
[29:38] that we want to do and some would say
[29:41] need to do depending on the area is
[29:44] because for a very long time the people
[29:46] who sat at this table had a mentality of
[29:50] wanting to keep the tax rate as low as
[29:52] possible.
[29:54] >> Um they had their reasons for that. I
[29:56] don't say they're right or wrong. Uh,
[29:58] but what it did mean is that that list
[30:00] that we see every year um during Elena's
[30:04] presentation of all of the things we
[30:07] have to do and she's not going to
[30:08] recommend continues to grow for that
[30:12] very reason. Um, I think that, you know,
[30:15] we're going we're going to talk about
[30:16] this a little later tonight, but I
[30:19] believe we all hear from residents
[30:22] that they're paying too much in taxes,
[30:24] but we also hear that they want roads
[30:26] fixed, that they want sidewalks fixed, that uh people are speeding down
[30:31] their road and they wish that there was
[30:32] a cop sitting there to get them, that
[30:35] they wish that the pool was open uh
[30:38] longer hours, etc., etc., etc.
[30:41] Unfortunately, all of those things cost
[30:42] money to do. Um, and you all have told
[30:47] me that even when you tell people that
[30:49] these things cost money, uh, they still
[30:51] want them even though they don't want to
[30:53] pay the extra taxes. So, that's our job
[30:56] at the end of the day is to find that
[30:57] balance. I think in doing a strategic
[31:00] investment that's the conversation we
[31:02] can have is how much are we increasing
[31:05] or not increasing but to not put
[31:10] any
[31:12] increase well there's always an increase
[31:13] actually because costs go up. So even if
[31:15] we're level funded we're still raising
[31:17] the tax rate at some point but we're not
[31:19] then having a conversation about what
[31:20] investments we need to do. And then I
[31:23] think in that we are hurting our
[31:25] residents. If we, you know, have this
[31:27] conversation, we say we can do an extra
[31:30] 5% in investments, we'll have to explain
[31:32] what that means. If we say we can only
[31:34] do a 0.05%
[31:37] investments, we'll explain what that
[31:39] means. But I think we should at least
[31:41] have the opportunity to explain those
[31:44] the raise as opposed to not showing
[31:47] anything to our residents who want and
[31:50] deserve honestly. um more services and more out of city hall. So
[31:58] that would be my recommendation for this
[32:00] body. I'd love to hear what you all
[32:02] think.
[32:08] » Well, I want to first say the the memo
[32:09] is beautifully done. So kudos to Angela
[32:12] because I thoroughly enjoyed reading
[32:13] this. Um
[32:16] I uh I'm looking for a little history. I
[32:19] uh
[32:21] what was the last time we did a level
[32:22] services budget and I'm just kind of
[32:27] curious. Yeah,
[32:28] >> level services budget would have been
[32:30] I've been on council for five years,
[32:33] four years, the year before I came on
[32:37] so
[32:40] >> Angela I would pitch that to Angela for
[32:43] an accurate answer.
[32:46] I'm sorry. I don't know when
[32:48] specifically we had considered level
[32:51] services. I know that we have been
[32:52] adding staff over the last several
[32:55] years. Um, and that's really been the
[32:59] investment. It may have been since
[33:01] before Jesse Baker was city manager that
[33:04] we did a level services budget. And
[33:06] honestly, uh, in my early tenure with
[33:09] the city, it wasn't even a level
[33:11] services budget. we were given a fixed
[33:14] percentage that we were allowed to
[33:16] increase the tax rate by and we had to
[33:18] fit um all of the services within that
[33:21] amount.
[33:23] >> Yeah. And that's the closest that I
[33:25] remember since I've been on council.
[33:30] » And have we ever sorry have we ever done
[33:32] a level funded service?
[33:35] >> Level funded budget.
[33:36] Sorry.
[33:40] Uh not sure what you mean by level
[33:42] funded.
[33:43] >> Oh, just like the same dollar amount.
[33:45] Yeah,
[33:45] >> never. Not in my history here. It's
[33:47] usually when they did set a percentage,
[33:50] it was 1 and a half to 2% that they
[33:52] would set as an escalator just because
[33:54] we are locked into union contracts that
[33:57] require um pay increases and then uh
[34:00] annual benefits increase as well. So,
[34:04] it'd be very very difficult to absorb
[34:06] that within a fixed dollar amount.
[34:09] Okay, thank you.
[34:18] » I have comment.
[34:19] >> No,
[34:21] >> I I I I appreciate the memo. I think
[34:24] it's beautifully written as well. Um and
[34:27] I would be interested in looking at a um
[34:29] strategic investment. Um, bearing in
[34:32] mind how often we do hear that taxes are
[34:35] high and there are many people on fixed
[34:36] budgets, but I would be interested in
[34:40] looking at the things on the still the
[34:42] to-do list and seeing what we can cross
[34:44] off. That's awesome.
[34:52] » I mean, I have lots of thoughts, but
[34:54] >> you can share your thought. I mean, I
[34:55] just this is warrant for an approval, so
[34:58] we do have to direct something at the
[35:00] end of this.
[35:01] >> Um, I mean, I I support uh strategic
[35:05] investment. Okay.
[35:06] >> If that's what you're looking for,
[35:07] >> I believe that is what the degree,
[35:09] that's what you're looking for right
[35:10] now. The degree we'll discuss. degree of
[35:12] strategic investment I have a lot more
[35:14] thoughts about but um yes I I don't
[35:18] believe that level funding is feasible
[35:22] and I I don't think level services also
[35:27] are feasible. Um
[35:30] there's a lot that will go into what
[35:33] exactly strategic investment looks like
[35:35] and that's just a discussion that'll
[35:37] play out for the next four months.
[35:39] >> Exactly.
[35:41] There's lots of things. So, yes, better
[35:44] discuss it in public than behind staff
[35:46] doors,
[35:47] >> Mayor,
[35:48] >> please.
[35:49] >> I agree with everything that the deputy
[35:51] mayor just said, and obviously, as the
[35:54] mayor indicated, we'll be talking about
[35:55] this later tonight, but I do just want
[35:57] to highlight that my hope is that like we as a council, right, I
[36:04] remember when this is my second budget
[36:05] season cycle, whatever we call it. Um,
[36:08] and I remember someone described it to
[36:10] me so beautifully, which is that like we
[36:13] vote as council to adopt the budget and
[36:16] then we like go out into the community.
[36:19] And my hope is is that no matter the
[36:21] outcome of what the budget h what
[36:23] happens is that we really engage in
[36:25] those conversations so that then when
[36:27] someone comes to us, right, someone will
[36:28] still come to us and say, "You guys ever
[36:30] talked to you know, whatever. That
[36:31] always happens. But just the idea that
[36:33] like
[36:34] starting sooner rather than later and
[36:36] just having these conversations, I think
[36:38] can be really helpful. And I know I
[36:39] wasn't on council yet at this time of
[36:41] last year. So even just having them now,
[36:43] I think I can only assume is helpful for
[36:45] you and the staff and and for us. So I
[36:47] just appreciate that. But I'm just
[36:49] hopeful that we as the communicators
[36:50] around the budget can also just
[36:52] understand that no matter what happens,
[36:53] it's then, you know, our role to take it
[36:55] really seriously.
[36:59] » You want
[37:00] Oh, I also support strategic investment.
[37:02] I was looking for history to see last
[37:04] time we haven't done one.
[37:06] >> Okay. I was wondering if you're going to
[37:07] be like, "It's been a long time. We're
[37:08] doing mobile."
[37:15] » Um, okay. Awesome. Um,
[37:19] in that case,
[37:27] is there a specific class? No. Okay. Um,
[37:30] I will seek a motion to direct Elaine
[37:32] and staff to begin the budget work on a
[37:36] strategic investment budget.
[37:38] >> So moved, seconded.
[37:40] >> All those in favor?
[37:41] >> I wonderful.
[37:43] >> Thank you so much.
[37:44] >> Thank you. Um,
[37:47] >> call.
[37:49] >> Yes.
[37:51] >> All right. So, there are some memos in
[37:54] the packet. The I'll just pick out a
[37:57] couple of
[37:59] It flopped away. It's still alive. Okay.
[38:02] >> Well, if it was a person, that would be
[38:04] a completely different thing. So, I was
[38:05] like, is that a person or is that a
[38:06] bird? Sorry. Bird. We can keep going.
[38:11] >> Poor thing. All right. Uh, so there are
[38:13] some memos in the council packet. Um,
[38:16] I'll pick out a few highlights from each
[38:17] one. for cross cutting meaning
[38:21] tasks that affect more than one vision
[38:23] area of the comprehensive plan. We've
[38:27] got CC5 regarding cross cutting five
[38:32] goal five or task five rather uh
[38:34] regarding parking revenues for the
[38:35] Cascades garage.
[38:37] >> We have a trickle of inquiries. Don't
[38:39] know yet that we will make our financing
[38:41] deadline so to speak, but we'll keep
[38:44] working on it. I don't currently have an
[38:45] ask of council but keeping you in the
[38:47] loop and uh thank you to Angela who's
[38:50] been very helpful in managing the single
[38:52] vehicle inquiries.
[38:54] Maybe we will get there that way.
[38:57] um economic vitality for the first
[39:00] action there. Community lay the
[39:03] community lays on for the Burlington
[39:07] Wooki bridge replacement project uh that
[39:10] was hired thanks to generosity from the
[39:12] Vermont Agency of Transportation and
[39:14] their foresight in seeing how that work
[39:17] that position worked in Mbury and
[39:19] recommending it to us. the person that
[39:22] um our owner's representative on the
[39:25] project at um which is H&TB the firm the
[39:29] person that they hired as a Wooki local
[39:31] his name is Tim CC he's been phenomenal
[39:34] he's basically been on the job for a
[39:35] year now which is wild uh in a part-time
[39:38] capacity he's been facilitating an
[39:40] advisory group uh task force on business
[39:43] engagement both in Burlington and Muski
[39:46] representatives from both places um as
[39:48] well as representatives from the Vermont
[39:50] agency in transportation. It's really
[39:52] been heartening to see how much how
[39:54] supportive uh the state is and the
[39:56] region partners are. And he's drafted a
[40:01] business engagement support plan which I
[40:03] reviewed the second draft of yesterday
[40:05] when we were tableabling at the farmers
[40:06] market which was a beautiful day for
[40:08] that. Anyway, so the point being like
[40:10] progress is being made. I really wish we
[40:13] knew that we could do something like
[40:14] this before the main street project but
[40:16] we do know now and that is partly why we
[40:18] have Tim now. So,
[40:20] >> uh, that's been that's been really good
[40:21] and looking forward to some good
[40:24] strategies. He's been really making the
[40:26] rounds with the business community,
[40:28] >> uh, most of our business community,
[40:29] honestly, because it's within kind of
[40:30] the impact shed, if you will. Uh, most
[40:33] of the city is in that impact shed. So,
[40:36] um, and he's gotten some very useful
[40:38] feedback and has a sort of an activating
[40:40] effect on the business community, which
[40:42] is great.
[40:44] Somebody uh one of the news agencies
[40:47] that interviewed me ahead of the ribbon
[40:49] cutting. I don't think it made it in,
[40:51] but they asked me um what is it that
[40:55] Oh dear, I've just lost track of what it
[40:57] was.
[41:00] Oh, actually I think it was during the
[41:01] ribbon cutting. Anyway, the question was
[41:04] um what do you think it would have taken
[41:06] to um engage the business community
[41:08] ahead of time? And I was like I think
[41:11] honestly was doing another project of a
[41:13] similar scale then subsequently people
[41:16] like oh this is how bad it could be. So
[41:18] again the business community now is much
[41:20] more aware of what could happen and
[41:22] thankfully we have this year-long um
[41:25] year-long break where people can
[41:28] hopefully shore up their reserves and to work through the the more impactful
[41:33] years to come
[41:35] for your economic vitality too. the
[41:37] second task there, the economic mobility
[41:40] manager. Just want to read off the
[41:42] bullets there on the activities that
[41:44] she's been facilitating. Um, again, that
[41:46] person's name is Simone Bedford. She is
[41:49] hosted by the Chen County Regional
[41:50] Planning Commission. In the three focus
[41:53] areas for that uh program for
[41:56] entrepreneurship,
[41:57] the four community partners, South
[42:01] Burlington, uh Wooki, Essex Junction and
[42:04] Shelburn uh delivered the first workshop
[42:07] of a business networking and learning
[42:09] series on in August that was quite well
[42:12] attended especially for our first time.
[42:14] We're very encouraged uh for governance
[42:17] participation. That track uh we are
[42:19] developing a a community academy
[42:21] program. Excited about that. It'll
[42:23] hopefully help people get more engaged
[42:25] in all kinds of governance. One of the
[42:27] outcomes might be engagement in
[42:28] commissions, but that's of course not
[42:30] the end all and be all, but that will be
[42:32] a nice outcome. Uh regular economic
[42:35] mobility, communities of practice
[42:36] meetings for each focus area is another
[42:39] activity. So been great to have that uh
[42:42] person working with our across our
[42:45] communities.
[42:47] And then uh the last memo was on equity.
[42:50] This is my quarterly update on our
[42:52] equity efforts. This is always in the
[42:54] crosscutting goals. Um a few highlights
[42:57] here that are um related to housing are
[43:00] actually kind of the I would call the
[43:02] main star of this show, but I don't want
[43:04] to steal our housing initi director's
[43:06] thunder. Her goal update is coming up.
[43:08] So can wait look forward to that. The
[43:11] one note I'll make from the equity
[43:12] update memo is that Paul Sarn our
[43:15] communications director has been doing a
[43:17] great job maintaining the language
[43:19] access procedure um per the procedure
[43:23] and for example doing he's just finished
[43:26] the first update of the language list
[43:28] with the help of the school district
[43:29] which is also in the procedure
[43:32] and that's all I had unless you had any
[43:34] questions about that.
[43:35] >> Great. Thank you very much. Um, I don't
[43:38] have any questions. Council,
[43:40] >> um, just a couple short things. Uh, do
[43:43] you know if the engagement draft
[43:45] engagement plan is posted to the VR site
[43:48] or where that is available for folks to
[43:50] review?
[43:51] >> Uh, no. Once it is, it's going through
[43:56] I think it's with VR right now and then
[43:58] it'll go through the task force and then
[44:01] it'll actually I'm not sure what the
[44:03] publication plan is after that, but
[44:04] that's where it is right now.
[44:06] >> Okay.
[44:07] Um, unrelated to that, um, I was doing
[44:13] the, uh, annual trek for some foliage
[44:16] leaf peeping this weekend. I happened to
[44:18] notice a municipality also seeking
[44:22] public comment for their um, draft plan
[44:25] and they had posted yard signs
[44:28] throughout town with QR codes. Um, so as
[44:32] a I I think that's been an a strategy
[44:36] utilized for some of the active
[44:39] transportation. I'm not going to get the
[44:40] language right, but um soliciting
[44:43] feedback on uh transportation
[44:45] improvements um in and around Wooki. So,
[44:49] uh that was just something that caught
[44:50] my eye in addition to the beautiful
[44:52] foliage that um is around Vermont right
[44:55] now. But um it felt noteworthy um since
[44:58] this doesn't seem to be a strategy that
[45:00] we've used and I don't know uh what the
[45:04] current response rate is since it seems
[45:06] to be predominantly
[45:08] uh digital digitally uh solicited
[45:12] feedback.
[45:13] >> Sure. Yeah, I'll check in with Robie
[45:15] about that. And just for the public
[45:16] awareness, I think council knows this.
[45:18] we were well you should because it
[45:21] was an agenda some time ago though. Um
[45:24] the strategy for this for the outreach
[45:26] for this particular comprehensive plan
[45:27] is more of a it's more of an update
[45:30] process because we could tell that the
[45:32] themes are generally still the themes.
[45:35] So it's really tweaking and updating the
[45:37] plan as opposed to kind of reimagining
[45:40] from scratch. Um so we haven't put in
[45:43] like a full court press effort. The
[45:45] other reason is because we've actually
[45:47] surveyed this community a lot recently.
[45:49] So we didn't want to get put people
[45:51] through fatigue. Of course, that sort of
[45:52] thing is more passive and might be inc
[45:55] um seen favorably. So, I'll check in
[45:57] with the planning director about that.
[45:58] >> Yeah, just creative ways to help um get
[46:02] some more awareness and um potentially
[46:05] feedback. So, that was something that
[46:07] stood out to me. Um and then
[46:10] >> it's funny once what you notice once
[46:12] you're in government.
[46:13] >> You would be surprised.
[46:17] Probably not.
[46:20] Um,
[46:22] I would love to hear more updates. Um,
[46:27] I'm not sure when the uh safe healthy
[46:31] connected update is scheduled. Um, but
[46:34] I'd love to hear more about how the uh
[46:37] move to and with the mayor's approval um
[46:41] the move to have the senior center
[46:43] position full-time, how that's
[46:45] progressing. I know we're only a
[46:49] you know, a first quarter in, but kind
[46:51] of want to keep a a pulse on that since
[46:53] that's something that we invested in for
[46:54] this fiscal year and it will be in
[46:57] informative in the budget moving
[46:59] forward.
[47:00] >> Sure, I will check in with Ray about
[47:02] that. Okay.
[47:03] >> Um, and then there is a little bit of
[47:05] there's a hint of it if you compare the
[47:08] senior center activity list from the
[47:11] current newsletter to like a few months
[47:14] ago.
[47:15] >> Yeah.
[47:16] >> Thank you.
[47:21] Um, yeah. So, I'm looking at the the
[47:24] Cascades garage. It's been an ongoing
[47:26] challenge for the last few quarters. Um,
[47:29] do you foresee bringing anything to
[47:32] council about doing a different approach
[47:34] for stabilizing the fund?
[47:37] >> It might I might have to.
[47:39] >> Okay.
[47:40] >> Yeah.
[47:41] >> I'm not there yet, but yeah, I might
[47:43] have to.
[47:44] >> Okay.
[47:45] Do you know what the last number is of
[47:48] how many leases or how many spots are
[47:50] need to be leased?
[47:51] >> I think we're
[47:53] we Angela able to um finalize four more.
[47:58] So I guess we're down to 207 instead of
[48:01] 211. We had a couple of inquiries come
[48:04] in over the weekend. I don't think
[48:05] either any of them have um
[48:08] actually been finalized yet. They've not
[48:11] been finalized, but we we've got quite a
[48:13] few individuals looking from uh the
[48:17] Riverhouse and Riverrun properties
[48:20] um that are parking a little bit further
[48:23] away right now.
[48:25] >> I know we communicated with landlords.
[48:27] Have we considered doing like a like a
[48:30] mass mailing to
[48:32] >> Yeah, we actually did that um earlier
[48:35] this summer. We did a mass mailing and
[48:38] had pretty much zero responses, but we
[48:41] do have emails for most of them. So, I
[48:43] sent out an email to everybody with two
[48:46] or more units, which is the whole
[48:48] registry. Um, that we hadn't already
[48:51] been in touch with. We did that last
[48:53] week. And then I sent a follow-up today
[48:57] to those that are within a half mile of
[49:00] the garageish.
[49:02] >> Yeah.
[49:02] I picked streets because it was
[49:03] harder to narrow down. So,
[49:05] >> Okay. There's some streets that are some
[49:07] parts of streets where people are
[49:08] further away.
[49:09] >> Yeah. And that was to the landlords or
[49:11] to the
[49:11] >> to landlords. Yeah.
[49:12] >> But I was talking about to
[49:14] >> Oh, to the tenants individual like
[49:15] residents
[49:16] >> cuz I recalling a conversation that
[49:20] happened at the end of the ribbon
[49:21] cutting where a landlord mentioned need
[49:23] resident their tenants needing parking,
[49:25] but I don't know if they followed up
[49:27] with you on getting that parking. So, I
[49:28] wonder if like maybe the landlords
[49:32] aren't communicating it too much. So, if
[49:34] we could go right to the tenants, maybe
[49:37] we'd see an update.
[49:38] >> That is a good thought. Yeah, that's a
[49:40] good point. So, I'm not sure if we can
[49:42] do this. It's easy to do a mass mailing
[49:46] to every address, but that would be
[49:48] >> probably very frowned upon by most of
[49:50] the people getting it. Um, but if there
[49:52] was a way to narrow down to u probably a
[49:54] quarter of a mile and email everybody,
[49:57] that would or mail to everybody, that
[49:59] would probably be worth doing.
[50:02] um just like my own mailings. Um I think
[50:05] you can wooi is just one zip code
[50:08] obviously but you can
[50:09] >> narrow down by some sections
[50:12] >> from what I understand.
[50:14] >> Okay, I'll look into that. Thank you.
[50:18] >> Thanks for bringing that up.
[50:22] » Yeah, I just want to say this is a very
[50:23] difficult task and I don't envy your
[50:25] position of trying to find uh customers.
[50:28] So, um, thank you for your work.
[50:31] >> Yeah, thank you. Um, yeah, this this was
[50:35] some of the math that was going through
[50:36] my head when we were negotiating about
[50:39] rates in with one larger user and I was
[50:44] like, could I rent out this money? I
[50:45] don't know. But yeah, had to reach a
[50:49] uncomfortable compromise, which is a
[50:51] sign that it was a good one. Like both
[50:53] of us weren't particularly thrilled, but
[50:55] we're okay with it. So yeah, now I'm
[50:57] dealing with my own decisions
[51:01] >> or technically recommendations to
[51:03] council, but yes, certainly.
[51:08] » Okay, thank you.
[51:09] >> Thank you.
[51:10] >> All right, our last item of the night,
[51:12] discussion, approval, council engagement
[51:14] on city budget. Council Turos, I
[51:16] >> feel like we're doing great this evening
[51:18] on time. Um, I'm deeply appreciative to
[51:22] everyone for putting this on the agenda.
[51:24] I also just noticed a typo, so I ap Oh,
[51:27] no, this is right. 2027. Sorry, I don't
[51:29] know what days are. Um, so the memo is
[51:32] shared with you all. It's also shared
[51:34] with the public. Um, I've been sort of
[51:37] like talking about this for a long time,
[51:39] but I think I just wanted to and also
[51:40] with the nudge of the mayor and the city
[51:42] manager. Um, wanted to sort of bring
[51:45] this out into as James Bald as James
[51:48] Baldwin says, sunlight is the best
[51:49] disinfectant. And so just having a
[51:51] conversation in the open air about
[51:55] how hard it is for our neighbors, I'm
[51:58] trying not to use absolutist language,
[51:59] how difficult it can be to understand a
[52:01] budget. And I know before I joined city
[52:04] council, I had like no idea what a
[52:08] municipal, local government, city budget
[52:10] entailed, all of the line items, right?
[52:12] And I had like been a part of and or run
[52:14] like multi-million dollar nonprofits.
[52:16] Obviously, a city is like nothing like
[52:18] it. And last year I was so new to the
[52:22] budget process that I just was trying to
[52:24] be like don't mess up. Um and this year
[52:29] I'm really
[52:31] um pushing myself forward and as an
[52:34] elected official on city council wanting
[52:36] to like live and operationalize my
[52:38] values and therefore I believe also
[52:39] shared values of our neighbors. And so
[52:41] one of the things that I have been
[52:42] thinking about and this literally
[52:44] happened on the birdwalk is
[52:46] um myself and a neighbor and her young
[52:49] child were there and she was saying like
[52:52] wow I just feel like there's so many
[52:53] things like happening in Manuski all of
[52:55] a sudden and I literally turned to her
[52:57] and I said oh you know what insert name
[52:59] here I said this is a great thing for
[53:01] you to come and talk about at a budget
[53:02] meeting because what you're noticing is
[53:05] a literal um
[53:08] uh employment position that was like we
[53:11] talked about in budget last year, it was
[53:14] approved. It's now been implemented and
[53:16] you can tangibly see it. And so one of
[53:19] the things that I've been really in a
[53:21] loving way is pushing residents to say
[53:24] like if you see something right the
[53:26] opposite of NYPD, if you see something,
[53:28] say something. And wanting us space is
[53:31] unhappy and wanting us to really just
[53:34] notice what our city what's happening in
[53:36] our city. But then I also understand
[53:38] that there are so many folks in our city
[53:39] who like cannot come to a city council
[53:42] meeting. Um by the time that we get to
[53:45] them for council and community, the
[53:48] budget has already been passed. They
[53:50] have questions, etc. And so I guess I
[53:52] just am like throwing spaghetti at the
[53:54] wall. And I'm really just saying like
[53:56] what can we do? We don't have to do any
[53:59] of the things in this, but I'm just
[54:00] wanting to have a conversation around
[54:03] how can we help our neighbors and some
[54:06] of like right some of the people who
[54:07] live in our homes to better understand
[54:09] our budget and what these decisions mean
[54:12] and to connect it to say when you want
[54:15] us to fill in a pothole or when you want
[54:18] us to resurface a street that decision
[54:20] is made now. And I think it's just like
[54:23] trying to Yeah. Um, that's it.
[54:30] » Uh, Al, thank you. I appreciate you
[54:34] emailing me about this and having this
[54:36] conversation. You know, I think
[54:39] um, you know, outreach is and connecting
[54:43] with the community is something that we
[54:45] and I think all I don't want to just say
[54:46] we all city councils and all levels of
[54:49] government struggle with um, for so many
[54:53] reasons, right? And
[54:56] one thing that I was kind of liked to
[54:59] see here is I think a lot of these
[55:00] things we do try to do um or we in fact
[55:04] do do. I hate saying that. Um
[55:09] I and I I totally appreciate the
[55:13] sometimes it feels like maybe we've
[55:15] gotten to do these outreach activities
[55:17] too late in the process or that people
[55:20] have already voted. Um,
[55:23] and I'm not opposed in any way to trying
[55:26] to move some of those things up. I
[55:29] think,
[55:32] um, you know, one one important thing
[55:34] going into this is just remembering that
[55:37] we as a representative government
[55:40] literally should be doing this work all
[55:43] year long, right? So, like every
[55:47] conversation that we have throughout the
[55:50] year is budget outreach in a way or at
[55:55] least should be. Um, and it's our job to
[55:59] be like when we're at the farmers market
[56:01] and we're talking to somebody to try to
[56:02] like tease out some of these questions.
[56:05] >> Mhm. Um, and I think that's kind of
[56:09] like like that's kind of what I is like
[56:12] one of the biggest parts of our role is
[56:14] like we're gathering budget information
[56:16] all year long.
[56:18] >> And I'm not I don't I don't think that
[56:19] any of you are doing this, but like
[56:21] nobody's coming a week before budget and
[56:22] being like, "Oh I think these are
[56:24] my these are the things that I want to
[56:26] tell Elaine I care about."
[56:27] >> Mhm. Like I think we're in theory like
[56:29] we're gathering that information all
[56:30] year and like what I you know told
[56:33] Elaine were my priorities or like not
[56:36] what like Thomas Rener thinks are the
[56:38] best things to do but like I've heard
[56:40] from enough people in the community that
[56:42] I think that these are the best things.
[56:45] Um, you know, some of them, some things
[56:48] I suggest will never impact me, like a
[56:50] playground. The playground that I
[56:52] suggested, like probably not going to go
[56:54] play on the playground, but I've been
[56:56] told by enough people and I think that
[56:57] that's a good idea.
[56:58] >> Um,
[57:00] so I think like
[57:03] maybe trying to do some things a little
[57:05] earlier is good. I do and we we have to
[57:08] find the balance with a particular
[57:10] senior care facility. But like there is
[57:13] an importance in once we formulated the
[57:16] budget putting that out to the community
[57:19] cuz I do think there's also like a
[57:20] decent amount of people who are like
[57:23] I don't know what should be in the
[57:24] budget but that's why I voted for you
[57:26] like you figured this out. Um,
[57:31] and then there's also people who are
[57:32] like, you know, we'll ask them,
[57:35] you know, what makes it harder to live
[57:36] or work in Reuski and they'll say, well,
[57:37] we need a grocery store.
[57:39] >> We're not going to open a grocery store
[57:41] unless I don't have Mandani money, so
[57:44] can't do that. But is it important to
[57:47] know they'd like a grocery store? Yes.
[57:49] We advocated with GMT two years ago,
[57:52] last year, to get up to Shaws, and
[57:54] they're now doing that. So
[57:55] >> we couldn't get a grocery store, but we
[57:57] were able to do the next best thing in a
[58:00] way, right? So we'd heard from enough
[58:02] people, can you open a grocery store?
[58:03] That we're
[58:04] like, well, what is the way we can get
[58:06] people to a grocery store? So it's not
[58:07] that that's not important feedback, but
[58:10] we do want to be trying to make sure
[58:12] that we're getting feedback that we can
[58:15] actually turn into things that us as a
[58:17] small city can turn into a budget. So
[58:19] one thing I I really love and I
[58:21] definitely like to implement is this
[58:22] Wooki Youth Budget Lab.
[58:24] Um, I I I think that's easy enough. I
[58:28] can send an email tonight if we if we
[58:30] all would like to do that. Um, I think
[58:33] that for those of us who have been able
[58:35] to go up to the school and talk to the
[58:37] students there, they always have a very
[58:39] interesting perspective. Um I or what is
[58:43] also enlightening is that they
[58:47] generally have the same perspective as
[58:49] adults and it's like oh wow that is so
[58:52] bad that you are talking about it as a
[58:54] 12-year-old. So um yeah I totally love
[58:58] that.
[58:58] >> I think also one of the great things
[59:00] that personally is my favorite and I one
[59:02] of the great things that can happen
[59:03] there is that students can then say when
[59:06] they're talking to their caregivers,
[59:08] siblings, etc. in the community can also
[59:10] say like we're working on this thing
[59:12] about the budget. I didn't know this,
[59:13] right? And then you have sort of like a
[59:15] larger potentially familial home
[59:18] conversation regarding the budget. Um
[59:21] and so that was the other thing is that
[59:23] I think it's one of those right I always
[59:24] think about relational organizing. Um
[59:27] and that that is like where community
[59:28] and safety is held. And I think this is
[59:30] a great way to get folks um yeah just
[59:34] younger to talk about.
[59:35] >> Yeah. The the budget game. I don't know
[59:38] if we've been able to take that to the
[59:39] farmers market at all this season.
[59:42] >> Yeah, Angela did go.
[59:43] >> You did go. Okay, great. And then
[59:45] >> I've been twice this year.
[59:46] >> Oh, perfect. Okay. So, so yeah, so that
[59:50] is active and working. Thank you,
[59:51] Angela. Um, and I do always find that provides a decent amount of
[59:57] insight, but then also we have to like
[1:00:00] and the role that we have as counselors
[1:00:01] working with staff and understanding the
[1:00:03] background of it is like you'll have
[1:00:06] people who will put all of their dollars
[1:00:07] in one bucket.
[1:00:08] >> And then it's like, okay, again, fine
[1:00:10] for me, the public, but like we can't do
[1:00:13] that bucket without the other buckets.
[1:00:15] So, you know, a caveat, you know, you
[1:00:19] can all take from what what you would
[1:00:21] like from that, but I'll just throw that
[1:00:22] caveat out there. And then on top of
[1:00:25] this, and I I've sent it twice now, so I
[1:00:28] think you all have probably seen it, but
[1:00:30] the city paid for uh a survey to find
[1:00:33] what people wanted. So, to Ela's point
[1:00:36] of like over surveying people, we did
[1:00:38] survey them once.
[1:00:39] >> So, you didn't recommend a survey here,
[1:00:41] but I know we had kind of talked about
[1:00:42] it a little bit. Um, but I would just
[1:00:44] recommend if you haven't had a chance to look that over to really take a dive
[1:00:49] into that. Um, it was done really well.
[1:00:53] Um, and I think that there's some
[1:00:55] insightful things. I will say I think
[1:00:57] that I'm I'm proud that this group, I
[1:00:59] think, is very in tune from at least our last budget discussion to already
[1:01:04] being to already reflecting what was in
[1:01:06] that survey. So, I think that what our
[1:01:09] community is asking for hasn't changed
[1:01:11] too too much in the past few years. Um,
[1:01:14] but yeah, I I think this is I really
[1:01:17] appreciate the work that you put into
[1:01:18] this and I think we're doing some and we
[1:01:21] can definitely pick up some more. Um,
[1:01:24] this is that you are the city manager.
[1:01:26] Budget exercise is fun as well.
[1:01:29] >> Yeah, I just I have seen that
[1:01:32] particularly at the community dinner so
[1:01:34] many um res right. It's just it's like a g it's a a central gathering space.
[1:01:40] And so I thought like I'd be more than
[1:01:41] happy to work a table where it's just
[1:01:43] like you are a city manager and then
[1:01:46] boom there's a snowstorm a water man
[1:01:49] breaks you your plow doesn't work
[1:01:50] anymore right and I think it's one of
[1:01:53] those things that so often happens in
[1:01:55] community when you are living as a
[1:01:57] resident in a city it's just like oh
[1:01:59] well my parents will take care of this
[1:02:01] like city council and the man and the
[1:02:03] city manager and right and they don't
[1:02:05] you and I'll say I'll speak for myself I
[1:02:07] never considered like I would be mad
[1:02:10] when the sidewalks weren't plowed, but
[1:02:11] then when they were plowed, I wasn't
[1:02:13] like, I'm so
[1:02:16] >> right. And so to me, it's just the idea
[1:02:17] of like having so many entry points and
[1:02:19] potential ladders of engagement and um
[1:02:22] I'm not asking members of city council
[1:02:24] to like give more capacity than you
[1:02:26] have.
[1:02:27] >> I'm just saying like I'm very excited
[1:02:29] about this and I know that there would
[1:02:30] be other people who, you know, would
[1:02:32] maybe just um be interested. And so, um,
[1:02:35] but I did really want to put that in
[1:02:37] there that I'm I understand that staff
[1:02:39] is already so maxed.
[1:02:41] >> Um, and I think it's just me ideally
[1:02:44] it's not me asking for anything more.
[1:02:45] It's just the idea of like let's just
[1:02:46] like tune up an equity lens maybe.
[1:02:50] >> Yeah. So, I think one thing that, you
[1:02:52] know, we should do
[1:02:54] for sure is pick back up doing council
[1:02:57] in the community.
[1:02:58] >> Um, there's a I just asked Bren, there's
[1:03:01] a couple more farmers markets. We have
[1:03:03] been to the farmers market in the past.
[1:03:05] So like I'll email Sarah and see if we
[1:03:07] can get another little city booth. We've
[1:03:09] done that before. Um
[1:03:13] and just really try to start doing that.
[1:03:15] I think that is a really and they're,
[1:03:18] you know, some are better attended than
[1:03:19] others, but um it's an easy I think it's
[1:03:23] the easiest way to get us out, you know,
[1:03:27] and I've talked to you about this
[1:03:28] before, like I think it's important for
[1:03:31] us to be going to things as opposed to
[1:03:33] trying to get people to come to us.
[1:03:35] Obviously, there are there are ways that
[1:03:36] we do want to do that and times when we
[1:03:39] want to do that, but if we can think of
[1:03:41] those ways of getting ourselves into the
[1:03:44] community in different ways more, um I
[1:03:49] think that's beneficial as well.
[1:03:53] Um I've talked a lot.
[1:03:58] Um just want to note uh thank you
[1:04:01] councelor Chos for your memo and your
[1:04:04] enthusiasm um and for highlighting that
[1:04:08] um we're meeting people along varying
[1:04:13] degrees of continuum um with their
[1:04:16] awareness and understanding of what a
[1:04:18] city budget is, what goes into it, what
[1:04:20] are immovable and movable investments
[1:04:24] that that were either um optional or
[1:04:28] obligated to and the number of
[1:04:31] conversations that that I have where
[1:04:34] it's like now's a really good time.
[1:04:36] Now's a good time to provide your
[1:04:38] feedback. Now it's like if you wanted to
[1:04:41] know when now is now is the win.
[1:04:44] >> Um and then as you know the mayor noted
[1:04:48] just the follow-up question is just
[1:04:50] saying like I don't even I don't like I
[1:04:52] don't even know where to begin. um or
[1:04:55] you know feeling of frustration of like
[1:04:57] well how do I even know like if it makes
[1:05:00] a difference
[1:05:02] >> um and and then just feeling like they
[1:05:05] took the time they put the thought into
[1:05:06] it and then not feeling like it's
[1:05:08] necessarily heard because we may not be
[1:05:11] able to provide you know a chain grocery
[1:05:13] store in town but we have other markets
[1:05:16] in town and when we can do more to
[1:05:18] highlight that those existing services
[1:05:20] exist and advocate for the um the
[1:05:24] transit system to improve the services
[1:05:27] um to to those larger stores. Um so it's a
[1:05:34] an ongoing educational process. It is a
[1:05:37] year- round process. Um and it's I think
[1:05:42] the point in time actually thinking
[1:05:45] about timing.
[1:05:47] Um and I'm also spitballing here so bear
[1:05:50] with me. Um
[1:05:53] I think as the reminders for the
[1:05:56] quarterly taxes come up are when people
[1:05:58] are reminded how
[1:06:00] >> they're impacted by taxes.
[1:06:01] >> Yeah.
[1:06:02] >> So obviously we just had that due this
[1:06:06] past month. um you know we're entering
[1:06:08] into the larger budget season but I
[1:06:10] think those are also touch points where
[1:06:12] folks feel that reality and it's
[1:06:15] tangible of like oh right I have to pay
[1:06:18] my municipal taxes now and there and
[1:06:21] that's when it's front of front of mind
[1:06:24] so I don't
[1:06:25] >> I don't know in particular if there's
[1:06:29] more that can go into the Wooki
[1:06:31] newsletter I I think how it's front
[1:06:33] porch forum or both but I think trying
[1:06:36] to catch people when the timing is front
[1:06:38] of mind
[1:06:40] >> um may help with their engagement may
[1:06:42] help with their um understanding or
[1:06:45] willing to kind of focus on that
[1:06:47] conversation at that point in time.
[1:06:49] >> Yeah, my update in this issue of the
[1:06:53] newsletter had something about the
[1:06:54] budget and we'll continue to do that
[1:06:57] until you know
[1:06:59] >> a variation of it until election day.
[1:07:01] So, um, and it's actually people do read
[1:07:04] that, which I
[1:07:05] >> a lot of people do.
[1:07:06] >> Yeah.
[1:07:08] >> Which is great. Um,
[1:07:13] >> you know,
[1:07:14] >> I wonder um about the
[1:07:18] uh I'm going to get to the language so I
[1:07:21] can um the youth budget lab. I'm
[1:07:26] curious
[1:07:29] the the vision for execution. Um, and as
[1:07:36] a followup, um, if there's I don't know
[1:07:40] if the financial literacy courses um,
[1:07:44] >> and curriculum
[1:07:46] have an opportunity. It may it may be
[1:07:48] too late for this year,
[1:07:49] >> but I wonder if there's an element where
[1:07:52] that could be a tiein for a
[1:07:55] year-over-year thing
[1:07:56] >> and not just a one point in time thing.
[1:07:59] >> So again, spitballing, I'll leave it
[1:08:01] there.
[1:08:01] >> Yeah.
[1:08:03] >> Regarding execution, I had thought I
[1:08:05] know both the mayor and myself and I'm
[1:08:07] sure others during their tenure have
[1:08:08] visited um civics classes at the school.
[1:08:11] I just went on a lovely field trip with
[1:08:13] them to the library. Um, and so I was
[1:08:16] either thinking that we could do like
[1:08:17] specific executed outreach to that
[1:08:19] particular um, class and or um, like
[1:08:24] tomorrow morning when I'm at the school,
[1:08:25] I might just off the cuff mention it to
[1:08:27] some educators and see what they think
[1:08:29] and if it could work and I right I'm not
[1:08:31] an educator so I don't know what the
[1:08:33] level like, you know, does it need to be
[1:08:34] a senior in high school or um, but I
[1:08:37] think it could be helpful regarding like
[1:08:38] budgeting and money and stuff like that.
[1:08:40] So, um, my execution originally was
[1:08:43] mainly just civics classes, but I do
[1:08:45] think it could be helpful. And I know
[1:08:47] when we've had, um, conversations, kids
[1:08:51] oftentimes are just like, what is your
[1:08:52] job as a city counselor? Like, what do
[1:08:54] you do? And then to weave that into a
[1:08:56] broader conversation regarding our
[1:08:58] budget, I think could be really helpful.
[1:09:00] >> Yeah. Will you
[1:09:03] let me just email Walmart?
[1:09:05] >> Yes. because my thought on this is I
[1:09:08] don't want to narrow it just to the
[1:09:09] civics classes. I'd almost like for him
[1:09:13] or one of the principles to communicate
[1:09:16] out to like the entire population of
[1:09:18] teachers and be like
[1:09:20] >> would having city counselors come to
[1:09:22] your class be of interest
[1:09:24] >> and then
[1:09:25] >> cuz like I don't know a math teacher
[1:09:28] could find that interesting right if
[1:09:30] we're like going to go and talk about
[1:09:31] the budget.
[1:09:32] >> So I don't want to like limit it to just
[1:09:35] because I think that's primarily who
[1:09:36] we've spoken to is the civics and like
[1:09:38] social studies classes which has been
[1:09:39] great but like I don't know maybe our
[1:09:42] class will want to have us in
[1:09:45] >> and we can just see
[1:09:46] >> yeah I think also
[1:09:47] >> pick it up cuz I I like if we really
[1:09:49] want like a youth perspective like I
[1:09:51] think we'd want to visit like multiple
[1:09:53] times. So
[1:09:56] >> I love
[1:10:00] that be cool.
[1:10:03] >> I just like
[1:10:06] » you can come visit. You can come be open
[1:10:08] a door open with me every morning.
[1:10:09] >> I wish I could have
[1:10:12] >> vis.
[1:10:17] » Yeah.
[1:10:19] >> Um I love the the discussion about
[1:10:22] closing the loop. I think that's a
[1:10:24] really important aspect. Um, especially
[1:10:27] if people do make it over hurdles to to
[1:10:30] come here or to comment or to talk to us
[1:10:32] and tell us their concerns. Um, and I
[1:10:35] think perhaps this might be a great
[1:10:36] opportunity to start a shared document
[1:10:38] much as we do for our own questions for
[1:10:40] the budget where we collect these
[1:10:42] throughout the season and the responses
[1:10:44] from the city and we work on this. Is
[1:10:46] this something that we could create a
[1:10:47] shared document of? When we hear a
[1:10:50] budget question, when someone comes and
[1:10:52] talks to us, when we have a
[1:10:53] conversation, we add that the person's
[1:10:56] name, contact information if available,
[1:10:58] and then not only do we have a shared
[1:11:01] collection of our questions over the
[1:11:02] budget season, but everyone else's
[1:11:04] feedback. And perhaps seeing that all
[1:11:06] laid out um is helpful. Um, I think
[1:11:10] perhaps it it doesn't just include us
[1:11:12] like it doesn't just limit us to be
[1:11:14] like, I had a conversation with someone
[1:11:15] that says this. We can see it tangibly
[1:11:17] laid out and that also
[1:11:20] provides a more organized method to
[1:11:21] actually respond to people to close the
[1:11:23] loop to let them know we heard your
[1:11:25] question about this. This is what we
[1:11:27] implemented or not.
[1:11:28] >> Um, so a shared repository.
[1:11:32] >> Yeah. I'd be interested to know about
[1:11:34] the staff staff oper
[1:11:38] staff can operate I can't speak
[1:11:40] >> operationalize
[1:11:41] >> if staff can operationalize that because
[1:11:44] um I think if we hear from a resident
[1:11:47] and they say I care about X and then
[1:11:50] that becomes the budget close the loop
[1:11:52] like let them know you know that's fine
[1:11:55] but
[1:11:56] is that something staff would be able to
[1:11:59] do for folks who either come here or
[1:12:01] were right. And
[1:12:05] >> so we do have budget at wanuskivt.gov
[1:12:08] just live all the time. So we that's our
[1:12:10] intent with that obviously it I mean
[1:12:13] obviously to us because we only get
[1:12:15] council question from council in that
[1:12:17] but that is not having the intended
[1:12:20] effect. So you know it it I'm not sure
[1:12:25] if we be able to manage it but uh that's
[1:12:27] certainly what we should be doing. So,
[1:12:30] let's I I think it would be fine to give
[1:12:32] it a try. I think the maybe the way to
[1:12:36] No, actually, that probably wouldn't
[1:12:37] work.
[1:12:38] >> Can I ask a question?
[1:12:39] >> Sure, Doc.
[1:12:41] >> Sorry. Um I had the same thought about
[1:12:43] the budget email and I know one of the
[1:12:45] things that I've been trying to do more
[1:12:46] recently is when someone comes when a
[1:12:48] resident or neighbor comes to me about
[1:12:50] something, I literally say, "I'm so
[1:12:52] grateful that you shared this with me.
[1:12:53] Please email the mayor and city
[1:12:54] manager." Um, and so I'm wondering if
[1:12:57] now particularly regarding budgets,
[1:13:00] >> if someone and I I'll just for myself if
[1:13:02] someone comes to me and says something
[1:13:04] about the budget, I'm going to say like,
[1:13:05] "Thank you for sharing." And just so
[1:13:07] that we have a record of it, which I
[1:13:09] think is so smart, council good to just
[1:13:11] put it in that email.
[1:13:13] >> Yes, certainly. Also, um, I don't know
[1:13:18] how many people are actually doing that.
[1:13:20] So you might if you have the capacity
[1:13:22] yourselves you might offer to write it
[1:13:24] for them as an alternative.
[1:13:28] Um, we were do I was doing that with the
[1:13:31] main street. I mean, obviously this is
[1:13:32] my full-time job, so it's a it's just a
[1:13:34] little bit different, but uh with the
[1:13:36] Main Street questions, if somebody who
[1:13:39] had of course access to email had a
[1:13:41] question about Main Street, I would get
[1:13:43] their email address and copy them
[1:13:45] >> on the question to info at
[1:13:48] >> just to again make it a little bit
[1:13:50] easier for them to get the information.
[1:13:52] >> Yeah. Yeah. I mean there also is like we are the representatives of the
[1:13:58] public. So like if somebody says to you,
[1:14:00] I want more sidewalk paving. Like in
[1:14:03] theory like you don't have to have the
[1:14:08] resident input that like
[1:14:10] >> Mhm. you are the inputter, you know, but
[1:14:12] like
[1:14:13] >> um
[1:14:14] >> so like yeah, obviously if they want to
[1:14:15] write it because they want it like
[1:14:17] officially said, but like also you can
[1:14:19] just,
[1:14:20] >> you know, as we're talking about budget
[1:14:22] like
[1:14:22] >> Yeah. And to be clear, I don't I don't
[1:14:24] think that we should be asking citizens
[1:14:26] to go through like an extra step to like
[1:14:27] report it this way. I think it should be
[1:14:29] us inputting information
[1:14:31] >> um that we heard this from a citizen and
[1:14:35] then we will all have access to what we
[1:14:37] heard from a citizen.
[1:14:39] Also, just a note, I I went to the
[1:14:41] budget email. I thought, but actually, I
[1:14:44] like um Elsie's idea of a shared
[1:14:46] document because it does take some
[1:14:48] effort to transcribe from one email into
[1:14:51] a shared doc. So, if we just start with
[1:14:52] a shared doc, it would probably be
[1:14:54] better,
[1:14:55] >> especially since you would just be
[1:14:57] relaying resident questions. It's
[1:14:58] dicier. If you have the question,
[1:15:01] everybody sees it on council. That's
[1:15:03] different. So, if it's just relaying a
[1:15:04] resident question, I think a shared doc
[1:15:06] would work.
[1:15:06] >> Yeah.
[1:15:07] And likewise, if people aren't
[1:15:09] comfortable, they don't they don't want
[1:15:11] us to follow up, they don't want their
[1:15:12] name down, it can still be I heard from
[1:15:14] a citizen this question, this comment,
[1:15:17] and we can still have those in the
[1:15:18] forefront as we're having the budget
[1:15:19] discussions.
[1:15:21] >> Thank you.
[1:15:31] » Okay. Um, this was on for discussion
[1:15:34] approval.
[1:15:35] >> Oh,
[1:15:36] >> I don't really Is there anything you
[1:15:38] need to vote for from this? I mean,
[1:15:40] besides
[1:15:40] >> Well, I'm I was thinking this was your
[1:15:43] discussion about what your what is going
[1:15:45] to do. So, it's up to you.
[1:15:47] >> Yeah.
[1:15:47] >> You haven't I Yeah, I would not ask you
[1:15:50] to direct us to do anything other than
[1:15:52] maybe provide some more information if
[1:15:53] there's something that you want coun uh
[1:15:55] staff to do. But other than that, it's
[1:15:58] just if there was an approach that you
[1:15:59] wanted to decide on. And I don't want to
[1:16:01] like I guess we could vote on it, but
[1:16:04] like whenever we've been to an apartment
[1:16:07] complex, if Angela hasn't been available
[1:16:09] to bring to bring the budget games,
[1:16:11] she's always made herself available for
[1:16:13] me to pick it up. So like I would just
[1:16:16] ask that you continue to be able to do
[1:16:18] that, Angela. Um
[1:16:21] but yeah, I mean I think like I think
[1:16:23] nobody is vastly against anything here.
[1:16:27] I think we definitely have some intrigue
[1:16:29] in the Wookski Youth Budget Lab. So, I
[1:16:32] will uh get to working on that. And I
[1:16:35] think the other thing we have to do is
[1:16:37] start scheduling some councils in the
[1:16:39] community. We have like our standard
[1:16:40] ones, but if there's any thing that you
[1:16:43] all think of as well of like a place we
[1:16:45] should go, right?
[1:16:46] >> Pumpkin carving.
[1:16:48] >> Pumpkin carbon.
[1:16:49] >> We will be pumpkin carving. Yes.
[1:16:52] You're just trying to You're just You're
[1:16:54] just trying to give me like PTSD in my
[1:16:56] head or something.
[1:16:57] >> I'm saying it's a a highly attended Yes.
[1:17:01] >> gathering point.
[1:17:02] >> It is. It is.
[1:17:04] >> Um
[1:17:06] Yeah. And then I mean I think like
[1:17:08] >> And it's inside.
[1:17:10] >> Yeah. I mean I think everybody
[1:17:11] definitely shows up to that I feel like.
[1:17:13] But um I mean I think like you know a
[1:17:16] part of the part of this conversation is
[1:17:19] just the continued conversations that we
[1:17:22] keep trying to have and
[1:17:25] reminding
[1:17:27] residents how they can learn about the
[1:17:30] budget too, right? Like we are having
[1:17:33] these conversation like yes we need to
[1:17:35] go out and do stuff but also the actual
[1:17:37] work is here. So if people can find a
[1:17:41] way to watch to come to watch later
[1:17:46] listen to it as a podcast when they're
[1:17:48] driving to work like we also should be
[1:17:51] trying to drive people to like
[1:17:54] that that source too. like it's when
[1:17:58] we're having our conversations in here,
[1:18:00] like we can have conversations with
[1:18:02] people outside and we can bring it here
[1:18:03] and we can all discuss it, but it's
[1:18:07] it is super impactful and I get that not
[1:18:09] everybody can do it, but if we're having
[1:18:10] a discussion about the budget and
[1:18:12] there's five people who are sitting
[1:18:14] right there and they're all like, "Whoa,
[1:18:15] whoa, whoa." Like, "What are you all
[1:18:17] talking about?" That also is, I think,
[1:18:20] kind of like some of the most impactful
[1:18:21] stuff. Again, it's 6 p.m. on a Monday.
[1:18:23] Not everybody can come. Um, but like if
[1:18:27] we can keep trying to remind people
[1:18:29] about one the existence of this meeting,
[1:18:31] like I still run into people who like
[1:18:33] have no idea when we meet, where we
[1:18:34] meet. So like the more we talk about
[1:18:38] that, like the more we
[1:18:40] post about it on our own personal social
[1:18:42] media when we're grabbing our coffee,
[1:18:45] say, "Have you ever seen a city council
[1:18:47] meeting?" Like,
[1:18:49] >> "How come we never see you at
[1:18:51] >> Yeah. Like, you know, you have so many
[1:18:53] thoughts. I'd love to see you at city
[1:18:55] hall if you're able to. Um,
[1:19:00] that also is super important work. And
[1:19:02] you know, I've been trying to encourage
[1:19:04] the commissions to do that. If you can
[1:19:07] encourage your commissioners to do that,
[1:19:08] they hold a vast amount of knowledge as
[1:19:11] well. Um, and also that's another place,
[1:19:14] you know, that gives people, oh, we have
[1:19:16] five commissions, five different
[1:19:18] meetings that people can go to. And
[1:19:20] again, it's still on a weekday. It's
[1:19:22] still at 6:00 or 5:30 whenever you all
[1:19:24] meet, but it gives more avenues for
[1:19:27] people to show up during public comment
[1:19:29] and and give a thought if possible. So,
[1:19:32] um, great, great, great, great, great, Um, yeah, I don't think we need a
[1:19:38] vote here. I think we're good. I also
[1:19:39] wouldn't know what to say for us to have
[1:19:41] a vote. So,
[1:19:43] >> um, but I know we've got we've got some
[1:19:45] good stuff and um I'll
[1:19:49] send you all those fun Outlook polls. I
[1:19:52] started thinking of some things for us
[1:19:54] to do. Um, and yeah, if you see like an
[1:19:56] event that's like happening in the city
[1:19:58] or like very close to, like we can, you
[1:20:02] know, I can reach out and see if that's
[1:20:04] something that city council could table
[1:20:06] at or that we could, you know, if we
[1:20:08] can't table, maybe a couple of us can
[1:20:10] just go and attend together and things
[1:20:11] like that. So,
[1:20:13] um, yeah. Awesome.
[1:20:15] >> If I may.
[1:20:16] >> Yes, please. And do let me know if if
[1:20:18] you all are appearing because uh I know
[1:20:21] you get a lot of questions you don't
[1:20:22] necessarily have the answer at the spare
[1:20:24] fingers and I might not either but I I
[1:20:26] should have more that is what I'm pay to
[1:20:29] do. So that is also an important part of
[1:20:31] my job.
[1:20:32] >> Yeah.
[1:20:32] >> So at least I wanted the opportunity to
[1:20:34] check my calendar.
[1:20:35] >> Thank you. Appreciate that.
[1:20:37] >> Okay. Well, thanks all. Thanks. With
[1:20:41] that, the time is 7:24. I will uh seek a
[1:20:44] motion to adjurnn tonight's meeting.
[1:20:45] >> So moved. All those in favor?
[1:20:47] >> I.
[1:20:47] >> Wonderful. Thanks everyone.
[1:21:46] down.
[1:21:51] Hey